Is it the beginning of the end for July Fourth fireworks?

I’m Mariel Garza, deputy editorial page editor, filling in for Paul Thornton. But The Times’ editorial board said that with zoning reform and looser land-use laws, those struggling suburban strip malls and empty downtown office buildings present a tremendous opportunity for California to address one of its most pressing problems: the crippling shortage of housing that has driven up rents and home prices to unaffordable levels. Los Angeles’ thirst for water led to the near-collapse of Mono Lake’s fragile ecosystem in the 1970s. California’s ban on state-funded travel to states with laws that discriminate against LGBTQ+ persons has effectively made the South off-limits to scholars who study Black American life, professors Keenan Norris and A. Lamont Williams write. AB 1887 is walling off scholars like us from the majority of Black LGBTQ+ people, who predominantly live in Southern states, the places on the ban list.” More from this week in opinion From our columnists From the Op-Ed desk From the Editorial Board Letters to the Editor Hundreds of refugees died in the Mediterranean, not on a rich man’s submersible Stop accepting an economic system that forces people into homelessness Librarians push back on Huntington Beach plan to keep kids from reading ‘obscene’ books Stay in touch.