Newsletter: Today: The Fault Under Our Stars

A new official map shows an earthquake fault zone runs through Beverly Hills’ renowned shopping district.

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The Fault Under Our Stars

Rodeo Drive is famous for its luxury brands catering to the rich and famous. It’s also home to a fault capable of producing a magnitude 7 earthquake, according to data from state geologists. The California Geological Survey’s final map has the Santa Monica fault zone cutting through the heart of the Westside, straddling or paralleling Santa Monica Boulevard through Century City and Westwood before heading due west, with segments running into Brentwood, Santa Monica and Pacific Palisades.

Sessions’ Session — and Those Missing Text Messages

President Trump says he is “not at all concerned” that the special counsel’s office questioned Atty. Gen. Jeff Sessions for several hours last week. Sessions is the first known member of the president’s Cabinet to be interviewed in the criminal inquiry of Russian election interference, and it’s expected Robert S. Mueller III will seek an interview with Trump in the coming weeks. Meanwhile, there’s the matter of those missing text messages between Peter Strzok, a senior FBI agent, and Lisa Page, an FBI lawyer, who had initially worked on the special counsel’s team and reportedly were in a romantic relationship. Some of Trump’s allies are suggesting it’s a coverup. Oddly enough, Strzok apparently was not enthusiastic about the Russia investigation, based on one of the existent texts.

More Politics

-- Vice President Mike Pence has developed a formula for survival: Praise Trump and act as a pincushion for angry allies.

-- Congress for years has been unable to agree on immigration reform. In 2013, an ambitious bipartisan deal collapsed. Can they finally get it done?

-- The Senate overwhelmingly voted to confirm Jerome H. Powell as the next chairman of the Federal Reserve, allowing him to succeed Janet L. Yellen next month.

A Day of Reckoning for a Gymnastics Doctor

The number is unimaginable: nearly 200 girls and women, mostly athletes, molested over two decades. Even more unimaginable is the pain inflicted by Larry Nassar, a USA Gymnastics and Michigan State University physician, who pleaded guilty to 10 sexual assault charges for which he will be sentenced today. He’s already facing 60 years in prison on child pornography charges. Columnist Bill Plaschke looks at the case and says it particularly hits home for any parent of a young athlete.

The Oscars Are Woke? Get Out!

The Academy Award nominations have long been about more than just which film got the most nominations, but this year was particularly fraught: How would they address past criticisms for a lack of diversity — and play out amid the #MeToo movement? As it turned out, Jordan Peele became the first African American to earn producer, director and writer nominations for a single film with the hit “Get Out”; Greta Gerwig became just the fifth woman recognized as a director for “Lady Bird”; and “Mudbound’s” Rachel Morrison is the first female cinematographer nominated in the awards’ 90-year history. As columnist Glenn Whipp puts it, there were “a great many ‘it’s about time’ moments.”

More About the Oscar Nominations

-- “The Shape of Water” topped the heap with 13 nominations. Here’s the complete list of nominees.

-- Among the big snubs and surprises: Nothing for “Wonder Woman” or James Franco.

The Fantastic Ms. Le Guin

Ursula K. Le Guin wrote primarily science fiction and fantasy, but her books had real-life import — as did her personal notes to those who reached out to her. Le Guin, who has died at age 88, “was a supporting column of the genre, on equal footing and bearing equal weight to Verne or Wells or Heinlein or Bradbury,” writes Times Critic-at-Large John Scalzi. “Nearly every lover and creator of science fiction and fantasy can give you a story of how Le Guin, through her words or presence, has illuminated their lives. I am no exception.”

MUST-WATCH VIDEO

-- A structural engineer explains how to retrofit an older California home for earthquakes.

-- At the Sundance Film Festival, the makers of “Half the Picture” discuss women’s tenacious quest for visibility as directors.

CALIFORNIA

-- Prosecutors say David and Louise Turpin tortured their children and held them captive inside their Perris home, yet the 13 occasionally had contact with the outside world. Now several people are talking about their interactions with the family.

-- In the days before deadly mudslides devastated Montecito, Santa Barbara County officials released conflicting evacuation instructions that left some hard-hit neighborhoods out of the warning zone.

-- This 3D graphic breaks down the Thomas fire’s 40 days of destruction in Ventura and Santa Barbara counties.

-- A Monterey Park man was sentenced to five months in federal prison for smuggling king cobras into the U.S. hidden in potato chip cans.

HOLLYWOOD AND THE ARTS

-- Vlogger Franchesca Ramsey has gone from social media stardom to TV writing and now the Sundance Film Festival.

-- If you are a fan of Midcentury Modern houses, artist Catherine Opie’s film “The Modernist” will play like a horror movie.

-- The Broadway hit musical “Rock of Ages” will try to bring its big hair and Bon Jovi back to L.A.

CLASSIC HOLLYWOOD

He was born Ermes Effron Borgnino in Hamden, Conn., on this date in 1917. Audiences would come to know him as Ernest Borgnine, who portrayed “Fatso” Judson in the 1953 movie “From Here to Eternity,” won an Oscar as the star of 1955’s “Marty” and played the title role in the sitcom “McHale’s Navy” from 1962 to 1966. He died in 2012.

NATION-WORLD

-- A 15-year-old male student opened fire with a handgun inside a rural Kentucky high school, killing two classmates and injuring 17. It’s reportedly the 11th school shooting of the new year.

-- Authorities in Pakistan say they captured a man accused of raping and killing several children in the eastern district of Kasur.

-- An activist who fought back against illegal loggers has been found strangled on the side of a highway in Mexico.

-- Two U.S. Border Patrol agents who asked passengers aboard a Greyhound bus in Florida for proof of citizenship have sparked anger, but the practice has gone on for some time.

-- Why were female reporters penned behind four rows of their male colleagues when Pence visited Jerusalem’s Western Wall?

BUSINESS

-- Walt Disney Co. says it is giving $1,000 bonuses to 125,000 employees and spending $50 million to create a new higher education program for workers.

-- Tesla Inc. says Chief Executive Elon Musk’s compensation will depend on huge increases in its stock market value. If the stock hits none of the milestones, Musk would get nothing.

SPORTS

-- Figure skater Nathan Chen, who trains in Lakewood, knew at age 10 that he was aiming for the 2018 Olympics. That goal will soon be realized.

-- Do you think NFL offensive linemen are nothing but oversize human brutes? As Super Bowl LII approaches, we’re busting that myth and more.

OPINION

-- “It’s been hilarious to see the snowflake right triggered over moves by the state Legislature and cities like San Francisco and Maywood to create sanctuaries for immigrants,” writes columnist Gustavo Arellano. “And it ain’t over.”

-- Disappearing beaches, threatened ports and a toxic brew: California faces a cascade of catastrophes as the sea level rises.

WHAT OUR EDITORS ARE READING

-- In three decades, we’ll find out whether we can feed 10 billion people. (The Atlantic)

-- A professor suggests gig economy workers can take a page from romance novel writers’ success. (The Conversation)

-- “What do you really believe? Take the Truth-Demon Test.” (Aeon)

ONLY IN CALIFORNIA

If you’ve ever wished you’d come up with the names for the corpse flower or the naked man orchid, here’s your chance: An auction is being held to provide the scientific and common names for four species of mint, each discovered in a separate area of California. Bidding starts at $10,000. One rule: “No mean names attacking political leaders will be accepted.”

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