Newsletter: Today: Patriots 13, Maroon 5, Rams 3
The Super Bowl made history, not all of it super.
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Patriots 13, Maroon 5, Rams 3
The game was mostly scoreless. The halftime act was shirtless. And, in the 35 years since the last L.A. team won an NFL championship, the City of Angels is still winless when it comes to the Super Bowl. The L.A. Rams’ highflying offense was nowhere to be found as the New England Patriots beat them 13-3 — the lowest-scoring Super Bowl ever — to take their sixth title under coach Bill Belichick, tying them with the Pittsburgh Steelers for the most in NFL history. It was also a record sixth Super Bowl victory for quarterback Tom Brady. As for the halftime show, Maroon 5 was already being panned on social media before it took the stage; the band’s performance, and frontman Adam Levine’s sudden allergy to his shirt, didn’t improve the reviews. And the ads? Well, they gave us everything from wind-powered beer to Andy Warhol eating a burger.
Are the Sanctions on North Korea Working?
Officials from Washington and Pyongyang are set to confer soon on the details for a second summit between President Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un late this month. The outcome of that second meeting may depend in part on how much pressure sanctions are putting on North Korea. Analysts say the sanctions are creating some distress, but there’s also evidence of smuggling and other ways of adapting to them. And, as U.S. intelligence chiefs said last week, it’s unlikely Kim will give up his nuclear arsenal any time soon.
More Politics
-- Despite growing foreign-policy misgivings about him even within the GOP, Trump insisted on CBS’ “Face the Nation” that he feels free to ignore the assessments of his intelligence chiefs and instead act on his own beliefs.
-- The Trump administration has started the process to withdraw from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, a cornerstone of superpower arms control, unless Russia destroys a new class of medium-range missiles that U.S. officials allege are noncompliant.
-- Trump will deliver his State of the Union speech on Tuesday. The wife of an Orange County resident who has been imprisoned in Vietnam since July has been invited to attend.
-- Will Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam resign over a controversy about a racist photo in his medical school yearbook?
The Battle for Venezuela’s Military
As a political crisis plays out in Venezuela between President Nicolas Maduro and opposition leader Juan Guaido — who declared himself interim president and has been recognized as such by the U.S. — one group may hold the trump cards: Venezuela’s military. On Saturday, four air force officers said they were backing Guaido. But so far those have been the only known high-level defections in the “coup-proof” military that Maduro and his predecessor, Hugo Chavez, designed. How did they try to keep the generals loyal? Read on.
Forget It, Jake. Meet Frank
“Forget it, Jake, it’s Chinatown” is one of the most well-known movie lines associated with Los Angeles. But like a lot of things from Hollywood, the cynicism of that quote doesn’t have much to do with the real-life place. “If Chinatown is a metaphor for anything,” new Times columnist Frank Shyong explains, “it is America.” That’s why Shyong hopes to “reintroduce you to Los Angeles — not the city of avocado toast and Hollywood and fading noir nostalgia, but a vibrant, ever-changing, international city defined by its diversity and its diasporas.”
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OUR MUST-READS FROM THE WEEKEND
-- Two U.S. immigrant rights attorneys and two journalists who’ve worked closely with members of a migrant caravan in Tijuana said they’ve been denied entry into Mexico after their passports were flagged with alerts by an unknown government.
-- An anonymous letter to the L.A. Times has revealed that thieves took several valuable pieces of furniture designed by Frank Lloyd Wright and Rudolph Schindler from a USC warehouse six years ago without police or the public being notified.
-- The dark web has put a new twist on the age-old practice of counterfeiting.
-- How California’s Constitution makes affordable housing difficult to build: In 1950, voters put in a provision that makes it harder for poor people to find a place to live.
-- Two L.A. Rams desegregated football. They’ve never been given the credit they deserve.
FROM THE ARCHIVES
On this date in 1927, Los Angeles was dealing with a deluge not unlike what it saw this weekend. “So fast did the rain come down ... that many districts in the city were completely under water, traffic was tied up downtown, basements were flooded and motorists were marooned in streets.... On the whole, however, no great damage was done, despite the spectacular nature of the downpour.”
CALIFORNIA
-- A small plane slammed into a two-story house in Yorba Linda, killing five people, including the pilot. Two other people were taken to a hospital with mild to moderate burns.
-- Intense rainstorms that caused flooding and at least one death in Southern California over the weekend are expected to diminish, with mild precipitation lingering into Tuesday.
-- Another L.A. Community College District bond measure has sparked pushback after lawsuits and overspending connected with a previous issuance.
-- Scientists have warned that California should brace for more wildfire due to global warming, but they’ve found one positive: Santa Ana winds are likely to be tempered.
HOLLYWOOD AND THE ARTS
-- With another Sundance Film Festival in the books, film critics Kenneth Turan and Justin Chang discuss the best movies of the festival.
-- “I won’t forget tonight, ever”: Elton John made his final tour stop in L.A., the region where his road to superstardom began five decades ago with some help from an L.A. Times review of his concert at the Troubadour.
-- Speaking of the Troubadour … Jussie Smollett performed there in his first public appearance since he reported to Chicago police a vicious attack that authorities are investigating as a possible hate crime. His opening words: “I’m OK.”
-- Rapper 21 Savage faces possible deportation after being arrested by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials. He’s long claimed Atlanta as his hometown, but ICE says he’s from the United Kingdom.
NATION-WORLD
-- The Federal Bureau of Prisons says power has been restored at a detention center in New York City where inmates had been living largely without heat or electricity for the last week.
-- Deliberations in the drug trafficking trial of Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman will start today. Regardless of the outcome, jurors are likely to face post-traumatic stress.
-- In El Salvador’s presidential election, a 37-year-old social media star who ran as an outsider and vowed to combat corruption declared victory after the preliminary results showed him ahead.
-- In Bangladesh, thousands of Rohingya children in the world’s largest refugee settlement are going without an education.
BUSINESS
-- BuzzFeed, Vice and other digital news outlets have been slashing jobs in a challenging market.
-- When it comes to home improvements, cash is king.
SPORTS
-- D’Angelo Russell, now an All-Star with the Brooklyn Nets, traveled a path other young Lakers might face.
OPINION
-- California’s pot shops have been open for only a year. They’re already lobbying for a tax cut.
-- Jared Kushner shouldn’t be allowed to play government.
WHAT OUR EDITORS ARE READING
-- Why the FBI sent so many agents to Roger Stone’s home, as explained by a former FBI and DEA official. (Lawfare)
-- A speed limit on the autobahn throughout Germany? Not so fast. (New York Times)
-- For migratory birds, Lebanon is a particularly dangerous place because of poachers. (NPR)
ONLY IN L.A.
The Santa Barbara International Film Festival is one of the last stops on the Oscars campaign trail. But for actor Viggo Mortensen, getting there was anything but glamorous. He headed out early Saturday morning from L.A. in his old Dodge pickup truck, only to find Highway 101 closed because of a storm. While others gave up, Mortensen was determined to get there. That meant a trip to the Camarillo Airport and a last-minute charter flight. “It was a little nerve-racking,” Mortensen said while smoking a cigarette to unwind. “It was a very bumpy ride.”
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