Today’s Headlines: Brief taste of fall coming to an abrupt end

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Temperatures expected to go up 10 to 20 degrees

Southern California’s brief taste of fall is coming to a scorching halt.

Temperatures across the region are expected to soar 10 to 20 degrees this week as dry Santa Ana winds blow in, elevating fire risk — a stark turnaround from cooler conditions earlier in the week.

Some fear boosters will hurt drive to reach the unvaccinated

The spread of COVID-19 vaccination requirements across the U.S. hasn’t yet had the desired effect, with the number of Americans getting their first shots plunging in recent weeks. And some experts worry that the move to dispense boosters could just make matters worse.

The fear is that the rollout of booster shots will lead some people to question the effectiveness of the vaccine in the first place.

More coronavirus headlines

— Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, California and Florida have stood as polar opposites in how government should respond to the coronavirus. But with the Delta variant raging this summer, data show Florida has fallen significantly behind California in many key metrics.

— How worried should you be about the R.1 coronavirus variant? “It died out already.”

— A sweeping new ordinance that would require people to show proof of vaccination to go inside restaurants, movie theaters, hair and nail salons and a range of other indoor venues in L.A. was set to be voted on Wednesday by the City Council. But after an hour of discussion, the council put off the vote.

For more COVID-19 news, sign up for Coronavirus Today, a special edition of The Times’ Health and Science newsletter.

Britney Spears’ father suspended as conservator of her estate

A Los Angeles judge has ordered the suspension of Jamie Spears, father of Britney Spears, as conservator of the pop musician’s estate, which he has controlled for 13 years.

Judge Brenda J. Penny delivered her decision in Spears’ turbulent conservatorship case Wednesday afternoon at the Stanley Mosk Courthouse in downtown L.A., where hordes of impassioned #FreeBritney demonstrators gathered to support the pop sensation.

Olympic swimmer from USC pleads guilty in Capitol riot

Klete Keller, the five-time Olympic swimming medalist from USC, agreed to a plea bargain Wednesday after facing seven federal charges for participating in the U.S. Capitol riot.

During a hearing in U.S. District Court in Washington, Keller pleaded guilty to a felony count of obstruction of an official proceeding.

Bass’ run for L.A. mayor will ripple through D.C.

Rep. Karen Bass’ (D-Los Angeles) formal announcement Monday that she was running for mayor shook up the race to lead California’s largest city. But it will also have consequences back in Washington, where Bass has represented her Los Angeles district since 2011.

We look at four ways her entrance into the mayor’s race may affect the nation’s capital, including that the chances have dimmed that the next House Democratic leader will be a Black woman.

More politics

— Vice President Kamala Harris sees solutions to the migration crisis in coffee beans, credit cards and Wi-Fi. The plan is premised on enlisting government and private companies to address economic issues in Central America.

— The Senate parliamentarian dealt a second blow to immigration advocates who were hoping to secure a path to citizenship in the Democrats’ social spending bill, ruling Wednesday that a second policy proposal would not comply with Senate rules.

— The head of the U.S. Forest Service told lawmakers Wednesday that things must change. A combination of low pay, competition from state and local fire departments, and exhaustion from longer and more destructive fire seasons has left federal agencies scrambling to fill firefighter positions.

— The L.A. City Council Redistricting Commission is facing multiple contentious issues amid the hugely significant redistricting process, and must submit a map to the council by the end of October.

Sign up for our California Politics newsletter to get the best of The Times’ state politics reporting, including full coverage of the recall election and the latest action in Sacramento.

FROM THE ARCHIVES

Twenty-five years ago today, The Times wrote that the Pacific Northwest had become home to the latest upheaval in individual rights: a terminally ill person’s right to “hasten death” with a fatal dose of medication. The U.S. Supreme Court was set to consider an appeal of a right-to-die ruling filed by Washington’s attorney general.

In 2015, then-Gov. Jerry Brown made physician-assisted suicide legal in California. And, earlier this month, California lawmakers approved legislation to speed up and simplify the state process for those close to death to get prescriptions for lethal doses of drugs.

CALIFORNIA

— Dogs are accidentally getting “baked” from cannabis edibles in California. It might sound funny that so many pooches are getting into the hooch. But for dogs who accidentally ingest potent edibles intended for a human several times their weight, the narcotic effect can be serious.

— An 18-year-old woman shot by a Long Beach school safety officer was on life support Wednesday as friends questioned why the officer opened fire on the car she was riding in.

— Melina Abdullah, a prominent protest leader and co-founder of Black Lives Matter Los Angeles, was the target of a third “swatting” incident at her home Wednesday evening — the second one in the last week

— L.A. has resumed cleanups of homeless encampments, but there’s a catch: As few as 38% of sanitation workers report being vaccinated.

— The San Diego school district has ordered all staff and students age 16 and older to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 by Dec. 20.

NATION-WORLD

— It’s a rare move for wildlife officials to give up hope on a plant or animal, but government scientists say they’ve exhausted efforts to find the ivory-billed woodpecker and 22 more birds, fish and other species. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service declared them extinct.

— The Philippines is countering Chinese aggression in the South China Sea with an all-female unit of coast guard radio operators. China’s actions in the region are a point of contention between Beijing and Washington. The idea is the women’s voices will remind opposing crews of their “wives or mothers,” officials have said.

— Former Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida won the ruling party’s leadership contest Wednesday. He is set to become the country’s next prime minister.

— Official news reports in China blame widespread power cuts on high coal prices, leaving residents to rely on flashlights and generators. Economists say the real motive is political: Officials are under pressure to curtail energy use to meet official targets.

— A battle between gangs in an Ecuadoran prison killed at least 116 people and injured 80 in what authorities were calling the worst penitentiary massacre in the nation’s history. At least five of the dead were beheaded, officials said Wednesday.

HOLLYWOOD AND THE ARTS

— Spike Lee takes a spin through the gallery focused on him at the Academy Museum, which opens Thursday. Visitors will be able to trace Lee’s career through props and memorabilia dating to his 1983 award-winning student film, “Joe’s Bed-Stuy Barbershop: We Cut Heads,” on up through his two Oscars.

— Please. Don’t call it the “Death Star,” says architect Renzo Piano. The David Geffen Theater that he designed for the new Academy Museum is “a soap bubble. It’s a flying ship. It’s a flying vessel ... but it’s not a ‘Death Star.’”

— The music industry coddled R. Kelly. It was television, specifically the 2019 Lifetime docuseries “Surviving R. Kelly” and its follow-up, that helped take him down, writes television critic Lorraine Ali.

BUSINESS

— He was an econ major in college and rose through the world of finance. Sa’ad Shah explains how went from being a hedge fund investor to running the world’s largest psychedelic venture capital firm.

— Remember when forecasters predicted the economic recovery in California and the nation was going to seem like the Roaring ’20s? The Delta variant upended expectations, sending the outlook from “sizzling to ho-hum.”

— California took an audacious, legally tenuous plunge when it outlawed the all-white-male boardroom. But companies across the country are embracing the state’s boardroom diversity directives. Women now control 50% more corporate board seats nationwide than they did before the 2018 California law was passed.

— Postal service is about to get slower as well as more expensive, writes columnist Michael Hiltzik.

SPORTS

— The Clippers are fully vaccinated, coach Tyronn Lue said Wednesday. The declaration was a reversal from the way team leaders had handled questions when asked in recent days about the team’s vaccination status.

— The storied, rags-to-riches career of boxer Manny Pacquiao ended officially, and emotionally, Tuesday as he announced his retirement.

OPINION

— Here’s a look at what it’s like operating a Texas abortion clinic under the state’s new ban.

— It’s time to stop misleading consumers about the sad state of recycling. In many cases, “recyclable” symbols are a half-truth used by manufacturers to “greenwash” their products.

ONLY IN L.A.

It’s early on a cool, gray September morning at the Hollywood Forever cemetery, and people are gathering amid the tombs to do yoga. Kundalini yoga, to be precise. With some hypnosis thrown in.

The organizers call it “hypno-yoga,” and the sessions (free, for now at least) unfold every Wednesday on the Fairbanks Lawn, which you might mistake for a high-end park if it weren’t for the imposing tomb of famed actors Douglas Fairbanks and his son, Douglas Fairbanks Jr., at the south end.

Let’s pause here and acknowledge the obvious, writes Jon Healey, senior editor on The Times’ utility journalism team: This is the sort of thing that earns Los Angeles its La-La Land reputation.

Laura Mogavero takes a hypno-yoga class at Hollywood Forever Cemetery on Wednesday, Sept. 8, 2021 in Los Angeles.

(Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)

Today’s newsletter was curated by Laura Blasey and Amy Hubbard. Comments or ideas? Email us at headlines@latimes.com.