Today’s Headlines — Column: The Sheriff’s Department under Villanueva hasn’t exactly been Latino-friendly

Here are the stories you shouldn’t miss today:

TOP STORIES

Arellano: L.A. County’s sheriff called me a ‘vendido,’ a sellout. Let’s talk about selling out

Villanueva strode into office in 2018 in a stunning political upset of incumbent Jim McDonnell by courting Chicano yaktivists and Democratic politicos who wanted ICE out of L.A. County jails for good. There was hope among those supporters that Villanueva — a half-Puerto Rican who speaks conversational Spanish — would usher in a kinder Sheriff’s Department, one with a long, bad history in how it dealt with Latinos.

Let’s just say the Sheriff’s Department under Villanueva hasn’t exactly been Latino-friendly, writes columnist Gustavo Arellano.

More politics

— A federal grand jury has issued subpoenas seeking information about cash and other payments to public officials and cannabis consultants as part of a criminal investigation into pot licensing in Baldwin Park and nearby cities, The Times has learned.

— Vexed by dust pollution, officials around Mono Lake call on Los Angeles to cease water diversions.

— Just four months ago, community activists celebrated a milestone decision in the Pomona Unified School District: The Board of Education defunded school police. But prompted in part by a recent shooting near a campus, the board has reversed course and brought back police.

Sign up for our California Politics newsletter to get the best of The Times’ state politics reporting and the latest action in Sacramento.

Eight dead, at least 25 injured during crowd surge at Travis Scott’s Astroworld music festival

Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner, speaking at a news conference Saturday, described “a tragedy on many different levels” and vowed that “this incident is being thoroughly investigated.”

Officials said that at least one security guard fell unconscious and was treated with Narcan, which is used for opioid overdoses, after feeling a needle “prick” while responding to the crowd surge.

— For Travis Scott, a history of chaos at concerts, followed by a night of unspeakable tragedy.

Grandma and Disneyland: Parents who jumped at COVID shots for kids crave ‘normal life’

Young children have been at lower risk of severe illness and death from COVID-19 than adults. Still, that made COVID-19 comparable with the eighth-leading cause of death among children ages 5 to 11 in the yearlong period ending Oct. 2, with 66 deaths reported nationally in that time.

Last week, tens of millions of children nationwide became newly eligible for the COVID vaccine, after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended the pediatric vaccine for kids ages 5 to 11.

One parent said being able to finally get her 6-year-olds vaccinated “brings a sense of peace and comfort and knowing that we did our part to protect our families and our loved ones and our community.”

More top coronavirus headlines

— L.A. restaurants in low-vaccination areas brace for hits as new mandate arrives.

— A federal appeals court Saturday temporarily halted the Biden administration’s COVID-19 vaccine requirement for businesses with 100 or more workers.

For more, sign up for Coronavirus Today, a special edition of The Times’ Health and Science newsletter.

Biden secures bipartisan win with infrastructure vote

President Biden on Saturday marked a major step forward on the rocky path toward enacting his sweeping economic agenda, hailing the passage of bipartisan infrastructure legislation while urging his party to also enact another measure to expand the social safety net and fight climate change.

— After Virginia election, GOP amplifies debate over race and education.

OUR MUST-READS FROM THE WEEKEND

—The Taliban is back — Afghan women are scared, but defiant. The freedoms and expectations many have come to prize are vanishing as the militant group’s return to power after two decades has stirred profound sorrow over losses that may prove irredeemable.

— An LAPD-caused explosion cost them their home. After months of limbo, they went to the desert.

— Marilyn Manson’s accusers detail his alleged abuse. ‘He’s so much worse than his persona.’

— Dude, where’s my order? Tracing one container through a broken global supply chain.

— Lopez: They say their ocean-aged wine is magic in a bottle. We put that claim to the test.

— L.A. Affairs: All the things I wish I’d said to you.

FROM THE ARCHIVES

On Nov. 8, 1994, California voters approved Prop. 187 by a 59% to 41% margin, denying government-funded non-emergency services to undocumented immigrants. Eight lawsuits filed in federal and state courts by civil rights groups and public agencies claimed 187 was unconstitutional.

A judge agreed in 1997. Read our Prop. 187 timeline: The rise and fall of California’s anti-immigrant law.

Nov. 9, 1994 front page of Los Angeles Times

(Los Angeles Times)

CALIFORNIA

— The UC Hastings College of the Law, California’s first law school, will soon no longer bear the name of its founder, Serranus Clinton Hastings, whose legacy includes profiting off the killings and displacement of Native Americans in Northern California.

— A huge new Navy fuel ship was launched into San Diego Bay bearing the name of Harvey Milk, the slain civil rights leader whose activism fed a social movement that decades later won the right for gay people to openly serve in the military.

— Thousands of eager professional and amateur athletes took to the streets Sunday to participate in the 36th Los Angeles Marathon, which was twice delayed this year because of the pandemic.

— The city of Los Angeles launched a program to make sports more accessible to children.

NATION-WORLD

— The first major election day following a year of relentless attacks on voting rights and election officials went off largely without a hitch. But election experts say even a smooth election cycle this year is unlikely to curb the distrust that has built up over the last year within a segment of the public.

— McManus: President Biden’s approval ratings are down. To recover, he needs to fix two big problems the president promised to address in the first place: the pandemic and the economy.

— After jailing rivals, Nicaraguan president poised for reelection.

— An oil tanker exploded near Sierra Leone’s capital, killing at least 98 people and severely injuring dozens after large crowds gathered to collect leaking fuel, officials and witnesses said Saturday.

HOLLYWOOD AND THE ARTS

— ‘Eternals’ stars Gemma Chan and Richard Madden on that sex scene and their MCU futures.

— After ‘Rust’ shooting, attention turns to Georgia producers after crew members and documents reviewed by The Times paint a picture of a troubled set plagued by labor tensions before the shooting.

— Beloved serial killer Dexter Morgan (Michael C. Hall) is back to slay another day with the arrival of Showtime’s 10-episode miniseries, “Dexter: New Blood.”

— Knight: Obama portraits find good company in L.A. museum show that signals Black lives matter.

BUSINESS

— Are you detail-oriented and great at math? You might be a perfect fit for bookkeeping and accounting side hustles.

SPORTS

— Hernández: A weighty decision looms for Canelo Álvarez after latest triumph.

— Inglewood High players defend their 106-0 win over Morningside amid criticism.

— Dodgers make qualifying offers to Corey Seager, Chris Taylor, but not Clayton Kershaw.

— Two Trojans quarterbacks are not better than one in USC’s aimless loss at Arizona State.

— Lakers’ Russell Westbrook knows he needs to ‘play harder’.

OPINION

— Granderson: Of all the surprises to unfold this past week, watching Aaron Rodgers use the words of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. to try to justify his nonsense was the least expected.

— Abcarian: As an employer, Sean Penn’s emotional outburst was dumb, but the NLRB’s response is dumber.

ONLY IN L.A.

Every so often, Frank Cruz would walk into his spacious garage in Laguna Niguel and contemplate the boxes filled with things old and unused from his days as a Chicano studies professor, TV news reporter and anchor, co-founder of the Spanish-language network Telemundo and of a pioneering Latino-owned insurance company.

But there was one particular big blue box that always gnawed at him. Its label read: “Chicano Series.”

Inside were nine 16-millimeter film reels of “Chicano I & II: The Mexican American Heritage Series,” the television show that first aired on KNBC-TV in Los Angeles in July 1971. The series, hosted by Cruz when he was in his early 30s, also played on sister stations in Chicago, New York, Cleveland and Washington, D.C.

His contacts led him to a film archivist at USC who digitized the film and created a website for them. For the first time since they aired and reran in the early 1970s, nine of 20 episodes from the Chicano series are now publicly available on the website for USC’s Hugh M. Hefner Moving Image Archive.

Today’s newsletter was curated by Seth Liss. Comments or ideas? Email us at [email protected].