Today: Boiling Over at the Border

Nov. 26, 2018 5 AM PT

An incident at the border in Tijuana adds more fuel to the immigration debate.

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Boiling Over at the Border

An onrush of migrants. Clouds of tear gas. Tensions in Tijuana boiled over Sunday at the U.S. border, providing a moment that was a kind of political Rorschach test. For the Trump administration and those who support the president’s hard-line stance on illegal immigration, the chaos illustrated what they long have feared. For others, the images of the Border Patrol using tear gas on a group of migrants that included children were deeply disturbing. The skirmish led the U.S. government to shut down the San Ysidro Port of Entry, one of the world’s busiest international crossings, for more than four hours. Before the incident, President Trump had threatened to close the border with Mexico and has been pushing for asylum seekers to stay in Mexico while awaiting their cases.

More Politics

-- The U.N. Security Council will hold an emergency meeting today after Ukraine says Russia’s coast guard opened fire on and seized three of Ukraine’s vessels, wounding two crew members. Trump is scheduled to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Group of 20 summit this week.

-- Trump is planning to visit Mississippi for two rallies today in support of Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith, who is in a runoff Tuesday against Democrat Mike Espy.

-- A federal judge ordered former Trump campaign foreign policy advisor George Papadopoulos to report to prison today to start his two-week term.

A Childhood in Poverty’s Grip

California is home to the world’s fifth-largest economy, yet when the cost of living is factored in, its poverty rate leads the U.S. Much of that poverty is hidden in plain sight, such as at Telfair Elementary in Pacoima, where nearly a quarter of the students last year were classified as homeless. Columnist Steve Lopez and photographer Francine Orr visited the community to find out more. The first installment of their four-part series on child poverty, published this weekend, profiles a mother and her four kids as they move from motel to motel. And in today’s Part 2, Telfair’s principal tells his own story of growing up while living in a garage.

The Growing Threats of Climate Change

The National Climate Assessment has an innocuous-sounding name and was released on the Friday after Thanksgiving, but the report from 13 federal agencies has a dire message: Climate change is taking a toll on our health, economy and environment, and unless we cut greenhouse gas emissions, it’s going to get worse. Much worse. As in rising sea levels, worsening wildfires, more intense storms, an increase in disease and death, and large economic losses.

Of Loss and Survivor’s Guilt

More than two weeks after the Camp fire broke out in Butte County, killing at least 85 people and destroying 14,000 houses, it has been 100% contained. In the fire’s aftermath, a massive cleanup awaits, and a second disaster is unfolding: Surrounding towns are struggling to absorb roughly 50,000 displaced people. While many of them lost their homes to the flames, some are going through a different kind of loss — one in which their homes are intact but their community is gone. For them, “survivor’s guilt” is another challenge they could not have imagined before the flames broke out.

Will It Satisfy the Euroskeptics?

The terms of Britain’s “Brexit” divorce deal with the European Union are 600 pages long and represent 20 months of negotiations, but in the end, it took only one hour for EU leaders to agree to them. Now comes another big hurdle for British Prime Minister Theresa May: persuading Parliament to sign off. Though May and European leaders say it’s the best deal possible, the Euroskeptics say it could be improved upon for Britain.

Mission to Mars

If everything goes as planned, NASA’s Mars InSight lander will touch down around noon today on a vast expanses of ancient lava a few hundred miles north of where the Curiosity rover landed in 2012. Its mission: to explore the planet’s interior, including taking its temperature and monitoring seismic activity. A successful landing would represent the end of a seven-month journey on a trajectory that’s been tweaked constantly at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in La Cañada Flintridge. Think of it as a game of interplanetary curling.

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OUR MUST-READS FROM THE WEEKEND

-- A man claims he’s killed at least 90 people across the U.S., including 20 women in Los Angeles. It’s up to police to find the truth.

-- Jennifer Siebel Newsom will be California’s “first partner.” Her agenda is cultural change.

-- A lack of affordable housing in California’s cities has opened the door for businesses to make it easier to find roommates and other “co-living” arrangements.

-- In Cleveland’s Severance Hall, classical music is king (and ancient Egypt meets the Jazz Age).

CALIFORNIA

-- The California Democratic Party has launched an investigation into unspecified allegations of sexual misconduct against Chairman Eric Bauman involving party staff members.

-- After the Borderline Bar and Grill mass shooting and a deadly fire, Ventura County Supervisor Linda Parks wonders “if another shoe is going to drop.”

-- Rain is helping firefighters battling fire in Northern California, but a new storm could bring dangers.

HOLLYWOOD AND THE ARTS

-- Director Barry Jenkins says it’s about time Hollywood pays attention to novels by black authors. His adaptation of ‘“If Beale Street Could Talk” is a start.

-- Film critic Justin Chang remembers the late Nicolas Roeg, the director of “Don’t Look Now,” as a darkly sensual poet of the screen.

-- The L.A. Times series “Dirty John” hooked readers and podcast listeners, but can it seduce TV viewers?

-- A ranking of this year’s essential Christmas albums, from “Shatner Claus” to the irresistible JD McPherson.

NATION-WORLD

-- A winter storm blanketed much of the central Midwest with snow at the end of the Thanksgiving weekend, grounding hundreds of flights and closing major highways on one of the busiest travel days of the year.

-- Access to a treasured trail in Utah’s Zion National Park is at stake in a dispute between a private property owner and the federal government.

-- The Grand Egyptian Museum in Giza will be just that — especially in size, cost and ambition.

BUSINESS

-- The future of Wells Fargo & Co. Chief Executive Tim Sloan is in question more than two years after the bank said it had created perhaps millions of unauthorized customer accounts.

-- Fox News is launching a streaming service called Fox Nation, with the tagline “Opinion Done Right.”

SPORTS

-- USC athletic director Lynn Swann says football coach Clay Helton will be back next season. USC fans and alumni have been calling for Helton’s ouster. Columnist Bill Plaschke says Swann is out of touch.

-- In the Chargers’ 45-10 victory over the Arizona Cardinals, quarterback Philip Rivers set a record for completing passes at the start of a game, while running back Melvin Gordon suffered a knee injury.

OPINION

-- Another case about a memorial cross could undermine our separation of church and state.

-- “I resigned from the Department of Justice because of Trump’s campaign against immigration judges.”

WHAT OUR EDITORS ARE READING

-- The quiet man: A look at special counsel Robert S. Mueller III as the urgency around the Russia investigation grows. (The Guardian)

-- How hospitals are trying to stop shootings and other forms of violence. (Huffington Post)

-- An in-depth 1993 profile of Ricky Jay, the magician and actor who died at age 72 over the weekend. (The New Yorker)

ONLY IN L.A.

Kevin Anderson, Jason Pratts and Max Roper went to middle school in West Hills together, and in 2011, they decided to relive the good old days by going to a Lakers game. The next thing you know, the good old days turned into a bright new future: They created an app called Appetize to order food and have it delivered to your seat at a sporting event. Here’s how they went from three guys sharing a Santa Monica apartment to a 300-employee start-up.

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