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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These days, waking up to current events can be, well, daunting. If you’re seeking a more balanced news diet, “The Times” podcast is for you. Gustavo Arellano, along with a diverse set of reporters from the award-winning LA Times newsroom, delivers the most interesting stories from the Los Angeles Times every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.

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.

Lane Thomas led off on Saturday, after he’d hit mostly 6th or 7th in the Nationals’ lineup over the first few weeks of the 2022 campaign, and Washington skipper Davey Martinez moved César Hernández, who’d led off in each of the 16 games he’d played in early this season, to sixth.

“I just wanted to see if we could jumpstart Lane a little bit,” Martinez said when asked about the moves after the club’s 5-2 loss to the San Francisco Giants. “[Thomas] did well for us in the leadoff spot [in 2021]and also too when I talked to Cesar last night [we talked] about letting him relax a little bit and not trying to put so much pressure on him trying to get on base, and just swing the bat. And he did well today, they both did well, so we’ll see what happens tomorrow. I know we got a right-handed pitcher against us, I’m going to look at everything tonight, and then make a decision how we’re going to do that tomorrow.”

Hernández’s 2 for 4 game left him 17 for 73 (.233/.263/.274) so ​​fat this season. Thomas went 1 for 4 with an RBI in the loss, leaving him 9 for 46 (.196/.255/.261) on the year.

Was the experiment on one-time thing, or a change Martinez will stick with for a while to try something new to spark Thomas, Hernández, and the lineup as a whole?

“We might do that,” he said. “Look, Lane hits left-handed pitchers really well, so it was nice to get him up there against the lefties and see if we can get two cracks at them, so I liked it. He hit a couple balls hard today so we’ll see what happens moving forward.”

Thomas’s hit, at the top of the order, was the only one for the Nationals’ first four+ hitters.

Thomas, Juan Soto, Nelson Cruz, and Josh Bell (who was injured and replaced by Lucius Fox early in the game) were a combined 1 for 15 in the loss. How do they turn it around?

“I think we need to just start relaxing … stay up the middle of the field. These guys are going to hit,” Martinez said. “These guys have hit their whole career, they’re going to hit, just don’t try to do too much, stay in the zone, and take your walks. I preach all the time, ‘Hey, take your walks, get on base for the next guy. Don’t chase.’ So, but I got all the confidence in the world that those guys will hit. If we continue to do what we’re doing in the bottom part of our lineup, we’re getting on base, I like that, so it’s just a matter of time before the whole lineup starts clicking, and we start scoring runs again. ”

As for Bell’s injury?

“He’s got right hamstring tightness, so we took him out,” the manager explained.

“He went to get an MRI and we’re waiting for him to get back with the results. I wanted to be cautious. With the other leg, with his knee.”

Bell is not in the lineup today. Maikel Franco is getting the start at first…

HERE’S THE NATIONALS’ LINEUP FOR THE FINALE WITH THE GIANTS:

The post Washington Nationals’ lineup for at this time’s sequence finale with the San Francisco Giants appeared first on Los Gatos News And Events.

San Francisco continues to be a hot market for people moving to Northern California for the tech industry. Some areas of the city are still breeding grounds for people who want something different from what they have now.

Danielle Lazier is one of the most successful compass agents in San Francisco and owns a real estate agency in San Francisco, CA. She always has her finger on the pulse of what’s hot in town and what’s not. She recently shared some of her better insights into what is a good option for resettlers.

The largest area open for sale is condominiums. In the turbulent years 2020 and 2021, more and more people are trying to sell rental properties. This means that a shrewd buyer can pick up a San Francisco condo with prices starting from 2018.

“The condominium market is booming right now and we have several properties with multiple offers on the market. Some have offers above asking price. This is a good time to buy a home or investment property, ”said Lazier, a real estate agent in San Francisco, CA.

Another big change likely due to the virus is the return to the suburbs. People trapped at home and unable to do much are realizing the value of a yard, larger space, and the opportunity to spread out a little. Families in particular move in this way, since the idea of ​​being up-to-date in the city center is no longer as popular as it used to be.

“If there was a word to sum up the market, space,” said Lazier, “people even want to be out in a backyard.”

Danielle Lazier is a full service real estate agency based in San Francisco, California. Details of the properties and contact information can be found on the website. Visit http://daniellelazier.com to learn more.

Media contact
Company Name: Danielle Lazier Real Estate Agent San Francisco CA.
Interlocutor: Danielle Lazier
E-mail: Send e-mail
Phone: + 1-415-528-7355
City: San Francisco
Status: California
Country: United States
Website: http://daniellelazier.com

The post Main San Francisco Actual Property Agent Supplies Insights On Immediately’s Market appeared first on Los Gatos News And Events.