Good morning, and welcome to the Essential California newsletter. It’s Monday, Oct. 10. I’m Kinsee Morlan, editor of “The Times,” our news podcast featuring the perfect L.A. Times stories in regards to the world, the West Coast and sometimes the weird or whimsical. (Subscribe already, mmmkay?) I’m writing from Lemon Grove, home of the world’s largest lemon — not an actual one, sadly, but a unusual 3,000-pound statue that sits above five minutes from where I live.
An October 2021 leaked recording of a personal conversation between Los Angeles City Council president Nury Martinez, councilmembers Gil Cedillo and Kevin de León and a widely known local labor leader is roiling City Hall.
Within the roughly hourlong conversation, Martinez says a white councilman, Mike Bonin, treats his young Black son as if he were a trendy “accessory,” like a handbag, and calls the kid “Parece changuito,” like just a little monkey. Of Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. George Gascón, she says, “F— that guy. … He’s with the Blacks.”
The Times first reported on the explosive content on Sunday.
The audio was posted on Reddit earlier this month. Not much is thought in regards to the now-suspended Reddit user who posted it, how they got it or why the just about year-old recording was posted lower than a month before an election that might shift the balance of power at City Hall to the left.
What we do know in regards to the audio is that it can have been recorded on L.A. County Federation of Labor property. The town leaders didn’t appear to know that they were being recorded. And the group was talking in regards to the city’s contentious technique of redrawing council district boundaries, strategizing methods to draw districts that might give more power to Latinos.
Martinez has issued an announcement apologizing for her comments. De León called the comments “wholly inappropriate” and said he regrets “appearing to condone and even contribute to certain insensitive comments.” Cedillo told The Times he doesn’t remember the conversation. The labor leader, Los Angeles County Federation of Labor President Ron Herrera, didn’t reply to several requests for comment. But Julie Gutman Dickinson, a lawyer representing the L.A. County Federation of Labor, sent a letter saying the conversation was recorded illegally, and by publishing information from it, The Times is condoning illegal conduct.
Our lawyer disagrees with that take.
And now, here’s what’s happening across California:
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L.A. STORIES
Harvey Weinstein’s back in court. After being convicted of sexually assaulting two women in Latest York, the previous movie producer is facing criminal charges related to 5 other women in Los Angeles. Weinstein’s trial begins Monday in Los Angeles. BuzzFeed
Driveway surprise: Mountain lion believed to be the famed P-22. Los Feliz residents Cylin Busby and Damon Ross were returning to their home near Griffith Park Saturday night once they spotted what they imagine was the mountain lion generally known as P-22. The famed cougar has long lived within the Griffith Park area. Los Angeles Times
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POLITICS AND GOVERNMENT
How California’s bullet train went off the rails. A bullet train connecting Los Angeles and San Francisco was presupposed to be the U.S.’ first foray into high-speed-rail. However the sluggish pace of the project has kept us all waiting (and waiting and waiting) to board the super-fast trains, since the dream, briefly, has grow to be a multibillion-dollar nightmare crammed with big problems and thorny politics. Latest York Times
CRIME, COURTS AND POLICING
A possible pattern for the person accused of kidnapping, killing 4 in Merced. Kathy and her daughter Katrina, who asked that their last name not be used, were held at gunpoint and robbed by Jesus Manuel Salgado, the identical man accused of kidnapping and killing 4 people in Merced. The robbery happened in 2005. Salgado was caught a number of days later, after the family reported him to police. He served nearly 10 years in prison before being paroled in 2015. Salgado was taken into custody again Tuesday on suspicion of kidnapping and murdering 4 members of the Singh family. Los Angeles Times
SDSU criticized for giving conflicting accounts of the way it handled gang rape allegation. Officials at San Diego State University have provided shifting and conflicting accounts about their response to accusations, which surfaced months ago, that a star football player and his teammates assaulted a 17-year-old highschool senior at an off-campus party. A Times investigation in June revealed that the university had not alerted the campus or launched its own investigation after receiving reports in regards to the alleged October 2021 gang rape. Los Angeles Times
HEALTH AND THE ENVIRONMENT
California tribes will manage state coastal areas. Five California tribes will reclaim their right to administer coastal land significant to their history under a first-in-the-nation program backed with $3.6 million in state money. The tribes will depend on their traditional knowledge to guard greater than 200 miles of coastline. Associated Press
In California, one pine tree has survived for 4,800 years. Way up within the White Mountains of central California, groves of Great Basin bristlecone pines stand with their gnarled branches reaching to the sky. A few of the twisted trees have been there for nearly 5,000 years. Nonetheless, the pines face a lot of climate-change challenges which may finally take them down. Latest York Times
CALIFORNIA CULTURE
Nikki Finke, once the ‘most feared author’ in Hollywood, dies. Veteran journalist Nikki Finke, who founded the entertainment trade site Deadline, died at age 68. In her heyday, her column served up juicy industry scoops and skewered Hollywood’s elite. In line with a family representative, Finke died Sunday morning in Boca Raton, Fla., after a protracted illness. Los Angeles Times
Opening of the Chicano Park Museum and Cultural Center. Six years within the making, the Chicano Park Museum and Cultural Center opened its doors in San Diego. The inaugural exhibit is in regards to the National Historic Landmark Chicano Park and the neighborhoods surrounding it. San Diego Union-Tribune
How the Black experience renews ‘Death of a Salesman.’ For the primary time, Willy Loman and his family are played entirely by Black actors in Arthur Miller’s “Death of a Salesman,” which opened Sunday on the Hudson Theatre in Los Angeles. Los Angeles Times
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CALIFORNIA ALMANAC
Los Angeles: 78, partly cloudy. San Diego: 72, partly cloudy. San Francisco: 66, partly cloudy. San Jose: 79, partly cloudy. Fresno: 92. Sacramento: 93.
AND FINALLY
Today’s California memory is from Wendy Wilke.
I lived within the San Fernando Valley within the ’60s, near Victory and Balboa. The home was next to a small wash. I looked out on the Sepulveda Reservoir and the Encino Hills. Silver Queen corn was grown within the reservoir, where the owner checked every ear for rot before we could buy it. The hills at night were alit like little stars. We had lemon and apricot trees and a number of bamboo within the backyard where my children played. It was really idyllic.
If you’ve got a memory or story in regards to the Golden State, share it with us. (Please keep your story to 100 words.)
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