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In a summer of ICE, L.A. isn’t afraid anymore

July 21, 2025 | View in browser

By Shelby Grad

Deputy Managing Editor

Good morning. Here's what you need to know to start your Monday.

A clear message from our summer of ICE.
Federal cuts leave Los Angeles County's health system in crisis.
Inside the luxury world of dog wellness.
And here's today's e-newspaper.

Summer of immigration raids

Federal agents take part in an immigration raid near MacArthur Park in the Westlake area on July 7.

On June 12, Sen. Alex Padilla interrupted a news conference by Homeland Security director Kristi Noem. Pushing toward her, he said, "I have questions for the secretary" before several agents dragged him out of the room.

Then in early July, L.A. Mayor Karen Bass arrived amid the chaos of an ICE operation in MacArthur Park. Dressed in a bright turquoise blazer amid a sea of federal camouflage, her arms folded tight in anger, she declared, "They need to leave and they need to leave right now!" Not long after, a top immigration official said the feds had considered arresting her.

One message from L.A.'s summer of ICE

In today's divided media world, these events were instantly cast as either a dangerous erosion of democracy or grandstanding by politicians searching for a viral clip, depending on your source.

But they underscored a clear message from our summer of ICE: Los Angeles isn't afraid anymore.

A lot of very dark things have happened in Los Angeles over its 244-year history, events driven by misguided zeal, greed, bigotry and intolerance.

But they are always abetted by fear.

One of the most notorious lynchings in American history occurred not in the Deep South but in 1870s Los Angeles, when a mob killed 19 Chinese people and some in the city were driven by blood lust.

An estimated 170,000 Japanese Americans — many in California — were rounded up and taken from their homes, farms and businesses and held in prison camps. Both the right and the left put aside their differences to eagerly back the internment.

A year later, in 1943, the streets of Los Angeles became the scene of shocking mob rule as scores of Mexican teens and young men were beaten, stripped of their ornate "zoot suits" and left bloody and naked on the sidewalk. Police officers laughed, encouraged the beatings, then arrested the victims. Politicians and the papers blamed the Mexicans.

Fighting our fears

California historian Kevin Starr wrote eloquently about that part of the Los Angeles psyche that sets the city into "a state of psychosis, surrendering itself to the dream-fear." Real events become magnified into anxiety that no one is willing or able to control. In 1993, Starr wrote about the paranoid rumors sweeping the city in advance of the verdict in the Rodney King civil trial. (More riots! Military occupation! A gang invasion of the Westside!) He thought immediately of the city's past sins.

"Future historians will look back to these days and struggle to interpret a time in which fear became fact and rumor became the basis of policy," he wrote. "It became its own horrible reality, and the City of the Angels, as it always feared it would, dreamt itself out of existence."

A city of dissent

There are a lot of reasons for L.A. to fear criticizing the sweeps and stay silent. It just gives Trump more ammunition. What will he unleash on us next? But that is not happening this time. The protests, the aid efforts, and the many individuals speaking out against the arrests happening before their eyes show that dissent is alive and well here. Yes, living in a deep blue state gives them some cover. But isn't it better to speak your mind and not fear the consequences? Isn't that one of the things supporters love about Trump?

Taking a stand can also bring change.

The 1871 Chinese massacre occurred in an L.A. still ruled by vigilante justice, which made dissent hazardous to your health. But as John Mack Faragher chronicles in "Eternity Street," the killing of 10% of the city's entire Chinese population brought shame to L.A. — and forced some to finally speak for change. A few brave voices led to a larger movement that established L.A.'s first real criminal justice system and police force, marking an end to the vigilante era.

It didn't curb racism or injustice, but it was a start.

Today's top stories

Federal cuts leave Los Angeles County's health system in crisis

President Trump's "Big Beautiful Bill," which passed earlier this month, is expected to soon claw $750 million a year from the county Department of Health Services, which oversees four public hospitals and roughly two dozen clinics.
And the Trump administration's budget for the next fiscal year will likely result in a $200-million cut to the county Department of Public Health, whose responsibilities include monitoring disease outbreaks, inspecting food and providing substance use treatment.

After six months under Trump, California and L.A. are battlegrounds

President Trump's administration has repeatedly centered its policy battles in California, including on immigration, transgender athletes and guns.
Administration officials have said they are trying to improve the lives of state residents.
State and local officials say California's progressive values are under unconstitutional attack.

How a California cloud-seeding company became the center of a Texas flood conspiracy

A Los Angeles-based cloud-seeding company called Rainmaker was accused of causing this month's deadly Texas flood after conducting operations in the area.
Experts say Rainmaker's activity could not have caused the flood, but the incident has fueled conspiracy theories and renewed a national conversation around weather modification.

What else is going on

The driver who police say plowed into a crowd outside a Hollywood club has a violent criminal history including a hate-crime conviction that was subsequently overturned.
Forget the high road: Newsom is adopting a much more aggressive social media strategy against Trump and his allies.
After L.A. firestorms and Texas floods, forecasters say they are feeling haunted by warnings not being heard.
A plan to shoot 450,000 owls — to save a different owl — could be in jeopardy.
A tech billionaire has vowed to make homeless housing affordable and profitable.

Commentary and opinions

Want to win an Emmy? It helps if you're already famous, columnist Glenn Whipp argues.
A new film about the Ohio State wrestling team sex abuse scandal indicts those who looked away, writes columnist Robin Abcarian.
Here's why Jeffrey Epstein's tangled web is conspiratorial catnip, writes columnist Mark Z. Barabak.

This morning's must reads

For your downtime

Going out

Museums: At LACMA, splendid Buddhist art goes on view after years of delay.
Canine wellness: Inside the luxury world of dog wellness — as experienced by one very lucky golden retriever.
Botanical gardens: How to see a corpse flower in L.A. that's ready to bloom.
Concerts: Vans Warped Tour, the original punk rock circus, returns to Long Beach.

Staying in

Books: In his new book, "Algospeak," Adam Aleksic details how the TikTok algorithm created new words such as "unalive."
Recipes: Here's a recipe for charred gazpacho.
✏️ Get our free daily crossword puzzle, sudoku, word search and arcade games.

A question for you: What TV show do you think should win the Emmy for best drama?

The 2025 Emmy nominations have been announced. "Severance" was the top nominee, earning 27 total nominations. Who should win?

Email us at essentialcalifornia@latimes.com, and your response might appear in the newsletter this week.

And finally ... your photo of the day

Today's photo is from Times contributor Mariah Tauger at the Mount Washington home of Los Angeles architect Lindsay Sheron and her husband, Daniel, who designed their two-story house after they couldn't afford to buy a house in L.A.

Have a great day, from the Essential California team

Jim Rainey, staff writer
Diamy Wang, homepage intern
Izzy Nunes, audience intern
Kevinisha Walker, multiplatform editor
Andrew Campa, Sunday writer
Karim Doumar, head of newsletters

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Newsom needs to stop kidding around. He’s running for president

July 21, 2025 | View in browser

By George Skelton

Capitol Journal Columnist

No outsider politicians venture into sultry South Carolina in July unless they are running for president.

Certainly not a West Coast politician. Especially a California governor who lives in delightful Marin County near wonderful cool beaches. A governor who could easily vacation at spectacular Big Sur or hike a wilderness trail into the majestic Sierra.

We can assume Gov. Gavin Newsom didn't choose South Carolina for its nightly light show of amazing fireflies or symphony of crickets. He was attracted to something so alluring that he was willing to brave skin-eating chiggers and oppressive humidity.

The lure, of course, was that South Carolina will hold one of the earliest — perhaps the first — Democratic presidential primaries in 2028. The precise calendar for contests hasn't been set. But Newsom knows this: South Carolina propelled Joe Biden to the party's nomination in 2020. And it provided a huge boost for Barack Obama in 2008.

"What South Carolinians saw this week as … Newsom made a two-day swing through the state was more than a highly visible candidate who probably will run for president in 2028," wrote Andy Brack, editor, publisher and columnist at the Statehouse Report and Charleston City Paper.

"They saw a guy sweating through a white shirt in the South Carolina heat who was having fun. Yep, he seemed to enjoy engaging with voters in rural places too often forgotten by many candidates."

Yes, Newsom, 57, loves campaigning on the stump — a whole lot more than he does toiling in the nitty-gritty of governing.

I'd only bicker with Brack's word "probably" when characterizing Newsom's White House bid. We're talking semantics.

California's termed-out governor actually has been running for months. And he'll run as far as he can, slowly for a while and try to pick up speed down the road.

That's conventional politics. Most candidates — especially office holders — initially claim that running for president is "the furthest thing" from their mind, then ultimately declare their candidacy with all the hoopla of a carnival barker.

OK, I admit to having been wrong about the governor in the past. I should have known better. I took him at his word. He persistently denied any interest in the presidency. "Subzero," he asserted. But to be fair, he and reporters previously were centered on the 2024 race and the distant 2028 contest got short shrift.

I figured Newsom mostly was running for a slot on the "A" list of national political leaders. He wanted to be mentioned among the roster of top-tier potential presidents. He clearly savors the national attention.

But I've also always wondered whether Newsom might be leery of running for president because of his lifelong struggle with dyslexia. He could view the task with some trepidation. The governor has acknowledged having difficulty reading, especially speeches off teleprompters.

That said, he has adapted and is an articulate, passionate off-the-cuff speaker with a mind full of well-organized data. He excels on the stump — especially when he restrains a tendency to be long-winded and repetitive.

Newsom is finally starting to acknowledge the White House glimmer in his eye.

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"I'm not thinking about running, but it's a path that I could see unfold," he told the Wall Street Journal last month.

More recently, in a lengthy interview with conservative podcaster Shawn Ryan, Newsom said: "I'll tell you, the more Trump keeps doing what he does, the more compelled I am to think about it."

Newsom's proclaimed hook for traveling to South Carolina was to "sound the alarm" about President Trump's brutish policies and to light a fire under Democratic voters to help the party win back the U.S. House next year.

He's again trying to establish himself as a leader of the anti-Trump resistance after several months of playing nice to the president in a losing effort to keep federal funds flowing to California.

But it's practically inevitable that a California governor will be lured into running for president. Governors have egos and ears. They constantly hear allies and advisors telling them they could become the leader of the free world.

And, after all, this is the nation's most populous state, with by far the largest bloc of delegates to the Democratic National Convention — 20% of those needed to win the nomination.

But there's a flip side to this California benefit. There's a California burden. In much of the country, we're seen as a socialist horror with dreadful liberal policies that should never be emulated nationally.

"People who live in other states just don't like us, whether they're Democrats or Republicans," says Democratic strategist Darry Sragow. "A Democrat from California is going to have an uphill fight no matter who they are. That's just a reality.

"The odds [for Newsom] are pretty long, although he has a shot because the field is totally open."

But Democratic strategist Bill Carrick — a South Carolina native — says the California burden "is exaggerated. That's just the Republican stereotype of California. Who cares?

"If Newsom runs, he'll be competitive. He's smart. Good charisma. South Carolina was a good trip for him."

Former Democratic consultant Bob Shrum, director of the Center for the Political Future at USC, says: "Too many people write Newsom off. He has a realistic chance.

"He's very good at pushing off against Trump. It all depends on whether he goes into the election with a message about the future. The message has to center around the economy. The two times Trump was elected he won the message war."

Can Newsom win the nomination? Maybe. The presidency? Probably not.

But there's no certainty about anything in an antsy country that swings from twice electing Barack Obama to twice anointing Donald Trump. Newsom is smart to roll the dice.

What else you should be reading

The must-read: Forget the high road: Newsom takes the fight to Trump and his allies
The TK: Will she or won't she? The California governor's race waits on Kamala Harris
The L.A. Times Special: The forgotten godfather of Trump's scorched earth immigration campaign

Until next week,
George Skelton

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In a summer of ICE, L.A. isn’t afraid anymore