latimes--2020-06-27--California Latino, Black residents hit even harder by coronavirus as white people see less danger

With coronavirus cases surging , the toll on Latino and Black Californians keeps getting worse .
The two groups now have double the mortality rate from the virus in Los Angeles County than white residents , the latest troubling sign of the deep health inequity that has come with COVID-19 .
Of every 100,000 Latino residents of L.A. County , 38 have died from COVID-19 .
It ’ s the first time the Latino coronavirus death rate has surpassed that of Black residents in L.A. County , which also continues to be disproportionately high .
Of every 100,000 Black residents @ @ @ @ @ @ @ data released by the county Thursday .
Among every 100,000 Asian American residents , 25 have died .
White residents had the lowest mortality number of any race or ethnicity .
For every 100,000 white L.A. County residents , 19 have died .
People of color have been disproportionately affected by the coronavirus in various communities across California , as have been areas with higher levels of poverty .
In L.A. County , people living in areas with the highest rates of poverty have a mortality rate quadruple that of residents living in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that Black and Latino residents disproportionately work in jobs where they must leave home to get paid as essential front-line workers .
It ’ s the highest-paid Americans who have the greatest ability to work from home , according to a report by the Pew Research Center .
“ It ’ s a luxury to shelter in place , ” Dr. Kirsten Bibbins-Domingo , chair of UC San Francisco ’ s Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics , said in an interview .
Bibbins-Domingo said an estimated 1 in 1,500 Black people nationwide have @ @ @ @ @ @ @ pandemic .
Black people , she said , are more likely to be exposed to the virus .
“ The causes here are not genetic , ” Bibbins-Domingo said a recent campus town hall .
“ They are overrepresented in the low-wage essential workforce , in healthcare , in food production and distribution , in other types of occupations that have been essential in keeping our streets and hospitals clean and keeping our environment safe.
” Racism has a pernicious effect on health that can begin in childhood and leave people of color @ @ @ @ @ @ @ experts say , leaving them more susceptible to chronic illness , and as a result , death in a pandemic .
“ Racism operates as a chronic stress that can lead to toxic stress on a biological level , ” affecting the brain , said Dr. Dayna Long , pediatrician and medical director of the Department for Community Health and Engagement at the UCSF Benioff Children ’ s Hospital Oakland .
The more doses you get of chronic stress and adversity , the worse the impact is on your physical and mental health @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Long said .
“ It can lead to effects that affect our hearts , our minds and our bodies .
...
Ultimately , this exposure to racism can cause poor health outcomes that are extending across the lifespan , ” and can affect things such as birth weight and rates of upper respiratory tract infection and asthma .
Racism contributes to health disparities that can persist independent of wealth or education .
For instance , Long , as a highly educated Black woman , has statistically a much higher chance of giving birth @ @ @ @ @ @ @ educated white woman .
And a lot of it , she said , “ is because of chronic stress and fatigue secondary to issues like discrimination.
” Health disparities can also pass over the generations .
Recent research in genetics reveals that high levels of stress and adversity can lead to alterations in the way that the body reads its DNA and can lead to higher rates of diabetes , obesity , cancer or lung disease , Long said .
Long said her research has found that more than 20 % of mostly @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to their 12th birthday have experienced discrimination .
And more than half have endured at least four forms of “ adverse childhood experiences , ” which traditionally have been defined as experiences such as abuse and neglect .
In recent years , other factors , such as food and housing insecurity , community violence and discrimination have been found to also contribute to adverse childhood experiences , and can leave those encountering them to be more vulnerable in a pandemic .
Adverse childhood experiences are associated with the most common and serious chronic @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , but do so disproportionately among communities of color .
“ The more adversity that you have , the higher your rate of toxic stress , and that can lead to poor health outcomes , ” Long said .
Structural racism that contributes to reduced access to healthcare in communities of color worsens the situation .
“ We have a lot of reports in many cities of people not being able to get testing or being turned away with symptoms , ” Bibbins-Domingo said .
Underlying conditions , such as high blood pressure @ @ @ @ @ @ @ common in Black and Latino communities than white communities — disparities that persist even among people with similar higher income levels , Bibbins-Domingo said .
Residents of nursing homes that have a higher proportion of Black or Latino residents are more than twice as likely to have outbreaks of coronavirus compared with other nursing homes where residents are predominantly white , Bibbins-Domingo said , citing a recent analysis .
A Los Angeles Times published in May found that South and Central Los Angeles and the Eastside have seen coronavirus infection rates increase sharply @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Across California , Black and Latino residents are dying more often than other races among various age groups , according to an analysis published on .
For instance , among those ages 65 to 79 , Latinos made up 44 % of coronavirus deaths , despite comprising 22 % of the state ’ s population in that age group ; Black residents made up 11 % of deaths , despite comprising 6 % of California ’ s population in that age group .
In Silicon Valley , home to Northern California ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ — Latino residents make up 46 % of all coronavirus cases and 31 % of deaths , despite comprising 26 % of the population .
Black residents of Santa Clara County comprise 5.2 % of COVID-19 deaths , despite making up 2.4 % of the population .
In San Francisco , residents of Asian descent comprised 46 % of all coronavirus deaths , despite comprising 34 % of the population .
An updated study published last week of San Francisco ’ s Mission District found that of people who were infected with the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ them were Latino , even though Latino residents made up just 44 % of those who received a test .
The Mission District is 67 % Latino , 16 % white and 17 % other .
Risk factors for infections in late April included having a household income of less than $ 50,000 a year , front-line service work , needing to leave home in order to work , and unemployment .
“ We find that recent infections in late April were concentrated almost exclusively among low-income Latinx people working front-line jobs , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of the UC San Francisco Division of HIV , Infectious Diseases and Global Medicine at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital , and the study ’ s principal investigator , said in a statement .
“ This suggests health effects of ethnic and socioeconomic inequities in the community increased during San Francisco ’ s shelter-in-place ordinance and helps explain why Latinx people have been disproportionately affected by the pandemic , ” Havlir said .
The study ‘ s authors said the report shows that risk factors for getting infected were working or seeking work @ @ @ @ @ @ @ makes it harder for an infected person to isolate from others in the household .
“ These findings should help dispel common , dangerous pitfalls in interpreting ethnic disparities in infection , such as biological explanations , supposed community behaviors or stigmatizing communities , ” the authors in the report , which has not yet been peer-reviewed .
“ Pandemics exploit the existing inequities in society , putting a larger health and economic burden on communities who already face structural disadvantages such as income inequality , crowded housing conditions , systemic racism and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ San Francisco ’ s director of public health , said in a statement .
An analysis by the Public Policy Institute of California found that essential workers who left their homes to work during the stay-at-home order are more likely to live in .
The institute said that California ’ s affordable housing crisis forces people to live with several other people , and the state ’ s overcrowding rate is well above the national average .
In California , the percentage of housing units where there ’ s more than one occupant @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 3.4 % across the nation , the institute said .
Overcrowding is more common among renters than homeowners and in Latino households versus white households , the report said .

Clarice Kavanaugh places a hand on the casket of her friend Charles Jackson at Inglewood Park Cemetery on April 15.
With coronavirus cases surging, the toll on Latino and Black Californians keeps getting worse.
The two groups now have double the mortality rate from the virus in Los Angeles County than white residents, the latest troubling sign of the deep health inequity that has come with COVID-19.
Of every 100,000 Latino residents of L.A. County, 38 have died from COVID-19. It’s the first time the Latino coronavirus death rate has surpassed that of Black residents in L.A. County, which also continues to be disproportionately high. Of every 100,000 Black residents, 37 have died, according to data released by the county Thursday.
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Among every 100,000 Asian American residents, 25 have died.
White residents had the lowest mortality number of any race or ethnicity. For every 100,000 white L.A. County residents, 19 have died.
People of color have been disproportionately affected by the coronavirus in various communities across California, as have been areas with higher levels of poverty. In L.A. County, people living in areas with the highest rates of poverty have a mortality rate quadruple that of residents living in the wealthiest neighborhoods.
Experts have said that Black and Latino residents disproportionately work in jobs where they must leave home to get paid as essential front-line workers. It’s the highest-paid Americans who have the greatest ability to work from home, according to a report by the Pew Research Center.
“It’s a luxury to shelter in place,” Dr. Kirsten Bibbins-Domingo, chair of UC San Francisco’s Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, said in an interview.
Bibbins-Domingo said an estimated 1 in 1,500 Black people nationwide have died from COVID-19 so far in the pandemic. Black people, she said, are more likely to be exposed to the virus.
“The causes here are not genetic,” Bibbins-Domingo said a recent campus town hall. “They are overrepresented in the low-wage essential workforce, in healthcare, in food production and distribution, in other types of occupations that have been essential in keeping our streets and hospitals clean and keeping our environment safe.”
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Racism has a pernicious effect on health that can begin in childhood and leave people of color less healthy than their white counterparts, experts say, leaving them more susceptible to chronic illness, and as a result, death in a pandemic.
“Racism operates as a chronic stress that can lead to toxic stress on a biological level,” affecting the brain, said Dr. Dayna Long, pediatrician and medical director of the Department for Community Health and Engagement at the UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital Oakland.
The more doses you get of chronic stress and adversity, the worse the impact is on your physical and mental health — and it’s cumulative, Long said. “It can lead to effects that affect our hearts, our minds and our bodies. ... Ultimately, this exposure to racism can cause poor health outcomes that are extending across the lifespan,” and can affect things such as birth weight and rates of upper respiratory tract infection and asthma.
Racism contributes to health disparities that can persist independent of wealth or education. For instance, Long, as a highly educated Black woman, has statistically a much higher chance of giving birth to a premature baby than an equally educated white woman. And a lot of it, she said, “is because of chronic stress and fatigue secondary to issues like discrimination.”
Health disparities can also pass over the generations. Recent research in genetics reveals that high levels of stress and adversity can lead to alterations in the way that the body reads its DNA and can lead to higher rates of diabetes, obesity, cancer or lung disease, Long said.
Long said her research has found that more than 20% of mostly Black and Latino children in Oakland up to their 12th birthday have experienced discrimination.
And more than half have endured at least four forms of “adverse childhood experiences,” which traditionally have been defined as experiences such as abuse and neglect. In recent years, other factors, such as food and housing insecurity, community violence and discrimination have been found to also contribute to adverse childhood experiences, and can leave those encountering them to be more vulnerable in a pandemic.
Adverse childhood experiences are associated with the most common and serious chronic health conditions, and affect all communities, but do so disproportionately among communities of color.
“The more adversity that you have, the higher your rate of toxic stress, and that can lead to poor health outcomes,” Long said.
Structural racism that contributes to reduced access to healthcare in communities of color worsens the situation. “We have a lot of reports in many cities of people not being able to get testing or being turned away with symptoms,” Bibbins-Domingo said.
Underlying conditions, such as high blood pressure, diabetes and asthma, are more common in Black and Latino communities than white communities — disparities that persist even among people with similar higher income levels, Bibbins-Domingo said.
Residents of nursing homes that have a higher proportion of Black or Latino residents are more than twice as likely to have outbreaks of coronavirus compared with other nursing homes where residents are predominantly white, Bibbins-Domingo said, citing a recent analysis.
A Los Angeles Times analysis published in May found that South and Central Los Angeles and the Eastside have seen coronavirus infection rates increase sharply, leading all regions in L.A. County.
Across California, Black and Latino residents are dying more often than other races among various age groups, according to an analysis published on The Times’ coronavirus tracker .
For instance, among those ages 65 to 79, Latinos made up 44% of coronavirus deaths, despite comprising 22% of the state’s population in that age group; Black residents made up 11% of deaths, despite comprising 6% of California’s population in that age group.
In Silicon Valley, home to Northern California’s most populous county — Santa Clara — Latino residents make up 46% of all coronavirus cases and 31% of deaths, despite comprising 26% of the population. Black residents of Santa Clara County comprise 5.2% of COVID-19 deaths, despite making up 2.4% of the population.
In San Francisco, residents of Asian descent comprised 46% of all coronavirus deaths, despite comprising 34% of the population.
An updated study published last week of San Francisco’s Mission District found that of people who were infected with the coronavirus, an astonishing 95% of them were Latino, even though Latino residents made up just 44% of those who received a test.
The Mission District is 67% Latino, 16% white and 17% other. Risk factors for infections in late April included having a household income of less than $50,000 a year, front-line service work, needing to leave home in order to work, and unemployment.
“We find that recent infections in late April were concentrated almost exclusively among low-income Latinx people working front-line jobs,” Dr. Diane Havlir, the chief of the UC San Francisco Division of HIV, Infectious Diseases and Global Medicine at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital, and the study’s principal investigator, said in a statement.
“This suggests health effects of ethnic and socioeconomic inequities in the community increased during San Francisco’s shelter-in-place ordinance and helps explain why Latinx people have been disproportionately affected by the pandemic,” Havlir said.
The study‘s authors said the report shows that risk factors for getting infected were working or seeking work or living in crowded homes, which makes it harder for an infected person to isolate from others in the household.
“These findings should help dispel common, dangerous pitfalls in interpreting ethnic disparities in infection, such as biological explanations, supposed community behaviors or stigmatizing communities,” the authors wrote in the report, which has not yet been peer-reviewed.
“Pandemics exploit the existing inequities in society, putting a larger health and economic burden on communities who already face structural disadvantages such as income inequality, crowded housing conditions, systemic racism and discrimination,” Dr. Grant Colfax, San Francisco’s director of public health, said in a statement.
An analysis by the Public Policy Institute of California found that essential workers who left their homes to work during the stay-at-home order are more likely to live in overcrowded households .
The institute said that California’s affordable housing crisis forces people to live with several other people, and the state’s overcrowding rate is well above the national average.
In California, the percentage of housing units where there’s more than one occupant per room is 8.3% compared with 3.4% across the nation, the institute said. Overcrowding is more common among renters than homeowners and in Latino households versus white households, the report said.


latimes--2020-06-27--This county voted to recognize Black Lives Matter. Then it OKd 310 more Tasers

As Bay Area communities adopt resolutions supporting the Black Lives Matter movement , one Silicon Valley county this week voted to stockpile its sheriff ’ s department with nearly $ 1 million in new Taser guns .
On Wednesday , the San Mateo County Board of Supervisors approved a budget that includes the purchase of 310 new Tasers .
The approval of the Taser purchase is coming under fire , in part because it occurred just minutes after the board adopted a resolution supporting the Black Lives Matter movement .
“ We have heard from our community and from protesters @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , ” wrote Warren Slocum , the board ’ s president in a statement posted on the county supervisor ’ s website .
“ We need to take concrete steps to address this injustice.
” In 2018 , three unarmed people died after officers used Tasers on them within county limits .
By Friday evening , none of the five county supervisors could be reached for comment .
Video from a board meeting in early May , prior to George Floyd ’ s killing in late May in Minneapolis , shows the board @ @ @ @ @ @ @ seen as a necessary expenditure required to replace the department ’ s aged , 15-year-old Tasers .
David Canepa , a supervisor for the county ’ s District 5 , which includes South San Francisco , Daly City and San Bruno , said the expense was “ a matter of common sense.
” The May vote came less than one year after county law enforcement officials revised their use-of-force policies , which included limiting the number of times a Taser can be used against a person to three , and narrowing the justifications @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to “ causing immediate physical injury or threatening to cause physical injury.
” The new devices are considered safer than earlier versions , limiting the amount of time the Taser operates after it hits its target to five seconds , according to board minutes .
The department rejected recommendations by the American Civil Liberties Union to ban the use of carotid restraints , or chokeholds .
Across the San Francisco Bay Area , Black Lives Matter protests have erupted since Floyd ’ s killing on May 25 .
In Oakland , nooses and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , while state and local politicians are promising systemic reform and change .
In Menlo Park , a wealthy tech community on the San Francisco Bay Peninsula , the city ’ s chief of police retired abruptly during a virtual town hall meeting last week .
He did so after listening to community members complain about his force ’ s racial profiling , alleged racism and his department ’ s cozy relationship with the social media behemoth Facebook .
“ It ’ s confusing and crazy and totally not surprising , ” said @ @ @ @ @ @ @ from East Palo Alto , referring to the San Mateo board ’ s votes and the chief ’ s retirement .
“ The police have been terrorizing us for years , ” he said while attending a Black Lives Matter demonstration in Palo Alto on Thursday night .
“ They don ’ t know any other way.
” Foster said the BLM movement calls for a reduction in law enforcement funding and police violence against Black communities and people .
It also calls for investment in educational , recreational and senior care in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ support Black lives , but , how can we believe it if they ’ re investing in more weapons for the police ?
” said Tenedra Julian , a resident of East Palo Alto , who was at the Thursday demonstration .
Palo Alto , part of Santa Clara County , has a median property value of $ 1.99 million and 56 % of the population is white , 31 % Asian , 4 % Latinx , and just 1.2 % Black .
In East Palo Alto , part of San Mateo County @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 600,200 and 60.7 % of the population is Latino , 10.6 % Black , 10.3 % Pacific Islander and 8.9 % white .
The demonstration , which started at Palo Alto ’ s City Hall , was convened by the Hood Squad , an activist group in East Palo Alto .
Hundreds of people marched north through the city ’ s streets to the San Francisquito Creek , where they crossed into San Mateo County — passing through a thicket of dense redwood and the memorialized 1769 campsite of Gaspar de Portola — @ @ @ @ @ @ @ s police department , where the demonstrators , led by Foster and Los Angeles rapper Milla , chanted “ Defund the police , ” “ Black lives matter ” and “ Hey hey , ho ho , these racist cops have got to go.
” Two police officers were seen leaving their patrol cars for the building .
A few others were observed peeking out of the department building ’ s windows .
Income disparity in the Bay Area is higher than anywhere else in the state .
According to an analysis conducted @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of California , residents in the 90th percentile of incomes earned $ 384,000 a year , compared to those at the bottom 10th percentile , who earned just $ 32,000 .
The gap is striking as one drives from the west side of the 101 Freeway , in Menlo Park , to the eastern side , home to the city ’ s Belle Haven neighborhood and East Palo Alto .
Or north along Middlefield Road from Atherton , which is one of the wealthiest ZIP Codes in the nation , to Redwood City @ @ @ @ @ @ @ oaks , redwoods and magnolias , give way , almost immediately , to strip malls , car repair shops and abandoned industrial warehouses .
And for decades , the communities surrounding these wealthy enclaves have felt targeted by police , often afraid to venture too close .
“ When I was a kid , East Palo Alto was considered the murder capital of the world , ” Foster said .
“ Yet , I felt safer there than I ever did walking down the streets of downtown Menlo Park or Palo Alto .
@

Amid a debate on police use of force, San Mateo County voted to purchase 310 new Tasers, replacing some older ones, like the one above, seen in 2007.
As Bay Area communities adopt resolutions supporting the Black Lives Matter movement, one Silicon Valley county this week voted to stockpile its Sheriff’s Department with nearly $1 million in new Taser guns.
On Wednesday, the San Mateo County Board of Supervisors approved a budget that includes the purchase of 310 new Tasers. The approval of the Taser purchase is coming under fire, in part because it occurred just minutes after the board adopted a resolution supporting the Black Lives Matter movement.
“We have heard from our community and from protesters across the nation that enough is enough,” wrote Warren Slocum, the board’s president, in a statement posted on the county supervisor’s website. “We need to take concrete steps to address this injustice.”
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In 2018, three unarmed people died after officers used Tasers on them within county limits.
By Friday evening, none of the five county supervisors could be reached for comment.
Video from a board meeting in early May, prior to George Floyd’s killing in late May in Minneapolis, shows the board approved the acquisition unanimously, and it was seen as a necessary expenditure required to replace the department’s aged, 15-year-old Tasers.
David Canepa, a supervisor for the county’s District 5, which includes South San Francisco, Daly City and San Bruno, said the expense was “a matter of common sense.”
The May vote came less than one year after county law enforcement officials revised their use-of-force policies, which included limiting the number of times a Taser can be used against a person to three and narrowing the justifications for use from “active resistance” to “causing immediate physical injury or threatening to cause physical injury.”
The new devices are considered safer than earlier versions, limiting the amount of time the Taser operates after it hits its target to five seconds, according to board minutes.
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The department rejected recommendations by the American Civil Liberties Union to ban the use of carotid restraints, or chokeholds.
Across the San Francisco Bay Area, Black Lives Matter protests have erupted since Floyd’s killing on May 25.
In Oakland, nooses and effigies have been found hanging from trees, while state and local politicians are promising systemic reform and change.
In Menlo Park, a wealthy tech community on the San Francisco Bay Peninsula, the city’s chief of police retired abruptly during a virtual town hall meeting last week. He did so after listening to community members complain about his force’s racial profiling, alleged racism and his department’s cozy relationship with the social media behemoth Facebook.
“It’s confusing and crazy and totally not surprising,” said Faraji Foster, an artist and activist from East Palo Alto, referring to the San Mateo board’s votes and the chief’s retirement.
“The police have been terrorizing us for years,” he said while attending a Black Lives Matter demonstration in Palo Alto on Thursday night. “They don’t know any other way.”
Foster said the BLM movement calls for a reduction in law enforcement funding and police violence against Black communities and people. It also calls for investment in educational, recreational and senior care in Black communities.
“They say they support Black lives, but how can we believe it if they’re investing in more weapons for the police?” said Tenedra Julian, a resident of East Palo Alto, who was at the Thursday demonstration.
Palo Alto, part of Santa Clara County, has a median property value of $1.99 million and 56% of the population is white, 31% Asian, 4% Latinx, and just 1.2% Black.
In East Palo Alto, part of San Mateo County, the median home price is $600,200 and 60.7% of the population is Latino, 10.6% Black, 10.3% Pacific Islander and 8.9% white.
The demonstration, which started at Palo Alto’s City Hall, was convened by the Hood Squad, an activist group in East Palo Alto.
Faraji Foster takes part in a demonstration on Thursday outside the Menlo Park Police Department. (Susanne Rust / Los Angeles Times)
Hundreds of people marched north through the city’s streets to San Francisquito Creek, where they crossed into San Mateo County — passing through a thicket of dense redwoods and the memorialized 1769 campsite of Gaspar de Portola — convening in front of the city’s Police Department, where the demonstrators, led by Foster and Los Angeles rapper Milla, chanted, “Defund the police,” “Black lives matter” and “Hey hey, ho ho, these racist cops have got to go.”
Two police officers were seen leaving their patrol cars for the building. A few others were observed peeking out of the department building’s windows.
Income disparity in the Bay Area is higher than anywhere else in the state. According to an analysis conducted this year by the Public Policy Institute of California, residents in the 90th percentile of incomes earned $384,000 a year, compared with those at the bottom 10th percentile, who earned just $32,000.
The gap is striking as one drives from the west side of the 101 Freeway, in Menlo Park, to the eastern side, home to the city’s Belle Haven neighborhood and East Palo Alto. Or north along Middlefield Road from Atherton, which is one of the wealthiest ZIP Codes in the nation, to Redwood City.
Multi-acre estates, hidden by giant oaks, redwoods and magnolias, give way, almost immediately, to strip malls, car repair shops and abandoned industrial warehouses.
And for decades, the communities surrounding these wealthy enclaves have felt targeted by police, often afraid to venture too close.
“When I was a kid, East Palo Alto was considered the murder capital of the world,” Foster said. “Yet, I felt safer there than I ever did walking down the streets of downtown Menlo Park or Palo Alto.”


latimes--2020-06-27--Who doesn't trust Lucy Jones in a crisis? Here's what she has to say about the coronavirus pandemic

Who wouldn ’ t trust Lucy Jones in a disaster ?
For more than three decades , she kept Southern California grounded whenever the earth shook .
She explained complex science to us in ways that helped us understand .
When we got scared , she talked us down without ever talking down to us .
Our most famous seismologist managed in years of Great ShakeOut drills to drill into us one key earthquake response .
If you do nothing else , we learned from her , follow these basics steps : “ Drop !
Cover !
Hold On !
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ on the coronavirus — one that I think we should all be listening to now as our state confronts a new surge in infections from a disease that we know people can carry and spread without showing any symptoms at all .
“ Don ’ t share your air , ” she says .
Wear a mask around others .
Maintain distance .
Simple as that .
When I first heard Jones utter those words this week on her new podcast , “ Getting Through It , ” I thought : Why in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ getting has no one else come up with a directive so straightforward , so spot on , so easy to remember ?
( She cut right through all the static on that question , too .
Give me a minute and I ’ ll get to that . )
Just because it ’ s simple , by the way , doesn ’ t mean her mask message is simplistic .
Seismology is her specialty , but she ’ s a scientist through and through .
And so she ’ s approached the coronavirus @ @ @ @ @ @ @ : methodically sorting through the studies and the case data .
( Poring over statistics calms her down when she ’ s scared , she told me . )
And the essence of what all the scientific research on COVID-19 cases is telling us really isn ’ t up for debate , she said.
“ There ’ s lot of ways you could get it , but most people are getting it from breathing in the air of an infectious person .
If you can ’ t protect yourself from everybody else ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is keep your air from getting out to others.
” Here ’ s how that works , she explains in her podcast : “ There are these tiny , tiny droplets that are carrying the virus … Putting a mask on your face , think of how it fogs up your glasses .
That ’ s the moisture carrying the virus getting caught and not going out to infect someone else.
” Caught in the masks , she goes on , the droplets also condense and thus grow heavier and drop more quickly @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of the air .
It ’ s also worth noting , she says , that it ’ s easier not to share your air outside .
She notes that the states that got hit hardest first were “ cold places ” where you mostly had to stay inside in those early months .
And some of the states being hit hardest now are hot places , where people are now retreating indoors from the heat .
Given all that , if you have to focus on one key , make-or-break message , she @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the most impact is : Don ’ t share your air .
And it really helps , she said , to focus on one clear message .
Jones has learned from her longtime role as a disaster communicator that in a crisis you can ’ t give people a list of dozens of measures to take for their safety .
If you do , you might well overwhelm .
Overwhelmed , people often toss up their hands and say , I can ’ t do all you ’ re asking of me , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ at all .
And doing nothing in our current crisis just isn ’ t an option , she told me .
“ Throwing up your hands is saying , ‘ I ’ m OK with a lot of people dying.
’ '' Back to the question of why we haven ’ t seen much Jones-style crystal-clear messaging , why the messages have seemed to change over time , why a lot of people have as a result gotten confused .
To me , confusion feels like one reason , why some people may @ @ @ @ @ @ @ trying to keep track of the changing advice .
They tuned out .
They walked away — unmasked — from all of it .
Messaging mistakes certainly have been made along the way .
And the absence of national leadership to define and model and rally people around a consistent public-health message has hurt us immeasurably .
But you have to understand how science works to understand why what guidance we have gotten this spring seems to have come out untidily , in dribs and drabs , Jones told me .
Science doesn @ @ @ @ @ @ @ machine : Push a button , learn your fate .
You can ’ t ask a question and get an immediate answer if no one previously has thought to pose the question you are asking and then study it .
Because this was a new virus , she said , experts had no research available on it when the outbreak hit .
So the first advice they gave out was based on what they ’ d learned from past diseases : Maintain distance from others , wash your hands often .
That ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ tuning had to wait for the data to come in and then be processed and vetted .
And speaking of vetting , Jones told me she wishes our science and math education gave many more of us the skills to do it .
She wishes more people learned about the process of science , about what goes into determining whether information is valid or invalid .
“ It ’ s pretty clear we are suffering from our inability to use science in decision making , said Jones , who is now retired from @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Jones Center for Science and Society , whose prime aim is to reverse that trend and help communities grow stronger by incorporating scientific facts into their policymaking .
Scientific reality , Jones would like you to know , is not subjective .
And scientists have seen from the start that the coronavirus ’ spread can grow exponentially ( if each person infects two others , one victim infects two more victims , who infect four victims , who infect eight victims and so on ) if we don ’ t do all we @ @ @ @ @ @ @ happening .
“ You can believe all you want that the apple is going to fly into the air and gravity still pulls it to the ground , ” she told me .
“ The thing about the pandemic is people are going to die whether you believe in it or not . ''
But over the years — starting with the lobbying against findings on the health risks of smoking , followed by the lobbying against scientific evidence of climate change — “ we ’ re now in this position where scientific @ @ @ @ @ @ @ believe or don ’ t believe because of your partisan leanings .
We ’ ve become a society that has developed an immunity to science , that has said , well none of these guys can be believed.
” That obviously makes finding the right messages to reach people increasingly difficult .
And more difficult still , Jones points out , is what ’ s at the heart of the message about the importance of wearing masks — that it ’ s not about our individual needs but about our collective safety , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ put our common good in front of our personal discomfort.
” If anyone can convince the reluctant to do that , in my opinion it ’ s Jones , who so many of us have trusted for so long .
She is 65 now .
She ’ s eagerly awaiting her first grandchild .
She could be focused on that .
But she ’ s still out there , as she ’ s been so many times , generously trying to get us through a crisis .
It ’ s a catastrophic disaster @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ve faced before , she said — bigger than the biggest earthquake because it ’ s happening everywhere at once .
And to use an earthquake analogy we should all understand by now thanks to her , “ it ’ s still in the foreshock sequence.
” By our individual actions , by wearing masks around others , we can still help reduce the size of the mainshock .

“The thing about the pandemic is people are going to die whether you believe in it or not,” scientist Lucy Jones says of COVID-19.
Who wouldn’t trust Lucy Jones in a disaster? For more than three decades, she kept Southern California grounded whenever the earth shook.
She explained complex science to us in ways that helped us understand. When we got scared, she talked us down without ever talking down to us.
Our most famous seismologist managed in years of Great ShakeOut drills to drill into us one key earthquake response. If you do nothing else, we learned from her, follow these basics steps: “Drop! Cover! Hold On!”
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She has a similarly clear message on the coronavirus — one that I think we should all be listening to now as our state confronts a new surge in infections from a disease that we know people can carry and spread without showing any symptoms at all.
“Don’t share your air,” she says. Wear a mask around others. Maintain distance. Simple as that.
When I first heard Jones utter those words this week on her new podcast, “Getting Through It,” I thought: Why in all the public messaging we’re getting has no one else come up with a directive so straightforward, so spot on, so easy to remember? (She cut right through all the static on that question, too. Give me a minute and I’ll get to that.)
Just because it’s simple, by the way, doesn’t mean her mask message is simplistic. Seismology is her specialty, but she’s a scientist through and through. And so she’s approached the coronavirus epidemic with her scientist’s mind: methodically sorting through the studies and the case data. (Poring over statistics calms her down when she’s scared, she told me.)
And the essence of what all the scientific research on COVID-19 cases is telling us really isn’t up for debate, she said.“There’s lot of ways you could get it, but most people are getting it from breathing in the air of an infectious person. If you can’t protect yourself from everybody else’s air, what you can do is keep your air from getting out to others.”
Here’s how that works, she explains in her podcast: “There are these tiny, tiny droplets that are carrying the virus … Putting a mask on your face, think of how it fogs up your glasses. That’s the moisture carrying the virus getting caught and not going out to infect someone else.”
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Caught in the masks, she goes on, the droplets also condense and thus grow heavier and drop more quickly — and thus more safely — out of the air.
It’s also worth noting, she says, that it’s easier not to share your air outside. She notes that the states that got hit hardest first were “cold places” where you mostly had to stay inside in those early months. And some of the states being hit hardest now are hot places, where people are now retreating indoors from the heat.
Given all that, if you have to focus on one key, make-or-break message, she thinks, the one that can make the most impact is: Don’t share your air.
And it really helps, she said, to focus on one clear message.
Jones has learned from her longtime role as a disaster communicator that in a crisis you can’t give people a list of dozens of measures to take for their safety. If you do, you might well overwhelm.
Overwhelmed, people often toss up their hands and say, I can’t do all you’re asking of me, and so I’ll do nothing at all. And doing nothing in our current crisis just isn’t an option, she told me. “Throwing up your hands is saying, ‘I’m OK with a lot of people dying.’”
Back to the question of why we haven’t seen much Jones-style crystal-clear messaging, why the messages have seemed to change over time, why a lot of people have as a result gotten confused. To me, confusion feels like one reason, why some people may not be masking up. They stopped trying to keep track of the changing advice. They tuned out. They walked away — unmasked — from all of it.
Messaging mistakes certainly have been made along the way. And the absence of national leadership to define and model and rally people around a consistent public-health message has hurt us immeasurably.
But you have to understand how science works to understand why what guidance we have gotten this spring seems to have come out untidily, in dribs and drabs, Jones told me. Science doesn’t work like a carnival fortune-telling machine: Push a button, learn your fate. You can’t ask a question and get an immediate answer if no one previously has thought to pose the question you are asking and then study it.
Because this was a new virus, she said, experts had no research available on it when the outbreak hit. So the first advice they gave out was based on what they’d learned from past diseases: Maintain distance from others, wash your hands often. That’s still sensible, but the fine tuning had to wait for the data to come in and then be processed and vetted.
And speaking of vetting, Jones told me she wishes our science and math education gave many more of us the skills to do it. She wishes more people learned about the process of science, about what goes into determining whether information is valid or invalid.
“It’s pretty clear we are suffering from our inability to use science in decision making, said Jones, who is now retired from federal service and running the Dr. Lucy Jones Center for Science and Society, whose prime aim is to reverse that trend and help communities grow stronger by incorporating scientific facts into their policymaking.
Scientific reality, Jones would like you to know, is not subjective. And scientists have seen from the start that the coronavirus’ spread can grow exponentially (if each person infects two others, one victim infects two more victims, who infect four victims, who infect eight victims and so on) if we don’t do all we can to try to keep that from happening.
“You can believe all you want that the apple is going to fly into the air and gravity still pulls it to the ground,” she told me. “The thing about the pandemic is people are going to die whether you believe in it or not.”
But over the years — starting with the lobbying against findings on the health risks of smoking, followed by the lobbying against scientific evidence of climate change — “we’re now in this position where scientific information is treated as something that you believe or don’t believe because of your partisan leanings. We’ve become a society that has developed an immunity to science, that has said, well none of these guys can be believed.”
That obviously makes finding the right messages to reach people increasingly difficult. And more difficult still, Jones points out, is what’s at the heart of the message about the importance of wearing masks — that it’s not about our individual needs but about our collective safety, that it requires a willingness to “put our common good in front of our personal discomfort.”
If anyone can convince the reluctant to do that, in my opinion it’s Jones, who so many of us have trusted for so long.
She is 65 now. She’s eagerly awaiting her first grandchild. She could be focused on that. But she’s still out there, as she’s been so many times, generously trying to get us through a crisis.
It’s a catastrophic disaster, far bigger than any we’ve faced before, she said — bigger than the biggest earthquake because it’s happening everywhere at once. And to use an earthquake analogy we should all understand by now thanks to her, “it’s still in the foreshock sequence.”
By our individual actions, by wearing masks around others, we can still help reduce the size of the mainshock.


latimes--2020-06-27--Orange County Democrats condemn 'racist' comments by John Wayne, call for airport to drop his name

Orange County ’ s Democratic Party is hoping sundown is on the horizon for the Duke .
This week , officials passed an emergency resolution condemning film legend John Wayne ’ s “ racist and bigoted statements ” made decades ago and are calling on the Orange County Board of Supervisors to drop his name , statue and other likenesses from the international airport .
The resolution also asked the board “ to restore its original name : Orange County Airport.
” “ There have been past efforts to get this done and now we ’ re putting our name @ @ @ @ @ @ @ sure there is a name change , ” said Ada Briceño , chair of the Democratic Party of Orange County .
According to the crafters of the resolution , who include Briceño , the effort to oust Wayne is part of “ a national movement to remove white supremacist symbols and names [ that are ] reshaping American institutions , monuments , businesses , nonprofits , sports leagues and teams.
” The resolution adds : “ It is widely recognized that racist symbols produce lasting physical and psychological stress and trauma particularly to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ other oppressed groups.
” The resolution notes that the county is much more diverse than it was in 1979 , when Orange County Airport was christened John Wayne Airport .
Democrats point to a Chapman University survey released earlier this year that said 79 % of county residents polled believe “ that O.C.
’ s increasing ethnic diversity is a source of great strength for the region.
” At the heart of the latest drive is a widely discussed 1971 Playboy Interview in which Wayne makes bigoted statements against Black people , Native @ @ @ @ @ @ @ infamously said , “ I believe in white supremacy until the blacks are educated to a point of responsibility .
I don ’ t believe in giving authority and positions of leadership and judgment to irresponsible people.
” He later said that although he didn ’ t condone slavery , “ I don ’ t feel guilty about the fact that five or 10 generations ago these people were slaves.
” He also felt no remorse in the subjugation of Native Americans .
“ I don ’ t feel we did wrong in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
… [ O ] ur so-called stealing of this country from them was just a matter of survival , ” he said .
“ There were great numbers of people who needed new land , and the Indians were selfishly trying to keep it for themselves.
” He also considered movies such as “ Easy Rider ” and “ Midnight Cowboy ” perverted , and used a gay slur to refer to the two main characters of the latter film .
Briceño believes the renaming is possible because of two factors : @ @ @ @ @ @ @ following the police killing of George Floyd .
Last year , registered Democrats outnumbered registered Republicans in the county that embraced Wayne and GOP Presidents Reagan and Nixon .
“ The numbers have grown since last year to where I believe we have something like 40,000 more Democrats than Republicans , ” Briceño said .
She added the protests after the death of Floyd , killed by a Minneapolis police officer who kneeled on of his neck for almost nine minutes , has put police brutality and white supremacy in the face of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
“ Who wants to be tied to white supremacy ?
” Briceño asked .
The resolution was signed by Briceño ; Fred Smoller , Chapman University associate professor of political science ; and Michael Moodian , Chapman lecturer of leadership studies .
Smoller and Moodian wrote an op-ed for the Voice of OC on June 23 in which they stated , “ as Confederate statues and odes to Christopher Columbus are taken down across the country , Orange County must come to grips with its own tribute to a racially polarizing figure @ @ @ @ @ @ @ come to rename our airport and remove Wayne ’ s statue.
” There is also a separate petition calling for the removal of Wayne ’ s name that has gathered over 600 signatures .
The airport is situated between the cities of Newport Beach , Costa Mesa and Santa Ana .
A call to Newport Beach City Councilman Kevin Muldoon , who in 2017 , as that city ’ s mayor , led a push to name a city park after Wayne , did return a phone call looking for comment .
Wayne @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in Newport Beach , was a county political power broker , a member of the John Birch Society and was buried in the city after his death in 1979 .
Calls and an email to Orange County Supervisor Michelle Steel , whose district includes the airport , were not immediately returned , nor was a call to Orange County Republican Party Chairman Fred Whitaker .
Orange County Supervisor Don Wagner said he had just heard about the Democratic resolution and was unaware of its wording or merit .
He mentioned previous renaming efforts @ @ @ @ @ @ @ usually “ don ’ t have legs ” with Orange County residents .
When asked about the Playboy article , Wagner said he was aware of the negativity surrounding the interview but had not read it personally .

Officials with the Democratic Party of Orange County passed a resolution condemning film legend John Wayne’s “racist and bigoted statements” made decades ago and are calling on the county Board of Supervisors to drop his name, statue and other likenesses from the airport.
Orange County’s Democratic Party is hoping sundown is on the horizon for the Duke.
This week, officials passed an emergency resolution condemning film legend John Wayne’s “racist and bigoted statements” made decades ago and are calling on the Orange County Board of Supervisors to drop his name, statue and other likenesses from the international airport.
The resolution also asked the board “to restore its original name: Orange County Airport.”
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“There have been past efforts to get this done and now we’re putting our name and our backing into this to make sure there is a name change,” said Ada Briceño, chair of the Democratic Party of Orange County.
According to the crafters of the resolution, who include Briceño, the effort to oust Wayne is part of “a national movement to remove white supremacist symbols and names [that are] reshaping American institutions, monuments, businesses, nonprofits, sports leagues and teams.”
The resolution adds: “It is widely recognized that racist symbols produce lasting physical and psychological stress and trauma particularly to Black communities, people of color and other oppressed groups.”
The resolution notes that the county is much more diverse than it was in 1979, when Orange County Airport was christened John Wayne Airport.
Democrats point to a Chapman University survey released earlier this year that said 79% of county residents polled believe “that O.C.’s increasing ethnic diversity is a source of great strength for the region.”
At the heart of the latest drive is a widely discussed 1971 Playboy interview in which Wayne makes bigoted statements against Black people, Native Americans and the LGBTQ community.
He infamously said, “I believe in white supremacy until the blacks are educated to a point of responsibility. I don’t believe in giving authority and positions of leadership and judgment to irresponsible people.”
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He later said that although he didn’t condone slavery, “I don’t feel guilty about the fact that five or 10 generations ago these people were slaves.”
He also felt no remorse in the subjugation of Native Americans.
“I don’t feel we did wrong in taking this great country away from them. … [O]ur so-called stealing of this country from them was just a matter of survival,” he said. “There were great numbers of people who needed new land, and the Indians were selfishly trying to keep it for themselves.”
He also considered movies such as “Easy Rider” and “Midnight Cowboy” perverted, and used a gay slur to refer to the two main characters of the latter film.
Briceño believes the renaming is possible because of two factors: changing demographics and the wave of protests following the police killing of George Floyd.
Last year, registered Democrats outnumbered registered Republicans in the county that embraced Wayne and GOP Presidents Reagan and Nixon.
“The numbers have grown since last year to where I believe we have something like 40,000 more Democrats than Republicans,” Briceño said.
She added that the protests after the death of Floyd, killed by a Minneapolis police officer who kneeled on his neck for almost nine minutes, has put police brutality and white supremacism in the faces of Americans who had not witnessed such aggression.
“Who wants to be tied to white supremacy?” Briceño asked.
The resolution was signed by Briceño; Fred Smoller, Chapman University associate professor of political science; and Michael Moodian, Chapman lecturer of leadership studies.
Smoller and Moodian wrote an op-ed for the Voice of OC on June 23 in which they stated, “as Confederate statues and odes to Christopher Columbus are taken down across the country, Orange County must come to grips with its own tribute to a racially polarizing figure: John Wayne. The time has come to rename our airport and remove Wayne’s statue.”
There is also a separate petition calling for the removal of Wayne’s name that has gathered more than 600 signatures.
The airport is situated between the cities of Newport Beach, Costa Mesa and Santa Ana.
Newport Beach City Councilman Kevin Muldoon, who in 2017, as that city’s mayor, led a push to name a city park after Wayne, did not return a phone call seeking comment.
Wayne lived a good portion of his life in Newport Beach, was a county political power broker and a member of the John Birch Society and was buried in the city after his death in 1979.
Calls and an email to Orange County Supervisor Michelle Steel, whose district includes the airport, were not immediately returned, nor was a call to Orange County Republican Party Chairman Fred Whitaker.
Orange County Supervisor Don Wagner said he had just heard about the Democratic resolution and was unaware of its wording or merit.
He mentioned previous renaming efforts had “popped up periodically” and usually “don’t have legs” with Orange County residents.
When asked about the Playboy article, Wagner said he was aware of the negativity surrounding the interview but had not read it personally.


latimes--2020-06-28--An inside look at Golden State Killer suspect's behavior

Waiting out the COVID-19 pandemic from an RV parked several hours east of Reno , Jim Huddle can ’ t escape the presence of his brother-in-law .
There is the memory of Joe DeAngelo , relishing his late-night horror movies , clenching his teeth with excitement when the gore started ; in a forced whisper , he ’ d rasp , “ Look at that !
” There is the shock of watching DeAngelo pull a gun from the trunk of his car to scare off two men during a parking lot altercation .
And there is the creeping suspicion @ @ @ @ @ @ @ from a hiding place in the garage that he claimed were melted coins from South Africa .
Now , many years later , Huddle , 69 , can ’ t help but wonder whether they had a darker provenance .
“ We were like brothers .
He introduced me as his brother , ” he told The Times .
“ It ’ s kind of a weird thing that someone could be so nice and so evil at the same time.
” On Monday , if everything goes as expected , Joseph James @ @ @ @ @ @ @ guilty to 26 criminal charges stemming from 13 murders and 13 rapes .
He also will be asked to admit as many as 62 additional crimes related to rapes and other attacks on scores of children , women and men across 10 counties through the 1970s and 1980s .
Prosecutors have agreed not to seek the death penalty for the former Auburn police officer .
The tightly scripted legal proceeding will unfold on a stage in a ballroom at the same Sacramento university from which DeAngelo graduated in 1972 with a degree in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ trail detectives believe he traveled to hunt his first victims .
The spacious setting was picked because it allows the physical distancing required to guard against the spread of COVID-19 .
Masks will be required , but those worn by DeAngelo and his lawyers will be clear so the audience can see his face , projected onto two screens on the wall .
One court official , speaking anonymously , said the hearing looks “ designed as a reality show.
” Prosecutors say the plea would avoid criminal proceedings that could take years @ @ @ @ @ @ @ million .
But the arrangement also means there will be no grand reveal beyond what prosecutors include in their opening remarks .
Evidence against DeAngelo remains sealed , leaving victims with only the declaration that a family DNA match linked DeAngelo to crimes that terrorized entire towns .
For now at least , Huddle , a retired Radio Shack clerk and produce inspector , is one of the few people who was inside DeAngelo ’ s circle who might offer some clues as to the “ why ” and the “ how ” @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of prolonged violence .
He is one of the few people with a family connection breaking their silence around a man hunted and eventually marketed as the Golden State Killer .
His slim , self-published book is set for release the day after DeAngelo ’ s scheduled plea , titled “ Killers Keep Secrets.
” Huddle said timing is coincidental ; publication was set months before the surprise plea deal was reached .
Huddle met DeAngelo in the summer of 1971 , when his sister , Sharon , brought DeAngelo home to meet @ @ @ @ @ @ @ just a year out of high school .
DeAngelo was 25 , a Navy veteran of Vietnam pursuing a criminal justice degree .
Jim Huddle offered to let his sister ’ s boyfriend move in with him .
Just weeks earlier , DeAngelo told him another woman had broken off their wedding engagement .
Even as he pursued a relationship with his sister , Huddle said , DeAngelo continued to obsess over Bonnie Colwell .
“ He would say , ‘ Yeah , that Bonnie , she broke my heart , ’ and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ life.
’ Apparently it tore him up so much he couldn ’ t love Sharon like he loved her , ” Huddle said in an interview with The Times .
Huddle never knew that Bonnie rejected DeAngelo because of what she described as a pattern of abusive treatment , including pulling a gun on her to force her to marry him .
He also was unaware that nine years later , rape victims described a weeping , unstable attacker who sometimes cried , “ I hate you , Bonnie !
” DeAngelo married @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a police officer in tiny Exeter , Calif. , shortly before a series of bedroom ransackings began in neighboring Visalia .
The manic nightly break-ins culminated in the 1975 attempted bedroom abduction of a young teen while her family slept , and the murder of the girl ’ s father when he interrupted the attack .
The brothers-in-law shot guns and raced dirt bikes and motorcycles .
DeAngelo hated having his picture taken .
He tended to fabricate stories that made him look important .
He described the day DeAngelo opened his wife @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and pulled out a cloth bundle .
Wrapped within a towel were pancake-sized patties of melted gold and a small , hand-cast gold bar .
Huddle said DeAngelo told him he had melted down South African Krugerrands , bought by making high-interest loans to fellow sailors during the war in Vietnam .
Huddle said he now suspects the gold was cast from the coins and jewelry DeAngelo is accused of stealing from hundreds of victims .
Investigators have never recovered what they said were a killer ’ s trophies .
Over the course @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to share deep feelings , Huddle said .
DeAngelo came across as “ plastic ” and “ fake.
” “ He was never a real heartwarming person , ” Huddle said .
After being fired as an Auburn police officer for shoplifting at a hardware store , an angry DeAngelo told him he wanted to kill his former police chief , Huddle said .
“ I mean , my God , you ’ re just talking crazy , ” Huddle recalled telling his brother-in-law .
He said he warned DeAngelo : “ You @ @ @ @ @ @ @ with that .
’ Cause they ’ re gon na always be looking for the guy who did that.
” After DeAngelo lost his job in Auburn , the East Area rapes in Central California stopped , and a series of rape-related murders in Southern California began .
The crime shift coincided with Sharon Huddle ’ s hiring by the National Labor Relations Board in Los Angeles .
She and her husband rented a house in Long Beach , Jim Huddle confirmed , while documents obtained by The Times show DeAngelo collected payments @ @ @ @ @ @ @ retraining .
He began a second career as a diesel mechanic .
Both men had daughters near the same age , and DeAngelo would take the girls out at night to play in the darkness of a closed park .
Sometimes , he ’ d watch horror films with the girls until daybreak .
“ He was like , ‘ Oh , it won ’ t bother them , Jim , ’ ” Huddle said .
Victims of the man raping scores of women in the Sacramento suburbs in the late 1970s described @ @ @ @ @ @ @ clenched teeth .
Huddle has a photograph from the period , one of his daughters perched on the lap of DeAngelo in his new suburban home at Citrus Heights .
A photo of his wife nursing their new baby hangs on the wall behind them .
It was spring 1983 when , after 50 rapes and 12 increasingly bloody murders , the chain of crimes suddenly stopped .
Five years later , there would be a final rape attack and the killing of a teenage girl at home alone .
DeAngelo called Huddle @ @ @ @ @ @ @ “ Dad ” and came around to check on them even after Sharon moved out in 1990 with their three daughters .
She finally divorced DeAngelo in 2019 , securing his house and his monthly Teamsters pension under an otherwise confidential settlement .
Aside from a brief statement expressing sympathy for victims , Sharon Huddle has steadfastly refused to comment .
With his self-published book , paid for out of pocket , Huddle is part of the widening commercial orbit around the notorious serial-killer case .
On a much larger and lucrative scale @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , HBO is to begin a six-part dramatization of late crime writer Michelle McNamara ’ s efforts to unmask the cold-case criminal she rebranded as the Golden State Killer .
Her book “ I ’ ll Be Gone in the Dark ” was released two months before DeAngelo was arrested .
The HBO series of the same name draws from three dozen banker boxes of evidence files the writer carted off from an Orange County police evidence room and tape recordings she made of confidants , but the focus is primarily on McNamara @ @ @ @ @ @ @ aback .
The sister of murder victim Janelle Cruz publicly shared a copy of HBO ’ s note warning her of “ graphic imagery and information ” while saying “ it has been so meaningful to connect with you.
” “ I didn ’ t even speak to them about this , ” Michelle Cruz posted on Twitter .
Jennifer Carole was distressed , while watching HBO ’ s preview , to see the naked , bloody bodies of her father and stepmother — Lyman and Charlene Smith — and the shattered pieces @ @ @ @ @ @ @ their skulls .
The crime-scene photos were among open investigation files McNamara obtained from police .
“ I ’ m deeply disturbed anyone outside law enforcement had access to these files , ” Carole said .
The HBO production also came with nondisclosure agreements with crime victims , paid interviews and catering of a garden party that is the stage for the finale of the series .
Kris Pedretti , 15 when she was raped and tormented in 1976 by someone who was then called the East Area Rapist , said the two-year @ @ @ @ @ @ @ myriad news stories , podcasts — including one by The Times — cable news shows , books , true crime conventions and other spinoffs has been overwhelming .
“ My emotions right now , through this live reality show ... can be compared to a roller coaster , ” Pedretti said .
“ As soon as the balance returns from the last DeAngelo news , a new roller coaster appears , each time with more tight turns and steep slopes.
” Some of the families of the victims have found a public voice @ @ @ @ @ @ @ father from ever discussing her rape , has started a private Facebook group for sexual assault survivors .
Carole documents the progression of the case through a blog and a podcast , and said her 400 followers share her ambition to look beyond crime as entertainment .
Former Air Force officer Jane Carson was the first of the East Area rape victims to speak publicly and wrote a book describing her rape and encouraging rape victims to report their attacks and seek support and counseling .
Carson voiced anxiety about the plea hearing @ @ @ @ @ @ @ cameras and the large hall ; about sitting masked and far apart from her fellow survivors , in order to see DeAngelo admit to her 1976 rape .
“ I just wish it were in a much smaller setting and a much more personal setting , because I want to hear him admit to every one of his crimes , ” she said .
“ It ’ s going to be such a circus .
I just wish it were over .
”

Joseph James DeAngelo at home in 1983 with a niece, during a five-year break in murders by the Golden State Killer. During this period, past rape victims received taunting phone calls: “Remember me?”
Waiting out the COVID-19 pandemic from an RV parked several hours east of Reno, Jim Huddle can’t escape the presence of his brother-in-law.
There is the memory of Joe DeAngelo, relishing his late-night horror movies, clenching his teeth with excitement when the gore started; in a forced whisper, he’d rasp, “Look at that!”
There is the shock of watching DeAngelo pull a gun from the trunk of his car to scare off two men during a parking lot altercation.
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And there is the creeping suspicion over flattened bars of gold DeAngelo pulled from a hiding place in the garage that he claimed were melted coins from South Africa.
Now, many years later, Huddle, 69, can’t help but wonder whether they had a darker provenance.
“We were like brothers. He introduced me as his brother,” he told The Times. “It’s kind of a weird thing that someone could be so nice and so evil at the same time.”
Man in the Window: An investigative series and podcast from the L.A. Times To an early love interest, Joe DeAngelo was energetic and worldly. Now, nearly 50 years later, he stands accused of an extended spasm of violence -- home invasions, rapes, murders -- in the 1970s and ‘80s.
On Monday, if everything goes as expected, Joseph James DeAngelo Jr., 74, will plead guilty to 26 criminal charges stemming from 13 murders and 13 rapes. He also will be asked to admit as many as 62 additional crimes related to rapes and other attacks on scores of children, women and men across 10 counties through the 1970s and 1980s.
Prosecutors have agreed not to seek the death penalty for the former Auburn police officer.
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The tightly scripted legal proceeding will unfold on a stage in a ballroom at the same Sacramento university from which DeAngelo graduated in 1972 with a degree in criminal justice, along the same river trail detectives believe he traveled to hunt his first victims. The spacious setting was picked because it allows the physical distancing required to guard against the spread of COVID-19. Masks will be required, but those worn by DeAngelo and his lawyers will be clear so the audience can see his face, projected onto two screens on the wall.
One court official, speaking anonymously, said the hearing looks “designed as a reality show.”
Prosecutors say the plea would avoid criminal proceedings that could take years and cost taxpayers more than $20 million.
But the arrangement also means there will be no grand reveal beyond what prosecutors include in their opening remarks. Evidence against DeAngelo remains sealed, leaving victims with only the declaration that a family DNA match linked DeAngelo to crimes that terrorized entire towns.
California Full coverage: ‘Man in the Window’ To an early love interest, Joe DeAngelo was energetic and worldly. Now, nearly 50 years later, he stands accused of an extended spasm of violence — home invasions, rapes, murders — in the 1970s and ’80s.
For now at least, Huddle, a retired Radio Shack clerk and produce inspector, is one of the few people who was inside DeAngelo’s circle who might offer some clues as to the “why” and the “how” behind one man’s alleged explosion of prolonged violence. He is one of the few people with a family connection breaking their silence around a man hunted and eventually marketed as the Golden State Killer.
His slim, self-published book is set for release the day after DeAngelo’s scheduled plea, titled “Killers Keep Secrets.” Huddle said timing is coincidental; publication was set months before the surprise plea deal was reached.
Huddle met DeAngelo in the summer of 1971, when his sister, Sharon, brought DeAngelo home to meet her family. Sharon was 17 and just a year out of high school. DeAngelo was 25, a Navy veteran of Vietnam pursuing a criminal justice degree. Jim Huddle offered to let his sister’s boyfriend move in with him. Just weeks earlier, DeAngelo told him another woman had broken off their wedding engagement.
Even as he pursued a relationship with his sister, Huddle said, DeAngelo continued to obsess over Bonnie Colwell. “He would say, ‘Yeah, that Bonnie, she broke my heart,’ and ‘She was the love of my life.’ Apparently it tore him up so much he couldn’t love Sharon like he loved her,” Huddle said in an interview with The Times.
Huddle never knew that Bonnie rejected DeAngelo because of what she described as a pattern of abusive treatment, including pulling a gun on her to force her to marry him. He also was unaware that nine years later, rape victims described a weeping, unstable attacker who sometimes cried, “I hate you, Bonnie!”
DeAngelo married Sharon Huddle in 1973 while working as a police officer in tiny Exeter, Calif., shortly before a series of bedroom ransackings began in neighboring Visalia. The manic nightly break-ins culminated in the 1975 attempted bedroom abduction of a young teen while her family slept, and the murder of the girl’s father when he interrupted the attack.
The brothers-in-law shot guns and raced dirt bikes and motorcycles. DeAngelo hated having his picture taken. He tended to fabricate stories that made him look important.
He described the day DeAngelo opened his wife’s antique stove in the garage and pulled out a cloth bundle. Wrapped within a towel were pancake-sized patties of melted gold and a small, hand-cast gold bar. Huddle said DeAngelo told him he had melted down South African Krugerrands, bought by making high-interest loans to fellow sailors during the war in Vietnam.
Huddle said he now suspects the gold was cast from the coins and jewelry DeAngelo is accused of stealing from hundreds of victims. Investigators have never recovered what they said were a killer’s trophies.
Over the course of 40 years, DeAngelo never seemed to share deep feelings, Huddle said. DeAngelo came across as “plastic” and “fake.”
“He was never a real heartwarming person,” Huddle said.
After being fired as an Auburn police officer for shoplifting at a hardware store, an angry DeAngelo told him he wanted to kill his former police chief, Huddle said.
“I mean, my God, you’re just talking crazy,” Huddle recalled telling his brother-in-law. He said he warned DeAngelo: “You’re not going to get away with that. ’Cause they’re gonna always be looking for the guy who did that.”
After DeAngelo lost his job in Auburn, the East Area rapes in Central California stopped, and a series of rape-related murders in Southern California began.
The crime shift coincided with Sharon Huddle’s hiring by the National Labor Relations Board in Los Angeles. She and her husband rented a house in Long Beach, Jim Huddle confirmed, while documents obtained by The Times show DeAngelo collected payments from the state of California for job retraining. He began a second career as a diesel mechanic.
Both men had daughters near the same age, and DeAngelo would take the girls out at night to play in the darkness of a closed park. Sometimes, he’d watch horror films with the girls until daybreak. “He was like, ‘Oh, it won’t bother them, Jim,’” Huddle said.
Victims of the man raping scores of women in the Sacramento suburbs in the late 1970s described hearing a similar gravelly whisper forced between clenched teeth.
Huddle has a photograph from the period, one of his daughters perched on the lap of DeAngelo in his new suburban home at Citrus Heights. A photo of his wife nursing their new baby hangs on the wall behind them.
It was spring 1983 when, after 50 rapes and 12 increasingly bloody murders, the chain of crimes suddenly stopped. Five years later, there would be a final rape attack and the killing of a teenage girl at home alone.
DeAngelo called Huddle’s parents “Mom” and “Dad” and came around to check on them even after Sharon moved out in 1990 with their three daughters. She finally divorced DeAngelo in 2019, securing his house and his monthly Teamsters pension under an otherwise confidential settlement. Aside from a brief statement expressing sympathy for victims, Sharon Huddle has steadfastly refused to comment.
With his self-published book, paid for out of pocket, Huddle is part of the widening commercial orbit around the notorious serial-killer case.
On a much larger and lucrative scale, the night before the plea hearing, HBO is to begin a six-part dramatization of late crime writer Michelle McNamara’s efforts to unmask the cold-case criminal she rebranded as the Golden State Killer. Her book “I’ll Be Gone in the Dark” was released two months before DeAngelo was arrested.
The HBO series of the same name draws from three dozen banker boxes of evidence files the writer carted off from an Orange County police evidence room and tape recordings she made of confidants, but the focus is primarily on McNamara.
Some of the victims are taken aback. The sister of murder victim Janelle Cruz publicly shared a copy of HBO’s note warning her of “graphic imagery and information” while saying “it has been so meaningful to connect with you.”
“I didn’t even speak to them about this,” Michelle Cruz posted on Twitter.
I didn’t even speak to them about this...smh https://t.co/BS3L6d61Ok pic.twitter.com/6u6e3d7db7 — Golden State Killer (@JanelleSister) June 23, 2020
Jennifer Carole was distressed, while watching HBO’s preview, to see the naked, bloody bodies of her father and stepmother — Lyman and Charlene Smith — and the shattered pieces of the fireplace log used to crush their skulls.
The crime-scene photos were among open investigation files McNamara obtained from police.
“I’m deeply disturbed anyone outside law enforcement had access to these files,” Carole said.
The HBO production also came with nondisclosure agreements with crime victims, paid interviews and catering of a garden party that is the stage for the finale of the series.
Kris Pedretti, 15 when she was raped and tormented in 1976 by someone who was then called the East Area Rapist, said the two-year parade of arrest, criminal hearings and myriad news stories, podcasts — including one by The Times — cable news shows, books, true crime conventions and other spinoffs has been overwhelming.
“My emotions right now, through this live reality show ... can be compared to a roller coaster,” Pedretti said. “As soon as the balance returns from the last DeAngelo news, a new roller coaster appears, each time with more tight turns and steep slopes.”
Some of the families of the victims have found a public voice. Pedretti, once prevented by her father from ever discussing her rape, has started a private Facebook group for sexual assault survivors.
Carole documents the progression of the case through a blog and a podcast, and said her 400 followers share her ambition to look beyond crime as entertainment.
Former Air Force officer Jane Carson was the first of the East Area rape victims to speak publicly and wrote a book describing her rape and encouraging rape victims to report their attacks and seek support and counseling.
Carson voiced anxiety about the plea hearing Monday — about the banks of media cameras and the large hall; about sitting masked and far apart from her fellow survivors, in order to see DeAngelo admit to her 1976 rape.
“I just wish it were in a much smaller setting and a much more personal setting, because I want to hear him admit to every one of his crimes,” she said. “It’s going to be such a circus. I just wish it were over.”