Good morning, and welcome to the Essential California newsletter. It’s Sunday. I’m your host, Andrew J. Campa. Here’s what you need to know to start your weekend:

Check out our games

One of America’s enduring traditions is waking up on Sundays to complete the local newspaper’s crossword puzzle. The scene is often an individual or a couple in pajamas, sipping coffee or tea and tapping on their tables or chairs with a pencil as they ponder.

It’s an act that dates back to 1913, when the former New York World newspaper is believed to have run the first crossword puzzle.

While the Los Angeles Times boasts a robust Daily Crossword, its newly revamped Games section has so much more to offer.

There’s new takes on old classics and stalwarts, along with an emphasis from the Games team to draw 21st century subscribers more in favor of digital innovations. And they’re all free.

Let’s take a quick peak.

Wordflower

The L.A. Times’ newest addition to the Games family, “Wordflower,” has a familiar feel for fans of the New York Times’ wildly popular “Spelling Bee.”

Challenge yourself each day to find words of four or more letters using the letter at the center of the flower. Advance based on the quantity and length of words you find. Can you make it to Golden Poppy?

We love “Wordflower,” and we think you will too for some of its features.

For instance, “Wordflower” features a timer not seen in similar versions, and you don’t have to toggle between screens to see what words you’ve already selected.

Maybe most important, “Wordflower” places the total number of words needed to be found in an obvious place the player can see.

Daily Crossword

Play the nation’s oldest newspaper crossword free every day, and challenge friends to beat your time.

Check back each day for a new puzzle and to browse our recent archive.

The upgraded crossword enables the user to play in a larger and easier-to-use setting, which is mobile friendly for those who want to play on the go.

The puzzle is published every day at 9 p.m. Pacific Standard Time.

Mini Crossword

Challenge yourself daily with a free mini version of the classic crossword puzzle.

Can you solve the Mini in minutes — or seconds? Play a new puzzle every day or browse the archive.

Sudoku

Test your savvy with a new classic numbers puzzle every day, and come back daily for more free puzzles.

You can start on easy mode and ride your way up four levels to expert.

Conquered expert mode? Try Impossible Sudoku for the ultimate challenge.

Word Search

Speaking of classics, unwind by hunting for words on the day’s themed list.

They’re hidden horizontally, vertically, diagonally and backward.

Come back daily for a new theme or to browse the recent archive.

News Quiz

Hopefully, you’re already familiar with our popular news quiz.

This is where your range, from pop culture to history, science and current affairs, gets challenged.

Test your knowledge and memory of this week’s stories with 10 California-leaning multiple-choice questions about the week in news — straight from our quizmaster.

There are plenty more games to check out here. Have fun!

The week’s biggest stories

(Nic Coury / Associated Press)

Climate change, weather and animal news

Crime, courts and policing

Holiday heartbreak and elation

USC, Dodgers and other sports highlights

More big stories

Get unlimited access to the Los Angeles Times. Subscribe here.

Column One

Column One is The Times’ home for narrative and long-form journalism. Here’s a great piece from this week:

(Courtesy of Albert Sanders/Courtesy of Albert Sanders)

Albert Sanders Jr., the boy with the big dreams and the bigger drive, was scared. He was angry. Worried. He wanted to become a lawyer, to wow courtrooms just like Ben Matlock and Perry Mason did on his family’s clunky console TV. But in 1994, when he was 14, that dream suddenly seemed beyond reach, hence the anger and worry.

More great reads

How can we make this newsletter more useful? Send comments to essentialcalifornia@latimes.com.

For your weekend

It’s Sunday Funday, featuring Justine Lupe.

(Illustrations by Lindsey Made This; photograph by Jon Kopaloff / WireImage)

Going out

Staying in

L.A. Affairs

Get wrapped up in tantalizing stories about dating, relationships and marriage.

(Lili Todd / For The Times)

Through first dates and internships, there was always that one sushi shop in Pasadena. It’s where they celebrated birthdays and green card arrivals. It’s where she found calm during high times and anxiety, and where they celebrated anniversaries. Now, more than seven years into their relationship, the shop has served an unexpected monument to their love.

Have a great weekend, from the Essential California team

Andrew J. Campa, reporter
Carlos Lozano, news editor

Check our top stories, topics and the latest articles on latimes.com.

SAN DIEGO (KGTV) — Starting Jan. 1, 2025, a new California law will double the response time for tenants facing eviction, offering them more opportunity to seek legal advice and adequately prepare their cases. The law extends the response period from five business days to 10 business days.

Genea Nicole Wall, a tenant from City Heights, experienced the turmoil of eviction earlier this year after failing to pay her rent on time.

“You’re trying to pack up and trying to respond. You’re just all over the place. You’re emotionally all over the place,” Wall says.

Unlike most other court summons that allow for a 30-day response period, eviction notices in California have traditionally given tenants only five business days to act. Wall described her struggle to navigate the court system under these constraints.

“Going to court trying to get assistance… It was just a grueling task. Daunting trying to get stuff done,” she says.

The new state law is designed to provide tenants with more time to stabilize their situation and seek proper legal support.

“What do those extra five days mean for someone who was just served an eviction notice? It’s giving people more time to get your bearings, figure out what you’re going to do before it’s too late and you lose automatically and get fast-tracked to being homeless and kicked out of your home,” says Gilberto Vera, an attorney with the nonprofit Legal Aid Society.

According to Vera, 40% of tenants facing eviction in San Diego last year did not respond to their court summons, effectively forfeiting their cases.

“If they don’t respond and tell the court that the eviction was wrongful and invalid – they’ll lose automatically,” Vera says.

Vera hopes this law will help tenants better understand their rights and prevent wrongful evictions by providing the necessary time to form a defense.

“I would be able to think — you could plan to take the time off to do what you need to do to get the assistance,” Wall says.

Wall, now living in Brea after being evicted from her City Heights apartment, believes she could have won her court case had this law been in effect.

Most of the state’s increase in homelessness can be attributed to growth in the state’s unsheltered homeless population, which is nearly half of the nation’s total. However, the state’s homeless population did grow much less than the national average, suggesting some of the state’s programs — albeit costly — may finally be making an impact. 

In September, California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office brushed off a CalMatters estimate that the state’s homeless population grew to nearly 186,000, telling The Center Square the organization’s reporting was based on incomplete data that analyzed only 32 of the state’s 58 counties. 

“California and other officials use official confirmed data published by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, and not CalMatters’ estimates, which are unverified,” said a Newsom spokesperson to The Center Square in September, when CalMatters released its report.

Now, the verified count from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development recommended by Newsom’s office shows that homelessness is even higher than CalMatters estimated. This 5,685 individual increase in the state’s homeless population could suggest the state’s homelessness efforts — and tens of billions of dollars in recent state funding — have been unable to stop the growth of the state’s homeless population. 

Earlier this year a state auditor looked into $24 billion of state homelessness spending, finding “the State lacks current information on the ongoing costs and outcomes of its homelessness programs” because it has “not consistently tracked and evaluated the State’s efforts to prevent and end homelessness.”

Newsom vetoed two widely-supported bipartisan bills to better track and evaluate homelessness spending and outcomes, saying his own directives to increase accountability make the measures redundant. 

The state is now home to 123,974 unsheltered homeless individuals — up from 117,424 the year prior —  or nearly half of the nation’s total. In 2019 — before the COVID-19 era — California had 151,278 homeless individuals, 108,432 of whom were unsheltered.