Newsletter: Today: In Mexico, Hope and Despair Amid the Rubble

After Mexico’s deadly earthquake, rescuers and ordinary people banded together to look for survivors as others mourned the everyday lives that ended. Here are the stories you shouldn’t miss:

TOP STORIES

In Mexico, Hope and Despair Amid the Rubble

The scenes played out all across central Mexico: Rescuers and volunteers desperately searched the rubble for survivors after Tuesday’s violent earthquake. The tensest moments came when the crowd was hushed to listen for signs of life. The most joyous, when someone was pulled from the wreckage alive. The most heart-wrenching, when bodies were found, such as at a Mexico City school where more than 20 children died — and at a small-town church near the epicenter, where a baptism for a 3-month-old girl turned into a funeral Mass for her, her sister, her mother and eight other people.

Rescue workers ask for silence to listen for signs of survivors underneath the rubble of a six-story residential building in Mexico City.

(Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times)

A Lesson for Those in Quake Country

It was a widespread belief in Mexico City: If your house or apartment building was still standing after the massive Sept. 19, 1985, earthquake, it would make it through the next big one. But as many found out this week, the theory was wrong. That’s because every quake is different and every building responds differently. This time, short, older structures that fared well 32 years ago were especially vulnerable. Here’s the lesson for everyone living in earthquake country.

The Latest GOP Healthcare Bill: Do the Math

Top Republicans say they won’t wait for the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office’s full analysis of their latest plan to roll back the Affordable Care Act, but a number of independent studies are filling the breach before next week’s vote. Their conclusion: The so-called Graham-Cassidy bill will probably leave millions more Americans without health insurance and strip benefits and protections from millions of others. California would be among the hardest hit. Meanwhile, some of the nation’s biggest health insurers have joined the chorus of those against the plan, as have New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and former President Obama. Columnist Michael Hiltzik says these three charts show the bad news.

More Politics

-- California Atty. Gen. Xavier Becerra filed a lawsuit alleging that President Trump’s proposal to expedite construction of a wall at the U.S.-Mexico border violates laws aimed at protecting the environment.

-- Trump says, “I have decided” what to do with the Iran deal. What’s that? He won’t say.

-- If Japan has any qualms about Trump’s confrontational rhetoric toward North Korea, its leader isn’t letting on.

Mueller Wants White House Documents. A Big Nothingburger?

Is it a sign of a widening inquiry or simply a routine request? President Trump’s attorney John Dowd confirmed that special counsel Robert S. Mueller III has sought a variety of documents related to Trump’s tenure in the White House. The requests reportedly relate to more than a dozen areas, including Trump’s Oval Office meeting with Russian diplomats the day after he fired FBI Director James B. Comey. “It’s just a routine inquiry by Bob,” Dowd says. Meanwhile, it was revealed that Trump campaign Chairman Paul Manafort said he was willing to provide “private briefings” about the campaign to a Russian billionaire the U.S. government considers close to Vladimir Putin.

Hurricane Maria Knocks Out the Power in Puerto Rico

Last week, Puerto Rico sustained damage but escaped a direct hit from Hurricane Irma. This week, Hurricane Maria left a historic trail of destruction with its 155-mph winds and high waters. Irma had already damaged the power grid, and Maria left the entire island without electricity. The prospects of recovery will be made even more difficult by Puerto Rico’s ongoing debt struggles.

MUST-WATCH VIDEO

-- Hurricane Maria arrives in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

-- Atty. Gen. Xavier Becerra announces the lawsuit over Trump’s proposed border wall.

-- The furor over Darren Aronofsky’s polarizing film “mother!”

CALIFORNIA

-- L.A. County education officials are looking into a small public school district that has been enrolling Catholic school students.

-- An L.A. County probation officer pleaded guilty to two counts of assault after he was accused of sexually abusing several female inmates at a Santa Clarita juvenile hall.

-- The Los Angeles city attorney’s office is looking to turn down the volume on two Hollywood Hills homes reportedly known for loud, late-night parties.

-- A Sacramento teen’s good deed on video goes viral.

HOLLYWOOD AND THE ARTS

-- Lady Gaga wants you to feel her pain in the Netflix documentary “Five Foot Two.”

-- “First They Killed My Father,” a child’s-eye view of the horrors of the Khmer Rouge regime in Cambodia, is perhaps the most personal film Angelina Jolie has made.

-- A look back at when downtown L.A. was “the undisputed capital of Latin American cinema culture in the United States.”

-- The mystery of an artist only deepens: the remarkable drawings of Martín Ramírez.

CLASSIC HOLLYWOOD

Bill Murray, who was born on this date 67 years ago in Evanston, Ill., has a reputation for leading a life full of random adventures. As Times fashion reporter Adam Tschorn discovered earlier this year, the William Murray Golf clothing line has its unexpected delights too, with fabric patterns loaded with inside jokes and references to his films.

NATION-WORLD

-- Iran called Trump’s comments at the United Nations “ignorant, hateful and absurd rhetoric” and challenged his threats to tear up the 2015 nuclear deal with Tehran.

-- Oklahoma City police who fatally shot a man outside his home as he approached them holding a metal pipe didn’t hear witnesses yelling that he was deaf, an official says.

-- A new study says more than 1 million migrants in Europe are in limbo, still waiting for final decisions on their asylum applications.

-- Spain’s central government has moved to stop preparations for an independence referendum in its Catalonia region, sparking protests.

-- After one failed election, can Kenyans come together to make the redo succeed?

BUSINESS

-- Can you make meat without an animal? Hampton Creek is betting its future on it.

-- QExit: The Federal Reserve will start reducing the trillions of dollars in bonds it bought to stimulate the economy, a measure Chairwoman Janet L. Yellen is still defending.

SPORTS

-- Many know Jake LaMotta, who died at age 95, only from the movie “Raging Bull.” Here is the boxer’s real story.

-- This time, the Dodgers’ bullpen imploded in a 7-5 loss to the Philadelphia Phillies.

OPINION

-- For Southern California, the time to act on earthquake preparedness, including retrofitting standards and an early-warning system, is now.

-- There are three types of single-payer “concern trolls,” and they all want to undermine universal healthcare.

WHAT OUR EDITORS ARE READING

-- Why is Congress holding its Russia investigation behind closed doors so much? (The New Yorker)

-- Photos along the U.S.-Mexico border show the many forms of the current wall. (National Geographic)

-- A look back at Sep. 7, 1945, when the first Rosh Hashanah service since 1938 was held in a Berlin synagogue after the fall of the Nazis. (Time)

ONLY IN CALIFORNIA

Laguna Beach has a knotty problem: What to do with a 135-year-old pepper tree in front of City Hall before it comes crashing down? The cost to cut the aging tree, which is held together in part by concrete and foam, is $3,700. The cost to replace it with a mature tree: $53,500. But the City Council is investigating a third option: cloning the beloved tree, to the tune of up to $13,000.

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