The Week in Photos: Snow, rain and striking teacher aides disrupt L.A. and LAPD goes on a 'watch list'

March 25, 2023 5 AM PT

Hello, and welcome to this week’s selection of top stories in pictures.

Above, following a record-breaking wet winter, snowpack in southern Sierra hits all-time record levels. How deep is that?

The big news this week was that it came and went uneventfully, as politics go. The anticipated “PROTEST,” as Donald Trump called for over the weekend, did not materialize. Neither did his arrest. The ex-president is in Florida, waiting out the possibility of criminal charges in New York. And if he gets arrested, he wants protests.

A vertical, twilight frame of the U.S. Capitol rotunda tower partially obscured by steam.

A sweeping three-day Los Angeles Unified School District strike that shut down Los Angeles public schools ended Thursday — with a tentative agreement. The massive strike brought out hundreds of LAUSD “essential workers” — the bus drivers, cleaning staff, entry gate supervisors and the fearless lunch ladies — to join wet, cold picket lines across the city while Mayor Karen Bass mediated the bargaining.

While the parents scrambled to care for their children missing three days of school, the disruption affected not only the students’ educational but also their nutritional needs.

A man sits in the driver's seat of a school bus, holding onto the steering wheel, partially lighted by sun.

A man raises his fist while holding a picket sign that reads "On Strike. For Our Students," while in the middle of a crowd.

A woman reaches out of a driver's seat to grab a small plastic bag with foot items from a person standing outside.

In an attempt at increasing police accountability, a watchdog group has created a “first-of-its-kind” website, Watch the Watchers, with names and photos of every LAPD police officer. The public-records release also accidentally included photos of undercover officers.

Now three LAPD officers are suing the owner of another site, killercops.com, who they say put a “bounty” on them.

In a head-and-shoulders frame a police officer reaches with his hands to adjust his police cap, which is shielding his eyes.

The latest storm to hit California was one of the wildest on record as it featured a bomb cyclone and floods. At least five people have died. A California town was engulfed in floodwater, but residents feared what would happen if they fled. Some say that the flooding in Pajaro could have been avoided and that racism and neglect might be the reason that it has long languished in the shadow of nearby Watsonville. After the flood, in Pajaro, children and teens remain displaced.

The record storms accomplished further unexpected damage when floodwaters undermined a section of aqueduct in Owens Valley, threatening a Los Angeles water lifeline.

Vehicles sit submerged in floodwaters near the horizon, while a road with a stop sign on it disappears into the water.

In one photo, a boy dips a stick in a street puddle. In another photo, four workers standing on the edge of a sinkhole.

As other parts of the state bore the brunt of this week’s rainstorms, a small but mighty tornado ripped off parts of a Montebello building, sending debris flying.

An aerial view of a building with part of its roof missing, exposing the interior, and a nearby parking lot with debris.

Workers remove broken glass from inside a window, and an imprint made by flying debris is on the wall next to the window.

Thanks to the rains in parts of (formerly) parched California, farmlands are used to soak up stormwater and replenish depleted groundwater, as excessive pumping has long been depleting aquifers in California’s Central Valley. On Friday, Yolo County’s now green Dunnigan Hills became a backdrop to Gov. Gavin Newsom’s announcement of rolling back California most severe drought restrictions.

An aerial view of flooded agricultural land, with sun setting on the horizon.

This week marks the 20th anniversary of U.S. military operation Shock and Awe, which blasted off the violent, eight-year Iraq war. Although the conflict officially ended in 2011, today — 20 years later — “it still weighs on Iraqis whose lives were destroyed and a Middle East that remains convulsed, along with Americans shocked at the humanitarian and moral disaster it became and the balance of power it wrought in Washington.”

An older girl clutches a younger one, another stands near, all crying. A boy at right covers his face with both hands.

Wonder what Angelenos think about the start of Mayor Karen Bass’ tenure? L.A. strongly approves of the mayor but remains skeptical about fixing homelessness as unhoused people are abruptly moved from one hotel to the next.

A tent, surrounded by litter, sits on the sidewalk. A large spray-painted sign behind reads "Mayor."

As with any effort, “One step at a time, just one step at a time” works best. More than 20,000 participants took to the streets on Sunday for the 2023 L.A. Marathon and pounded the pavement through some of the city’s most iconic neighborhoods, including Chinatown, Hollywood and Beverly Hills.