I've covered California for more than four decades. That's why I'm taking on Essential California
I'll be trying to help you understand the people, places and events that are changing California, though we know it's a place that's always a little beyond our grasp, a place, as John Steinbeck said of 'Cannery Row' that 'is a poem, a stink, a grating noise, a quality of light, a tone, a habit, a nostalgia, a dream.'
I hope that the rest of you essential Californians, expatriate Californians and Californians-in-waiting will respond with inspiration, recriminations and story ideas for me and the rest of our crackerjack crew: fellow reporter Andrew Campa, multiplatform editor Kevinisha Walker and Times newsletters czar Karim Doumar. You can reach us at essentialcalifornia@latimes.com
Here's how I got here: Though I was born in New York City, my parents moved us to L.A. when my brother was a toddler, and I was an infant. My sister soon joined us, born in Beverly Hills.
One of my earliest memories was of grabbing the L.A. Times off the front stoop the morning after Bobby Kennedy was shot at the Ambassador Hotel, right here in Los Angeles. His sudden, inexplicable death was a 9-year-old's introduction to the concept of impermanence.
Journalism found me at Santa Monica High School, where you signed up for the school paper, the Samohi, because faculty advisor Larry Knuth was way cool and because Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein had just sent President Nixon packing for San Clemente.
At UC Berkeley's Daily Californian I covered sports, including football, and witnessed the greatest play in college football history, which I write about as often as I possibly can.
I entered the pro newspaper ranks with a tiny daily in Danville, east of Oakland. I wrote about playwright Eugene O'Neill's historic home and came face to face in a prison interview with Sara Jane Moore, the suburban housewife who tried to gun down President Ford.
More than four decades on, California and its people have remained the center of my reporting world.
I was on the streets the fearful night when L.A. burned, after a Simi Valley jury decided not to hold rogue LAPD officers responsible for the savage beating of motorist Rodney King. I've covered every L.A. mayor from Tom Bradley to Karen Bass. I wrote about torment in the state's youth prisons and heartbreak in the overburdened foster care system.
I rode horseback into the Sierras to watch a biologist reestablish trout in a high mountain lake. I swam along (for a mile or two) with a young doctor who conquered the Catalina Channel. I hung out with nudists, wearing nothing but combat boots, in a remote desert oasis.
On rare occasions, my family became part of the news. It happened joyously, when I wrote about my dad on his 90th birthday, celebrated as a working actor. It happened tragically, when someone beat my older brother to death in his Culver City chiropractic office, a crime that remains unsolved.
The news blasted onto the Rainey family doorstep again in January. The epic Palisades fire incinerated the Malibu home where I grew up. I'd be reporting on the fire recovery anyway. Now it has become extra personal.
The fire reintroduced me to an old friend named Bill Stange. He's a surfer, fisherman, contractor and a bit of a sage. After Bill's home burned he said something about Malibu that might apply to California as a whole.
'No matter what, [it] goes back to its wildness,' he said, in part. 'It turns out we are all just renters here.'
As I help shepherd Essential California, I am fortunate to remain on the story of this singular place. I hope you'll spend some time with me, seeking out the serious, the silly and the sublime.
Email us at essentialcalifornia@latimes.com, and your response might appear in the newsletter this week.
Today's great photo is from Juliana Yamada at Gladstone's in the Pacific Palisades. Six months after closing due to the Palisades fire, the iconic seafood restaurant finally reopened last weekend.
Jim Rainey, staff writerDiamy Wang, homepage internIzzy Nunes, audience internKevinisha Walker, multiplatform editorAndrew Campa, Sunday writerKarim Doumar, head of newsletters
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Los Angeles Times
26 minutes ago
- Los Angeles Times
As Kamala Harris stirs things up, a look at the money California governor candidates have amassed
SACRAMENTO — Former Vice President Kamala's Harris' decision to forgo a 2026 run for California governor came as a bit of a surprise, given her impressive winning streak in the state and comfortable lead in early polling. But that's what makes campaigns so interesting, the unpredictability. It's also why everyone should view nattering political punditry and campaign handicapping with a healthy heap of skepticism. So keep that in mind now that the California governor's race is wide open. The current field of candidates — yes, there's still plenty of time for folks to jump in — is filled with gubernatorial hopefuls who have a legitimate if not outside chance of taking over for two-term Gov. Gavin Newsom, who is barred from running again. Four of the top Democrats in the race already have won statewide races — former Atty. Gen. Xavier Becerra, Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis, state Supt. of Public Instruction Tony Thurman and former Controller Betty Yee. One is the former mayor of California's largest city, Antonio Villaraigosa of Los Angeles. Two were impactful lawmakers — Orange County Rep. Katie Porter and former state Sen. Toni Atkins. And, as always, there are the wild cards: wealthy Democratic businessman Stephen J. Cloobeck; and Republicans Chad Bianco, the Riverside County sheriff, and conservative commentator Steve Hilton. Some of them have a better chance than others, of course, but all have enough political juice to stir up the race and at least influence the ultimate outcome. This is Phil Willon, the L.A. Times California politics editor, filling in for columnist George Skelton this week. I'm joined by senior Sacramento reporter Taryn Luna to bring you up to speed on the latest. On the same week Harris announced that she wasn't running, just by coincidence, the latest campaign fundraising reports for the governor's race were released to the public. Those financial reports, which cover the first half of 2025, offered a glimpse of a candidate's popularity and viability, since running a successful gubernatorial campaign in the most populous state in the union can cost tens of millions of dollars. Campaign fundraising has been a bit frozen; donors were waiting to hear whether Harris was going to jump in the race, since she would have started as the clear favorite. Plus, the fundraising totals don't always tell the whole picture, as Times reporters Kevin Rector, Seema Mehta and Laura J. Nelson pointed out in their story on Sunday. Kounalakis raised just over $100,000 during the first half of this year, a relatively paltry amount. But she had more than $4.6 million socked away and millions more in her lieutenant governor campaign account. Kounalakis' father, the wealthy developer Angelo Tsakopoulos, also helped bankroll an independent expenditure committee supporting his daughter's 2018 campaign for lieutenant governor. Cloobeck, a Los Angeles Democrat, raised about $160,000 — but on Friday, he made a $10-million contribution to his campaign that he said 'turbocharged' it. Here's a look at what the other candidates hauled in during the first half of the year and how much money they have in their accounts, since they were busy spending money as well: Although a few seemingly have a pile of money and others look like they are barely scraping by, the reality is that none of them has enough money to wage a successful campaign for governor at this point. So, how much they rake in in the months ahead will be pivotal. Speculation about Harris' plans for the future is focused heavily on whether she will run for president again in 2028, talk that started almost immediately after the former vice president announced that she wasn't running for California governor. Harris indicated that she'd remain active in national politics, but just how remains the big question. The Times' story on what Harris might do next explained what might be a motivating influence for Harris: Experts in power and political leadership expect Harris' next move to be something in the public eye, given she is relatively young at 60 and no doubt wants her last chapter in the spotlight to be something other than her humbling loss to Trump in the 2024 presidential election. 'Even if it isn't the governorship of California, the idea of wanting something else other than the 2024 election to be the last thing Kamala Harris ever did would be very appealing,' said Gregory H. Winger, an assistant professor of public and international affairs at the University of Cincinnati who has studied former presidents' lingering influence. Winger said his research showed those 'most active in trying to be influential' in their post-White House years were those whose time in office ended on a sour note, such as failing to win reelection. 'It's kind of a frustrated ambition that then leads into higher activity,' Winger said — and Harris has that. Harris was careful to leave her options open — framing her hopes for the future around ideals such as 'fighting for the American people.' One of the many takeaways from the 2024 presidential election, including Harris' defeat to Trump, is that Democrats are losing men — and young men feel particularly unseen by the party. In his ongoing dissection of how Trump prevailed, Newsom brought Richard Reeves, a social scientist and author, onto his podcast this week and asked what he thought about efforts to speak to male voters. 'The way I think about this is that in politics something almost always beats nothing,' said Reeves, founding president of the American Institute for Boys and Men. 'And what there was from the Democrats on issues around boys and men was nothing.' For a Democratic governor of California weighing a potential 2028 presidential run, there are plenty of political reasons for Newsom to strive to understand why men feel disconnected from his party. Kamala Harris won 55% of women and 42% of men, a 9-point increase in the gender gap compared to the 2020 presidential election. But Newsom also has personal reasons to ponder, too. The governor has talked about his own 14-year-old son, Hunter, and his interest in MAGA podcasters and influencers, such as Charlie Kirk. Reeves said Democrats lost support from men in the election because they made a conscious choice to appear as the party that supports women — at the exclusion of men. 'I think that was a fatal miscalculation,' Reeves said. 'I also think, honestly, it was somewhat insulting to women because there are plenty of women out there, and we may know some in our own lives, governor, who are simultaneously worried about the issues facing women. 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Reeves casts the problem as the refusal to address the reality that men are struggling, too. Ignoring men's issues creates a gulf that the 'reactionary online right' fills, he said, and draws young men to controversial figures such as Andrew Tate, a British influencer who promotes misogyny. When the podcast with Reeves aired on Wednesday, Newsom announced an executive order that directs various state agencies to make recommendations to address suicide among young men, to improve recruitment of male teachers and counselors, and to increase male participation in state-funded volunteer programs, job training, educational partnerships and behavioral health initiatives. Newsom said the work of Reeves and others 'really is a call to arms.' The must-read: In America's hardest-fought congressional district, voters agree: Release the Epstein files The TK: Newsom provides new details about his plan for a redistricting fight with Trump The L.A. Times special: Feds move to drop charges in controversial cases as Trump re-ups L.A. prosecutor —Was this newsletter forwarded to you? Sign up here to get it in your inbox.
Los Angeles Times
3 hours ago
- Los Angeles Times
In-N-Out's owner is leaving California. Is the state a bad place to do business?
Last month, billionaire In-N-Out owner Lynsi Snyder announced her move from California to Tennessee, where she plans to open new restaurants and continue raising her family. It's a dramatic shift for the leader of the beloved West Coast brand, which has become the latest company to signal its dissatisfaction with California in recent years. And she didn't mince words in explaining her decision. 'There's a lot of great things about California, but raising a family is not easy here. Doing business is not easy here,' Snyder said during a recent appearance on the 'Relatable' podcast, hosted by conservative commentator Allie Beth Stuckey. In-N-Out's headquarters will remain in California, but the company is consolidating its operations in the state and opening a regional headquarters in Franklin, Tenn. Other high-profile companies have more formally exited the state. Tesla moved its headquarters out of Palo Alto in 2021, the same year that financial services firm Charles Schwab relocated from San Francisco to north Texas. Elon Musk moved the head offices of his other companies — SpaceX and X — to Texas last year, as did Chevron, the oil giant that was started in California. The departures have contributed to a narrative pushed by some media and politicians that the state's economy is in trouble and is unfriendly to businesses. Conservative commentator and Silicon Valley entrepreneur Steve Hilton, who announced his bid for California governor this year, recently wrote on social media that the state has the 'highest rate of poverty, highest housing costs' and the 'most hostile business environment in the country.' Experts and economists interviewed by The Times paint a more nuanced picture. Although California's steep taxes and stringent environmental regulations have pushed some firms to leave, the state remains the fourth-largest economy in the world, boasts a diverse pool of talent and is a hub of technological innovation, they said. 'The popular media narratives have characterized California as one-dimensional,' said William Riggs, a professor at the University of San Francisco School of Management. 'We continue to be a magnet for investment in tech, biotech, entertainment and green energy, as well as being an agricultural hotbed for the planet.' The artificial intelligence boom has new companies flocking to Silicon Valley, Riggs said, leading to the highest rate of corporate office leases in San Francisco since before the COVID-19 pandemic. The corporate departures, although generating significant media attention, represent adjustments to California's $4.1-trillion economy rather than signs of systemic decline. 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For example, Tesla maintains its design center in Hawthorne and engineering headquarters in Palo Alto, as well as a factory in Fremont. Defense giant Northrop Grumman, which moved from Los Angeles in 2011 and is now based in Virginia, continues development, prototyping and production operations in Palmdale. Riggs of the University of San Francisco acknowledged that California businesses face fundamental challenges, but said that 'the opportunities California presents definitely outweigh those problems.' Addressing housing constraints and regulatory burdens that limit business growth and workers' ability to remain in the state remain a central challenge. California has initiated some reform efforts, including pilot programs for business license changes, but comprehensive change faces political obstacles. Although labeled by some as bad for business, the state retains a strong reputation for innovation. 'California is viewed globally as a place that you go to try out an idea,' Klowden said. 'You're going to keep seeing businesses under pressure to move, and you'll see other ones that are desperately eager to come in.'
Boston Globe
15 hours ago
- Boston Globe
The billionaire behind mysterious immigration ads targeting Miami Republicans
Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up 'We are seeing a replay of what I saw when I was 12 years old and left Cuba,' said Fernández, 73, who is known as Mike. 'It is beyond troubling. It is scary.' Advertisement Fernández is a former Republican who left the party more than a decade ago to register without party affiliation. The ad campaign, run by a political group called Keep Them Honest, has made Fernández something of an outlier in Florida, which has moved decidedly to the political right. That trend has occurred throughout Miami-Dade County, where several cities have some of the country's highest levels of foreign-born residents, most of them Hispanic. Republicans have defended President Trump's crackdown on illegal immigration as necessary to ensure the rule of law after the number of migrants crossing the southern border surged in recent years. Advertisement Fernández's immediate goal is to help oust in next year's midterm elections at least one of the state's three Cuban American Republican members of Congress: Representatives Mario Diaz-Balart, Carlos A. Gimenez, and Maria Elvira Salazar. The three Republicans, however, have not entirely supported the White House's immigration crackdown. They have pushed back against the administration's move to strip deportation protections from hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans, a rare instance of dissent between congressional Republicans and Trump. Salazar has also noted that she filed legislation to provide some immigrants a path to legal status, though the effort has not gained much traction. When a local Spanish-language television station asked Diaz-Balart recently about the ads, he said that it was a point of 'much pride' for 'the extreme left to criticize me.' 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