iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Zac Estrada @zacestrada.com · 04/10/2026

A smaller point that the story doesn't bring up but isn't that also verging on encouraging couples to commit voter fraud? www.latimes.com/california/s...

She leads the hesitant woman’s hand to mark her ballot for Hilton rather than Democrat Xavier Becerra, the front-runner in the race, and says, “Now lick it,” referring to the mail ballot envelope.

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Zac Estrada @zacestrada.com · 22/09/2026

The end pretty much sums everything up about not just housing policies in L.A and California, but the mentality about building here. Pretty much convinced that the state isn't a multifamily one and something more than better transit will have to change that www.latimes.com/california/s...

He has another project with plans for 56 units. He could get the permits in six months, but the numbers just don’t work. In the last few years, the property’s appraised value has gone from $6 million to $3 million.

It currently serves as a parking lot.

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Zac Estrada @zacestrada.com · 15/09/2026

Barring any massive price hike, this looks like a win for Volvo and its PHEV lineup, already a long-standing hit. Yeah, it could charge more quickly but that doesn't seem to affect loyalty and as others cheapen interiors, these old Volvos are still nice inside www.volvocars.com/us/media/pre...

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Zac Estrada @zacestrada.com · 15/09/2026

Seriously. Yellow. Saab.

Saab still from Remarkably Bright Creatures

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Zac Estrada @zacestrada.com · 12/09/2026

Not in New York. And diesel is $7.99/gallon at that station if anyone’s curious

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Zac Estrada @zacestrada.com · 03/09/2026

Is he aware that the Model T wasn't exactly a hit out of the box and Ford's repeated price cuts also boosted sales? www.wsj.com/business/aut...

Ford says it has learned many lessons since then. Chief Executive Jim Farley has said those vehicles had more parts and costs than are necessary for EVs. The Fathom is designed with fewer components and will be assembled through a manufacturing process that has been overhauled to keep costs in check. He has called the truck Ford’s new “Model T moment.”

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Zac Estrada @zacestrada.com · 02/09/2026

Dads love surprises, right? variety.com/2026/film/fe...

“She did say to me, ‘Dad’s very happy that you’re playing him,'” Pearce said. “But he hadn’t seen the film at that point, so we’ll see.”

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Zac Estrada @zacestrada.com · 02/09/2026

What we could have (maybe, probably not) had: a Polestar 4 WAGON with a rear window media.polestar.com/releases/979

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Zac Estrada @zacestrada.com · 31/08/2026

Even though Scripps is a very different company from 10 or 15 years ago, not sure the "thinking" (for lack of a better word) has changed much www.status.news/p/scripps-lo...

As hundreds of staffers across Scripps were handed pink slips, Symson reaffirmed his “demand” that Scripps become a “technology-forward company,” telling staffers that the future involves increasingly relying on A.I. and automation. “At a time when many communities are losing local coverage, the depth we are bringing is our competitive advantage,” he wrote in the same memo announcing layoffs. “New A.I. systems and other technology designed and developed by Scripps employees is making this possible.”

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Zac Estrada @zacestrada.com · 30/08/2026

How friggin' convenient laist.com/news/transpo...

The proposal, which would amend a larger bill if approved, targets projects that would reduce lanes on roads that provide access to “two or more adjacent cemeteries” in cities with populations over 2 million. Los Angeles is the only city in California large enough to meet that requirement.

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Zac Estrada @zacestrada.com · 30/08/2026

Remember that putting “taxi” behind something doesn’t mean it’s automatically a thing (see: well, air taxis) www.torched.la/bus-money/

(Remember to always, always ask how the air taxi got there.) This was all very confusing to Rep. Ted Lieu, who, at that aforementioned congressional briefing, asked how much the air taxis cost and where the dropoff areas would be.

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Zac Estrada @zacestrada.com · 17/08/2026

Also true. And why the city controller maybe shouldn't (officially) endorse

Controller Kenneth Mejia, who endorsed Raman in the race, also took note of the poll last week — but in a post on X noted that polls had shown him losing, only to be proven wrong when he won his election by a wide margin.

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Zac Estrada @zacestrada.com · 17/08/2026

I have serious fatigue for Rick Caruso being interviewed for anything Palisades or LAFD or LA city or whatever. Even when he's asked a question CNN wouldn't ask he gives the most politician answer www.vanityfair.com/story/rick-c... And does anyone outside of Southern California care about this guy?

Their answer is more aggressive enforcement, which raises an obvious question about who bears the brunt of such policies. I ask how he reconciles that with the reality that affluent teenagers can experiment with illegal drugs without encountering anything like the consequences faced by kids in poorer neighborhoods. “I understand all that,” he said, pivoting to talking about the unpopular decisions he had to make as president of the police commissioners board.

“Did you use cocaine in the ’80s?”

“No,” Caruso says. “I never did.”

Marijuana?

“Once. Didn’t like it,” he says.

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Zac Estrada @zacestrada.com · 04/08/2026

Can't decide whether he's watched too much of or not enough of Tony Dokoupil's CBS Evening News www.nytimes.com/2026/08/04/o...

Great news organizations like CNN and CBS News are here to tell it straight down the middle. That requires newsrooms that reflect the whole world, not one side of it. And it requires independence. Our journalists will continue to answer to the facts and to all the people they serve — not to any party or cause. These were founding principles for both CNN and CBS News, for legends like Ted Turner and Edward R. Murrow, and it is exactly that kind of independence that has always fueled the greatness of “60 Minutes.”

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Zac Estrada @zacestrada.com · 29/07/2026

A very large rectangular thing. The Audi, too media.audiusa.com/releases/686

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Zac Estrada @zacestrada.com · 28/07/2026

You know something's wrong if even France can't build interesting cars

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Zac Estrada @zacestrada.com · 27/07/2026

On the topic of aging infrastructure that doesn't involve L.A. and water

Today the region wants to modernize the oldest subway system in North America, the Green Line on the Boston T. Some sections date to 1897, and the track signals to 1915. Twenty-five stations aren’t fully accessible. The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority has begun to order a new generation of trains for the line, but much of the system needs updating to support them.

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Zac Estrada @zacestrada.com · 27/07/2026

It's not TV, it's the DNC www.nytimes.com/2026/07/26/u...

Mr. Martin’s fraying nerves are showing. In a pique of frustration in early July, he threw his phone at the desk of a junior aide while upbraiding the person. The phone-tossing incident resulted in a formal complaint to the D.N.C.’s human resources department.

The fallout from the phone-throwing episode was described by half a dozen people familiar with the incident, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss internal party matters. None of them witnessed the encounter, and there was some dispute over how aggressively the phone was tossed. Mr. Martin was said to have thrown the phone at the desk, rather than at the aide.

Mr. Martin later met with D.N.C. human resources officials about his behavior, according to three of the people.

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Zac Estrada @zacestrada.com · 23/07/2026

"...the new Honda Ridgeline will feature an even more rugged design." Don't they say that every time they change this thing? hondanews.com/en-US/honda-...

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Zac Estrada @zacestrada.com · 11/07/2026

True true true true true

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Zac Estrada @zacestrada.com · 08/07/2026

The series gets better as the parking gets even worse www.sitelinesb.com/parking-sant...

Photo: Bad parking in Santa Barbara with oversized pickup truck and oversized van. By Siteline SB

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Zac Estrada @zacestrada.com · 25/06/2026

And here’s the optional radio/speakers package

Accessory Slate Truck radio and speakers

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Zac Estrada @zacestrada.com · 24/06/2026

You can have the Slate Truck in any color you want as long as it’s a color gizmodo.com/slate-auto-w...

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Zac Estrada @zacestrada.com · 24/06/2026

Good lord, I put a Dragnet reference in this? gizmodo.com/slate-auto-w...

The larger question is how many buyers are willing to give up modern comforts for a DIY-minded vehicle with hand-crank windows and a Joe Friday, “Just the facts, ma’am” philosophy.

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Zac Estrada @zacestrada.com · 24/06/2026

Textbook case of a story that's actually informative, like, I bet most of you don't know what an emergency declaration actually does. But because the fire's already politicized, that's at the top and the important information goes so low you won't get there www.latimes.com/california/s...

About 30 minutes after the fire began, Moore was on the scene. Ten minutes after he arrived, he was on the phone with Bass, he said.

Over the next day, while Bass was in Chicago, Moore estimated that they spoke six times over the phone.

Moore said her absence was a non-issue.

“Until Mayor Bass goes through our 20-week drill tower, and she learns to fight a fire and she can stand next to me on a hose line, I don’t need her in this city,” Moore told The Times on Tuesday.

“She’s our mayor. She was doing exactly what she needed to do,” he added. “She answered the phone. She provided me exactly what I needed, and that was, ‘Whatever you need to do, you do it.’”

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Zac Estrada @zacestrada.com · 20/06/2026

We agree can agree that sports fans are going to sports fan (especially in LA) and people will ignore air quality alerts to live their lives (especially in LA), and people everywhere make weird choices. But that's why we also have a police chief and fire chief., too www.torched.la/neighborhood...

While toddlers were roaming the closed streets in Boyle Heights, Koreatown — the densest neighborhood in the city — was overwhelmed with fans. Someone fired a gun into the air and injured another person (they were hospitalized but okay), but that wasn't the most immediate safety concern for many people. The city's viewing party, held in Seoul International Park, was described to me as Astroworld-level dangerous. Bars shut their doors, sidewalks spilled over, buses got stuck; we're talking a post-World Series Echo Park experience exported to Koreatown for the night. (But with much, much better transit access.) I know so little about soccer that I had to look up how long the matches are, but even I could have told you this would be one of the city's most popular events. And yet! Our leaders once again neglected to create

On Wednesday, I was enjoying a well-attended but uncrowded Kick It in the Park on the beach in Venice when a Watch Duty notification for a structure fire flashed across my phone. A thick cloud emitting from a Boyle Heights cold storage warehouse was accompanied by a shelter-in-place order for the immediate neighborhood. As the government of Turkey prepped its hospitality house in Grand Park — free yogurt until June 26 and I hear the baklava is amazing — the black wall of what officials had described as "toxic, heavy smoke" reached City Hall.

The mayor had just flown to Chicago to attend the opening of Barack Obama's presidential library. You can't really make these things up.

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Zac Estrada @zacestrada.com · 10/06/2026

And what line is he on?

California has a history of unsuccessful self-funders. Former Northwest Airlines co-chairman Al Checchi spent more than $40 million of his money on an unsuccessful gubernatorial primary campaign in 1998, which broke records at the time.

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Zac Estrada @zacestrada.com · 09/06/2026

Also, happy 50th Honda Accord, in front of a building I spent four years in (no, it's not that kind of prison) hondanews.com/en-US/honda-...

1986 Honda Accord LX Sedan in front of Santa Barbara High School

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Zac Estrada @zacestrada.com · 09/06/2026

It’s over but you know we’re still going to hear from Spencer Pratt over the next 115 days www.latimes.com/california/s...

On Monday, the Associated Press called the race, concluding that Raman would have enough votes to make a Nov. 3 runoff against Mayor Karen Bass, the first-place finisher who secured her spot in the showdown last week.

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Zac Estrada @zacestrada.com · 08/06/2026

Probably the last guy I expected to read about today doing the last thing I thought he'd do. Well, maybe not the last thing www.politico.com/news/2026/06...

Papermaster argued to Schock that cartels and gangsters control the gold mines. “Lord knows, you’re not going to fucking mine the gold.”

Nevertheless, Schock instructed Papermaster to begin making preparations for what he would do once it became his. At Schock’s request, Papermaster suggested the name of a metallurgist who could refine the gold he acquired, according to a screenshot of a Feb. 18 text exchange reviewed by POLITICO.

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Zac Estrada @zacestrada.com · 08/06/2026

Technically this beat them both 50-ish years ago

British Leyland Princess (not a hatchback)

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Zac Estrada @zacestrada.com · 08/06/2026

Sharpest use of that emoji ever? lamaterial.com/p/raman-pass...

A City Hall reporter soon took to X, posting that a “credible source” had told him that Raman, who had previously endorsed Bass, planned to enter the mayor’s race in the morning.

Bass opened the tweet and scrolled to Raman’s name in her contacts. She texted the post to Raman with no comment, just a single emoji of a woman with a quizzical expression on her face and her arms raised in a shrug.

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Zac Estrada @zacestrada.com · 28/05/2026

Plenty of people call Rae Huang the Nader or Stein of the mayoral election and that's unfair, like here Until you think the decision right now is between a runoff between two serious people or a reality show disguised as a runoff and if Huang AND Miller get that lamaterial.com/p/nithya-ram...

Huang said she may have taken the request by Raman’s campaign to drop out differently if it had not come roughly two weeks before Election Day, or if Raman herself had reached out to her before getting into the race.

Huang’s campaign spokesperson, Emel Shaikh, was similarly blunt: “Part of the tactic around, ‘A vote for Rae is throwing your vote away,’ or calling on us to drop out and back Nithya,” Shaikh said, was that it spoke down to voters and didn’t respect their intelligence.

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Zac Estrada @zacestrada.com · 26/05/2026

I don't instantly dislike this www.media.stellantis.com/em-en/lancia...

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Zac Estrada @zacestrada.com · 26/05/2026

I can tell you what the marketing campaign from the New York fish association or whatever won't include abc7ny.com/post/eating-...

The Hudson for years has been compared to an open-air sewer, is one of the largest Superfund sites in the country, and is contaminated not only by runoff and sewage from New York City but also more than 1 million pounds of a forever chemical released for decades from two General Electric plants 200 miles upstream.

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Zac Estrada @zacestrada.com · 26/05/2026

Slept on it and increasingly think this is Ferrari's EQS moment. Everyone's shocked now and it still doesn't look... sorted or like a Ferrari. At least Ferrari has more room for mistakes (Still looks like the car Apple would've made but that might not be bad, either)

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Zac Estrada @zacestrada.com · 12/05/2026

It's obvious now that Becerra doesn't do that well on camera but that's hardly what I'd call an awkward start to a sit-down interview. Awkward for who, the reporter? Worse that it's included in the Q&A. KTLA's being petty to make that the homepage headline ktla.com/news/califor...

Awkward start marks Becerra interview with KTLA

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Zac Estrada @zacestrada.com · 12/05/2026

It's a column about Steyer and why he's not running away with an election he's spent more than $125 million on so far (and there are very good reasons why it's not a done deal), but this line is why Villaraigosa never took off in any part of the state www.latimes.com/california/s...

The only ones she had heard of were Antonio Villaraigosa (“I liked him as mayor, but he needed to keep his pants on,” referring to his extramarital affairs

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Zac Estrada @zacestrada.com · 11/05/2026

This post is one gigantic gross factual error I don't even want to link to it

Geely Just Entered Canada Without Using Its Own Name
The Geely Group, through Lotus, has successfully entered the Canadian market.

While Lotus, under the Geely Group, is the most recent entrant, other Chinese automakers are set to enter Canada in the near future. That includes the likes of BYD and Chery. Both brands also have their own sub-brands that cater to different price points and customer profiles. In fact, in the same report, BYD and Chery units have already been spotted in Canadian parking lots.

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Zac Estrada @zacestrada.com · 09/05/2026

Trump with less subtlety. He’s making the runoff

Just saw Spencer Pratt walking around the opening of the new @metrolosangeles D-Line station at Wilshire & La Brea

Woman: “Why should you be mayor despite having no experience?”

Pratt: “HEY EVERYBODY, SHE LIKES HOMELESS DRUG ADDICTS NEAR SCHOOLS!”

🫩

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Zac Estrada @zacestrada.com · 09/05/2026

David Attenborough, Enrique Iglesias and I now share a birthday with Metro D Line Extension Section 1. Honored, really

LA Metro D Line Wilshire/Fairfax station sign

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Zac Estrada @zacestrada.com · 08/05/2026

Different way of getting to the westside in the middle of a weekday. Same expression.

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Zac Estrada @zacestrada.com · 08/05/2026

On a train full of recent Master’s of Urban Planning graduates

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Zac Estrada @zacestrada.com · 08/05/2026

Still carrying this one around and feel like I’ve left my Christmas decorations up for an unacceptable length of time

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Zac Estrada @zacestrada.com · 07/05/2026

And in LA, a train stops next to an automotive museum. I don't have a lot of dreams but that's one of them www.latimes.com/california/s...

The new Wilshire/Fairfax Metro D Line station is right next to the Petersen Automotive Museum. (Carlin Stiehl / For The Times)

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Zac Estrada @zacestrada.com · 07/05/2026

Cost aside, here's pretty much the reason it took an extra 40 years to put a subway under one of the worst stretches of road in LA, and that's saying something. Looking forward to being on Wilshire in the middle of a Friday is something no one has ever said www.latimes.com/california/s...

In the early 1980s, officials made headway on a plan to build a subway under Wilshire. But the Western Avenue part of the project was scuppered in 1985, when an underground methane gas explosion at a Ross Dress for Less store in Fairfax raised concerns about tunnel safety. Longtime critics of subways used the explosion to stoke community fears that tunneling would lead to exploding homes.

The methane disaster led Rep. Henry Waxman, whose district included Fairfax, to push for a federal law prohibiting all federal funding for the project.

Waxman ultimately struck a compromise with Rep. Julian Dixon that allowed the project to proceed but prohibited tunneling in the Fairfax area for 20 years. That meant the subway would go just five miles west from downtown to Koreatown, stopping at Western Avenue. Eventually, a new stretch of subway took the line north, up Vermont, to North Hollywood.

Dixon, who represented parts of west and south central L.A., also pushed for the subway to go under Pico Boulevard instead of Wilshire. But Yaroslavsky, an L.A. County supervisor, blocked that by introducing a 1998 ballot measure to restrict local funding for Metro subway extensions.

In 2006, Waxman introduced legislation to repeal his subway tunnel ban after a panel of geological experts agreed that tunneling along Wilshire could be done safely. The next year, Congress repealed the amendment. In 2008, the county put Measure R, a half-cent sales tax to fund transportation projects including the subway extension to Westwood, on the ballot.

More than 20 years after the Ross explosion, plans for a subway along Wilshire resumed.

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Zac Estrada @zacestrada.com · 04/05/2026

The most frustrating paragraphs in the story have little to nothing to do with Kamala Harris

Many properties in the Point Dume area are extravagant, but some are modest — even quirky (see: bulldog statues). And the area used to be a lot funkier, said longtime resident Jeff Stockwell, a screenwriter whose credits include the films “A Wrinkle in Time” and “Bridge to Terabithia.”

Stockwell has lived in the neighborhood since 1999 — he counts his home as a funky one — and has seen celebrities come and go. “In the 27 years since I’ve been here,” he said, “it’s been a steady shifting of ranch houses … redeveloped into much bigger things.”

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Zac Estrada @zacestrada.com · 17/04/2026

Reminds me of this 2004 Citroen and in this case that’s not a compliment

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Zac Estrada @zacestrada.com · 15/04/2026

The reasonable possibility California might have two Republicans on the ballot for governor in November because the Dems can't gather around maybe two candidates. Is the NY Times' Sacramento different than other publications' Sacramento? www.nytimes.com/2026/04/14/u...

One of the sleepiest governor’s races in recent California history has turned into a mad scramble after the sudden departure of Eric Swalwell amid sexual assault allegations.

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