Newsletter: Today: The ‘Join or Else’ Push for ‘Repeal and Replace.’ SoCal Could Use a Giant Rain Barrel.
I’m Davan Maharaj, editor-in-chief of the Los Angeles Times. Here are some story lines I don’t want you to miss today.
TOP STORIES
The ‘Join or Else’ Push for ‘Repeal and Replace’
Republican leaders are fighting against the notion that their healthcare overhaul plan is already in critical condition, amid opposition from an unlikely alliance of the left, healthcare groups and factions of the right, including some Republican governors. House Speaker Paul Ryan insisted that President Trump was on his side and offered a choice: Join in or risk being blamed for breaking the GOP promise to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act. The X-factor: how aggressively Trump weighs in. Here are some of the key differences in the Republican plan and Obamacare, stacked up side by side.
More Politics
-- “Women are the backbone of this country”: Women across the nation skipped work, wore red and rallied on “A Day Without a Woman.”
-- The FBI has launched a criminal investigation into the breach that resulted in WikiLeaks’ publishing records about the CIA’s computer hacking operations, according to a U.S. official.
-- San Francisco asked a federal judge to block Trump’s order threatening to strip federal funds from so-called sanctuary cities.
Escape From Mosul: A Must-Watch Video
We often read about the desperation of families fleeing the destruction of Mosul as Iraqi forces try to reclaim the city from Islamic State. Seeing it on video adds another dimension. Times foreign correspondent Nabih Bulos narrowly escaped a mortar attack when he went inside a Mosul neighborhood to capture scenes that were filled with chaos and suspicion, but also tenderness and compassion.
In L.A., the Voting Is Over but the Debates Rage On
On Measure S, the L.A. ballot initiative to crack down on large-scale development projects, voters sent a clear message: More than two-thirds rejected it. But many of the business, political and labor leaders who opposed Measure S aren’t taking much of a victory lap, as L.A. still faces the underlying issue of how to build amid a housing crisis. Meanwhile, the battle over charter schools will also continue, as only one of the three L.A. school board races was decided and the other two go to a runoff in May.
SoCal Could Use a Giant Rain Barrel
The good news in the L.A. area this winter has been all the water many storms have brought. The bad news is all the water that has gone down the drain. From Jan. 18 to 31 alone, an estimated 25 billion gallons of stormwater flowed into the ocean from the L.A. River watershed. Cities are trying to figure out how to capture and use runoff to replenish local groundwater supplies. But there’s no single way to do that, and it isn’t cheap.
Question for Sports Parents: ‘Could This Be Me?’
This story began with an email: “I ruined my son’s HS sports career and almost his life — a cautionary tale,” read the subject line. It was from a man on the Westside whose tale is all too familiar, one of pushing his talented son too far. How did it happen? The family opened up to columnist Bill Plaschke. “If I can help one parent not make the same mistakes I made,” the father said, “then it’s been worth it.”
CALIFORNIA
-- An antiabortion provision in the House GOP healthcare plan could make it impossible for most Californians to take advantage of proposed tax credits meant to offset the cost of health insurance.
-- George Skelton: A state single-payer healthcare system? Nice idea, but it’s just California dreaming.
-- Homeless-services advocates in L.A. cautiously celebrated the apparent victory of Measure H, a quarter-cent sales tax increase that would fund housing and support. Plus: See if your neighborhood voted for it.
-- The California Highway Patrol asked prosecutors to charge 106 people in connection with clashes last summer between neo-Nazis and counter-protesters in Sacramento.
HOLLYWOOD AND THE ARTS
-- Troy Kotsur, star of twin Edward Albee plays opening at the Wallis, has built a stage, TV and film career turning American Sign Language into a visceral yet poetic art form.
-- The film “Kong: Skull Island” is poised for a $50-million opening as the studios behind it take a monster franchise gamble.
-- A clip from “Star Wars: The Last Jedi” reveals what happened right after that “Force Awakens” cliffhanger with Luke Skywalker.
-- In concert, the Red Hot Chili Peppers show they are still in love with L.A.
CLASSIC HOLLYWOOD
You might not know the name Fred Weintraub, but you know his work. He founded the New York folk and comedy club the Bitter End (with its famous brick wall backdrop), financed the documentary “Woodstock” and signed a young martial artist, Bruce Lee, to star in “Enter the Dragon.” Take a look back at Weintraub, who has died at age 88.
NATION-WORLD
-- U.S. immigration and Justice Department attorneys denied that federal officers erased or changed a statement written by a Seattle “Dreamer” fighting to avoid deportation.
-- A Marine and a former Marine, both women, said photographs taken of them were secretly posted online without their consent, the latest turn in a scandal rocking the Corps.
-- In Belarus, there’s a rising fear: Will we be the next Ukraine?
-- Yellow fever has broken out in the jungles outside Brazil’s most densely populated cities, raising the frightening but still remote possibility of an epidemic.
-- French police are on the hunt for poachers who killed a white rhino in a zoo outside Paris.
BUSINESS
-- Walt Disney Co.’s annual meeting took a political turn as Chief Executive Robert Iger faced calls to step down from Trump’s business policy forum.
-- Here’s why there is a statue of a fearless girl facing Wall Street’s “Charging Bull.”
SPORTS
-- Chargers Chairman Dean Spanos’ decision to move the team to L.A. is the biggest he’ll ever make and one he won’t escape, given that he’s now “the most hated man” in San Diego.
-- Roger Federer still feels as if he’s on the comeback trail.
OPINION
-- Erin Aubry Kaplan writes that, for many black Americans, Trump is “a vivid, daily unnerving expression of the America we hoped we’d left behind.”
-- American adults have long told teenagers to “just be yourself,” but not when it comes to online behavior.
WHAT OUR EDITORS ARE READING
-- To call or not call the police? For many in the black community, it’s not a simple question. (Politico Magazine)
-- What is the best country in which to live? Survey says … Switzerland. And the United States isn’t even in the top 5. (U.S. News & World Report)
-- This one is for the birds: A guide to ornithology eventually led to today’s Pantone color system. (Hyperallergic)
ONLY IN L.A.
Joe Spano plays an FBI special agent on “NCIS” and was a cop on “Hill Street Blues,” but every Friday he lays down the law on where to find wildflowers in Southern California. He’s the voice of the Wild Flower Hotline hosted by the Theodore Payne Foundation in Sun Valley. “I love it, it’s such an adorable thing to do,” he says. “It’s not like being on ‘The Wire’ or ‘NCIS.’ We’re not dealing with global catastrophes.”
Please send comments and ideas to Davan Maharaj.
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