Essential California Week in Review: Another COVID-19 wave arrives in Los Angeles

Good morning, and welcome to the Important California publication. It’s Saturday, Dec. 10.

Right here’s a have a look at the highest tales of the final week

One other COVID wave arrives. With coronavirus instances surging and hospitalizations worsening, Los Angeles County is once more going through the potential for a renewed public indoor masks mandate. Some elements which may be at work within the rise embrace a shorter incubation interval for the most recent Omicron pressure and indoor gatherings.

Family water wells are drying up. Throughout California, home wells are drying up in file numbers as a result of extreme drought and the overpumping of underground aquifers. The disaster has hit rural farming areas significantly exhausting.

Gov. Gavin Newsom unveils plan to cap refinery earnings. Newsom on Monday unveiled an overview of his plan to position a cap on oil refinery earnings in California, a proposal he’s asking lawmakers to approve in hopes of lowering future spikes on gasoline costs.

A journey via California’s failed psychological well being system. The lifetime of a 31-year-old residing with schizophrenia illustrates the toll of sickness and the problem of getting severely mentally in poor health individuals off the streets.

Chaos erupts after Kevin de León exhibits up at his first L.A. council assembly since October. The query of when — or if — De León would return following the fallout from a racist leaked audio tape had loomed giant at Metropolis Corridor for almost two months.

Narcan could possibly be required at California colleges. The proposal is a part of laws launched by Democratic and Republican state lawmakers this week that goals to extend details about the presence of fentanyl on Okay-12 campuses, which will be deadly and consumed unknowingly when it’s hidden in different medicine.

Authorized weed is failing in a legendary pot-growing area. If anywhere in California would have been anticipated to flourish after hashish was legalized, it was Trinity, in Northern California’s “Emerald Triangle.” However just like the boom-and-bust of gold mining and logging earlier than it, the financial promise of hashish has collapsed.

“Legislation & Order: SVU” showrunner accused of mistreating workers. Greater than a dozen people described David Graziano variously as a risky and bullying boss who rage-fired underlings, left staffers in tears and made inappropriate and demeaning feedback towards girls, assist workers and folks of shade.

California rodeo animals face violent and lethal casualties. A Occasions evaluate of the experiences exhibits that since 2001 — when a state regulation went into impact requiring all rodeos to have a veterinarian in attendance or on name — greater than 125 animal accidents have been reported.

L.A. Metropolis Council votes to reinstate the wage of an indicted member. It’s been greater than a 12 months since Mark Ridley-Thomas was suspended from his put up whereas going through federal corruption costs. Ridley-Thomas will obtain about $265,000, whereas an extra $99,500 will go to his authorized workforce.

Proposed state regulation may power L.A. to determine an unbiased redistricting fee. State Sen. María Elena Durazo, who launched the invoice together with a coalition of Los Angeles-area lawmakers, cited the incendiary recording involving three council members reported on by The Occasions in October, saying public confidence within the metropolis’s redistricting course of had eroded.

ICYMI, listed here are this week’s nice reads

These are the 101 finest eating places in Los Angeles. Eating places showing for the primary time comprise greater than 1 / 4 of the 2022 record. Some locations that beforehand dropped off have returned. And sure, the eating places are ranked once more for the primary time since 2019.

Metal blades, tiny bruises and a brand new goal in life. Stumbling upon the game of fencing at 55, The Occasions’ David Wharton writes about an surprising journey that taught him about getting old and discovering your “why” in life.

Right here’s how you can donate to a neighborhood toy drive. Native organizations are additionally accumulating donated toys that can go on to youths in the neighborhood. Listed here are various neighborhood occasions the place toys will probably be given out and native organizations which can be having toy drives.

Native People of Clear Lake name for a daring plan as a sacred minnow nears extinction. The Pomo Indian tribes have taken the uncommon and drastic step of urging Inside Secretary Deb Haaland to make use of her emergency powers and invoke the federal Endangered Species Act on behalf of the Clear Lake hitch.

A toast to the misunderstood temperance motion. For 13 luckless years, the USA banned by constitutional modification the vice of liquor — and paradoxically plunged itself as a substitute into an age of reckless, lawless ingesting, organized crime and hypocrisy. It took a second constitutional modification to undo the primary, and we nonetheless haven’t undone the dysfunction all of it left behind.

Please tell us what we will do to make this article extra helpful to you. Ship feedback, complaints and concepts to essentialcalifornia@latimes.com.