Newsletter: Today: Once We Were Amigos. Return of the Killer-Tasting Tomatoes.
I’m Davan Maharaj, editor-in-chief of the Los Angeles Times. Here are some story lines I don’t want you to miss today, including our weekly look back into the archives and weekend recommendations.
TOP STORIES
Once We Were Amigos
Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto shook hands with Donald Trump in August, a meeting that hurt Nieto’s popularity at home but was meant to create some hope for a smoother relationship later on. So much for that. After Trump issued orders to build a new border wall and insisted Mexico pay for it, Peña Nieto abruptly canceled his visit for next week. The tit-for-tat raises not only the specter of a diplomatic crisis with a host of implications but also the risks of a trade war amid NAFTA unravelling. As for who will pay for the wall … one possibility being considered is a Republican plan for a tax on imports — which would be paid by American companies, not Mexicans. Proponents say it would encourage manufacturing here in the U.S., while opponents say it would raise the price of groceries, automobiles and gasoline.
Immigration Plans Send a Rumble Through California
In California’s sanctuary cities, the mood among many immigrants is anxious and fearful. Officials have vowed to resist, with some leaders suggesting the state’s famously stringent environmental laws could be used to block building the wall. (Legal experts say, don’t count on it.) But those in the anti-illegal immigration movement like what they see.
Trump Brings Up a Torturous Argument
During the campaign, Trump said he wanted to bring back waterboarding for terrorism suspects. Later, he wavered when his Defense secretary choice told him “beer and cigarettes” were more effective. But this week, Trump went back to saying torture works, and draft memos circulated by his National Security Council call for a review of interrogation methods. Congressional leaders are already publicly pushing back: “This is not the American way.”
Water, Water, Everywhere … Except Here
All that rain and snow we’ve been having has done some good. Nearly half of California is no longer in drought, according to researchers, and the state’s biggest reservoirs are brimming. Poor Lake Cachuma in Santa Barbara County, filled to just 9% of capacity, isn’t one of them. How could that be? Blame the “rain shadow” effect.
Return of the Killer-Tasting Tomatoes
How did we end up with tasteless supermarket tomatoes? “It was certainly not intentional,” says Harry Klee, a professor who has been studying the chemical origins of tomato flavor for 25 years. “It was just a slow, imperceptible degradation of flavor.” A team led by Klee has identified the chemical compounds and genes responsible for giving a great tomato its distinctive taste. Now it’s time for growers to play … catch-up.
FLASHBACK FRIDAY
Fifty years ago today, astronauts Virgil Grissom, Ed White and Roger Chaffee died in a fire during a launch rehearsal for Apollo 1. It was supposed to be the first manned mission in the program that would ultimately put a man on the moon. The tragedy was, as The Times wrote in its funeral coverage days later, “the saddest chapter so far of man’s exploration of space.”
CALIFORNIA
-- UC regents have approved the system’s first tuition increase in six years, a move that has infuriated some students.
-- The San Diego Unified School District has been ordered to pay more than $1.25 million in damages to a former student who was forced to urinate in a bucket.
-- A group of prisoners filmed a video message for Mexico’s Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, pledging to protect the captured drug lord and help him escape.
-- Southern California’s Thai community continues to mourn the death of King Bhumibol.
YOUR WEEKEND
-- Happy Chinese New Year: Times food critic Jonathan Gold recommends restaurants for noodles, dumplings, chicken, fish and more.
-- Bicycle trends for 2017 include built-in lights, reflectivity and even radar.
-- Our favorite mac ’n’ cheese recipes from The Times’ test kitchen.
-- For shutterbugs: How one photographer put together thousands of stills for one video of a Hawaiian volcano.
HOLLYWOOD AND THE ARTS
-- “Love Is All Around,” the theme to “The Mary Tyler Moore Show,” took about two hours to write. Here’s how it came into being.
-- The film “A Dog’s Purpose” was supposed to be a hit, until an animal-abuse controversy threw the studio’s plan out the window.
-- Can an amateur craftsman duplicate a Stradivarius violin? That’s the central question of the documentary “Strad Style.”
-- The accidental opera star: “A lot of the purists, they don’t believe my story,” says salesman-turned-singer Morris Robinson.
-- Inside the L.A. Times photo studio at the Sundance Film Festival.
NATION-WORLD
-- Trump’s call for safe zones for Syrians would require buy-in from other countries.
-- Israel, which has kept its doors closed to Syrian refugees, plans to accept 100 orphaned children from around the battered city of Aleppo.
-- A study has found that 6-year-old girls are less likely than boys to think members of their own gender can be brilliant, and that can have big repercussions later in life.
-- The Doomsday Clock, a metaphorical measure of how close the world is to a worldwide catastrophe, has moved 30 seconds closer to “midnight.”
-- How do you say “lowlife” in another language? Trump’s tweets lose much in translation.
BUSINESS
-- DreamWorks Animation co-founder Jeffrey Katzenberg is preparing for his next act. He’s raised $591 million for a new Beverly Hills-based investment firm.
-- Get ready for merger mania among media companies.
SPORTS
-- Bill Plaschke: The New England Patriots’ holy trinity has formed what some sports fans might consider an unholy alliance with Trump, and that will be a big Super Bowl distraction.
-- Helene Elliott: Emerging hockey superstar Connor McDavid is getting great advice from legends Wayne Gretzky and Bobby Orr.
OPINION
-- When it comes to Trump, liberals can’t see shades of gray.
-- Legally speaking, can you be defamed by a blowhard?
WHAT OUR EDITORS ARE READING
-- “The media here is the opposition party”: White House strategist Steven Bannon says the media should “keep its mouth shut.” (New York Times)
-- A personal perspective on dying and medicine’s “life at any cost” culture. (Huffington Post)
-- What’s up with actors’ whispery growls these days? (Slate)
ONLY IN CALIFORNIA
Guy Webster made his reputation and his money as a Hollywood photographer. He chronicled the careers of Jack Nicholson and Dennis Hopper, and shot the album cover for the Doors’ debut. Then he started collecting motorcycles and inspired others to do so, including former L.A. Times publisher Otis Chandler. But a stroke two years ago left him unable to move his left arm and leg, and now he’s parting with his prized rides in an auction. “I don’t care about the money at this point,” he said. “Those days are gone. I’m happy to know they’ll go to good homes.”
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