Newsletter: Dianne Feinstein leaves behind a decades-long legacy

Good morning, and welcome to the Essential California newsletter. It’s Saturday, Sept. 30. Here’s what you need to know to start your weekend:

• Inside Dianne Feinstein’s epic career
• Don’t bet on fire season being over
• Eight coffee shops with an artisanal spin on the pumpkin spice latte
• And here’s today’s e-newspaper

Dianne Feinstein leaves behind a decades-long legacy

The moment that made her career was a dark one: Dianne Feinstein stood in front of cameras and microphones and declared that San Francisco Mayor George Moscone and supervisor Harvey Milk had been shot and killed. She became mayor days later.

She became the first woman to represent California in the U.S. Senate in 1992 and has served the state longer than any other senator. She sat for years on the Judiciary Committee, Select Committee on Intelligence, and the Appropriations Committee.

The senator died early Friday morning at 90.

Feinstein spent many years focused on her signature issues: environmental preservation, LGBTQ rights and stricter gun control. She wrote the 1994 ban on military-style assault weapons and advocated for the ban’s restoration after it expired in 2004 and again in recent years when mass shootings increased. She investigated the CIA’s use of torture on suspected terrorists in the years after 9/11. She was critiqued for her support of the Iraq War and later as a centrist by constituents as the Democratic Party moved toward the left on issues of immigration and the environment.

Questions about term limits and her mental capacity plagued her final years in office. She worked until the end. The last vote she cast was on Thursday only hours before her death.

Gov. Gavin Newsom must now appoint a replacement senator, the second time since he appointed Sen. Alex Padilla to replace Vice President Kamala Harris.

Newsom said earlier this month that he would appoint an interim caretaker for the seat, not one of the candidates already running for it.

He had previously pledged to appoint a Black woman to the next vacant seat.

Democratic Reps. Adam B. Schiff of Burbank, Katie Porter of Irvine and Barbara Lee of Oakland began campaigning to win the seat in November 2024 shortly after Feinstein announced in February that she’d retire.

[Read more: Newsom faces a difficult task — and rare opportunity — when filling Feinstein’s seat]

The Senate currently is almost evenly split between Democrats and Republicans — whoever fills this seat in the longer term will play a major role.

[Read more: With Feinstein’s death, what happens with her seat on the Judiciary Committee and other panels?]

More on Feinstein’s legacy:

• Feinstein worked until the end. Insiders told us about her final day in the Senate.
• Harvey Milk’s assassination drove Feinstein’s decades-long push on gun control.
• Feinstein’s stubbornness kept her in office too long. But it also defined her success, wrote Times political columnist Mark Barabak.
• On Capitol Hill, somber tributes to Feinstein the fighter
• Photos: Key moments in Dianne Feinstein’s boundary-breaking career.

The week’s biggest stories

(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

Fire season and climate

• How powerful land barons shaped the epic floods in California’s heartland
• Is California’s wildfire season finally over? Don’t bet on it, experts say.
• As heat waves warm the Pacific Ocean, effects on marine life remain murky
• One of America’s reddest states wants 100% green energy — if dams count as green.

The writers’ strike has ended. The actors’ hasn’t.

• Now that writers can work again, here’s when daytime and late-night talk shows will return.
• More pay, streaming bonuses, AI limits and more takeaways from the deal
• False starts, secret talks: Insiders tell how the writers’ strike ended with ‘Let’s make a deal.’
• SAG-AFTRA and the studios will resume talks.

More big stories

• A suspect has been arrested in the 1996 killing of rapper Tupac Shakur.
• Even in lefty California, Trump has a firm grip on Republicans.
• The booming popularity of countertops made of engineered stone has driven a new epidemic of silicosis, an incurable lung disease, researchers have found.
• A federal judge overturned California ban on high-capacity gun magazines — again.
• Working-class Echo Park residents join forces to battle a parking nightmare due to yoga studio.
• Kourtney Kardashian’s recent Poosh party in Malibu allegedly violated its permit. Some city leaders say it’s a trend among large events for the rich.

Get unlimited access to the Los Angeles Times. Subscribe here.

The week’s great reads

(Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)

A farmer is tested like a figure from the Bible — Old Testament, New Testament, take your pick. For the last 40 years or so, many Jews in America have celebrated Sukkot with citrons grown at Lindcove Ranch. By March, it’s trees should have been covered in flower buds. There were none.

More great reads

• AA isn’t the only way to change your relationship with alcohol.
• Gregory Black had been released two years ago after a murder case was roiled by revelations that a detective had bugged a lockup. Now he’s accused of killing three in a crash.
• This L.A. freeway is the butt of many jokes. Can it have new life as parks and housing?
• The architect of L.A.’s iconic Capitol Records building sets the record straight — again — on that needle.

How can we make this newsletter more useful? Send comments to [email protected].

For your weekend

(Stephanie Breijo / Los Angeles Times)

Going out

• 🎬 ‘The Storms of Jeremy Thomas’ captures a film producer’s iconoclasm.
• 🎤 Kali Uchis will be performing one of her last shows of the season at the Hollywood Bowl.
• ☕ Eight L.A. coffee shops putting a local, artisanal spin on the pumpkin spice latte

Staying in

• 📺 ‘Neither Confirm Nor Deny’ tells a real-life tale of spies, nukes and Howard Hughes
• 📺 Patrick J. Adams is feeling nostalgic for his “Suits” days, just as the USA Network series rides a new wave of viewership on Netflix.
• 🧑‍🍳 Here’s a recipe for Pumpkin-Spiced French Toast.
• ✏️ Get our free daily crossword puzzle, sudoku, word search and arcade games.

L.A. Affairs

Get wrapped up in tantalizing stories about dating, relationships and marriage.

I was a lonely widow for so many years. How could I find love again? I missed companionship and the experience of sharing my life with a man who also wanted the same things that I wanted. So I created profiles on dating sites.

Have a great weekend, from the Essential California team

Helen Li, reporting fellow
Elvia Limón, multiplatform editor
Karim Doumar, head of newsletters

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