Newsletter: Essential California: By vowing to reduce auto pollution, California may be setting up a full-out war with Trump

Good morning. It is Saturday, March 25. Here’s what you don’t want to miss this weekend:

TOP STORIES

The pollution fight: California isn’t giving up on fighting auto pollution — even with Donald Trump in office. On Friday, California regulators moved forward with tough new pollution reduction requirements for automakers selling cars in the state. Los Angeles Times

Plus: California regulators are launching a new campaign against harmful climate pollutants. Los Angeles Times

Look at that unemployment rate: California added 22,900 jobs in February and the unemployment rate in the state is down to 5%. Over the last 12 months, the state added 315,800 jobs, an increase of 1.9%. That compares with a 1.6% increase in the nation as a whole. Los Angeles Times

More Ghost Ship problems: Up in Oakland, more details are emerging about how the owners of the converted Ghost Ship warehouse knew about the building’s electrical problems more than two years before the deadly December fire, which took 36 lives. The Mercury News

$$$$: A recent study shows three California cities (including SF, of course) are more expensive than all other U.S. cities — including New York — when it comes to median home prices and how much you need to make to afford a home. San Francisco Chronicle

Pay up: Legal awards over misconduct by L.A. County sheriff’s deputies soared to $51 million last year. In 2011, the payouts totaled just $5.6 million, and Sheriff Jim McDonnell said in an interview that he’s concerned about the steep rise in litigation costs, saying, “This is money that could be spent to help the community.” Los Angeles Times

Ford on his airplane snafu: “I’m the schmuck who landed on the taxiway,” Harrison Ford told the air traffic control tower after almost hitting a passenger jet couple of weeks ago. Los Angeles Times

Shaq is honored: We all knew that Lakers legend Shaquille O’Neil was larger than life. Now a statue of the 7-foot-1-inch star will actually be larger than him. A 9-foot 1,200-pound bronze statue of the Basketball Hall of Fame center was unveiled Friday outside Staples Center. NBC Los Angeles

ICE agent arrested: A longtime Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent was arrested Wednesday on accusations he helped smuggle a Mexican national with felony convictions into the United States.CBS LA

WATCH: Here’s the story of one migrant worker who came to America in 1999 at the age of 14. Today, she works on a smaller, organic farm in Ventura County. In the film, she explains her feelings on why Trump is a mala hierba, “very bad weed,” for the immigrant community. The Atlantic

Keep the L.A. Phil cool: Now that the president and CEO of the Los Angeles Philharmonic is departing, here’s how one writer believes the L.A. Phil can stay on top of the orchestra world. The New Yorker

Murder in Oxnard: A Los Angeles man facing criminal charges connected to the rape and murder of an Oxnard woman 30 years ago pleaded no contest. Ventura County Star

This week’s most popular stories in Essential California:

1. 4 L.A. County social workers to face trial in horrific death of 8-year-old boy. Los Angeles Times

2. The Gangs of L.A. — What ever happened to the “gangbanger”? The New York Times

3. Big Sur is once again coping with natural disaster and looming economic catastrophe. Los Angeles Times

4. The Fixers Who Buried Old Hollywood’s Biggest Scandals. Atlas Obscura

5. Los Angeles rent comparison: What $1,650 rents you right now? Curbed LA

ICYMI, here are this week’s Great Reads

Latina Muslims in California: The three communities most worried by the rhetoric and actions of the Trump administration are women, Muslims and Latinos. So how do Latina-Muslims feel right now? Not good is the short answer. This is one of the fastest growing ethnic groups in Islam, and these Americans have found themselves smack in the middle of the cultural wars raging the dawn of the Trump administration. Los Angeles Times

Lingering effects of drought: Why California’s long-term water troubles are far over, even with all that rain. New Yorker

In search of cults: The incredible story of an exorcism, and L.A.’s Korean community in the 1990s. Buzzfeed

About healthcare: California has an interesting idea about health care, and it doesn’t involved repealing the Affordable Care Act. The state’s Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom, who is running for governor, wants to create single-payer system for all of California’s 38 million citizens, including the undocumented. The state Senate has also introduced legislation that would create a single-payer system. “Newsom’s pitch, [is] modeled on a program called Healthy San Francisco, which was instituted in 2007 when he was mayor. This is not single-payer health insurance, but it would guarantee universal access to healthcare. It’s a kind of hybrid between the managed-care craze of the 1990s and the socialized medicine of Britain’s National Health Service.” The Nation

An ode to the Sequoia: “The trees are so big that it would be cowardly not to deal with their bigness head on,” writes Jon Mooallem. He spent some time in the land of giants a.k.a. Sequoia National Park where grand old trees make humans look small. The New York Times Magazine

Looking Ahead

Sunday: Cyclists will hit the streets of the Westside for the latest CicLAvia.

Tuesday: L.A. City Council takes up plan to examine the health effects of development close to freeways.

Wednesday: Congressional Cup regatta in Long Beach.

Please let us know what we can do to make this newsletter more useful to you. Send comments, complaints and ideas to Benjamin Oreskes and Shelby Grad. Also follow them on Twitter @boreskes and @shelbygrad.