Los Angeles Times - 08.10.2026 — 2026-10-07

Los Angeles Times

\$3.66 DESIGNATED AREAS HIGHER © 2026

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 8, 2026

latimes.com

At AI's epicenter, residents take on the tech

In Bay Area, people have conflicting views about whether it is helpful or harmful.

BY QUEENIE WONG

San Francisco Bay Area residents, living in the beating heart of the artificial-intelligence boom, are just as conflicted about the technology as the rest of the country.

As OpenAI showed off its latest AI assistants in San Francisco last week, protesters outside — some dressed as killer robots — demanded it keep AI away from the military. Thirteen miles away in Oakland the following day, some senior citizens sat down with a group of students to address AI angst at a grassroots tech event.

Even as the clash between tech titans and anxious activists intensifies, the debate about AI is increasingly permeating community events, with the young and old grappling with the changes AI is bringing to their cities and the world.

Many are confused and want answers.

Oakland resident Assata Olugbala, 81, asked for help removing Google's AI bot Gemini from her devices after it started offering help she hadn't requested.

"I've never invited it into my space," she said. "But it starts talking to me and answering questions."

While debates about building AI that surpasses human intelligence, flashy new gadgets and AI spending tend to dominate tech events, tech talks at last week's Oakland Tech Week often had a different vibe.

The citywide annual event aims to bring technology to everyday consumers and constituents, and AI was one of its biggest concerns.

The event, which ended Saturday, featured panels [See AI, A11]

JOSH EDELSON Associated Press

PAUL KURODA For The Times

PEOPLE protest last week at the OpenAI DevDay conference in San Francisco. In Oakland, Heven Adugna, 17, helps Diana Young, 82, learn to use a cellphone.

California diesel tops \$8, pushing truckers to brink

Fuel is 32% above U.S. average. Consumers are affected too as prices of goods rise.

By Nilesh Christopher

The economics of trucking are deteriorating fast — and it's particularly bad in California.

Fresno-based Jagroop Singh Deol operates two gas-guzzling rigs. One hauls refrigerated produce from California to the Midwest and brings back pet food, meat and auto parts. He drives another truck himself that transports goods for Amazon.

At the start of the year, a full tank of gas cost \$1,000. Now, Deol pays more than \$1,600. His business is bearing the brunt of California's record diesel costs, which are 32% above the national average.

“We’re not making money,” Deol said. “Trucking isn’t a stable business.”

In his two-decade career, Deol's fortunes have ebbed and flowed. The 2008 recession reduced him from an owner to a driver, whereas the 2020 pandemic boom made him millions. Now, he is hunkering down again, downsizing his fleet from five to two. He says he may have to leave the industry entirely if diesel prices keep rising.

The average price of a gallon of diesel in California reached \$8.35 this week, up more than 60% from a year ago, according to the American Automobile Assn. The national average was \$6.32.

Gas prices have been steadily rising all year, and truckers now pay \$3 more than the average price a year ago. The price increase trickles down to all goods sold across the economy.

President Trump's policies have run roughshod over the trucking industry. Just as the industry began recovering from a multiyear freight slowdown, the administration began cracking down on immigrant drivers earlier this year, exacerbating the impact from the erratic tariff announcements.

The industry, which hauls 70% of all freight in America, has taken the biggest hit after the war with Iran sent fuel prices soaring.

To temporarily relieve price pressure, the Group of 7 wealthy nations on Oct. 2 agreed to release 100 million barrels of emergency oil reserves over the next four months.

[See Diesel, A11]

Dreaded Kelvin wave is arriving

The Kelvin wave bearing down on Southern California this week is not the kind that draws surfers.

You don't see it crash on shore, and by itself, it's probably not even noticeable. But it can have a profound effect, adding 6 to 12 inches to background sea levels, potentially for months.

This is a major concern when combined with other sources of sea level rise, and could exacerbate the woes of California coastal cities and property owners.

The “coastally trapped” aquatic pulse has been slithering up the coast for weeks, fascinating scientists and weather watchers as it marched across the equatorial Pacific before splitting upon hitting the coast of Peru.

---

El Niño-fueled surge in the ocean raises risk of coastal flooding and beach erosion in Southland

By Rong-Gong Lin II

“It is arriving now,” UC Agriculture and Natural Resources climate scientist Daniel Swain said in an interview.

Swain said there's not a particular singular moment of arrival. It's more like "a gradual increase, because the surge, or the bulge in the ocean height itself ... takes a while to build."

Dillon Amaya, an assistant professor at North Carolina State University's Department of Marine, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, said last week that he expected the wave would arrive in San Diego in the middle to later part of this week, and in Los Angeles perhaps three days later.

"The Kelvin wave by itself will not cause flooding," Amaya said. However, "if there [See Wave, A14]

LISA BOONE Los Angeles Times

REAL ESTATE agents say it's tough to pinpoint the price of reputation. Above, the Stahl House in 2023.

Fame is a burden for iconic homes on sale

BY JACK FLEMMING

Some of Southern California's homes are almost as famous as its celebrities.

There's the Ennis House, Frank Lloyd Wright's Mayan Revival-style concoction of textile blocks. The Chemosphere, John Lautner's modernist UFO hovering above Hollywood Hills. And the Gamble House, the Craftsman mansion in Pasadena that got its starring role in "Back to the Future."

But the L.A. area's most iconic home is the Stahl House, Pierre Koenig's Mid-century masterpiece that seems to float above the city. Julius Schulman's black-and-white photo of two women conversing in the cantilevered living room has been declared "the most famous picture ever taken of Los Angeles."

So when the Stahl House surfaced for sale late last year, experts assumed there would be a line of buyers stretching all the way to Sunset Boulevard. But so far, a deal hasn't closed.

The house hit the market for \$25 million. With no takers, the price tag was trimmed to \$20 million in April. Still nothing.

L.A.'s luxury market regularly sees sales of \$20 million or more, so where's the demand for a piece of the city's architectural history, albeit one much smaller than most homes in that price range? Real estate agents say that selling iconic homes with storied pasts is much harder than it seems.

The first tricky part is pricing. Typically, an agent looks at bedrooms, bathrooms, square footage and neighborhood comparisons. But how do you price reputation? Does appearing in the [See Homes, A14]

Water bills have ballooned

Californians pay some of the nation's highest rates, one report says; utilities rebut findings.

---

BY IAN JAMES

If you've noticed your water bills getting a lot more expensive, you're not alone.

In a new nationwide survey of 500 large drinking water utilities, researchers found that average water bills have gone up 1.6 times as fast as inflation, and Californians are paying some of the highest bills.

The report by Food & Water Watch, a nonprofit advocacy group, shows that four water utilities in California rank among the 10 most expensive in the United States. The private utility San Jose Water Co. was No. 1, and others included Escondido, Santa Barbara and Marin Municipal Water District.

The researchers also found that more than half of the 25 most expensive water systems they looked at are in California. They include those in San José (11), San Francisco (14), Sacramento (15) and Oceanside (19), which the group said charged bills totaling more than \$1,100 last year for typical indoor water usage for a household of three.

COLIN HUBBARD Associated Press

Los Angeles ranked 32nd of 500, with the annual water bill estimated at \$952.

“California is definitely overrepresented as one of the more expensive states,” said Mary Grant, the group’s water policy director. “Water affordability is a pressing issue for low-income households.”

DODGERS ADVANCE TO NLCS

Coastal cities in Southern California and the Bay Area tend to get their water from the aqueducts of the State Water Project or other [See Water, A7]

Shohei Ohtani and Co. beat Atlanta 4-1 to win the NLDS in four games. Scan this code for full coverage at latimes.com and in our eNewspaper, where subscribers get an exclusive “Playoffs Extra.”

Steve Hilton makes his case

Republican candidate for governor shares his ideas at a town hall.

CALIFORNIA, B1

The Bloc goes on the block for sale Complex hits market as downtown's office sector shows signs of bottoming out. BUSINESS, A9

Weather

Sunny and hot.

L.A. Basin: 93/68. B5

Markets ...... A11

Opinion Voices ...... A12

For the latest news, go to latimes.com.

---

Trump reportedly told FBI to go after protesters

Whistleblower alleges the unconstitutional order involved ICE actions in L.A. area.

BY KEVIN RECTOR

A former FBI intelligence analyst has alleged that President Trump ordered the FBI to launch unconstitutional investigations into immigration enforcement protesters from the Los Angeles area, according to a whistleblower report made public this week by Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.).

The analyst also contended that substantial FBI resources were diverted to such inquiries, and that she drew retaliation for questioning their legality.

The White House and the top federal prosecutor in Los Angeles both denied the allegations.

Jill Fields, a former supervisory intelligence analyst based in L.A., said in a letter addressed to Congress from her attorneys that she was told Trump had ordered FBI Director Kash Patel to launch the inquiries after seeing a social media video of protests against U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and U.S. Customs and Border Protection operations in Alhambra in February 2025.

Fields said that an initial assessment “determined that the protesters’ actions

— video recording, use of a megaphone, and verbal objection — were constitutionally protected under the First Amendment and never crossed the line into impeding arrest or being a threat," but that she and others were nonetheless directed to open investigations.

She said that a supervisor — whose name was redacted in the released report — said the investigation was moving forward because “the President wants this investigation.”

Separately, Fields alleged that she was informed that then-acting Deputy Atty. Gen. Emil Bove — [See FBI, A7]

Israelis mourn anniversary of Hamas attack

BY MELANIE LIDMAN

REIM, Israel — On a field where music festival revelers were gunned down by Hamas-led militants three years ago, Israelis on Wednesday embraced and wept for those lost in an attack that plunged the Middle East into war.

Israelis mourned at the site of the Nova music festival, as well as at bomb shelters, intersections and in communities targeted on Oct. 7, 2023. On that day — the deadliest in the country's history — militants killed 1,200 people and took 251 hostage. Israel's retaliatory offensive killed tens of thousands of Palestinians, destroyed much of Gaza and drove most of its 2 million residents from their homes.

This is the first anniversary since all the hostages, living and dead, were returned. Signs calling for their return are mostly gone, but reminders of those who were killed are ubiquitous in a country still reckoning with the trauma of that day.

For Palestinians, the anniversary brings another day of fear and misery. Most Gaza residents live in squalid tent camps, with large parts of cities bombed to rubble. More than half the territory remains in the hands of the Israeli military. Despite a ceasefire deal reached nearly a year ago, Israeli strikes continue almost daily.

Israeli troops occupy a large chunk of southern Lebanon in their conflict with Hezbollah militants, who began firing on Israel in 2023 in support of Hamas. Iran, the United States and their allies are locked in a confrontation that has seen attacks across the region and has shaken the global economy — a conflict that Israel helped launch and that the war in Gaza paved the way for, even if they weren't directly connected.

Hundreds of people paid their respects to the more than 350 people killed in and around the festival site. Videos from that day showed militants gunning down fleeing revelers, shooting the wounded at point-blank range and ambushing those seeking refuge in bomb shelters.

On Wednesday, survivors' relatives hugged at 6:29 a.m. — the exact time the first rockets were launched three years ago — as explosions boomed in nearby Gaza.

Anya Davitashili, who lost her 25-year-old son, Sean, said she visits the site every Saturday. It's where she feels closest to him.

"I have a video of him dancing here that ends at 6:29 in the morning. It's in front of my eyes all the time," she said. "Every morning, you wake up and there is just endless missing."

Elkana Bohbot, 37, is marking the anniversary in Israel for the first time since his release after 738 days of captivity. For most of that time, he said, he was held underground in a dark, damp tunnel.

Bohbot, who was abducted from the festival, was kept in a small cell with other hostages, given little food and allowed to bathe only every few weeks, he said. His captors forced him to take part in propaganda videos, including one where he acted out a fake call to his family.

In the year since his release, Bohbot has undergone physical and emotional rehabilitation. In August, his wife, Rivka, gave birth to a daughter, fulfilling his promise to himself in the tunnels to give his 5-year-old son, Reem, a sibling.

The newborn, Michele, is “not a symbol for my people, she is more of a symbol for the enemy,” Bohbot told the Associated Press. “This child is the message for you that we were here and we will always be here forever.”

No events are expected Wednesday in Gaza, but Hamas in a statement defended the Oct. 7 attack, saying it had returned the Palestinian cause to the world's attention.

"The conflict with the enemy did not begin on that day, [and] its final chapters are not written yet," it said.

Palestinians in the territory said their suffering over the last three years had previously been unimaginable.

“We witnessed death, destruction and bombardment that we had never known before,” said Walid Akram, a Gaza City resident who, like most in Gaza, has been displaced by the war.

Raed Khozeiq's coastal neighborhood in Tel al-Hawa was largely flattened. Nothing about his life now is the same, he said.

---

FOR THE RECORD

Activision Blizzard: An article in the Sept. 12 Business section about sexual harassment allegations mentioned a roughly \$50-million settlement between Activision Blizzard and California's Civil Rights Department but failed to note that the department withdrew all claims and allegations of systemic workplace harassment against the company as part of the December 2023 consent decree.

How to contact us

(800) LA TIMES

Home Delivery and Membership Program

For questions about delivery, billing and vacation holds, or for information about our Membership program, please contact us at (213) 283-2274 or customerservices @latimes.com. You can also manage your account at myaccount.latimes.com.

Letters to the Editor

Want to write a letter to be published in the paper and online? E-mail letters@latimes.com.

For submission guidelines, see latimes.com/letters.

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.

Advertising

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

Reprint Requests

For the rights to use articles, photos, graphics and page reproductions, e-mail reprint@latimes.com or call (213) 237-4565.

LOS ANGELES TIMES

(ISSN 0458-3035)

is published by the Los Angeles Times,

2300 E. Imperial Highway, El Segundo, CA

90245. Periodicals postage is paid at Los

Angeles, CA, and additional cities.

POSTMASTER: Send address changes to

the above address.

Home Delivery Subscription Rates (all rates

include applicable CA sales taxes and apply

to most areas)

Times In Education

To get the digital

Los Angeles Times at no

cost (along with our

newspaper-based teaching

materials), contact us at

latimes.com/tie, or email

monika.khare@latimes.com.

The Newsroom

Know something important we should cover? Send a secure tip at latimes.com/tips. To send a press release go to the newsroom directory at latimes.com/staff.

Media Relations

For outside media requests and inquiries, e-mail commsdept@latimes.com.

L.A. Times Store

Search archives, merchandise and front pages at latimes.com/store.

Vol. CXLV No. 309

Print + unlimited digital rates:

Seven-day \$42/week, \$2,184 annually.

Thursday–Sunday \$22/week, \$1,144 annually.

Thursday & Sunday \$14/week, \$728 annually.

Saturday & Sunday \$13/week, \$676 annually.

Sunday \$12/week, \$624 annually.

Monday–Saturday \$24/week, \$1,248 annually (also includes Sundays, except 3/29, 5/24, 9/6, 10/11). Monday–Friday \$24/week, \$1,248 annually.

THE WORLD

RELATIVES attend a memorial for the people killed at the Nova music festival site in Reim, southern Israel.

“No country in the world has gone through what we have experienced here,” he said. “A war of extermination, starvation, the absence of schools and universities — nothing remains.”

More than 74,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza, according to the territory's Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and militants in its figures but says around half were women and children. The numbers from the ministry, part of the Hamas-run government, are seen as generally reliable by U.N. agencies and independent experts.

Although a ceasefire that took effect Oct. 10, 2025, halted the heaviest fighting, Israeli strikes have continued, targeting what Israel says are Hamas militants. Since the ceasefire, 1,460 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza, according to the ministry. Five Israeli soldiers have been killed in attacks in that period. Restrictions on the entry of goods and aid have contributed to a hunger crisis, food security experts say.

A contentious election at the end of the month hangs over this year's anniversary in Israel. Voters are bitterly divided over Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's leadership, his role in the security failures surrounding the attack and his refusal to launch an official inquiry into them.

The attack set in motion a cascade of events that led to wars across the Middle East as Israel confronted Hamas, Hezbollah and their backer, Iran. Israel has seized territory in Syria and Lebanon, where more than 300,000 Lebanese remain displaced. The United States joined Israel in attacking Iran's military and nuclear program in two rounds, battering Iran and upending global markets far from the battlefield.

Violence has also risen across the Israeli-occupied West Bank, where Israel's far-right government has heightened restrictions on Palestinians while emboldening extremist settlers who have attacked them and destroyed their property.

Lidman writes for the Associated Press. AP journalists Wafaa Shurafa in Deir al Balah, Gaza Strip, and Sam Metz in Jerusalem contributed to this report.

Israelis see Gaza as threat long after Oct. 7

AHMAD HASABALLAH Getty Images

GAZA remains in ruins and cut off from the world after last October's ceasefire. Above, in Gaza City.

With memories of the 2023 attack still raw, empathy for war-torn Palestinians is elusive.

BY CARA ANNA

SDEROT, Israel — One by one, Israelis peered through the tourist-style binoculars at the shattered Gaza town of Beit Hanoun, a distance of several football fields away, where buildings tilted in the rubble like broken teeth. The only noticeable movement was dust kicked up by Israel's military.

The Israelis squinted for a few moments and gestured others over. The lookout is a rare place where they can confront the Palestinian territory firsthand, and some celebrate its devastation.

An Israeli documentary released this year included one onlooker exclaiming, "Wow, destroyed beautifully." The Associated Press heard similar sentiments there.

On Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led militants killed some 1,200 people in southern Israel and abducted 251 others, leading to a devastating war and, eventually, a fragile ceasefire.

Three years on, a visit to the communities attacked that day made clear: It's too soon for many residents to see the Palestinians next door as anything other than a threat.

---

Barbecue evokes 'the smell of hell'

The highway running parallel to Gaza, where militants gunned down people trying to flee, is dotted with memorials. Victims' smashed and bullet-pocked cars are assembled elsewhere, rusting and piled a half-dozen high. Portraits of young female military spot-ters, whose warnings about a potential attack were disregarded, mark their deaths that day.

One resident, Deganit Bar Hay, said she still can't barbecue because the smell of burnt flesh — “the smell of hell” — is a trigger.

Globally, there is shock and condemnation over how Israel has conducted the war, and how Gaza remains in ruins and cut off from the world a year since the ceasefire. Over 74,000 Palestinians have been killed, according to Gaza's Health Ministry, and the vast majority of its 2 million residents live in rat-infested tent camps or among the debris.

But empathy for them is still unthinkable for many in Israel, with memories raw. Israeli media report little on the Palestinians of Gaza, and Israelis rarely if ever hear their voices unless they seek them out.

A new Israeli documentary, “NAZA,” in which military insiders describe what they said was the systemic killing of Palestinian civilians in Gaza, has sparked outrage at the filmmakers, not the government. Everywhere in Israel — at train stations, beaches, the Gaza viewpoint — are dozens of stickers in memory of the hundreds of soldiers killed on Oct. 7 and in the ensuing war.

“We are post-traumatic, all of us,” said Ziporah Livneh, outside a cafe catering to tour groups and soldiers a short drive from Gaza. Much of her family died in the Holocaust, and she came to Israel at the age of 2.

Now, she said, the answer for Gaza is to keep believing in people's humanity but respond strongly to acts of evil. A society and a country can't be built on revenge, but for the world to think “we can be Mother Teresa, it is a hypocrisy.”

---

Many abroad 'don't understand us'

Many Israelis are still turned inward. They say their story isn't being heard or understood. They assert that Palestinians in Gaza receive more attention, even as Israel's government still prevents journalists from entering the territory except under rare, highly managed visits — and very few Palestinians can leave.

From the day the war began, Israeli news and hearts were focused on the dead and the hostages taken into Gaza, a land that despite being an hour's drive from Tel Aviv has long felt remote. Cross-border contact had been severely limited since Hamas seized power in 2007. Then, on Oct. 7, militants ripped the fence apart.

This is the first anniversary since the attack that all remaining hostages are out of Gaza, alive or dead.

There is rebuilding in the Israeli communities where militants went home to home, burning and shooting. There is also the insistence on keeping Oct. 7 memories alive, with hope that the outside world will come to understand how Israel's sense of security was smashed.

“I know many people around the globe don’t understand us,” said Mor Izreal, director of an Oct. 7 virtual reality exhibit in the border city of Sderot.

She said over 10,000 people have visited since it opened a year and a half ago, most from overseas. Reactions range from sadness to rage to connectedness, she said.

---

Anger in the first election since war

This year, for the first time since the attack, there is also an election, a momentous and angry one.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government is deeply divisive. Many Israelis accuse him of failing to prevent the Oct. 7 attack and not securing the hostages' release sooner, before many of them were killed. He is also accused of corruption and threatening democratic institutions.

But there has been little criticism of how his government has treated the Palestinians in Gaza, where Israel's military now controls over 60% of the territory, squeezing them into an ever-smaller space.

Next to a bullet-pocked rocket shelter outside Sderot, a man held a banner calling for an official inquiry into the security failures surrounding the attack. Netanyahu has long resisted one.

Amit Gurfinkel said he spent Oct. 7 in a safe room with his daughter in the nearby community of Netivot, holding a knife and expecting the worst.

Gurfinkel is a minority in a population that has long supported Netanyahu. Posted across Sderot are campaign banners for his far-right allies, Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben Gvir — the national security minister who has called for killing “30 to 40” people in targeted assassinations in Gaza each night.

Security is paramount, especially in Sderot, where residents have just 10 seconds to seek shelter when rockets are fired from Gaza. But Gurfinkel sees Israel's reputation as crucial too. He shook his head over passing drivers who shouted their support for Netanyahu, whose government is isolated over the destruction in Gaza and who has been issued an arrest warrant by the International Criminal Court.

"This is pathological. I don't know," Gurfinkel said. "Sociologists and psychologists will have answers in the years to come."

---

Little discussion of Palestinian civilians

Some Israelis argue there are no real civilians among Palestinians in Gaza, pointing to Hamas' entrenchment. Some Palestinians feel the same way about Israelis, noting that military service is mandatory for most Jewish men and women.

“Death to Arabs” is written inside a rocket shelter across from the Sderot police station that was besieged and then destroyed. “Hamas is still in Gaza” is scrawled on a guardrail on the highway where bodies spilled from vehicles on Oct. 7. “Make Gaza Jewish Again” is on a banner in a public square in Jerusalem’s Old City.

There is little public discussion about how everyday Palestinians are doing after three years of war.

“I think about them, and it’s complicated,” Adi Marmelstain said of the people in Gaza. She was visiting the sprawling memorial for the Nova music festival, where hundreds of people were shot dead on Oct. 7.

Her 20-year-old daughter, a member of the security forces like many young Israelis, stood in shorts and a tank top, her rifle slung across her. Both knew people who had been killed.

Marmelstain recalled waking up another daughter on Oct. 7 and sending her to war with bottled water and cookies. She later asked herself what she had been thinking.

Three years later, life is not much easier to contemplate.

The world doesn't see Israel in the right light, she said. And the Palestinians in Gaza?

“I think they have the right to live, but they choose not to,” she said.

Anna writes for the Associated Press. AP video journalist Alon Bernstein in Sderot contributed to this report.

LATIMES.COM

Russian strikes kill at least 25 civilians

BY SAMYA KULLAB

AND HANNA ARHIROVA

KYIV, Ukraine — Russian missile and drone attacks on Kyiv and a dozen other Ukrainian regions overnight killed at least 25 civilians, including five children, and wounded around 100, Ukrainian officials said.

The five children were killed when a Russian missile struck an apartment building, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said. Three were 1 year old and another was 8.

Zelensky had warned the previous day that intelligence services had concluded that Russia was building up for a “massive” strike.

Although Ukraine knew about the looming attack, which coincided with Russian President Vladimir Putin's 74th birthday, it couldn't repel it completely.

“This is the ‘gift’ that Putin gave himself for his birthday: the killing of children, the killing of people,” Zelensky said in an evening address on Wednesday.

The deaths and damage illustrated the difficulty Ukraine has in countering Russia's ballistic missiles and the new jet-powered drones used in Moscow's escalating bombardments. Without ammunition for its U.S.-made Patriot air defense systems, Ukraine can't stop Russian ballistic weapons. It is racing to develop a new generation of interceptors fast enough to catch Moscow's high-flying jet-propelled drones.

Russia and Ukraine are engaged in a long-range aerial war as their armies remain largely deadlocked on the battlefield, more than 4½ years after Moscow's all-out invasion of its neighbor. The unrelenting aerial attacks are hurting Russia but could be ruinous for smaller Ukraine.

RESIDENTS wait behind barrier tape at a damaged building in Kyiv, Ukraine.

VLADYSLAV MUSIIENKO AFP/Getty Images

U.S.-led peace efforts appear unlikely to bring any short-term relief, with the possibility of holding low-level technical talks still under discussion. Putin, meanwhile, is pressing ahead with the invasion in the belief that Ukrainians will buckle under the pressure and Kyiv's Western supporters won't stay the course, Western analysts say.

“Russia is pursuing a deliberate strategy of terror,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on X. “Trying to make daily life impossible for Ukrainians who want to live in peace.”

A Russian strike destroyed an apartment block in Pryluky, in Ukraine's northern Chernihiv region, killing 19 people, including five children, Zelensky said. Authorities said around 50 were wounded.

Deaths were also reported in three other Ukrainian cities, including the capital, Kyiv, according to Zelensky.

"The Russians wanted to strike painfully and demonstratively," the Ukrainian leader said on social media.

Ukraine is looking world-wide for available Patriot missiles, which are in short supply due to the Iran war.

"Russian ballistic missiles remain the greatest challenge. And air defense packages for us right now are a vital necessity," Zelensky said.

In Kremenchuk, in the Poltava region, two people were killed and seven injured, said Vitalii Diakivnych, head of the regional military administration, and a rescue operation was continuing.

“That is exactly what the enemy is counting on. For us to be afraid to fall asleep. To let our children out of our sight. To plan anything. So that everyone thinks: Next time it could be my address,” he said.

Russia's Defense Ministry said the military carried out a massive strike overnight targeting industrial facilities involved in the production and storage of missiles and drones across Ukraine. The ministry said that port and ship repair facilities in the southern Odesa region and ships carrying cargo for the Ukrainian military were also hit.

Ukraine has hit back at Russia by launching long-range drones and missiles at oil refineries and storage depots.

Zelensky said Wednesday that Ukraine targeted two oil facilities and a training ground in the Perm, Samara and Astrakhan regions of Russia.

Russian officials made no immediate comment.

Zelensky also indicated that Ukraine had struck in the Black Sea. He posted images of a fire said to show an oil tanker burning in the water near the Russian city of Sochi.

It was not possible to independently verify the images.

Some Russian online media late Tuesday also posted the images. Unconfirmed reports said the tanker was carrying oil from Novorossiysk to India and was attacked by Ukrainian sea drones.

Kullab and Arhirova write for the Associated Press.

A Nobel nod for molecular mirror findings

BY ADITHI

RAMAKRISHNAN,

KOSTYA MANENKOV

AND STEFANIE DAZIO

STOCKHOLM — Scientists Henri B. Kagan and Kenso Soai won the Nobel Prize in chemistry Wednesday for untangling mysterious mirror images in molecules, a discovery that has been used to develop countless drugs and transformed modern medicine.

Many molecules come in versions that look alike but are not exactly identical, like right and left hands. One mirror image of the chemical carvone smells like mint, for example, while the other has a whiff of caraway, a spice often used in rye bread.

Even life itself prefers one mirror image over the other. DNA twists to the right, and the proteins in human bodies are made of mostly left-handed building blocks.

Versions of the same molecule can behave differently when interacting with other chemicals. When designing drugs to treat diseases, scientists want to be choosy about which mirror image they get. They want the version of a molecule to treat a cold, not one that will make the sniffles worse.

Kagan, who is from France, and Soai, from Japan, found ways to make chemistry pick a side, designing and manipulating reactions to produce the desired mirror image.

"The medicines we have today would not be possible without this chemistry," said Rigoberto Hernandez, president of the American Chemical Society.

Scientists paid tribute to Kagan and Soai's work, which the Nobel committee described as a feat never previously achieved by anyone "other than life itself."

"It might be difficult to say that this drug, or that drug, was developed using this," said Peter Somfai, a member of the Nobel Committee for Chemistry. "I would say all of them, because we use this as a tool, we use this as an understanding, how to develop catalysts, how they function."

In the 1980s, Kagan's work showed there might be a way to design reactions to produce one form of a molecule over the other. Years later, Soai perfected the process. He created the first-ever chemical reaction to efficiently produce only one of a molecule's mirror images, in what's now known as the Soai reaction.

"This is probably the

coolest experiment in orga-

nic chemistry," Somfai said.

In addition to developing better medicines or fragrances, deciphering the mirror images of molecules can help scientists understand the chemical architecture of life, said chemist Holden Thorp, editor in chief of the journal Science.

Kagan, 95, is affiliated with the Université Paris-Sud in Orsay, France. Soai, 76, is affiliated with the Tokyo University of Science.

The French Academy of Sciences, of which Kagan is a member, congratulated the two scientists and expressed its pride in the prize.

Neither the Université Paris-Sud nor the Tokyo University of Science immediately responded to requests for comment from the Associated Press.

"I'm very excited to receive the very nice news," Soai told the committee and journalists by phone. "Of course this is one of the most exciting days in my life."

He said he was shopping near his home when he was reached by the Nobel committee.

Former bishop in Australia sentenced for sex abuse

AARON BUNCH AAP Image

FORMER Catholic cleric Christopher Saunders' sentence is more than six years.

Christopher Saunders, 76, was convicted of charges relating to two Indigenous men.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

PERTH, Australia — A former Catholic bishop in Australia was sentenced Wednesday to six years and six months in prison for sexually abusing two young Indigenous men.

A District Court of Western Australia state jury convicted Christopher Saunders, 76, in August of 13 out of 19 charges of sexual abuse that occurred between 2008 and 2019 in his sprawling Broome Diocese on the country's tropical northwest coast.

Saunders will become eligible for parole in February 2031.

Saunders was acquitted of six charges involving a third accuser. He was accused of indecent dealing with a child over the age of 16. The age of consent in Western Australia is 16, but the law raises it to 18 if the older person is in a position of trust, power or responsibility.

Four charges involving a child younger than 13 were dropped on the first day of Saunders' three-week trial.

Saunders is one of the most senior Australian Catholics to be convicted in a global clergy abuse scandal that has faced the Vatican for years.

Cardinal George Pell was convicted of abusing choirboys, and Archbishop Philip Wilson was convicted of covering up child sex abuse by a priest. But both clerics successfully appealed their convictions.

Prosecutors alleged Saunders lured young Indigenous men to his church-owned house with alcohol and cigarettes paid for with church funds.

Saunders led the remote Broome Diocese from 1996 until he resigned in 2021. The Outback diocese covers an area larger than France with only 50,000 people. Most of the region's Catholics are Indigenous.

Archbishop Timothy Costelloe, president of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference, said the sentence recognized the gravity and serious nature of Saunders' offenses.

The sentence also recognized the profound effect on the victims and survivors of Saunders' crimes, Costelloe said.

"To each victim and survivor who courageously revealed what they had endured, we want to say this: We are sorry for the pain and suffering that was inflicted on you. We are sorry that your trust was so di-"

rectly and profoundly be-

trayed by a leader of the

Church," Costelloe said in a

statement.

The Vatican began investigating Saunders in 2022, then handed the Western Australia Police Force a report on its findings the following year. Police charged Saunders in 2024.

Although the report was never officially made public, the findings were leaked to Australia's Seven Network television news, which reported Saunders probably sexually assaulted four Indigenous youths and potentially groomed an additional 67 Indigenous youths and men.

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences announced the winner in Stockholm.

Last year, three scientists won the chemistry Nobel for their development of molecular structures that can trap vast quantities of gas inside, laying the groundwork to potentially suck greenhouse gases out of the atmosphere or harvest moisture from desert environments.

This year's prizes began with the Nobel for medicine, awarded Monday to three scientists whose work led to a tool that uses light to help unravel how the brain works. The physics award Tuesday recognized a scientist's efforts to demystify a rare group of neutrinos.

The literature prize is set to be awarded Thursday. After Friday's peace prize is awarded, the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences will be announced Monday.

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

Ramakrishnan, Manenkov and Dazio write for the Associated Press.

Ramakrishnan reported from New York, Dazio from Berlin. AP journalists Alexa St. John in Detroit, Catherine Gaschka in Paris and Mari Yamaguchi in Tokyo contributed to this report.

Colombia's president offers support to 17 suspects in Haiti assassination

BY ASTRID SUÁREZ

AND MANUEL RUEDA

BOGOTA, Colombia — Colombian President Abelardo de la Espriella offered legal assistance Tuesday to a group of Colombian military veterans who were arrested over the 2021 killing of Haitian President Jovenel Moïse and recently extradited from the Caribbean country to Florida after their case languished for years.

In a message on X, the Colombian leader said his government will provide economic support to the families of the 17 Colombian suspects, who are expected to face trial in Florida. He also said he had ordered Colombia's ministries of justice and defense to provide them with legal support.

"The innocent cannot pay for crimes committed by sinners," De la Espriella wrote. "I want to know exactly what happened and for the responsibility of each individual to be cleared up."

At least 22 Colombian veterans, working for a Florida security contractor, are believed to have been involved in a July 2021 raid on the home of Moïse that resulted in his assassination.

Three Colombians were killed in clashes after the killing, and the other 17 were arrested in Haiti. Another Colombian veteran, Mario Antonio Palacios, escaped from Haiti but was later extradited to Florida, where he was sentenced to life in prison for conspiracy to commit murder and kidnapping.

FERNANDO VERGARA Pool Photo

PRESIDENT Abelardo

de la Espriella called

the veterans "heroes."

In May, an additional four defendants, including a Venezuelan American businessman and a Haitian-American citizen, were convicted of financing and organizing the plot to kill Moïse, whose assassination has been followed by years of political instability and gang violence in the poor Caribbean nation.

The 17 Colombians now held in Florida are among 30 people charged in federal court in the U.S. with crimes in connection with the assassination, including a former Haitian official currently on trial.

Federal prosecutors in the U.S. say south Florida served as a central location for planning and financing the plot to oust Moïse and replace him with someone of the conspirators' choosing.

During hearings with judges in Haiti, some of the Colombian suspects said they had been deceived by recruiters, who lured them to Haiti by telling them they would be providing security for politicians in that coun-

try.

The Colombian suspects have also claimed they were tortured in Haitian prisons and were forced to sign legal documents in a language they did not understand.

“I am absolutely happy that someone finally listens to us,” said Milena Carmona, the wife of Colombian suspect Jheyner Carmona. “We have evidence that shows that they were taken to Haiti to be used as scapegoats” for Moïse’s assassination.

De la Espriella, who was sworn into office in August, has portrayed himself as a staunch supporter of Colombia's armed forces.

In his message on X, he backed the Colombian veterans now being held in Florida.

"I am not the kind of president who abandons his heroes when they face difficulties," De la Espriella said, pledging his government's support for their legal defense "so that this situation can be cleared up."

De la Espriella's comments mark a significant shift in the Colombian government's approach to the suspects.

Last year, former President Gustavo Petro apologized to Haiti's government for the alleged involvement of the Colombian veterans in the assassination.

“I ask for forgiveness, because some white Colombians came here to kill the president of Haiti,” Petro said at the time while visiting the Caribbean nation.

Suárez and Rueda write for the Associated Press.

JULIA DEMAREE NIKHINSON Associated Press

DONALD Trump Jr. speaks with his wife, Bettina, in Dublin last month. The couple were married in May.

Russian oligarch says Trump's son has paid him back

Umar Kremlev had helped bankroll a wedding celebration in the Bahamas.

By Jill Colvin

NEW YORK — The Russian oligarch who helped bankroll Donald Trump Jr.'s wedding celebration says the president's eldest son has paid back the money.

“Yes, he did,” Umar Kremlev told an International Boxing Assn. news conference in Istanbul on Tuesday. “He did repay the money I spent on the present.” Still, he said he felt the repayment was unnecessary.

“Frankly speaking, I do not understand why he decided to do so,” he went on. “There are all kinds of events organized by all kinds of people. It is as if I invite you to come and visit my country house. Would you expect me to issue an invoice to them afterward?” Speaking through an interpreter, he said that would be “ridiculous.”

ProPublica, a nonprofit investigative website, reported last month that Kremlev, who has close ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin, “footed the bill for hundreds of thousands of dollars of wedding expenses” when Trump Jr. married socialite Bettina Anderson in the Bahamas in May. That included paying to rent one of two private islands where the three-day party was held.

In a subsequent post on her Instagram page signed by the couple, Bettina Trump wrote that they had been married “surrounded

ONLY by our family," but that Kremlev, head of the boxing association, was a "dear friend" who "very generously hosted two incredible nights of celebrations for us AFTER our wedding."

President Trump, who did not attend the nuptials, previously defended the arrangement but told reporters that the money would be paid back.

“It’s totally allowed,” he said. “But, as I understand it, he paid them back.”

“That’s very common,” he added, “I’ve given wedding parties to numerous people.”

Kremlev, who was recently honored with the Order of Friendship by Putin, also played down the significance, saying the celebration was “a shared event” and “people blew it out of proportion.”

“I mean, why can’t we be friends? We are just friends,” he went on. “We are simply friends and what unites us is love for sports.”

The focus on Kremlev comes as Russia remains at war with Ukraine following its invasion in 2022 and as Trump has failed to broker a promised peace deal between the nations.

Trump Jr. has been scrutinized over his ties to Russia. During the 2016 campaign, his meeting with a Russian attorney in Trump Tower to discuss potentially incriminating information about his father's then-Democratic opponent was a critical element of investigations into whether the Trump campaign coordinated with Russia to interfere in the election to help Trump win.

Colvin writes for the Associated Press.

THE NATION

Foreign student work fee sought

STUDENTS ARE generally eligible for one year of training after graduation.

BRYNN ANDERSON Associated Press

Proposed \$70,000 charge would hurt training program and colleges' revenue.

BY ANNIE MA

AND HEATHER

HOLLINGSWORTH

WASHINGTON — The Department of Homeland Security on Wednesday proposed a \$70,000 fee for international students seeking to work in the United States, the latest effort from the Trump administration to crack down on foreign enrollment.

A proposed rule would require schools to pay the fee for every student who participates in the optional practice training program, known as OPT, which allows students to work in jobs related to their major during or after their time in school. Students are generally eligible for one year of work post-graduation, though certain science, technology, engineering and math majors are eligible for two additional years.

Schools would be required to pay the \$70,000 for each new student's initial application to the program, and a \$30,000 fee for each renewal.

The change would represent a blow to American colleges and universities that heavily recruit students from overseas as a source of tuition revenue, as well as tech companies and other industries that hire many international students for technical roles.

The OPT program allows international students to gain hands-on experience and fill labor shortages in high-demand STEM fields, said Fanta Aw, chief executive of NAFSA, an association that represents international education.

“Driving away the talents, perspectives, and aspirations of international students will only hurt American innovation, economic growth, workforce development, and global leadership,” Aw said in a written statement.

In a statement, the Department of Homeland Security described the fee as a response to fraud and abuse of the visa program, which it called a “pipeline for cheap foreign labor.”

The public has 60 days to comment on the proposal before Homeland Security can finalize it and put it into effect. The proposal also could face legal challenges from higher education groups or business associations that could delay it.

President Trump's administration has been putting pressure on international students in many ways as part of its wider efforts to crack down on immigration and reshape higher education.

Last year, the Republican administration began suddenly terminating the legal status of thousands of international students, detaining and deporting many of them.

This summer, the administration finalized a rule that sought to prevent international students from staying in the U.S. for more than four years without approval from the federal government. The move drew swift backlash from higher education leaders, who said it would increase the burden on schools and noted that many programs are longer than four years by design. A federal court prevented the rule from taking effect in September.

Ma and Hollingsworth write for the Associated Press and reported from Washington and Mission, Kan., respectively.

Alarm over U.S.' legal plan for migrant youths

BY GISELA SALOMON

MIAMI — The Trump administration is creating a team of attorneys to represent children who traveled alone to the United States in immigration proceedings, which critics say would deprive them of having lawyers who aren't employed by the government and could put them at greater risk of deportation.

The U.S. Health and Human Services Department lawyers will “provide direct legal advice and counsel” to unaccompanied migrant children, according to an announcement in the Federal Register signed by Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. The decision, announced last week without fanfare, offered no details beyond that broad mandate.

Health and Human Services said in a statement that its Unaccompanied Alien Children Legal Representation Division will work under its general counsel's direction toward "safely reuniting these children with their families and ensuring they have the legal support they need."

“This new division will give the Department an additional mechanism to provide these children direct legal support while dedicated public servants work around the clock to safely reunify them with their families,” the department told the Associated Press in a brief statement. It didn’t answer additional questions, including whether it would continue to contract with nongovernmental groups for legal representation or when its new legal division is expected to be fully operational.

The move appears to lay the groundwork for one of the biggest changes since guaranteed free legal representation for unaccompanied migrant children was introduced in 2008. It comes after the administration cut ties with the Acacia Center for Justice, a nongovernmental organization that managed 24,000 cases and held a contract to provide representation through a vast network of legal service providers.

The change means migrant children will not have an independent representative to advocate for them who doesn't have a conflict of interest, said Shaina Aber, the Acacia Center's executive director.

“Placing children's legal representation and services inside of the same agency that holds children in federal immigration custody is an unprecedented step that does not meet basic standards of independence of counsel,” Aber said. It “will only give HHS new opportunities to forsake children's rights and well-being.”

Wendy Young, president of Kids in Need of Defense, a nonprofit that provides free legal representation and social services to unaccompanied children, called the creation of the new in-house government legal team "part of a pattern of attacks that this administration has engaged in, in terms of undermining zealous representation of unaccompanied children in their immigration proceedings."

The new division will work independently from other government agencies that deal with the minors, including the health agency's Office of Refugee Resettlement, which is responsible for the custody and care of the children who arrive in the U.S. without a parent or legal guardian.

There is some precedent for government-paid attorneys defending clients against government prosecutors in civilian and military courts, but as criminal defense lawyers and not in immigration court.

But Young noted that the child's lawyer, the judge, and government attorneys seeking deportation will all be federal employees. Judges are appointed by the Justice Department and prosecutors work at the Department of Homeland Security.

Suit: Trump ads broke propaganda law

"A government attorney who's employed by the government most likely would be coached and encouraged to take the position of encouraging the child to agree to voluntary departure and to leave the United States rather than to present a full representation of the facts of their case," Young said.

ANNA MONEYMAKER Getty Images

PRESIDENT Trump has faced bipartisan backlash for the ads, which glorify him ahead of the midterms.

By Ali Swenson

WASHINGTON — The Democratic National Committee on Wednesday sued President Trump's administration for recent television advertisements that promoted his political message while costing taxpayers millions of dollars.

The complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, alleges that the ads are illegal government-sponsored propaganda and accuses Trump of personally directing them. It asks the court to declare the ads illegal and stop the use of federal funds to pay for them.

Trump has faced bipartisan backlash for the ads, which glorify him and echo his campaign pitch as voters cast early ballots with the midterm elections less than a month away.

The spots, which began airing in September, already have cost more than \$12 million to run, according to the media tracking firm AdImpact, and a total of \$20 million in Homeland Security Department funding has been tapped to pay for them.

Responding Monday to the criticism, Trump defended the ads as “positive promotion for our Great U.S.A.” but said he’d pay for them using his MAGA Inc. super PAC going forward.

But on Tuesday, the fifth ad in the campaign began airing with the notice “paid for by the U.S. Government,” promoting Trump’s military actions in Venezuela earlier this year. The same day, Trump made it clear he hasn’t committed to reimbursing any money that has already been spent, telling reporters “we’ll decide.”

DNC Chair Ken Martin said in a statement that Trump is misusing taxpayer dollars in “a last-ditch attempt to save Republicans in November.”

“Americans deserve better than to have their hard-earned tax dollars used for Trump’s illegal schemes,” he added.

Legal experts have suggested the ads run afoul of a federal statute against congressionally appropriated money being used for “publicity or propaganda,” and potentially other federal laws. The Homeland Security money tapped for the ads comes from a \$175-million package Congress gave to the department as part of Trump's immigration enforcement agenda.

The White House has defended the ads as public service announcements akin to what past administrations have done to promote various policies. Legal experts have said the ads differ from many past public service announcements because they aren't aimed at helping members of the public benefit from specific government programs.

The defendants in the lawsuit — Trump, the White House, Homeland Security, and the Office of Management and Budget — didn't immediately respond to requests for comment.

Swenson writes for the Associated Press.

Amid the uncertainty, children have been going to their court hearings without legal representation lately, according to advocates.

Americans for Immigrant Justice, another nonprofit that provides free legal representation to unaccompanied immigrant children, said it has been challenging to secure lawyers for the minors since the government suspended funding to legal aid organizations on July 31 through Acacia.

Sui Chung, the group's executive director, said the need for legal representation exceeds the available resources.

"To deny legal counsel to the most vulnerable among us — children who have already fled trauma — is a fundamental breakdown of the fairness our Constitution promises," Chung said. "Children deserve our strongest protection."

The government recently awarded a contract to another organization, Our Rescue, with a potential value of up to \$244 million. The transition to Our Rescue, which has been challenged by Acacia, has led to short-term arrangements, including a temporary contract with the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants.

Salomon writes for the Associated Press.

Technology That Stays Ahead of the Unpredictable.

---

Always monitoring. Always ready. Always on.

Weather data, satellite imagery, cameras, radar, and live fire intelligence feeds are constantly working together

to help protect your home or business. The system stays connected through WiFi, cellular, or satellite communications, with battery backup and built-in redundancies designed to help maintain connectivity when it matters most.

When a wildfire threatens, the automated system delivers water and Class A firefighting foam exactly where and when it’s needed, helping conserve water while protecting your property. With all this, embers don’t stand a chance.

---

Call 1-866-571-1665

to install the system that saved 59 of the 61 homes it protected in the 2025 LA Wildfires.\*

---

FRONTLINE® WILDFIRE DEFENSE

\*Past results are not a predictor of future performance. Based on 2025 Los Angeles wildfire outcomes: 59 of 61 Frontline-protected homes remained intact, though some experienced minor damage. Not all homes were within the official burn perimeter but were in areas at risk from ember exposure or active wildfire conditions. Results may vary. ©2026 Frontline Wildfire Defense, Inc. All rights reserved.

A community without a champion in Congress

A MEAT market is closed in the once-prosperous Scotlandville community of 10,000 in Baton Rouge, La.

The Black residents of Scotlandville, La., have seen legal fights play out up close.

BY GARY FIELDS

SCOTLANDVILLE, La. — If you cross the Mississippi River on the Huey P. Long-O.K. Allen Bridge, pass the Exxon refinery, then head north for a few minutes, you'll find a pocket of Louisiana that's unlike any other place in America's never-ending battle over what it means to have equal representation.

Here is Scotlandville, which was once its own unincorporated town but is now part of Baton Rouge. It's a nearly all-Black community of 10,000 people that has been, for the second time, shuffled around on the state's congressional map to make it part of a majority-white district. Both times it was during the term of the same representative.

The first time was 1996, when a group of voters sued to redraw the lines. The second time was earlier this year, after the U.S. Supreme Court decided that a core part of the Voting Rights Act intended to protect minorities' political rights was unconstitutional.

The ruling led to cascading changes around the American South, but the case originated in Louisiana — specifically the 6th Congressional District that included Scotlandville. This is where Democratic Rep. Cleo Fields, 63, grew up poor and attended local schools before graduating from nearby Southern University A&M, eventually climbing the ranks to the U.S. House.

Now he plans to leave Washington and return to the Legislature instead of running for reelection in a race that he sees little chance of winning because the district boundaries have been altered dramatically. Scotlandville will no longer be represented by a native son, someone who people believed instinctively understood their challenges and offered a direct line to power and influence in the nation's capital.

"We're back to where we were right after Reconstruction," said Press Robinson Sr., 89, who has spent years working on issues involving the congressional map. "When they redistrict, they are not concerned about the effect it has on those of us who are people of color."

The methods have changed over the years, he said, but the intent has not.

“They disenfranchise people of color and they’ve done it again,” Robinson said.

Congressional districts are core to debates over racial equality in the South, where white leaders spent decades using gerrymandering to ensure Black people couldn't gain enough power to elect their own representatives.

The Voting Rights Act signed by Democratic President Lyndon Johnson in 1965 was supposed to fix that. Among other things, it required states and jurisdictions with a history of racial discrimination to get approval from the U.S. Department of Justice before congressional maps could take effect. It also allowed people to sue to challenge laws and procedures that would deny them the chance to elect candidates of their choice.

That didn't settle the issue, however, and there has been a series of legal battles since then. Fields' political career has tracked those twists and turns over the years.

He first came to Congress in 1993 when Scotlandville was part of the 4th District, which had been redrawn to create a majority-Black seat. A federal court said in 1996 the boundaries that zigzagged from the northwest portion of the state to the Baton Rouge area were unconstitutional.

Scotlandville shifted to the 6th District, which was then predominantly white, and Fields became a state senator. But he had an opening to return to Washington when Robinson and other plaintiffs challenged how the state drew its maps following the 2020 census.

A 2023 court decision involving Alabama also affected Louisiana, requiring the state to draw new district lines to achieve fairer representation for minorities. The district became majority-Black again, and

Fields won the seat in 2024.

Another wave of litigation was already starting, and the issue soon reached the U.S. Supreme Court once more. The new lawsuit by a group of non-Black voters dovetailed with a separate effort by President Trump to push Republican-led states to redraw their maps to help his party keep control of Congress in this year's midterms.

The high court's conservative majority said Fields' district was unconstitutional. Louisiana, Alabama and Tennessee raced to redo their U.S. House districts in time for the November elections.

In Alabama, Democratic Rep. Shomari Figueres is fighting to hold on to his seat, where Black voting age population dropped from 50% to 40% under the new political lines, according to an Associated Press analysis of the citizen voting age population in his redrawn district. In Tennessee, the majority-Black district anchored by Memphis was split between three others.

Fields' district went from being $53\%$ Black to $25\%$ in the new one. He announced in July that he wasn't going to run for re-election.

Blocks from the main entrance to Southern University A&M, a small crowd hung around a convenience store, but people were unwilling to talk about politics, eyeing strangers suspiciously. One younger man said he didn't know who represents the area on the city council, let alone in Congress.

Frank Levy, 56, the cashier, said people's apathy created the political environment that allowed for gerrymandering to occur again.

“A lot of people don’t even think about politics like this,” he said. “They don’t understand.”

About five minutes away, Dakasha Caulfield Leonard, 48, sat in the chapel of Scott's Bluff Morticians, a nearly century-old fixture in the business community. Leonard returned two years ago to take over the funeral home when her father, who purchased it in the 1990s, became ill. She is worried about what will happen when Fields is no longer in office.

"The community is small and everybody knows everybody. Cleo is a member of our community," she said. "If he doesn't speak up and carry our voices, there's nobody else to do that for us."

Scenic Highway is one of the main thoroughfares in Scotlandville, and it once featured family businesses and restaurants as part of a prosperous self-contained Black community.

It's faded over time. The centerpiece boulevard has become blighted by empty lots and vacant buildings.

But deeper into the community is the Louisiana Leadership Institute, a sprawling complex that includes a full-scale gymnasium, classrooms, a fine arts center, a football field and a stadium with artificial turf. A thousand-seat amphitheater is being built.

The campus is the legacy of Fields, who founded the institute as the Congressional Classroom in 1993, during his first stint in Washington, and secured a mix of public and private funding for it. Over the decades since, it has hosted government, civics and leadership classes, and it's created opportunities to travel and experience art and music and see government work in Washington.

"I wanted to engage young people," Fields said. "Everything you see with the institute is result of me being a member of Congress." The goal, he said, was to bring the workings of the federal government and other experiences to kids who had grown up like him.

Baton Rouge Councilman Anthony Kenney Jr., 29, is one of the human legacies, taking advantage of the course offerings, training and opportunities at the center as a young student.

“Congressman Fields is someone I’ve known my entire life,” Kenney said. “I actually grew up in the Louisiana Leadership Institute. I was talking about civics, how to get involved in government, how to do policy, how to move legislation as a young child.”

Kenney is now responsible for improving the roads, plumbing, drainage and sidewalks around Scotlandville, describing it as essential for attracting new businesses.

He said it was “devastating” to see what happened to Fields.

“It’s important for us to have representation that not only is from here, raised here, but actually lived through that same experiences,” Kenney said.

Fields writes for the Associated Press. AP data reporter Hannah Recht in Washington contributed to this report.

FBI says it thwarted terrorist attack on the Mall of America

Agents supplied the Minnesota man, 18, with an assault rifle, then arrested him.

BY ELLEN SCHMIDT AND GENE JOHNSON

MINNEAPOLIS — FBI agents thwarted a terrorist attack by a man on the Mall of America after monitoring him for nearly two years and ultimately supplying him with the assault rifle he planned to use, authorities said Wednesday.

The 18-year-old had been on the FBI's radar since December 2024, when he began trading messages with a confidential informant. A criminal complaint says he initially expressed an interest in traveling overseas to fight for the extremist group al-Shabab. As his plans to instead attack the mall solidified, it says, agents sold him an AK-47 and ammunition on Tuesday and arrested him on the spot.

“This was a radicalized young man who needed to be watched,” U.S. Atty. Daniel Rosen said. Agents “were able to detect a threat, and disrupt it, before the defendant carried out his intention to kill, in his words, maybe 30 to 60 people.”

Sheikhdoon Abdullahi Mohamud was arrested Tuesday in a public park in Richfield, Minn., several miles northwest of the Mall of America, after he paid \$600 to an undercover FBI employee posing as a member of ISIS for the rifle and 200 rounds of ammunition, the agency said.

Mohamud appeared in a yellow jail uniform for his initial appearance Wednesday in federal court in St.

Paul. He told the judge he did not have a job, own a house or a car, or have any money in the bank. He was represented by Siri Carlson McDowell, a federal public defender. Carlson McDowell and relatives of Mohamud declined to comment after the hearing.

According to an FBI agent's sworn complaint, Mohamud repeatedly affirmed in chat messages to the informant that he intended to attack and kill non-Muslims at the mall on Oct. 24, the date of a Hmong arts celebration.

When the informant asked if he was serious about committing the attack, Mohamud replied, "yes i am 100% sure," the complaint said, and added: "I would have backed out by now if I wasn't sure."

Rosen said Mohamud is an American-born U.S. citizen of Somali descent. The agent wrote that Mohamud's messages expressed admiration for recent terrorist attacks as well as an interest in traveling to Somalia to join ISIS.

The man came to the FBI's attention in December 2024, the same month the source began exchanging messages with him, the complaint said. By May 2025, agents were concerned enough that they went to his home. His mother told them he wasn't home from school yet and called the boy's father, who declined to speak with them and said he would give their contact information to his lawyer, the complaint said.

Schmidt and Johnson write for the Associated Press. Johnson reported from Seattle. AP reporter Philip Marcelo in New York contributed to this report.

Pike conscious after attempted execution

CHRISTA PIKE'S attorneys hold a news conference after a hearing in Nashville.

GEORGE WALKER IV Pool Photo

BY KIM CHANDLER

AND KRISTIN M. HALL

NASHVILLE — Christa Pike is “angry and confused” after regaining consciousness almost six days after Tennessee’s failed attempt to execute her, one of her attorneys said Wednesday after a judge told the state to preserve evidence related to Pike’s case.

Pike, 50, survived even after executioners tried to give her two lethal doses of pentobarbital on Sept. 30. She was sentenced to death for the 1995 beating and stabbing death of classmate Colleen Slemmer.

“She is angry and confused about everything right now. ... She is very aware of what they did to her up to a point,” Randy Spivey said during a news conference.

“I do not have an explanation for what happened between Monday night and Tuesday morning, but I do know she has a long road to recovery,” Spivey said.

The Death Penalty Information Center says Pike is the only person to survive after receiving lethal injection drugs during an execution.

At a hearing Wednesday in Nashville, Pike's attorneys asked the court to order the Tennessee Department of Correction to save evidence in the case and provide more information about what went wrong. A judge ordered the state to preserve “anything that was in the actual room.”

“Part of the issue that we are facing is up until yesterday, our client was unconscious, unable to communicate with counsel, unable to communicate with medical providers, and without her consent” a new lawsuit cannot be filed, Luke Ihnen, a federal public defender, told the court.

Her legal team said Tuesday that Pike's prognosis remains unclear and, at a minimum, she faces a lengthy recovery. Her arms were burned and blistered after the attempted lethal injection and she is handcuffed to the hospital bed, they said.

The failed execution has renewed scrutiny of how states carry out the death penalty, in particular the use of lethal injection. Texas was set to carry out Wednesday the first execution in the U.S. since Tennessee attempted to put Pike to death.

Pike's attorneys wanted a court order to require the prison system to preserve information from the attempted execution, including drug lot numbers, needles, execution logs and other information.

Chancery Court Judge I'Ashea Myles indicated that her order to save the evidence would be sweeping, saying the state should maintain recordings, witness accounts, emails along with drugs, syringes, IV lines and other medical items.

The Tennessee Attorney General's Office said a court order was unnecessary. John W. Ayers, assistant attorney general, said evidence from the death chamber already had been collected and logged.

Republican Gov. Bill Lee has called what happened “deeply disturbing” and ordered a “comprehensive, third-party review to determine exactly what occurred.” The governor postponed the state’s only other execution scheduled for this year.

The state's prison chief resigned in the wake of the failed execution.

Medical and lethal injection experts have focused on the possibility that a problem with the IV line caused the drug to pool in her tissue rather than entering her bloodstream. Pike's attorneys wrote in their court filing that "apparently at no point did any member of the execution team realize that the IV lines were not correctly placed or that the veins had blown."

The attempted execution began about 7:30 p.m. on Sept. 30 when Pike was given a chance to make a final statement. About five minutes later, Pike raised her head and said her arm was hurting. At some point she appeared to lose consciousness, but she could be heard audibly breathing until reporters were escorted from the witness room at 8:53 p.m. An ambulance arrived at the prison at 9:14 p.m. to take Pike to a hospital.

Dr. Joel Zivot, a professor of anesthesiology and surgery in Atlanta who consulted as an expert for Pike's legal team, said it could be weeks or months before anyone knows exactly what her recovery might look like, and whether her competency could be restored so the state can try again to execute her.

Chandler and Hall write for the Associated Press. AP writers Ed White in Detroit and John Seewer, in Toledo, Ohio, contributed to this report.

FBI targeted ICE protesters, report alleges

[FBI, from A1]

A DEMONSTRATOR confronts troops in L.A. in June 2025. President Trump ordered the FBI to investigate protesters, a report says.

CARLIN STIEHL Los Angeles Times

Trump's former lawyer and now a federal appellate court judge — had instructed FBI leaders in Los Angeles to investigate “any anti-ICE and CBP protesters demonstrating at federal buildings in Los Angeles,” which surprised her because “investigations against protestors solely for First Amendment activity are explicitly illegal and contrary to FBI policy.”

She said that she refused to participate and isn't sure whether the investigations were formally launched, but that she "observed that personnel and analytical resources were immediately diverted from ongoing criminal investigations to address the Alhambra matter."

Fields said she was reassigned after taking her concerns beyond her direct chain of command, and ultimately resigned.

She alleges that the conduct “had significant consequences for constitutional rights, and the integrity and effective operation of the FBI,” and that her reassignment “created a chilling effect within the workforce” by signaling to other employees that “raising constitutional or legal concerns could carry professional consequences.”

Lauren Bis, a White House spokesperson, denied the allegations.

"The First Amendment does not protect violent rioting, obstructing law enforcement, and assaulting law enforcement. Assaulting and obstructing law enforcement is a crime," she said in a statement. "This administration has been clear: anyone who assaults or obstructs law enforcement will be arrested and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law."

The FBI and the Justice Department said in a joint statement that under Trump, “the Department of Justice will continue to vigorously uphold the First Amendment rights of all Americans,” but that “violence is not protected by the First Amendment" and that "politically motivated attacks will not deter us from doing our job."

They said “conspiracies to impede federal law enforcement and assaults on federal officers are against the law.”

The Los Angeles region was a hotbed of protest amid an intense immigration crackdown by the Trump administration last year.

Federal prosecutors in Los Angeles have pursued a slew of criminal cases against protesters involved in those demonstrations, although many of the cases have been dismissed, reduced to misdemeanor charges or rejected by grand juries. Legal experts have said the failure rate raised concerns about the strength of the cases being brought by First Assistant U.S. Atty. Bill Essayli, whose leadership of the Los Angeles prosecutors office without Senate confirmation is being challenged in court, but high-ranking Justice Department officials have praised Essayli's work.

Essayli called Fields' claims false, including in response to a social media post Tuesday by Padilla recounting them.

"The FBI investigated those obstructing law enforcement and engaging in assault, such as punching and spitting (my office charged more than 100 individuals with such crimes)," Essayli wrote. "There is no First Amendment right to violently resist federal officers enforcing immigration laws passed by Congress."

Padilla wrote a letter to Patel and U.S. Atty. Gen. Todd Blanche on Monday demanding answers to a slate of questions about Justice Department investigations of protesters, their origins and outcomes, and any involvement from the White

House.

He wrote that Blanche and Patel have told Congress that “cases would be based only on the facts and the law, free from political interference,” but that the whistleblower report “depicts an FBI and DOJ willing to surveil individuals solely for First Amendment activity criticizing the Administration—at the behest of the White House and Trump loyalists, over the objection of senior staff, and in contravention of agency policy and the Constitution.”

The video from Alhambra that Fields said she was told prompted Trump to demand investigations, and which Padilla shared, was posted to TikTok by the League of United Latin American Citizens on Feb. 26, 2025. LULAC did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday.

The video depicts protesters using megaphones calmly reminding others who appear to be the focus of nearby immigration enforcement about their legal rights and the fact that agents need a legitimate, court-issued warrant to enter their homes—and telling them to not open their doors if the agents don't have one.

A MAN hauls water through downtown Los Angeles' Fashion District on a scooter amid a heat wave Sept. 9.

GARY CORONADO For The Times

Water bills among nation's priciest

[Water, from A1]

systems that pump and transport river water long distances, which is expensive. Santa Barbara also has a desalination plant.

The group compared water bills in 2025 with 2015, calculating the annual amount for a typical household using 60,000 gallons of water indoors, or about 50 gallons per person per day. It didn't consider water for landscaping.

Over the last decade, the bills charged by 91 California water utilities increased by 83% on average, the researchers said. Last year, the average bill was \$693.

The State Water Resources Control Board tracks water affordability in California. The board's staff, who had not yet read the report, pointed out the state uses lower estimates for how much water people use, and its data show significantly lower bills for some of the California utilities cited in the report, such as San Jose Water Co., Sacramento and Oceanside.

The board's data for utilities across the state show the typical monthly bill has increased by an average of 17% since 2022, higher than the 14.5% rise in consumer prices since then.

Karla Nemeth, executive director of the Assn. of California Water Agencies, said there are many pressures driving water rates up in California, including “aging infrastructure, inefficient permitting processes, and a lack of sustainable state and federal investment.”

San Jose Water Co., which serves about 1 million customers, disputed the group's findings, saying it used “erroneously aggregated data to perform an analysis that grabs headlines.” It said data from the California Public Utilities Commission show it's not the highest-cost water utility in the state.

Since 2021, San Jose Water Co. has invested more than \$1 billion in infrastructure including pipes, pumps and plants. The utility said 42% of what customers pay is a “mandated pass-through to our water wholesaler, Valley Water, which we have no control over.”

The National Assn. of

Water Companies also took issue with the report, saying that comparing rates for the largest 1% of water systems paints an incomplete and misleading picture, and that people shouldn't draw “broad conclusions from unvalidated, raw rate comparisons.”

The researchers found that for-profit corporate water utilities charged 67% more than the government-owned systems they analyzed nationwide — an additional \$329 a year on average.

In California, municipal utilities face constraints in raising rates under Proposition 218, a ballot initiative passed in 1996 that says fees must reflect the costs of providing service.

Proposition 218 does not apply to for-profit water companies, which must seek approval for rate increases from the California Public Utilities Commission.

In its report, Food & Water Watch urged state and local governments to ban privatization of water utilities. It called for the federal government to provide more financial support to improve aging water infrastructure and help keep costs in check.

“Water rates are going up nationwide, in every corner of the country,” Grant said. “And water systems need federal support to make necessary improvements to keep water safe and resilient in the face of climate change, without pricing households out of service.”

Last week, Gov. Gavin Newsom vetoed a bill that would have helped low-income Californians pay rising water bills using public funds.

Newsom said in his veto message that he couldn't support creating a permanent water rate assistance program "without identifying a sustainable, ongoing funding source."

Michael Claiborne, an attorney at the nonprofit Leadership Counsel for Justice & Accountability, said that although the governor's veto was disappointing, "it will not halt the momentum generated this year toward a consensus policy that can help make water more affordable for all Californians."

Ex-CIA official is guilty of fraud

BY MICHAEL KUNZELMAN

WASHINGTON — A former senior CIA official pleaded guilty on Tuesday in Virginia to a charge that he abused his position and government funds to enrich himself by acquiring Florida real estate and hundreds of gold bars worth more than \$40 million, according to court records.

David J. Rush fabricated a “highly classified” government program to justify the acquisition of luxury property in south Florida that he intended to resell for personal profit, according to a court filing. Rush separately concocted a bogus “sensitive government activity” to obtain the gold bars, the filing says.

Rush's fraudulent conduct cost the federal government about \$194 million in total losses, according to the Justice Department.

Prosecutors also accuse Rush of lying to colleagues and government contractors about his military and academic credentials and the fake program that he invented, falsely claiming it was authorized by high-ranking U.S. officials.

“Rush used his legitimate government authority and manufactured personal bona fides to create confidence in his directions,” the court filing says.

Rush, 49, of Ashburn, Va., pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud, which carries a maximum prison sentence of 20 years, court records show. District Judge Michael Nachmanoff is scheduled to sentence Rush on Jan. 28 in Alexandria, Va.

Several months ago, Rush tried to fraudulently authorize the release of \$100 million from a government contract, according to Tuesday's filing. He directed somebody else to transfer approximately \$145 million to a holding company formed at his direction, then used those funds to acquire four “luxury” properties in Palm Beach and Hobe Sound, Fla., the filing says.

In previous court filings, prosecutors said Rush stashed roughly \$46 million worth of gold bars from the federal government at his

Virginia home. They also accused him of fraudulently claiming tens of thousands of dollars in compensation for military leave after he was honorably discharged from the U.S. Navy in 2015.

“Federal employees are entrusted with serving the American people, not themselves,” U.S. Atty. Gen. Todd Blanche said in a statement.

CIA Director John Ratcliffe said the agency immediately referred the matter to the FBI after an internal investigation turned up evidence of Rush's crimes.

“David Rush abused his position and betrayed the public trust and should be held fully accountable for his actions,” Ratcliffe said in a statement.

Rush was arrested after investigators searched his home and seized approximately 300 gold bars, roughly \$2 million in U.S. currency and about 35 luxury watches, according to an FBI agent's affidavit. A judge ordered Rush to be held without bond after his initial court appearance earlier this year.

During a hearing in June, defense attorney Jessica Carmichael said Rush wasn't charged initially with any crimes related to the discovery of the gold bars, which she referred to as "basically a nonissue" and "nothing more than a sensational tidbit." She said her client properly obtained the gold bars and kept them in a safe in his basement.

“Mr. Rush never claimed they were his,” Carmichael said.

Carmichael declined to comment on Rush's guilty plea Tuesday.

Authorities say Rush lied on job applications, falsely claiming to be a former Navy pilot with a bachelor's degree from Clemson University in South Carolina and a master's degree from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in New York.

Rush enlisted in the Navy in 1997 and was honorably discharged from the U.S. Navy Reserve as a lieutenant in 2015, according to the FBI affidavit.

Kunzelman writes for the Associated Press.

Researchers aim to control HIV without drugs

PATIENT VOLUNTEERS received experimental treatments to strengthen different parts of their immune response, then stopped.

JUSTIN SULLIVAN Getty Images

Doctors at pioneering clinic in San Francisco pursue next advance amid federal cutbacks.

BY JASON GALE

Ever since Steven Deeks began treating HIV and AIDS patients at San Francisco General Hospital in 1993, he was drawn into their community and became especially interested in those whose illness didn't behave as expected.

Why did some deteriorate more slowly than others? Was their virus different, or was there something unusual about their immune systems?

More than three decades later, Deeks is one of the field's leading researchers and still sees patients at San Francisco General's Ward 86, one of the world's leading AIDS clinics. In that time, AIDS has killed more than 40 million people worldwide, even as HIV medicine has been transformed. Deeks watched combination antiretroviral therapy turn a routinely fatal infection into a manageable chronic disease, and prevention drugs make it possible to stop infections before and after exposure.

But antiretroviral drugs suppress HIV rather than eliminate it. Stop treatment, and the virus almost always returns. That has kept alive the question those early patients first prompted for Deeks: Can the immune system itself be trained to control HIV?

Now Deeks and his colleagues have evidence that it can.

Starting in 2020, 10 people with HIV each made about 50 visits to what is known today as Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital for an unusually intensive study Deeks designed and led. They received a series of experimental treatments designed to strengthen different parts of their immune response. Then, under close medical supervision, they stopped taking the daily antiretroviral drugs that kept the virus suppressed.

Normally, HIV rebounds within weeks. Seven of the 10 kept the virus under control without treatment. Six maintained low levels for months. In one participant, HIV still hadn't rebounded to detectable levels more than 18 months later, Deeks and his colleagues reported in the journal Nature in December.

A follow-up analysis released in June found signs that the immune system was being mobilized weeks before HIV became detectable again, offering clues to how the treatment may have primed some participants to contain the returning virus. The study was small and lacked a control group, and the treatment remains far too complex for routine use. But the result provides evidence that something Deeks has pursued for decades actually works.

“For the first time ever, we and others are showing that we can meaningfully reshape the immune response to HIV so that it leads to partial control, at least in some people,” Deeks says.

The hope is to turn that proof of concept into something far simpler: a treatment that could give people with HIV lasting control of the virus without continuous antiretroviral therapy. The next challenge is to understand which parts of Deeks' elaborate regimen produced that control, then find simpler ways to reproduce it in far more people.

That could take years.

And the advance comes at a precarious moment for HIV research as the U.S. government cuts funding for some programs and leaves the future of others uncertain. Deeks' decades-long path shows how long it can take to reach a breakthrough — and the importance of not interrupting such research.

---

Conventional thinking

Deeks was 30 when he joined Ward 86, with little research experience.

To some established staff, he was initially something of a mystery.

“Who is this guy? Why is he here?” Dr. Paul Volberding, who hired Deeks, recalls people wondering. The skepticism didn't last long. Deeks was “totally dedicated and brighter than [heck],” says Volberding, who treated San Francisco General's first AIDS patient on his own first day at the hospital in 1981.

What distinguished Deeks was a willingness to follow unexpected findings in his patients, even when conventional thinking couldn't readily explain them. One of his earliest lessons came from Jeff Getty, a prominent AIDS activist who was running out of options. Getty and Deeks began pursuing an extraordinary idea: transplanting bone marrow cells from a baboon, a primate naturally resistant to HIV, in the hope the cells might establish an immune system the virus couldn't destroy.

The audacious 1995 experiment attracted worldwide attention, but the transplant failed. Within two months, researchers could find no baboon cells in Getty's immune system, and he wasn't cured.

Nevertheless, Getty's health improved significantly. Deeks believed the unexpected result was related not to the transplant itself but to the radiation and chemotherapy used to suppress his immune system in preparation for the donor marrow.

The experiment also pushed Deeks toward another emerging approach: genetically reprogramming a patient's own immune cells to attack HIV using an early form of CAR T-cell therapy, which engineers immune cells to recognize and attack specific targets.

“I learned very early on in my career that if I just got blood from my interesting patients” and studied it, “things that we never thought could happen were happening in real time,” Deeks says.

It became Deeks' way of doing science, and Ward 86 was particularly fertile ground, with patients participating in studies of new HIV treatments and everyday clinical care continually raising new questions about the disease. Over time, Deeks' approach grew into Scope, a long-running UC San Francisco study that turned the clinic into what he calls a "living laboratory."

A major breakthrough in HIV treatment came in the mid-1990s, when powerful combinations of antiretroviral drugs began suppressing the virus in people who had seemed destined to die. Doctors initially struggled to trust what they were seeing.

"At first, I'm not sure we really believed it," Volberding recalls.

In San Francisco, annual AIDS deaths fell from more than 1,000 in 1995 to fewer than 200 three years later. Over the decades that followed, treatment continued to improve. Modern drugs can suppress HIV so effectively that people can live for decades and not sexually transmit the virus when viral levels remain undetectable.

Yet the drugs don't eliminate HIV, which can hide for years inside long-living immune cells. Eliminating every one of those cells has proved extraordinarily difficult. Deeks pondered a different possibility: Perhaps the immune system could instead be taught to control whatever virus remained.

Rare patients known as elite controllers offered evidence that such management was possible naturally. In the mid-1990s, infectious-disease physician Bruce Walker, now director of the Ragon Institute in Cambridge, Mass., met a man who'd been infected since 1978 without treatment or signs of disease.

"I just felt this chill go down my spine," Walker recalls. "I thought, 'Oh, my God, maybe not everybody dies of this disease. Maybe the immune system can actually combat it.'"

Walker went on to spend decades studying such patients and discovered that so-called killer T cells helped keep HIV in check. Early experiments suggested that immune control could be strengthened, but making that last proved far harder.

Then came even more promising evidence. In 2011 a man who'd recently moved to San Francisco came to Deeks looking for a new doctor. He was Timothy Ray Brown, the so-called Berlin patient — the first person widely believed to have been cured of HIV.

Brown had undergone a stem-cell transplant in Germany in 2007 to treat leukemia. The donor cells carried a rare genetic mutation that prevents HIV from entering its usual target cells, and when Brown stopped taking antiretroviral drugs, the virus didn't come back.

“Timothy, we have so many questions,” Deeks recalls telling him. “We can only answer them if we just torture you. Are you willing to be tortured?”

Brown agreed. The “torture” included spinal taps, biopsies and repeated blood draws as researchers searched for traces of HIV and tried to understand what had happened to him.

“That was our first cure study,” Deeks says.

Brown's treatment was far too dangerous to offer people who didn't need a stem-cell transplant for another disease. But his case established something profound: HIV persistence wasn't necessarily irreversible.

Deeks and his colleagues set out to turn the exceptional immune control seen in patients like Brown into something that could be induced in others.

---

A cat waiting to pounce

With the 10 volunteers, they tried several approaches at once, including a therapeutic vaccine to boost HIV-fighting T cells and laboratory-made antibodies intended to restrain the virus and help rally the immune system against it.

Rachel Rutishauser, a UC San Francisco immunologist who co-led the study, says some of the immune cells they tracked appeared primed to react quickly when HIV reemerged — like a cat waiting to pounce on a mouse. The result resembled the kind of natural control scientists had observed decades earlier in elite controllers.

Deeks' group is also seeing encouraging signs from CAR T-cell therapy, and three decades after he tested an early version, researchers are again using the approach. The technology has also transformed treatment for some blood cancers and is showing promise in severe autoimmune diseases such as lupus.

An update on a separate nine-person study presented in Ghent, Belgium, in September showed Deeks and his colleagues had genetically engineered patients' own T cells to recognize HIV before infusing them back into the body. Two participants have kept the virus suppressed for extended periods without anti-retroviral treatment — one of them for more than two years.

David Collins, who led a separate study at the Ragon Institute, says multiple research groups are beginning to identify mechanisms associated with control after treatment stops. “We’re finding pieces and putting them together,” he says.

The vaccine field is trying to solve a related immune puzzle. In work published in Nature in June, researchers led by Shane Crotty and William Schief showed that sequential vaccinations could guide the immune systems of monkeys through a series of steps needed to generate broadly neutralizing antibodies against HIV.

That achievement took 14 years. The National Institutes of Health funding that supported the work ended on the same day the paper was published, a coincidence Crotty called “quite bittersweet.”

Other parts of the HIV research infrastructure are also being wound down or face an uncertain future.

Grants to long-running NIH research groups that helped develop vaccine and antibody strategies aren't being renewed, while the future of clinical trial networks supporting vaccine, prevention and treatment research remains unresolved after next year. NIH-funded collaborations established to pursue a cure — including one led by Deeks — face funding decisions after 2027.

The impact could extend well beyond HIV. Decades of AIDS research helped lay the groundwork for advances in cancer treatment and the rapid development of COVID-19 tests, drugs and vaccines, says Deborah Birx, who served as White House coronavirus response coordinator in 2020-21. "This fundamental work that everybody toiled on created the ability to move at light speed across all of these areas," she says.

Walking through Ward 86, Deeks points out the rooms where Volberding and Donald Abrams, another pioneering AIDS physician, began seeing patients with Kaposi sarcoma, a type of cancer that develops when the immune system is weak, in the early 1980s. Farther down the hall was a room where gurneys would be lined up for people needing pain medication and fluids.

“Those days are long gone,” he says.

Deeks still spends half a day every week at Ward 86 providing primary care to people with HIV. Some have been his patients since the 1990s. “We’ve grown old together,” Deeks says.

The clinic has evolved with them. It offers a broad range of HIV services, including a walk-in program for patients struggling with homelessness and unstable housing. Ward 86 is still cramped in its aging building, though it feels clean and fresh.

Through all that change, one rule of HIV medicine remained remarkably stubborn: Stop treatment, and the virus comes back.

The exceptions kept telling Deeks something else. Now researchers are trying to turn the exceptions into the rule.

Gale writes for Bloomberg.

Collapse of a famous sea arch on Big Island in Hawaii prompts warning of unstable cliffs

ASSOCIATED PRESS

HAWAII VOLCANOES NATIONAL PARK — A scenic cliff on the wave-swept coast of Hawaii's Big Island has collapsed, the National Park Service said.

The Holei Sea Arch, located in Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, was about 90 feet high before it collapsed sometime between Sept. 23 and Sept. 27, possibly when the park was temporarily closed during Tropical Storm Nolo.

Its collapse into the Pacific Ocean was not unexpected; however, the incident marks “the latest transformation of the park’s remote and rugged coastline," the NPS said in a Facebook post.

People reacting to the post called it a sign of nature taking its course.

Officials at the Park Service warned visitors to stay away from the site since it is unstable and presents a serious falling hazard.

"Photos on social media show people entering the closed area near where the sea arch once stood, putting themselves and first responders at great risk of falling and drowning," the Park Service said.

The popular tourist site was formed about 550 years ago.

The name Holei comes from a small endemic plant in the milkweed family.

CALEB JONES Associated Press

THE HOLEI Sea Arch, shown in 2021 in Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, fell between Sept. 23 and 27.

Bloc hits market amid signs of bottoming out

By ROGER VINCENT

The Bloc, a massive mixed-use complex in the heart of downtown Los Angeles, is on the block for sale as the commercial property market shows signs it is bottoming out, with buildings changing hands at big discounts.

The complex fills a city block in the financial district with an office skyscraper, the high-rise Sheraton Grand hotel and a shopping center that is home to a Uniqlo and Alamo Drafthouse Cinema.

It is an unofficial downtown landmark that was considered chic when it opened as an indoor mall in the 1970s. For years, tourists flocked to the premiere address at 7th and Flower streets.

By 2013, then-Macy's Plaza had devolved into a dated, downscale relic that got little love despite its location near offices, hotels and a busy subway interchange.

L.A. developer Wayne Ratkovich launched a challenging makeover project that included tearing the roof off of the central courtyard to make it an outdoor shopping center, adding shops and restaurants along the sidewalk, and punching a portal to the 7th Street/Metro Center station.

Unexpected construction issues slowed work and helped drive costs well over the original \$180-million budget to more than \$250 million, and Ratkovich Co. sold its interest in the property in 2018 to one of its financial partners, National Real Estate Advisors, which is now selling the property.

The nearly 500-room Sheraton will be sold separately from the rest of the complex, said real estate broker Mike Condon Jr. of Cushman & Wakefield, who is managing the sale of the 1.2-million-square-foot office and retail portion of the Bloc.

Condon said a price hasn't been set, but a real estate expert familiar with the property but not authorized to speak about it publicly said the office and retail portion is worth about \$160 million.

Part of its potential lies in the future. The current owners have secured city permission to build a 41-story apartment or condo tower on top of the Bloc's original 12-story garage. They also received city approval to add digital signage to all four sides of the complex, which could bring in advertising revenue to a new owner.

The former anchor Macy's store at the Bloc closed last year, but Condon said that empty space could be desirable for a buyer with new plans for the complex.

“That vacancy is where a lot of the value for the project will be derived,” he said. “That’s the big opportunity.”

Downtown office towers have traded at a deep discount in recent years after occupancy plummeted in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. Among the buyers have been owner-users such as fund manager Capital Group and Los Angeles County.

The drop in downtown office leasing appears to be waning, Condon said. “The office market probably found its floor sometime last year, and we have seen some positive leasing momentum across the market.”

THE MASSIVE complex in downtown L.A. opened as an indoor mall in the 1970s.

Photographs by ERIC THAYER Los Angeles Times

True Food Kitchen files for bankruptcy, closes 12 eateries

OPRAH WINFREY is an investor in the chain, which owes rent at multiple sites.

BY CAROLINE

PETROW-Cohen

The health-focused restaurant chain True Food Kitchen has shut down three locations in Southern California after filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy over the weekend.

The closures are among nine others across the country that served customers for the last time on Sunday.

Backed by Oprah Winfrey, True Food Kitchen says it serves nutrient-dense meals including pasta, salads and chicken dishes with thoughtfully sourced ingredients.

It was founded in Phoenix in 2008 by restaurateur Sam Fox and physician Andrew Weil.

The three locations closed in Southern California were at the Westfield

ROBERT GAUTHIER Los Angeles Times mall in Century City; The Point, an outdoor shopping center in El Segundo; and at the Westfield UTC mall in San Diego.

The chain has five other locations in California, including in Pasadena and Newport Beach. It operates a total of 34 restaurants across 14 states.

The company announced its bankruptcy filing on Monday and said it would pursue a court-supervised sale process.

“We are committed to approaching this difficult moment with care and respect,” Chief Executive Jeff Chandler said in a statement. “This process is the best path forward to simplify the business and focus on what we do best.”

True Food Kitchen has also filed first-day motions seeking court approval to continue operations during the bankruptcy process, including paying employee wages and benefits.

The company said its remaining restaurants will continue serving customers, but legal filings show that it owes rent at multiple locations. True Food Kitchen owes more than \$77,000 in rent to Fashion Island in Newport Beach, according to bankruptcy filings. It also has about \$42 million in debt.

Before the latest closures, True Food Kitchen had expanded from 20 locations in 2017 to 46 across the United States. Oprah Winfrey joined the board in 2018. She is no longer on the board but remains a minority investor, according to Business Insider.

Last month, the popular Southern California brunch chain Marmalade Cafe filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and said it owed more than \$1 million.

ABC says FCC pressure affecting news coverage

DANIA MAXWELL Los Angeles Times

THE NETWORK is seeking a restraining order to stop the FCC's early license review of its TV stations.

BY STEPHEN BATTAGLIO

Editorial decisions at ABC News are being influenced by the Federal Communications Commission's early license review of its TV stations, the network's legal team told a U.S. District Court judge Tuesday.

The Disney-owned network is seeking a restraining order to stop the FCC's action, which its attorneys said was unprecedented and an attempt by the Trump White House to chill free speech.

Disney attorney Beth Wilkinson said the FCC's action is having an impact on ABC News coverage in the weeks leading up to the midterm elections, as the network tries to avoid further action from the agency that regulates over-the-air broadcast TV licenses.

“We are making different editorial decisions,” Wilkinson said during the court hearing in Washington. “We are watching everything that we do because every time we do something — even not broadcasting this presidential speech — brings out the anger in the administration and the retaliation from the agency.”

Wilkinson was referring to President Trump's frustration over ABC's decision not to air his July 16 speech about voter fraud. The network chose to run it on its news streaming platform. FCC Chairman Brendan Carr criticized the move and said it would be considered in the license renewal process.

Wilkinson cited Carr's complaint as an example of how the review is being driven by Trump's unhappiness over the network's coverage across its news programs, its late-night show “Jimmy Kimmel Live” and its topical daytime chat show “The View.” The FCC's action, she said, is the administration “retaliating with their government power against ABC's right to protected speech.”

Assistant U.S. Atty. Dimitar P. Georgiev argued for the FCC that ABC is trying to avoid the commission's regulatory process by taking the case to the U.S. District Court. Georgiev said the license renewal was initiated because of a dispute over documents in the commission's investigation into alleged discriminatory hiring practices at Disney.

Judge Loren L. AliKhan did not issue a ruling. She asked the FCC to provide further documentation on its claim. Disney will have until Oct. 14 to respond.

Trump has frequently threatened to have TV station licenses pulled when he believes he is treated unfairly on news and talk programs. He has also successfully extracted multimillion-dollar settlements from CBS and ABC after suing the networks over news content he said had treated him unfairly.

ABC is the first network to take the FCC to court over the threats.

Wilkinson noted that Carr said during a visit to Trump's Mar-a-Lago Club in Palm Beach, Fla., that "broadcasters that are running hoaxes and news distortions, also known as fake news, have a chance now to correct course before their li cense renewals come up."

The licenses for eight ABC-owned TV stations, including KABC in Los Angeles, were originally scheduled for renewal between 2028 and 2031.

Carr has said ABC's daily talk show "The View" should not be exempt from the FCC's equal time rule that requires broadcasters to bring on opposing candidates to provide balanced coverage. Wilkinson noted that the program — which was given the exemption in 2002 — has avoided using clips of politicians during its popular "Hot Topics" segment at the top of the program.

Carr also said earlier this year that stations could be subject to discipline if they “don’t operate in the public interest” after criticisms from the White House about coverage of the Iran war.

Carr called for the ABCLicense review in April, days after Kimmel delivered gags about the White House Correspondents' Assn. dinner attended by Trump for the first time as president and described First Lady Melania Trump as having a "glow like an expectant widow."

The satirical remarks drew criticism after a man later breached security at the Washington Hilton event while armed with a shotgun, handgun and several knives. The dinner was cut short and rescheduled.

Luxury-car buying loophole is closed

BY SUHAUNA HUSSAIN

Gov. Gavin Newsom last week signed legislation cracking down on the practice of luxury-car buyers in California registering cars out of state to avoid taxes.

Senate Bill 1406, introduced by state Sen. Jerry McNerney (D-Pleasanton), closes the so-called Montana loophole, in which tax evaders create shell companies in Montana or other states without sales tax or vehicle registration fees and use them to purchase Ferraris, Porsches and other luxury cars. The state estimates it loses millions of dollars annually because of such schemes.

The new law expands California's definition of who is a resident under state sales tax law in an effort to weed out phony shell companies, making a company liable for state taxes when at least one member of the business is a California resident.

The law, which went into effect immediately, also authorizes the state tax agency to impose tax liability on individual members of a business.

California had already looked to enforcement efforts to investigate suspicious out-of-state car sales, which officials estimate amount to \$10 million annually in lost tax revenue.

Under state law, residents were already required to pay California sales tax on vehicles unless they are first used out of state and stay out of state for at least 12 months. Dealers are required to maintain records showing sales of vehicles so that authorities can ensure vehicles sold to buyers in another state are actually delivered there.

Earlier this year, the state's Department of Justice charged 14 people — including auto dealers and customers purchasing cars — with concealing the purchase of more than \$20 million worth of high-end vehicles including Ferraris, Porsches and Lamborghini, and evading upward of \$1.8 million in state taxes.

Text messages included in the criminal complaint showed buyers seeking to conceal their purchases. One Lamborghini buyer boasted about fees avoided: "70k saved — I can't believe Montana registration lasts for 5 years — that's crazy. Stupid California. Paid 3k to own a 600k car for 5 years — lol in Cali that's like 75k for 5 years. Hella dumb."

The new law further develops criteria to help show an LLC as a shell company involved in a potential tax evasion scheme.

If the LLC lacks a specific business activity or purpose, fails to maintain a physical location outside California, fails to employ people, or fails to file federal tax returns in another state, it could now be considered as evidence of such a scheme.

BUSINESS

Trump's secretive, exaggerated and fishy deal for Venezuela oil

Voices MICHAEL HILTZIK COLUMNIST

JIM WATSON AFP/Getty Images

VENEZUELAN crude is the “dirtiest, the worst oil probably anywhere in the world,” the president has said.

‘We have more liquid gold under our feet than any other nation, but we’re buying tar from Venezuela.’

DONALD TRUMI, disparaging Venezuelan oil in a 2023 campaign speech

H ere's what President Trump has said about his deal for Venezuelan oil:

that it's a deal with the current Venezuelan government, that it will more than double U.S. oil reserves and that it will “substantially lower Gas Prices for all Americans, long into the future.”

Here's a simple rule of thumb for assessing all these claims: None of them is true.

The deal is with a private company of suspect character, which may enable White House to keep its details under wraps. The quality of the oil is so low, and the cost of extracting and refining it so high, that counting it as part of America's petroleum reserves is what Mark Twain's Huck Finn generally called a "stretcher."

As for bringing down U.S. gas prices, either today or “long into the future,” on the gonna happen scale that’s a “not.” And that’s even assuming that a future Venezuelan regime won’t put a match to the whole thing.

Before getting into the details of these fatuous claims, a few words of background on Trump's Venezuelan adventure are warranted.

Trump launched aggressive moves against the dictatorial regime of Nicolás Maduro last year. These encompassed “attacks on Venezuelan boats in the Caribbean purportedly carrying drugs destined for the U.S., tankers carrying oil to China and other countries ostensibly in violation of international sanctions and the threat of military action,” I wrote in December.

On Dec. 16, he declared on social media that he had it “surrounded by the largest Armada ever assembled in the History of South America” and that it would stay in place until its leaders “return to the United States of America all of the Oil, Land, and other Assets that they previously stole from us.”

Then came the kidnapping of Maduro and his wife on Jan. 3, and their transfer to the U.S. to face narcoterrorism and other charges in federal court. The action placed political and legal observers in a quandary: Maduro was a vicious specimen, and no one was sorry to see him go. The Defense Department, by most accounts, managed the operation professionally.

On the other hand, the projection of American might into another country's affairs, while hardly unprecedented, gave many experts pause. Among their concerns was the paucity of American planning for the post-Maduro era; the re-

gime landed in the hands of Maduro's vice president, Delcy Rodríguez, which doesn't herald much in the way of regime change, not to mention an end to government corruption in Venezuela.

Within a day of Maduro's capture, Trump was already trying to threaten Rodríguez into complying with his policies in her country: "If she doesn't do what's right, she is going to pay a very big price, probably bigger than Maduro," he told Michael Scherer of the Atlantic. (Leaving aside what he meant by "what's right.") He has also turned a cold shoulder to the leader of the anti-Maduro opposition, Nobel Peace Prize laureate Maria Corina Machado.

As for the quality of Venezuelan oil, it doesn't measure up to what most U.S. refineries are geared for and typically trades at a discount to other formulations. "Most of it comes out of the ground with the consistency of cold peanut butter," observes economist David I. Levine of UC Berkeley. Moving it through a pipeline and into a tanker requires treatment that would add \$15 a barrel to its cost, he estimates, not counting the specialized equipment needed to refine it.

Even Trump, during a 2023 campaign speech, disdained the product as not worth importing. “We have more liquid gold under our feet than any other nation, but we’re buying tar from Venezuela and we’re refining it in Houston,” he said. “The dirtiest, the worst oil probably anywhere in the world. ... So you can imagine what’s going up into the air.”

A Trump spokesperson told me by email that “several refineries, specifically in Texas, ... were built for and are capable of refining Venezuelan crude.” That’s true, but as Samantha Gross of the Brookings Institution has commented, those refineries are already running at near capacity. High oil prices might make expanding those capabilities economical, but the \$90 current price of crude is an artifact of Trump’s Iran war, and once that’s resolved the price is likely to fall.

Trump's claim that the supply of Venezuelan oil will bring gas prices down is a macedoine of aspiration and ignorance. “The oil industry in Venezuela is a shambles,” Gross noted, with production falling from

DONALD TRUMP,

a peak of about 3.2 million barrels a day in 2000 to as low as about 800,000 barrels now.

White House spokesperson Taylor Rogers told me by email that “as soon as early next year, material production will be coming to the United States” and enough oil would be flowing to the market to help bring down gas prices by the end of 2027. Experts consider that a wildly ambitious timeline.

“Restoring production to its peak would require years and billions of dollars in investment,” Gross wrote. It’s one thing to look ahead optimistically to Venezuelan oil taking enough of a place in world markets to influence gas prices, but one must confront reality.

In any event, many factors play into the price of gasoline other than the price of crude, especially on the way down. That's why prices at the pump proverbially soar like a rocket when crude prices rise, and drift down like a feather when crude gets cheaper. And much of the market

response occurs at the retail level — your corner gas station — than at the crude market.

That brings us to the oil deal that Trump announced on Aug. 28, grandiloquently calling it “the biggest oil deal in world history.”

The White House has made the most basic term of the deal — namely, who's on the other side of the table from the U.S. — into a moving target. In his Aug. 28 announcement on social media, Trump called it “an agreement with the country of Venezuela.”

The administration may have seen that as a problem, for as former State Department treaty expert Michael Mettler noted on the Just Security website, U.S. law requires the executive branch “to disclose to Congress and the public the texts of most significant international agreements the United States enters into with other countries.”

Accordingly, the deal is now specifically fashioned as a deal with a third party, North American Blue Energy Partners. The current Venezuelan government, according to Trump, granted NABEP a 100-year concession for “17 oil fields with proven reserves of approximately 65 billion barrels.”

NABEP then granted the U.S. government a 35% equity stake in its parent company, guaranteed ac-

cess to 20% of its output at its production cost and the right of first refusal to the remaining 80%. Consequently, according to the White House, “This is a deal with a private company — not the Venezuelan interim government.” (Emphasis in the original.)

That means, according to Mettler, that “despite the arrangements explicitly contemplating significant roles and benefits for U.S. government agencies (even including an equity stake in the private company contracting with Venezuela),” key elements of the deal may be exempt from public disclosure requirements in federal law.

The administration describes NABEP as “a proven operator” in Venezuela. That said, in August the Washington Post reported that senior U.S. officials “intervened” to block criminal charges by Switzerland against Alejandro Betancourt, NABEP’s chief executive, who also was reportedly the target of U.S. money-laundering investigations as recently as early this year.

Betancourt has denied any wrongdoing. His lawyer told Reuters that no charges have been brought against him in any jurisdiction. The White House didn't respond to my request for comment on the Washington Post report.

The White House responded indignantly when I asked whether any member of Trump's family, his business partners, or the administration had any role as investors or management at NABEP, implying that I was trying to "fabricate conflicts of interest." That response evoked for me Gertrude's remark in "Hamlet" that "The lady doth protest too much, methinks," but so be it.

By its nature, the future of Trump's oil deal with Venezuela — or NABEP, as he prefers — is bound to be murky. White House spokesperson Rogers told me “the Venezuelan ministries that have power to grant concessions were the ones that lawfully granted these concessions” to NABEP. But obviously nothing would prevent a future Venezuelan government from canceling those concessions, just as a prior government canceled those awarded to foreign oil companies in the past — an action that garnered Trump’s profound resentment.

Too much about this deal is hidden, and too much is claimed for its virtues than it could plausibly deserve. Don't expect the oil to be flowing anytime soon, and don't expect it to bring down the price of gas at your neighborhood pump.

Premium bottles at bargain prices amid California wine glut

DAVID PAUL MORRIS Bloomberg/Getty Images

A SHOPPER looks at the wine section at a Costco store in Napa in September.

BY JUDY LAGROU

Oenophiles on beer budgets have never had it better.

In California, which produces about 80% of U.S. wine, some vintners stuck with more than people want to drink are offloading their surplus, much of it high quality. That means premium wines are increasingly within affordable reach on shelves at retailers including Costco, Kroger and Aldi.

A bottle that can command \$150 as a winery brand may be going for less than \$30 under a private or exclusive label, according to industry buyers. Those are wines bottled for retailers to sell under their own designations, such as Costco Wholesale Corp.'s Kirkland Signature.

At Kroger Co., the largest U.S. grocer, the trajectory has been significant, and it's showing up in wine ratings.

“We went from having no wines with 90-plus scores in our portfolio from respectable reviewers to 20 in the last two months,” said Curtis Mann, the company’s vice president of wine, beer and spirits.

Steve Beckner, direct import and private label wine buyer for Grocery Outlet Inc., said he has never encountered anything like it in his nearly 30 years in the business.

"I'm trying to find the words to describe it," he said. "The quality has gone up exponentially."

A Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon that Beckner said could fetch from \$45 to \$85 under a winemaker's name is priced as low as \$9.99 as a Second Cheapest Wine, the private label of the chain, which has more than 500 stores in 16 states.

The reason is a supply-demand mismatch that has been building as consumption has slowed. When he started at Grocery Outlet in 2018, Beckner said he fielded offers to buy in bulk for around 1,000 to 3,000 cases at a time. Now offers are for from 20,000 to 200,000 cases, he said.

Happily for consumers, this glut is far from over.

While the industry has taken “drastic, necessary actions” to fix the imbalance, “the residual overproduction from prior years still must be worked through,” Turrentine Brokerage wrote in its August 2026 wine market report.

"I would not want to be a grower right now," said Taylor Case, president of Navigator Wine Collection, which buys from vineyards and sells under private labels including Gearbox, Motif and Decoded. "There's a ton of wine that's still on the market."

Case said he recently tasted a Napa Valley Cabernet that he knows retails for \$149. Navigator will sell it for \$29.99, he said. "I'm shocked at what we do sometimes."

Wineries with too much product may unload their excess in what's called a branded closeout or sell it in bulk to be bottled by others, including grocers and retailers like Total Wine & More. Wine with no takers may sit in storage, be blended into later releases or destroyed.

Private labels often don't disclose the source. "If you're a winery with a \$100 Cab and had to sell some of your wine that didn't make it into the flagship, and that's going into something that's \$9.99, you want to be discreet about it," Beckner said.

A number of factors are cited for the overhang in California and other U.S. wine regions, including people cutting down on alcohol, side effects of GLP-1 weight-loss drugs and inflation.

Whatever the reason, this is “probably one of the best times I’ve seen in my near 30-year history in the industry for the consumer,” said Peter Baedeker, owner of Baedeker Wine, a Santa Barbara-based consulting firm.

Andrew Cullen, who runs a blog from Atlanta that reviews wines sold at Costco stores, said that “the quality has been going up and the price has been staying the same — or going down.”

One example: Costco said it recently lowered the price of its Kirkland Signature Stags Leap Cabernet Sauvignon to \$19.99 from \$22.99.

"You're getting access to maybe some of the best winemakers in the world for 20 bucks a bottle," Cullen said. "This is insane."

The private-label appeal has its limits, according to Steph Marr, a director at an advertising tech company in Boston. While Marr is happy to go for a store brand for everyday drinking, the winemaker and story behind it matters when it comes to giving wine as a gift, she said. "I want it to feel like a special thing."

But it's in the private-label and exclusive-label space where demand is up, according to Silicon Valley Bank's 2026 State of the U.S. Wine Industry report. "The one thing that is growing is private label" from retailers including Costco, Kroger and Aldi, said Rob McMillan, executive vice president of the bank's wine division, in a videocast for the report. "Those kind of businesses, they're all selling wine. They're doing something right."

And what some producers are doing, according to the report, “is a positive form of discounting that attracts new value-seeking consumers, protects existing brand value and helps drain the ocean of bulk wine.”

To speed up the supply correction, winemakers may rip out vineyards, replace grapes with other crops or simply make less wine.

Kerith Overstreet, founder of Bruliam Wines in Windsor, Calif., said she has deliberately produced less this year than in the past. Yields across the region fell recently due to volatile weather conditions, Overstreet said, and at Bruliam's Russian River Valley vineyard, they're down 30% from a 2024 high.

Lower yields are “a divine market correction,” she said. Fortunately, the wine business is “definitely cyclical.”

At Navigator, Case can see an end to the imbalance.

“It’s still going to take another 12 to 24 months to completely clear up,” he said. “Supply and demand always find each other.”

Lagrou writes for Bloomberg.

BUSINESS

MARKET ROUNDUP

Wall Street retreats as stocks fall worldwide

StocksRecap | NYSE | NASD | Vol. (in mil.) | 3849 | 3392 | Pvs. Volume | 4481 | 3895 | Advanced | 564 | 1077 | Declined | 2037 | 2263 | New Highs | 39 | 111 | New Lows | 134 | 284 | BY STAN CHOE

Stocks pulled back from their record on Wednesday.

The Standard & Poor's 500 slipped $0.2\%$ , a day after topping its prior all-time high set in August. The Dow Jones industrial average dropped 341 points, or $0.7\%$ , while the Nasdaq composite fell $0.2\%$ from its own record.

Stocks felt pressure as yields swung in the bond market. The yield on the 10-year Treasury climbed as high as 5.36% in the morning, up from 5.27% late Tuesday and near its highest level since 2002.

Higher yields put downward pressure on prices for stocks and other investments. They can also slow the economy by making it more expensive for everyone to borrow money. But the 10-year yield eased back to 5.28% later in the day after the U.S. Treasury sold \$39 billion of 10-year Treasury notes at an auction, where the median yield was less than 5.26%.

Yields also swung with oil prices, which continue to yoyo amid uncertainty about when the war with Iran will allow the industry to return to normal.

The price for a barrel of Brent crude, the international standard, topped \$102 in the morning before falling back later in the day and eventually settling at \$100.20, down 0.4%. That's below the nearly \$110 it cost last month, but it remains well above its \$72 price from before the war began.

The International Energy Agency said Wednesday that its members supported accelerating the release of oil from inventories that they announced earlier this year, with a particular emphasis on diesel fuel.

Also pushing up on bond yields are worries about how much debt the U.S. government and others worldwide have racked up, plus how much more they add to it by the day.

The head of the International Monetary Fund said Wednesday that record levels of debt for governments is one of the three major crosscurrents driving where the global economy is heading, along with artificial-intelligence technology and high energy prices.

"Some very tough political choices stare us in the face," IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said in a speech in Singapore.

She pointed in particular to France and Italy, among other European countries with high debt.

France's CAC 40 stock index dropped $1.2\%$ for one of the world's biggest losses af-

CLOSE

51,179.87

19,529.30

1,049.64

23,701.92

27,538.69

7,801.77

3,637.40

76,761.49

2,793.20

ter yields for French bonds got back to jumping amid worries about the government's debt and strained budget. Protests across France have raised pressure on the government to increase spending, which could add further to its debt.

On Wall Street, Worthington Steel fell 6.9% after the metals processing and manufacturing company reported weaker results for the latest quarter than analysts expected.

The pressure is on companies to deliver big growth in profits. Such strength would help to support stock prices when the other big lever that affects stock prices, interest rates, is pushing downward.

Analysts have high expectations for this upcoming earnings reporting season. They're forecasting growth in earnings per share of nearly 30%, according to FactSet. If companies fall short of that bar, stock prices could easily fall further from their record heights.

Constellation Brands added 2.4% after the seller of Modelo beer and Robert Mondavi wine reported a stronger profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected. But its gain was restrained after it also gave a forecasted range for profit over its full fiscal year whose midpoint was below what analysts expected.

All told, the S&P 500 slipped 17.16 points to 7,801.77. The Dow Jones industrial average dropped 341.41 to 51,179.87, and the Nasdaq composite gave back 61.20 to 27,538.69.

In stock markets abroad, indexes fell across much of Europe and Asia.

South Korea's Kospi sank $2\%$ for one of the world's largest losses following a sharp drop for SK Hynix, one of its two dominant stocks.

Choe writes for the Associated Press.

A split over AI in main hub for the tech

[AI, from A1] and workshops titled “How to build Socially Responsive AI,” “AI in the workplace,” “Can AI Heal Us?” and “Master the Machine.”

Companies based around the San Francisco Bay Area, including OpenAI and Meta, have promoted AI assistants as friendly, cute helpers for tackling tedious tasks. But tech workers, activists and politicians fear that humans could lose control of the technology they're advancing.

Photographs by PAUL KURODA For The Times

MICAH WASHINGTON, 15, and Jason Hughes, 73, pair up at a Tech Week event.

Anxiety about AI's potential dangers surged last month after Anthropic researcher Jacob Coxon resigned, posting on social media that AI companies, including OpenAI, are "gambling with our lives." Executives and AI companies have called for a slowdown in the technology's development, and policymakers have been scrambling to add more guardrails.

Early last week, President Trump and tech executives from Anthropic, Google, Meta, OpenAI, Nvidia and others signed a voluntary accord to “self-police” AI development.

NORMAN WEEKES teaches AI to seniors at last week's Tech Week in Oakland.

In California, Gov. Gavin Newsom has signed several bills to make AI safer for children and workers. He also issued an executive order to speed up the development of safeguards, including a “kill switch” in case humans lose control of AI.

“AI should expand opportunity — not come at the expense of workers and families,” Newsom said last month in a statement.

At the OpenAI developers' conference, held at a former military base in San Francisco, the company's chief executive, Sam Altman, expressed hope.

“I believe that the future, if we get this right, can be much more like a new renaissance than a new industrial revolution,” he said on stage. “AI should be about giving people more power over their own lives, more tools to create, learn, discover, expand knowledge.”

Outside, dozens of protesters held up signs that read “No Killer Robots for ICE,” “People over AI” and “Where is your moral codex?”

They demanded an end to AI surveillance and lethal autonomous weapons, as well as soaring San Francisco rents.

“Sam Altman, get off it. Put people over profit,” protesters chanted.

Berkeley resident Matt

Nichols came to the protest dressed up as a killer robot holding a chainsaw. “AI is being used to move us toward a surveillance state with no accountability,” he said.

Lucas Lu walked by the protest, guiding two black-and-white humanoid robots. His employer rents out the robots for events such as OpenAI's conference. He led them away from the vocal crowd.

Although some people fear AI because they're worried it could lead to killer robots like those in "The Terminator," Lu said AI can be helpful.

“It’s actually good at research,” he said. “But I won’t depend on AI to make any decision for me.”

In Oakland, in one event held at Mills College — part of Northeastern University's global system — titled "Senior Technology Day: Lifelong Learning and Digital Inclusion," students and senior citizens learned and taught one another about AI.

Participants of all ages expressed concerns about the technology.

“That’s your decision in regard to whether or not you use it,” said Norman Weekes, the AI literacy educator and entrepreneur who presented the topic to the group. "If you never use AI, that's great, but you should understand it because ... it's going to affect people you love, if not yourself."

On one hand, people can use AI to build websites or find activities to do. On the other, law enforcement can also request AI conversations, courts can subpoena AI chat logs and chatbots can provide inaccurate information while also flattering people, he said.

Karin Kelly-Givens, 72, uses an AI bot for health questions such as how to understand her blood-test results. Her friends use Gemini to comparison shop for pricey items such as washing machines. But she also grapples with how to use AI.

“Where’s the borderline?” she asked. “What should you not say? What is OK?”

Hayward resident Jason Hughes, 73, downloaded ChatGPT and Claude for the first time. “I might use them both to compare or get more information,” he said.

Fremont High School student May Gutierrez, 17, said that although teachers are concerned about AI being used to plagiarize, they're also using it themselves. The aspiring designer has safety and environmental concerns about AI, so she's holding off for now.

“Maybe I’m too much of an optimist, but I hopefully believe that people will see the consequences of AI and not necessarily get rid of it, but work toward making it better,” she said.

AIMS College Prep High School student Heven Adugna, who aspires to become a physician assistant, said she uses AI chatbots for research and to better understand math concepts. Although people are using AI in healthcare, she thinks technology can't replace everything.

"I would much rather have a sincere person telling me what's wrong than a robot, so from that aspect, I don't think AI can really take over," she said.

Olugbala, the Oakland resident who wanted to get Google Gemini off her phone, said she wants to talk to real people using her voice, not bots.

“I want to have more human contact,” she said. “I want to go back and take every opportunity to sit down and get on the phone and talk.”

Trucking firms 'cannot survive at \$8 a gallon'

[Diesel, from A1]

Trump took credit for the European diesel release, as surging oil prices and affordability have become a contentious issue ahead of the midterm elections in November. Trump reassured supporters at an election rally that “oil prices will come tumbling down.”

“While big oil companies have seen their profits nearly double this year, the sharp increase in diesel cost has quickly eaten up what little margin mom-and-pop trucking businesses have left,” said Lewie Pugh, executive vice president of the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Assn.

Small-business truckers make up more than 90% of trucking companies in America, according to the association.

Such truckers work load to load and often can't raise rates when fuel prices spike, the way their larger competitors can. Between August and September, at least 16 freight companies across the country filed for bankruptcy amid record diesel prices.

Last week, Gov. Gavin Newsom allowed the early introduction of the cheaper winter-blend gasoline to be sold at gas stations to ease price pressure for Californians. Typically, the more expensive summer blend goes on until the end of October.

The Trump administration is expanding the use of a tax-exempt fuel used in the agriculture industry — so-called red dye diesel — to be used by on-road trucks to ease costs.

Avninder Singh, chief executive of Roadies, said diesel prices crossing \$8 in California have eliminated the profit margins for his midsize company based in Bakersfield. His monthly fuel costs jumped to \$450,000, wiping out all profits.

“We have literally no margin on it. Like we are running and not making any money,” Singh said. “Everything is going towards fuel.”

Singh now yearns for pre-war fuel prices of \$4 per gallon, when filling up the tank cost \$1,200. Today, he pays \$2,400 to fill a tank.

"Any American trucking company cannot survive at \$8 a gallon," Singh said. "We are literally losing money."

Truckers are now having to take new measures to manage high costs.

Singh has urged his drivers to strategically fuel up in Arizona, where fuel prices are a couple of dollars cheaper, before reentering California to save on costs.

He has introduced bonuses for drivers who can squeeze more mileage by reducing idling and driving

more slowly.

Owner-operator Deol uses battery-powered electric air conditioning systems installed on both his trucks so he can turn off the engines and avoid idling.

"If we sleep, if we park, we can turn off the motors," he said.

Contributing to the price rise is a shortage of drivers, driven by the administration's crackdown that began in 2025. The Department of Transportation has since removed 28,000 drivers for failing their English-speaking test and canceled more than 30,000 licenses that it said were illegally issued to immigrant drivers. It also closed hundreds of commercial driver training schools.

Truck supply has decreased due to safety enforcement, said Shelley Simpson, CEO of J.B. Hunt, one of the largest trucking companies in America, in a July earnings call.

Singh said canceling the commercial driver licenses reduced the pool of immigrant drivers, forcing him to pay more to attract American drivers — an increase from 45 cents to 80 cents per mile for a driver.

This meant hauling for Walmart rose from \$2.50 to \$4.50 per mile due to driver shortages and diesel prices, which will soon be reflected in what customers pay, said Singh, who has halved his fleet to 100 in the last year.

"Your lettuce will go from \$3.39 to \$3.59 a pound in a week. You won't even notice that because you don't pay attention," Deol said.

Deol said that since the crackdown, his workforce has shifted from about 200 Indian drivers to roughly 20. He now employs about 230 American drivers.

This change in the mix of drivers has also affected routes, he said, because many American drivers prefer to be home after four or five days, so the company now runs fewer coast-to-coast trips.

Since May, spot prices paid for transporting goods have been increasing, despite the overall volume of shipments at the ports remaining flat. Deol said that, although freight prices had risen after the driver shortage, his company's costs rose faster than customers' rates could catch up.

The dwindling payouts have started to affect his lifestyle. His wife and two kids used to visit the Bay Area twice a year for shopping, but that's down to just one trip in the last three years. He has halted trading in his car that's been driven more than 100,000 miles.

“Sometimes we are stuck,” Deol said. “We need to wait it out.”

OPINION VOICES

Voices RYAN HULING GUEST CONTRIBUTOR

Charge wildfire argonists with cruelty to animals

As the Palisades fire roared to life, pumas and deer fled for their lives. Where is the accountability for that harm?

W

HEN AN investigator asked suspected arsonist Jonathan Rinderknecht

why someone might set the blaze that would eventually become the Palisades fire, he surmised it “would be out of resentment of the rich enjoying their money” and compared it to Luigi Mangione’s vigilante assassination of a United Healthcare executive.

I have a follow-up: What did the wild animals displaced, maimed and killed by the fire do to you?

It's a question nobody on the prosecution seems to be asking. In next month's highly anticipated retrial, Rinderknecht will face charges of "destruction of property by means of fire and arson" and "arson affecting property used in interstate commerce." An earlier charge of setting timber afire was jettisoned after his June hearing ended in a mistrial.

In a just world, cruelty to animals would have been included as part of the prosecution from the beginning.

It's no secret that the area the Palisades fire scorched is home to many human residents, who ran for their lives as walls of flames encircled their neighborhoods. But the Santa Monica Mountains also fall within one of only two "biodiversity hotspots" left in the continental United States. The wildlife in this region is already under constant threat from human encroachment — an existential risk the world's largest wildlife crossing hopes to mitigate when it opens for nonhuman transit in December. Time is of the essence. Under a business-as-usual scenario, a looming extinction vortex has threatened to wipe out the area's last remaining mountain lions within 15 years.

Those were the high stakes before Rinderknecht allegedly took it upon himself to ignite a blaze on Hidden Buddha Hill in the early hours of New Year's Day 2025. Prosecutors say his fascination with fire dates back to at least 2018, when he and his then-girlfriend reportedly took pleasure cruises up the coast to "admire" neighborhoods annihilated by previous megafires.

When the Palisades fire later roared to life, frightened mountain lion cubs were seen scrambling down Topanga Canyon Boulevard in a desperate attempt to flee. Across town in Altadena, disoriented deer sprinted through ash clouds as the Eaton fire decimated the surrounding hillsides — tiny fragments of a much larger picture as some of Southern California's most prominent wildlife epicenters burned to the ground.

This isn't the first time members of the public have demanded that arsonists face justice for their crimes against other species.

In 2018, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals called for convicted arsonist Brian McGlover to face cruelty to animals charges for his role in igniting Riverside County's Cranston fire, writing that “anyone who deliberately sets fires is signing a death warrant for wild animals, who often have no chance of escape.”

THE PALISADES FIRE burns along Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu on Jan. 8, 2025.

WALLY SKALIJ Los Angeles Times

As someone whose century-old cabin has nearly burned to the ground multiple times — most recently in the Eaton fire, which was kept at bay by heroic neighbors and their garden hoses — I've seen the consequences of society's collective indifference to animal suffering firsthand.

In 2020, the Bobcat fire incinerated more than 100,000 acres of Angeles National Forest right behind my house. I vividly recall gazing up at the colossal plumes of smoke rising from behind the ridgeline while live news coverage triumphantly declared that, despite widespread devastation, “no homes have been destroyed” and the blaze had caused “no injuries.”

Those statements were plainly untrue, as countless forest residents, from rabbits and squirrels to coyotes and mountain lions, were killed or maimed in the megafire, and the areas they once called home were reduced to ash. Some animals that managed to escape were seen desperately crawling into adjacent human neighborhoods with bloody, singed paws.

In emergency situations, deer and other large mammals will often try to outrun blazes to reach water, University of Alberta professor Erin Bayne told me, while smaller mammals like mice will attempt to ride out the danger in underground bunkers. One former forest firefighter has spoken about the heartbreak of watching bear cubs instinctively run up a tree in a desperate attempt to avoid harm. Their mother knows better but will often refuse to abandon her kids, causing the whole family to perish.

Those that do make it out of a fire's path alive often find themselves indefinitely displaced, with none of the geographical landmarks they have come to know. When a forest burns to the ground, vegetation can take up to a dozen years to return to the levels that large mammals need. Their world, as they knew it, is gone.

Conventional thinking has for too long held that only human communities are inhabited places. Once we settle in a given area, it is, by definition, populated. By contrast, the millions of other species we share this planet with have historically been viewed as living brief and transitory lives among pristine and “unpopulated” wilderness.

This antiquated mindset must be revisited — and our conception of “populated” areas expanded — to take the homes and landmarks of other species into account.

Only when viewed through that wider lens does the full scope of an arsonist's ghastly act come into view — a necessary step toward delivering justice for the victims of their crimes against humanity and the rest of the animal kingdom.

Ryan Huling is the author of “The Hidden Nations of Animals.”

CHRISTOPHER REYNOLDS Los Angeles Times

RECENT LAWSUITS allege that synthetic scents harm some hotel guests.

Fragrance allergies are ignored

Re “Hotel visitors who turn up their noses at scents,” Oct. 4

THE Los Angeles Times article that targeted fragrance allergies was a breath of fresh air.

This issue has been ignored for so long, yet it is a genuine disability being completely ignored by Americans with Disabilities Act requirements and advocacy.

Back in 2014 when my mother-in-law passed away in Virginia, I traveled there for her funeral. When I walked into the room at the chain hotel my sister-in-law booked for me, I quickly realized I would be in distress from the scented detergent used to launder the bedsheets. I had to decline the room, and my sister-in-law had an extra houseguest. I have not booked an American hotel since that experience.

Though ride-shares would be a convenience for me, I don't dare book one due to the pervasive air fresheners. Synthetic or natural sources do not necessarily make a difference. My childhood asthma became a fragrance allergy in adulthood, and even natural essential oils constrict my bronchial tubes.

One of my past fragrance issues has been solved; department store paper bills no longer include a circular insert to promote a perfume. I like to think I was heard when I cancelled my credit card and sent a letter. This was before electronic statements were widely used.

People can see the needs of a person in a wheelchair, but not all disabilities are visible. JOANNE D'ANTONIO Valley Glen

Thank you for the front-page article about hotel fragrances making some people sick. I have a fragrance allergy that has been described as a “10 out of 10” by an allergist. The list of

offending fragrances is long and it's hard to know where I can safely stay when out of town. Two nights spent at the heavily scented Golden Nugget in Las Vegas a few years back left me with a

swollen, red face and liquid oozing out of my pores by the time we left. Once triggered, these episodes can take a couple of weeks to recover from.

Los Angeles Times

FOUNDED DECEMBER 4, 1881

A California Times Publication

I do feel a bit like a victim

LETTERS

of discrimination because I cannot go to a hotel without first checking to see if they have non-fragrant rooms, which I find most do not. Essential oil-based diffusers with plant-based ingredients over synthetic are no better for those of us with fragrance allergies.

To say scent is “memory, mood and emotion, distilled into something you can’t see but never forget” is an understatement for those who suffer from it. Clean hotel rooms shouldn’t need to be flooded with scents. Ban them!

JOCELYN DEVAULT

Newbury Park

---

: :

Finally some attention to this headache of a problem. Last spring, I stayed at a very high-end hotel in Hawaii. Upon arrival, a cloying synthetic floral scent hit me in the lobby, triggering an instant migraine and waves of nausea. After check-in, I found the scent got worse in the hallways and permeated into my room. I negotiated with the management to disable the scent dispensers on our floor for the length of my stay, making things more tenable.

These unnecessary synthetic scents are an all-out assault on people with sensitivities. Furthermore, studies are showing that these chemical fragrances are hormone disrupters and worse. They need to be banned in public settings such as stores, restaurants and hotels.

EMILY LOUGHRAN

Los Angeles

---

Impeding traffic is a safety issue

Re “More robotaxis, more crashes: A dive into data,” Oct. 5

While it's encouraging that Waymos are involved in fewer serious accidents than human-driven vehicles, I'd love to see data that reveal all the times Waymos have frozen in the middle of the street for minutes on end, blocking traffic in both directions.

My wife and I live in Franklin Hills (part of the study zone cited in the article). Our neighborhood contains narrow, winding, 100-year-old streets. Typically, there is only one passable lane when one factors in street parking, requiring human drivers to rely on hand signals to communicate how each of us should navigate a limited right-of-way — for example, who should pull over or back up, or temporarily pull into a private driveway to let the other car pass.

This option for visual cues is not available with robotaxis. Everyone on our block has stories of Waymos “stalling out,” invariably putting the onus on human drivers to extricate themselves from tight situations, which often means a three-point turn and going the long way to our destination.

Impeding traffic is a clear safety issue for emergency personnel. We have complained to our council representative, and they agree. They also agree that their hands are tied. It is absurd that a state agency (the California Public Utilities Commission) does not consider the position of city councils regarding the employment of robotaxis, as local leaders clearly know their communities best.

PAUL HADDAD

Los Angeles

---

Senator's failed gotcha is just sad

Re “She’s got game: How Klobuchar gave her GOP peer a schooling,” Politics Voices, Oct. 2

When loyalty to one man is the only consideration, an incompetent Cabinet is guaranteed. And two perfect examples are Defense Secretary (and wannabe general) Pete Hegseth and Health and Human Services Secretary (and play doctor) Robert F. Kennedy Jr. I could continue, but that would be an exercise in redundancy. But not to be out-dumbed by President Trump and his Cabinet, enter Republican Missouri Sen. Eric Schmitt, whose gotcha moment against federal prosecutor Jack Smith couldn't have failed more spectacularly.

The outrageously dumb moment notwithstanding, it broke my heart to watch an honest prosecutor be assailed by various GOP members of Congress for doing his job in trying to bring to justice a rogue president whom the entire nation saw incite an insurrection on Jan. 6, 2021.

Bob ARCHERD

Rancho Palos Verdes

---

: :

News and culture critic Lorraine Ali gave Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) props for setting the record straight and calling out the bloviating Sen. Schmitt for getting his facts wrong and accusing Smith of being a "dirtbag." But Ali got one thing wrong. In no way did Klobuchar, as Ali claims, "womansplain" anything to anyone.

People who “mansplain” are smug. They assume a false gender superiority they believe demonstrates power. But real strength is informed, and often quiet, as demonstrated by the equanimous Smith, and Klobuchar.

ELLEN ALPERSTEIN

Palm Desert

---

HOW TO WRITE TO US

Please send letters to letters@latimes.com. For submission guidelines, see latimes.com/letters.

Voices ANTONIO VILLARAIGOSA AND MIGUEL A. SANTANA GUEST CONTRIBUTORS

It's on all of us to protect trust in elections

JULIA DEMAREE NIKHINSON Associated Press

BALLOTS postmarked by election day (Nov. 3) can arrive through Nov. 10 and still be counted in the final tally.

We can disagree on candidates or policies, but we cannot allow mistrust to suppress Angelenos' voices.

B ALLOTS FOR November's midterm elections have already begun arriving in mailboxes across Los Angeles County. But before

Angelenos have the chance to fill them out and send them back, many will have heard rumors from neighbors and colleagues that their votes won't matter, that the count can't be trusted or that an outcome they disagree with means the system has failed.

We are watching a campaign of mistrust take shape around our elections, locally and nationwide, in which false and misleading claims are repeated until doubt itself becomes the lasting message. We saw it after Los Angeles' mayoral primary in June, when a routine reporting issue of votes counted in the race was transformed online into false claims of election fraud.

When people are repeatedly told that elections are rigged or that ballots can disappear, confidence erodes. Many voters may choose not to participate at all. We can disagree on candidates, parties or policies, but we cannot allow mistrust to suppress the voices of Angelenos. Trust in our election system is a cornerstone of our democracy, which depends on the confidence that eligible voters can cast their ballot, that lawful ballots will be counted and that the public can understand how the process works.

We know how quickly trust can disappear and how difficult it is to rebuild. That's why this moment calls for facts.

When a vote-by-mail ballot is returned to the county elections office, officials then verify the signature against the voter's record. If a signature is missing or cannot be matched to a voter in L.A. County, the voter is notified and has until 5 p.m. Nov. 25 to resolve the ballot.

The final count can take longer than many people expect because California has made voting much more accessible. Every active registered voter receives a mail-in ballot. Those mailed and postmarked by election day can arrive through Nov. 10 and still be counted in the final tally. Eligible first-time voters can also register at the polls through election day and cast a conditional ballot.

---

Democracy cannot work if people fear that participation is pointless or believe that an outcome they dislike is illegitimate.

These protections and a lengthier vote count are designed to give more eligible California voters a chance to be heard. But with more than a million ballots arriving on election day, it takes time to receive and verify them all. Los Angeles County is expected to certify its results by Nov. 27, well ahead of the Dec. 3 deadline for California counties and of the state's Dec. 11 certification of the final statewide vote.

Results can change often after election night as thousands of lawful ballots are collected and tallied. That is the process working to make sure eligible voters are counted, but it is also when the most misinformation starts to spread. An incomplete count can be portrayed as suspicious, and a routine update can be presented as manipulation.

That is where all of us come in. Misinformation moves through family group chats, workplaces, congregations, social media and neighborhood conversations. Official statements matter, but the most persuasive voice is usually someone a voter knows and trusts. When a friend claims that their ballot won't count, help them understand the facts. When a neighbor shares a rumor, ask where it came from and point them to verified information and sources. When someone says there is no reason to vote, remind them that walking away from the process only gives the mistrust in our systems more power.

The California Community Foundation is helping launch “A Count You Can Trust,” an independent, nonpartisan coalition not affiliated with any candidate, political party or campaign. It brings together civic, faith, labor, business and community organizations across Los Angeles County to help share accurate information, combat misinformation and explain how votes are counted. The coalition will also observe the election process and document what works and what should be improved for future elections, rather than expecting changes to rules or procedures in real time.

We are starting the conversation before ballots are submitted because the time to build trust is before it is tested. The stakes are higher than any one election. Democracy cannot work if people are convinced that their participation is pointless or that an outcome they dislike is automatically illegitimate. We can disagree passionately about who should win, but we should be united in defending the right of all eligible voters to participate and in making sure lawful votes are counted.

This fall, vote. Help someone else vote. Share facts instead of rumors. And when the count continues after election day, remember why: Democracy is worth taking the time to get right.

ANTONIO VILLARAIGOSA served as the 41st mayor of Los Angeles and speaker of the California Assembly. MIGUEL A. SANTANA is president and chief executive of the California Community Foundation.

Voices

JENNIFER GLASS

GUEST CONTRIBUTOR

---

Raise kids, then have a career? It doesn't add up

COLIN HACKLEY Associated Press

IN MOST FAMILIES, at some point a mother is the primary earner. Florida Rep. Fiona McFarland brings her daughter to work.

Most mothers become breadwinners while parenting. Families can't afford to forgo the income.

SOCIAL CONSERVATIVES now assure American women they can still "have it all" if they just do it in sequence, starting with early motherhood and later taking on a job. The Heritage Foundation's Project 2025 Report claims it's a mistake for women to postpone childbearing to pursue higher education and begin their careers. Heritage spokeswoman Emma Waters advises women: "Use your twenties and early thirties for babies and brainstorming. ... Then, in your forties and fifties, accelerate professionally as your children grow older if you want to."

Yet analysis of recent Census Bureau data suggests one huge problem with following this cheerful advice. More than half of American mothers become the family breadwinner, responsible for more than 60% of household earnings, by the time their first child turns 8. More than 70% of mothers become the chief household breadwinner before their first child reaches 18.

The average time a mother spends as the primary wage earner for her family is more than six years. A further 20% of women start motherhood as the family breadwinner.

If families planned around the Heritage Foundation's advice and forwent mothers' earnings, far more children would grow up in desperate poverty.

The growing phenomenon of moms becoming their children's primary provider can't be blamed on more nonmarital births or divorce. Nor is it confined to racial-ethnic minorities or low-income populations. There is no group of mothers — married or not, college educated or not, African American, white, Latino or Asian-origin — whose probability of becoming their family's breadwinner for at least a year is now less than 50%. Most of the rapid growth in mothers' breadwinning has come from partnered moms, the vast majority of whom are married.

Even in families in which a mother is not the primary breadwinner, women's earnings have become increasingly essential to income security during the early years of child-rearing. Yet children's growing reliance on their mothers' wages is occurring when the gender wage gap has stagnated at about 80 cents for every dollar earned by men.

Mothers without higher education or significant previous job experience are especially disadvantaged as breadwinners — as are their children. “Home health aide” and “cashier” are among the top 10 jobs held by breadwinning mothers, hardly secure jobs that allow women to support families with children, let alone “accelerate professionally” as they get older.

Whether they choose to work or are compelled to work, mothers deserve better workplace protections and social support systems. For that matter, so do fathers. Instead, government has made it even harder for women to control the timing of childbearing, diverted money from child-care support, and opposed restrictions on employers' arbitrary schedule changes and mandatory overtime. All these things hurt mothers and the children they must financially support, and lower U.S. fertility in the long run.

Children are not a luxury good or a personal indulgence for parents. They are a public good. They are the ones who will fund Social Security for the next generation and fuel new innovations in our economy. Yet we continually privatize the costs of raising our future workers and consumers. No wonder the U.S. has one of the largest gaps between the number of children women say they desire and the smaller number they actually end up bearing.

There's no easy answer to the dilemmas posed by falling fertility.

But government policies encouraging women to give birth early and often and “worry about career later” will most likely be ineffective, while leaving those who do bear children early in life more vulnerable to poverty and distress.

The real mystery may not be why American women are having fewer children, given their growing economic responsibility for supporting them; it's why policymakers continue to pretend mothers are just ancillary workers who can financially depend on the men in their lives, rather than the essential family breadwinners most turn out to be.

JENNIFER GLASS is a professor at the Population Research Center of the University of Texas, Austin, a senior researcher at the Council on Contemporary Families and past president of the Population Assn. of America.

L.A.'s iconic homes struggle to find buyers

[ Homes, from A1]

DEVELOPER Nile Niami sought \$500 million for “The One,” a 105,000-square-foot mansion. It sold at bankruptcy auction for \$126 million.

ALLEN J. SCHABEN Los Angeles Times

pilot of “Columbo,” as the Stahl House did in 1968, add value?

A little, but perhaps not approaching \$11,364 per square foot, which is what the Stahl House, at \$25 million for 2,200 square feet, was originally asking. For reference, a 4,041-square-foot home down the road is listed for \$2.975 million — \$736 per square foot.

The Stahl House's listing agent, William Baker, didn't respond to requests for comment. But other experts weighed in on the dynamic.

"It's hard to take a house's history or architectural prominence and translate that into dollars," real estate agent Ed Reilly said.

In 2019, Reilly handled the sale of the Bailey House, which Koenig built for the Case Study program along with the Stahl House. It also features minimalist living spaces surrounded by steel panels and walls of glass.

Reilly listed the Bailey House for \$4.5 million, but it eventually sold for \$3.26 million to film producer Allison Sarofim. He said the previous owners were art dealers and showcased art in the home instead of living there, but not everyone has that much to spend on a gallery space.

"These properties aren't for everyone," Reilly said. "The floor plan isn't as livable as modern houses."

He pointed to another house made famous by a photo: Richard Neutra's Kaufmann Desert House, captured in Slim Aarons' 1970 "Poolside Gossip."

It hit the market for \$25 million in 2020 but sold for \$13.06 million — the highest price ever in Palm Springs but barely over half the original ask.

For aging iconic homes, upkeep is also a factor. In 2022, real estate agent Mike Deasy handled the sale of Frank Lloyd Wright's Samuel Freeman House. Wright, who was devoted to organic architecture, used materials sourced from the site, including sand, to make textile blocks. However, the sand deteriorated over time. Meanwhile, greedy architecture fans stole blocks as mementos while the house was unoccupied.

It made for a headache of a listing.

"Pricing it was a stab in the dark," Deasy said. "By the time we got it listed, it was in extremely bad condition."

For an asking price of \$4.25 million, the house came with a few conditions set by the L.A. Conservancy, which had been granted an easement by the owner, USC.

Any changes to the facade — for example, replacing crumbling tile or old windows — had to be approved by the conservancy. In addition, the house needed to be made available to the public four times a year.

The fine print hampered the value. The one-of-a-kind house, despite its pedigree, sold to developer Richard Weintraub for just \$1.825 million, barely above the neighborhood median.

"It's impossible to put a price on fame," Deasy said. "With the exception of billionaires who buy properties as collector's items, most people are buying a home as a place to live."

From a buyer's perspective, owning a piece of architectural history is tricky. The more well-known a property is, the more people care about it. If your preservation efforts fail to meet their expectations, a firestorm can follow.

A spat recently flared up between the L.A. Conservancy and the All Right Now Foundation, a nonprofit that bought Frank Lloyd Wright's Sturges House, a Usonian-style gem in Brentwood.

The conservancy accused the foundation of “demolition by neglect,” claiming that the home’s iconic redwood deck was decaying. Multiple news outlets then reported that the house was falling apart, even quoting anonymous neighbors who said wild animals were entering the property.

The foundation rebutted the claims, posting a response on its website. A spokesperson for All Right Now told The Times that the house is in good shape, is actively occupied — by people, not wild animals — and is slowly but steadily being renovated with long-term preservation in mind.

Southern California holds plenty of architectural treasures, but other kinds of homes achieve fame here as well: mega-mansions. Many of L.A.'s hillsides are crowned by 30,000-square-foot behemoths jam-packed with more amenities than a mall.

But like art, a house is worth only what someone's willing to pay. And the developers who build them often have a tough time assessing their value.

Mega-mansion developer Nile Niami wanted \$500 million for the largest modern home in the country, a 105,000-square-foot house in Bel-Air known as “The One” that he built on spec. But construction took so long that parts of the house were crumbling before others were even finished. Debt mounted until it was sold at a bankruptcy auction for \$126 million.

Businessman Gary Winnick wanted \$250 million for Casa Encantada, one of L.A.'s grandest Old Hollywood estates. But buyers balked at the price tag, and it was eventually auctioned off over the summer to PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel for the relative bargain of \$130 million.

In 2018, a prized piece of land in Beverly Crest known as the Mountain made headlines when it listed for \$1 billion, the highest asking price for a residential property ever in L.A. It sold a year later at a bankruptcy auction for \$100,000 with a \$200-million debt tied to it.

Bret Parsons, a real estate agent with the Craig Strong Group at Compass who specializes in architectural properties, said he typically asks other brokers for their opinions before setting a price. He comes in slightly lower, which brings in multiple offers and drives bidding wars.

"I have a mantra: Pricing lower gets you higher," he said.

Parsons said there's a small pool of buyers willing to pay a stratospheric price for a property such as the Stahl House that's essentially a sculpture more than a place to live.

“It’s a pair of golden handcuffs,” he said. “A very expensive mistress who needs constant attention.”

Commissioned by Buck and Carlotta Stahl, the Stahl House has stayed in the family's hands for 66 years, racking up appearances in films such as "The Marrying Man," "Galaxy Quest" and "Nurse Betty." Buck died in 2005, and the home has been unoccupied since 2007, subsequently opening for tours, which grew its reputation among the public.

It's small, with only two bedrooms, but for many, it represents the best of California living: indoor-outdoor spaces, panoramic views of the city and a pool to ride out days of endless sun. For those reasons, there's still plenty of interest, even though the house has been on the market for nearly a year, Parsons said, citing rumors about multiple offers at lower amounts.

It might not be much longer before the marketplace pinpoints the value of an L.A. legend.

“It’s an extraordinary house,” Parsons said. “The best representation for what Los Angeles was, is and will continue to be.”

Kelvin wave brings higher risk of coastal flooding

ALLEN J. SCHABEN Los Angeles Times

A WAVE crashes on the staircase leading to Agate Street Beach in Laguna Beach.

[Wave, from A1] are storms forecasted or a high tide coming up, that is when the Kelvin wave could exacerbate damages."

That could come into play this week. Southern California is expected to face southerly swells from a distant hurricane — Rachel — starting Wednesday and peaking Thursday and Friday.

The National Weather Service is warning that coastal flood impacts will probably be more significant than late September's Hurricane Polo, although less than Hurricane Marie, which shot damaging swells toward a number of coastal homes in Dana Point, Long Beach and Malibu over Labor Day weekend.

The area most susceptible to coastal flooding this week will probably be the Long Beach peninsula, which is particularly vulnerable to swells coming from the south. Other areas of concern include the coast between Malibu and Ventura, as well as Catalina Island, the weather service office in Oxnard said.

Swells from the west or northwest are also expected soon from another weather system.

Forecasters warned of an increased risk of drownings this week due to larger waves and strong rip currents, and cautioned that the ocean “may be too dangerous for swimming.”

“Make sure you check in with lifeguards to know the conditions, to know if it's safe to swim,” said Kristan Lund, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service office in Oxnard. “It can be pretty deceiving until you're out there and realize how strong the rip currents actually are.”

The eastern Pacific has weathered an unusually active hurricane season this summer and fall, probably related to the development of a potentially historically strong El Niño. That climate pattern sees the heating of ocean waters in the central and eastern equatorial Pacific, which spur changes in the atmosphere that can affect weather around the world.

While often cast as a rainmaker in Southern California, El Niño can also wreak havoc on the coastline.

The climate pattern also contributes to rising sea levels, because water expands as it heats up.

That, combined with seas that have already risen over the last century because of human-caused climate change, puts California's treasured coast in the oceanic crosshairs.

"We have that thermal expansion from warm sea surface temperatures, from the El Niño — that makes it raise a little bit. The Kelvin waves will make it raise a little bit. And then you have the swell that's also coming in, making the waves higher," Lund said.

The federal Climate Prediction Center says there's a 75% chance that the current El Niño will be stronger than any in the modern record, which dates to 1950. Two of the three strongest on record — in 1982-83 and 1997-98 — coincided with above-average precipitation in California and caused considerable damage. Another very strong El Niño, in 2015-16, did not bring with it above-average precipitation to Southern California but still brought record coastal erosion.

The imminent arrival of the Kelvin wave comes as California has jolted into emergency mode. Gov. Gavin Newsom last month declared a state of emergency, saying he wanted to mobilize state resources to “prepare for El Niño’s anticipated impacts, like strong storms and coastal flooding.”

“This fall and winter could be dangerous, and Californians should take it seriously,” Newsom’s office said in a statement.

Sea levels are already significantly above the official tide forecasts, which are generated years in advance and don't account for an El Niño.

In Santa Monica, for example, the tides were coming in at about 5 inches above the official forecast from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration as of late August. This week, the tides were coming in 11 inches above the forecast.

"I've had multiple phone calls from harbor masters and fire chiefs in Southern California over the past week, saying, 'Why is the harbor flooding? We have king tide-like flooding,' Swain said in a recent livestream. "And my response has been, 'You're exactly right. That's exactly what we'd expect to see right now. ... And if you think it's a problem now, you might want to be preparing for what could happen later this fall and winter.'

Scientists have warned that they're expecting what is likely to be the highest sea levels ever recorded on the California coast this season.

Significant beach erosion has already been reported in Laguna Beach, Newport Beach, San Clemente, Carlsbad and Santa Monica — which blamed it for the cancellation of a coastal music festival last month. Municipalities declaring local emergencies related to El Niño, coastal erosion or recent hurricane swells include Los Angeles County, the city and county of San Diego, Orange County, Long Beach, Dana Point, Laguna Beach, San Clemente, Malibu and Carlsbad.

Ocean temperatures off the Southern California coast are now about 7 to 8 degrees above average, Swain said. And it's record hot in the Pacific from central Baja California to Southern California, he said, citing records that go back to 1982.

The Kelvin wave arriving now is either the second or third one of this El Niño, depending on how you analyze the data, Amaya said. But it's the biggest so far, according to Swain.

As an El Niño develops, the typical east-to-west trade winds along the equator weaken or even reverse. That allows hotter and higher seas to slosh from the far western equatorial Pacific — like Indonesia — east to a normally cooler part of the ocean near Peru, Amaya said.

As those Kelvin waves hit the coast of the Americas, they are said to become “coastally trapped,” because they have to follow a coastal boundary, with the shoreline to their right in the Northern Hemisphere, according to Michael Jacox, research oceanographer with NOAA Fisheries’ Ecosystem Science Division.

More Kelvin waves are expected this season, and scientists are concerned about whether one could coincide with exceptionally high king tides, a big storm or both, raising the risks of a coastal flood.

“We’re probably going to get at least two more major Kelvin waves that will arrive between November and January, during the period of king tides [and] during the period of maximum potential storm activity. This is again, potentially, going to be a significant problem,” Swain said. “I am expecting at this point coastal flooding on par with the kind of flooding we saw in '82-'83, '97-'98, '15-'16.”

To be sure, there is always a chance that El Niño may not have the anticipated impact on Southern California.

But Swain and others are betting that it's unlikely this winter will be boring for California.

"The most likely outcome this winter is that it's very wet and that there are some episodes of significant flood risk," Swain said.

The Climate Prediction Center is forecasting above-average precipitation for Southern California during December, January and February.

Swain said he's less concerned about this week's Kelvin wave than the prospect of later ones this year. Already, there are signs another is developing.

"I'm much more concerned about what happens this winter, because we are guaranteed to have king tides. We will have water levels that are at least a foot or two higher than they are now just because of the king tides. So that already is going to produce a worse effect than we're seeing now. Do we get a big storm during that window? That could really be a big problem," Swain said.

CALIFORNIA

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 8, 2026 :: LATIMES.COM/CALIFORNIA

GENARO MOLINA Los Angeles Times

RALLYING FOR LIVES BEHIND BARS

Activists Monday finish an eight-day walk from the Adelanto ICE Detention Center to downtown L.A.

LAPD plate reader program on hold

Council blocks pilot plan for hundreds of devices on streetlights amid privacy worries.

BY LIBOR JANY

Citing lingering concerns about the potential misuse of police license plate readers, the Los Angeles City Council voted Tuesday to delay an agreement that would enable the deployment of hundreds of the controversial devices until officials are satisfied that the technology will be wielded responsibly.

By a 10-4 vote, the council opted to overrule approval of a pilot program by Axon Enterprise that would attach plate scanners to streetlights around Los Angeles, offering the Police Department a souped-up version of its current systems by using AI to identify vehicles, license plates, pedestrians and objects on streets and sidewalks. The arrangement had previously been signed off on by the Board of Police Commissioners.

The council said it also had concerns, but lacked the authority to do anything, about a 10-year, \$235-million contract between the LAPD and Axon.

Axon is seeking with its pilot program to outfit hundreds of street lamps with plate scanners, which track the movements of vehicles around the city.

Under the other agreement, the company will replace thousands of body-worn cameras, supply new Tasers, provide cloud video storage, and roll out a program that uses artificial intelligence to assist officers in writing police reports.

The council's decision — which was preceded by several fiery comments from members of the public who oppose the use of license plate readers — sends the pilot program to the public safety committee for consideration.

A Police Commission spokesperson said the board's members weren't immediately available for comment.

Several council members voiced unease about proceeding without a better sense of the LAPD's internal policy on license plate reader use. Delaying the contract, Councilmember Hugo Soto-Martínez said, would give the public and city leaders more time to re-[See Surveillance, B2]

---

Voices GUSTAVO ARELLANO COLUMNIST

Rival disputes Becerra's heritage at his own peril

My maternal grandmother, Marcela Miranda, was born in Arizona's copper country in 1914 and lived in the United States until she was about 7.

She was part of a generation whose parents were from the rancho of El Cargadero, Zacatecas, and started families in el Norte while waiting out the Mexican Revolution in the 1910s and the Cristero Revolt in the 1920s. Many returned to their home village when things calmed down.

After growing up in Mexico, my grandmother moved to California with my grandfather and their children in the 1960s. Only the American government considered her a native-born U.S. citizen, while society dismissed her as a Mexican.

We grandchildren always considered our Mama Chela a doña — a grand Mexican dame who never wore pants and frequently covered her hair with a veil out of modesty. All she remembered from her early childhood in Arizona were snippets of the nursery rhymes “Did You Ever See a Lassie?” and “The Bear Went Over the Mountain.”

The El Cargadero diaspora, which mostly settled in Anaheim, saw our forebears' American birth as a stroke of provenance allowing them to legally enter the U.S. and give their progeny a head start that other Mexicans could only dream of. It's a story I've repeatedly told over my decades-long journalism career, and no one has yet challenged my description of my grandmother as an

XAVIER Becerra takes a photo with a supporter during a rally in May.

JUSTIN SULLIVAN Getty Images

Hilton tepid on Trump, warmer on tax cut plans at a town hall

Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom's final term ends in early January, providing voters the opportunity to select a new governor at a time of conflict between the state and the Trump administration over environmental policies, immigration, healthcare and other pressing issues.

By Nicole Nixon

Ballots already have started to arrive in California voters' mailboxes ahead of the Nov. 3 election.

Hilton also pointed to some disagreements with President Trump, providing daylight between himself and a president who remains deeply unpopular in California, during the event hosted and livestreamed by The Times and LAist.

Governor candidate takes shots at his rival at an event Becerra declined to attend.

Here are the top take-aways from the discussion

California Republican gubernatorial candidate Steve Hilton dove deep into his housing platform and lobbed a few attacks at his Democratic opponent, Xavier Becerra, during a town hall with Los Angeles news outlets Tuesday.

When a helicopter's rotors stop rotating, a pilot can use autorotation to try to gain enough momentum and upward flow on the rotor blades to increase their rotation, helping to control the aircraft as it descends, according to Jack Cress, a former U.S. Marine Corps helicopter pilot and a helicopter accident investigation instructor at USC's Aviation Safety & Security Program.

A news helicopter that crashed in Chatsworth last month — killing the pilot, an onboard journalist and a bystander on the ground — was flying low and had slowed down to an airspeed of about 6 knots in the minute before it went down, according to a preliminary federal report.

Just before it went down, the craft was about 800 feet off the ground and had slowed to nearly 7 mph, conditions that may have pre-

BY HANNAH FRY

AND RICHARD WINTON

The National Transportation Safety Board report, released Tuesday, said the Airbus AS350 B2 helicopter maneuvered above a collision involving an SUV and a Metro bus to gather footage for NBC4 and Telemundo 52 for about 1 hour and 24 minutes before it crashed.

"I am not convinced that the guy was not in a height velocity problem, and I think that the fact that his ground speed was a mere 6 knots suggested he did not have that part of the kinetic energy that he needed to make a successful autorotation from where he was," Cress said.

vented the pilot from executing a safety maneuver known as autorotation, experts say.

with Hilton:

[See Crash, B2]

On the campaign trail, Hilton has remained supportive of Trump and said Democratic policies, not the war in Iran, are to blame for high prices.

Trump endorsed Hilton in April, which helped the former Fox News host pull ahead of his GOP rival, Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco, and secure the second spot in the primary election, behind Becerra.

tightrope on Trump

Republicans running for statewide office already have an uphill battle because of California's heavily Democratic electorate. It's an acute challenge this year, campaign experts say, because many Democratic voters are itching to help their party regain control of Congress and neutralize Trump's agenda.

Pressed to name an instance where he disagrees with the president, Hilton named federal funding cuts for the University of California, threats to withdraw Customs and Border Protection agents from airports in states with sanctuary policies, and the federal government buying stakes in California-based companies.

Walking the

NBC4 helicopter was flying low and slow

[See Hilton, B5]

Raman in video urges the removal of LAPD's chief

---

BY DAVID ZAHNISER

'Only you can stop fascist liars!' council member says in post that was later pulled.

KAYLA BARTKOWSKI Los Angeles Times

THE WRECKAGE in Chatsworth last month after a helicopter crashed while covering a traffic collision.

Los Angeles City Council member and mayoral candidate Nithya Raman has renewed her call for the removal of Police Chief Jim McDonnell over his handling of last year's federal immigration raids, during a video interview posted online in which she urged viewers to "stop fascist liars."

Preliminary federal report doesn't find a cause for the fatal crash but offers details of what happened

Raman, running against Mayor Karen Bass in the Nov. 3 election, criticized

McDonnell and the mayor over the LAPD's use of tear gas against people protesting federal immigration arrests.

The 90-second video, uploaded to Instagram by content creator Ed Choi, was shot Sunday at Los Angeles Trade-Technical College, where Raman held a rally spelling out her plan for her first 100 days as mayor. Facing the camera, Raman and Choi begin the video declaring in unison, "Only you can stop fascist liars!" as an image of Bass appears on-screen.

By Tuesday morning, Choi had removed the video from his Instagram page.

Bass assailed Raman over the video, accusing the council member of calling the city's police officers fascist liars. Raman voted against police hiring this year and called at one point for defending the police, Bass said in a statement.

“But labeling them ‘fascists’ — when officers put on the uniform every day to keep us safe — is crossing the line,” Bass said. “It’s dangerous and extreme rhetoric, and it has no place in this city — let alone from someone trying to become mayor.”

McDonnell, through a spokesperson, declined to comment.

Raman spokesperson Liz Garcia said her boss used the phrase “only you can stop fascist liars” to describe federal immigration agents and “the Trump administration’s violent kidnappings” in L.A. Choi then edited the video interview, Garcia said.

“Nithya never used that phrase to describe Mayor Bass, Chief McDonnell, or LAPD officers, which is why we removed ourselves from the post and asked the creator to take it down immedi- [See Raman, B4]

A PEDESTRIAN stands near a Flock camera in Garden Grove. Similar devices have raised privacy concerns.

ALLEN J. SCHABEN Los Angeles Times

MARKETPLACE JOBS · REAL ESTATE · MORE

Legal Notices

LEGAL NOTICES

1300

---

Legal Notices

PUBLIC SALE - BOEN MEN'S APPAREL BRAND. Substantially all assets of Boen, LLC, including trademarks, IP, inventory, domain names and e-commerce assets, offered for public sale pursuant to UCC Article 9. Bids due Nov. 12, 2026, 5:00 P.M. PT. ABC Services Group, Inc.: 949-922-1211; chuck@abcservices.group. https://bit.ly/boen-asset-sale

---

Don't let the phone stop ringing

L.A. Times Real Estate Classified

Los Angeles Times

Business Names

---

You're connected.

Log on to latimes.com and you'll get breaking news, calendar live, business, sports, classified and travel. All brought to life with great photos and links to keep you moving.

More information.

In a flash.

Los Angeles Times

latimes.com.

Business Names

---

Fictitious Business Name Statement NO.: 2026 2026202585

The following person is doing business as: Fictitious Business Name(s) Starts Pacific 3625 Del Amo Blvd. #335, Torrance CA 90503. Registered Owner (S): Kenji Yoshioka 3625 Del Amo Blvd. #335, Torrance CA 90503. Business is conducted by: an Individual. The registrant commenced to transact business under the fictitious business name or names listed above on 09/22/2026. I declare that all information in this statement is true and correct. (A registrant who declares as true information which he or she knows to be false is guilty of a crime) REGISTRANT/CORP/LLC NAME: Kenji Yoshioka. Signature: /Owner. This statement was filed with the County Clerk of Los Angeles County on 09/22/2026. NOTICE- in accordance with subdivision (a) of section 17920 A Fictitious Name Statement generally expires at the end of five years from the date on which it was filed in the office of the County Clerk except, as provided in subdivision (b) of section 17920, where it expires 40 days after any change in the facts set forth in the statement pursuant to section 17913 other than a change in the residence address of a registered owner. A new fictitious business name statement must be filed before the expiration. The filing of this statement does not of itself authorize the use in this state of fictitious business name in violation of the rights of another under federal state or common law (see section 14411 et seq. Business and Professions code). Dean C. Logan, Los Angeles County Clerk. BY: Maya Head, Deputy. Published 09/24/26, 10/01/26, 10/08/26, 10/15/26.

...a hug in a mug!

TM Reg. U.S. Pat. Off. — all rights reserved © 2026 Minikim Holland B.V.

Legal Notices

NOTICE OF PREPARATION OF DRAFT

ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT REPORT (EIR) AND

PUBLIC HEARING - LINCOLN PARK

NEIGHBORHOOD GREENSTREET NETWORK

PROJECT: The City of Los Angeles, Department of

Public Works, (City) Bureau of Engineering (BOE) is

initiating environmental review of the proposed

Lincoln Park Neighborhood Green Street Network

Project (Project) under the California

Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). As the Lead

Agency, the City has determined that the Project

may result in significant environmental impacts

and will prepare an Environmental Impact Report

(EIR). The EIR will evaluate potential effects on the

following environmental resources: aesthetics, air

quality, biological resources, cultural resources,

greenhouse gas emissions, hazards and hazardous

materials, hydrology and water quality, noise,

recreation, and tribal cultural resources. PROJECT

LOCATION AND SETTING: The Project site consists

of Lincoln Park and portions of the public rights-of-

way of several roadways within the Lincoln Heights

neighborhood in the eastern portion of the City of

Los Angeles. The Project includes three

components: Lincoln Park Lake Improvements

within the approximately 45-acre Lincoln Park;

Green Street Network Drywells along Humboldt

Street and adjoining streets approximately 1.3

miles northwest of the park; and Green Street

Network Landscape Improvements along select

streets in the central portion of the Lincoln Heights

neighborhood. PROJECT DESCRIPTION: The Project

includes three components: Lincoln Park Lake

Improvements; installation of approximately 37 to

50 drywells with associated storm drain

infrastructure; and installation of approximately

172 street trees along selected public streets in

Lincoln Heights. Lake improvements would include

sediment removal, shoreline stabilization, pump

house and circulation and aeration system

upgrades, passive bioswales, and associated

landscape and hardscape modifications. The

drywells would capture, treat, and infiltrate runoff

from an approximately 125-acre drainage area and

would be sized to achieve an 80 percent long-term

pollutant load reduction. SCOPING: The City

requests that Responsible and Trustee agencies

provide input on the scope and content of the

environmental information pertaining to their

statutory responsibilities that must be included in the

EIR. Furthermore, the City welcomes input from

stakeholders, and other interested parties on the

scope and content of the EIR. The City will use

comments received during the environmental

scoping period to prepare an EIR analyzing the

proposed Project's environmental impacts and

alternatives. The City invites the public to attend

the scoping meetings described below to learn

more about the proposed Project and participate

in the environmental review process. PUBLIC

REVIEW PERIOD: The Notice of Preparation and

Appendix G Environmental Checklist resource

areas to be studied will be available for public

review beginning October 8, 2026, and ending

November 30, 2026. The materials may be viewed

and downloaded from the City's webpage:

https://engineering.lacity.gov/about-

management/projects/lincoln-park-neighborhood-greenstreet-network-project. Una traducción al español de este NOP está disponible en este enlace. A copy of the document may also be obtained by contacting the BOE Environmental Supervisor Cristian Centeno at cristian.centeno@lacity.org. All comments must be submitted in writing no later than 4:00 p.m. on November 30, 2026 by mail or email (please include "Lincoln Park Neighborhood Green Street Network" in the subject line) to: Cristian Centeno, Environmental Supervisor City of Los Angeles Bureau of Engineering, Environmental Management Division 1149 South Broadway, Suite 600, Mail Stop 939 Los Angeles, CA 90015 cristian.centeno@lacity.org. PUBLIC MEETING: During the public review period, the City will hold two public meetings to receive comments on the scope and content of the EIR. Simultaneous Spanish interpretation and transcription will be provided. Public scoping meeting dates, times, and locations are listed below: Public scoping meeting held in-person on Saturday, October 24, 2026 at 11:00 AM At Lincoln Park Recreation Center Gymnasium 3501 Valley Blvd Los Angeles, CA 90031. Public scoping meeting held virtually on Tuesday, October 27, 2026 at 6:00 PM Link to Zoom Meeting: https://bit.ly/LPN-Greenstreet-Meeting Meeting ID: 842 5711 8131 Passcode: 077601. The City will consider all comments, written and oral, in determining the scope of the analysis in the Draft EIR.

CNS-4085483#

latimes.com/placead

To place an ad call 1.800.234.4444

---

Los Angeles Times

Legal Notices

---

Legal Notices

---

SUMMONS

CASE NUMBER (Número del Caso): 26STCV08733

---

NOTICE TO DEFENDANT: (AVISO AL DEMANDADO):

UNION PACIFIC RAILROAD COMPANY, a Delaware Corporation; BANKLINE OIL COMPANY, a corporation; ALAMEDA CORRIDOR TRANSPORTATION AUTHORITY, a joint powers authority; UNION PACIFIC RAILROAD COMPANY, a Utah corporation; ALL PERSONS UNKNOWN CLAIMING AN INTEREST IN THE PROPERTY TO BE CONDEMNED HEREIN; and DOES 1 through 100. inclusive.

YOU ARE BEING SUED BY PLAINTIFF:

(LO ESTÁ DEMANDANDO EL DEMANDANTE):

CITY OF LONG BEACH, a municipal corporation,

acting by and through its BOARD OF HARBOR

COMMISSIONERS

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 located 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. Puedo 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 requisites legales. Es recommendable que llame a un abogado inmediatamente. Si no conoce a un abogado, puede llamar a un servicio de remission a abogados. Si no puede pagar a un abogado, es posible que cumpla con los requisites para obtener servicios legales gratuitos de un programa de servicios legales sin lines de lucro. Puede encontrar estos grupos sin lines 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.

The property affected by this action is located within the City of Los Angeles, California, identified as portion of Assessor's Parcel Number 7428-027-815, and legally described as follows:

PARCEL 10022-1

THAT PORTION OF PARCEL 1 AS DESCRIBED IN QUITCLAIM DEED IN THE CITY OF LOS ANGELES, STATE OF CALIFORNIA, RECORDED ON FEBRUARY 26, 1965 AS INSTRUMENT NO. 6016, OF OFFICIAL RECORDS OF SAID COUNTY, LYING NORTHEASTERLY OF THE SOUTHWESTERLY LINE OF LOT 35, BLOCK 20, TRACT NO. 2016, FILED IN BOOK 27, PAGES 16, 17, AND 18, OF MAPS IN THE OFFICE OF COUNTY RECORDER OS SAID COUNTY. CONTAINING 3,224 SQUARE FEET. SUBJECT TO COVENANTS, CONDITIONS, RESTRICTIONS, RESERVATIONS, RIGHTS, RIGHTS OF WAY, AND OTHER MATTERS OF RECORD, IF ANY.

The name and address of the court is:

(El nombre y dirección de la corte es):

Stanley Mosk Courthouse

111 N. Hill Street, Los Angeles, CA 90012

The name, address, and telephone number of the plaintiff's attorney, or plaintiff without an attorney, is:

(El nombre, la dirección y el número del abogado del demandante, o del demandante que no tiene abodgado, es):

Tood R. Moore; Hahn & Hahn LLP

301 E. Colorado Blvd, 9th Floor

Pasadena, CA 91101

626-796-9123

DATE (Fecha): 03/13/2026

/s/ by: David W. Slayton Executive Officer/Clerk of Court Clerk (Secretario),

/s/ by P. Rodriguez, Deputy (Adjunto)

(SEAL) NOTICE TO THE PERSON SERVED:

You are served.

Published in the Los Angeles Times

○○

Yesterday's

THAT SCRAMBLED WORD GAME

By David L. Hoyt and Jeff Knurek

You're connected.

The image contains a geometric pattern of six circles arranged in a 2x2 grid. There is no text, mathematical formulas, tables, or numerical data present in the image. Therefore, the correct OCR output is an empty string.

WHEN THEY FOUND LISTENING

DEVICES IN THEIR OFFICE, ---

Now arrange the circled letters

to form the surprise answer, as

suggested by the above cartoon.

L.A. Times Classified

Los Angeles Times

latimes.com.

Jumbles: TRACT CHOMP VACUUM JACKAL

Answer: After getting into an accident, his new sedan was a — COMPACT CAR

You'll find it here.

Buy it.

Sell it.

Rent it.

Lease it.

Trade it.

Own it.

To advertise, call (800) 234-4444

You're connected.

Los Angeles Times

Los Angeles Times

latimes.com.

Council blocks pilot program for hundreds of plate readers in L.A.

[Surveillance, from B1] view the safeguards and policies written into the LAPD's proposed memorandum of understanding with Axon.

Councilmember Traci Park, a staunch supporter of plate reader technology, said there is an urgent need to get the devices “up and running.”

Councilmember Eunisses Hernandez shot back that it would be irresponsible to deploy the technology, citing news reports about officers misusing plate readers to stalk romantic partners and track women seeking reproductive health services.

Earlier this year, the LAPD allowed its agreement with one of Axon's chief competitors, Flock Safety, to lapse over concerns that the Trump administration is using the data it collects to locate immigrants targeted for deportation.

Police officials say they no longer have access to the company's cameras, many of which are owned by homeowners associations and other private groups.

LAPD Chief Jim McDonnell and other department leaders have pushed to expand the use of license plate readers, saying they are a valuable tool for solving crimes, enabling investigators to more easily locate stolen vehicles and fugitives.

Hernandez noted that other police technologies, such as a robot dog used in situations involving barricaded suspects, had quietly moved from a pilot to a full-fledged program without input from the council.

Council President Marqueece Harris-Dawson said he still had privacy concerns about license plate readers, while noting that their deployment along the Figueroa corridor had assisted in the rescue of dozens of juvenile sex trafficking victims.

"Now having said that, if I'm honest I don't know what else the cameras are doing," he said.

Councilmember Monica Rodriguez said that as the license plate reader technology is adopted by other, non-police agencies such as sanitation and street services, the city needs a universal policy governing its use.

The matter will next be heard by the public safety committee — likely at its Oct. 20 meeting — before being taken up by the full council later that week.

In a presentation to the Police Commission last month, the LAPD's technology chief, Dean Gialamas, said the department understood the privacy and civil liberty concerns raised about companies such as Flock.

This summer, the department announced it was pausing its relationship with the Atlanta-based company, but police officials have said they still hope to negotiate a new deal with the company that would include more data-sharing safeguards.

Much like the initial debate over the use of forensic DNA testing, Gialamas said, the answer wasn't to abandon the technology but to create safeguards to “ensure responsible and trusted use.”

Gialamas told commissioners that Axon had agreed to terms that would give the LAPD complete ownership of the data captured and bar the sharing of data with federal authorities.

The proposed deal, he said, would also limit the use of plate readers to criminal investigations, missing per-

---

Several council members voiced unease about proceeding without a better sense of the LAPD's internal policy on license plate reader use.

sons cases and other “serious public safety matters.”

Investigators, for instance, would not be able to conduct searches based solely on protests or other 1st Amendment-protected activities, he said.

Under the new contract, investigators will no longer be given “unfettered access” to license plate data and the retention period would be significantly cut down, he said.

The department would also be permitted to conduct regular audits to flag officers who use the system frequently or conduct unusual searches.

A report issued last month by the LAPD inspector general's office found numerous “limitations” in the department's existing agreements with its three plate reader vendors — Flock, Axon and Motorola — including a lack of clear language about how long data are retained and how they are shared with third parties or other law enforcement agencies.

The inspector general recommended that the department update its current license plate reader contracts to address data security and privacy concerns, conduct regular audits and develop standardized rules for traffic stops based on plate reader hits.

News chopper was in danger zone before crash, NTSB reports

states.

[Crash, from B1]

NBC4 reporter Eliana Moreno and pilot George Marciniw were killed in the crash along with 29-year-old Edy Gutierrez Mejia, who was on the ground when the chopper went down.

The NTSB report did not outline what specifically caused the helicopter to crash. But the report includes details that investigators have probed in an effort to determine a cause.

The best piece of evidence so far appears to be a roughly four-minute video taken by the onboard news reporter on the night of the crash, Sept. 15, that captured ambient helicopter noise — including sounds from both the main rotor and the engine.

“During the last 29 seconds of the flight, the recording captured the helicopter noise as it changed frequency, along with intermittent and continuous horns, consistent with the helicopter's main rotor high rpm, low rotor rpm and other aural advisories,” the report

At 7:55 p.m., data show the helicopter rapidly descending while turning right, according to the report. Security cameras from several buildings in the area recorded the chopper as it descended quickly and struck a metal storage container. The helicopter then caught fire, the report states.

Helicopter pilots are generally trained to refrain from hovering in the air at low altitudes with little forward momentum, known by pilots as a “dead man’s curve,” because it gives very little recourse if there are engine problems. But it is a common practice for police and news choppers, Cress said.

“They spend a lot of time in areas where the helicopter pilots are told not to be,” Cress said. “Every helicopter pilot is told that that region exists, and they are warned of the fact that if you’re anywhere near that thing, you may very well not be able to make a successful autorotation.”

CITY & STATE

Bernie Sanders touts wealth tax as labor pans it

U.S. SEN. Bernie Sanders speaks Monday in favor of the wealth tax during a rally at the Novo in Los Angeles.

JASON ARMOND Los Angeles Times

Union leaders say

loophole would allow

a levy on savings and

more for all in state.

BY SEEMA MEHTA

AND NICOLE NIXON

Sen. Bernie Sanders, a hero among the nation's progressive voters, stumped in Southern California on Monday for a wealth tax on the California ballot in November that has drawn hundreds of millions of dollars in campaign spending.

“What you are showing people from coast to coast and all over is that, yes, we can take on the greed of the oligarchs,” said Sanders (I-Vt.), who called Proposition 40 the most important ballot measure in the country. “Yes, we can create an economy and a government that works for all of us, not just the 1%.”

Sanders name-checked billionaire tech founders including Elon Musk of SpaceX, Mark Zuckerberg of Meta and Google co-founder Sergey Brin, whose mentions were repeatedly met with boos from the crowd gathered at the Novo in downtown Los Angeles.

Labor leaders, speaking earlier on Monday at a union training facility in La Palma, countered that although the billionaire tax is billed as a one-time tax on the assets of the state's wealthiest residents, it includes a loophole that would allow state lawmakers to tax the savings, retirement accounts and home equity of all Californians.

“In the trades, we know you always read the blueprints and you always read the fine print,” said Xochitl Medrano, the political director for the District Council of Iron Workers of the State of California and Vicinity. Medrano was surrounded by union workers chanting, “No on 40!”

"Our workers are not billionaires; they are working people. After 20, 30, or even 40 years of breaking their backs on the job sites, our members have the opportunity to have a decent pension, some retirement savings, and equity in a home that they've been working to pay off," she said. "That's not wealth handed to them. That's sweat equity. ... We won't stand by and let a tax that's supposed to target billionaires turn into a trap door for working families."

Proposition 40 is among the most contentious issues on the Nov. 3 ballot. The measure was crafted by a healthcare union to offset \$100 billion in impending federal healthcare funding cuts approved by congressional Republicans and signed by President Trump last year.

Millions of Californians could lose their healthcare coverage because of those cuts.

There are two opposing measures on the November ballot, Propositions 41 and 42, that would nullify the billionaire tax if either receives more votes.

About 45% of likely voters supported Proposition 40, while 42% opposed it and 13% were undecided in a late September poll by UC Berkeley and the Los Angeles Times. That's a decline in support compared with a poll six weeks earlier, when

48% of likely voters supported it while 41% opposed it.

The proposal has drawn more than \$300 million in campaign contributions, nearly all against it. Ballot measures are not subject to caps on campaign donations.

Sanders was joined by Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Fremont) and artists including the rapper Common, who called for “them billionaires to pay up” between freestyle verses. Shepard Fairey, known for his famous portrait of President

Obama, unveiled banners in support of the wealth tax campaign, which served as a backdrop on the event stage.

Rally attendee Datesha Williams, an SEIU-UHW member who works in healthcare customer service, said Proposition 40 is a backstop to federal healthcare cuts, which could lead to hospital closures around the state.

“My biggest fear is that I will see some of my co-workers lose their jobs,” she said. “My biggest fear is that my 8-year-old son, who is asthmatic, will have long waits in an ER.”

At the event at the California Field Iron Worker Training Facility in La Palma organized by labor leaders to oppose the wealth tax, apprentices attended workshops about rigging and collective bargaining rights.

“We're not opposed to making the wealthy pay their fair share. We're not opposed to creating a high-quality and low-cost health insurance plan for Californians,” said Andrew Gonzales, the council representative for the Los Angeles and Orange Counties Building and Construction Trades Council. “We just don't think Prop. 40 is the right vehicle to go about that.”

Gonzales pointed to the volatile state budget's dependence on tax revenue from wealthy Californians, some of whom have proactively moved out of the state because of the proposal.

“That’s already having an immediate impact to the state’s budget,” he said. “So we already see the danger that can occur.”

Coroner classifies falling death at Franklin High as a suicide

Footage shows an altercation preceding the fall, but no details have been released.

BY ANDREW KHOURI AND HOWARD BLUME

The 17-year-old Franklin High School student who fell from a fourth-floor railing last week on campus died by suicide, according to the Los Angeles County medical examiner's office.

In an online database, the Los Angeles County medical examiner listed the manner of death for Xavier Nungaray-Martinez on Tuesday and noted he suffered from multiple blunt traumatic injuries to the head and torso.

Officials have not released details about what preceded the fall.

But videos that have circulated widely online show an altercation in a classroom between two students. Videos reviewed by The Times show one boy striking another, who is lying on the ground. A teacher gets between the students, and the boy on the ground slowly gets up. The student doing the beating backs off, giving the other student a shove as he does so.

The assailant still appears agitated, and the teacher, an older man, continues to stand between the two and shouts “stop” and “calm down” at the agitated student.

The boy who was hit turns away. Then, the attacker delivers one more punch that knocks the other boy to the floor. He then runs out the door, and the attacking boy shouts at him to run using a racial slur.

In another video, the boy who was hit is near the railing in a corridor outside the classroom. At that point, the boy who appears to be the attacker approaches. The boy at the railing then vaults over it.

Los Angeles police have not released details about their investigation or whether any arrests have been made.

Since Nungaray-Martinez's death, there's been an outpouring of grief at the school in Highland Park, with hundreds attending a memorial on campus the day after.

Concerns over bullying on campus, as well as a lack of security, have also been raised.

A new online petition, posted by someone identifying themselves as a member of Xavier's extended family, said the 17-year-old “lost his life at Franklin High School in Highland Park due to an avoidable incident of bullying.”

The petition, which identifies the boy as Xavier Amaya Nungaray, calls for the L.A. Unified School District to add more security cameras on campus, install more safeguards along railings and ensure all campuses have police officers staffed on site.

DAVID BUTOW For The Times

HIGHLAND PARK community members gather at a vigil for the student, 17.

LAUSD's primary discipline strategy is based on a counseling practice called restorative justice that emphasizes students learning to take personal responsibility for their actions, as well as taking steps to remedy the consequences of inappropriate behavior.

The school system has added staff in support of this approach, while simultaneously banning school police officers from campuses except in emergencies and sharply reducing the size of the school police force.

Mother of girl, 14, whose baby died in alleged incest case is arrested

Ofelia Garcia Ortega, 36, is facing charges that include child endangerment.

By Iris Kwok

The mother of a Northern California girl, 14, whose baby was found dead near an agricultural field, has been arrested.

Officials said the girl was abused and impregnated by her father, who fled with her after the newborn was found dead Aug. 1 along a Monterey County road.

The teen's mother, Ofelia Garcia Ortega, 36, was arrested by Monterey County sheriff's detectives on Tuesday afternoon at the Superior Courthouse in Salinas, the agency said in a statement.

The infant, whom law enforcement referred to as "Baby Angelita," was found dead with signs of traumatic injury along Struve Road in Monterey County.

The teenager, who is not being named because she is a minor, was recently found in Mexico with her fugitive father, Sergio Galvez Perez, who was arrested. California authorities had in early September issued an Amber alert.

Prosecutors have said the girl is a victim of sexual assault by her biological father. On Sept. 2, he was charged with one count of lewd act upon a child, with an enhancement for inflicting “great bodily injury on the victim”; one count of incest; and one count of child abuse, according to court documents.

"The investigation into the circumstances surrounding the infant's death also examined the conduct of Jane Doe's mother, Ofelia Garcia Ortega," the Monterey County district attorney's office said in a statement Tuesday afternoon. "Investigators determined that Ortega put Jane Doe to work in agricultural fields at age 13 using falsified documentation. Ortega also allowed Jane Doe to drive without a license and allowed her to completely remain out of school for many months."

Cmdr. Andres Rosas, a spokesperson for the Monterey County Sheriff's Office, was unable to immediately provide information about why Garcia Ortega was at the Superior Courthouse at the time of her arrest. She was previously arrested on Aug. 4 on suspicion of child endangerment. That same day, she posted \$50,000 bail and was released, Rosas told The Times.

On Tuesday at 2:45 p.m., she was taken into custody without incident and charged with two felony counts of displaying or possessing a forged identification card; one misdemeanor count of permitting a child to suffer or be endangered; and one misdemeanor count of contributing to the delinquency of a minor, according to the statement.

Rosas said Perez and his daughter were found in Janos, a town in the northern Mexican state of Chihuahua.

The girl is now in the custody of a Mexican government agency responsible for child protection, Rosas said, adding that more details would be shared later this week.

Garcia Ortega is now being held in Monterey County Jail on \$150,000 enhanced bail, which she had not posted as of Tuesday evening, Rosas said.

Head-on crash kills three, including UCLA, UC Santa Cruz students

BY SALVADOR

HERNANDEZ

Students from UCLA and UC Santa Cruz were among three people killed in a horrific head-on crash Sunday in Central California, officials said.

The crash occurred Sunday night outside Salinas when a black Nissan Altima, headed south on Abbott

Street, collided with a white Honda CR-V that was traveling north, the San Francisco Chronicle reported. The two drivers of the cars, ages 21 and 20, as well as three other passengers survived the crash, according to the outlet.

The crash is being investigated by the California Highway Patrol.

On Tuesday, the office of the Monterey County sheriff-coroner identified the three as 19-year-old Abigail Tinoco of Downey, 18-year-old Sebastian Burgos of Downey and 18-year-old Noah Trevino of Soledad.

Tinoco's family launched a GoFundMe to help raise money for funeral expenses. In it, Tinoco's sister wrote that Abigail was a graduate of Downey High School and an athlete on the track and cross-country teams before she attended UCLA. She was looking at a career in law.

Burgos' family also launched a GoFundMe to help with costs associated with his death. His sister wrote in the fundraiser that Burgos had started his first quarter at UC Santa Cruz as a biology major.

A spokesperson for UC Santa Cruz confirmed Burgos was a student at the uni-

versity.

“We are heartbroken to learn about the death of Sebastian Burgos, a UC Santa Cruz student,” a spokesperson said in a statement. “We offer our deepest sympathies to Sebastian’s family and friends, who are mourning this tragic loss.”

The university was also offering support and counseling services to faculty and

staff.

A third GoFundMe was created for Trevino to cover the family's time away from work, medical expenses and other costs from the crash, the fundraiser said.

Officials at UCLA did not immediately respond to a request for comment. A spokesperson for the California Highway Patrol did not respond to a request for comment.

Aide denies Raman called Bass, cops ‘fascist liars’

L.A. MAYOR Karen Bass, left, and Councilmember Nithya Raman are campaigning for the top city job.

Los Angeles Times

[Raman, from B1] [Together, from 12]ately," Garcia said in a statement.

Last year, LAPD officers fired hard foam projectiles and other less-lethal munitions at protesters who had gathered downtown to oppose the immigration sweeps. Video also showed people being trampled and hit with batons as officers traveled on horseback.

U.S. District Judge Hernán D. Vera barred the LAPD and federal agents from using crowd control weapons on reporters and nonviolent protesters, arguing that the 1st Amendment “demands better.” A few months later, a different judge found that the department had violated previous court restrictions by using projectile weapons to disperse crowds at protests against immigration enforcement.

Choi, who is also listed as the co-founder of a clothing brand, said in his interview with Raman that Los Angeles had become “extremely fascist, especially because Karen Bass appointed McDonnell as chief of police.”

‘There is a reason that the Chief and the Mayor have a security detail, it’s because they are under constant threat.’

— Los Angeles

POLICE PROTECTIVE

LEAGUE'S BOARD OF

DIRECTORS

He asked Raman how she would “de-fascistize” the city if elected mayor.

Raman, who called previously for McDonnell to be replaced, told Choi she would seek new leadership at the LAPD, saying the chief has not “met this moment.”

"People are exercising their 1st Amendment rights to protest this federal government," she said. "And LAPD under this police chief and under this mayor has tear-gassed protesters, something they weren't even doing in 2020 and that needs to end."

As Raman spoke, the video showed an image of McDonnell's face with an X drawn over it. The video ends with Raman's campaign logo and the message "VOTE! And Help De-Fascistize LA!"

The Los Angeles Police Protective League, which represents rank-and-file officers, objected to some of the imagery in the video, which draws a red circle around McDonnell's face and then crosses it out, calling it "dangerous."

"There is a reason that the Chief and the Mayor have a security detail, it's be-"

cause they are under constant threat. Unfortunately Ms. Raman has now amplified those threats," the union's board of directors said in a statement.

Bass, who campaigned with Jane Fonda over the weekend, has been running campaign ads highlighting her response to last year's protests against Immigration and Customs Enforcement actions, including video of her July 2025 confrontation with immigration agents in MacArthur Park. Last week, she signed an ordinance prohibiting the use of city property for the staging of immigration enforcement actions.

The mayor also signed an executive directive that requires that city law enforcement personnel use their body-worn cameras to record federal immigration enforcement actions.

Dog walker's racist rant disrupts proposal at Laguna Beach park

EMMANUEL BANUELOS and Hayley Lugos were engaged Friday at Laguna's Crescent Bay Point Park.

TRINITY LUGOS

language and behavior of any kind.

BY CLARA HARTER

Emmanuel Banuelos spent weeks planning the perfect proposal, selecting a picturesque spot at a Laguna Beach park, enlisting his soon-to-be sister-in-law as a videographer and booking a mariachi band to play his girlfriend's favorite music.

But his meticulous planning did not include the possibility of being confronted by a woman shouting, “Go back to Mexico!” and saying that she had called the police because the event wasn’t allowed.

A recording of the encounter has garnered more than 10.8 million views on Instagram, sparking outrage over the woman's racist remarks.

"It made me feel so sad that people still have so much hate and racism in them," said Banuelos' fian-cee, Hayley Lugos. "When I saw it and heard it, my heart sank. It just left me dis-

traught."

The videographer, Hayley's sister Trinity Lugos, told The Times the woman confronted her as she was setting up equipment to record the proposal overlooking the ocean in Crescent Bay Point Park on Friday evening.

In the recording, the woman, who is walking her dog, can be heard saying that “the park is for people that live here to enjoy” and that police are coming to tear down the engagement event because they don’t have a permit.

The situation escalates as the mariachi music begins playing and the couple approach a display of white roses and candles laid out on the grass.

"This isn't Mexico either, you m—, go back to Mexico!" the woman yells, seconds before Banuelos gets down on one knee.

A spokesperson for Laguna Beach said that the city was aware of the video and that it rejects hateful

“Laguna Beach's parks and beaches are open to everyone and are regularly the backdrop to celebrate milestones,” the spokesperson said in a statement. “Because of their frequency, they can also affect the general public’s right to enjoy the coastline. Therefore, pre-planned setups and professional photography have specific rules and permit requirements.”

The spokesperson did not comment on whether this specific proposal violated city rules but noted that documented proposals require a professional photography permit and said proposals that include setups and structures are not allowed.

Banuelos said he did not think he needed a professional photography permit as the videographer was a family member and they did not use amplified sound or temporary structures. In total, the setup, proposal and cleanup took less than an hour, Trinity Lugos said.

Police never arrived, she added.

The Laguna Beach Police Department received a call at 5:26 p.m. Friday stating there was an engagement setup with a mariachi band, according to the city spokesperson. Police checked permit records, saw there was one issued at the park for 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. that day and did not respond. However, police officials learned later that the permit was for a different couple's engagement.

Banuelos said the encounter was incredibly shocking and deeply offensive.

“In today’s day and age, that’s not something you want to hear,” he said. “I have very deep Mexican roots, so it was very hurtful to hear things like that.”

Despite the interference, the couple said they were still able to enjoy their beautiful moment before heading back home to Ontario, where Banuelos had planned a surprise party to celebrate the engagement.

Trinity Lugos said she decided to post the woman's rant online because she thought there should be accountability for the comments, but she did not expect the recording to receive millions of views. Hayley Lugos said she's happy to see the video go viral, noting that she hopes it spreads a message that racism will not be tolerated.

“It’s a blessing for it to be brought to light,” she said. “It shows that you can’t be doing this stuff anymore.”

Los Angeles Times

Never lose track of a great recommendation again.

Save a custom list of

must-try spots.

Use our expertly curated guides to build your own list of restaurants, activities and other local attractions to revisit whenever you're making plans.

Get Started

RONALDO BOLAÑOS Los Angeles Times

---

Today in Southern California

Still hot, but heat begins to ease: Thursday will be another hot day away from the coast, although most of the L.A. Basin and coastal plain will not be as hot as in previous days. The ridge responsible for the heat will gradually break down over the next few days as a strong Pacific trough approaches the area. Moisture from Hurricane Rachel might affect the area late in the weekend and early next week.

---

5-day forecasts

High/low temperatures are average forecasts for entire zone. | L.A. Basin | Valleys | Beaches | Mountains | Deserts | Today | 93|68 | 97|69 | 83|68 | 77|46 | 107|79 | Sunny and hot | Very hot | Mostly sunny | Warm with sunshine | Sun; very hot | Friday | Mostly sunny | 86/68 | Mostly sunny | 90/65 | Humid | 80/68 | Partly sunny | 76/45 | Hot | 105/76 | Saturday | Clouds, sun | 81/66 | Partly sunny | 79/67 | Partly sunny | 74/67 | Cooler | 65/45 | Not as hot | 93/70 | Sunday | Rain | 78/61 | Rain | 76/59 | Rain | 76/62 | Some rain | 58/40 | Some rain | 83/64 | Monday | Showers | 74/63 | Showers | 72/57 | Showers | 69/61 | Showers | 50/37 | Showers | 79/60 | ---

Surf and sea

POINT CONCEPTION TO MEXICO

Inner waters: Wind becoming west at 5-10 knots. Seas 2-4 feet. Swell west 1-2 feet at 9-11 seconds and south 3-4 feet at 12-13 seconds.

Surf zone: The risk for strong rip currents will be high at L.A., S.D. and O.C. beaches, moderate at Ventura County beaches and low elsewhere. | County | Height | Period | Direction | Temp | Santa Barbara | 1-3' | 13 sec | SW | 71 | Ventura | 2-4' | 13 sec | S | 72 | Los Angeles | 3-5' | 13 sec | SW | 73 | Orange | 3-5' | 12 sec | S | 73 | San Diego | 3-5' | 12 sec | S | 74 | L.A. Outer Harbor, in feet. | Today | 8:34a | 5.6 Hi | 2:14a | 0.1 Lo | 8:37p | 5.5 Hi | 2:37p | 0.7 Lo | Fri. | 8:59a | 5.9 Hi | 2:44a | 0.4 Lo | 9:20p | 5.2 Hi | 3:17p | 0.3 Lo | Minutes to burn for sensitive people

Las Vegas, 45 Phoenix, 45

Los Angeles, 45 San Francisco, 45

---

UV index

---

Sun and moon

California cities\* | City | Wed.* | Today | Fri. | Hi | Lo | Prcp. | Hi | Lo | Hi | Lo | Anaheim | 99 | 69 | -- | 95 | 66 | 89 | 69 | Avalon/Catalina | 89 | 75 | -- | 88 | 66 | 78 | 59 | Bakersfield | 99 | 71 | -- | 99 | 70 | 96 | 67 | Barstow | 100 | 71 | -- | 100 | 71 | 98 | 69 | Big Bear Lake | 76 | 44 | -- | 77 | 46 | 76 | 45 | Bishop | 92 | 49 | -- | 92 | 49 | 89 | 47 | Burbank | 101 | 71 | -- | 96 | 68 | 91 | 66 | Camarillo | 85 | 62 | -- | 85 | 63 | 80 | 63 | Chatsworth | 101 | 73 | -- | 97 | 69 | 90 | 65 | Chino | 104 | 66 | -- | 102 | 63 | 97 | 63 | Compton | 94 | 70 | -- | 91 | 69 | 86 | 69 | Dana Point | 84 | 69 | -- | 82 | 69 | 78 | 69 | Death Valley | 110 | 80 | -- | 110 | 79 | 109 | 80 | Del Mar | 84 | 69 | -- | 80 | 69 | 78 | 69 | Escondido | 100 | 60 | -- | 93 | 62 | 88 | 64 | Eureka | 59 | 50 | .01 | 63 | 52 | 59 | 49 | Fallbrook | 100 | 63 | -- | 94 | 62 | 87 | 63 | Fresno | 100 | 67 | -- | 99 | 67 | 96 | 62 | Fullerton | 98 | 69 | -- | 94 | 68 | 86 | 70 | Hemet | 102 | 65 | -- | 101 | 63 | 95 | 62 | Hesperia | 93 | 62 | -- | 95 | 65 | 92 | 60 | Huntington Beach | 82 | 70 | -- | 81 | 68 | 78 | 69 | Idyllwild | 83 | 63 | -- | 85 | 64 | 82 | 61 | Irvine | 92 | 69 | -- | 90 | 67 | 85 | 67 | Temperature | Los Angeles | Fullerton | Ventura* | High/low | 97/71 | 95/71 | 79/64 | Normal high/low | 80/62 | 82/61 | 75/54 | High/low a year ago | 77/60 | 77/60 | 69/61 | Record high/date | 98/1971 | 100/2008 | 102/1971 | Record low/date | 43/1884 | 53/2011 | 46/1957 | ---

Almanac | 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) | 0.09 | 0.07 | 0.09 | Humidity (high/low) | 90/56 | 75/37 | 96/66 | City | Wed.* | Today | Fri. | Hi | Lo | Prcp. | Hi | Lo | Hi | Lo | L.A. D'ntown/USC | 96 | 72 | -- | 93 | 68 | 86 | 68 | L.A. Int'l. Airport | 86 | 70 | -- | 82 | 69 | 80 | 69 | Laguna Beach | 83 | 70 | -- | 82 | 69 | 78 | 70 | Lancaster | 97 | 60 | -- | 97 | 62 | 92 | 63 | Long Beach | 94 | 70 | -- | 90 | 69 | 83 | 69 | Mammoth Lakes | 75 | 38 | -- | 77 | 41 | 72 | 38 | Mission Viejo | 96 | 69 | -- | 93 | 65 | 87 | 66 | Monrovia | 100 | 75 | -- | 99 | 70 | 93 | 66 | Monterey | 73 | 57 | -- | 74 | 56 | 70 | 56 | Mt. Wilson | 81 | 64 | -- | 71 | 61 | 66 | 57 | Needles | 105 | 76 | -- | 104 | 76 | 105 | 79 | Newport Beach | 82 | 71 | -- | 82 | 69 | 78 | 71 | Northridge | 102 | 70 | -- | 98 | 67 | 91 | 66 | Oakland | 84 | 57 | -- | 78 | 58 | 72 | 58 | Oceanside | 96 | 62 | -- | 91 | 62 | 87 | 64 | Ojai | 100 | 66 | -- | 93 | 60 | 86 | 54 | Ontario | 103 | 74 | -- | 100 | 69 | 95 | 67 | Palm Springs | 107 | 83 | -- | 107 | 79 | 105 | 76 | Pasadena | 98 | 73 | -- | 95 | 69 | 89 | 68 | Paso Robles | 103 | 56 | -- | 100 | 53 | 88 | 52 | Redding | 102 | 60 | -- | 102 | 60 | 98 | 57 | Riverside | 102 | 66 | -- | 99 | 63 | 95 | 64 | Sacramento | 100 | 58 | -- | 99 | 60 | 92 | 57 | San Bernardino | 103 | 70 | -- | 101 | 69 | 95 | 64 | City | Wed.* | Today | Fri. | Hi | Lo | Prcp. | Hi | Lo | Hi | Lo | San Diego | 89 | 70 | -- | 83 | 69 | 79 | 70 | San Francisco | 80 | 57 | -- | 77 | 57 | 71 | 59 | San Gabriel | 98 | 72 | -- | 97 | 68 | 89 | 66 | San Jose | 94 | 61 | -- | 90 | 60 | 82 | 58 | San Luis Obispo | 86 | 57 | -- | 87 | 57 | 77 | 60 | Santa Ana | 93 | 70 | -- | 87 | 69 | 82 | 70 | Santa Barbara | 83 | 63 | -- | 79 | 64 | 75 | 60 | Santa Clarita | 104 | 68 | -- | 101 | 63 | 93 | 59 | Santa Monica Pier | 84 | 69 | -- | 83 | 68 | 80 | 68 | Santa Paula | 92 | 65 | -- | 92 | 61 | 85 | 60 | Santa Rosa | 92 | 48 | -- | 93 | 51 | 81 | 50 | Simi Valley | 98 | 67 | -- | 97 | 63 | 89 | 60 | Tahoe Valley | 77 | 38 | -- | 78 | 39 | 74 | 42 | Temecula | 100 | 65 | -- | 99 | 60 | 92 | 61 | Thousand Oaks | 94 | 66 | -- | 92 | 64 | 85 | 60 | Torrance | 86 | 71 | -- | 83 | 70 | 79 | 71 | UCLA | 91 | 72 | -- | 88 | 68 | 82 | 67 | Van Nuys | 102 | 70 | -- | 99 | 67 | 92 | 65 | Ventura | 80 | 64 | -- | 77 | 64 | 73 | 64 | Whittier Hills | 96 | 72 | -- | 95 | 70 | 88 | 68 | Woodland Hills | 101 | 70 | -- | 97 | 66 | 89 | 65 | Wrightwood | 76 | 63 | -- | 81 | 64 | 78 | 58 | Yorba Linda | 98 | 68 | -- | 96 | 65 | 91 | 66 | Yosemite Valley | 87 | 54 | -- | 90 | 57 | 84 | 52 | ---

Today in North America

Calm weather continues: As has been the case for the last few days, the weather is very tranquil across the United States. However, a stalled front continues to cause flooding downpours across Florida, and Hurricane Isaias will begin to bring rain to the Gulf Coast by Friday.

Showers T-storms Rain Flurries Snow Ice Hurricane Tropical Storm Tropical Depression Rainstorm

Shown are areas of precipitation and high temperatures for the day.

---

U.S. cities

WEDNESDAY'S EXTREMES AS OF 2 P.M. FOR THE 48 CONTIGUOUS STATES

High 106 in Thermal, Calif.

Low 23 in Whitefield, N.H. | City | Wednesday* | Today | Hi | Lo | Prcp. | Hi | Lo | Sky | Albany | 66 | 33 | -- | 68 | 46 | Pc | Albuquerque | 83 | 57 | -- | 80 | 55 | Su | Anchorage | 51 | 44 | .03 | 48 | 36 | Pc | Aspen | 75 | 42 | .02 | 72 | 40 | Cy | Atlanta | 79 | 59 | -- | 85 | 66 | Pc | Austin | 91 | 58 | -- | 91 | 64 | Pc | Baltimore | 72 | 41 | -- | 79 | 48 | Su | Boise | 86 | 53 | -- | 85 | 55 | Su | Boston | 66 | 43 | -- | 73 | 53 | Pc | Buffalo | 71 | 45 | .03 | 65 | 48 | Sh | Burlington, Vt. | 64 | 34 | .03 | 66 | 46 | Sh | Charleston, S.C. | 81 | 64 | -- | 83 | 67 | Pc | Charlotte | 78 | 51 | -- | 85 | 61 | Su | Chicago | 79 | 57 | -- | 71 | 51 | Pc | Cincinnati | 80 | 40 | -- | 77 | 51 | Su | Cleveland | 77 | 49 | -- | 69 | 45 | Su | Columbia, S.C. | 81 | 52 | Tr | 85 | 61 | Su | Columbus | 78 | 44 | -- | 73 | 45 | Su | Dallas/FLWorth | 87 | 63 | -- | 88 | 66 | Pc | Denver | 81 | 53 | -- | 84 | 56 | Su | Detroit | 78 | 51 | -- | 69 | 44 | Su | El Paso | 87 | 62 | -- | 86 | 62 | Pc | Eugene | 77 | 43 | -- | 79 | 47 | Su | Fort Myers | 82 | 77 | .45 | 87 | 75 | Ts | Hartford | 67 | 34 | -- | 74 | 46 | Pc | Honolulu | 86 | 72 | .01 | 84 | 76 | Sh | Houston | 93 | 72 | -- | 93 | 67 | Su | Indianapolis | 82 | 50 | -- | 78 | 52 | Su | Jacksonville, Fla. | 80 | 72 | 1.92 | 82 | 72 | Ts | Kansas City | 86 | 60 | -- | 81 | 62 | Su | Knoxville | 80 | 56 | -- | 84 | 56 | Su | Las Vegas | 98 | 74 | -- | 98 | 75 | Su | Louisville | 83 | 49 | -- | 82 | 53 | Su | Medford | 93 | 51 | -- | 92 | 49 | Su | Memphis | 88 | 61 | -- | 91 | 67 | Su | Miami | 90 | 80 | .38 | 89 | 79 | Ts | Milwaukee | 75 | 58 | -- | 68 | 47 | Pc | Minneapolis | 74 | 53 | -- | 67 | 51 | Pc | Nashville | 86 | 58 | -- | 88 | 54 | Su | New Orleans | 86 | 75 | .04 | 86 | 75 | Pc | New York | 64 | 48 | -- | 74 | 54 | Su | Norfolk | 71 | 48 | -- | 83 | 65 | Su | Oklahoma City | 90 | 58 | -- | 89 | 60 | Su | Omaha | 82 | 53 | -- | 78 | 60 | Pc | Orlando | 77 | 75 | .31 | 82 | 73 | Ts | Philadelphia | 71 | 48 | -- | 78 | 54 | Su | Phoenix | 103 | 80 | -- | 103 | 81 | Su | Pittsburgh | 72 | 40 | -- | 70 | 45 | Pc | Portland, Ore. | 78 | 52 | -- | 79 | 56 | Su | Providence | 65 | 38 | -- | 74 | 49 | Pc | Raleigh/Durham | 77 | 47 | -- | 86 | 59 | Su | Reno | 90 | 50 | -- | 88 | 52 | Su | Richmond | 74 | 45 | -- | 85 | 55 | Su | St. Louis | 88 | 59 | -- | 83 | 59 | Su | Salt Lake City | 83 | 55 | -- | 83 | 60 | Su | City | Wednesday* | Today | Hi | Lo | Prcp. | Hi | Lo | Sky | Seattle | 66 | 52 | -- | 70 | 55 | Pc | Tampa | 83 | 76 | .49 | 83 | 74 | Ts | Tucson | 96 | 69 | -- | 96 | 75 | Su | Tulsa | 91 | 58 | -- | 90 | 61 | Su | Washington, D.C. | 72 | 49 | -- | 81 | 54 | Su | Wichita | 89 | 56 | -- | 88 | 60 | Su | World | Acapulco | 87 | 76 | 1.12 | 83 | 74 | R | Amsterdam | 72 | 55 | .39 | 60 | 51 | R | Athens | 81 | 63 | -- | 78 | 60 | Su | Bangkok | 91 | 75 | .05 | 92 | 79 | R | Barcelona | 77 | 64 | -- | 72 | 55 | Sh | Berlin | 72 | 39 | -- | 65 | 46 | R | Cabo San Lucas | 92 | 77 | -- | 91 | 78 | Ts | Cairo | 85 | 65 | -- | 86 | 67 | Hz | Dubai | 109 | 88 | -- | 105 | 86 | Su | Dublin | 55 | 41 | -- | 59 | 53 | R | Havana | 90 | 72 | .17 | 90 | 73 | R | Ho Chi Minh City | 93 | 78 | .63 | 92 | 77 | Ts | Hong Kong | 86 | 75 | -- | 87 | 78 | Pc | Istanbul | 72 | 57 | -- | 68 | 60 | Cy | Jerusalem | 76 | 58 | -- | 78 | 63 | Su | Johannesburg | 78 | 51 | -- | 78 | 57 | Su | Kuala Lumpur | 91 | 76 | .24 | 95 | 76 | Sh | Lima | 78 | 71 | -- | 79 | 72 | Pc | London | 59 | 57 | .30 | 60 | 52 | Su | Madrid | 73 | 57 | -- | 71 | 41 | Su | Mecca | 102 | 80 | -- | 104 | 85 | Hz | Mexico City | 73 | 56 | .25 | 72 | 57 | R | Montreal | 63 | 43 | .36 | 63 | 46 | Sh | Moscow | 59 | 46 | -- | 59 | 45 | Cy | Mumbai | 95 | 81 | -- | 99 | 80 | Hz | New Delhi | 95 | 75 | -- | 93 | 75 | Hz | Paris | 66 | 55 | .29 | 60 | 44 | Su | Prague | 68 | 45 | -- | 70 | 42 | Sh | Rome | 79 | 64 | .39 | 77 | 64 | Sh | Seoul | 75 | 49 | -- | 77 | 51 | Hz | Singapore | 91 | 82 | -- | 94 | 80 | Ts | Taipei City | 77 | 70 | -- | 84 | 72 | Pc | Tokyo | 77 | 68 | -- | 77 | 63 | Su | Vancouver | 59 | 50 | Tr | 62 | 53 | Pc | Vienna | 77 | 54 | -- | 76 | 52 | Cy | 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. Wednesday's readings as of 2 p.m.

AccuWeather. We Save Lives Get the AccuWeather app

Hilton lays out his plan for governing California

STEVE HILTON sought to emphasize some policy differences with President Trump at Tuesday's town hall.

[Hilton, from B1]

The Republican said those differences are rooted in his strong support for states' rights.

"The broader point I want to make, and you can track this back to the commentary and what I've written over the years, is I'm a strong believer in decentralizing power," he said. "I think there's far too much involvement of the federal government in our affairs in California, and I'm going to be a very strong advocate for bringing those powers back in all sorts of ways."

---

Gas prices, taxes and housing permits

Hilton described California's cost of living as “a nightmare” and a major contributor to residents and businesses moving out of the state.

He laid out an affordability plan, which he refers to as “Californable,” that he would prioritize if elected governor. His plan includes:

■ Ending income taxes for Californians who earn \$150,000 or less.

■ Slashing oil industry regulations and clean energy mandates for utility companies to achieve \$3 gas and lower electric bills.

■ Ushering in a construction boom of single-family homes, including by developing 10 new cities around the state and capping government fees on newly constructed houses.

He blames the state's affordability woes on Democrats, who have controlled the state legislative seats and held every elected statewide office since 2009. "It's not just that it's time for some change in California, it's time for balance. It's time to try something different after 16 years of doing it the same way," he said.

Hilton said he would stop enforcing laws requiring communities to meet housing production goals and instead focus on building in undeveloped areas of the state that want new homes.

"We've got this attitude that the only place you can build is inside what's currently developed, and that's motivated by a desire to stop traffic and sprawl and all these things. But the consequence of that is that you end up finding [it] almost impossible to build anything" because of permitting battles and lawsuits, he said. "My plan is to open that up so that we build outwards, not just upwards, increasing the amount of space we use for housing."

---

How he would pay for it all

Hilton said that Newsom and Democratic lawmakers have gotten accustomed to spending big and that he wants to return California's state budget to its prepandemic size.

This year Newsom signed a budget just shy of \$352 billion. His first budget as governor, in 2019, clocked in at nearly \$215 billion.

The growth occurred during a time “when around 2 million people on net have moved out of the state,” Hilton said. “So we’re spending twice as much for a big reduction in population and worse results.”

He said he could offset the tax cuts by ending funding for high-speed rail, trimming state agencies by 5% and cracking down on Medicaid fraud. Together, he estimates those cuts would save about \$25 billion annually.

He has also promised to end state-funded healthcare for undocumented immigrants and to hollow out agencies that regulate the state's air quality and coastlines.

---

Another round of attacks on Becerra

While he largely stayed focused on policy, Hilton criticized Becerra's record as U.S. Health and Human Services secretary and dinged him for skipping the town hall.

“Looking forward to perhaps one day having another chance to sit down with my competitor in this race, Xavier Becerra. We’ve had one debate. He promised that there would be debates, plural. Not to be today. But hopefully we can have that conversation because Californians deserve a conversation about the future of our state," he said during his opening remarks.

On Monday, Hilton attacked Becerra for having "pulled out" of the debate, though the Democratic candidate never agreed to attend a debate proposed by The Times and LAist. Becerra's spokesperson said the campaign declined the invitation because of a full campaign schedule.

In the weeks following the June primary election, Becerra made himself scarce on the campaign trail and attended few public events. In August, he told reporters there would be multiple debates. He and Hilton faced off last week in an hourlong debate on CNN, but no other debates have been announced.

---

No to offshore wind projects

At a time when the Trump administration has systematically dismantled climate and environmental policies, Hilton took care to cast himself as an environmentalist who is concerned about climate change.

He criticized many of the policies favored by Democrats, however, as a “very one-dimensional way of thinking” and offered a more business-friendly approach to addressing climate change:

■ Planting 3 billion trees and restoring wetlands.

■ Expanding the use of climate-friendly geothermal energy near places such as the Salton Sea and Sonoma and Modoc counties.

■ Expanding oil production in California, which he said reduces the need to import foreign oil on tanker ships that spew carbon emissions.

“So that’s a way of reducing carbon emissions that doesn’t burden working people and small businesses with the highest energy costs in the country. We’ve got to get the balance right,” Hilton said.

Hilton aligns with Trump's vehement opposition to offshore wind projects, a potential source of abundant renewable energy. This year, the Trump administration announced deals to pay wind project developers billions to abandon U.S. wind leases off the coasts of California, North Carolina, New York and New Jersey.

“I think offshore wind is an absolute abomination. I mean, you look at beautiful Morro Bay or Humboldt up in the northern part of our state,” Hilton said. “The industrialization of our coastline that offshore wind would create, I think, is just grotesque, and I’m dead against it.”

---

Planning to work across the aisle

When asked how he would work with a Democratic majority in the state Legislature, Hilton said he has experience doing it; as an advisor to former United Kingdom Prime Minister David Cameron, he shared an office with a member of the opposite party.

“We worked together very well. Didn’t agree on everything,” he said. “That would be my attitude. I’m very open. I’m not tribal. I’m not particularly partisan. I’m a pragmatic, problem-solving kind of person, and I’m looking forward to working with the Legislature.”

He said he would press the Legislature to cut spending and “the endless number of bills that they pass every year. ... But I want to work together to reduce costs for Californians.”

Hilton also found alignment with Democrats who ran in the gubernatorial primary, including former Orange County Rep. Katie Porter, San José Mayor Matt Mahan and former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa.

“Katie Porter in the primary ... actually endorsed my tax plan. Matt Mahan and I agree on a lot of things to help” cut costs and speed up housing construction, he said. “Antonio Villaraigosa, we agreed on a lot of things to do with energy policy. So I think there are Democrats who we’ll be able to work with to get consensus on some of the things that we need to get done.”

Becerra's ‘son of immigrants’ story is challenged

ALLEN J. SCHABEN Los Angeles Times

GUBERNATORIAL candidate Xavier Becerra has openly discussed the details of his parents' story.

BY SUHAUNA HUSSAIN,

SEEMA MEHTA

AND NICOLE NIXON

Democrat Xavier Becerra, the frontrunner to become the state's next governor, often invokes the story of his parents' humble beginnings as immigrants from Mexico who, through hard work, built happy and productive lives in California.

"My parents came to California with \$12 in their pocket. They lived the California dream," Becerra said during last week's gubernatorial debate with Republican rival Steve Hilton, aired nationally on CNN.

Becerra for years has de-

scribed himself as the “son of

immigrants” when talking

about his upbringing, but

that claim has come under

scrutiny by Hilton and other

critics who accuse Becerra

of embellishing his family

history. Becerra’s mother is

from Guadalajara, Mexico, but his father was born in Sacramento and raised in Tijuana—making him a U.S. citizen and not a legal immigrant.

“Unlike Xavier Becerra, I am an immigrant. Unlike Xavier Becerra, my father was an immigrant. My stepfather too. My whole family,” Hilton wrote in a post on X.

Hilton is an immigrant from the United Kingdom and is the son of Hungarian immigrants who fled their homeland during a revolution in 1956.

Richard Grenell, a former Trump administration official, accused news outlets of letting a lie “continue for decades” throughout Becerra’s tenure as California attorney general and then as a Cabinet official in the Biden administration.

Becerra has openly discussed the details of his parents' story, which unfolded on both sides of the border and in many ways reflects Mexican immigrant trajectories during the historical period of the 1920s and 1930s.

During speeches and in interviews Becerra has described how his father, Manuel, was born in Sacramento in 1928 and taken to Tijuana as a young boy, with few jobs for Americans during the Great Depression, and even fewer jobs for Mexicans working in the U.S. His father traveled between the two countries often, and, as an older child, he would look for work in the U.S.

Becerra on Tuesday accused Hilton of “casting lies” about his family’s background, saying the Republican failed to understand the struggle that many Mexican immigrants and Mexican Americans faced in this county decades ago. He said his dad would tell of the days when he couldn’t walk into some establishments that had posted signs that read “No dog, Negros or Mexicans allowed.”

am proud that I am their son. I am the son of immigrants."

G. Cristina Mora, a UC Berkeley professor of sociology studying attitudes toward immigration, said Becerra's critics misunderstand a common phenomenon at the time, when immigrants moved back and forth across a southern border that was much more porous — very different from the militarized border of today.

"This is what happens when people who don't understand immigration start to pontificate," Becerra said Tuesday after a morning rally against Proposition 39, a voter identification measure, at Guelaguetza, a Oaxacan restaurant in Los Angeles' Pico-Union neighborhood.

Beyond the dwindling jobs and precarious economics of the 1930s serving as a push factor for many Mexican families, a wave of xenophobia also helped send hundreds of thousands back to Mexico. A wave of mass deportations across the Southwest states resulted in more than 1 million Mexicans and their descendants being forced out of their homes and loaded on trains out. More than 60% were U.S. citizens.

Mora, who also serves as co-director of the UC Berkeley's Institute of Governmental Studies, said "it was a time of very great anti-Mexican fervor." Many sought to later return. Some were deported multiple times.

among MAGA voters, and Hilton is tapping into that as he scrambles to distract from his bizarre ad campaign that alienated some of his closest allies.”

Last week, Hilton's campaign put out a provocative, sexually suggestive ad that drew criticism from his fellow Republicans.

Becerra, both on Tuesday and throughout his long political career, has often described his parents' upbringing.

“I am very proud of my parents, and I consider them immigrants because even though my dad was born in the U.S. — in a country that wouldn’t treat him the way it would treat other U.S. citizens — my dad was a proud immigrant,” Becerra said. “I

He said his father's family, originally from Jalisco, moved to Tijuana during the Great Depression. His father, he said, was the eldest child and was forced to leave school after the sixth grade to help support the family. He began working as a pre-teen, bouncing back and forth between the U.S. and Tijuana. He would tell stories about being a shoe shiner, sometimes for celebrities and movie stars. He also worked in the farm fields with his dad and sometimes with his uncles.

Place a paid notice latimes.com/placeobituary | Search obituary notice archives: legacy.com/obituaries/latimes

Obituaries

In the early 1950s he married Becerra's mother, Maria Teresa, who lived in Guadalajara.

"When they decided to make a go of it outside of Guadalajara, they went to Tijuana. They didn't have great success, so that's when they decided to come the they called to the U.S.," Becerra said on Tuesday. "So when I say my parents came to California with \$12 in their pocket, it's because, Steve Hilton, my parents came to California with \$12 in their pocket."

Becerra's father later began a construction career that lasted 30 years, while his mother worked as a clerical worker and later purchased rental properties.

"There are many types of immigrants. There's so much nuance," Mora said. "To think there's only one immigrant story would just be to not know California."

Mike Richard

Horwitz

August 17, 1955 -

October 5, 2026

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 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.

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

Becerra's campaign spokesperson Jonathan Underland in a statement accused Hilton of hypocritically attempting to capitalize on an immigrant narrative.

---

Rabbi Michael MENITOFF

“Steve Hilton doesn't seem to have a problem with immigrants who look like him — but openly attacks immigrants who look like Xavier Becerra,” Underland said. “Trump ignited a deep anti-immigrant animus

Rabbi Michael Menitoff, beloved congregational leader, teacher, husband, father and grandfather died on October 6, 2026 of heart complications. He was 83 years old.

A native of Dorchester, MA, Rabbi Menitoff had served congregations in Los Angeles, New Haven, CT, and in his hometown of Boston. He started his career at Hollywood Temple Beth El, where he was known for his long hair, his innovative ideas, energy and media savvy. He went on to serve at Ramat Zion and was the founding rabbi at Kehillat Ma'arav in Santa Monica. He served 13 years at his childhood synagogue, Mishkan Tefila, and spent his remaining years teaching rabbinical and cantorial students.

The most important part of his life was the love and kindness he shared with his family and friends. He loved his Patriots and Red Sox.

Times researcher Cary Schneider contributed to this report.

He is survived by his wife, Roz, his two daughters Alana and Rachel, and his grandchildren, Hannah and Daniel. Funeral services will be held on Friday, October 9 at 11AM at Mount Sinai Memorial Park in Hollywood, CA.

latimes.com/archives

Josephine V

Roman

March 18, 1929 -

September 19, 2026

Josephine (mom) was a loving mother and wife

who helped others in times of need. She will always be loved and truly missed. Forever in our hearts mom.

The year that was 1958

First transatlantic jet passenger service started by BOAC, with a New York to London route.

---

Donald Spicer June 18, 1954 - October 6, 2025

June 18, 1954 - October 6, 2025, Don was a dedicated artist, painting and drawing continually for more than 50 years. Being an artist informed the way he viewed the world and all he did. Don was a member of the First Independent Gallery (FIG) in Santa Monica where he thrived on the relationships he built while showing there. Don had a passionate intensity for his interests, among which were woodworking and music. Also, he was a student of Japanese Tea for many years and continued the practice throughout his life. Don will be deeply missed by his loving wife, Jeanne, of 48 years, his son Chris (Katie), grandsons Max and Zach, siblings Alan and Suzanne. Don was a very loyal and generous friend to many. Don's knowledge and passion for life will always be remembered.

---

Dr. Ronald James Wong, DDS December 21, 1931 - September 9, 2026

Born in Fresno, California, fourth generation, descendant of Lum Hing, Ronald James Wong was a captain in the US Air Force and flew a DC3, the same plane that he once watched fly over his home daily as a boy at 1248 Klette Ave. The oldest son, he had elocution and piano lessons. But he also rose before dawn and worked loading trucks at the produce market. His sense of style and love of hunting, fishing, and pretty women came from his father, Raymond Arthur Wong. His love for travel, family, and good eats came from his mother, Ruth Moe Wong. A person of wide-ranging interests and talents, he was a missionary doctor in Africa, a prolific reader and published writer, an artist and art lover, a pilot based out of Japan during the Korean War, and a Hawaiian beach bum who loved to surf. He raised his six children to love nature and live off the land, taught them to ski and swim, took them to museums, and was always ready to buy them books as a treat. He held a world record for flight archery and was a life-long mentor who encouraged his six children and many students to fly free.

He loved to make people smile and was proud to be a pediatric dental surgeon giving whole generations of children beautiful smiles. He pioneered Children's Hospital's first mobile dental clinic in the 70's and expanded his practice to under-resourced communities because he believed every child deserved to smile. He was leader of the archery language translation team for the 1984 Olympics and his favorite quote from Peter Ueberroth was: Be Flexible. That Means - Do It My Way. A dedicated athlete, he regularly rode a recumbent bike along the LA River paths his brother, Roger, helped plan and develop as cofounder of FoLAR (Friends of the LA River founded in 1986 by Lewis MacAdams, Pat Patterson, and Roger Wong). Ron took care of his parents, sister Rosemary, and younger brothers, Richard and Roger, in life and death.

He attended Thomas Starr King and was a John Marshall Barrister before becoming a Trojan. He lived for more than 50 years in the same house on Commonwealth in Los Feliz. His MG TC is still in the driveway. He was looking forward to the next LA Olympics in 2028. He didn't quite make it, but in June, he celebrated the Centennial of the Rotary Club of Hollywood as past president, designer of its signature "Walk of Fame" pink star pin, and one of its two oldest members. On September 1st, he smiled and remembered Dove Day. On Friday, September 4, he watched the Trojans shut out the Fresno Bulldogs and celebrated one more USC victory. Fight on!

He had an amazing life and traveled all over the world -- South Africa, Costa Rica, China, Japan, France, Spain, Argentina, Nepal, India, and all over the United States. He was a complicated man - but one with plenty of what the next generation calls "rizz." He had six children and eleven grandchildren and was proud to attend the marriage of his oldest grandchild in 2024. Survived by: Gary Hunter Wong; Julie Wong (Emilie Robert Wong, Marc Robert Wong); Christy Langstaff (Taylor, Justin, and Coleman Langstaff); Carina Wong Chai (Siena, Neo, and Ariel Chai); Lara Wong Turn (Daniel, Derek, and Alyssa Turn), and Sabrina Wong.

He lived a life beyond the wildest imaginings of a small town, Fresno, country boy — and he had a wild imagination. One last time wishing you all what Dad sought and found in life: Love, Adventure, and Joy!

More stories and share a memory at: https://sites.google.com/view/drronaldjameswongdds

Hilton's attacks could backfire

[Arellano, from B1] immigrant.

If they did, I'd think they had too much time on their hands, or maybe that they were a wackjob contrarian.

Cue Steve Hilton.

The Republican candidate for California governor is trying to make a scandal out of his Democratic opponent, Xavier Becerra, portraying himself as the son of Mexican immigrants. Twice last week during their CNN debate, Becerra said his parents came to California "with \$12." In previous interviews during his decades in the political spotlight, Becerra has shared that his father, Manuel, was born in Sacramento in 1928 and moved to Mexico as a child during the Great Depression, eventually returning to the land of his birth.

Hilton, who has been endorsed by President Trump, has as much a chance of becoming the Golden State's next governor as Stephen Miller. But he and his supporters have latched on to Becerra's statement like it was the borderlands version of stolen valor. Critics combed through Becerra's family genealogy like Indiana Jones searching for the Holy Grail, then posted their findings online — Becerra's dad grew up in Tijuana before coming back to California, then married in Guadalajara before returning in the 1950s to Sacramento, where Xavier was born — to claim that Becerra is one giant, pandering fraudster.

“Unlike Xavier Becerra, I am an immigrant,” the British-born son of Hungarian refugees harrumphed on social media. He followed up by declaring that Becerra is “LYING” about his family’s American experience “in order to score identity points.”

What more proof do California voters need that Hilton is laughably out of touch with how we live? Many Mexican Americans, including my cousins and me, consider family members raised in Mexico to be immigrants, even if they were born in the U.S. Growing up down south forever shapes your language, work ethic, appreciation for how hard life can be and so much more. When they return to the U.S., such people often find themselves ostracized as paisa — country — and must learn the mores of American life, just like those born abroad.

To argue that calling them immigrants is technically wrong is like getting

angry at people who don't pronounce Los Feliz the Spanish way. For Becerra's critics to claim he's stretching his immigrant roots to appeal to Latino voters is an insult to Latinos. We know a cultural faker when we see one, and the Becerra family story isn't an anomaly; it's our lives.

“It’s a weird gotcha,” said Cal State Fullerton Chicano studies professor Alexandro José Gradilla, whose wife’s grandmother was born in California and raised in Mexico, then bounced between the two countries for the rest of her life. “What’s the dis? Where’s the dunk? It’s so normative, especially of that generation. We cannot have the 2026 definition of immigration, the border and policy apply to a completely different landscape.”

Becerra's critics subscribe to “this very American bias that an immigrant only moves once to the U.S., the land of opportunity, of hope — all that mythology,” Gradilla continued. During the Ellis Island era, he noted, European immigrants returned to their home countries with their U.S.-born children, and then those children faced many of the same hardships as first-time arrivals when they came back to the U.S. as adults.

"We don't call those people expats or returnees people expats of Retainees — ‘immigrant’ is the only intelligible label we understand,” the profe concluded. “Until we come up with a better label, Becerra’s dad is an immigrant.”

There are many legitimate reasons to bash Be-cerra, from his refusal to participate in more debates to his paltry number of public rallies to a platform that sounds like more of what created California's current woes. His family history isn't it.

Hilton's fixation on Becerra's immigrant bona fides shows how desperate he is to gain some traction, any traction, with Latino voters. He at least has picked up on Latinos' regard for immigrant success stories. But after bragging about being the candidate of legal immigrants, for Hilton to hold being born here against someone who went back and forth between the U.S. and Mexico is a weak salsa pendejada.

Hilton would have been better off with his conservative base if he had labeled Becerra the son of an anchor baby.

At a news conference with elected officials to oppose Proposition 39, which would mandate voter identification, my colleague Nicole Nixon asked Becerra about Hilton's attacks on his dad.

Becerra finally unlocked the inner cholo so many of us have been waiting to see, instead of the Chicano Ned Flanders he's been projecting for decades.

“So this is what happens when people who don’t understand immigration start to pontificate,” he responded, summarizing his family story once again and pointing out the discrimination his father faced as someone of Mexican heritage, birthright citizenship be damned.

“Steve Hilton may not know that [Mexican American history] because he’s not from the U.S.,” Becerra said. “Steve Hilton may not know that because even though he’s an immigrant, he hasn’t taken the time to research.”

Wow, the brown Democratic candidate calling the white Republican candidate a dumb immigrant — California politics sure have changed!

But Becerra's smack-down had a point. Conservatives deeply misunderstand what it is to be Mexican American. We've never fit into the American assimilation story and so have created our own narrative, one that people like Hilton refuse to accept at their own peril.

Hilton needs to take a Chicano studies class, where discussions about the fluidity of Mexican identity inevitably come up.

And, wouldn't you know it, Gradilla planned to bring up that very subject with his students this week — he didn't even know about Hilton's attacks against Becerra until I told him.

The profe has had to update his lectures about the forced removal of more than a million Mexican Americans south of the border during the Great Depression. He relates that history to the present, when many undocumented Latinos are returning to the countries of their birth with their U.S.-born children, either because they've been deported or to avoid being arrested and locked up under Trump's hellfire immigration enforcement regime.

“For Hilton, anyone of Mexican heritage in this country needs to be grateful, you need to be loyal, and you need to be here,” Gradilla said. “Who would ever want to leave the U.S.? Well, some people have to.”

SPORTS

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 8, 2026 :: LATIMES.COM/SPORTS

NL DIVISION SERIES :: GAME 4 | DODGERS 4, ATLANTA 1

DODGERS WIN BEST-OF-FIVE SERIES, 3-1 | NEXT UP: NL CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES VS. MILWAUKEE/SAN DIEGO WINNER

KEVIN C. Cox Getty Images

DODGERS ADVANCE TO NLCS

Atlanta's Ozzie Albies can't catch the throw as Shohei Ohtani slides into second base in the second inning of Game 4 of the NLDS. Two Braves errors led to a run, and Andy Pages' late tiebreaking hit lifted the Dodgers to a series-clinching 4-1 victory. For full coverage, visit latimes.com/sports or our e-newspaper.

Panthers' late goal keeps Laviolette, Kings winless

MARK J. TERRILL Associated Press

THE PANTHERS' Sam Bennett, left, and the Kings' Scott Laughton vie for a loose puck in the second period.

Matthew Tkachuk scores as the first-year coach continues to look for first L.A. win.

BY KEVIN BAXTER

Before the first home game of the season in which they'll celebrate their 60th anniversary, the Kings honored their past by unveiling a modest Hall of Fame on the concourse of Crypto.com Arena on Tuesday.

An hour later, this season's Kings took the ice and made some history of their own, though not the kind they had hoped for, falling to the Florida Panthers 2-1 to open a season with three 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.

Thiero finally taking off for Lakers

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 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.

And it doesn't get any easier, with the Kings' next two games against the Vegas Golden Knights and Edmonton Oilers.

Still, Laviolette was accepting no moral victories Tuesday for just keeping the game close.

The second-year forward aims for a bigger role after a rookie season slowed by injury and adjustment. D2

"I'm more in the business of winning hockey games. I don't think there's any consolation in a 2-1 loss," he said. "We could have done better with regard to execution, on how we move the puck or how we attack. We turned it over too much in our end. We turned it over too much in [See Kings, D2]

Amid concerns the quarterback isn't playing at his usual stellar level, USC coach denies he's ailing. D3

---

PRO CALENDAR | THU8 | FRI9 | SAT10 | SUN11 | MON12 | | ATLANTA*^5Fox | | BUFFALO5:15ESPN, ABC | | DENVER1:05CBS | KINGS | at Vegas7ABTV | | at Winnipeg5KCOP, Prime | at Calgary7KCOP, Prime | GALAXY | at St. Louis4Apple TV | LAFC | VANCOUVER7:30Apple TV | | NEXT: OCT. 17 AT DENVER, 5:45 P.M., ION | LAKERS: Today vs. Sacramento (preseason), 7:30 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 | AUSTRALIAN FOOTBALL | 1 a.m. (Fri.) | AFL, women, Western vs. Essendon | FS2 | AUTO RACING | 1:30 a.m. (Fri.) | Formula One, Singapore Grand Prix, Practice 1 | Apple TV | 5:30 a.m. (Fri.) | Formula One, Singapore Grand Prix, sprint qualifying | Apple TV | BASEBALL: MLB PLAYOFFS | 2 p.m. | ALDS, Game 4, Cleveland at Chicago White Sox | TBS, TruTV, UniMas | 5 p.m. | ALDS, Game 4, Tampa Bay at New York Yankees (if necessary) | TBS, TruTV, UniMas | BASKETBALL: NBA PRESEASON | 4:30 p.m. | Washington at New York | NBA | 7:30 p.m. | Sacramento at Lakers | SpecSN, ESPN2, ESPND; 710 | COLLEGE FOOTBALL | 4 p.m. | Sam Houston at Liberty | ESPNU | 4 p.m. | Missouri State at Western Kentucky | CBSSN | 4:30 p.m. | South Florida at Texas San Antonio | ESPN | 4:30 p.m. | South Alabama at Arkansas State | ESPN2 | COLLEGE SOCCER: WOMEN | 4 p.m. | Alabama at Florida | SEC | 4 p.m. | Virginia at Notre Dame | ACC | 7 p.m. | Indiana at UCLA | Big Ten+ | 7:30 p.m. | Illinois at USC | Big Ten | COLLEGE VOLLEYBALL: WOMEN | 3:30 p.m. | Nebraska at Indiana | Big Ten | 5:30 p.m. | Wisconsin at Illinois | Big Ten | GOLF | Noon | PGA Korn Ferry Tour Championship, first round | Golf | 8 p.m. | PGA, Baycurrent Classic, second round | Golf | 5 a.m. (Fri.) | World Tour, Open de España, second round | Golf | HOCKEY | 5 p.m. | San José at St. Louis | Disney+, Hulu | HORSE RACING | 10 a.m. | America's Day at the Races | FS2 | PICKLEBALL | 3 p.m. | PPA, Chicago Cup, round of 16 | FS1 | PRO FOOTBALL | 5 p.m. | Tampa Bay at Dallas | Prime Video | TENNIS | 9 p.m. | ATP (Shanghai), early rounds; WTA (Beijing) quarterfinals | Tennis |

ADOU THIERO dunks during Tuesday's 124-98 preseason loss to the Warriors.

JEFF CHIU Associated Press

After up-and-down start, Thiero finally taking off

Lakers forward aims for bigger role after a rookie season slowed by injury, adjustment.

---

By Thuc Nhi Nguyen

SAN FRANCISCO — 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 resting, Adou Thiero at least tried to inject some life into a sleepy second night of back-to-back preseason games.

Thiero's towering, one-handed dunk over two Golden State defenders provided a highlight in the Lakers' otherwise forgettable 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.

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 start, scored seven points and grabbed four rebounds, while Bronny James had five assists and four points in a starting role.

Star guard Luka Doncic sat out after scoring 21 points in one half Monday in a win over the Sacramento Kings. After setting the tone defensively against the Kings, forwards Ziaire Williams and Matisse Thybulle watched from the sideline Tuesday. The Lakers also were without center

Walker Kessler (finger), guards Austin Reaves (ankle) and Collin Sexton (lower body), and two-way forward Arthur Kaluma (lower body), who all missed their second consecutive preseason game.

Thiero has been prepared for this type of opportunity. The second-year forward 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, crashing into the lane and flying recklessly toward the rim. He even missed time from a minor wrist injury suffered during a fall. 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. “I feel like my role during summer league is very different compared to my role during the season. I was on-ball more. Even creating the offense in summer league. And I didn’t have much experience with that at the time, but as summer league kept going on, I got more comfortable with it and realizing when to speed up and everything.”

Thiero is fighting for minutes in a deep wing group led by Williams and Thybulle. The Lakers have stocked their team with versatile perimeter defenders to help complement their offensive-minded backcourt of Doncic and Reaves. 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. "I've seen a lot of growth there from him over the last six, seven weeks. That's exciting."

Thiero is enjoying the longest stretch of good health he's had in his professional career. The consistent practice reps have helped him understand and execute concepts better than last year, when even during his 25 appearances, Thiero acknowledged being confused on the court.

Redick said the then-rookie played with “reckless abandon.” Sometimes it resulted in energizing dunks. Other times he would get caught in the air against multiple defenders.

When faced with multiple defenders in the air Tuesday, Thiero didn't hesitate to challenge Golden State's Yaxel Lendeborg and De'Anthony Melton. Teammates excitedly jumped off the bench, then hesitated when Thiero's right knee appeared to buckle awkwardly under him.

When he straightened up, the Lakers exhaled.

Kings are off to an 0-2-1 start under Laviolette

[Kings, from D1] the neutral zone."

LUKE HALES Getty Images

THE PANTHERS' Garnet Hathaway (21) hits the ice Tuesday as he fights the Kings' Joel Edmundson.

The Kings took the lead before the first intermission 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.

"Momentum kind of shifted on us when we couldn't really get that PP going," captain Drew Doughty said.

“Any given moment inside of a game can give energy or take energy,” Laviolette said. “Obviously when you get that opportunity, you’re looking to create a bigger lead. That didn’t happen. So that pulls it away a little bit.”

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 Brandt Clarke with 52 seconds left in the second period.

Marchand's left knee ap-

---

TUESDAY'S LATE SUMMARY PANTHERS 2, KINGS 1

Florida....0 1 1 - 2

KINGS....1 0 0 - 1

FIRST PERIOD: 1. KINGS, Laferriere 1 (Haula), 19:00.

Penalties—Anderson, KINGS (Roughing), 10:03. Luostarinen, Fla. (Tripping), 15:37. Luostarinen, Fla. (Interference), 19:04. Kulikov, KINGS (High Sticking), 19:43.

SECOND PERIOD: 2. Fla., Jones 1 (Eller), 3:49.

Penalties—Turcotte, KINGS (Tripping), 5:19. Hathaway, Fla. (Fighting), 7:40. Edmundson, KINGS (Fighting), 7:40. Clarke, KINGS (Interference), 8:53. Clarke, KINGS (High Sticking), 19:07.

THIRD PERIOD: 3. Fla., M.Tkachuk 2 (Bennett), 11:20.

Penalties—Panarin, KINGS (Tripping), 6:33. Bennett, Fla. (Slashing), 6:37.

SHOTS ON GOAL: Fla. 7-12-9–28. KINGS 6-10-4–20. Power-play Conversions—Fla. 0 of 6. KINGS 0 of 5. GOALIES: Fla., Schmid 0-0-1 (0 shots-0 saves), Fla., Markstrom 2-0-1 (20-19). KINGS, Kuemper 0-2-0 (28-26). Att–18,145 (18,230). T–2:41. R–Tom Chmielewski, Jordan Samuels-Thomas. L–Dan Kelly, James Tobias.

peared 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.

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, still are looking for a win, they've scored nine goals in three games and have gotten seven points from their defensemen. But they've also given up 15 goals and struggled on special teams, scoring just twice on 12 power plays.

"I didn't think we played poorly. And I know we've lost three now," Doughty said. "But I'm still confident in what we're building, and I think we've been playing better each game.

"With new coaches, we're getting new systems and stuff and I think we've adjusted to them pretty well. But there's still room for improvement. And when we really get those down pat, I think we're going to be a very, very good team."

Until then, the Kings may continue making more unwanted history; they haven't opened a season with four straight losses this century.

NHL STANDINGS

Through Tuesday

WESTERN CONFERENCE | Pacific | W | L | OL | Pts | GF | GA | Vegas | 3 | 1 | 0 | 6 | 17 | 10 | Edmonton | 2 | 0 | 1 | 5 | 17 | 14 | DUCKS | 2 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 7 | 5 | San Jose | 2 | 1 | 0 | 4 | 9 | 12 | Seattle | 2 | 2 | 0 | 4 | 15 | 11 | Vancouver | 2 | 2 | 0 | 4 | 19 | 18 | KINGS | 0 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 9 | 15 | Calgary | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 16 | Central | W | L | OL | Pts | GF | GA | Utah | 3 | 1 | 0 | 6 | 17 | 8 | Minnesota | 2 | 0 | 1 | 5 | 9 | 5 | Winnipeg | 2 | 0 | 1 | 5 | 9 | 8 | Colorado | 2 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 14 | 5 | Nashville | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 7 | 9 | Dallas | 1 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 6 | 6 | St. Louis | 1 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 7 | 10 | Chicago | 1 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 9 | 17 | EASTERN CONFERENCE | EASTERN CONFERENCE | Metropolitan | W | L | OL | Pts | GF | GA | NY Rangers | 4 | 1 | 0 | 8 | 16 | 8 | Carolina | 2 | 1 | 1 | 5 | 11 | 12 | Pittsburgh | 2 | 1 | 0 | 4 | 15 | 8 | Washington | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 6 | 5 | Columbus | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 7 | 7 | NY Islanders | 1 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 9 | 7 | New Jersey | 1 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 6 | 13 | Philadelphia | 0 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 5 | 17 | Atlantic | W | L | OL | Pts | GF | GA | Florida | 2 | 0 | 2 | 6 | 8 | 8 | Ottawa | 2 | 1 | 0 | 4 | 10 | 8 | Tampa Bay | 2 | 1 | 0 | 4 | 8 | 7 | Buffalo | 2 | 1 | 0 | 4 | 10 | 11 | Toronto | 2 | 2 | 0 | 4 | 11 | 11 | Boston | 2 | 2 | 0 | 4 | 9 | 11 | Montreal | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 12 | 14 | Detroit | 1 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 7 | 8 | Note: Overtime or shootout losses are worth one point. | Today's games | Dallas at Buffalo.... | 4 p.m. | Minnesota at Tampa Bay.... | 4 p.m. | Nashville at Montreal.... | 4 p.m. | Philadelphia at Ottawa.... | 4 p.m. | Utah at Boston.... | 4 p.m. | Vancouver at Carolina.... | 4 p.m. | Chicago at N.Y. Islanders.... | 4:30 p.m. | San Jose at St. Louis.... | 5 p.m. | Colorado at Calgary.... | 6 p.m. | Toronto at Vegas.... | 7 p.m. | Coco Gauff said she had “no energy” in her round of 16 loss to Elise Mertens at the China Open. The 6-3, 6-3 loss to a player Gauff had beaten in all five of their previous matchups came days after she had received what she described as an “insane” amount of racist comments on social media following a controversial point in the preceding round.

THE DAY IN SPORTS Oregon's Altman abruptly retires

WIRE REPORTS

Longtime Oregon men's basketball coach Dana Altman fought back tears as he spoke Wednesday about his decision to retire less than a month before the start of the new season.

Altman took over ahead of the 2010-11 season and is the winningest coach in Oregon history with a 382-182 record. The Ducks made nine NCAA tournament appearances over that span, including a Final Four berth in 2017. Oregon also won four Pac-12 regular-season titles and four Pac-12 Tournament titles.

But at 68, Altman said Wednesday that he didn't have the energy to perform to his standard.

"The main factor is that I looked in the mirror, and I'm not the guy to take these guys where they can get to," he said.

Over the course of his 37-year career as a Division I head coach, Altman's record is 792-425.

---

ETC. Juszczyk wins appeal of fines

Kyle Juszczyk won his appeal over the fines issued by the NFL for his “Juice” celebration and the league later ruled that all drinking celebrations will be allowed going forward.

The 49ers fullback was initially fined \$29,852 for two infractions of the league's sportsmanship rules after celebrating two catches in the third quarter of a Week 2 win over the Miami Dolphins by doing what he has done for years: imitating drinking a beverage while the fans at Levi's Stadium cheered "Juice!" for his nickname.

The NFL has vowed to crack down on celebrations this season. Juszczyk won his appeal, and the league clarified the celebration penalties in a joint statement with the NFLPA.

The Philadelphia Eagles traded offensive lineman Cam Jurgens to the Baltimore Ravens for second-and fifth-round draft picks. Philadelphia receives a fifth-round selection in 2027 and a second-rounder in 2028. ... The Minnesota Vikings signed veteran wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr. to their practice squad.

The LPGA Tour released its 2027 schedule featuring 33 tournaments, a record \$147 million in prize money and an itinerary that doesn't have players bouncing across the country. ... Spanish star Jon Rahm won't be part of the next version of LIV Golf, dealing a setback to the beleaguered circuit as it tries to emerge from bankruptcy and forge a new path, Rahm's attorney John Beck said.

New York Islanders defenseman Alexander Romanov tore the ACL in his right knee Tuesday night and is expected to be out six to eight months, the team announced.

---

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 Wednesday at Atlanta, late

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 Wednesday at Golden St., late

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.

---

FARMER'S NFL WEEK 5 PICKS

Los Angeles Times NFL writer Sam Farmer examines the matchups this week. Lines according to FanDuel Sportsbook (O/U = over/under). Last week's record was 11-5 (.688); season 37-27 (.578). Using point spreads with the scores Farmer predicted, his record against the spread last week would have been 9-7 (.563); season 25-39 (.391). TV channels are for the Los Angeles area. Times Pacific. OFF: Chiefs, Panthers.

---

BUCCANEERS (0-4) AT COWBOYS (2-2)

Tonight, 5:15 p.m. TV: Prime Video.

Line: Cowboys by 8½. O/U: 47½.

Baker Mayfield is hurt and unlikely to play, leaving undrafted rookie Jalon Daniels at quarterback. Dallas' offense is rolling after a big win over Houston, two weeks after nearly beating Baltimore.

Pick: Cowboys 28, Buccaneers 13

---

EAGLES (2-2) VS. JAGUARS (3-1)

---

BEARS (3-1) AT PACKERS (2-2)

Sunday, 10 a.m. TV: Fox.

Line: Bears by 2½. O/U: 45½.

Last week, Green Bay barely beat a Tampa Bay team with a backup quarterback making his first start. No matter who's at quarterback for Chicago, it is running the ball and forcing turnovers the way it did last season.

Pick: Bears 30, Packers 20

---

TEXANS (0-4) AT TITANS (0-4)

Sunday, 10 a.m. TV: NFL Ticket.

Line: Texans by 7. O/U: 37 $^{1/2}$ .

If Houston is ever going to get off the schneid, it's now. C.J. Stroud threw for more than 300 yards, and Nico Collins caught two touchdown passes in a close loss last week. Tennessee has scored 55 points this season.

Pick: Texans 27, Titans 17

---

BENGALS (2-2) AT DOLPHINS (0-4)

Sunday, 10 a.m. TV: NFL Ticket.

Line: Bengals by 7½. O/U: 42½.

Cincinnati bounces back after losing consecutive games by a combined eight points. Its offense is too much for a bad Miami team, even without injured receiver Ja'Marr Chase. The Dolphins have yet to score more than 13 points in a game.

Pick: Bengals 31, Dolphins 20

---

RAIDERS (3-1) AT PATRIOTS (2-2)

Sunday, 10 a.m. TV: NFL Ticket.

Line: Patriots by 3½. O/U: 45½.

Las Vegas is for real and has scored at least 26 points in every game and took Kansas City to the wire last week. But New England showed something last week in knocking off Buffalo. Field-goal-fest.

Pick: Patriots 26, Raiders 20

---

VIKINGS (4-0) AT SAINTS (1-3)

Sunday, 10 a.m. TV: NFL Ticket.

Line: Vikings by 1½. O/U: 42½.

Unbeaten Minnesota keeps finding ways to win. New Orleans can throw it, but gave up 45 points to Atlanta on Monday night and now gets Brian Flores' defense on a short week.

Pick: Vikings 24, Saints 20

---

BROWNS (3-1) AT JETS (1-3)

Sunday, 10 a.m. TV: NFL Ticket.

Line: Jets by 1½. O/U: 40½.

Cleveland is gaining confidence after winning three consecutive close games with strong fourth quarters. The defense is good again, and the offense isn't turning it over. New York is playing better but isn't there yet.

Pick: Browns 27, Jets 21

---

COLTS (2-2) AT STEELERS (2-2)

Sunday, 10 a.m. TV,NFL Picket.

Line: Steelers by $2^{1/2}$ . O/U: $44^{1/2}$ .

It's hard to know which version of either team shows up. Pittsburgh has alternated wins and losses. Indianapolis is coming off its strongest performance of the season in a win over Washington.

Pick: Steelers 23, Colts 20

---

GIANTS (3-1) AT COMMANDERS (1-3)

Sunday, 10 a.m. TV: NFL Ticket.

Line: Commanders by 3½. O/U: 43½.

New York is 2-0 with Jameis Winston starting at quarterback. The Giants are running the ball, playing good defense and just hung 36 points on Arizona. Quarterback Jayden Daniels might be back for Washington, but how will he be with that elbow injury?

Pick: Giants 28, Commanders 23

---

BRONCOS (2-2) AT CHARGERS (0-4)

Sunday, 1:05 p.m. TV: CBS.

Line: Broncos by 3½. O/U: 42½.

This is a bad time for the Chargers to see Denver. Their offense still is struggling, quarterback Justin Herbert took a beating last week at Seattle, and here comes that Broncos pass rush.

Pick: Broncos 24, Chargers 17

---

LIONS (2-2) AT CARDINALS (1-3)

Sunday, 1:25 p.m. TV: NFL Ticket.

Line: Lions by 5½. O/U: 53½.

Detroit's defense is a problem, especially the secondary, and the Lions are surrendering almost 32 points per game. Arizona will score and hang around.

Pick: Lions 31, Cardinals 27

---

49ERS (4-0) AT SEAHAWKS (3-1)

Sunday, 1:25 p.m. TV: Fox.

Line: Seahawks by 3. O/U: 47 $^{1/2}$ .

QB Brock Purdy is on fire and Kyle Shana-

han is dialing it up. Seattle is throwing it all over the field but

is one-dimensional. The Seahawks are missing Zach Char-

bonnet's runs. Division game, so this figures to be close.

Pick: 49ers 27, Seahawks 23

---

RAVENS (3-1) AT FALCONS (2-2)

Sunday, 5:20 p.m. TV: NBC.

Line: Falcons by 3. O/U: 43½.

Atlanta's offense opened up when quarter-

back Michael Penix Jr. returned, and Bijan Robinson's runs

are hard to stop. Atlanta has scored a combined 80 points in

the last two games. The Falcons are rushing the passer.

Pick: Falcons 30, Ravens 24

---

BILLS (3-1) AT RAMS (2-2)

Monday, 5:15 p.m. TV: ABC/ESPN.

Line: Rams by 3. O/U: 54 $^{1/2}$ .

was huge, and Kyren Williams and the Rams' defense played phenomenal in the comeback win at Philadelphia. QB Josh Allen is elite, but the Bills aren't impervious to problems.

Pick: Rams 27, Bills 23

NFL PASSING LEADERS | AFC | TM | PCT | YDS | TD-INT | RATE | Lamar Jackson | BAL | 70.8 | 967 | 6-1 | 119.6 | Trevor Lawrence | JAC | 69.2 | 843 | 8-2 | 111.2 | NFC | TM | PCT | YDS | TD-INT | RATE | Drew Lock | SEA | 72.9 | 422 | 4-0 | 127.3 | Brock Purdy | SF | 69.9 | 1,007 | 11-1 | 126.2 | USC REPORT

Maiava is not injured, Riley says

BY JORDAN PUENTE

USC'S Jayden Maiava says he's had to adapt to new receiving options recently.

USC quarterback Jayden Maiava has been playing above-average football, but the signal-caller's deep throws have not been as sharp lately and he has shied away from some contact after taking a big hit to his shoulder during a 39-0 shutout of Fresno State Sept. 4.

When asked about his quarterback on Tuesday, Trojans coach Lincoln Riley quickly replied that Maiava is not injured.

“Jayden has been pretty healthy,” Riley said. “They’ve kept him upright all season long.”

Maiava has adapted to shifting receiving options, calling it a learning experience as he connects with new pass catchers. USC freshman Trent Mosley was an early breakout star, but Maiava has had to look to others with Mosley out the past two games because of injury. “I’ve been trusting myself, trusting the plan and trusting those guys on the perimeter,” Maiava said

He credits co-offensive coordinator Dennis Simmons for having his receivers ready whenever their names are called.

"It's the next-man up mentality and we are all going to do the same thing," Maiava said.

---

A key building block

As USC chases the program's first win over Penn State in Happy Valley, Riley said he expects the Trojans to draw on the resilience they showed against Washington.

He called the rally for a victory over the Huskies a potential turning point for a program that can't afford another loss if it hopes to reach the College Football Playoff for the first time during Riley's tenure.

"It wouldn't shock me if six to eight weeks down the road you're going to look back at us and see that's the game that was critical in the season," Riley said of the

UP NEXT

---

19 USC at Penn State

at University Park, Pa.

Saturday, 4:30 p.m. PDT

TV: NBC

Washington win. “Those are important. It helps develop the personality of your team. Most importantly, the biggest thing it shows is the brotherhood within our locker room right now.”

---

Supporting the defense

Hiring College Football Hall of Fame coach Gary Patterson was supposed to turn the Trojans into a potent Big Ten defensive team.

Through six games, the Trojans have allowed an average of 25.5 points per game, ranking 89th in the country, and have given up

348.8 yards.

"[Patterson] is one of the best coaches of our generation. One of the best defensive minds in college football history," Riley said, backing up his coordinator when asked about his progress.

Riley, however, did not defend poor tackling on Washington's final touchdown drive that put the Trojans on the brink of a loss.

When asked whether the mistakes were addressed with the players, Riley responded, "Oh yeah. ... It was a bad play. Not near our standard."

He later added, “I bet we don’t see it again.”

While the Huskies' scoring drive exposed some problems, the defense held its ground late in the fourth quarter to seal the win.

The Trojans' secondary got a boost from Ta'Mere Robinson, who played well in place of suspended defensive back Desman Stephens II.

Stephens served a one-game suspension for a late hit to the head on Oregon quarterback Dante Moore and his behavior celebrating as Moore was being treated by medical staff before leaving the Coliseum in an ambulance.

USC released an apology from Stephens a day after the game. Riley was asked Tuesday whether Stephens would get his starting job back after Robinson's strong play. While he didn't specifically address the starting role, Riley did suggest Robinson earned more snaps.

“It was an opportunity for some other guys to step up and they did. ... When you see guys that are there for that opportunity and rise to the occasion, it’s going to create more opportunities for some of those guys, there’s no question about it,” he said. “But Des is a good player and an important part of this football team. We view this a lot like just we’re coming back off any normal football game, like nothing else happened. ... I think what we learned this week is we have a handful of guys who can go out there and play really, really well. ... We look at it as a positive.”

A strong Bruin bond, on and off field

ANALYSIS

ERIC SONDHEIMER Los Angeles Times

UCLA linebacker Scott Taylor, left, and wide receiver

Shane Rosenthal “have a lot of the same priorities.”

ERIC SONDHEIMER Los Angeles Times

The teammate and roommate duo have thrived at UCLA with each other's support.

BY ERIC SONDHEIMER

One is Catholic, the other Jewish. One was a star linebacker for a private high school, Loyola, the other a star receiver for a public high school, Newbury Park. Both wear the same jersey number at UCLA, No. 20.

Scott Taylor and Shane Rosenthal became roommates last year and based on their many smiles, witty comeback lines and football success, it's clear they've become best friends and best teammates.

"It's cool," Rosenthal said.

“We just get along really well,” Taylor said.

They share an apartment with two other UCLA players, punter Lennox Miller and defensive back Kuron Jabari Jr.

Whatever initial concerns or perceived stereotypes they may have had quickly vanished after learning about their similar upbringings, goals and expectations to be good students and good people.

"I hosted him on his official visit," Taylor said. "Hosted him for dinner, took him to Westwood. We have a lot of the same priorities, doing the right things, eating the right food, going to bed at the right time. Little things."

Said Rosenthal: “We’re on the same timing for everything. He plays defense. I play offense. We’re able to watch film together, talk about football, talk about what he sees from the defense, talk about what I see from the offense and how we go at each other in practice.”

Taylor, a 6-foot-4, 241-pound sophomore who's never seen a steak he didn't want to eat, "is a damn good cook," said his grandfather, Bill Thomason, a former Loyola principal and basketball coach. Thomason once bought his grandson Omaha Steaks as a birthday gift.

UP NEXT

21 UCLA at

13 Oregon

at Eugene, Ore.

Saturday, 12:30 p.m.

TV: CBS

"They were so good," Taylor said.

He sometimes drives home on Sundays to cook steaks for family members. And he eats them, too.

In the competition for who cleans the room the best, Rosenthal wins in a landslide.

"He might be the cleanest guy in the country," Taylor said. "He might be an All-American cleaner."

Said Rosenthal: “I definitely feel like I’m the cleanest guy in the apartment.”

As for washing clothes, both said there are no irons in sight. They learned how to do laundry at home but it appears parents are always welcome to help.

Taylor is dating a girl who's Jewish but Rosenthal gets no credit as a matchmaker since they've been seeing each other well before Rosenthal arrived. "There's usually two Jews in the apartment," Rosenthal said.

Taylor has become a key pass rusher for the 4-0 Bruins going into Saturday's game against Oregon. Rosenthal, also a sophomore, has received playing time as a gunner on punts while being a backup receiver. He's the state-record holder in high school football with 24 career interceptions, so tackling on special teams is something he does well while waiting for the opportunity to show his receiving skills.

Taylor has used weight training to build up his body and give himself an NFL-like stature. It started back during the pandemic when he was 13. He decided to walk down the street to the local fitness center that was allowing kids to use the equipment for free — as long as they were 15. Somehow, he convinced them he was 15. When the business started charging him, he got his mom's credit card, became a paid member and the rest is history. He has the talent to be on par with former UCLA linebacker Carson Schwesinger.

He also possesses the ability to comfortably talk in public. He was the only UCLA player chosen to answer questions from the media after Bob Chesney was introduced as head coach last December. On Tuesday, Taylor welcomed a group of middle-school students touring Spaulding Field with high-fives and fist-pumps.

Taylor remembers his first impression of Chesney addressing the team.

“He’s a great communicator to you guys,” Taylor said of Chesney. “He’s also a great communicator to us. Everything’s crystal clear about what we’re supposed to do, what our role is since Day 1. He showed up and said, ‘If you guys choose to stay here’ and ... this is before the portal even opened. ‘If you guys choose to stay here, we’re gonna do something special, so if you choose to stay, be ready to work, be ready to compete.’”

THIS WEEK'S TOP PREP FOOTBALL GAMES FRIDAY

Orange Lutheran (4-2, 1-0) at St. John Bosco (5-1, 1-0), 7 p.m.

The Braves will need no pep talk from coach Jason Negro. Orange Lutheran eliminated St. John Bosco in a huge upset in the opening round of last year's Southern Section Division 1 playoffs. The Braves suddenly are running the ball effectively with Maliq Allen, who rushed for 180 yards last week, the most by a Brave since the 2021 season. Orange Lutheran also has a good running game with Ryan Christianson. The pick: St. John Bosco.

Inglewood (6-1, 1-0) at Palos Verdes (6-0, 0-0), 3:30 p.m. Home-field advantage in the afternoon always helps Palos Verdes, but more important is the duo of quarterback Ryan Rakowski and receiver Jalen Flowers clicking against an Inglewood team that has some top defensive linemen. The winner should cruise to the Bay League title.

The pick: Palos Verdes. — ERIC SONDHEIMER

Taylor said the foundation of strong relationships within the team is crucial.

"It's really special the connection we have," he said. "And I think that speaks to who we are as a team because it's really easy to play hard for each other when we're so close off the field."

If Chesney ever decides to host a team barbecue, Taylor is ready to lend his steak-cooking skills, with Rosenthal at his side.

NLDS | DODGERS VS. ATLANTA: GAME 3 FLASHBACK

Hernández ‘shows up when you need him’

KIKÉ Hernández hits the first of two Dodgers homers off Atlanta's Chris Sale in the fourth inning of Tuesday's Game 3 of the NLDS.

MIKE STEWART Associated Press

He hits another big playoff homer to rock Sale, back Yamamoto as Dodgers dig deep to retake series lead.

BY MADDIE LEE

ATLANTA — The Dodgers' first few innings Tuesday night were riddled with strikeouts and missed opportunities. But the work they did racking up Atlanta Braves ace Chris Sale's pitch count culminated in Kiké Hernández's big fourth-inning moment in Game 3 of the National League Division Series.

"I felt hitting at the bottom of the lineup, my responsibility was to not chase him around, not give in to what he was trying to get me to do, which was roll over and hit into a double play," Hernández said after the Dodgers' 3-1 win for a 2-1 series lead. "So my mentality was to grind out the at-bat, try to get a good pitch to hit. If not, just be patient so I could turn the lineup over to Mookie [Betts] at the top."

Hernández let Sale's first pitch, a changeup in and off the plate, go for a ball. Then, he recognized the pitch again, heading toward the inner third of the plate. And Hernández demolished it for a home run, taking three slow steps out of the batter's box before dropping the bat.

Hernández has too many big postseason moments — a three-homer game against the Chicago Cubs in the 2017 NL Championship Series, for example — for a single homer in a non-elimination game to rank at the top. It was his 17th career postseason home run, which accounts for 11% of his home runs over 13 years in the majors, putting him in a category of his own.

It was, however, the biggest offensive moment of the Dodgers' postseason so far. As the series teetered, in a matchup of rotation aces, all tied up and in Atlanta for the first time, he got his first atbats of this postseason and immediately delivered.

“We played tonight like an elimination game,” manager Dave Roberts said. “Collectively it was probably one of our better performances, certainly with the [opposing] starter, as far as 1 through 9.”

That's the thing about this Dodgers lineup. They have players up and down the batting order who have a track record of heroics. Hernández was hitting ninth. The Dodgers' biggest star, Shohei Ohtani, was hitting fifth for the first time in his Dodgers tenure and arguably had the worst day at the plate. ("He's going to come to life; it will happen," Roberts said.)

The Dodgers scored all 10 runs in the first three games via the long ball, which isn't necessarily sustainable without traffic on the bases. But Tuesday was different. Their approach at the plate was something that could serve as a blueprint for the rest of the post-

TUESDAY'S NLDS GAME 3

DODGERS 3, ATLANTA 1 | Dodgers | AB | R | H | BI | Avg. | Atlanta | AB | R | H | BI | Avg. | Betts ss | 5 | 0 | 2 | 0 | .300 | Balford c | 4 | 0 | 0 | 1 | .100 | Freeman 1b | 4 | 1 | 1 | 1 | .364 | Acuta dh | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .167 | Hemández lf | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .167 | Erikson cf | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .167 | c-Muncy 3b | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .250 | Albies 2b | 4 | 0 | 1 | 0 | .182 | Smith c | 4 | 0 | 1 | 0 | .083 | Farris cf | 4 | 0 | 1 | 0 | .308 | Ohtani dh | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .200 | Dubón lf-ss | 4 | 1 | 1 | 0 | .200 | Rojas 2b | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .250 | Thomas rf | 3 | 0 | 1 | 0 | .167 | b-Edman 2b | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .000 | d-Yastrzemski | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .000 | Pages cf | 4 | 1 | 2 | 0 | .182 | Riley 3b | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .000 | Tucker rf | 4 | 0 | 1 | 0 | .333 | Ha.Kim ss | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .000 | E.Hemández | 4 | 1 | 1 | 2 | .250 | a-Tellez | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .000 | 3b-lf | 1-Hicklen lf | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .000 | Totals | 36 | 3 | 8 | 3 | Totals | 32 | 1 | 5 | 1 | Dodgers | 000 | 300 | 000 - 3 | 8 | 0 | Atlanta | 000 | 010 | 000 - 1 | 5 | 2 | a-walked for Ha.Kim in the 5th. b- for Rojas in the 8th. c-struck out for T.Hernández in the 9th. d-grounded out for Thomas in the 9th. 1-ran for Tellez in the 5th.

Walks—Dodgers 2: Freeman 1, Ohtani 1. Atlanta 2: Acuña 1, Tellez 1. Strikeouts—Dodgers 12: Betts 1, Freeman 1, Muncy 1, Smith 3, Ohtani 1, Rojas 1. Pages 1, Tucker 1, E.Hernández 2. Atlanta 12: Baldwin 2, Acuña 1, Olson 2, Albies 2, Thomas 2, Riley 2, 1-Hicklen 1. E-Ha.Kim (1), Baldwin (1). LOB—Dodgers 9, Atlanta 6. 2B—Albies (1). HR—E.Hernández (1), off Sale; Freeman (2), off Sale. RBIs—E.Hernández 2 (2), Freeman (2), Baldwin (1). SB—Tucker (2). Runners left in scoring position—Dodgers 4 (Ohtani, E.Hernández, Rojas 2); Atlanta 3 (Yastrzemski, Acuña 2). RISP—Dodgers 0 for 4: Atlanta 0 for 6. Runners moved up—Baldwin, Harris. | Dodgers | IP | H | R | ER | BB | SO | NP | ERA | Yamamoto, W, 1-0...... | 7 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 10 | 98 | 1.29 | Scott, H, 1...... | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 19 | 10.80 | Díaz, S, 1-1...... | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 19 | 0.00 | Atlanta | IP | H | R | ER | BB | SO | NP | ERA | Sale, L, 0-1 | 5 | 7 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 7 | 95 | 5.40 | Dodd | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 17 | 0.00 | Lee | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 9 | 0.00 | Suter | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 21 | 0.00 | Iglesias | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 22 | 0.00 | U— James Hoye, Tripp Gibson, Jim Wolf, Mike Estabrook T—2:56. Tickets sold—42,420 (41,149).

season.

"Full team effort there, grinding him out, getting him out after five innings," catcher Will Smith said of Sale. "A couple homers obviously helped, but we got to him."

It also helped that Dodgers ace Yoshinobu Yamamoto put together a stifling, seven-inning start and set a career high with 10 strikeouts in a playoff game. He limited the Braves to one run and four hits.

Yamamoto's dominance meant the Dodgers needed just two relievers to finish the game. Left-hander Tanner Scott, serving as the setup man, threw a hitless eighth inning. And right-hander Edwin Díaz recorded his first save since Aug. 14.

But the offensive effort, against a pitcher who'd thrown a shutout against the Dodgers less than six weeks ago, turned Game 3 into a statement.

“We talked about trying to get him in the middle of the zone,” said first baseman Freddie Freeman, who hit his second home run in as many games. “Righties lay off the inside fastballs. If he throws it there, take it, try to push him out over. Lefties are a different story. It’s hard. He’s throwing behind us. So it’s more of, trying to get him in the middle of the zone, don’t try to make early outs. And if that’s all we could do, get him out early, and we were able to do that.”

It could have been tempting to give up on the approach after all six outs in the first two innings were strikeouts. But the Dodgers forced Sale to throw 42 pitches through those two innings.

In the third, they finally threatened but came just shy of putting runs on the board.

Betts started the effort with a single through the left side of the infield. Then it looked for a moment as if Freeman had capitalized on the opportunity.

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 on to the ball as he slammed into the wall.

Undeterred, the Dodgers kept putting runners on base. With two outs, Smith stayed through a slider to single. Ohtani clipped Drake Baldwin's mitt with his bat and was awarded first base for catcher's interference. Then Miguel Rojas hit a line drive to right that found leather to end the inning.

The payoff came the next in-

ning.

Andy Pages, who had two singles in four at-bats, led off the inning and jumped on a second-pitch fastball in the zone to record his first hit of the postseason. Then, after Kyle Tucker lined out to leaping second baseman Ozzie Albies, Hernández stepped to the plate.

“I wish there was a recipe for that so we can all take it from him,” Freeman said. “He’s incredible. He shows up when you need him.”

Show up, Hernández did. And two batters later, Freeman launched his own homer off Sale.

“It certainly speaks to the experience, the buy-in, because if you don’t get results when you’re committed to kind of grinding, sometimes it’s easy to come off of that,” Roberts said. “But I thought tonight from start to finish we did a good job of grinding.

"And it speaks to how important this game was. And we have [Braves right-hander Tyler] Mahle tomorrow, who in the second half has been one of the better pitchers in all of baseball. We have our work cut out. It's going to be another grindy game."

The Dodgers went in knowing if the offense could get to Mahle the way it got to Sale, they would have put themselves in position to end the series. One more win, and the Dodgers would clinch a berth in the NLCS.

Rojas out

Miguel Rojas was unavailable for Game 4 after hurting his back.

Voices BILL PLASCHKE COLUMNIST

Braves chopped down to size thanks to Yamamoto

and he's ready to go at all times."

BRAVES PITCHER Chris Sale takes a tumble as he tries to catch a throw to first base in the first inning of Game 3 after the Dodgers' Mookie Betts singled on a grounder down the first-base line.

KEVIN C. Cox Getty Images

cared straight.

S

Faced with a reality check, the Dodgers got real. Confronted with the end, the Dodgers are just g started.

Stepping warily into Atlanta's Truist Park with their five-game division series tied at one game apiece and Braves ace Chris Sale waiting for them on the mound Tuesday, the Dodgers marched out three hours later on the verge of another champagne shower.

Yoshinobu Yamamoto was brilliant, showing everyone that they were focusing on the wrong ace.

The Dodgers' bats were reborn, showing everyone that they still know how to hit in October.

And, yes, the Dodgers finally have a closer, Edwin Díaz entering the ninth and giving up a leadoff double to Ozzie Albies before retiring the next three hitters for the biggest save of his brief Dodgers career.

In all, the Dodgers drowned out that horrible tomahawk chop with some mighty hacks of their own, winning 3-1 while finally displaying some of the desperation that had been missing.

"We've gotta treat every game like an elimination game and go out there and play with urgency," Freddie Freeman said about the lesson learned.

Seemingly moments after staring the Dodgers down with a thrilling Game 2 victory, the Braves essentially have been consigned to their rearview mirror.

Historically, the team that wins Game 3 in a best-of-five series wins that series $72\%$ of the time, but the Dodgers don't need some fancy stats to tell them what they know.

The Braves can't beat the Dodgers in two straight games, and they can't do it with one of those games at Dodger Stadium if necessary, and they can't do it with Tyler Mahle pitching in one game and the bullpen potentially handling the other game.

The Dodgers had Tyler Glasnow on their mound in Wednesday's Game 4 and Tarik Skubal waiting for a possible Game 5 and this thing feels over.

"I was most proud of we played tonight like an elimination game," manager Dave Roberts said, later adding, "Tonight, I think collectively, it was probably one of our better performances."

It started with the Dodgers' offense against Sale, who shut them out in a 1-0 victory over Yamamoto just six weeks ago.

This time they were patient. This time they were smart.

This time they worked him for 24 pitches in the first inning, 18 in the second, 20 in the third.

All of this set up the 37-year-old Sale for a fourth-inning beatdown with some familiar Dodgers post-season magic.

With Andy Pages on first after a ground-ball single — he's breaking out of his two-year postseason slump! — Kiké Hernández drove a hanging changeup 406 feet over the left-field wall for a two-run homer, and where have you heard this before?

Hernández is arguably the most consistently unlikely postseason hero in Dodgers history. During the regular season he struggles. During the postseason he shines.

This was his 17th postseason home run, his 12th as a Dodger (fourth most in team history), and remember the three he hit that night in the 2017 National League Championship Series in Chicago?

He's been doing that sort of thing ever since, and his Dodgers teammates can only stare in amazement.

“I wish there was a recipe for that so we can all take it from him; he’s incredible, he shows up when you need him,” Freeman said, later adding, “He’s a Swiss Army knife

This time Hernández was followed two batters later by another familiar October bat.

It's safe to say that Freeman has broken out of his slump, as he homered for the second straight game after hitting one in the previous 66 games.

That made the score 3-0, and considering Yamamoto was 33-0 with at least three runs of support in his career, this game felt over.

And it was indeed over.

In notching a postseason-high 10 strikeouts over seven innings, Yamamoto showed why he — and not Skubal — is the ace of this staff.

Making his first start in 13 days, he gave up just one run on four hits in a continuation of his postseason mastery.

He now has an 8-1 career post-season record with a 2.14 earned-run average, and that doesn't begin to illustrate his impact.

“Wow, what a performance,” Roberts said. “He just has a way to just make pitches, calm his heartbeat.”

Yamamoto was held back for this game while Skubal started the opener, but Yamamoto shouldn't take a back seat to anyone anymore this postseason.

He should pitch early, often, every day if possible, because he is darn near unhittable.

Unhittable in a different sense was struggling Shohei Ohtani, who was moved down from the top of the order to the fifth spot, and it didn't do him any good.

He failed to get a hit in four plate appearances, reacting so badly to one of Sale's changeups that he foolishly called for an ABS challenge that he lost.

Ohtani is still lost.

But on a turning-point night in Atlanta, the Dodgers found themselves.

NLDS | DODGERS VS. ATLANTA: GAME 3 FLASHBACK

BRYNN ANDERSON Associated Press

DODGERS' Freddie Freeman celebrates his solo homer in NLDS Game 3 against Atlanta Tuesday.

---

Voices MIRJAM SWANSON COLUMNIST

Braves dropped the ball with Freeman — and paying price

ATLANTA

for them.

“B rave of you to boo Freddie."

That was from the Dodgers — via the social media

site X — to Atlanta's fans, with love.

Left untweeted, but understood: Thank you. Thank you so much.

Like all of the booing Braves fans rooting against Freddie Freeman in the Dodgers' 3-1 victory Tuesday in Game 3 of the National League Division Series, their counterparts in L.A. also remember well that Freeman became a Dodger in 2022 only after his painful split with the Braves.

If those contract talks with Atlanta hadn't stalled, Freeman, the so-so-clutch 37-year-old with the 1950s flat top, wouldn't have provided Angelenos with so much joy and so many incredible postseason moments — including Tuesday's solo home run off Atlanta ace Chris Sale.

If the Braves hadn't pulled their offer and abruptly pivoted away from their fan favorite, the guy they drafted in the second round in 2007 out of El Modena High in Orange, the Dodgers wouldn't have had an opening to invite him back to Southern California, or to sign him to a six-year, \$162-million deal.

If the Braves don't trade instead for Matt Olson, the Dodgers don't have a hobbled Freeman hitting his walk-off, 10th-inning grand slam against the New York Yankees in the World Series.

Don't have him providing the final blow with a 406-foot walk-off solo shot in last season's 18-inning marathon of a World Series game against the Toronto Blue Jays.

And they don't have him hitting his fifth career postseason home run at Truist Park — this one the first against the Braves instead of

Boo your front office too, Braves fans, for not wanting to play ball with Freeman.

Tuesday's 399-foot solo shot off of Sale's sinker pushed the lead to 3-0 — a margin that no team has yet overcome against Dodgers' ace Yoshinobu Yamamoto.

And for whoever is studying for the history test later, it also gave Freeman the most lefty-on-lefty home runs in MLB playoff history (eight). It was his 18th career postseason home run — nine of them with the Dodgers, thank the Braves very much — which nudged him back ahead of teammate Kiké Hernández, whose two-run home run two batters earlier was the 17th of his playoff career.

It also was Freeman's second home run in three NLDS games — after he hit only one in the final 66 regular-season games he played in.

The man wasn't kidding when he told us he'd figured something out.

"Yeah, the first couple of days of the bye week, you're just trying to figure out and looking at the video what's worked in the past, what it looks like in setup," Freeman said after Tuesday's victory. "We found something where my shoulders were a little too turned. All I really did was open my shoulders a couple inches.

"Baseball," he reminded us, "is a game of inches."

Ain't that the truth; Freeman might've had two home runs Tuesday if Braves left fielder Mauricio Dubón hadn't robbed him of one in the third inning with a sprinting, leaping catch at the wall.

“Dubón made a great play on the one at-bat,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “... but [Freeman] just takes great at-bats.

"And no moment's going to be too big for him."

The Dodgers can count on Freeman to come through big at the plate; his home run in Sunday's Game 2 loss wasn't enough in the end, but the solo home run off Braves reliever Grant Holmes tied the score 1-1 and gave a subdued Dodger Stadium crowd a much-needed jolt.

The Dodgers can also count on Freeman in the field.

Smooth and sure-handed, Freeman has the third-best fielding percentage among active first basemen (.997). On Tuesday, he finished off the game with a nifty pick, securing the squirrely throw from shortstop Mookie Betts to get Mike Yastrzemski for the final out, stranding Ozzie Albies at third.

"He does whatever it takes to win," Roberts said. "That was a tough play. Yaz runs decent ... you never know, I might have had to make a pitching change. You get [Austin] Riley who has come up with big hits. Just to be able to make that play was big."

As for his reception, less welcoming than usual from the Atlanta faithful?

Freeman said he didn't even hear the boos: "To be honest, I don't really hear much out there. It's just noise because it's so loud."

And hearing about them didn't leave him boo-hooing.

"I've got a gray uniform on, I expect boos. It's OK," he said, flashing that bright smile. "Like I've always said, I've enjoyed my 12 years in [the Braves] organization. ... I've had wonderful experiences with the white uniform on here, and I loved every second of it. I get it. This is a game. We're trying to win the game. They want to win it for their team...

"It's all love. I still love everybody here."

But it's baseball. There's a thin line — just inches — between love and boos.

Voices BILL SHAIKIN COLUMNIST

Yamamoto's playoff dominance impresses everyone, even Skubal

W

ATLANTA

ho would you

rather have start-

ing an October

game for the

Dodgers than

Yoshinobu Yamamoto?

No one, right? And you wouldn't be the only one thinking that.

Tarik Skubal thought so too. When Dodgers manager Dave Roberts told Skubal he would start the team's playoff opener, Skubal responded with a question.

"Why?"

Skubal was honored with the assignment, but he also was worried.

"I was like, 'Is Yoshi OK?' " Skubal said Tuesday.

He is, as the Atlanta Braves found out the hard way. Yamamoto pitched the Dodgers to within one game of the National League Championship Series, setting a postseason high with 10 strikeouts in a 3-1 victory.

In seven innings, Yamamoto gave up one run on four hits, all of them singles. In only one of those innings did Atlanta advance a runner beyond first base.

“I just have a lot of respect for him and for what he means here in L.A. and what he has accomplished here,” Skubal said. “I know we have a lot of good starting pitching, and I know there is a lot of thought that goes into it, but I just assumed he would be the Game I guy.”

You could say Yamamoto rises to the October occasion, but Mookie Betts would not say that, if only because Yamamoto rises to the occasion on just about every occasion.

"I don't see it any different," Betts said. "I think he does it all year too.

"He just has so many weapons. He throws a lot of strikes with a lot of pitches. He's hard to hit."

Skubal, a two-time Cy Young winner, is brilliant in October.

In seven postseason appearances, he has a 1.97 earned-run average. He gave up five runs in one inning, and he has given up five runs in the other $44^{2/3}$ innings. The Dodgers' grand prize from the trade deadline was hardly a reckless choice to start Game 1 of the division series.

Yamamoto has a 2.14 ERA in 11 playoff appearances, the fourth-lowest of any pitcher since 1903 to make at least 10 postseason starts. He drains the life out of an opposing crowd as well as anyone in major league history, with a 1.42 ERA in six road playoff outings.

"I'm a fan of this game as much as I am a player," Skubal said. "So, when I watch guys do really impressive things and do great things, I understand what it takes because I also play the game.

"When he goes out and performs like he does, it's almost like I expect it. And now, being a teammate of his, it's not surprising at all why he goes and performs like he does, because the way he prepares is as good as anybody in this game. It's just a ton of fun to be on the same side of it."

Yamamoto acknowledged feeling nervous, even if you never would sense it from watching him. That's part of the way he prepares too.

“During the preparation and before the game, then I do get nervous,” Yamamoto said through an interpreter, “but at that time, I personally think that’s very important.”

And then the game starts, the nerves dissipate, and the opponent is methodically slayed.

"He just has a way to just make pitches, calm his heartbeat," Roberts said.

The Dodgers have played seven postseason series with Yamamoto, and they have won them all.

We'll always cherish last October. In 76 regular-season starts with the Dodgers, he has one complete game. In back-to-back starts last October, he threw a complete game both times.

Of the Dodgers' four victories in the World Series, Yamamoto earned three — including Game 6 as a starter and Game 7 as a reliever, with no day of rest in between.

“I got goosebumps watching that,” Skubal said. “I didn’t know how he was doing it. That’s what I was thinking: How is this going to work?

“His stuff looked even better than it did in Game 6, which is insane to say. But it did. When I was watching on TV, I was like, ‘Holy ... he looks better today than he did yesterday, and he did pretty well the day before.’ It’s incredible.

“Hopefully, we’re not having to do that again to him.”

That is one big reason why the Dodgers acquired Skubal. If Tyler Glasnow won Wednesday — and the Dodgers won in all six of Glasnow's postseason appearances last October — they would be off to the NLCS.

The Game 1 starter could be Skubal, followed in Game 2 by Yamamoto. That's a tall order for opposing batters and, so far, a winning order for the Dodgers.

BRYNN ANDERSON Associated Press

YOSHINOBU Yamamoto delivered another classic performance.

MLB PLAYOFFS

DIVISION SERIES

NATIONAL LEAGUE

Best-of-five series

DODGERS vs. Atlanta

Dodgers lead, 2-1

Game 1: Dodgers 5, Atlanta 3

Game 2: Atlanta 3, Dodgers 2

Game 3: Dodgers 3, Atlanta 1

Game 4: Wednesday at Atlanta, late

Game 5: Friday at Dodgers, 5 p.m.\*

TV: Game 5 on Fox

---

MLB REPORT

Milwaukee vs. San Diego

Brewers lead, 2-1

Game 1: Milwaukee 3, San Diego 2

Game 2: Milwaukee 4, San Diego 3

Game 3: San Diego 4, Milwaukee 3

Game 4: Wednesday at San Diego, late

Game 5: Friday at Milwaukee, 1:30 p.m.\*

TV: FS1

AMERICAN LEAGUE

Best-of-five series

Chicago White Sox at Cleveland

White Sox lead, 2-1

Game 1: Chicago 3, Cleveland 0

Game 2: Chicago 4, Cleveland 3

Game 3: Cleveland 9, Chicago 3

Game 4: Today at Chicago, 2 p.m.

Game 5: Saturday at Cleveland, 2 p.m.\*

TV: TBS/HBO Max

Tampa Bay vs. New York

Rays lead, 2-0

Game 1: Tampa Bay 1, New York 0

Game 2: Tampa Bay 5, New York 2

Game 3: Wednesday at New York, late

Game 4: Today at New York, 5 p.m.\*

Game 5: Saturday at Tampa Bay, 5 p.m.\*

TV: TBS, HBO Max

\*-if necessary

Times p.m. PDT unless noted

Adell's three-run triple helps Cleveland win one

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Jo Adell and José Ramírez powered Cleveland with a pair of two-out triples, and the Guardians avoided a sweep by cooling off the host Chicago White Sox with a 9-3 victory in Game 3 of the American League Division Series on Wednesday.

The Guardians recorded two triples in a postseason game for the first time. Adell's three-run triple gave Cleveland a 4-1 lead in the third inning. Ramírez's three-bagger made it 7-3 in the eighth.

Adell, Ramírez, Patrick Bailey and Brayan Rocchio each had two of the team's 11 hits — a complete turnaround for the AL Central champions after they managed a combined three runs and seven hits in the first two games.

The White Sox struck out 19 times and went two for 11 with runners in position.

Their bullpen faltered after coming up big in their 4-0 postseason start.

---

Padres force Game 4

Jake Cronenworth hit a tiebreaking homer, Michael King pitched the final two innings on one day of rest, and the San Diego Padres avoided elimination with a 4-3 victory over visiting Milwaukee on Tuesday night, trimming the

TUESDAY'S NLDS GAME 3

SAN DIEGO 4, MILWAUKEE 3 | Milwaukee | AB | R | H | BI | Avg. | San Diego | AB | R | H | BI | Avg. | Chourio lf | 4 | 0 | 0 | 1 | .167 | Tatis rf | 4 | 0 | 0 | 1 | .071 | Bauers 1b | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .182 | Merrill cf | 4 | 1 | 1 | 0 | .154 | Contreras c | 4 | 2 | 3 | 1 | .364 | Machado 3b | 3 | 0 | 1 | 1 | .333 | Lara | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .000 | France 1b | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .273 | Turang 2b | 4 | 0 | 1 | 0 | .091 | Salas c | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .167 | Yelich dh | 4 | 0 | 2 | 1 | .400 | Bogaerts ss | 3 | 1 | 1 | 0 | .222 | Mitchell cf | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .182 | Harris If | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .182 | Kattiss ss | 4 | 1 | 2 | 0 | .275 | Andajar | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .000 | Frelick rf | 4 | 0 | 1 | 0 | .333 | Bowell lf | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | - | Ortiz 3b | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | .167 | Cristall dh | 3 | 1 | 1 | 0 | .500 | Hamilton 3b | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | .250 | Cronenworth 2b | 2 | 1 | 2 | 1 | .222 | Totals | 35 | 3 | 11 | 3 | Totals | 29 | 4 | 6 | 3 | Milwaukee | 000 | 110 | 100 - 3 | 11 | 1 | San Diego | 002 | 011 | 00x - 4 | 6 | 0 | Walks—Milwaukee 4: Bauers 1, Contreras 1, Turang 1, Yelich 1. San Diego 2: Machado 1, Salas 1. Strikeouts—Milwaukee 9: Chourio 1, Bauers 4, Turang 1, Mitchell 3. San Diego 7: Tatis 1, Merrill 2, France 1, Salas 1, Bogaerts 1, Harris 1. E—Pratt (2). LOB—Milwaukee 11, San Diego 4. HR—Contreras (2), off Pivetta; Cronenworth (1), off Romero. RBIs—Contreras (2), Chourio (5), Yelich (1), Tatis (1), Machado (1), Cronenworth (2). SB—Taylor (1), Merrill (1). CS—Bowen (1). SF—Chourio. S—Ortiz, Cronenworth. Runners left in scoring position—Milwaukee 5 (Mitchell, Turang 2, Ortiz 2); San Diego 0. RISP—Milwaukee 2 for 7; San Diego 1 for 3. Runners moved up—Frelick. Tatis. GIDB—Yelich. DP—San Diego 1 (Bogaerts, France). | Milwaukee | IP | H | R | ER | BB | SO | NP | ERA | May....3 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 52 | 6.00 | Romero, L, 0-1.... $1\frac{1}{3}$ | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 30 | 3.86 | Senzatela....1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 14 | 0.00 | Hall.... $1\frac{1}{3}$ | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 29 | 0.00 | Uribe....1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 7 | 0.00 | San Diego | IP | H | R | ER | BB | SO | NP | ERA | Pivetta.... $4\frac{1}{3}$ | 5 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 4 | 69 | 4.15 | Adam.... $\frac{1}{3}$ | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 13 | 0.00 | Matsui, W, 1-0.... | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 23 | 0.00 | Rodriguez, H, 2.... $1\frac{1}{3}$ | 3 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 21 | 2.70 | King, S, 1-1.... | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 40 | 1.29 | Inherited runners-scored—Romero 1-0, Hall 1-1, Adam 2-1, Matsui 3-0, Rodriguez 2-0. WP—Hall. U—Alfonso Marquez, Nic Lentz, Quinn Wolcott, Brennan Miller T—3:22. Tickets sold—47,708 (40,222).

Brewers' lead in the best-of-five series to 2-1.

"It feels like we've played three straight games against the Brewers like that," San Diego manager Craig Stammen said.

Game 4 was Wednesday night, and Walker Buehler started for the Padres after making 32 starts in a resurgent season for the former Dodgers star. The Padres also had All-Star closer Mason Miller back after he missed Game 3 while on the paternity list.

WEDNESDAY'S ALDS GAME 3

CLEVELAND 9, CHICAGO WHITE SOX 3 | Cleveland | AB | R | H | BI | Avg. | Chicage | AB | R | H | BI | Avg. | Kwan cf-lf | 6 | 1 | 1 | 1 | .154 | Antonacci dh | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | .143 | Ramírez 3b | 4 | 2 | 2 | 2 | .200 | Vargas 3b | 4 | 0 | 1 | 0 | .375 | DeLauter rf | 4 | 1 | 1 | 1 | .250 | Murakami 1b | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .250 | Adell dh | 4 | 0 | 2 | 3 | .273 | Teel c | 4 | 0 | 1 | 1 | .182 | Lowe 1b | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | .125 | Meidroth 2b | 4 | 1 | 1 | 0 | .250 | Martínez lf | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .000 | Peters cf | 4 | 0 | 1 | 1 | .250 | Halpin cf | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | --- | B.Montgomery rf | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | .100 | Bazzana 2b | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | .111 | Grichuk lf | 4 | 0 | 1 | 0 | .143 | Genao 2b | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1.000 | C.Montgomery ss | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .222 | Bailey c | 4 | 1 | 2 | 0 | .333 | Totals | 32 | 3 | 6 | 3 | Rocchio ss | 4 | 0 | 2 | 1 | .222 | Totals | 35 | 9 | 11 | 9 | Cleveland | 004 | 010 | 022 -9 | 11 | 0 | Chicago | 100 | 101 | 000 -3 | 6 | 0 | Walks—Cleveland 10: Ramírez 1, DeLauter 1, Adell 1, Lowe 3, Halpin 1, Bazzana 2, Bailey 1. Chicago 3: Antonacci 1, Vargas 1, B.Montgomery 1. Strikeouts—Cleveland 6: Kwan 1, Adell 1, Martínez 3, Bailey 1. Chicago 19: Antonacci 1, Vargas 2, Murakami 3, Teel 2. Meidroth 2, Peters 3, B.Montgomery 2, Grichuk 1, C.Montgomery 3. LOB—Cleveland 10, Chicago 8. 2B—Ramírez (1), Genao (1), Teel (1), Meidroth (1), Peters (1). 3B—Adell (2), Ramírez (1). RBIs—Kwan (1), Adell 3 (4), DeLauter (1), Ramírez 2 (2), Genao (1), Rocchio (1), Teel (1), Peters (1), Antonacci (1). SB—Ramírez (1), Rocchio (1). S—Rocchio. RISP—Cleveland 5 for 17; Chicago 2 for 11. LIDP—Lowe, Kwan, | Cleveland | IP | H | R | ER | BB | SO | NP | ERA | Espino. | $\frac{1}{2}$ | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 20 | 6.75 | Griffin, W, 1-0. | $2\frac{1}{2}$ | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 7 | 53 | 3.38 | Armstrong, H, 1. | $\frac{1}{2}$ | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 5 | 0.00 | Cantillo, H, 1. | $1\frac{1}{2}$ | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 25 | 5.40 | Gaddis, H, 1. | $\frac{1}{2}$ | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 12 | 0.00 | Herrin, H, 1. | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 18 | 0.00 | C.Smith. | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 19 | 0.00 | Chicago | IP | H | R | ER | BB | SO | NP | ERA | Chicago | IP | H | R | ER | BB | SO | NP | ERA | Newcomb.... | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 22 | 0.00 | Hudson, L, 1-1.... | $\frac{1}{2}$ | 2 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 16 | 40.50 | H.Smith.... | $\frac{2}{3}$ | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 21 | 2.70 | Schultz.... | 3 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 45 | 3.00 | Davis.... | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 21 | 0.00 | Sandlin.... | 1 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 22 | 18.00 | Martin.... | 1 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 31 | 18.00 | HBP—Griffin 2 (Antonacci, Peters), Gaddis 2 (C. Montgomery, Antonacci). WP—Schultz. U—Todd Tichenor, Jansen Visconti, Vic Carapazza, Tom Hanahan T—3:16. Tickets sold—40,590 (40,241).

This is the first playoff series since the 2021 National League Championship Series to begin with three straight one-run decisions.

In Game 3, Xander Bogaerts scored San Diego's fourth run on a hustle play in the sixth and then capped his team's stellar defensive performance with a game-ending double play at shortstop for the Padres, who hung on in a nail-biter over the MLB-best Brewers.

Fernando Tatis Jr. and Manny Machado drove in early runs for the Padres, but their bullpen didn't have Miller or setup man Adrian Morejon, who has shoulder "stickiness," according to Stammen.

So despite pitching 12 innings in two starts over the previous seven days, King stepped up and finished it off — but only after a thrilling ninth.

King retired four of his first five batters before walking William Contreras and Brice Turang. Christian Yelich then cracked a 107-mph line drive up the middle, where Bogaerts went down to his knees to field it on a short hop and scampered to touch second base before throwing out Yelich at first to end it.

"I know that I have bullets in my arm that I don't want to save," King said.

Contreras homered and had three hits for the Brewers, who lost their 12th consecutive postseason road game dating to the 2018 NLCS.

The rise & fall of a USC dynasty.

Whether you're a die-hard USC fan or have never watched a game, this podcast about their fall from grace will pull you in.

In “House of Troy,” host and Times beat writer Ryan Kartje draws on more than 100 interviews — including Reggie Bush, Matt Leinart and Lane Kiffin — to trace USC football’s rise, fall and tough path back to national relevance.

LISTEN NOW

LA Times

latimes.com/podcasts

PLAYOFFS EXTRA

A TIMES E-NEWSPAPER EXCLUSIVE :: THURSDAY, OCTOBER 8, 2026

IA 4 A 1

NLDS

DODGERS WIN, 3-1

W: HENRIQUEZ

L: MAHLE

S: DÍAZ

NLCS GAME 1: SUNDAY AT MILWAUKEE

TIME: TBA TV: FOX OR FS1

Photographs by KEVIN C. Cox Getty Images

ANDY PAGES reacts to hitting a tiebreaking, two-run single in the seventh inning of the Dodgers' 4-1 triumph in Game 4 of the National League Division Series.

LIGHTS OUT IN GEORGIA

Pages' clutch hit and bullpen's close-out effort lift Dodgers past Braves, back into NLCS

cleanup spot after hitting fifth the day before, drew a five-pitch walk without taking a swing.

EDWIN DÍAZ celebrates after pitching a perfect ninth, and the bullpen covered 4 $^{1/3}$ scoreless innings as the Dodgers reached the NL Championship Series for the ninth time in 14 years.

BY MADDIE LEE

ATLANTA — The Dodgers reached the National League Championship Series with a 4-1 win in Game 4 of the division series on Wednesday at Truist Park.

The Dodgers got a tiebreaking, two-run single from Andy Pages in the seventh inning, Max Muncy's third home run in four games and a shutdown effort by the bullpen.

It's the ninth time in the last 14 seasons that the Dodgers advanced to the NLCS, and they will be seeking their sixth World Series in 10 seasons starting Sunday at Milwaukee.

Dodger right-hander Tyler Glasnow limited the Braves to one hit and one run in $4^{2}/_{3}$ innings. But walks prevented him from pitching deeper into the game.

His five walks were tied for the second-most he's given up in a postseason game.

The only time he topped that was in Game 1 of the 2020 World Series, when he pitched for Tampa Bay and issued six walks to the Dodgers.

The lone run he gave up was made possible by Braves leadoff hitter Michael Harris II's speed.

He got on top of Glasnow's first pitch, a fastball up and out of the strike zone, to shoot a single through the right side.

Harris then stole second and failed to capitalize on catcher Will Smith's off-target throw, which got past second baseman Kiké Hernández and bounced into the outfield. But no matter. Harris advanced to third on Matt Olson's groundout.

Then, in an 0-and-2 count to Ozzie Albies, Glasnow spiked a curveball in front of the plate. Smith managed to block the ball, despite the high bounce, but it rolled back toward the mound, giving Harris time to dash home.

Glasnow didn't have another runner get past first until the fifth inning when he issued his second walk of the inning with two outs. That spelled the end of his start.

The Dodgers' offense followed up their two-homer performance against Braves ace Chris Sale the night before with an anticlimactic effort against Braves right-hander

Tyler Mahle.

They hadn't faced Mahle since April, when he was with the San Francisco Giants and racking up a 5.13 ERA.

But he'd been lights out since the Braves acquired him, authoring a 1.99 ERA.

In his postseason debut, he limited the Philadelphia Phillies to one run in seven innings.

The Dodgers faced that new and improved version of Mahle on Wednesday.

"He's on a nice run here," manager Dave Roberts said before the game. "We're certainly not going to take him lightly. We've got our work cut out."

The one run the Dodgers scored against Mahle was something of a fluke.

In the second inning, Shohei Ohtani, who moved up to the

He then stole second base, drawing an errant throw that allowed him to advance to third. So, he was in position to score the tying run when Braves shortstop Mauricio Dubón, who robbed Freddie Freeman of a home run as the left fielder the day before, dropped a popup in shallow left.

The Dodgers recorded only three hits against Mahle in $6^{1/3}$ innings. So, the game came down to the bullpens.

Dodgers left fielder Teoscar Hernández had a scary moment in the sixth inning.

He crashed into the wall in an all-out effort to nab Albies' double off left-hander Alex Vesia. Hernández was slow to get up and put his hand on his head as he talked to an athletic trainer but stayed the game.

Then in the top of the seventh inning, the Dodgers loaded the bases with a single from Teoscar Hernández, a walk from pinch-hitting rookie Josue De Paula, and a five-pitch walk from Kyle Tucker.

The Braves called in right-

hander Robert Suarez to face

Pages.

Pages worked a full count and then sent a fastball through the middle of the infield to drive in two runs and give the Dodgers a 3-1 lead.

It was his fourth hit in two games, representing a sharp turnaround after going 0 for 7 in the first two games of the series.

In the ninth, Max Muncy added an insurance run with his third home run of the series.

On the other side, four Dodgers relievers — Vesia, Edgardo Henriquez, Tanner Scott and Edwin Díaz — held the Braves scoreless the rest of the way.

NLDS GAME 4: DODGERS 4, ATLANTA 1

THE DODGERS cheer from the dugout after Andy Pages lined a go-ahead, two-run single into center field in the seventh inning of Game 4 of the NLDS.

KEVIN C. Cox Getty Images

BRAVES shortstop Mauricio Dubón drops a pop fly hit by the Dodgers' Max Muncy, allowing Shohei Ohtani to score from third. The run tied the score at 1-1.

Mike Stewart Associated Press

KEVIN C. COX Getty Images

THE DODGERS gather on the field at Truist Park after their 4-1 win over the Braves in Game 4 of the NL Division Series. The Dodgers begin the NLCS on Sunday.

KEVIN C. COX Getty Images

DODGERS catcher Will Smith fails to block a pitch in the dirt from Tyler Glasnow with the Braves' Ozzie Albies at bat, allowing Atlanta's first run to score.

THE DODGERS' Shohei Ohtani steals second as Albies fails to catch an errant throw from catcher Sean Murphy. Ohtani advanced to third and later scored.

EDWARD M. PIO RODA Getty Images

DODGERS SECOND BASEMAN Kiké Hernández throws to first baseman Freddie Freeman to get the Braves' Matt Olson, who hit a groundout in the first.

KEVIN C. Cox Getty Images

Los Angeles Times SPORTS EXTRA

A TIMES E-NEWSPAPER EXCLUSIVE :: THURSDAY, OCTOBER 8, 2026

GREGORY BULL Associated Press

BREWERS center fielder Garrett Mitchell robs the Padres' Manny Machado of a potential tying homer in the eighth inning of Milwaukee's series-clinching 3-1 win.

Brewers deny Padres, reap NLCS rematch

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Garrett Mitchell tripled and scored the tiebreaking run in the fifth inning before making a pivotal catch on Manny Machado's drive to the wall in the eighth, and the Milwaukee Brewers advanced to the National League Championship Series for the second straight season with a 3-1 victory over the San Diego Padres on Wednesday night in Game 4 of their division series.

Mitchell also drove in Sal Frelick with Milwaukee's first run as the Brewers snapped their 12-game postseason road losing streak since 2018 and reached their fifth league championship series.

Machado nearly tied the score with a 406-foot drive off reliever Abner Uribe, but Mitchell coolly tracked it down and reached just above the short wall in right-center to keep it in the yard.

Second baseman Brice Turang then ended the eighth with an acrobatic catch of Ty France's tail-ing popup in foul ground.

After fending off the surging Padres in four tight games decided by a combined five runs, the 103-win Brewers will get an NLCS rematch with the Dodgers. The Brewers host Game 1 on Sunday, with ace Jacob Misiorowski almost certainly lined up to start.

The Dodgers swept Milwaukee last October on the way to their second consecutive World Series title.

Fernando Tatis Jr. hit a 429-foot homer on an otherwise tepid offensive night for the Padres, who repeatedly tested the majors' best regular-season team before falling short.

One night after the Padres avoided elimination, Milwaukee claimed its first road playoff win since the 2018 NLCS by sticking to its season-long formula for suc-

cess.

While four Brewers pitchers combined on a three-hitter and the defense made nearly every big play, Milwaukee's lineup calmly worked counts, pounded 10 hits through the Padres' defense and manufactured enough runs to head home smiling.

Game 2 hero Jackson Chourio capped his high-impact series by driving in Mitchell to become the Brewers' career leader in postseason RBIs at just 22 years old. Chourio has 17 RBIs, including six in this series, in 16 playoff games.

Milwaukee opened the scoring in the third when Frelick reached on an infield single, stole second and came around on a single by Mitchell, an Orange County native and UCLA product.

Brewers starter and former Padres draft pick Robert Gasser threw four innings of three-hit ball, but Tatis ended his one-for-19 skid since San Diego's playoff opener with a long shot to center in the third. It was the longest homer hit in the postseason at Petco Park by a San Diego player.

Padres starter Walker Buehler yielded just three hits and a run, but manager Craig Stammen replaced him with Game 1 starter Robbie Ray after William Contreras' leadoff single in the fourth.

Mitchell then stroked a mild liner over first and into the right-field corner leading off the fifth, and he scored on Chourio's single through the drawn-in infield.

---

Rays sweep Yankees, get assist by fan interference

Victor Mesa Jr. hit a tiebreaking, two-run homer off Max Fried in the sixth inning, and the Tampa Bay Rays beat the host New York Yankees 4-3 for a series sweep with the help of a fan interference call.

Ryan Vilade also homered for the Rays, who reached the American League Championship Series for the first time since 2020 and host the Chicago White Sox or Cleveland Guardians in the opener on Monday.

"You always want to play well on the biggest stage, right? And you're not going to get a bigger stage than playing against the Yankees in Yankee Stadium," Tampa Bay manager Kevin Cash said.

After Mesa's homer gave the Rays a 4-2 lead, Anthony Volpe appeared to hit a two-run shot against Griffin Jax with two outs in the bottom of the sixth as a fan reached over the left-field wall and caught the ball over the glove of a leaping Mesa.

A video review determined the ball would not have been over the wall and would not have been caught by Mesa. Volpe was awarded an RBI double, and George Lombard Jr. was allowed to score from first base. Jax recovered to strike out Spencer Jones.

Ducks can't hold back Bouchard and fall to Oilers in first defeat

saitl with 5:48 to go.

WIRE REPORTS

Evan Bouchard had two goals and an assist to become the second defenseman in NHL history with at least six goals through the first four games of a season, and the Edmonton Oilers used a five-goal second period to beat the Ducks 5-2 on Wednesday night at Honda Center.

Bouchard has a league-leading six goals through four games. Harry Cameron had eight goals in four games for the Toronto Arenas during the NHL's inaugural season in 1917-18.

Leon Draisaitl had four assists, Connor McDavid had a goal and two assists, Kasperi Kapanen and Vasily Podkolzin also scored, and the Oilers overcame a sluggish start to win their third straight game. Devon Levi made 28 saves.

Beckett Sennecke had two power-play goals and Leo Carlsson had two assists, but the Ducks lost for the first time in three games. Lukas Dostal made 12 saves, stopping just six of 11 shots in the decisive middle period before being replaced to start the third. Ville Husso made two saves in relief.

Bouchard scored twice in the second, sparking Edmonton's rally by cutting it to 2-1 11 seconds into the period on a long wrist shot through traffic. He put the Oilers in front 3-2 on a one-timer from Drai-

MARK J. TERRILL Associated Press

DUCKS center Mikael Granlund, left, tries to get a shot past Edmonton goaltender Devon Levi, right, as defenseman Connor Murphy defends during the Oilers' 5-2 win on Wednesday night.

Bouchard is the fifth defenseman in league history with at least 10 points through the first four games of a season. The feat was last accomplished by Morgan Rielly in 2018-19 for the Maple Leafs.

latimes.com/sports

McDavid capped off the five-goal outburst by netting his third goal and 12th point of the season with 51.7 left during four-on-four play.

After scoring one power-play goal in 82 games as a rookie, Sennecke found the back of the net twice on the man-advantage in the first period.

Ducks winger Nikita Klepov, the No. 15 pick in the 2026 draft, made his NHL debut and became the youngest player in franchise history at 18 years, 102 days old.

---

WNBA PLAYOFFS Valkyries scrape by Aces for 2-0 lead

Veronica Burton hit a deep three-pointer that put Golden State ahead with 41 seconds left and converted two free throws in the closing seconds, Tiffany Hayes had 21 points, and the Valkyries held off the Las Vegas Aces 83-81 on Wednesday night for a 2-0 lead in the best-of-five WNBA semifinal

series.

In a wild finish, Jackie Young missed the second of two free throws with six seconds left to give Las Vegas one last chance and Chelsea Gray grabbed the rebound and drove under the basket for a layup attempt. Kiah Stokes blocked the shot and Burton corralled the ball.

Gabby Williams had 20 points and five rebounds and Kayla Thornton scored 16 points as the Valkyries moved one win away from reaching the WNBA Finals in just their second season.

A shot-clock violation gave Golden State the ball back with 1:01 to play and Burton delivered with her lone basket of the night.

The series now shifts to Las Vegas for Game 3 on Friday with the defending champions trying to stave off elimination. Coach Becky Hammon said before Wednesday's game how important it would be to go home with a split — but the Valkyries have been too good in front of their rocking home crowd and now Hammon's team is on the brink of the season ending without a repeat title.

---

Dream stay ahead with another win over Liberty

Angel Reese scored 23 points, Naz Hillmon made the go-ahead layup with 20.8 seconds left in over-time and the host Atlanta Dream beat the New York Liberty 101-98 on Wednesday night to take a 2-0 lead in the WNBA semifinals.

Reese scored six of her team's 13 points in overtime. She made two free throws with 4.3 seconds left after Sabrina Ionescu overthrew a pass as Atlanta moved within one win of its first WNBA Finals appearance since 2013.

Jordin Canada also scored 23 points and had eight assists for the Dream, who won Game 192-82.

Breanna Stewart scored 35 points for the Liberty, including 25 in the first half. She missed a desperation attempt on the final play.

BONUS COVERAGE

Go to our website for takeaways from The Times' staff on your favorite home teams at latimes.com/sports.

STAY CONNECTED

■ On Instagram @latimes\_sports

■ On X @latimessports

LA Times MEDIA GROUP

FOODBOWL

Oct. 23-24 | The Barker Hangar

Live Reveal

Anthony Anderson

Roy Choi

A Tí • Alta Adams • Asadero • Badmaash

Bar Betsy • Baroo • Bistro Na’s

Broken Spanish Comedor • Budonoki

Chainsaw • Cinnies • Daisy Margarita Bar

Darling • Donna’s • Dunsmoor

Frank n’ Franks • Funke • Hamasaku

Hearth Restaurant & Coffee • Holbox

Jitlada • Kato • Komal • La Morocha • Lucia

Lucky Bird • Lugya’h • Maydan • Mini Kabob

Mirate • Mish • Moo’s Craft Barbecue

Perilla LA • Real Charmer • Rustic Canyon

Saffy’s • Sqirl • Sunday Gravy • Two Hommés

Unreal Poke • Vandell • Villa’s Tacos

Wilde’s • Yerord Mas

Lineup subject to change. Some restaurants are VIP only. See website for details.

More coming soon!

Get tickets.

lafoodbowl.com

OpenTable®

CUTWATER®

TIXR

Getty Images

ENTERTAINMENT

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 8, 2026 : LATIMES.COM/ENTERTAINMENT

Exploring pitfalls of stardom in ‘Misty Green’

Rosalind Eleazar talks about playing the troubled title role in the film, out Friday.

BY MARK OLSEN

TORONTO — An actor from 2025's Toronto International Film Festival turned heads around town this year: Inde Navarrette, whose "Obsession" went from a modest 2025 Midnight Madness slot to a box office behemoth.

But if you had to pick this year's Navarrette, who would it be? Among the breakout names of TIFF 2026 is unquestionably Rosalind Eleazar, the London-born 38-year-old star of "Misty Green," the first film written and directed by Chris Rock since 2014's "Top Five" and among the most notable world premieres at this year's festival.

Misty is a Hollywood survivor who was never able to make the most of her own success, winning an Emmy a few years back but now losing the apartment she has been living in because the widow of the man she was cheating with wants it back. With her bad attitude and personal problems, Misty has burned many bridges along the way. There's a chance she could be cast in a remake of "Dreamgirls" that would turn everything around for her, but Misty's brother, Jay (Daniel Kaluuya, in his first major screen role since 2022's "Nope"), was recently released from a mental facility and needs monitoring.

Though there are comedic moments along the way, "Misty Green" is very much a character study, as well as an unsparing examination of the systemic pressures on Black women in Hollywood

— one executive interrupts Misty's audition to ask if she is “mixed.” She does herself no favors, frequently self-sabotaging and getting in her own way.

"Being an actor is hard," Eleazar said in an interview [See 'Misty,' E3]

What she wishes she knew before her sister's killing

RONALDO BOLAÑOS Los Angeles Times

DENISE BROWN wrote a book about what she's learned since Nicole Brown Simpson died.

Nicole Brown Simpson wore a long-sleeved cover-up by the beach, despite the warm weather. "We kept telling her, 'C'mon, get in the water.' She wouldn't," Denise Brown recalls of a Hawaiian vacation with her sister, Nicole, and the rest of her family, including her brother-in-law, O.J. Simpson. "We didn't know it then, but he'd beaten the [hell] out of

BY WHITNEY

FRIEDLANDER

Painful memoir arrives decades after tears at trial of O.J. Simpson

BY LORRAINE ALI

Creators of new CBS comedy ‘Eternally Yours’ delve into the idea of forever love.

her the night before in the hotel room. We found out later, after she was killed, when we were reading her diaries."

The incident is one of many chronicled in Brown's new memoir, "For My Sister Nicole: Love Shouldn't Hurt." The book chronicles who Nicole was — from her happy SoCal childhood to meeting beloved celebrity and football star Simpson at the age of 18 (he was 30) to the physical [See Brown, E6]

Two vampires hitched for centuries? Expect hitches

It's not a particularly egregious throat clearing. It's not wet with phlegm from a bronchial infection, the kind that makes seatmates on the plane jump for the Purell. Nor is it loud and dry like that of a severely under-caffeinated customer who's annoyed that the barista is holding up the line to chat with a regular.

Honestly, most strangers probably wouldn't notice it at all. But what if you happen to be partnered with the person making the sound, stuck in a room with him for hours on end like your very livelihood depends on it? Well, then the sound of television writer Joe Wiseman clearing his throat over and over again might as well be Gilbert Gottfried's laugh scratching against a chalkboard. At least that's how Wiseman's writing partner, Joe Port, began to see it.

JOE PORT, left, and Joe Wiseman are also the showrunners for “Ghosts” on CBS.

Luckily, because Wiseman and Port are comedy writers, they used this annoyance for good. It became the basis for “Eternally Yours,” their new CBS comedy that premieres Thursday. (In addition to being co-creators, they co-showrun [See Vampires, E2]

EVA MARIE

SAINT,

1924 – 2026

A leading lady in classic 1950s dramas

One of the era's top film stars, she won an Oscar for her role in ‘On the Waterfront.’

BY VALERIE J. NELSON

Eva Marie Saint, a graceful actor best known for her Oscar-winning film debut in "On the Waterfront" and for her turn as a sultry spy in another 1950s film classic, "North by Northwest," died Tuesday. She was 102.

Saint died of natural causes at her home in Los Angeles.

Plucked from the Broadway stage by director Elia Kazan to portray Marlon Brando's love interest in 1954's "On the Waterfront," Saint emerged a star.

After Cary Grant dangled her from Mt. Rushmore in the Alfred Hitchcock thriller “North by Northwest,” she continued to appear opposite some of Hollywood’s biggest heartthrobs —including Paul Newman in "Exodus" (1960), Yves Montand in "Grand Prix" (1966) and Gregory Peck in "The Stalking Moon" (1968).

Groomed for stardom in the 1950s as a “luminous blond leading lady,” she found “few vehicles worthy of her talents,” film critic Leonard Maltin wrote in his “Movie Encyclopedia.”

But Saint gave another, more personal reason for her career trajectory.

[See Saint, E2]

RENOWNED

Saint appeared in

about 20 films.

star gets zany

Tony winner Laura Bernanti brings her solo comedy cabaret show “Nobody Cares” to SoCal. E3

'Days of Our Lives' actor dies

Robert Kelker-Kelly, 62, played rebellious heartthrob Bo Brady and also appeared on "General Hospital." E6

Comics ....E4-5

Puzzles ....E5

TICKETS ON SALE NOW

NewportBeachFilmFest.com

VISIT NEWPORT BEACH CALIFORNIA

CADILLAC

Citizens PRIVATE BANKS

UCI Health

theEnvelope Los Angeles Office

BERTRAND CALMEAU CBS

CHARLES (Ed Weeks) and Liz (Allegra Edwards) play a vampire couple in CBS' new show "Eternally Yours."

A love that just ... won't ... end

[Vampires, from E1]

and are executive producers.) Its premise is that a vampire couple maybe didn't think it through when they pledged to be together forever.

"This is totally ‘Twilight’ 500 years later," says Port with a laugh during a recent interview alongside Wiseman in the "Eternally Yours" writers room. He adds that, while some may see immortal love as the depths of romance, the idea "always seemed funny to us. What are the down-the-line implications of that?"

The show opens in 1526 Austria with the beautiful and bodiced Liz (Allegra Edwards) asking her vampire paramour Charles (Ed Weeks) to turn her into one too because “even your quirks I cannot get enough of.” But now, it’s modern-day Seattle. They’re still together. He is still prone to raspy itches in the back of his throat. And that’s just one of his many irksome peculiarities.

“Part of the push-pull between Liz and Charles is that Charles very much pines for the olden days, and it's a little old-fashioned,” says Wiseman, who would like it known both that he has acid reflux and that his wife, TV executive Jane Wiseman, is not bothered by his throat clearing.

He adds that the central point of conflict is Charles “wishes it was a few hundred years ago,” whereas Liz tries to be with the times, progressive and welcomes change.

Port compares them to Peter Boyle and Doris Roberts' bickering Frank and Marie on "Everybody Loves Raymond," except, he says "they've been married way longer and they look way younger."

Their coven has also grown in size over time. Other vampires now in their orbit include their adopted daughter Emma (Helen J. Shen), a veterinarian, and fitness bro Jesse (Parker Young). This is a family chosen by forces not always under their control who are mostly carrying out a mundane existence in peace until Emma's human boyfriend Max (Jaren Lewison) gets involved.

Wiseman and Port understand the confusion if, on paper, this show sounds like their other CBS comedy, “Ghosts.” That one’s about spirits from different eras who were forced to cohabitate mostly alone until a living human couple moved into their mansion. It was actually a draft of “Eternally Yours” that convinced CBS to let them adapt “Ghosts” from a U.K. format.

“‘Ghosts’ is, obviously, about a found family, and we do have a married couple at the center of it,” Port says. “But ‘Eternally Yours’ is sort of a hybrid of that.”

It was also a chance for the creators to develop their own take on vampire mythology. Their characters, they've decided, can go out in the daytime as long as it's under heavy fog and if they wear a certain kind of sunscreen. Male vampires can even procreate with human women: Jesse has two half-vampire sons with his living wife, Phyllis, played by Rose Abdoo. The kids age normally, can eat food and drink blood, and have inherited some of their dad's special powers. (All of this would be news to Phyllis because Jesse has the power to "wipe" her mind whenever questions arise. She thinks her husband, who was proteinmaxxing way before he was on an all-blood diet, is just aging really well.)

"When we started researching and looking at other books, TV shows and movies about vampires, none of them were consistent," Wiseman says. "Like probably the most consistent thing is they all have fangs."

Other vampire stories also dial up the lust and passion, which these creators acknowledge is hard to do on a CBS sitcom (even if "Ghosts" is full of innuendos). They also don't have set rules on what a vampire must look like.

"One thing I like about our show is that it establishes that maybe the vampires who were turned hundreds of years ago in Eastern Europe have that sort-of traditional vibe, but there's vampires being created now who look and sound like people from all over the world," Wiseman says. "Even with the older vampires, they're different ethnicities, diverse backgrounds."

Vampires are, according to legend, more known to inspire terror than laughs. Wiseman says the show has yet to specifically talk about Bram Stoker's bloodthirsty Count Dracula, but Port says the Halloween episode will discuss the coven's distaste for vampire stereotypes.

“They’re trying to be good vampires; they’re trying to not hurt people,” Wiseman says. His vampires’ sustenance comes from Steve (Steve Berg), a random guy they met on Craigslist who is totally cool with donating bags of his blood to strangers.

Wiseman says Charles probably misses the thrill of the hunt more than Liz, but “we want them to be likable. So if the idea of killing anyone ever came up, we would want them to do it in a way that’s [humane].”

The creators know their show will draw comparisons to FX's "What We Do in the Shadows," another, albeit much raunchier, vampire comedy — especially since both shows acknowledge other possibly supernatural creatures such as witches and werewolves.

"I love ‘Shadows.’ I wouldn't watch it with my 5-year-old, but I do show him episodes of ‘Eternally Yours,’" Port says, adding that "I think ours is much more about relationships and marriage and family. And I think there's room for people to like both of those shows."

They're also not immune to a “Ghosts” crossover episode, although there are some logistics to figure out. Both Edwards and Abdoo have appeared on that show as other characters and the whole point of “Ghosts” is that most of them can't leave that property. Port says they've decided that the two exist in the same world and that “ghosts can see vampires but vampires cannot see ghosts — otherwise we'd see ghosts all the time on ‘Eternally Yours.’”

But the cultural fandom for ghosts is not as intense as it is for vampires. Like “Eternally Yours” Liz, there are humans who romanticize this world. Are Wiseman and Port ready for that kind of fandom?

“I think if people are really into the show, that’s a problem we’re ready for and welcome,” Port says.

Here are five other vampire shows to sink your fangs into

'Vampire Academy'

(Peacock)

BY WHITNEY

FRIEDLANDER

"Eternally Yours" isn't the first TV comedy to take a bite out of vampire lore. To be fair, a genre that's given us everything from brooding, sparkling emo kids who play baseball; a stake-wielding teen slayer who can't quit the bad boy; and eccentric sidekicks who feast on bugs is ripe with material for mockery. Here are some more recent examples.

---

'Interview With the Vampire' (AMC+, Netflix)

Sure, the third season of the adaptation of Anne Rice's “The Vampire Chronicles” book series was about the vampire Lestat (Sam Reid) working through his Oedipus complex and abandonment issues under the guise of becoming a rock god. But series creator Rolin Jones and his staff also fully understood the absurdity of that sentence.

---

'Reginald the Vampire' (Hulu)

Based on Johnny B. Truant's "Fat Vampire" book series, this Syfy series brings to light the (some would say preposterous) idea that a vampire could look like an average human. Created by "Twin Peaks" veteran Harley Peyton, it also hits on an important, body-affirming message: Reginald, who was played by Jacob Batalon, wasn't super strong or super fast. But he was super smart.

While not intended to be a comedy, “The Vampire Diaries” co-creator Julie Plec’s other adaptation of a popular YA vampire series — this one was co-created by Marguerite MacIntyre and based on the Richelle Mead books — was just so ridiculously campy that it was hard to consider it true horror and fantasy. Set at a boarding school for vampires, it attempted to address classism in the species.

---

'Vampirina: Teenage Vampire' (Disney+)

Because you're never too young to start your vampire obsession, this Disney Channel live-action musical comedy stars Kenzi Richardson as middle-schooler Vampirina "Vee" Hauntley. The show grew out of the animated "Vampirina" TV series, which was geared toward younger kids.

---

'What We Do In the Shadows' (Hulu)

The superb owl of recent vampire comedies, this FX mockumentary about a group of vampires (and a long-suffering human) in Staten Island is based on Jemaine Clement and Taika Waititi's 2014 film of the same name and was a four-time Emmy nominee for comedy series. The New Zealand TV series “Wellington Paranormal” is also set in this universe and Clement has stated that he and Waititi are working on a werewolf-themed series.

JOSE HARO Peacock

LARRY HORRICKS AMC

"VAMPIRE Academy," top, is set at boarding school. "Interview With the Vampire" just finished Season 3.

Golden age film star made the leap to TV

[Saint, from E1]

“I was having children, I was turning things down and my agent said, ‘Eva Marie, you’ll never be a superstar’ and I said, ‘I don’t want to be a superstar,’ ” she often recounted.

When the movie roles faded — she made only about 20 films in more than 50 years — she found regular work on television beginning in the 1970s.

"As I got older, there weren't that many roles," she said matter-of-factly in a 1990 interview with The Times. "I segued into TV and am perfectly happy."

She had a recurring role as Cybill Shepherd's mother on the 1980s TV series "Moonlighting" and received an Emmy Award for playing a wealthy, self-centered woman who disowns her daughter in the 1990 miniseries "People Like Us."

More recently, she appeared in “Don’t Come Knocking” with Jessica Lange and Sam Shepard in 2005, the same year she made “Because of Winn-Dixie” with Jeff Daniels and Cicely Tyson. In 2006, she played the adoptive mother of the Man of Steel in “Superman Returns.” In 2014, she had a cameo in Akiva Goldsman's romantic fantasy "Winter's Tale."

Saint passed up many high-profile film roles to spend time with her family and work in TV.

Silver Screen Collection / Getty Images

ON HER OWN TERMS

Before coming to Hollywood in the 1950s, Saint acted in TV dramas, including portraying a young woman who befriends an elderly woman (Lillian Gish) in Horton Foote's “The Trip to Bountiful.”

When a theatrical version of "Bountiful" opened in 1953 on Broadway, both women had starring roles and developed a close friendship. After director Kazan saw Saint's stage performance, he cast her as Edie Doyle, Brando's tough girlfriend in "On the Waterfront."

Brando was the finest actor she ever worked with, Saint later said. She called him a “genius” and a “prince” who would put his jacket around her shoulders to protect her from the cold while they shot scenes on the waterfront in Hoboken, N.J.

“Working with him was really very interesting because little things would happen, and when he was saying his lines, it changed your reaction so it was always, always fresh,” she told NBC News in 2006.

Upon accepting her Oscar for supporting actress for the film, the nine-months-pregnant Saint kissed the statuette and joked, "I may have the baby right here."

Two days after the Academy Awards ceremony in 1955, Saint gave birth to a son, the first of her two children. Three years later, the actor started work on “North by Northwest” in a part she said she loved and often referred to as “the sexy spy lady.”

Hitchcock gave little direction to her as an actor, she said in a 2000 National Public Radio interview, except to say, “‘Lower your voice, don’t use your hands ... and look directly into Cary Grant’s eyes all the time,’ which was not difficult.”

The climactic Mt. Rushmore scene was filmed on a miniature version of the monument. When Saint slipped and hurt her arm, the Method actor said she decided to use the pain and can be seen rubbing her elbow in the film.

Only after Hitchcock had chosen her to portray the elegant spy Eve Kendall and called her “sexy, dangerous, mysterious and alluring,” did she believe it, she often said, even though her TV director husband had been telling her that for years.

Born July 4, 1924, in Newark, N.J., she grew up near Albany, N.Y., the younger of two daughters of John Merle Saint and the former Eva Marie Rice.

Her mother was a school-teacher and her Quaker father was an executive with the B.F. Goodrich Co. Her sister, Adelaide, became a research chemist.

At Bowling Green State University in Ohio, Saint switched from training to be a teacher to majoring in drama.

On a dare from a friend, she tried out for a role as a vivacious Hollywood star in a college play, a part so different from the painstakingly shy Saint that “I don’t even think the dean knew that was me up there,” she told the Richmond Times-Dispatch in 1996.

Hooked on acting, she began modeling and making commercials. Her first was for Keds sneakers.

After graduating from college in 1946, she lived with her family on Long Island in New York, appearing in commercials and acting in radio serials. Eventually, Saint found steady work on radio serials and television dramas. By 1948, she was taking classes at the Actors Studio in New York and met Jeffrey Hayden, who went on to have a lengthy career as a TV director. After they married in 1951, he counseled her to reach for more substantive roles, The Times reported in 1978.

"Her rare combination of fire and ice, youthful innocence and professional skill brought leads on 'Studio One,' 'Kraft Theatre' and the 'Philco-Goodyear Playhouse,' live TV dramas from the 1950s, according to the 1978 article.

As she raised her children in a sprawling ranch house in Mandeville Canyon, she was selective about the roles she took.

After her daughter and son grew up, Saint and her husband downsized to a stylish, art-laden condominium in Westwood in the mid-1970s.

The couple developed an enduring affection for the writing of Willa Cather when they were invited in 1990 to give a reading at the author's childhood home in Nebraska. From that evening, they came up with a show featuring Cather's work that they took on the road for decades.

“Family always came first,” she told Moving Pictures Magazine in 2006. When she was working out the deal to appear in “Exodus,” she told director Otto Preminger that she would not leave her two young children behind.

"I said to Otto, 'I'll have to bring my folks from Pennsylvania, and Jeff is coming and his mother,' and Otto said, 'Well, it looks like you'll have your own Exodus going.' "

Saint is survived by her children, Darrell and Laurette; four grandchildren, Eli, Tyler, Molly and Stella; and two great grandchildren, Arlo and Finley. Her husband died in 2016.

Review CHARLES McNULTY THEATER CRITIC

'Nobody Cares,' but you'll laugh all the same

BENANTI shows off her comic chops with a series of self-deprecating songs, monologues and sketches.

Tony-winning star Laura Benanti comes to Costa Mesa with a solo comedy cabaret.

Laura Benanti, one of today's musical comedy allstars, understands that human fallibility is at the root of genuine hilarity. In her autobiographical show, "Nobody Cares," which completed its four-day run at the Wallis on Sunday and now heads to South Coast Repertory for another four-day gig beginning Thursday, she does her clownish best to make herself look bad.

She spills some of her most shameful secrets, such as the time a guy proposed to her and rather than offend him she told him she couldn't accept because she had cancer. Years later, she searched for this ex on Instagram to confess her sin. Turns out, she came clean to a complete stranger who told her, "LOL, you're going to hell/ But sorry your name doesn't ring a bell."

This anecdote is delivered in song, which somehow makes the humiliation worse — and more savagely humorous. Benanti cowrote her show's original songs with multi-hyphenate playwright, songwriter and performer Todd Almond, who serves as music director. He also pinch-hits as her gay "straight-man," setting her up for punchlines that she delivers in the persona of a spotlight-hogging diva.

“Nobody Cares,” directed by Annie Tippe, takes some time to come into focus. It’s not a musical memoir in the manner of “Every-day Rapture,” the charmingly touching show Sherie Rene Scott wrote with Dick Scanlan that is overdue for a revival for its medley of “Mister Rogers” numbers alone.

Nor is it a traditional cabaret, where a singer reveals herself through songbook reinterpretations. (The songs here are an extension of her comic monologues and not designed for a long afterlife.)

Benanti spends much of her time making wisecracks at her own expense, but I wouldn't call it a stand-up act either. Joan Rivers would have loved her routine about the baggage of being a thrice-married, twice-divorced woman. But Benanti's comic gifts flourish in layered scenes and sharply drawn sketches. (The reason clips of her satirical impersonation of Melania Trump on "The Late Show With Stephen Colbert" went viral was because her deadpan portrayal was so cunningly exact.)

Based on the Audible Original version of the show, "Nobody Cares" is all of these things and none of them. You can call it a hybrid, but I think of it more as an amuse-bouche — tantalizing yet not to be confused with a full meal.

The songs, contemporary pop sprinkled with disco pixie dust, are of a piece with the tone of Benanti's self-skewering comedy. There's a number about perimenopause and another about motherhood called "Mama's a Liar" that's both funny and sneakily touching.

I longed, however, for a little more emotional depth from the music. Benanti jokingly apologizes to any audience members who were expecting selections from "My Fair Lady," one of her lauded Broadway outings. I wouldn't have minded a song or two from her Tony-winning turn in "Gypsy" starring Patti LuPone. But the real issue is that the new musical material doesn't bring out the best of her Broadway talent.

Dressed in a pink satin suit, she sometimes resembles an off-duty Rockette whose legs are staging a mutiny. She crouches, she 'Laura Benanti: Nobody Cares'

Reviewed at the Wallis, Oct. 2

Where: South Coast Repertory, 655 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa

When: 7:30 p.m. Thursday-Sunday, 2 p.m. Saturday-Sunday

Tickets: \$66-\$135

Contact: (714) 708-5555 or scr.org

Running time: 1 hour, 5 minutes

splays, she jiggles her bum to prove what a desperate people-pleaser she used to be. Thankfully, she never risks a pratfall as dangerous as the one that left her with a broken neck when playing Cinderella in a Broadway revival of “Into the Woods.” But she describes in squirming detail the lengths she once went to for approval.

Even when letting one of her creepy old boyfriends have it, Benanti can't resist socking it to herself: He winds up dumping her. Yet her determined self-deprecation only makes us love her more.

“Nobody Cares” tracks the stumbling journey of a musical comedy dervish belatedly coming into her own power as a woman and as a performer. It’s more of a vehicle than a fully developed solo work. Yet how could anyone object to spending 65 minutes with a zany Broadway star who has learned to turn her shame into shared laughter?

'Misty' star was talk of Toronto

['Misty,' from E1] at The Times' photo and video studio in Toronto with a sense of well-earned candor. "I could totally relate to Misty's journey and the setbacks and the constant picking yourself back up after multiple rejections and just going again. And trying not to have armor because as an actor you want to keep yourself open and you don't want to harden too much. But it can be easy to harden yourself to an industry that can be unforgiving."

Though “Misty Green” is Eleazar’s first lead in a film, she has had a steadily building career. She is probably most familiar to American audiences from her role as an MI5 agent on the Apple TV series “Slow Horses.” But soon she will likely be known for the explosive announcement that is “Misty Green.” The film went on to play at the New York Film Festival, to be followed by the London Film Festival and a release Friday by distributor A24.

After her movie's TIFF world premiere in a coveted Saturday night slot at Roy Thompson Hall, Eleazar was included among those celebrated at the annual TIFF Tribute Awards, a fundraising gala put on by the festival. She was recognized alongside such actors as Helen Mirren, Penélope Cruz and Isabelle Huppert, whom she called “extraordinary company.”

"I grew up watching them and admired their work," El-eazar says earlier in the day. "It's just such an honor to be considered amongst heavy-weights like that. Dame Helen Mirren. Crikey."

With a warm smile she adds, “Just went very British.”

In accepting the prize, Eleazar recalled how when she came to Toronto for the premiere of her first feature film, 2019's "The Personal History of David Copperfield," she stepped away from a party to call her mother at 4 a.m. London time. Not wanting to make that same mistake again, she made sure her mother was there with her in Toronto for this year's Sunday gala, sitting at a table with Eleazar's husband, the actor and producer Gabriele Lo Giudice.

JASON ARMOND Los Angeles Times

“IT CAN be easy to harden yourself to an industry that can be unforgiving,” says Rosalind Eleazar of her starring role in “Misty Green.”

Eleazar performs two songs in the film, a heart-breakingly vulnerable cabaret version of Radiohead's "Creep" and a stripped-down, tender reading of "One Night Only" from "Dreamgirls." (Eleazar does not consider herself a singer and took vocal lessons before shooting.) Then, in a scene in which Misty demands she be allowed to finish an audition, she flashes into someone else in a bit of pure craft that leaves those in the room astonished.

It was important that Misty be seen as someone who is in fact immensely talented, who may even be worth all the bother and strife that she brings along with her.

"I think we've seen movies before where the character isn't talented and it's about the hustle and the dream of making it in Hollywood," says Eleazar. "But I think it's really interesting seeing someone that cannot get out of their own way — someone that is railing against the industry and is fighting Hollywood, fighting herself, fighting the people around her. It becomes quite a universal subject. It is about our industry but it's also just about someone who is trying to escape herself."

Despite Misty's obvious talents, acting simply may not be the best career for her anymore; it strains her emotional and mental health and enables her substance abuse. Over the course of her own career, Eleazar has at times had to check in with herself to make sure she was heading down the right path.

"There are definitely times that I've questioned it," she says. "For me it does really feed my soul and therefore, at my low points, I've managed better. But it can be really heavy. And maybe I shouldn't but I feel like I'm pretty happy being an actor."

To land the role, after a few meetings with Rock over Zoom, Eleazar flew herself from London to Los Angeles so she could read in the room. As it happened, it made for an intense few days: First she had a chemistry read with Ralph Fiennes in the U.K. for a stage role (she would appear opposite Fiennes in “Small Hotel” in 2025) and then immediately flew to L.A. to read with Rock.

“What a mad, amazing three days,” she recalls. Similarly, Eleazar would be ending her whirlwind few days in Toronto by heading to Los Angeles to be with the “Slow Horses” team for the Emmys.

In introducing her tribute in Toronto, Rock recalled when Eleazar auditioned for the part.

"The room just changed," he said. "She was funny, she was dangerous, she was moving and completely in command. Misty Green is a woman whose life is coming apart. Rosalind never played her as a victim. She made you see the intelligence, the appetite and the fight underneath all the chaos. The audition was supposed to help me decide who to play Misty, but halfway through, the decision had already been made."

There is something poetic about the fact that playing a mid-career actor struggling to land her next job may be the very thing that brings Eleazar wider recognition.

"It's kind of meta, isn't it?" she says with a laugh. "Look, I'm so happy that people are responding to the film and my performance. That really is the cherry on top because for me — I know it sounds rather cheesy — but I literally felt like I won once I did that film. I had such a great time exploring who she was and working with Chris and Daniel and Adam [Driver] and that cast. So everything else is just so lovely."

In accepting her own tribute award in Toronto, Helen Mirren went off-script from her prepared remarks to say how moved she had been by Eleazar's earlier speech, adding, "It's exciting to see the generations coming up, especially women."

As Rock succinctly added in his speech, “Misty Green wishes she could be Rosalind Eleazar.”

Regardless of what happens with “Misty Green” commercially or throughout awards season, Eleazar will continue tending her steady climb.

Production will begin soon on Season 7 of “Slow Horses” and Eleazar is currently shooting a film role that she isn’t yet allowed to talk about.

But Misty and the experience of bringing her to life on the screen will remain transformative.

"It almost reminded me of like a Shakespearean character in a way," Eleazar says. "She's so self-destructive and flawed and contradictory and at times it's hard to get onside with her. We see it a lot of the time with male roles and I'd love to see it more with female roles — these really complex and messy characters."

DIRECTOR and writer Chris Rock in a scene from the film opposite Eleazar.

A24

LA CUCARACHA By Lalo Alcaraz

CRABGRASS By Tauhid Bondia

---

COMICS

1. 2014年1月1日

BABY BLUES By Jerry Scott & Rick Kirkman

CURTIS By Ray Billingsley

PICKLES By Brian Crane

CRANKSHAFT By Tom Batiuk & Chuck Ayers

© 2028 Mediographics, Inc. Dist. by Andrews McMeel Syndication

LOOSE PARTS By Dave Blazek

JUMP START By Robb Armstrong

PEARLS BEFORE SWINE By Stephan Pastis

MACANUDO By Liniers

10/8 ©2026 Stephan Pass/Dist by Andrew McMeel Syndication

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

BIZARRO By Wayno and Piraro

SIX CHIX By Mary Lawton

DRABBLE By Kevin Fagan

FRAZZ By Jef Mallett

MUTTS By Patrick McDonnell

NON SEQUITUR By Wiley

wileyink@earthlink.net; GoComics.com

PEANUTS By Charles M. Schulz

---

SUDOKU

©2026 The Mepham Group. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency. All rights reserved. Solutions to Wednesday'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

---

HOROSCOPE

By Holiday Mathis

Aries (March 21-April 19). These days the countless artistic choices that go into packaging are often an accurate indication of what's inside. So go ahead and judge a book by its cover.

Taurus (April 20-May 20). If there was a lesson in something bad, assume you already learned it — no need to keep processing.

Gemini (May 21-June 21). Decide who to trust by noting how they show up over time.

Cancer (June 22-July 22). People choose their words and angle toward their best light. Tune into the intent behind the words.

Leo (July 23-Aug. 22). What seems like a bad mood is actually just stuck energy. Locate the tension and release the bind so joy can circulate once more.

Virgo (Aug. 23-Sept. 22). A lot of mundane maintenance comes with just existing. Embrace the challenges in cooking, cleaning, fitness, or finance. Then today will be a blast.

COMICS

Libra (Sept. 23-Oct. 23). A lucky change of circumstance calls for a fun rewrite of your plans.

Scorpio (Oct. 24-Nov. 21). The challenge ahead will feel stimulating and manageable — enough to wake you up without overwhelming you.

Sagittarius (Nov. 22-Dec. 21). Though the truth happens to be an uncomfortable one, it's time to either share it or distance yourself from this scene.

Capricorn (Dec. 22-Jan. 19). Someone falls outside the borders of your responsibility, yet their welfare matters to you. You'll step in because your conscience has a wider jurisdiction than any job description. What you give changes their path and strengthens your own.

Aquarius (Jan. 20-Feb.

18). You used to think about the day you would finally win in a particular situation. Today its level of importance to you? Zero.

Pisces (Feb. 19-March 20). You give love as you feel it. But you also give love in acts of care.

Today's birthday (Oct. 8). In your Year of the Healing Touch, you've a nearly miraculous gift for restoring both physical and emotional vitality. People (including you) feel better because of your work and presence — remarkably so. Your profound impact will be celebrated and rewarded. More highlights: Collaborations with unique results, temporary access to different lifestyles, two items checked off the bucket list. Capricorn and Pisces adore you. Lucky numbers: 3, 1, 19, 24 and 6.

Mathis writes her column for Creators Syndicate Inc. The horoscope should be read for entertainment.

---

BRIDGE

BY FRANK STEWART

Declarer's task at today's four spades seems insurmountable: He has three diamonds and a trump to lose. A diamond opening lead would let the defense prevail, but West isn't up to leading the king from K-9; he leads a low heart.

In my club's penny game, South took the ace of hearts and cashed the A-K of trumps.

East discarded, so South went down one. Could he surmount his problem?

South can compress his four losers into three. He must ruff a heart at Trick Two, then cash the top trumps. When East shows out, declarer takes the A-K of clubs, ruffs a club in dummy, ruffs a heart and

---

ASKING ERIC

Dear Eric: I have been in central Florida for more than 26 years, and it has become unbearable to me. There's the brutal heat; the skin destroying UV-rays of that miserable, scorching, eye-blinding sun; the constant allergy/sinusitis issues that never let up; the smothering humidity. The sun is here all year.

If you dare to venture out for a walk during the day, you have to wear long sleeves, long pants, a big, brimmed sunhat, a face full of sunscreen and carry a sun umbrella. This is paradise?

It's impossible to talk about it to my husband of 51 years; he is always cold, puts the A/C at 80 degrees in the house, and walks around with a sweatshirt or flannel shirt on.

I have a 12-year-old rescue dog, a big black German shepherd. I have limited income and want to move much further north, but I don't want to jeopardize the stable home I can give her here.

I am at the point that I dread waking up every morning. I could leave my husband, but I cannot leave this vulnerable, loyal, loving creature that is by my side 24/7.

Because of my limited income, it would be rough finding a place that is safe and secure for me and my dog.

I'm basically a very friendly, outgoing person, leads his last club.

West can't gain by ruffing with his high trump — dummy would pitch a diamond — so West discards, and dummy ruffs. South has won nine tricks. He ruffs dummy's last heart, winning his 10th trick when West must follow. The defenders' trump trick and diamond tricks clash on the last three tricks.

You hold: ♠ 5 ♥ K 9 5 ♦ A Q 6 4 2 ♣ Q 9 8 5. The dealer, at your left, opens one spade. Two passes follow. What do you say?

Answer: You must not sell out to one spade; your side may have a makeable partscore or game. Double. A few players would double one spade in the direct position, but in the “balancing” position, to double is clear. Partner must realize that

and living here is like being under house arrest. What should I do to preserve my health and sanity until such time that I can get a car and drive out of this place?

Too Hot

Dear Hot: It may help to attack this issue in pieces.

First, some immediate relief: Is there a friend or relative who lives in a cooler place and would let you and your dog visit for a week or more? This wouldn't require you to leave your marriage and could turn the heat down on the problem for a moment.

Consider talking to your husband about whether he actually likes Florida or just likes warm weather. If it's the latter, there might be other places that suit you both better.

Lastly, if you do decide you need to make a permanent move, look seriously at your finances and perhaps enlist friends or relatives to help you find a suitable place to live in a cooler climate.

Without knowing what your income is or what your living situation is in Florida, I can't say for sure that there are similar places in other parts of the country for you and your dog, but it's true that people of all income levels afford lives with pets in every state.

With some creative thinking, it is possible to find a new home.

you may have stretched to act to prevent the opponents from buying the contract cheaply.

South dealer

Both sides vulnerable

NORTH

♠ 8 7 6 2

♥ A J 8 3

♦ 8 7 3

♣ 7 4

WEST

♠ Q J 4

♥ Q 10 7 4 2

♦ K 9

♣ J 3 2

EAST

♠ 5

♥ K 9 5

♦ A Q 6 4 2

♣ Q 9 8 5

SOUTH

♠ A K 10 9 3

♥ 6

♦ J 10 5

♣ A K 10 6

SOUTH WEST NORTH EAST

1♠ Pass 2♠ Pass

4♠ All Pass

Opening lead – ♥ 4

Tribune Content Agency

Dear Eric: I am writing in reference to the letter by "Mourning Mom," whose son said he wouldn't honor her burial wishes.

A possible solution to her problem could be a prepaid funeral. If she has a funeral service provider, she can set up a contract and prepay for her funeral. These contracts allow you to stipulate your preferences as to cremation or another type of service.

As to the cremation, you can decide if you want a “direct to cremation.” This means your remains are collected from the hospital and taken directly to the crematorium. There is no embalming or casket.

Or, you can also choose to have an open casket for visitation and viewing with cremation following the service. In this instance you can rent a casket for the viewing.

You pay up front and the money is invested by the mortuary. If there is any money left over it is turned over to the estate. This could avoid problems with the location of a will in time so that your wishes would be carried out.

I'M ALL SET

Dear All Set: This is very comprehensive and quite helpful. A great option for the letter writer and, I'm sure, other readers as well.

Email questions to eric@askingeric.com.

---

CROSSWORD

Edited By Patti Varol

By Rebecca Goldstein

ACROSS

ACROSS

1 Hydrocortisone target

5 Glissade garb

9 "Wanna hear a secret?"

13 Animated blue tang of film

14 Heavy burden

15 Behind schedule

16 Christ the Redeemer veneer material

18 Gets lawyers involved

19 Sound heard around a crib

20 Places that are all fun and games

22 Verbal finger wag

24 Hoppy brew with a low ABV

27 Cut with an axe

28 Tree in the name of a Bay Area city

29 Palindromic family member

30 Line of symmetry

32 Palindromic family member

34 Part of a routine

37 "Why must you overcomplicate everything?," or what can be said about 16-, 24-, 49-, and 58-Across

41 Perceived

42 Instrument in a "Baker Street" riff

43 Body image?

44 Brain scan letters

46 Spider's spinning

48 5G predecessor

49 Contents of a cheese pull, often

53 "You know it!"

54 Surf shop?

55 "Well, whaddaya know!"

57 \_Whip: frozen pineapple treat

58 Genre originally known as the West Coast sound

63 College town in Iowa

64 Figs. that may be delayed by weather

65 Territory "where America's day begins"

66 Lean to one side

67 Glum

68 Blows it

DOWN

1 Cards at a casino?

2 Also

© 2026 Tribune Content Agency

3 Act the class clown

4 Prefix with -dermic or -thermic

5 Little one

6 Spanish one

7 Bluefin, yellowfin, and blackfin

8 Password preceder

9 Texting etiquette?

10 Riyadh resident

11 Pricey

12 Thompson of "Hedda"

17 Not great, not terrible

21 Take the path of least resistance, say

22 Pad see ew cuisine

23 Suggestive messages

25 Only cardinal direction not in a state name

26 Funny sketches

31 Most susceptible to collecting dust?

33 Prayer \_

35 Four or five, maybe

36 Ramble on

38 Lakers legend Shaquille

39 Rink leap

40 Lends color

45 Lost colour

47 22-Down currency

49 Wearable prize

50 Some indigenous Mexicans

51 Diamond chain

52 Muse of poetry

56 Spur to action

59 Murder-ous cry

60 Sales channel

61 Vehicle that may be self-driving

62 Tour de France distances, informally

FAMILY CIRCUS By Bil Keane

"I hope Mommy stops us before we get hurt."

FREE RANGE By Bill Whitehead

DENNIS THE MENACE By Hank Ketcham

BLISS By Harry Bliss

"You're the reason I never know if I'm a good cook."

"MAYBE IF YOU TAKE OUT MY SWEET TOOTH...

I WON'T GET ANY MORE CAVITIES."

MARMADUKE By Brad & Paul Anderson

"Wow! We're HUGE!"

SPEED BUMP By Dave Coverly

What she wishes she knew before sister's death

DENISE BROWN details years of hidden domestic abuse during Nicole Brown Simpson's marriage to athlete.

RONALDO BOLAÑOS Los Angeles Times

Blackstone Publishing

[Brown, from E1] and mental abuse she suffered over seven years of marriage. Brown also reveals the troubling incidents she witnessed behind the scenes, and pairs them with the knowledge she has now of what could have been done to help.

Nicole and her friend Ronald L. Goldman were murdered outside her Los Angeles home in Brentwood in June 1994. The brutal homicides set off a media frenzy, and overnight, Brown became the voice for her slain sister.

Images of an angry and sobbing Brown became the media's hallmark of grief during the criminal trial, particularly when Simpson was acquitted in 1995. He was found guilty in a subsequent civil trial, yet still awarded custody of the divorced couple's two children.

Now, 69, with sleek silver hair and a voice raspy from the many speaking engagements tied to her advocacy work, Brown has devoted her life to raising awareness about domestic violence. "It's too late for Nicole," says the former model who moved from her native Southern California to Florida decades ago. "I want this book to help others avoid what happened to her."

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

We're meeting today in downtown L.A., very close to the courtroom where the trial happened, and to the former LAPD headquarters Parker Center where Simpson was booked after Nicole's death. Is it difficult being here? Should we have done this somewhere else?

No. This is where it all happened, so it's OK for me to be here to talk about [the book]. It should start here. And I'm glad it's with the L.A. Times because Nicole was here in Los Angeles, as was all the chaos. Everything started here.

LOVE SHOULDN'T HURT

What to Know About Domestic Violence

It's been 32 years since your sister's murder, yet this is the first book you've written about what happened.

I had a [previous] book deal, but I wasn't ready.

It was really hard going back because you think about all the things that should have been, that could have been, that she missed out on, especially with her kids. And everything was so public. It was so out in the open, with everybody looking at you. If you were too happy and laughing, it was, "Oh God, she doesn't even know how to grieve." If you're crying, it's, "My God, can't she just get over it?"

Aside from raising awareness about domestic abuse issues, you hadn't spoken much about your sister's life or murder until the 2024 Lifetime docuseries, "The Life & Murder of Nicole Brown Simpson." It was the first production

---