Essential California Week Recap: Hot, heavy rains mean more flooding is likely

Good morning and welcome to the Essential California newsletter. Is Saturday, March 11.

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

Consecutive atmospheric rivers cause flooding and evacuations. The first of two atmospheric river storms descended on California on Friday, prompting widespread evacuation orders as it flooded streams and rivers and dumped heavy warm rains on top of the state’s near-record snowpack.

Further:

20 years later, we look back on some embarrassing Oscars for the ages. Much of the 2003 ceremony has aged poorly, or worse. Two decades later, we look back at a night that heralded a Hollywood reckoning to come.

Many Russian soldiers want to surrender. Ukraine makes it easy with a high-tech hotline. The Ukrainian army’s surrender hotline, dubbed “I want to live,” is luring some Russian soldiers to leave the battlefield as the war rages on.

We found 95 instances of plagiarism in a USC scientist’s new book. Sales have been suspended. At least 95 separate passages in the book resemble, sometimes verbatim, text that originally appeared in other published sources available on the Internet. Passages are not credited or acknowledged in the book or in its endnotes.

the week in photos

A brutal murder devastates a family; California braces for floods. Here are the photos that defined the week.

Why are Californians moving to Florida? Affordability is a big reason, “wake up” probably not. In his dispute with California, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis claims that the Golden State is losing residents due to its left-wing ways. The indications suggest otherwise.

Billy Joel on his years in Los Angeles: I felt like ‘an exiled writer living in Paris.’ If he had to do it over again, Bill Joel says he would stop writing “at least 25%” of his songs.

Fox News host Maria Bartiromo is front and center in Dominion’s defamation lawsuit. The “Sunday Morning Futures” host and Fox Business Network morning host is prominent in Dominion’s claims that the network lied about voter fraud.

Inside the financial ties between a controversial housing non-profit organization and Kevin de León. As an incoming member of the Los Angeles City Council in 2020, Kevin de León requested a meeting with city officials regarding their oversight of residential hotels owned by the AIDS Healthcare Foundation. But he did not tell the city that the foundation was paying him, authorities say.

A piece of Rancho Palos Verdes slides into the sea. Can the city stop it? A decades-old landslide has reshaped a 240-acre portion of the Palos Verdes peninsula known as the Portuguese Bend. Rancho Palos Verdes is mounting a plan to stop him.

Column: The real and complicated reasons why Los Angeles still has so many RV campgrounds. There are not enough trucks to tow or space to park large vehicles. But those problems pale in comparison to the change in mindset of many who live in trailers.

Former BET CEO Debra Lee details romance with co-founder: “I would have lost everything.” In her memoir “I Am Debra Lee,” the former BET CEO speaks candidly about her tenure at the cable network and shares advice for women in corporate America.

ICYMI, here are the great reads of this week

Column: Drew Barrymore is too much, and that’s the right thing to do. At 48, Drew Barrymore has survived divorce, given up alcohol, and left her beloved Los Angeles. She is now trying to accept herself as she moves in a new direction: talk show host.

Californian kitesurfers found the perfect beach in Baja California. Then they gentrified it. A quirk of geography has created a spot in southern Baja with nearly perfect winds for kitesurfing. In recent years, Californians have built a thriving outpost there. Is growth sustainable?

LA Matters: I was too happy and in love to notice the red flags. Adriano wore a backwards Lakers cap and had a smile that immediately broke the seven seals that had been guarding my heart for almost 10 years.

Today’s week’s review newsletter was curated by Karim Doumar. 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.