Good morning, and welcome to the Essential California newsletter. It’s Friday, Nov. 15, and I’m writing from Los Angeles.

By now, the wretchedly unthinkable has become almost rote. You already know that students and teachers barricaded doors with desks and tables, that sobbing children rushed to text their parents from hiding spots, that chaos exploded in the very place that should have been a haven.

The particulars will pummel your heart, but the rough contours will not surprise you. We know how this story goes because we have seen it unfold so many times before.

On Thursday morning, a 16-year-old opened fire at Saugus High School in Santa Clarita, killing two students and wounding three other teens. This was at least the 11th shooting on a high school or college campus this year.

The Saugus High School students were scheduled to be in their first-period classes when 16 seconds of fire from a .45-caliber handgun irrevocably cleaved their lives into “before” and “after.” And they were the lucky ones. For two of their classmates there will be no next chapter. A 16-year-old girl and a 14-year-old boy died after being transported to a hospital.

Andrei Mojica, 17, was in his AP government class when someone opened the door and told them that there was a shooter on campus. Soon, the class was barricading the doors. He told my colleagues on the scene that he and his classmates had practiced this before, but “there was just something different about it from a simple drill to real life.”

[Read the story: “Saugus students barricaded themselves in classrooms, fearing gunman would target them” in the Los Angeles Times]

Across the country in the U.S. Capitol, a Connecticut lawmaker was giving a speech about gun violence on the Senate floor when someone passed him a note, interrupting the speech.

“As I speak, on the floor right now, there is a school shooting,” Sen. Richard Blumenthal then said, according to BuzzFeed. “How can we turn the other way? How can we refuse to see that shooting in real time demanding our attention, requiring our action?”

On the Saugus High School campus, a security camera on the quad showed the suspect pulling the handgun from his backpack and shooting the students before putting the gun to his own head. Thursday was the suspect’s 16th birthday. Described by neighbors and classmates as a “quiet” kid, he is now in the hospital in “grave condition.”

[Read the story: “What we know about Saugus High shooting suspect” in the Los Angeles Times]

Here’s some more coverage about the tragedy:

• Saugus High suspect opened fire on a crowded quad in a 16-second attack that left two dead and three wounded, the sheriff says. Los Angeles Times
• The frantic text from his sister at Saugus High: “There is a shooter, call 911.” Los Angeles Times
• Santa Clarita shooting leaves kids at a Thanksgiving pageant crying and trying to understand. Los Angeles Times
• A desperate father used the Find My iPhone app to locate his son. Los Angeles Times
• How to talk to your kids about school shootings: Here are some tips from the National Assn. of School Psychologists and other mental health experts. Los Angeles Times

And now, here’s what else is happening across California:

L.A. STORIES

Prefer living in the past? The Los Angeles Times has a new account on Instagram dedicated to archival photos. Los Angeles Times

Dodgers slugger Cody Bellinger won the National League MVP Award. He is the Dodgers’ first MVP since Clayton Kershaw in 2014 and their first position player to win the award since Kirk Gibson in 1988. Los Angeles Times

Plus: Angels outfielder Mike Trout was voted the American League’s most valuable player for a third time. Los Angeles Times

Why street vendors make cities feel safer: Vendors not only activate public space — they do so in places chronically ignored by city planners. Curbed

Fundraising for LACMA’s new building has stalled as the costs balloon. Four-fifths of the $650 million needed had been pledged by summer 2018, but next to nothing has been raised since. Los Angeles Times

Hollywood writers fired their agents. Now agencies are sidelining writers in new deals. Los Angeles Times

The unbearable strangeness of being Shia LaBeouf: In this interview with fellow former child star Kristen Stewart, LaBeouf talks about how difficult he finds life to be when he’s not on a set. Stewart then suggests he take a pottery class. “Maybe I will,” LaBeouf responds. “I won’t like pottery in life. But I will love pottery on set. I don’t like ice cream in life. But if you give me ice cream on a set, I [expletive] love ice cream. I think that’s what this does for me. It makes me love things. This job feels like the conduit for love for me.” Variety

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IMMIGRATION AND THE BORDER

The California congressional delegation is criticizing the process by which federal immigration officials sought bids for four private immigration detention facilities in the state last month. Desert Sun

POLITICS AND GOVERNMENT

Leading 2020 Democratic presidential candidates are backing a prospective ballot measure to overhaul Proposition 13, California’s landmark tax-cutting law. Of course, California property taxes don’t fall under the purview of U.S. presidents, but that’s beside the point for the candidates. The intended audience for their message “is not so much ordinary Californians — most of whom are not yet paying close attention to a 2020 measure that would boost property taxes for large businesses — as it is organized labor, a key Democratic constituency.” San Francisco Chronicle

A quick refresher on Prop. 13, because you’ll probably be hearing a whole lot more about it in the coming months: Passed as a ballot measure in 1978, Prop. 13 strictly limits property tax increases in the state. It’s long been considered “the third rail” of California politics — just a few years ago, former Gov. Jerry Brown called it “a sacred doctrine that should never be questioned.” But the questions are coming, and a ballot measure to overhaul that “sacred doctrine” is all but certain to win a spot on the November 2020 ballot.

Meet the high-profile outsider coming in to lead the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency: Transportation consultant Jeffrey Tumlin has pledged to fix the subway, fill the bus driver shortages and bring order to an agency now famous for chaos. San Francisco Chronicle

A coalition of Native American tribes proposed an initiative to legalize sports betting in California. The filing of papers for an initiative supported by 18 tribes comes just four months after a bill was introduced in the state Legislature that would also put a sports betting measure on the 2020 ballot. Los Angeles Times

HEALTH AND THE ENVIRONMENT

Most of California is either abnormally dry or has slipped into moderate drought, according to U.S. Drought Monitor data from Nov. 12 that was released Thursday. Los Angeles Times

Power shutoffs during fires can pose a safety risk for gated communities, Encinitas’ fire chief says. The City Council is considering requiring all gates to remain open during high-fire-risk periods. San Diego Union-Tribune

CALIFORNIA CULTURE

What are the most popular NFL teams in your ZIP Code? Use this interactive map to find out. Los Angeles Times

California markets saw a dip in luxury home prices. Median prices for high-end homes were down in August in Marin County, Los Angeles and Santa Clara, compared to the same period last year. Barron’s

A flag silhouette mysteriously appeared in northeast Bakersfield, then disappeared in the dark of night.“[T]he question remains: Who is daring enough to climb a mound of dirt in the dark of night to install the image — and polite enough to remove it before crews returned to work on Tuesday?”Bakersfield Californian

Nari is San Francisco’s “most exciting new restaurant,” according to restaurant critic Soleil Ho. San Francisco Chronicle

The family-owned Bay City Flower Company has shuttered. The closure marks the end of an era for a company started 110 years ago by a Japanese immigrant who survived the Great Depression and the family’s internment during World War II and grew into one of the largest employers in Half Moon Bay. KQED

Today in rich people’s hobbies that sound like a lot of work: Sophisticated hot rodders — mostly Californians — are cannibalizing crashed electric cars and using their batteries to create electrified sports cars and muscle cars. Los Angeles Times

Leaving California? These places will pay you to move there. Mercury News

CALIFORNIA ALMANAC

Los Angeles: cloudy, 70. San Diego: partly sunny, 67. San Francisco: sunny, 61. San Jose: partly sunny, 65. Sacramento: partly sunny, 68. More weather is here.

AND FINALLY

Today’s California memory comes from Molly Freeman:

“In Mission Beach where I grew up in San Diego I lived a five-minute walk from the Pacific Ocean and five minutes from Mission Bay. On New Year’s Day, my friend and I would water ski over glassy waters on the bay, awakening late-night New Year’s Eve revelers. For me it was exhilarating, and I am sure irritating to the sleepy residents along the bay’s shore. The beauty of the waters is my lifelong touchstone.”

If you have a memory or story about the Golden State, share it with us. (Please keep your story to 100 words.)

Please let us know what we can do to make this newsletter more useful to you. Send comments, complaints, ideas and unrelated book recommendations to Julia Wick. Follow her on Twitter @Sherlyholmes.

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Controversy rocked “Survivor” on Wednesday night when multiple female contestants came forward to accuse fellow player Dan Spilo of inappropriate touching. On Thursday, longtime host and executive producer Jeff Probst paused to reflect on how the events unfolded and how those behind the long-running reality show might have handled the situation differently.

“There are so many layers to this story,” Probst wrote in a statement to The Times. “The biggest question centered around whether or not Dan’s unwanted touching, that made some of the women uncomfortable, was enough to warrant pulling him from the game. From our point of view, there was no clear answer. That is why we met privately with every player to see how they were feeling. Every player understood what we were asking and every player wanted the game to continue without production getting involved.”

The series’ #MeToo moment began with a conversation between players Kellee Kim and Missy Byrd, who both recalled several instances of unwanted contact initiated by Spilo that involved areas such as their hair, torso and toes, as well as his wrapping his arm around Byrd as she tried to sleep. Video footage of Spilo’s behavior at camp, included in the episode alongside the women’s discussion, corroborated their stories.

Kim also expressed her discomfort in an emotional confessional, prompting producers to break the fourth wall and ask whether she wanted them to intervene. Though visibly distraught, Kim declined the offer, explaining that she felt safer knowing that Janet Carbin, an older female contestant who promised to monitor Spilo’s actions, was around to help.

“As you saw with Kellee during the episode, she too felt the players could handle the situation,” Probst wrote. “In addition, we knew the players always had the option to simply vote Dan out of the game. But they didn’t. In fact, several players were in an alliance with him. This really speaks to the complexity of the situation.”

Instead of taking Spilo out, the contestants sent Kim home, leading to an outcry on social media. Further complicating the scenario were conflicting testimonies from Byrd and Olympic swimmer Elizabeth Beisel — another castaway familiar with Spilo’s behavior — who appeared to share Kim’s concerns but ultimately voted to keep Spilo on the island.

Probst acknowledged the criticism that he and the other producers should have made an executive decision to oust Spilo. Though Kim and another woman first voiced complaints about Spilo in the season premiere, the production team didn’t intervene until the eighth episode.

“I accept my own responsibility in the situation,” Probst said in his statement. “We did what we thought was right in issuing Dan a warning, but I certainly respect anyone who feels we should have removed Dan from the game.”

For their part, Byrd and Beisel later apologized on social media for making false claims about whether they, too, were upset by inappropriate contact from Spilo in order to gain an advantage in the game. The women praised Kim and Carbin for their courage and expressed shame for their failure to appreciate the gravity of the situation.

“A lot of people are upset with Missy and Elizabeth for lying about Dan’s unwanted touching in order to further their game because they rightfully feel that it does damage to a powerful movement,” Probst said. “I don’t believe Elizabeth ever fully understood how upsetting the Dan situation was to Kellee. And even though Missy knew what she was doing when she asked Elizabeth to lie, I don’t think she ever considered the possibility that her actions could have an impact outside of the game.

“I spent a lot of time with this group of people, and even though lying is an accepted part of the game, I don’t think any of the women knowingly intended to discount anyone’s feelings or do damage to the #metoo movement with their actions,” Probst continued in the statement. “I have spoken with some of them and heard their remorse and I know it is genuine.”

The next episode of “Survivor” airs Nov. 20.

Times staff writer Greg Braxton and television editor Matt Brennan contributed to this report.

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Latin urban acts may have felt the sting of neglect with not one reggaeton act receiving a nomination in the major categories for this year’s Latin Grammy Awards. But while two of music’s biggest stars, Daddy Yankee and J Balvin, stayed home as a form of protest, many of the genre’s globally recognized performers simply did what they know best: showcased their work for a worldwide audience live from the MGM Grand Arena in Las Vegas.

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Leading the pack of winners Thursday night was Spain’s Rosalía; the Flamenco-trap singer, songwriter and actress won three Grammys for album of the year, urban song and contemporary pop album for “El Mal Querer,” which also earned the Spanish singer’s team two additional awards for recording package and engineered album. From the stage, she thanked the absent Balvin, with whom she shared the Latin Grammy in the urban song category for “Con Altura.”

Another Spanish act, Alejandro Sanz, also took home three prizes, for record of the year, long-form music video and pop song for “Mi Persona Favorita.” But it was Rosalía’s rise in music with strong vocals, uber-creative visuals and a charming personality that has captured a new generation of fans along with music industry veterans. With her album of the year win, she became the first woman since Shakira in 2006 to break the category’s glass ceiling as a solo female artist.

“It was more of a year of hard work,” Rosalía said backstage, addressing the press. “When I made that album I made it from the heart. I didn’t think about what would happen later. I can’t control anything that happens after the creative process because after that it’s not yours anymore, it’s everyone else’s.”

Moments later, Sanz also spoke to the media and simply said he felt elated that after all these years, he’s still a contender. “I feel like a thief,” the Spanish crooner said, referring to a career of constant wins.

Ricky Martin opened the 20th annual awards show in a sleek white and black tuxedo with swirl patterns. But it was an all-star group of recording acts, including Olga Tanon, Anitta and Calibre 50, among others, who performed songs from three of the biggest entertainers who left undeniable legacies: the late Celia Cruz, Juan Gabriel and Joan Sebastian.

The opening set featured a diverse ensemble of stars who helped jump-start the show, including Milly Quezada, Carlos Rivera, Reik and Natalia Jimenez. Draco Rosa, who earlier in the night during the pre-telecast known as the Premiere won for best rock album, also performed in the opener with Fito Paez and Beto Cuevas, performing Sebastian’s “Secreto de Amor.”

Bad Bunny won for urban album of the year for “X 100Pre” and made it clear in his acceptance speech that the perceived Latin Grammy reggaeton snubs are only going to trigger more energy in the Latin urban community.

Addressing his onstage remarks to “all musicians” and Recording Academy members, he said: “With all due respect, reggaeton is part of Latin culture and is representing as much as any other genre worldwide. To my fellow reggaetoneros: Keep giving it your all and we will continue to bring creativity and ingenuity. Our genre has become views, numbers, and let’s keep going and giving people new things.”

“Reggaeton is part of the culture,” the Puerto Rican rapper said. “We are going to keep working on this and let’s bring back the creativity and humanity. Let’s bring different things for the people.”

For her performance, Rosalía had one of the night’s most compelling performances. Wearing a cherry-red outfit topped with a white belt and bow, she performed a medley of her songs, including “Con Altura,” which she co-wrote with Balvin and her longtime Spanish producer El Guincho.

Puerto Rico’s Pedro Capó’s “Calma” won for song of the year along with Gabriel Edgar González Pérez and George Noriega. He dedicated the song to his children and his late brother, who inspired the song.

During the telecast, three generations of the Fernandezes performed — Vicente, Alejandro and Alex — along with Mariachi Sol de Mexico. Alex opened with “Te Amare,” followed by Alejandro performing “Caballero” and Vicente, the patriarch of the Fernandez musical dynasty, appearing onstage to sing “Volver, Volver,” commanding a standing ovation, then being joined by his son and grandson.

Backstage in the media center, the volume on the TV monitors was lowered for a separate interview, but the majority of the media objected and demanded that the TV remain at full volume. On stage, the patriarch and his brood stood together as an extended standing ovation continued before Martin approached Vicente to give him the presidential award, which is a special Latin Grammy recognition also given during the telecast to Mexican singer Thalia.

“Time is limited at these [TV] things,” Vicente jokingly told the audience. “I want to thank all those radio people who believed in this man and all those people who have listened through the years. You live in here [pointing to his heart] until the day I die.”

The best new artist award went to soulful singer Nella, a Berklee College of Music graduate who was nominated in the category with nine others. Nella’s Venezuelan roots have modern influences in addition to folklore sounds.

Similar to previous years, the Latin Grammy producers gave a nod to a crossover theme with a performance from a non-Latin artist. Alicia Keys joined Capó, Miguel and Farruko for a medley of songs that included “Show Me Your Love” and “Calma.”

Juanes, this year’s person of the year, performed some of his biggest hits during the telecast, first appearing alone on a darkened stage before being joined by Alessia Cara and Sebastian Yatra. The trio performed “Fijate Bien,” “Querer Mejor,” “A Dios Le Pido,” “Bonita” and “La Camisa Negra.”

One of the biggest surprises of the night was the arrival of Metallica’s Lars Ulrich, who appeared onstage to give Juanes his person of the year tribute.

“Tonight we come full circle,” Ulrich said. “I prolcaim myself a Juanes fan. My brother in rock, mi amigo, mi parcero, I am proud to recognize you as the Latin recording artist of the year.”

Juanes, taken aback by Ulrich’s arrival, made it clear that Metallica influenced him greatly and was one of the reasons he wanted to be a recording artist.

“I made music because of you … 30 years ago,” Juanes said. “My heart is full of love. Colombia, without you I’m nothing. I love you all.”

In an interview with The Times in Las Vegas this week, the Colombian recording artist spoke about his early days when he had little money in his pockets, couch-surfed in L.A. to survive and relied on one woman in particular during those tough times.

“My mom had so much faith in me,” Juanes said. “She would tell me to be patient and that got me through. I remember being in L.A. with a motorcycle and computer, but I sold them and eventually saved $4,000 to get to the next phase. Through pain and patience I learned that things work out.”

Homage to Puerto Rico was also a pivotal arc in this year’s Latin Grammys with a performance of “Cántalo” by Martin, who was joined by Residente and Bad Bunny. Young Mexican regional Mexican star Cristian Nodal took home the best ranchera/mariachi album for “Ahora.”

Latin urban superstar Ozuna gave an electrifying performance, opening his set wearing a dark cape at the piano and then, as the stage opened up, going into a colorful aquatic/sea theme.

As far as the Latin urban controversy, Juanes said it may be a time for both the Latin Grammy organization and urban artists to look at how they can improve future nominations.

“It’s important for both the Latin Grammys and reggaeton artists to see what they can do better in the future,” Juanes said. “It’s not a good or bad thing. It’s something that happened, but connecting is key.”

Director James Mangold is enthusiastic about his latest film, “Ford v Ferrari.” It’s centered around American car designer Carroll Shelby, played by Matt Damon, and British race car driver Ken Miles, played by Christian Bale. In this episode of “The Reel,” Mangold sits down with host Mark Olsen to talk about what’s behind his latest film. It’s a story, he says, he always wanted to take a shot at.

“And that was mainly, I felt, because the characters were just so powerful, unique, charming, irreverent,” Mangold said. “It seemed such fertile ground for a kind of adult-themed action picture.”

Mangold, who also directed “Logan,” opens up about the importance of character work in his action movies. He tells Olsen that Damon and Bale are central to the performances in “Ford v Ferrari” and were perfect for their roles.

“I literally thought of them as I was working on the script. I mean, I’ve known them both for 20 years. And Christian has so many overlaps with Ken Miles, I felt like we were even writing for Christian whether he was on the movie or not,” Mangold said. “And I needed someone who could step into Caroll Shelby and capture that kind of swagger. And for me, I’ve always been a fan of Matt’s work. I think he’s a phenomenal actor.”

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As a director, Mangold also weighs in on the controversy surrounding Martin Scorsese’s comments about Marvel movies.

“My perception about it is that we really wouldn’t be having this conversation if there was more screen real estate for all movies,” Mangold said. “There aren’t enough resources for everyone, so people are turning on each one another.”

But Mangold takes it a step further, telling Olsen that the conversation is broader than just cinema. It even relates, he says, to his daily life, where experiences are all starting to feel market-tested.

“What it is about right now, is that Marty’s movie is at the Belasco and then is going to be on TV in a month. That’s what the frustration is about. Because I’m as in full agreement that movies look too machined and tailored. Not just movies. Food. Airline trips. Television shows. Everything feels market-tested,” said Mangold.

“I think this is a cultural-wide problem,” he continued. “I think it’s about trying to hook audiences back into what unpredictable, more audacious art feels like.”

Check out other episodes of The Reel here

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Literary translator and author Jennifer Croft translated 2019 Nobel Prize winner Olga Tokarczuk’s novel “Flights” from Polish into English. Croft recalls that after the two shared the Booker Prize last year, she began referring to the novel as “our love child.”

But Croft’s joke also made a serious point about her role in making a foreign-language literary work into something that can be enjoyed and appreciated by English-language readers.

“It’s important for the readers to realize that they’re reading a kind of co-creation,” says Croft, a 38-year-old Los Angeles resident who teaches a seminar on translation at the University of Iowa.

As she explains it, translation involves more than just finding the right English word to replace a foreign one. Instead, it’s an art form that strives to transcend cultural differences and get across the tone and feeling of the original work.

“I’m trying to be respectful to the atmosphere, for example, of the original, but they’re my sentences,” Croft says. “And every time I translate a word, I’m choosing not to translate it in seventeen other ways. I’m making something that I think is beautiful in a way that is similar to how I found Olga’s original sentence to be beautiful. But it is the way I would write it.”

It’s a job that requires someone who is not only fluent in a foreign language but a writer as well, and Croft is both. In addition to her translations of works by Tokarczuk and others, Croft recently published her own memoir, “Homesick.”

In the book, Croft weaves together a combination of short vignettes, photographs and captions to explore her youth in Oklahoma as an home-schooled linguistic prodigy. She details a turbulent emotional life, and her complex relationship with a younger sister plagued with mysterious seizures.

Croft, who holds a doctorate in comparative literature from Northwestern University, sees her dual careers as a translator and an author as intertwined.

“I always saw translation as a kind of apprenticeship,” she says. “I chose to translate authors whose work I really admired, and from also thought I could learn something from.”

In a curious linguistic reversal, she began writing “Homesick” in another language, Spanish, which she learned while living in Argentina. She went there in January 2010 to do scholarly research on Witold Gombrowicz, a Polish writer stranded there during World War II, but fell in love with Buenos Aires. She stayed for seven years.

“I wanted to write a series of prose equivalents to Polaroid snapshots, so that is why I choose to do those little vignettes,” she says. “It was a form I was interested in trying out, and also I was helpfully limited by my non-native Spanish [to] working in that form.”

In the book, Croft unflinchingly describes the painful experiences of her youth, from watching her sister being carried away by an ambulance crew, to her first awkward stirrings of love for her Russian tutor and a mental-health crisis that she experienced as a 15-year-old college freshman at the University of Tulsa. She originally envisioned publishing it only in Argentina as a novel.

She then rewrote the manuscript in English so that her younger sister Anne Marie could read and comment upon it. “I came to love the English version, equally,” Croft says.

She sold the book to Unnamed Press, a Los Angeles publisher. Eventually, at the suggestion of her editor, Croft converted “Homesick” from fiction into a memoir. She also began to incorporate snapshots — some taken by their mother in childhood, others taken by Croft during her extensive travels in Europe and elsewhere — and added the captions, which are fragments of a fictional sister-to-sister letter from the Spanish-language novel. (The narrative mostly hews closely to her actual life story, though she calls herself Amy in the book and renames her sister Zoe.)

“I guess I was feeling when I was writing that I’d gotten an NEA (National Endowment for the Arts) grant for my translation of ‘Flights,’ and I was in this very happy place in Argentina,” Croft says. “I thought, I’ve come so far. I wish my 15- or 16-year-old self could have been aware of all the possibilities that awaited her. So when I decided to write about the difficulties I had when I was a teenager, it was a way of getting this message out.”

Croft says the experience of writing two versions of the book in different languages has “expanded my own thinking of what translation is.” But she’s not the only one translating it. On her website, homesickbook.space, other translators have posted excerpts from her book rendered in 22 different languages, including Serbian, Farsi, Mandarin and Haitian Creole.

After the success of “Homesick,” Croft now is at work on second book, a novel titled “Fidelity,” about an unstable relationship between an author and a translator.

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Simultaneously, she is at work on another ambitious project — a translation of Tokarczuk’s Polish-language novel “The Books of Jacob,” which runs 1,000 pages and deals with Jacob Frank, the leader of an 18th century heretical Jewish sect.

Croft says translators tend to have their own individual methods. She starts with a Microsoft Word file of a Polish novel in one window on her computer screen, along with an array of Polish, English and Polish-to-English dictionaries in other windows, along with the Google search engine so that she can check place names and historical terms.

Like a novelist, Croft does multiple drafts. On the first attempt, she does a rough translation into the Polish prose, including changing the order of the words to conform with English grammar. “I don’t do a literal word-for-word translation, because that would be unreadable,” she explains. “At this point, I’ve been translating Polish for 15 years, so it’s kind of automatic.”

Croft then does a second draft, in which she doesn’t look at the Polish text and concentrates on refining the writing. “In the second, I have to make each sentence look good,” she says. If there’s time, she’ll do a third draft as well, in which she compares her work to the original Polish version and looks for differences to be reconciled.

While Croft has developed a friendly relationship with Tokarczuk and is regularly in touch with her, she says that the Polish writer takes a relatively hands-off approach.

“She doesn’t go over line by line,” Croft says. “Olga writes so many books that she is always ready to move on to the next one after she publishes something. She doesn’t micromanage her translators, which I really like. She recognizes that the translation needs to be its own thing and the translator needs to be left in peace to write the translation. But she’s always available for questions.”

To a reader, it may be difficult to tell how much of the prose is the original author and how much is the translator, but Croft says it’s possible to discern the translator’s skill from the overall quality of the book. Snappy dialogue, for example, is an indication of a deft translation.

“It’s hard to make something sound natural,” she says. “Humor is also very difficult to translate. It’s another good way to tell if a translator is good or not.”

Croft says she’s interested in finding an innovative way to combine writing and translation in a single work, perhaps in the form of a online novel or multimedia app in which she would join forces with Tokarczuk. “I love the idea of doing a multilingual collaboration,” she says.

Kiger has written for GQ, Sierra magazine, Fast Company and History.com. He’s also co-written two nonfiction books, “Poplorica” and “Oops.”

The world’s first Nutella cafe opened in Chicago last May and a New York site followed this fall. Now fans of the popular hazelnut and cocoa spread can stay inside a pop-up Hotella Nutella in California’s Napa Valley — but only for a weekend. Instead of making a reservation, you must submit a 60-second video about how Nutella makes your breakfast an epic experience.

If your video is selected (only three winners will be chosen), you and a guest will receive round-trip airfare and three days at the hotel to savor the sweet life.

And there’s more.

While you’re surrounded by oversized Nutella pillows and rugs in a branded kitchen and bedroom, you’ll be served “breakfast dinner” by Food Network celebrity judge Geoffrey Zakarian, brunch by Oakland’s Brown Sugar Kitchen owner Tanya Holland and artsy pancakes by Dancakes.

The Hotella Nutella will be open Jan. 10 to 12 only. To enter, upload your video, which can be up to 60 seconds long, to the website by 9 p.m. Pacific time Dec. 8 (and you must be 21 or older). The “hotella” is actually a private residence in Napa Valley that will be transformed by wallpaper, floor mats and bedspreads bearing the product’s familiar jars.

Nutella, for those who don’t know, is a European breakfast spread created in 1964. In 2018, brawls broke out among shoppers after French supermarkets discounted jars of the sweet stuff. It gradually made its way to America, where it has won loyal fans, particularly among millennials.

This isn’t the first food-branded hotel to come to California.

In August, Taco Bell created a similar pop-up experience in Palm Springs when it took over the V Palm Springs for a weekend. “When the doors to the hotel opened, the kitchen was turning out fried chicken bites, guacamole, crudité, Caesar salad, fish tacos and veggie wraps,” Jenn Harris of the L.A. Times wrote about her experience. “Taco Bell chef Rene Pisciotti created the hotel menu items as riffs on the actual Taco Bell menu.”

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Which is the most stressful job at an airline? Pilot? Flight attendant? Lost-baggage troubleshooter? Chief executive?

If you chose one of those positions, I would respectfully disagree. As a flight attendant employed at a legacy carrier for more than 30 years, I’ve had a ringside seat to what customer service agents endure. From where I stand, they are saddled with an airline’s most stressful gig.

Under pressure to get flights out on time, an agent working the departure desk faces a barrage of questions to which they’re often forced to say no.

Will you give me a first-class upgrade? Can I change my middle seat for one at the window? The overhead bins are full; can I still carry on my luggage? Is the flight departing on time? Will I make my connecting flight in Chicago?

No. No. No. No. Sorry, ma’am. Sorry, sir. The answer, unfortunately, is no.

Displeased by such responses, some passengers lose it so completely that police officers are summoned.

In a recent report by the U.S. Government Accountability Office, a watchdog organization providing Congress and federal agencies with objective, reliable information, 46 of the 104 customer service agents interviewed said passengers had verbally threatened them. Twelve said they had been physically assaulted, and all said they were verbally harassed.

I’ve heard passengers scream because the agent could not grant a business-class upgrade. One day, I saw a man sprint toward the departure gate, gasping for breath, and when the agent told him the flight had departed, he slammed his carry-on to the floor and directed a rage-filled expletive at her.

I’ve seen passengers burst into tears, pound their fists on the departure desk, berate, scold and threaten to sue agents for issues beyond their control.

I’ve even seen police officers come to the agents’ defense. One such episode occurred recently at Miami International Airport.

On Oct. 31, I prepared to work an all-night flight from Miami to São Paulo, Brazil. The equipment scheduled for that flight, a Boeing 777-300, accommodates 304 passengers: eight people in first class, 52 in business and 244 in the main cabin.

When my crew reached the departure gate, agents informed us of an equipment change. Instead of working the 777-300, we would be flying to São Paulo on a 777-200.

The change created challenges for our agents because the 777-200 has an entirely different seating configuration. This aircraft holds 273 passengers, which means 31 fewer seats. There is no first-class cabin. Business class consists of 37 seats.

Over the loudspeaker, an agent announced that passengers needed to check in at the departure desk to receive new seat assignments.

The outrage began.

Three first-class passengers were downgraded to business class. Eighteen business-class passengers were downgraded to coach. (Each downgraded traveler received a $600 travel voucher and a refund for the difference in airfare.) Dozens of main-cabin passengers received new seat assignments that were, in many cases, far from their traveling companions or in locations (center seats, for example) they deemed uncomfortable.

Although a few passengers volunteered to take a later flight, others had no choice but to do so.

At the departure desk, anger morphed into hostility. Passengers directed obscenities in English and Portuguese at the agents. Then a phalanx of passengers closed in on the desk.

When a frustrated passenger grabbed an agent by the arm, colleagues summoned airport police.

Moments later, when the police showed up, even the most vociferous protesters settled down. The passenger who grabbed the agent was not arrested. She was, however, banned from the flight.

Finally, about 1 a.m. — more than an hour after our scheduled departure — the boarding process began. Passengers filed onto the aircraft, shaking their weary heads in disbelief.

Bags were stowed. Everyone settled into their seats. My crew anxiously awaited the catering truck, which had been delayed partly because of the change in aircraft.

By the time the truck showed up and caterers finished stocking the galleys, our first officer had timed out because of Federal Aviation Administration crew rest restrictions.

The flight was canceled.

When the purser made the announcement, a collective groan echoed through the aircraft. All 273 passengers were instructed to remove their bags, exit the plane and stand in a long winding queue, at the front of which stood a beleaguered agent who provided hotel vouchers and apologies while police officers kept a watchful eye.

The Government Accountability Office report reveals, “no comprehensive data are available to determine the nature and frequency of passenger assaults — including verbal threats, attempted physical acts or actual physical acts — against airline customer service agents at airports.”

Although physical assaults by passengers are rare, agents are subjected to verbal abuse almost daily. It’s a thankless job requiring patience and thick skin. The same could be said about flight attendants with one notable exception: We aren’t tasked with explaining to passengers why their travel plans got flushed down the toilet.

Instead, when that São Paulo trip was canceled, all 16 crew members on the flight were removed from duty. As the agents processed hotel vouchers for 300 unhappy passengers, we flight attendants dragged our roll-aboards past the seemingly endless queue and headed for home.

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If someone walked up to you and asked for $5 for no reason, would you hand it over? How about $18? Would you mind terribly leaving that behind?

Welcome to your most recent helping of outrage. My name is Catharine Hamm, and I’m lucky to work with a couple of guys who pinch pennies as hard as I do. Mike Hiller, who spends a lot of time walking the 4.2 miles of the Vegas Strip, came across a mystery fee on a restaurant menu and started asking questions. Staff writer Christopher Reynolds caught wind of a new way to raise revenue in Los Cabos, Mexico, and also started asking questions. Catch up with the infuriating results below.

We also have answers to questions about how (or whether) you should travel to Cuba, where you can best see the full moon and what motivates author Paul Theroux in his new book on Mexico, plus a terrific guide to making sure you have the right plug when you travel abroad. There is also news of a cannabis consumption lounge in Las Vegas, a final farewell to Vegas performing icons and a weekend escape that will help you see the light.

All this to get you in the holiday-travel planning mood (it need not be a bad mood) in the End paper, which, magically, appears at the very end. Hey ho, let’s go.

It’s not a tax; it’s a fake fee

But it’s real enough if you pay it. Mike Hiller, who prowls the Vegas Strip and pokes into the city’s other corners as well, was eating at a Strip restaurant and noticed what he called “an odd charge labeled ‘CNF,’ but since it sounded official, I paid it,” he said in an email. “Then I spotted it again at another restaurant and began to ask questions. The answers all led to a single answer: made-up fees that add up to extra profits for the owners.” Reader Hiller’s piece on fees that can fake you out, and what you can do about them.

It’s not a tax; it’s a donation

When you land in Los Cabos, you’ll have a chance to give away $18 of your hard-earned money. The “donation” goes to improving health care, housing, education and more in Baja California.

Here’s the thing: It’s not an impuesto, or tax, and it’s been incorrectedly reported in trade media as one. You just hand it over or you don’t; the government expects to gather about $25 million from this collection, which you can drop at an airport kiosk.

Should Cuba be on your bucket list?

That’s a tough one to answer. Catherine Watson, formerly travel editor for the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, first went to the island nation in 1999 and has been back five more times in the ensuing years. Her piece makes arguments for and against a visit there in a gentle, almost lyrical way. Definitely worth reading.

Then there are the practical aspects of going to Cuba. My On the Spot column looks at the newest changes and challenges in planning a trip there.

Finally, free airfare to Cuba is our deal of the week. InsightCuba is offering free airfare from Miami to Havana for its Cuba tours, which it has been leading since 2000, Mary Forgione writes.

A new wrinkle in cannabis consumption

You can’t smoke marijuana in public in Nevada; you can smoke it at home. But if you’re visiting, where do you consume legal cannabis? It’s not going to be in your hotel room, because generally, these are not classified as private residences. It’s a bad idea in a rental car, since it could bring a fee. That’s why lounges present an answer, but the state delayed permission to open such places for a couple of years.

Enter the Vegas Tasting Room at NuWu Cannabis Marketplace, where you can try before you buy. And why can this place do this when others cannot? Read Jay Jones’ story to find out.

A light touch in Paso Robles

Terry Gardner took a Weekend Escape to Paso Robles to see Bruce Munro’s “Field of Light,” 58,000 solar flowers that put on quite a show after dark — and before, Gardner writes. For her, it suggests the possibilities of solar power, and for everyone, it is a new way to be mesmerized by California’s landscape.

‘Plain of Snakes’ has a bite

At 78, Paul Theroux, who has more than 50 books and novels to his credit, could be playing golf somewhere or sipping his morning coffee while meeting the day. Instead, he’s talking about a new book that grew out of road trips in Chiapas and Oaxaca, Mexico, looking for, as writer Christopher Reynolds said, “grit and grace beyond the usual information Americans get about their southern neighbors.” It’s a fascinating talk with a man who has made a career of taking us to other worlds.

Put a plug in it

You’ve arrived in a foreign country and you want to recharge — yourself, of course, but also your electronics. But what’s that funny-looking configuration? It’s an outlet but it doesn’t fit any plug you have. Terry Gardner explains what you’ll need to plug in around the world — something to bookmark or print before your next overseas adventure.

Where to see that old devil moon

We are seeing now the second-to-the-last full, or full-ish, moon of the year. (The last one is Dec. 11.) If you want to do something beyond just hanging out in the backyard (and maybe more romantic), Mary Forgione suggests five places to get a better look.

And pretty soon, you won’t see …

… Donny and Marie. Can you believe it? After 11 years, they’re calling it a day. Their original stint was supposed to be just a few weeks, but they soon become some of the most beloved performers in Vegas. You still have a little time to jump on a plane to see their last show.

What we’re reading

Thanks a lot, Nick Butter. He makes the rest of us look like total slackers. Most of us have never run one marathon, never mind a marathon in every U.N.-recognized country in the world, Jack Guy reports for CNN Travel. OK, so it probably took Butter a couple of decades, right? Nope. He began Jan. 6, 2018, and finished his last challenge in Greece. He burned through 10 passports and often went home to Britain just to get a new visa. Well done, mate.

Here’s something else to feel bad about if you’re a flier: fuel tankering. Writing for Quartz, Natasha Frost explains that it means taking along extra fuel so the airline can save a few pennies. Nothing wrong with that — except that the weight of the extra fuel increased the carbon imprint by almost a million tons a year across Europe, a June report notes.

Now that we are in the age of flight shaming — that is, blaming people for the air travel that helps indulge their passion — will people actually heed the call for restraint? Even KLM, Jessica Baron writes for Forbes, is urging greater responsibility, suggesting taking the train or canceling in-person meetings that really could be done by phone. It’s a fascinating discussion of our willingness to pay for pleasures that imperil the Earth.

What you could be reading

If only you perused our newsletter home page, that is. There’s lots to choose from — sports, food, real estate, the day’s headlines. And here’s the best news: They’re free and, in this case, you do not get what you paid for. You get much more, because they’re free and you’re getting news that’s shaped just for you. Stop by our newsletters center.

You might like these enough to subscribe to the L.A. Times as a whole. Head over to our subscription center to see your options, some of which cost less than a gallon of gas.

And finally, let us hear from you. We love fan mail, of course, but we also like to know what’s on your mind and how we can improve this newsletter. Write to us at [email protected]. When we say we look forward to seeing you, we mean it. Thank you.

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Did you know you can take a turkey in your carry-on bag? I didn’t, but this is what I love about my job: I learn new stuff every day. What I haven’t learned: how to ensure your carry-on doesn’t smell like Thanksgiving going forward.

We’ll offer lots of tidbits for your holiday travel toolkit in the Nov. 17 newspaper’s Travel section, and online as well. This year, there have been changes at LAX that will affect your comings and goings, changes in how you might buy a bus ticket, changes in costs. If you don’t fly often and you’re going to travel around the holidays, have a look so you’ll be prepared.

Here’s my hard-won wisdom. You can never be fully prepared for holiday travel. Some things, sure. But …

• Carry some cash, and not just $20 bills. I keep a jar for $1 bills and $5 bills that I gather between trips and scoop them up before leaving home, because no skycap I’ve ever known takes a debit card.

• Also take a credit card. I well remember the call from my stepdaughter and her husband, who had taken a connecting flight to New Jersey to visit his family. They weren’t in New Jersey; they were in Chicago’s O’Hare, and they weren’t getting to New Jersey anytime soon.

Two mistakes here: First, a connecting flight through Chicago in winter (or summer, spring or fall) is rarely a good idea. Second, if weather cancels your flight, you’re on your own. It is not the airline’s responsibility to put you up. If you are carrying a credit card, you won’t have to call your father to ask him to put your hotel on his credit card.

• If you have to hitchhike to the airport because it’s snowing so hard the airport bus isn’t running, chances are good that your flight isn’t going anywhere either. Today, we’d look at an app (FlightStats, Flight Tracker or FlightAware, among them) or just call the airline to find out, but in the dark ages before that, there was … nothing. Because finding a pay phone in a snowstorm isn’t really an option if you’re strolling down the shoulder of an interstate highway.

That was my first year in college, and I was desperate to get home for the holidays — so desperate I took leave of my senses, if, indeed, at 18, I had any. A businessman inching his way along the highway leaned his head out his car window and asked if I wanted a ride. I was freezing, my suitcase was wet and I knew better, but I said yes. I was lucky. He was a nice guy in a city that a little more than a year later would begin seeing the monstrous results of a serial killer who remained at large for more than 30 years.

So go ahead. Take leave and go home or to Grandma’s or to be with the friends who have become your family. Just don’t take leave of your senses. Because we want you to travel safely and well and know that we will be here, having taken no stupid risks, to welcome you home.

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Born in England and raised in London and Scotland, Kathryn Ireland arrived in Los Angeles in 1986. Prior to launching her interior design business in the early 1990s, Ireland was an actress, clothing designer and filmmaker. Today she is considered one of the most influential interior and textile designers in the world, and recently launched her newest design venture, the Perfect Room. Ireland at home in Santa Monica. 

(Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)

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Ireland’s Santa Monica home. 

(Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)

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Ireland’s Santa Monica home. 

(Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)

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Ireland’s Santa Monica home. 

(Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)

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Ireland’s Santa Monica home. 

(Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)

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Ireland’s Santa Monica home. 

(Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)

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Ireland’s Santa Monica home. 

(Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)

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Ireland’s Santa Monica home. 

(Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)

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A comfortable pet. 

(Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)

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Kathryn Ireland. 

(Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)

As one of the leading interior and textile designers in the United States, Kathryn M. Ireland has written six books, starred in Bravo’s “Million Dollar Decorators” and brought her whimsical, no-nonsense bohemian style to the homes of A-list celebrities, including Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Steve Martin. Now with the launch of her website the Perfect Room, she’s bringing the best of the design world to everyone’s doorstep.

Think of it as an elite Pinterest, committed to the “bespoke and custom,” she said.

“It’s always interested me how we could make the design industry streamlined,” said Ireland, who envisioned a platform that offered inspired interior designs from the best in the field, as well as everything for purchase to achieve that exact look.

The team of 12 designers — including Ireland, Rachel Ashwell, David Netto and fellow “Million Dollar Decorators” Martyn Lawrence Bullard and Jeffrey Alan Marks — created spaces for outdoors, living areas, bedrooms and even hallways, with a variety of aesthetics and moods.

If Ashwell’s cushy white couch and feminine accents in her “Antique Inspired” living room aren’t your fancy, you may prefer Marks’ leather-laden “Modern Malibu” living room.

“You can buy a whole room or one piece from the room. The more you buy, the better price you get,” said Ireland, whose $65,286 Cape Cod living room is the most expensive full suite of the 37 currently available on the site (her $5,965 Relaxed Ibiza Patio carries the lowest overall price tag).

The virtual shopping bag can hold several entire rooms, or individual items — a melamine dinner plate for $19, or a pedestal dinner table that’s more than $10,000. A menu of services includes drawing up a floor plan, a personalized design consultation, and delivery and installation of furniture, fabric and framed art for the walls.

“We all know how to work with different budgets, and I thought it was a great way to reach a lot of people in parts of the country that aren’t as well served as we are in bigger cities,” Ireland said.

How did you get your start in interior design?

When I moved to L.A., I was in the film business and married to a director, and before we bought a house we moved every year to a bigger house because we had another child. So I got really good at re-creating a home quickly. I can’t bear living out of boxes. By the time we moved in, the house was done and the curtains were hung.

Do you have a trademark aesthetic you bring to your different projects and designs?

Bohemian, livable, comfortable — English country meets California beach life. I just like rooms that make you feel good when you walk into them. So often there will be beautiful homes but when you walk into them, they’re stagnant, with no energy. So it’s about creating the energy, lifestyle and knowing how to live.

What needs and trends are you noticing most from homeowners these days?

I think it’s accessibility. The clients and people we’re attracting don’t have much time but trust our style. A lot of the people that I’m seeing are women over 50 who are helping their kids and have used decorators before and know what they’re doing, are very savvy and worldly and created their own style. Because of things like Airbnb, instead of keeping their money in the bank, people are investing in second, third or even fourth holiday or rental homes, or helping their kids invest in properties.

Were any items made especially for the Perfect Room?

I did a furniture collection that’s available only on the site. These are all items I’ve been custom-making for clients over my 25-year career. They’re now available at a better price point.

Tell me about your design boot camps and workshops.

People came to me over three to four days and we’d talk about how I became a decorator, PR, floor plans, budgets and agreements. We’d send a questionnaire about what they wanted to learn; some people would be working on one room, some people were getting ready to work with an architect and wanted to know the protocol. We’d go to the flea market in Santa Monica, showrooms and workshops, and spend one-on-one time with designers like Martyn Lawrence Bullard. Jeffrey Alan Marks would come to dinner, or anyone who was available. They’re such a success.

When New York’s climate change lawsuit against Exxon Mobil Corp. went on trial last month in a Manhattan courtroom, the energy giant’s lead lawyer took great pains to emphasize that the state’s allegations weren’t really about climate change.

After all, Theodore Wells said, Exxon was accused of hatching a cynical scheme to mislead investors. The case was about an alleged securities fraud intended to mask the impact of global warming on Exxon’s finances, not a grand reckoning of its responsibility for the man-made phenomenon.

The reason the claims are so narrow is that New York couldn’t find enough evidence to support allegations that Exxon hid its knowledge of global warming. But in the end, that may not matter: Regardless of who wins, there are states, municipalities and environmental groups suing or planning to sue Exxon and other energy companies for being the main perpetrators of a looming planetary catastrophe.

And while a victory for New York could be a public relations boon for those pending cases, a win for Exxon won’t stop that litigation — most of which is based on very different legal arguments.

New York Supreme Court Justice Barry Ostrager, who presided over the non-jury trial, is scheduled to hand down a verdict in the coming weeks. Whoever loses is almost certain to appeal.

Just as the New York trial was getting underway last month, Massachusetts Atty. Gen. Maura Healey hit Exxon with a new consumer lawsuit. Her complaint cut to the chase, accusing the company of withholding dire climate warnings by its own scientists for decades and duping the state’s consumers with bogus “green” gasoline ads, among other things.

“It’s well past time for Exxon to tell the truth and be held accountable for the misrepresentations it has made to every investor, at every gas station, on every television, and online,” Healey said in a statement. Exxon has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing.

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Additionally, more than a dozen “public nuisance” lawsuits seek to hold energy companies responsible for billions of taxpayer dollars spent on acclimating to a warming world, or picking up the pieces following unprecedented hurricanes, floods and wildfires.

Rhode Island filed such a complaint last year, while a dozen city governments from California, Washington, Colorado, Maryland and New York have also sued. In just the last few weeks, the mayor of Honolulu said his city would soon file a nuisance suit of its own, comparing the litigation to lawsuits against Big Tobacco that led to a $246-billion industry settlement. The Hawaiian island of Maui, its own county, has also said it plans to sue.

Since the cost of slowing global warming (and acclimating to damage already done) could reach tens of trillions of dollars, the stakes in these cases — if they survive — may be significantly higher than those faced by cigarette makers.

Patrick Parenteau, an environmental law professor at Vermont Law School, said the growing number of nuisance cases are supported by claims of a well-funded “campaign of deception” and Big Oil’s history of opposing legislation intended to address the problem.

So far, nuisance cases have met with mixed success, as the companies fight to move them from state to federal courts, where they often get more favorable treatment. Last month, the U.S. Supreme Court let officials from Maryland, Rhode Island and Colorado press ahead with three state lawsuits that accuse more than a dozen oil and gas companies, including Exxon, of contributing to climate change.

Local governments have won rulings in California, where a federal judge moved a climate change lawsuit by the city of Imperial Beach and San Mateo and Marin counties back to state court. (The companies have appealed.)

Plaintiffs have lost nuisance cases as well. In a federal lawsuit filed in early 2018, New York City accused Exxon, Chevron, BP, Royal Dutch Shell and ConocoPhillips of promoting fossil fuel sales despite knowing the damage they pose to the planet. A U.S. district judge threw out the lawsuit, which was based on a state law, saying federal law governs carbon dioxide emissions. The city appealed, with arguments scheduled for Nov. 22.

A spokesman for Shell said the company doesn’t “believe the courtroom is the right venue to address climate change.” None of the other defendant companies responded to emails seeking comment.

Lawsuits filed by the cities of Oakland and San Francisco met the same fate when they were dismissed. Appeals are pending in those cases as well.

“Unless governments take adequate action against climate change, which is highly unlikely, lawsuits will continue to pile up,” said Michael B. Gerrard, director at the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law at Columbia Law School.

But states and cities seeking redress in the courts say it is the only avenue open to them. The federal government under President Trump has spent the last three years trying to undo climate regulations put in place by President Obama, including taking the U.S. out of the landmark Paris Agreement intended to reduce fossil fuel emissions globally.

Hana Vizcarra, a staff attorney at Harvard Law School’s Environmental and Energy Law Program, said nuisance lawsuits are difficult to make because plaintiffs must “draw the line” from a company’s actions to the damage done. The continued fight over state jurisdiction will be crucial, she said.

“If they survive the fights over venue, there will be a continued appetite to bring these cases,” Vizcarra said.

The New York trial turned on the two ways Exxon measured how much climate change — and specifically climate change-related laws — would affect its bottom line. According to the company, its “proxy cost” was a public number representing how much fossil fuel prices would fall as those regulations diminished fossil fuel demand. The other number was an internal “greenhouse gas cost” associated with new extraction projects, such as fracking or oil sands, it said. New York said the proxy cost was at one point $80 a ton while the greenhouse gas cost was $40.

New York said the two gauges were like keeping two sets of books—clear evidence that Exxon was lying to the investing public. The proxy cost made the company look like it was being fully transparent about its financial future, New York argued, but since Exxon used the lower cost when deciding whether to dig up more oil, it was a classic case of securities fraud, since investors were buying stock based in part on a lie.

Exxon responded that New York’s case made no sense, since the greenhouse gas cost was narrowly focused, used to measure the viability of specific projects, and — most importantly — more optimistic. What, Exxon argued, would it gain by fooling itself?

During the course of the trial, former Exxon CEO Rex Tillerson took the stand in what may have been the most dramatic point of the three week-proceeding. New York often elicited testimony intended to show that Exxon sought to defraud investors, a strategy that seemed to annoy Ostrager.

The lawsuit was filed in part under New York’s powerful Martin Act, which doesn’t require a showing of intent. It only requires that New York show Exxon shareholders could have been misled by the company’s actions. As the trial ended, the state dropped counts based on common law fraud alleging that Exxon’s statements about its accounting were intended to defraud investors, and that investors relied on them when buying stock. The remaining two counts, brought under the Martin Act, require the judge to find only that Exxon’s statements were sufficient to mislead to investors, regardless of whether Exxon meant to do so.

Robert McTamaney, a New York-based corporate attorney, calls the Martin Act “an atrocity,” given how low the bar for victory can be. As for the nuisance lawsuits, he concurred that they may gain traction if they are allowed to proceed in state courts. Nevertheless, he said he believes the courts are the wrong place to settle the question of climate change.

“The correct outcome, in my judgment, is to leave this area to the Congress and legislatures,” McTamaney said. “And in any event, it is a global problem which demands a global solution.”

Others are intent on using the courts to make those responsible for the global crisis pay to fix it. New York’s lawsuit against Exxon, said Daniel Rohlf, a lawyer at Earthrise Law Center, is the first battle in a larger war. A professor at Lewis and Clark Law School in Portland, Ore., Rohlf said a ruling against Exxon would have a big effect on pending litigation elsewhere.

“It would send a loud and clear signal to both corporations and the public that carbon emissions aren’t free,” he said. “The time has come to account for those costs in the way we do business, and in the way we live.”