Talking Points
P-59 and P-60 were found in the Santa Monicas earlier this month.
A semi-regular bite at the day's news and observations. Previous Bullet Points. All of our media posts in one place.
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1. On the ground in Houston
The former hurricane Harvey has now dropped a record 50+ inches of rain on the Houston area, with more still to come and concerns about levees and dams. It's an astounding regional humanitarian disaster affecting millions of people. Task forces from both the Los Angeles city and county fire departments are on hand to help with rescue and relief efforts.
I gave a shout out to the LA teams in Houston in Monday's LA Observed segment on KCRW. It's been a shining several days for journalists showing their crucial value to society in moments like this, while facing their own personal and family crises. Only the creepiest of partisans doesn't get it. Here's a couple of Twitter call outs to LA reporters doing good work in Texas.
The LA Times joined other media outlets around the country in waiving the paywall on Harvey coverage. Some stunning photos and good stories on the LAT's coverage landing page.
2. Meet P-59 and P-60
The newest Santa Monica Mountains cougar cubs were found and tagged at a den on August 14. P-59 is female, P-60 is male. The National Park Service says the cubs were born to P-53, who is now believed to be the youngest female in the local mountain lion study to bear offspring. She is about two years old and is the lion who turned up, unexpected, as a
chirping kitten in 2015 at a kill in the mountain range. She is the last of her litter to survive.
Researchers strongly suspect that DNA testing will prove that P-12 fathered the new cubs. He is the male who is the only lion known to have crossed the 101 freeway from the north and entered the Santa Monica Mountains. P-12 brought new genetic material into the local colony but has now mated repeatedly with lions in his bloodline.
“If P-12 is in fact these kittens’ father, that also means he’s their grandfather, their great grandfather, and their great-great grandfather,” said Jeff Sikich, a biologist with Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area. “Inbreeding to this degree really highlights the need for providing safe passage across the 101 freeway so new mountain lions can enter the population and breed.”
More photos
3. Garcetti is back from New Hampshire
As we
Just like that, the 2020 retail campaigning for president began right here in a strip-mall campaign headquarters Monday, when Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti showed up for what he called “the most important race in the country.”
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There’s still enough hesitation about getting out there that Garcetti is the only prospective 2020er who’s come to campaign for Craig, and even he insists that this is all coincidence. He was on a family vacation in the Berkshires, and just happened to throw in a cocktail reception in the Hamptons at billionaire Ron Perelman’s along the way, so why not head an hour up the interstate from Boston to throw in for the only campaign outside of his own that he’s gotten involved in this year....
“You can curl up in a corner and cry, you can yell at the Twitter feed on your phone, or you can do something,” he said, rationalizing what he says is his focus on local races at an event where he was already working the line cooks, speaking in Spanish. Leaning into his Mexican heritage, he made a corny joke as only a stumping politician can — “A Mexican restaurant? You had me at hello — or hola.”
“Right now it’s on mayors to set an agenda for the country,” Garcetti said. “In the past, it used to be on Washington to save cities. Now it’s on cities to save Washington.”
The mayor's made a couple of public appearances in Los Angeles on Tuesday and on Wednesday he heads to Sacramento for a 10 a.m. presser on affordable housing.
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