Essential California Week Recap: Flooding remains a concern in California

Good morning and welcome to the Essential California newsletter. Is Saturday, March 18.

Here’s a look at the biggest news from the past week.

Age, drought, rodents and neglect weaken California’s levees, increasing the danger of flooding. The Pajaro River levee failure points to hazards California has yet to address in many areas where communities are vulnerable, experts say.

Further:

• The levee breach in Monterey County caused massive flooding and prompted evacuations and rescues.
• The migrant town of Pájaro was flooded last week during heavy storms that caused a levee to break. Now another storm is approaching.
• As flood waters rise in California, so does the risk of more levee failure. Experts say decades of government neglect put the most vulnerable communities at greatest risk of catastrophic flooding.
• Days after the rain stopped, communities across central California, including Porterville and Visalia, remain under evacuation orders and flood warnings. And more rain is on the way.

LAUSD teachers and staff prepare for a massive three-day walkout. The Los Angeles Unified School District, the second-largest school district in the country, will close all 1,000 campuses starting Tuesday as the teachers and school staff unions are on strike for three days.

What to know about the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank. Silicon Valley Bank, or SVB, collapsed late last week as venture capitalists pulled out billions of dollars in a short period of time. Here is everything you need to know about the spectacular collapse of SVB.

Eric Garcetti finally got the ambassadorship he wanted. After nearly two years in limbo, former Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti was confirmed Wednesday as the next US ambassador to India. This is how he did it.

the week in photos

Michelle Yeoh accepts the best actress Oscar for her role in “Everything Everywhere All at Once” at the 95th Academy Awards at the Dolby Theater in Hollywood on Sunday.

(Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times)

See the photos behind this week’s biggest stories: “Everything Everywhere All at Once” sweeps the Oscars; a massive three-day strike may shut down Los Angeles public schools; Gov. Gavin Newsom wants to transform San Quentin State Prison; and the California prison program trains addiction counselors.

california governor Gavin Newsom says the state is on track to reduce homelessness by 15%. After criticizing all local homeless plans last year, Newsom announced during his State of the State tour that locals have agreed to reduce homelessness without shelter by 15% over two years.

A USC doctor’s examination of past books finds more troubling instances of plagiarism. The Times reviewed three books by Dr. David Agus and co-author Kristin Loberg and found more than 120 passages that are virtually identical in language and structure to previously published material.

Los Angeles commuters leave Metro trains amid the ‘horror’ of deadly drug overdoses and crime. Commuters have abandoned large swaths of a Los Angeles Metro rail system plagued by crime and the scourge of drugs. Since January, 22 people have died on Metro buses and trains, mostly from suspected overdoses, more people than in all of 2022.

California to transform the infamous San Quentin prison with Scandinavian ideas. Newsom will announce plans to redo San Quentin, one of the state’s most storied prisons, using a Scandinavian prison model that emphasizes rehabilitation.

How an FBI agent’s wild Las Vegas weekend marred an investigation into NCAA basketball corruption. A Times investigation reveals details about an investigation into NCAA men’s college basketball and the misconduct of the top FBI agent in Las Vegas.

Companies say they want diversity. So why are Latinos left out of corporate boards? Latinos are the nation’s largest ethnic or racial minority at 18.9% of the population, but even when companies tout their commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion, Latinos are much less likely to rise to the top. pinnacle of corporate power in mostly white boardrooms.

ICYMI: What happened at the Oscars 2023? He dominated “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” Rihanna receives a standing ovation, Ke Huy Quan cries and more at the 2023 Academy Awards.

ICYMI, here are the great reads of this week

Forced to live in horse stables. How one of America’s worst injustices played out in Santa Anita. The Japanese Americans were held at the racetrack before being sent to incarceration camps. Letters from Darrell Kunitomi’s uncle reveal the indignities of living there.

No, my Japanese American parents were not ‘interned’ during World War II. They were jailed. Following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, Teresa Watanabe’s parents were incarcerated in an incarceration camp, not an internment camp. Internment. Imprisonment. Not many people make a distinction between the two terms or understand why it is so important to do so.

The Los Angeles Times will no longer use “internment” to describe the mass incarceration of 120,000 people of Japanese descent during World War II.

His mother disappeared. Then her babysitter. A lawman fears she’s next. A Northern California tribal police chief faces the personal and professional challenge of how to resolve a crisis of missing and murdered Native American women and girls.

Today’s week’s review newsletter was curated by Kenya Romero. Please let us know what we can do to make this newsletter more useful to you. Send comments, complaints and ideas to essentialcalifornia@WhatsNewDay.com.