Newsletter: Essential California: Behind a $13 shirt, a $6-an-hour worker

Good morning, and welcome to the Essential California newsletter. It’s Friday, Sept. 1, and here’s what’s happening across California:

TOP STORIES

How clothes can be so cheap

Even as clothing manufacturing has mostly moved overseas, Los Angeles still has a sizable garment industry. When factories underpay workers to sew their clothes, Forever 21 and other retailers avoid liability. Instead, those sewing factories and wholesale manufacturers have paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to settle workers’ claims. Forever 21 has not had to pay a cent. Here’s why. Los Angeles Times

Plus: Los Angeles Apparel’s Dov Charney, who previously founded American Apparel, explains why producing its clothes in its own L.A. factory can be profitable and better for his creative process. Los Angeles Times

Sex-trafficking website battle heats up in Silicon Valley

The tech industry’s so-called “Backpage” problem has evolved into a political crisis. An unexpectedly large coalition of lawmakers is aiming to hold sex sites liable for trafficking, sparking panic in Silicon Valley over the consequences for the wider Internet. The battle is forging unusual alliances in Washington. And caught in the middle are some of the most influential lawmakers in California. They find themselves struggling to reconcile a sex trafficking scourge that has hit their state with a remedy that Silicon Valley cautions would be a disaster for a free and open Internet. Los Angeles Times

More trouble for Wells Fargo

Wells Fargo & Co. said Thursday that it may have created as many as 3.5 million checking, savings and credit card accounts without customers’ authorization over the last eight years — a number that is similar to an estimate in a class-action case but one that far exceeds the bank’s initial accounting of its sham-accounts scandal. The question of just how many unauthorized accounts were created has loomed over the San Francisco institution since it agreed to pay $185 million to regulators after acknowledging the existence of as many as 2.1 million such accounts opened over a four-year period that ended in mid-2015. Los Angeles Times

L.A. STORIES

It’s a scorcher: As a blistering heat wave gripped California this week, firefighters statewide tackled massive wildfires that forced thousands of people to flee their homes. Los Angeles Times

Plus: The stifling heat, along with scattered thunderstorms, continued to cause problems in Southern California, as heavy power demands and lightning strikes cut electricity to thousands. Los Angeles Times

Images sought: Photos and videos showing Dr. Carmen Puliafito, the former head of the USC medical school, partying with a group of younger people are now being sought by investigators for USC and the Medical Board of California. Both organizations are probing reports in The Times of Puliafito’s drug use while he ran the Keck School of Medicine. Los Angeles Times

As seen in “La La Land”: Los Angeles’ beleaguered Angels Flight has reopened after years of inactivity. The funicular, or cable railway built on an incline, has a storied past. It has moved locations, closed after accidents and was recently featured in the film “La La Land.” Los Angeles Times

Watch: Check out the landmark in action. Los Angeles Times

Another chapter: A federal appeals court on Thursday denied former Los Angeles County Undersheriff Paul Tanaka’s bid for a new trial, rejecting Tanaka’s claims that his conviction on obstruction of justice charges was unjust. Los Angeles Times

IMMIGRATION AND THE BORDER

To end or not to end DACA: White House aides said President Trump is still reviewing whether to end the Obama-era program that has protected from deportation more than 750,000 people brought to the country illegally as children. Los Angeles Times

POLITICS AND GOVERNMENT

How to spend it: Gov. Jerry Brown unveiled his plan for spending cap-and-trade revenue, prioritizing cleaner vehicles and improving air quality. Los Angeles Times

Plus: The governor is heading to eastern Russia on Sunday and plans to push climate change to the forefront of the conversation with regional and world leaders at the Eastern Economic Forum. Sacramento Bee

What a coincidence: Lawmakers aren’t supposed to use state funds for campaign mail. But Assembly spending data show their spending on mail to constituents is typically higher during election years, and that those with the highest tabs are usually in the most competitive races. Associated Press

Progress! Democrats are about to achieve one of their top priorities for this legislative session: passing bills to confront California’s affordable housing shortage. Los Angeles Times

Donations: A Chinese food restaurant in Santa Cruz has closed “perhaps permanently, in the face of a boycott and heated online backlash against the owner’s 2016 political donations.” Santa Cruz Sentinel

Milo may be on the way: Cal State Fullerton’s chapter of the College Republicans is finalizing plans to host conservative lightning rod Milo Yiannopoulos at a Halloween speaking engagement. Los Angeles Times

CRIME AND COURTS

Locked up: A suspected gang member was arrested Thursday in connection with an assault that left a San Pedro teenager hospitalized and comatose earlier this year, authorities said. Los Angeles Times

In Orange County: Santa Ana police arrested a 34-year-old part-time high school wrestling coach Tuesday night on suspicion of having sex with a 17-year-old female student on campus and during school hours over the course of several months. Los Angeles Times

What were they thinking? Two brothers have been arrested on suspicion of burglary and felony vandalism after breaking into an Orange County mega-church Wednesday night with a replica rifle and a smoke bomb. One of the men was naked, while the other was wearing only underwear, authorities said. Los Angeles Times

CALIFORNIA CULTURE

Hard work: For $2 an hour, these women emerge from prison to help fight California’s wildfires. New York Times

Music story: The amazing backstory of the Rolling Stones’ “Exile on Main Street” and the connections to L.A.’s Westside. LA Weekly

A legend is honored: A section of Interstate 5 in the northeast San Fernando Valley will be named after rock ’n’ roller Ritchie Valens, who grew up in the area and had a stellar career before he died in a plane crash. Los Angeles Times

Changing of the guard: Rob Eshman, longtime editor-in-chief and publisher of the Jewish Journal, has announced he will be leaving his position on Sept. 26. Jewish Journal

CALIFORNIA ALMANAC

Los Angeles: sunny and 100. San Diego: sunny and 89. San Francisco: sunny and 93. Sacramento: sunny and 111. More weather is here.

AND FINALLY

Today’s California memory comes from Sylvia Elrod:

“I was born in Riverside and lived there my first 18 years. I was brought up surrounded by orange groves and a train whistle in the evenings. I remember when it would get cold, they would burn the smudge pots to keep the citrus safe. We were not well off, but I remember good times. In the summers we would go to the parks, Lake Elsinore and even the Santa Ana River. It was a safe place to grow up then, and I had a lot of family back then to visit. How times and things have changed, some good, some bad.”

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.