Newsletter: A police chief’s tears and anger after beloved Whittier cop killed

Good morning. It’s Tuesday, Feb. 21, and here is what’s going on across California:

TOP STORIES

Officer killed, and a grieving chief gets angry

What began as a traffic incident ended with a veteran Whittier police officer fatally shot and another wounded. Police say the gunman was a recent parolee who may have killed another man hours earlier. Amid the grief, there is anger, as Whittier’s police chief said the suspect was on the street because of criminal justice reform laws. The chief believes those laws have made California less safe. Los Angeles Times

Icy waters

For years, immigration officials have portrayed themselves as officers from local police departments to ensnare people or fool them into revealing the whereabouts of family members. The use of the tactic, critics say, is particularly egregious in heavily immigrant cities such as Los Angeles and San Francisco. Police and elected officials there have tried for decades to distinguish their cops from federal immigration agents in an effort to convince immigrants living illegally in their cities that they can interact with local police without fear of deportation. Los Angeles Times

Transparency fight

Los Angeles County Sheriff Jim McDonnell wants to send prosecutors the names of about 300 deputies with histories of serious misconduct who might have credibility problems if they testify in court. But his effort has been blocked after the union that represents rank-and-file deputies went to court to stop him, setting up a legal battle over police transparency and privacy with important implications for the state’s criminal justice system. Los Angeles Times

CALIFORNIA STORMWATCH

Knockout round? Northern California was battered again Sunday by the atmospheric river, further straining rivers, streams, levees and other waterways that were already at capacity. From the Santa Clara Valley to Turlock, several dam spillways were put in action for the first time in years, further heightening flood fears. Los Angeles Times

Do we need more dams? Columnist George Skelton weighs in: “You hear this every time there’s a drought or deluge in California: ‘Why haven’t they built more dams?’ Truth is, they’ve built a bunch. And they’re about done with it. Tally them up. There are more than 1,400 dams in the state. With epic rains, do we need more dams? And if so, where do we put them?” Los Angeles Times

Swept away, then saved: An 8-year-old boy describes being swept into the Santa Ana River before being rescued. “It was rushing madness,” the second-grader said. “It was intense.” Orange County Register

Weather, explained: How crazy has California’s weather been the last few years? Is it really unusual or part of a much larger pattern? BuzzFeed

Sickness amid evacuations: Officials are investigating a possible norovirus outbreak at an emergency evacuation shelter in Chico where residents fled during the Oroville Dam crisis. Sacramento Bee

Sign of the times: A sign the drought is really dead? The “glory hole,” an unusual spillway feature, has returned to Lake Berryessa. Mercury News

Blame game: Fact-checking claims about whether the Oroville Dam crisis was avoidable. Poltifact

L.A. STORIES

Sanctuary: The tiny town of Maywood southeast of downtown L.A. took much national drubbing years ago when it became one of the first “sanctuary cities.” Even some locals didn’t like it. But now, it’s just part of life. Los Angeles Times

Flashback: How different was L.A. in the 1970s? These glorious photos give you a sense of a smaller, smoggier city. LA Weekly

Fire this time: The latest fire at a troubled Torrance refinery has regulators demanding answers. Daily Breeze

POLITICS AND GOVERNMENT

Calexit: The strange type of populist rage fueling the California exit campaign. “People are begging California to leave. They want us to be gone, to fall into the ocean.” CBS News

Plus: How cozy is the Calexit leader’s ties to the Russian government? And should we be nervous? Washington Post

Sanders on Trump: Bernie Sanders, in Los Angeles, declares America an entirely new political world. “If we play by the old rules, we will lose and they will win. Our job is not to play by the old rules.” Los Angeles Times

CALIFORNIA CULTURE

A grim memorial: In a corner of Huntington Beach, some haunting memories of the days when the U.S. government rounded up Japanese Americans. Los Angeles Times

“La La Land” in real life: It’s not quite as pretty as the movie. Beyond a stretch of thrift stores and nail salons, in a small Panorama City house he shares with eight people, four dogs and a lot of crucifixes, John Geronilla is in the grip of a Hollywood daydream. A Filipino immigrant and aspiring filmmaker, he is bound for Chicago in the morning to work on a successful TV series. Los Angeles Times

Oscar disrupter: How Academy President Cheryl Boone Isaacs has shaken up the Oscars — and Hollywood — at a time of unprecedented upheaval in the film business. The New Yorker

Fish out of water: This video is one for the human behavioral archives: California residents try to dig out their cars from the snow (it doesn’t go very well). BuzzFeed

That’s life: The once legendary Frank Sinatra golf classic is undergoing changes, and some in Palm Springs fear for its future. Desert Sun

CALIFORNIA ALMANAC

Bay Area and Sacramento: Rain Tuesday followed by cloudy skies. Los Angeles: Clouds Tuesday giving way to sun Wednesday. San Diego: Partly cloudy Tuesday and Wednesday. More weather is here.

AND FINALLY

Today’s California memory comes from Carlos Gutierrez:

“When I was a teenager growing up in San Francisco in the mid-’60s, one of my first jobs was delivering the newspaper in a route that included the house of none other than Grace Slick, of Jefferson Airplane fame. All I had to do was to make sure the paper was dropped in her doorway. Nonetheless, there were a few special occasions when I got to hand her the paper personally. Talk about a high for a young man who loved to listen to Jefferson Airplane music. It made my morning paper route much more bearable.”

If you have a memory or story about the Golden State, share it with us. Send us an email to let us know what you love or fondly remember about our state. (Please keep your story to 100 words.)

Please let us know what we can do to make this newsletter more useful to you. Send comments, complaints and ideas to Benjamin Oreskes and Shelby Grad. Also follow them on Twitter @boreskes and @shelbygrad.