http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/07/us/california-today-hollywood-boulevard-souvenir-vendors.html 2016-10-07 14:41:32 California Today: Kitschy Commerce Hides Famed Hollywood Handprints Friday: Hollywood vendors block a renowned courtyard, the chief executive of Backpage is charged with pimping, and a U.C. Davis researcher is killed in Ethiopia. === Good morning. (Want to get California Today by email? Let’s turn it over to For many tourists, Los Angeles is Hollywood. And Hollywood is Hollywood Boulevard, with the Walk of Fame, the celebrity stars in the sidewalk, the Egyptian Theater, and of course, the corner of Hollywood and Vine. But truth be told, for all its history and kitsch, Hollywood Boulevard is also a place of street performers dressed up as Spider-Man hustling passing tourists, impassable sidewalks, street vendors and the occasional crime that draws of out-of-town Despite all that, Alison Martino, who has popular a Ms. Martino posted the photograph The reaction was not all negative. Escott O. Norton, the head of the He added, “The owners of the Chinese are very careful with the historic Forecourt and I have met with them specifically about it.” Nonetheless, it drew a flood of attention. “I’ve never seen, in six years that I’ve run this page, this kind of emotional reaction as I’ve seen to the junk carts on this sacred ground,” Ms. Martino said. “It’s a cemetery.” By Monday, the vendors had disappeared, presumably asked to move by the Chinese theater. The owners did not respond to a request for comment. It was impossible to determine if this was just a temporary clearance or a permanent new policy. Next up? The street performers. “It’s a freak show,” Ms. Martino said. “Now that we’ve had a victory in the Forecourt, let’s clean up the Hollywood Walk of Fame.” See reporting in The New York Times on the Nov. 8 ballot initiatives: And dig into analyses of all 17 statewide measures by the • The chief executive of Backpage, a website known for sexually oriented ads, was arrested on a California warrant and • California’s • Theranos, the embattled blood-testing company based in Palo Alto, said that it would • Why a • • Many fans expected at the • The storied concert site • The photographer Randi Malkin Steinberger captured the incongruously Sharon Gray, a plant scientist at U.C. Davis, was killed Tuesday during protest violence outside Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia. She was 30. Ms. Gray, a postdoctoral student, was traveling through an area of the country that has been engulfed by antigovernment demonstrations when a mob threw stones at the vehicle she was riding in, striking her in the head, officials said. Details of the attack remained unclear, said Savithramma Dinesh-Kumar, the chairman of the U.C. Davis plant biology department. “Sharon was such a bright human being,” Ms. Gray’s family said in a statement provided by her husband, RJ Cody Markelz. “We have been so lucky to have shared part of our lives with her.” Ethiopia In recent days, crowds have attacked several vehicles in the wake of a stampede last weekend that killed more than 50 people, Ms. Gray was traveling with Siobhan Brady, an associate professor in U.C. Davis’s plant biology department, who was unhurt and en route back to the United States, university officials said. The State Department was arranging for Ms. Gray’s body to be flown out as well, Professor Dinesh-Kumar said. Ms. Gray was trying to understand how climate change was affecting plant life, and traveled to Ethiopia to attend a meeting about her research. Ms. Gray In 2014, she was “She was destined for a great future,” Professor Dinesh-Kumar said. “We knew she was going to be some kind of star in plant biology.” He added that Ms. Gray was also endlessly upbeat. “Everybody liked her,” he said. Ms. Gray’s family set up a California Today goes live at 6 a.m. Pacific time weekdays. Tell us what you want to see: The California Today columnist, Mike McPhate, is a third-generation Californian — born outside Sacramento and raised in San Juan Capistrano. He lives in Davis. California Today is edited by Julie Bloom, who grew up in Los Angeles and attended U.C. Berkeley.