Union calls leak of racist recordings illegal, but LAPD has not been asked to find culprit
LAT, RICHARD WINTON/CONNOR SHEETS: "Even though Los Angeles labor officials have called the leak of racist recordings involving three L.A. City Councilmembers a serious crime, the Los Angeles Police Department is not investigating who recorded and posted the clips because no one has filed a police report.
The recordings took place at the offices of the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, which has called the leak “illegal” and vowed to have those involved prosecuted. The union attempted to block the Los Angeles Times from publishing details of the recordings, saying they were obtained illegally. The Times refused.
More than a week after the leak, it is still unclear how the recordings were made. Recording conversations without a person’s consent is illegal in California, with rare exceptions."
Federal grand jury indicts captain of Conception, a dive-boat that killed 34 people in a fiery sinking in 2019
The Chronicle, JORDAN PARKER: "The captain of the Conception, a Santa-Barbara based dive-boat that exploded in flames near Santa Cruz island in 2019, killing 34 people, was indicted Tuesday by a federal grand jury alleging misconduct and gross negligence while on duty.
The indictment alleges that Jerry Nehl Boylan, 68, was at fault for “a series of failures” and abandoning his ship, which led to the deaths of 33 passengers and one crew member. The new indictment follows a ruling last month in which a federal judge had dismissed a previous indictment of Boylan for the same charge, because it did not allege gross negligence."
In secret testimony, Caruso was grilled about what USC knew about disgraced gynecologist
LAT, BENJAMIN ORESKES/HARRIET RYAN/MATT HAMILTON: "In his Brentwood mansion two years ago, Rick Caruso sat down in front of his iPad, raised his right hand and swore to tell the truth. Over the next nine hours, lawyers for hundreds of USC students and alumnae grilled the developer, then chair of the university’s governing board, about who was to blame for sexual abuse and harassment they said they suffered at the hands of a campus gynecologist.
The answers Caruso gave in late October 2020 at a remotely held deposition were sealed from public view by a protective order in the case and have remained secret since, even as the billionaire embarked on a mayoral campaign premised in part on his performance at USC.
A transcript of the deposition recently reviewed by The Times showed Caruso refusing to answer many questions, on the advice of USC’s legal team. With more than half a dozen university lawyers monitoring his testimony, he invoked attorney-client privilege again and again in declining to reveal discussions with administrators about Dr. George Tyndall or the conclusions of an investigation into the gynecologist’s troubled history at a campus clinic."
Paul Flores guilty in murder of Cal Poly student Kristin Smart; his father acquitted
LAT, RICHARD WINTON: "A jury on Tuesday convicted Paul Flores in the murder of Cal Poly San Luis Obispo student Kristin Smart, ending a more than two-decade mystery that both captivated and outraged the Central Coast college town.
Flores was found guilty of first-degree murder even though authorities never found Smart’s body, an issue long considered a stumbling block in the case.
His father, Ruben Flores, 81, was acquitted of being an accessory to murder. A second jury that heard evidence at the same time during the 12-week trial of the two men thought there was reasonable doubt that he had helped his son cover up the crime by burying Smart’s body under his house’s deck and keeping the remains there for years."
Is there really a COVID ‘nightmare variant’ spreading? Here’s what experts say
The Chronicle, AIDIN VAZIRI: "While the United States contends with the newly detected COVID omicron BQ.1 subvariants, another highly mutated strain of the coronavirus called XBB is tearing across Southeast Asia, where in some countries, it has caused the number of cases to double in a day.
Some more sensationalist reports have called XBB a “ nightmare variant ” due to its apparent ability to evade immunity and dampen some therapies. But infectious disease experts say it is too soon to jump to such broad conclusions."
Kamala Harris tells S.F. crowd the ‘window is going to shut on us’ without urgent climate action
The Chronicle, DUSTIN GARDINER: "Vice President Kamala Harris touted the Biden administration’s record on climate change and delivered a dire message about the need to respond to the crisis with urgency during an event Tuesday in San Francisco.
“We must understand that we are in a very specific moment in time, and this window is going to shut on us,” Harris told a few hundred people who gathered at the Cowell Theater at Fort Mason to hear her tape a podcast segment. “But it doesn’t have to shut on us, if we act.”"
LAT, JULIA WICK/DAVID ZAHNISER: "The Los Angeles City Council selected Councilmember Paul Krekorian as its next leader Tuesday afternoon, ushering in a new and uncertain era for a city government still reeling from the release of an incendiary leaked audio recording last week.
With a 10-0 vote, Krekorian was chosen as the newest president of a council struggling to respond to revelations that three councilmembers — one of whom has since stepped down — and a high-level labor leader engaged in a secretly recorded conversation with racist and derogatory remarks.
Former council President Nury Martinez’s comments during the leaked October 2021 conversation ignited international outrage, and she resigned Wednesday."
Who is Danny Bakewell, the Black L.A. power broker named in the Nury Martinez audio?
LAT, BRIAN CONTRERAS: "On a cloudy Saturday afternoon in Crenshaw, Danny Bakewell Sr.'s name is almost inescapable.
“Everything he touches has made an impact in our community,” said Jay Conedy, 60, from beneath a towering poster of Bakewell Sr. giving a thumbs-up.
“He’s synonymous with the area,” added Yolanda Duvernay, 71, as she wandered Crenshaw Boulevard."
Photos: Activists vow to protest at Councilman Kevin de León’s home until he resigns
LAT, PHOTOGRAPHY STAFF: "They say they are staying until he goes.
They being activists with Black Lives Matter, who have set up a tent encampment in Eagle Rock.
He being embattled Los Angeles City Councilman Kevin de León."
S.F. Mayor Breed slams Elon Musk and calls out Marc Benioff
The Chronicle, MALLORY MOENCH: "Mayor London Breed slammed Tesla CEO Elon Musk for taking his Tesla headquarters to Texas in an interview published Monday as the billionaire is poised to purchase San Francisco-based Twitter.
Breed also called out Salesforce co-CEO and San Francisco native Marc Benioff for his remote work policies, the likes of which she said have contributed to the devastation of downtown, although she acknowledged his support for local schools and other philanthropy.
Breed saved her ire in the Bloomberg story for Musk, who she called “the person who got a ton of tax breaks in California and decided to take that money and run.”"
Stockton serial killer: Victims’ families pack courtroom for Brownlee’s first appearance
The Chronicle, NORA MISHANEC/RICARDO CANO: "In his first public appearance since he was arrested three days ago on what police said was an early morning “hunt” for a victim, Wesley Brownlee, the Stockton serial killer suspect, did not enter a plea on Tuesday to murder charges in the summertime killing spree.
In a packed courtroom filled with victims’ families and television cameras, Brownlee faced San Joaquin County Superior Court Judge John Soldati with a blank expression, nodding calmly and staring at the ceiling as the judge read the charges: three counts of murder, one count of felony firearm possession and one count for possession of ammunition.
Brownlee, 43, did not enter a plea to the charges related to his alleged role in the killing of three people with an illegal firearm between Aug. 30 and Sept. 27."
The butterflies of El Segundo thrive in a little-known preserve
Capitol Weekly, AARON GILBREATH: "The 2028 Summer Olympics will take place in Los Angeles between July 21 and Aug. 6, 2028. The event will cost an estimated $6.9 billion, will host 15,000 athletes, and could potentially attract at least one million visitors, both foreign and domestic. Most of them will pass through Los Angeles International Airport near one of Southern California’s smallest, most unassuming natural areas: The El Segundo Butterfly Preserve.
The ancient Olympic Games began as a small-scale religious and sporting event for the Greeks, where its fingerprint remained limited. When the Olympics were revived as an international event centuries later, the world had grown interconnected, participating countries had grown, too, and the Olympics became big business.
Different countries take turns hosting the Olympic Games, and millions, sometimes billions, of dollars get spent to prepare cities to host the monumental, international event, because the Olympics generates an enormous amount of tourist dollars and foreign investment. Host cities make large infrastructural changes, from improving roads to increasing public transportation systems to building new parking lots and temporary housing, even building new sports facilities."
CALMatters, EMILY HOEVEN: "Actress and activist Jane Fonda has a message for wealthy Californians who oppose Proposition 30, a November ballot measure that would hike taxes on millionaires to subsidize electric vehicles and fund wildfire response and prevention:
“People who would choose to get rich and stay rich, as opposed to helping create a livable future, have to really seriously examine their priorities.”
Fonda, who acknowledged that her own taxes would go up if voters approve Prop. 30, shared her stance on the controversial ballot measure for the first time in an exclusive interview Monday."
