Newsletter: Today: The economic toll of Trump’s green-card rules

President Trump’s plan to deny green cards to immigrants who use public assistance could badly hurt California’s economy, a study found.

TOP STORIES

Immigration Crackdown Could Hurt California’s Economy
The Trump administration’s new policy — which could deny green cards to immigrants who use Medicaid, food stamps or some other kinds of public assistance — could have a serious chilling effect on California’s economy, experts and advocates say. That’s because immigrants, including those who already have green cards or are citizens, may unenroll from benefits such as Medi-Cal or CalFresh out of fear for it could cost them their or their family members’ legal status. A study last year found such a policy change could cost the state as many as 17,700 jobs and would hit the healthcare sector particularly hard.

What’s Going on at Slauson and Crenshaw?
Since he was gunned down there, fans have flocked to the South L.A. strip mall that was the epicenter of Nipsey Hussle’s star power. But along with the selfie snappers and the larger-than-life murals, trouble has brewed. Tourists were robbed. A man was fatally stabbed. This month, a fence went up. Hussle’s business partner, David Gross, said he put it up in preparation for a mixed-use development with a museum. But there’s more to the story, documents examined by The Times show, including allegations of a violent melee at Hussle’s store. The city has pushed Gross to tamp down crime there. Residents attribute it to long-standing gang issues, and some wonder if a conspiracy is afoot to seize the property.

Finding the Right Approach to Ethnic Studies
In a move that would affect more than 6.5 million students, state lawmakers are poised to make ethnic studies a graduation requirement in high school and at Cal State universities, raising the stakes for educators drafting the model curriculum, those arguing for changes and also critics who see in it political correctness. At its core, supporters say, ethnic studies classes teach students how to think critically about the world, appreciate cultural diversity and inclusion, and engage socially and politically to eradicate racism. The high school requirement — the first in the nation, according to a legislative analysis — appears to have broad backing in Sacramento. A separate bill mandating a class for Cal State students has drawn a mixed reaction on campus. Californians can comment on the model curriculum until Thursday.

More on the bill
— Much of the criticism of the requirement has focused on the curriculum’s language, which we explain here.
— Among those critical of its language: the Los Angeles Times editorial board.

Wild Freeway Shootout in Riverside County
Drivers dodged bullets. One California Highway Patrol officer was killed, and two other officers were wounded. A gunman was killed. What exactly led to Monday evening’s shootout off the 215 Freeway in Riverside County isn’t clear, but authorities say it appears to have begun as a traffic stop. The suspect was taken to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

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FROM THE ARCHIVES

A 15-year-old redheaded runaway named Robert Bly returned home in 1935 with 30 cents in his pocket, after a three-week trek of hitchhiking, hunting and fishing with his bull terrier Don. The Eagle Rock High School student had left home “with $5, which his parents had given him for spending money at a Boy Scout camp, his dog, a gun, a blanket, a frying pan and a fishing pole,” The Times wrote Aug. 13, 1935. He spent his first night camping in Tulare, where he ate a jackrabbit. “On the rest of the trip he shot other rabbits and reaching Grants Pass, Or., he caught trout in the Rogue River for his meals. There he made the acquaintance of a youth on a ranch whose mother mended his overalls.”

CALIFORNIA

— A swath of Kaiser Permanente workers in California has voted overwhelmingly to approve a strike that could draw in more than 80,000 employees nationwide, their unions say.

— The 24-year-old LAPD officer shot dead near a Lincoln Heights taco stand last month was mourned Monday in a bilingual funeral Mass downtown. Said Juan Jose Diaz‘s sister: “You showed what it is to be fearless.”

— Also laid to rest was the youngest victim of the Gilroy Garlic Festival mass shooting. Stephen Romero loved Batman and the Weeknd. He was 6.

— The era of the Segway tour may be ending — in San Diego, anyway. In a crackdown, the city will require tour companies to adopt new safety procedures, get comprehensive liability insurance and indemnify the city.

— Uber says it will stop serving the Ontario airport next month because of fee hikes.

HOLLYWOOD AND THE ARTS

— “Seinfeld” is about to become one of TV’s hottest properties again, decades after its series finale, now that its streaming rights are hitting the market.

— Viacom‘s stock fell nearly 5% as investors fretted its CBS tie-up might hurt them.

— Cancel culture — the impulse to banish people for past mistakes — is basically “righteousness porn,” says Sarah Silverman. “There’s so much to be genuinely outraged by, but you have to say, ‘Is the action I’m taking here creating change or creating further division?’”

— “Schitt’s Creek” co-creators and co-stars Dan and Eugene Levy talked with us about Catherine O’Hara’s iconic character and why a show so beloved by Americans could only have been made by Canadians.

NATION-WORLD

— A friend of the gunman in the Dayton, Ohio, massacre bought the body armor, a 100-round magazine and a gun accessory used, the feds say. The friend said he kept it at his apartment so the shooter’s parents would not find it.

— The Trump administration moved to weaken how it applies the Endangered Species Act. Critics say that will mean more extinctions.

— Flights were canceled again Tuesday in Hong Kong as protesters continued to occupy the airport’s main terminal.

— Argentine President Mauricio Macri was crushed in a primary vote that amounted to a public rejection of his economic programs and an embrace of the populist left.

BUSINESS

— The risks of Chinese tech collaboration are serious, but ethical questions are better centered on standards of transparency and consent than on notions of loyalty and patriotism, experts say.

— The billionaire real estate developer whose Trump fundraiser drew protests at an Equinox gym is also behind one of downtown’s flashiest projects. One politician says he’s “deeply conflicted” about the Related Cos. tower now.

— Another sign Verizon is dismantling its online empire: It’s selling the blogging platform Tumblr.

— Those short-term health plans Trump favors in lieu of Obamacare are cheap for a reason, columnist Michael Hiltzik writes: The insurers that issue them spend only pennies on actual healthcare.

SPORTS

— LeBron James may be an NBA great, but a Lakers great? He’ll need to win a championship to win over Lakers fans, columnist Arash Markazi writes.

— A filly preparing for a race had to be euthanized after suffering a catastrophic broken pelvis Monday in training at Del Mar.

— Major League Baseball’s 2020 schedules are out. The Dodgers will open at home against the Giants and the Angels in Houston against the Astros.

OPINION

— The EPA’s reversal of its veto of plans for a massive open-pit copper and gold mine in Alaska will imperil Bristol Bay and a vibrant fishing economy, the editorial board writes.

— The editorial board also says the Trump administration’s new rules removing endangered-species protections “undermine a progressive and far-sighted, environmentally conscious law that has worked well for nearly half a century.”

WHAT OUR EDITORS ARE READING

— A $70,000 check the NRA sent an obscure Delaware entity last year raises new questions about the gun-rights group’s abortive plan to buy its CEO a $6-million mansion. (Wall Street Journal)

— Just 15 percent of American pharmacies handled half of all distributed opioids, a long-secret government database shows. The Washington Post won its release, illustrated its findings in an interactive map and charts and shared its data with other journalists. (Washington Post)

ONLY IN L.A.

While you weren’t looking, the Clippers wrote a success story. They may not have had stars, but they had exciting scorers such as Lou Williams and tenacious defenders such as Patrick Beverley. But they’re not flying under the radar anymore. Now, with Kawhi Leonard and Paul George, they’ll be a fixture on the NBA’s biggest nights all season.

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