Today's Headlines: Brief taste of fall coming to an abrupt end

Sept. 30, 2021 5 AM PT

Here are the stories you shouldn’t miss today:

FROM THE ARCHIVES

Twenty-five years ago today, The Times wrote that the Pacific Northwest had become home to the latest upheaval in individual rights: a terminally ill person’s right to “hasten death” with a fatal dose of medication. The U.S. Supreme Court was set to consider an appeal of a right-to-die ruling filed by Washington’s attorney general.

In 2015, then-Gov. Jerry Brown made physician-assisted suicide legal in California. And, earlier this month, California lawmakers approved legislation to speed up and simplify the state process for those close to death to get prescriptions for lethal doses of drugs.

CALIFORNIA

— Dogs are accidentally getting “baked” from cannabis edibles in California. It might sound funny that so many pooches are getting into the hooch. But for dogs who accidentally ingest potent edibles intended for a human several times their weight, the narcotic effect can be serious.

— An 18-year-old woman shot by a Long Beach school safety officer was on life support Wednesday as friends questioned why the officer opened fire on the car she was riding in.

— Melina Abdullah, a prominent protest leader and co-founder of Black Lives Matter Los Angeles, was the target of a third “swatting” incident at her home Wednesday evening — the second one in the last week

— L.A. has resumed cleanups of homeless encampments, but there’s a catch: As few as 38% of sanitation workers report being vaccinated.

— The San Diego school district has ordered all staff and students age 16 and older to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 by Dec. 20.

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NATION-WORLD

— It’s a rare move for wildlife officials to give up hope on a plant or animal, but government scientists say they’ve exhausted efforts to find the ivory-billed woodpecker and 22 more birds, fish and other species. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service declared them extinct.

— The Philippines is countering Chinese aggression in the South China Sea with an all-female unit of coast guard radio operators. China’s actions in the region are a point of contention between Beijing and Washington. The idea is the women’s voices will remind opposing crews of their “wives or mothers,” officials have said.

— Former Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida won the ruling party’s leadership contest Wednesday. He is set to become the country’s next prime minister.

— Official news reports in China blame widespread power cuts on high coal prices, leaving residents to rely on flashlights and generators. Economists say the real motive is political: Officials are under pressure to curtail energy use to meet official targets.

— A battle between gangs in an Ecuadoran prison killed at least 116 people and injured 80 in what authorities were calling the worst penitentiary massacre in the nation’s history. At least five of the dead were beheaded, officials said Wednesday.

HOLLYWOOD AND THE ARTS

— Spike Lee takes a spin through the gallery focused on him at the Academy Museum, which opens Thursday. Visitors will be able to trace Lee’s career through props and memorabilia dating to his 1983 award-winning student film, “Joe’s Bed-Stuy Barbershop: We Cut Heads,” on up through his two Oscars.

— Please. Don’t call it the “Death Star,” says architect Renzo Piano. The David Geffen Theater that he designed for the new Academy Museum is “a soap bubble. It’s a flying ship. It’s a flying vessel ... but it’s not a ‘Death Star.’”

— The music industry coddled R. Kelly. It was television, specifically the 2019 Lifetime docuseries “Surviving R. Kelly” and its follow-up, that helped take him down, writes television critic Lorraine Ali.

BUSINESS

— He was an econ major in college and rose through the world of finance. Sa’ad Shah explains how went from being a hedge fund investor to running the world’s largest psychedelic venture capital firm.

— Remember when forecasters predicted the economic recovery in California and the nation was going to seem like the Roaring ’20s? The Delta variant upended expectations, sending the outlook from “sizzling to ho-hum.”

— California took an audacious, legally tenuous plunge when it outlawed the all-white-male boardroom. But companies across the country are embracing the state’s boardroom diversity directives. Women now control 50% more corporate board seats nationwide than they did before the 2018 California law was passed.

— Postal service is about to get slower as well as more expensive, writes columnist Michael Hiltzik.

SPORTS

— The Clippers are fully vaccinated, coach Tyronn Lue said Wednesday. The declaration was a reversal from the way team leaders had handled questions when asked in recent days about the team’s vaccination status.

— The storied, rags-to-riches career of boxer Manny Pacquiao ended officially, and emotionally, Tuesday as he announced his retirement.

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OPINION

— Here’s a look at what it’s like operating a Texas abortion clinic under the state’s new ban.

— It’s time to stop misleading consumers about the sad state of recycling. In many cases, “recyclable” symbols are a half-truth used by manufacturers to “greenwash” their products.

ONLY IN L.A.

It’s early on a cool, gray September morning at the Hollywood Forever cemetery, and people are gathering amid the tombs to do yoga. Kundalini yoga, to be precise. With some hypnosis thrown in.

The organizers call it “hypno-yoga,” and the sessions (free, for now at least) unfold every Wednesday on the Fairbanks Lawn, which you might mistake for a high-end park if it weren’t for the imposing tomb of famed actors Douglas Fairbanks and his son, Douglas Fairbanks Jr., at the south end.

Let’s pause here and acknowledge the obvious, writes Jon Healey, senior editor on The Times’ utility journalism team: This is the sort of thing that earns Los Angeles its La-La Land reputation.