Newsletter: Essential California: Ex-L.A. County Sheriff Lee Baca gets 3 years in jail corruption scandal

Good morning, and welcome to the Essential California newsletter. It is Saturday, May 13. Here’s what you don’t want to miss this weekend:

TOP STORIES

Baca heads to jail: Former Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca, once a towering, respected figure in policing, was sentenced Friday to three years in federal prison for his role in a scheme to obstruct an FBI investigation of abuses in county jails, marking an end to a corruption scandal that has roiled the Sheriff’s Department for several years. Los Angeles Times

Plus: Outside the courthouse after the ruling, Baca was defiant as ever, castigating the sentencing and telling reporters that he was in the right for actions he took in 2011 for which he will now serve a three-year prison term. Los Angeles Times

How unions wield influence: Here’s how construction worker pay is dominating California’s housing debate. The State Building & Construction Trades Council of California, also known as the Building Trades, is the most powerful group influencing the Legislature’s response to the housing crisis. Los Angeles Times

What’s up in Congress: Now that the House of Representatives has voted to repeal and replace Obamacare, some Republicans are nowhere to be found, while the “Resistance” is licking its lips and preparing for the 2018 midterm elections. Los Angeles Times

Bad accident: A bus carrying Tesla employees crashed into a vehicle on a California highway Friday morning, killing an off-duty law enforcement officer, police said. The Guardian

Mazel tov! This California couple went all the way to Mount Everest to tie the knot. “The photos are amazing and we’ll treasure them for the rest of our lives, but the experience also brought us closer together,” husband James Sissom, 35, said. “It was life-changing.” People

What a room! In the Century City home she shares with her daughter, Madeline, and son, Graham, 10, Carrie Livingston has turned a tween bedroom into a Pop Art dream. Los Angeles Times

THE STORY BEHIND THE STORY

Los Angeles Times reporter Joe Serna first reported on the discovery of a lead and bronze 3½ foot-long coffin that was more than a 100 years old in San Francisco — a child’s coffin — a year ago. This week he published a crazy story about how a group of genealogists figured out who was the occupant of that coffin. Serna explained how the story came together:

“Can you imagine something like this happening today? A relatively young, bustling city eager to grow decides its best option to make more room for the living is by digging up all its dead and hauling them a day’s trip south. Well, this happened in Colma, and we’re not just talking about a cemetery here or there for a new development. They took out all the cemeteries they could — minus the National Cemetery in San Francisco, which is federal land. And they did it by hand!

My reporting on the discovery of Edith Cook in a 140-year-old casket under a garage took me to the “City of the Dead,” Colma’s actual tagline, which its residents repeat with pride.

There I learned all kinds of macabre details about San Francisco’s history with the dead which is, to put it mildly, controversial.

In the late 19th century, the city was essentially receiving more bodies in the form of prospectors, traders and settlers than it could feasibly handle. At some point, the notion of simply digging up all the dead — hundreds of thousands of bodies in all states of decomposition — gained enough traction that an effort was actually launched.

This part of the city’s history is what will stay with me the longest from reporting this story. The research team’s efforts to identify Edith Cook are admirable, but the case left me with a lingering melancholy at the realization that without a doubt there are more bodies like this out there.

Families who couldn’t afford the relocation costs saw their loved ones’ remains put in a mass grave that today is a grassy knoll with a single plaque on top. Their headstones were melted down to create San Francisco’s curbs and breakwater at Fisherman’s Wharf.

The entire decades-long effort created a small cottage industry for the movers. Trains were outfitted with luxury cars for the wealthy. Group-discounts were available. If a family couldn’t afford to move their loved one on a train, it was a day’s ride by horse and wagon and there was a cost for that too.

Edith Cook’s casket may have been rare for the time but as I learned in reporting this, the story of how her body was left there is not.”

This week’s most popular stories in Essential California:

1. Young Bannon disciple Julia Hahn is a case study in extremism. The Intercept

2. In Venice, where money meets misery, hoping for an end to homeless camps. Los Angeles Times

3. James Comey was “caught flat-footed” and learned of his firing from TV while talking to FBI agents in L.A., a source says. Los Angeles Times

4. UC Davis and former professors clash over who owns the fruits of research. Associated Press

5. What $2,100 rents you in Los Angeles. Curbed LA

ICYMI, here are this week’s Great Reads
Golden State warrior: Xavier Becerra is the general in California’s battle with Trump, and he sees parallels with Texas’ battle with Obama. The Atlantic

Gang threat: Donald Trump is right. The MS-13 is a real threat from L.A. to Central America. But his idea won’t work. New Yorker

Movie alert! The new film “Lowriders,” starring Eva Longoria and Demián Bichir, is a peek into East L.A.’s custom-car culture. “I want people to realize that these cars are a work of art and our expression,” says Cartoon, a.k.a. Mark Machado. Los Angeles Times

Get that degree … in yoga: Loyola Marymount University is the only school in America where you can get a masters in yoga studies. It’s surprising there aren’t more programs like this, experts say, given yoga’s popularity. Los Angeles Times

Looking Ahead

Monday: Groundbreaking for a new bike hub at Union Station.

Monday: The Academy of Motion Pictures marks the 75th anniversary of “Bambi.”

Saturday: The Long Beach Lesbian and Gay Pride Festival and Parade.

Please let us know what we can do to make this newsletter more useful to you. Send comments, complaints and ideas to Benjamin Oreskes and Shelby Grad. Also follow them on Twitter @boreskes and @shelbygrad.