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R EPOWERING THE WE ST Voters

want
De León
gone,
poll says
Majority of those in
his council district say
he should resign or
would support a recall.
By Rachel Uranga
and Melissa Gomez

Voters in Councilman
Kevin de León’s district have
little confidence in him, and
as a scandal involving racist
comments continues to dog
him, a majority want him to
resign, a new Los Angeles
Times poll shows.
The poll paints a grim
picture for De León, the
former state legislator and
rising Democratic star who
has adamantly refused to
SOLAR FARMS surround an alfalfa field in the Imperial Valley. Agriculture is the only way of life many growers have known. step down despite a chorus
of calls to do so by everyone
from protesters at City

THE SWITCH TO SOLAR

Council meetings to Presi-
dent Biden.
After a nearly two-month
absence from the council, De
León returned last month
hoping to repair his reputa-
tion and promising to fight
STORY BY SAMMY ROTH | PHOTOGRAPHS BY ROBERT GAUTHIER for constituents in his Lat-
ino, working-class district.
But voters are unsympa-
thetic. By a wide margin,

T
they said De León puts his
he barren dirt is littered with petri-
fied carrots, blackened and barely rec- Land that says.
By year’s end, a field of solar panels should cover
political self-interest ahead
of the people he represents.
ognizable after four years baking in the
yielded
this land, sending clean electricity to San Diego. A gi- Even reliable supporters
Imperial Valley’s legendary heat. The ant battery will help the coastal city keep the lights on who voted for him in the past
August sun is starting to set, but it’s still after dark. None of the infrastructure will destroy have lost faith, the poll
113 degrees in California’s hottest, driest crops can pristine wildlife habitat. found.
county. And the Colorado River water that once irrigated Only 23% of voters sur-
Ralph Strahm tried his best to make money off
this ground. In addition to carrots, the soft-spoken
now capture these 400 acres? It will remain in Lake Mead, or be
sent to nearby farms or other parts of the Southwest,
veyed approve of the job De
León is doing, compared
66-year-old grew alfalfa and Sudan grass, using Col-
orado River water that originated as Rocky Moun-
energy. But helping the region cope with a dangerous drying
trend.
with 48% who disapprove,
the poll found. Just over half
tain snowpack hundreds of miles away.
But the sandy, gravelly soil refused to cooperate. farmers If that sounds like an outcome to which nobody
could object — well, welcome to the Imperial Valley.
think he should resign, a
quarter want him to stay in
The economics were no good.
So the third-generation Imperial Valley farmer smell a Wedged in California’s southeastern corner, it’s
one of the most important places you’ve probably ne-
office, and 18% were unde-
cided; 9% did not answer the
decided to sell — to a solar energy developer. ver been. question.
“You have to be willing to accept the future,” he water grab. To one side of Strahm’s [See Repowering, A10] If a recall were to qualify
for the ballot — petitions are
currently circulating — 58%
would support removing
ABOUT THIS SERIES: Clean energy projects are badly needed to fight climate change — but they can fuel intense opposition in the him from office, compared
communities where they’re built. We’re spotlighting examples of that tension across the West, with an eye toward finding solutions. with 25% who would be op-
This article is the second in the Repowering the West series. To read more from the series, scan the code with your phone. posed and 17% undecided,
the survey found.
The poll of 400 registered
voters in Council District 14
was conducted Jan. 10-16. It
has a margin of error of 4.9
percentage points.

Beware of cars with

De León’s political col-
lapse began in the fall, when
a recording surfaced of him

that flooded smell

Many water-damaged
vehicles wind up for
sale again, and some
will be risky buys.
By Daniel Miller
It’s the smell that’ll give it
away.
“You had better get your
face close to carpet,” urged
Ivan Drury of Edmunds, the
automotive information
Genaro Molina Los Angeles Times service.
A CANDLE IS left on Harvest Avenue in the Tulare County town of Goshen, Now take a whiff.
where six were killed Monday. The victims included a young mother and her baby. “That gross, musty
smell,” said Drury, “that’s a
ils of shopping for a used car
in California.
That’s because hun-
dreds, if not thousands, of
vehicles were inundated
during the series of
rainstorms that ripped
through much of the state in
January. They generated the
sort of flooding that can
wreak havoc on automobiles
— think: rusty floorboards,
water-logged electronics
and inoperable engines.
In the days and weeks
ahead, a complex ecosystem
of insurance companies,
auction houses, car dealers
and others will process these
soggy automotive casu-
and two other Latino council
members in a private meet-
ing using racist insults as
they plotted to reshape dis-
trict maps.
The recording upended
City Hall and sparked bois-
terous protests that led to
the resignation of City Coun-
cil president Nury Martinez
and Los Angeles Labor Fed-
[See De León, A20]
More classified
records found
An FBI search of
Biden’s Wilmington,
Del., home uncovers
six more documents.
NATION, A6
A Trojan until
the very end

‘I am afraid to live here’

Slayings of six in Goshen highlight the drug trade’s
ferocity as criminals seek territory in isolated towns
By Ruben Vives,
Rachel Uranga,
Robert J. Lopez
and Jessica Garrison
GOSHEN, Calif. — Two
days after six people, includ-
ing a baby, were executed
here, neighbors watched
warily as detectives from the
Tulare County Sheriff ’s Of-
fice pored over the crime
scene looking for evidence.
It was a busy morning in
the neighborhood. A few
houses away, agents wearing
jackets that said “POLICE”
rapped on the front door.
When a Times reporter ap-
proached asking for infor-
mation, a man wearing a
badge that appeared to be
from the U.S. Drug Enforce-
ment Administration identi-
fied himself as a federal
agent and said he was in the
area on a separate case.
The man offered no fur-
ther details, but the ex-
change illustrates a hard
fact of life for many residents
in these farm towns: Rural
parts of the San Joaquin Val-
ley have become some of the
most violent places in Cali-
fornia, with a bustling drug
trade and among the high-
est rates of murder and low-
est rates of solving murders.
According to a report last
year from California Atty.
Gen. Rob Bonta, Kern
County had the highest ho-
[See Goshen, A8]
big red flag.”
It means the vehicle
probably has been in a flood.
Soon, these may be the per-
A CAR is mostly submerged by floodwaters coursing
through a neighborhood in Merced, Calif., on Jan. 10.
alties. Many will eventually
Learning of Charles
wind up for sale again. And
White’s dementia,
at least some of those rides
USC tried to recon-
[See Vehicles, A14]
nect, Bill Plaschke
writes. SPORTS, D1
Lunar New Year
in Los Angeles
Usher in the Year of
the Rabbit with local
food, a festival, a
parade and other
events. WEEKEND, L6
Weather
Partly sunny.
L.A. Basin: 60/40. B10
Printed with soy inks on
partially recycled paper.
Noah Berger Associated Press
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