Los Angeles Times - 07.10.2026 — 2026-10-07

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PRESIDENT TRUMP dances after his address at the campaign rally in Grand Island, Neb., on Monday.

LAUSD AT 'HIGH RISK' OF FISCAL RUIN

State agency blames increased hiring, raises, other costs. Union doubts findings.

BY HOWARD BLUME

Pressure has intensified on Los Angeles Unified to follow through with emergency budget cuts after a California fiscal crisis oversight team concluded that the school district is at “high risk” for insolvency — and must move quickly to avoid losing control over budget decisions.

The state's school Fiscal Crisis and Management Assistance Team has concluded that the poor financial outlook has been brought on by increased hiring as enrollment declined, employee raises that exceeded the rate of increased state funding, sharply higher costs for educating students with disabilities, and maintaining classroom space for twice as many students as needed.

"The district has not fully addressed deficiencies" identified by the Los Angeles County Office of Education in its fiscal oversight letters, the team stated in a report presented to the school board Tuesday. "The district has not sufficiently adjusted staffing and facilities use in response to declining enrollment."

The financial troubles are especially concerning because the Los Angeles Unified School District has failed to meet past budget reduction targets, the report concluded, and the stakes [See LAUSD, A7]

Millennials choose surprising landing spots

Where Californians relocate diverges by age

By Terry Castleman

Erika Lee, 30, grew up in Diamond Bar, attended USC and started her career in Southern California.

But then she pivoted to crypto and, in February, moved from an apartment in West Hollywood to San Francisco for a job at an artificial intelligence insurance startup.

"I didn't expect to like it so much," Lee said of San Francisco. "I just thought it would be a good opportunity in an industry that is really thriving."

Lee represents one aspect of a generational gap in California's latest demographic shift.

Discussions about such changes often focus on the “California exodus,” or people leaving the Golden State in search of more affordable living, lower taxes and a change of pace.

But new data show that the latest demographic shifts — within and out of California — have relocated people to very various destinations based on their age, and presumably their income level.

Boomers, for example, are decamping to places like Arizona, Nevada and Texas, the data show.

When it comes to much younger Californians, moving is actually hard to do. And when they do, it's to places like Oregon, Utah and Colorado.

And then there are young Angelenos like Lee, who are staying in the state but moving to the Bay Area amid the AI boom. San Francisco is one destination. But another one, surprisingly, is Fresno, which offers a strong job market and significantly cheaper housing prices than in coastal areas.

Since 2021, Fresno has seen “a lot of relocation from the Bay Area and Los Angeles,” said Fresno Mayor Jerry Dyer.

The change began with families relocating to Fresno but working remotely, he said. But now, younger people are also moving in, pushing the age of the average Fresno resident to 31, well below the statewide figure.

"Cost of living

[See Moving, A6]

Couple in Arcadia charged with child abuse conspiracy

Authorities say pair have 21 offspring, most of whom endured beatings at mansion.

BY JAMES QUEALLY

A couple with 21 children — 19 of whom were born through surrogates — ran a “house of horrors” at a sprawling Arcadia mansion, prosecutors said Tuesday, alleging that the pair employed a group of nannies who were encouraged to administer beatings and other punishments.

Prosecutors said that the incidents were captured on camera — and that the parents could be seen laughing at times as their children were forcefully disciplined.

Guojun Xuan, 66, and his wife, 39-year-old Silvia Zhang, were charged Tuesday with multiple counts of conspiracy to commit child abuse and witness intimidation, according to Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. Nathan Hochman. Xuan is also charged with one count of directly abusing a child. The couple are charged with helping one of the nannies avoid arrest after she allegedly hit a 2-month-old so hard he suffered a brain bleed, according to court records and a police affidavit.

The couple, who immigrated from China, pleaded not guilty during a lengthy appearance in a Pasadena courtroom Tuesday afternoon where attorneys argued over their wealth and the likelihood they would flee the U.S. before trial.

Xuan's attorney, Mitchell Krems, said outside the courthouse that the children "love" Xuan and Zhang, who are being vilified due to anti-Chinese racism. Xuan was seated in a wheelchair with a bandage on the back of his neck and intravenous ports sticking out of his chest. Krems said Xuan recently had a bone marrow transplant and is suffering from a rare form of leukemia.

Hochman said the couple founded a surrogacy company in 2021 and duped several women into carry-[See Arcadia, A7]

Trump's bashing of California hits a new extreme

Suggesting Iran could 'take out' L.A. and San Diego draws fierce condemnation.

By Ana Ceballos

WASHINGTON — As President Trump zigzags across the country in the final weeks before the midterm elections, he has made California his favorite foil as he tries to fire up his base.

On Monday, he blamed the Golden State for the rising cost of gas, claimed without evidence that its elections are rigged, and at a Nebraska rally suggested Iran could “take out” Los Angeles and San Diego.

"It's a small price to pay for keeping the world safe, keeping our country safe," Trump said. "They can take out a city, let them take out Los Angeles, let them take out San Diego. This is a very small price to pay."

The president's team on Tuesday said his remarks were misunderstood, arguing the president "clearly"

stated that U.S. cities would have been threatened “if a nuclear Iran hadn’t been stopped.” Trump declined to clarify what he meant by his statements when asked by a reporter Tuesday.

But by then, Trump's remarks had already drawn fierce condemnation from California leaders, including Republican Jim Desmond, a Navy veteran running in a highly competitive race that is key to helping Republicans retain control of the House.

“I vehemently disagree with President Trump’s comments,” Desmond wrote on social media. “America must stand up to Iran and defend our interests, but the first responsibility of our Commander in Chief is to protect the American people and our homeland.”

The backlash exposed the risk of Trump's closing midterm strategy. Bashing California is a reliable applause line in red states like Nebraska, Alabama, Texas and Oklahoma, where the president has been holding rallies trying to ensure his

[See Trump, A6]

DAVID ELLISON bolstered his empire last year by buying Paramount. Above, a couple is ready for a tour.

GENARO MOLINA Los Angeles Times

Paramount deal for Warner closes

Shares of the merged company, now called Skydance, have their first day of trading.

By Meg James

David Ellison emerged with his prized Hollywood juggernaut Tuesday as the merger of Paramount Skydance and Warner Bros. Discovery officially closed.

The \$111-billion transaction culminated a year-long battle by the 43-year-old tech scion to add Warner Bros. Discovery to his family's growing portfolio. Ellison's smaller Paramount fended off the deep-pocketed streaming giant Netflix, hundreds of Hollywood merger opponents and, ultimately, a group of 12 state attorneys general, led by California's Rob Bonta, to stitch up the coveted acquisition.

The Ellison family now controls one of the largest traditional media companies ever formed, with HBO, CNN, CBS, Comedy Central, TBS, Food Network, two traditional Hollywood studios and two major streaming services. His father, Larry Ellison, co-founded Oracle Corp., which owns a substantial stake in the popular social media platform TikTok.

“Today is a historic day, not just for Skydance but for our entire industry,” David Ellison, the company’s chair and chief executive, said in a Tuesday statement. “Our ambition was to bring these two storied studios together and create a stronger competitor, with the talent, resources, and reach to tell great stories in every genre, on every platform, for audiences everywhere.

"Now that ambition is a reality," he said.

David Ellison will face considerable challenges bringing together the prominent brands and workplace [See Paramount, A11]

Woman accused of spying for China

Irvine resident collected, relayed information about a Taiwanese VIP, FBI agents say. CALIFORNIA, B1

Mike Stewart AP

Dodgers regain lead in series

Yamamoto helps L.A. to a 3-1 victory over Atlanta in Game 3. For full coverage, go to latimes.com/dodgers or see our eNewspaper, where subscribers get an exclusive “Playoffs Extra.”

Televangelist fell from grace

Jim Bakker, dead at 86,

built an empire but went

to prison. NATION, A8

Prime Video gets Emmy Awards Streamer's deal comes amid bid for wider audience. BUSINESS, A9

Weather

Very hot.

L.A. Basin: 97/72. B6

For the latest news, go to latimes.com.

Seeking clues to coexistence with donkeys

By Clara Harter

For students at UC Riverside, the start of fall semester means picking up their class syllabus, catching up with friends and snapping selfies with the adorable wild donkeys that roam around the school.

The hoofed Highlanders have been embraced as an unofficial mascot on campus, with Reddit threads dedicated to donkey spotting and burro plushies for sale in the campus store.

The animals' relationship with residents in the surrounding hillside communities of the Inland Empire is more complicated.

Though many residents share a love for the wild burros, others see them as a public safety risk due to the possibility of car crashes, property damage or injuries during close encounters.

STAN LIM UC Riverside

RESEARCHERS at UC Riverside are studying wild donkeys that live nearby and mingle with humans.

And when it comes to decisions about how best to manage the population, tensions often run high.

A community firestorm erupted after San Bernardino County contracted with a Texas-based nonprofit to relocate hundreds of wild donkeys to a sanctuary in the Lone Star State, resulting in death threats against the nonprofit's leader and ultimately leading officials to terminate the agreement last year.

Outrage was sparked again this year after reports that someone (or possibly [See Donkeys, A8]

KAYLA BARTKOWSKI Los Angeles Times

GOP gubernatorial candidate Steve Hilton's "lick it" ad won't win him new votes.

---

What the political pros are saying

Of course, that's just four people — one of whom doesn't even live in California — so it's not much of a sample.

For more insight, we turned to some political professionals.

And who better to weigh in than Fred Davis, the madcap genius behind another infamous California campaign spot, the so-called Demon Sheep ad he concocted for Carly Fiorina's 2010 U.S. Senate campaign. The Felliniesque production included lightning bolts, a Roman column and a man covered in sheep-skin crawling on all fours and leering with a glowing red eye — the point being that Fiorina's rival, Tom Campbell, was supposedly a profligate wolf in fiscal-conservative sheep clothing.

Strange, yes, but definitely more memorable than an accountant in green eyeshade laboring over the books.

Anyway, Davis — who has featured Paris Hilton, bad hair and a giant rat in a crown as part of his out-there oeuvre — loved the new Hilton campaign spot, calling it “super attention-getting, super interesting.” (Which is not the least surprising from a man whose chosen epitaph is, "If you don't notice it, why bother?")

"I think it's a brilliantly done ad," Davis said, "wonderfully written." And, he added, "I can't imagine it gaining him one vote."

Which was sort of the point, no?

Kevin Spillane also appreciates Hilton's effort, given his own Sisyphean struggles as a Republican strategist in California.

“They’re doing something out there and on the edge. I don’t fault them for that,” said Spillane, who supports Hilton and has contributed to his campaign. “It’s a clever concept of trying to get people to do something that they’re not used to doing.”

Which is to say vote for a Republican for statewide office in California.

But Spillane, too, questioned the execution. “I actually was fine with the ad until they got to the ‘lick it’ line,” he said, insisting he is also no prude. “That’s just a little too explicitly sexual.”

---

He's running, but not advancing

To his credit, Hilton has been running hard for governor. Much harder than his Democratic rival and the prohibitive front-runner, Xavier Becerra. Hilton has issued an abundance of policy proposals and spoken before pretty much any group or microphone-wielding reporter or podcaster who'll have him.

None of which has garnered Hilton anywhere near the publicity captured by his racy "Just Try It, California" ad.

Even before the spot aired, Hilton broke new ground during last week's gubernatorial debate when he noted a former member of the Biden administration had referred to Becerra as a "bitch-ass" — apparently the first time that compound adjective had been used in such a high-falutin' setting. Hilton shortly followed with a website, "Bitch-Ass" Becerra," that outlines the alleged failures of the Democrat as President Biden's Health secretary and during his time as California's attorney general.

(For the record, Susan Rice, who used the epithet and was accused of creating an “abusive and dehumanizing workplace” as head of Biden’s Domestic Policy Council, responded by stating her support for Becerra’s gubernatorial candidacy.)

It's hard to see Hilton's name-calling winning him a great many votes, any more than his risque campaign commercial, but maybe that's beside the point. Maybe, as my columnizing colleague Gustavo Arellano suggested in his debate review, Hilton is merely auditioning for a return to his old commentator position on Fox News.

PERSPECTIVES

Hilton's edgy attitude and pugnacious put-downs would place him right at home among the network's collection of trolls, provocateurs and Democrat-bashing gargoyles.

But Hilton should leave the advertising to someone else.

Arkansas Medicaid ad with white moocher sparks backlash

Conservative critics demand to know why video didn't feature a Black woman instead.

THE VIDEO from Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders features an actor playing an unemployed young man.

Sarah Huckabee Sanders campaign

BY LAURA TURBAY AND TERRY TANG

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — A new video from Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders was standard-issue Republican messaging for promoting her state's stricter rules for people on Medicaid. No more could able-bodied people lounge around while receiving taxpayer-funded healthcare, she said — they needed to work.

writer. “Even though that would actually be an accurate portrayal of the problem at hand.”

But the decision to portray an unemployed moocher as a young, white, cheeseball-chomping gamer named Brad upset some conservative commentators last week. Five decades after Ronald Reagan popularized the “welfare queen” trope about people living luxuriously while not working, they wanted to know why the video wasn’t featuring a Black woman instead.

Sean Davis, co-founder of the Federalist website, wrote that “our government has systematically discriminated against white men for decades now, and yet now has the audacity to dishonestly mock young white men as welfare queens.”

Republicans are afraid “to do this ad with ‘Shani-qua’ as the villain,” posted Matt Walsh, a conservative

Never mind that the video was about Medicaid, not welfare, or that most Medicaid recipients in Arkansas are white. The outrage was a reminder of how old tropes are “chronically accessible” images in some voters’ minds, said Ange-Marie Hancock, author of “The Politics of Disgust and the Public Identity of the ‘Welfare Queen.’”

Powell told the Associated Press in an emailed statement.

The welfare queen trope is often used to advance restrictions on public assistance programs.

The debate that streaked across social media was the latest example of how conservatives have recently wrestled with racist views. Last month, a Texas political candidate named Bo French posted a picture of nonwhite students cheering at a University of Texas football game, saying “the problem is now obviously far worse than anyone imagined.” Some Republicans denounced French’s post, while it was embraced by those who fear the country’s changing demographics.

While unsuccessfully running for president in 1976, Reagan complained about a woman in Chicago who was using “80 names, 30 addresses, 12 Social Security cards” to game the system. The story was embellished, but Reagan worked to reshape public assistance programs after winning the White House in 1980.

She thinks the Arkansas video was supposed to appeal to older voters living with unemployed adult children. But conservatives could focus only on race, Hancock said, because the idea of a Black welfare abuser has worked for them for decades.

that make it harder for low-income people, regardless of race, to support themselves, he said.

Allison Butler, author of "The Judgment of Gender: How Women Are Centered and Silenced in Pop Culture," said the debate perpetuated a powerful myth that women of color were siphoning government assistance.

per month to stay in the Arkansas Health and Opportunity for Me Medicaid program, or ARHOME.

“We shouldn’t betray anyone because they are asking for help and they don’t meet your standards,” Jefferson said.

"When you deconstructed that narrative and actually tried to find the source of it ... there was no woman of color who wouldn't get a job and had multiple televisions and a Mercedes-Benz," Butler said.

Created in 1965 as a joint federal and state health insurance program, Medicaid offers free or low-cost medical coverage to people with limited income, including the elderly, children or adults with disabilities who cannot work. Nearly 66 million people were enrolled in Medicaid as of June, according to the Medicaid.gov website.

"We should never confiscate money from hard-working Arkansans to give it away to those who simply choose not to work at all,"

Sanders, who is running for reelection this year, "stands by the ad," said Jordan Powell, her campaign manager.

Barry Jefferson, president of the NAACP Arkansas State Conference, has condemned the Sanders ad for reducing low-income people to a stereotype where poverty is seen as a flaw. It ignores the complexities

Robert Coon, managing partner at Impact Management Group, a political consulting and public-opinion firm with an Arkansas office, said that the welfare work requirement policy is generally favored in Arkansas.

"The longer race and gendered history really points to ideas that African Americans are lazy, they don't do the right thing," she said.

Over 38% of beneficiaries up to age 64 are white, according to 2024 data from research organization KFF. Nearly 19% are Black.

More work requirements for some Medicaid beneficiaries kicked in across the U.S. this year under President Trump's big 2025 tax cut and policy law. A handful of Republican-led states, including Arkansas, are going beyond what the law calls for to prevent fraud, including demanding more documentation if someone is too medically frail to work.

But suggestions the person in the ad should be Black are “overtly racist” and “inaccurate,” Coon said.

In July, Sanders soft-launched mandating that healthy people ages 19 to 64 find work, volunteer or attend school at least 80 hours

About 60% of ARHOME recipients are white and around 18% are Black, according to recent data from the state Department of Human Services.

Right-wing rhetoric about Black Americans and public assistance often ignores how generations of structural racism have produced economic disparities that contribute to their disproportionate participation in these programs.

Fewer Black people than white people overall use social service programs such as Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or food stamps. But at roughly 13% of the U.S. population, Black people make up the largest over-representation of any racial group. They are 18.5% and 25%, respectively, of Medicaid and SNAP recipients.

Those statistics reflect an extremely difficult road for poor Black communities looking to rise out of poverty and build generational wealth.

Arkansas Democratic congressional candidate Chris Jones, who is Black, grew up in a family relying on food stamps. A welfare recipient is not “looking for a way out of work,” but “for a way forward,” he told AP in a statement.

The bigger question, Jones said, is not race but “why so many people who are working hard still struggle to afford groceries, housing, healthcare and the basic necessities of life.”

---

How to contact us

Turbay and Tang write for the Associated Press. Tang reported from Phoenix.

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We also asked the Fabulous Mrs Z. — who has impeccable judgment, notwithstanding all the years she's stayed married to your friendly political columnist — for her response. "It's just so strange and stupid," she said. "Why would he approve this ad? It makes me question his judgment."

Readers' Representative

If you are calling to request a clarification or correction, or you have questions about a story, video or other content, please email readers.representative @latimes.com or leave a message at (877) 554-4000.

(For the record, Hilton said the ad was not AI-generated. He apologized, sort of, to those who took offense.)

Daughter No. 2: "Wtf is this fake woke AI ad? Ew."

Spontaneous Reaction.

Daughter No. 1: "Stupid, infantilizing."

Advertising

For print and online advertising information, go to latimes.com/mediakit or call (213) 237-6176.

What follows is their spontaneous reaction.

Voices MARK Z. BARABAK COLUMNIST

Risque Hilton ad gains publicity but not good kind

L

Hilton ran an ad featuring just such elements, garnering coast-to-coast notice, millions of views and ensuring the tagline — “Now lick it” — while not as resonant as, say, “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself,” will forever live in political infamy.

What the spot tries to do, convince folks in this left-leaning redoubt to be venturesome and vote for Hilton, is not the least offensive, though your friendly political columnist, hardly a prude, found the execution a bit, well, icky.

et's pretend for a moment you're a Republican running for governor in the blue, blue California

Your prospect of winning is small. So small, you could peer through a microscope, blink and miss it. How then, do you draw voters to your candidacy and boost your chances?

Actually, let's not pre-tend. A very real flesh-and-blood Republican, Steve Hilton, is running for California governor and if your idea for grabbing attention doesn't involve a make-believe lesbian couple, double entendre and a soft-core porn vibe, you're very clearly lacking in imagination.

Being a cis white male of a certain age, however, means perhaps we shouldn't be the one to judge. We're certainly not the target audience. So we turned to two of the young-ish, hippest people we know, Daughters No. 1 & 2, who are both well-accomplished 30-somethings and truly upstanding citizens.

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THE WORLD

Physicist wins Nobel for hunting ghost particles

He had the idea to use Antarctic ice to study neutrinos, clues to the universe's evolution.

BY KOSTYA MANENKOV, ADITHI RAMAKRISHNAN AND STEFANIE DAZIO

STOCKHOLM — Belgian-born scientist Francis Halzen won the Nobel Prize in physics Tuesday for his efforts to demystify a rare group of neutrinos, tiny cosmic particles that researchers believe offer clues to how the universe evolved.

“It was a great surprise, and I obviously didn’t expect it,” Halzen said, speaking to the Nobel Committee for Physics by phone from Italy, in a call broadcast at the news conference to announce the winner.

Halzen said it was predicted that he would win the prize, but the announcement still made him feel “strange.”

“I am working on a proposal, and I hope that this prize will help getting it approved,” he said to chuckles from the audience.

Neutrinos are tiny cosmic particles with no electrical charge and extraordinarily small mass, making them difficult to detect. Yet they are everywhere: They spew from stars like the sun, and trillions zip through our bodies every second.

Scientists cannot glimpse the mysterious ghost particles zooming around on their own, so they measure what happens when the particles collide with other bits of matter. Neutrinos bump into other particles only rarely, so scientists build large detectors to improve their odds of catching collisions.

Halzen had the idea to turn the vast Antarctic ice into such a detector. The Nobel committee said his work was instrumental to the construction of the IceCube Neutrino Observatory in Antarctica, which glimpsed the first high-energy neutrinos from faraway galaxies.

“This experiment in the Antarctic is a revolutionary way of understanding the universe that we didn't have before,” said Michael Moloney, chief executive for the American Institute of Physics.

When a neutrino interacts with ice in the detector, it produces a flash of light that's picked up by sensors. The transparent ice makes it easier for scientists to pick up on faint signals from the mysterious ghost particles, and the sensors are buried about 8,200 feet deep to protect against interference from cosmic rays and radiation.

The 82-year-old scientist is affiliated with the University of Wisconsin-Madison, which operates the observatory. Efforts by the Associated Press to reach him were not immediately successful.

Halzen helped pull the curtain back on a rare gang of neutrinos that scientists say hold clues about the development of the universe.

FRANCIS HALZEN was born in Belgium and is affiliated with the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

LAURA PIETRA Bergamo Scienza 2026

"It's all part of working out the story of where we are in the universe, what's our place in the universe, how did our galaxy form?" said Jonathan Bagger, chief executive of the American Physical Society.

In a post on social media, Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever said Halzen is the 11th Belgian to win a Nobel Prize. De Wever called the award “impressive recognition for a lifetime dedicated to shedding light on the great mysteries of the cosmos through its smallest components."

A representative from the IceCube Neutrino Observatory did not immediately return a request for comment. The University of Wisconsin–Madison did not immediately comment when reached by the AP.

Ellen Moons, secretary-general of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, announced the award Tuesday in Stockholm. She is the first woman to head the prestigious academy and present the award.

The prize money this year is about \$1.2 million, whether for an individual, a small group of laureates or an organization.

Last year, three scientists won the Nobel Prize in physics for research on the strange behavior of subatomic particles called quantum tunneling that enabled the ultrasensitive measurements achieved by MRI machines and laid the groundwork for better cellphones and faster computers.

The announcements of this year's prizes began Monday with the Nobel Prize in medicine being awarded to three scientists whose work led to a tool that uses light to help unravel how the brain works.

This week's awards continue with the chemistry prize Wednesday and literature on Thursday. After Friday's peace prize is awarded, the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences will be announced Monday.

Manenkov, Ramakrishnan and Dazio write for the Associated Press. Dazio reported from Berlin and Ramakrishnan reported from New York. Alexa St. John in Detroit contributed to this report.

French police crack down on rallies for school funding

CLASHES erupted as protests in France drew more than 250,000 people Tuesday.

FIRAS ABDULLAH Anadolu

BY NICOLAS GARRIGA AND OLEG CETINIC

PARIS — Police fired tear gas to control crowds in Paris and elsewhere in France on Tuesday as more than a quarter of a million people rallied nationwide to support school pupils demanding more education funding, according to government figures. The protests increased pressure on the administration of departing President Emmanuel Macron.

As pupils again block-

aded high schools, large

crowds waving flags and

placards gathered in Mar-

seille, Strasbourg and other

cities. The demonstrations

showed how protests that

began at a high school in the

Paris region in mid-Septem-

ber have grown into a nation-

wide movement — the latest

of many that have marked

Macron's nearly decade-long

tenure.

“We need to listen to them,” said Léa Monimart, a demonstrator in the northern city of Lille. “They are 17 years old; they are not completely clueless, and they know what they are talking about. It’s important to show that there are adults who support them.”

The Interior Ministry estimated that 256,000 people took part in demonstrations across the country on Tuesday, including 56,000 in Paris, where small groups of protesters clashed with riot officers at a city square during a largely peaceful march through the city.

The widespread use of arrests, tear gas and riot-control weapons against teenagers is fueling defiance and angering some parents and teachers.

Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez said that the police response had been proportionate in “almost all cases” and that the protests had at times turned into riots, requiring police intervention.

French Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu said the government and school leaders must listen to students' concerns and find solutions.

Questioned in Parliament on Tuesday about the protest movement, Lecornu denounced “ultra violence” threatening schools. Responding to criticism of police tactics, he pledged that any “accidents” would be investigated and described allegations that the police are racist as a “lie.”

More than two weeks of class boycotts and school blockades, and policing that has led to more than 6,100 arrests, mostly of minors, have become a tinderbox in the early days of the presidential election campaign.

Felix Barney, a university student, described the police response as disproportionate, saying it doesn't make “any sense to hit minors.”

“Riot police, batons, rubber bullets, tear gas,” said Aurélien Le Coq, a lawmaker with the far-left France Un-bowed party. Its presidential candidate is strongly backing the protests.

The violence is “absolutely unbearable,” Le Coq said.

Nuñez defended police tactics despite a growing number of severe injuries blamed on officers' riot-control weapons. In the latest case, a 15-year-old boy lost a hand Monday in an incident involving a police stun grenade. Nuñez said 715 officers had been injured.

The teenage protesters have struck a chord amid widespread discontent in France. Frustrations extend beyond immediate difficulties, such as fuel prices that have soared because of the Iran war, to broader concerns about constraints on public spending, rising poverty and wealth inequality under Macron, who can't run for a third consecutive term.

Against that backdrop, pupils' complaints that edu-

Ukraine braces for a huge aerial attack after drone deluge

Russia says its air defenses intercepted nearly 900 of the flying weapons.

BY SAMYA KULLAB

KYIV, Ukraine — Russian air defenses intercepted nearly 900 Ukrainian drones overnight over multiple regions of the country, as well as the occupied Crimean peninsula and the Sea of Azov, the Defense Ministry in Moscow said Tuesday.

Unconfirmed media reports said a major fuel depot in the Moscow region was on fire after the attack that killed two people.

RESCUERS work to douse burning ambulances after a strike on a medical facility in Kramatorsk, Ukraine.

Ukrainian Emergency Services

Ukraine's domestically developed long-range drones and, increasingly, missiles have allowed Kyiv to hit Russian soil during the more than $4^{1/2}$ years since Moscow's forces launched a full-scale invasion. Ukraine's forces have hit targets as far east as the Urals and Siberia.

The bigger Russian military's air superiority during the war has made aerial attacks on civilian areas of Ukraine routine.

Ukrainian officials are now bracing for what President Volodymyr Zelensky warned Tuesday is an upcoming “massive” aerial attack by Russia.

"Today, we received updated intelligence on Russia's preparations for a massive strike. We are preparing countermeasures," Zelensky said on social media. "We set deadlines for a significant part of the tasks, and the highest-priority ones are already being implemented."

Ukraine's Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said last week that Kyiv estimates Russia is holding 600 ballistic missiles in reserve and can produce up to 140 ballistic missiles per month. Without ammunition for its U.S.-made Patriot air defense systems, which is in short supply, Ukraine is at the mercy of Russia's ballistic weapons.

Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said 650 drones flew toward the capital region between Monday evening and Tuesday morning. Most were destroyed far away, and 105 were downed as they approached the city, he said.

Sobyanin later reported 68 more drones targeting Moscow were downed during daylight Tuesday morning.

Ukraine has regularly targeted Russian oil refineries and storage depots, claiming last weekend that it had disabled 51% of Russia's oil refining capacity. The claim could not be independently verified. Russian President Vladimir Putin said last week that the attacks had cost Russia roughly 1% of its gross domestic product.

Russia has traditionally been the world's third-largest producer of refined fuel products from crude oil, after the U.S. and China. The Kremlin has banned diesel exports because of the Ukrainian strikes, pushing global prices higher. That prompted President Trump last month to urge Ukraine to stop hitting Russia's refineries.

After several days of targeting bridges in Ukraine's capital, Kyiv, as part of a campaign to make civilian life difficult, Russia attacked one of the bridges over the Dnipro River in the southern city of Zaporizhzhia, according to Mykhallo Semikin, the regional military administration chief.

Traffic across the bridge was temporarily suspended, he said.

A nighttime Russian attack on a Zaporizhzhia residential building wounded five people and a daylight strike on a warehouse in the city caused a large fire, Semikin said.

Russian forces are also trying to choke shipping in Ukrainian ports in the Black Sea, denying Kyiv vital grain export revenue.

The Russian Defense Ministry said its forces overnight struck targets in Ukraine's southern Odesa region on the Black Sea coast with drones. An ammunition depot was hit, as were a bulk carrier in the Chornomorsk port carrying dual-use goods and port infrastructure in Izmail, the ministry said.

A Russian drone strike in the Black Sea hit a cargo ship flying the flag of the

Marshall Islands, killing one person and wounding seven others, Odesa regional governor Oleh Kiper said. The vessel was carrying rapeseed oil, he said.

A senior Russian official criticized developments in Lithuania, saying they would escalate tensions in the region. The Baltic nation has offered to host a U.S. military base and the Lithuanian parliament is voting on a bill to allow the deployment of American nuclear weapons.

"If military infrastructure belonging to a key NATO member moves closer to our borders, then naturally, this can only be perceived as a step toward escalating tensions, just like the deployment of nuclear weapons on the territory of a neighboring state," Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

Trump said Monday that cation funding shortfalls are endangering their futures have found a sympathetic audience.

he would consider estab- lishing a permanent U.S. military base in Lithuania, one of three small Baltic states seen as particularly vulnerable to Russia.

“You say ‘young people are the future,’ so listen to them,” read a handwritten placard attached to a metal barrier outside a Paris school.

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk warned last month that Moscow is planning hybrid strikes with drones or rockets on European countries supporting Ukraine, which include Poland and Lithuania.

Meanwhile, Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said Tuesday that his country will deploy Patriot air-defense systems and about 100 troops to Poland to help protect the airport in Rzeszow, which is the main logistics hub for military aid deliveries to Ukraine.

At the Hélène Boucherlycée, or high school, in Paris' 20th district, protesters tipped over trash cans and bicycles onto their sides to create a makeshift barricade.

Kullab writes for the Associated Press. AP reporter Claudia Ciobanu in Warsaw contributed to this report.

Like hundreds of others around the country, the school was closed. Authorities began shutting schools last week to take some steam out of the demonstrations after widespread damage to schools and mounting injuries among staff, students and police. Classes were totally or partially suspended on Tuesday at 891 schools, according to the Education Ministry.

Facing accusations that it was ignoring protesters, the ministry launched an online portal inviting high school students to anonymously describe the difficulties they face at school and the changes they want to see.

At Hélène Boucher, parents and other adults positioned themselves on Tuesday between protesters and police keeping watch.

“They are our children. Teachers, parents, federations, we all share the same goal: the protection of children's rights, and it is a legitimate right to demonstrate and to make demands,” said Emilia Sichili Suriam, who is a member of an association of parents.

Demonstrators have voiced various grievances, often centering on a lack of resources and opportunities for students in disadvantaged schools, despite the promise of France's national motto: "Liberty, Equality, Fraternity."

Students have drawn attention to run-down classrooms that lack basics such as desks and chairs, become sweltering in summer without air conditioning and, in some cases, are infested with rats. Other common complaints include staff shortages and exhausting workloads. French high school students' compulsory classroom hours are among the highest in Europe.

Suzanne Nijdam, president of the federation of student associations, vowed that demonstrations would continue until authorities address the complaints.

“So, we really need to act now, and it's in the government's hands, to see these demands through to the end,” she said. “It's a matter of political priority, a matter of prioritizing the youth and the future of our country.”

Garriga and Cetinic write for the Associated Press. AP writers John Leicester, Masha Macpherson and Catherine Gaschka in Paris, Mark Carlson in Lille, and Mike Corder in The Hague contributed to this report.

Spain rescinds arrest warrant for separatist

By Joseph Wilson

BARCELONA, Spain — A Spanish Supreme Court judge lifted the arrest warrant for Catalan separatist leader Carles Puigdemont on Tuesday, clearing the way for him to return home without fear of detention for the first time in nearly a decade.

Puigdemont, Catalonia's former regional president, fled Spain for Belgium in 2017 after leading a failed attempt to break Catalonia away from Spain. He has since avoided attempts by Spain to have him sent back to face a court, while many of his confidants and supporters spent time in prison.

Now he looks set to go back to Spain just when the country is preparing for an election next month. It is too early to know how his return will affect the campaign, but given his unpopularity in most of Spain, it is likely that opposition parties will try to use his return against incumbent Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez.

Europa Press

The 63-year-old Puigdemont scored a major legal victory when Supreme Court judge Pablo Llarena lifted his arrest warrant moments after Spain's Constitutional Court announced it would apply a government amnesty for the Catalan separatists to one of Puigdemont's political allies who had been found guilty of misusing public funds.

Llarena said he was lifting the arrest warrant for Puigdemont while awaiting the opportunity to study the Constitutional Court's decision, which he said would probably affect the warrant.

CARLES Puigdemont of Catalonia fled Spain for Belgium nine years ago.

Puigdemont's party in Catalonia, Junts, said he would give a news conference later Tuesday from Waterloo, Belgium, where he has lived since he fled

Spain.

From Waterloo, Puigdemont has maintained a loyal following among committed Catalan separatists, even as the independence movement has weakened. His penchant for the audacious was on display in 2024 when Puigdemont suddenly appeared in Barcelona, gave a public speech and slipped through the police's grip.

He has also kept control of his Junts party from abroad, maintaining an out-size role in Spanish politics.

Junts “No” was decisive in Spain’s progressive government losing two key votes in parliament this week when it tried to push through emergency housing measures amid street protests.

Puigdemont's fate has been linked to that of Prime Minister Sánchez.

Sánchez was able to remain in power in 2023 only when Puigdemont's Junts backed his formation of a new government in exchange for the amnesty. This week Sánchez responded to Junts scuttling his housing measures by calling a snap election for Nov. 29, hoping the discontent over housing will mobilize his voters.

Wilson writes for the Associated Press.

A caution on a Quebec referendum

PARTI Québécois supporters cheer election results in Montreal on Monday night.

By Rob Gillies

TORONTO — Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said Tuesday that Quebec should focus on immediate economic challenges rather than wait for a possible independence referendum years from now, a day after the separatist Parti Québécois returned to power.

Carney said he would respond to the prospect of another referendum by working with Quebec through “cooperative federalism” while focusing on affordable housing, economic growth, infrastructure and support for workers affected by President Trump’s tariffs.

“This is a crucial time for our country. It is a crucial time for Quebec,” Carney said. “This is not a time to wait for something a few years down the road. It’s the time to act. It’s a time for boldness.”

Carney said he spoke Tuesday morning with Quebec Premier-designate Paul St-Pierre Plamondon, congratulated him and discussed infrastructure funding and support for workers in the province affected by the U.S. trade war.

St-Pierre Plamondon has pledged to hold another referendum on Quebec independence but has said he'll wait until Trump is no longer in office. He reaffirmed his separatist ambitions in his victory speech, saying he continues to envision Quebec becoming a country.

Industry Minister Mélanie Joly also said Ottawa would work with the new Quebec government while stressing the economic pressures facing the province.

“Right now we are in a trade war that is affecting a lot of jobs in Quebec,” Joly said. “Our goal will be to protect jobs in Quebec and across the country.”

The Parti Québécois, or PQ, won 59 seats Monday, five short of the 64 needed for a majority in Quebec's 127-member National Assembly. The minority government will need opposition support to pass key legislation and survive confidence votes. The Coalition Avenir Québec was swept out of power after eight years, failing to win a single seat.

Carney's Quebec lieutenant and Cabinet minister, Joël Lightbound, said that the PQ victory shouldn't be interpreted as a mandate to leave Canada.

“A mandate for separation needs to go through a referendum, so yesterday [Monday] was an election, not a referendum,” he said. Lightbound said that Ottawa would continue making the case that “Quebec is stronger within Canada.”

The Quebec result comes less than two weeks before Albertans vote Oct. 19 on whether to hold a referendum on separation from Canada.

The Quebec election and the approaching Alberta vote have renewed questions about Canadian unity as Carney's government confronts Trump's tariffs and threats against the country.

Support for Quebec independence remains at about 30%, low by historical standards, according to Daniel Béland, a political science professor at McGill University. He said that Monday's election was driven more by voters wanting to oust the governing Coalition Avenir Québec than by increased support for sovereignty.

Gillies writes for the Associated Press.

German ex-spy chief, aide held in espionage case

ASSOCIATED PRESS

BERLIN — A former head of Germany's foreign intelligence service was arrested Tuesday on suspicion of passing state secrets to a foreign intelligence service, the federal prosecutor's office said.

August Hanning, who led the Federal Intelligence Service, known by its German acronym BND, from 1998 to 2005, is “strongly suspected of treasonous espionage, spying out state secrets, attempted treason, and espionage,” the federal prosecutor’s office said in a statement.

Hanning, 80, was arrested in Bad Toelz-Wolfratshausen in southern Germany. A former aide, identified as Manfred D., was also arrested Tuesday in Steinfurt in western Germany and has been charged with aiding and abetting attempted treason and treasonous espionage.

"In one instance, there is suspicion that Mr. Hanning used classified information to prepare an analysis for an employee of a foreign intelligence service," Ines Peterson, a spokesperson for the federal prosecutor's office, told German broadcaster RTL later Tuesday.

"In another instance, he is alleged to have passed on information following an extensive exchange — also with an employee of another intelligence service."

Neither Peterson nor the earlier statement by the prosecutor's office revealed who exactly the two men were suspected of spying for or which foreign intelligence services they provided with classified information.

Premises belonging to both men were searched Tuesday.

The prosecutor's office said Manfred D. worked as Hanning's chief of staff and later served as chief of staff for several subsequent BND presidents from 2012 until 2026.

"In his role, he had access to confidential information," the prosecutor's office said.

Both suspects are believed to have agreed in 2010 to have Manfred D. continuously transmit valuable intelligence from the BND to Hanning in exchange for payment, the statement said.

"The current findings suggest that, over the years, Manfred D. provided Hanning with approximately 2,000 documents, many of which contained classified information to be used exclusively by the federal intelligence service for internal purposes, particularly for executive intelligence briefings," the statement said.

Hanning used the information in private consulting work and Manfred D., who in line with German privacy rules cannot be identified by his full name, provided Hanning with classified information until June 2022, Peterson said.

Hanning came under scrutiny in a separate investigation into the abduction of Hamburg businesswoman Christina Block's children from her ex-husband in Denmark in January 2024 in a custody battle that had been going on for several years.

The investigation into that case led to Tuesday's arrests.

The current proceedings stem from evidence found during a search of Hanning's residence in connection with that case, the federal prosecutor's office stated.

Hanning and a retired official from the Hamburg State Criminal Police Office are suspected of having accepted a contract from Block in 2022 to abduct her children while serving as executives of a security firm, the public prosecutor's office announced last fall, according to German news agency DPA.

The Blocks are a prominent Hamburg family best known for their popular national steakhouse chain Block House. The custody trial has received a great deal of attention in the country, with German tabloids offering heavy coverage from the court.

A message to the BND for comment was not immediately returned.

German opposition law-maker Konstantin von Notz expressed shock about the allegations against Hanning and called for a quick investigation.

"This is a hard-hitting and deeply troubling story," said Von Notz, a member of the Greens party who is on the German Parliament committee overseeing the intelligence services.

“We expect a swift and thorough investigation into the egregious allegations leveled against former BND chief Hanning,” he told Spiegel Online.

“We have been criticizing the dubious and wide-ranging lobbying activities of former top officials and those with the highest security clearances in Germany for years,” he said, calling for banning former officials with security clearances from engaging in private consulting work after leaving office, Spiegel Online reported.

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THE NATION

Republicans fall back on tough-on-crime messaging

his two terms in the governor's mansion.

BY MATT BROWN

HOUSE SPEAKER Mike Johnson, of Louisiana, campaigns for Rep. David Valadao in Bakersfield on Sept. 30.

JAE C. HONG Associated Press

WASHINGTON — Political advertising warns about Democratic plots to defund the police. Campaign events feature law enforcement unions and tough talk about law and order. Stump speeches boast about record-low levels of violent crime.

From coast to coast, Republicans are focusing on public disorder, illegal immigration and violent crime in midterm campaigns as voters sour on the party's handling of the cost of living and the war with Iran.

Democrats have tried to counter the attacks by recruiting candidates with law enforcement backgrounds and emphasizing their own anti-crime plans, but Republicans believe it's a rare opportunity to go on the offensive in an otherwise challenging year.

"Do you know that right now we have the lowest violent crime rate in 126 years in America right now? Because we emphasize the rule of law," House Speaker Mike Johnson recently told an audience at Louisiana State University. Crime rates have generally trended down since the 1990s, with a brief spike during the COVID-19 pandemic. "We have the most secure border we have had in the past half-century."

President Trump returned to the topic Monday night in Nebraska, warning about how the country used to be before he returned to the White House.

“We had a border with people pouring in, crime like nobody’s ever seen,” he said.

---

Claims Democrats would defund police

In Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Texas and Wisconsin, Republican candidates for governor have attacked their Democratic rivals as weak on crime or warned they could cut police funding. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, for instance, has lambasted Democratic nominee and state Rep. Gina Hinojosa for not supporting legislation that would require judges to deny bail to illegal immigrants charged with a violent crime.

Hinojosa has campaigned on her tenure as a civil rights lawyer and criticized Abbott's crime policies as violating civil liberties.

Rick Jackson, a billionaire healthcare executive running in Georgia, has repeatedly attacked Democratic opponent Keisha Lance Bottoms over her tenure as Atlanta mayor.

“I grew up in the type of neighborhood Keisha Lance Bottoms abandoned,” Jackson said at a summer campaign rally. “I know who gets hurt when politicians defund the police.”

In an interview with Atlanta station 11Alive, Bottoms emphasized that her administration gave pay raises to police and firefighters and said she called for increased federal funding for public safety during her time as mayor.

Crime warnings in

congressional races

It's a similar story in U.S. House races.

In Virginia's 1st Congressional District, Rep. Rob Wittman has attacked his Democratic opponent, prosecutor Shannon Taylor, over her alleged "soft on crime" record in office. In Michigan's 10th District, Republican Michael Bouchard is running on his service as a Bronze Star Army captain and son of a longtime local sheriff. He has claimed his Democratic opponent, former prosecutor Christina Hines, supports "woke, soft on crime, socialist policies."

In Colorado's 8th District, Rep. Gabe Evans touts his time as a police officer against Democratic challenger Manny Rutinel. And in Wisconsin's 3rd District, Rep. Derrick Van Orden hopes to win a third race against Democratic nominee Rebecca Cooke by painting her as a communist who wants to defund the police.

Republicans hope that by reprising warnings of crime and disorder, the party can reenergize its disillusioned base and win back skeptical moderate voters who have drifted over concerns like affordability.

Democratic rivals have responded in kind. Taylor aired an ad featuring 13 local sheriffs who endorsed her campaign. Rutinel aired ads with local police and rolled out a safety plan that called for greater police funding and drug prevention programs. Hines said she'll continue to prioritize public safety and prosecute corruption in Washington. Cooke has vowed to fully fund police departments in Congress.

---

Not all see crime as a winning issue

It's yet to be seen if the strategy will prove effective.

"We've got to talk about it. I think that in many ways, we are the victim of our own success because it's off the headlines a little bit more," said Sen. Eric Schmitt, a Missouri Republican and former state attorney general. “Having a completely secure border now, no one even talks about it. But that’s a huge accomplishment from where we were at before.”

An AP-NORC poll conducted in September found that border security — which Trump and Republicans often link to crime — was a relative strength for the Republican president, with 48% of U.S. adults saying they approved of his performance on the issue. But that was still a decline from a year ago, when his approval on border security was at 55%.

Not everyone in the party is sold on Republicans re-hashing the crime message.

“I don’t see that bubbling up as a major issue for the voters,” said Sen. Thom Tillis, a North Carolina Republican who chose not to seek reelection this year. Aiming to make the race to succeed Tillis a referendum on crime, Republicans have run ads claiming that Democratic nominee Roy Cooper went easy on convicts during

Black political leaders have criticized the ads as racist and reminiscent of past Republican campaigns that used dog whistles to appeal to suburban white voters. Trump made the message explicit when he invoked the infamous 1988 "Willie Horton" ad and displayed dozens of mugshots of men of color on a jumbotron during a rally stumping for Michael Whatley, Cooper's Republican rival.

In contrast to his party's messaging, Tillis noted his state's safety in recent years.

“Frankly, when I hear somebody talking about crime in Charlotte, I live 25 minutes from downtown. I’m not worried about walking through Charlotte at night,” Tillis said.

---

Democrats say the president is corrupt

Democrats contend that Republicans' message on violent crime is undercut by the Trump administration's hard-line immigration enforcement actions, which resulted in the killing of two American citizens in January and the fatal shootings of multiple undocumented people. They accuse Trump of corruption and have hammered Republicans for alleged complicity in the president's self-dealing.

"This is the biggest criminal organization that we've ever seen," said Sen. Ruben Gallego, an Arizona Democrat, of the current White House.

“Democrats should be pushing back with the fact that, if not for the fact that he was president, this guy would be leading some type of mafia right now,” he added.

Lauren Bis, a White House spokeswoman, said “extreme Democrats are trying to deflect from their radical soft on crime agenda.”

Brown writes for the Associated Press.

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NIKOS FRAZIER Omaha World-Herald

SOME attendees watch President Trump as he speaks at a campaign rally in Grand Island, Neb., on Monday.

California backlash exposes risk of Trump's midterm strategy

[Trump, from A1] supporters get out to vote. But in this modern era, an incendiary comment can travel fast online and leave Republicans running in competitive districts in awkward spots, trying to distance themselves from Trump.

Overall, political observers see the episode as an example of how the president's political strategy can be unpredictable at a time when Republicans are trying to control the message the most.

“Whether you like Trump or not, he is good at getting his message out and coming up with a message that can resonate and catch fire,” said Mindy Romero, founder and director of the nonpartisan Center for Inclusive Democracy. “I think the question now is: Is he starting to fail himself when it comes to his messaging?”

California Democrats were quick to use Trump's remarks as a line of attack against him. Gov. Gavin Newsom called him “deranged and dangerous” and opened the state emergency operations center to assess potential threats. San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria told Trump to “keep our city out of your reckless war talk.” And Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said his comments could “potentially compromise our safety.”

Trump's remarks about the California cities on Mon-day were the most striking example yet of the president using California as a foil to rally a base in GOP strong-holds.

In Nebraska and other red states, Trump has repeatedly cast California as a political boogeyman as a means to motivate voters to cast their ballots for the GOP candidates.

At an Oklahoma rally last week, Trump said Republicans need to keep the party in control of Congress so that his administration can continue the work of combating fraud in blue states, like California. The administration's efforts, led by Vice President JD Vance, have sometimes been overestimated or nebulous.

But Trump tells supporters that in places like California, the administration is seeing “billions and billions of dollars of fraud.”

In a social media post Monday, Trump began blaming the cost of fuel — a defining issue for voters this election cycle — on states like California.

“What’s driving up Gasoline is no longer the Strait of Hormuz,” Trump wrote. The issue, he said, is refineries being “closed up in Blue States, like California, by the Dumocrats.”

Hours later, while rallying in Nebraska, Trump seemed to contradict himself as he promised the crowd that fuel costs would go down once the war in Iran was over.

"That will end very quickly, one way or the other, very soon, maybe a little after the election, maybe a little before, but it is going to end very soon," Trump said. "When that happens, the oil will come tumbling down."

Trump's messaging underscores how the war with Iran, which has gas prices topping \$6 a gallon, has emerged as a potential liability for Republicans that the president is trying to address in subtle ways.

Polling on Trump's handling of the economy has remained low, even among Republicans. A University of Massachusetts Amherst poll last month found that only $22\%$ of Americans perceive the economy in a good or fair state.

In California, a poll by the UC Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies, co-sponsored by The Times, found that 70% of California voters disapprove of Trump's decision to go to war in Iran, including 1 in 5 Republicans.

The softening of Trump's approval even among those who still support his performance could translate into lower GOP turnout in the state's few competitive races, the poll's director, Mark DiCamillo, said.

Trump's strategy in the final stretch before the midterms has largely focused on rallying the base in hopes that they will turn out to vote. Part of that strategy includes using California as a punching bag.

One particular line of attack has been disparaging the state's voting systems. He suggested Monday that Democrat-led cities are trying to cheat in November as he touted the fast count of ballots in foreign countries.

"In Detroit, Philadelphia, California and numerous other U.S. Cities and States, the results, with much smaller numbers, will often take weeks to Rig, I mean, calculate," Trump wrote on Monday. "Voting in America is CORRUPT!!!"

In another social media post, he said: “California: Took 38 days with 16.1 million ballots in 2024.”

Trump using California as a foil for any given issue could be a risky strategy, Romero said.

“He’s expanding the types of things that he’s blaming California for, like the gas crisis,” she said, arguing that such statements could “start to lose credibility with those people that he has credibility with.”

For Republican voters in California, the ploy may be even riskier, especially when Trump suggests Iran could “take out” their cities.

“I don’t think that message necessarily plays well here because Californians are Californians,” DiCamillo said. “There is a certain pride in being a Californian, certainly not held by everybody … but I would think that the mainstream would be defending the state.”

Cornell brings in ex-Justice official to direct review

ASSOCIATED PRESS

ITHACA, N.Y. — A former high-ranking Department of Justice official will look at how Cornell handles sexual misconduct complaints, university trustees announced Tuesday as they tried to address an outpouring of anger over allegations of a 2024 gang rape at a fraternity house.

Sally Yates, who was a deputy attorney general in the Obama administration, will spearhead the review, the trustees said in an announcement. The assessment is to include how the Ivy League university investigates reports of sexual assault and sexual harassment, what support students get, how the disciplinary process works, campus police responses and oversight of fraternities, sororities and other student organizations.

The announcement comes after days of outrage and demonstrations over Cornell's response to a complaint from a woman known publicly only as Jane Doe, who told campus police in November 2024 that she had been sexually assaulted by multiple Chi Phi fraternity brothers the month before after being pressured into drinking and taking drugs.

No criminal charges have been filed. The Chi Phi chapter at Cornell was shut down, and the Ivy League university has said it expelled some students and suspended others.

She sued the university, seven former students, the fraternity and others last month. The suit put a new, nationwide spotlight on the allegations and how the campus police, university and local prosecutor had reacted.

New York's attorney general is now conducting a criminal investigation, and the state's governor called for an independent review of Cornell's handling of the matter — the review that Yates now will lead.

Cornell students, professors and others thronged a campus plaza Monday to protest the university's response to the matter.

Yates had a decades-long career at the Justice Department, serving for years as the top federal prosecutor in Atlanta and later as a deputy attorney general.

She achieved particular prominence in January 2017 when, as acting attorney general in the early days of the Trump administration, she directed Justice Department attorneys to not defend the constitutionality of President Trump's refugee and immigration ban. She was swiftly fired, with Trump accusing her of betrayal and insubordination.

Yates also generated headlines when it emerged that, in a conversation days before her departure, she had expressed alarm to the Trump White House about contacts that Trump's new national security advisor, Michael Flynn, had had with the Russian ambassador during the presidential transition period. Flynn was later fired.

Yates has been in private practice since her departure from the Justice Department. Her practice at the King & Spalding law firm includes conducting independent investigations for outside organizations and companies.

Among her investigations was a high-profile inquiry into alleged abuse and misconduct, including claims of harassment and coercion, at the National Women's Soccer League. The investigation concluded in 2022 with a finding of systemic abuse.

STEVEN SENNE Associated Press

SALLY YATES, shown in 2017, served as a deputy attorney general in the Obama administration.

Fresno in, Texas out? Migration patterns are shifting

JOSH EDELSON For The Times

SAN FRANCISCO is a popular destination for people moving out of Los Angeles.

[Moving, from A1]

is very affordable still," he said, and the average home price is \$400,000. "We don't have traffic congestion, we are centrally located and near natural parks."

New residents under 40 have been moving downtown, he said, something that hasn't happened in decades.

Dyer has already heard concerns about Bay Area newcomers bringing their political beliefs to a place that he called a “very moderate city in terms of our politics.”

The relocation boom has boosted demand for housing, with supply falling behind, the mayor said. The result has been higher rents and home prices, which Dyer worries have made Fresno less affordable for home-grown residents.

Internet message boards are filled with comments about the experiences of ex-Angelenos living in Fresno. The consensus is that although it has less nightlife and fewer cultural institutions than L.A., there is fun to be had for those who look. And it's hard to beat the prices, especially compared with Southern California.

"I ended up getting married and [having] kids and we bought a house here. No way in hell you buying a house in [Southern California] with a front- and backyard for under \$1 million unless you move away from the city," one person posted on Reddit.

"It's a nice central location with the Bay Area or Sacramento a couple hours away and Southern California several hours away. We are in Long Beach or Sacramento often visiting family and do not miss the traffic in L.A.”

---

A generational gap

Data from U-Haul suggest a generational gap in the migration: Older residents are leaving the state, while some young residents are moving around within it, hoping to build lives in California.

Among those leaving the Golden State, their final destinations were heavily dependent on their age, according to a year of U-Haul data from June 2025 to June 2026.

The metro areas that gained the most people in the 12-month period were Las Vegas, Palm Springs and the Arizona cities of Lake Havasu, Phoenix and Prescott.

For baby boomers leaving the L.A. area, the top five destination states were Arizona, Nevada, Texas, Oregon and Utah, excluding California, the U-Haul data showed. Boomers are defined as those born between 1946 and 1965.

Among Gen Xers departing L.A., the top states were similar: Arizona, Nevada, Utah, Texas and Washington. Gen Xers were born between 1965 and 1980.

Those leaving L.A. put down roots in Bakersfield, Las Vegas, Lake Havasu, San Francisco and Phoenix.

Millennials who left L.A. were much more likely to stay within the state. But among those who did leave California, they picked surprisingly different destinations: Texas, Oregon, Tennessee, Colorado and Utah were the top destinations. Millennials were born between 1981 and 1996.

The top metro areas for millennials were largely within the state: San Francisco, Bakersfield, Sacramento and Riverside.

Gen Z Californians who left the state preferred similar destinations to their millennial counterparts: Texas, Oregon, Washington, Nevada and Arizona. Gen Z is defined as those born from 1997 to 2012.

The top metro areas for Gen Z were San Francisco, Fresno, Bakersfield, Houston and Dallas.

Some move up north

Lee is among those younger Angelenos who chose San Francisco over all other cities.

She said she's aware that Bay Area residents outside of the AI boom are wary of the industry's influence on the cost of living. She lives in a studio apartment and doesn't know whether she'll be able to afford a home in San Francisco.

Lee prefers the food scene and diversity of L.A. over that of San Francisco, and recognizes that Southern California is relatively cheaper — although both places are undergoing historic affordability crises.

Lee subscribes to the 9-9-6 philosophy that she said is common in her industry: working 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., 6 days a week. This leaves her with little time to explore San Francisco's parks, museums and restaurants.

But the 9-9-6 culture is a temporary reality, not a life goal, she said, and she expects her time in San Francisco to last a few years. “I don’t know if one day I’ll move back so I can be closer to my family.”

---

State still attracts

Nationally, boomers and Gen Xers who moved domestically with U-Haul did not have California in the top 10 states by arrival number — a remarkable development, considering the Golden State's population is the nation's largest.

For millennials, California was the third-biggest destination, trailing Florida and Texas. San Francisco was the fourth-biggest draw, behind Dallas, Houston and Orlando.

And for Gen Z, California was the second-biggest destination, behind only Texas. San Francisco and Los Angeles were fourth and fifth on the list of cities where Gen Z movers relocated, behind New York, Dallas and Chicago.

By raw numbers, net domestic out-migration of Californians to other states continues even as the California exodus overall has diminished in strength.

About 215,000 more people left the state than arrived between July 1, 2024 and 2025, per data from the state Department of Finance.

Although that gap peaked at 370,000 in 2021, the 2025 figure was up significantly from 2024's net outmigration.

In Los Angeles, the story was similar: Nearly 100,000 more people left L.A. County for other states than arrived in 2025, a figure that approached the county's 2021 and 2022 levels.

In San Francisco County, net domestic migration was close to zero, as it had been since 2023. The same was true for Kern and Fresno counties, home to cities that drew young Angelenos, per the U-Haul data.

California's population grew slightly in the last three years but had yet to reach its pre-pandemic high after seeing residents flee in droves from 2020 to 2022.

State warns of a fiscal crisis at LAUSD

[LAUSD, from A1] have become higher, with solutions more painful to carry out. The projected cutbacks over the next three years include more than 6,000 jobs in a school system that has been adding employees. The current workforce is about 80,000 full- and part-time employees.

District officials are not challenging the data.

“Los Angeles Unified has been transparent about significant financial challenges,” a district statement said. “The Board has already adopted a fiscal stabilization plan to address these challenges, including making difficult decisions to maintain the District’s financial health.”

After the presentation, Supt. Andrés E. Chait spoke of the importance of “fidelity” to the district’s “fiscal stabilization plan” and “certainly being nimble as conditions change, but for the most part adhering to what was put forth back in June.”

The teachers union, United Teachers Los Angeles, in a memo to school board members, presented a counter interpretation and said the state team exaggerated the crisis and was implicitly faulting justified wage increases.

“This fake independent analysis disparages the school board for rightfully addressing the needs of working people who face some of the worst housing and childcare costs in the country,” union Vice President Julie Van Winkle said.

The state's role is to help California education agencies resolve serious financial and operating challenges.

A separate presentation noted that the county education office has “conditionally” approved the L.A. Unified spending plan for 2026-27 of \$20.6 billion. Conditional approval is better than a rejection, but the message from the state and the county is fairly consistent: Making the necessary cuts will be hard and detrimental; not making them would be disastrous.

School board members asked questions about why the district had a high-risk designation, but ultimately did not challenge it. In their questions, they pursued points raised by the UTLA analysis.

They also expressed concern about the effect of the

LAUSD'S enrollment has been dropping. Above, the district's headquarters.

MYUNG J. CHUN Los Angeles Times

cuts.

"The board is dealing with tough decisions," board member Nick Melvoin said. "We get squeezed either way."

"The parents tell us that with the cuts that are coming ... that's going to hurt a lot and I want to say that aloud," board member Karla Griego said. "How do we balance not just the numbers but the needs of our students?"

Michael Fine, the outgoing head of the state team, acknowledged the bind and credited the district for making academic progress and for caring about underpaid workers.

“I applaud your focus on a fair wage for your employees,” he added. The point “would be know what it costs

— and align" by making needed budget adjustments.

Fine added that state budget standards, since they went into effect, have greatly reduced the number of school districts that became insolvent.

The union has noted that the state agency's process includes entirely leaving out additional state revenue that has come through annually in recent years even though it is not absolutely guaranteed.

Van Winkle called the evaluation system "rigged."

The analysis “negatively scores you” if the district agrees to wage increases that are a higher percentage than the statewide cost-of-living increase that is included in the state budget: “So let’s just think about how anti-worker that is in a city like L.A., where our teachers can’t afford to live anywhere near where they teach.”

In an interview, Van Winkle challenged the math that resulted in an imperative to slash \$3.5 billion over the next three years. She said that the format of the financial analysis almost always predicts financial disaster three years out and yet that disaster seems to never arrive.

The union does not accept the necessity of unpaid furlough days or increased healthcare costs for employees — at least not at this time. Such cuts must be negotiated with unions. If that doesn't happen, the district will have to substitute equivalent cuts elsewhere.

In its memo to the school board, the union said the state's own data analysis had placed the district at "moderate risk" rather than high risk. But the risk designation automatically changed to "high" when county officials made what the union characterizes as subjective conclusions about the extent of the crisis.

The union supports the school board's decision to postpone cuts as long as possible to the back end of the three-year planning window — on the premise that many cuts could be avoided.

However, if the cuts must be made ultimately at the original targeted levels, they will be deeper because of the delays.

The state report lays out data in detail.

The state agency calculated that the district has classroom capacity for about 718,475 students, compared with a 2025-26 enrollment of 353,065, “representing an overall utilization rate of approximately 49.1%.” Of the district’s 738 campuses, 481 operate at or below 60% capacity.

“Facilities with substantial unused capacity continue to generate operating and maintenance costs,” the report states.

One countervailing problem is that some research suggests that it is difficult to improve a district's finances by closing schools, in part because shuttering campuses can accelerate enrollment loss — and most state and federal funding is based on enrollment.

Another exacerbating factor is that from 2019-20 through 2024-25, enrollment and hiring moved in opposite directions.

Enrollment declined from 440,365 to 369,830 students, a decrease of about 16%. Over the same period, the total of “full-time-equivalent” jobs increased from 60,344 to 64,148, or about 6.3%.

The hiring spree coincided with increased COVID-19 pandemic relief funding — meaning that school systems were supposed to hire more staff to maintain and recover student learning. But the funding stream to keep most of these employees has ended.

Another area of rising costs is students with disabilities. The special services for these students are only partially funded by state and federal resources. The district paid \$957.1 million in 2023-24 to make up the difference, but spent 56% more

— \$1.49 billion — in 2025-26, an increase of more than \$500 million over two years.

This year's L.A. Unified budget presumes those costs will go down.

Officials said they hope to balance the need to make cuts with preserving quality programs.

"As we move forward, our focus will remain on protecting high-quality instruction and student services, using our resources wisely and keeping those resources as close to students and the schoolhouse as possible," the district statement said. "Any decisions we make will be guided by what is in the best interests of both current and future students."

ICE gloves cause intense pain, fear, Army study says

BY RYAN J. FOLEY

The shock gloves immigration agents could soon use to control detainees and protesters worked so powerfully during a military exercise that participants felt intense pain, stopped fighting immediately and feared additional exposures, according to a previously unreleased Army study.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement leaders were aware of the findings before signing a \$16.7-million contract to purchase 6,000 pairs of shock gloves in August, according to records obtained by the watchdog group American Oversight and shared with the Associated Press.

The shocks had a profound effect on Army employees who played the role of combative prisoners during the exercise, which took place at the military prison at Ft. Leavenworth in Kansas in October 2024. The participants, several of whom were large-statured men, stopped resisting seconds after officers applied shocks by touching gloves to their skin, and were left with “fatigue, soreness and excessive apprehensiveness to being shocked again,” the study found.

"After experiencing the effects of the GLOVE ... participants stated just seeing the GLOVE was enough to make them want to comply," the authors wrote.

ICE has called the gloves "distraction and de-escalation devices" that will be safer than other nonlethal options to subdue targets for arrest and deportation and protesters who create civil disturbances. The agency has argued the rapid compliance they cause will keep officers safer and prevent incidents from requiring potentially lethal force.

But critics have warned the gloves will give ICE another weapon to intimidate and brutalize people even as the agency is under fire for excessive force that has left a trail of deaths and injuries across the nation. The gloves, they note, are easy to discharge, do not leave a mark and have not been extensively used in settings outside of jails. The manufacturer warns they should not be used on high-risk populations such as kids, pregnant women or disabled people.

"The military assessment in ICE's own files shows that these gloves can cause ‘intense pain’ and force compliance. It does not establish that they are safe," said Chioma Chukwu, executive director of American Oversight. “Everyone should be alarmed that ICE is preparing to deploy a tool designed to inflict, at best, intense pain, without showing that it is safe for the people who will be subjected to it.”

ICE released the study and other documents to American Oversight as part of the group's Freedom of Information Act lawsuit against the agency seeking records related to its use of force.

The military prison study assessed whether the gloves could be used effectively to forcibly remove combative prisoners from their cells, to respond to disturbances in common areas and to transport uncooperative inmates. Role-playing employees conducted several scenarios with and without the gloves to test their effect, including violent encounters in which inmates were to fight as hard as they could.

The study found the devices “increased the efficiency” of teams carrying out forced cell extractions and responding to disturbances by reducing the length of physical encounters, keeping guards from becoming exhausted and preventing injuries. They did not “significantly change” the time it took to control inmates during escorts but required less effort.

“GLOVE provides a boost in confidence to smaller or less trained members,” the study found. “Inmate compliance was immediate” compared with other methods, it added.

The electric jolt does not cause the body to freeze like a Taser shock does but instead “works by overloading the peripheral nerve endings” of the skin to cause pain, the study said. Participants who were wet or had oil on their skin described even more powerful shocks, with one reporting discomfort for 30 minutes afterward.

ICE's contract requires the manufacturer, Compliant Technologies, to deliver the gloves within six months. Its owner, Jeff Niklaus, said he was unavailable for an interview, citing a busy workload.

White House border advisor Tom Homan has said it could “be awhile” before the gloves are in the field because ICE is still ironing out training and policy issues. ICE did not respond to a request for comment on the study and the status of the rollout.

Foley writes for the Associated Press.

Children beaten at ‘house of horrors,’ authorities say

a bed, so they called police.

ALLEN J. SCHABEN Los Angeles Times

GUOJUN XUAN, 66, and wife Silvia Zhang, 39, employed nannies at their Arcadia mansion who meted out child beatings and other punishments, authorities say.

[Arcadia, from A1]

ing their biological children to term, at times lying about being unable to conceive and begging for help to have their “miracle baby.”

Once inside Xuan's sprawling, multimillion-dollar Arcadia mansion, the toddlers were subjected to round-the-clock surveillance by more than 32 cameras, hours-long "learning" sessions and continued abuse by a group of at least six nannies that Xuan and Zhang employed, according to Hochman and court records.

Xuan and Zhang sometimes instructed the nannies to strike the children harder, according to Hochman. The camera feeds showed the nannies carrying some of the young children into a space without cameras “where the children could then be heard screaming from inside,” Hochman said.

“This case is unprecedented. It is horrific. And the physical abuse, beating and punishment that these very young children received is despicable,” said Hochman, who promised a “reckoning” for the defendants.

Krems said the abuse was “all the nannies’ doing” and called any allegations that Xuan struck his children “patently false.”

The couple were arrested early Tuesday morning at the Camino Real Avenue property where the alleged abuse took place, authorities said. The Los

Angeles County Sheriff's Department's Special Victims Bureau spearheaded the investigation. FBI agents were also on scene, but their role was unclear.

The arrests marked the end of an inquiry that started in May 2025 after Arcadia police officers conducting a child abuse investigation found 15 children living at the couple's home, almost all between the ages of 1 and 3.

Hochman said Zhang and Xuan often misrepresented themselves to the surrogate mothers of their children.

In one instance, Hochman said, Zhang described herself as a single mother struggling to conceive when approaching a potential surrogate. The couple concealed their other children from another surrogate until she was seven months pregnant, Hochman said.

In total, the couple had 21 children together, according to Hochman, who said 14 of them were identified as abuse victims. All of the children were removed from the couple's custody by the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services last year, authorities said.

Deputy Dist. Atty. MacKenzie Teymouri said in court that the defendants held American, Chinese and Mexican passports, and two law enforcement sources told The Times that Xuan and Zhang are Chinese nationals with dual citizenship. The sources spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing case.

A wealthy investor who runs a real estate company, Xuan had been on law enforcement's radar since at least 2021 after an El Monte property he owned was found to be operating as an illicit casino, then a marijuana stash house and, later, a grow site for psychedelic mushrooms.

Teymouri cited Xuan's extreme wealth when she asked Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Kerry White to jail both defendants in lieu of \$100 million on Tuesday afternoon. Teymouri said investigators uncovered millions of dollars in antique sculptures and rare alcohol brands inside the Arcadia home, as well as bank statements showing at least one account holding in excess of \$70 million. The couple have access to more than 200 bank accounts through which more than \$250 million has been transferred in the last three years, Teymouri said in court.

Krems argued the prosecution's request for such a huge bail was "absurd," noting not even murder defendants are held to such a high financial burden. White agreed, ordering that the couple be held in lieu of \$20 million but only if they surrender all their passports, consent to home confinement and have no contact with their children.

Xuan and Zhang are due back in court Monday.

Police zeroed in on the Arcadia mansion after Zhang brought their 2-month-old son to Children's Hospital in East Hollywood with a head injury. Doctors determined the baby was suffering from bleeding in his brain and retina and did not believe Zhang's explanation that the boy fell from

A nanny who worked for the family, Chunmei Li, was charged in July with assault likely to cause death in connection with the boy's injuries. Teymouri said in court that Li fled the U.S. to Tijuana and then escaped to China.

Xuan and Zhang were each charged with one count of being an accessory after the fact to Li's crimes and helping her evade arrest, according to a criminal complaint made public Tuesday. Krems said Xuan immediately fired Li upon learning of the abuse and denied his client was complicit in her alleged crimes.

Police described a "home school-type atmosphere" at the mansion, with many of the rooms used for classes. Six live-in nannies cared for the children, each of whom had an identical buzz cut, according to an Arcadia police search warrant. In Xuan and Zhang's bedroom was a large monitor that provided a live feed from the cameras.

The identities of several of the other nannies caught on camera engaging in the abuse are not known to law enforcement, according to Sheriff's Department spokeswoman Nicole Nishida.

Xuan faces 17 years in prison if convicted as charged, Hochman said. Zhang faces 11 years.

Times staff writer Matthew Ormseth contributed to this report.

Televangelist rose to fame, fell from grace

for "The Jim Bakker Show."

'A PIONEER OF CHRISTIAN TELEVISION'

Jim Bakker with then-wife Tammy Faye Bakker in 1987, before his fraud conviction.

RALPH DOMINGUEZ MediaPunch

BY STEVE MARBLE

In the halcyon days of the televangelists, when Jim Bakker stood shoulder to shoulder with fire and brimstone preachers such as Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson and Jimmy Swaggart, the collection plate always seemed bottomless.

For Bakker, it meant a Christian theme park in a leafy Charlotte, N.C., suburb, a fleet of black Cadillac limousines, vacation homes, regular orders of truffles flown in from Brussels, a gold-plated bathtub, mink coats for his wife, Tammy Faye, and an air-conditioned doghouse at the family compound.

In return for your unbending faith, he told viewers of his popular television show “The PTL Club,” God will bestow you great wealth and other blessings. And to get things rolling, he added, just call the 800 number on the bottom of your screen.

When it all fell apart amid a sex scandal and a fraud conviction, Bakker landed in prison and took stock of his life. He renounced the prosperity gospel he once had preached, wrote a raw and wrenching biography about his missteps and vowed to work with the needy and most vulnerable when he was released.

Once free, however, he set up camp at a Christian compound deep in the Ozarks, armed with a darker message. The End Times are upon us, he told viewers on his reborn TV show, and the signs are everywhere — terrorist attacks, epic storms, thunderous earthquakes, frayed relations among world superpowers, a pandemic that refused to release its grip.

To get viewers to the Rapture he said was sure to come, Bakker sold buckets of freeze-dried food with a shelf life of 30 years, fuel-less generators, doomsday guides and a magical elixir — “Silver Solution” — that could cure the coronavirus and other unpleasanttries. “Imagine — the world is dying and you’re having breakfast like a king,” he told viewers.

And, as before, the authorities were hot on his tail.

A man of confounding contradictions, Bakker died Monday, his wife announced in a statement on his Instagram account. He was 86.

"He was a pioneer of Christian television, but to me, he was my husband, my best friend, and the man I was honored to walk beside through so many seasons of life and ministry," read the statement from Bakker's wife, Lori Bakker. "Jim loved people deeply. He loved this ministry, and he loved the friends and partners who stood with him throughout the years."

Baby-faced with dark lacquered hair and oversized glasses, Bakker became the sunny alternative to the hell-fire bombast of Swaggart and Falwell when he and his wife introduced themselves to America when “The PTL Club” de-

buted in 1976.

The show, an acronym for Praise the Lord, was breezy and chatty, styled after a late-night talk show with a lineup of guests, performances by Christian musicians and the never-a-mean-word banter between Bakker and Tammy Faye, who would frequently burst into song, tears dribbling down her cheeks.

Together the Bakkers spoke of the souls saved and the hardships overcome by those who put their lives in the hands of the Lord. And as often, reminded viewers of the need for donations to keep their crusade barreling forward. Before long, according to evidence introduced at Bakker's fraud trial, more than \$1 million a week was pouring into "The PTL Club."

Capitalizing on their fame and fortune, the Bakkers opened Heritage USA, a Christian theme park complete with a \$12-million water park, a hotel, nightly Passion plays and a Disneyesque Main Street where guests could buy palm-size Jesus dolls, 24-karat gold crosses and boxes of Heavenly Fudge. As the guests rolled in, developers built condos and homes for those who wished to live in such a place.

It was all heady stuff for Bakker, who often said that as a youth he had few expectations. Born Jan. 2, 1940, James Orsen Bakker was raised in Muskegon, a commercial ship port in Michigan just across the lake from Milwaukee. He said his parents were deeply religious and so strict that even simple pleasures such as singing were forbidden.

At North Central University, a Minneapolis Bible college affiliated with the Assemblies of God, he met Tammy Faye LaValley. They married four months later, dropped out of school and launched their television evangelism careers as hosts of a children's puppet show on Robertson's Christian Broadcasting Network. They eventually set off on their own to develop a show that paired church and pop culture, "The PTL Club."

By the mid-1980s, “The PTL Club” had a daily viewership of roughly 5.7 million, and more than 6 million visitors a year were rolling into Heritage USA. But it would all quickly vaporize.

It started with a rendezvous in a hotel room in Clearwater Beach, Fla., where Bakker met up with church secretary Jessica Hahn, a sexual encounter he successfully kept under wraps for years by reportedly paying her hush money. But when Swaggart caught wind of the tryst, he saw an opportunity to topple his rival and took the matter to the Assemblies of God, the church fellowship both preachers belonged to.

Accused of “moral failure” by the fellowship, Bakker resigned and Falwell replaced him as president of PTL. Once there, Falwell examined the company ledgers and realized he had a problem. Among other things, Bakker had offered nearly 160,000 people the opportunity to reserve a room at the 500-room Heritage Grand Hotel for three nights a year for life for \$1,000 — a mathematical impossibility.

Bakker was eventually sentenced to 45 years in prison and fined \$500,000 after jurors found him guilty on 24 fraud and conspiracy charges, which accused him of swindling his followers out of nearly \$160 million and using much of it to fund his extravagant lifestyle. His sentence was later cut to eight years.

“Please don’t do this to me,” Bakker said before he was led away in handcuffs.

His attorney told The Times after his client was sentenced that Bakker had suffered a nervous breakdown during the trial and was overcome by vivid hallucinations, imagining that those packed in the courtroom were “frightening animals intent on destroying him.”

Behind bars, Bakker learned that Tammy Faye had filed for divorce, a final blow that left him questioning his faith, he later told Larry King. Ultimately, though, he said he “learned more in prison than in Bible college” and read the Bible in full for the first time, coming to realize that he had been leading “an ungodly arrogant lifestyle” as he chased wealth.

“You can worship money or you can worship God,” he told The Times when he moved into a small apartment in Burbank with his son after his release. “But you can’t worship both.”

The apartment served as a base camp after he released his memoir, "I Was Wrong," and plotted a national book tour. He also did volunteer work at the Los Angeles International Dream Center, where he was welcomed warmly by the poor families and troubled youths who sought a fresh start there.

It's also where he met Lori Beth Graham, an evangelist and frequent speaker at the center who described herself as a survivor of an abusive marriage and a hard-partying lifestyle as a youth. Both were broke, and she told the Charlotte Observer she had to borrow a wedding gown when they married.

The newlyweds moved to rural Missouri, just north of the Arkansas border, and set up camp on 800 rolling acres that had been purchased by developer Jerry Crawford, a onetime PTL partner who credited Bakker with saving his failing marriage. Bakker put down roots quickly, establishing his Morningside Church and a studio

In many ways, Morningside was a miniature version of Heritage USA, with a street lamp-lined avenue called Grace Street, a faux town square with a 15-foot statue of Jesus and old-timey shops such as Grace Street Creamery and Morningside Beauty Salon. Guests were free to wander in as Bakker and his wife taped their new show.

But if “The PTL Club” capitalized on the wealthier-the-better ethos of the 1980s, Bakker’s new show was filled with post-9/11 darkness and apocalyptic visions of what was to come. He claimed that hurricanes, train derailments and mass school shootings were a judgment of God and predicted a second American civil war if President Trump wasn’t reelected.

Now white-haired with a neatly trimmed beard and sunken cheeks, the man once known for his upbeat delivery and playful repartee with guests had been replaced by a grim figure.

The soundstage where he and Lori Beth reached out to viewers was often filled with buckets of survival food — Tasty Pantry Deluxe Bucket (buttermilk pancakes, black bean burgers and more) and Fiesta Pail (refried beans, taco-flavored plant-based meat and more) and a sampler bundle he claimed was enough for 23,375 meals for a \$2,500 donation. It could feed a family of four for years, he vowed.

Not that it would matter much during the depth of Armageddon, reviews of Bakker's food buckets were less than glowing.

"We couldn't agree on which was worse — the thick potato soup that felt like eating wet cement, the strong chemical overtones in the chocolate pudding or the disturbing radioactive orange of the macaroni and cheese," a team of NPR tasters wrote in 2015.

But it was the Silver Solution and Bakker's claims that it was a cure for COVID-19 that caught the attention of authorities. The Federal Trade Commission and the Food and Drug Administration sent him warning letters to cease making false medical claims and the attorney general in Missouri filed suit, alleging he was deceiving viewers by pushing a fake panacea for the virus.

In response, his program was dropped by World Harvest Television and GEB America Network — two of the few networks that carried his new show — and was cut off by credit card companies. Under mounting pressure, he agreed to pay restitution of \$157,000 and stop pitching the product.

Telling viewers that he was, again, on the brink of bankruptcy, he urged them to save his ministry by sending him cash or checks.

"SOS, save our station, save our ship, help us stay on the air," he said. "We need a miracle here."

Bakker is survived by his wife and two children, Tammy Sue and Jamie, known as Jay. Tammy Faye Bakker died while battling cancer in 2007.

Seeking clues for coexistence with wild donkeys

IN THE SUMMER and fall, donkeys often wander around UC Riverside and graze on its well-irrigated lawns.

STAN LIM UC Riverside

[Donkeys, from A1] multiple people) had shot at least half a dozen donkeys with arrows in a series of unsolved attacks.

Despite the extensive commentary swirling around the burros, surprisingly little is known about the herd itself. This includes key questions such as how many live in the Inland Empire, whether the population is growing and how they are affecting the ecosystem.

A team of researchers at UC Riverside is on a mission to change that by studying the wild population in hopes of gaining insights that can improve coexistence between humans and donkeys.

“Donkeys are very strong animals; they bite, they kick,” said associate professor Marko Spasojevic. “We want to avoid those conflicts by better understanding where they go, what resources they need and ideally help Riverside County take care of these populations.”

Spasojevic, who teaches in the Department of Evolution, Ecology, and Organismal Biology, is leading the university's research into the local donkey population. One of the first tasks is gaining a precise understanding of the herd's population size and birth trends.

It is estimated that several hundred donkeys live in the Box Springs Mountain Reserve and are known to wander into the nearby Riverside and San Bernardino county communities of Loma Linda, Riverside and Moreno Valley, he said.

As temperatures spike and vegetation dries in the summer and fall, donkeys often travel down the hillside to graze on UC Riverside's well-irrigated lawns or enjoy a nap in the cool shade of the parking structures.

This fall, graduate student Wyatt Hall is deploying motion-activated wildlife cameras across the burros' habitat to help track and count the population.

“Understanding how quickly that population is growing will help us think about things like minimizing traffic collisions,” Spasojevic said. “If the population is growing a lot, we may need to think about putting in barriers or wildlife overpasses."

Another long-term goal of UC Riverside researchers is to understand the ecological role and impact of the donkey herd, which can also help inform whether population control or other interventions are needed.

Based on his observations thus far, Spasojevic believes the burros could play an important role in the local ecosystem by grazing on nonnative grasses and preventing them from overtaking native plants. At the same time, he's concerned that the animals' trails around the mountains could be causing damaging levels of soil erosion.

In order to learn more about their feeding habits, researchers plans to analyze poop samples. If funding allows, in future years Spasojevic would also like to put GPS collars on wild donkeys to better understand their movements and how certain seasonal or weather patterns increase their likelihood of wandering into urban areas.

This year, Spasojevic and colleagues Ellie Armstrong and Kieran Samuk are also planning to use genetic technology to try to understand the origin of the Inland Empire's wild donkey herd.

Scientists have traced the origins of donkeys back more than 5,000 years to eastern Africa. The animals reached Spain during the Roman Empire and were later brought to what is now Mexico by Spanish colonists in the 1500s. In the 1770s,

Spanish explorer Juan Bautista de Anza led an expedition of settlers into what would later become California, bringing donkeys and horses with him.

There are two predominant rumors about how a wild herd ended up in the Inland Empire, Spasojevic said. The first is that miners abandoned some donkeys in the region during the gold rush; the second is that a group of ranchers drove over a population of burros from Death Valley in the 1950s.

Spasojevic hopes to be able to gain a clearer answer by comparing DNA samples from local donkeys to DNA collected from populations elsewhere.

One thing that is unique about the Inland Empire's wild donkey population is its proximity to urban areas.

“Most of the places where there are large populations are places like Arizona where they're out in open wildlands,” Spasojevic said. “Here we have them walking through neighborhoods.”

On campus, students are educated on the importance of not touching or feeding the donkeys, which weigh about 500 pounds and can charge at humans when feeling threatened. Students are also instructed to slow down when driving near donkeys as collisions can cause injury or even death to humans and animals.

As development continues to expand in the Inland Empire, it's likely that contact between humans and donkeys will continue to increase, underscoring the importance of better understanding and managing this unique population.

BUSINESS

Emmy Awards go to ... Amazon Prime Video

ACTOR Matthew Rhys and director Hiro Murai win Emmys for “Widow’s Bay” on Apple TV+ last month.

RONALDO BOLAÑOS Los Angeles Times

BY MEG JAMES

Breaking with more than 70 years of tradition, the Emmy Awards show will move to Amazon Prime Video from broadcast TV beginning next year.

The Television Academy on Tuesday announced a six-year deal with Amazon, which becomes the centerpiece of a push by the North Hollywood-based organization to broaden the reach and relevance of the TV industry's annual awards gala.

Amazon has agreed to promote the show to its millions of international subscribers and also make it available for free to non-Prime Video customers. The move was expected.

"Our ambition here is to make this a global event that celebrates the biggest stars on television around the world," Mike Hopkins, head of Prime Video and Amazon MGM Studios, said in an interview. "This is a six-year deal, and we hope it'll be much longer than that."

Financial terms were not disclosed. Amazon agreed to pay at least \$15 million a year for the rights, according to a person familiar with the deal terms but not authorized to comment.

The academy's exclusive partnership with Amazon replaces the “wheel deal” — a rotation among ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox, which have taken turns each year since the mid-1990s to host the event.

The churn has frustrated the nonprofit academy, which wanted a consistent partner to help bolster its relationships with advertisers, talent and viewers.

“We were essentially starting over every year with the creative process, with the production process and with building new relationships with sponsors,” Television Academy Chair Cris Abrego said in a separate interview. “There were a lot of challenges.”

The first Emmy Awards were handed out in 1949. Within a few years, NBC turned the Hollywood gala into a national telecast fitting for the small screen.

The hopscotch rotation was designed to level the playing field among fierce competitors when broadcast networks ruled the industry. But streaming platforms now rival, and in some cases surpass, broadcast TV as a go-to form of entertainment, particularly among the younger viewers that the TV Academy hopes to engage.

Broadcasters also lost interest in promoting the show as its ratings and their Emmy hauls declined amid the rise of HBO, cable channels AMC and FX, and streamers, including Netflix. This year, Apple TV+ won the most Emmys on the strength of its quirky series “Widow’s Bay,” and other prestige programming.

The reversal of fortune prompted network executives to grouse that the Emmys had become a three-hour commercial for streaming services. Network shows were largely squeezed out and international shows and actors have received more acclaim — making the event less of a domestic affair.

The network rotation ended with last month's telecast on NBC.

The show attracted nearly 7 million viewers — a 10% decline compared with the 2025 installment, which aired on CBS. The lower ratings were due, in part, because NBC staged the event on a mid-September Monday — instead of a more traditional Sunday — because it didn't want to dislodge its most popular program, “Sunday Night Football.”

For Amazon, the arrangement continues the e-retailer's expansion into live programming.

"The show still has a very large audience," Hopkins said, adding that Amazon is confident it can boost the show's profile — and the individual TV programs that it celebrates.

"We have an opportunity where many of the nominees and eventual winners will be part of the Prime Video family of subscriptions," he said, noting that Amazon bundles other companies' streaming services as add-ons to its own service.

The awards will offer additional marketing hooks.

“This gives us this unique opportunity to be celebrating the storytellers all year long,” Hopkins said.

Late last year, the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences announced that it would shift the Oscars telecast to YouTube beginning in 2029 — a watershed moment after ABC has aired the Academy Awards for 50 years.

“Television is evolving,” Abrego said, adding that the Emmy Awards must evolve too.

For example, he said, the Emmy voting and award show calendar might be adjusted after 2027 so the event could occur earlier in the year, such as in May, when the shows feel fresher.

“We want to be in a position to reach as many people as possible,” Abrego said.

A new Gehry concert hall arises in downtown L.A.

MARK GREIL, vice president of McCarthy Building Companies Inc., at the Gehry project near Disney Hall.

GENARO MOLINA Los Angeles Times

BY ROGER VINCENT

A pet project of architect Frank Gehry, a smaller concert hall to complement his legendary Walt Disney Concert Hall, is taking shape in downtown Los Angeles for an opening next September.

Elements Gehry devised to set it apart are already visible, as construction on the \$337-million addition to the Colburn School of Performing Arts reveals details the architect conceived years ago.

The centerpiece of the expansion will be a 1,000-seat concert hall named for Pasadena philanthropists Terri and Jerry Kohl with an in-the-round design meant to create intimacy between the performers and the audience. The hall will include an orchestra pit and a stage similar in size to the one at Disney Hall so it can accommodate grand orchestra, opera and dance performances.

Gehry set out to create an immersive hall that would inspire artists and envelop the audience, said Meaghan Lloyd, his chief of staff and right hand at his firm, Gehry Partners.

“Frank’s passion was bringing the audience closer to the performers and getting the relationship between the two just right, so that the audience can feel the performers, the performers can feel the audience reacting,” Lloyd said.

Kohl Hall will be part of the school where Colburn's symphony orchestra, bands, youth string programs and children's choirs will perform. It will also be available for rent for outside productions such as jazz and classical music concerts. It is expected to be in use more than 200 times a year.

The hall will open with a concert on Sept. 25, the Colburn School announced Tuesday. The weekend celebration will include inaugural performances at the Dance Center, a new dance instruction and performance venue being built as part of the 100,000-square-foot Gehry-designed addition.

The new Dance Center will double facilities for the school's Trudl Zipper Dance Institute. The dance facilities will include a 100-seat theater for dance and four professional-size studios for dance instruction and rehearsal.

Beginning next year, the hall will be the home of the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, a group of professional musicians about half the size of the Los Angeles Philharmonic. LACO concerts will feature premieres of new fanfares by celebrated film composers, including a work by John Williams to be performed at LACO's inaugural concert in the hall.

The fanfares are curated by Grammy nominee and singer Seth MacFarlane, best known as the creator and star of “Family Guy.”

Part of the hall's commercial appeal is expected to be its size, in a sweet spot between the 2,265-seat Disney and the popular 415-seat Herbert Zipper Concert Hall already on the Colburn campus. The nearby Dorothy Chandler Pavilion seats about 3,200 guests. The Peacock Theater at L.A. Live seats 7,100.

Kohl Hall's in-between size “is the missing piece of the venue puzzle” for Los Angeles, Colburn President Sel Kardan said.

A key feature already in place, hanging from the ceiling, is an array of steel clouds packed with concrete, designed to improve acoustics and evoke a sense of airiness. The clouds were made in the Netherlands by a firm with a history of building steel ship hulls that now specializes in building complex steel constructions like the clouds using digital data.

The exterior metal cladding of the addition features a luminescent pink paint coating called Pink Kandi.

Japanese acoustical engineer Yasuhisa Toyota will serve as the hall's acoustician, as he has for all of Gehry's concert halls, beginning with Disney Hall.

The long-awaited Colburn School addition will be the third Gehry-designed building on Bunker Hill, which already has Disney Concert Hall and the Grand LA, a \$1-billion apartment, hotel and retail complex he designed for New York mega-developer Related Cos.

The Colburn School dates to 1950 and moved to its current location downtown in 1998, where it has more than 2,000 students, most of whom range from middle school to college age.

Air taxi startup must pay \$116.9 million in trade secrets suit

Supplier accused Joby Aviation of using its designs, data to make pressure data probes.

BY CAROLINE

PETROW-Cohen

A federal jury reached a verdict last week in the latest lawsuit surrounding the burgeoning market for electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft.

The jury in Tampa, Fla., found that air taxi startup Joby Aviation owes roughly \$116.9 million to aviation supplier Aerosonic after it allegedly breached a confidentiality agreement and mishandled trade secrets.

Aerosonic sued Joby last year after selling it air data probes that measure pressure around an aircraft. The Clearwater, Fla.-based supplier claimed that Joby used its proprietary designs and data to develop its own probes.

Joby shares, which have shed more than 55% so far this year, were unchanged at \$5.78 in Tuesday trading.

According to Aerosonic's complaint filed in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida, Joby developed its in-house data probes in about two years. Aerosonic said the development process would have taken around a decade if Joby hadn't relied on the supplier's trade secrets.

Joby, a major player in the race to bring electric air taxis to market, denied the accusations. The jury found that Joby owes Aerosonic more than \$48 million for misappropriating trade secrets and more than \$68 million for breaking a nondisclosure agreement.

"We strongly disagree with the jury's verdict, which we believe is unsupported by the evidence and inconsistent with the law," Joby said in a statement provided to The Times. "Joby independently developed its air data system through years of its own engineering and manufacturing work, and we stand firmly behind the integrity of that work and our conduct."

The jury also rejected a countersuit brought by Joby that accused Aerosonic of selling it defective probes.

Joby, based in Santa Cruz, has been entangled in several lawsuits recently, including multiple with rival Archer Aviation.

Joby filed a suit late last year alleging corporate espionage against Archer and George Kivork, a former Joby employee who left to work for Archer. It accused Kivork of stealing technical information and communications with stakeholders from Joby and providing them to its competitor.

In March, Archer filed a lawsuit accusing Joby of defrauding the government by concealing close ties to China and misclassifying aircraft parts of Chinese origin.

Both companies plan to offer a commercial air taxi service using electric aircraft that function like Ubers over congested cities. Joby could launch air taxis in the United Arab Emirates in the next year, while Archer says its goal is to operate in Los Angeles in time for the 2028 Olympics.

The companies are among the survivors of the quest to disrupt aviation using new aircraft designs, electricity and artificial intelligence. Even as frontrunners, they have each taken a hit this year amid worries that they are taking too long and requiring too much investment, even as new challengers are emerging from China and elsewhere.

The Oct. 2 verdict in the case between Joby and Aerosonic is not finalized and is subject to post-trial motions or appeals. “We have asked the Court to overturn the verdict and intend to vigorously pursue all available post-trial and appellate remedies,” Joby said.

Pool supply stores closed in Chap. ll

BY ELLA CHAKARIAN

Leslie's Pool Supplies has shuttered 76 stores nationwide as part of a bankruptcy restructuring.

The company, which opened its first location in North Hollywood in 1963, announced last week that it had closed dozens of locations across California, including stores in La Crescenta, Granada Hills and San Diego.

The Phoenix-based pool supply chain known for its pool and spa care products said it “operates an integrated ecosystem of more than 850 physical locations.” Stores outside of those that recently closed remain open and fully operational.

In a release, Leslie's said it had reached an agreement with more than 80% of its existing lenders to eliminate about 90% of its funded debt, or \$685 million.

The company said it aims to emerge from Chapter 11 bankruptcy in early 2027 with a stronger financial position.

"With a stronger balance sheet and greater financial flexibility, Leslie's can reinvest across the business to strengthen operating execution and deliver an even better experience for our customers, both in-store and online," Leslie's Chief Executive Jason McDonell said in a news release. "Leslie's is here to stay, and I am deeply grateful to our employees, customers, and partners for their continued support as we work to position Leslie's for a strong future."

From 2023 to 2025, Leslie's reported slipping revenues, while posting losses in the last two years. In its third-quarter earnings report in August, the company withdrew its full-year outlook due to “macroeconomic softness and the uncertainty around the company’s ability to continue to drive consumer behavior.”

This isn't Leslie's first round of closures. In late 2025 and early 2026, the company closed 80 underperforming store locations and a distribution center.

In the Chapter 11 filing, Leslie's reported total assets of \$722.2 million and total liabilities and debt of about \$1.2 billion.

The company was founded by Phil Leslie Jr. and expanded to 1,000 locations across 37 states by 2023. In 2020, the company completed its initial public offering, at a time when there was high demand for pools because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Investor presses Snap over Specs

BY MENGQI SUN

Hedge fund Blue Duck Capital Partners wants Snap Inc. to raise capital by selling a stake in its nascent Specs unit, putting additional investor pressure on the social media app to deliver on its big investment in augmented reality glasses.

Snap is “profoundly” undervalued, and raising money for Specs would unlock significant shareholder value, Blue Duck Chief Investment Officer Alex Beinfield said in a letter to Snap’s board on Tuesday.

While the technology unveiled last month is “remarkable” and has enormous potential, Specs are unlikely to see mass adoption in the next year or two, Beinfield said in the letter reviewed by Bloomberg News.

A Specs-focused capital raise would help spending without diluting Snap's share count and preserve its cash flow, Beinfield said. It could also enable the company to potentially lower Specs' price of around \$2,200, he said.

Selling 20% of the Specs subsidiary at a valuation of \$5 billion would raise \$1 billion, which would fund the division's spending for roughly two years, Beinfield argues. He said it should raise capital from venture capital or a strategic player such as SpaceX.

“Neglecting to take the actions outlined here at this juncture would likely result in more of the same: a deeply depressed share value, which limits strategic optionality, hurts employee morale and retention, and lowers the chances of reaching ambitious objectives for what Specs can be," Beinfield said in the letter to Chief Executive Evan Spiegel, Chief Technology Officer Bobby Murphy and the board.

Blue Duck said it's an investor in Snap but didn't disclose the size of its position. The firm's letter puts additional pressure on Snap to deliver on Specs.

Irenic Capital Management has built a position in Snap and has pushed the company to spin off or shut down Specs after saying it has invested more than \$3.5 billion in the business, arguing it should be self-funded by now.

A representative for Snap didn't immediately respond to a request for comment. Beinfield declined to comment.

Snap, co-founded by Spiegel, Murphy and Reggie Brown, is known for its Snapchat app that includes disappearing photos and messages. It went public in 2017 with a multi-class share structure that gives public investors no voting rights, with co-founders retaining control.

Spiegel last month launched Specs, with the company saying they would deliver “new ways to learn, create, work, and play.” They are expected to ship this fall. Snap in January created a standalone subsidiary for Specs.

Blue Duck, based in Manhattan Beach, is a long-short equity strategy fund with a focus in tech, media, telecom, consumer and industrial sectors.

Sun writes for Bloomberg.

BUSINESS

TV production in U.S. plummets

RONALDO BOLAÑOS Los Angeles Times

A CREW prepares to shoot a scene for the independent film “The Seed” in North Hollywood in August.

Union-paid study finds studio spending in the country went from 94% to 64%.

BY CERYS DAVIES

A coalition of Hollywood unions is leaning on Congress to enact a federal film tax credit, citing new research that highlights the heavy outflow of productions from the U.S.

For decades, television was the part of Hollywood that stayed home. But over the last quarter-century, with the rise of streaming and the offshoring of production, the U.S. share of major-studio spending on TV episodes has fallen from 94% to 64%, according to a report commissioned by seven entertainment industry unions.

The study from Washington-based consulting firm EY Quantitative Economics and Statistics also found that the U.S. share of major-studio spending on film productions similarly fell from 74% to 42% between 1999 and 2024.

The findings are being released as the industry rallies for a new federal film and TV tax incentive bill. Congress isn't expected to vote on the measure until after the November midterm election.

“Many generations who have made their living in this industry are now having to question whether there’s a future for this industry in the United States,” Rebecca Rhine, the Directors Guild of America’s associate national executive director, said in an interview. “This is not just about a few people in Hollywood. This is about an infrastructure that serves the whole country and stories that reflect the whole country."

The DGA and other Hollywood unions, including the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists and the Writers Guild of America, tasked EY Quantitative Economics and Statistics with quantifying location changes for film and television productions between 1999 and 2024. The analysis focused on productions from larger studios that cost at least \$5 million for feature films, \$1 million for TV episodes under 41 minutes and \$1.7 million for longer episodes.

This drastic decline over the last 25 years is one that the pending federal tax incentive aims to address. Last month, a bipartisan group of congressional leaders officially introduced the Motion Picture, Television and Entertainment Revitalization Act. The bill would establish a $20\%$ tax credit on U.S. labor for eligi ble film and TV productions, including post-production and visual effects work. The uncapped credit would cover labor expenses for production crews as well as so-called above-the-line costs, such as salaries for actors and writers.

The credit could also increase to 30% with several uplifts, including 5% bonus credits for independent productions or those that film at least 30% of principal photography days in a rural qualified opportunity zone or a federally declared disaster area.

The effort is being led on the House side by Reps. Nathaniel Moran (R-Texas), Linda Sánchez (D-Whittier), Brian Jack (R-Ga.) and Laura Friedman (D-Glendale), and on the Senate side by Sens. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) and Adam Schiff (D-Calif.). Schiff said the new data further demonstrate "the urgent need to act and pass a federal film tax proposal to stop the exodus of production to other countries offering more competitive incentives."

"The jobs in the film and TV industry are enormously important to our country and must stay here in the United States," Schiff said in a statement. "With the support of the President, and our strong bipartisan and bicameral coalition, our bill will help create hundreds of thousands of jobs across the nation and bring the movie magic back to America. Now is the time to get this done."

Friedman added, in a statement, that “America cannot afford another 25 years of playing second fiddle while film and television jobs leave for other countries.”

An earlier study commissioned by the Motion Picture Assn. estimated that a federal film and television tax credit could boost U.S. production spending by \$125 billion and add more than 143,000 jobs by 2035.

The EY report shows that both the total cast and crew working on major U.S. studio television episodes and movies filmed in the U.S. separately declined nearly 30% between 1999 and 2024.

The job losses have been a source of deep anxiety across the industry.

DGA's Rhine said the union's members are increasingly concerned about their ability to support their families and maintain their healthcare plans, as jobs keep dwindling.

"There are stories that can be told all around the world by artists," Rhine said. "We would never question that, but these are U.S.-based companies taking U.S.-based jobs outside of the country. We think that work should be done here."

Times staff writer

Samantha Masunaga

contributed to this report.

Starbucks sued over 'sugar-free' beverages

BY DEE-ANN DURBIN

By comparison, one Reese's cup has 11 grams of sugar.

Starbucks is facing a consumer lawsuit over claims that the protein drinks labeled “sugar-free” on its cafe menus may actually contain more sugar than a Reese’s peanut butter cup.

The federal lawsuit filed late Friday in Seattle alleges that eight protein beverages Starbucks sells in the U.S. contain varying amounts of sugar even though the company lists them as sugarless.

On Monday, the menu on Starbucks' U.S. website listed a 16-ounce Sugar-Free Caramel Protein Matcha with 16 grams of sugar and a 20-ounce version of the same drink with 21 grams of sugar.

Hagens Berman, a law firm that specializes in class action cases, filed the suit on behalf of three individual consumers who bought Starbucks' sugar-free protein drinks in California, New York and Washington.

“Consumers avoid sugar for various reasons, whether that be general health, diabetes and blood glucose levels or other factors, and for many, a staunch mislabeling like this is significant,” said Steve Berman, a co-founder and managing partner of the Seattle-headquartered firm.

The plaintiffs contend that Starbucks' naming and marketing of sugar-free products is "false, deceptive

BYD's push in Japan with tiny EV

CHARLES KRUPA Associated Press

STARBUCKS' protein

drinks aren't labeled

accurately, lawsuit says.

and unlawful" and that the company violated federal labeling regulations.

Seattle-based Starbucks said the sugar in its protein drinks comes from the protein-boosted milk it uses. The company said it doesn't add sugar and it uses sugar-free syrup for flavoring.

On Starbucks' website Monday, the drinks were marketed as “sugar-free,” but the company also clearly stated the amount of sugar in each beverage and that they were made without added sugar.

“We believe these claims have no merit,” a Starbucks spokesperson said Monday. “Starbucks has consistently and clearly provided information about its protein beverages, sugar-free options, customization choices and nutritional content across product announcements, menus, marketing materials, Starbucks.com and the Starbucks app, and we intend to vigorously defend ourselves in this matter.”

Starbucks introduced its protein drinks in September 2025 to meet consumer demand for functional beverages and catch up to rivals like Dutch Bros, which launched protein-enhanced coffee drinks in 2024.

Dutch Bros also offers a lower-sugar version of its caramel-flavored Hopscotch Protein Latte, but it's advertised as the Hopscotch Zero Sugar Added Protein Latte. The 16-ounce iced version has 7 grams of sugar and 11 grams of protein. By comparison, a 16-ounce iced Starbucks Sugar-Free Caramel Protein Latte has 9 grams of sugar and 29 grams of protein.

The lawsuit seeks damages on behalf of U.S. consumers who bought the drinks. It also wants the court to order Starbucks to stop using the label “sugar-free” on products that contain sugar.

Durbin writes for the Associated Press.

By Nicholas Takahashi

General Motors Co., Ford Motor Co. and Hyundai Motor Co. have all retreated from Japan at one point or another after struggling to persuade car buyers to switch over from the country's carmakers. BYD Co. is betting that it can be the first to break that pattern.

The world's largest maker of electric vehicles recently unveiled the Racco, a kei EV designed specifically for Japan's narrow roads. It attracted more than 1,000 orders in the first few weeks, according to BYD. What sets the Racco apart from the company's five other models in Japan is that it represents something other auto titans never dared to do: target the kei car category, the most popular and uniquely Japanese segment of the market.

Though the odds are stacked against BYD in Japan, the new effort reflects the ambition behind founder Wang Chuanfu's declaration that the Chinese carmaker could become the world's No. 1 automaker within five years. It's also throwing down a challenge on the home turf of Toyota Motor Corp., which currently holds that title and sells more than twice as many vehicles as BYD globally.

The push into such a challenging market “enhances brand recognition and reputation globally,” said Yale Zhang, founder of consulting and research firm AutoForesight. “It’s tougher in some markets like Japan and Korea, but consumers worldwide ultimately value the same things: value for money and solid product performance.”

BYD's boxy vehicle, which debuted in late July and whose name means "sea otter" in Japanese, is going up against Honda Motor Co., Nissan Motor Co. and others that are stepping up their own EV offerings, taking advantage of government subsidies that give them a potentially significant price advantage. Even so, BYD is betting that the speed and manufacturing efficiency driving its global expansion can crack one of the world's most entrenched auto markets.

"Framing Japan as a marginal opportunity misreads the scale of the segment BYD is targeting," Satoru Aoyama, an analyst at Fitch Ratings, wrote in a report. BYD's efforts "reflect a long-horizon brand-building strategy more than a near-term volume play."

More than 1.6 million kei cars and trucks were sold in Japan last year, accounting for more than a third of all new vehicle sales, with Honda, Suzuki Motor Corp. and Daihatsu Motor Co. dominating the segment with a combined market share of about 80%. Deliveries rose 7% in 2025, twice the pace of the broader market, providing at least one reason why BYD sees an opening.

Standing in the way of BYD are obstacles that include protectionist policies, not unlike those that U.S. automakers faced a generation ago with quibbles over taillight colors and other regulatory hurdles. The Racco's sticker price is 2 million yen (\$12,600), after 150,000 yen in government incentives. But a policy change this year substantially increased subsidies for Japanese, European and U.S. models, while reducing them for BYD, in some cases by more than half.

Tokyo residents looking to buy Japanese alternatives — including Honda's N-ONE e or Nissan's Sakura

— can tap into more than 550,000 yen in financial support, in effect bringing their effective price tags down to as low as 1.2 million yen.

The disparity is threatening to erode BYD's already slim margins, according to a BloombergNEF report. "Affordability is the No. 1 factor preventing people from buying an EV," said BNEF analyst Taishin Noble.

Besides price, Japanese drivers have long preferred domestic cars, as well as hybrids for their range and reliability. The nation has also been slow to build out a network of fast-charging stations, leading to range anxiety for would-be EV buyers.

BYD also plans to expand its lineup in Japan with the addition of two hybrids. It has built 77 sales locations, including 56 official dealerships. Even so, BYD remains a tiny player in Japan, having sold only about 7,400 passenger cars there since entering the market in 2023 — a fraction of what Toyota sells domestically in a single month.

BYD is aiming much higher, with the goal of amassing 10 times the Racco's initial batch of orders, according to its Japan president, Liu Xueliang.

"There's no shortcut," Liu told reporters in July. "These 10,000 cars aren't just important for BYD; they're important for the popularization of EVs in Japan."

Indeed, electrification may be providing a wedge for BYD that other foreign carmakers in Japan never had. GM gave up on selling cars in Japan in 2003 after it failed to attract buyers. Ford completely withdrew in 2016, citing low market share and weak profits. Hyundai exited in 2009 after selling only 15,000 cars, but reentered in 2022 with a focus on EVs.

BYD's edge in EV technology appears to be catching on with some local drivers: It sold 3,742 battery-powered cars in Japan last year, compared with Toyota's 4,227. Broader demand for EVs appears to be building: Toyota's bZ4X has posted strong gains, while Honda stopped taking orders for its new kei EV after more than 12,000 customers rushed to buy one.

BYD's modest inroads may also open the door for other Chinese automakers willing to test themselves in Japan.

Zeekr, the premium EV brand owned by Geely Automobile Holdings Ltd., showed off its 009 electric minivan at the Japan Mobility Show in late 2025. The 13-million-yen model, which was due to go on sale through a local retailer in the summer, will take on popular luxury vans including Toyota's Alphard and Vellfire, and Nissan's Elgrand — many of which sell for roughly half the price.

Others are following with a more localized approach. EMTA, a joint venture backed by Chery Automobile Co. and Japanese retailer Autobacs Seven Co., plans to introduce four models by 2029, starting next year with a kei EV.

“Consumers will have more options and, in turn, that will push Japanese companies to react,” said Hikari Todoroki, principal auto consultant at KPMG. “The market won’t expand and the business won’t thrive unless someone takes risks.”

Takahashi writes for Bloomberg.

ADAM GRAY Getty Images was completed. | HIGH | LOW | CLOSE | CHG | %CHG | WK | MO | QTR | YTD | DOW | 51,672.25 | 51,422.90 | 51,521.28 | +253.38 | +0.49% | ▲ | ▲ | ▲ | +7.19% | DOW Trans. | 19,889.89 | 19,634.32 | 19,701.76 | -89.80 | -0.45% | ▼ | ▲ | ▲ | +13.51% | DOW Util. | 1,048.00 | 1,023.24 | 1,047.19 | +26.41 | +2.59% | ▲ | ▲ | ▲ | -1.95% | NYSE Comp. | 23,988.90 | 23,788.62 | 23,921.67 | +133.06 | +0.56% | ▲ | ▲ | ▲ | +8.72% | NASDAQ | 27,722.75 | 27,592.56 | 27,599.79 | +122.48 | +0.45% | ▲ | ▲ | ▲ | +18.75% | S&P 500 | 7,844.52 | 7,805.96 | 7,818.93 | +44.98 | +0.58% | ▲ | ▲ | ▲ | +14.22% | S&P 400 | 3,715.21 | 3,691.87 | 3,697.48 | +19.23 | +0.52% | ▲ | ▲ | ▲ | +11.87% | DOW Total | 77,317.47 | 77,002.82 | 77,043.76 | +402.28 | +0.53% | ▲ | ▲ | ▲ | +14.14% | Russell 2000 | 2,864.43 | 2,825.98 | 2,830.30 | -16.84 | -0.59% | ▼ | ▲ | ▲ | +14.04% | BUSINESS

Skydance emerges as Paramount completes deal

A SKYDANCE BILLBOARD is on display Tuesday outside Paramount Global's headquarters in New York after the deal was completed.

[Paramount, from A1] cultures of the two companies.

"The goal was never simply to add more production capacity, brands or IP," he wrote in his "Day 1" memo to workers of the merged entity. "It was to unite the talent, resources and capabilities of these companies."

By mid-morning, the landmark water tower at the Warner Bros. lot in Burbank included a new line, saying the WB was “a Skydance Corporation.”

Shares of the new company began trading on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker SKYD, a switch from last week when the company went by PSKY for Paramount Skydance and traded on Nasdaq. David Ellison has called the merged company Skydance, the name he selected two decades ago when he began building his Hollywood studio.

The stock got off to a wobbly start, trading at \$9.51 a share, down 2.7% from Monday's close.

The new company emerged heavily in debt — more than \$80 billion — to finance the buyout of Warner Bros. Discovery investors at \$31.17 a share.

Wall Street has expressed concerns about the company's indebtedness — and taming its debt obligations will be a sizable chore for Ellison and his team. Last week, he announced the hiring of Ynon Kreiz, former chief executive of Mattel, to lead the integration of the two companies and run day-to-day operations.

Skydance has said it will find \$6 billion in cost cuts over three years — a prospect that has worried weary Warner Bros. workers who have gone through three ownership changes in eight years.

MARKET ROUNDUP

"As owner-operators, we're in this for the long term, committed to building Skydance for the future — not simply optimizing for the next quarter or the next year," Ellison wrote in his memo. He noted that reducing \$6 billion in spending "will make us leaner and more nimble and free up capital to invest in the stories, creators and technology that matter most."

Skydance said Tuesday that the “synergy savings” would primarily come from merging technology, integration and procurement as well as marketing costs and “real estate rationalization.”

As part of last month's settlement with Bonta, Ellison made a five-year commitment to hold on to the Warner Bros. and Pa-

Stocks keep climbing to record highs

ramount lots. The company leases office space, including in Hollywood and Culver City, which eventually could be phased out. It also has properties scattered around New York City, where the corporation is based, and Atlanta.

StocksRecap

BY STAN CHOE

The U.S. stock market has never been higher, even though the list of challenges chipping away at it keeps growing.

The Standard & Poor's 500 climbed $0.6\%$ Tuesday to a record after topping its prior all-time high set in August. Despite worries about war, high inflation and pressure from the bond market, the index at the heart of many 401(k) accounts has soared $23\%$ since hitting a bottom in late March.

\$12 a share.

The Dow Jones industrial average added 253 points, or 0.5%, while the Nasdaq composite tacked 0.4% onto its own all-time high set the day before. The record-high stock prices are helping investors feel better about their finances, or at least less bad, when Americans are generally feeling discouraged about keeping up with the fast-rising cost of living.

Many of the fears that sent the U.S. stock market to its bottom in March have indeed come true. Oil prices are high because of the war with Iran, which has made inflation worse. Yields have cranked higher in the bond market, which threatens to slow the economy by making it more expensive for everyone to borrow money. And Americans broadly say they're feeling more pessimistic about the economy and where it's heading.

But one vital source of support has remained resolute for the U.S. stock market throughout: the relentless ability for companies to make more money.

Debt financing for the transaction was led by Bank of America, Citigroup and Apollo.

Lamb Weston, which sells frozen fries and other potato products, said on Tuesday that its profit and revenue during its latest quarter topped its projections, for example. The results also beat analysts' expectations, and its stock rallied 7.5%.

Chief Executive Mike Smith said the company continues to deal with unexpected increases in freight and other expenses. But the company nevertheless raised its forecast for an underlying measure of profit for its full fiscal year.

It's not just potato products proving to be profitable. All kinds of companies are lining up to report soon how much profit they made from July through September, and expectations are high. Delta Air Lines will report its third-quarter results on Friday, with several of the country's biggest banks headlining the following week. | NYSE | NASD | Vol. (in mil.) | 4400 | 3807 | Pvs. Volume | 5335 | 3521 | Advanced | 1572 | 1403 | Declined | 1041 | 1890 | New Highs | 52 | 122 | New Lows | 79 | 244 | Analysts expect companies in the S&P 500 to deliver overall growth of nearly 30% in earnings per share from a year earlier, according to FactSet. If they're correct, it would be the third straight quarter of growth better than 25%.

That's crucial because corporate profits are one of the main levers that set prices for stocks, along with interest rates. At the moment, high bond yields are making investors less willing to pay high prices for investments that aren't bonds.

But the simultaneous strength for corporate profits is allowing the market to stay high and “to win the tug-of-war against yields,” according to strategists at Barclays.

To be sure, much hinges on companies actually meeting those expectations for fatter profits. If they fail to do so, stock prices could easily fall off their records. Some critics also point to a possible bubble in stocks in the artificial-intelligence industry after how much they soared in the frenzy around the technology.

AI stocks have been a huge force driving the U.S. market to records, including Nvidia's $28.3\%$ surge so far this year. That's roughly double the broad market's gain.

Constellation Energy jumped $12.2\%$ for one of Tuesday's biggest gains in the S&P 500 because it's also riding that rising tide.

It announced a long-term deal to supply Google with about as much electricity as a new nuclear reactor makes. The boom in AI data centers has made not just electricity more in demand but also construction crews and materials throughout the economy.

All told, the S&P 500 rose 44.98 points to 7,818.93. The Dow added 253.38 points to 51,521.28, and the Nasdaq composite climbed 122.48 points to 27,599.79.

Elsewhere on Wall Street, Option Care Health soared 32.6% after CD&R and McKesson said they're buying the provider of infusion services. The two are paying \$32.05 for each Option Care Health share, valuing it at roughly \$5.8 billion.

Bond yields offered some slack on Tuesday after falling back from their highest levels in years or even decades. The yield on the 10-year Treasury, which is the focal point of the U.S. bond market, eased to 5.28% from 5.31% late Mon-day.

ment debts and tight budgets. In France, tens of thousands of demonstrators marched in support of protests by students demanding more funding for schools.

It fell after oil prices steadied themselves somewhat. The price for a barrel of Brent crude oil, the international standard, dropped to roughly \$97 in the morning before pulling back to settle at \$100.58. While that was up 0.3% from Monday's settlement price, it's still below the nearly \$110 it was at a few weeks ago.

In Asia, Japan's Nikkei 225 jumped $1.1\%$ , and Hong Kong's Hang Seng climbed $1\%$ , but South Korea's Kospi dropped $0.9\%$ .

In stock markets abroad, indexes ticked higher in Europe as yields continue to swing in their bond markets amid concerns about high govern-

The company expects \$70 billion a year in revenue, trailing Walt Disney Co., which last year generated \$94.4 billion in sales.

The Ellison family will be the controlling shareholders, with longtime Skydance investor RedBird Capital Partners joining with voting shares.

Nearly half of the new company will be owned by foreign investors after Skydance sought a waiver from the Federal Communications Commission, controlled by an appointee of President Trump, who has long favored the Ellison family's flex to own two major news outlets — CBS News and CNN.

The royal families of Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Abu Dhabi contributed \$24 billion in equity to help Ellison close the deal.

Skydance said the transaction included \$47 billion of new equity investment led by the Larry Ellison family, RedBird, the sovereign wealth funds and investment bank LionTree.

RedBird contributed an additional \$4 billion in equity to the deal, according to a person familiar with the financing but not authorized to comment. The latest round brings RedBird's investment in Skydance to \$6 billion. RedBird founder Gerry Cardinale first took a stake in Ellison's studio six years ago.

Foreign investors will not have voting shares. The equity holdings were priced at

Ellison named his executive team Monday, including CNN Chair Mark Thompson, HBO Chair Casey Bloys, Discovery streaming executive J.B. Perrette and DC Comics managers James Gunn and Peter Safran — all former senior executives at Warner who made the switch to Skydance.

CBS News Editor in Chief Bari Weiss' remit remains unchanged. Thompson will manage the larger news organization of CNN.

As part of the Sept. 21 settlement with the plaintiff states, Skydance must form a five-member editorial panel within six months to ensure that journalists within the two news organizations are allowed to report the news without undue influence from its owners.

The settlement also established requirements for theatrical film distribution — at least 30 films a year released into cinemas — and cable channel negotiations to try to prevent Skydance from using its newfound clout — through the ownership of more than 50 basic cable channels — to squeeze pay-TV distributors.

Paramount executives fill out the rest of Ellison's leadership team.

"Our industry is in a period of profound change," Ellison wrote to his team. "Audiences have more choices than ever, technology is reshaping how stories are created, distributed and experienced.... We don't just want to succeed in this environment — we want to win and help shape the future of the industry."

Choe writes for the Associated Press. | Institution | Int Chking Acct Min | Money Mkt Acct Min | 3 mo CD Min | 6 mo CD Min | 12 mo CD Min | 18 mo CD Min | 24 mo CD Min | 36 mo CD Min | 60 mo CD Min | Phone / Website | COMMUNITY COMMERCE BANKCommunity Commerce Bank | NA | NA | 2.94 | 2.94 | 4.07 | 4.07 | 3.97 | 3.87 | 3.87 | 909-450-2050www.ccombank.com | NA | NA | 100,000 | 100,000 | 100,000 | 100,000 | 100,000 | 100,000 | 100,000 | Equal Housing Lender - Member FDIC | Tustin Community BankTustin Community Bank | 0.05 | 1.26 | 1.26 | 1.51 | 3.55 | 2.02 | 2.02 | 2.02 | 2.02 | 714-730-5662www.tustincmtybank.com | 100 | 50,000 | 2,500 | 2,500 | 100,000 | 2,500 | 2,500 | 2,500 | 2,500 | 12 Month CD Available For New Money Only | TO PARTICIPATE IN THIS FEATURE, CALL SALES DEPARTMENT @ 773-320-8492Check rates at www.rateseeker.com/savings-rates | Rate Criteria: Rates effective as of 10/5/2026 and may change without notice. RateSeeker, LLC. does not guarantee the accuracy of the information appearing above or the availability of rates in this table. Banks, Thrifts and credit unions pay to advertise in this guide. NA means rates are not available or not offered at the time rates were surveyed. All institutions are FDIC or NCUA insured. Yields represent annual percentage yield (APY) paid by participating institutions. Rates may change after the account is opened. Fees may reduce the earnings on the account. A penalty may be imposed for early withdrawal. To appear in this table, call 773-320-8492. | Voices

DAVID HELVARG

CONTRIBUTING WRITER

It's too late to restore our great oceans

I RECENTLY went diving off Kawaihae on Hawaii's Big Island. The water was bathtub warm, about 85 degrees, with an impressive 80 feet of visibility which meant you could see how little of the reef ecosystem was left. The coral was dead, just a few shoaling fish moving through the rocky structures that remained. It wasn't my first encounter with a dead reef. It won't be my last. But those of us who care about the ocean and the other $29\%$ of the planet can't afford to get too discouraged.

When I founded an ocean conservation group in 2003, I believed we could still turn the tide. Industrial overfishing, pollution and the destruction of coastal habitats were serious threats, with climate change adding to their cumulative effects. Still, there were elected ocean champions, growing public engagement and emerging clean energy technologies. We could replace offshore oil rigs with wind farms, establish protective parks in the sea and find less destructive ways to fish, farm seafood and live well by our coasts.

I'm less hopeful today. Fossil-fuel-fired climate disruption is today changing the ocean's physical nature: its temperature, chemistry, circulation, even its color. I've spent much of my reporting life watching the damage accumulate.

After Hurricane Katrina in 2005, I traveled through an emptied-out New Orleans and along a devastated Gulf Coast. I thought a disaster that killed more than 1,800 people and generated more than a million environmental refugees would act as a wake-up call for climate action.

CLEAN-UP CREWS comb the beach in the aftermath of an oil spill from a pipeline near Huntington Beach Pier in 2021.

AL SEIB Los Angeles Times

OPINION VOICES

In 2007, after the container ship Cosco Busan hit the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge and spilled fuel, I met a young couple who had driven from Lodi to help. Amber Kirst was walking the shoreline in white pants stained with oil, carrying a bag of dead crabs and oiled litter. "We needed to do something," she told me.

Two weeks later, aboard a Coast Guard cutter guarding Iraq's offshore oil terminals during the Iraq war, its young executive officer scanned the dark waters and waiting supertankers. "We're looking at the pain and war that surrounds oil," he said.

By 2010, covering BP's Deepwater Horizon disaster, I was losing confidence in our political system's ability to change course. I flew over 100 dolphins and a humpback whale trapped and dying in the oil.

"BP isn't paying us to clean up the oil," a shrimper in Biloxi later told me. "They're paying us not to riot."

Two years later, the Chevron refinery in my city of Richmond, Calif., exploded. I watched an oily black column of smoke rise over the bay. Beginning that afternoon, thousands of people coughing and with eye and throat irritations filled local hospitals.

I also spent decades reporting on how the fossil fuel industry spread doubt about climate science while buying political influence. Now the Trump administration has declared an “energy emergency” to promote more fossil fuel extraction while attacking offshore wind and other clean energy systems. It’s like fighting fire with a kerosene hose.

Meanwhile, the ocean absorbs 90% of the excess heat trapped by greenhouse gases and a substantial share of our carbon dioxide. That buffering comes at a cost: warmer, more acidic waters, less oxygen and mounting stress on marine life. Coral reefs and kelp forests suffer, fisheries move to cooler deeper waters, and coastal communities face rising seas and more destructive storms.

We know what the solutions are. What we lack so far in most places is the political will to put them to work at the scale that our public seas and ocean require. We need to move from what policymakers call ocean and coastal management to what emergency-room and battlefield physicians call triage: saving what we can while we can.

That means eliminating fossil fuel emissions, establishing marine protected areas, ending destructive fishing practices. It means we must stop mining, drilling and spilling. We must keep plastic and other pollutants out of our waters. It also means rebuilding wetlands, oyster reefs, kelp forests and the living defenses that help protect coastlines. Protecting what's left is essential. But it is no longer enough.

I'm not expecting a return to the ocean I grew up with, watching "Sea Hunt" on a black-and-white television in the last century. That was a different world, with 5 billion fewer people and more room for wilderness and wildlife, especially offshore. Nostalgia won't bring that back. Neither will despair or misanthropic fantasies about a virus or artificial intelligence taking us out.

So although I'm no longer hopeful for today's living seas, I'm still committed. Like that young woman picking up oiled crabs, we all need to do something. Then keep doing it until ecosystem restoration becomes a major human enterprise and job generator across all sectors of society and for generations to come.

The ocean we protect and restore will not be the ocean we inherited. But it will still be the ocean on which our lives, cultures, economies and communities, both human and wild, depend.

DAVID HELVARG is the executive director of Blue Frontier, an ocean policy group, and co-host of "Rising Tide: The Ocean Podcast." He is the author of "Forest of the Sea: The Remarkable Life and Imperiled Future of Kelp."

MYUNG J. CHUN Los Angeles Times

AGING BUILDINGS and other factors have brought on high condo fees.

Higher fees are often necessary

Re “As California condo fees soar, so do owners’ fears,” Oct. 4

THE story about California condo fees soaring, with some owners fearing they can't survive, is the emblematic canary in the coal mine for what's ailing the nation's most populous state.

As a former member of a 400-unit homeowner association in Cerritos, I became concerned that the \$25 monthly association dues would not be sufficient to support the costs of anticipated expenses for maintenance of the association's properties.

I suspected the developer set a low fee to help sell the properties, while avoiding informing the new homeowners — my new neighbors — of the true costs that would be incurred over time.

I dug into the financial aspects of the covenants, conditions and restrictions (or CC&Rs) and found they allowed a maximum 25% annual dues increase if needed. I initiated the formation of a finance committee (me) and persuaded the board of directors to institute yearly increases that eventually raised the monthly dues to \$125.

I was “rewarded” for my work by being elected as a member, and at times as president, of the board. Over the years, we were able to repave the streets, rebuild the clubhouse and tennis courts and make other improvements that made the HOA the “Beverly Hills” of the city.

I fear California is experiencing the same angst that is ailing many condo associations. We need our elected state and local leaders to be honest and tell us what we need to hear, not what we want to hear. We need them to act responsibly. Making false promises to make people feel happy, or to gain or regain a political office, is dishonest.

My husband and I have lived in a condo development for 12 years. Many people who buy condos

don't understand what they are buying and that the owners are the HOA. They think that owning a

ALBERT PERDON

De Luz

Los Angeles Times

FOUNDED DECEMBER 4, 1881

A California Times Publication condo means they don't have to pay for major home repairs. In other words, they think like tenants, not

LETTERS

owners.

Replacing the roof on a single-family home could easily cost \$26,000 or even more, and it's unlikely the homeowner has a designated fund to draw on to pay that expense.

The HOA does — or at any rate, it should — have such a fund. But with the mindset that those kinds of costs are not their problem, or should be the next owner's problem, condo owners who pressure the HOA board to keep HOA fees low should not be surprised or angered by a special assessment.

If you're thinking of buying a condo, read that long boring document called "covenants, conditions and restrictions" and understand what you are buying. Or talk to your real estate agent or someone on the HOA board about what condo owners are responsible for and what the HOA is responsible for. But understand that, really, the condo owners are ultimately responsible for all of it. Higher HOA fees or special assessments will come your way. You can pay now, or you will pay later.

JUNE AILIN SEWELL

Marina del Rey

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: :

The condo owner lamenting the emergency assessment should look in the mirror. In most cases I've seen, HOA board meetings are open; almost nobody attends. HOA board meeting notes are published; almost nobody reads them.

Being on an HOA board is a thankless job, as proved by the group running to replace the board that considered suing — with litigation costs borne by whom?

Megan Blanda “assumed monthly fees of more than \$500 were keeping up with maintenance and upgrades.”

Those fees were likely low, precisely because there was insufficient involvement and support for proper maintenance. Consider the costs when the roof leaks during El Niño and roofers are in high demand.

In fact, the “fees” are not a discretionary cost; they are part of the investment in real property.

Condo owners who want someone else to do everything should consider renting an apartment.

Even Hollywood tried to warn us

DOUGLAS HILEMAN

Valley Glen

Re “News is more like a horror movie,” Entertainment & Arts Voices, Oct. 1

While culture critic Mary McNamara is so spot-on when she identifies climate change as the common denominator contributing to the current news cycle looking like a horror film, it's not like concerned citizens, scientists, environmental groups and a small cadre of Hollywood producers haven't tried to provoke the public into climate consciousness and, ideally, widespread action.

In 2009, the visionary International Day of Climate Action was organized by 350.org and the 2014 People's Climate March in New York City drew 400,000 citizens demanding action against fossil fuels. We've had passionate scientists break into tears over how carbon dioxide emissions are acidifying our oceans faster than ever.

In 2010, prolific producer Stephen Nemeth released the award-winning documentary “Climate Refugees.” That same year, Jennifer Redfearn directed an Oscar-nominated documentary called “Sun Come Up” that detailed schemes as far back as the 1980s to

relocate citizens in the Carteret Islands from their rising tides.

And high-profile filmmaker James Cameron even had a TV series on Showtime in 2014 called “Years of Living Dangerously” with celebrities highlighting environmental issues.

Cameron later admitted he had hoped the show would have higher ratings, but intuitively knew the public wouldn't tune in because “it's part of the whole denial process that we're all in as a society that we really have to face up to.”

As McNamara echoes Cameron's assessment with the perpetual disregard for scientists, Mother Earth is shouting at the top of her lungs to stop this insanity or she will deliver a news cycle that no one will want to see.

John Boal Burbank

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AI won't replace radio hosts

Re “AI may kill the radio star at last: Chatbot co-host is a hit,” Oct. 4

Nothing on the air has ever replaced the cool demeanor of Jim Ladd and his free-form radio, the spunkiness of Dr. Ruth Westheimer, the authority of Dr. Drew Pinsky (at least on healthcare topics and not politics) and the authenticity of Tom Leykis (as much as you might hate him) and Adam Carolla.

Listeners will quickly figure out that artificial intelligence cannot be a real friend and move on from fake relationships.

JAY ROSS

West L.A.

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HOW TO WRITE TO US

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OPINION VOICES

ALLEGATIONS of rape at Cornell University back in 2024 have garnered national attention.

SPENCER PLATT Getty Images

Voices KATY BUTLER GUEST CONTRIBUTOR

Cornell shows #MeToo is still changing the world

NOT LONG BEFORE the #MeToo hashtag erupted in 2017, two young women, who said they'd been

raped while studying at the University of North Carolina, organized a national movement to stop campus rape and confront the colleges that did little to punish it. Ten years later, here we are, consumed with national outrage over yet another alleged alcohol-fueled fraternity gang rape, this one at Cornell University.

Sometimes it seems that no matter what women say or do, nothing changes. A minority of men, it seems, can morph in an instant from trusted acquaintances or dance partners into hunters who regard us as sexual prey. And chances are, they'll get away with it. But the Cornell case shows that something significant has changed.

Since I was a college student in the 1970s, women have organized rape speak-outs and Take Back the Night marches. Researchers have compiled grim statistics. (According to the documentary "The Hunting Ground," 100,000 young college women a year can expect to be forced into unwanted sex.) An avalanche of abuse memoirs have described rape's long-lasting, traumatic effects. And yet, it seems, predatory men, even repeat offenders, frequently escape justice.

Take, for example, the outcome of famous criminal trials since 19 million women worldwide tweeted #MeToo in 2017, when two female reporters at the New York Times exposed Harvey Weinstein's long trail of slime. Only two criminal convictions against Weinstein have survived repeated trials, appeals and partially hung juries.

Bill Cosby, accused by scores of women, was released from prison in 2021 after his sole criminal conviction was overturned on a procedural error.

Last year, Sean “Diddy” Combs was acquitted of the most serious charges against him (sex trafficking and racketeering) and convicted of only two relatively minor Mann Act violations.

With each defeat in the criminal courts, someone in the media (most recently, Helen Lewis in the Atlantic) declares that a backlash has resulted in the death or “total abandonment” of the #MeToo movement.

I take a longer view. #MeToo is not dead, any more than the civil rights movement is dead because of recent Supreme Court rollbacks, or the reproductive freedom movement is dead because Roe vs. Wade was overturned. Looking back, I am filled with hope. There is no going back.

In the late 1960s, when I was 16, I brought home a friend from boarding school for a weekend at Wesleyan University, where my father taught and informally coached the rugby team. He took us to a game and then to a fraternity house on College Row where we were introduced to college men, drinking songs and thumping good cheer. The next day, my friend went to the dorm room of a rugby player she'd met. She quietly told me later that he had raped her. I was heartsick. In my naivety, I thought that rape was committed not by nice college boys but by "others" — motorcycle gang members and strangers lurking in bushes.

It did not occur to me to tell my father. Her rape was just one more secret for us teenagers to keep. In those days, out of a justified fear that we'd be stigmatized, shamed and blamed, sexual abuse was a secret women kept, often even from each other. We didn't recognize that the rugby player had done something morally wrong, much less something criminal.

That has definitely changed. Fast forward to 2024, when rumors of an alleged, messy, alcohol-and-drug-fueled gang rape swirled through social media at Cornell University. The independent Cornell Daily Sun is run almost entirely by women students. They refused to let the story die after the university's unsatisfying Title IX investigation and the local district attorney's decision not to prosecute. Editor in Chief Sophia Dasser and reporter Cereese Qusba had their hands on levers of power unthinkable to my generation of young women.

Late last month, they decided to print the names of the young men accused after the alleged victim filed a civil suit against them using the pseudonym Jane Doe. The seven names ricocheted nationally across social media. All have denied wrongdoing. One has been fired from his job.

Dasser and Qusba were children nine years ago, when the #Me-Too movement hit Twitter. They grew up in a culture that has changed for the better. Support for Jane Doe crosses gender lines. The code of fraternity omerta, or mutually protective brotherly silence, has broken down. It was a male student who first used the term “gang rape” to condemn the young woman’s alleged sexual degradation. It was another male student who took screen shots of the fraternity's disgusting group chat declaring "free pussy upstairs" and gave them to investigators and to Jane Doe. Two of the accused were immediately kicked off the Cornell rugby team. "As a team it was important for us to support this victim," one member of the team told NBC. "We are extremely, extremely distraught."

To be sure, vigilante justice and internet shaming are double-edged swords. The seven young men named were not, according to the lawsuit, all accused of engaging in sexual contact with Jane Doe but all are equally tarred. Like most acquaintance rape cases, this one is messy. Jane Doe went to the fraternity deeply intoxicated. Her memories of the night are spotty. At least one of the men has argued that in her drunken state, she voluntarily engaged in sex with the first two men. Her lawsuit charges that she was then plied with more drugs and offered up, against her will when she was barely conscious, to the entire fraternity, many members of which afterward slutshamed her. New York state law, unlike California's, does not presume that an intoxicated person is incapable of consenting to sex. (In the aftermath of this case, that law may be changed.)

Nothing can take away the devastating long-lasting effects of sexual trauma. But in the aftermath of #MeToo, civil suits against Weinstein, Jeffrey Epstein and Combs have been settled for tens of millions of dollars. More than a dozen states, including California, have lengthened or eliminated statutes of limitation for civil or criminal charges involving child sexual abuse and/or adult sexual assault. It is doubtful that without #MeToo, the Miami Herald would have assigned Julie K. Brown to investigate Epstein's 2008 sweetheart plea deal, leading to his renewed prosecution and successful bipartisan demands for release of the Epstein files.

“MeToo changed the cultural landscape,” said Sam Dordulian, a prominent L.A. victims’ rights lawyer who served as a sex crimes prosecutor in the L.A. County district attorney’s office until 2008. “Look at the Cornell case. Yes, she probably didn’t get justice back then that she probably deserved. But look at what is happening now. The D.A. rejected the case — and now you have the governor appointing a special prosecutor.”

Now that women's voices have escaped from “whisper networks” and entered the public square, our society is doing better. “We're starting to have an understanding of how sexual trauma works,” Dordulian told me last week. “There's more openness, more willingness to give her a fair chance than there was before the #MeToo movement started.”

The veteran victims' rights attorney Gloria Allred believes that those who repeatedly announce the death of #MeToo are indulging in wishful thinking. "Women are empowered in a way they have never been before," she said. #MeToo was a handy hashtag, a king tide. But the movement boiling beneath it represents a sea change in the consciousness of women — and many men. Women who are victimized are less likely to be shamed into silence. Online, we can find each other. We have reason to believe that what we say will be taken seriously. Our willingness to speak out began gradually, decades before the hashtag surfaced, and it will continue until sexual justice becomes an ordinary reality in the lives of women.

KATY BUTLER is a journalist and the author of “Knocking on Heaven’s Door” and “The Art of Dying Well.”

“B

OTCHED" IS A perfectly fine word for golf, cooking or home repair. It seems inadequate for the taking of a life, even the life of Christa Pike, a heinous murderer.

In 1996, a jury found Pike guilty of the torture and murder of her Jobs Corps classmate Colleen Slemmer. Pike was sentenced to death. In the 30 years since, her case has gone through seven major rounds of appeal and judicial review including three trips to the Supreme Court. All were rejected. This doesn't even include the many more attempts to reopen or reverse her sentence that went nowhere. She is guilty, lawfully and rightly convicted.

Last week, the state tried to carry out Pike's death sentence and, as many in the media have said, "botched" it. It appears that two attempts to deliver a lethal dose of pentobarbital failed because the technicians could not find good IV access. Enough of the drug didn't enter into her veins. Pike is now unconscious and on a respirator in a Nashville hospital.

I don't think "botched" conveys the scope of the scandalous failure of the technicians or the state of Tennessee. There's an investigation underway.

While that proceeds, I think it's worth looking at the other responsible parties for this ugly spectacle and the controversy it has sparked: the anti-death penalty lobby.

It is not very difficult to kill people painlessly with drugs.

How do I know this? For starters, Canada kills people with drugs every day. According to the latest annual report on Canada's Medical Assistance in Dying, 16,499 people were medically euthanized in 2024. The number of people voluntarily killed has steadily gone up every year, so it's a good bet the numbers for 2026 will be higher than that.

In the Netherlands, 10,341 people were killed in 2025. That's $5.97\%$ of all Dutch deaths for the year. How often have you heard about these instances being "botched"?

Of course, there are very important differences between euthanasia and executions. The most relevant: With euthanasia, doctors are almost always present, and when they aren't other trained medical professionals are. They

MEDIA WITNESSES recount the moments before the execution of Christa Pike was halted on Sept. 30 in Nashville.

GEORGE WALKER IV Associated Press

Voices JONAH GOLDBERG COLUMNIST

Who wins if an execution fails?

have the necessary skills required to deal with the kind of foreseeable problems that seem to have plagued Pike's execution. Also, euthanizers have access to the best possible drugs to make sure the medicalized killing is as painless and as peaceful as possible.

In America, doctors are barred from participating in executions. The American Medical Assn., for entirely defensible and understandable reasons, believes doctors should not violate their Hippocratic oath. To their credit, they have the same position on euthanasia as they do on executions.

That doesn't mean it's impossible to find — or train — qualified personnel for executions. But opponents of capital punishment want it to be. They lobby to bar

medical personnel from performing executions while simultaneously arguing that executions cannot be done without qualified medical personnel. They threaten and file lawsuits to back up the effort. Pike's lawyer said in advance of the failed execution, "the state does not have the qualified, trained personnel in place to carry out Christa's execution in a way that will not lead to a gruesome spectacle."

Almost as if to make such arguments self-fulfilling, abolitionists have mounted massive — and massively successful — campaigns to prevent pharmaceutical companies from providing the optimal drugs for executions.

As one scholar explains, “a pattern of increasingly inhumane methods of execution is partially due to the success of advocacy by a growing number of death penalty abolitionists."

The mistake in Pike's case almost surely had more to do with human error than the wrong drug, but abolitionists don't care because all they want is another story about the "pattern" of "botched" executions.

I favor capital punishment for the most heinous crimes, but I think opposition to it is a perfectly honorable and defensible stance. I do not think — and neither does the Supreme Court — that there is any plausible or persuasive argument that it is unconstitutional (it's referenced in the 5th and 14th amendments).

My chief problem with the abolitionists is not that they're wrong, philosophically or morally. It's that they are so sure they are right that they pursue an organized policy of bad faith, grabbing the nearest weapon to hand for every case. They lie with statistics about wrongful convictions and racial bias.

They drag cases out for decades and then claim the lengthy and expensive process is an argument for abolition. They make the procedure more difficult and ugly, and then claim the ugliness and difficulty is the problem. They make it more likely executions will be botched — and then argue that the botching is why we shouldn't have them.

X: @JonahDispatch

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The advertisement may include “forward-looking statements” with the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Exchange Act of 1934 and are intended to be covered by the safe harbor provisions for forward looking statements. This information is supplied from sources we believe to be reliable but we cannot guarantee accuracy. Although we believe our expectations expressed in such forward looking statements are reasonable, we cannot assure you that they will be realized. Investors are cautioned that such forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from the anticipated results. LA Times Media Group Inc. may, in the future, undertake a public offering pursuant to Regulation A under the Act. No money or other consideration is being solicited at this time with respect to such an offering, and if sent in response to these materials for such an offering, it will not be accepted. No offer to buy securities can be accepted and no part of the purchase price can be received for an offering under Regulation A until an offering statement is qualified by the U. S. Securities and Exchange Commission, and any such offer may be withdrawn or revoked, without obligation or commitment of any kind, at any time before notice of its acceptance given after the qualification date. An indication of interest made by a prospective investor in a Regulation A offering is non-binding and involves no obligation or commitment of any kind.

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CALIFORNIA

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 7, 2026 :: LATIMES.COM/CALIFORNIA

CHRISTINA HOUSE Los Angeles Times

PEOPLE find heat relief beneath trees Friday in San Pedro. Above-normal temperatures are expected through Thursday.

Heat baking into record books

It can be hot in October, but not often this sweltering for so long, experts confirm

BY HANNAH FRY

Forget hot beverages and fall sweaters — this autumn in Southern California has been marked by what feels like a continuation of summer.

The extreme heat is driven by a persistent high-pressure ridge that has parked over the region, causing sinking warming air with very little overnight relief. That is paired with down-sloping winds and uncharacteristically warm ocean temperatures — driven in part by an El Niño that has reduced Southern California's sea breeze, frequently known as its natural air conditioning.

The Southland has experienced hot Octobers in the past, but if this feels different, it's because it is, according to climate experts.

The hot weather, which has kept people indoors and forced those without air conditioning to seek refuge at cooling centers, is expected to last through much of the week.

"This is not going to be a heat wave that suddenly breaks in a dramatic fashion," said UC Agriculture and Natural Resources climate scientist Daniel Swain. "It's likely going to remain significantly warmer than average for some time to come. This will probably end up being, at least in some parts of Southern California, one of the warmest Octobers on record, and perhaps across a [See Heat, B4]

Police, firefighters unions clash over sales tax

BY NOAH GOLDBERG

The Los Angeles Police Department's officers union said Tuesday it will oppose Measure FD, the half-cent sales tax measure on the Nov. 3 ballot pushed by the city firefighters union — setting up a bitter and expensive clash between two of the city's most powerful unions.

The Police Protective League said it plans to spend several million dollars on broadcast and digital advertising as well as mailers to oppose Measure FD, which if approved by voters would direct hundreds of millions of dollars annually to the Fire Department to build new stations, hire firefighters and upgrade equipment.

Measure FD was pushed by the United Firefighters of Los Angeles City Local 112, the union representing rank-and-file firefighters. The union says the measure is essential to modernizing the Fire Department to ensure Angelenos are safe.

But police union's last-minute campaign aims to squash the tax.

"Our issue is that this is a permanent tax — a forever tax," union President Ricky Mendoza said in an interview. "We're 100% for hiring firefighters and prioritizing public safety. This is not a shot at the firefighters. It's an affordability issue. No one likes the permanence of a tax with no end in sight."

The firefighters union's president, Doug Coates, said that his union respects the officers union, but that he thought opposing Measure FD was a bad idea.

“They are choosing to keep the public at risk — especially in our most vulnerable communities,” Coates said. “Measure FD is the most important public safety decision this city has faced in a generation. We [See Unions, B2]

State probes Boyle Heights fire site

Hazardous substances agency searches the Lineage warehouse in its criminal inquiry.

BY SALVADOR

HERNANDEZ

Investigators with the California Department of Toxic Substances Control searched the offices of the Lineage cold storage warehouse in Boyle Heights that burned down this summer as part of a criminal inquiry on Tuesday, authorities said.

The agency's officers were seen speaking with Lineage employees and going through the warehouse offices while members of the Los Angeles County district attorney's office stood outside the door, securing the scene.

The Department of Toxic Substances Control is tasked with enforcing laws and regulations governing hazardous waste and hazardous substances, according to the agency's website. Its Criminal Investigations Unit is staffed with sworn police officers and investigators who work with environmental scientists. Agency officials declined to say what they were searching for Tuesday.

A spokesperson for Line-age declined to comment on the search. In a statement, the company said it does not store hazardous materials or chemicals in the facility.

“We store food,” the company said in a statement. “Further, the facility’s ammonia refrigeration system was safely pumped out shortly after the fire began and before the fire reached the refrigeration system. The ammonia was subsequently removed from the site.”

The Lineage cold storage [See Lineage, B5]

Voices STEVE LOPEZ COLUMNIST

White House, please curb your president

I

went to bed at a decent hour Monday night and got a pretty good sleep.

I woke up refreshed Tues-day morning, only to see the news that President Trump seemed to have told a crowd in Nebraska that it wouldn't be such a bad thing if Iran attacked Southern California.

“Let ’em take out Los Angeles. Let ’em take out San Diego,” he said in a typically meandering speech, perhaps trying to justify a war he has repeatedly claimed is keeping the U.S. safe, even as gas prices have spiked. “This is a very small price to pay.”

The Nebraska crowd cheered. California electeds scolded.

"San Diego is not collateral damage," said San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria.

Such “dangerous” remarks could “potentially compromise our safety,” said L.A. Mayor Karen Bass.

"He is deranged and dangerous," said Gov. Gavin Newsom.

About 8 a.m., I took my dog Philly out for our morning walk. This is usually a lovely time for us. I clear my head. For Philly, a 3-year-old beagle, these are essentially business trips.

I got to thinking about the similarities in the daily routines of Philly and the president of the United States.

The thing is, I carry bags with me and clean up after Philly. The president to my knowledge has nobody on [See Lopez, B5]

Trump, with his unpopular war and soaring prices, uses California as a punching bag to rev up his supporters. Simply put, it stinks.

"LET 'em take out Los Angeles," President Trump said in Nebraska.

O.C. woman spied on Taiwanese VIP for China, FBI says

She flew to Seattle home of politician's son to gather info for Beijing, affidavit says.

BY SALVADOR

HERNANDEZ

AND BRITTNY MEJIA

An Orange County real estate agent who was detained Sunday at LAX now faces federal charges, with authorities alleging she spied on the president of Taiwan's son for the People's Republic of China.

Prosecutors say Wanying "Heather" Zhang, 34, a real estate agent based in Irvine, followed the Taiwanese president's son, traveling to Seattle last year and relaying information about his movements to Chinese government officials.

Zhang was taken into custody Sunday at Los Angeles International Airport, where she was allegedly planning to board a flight to China, First Assistant U.S. Atty. Bill Essayli said in a social media post.

"The central allegation here — that Zhang, at the behest of the People's Republic of China, covertly surveilled relatives of a high-ranking foreign government official in the United States — is deeply troubling," said Assistant Atty. Gen. for National Security John A. Eisenberg. "The National Security Division and U.S. Attorney's Offices, along with the FBI and other law enforcement partners, will remain vigilant against threats like this on our soil."

Zhang is charged in a criminal complaint with acting as an unregistered agent of a foreign government. Her deputy public defender did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

In an affidavit filed with the complaint, Kevin Holt, a special agent with the FBI, alleged that Zhang and another person, at the direction of Chinese officials, traveled to Seattle last year and photographed and gathered information about a close relative of a Taiwanese government official.

The FBI said in a social [See China, B5]

Police union opposes tax hike for firefighters

[Unions, from B1]

urge everyone to vote yes."

The opposition from the officers led the firefighters union to call for a special meeting of its membership Oct. 16, according to an email shared with The Times. The union's executive board is asking members to authorize an additional \$3 million in spending in support of the measure. The union has already spent more than \$2 million on the measure.

"Our internal polling shows that Measure FD is in a good position to get majority support from Los Angeles voters, but opposition from the police officers' union and potential money spent against our measure requires a strong response from UFLAC," wrote the executive board of the union in an email Monday to membership.

Although Measure FD has drawn headlines, the ballot initiative didn't immediately draw much opposition after it qualified for the November election.

Up to this point, the main opponent of the initiative has been the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Assn., a nonprofit that advocates for lower taxes.

The measure needs only a simple majority of voters to support it to pass.

The measure would bring the city's sales tax to 10.75% and will cost an average of \$86 per person and \$345 for a family of four in additional sales taxes each year, according to the Howard

Jarvis Taxpayers Assn.

The Fire Department already has a budget nearing \$1 billion, and the tax is expected to generate an additional \$345 million annually for a department that has long said it is woefully underfunded.

If passed, the ballot initiative would require the city to continue funding the department at the same average percentage of the general fund it was funded at in the decade before the initiative was placed on the ballot.

The firefighters union has said that by 2050, the tax would allow the department to build at least 30 new fire stations, buy new fire trucks and increase its size by about 1,400 people.

KAYLA BARTKOWSKI Los Angeles Times

FIRE DEPARTMENT trucks at Lineage's cold storage facility in Boyle Heights.

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NOTICE OF REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS/QUOTATIONS/APPLICATIONS

CATIONS

Notice is hereby given that proposals will be accepted by the South Coast Air Quality Management District, 21865 Copley Drive, Diamond Bar, CA 91765 for the following: P2027-05 Hydrogen-Based Zero-Emission On-Road Mobile Source Related Technology Development, Demonstration, Deployment, Workforce Development, and Air Quality Impact Projects Closes 11/13/26 2:00 PM Contact: Maryam Hajbabaei 909-396-2341 Vasileios Papapostolou 909-396-2254 P2027-06 AB 617 Emergency Residential Air Filtration Program Closes 12/11/26 3:00 PM Contact: Kelly Trainor Gamino 909-396-2382 Frances Maes 909-396-2473 PA2027-03 Eligibility for the AB 617 Emergency Residential Air Filtration Program for SB 535 Residents Until all funds are exhausted Contact: Kelly Trainor Gamino 909-396-2382 Frances Maes 909-396-2473 PA2026-04R Clean Heavy Duty Vehicle Incentive Program Battery Electric Freight Vehicles for Classes 6 and 7 Opens: 10/7/26 1:00 PM Closes: 1/15/27 1:00 PM Contact: Justin Joe 909-396-2054 Evelyn Aguilar 909-396-3148 Q2027-03 Continuous Total Volatile Organic Compound (TVOC) Monitor Closes: 11/3/26 2:00 PM Contact: Michelle Kuang 909-396-2052 Q2027-04 Zero Air Generator Closes: 11/4/26 2:00 PM Contact: Juan Garcia 909-396-3186 Q2027-05 Meteorological Tower Closes: 11/4/26 2:00 PM Contact: Juan Garcia 909-396-3186 The RFP/RFQ/PA may be obtained through the Internet at: http://www.aqmd.gov/nav/grants-bids If you have questions or would like a copy of the RFP/RFQ/PA emailed to you, call the contact person. It is the policy of the South Coast AQMD to ensure that all businesses including minority-owned businesses, women-owned businesses, disabled veteran

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SUMMONS (CITACION JUDICIAL) Case Number (Numero del Caso): 25NNCV02532

NOTICE TO DEFENDANT: (AVISO AL DEMANDADO): KEISHA JOHNSON

YOU ARE BEING SUED BY PLAINTIFF: (LO ESTA DEMANDANDO EL DEMANDANTE): AMERICAN INTERNATIONAL INDUSTRIES

NOTICE! You have been sued. The court may decide against you without your being heard unless you respond within 30 days. Read the information below.

You have 30 CALÉNDAR DAYS after this summons and legal papers are served on you to file a written response at this court and have a copy served on the plaintiff. A letter or phone call will not protect you. Your written response must be in proper legal form if you want the court to hear your case. There may be a court form that you can use for your response. You can find these court forms and more information at the California Courts Online Self-Help Center (www.courtinfo.ca.gov/selfhelp), your county law library, or the courthouse nearest you. If you cannot pay the filing fee, ask the court clerk for a fee waiver form. If you do not file your response on time, you may lose the case by default, and your wages, money, and property may be taken without further warning from the court.

There are other legal requirements. You may want to call an attorney right away. If you do not know an attorney, you may want to call an attorney referral service. If you cannot afford an attorney, you may be eligible for free legal services from a nonprofit legal services program. You can locate these nonprofit groups at the California Legal Services Web Site (www.lawhelpcalifornia.org), the California Courts Online Self-Help Center (www.courtinfo.ca.gov/selfhelp), or by contacting your local court or county bar association. NOTE: The court has a statutory lien for waived fees and costs on any settlement or arbitration award of \$10,000 or more in a civil case. The court's lien must be paid before the court will dismiss the case.

iAVISO! Lo han demandado. Si no responde dentro de 30 días, la corte puede decider en su contra sin escuchar su version. Lea la informacion a continuacion.

Tiene 30 DIAS DE CALENDARIO despues de que le entreguen esta citacion y papeles legales para presenter una respuesta por escrito en esta corte y hacer que se entregue una copia al demandante. Una carta o una llamada telefonica no lo protegen. Su respuesta por escrito tiene que estar en formato legal correcto si desea que procesen su caso en la corte. Es posible que haya un formulario que usted pueda usar para su respuesta. Puede encontrar estos formularios de la corte y mas informacion en el Centro de Ayuda de las Cortes de California (www.sucorte.ca.gov), en la biblioteca de leyes de su condado o en la corte que le quede mas cerca. Si no puede pagar la cuota de presentacion, pida al secretario de la corte que le de un formulario de exencion de pago de cuotas. Si no presenta su respuesta a tiempo, puede perder el caso por incumplimiento y la corte le podra quitar su sueldo, dinero y bienes sin mas advertencia.

The name and address of the court is: (El nombre y direccion de la corte es):

LOS ANGELES SUPERIOR COURT

300 EAST OLIVE

BURBANK, CALIFORNIA 91502

The name, address, and telephone number of plaintiff's attorney, or plaintiff without an attorney, is: (El nombre, la direccion y el numero de telefono del abogado del demandante, o del demandante que no tiene abogado, es):

Hans C. Ruschke / Everett Dorey LLP

2030 Main Street

Irvine, CA 92614

949-771-9233

Date: (Fecha) 8/26/25

David W. Slayton Clerk (Secretario)

K. Blumenberg Deputy (Adjunto)

Answer here:

Yesterday's

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THAT SCRAMBLED WORD GAME By David L. Hoyt and Jeff Knurek

Now arrange the circled letters to form the surprise answer, as suggested by the above cartoon.

Jumbles: SIGHT ALOHA FALCON FURROW

Answer: When the politicians went for a balloon ride, the balloon was — FULL OF HOT AIR

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SUMMONS (CITACION JUDICIAL) CASE NUMBER (Número del Caso): 25VECV07105

NOTICE TO DEFENDANT (AVISO AL DEMANDADO): Serhil Yurov and DOES 1-10, Inclusive

YOU ARE BEING SUED BY PLAINTIFF (LO ESTÁ DEMANDANDO EL DEMANDANTE): Marianna Simonvan and Vahe Badalyan

NOTICE! You have been sued. The court may decide against you without your being heard unless you respond within 30 days. Read the information below. You have 30 CALENDAR DAYS after this summons and legal papers are served on you to file a written response at this court and have a copy served on the plaintiff. A letter or phone call will not protect you. Your written response must be in proper legal form if you want the court to hear your case. There may be a court form that you can use for your response. You can find these court forms and more information at the California Courts Online Self-Help Center (www.courtinfo.ca.gov/selfhelp), your county law library, or the courthouse nearest you. If you cannot pay the filing fee, ask the court clerk for a fee waiver form. If you do not file your response on time, you may lose the case by default, and your wages, money, and property may be taken without further warning from the court.

There are other legal requirements. You may want to call an attorney right away. If you do not know an attorney, you may want to call an attorney referral service. If you cannot afford an attorney, you may be eligible for free legal services from a nonprofit legal services program. You can locate these nonprofit groups at the California Legal Services Web site (www.lawhelpcalifornia.org), the California Courts Online Self-Help Center

(www.courtinfo.ca.gov/selfhelp), or by contacting your local court or county bar association. NOTE: The court has a statutory lien for waived fees and costs on any settlement or arbitration award of \$10,000 or more in a civil case. The court's lien must be paid before the court will dismiss the case.

¡AVISO! Lo han demandado. Si no responde dentro de 30 días, la corte puede decidir en su contra sin escuchar su versión. Lea la información a continuación.

Tiene 30 DIAS DE CALENDARIO después de que le entreguen esta citación y papeles legales para presentar una respuesta por escrito en esta corte y hacer que se entregue una copia al demandante. Una carta o una llamada telefónica no lo protegen. Su respuesta por escrito tiene que estar en formato legal correcto si desea que procesen su caso en la corte. Es posible que haya un formulario que usted pueda usar para su respuesta. Puede encontrar estos formularios de la corte y más información en el Centro de Ayuda de las Cortes de California (www.sucorte.ca.gov), en la biblioteca de leyes de su condado o en la corte que le quede más cerca. Si no puede pagar la cuota de presentación, pida al secretario de la corte que le dé un formulario de exención de pago de cuotas. Si no presenta su respuesta a tiempo, puede perder el caso por incumplimiento y la corte le podrá quitar su sueldo, dinero y bienes sin más advertencia.

Hay otros requisitos legales. Es recomendable que llame a un abogado inmediatamente. Si no conoce a un abogado, puede llamar a un servicio de remisión a abogados. Si no puede pagar a un abogado, es posible que cumpla con los requisitos para obtener servicios legales gratuitos de un programa de servicios legales sin fines de lucro. Puede encontrar estos grupos sin fines de lucro en el sitio web de California Legal Services, (www.lawhelpcalifornia.org), en el Centro de Ayuda de las Cortes de California, (www.sucorte.ca.gov) o poniéndose en contacto con la corteo el colegio de abogados locales. AVISO: Por ley, la corte tiene derecho a reclamar las cuotas y los costos exentos por imponer un gravamen sobre cualquier recuperación de \$10,000 ó más de valor recibida mediante un acuerdo o una concesión de arbitraje en un caso de derecho civil. Tiene que pagar el gravamen de la corte antes de que la corte pueda desechar el caso.

The name and address of the court is (El nombre y dirección de la corte es): Van Nuys Courthouse East, 6230 Sylmar Avenue, Van Nuys, CA 91401

The name, address, and telephone number of plaintiff's attorney, or plaintiff without an attorney, is (El nombre, la dirección y el número de teléfono del abogado del demandante, o del demandante que no tiene abogado, es): H. Jacob Arisian (295765) Atoyan Law, APC - 3800 Barham Blvd., Suite 311, Los Angeles, California 90068 - Tel: 888-807-0077

David W. Slayton, Clerk (Secretario), by Y. Ayala,

Deputy (Adjunto)

(SEAL)

0/16 0/23 0/30 10/7/26

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SUM-100 SUMMONS (CITACION JUDICIAL) FOR COURT USE ONLY (SOLO PARA USO DE LA CORTE)

NOTICE TO DEFENDANT: (AVISO AL DEMANDADO):

Inmer Daniel Rivas-Hernandez; and DOES 1-10, inclusive YOU ARE BEING SUED BY PLAINTIFF: (LO ESTÁ DEMANDANDO EL DEMANDEANTE): First Technology Federal Credit Union NOTICE! You have been sued. The court may decide against you without your being heard unless you respond within 30 days. Read the information below. You have 30 CALENDAR DAYS after this summons and legal papers are served on you to file a written response at this court and have a copy served on the plaintiff. A letter or phone call will not protect you. Your written response must be in proper legal form if you want the court to hear your case. There may be a court form that you can use for your response. You can find these court forms and more information at the California Courts Online Self-Help Center (www.courtinfo.ca.gov/selfhelp), your county law library, or the courthouse nearest you. If you cannot pay the filing fee, ask the court clerk for a fee waiver form. If you do not file your response on time, you may lose the case by default, and your wages, money, and property may be taken without further warning from the court. There are other legal requirements. You may want to call an attorney right away. If you do not know an attorney, you may want to call an attorney referral service. If you cannot afford an attorney, you may be eligible for free legal services from a nonprofit legal services program. You can locate these nonprofit groups at the California Legal Services Web site (www.lawhelpcalifornia.org), the California Courts Online Self-Help Center (www.courtinfo.ca.gov/selfhelp), or by contacting your local court or coun ty bar association. NOTE: The court has a statutory lien for waived fees and costs on any settlement or arbitration aware of \$10,000 or more in a civil case. The court's lien must be paid before the court will dismiss the case. ¡AVISO! Lo han demandado. Si no responde dentro de 30 días, la corte puede decidir en su contra sin escuchar su versión. Lea la información a continuación. Tiene 30 DÍAS DE CALENDARIO después de que le entreguen esta citación y papeles legales para presentar una respuesta por escrito en esta corte y hacer que se entregue una copia al demandante. Una carta o una llamada telefónica no lo protegen. Su respuesta por escrito tiene que estar en formato legal correcto si desea que procesen su caso en la corte. Es posible que haya un formular io que usted pueda usar para su respuesta. Puede encontrar estos formularios de la corte y más información en el Centro de Ayuda de las Cortes de California (www.sucorte.ca.gov), en la biblioteca de leyes de su condado o en la corte que le quede más cerca. Si no puede pagar la cuota de presentación, piedla al secretario de la corte que le dé un formulario de exención de pago de cuotas. Si no presenta su respuesta a tiempo, puede perder el caso por incumplimiento y la corte le podrá quitar su sueldo, dinero y bienes sin más advertencia. Hay otros requisitos legales. Es recomendable que llame a un abogado inmediatamente. Si no conoce a un abogado, puede llamar a un servicio de remisión a abogados. Si no puede pagar a un abogado, es posible que cumpla con los requisitos para obtener servicios legales gratuitos de un programa de servicios legales sin fines de lucro. Puede encontrar estos grupos sin fines de lucro en el sitio web de California Legal Services, (www.lawhelpcalifornia.org), en el Centro de Ayuda de las Cortes de California, (www.sucorte.ca.gov) o poniéndose en contacto con la corte o el colegio de abogados loca les. AVISO: Por ley, la corte tiene derecho a reclamar las cuotas y los costos exentos por imponer un gravamen sobre cualquier recuperación de \$10,000 ó más de valor recibida mediante un acuerdo o una concesión de arbitraje en un caso de derecho civil. Tiene que pagar el gravamen de la corte antes de que la corte pueda desechar el caso. The name and address of the court is: (El nombre y dirección de la corte es): CASE NUMBER (Número del Caso): 26NWLC23379 SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, LOS ANGELES COUNTY, LOS ANGELES NORWALK COURTHOUSE 12720 Norwalk Blvd., Norwalk, CA, 90650 The name, address, and telephone number of plaintiff's attorney, or plaintiff without an attorney, is: (El nombre, la dirección y el número de teléfono del abogado del demandante, o del demandante que no tiene abogado, es): Monica Hendy, Esq. | McCarthy & Holthus, LLP, 2763 Camino Del Rio S. Suite 100, San Diego, CA 92108 | (619) 685-4800 DATE: 4/14/2026 (Fecha) Clerk, by K. VAN, Deputy (Secretario) (Adjunto) IDSPub #0317597 10/7/2026 10/14/2026 10/21/2026 10/28/2026

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L.A. City and County law requires all cats & dogs to be spayed or neutered (with some exceptions).

For more info, contact LA Animal Services (call 311) or visit www.laanimalservices.com

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SUMMONS on SECOND AMENDED COMPLAINT (CITACION JUDICIAL) CASE NUMBER (Número del Caso): 23BBCV01209

NOTICE TO DEFENDANT: (AVISO AL DEMANDADO):

E ROANE CONSTRUCTION MANAGEMENT, INC., a California Corporation, EDWARD DEAN ROANE, an individual, DILLON CONSTRUCTION, INC., a California Corporation, CHRISTOPHER DAVID DILLON, an individual, DILLON ROANE, A JOINT VENTURE, INC., a California Corporation, CANPLAN INDUSTRIES, LLC, a California Corporation, ARABO, LLC, a California corporation, AGASSI HALAJYAN, an individual, and MICHAEL KEHEIAN, an individual, and DOES 1-10, inclusive

YOU ARE BEING SUED BY PLAINTIFF:

(LO ESTÁ DEMANDANDO EL DEMANDANTE)

UNITE WELDING ENTERPRISES, INC., a California Corporation

NOTICE! You have been sued. The court may decide against you without your being heard unless you respond within 30 days. Read the information below.

You have 30 CALENDAR DAYS after this summons and legal papers are served on you to file a written response at this court and have a copy served on the plaintiff. A letter or phone call will not protect you. Your written response must be in proper legal form if you want the court to hear your case. There may be a court form that you can use for your response. You can find these court forms and more information at the California Courts Online Self-Help Center (www.courtinfo.ca.gov/selfhelp), your county law library, or the courthouse nearest you. If you cannot pay the filing fee, ask the court clerk for a fee waiver form. If you do not file your response on time, you may lose the case by default, and your wages, money, and property may be taken without further warning from the court.

There are other legal requirements. You may want to call an attorney right away. If you do not know an attorney, you may want to call an attorney referral service. If you cannot afford an attorney, you may be eligible for free legal services from a nonprofit legal services program. You can locate these nonprofit groups at the California Legal Services Web site (www.lawhelpcalifornia.org), the California Courts Online Self-Help Center (www.courtinfo.ca.gov/selfhelp), or by contacting your local court or county bar association. NOTE: The court has a statutory lien for waived fees and costs on any settlement or arbitration award of \$10,000 or more in a civil case. The court's lien must be paid before the court will dismiss the case.

¡AVISO! Lo han demandado. Si no responde dentro de 30 días, la corte puede decidir en su contra sin escuchar su version. Lea la información a continuación.

Tiene 30 DÍAS DE CALENDARIO después de que le entreguen esta citación y papeles legales para presenter una respuesta por escrito en esta corte y hacer que se entregue una copia al demandante. Una carta o una llamada telefónica no lo prolegen. Su respuesta por escrito tiene que estar en formato legal correcto si desea que procesen su caso en la corte. Es posible que haya un formulario que usted pueda usar para su respuesta. Puede encontrar estos formularios de la corte y más información en el Centro de Ayuda de las Cortes de California (www.sucorte.ca.gov), en la biblioteca de leyes de su condado o en la corte que le quede más cerca. Si no puede pagar la cuota de presentación, pida al secretario de la corte que le dé un formulario de extención de pago de cuotas. Si no presenta su respuesta a tiempo, puede perder el caso por incumplimiento y la corte le podrá quitar su sueldo, dinero y hiener sin más advertencia.

Hay otros requisitos legales. Es recomendable que llame a un abogado inmediatamente. Si no conoce a un abogado, puede llamar a un servicio de remision a abogados. Si no puede pagar a un abogado, es posible que cumpla con los requisitos para obtener servicios legales gratuitos de un programa de servicios legales sin fines de lucro. Puede encontrar estos grupos sin fines de lucro en el sitio web de California Legal Services, (www.lawhelpcalifornia.org), en el Centro de Ayuda de las Cortes de California, (www.sucorte.ca.gov) o poniéndose en contacto con la corte o el colegio de abogados locales. AVISO: Por ley, la corte tiene derecho a reclamar las cuotas y los costos extentos por imponer un gravamen sobre cualquier recuperación de \$10,000 ó más de valor recibida mediante un acuerdo o una concesión de arbitraje en un caso de derecho civil. Tiene que pagar el gravamen de la corte antes de que la corte pueda desechar el caso.

(El nombre y direccion de la corte es):

SUPERIOR COURT OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA,

County of Los Angeles-Burbank Courthouse

300 E. Olive, Burbank, CA 91502

The name, address, and telephone number of the plaintiff's attorney, or plaintiff without an attorney, is:

(El nombre, la dirección y el número de telefono del abogado del demandante, o del demandante que no tiene abodgado, es):

Niria M. Arvizu, SBN 236994, LAW OFFICES OF NIRIA M. ARIZU, 301 E. Colorado Blvd, Suite 510, Pasadena, CA 91101, Telephone 626-831-8077

Date: 06/21/2024

David W. Slayton

A. Oliva

Executive Officer/

Clerk of the Court

(Secretario)

Deputy

(Adjunto)

Published in the Los Angeles Times

CITY & STATE

NOAA

"THIS poor whale went from swimming freely to being desperately entangled in fishing gear," an expert said.

Whale entangled in fishing gear

Weather stymies efforts to help animal off coast of San Pedro. Its life is threatened.

By Corinne Purtill

Biologists are hoping to save a humpback whale last seen entangled in a fishing net off the coast of San Pedro.

The whale was first spotted near Palos Verdes on Thursday by passengers and crew on a midday whale watching tour. Wildlife experts responding to the tour's report set out on boats to try to remove the net but were stymied by choppy waters.

"The team made multiple attempts to reach the trailing gear, but the whale's behavior and water and weather conditions hampered their efforts," Sarah Mesnick, a biologist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Southwest Fisheries Science Center, told KTLA-TV. "They also attempted to put on a satellite tracking tag, but similarly conditions hampered their efforts."

The whale was last seen Thursday near Point Fermin in San Pedro. The same animal was observed without a net Aug. 22 off the coast of Humboldt County and Sept. 20 near San Luis Obispo, according to reports.

“Because of this entanglement, this whale is not able to move freely,” Harbor Breeze Cruises posted along with a video of the whale. This is the second entangled whale the tour operator has witnessed since August, the company said.

The imperiled whale was seen just one day after NOAA released a report counting 76 cases of large whales entangled in castoff lines and nets off U.S. coasts in 2025. Fishing gear was responsible for 46% of the cases, with the rest attributed to ropes or lines not directly tied to fishing.

While the total was down from the previous year's record high of 95 entanglements, California still surpasses all other U.S. states in the number of cases. Nearly $27\%$ of 2025 entanglements were observed off of California.

"It's disturbing that we have to add yet another humpback to this year's morbid tally of whale entanglements, even though we know how to solve this problem," Ben Grundy-Hawley of the Center for Biological Diversity said in a statement.

“This poor whale went from swimming freely to being desperately entangled in fishing gear, and it’s all too likely that this will end in death. Pop-up gear could help prevent these tragedies, and we need to move quickly to deploy it and protect our whales from this deadly threat.”

NOAA has asked the public to report any sightings of the whale to the entanglement hotline at (877) 767-9425, or (877) SOS-WHALE.

Santa Ana investigating police beating

By Iris Kwok

Santa Ana officials were investigating Monday after a video circulating on social media appeared to show two police officers throwing a suspect to the ground and beating him.

The occasionally shaky video shows the officers holding Florentino Junior Lopez, 28, against the hood of a police car.

“All of the sudden, things got out of control,” said Lopez’s attorney, John Kremer.

After Lopez says something to the officers, he is yanked to the ground and punched repeatedly. The incident ended when two other officers arrived to restore order, at which point Lopez was handcuffed, Kremer said Monday evening.

The incident took place around 9:30 p.m. Thursday outside the Santa Ana home where Lopez lives with his parents and sister, according to the attorney. Kremer said the video “speaks for itself” and shows excessive use of force by the officers.

Santa Ana Mayor Valerie Amezcua said in a social media post that the “matter is under investigation and details cannot be shared that could compromise the process.”

“However, I support transparency and a thorough investigation into this matter,” Amezcua wrote Sunday. “Remember, there are officers who are professional and we cannot judge all officers by one's actions, but I will continue to monitor this investigation."

Lopez, who works in construction, was on probation at the time of the incident, Kremer said. This year, his client served a 10-day sentence for carrying a loaded weapon, resisting arrest and being involved in a hit-and-run incident.

Police Chief Robert Rodriguez said in a statement Sunday that his department is “conducting a thorough review of the incident, including body worn camera footage, reports, and the circumstances surrounding the arrest.”

"I have personally reviewed the video and want to assure our community that we take every use of force seriously," his statement read.

According to Lopez's attorney, he and his younger sister were smoking on their front lawn when the two officers arrived and summoned him out into the street. Kremer's sister caught the interaction that followed on video.

Kremer said his client, who was hit on both sides of his face, is facing charges of resisting an officer and smoking near a school and was cited for being a pedestrian on a roadway under the California Vehicle Code.

Lopez's bail was set at \$20,000, Kremer said. His next court date is set for Tuesday at the Central Justice Center in Santa Ana.

Mother of infant found in trash is charged

BY JAMES QUEALLY AND SUMMER LIN

NAJEE ALI, left, comforts Laura Lacy last week at a makeshift memorial in L.A.

KAYLA BARTKOWSKI Los Angeles Times

A woman was charged with murder in connection with the death of her 4-month-old baby, who was found dead in a dumpster in South Los Angeles, according to a criminal complaint made public Thursday.

Takiyah Rochelle Babers, 19, was charged with murder and assault on a child causing death, according to the Los Angeles County district attorney's office.

The district attorney's office and the Los Angeles Police Department said they could not comment on the case.

Babers, a Los Angeles resident, was scheduled to be arraigned Thursday afternoon, but the hearing was continued and she did not enter a plea, according to Najee Ali, an advocate for the suspect's foster parents, who were the baby's primary caregivers.

Babers is being held in lieu of \$2 million bail. The Los Angeles County public defender's office, which is representing Babers, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Her next court date is set for Oct. 30.

The 19-year-old was arrested hours after her child was found in a trash can

Monday evening near Alba Street and Long Beach Avenue, according to authorities.

The Los Angeles Fire Department took the infant to a hospital, where she was pronounced dead.

Ali, a well-known South L.A. activist, said security footage from the apartment complex showed Babers throwing her child's body in the dumpster.

Ring camera footage from the apartment also shows Babers turning off the apartment lights and turning on loud music almost immediately after her foster mother dropped the baby off on Monday, according to Ali, who said the footage had been turned over to Los Angeles police detectives.

“That’s why they believe she didn’t just snap,” Ali said on behalf of Babers’ foster mother and father.

A law enforcement source with direct knowledge of the investigation, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing case, said Ali's account was accurate.

Neighborhood residents Herman Johnson and Laura Lacy told KTLA-TV that Babers is their foster daughter and the baby their grand-

child.

"I love her and I still want to know why," Lacy said. "What was the problem? Why did you do that? You had no reason to do that."

The resident who found the child told KNBC-TV that she was taking out the trash around 10:30 p.m. when she saw a black cloth bag inside the dumpster. She saw the child, who was fully dressed with gloves on, and thought it was a doll.

She and another neighbor called 911 once they realized it was a child, the outlet reported.

Crypto ‘Godfather’ who hired off-duty law enforcement gets prison time

hearing, Iza said he took “full responsibility” for his actions.

Adam Iza, 26, admits using L.A. County sheriff's deputies as enforcers for crimes.

By BRITTNY MEJIA

A self-styled cryptocurrency businessman who paid Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies to set people up for arrest and extort money from others was sentenced Monday to more than six years in prison.

Adam Iza, 26, previously admitted to generating tens of millions of dollars through a fraud scheme, concealing millions in income from the Internal Revenue Service and using his wealth to employ and corrupt sworn law enforcement officers.

U.S. District Judge Percy Anderson ordered that Iza's term run concurrent with a 15-year prison sentence he is serving for his involvement in an attempted robbery of bitcoin and a kidnapping in Connecticut in August 2024 — meaning he will not serve additional time.

“He cultivated relationships with sworn law enforcement officers and used those relationships to further his personal and financial interests,” Anderson said.

Iza, a former resident of Beverly Hills and Newport Beach, who referred to himself as “the Godfather,” pleaded guilty last year to conspiracy against rights, wire fraud and tax evasion. At least five former sheriff’s deputies tied to the case have been sentenced to prison.

“Judge Anderson is a god-send,” Josef Sadat, Iza’s attorney, said after the sentencing hearing Monday.

As part of his plea agreement, Iza agreed to forfeit several items purchased as part of the conspiracy, including two Mercedes-Benz vehicles, a Ferrari and dozens of luxury handbags from Hermes, Balenciaga and Louis Vuitton. He also handed over a black-and-yellow Jacob & Co. "Godfather" watch and three "Godfather" sculptures.

During the sentencing

“I just want to make it very clear that I’m not here to skirt the law or make excuses,” he said, as one of his family members cried in the gallery. “I understand what I’ve done and I apologize for it.”

According to his lawyer, Iza grew up poor during his childhood in Iraq, borrowing a computer from his uncle before coming to the U.S. as a teenager and building a lucrative cryptocurrency trading platform known as Zort.

Prosecutors in L.A. had asked for a nearly five-year prison sentence.

"A substantial custodial sentence is necessary to deter other private clients from attempting to corrupt law-enforcement officers by paying them to perform acts they could never lawfully accomplish themselves," Assistant U.S. Atty. Maxwell Coll said in a sentencing memo.

The judge said that, in weighing the sentence, he considered Iza's history and characteristics, including childhood displacement from Iraq, separation from his parents, neglect, poverty, physical abuse and prolonged social isolation.

Anderson ordered Iza to pay more than \$23 million in restitution to the IRS, as well as \$127,000 to one victim and \$25,000 to another. A court hearing is set for December to determine what is owed to other victims.

Iza admitted to hiring off-duty sheriff's deputies to provide him with personal security from August 2021 through April 2022. A slew of crimes occurred over that time, according to his plea agreement.

Iza admitted that he conspired with the deputies to obtain confidential law enforcement information on people he had financial and other disputes with and court-authorized search warrants to track and harass the victims. He further admitted that he enlisted the deputies to intimidate and threaten the victims.

UC Irvine student found dead on campus

BY FEDOR ZARKHIN

Authorities are investigating the death of a UC Irvine student whose body was found on campus Sunday afternoon, according to officials.

The Orange County coroner found Amir Eftekhar, 18, dead around 2 p.m., a coroner's office spokesperson said. Authorities released few details about where and how he was found.

Student residents of the Mesa Court dorm received an email Sunday announcing a dorm resident's death, according to a copy of the email a student shared with The Times. Eftekhar was a sophomore majoring in math, UC Irvine spokesperson Tom Vasich said.

In one case, at Iza's direction, two deputies unholstered their firearms in August 2021, as Iza demanded that a victim — identified only as R.C. — transfer \$25,000 to a Zort bank account he controlled, according to the plea agreement. Iza also admitted to concocting a plan that resulted in R.C.'s arrest for having illegal drugs in his vehicle.

Speculation has arisen on social media that the death was related to the heat wave that has pushed temperatures to record levels in the last few days. Vasich sought to dispel those rumors.

“We are deeply saddened by the death of a member of our student community,” Vasich wrote in an email. “Information circulating that the student’s death was heat-related is incorrect, and there are no indications of any suspicious activity related to the student’s passing.”

The next month, a deputy whose security company Iza paid around \$100,000 a month misled a narcotics detective, resulting in a drug raid on R.C.'s home.

In October 2021, Iza admitted that, at his direction, deputies he employed restrained another victim — identified only as L.A. — from leaving Iza's home. Iza held L.A. at gunpoint and forced him to transfer \$127,000 into one of Iza's bank accounts, according to the plea agreement.

The plea agreement referenced at least two other victims, including one identified as E.Z., who Iza believed possessed a laptop containing a large amount of cryptocurrency. Iza admitted that one of his bodyguards brandished a firearm at E.Z., at which point the man ran and called 911.

Iza admitted that, at his direction, deputies obtained personal identifying information on E.Z. and another victim, identified only as D.D, their family members, acquaintances and others. In one case, a deputy lied to get a warrant, falsely claiming that he needed to track E.Z.'s cellphone as part of a firearms investigation.

In March 2022, according to the plea agreement, Iza directed an employee to assault D.D. to try and get the laptop with the large amount of crypto. Later, after Iza told a third party about his desire to have E.Z. relinquish the laptop — through use of force if necessary — three armed people forced their way into E.Z.'s home and used firearms to force him to give up the device.

Roy Choi

A USC fan uses a wet towel to cool off while waiting for the start of a college football game at Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum on Saturday.

RONALDO BOLAÑOS Los Angeles Times

Some heat relief may come by weekend

MARIO TAMA Getty Images

A THERMOMETER Monday in L.A., which has seen several consecutive days of 100 degrees or higher.

[Heat, from B1] broader portion of California and the West too." Here's what we know:

---

How hot will it get?

Temperatures between 15 and 22 degrees above normal are expected to persist through Thursday. Highs along the coasts and valleys will be in the 90s and up to the low 100s in the coming days. Even the beaches will provide little relief, with temperatures in the upper 80s.

And those looking for re-lief won't find it overnight.

It'll still be warm after dark too, forecasters say, with the mercury dipping only into the upper 60s to mid-70s across much of the region. The weather service in Oxnard and San Diego issued extreme heat warnings through 8 p.m. Thursday, cautioning of the risk of heat-related illnesses.

A lack of overnight recovery and days of hot weather can “really build and stress the body over time, especially for the elderly and other vulnerable folks like the very young,” said Rose Schoenfeld, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Oxnard.

The Los Angeles Department of Public Health is urging residents to hydrate, avoid going outside during the hottest hours of the day, use an umbrella and wear lightweight clothing if you must go out — and take frequent breaks in air conditioned spaces. The county has dozens of cooling centers open.

---

Shattering records

The heat wave has shattered multiple records including in downtown Los Angeles, which is on a four-day consecutive streak of temperatures of 100 degrees or higher — the longest consecutive stretch in October since records began.

Downtown Los Angeles broke a daily heat record Monday with the mercury reaching 104, shattering the previous record of 101 set in 1954 and tied in 1971.

Downtown currently is tied for the most 100-degree-plus days in October with those in 1958 and 1971, but could surpass those years if the mercury hits 100 degrees Tuesday, according to Schoenfeld.

The average number of 100-degree days in downtown Los Angeles in a typical October has been closer to zero than one since the weather service began keeping records in the late 1800s, according to the weather service.

On Monday, UCLA hit 100 degrees, breaking the previous daily record of 99 set in 1953. Woodland Hills reached 106, inching past the prior record of 105 set in 2025. Camarillo and Oxnard got to 99 and 98, breaking records of 98 and 94 degrees, respectively.

In Orange County, Anaheim hit 104 degrees on Monday, blowing past the previous record of 99 set in 2020. Santa Ana reached 106, breaking a 73-year-old daily record of 103 degrees.

In San Diego County, Vista reached 103 degrees, breaking a record of 98 set in

1987. Chula Vista reached 99 degrees, surpassing the record of 90 degrees set in 2020. Escondido also broke a record of 101 set in 2020 on Monday when the mercury rose to 106. Ramona set a new daily record of 101, breaking the previous record of 98 set in 2024.

---

Abnormal streak

It can be hot in October, but it's generally not this sweltering for this long, according to Swain.

California often sees higher temperatures in September and October along the coast than in June and even July because of the marine layer that keeps things cool during those months. The marine layer typically recedes this time of year, resulting in higher temperatures, particularly along the coast, he said.

"But even by that stand-"

ard, this has been extraordinary," he said. "Not just because it's been very hot day and night on individual days, but because there has been multiple consecutive days where we've reached these extreme temperatures, and it just is continuing on and only slowly fading."

---

When will it end?

The heat is expected to relent a bit by the weekend with temperatures in the mid-80s and even a chance of light showers Sunday as Hurricane Rachel continues its path across the Pacific Ocean.

But Swain said models suggest that temperatures won't decline that much as October continues.

“Is this completely unprecedented? No. Is this typical for October? Definitely not,” he added.

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Fighting Hunger. Giving Hope.

This buffoon thinks Trump was way out of line

lot of lovely people.

[Lopez, from B1]

PRESIDENT Trump wraps up his appearance at the rally in Grand Island, Neb.

WIN McNAMEE Getty Images

his staff doing this. We are at a point in American politics at which we must consider posting signs, everywhere Trump travels, that say, "Please Curb Your President."

Not that it would be easy to clean Trump's daily messes. You'd need the equivalent of those parade attendants in overalls who run along behind the horses with shovels.

Diego.

The White House does not use poop bags. Instead, it uses denial and spin.

Critical reactions to Trump's Nebraska comments were “not rooted in reality,” said White House Director of Communications Steven Cheung, who claimed Trump was misrepresented.

We've got to respect Cheung's opinion. Does anyone in the world have more experience when it comes to analyzing comments not rooted in reality?

Some of you may know there are two topics I often revisit in my column. One is the effects, good and bad, of aging. The other is failure of leadership.

So I feel eminently qualified to psychoanalyze the president.

I don't mean to generalize, but as people age, it's not unusual for them to undergo behavioral changes. Some folks mellow, they abide, they lean into the ride. Others can become churlish, combative or grouchy.

Not only is Trump the poster boy for the latter group, but as things go wrong, he becomes more obstinate.

And things have defi-

nitely gone wrong.

The war in Iran is a disaster. The president is personally responsible for rising gas prices. He's ruined the economy with his tariffs. He's picked a fight with Canada. He may cost his party the House and the Senate because his almost daily outrages have pumped oxygen back into the blood of long-slumping Demo-

crats.

A normal person would have the good sense to scale back or shrink away.

Trump keeps doubling down, wants to put his name on everything, and lashes out the way someone does when it's not clear what's bigger, their ego or their insecurity.

I've been to Nebraska, by the way. Nice place, met a

I enjoy corn, on or off the cob.

Popcorn. Caramel corn.

Popcorn. Caramel corn.

Not wild about “Children of the Corn,” the slasher movie based on Stephen King’s short story. But thank you very much, Nebraska, for Fred Astaire, Johnny Carson and Henry Fonda, who, by the way, was born in Grand Island, where Trump made his cracks Monday about California.

Did it occur to any of the shuckers who cheered Trump's throwaway line about an attack on San Diego and L.A. that:

A: It wasn't funny.

B: San Diego has one of the nation's largest military installations, with thousands of personnel currently deployed to the Middle East because of the war in Iran.

C: Maybe we should expect more from someone serving as president and commander in chief.

In defending Trump, the White House said news outlets had misunderstood and misrepresented the president's comments in what amounted to a “media freakout.” A White House media post singled out an L.A. Times post that said Trump suggested “letting Iran take out” L.A. and San

“No, he didn’t, you buffoons,” said the White House. “He was saying the U.S. is fighting to STOP Iran from having the ability to take out LA and San Diego with a nuclear weapon — which they would if they had the chance.”

Please.

This buffoon would like to point out that this is yet another case of Trump using California as a punching bag to prop up support for the war and nail down what's left of his diminishing base. But even some of his longtime disciples know that he has said on dozens of occasions that the war had ended, was ending, or had been won, and not once were any of those words rooted in reality.

It's not clear whether we're any safer in the U.S. as a result of the war, although it is clear that we have paid with lives and higher costs.

So maybe a gratuitous and unfunny line about anyone taking out American cities is better left unsaid.

I'm fresh out of muzzles, but I do have extra poop bags.

steve.lopez@latimes.com

State department searches site of warehouse fire

[Lineage, from B1]

warehouse was the site of a massive fire that started June 17 and took about a week to put out.

The battle to extinguish the blaze was hampered by several factors, including solar panels on the roof that would not initially de-energize, preventing access to firefighters; 50-foot-high stacks of frozen goods inside the building that posed a safety risk, preventing people from going inside; and what was believed to be an ammonia gas leak that triggered a shelter-in-place order for surrounding buildings.

Los Angeles Fire Department Chief Jaime Moore would later say there was no ammonia leak but that the vapor that had initially caused concern had been cold air mixing with hot air. An LAFD report into the fire also stated no ammonia had been detected.

Once the fire was extinguished, Lineage was tasked with removing the 89 million pounds of meat and food stored inside as fast as possible before it spoiled in the scorching summer heat. It took the company more than six weeks to clear the site, during which residents complained about a surge of rats, flies and sickness.

The cause of the fire was not determined, but LAFD investigators could not rule out the solar panels on the roof.

“We have shared relevant testing and monitoring information on our website and with regulatory agencies,” the statement read. “Our industry is regulated by dozens of agencies, and we regularly work with them collaboratively and transparently.”

In the statement, Lineage officials said environmental monitoring after the fire had consistently shown normal levels for the surrounding neighborhood, and that the company has detected “no ammonia concentrations above health-based action levels.”

OFFICIALS executed a search warrant at the Lineage cold storage warehouse in Boyle Heights on Tuesday.

ERIC THAYER Los Angeles Times

City Councilmember Ys-abel Jurado, who represents the area, said in a statement that she welcomed the investigation.

“Residents deserve to know what happened, what risks remain, and who must be held accountable,” Jurado said in a statement. “I welcome this investigation as a positive step toward the transparency and answers Boyle Heights residents deserve. This community has lived with the consequences of the Lineage warehouse fire for months."

Martín Ramírez, who owns a car shop next to the warehouse, said when he initially arrived for work Tuesday morning, the warehouse was filled with busy workers as usual, cleaning and operating heavy machinery.

Then suddenly, when he took a look at the building a few minutes later, it was empty, having been cleared after investigators arrived with the search warrant.

"The residents of Boyle Heights and East L.A. deserve environmental justice and corporate accountability," Mayor Karen Bass said in a statement.

O.C. woman accused of gathering intelligence for China

Department of Justice

FBI AGENTS detained Wanying "Heather" Zhang of Irvine on Sunday at LAX.

[China, from B1]

media post that Zhang had surveilled the Taiwanese president's son, Lai Ting-yu, and his family last year in September. She allegedly filmed their home and vehicles and reported information back to handlers.

“Protecting our national security means confronting foreign governments that engage in covert operations in our nation,” Essayli said. “Ms. Zhang acted at the direction of Chinese government officials to spy on the family of a senior Taiwanese official here in the United States.”

According to the complaint, on Aug. 29, 2025, Zhang and another individual flew from John Wayne Airport in Orange County to Las Vegas. They then flew from Las Vegas to Seattle on Sept. 1 and rented a black 2025 Nissan Rogue SUV.

Security camera video from a neighbor shows that Zhang and the other person arrived at the surveillance target's home around 4:50 p.m. and waited in the rented car, Holt said.

When the man and his family, including children, arrived around 6 p.m., security video captured Zhang and the person holding up their phones “in a manner indicating that they were taking pictures and/or videos of the family,” Holt said.

Holt said that based on WeChat messages they reviewed, while Zhang was outside the home, she allegedly exchanged messages with a Chinese government

official.

“Saw him. Young male. It’s that young one,” Zhang allegedly wrote, later adding that she was making a video recording.

Zhang allegedly later provided information on two license plates to the official, which Holt said were registered to the target of their surveillance.

The office of Taiwan's president did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Holt noted in the complaint that although Taiwan has its own democratically elected government, "PRC

President Xi Jinping has vowed to unify Taiwan with China."

"To do this, China has prioritized modernizing its military ... to retake Taiwan by force, if necessary," Holt wrote. "In addition to modernizing its military, the PRC has embarked on coercive activities that go beyond normal diplomatic, economic, and security activities, which are meant to erode Taiwan's will to fight a war against China."

If the Chinese government wanted to obtain leverage over the president, Holt wrote, "the location and pictures of the close relatives of a high-ranking Taiwanese government official, including pictures of their homes and cars, could be useful."

Zhang's arrest comes months after Eileen Wang, the former mayor of Arcadia, pleaded guilty to acting as an illegal agent of China. Wang admitted that she was directed by the Chinese government to promote propaganda in the United States between 2020 and 2022, according to court filings.

Zhang lives in Irvine with her husband, Edric Ding, who is also a real estate agent. Reached by phone,

Ding declined to speak about the arrest.

“I don’t want to talk to you guys,” Ding told a reporter before hanging up.

According to the complaint, federal authorities reviewed records from iCloud accounts associated with Zhang and “Individual 1,” including texts. Through those records, Holt said, investigators learned that Zhang attended the University of International Relations in Beijing.

“Based on public reporting, I know that UIR is closely affiliated with China's intelligence apparatus,” Holt said in the affidavit.

Holt wrote that Zhang kept in contact with a former classmate at the university, a purported Chinese government official, since graduating around 2014. The two spoke about their children, investments and differences between the U.S. and China, Holt wrote.

That classmate — identified only as PRC Official 1 — later introduced Zhang to another government official, according to Holt.

Zhang and the other person, identified in court records as PRC Official 2, allegedly met in June 2025 in China, when, Holt said, they discussed a “U.S. house.”

Holt said that the following month, Zhang messaged PRC Official 2 that she was busy with work in L.A. but would “probably go to Seattle next week.”

"OK. Thank you for your hard work," the official allegedly responded.

She added that her emergency executive order into the incident called on the Department of Toxic Substances Control to investigate and pursue enforcement action if warranted.

Obituaries

Place a paid notice

latimes.com/placeobituary

Search obituary notice archives:

legacy.com/obituaries/latimes

---

Mike Richard Horwitz August 17, 1955 - October 5, 2026

Mike passed away peacefully, surrounded by his loving family, after a long illness. He was a devoted husband, father, grandfather, and son whose love and presence will be deeply missed by all who knew him.

He leaves behind his beloved and devoted wife, Jan, with whom he shared 48 years of marriage; his three children, Jessica (Ryan), Adam, and Chad; his cherished grandchildren, Aubrey and Everly; and his mother, Elsie.

Mike was predeceased by his father, Chuck, and his brother, Mitchell.

His family will forever treasure the memories they shared with him—the love, laughter, and moments that made their lives richer simply because he was part of them. Though he will be deeply missed, his memory will live on in the hearts of those who loved him.

The family will hold a private Celebration of Life

AccuWeather. Proven Superior Accuracy™ Visit AccuWeather.com

---

THE WEATHER

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Today in Southern California

Heat continues for most: The heat will persist for most areas, with inland temperatures approaching or exceeding 100 degrees. An afternoon ocean breeze will keep temperatures in check at the beaches and a few miles inland. This onshore flow will gradually strengthen as the week progresses by the weekend, and high temperatures will trend much closer to normal.

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5-day forecasts

High/low temperatures are average forecasts for entire zone. | L.A. Basin | Valleys | Beaches | Mountains | Deserts | Today | 97|72 | 100|73 | 87|69 | 77|40 | 106|79 | Very hot | Sunshine; very hot | Sunny and very warm | Sunny | Sun; very hot | Thursday | Sunny, hot | 94/69 | Sunny, hot | 95/70 | Humid | 82/67 | Sunny | 76/42 | Very hot | 106/79 | Friday | Mostly sunny | 87/68 | Hot | 90/68 | Humid | 78/68 | Partly sunny | 76/45 | Hot | 105/78 | Saturday | Clouds, sun | 86/66 | Mostly cloudy | 88/64 | Partly sunny | 78/67 | Not as warm | 70/45 | Clouds, sun | 97/72 | Sunday | Clouds, sun | 81/66 | Clouds, sun | 82/62 | Clouds, sun | 76/63 | Mostly cloudy | 63/42 | Cloudy | 87/68 | ---

Surf and sea

POINT CONCEPTION TO MEXICO

Inner waters: Wind becoming west at 5-10 knots. Seas 2-4 feet. Swell northwest 2 feet at 6 seconds and south 3 feet at 12-13 seconds.

Surf zone: The risk for strong rip currents will be moderate at L.A., Ventura and S.D. County beaches and high at O.C. beaches. | County | Height | Period | Direction | Temp | Santa Barbara | 1-3' | 12 sec | SW | 70 | Ventura | 2-4" | 11 sec | S | 71 | Los Angeles | 2-4" | 11 sec | S | 73 | Orange | 3-5' | 12 sec | SSW | 73 | San Diego | 2-4" | 11 sec | S | 74 | L.A. Outer Harbor, in feet. | Today | 8:07a | 5.3 Hi | 1:42a | -0.1 Lo | 7:52p | 5.6 Hi | 1:55p | 1.2 Lo | Thu. | 8:34a | 5.6 Hi | 2:14a | 0.1 Lo | 8:37p | 5.5 Hi | 2:37p | 0.7 Lo | ---

UV index

Minutes to burn for sensitive people

Las Vegas, 45 Phoenix, 45

Los Angeles, 45 San Francisco, 45

California cities\* | City | Tue.* | Today | Thu. | Hi | Lo | Prcp. | Hi | Lo | Hi | Lo | Anaheim | 98 | 71 | -- | 97 | 69 | 95 | 68 | Avalon/Catalina | 91 | 79 | -- | 92 | 76 | 87 | 68 | Bakersfield | 99 | 72 | -- | 99 | 70 | 98 | 70 | Barstow | 98 | 69 | -- | 99 | 70 | 101 | 70 | Big Bear Lake | 75 | 43 | -- | 77 | 40 | 76 | 42 | Bishop | 91 | 49 | -- | 92 | 48 | 92 | 50 | Burbank | 102 | 71 | -- | 98 | 70 | 98 | 69 | Camarillo | 94 | 64 | -- | 88 | 64 | 84 | 64 | Chatsworth | 99 | 74 | -- | 100 | 73 | 95 | 68 | Chino | 104 | 68 | -- | 104 | 65 | 103 | 65 | Compton | 101 | 71 | -- | 94 | 70 | 90 | 70 | Dana Point | 93 | 68 | -- | 85 | 68 | 81 | 69 | Death Valley | 108 | 80 | -- | 110 | 81 | 110 | 78 | Del Mar | 91 | 70 | -- | 83 | 69 | 81 | 68 | Escondido | 103 | 65 | -- | 97 | 61 | 93 | 62 | Eureka | 59 | 50 | Tr | 59 | 50 | 63 | 51 | Fallbrook | 101 | 66 | -- | 98 | 62 | 93 | 62 | Fresno | 100 | 69 | -- | 100 | 67 | 99 | 66 | Fullerton | 98 | 71 | -- | 96 | 68 | 92 | 69 | Hemet | 100 | 65 | .01 | 101 | 64 | 101 | 65 | Hesperia | 94 | 60 | -- | 96 | 61 | 93 | 64 | Huntington Beach | 89 | 71 | -- | 84 | 70 | 81 | 71 | Idyllwild | 83 | 62 | -- | 85 | 63 | 86 | 67 | Irvine | 98 | 69 | -- | 93 | 69 | 91 | 69 | ---

Sun and moon

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Almanac | Temperature | Los Angeles | Fullerton | Ventura* | High/low | 101/76 | 98/72 | 89/68 | Normal high/low | 80/62 | 82/61 | 75/54 | High/low a year ago | 78/58 | 77/61 | 70/63 | Record high/date | 102/1971 | 98/2026 | 99/1971 | Record low/date | 44/1881 | 51/2011 | 45/1955 | City | Tue.* | Today | Thu. | Hi | Lo | Prcp. | Hi | Lo | Hi | Lo | L.A. D'ntown/USC | 101 | 74 | -- | 97 | 72 | 94 | 69 | L.A. Int'l. Airport | 94 | 71 | -- | 86 | 70 | 82 | 69 | Laguna Beach | 94 | 70 | -- | 84 | 69 | 81 | 69 | Lancaster | 97 | 58 | -- | 97 | 58 | 98 | 63 | Long Beach | 98 | 70 | -- | 92 | 70 | 89 | 69 | Mammoth Lakes | 76 | 38 | -- | 77 | 39 | 77 | 39 | Mission Viejo | 101 | 70 | -- | 95 | 66 | 93 | 62 | Monrovia | 100 | 76 | -- | 100 | 74 | 98 | 71 | Monterey | 75 | 60 | -- | 78 | 57 | 74 | 56 | Mt. Wilson | 81 | 63 | -- | 71 | 63 | 69 | 60 | Needles | 101 | 76 | -- | 103 | 75 | 106 | 77 | Newport Beach | 87 | 72 | -- | 84 | 71 | 82 | 70 | Northridge | 102 | 71 | -- | 101 | 69 | 96 | 66 | Oakland | 84 | 59 | -- | 81 | 57 | 77 | 57 | Oceanside | 102 | 61 | -- | 95 | 59 | 91 | 63 | Ojai | 100 | 66 | -- | 97 | 65 | 94 | 60 | Ontario | 103 | 76 | -- | 101 | 73 | 100 | 69 | Palm Springs | 105 | 80 | -- | 106 | 79 | 106 | 79 | Pasadena | 100 | 74 | -- | 98 | 72 | 96 | 69 | Paso Robles | 102 | 56 | -- | 103 | 54 | 100 | 55 | Redding | 102 | 61 | -- | 100 | 60 | 101 | 61 | Riverside | 100 | 67 | -- | 101 | 65 | 100 | 65 | Sacramento | 100 | 59 | -- | 100 | 58 | 99 | 58 | San Bernardino | 103 | 71 | -- | 103 | 70 | 100 | 68 | 24-hour total (as of 2 p.m.) | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | Season total (since Oct. 1) | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | Last season (Oct. 1 to date) | 0.00 | 0.01 | Trace | Season norm (Oct. 1 to date) | 0.08 | 0.06 | 0.08 | Humidity (high/low) | 55/25 | 61/24 | 93/56 | City | Tue.* | Today | Thu. | Hi | Lo | Prcp. | Hi | Lo | Hi | Lo | San Diego | 93 | 71 | -- | 87 | 70 | 83 | 70 | San Francisco | 81 | 58 | -- | 79 | 57 | 75 | 58 | San Gabriel | 102 | 74 | -- | 98 | 72 | 96 | 70 | San Jose | 94 | 63 | -- | 93 | 61 | 89 | 60 | San Luis Obispo | 86 | 59 | -- | 93 | 59 | 89 | 59 | Santa Ana | 93 | 71 | -- | 90 | 69 | 87 | 69 | Santa Barbara | 88 | 64 | -- | 83 | 64 | 82 | 64 | Santa Clarita | 103 | 67 | -- | 104 | 68 | 101 | 64 | Santa Monica Pier | 91 | 70 | -- | 87 | 69 | 82 | 67 | Santa Paula | 98 | 66 | -- | 95 | 65 | 94 | 63 | Santa Rosa | 97 | 49 | -- | 93 | 50 | 90 | 51 | Simi Valley | 98 | 70 | -- | 100 | 69 | 97 | 65 | Tahoe Valley | 76 | 39 | -- | 78 | 36 | 79 | 38 | Temecula | 100 | 64 | .02 | 101 | 64 | 97 | 60 | Thousand Oaks | 97 | 67 | -- | 96 | 66 | 92 | 62 | Torrance | 91 | 73 | -- | 87 | 71 | 82 | 71 | UCLA | 95 | 74 | -- | 92 | 71 | 88 | 69 | Van Nuys | 101 | 72 | -- | 101 | 69 | 99 | 66 | Ventura | 86 | 64 | -- | 80 | 64 | 77 | 65 | Whittier Hills | 99 | 74 | -- | 97 | 72 | 93 | 69 | Woodland Hills | 102 | 70 | -- | 100 | 68 | 95 | 66 | Wrightwood | 79 | 62 | -- | 82 | 62 | 82 | 62 | Yorba Linda | 102 | 70 | -- | 98 | 68 | 96 | 67 | Yosemite Valley | 86 | 55 | -- | 90 | 56 | 89 | 56 | TUESDAY'S EXTREMES AS OF 2 P.M. FOR THE 48 CONTIGUOUS STATES

High 106 in El Cajon, Calif.

Low 27 in West Yellowstone, Mont.

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Today in North America

Tranquil weather: High pressure from the Rockies to the eastern part of the country will supply dry and calm weather for many. Meanwhile, a stalled front will continue to bring heavy thunderstorms to Florida, which may cause small-stream flooding. | Showers | T-storms | Rain | Flurries | Snow | Ice | Shown are areas of precipitation and high temperatures for the day.

---

U.S. cities | City | Tuesday* | Today | Hi | Lo | Prcp. | Hi | Lo | Sky | Albany | 58 | 38 | -- | 67 | 53 | Su | Albuquerque | 80 | 55 | -- | 82 | 56 | Pc | Anchorage | 47 | 42 | .09 | 49 | 37 | Cy | Aspen | 76 | 41 | .02 | 73 | 40 | Pc | Atlanta | 78 | 63 | -- | 81 | 59 | Su | Austin | 90 | 65 | -- | 90 | 64 | Su | Baltimore | 64 | 43 | -- | 73 | 53 | Su | Boise | 86 | 56 | -- | 86 | 54 | Su | Boston | 62 | 47 | -- | 67 | 56 | Su | Buffalo | 57 | 39 | -- | 67 | 53 | W | Burlington, Vt. | 58 | 41 | -- | 63 | 54 | Sh | Charleston, S.C. | 76 | 65 | -- | 81 | 64 | Cy | Charlotte | 73 | 53 | -- | 79 | 54 | Su | Chicago | 75 | 50 | -- | 77 | 52 | Hz | Cincinnati | 72 | 48 | -- | 80 | 55 | Su | Cleveland | 65 | 39 | -- | 74 | 54 | Su | Columbia, S.C. | 79 | 60 | -- | 82 | 53 | Pc | Columbus | 67 | 42 | -- | 77 | 53 | Su | Dallas/FLWorth | 88 | 62 | -- | 87 | 65 | Su | Denver | 86 | 59 | -- | 82 | 55 | Su | Detroit | 68 | 41 | -- | 74 | 50 | Pc | El Paso | 83 | 62 | -- | 86 | 64 | Su | Eugene | 76 | 42 | -- | 79 | 45 | Su | Fort Myers | 87 | 78 | .19 | 86 | 76 | Ts | Hartford | 60 | 40 | -- | 67 | 54 | Su | Honolulu | 86 | 74 | .03 | 86 | 75 | Pc | Houston | 91 | 71 | -- | 92 | 70 | Su | Indianapolis | 72 | 50 | -- | 81 | 53 | Su | Jacksonville, Fla. | 77 | 72 | 1.24 | 81 | 71 | Ts | Kansas City | 80 | 48 | -- | 84 | 56 | Su | Knoxville | 78 | 55 | -- | 81 | 56 | Su | Las Vegas | 97 | 73 | -- | 97 | 75 | Su | Louisville | 75 | 50 | -- | 83 | 60 | Su | Medford | 91 | 52 | -- | 94 | 53 | Su | Memphis | 84 | 60 | -- | 87 | 62 | Su | Miami | 90 | 79 | .20 | 88 | 77 | Ts | Milwaukee | 73 | 52 | -- | 73 | 49 | Hz | Minneapolis | 82 | 55 | -- | 73 | 48 | Su | Nashville | 83 | 50 | -- | 86 | 58 | Su | New Orleans | 83 | 76 | -- | 85 | 74 | Ts | New York | 60 | 48 | -- | 67 | 56 | Su | Norfolk | 66 | 62 | -- | 73 | 56 | Su | Oklahoma City | 86 | 55 | -- | 90 | 60 | Su | Omaha | 87 | 55 | -- | 80 | 51 | Su | Orlando | 81 | 75 | .19 | 81 | 74 | Ts | Philadelphia | 65 | 49 | -- | 71 | 56 | Su | Phoenix | 100 | 80 | -- | 100 | 80 | Su | Pittsburgh | 61 | 38 | -- | 71 | 55 | Su | Portland, Ore. | 75 | 56 | -- | 78 | 51 | Pc | Providence | 62 | 45 | -- | 66 | 55 | Su | Raleigh/Durham | 72 | 55 | -- | 78 | 54 | Su | Reno | 90 | 50 | -- | 88 | 51 | Su | Richmond | 67 | 48 | -- | 75 | 55 | Su | St. Louis | 77 | 50 | -- | 87 | 58 | Su | Salt Lake City | 81 | 62 | .16 | 82 | 58 | Su | City | Tuesday* | Today | Hi | Lo | Prcp. | Hi | Lo | Sky | Seattle | 66 | 53 | -- | 67 | 49 | Pc | Tampa | 79 | 76 | .90 | 83 | 75 | Ts | Tucson | 94 | 75 | -- | 95 | 70 | Su | Tulsa | 85 | 54 | -- | 89 | 59 | Su | Washington, D.C. | 66 | 50 | -- | 73 | 56 | Su | Wichita | 86 | 52 | -- | 89 | 57 | Su | World | Acapulco | 88 | 75 | .15 | 87 | 75 | R | Amsterdam | 70 | 57 | -- | 69 | 53 | Cy | Athens | 79 | 57 | -- | 78 | 56 | Su | Bangkok | 82 | 75 | .17 | 91 | 78 | R | Barcelona | 73 | 66 | .28 | 79 | 62 | Pc | Berlin | 68 | 48 | -- | 72 | 49 | Pc | Cabo San Lucas | 90 | 74 | .23 | 91 | 78 | Ts | Cairo | 84 | 68 | -- | 85 | 67 | Hz | Dubai | 99 | 88 | -- | 107 | 87 | Su | Dublin | 54 | 52 | .82 | 55 | 41 | Su | Havana | 90 | 72 | .01 | 89 | 73 | R | Ho Chi Minh City | 93 | 77 | .21 | 92 | 77 | R | Hong Kong | 82 | 73 | -- | 86 | 77 | Pc | Istanbul | 70 | 57 | -- | 73 | 56 | Cy | Jerusalem | 71 | 63 | -- | 76 | 61 | Su | Johannesburg | 69 | 50 | -- | 78 | 53 | Hz | Kuala Lumpur | 92 | 76 | .10 | 95 | 76 | Sh | Lima | 79 | 70 | -- | 79 | 72 | Pc | London | 70 | 54 | -- | 59 | 45 | Sh | Madrid | 72 | 61 | .65 | 72 | 54 | Sh | Mecca | 101 | 77 | .03 | 102 | 84 | Hz | Mexico City | 71 | 58 | .70 | 73 | 55 | Sh | Montreal | 57 | 39 | -- | 61 | 53 | Sh | Moscow | 54 | 47 | .11 | 60 | 41 | Su | Mumbai | 91 | 80 | .03 | 96 | 81 | Sh | New Delhi | 94 | 78 | -- | 96 | 74 | Hz | Paris | 77 | 52 | -- | 69 | 50 | Sh | Prague | 70 | 43 | -- | 68 | 47 | Pc | Rome | 75 | 68 | .08 | 78 | 67 | Pc | Seoul | 72 | 46 | -- | 75 | 47 | Su | Singapore | 91 | 81 | -- | 93 | 79 | Ts | Taipei City | 79 | 70 | .01 | 80 | 71 | Pc | Tokyo | 79 | 70 | .04 | 75 | 63 | Cy | Vancouver | 62 | 50 | .02 | 60 | 49 | Pc | Vienna | 75 | 46 | -- | 77 | 53 | Su | Key: Su sunny; Pc partly cloudy; Cy cloudy; Fg foggy; Prcp precipitation; Dr drizzle; Hz hazy Sh showers; Ts thunderstorms; R rain; Sn snow; Sf snow flurries; I ice; Rs rain/snow; W windy; Tr trace. Notes: National extremes exclude Alaska and Hawaii. \* - data estimated. Tuesday's readings as of 2 p.m.

Angel City fans excited, but holding their breath

ANGEL CITY'S Emily Sams, right, battles Gotham FC's Jaedyn Shaw for the ball during the 1-1 draw Sunday.

Howard Smith Getty Images

---

ANALYSIS

Supporters jaded after disappointing results but playoff push offers team shot to deliver.

By Kevin Baxter

Melanie Marx bought Angel City season tickets before the team was a team. It had no players, no coach and no uniform. It was more a concept than a reality and Marx bought in.

"I've always had pride for this team." she said. "This was the first team from the NWSL that I've been able to say that I'm a supporter for."

Yet supporting Angel City, she says, has been as exhausting as it has been exciting. Once the most valuable women's professional sports team in history, Angel City has had one winning season and made just one playoff appearance in its first four seasons.

Attendance declined more than 22%, high-profile players such as Alyssa Thompson, Christen Press, Ali Riley and Madison Hammond have either been transferred away, retired or been allowed to leave and the team hasn't re-signed popular captain Sarah Gorden for next season. At the same time, it has gone through five coaches and three general managers/ sporting directors in less than five years.

That's not exactly what Marx signed up for.

"I'm upset as a fan, of course, and I'm upset as a season-ticket holder," she said. "But I'm also upset as a fan of these players and someone who's been invested in this league of almost 10 years."

“What keeps myself and others coming back week to week is because of the players themselves,” she added. “Because the results on the pitch haven’t always matched the ambitions of the supporters.”

During the past three months, that support has finally been rewarded. Following Sunday's draw with first-place Gotham FC, the reigning NWSL champion, Angel City (12-8-7) heads into the league's two-week international break riding a seven-game unbeaten streak and is in sixth place in the 16-team table, in position for another playoff berth.

The team has lost just twice in 16 games under interim coach Leif Gunnar Smerud. Its 12 victories with three games to play is already a franchise record for a single season, as are its 45 goals. After posting a substantial negative goal differential in its first four seasons, Angel City's plus-16 mark this year in best in the league.

And in the current international break, the team had a record nine players called up to various national teams. It's one of the most dramatic turnarounds in

NWSL history, one that may have saved at least a portion of the team's most loyal fan base.

"My renewal for next year just recently came up and I was on a bit of knife's edge deciding whether I want to go ahead," said Michael Jaeger, an attorney who has had multiple Angel City season tickets in section 133 since the first season. "There have been consistent problems throughout.

"I really want the team to succeed. Given the recent successes, I did go ahead and re-up for next year because I'm feeling optimistic."

Optimistic but not necessarily confident.

"I am not feeling like 'OK, this is what I've been waiting for. The team's really turned a corner,' " Jaeger said. "That to me would be success on the field, plus a decision about Sarah Gorden, plus [a] permanent head coach who we know is at least going to have one or more seasons to have things play out.

“So I don’t think we’re there yet. I like the current trend but because not a lot has necessarily changed about the front office, I’m not ready to say ‘OK, we’re fully on the right track.’”

Angel City has only itself to blame for that lack of trust. When the team launched with a massive ownership group that included Hollywood A-listers, former U.S. women's national team stars and sports luminaries including Serena Williams and Billie Jean King, it promised to ignite a revolution in women's sports.

"We're not just building a soccer club. We want to build an organization that has impact," said Julie Uhrman, one of its team's three founding owners.

And while Angel City has done real, meaningful work in the community, providing millions of meals to the hungry, funneling millions of dollars into community programs and taking a courageous stand against ICE raids across Southern California, as a soccer team it hasn't delivered on its promises.

The loyal fans blame the front office, which has waived nearly six dozens players and five managers, including interim coaches, through its revolving doors since the first season. Mark Parsons, who won six trophies as manager with the Portland Thorns, was hired 20 months ago to stabilize things but his highly touted global search for a coach ended with Alexander

Straus spending just a year with the club — going 7-15-5 in parts of two seasons — while Parsons unsettled the roster by making more than 40 transactions.

"There's just a lack of trust in the front office frankly," said Nadia Johnson, who attended games every season but didn't buy season tickets until this year. "We're still doing these chaotic things, which is really frustrating as a fan."

And the chaos may not be ending anytime soon. Despite his success, Smerud has not publicly been guaranteed anything beyond this season; officially, the team is still searching for a new manager.

Gorden, the captain and anchor of the defense, is out of contract at the end of the season, as is veteran Claire Emslie. Meanwhile Sydney Leroux, 36, who has played one minute the past two seasons as she deals with mental health issues, is signed through 2027.

At the same time, Parsons has built the league's youngest roster around players whose performances are bigger than their names. Goalkeeper Angelina Anderson, 25, is third in the league with nine clean sheets and 12 wins. Brazilian Maiara Niehues, 22, already has a franchise-record nine goals while Evelyn Shores, 21, has tied the single-season record with seven assists and defender Gisele Thompson, Alyssa's sister, leads all outfield players with 2,420 minutes.

“I am excited about how diverse our team is and really how they’ve grown,” season ticket-holder Johnson said. “It’s playoff crunch time and so it’s always exciting, especially when your team is in it. So I’m excited to see where they go.”

But after four seasons of mediocrity and worse, however, she's learned to keep her fingers crossed.

"I'm not confident if we get a rough patch next year what decisions will be made in terms of trying to repair that," she said. "So yeah, that's where I'm at."

QUARTERBACK Jayden Maiava scans the field for a receiver during the Trojans' victory over Washington.

RONALDO BOLAÑOS Los Angeles Times

ANALYSIS

With USC in need of a leader, what is going on with Maiava?

BY RYAN KARTJE

What's going on with Jayden Maiava?

As USC's quarterback kneeled out the final seconds of an unsatisfying win over Washington on Saturday, he didn't waste any time celebrating on the field. Maiava spotted an NBC camera trained on him, turned toward the Coliseum tunnel and took off.

The camera followed Maiava and caught USC's sports information director, Katie Ryan, sprinting to reach him. But even after Ryan caught up to the quarterback, Maiava barely broke his stride. He just kept running, the first one up the tunnel, while his Trojan teammates remained on the field.

It was a strange moment, after a game of strange moments for Malava. And it certainly was not the sort of body language you want to see from your starting quarterback and team leader. Let alone after a win.

It didn't get much better afterward, when USC trotted him out for the team's postgame news conference. Maiava was asked about not being able to get into a rhythm. And he proceeded to answer a question that seemingly wasn't asked.

"Just being able to trust it, fall back on routine plays," Maiava said.

That's not new for Maiava, who has often avoided any questions that he doesn't want to answer by using a non sequitur football cliche. That's his right. He's not obligated to play ball with reporters.

UP NEXT

at University Park, Pa.

Saturday, 4:30 p.m. PDT

TV: NBC

But USC has trumpeted Maïava's progress as a vocal leader for more than a year now. And as the quarterback, he is naturally a representation of the program's leadership and its larger culture. Which is what makes the body language of the past two weeks, as USC's season feels on the brink, particularly concerning. Especially in context with what we've seen on the field.

The truth is Maiava hasn't really looked the same since the shutout of Fresno State on Sept. 4, when he appeared to hurt his right shoulder. Maiava was asked about it the following weeks, but he said that he was “great.”

“It’s a physical game,” Maiava said. “It’s what happens.”

No one has mentioned the injury since, but Maiava has been markedly less accurate in the ensuing four games. He's completing $60\%$ of his passes over that time, after the first two games had him closer to $90\%$ . Maiava's mechanics have looked far less consistent over that stretch. And then there were the moments Saturday in which Maiava appeared tentative, like he might actually be shying away from running the ball.

During USC's opening drive, Maiava scrambled away from pressure and had a chance to take off upfield and potentially pick up the first down with his legs. But instead he sprinted wider toward the sideline, in search of receivers who weren't there in the corner of the end zone. He ended up getting sacked.

A couple possessions later, Maiava launched a prayer down the field off his back foot. It was intercepted and the quarterback threw up his hands, fully aware the turnover was his fault.

USC's problems certainly can't be laid at Maiava's feet. The quarterback has been pretty good this season by normal statistical standards. He's ninth in the nation in passing yards per game (290) and third in total passing touchdowns (15).

But our eyes also don't deceive us. Maybe he is hurt. Regardless, in order to actually save their season, the Trojans need Maiava to be more than just a passable Big Ten quarterback. They need him to put the team on his back.

Riley said earlier this season that Maiava has come further than any other passer he's mentored as a college coach. But midway through his third season at USC, it's this last step in his development that seems to be most troubling Maiava.

---

Patterson in the press box

With its defense clearly struggling to communicate, USC moved defensive coordinator Gary Patterson from the field to the press box.

The results at least seemed palpable on Saturday. The defense was much more dialed in on third down, holding the Huskies to just a single conversion on 12 attempts. And the secondary seemed to iron out most of its communication problems.

Whether that can be attributed to Patterson being the one in the booth is impossible for me to say. The bigger question, as I see it, is why there was such a disconnect between Patterson, his scheme and the rest of the staff. Riley seemed to suggest that the way Patterson wanted to do things wasn't clicking with the rest of the operation.

“Going through some of these first few games, seeing the makeup of the staff, it was a conversation that he and I had on Sunday,” Riley said after USC’s win over Washington. “We thought there were some reasons just kind of in our operation that made sense. He knows this defense obviously better than anyone. He was used to having, I think, a staff at TCU — if you look at his staff there, for years and years, they had little to no turnover, right? So when you had guys who had been coaching with you for 15-20 years, like he had in a lot of ways, you might handle that different. He had a heck of a defensive staff, and it’s kind of like players, right? You’re trying to just move the chess pieces to get everyone in the right position to get the best out of them.”

Chesney setting focused tone in prep for Oregon

Coach urges team to ignore No. 21 ranking and instead work on being ‘100% locked in.’

By Connor Dullinger

No. 21.

Look at it once.

And do not talk or worry about it again.

That is what UCLA coach Bob Chesney told his team when he showed them their Associated Press Top 25 ranking during Sunday's team meeting, reminding the Bruins what their priorities are as they come off their bye week and prepare for a showdown in Eugene, Ore., against the No. 13 Ducks.

"If you pay attention to this number it will go away," Chesney said. "If you pay attention to what you did to get that number, and only focus on that and improve that, maybe the number even gets better. Who knows as time goes on, but that can't be anything we talk about or worry about, and that's why I wanted to bring it up one time and that was the end of it."

The commitment to the process remains Chesney's top priority as his team stares down its biggest test of the season to date.

While UCLA has the opportunity to leave Autzen Stadium victorious for the first time since 2004 and add legitimate steam to the Chesney Train, the coach said that the Bruins' collective mentality has to be identical to the one they started preseason camp with eight weeks ago.

Chesney said he thought his team needed the bye week physically, but mentally, nobody wanted time off and all are hungry to improve.

Senior defensive back Derrick Barksdale said nothing about the context of the West Coast showdown affecting the Bruins' weekly game preparation.

"Being ranked can definitely skew your image of how you look at it, but if you look at it too long, just like Coach Chesney said, it can disappear very fast," said Barksdale, who played for Chesney on a nationally ranked James Madison team last season. "It can disappear just as fast as it went up there, so I feel like you can't pay too much attention to it. You have to go into the preparation of each week, just like you did in the past."

Barksdale said James Madison's loss to the Ducks in the College Football Playoff — during which the Dukes fell 51-34 in Eugene — adds no extra weight to the affair, emphasizing that the game is just another opportunity for the Bruins to take a step forward.

Chesney said he used the first-round playoff loss as a teaching point throughout the bye week.

"We can take away that there are no weaknesses in

UP NEXT

UP NEXT

21 UCLA at

13 Oregon

at Eugene, Ore.

Saturday, 12:30 p.m.

TV: CBS

this team and if you leave them something to expose, they will expose it," Chesney said of Oregon. "Whether it be technique that you put on film from your offensive line-men, as far as their defense attacking it, or your secondary, or your receivers or whatever you're giving away. At some point that's what the bye week was about — us really finding a way to cure a lot of those things, find our tendencies, put ourselves in position to use those in a positive way."

The Bruins also used the bye week to prepare for the atmosphere in Eugene, where a sold-out crowd is expected to welcome the Bruins to Autzen Stadium for the first time since 2022.

While the JMU transfers got a taste of a night game in Oregon in December, the Bruins are deploying tactics to simulate the confines of "The Zoo" for the rest of the Bruins.

“We’re working on silent cadences,” fifth-year offensive lineman Hall Schmidt said. “Yesterday we had a speaker in the huddle, which was very helpful. They kind of just run up, put the speaker right behind Nico [Iamaleava] and turn it up all the way, and he has to yell the play to us and then the speaker will kind of drift a little closer towards the line of scrimmage and then back out as soon as we stand.”

With sidelines tight to the stands and steep seating that makes fans and the noise feel like they are on top of players, there's little margin for error.

After defeating Maryland 54-3 before the bye week, Chesney emphasized the Bruins are at their best when they play complementary football, with all three phases of the game building on each other.

And complementary football may never be as imperative as it will be Saturday, when the Bruins will have to execute through the noise.

“They don’t have weak spots, so you can’t go out there and lay an egg on offense and expect to win this game or defense or special teams,” Chesney said. “You have to be buttoned up, and we have to make sure that we are 100% locked in on what our jobs are and what the intent of every single play is and how we’re going to execute it and then deal also with the noise and how do we handle that on short down and distances, in the red zone, backed up, all those moments where that stadium noise comes into play.”

Doncic ready to go while Lakers' new defense gets stops

SARA NEVIS Associated Press

LAKERS guard Luka Doncic (77) shoots over Kings center Domantas Sabonis.

He scores 21 points in joyous return to court and team unveils tight defensive identity.

By Thuc Nhi Nguyen

SACRAMENTO — The Lakers pressed, switched and swarmed from the opening whistle. After the Sacramento Kings were caught for a shot-clock violation on the first possession of Monday's preseason game, Luka Doncic raised his fists toward the Lakers' bench with a triumphant grin to symbolize the successful start.

But Doncic's smile toward his teammates had a hint of sarcasm; this was still just an exhibition game.

The Lakers teased their new defensive identity in a 127-103 preseason win against the Sacramento Kings on Monday at Golden 1 Center, rolling out their deep group of wings to overcome a shorthanded bench.

Playing without star center Walker Kessler, who missed the game because of a finger injury, and guard Austin Reaves (ankle), Doncic led the Lakers with 21 points. He took a hard knee to the side of his quad midway through the second quarter, but stayed in the game. With the Lakers up 26 points at halftime, Doncic didn't need to return.

"We all had fun out there," said Doncic, who relished the chance to play in his first competitive basketball game in six months, one of the longest breaks of his career. “Especially with Matisse [Thybulle] and Ziaire [Williams], just that beginning of the game, the start, that’s contagious for everybody, and how they start the game, it was inspirational.”

The star guard actually

was bringing down the team's shooting average. While he was three-for-nine shooting from three-point range in the first half, his teammates combined to make nine of their first 13 three-pointers. Williams led with perfect three-for-three shooting from distance with 13 points and one steal while serving as the Lakers' top on-ball defender. Thybulle, another key defensive off-season addition, had two steals and made two threes.

At halftime, coaches showed players a clip of Williams, a 6-foot-9 forward who signed on a minimum contract, guarding the ball full court. The highlight then showed how Doncic's energy picked up. Thybulle followed suit.

“You don’t wanna be the only guy out there that’s not being physical, not picking up full, not being a pest,” Williams said. “Coming in, I knew that I saw that the team could use that, someone who could pick up full and could guard the main ballhandler and really set the tone on that end. I try to just focus on that every possession.”

Coach JJ Redick, in his third season with the Lakers, said it was the first time in his tenure that he felt the team had multiple players who were capable of handling that defensive responsibility. The Lakers call it their "line of confrontation." Williams, Thybulle, second-year forward Adou Thiero and guard Quentin Grimes were among the players who guarded the ball full court. The Lakers forced four steals in the first quarter and 15 for the game. They averaged 8.5 per game last season.

The product Monday is far from what the Lakers hope to show in their regular-season opener Oct. 21 against the Golden State Warriors. Kessler was wearing a splint on his left pinky finger after he jammed it on the backboard during practice last week. Redick doesn't expect any of the injuries that kept Reaves, guard Collin Sexton (lower body) and two-way forward Arthur Kaluma (lower body) to be long-term.

Reaves, who tweaked his ankle in practice, still went through his pregame warm-up routine Monday.

Even without two of their three top players, the Lakers overwhelmed the Kings, who are expected again to be among the worst teams in the Western Conference. Rookie point guard Darius Acuff, the No. 7 pick in last April's draft, had 19 points with four assists and five turnovers for the Kings.

Note: Overtime or shootout losses are worth one point.

MLB REPORT

Ohtani dropped to fifth in the Dodgers' order versus ace Sale

STAFF AND WIRE REPORTS

Dodgers superstar Shohei Ohtani took the news that he was hitting fifth in Game 3 of the National League Division Series so well that he responded with a joke.

As manager Dave Roberts tells it, when he laid out his thoughts on the lineup against Braves ace Chris Sale, Ohtani said, "In all honesty, I was going to come to you in September and say, why don't you hit me seventh?"

Regardless of how poorly Ohtani has hit lately, the news came as a shock on Tuesday. And it reflected the aggressive read-and-react approach Roberts is going to take with the best-of-five series tied through two games.

Fifth is the lowest Ohtani has ever hit in the Dodgers' starting lineup. He hasn't hit fifth or lower in a starting lineup since 2020 with the Angels.

For most of the season, through ups, downs and injuries, Ohtani has led off. When he returned from the injured list with five games left in the season, Roberts started batting him second against left-handed pitchers, with right-handed hitter Mookie Betts batting ahead of him.

But in eight postseason at-bats so far, Ohtani has recorded just two hits, both singles.

“This is just a Sale thing, and also who I feel is going to come out of the bullpen tonight,” Roberts said, making clear that he doesn’t plan to bat Ohtani fifth against all left-handed pitchers in the post-season. “So [Wednesday] versus [right-hander Tyler] Mahle, it will look different.”

Against Mahle, however, Roberts said Ohtani won't necessarily lead off, citing Mahle's neutral-to-reverse platoon splits. But Ohtani won't hit fifth, Roberts said. Sale is a special case.

In the Dodgers' first two post-season games, Ohtani's plate discipline has wavered, making it difficult to pinpoint the root of his struggles. Does it all come down to approach? Could his nagging left knee and right biceps problems be contributing to his poor performance?

The Dodgers aren't looking for him to be the hero every game, and trying to do so could even exacerbate his problems at the plate. For the lineup to click, however, he does need to be more productive.

"He's a very good self-evaluator, a very extremely high competitor and expects a lot from himself," Roberts said. "I still think he's very confident. But Sale's a different monster. He's tough, certainly against lefties.

"But I still think [Ohtani's] confident. So now with that, just getting him back in the zone — and that's easier said than done, I understand that."

-MADDIE LEE

Rays cash in on miscues, get one win from ALCS

Richie Palacios hit a two-run single in a four-run fifth inning and the Tampa Bay Rays took advantage of New York's sloppy defense, beating Cam Schlittler and the Yankees 5-2 on Monday night to take a 2-0 lead in their American League Division Series.

The small-ball Rays chased Schlittler, the likely AL Cy Young Award winner, in the fifth aided by New York's defensive miscues, to get one victory from reaching the AL Championship Series.

“That’s a byproduct of having a really good clubhouse and a bunch of selfless teammates,” Rays manager Kevin Cash said. “They don’t care who gets it done. They just want to get it done.”

The Yankees became the first team to commit three errors in the first inning of a postseason game since the Oakland Athletics in Game 1 of the 1975 ALCS against Boston, according to Sportsnet Stats.

Ben Rice hit a pair of homers for the Yankees, who have scored just two runs in two games with Aaron Judge out of the lineup.

Díaz back in conversation for closer

[Dodgers, from B10]

onship Series.

"I don't try to think, 'Oh, there's many thousands of fans here,' " he said. "Just me against the hitter, and I trust myself. And like I always tell myself, 'You are a warrior, you are the best, and go and compete.'

The Dodgers' closer situation has been in flux all year. They had signed Díaz to a three-year, \$69-million contract with that role in mind. And even when he missed three months for arthroscopic surgery to remove loose bodies from his elbow, and lefty Tanner Scott took over in the ninth inning, the spot was open for Díaz when he returned.

That was not the case after his second IL stint. And it was during that monthlong road back that he finally refound himself on the mound.

"I was like this maybe in the [World Baseball Classic] and first couple games early in the year before I got hurt," Diaz said. "But now I feel way better than everything. So I think this is the best I ever felt this year."

The process started with treating his neck. Díaz was feeling tightness around the front side of his right trapezius muscle, which could have contributed to Díaz dropping his arm angle. He received medication and needling therapy to address the problem, he said.

Trainers used manual manipulation to find Díaz's ideal arm slot and build muscle memory, and he was quickly cleared to resume throwing.

"I've been doing that for so long, I just lost it for a little," Díaz said of his arm angle.

“And we’ve got a really good group of coaches right here, and they found it right away.”

Díaz began a rehab assignment with triple-A Oklahoma City in early September. But it wasn't smooth sailing. In his fourth outing, Díaz issued three walks and surrendered five runs in just two-thirds of an inning.

"I got mad at myself because I knew I was better than that," Díaz said. "I wasn't able to control my fastball. So after that game, I talked to the pitching coaches in triple A to say, 'We need to find something because I want to be back in the big leagues, I want to help this team to win.'

They dug into Díaz's biomechanics and found that his hip position was different from last year.

When he's right, Díaz explained, his leg lift starts with his hip. But he'd begun to rush the move, which caused his arm to lag behind.

He threw a bullpen with the adjustment and then took it into one final rehab appearance, a one-hit outing.

He sure was. Díaz posted a spotless ERA in five games down the stretch, limiting opponents to one hit combined. And that success carried into his Dodgers postseason debut.

“He’s put himself in a position to be the closer,” Roberts said. “And in October, I don’t pay too much attention to the long sample of a season in a lot of cases because in October things happen quickly, and you’ve got to be willing to read and react.”

For Díaz, the season may not have gone as planned, but his vision of the next few weeks is as clear as ever. He wants to record the final out of the World Series.

“I know how to control my emotions,” he said. “I learned that during my career, and I’m pretty good at that. I just can’t wait to be in that position, and if I’m in there, I will give my 100%.”

"I told the team, 'I'm ready to go,' " Díaz said.

CHRIS O'MEARA Associated Press

THE RAYS' Richie Palacios rejoices for his two-run single in the fifth inning of Tampa Bay's 5-2 win over the Yankees on Monday.

---

MLB PLAYOFFS | DIVISION SERIES

NATIONAL LEAGUE

Best-of-five series

Series tied, 1-1

Game 1: Dodgers 5, Atlanta 3

Game 2: Atlanta 3, Dodgers 2

Game 3: Tuesday at Atlanta, late

Game 4: Today at Atlanta, 3 p.m.

Game 5: Friday at Dodgers, 5 p.m.\*

TV: Games 3-4 on FS1, Game 5 on Fox

---

Milwaukee vs. San Diego

Brewers lead, 2-0

Game 1: Milwaukee 3, San Diego 2

Game 2: Milwaukee 4, San Diego 3

Game 3: Tuesday at San Diego, late

Game 4: Today at San Diego, 7 p.m.\*

Game 5: Friday at Milwaukee, 1:30 p.m.\*

TV: FS1

\*-if necessary

MONDAY'S ALDS GAME 2 BOX

CHICAGO WHITE SOX 4, CLEVELAND 3 | Chicago | AB | R | H | BI | Avg. | Cleveland | AB | R | H | BI | Avg. | Antonacci lf | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .000 | Kwan cf | 4 | 1 | 1 | 0 | .143 | Teel c | 4 | 1 | 1 | 0 | .143 | Ramirez 3b | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | .000 | Vargas 3b | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | .500 | DeLauter rf | 4 | 1 | 2 | 0 | .250 | Murakami 1b | 4 | 0 | 1 | 1 | .375 | Adell dh | 3 | 0 | 1 | 1 | .143 | Benintendi dh | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .000 | Lowe 1b | 4 | 0 | 0 | 1 | .167 | a-Grichuk dh | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | .000 | Martinez lf | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .000 | Peters cf | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .250 | Bazzana 2b | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .143 | b-Pham | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .000 | Bailey c | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .200 | Doyle cf | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .000 | Rocchio ss | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .000 | B.Montgomery rf | 4 | 1 | 1 | 2 | .143 | Totals | 32 | 3 | 4 | 2 | Meidroth 2b | 4 | 0 | 2 | 1 | .250 | C.Montgomery ss | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .333 | Totals | 32 | 4 | 6 | 4 | Chicago | 000 | 103 | 000 -4 | 6 | 1 | Cleveland | 200 | 000 | 010 -3 | 4 | 1 | a-walked for Benintendi in the 6th. b-flied out for Peters in the 6th.

Walks—Chicago 4: Vargas 2, Grichuk 1, C.Montgomery 1. Cleveland 3: Ramirez 1, Adell 1, Bazzana 1. Strikeouts—Chicago 13: Antonacci 1, Teel 2, Murakami 1, Benintendi 2, Grichuk 1, Peters 1, B. Montgomery 2, Meidroth 1, C.Montgomery 2. Cleveland 9: Ramirez 2, Adell 2, Lowe 1, Martinez 2, Bazzana 1. Bailey 1. E—Newcomb (1), Gaddis (1). LOB—Chicago 5, Cleveland 5. 2B—M.Bongamaki (3). 3B—Adell (1). RBIs—Murakami (3). B.Montgomery 2 (2), Meidroth (1), Lowe (1), Adell (1). Runners left in scoring position—Chicago 2 (C.Mongerty, B.Montgomery), Cleveland 2 (Bazzana, Lowe). RISP—Chicago 3 for 8; Cleveland 0 for 5. Runners moved up—Murakami, DeLauter. GIDP—Antonacci. DP—Cleveland 1 (Bazzana, | Rocchio, Lowe). | Chicago | IP | H | R | ER | BB | SO | NP | ERA | Kay | $\frac{1}{2}$ | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 17 | 5.40 | Newcomb | .2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 40 | 0.00 | Burke, W, 1-0 | $5\frac{1}{2}$ | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 6 | 83 | 1.69 | Taylor, 2-2 | $1\frac{1}{2}$ | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 7 | 0.00 | Cleveland | IP | H | R | ER | BB | SO | NP | ERA | Williams | .5 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 11 | 98 | 3.60 | Sabrowski, L, 0-1, BS, 0-1 | $\frac{1}{2}$ | 1 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 11 | 11.57 | Gaddis | .1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 17 | 0.00 | Armstrong | $1\frac{1}{2}$ | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 16 | 0.00 | C.Smith | .1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 0.00 | WP—Sabrowski. U— Gabe Morales, Todd Tichenor, Jansen Visconti, Vic Carapazza T—3:06. Tickets sold—32,050 (34,788).

---

AMERICAN LEAGUE

Chicago White Sox at Cleveland

White Sox lead, 2-0

Game 1: Chicago 3, Cleveland 0

Game 2: Chicago 4, Cleveland 3

Game 3: Wednesday at Chicago, 1 p.m.

Game 4: Thursday at Chicago, 2 p.m.\*

Game 5: Saturday at Cleveland, 2 p.m.\*

TV: TBS/HBO Max

---

Tampa Bay vs. New York

Game 1: Tampa Bay 1, New York 0

Game 2: Tampa Bay 5, New York 2

Game 3: Today at New York, 5 p.m.

Game 4: Thursday at New York, 5 p.m.\*

Game 5: Saturday at Tampa Bay, 5 p.m.\*

TV: TBS, HBO Max

Times p.m. PDT unless noted

MONDAY'S ALDS GAME 2

TAMPA BAY 5, N.Y. YANKEES 2 | New York | AB | R | H | BI | Avg. | Tampa Bay | AB | R | H | BI | Avg. | Rice dh | 3 | 2 | 2 | 2 | .333 | Díaz dh | 4 | 1 | 1 | 0 | .250 | Bellinger lf | 4 | 0 | 1 | 0 | .125 | 1-Mateo dh | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .000 | Garcia 1b | 4 | 0 | 0 | .000 | .000 | Mandola 1b | 5 | 1 | 2 | 0 | .333 | Caballero 3b | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .000 | Caminero 3b | 4 | 1 | 2 | 0 | .333 | Jones rf | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .000 | Hicks c | 3 | 0 | 0 | 1 | .167 | Lombard ss | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .000 | Simpson lf | 4 | 1 | 1 | 1 | .125 | Chisholm 2b | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .000 | Mesa rf | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .167 | Grisham cf | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .000 | DeLuca cf | 4 | 1 | 1 | 0 | .143 | A.Wells c | 3 | 0 | 1 | 0 | .333 | Palacios 2b | 4 | 0 | 1 | 2 | .286 | McMahon 1b | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .000 | Walls ss | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .000 | a-Goldschmidt | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .000 | Totals | 35 | 5 | 8 | 4 | New York | 000 | 100 | 010-2 | 4 | 4 | Tampa Bay | 100 | 040 | 00x-5 | 8 | 0 | a-popped out for McMahon in the 8th. 1-ran for Diaz in the 8th.

Walks—New York 2: Rice 1, McMahon 1. Tampa Bay 2: Diaz 1, Mesa 1. Strikeouts—New York 7: Garcia 2, Jones 1, Lombard 1, Chisholm 1, A.Wells 2. Tampa Bay 4: Diaz 1, Mesa 1, Palacios 1, Walls 1. E—McMahon (1), Chisholm (1), A.Wells (1), Lombard (1). LOB—New York 4, Tampa Bay 9. 2B—A.Wells (2), DeLuca (1), Caminero (1). HR—Rice (1), off Peralta; Rice (2), off Seymour. RBIs—Rice 2 (2), Hicks (1), Simpson (1), Palacios 2 (2). SB—Simpson (1), DeLuca (1), Mesa (1). Runners left in scoring position—New York 2 (Bellinger) 2; Tampa Bay 5 (Mesa, DeLuca 3, Aranda). RISP—New York 0 for 1; Tampa Bay 1 for 13. Runners moved up—Walls, Hicks. | New York | IP | H | R | ER | BB | SO | NP | ERA | Schlittler, L, 0-1 | $\frac{4}{2}$ | 4% | 6 | 4 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 76 | 4.15 | Headrick | $\frac{3}{2}$ | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 18 | 0.00 | Schreiber | $\frac{1}{2}$ | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 15 | 0.00 | Weathers | $\frac{3}{2}$ | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 13 | 0.00 | Blackburn | $\frac{1}{2}$ | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 12 | 0.00 | Bednar | $\frac{1}{2}$ | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0.00 | Tampa Bay | IP | H | R | ER | BB | SO | NP | ERA | Peralta | $\frac{4}{2}$ | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 66 | 1.93 | Booser, W, 1-0 | $\frac{1}{2}$ | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 8 | 0.00 | Seymour, H, 1 | $\frac{3}{2}$ | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 4 | 41 | 3.00 | Baker, S, 2-2 | $\frac{1}{2}$ | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 9 | 0.00 | Inherited runners-scored—Headrick 1-1, Blackburn 1-0, Booser 2-0. U—Jeremie Rehak, Dan Bellino, Ben May, D.J. Reyburn T—3:02. Tickets sold—40,226 (25,025).

Sinner says he's out for season

THE DAY IN SPORTS

NHL STANDINGS

Through Monday

WESTERN CONFERENCE

KIRSTY WIGGLESWORTH Associated Press

NO.1-RANKED Jannik Sinner has not played since July at Wimbledon because of a right knee injury. | WESTERN CONFERENCE | Pacific | W | L | OL | Pts | GF | GA | Edmonton | 2 | 0 | 1 | 5 | 17 | 14 | DUCKS | 2 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 7 | 5 | San Jose | 2 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 9 | 7 | Seattle | 2 | 1 | 0 | 4 | 13 | 5 | Vegas | 2 | 1 | 0 | 4 | 11 | 8 | Vancouver | 2 | 2 | 0 | 4 | 19 | 18 | KINGS | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 8 | 13 | Calgary | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 16 | Central | W | L | OL | Pts | GF | GA | Colorado | 2 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 14 | 5 | Minnesota | 2 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 7 | 2 | Utah | 2 | 1 | 0 | 4 | 12 | 5 | Winnipeg | 1 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 6 | 6 | St. Louis | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 5 | 6 | Nashville | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 3 | 4 | Dallas | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 6 | Chicago | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 15 | EASTERN CONFERENCE | EASTERN CONFERENCE | Metropolitan | W | L | OL | Pts | GF | GA | NY Rangers | 3 | 1 | 0 | 6 | 11 | 6 | Pittsburgh | 2 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 13 | 5 | Carolina | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 5 | 8 | NY Islanders | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 7 | 2 | Washington | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 6 | 5 | Columbus | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 7 | 7 | New Jersey | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 3 | 8 | Philadelphia | 0 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 5 | 17 | Atlantic | W | L | OL | Pts | GF | GA | Ottawa | 2 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 7 | 3 | Tampa Bay | 2 | 1 | 0 | 4 | 8 | 7 | Florida | 1 | 0 | 2 | 4 | 6 | 7 | Boston | 2 | 2 | 0 | 4 | 9 | 11 | Montreal | 1 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 8 | 8 | Buffalo | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 7 | 9 | Toronto | 1 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 6 | 7 | Detroit | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 5 | Today's games

Edmonton vs. DUCKS 7:00 p.m.

Pittsburgh at Washington 4:30 p.m.

Colorado at Winnipeg 4:30 p.m.

---

WNBA PLAYOFFS

SEMIFINALS

Best-of-five series

4 Atlanta vs. 8 New York

Dream lead, 1-0

Gm 1 Atlanta 92, New York 82

Gm 2 Today at Atlanta, 4:30, ESPN

Gm 3 Fri. at New York, 4:30, ESPN2

Gm 4 Sunday at New York, TBD, ABC\*

Gm 5 Oct. 14 at Atlanta, TBD, ESPN\*

3 Las Vegas vs. 2 Golden State Valkyries lead, 1-0

Gm 1 Golden State 71, Las Vegas 60

Gm 2 Today at G.S., 6:30, NBCSN

Gm 3 Fri. at Las Vegas, 6:30, NBCSN

Gm 4 Sunday at L.V., TBD, NBC\*

Gm 5 Oct. 14 at G.S., TBD, NBCSN\*

\* if necessary | All times PDT, p.m.

Top-ranked Jannik Sinner announced he will be out for the rest of the year as he continues to deal with an injured knee.

WIRE REPORTS

Sinner has not played since July when he beat Alexander Zverev in the Wimbledon final. He withdrew from the U.S. Open because of a right knee injury.

“Me, together with the doctors, have decided that I need a course of treatment for my knee, which means that the 2026 season is officially over,” Sinner said on Tuesday in a video message on Instagram.

Sinner risks losing the No.1 ranking while he's out.

ETC. Eagles' lineman Johnson retires

Third-ranked Carlos Alcaraz beat Jiri Lehecka 7-6 (4), 6-4 to successfully defend his Japan Open title. Alcaraz, who returned from a right wrist injury in late August, captured his third title of the year and 27th of his career. ...Coco Gauff said she received an “insane” amount of racist comments on social media following a controversial point in her China Open match against home player Sun Xinran. Gauff stopped a rally after electronic advertising boards lining the court flickered during a point late in the first set of her 7-5, 6-1 third-round victory over Sun, who appeared about to win the point when Gauff stopped playing. The chair umpire then ordered the point to be replayed. ...Novak Djokovic was handed the China Open trophy after Alex de Minaur retired injured in the final. De Minaur (groin) quit after winning the opening game of the second set. Djokovic won 7-6 (3), 0-1 and improved to 34-0 at the China Open.

Philadelphia Eagles All-Pro offensive lineman Lane Johnson has announced his retirement from the NFL after 14 seasons.

Johnson had been a late scratch for last week's game against the Rams for personal reasons. He said Tuesday that, despite wanting to finish the season, "personal and family priorities in my life have changed."

Johnson took a leave of absence during the 2021 season as he battled anxiety and depression and has since shared his story at mental health clinics in the area.

Patrick Surtain II and Pat Bryant's injuries are less serious than first feared when the players each sprained an ankle during Denver's 24-14 loss at San Francisco, a person with knowledge of the medical results told the Associated Press. ... The NFL Referees Assn. said it will challenge the severity of the suspensions of two officials for unprofessional conduct, which the officials union maintains went beyond appropriate punishment. The league on Monday suspended line judge Jeff Seeman for two games for swearing at Arizona's Trey McBride and referee Adrian Hill for one game for yelling and gesturing at Minnesota's Eric Wilson. ... Bijan Robinson rushed for 145 yards and two touchdowns, and the Fal cons posted a dominant 45-24 victory over the New Orleans Saints on Monday night.

Florida center Aleksander Barkov is expected to miss six to eight weeks with a left leg injury and will not require surgery, Panthers coach Paul Maurice said. ... Dylan Larkin was in the lineup for the Detroit Red Wings on Tuesday night after asking for a trade, getting stripped of the captaincy, reporting to training camp, missing the start of the season because of injury and getting booed by home fans during introductions prior to their first game. ... The winless Philadelphia Flyers signed gritty winger Michael Bunting.

Clippers guard Max Strus is out for at least a month with a right foot injury. The team said he suffered a partial tear of the plantar fascia in Sunday's win over the Golden State Warriors in the teams' preseason opener. ... Philadelphia 76ers center Ariel Hukporti suffered a season-ending right Achilles tendon tear in Monday night's preseason game ... Atlanta Dream guard Allisha Gray was ruled out of Game 2 of the WNBA semifinals Wednesday night because of a left hand injury.

Dennis Franchione, the longtime college football coach who turned around Texas Christian before stops at Alabama and Texas A&M, has died. He was 75.

...Sam McDowell, a six-time All Star who led the American League in strikeouts four times before becoming a counselor for athletes suffering from addiction problems and depression, died Monday at his home in Florida. He was 84.

NFL STANDINGS

Through Monday

NATIONAL CONFERENCE | West | W | L | T | Pct. | PF | PA | San Francisco | 4 | 0 | 0 | 1.000 | 122 | 64 | Seattle | 3 | 1 | 0 | .750 | 105 | 73 | RAMS | 2 | 2 | 0 | .500 | 85 | 83 | Arizona | 1 | 3 | 0 | .250 | 87 | 117 | North | W | L | T | Pct. | PF | PA | Minnesota | 4 | 0 | 0 | 1.000 | 86 | 51 | Chicago | 3 | 1 | 0 | .750 | 112 | 65 | Detroit | 2 | 2 | 0 | .500 | 119 | 127 | Green Bay | 2 | 2 | 0 | .500 | 73 | 105 | South | W | L | T | Pct. | PF | PA | Carolina | 2 | 2 | 0 | .500 | 121 | 109 | Atlanta | 2 | 2 | 0 | .500 | 96 | 92 | New Orleans | 1 | 3 | 0 | .250 | 105 | 128 | Tampa Bay | 0 | 4 | 0 | .000 | 76 | 96 | East | W | L | T | Pct. | PF | PA | N.Y. Giants | 3 | 1 | 0 | .750 | 82 | 79 | Philadelphia | 2 | 2 | 0 | .500 | 75 | 93 | Dallas | 2 | 2 | 0 | .500 | 122 | 112 | Washington | 1 | 3 | 0 | .250 | 88 | 122 | AMERICAN CONFERENCE | West | W | L | T | Pct. | PF | PA | Kansas City | 4 | 0 | 0 | 1.000 | 118 | 77 | Las Vegas | 3 | 1 | 0 | .750 | 115 | 84 | Denver | 2 | 2 | 0 | .500 | 74 | 94 | CHARGERS | 0 | 4 | 0 | .000 | 67 | 106 | North | W | L | T | Pct. | PF | PA | Cleveland | 3 | 1 | 0 | .750 | 81 | 95 | Baltimore | 3 | 1 | 0 | .750 | 116 | 96 | Pittsburgh | 2 | 2 | 0 | .500 | 77 | 87 | Cincinnati | 2 | 2 | 0 | .500 | 97 | 85 | South | W | L | T | Pct. | PF | PA | Jacksonville | 3 | 1 | 0 | .750 | 104 | 53 | Indianapolis | 2 | 2 | 0 | .500 | 102 | 104 | Tennessee | 0 | 4 | 0 | .000 | 55 | 83 | Houston | 0 | 4 | 0 | .000 | 84 | 109 | East | W | L | T | Pct. | PF | PA | Buffalo | 3 | 1 | 0 | .750 | 127 | 107 | New England | 2 | 2 | 0 | .500 | 65 | 77 | N.Y. Jets | 1 | 3 | 0 | .250 | 76 | 84 | Miami | 0 | 4 | 0 | .000 | 46 | 101 | ---

WEEK 4

MONDAY'S RESULT

Atlanta 45, New Orleans 24

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WEEK 5

THURSDAY'S GAME Tampa Bay at Dallas, 5:15 p.m.

---

SUNDAY'S GAMES

Denver at CHARGERS, 1:05 p.m.

Philadelphia vs Jacksonville at London, 6:30 a.m.

Chicago at Green Bay, 10 a.m.

Cincinnati at Miami, 10 a.m.

Cleveland at N.Y. Jets, 10 a.m.

Houston at Tennessee, 10 a.m.

Indianapolis at Pittsburgh, 10 a.m.

Las Vegas at New England, 10 a.m.

Minnesota at New Orleans, 10 a.m.

N.Y. Giants at Washington, 10 a.m.

Detroit at Arizona, 1:25 p.m.

San Francisco at Seattle, 1:25 p.m.

Baltimore at Atlanta, 5:20 p.m.

MONDAY'S GAME

Buffalo at RAMS, 5:15 p.m.

Open: Kansas City, Carolina

Former Dodgers GM helped build '88 title team

'HE BELIEVED IN ALL OF US'

VINCE COMPAGNONE Los Angeles Times

Dodgers executive Fred Claire was an unconventional choice to head the front office but he loved baseball and showed savvy in building the 1988 club forever remembered by Kirk Gibson's walk-off homer.

Ex-sportswriter made shrewd moves to set up magical run and was key to marketing.

By Mike DiGiovanna

Fred Claire was an unorthodox choice for general manager, a former sportswriter and

public relations man who didn't play baseball beyond the junior varsity level in high school, and his 1987 promotion to head the Dodgers' front office was met with skepticism around the game.

A year and a half later, after his shrewd moves helped turn the Dodgers into World Series champions in 1988, Claire was named Major League Baseball's executive of the year by the Sporting News.

Claire, who spent 30 years in the Dodgers' front office, died Monday on his 91st birthday. The Dodgers shared the news Tuesday morning.

An avid runner and golfer fit and trim enough to pass for a man a decade younger, the silver-haired Claire was diagnosed with squamous cell carcinoma in 2015 when what looked like a harmless spot on his lip turned out to be cancerous.

The growth was surgically removed, but the cancer returned in August 2016, and spread into the left side of his face. Claire underwent radiation and chemotherapy treatments to kill the malignant cells in his body, but the cancer returned again in 2017.

An immunotherapy clinical trial saved his life, according to a story in Pasadenanow.com, but then an infection forced him to undergo even more extensive facial reconstruction surgery at City of Hope in Duarte, replacing his jawbone with a bone from his leg.

Claire was so impressed with his treatment at City of Hope that he teamed with author Tim Madigan in 2021 to publish a book chronicling his career and capturing the hospital's history as well as the stories of patients and doctors. The book, "Extra Innings," can be purchased at Amazon, with all net proceeds donated to City of Hope.

"The main thing that I liked and appreciated about the book was people buying it because of their interest in baseball," Claire told the Desert Sun in 2021, "then to discover what a great place [City of Hope] is after reading it."

Claire was also active in helping fund research — he and his wife, Sheryl, set up a scholarship fund with the USC Keck School of Medicine for research in head and neck cancer.

Claire was born Oct. 5, 1935, in Jamestown, Ohio. His parents moved the family — Claire had a brother and a sister — to Torrance when Claire was a teenager. After graduating from Torrance High, Claire earned a degree in journalism from San José State in 1957 before taking his first newspaper job.

"I graduated on a Sunday afternoon," Claire told The Times in 1997, "and by Monday morning, I had a job at the Whittier Daily News."

Claire spent 11 years as a sportswriter and was covering the Dodgers for the Long Beach Press-Telegram in the spring of 1969 when a position opened in the team's public relations department.

Claire, who always long-ed to be involved in baseball, expressed interest in the job and was hired as a public relations assistant, remaining in the position until 1975, when he was promoted to vice president of public relations.

He was instrumental in creating the branding that came to be known as “Dodger Blue” and was directing the team’s marketing efforts when the Dodgers passed the 3-million mark in attendance for the first time. He also hired Ross Porter, a Dodgers broadcaster from 1977 to 2004.

In April 1987, then-Dodgers general manager Al Campanis was fired after making controversial and what many said were racist remarks about Black Americans on "Nightline," during which he told the show's host, Ted Koppel, that Black people may lack "some of the necessities" to be the field manager or GM of a major league baseball team.

Claire was then-Dodgers president Peter O'Malley's surprise choice to replace Campanis, and his hiring raised the eyebrows of his new peers, who saw Claire as an outsider with no background as a player, coach, manager or scout.

“I knew some people might say, what does this guy know about baseball, he covered it from behind a typewriter?” O'Malley said in 2017.

"But I knew Fred could do it. And he did it. He deserves a lot of credit for stepping in quickly, without advance notice, and doing a great job."

The Dodgers suffered their second straight losing season in 1987, but Claire made several offseason moves — acquiring outfielders Kirk Gibson and Mike Davis, shortstop Alfredo Griffin and pitchers Jay Howell and Jesse Orosco — that fortified the club.

The Dodgers, led by National League Cy Young Award-winning pitcher Orel Hershiser and most valuable player Gibson, won the National League West in 1988 and upset the 100-win New York Mets in the NL Championship Series.

The gimpy Gibson hit his memorable pinch-hit, walk-off homer off Oakland closer Dennis Eckersley in Game 1 of the World Series to push the Dodgers toward their fifth championship since moving from Brooklyn to Los Angeles in 1958.

Claire dealt a smallish and seemingly fragile pitcher named Pedro Martínez to Montreal for second baseman Delino DeShields in what turned out to be one of the game's most-lopsided trades. DeShields hit .241 in three years in Los Angeles, while Martinez went on to have a dominant 17-year career that earned him a 2015 Hall of Fame induction.

But during Claire's 11- year tenure as GM, the Dodgers won a World Series, two division titles, a wild-card berth and a first-place finish in the strike-shortened 1994 season.

Claire also changed the culture in the front office, hiring an analytics expert, holding regular conference calls with coaches and scouts and canvassing the clubhouse to talk with players about everything from their families to their on-field performance.

“Fred gave us that first edge of being progressive and aggressive,” Hershiser told The Times in 2017. Added former Dodgers utility man Mickey Hatcher: “Fred Claire was amazing. For a guy who was suddenly put into the limelight, he asked all the right questions, listened to everyone and believed in all of us.”

Claire was fired along with then-manager Bill Russell on June 21, 1998, five weeks after executives from Fox News Corp., which purchased the Dodgers earlier that year, engineered a blockbuster trade — deflating to many fans — of All-Star catcher Mike Piazza to the Florida Marlins without Claire's involvement.

After his departure from the Dodgers, Claire worked as a columnist and analyst for MLB.com, a radio show host, an instructor at USC and a consultant to companies involved with sports. He co-authored an autobiography, released in 2004, titled "Fred Claire: My 30 Years in Dodger Blue."

Claire is survived by his wife, Sheryl, and their three children, Jen, Jeff and Kim. | WED7 | THU8 | FRI9 | SAT10 | SUN11 | DODGERS | at Atlanta*3FS1 | ATLANTA*^5Fox | RAMS | NEXT: MONDAY VS. BUFFALO, 5:15 P.M., ESPN | CHARGERS | DENVER1:05CBS | TJNOS | at Vegas7ABTV | DOORS | EDMONTON7KCOP, Prime | at Winnipeg5KCOP, Prime | at Calgary7KCOP, Prime | GALAXY | at St. Louis4Apple TV | LAFLAFC | VANCOUVER7:30Apple TV | ANOS, OTI | NEXT: OCT. 17 AT DENVER, 5:45 P.M., ION | ANGEL CITY

LAKERS: Thursday vs. Sacramento (preseason), 7 p.m., SpecSN

CLIPPERS: Saturday vs. Toronto in Vancouver (preseason), 3:30 p.m.

\* NL Division Series ^ if necessary

Shade denotes home games. Times Pacific.

---

TODAY ON THE AIR | TIME | EVENT | TV; RADIO | BASEBALL: MLB PLAYOFFS | 1 p.m. | ALDS, Game 3, Cleveland at Chicago White Sox | TBS, TruTV, UniMas | 3 p.m. | NLDS, Game 4, Dodgers at Atlanta | FS1, FoxD; 570, 1020 | 5 p.m. | ALDS, Game 3, Tampa Bay at New York Yankees | TBS, TruTV, UniMas | 7 p.m. | NLDS, Game 4, Milwaukee at San Diego | FS1, FoxD | BASKETBALL: NBA PRESEASON | 4 p.m. | Minnesota vs. Indiana | NBA | 7 p.m. | Golden State at Portland | NBA | BASKETBALL: WNBA PLAYOFFS, SEMIFINALS | 4:30 p.m. | Game 2, New York at Atlanta | ESPN, ESPND | 6:30 p.m. | Game 2, Las Vegas at Golden State | NBCSN, Peacock | COLLEGE FOOTBALL | 4 p.m. | Jacksonville State at Kennesaw State | CBSSN | 4:30 p.m. | New Mexico State at Florida International | ESPN2 | COLLEGE SOCCER: MEN | 7 p.m. | Oregon State at California Baptist | ESPNU | COLLEGE VOLLEYBALL: WOMEN | 4 p.m. | Texas A&M at Oklahoma | SEC | 4 p.m. | Southern Methodist at Pittsburgh | ACC | GOLF | 8 p.m. | PGA, Baycurrent Classic, first round | Golf | 5 a.m. (Thurs.) | World Tour, Open de España, first round | Golf | HOCKEY | 4:30 p.m. | Pittsburgh at Washington | TNT | 7 p.m. | Edmonton at Ducks | KCOP, Prime Video | HORSE RACING | 10 a.m. | America's Day at the Races | FS2 | SOCCER | 8 a.m. | Canada, Inter Toronto vs. Quebec | FS2 | 4 p.m. | Canada, Forge vs. Pacific FC | FS2 | TENNIS | 9 p.m. | ATP (Shanghai), early rounds; WTA (Beijing) quarterfinals | Tennis | # Quiet influence of Claire rings loud

"Nightline."

[Plaschke, from B10] kind, disarmingly honest and eternally humble sort whose love for the Dodgers was perhaps best illustrated by the story of his most prized souvenir.

After the Dodgers clinched the 1988 World Series championship in a stunning victory over the heavily favored Oakland A's, catcher Rick Dempsey approached Claire in the champagne-soaked clubhouse. In Dempsey's back pocket was the game ball used by Orel Hershiser to strike out Tony Phillips for the game's final out.

Dempsey handed the ball to Claire in gratitude for the belief shown by the general manager in signing Dempsey and several other journeymen who helped lead the team to the title.

Claire quietly accepted the ball, took it home, put it on a shelf, but several years later realized it was needed elsewhere. At the time, the National Baseball Hall of Fame only had two final-out balls. Once again believing that the Dodgers were more important than himself, he donated his jewel to Cooperstown. The shelf remained empty.

“I just played one role in all this,” Claire told me several years ago. “In getting through our difficult times, I always believed in ‘We.’”

Referring to the Dodgers' 1987 season as a difficult time was an understatement.

In April, longtime general manager Al Campanis was fired for making racist remarks about Black Americans on the TV show,

Peter O'Malley, the Dodgers' president at the time, made the sudden and strange choice to replace Campanis with Claire, the team's public relations boss who had spent the first 11 years of his career as a sportswriter.

There was much criticism. There was overwhelming disbelief. But instead of apologizing for the promotion, Claire ran with it. One day after taking the job he cut popular pitcher Jerry Reuss and signed unemployed Mickey Hatcher and set the stunt man tone.

"I wanted some fire, and Mickey was the guy who could give us that," Claire told me. "I don't know if there were people who doubted me, but I never doubted myself. I knew I had the job for today, and I was going to make the most out of that day."

He slowly turned a stuffy and entitled team into a lean and scrappy one, and by the time he made the brilliant move of signing free agent Kirk Gibson in January 1988, the stage had been set.

Nine months later, it was only fitting that Gibson's famous walk-off homer against Dennis Eckersley of the A's in the World Series opener scored Mike Davis, who was also signed by Claire.

And the most valuable position player in that series? None other than the guy Claire signed first.

“Fred Claire was amazing,” Hatcher told me. “For a guy who was suddenly put into the limelight, he asked all the right questions,

listened to everyone, and believed in all of us."

It was this great belief in collaboration that burned Claire in 1993 when he traded seemingly frail pitcher Pedro Martínez for second baseman Delino DeShields on the advice of his medical staff.

Martínez, of course, became a Hall of Famer while Claire became saddled with the stain of one of the worst trades in Dodger history. The perception surely irked a man who was just following organizational advice, but Claire never backed down from his role in the deal.

"The facts have to be the facts, and those facts are, I traded Pedro," Claire told me.

Another trade ended his Dodger career, as he was fired by the new Fox ownership in 1998 when he publicly announced he had nothing to do with the horrible trade of Mike Piazza to the Florida Marlins.

That was Fred Claire personified, honest to the end, refusing to sacrifice his integrity, never surrendering his dignity.

Because he was too modest for acclaim and too quiet for headlines, Claire essentially disappeared from the Dodgers orbit for nearly two decades after his firing, instead focusing on teaching, consulting, and co-writing an autobiography entitled, “Fred Claire: My 30 Years in Dodger Blue.”

During this time he also became a touchstone for all Dodger alumni, as many former players contacted him daily for advice or help or just to remember the good old days. He never failed to answer a call, never turned down a request, seemingly every former Dodger knew his number and leaned on his goodness.

He was finally honored at Dodger Stadium in the summer of 2017 in an emotional ceremony that was long overdue. By then, he was heavily involved in the last great fight of his life, a battle against cancer that led him to become an important advocate and fundraiser for City of Hope.

In one of his final visits there last month, Claire didn't focus on his illness, but rather his room number. He was quite proud that it was 42f7, because Jackie Robinson was 42. Claire was with Robinson shortly before his death and constantly stressed the connection between the icon and his franchise.

In our final correspondence, on the day before he died, Claire texted me and several others with seven photos.

There were images of him with wife Sheryl, with Lasorda, with Dave Roberts, with several champagne-stained Dodgers in a celebratory clubhouse.

There was also a picture that did not contain him but spoke volumes about his character. It was a simple photo of a plaque bearing the No. 42 and accompanied by a quote.

"A life is not important except in the impact it has on other lives."

Jackie Robinson said it.

Fred Claire lived it.

SPORTS

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 7, 2026 :: LATIMES.COM/SPORTS

NL DIVISION SERIES :: GAME 3 | DODGERS 3, ATLANTA 1

DODGERS LEAD BEST-OF-FIVE SERIES, 2-1 | GAME 4: TODAY AT ATLANTA, 3 P.M. | TV: FS1

KEVIN C. Cox Getty Images

THEY'RE LONG FOR THIS

------------------------------------------------------

Kiké Hernández starts to trot following his two-run homer in the fourth inning, the second of two Dodger blasts off Braves ace Chris Sale in L.A.'s 3-1 win over Atlanta in Game 3 of the NLDS on Tuesday night. The Dodgers took a 2-1 series lead. For full coverage visit latimes.com/sports or our e-newspaper.

ERIC THAYER Los Angeles Times

EDWIN DÍAZ was solid down the regular-season stretch before appearing in Game 2 of the NLDS, above.

GOT TO HAND IT TO HIM

Díaz endured several setbacks to regain Dodgers' trust in postseason

By Maddie Lee

ATLANTA — When Edwin Díaz envisioned his first season with the Dodgers, it looked nothing like this. He was going to stay healthy all year, pitch like an All-Star. He certainly was going to throw in more than 21 regular-season appearances.

A slew of injuries, with mechanical problems layered on top, changed those plans. But everything resets in the postseason. And against the odds, the right-hander is back in the closer conversation.

"It means a lot," Díaz said in a conversation with The Times Monday.

“Because I was nowhere, basically this season. They gave me the last week and a half of the season to come and pitch. And I was ready every day.”

If he can keep pitching the way he has since returning from the injured list in September, it'll strengthen the Dodgers' chances at a three-peat. They went into the postseason with a closer-by-committee approach. But manager Dave Roberts said before the Dodgers' workout at Truist Park on Monday that they could get to a consistent closer by the end of the postseason.

"Certainly that last outing was as good as we've seen him throw, and it's hard to imagine throwing any better,"

Roberts said of Díaz's perfect inning against the Atlanta Braves Sunday, which included three fastballs over 100 mph. "We built him up, regained the confidence in himself. So, I think that it's certainly a viable option for [Tuesday] night. I feel very confident [with] him finishing a game."

Though his first postseason outing for the Dodgers was in the sixth inning of Game 2 of the National League Division Series, Díaz has been mainly in high leverage in his playoff career — he owns a 2.19 ERA in nine postseason appearances. The former Mets closer even recorded a four-out save at Dodger Stadium in Game 2 of the 2024 NL Champi- [See Dodgers, B8]

---

Voices BILL PLASCHKE COLUMNIST

Claire's enduring impact on Dodgers not to be forgotten

The Dodgers were spiraling. Their general manager had been fired for

racist comments. Their famous manager had loudly lost his touch.

They had not won a full-season championship in more than two decades. They were just a blip on a Los Angeles sports landscape dominated by Showtime.

The Dodgers were plunging into a purgatory of irrelevance from which seemingly nobody could save them.

A sportswriter saved them.

Fred Claire saved them.

Fred Claire saved them. The most forgotten hero in Dodger history stepped out of the shadows in 1987 as their instant general manager and created the miraculous monster that came to be in 1988.

Kirk Gibson's home run? He contrived it. Tommy Lasorda's Hall of Fame career? He enabled it. The infamous championship Stunt Men? He formed it.

The resuscitation of a Dodger brand during what was quite possibly its darkest moment? It all started with Fred Claire, the longtime Dodger executive who died Monday in his Pasadena home on his 91st birthday.

His quiet presence will forever be missed. His audacious impact should never be forgotten.

Claire was an endlessly [See Plaschke, B9]

Kirk McKoy Los Angeles Times

FRED CLAIRE, the longtime sportswriter who stepped up as the Dodgers' general manager in 1987 and led the legendary Stunt Men team to a 1988 World Series championship, has died at 91, B9.

PLAYOFFS EXTRA

A TIMES E-NEWSPAPER EXCLUSIVE :: WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 7, 2026

IA 3 A 1

NLDS

DODGERS LEAD, 2-1

W: YAMAMOTO

L: SALE

S: DÍAZ

GAME 4: AT ATLANTA

TODAY, 3 P.M. PDT; TV: FS1

KEVIN C. Cox Getty Images

YOSHINOBU YAMAMOTO prepares to pitch the fifth inning of his masterful one-run, 10-strikeout performance to outduel Braves counterpart Chris Sale in Game 3.

GOT THE UPPER HAND

Freeman and Kiké Hernández homer and Yamamoto dazzles as Dodgers take a 2-1 lead

BRYNN ANDERSON Associated Press

ANDY PAGES, left, and Freddie Freeman, right, get fired up with Kiké Hernández as the utility man enjoys his homer for the Dodgers, whose 10 runs in the NLDS are all via long ball.

BY MADDIE LEE

ATLANTA — The Dodgers went into Game 3 of the National League Division Series knowing they couldn't be so reliant on the home run, especially with Braves ace Chris Sale on the mound. And yet, in a 3-1 win, it was the home run ball, paired with a masterful performance on the mound from right-hander Yoshinobu Yamamoto, that secured the victory.

The Dodgers pulled ahead to a 2-1 series lead. All 10 of their runs in the NLDS have come via home run.

The Dodgers tried to score in other ways, putting on six baserunners in the first three innings of the game. But it didn't work.

They failed to take advantage of some luck and poor defense from the Braves in the first inning, as Mookie Betts beat out a soft groundball up the first base line and Teoscar Hernández reached on a fielding error by Braves shortstop Ha-Seong Kim.

The lineup shuffling manager Dave Roberts did against Sale had superstar Shohei Ohtani, batting fifth, walking up to the plate with two outs and runners on first and second. His over-anxious approach at the plate so far this postseason followed him into the at-bat. And he struck out whiffing on a slider in the opposite batter's box.

The next inning, Kyle Tucker hit a two-out single into left, baited Sale into picking over to first base twice, and then stole second. But he was stranded there, as Kiké Hernández went down swinging.

All six of the Dodgers' outs in the first two innings came via the strikeout.

In the third, the Dodgers loaded the bases. Betts started the effort with a single through the left side of the infield. And it looked for a moment as if Freddie Freeman had capitalized on the opportunity with a runner in scoring position.

He stayed back on a fastball and crushed it to deep left field, on a trajectory to just clear the short fence. But Braves left fielder Mauricio Dubón made a leaping catch, holding into the ball as he slammed into the wall.

Undeterred, the Dodgers kept putting runners on base. With two outs, Will Smith stayed through a slider to single. Ohtani clipped Braves catcher Drake Baldwin's mitt and was awarded first base for catcher's interference. Then

Miguel Rojas, who'd exit the game in the eighth inning mid-at-bat with what the Dodgers called low back pain, hit a line drive that found leather to end the inning.

So, back to the long ball.

Perennial postseason hero Kiké Hernández delivered the first blow. With Andy Pages on first, after his first hit of the series, Hernández launched a changeup into the left-field stands. Then, two batters later, Freeman turned on an inside sinker and sent it over the right-field fence — where Dubón had no chance to track it down.

Game 3 was billed as a matchup between aces: Sale, whom the Braves tabbed for Tuesday because of his workload in their wildcard series, and Yamamoto, whom the Dodgers partially held back for the first two games with the NLCS in mind.

Yamamoto held up his end of the bargain, limiting the Braves to four hits and one run in seven innings.

He retired 10 of the first 11 batters he faced. The only baserunner in that time, Michael Harris II, bunted for a single. Yamamoto crashed hard, slipping on the slick grass as he tried to pivot but still managing to make a throw to first from the ground.

He only wavered in the fifth, loading the bases with a pair of singles and a four-pitch walk. The Braves' batting order turned over, and Yamamoto got Baldwin to ground out to first, but that scored a run. Then he induced Ronald Acuña Jr. to ground out to second to escape the jam. Rojas ranged to his left to field the ball and made an on-target throw even as he slipped on the grass in shallow right field.

Yamamoto didn't allow another baserunner.

Left-handed reliever Tanner Scott served as the Dodgers' setup man, throwing a hitless eighth. And right-hander Edwin Díaz came in for his first save opportunity since Aug. 14.

He gave up a double off the wall to Ozzie Albies to open the inning but retired the next three batters.

NLDS GAME 3: DODGERS 3, ATLANTA 1

YOSHINOBU YAMAMOTO, pitching during the first inning of the Dodgers' 3-1 Game 3 victory Tuesday, limited the Braves to four hits and one run in seven innings.

EDWARD M. PIO RODA Getty Images

KEVIN C. COX Getty Images

CHRIS SALE, starting pitcher for Atlanta, tries for a catch at first base in the first inning. The Dodgers pulled ahead in the series 2-1.

EDWARD M. PIO RODA Getty Images

OZZIE ALBIES of the Braves throws to first base on a fielder's choice against the Dodgers' Shohei Ohtani during the eighth inning.

KEVIN C. Cox Getty Images

EDWIN DÍAZ celebrates after closing out L.A.'s win in the best-of-five series. The right-handed pitcher came in for his first save opportunity since Aug. 14.

EDWARD M. PIO RODA Getty Images

FREDDIE FREEMAN hits a home run during the fourth inning at Truist Park. All 10 of the Dodgers' runs in the National League Division Series have come from home runs.

MAURICIO DUBÓN climbs the wall to catch a deep fly ball by Freddie Freeman in the third inning, holding off the Dodgers, who had a runner on first base.

MIKE STEWART Associated Press

Los Angeles Times SPORTS EXTRA

A TIMES E-NEWSPAPER EXCLUSIVE :: WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 7, 2026

MARK J. TERRILL Associated Press

PANTHERS center Sam Bennett, left, and Kings center Scott Laughton vie for the puck at Crypto.com Arena. L.A.'s 2-1 loss made it 0-2-1 under Peter Laviolette.

Kings drop home opener and stay winless

STAFF AND WIRE REPORTS

Before the first home game of their upcoming 60th anniversary year Tuesday, the Kings honored their past by unveiling a modest Hall of Fame on the concourse of Crypto.com Arena.

An hour later, this season's Kings took the ice and made some history of its own, though not the kind it had hoped for, falling to the Florida Panthers 2-1 to open a season with three consecutive losses for the first time since 2020.

For Peter Laviolette, the history was even more unwanted since the team's 0-2-1 start makes him the first Kings coach to go winless in his first three games since Robbie Ftorek in 1987.

Laviolette was a 23-year-old defenseman with the U.S. national team then. He would go on to win 934 NHL games as a coach, the most ever for an American, but he has yet to add to that total with the Kings. It didn't help that two of the first three games with his new franchise came against Colorado and Florida, popular picks to finish the season in the Stanley Cup Final.

The Kings took the lead before the first intermission Tuesday when Alex Laferriere pounced on the rebound of an Erik Haula shot and put it into the back of the net for his first goal of the season.

Florida took a pair of penalties before the period ended, giving the Kings a two-man advantage and a chance to add to their lead.

But they managed to do nothing on the power play and immediately gave up a goal after it when Florida defenseman Seth Jones scored off a rush 3:49 into the second period.

The play started with Lars Eller blocking a shot from Brandt Clarke between the circles in the Kings' end. Eller immediately took the puck and headed the other way, slipping a pass to Jones after crossing the blue line. Jones did the rest, outracing Artemi Panarin to the edge of the crease before beating Kings goaltender Darcy Kuemper.

Florida, playing for the second time without injured captain Aleksander Barkov, who is out six to eight weeks with a lower-body injury, suffered another massive loss when Brad Marchand skated into the right post after taking a high stick from Clarke with 52 seconds left in the second period.

Marchand's left knee appeared to bend awkwardly when he hit the post and he had to be helped off the ice and to the locker room. He did not come back — nor did the Kings, with Matthew Tkachuk turning a Clarke giveaway at center ice into the go-ahead goal with 8:40 remaining.

Clarke was just inside the Panthers' end when he lost the puck to Tkachuk, who sent it along for Sam

Bennett. Bennett skated into the slot, then fed the onrushing Tkachuk, whose shot from the middle of the left circle trickled through Kuemper's pads.

When Laviolette joined the team in June, he became the Kings' fourth coach in 28 months. He has been tasked with reorienting the team, moving away from its conservative defensive-first approach to an aggressive attacking style, with defensemen often joining the rush.

So far, it has yielded mixed results. Although the Kings, one of the lowest-scoring teams in the NHL last season, are still looking for a win, they've scored nine goals in three games and they've gotten seven points from their defensemen.

But they've struggled on special teams, scoring just twice on 12 power plays. They'll go for their first win Saturday at Vegas.

—KEVIN BAXTER

Red Wings' Larkin

scores in season debut

Dylan Larkin played for the Detroit Red Wings on Tuesday for the first time since asking for a trade, scored 13 minutes in, had an assist and was named the first star of the game for his role in beating Ottawa.

Larkin was cheered by the same crowd that booed him when he touched the puck on his first shift. Larkin was slow to get back defensively, and Ottawa's Tim Stutzle scored off the rush.

He made up for it by putting the puck in to give the Red Wings the lead later in the first period.

More applause followed when he was announced as the first star afterward, with the polar-opposite reactions creating a new chapter in one of the most bizarre ongoing stories in hockey.

"I'm trying to be a man and face it," Larkin said. "I'm going to try to show up with my play."

Thiero shooting for bigger role as Lakers lose to the Warriors

body).

STAFF AND WIRE REPORTS

This was never going to be a game for the Lakers to remember. But with nearly half of the roster sidelined because of injuries or rest, Adou Thiero at least tried to inject some life into a sleepy pre-season back-to-back finale.

Thiero's towering one-handed dunk over two Golden State defenders provided a highlight in the Lakers' 124-98 preseason loss to the Warriors at Chase Center on Tuesday. The Lakers leaned on their depth to get through their second shorthanded preseason game in as many nights.

Guard Quentin Grimes, the only player starting a second consecutive game for the Lakers, had 12 points and three assists. Forward Sandro Mamukelashvili started at center and had 15 points and a trio of three-pointers. Thiero, getting a rare starting moment, scored seven points and grabbed four rebounds while Bronny James had four points and five assists in a starting role.

Luka Doncic, Ziaire Williams and Matisse Thybulle watched from the sideline Tuesday. The Lakers were also without center Walker Kessler (finger), guards Austin Reaves (ankle) and Collin Sexton (lower body) and two-way forward Arthur Kaluma (lower

Second-year forward Thiero is trying to take advantage of his first true NBA preseason after knee injuries marred his rookie season. He played in his first summer league games, showing incremental progress during games in San Francisco and Las Vegas.

Thiero started the summer moving too quickly through games, but as the summer progressed, he settled into the pace of the game. During a Las Vegas Summer League game, Thiero flashed his potential with 20 points, four rebounds, four assists, three steals and two blocks with zero turnovers in 30 minutes.

"I feel like that just came with playing more, and just understanding what I was supposed to do, understanding my role," Thiero said this week of his progress during the summer.

JEFF CHIU Associated Press

FORWARD Jake LaRavia, right, dives for the ball next to Warriors forward Yaxel Lendeborg Tuesday night. In their second of back-to-back preseason games, the Lakers lost 124-98 to Golden State.

Thiero is fighting for minutes in a deep wing group led by Williams and Thybulle. Thiero, whom Reaves described as “a freak-of-nature” athlete, could add a unique quality to the rotation.

"Our ceiling rises if he's able to [contribute defensively] and be an impactful offensive player with crashing, with cutting, with touching the paint, playing off two feet," coach JJ Redick said before Monday's preseason game.

THUC NHI NGUYEN

MLB PLAYOFFS Padres beat Brewers to force a Game 4

Jake Cronenworth hit a tiebreaking homer, Game 1 starter Michael King pitched the final two innings and the San Diego Padres avoided playoff elimination with a 4-3 victory over the Milwaukee Brewers in Game 3 of their National League Division Series.

Xander Bogaerts turned a game-ending double play at short-stop for the Padres, who trimmed Milwaukee's lead in the best-of-five series to 2-1 with a tense, back-and-forth victory over the MLB-best Brewers.

Game 4 is Wednesday night at Petco Park. If necessary, Game 5 will be back in Milwaukee Friday.

Fernando Tatis Jr. and Manny Machado drove in early runs for the Padres, but their bullpen didn't have star closer Mason Miller, who went on the paternity list about 45 minutes before the first pitch. King stepped up after pitching five innings just two days ago and finished it off.

King retired four of his first five batters, but William Contreras and Brice Turang drew one-out walks in the ninth. Christian Yelich then cracked a line drive up the middle, but Bogaerts went down to his knees to field it on a short hop and scampered to touch second before throwing out Yelich at first to end it.

King earned his first save since 2023, his first in the postseason and his first for the Padres.

Contreras homered and had three hits for the Brewers, who lost their 12th consecutive postseason road game in a streak dating to the 2018 NL Championship Series.

Yelich even got his first playoff RBI since 2018 with a seventh-inning single, but Milwaukee fell behind early and never led, leaving 11 runners on base.

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L.A. OPERA commissioned Cuban-born artist Enrique Martínez Celaya to design its first new curtain in 63 years, which was hand-painted and measures 70 feet wide.

CARLIN STIEHL For The Times

Metal meets Sphere mettle

The Vegas venue goes toe-to-toe with brute force of Metallica for band's new residency.

By August Brown

LAS VEGAS — Metallica had a tender moment at Sphere on Thursday, just after a wretched sea monster mangled the Las Vegas skyline.

On the opening night of its "Life Burns Faster" stand, Metallica had a 16K-resolution arsenal to match the bombast of its music. While the quartet — the first metal band to perform at Sphere — tore through the instrumental deep cut "The Call of Ktulu," that drippy leviathan swatted at life-size fighter jets on the screen.

When the leathery beast slunk off, singer James Hetfield dedicated the track to the band's former bassist, who died in a tour bus crash in 1986. "In honor of our fallen brother, Mr. Clifford Lee Burton," Hetfield said to a bellowing crowd. "We love you, and we miss you, brother."

Metallica, the biggest band in metal, thrives in that tension among the genre's outrageous grandeur, grimy nihilism and outlaw camaraderie. At "Life Burns Faster," a series of two-night engagements that stretches into March next year, they stayed fleshy and ferocious as a

[See Metallica, E2]

Sass Jordan, rock star, dies

The award-winning singer served as a judge on every season of “Canadian Idol.” She was 65. E3

Brothers help keep jazz alive

Aaron and Lawrence Shaw, the duo Black Nile, are rewriting L.A.'s jazz story for a new generation. E6

Comics ....E4-5

Puzzles ....E5

L.A. OPERA HAS A NEW RISING STAR

---

A boldly redesigned curtain will take center stage at Dorothy Chandler Pavilion during the 2026-27 season

BY JORDAN RIEFE

When the curtain rises on L.A. Opera's new season at Dorothy Chandler Pavilion later this month, it won't feature the usual starburst pattern that has greeted fans for the

last 63 years. That curtain has been swapped out for something entirely new: a design titled “The Things We Know,” featuring a pensive-looking boy and girl beneath a halo of light. The boy holds a caged bird; the girl, a fish tank. Both are outlined in black on an off-white background.

The 70-foot-wide curtain painstakingly created by L.A. artist Enrique Martínez Celaya is a surprising choice for a major opera house where one would expect a pattern or imagery related to storytelling. A bold and offbeat move, it draws upon notions of art and its place in the human psyche.

“I wanted an image that would not be related to any opera,” Martínez Celaya said during a preview of the curtain when it was still a work in progress. “I’m interested in both the coming-of-age aspect of these children and also the containment of these birds and these fish, and the children in relation to that containment.”

Martínez Celaya added that he is particularly intrigued with the gray zone where “childhood ceases to be, and adulthood hasn’t come yet.”

Another world is depicted beneath the children—one that won't be seen until four minutes before conductor Domingo Hindoyan raises his baton and the curtain begins to rise. Its unfurling will reveal an image of the cosmos overlain with blooming flowers and splintered prisms emanating rainbows.

“It’s this containment here that then just breaks apart and opens up,” said Martínez Celaya. “What you’re going to have here is actually a performative aspect to the work. But as it moves up, you try to hold on to that which is disappearing, and you cannot have both of these things at once. So that trade-off makes the movement of the curtain fundamental to the experience.”

A discussion about collaborating on a project between Martínez Celaya and L.A. Opera Chief Executive Christopher Koelsch began about 10 years ago, after Koelsch first encountered Martínez Celaya's work at an L.A. Louver fundraiser.

“It was very clear from that conversation that this was someone who had thought pretty deeply about music, but also about how to translate that through art in public spaces,” Koelsch said of their early conversations.

On a longtime quest to democratize opera, Koelsch invited Martínez Celaya to the Chandler for a walk-through. "The idea of a really big public art project, and using the theater itself as the gallery/canvas, has been one that I've had forever," Koelsch said. "I've been trying for many years to figure out a way to triangulate the commercial interests of the for-profit world and the nonprofit world by inviting artists into a regular dialogue with the company."

Koelsch provided no real parameters for Martínez Celaya, stipulating only that he wanted a “radically large-scale painting.” The point was to come up with something that was emblematic of the city, a piece that would reflect L.A.’s wellspring of creativity in the contemporary art world. [See Curtain, E6]

BY DARRYN KING

One of Craig Bartlett's profoundest childhood memories involves a despondent turtle.

The creative team talks about what set Nickelodeon's offbeat animated series apart.

'Hey Arnold!' a friendly face 30 years later

‘Lanterns’ co-creators share insights into the DC Comics-based show’s season finale.

By Tracy Brown

JOHN JOHNSON HBO Max

How this hero rose to the occasion

This story contains spoilers for Episode 8 of HBO Max's "Lanterns."

In a pet store hidden away in Seattle's Chinatown, he and his friend Joan came across one in a murky little tank. They took pity on it, bought it and took it home to Portland, Ore. It didn't come out of its shell for two weeks.

From the very first time Tom King and DC Studios' James Gunn ever talked about a Green Lantern show, they envisioned John Stewart as the kind of hero who could generate excitement and change the tide of any battle upon his arrival.

JOHN JOHNSON HBO Max

JOHN (Aaron Pierre)

wears a powerful ring.

They knew what they had to do. They took the turtle to Square Lake, on Sauvie Island, and laid the turtle down on the shore. The cre-

"The idea was to build a character as compelling and [See 'Lanterns,' E3]

HELGA, Gerald and Arnold in Nickelodeon's 2002 "Hey Arnold! The Movie."

Nickelodeon

ature's head emerged from its shell to consider its new circumstances. Slowly but surely, it eased its way into the water and swam away. "We were jumping up and down with a kind of weird joy," Bartlett remembers.

Much later, when Bartlett was creating his own animated series, he knew that the poetry of that moment, the strange cinematic magic of it, was something he wanted to tap into.

Thirty years ago, on Oct. 7, 1996, “Hey Arnold!” premiered on the kids’ cable network Nickelodeon. With its offbeat, lyrical, sometimes painfully honest portrayal of the feeling of childhood in the city, it quickly set itself apart as a new kind of kids’ show, attracting a dedi-[See Cartoon, E2]

REGGIE

McFADDEN,

1968 – 2026

Comic on ‘In Living Color,’ sitcoms

He did stand-up on 'Def Comedy Jam' and David Letterman's late-night show.

BY DEBORAH DAY

R eggie McFadden, "Def Comedy Jam" comic and "In Living Color" cast member, has

died in Tanzania. He was 57.

“I was very sad to learn that my brother had passed away so far away from home,” his sister, “The Book of Harlan” author Bernice L. McFadden, told The Times. “Our mother is taking it particularly hard, as are his children and other siblings. Reggie was estranged from the family. The last time we saw him was in 2007. We were aware that he was living in Tanzania but knew very little about his life there.”

The State Department notified the family of Reggie's death, but did not provide a cause of death, Bernice said. The family is waiting on details.

Reggie was born in Brooklyn on Nov. 30, 1968. He described some of his early life to The Times in August 1996.

“Before I started doing comedy, I would go on what I would call adventures. I would hang out with somebody I didn't know or I would go into an abandoned building. I would get on the train and get off at the last stop and walk around the neighborhood and meet people. When you do that, you learn things,” he said.

He also described realizing a longtime dream of appearing on “The Late Show With David Letterman,” saying, “I had auditioned for his show 12 times. I’ve been waiting a long time to get on his show.” He appeared on the show twice more: in 1998 and 2003.

After performing stand-up around New York, he appeared on HBO's "Def Comedy Jam" — The Times reviewer David Kronke called his 1993 performance "the evening's funniest, edgiest set" — and moved to Los Angeles.

A string of television appearances followed, including on “Martin,” “Hanging With Mr. Cooper,” and “Coach.”

He appeared as a cast member on one season of the '90s sketch comedy show "In Living Color," with guest appearances on series like "Moesha," "Gun," "Getting Personal" and "Curb Your Enthusiasm." He also appeared in the Adam Sandler-starring film "Little Nicky."

His acting and other televised appearances stopped around 2005, according to his IMDb profile. He then lived in Tanzania for around 18 years.

“I think Reggie thought the world had forgotten about him,” his sister told The Times, “so it’s heart-warming to see the outpouring of love, sympathy and remembrances. I’m sure he is smiling from the otherside.”

JOHNNY NUNEZ WireImage

COMEDIAN

McFadden had a number of TV guest roles before moving to Tanzania.

METALLICA'S "Life Burns Faster" stand at the Sphere will stretch into March.

JEFF YEAGER

Why the offbeat ‘Hey Arnold!’ still resonates

"HEY Arnold!" premiered in 1996 and unlike other animated series of the time was set in the inner city.

Nickelodeon

[Cartoon, from E1] cated fandom that endures to this day.

---

Like an urban 'Little Rascals'

Arnold was a 9-year-old boy with an elongated ovoid head who enjoyed listening to jazz fusion under the skylight of his attic bedroom. According to Bartlett's show bible, he was "philosophical, idealistic, romantic and hard to rile." His best friend was Gerald. He was, in short, a chill little dude.

Bartlett had created the character almost a decade earlier, after a stint producing claymation segments for "Pee-wee's Playhouse." Back then, one of the cookie cutters that Bartlett used to cut shapes out of clay happened to be shaped like a football; from the work of his brother-in-law, Matt Groening, he'd also observed the importance of a striking silhouette. The result, in Bartlett's short claymation films, which played the animation festival circuit and appeared on "Sesame Street," was a daydreamer with a football-shaped head.

In 1993, Nickelodeon was looking to expand its original animation lineup. Toward the end of a long, fruitless pitch meeting with a gaggle of writer-animators, Nickelodeon executive Mary Harrington put on Bartlett's show reel. She was taken with Arnold right away, and intrigued by Bartlett's visual style and imagination.

"I liked the way it looked," she said simply. "I liked the quirkiness of it."

Bartlett developed the show with Steve Viksten and Joseph Ansolabehere. The trio had previously worked together on Nickelodeon's "Rugrats" — Bartlett as a story editor, Viksten and Ansolabehere as writers. (One of Bartlett's contributions to "Rugrats" was Angelica's stoic, wild-haired doll Cynthia.)

Instead of the suburban setting common to so many cartoons — including Nickelodeon's "Doug" — "Hey Arnold!" was set firmly in the inner city, a vibrantly gritty amalgam of Seattle, Portland and Brooklyn. As part of his preparations for the series, Bartlett went on a photo-taking expedition through Seattle and Tacoma, collecting imagery of Pacific Northwest grunge to share with his artists: crumbling walls, fire escapes, water towers.

As for Arnold, he lived with his grandparents in an old boarding house under a freeway overpass. The show's diverse cast also represented what Bartlett called the "multiethnic gumbo" of American cities. The urban aesthetic was augmented with a bluesy, funky score by composer Jim Lang, inspired by Thelonious Monk, Vince Guaraldi and Beck.

There were fantastical elements, but what set “Hey Arnold!” apart was how invested it was in depicting what life is like for a fourth-grader. The writers had in mind the intimacy of character-driven cinema of the '70s and the French New Wave; “The Little Rascals” was as much of an influence as “The 400 Blows” and “My Life as a Dog.” Ansolabehere and Viksten, who had attended UCLA and tried for years to break into Hollywood, would channel their cinematic storytelling instincts into the show.

Bartlett purposely wanted to steer away from the wacky “Looney Tunes” antics of cartoons like “Animaniacs.” Instead, the melancholy and ennui of “A Charlie Brown Christmas,” which had captivated Bartlett as a 6-year-old, would be a major touchstone.

“That was our real rebellion,” Bartlett said, “to make it not a gag show but more kind of moody.”

That stylistic rebellion extended to Arnold as well. "Arnold wasn't your typical type-A personality lead character," Harrington said. "He was quieter, he was thoughtful, he was really smart, more creative. But we thought kids could relate to him."

Writing meetings rev-

volved around discussion

of childhood memories

and experiences. “Hey Ar-

nold!” built on the narrative

foundation the group had

established on their previ-

ous show.

“‘Rugrats’ opened up to us this idea that you could actually make a show about humans, about the human experience and about childhood,” Ansolabehere said. “The episodes I was proudest of were where you dug something out from inside of your history and your heart.”

Apart from the turtle story, which made it into the episode “Field Trip,” very few of Arnold’s adventures were directly borrowed from Bartlett’s life. Instead, “it was about capturing a feeling,” he said.

---

Where no cartoon had gone before

Thematically, too, there was a determination to venture into more adult territory than any kids' cartoon had previously. The show was frank in its portrayal of, among other subjects, social isolation, economic disparity, the immigrant experience and unconventional families. In "Arnold's Christmas," one of the most celebrated and audacious episodes of the show, Mr. Hyunh, a Vietnamese immigrant and resident of Arnold's boarding house, tells the story of being separated from his daughter Mai during the Vietnam War. In the episode "Helga on the Couch," Helga's emotionally neglectful household was on poignant display.

The commitment to authenticity extended to the show's voice cast, which was made up of child actors. This meant that a succession of actors played Arnold over the years, until their voices changed with the onset of puberty. Spencer Klein, who voiced Arnold in Episodes 61 to 100 and in the first movie in 2002, had the strange experience of joining a show he was already a fan of. "It was a special show," he said. "It was a show you could really learn valuable life lessons from."

Klein remembers that the actors recorded in the same room together, allowing them to interact more naturally. “Usually a number of the animators were there too,” he said. “They’d have sketch pads, and we were encouraged to be physically animated when delivering our lines. The animators would incorporate some of the physical aspects of our line deliveries into the animation.”

In a deft bit of narrative maneuvering, Gerald's voice breaking was written into the show; Jamil Walker Smith played the character for all five seasons and one movie. Similarly, Francesca Marie Smith voiced Helga G. Pataki for the entirety of "Hey Arnold!" and up to "The Jungle Movie" in 2017.

Conceived as a relentless bully of Arnold, Helga was one of the richer, more complex characters to come out of a kids' cartoon in its or any era. At first, Ansolabehere said, the writers struggled with her motivation. They didn't want a repeat of Angelica, the cackling 3-year-old schemer of "Rugrats." Why did she pick on Arnold?

In Ansolabehere's memory, Bartlett's then-wife, Lisa, overheard the writers' deliberations and casually suggested, "Maybe she's in love with Arnold."

"It was like a light bulb went off," said Ansolabehere. "We were like, that's it. That's young love. When we don't know what to do with it." In minutes, Bartlett had sketched the makeshift shrine that Helga builds for Arnold in her closet. Helga's unrequited love for Arnold became one of the driving forces of the show. "She was a sort of villain who you related to and rooted for," said writer Rachel Lipman, who joined the show as the first season was coming together. "However much she tortured Arnold, she was far more tormented herself on the inside. She also had this unending internal conflict — she really didn't want to be in love with Arnold ... but she just couldn't fight the feeling. I hadn't seen a show where the unrequited love this girl felt for a boy got to be explored to such deep levels."

It didn't hurt that Smith gave the performance of a lifetime, putting her heart and soul into the melodramatic contradictions of the character, antagonizing Arnold one second and swooning over him the next.

Smith's firecracker performance inspired the writers to give Helga even more to do.

Smith remembers, even as an 8-year-old, feeling very strongly that she didn't want to sit down while recording. "It was important to me to get the full power of my voice, the physicality of it," she said. "I certainly remember that after a couple hours of recording, I would just absolutely crash. It's amazing to me today how much energy I poured into that microphone."

In 2024, Smith revealed that she was living with the debilitating effects of multiple sclerosis. After a major relapse, and at Bartlett's urging, she set up an online fundraiser to ease the financial strain of medical treatment. The page was shared widely among "Hey Arnold!" fans; Bartlett also helped raise funds by auctioning off original "Hey Arnold!" cels and hand-painted backgrounds.

It was an indication of the warm and tender feelings viewers still had for Helga and “Hey Arnold!” that Smith’s funding goal was surpassed in a matter of days. “No one is stronger than Helga G. Pataki,” one Reddit user wrote.

"It made such a real impact," said Smith, emotional at the memory of it. "I'm so grateful."

---

Still groovin' after all these years

The fandom for “Hey Arnold!” hasn’t wavered and remains as strong as ever three decades later. There have been 10 vinyl pressings of “Hey Arnold!” music tracks since 2020. More recently, the show’s composer Jim Lang and his group, the PS 118 All Stars, announced a string of concert dates, playing music from the show around the country, with Bartlett as a special guest vocalist.

Bartlett has also been approached by Paramount Global Publishing to write a novel version of his Helga spinoff idea “The Patakis” and is currently in talks about a “Hey Arnold!” graphic novel.

The concerts are a great showcase of Lang's groovy, down-tempo tunes — “Hey Arnold!” undoubtedly turned a bunch of young viewers onto jazz — but they're also a chance for millennial fans to bask in their memories.

Juan Escalante, who attended a concert in August, was transported right back to his childhood bedroom in Venezuela, “when I wished I had a cool room like Arnold’s!”

“‘Hey Arnold!’ felt like a kids’ show that allowed kids to see themselves,” he said, “and their imaginations reflected back at them.”

Metallica starts Vegas residency

[Metallica, from E1] band beneath the digital carnage.

Metal, even when siloed off from broader music culture, has always been a commercial powerhouse. Metallica remains its flagship live act. In 2023 alone, they closed out the all-star Power Trip festival at the Empire Polo Grounds in Indio, and still played two in-the-round nights at SoFi Stadium.

They've been enormous for generations, and made no bones about their ambitions. The band's ongoing "M72" tour is hovering around the 10 highest-grossing tours ever. So it was only a matter of time before the band — Hetfield, guitarist Kirk Hammett, bassist Robert Trujillo and drummer Lars Ulrich — got curious about the rare venue that could go toe-to-toe with them for sheer firepower. (Onstage and at the box office, Metallica knows counterculture can be both sincere and lucrative).

“We’re grateful you’ve taken the time, energy and the cash” to attend opening weekend, Hetfield said on-stage Saturday. Nice of him to acknowledge the table stakes.

By day, there was much charm in seeing nearly 20,000 metal fans swarming the Vegas Strip in Metallica gear, flying in with buddies, spouses, kids and grandkids, no matter the four-figure tickets and obligatory crates of merch. (The old adage that metal fans are nice people pretending to be mean held up). On Sphere's escalators, gray-bearded lifers hugged in shredded battle jackets; tween girls in "Master of Puppets" hoodies drummed along to every fill; accents came from Europe, Latin America and all the world over. My cab driver effusively recounted sneaking in to see Metallica at Ruthie's Inn in Berkeley in 1983.

Classic rock and jam bands such as the Eagles and Dead & Co. largely use Sphere's A/V capabilities as a psychedelic background to stately tunes. Metallica is larger-than-life as is — they need little more than a Het-field snarl or a Hammett solo to feel tectonic. On Thursday and Saturday nights, they were nasty and resonant as a live band, even beneath 160,000 square feet of LED mayhem.

Metallica has one of the deepest catalogs and intensely attached fandoms in rock. Sequencing the first Sphere shows would be a global statement, and the band played stellar ones on Thursday and Saturday. From the howitzer of opener "Battery" through the white-knuckle turns of "Creeping Death," they knew they were still playing to the faithful, albeit in a whole new sort of arena.

As with all Sphere acts, that visual wattage can absolutely grip you, or it can feel like using a flamethrower to grill. (I texted some “Ktulu” footage to a serious metalhead friend, who replied “Lol,” then “Sick,” which seemed apt).

Some backdrops were creepy set dressing, while others had tactile brutality — Sphere often had the rumble-seat effect blaring. Metallica locked into the martial imagery around “The Shortest Straw,” “Sad But True” and the MTV-era hit “The Memory Remains.” “Wherever I May Roam” used gulp-inducing hairpin turns, and fans flinched when the statue from “...And Justice For All” collapsed in pieces (an apropos image,

these days!).

While the band surely didn't intend this coincidence, for anyone watching the Christa Pike saga, it was surreal to hear Hetfield scream, "Death in the air, strapped in the electric chair / This can't be happening to me" on "Ride the Lightning" inside a gigantic execution chamber.

The set snaked through freewheeling Hammett and Trujillo jams, the recent single “Lux Æterna” and the ballad “Nothing Else Matters” (Metallica writes aching melodies and forlorn guitar lines, too). They closed Thursday with “Seek & Destroy,” a roiling cut from their 1983 debut “Kill ’Em All,” and “Master of Puppets,” given new life as a major plot point in the horrorthriller series “Stranger Things.”

On Saturday, the band reprised its recent two-nights/no-repeats gambit with a completely different set list. Equally rangy, if perhaps more ruminative.

Peeling out of the gate with “Blackened,” framed as massive silhouettes on a white field, they roared through “Fuel” and lurched into “Leper Messiah” and “Welcome Home (Sanitarium),” each great, grinding cuts from “Puppets.” “Devil’s Dance” and the regicide-themed visuals of “King Nothing” framed their controversial “Load”/“Reload” period as a core transition. Newer cuts “72 Seasons” and “Hardwired” channeled the old viciousness.

They played a lovely “The Unforgiven” and dedicated an exploratory take on “Orion” to Cliff Burton again, followed by Thin Lizzy’s “Whiskey in the Jar,” a major influence on their riffing. But the set came into its full power with a duel of “For Whom the Bell Tolls” and “One,” framed around World War I-era bombing footage and parades of mangled skeleton soldiers. Metallica’s always been more existential than topical, but haven’t we all scrolled our feeds recently and muttered, “Darkness imprisoning me / All that I see, absolute horror.”

They closed on “Enter Sandman,” the only real choice for their inaugural Vegas weekend. Two perfectly tuned sets, retrofitted for this decadent monolith.

Is it a little weird that metal is now welcome as an elite Las Vegas entertainment commodity? Perhaps. But the genre's been a cunning spectacle since Ozzy's first crucifix (or Venom getting in league with Satan). Metallica's generations of disaffected dirtbags — this writer among them — were primed for this gig. Metal's always been escapist, even at its grittiest. Now it's a five-star vacation destination too.

‘Lanterns’ co-creators look back on superheroic season

HAL (Kyle Chandler, left) is able to impart lessons that no one else could have taught John (Aaron Pierre).

Photographs by JOHN JOHNSON HBO Max

THE BACKSTORY between Kerry (Kelly Macdonald) and Hal gets attention.

['Lanterns,' from E1] impactful as, say, Thor in the Marvel universe," says King, the "Lanterns" co-creator, during a recent video call. "Someone who arrives in a movie with a thunderclap, and ... the audience [just] screams when they arrive because you're in love with that character ... not just [for] the power set they have, but the integrity of that character."

That hero officially took flight in Sunday's "Lanterns" finale.

Episode 8 of the HBO Max superhero crime drama, titled “Dirt and Stars,” sees John Stewart (Aaron Pierre) take up the mantle as Earth’s newest Green Lantern. After solving the mystery of his predecessor Hal Jordan’s (Kyle Chandler) death, Stewart claims Jordan’s power ring as his own, recites his oath and jets off toward his next adventure. (A second season of “Lanterns” has not been announced, but the character will appear in Gunn’s upcoming “Superman” sequel, “Man of Tomorrow.”)

Co-created by King, Damon Lindelof and Chris Mundy, “Lanterns” introduces Jordan as a grizzled, veteran member of the Green Lantern Corps, intergalactic space cops who are armed with special rings that allow them to manifest objects and manipulate energy.

Stewart is a new Green Lantern recruit, but when an investigation into the whereabouts of a killer alien robot on the run goes awry, he and Jordan go their separate ways.

"One of the cool things about the canonical Green Lanterns is that, technically speaking, there's only one ring delegated to this particular sector in which Earth fell," says Lindelof of one of the show's central conflicts.

The creative team knew from the jump that Stewart would bear that ring at the end of the season, but the idea that he would be a child prodigy whose parents preordained his path to become the next Green Lantern developed over time.

“We [decided] the first part of John’s life is going to be [about] coming to terms with the fact that he doesn’t really want the ring — or he doesn’t want the ring on those terms,” Lindelof says. “Then there would have to be some period of time where he was living his dream.... Then and only then would he be able to wipe the slate clean, as it were, and gravitate back toward a healthy way to want the ring.”

In the comics, Green Lanterns are known for their oaths, which they recite when recharging their rings or to reaffirm their commitment to the group. In “Lanterns,” Stewart creates his own version that acknowledges his journey and perspective on becoming a Green Lantern.

“We talked a lot about it in the room, but the feeling was that he was changing the relationship with the Guardians in that moment,” Mundy says, referring to the immortal aliens that created the Green Lantern Corps.

The Guardians had once considered Stewart an ideal replacement for Jordan because he was willing to blindly follow orders, but by the time he claimed Jordan's ring, it's clear Stewart has no plans to be affiliated with the Guardians or the Green Lantern Corps in that way, and the writers wanted his oath to reflect that.

“We wanted John to take [the role] on his terms,” Mundy says. “Even though Hal didn’t train him as well as he should have trained him, he taught him lessons that nobody else would have taught him. ... [Including] how you need to be your own person even as you’re working for this organization.”

Besides his unconventional path to becoming a Green Lantern, Stewart has a unique lantern for recharging his ring that was forged by Sinestro, Jordan's disgraced mentor.

The “Lanterns” showrunner remained coy when asked whether this lantern’s more ominous origins could lead to any unintended consequences for Stewart.

“It’s rife with possibility is what I will say,” Mundy says.

In separate interviews, Mundy, Lindelof and King discussed the “Lanterns” finale, Stewart and Jordan’s bittersweet reconciliation and the show’s fiercely protective mothers. Their comments have been edited for clarity and length.

Because the “real” Hal is killed in 2026, his relationship with John is left unresolved. John shares a moment with the Halogram, the backup version of 2006 Hal’s consciousness, after working with him and the mystery is solved, but can you address that lack of proper closure for them?

Mundy: We talked about this thing as a love story between these guys in a certain way, but one of them has to die in order for them to truly come together. Even over the course of the Halogram being in the show, he never called John “Junior” ever. He always called him “trainee.” Until the last moment when he says ... “I love you, too, Junior.” There’s something very bittersweet about the fact that the two people we spent all that time with don’t fully have their moment together.

King: What I think is hinted at between the Halogram and the final Hal we get is this Sinestro subplot. This is right from the comics, but Hal's best friend, his mentor, the person who trained him, betrayed everything he trusted and Hal had to put him away. I think the trauma of that moment closed Hal up. It damaged

him ... so he was unable to see John for what he is and unable to listen to John the way he should. [With the Halogram] John finally encounters a Hal who hasn't gone through that and they can have conversations they couldn't have before. John can start to feel the empathy that Hal denied him, and he can see Hal for who Hal really is.

Lindelof: I love the idea that that version of Hal and John are unresolved. There is no apology. There is no forgiveness. The only closure that John can get is from this earlier version of Hal who has a lot of sympathy and empathy, not just for John, but for himself. Obviously, this is a crazy sci-fi superhero show, but that feels more authentic to life. Sort of like when someone that you love is gone, and you find a note that they wrote or an old birthday card and you extrapolate new meaning from it even though it's from an earlier version of them.

Why was it important to show more of 2026 Hal Jordan's life before his death in the finale?

Lindelof: The only flavoring that we get of him directly [before this] is in the diner scene, when John comes for his apology and doesn't get one. Only toward the very end of that scene after John has hit Hal, and Hal says, "Don't let anybody know that you were here," is there a flash that something has changed in this guy. It's one thing for Kerry to tell us that they were in love, or to hear Hal's "buttercup" voicemail, but I think that the audience needed to see it and experience it. Hal is not a changed man in 2026, but he's an evolved man. And there's real tragedy inherent in all of the decisions that he's making because we know that all of those decisions basically lead him to be a corpse in the stands at a football game. The subtle differences by which Kyle plays older Hal versus Halogram Hal is really on sharp display in the finale.

With Noah being a Man-hunter, it turned out that he and John were dealing with similar questions around lineage and legacy and nature versus nurture. How did the exploration into these themes evolve during the show's development? Much of it is unpacked in their truck ride together.

King: The basic idea [was] that John had been one of these kids who had been told, “You’re going to be this when you grow up.” Like a Tiger Woods or Michael Jackson-esque child. We started talking about what that’s like — to be a prodigy, to be forced into [something]. The idea that you’re kind of programmed by your parents. And then we were talking about Manhunters. The problem with Manhunters is they’ve been programmed to do this one thing, and they can’t defy their programming [to eradicate mankind]. That’s why they had to eventually be erased. Then we started talking about the parallel of programming and overcoming programming, and what makes you human, what doesn’t, that parallel came first. Those were the very nascent ideas, and we took that to our brilliant writers room, and [Breannah Gibson], Justin [Britt-Gibson] and Vanessa [Baden Kelly] added their own personal

experience to that and made it a much richer ... and personal story.

Mundy: John still doesn't know if he's about to die in this car. Noah is trying to learn about himself and figure out if he wants to kill John or die himself. The important thing was to hold that tension and then kind of step that conversation through chapters. There's anger about what happened to Zoe. After he understands that a little bit better, he says "these are the different ways my life could go." And then John can actually bring a piece of himself. We talked all the time about the way John was raised and the programming of the Manhunters and what's "programming" and what's "being raised." Then there's a confession that ends up being false, but also this request to be killed. There were three distinct sections of that conversation, and we wanted them all to be meaningful and personal.

With both Hal and John, so much of their intergenerational trauma is tied to their fathers. But with Noah and John, you also see just how big of a role their mothers have played in shaping them. How did that aspect come about?

Mundy: Once we knew that Noah was a Manhunter, it felt too cheap and too easy for that to be the answer [to the mystery of Hal's death]. But it felt key to the answer of it, and we were talking so much about parenthood and what you would do for your child and what it means. What's protecting people and what's not? It just became a given pretty early on that Kerry would be the answer at the end. It just fit into the same story Bernadette was going through. And [John's] conversation with Kerry explains so much of that.

Lindelof: I think this all came from Vanessa Baden Kelly. We had written the pilot, where John's father is shooting the apple off of his head, and then when Vanessa came on shortly thereafter, she's like, "Where's mom?" It is one of those moments where you realize it, particularly because we were three men, but also inside of the canon of these superheroes, it's always a dad. So the idea was having Bernadette really be the mastermind of John's upbringing as a way to provide a simultaneous salve for her husband's shame about being afraid about losing out on the opportunity.

I think that Kerry is an equally fierce mother. Obviously, she loves Hal. But when you watch it a second time after you've seen the finale, you realize that there's guilt there as well because of what she did to him, all in the name of her son.

John starts to reframe what Bernadette did as something for him, as opposed to something for her — in a lot of ways, it was a selfless act. She's doing it knowing that her child will hate her, but that he'll be the Earth's Green Lantern, and there's going to be an aspirational quality to that for generations to follow.

SASS JORDAN, 1960 - 2026

Rock star and a judge for TV's 'Canadian Idol'

The award-winning singer's '80s and '90s hits include 'Make You a Believer.'

By Tracy Brown

Sass Jordan, the Canadian rock star known for hits such as “Make You a Believer” and “Tell Somebody” who served as a judge on all six seasons of “Canadian Idol,” has died. She was 65.

Jordan died Friday surrounded by her family, according to an announcement posted to Instagram Saturday. No cause of death was provided, but she had reportedly canceled a number of performances in Ontario, Canada, in September "due to a serious medical condition."

“She remains in our hearts, an inimitable force of nature,” her family wrote in the statement accompanying a photo of Jordan cuddling a cat. “An irreplaceable being of light and joy!”

Jordan made her solo debut with her 1988 album, "Tell Somebody," which led to her winning the Juno Award — the Canadian equivalent of a Grammy — for most promising female vocalist the following year. She moved to Los Angeles in 1990 before releasing her follow-up album, "Racine," in 1992.

“Racine” remained one of Jordan’s biggest solo albums, with tracks including "Make You a Believer," "I Want to Believe," "You Don't Have to Remind Me" and "Goin' Back Again." She also recorded a duet with Joe Cocker, "Trust in Me," for the 1992 film "The Body-guard" that year.

'SHAPED CANADIAN ROCK'

Jordan toured alongside acts including Aerosmith, the Rolling Stones, AC/DC and Van Halen.

JEFF DALY Invision / Associated Press

"I always think of music

as medicine and as healing for myself and for anyone else who wants to join in," Jordan said in a 2023 interview with the CBC about audiences still responding to her earlier hits when she performed. "[S]o it's an extremely uplifting thing. ... It's amazing and it's incredible to see that. It's incredible to see people responding to something that is genuinely, like you said, 20 years old."

Born on Dec. 23, 1960, in Birmingham, England, Sarah “Sass” Jordan moved from France to Montreal with her family at age 3 when her father, a French literature professor, took a job at Concordia University, according to a statement shared by her publicist Eric Alper after her death. Seeing David Bowie in concert as a young teenager inspired Jordan to dream of a career in music. She began singing and playing guitar with friends in Westmount Park and by age 16 she was performing with bands in downtown Montreal nightclubs.

"I'm an expert on rebellion," Jordan told The Times in 1992, reflecting on why she ran away from home at 14. "I didn't want that clean, wholesome life. ... It felt so fake. I identified with real people, oppressed people who were outside that life. I wanted to taste real life — street life."

Throughout her career, Jordan would tour alongside acts including Aerosmith, the Rolling Stones, AC/DC and Van Halen. Her touring band in 1994 included Taylor

Hawkins, who would go on to become the drummer for the Foo Fighters. Jordan's most recent release is the live album from that tour, titled "Live in New York Ninety-Four." Hawkins died in 2022 at age 50.

For six seasons, Jordan served as one of the judges on the reality competition series “Canadian Idol.” The show aired from 2003 to 2008 and mirrored the format of shows like “Pop Idol” and “American Idol.”

“Over four decades, she gave Canadian rock one of its most recognizable voices, carved out space for women in a genre long dominated by men, and opened doors for the young musicians who came through her band,” Alper said in his statement. “Sass Jordan leaves a catalogue that shaped Canadian rock through the late '80s and '90s, a blues renaissance in which her voice grew richer with each record, and a generation of artists, from Idol hopefuls to a future Foo Fighter, who learned from her what it means to give a song everything.”

Jordan is survived by her husband Derek Sharp, daughter Stella Jordan-Sharp, stepdaughter Bri-anne Sharp and brother Daniel Jordan.

wileyink@earthlink.net

© 2026 Mark Tanbli/Distr. by Andrews McMeel Syndication (10) Brian Over, dist. by Andrew Macau Synthesis

LA CUCARACHA By Lalo Alcaraz

©2026 LALO ALCARAZ Distributed by Andrews McMeel Syndication www.laloalcaraz.com latealcaraz@yahoo.com IG: @laloalcaraz1

CRABGRASS By Tauhid Bondia

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COMICS

PICKLES By Brian Crane

BABY BLUES By Jerry Scott & Rick Kirkman

CURTIS By Ray Billingsley

BATIUK & DAVIS tombatiuk.com/books

CRANKSHAFT By Tom Batiuk & Chuck Ayers

© 2006 Mediographics, Inc. Dist. by Andrews McMeol Syndication

LOOSE PARTS By Dave Blazek

JUMP START By Robb Armstrong

PEARLS BEFORE SWINE By Stephan Pastis

MACANUDO By Liniers

LIO By Mark Tatulli

BLONDIE By Dean Young & John Marshall

ZITS By Jerry Scott & Jim Borgman

BETWEEN FRIENDS By Sandra Bell-Lundy

TUNDRA By Chad Carpenter

© Sandra Ball-Lunch. Distributed by King Features Syndicate, Inc.

BIZARRO By Wayno and Piraro

www.tundracomics.com

SIX CHIX By Susan Camilleri Konar

DRABBLE By Kevin Fagan

FRAZZ By Jef Mallett

MUTTS By Patrick McDonnell

NON SEQUITUR By Wiley

PEANUTS By Charles M. Schulz

©2026 KenKen Puzzle, LLC www.kenken.com

BLISS By Harry Bliss

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SUDOKU

©2026 The Mepham Group. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency. All rights reserved. Solutions to Tuesday's puzzles Complete the grid so each row, column and 3-by-3 or 2-by-3 box contains every digit from 1 to 9 (or 1 to 6 for the smaller grid). For strategies on how to solve Sudoku, visit www.sudoku.org.uk.

---

KENKEN

Every box will contain a number; numbers depend on the size of the grid. For a 6x6 puzzle, use Nos. 1-6. Do not repeat a number in any row or column. The numbers in each heavily outlined set of squares must combine to produce the target number found in the top left corner of the cage using the mathematical operation indicated. A number can be repeated within a cage as long as it is not in the same row or column.

©2026 KenKen Puzzle, LLC www.kenken.com

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HOROSCOPE

By Holiday Mathis

Aries (March 21-April 19). You'll make a strong impression by combining things that usually seem incompatible.

Taurus (April 20-May 20). There are ways you feel trapped. It seems like there's only one choice. Is that really so? This is the time to question.

Gemini (May 21-June 21). Today, you'll also give the gift of the plain truth when it's the right thing to do.

Cancer (June 22-July 22). Someone has been waiting for your answer and filling the silence with possibilities. You'll give them a clean yes or no today so they can stop guessing.

Leo (July 23-Aug. 22). You hear a version of what happened; the pieces seem to fit. Before you decide what it means, ask one more person to tell their side.

Virgo (Aug. 23-Sept. 22).

---

CROSSWORD

Someone asks what you think because they trust your judgment. Your gift is helping them hear themselves clearly enough to choose their own direction.

Libra (Sept. 23-Oct. 23). It's fun to play the games you're good at. Today's challenge comes as a gift, custom fitted to you.

COMICS

Scorpio (Oct. 24-Nov. 21). Sharing what you have always seems to help you appreciate it better, especially when you can share with someone from a different background.

Sagittarius (Nov. 22-Dec. 21). You can handle many tasks at once, but it's energetically expensive. So plan ahead if possible.

Capricorn (Dec. 22-Jan. 19). You assess risk in your own way, which is appropriate since your circumstances are unique. Today, this is what gives you a competitive edge.

Aquarius (Jan. 20-Feb. 18). Each relationship is a world, and every world influences those who inhabit it. Update your criteria for choosing your company. | 3-1 | 3 | 2÷4 | 2 | 4 | 1-2 | 3 | 2-1 | 1-2 | 3-4 | 1 | 3 | 3 | 1-1 | 2 | 4 | Pisces (Feb. 19-March 20). Someone who once disappointed you will show up differently today.

Today's birthday (Oct. 7). In this Year of Perfect Introductions, you're connected, you click, and you're off to the races with new chapters, agreements, roles and adventures. You also connect others whose talents belong together. More highlights: A fresh way to make money, fun and fitness that go together to make you physically stronger than last year, and seeing what you've taught others make a difference in the world. Sagittarius and Scorpio adore you. Lucky numbers: 7, 20, 1, 15 and 3.

Mathis writes her column for Creators Syndicate Inc. The horoscope should be read for entertainment.

---

BRIDGE

BY FRANK STEWART

Unlucky Louie is beset with misfortune — the kind of fortune, he says, that never misses. When I watched today's deal in my club's penny game, Louie played at four hearts. Cy the Cynic was West and led a spade.

Louie won in dummy and let the nine of trumps ride. He grimaced when Cy produced the king.

“Cheer up,” Cy told Louie. “Things always get worse before they fall apart completely.”

Sure enough, Cy shifted to a club, and East took the ace and jack and led a second spade. Louie won and drew the missing trump, but East's king of diamonds won the setting trick.

As usual, Louie brought

---

ASKING ERIC

Dear Eric: My brother and his wife recently cut off contact with my family, listing grievances related to what I consider to be unrealistic expectations or perceived injustices (like how quickly someone responds to their message on a group chat versus someone else's message). They stated they were establishing boundaries for their own well-being.

ACROSS

1 Built (on)

6 Many an A-lister

11 Swing's path

14 Cartoon canine who speaks with an "R" consonant mutation

15 Level

16 "Argo" org.

17 Ruin the Olympic Games?

19 Every last bit

20 Tammy Duckworth's title, briefly

21 Merry-go-round music

22 Bas-\_

24 Like many dirt roads

26 Home of Hawaii's Merrie Monarch Festival

27 Destroy casual chitchat?

32 Tennis great Andre

35 Georgia airport code

36 "If you ask me ..."

37 Massage

38 Super vision?

39 Polite title

40 A in geometry

42 French wine classification

43 Annette of "Virgin River"

46 Wreak havoc on origami supplies?

49 Forever and ever

50 Repeat for emphasis

54 "Who \_!"

57 Burlesque bit

58 Light touch

59 Sometimes called, for short

60 Lay waste to a dairy product?

63 Virginia Woolf's " \_

Dalloway"

64 " \_ mañana"

65 A-list

66 Light touch

67 Elizabeth who plays the Scarlet Witch

68 Trig ratios

I value family highly and don't think you can just decide that family isn't family.

My inclination is to respond to their message by reaching out more often and making sure they feel loved and cared for, but am I disrespecting their “boundaries” by doing that? Am I really supposed to accept that they can just opt out of family?

DOWN

1 Common voice for an opera villain

2 Colorado town near Snowmass

3 Curling piece

4 “\_tu”: Verdi aria

5 Brunei money

6 Orchard fruit

7 Congeal

UNBOUNDED

Dear Unbounded: It will be helpful to think about what you consider to be being there for your brother and ask yourself if the way you express love and support is the way he receives love and support.

Edited By Patti Varol

By Robin Stears

Instead, consider writing

Neither of you is doing anything wrong, per se, but you clearly have different expectations and communication styles. Reaching out more often when you've been explicitly asked not to won't come across as supportive in this context; it will come across as dismissive at best.

your brother a letter acknowledging that you have heard his request and, though it makes you sad, you'll respect it. Then you can put forward something that you need, whether it's a quarterly check-in, or something lower contact that still keeps you connected in some way.

misfortune on himself. Since East surely has the ace of clubs, Louie doesn't want West to get in for a club shift. Louie should take his ace of trumps at Trick Two — he doesn't mind if East wins a trump trick — then finesse in diamonds.

This may take time.

You don't have to lose your brother, but it will help your relationship to try to love him in the way he's asking to be loved, even if that means loving from afar.

Answer: Your hand is way too strong to jump to four spades. Slam is possible if partner has a useful heart holding, but if he has, say, K-Q-x, his honors will be "wasted" opposite your singleton. Your best bid is a "splinter" jump to four

East wins and leads another spade, and Louie wins and runs the diamonds. He discards two clubs before West can ruff and lead a club.

Dear Eric: My friend is nearly never available when I need him, despite asking for and accepting my help whenever he needs me.

You hold: ♠ Q J 10 7 5 ♥ 7 ♦ K 8 4 ♣ A Q J 8. Your partner opens one spade. The next player passes. Now what?

We both have very small farms. I have hay-making equipment. In the past I have helped him with his hay, and he helps me with mine. The unbalance there is that it requires \$80,000 worth of my equipment, and my upkeep and setup of the equipment.

48 Three-time Super Bowl-winning quarterback Troy

51 Saved on supper, perhaps

52 Sample size?

53 Stage combat props

54 Not quite dry

55 Sticky pod

56 From Perth to Sydney

57 Make full

61 Curvy letter

62 Yale grad

He knew I was making hay this weekend because we had spoken through text several times in the previous four days.

When I needed his help, he didn't answer texts. He always has good excuses for not getting together or helping. The thing is, at the time I make the request there are crickets from him. It isn't until the next day, or days later hearts, showing spade support and heart shortness. Let partner judge how well your hands fit.

ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE

Tribune Content Agency

I get a response about what wonderful, fun, or important thing he was involved in.

He will be calling me to ask for help with his hay soon. I have decided that I will not help him in the future. Should I wait until then to tell him how hurt I am by this action? Or because he doesn't seem to care, just let it go?

NOT REALLY A FRIEND

Dear Friend: The phrase “make hay” also means to make use of a situation in order to gain an advantage, and it certainly seems your friend is conversant in both definitions.

It's possible that he doesn't see the pattern you're seeing, so for the sake of clarity it's a good idea to talk to him about the imbalance you're feeling. Before you do, decide if you just want him to be aware of what you've noticed, or if you want him to change his ways.

If it's the latter, you might talk it and explain that while help with tasks isn't a requirement of the friendship, his lack of availability and his willingness to ask you for your help is sending a message to you. It may not be a message he's intending, and you may find, through conversation, that you can work out a better way to show up for each other.

Email questions to eric@askingeric.com.

8 Viscous goo

9 Having one's day in court?

10 Deal in, as vintage clothing

11 Breakfast bowl berry

12 Annoy but good

13 Baby camel

18 Africa-to-Asia land bridge

23 Trickster in Norse mythology

25 Jr. officers

26 URL starter

28 Invites to one's apartment, say

29 Childish comeback

30 Get just right

31 Giant oceanic surface current

32 Part of UAE

33 Hindu mentor

34 Lie for, say

38 Goes astray

41 Las Vegas WNBA team

42 Primary

43 \_ nerve

44 Shows signs of growth?

45 Hockey Hall of Famer Bobby

47 Top dog

© 2026 Tribune Content Agency

FAMILY CIRCUS By Bil Keane

"I wish the air would stand still."

FREE RANGE By Bill Whitehead

DENNIS THE MENACE By Hank Ketcham

"WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME YOU HAD TO DO SOMETHING FOR THE FIRST TIME?"

MARMADUKE By Brad & Paul Anderson

"I can't shake the feeling I'm being watched."

Photographs by CARLIN STIEHL For The Times

A TEAM led by artist Enrique Martínez Celaya spent weeks hand-painting L.A. Opera's colorful new curtain, which uses a mix of acrylic and water-based paint.

L.A. Opera kicks off season with a curtain drop

[Curtain, from E1]

"All we wanted is that it wasn't tied to any opera, to any imagery for any opera, but would just be an artwork that will stand by itself," Martínez Celaya said. "And other than that, [L.A. Opera was] incredibly generous and open."

The top half of the composition, which is related to Martínez Celaya's family history, has been shown in small scale at the National Museum of Fine Arts in his native Cuba. The image speaks to a period when his family was headed from Havana to exile in Spain. The girl is his daughter Natalia, and the birds reference his grandfather who kept a collection as pets in cages.

At age 12, Martínez Celaya entered into an apprenticeship with a painter — the start of his formal artistic training — and around the same time he began cultivating an interest in writing and philosophy. He earned a degree in applied physics with a minor in electrical engineering from Cornell University, followed by a master's degree in quantum electronics from UC Berkeley. On his way to a PhD, he changed course and turned to art, completing a master of fine arts degree at UC Santa Barbara. Today he serves as provost professor of humanities and arts at USC.

Rather than print the image on the curtain, Martínez Celaya and his team spent the last few weeks hand-painting it on canvaslike fabric on the floor of the stage. The original studio canvas was painted in oil, but the curtain is painted in acrylic and water-based paint. Variations from one medium to the other are a part of the process, and Martínez Celaya said he finds both thrilling and challenging.

The new curtain is not the artist's first brush with classical music. In 2004, he cre-

ated a sculptural installation for the Berlin Philharmonic called “Schneebett” (Snow Bed), a somber, multilayered environment inspired by the final days of Ludwig van Beethoven in Vienna in 1827. A metal bed with a refrigeration system that maintained a continuous layer of frost over its surface was placed at its center. It also included writings and a large painting of a forest made with tar, oil and feathers. The piece is now in the collection of Pérez Art Museum Miami.

"The opportunity of having dozens of people trapped in a room, having to engage with something, is a very different experience than people walking by it in a museum for seven seconds," Martínez Celaya said, explaining the genesis of the new curtain. "Most people

MARTÍNEZ CELAYA, left, included nods to his family. The boy, above, is based on his grandfather.

come there not for the curtain but for what's behind it. So how do you create a situation where this becomes an end in itself?"

Martínez Celaya began the process simply enough: He put pen to paper to organize his thoughts, and began asking broad questions like what is a stage, what are people doing here, what is Los Angeles, and what do people anticipate, are they bored, are they talking?

"All these kinds of things were in my head before I started working. For me, this had to be an investigation," he said, noting that it was at least six weeks before he even began to draw. Initial images included a silhouetted figure overseeing scattered human limbs, with the bottom portion of the composition awash in sea foam. The next iteration replaced the sea foam with prismatic and floral elements.

L.A. Opera originally planned to carefully cut the curtain into pieces at the end of the season and sell off sections to raise funds, but that idea is in flux.

“I do want to figure out a way to preserve legible chunks of it in some form or other,” said Koelsch, who hopes to commission a new curtain for the 2027-28 season. “Frankly, after all of that labor and investment, I do think that we are incentivized to try to preserve portions of it. The fact that it has happened will open new opportunities for this to happen again in the future.”

Brothers rewrite L.A.'s jazz story for a new generation

JASON ARMOND Los Angeles Times

BLACK NILE'S Aaron, left, and Lawrence Shaw performed at the Hollywood Bowl last month. Their latest album is "Indigo Garden."

Aaron and Lawrence Shaw, the duo Black Nile, adapt to keep the art form pulsing.

BY STEVE BALTIN

The Black Nile — a duo composed of Inglewood brothers Lawrence and Aaron Shaw — played their biggest hometown show yet when they opened for Erykah Badu at the Hollywood Bowl last month. The brothers were connected with Badu through L.A. artist Lauren Halsey. It was a fitting introduction because the convergence of visual art and music was all around the band as they recorded their most recent album, "Indigo Garden," inspired by a residency they did at Mass MoCA in Massachusetts.

"The long legacy and history of visual arts with music, they are hand in hand, because in some ways they elevate each other," Lawrence says. "The experience is elevated when you attach visuals to music and audio to visuals and being surrounded, in that environment where it's nothing but creatives, it really brought us back ... to childhood because that's how we grew up in a lot of jazz camps and a lot of art camps."

“That was an important residency for us to have. It rejuvenated me,” Aaron adds. “And then seeing James Terrell exhibit was probably the most prolific exhibition that I got a chance to see and was really inspirational to me because that whole year I had been getting more of an understanding of how important lighting is for being able to uplift the story and support the music in live performances, in very intimate performances.”

At the Bowl on Sept. 29, they were part of the musical collective that was the backing band for 82-year-old artist Charles Gaines. They share a kinship with Gaines, who not only mentored Halsey, but designed the artwork for “Indigo Garden.” According to the duo’s label head at Mass MoCA Records, Harlan Steinberger, who joined in the interview: “There’s a whole bunch of stuff circling around that I think led to this gig. Their prior relationship with Lauren, it’s just more of a coincidence.”

As you talk to the brothers, though, you realize there was nothing coincidental about them getting the opportunity.

"When Lauren started coming around to us, she not only liked our song ‘Second Serving,’ but she had just developed the first Sister Dreamer architectural design in South Los Angeles that we basically did an activation for,” Aaron says. “And then she had gotten another beautiful opportunity to open up another activation of Sister Dreamer at the new location on Western that we did another activation at. So, we’ve just been harmoniously in sync.”

The Shaw brothers remain tapped in with L.A.'s art community and the city's storied jazz history. And while they are very conscious of what they consider a post-COVID jazz resurgence in L.A., they want everyone to know jazz in L.A. is hardly new. And despite its coolness, the music is a very studious art form.

"I know we have the Hollywood thing that gives all these tropes about how jazz in L.A. is laid-back," Aaron says. "The cool side of jazz, all that bull—.... There's very serious jazz here in Los Angeles, in Jefferson High School, Central Avenue Jazz, the Dunbar Hotel, all the bars in that strip that got torn down from the 110. We know a lot of that history."

They know that history, but, to them, the key to their rising success is being able to translate immense history for younger fans and bring generations together.

"The old guard was based on the community that preceded us. So, when we were coming up and out of high school where we were building our own, we really had to adapt," Lawrence says. "There were so many changes that happened in the 2010s right after we got out where Kamasi [Washington] and the West Coast started being on top because of Kendrick Lamar introducing the world to jazz through 'Untitled.' ... 'To Pimp a Butterfly' was, to me, like the unicorn horn. That was the silver lining of jazz in the 2010s.

“Once COVID hit, when the world is going crazy, people always resort to real music. Real music is always at its peak and always at its strongest during these crazy moments in the world,” Lawrence continues. “So, that’s what happened ... Jiji’s Jazz Club, all these communities. This is a resurgence of jazz in a way.”

“Dare I say TikTok is saving jazz,” Aaron adds as they both laugh.

Strange times indeed, and Black Nile knows how to speak the language.