Headlines: Teddy’s Red Tacos Helps Save Local Mole Legend; Second Hold Put on Garcetti’s India Ambassadorship

Welcome to L.A. TACO’s daily news briefs, where we bring our loyal members, readers, and supporters the latest headlines about Los Angeles politics and culture. Stay informed and look closely.

—Los Angeles lost about 1% of its residents in the first year of COVID, while San Francisco lost 6.7%. [LAT]

—Teddy's Red Tacos has donated $5,000 to La Diosa de Los Moles owner Rocio Camacho to help her restaurant survive, winning our own (imaginary) Taco Peace Prize in the process. [TRT/Instagram]

—How truck-driving may provide both the fertile killing ground and convenient cover for serial killers. [Mel]

—Brazilian singer Pocah detailed her recent hospitalization over stomach pains due to holding in flatulence in front of her boyfriend. [Popcrush]

—"Auto sears," cheap, small, and easy-to-install contraptions that turn pistols and other weapons into fully automatic machine guns, are flooding the U.S. [Vice]

—Cases of the BA.2 variant of the COVID Omicron variant have jumped in one week. [Deadline]

—A second Republican senator from Iowa has placed a hold on Mayor Eric Garcetti's appointment to a U.S. ambassador post in India, citing accusations that he ignored the sexual harassment claims levied against an aide. [LAT]

—Climate activists are really not down with California's embrace of bio-fuel, using methane from cows. [LAT]

—Melina Abdullah, the Cal State professor and co-founder of Black Lives Matter Los Angeles, has lost her lawsuit against the city and former chief Charlie Beck, over a 2018 arrest at a commission meeting that she argued was unlawful. [MNLA]

—Police are looking for a man accused of punching an Anaheim library worker for no reason earlier this month. [KTLA]

—A Ukrainian film producer is slamming the international film festival circuit for continuing to show Russian films and refusing to participate in a boycott. [Deadline]