Column: Paris Hilton, gender parity and Siberian tigers: 3 good-news stories for the holidays
Hello and happy Thursday. There are 32 days until the inauguration and, bust out the tissues, this is my last newsletter until Jan. 7.
That means you will have to make it through Christmas and New Year’s without me. But as my end-of-year gift, there will be no politics today, or at least no negative politics, which is almost the same thing. We are ending the year with three feel-good stories to remind us all that 2024 was not entirely a good-riddance kind of gal.
First up, Paris Hilton.
Paris in Washington
Way back in April, I wrote about Paris Hilton and her quest to pass legislation in California and across the country to prevent children from being abused in treatment facilities, which often lack transparency and it seems occasionally maybe even ethics.
As I wrote back then, when Hilton was (successfully) advocating for the passage of the Accountability in Children’s Treatment bill in California, also known as SB 1043, she told the story of how she was locked up at 17 in one such facility, where she experienced “abuse disguised as therapy.”
Monday, she headed to the U.S. Capitol, where she urged House members to pass legislation at the federal level regulating such treatment facilities. It’s unclear whether Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) will take up the bill before the break, but the Senate has already passed the measure, the Stop Institutional Child Abuse Act. That took three years, with Hilton continually advocating for a deeply personal measure.
Any of you who read this newsletter regularly know that I often write about survivors of abuse. Making your pain public is never easy, so I give it to Hilton for turning her fame into a platform to help young people.
“When the U.S. Senate came together in a rare show of unity to pass the Stop Institutional Child Abuse Act unanimously on Dec. 11, it was one of the best moments of my life,” Hilton wrote in a open letter posted on Instagram. “It was proof that when we listen to survivors and put politics aside, we can create real, meaningful change.”
That, as Hilton would say, is sliving.
Boris and Svetlay
OK, this really has nothing to do with politics, but I love this story. So I’m putting it in.
Somewhere right now in the empty wilds of far-east Russia, two Amur tigers are parenting their young cubs. How the two — Boris and Svetlay — came to be a couple is a story for the ages. One that has been reported in the New York Times and elsewhere, but here we go anyway.
Boris and Svetlay are endangered tigers, rescued as orphaned cubs. They grew up sorta together in a special facility where they had minimal human contact and were fed live animals (rabbits, deer, etc.) to teach them how to be wild. The point was to be able to reintroduce them to the wild, in the hopes of rebuilding the population.
When they were old enough, about 18 months, the two were released to very different parts of the super-desolate area near the Russia-China border where such cats have been absent for more than 50 years.
But Boris did not like his dropoff point. After a year, the big guy walked 124 miles straight north until he found Svetlay’s den. Six months later, a litter of cubs was born.
Love is not dead, folks — even in the Siberian cold, and good things do happen in Russia.
Ladies in the house
And we’ll end with a bit of good news in the Golden State that you may have missed.
This year, for the first time, the California Legislature has (almost) achieved gender equity. As my colleague Mackenzie Mays recently reported, when lawmakers took their oath on Dec. 2, women would hold 59 out of 120 seats.
That includes newly elected Sade Elhawary, a Democrat from South Los Angeles who is replacing termed-out Assemblymember Reggie Jones-Sawyer.
“Women in the Legislature are really going to be on the front lines as we look to both hold Trump accountable and protect Californians from all the things that might happen. I think we have to suit up,” Elhawary told Mays. “We still suffer from the evils of sexism in such a real way.”
She couldn’t be more right about that. More women means more representation, at a time when California is called upon to stand up for equality and diversity. So, you go ladies.
That’s all folks!
It’s been a Looney Tunes kind of year, and I appreciate all of you sticking with me for it. May the holidays be filled with joy, laughter and a minimum of stress. Check back in 2025, because I’m pretty certain we’re not done with the crazy yet.
What else you should be reading:
The must-read: Three dead girls and a man on death row. Did lies put him there?
The what’s next: A rift in Trump World over how to make America healthier
The L.A. Times special: ‘A necessary evil’: The captive dogs whose blood saves lives
Stay Golden,
Anita Chabria
P. S.: You may (or may not!) have noticed I took a week off recently. I was finishing up this story with my colleague Jessica Garrison that I hope you’ll read (and share, please share). If you like true crime with a side of criminal justice policy, this one is for you.
It’s about a man on death row for killing three girls and the false testimony by two teenage girls who put him there. The larger question is how police interview and interrogate suspects and witnesses, and how false confessions and false testimony happen.
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