Newsletter: Today: How a Lockdown Helped Save a School

Four people were killed and at least 10 injured when a gunman went on a rampage in a small Northern California community. Authorities say it could have been much worse.

TOP STORIES

How a Lockdown Helped Save a School

For 45 minutes, a gunman stormed through the Rancho Tehama Reserve in the northern Sacramento Valley, killing at least four people, including a neighbor whom he was accused of stabbing in January. In all, authorities were investigating seven crime scenes, one of them an elementary school. Teachers and staff had heard shots a quarter of a mile away, then rushed the children into classrooms and under desks, and locked the doors. When the gunman arrived, officials say, he shot at walls and windows, wounding two students, but could not enter the buildings and moved on to other targets. Police would later fatally shoot him.

The Tax Bill That Became a Healthcare Bill

It’s a two-for-one deal that could add up to nothing: Senate Republicans have added a partial Obamacare repeal provision to their tax overhaul bill. By removing the mandate that all Americans buy health coverage, a handful of GOP senators backed by President Trump are looking to free up more money for tax cuts for middle- and upper-class Americans. But it also adds a degree of risk, considering how a similar “skinny repeal” of the Affordable Care Act was among the many failed attempts to change the healthcare law earlier this year.

More Politics

-- Atty. Gen. Jeff Sessions repeatedly denied that he deliberately misled or lied to Congress about the Trump campaign’s multiple contacts with Russia. His explanation: He forgot.

-- Roy Moore invoked God as he rejected growing calls to quit the Senate race in Alabama. Meanwhile, Sen. Mitch McConnell floated the idea of Sessions running as a write-in.

-- Women have shared some graphic Capitol Hill sexual harassment stories, as Congress is considering changes in how claims are investigated.

UCLA Players: Out of China, Still in Foul Trouble

When three UCLA freshmen basketball players were detained in China for a week on suspicion of shoplifting, it became an international incident – one that Trump even discussed with Chinese President Xi Jinping. Now that the players have arrived back at LAX amid the flash of cameras, how should the Bruins handle them? Columnist Bill Plaschke says that, if the three were involved in wrongdoing, the answer is clear: “They should say nice to have you back, but you are suspended for a year.”

Will They Put the Cart Before the Stores?

Los Angeles is looking to legalize sidewalk vending, but the hardest question to resolve is where to let pushcarts and stands selling food, trinkets and more set up shop. The city already plans to ban them outside Dodger Stadium, Staples Center and along the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Should brick-and-mortar stores be allowed to prohibit them on adjacent sidewalks too?

A street vendor pushes his cart along Maple Avenue in L.A.’s Fashion District.

(Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times )

Art Appreciation at UC Irvine

Before UC Irvine was even built, an art museum was envisioned for future Anteaters. More than half a century later, plans for the UCI Museum and Institute for California Art will be announced today. Though there’s no building yet, it already has an important collection: more than 3,200 paintings, sculptures and works on paper focusing on California’s most prominent artists from World War II to 1980. They were collected by the late developer Gerald Buck, who once sold a farm for a painting.

MUST-WATCH VIDEO

-- The FBI called him “Captain America,” but this informant had a secret.

-- Sessions responds to a question about whether he believes the women accusing Senate candidate Moore.

-- Celebrity hatter Nick Fouquet lifts the lid on his geodesic dome home.

CALIFORNIA

-- Columnist Steve Lopez says the housing crisis can be good news, if you’re a landlord.

-- The first atmospheric-river-fueled storm of the season is expected to hit Northern California today and potentially wreak havoc.

-- This year is shaping up to be the worst on record in California for people infected with valley fever, a lung infection caused by a fungus in soil.

-- When two new Palm Springs City Council members are sworn in next month, everyone on the council will be part of the LGBTQ community.

HOLLYWOOD AND THE ARTS

-- An anonymous actress represented by attorney Gloria Allred has sued movie mogul Harvey Weinstein for sexual battery and assault incidents that allegedly took place in 2015 and 2016.

-- After a scandal at the L.A. repertory and independent film exhibitor Cinefamily, its board of directors has decided to shut down the organization permanently.

-- Film critic Kenneth Turan says “Justice League” is a seriously satisfying superhero movie.

-- Just past the halfway point of its first week of release, Taylor Swift’s sixth album, “Reputation,” has surpassed the 1-million sales mark.

CLASSIC HOLLYWOOD

When Joseph Wapner retired on Nov. 16, 1979, “I had accomplished as much as I thought I could as a judge, and I thought it was time to move on and do some other things.” By 1981, he was deciding small-claims cases on “The People’s Court.” Wapner, who was born on this date in 1919 in Los Angeles, died earlier this year.

NATION-WORLD

-- Zimbabwe’s military revealed that it had in effect taken control of the country, moving to end a political crisis in a chaotic night that saw explosions and gunfire erupting in the capital.

-- An earthquake along the Iran-Iraq border left hundreds dead in Iran. The Iraq side has seen far fewer deaths, but it is suffering too.

-- The trial of Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy, two of his sons and a cohort is underway as the government laid out its case.

-- Some well-heeled migrants are being smuggled on luxury yachts in an effort to flee to Europe.

-- A new NASA/NOAA satellite could produce the most accurate weather predictions yet.

BUSINESS

-- Rupert Murdoch spent a lifetime building a media empire. Will he and his sons break it up?

-- You might still be waiting for your Model 3, but Tesla is getting into making electric trucks too. It’s a whole new challenge for Elon Musk.

-- The executive in charge of booking for NBC News has been fired for what the company called “inappropriate conduct” with female employees.

SPORTS

-- American high jumper Chaunté Lowe is at last getting a bronze medal … from competing in the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

-- There’s a huge obstacle to the Dodgers trading for Miami Marlins slugger Giancarlo Stanton: his $295-million contract.

OPINION

-- Note to Jeff Sessions: “Lock her up” is not the mission of the Justice Department.

-- Consider this: Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates and Warren Buffett have more wealth than the bottom half of the country combined (yes, that’s about 160 million people).

WHAT OUR EDITORS ARE READING

-- California Gov. Jerry Brown once wanted to be president; these days, he’s acting like one. (Politico)

-- Who is “Bernie Bernstein”? He falsely claimed to be a reporter for the Washington Post offering money for dirt on Roy Moore. (Washington Post)

-- How do you eliminate gender bias in a gendered language like French? (PRI)

ONLY IN L.A.

The Jensen’s Recreation Center building on Sunset Boulevard in Echo Park doesn’t have a bowling alley anymore, but nearly a century after it was built, it still has the original electric lighted sign depicting a man bowling a strike. Now, after being mostly dark for much of the last 50 years, this old man is rolling them home again.

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