Hello, it’s Tuesday, Dec. 13, and here are the stories you shouldn’t miss today:

TOP STORIES

The Cecil Hotel rooms for LA unhoused are still mostly empty

The historic Cecil Hotel, with its haunted reputation and 600 rooms, reopened in December 2021 as a privately funded permanent supportive housing project. It’s open to any of the thousands of unhoused Los Angelenos with a government-funded voucher. Many viewed the project as a promising new model in LA because of its size and flexibility.

And yet, a year later, two-thirds of the Cecil remains unoccupied. Even with solid funding and the best of intentions, the Cecil project has struggled to overcome a system beset with a slow-moving bureaucracy and multiple failure points, and to offer a housing stock that serves a population with myriad needs.

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Mayor’s new emergency order meets chaos at City Hall

It was the first major policy announcement from the new administration of Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass — a declaration of a state of emergency aimed at providing immediate relief to thousands of unhoused residents.

That declaration needs a City Council vote today before going into effect, a simple enough task in a quieter political moment. Except the council has left one meeting until mid-January, and has been struggling to conduct its business amid a scandal surrounding Councilmember Kevin de León.

De León faces a furor over his participation in a conversation featuring racist remarks and, more recently, a violent incident involving protesters at an Eastside toy giveaway, which only intensified the tinder keg atmosphere at City Hall.

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The P-22 mountain lion was captured in an LA backyard

P-22, celebrity mountain lion and Griffith Park’s most wanted big cat, was captured in a Los Feliz backyard, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife announced.

The department confirmed P-22 was captured after they received an anonymous tip that he’d been struck by a car in the area. Officials could not confirm if the mountain lion had been hit but said he was “in stable condition.”

P-22 had been sought for evaluation by the National Park Service and the California Department of Fish and Wildlife after “exhibiting some signs of distress” in recent weeks, including killing a leashed Chihuahua and attacking another dog.

FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried arrested in the Bahamas

Sam Bankman-Fried, the disgraced co-founder and former head of digital-asset exchange FTX, was arrested in the Bahamas.

Bankman-Fried’s detention followed a notification from the US that it had filed criminal charges against him, the Bahamas attorney general said in a statement. Authorities in both countries had been probing his involvement in the company’s collapse last month.

In a statement, US Atty. for the Southern District of New York Damian Williams said the arrest was made at the request of the American government.

Can California’s electric-vehicle push overcome the red-state backlash?

Environmentalists, along with industry and government leaders, see a transformation afoot in the electric vehicle industry after decades of false starts. They have acknowledged, however, that they can’t complete the shift if electric cars are viewed as something only for rich liberals in California and New York. They need everyone.

But in places like Indiana, it can be tough to own an electric car. Major cities are located far apart, with few charging stations in between. And the most popular EVs remain out of reach for many consumers in places where incomes tend to be lower.

The state is also deep red. And Republicans are much less likely than Democrats to consider buying an EV, according to a poll conducted for The Times by Leger, a Canadian-based polling firm with extensive experience in US surveys.

Edgar Sargsyan’s journey through LA’s criminal underworld

Edgar Sargsyan’s journey to bankruptcy court began with a one-way ticket from Armenia. It descended into the underworld of Los Angeles, where he learned at the elbow of a crime figure how deals are made and dirty money can underwrite a glittering facade of legitimacy.

Sargsyan shook hands with governors and presidents at a Beverly Hills cigar club and conferred with gangsters in jail. He made a fortune through fraud and drug dealing while surrounding himself with an entourage of corrupt lawmen.

But by 2018, the fun was over, the money was drying up and Sargsyan found himself in bankruptcy court, where what remained of his companies’ assets were to be sold off.

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PHOTO OF THE DAY

(Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)

CALIFORNIA

Drought-ravaged LA seeks out a contaminated Superfund site. As drought and climate change ravage California’s once-reliable supply of drinking water, officials in Los Angeles are setting their sights on a relatively new, almost untapped resource for the city’s 4 million residents: the Superfund site in their own backyard.

Supreme Court upholds California ban on the sale of flavored tobacco products. The Supreme Court on Monday rejected a last-minute plea from the tobacco industry and cleared the way for California to enforce a statewide ban on the sale of most flavored tobacco products, including menthol cigarettes.

Tory Lanez will stand trial in Megan Thee Stallion’s shooting case this week. Prosecutors allege the shooting happened shortly after both hip-hop artists left a party in the Hollywood Hills in July 2020. The case has reinvigorated discussions about misogyny in a hip-hop industry and it comes after a series of violent attacks on hip-hop artists in Los Angeles in recent years.

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NATION WORLD

On same-sex marriage, “the country has caught up with California.” More than 18 years after Gavin Newsom defied federal law by issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples as San Francisco mayor, President Biden is on the cusp of signing legislation that ensures gay marriages are recognized by the federal government and in every state in the nation .

Immigrants sue ICE for spying on their financial records. Immigrants who say their remittances to family abroad were caught up in what they described as a massive warrantless dragnet are suing the government and the wire-transfer behemoth Western Union, which gave money transfer records to law enforcement.

What’s next for Brittney Griner? Experts discuss a road to recovery. After 294 days in Russian custody, Griner was slated to undergo evaluation at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio. Those assessments regarding Griner’s physical, mental and emotional state were just the first step in an uncertain path for the two-time Olympic gold medalist.

In Ukraine, a mayor who surrendered his town becomes a symbol of treason. In the small town of Kupiansk, there was no sudden bombardment, no violent mayhem — the city’s mayor, politically friendly with Russia, spoke to a Russian commander over the phone and then simply surrendered. Misery arrived anyway.

HOLLYWOOD AND THE ARTS

The Golden Globes return after turmoil. The nominations for the 2023 Golden Globes were announced, with the Hollywood Foreign Press Assn. showing particular affection for films “The Banshees of Inisherin” and “Everything Everywhere All at Once” and TV series “Abbott Elementary” and “The White Lotus,” among others.

Elon Musk booed for nearly five minutes straight at Dave Chappelle show in San Francisco. Before welcoming Elon Musk on Sunday stage in San Francisco, Dave Chappelle encouraged his fans to “make some noise for the richest man in the world.” And they did — by loudly booing the billionaire tech mogul.

Angelo Badalamenti, “Twin Peaks” composer and David Lynch collaborator, dead at 85. Badalamenti and Lynch were longtime collaborators, with the composer once calling their relationship “my second-best marriage in the world.”

The rise and fall of canceling culture in comedy. Comedy historian Kliph Nesteroff and comics Donnell Rawlings and Tiffany Haddish explain the origins of modern-day culture and its historical equivalents.

BUSINESS

Elon Musk should prepare for “hundreds or even thousands” of arbitration cases, labor lawyer says. As questions continue to swirl around Musk’s next move, ex-employees through their attorneys are seeking every possible avenue to obtain the benefits they feel entitled to in the aftermath of the tumultuous takeover of Twitter.

Will a legal fight over a $70 million Malibu mansion derail a reality star? A saga of power, corruption and allegations of deception involving multiple lawsuits and parties has played out from the courts of Los Angeles and the halls of Congress to as far away as the shores of Central Africa.

OPINION

How did we let the Golden Globes back in? Columnist and culture critic Mary McNamara writes, “Last year, a Times investigation revealed the Hollywood Foreign Press Assn.’s gift-expecting, early-access-demanding, pay-to-play approach to its awards and lack of any Black members. Everyone was outraged. Publicists threatened a massive boycott, Tom Cruise said he would return his statuary. NBC dumped the 2022 telecast. Now, a year later, the Globes are back, announcing their nominations on live TV.”

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SPORTS

How ultimate underdog Morocco became “the Rocky of this World Cup.” In the first World Cup held in the Middle East and the first played in a majority-Muslim country, Morocco has made history by becoming the first African and first Arabic-speaking nation to reach the semifinals.

There was something Bourdain-like about the big, soccer life Grant Wahl led. Wahl died early Friday morning after collapsing in the press center at the men’s World Cup in Qatar. He lifted, popularized and pioneered soccer coverage in the US Above all, he shared that giant, adventurous life with colleagues and strangers alike.

ONLY IN LA

(Michael DeForge / For The Times)

How to find the best tamales from around the world in Los Angeles. Tamales are delicious year-round but are particularly popular during the holiday and New Year’s seasons, often accompanied by a steaming mug of atole, champurrado or other hot beverage.

This year, The Times’ food team is highlighting their love for all the tamales — not just from Mexico, but also from Guatemala, El Salvador, Colombia and Cuba, just to name a few places. And they’re even extending the strict definition of tamal to include Chinese sticky rice packets wrapped in lotus or bamboo leaves.

FROM THE ARCHIVES

Mary Tyler Moore, Dick Van Dyke, and Sheldon Leonard hold their awards backstage at Emmy Awards in 1964.

(Los Angeles Times)

Dick Van Dyke was born 97 years ago. The versatile comedic actor became a beloved television icon as the ottoman-tripping — or sidestepping — star of the classic 1960s situation comedy “The Dick Van Dyke Show.”

Van Dyke displayed his versatility in a variety of roles, including Bert the cheerful Cockney chimney sweep in the Oscar-winning 1964 Disney musical “Mary Poppins” and an alcoholic public relations man in the 1974 TV movie “The Morning After.” Van Dyke also had an eight-season run as the white-haired and mustachioed crime-solving doctor in “Diagnosis Murder,” from 1993 to 2001.

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The post At this time’s Headlines: Why 600 rooms on the Cecil Lodge for L.A.’s unhoused are principally empty appeared first on Los Gatos News And Events.

Monday night though, San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin was on the offensive. He was the feature speaker at a town hall meeting at Manny’s in the Mission District of San Francisco.

Boudin addressed a crowd of nearly 200 San Franciscans as his recall election on June 7 is now less than three months away.

“I’m proud of the fact that in my two years in office we’ve increased our charging rate for sexual assault, we’ve increased our conviction rate for homicide cases, and we filed more than 10,000 new criminal cases,” said Boudin .

VIDEO: Bay Area DA’s meet with crime survivors to find solutions, better ways to support victims

The crowd inside at Manny’s was there to ask Boudin questions, but a pro-recall crowd of two dozen people were outside, making it known they aren’t happy with the district attorney. In fact we even saw drama between someone appearing to be a Boudin supporter, and another person in favor of the recall.

“This DA, his policies have failed!” said a recall supporter.

“How do you know if his policies have failed? If he hasn’t had a chance to do that and the police have been sabotaging him!” said a Boudin supporter.

“I haven’t really had a chance to govern properly. I’m not making excuses, I’m just stating facts here but I took office in January 2020, less than two months later I was told by the Department of Public Health that I and my staff couldn’t go into our office,” said Boudin.

RELATED: Anger among San Francisco’s Asian American voters may influence DA Boudin recall, report says

But over the course of the last two year’s San Franciscans have seen vehicle theft property crimes continue to plague the city and thefts continue to hurt businesses.

Boudin though refusing to answer our questions about that as he left Monday’s town hall.

“I’m really late for another event. Happy to talk about it, really late for another event,” said the district attorney as he walked away from our camera.

Homelessness was a main focus at the town hall along with diversion programs instead of incarceration in certain cases. Boudin making reference to a successful program in Eugene, Oregon where social workers respond to calls instead of police.

“I think if we’re serious about reducing violence, reducing the police clearance rate, about building public safety, then we’ve got to invest in programs like that one,” said Boudin.

Copyright © 2022 KGO-TV. All rights reserved.

The post San Francisco DA Chesa Boudin defends his insurance policies as metropolis makes nationwide headlines with highest property crime price appeared first on Los Gatos News And Events.

(KMOV.com) — As the No. 4 seed in the NFC entering the playoffs, the Rams needed some upsets on the other side of the bracket in order to host the NFC Championship Game at Stan Kroenke’s favorite little money pit, SoFi Stadium.

When the San Francisco 49ers defeated the No. 1 seed Green Bay Packers on Saturday night, that window of opportunity opened for the Rams to host the game assuming they could get past Tom Brady and the Buccaneers on Sunday. The Rams put on an impressive showing in eliminating the defending Super Bowl champions in Tampa, setting them up to host the 49ers next weekend.

In most circumstances, that would be something for a team to celebrate. But the Rams in LA don’t exactly have a dome-field advantage when it comes to facing the 49ers.

Lots of 49ers fans at SoFi. pic.twitter.com/yYciQv7jmA

— David Ochoa (@DavidOchoaTV) January 9, 2022

When the Rams and 49ers last played at SoFi Stadium in Week 18 this season—a win that San Francisco needed just to sneak into the playoffs—49ers fans flooded the stands with red and made their presence known.

Listening to the crowd noise on television, you’d have thought the 49ers were the home team for that game. Your eyes would have told a similar story. Apart from the blue end zone and electronic signage visible in the background behind 49ers wide receiver Deebo Samuel, that’s a Rams road game:

San Francisco 49ers wide receiver Deebo Samuel (19) reacts on his touchdown during an NFL football game against the Los Angeles Rams Sunday, Jan. 9, 2022, in Inglewood, Calif. (AP Photo/Kyusung Gong)

Kyusung Gong

With a trip to the Super Bowl on the line this time around, the Rams are trying to do something about it.

Ticketmaster screenshots began circulating Sunday as the Rams noted that public sales for the NFC Championship Game would be restricted to residents of the Greater Los Angeles region. The alert on the ticket-broker’s website stated that LA residency would be verified at checkout based on the billing address associated with the purchaser’s credit card.

It’s a desperate ploy, an example of ‘prevent defense’ that likely won’t work out as the team intends.

The cheapest current ticket for Sunday’s NFC Championship Game between the Rams and 49ers at SoFi Stadium is over $600. One ticket broker just told me, “It’s going to be a sea of ​​red again. Rams fans are growing, but they aren’t paying $600 for nosebleed tickets. Not happening.” pic.twitter.com/RWC4EsUYxk

— Arash Markazi (@ArashMarkazi) January 23, 2022

It’s as though Kroenke and Kevin Demoff are deluded into believing 49ers fans don’t know anyone in LA that can lend a hand in facilitating a ticket purchase.

And don’t be surprised, Enos, when Los Angeles residents assist with those requests from their San Francisco fan friends, because LA simply doesn’t care about winning Rams football the way St. Louis would have.

That’s something you’d have realized if, you know, you had ever bothered to put a capable product on the field for the final decade of the team’s time in the Lou.

Of course, we know this by now in St. Louis. Rams brass built a consistently listless team in the years before bolting for Los Angeles in 2016. They failed to achieve even one winning season from 2004 to 2015. They lied and deceived anyone in their path en route to a relocation that was an outright violation of the NFL’s own relocation guidelines. They recently agreed to cough up $790 million to St. Louis in a settlement that proves they darn well knew it.

And even putting everything else aside, from a pure football perspective, it really is a crime.

Since moving to Los Angeles, Kroenke and Co. have completely shifted gears. Wouldn’t you know it, they started trying to win. Signing marquee free agents and executing trades to bring in winning players. It’s as though they began paying attention to the draft. With a third-round pick in 2017, they found Cooper Kupp.

Look, you don’t have to like the Rams—I sure as heck don’t—but even the most embittered former St. Louis Rams fans would have to admit that Kupp is a superstar. He won the wide receiver triple crown this season, leading the league in receptions, receiving yards and receiving touchdowns. He’s certainly the kind of player St. Louis would have fallen in love with.

STL would be losing its ever-loving mind, donating plasma and taking out second mortgages to support a Rams team like this one. That’s just a fact. https://t.co/0iC0gvheMb

— Brenden Schaeffer (@bschaeffer12) January 24, 2022

One thing is for certain. If this game were being played in St. Louis, you wouldn’t have players’ wives begging people on social media not to sell their tickets to the opposing team’s fan base.

If you @RamsNFL fans want to sell your tickets – I’ll buy them. Just DO NOT sell them to the other team PLEASE!

— Melissa Whitworth (@mrs_whit77) January 23, 2022

Los Angeles has a Rams team that St. Louis would have bent over backwards to support, and their city doesn’t seem to care. The Rams are so concerned about the apathy from their new home fans that they feel the need to play some prevent defense long before the game even kicks off.

Copyright 2022 KMOV. All rights reserved.

The post Forestall protection: Apprehensive over flood of 49er crimson, Rams prohibit San Francisco residents from shopping for NFC Championship tickets | St. Louis Information Headlines appeared first on Los Gatos News And Events.