Newsletter: Today: A Wall of Flames
In Northern California, a devastating brush fire has barreled into the city of Redding.
TOP STORIES
A Wall of Flames
The city of Redding, Calif., has come under siege by a brush fire that killed one person, destroyed numerous structures and forced residents to run for their lives. Flames from the Carr fire enveloped at least 15 structures in Shasta County, making it the most destructive of several major blazes burning around the state, but the number of structures lost is expected to rise dramatically. Meanwhile, in the San Jacinto Mountains near Idyllwild, firefighters are continuing to battle the Cranston fire. It has destroyed five homes, forced thousands to evacuate and is creating its own weather in the form of a pyrocumulus cloud that generates shifting winds.
Facebook’s Facepalm
After all the uproar Facebook weathered earlier this year, why did Wall Street unfriend the social network this week? On Thursday, the company’s stock dropped 19%, wiping out $120 billion of its market value and nearly $17 billion of Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg’s wealth. As one market analyst put it, the nosedive “has everything to do with not being able to grow forever.” A big reason, as the company has warned, is that governments and users around the world are taking a stronger stand on protecting privacy.
Making Tariffs ‘the Greatest’ Again
If the trade war truce with Europe made you think President Trump is a free trader, think again. On Thursday, he returned to his protectionist script at stops in Illinois and Iowa. “This is the time to straighten out the worst trade deals ever made by any country in the history of earth,” Trump said. But his main approach to doing so — tariffs — has been met with skepticism. An NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll this week showed that voters by a 2-to-1 margin believe the tariffs will be harmful to the economy.
More Politics
-- The White House says North Korea returned the remains of what are believed to be U.S. servicemen killed during the Korean War.
-- House Speaker Paul D. Ryan says he does not support a push by some of his conservative colleagues to impeach Deputy Atty. Gen. Rod Rosenstein, who oversees the Russia investigation.
-- Rep. Jim Jordan, who was one of those introducing the impeachment measure, says he will run to succeed Ryan as House speaker.
A Sticky Wicket in Pakistan
Imran Khan studied at Oxford University, became a legendary cricket player and London nightclubber, then formed a political party two decades ago. Now he is poised to be the prime minister of Pakistan, after campaigning on an anti-elite and religiously conservative platform — and winning in an election that his rivals say was rigged by the army. Khan’s victory is expected to create more tension with rival India, where the media dub him “Taliban Khan,” and with the U.S.
Who Is Anna March?
To make a splash on the L.A. literary scene, Anna March once threw a welcome party for herself at the Ace Hotel in downtown. She groomed contacts through social media. She supported and flattered authors of all stripes. Never mind that she had never written a book. But who was she? That was a harder question to answer than you might think.
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FLASHBACK FRIDAY
“Steinbeck called it ‘the mother road, the road of flight’ and all of us have traveled down it.” So began an in-depth look at the demise of Route 66, published in The Times 41 years ago this week. By that time, most of the highway where people got their proverbial kicks had been replaced by the interstate system.
MUST-WATCH VIDEO
-- The company that makes Moxi roller skates has used nostalgia for L.A.’s skate culture to roll into the mainstream.
CALIFORNIA
-- The state Supreme Court decided unanimously that employers must pay workers for the minutes they spend on brief tasks off the clock.
-- Jurors awarded $45.4 million to a girl who suffered two years of sexual abuse in an El Monte home where county social workers left her despite evidence that an accused molester lived in the house.
-- L.A. County Sheriff Jim McDonnell has launched a comprehensive review of secret deputy cliques and is looking into whether gangs that condone illicit behavior are operating within his ranks.
-- Taking a pickax to Trump’s star: Does L.A.’s creative resistance go too far?
YOUR WEEKEND
-- This Saturday would have been Jonathan Gold’s 58th birthday, and several buildings and monuments around Los Angeles, including City Hall, will light up gold that evening to honor the late restaurant critic.
-- At these family-run butcher shops, you can find carne asada ranchera, zabihah halal meat and more.
-- Six ways to help your tomato plants withstand the heat.
-- What to do in Laguna Beach when the weather doesn’t go your way.
HOLLYWOOD AND THE ARTS
-- Yes, they were once married: Roseanne Barr apologized, explained and joked around on “Hannity,” while Tom Arnold says he’s on a mission to force Trump to resign.
-- Why Hollywood franchises like “Mission: Impossible” treat London as a second home.
-- From “Black Panther” to “Incredibles 2”: Times film critics assess 2018, so far, at the movies.
NATION-WORLD
-- With hours left on a court-imposed deadline to reunify migrant families who were separated after crossing the U.S.-Mexico border, government officials said they had reunited 1,442 children with their parents.
-- The Trump administration has threatened to punish Turkey unless it frees a detained American minister.
-- Barely a week after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu won passage of a measure underscoring his country’s Jewish identity, the coalition behind it is starting to fray.
-- Precision medicine, which is changing the treatment of cancer and spawning targeted therapies for a wide range of diseases, may open new avenues for the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease.
BUSINESS
-- History lesson: Trump is pressuring the Fed to keep interest rates low. President Nixon actually did it and damaged the economy.
-- Meal-kit maker Chef’d went belly up, but its brand lives on with a strategy that shows where the industry is heading.
SPORTS
-- How Dodgers outfielder Matt Kemp rebuilt his body and reclaimed his reputation: It began with restructuring his diet.
-- Willie Brown, USC’s original I-formation tailback under coach John McKay who went on to a brief NFL career before returning to the Trojans as a coach, has died at age 76.
OPINION
-- L.A. can’t afford to overspend on temporary housing when what we desperately need is permanent housing for homeless people, and a lot of it.
-- The awesomeness of 9,000 voices singing nah nah nah: The Big Sing last Saturday was a refresher course in the fundamental human urge to just get along.
WHAT OUR EDITORS ARE READING
-- Shadow banning: This shows what it is and what it isn’t. (CNET)
-- “A private humiliation became a public turning point”: Actress Michelle Williams opens up about her fight for equal pay and more. (Vanity Fair)
-- Not into today’s pop songs? There’s probably an ’80s remix version of them somewhere that makes Justin Bieber, Rihanna and Ed Sheeran seem totally rad. (NPR)
ONLY IN CALIFORNIA
In the dunes north of Guadalupe in Santa Barbara County lies the Lost City of DeMille, the filming site for Cecil B. De Mille’s 1923 silent movie “The Ten Commandments.” Last year, a team of six archaeologists unearthed the 300-pound head of a prop sphinx — now on display and apparently curse-free.
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