Today’s Headlines: What happened when a ‘hurriquake’ struck Ojai?

Hello, it’s Wednesday, Aug. 23, and here are the stories you shouldn’t miss today:

TOP STORIES

What happened when a ‘hurriquake’ struck Ojai? As Tropical Storm Hilary bore down on Southern California, Ojai was jolted by an earthquake, shaking homes and businesses like a bomb going off.

Neither disaster did much damage in the town of about 7,600 people about 90 miles northwest of Los Angeles. The tropical storm weakened to a steady rain, and though books tumbled off shelves and several stores mopped up broken bottles of wine, there were no reports of deaths, serious injuries or structural damage as a result of the quake.

More Hilary coverage

• When Tropical Storm Hilary hit Cathedral City in the Coachella Valley, no one was prepared for the destruction that followed.
• They went from 110-degree days to having to dig out after Tropical Storm Hilary slammed California.
• Residents trapped by Tropical Storm Hilary make their way out.
• Catalina got a scary Hilary warning. But the island was prepared.
• Hilary was billed as a monster storm. Why it battered some areas but spared others.
• 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.

In the face of sea level rise, can we reimagine California’s vanishing coastline? The sea has long inspired a human attraction, perhaps even a compulsion, to be as close to the edge as possible. But the ocean is not “out there” beyond the shore, it is upon us, carving away at the coast each day despite our best efforts to keep the water at bay. We thought that with enough ingenuity we could contain the sea, but the rising tide is proving otherwise.

📅 Don’t miss “Ask a Reporter: Inside the project”

• What: Times reporters Rosanna Xia and Sammy Roth will discuss “Our Climate Change Challenge” during a livestreaming conversation. City Editor Maria L. La Ganga moderates.
• When: Sept. 19 at 6 p.m. Pacific.
• Where: This free event will be livestreaming. Sign up on Eventbrite for watch links and to share your questions and comments.

Subscribe to Boiling Point, a weekly newsletter about climate change and the environment.

Tireless L.A. cadaver dogs search Lahaina for human remains. About 40 cadaver dogs are doing the grueling work of searching through the rubble of Lahaina, sniffing for even the slightest trace of the more than 800 people still missing after the most lethal U.S. wildfire in a century.

Human searchers have little hope of detecting the tiny fragments that remain of many victims. So the last hope for this paradisiacal island to find closure, for proper grieving and healing, rests with man’s best friend.

The final moments before a Pride flag killing emerge. For years before last week’s killing of a businesswoman who displayed a Pride flag in front of her Lake Arrowhead shop, the gunman, Travis Ikeguchi, posted far-right, conspiratorial content to his social media accounts.

Days after Ikeguchi, 27, was killed by San Bernardino County sheriff’s deputies following the shooting of Laura Ann Carleton outside her shop, Mag.Pi, few details have been revealed about who Ikeguchi was beyond his fringe political beliefs.

Lizzo’s brand was built on empowerment and acceptance. Her accusers tell another story. Lizzo is confronting allegations that threaten to undo years of building a hard-won image as a beacon of empowerment and self-acceptance. A singer seen as an agent of change in the music industry has, for some, come to symbolize its entrenched problems.

Three of Lizzo’s former backup dancers recently sued Lizzo and her company Big Grrrl Big Touring, alleging sexual harassment and creating a hostile work environment for the marginalized women she’d encouraged on the Grammy stage just six months before.

PHOTO OF THE DAY

LAPD officers scuffle with counterprotesters as they try to keep them away from a group opposing LGBTQ+ education at a demonstration near the downtown LAUSD offices.

(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

A crowd protests LGBTQ+ education in Los Angeles; two arrested at LAUSD offices. Demonstrators came from across Southern California in opposition to LGBTQ+ education and in support of telling parents about their children’s gender identity.

CALIFORNIA

John Eastman’s bar trial resumes, a week after he was indicted with Trump and others. The former Trump advisor could lose his California law license. One expert calls it a “high-stakes” proceeding for the bar after the Tom Girardi scandal.

LAPD to use AI to analyze body cam videos for officers’ language use. LAPD will use artificial intelligence to analyze body camera video as part of a broader study of whether officers’ language escalates public encounters.

• A union contract would increase LAPD’s budget by nearly $400 million by 2027, a report says.

Clint Yeager, beloved Eagle LA bartender and queer rock musician, dies at 53. Yeager, a longtime bartender at the queer leather bar Eagle LA who also performed with several rock bands since the 1990s, died Aug. 15.

NATION-WORLD

Trump lawyer John Eastman turns himself in for arrest in Georgia. Allies of former President Trump have begun surrendering in Fulton County for arrest in connection with attempts to overturn the 2020 election.

Rolling blackouts, sudden shutdowns: Extreme heat boils — and roils — the Middle East. As the world grows hotter and blistering summer days become routine, the task of supplying electricity is becoming an increasingly intractable problem across the Middle East.
And it’s set to get worse.

In largely spared Tijuana, life for many is already ‘back to normal’ after Hilary. Despite hours of rain and doomsday forecasts, the storm had done little damage to the city of about 2 million people.

HOLLYWOOD AND THE ARTS

Britney Spears’ divorce lawyer Laura Wasser is the go-to for L.A. celebs — here’s a look at her clients. The “Disso Queen” has repped A-listers including Kevin Costner, Angelina Jolie and Kim Kardashian in their high-profile splits. This is also not the first time she has represented Spears.

Fyre Festival 2 tickets are somehow on sale right now — and there’s not even a lineup. The festival’s promoter, Billy McFarland — who pleaded guilty to fraud and was sentenced in October 2018 to six years in federal prison as a result of the original botched Fyre Festival — announced Sunday that the new festival’s sequence would be coming soon.

The TV shows and movies from Latin America referenced in ‘Blue Beetle.’ The director and writer of the movie were granted the creative freedom to pull from their own version of Latinidad to inform what’s on screen. The end result is a film laden with pop cultural references from Latin America, as well as nods to its history.

Lovingly called the ‘Gender Bender,’ she makes neon art that’s a ‘megaphone’ for trans activism. Through her art, a third-generation Southern California neon glassblower and signmaker aims to help other trans people feel less alone and question the beliefs and systems that discriminate against them.

BUSINESS

L.A. might ban cashless businesses. Here’s what’s at stake. Business owners argue that card- or app-only payment systems streamline business operations and limit assets on hand. But such businesses exclude certain customers and create an issue of equity since unbanked, elderly and low-income residents rely mostly on cash to get by.

Biden’s income-driven student loan repayment plan starts taking applications. A new, income-based student loan repayment plan launched Tuesday offers more affordable monthly payments to millions of low- and moderate-income borrowers.

SPORTS

Column: Where’s the accountability? USC President Carol Folt still silent about Mike Bohn. Three months after Bohn resigned in disgrace as USC’s athletic director, Folt still won’t talk about the scandal-ridden school’s most recent embarrassment. “I’m not talking anymore about that,” she said, as if she ever did.

A Little Leaguer cracked his skull from a bunk bed fall at the World Series. A year later, he’s still recovering. Easton Oliverson fell from a top bunk bed in the dormitories where teams stay and fractured his skull. He had three head surgeries and, his father said, will suffer residual effects of the injuries for the rest of his life.

12 things UCLA must do to win the Pac-12 in its farewell season. UCLA would love to win the Pac-12 in its final season in the conference, but it won’t be easy. Here’s what the Bruins must achieve to make it happen.

OPINION

How to rebuild Lahaina’s economy after the wildfire — without relying solely on tourists. All of Lahaina is now sacred ground, and a new version of the town should include respectful sites and tributes to the original Hawaiian people and the victims of this calamity.

Closing schools after Hilary was a missed opportunity for LAUSD to use what the pandemic taught us. “While online learning is not a substitute for being in the classroom, it’s certainly better than a day without school. Seems like in this case, we missed an opportunity to learn from it and do better for public school kids and their families,” writes former LAUSD superintendent Austin Beutner.

Reagan and Robert F. Kennedy did it. Will Newsom and DeSantis? When Ronald Reagan and Robert F. Kennedy debated, they set a precedent for Gavin Newsom and Ron DeSantis, who each face serious impediments to their White House ambitions. Still, there is reason to question whether the event takes place.

ONLY IN L.A.

Roberta’s, one of Brooklyn’s most beloved restaurants, offers a concise menu of wood-fired pizzas, pastas, salads and starters like prosciutto and cheese boards paired with cheekily named cocktails like Love in the Time of COVID at its Culver City location.

(Brandon Harman)

New York can’t seem to stay away from L.A. Between newly transplanted restaurants and East Coast-inspired upstarts, here are 15 nostalgic New York-inspired restaurants for a slice of the Big Apple in L.A.

FROM THE ARCHIVES

On this day 45 years ago, Kobe Bryant was born.

(Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)

On Aug. 23, 1978, one of the greatest basketball players of all time was born. Kobe Bryant mesmerized Los Angeles for his 20 legendary years as a Laker.

His death in a helicopter crash three years ago stunned the world, leaving Los Angeles and the sports world grieving.

Bryant’s two decades-long run with the Lakers will never be forgotten. In 2020, The Times looked back at his NBA career, which surprisingly got off to a lackluster start.

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