Category: 1-HeadlineNews

In a league where Black players make up 70% of active rosters, the NFL currently has only two Black head coaches. League officials and even fans have offered all sorts of excuses about this discrepancy for decades. But now there’s an explosive federal lawsuit about the matter. It was filed this month by former Miami Dolphins head coach Brian Flores. In it, he puts this persistent and longstanding problem on stage.

Today, we dive into why the NFL just can’t seem to hire Black head coaches.

More reading:

Seven things you need to know about Brian Flores’ lawsuit against the NFL

Op-Ed: The NFL fails on Black leadership. So do most institutions in America

Column: Brian Flores’ lawsuit features memorable receipts that could force the NFL to change

For the latest installment of our “Masters of Disasters” series, we talk tsunamis in the wake of a volcanic eruption near Tonga last month that caused waves felt across the Pacific. There was none of the devastation like the world saw in Fukushima in 2011, or across the Indian Ocean in 2004. But what happened in Tonga got us thinking: How are the effects of tsunamis so devastating, yet so little is known about them?

More reading:

The tsunami that battered Santa Cruz highlights the threat facing California’s coast

Can a tsunami happen in Southern California? What should you do about it?

Surprising tsunami triggers may lurk off California’s coast, scientists say

 

Everybody is talking about the metaverse right now. But Times host Gustavo Arellano didn’t want to just talk about it; he wanted to experience it firsthand.

And so off he went inside the metaverse with a guide. Is it all it’s cracked up to be?

More reading:

Explainer: What is the metaverse and how will it work?

Want to glimpse our metaverse future? Theme parks are already on the case

Op-Ed: Mark Zuckerberg makes a ‘mwahahaha’ metaverse move

A first-of-it’s kind case in Los Angeles County is going to play a big role in determining culpability whenever self-driving cars get into accidents. Prosecutors have charged a driver with felony manslaughter after his Tesla crashed into a car in 2019, killing two people. The accused was in the driver’s seat, but prosecutors say his Tesla … was on autopilot.

More reading:

A Tesla on autopilot killed two people in Gardena. Is the driver guilty of manslaughter?

Are self-driving cars safe? Highway regulator orders industry to cough up the data

Why do Tesla cars keep crashing into emergency response vehicles? Federal safety agency is investigating

There’s a growing realization that the brilliance of the world’s best athletes isn’t enough anymore to cover some glaring problems that come with putting on the Olympics every two years.

The International Olympics Committee has always claimed the Games are about promoting goodwill and celebrating the brotherhood of mankind. But as it turns out, not only do Olympics not do that, they tend to make democratic states… more authoritarian.

So what does that mean for the Games coming to Los Angeles in 2028?

Guests: Human Rights Watch China Director Sophie Richardson, and Pacific University political science professor Jules Boykoff

More reading:

The ‘Feel Guilty Games’?: China human rights issues have forever marked the Beijing Olympics

2028 L.A. Olympics: Agreement outlines key issues but final price tag remains unclear

Op-Ed: Tokyo’s Olympics have turned nightmarish. L.A., are you watching?

Mexico trails just Syria and Iraq as the deadliest country in the world to be a journalist. That’s according to data collected from 2000 through 2022 by the Committee to Protect Journalists. And the Mexican government has done little to stop it.

But in the wake of the murder of four reporters so far this year — José Luis Gamboa, Margarito Martínez Esquivel, Lourdes Maldonado López and Roberto Toledo — Mexican journalists are openly criticizing President Andrés Manuel Lopez Obrador and government officials like never before.

More reading:

Journalists throughout Mexico say enough to killings and crimes against press

Photojournalist shot to death outside his home in Tijuana

She told Mexico’s president she feared for her life. Then she was killed
 

 

Tet, the Vietnamese Lunar New Year, is a national holiday, not just in Vietnam but all over the world wherever Vietnamese may be. And in the United States, red envelopes filled with money, special dishes and other traditions have become a part of life in major American cities such as San Jose, Houston and especially in Orange County, which is home to the largest Vietnamese expat community in the world.

Today, we talk about Tet memories and its evolution with the authors of the recently released “The Red Boat Fish Sauce Cookbook.”

More reading:

Buy “The Red Boat Fish Sauce Cookbook”

A new nuoc mam: Red Boat ‘first press extra virgin’ fish sauce

Gifts for food lovers: Red Boat fish salt, kids chef caddy, cooking classes

In Santa Monica during the 1950s and ‘60s, city leaders evicted hundreds of Black families to build what ended up being the 10 Freeway. But now, in an act of civic penance, Santa Monica is trying to bring some of those families back. It comes at a time when municipalities across the United States are reckoning with their racist actions from the past.

We’ll talk about Santa Monica’s attempt to redress a historical wrong. And we’ll also talk to a woman whose family was one of many Black households that Santa Monica wants to make right by.

Host: Gustavo Arellano

Guests: L.A. Times housing reporter Liam Dillon, and Santa Monica native Nichelle Monroe

More reading:

Santa Monica’s message to people evicted long ago for the 10 Freeway: Come home

Freeways force out residents in communities of color — again

Tour Santa Monica’s once-vibrant Black neighborhoods, nearly erased by racism and ‘progress’

 

It was the Taylor Swift diss heard around the world. “She doesn’t write her own songs.” That’s what Damon Albarn, the lead singer for the British bands Blur and Gorillaz said to L.A. Times pop music critic Mikael Wood.

The drama between Taylor and Damon got real. But it also hit on something really interesting — songwriting, and who gets the credit for it, is a thing … now more than ever.

More reading:

For Damon Albarn, modern life is still pretty much rubbish

Column: Taylor Swift slapped back for all the women who have been told ‘you didn’t write that.’

After insulting Taylor Swift, Damon Albarn says he was cast into ‘social media abyss’

Just when it seemed schools and parents and teachers were figuring out how to do in-person learning again, Omicron hit.

The highly contagious variant really blew up while schools were on winter break in California. So when schools reopened and students returned, there were problems.

Today, we hear from a parent and high school students who are trying to navigate their teenage years while worrying about COVID-19.

More reading:

California schools under intense strain, fighting to stay open during Omicron surge

Amid high absenteeism, incoming L.A. schools chief says campuses are safe

Omicron surge anxiety, absences and confusion mark first day of new LAUSD semester