latimes--2020-07-12--The inside story of how California failed mass coronavirus testing

The disease investigators arrived at the apartment in street clothes , carrying their gowns , gloves and face shields in Whole Foods bags .
They didn ’ t knock on the door .
Instead , they called the resident — a man in his 50s , then California ’ s first known coronavirus case — by phone .
When he answered , he was instructed to move to the farthest corner of the apartment so the team could go inside and suit up .
They had come to the apartment building in Orange County to make sure the man was @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that he was isolating there , completely alone .
“ First case .
New virus .
We weren ’ t going to take people ’ s word for it , ” recalled the county ’ s medical director of communicable disease control , Dr. Matthew Zahn , who oversaw the operation .
They asked about symptoms in the patient ’ s wife , his child , his recent dinner guest .
So began what by many measures was the most extensive public health campaign in California : a rapid mobilization to identify people @ @ @ @ @ @ @ them from infecting others .
In the early days , officials didn ’ t know whether this would be a short-term undertaking to prevent community transmission in the state or an epic battle against a once-in-a-century pandemic .
But as the latter scenario played out , California found itself unprepared , overwhelmed and constantly lagging , a Los Angeles Times investigation has found .
Those early failures left California far behind in the fight against the coronavirus , and it has struggled to keep up — even as cases surge today .
In @ @ @ @ @ @ @ called “ cluster busters , ” worked each case to try to contain the spread of the coronavirus .
They aimed at identifying each strand of transmission and snipping it before the virus could take hold as a sturdy web across communities .
They functioned as all-inclusive personal assistants : arranging child care , setting up WiFi , coordinating grocery drop-offs .
But data would later show that , long before the official case count began to climb , the virus was freewheeling .
Federal officials grappling with a shortage of test kits @ @ @ @ @ @ @ key local spreaders in the state ’ s budding outbreak were going unnoticed and untraced .
Contact tracers were never alerted , for example , to people such as Margaret Cabanis-Wicht and her husband , a 41-year-old movie director in Rancho Palos Verdes who had attended a January gala in Beijing with hundreds from across China .
Twelve days after her husband ’ s return to California , their 5-year-old daughter woke in the night with a 102-degree fever .
Cabanis-Wicht had one , too .
For days , they hounded their doctors @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention .
But the two were ineligible for coronavirus testing because , though living with a potential carrier , they hadn ’ t left the country .
With a positive test result in the household , contact tracers would likely have visited the family , along with each of the children with whom the girl had played .
Instead , Cabanis-Wicht watched in horror as school officials soon reported cases of “ influenza-like illness ” arising in the elementary school .
In early March , a parent @ @ @ @ @ @ @ test — and turned up positive .
“ Without a doubt , we were all aware that we were likely missing cases , ” said Zahn , citing the testing restrictions .
“ We relied on test results .
If you weren ’ t tested , we didn ’ t identify you.
” If the earliest potential spreaders weren ’ t eligible for coronavirus testing , how could cluster busters find them in time to curb a full-blown outbreak ?
“ It was a question we were all asking , ” Zahn said @ @ @ @ @ @ @ health officials meant no automation at L.A. County ’ s public health lab .
Lab workers hovered over patient samples , using the plastic droppers known as pipettes to manually extract genetic material from them , one by one .
They loaded samples into the wells of a testing machine that looked more like an outdated LaserJet office printer than the solution to a pandemic .
It ran 18 hours a day , seven days a week .
Still , by March 11 , with infections likely spreading by the thousands , only @ @ @ @ @ @ @ been tested in the Downey lab , the department ’ s director said .
Other counties were worse off .
One in four of the state ’ s public health laboratories closed entirely in recent years , and there remained less than one public health lab per million state residents .
Many reported an annual equipment budget of zero dollars or were under review for closure — until couriers began arriving with patient swabs and hand-scribbled test requests .
Demand for testing surged after about 1,250 Californians who had been on a cruise @ @ @ @ @ @ @ scattered across the state , likely proliferating the spread .
Another 9,000 people in California had recently returned from countries experiencing severe outbreaks .
The pileup of samples left the county ’ s testing infrastructure bottlenecked and on the brink of collapse .
A county memo asked hospitals to turn away any suspected coronavirus patient with mild symptoms — without a test and without reporting the case .
“ Don ’ t call ” the public health department , one infection control coordinator wrote in an email to doctors .
The county reported @ @ @ @ @ @ @ an obvious undercount .
On March 13 , a Friday , Steve Rusckowski , the chief executive of Quest Diagnostics , approached the podium in the Rose Garden of the White House .
President Trump patted him on the back .
With the testing infrastructure in public facilities crippled , the federal government had turned to private partners to scale up testing .
Flanked by industry leaders and members of the federal task force , Rusckowski told television cameras and print reporters that the company ’ s testing process was underway , adding @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the public “ will be considerably increased in the next few weeks.
” It was .
That day , Los Angeles County had reported just eight new coronavirus cases overnight ; the following Friday , it reported 64 overnight .
The one after that , it was 252 .
By the end of the month , total detection in the county surpassed 3,000 cases .
But unfortunately for Quest — and other private players such as LabCorp — the growing capacity to detect cases was only as good as supply lines .
And @ @ @ @ @ @ @ showed strain .
For tens of thousands of Californians to receive a coronavirus test , medical staff needed just as many cotton-tipped swabs — the “ simplest piece ” and yet the “ No .
1 ” issue , said Dr. Clayton Kazan , medical director for the Los Angeles County Fire Department and former coronavirus testing coordinator for the county .
A common type , called a flocked swab , is typically produced in Italy and China , where the outbreak had paralyzed manufacturing .
More than 125 testing sites in California @ @ @ @ @ @ @ testing shortage .
After collection , a swab sample was immediately inserted into a plastic screw-top tube filled with transport medium — a solution intended to preserve it on its journey .
But the fluid was so scant that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration began endorsing the use of basic saline in its place .
Once it arrived at processing laboratories such as Quest or LabCorp , sample preparation required specific chemicals , known as reagents , to extract genetic material from the swab .
Without the reagents , Gov .
Gavin @ @ @ @ @ @ @ “ like printers , but without ink.
” But Qiagen , a top supplier , quickly fell behind .
Patients in intensive care units waited more than a week for results ; some nurses had to tell families that , in the pileup , the commercial labs had lost their relative ’ s samples entirely .
Even on their deathbeds , they had no diagnoses .
Reagent manufacturing looked like having a garden hose on hand to fight a wildfire , said Michael Osterholm , director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
The outbreak in Wuhan , China , demanded a full-blown fire hydrant , he added , and the global spread required “ virtually a canal ’ s worth.
” And while states such as New York used expanded testing to screen every nursing home patient , California didn ’ t have the means ; about half of deaths in California are from these facilities .
The testing regime “ failure was federal , state and local .
We all failed , ” Kazan said .
“ If we could go back to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ happening in Wuhan , if we had taken that opportunity to scale ourselves up in anticipation , we could have been more prepared than we are now.
” By March 25 , Quest alone had 160,000 unprocessed tests — about half of all the orders it had received .
The backlog reached all the way to the office of Dr. Valerie Ng , the lab director at the Alameda Health System who — one day in mid-March — found herself piling patient samples into her car for a road trip to the state @ @ @ @ @ @ @ infrastructures had failed her .
This was Plan C. Earlier that month , the pileup at Quest had become insufferable ; Dr. Ng had redirected samples to Alameda County ’ s public health lab .
But their aging equipment delivered test results by fax ; the head of labs at three hospitals and several clinics found herself relegated to watching for the “ LOW TONER ” light to illuminate on the printer .
Issues compounded when the lab equipment ’ s test results could not be validated .
The deluge of specimens came @ @ @ @ @ @ @ confections in the classic chocolate factory episode of “ I Love Lucy , ” she said .
She began chauffeuring them to Richmond .
“ When the surge came , it came to the lab , ” she said in an interview .
“ We ’ re swimming as fast as we can.
” Meanwhile , at UC Berkeley , molecular biologist Fyodor Urnov formed what he called “ SEAL Team Six ” : hand-selected scientists , physicians and students who had constructed a volunteer lab in a matter of weeks to help @ @ @ @ @ @ @ “ moved heaven and earth ” to get government certifications and create a highly automated lab that could run as many as 1,000 patient samples a day , he said .
But when Urnov told nearby hospitals he could provide free testing and results in 48 hours , the hospitals declined , saying their electronic records systems were still entangled at Quest and LabCorp .
The volunteers were stunned .
“ We said , ‘ What ?
Are you kidding me ?
’ They have a direct link to a testing provider that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ “ There ’ s institutional inertia.
” Fred Turner has always been entrepreneurial .
By 17 , he ’ d built a DNA machine in his bedroom to figure out why his brother was a redhead .
At 20 , he dropped out of Oxford to launch his first biotech start-up .
And this spring , during an afternoon kicking back at his San Francisco flat , friends of the then-24-year-old talked him into upending his life to address a new problem : coronavirus testing .
Thanks to venture capitalists , Turner , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ room in Southern California blasting out job openings for medical technicians , lab workers and programmers .
“ DM if interested !
” Turner , the new chief executive of the brainchild , Curative , wrote on Twitter .
Staffers slept in sleeping bags between shifts at their new facility : a former NFL/MLB anti-doping laboratory in San Dimas , its glass walls and biosafety cabinets transformed into the most efficient coronavirus testing operation in the region .
By late April , patient samples stuffed inside trash bags were arriving by the truckload @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , called KorvaLabs .
Each day , some 350 employees stepped into the assembly lines : sterilizing pouches and scanning bar codes , feeding racks of samples to an automated Tecan extraction robot and transferring plates into almost two dozen viral detection machines with a “ master mix ” of chemicals that run in tandem almost around the clock .
Industrial engineers used digital time stamps to track the daily workflow of each step , looking for lags .
“ We ’ re back to Henry Ford , ” said Dr. Jeffrey Klausner @ @ @ @ @ @ @ at UCLA , the medical director of the program .
By early May , California had gone from 2,000 to nearly 40,000 tests per day .
The Curative-Korva lab was running 10,000 of them .
Dr. Zahn ’ s contact tracing team was back in action , and their caseload by late May was surging .
Trading their gowns and gloves for phone lines and shared drives , tracers spend their days staring at computer screens glowing with the ever-growing lists of names .
“ Don ’ t think Russell Crowe in ‘ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ think Sherlock Holmes , ” said Zahn .
“ There is no big opera music in the background .
Think less glamorous : Excel spreadsheets.
” California ’ s contact tracers — librarians , Peace Corps volunteers and others — called infected patients and asked for the phone number of each person they ’ d recently seen , vowing to keep the identity of the positive case concealed .
Those contacts were asked about symptoms , and they , too , were requested to isolate at home .
But the challenges were overwhelming @ @ @ @ @ @ @ massive team scale-up , still had only 1,759 contact tracers for more than 10 million residents , and , in the U.S. , there was another unique hurdle : enforcement .
Effective methods to force compliance were in use elsewhere : Taiwan monitored quarantined people with digital fencing that sounded an enforcement alarm whenever one of some 50,000 quarantined citizens ventured too far from home .
Contact tracers in South Korea and Singapore kept track of infected people through GPS and Bluetooth data .
But none of those options were available in California @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that infectious individuals avoid exposing others .
“ I can ’ t imagine an America where we can replicate exactly what they did in Asia , given the fact that we have freedoms and a Constitution , ” said Dr. Bob Kocher , a venture capital executive and former member of the governor ’ s task force on testing .
And the more contact tracers went about their work , the more their effectiveness was entirely dependent on the one thing they still couldn ’ t control : testing .
The shadow of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ones still in the making — lingered .
For example , L.A. County health officials in early June were still only about three-quarters of the way through testing residents and staff at the nearly 400 skilled nursing facilities .
In jails , another hot spot for the virus , staff have reported running out of the rapid test kits used before booking new inmates .
In rural towns and inner-city neighborhoods , California is scaling back its testing expansion , citing costs .
And , in a startling déjà vu to the outbreak @ @ @ @ @ @ @ health officials on Wednesday limited the criteria for testing due to dwindling supplies .
The ever-fragile testing infrastructure is once again threatened by shortages of swabs , reagents and , curiously enough , those tiny plastic pipette tips that lab workers had wielded by hand in the Downey lab .
The droppers now work robotically , but the plastic needed to manufacture the tips is shrinking across the globe , experts say .
If labs run out of the tiny , crucial components , the entire system could grind to a halt by @ @ @ @ @ @ @ these little plastic tips , ” Kocher said , “ testing will break down again.
” Times staff writers Melody Petersen , Anita Chabria , Sandhya Kambhampati , Matt Stiles and Sean Greene contributed to this report .

The disease investigators arrived at the apartment in street clothes, carrying their gowns, gloves and face shields in Whole Foods bags. They didn’t knock on the door.
Instead, they called the resident — a man in his 50s, then California’s first known coronavirus case — by phone. When he answered, he was instructed to move to the farthest corner of the apartment so the team could go inside and suit up.
They had come to the apartment building in Orange County to make sure the man was where he promised to be — and that he was isolating there, completely alone.
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“First case. New virus. We weren’t going to take people’s word for it,” recalled the county’s medical director of communicable disease control, Dr. Matthew Zahn, who oversaw the operation.
They asked about symptoms in the patient’s wife, his child, his recent dinner guest.
So began what by many measures was the most extensive public health campaign in California: a rapid mobilization to identify people suffering from the novel coronavirus and prevent them from infecting others. In the early days, officials didn’t know whether this would be a short-term undertaking to prevent community transmission in the state or an epic battle against a once-in-a-century pandemic.
But as the latter scenario played out, California found itself unprepared, overwhelmed and constantly lagging, a Los Angeles Times investigation has found. Those early failures left California far behind in the fight against the coronavirus, and it has struggled to keep up — even as cases surge today.
In the beginning, dozens of investigators, called “cluster busters,” worked each case to try to contain the spread of the coronavirus. They aimed at identifying each strand of transmission and snipping it before the virus could take hold as a sturdy web across communities. They functioned as all-inclusive personal assistants: arranging child care, setting up WiFi, coordinating grocery drop-offs.
But data would later show that, long before the official case count began to climb, the virus was freewheeling. Federal officials grappling with a shortage of test kits issued narrow testing criteria; that meant key local spreaders in the state’s budding outbreak were going unnoticed and untraced.
California More evidence emerges of the coronavirus slipping in through LAX The Times has now identified a third flight into LAX in which public health officials in the early stage of the COVID-19 pandemic did not alert travelers that they were at risk for infection.
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Contact tracers were never alerted, for example, to people such as Margaret Cabanis-Wicht and her husband, a 41-year-old movie director in Rancho Palos Verdes who had attended a January gala in Beijing with hundreds from across China.
Twelve days after her husband’s return to California, their 5-year-old daughter woke in the night with a 102-degree fever. Cabanis-Wicht had one, too. For days, they hounded their doctors, the state health department and even the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. But the two were ineligible for coronavirus testing because, though living with a potential carrier, they hadn’t left the country.
“We’ll never know,” Cabanis-Wicht said.
With a positive test result in the household, contact tracers would likely have visited the family, along with each of the children with whom the girl had played. Instead, Cabanis-Wicht watched in horror as school officials soon reported cases of “influenza-like illness” arising in the elementary school. In early March, a parent of a fellow student finally got a test — and turned up positive.
“Without a doubt, we were all aware that we were likely missing cases,” said Zahn, citing the testing restrictions. “We relied on test results. If you weren’t tested, we didn’t identify you.”
If the earliest potential spreaders weren’t eligible for coronavirus testing, how could cluster busters find them in time to curb a full-blown outbreak?
“It was a question we were all asking,” Zahn said.
Unprepared
The laboratory testing process relied on strikingly inefficient instruments: humans.
The strict protocol approved by federal health officials meant no automation at L.A. County’s public health lab. Lab workers hovered over patient samples, using the plastic droppers known as pipettes to manually extract genetic material from them, one by one.
They loaded samples into the wells of a testing machine that looked more like an outdated LaserJet office printer than the solution to a pandemic. It ran 18 hours a day, seven days a week. Still, by March 11, with infections likely spreading by the thousands, only about 70 people’s specimens had been tested in the Downey lab, the department’s director said.
Other counties were worse off. One in four of the state’s public health laboratories closed entirely in recent years, and there remained less than one public health lab per million state residents. Many reported an annual equipment budget of zero dollars or were under review for closure — until couriers began arriving with patient swabs and hand-scribbled test requests.
A technician processes specimens at the UCLA clinical microbiology lab in Brentwood. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)
Demand for testing surged after about 1,250 Californians who had been on a cruise ship with a coronavirus patient had unknowingly scattered across the state, likely proliferating the spread. Another 9,000 people in California had recently returned from countries experiencing severe outbreaks.
The pileup of samples left the county’s testing infrastructure bottlenecked and on the brink of collapse. A county memo asked hospitals to turn away any suspected coronavirus patient with mild symptoms — without a test and without reporting the case.
“Don’t call” the public health department, one infection control coordinator wrote in an email to doctors.
The county reported a total of just 29 infections — an obvious undercount.
Outmatched
On March 13, a Friday, Steve Rusckowski, the chief executive of Quest Diagnostics, approached the podium in the Rose Garden of the White House. President Trump patted him on the back.
“Stephen,” Trump said. “Great job.”
Stephen Rusckowski, chief executive of Quest Diagnostics, discusses the coronavirus at a White House news conference with President Trump on March 13. (Alex Brandon / Associated Press)
With the testing infrastructure in public facilities crippled, the federal government had turned to private partners to scale up testing. Flanked by industry leaders and members of the federal task force, Rusckowski told television cameras and print reporters that the company’s testing process was underway, adding that the number of tests available to the public “will be considerably increased in the next few weeks.”
It was. That day, Los Angeles County had reported just eight new coronavirus cases overnight; the following Friday, it reported 64 overnight. The one after that, it was 252. By the end of the month, total detection in the county surpassed 3,000 cases.
But unfortunately for Quest — and other private players such as LabCorp — the growing capacity to detect cases was only as good as supply lines. And quickly, every step in the process showed strain.
For tens of thousands of Californians to receive a coronavirus test, medical staff needed just as many cotton-tipped swabs — the “simplest piece” and yet the “No. 1” issue, said Dr. Clayton Kazan, medical director for the Los Angeles County Fire Department and former coronavirus testing coordinator for the county. A common type, called a flocked swab, is typically produced in Italy and China, where the outbreak had paralyzed manufacturing. More than 125 testing sites in California would later report swabs as their primary testing shortage.
“Failure was federal, state and local. We all failed.” — Dr. Clayton Kazan
After collection, a swab sample was immediately inserted into a plastic screw-top tube filled with transport medium — a solution intended to preserve it on its journey. But the fluid was so scant that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration began endorsing the use of basic saline in its place.
Once it arrived at processing laboratories such as Quest or LabCorp, sample preparation required specific chemicals, known as reagents, to extract genetic material from the swab. Without the reagents, Gov. Gavin Newsom said, the test kits were “like printers, but without ink.”
But Qiagen, a top supplier, quickly fell behind. Patients in intensive care units waited more than a week for results; some nurses had to tell families that, in the pileup, the commercial labs had lost their relative’s samples entirely.
Even on their deathbeds, they had no diagnoses.
Reagent manufacturing looked like having a garden hose on hand to fight a wildfire, said Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota. The outbreak in Wuhan, China, demanded a full-blown fire hydrant, he added, and the global spread required “virtually a canal’s worth.”
And while states such as New York used expanded testing to screen every nursing home patient, California didn’t have the means; about half of deaths in California are from these facilities.
The testing regime “failure was federal, state and local. We all failed,” Kazan said. “If we could go back to January, when we saw what was happening in Wuhan, if we had taken that opportunity to scale ourselves up in anticipation, we could have been more prepared than we are now.”
By March 25, Quest alone had 160,000 unprocessed tests — about half of all the orders it had received.
The scramble
The backlog reached all the way to the office of Dr. Valerie Ng, the lab director at the Alameda Health System who — one day in mid-March — found herself piling patient samples into her car for a road trip to the state lab in Richmond. Two separate testing infrastructures had failed her. This was Plan C.
Earlier that month, the pileup at Quest had become insufferable; Dr. Ng had redirected samples to Alameda County’s public health lab. But their aging equipment delivered test results by fax; the head of labs at three hospitals and several clinics found herself relegated to watching for the “LOW TONER” light to illuminate on the printer.
Issues compounded when the lab equipment’s test results could not be validated. The deluge of specimens came to resemble the accelerating conveyor belt of confections in the classic chocolate factory episode of “I Love Lucy,” she said. She began chauffeuring them to Richmond.
“When the surge came, it came to the lab,” she said in an interview. “We’re swimming as fast as we can.”
Meanwhile, at UC Berkeley, molecular biologist Fyodor Urnov formed what he called “SEAL Team Six”: hand-selected scientists, physicians and students who had constructed a volunteer lab in a matter of weeks to help relieve Quest’s backlog. They “moved heaven and earth” to get government certifications and create a highly automated lab that could run as many as 1,000 patient samples a day, he said.
But when Urnov told nearby hospitals he could provide free testing and results in 48 hours, the hospitals declined, saying their electronic records systems were still entangled at Quest and LabCorp. The volunteers were stunned.
“We said, ‘What? Are you kidding me?’ They have a direct link to a testing provider that has failed,” Urnov said. “There’s institutional inertia.”
Silicon Valley steps in
Fred Turner has always been entrepreneurial. By 17, he’d built a DNA machine in his bedroom to figure out why his brother was a redhead. At 20, he dropped out of Oxford to launch his first biotech start-up. And this spring, during an afternoon kicking back at his San Francisco flat, friends of the then-24-year-old talked him into upending his life to address a new problem: coronavirus testing.
Thanks to venture capitalists, Turner, within weeks, was in a hotel room in Southern California blasting out job openings for medical technicians, lab workers and programmers. “DM if interested!” Turner, the new chief executive of the brainchild, Curative, wrote on Twitter.
Staffers slept in sleeping bags between shifts at their new facility: a former NFL/MLB anti-doping laboratory in San Dimas, its glass walls and biosafety cabinets transformed into the most efficient coronavirus testing operation in the region. By late April, patient samples stuffed inside trash bags were arriving by the truckload on the ground floor of the facility, called KorvaLabs.
Each day, some 350 employees stepped into the assembly lines: sterilizing pouches and scanning bar codes, feeding racks of samples to an automated Tecan extraction robot and transferring plates into almost two dozen viral detection machines with a “master mix” of chemicals that run in tandem almost around the clock.
Industrial engineers used digital time stamps to track the daily workflow of each step, looking for lags. “We’re back to Henry Ford,” said Dr. Jeffrey Klausner, professor of medicine and public health at UCLA, the medical director of the program.
By early May, California had gone from 2,000 to nearly 40,000 tests per day. The Curative-Korva lab was running 10,000 of them.
Back to the future
Dr. Zahn’s contact tracing team was back in action, and their caseload by late May was surging. Trading their gowns and gloves for phone lines and shared drives, tracers spend their days staring at computer screens glowing with the ever-growing lists of names.
“Don’t think Russell Crowe in ‘A Beautiful Mind.’ Don’t think Sherlock Holmes,” said Zahn. “There is no big opera music in the background. Think less glamorous: Excel spreadsheets.”
California’s contact tracers — librarians, Peace Corps volunteers and others — called infected patients and asked for the phone number of each person they’d recently seen, vowing to keep the identity of the positive case concealed. Those contacts were asked about symptoms, and they, too, were requested to isolate at home.
But the challenges were overwhelming. Los Angeles County, after a massive team scale-up, still had only 1,759 contact tracers for more than 10 million residents, and, in the U.S., there was another unique hurdle: enforcement.
Effective methods to force compliance were in use elsewhere: Taiwan monitored quarantined people with digital fencing that sounded an enforcement alarm whenever one of some 50,000 quarantined citizens ventured too far from home. Contact tracers in South Korea and Singapore kept track of infected people through GPS and Bluetooth data.
But none of those options were available in California. Contact tracers lacked authority to insist that infectious individuals avoid exposing others.
“I can’t imagine an America where we can replicate exactly what they did in Asia, given the fact that we have freedoms and a Constitution,” said Dr. Bob Kocher, a venture capital executive and former member of the governor’s task force on testing.
And the more contact tracers went about their work, the more their effectiveness was entirely dependent on the one thing they still couldn’t control: testing.
The shadow of past failures — and the legacy of ones still in the making — lingered.
For example, L.A. County health officials in early June were still only about three-quarters of the way through testing residents and staff at the nearly 400 skilled nursing facilities. In jails, another hot spot for the virus, staff have reported running out of the rapid test kits used before booking new inmates. In rural towns and inner-city neighborhoods, California is scaling back its testing expansion, citing costs.
And, in a startling déjà vu to the outbreak’s inception, L.A. County public health officials on Wednesday limited the criteria for testing due to dwindling supplies. The ever-fragile testing infrastructure is once again threatened by shortages of swabs, reagents and, curiously enough, those tiny plastic pipette tips that lab workers had wielded by hand in the Downey lab.
The droppers now work robotically, but the plastic needed to manufacture the tips is shrinking across the globe, experts say. If labs run out of the tiny, crucial components, the entire system could grind to a halt by October, they say.
“Without these little plastic tips,” Kocher said, “testing will break down again.”
Times staff writers Melody Petersen, Anita Chabria, Sandhya Kambhampati, Matt Stiles and Sean Greene contributed to this report.


latimes--2020-07-11--Amid a national movement to defund the police, LAPD officers and their supporters rally outside head

Amid a national movement to defund the police, LAPD officers and their supporters rally outside headquarters

In a moment of national reckoning prompted by the killing of George Floyd and street protests against police brutality , Los Angeles police officers and their supporters rallied outside downtown headquarters on Saturday .
Calls to defund the police have been swiftly answered by the City Council , which slashed the LAPD budget by $ 150 million , saying the money will be channeled into services for Black , Latino and disenfranchised communities .
Officers say they are demoralized by the cuts , which will deliver a huge hit to overtime pay and hiring in the 10,000-member department , when @ @ @ @ @ @ @ with community members and are willing to risk their lives to keep people safe .
“ What I ’ m concerned about is that the neighborhoods that will pay the worst price are the most economically depressed neighborhoods , ” said Rusty Redican , an officer with the beach patrol in West L.A. and an 18-year LAPD veteran .
“ Ninety-five percent of the people in South L.A. are great people who just want to live their lives and not be preyed on by gang members and drug dealers.
” Over the July @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in sick , at a time when homicides were spiking .
LAPD officials are investigating whether some of the absences were a “ blue flu ” protest , which would be illegal under state law .
Saturday ’ s rally was organized by community members and drew a mix of LAPD officers , their families and Angelenos who feel that law enforcement is being unfairly maligned .
Within the LAPD , the rally had been promoted to officers as a legal alternative to a sickout .
As a crowd of about 100 officers @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Police ” signs and chanted “ LAPD , ” a handful of counterprotesters sought to convey a different message .
“ You don ’ t get to sit here and tell us our lives don ’ t matter because your family is police , or the police will protect you because of your complexion , ” said Tara Perry , 36 , a paralegal and member of Black Pact .
Ariana Waters , 27 , a researcher at a cancer center , said the LAPD is “ grossly overfunded , ” and the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ mental illness and homelessness .
“ Because they get so much money and power , they abuse it , ” Waters said .
“ The more cops we have , the more crime we have .
All you have is hammers , so everyone is a nail.
” Some of the LAPD officers ’ discontent has been directed at Mayor Eric Garcetti and Chief Michel Moore , whom they believe have caved too quickly to the activists ’ demands .
“ There ’ s work for us to do , but we ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ s good to take a moment to remind ourselves of the progress that has been made in areas like diversity , use of force and training , ” Moore told The Times at the rally .
Amid the sign-waving and chanting , a cop and a Black man began a debate about policing .
“ How can we stop this — the aggression ?
” said Jason Morales , 34 .
He described being pulled over frequently by police officers in his 1991 Toyota Camry .
Another time , he said , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ officer stopped him and checked the serial number to see if it was stolen .
“ Our job is to stop bad things from happening while not violating anyone ’ s rights , ” said Douglas Barnhart , an 18-year LAPD veteran who trains officers at the Police Academy .
“ You knew the job was messed up when you signed up for it , ” responded Morales , whose lines of work include auto collision appraisal , auditing and poetry .
The two men exchanged phone numbers , saying they had learned @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the crowd thinned , a woman was arrested and booked on suspicion of misdemeanor battery for trying to snatch another protester ’ s sign .

In a moment of national reckoning prompted by the killing of George Floyd and street protests against police brutality, Los Angeles police officers and their supporters rallied outside downtown headquarters on Saturday.
Calls to defund the police have been swiftly answered by the City Council, which slashed the LAPD budget by $150 million, saying the money will be channeled into services for Black, Latino and disenfranchised communities.
Officers say they are demoralized by the cuts, which will deliver a huge hit to overtime pay and hiring in the 10,000-member department, when they have worked hard to build ties with community members and are willing to risk their lives to keep people safe.
“What I’m concerned about is that the neighborhoods that will pay the worst price are the most economically depressed neighborhoods,” said Rusty Redican, an officer with the beach patrol in West L.A. and an 18-year LAPD veteran. “Ninety-five percent of the people in South L.A. are great people who just want to live their lives and not be preyed on by gang members and drug dealers.”
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Over the July Fourth weekend, hundreds of officers called in sick, at a time when homicides were spiking. LAPD officials are investigating whether some of the absences were a “blue flu” protest, which would be illegal under state law.
Saturday’s rally was organized by community members and drew a mix of LAPD officers, their families and Angelenos who feel that law enforcement is being unfairly maligned. Within the LAPD, the rally had been promoted to officers as a legal alternative to a sickout.
As a crowd of about 100 officers and their supporters waved “Defend the Police” signs and chanted “LAPD,” a handful of counterprotesters sought to convey a different message.
“You don’t get to sit here and tell us our lives don’t matter because your family is police, or the police will protect you because of your complexion,” said Tara Perry, 36, a paralegal and member of Black Pact.
Ariana Waters, 27, a researcher at a cancer center, said the LAPD is “grossly overfunded,” and the money should be spent on issues like mental illness and homelessness.
“Because they get so much money and power, they abuse it,” Waters said. “The more cops we have, the more crime we have. All you have is hammers, so everyone is a nail.”
Some of the LAPD officers’ discontent has been directed at Mayor Eric Garcetti and Chief Michel Moore, whom they believe have caved too quickly to the activists’ demands.
“There’s work for us to do, but we’re committed to reform, and it’s good to take a moment to remind ourselves of the progress that has been made in areas like diversity, use of force and training,” Moore told The Times at the rally.
Amid the sign-waving and chanting, a cop and a Black man began a debate about policing.
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“How can we stop this — the aggression?” said Jason Morales, 34.
He described being pulled over frequently by police officers in his 1991 Toyota Camry. Another time, he said, he was riding his bicycle when an officer stopped him and checked the serial number to see if it was stolen.
“Our job is to stop bad things from happening while not violating anyone’s rights,” said Douglas Barnhart, an 18-year LAPD veteran who trains officers at the Police Academy.
“You knew the job was messed up when you signed up for it,” responded Morales, whose lines of work include auto collision appraisal, auditing and poetry.
The two men exchanged phone numbers, saying they had learned a lot from each other.
As the crowd thinned, a woman was arrested and booked on suspicion of misdemeanor battery for trying to snatch another protester’s sign.


latimes--2020-07-13--California officials rolling back reopenings as coronavirus surge creates new crisis

With the coronavirus death toll in California jumping past 7,000 and cases continuing to surge , more parts of the state are rolling back reopening plans as they try desperately to slow outbreaks and prevent more hospitals from hitting capacity .
California has seen coronavirus cases and hospitalizations skyrocket in the last month as the economy reopened and residents go back to summer socializing .
While the state clamped down by shutting bars and indoor dining in many areas , officials described the conditions as critical .
The rate at which COVID-19 tests are coming back positive in California over @ @ @ @ @ @ @ on Sunday .
That ’ s the highest percentage since April — a continuing sign that the coronavirus is spreading throughout the state , according to a Los Angeles Times analysis conducted over the weekend .
A week ago , on July 5 , the so-called positivity rate over the previous seven days was 6.8 % ; and the Sunday before that , on June 28 , it was 5.9 % .
The positivity rate in Los Angeles County is even worse than the statewide figure .
On Friday , the seven-day positivity @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ; in late May , that rate fell to a low of 4.6 % .
Alarmed at the metrics , some Bay Area counties are scaling back .
Officials in Alameda County said they had been informed by the state that outdoor restaurant dining there is no longer allowed and restaurants can only be open for drive-through , pickup or delivery service .
Indoor restaurant dining has never reopened in Alameda and several other Bay Area counties .
In Contra Costa County , officials issued an order Saturday that will prohibit indoor religious @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , including worship services and political protests , will still be allowed as long as mask and physical distancing rules are followed .
Contra Costa County officials said in a statement that more than 8 % of its COVID-19 tests are now coming back positive over the previous seven days , “ a sign that the virus is spreading rapidly in the county and that the community must take immediate steps to reduce the spread of the coronavirus and prevent our healthcare system from becoming overwhelmed.
” “ Contra Costa is especially concerned @ @ @ @ @ @ @ indoor gatherings , and in gatherings that involve removing face coverings for eating and drinking , ” officials said in a statement .
Health authorities say they are now “ concerned that the number of patients needing intensive care could quickly exceed capacity.
” In Santa Clara County , officials are rescinding part of the region ’ s relaxation orders that were scheduled to take effect Monday .
The county had initially planned to allow indoor gatherings of up to 20 people .
But officials now say they will not move forward .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ moment , ” Dr. Sara Cody , the county ’ s health officer , said in a message posted Saturday on social media .
“ Right now , the numbers we are seeing aren ’ t going in the right direction .
… The number of people hospitalized with COVID-19 is growing every day.
” The county is , however , allowing hair and nail salons , massage parlors and gyms to reopen starting Monday , with some strict new requirements not seen in other counties , such as prohibiting the indoor use @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , elliptical machines , exercise bikes and other equipment that induces heavy breathing or an elevated heart rate .
Officials said there are no plans to reopen bars or indoor dining rooms at restaurants for the foreseeable future .
Over the weekend , state health officials ordered Sonoma and Placer counties to prohibit many indoor businesses , including indoor dining , indoor winery tasting rooms and movie theaters .
Los Angeles County tallied more than 3,200 new cases of the virus Sunday and 14 related deaths , according to the Los Angeles Times @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the county has now recorded more than 133,000 confirmed cases and more than 3,800 deaths .
That means L.A. County residents make up 54 % of the state ’ s coronavirus-related deaths , despite making about one-quarter of the state ’ s population .
Hospitalizations also continue to climb , both statewide and in L.A. County .
As of Saturday , there were 6,322 people with confirmed coronavirus infections in hospitals statewide , a less than 1 % decrease from Friday ’ s number of 6,357 .
Saturday ’ s number was the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ viral infections so far in this pandemic .
There were 1,806 people with confirmed viral infections in California ’ s intensive care units Saturday — tying the record set Friday for the highest such number .
Los Angeles County also recorded a new high in hospitalizations on Friday , with 2,093 people reported hospitalized with confirmed coronavirus infections ; that number dropped less than 2 % on Saturday , when 2,056 people were confirmed to be in the hospital .
In June , there were an average of about 1,500 patients with confirmed @ @ @ @ @ @ @ “ We have been battling this virus for several months and I know that ‘ COVID fatigue ’ is a very real thing , ” Barbara Ferrer , the county health director , said in a statement .
“ I want to encourage everyone to remain vigilant and continue to use all the tools we have to prevent further transmission of the virus.
” Officials say the increase in transmission probably started around the week of Memorial Day and have attributed it to more people being in contact with one another due to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ taking place .
In an attempt to limit the increase , the county partially rolled back its economic reopening on orders from the state .
Bars in a number of counties , including Los Angeles , were made to shut down again June 28 , and restaurants were also told to stop in-person dining in many counties on July 1 .
There are now 31 of California ’ s 58 counties who have been required to close bars and indoor operations of certain businesses , which not only include dine-in restaurants , but @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and museums .
The orders affected more than 33 million Californians , or more than 85 % of the state ’ s population .
Meanwhile , L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti warned that the city could reimpose a mandatory stay-at-home order if conditions continue to worsen .

Hannah Mikus, right, demonstrates how to self-administer a coronavirus test to a driver at the Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science in South Los Angeles on July 8.
With the coronavirus death toll in California jumping past 7,000 and cases continuing to surge, more parts of the state are rolling back reopening plans as they try desperately to slow outbreaks and prevent more hospitals from hitting capacity.
California has seen coronavirus cases and hospitalizations skyrocket in the last month as the economy has reopened and residents have gone back to summer socializing. Although the state clamped down by shutting bars and banning indoor dining in many areas, officials described the conditions as critical.
The rate at which COVID-19 tests are coming back positive in California over the previous seven days hit 8.3% on Sunday. That’s the highest percentage since April — a continuing sign that the coronavirus is spreading throughout the state, according to a Los Angeles Times analysis conducted over the weekend.
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A week ago, on July 5, the so-called positivity rate over the previous seven days was 6.8%; and the Sunday before that, on June 28, it was 5.9%. The positivity rate in Los Angeles County is even worse than the statewide figure. On Friday, the seven-day positivity rate was 10% in L.A. County; in late May, that rate fell to a low of 4.6%.
Alarmed at the metrics, some Bay Area counties are scaling back.
Officials in Alameda County said they had been informed by the state that outdoor restaurant dining there was no longer allowed and restaurants could only be open for drive-through, pickup or delivery service. Indoor restaurant dining has never reopened in Alameda and several other Bay Area counties.
In Contra Costa County, officials issued an order Saturday prohibiting indoor religious services beginning Monday morning. Outdoor gatherings, including worship services and political protests, will still be allowed as long as rules on face coverings and physical distancing are followed.
Contra Costa County officials said in a statement that more than 8% of its COVID-19 tests were now coming back positive over the previous seven days, “a sign that the virus is spreading rapidly in the county and that the community must take immediate steps to reduce the spread of the coronavirus and prevent our healthcare system from becoming overwhelmed.”
“Contra Costa is especially concerned about the risk of COVID-19 transmission in indoor gatherings, and in gatherings that involve removing face coverings for eating and drinking,” officials said in a statement. Health authorities say they are now “concerned that the number of patients needing intensive care could quickly exceed capacity.”
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In Santa Clara County, officials were rescinding part of the region’s relaxation orders that were scheduled to take effect Monday. The county had initially planned to allow indoor gatherings of up to 20 people. But officials now say they will not move forward.
“Our county is at a critical moment,” Dr. Sara Cody, the county’s health officer, said in a message posted Saturday on social media. “Right now, the numbers we are seeing aren’t going in the right direction. … The number of people hospitalized with COVID-19 is growing every day.”
The county is, however, allowing hair and nail salons, massage parlors and gyms to reopen starting Monday, with some strict new requirements not seen in other counties, such as prohibiting the indoor use of cardio machines, such as treadmills, elliptical machines, exercise bikes and other equipment that induces heavy breathing or an elevated heart rate. Officials said there were no plans to reopen bars or indoor dining rooms at restaurants for the foreseeable future.
Over the weekend, state health officials ordered Sonoma and Placer counties to prohibit many indoor businesses, including indoor dining, indoor winery tasting rooms and movie theaters.
Los Angeles County tallied more than 3,200 new cases of the virus Sunday and 14 related deaths, according to the Los Angeles Times’ coronavirus tracker.
With that, the county has now recorded more than 133,000 confirmed cases and more than 3,800 deaths. That means L.A. County residents account for 54% of the state’s coronavirus-related deaths, despite making up about one-quarter of the state’s population.
Hospitalizations also continue to climb, both statewide and in L.A. County.
As of Saturday, there were 6,322 people with confirmed coronavirus infections in hospitals statewide, a decrease of less than 1% from Friday’s total of 6,357. Saturday’s figure was the second-highest number of hospitalized patients with confirmed viral infections so far in this pandemic.
There were 1,806 people with confirmed viral infections in California’s intensive care units Saturday — tying the record set Friday for the highest such number.
Los Angeles County also recorded a new high in hospitalizations on Friday, with 2,093 people reported hospitalized with confirmed coronavirus infections; that number dropped less than 2% on Saturday, when 2,056 people were confirmed to be in the hospital.
In June, there were an average of about 1,500 patients with confirmed coronavirus infections in L.A. County hospitals.
“We have been battling this virus for several months and I know that ‘COVID fatigue’ is a very real thing,” Barbara Ferrer, the county health director, said in a statement. “I want to encourage everyone to remain vigilant and continue to use all the tools we have to prevent further transmission of the virus.”
Officials said the increase in transmission probably started around the week of Memorial Day and attributed it to more people being in contact with one another due to more workplaces reopening and more social gatherings taking place.
In an attempt to limit the increase, the county partially rolled back its economic reopening on orders from the state. Bars in a number of counties, including Los Angeles, were made to shut down again June 28, and restaurants were also told to stop in-person dining in many counties on July 1.
Of California’s 58 counties, 31 have now been required to close bars and indoor operations of certain businesses, which not only include dine-in restaurants, but also movie theaters, bowling alleys, arcades and museums.
The orders affected more than 33 million Californians, or more than 85% of the state’s population.
Meanwhile, L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti warned that the city could reimpose a mandatory stay-at-home order if conditions continued to worsen.
Lin reported from San Francisco, Wigglesworth from Southern California.


latimes--2020-07-13--San Gabriel Mission fire provokes pain and grief — for various reasons

Edgar Hernandez fumbled with his keys as he tried to unlock the gates to the San Gabriel Mission cemetery just before 7 a.m. Sunday Mass .
The 38-year-old kept looking across the parking lot to the ruins of one of the oldest Catholic houses of worship in Southern California .
The day before , fire had engulfed the 215-year-old mission church .
The roof was destroyed ; the pews , incinerated .
Only the altar and adobe walls survived .
Sunday services went on as usual in a nearby chapel untouched by the fire , but the acrid smell of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ That ’ s not why Hernandez choked up .
“ I baptized my kids at that church , ” said the facility ’ s maintenance director .
“ I got married here , ” he said , pointing to the chapel .
“ One day you come , and everything ’ s fine .
The next day , everyone is hurting.
” Pain resonated around the valley that bears San Gabriel ’ s name in the wake of the fire , which local , regional and national officials are investigating .
It manifested @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the mission , which was founded in 1771 .
For many , this was their neighborhood parish , where generations of the same family went to weekly Mass , baptized children and said goodbye to loved ones .
“ You don ’ t really feel it until you see it in person , and then it hits home , ” said Michael Arden , 50 , a lifelong San Gabriel resident , who walked around the mission in construction clothes while holding a cup of coffee .
“ It ’ s going to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ” For others , the mission was a place that embraced them when few others would .
Altagracia Diaz Gamboa still remembers the welcome her family felt when they migrated from the Mexican state of Zacatecas to San Gabriel in 1968 , when she was a preteen .
“ People greeted us with open arms , ” said the 64-year-old , who held her wedding in the old mission church and saw her daughter marry there as well .
“ It ’ s always been like this .
So much love is in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ” Still others felt it was a place of horror : where Native Americans toiled under brutally domineering Spaniards and were nearly exterminated .
“ I get why people are angry at [ St. Junipero ] Serra , ” said an elderly woman who refused to give her name .
Earlier in the week , a statue of the founder of the California mission system was moved to a private garden within the San Gabriel compound after activists tore down a similar monument near Olvera Street .
“ We should tell the truth @ @ @ @ @ @ @ connection to the building .
Sarah Zhi ducked under yellow caution tape that blocked off Mission Drive as she took her daily jog .
Nearby , workers swept up ashes that blackened the sidewalk and measured the church ’ s front doors in order to board them up with plywood .
“ It ’ s a Mexican church , but people are very nice there , ” said the Chinese immigrant , who has lived in the United States for six years .
She once went in with a friend and found it @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in San Gabriel for 30 years but has never stepped into the church .
“ I read online that [ the mission ] was 249 years old , ” he said , as a woodpecker banged on the windowsill of the fenced-off museum , which didn ’ t suffer any damage .
“ You can ’ t even imagine what was around back then .
It ’ s important for people to realize that.
” People walked around the mission Sunday as if in a daze .
Gone were the tears of the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ front of the then-smoldering structure .
On this morning , the faithful snapped photos of the bas-relief sculptures outside the chapel ’ s entrance that told the story of the mission ’ s founding .
They touched the statue of St. Anthony Claret , the founding father of the Claretian missionaries that now run the San Gabriel Mission .
They gazed at a grapevine near the gift shop , its fruit weeks away from ripening .
It ’ s as if they were reminding themselves of the adage “ ashes to ashes , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ t just a local parish , ” said 58-year-old Erlinda Romo , who volunteered at the mission before the COVID-19 pandemic shut it down in March .
“ It ’ s a regional parish .
There ’ s a connection that never leaves you .
And like the phoenix , we ’ ll rise again.
” Long overlooked in the solar system of Catholic missions in Southern California — it ’ s not as famous as its San Juan Capistrano counterpart , as picturesque as the ones in Ventura and Santa Barbara @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Fernando — the San Gabriel Mission had earned a reappraisal in recent years from academics and even putative adversaries , exacerbating the emotions felt in the wake of the inferno .
“ There ’ s an extraordinary history there that we ’ re only just beginning to appreciate , ” said UC Riverside history professor Jennifer Scheper Hughes , who ’ s part of a research project aiming to recast the study of California ’ s mission system .
Hughes has taken Mexican conservationists to marvel at the mission and its collection of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ them shake their heads at its shabby upkeep and lack of access to the descendants of the Tongva people who built San Gabriel .
“ One literally grabbed my arms by the fingernails and said , ‘ It ’ s a treasure that ’ s being totally disregarded , ’ ” Hughes said .
“ I just hope that this most recent incident wakes up the Archdiocese [ of Los Angeles ] to this.
” Deborah A. Miranda , an English professor at Washington and Lee University in Lexington , Va. , is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ s visiting every California mission to “ listen ” and tell its story .
For her , Mission San Gabriel imparts “ a sense of fear and fortress .
It ’ s built like a place to keep away the invading hordes.
” A member of the Monterey-based Ohlone Costanoan Esselen Nation , Miranda says many of the indigenous people she has talked to about the San Gabriel Mission fire feel conflicted .
“ They feel exultant , and they feel this deep grief , ” she said .
“ These are @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , we don ’ t have this proof that human beings could do this to other people.
” Carribean Fragoza , 39 , co-director of South El Monte Arts Posse , said she grew up in the San Gabriel Valley thinking “ that the mission was some great thing that everyone admired .
But as I learned more about it , the more disenchanted I became with it.
” She ’ s no longer so fond of it , save for the story of the Tongva medicine woman Toypurina .
In 1785 , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ was about to lead an insurrection against Mission San Gabriel .
Murals in her honor now dot Southern California , although none are near the mission .
“ She really became a symbol that represented that resistance was possible , ” said Fragoza , who included Toypurina ’ s story in a recently published collection of essays about El Monte that she co-edited .
“ She represents the stories that don ’ t get told.
” Fragoza hoped the fire might inspire a moment of reckoning for anyone connected to the mission , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ lot of people who love it.
” That spirit of having roots was the theme for the 7 a.m. Mass held in San Gabriel ’ s chapel by Pastor John Molyneux .
The Gospel for the day : the Parable of the Sower , in which Jesus taught disciples the importance of planting seeds in good soil so they would root well and yield their bounty by a hundredfold .
“ Some of us are sad , ” Molyneux told parishioners , who were still struggling to adapt to the other recent disaster @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Masses had restarted just a couple of weeks ago and remain capped at 100 .
Masks are mandatory , and the musical director pleaded with churchgoers to “ sing silently.
” They sat in every other pew ; to their side , the marble floors were marked with blue tape every six feet so people could practice social distancing during the Eucharist .
“ Some of us are grieving , ” Molyneux preached .
“ Some of us are angry .
These are the right emotions for you today .
However … we @ @ @ @ @ @ @ couple of hours , Los Angeles Archbishop José Gómez would lead a special Mass .
But now , Molyneux wanted to remind his flock of the mission ’ s building material .
“ Adobe gets stronger after intense heat , ” he said with a wearied smile .
“ I love that image .
We ’ ll come out of this stronger .
”

Edgar Hernandez fumbled with his keys as he tried to unlock the gates to the San Gabriel Mission cemetery just before 7 a.m. Sunday Mass.
The 38-year-old kept looking across the parking lot to the ruins of one of the oldest Catholic houses of worship in Southern California. The day before, fire had engulfed the 215-year-old mission church. The roof was destroyed; the pews, incinerated. Only the altar and adobe walls survived.
Parishioners attend Mass on Sunday at a mission chapel that was undamaged from the fire the day before. (Christina House / Los Angeles Times)
Sunday services went on as usual in a nearby chapel untouched by the fire, but the acrid smell of burnt wood filled the morning air. That’s not why Hernandez choked up.
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“I baptized my kids at that church,” said the facility’s maintenance director. “I got married here,” he said, pointing to the chapel. “One day you come, and everything’s fine. The next day, everyone is hurting.”
Pain resonated around the valley that bears San Gabriel’s name in the wake of the fire, which local, regional and national officials are investigating. It manifested in ways that told multiple stories about the mission, which was founded in 1771.
For many, this was their neighborhood parish, where generations of the same family went to weekly Mass, baptized children and said goodbye to loved ones.
“You don’t really feel it until you see it in person, and then it hits home,” said Michael Arden, 50, a lifelong San Gabriel resident, who walked around the mission in construction clothes while holding a cup of coffee. “It’s going to mean that much more when it reopens.”
Nick Delgado, 80, of El Monte, who grew up in San Gabriel and spent much of his life at the mission, visited on Sunday. (Christina House/Los Angeles Times)
For others, the mission was a place that embraced them when few others would.
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Altagracia Diaz Gamboa still remembers the welcome her family felt when they migrated from the Mexican state of Zacatecas to San Gabriel in 1968, when she was a preteen. “People greeted us with open arms,” said the 64-year-old, who held her wedding in the old mission church and saw her daughter marry there as well. “It’s always been like this. So much love is in there. The disaster is so tragic.”
Still others felt it was a place of horror: where Native Americans toiled under brutally domineering Spaniards and were nearly exterminated.
“I get why people are angry at [St. Junipero] Serra,” said an elderly woman who refused to give her name. Earlier in the week, a statue of the founder of the California mission system was moved to a private garden within the San Gabriel compound after activists tore down a similar monument near Olvera Street. “We should tell the truth about him.”
Even non-Catholics felt a connection to the building.
Sarah Zhi ducked under yellow caution tape that blocked off Mission Drive as she took her daily jog. Nearby, workers swept up ashes that blackened the sidewalk and measured the church’s front doors in order to board them up with plywood.
“It’s a Mexican church, but people are very nice there,” said the Chinese immigrant, who has lived in the United States for six years. She once went in with a friend and found it “beautiful.”
Robert Zhu has lived in San Gabriel for 30 years but has never stepped into the church.
“I read online that [the mission] was 249 years old,” he said, as a woodpecker banged on the windowsill of the fenced-off museum, which didn’t suffer any damage. “You can’t even imagine what was around back then. It’s important for people to realize that.”
Advertisement
People walked around the mission Sunday as if in a daze. Gone were the tears of the previous day, when dozens prayed in front of the then-smoldering structure. On this morning, the faithful snapped photos of the bas-relief sculptures outside the chapel’s entrance that told the story of the mission’s founding. They touched the statue of St. Anthony Claret, the founding father of the Claretian missionaries that now run the San Gabriel Mission. They gazed at a grapevine near the gift shop, its fruit weeks away from ripening.
The roof was heavily damaged in Saturday’s fire. (Christina House / Los Angeles Times)
It’s as if they were reminding themselves of the adage “ashes to ashes, dust to dust.”
“This isn’t just a local parish,” said 58-year-old Erlinda Romo, who volunteered at the mission before the COVID-19 pandemic shut it down in March. “It’s a regional parish. There’s a connection that never leaves you. And like the phoenix, we’ll rise again.”
**
Long overlooked in the solar system of Catholic missions in Southern California — it’s not as famous as its San Juan Capistrano counterpart, as picturesque as the ones in Ventura and Santa Barbara, or as quaint as Mission San Fernando — the San Gabriel Mission had earned a reappraisal in recent years from academics and even putative adversaries, exacerbating the emotions felt in the wake of the inferno.
“There’s an extraordinary history there that we’re only just beginning to appreciate,” said UC Riverside history professor Jennifer Scheper Hughes, who’s part of a research project aiming to recast the study of California’s mission system.
Advertisement
Hughes has taken Mexican conservationists to marvel at the mission and its collection of arts and artifacts, only to see them shake their heads at its shabby upkeep and lack of access to the descendants of the Tongva people who built San Gabriel.
“One literally grabbed my arms by the fingernails and said, ‘It’s a treasure that’s being totally disregarded,’” Hughes said. “I just hope that this most recent incident wakes up the Archdiocese [of Los Angeles] to this.”
Deborah A. Miranda, an English professor at Washington and Lee University in Lexington, Va., is working on a project in which she’s visiting every California mission to “listen” and tell its story. For her, Mission San Gabriel imparts “a sense of fear and fortress. It’s built like a place to keep away the invading hordes.”
Parishioners attend Mass on Sunday. (Christina House / Los Angeles Times)
A member of the Monterey-based Ohlone Costanoan Esselen Nation, Miranda says many of the indigenous people she has talked to about the San Gabriel Mission fire feel conflicted.
“They feel exultant, and they feel this deep grief,” she said. “These are not positive places. But without them, we don’t have this proof that human beings could do this to other people.”
Advertisement
Carribean Fragoza, 39, co-director of South El Monte Arts Posse, said she grew up in the San Gabriel Valley thinking “that the mission was some great thing that everyone admired. But as I learned more about it, the more disenchanted I became with it.”
She’s no longer so fond of it, save for the story of the Tongva medicine woman Toypurina. In 1785, Spanish authorities arrested Toypurina just as she was about to lead an insurrection against Mission San Gabriel. Murals in her honor now dot Southern California, although none are near the mission.
“She really became a symbol that represented that resistance was possible,” said Fragoza, who included Toypurina’s story in a recently published collection of essays about El Monte that she co-edited. “She represents the stories that don’t get told.”
Fragoza hoped the fire might inspire a moment of reckoning for anyone connected to the mission, “because there’s still a lot of people who love it.”
That spirit of having roots was the theme for the 7 a.m. Mass held in San Gabriel’s chapel by Pastor John Molyneux. The Gospel for the day: the Parable of the Sower, in which Jesus taught disciples the importance of planting seeds in good soil so they would root well and yield their bounty by a hundredfold.
“Some of us are sad,” Molyneux told parishioners, who were still struggling to adapt to the other recent disaster in their lives: the coronavirus.
Advertisement
Masses had restarted just a couple of weeks ago and remain capped at 100. Masks are mandatory, and the musical director pleaded with churchgoers to “sing silently.” They sat in every other pew; to their side, the marble floors were marked with blue tape every six feet so people could practice social distancing during the Eucharist.
“Some of us are grieving,” Molyneux preached. “Some of us are angry. These are the right emotions for you today. However … we gather as resurrected people.”
Masses resumed at the mission just a couple of weeks ago following coronavirus closures. (Christina House / Los Angeles Times)
In a couple of hours, Los Angeles Archbishop José Gómez would lead a special Mass. But now, Molyneux wanted to remind his flock of the mission’s building material.
“Adobe gets stronger after intense heat,” he said with a wearied smile. “I love that image. We’ll come out of this stronger.”


latimes--2020-07-13--L.A.'s corruption probe involves developers, a councilman — and his 80-year-old mom

The corruption case against Los Angeles City Councilman Jose Huizar is spangled with influential City Hall figures — wealthy real estate developers , well-connected lobbyists and a campaign fundraiser known for raking in cash for politicians .
But investigators have also turned the spotlight on a less likely figure in a pay-to-play scandal : an elderly woman who emigrated from Zacatecas , Mexico , once worked in a meatpacking plant , and has lived in a modest home in Boyle Heights .
Isidra Huizar , the 80-year-old mother of the embattled councilman , is one of the unnamed figures mentioned @ @ @ @ @ @ @ three sources familiar with the investigation .
Federal prosecutors have alleged , without mentioning her by name , that Isidra Huizar helped her son launder bribe money that he received between 2014 and 2017 .
Huizar ’ s mother , identified only as Relative A-2 , repeatedly received cash from her son , then used the proceeds to pay his expenses , according to a 116-page affidavit filed the week that Huizar was arrested .
Isidra Huizar , in an interview with The Times , confirmed that she had been questioned by investigators @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and his money .
But she denied engaging in money laundering , saying she was only safeguarding the cash .
She described the allegations against her son as untrue .
“ They ’ re accusing him of so many things he didn ’ t do , ” Isidra Huizar said , speaking in Spanish .
“ It ’ s not true what they ’ re saying in the newspapers and on the news.
” Huizar ’ s mother is not the only family member to come under scrutiny during the investigation .
The @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , is mentioned repeatedly in cases targeting former Huizar staffer George Esparza and other figures who have struck plea deals in the probe .
Federal prosecutors have also focused on financial transactions allegedly made by Salvador Huizar , the councilman ’ s brother , who is listed in the criminal affidavit as Relative A-3 , according to a source familiar with the probe .
Prosecutors said Relative A-3 also helped the councilman launder bribe money and lied about his involvement when he was initially questioned by FBI agents in 2018 , according to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a lawyer for Salvador Huizar , declined to answer questions about the federal case , including the allegations in the affidavit .
Robinson said he had instructed Salvador Huizar not to talk to anyone about the case .
Neither Isidra nor Salvador Huizar has been arrested or publicly charged .
But this is not the first indication that their financial transactions are part of the probe .
Two years ago , the FBI sought their bank records in a search warrant that probed for evidence of possible crimes including bribery and money laundering @ @ @ @ @ @ @ was released from federal custody , a judge instructed him not to communicate with any witnesses or victims — but carved out an exception for Isidra , Salvador and Richelle Huizar .
The criminal complaint indicates that Isidra and Salvador Huizar gave investigators information under proffer agreements , an arrangement in which prosecutors agreed not to use that information against them .
Loyola Law School professor Laurie Levenson said such pacts , also known as “ queen for a day ” agreements , can be a way for a possible target in a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ we ’ re better as your witness than as one of your defendants.
” Federal investigators alleged in the complaint that Jose Huizar funneled cash bribes through his family members , who put the money into their own accounts and then paid his credit card bills , property taxes and other expenses , including the interest on a bank loan that allowed the councilman to settle a sexual harassment lawsuit filed by one of his aides .
Prosecutors said Huizar gave his mother more than $ 108,000 in cash between January 2014 and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ same amount directly or indirectly to Huizar , according to information in the criminal complaint .
Investigators alleged that the councilman also provided cash to his brother , who then paid roughly $ 130,000 directly or indirectly to him , according to information in the criminal complaint .
A federal investigator examined bank records and watched surveillance footage of Isidra Huizar depositing an envelope with “ a large sum of cash , ” according to information in the criminal complaint .
In November 2018 — the same month that FBI agents raided Huizar @ @ @ @ @ @ @ councilman ’ s mother and brother were interviewed by federal agents and falsely denied that Huizar had given them cash , according to information in the criminal complaint .
Both were interviewed again earlier this year and admitted that they received cash from the councilman , prosecutors said in their filing .
Huizar ’ s mother said that he had asked her for blank checks that he used to pay his bills , according to information in the criminal complaint .
Salvador Huizar also told investigators that Huizar asked him to cover his @ @ @ @ @ @ @ filing .
And he admitted to lying to federal agents about the financial transactions during his earlier interview , prosecutors indicated in the criminal complaint .
In an interview with The Times , Isidra Huizar said that she had not lied to investigators , arguing that they hadn ’ t properly explained their question .
She said that when she was first asked if Jose Huizar had given her money , she initially said no , because the money wasn ’ t meant for her .
Later , she said , the investigators @ @ @ @ @ @ @ gave her money to hold onto .
“ That ’ s different , ” Isidra Huizar said in Spanish .
“ And that ’ s why at first I said no , and later yes.
” Isidra Huizar said the money that Jose Huizar had provided was for school tuition for his children .
Both Isidra and Salvador Huizar have been registered to vote for years at the same address in Boyle Heights — a modest 464-square-foot home owned by the Huizar family for decades , according to city and county records .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ Huizar said that Salvador did not live with her .
Isidra Huizar has figured prominently in the councilman ’ s story .
She has appeared on his campaign mailers celebrating his graduation from Princeton and holding one of her granddaughters .
In an with the Immigrant Archive Project , the councilman said his mother and father worked constantly even as they raised six children .
Her jobs included working at a meatpacking company , Jose Huizar said .
And last year , Jose Huizar featured a photo of him and his mother on @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Day , praising her as “ the rock of our family.
” Isidra Huizar told The Times that she believed the family was being subjected to discrimination as Latinos , because “ they ’ re saying things that aren ’ t true.
” Repeated references to Richelle Huizar in the case have raised questions about whether she could be called to testify in a case targeting her husband .
Prosecutors alleged in the criminal complaint that the councilman held meetings with his wife , partners at her law firm , and developers pursuing @ @ @ @ @ @ @ meetings , Huizar urged developers to hire his wife ’ s firm , investigators alleged in the criminal complaint .
Legal experts say a married person can choose to testify against their husband or wife , waiving their “ spousal privilege ” in court .
But if they do , the other spouse can block them from revealing marital communications — private conversations or other exchanges as a couple .
However , experts said that would not stop the spouse from testifying about other facts in a criminal case .
There is no @ @ @ @ @ @ @ other family members , Levenson said .
That issue came up during the investigation of President Bill Clinton , Levenson said , when Monica Lewinsky was aghast to discover that her mother could be compelled to testify .

Immigrant-rights leaders and residents of L.A. City Council District 14 protest in front of Jose Huizar’s Boyle Heights field office to urge Huizar to vacate his seat.
The corruption case against Los Angeles City Councilman Jose Huizar is spangled with influential City Hall figures — wealthy real estate developers, well-connected lobbyists and a campaign fundraiser known for raking in cash for politicians.
But investigators have also turned the spotlight on a less likely figure in a pay-to-play scandal: an elderly woman who emigrated from Zacatecas, Mexico, once worked in a meatpacking plant, and has lived in a modest home in Boyle Heights.
Isidra Huizar, the 80-year-old mother of the embattled councilman, is one of the unnamed figures mentioned in the sprawling case, according to three sources familiar with the investigation.
Federal prosecutors have alleged, without mentioning her by name, that Isidra Huizar helped her son launder bribe money that he received between 2014 and 2017. Huizar’s mother, identified only as Relative A-2, repeatedly received cash from her son, then used the proceeds to pay his expenses, according to a 116-page affidavit filed the week that Huizar was arrested.
Isidra Huizar, in an interview with The Times, confirmed that she had been questioned by investigators who wanted to know about her son and his money. But she denied engaging in money laundering, saying she was only safeguarding the cash. She described the allegations against her son as untrue.
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“They’re accusing him of so many things he didn’t do,” Isidra Huizar said, speaking in Spanish. “It’s not true what they’re saying in the newspapers and on the news.”
Isidra Huizar, pictured with one of her granddaughters, on a mailer for Jose Huizar’s 2005 campaign. (Jose Huizar 2005 campaign)
Huizar’s mother is not the only family member to come under scrutiny during the investigation. The councilman’s wife, Richelle Huizar, is mentioned repeatedly in cases targeting former Huizar staffer George Esparza and other figures who have struck plea deals in the probe.
Federal prosecutors have also focused on financial transactions allegedly made by Salvador Huizar, the councilman’s brother, who is listed in the criminal affidavit as Relative A-3, according to a source familiar with the probe.
Prosecutors said Relative A-3 also helped the councilman launder bribe money and lied about his involvement when he was initially questioned by FBI agents in 2018, according to the criminal complaint.
Edward Robinson, a lawyer for Salvador Huizar, declined to answer questions about the federal case, including the allegations in the affidavit. Robinson said he had instructed Salvador Huizar not to talk to anyone about the case.
Neither Isidra nor Salvador Huizar has been arrested or publicly charged. But this is not the first indication that their financial transactions are part of the probe. Two years ago, the FBI sought their bank records in a search warrant that probed for evidence of possible crimes including bribery and money laundering.
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Last month, when Councilman Huizar was released from federal custody, a judge instructed him not to communicate with any witnesses or victims — but carved out an exception for Isidra, Salvador and Richelle Huizar.
The criminal complaint indicates that Isidra and Salvador Huizar gave investigators information under proffer agreements, an arrangement in which prosecutors agreed not to use that information against them.
Loyola Law School professor Laurie Levenson said such pacts, also known as “queen for a day” agreements, can be a way for a possible target in a case to make the argument that “we’re better as your witness than as one of your defendants.”
Federal investigators alleged in the complaint that Jose Huizar funneled cash bribes through his family members, who put the money into their own accounts and then paid his credit card bills, property taxes and other expenses, including the interest on a bank loan that allowed the councilman to settle a sexual harassment lawsuit filed by one of his aides.
Prosecutors said Huizar gave his mother more than $108,000 in cash between January 2014 and September 2017; she paid roughly the same amount directly or indirectly to Huizar, according to information in the criminal complaint.
Investigators alleged that the councilman also provided cash to his brother, who then paid roughly $130,000 directly or indirectly to him, according to information in the criminal complaint.
A federal investigator examined bank records and watched surveillance footage of Isidra Huizar depositing an envelope with “a large sum of cash,” according to information in the criminal complaint.
In November 2018 — the same month that FBI agents raided Huizar’s home and offices — the councilman’s mother and brother were interviewed by federal agents and falsely denied that Huizar had given them cash, according to information in the criminal complaint.
Both were interviewed again earlier this year and admitted that they received cash from the councilman, prosecutors said in their filing. Huizar’s mother said that he had asked her for blank checks that he used to pay his bills, according to information in the criminal complaint.
Salvador Huizar also told investigators that Huizar asked him to cover his expenses, according to information in the filing. And he admitted to lying to federal agents about the financial transactions during his earlier interview, prosecutors indicated in the criminal complaint.
In an interview with The Times, Isidra Huizar said that she had not lied to investigators, arguing that they hadn’t properly explained their question.
She said that when she was first asked if Jose Huizar had given her money, she initially said no, because the money wasn’t meant for her. Later, she said, the investigators clarified that they were asking if Jose gave her money to hold onto.
“That’s different,” Isidra Huizar said in Spanish. “And that’s why at first I said no, and later yes.”
Isidra Huizar said the money that Jose Huizar had provided was for school tuition for his children.
Both Isidra and Salvador Huizar have been registered to vote for years at the same address in Boyle Heights — a modest 464-square-foot home owned by the Huizar family for decades, according to city and county records. In an interview, however, Isidra Huizar said that Salvador did not live with her.
Isidra Huizar has figured prominently in the councilman’s story. She has appeared on his campaign mailers celebrating his graduation from Princeton and holding one of her granddaughters.
In an interview with the Immigrant Archive Project, the councilman said his mother and father worked constantly even as they raised six children. Her jobs included working at a meatpacking company, Jose Huizar said. And last year, Jose Huizar featured a photo of him and his mother on his Facebook page on Mother’s Day, praising her as “the rock of our family.”
Isidra Huizar told The Times that she believed the family was being subjected to discrimination as Latinos, because “they’re saying things that aren’t true.”
Repeated references to Richelle Huizar in the case have raised questions about whether she could be called to testify in a case targeting her husband. Prosecutors alleged in the criminal complaint that the councilman held meetings with his wife, partners at her law firm, and developers pursuing projects in his district. During the meetings, Huizar urged developers to hire his wife’s firm, investigators alleged in the criminal complaint.
Legal experts say a married person can choose to testify against their husband or wife, waiving their “spousal privilege” in court. But if they do, the other spouse can block them from revealing marital communications — private conversations or other exchanges as a couple.
However, experts said that would not stop the spouse from testifying about other facts in a criminal case.
There is no similar privilege for testimony by parents or other family members, Levenson said. That issue came up during the investigation of President Bill Clinton, Levenson said, when Monica Lewinsky was aghast to discover that her mother could be compelled to testify.
Times staff writer Joel Rubin contributed to this report.