December 17, 2022

The Cecil Hotel in downtown Los Angeles has been turned into a permanent supportive housing project. (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)

By Karim Doumar Essential California is taking a break. We’ll be back in your inbox Dec. 29 and wish you a safe, happy holiday season. Want to keep hearing from the L.A. Times? Sign up for other newsletters. Good morning, and welcome to the Essential California newsletter. It is Saturday, Dec. 17. Here’s a look at the top stories of the last week A drought emergency was declared for all Southern California. Officials with the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California called on water agencies to immediately reduce their use of all imported supplies. Fears are also growing of “dead pool” on the Colorado river. UC and graduate student workers reach tentative agreement. After five weeks of disruption, the agreement could resolve what may be the nation’s largest-ever strike of academic workers. Brittney Griner expresses gratitude in first statement after release from Russian prison. “The last 10 months have been a battle at every turn,” she wrote. As home prices decline, those who bought at the peak are nervous. For the first time in a decade homeowners are seeing their equity fall en masse. Health officials are urging masks again. From rising COVID and flu rates to stressed hospitals, here are seven reasons why. Celebrity mountain lion P-22 is seriously deteriorating. Euthanasia or sanctuary are possible. In many ways, we helped seal his fate. 400 empty rooms. The Cecil Hotel reopened a year ago as a privately funded permanent supportive housing project. Many viewed it as a promising new model in L.A. But a year later, two-thirds of the Cecil remains unoccupied. Megan Thee Stallion took the stand in Tory Lanez trial with support from demonstrators. She spoke in detail about a wild July 2020 night that started at a Hollywood Hills party and ended with her in handcuffs and later in a hospital with bullet fragments in her feet. Southern California ports are losing to East Coast rivals, threatening L.A.-area jobs. The backup that began early in 2020 is gone now, but big problems remain for the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach. Stephen ‘Twitch’ Boss, the DJ for ‘The Ellen DeGeneres Show,’ died at 40. The former reality star rose through the TV ranks as the DJ and later executive producer on the “Ellen DeGeneres Show,” competed on “So You Think You Can Dance” and appeared in “Magic Mike XXL.” Read his wife and dance partner Allison Holker’s tribute. Can California’s electric-vehicle push overcome the red-state backlash? You can’t complete the shift to electric cars if they are viewed as something only for rich liberals in California and New York. You need everyone. L.A.’s rich are already scheming ways to avoid new ‘mansion tax.’ Death and taxes are life’s two certainties — but not if the rich can help it.