Today’s Headlines: Fires, homelessness and a growing crisis

Fires at Los Angeles homeless encampments have increased dramatically, according to Fire Department statistics.

TOP STORIES

Fires, Homelessness and a Growing Crisis

As the number of tents, makeshift shelters and campers on Los Angeles streets has surged, so has the scourge of fire. In the three years since the Los Angeles Fire Department began classifying them, fires related to homelessness have nearly tripled. In the first quarter of 2021, they occurred at a rate of 24 a day, making up 54% of all fires the department responded to.

Many of the fires are limited to dumpsters and piles of trash, and the most common outcome is the destruction of tents or other shelter. A few have been costly and tragic. Seven homeless people died in fires in 2020. Fires starting in camps lined beside businesses have caused tens of millions of dollars in damage, according to the Fire Department.

The epidemic of fires is largely attributable to the built-in conditions for combustion in street camps — cooking stoves and campfires in close proximity to tent fabric and piles of other flammable material. But as this Times story, an exclusive to subscribers, explains, social stress is also a factor: A third of the 15,610 fires related to homelessness in the past 3 ¼ years were classified as arson; some of those were attacks on homeless camps perpetrated by other homeless people or outsiders.

A Slide Toward All-Out Combat

Intensifying violence in Israel and the Gaza Strip has threatened to tip into outright warfare as punishing Israeli airstrikes battered the Palestinian enclave and Israel counted its first fatalities when Hamas rockets struck coastal cities and sent Tel Aviv residents scrambling into air-raid shelters.

Hundreds of rockets and interceptor strikes lighted up the night sky over Israel and Gaza. Flames leaped from blast sites, including a major Israeli oil pipeline and a bus that was hit in a city south of Tel Aviv.

All across Gaza, acrid smoke plumes from aerial bombardment rose skyward as at least one high-rise building was toppled and the dead, including children, were carried through the streets.

Adding to the sense of barreling momentum toward war, Israel’s main international airport shut down, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned that the strikes against Palestinian militants would grow in force and numbers. Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh laid the blame on Israel for wielding a heavy hand in quelling weeks of unrest in Jerusalem, where protests erupted over the planned eviction of Palestinian families in the city’s traditionally Arab eastern sector.

Meanwhile, President Biden is facing the violence equipped with fewer options to deescalate tensions than at any time in recent history, after four years of former President Trump’s refusal to condemn or even mildly critique any Israeli act.

The Limits of Bipartisanship

Back at home, Biden will hold his first formal meeting with Congress’ “Big Four” leaders, two from each party, today.

The White House is billing it as an opportunity to talk about where Democrats and Republicans can find “common ground” on the country’s most pressing issues. But the early signs for cooperation with the GOP aren’t good.

Last week, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said he was “100%” focused on stopping Biden’s agenda. And just hours before today’s meeting, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy is expected to lead the expulsion of Rep. Liz Cheney from the Republican caucus’ leadership because she has publicly condemned former President Trump for his lies that he won last year’s election. On Tuesday night, Cheney accused Trump and his GOP supporters of following a path that would “undermine our democracy.”

More Politics

— Christopher Miller, Trump’s acting Defense secretary, plans to tell Congress today he was concerned that sending troops to the Capitol on Jan. 6 would fuel fears of a military coup, according to his prepared remarks.

— After criticism, aides to Rep. Michelle Steel of Orange County are downplaying her recent apology to GOP supporters for working with Democratic Rep. Katie Porter on a resolution condemning attacks on Asian Americans, saying she was joking.

— A new poll finds Vice President Kamala Harris has held onto a strong base of support in California, with voters there by more than 2 to 1 saying she is “playing a significant role” in the administration and a majority seeing her as capable of stepping into the presidency if needed.

For more news and analysis, sign up for our Essential Politics newsletter, sent to your inbox three days a week.

A Feeling of Helplessness

India has become the latest epicenter of the coronavirus worldwide, as overwhelmed hospitals there deplete supplies of beds, high-flow oxygen and necessary medicines.

The dire situation has been particularly hard to watch for the large number of Indian American healthcare workers who spent the past year battling the pandemic in their adopted country. The American healthcare system relies disproportionately on Indian doctors, with 1 out of 10 physicians in the U.S. identifying as Indian — the majority of whom were born in India, according to census data.

Some say they have considered packing their bags to go help, but are unsure how much assistance they could provide and how safe it would be. The CDC is currently advising against travel to India and warns that even fully vaccinated people could become infected due to variants.

Instead, many Indian American doctors are holding webinars to provide advice to physicians in India, drawing on their expertise treating COVID-19 patients in the U.S. over the past year. Some are also raising money to send supplies.

More Top Coronavirus Headlines

— California’s battle against the coronavirus has progressed so rapidly in the last few months that many experts are optimistic that the state has experienced the worst of the pandemic and that another disastrous wave is unlikely as vaccinations increase and case rates keep plunging.

— Orange County is nearing the least restrictive yellow tier in the state’s reopening blueprint, but hundreds of protesters gathered to blast the Board of Supervisors for a proposal to create “vaccine passports,” or digital records that document COVID-19 vaccination status.

— Fewer Americans are reluctant to get a COVID-19 vaccine than just a few months ago, but questions about side effects and how the shots were tested still hold some back, according to a new poll.

FROM THE ARCHIVES

For decades, Bunker Hill was known for opulent Victorian mansions. But as Los Angeles grew, the neighborhood transitioned into a working-class one. By the late 1950s, the area had fallen into disrepair, a casualty of neglect and policies aimed at clearing the area for redevelopment.

On May 12, 1966, a Times photographer captured a photo that showed the contrast between the old Bunker Hill and the new buildings Los Angeles officials championed. The area is now part of downtown Los Angeles and includes major developments such as Walt Disney Concert Hall.

May 12, 1966: The skeleton of the 40-story Union Bank Square building rises over Bunker Hill Victorians in downtown Los Angeles.

(John Malmin / Los Angeles Times)

CALIFORNIA

— In what was lauded as the single biggest investment any state has ever made to address homelessness, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced a $12-billion proposal to create affordable housing, increase mental health services and fund other programs to get people off the street.

— A Stockton police officer responding to a domestic disturbance call was fatally shot, the second California officer to be killed in the line of duty in 24 hours.

— A brush fire that broke out in the Cajon Pass burned about 11 acres, threatening nearby utility lines and forcing road closures.

— On the heels of one rare gray wolf’s epic journey into California, another has arrived.

NATION-WORLD

— Dozens of Dreamers are suing the Biden administration in an effort to clear hurdles that have kept people spared from deportation under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program from gaining the ultimate prize: citizenship.

— A Georgia prosecutor is seeking hate-crime charges and the death penalty against the man accused of killing eight people, most of them Asian women, in the Atlanta-area spa shootings.

— A federal judge dismissed the National Rifle Assn.’s bankruptcy case, leaving the powerful gun-rights group to face a New York state lawsuit that accuses it of financial abuses and aims to put it out of business.

HOLLYWOOD AND THE ARTS

— The Hollywood Bowl is back after an 18-month COVID-19 closure. The Los Angeles Philharmonic and conductor Gustavo Dudamel will start off the just-announced season. Most of the Bowl will be reserved for ticket buyers with proof of vaccination.

— The Golden Globes are gone. Does the entertainment industry need a replacement? And is replacing them even possible?

— Crowds in lobbies, epic bathroom lines — even before the pandemic, the theater intermission was starting to feel like a relic, our critic says. He hopes it’s now gone for good.

— Norman Lloyd, who was generally considered to be the world’s oldest living film actor, has died at age 106.

BUSINESS

— That “infrastructure” fee on some internet bills? Yeah, that’s just a stealth rate hike, columnist David Lazarus says.

— A major fuel pipeline supplying the East Coast shut down recently after a ransomware attack, revealing the little-known dangers of cyber ransoms.

SPORTS

— Major League Baseball wants the Oakland Athletics to consider leaving Oakland, the latest twist in their decades-long search for a new ballpark.

— Trainer Bob Baffert says Kentucky Derby winner Medina Spirit failed a drug test because of a skin ointment. He is insistent that the horse was never treated with the drug he’d tested positive for, an anti-inflammatory.

OPINION

— Leaf blowers and lawn mowers are smog machines. It’s time for California regulators to act, and for a move to battery-powered options, The Times’ editorial board writes.

— There is a strategic way to fix the student debt disaster, and it’s not a $50,000 bailout per student, the board also says.

WHAT OUR EDITORS ARE READING

— Inside Pictet, Switzerland’s preeminent private bank for the ultra-wealthy. (Bloomberg)

— These gross viral food videos (table-top nachos, anyone?) can can be traced back to magician Rick Lax. (Eater)

ONLY IN L.A.

This weekend, after a yearlong delay created by COVID-19, the late Kobe Bryant will be inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. But in his early days in Los Angeles, the 17-year-old Bryant was still very much in the shadow of Shaquille O’Neal. “The first story I ever wrote about Kobe, a game story, it was really about Shaq. That whole season, 1996-97, was about Shaq. Kobe was just this kid,” says Times columnist Bill Plaschke. Likewise, staff writer Broderick Turner remembers his first time seeing Bryant: “It’s July and he’s in the Summer League and he’s doing all these incredible things and the place was packed. But we were still asking, ‘Where’s Shaq?’ when the game was over.” Here’s more from their conversation about Bryant’s early days.

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