Southern California air quality officials consider rules to hold warehouses accountable for pollution from the diesel trucks they attract.
â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â [Los Angeles Times] Essential California May 6, 2021
[View in browser]( Good morning, and welcome to the Essential California [newsletter](. Itâs Thursday, May 6. Iâm [Shelby Grad](. The warehouse and trucking industries are booming, but they are also a huge cause of air pollution. Southern California air quality officials [are now set to vote on rules]( that for the first time would hold warehouses in the nationâs smoggiest region accountable for pollution from the diesel trucks they attract. (Los Angeles Times) - A big problem: The Timesâ Tony Barboza notes this is a big problem. Cars and cargo-handling equipment associated with warehouses release more smog-forming pollution than any other sector, accounting for more than 12% of nitrogen oxides emitted in the region.
- Communities of color are hit hardest: Officials say 2.4 million people live within half a mile of at least one large warehouse, that those areas have higher rates of asthma, heart attacks and poverty, and are disproportionately Black and Latino.
- No COVID relief: Some hoped the pandemic closures would help L.A.'s smog. [Air quality has actually gotten worse.](
[A truck and smoggy sky]
San Bernardino, not far from Jurupa Valley, above, had 130 bad air days for ozone pollution in 2020. Downtown Los Angeles, by comparison, had 22. (Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times) The logistics industry is expanding far and wide in the Inland Empire â in some cases encroaching into longtime residentsâ neighborhoods. This has put people in [very close range of truck pollution]( a Times investigation by Paloma Esquivel found. Some [residents are fed up with the bad air](. (NBC News) These warehouses have also been at the center of a [national debate over]( labor unions (who are organizing in the Inland Empire and beyond) and the very concept of a [middle-class existence](. (New York Times and Bloomberg) And now, hereâs whatâs happening across California: Note: Some of the sites we link to may limit the number of stories you can access without subscribing. ADVERTISEMENT
TOP STORY An important investigation from The Timesâ Wendy Lee: More than 30 former and current ICM employees said [the company tolerated a hostile work environment,]( where women and people of color were subjected to harassment and bullying. It came when the talent agency was talking tough on equity, promising to achieve gender parity in leadership positions and on the board by 2020. (Los Angeles Times) â The fallout: The story has been the talk of Hollywood. One attorney [told Variety]( âWhat goes on in these agencies, you donât see in any other industry. You donât see other employers trying to get away with what they do in entertainment.â â [Deadline Hollywood wonders]( stories like this signal an end to the infamous agency culture of hazing. âThose unpleasant hazing days now are gone, or on the way out, and they will have to find new and more civil ways of minting agents.â Support our journalism [Subscribe to the Los Angeles Times.]( âTHE TIMESâ When Gustavo Arellano [and his team launched]( âThe Timesâ podcast about California, he made bold promises: âExpect award-winning reporting, hard-hitting investigations and random randomness from the biggest newspaper west of the Mississippi right to your ears. Whether itâs farmworkers, Silicon Valley, Hollywood or car chases, weâll give you deep dives and snippets, rants and discourse, laughers and weepers, with a diversity of voices and a bunch of drama and desmadre.â But he didnât mention skits. But thatâs what they did Wednesday, in a touching tribute to the real, margarita-free story of Cinco De Mayo. [Listen here.]( Gustavo shared the back story: âThe idea for the Cinco de Mayo skit â both the fake commercial and dramatic reading of an old clip â was all from my audio jefa, âThe Timesâ producer Denise Guerra. She wanted to use old commercials that captured May 5 in all its besotted infamy, but we didnât get legal clearance. So she did what any great boss did: improvise! Thatâs what makes âThe Timesâ such a delight already. Denise and our other producer, Shannon Lin, donât want the usual two-way conversation. They want to sprinkle in audio, asides and all other sorts of desmadre (a hell of a beautiful mess). Thatâs what we want: to not just grab you with original stories and smart takes, but to make you think, âWhat am I going to listen to next?â â THE CORONAVIRUS In another dramatic sign of how rapidly California is recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic, the state recorded its [lowest hospitalization rate]( since the first few weeks of the pandemic, according to data reviewed by The Times. (Los Angeles Times) Is L.A. due for a summer economic boom? It all depends on how many[tourists and office workers come back](. (Los Angeles Times) Vaccinated and back at the movies. [It was not a horror show](. âThe lights went down and for two hours it was as if the pandemic did not exist, had never occurred.â (Los Angeles Times) San Diego sees it first case caused by the [same variant suspected of overwhelming India](. (San Diego Union-Tribune) ADVERTISEMENT
POLITICS AND GOVERNMENT More headaches over problems with [unemployment claims]( in California. (Los Angeles Times) Will she run? A representative of L.A. City Council President Nury Martinez said she is [weighing a run to replace Mayor Eric Garcetti]( in the June 2022 election. (Los Angeles Times) âIn Los Angeles, for better and worse, the rich we shall always have with us.â An assessment of how Eli Broad fits in among L.A. men of means [who tried to shape the city](. (Los Angeles Times) Are the Democrats making a mistake by [not offering an alternative]( to Gov. Gavin Newsom? (New York Times) Facebook deals a blow to the Trump comeback. The former president decried it. Elizabeth Warrenâs reaction: âTrump should be banned for good, but Facebook will continue to fumble with its power until Congress and antitrust regulators rein in Big Tech.â [But will it stick?]( (Los Angeles Times) Huntington Beach Mayor Pro Tem Tito Ortiz filed for unemployment against the city in February, public records show, despite [not having his hours cut during the pandemi](. (Daily Pilot) CRIME AND COURTS A state appeals court decided unanimously that Newsom [has the legal right to modify]( or make new state laws during the COVID-19 pandemic. The ruling was a setback for two GOP lawmakers who challenged the scope of the governorâs public health authority. (Los Angeles Times) Two photojournalists have alleged in separate federal lawsuits this week that they were harassed and physically [assaulted by law enforcement officers at protests]( in the Los Angeles area. (Los Angeles Times) A jury in Rome convicted two American friends in the 2019 slaying of [a police officer in a drug sting gone awry,]( sentencing them to life in prison. (Associated Press) CALIFORNIA CULTURE What will be the song of the L.A. summer of recovery? âAfter the yearlong pandemic deferred an infinite number of house parties and backyard kickbacks, the now-plummeting rates of coronavirus infections (and soaring rates of vaccinations) [promise a Hot Girl Summer soon to come]( (Los Angeles Times) A historic California mural hidden for decades [is now available]( for public viewing. (Mercury News) Knottâs Berry Farm is testing its roller coasters and prepping the [chicken for frying as its reopening]( after 13 months looms. (O.C. Register) AND SOME FUN.... The perils of Zoom in court. âOh my God, the judge is a fâing idiot,â echoed from the computer in Santa Clara County. The judge responded: âWell, Iâm sorry you think Iâm an idiot, but I really think [you ought to mute your microphone before you say that](. And I would appreciate it if you would not use any obscenities in the courtroom, whether youâre remote or not remote. That kind of language is not acceptable.â (Los Angeles Times) Free online games Get our free daily crossword puzzle, sudoku, word search and arcade games in our new game center at [latimes.com/games](. CALIFORNIA ALMANAC Los Angeles: partly cloudy, 76. San Diego: mostly sunny, 69. San Francisco: cloudy, 62. San Jose: cloudy, 72. Fresno: sunny, 91. Sacramento: mostly sunny, 85. AND FINALLY Todayâs California memory comes from Sterling Meredith: Growing up in the San Fernando Valley in the late â60s was idyllic. Sweltering, smog-choked summer afternoons, spent in our pool (dadâs pride and most outward symbol of his middle-class affluence), transformed into the warmest, pleasantly orange-blossom-scented evenings imaginable. With summer days that didnât end until nearly 9 p.m., kids would be on the street, riding bikes, playing tag and horsing around until well after dark. On Saturdays when we could stay up late, a night swim provided an irresistible combination of excitement and warmth, while the splashing and lapping water reflected and bounced the pool lamp in hundreds of mysterious and beautiful ways. The feeling of getting into bed, smelling faintly of chlorine and spent from the dayâs activities, is an L.A. memory Iâll cherish always. If you have a memory or story about the Golden State,[share it with us](. (Please keep your story to 100 words.) Please let us know what we can do to make this newsletter more useful to you. Send comments to essentialcalifornia@latimes.com. ADVERTISEMENT
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