Hello, it's Friday, June 16, and here are the stories you shouldn't miss today:
TOP STORIES
Weary parents, young children bused from Texas to L.A.
Wednesday heralded the arrival of the first group of migrants bused from Texas to Los Angeles, in a move that Texas Gov. Greg Abbott blamed on "overwhelmed" border towns that he said "are on the front lines of President Biden's border crisis."
It's the third time in recent weeks that migrants have been transported to California from other states, moves that are playing out amid a backdrop of intense national debate over how to handle the influx of migrants who enter the U.S. across the Mexican border each year.
While many of those who arrived in L.A. have connections in the region, some families have immigration hearings set in other states — including New York — creating logistical concerns. Organizers on the ground added that they only learned of the impending arrival the night before and believe it was meant to catch them flat footed.
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Price had earlier voted on matters involving his wife's clients
Four years ago, Los Angeles City Councilmember Curren Price was facing questions about the votes he had cast at City Hall — and whether they could financially benefit his spouse.
The Times had found that Price had repeatedly voted on matters that affected firms listed as clients of Del Richardson & Associates, the consulting firm owned by his wife. The company has had a host of clients, some of which would end up with matters before the City Council, including housing developers seeking to build new units for homeless people.
Looming insurance apocalypse or political ploy?
When State Farm announced in May that the company would stop writing new homeowners insurance policies in California, it issued a two-paragraph statement by way of explanation.
Those two paragraphs sent shockwaves through the state. Coming in tandem with a similar pullback by Allstate, the implication was clear: California's wildfires were getting out of control.
But there's a billion-dollar hole in that story, raising the possibility that the company's move may reflect other considerations, from applying political pressure to staying on the right side of financial regulations.
COVID vaccine should be updated to target XBB strain
With an eye toward enhancing protection against the coronavirus, which is still evolving and circulating, federal health advisors said Thursday that the next round of COVID-19 vaccines should be updated to target the now-dominant XBB strains.
The unanimous recommendation from the Food and Drug Administration's vaccine advisory committee follows that of agency staff, who in a memo acknowledged that while older vaccine formulas can still help stave off severe disease, "protection wanes with time and is reduced against subsequent waves of variant viruses."
Supreme Court upholds Native American adoption law
The Supreme Court on Thursday upheld the landmark federal adoption law that seeks to keep Native American children with tribal families.
By a 7-2 vote, the justices rejected a constitutional challenge from a white Texas couple and Texas state attorneys who contended the federal law interfered with state adoption policies and gave preferences to tribal families that amounted to unconstitutional discrimination based on race.
PHOTO OF THE DAY
CALIFORNIA
Trauma has shaped Jennifer Siebel Newsom's life. Now it helps fuel her work for California. Since a jury deadlocked on her allegations of rape against Harvey Weinstein, California First Partner Jennifer Siebel Newsom has made the pivot from anguished to motivated.
Catholic group plans for thousands to protest Sisters at Dodger Stadium before Pride Night. Catholics for Catholics, an organizer behind the protest, said it wants to express its feelings on the matter in person and on Dodgers' Pride Night, but it wants the event to be "peaceful" and "prayerful."
A record wet winter inflicted more than $210 million in damage to California parks. California state parks have declared $187 million in damage to 85 state parks in January's FEMA storm event, with an additional $23 million in March's storm event.
L.A. and Long Beach ports delays to end with possible labor deal. Why that matters to consumers. Los Angeles and Long Beach are home to the nation's largest cargo complex. Labor disruptions cause shipping delays, which means your stuff might not arrive in time.
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NATION-WORLD
Super spy or paper pusher? How Putin's KGB years in East Germany helped shape him. It was 1989. The young Vladimir Putin was a KGB officer in the then-East German city of Dresden, and it was one of history's pivotal moments. But was Putin some kind of super-spy, or more of a paper-pushing bureaucrat?
Two Americans were found dead in a luxury hotel room in Mexico's Baja California Sur. The Baja California Sur attorney general's office said the victims had been dead for about 10 or 11 hours when they were found, and that the cause of death was "intoxication by substance to be determined." There were no signs of foul play on the victims' bodies.
HOLLYWOOD AND THE ARTS
Destination Crenshaw announces new artworks and pushes grand opening to early 2024. The $100-million, 1.3-mile public art corridor on Crenshaw Boulevard — reflecting and celebrating Black Los Angeles — has added four art commissions to its roster.
'The Last of Us' is coming to Universal Studios' Halloween Horror Nights. The maze-like haunted house inspired by "The Last of Us" also will be available at Universal's Orlando theme park. The walk-through attraction will follow the lead of the game rather than the HBO series, although the latter hewed closely to the game's interactive text.
Netflix to launch a pop-up restaurant featuring well-known chefs. The restaurant, Netflix Bites, will feature "a special tasting menu" curated by chefs featured in some of its most popular culinary shows, as well as custom cocktails by mixologists featured on the show "Drink Masters."
Bill Cosby sued in Nevada by 9 more women alleging sexual assault. A lawsuit filed Wednesday in federal court in Nevada alleges that the women were individually drugged and assaulted between approximately 1979 and 1992 in Las Vegas, Reno and Lake Tahoe homes, dressing rooms and hotels.
BUSINESS
Twitter hit with $250-million copyright infringement lawsuit from music publishers. Seventeen music publishers, who hold the rights to music from artists including Drake, Taylor Swift and Adele, filed the joint lawsuit in Tennessee federal court. Elon Musk's X Corp, which owns Twitter, is the sole defendant.
The Microsoft Theater is getting a new name in a multiyear deal between AEG and Peacock. The renaming officially happens July 11 and comes ahead of a pair of global sporting events kicking off in Los Angeles over the next few years: the 2026 FIFA World Cup and the 2028 Summer Olympics. Peacock will be streaming those events exclusively.
SPORTS
How Karlie Samuelson used a season in Australia to break through with the Sparks. With three consecutive titles in two top-flight international leagues, Samuelson is finally getting her shot in the WNBA. After the Sparks waived her at the end of training camp, Samuelson's perseverance and passion earned her a seasonlong contract in the WNBA for the first time since 2018.
A's going, going, all but gone from Oakland as the bill to fund the Las Vegas stadium passes. The Nevada Legislature approved $380 million in taxpayer funds toward a new ballpark in Las Vegas, leaving two hurdles for the A's in their proposed move: Nevada Gov. Joe Lombardo to sign the ballpark bill into law, and major league owners to approve the move.
The Dodgers have a flawed roster. Making the right trades could be harder than you think. It's easy to deduce that the Dodgers — sitting in second place at 38-30 — could use a few upgrades. It's just difficult, at this juncture, to identify where they would find the necessary reinforcements.
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OPINION
Opinion: Violence against Black women and girls is underreported. Here's how we can address it. "Violence prevention education programs that are specifically tailored for Black girls and Black gender-expansive youth are few and far between," Sikivu Hutchinson writes. "L.A. could play a crucial role in violence prevention by creating more community youth centers in South L.A."
Opinion: Why Schwarzenegger, Stallone and nostalgia for '80s action movies are back. Looking at the news of the past several years, we might think we've been rocketed back to the 1980s, just with less neon and fewer Rubik's Cubes. History is repeating itself, and not only through fractured politics and the threat of a new Cold War.
Column: Here's Trump's outlandish and dangerous plan to beat the classified documents case. "Trump is engaged in an outlandish and, for the country, very dangerous plot to delay the case until he can end it by winning the presidency in 2024. At that point, he could just order the Department of Justice to stand down," writes Harry Litman.
YOUR WEEKEND
Where to dig into the vibrant history of red foods for the Juneteenth holiday. Though the holiday has been celebrated for more than 150 years, it wasn't until 2021 that Juneteenth became a federal holiday. As the history becomes more widely known, treasured traditions have resurfaced, including the consumption of red-colored foods including watermelon, barbecue and strawberry cake. Here are 13 Black-owned restaurants and markets across L.A. to get red foods and drinks for Juneteenth and all year long.
L.A. loves salad. We ranked the top chains from best to meh. We love our salads in Los Angeles. And the salad eaters of the city have a multitude of options to wade through.
Headed to Yosemite? This might ease your drive. Hey, summer road-trippers, ready your cars, SUVs, RVs and Sprinters for a much easier drive through Yosemite National Park, thanks to the opening of Big Oak Flat Road — also known as Highway 120 — the main western entrance to the park and favored route of visitors from the San Francisco area. The road had been closed for weeks due to roadway damage left by the multiple storms of last winter.
WHAT OUR EDITORS ARE READING
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A man knocked down a wall in his basement. He found an abandoned underground city that was once home to 20,000 people. The ancient city, Derinkuyu, lay abandoned for decades until, in the 1960s, a local man noticed his chickens were disappearing through a gap in his basement that had opened up during renovations, the BBC reported. After knocking down a wall, he found a tunnel — and accidentally rediscovered the sprawling, subterranean city. Insider
We Should Be Ambitious About Our Friendships. It's expected that we'll work hard in school, in our careers, and even in romantic relationships — finding them and staying in them — but ambition toward building friendships is often diluted down to networking, a function of work rather than something that warrants drive and intention of its own. Elle
'Things Got Really Scary Really Fast During Pride Month.' "I understand taking precautions for the safety of the guests and the workers, but Target, which claims to be so progressive, is giving in to the hate. These small-minded individuals have made an example of Target, and Target buckled their knees. If they can make one of the biggest retailers in America do that, they can make anybody do it," says one 23-year-old who works at a Target in California. The Cut
FROM THE ARCHIVES
Rapper Tupac Shakur poses for photos backstage after his performance at the Regal Theater in Chicago, Illinois in March 1994. (Raymond Boyd/Getty Images)
On this day 52 years ago, rapper, actor and activist Tupac Shakur was born.
In October 1995 — one year before he was killed in a shooting in Las Vegas — the rapper spoke with The Times about his stint in a New York prison, the media and his music.
On being released from prison, the rapper said he "was so glad to be out," and he reflected on the many letters of support he received from mothers, kids and actor Tony Danza.
"I've never even met the guy, but he wrote me to say he liked my album and to keep my head up and to just come out stronger. I can't tell you how great that made me feel."
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