Newsletter: Essential California Week in Review: Alec Baldwin to be charged with manslaughter in ‘Rust’ shooting

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Good morning, and welcome to the Essential California newsletter. It is Saturday, Jan. 21.

Here’s a look at the top stories of the last week

Alec Baldwin is expected to be charged with two counts of manslaughter. New Mexico prosecutors said they are filing felony criminal charges against actor Alec Baldwin and the armorer of the low-budget western “Rust,” following the fatal shooting of the film’s cinematographer, Halyna Hutchins.

• Reactions: Prospect of charges were met with sympathy and hate for Alec Baldwin.
• Baldwin’s future: Baldwin is likely to see his already damaged career erode even further.
• The future of ‘Rust’: Hutchins’ widower has joined as a producer, but significant roadblocks exist in restarting filming.
• Remembering Hutchins: “She was a supernova.”

The storms have ended. Now for the long recovery. A pier in Santa Cruz split in half. Extensive flooding in Soquel Village, Capitola and Planada. Vital bridges badly battered or closed. More than 500 reported mudslides across California in the last few weeks, including some that damaged homes and cars in L.A. hillside communities.

• President Biden: Biden visits California to survey storm damage.
• Water levels: Big Bear Lake rose by more than 2 feet. The lake is still more than 14.5 feet below its capacity, but more water is flowing in.
• Tracking the deaths: At least 22 have been killed.
• Drought: California lets precious stormwater wash out to sea.
• Buyer beware: All those cars damaged in California’s floods could be coming to a dealer near you.

Former L.A. Councilmember Jose Huizar pleads guilty in corruption case. Huizar admitted to extorting at least $1.5 million in bribes from real estate developers after having denied the sweeping corruption allegations for years.

Inside the stunning fall:

• Huizar’s unexpected capitulation caps a brutal downfall for a man who was born into poverty on a Mexican ranch, grew up in Boyle Heights, and for years was at the center of downtown L.A.’s building boom.

David Crosby, whose voice soared with the Byrds and Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, died. Crosby once sailed the world in a 59-foot Honduran mahogany schooner called the Mayan.

• Graham Nash and Stephen Stills pay tribute to David Crosby: “Nothing short of genius.”
• Here are 12 songs that encapsulate his life and work.

For a disturbing 42 seconds, a Los Angeles police officer repeatedly stunned a teacher with a Taser gun. Keenan Anderson, 31, died several hours later.

Want to solve climate change? This California farm kingdom holds a key. Welcome to the Imperial Valley, one of the most important places you’ve probably never been.

New Bay Area maps show hidden flood risk from sea level rise and groundwater. Communities that consider themselves “safe” from sea level rise might need to think otherwise.

A new California housing law has done little to encourage building, report says. Senate Bill 9 was supposed to allow homeowners to convert their homes into duplexes or divide their parcels in half. But across 13 cities in the state, SB 9 projects are “limited or nonexistent,” according to a new study by the UC Berkeley Terner Center for Housing Innovation.

‘The ladies themselves bought into it’: How ‘Housewives’ fans upended the franchise. Thanks to real-life controversies, fans are no longer satisfied waiting for a new season to unfold. And a cottage industry of chatty podcasts, metacriticism and spoof accounts has sprung up to serve them.

A ‘very different January’: Los Angeles County drops to low COVID community level. L.A. County officially entered the low COVID-19 community level, indicating that the pandemic is not exerting undue stress on the local healthcare system.

Former Chargers coach Anthony Lynn is at home on 49ers staff. Lynn is now on the San Francisco 49ers staff, where his connections to other staff and players have made him feel at home.

Lisa Marie Presley leaves behind a lucrative Graceland — and a complicated financial legacy. Presley’s inheritance is complicated by a financial history as fraught as that of any rock star, and things could keep changing as it passes on to the next generation.

Gina Lollobrigida, film star who conquered Italy, Hollywood and the world, dies at 95. An actor, yes, but somehow Lollobrigida was always more than just that.

Here are this week’s great reads

Karen Bass and Kevin McCarthy are old political pals. Does that mean anything anymore?

California’s record rainstorms are a blessing, a hardship and a spiritual experience. Desperately needed life-giving water brought destruction and death.

Celebrate the Year of the Rabbit. It’s a time to call in prosperity, health and good luck.

Today’s week-in-review newsletter was curated by Karim Doumar. Please let us know what we can do to make this newsletter more useful to you. Send comments, complaints and ideas to [email protected].