Today’s Headlines: Gov. Gavin Newsom threatened Gov. Ron DeSantis with kidnapping charges over migrants
Hello, it’s Tuesday, June 6, and here are the stories you shouldn’t miss today:
TOP STORIES
Newsom threatens DeSantis with kidnapping charges
Gov. Gavin Newsom took his feud with Gov. Ron DeSantis to new heights on Monday, seemingly threatening him with kidnapping charges after California officials say South American migrants were sent to Sacramento by the state of Florida as a political stunt.
Newsom, a Democrat, cited state kidnapping laws in a tweet to the Florida governor and Republican presidential hopeful, whom he called a “small, pathetic man.”
Newsom said that his administration is working with the agency to “investigate the circumstances around” who paid for the plane trips, whether migrants were misled and whether laws were violated, including kidnapping.
More:
- A second plane carrying migrants arrived in Sacramento on Monday, according to California officials who say the transportation was arranged by the state of Florida.
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SAG-AFTRA members approve strike authorization
Members of SAG-AFTRA have voted to strike if they can’t reach a deal with studios over a new contract by June 30, underscoring widening labor tensions across Hollywood.
The vote was overwhelmingly approved by a 98% margin, the union said Monday night.
The endorsement gives the union more leverage in negotiations with studios that begin Wednesday on behalf of its 160,000 performers and broadcasters.
Why some Madera County residents now brace for death
Madera Community Hospital, the county’s only full-service hospital, has shut its doors. The abrupt closure of the hospital and its affiliated medical clinics capped years of financial turmoil. Still, most residents in this rural expanse in California’s geographic center were caught off-guard, not aware of just how much was at stake until the doors were locked.
During its half-century run, Madera Community Hospital provided a crucial link to healthcare for the 160,000 people who call Madera County home. Spanning from the heavily farmed floor of the eastern San Joaquin Valley to the forested central Sierra, Madera is majority Latino and 20% of the population live in poverty. For most residents, the hospital was more than a place to go when disaster struck.
Will California reform its oversight of water rights?
California’s complex system of water rights took shape starting in the mid-1800s, when settlers saw the state’s water as abundant and free for the taking. Today, California’s oldest and most senior water rights have been passed along to thousands of agricultural landowners, irrigation districts and urban water suppliers that claim control of roughly one-third of the water that is diverted from the state’s rivers and streams.
But increasingly, California water regulators are struggling to manage supplies for 39 million residents, agriculture and the environment as climate change warps the hydrologic cycle and brings longer-lasting and more severe droughts.
Legal experts say the way the state manages this antiquated system is in dire need of reform.
Republicans object to honoring a drag activist at California Capitol
Known as much for her dramatic face makeup and colored boa headdresses as for her work caring for AIDS patients, promoting safe-sex education and cleaning up trash throughout San Francisco, drag activist Sister Roma was honored Monday during an annual LGBTQ+ Pride Month ceremony in the state Capitol.
But what’s normally a routine event in the statehouse dominated by Democrats, where more LGBTQ+ lawmakers now serve than at any time in state history, has become a flashpoint in the culture wars as Republicans push back against acceptance of transgender identities and honors for a group of service-oriented drag queens who they see as mocking the Catholic religion.
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PHOTO OF THE DAY
CALIFORNIA
California leads the U.S. in dog attacks on mail carriers as the number of bites rises. Last year, there were 675 dog bites on mail carriers in California, 67% more than the No. 2 state, Texas, according to U.S. Postal Service data.
With high food prices, grocery shopping has become a strategy game. Angelenos share how they get by. Betty Luckett, a preschool owner who lives in downtown Los Angeles, has started pinching pennies at the grocery store to keep the operating costs for her business in check.
Metrolink partially suspends Orange County train lines due to landslides — again. Services had just restarted when another landslide was discovered Monday, closing the tracks between San Clemente and San Juan Capistrano.
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NATION-WORLD
How Panama plans to stop migrant-smuggling through the perilous Darien Gap. Panamanian security authorities said they would dedicate some 1,200 immigration agents, border police and members of the naval air service to what they said would be an effort to take on organized criminal groups smuggling migrants, drugs and guns through the Darien jungle.
Mexico president’s ruling party ousts the once-dominant party in the most populous state. The result was a new low for the PRI, which held Mexico’s presidency uninterrupted for 71 years until losing power in 2000 elections; the party had governed the state of Mexico and its 17 million inhabitants for 94 years until its loss Sunday.
HOLLYWOOD AND THE ARTS
‘Barbie’ production emptied a company’s worldwide supply of pink paint. If you’re going to make a Barbie movie, make it pink — very pink — so pink that it will wipe out an entire company’s global supply of pink paint.
Prince Harry was a no-show on the first day of a court showdown with a British tabloid publisher. Prince Harry’s highly anticipated legal showdown with the publisher of the Daily Mirror kicked off Monday without him present in court — and the judge was not happy.
How Mayan Lopez’s TV show helps her reconnect with her dad, comedian George Lopez. “It can be a little confusing with my character’s name also being Mayan,” she said. “When we were filming the show, I was able to see that my character was connecting better with my dad. So the TV Mayan helped our relationship get stronger off the stage.”
BUSINESS
Apple unveils sleek, $3,500 ‘Vision Pro’ goggles. Will they be what VR has been looking for? Apple has unveiled a VR headset that will test the company’s ability to popularize new devices after others failed to capture the public’s imagination.
Spotify cuts 200 more jobs in podcast division amid industry struggles. The layoffs come amid increased pressure for tech companies to cut costs and boost profits in an uncertain economic environment.
Black entrepreneurs in South L.A. will get access to loans — no credit score is required. The focus on Black entrepreneurs is an important aspect of the program and what led CDC Small Business Finance to start in Detroit and expand to South L.A., with several other regions already in the pipeline.
SPORTS
WNBA’s expanded charter flights are a ‘game changer.’ What’s next? As the league expands its charter flights slowly, the Sparks won’t be on another charter flight for months. They enjoyed it while it lasted.
Another great effort by Bobby Miller but another series loss for Dodgers. Despite the team’s rubber-match defeat, he further hinted at breakout-star status, becoming just the franchise’s second pitcher since 1901 to begin his MLB career with three starts of at least five innings and no more than one run given up.
From franchises to Frosted Flakes, Shaquille O’Neal has changed what it means to be a retired athlete. There have been savvy athletes-turned-businesspeople. And of course, there have always been big personalities. But none have melded it together into a multimillion-dollar, airwave-dominating, viral moment-making empire quite like Shaquille O’Neal.
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OPINION
Opinion: We’ve made huge advances against COVID. Why is it still killing so many people? Public health leaders need to improve communications — both to combat misinformation and to make the public more aware of available resources.
Opinion: My son the vandal — and the untreated, unaddressed epidemic of mental illness. “We try to understand, why him, why us? Our son has been our greatest teacher. As a young mother, I thought if you loved your children and helped them pursue their dreams, it would be enough. It’s not enough, and it never will be when you’re grappling with the twin monsters of addiction and mental illness,” Kerry Madden-Lunsford writes.
ONLY IN L.A.
It isn’t always easy riding a bike around L.A. Streets weren’t designed with cyclists’ safety in mind and mountain biking trails can be intimidating for those not used to steep inclines.
That’s part of the reason why more people are heading to the dirt. Ready to get off the road? Here are 11 gravel rides around L.A.
FROM THE ARCHIVES
On this day 25 years ago, “Sex and the City” began airing on HBO and became one of the most popular and influential TV series of the late ‘90s and early 2000s.
Even when the show ended in 2004, the hunger for more misadventures didn’t. “Sex and the City” later burst onto the big screen with two movies (one good, one less so) in 2008 and 2010, respectively.
In 2021, a reboot of the series premiered on HBO with the original cast in tow except for Kim Cattrall. But in the reboot’s upcoming second season, Cattrall is expected to make a cameo.
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