Today’s Headlines: Jill Biden and Justin Trudeau visit Ukraine

By Elvia Limón

Hello, it’s Monday, May 9, and here are the stories you shouldn’t miss today:

TOP STORIES

Jill Biden and Justin Trudeau visit Ukraine

As air-raid sirens wailed in cities and towns across Ukraine, First Lady Jill Biden made a foray into the embattled country, meeting her Ukrainian counterpart near the Slovakian border. Biden, whose trip came amid a four-day visit to front-line countries in Eastern Europe, said she wanted to make the visit on Mother’s Day to underscore that “this war has been brutal, and that the people of the United States stand with the people of Ukraine.”

The day also saw another high-profile Western visit from Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who traveled to a suburban town outside Kyiv where evidence has emerged of gruesome atrocities committed by Russian troops during a monthlong occupation. And U.S. diplomats returned to Kyiv for the first time since Russia invaded Ukraine in late February, with the U.S. Embassy tweeting a photo of acting Ambassador Kristina Kvien’s arrival.

Meanwhile, rescuers in an eastern Ukrainian village dug through the rubble of a bombarded school-turned-shelter where up to 60 people were missing and feared dead, according to Ukrainian officials.

More on Ukraine

• The U.S., European Union and Group of Seven leaders unveiled a fresh round of sanctions targeting Russia’s industrial sector, state-controlled media, and Russian and Belarusian finance executives.
• It’s good news that Ukraine is holding its own against Russia’s invasion. And yes, the United States and its allies deserve credit for helping the Kyiv government survive. But the chest-thumping is premature, writes columnist Doyle McManus.

Limiting the frenzy of well drilling on California farms

In farming areas across the Central Valley, a well-drilling frenzy has accelerated over the last year as growers turn to pumping more groundwater during the drought, even as falling water levels leave hundreds of nearby homes with dry wells.

Now, some state legislators are supporting a bill that they say would strengthen oversight and limit the well-drilling frenzy by requiring a review of permits for new wells by the same local agencies that are charged with managing groundwater.

The way the system stands, counties have been signing off on permits and agricultural landowners have been “rushing to get their wells in” before limits on pumping take effect.

More politics

• L.A. mayoral candidate Rep. Karen Bass says her connections and know-how will move L.A. forward on homelessness.
• Republican David Perdue has made election fraud the centerpiece of his run for Georgia governor. But if he hopes to win in this year’s midterm elections, his supporters will have to use the same democratic system he says they shouldn’t trust.
• A judge in Georgia found Friday that Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene is qualified to run for reelection to Congress, concluding that a group of voters who challenged her eligibility failed to prove that she engaged in insurrection after taking office.

Sign up for our California Politics newsletter to get the best of The Times’ state politics reporting and the latest action in Sacramento.

Few LAPD officers were punished for not wearing COVID masks

As the COVID-19 pandemic raged through Los Angeles in 2020 and 2021, LAPD officials mandated that officers wear protective masks while at work and when interacting with the public. They also promised to hold those who didn’t accountable.

However, new data show that few officers were ever formally punished for disobeying the directive, despite hundreds of complaints from the public and internally within the department.

In 2020 and 2021, just two mask complaints — one per year — out of 268 that were filed resulted in formal punishment for the involved officers, according to annual reports from the LAPD’s Professional Standards Bureau, which includes internal affairs.

More top coronavirus headlines

• The CDC’s mask requirement for travelers isn’t likely to come back anytime soon, but the stakes for the government’s legal appeal are still huge.
• The Omicron strain of the coronavirus keeps generating new subvariants. Here’s a look at how they stack up.
  

Stay up to date on variant developments, case counts and vaccine news with Coronavirus Today.

Low-income women struggle to get abortions in Texas

If the U.S. Supreme Court eliminates the constitutional right to abortion by overturning Roe vs. Wade — as it is widely expected to do in coming weeks — Texas and at least 25 other conservative states are likely to ban most abortions.

But already in Texas, low-income Latinas face major obstacles when it comes to ending unwanted pregnancies. Last year, Texas enacted the strictest abortion law in the country. With no exception for rape or incest, the so-called heartbeat law effectively bans the procedure after fetal cardiac activity is detected, usually at about six weeks, before many women even realize they’re pregnant.

What other places can teach SoCal about using less water

Millions of Southern Californians will wake up to the region’s most severe water restrictions ever on June 1, with local water agencies under orders to slash the use of supplies from the State Water Project by 35%. Adaptation may be difficult, but there are other cities, states and nations that can offer guidance.

For example, the city of Healdsburg in Sonoma County cut water use by 56% last summer. The Las Vegas area has reduced per-capita water use by almost half. And in Israel, long-term investments in wastewater recycling, desalination and other technologies have helped the water-scarce country secure ample supplies for cities and farms.

The stories of how each of these areas have worked to address their urgent water needs offer parallel examples that show how Southern California might respond to the water shortage.

OUR MUST-READS FROM THE WEEKEND

A bid to stop freeway expansions in California hits a roadblock: organized labor. Labor leaders contend that limiting freeway widening overestimates the state’s ability to transition from an automobile-centered culture and does so at the expense of good-paying jobs.

Angel Stadium deal fine print: 80% less affordable housing near the ballpark. Under the original terms of the sale, the city credited Angels owner Arte Moreno’s development company with $124 million toward the inclusion of 466 units of affordable housing on the site. Now, with Moreno paying back about 80% of the rebate in cash, he no longer is required to build about 80% of those units.

Robert Evans wouldn’t approve of the man playing him on TV. He would be wrong. In Paramount+’s “The Offer,” which chronicles the epic “almost didn’t happen” journey of “The Godfather” from book to screen, Matthew Goode takes on the role of Evans, who fought for (and sometimes against) Francis Ford Coppola’s iconic vision.

CALIFORNIA

Anza-Borrego park faces claims of neglecting water tanks, leading to bighorn sheep deaths. It’s the latest salvo in a fight over whether, and to what extent, the park should prop up one species threatened by climate change. New management has raised concerns about the cost and possible futility of such endeavors.

Officials investigate a string of homicides in California state prisons. An inmate, 22-year-old Camilo Banoslopez, is the fourth homicide at a California prison in the last eight days. Officials said Banoslopez was attacked at California State Prison in Sacramento by inmates Albert Calvillo, 30, Irvin Rodriguez, 36, Osbaldo Velasquez, 38, and Jose Avila, 39.

A landslide destroyed O.C. homes 24 years ago. A developer wants to build there again. The developer, Barry Hon of Laguna Niguel Properties LLC, is familiar with the risk. Many also worry that officials will use the increasing demand for housing across Southern California and a requirement that the city zone for more than 1,200 new units as justification to approve the project, when there are safer places in the city to build.

Police arrest dozens at numerous illegal street takeovers in L.A. area. Street takeovers often involve a pack of cars blocking an intersection where drivers perform dangerous maneuvers with their cars. LAPD Sgt. Jodie McGee of the Valley Traffic Division told Fox 11 News that the participants often wreak havoc in communities.

NATION-WORLD

Mexican officials say a notorious cartel killed two Tijuana journalists. Critics aren’t buying it. The #YoSíSoyPeriodista (Yes, I Am a Journalist) collective, which has pressed for accountability and held protests about the homicides, noted that there was no known evidence for the government’s claim that Lourdes Maldonado was killed because she “denounced drug dealers” operating in the neighborhood where she lived.

Beijing loyalist John Lee was elected as Hong Kong’s next leader. He will replace current leader Carrie Lam on July 1. Her five-year term was marked by huge pro-democracy protests calling for her resignation, a security crackdown that has quashed virtually all dissent and the recent COVID-19 wave that overwhelmed the health system — events that have undermined Hong Kong’s reputation as an international business hub with Western-style freedoms.

There is anger among Afghan women as a face veil edict splits the Taliban. Wearing the all-encompassing burqa is preferred by the Taliban, which issued a new dress code for women appearing in public. The edict said only a woman’s eyes should be visible. It was a major blow to the rights of women in Afghanistan, who for two decades had been living with relative freedom before the Taliban takeover last August.

HOLLYWOOD AND THE ARTS

Debbie Allen found god, and her name is Shonda Rhimes. How the two built this L.A. arts center. The “Grey’s Anatomy” actor-director-producer and the show’s creator dream big for a dance academy and an arts-centered middle school. The facility also has a studio theater and art gallery, which Allen hopes to make a gathering space for performers and creatives.

‘Jiggle Jiggle’: How documentarian Louis Theroux took over TikTok with a novelty rap song. Theroux, the British documentarian of BBC fame, debuted his “My Money Don’t Jiggle, Jiggle, It Folds” rap on a 2000 episode of his docuseries “Weird Weekends.” Twenty-two years later, a remix of his rap has spawned a dance craze on TikTok — where everyone from Snoop Dogg to Rita Ora can be found wiggling along to “Jiggle Jiggle.”

‘Doctor Who’ names its first Black lead: ‘Sex Education’ actor Ncuti Gatwa. The Rwanda-born, Scotland-raised Gatwa, 29, will be the first Black actor to helm the quintessential British sci-fi show, but he won’t be the first Black Doctor — Jo Martin has played “Fugitive Doctor” in several episodes.

Mickey Gilley, the musician whose club inspired the Travolta film ‘Urban Cowboy,’ dies at 86. Gilley launched his nightclub, Gilley’s, in Pasadena, Texas, in the early 1970s. It became an essential stop for country musicians and was made famous by an Esquire magazine article called “The Ballad of the Urban Cowboy,” which inspired and was featured in the 1980 film “Urban Cowboy” starring John Travolta and Debra Winger.

Comic book artist George Pérez, known for his work with DC Comics and Marvel, dies at 67. Pérez died of complications from pancreatic cancer. Known for his detailed and realistic rendering, Pérez made a name for himself as an artist on “New Teen Titans” in 1980, and for later reshaping the DC Universe with the 1985 company-wide crossover “Crisis on Infinite Earths,” collaborating on both with writer Marv Wolfman.

BUSINESS

CNBC’s ‘The Profit’ and host Marcus Lemonis at the center of a $30-million fraud claim. The trustee of a small company that went bust after appearing on CNBC’s “The Profit” has joined other companies in suing NBC and a company partly owned by show presenter Marcus Lemonis.

The U.S. added 428,000 jobs in April despite surging inflation. The April job growth, along with steady wage gains, will fuel consumer spending and probably keep the Federal Reserve on track to raise borrowing rates sharply to fight inflation.

SPORTS

Jonathan Quick and the Kings shut down the Oilers 4-0 to even their playoff series. “The Kings did everything on Sunday they said they’d have to do, setting a brisk tempo and dominating play while scoring twice in the first period. They even got a goal from a defenseman for the first time in the series,” columnist Helene Elliott writes.

Rich Strike shocks the horse racing world with a stunning Kentucky Derby upset win. The horse was lucky to even be in the race. He got in Friday morning when Ethereal Road scratched. Rich Strike carried the saddle cloth of the 21 in the 20-horse race. It was only his second win in eight starts.

‘It was my turn to lose’: Canelo Álvarez suffers stunning loss to Dmitry Bivol. Álvarez was the heavy favorite, better than 5 to 1, against the soft-spoken Russian. He was expected to win to officially set up his long-awaited third fight against Gennadiy Golovkin. That bout was tentatively scheduled for Sept. 17, the day after Mexican Independence Day.

Angels’ David Fletcher was placed on an injured list with a hip strain and may need surgery. Fletcher, who missed three weeks in April because of the same injury, said he will fly to Philadelphia to see a specialist.

OPINION

A Texas woman sought an abortion. Here’s how far California went to help her. Stephanie shared her story to help explain what it really means for California to be a sanctuary state for abortion — how urgent it is that this state keep the promises its politicians are making — and to let others in need of an abortion know that there is help in these dark and frightening days.

ONLY IN CALIFORNIA

For much of the last 36 years, Oceanside’s famous ‘Top Gun’ house has been boarded up and moved from place to place as the city’s downtown waterfront exploded with growth.

But on Friday, the 135-year-old Victorian cottage that was featured in the 1986 Tom Cruise film “Top Gun” celebrated its new permanent home and occupant. Now situated in an oceanfront lot on the grounds of the year-old Mission Pacific Hotel at 201 N. Myers St., the Top Gun House is now home to HIGH-pie, a nostalgic Americana-inspired pie shop.

The shop sells fried-to-order hand pies filled with apple or cherry compote and “a la mode” hand pies filled with mascarpone ice cream. The pies are served on a popsicle stick with optional dipping sauces including salted caramel and lemon curd. The shop also sells coffee and other drinks and souvenir T-shirts and hats.

FROM THE ARCHIVES

President Nixon raises his arms in a “V” for victory gesture as he addresses rally at the Anaheim Convention Center.

(Boris Yaro/ Los Angeles Times )

The House Judiciary Committee began impeachment hearings 48 years ago, which led to the resignation of President Nixon.

In 1972, several men linked to the Nixon White House had broken into the Watergate office complex, where the Democratic National Committee had offices. In February 1974, the House of Representatives voted to allow the Judiciary Committee to review grounds for impeachment of the president and gave the committee unlimited subpoena power — used to obtain Oval Office tapes of Nixon’s conversations with aides.

Nixon resigned a few months later. According to The Times, in his speech announcing his resignation, Nixon said he no longer had a “strong political base in the Congress” to warrant continuing his fight against impeachment. He admitted to making mistakes of judgment in the handling of Watergate but stopped short of acknowledging any guilt for the coverup conspiracy.

We appreciate that you took the time to read Today’s Headlines! Comments or ideas? Feel free to drop us a note at headlines@latimes.com.