Rita Klimova; Czechoslovakian Ambassador to U.S.
- Share via
Rita Klimova, 61, a former dissident who became Czechoslovakia’s first ambassador to the United States after the overthrow of Communism. Klimova taught political economics at Charles University in Prague until her dismissal after the 1968 Soviet-led invasion that crushed Alexander Dubcek’s liberal reforms. In 1989, she became spokeswoman for the peaceful “Velvet Revolution” that toppled Communism and brought Vaclav Havel to the presidency. Havel appointed Klimova as ambassador to the United States in 1990. In Prague on Thursday of leukemia.
More From the Los Angeles Times
Podcasts
The latest effort is coming from the L.A. County Board of Supervisors. They just announced a $3 million program in conjunction with some nonprofits groups to test and clean the soil at homes still standing in the areas impacted by the Eaton Fire.
California once bet big on offshore wind to help power its clean-energy future, but the Trump administration is now paying developers billions to walk away from their projects. As California’s remaining offshore-wind leases hang in the balance, the state is fighting back in court.
The Hillside Strangler murders terrorized Los Angeles in the late 1970s. The killers were a pair of sadistic cousins. One confessed. The other was set to stand trial—until L.A. prosecutors flinched.
