Newsletter: In El Paso, a pastor’s faith endures

When his daughter was shot, he prayed and raced to save her.

TOP STORIES

In El Paso, a Pastor’s Faith Endures

Pastor Michael Grady had never prayed so fervently as when he got the call Saturday telling him that his 33-year-old daughter, Michelle, was lying in a pool of blood. She had been shot three times at Walmart. Michelle had managed to dial her cellphone to contact her mother, Jeneverlyn, who jumped in her car and reached the store. Michael would soon follow. When he saw his daughter, it was bad: “I know she wasn’t OK, but I told her she was going to be OK.” This is one story of faith in the aftermath of the deadly El Paso shooting.

‘Violent Ideologies’ and a List of Targets

Federal authorities have launched a domestic terrorism investigation into the shooting at the Gilroy Garlic Festival after officials say they discovered the gunman had a list of potential targets — including religious organizations, courthouses, federal buildings and political institutions involving the Republican and Democratic parties. “We have uncovered evidence that the shooter was exploring violent ideologies,” said John F. Bennett, FBI special agent in charge. The FBI has also opened a domestic terrorism investigation into the Dayton, Ohio, shooting that killed nine people.

Returning to Court

Can California force President Trump to release his tax returns before he can get on the primary ballot? One week after Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a law requiring presidential candidates to do so, Trump, the state and national Republican parties and several GOP voters have filed lawsuits aimed at blocking such a requirement — marking yet another round in the legal skirmishes between Trump and California.

More Politics

-- In ramping up the trade war with China, Trump could be playing with fire, and it could end up burning Trump’s reelection bid.

-- U.S. Ambassador to Russia Jon Huntsman Jr. has submitted his resignation. Huntsman is planning to return to Utah amid speculation that he may again run for governor.

-- With the spotlight on Trump and “the Squad,” some Democrats in California swing districts are struggling to stay on message.

-- Peter Strzok, the veteran FBI agent who was discovered to have written derogatory text messages about Trump, has filed a lawsuit alleging the bureau caved to “unrelenting pressure” from the president when it fired him.

-- Trump is heading to Dayton, Ohio, and El Paso today in the shootings’ aftermath. Last night, he tweeted that El Paso native and Democratic presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke should “be quiet!”

A Most Beloved Author

“Beloved.” “The Black Book.” “Song of Solomon.” With these and other titles, Toni Morrison captured the complexities of life and race in the U.S. Though she said that she never dreamed of becoming a writer, she would go on to receive the Nobel Prize in literature, a Pulitzer Prize and the Presidential Medal of Freedom. For many, like President Obama, who wrote a tribute to Morrison upon her death at 88 this week, she was a personal hero. “She was both a mirror and a map,” as Lynell George writes. “She reflected our experience back to us and to the world: but also, projected her own.”

‘I Have Learned From My Mistakes’

From a young age, Adam Litwin knew he wanted to be a doctor. In his 20s, he says, a love of medicine led him to run with a misunderstanding that he was a medical resident at UCLA, allowing him to watch complicated surgeries. In his 30s, he lied to his future wife that he was a cardiologist. Now, two decades after he went to jail for pretending to be a doctor, Litwin is one. But whether his past will prevent him from becoming a resident for real is an open question.

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FROM THE ARCHIVES

Sleeping in cars on the streets of Los Angeles is not a new phenomenon. After World War II, L.A. experienced an acute housing shortage. Evictions grew. “‘If you are tired enough you can sleep anywhere.’ This is the only reason Floyd Heagle, 33, a painting contractor, and seven relatives, including five children from 10 to 1½ years of age, have been able to live in an automobile near one of the city’s parks,” reads one Times article from 1946. “They have been living, or rather existing, in the car for three weeks.”

CALIFORNIA

-- Columnist Steve Lopez says he’s gotten pushback from a posse of readers who have “waved a flag for the right to bear arms of any type and ... argued that ownership restrictions wouldn’t make a difference. I say nonsense.”

-- The state attorney general says California blocked more than 100 felons and other prohibited persons from buying ammunition in the last month using a new law requiring background checks.

-- Officials say a tip to investigators ended a years-long manhunt for Peter Chadwick, an Orange County multimillionaire accused of killing his wife and dumping her body before fleeing to Mexico to avoid prosecution.

-- A state study detailing how much cities and counties charge developers to build housing has found that such costs are often hidden, vary widely across the state and have slowed growth.

HOLLYWOOD AND THE ARTS

-- Monica Lewinsky will be a producer on the third season of FX’s “American Crime Story” franchise, which will tackle Bill Clinton’s White House scandal and impeachment.

-- Disney is about to introduce a new anti-princess. Meet Shelley Marie, an original character created not for a movie but for a starring role at California Adventure.

-- Twenty years after Haley Joel Osment uttered the line, “I see dead people,” in “The Sixth Sense,” the actor looks back at the film that made him famous.

-- Casting director David Rubin has been elected the 35th president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Meanwhile, the unexpected departure of Kerry Brougher as director of the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures has once again left big questions surrounding the project.

NATION-WORLD

-- Migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border say the El Paso shooting won’t deter them from seeking new lives in the U.S.

-- In Colorado, federal prosecutors and residents of the town of Durango allege the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad sparked one of the largest fires in state history, but no one wants to see the historic train go out of business.

-- The Chinese government, Hong Kong police and a group of protesters held news conferences pushing dueling narratives on what had happened when a citywide strike evolved into chaotic clashes.

BUSINESS

-- Disney’s Fox deal has brought short-term pain. But executives promise long-term gain after a 28% drop in profit.

-- The fashion industry is getting woke, with a little help from Gen Z.

SPORTS

-- “I would never just shut up and dribble”: Alejandro Bedoya, the soccer player who celebrated his goal with a call to end gun violence, speaks out again.

-- The Oakland Raiders, the closest thing the NFL has to an institutional antihero, are being featured in the latest season of the HBO show “Hard Knocks.”

OPINION

-- As the El Paso massacre showed once again, white supremacy is the poison in our well.

-- America is sick, writes Jonah Goldberg, and both liberals and conservatives are wrong about the remedy.

WHAT OUR EDITORS ARE READING

-- Southern California is far from the only region at high risk of water stress, as this map shows. (Washington Post)

-- Cultural appropriation turnabout is fair play? African American rappers Lil Nas X and Blanco Brown top the country music charts. (The Undefeated)

-- The “Mona Lisa” has been moved to a different gallery at the Louvre, which has caused quite a bit of confusion. (ArtNet)

ONLY IN L.A.

In Manhattan Beach, there’s a house painted pink with giant emojis — one smiley face with its tongue sticking out and eyes looking in different directions crowned by long eyelashes; the other with a zipper across its mouth. Did some social media entrepreneur do this for the ‘gram? Not exactly, say those who live nearby. Instead, it appears to be tied to a dispute between neighbors. What’s the emoji for that?

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