Headlines From The Times

Unprecedented water restrictions in Los Angeles County are going to ensure the slow demise of lawns. And now, California Gov. Gavin Newsom is ready to deal green lawns a final blow. Today, how Southern Californians will have to get used to browner lawns — and why even that might not make a dent in a historic drought. Read the full transcript here. Host: Gustavo Arellano Guests: L.A. Times water re...

It’s pitting neighbors against neighbors in suburbs across the United States. Tempers are flaring. Tension is high. And nope, all the drama has nothing to do with politics or COVID or any of the usual suburban suspects. The culprit now: pickleball. Today, we serve you the rapid rise of a sport whose popularity boomed during the pandemic and the intense backlash rising right alongside it.  Read the...

Overdose deaths in the United States have risen rapidly during the pandemic. It’s a trend driven largely by the spread of fentanyl. In California, the push to save lives and stop the fallout has led some activists and politicians to propose safe injection sites — places where people can take drugs with clean needles, without fear of arrest. There’s already one site like this operating in San Franc...

Today we talk about California’s huge role in influencing gun control laws in the U.S. and about the backlashes. We discuss the state’s historic 1989 ban on assault weapons and why a federal judge issued an order to overturn that ban. And we talk to the mayor of San Jose, who wants his city to be the first in the United States to require gun owners to buy liability insurance. Read the full transcr...

Last week, we partnered up with KCRW for a live mayoral debate with some of the city’s top candidates for the top job. It was the final group debate before the primary on June 7. And in it, three candidates talked a lot about a housing-first approach and took progressive stances on the issue of homelessness. Read the full transcript here. Host: Gustavo Arellano and KCRW housing reporter Anna Scott...

In this episode of the “Border City” podcast from our sister paper, the San Diego Union-Tribune, longtime U.S.-Mexico border reporter Sandra Dibble brings us to an awful time for Tijuana: the three-year window from 2008 to 2010. Cartels ramped up violence to horrifying levels, targeting cops and doctors. Police tried to purge traitors from their ranks — and went too far. But through it all, the sp...

The pandemic has made a lot of us rethink a lot of things. On the forefront of that existential rethink: restaurant workers.  This realignment of priorities and personal interests drove lots of restaurant workers to quit. Now, two years after COVID-19 upended the restaurant industry, so many food spots are still short-staffed and help-wanted signs are seemingly everywhere. That's motivating employ...

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which detains hundreds of thousands of people nationwide, typically says fewer than a dozen detainees die in its custody each year. But if the agency releases a person in dire health, they're not in custody when they die — so ICE doesn't need to count that death.  Today, L.A. Times immigration reporter Andrea Castillo tells the stories of two people who we...

The ups and downs of cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin can bring quick wealth — or quick bankruptcy. It's the hope for a huge payoff that keeps people hooked on these fluctuations, to the point where their attention turns to addiction.  Today, in the wake of the crypto market's recent crash, we look at how obsessing over digital currency can affect people and their lives.  Read the full transcript...

On Saturday, a heavily armed 18-year-old white man rolled up to a supermarket in a predominantly Black neighborhood of Buffalo, N.Y., and killed at least 10 people. The suspect is said to have committed the act to stop the so-called “Great Replacement,” a conspiracy theory that gained popularity among the far right across the world in recent years. Its premise says that a secret cabal of elites ar...

In the late 1990s, a turf war between the Arellano-Felix and Sinaloa cartels in Tijuana led to mayhem and corruption. But as the cartel-fueled violence continued, residents in the city lived their lives. Sandra Dibble was a reporter for the San Diego Union-Tribune at the time, and she treated her visiting mom to handmade corn tortillas, Cafe de la olla, and eggs drenched in mole in Tijuana’s upsca...

Roe vs. Wade is expected to be struck down this summer, which would mean abortion will no longer be a federally protected right. If that happens, about half the states will probably ban abortion altogether, or make getting one a lot more difficult. But for those who live in Texas, especially in the Rio Grande Valley, it’s already hard to get an abortion. Today, we look at how Texas has made it nea...

It’s barely spring in 2022 and California has already broken record heat and drought levels never before seen in 1,200 years. Major reservoirs across the American West are at record lows. Groundwater is drying up. It’s projected to get even worse in the upcoming summer months. Come June 1, millions of Southern Californians will have to learn how to live with the region’s most severe water restrict...

The arrest in Russia earlier this year of WNBA superstar Brittney Griner made worldwide headlines. But few dug into why she was playing abroad in the first place. Today, we hear how Griner is just one of many female athletes who find themselves abroad year after year to play the games they love, geopolitics be damned. All because they can’t get a fair wage in the United States. Read the full trans...

Mickey Mouse has been the mascot for Disney going back to the days of, well, Walt himself. But the copyright for the mouse that Disney has zealously guarded for decades is set to expire in just two years. That means the black-and-white version of Mickey Mouse depicted in “Steamboat Willie” would be in the public domain, where anyone can do anything with him and all of his magic and fame. A group o...

Aerial strikes, targeting civilians, cutting off supply chains: Russia’s brutal war tactics in Ukraine are shocking, but also hauntingly familiar. These are tactics the country has used before. Six years before Russia launched its brutal attack on Ukraine, it began another horrific military operation in Syria. Today, we talk about what we can learn about Russia’s strategy in Ukraine from its invol...

More and more companies worldwide are making the switch to a 32-hour work week. And in California, there’s even talk of making it the law. Today, we discuss what the State Legislature is discussing. And we hear from people at companies that already have done that. And guess what? Worker productivity, at least according to them, is as great as ever.  Read the transcript.  Host: Gustavo Arellano Gue...

Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. has been campaigning to become the next president of the Philippines via the power of TikTok and other social media. And Bongbong’s whitewashing of his family’s violent past has him on the cusp of victory. Today we go to the Philippines, where the presidential election is taking place next week. And we talk about how social media disinformation, yet again, might put...

We repeat our episode from last year on Cinco de Mayo because it’s that good. Axios reporter Russell Contreras takes us to the forgotten history of the holiday that’s more American than Mexican, and offers a case for why we should celebrate it. R ead the transcript here.  Host: Gustavo Arellano Guests: Axios reporter Russell Contreras More reading: If it’s Cinco de Mayo, the cooking should be Mexi...

On June 7, voters in Los Angeles will elect their preferred candidates in the primary. A couple of races — the mayor’s seat, L.A. County Sheriff, a possible recall of Dist. Atty. George Gascón — are earning national attention against a backdrop of voters angry with what they think is out-of-control crime and homelessness. Today, we air a live panel on all this and more, originally held during the...

In this installment of the podcast “Border City” from our sister paper, the San Diego Union-Tribune, longtime border reporter Sandra Dibble talks about what it was like covering the assassination of a police chief in Tijuana and the arrest of a powerful drug suspect. She also moonlights as an opera singer in Tijuana, puts on a concert for friends from both sides of the border and navigates living...

Streaming services were one of the few winners from the pandemic, especially Netflix. But the pandemic’s binge boom seems to have burst. Today, the winners and losers in the streaming wars and how providers are handling the post-quarantine subscriber drop.  Read the transcript.  Host: Gustavo Arellano Guests: L.A. Times film business reporter Ryan Faughnder More reading: After Netflix’s week from...

After South L.A. erupted in anger 30 years ago, government officials promised to end the community’s economic disparity once and for all, and invest. It’s a promise that many residents say remains unfulfilled. But is that finally going to change? Today, Part Two of our L.A. riots anniversary coverage will focus on the Crenshaw Line, a light-rail system that some South L.A. leaders say will help th...

April 29, 1992. A date that forever changed Los Angeles. Six days of chaos erupted after the acquittal of four police officers in the videotaped beating of Rodney King, an unarmed Black motorist. This is the first of two episodes on the 30th anniversary of the L.A. riots. Today, Black, Latino and Asian communities reflect on the uprising. We also discuss the racial reckoning of the L.A. Times news...

For more than a decade, #BlackTwitter — a community of millions that has harnessed the power of the social media platform to create real-world change — has been a cultural phenomenon. But with Elon Musk’s purchase of Twitter, many Black activists fret for the future of the space they created and say they might not stick around to see what changes the platform’s new owner will make. Today, how Twit...