Today’s Headlines: Jan. 6 hearing witness says Trump claims might have ‘started a new civil war’

By Elvia Limón, Laura Blasey and Amy Hubbard

Hello, it’s Wednesday, July 13, and before we get started, we’d like to draw special attention to a project from our colleague Gale Holland that began four years ago. Gale covers homelessness and poverty for The Times. She has written the story of Mckenzie, a young woman with sparkle and wit who a police officer said seemed destined for a better life. But in 2018 when Gale met her, Mckenzie was pregnant and living in a tent near the 101 Freeway. Through Mckenzie, Gale saw for the first time the problem of intergenerational homelessness. Mckenzie’s mom also was unhoused. Said Mckenzie: “I feel like my whole life has just been written for me.” Read more of this fascinating tale here (with fabulous photos, by Christina House, and video, from Claire Hannah Collins).

Now, on to the stories you shouldn’t miss today.

TOP STORIES

Trump’s ‘lies, deceit and snake oil’

Faced with no legal path to staying in office, former President Trump summoned supporters to Washington to pressure Congress to overturn the 2020 election results, a move far-right extremists saw as a cue to attack the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, the House committee investigating the insurrection argued in the latest hearing.

Members of the panel used the seventh public hearing to cover an extended timeline from the electoral college’s Dec. 14, 2020, meeting to affirm Joe Biden’s win until Jan. 6, 2021, when the electoral vote count in Congress was interrupted by the attack on the Capitol. The committee presented evidence and testimony on the preparations for the insurrection by extremist groups such as the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers, whose members have since been charged with sedition.

More politics

• A month after he boycotted a major regional summit in Los Angeles and snubbed the Biden administration, Mexico’s President Andrés Manuel López Obrador came to Washington for wide-ranging talks with his U.S. counterpart.
• Jason Van Tatenhove, a former Oath Keepers spokesman, testified before the Jan. 6 committee. What was on his shirt made some waves.
• Stephen Ayres, the Capitol rioter who testified at the latest Jan. 6 committee hearing, apologized afterward to a U.S. Capitol Police sergeant who was badly beaten during the insurrection.

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

Leaked video shows an inmate being beaten by L.A. County deputies

The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department is facing renewed criticism following a leaked surveillance video showing deputies beating an inmate at the county jail. The incident took place about 11:50 p.m. on July 3 at the inmate reception center in downtown Los Angeles, the department said in a statement on social media. This is the latest allegation of assault and use of excessive force for the embattled Sheriff’s Department.

In the video, which has been viewed by The Times, 32-year-old Jesus Soto Jara can be seen being placed in handcuffs by a deputy. The video shows a second deputy approaching the inmate, and a scuffle ensues. Soto Jara is then seen being slammed against a metal door as punches are thrown at him by deputies. By this point, Soto Jara’s attorney alleges, at least six deputies pummeled him to the ground, out of sight of security cameras. The video cuts off after the other four deputies approach the inmate.

Why this California COVID wave is so different

With California suffering through another intense coronavirus wave, the stunning proliferation of the BA.5 subvariant is becoming a growing focus of scientific scrutiny, with experts saying it may replicate itself far more effectively than earlier versions of Omicron.

Far and away the dominant version of the coronavirus circulating nationwide, BA.5 is arguably combining aspects of last summer’s Delta variant with older versions of the highly contagious Omicron family, said Dr. Eric Topol, director of the Scripps Research Translational Institute in La Jolla.

In many ways, this wave of the pandemic has felt different from other Omicron waves earlier this year. Health experts say the behavior of the ultra-contagious strain shows the need for prudent precautions.

More top coronavirus headlines

• U.S. health officials say the toll of drug-resistant superbug infections worsened during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic.
• Determining which version of the coronavirus should be used to make COVID-19 vaccines and boosters is an exercise in educated guesswork.
• Hundreds of couples whose weddings were derailed or scaled back due to the COVID-19 pandemic got a do-over at a New York City landmark.

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

California has enacted sweeping gun control laws, setting up a legal showdown

Less than a month after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled against restrictions on carrying firearms in public in a substantial victory for 2nd Amendment advocates, California Gov. Gavin Newsom has signed at least three major gun control measures into law to restrict access to the weapons and create an avenue for private citizens to sue the industry.

On Tuesday, Newsom signed one of the highest-profile bills on a list of more than a dozen he prioritized this year amid a nationwide surge in gun violence. Assembly Bill 1594 establishes a “firearm industry standard of conduct” and allows local governments, the state Department of Justice and gun violence survivors to sue gun manufacturers, importers and dealers for egregious violations of state sales and marketing regulations.

Roman Polanski sex abuse case documents should be unsealed, Gascón says

Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. George Gascón asked a state appeals court to unseal transcripts related to the criminal case against Roman Polanski, which could end the decades-long legal saga over the film director’s sexual abuse of a teenager in 1977.

In a six-page court filing, Gascón sought to have the testimony of retired prosecutor Roger Gunson made public — a request that has also been made by the victim in the case, Samantha Geimer, and marked a reversal from Gascón’s predecessors, who sought to keep Gunson’s words under wraps. Polanski fled the U.S. in 1977, after he pleaded guilty to forcing Geimer to have sex with him when she was only 13 years old.

PHOTO OF THE DAY

For the new baby. A pregnant Mckenzie Trahan opens a gift from her mom, Cat, outside her mother’s tent in Hollywood. Read about the journey of Mckenzie and baby Ann.

(Christina House / Los Angeles Times)

CALIFORNIA

Was the leader of the Mongols motorcycle gang a double agent for the feds? A dispute between leader David Santillan and his wife has directed attention to Santillan’s relationship with an agent with the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives who had investigated the Mongols for decades.

Homes for people with severe mental illness are rapidly closing. Board and cares — officially called adult residential facilities — play a crucial role in California’s system of serving adults struggling with debilitating mental illness. Since 2016, at least 96 facilities have closed, felled by the difficult economic realities of running the homes.

This map tells you whether extreme heat is a danger in your neighborhood. Extreme heat is fueling more than 1,500 excess emergency room visits per “heat day” in Los Angeles County, with some neighborhoods facing far more danger than others, according to a new UCLA mapping tool.

Starbucks to close six Los Angeles stores, citing safety concerns. Starbucks said employees will be able to transfer to other locations, the Associated Press said. The announcement of the closures comes as company higher-ups addressed employee safety issues within its stores.

ICE is banned from using contractors to arrest immigrants at California jails and prisons. The American Civil Liberties Union Foundation of Northern California arrived at a settlement with ICE in a joint lawsuit with the Asian Law Caucus alleging that immigration enforcement officers “routinely and systematically” directed third-party contractors to arrest immigrants at county jails and prisons.

NATION-WORLD

Video shows police milling in the hallway outside a classroom during the Uvalde massacre. The video has received renewed attention over the last week as anger mounts in Uvalde over an incomplete account about the slow police response and calls for accountability seven weeks after the worst school shooting in Texas history.

Japan is saying a final goodbye to slain former leader Shinzo Abe. Hundreds of people, some in dark formal suits, filled pedestrian areas outside the funeral at Zojoji temple in downtown Tokyo to bid farewell to Abe, 67, whose nationalistic views drove the governing party’s ultra-conservative policies.

Eight candidates are in the running to replace Boris Johnson. Nominations in the race to replace the British prime minister closed with eight Conservative lawmakers securing enough support from their colleagues to make the first ballot.

HOLLYWOOD AND THE ARTS

The biggest snubs and surprises of the 2022 Emmy nominations. Emmy nominations arrived Tuesday morning, and with 754 programs vying for recognition, the free-for-all to win a place at the table was intense. “Yellowstone,” the beloved Paramount western drama, went unrewarded while Netflix’s “Squid Game” made history as the first non-English language series to be nominated for an Emmy.

Are TV dramas ... OK? The Emmys nod to cynical visions of a world beyond our control. This year’s nominee list is alarming, though perhaps not surprising. Television has long been a mirror through which we examine our collective anxieties, writes culture critic Mary McNamara.

‘Yellowjackets’ star Melanie Lynskey is celebrating her Emmy nod by ... buying a fridge. Her performance as Shauna just landed Lynskey her first Emmy nomination, for lead actress in a drama series. After the announcement, The Times spoke with Lynskey about her remarkable year.

Help us create an ultimate karaoke guide. Tell us what your go-to songs are (and why). We’re creating a guide to help people find karaoke songs that work for them, and we want to hear from you. Karaoke aficionados know that it’s good to have a few songs in your back pocket that you know you can do. Even if you already have a karaoke playlist, it’s always fun to find new songs you never realized you could nail in karaoke.

BUSINESS

Twitter is suing to force Elon Musk to complete a $44-billion acquisition. Lawyers for Twitter told a Delaware judge that the world’s richest man failed to honor his agreement to pay $54.20 a share for the platform. Musk abandoned the deal Friday, citing in part concerns about the number of fake accounts among users.

Brewers need cans. California’s broken recycling system is making them hard to find. About 73% of an aluminum can comes from recycled scrap. As demand for canned beverages boomed in recent years, the state’s patchwork of recycling centers and recovery facilities just couldn’t keep pace.

OPINION

Editorial: Climate change is killing California’s iconic trees. We’ve lost about 20% of the giant sequoia population over the last six years. Meanwhile, Great Basin bristlecone pines, which can live thousands of years, are dying off. And scientists predict western Joshua trees could lose upward of 90% of their current habitat in the Mojave Desert by the end of the century. We need to be far more urgent, creative and committed in trying to keep these trees and their ecosystems healthy.

SPORTS

LeBron James criticizes the U.S. response to Brittney Griner’s case. The Lakers star is publicly sharing his disappointment about the handling of Griner’s case, criticizing the United States’ efforts to bring the WNBA All-Star home, in a trailer for an upcoming episode of his television show: “The Shop: Uninterrupted.”

Tiger Woods is delighted to return to the British Open at Old Course, perhaps for the final time. Woods, 46, has survived more than his share of personal storms, the most recent being the rollover accident in 2021 on a steep stretch of Hawthorne Boulevard on the Palos Verdes Peninsula.

NBA Summer League features the first HBCU Showcase event. More than two dozen players who were not drafted or invited to join NBA Summer League teams participated in the first HBCU Showcase in Las Vegas.

ONLY IN L.A.

Have a California roll, a French dip and a Moscow mule with a side of L.A. history. Supposing you were to pack a picnic for the Hollywood Bowl with exclusively created-in-L.A. foods.

Columnist Patt Morrison has a few things in mind, with some historical facts for good measure. For example, there’s an argument over who invented the California roll, but not where — it was definitely Los Angeles. Her choices might also include the Cobb salad, hot fudge sundaes and fortune cookies, to name a few. What would be on your menu?

FROM THE ARCHIVES

Sept. 4, 1925: The Ferry Building clock tower marks the year, and the sign on the Embarcadero, “Welcome to California for the Diamond Jubilee,” marks California’s 75th anniversary.

(Los Angeles Times)

One hundred and twenty-four years ago today, on July 13, 1898, the Ferry Building opened at the foot of Market Street in San Francisco. The building was a crucial hub for commuters — as many as 50,000 a day. “Passengers off the boats passed through an elegant two-story public area with repeating interior arches and overhead skylights,” according to the Ferry Building website. The building survived the great San Francisco quake of 1906. Some of the injured were taken there, as ferries evacuated survivors and brought in medical supplies. “As the city rebuilt, the sweep and scale of the building, 660 feet of arches and columns topped by a 240-foot clock tower, became a symbol of hope to survivors,” The Times wrote in 2000.

Then came the Bay Bridge (1936) and the Golden Gate Bridge (1937) and the popularity of the automobile, and the grand building fell into disuse. In 1955, much of it was turned into office space, and the historic interior was gone. In the 1960s, the double-decker Embarcadero Freeway was built, a roadway that obscured the building and was the object of general loathing among residents. When the freeway was damaged in 1989 by the magnitude-7.1 Loma Prieta earthquake, they won removal of it from the waterfront.

In the early 2000s, San Francisco restored and revived the Ferry Building, replacing “bland, beige corridors” with “a soaring, light-filled space.” The site became known for its food retailers and restaurants. The Times’ Christopher Reynolds wrote in 2009: “Born in 1898 and reborn in 2003, the old, new Ferry Building has not only helped revive the art of aqua-commuting but also has established itself as a foodie haven.”

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