Newsletter: Essential California Week in Review: Ex-cop hunted down wife in Orange County mass shooting, killing 3

Good morning, and welcome to the Essential California newsletter. It is Saturday, Aug. 26.

Here’s a look at the top stories of the last week

Ex-cop hunted down wife in Cook’s Corner shooting. ‘Not a discussion, dialogue or argument.’ John Snowling opened fire after arriving at Cook’s Corner, an Orange County eatery popular with families and motorcycle enthusiasts. He was fatally shot by deputies after he killed three people and wounded six. His wife was among the wounded.

More on the Cook’s Corner shooting

• What we know about Cook’s Corner mass shooter John Snowling.
• The three people killed by an ex-cop at an Orange County bar are identified.
• The ex-cop was gunning for his estranged wife, then shot randomly, killing three and wounding six.
• The gunman’s wife targeted in the Cook’s Corner mass shooting was a ‘sweetheart,’ friends say.
• One minute they were onstage at Cook’s Corner playing ‘Rhiannon.’ Then came a hail of gunfire.

A marine heat wave off California helped fuel Hurricane Hilary. What’ll it do next? Off the California coast sits a marine heat wave that has persisted since 2014. Scientists aren’t sure whether it’s now permanent, or a decades-long blip on the map.

More Hilary coverage

• How bad was Hilary? Mountain and desert communities got the worst of the tropical storm.
• What happened when a ‘hurriquake’ struck Ojai? Little damage and plenty of weird vibes.
• When Hilary hit their small road, no one was prepared for the destruction that followed.
• Catalina got a scary Hilary warning. But the island was prepared.
• They went from 110-degree days to having to dig out after Tropical Storm Hilary slammed California.
• Hilary flooded your home. Will insurance cover the damage?
• Disasters like Hilary are a magnet for fraudsters. Look out for these scams.
• Texas sent more asylum seekers to L.A. even as Hilary raged, an immigrant rights group says.

A pride flag, an argument and gunfire: The senseless killing of Laura Ann Carleton. Friends and family say the slain Lake Arrowhead shop owner and mother of nine was a pillar in the community, equal parts entrepreneur and advocate.

Related stories

• The final moments before pride flag killing emerge, along with the disturbing portrait of the gunman.
• The killer in the Pride flag dispute appears to have posted anti-LGBTQ+ rants and conspiracies online.
• X suspends the account of the shooter in the Pride flag dispute shortly after saying he did not break safety policies.

In the face of sea level rise, can we reimagine California’s vanishing coastline? The human-built world keeps getting in the way of the rising sea. But this current story of our coast does not have to end in disaster.

Our climate change challenge

• California is working on solutions to worsening climate change. Will they be enough?
• California is falling short of its food composting goals. Is a crackdown coming?
• California’s plastic bag ban is failing. Here’s why.

Photo of the week

Residents from Affinity Senior Living sit in the bucket of a front loader after being rescued from the flooded facility Monday during Tropical Storm Hilary in Cathedral City, Calif.

(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)

Californians move inland for safety and cheaper housing — but find extreme heat that’s getting worse. Many Californians in the counties with the most affordable housing will be most at risk for extreme heat in the decades to come, according to a Times analysis.

More climate and environment coverage

• Southern California can expect a heat wave over the next few days. How hot could it get?

The FBI joins a probe of Los Angeles Police Department gang officers suspected of turning off their body cameras. A week after LAPD internal affairs detectives searched the officers’ lockers, Chief Michel Moore announced that federal prosecutors and the FBI’s civil rights division are launching their own probe.

More LAPD coverage

• LAPD to use AI to analyze body cam videos for officers’ language use.
• The Los Angeles City Council signs off on police raises amid warnings of financial risk.

Inside the ruthless crime wave targeting Los Angeles’ vulnerable street food vendors. A rash of robberies targeting food trucks and stands across L.A. — including six in mid-August — has had a chilling effect on the industry.

Los Angeles tenants welcomed the rent freeze, but landlords are tired of restrictions. Landlords and tenants reflect on L.A.’s pandemic-era freeze on rent increases for rent-stabilized apartments, which the city has extended into 2024.

President Biden is vacationing at a Lake Tahoe home. For locals, he’s another tourist tearing them apart. Lake Tahoe has never been a more popular destination for millions — even Biden. But the impact of all these visitors is tearing the community apart.

Studios tout ‘comprehensive package’ to WGA. Union criticizes the attempt ‘to get us to cave.’ The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers revealed details of its Aug. 11 proposal to the WGA with the sides yet to come to an agreement.

More on the Hollywood strike

• Hollywood strike affecting your income? Here’s how to lower your student loan payments.
• As Hollywood strikes drag on, California lawmakers consider unemployment pay for striking workers.

Los Angeles County fails to place older foster kids, leaving them homeless, a lawsuit alleges. The suit argues the county and state violate the constitutional rights of older foster youths by subjecting them to “extreme housing instability and homelessness.”

In a Watts housing project, ‘a death angel’ kept knocking this summer. Even before a pair of shootings nearby drew attention in late July, the Imperial Courts public housing project in Watts had seen a lot of death.

Events where the Beyhive can celebrate Beyoncé’s Renaissance tour around Los Angeles. Los Angeles has dance parties and more leading up to Beyoncé’s concerts at SoFi Stadium.

More Beyoncé

• Everything you need to prepare for Beyoncé’s arrival at SoFi Stadium.
• Do you have a very L.A. Beyoncé story? Tell us about it.

ICYMI, here are this week’s great reads

Members of the band Quetzal — Quetzal Flores, left, Alberto Lopez, Martha Gonzalez, Evan Greer and Juan Perez — rehearse in Los Angeles. The Grammy-winning East L.A. band has been one of the most innovative Chicano rock groups of the last three decades, fusing rock, R&B and regional Mexican music into a style that is alternately poetic and defiant.

(Mel Melcon/Los Angeles Times)

East L.A. band Quetzal makes music that makes people take to the streets — for 30 years. Sure, the Grammy Award was nice. But this virtuoso Chicano ensemble is mainly motivated by social justice, funky grooves and exploring the Latin American musical diaspora.

From prison to film set, this program creates a new pipeline. Founded by former journalist Dan Seaver and filmmaker Chip Warren in 2014, ManifestWorks has graduated 257 students, training them as production assistants and establishing a pipeline to high-paying union jobs.

Lizzo’s brand was built on empowerment and acceptance. Her accusers tell another story. Lizzo is facing a lawsuit from former backup dancers that threatens to undo her hard-won image as a beacon of empowerment and self-acceptance.

• Lizzo hired Marty Singer, Hollywood’s favorite attack dog. Here’s a closer look at his A-list resume.

Mississippi has problems but it’s crushing Los Angeles when it comes to homelessness. The public tends to blame homelessness on poverty, drug use, crime or even warm weather. But other cities don’t have L.A. levels of street homelessness because they have more available housing.

It’s not just ‘The Blind Side.’ In Hollywood, the ‘white savior’ won’t go quietly. The afterlives of ‘The Blind Side’ and ‘The Help,’ as well as the development of ‘Killers of the Flower Moon,’ point to the tenacity of a timeworn Hollywood trope.

Today’s week-in-review newsletter was curated by Laura Blasey. Please let us know what we can do to make this newsletter more useful to you. Send comments, complaints and ideas to [email protected].