SERIES

Are You Afraid of the Dark? The 1990s anthology series featuring scary stories for kids is back for a three-episode reboot. 7 p.m. Nickelodeon

Charmed The magical trio (Melonie Diaz, Sarah Jeffery, Madeleine Mantock) are back in action as this reboot of the supernatural drama returns for a second season. 8 p.m. The CW

American Housewife Series star Diedrich Bader has a reunion with Drew Carey and other costars from “The Drew Carey Show” as ABC’s “Cast From the Past” week continues. 8 p.m. ABC

Fresh Off the Boat Ken Jeong, who appeared with Constance Wu in the hit 2018 romantic comedy “Crazy Rich Asians,” guest stars in this new episode. 8:30 p.m. ABC

Dynasty A grim discovery on the family’s estate casts a dark cloud over the upcoming Carrington Foundation fundraiser in the soapy drama’s third-season premiere. With Grant Show and Elizabeth Gillies. 9 p.m. CW

Great Performances In a new “Now Hear This,” host Scott Yoo explores how George Frideric Handel’s time in Italy influenced the 18th century British-German composer’s music. 9 p.m. KOCE

Gabby Duran & the Unsittables This new family sitcom stars Kylie Cantrall (“Raven’s Home”) as a 13-year-old who gets hired to babysit an unruly band of extraterrestrial kids hiding out on Earth. 9 p.m. Disney Channel

Gold Rush There’s trouble brewing as this unscripted series opens a 10th season with the two-hour episode “Crisis in the Klondike.” 9 p.m. Discovery Channel

Murder in the Bayou This five-part true-crime series about a shocking spate of murders in a small Louisiana town ends its run. 9 p.m. Showtime

Ghost Nation Jason Hawes, Steve Gonsalves and Dave Tango of “Ghost Hunters” fame return in this new paranormal investigation series. Followed by the debut of the similarly-themed six-part series “Hometown Horror.” 10 and 11 p.m. Travel Channel

SPECIALS

Taken at Birth The three-night documentary series, about a small-town doctor in Georgia who gave away or sold an untold number of infants in the 1950s-60s, concludes. 9 p.m. TLC

The Hispanic Heritage Awards Mexican film star Eugenio Derbez, singer Alejandro Fernández and boxer Canelo Álvarez are feted at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., in this year’s edition of the annual ceremony. 10 p.m. KOCE

MOVIES

Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster Turner Classic Movies’ month-long Friday-night series of Japanese kaiju flicks continues and includes this 1965 tale that also features Godzilla, Mothra and Rodan. 5 p.m. TCM

Holiday Katharine Hepburn and Cary Grant costar in director George Cukor’s 1938 remake of the 1930 romantic comedy of the same name. 8 p.m. KCET

TALK SHOWS

CBS This Morning (N) 7 a.m. KCBS

Today International Day of the Girl; Alessia Cara performs. (N) 7 a.m. KNBC

KTLA Morning News (N) 7 a.m. KTLA

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Good Morning America Julie Andrews; Ed Norton and Gugu Mbatha-Raw; Blanco Brown. (N) 7 a.m. KABC

Good Day L.A. Elizabeth Wagmeister, Variety; Matt Maeson performs. (N) 7 a.m. KTTV

Live With Kelly and Ryan Anne Hathaway; Alfre Woodard; Liza Koshy. (N) 9 a.m. KABC

The View Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.). (N) 10 a.m. KABC

Rachael Ray Sara Haines and Keke Palmer (“GMA3”); Elvis Duran. (N) 10 a.m. KTTV

The Wendy Williams Show The judges from “Hot Bench”; Eddie Jackson (“Game Day Eats”). (N) 11 a.m. KTTV

The Talk Adam Lambert performs. (N) 1 p.m. KCBS

The Dr. Oz Show Beyoncé’s father; Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang. (N) 1 p.m. KTTV

The Kelly Clarkson Show Erin Andrews (“Dancing With the Stars”); soccer star Brandi Chastain; Simone Boyce, NBC. (N) 2 p.m. KNBC

Dr. Phil An attorney, a detective and a criminologist discuss the Stacey Stites murder. (Part 2 of 2) (N) 3 p.m. KCBS

The Ellen DeGeneres Show Nick Cannon and Nicole Scherzinger (“The Masked Singer”); Joshua Radin performs. (N) 3 p.m. KNBC

The Real Alfonso Ribeiro; Tisha Campbell. (N) 3 p.m. KTTV

The Doctors Surgery costing more than $650,000; obsession with vapor rub; banana tea; flossing teeth. (N) 3 p.m. KCOP

Washington Week Sudden withdrawal of U.S. forces from part of Syria; impeachment; 2020 election: Margaret Brennan, CBS; Carl Hulse, the New York Times; Toluse Olorunnipa, the Washington Post; Abby Phillip, CNN. (N) 7 p.m. KOCE

Real Time With Bill Maher Presidential candidate Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.); Ben Domenech; John Heilemann; Shawna Thomas. (N) 10 and 11:30 p.m. HBO

The Issue Is: Elex Michaelson Democratic presidential candidate Tom Steyer; radio personality John Kobylt; criminal defense attorney Sara Azari; Brian Tyler Cohen. (N) 10:30 p.m. KTTV

Amanpour and Company (N) 11:35 p.m. KCET; 1 a.m. KLCS

Nightline (N) 12:37 a.m. KABC

A Little Late With Lilly Singh Jim Gaffigan; Antoni Porowski. (N) 1:38 a.m. KNBC

SPORTS

Hockey The Ducks battle the Columbus Blue Jackets. 4 p.m. FS Prime

College football Virginia meets Miami, 5 p.m. ESPN; Colorado plays Oregon, 7 p.m. FS1

Baseball The Washington Nationals visit the St. Louis Cardinals in Game 1 of the NLCS. 5 p.m. TBS

For more sports on TV, see the Sports section.

Customized TV listings are available here: latimes.com/tvtimes

Whether in a dark theater or on the couch at home, smartphones are an existential threat to the movie-watching experience. Their mere presence promises interruptions and temptations for the easily distracted (pretty much of all of us at this point). But “Jexi” is such a dumb, lazy film that it might have even the most ardent cinephile reaching for their device, ready to defend their defection to the dark side when faced with this clunker of a comedy.

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Meanwhile, the movie’s obnoxious hero, Phil (Adam Devine), would have no such qualms; he can’t tear his eyes and thumbs away from his phone, whether he’s walking on the street, showering or just generally avoiding human contact. When he breaks his smartphone, the replacement comes with invasive virtual assistant Jexi (voiced by Rose Byrne), who soon takes over his life. She threatens both his budding romance with bike shop owner Cate (Alexandra Shipp) and his job writing viral lists on the internet. His existence begins to spiral as she has him totally under her control.

Amid sporadic laughs, “Jexi” establishes its themes about the perils of cellphone dependence early. Even if you were buried in your screen, you’d pick up on its less-than-subtle preaching about the perils of this digital addiction.

Beyond that obvious message, “Jexi” shows little thought in the screenplay from co-directors Jon Lucas and Scott Moore, who offer no consistency in the characterization of either Phil or Jexi. These are also the guys who wrote “The Hangover,” and this movie displays some of that film’s cruel streak with none of its crude charm. They’ve also directed the enjoyable “Bad Moms” and its disappointing sequel, but the work here is amateurish, like they’ve never made, or even seen, a film before. Ben Kutchins’ cinematography distracts, filled with jerky zooms that make it feel like it was shot on an iPhone — and not by Steven Soderbergh.

With a protagonist who is overly attached to a female-voiced AI, “Jexi” invites easy comparisons to the far superior “Her.” But Lucas and Moore’s film is filled with bugs, making it easy to unplug from its attempts to entertain and do literally anything else.

Falling in love with fall in California is easier than you think. Autumn does arrive in the Golden State, and if you don’t believe that, I’m going to hold my breath until the leaves turn color. Fortunately, I don’t have to.

My name is Catharine Hamm, and I’m the travel editor for the Los Angeles Times. When I moved here in the early 1990s, I brought to the Golden State the preconceived notions that autumn pales here by comparison. Thank you to the California Fall Color website and the reporting and photography from our staff for opening my eyes.

That is, after all, the point of travel: to see things with a different clarity. This week, we’ll open the door to a beautiful Arizona oasis, eight courses in Hawaii where a round of golf won’t break the bank, an Amtrak sale that will save you scads of money, a relaxing Pacific Northwest weekend escape and California wine country bargains, plus the inside scoop on the new ride-hail and taxi pickup spot at LAX and the best time to book holiday airfares. Let’s get going before the leaves fall from the figurative tree.

Peak of perfection

The Eastern Sierra is ablaze with color right now. Mary Forgione and Sara Lessley report on the phenomenon, with their words surrounded by beautiful photos taken by Francine Orr. Revel in the changing of the chlorophyll guard in Bishop and at Mammoth and June lakes.

In the steps of Steinbeck

There’s a different kind of beauty at Aravaipa Canyon in Arizona, as David Kelly shows us. His road trip takes us to and through peaks and dunes of the Southwest and winds up across the border. It’s a gentle trip that lets us meander in the footsteps of John Steinbeck’s “Sea of Cortez.”

The new ride-hail rules at LAX

Starting Oct. 29, you won’t be allowed to walk out of your terminal at LAX and jump into an Uber or Lyft; you’ll have go to a new waiting lot by Terminal 1. The move is designed to help alleviate the seemingly unending traffic jams at the airport.

Travel staff writer Christopher Reynolds shows you how to navigate, literally and figuratively, the new requirements. There’s even a video showing how easy it is if you’re at Terminal 1 — and how far if you’re at Terminal 4.

When should I buy holiday airfare?

Right now. Having spoken with those who analyze the airline industry and its effect on ticket prices, I offer the reassuring reason that airfares won’t continue to spike after the attack on Saudi oil facilities, despite what you might see at the gas pump.

The downside: Airlines have done such a good job making air travel accessible because of fare wars that demand will be up. It’s the law of supply and demand that may push those ticket totals higher than we’ve seen in a while, and as seats get scarcer, the prices generally don’t go down. Even if the December holidays seem distant, it’s probably time to start your research and hit the button, I write in “On the Spot.”

Of Bend, beef and nature’s bounty

If it’s the great outdoors your crave, Bend, Ore., may be the weekend escape that will satisfy your nature fever dreams, Ken Van Vechten writes. It’s why people live in this town of 95,000 southeast of Portland. And don’t forget your appetite, he notes, heaping praise on a “steakery” that promises incomparable beef.

Speaking of bounty

October is usually the month of the grape crush in California, a great time to visit our wineries from southern (Temecula) to central (Buellton) to northern (Sonoma), Terry Gardner writes. She includes the 4-1-1 on room deals and packages that give you extra bang for your buck.

Great trains

Big Boy 4014, the historic steam locomotive that will make trips this weekend to Barstow from Colton and back, will be on display before those trips from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Thursday (today!) and 9 a.m. to noon Friday, both times in Bloomington, our updated story reports.

Meanwhile, Mary Forgione reports on a two-for-one sleeper room sale on Amtrak’s long-haul trains, and that includes the Coast Starlight and the Southwest Chief. The sale ends Oct. 14 and is good from Nov. 11 to April 8, excluding blackout dates.

Setting a course for savings on Hawaii golf

A round of golf in Hawaii can cost as much and in some cases more than a night in a hotel room. But Ken Van Vechten has a guide to eight places in the islands where you can play a round without spending your children’s inheritance. Here’s a guide to links for less.

What we’re reading

Vacation can help you leave behind a kind of pollution that might not register on your conscious radar: noise. Writing for the Atlantic, Bianca Bosker reports about how insidious noise can be and how it affects our health. Her piece speaks briefly about Quiet Parks International and Ecuador’s Zabalo River, the first Wilderness Quiet Park. You’ll learn more about noise problems than you will about travel, but the article may also have you thinking about places that speak to you for reasons you may not have understood before, whether it’s a spa, the ocean or the Great Plains.

Besides quiet, what place makes you happy? Writing for Afar magazine, Katherine LaGrave reveals the happiest state, according to a WalletHub survey. It considers weather, of course, and 30 other measures, including commute. The winner: Hawaii. Well, no kidding, you’re saying, but consider that California was No. 4 — even factoring in commute times. What surprised me were the bottom five. Have a look and see whether you agree.

If you wonder what in the world would turn people into #signspotters, consider this: With development, iconic signs are often lost to the mists of history. California has more than a few people interested-slash-obsessed with the signs of our times, Jody Amable writes for Atlas Obscura. Weird? Definitely unusual, but these accidental historians capture our history — one makes miniature models, others paint — in an interesting and sometimes creepy way. (Circus Liquor in North Hollywood, anyone?)

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What you’re reading

Just one of the many newsletters from the Los Angeles Times, an easy way to catch up or keep up with topic-specific news. You can find the menu of delicious choices at the newsletter membership page.

Newsletters are great, but so is the complete L.A. Times in print or online. Find super deals, and enjoy reading about your town.

And don’t forget to tell us what you think about what you see or don’t see, and like or don’t like, in travel — and anything else that’s on your mind. Drop us a line at [email protected].

End paper

No one would ever accuse California of being subtle, except maybe when it comes to fall. If you’re from big red leaf country, you don’t have to look very far (like out the nearest window) to see the autumnal show.

Most of the time, we don’t have to work hard to find spectacular examples of nature here, which is why I thought our fall was one of Mother Nature’s true fails. It took me years to realize that my disappointment was based on a need for replication.

California is never going to be the Virginia or the upstate New York of my youth, and why should I demand that and consider what I see lesser? Why not appreciate that it’s October, and that I’m sitting in my dining room with the windows open and hearing sweet birdsong that plays like nature’s greatest hits? (I wish this newsletter had an audio component, and I’d play some for you. It’s remarkable living in a big city and being treated to this.)

We give differences a hall pass, even a hug, when we travel. After all, that’s why we go, isn’t it? I’m hoping to extend the same courtesy to my everyday environs so that every day will feel like a vacation. There may be no place like home, but who’s to say there can’t be more than one place you will always call home, even if it’s across the country?

Travel safely and well and remember, we’ll be here to welcome you home, no matter where that happens to be.

Lightning struck Venice Beach in 2014, killing a 20-year-old swimmer and injuring more than a dozen others. Emergency responders sprang into action to get 20,000 people out of the water and off the sand.

When Randy Dean, safety officer for Los Angeles County Department of Beaches and Harbors, considers this freak accident and other beach emergencies, he thinks of his two adult children, both hard of hearing, and everyone else with a hearing disability who might not immediately understand the danger.

“With my job, I just thought about them and said to myself, ‘I wonder if the deaf come to beaches often?’” Dean said.

He surveyed the local deaf community and the results were no surprise to him: Of course deaf people go to the beach, but many don’t feel comfortable about the possibility of being caught in an emergency.

“It creates a lot of challenges if everybody is running and they don’t know why,” he said.

Dean’s next move was so obvious it’s astonishing no one thought of it sooner.

He devised the Beach Emergency Evacuation Lights System, or BEELS, a series of strobe lights to alert deaf and hard-of-hearing beachgoers to imminent danger.

“It’s a great system, and I’m glad they’re implementing it,’’ said Kenichi Haskett, lifeguard section chief with the Los Angeles Fire Department. “It’s a start for us to make mass notifications easier, especially if it’s a busy summer day.”

Here’s how it works:

In an emergency — picture a flash thunderstorm, great white shark sighting, rip current or oil spill — lifeguards will activate strobe lights, which will be mounted to buildings such as bathrooms and lifeguard towers.

Torrance Beach, the pilot site, will kick things off in November with a ribbon cutting and day at the beach for the deaf community.

The rollout to all Los Angeles County beaches is expected within two years, pending budget approval. The first system cost $225,000 to implement.

When beaches have to close, lifeguards try to notify each person on the sand and in the water. “It’s time-consuming and labor intensive,” Haskett said.

BEELS will help them more quickly convey the immediacy of the danger, especially critical when the message needs to be relayed to anyone with a hearing impairment.

“Otherwise we would have to go out and try our best to communicate,” Haskett said.

BEELS also includes speakers with amplifiers that will deliver audible notifications in English and Spanish. Signs will be posted in beach parking lots, along access ways and in the sand to tell visitors how to decipher the lights: a fast strobe will indicate a full beach evacuation; slow will indicate a water-only evacuation.

The system can deliver isolated (one beach) or widespread notifications (such as a tsunami warning).

A test run in September at Torrance Beach was encouraging. “You can see [the lights] from a quarter mile away,” Dean said.

He was concerned about the audible announcements given ambient noise, but they worked fine. “Just with the small speaker alone, a lot of people could hear the sound underwater while they were swimming,” Dean said.

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Dean worked with multiple county agencies to design the system and, crucially, relied heavily on expertise from the deaf community.

“Deaf and hard-of-hearing people are visually oriented and rely on lighting and vibrations,” said Patricia Hughes, chief executive of the Greater Los Angeles Agency on Deafness Inc., which consulted with Dean’s team. “Beaches pose a challenge to (designing) emergency response systems due to the wide range of environments and weather conditions that can affect visibility,” she said in an email.

“When it comes to setting up a lighting systems like BEELS, sufficient brightness and contrast are important to make the light distinguishable from its environment.”

In August, the harbor department installed a Video Remote Interpreting system, or VRI, at the Marina del Rey visitors center to enable on-demand American Sign Language, or ASL, interpreting services using the internet. An instructor is being recruited to teach basic ASL to lifeguards.

“We hope that the BEELS and VRI project will serve as a model for the rest of the state and country to follow,” Hughes said.

A relatively young humpback whale was sighted off the north side of Kauai on Oct. 1, about three weeks earlier than usual. The Hawaiian islands are a natural marine sanctuary where humpbacks come to breed between November and May.

Marine biologists and researchers say the early visitor doesn’t mean an earlier start to the annual migration. “It’s too soon to predict a trend … to say that these whales are changing their patterns,” said Bill Keener, research associate at the Marine Mammal Center in Sausalito, Calif., who tracks humpback whales. “It could just be a young whale coming back early.”

The whale was spotted off Kee Beach on Kauai’s north side, near the beginning of the Napali Coast. The report from people aboard a chartered boat said the whale breached three times, and experts estimate it to have been 20 to 30 feet long, according to a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration news release.

North Pacific humpback whales take six to eight weeks to journey from Alaska’s cold waters to Hawaii’s tropical climes, the Hawaii Wildlife Fund‘s website says.

Starting in late October and early November, schools of humpbacks head for Hawaii to breed and nurse their young. They stay on the coasts of the islands until May before doubling back on their journey home.

Peter Colombo, general manager of Ultimate Whale Watch and Snorkel, guarantees visitors will see humpbacks during winter and spring. “You’re sure to see some activity, whether it’s them breaching or spouting water,” Colombo said.

Humpback whales have primarily dark backs and light bellies, with distinctive pleats on their throats. Their name comes from the small hump in front of their dorsal fin. The North Pacific humpback whales are the fifth largest in the cetacean family, a full-sized adult weighing around 40 tons.

Compared to other whale species, humpbacks are social and easy to spot.

“When we talk about whale-watching, we’re mostly talking about humpback whales,” said Ed Lyman, natural resources specialist at the Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary. “They are the ones most active on the surface of the water.”

These marine animals are natural acrobats and a spectacle for travelers, often throwing their bodies several feet above the water in spectacular breaching displays. They also are well-known songsters. Several whale-watching tours use hydrophones to allow visitors to listen to the whales and their underwater noises.

In the early 20th century, commercial whaling seriously jeopardized the species. Since 1985, after the the International Whaling Commission’s moratorium on killing whales, the population of humpbacks rebounded. Keener said the Hawaiian humpback rates have increased tenfold compared to the 1970s.

The marine sanctuary lists 10 places in Hawaii that are good for whale watching, including Makapuu Lighthouse, Halona Blowhole, Hanauma Bay and Diamond Head Scenic Lookout on Oahu; plus the Sanctuary Education Center on Maui; and Kapaa Beach Park on the island of Hawaii. Check out the full whale-watching list.

In case you aren’t traveling to Hawaii anytime soon, humpback whales also travel along the California coast between April and October. Interested travelers can purchase a ticket ranging from $45 to $150 for a whale-watching tour.

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HONOLULU — 

Think pizza in Hawaii and you may think of a ham/cheese/pineapple creation that wasn’t even created in Hawaii.

But Hawaii’s contribution to the world stage of pizza goes well beyond pineapple toppings. Within a few square blocks of downtown Honolulu, five eclectic, outstanding pizza hot spots are serving slices and pies for those occasions when pizza fills the culinary and familial bill. Here’s a guide to some of the best pizza you’ll find for — literally — thousands of miles in any direction.

J. Dolan’s

In 2007, Jersey City, N.J., native John “J.J.” Niebuhr was working as a bartender at Murphy’s Bar & Grill on Merchant Street in Honolulu. He was known for pouring perfect pints of Guinness and making pizza using his own recipes on Friday nights for the bar’s regulars.

Across the street, Danny Dolan was working as general manager of O’Toole’s Irish Pub and thinking about his next gig. The two friends met up that December, put together a business plan and opened J.J. Dolan’s in January 2008. (After Niebuhr stepped away from the business, it became just J. Dolan’s.)

“He knew how to make pizza, I knew how to run a bar, and people immediately started coming in for drinks and a bite to eat,” Dolan said. “It was magic.”

Billing itself as “an Irish pub with New York pizza from two guys in Chinatown,” J.J. Dolan’s quickly became a go-to spot for locals to catch the game on TV, enjoy drinks after work at the massive koa wood bar (lovingly restored after being left by the previous owners) and get pizza by the slice.

You can also order signature whole pizzas such as Molto Formaggio, which comes with mozzarella, Parmesan, fontina, Havarti, brie and Gouda; the Scampi, with bay shrimp, mushrooms and scampi sauce; and the Deli Meat, with Italian sausage, capicola, salami and ham. None of the 14-inch pies costs more than $20, unless you want to build your own ($16.75 to start, plus $1.50 per topping).

“The beauty of J. Dolan’s is that it’s for everybody,” Dolan said. “A few years ago, there were four generations of one family sitting at a table, and I knew it meant that we were doing something right.”

What I ate: the half Giacomo with Italian sausage, pepperoni, salami and olives; and a half spinach and garlic pie with fresh spinach, chopped garlic and ricotta; $19.50 each.

Info: J. Dolan’s, 1147 Bethel St., Honolulu; (808) 537-4992. The 16-inch pizzas start at $16.75.

Proof Public House

Just around the corner, on the ground floor of downtown Honolulu’s historic Blaisdell Hotel, built in 1912, Proof Public House is serving “Truth, Strength, Change,” according to owner Serena Hashimoto. For years, Hashimoto, a local musician and professor at nearby Hawaii Pacific University, looked for a restaurant that offered vegetarian fare and stayed open late enough for her to get a bite after playing shows.

Hashimoto couldn’t find that place, so she opened the Downbeat Diner & Lounge with business partner Joshua Hancock in 2011. In 2014, when the owner of the Mercury Bar wanted to sell his lounge on narrow Chaplain Lane, Hashimoto and Hancock took over and instilled the same punk spirit to create Proof.

They tore up the plaster covering the floor, revealing the building’s original tile, added a pool table and installed a giant window for an open-air feel (and so they could project movies onto an adjacent alleyway wall).

The Mercury owners left a gigantic gas oven that consumes nearly the entire (tiny) kitchen at Proof and helped dictate the menu: garlic bread, Cubano sandwiches, grilled cheese and more, all freshly baked.

Plus, of course, pizza. Other pizza parlors go traditional but Proof goes exotic. Toppings here include duck, papaya, Portuguese linguiça sausage and macadamia cream sauces. Proof also offers veggie options, including pizzas with butternut squash, fresh vegan pesto and assorted vegan “meats” such as sausage and bacon.

When other bars in the area start winding down their food options around 10 p.m., Proof fills a glass display case with a variety of pies that can be ordered by the slice until they run out or the bar closes at 2 a.m. End a night in Chinatown with a slice of white dessert pizza, complete with berries and chocolate sauce.

What I ate: the Kauai Chicken pizza, made with macadamia cream sauce, mozzarella, roasted chicken, pineapple, papaya, white onion, with balsamic drizzle; $16.

Info: Proof Public House, 1154 Fort Street Mall, No. 10, Honolulu; (808) 537-3080. The 13-inch pizzas start at $13.

Brick Fire Tavern

Brick Fire Tavern, two blocks away on Hotel Street, is perhaps the most traditional of the pizzerias on this list. Co-owner Matthew Resich’s Neapolitan pies have been certified by the international Associazione Vera Pizza Napoletana; Brick Fire Tavern is the only pizzeria on Oahu with this distinction.

“I’m originally from Queens, so pizza and bagel culture was always my thing, that idea of doing bread right,” Resich said. “Neapolitan is sort of the purest form of pizza. The dough has only four components — flour, water, salt, yeast — and how you mold the dough is just as important as the ingredients.”

To learn secrets like these, Resich traveled to Naples in 2015 with his business partner, Inthira Marks, and spent six weeks studying the craft with famed master pizzaiolo Enzo Coccia.

When they returned to the U.S., Resich and Marks spent a month at South Creek Pizza in Reno, where they learned how to pull their mozzarella, before opening Brick Fire in 2016.

Like any respectable Neapolitan pizzeria, the restaurant uses a Stefano Ferrara brick oven (Marks picked out the black bisazza glass that adorns the exterior) that can cook 12-inch pizzas in 90 seconds at 900 degrees.

The wood is kiawe (mesquite), the sea salt is Mediterranean, and the ingredients are generally local (greens from Maui, beets from Mililani on Oahu, and organic sausage and meatballs from Waianae, also on Oahu, where the meat is produced specifically for Brick Fire by local purveyor Robert McGee of Pono Pork). All the oils, balsamic glazes and most of the cured meats, such as prosciutto, are imported from Italy.

Although Brick Fire’s pizza menu features a robust ingredient list — consider the Mamma Mia, with soppressata, pancetta and Italian sausage over hot peppers and mozzarella — the flavors don’t overwhelm you. Resich prides himself on a light touch: “Our pizzas are minimally topped but with high-quality ingredients and a thin center,” he said. “The crust is soft and airy, has a subtle mouth feel and our sauces are bright.”

What I ate: the Carbonara, made with pecorino-Parmesan besciamella, house-made mozzarella, smoked pancetta, white onion and egg yolk; $19.

Info: Brick Fire Tavern, 16 N. Hotel St., Honolulu; (808) 369-2444. The 12-inch Margherita pizza starts at $15.

Bar 35

In 2005, New Zealand restaurateur Dave Stewart bought Caspy’s Hawaiian Bar at 35 N. Hotel St. for a buck.

“The guy was fed up,” Stewart said in a 2012 Honolulu Magazine interview. “I gave him a dollar, because money had to change hands, and he handed me the keys. There was still liquor at the bar. I locked the door and called some friends. I couldn’t drink it all by myself.”

Stewart stripped away Caspy’s cheapy decor and brought the space back to its brick and concrete roots, beginning with a new name: Bar 35. Stewart stocked 150 kinds of beer and partnered with chef Francesco Valentini, who didn’t flinch when Stewart asked for unconventional food items, including a Chinese pizza (because this is, after all, Chinatown).

Valentini created a menu centered on a fusion pizza that still holds its own nearly 15 years later. Options include the French Kiss, made with brie, ham and pesto, topped with fresh basil and mozzarella; Gyromatic, with roasted slices of lamb and beef, tzatziki sauce and romaine; and Smoky Heaven, with smoked salmon, onions, capers, Gorgonzola and cream cheese.

For Stewart, Valentini also created the Sweet Bangkok pizza, with Chinese lap cheong sausage, cilantro and a sweet chili sauce.

With its industrial-chic look and down-tempo vibe, Bar 35 has become something akin to Chinatown’s home bar. Today, the number of beers available has climbed closer to 200 and nightly drink specials keep the after-work crowd coming in.

But it’s Bar 35’s flatbread pizzas that elevate it as a destination.

What I ate: the Gyromatic, described above; $13.

Info: Bar 35, 35 N Hotel St., Honolulu; (808) 537-3535, bar35hawaii.com. Regular pizzas from $13.

Rosarina Pizza

For all the sleek new pizza spots taking over downtown Honolulu, there’s something to be said about the longtime holdouts/standouts. This red-sauce Italian joint on Maunakea Street prides itself on New York deli-style pizzas, pasta, and hot and cold sandwiches.

Rosarina Pizza opened in 1986 on Kalakaua Avenue just outside Waikiki and relocated downtown in 1989 where owner Duke Vu continues to serve his 12- to 16-inch pies on your choice of thin crust, medium-ish or half-inch-thick hand-tossed dough.

The toppings at Rosarina enter territory that some of the other pizza spots in the neighborhood won’t, even offering anchovies as an option when building your own pie. Rosarina’s Combination, which has pepperoni, Italian sausage, green peppers, onions and black olives, smothered in mozzarella, covers all the bases when you’re not sure what to choose.

If the little mustached mascot on the front door — it’s wearing a red bandanna around the neck — doesn’t persuade you to step inside, the prices and quality may. Besides the pizza, Rosarina’s lasagna, manicotti and ravioli are hits.

What I ate: Rosarina’s combination, described above. $21.50 for an extra-large.

Info: Rosarina Pizza, 1111 Maunakea St., Honolulu; (808) 533-6634. A 12-inch pie begins at $9.75.

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Hotels in the nation’s most populous state will have to stop giving guests small plastic shampoo bottles under a new law set to take effect starting in 2023.

Gov. Gavin Newsom announced Wednesday he had signed a law banning hotels from giving guests plastic bottles filled with shampoo, conditioner or soap. It takes effect in 2023 for hotels with more than 50 rooms and in 2024 for hotels with less than 50 rooms.

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Violators could be fined $500 for a first offense and $2,000 for subsequent violations.

The law follows similar actions by some of the world’s largest hotel chains. Marriott International has said it plans to stop using small plastic bottles in its hotel rooms by December 2020. IHG, which owns Holiday Inn, Kimpton and other brands, said it will eliminate about 200 million small bottles by 2021.

Marriott officials have said they expected to save an average of 250 pounds of plastic a year — that’s 23,000 plastic bottles — for each 140-room hotel that stopped stocking rooms with the little bottles.

Last year, Walt Disney Co. said it would get rid of small plastic shampoo bottles at its resorts and cruise ships.

The law comes as California officials are trying to reduce the amount of plastic waste. The state already bans grocery stores from giving customers single-use plastic bags without charging a fee. Last year, former Gov. Jerry Brown passed a law allowing restaurants to hand out plastic straws only upon request.

The Personal Care Products Council opposed the legislation, arguing it would hurt personal care product manufacturers.

Microsoft Corp. employees are circulating a letter supporting an effort to get its GitHub subsidiary to cancel a contract with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, the latest effort among tech-company staff to influence corporate policy on government work.

The letter reflects concerns that Microsoft’s sales to the agency implicate the software maker in the government’s detention of immigrants.

On Wednesday, GitHub employees protested the renewal of a roughly $200,000 contract with ICE after GitHub Chief Executive Nat Friedman released an email defending the decision.

“As the parent company to GitHub, this contract with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) makes all of us working at Microsoft complicit to the unethical detainment of tens of thousands of immigrants and the various abuses that ICE subjects them to,” read the letter. “Through our technology, we’ve already been contributing to the terrorism of ICE agents on our country’s immigrant population. We’ve been doing so for years.”

It then calls on GitHub and Microsoft to cancel the contract.

The employees behind the letter asked to remain anonymous, citing a fear of retaliation.

Microsoft had no immediate comment.

The letter marks another sign of tension between rank-and-file tech workers and software giants, including Microsoft rivals Amazon.com Inc. and Google, which are increasingly aiming for lucrative government contracts.

Microsoft employees also circulated an earlier petition asking the company not to bid on a massive Pentagon cloud-computing contract, called JEDI, and against efforts to sell its HoloLens augmented reality goggles to the U.S. Army. Microsoft executives have said that the company will continue to supply tech to the U.S. military.

The recent episode, however, is the first to involve GitHub, which makes a popular open-source software and has prided itself on a corporate culture that deifies programmers. The unit has its own management team and is run with some degree of independence from Microsoft.

In his email, Friedman said that ICE was using software management tool GitHub Enterprise Server and not the company’s more hands-on consulting services.

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“We do not know the specific projects that the on-premises GitHub Enterprise Server license is being used with, but recognize it could be used in projects that support policies we both agree and disagree with,” he wrote in a note published Wednesday. Friedman also pledged the company will donate $500,000 to nonprofits that help immigrant groups hurt by the policies.

Microsoft has been outspoken in its opposition to some of President Trump’s immigration policies, including a travel ban that affects mostly Muslim-majority countries. The company is a named plaintiff in the case opposing the termination of the federal Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which the Supreme Court will hear this term. Microsoft President Brad Smith received applause this week at a Seattle conference when discussing that stance.

At the same time, the company is a large supplier of software to the U.S. government and is in contention not just for JEDI but for a second massive military contract called DEOS, which will provide email, calendar and collaboration tools.

Earlier this week, Chief Executive Satya Nadella spoke at the company’s Government Leaders Summit in Washington to tout work with the Interior Department and USDA.

Some of the largest investors in the $1.2 trillion market for risky corporate loans say they’re being given too little time to comb through the hundreds of pages of documents that govern the deals, leaving them exposed to potentially dangerous loopholes.

Now many are urging the industry’s main trade group to do something about it.

GSO Capital Partners, the credit arm of Blackstone Group Inc., is working with roughly a dozen other buy-side firms as well as underwriters including JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Bank of America Corp. to propose new industry standards, according to people with knowledge of the matter.

Money managers often have only a day or two to sift through reams of loan documentation before deciding how much to buy — a timetable intentionally set up by borrowers seeking the best possible terms. The pushback follows a number of high-profile transactions in which private equity sponsors took advantage of weak investor protections to shift assets and cash flow out of reach of creditors, catching them off guard and fueling bitter clashes.

“A 24-hour shot clock is obviously too short of a window to effectively go through these documents,” said Bill Housey, a senior portfolio manager at First Trust Advisors who is not involved in the discussions. “If assets or collateral can be stripped from lenders through various loopholes, we want to make sure we are paying very close attention upfront.”

Representatives for GSO, Bank of America and JPMorgan declined to comment.

The market for leveraged loans has roughly doubled in size over the past decade as investors looking for higher returns piled into riskier debt. Borrowers have been able to chip away at traditional investor protections amid the surging demand for deals.

Loans for buyouts are typically marketed to investors over a two-week period that begins with a presentation from the arranging banks and ends with a commitment deadline, by which time investors need to submit their orders for a chunk of the debt.

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Interested buyers now usually receive only a marketing term sheet when deals launch, which contains an outline of the loan’s key terms but often lacks details around specific provisions, where loopholes can be hidden.

Representatives for Credit Suisse, HPS and Apollo declined to comment, while Eaton Vance and Octagon weren’t available to comment.

The current guidelines of the Loan Syndications and Trading Assoc. recommend issuers give borrowers at least four business days to review a draft of the credit agreement “unless circumstances require a shorter review period.” They also call for issuers to provide prospective lenders with “a reasonable amount of time” to examine and comment on material changes to the draft.

Yet investors say that on deals private equity firms expect will have broad appeal, the draft is sometimes shared less than 24 hours before commitments are due, and a final version of the agreement may not be available until after the cutoff.

In recent years investors watched struggling companies owned by private equity firms execute asset transfers, spin-offs, carve outs and other controversial moves as a result of allowances inserted into the fine print of loan documents.

Retailer J. Crew Group Inc. established one of the best known precedents nearly three years ago when it transferred its intellectual property, including its brand, outside of creditors’ reach as part of a debt restructuring, prompting a legal fight with lenders.

More recently, PetSmart Inc. was taken to court by creditors after it transferred part of its stake in online unit Chewy.com away from lenders as it struggled to turn around its brick-and-mortar business. Some of the debt holders dropped their litigation after reaching a deal with the company.

While most details buried in loan documents rarely come into play for companies with healthy balance sheets, a turn in the credit cycle could leave businesses struggling to repay lenders and their private equity owners scrambling to protect their investments from creditors.

“These are living and breathing documents that will be tested in the next downturn,” Housey said. “Understanding those provisions is going to be very important.”

Chuck Jones, 49, is a co-founder and co-owner of Jones Coffee Roasters in Pasadena. Jones represents the fifth generation of a family that has earned its money growing, roasting and selling coffee beans, mostly sourced from its own 3,000-acre Guatemalan farm begun in 1870. Jones’ company sells organic coffee beans to select roasters throughout the western U.S., as well as to Starbucks, Whole Foods and restaurants, cafes and hotels. Jones Coffee Roasters has four locations, with a fifth — Hollywood Burbank Airport — coming later this year. The company’s 38 employees sell the rough equivalent of 150,000 cups of coffee a week.

Sustainable

Jones and his family take the sustainability of their coffee operation to a level beyond that of most other businesses. The farm in Guatemala, for example, is “completely off the grid. It runs completely on hydroelectricity,” Jones said. “There are two little hydroelectric plants on the farm. And there are seven natural springs on the farm that are fed from our virgin cloud forest, which is at the farm’s highest elevation.”

Two Marias

Jones was introduced to the family business at age 5, on a 52-hour, 2,700-mile family road trip from the San Marino family home to Guatemala and the sprawling Finca Dos Marias (Farm of the Two Marias), named for his great-great-grandmother Maria Maldonado and great-grandmother Maria Asturias.

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“It was like a city,” Jones said. “I just thought, ‘Oh my god, we have a store on the farm.’ We had a medical clinic. We had a wood shop. We had a metal shop. We had a preschool, a middle school, a high school. We had two churches.”

Zealous salesman

Jones, the youngest of five siblings, showed an entrepreneurial spirit that scared off competitors to his lemonade stand. “I’d pull my dad’s fruits and vegetables out of the garden,” Jones said, “and sold them at my stand. I had these extension cords running from our house. I had a toaster oven, selling little frozen pizzas. I had signs up, ‘Pizza. Fruits and Vegetables. And Lemonade.’ I even branded my lemons with a happy face stamp.”

His own boss

By high school, Jones was running his own auto detailing business through his high school’s regional occupational program, using his middle name to give it a little panache — Bosworth’s Private Car Care. “I had a business permit. I had a legitimate business. I was 16 years old. I was my own supervisor for the ROP program. I took a night class on Wednesdays, on business development. I learned about how to write letters. I learned about how to do numbers and cost of goods. Communicate, pitching ideas, presenting things.”

Back to beans

Jones earned a journalism degree from Cal State Long Beach in 1992, but a terrible job market persuaded him to try something else. He and one of his brothers, Larry, were netting $500 to $1,000 a month building personal computers, an amount he considered just “fun money.” Jones said to his brother, “Let’s see if we can make something with this coffee thing.”

No free rides

Grandfather Jose Oswaldo “was really clear, he didn’t want to put anything at the farm at risk because of a little project that we wanted to try out. So he said, ‘You can have pick of the litter. Anything you want on the farm. But, you have to pay just like any of the other customers.’”

Early problems

In 1993, the Jones brothers borrowed $60,000 from their dad, enough to buy a shipping container of coffee, “which is 40,000 pounds of coffee, 250 burlap bags,” Jones said. It was a stunning amount of coffee. Worse, coffee bean prices were surging, and a second cargo container was on the way. “Instead of $60,000, it cost $80,000. The third container was $130,000.”

Breaking the logjam

The plan to sell beans to wholesale customers was moving slowly. By the time the third container was on the way in 1995, the Joneses were still playing catch-up. “We decided to buy a roasting machine and we started roasting the coffee and selling it,” at first, near the front window of a friend’s ice cream parlor in 1998. “No drinks, just selling beans.” They called their venture the Pasadena Roasting Co., then Coffee Roasters of Pasadena. It became Jones Coffee Roasters in 2003.

Brewing success

“Before I did retail, we could hardly give the coffee away,” Jones said. In 2006, Jones opened a coffee shop in Pasadena. “As soon as we started serving coffee, the demand started. I started picking up little restaurants around town. From there it just kept growing. We got Caltech first, and then we picked up JPL as a customer,” he said. A 2006 review in the Los Angeles Times named Jones Coffee Roasters the best French roast coffee among 13 varieties tasted. “All the judges said ours was the best French roast they’ve ever had. That’s really what put us on the map.”

The stumble

In 2011, Jones and his mother, Mireya Asturias Jones, who serves as chief executive, figured it was time to expand with a new coffee shop in West Hollywood. “I thought it was going to be an easy thing,” Jones said. “It failed miserably.” The West Hollywood store was bringing in $10,000 a month, but Jones was spending $13,000 a month on it. That was when he remembered something he heard from one of his mentors, CasaBlanca Fan Co. founder Burton A. Burton, who made a fortune selling ceiling fans. “Your second store will be the hardest store,” Jones recalled Burton saying.

Hard lessons

The second coffee shop closed after just three years. “You can always do whatever it takes to run your first store,” Jones said, “But as soon as you go to your second store, then you actually have to have standards, procedures. ‘This is how we onboard an employee. This is how we manage advancement. This is how we order our product supply chains.’ Then you’re really honing the cost of goods, your transactions, your average prices and everything. All that stuff really comes together in your second store.”

Second try

Jones didn’t try to open another store again until 2016, but this one made sense, located at the independent bookstore Vroman’s in Pasadena. This time, Jones was ready. “I adjusted the expenses, honed down our costs, honed our training,” Jones said. “We had more clarity. We had a template. We had a new slate to work from.” Jones then used what was learned with the Vroman’s operation to improve his first store.

Holding pattern

Jones said the expanding is done, until he can gauge the new business he expects from Burbank airport. “Our board is telling me, ‘Let’s sit on these eggs for a little bit.’ When we open Burbank there’s going to be a lot of wholesale business coming in and I want to be able to handle that. There will be a lot of people who aren’t familiar with our brand coming through the airport and they are going to think, ‘This is good coffee.’” Jones’ brother Larry, who is a shareholder and board member, will be account manager for Burbank airport sales.

Future growth

Jones dreams of a move north to Paso Robles and a crop change. “My sister has an olive farm up there, so she makes olive oil. She also grows grapes, and my nephew makes wine. We go up there and do the harvest,” Jones said. “There’s a sense of accomplishment when you have the olive oil in the bottle and you’re like, ‘Yeah, we picked these olives. We crushed them. We put them into a bottle.’ In another 10 to 15 years, I’ll be moving up there.”