latimes

The U.S. Forest Service has closed all trails to Mt. Baldy's peak until December 2025 to help the ecosystem recover from the Bridge fire. Hikers are defying the closures and risking a $5,000 fine for violating the closure order. In September, the Bridge fire ravaged Mt. Baldy Village, destroying 20 homes and burning more than 50,000 acres on surrounding hillsides. While the village was devastated by the fire, the summit and the most popular trails leading to it escaped largely unscathed. Read more at the link in bio 🔗. 📸: @genaro4707

What gifts might our Gift Guide pickers pick if they were guided to pick gifts from the lists of the other gift pickers to give? Asking that question aloud might be hard to do (go ahead, we’ll wait), but answering it isn’t. That’s because this year, once our collective of elfin scribes finished sourcing all manner of gifts, goodies, gadgets and gear — organized around the theme of celebrating all that Los Angeles has to offer (and the Golden State at large, too) — we asked them to take one last look at the fruits of one another’s labors and pick some newly discovered bit of holiday wonderment they’d be likely to gift or love to be gifted this year. On our first-ever list of curated curators’ curations, you’ll find suggestions of tasty treats (think boxes of mole, bottles of maple syrup, a box of pasta fixings), wishing dolls, lucky beans (no cow trade-in required), herb seeds (to grow both mind-altering greenery and not) and even a few local places to go and browse the shelves yourselves. And that’s just for starters. So find the full list at the link in bio to discover what other gifts these L.A. Times gift pickers (and some of their editors) picked to give. 📹 @markpottslat

Gov. Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency as the H5N1 bird flu virus moves from the Central Valley to Southern California herds and federal officials confirmed flu in a Louisiana patient hospitalized with severe illness. This is the first case of severe illness caused by bird flu in the U.S., and is considered a concerning development as the virus continues to spread throughout the nation via migrating birds. The declaration will allow for a more streamlined approach among state and local agencies to tackle the virus, providing “flexibility around staffing, contracting, and other rules to support California’s evolving response,” according to a statement issued Wednesday morning. “Building on California’s testing and monitoring system — the largest in the nation — we are committed to further protecting public health, supporting our agriculture industry, and ensuring that Californians have access to accurate, up-to-date information,” said Newsom in a statement. “While the risk to the public remains low, we will continue to take all necessary steps to prevent the spread of this virus.” Read more at the link in bio.

Last week, Carson Palmer was named the new Santa Margarita High varsity football coach, a job that for years he never envisioned 🏈. The former Heisman Trophy winner and No. 1 overall draft pick out of USC didn’t see himself returning to the game as a coach at his alma mater, but he was drawn in by the opportunity to guide his kids. All this is new territory for him. So he has leaned on many of his former college and NFL coaches, as well as fellow quarterbacks, to begin assembling his course of action. Read more at the link in bio 🔗. 📸: Los Angeles Times and Associated Press

The door from “Titanic,” terrifying accents and her latest film, “Lee”: Kate Winslet sat down with The Times’ @ducassi to answer some Very Important Questions. In #Lee, Winslet plays the famed photographer Lee Miller, an American model and fine art photographer turned WWII reporter for Vogue who captured some of the most indelible images of the Holocaust. Lee was just nominated for a Best Actress Golden Globe (Motion Picture - Drama) for her work in the film. Winslet, who produced “Lee” in addition to starring in it, spent nine years developing the project, working with Antony Penrose, Miller’s son and the author of the book “The Lives of Lee Miller.” “Lee” also stars @andysamberg, Alexander Skarsgård, @marioncotillard and @andreariseborough. Watch more #VeryImportantQuestions at the link in @latimes_entertainment’s bio. 🎥 @ducassi, @markpottslat #WWII #Lee #Titanic #jackandrose #titanicmovie #Film #Cinema #Oscars2025 #Oscars #Funny

Inside a subzero freezer at a Northern California pet hospital sit rows of carefully labeled bags of fresh frozen plasma. Each pouch could save a pet’s life: a retriever that ingested poison, a corgi with a bleeding disorder, a puppy with parvovirus. While the pouches each look the same, their straw-colored contents come from starkly different places. Some of the blood products are from dogs like Augustus, a 55-pound Belgian Malinois whose owner signed him up to donate blood at a canine community blood bank, which is modeled after the human volunteer system. Other bags hold a more controversial history. Their contents come from donor kennels in California, where hundreds of dogs and cats live in “closed colonies” as full-time blood suppliers. These captive animals have long provided a steady stream of blood to meet the state’s surging demand for advanced veterinary care. For decades, California veterinarians were required to buy blood exclusively from closed colonies in the state, a system regulators decided would ensure the products were safe and the donors free of diseases. Veterinary hospitals that collected blood in-house for their patients weren’t allowed to sell it. But in 2021, state lawmakers declared closed colonies inhumane because the animals are held captive. They vowed to replace them with community blood banks and ordered that the state’s inspection reports — long sealed — be open to public scrutiny. Read the Times' investigation into closed colonies at the link in bio. 📹 @itsmikeray @karenfoshay

The L.A. Times Short Docs' "A Swim Lesson" and "Planetwalker" are shortlisted for the 97th Oscars in the documentary short film category. This marks the first time the paper's studio has landed multiple spots in one year, following its first Oscar win last year with "The Last Repair Shop." To watch both films, head to latimes.com/shortdocs A Swim Lesson co-driectors @RashidaJones @willmccormack A Swim Lesson producers @emilyarlook @coleemanuele A co-release with @povshorts and @documentaryplus Planetwalker co-directors @domgillfilm @nadiamsgill Planetwalker animator @remyndow Planetwalker editor @harlemsdaughter Planetwalker music composer @acousticlabs A @encompassfilms film co-released with @bloomberggreen

In a staggering settlement, the federal government will pay $116 million to more than 100 women who said they were sexually abused by employees at a now-shuttered federal prison in Dublin that was dubbed the “rape club.” The settlement marks the largest ever paid by the federal government for misconduct in federal prisons. The women will receive an average of about $1.1 million each to settle litigation against the Bureau of Prisons over their mistreatment at the Federal Correctional Institution in the East Bay community of Dublin. The developments are the latest twist in a years-long scandal surrounding the facility. Since an FBI investigation was launched and resulted in arrests in 2021, eight FCI Dublin employees have been charged with sexually abusing inmates. Read more at the link in bio. 📷 Ben Margot / Associated Press

A revolution is underway in California’s insurance market that could provide relief to homeowners in high-fire-risk neighborhoods. Under new rules, state insurers for the first time will be allowed to use so-called catastrophe models to help determine the cost of home insurance. The models are complex computer programs that aim to better determine the risk a structure faces from wildfires amid a changing climate. Read more about the new home insurance rules at the link in bio. 📸: @bvanderbrug

With so many millions of people living in Southern California, many people probably share your passion for your seemingly niche hobby. That seems to be the case for RC drifting, where someone takes a rear-wheel drive remote-controlled car and modifies the vehicle to better slide around corners. @tomexploresla stopped by the @notachi_socal drift event and toy drive last Saturday to get a better understanding of this subculture. If you want to know more about RC drifting, Brandon from Notachi SoCal recommends Super-G in Baldwin Park. What subculture should Tom cover next? Comment below #latimes #rcdrifting

“Maria,” now on Netflix, is a dramatization of how Maria Callas might have lived her final days in 1977, ambling through Paris and reflecting on her past: a troubled childhood; a tempestuous affair with Aristotle Onassis; and a career of artistic triumphs tempered by her enigmatic decision to walk away from all of it. It’s not hard to imagine why Angelina Jolie, an Academy Award-winning actor who has spent decades as an object of public fascination, might identify with Callas: She too has memorably played her share of heroes and villains, mothers, wives and daughters, and she knows all too well what it’s like to be misapprehended by legions of admirers. Pablo Larraín, who previously directed the historical dramas “Jackie” (which starred Natalie Portman as Jacqueline Kennedy) and “Spencer” (in which Kristen Stewart played Princess Diana), says that he was drawn to extraordinary women who were able “to find their own identity and be who they were through their own will and capacity.” Angelina Jolie graces the latest cover of #TheEnvelope. @angelinajolie, Larraín, @ericvetrovocalcoach and costume designer @massimocantiniparrini sat down with @latimes_envelope. Read the full story at the link in @latimes’ bio. 📸 @victoriawill/ For The Times #Maria #MariaCallas #Netflix #Film #Oscars #Oscars2025

A 40-year-old tech consultant has been convicted of second-degree murder in the fatal stabbing of Cash App founder Bob Lee in San Francisco last year. The verdict read Tuesday arrives more than a year after Lee was found bleeding to death in a downtown San Francisco street. The jury listened to over six weeks of testimony about a drug bender, sexual assault and ultimately an early morning stabbing in San Francisco in April 2023. Read more at the link in bio.