California is after Ohtani’s money
Tomo Chien
January 09, 2024
Good morning. It’s Tuesday, and I’m reading about how a woman survived rain and freezing temperatures for four nights while stuck in her truck near Mount Baldy. Onto the five USC, Los Angeles and California stories you need to know for today.
1.
Shohei Ohtani’s $700 million contract with the Dodgers caught a lot of eyeballs — including some the baseball superstar may come to regret. California’s top fiscal officer on Monday urged Congress to take “immediate and decisive action” to restrict high earners from deferring income, citing Ohtani’s contract. The record-setting 10-year deal allows Ohtani to collect $2 million a year during its term, then the remaining $680 million after 2034: That could let him evade $98 million in state income taxes if he moves elsewhere before the payout.
2.
A December surge in the avian flu forced California farmers to kill off several million chickens while quarantining their flocks. Experts say the consequences could ripple through the agricultural and food service industries, like when a national surge last year drove up the price of eggs. The winter months, when migrating wild birds pass the virus to farm chickens, are typically the worst months of the flu.
3.
The U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear a tobacco company’s challenge to California’s ban on flavored tobacco products. The ban, which will now remain in place, has taken something of a winding road to get here. Gov. Gavin Newsom signed it into law in 2020, but tobacco companies collected enough signatures to get a veto referendum on the November 2022 ballot — which was soundly rejected by voters. A district, then appellate and now Supreme courts all shut down legal challenges to the ban.
4.
LA City Councilmember Curren Price pleaded not guilty to corruption charges in a case where he’s accused of grand theft by embezzlement, perjury and conflict of interest — all felonies that could mean up to 10 years in prison. Price, who represents parts of South LA, is accused of collecting $30,000 in medical premiums from the city insurance program for his wife, who he wasn’t married to at the time. He’s also accused of voting to approve projects from developers who were paying his wife for consulting work, and failing to report that connection.
5.
A Gardena man earned himself 27 years in federal prison for a 2020 crime spree in which he robbed nearly a dozen LA businesses at gunpoint including a 7-Eleven, four donut stores, a dry cleaner and, puzzlingly, a veterinarian’s office. Prosecutors called Justin Washington, 34, “a walking crime spree” in his Monday sentencing. Before the string of robberies, Washington had served a 10-year sentence for armed robbery and possession of a deadly weapon, and murdered a rival gang member just two months after his release.
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