Inside a nasty UCLA drama

Good morning, it’s Thursday, September 24 and you can expect another sunshine-y day (mid 80s).

Last month, I broke an odd story. 

UCLA Vice Chancellor Mary Osako — the top official in charge of safeguarding the school’s  reputation — was waging a legal battle against her employer to keep it from releasing a report she said would cause her “irreparable reputational harm.”

The report in question had been prepared by an outside law firm hired by UCLA that specializes in workplace investigations. But the initial legal filings were heavily redacted, so it was unclear what, exactly, Osako might be trying to keep out of public view. My story in late August had more questions than answers.

That changed in recent weeks, as a slew of new legal filings — which included the whistleblower complaints that spurred UCLA to order its outside report— were added to the court docket. 

All unhappy workplaces, to paraphrase Leo Tolstoy, are unhappy in their own way. And as a longtime reporter, I’ve seen my fair share of court documents detailing allegations about various workplace disputes. But these ones are a doozy. 

UCLA’s strategic communications department — a group of more than 100 employees who handle marketing, media relations and communications — is responsible for maintaining the ever-ascendant university’s polished image. But behind the scenes, the department has been riven by bitter internal conflict. 

Read on for a look at why one employee wrote that several of his coworkers “are now abusing substances or on the verge of emotional collapse.” (Osako’s lawyer dismissed the accusations detailed in the whistleblower complaints as “categorically false assertions from a handful of disgruntled individuals” amid a much larger department.)

Twenty-five years ago, a scrappy little movie about street racers living in Angelino Heights turned L.A.'s underground car scene into a global franchise that has since traveled to Tokyo, Brazil and outer space. Now Fast & Furious is back home as a roller coaster at Universal Studios Hollywood, and the cars, crowds and risks it glamorized are still very much part of the city. In the latest episode of our podcast L.A. World, my colleagues look at the state of thrill-seeking culture in Southern California, from street takeovers to roller coasters including Six Flags Magic Mountain's X2, which has been closed since July after two riders reportedly experienced severe brain injuries after riding it. (The coaster also became the subject of new lawsuits this week, news of which broke after taping.) 

BRUTAL POLL FOR BASS: After trailing Mayor Karen Bass in most polling, Councilmember Nithya Raman took a whopping 11-point lead in the L.A. Times/Berkeley IGS survey released Wednesday — although a third of voters remain undecided. It’s rough news for the mayor, who quickly went on the defensive with social media graphics calling the poll an “outlier” and touting her own polling numbers that show a much closer race, with Bass slightly ahead.

IN OTHER MAYORAL NEWS: In case you missed it, my colleague Matt Hamilton dropped a fascinating story yesterday about Bass’ longtime long-distance boyfriend — a relationship that has long been an open secret around City Hall. 

THE BELL GARDENS CASINO WITH GREAT SUSHI: SFGate has the dish on the former chef of Michelin-starred Sushi Zo who’s now offering “what might be one of the most exciting new omakase experiences” in a restaurant on a casino floor in southeastern L.A. County.

TURTLE SCOOP: LAist briefs us on yet another impact of the super El Nino: unusual marine life ending up on Southern California shores. Changes in water temperature have already brought whale sharks to Malibu and an olive ridley sea turtle to Seal Beach, where it laid a clutch of eggs. (The eggs are now protected by a fenced-off enclosure.)

THE BIG SICK: A small outbreak of typhus, the disease that killed 17,000 soldiers during the Spanish army’s siege of Granada in the late 1400s, has been reported in the Wilshire Center area — the same neighborhood that was hit with a boil water notice in July after E. coli was detected in samples from the tap.

A POSTCARD FROM BOSTON: In distinctly non-L.A. news, a Boston Globe story about a Western Massachusetts lesbian bar’s decision to loosen its stringent mask mandate — and the wild conflict that ensued — has been blowing up the internet. The story has also been a massive success for the paper, and appears to be “on pace to shatter all sorts of Globe records,” according to media reporter Maxwell Tani.

For today’s peek inside our member-only forum, a clutch of celebrity sightings in the last week from the #celebritysightings channel, including a proud showing from L.A. Material staff.

“Hugh Jackman was a surprise guest at Sutton Foster’s show at the Soraya on Saturday. Not the most surprising thing in the world in retrospect but that A list oomph was powerful in real time!” -@Alex F

“Singer from Greenday on Sunset walking by headgum studio” -@Antonia

“Karina longworth and rian Johnson at Gelson’s bar” -@Hayes Davenport

“I was pretty sure I’d spotted Jeanie Buss pushing her dog in a stroller at Runway in Playa Vista this morning. Then I saw this waiting on the counter at Starbucks, which I would call verification.” -@Tim Hammill

AND FINALLY… A poem to pair with your morning coffee: “Morning Exercises” by Nina Cassian, translated from the Romanian by Andrea Deletant and Brenda Walker.