Today’s Headlines: 10 killed in Monterey Park amid Lunar New Year celebrations

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Hello, it’s Monday, Jan. 23, and here are the stories you shouldn’t miss today:

TOP STORIES

Shooting kills 10 amid Lunar New Year celebrations

A deadly mass shooting inside a Monterey Park dance studio ended in Torrance on Sunday, where the suspected gunman died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound in a strip mall parking lot, law enforcement sources said.

The manhunt began after the shooter opened fire inside Star Ballroom Dance Studio on West Garvey Avenue around 10:20 p.m. Saturday, killing 10 people and injuring 10 others.

The mass shooting is one of California’s worst in recent memory. The violence came as an iconic city in the history of Asian immigration to the United States celebrated Lunar New Year. Police said the shooter’s motive remains unclear, but the killings have sent shock waves of anxiety through a community already contending rising violence and incidents of bias.

More:

• Residents say Monterey Park’s tranquility is “shattered” as families await updates on shooting victims.
• Vice President Kamala Harris declared “this violence must end” after the shooting.
• Two ‘heroes’ grabbed Lunar New Year suspect’s gun, likely preventing second attack, sheriff says.
• With a mass shooting in the news, here are tips to improve your safety and your mindset.
  

Voters turn sharply against Kevin de León, poll finds

Voters in L.A. City Councilman Kevin de León’s district have little confidence in him, and as a scandal involving racist comments continues to dog him, a majority want him to resign, a new Los Angeles Times poll shows.

The poll paints a grim political picture for De León, who has adamantly refused to step down, despite a chorus of calls to go that has reached from protesters at City Council meetings to President Biden.

More politics

• The FBI searched Biden’s Wilmington, Del., home and located more classified documents.
• White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain is preparing to leave his job in the coming weeks.

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

La Niña signaled a dry winter. So why did California get so much rain?

For decades, two climate patterns in the Pacific Ocean have loomed large in predicting weather in California and other parts of the globe. El Niño — a warming of sea-surface temperatures in the tropical Pacific — seemed synonymous with wet winters for Southern California, while La Niña was a heralder of drought.

But the would-be model didn’t hold up this winter. Despite La Niña’s presence, a robust series of 10 storms brought impressive precipitation across California. So what happened? Scientists say it’s all about probability.

Everyone hates Ticketmaster. Is everyone wrong?

Fans, artists and government regulators have lambasted Ticketmaster for 30 years. But after tech failures shut out millions of fans from the on-sale for Taylor Swift’s “Eras” tour in November, the ticketing firm came under fire from all sides.

Yet the actual role that Ticketmaster plays in live music is widely misunderstood. In more than a dozen interviews with former Ticketmaster executives, artist managers, economists, lawmakers, antitrust experts, fans and industry insiders, many agreed that Ticketmaster is enormous and largely unaccountable to fans. But, they said, it is also a mostly effective business with few peers capable of operating at its scale.

OUR MUST-READS FROM THE WEEKEND

Strawberries are covered in mud at Santa Clara Farms in Ventura.

(Mel Melcon/Los Angeles Times)

Storm flooding compounds misery for California farms and workers. In a continuing series of environmental crises, farmworkers have been contending with flooded homes, damaged cars and reduced or lost work hours since atmospheric river storms pummeled the state, destroying crops at farms.

How a massacre in a small town named Goshen shocked the country. The slaying of six people, including an infant, highlights how little-known rural enclaves in the San Joaquin Valley have become some of the most violent places in California.

CALIFORNIA

LAPD ban of ‘thin blue line’ flags is the latest salvo in a culture war. In a departmentwide email, Chief Michel Moore said the flag’s original meaning of support for police had been overshadowed when it began appearing at rallies for far-right extremist groups.

Fewer Medi-Cal patients got crucial treatment for hepatitis C amid the pandemic. The slow-moving virus can now be cured in most cases. Yet the number of Medi-Cal patients getting the medications annually plunged more than 40% between fiscal years 2018-19 and 2020-21.

Hackers penetrated LAUSD computers much earlier than previously known, district probe finds. The intrusion began more than a month earlier than previously disclosed and likely exposed confidential information, including Social Security numbers, of more than 500 people who worked for district contractors.

NATION-WORLD

Time’s Up to halt operations and shift resources to legal fund. The now-embattled anti-harassment organization, founded with fanfare during the early days of the #MeToo reckoning against sexual misconduct, is ceasing operations, at least in its current form.

Violent protests erupt in downtown Atlanta over killing of activist. A protest turned violent Saturday night in downtown Atlanta in the wake of last week’s killing by law enforcement officers of an environmental activist who had shot a state trooper, according to officials.

The Justice Department is now investigating Abbott baby formula plant. The factory’s closure in February 2022 was a key cause of a nationwide baby formula shortage that forced parents to seek formula from food banks, friends and doctor’s offices before production restarted in June.

HOLLYWOOD AND THE ARTS

Brandon Cronenberg breaks down ‘Infinity Pool.’ His latest movie may be the most disturbing and unsettling film at Sundance this year, forcing viewers to confront what they might actually be capable of — all told in a hallucinatory, brain-melting, head-spinning style.

As ‘Cat Person’ ruins a viral sensation, ‘Eileen’ makes a stir of its own. Film critic Justin Chang, writing from Sundance, considers two literary adaptations, of Kristen Roupenian’s viral New Yorker story and Ottessa Moshfegh’s novel, that arrive at very different outcomes.

Actors and creators question move to bring criminal charges against Alec Baldwin. “We are very concerned about the precedent this might set,” said Duncan Crabtree-Ireland, national executive director of SAG-AFTRA. “Actors are not trained to be firearms experts.”

BUSINESS

Wondering what happens to all those cars destroyed by California’s floods? A complex ecosystem of insurance companies, auction houses, car dealers and others will process these soggy automotive casualties. Many will eventually wind up for sale again.

Konbi, home to the best egg salad sandwich in L.A., to close both locations. The celebrated Japanese cafe and bakery closed its Echo Park and newly opened Culver City restaurants over the weekend, citing high costs and low business.

OPINION

His long wonderful life is an inspiration, but aging means compromise, and it’s expensive. “I don’t know if I’d have the courage or desire to last into triple digits. The privilege of aging does not come without compromise and loss, and I doubt I’d be very good at either,” writes columnist Steve Lopez.

Op-Ed: 50 years post-Roe, who can predict what U.S. abortion access will look like in another 50? Few could have predicted what the following 50 years would look like in January 1973. The same is true today. But there is one thing we can be sure of: The fight for reproductive rights and justice is not about to end, writes UC Davis School of Law professor Mary Ziegler.

SPORTS

Scoring woes burn UCLA at Arizona. Here are five ways the Bruins can fix it. No. 5 UCLA’s 14-game win streak ended with the 58-52 loss at No. 11 Arizona. But the Bruins can address their scoring problems.

Unraveling the Lakers’ trade deadline dilemmas: Who might be coming to L.A.? There’s a bit of healthy impatience in certain corners of the Lakers’ locker room as the team moved past the halfway point of the season without making any notable roster moves. Will that change?

ONLY IN L.A.

Is this the best shawarma in Los Angeles? The other week, a friend kindly dropped off some baklava and other desserts to The Times’ restaurant critic Bill Addison. “Oh, by the way,” he said, “you should check out Hollywood Shawarma. New owner. He’s Syrian. I think it’s the best shawarma in L.A. now.”

Bill says he had to try it — and he agrees. Read his write-up here (and sign up for his newsletter, Tasting Notes, here).

FROM THE ARCHIVES

The front page of the Jan. 22, 1973, late edition of The Times.

(Los Angeles Times)

50 years ago this week, the Supreme Court ruled that women had a constitutional right to abortion. On Jan. 22, 1973, the court decided on a challenge to laws in Georgia and Texas that sought to ban abortions except when the life of the mother was in danger or, in Georgia’s case, if the fetus suffered a major medical issue or had been conceived through sexual assault. The ruling didn’t ban all abortion restrictions, but did set up legal guidelines that limited future restrictions on abortion.

It was also not the first major case to address the issue. Last year, a California couple told The Times about their 1966 abortion and the ensuing legal battle that helped create the framework for the Roe ruling.

In June 2022, the court’s conservative majority overturned Roe in the most significant curtailing of an established constitutional right in the court’s history.

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