Global Courant 2023-04-29 17:00:31
Hello, and welcome to this week’s selection of top stories in photos by Los Angeles Times photographers.
Forecasters are predicting a week-long heat wave and the threat of widespread snowmelt in the Sierra Nevada. As the historic Sierra snows are expected to melt to a runoff that is 225% of normal, work crews are scrambling to strengthen the flood barrier along the Los Angeles Aqueduct – LA’s water lifeline.
Left, record-breaking snow runoff from the eastern Sierra Nevada threatens LADWP operations at Owens Lake to control dust and water flow. Right, American avocets feed on brine on the lake, designated a Western Hemisphere Shorebird Reserve Network site of international importance.
(Carolyn Cole/Los Angeles Times)
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In Ventura County, DNA samples left at the scene of two four-decade-old murders led detectives to a single-story house on a cul-de-sac in Oxnard and the karate teacher who lived a quiet life there. Tony Garcia was arrested on February 9 and charged with first-degree murder for the murders.
“Today he’s a grandpa, but he’s the most dangerous grandpa alive,”
— Deputy Dist. Attention. Richard Simon
Steven Rhodes learned how to use DNA databases to solve old cases as an investigator at the Ventura County District Attorney’s Office.
(Mel Melcon/Los Angeles Times)
A woman and her son navigate a puddle near an apartment complex in Oxnard in March. In 1981, Lisa Gondek was murdered in her apartment in the complex.
(Mel Melcon/Los Angeles Times)
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Once deflated by COVID-19, some California city centers are now recovering near their original cadence. Others not so much.
We looked at the post-pandemic recovery in Los Angeles, San Diego and San Francisco, focusing on the cities’ business centers.
The usually busy intersection of Freeways 101 and 110 in downtown Los Angeles was nearly empty three years ago.
(Carolyn Cole/Los Angeles Times
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Pedestrians are making their way through busy streets in downtown Los Angeles this month.
(Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times)
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On Wednesday, the Santa Monica City Council approved an additional $122.5 million payout to settle hundreds of sexual assault claims against the city’s top systems analyst, an exemplary civilian employee of the Santa Monica Police Department for decades. With the settlements exceeding $229 million, it is now the most expensive sexual payout by a single offender for any municipality in the state.
It became clear that the police knew about Eric Uller’s arrest, but still allowed him to be a youth volunteer, missing repeated warnings that the city employee was a predator.
John AM Doe is one of hundreds of victims who were sexually assaulted as a minor while attending Santa Monica’s Police Activities League.
(Irfan Khan/Los Angeles Times)
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“You don’t want me here? That’s why I stay
– dr. Leah Torres, West Alabama Women’s Center, Tuscaloosa
After the Supreme Court ruled Roe v. Wade had been suspended last year and abortion became illegal in Alabama, a Tuscaloosa clinic had to evolve. Dr. Leah Torres of the West Alabama Women’s Center has made it a point to stay and face the conservative change.
Raven Williams, 17, who just found out she’s six weeks pregnant, is taking a break from folding laundry at her home in Northport, Ala. Williams recently went to the West Alabama Women’s Center to get an ultrasound that confirmed her pregnancy and receive prenatal care from Doctor Lea Torres.
(Gina Ferazzi/Los Angeles Times)
A 27-year-old woman holds images of her 10-week-old fetus at the West Alabama Women’s Center in Tuscaloosa. The clinic, which closed shortly after Alabama banned abortion, now focuses on prenatal care, birth control, miscarriage treatment and transgender care.
(Gina Ferazzi/Los Angeles Times)
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California’s first wildfire of the season began Wednesday, sending about 150 personnel from Cal Fire, the U.S. Forest Service and the San Bernardino County Fire Department to fight the blaze. The Nob fire, which burned 200 hectares on Thursday and was 5% contained, is still under investigation.
The Nob fire burns near Lytle Creek in the San Bernardino National Forest Wednesday afternoon. The fire, located northwest of Lytle Creek in a remote area, was being investigated as a fresh start.
(Irfan Khan/Los Angeles Times)
A hand squad is on its way to fight the Nob fire. About 150 personnel from Cal Fire, the US Forest Service and the San Bernardino County Fire Department fought the blaze.
(Irfan Khan/Los Angeles Times)
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Republicans in several states, including Arizona, Utah, Iowa, Arkansas, West Virginia and Florida, are pitching school voucher programs to fight “the radical wake agenda.” But conservatives in rural Texas like their public schools as they are. We visited one such school in Meadow, Texas, where “you would be ostracized if you were an awake person in this community,” said Robert Henson, an 80-year-old retired cotton farmer and overnight Fox News watcher.
On the left, Patricia Vazquez spends time with her daughter Gabriela, a seventh grader at Meadow School, who plays with the dog Toby at their home in Meadow, Texas. At right, Fayth Haile prays with other Meadow School students during a youth Bible study class at First Baptist Church in Meadow, Texas.
(Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times)
Meadow School students play soccer during a lunch break in Meadow, Texas. Of the school’s 255 students, including about a third from a neighboring small town, more than two-thirds are considered low-income. The school provides breakfast and lunch to all and to-go bags for those in need of supper.
(Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times)
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After a divorce, a man threatened to kill his son and himself. He was forbidden by law from buying a gun in California, but he could buy a Glock pistol and kill the boy.
Now the child’s bereaved mother asks how; feeling as though “the state cares more about a dead man’s privacy than its right to know how he bought the gun that killed her son,” writes Hailey Branson-Potts of The Times.
Christy Camara, 44, holds a portrait of her son, Wyland Gomes, at her home in Oceano, California. Wyland was 10 when his father shot and killed him before committing suicide.
(Gary Coronado/Los Angeles Times)
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Temperatures across California will continue to rise this week, melting deep Sierra snowpack and triggering further potential flooding. The heat wave and melting snow will bring relief to many; but for some, including the flood-ravaged San Joaquin Valley and the normally dusty prison town of Corcoran, the floodwaters could pose a threat.
A view of the California State Penitentiary at Corcoran.
(Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times)
Farm equipment is submerged in a vineyard in Corcoran, California, south of the Tule River.
(Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times)
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Yosemite National Park closes off most of the Yosemite Valley as the Merced River at the Pohono Bridge was expected to exceed 10 feet and potentially flood roads and other critical infrastructure.
Upper Yosemite Falls is reflected in a puddle in a meadow in the Yosemite Valley.
(Francine Orr/Los Angeles Times)
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And finally, book lovers embraced the recent warm weather and literature as they joined more than 500 writers, experts and storytellers who gathered at USC for the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books.
Emma and Jenna Mackay read at the 28th annual Los Angeles Times Festival of Books on the USC campus.
(Dania Maxwell/Los Angeles Times)
Faith Burkett reads while Asher Stratton rests during the 28th annual Los Angeles Times Festival of Books at the University of Southern California.
(Dania Maxwell/Los Angeles Times)
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