Copyright © 2022, Los Angeles Times | | | | Advertisement Just 23 years old and near the start of her life in law enforcement, Toni McBride brimmed with youthful exuberance. A slew of online videos show the Los Angeles Police Department officer blasting away at targets, with prize-winning speed and accuracy, on a gun range in the Simi Valley foothills.McBride, an officer in LAPD’s Newton Division, fired an array of shotguns, pistols and assault rifles. She cavorted and strutted, sometimes within view of Hollywood glitterati, who used the same firing range to hone the gunplay they would use...…Copyright © 2022, Los Angeles Times | | | | Advertisement Just 23 years old and near the start of her life in law enforcement, Toni McBride brimmed with youthful exuberance. A slew of online videos show the Los Angeles Police Department officer blasting away at targets, with prize-winning speed and accuracy, on a gun range in the Simi Valley foothills.McBride, an officer in LAPD’s Newton Division, fired an array of shotguns, pistols and assault rifles. She cavorted and strutted, sometimes within view of Hollywood glitterati, who used the same firing range to hone the gunplay they would use...WW…

Copyright © 2022, Los Angeles Times | | | | Advertisement It’s an obscure U.S. government bureau with many missions, including this vital one: hunting down viral diseases like COVID-19 that spill over from animals to the human world. But in late 2019 it found itself without a permanent leader, and squarely in the Trump administration’s budget-slashing sights.That all changed with the coronavirus pandemic that has killed more than 20,000 Americans and more than 100,000 people across the world.Now, the Global Health Bureau, part of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), has...…Copyright © 2022, Los Angeles Times | | | | Advertisement It’s an obscure U.S. government bureau with many missions, including this vital one: hunting down viral diseases like COVID-19 that spill over from animals to the human world. But in late 2019 it found itself without a permanent leader, and squarely in the Trump administration’s budget-slashing sights.That all changed with the coronavirus pandemic that has killed more than 20,000 Americans and more than 100,000 people across the world.Now, the Global Health Bureau, part of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), has...WW…

Copyright © 2022, Los Angeles Times | | | | The big, striving city on the south coast moved fairly quickly at the first signs of danger — shutting down bars, pool halls, sporting events and more. Its rival to the north waited at least a week longer to order closures, as its leaders went mask-happy, betting that their best weapon against the onrushing contagion was face coverings, and going slow on what is now referred to as “social distancing.”The two great cities charted their disparate paths in the months that followed, straining — amid rudimentary science and massive public pressure — to...…Copyright © 2022, Los Angeles Times | | | | The big, striving city on the south coast moved fairly quickly at the first signs of danger — shutting down bars, pool halls, sporting events and more. Its rival to the north waited at least a week longer to order closures, as its leaders went mask-happy, betting that their best weapon against the onrushing contagion was face coverings, and going slow on what is now referred to as “social distancing.”The two great cities charted their disparate paths in the months that followed, straining — amid rudimentary science and massive public pressure — to...WW…