Headlines From The Times

Gun violence has killed more than 100,000 people in Mexico over the last decade. Yet most of the guns involved are illegal, smuggled into the country from the U.S. Now, the Mexican government has had enough.Today, we talk about a federal lawsuit filed by Mexico against American gun manufacturers that seeks to reduce the bloodshed.More reading:Column: Don’t shield U.S. gun makers from liability for Mexico’s gun violenceThere is only one gun store in all of Mexico. So why is gun violence soaring?Op-Ed: For Mexico, taking a stand against gun trafficking is a moral imperative

As more and more workplaces have instituted COVID-19 vaccine mandates, a cottage industry has sprung up to help skeptics evade them. Today, we look into what constitutes a deeply held religious belief, how those beliefs can play out in the workplace, and what employers can do about shady religious exemption requests.More reading:Online pastors, form letters: The cottage industry helping workers avoid vaccine mandatesNew workplace mandate for COVID-19 vaccine pushed by California lawmakersColumn: L.A.'s unvaccinated public workers go Ayn Rand, throw fit over city’s vaccine mandate 

In this crossover episode with “The Envelope” podcast, Maggie Gyllenhaal speaks about “The Lost Daughter,” her directorial debut.More reading:Review: ‘The Lost Daughter’ is quintessential Maggie Gyllenhaal, even though she’s never on screenOlivia Colman and Maggie Gyllenhaal dig into that ‘Lost Daughter’ endingMaggie Gyllenhaal is a natural-born director. Netflix gives her the spotlight

Americans eat billions of dollars of Mexican avocados every year. Demand is such that drug cartels and other criminal elements have muscled in on the business, centered around the Mexican state of Michoacán. This reality got worldwide attention Super Bowl weekend, when the American government announced it was temporarily suspending any avocado imports from Mexico.Today, we talk about this development — and why Americans are so obsessed with avocados in the first place.Host: Gustavo ArellanoGuests: L.A. Times Mexico correspondent Leila Miller, and L.A. Times acting deputy food editor Daniel Hernandez.More reading:Avocado imports from Mexico are blocked. What does that mean for you? How we got to peak avocado: Super Bowls to Mexico’s drug cartelsInside the bloody cartel war for Mexico’s multibillion-dollar avocado industry

On Monday, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced his country would recognize the independence of two breakaway regions in eastern Ukraine and send Russian troops there for “peacekeeping” purposes. The move immediately drew worldwide condemnation — but signaled the culmination of a decades-long desire by Putin to bring Ukraine closer to Russia’s control.Today, we talk to our reporter on the ground about this past, what’s happening now — and what’s next.More reading:Russian troops move into eastern Ukraine, EU says, as fear of war growsArtillery fusillades from Russian-backed separatists set Ukraine’s east on edgeWill war come to a town called New York in Ukraine? 

Uber’s under fire over its treatment of transgender drivers after the Los Angeles Times published a story about the alleged mistreatment.Today, we’ll hear from the L.A. Times reporter who broke the story. And we’ll also hear more from an Uber driver who hopes other trans people won’t ever have to go through what she went through.Host: Gustavo ArellanoGuests: L.A. Times business reporter Suhauna HussainMore reading:Uber blocks transgender drivers from signing up: ‘They didn’t believe me’Uber faces ‘serious questions’ over transgender drivers’ treatment after Times reportUber’s self-driving cars put tech’s ‘move fast, break things’ credo to the test 

Marfa, Texas, is known internationally for its arts scene. But on the south side of the city, there’s this old school. It’s a school where teachers once paddled Latino students for speaking Spanish. Now, some of those same students — grandparents and retirees in their 80s — are working to save the long-shuttered segregated Blackwell School and make it a national historic site to teach the history of segregated schools for Latinos in the United States.This episode has been updated. An earlier version included audio of Jessi Silva describing an integrated school she attended in addition to  the Blackwell School in Marfa, Texas. That school was in California, not Marfa.More reading:Saving the school where kids were paddled for speaking SpanishLorenzo Ramirez, late plaintiff in famed school desegregation case, honored by OrangeMendez vs. segregation: 70 years later, famed case ‘isn’t just about Mexicans. It’s about everybody coming together’

A new podcast series from KPCC and LAist Studios called "Imperfect Paradise: Home Is Life" zeroes in on the battles over homelessness in suburban communities. Today, we air Episode 2 of this three-part series, which focuses on an effort in 2018 to build housing for unhoused people in the Orange County city of Fullerton.More reading:Listen to “Imperfect Paradise”Fullerton will start enforcing parking regulations on street where homeless live in RVs‘No place to go’: Fullerton ordinance, on hold for now, could force out homeless living in RVs 

For decades, California voters and politicians have vacillated over the future of the death penalty. Currently, Gov. Gavin Newsom has put a moratorium on them and has ordered that death row at San Quentin State Prison — the largest in the United States — be emptied. Is this the end of the line for capital punishment in the Golden State — for real?More reading:California moves forward on plans to shut down death rowCalifornia is closing San Quentin’s death row. This is its gruesome historyEditorial: Dismantle death row, but don’t stop there

The U.S. labor movement has experienced a resurgence in recent years in sectors that historically have hired younger people. And one of the biggest battlegrounds is where you get your lattes. Today, we’re taking you to a Starbucks in Santa Cruz, where workers are demanding more from their corporate employer.This episode has been updated to clarify when the Starbucks store in Buffalo, N.Y. filed its union petition, who resigned at the Starbucks in Santa Cruz, Calif. and to include a response from a Starbucks spokesperson about the conditions at the Santa Cruz outlet mentioned. More reading:Starbucks workers at Santa Cruz store file union petition, joining a national pushDid baristas lose their jobs because of COVID-19 or because they tried to unionize?Starbucks workers vote to unionize at a store in Buffalo, N.Y.