Los Angeles Times - 13.10.2026 — 2026-10-13

Los Angeles Times

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TUESDAY, OCTOBER 13, 2026

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CHRISTINA HOUSE Los Angeles Times

ROUND AND ROUND IT WILL GO

Plans are underway to make the 100-year-old Griffith Park carousel operational again. Theme park designers will participate in the effort, which could take years and cost millions of dollars. CALIFORNIA, B1

Democrat won't 'be silenced' by search of home

Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota is targeted by federal agents just weeks from election.

BY ERIC TUCKER AND ALANNA DURKIN RICHER

WASHINGTON — Federal agents on Monday searched the home of Democratic U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar, a startling escalation in a criminal investigation that brings renewed scrutiny to the frequent target of Trump administration derision in the final weeks of her reelection bid.

In a statement on X on Monday, Omar called the search an “attempt to target political enemies and weaponize federal law enforcement.”

“For ten years, Trump has targeted me with baseless lies and smear campaigns. This is just the latest escalation in his campaign of political intimidation,” she said. “I will not be silenced.”

The search of the Minnesota congresswoman's home so close to next month's midterm contests that will determine control of the House and the Senate was swiftly condemned by top Democrats in Congress and raised questions about the timing given longstanding Justice Department protocol to avoid overt investigative steps involving political candidates in the direct run-up to an election.

“For years, Donald Trump and far-right extremists have relentlessly targeted Congresswoman Omar with vile personal attacks and baseless accusations,” said a joint statement issued from House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and other top congressional Democrats. “Now, less than 30 days until the midterm election, his violent mass deportation machine has descended upon the home of a duly elected Member of Congress and her family.”

The Justice Department confirmed in a statement that Homeland Security Investigations agents executed a judicially authorized search warrant in the Washington area in connection with an ongoing federal criminal investigation but provided no other details.

The nature and scope of the investigation were unclear, though officials in Trump's administration have repeatedly hinted at the existence of an inquiry targeting Omar, a Somali-born Democrat whose left-[See Omar, A6]

Record Pacific hurricane activity is battering state

Systems reshaping coast as more havoc is expected

BY HANNAH FRY

A season of tropical storms and hurricanes with record-breaking energy in the Pacific Ocean is battering the Southern California coastline.

Researchers at Colorado State University confirmed Monday that storms this summer have generated a higher level of accumulated cyclone energy than ever recorded, surpassing the prior seasonal record set in 2018. The metric is a measure of the total wind energy, intensity and duration of tropical storms and hurricanes.

"It's been a wild season," said Daniel Cayan, a climate researcher at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego, noting that parts of Southern California's coast already have experienced significant damage ahead of any winter storms in store for the region amid the strongest El Niño on record.

The historic Long Beach boardwalk buckled after a barrage of storms over the last month. As Tropical Storm Rachel approached the coast over the weekend, powerful waves slammed into oceanfront homes, leaving some on the verge of collapse.

In Newport Beach, water from a massive swell — double the size that was initially predicted — blasted through 20-foot berms erected at the beach and inundated roads with about a foot of seawater ahead of Rachel's arrival.

Elsewhere along the coast, the continuous battering from higher-than-normal ocean levels and strong waves this summer has washed away sand, profoundly altering the Wedge in Newport Beach, as well as beaches in San Onofre, Laguna Beach and San Clemente. The coastal damage has been so significant that Orange County declared an emergency last month.

The exceptionally active hurricane season in the Pa-[See Storms, A14]

Today's exotic catch courtesy of El Niño

Wahoos? Devil rays? Some weird creatures spotted off SoCal coast

BY FEDOR ZARKHIN

GARY CORONADO For The Times

DECKHAND Eric Munoz tags bullet tuna for visitors on the Dana Pride. It's a rare fish in these waters.

Captain Brandon Erdo steered the 95-foot Dana Pride up to a patch of water that looked promising miles off the Orange County coast on a Wednesday morning.

The boat was near capacity — 37 of 40 available angler spots were taken. And, after hearing on social media about the great fishing to be had with the super El Niño, they wanted in on the action.

“Get a little bait going here, Eric,” Erdo said over the loudspeaker, as a deck-hand hopped onto a tank of anchovies, scooped them and hurled them overboard, raining tiny translucent scales onto the deck and anglers’ backs.

“First fish!” shouted veteran angler Chuck Freeman, reeling in an approximately 2-foot-long shimmering bullet tuna — his first time catching one in 47 years of fishing the Pacific.

Minutes later, he pulled in another and tossed it with the others, their tails swapping the deck, painting it red with blood.

According to scientists, the super El Niño conditions [See Catch, A14]

San Diego is considering using AI to help officers write police reports

BY LIBOR JANY

AND JAKOB McWhinney

Earlier this year, the San Diego Police Department made headlines for a policy that prohibited officers from using artificial intelligence to produce police reports. Now the department is opening the door to doing just that.

A request for information issued by the department on July 31 said it was looking for a program “that utilizes AI technology to assist officers and investigators in writing police reports."

"The goal of this initiative is to enhance efficiency in report writing, thereby allowing officers to respond more quickly to calls for service," the request for information read.

It noted that the program must allow users to maintain control over the “content and structure of their reports.” It also said the request was issued “solely for information gathering and planning purposes.” The document estimated the contract value to be somewhere between \$500,000 and \$3 million.

In an email, San Diego police spokesperson Ashley Nicholes emphasized that the department was in an “exploration phase” to learn what technology is available and what the best practices are. Should it choose to pursue AI-assisted police report programs, the department would conduct outreach to elected officials and community members, she said.

“SDPD is constantly looking at ways to maximize efficiency throughout the department, particularly [See Reports, A6]

Saudis facing grim choice as attacks escalate

Houthis' strikes upend ambitious plans to make the kingdom a business powerhouse.

By NABIH BULOS

BEIRUT — This wasn't the way the story was supposed to go for Saudi Arabia. In recent years, headlines about the country focused on the scale of its ambition, or the fantastical giga-projects girding Vision 2030, the full-steam-ahead drive to remake the kingdom into a business and entertainment powerhouse.

But all that was upended Saturday, when a Houthi missile lanced through Terminal 3 of the capital's international airport, killing 13 people, including a U.S. national, and wounding more than 300 others.

The attack — the deadliest Saudi Arabia has endured in years — made real a war that for most Saudis had remained notional.

It also laid bare the bevy of bad scenarios facing Saudi leaders as they contend with an increasingly formidable enemy that, unlike them, has little to lose.

That the Houthis are able to score hits from 500 miles away, despite the Saudi military spending tens of billions of dollars on multilayered air defense systems, has puzzled experts.

"To me it's shocking. Yes, the Houthis have gotten better, but it's not a matter of them using a new weapons system," said Wolf-Christian Paes, an associate fellow at the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies.

"The problem must be on the Saudi side," Paes said. "Something must have gone horribly wrong and continues to go horribly wrong."

Videos on social media Saturday showed passengers trudging slowly in a security line before the missile hit, sending them sprinting through the smoke-filled terminal, pieces of debris raining around them.

Although Riyadh's King Khalid International Airport was shuttered after the attack — more than 99% of flights were canceled, according to the aviation analytics firm Cirium — the [See Saudi Arabia, A3]

Awards shows look to streaming for new red carpet

BY STEPHEN BATTAGLIO

For decades, awards shows were the most glamorous events on television.

Annual events such as the Oscars and the Emmys gave viewers a front-row seat to their favorite stars in designer clothes, while music award shows featured the hottest artists performing live.

But in recent years, the shows have become money losers and the network TV business — faced with a decline in viewers that is squeezing profits — is cutting them loose.

The latest evidence of that surfaced last week when the TV Academy announced a six-year deal with Amazon Prime Video.

Amazon will be the home of the Emmy Awards next year, ending more than seven decades of the ceremony airing on broadcast networks. The Oscars are headed to YouTube in 2029, as ABC passed on renewing its rights deal, ending a relationship that dates to 1961, interrupted only by a five-year return to NBC in the 1970s.

They join the other trophy shows that have headed to streaming platforms in recent years. The Actor Awards (formerly known as the Screen Actors Guild Awards) moved to Netflix in 2024, after a test run on the streamer's YouTube channel the year before, after more than two decades on TNT and TBS, while the Academy of Country Music Awards show has been on Prime Video since 2022, having ended its run on CBS.

The reasons behind the shift to streaming are clear. The shows no longer deliver the ratings necessary to at-[See Streaming, A10]

ROBERT GAUTHIER Los Angeles Times

DODGERS DOWN 2-0

After a surprisingly short outing by Yoshinobu Yamamoto, above, L.A. lost to the Brewers 7-4 in Game 2 of the NLCS in Milwaukee. SPORTS, D1

Port of L.A. posts a record The facility moves more cargo during September than in any month in its history. BUSINESS, A9

Weather

Mostly sunny.

L.A. Basin: 76/57. B5

Markets ....A11

Opinion Voices ....A12

Trump's golf project halted

An angry federal judge ordered a stop to tree-cutting at historic D.C. course. NATION, A4

For the latest news, go to latimes.com.

THE WORLD

Kremlin relishes U.S. diesel deal, dig at Zelensky

A UKRAINIAN policeman photographs part of a drone near a Kyiv residential building damaged in a strike.

Meanwhile, Ukraine's leader says Russia is hitting power facilities despite Trump's claim of an ‘energy truce.’

ASSOCIATED PRESS

KYTV, Ukraine — A deal between Moscow and Washington over exports of Russian diesel and fresh U.S. criticism of Ukraine's leader mark important political victories for the Kremlin, reversing some of the sanctions for its full-scale invasion of its neighbor.

Although the size of Russia's diesel exports is relatively small and unlikely to significantly affect prices, the revenue will help Moscow replenish its war coffers and — more important — undermine efforts by Kyiv and its European allies to put up a united front against President Vladimir Putin.

Along with President Trump suggesting that Ukraine should get a new leader to replace President Volodymyr Zelensky, the developments strengthen the Kremlin's hand at a critical junction of the war, amid relentless attacks by Russia on energy systems and other vital infrastructure.

Ahead of next month's midterm elections, Trump blamed a spike in diesel prices on Ukrainian attacks on Russian refineries, even though the U.S.-led war in Iran has sent global energy prices soaring.

Mark Galeotti, a Russia expert who heads the Mayak Intelligence consultancy, described the deal that Trump announced Friday as an “astonishing birthday present” for Putin, two days after he turned 74.

Although Russia's diesel exports could be a “drop in the ocean compared with actual overall demand,” Galeotti said it was “a gift for Putin, even if a single barrel of diesel is not exported.”

That's because “it drives another and increasingly thick wedge between Trump and Zelensky,” he said in a podcast Sunday.

Even though Trump declared Sunday that Moscow and Kyiv had agreed to an “energy truce” effective immediately, Russia continued attacking Ukraine’s energy facilities, said Zelensky, who has criticized the diesel deal as a show of weakness.

Galeotti predicted that Putin is unlikely to halt attacks on Ukraine's energy facilities, which he sees as “absolutely central to his winter air war strategy.”

Russia stepped up aerial attacks on Ukraine in recent months with ballistic missiles and new jet-powered drones, taking advantage of Kyiv's shortage of U.S.-made Patriot interceptors whose stockpiles have been drained by the war in Iran.

Putin has repeatedly emphasized that Moscow wants a comprehensive, long-term agreement, not a temporary halt to hostilities.

Asked to comment on Zelensky's statement that Ukraine needs a minimum of 60 days to prepare elections, Peskov said Putin could order a ceasefire only on the day of voting.

Zelensky emphasized that he is open to an energy ceasefire if it includes a halt to Russian attacks on Ukraine's power grid.

In recent months, Ukraine launched successful aerial attacks that knocked out over half of Russia's oil refining capacity, according to the Ukrainian Defense Ministry. The strikes caused a severe fuel crisis with long lines at gas stations, bringing the war home to millions.

Ukraine also methodically struck oil terminals at the Russian Black Sea port of Novorossiysk and targeted dozens of tankers at sea, seeking to derail Moscow's oil exports and drain Moscow's revenues.

Putin acknowledged the damage but noted that Moscow is capable of inflicting much bigger blows to Ukraine.

Russia has not said whether it agrees to such a ceasefire, and Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Monday only that “contacts are ongoing.”

Some officials and analysts questioned whether Russia will be able to provide diesel supplies under the deal announced by Trump.

Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski voiced doubts about it, saying that even the Russian capital is experiencing fuel shortages.

"I don't think he deserves a respite," Lavrov said.

Others say Moscow actually has a surplus of diesel, now that demand has eased following the end of the harvest season.

“Russia planned to export more diesel anyway,” said Janis Kluge, head of the Eastern Europe and Eurasia Division at the German Institute for International and

"I don't think that's very good, because you can see what's going on at gas stations — people are standing in line around the clock," said Marat Salavatov, waiting to refuel in Moscow.

Security Affairs.

Still, some Russian motorists exhausted by months of waiting at gas stations were worried the new deal could leave fewer supplies for the domestic market.

Russian officials sought to quell such fears, saying there will be enough supply to keep the domestic market stable.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov shrugged off Zelensky's comments as an attempt "to promote his interest in a ceasefire."

The volume of production is able “to fully satisfy the needs of the local market while delivering the agreed amounts to the global market,” Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak said in a government statement announcing the lifting of the diesel export ban that had been in place since July.

Trump's remark that it was time for a new president in Ukraine and his suggestion that Zelensky has not done enough to end the war topped the news on Russian state television and was widely discussed by pro-Kremlin commentators and military bloggers.

In addition to the diesel deal, Trump unleashed biting criticism of Zelensky that marks perhaps the lowest point in their relationship since the disastrous Oval Office meeting in February 2025.

Officials in Kyiv viewed the diesel deal and the hostile rhetoric as a political move aimed at making Zelensky a scapegoat for U.S. voters ahead of the midterms, said Oleksandr Merezhko, a lawmaker from Zelensky's party.

That could be even more important for the Kremlin.

“We are not happy when our ally and partner gives money to a dictator who is killing us,” Merezhko said. “By demanding that Ukraine stop striking Russian oil refineries, Trump looks as though he cares more about the Russian war machine than about the civilians Putin is killing.”

Kyiv fears that easing sanctions without meaningful concessions from Russia could weaken Washington's leverage over the Kremlin and further diminish prospects for fair terms to end the war.

The Trump-Zelensky tensions come as Kyiv continues to rely heavily on Washington for military assistance, including Patriot systems and vital intelligence. A disruption of that support could leave Ukraine more vulnerable.

Galeotti said Trump's comments casting Zelensky as an obstacle to peace were "benefit No. 1 for Putin."

Trump's move also raises questions about the European Union's efforts to go after Russia's so-called shadow fleet of tankers carrying oil to global markets, he said, observing that Europe has been left in a position "where it's obviously just regarded as a vassal region that has to accept whatever policy comes from the White House."

The diesel deal also will boost Russia's credentials with developing countries, helping its posture as a great global player worthy of being a partner, Galeotti said.

Tatiana Stanovaya of the Carnegie Russia and Eurasia Center said the move could look like a “moment of triumph” for Putin.

“He has secured an economic deal, albeit a modest one, before a peace settlement, departing from Washington’s previous position,” Stanovaya said in a commentary.

She argued that Putin will see Trump's current stance as "creating more favorable conditions for intensifying military pressure, aimed primarily at triggering an internal political breakdown in Ukraine rather than achieving a battlefield breakthrough."

Still, Dmitry Medvedev, who served as a placeholder president in 2008-12 to allow Putin to get around constitutional term limits, warned against excessive optimism over Trump's comments.

“Only our guys, ballistics and Geranium [drones] make victory closer,” said Medvedev, now deputy head of Russia’s Security Council.

Samya Kullab in Kyiv Ukraine, contributed to this report.

Stolen rental cars: An article in the Oct. 11 Section A about Mexican cartels stealing rental vehicles in the United States incorrectly reported that, according to the California Highway Patrol, about 2,000 vehicles stolen in California turn up in Mexico each year. The correct number found in Mexico each year is about 850.

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Iran was ‘almost certainly’ behind threat at air base, British leader says

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A BOMBER at the RAF Fairfield air base, which the U.S. has used to strike Iran.

By Sylvia Hui

LONDON — A suspected plot to attack a U.S.-run military air base in England was “almost certainly” directed by Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, British Prime Minister Andy Burnham said Monday.

Burnham previously said there are strong indications Iran was linked to the apparent plan last month to attack the RAF Fairfield air base, which has been used by American bombers to strike Iran in the ongoing war.

Police have arrested seven men in the investigation into the alleged plot, but all suspects have been released on bail and no one has been charged so far.

Iran has denied involvement, although it has previously said that it considers any base used to attack its territory a legitimate target.

“I can confirm our assessment that it is highly likely to have been coordinated in Iran, almost certainly directed by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard,” Burnham told lawmakers. “We will not tolerate these threats on our soil.”

Scores of residents near the air base were evacuated from their homes on Sept. 27 as armed police officers and army bomb-disposal experts swarmed the rural area.

Police later said they had found a quantity of an accel- erant — gasoline — in three vans linked to the initial five suspects who were arrested on the scene, but no explosives.

All the suspects arrested are in their 20s. None has been identified, though police said six are British na-

tionals while one is a dual

U.K.-Iranian citizen.

On Monday, the British government summoned the Iranian ambassador, who reiterated that Tehran was not involved in the suspected plot and urged the U.K. to provide evidence supporting its claims.

The U.K. also said it added two Iranians, including the head of counterespionage operations in the Revolutionary Guard, to its sanctions list. Authorities said the two were involved in conducting espionage and attacks on behalf of Iran's government in Europe and the U.S.

The U.S. pulled its bombers last week from RAF Fairford, about 100 miles west of London, and the aircraft have now been redeployed to their home bases, the Pentagon said.

The Trump administration has said it believed the base faced Iranian threats intended to kill as many

American troops and destroy as many U.S. planes as possible.

The British government allowed the U.S. military to use RAF Fairfield for what it called defensive strikes on Iranian missiles and their launch sites following Iranian attacks on U.K. interests and Britain's allies in the Gulf.

Officials have said that local proxies linked to Iran were behind a string of arson and other attacks on the U.S., Britain and other countries, many of them targeting Jewish communities and intended to sow fear.

British officials have said the number of national security cases involving activity by hostile states, including Iran, increased by 50% in the six months to December 2025.

Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood said Mon-day that the Fairfield air base incident “speaks to a wider trend.”

"States like Iran are using proxies to conduct hostile activity here in Britain. They pay criminals or exploit naive volunteers, attacking our country and its citizens while maintaining an air of plausible deniability," she said.

In a joint statement released Monday, the foreign ministers of the U.K., U.S. and about two dozen Western countries condemned Iranian attacks on their territory.

They said the Fairfield incident demonstrated Iran's “continued willingness to project hostile activity beyond its borders through covert networks and proxy actors.”

“Anyone who conducts hostile activities on behalf of Iran, or any other state, should know that we will take action to identify, investigate, disrupt, and prosecute these acts,” the statement said.

Hui writes for the Associated Press.

PIYAS BISWAS AFP/Getty Images

Houthis seem set on harming Saudi reputation

SAUDI Arabia-bound passengers are stranded Monday at the airport in Dhaka, Bangladesh, after cancellations due to Houthi strikes.

[Saudi Arabia, from A1] Houthis struck another terminal building Sunday, killing one person.

On Monday, aviation authorities extended the airport's closure. Other airports across the kingdom were also targeted, along with gas facilities and oil refineries, the Houthis said.

Yahya Saree, the Houthis' military spokesman, on Sunday warned airlines and travelers to avoid Saudi airports, calling them "unsafe."

Meanwhile, many Riyadh-based firms told their employees to work from home, and schools shifted to online classes.

On Monday, the U.S. Embassy in Riyadh cautioned citizens to keep their distance from the airport and surrounding areas.

The timing of the Houthi campaign seems calculated for maximum reputational harm. On Sunday the kingdom began hosting the World Petroleum Congress, an event that normally draws oil heavyweights from across the world, including energy ministers as well as CEOs from BP, Exxon Mobil Corp., Shell and TotalEnergies.

Yet it's unclear how many were able to attend, with some delegates forced to drive hours across the desert from Bahrain or Jordan to reach Riyadh. Others, including Italy's energy minister, attended a meeting via video link.

Similar concerns now swirl around the Future Investment Initiative, Saudi Arabia's flagship business conference, which is set for the end of the month. Officials, maintaining a show-will-go-on attitude, insist the event, known as “Davos in the Desert,” will happen on schedule.

In response to the Houthi attacks, Saudi Arabia's military said it peppered rebel-held areas with more than 120 strikes, including the airport in the Houthi-controlled Yemeni capital, Sanaa.

But those strikes underscore the asymmetry of the fight, experts say, with Saudi military planners hunting for Houthis in areas already ravaged by conflict, even as they must defend an area more than five times the size of California.

“Saudi Arabia is a country of 2 million square kilometers, with a very large number of soft targets — airports, pipelines, urban infrastructure that needs to be protected, government infrastructure. We’ve seen them all attacked,” said Thomas Juneau, a security analyst at Ottawa University.

He added that the Saudi military “has not distinguished itself in terms of military performance against the Houthis.”

The Saudi-Houthi conflict dates to 2014, when the Houthis swatted the Yemeni government aside and took over Sanaa before blitzing through other parts of the country.

The Saudis countered with an air campaign and ground force composed of Yemeni pro-government paramilitary factions, Saudi and Emirati troops, and mercenaries.

The result was a humanitarian crisis that at the time was considered the world's worst, with some 377,000 people killed, according to the Yemen Data Project, which tracks casualties from Yemen's various conflicts. More than half of the deaths were due to the collapse of the health system, along with epidemics and famine.

The Houthis, toughened by decades of fighting against the government, lost much of the territory they took in south Yemen, but otherwise grew stronger in the war.

With training from Iran and the Lebanese faction Hezbollah, they evolved from a ragtag band of fighters with sandals and Kalashnikovs to a disciplined force fielding missiles and manufacturing its own projectiles. (Recently, Anthropic, the maker of Claude AI, warned the Houthis were using its AI models to program missile computers.)

In 2022, with front lines in a stalemate, Saudi Arabia and the Houthis signed a truce that largely held.

But in July, warplanes struck Sanaa airport to prevent an Iranian plane with Houthi officials from landing. Though the Saudi-backed Yemeni government claimed responsibility, the Houthis blamed Saudi Arabia.

Since then, the Houthis, whose official name is Ansar Allah, or God's Supporters, have restarted their missile and drone salvos and announced a “blockade within a blockade” on Saudi shipping. In September, they routed pro-government fighters and captured Yemen's Red Sea coast.

Yemen's government last week launched an offensive to retake the areas under Houthi control, backed by a fresh Saudi bombing campaign.

The renewed hostilities come as Saudi Arabia has been battling an economic slowdown and rolling back some of its flashier investments.

That economic malaise has since been compounded by the Iran war. With the Strait of Hormuz largely sealed by rival U.S. and Iranian blockades, Riyadh shifted its exports from Hormuz, its main energy corridor, to the Red Sea coast. Houthi advances, however, now jeopardize that conduit.

One possible reason for the kingdom's vulnerability is that it entered the confrontation with the deck stacked against it.

The Saudi military has 108 Patriot missile launchers and a small number of THAAD missiles, allowing it to intercept missiles and drones at different altitudes

and ranges.

But during the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran, which saw Tehran lash out with attacks on its Persian Gulf neighbors, Saudi Arabia expended some 86% of its 2,800 missiles, according to reports.

The almost 400 interceptors that remain are augmented by a Greek army contingent with a Patriot missile battery and roughly 100 soldiers. Pakistan and Turkey, Saudi Arabia's partners in a recently signed mutual defense pact, are also fielding their own air defense weapons inside the kingdom. But those are unlikely to be sufficient to protect the entire country, analysts say.

Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the country's de facto leader, has called on the U.S. and other allies to come to his country's defense. Officials at the World Petroleum Congress on Monday echoed his message, with many stressing that disrupting Saudi energy supplies would have consequences beyond its borders.

“No nation, even one as capable and confident as ours, can safeguard them alone,” said Amin Nasser, chief executive of Saudi’s oil giant ARAMCO.

But President Trump has so far proved reluctant to provide more than intelligence and logistical support. On Saturday, after the airport attack, Trump said he “may” join the Saudis’ campaign. “We’re going to look at it,” he said.

Even if more robust assistance were to materialize, the Saudis will still face tough choices.

The best option, Paes said, would be for Saudi Arabia to find a new understanding with the Houthis. But he acknowledged that the group has political demands — including having Saudi Arabia pay Houthi civil servant salaries — that will be difficult for Saudi leaders to swallow.

"The deal they'll get out of the Houthis will be a lot worse than what they could have got a few months ago," Paes said.

Still, he added, “that’s the least worst outcome.”

NATO commander says alliance ready to fight if necessary

GEN. Alexus Grynkewich, NATO's top commander, speaks Monday in Warsaw.

U.S. general adds that he does not believe conflict is inevitable.

By Emma Burrows

WARSAW — NATO's top military commander said the alliance is “ready to fight tonight” if it is attacked, as European officials warn Russia could test NATO's defenses with increased covert attacks or a limited military incursion.

European nations have in recent months faced an escalation of covert Russian activity, including an arson attack on an Estonian defense company and a failed attempt to attack a Ukrainian aircraft at a German airport.

If Russia decides to attack NATO, the alliance will respond by using sensors, autonomous systems and military force to stop any assault, U.S. General Alexus Grynkewich, NATO's supreme allied commander, said in Warsaw on Monday.

Grynkewich spoke at the Warsaw Security Forum to set out what he called NATO's “Theory of Victory.” The NATO commander said he does not believe that a conflict is imminent or inevitable and that the most effective way to preserve peace is to prepare for war and to maintain open lines of communication to “resolve misunderstandings.”

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NATO would 'break the enemy's forces'

Grynkewich provided no specific details about what kind of attack NATO is preparing for, nor where, nor with what kind of forces. But outlining what a response to a Russian attack could look like, Grynkewich said NATO's combined land, sea and air forces will move to stop Moscow seizing territory and deny Russia the ability to hold ground.

"My theory of victory is simple," he told the Warsaw conference.

“We will block the initial attack. If the attack persists, we will blunt it and prevent any enemy advance. And if required, we will break the enemy's forces and the operational war-fighting system arrayed against us.”

That includes not just the attacking force but anything and everything that supports, sustains and controls it, he said.

In recent weeks, senior European officials and intelligence services have warned that Russia may be planning to test the NATO alliance with increased covert attacks or even an incursion after a spate of sabotage incidents across the continent. Denmark's defense intelligence service specifically warned Russia could use such tactics to split the NATO alliance.

But, at the same time, President Trump has also sent shock waves through Europe by agreeing to a deal to buy diesel from Russia in a bid to try lower prices in the U.S. ahead of the midterm elections.

Earlier this year, the U.S. president said he was pulling American troops from Europe and his war with Iran has led to critical shortages of advanced air defense missiles in Europe.

“Ultimately it’s a political decision,” as to where troops are deployed but “no one should question the U.S. commitment to the alliance," Glynkewich said.

It is important, Grynckewich said, that alliance members coordinate a “coherent” response to Russian activity to make it clear to Moscow “where our red lines are.” The response to increased Russian malign activity and sabotage, he said, should be to double down on support for Ukraine.

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Some countries still lack readiness

Although Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk warned that Russia is planning to escalate with drone or rocket strikes on European allies supporting Ukraine, other countries have called for calm.

Denmark's Defense Intelligence Agency said there is a “low but growing risk” that Russia will launch a limited military attack against one or several NATO countries bordering Russia.

NATO does not seek war with anyone but will see a military attack coming and “is unlikely to be caught by surprise,” Grynkewich said.

Although Grynkewich said NATO would defend against any attack by Russia using a network of sensors and autonomous systems, some NATO nations have previously struggled to perform in exercises simulating drone warfare. They have also faced challenges detecting and responding to incursions of drones that have entered their airspace.

Multiple attack drones have crashed in NATO countries bordering Russia, Ukraine and Belarus. And in May, residents in the Lithuanian capital, Vilnius, were told to seek shelter after a drone strayed into Lithuanian airspace.

When asked if NATO could deter Russia in the way Grynkewich described, his spokesperson, Col. Martin O'Donnell said NATO nations are increasingly deploying ground sensors and other technology to detect and counter drones. The network that connects systems to shoot down drones and sensors is in the process of being established.

Moscow blamed for over 200 incidents

In September, Germany accused Russia of being behind a plot at the Leipzig airport to use a drone laden with explosives to attack a Ukrainian aircraft. British officials also said they thwarted a Russian plot to target a drone facility outside London while Estonian officials said Russia was behind a fire at a defense company.

The incidents are among at least 211 blamed on Russia by Western officials since Moscow's invasion of Ukraine and tracked by the Associated Press.

In its assessment released earlier in September, Denmark's defense intelligence service suggested Russia could try to acquire Ukrainian drones and use them to attack Europe, in order to obfuscate any Russian involvement. Tusk suggested Russia would probably pretend any attacks are "accidental" in order to "paralyze or at least weaken the motivation of NATO countries" to rush to the defense of a member state coming under attack.

The Danish service said the aim of any such attack would be to divert European resources away from supporting Ukraine and sow division in NATO. But both the Danish service and O'Donnell said that while Russia is fighting in Ukraine, it would be difficult to launch an outright attack on NATO.

Musk becomes the midterm elections' top known donor

Trillionaire has given out \$276 million and counting in effort to save GOP majorities.

By Jill Colvin

NEW YORK — Elon Musk, the world's only trillionaire, has quietly become the biggest known donor in this year's midterm elections, handing out more than \$276 million since July to try to save Republican majorities in Congress.

The numbers, first reported by the New York Times ahead of this week's federal filing deadline, were confirmed by Andrew Romeo, a spokesperson for Musk's super PAC.

The money includes \$158 million given to the Senate Leadership Fund, the main super PAC supporting Republican Senate candidates, one of the largest known political donations in American history, according to the New York Times.

An additional \$76 million went to America PAC, a Musk super PAC, which has once again built out a major turnout operation like the one it used to help elect President Trump by knocking on doors in 2024.

Musk also provided \$10 million to Lone Star Liberty PAC, a group that supports the Republican nominee for Senate in Texas, Ken Paxton. The race has been a major focus of Musk's efforts.

It's a dramatic turn-around since last May, when Musk said he intended to cut back on future political spending. "I think I've done enough," he said at the time.

Despite the cash infusion, Musk has generally kept a lower profile than in 2024, when he appeared on stage next to Trump at rallies, and in the early days of the president's second term, when he led Trump's Department of Government Efficiency.

He had a falling-out with Trump while leaving his government post, but the two have since reconciled. Trump presented Musk with the National Medal of Science last week.

Musk's net worth has fluctuated around the trillion-dollar line this year based on changes in stock prices, but he topped \$1 trillion again last week according to Forbes magazine.

Republicans have a gaping financial advantage over Democrats — a disparity that has been a rare bright spot for a party that is bracing for major potential losses amid deep voter frustration over the president's performance, stubbornly high prices and the unpopular war with Iran.

They have been using the money to blanket the air-waves in the race's final stretch.

"These robust investments have allowed the GOP apparatus to get its message out so Republicans can have a fighting chance to defy history," Romeo told the New York Times.

Democrats responded to the news by accusing Republicans of using vast amounts of cash to mask their shortcomings.

“Republicans are hoping to buy these elections, injecting tens of millions into races to try and outrun their unpopular candidates, unpopular president and unpopular economy,” said Lauren French, a spokesperson for Democrats’ Senate Majority PAC.

Colvin writes for the Associated Press.

JULIA DEMAREE NIKHINSON Associated Press

DESPITE his huge donations to Republicans, Elon Musk has kept a low profile during the campaign.

JULIA DEMAREE NIKHINSON Associated Press

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THE NATION

PRESIDENT TRUMP wants his most loyal supporters to pretend that he's on the ballot one more time.

JULIA DEMAREE NIKHINSON Associated Press

Can \$1 billion power GOP to victory?

BY STEVEN SLOAN

AND THOMAS BEAUMONT

WASHINGTON — Republicans are entering the final three weeks of the midterm campaign increasingly anxious that the \$1 billion at their disposal may not be enough to fend off sweeping losses as the party reckons with President Trump's unpopularity, persistent cost concerns and the fallout from the war in Iran.

The cash advantage, spread out across a half-dozen groups, is driven largely by the Trump-aligned MAGA Inc., which had nearly \$416 million in cash on hand at the end of August and began stepping up its spending on critical races in September.

But that money may have come too late, forcing the president's group to pay much higher rates because of the shrinking availability of airtime. Four Republican Senate campaign officials said groups that reserved advertising time last spring paid much lower rates than MAGA Inc. and its affiliated groups.

Instead, by waiting until September, Trump-connected organizations are sometimes paying more than five times what they would have spent if they acted earlier.

A representative of MAGA Inc. familiar with the group's strategy said its spending has allowed Republicans to keep races more competitive than they would have been otherwise. In some cases, the group has been the only one on the air criticizing Democratic candidates.

The MAGA Inc. representative and the Republican Senate campaign officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal strategy.

The challenge is acute in places like Texas, to which Trump has traveled twice to stump for Republican Ken Paxton's Senate campaign. The state hasn't elected a Democratic senator since 1988, yet MAGA Inc. has spent more than \$22 million in the last month, according to the ad tracking firm AdImpact.

Another group, Texas PAC, which is aligned with Senate Majority Leader John Thune, has spent more than \$83 million on advertising in the last month, an extraordinary amount to protect what's normally a safe Republican seat.

the United States Oct. 4 during a football game between the Dallas Cowboys and the Houston Texans.

Candidates are charged a lower advertising rate than outside groups, so the late infusion of super PAC cash has come at a steep price.

MAGA Inc., which is running ads primarily on streaming services, has been charged roughly \$894 per airing, according to AdImpact, and Texas PAC has been charged roughly \$809 for a mix of broadcast and streaming. That compares with about \$290 for Democratic nominee James Talarico's campaign, also on broadcast and streaming.

Those averages mask some of the more glaring disparities. For example, during a football game last month, Texas PAC was charged \$450,000 to air a single spot in the Austin market. Talarico's campaign paid \$50,000 for a spot during the same game in the same market, according to AdImpact.

---

A referendum on the power of money

The 2026 campaign is shaping up as a referendum on the power of money in American politics.

Democrats freely acknowledge their disadvantage, relying instead on anti-Trump sentiment among voters and targeted messaging on issues like corruption. Some Republicans, meanwhile, are open about the challenge of trying to spend their way out of a difficult campaign at this late stage.

Neil Newhouse, a long-time Republican pollster, echoed concerns that his party was deploying its cash too late.

"After the votes are counted, I think we're going to find the most effective advertising in terms of communicating message and moving voters and poll numbers, the most effective time was advertising that happened well before Labor Day, not after it," he said. "A million dollars of advertising in October is a drop in the bucket."

Thune's group began pulling back in North Carolina last week, a sign of the party's challenge in the Senate race there. The state's retiring senator, Thom Tillis, has been increasingly vocal about his party's vulnerabilities and recently said that, even with a strong cash advantage, "in the last month, you pretty much have to place your bets."

"If we have endless resources, then we should spend endlessly in every state," he said. "Absent endless resources, you've got to make data-driven decisions about where you can win."

The midterms mark the first national election since the Supreme Court in June erased limits on how much political parties can spend in coordination with candidates for Congress and president, injecting even more money into a political system already awash in cash.

---

Cash alone doesn't guarantee victory

There's plenty of evidence that money alone doesn't translate into victory.

Democrat Kamala Harris entered the final stretch of the 2024 campaign with significantly more money than Trump but went on to lose every critical swing state and the White House. Elon Musk's \$25 million didn't lift his preferred candidate to a Wisconsin Supreme Court seat last year. And Tom Steyer didn't advance to the general election in the California governor's race despite pumping \$216 million of his own money into the campaign.

The \$1 billion that Republicans have amassed compares with roughly \$579 million held by a comparable collection of major Democratic groups.

Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said his party is facing an “obscene” amount of spending that could swamp them in the midterms.

“We're never going to have as much money as them,” he said in an interview. “I sum up the election in this sentence: Can a massive Republican advantage in money beat a massive Democratic advantage in better candidates and political climate? I bet it can't.”

In addition to Texas, Democrats have mounted competitive Senate campaigns in Ohio, Maine, Iowa and Michigan. A similar dynamic has emerged in governors' races from Florida and Georgia to Wisconsin, Ohio and Nevada.

Former President Obama has stepped up his involvement in the midterms, headlining a fundraiser for Senate candidates.

In the House, Democrats are growing so confident they can retake the majority that they're expanding their targets deeper into traditionally Republican districts in Arkansas and Tennessee. But a lack of money could limit their gains.

“We absolutely need to spend enough to get our message out,” said Rep. Suzan DelBene of Washington, who chairs the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. “And district by district, we are.”

From his earliest days as an unlikely political figure, Trump has consistently overcome expectations. Facing daunting prospects heading into the final weeks of his last midterm, he's betting he can again outwit political gravity, relying in large part on the deep bond he's built with supporters.

He has stepped up his campaign rallies in recent weeks, traveling to deep red territory to galvanize the party faithful. At events like the recent one in Vandalia, Ohio, the crowd was enthusiastic and cheered at the lines that have become Trump staples over the years, particularly when he dips into profanity. The high school gymnasium that held the event was packed, though crowds began emptying out about halfway through the 90-minute rally.

In the closing minutes of a speech last week in Grand Island, Neb., the president revived his plea that supporters who have stood so fervently by him pretend as if he is on the ballot one more time.

"In a true way, I am running," he said. "We have to keep it going."

Sloan and Beaumont write for the Associated Press. Beaumont reported from Des Moines. AP writers Seung Min Kim in Vandalia, Ohio, and Mary Clare Jalonick in Washington contributed to this report.

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Judge halts Trump's golf project

BY GARY FIELDS

WASHINGTON — U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes on Monday ordered a 24-hour halt to tree-cutting at the East Potomac Golf Course, a historic D.C. course that has been part of President Trump's plans to remake the city.

Reyes issued the order following a tense three-hour hearing in which she blistered the government for having deceived her with its actions over the holiday weekend.

Reyes said the 24-hour temporary order could be extended to 14 days if necessary. It was limited to one day while the government tries to find a key Trump administration official to discuss why a massive tree-cutting at the park needed to occur over the holiday weekend, with little notification to plaintiffs in a lawsuit trying to halt renovation plans or the judge.

It's the latest example of the erosion of trust between the government and the independent judiciary, as the Trump administration tries to steamroll scrutiny of its actions, from the White House ballroom to immigration enforcement.

The hearing started with a blistering 15-minute statement from Reyes, who has declined repeated motions from the plaintiffs to halt work by the administration out of concern that its strategy has seemed to be move ahead on projects despite court actions.

“I am thoroughly unamused right now,” Reyes said. “I do not know how I could have made it any plainer that I did not want what was to happen, to happen.” The judge added: “I have given the government every single benefit of the doubt that it would not do precisely what it has done."

She told the government's lawyers sharply: "I wanted you all to be better than you have been."

The emergency hearing on a holiday expanded as the judge ordered the government to get various participants in the decision-making process into the hearing remotely.

Reyes plans to hold another hearing Tuesday and wants to hear from Greg Wischer, deputy chief of staff at the Interior Department. Wischer pushed for the work to be done urgently, according to testimony from Frank Lands, deputy director of operations for the National Park Service.

Fields writes for the Associated Press. AP writer Matthew Daly contributed to this report.

Many GOP-led states imposing new voting rules

DEBBIE LEWIS, right, an elections worker, hands Eddie Johnson his early ballot Wednesday in Cleveland.

SUE OGROCKI Associated Press

BY GARY FIELDS AND JULIE CARR SMYTH

President Trump has pushed Congress to pass a proof-of-citizenship law, signed an executive order seeking a national voter ID requirement and tried to limit mail voting through U.S. Postal Service changes.

None of those moves succeeded in time to affect this year's midterm elections. It's a different matter in the states.

More than three dozen voting laws passed in Republican-controlled states are taking effect for the first time this year, many of them containing elements of Trump's stalled proposals. They include changes to what IDs are acceptable to register for the first time and requirements to show proof of citizenship, an issue the Republican president has tried but failed to get through Congress.

“Trump’s attacks on our elections are deeply damaging, but they are not happening in isolation,” said Sophia Lin Lakin, director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s Voting Rights Project. “Across the country, states are also advancing restrictions that make it harder for eligible voters to cast a ballot.”

Republican lawmakers who support the tighter voting laws, especially around voter ID, describe them as commonsense changes that help build trust in elections.

Trump and other Republicans have been pushing for more restrictive rules since the president's false claims of widespread fraud in his 2020 election loss to Democrat Joe Biden. Trump's false claims have resonated with Republican voters, a majority of whom believe Biden was not legitimately elected despite all evidence to the contrary. Trump lost dozens of court challenges, his own attorney general found no evidence of widespread fraud, and reviews, audits and recounts in the battleground states where he contested his loss all affirmed Biden's victory.

Among the changes confronting voters as early voting gets underway: Students in New Hampshire can no longer use student IDs; Utah voters returning mail ballots must include more information on the envelope; and some voters in Mississippi might need birth certificates or passports to verify their identities.

---

Voter ID changes are challenged

New Hampshire state Rep. Donald McFarlane said he sponsored the bill to eliminate student IDs as acceptable for voting because colleges don't have the same controls when issuing those cards as government agencies.

"The change removes a special exception and applies the same government-issued ID standard to all voters," he said, adding that his bill had bipartisan support.

Students, he said, can still get state IDs free of charge.

The new requirements have not gone unchallenged.

In South Dakota, the ACLU has filed a lawsuit seeking to halt a new law that includes requiring voters registering for the first time to present the most common forms of ID — driver's licenses, Tribal IDs and non-driver state IDs. They must be presented in person at places that accept registration.

“Proof of citizenship in itself is not terrible,” said Kathryn Johnson, president of the League of Women Voters of South Dakota.

Her concern is the requirement to present the IDs in person.

“We’re kind of a remote state, so sometimes it takes a drive, and you have to coordinate, you have to take off work, and all of these kinds of things,” she said.

Some Democrats also have expressed support for voter ID during recent debates.

Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro said he was open to the idea as long as it wasn't based on “conspiracy theories.”

When legislatures change their state's voting laws, they typically give election offices and voters time to adjust. Trump wanted federal voter ID and proof-of-citizenship legislation to take effect immediately, forcing election officials and voters to comply in the middle of the midterms.

---

Ohio seeking

to scrub voter rolls

Ohio has a proof of citizenship requirement in effect for the first time this year for those registering to vote or updating their voter registration information at a Bureau of Motor Vehicles location.

The state also eliminated its four-day grace period for mail ballots, which now must be received at local election offices by election day.

Yet the biggest concern for voting rights groups is an ongoing purge of the state's voter rolls. The databases used to check citizenship against voter registration lists can be outdated, said Freda Levenson, legal director of the ACLU of Ohio, which has sued to overturn the law.

“Vast numbers of perfectly eligible voters are vulnerable to being disenfranchised,” she said.

Republican state Sen. Theresa Gavarone, one of the primary sponsors of the bill, challenged the ACLU's legal action and said the problem it addresses is a real one.

“In the past two years, hundreds of noncitizens have been removed from Ohio’s voter rolls,” she said in an email. “Every single vote cast by a noncitizen disenfranchises a lawful Ohio voter.”

---

Voters' views on changes mixed

Outside an early voting center in Wayne County, Ohio, retired steel worker Dan Walter, an independent voter, said he opposes requiring documentary proof of citizenship to vote.

“It’s to keep people from voting, it sounds to me like,” he said.

His wife, Jody, a retired aerospace executive and a Democrat, said she felt the same way about Ohio's new requirement for registering to vote.

"A driver's license doesn't prove citizenship, and that's all they ask for now," she said. "It's going to be an obstacle for so many people."

Genia Fortune had a different view.

A nurse, the Millersburg resident described herself as an independent and said she voted for President Obama, a Democrat, and later for Trump.

She believes Trump's false claims that the 2020 election was stolen and sees requiring documentary proof of citizenship as a necessary precaution.

“I just feel like you need to be a citizen and show proof of ID,” she said.

---

Voting and election laws a target

The Trump administration has pushed multiple strategies to influence this year's midterm elections, most of them stymied by Congress or the courts.

Chris Diaz, director of legislative tracking at the Voting Rights Lab, said the group has seen several versions of the Republican president's proposals passed by his allies in the states.

A recently released report by the group highlighted some of the key areas drawing Republican lawmakers' attention, including mail balloting, voter ID and the hunt for noncitizens on voter rolls.

Noncitizen voting has been a focus of the Trump administration despite it being a rare problem. The U.S. Department of Justice recently announced it had brought charges in roughly 90 cases for various types of election misconduct, including 50 against people who are alleged to have voted as noncitizens. The U.S. had 227 million registered voters for the 2024 presidential election.

The Brennan Center for Justice has identified nearly 40 laws in 21 states taking effect this election season that will make it harder for eligible voters to register, stay on the rolls or cast ballots.

The report from the center, part of the New York University School of Law, found that many of the new laws target subsets of voters.

“What I want voters to take away from this is that elections are still run by the states and there are still people in many states who are trying to make it harder for you to vote,” said Sean Morales-Doyle, senior director of the center’s Voting Rights and Elections Program. “But that’s all the more reason to go make a plan to vote and participate.”

Fields and Smyth write for the Associated Press. Fields reported from Washington and Smyth reported from Wooster and Millersburg, Ohio.

Judge orders Trump to cancel ads that promote his political message

AARON SCHWARTZ Getty Images

PRESIDENT Trump said the ads would now be paid for with a campaign account.

BY GENE JOHNSON

President Trump must cancel any remaining television commercials paid for with millions of dollars in taxpayer money to promote his political message, a federal judge ordered Sunday night, even as the administration said the ad campaign was coming to an end.

U.S. District Judge Jennifer L. Rochon in New York sided with a coalition, including the nonpartisan watchdog Common Cause, that challenged the ads and called them an illegal misuse of funds. She told the administration to cancel any remaining ads, including any set to air Sunday night, in granting a temporary restraining order.

“Defendants shall not enter into, renew, or expand any agreement authorizing the development, creation, dissemination, placement, or airing of the challenged advertisements” during the two-week duration of her order, the judge said.

The White House did not immediately respond to an email requesting comment Sunday night. In a court filing late Saturday, the Justice Department argued that the temporary restraining order was unnecessary because “the alleged offending conduct will end tomorrow.”

The Department of Homeland Security tapped \$20 million in taxpayer money for the ads. Legal experts have suggested that violated a federal statute against congressionally appropriated money being used for “publicity or propaganda” and potentially other laws.

"We are pleased the court acted swiftly to prevent more taxpayer dollars from being used for such blatantly unlawful political propaganda," the plaintiffs said in a statement issued by Democracy Forward, the nonprofit legal organization that represents them. "There is no legal justification — and no precedent — for the president to use the machinery of the government and funds set aside by Congress for other uses to influence electoral outcomes that further his own agenda."

In a court declaration Saturday, senior Homeland Security official Holly Mehringer wrote that the money came from funds appropriated by Congress that are “available for, among other things, ‘commemorating efforts and events related to border security.’”

The White House has defended the ads as public service announcements akin to what past adminis-trations have done to pro-mote various policies. But the recent ads differ from many past public service announcements in that they aren't aimed at helping members of the public benefit from specific government programs.

The ads, which began airing in late September, glorify Trump and echo his political messaging going into the midterms. One features a clip of the president talking about the threat of communism and another is a replay of an ad from his last presidential campaign. The fifth ad in the campaign began airing Tuesday, focusing on his administration's capture of Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro.

The use of public funds to pay for the ads drew heavy criticism — including from some in the GOP.

"It shouldn't be paid for with taxpayer dollars," Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) told reporters.

The Democratic National Committee has separately sued the Republican administration over the ads.

Amid the backlash, Trump said he would start paying for the ads with a campaign account. A White House official said there were no immediate plans to reimburse the government for money already spent.

Johnson writes for the Associated Press. Johnson reported from Seattle. AP reporters Collin Binkley in Washington and Ali Swenson contributed to this report.

Fugitive businessman now in U.S. custody

BY JOSHUA GOODMAN

AND ALANNA

DURKIN RICHER

MIAMI — A businessman wanted for years in the U.S. for allegedly paying bribes to top Venezuelan officials in exchange for lucrative state contracts in Venezuela has been taken into custody.

Alvaro Pulido was indicted in Miami federal court in 2019 and again in 2021 as part of an investigation into his longtime business partner, Alex Saab, a onetime ally of ousted President Nicolás Maduro. The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and the State Department had been offering a reward of up to \$10 million for information leading to his arrest.

Pulido, 62, was taken into U.S. custody after an investigation led by the DEA, FBI and Homeland Security Investigations agencies, American officials said Sunday.

It's unclear how Pulido ended up in U.S. custody. He is scheduled to make his initial court appearance Tuesday in Miami.

“His alleged actions show a blatant disregard to the Venezuelan people by corrupting government programs intended to provide critical food, medicine, and housing for personal enrichment and exploiting the American financial system to do it,” Atty. Gen. Todd Blanche wrote in a social media post Sunday.

“No amount of time or distance will stop” the Justice Department “from working with our federal law enforcement and international partners to pursue these criminals and bring them to justice in an American courtroom,” he wrote.

Venezuelan authorities have so far been silent about the arrest, reflecting the challenge acting President Delcy Rodríguez faces in appeasing elements of the ruling coalition that want her to resist attempts by the Trump administration to round up scores of Venezuelan insiders wanted by the U.S., sometimes for years, for serious crimes including corruption and drug trafficking.

The Colombian-born Pulido was arrested in Venezuela in 2023 as part of a sprawling crackdown on corruption inside state-run oil company PDVSA that was led by Rodríguez while she was serving as Maduro's vice president. She took over as Venezuela's acting president following the U.S. military's ouster of Maduro in January.

Prosecutors allege that Pulido, with Saab, created a network of offshore shell companies to funnel bribes to top Maduro allies in exchange for more than \$2 billion in contracts to import food, medicine and low-cost housing at a time of widespread hardship in the South American country.

Before these alleged offenses, Pulido had a prolific history of drug trafficking, including a 1997 conviction in Italy under the alias of German Enrique Rubio, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Florida said in a statement.

Saab, who also hails from Colombia, was deported to the U.S. by Rodríguez in May. Last month, he pleaded guilty in a related bribery case, agreeing to cooperate against Maduro and other individuals and forfeit \$195 million in criminal proceeds from the corruption scheme.

Federal agents search home of Rep. Ilhan Omar

[Omar, from A1]

HOMELAND Security Investigations officers carried out the search as part of what the department called a criminal investigation.

ANDREW LEYDEN Getty Images

wing views and status as an immigrant to the U.S. have repeatedly drawn criticism from Republicans and senior Trump officials.

Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said last month that there was an “ongoing investigation” related in part to whether Omar lied on her immigration forms and that “something’s going to happen.”

Though the Republican focus on Omar's background dates back years, the search of her home took place three weeks before the November midterms, in which Omar is on the ballot for reelection. The Justice Department has historically sought to avoid public investigative actions involving a candidate within 60 days of a primary or general election.

Trump as recently as this past weekend brought up Omar at a rally in Tennessee, where he attacked her upbringing and suggested that Vice President JD Vance “and our people” were investigating her.

'For ten years, Trump has targeted me with baseless lies and smear campaigns. ... I will not be silenced.'

Vance has in the past accused Omar of committing immigration fraud — an allegation she has denied — and has said he and a top White House official were trying to figure out how to investigate her.

On Monday morning, the street in Washington where Omar lives was blocked off as Homeland Security Investigations agents remained near the home.

“This enforcement action is part of an ongoing federal criminal investigation,” the department said.

A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security, of which Homeland Security Investigations is part, referred questions about the search to the Justice Department.

Omar, who was first elected to the House in 2018, represents Minnesota's 5th District, including Minneapolis. She is part of “the Squad,” progressive lawmakers who are a vibrant political force on the left wing of Congress and have also endured repeated attacks from Trump, dating to his first term. She was one of the first two Muslim American women in the House and the first African refugee to be elected to Congress.

When Republicans swept control of the House in 2023, they voted to oust Omar from the Foreign Affairs Committee, citing her anti-Israel remarks.

In January, Trump lashed out at Omar during a rally in Iowa hours before an — REP. ILHAN OMAR

assailant sprayed the congresswoman during a town hall meeting in Minneapolis with a substance that turned out to be vinegar. The attacker was sentenced to 14 months in prison.

Republicans have raised questions about Omar's past since before she was elected, including asserting that she had married her brother and committed immigration fraud. Omar has broadly denied the allegations as “disgusting lies.”

“It certainly seems like something fishy is there, but everybody’s entitled to equal justice under the laws,” Vance told reporters in May. “So we’re going to investigate it. We’re going to take a look at it. If we think there’s a crime, we’re going to prosecute that crime.”

In a separate interview with conservative podcaster Benny Johnson, Vance said without offering evidence that “we actually think that Ilhan Omar definitely committed immigration fraud against the United States of

America."

He said that he and White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller had been discussing it.

“That’s the thing that we’re trying to figure out,” he said. “What are the legal remedies now that we know that she’s committed immigration fraud? … How do you build the case necessary to get some, some, some justice for the American people?”

Omar's office in March dismissed Vance's claims as fabricated and defamatory.

“This is rich coming from someone who literally said they were willing to ‘create stories’ to redirect the media,” Omar’s chief of staff,

Connor McNutt, said in a statement.

“This is a ridiculous lie and desperate attempt to distract from the pedophile protection party’s unpopular war of choice, increasing gas prices, and rapidly dropping polling numbers,” McNutt said.

Tucker and Richer write for the Associated Press. AP writers Lisa Mascaro, Michelle L. Price and River Zhang in Washington, Kathy McCormack in Concord, N.H., Mike Catalini in Morrisville, Pa., and Meg Kinnard in Columbia, S.C., contributed to this report.

San Diego may use AI to help officers produce reports

SAN DIEGO is looking into a program using AI technology that would assist police officers in writing reports.

SEAN GARDNER Getty Images

[Reports, from A1]

given current staffing shortages of frontline officers. With the emergence of AI technology, this may be an option to reduce time spent on certain tasks to put officers back in the field responding to additional calls for service faster," Nicholes wrote.

The Los Angeles Police Department already is utilizing AI technology and has plans to integrate it further into its crime-fighting.

It has entered into a \$235-million deal with Axon that will give the department a suite of new tech — including a tool that will draft a summary of an encounter based on audio from an officer's body camera.

During a recent L.A. Police Commission meeting, a board member expressed concern about the potential for AI to insert bias into crime reports. The LAPD's chief information officer, Dean Gialamas, said the department was using "non-agentic" AI systems that are incapable of making decisions and executing tasks autonomously. As a safeguard, he said, officers will be required to review their reports before submitting them.

The department is also considering the widespread deployment of AI-powered software that listens to and registers 911 calls, ensuring that the most serious emergencies receive prompt attention. Department officials said that calls will still be answered by human operators and not bots.

The LAPD already uses other AI-assisted tools and technologies for tasks including investigating the social media accounts of crime suspects and monitoring problem officers.

Earlier this year, the Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training — the state's law enforcement accreditation body — released a model policy on the use of AI by police.

"Agency policy and practice may allow AI use to support the preparation of non-law enforcement reports, work products, memorandums, and other administrative documents, such as organizing notes, summarizing material, or improving clarity," the model said. "It is encouraged that all Al-assisted content be reviewed and approved by a responsible human author, prior to release or submission, who must verify that the information is accurate and complete. Personnel, supervisors, and agencies remain responsible for the professional judgment, legal responsibility, and ethical accountability of the authoring employee, supervisor, or agency."

San Diego's request for information comes less than a year after the department had instituted a policy that, at first, seemed wholly contradictory.

In December, the San Diego Police Department forbade officers to use AI platforms to generate reports.

"The Department does not authorize the use of any generative Artificial Intelligence programs to author a police report," read a memo first reported by the local CBS television station.

The policy came shortly before a state law went into effect that required police departments to begin developing policies regulating AI use. It also required that departments disclose whether AI was used to write reports and to hold on to any body-cam video and audio to allow for future audits.

But the San Diego Police Department's policy came with a huge asterisk: It only prohibited officers' use of non-department-approved AI platforms. So what may have seemed like a blanket ban was really just a timeout, assuming the department at some point did officially approve an AI platform.

To Khalid Alexander — a professor at San Diego City College and the founder of

Pillars of the Community, an organization dedicated to supporting San Diegans affected by law enforcement — the prospect seems all bad.

"It's just one more example of them trying to take any kind of humanity away from policing," Alexander said.

He not only worries about whether systems stuffed full of information about people on the worst days of their lives are actually secure, he said, but also about overreliance on the technology. As an instructor, he sees students relying on AI to complete coursework

— which has resulted in inaccuracies.

"The problem isn't just that [police will] use it, it's the assumption that the technology is less biased and more correct than human beings," Alexander said.

A handful of local law enforcement agencies have already leaned into AI. The Chula Vista Police Department and the San Diego County Sheriff's Office utilize AI programs that transcribe residents' non-emergency calls and route them to the appropriate place in a bid to free up dispatchers to take more emergency calls.

Chula Vista, which has wholly embraced such technologies, also utilizes AI to write police reports.

“We're estimating usually three to five hours per shift spent on report writing,” Chula Vista Police Chief Roxana Kennedy said in November. “If that means that officer is going to get back out on the street quicker, it's super important.”

Still, law enforcement's usage of AI has sparked controversy. Many of those concerns have centered on the often-troubling biases programmed into AI platforms. But as AI platforms have become more integrated into everyday life, other worries have emerged, such as whether their tendency to flatter and validate users' points of view can negatively affect police investigations.

There are examples of AI platforms bungling police-related tasks, leading to real-life consequences for innocent people, particularly when it comes to reliance on facial recognition software.

Such concerns have led to pushback against AI-enabled surveillance cameras, of which San Diego has a robust network. Last year, one local man spent nearly a month behind bars after being arrested for a crime he didn't commit, thanks to a misidentification from a Flock camera.

In Los Angeles, the City Council last week voted to delay a pilot program to attach Flock cameras to streetlights around the city — which would offer the LAPD a souped-up version of its current systems by using AI to identify vehicles, license plates, pedestrians and objects on streets and sidewalks — until officials were satisfied the technology would be wielded responsibly.

The use of AI to create police reports has been panned by some opponents and experts. Studies have found that AI can produce writing that is better, at least technically, but may not actually save officers time.

One recent study found that AI-generated police reports were “rated substantively and significantly worse on accuracy,” according to Ian Adams, a former police officer and criminology professor who ran the study.

“For a document whose downstream readers are prosecutors deciding to charge, defense attorneys probing for inconsistencies, and judges and juries reconstructing events months later, accuracy is the threshold condition,” Adams wrote on a LinkedIn post, meaning it is a minimum requirement.

Jany is a Times staff writer. McWhinney writes for Voice of San Diego.

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LEARNING

A STUDENT from Michigan State University points to family members during commencement.

ANDREW ROTH Sipa USA

TO THEM, THE FUTURE DOESN'T LOOK SO BRIGHT

On the cusp of entering the job market, many college students see a failure of democracy led by corrupt politicians

BY JACQUELINE GANUN AND NICHOLAS RICCARDI

EAST LANSING, Mich. — Frankie Llerandi, 21, has been unable to land a single internship in his three years at Michigan State University.

He will graduate in the spring with an economics degree and an interest in data analytics, but true adulthood seems maddeningly far away. Most of his cousins have not been able to buy a house or start a family deep into their 30s.

Kira Saiti, a 19-year-old sophomore, is more upset about the broader world than her own future. Every time she looks at her phone she sees images of violence and horror, both in the Middle East and closer to home. "It's kind of hard to look at that and say, 'This world is a great place,' " she said.

Julian Bautista, 20, saw his chosen profession of environmental work decimated by Trump administration cuts, pushing the junior to decide he will leave the United States to find work in the Netherlands when he graduates. He considers what remains his home country for the next 18 months to be a failure of democracy led by what he sees as corrupt politicians.

“Throughout my life, we’ve either stagnated or declined; we haven’t improved,” Bautista said.

For many of their classmates on campus and elsewhere around the country, the present looks bleak and the future uncertain at best. Their anxiety is fueling a restlessness with a national political system that they worry is no longer capable of improving their lives or no longer interested in helping.

Two years ago, grim economic vibes helped Donald Trump win a far larger share of young voters than is typical for a Republican — 47%, according to AP VoteCast, an extensive survey of the electorate. Now, anxiety about artificial intelligence and the Iran war has been added to the mix, powering a wave of disruptive candidates on the opposite end of the political spectrum who have been embraced by college students.

Llerandi, Saiti and Bautista all support a slate of progressive, anti-establishment Democratic candidates in Michigan who are pledging to shake up the status quo. Among them are Abdul El-Sayed, a former public health official running for U.S. Senate, and Will Lawrence, a liberal activist trying to unseat Tom Barrett, the Republican congressman who represents the swing district that includes the university.

A similar trend has been playing out in Los Angeles in recent years. Four Democratic Socialists of America members are on the L.A. City Council, and one of them — Nithya Raman — is polling strongly in her campaign to unseat the more establishment Democratic mayor, Karen Bass. The city's dearth of affordable housing has been a leading issue in the race.

---

Advisors try to reassure students about jobs

Anxieties about the job market, homeownership and adulthood are widespread across the East Lansing campus, even among those who are not deeply involved in politics.

"It's just something to laugh at, but, you know, I really do want a house when I'm older," said Praveen Amunugama, a 21-year-old biochemistry major who plans to go to graduate school in hopes the job market improves over the next two years.

His friends feel the same way.

“They want to be able to afford things, raise a good family,” he said.

Despite the economic angst among young people, at first blush the picture does not look that bad for them. The unemployment rate for those age 22 to 27 is $7.2\%$ , higher than the broader rate of $4.1\%$ but lower than in some moments of economic calm.

A 2024 study found members of the younger generation known as Generation Z are poised to be wealthier than millennials, who themselves are wealthier than the prior generation despite the persistent sense of economic doom that accompanied their entry into the job market during the Great Recession.

Kevin Corinth, the economist who co-wrote that study, said he understands Gen Z angst, given modern uncertainties, especially the prospect of AI reshaping various industries and data showing younger people are taking longer to leave home and start families.

“For previous generations, if you took certain paths you were likely to succeed, to do better than your parents,” said Corinth, who is at the American Enterprise Institute, a center-right think tank. For young people now, he acknowledged, that path is not as clear.

Kathryn Edwards, a Texas-based economist, noted that unemployment among recent college graduates is at 5.6%, higher than at most other times in recent history other than the Great Recession.

Combined with historically high housing prices and rising costs for essentials such as food and healthcare, that is a challenging environment for young people.

"It's pretty bad for them," Edwards said, adding that young people are picking up on broader warning signs in the economy. "So many aspects of our current economy, I think young people have gotten right."

They are also fully exposed to the new form of job hunting: AI-powered, digital and done almost exclusively online, where it is hard to discern real job openings from fake ones.

“Think about the amount they get spammed and scammed, and there are tons of fake jobs out there,” said Marla McGraw, assistant dean of career management in Michigan State’s business school. “They’re always coming in here going, ‘Is this real?’”

She spends a lot of time trying to buck up disenchanted students.

"Our message right now is the job market is tough, but you're tougher," McGraw said.

Students say political leaders are falling short

Young Americans' optimism about the job market has plummeted since 2024, and the gap between their view of the economy and those of their elders is greater than almost anywhere in the world, according to a Gallup survey earlier this year.

They are less likely to be engaged in politics and less likely to think it is important to vote, an Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll found. They also are less likely to be concerned about political violence.

That dissolution of beliefs in traditional political values worries Karlee VanAntwerp.

The 21-year-old Michigan State senior is also head of the local chapter of Turning Point, the group for young conservatives whose founder, Charlie Kirk, was killed by a gunman last year. VanAntwerp has been horrified to see Kirk's killing mocked online, sometimes menacingly.

“Gen Z tends to be more extreme with their views,” VanAntwerp said. “It makes it hard to work with people of different political beliefs, because even if you’re in the middle, they assume you’re crazy.”

VanAntwerp sees that feeding into the despair many of her generation feel about real change ever happening.

"One administration does a bunch of stuff, another administration comes in and wipes it all out," said VanAntwerp, who is also working for Barrett's campaign. "It feels like we always go in circles. That contributes to the political temperature being so high, because people feel nothing changes."

Her politics are the polar opposite of many liberal students who gathered to hear Lawrence, Barrett's Democratic challenger, talk in a classroom one recent evening, but there was a similar desire for dramatic change. Lawrence sympathized with the glum feelings of early adulthood and urged the students not to succumb to despair.

"When I was a little younger I wanted to drop out of society, and it was organizing that gave me a path in life," Lawrence said.

After the candidate left, however, Bautista still sounded on the verge of despair. He talked about how online influencers he trusts deride Democrats such as Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York as “mini-me’s” because, in Bautista’s view, they are just watered-down versions of Trump.

"Our leaders are representing us less," Bautista said. "People are desperate for big stuff."

Ganun and Riccardi write for the Associated Press.

UNLV gets in tune with mariachi music popularity

TY ONEIL Associated Press

STUDENTS practice mariachi music at a middle school in Las Vegas last month.

Las Vegas campus offers program to train educators for genre in the city's high schools.

By Jessica Hill

LAS VEGAS — Axel Rodríguez Olivas nervously steps onstage, carrying a violin. He raises his bow and begins to play, his nerves melting away.

Mariachi music fills the room as violins, trumpets, the guitarrón, and a stringed instrument called the vi-huela launch into an upbeat melody. There they are joined by a warm voice as a tenor begins to sing.

“I think joy is what I feel ultimately,” said Rodríguez Olivas, dressed in an ornate “traje charro,” the traditional mariachi suit brightly decked out with decorative metal buttons and a wide bow tie.

The 20-year-old musician is set to become the first student to graduate with a minor in mariachi from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, one of the only universities in the country to offer such a niche specialization.

In a city where Latinos make up more than a third of the population, mariachi music is so popular in schools that there often aren't enough teachers to meet demand. The minor was created to train students to become mariachi educators in the Clark County School District, which boasts of one of the largest mariachi programs in the U.S., with about 6,000 students taking part.

---

A beloved staple in Las Vegas

Not just a popular student extracurricular, mariachi culture is a staple and deep-seated form of entertainment across Las Vegas.

"If you go out today, there's going to be mariachi somewhere on the Strip," said Stephen Blanco, who oversees the mariachi minor at UNLV and directs Las Vegas High School's Mariachi Joya.

A form of Mexican folk music, mariachi was born out of joy and pride in Mexico, he said. Its songs tell stories of pain, love, joy and excitement, capable of tugging at the heartstrings of audiences everywhere, he added.

"I think that it's just something that everyone enjoys," Blanco said. "You don't even have to be able to speak Spanish or understand it. I think it's impossible for someone to walk away without a smile on their face."

As members of the professional group Mariachi Paloma Azteca, Rodríguez Olivas and Blanco perform at birthday parties, weddings and funerals. Recently, at a concert in Las Vegas, the ensemble opened with the quintessential “El Jalisciense,” a song celebrating the Mexican state of Jalisco made famous by the regional Mexican music superstar Vicente Fernández.

Holding her violin and a microphone in one hand, Emily Vargas sang, "Yo me muero donde quiera," — "I'll die wherever I please" — as she belted out the story of a woman proudly dying for her country.

---

Music that connects them to their roots

There is beauty in the mariachi performance from the way the group plays in unison right down to how the violinists hold their bows, Rodríguez Olivas said, calling it a powerful means of expressing the deepest of emotions through storytelling and music.

Rodríguez Olivas played saxophone in a middle school band, but he grew up watching mariachi performances in school and always found the music exciting and intriguing. When he saw mariachi being offered in his high school, he thought it would be fun to learn a new instrument.

"The rest is history," he said.

"It connects me to my roots," Rodríguez Olivas said. "My family is from Mexico, so you know it kind of brings that conversation with my parents, other family members and friends as well."

In high school, he was the student director of Mariachi Joya, an award-winning mariachi from Las Vegas High School that performed for Joe Biden's presidential inauguration in 2021.

Mariachi Joya is Las Vegas High School's top mariachi ensemble, though there are about 350 students in the program. During practice, Blanco runs the mariachi through the setlist, correcting an out-of-tune student and improving an intonation. A first-place trophy from the 2026 Mariachi Extravaganza Las Vegas sits in front of the classroom.

During a performance, the high school ensemble dresses in bright red suits. The violinists raise their bows and shout "joya" — Spanish for "jewel" — before they launch into an upbeat melody. A mariachi lets out a "grito," the celebrated yell or whistle of excitement, and the audience claps along.

Instructors begin teaching the students early about mariachi repertoire. Ramiro Benavides, director of a middle school mariachi in the district, drills his students not only on how to play their instruments and sing, but also on how to bring a theatrical and dramatic flair to their performances.

During one middle school mariachi practice, an instructor encourages a girl to come out of her shell and yell excitedly. She starts off timidly, but when joined by her classmates, her yell becomes more confident.

---

There's a shortage of instructors

The mariachi program at Clark County School District has grown significantly since its 2002 inception, and in recent years it's become increasingly difficult to find enough mariachi teachers, said Jeffrey Williams, the director of the district's Fine and Performing Arts Department.

To fill the gap, Blanco recently launched a 22-credit curriculum for the minor program at UNLV, joining only a few universities in Texas that offer such training. Students learn about mariachi repertoire and how to teach the mariachi genre.

In one class, students study more than 70 mariachi songs over a semester, discussing their lyrics and style and what makes each unique, Blanco said. Students are trained in the traditional mariachi repertoire one would expect to hear regularly—ready to perform and pass on the music to those who will follow.

When Rodríguez Olivas graduates in three years, he plans to go back to Clark County School District and teach mariachi.

“I want to kind of give back to future generations and give them the same opportunities that I had, and make it as fun as it was for me,” he said.

Hill writes for the Associated Press.

2 Americans honored with economics award

BY KOSTYA MANENKOV,

STEFANIE DAZIO

AND PAUL WISEMAN

STOCKHOLM — American economists Robert E. Hall and Michael Woodford were awarded the Nobel Memorial Prize in economics Monday for their work on models that have helped governments and central banks manage economic shocks, such as energy crises and inflation.

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences announced the winners in Stockholm, noting that their work created the theoretical foundation to better understand how consumers decide whether to save or spend, insights that make it easier for policymakers worldwide to stabilize economies after fluctuations.

"The laureates' research has made it possible to manage major macroeconomic crises far more effectively than before," the Nobel committee wrote in a paper explaining the economists' work. "It has been hugely beneficial during the pandemic and the energy crises of recent years."

Hall is affiliated with Stanford University in California, and Woodford with Columbia University in New York.

Woodford spoke to the committee by phone from New York: "It's a tremendous honor. It's a surprise."

---

The pair overturned earlier assumptions

For decades, governments responded to economic shocks by following the Depression-era prescriptions of the British economist John Maynard Keynes: Intervene in the economy by lowering interest rates and taxes and hiking government spending, thereby encouraging consumers and businesses to spend and invest and help restart growth.

“This is the Keynesian recipe and it worked well — until it didn’t,” said Timo Boppart of the Nobel economics committee.

Policymakers had thought economic management involved simple trade-offs—unemployment, for instance, would stay low at a time of high inflation and rise when inflation fell. But the “stagflation” of the 1970s

— when the world economy experienced simultaneous high inflation and high unemployment — proved the formula was simplistic.

Some economists argued that government attempts to intervene in the economy were doomed to fail. But Hall and Woodford, in separate contributions, set about improving the Keynesian model to take into account how consumers and businesses actually make decisions about whether to invest and spend.

“Economic outcomes are the result of millions of decisions made at the microlevel by households and businesses,” the Nobel committee wrote. “Using models based upon this approach, rather than simply studying the economy from a macro perspective, like a bird’s eye view,” Hall and Woodford’s research “generated a paradigm shift in the theory of stabilization policy.”

---

Hall studied consumer choices

Hall studied the way that consumers' decisions about whether and how much to spend depend on what they expect their future income to be.

"If they are optimistic, they will consume more than if they are pessimistic," the committee wrote. But consumer expectations can change unexpectedly as new information about the economy comes in. Hall found that forecasting future consumer spending is virtually impossible.

The idea that consumption is mostly unpredictable “is not good news for forecasters, or policymakers,” Olivier Blanchard, who was chief economist at the International Monetary Fund during the 2008 financial crisis, said by email. “But it is news they must take into account in thinking about the effects of policy.”

Hall also explored the idea that some households are so strapped financially that they can't borrow or tap savings in response to economic changes. In a 1982 paper with the economist Fredric Mishkin, Hall found that around 80% of households made spending decisions based on their expectations for the future “while the rest lived hand to mouth,” the committee wrote.

"The prize is for research that pushes our understanding of macroeconomics from the bottom up, from families and firms making decisions over time, while looking ahead," Ivan Werning, an economist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said in an email.

---

Woodford analyzed business decisions

Woodford's research established that businesses make decisions about prices based on where they think interest rates will go in the future.

"If the business believes that its competitors' prices and its own costs will increase, it is best to set a higher price than it would with the opposite expectation," the Nobel committee wrote. "Businesses' decisions are thus also governed by their expectations."

Therefore, central banks such as the U.S. Federal Reserve, which set short-term interest rates, should provide “clear and credible communication about how they reason and what they plan to do.”

Central banks have responded to this insight by working harder to explain what they are doing.

The new Fed chair, Kevin Warsh, has said the trend toward such “forward guidance” went too far. He’s trying to scale back how much the U.S. central bank talks about its thinking and its intentions.

Woodford's research also offered guidance on how central banks should respond to energy price shocks — such as the one that followed the U.S. and Israeli attack on Iran in February — that can both feed inflation and send unemployment higher.

“Unlike the traditional Keynesian models, Woodford's model recommends a cooling measure, such as increased interest rates, to avoid uncontrolled inflation,” the Nobel committee wrote. “His insight has made it possible to respond to recent supply shocks more effectively than during the oil crises of the 1970s.”

During the phone call broadcast at a news conference, Woodford said his work has stressed “the understanding of the people who are in the markets and making decisions about spending.”

---

Technically not a Nobel Prize

The economics prize is formally known as the Bank of Sweden Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel. The central bank established it in 1968 as a memorial to Nobel, the 19th century Swedish businessman and chemist who invented dynamite and established the five Nobel Prizes.

Nobel purists stress that the economics prize is technically not a Nobel Prize, but it is always presented together with the others on Dec. 10, the anniversary of Nobel's death in 1896.

Nobel honors were announced last week in medicine, physics, chemistry, literature and peace.

Monday's award was the second Nobel win for a Stanford University professor this year. Dr. Karl Deisseroth shared the medicine prize with Peter Hegemann and Georg Nagel for their work that led to a tool that uses light to help unravel how the brain works.

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

Associated Press writers Manenkov, Dazio and Wiseman reported from Stockholm, Berlin and Washington, respectively. AP writer Wyatte Grantham-Philips in Chicago contributed to this report.

BUSINESS

SANDRA HULLER and Tom Cruise are shown in Warner Bros.' "Digger," which cost \$125 million to produce.

ANTONIO OLMOS Warner Bros. Pictures

Warner Bros. could see loss of \$150 million on ‘Digger’

---

Movie starring Tom Cruise sees 60% drop to \$3.2 million in its second weekend.

BY SAMANTHA MASUNAGA

The Tom Cruise-led “Digger” is poised for a massive loss after ticket sales for the political satire fell 60% in its second weekend in theaters in the U.S. and Canada.

The Warner Bros. film made just \$3.2 million in those theaters over the weekend, according to a studio estimate. Its opening weekend brought in \$8 million, Cruise's lowest opening as a leading man since 2007's "Lions for Lambs." Global ticket sales for "Digger" were only \$35.3 million.

The tepid box-office returns mean the studio is now expected to lose at least \$150 million on the film, including ancillary revenue streams such as premium video-on-demand and streaming, industry sources said.

Historically, a film has typically needed to make

$2 \frac{1}{2}$ to three times its budget to recoup its costs.

A Warner Bros. spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment.

It's a tough result for the film, which stars Cruise as an aging oil tycoon whose company sets off an environmental catastrophe.

Analysts have said that the film was challenging to market, given a major twist in the plot, and that Cruise's nearly unrecognizable appearance could have dissuaded his fan base from coming out to support the film.

The film suffered from polarizing critical reviews, notching a 53% on aggregator Rotten Tomatoes. Opening-night audiences gave it a C+ on CinemaScore, a grade that typically points to weak word of mouth and steep drops in the weeks that follow.

The budget for “Digger” raised the stakes. Warner Bros. has said the film cost \$125 million to produce, though some industry experts and trade reports have estimated the cost was at least \$160 million, citing production delays.

That figure also doesn't include marketing costs, which sources said could have increased in the days after the film's opening since Warner Bros. began using the divided reviews in social media and TV ads to encourage people to see the film for themselves.

The film will have value to Warner Bros. — and Skydance, the newly combined company that now owns it — beyond its theatrical reception. "Digger" probably will make money through downstream revenue sources such as streaming.

If Cruise wins his first competitive Oscar, that also would be a plus for the film.

But a film's domestic reception, and to some extent, its international box office revenue, does play a role in the value of those downstream revenue opportunities, experts said.

“Even with respectable ancillary income based on the film's pedigree, the movie is going to lose a lot of money,” David A. Gross wrote in his FranchiseRe movie industry newsletter shortly after the film's opening.

The reception for "Digger" comes during a tough time for Warner Bros.

The film opened Oct. 2, the same day the studio's film chiefs, Michael De Luca and Pam Abdy, departed. Four days later, Paramount completed its acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery, and the combined company took the name Skydance.

The studio has had a string of disappointments this year, including Maggie Gyllenhaal's "The Bride!" and DC Studios"Supergirl." None of its 2026 releases has crossed \$100 million at the domestic box office.

But the prospects for Warner Bros. should improve next year, according to Bernstein Research.

Skydance has said it will keep the Warner Bros. and Paramount studios distinct, though Paramount Pictures chiefs Dana Goldberg and Josh Greenstein are expected to oversee both.

Bernstein expects the Warner Bros. film and TV studios to amass \$11.7 billion in revenue, driven by strong titles that include the sequel to “Minecraft” and a new “Lord of the Rings” movie.

Port of L.A. posts a record month

BY CAROLINE

PETROW-Cohen

The Port of Los Angeles moved a record amount of cargo in September as lower tariffs and the upcoming holiday season drive shipments.

The record-setting month comes at the end of the port's busiest quarter in its history, from July through September.

The port moved more than 1 million 20-foot-equivalent container units last month, topping its previous record set in July 2025 by 23,000 units.

It handled 546,000 loaded imports, up 19% from September 2025 and 26% above its five-year average.

“A few things came together all at once,” the port’s executive director, Gene Seroka, said in a recent media briefing. “Tariffs are lower than the levels we saw earlier this year and last, giving importers more certainty on cost and allowing them to replenish inventories at a quicker rate.”

Major retailers also are preparing for increased demand around the holidays and are stocking up and replenishing inventories, Seroka said.

Meanwhile, security and environmental challenges along the Suez and Panama canals are directing more shipments through Southern California.

L.A. is "the fastest and most reliable route from

Asia to markets across the United States," Seroka said.

The port's record September — totalling 1,042,652 containers — also represents the most volume ever moved through any port in the Western Hemisphere.

The port handled 371,000 empty containers last month and exported 126,000 loaded containers. Loaded exports are up 10% from September 2025, but are still weaker than imports.

“Outbound volumes remain softer than normal, which reflects the ongoing challenges facing American farmers and manufacturers,” Seroka said.

The Port of Long Beach, which neighbors the Port of L.A. in the San Pedro Bay port complex, has not yet announced its cargo numbers for September. It handled nearly 920,000 container units in August, 2% higher than a year earlier. Among those containers, 456,100 were loaded imports.

The San Pedro Bay port complex is the busiest in the world. Combined, the two ports handled around 31% of all international waterborne container trade in the U.S. in 2025.

"The Port of Los Angeles remains an incredible economic engine both locally and nationally, creating good-paying, union jobs for Angelenos and maintaining Los Angeles' status as a global competitor for trade and commerce," Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said in a statement.

Cage cuts ties with Amazon over AI dispute

BY CERYS DAVIES

Nicolas Cage is making it clear — he's not an "AI-friendly actor."

The 62-year-old actor spoke out against a tech giant during an appearance at New York Comic Con on Saturday. He alleged he was asked to sign an artificial intelligence waiver for the television series “Spider-Noir.”

“Amazon is a very AI-friendly company, to the tune of \$50 billion invested in OpenAI,” Cage said onstage.

"I am not an AI-friendly actor, so it's like, connect those dots! I'm not a member of their club. I didn't sign the waiver to let him use AI on ‘Spider-Noir.’ I’m probably not going to be working with that studio again, but that’s OK.”

Amazon did not respond to a request for comment.

The use of AI continues to be a major sticking point across Hollywood. Industry unions including the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists and the Writers Guild recently secured protections against technology in new contracts. But as AI evolves and AI actors such as Tilly Norwood continue to make headlines, it's still unclear exactly how the industry will be affected.

“Spider-Noir,” which premiered in May, is a “Spider-Man” project that put a 1930s crime-thriller spin on the web-slinging superhero. The show was produced by both Sony Pictures Television and Amazon MGM Studios.

Cage's part as “The Spider” marked his first leading role in a series. The Oscar-winning actor, whose Malibu home was recently affected by a sinkhole, is known best for his roles in “National Treasure,” “Moonstruck” and “The Rock.”

Upon its release, “Spider-Noir” received much praise from fans and critics alike. In its first six weeks of streaming, the series garnered 2.6 billion minutes watched, according to Nielsen. It was also Amazon's most-nominated show at this year's Emmys, with 11 nominations and five wins.

Last month, Amazon announced that the show was canceled after only one season, leaving much of the industry in shock.

During his Comic Con panel, Cage also said he plans to keep working in TV. He announced that he will be joining the HBO series "True Detective."

"My agent's out there somewhere listening," Cage said. "That's OK that I'm the first to announce that, right?"

STAFF MEMBERS Dalia Rangel, left, and Paloma Flores with founder Luis Quiroz at Mission Lotería's storefront in San Francisco.

BUSINESS

Latino community helps its own entrepreneurs

Nonprofits offer space in a store, plus advice, resources and links to a bigger audience.

BY TERRY TANG

From the pink neon sign on the sunshine yellow wall to the multicolored Mexican paper garlands, Mission Lotería's storefront exudes cultural pride everywhere you look.

After seven years of promoting local businesses in San Francisco's predominantly Latino Mission District, the nonprofit has a brick-and-mortar space that reflects its passion for the neighborhood. Now, beyond events like taco tours and a Bad Bunny look-alike contest, it can provide a spot for Latino entrepreneurs and artists to sell their goods.

Luis Quiroz, Mission Lotería's founder, is still nervous about hitting monthly numbers amid a rough economy in one of the country's most high-priced cities. But he and his team believe in their — for lack of a better word — mission.

“What’s the economics term? High risk, high reward,” Quiroz said. “I feel like we’re at a really good place. Almost every day, people come in, they’re like, ‘Omigod, I’ve been following you for so long.’”

Despite a rise in costs and fears around immigration crackdowns, some Latinos are making it their business, literally, to champion other Latino entrepreneurs. But beyond just shelf space, they are giving artists and businesspeople advice, resources and connection to a bigger audience.

The complex political and economic climate has only intensified their desire to invest their own time and resources in uplifting other Latino and Hispanic creatives. More places are starting to recognize Latino businesses and the inherent disadvantages they encounter.

Yesi Chavez has stocked greeting cards, magnets and "Trader Jose's" mini-totes at Mission Lotería since it opened just before the start of Hispanic Heritage Month. It's been a brand boost as store shoppers recognize her merchandise when she sells at pop-ups.

It's also special to Chavez, who works full time as a hotel events administrator, to display alongside other Latinos.

"I feel like Latinos, as far as I've seen, they really come together and try to support their own and try to make sure that, especially, Latina women are well supported," Chavez said.

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Latinas can face more obstacles

Amor Collective, where you can find fun merch — made entirely by Latinas — such as concha bread earrings or Día de Muertos (Day of the Dead) candles, opened in August in downtown Phoenix after quietly operating in the suburbs.

Founder Stephanie Vasquez made the bold relocation move despite it meaning higher rent. A space next door to her coffeehouse became available and the shop, in Vasquez's opinion, deserved to be in the bustling downtown.

The grand opening “was emotional,” Vasquez said. “I will say that the Latino community truly supports us.”

A decade ago, Vasquez established a nonprofit, Empowering Latina Leaders in Arizona or ELLA (Spanish for “her”).

She created it after seeing how underpaid Latinas remain.

In fact, Hispanic female full-time workers make 79% of the median wages of their white counterparts, making them the lowest paid by race and gender, according to a July quarterly earnings report from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

She started monthly pop-up markets for Latina entrepreneurs. A permanent storefront seemed like a natural next step, so she opened Amor Collective four years ago in Peoria, a suburb of Phoenix.

“An incubator space for business owners to come together, mitigate risk — so now their risk is so low that they’re able to be bold and they’re able to really play in their businesses,” she said.

More than 35 entrepreneurs have signed a one-year lease with Amor. They are invited to monthly meetings where Vasquez arranges for guest speakers on topics including public relations and banking.

A few members have been afraid to come because of family members' detention by Immigration and Customs Enforcement. So Vasquez made them Zoom-friendly too.

"It's very clear that coming together as a community is very necessary," Vasquez said. "This is where I think it's important for the consumer, whether you have the privilege of not being afraid to come out, then to come to spaces like this and support communities that might be in need."

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Cities seeing

---

economic potential

The current mood of Latinos nationwide is divided when it comes to achieving the American dream.

Nearly one-fifth of Latino adults say it is out of reach for them, according to Pew Research. Nearly 3 in 10, or $27\%$ , believe the American dream doesn't exist altogether.

Outside of advocacy groups, more cities are acknowledging the potential of Latino businesses with resources such as grants. Quiroz asserts Mission Lotería — the name is a nod to a Mexican card game — would not have opened had the team not pitched their vision to a panel overseeing the city's storefront opportunity grants.

"I think just with the investments that we brought to the community, to the neighborhood, it felt like a good fit for both parties," Quiroz said. "We ended up receiving the grant award for \$50,000. That went really quick with our re-

builds."

The North Central Massachusetts Chamber of Commerce, which represents more than 25 cities and rural communities 50 miles west of Boston, launched the Latino Initiative for Development of Entrepreneurship and Resources in July.

LIDER, the Spanish word for “leader,” affords Latino-run businesses networking and educational opportunities to make up for “an access gap.” Some events and materials are in Spanish.

“We’ve seen for many years now a growing trend of businesses that are being formed or led by Latinos here in the region,” said Chamber President and Chief Executive Roy Nascimento. “Latinos are starting businesses at three times the rate of the general population.”

The Chamber of Commerce has not received any negative feedback for this initiative or for being seen as pro-DEI — diversity, equity and inclusion.

“Chambers of commerce by their very nature are very inclusive,” Nascimento said. “Our mission is to advance the economy of North Central Massachusetts.”

---

Stores plan to be community hubs

Amor Collective will strive to be an event space beyond just meetings and workshops. A nook with tables, chairs and a TV screen will also be a place for craft classes. DJs have started spinning tunes on Sundays.

"I'd love to have venue spaces. Like everything our community needs, I'd love to be a one-stop shop to do that," Vasquez said.

Quiroz, who was undocumented as an infant and carries proof of his legal permanent status, wants Mission Lotería to feel welcoming for Latino and Hispanic people whether they were born in the U.S. or somewhere else.

Future plans include creating content to introduce entrepreneurs via social media, YouTube and a podcast. The ongoing construction inside includes carving out a podcast room in the back.

“People can really hear the stories of these business owners and their journey,” Quiroz said. “Any time I get a chance to speak to them, their stories are so fascinating.”

Tang writes for the Associated Press.

Lower ratings, revenue send awards shows to streaming

RICHARD SHOTWELL Invision / Associated Press

AMAZON will be home to the Emmy Awards in 2027, ending decades of it airing on broadcast networks.

RICHARD SHOTWELL Invision / Associated Press

[Streaming, from A1] tract enough ad revenue to cover their costs on broadcast networks, which include rights fees and production costs.

"The value proposition got turned upside down," said Kelly Kahl, former entertainment president for CBS. "If you look over the last 10 years, the ratings for all of them have dropped through the floor, but the prices have not."

The migration of viewers to streaming platforms is a factor in driving down the ratings of all programs on traditional TV over the last decade. Awards shows were holding up better than sitcoms and dramas, as viewers watched them live.

But that advantage diminished in the age of social media. The format itself is less appealing to many younger viewers, who prefer to watch clips of performances, acceptance speeches and red carpet walks on their phone rather than sit through a three-hour ceremony.

ABC considered dropping the Oscars before signing its last rights deal with the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. But former Walt Disney Co. Chief Executive Bob Iger — who started his career at the network shortly before it won back the rights to the event — still liked the prestige that it brought to the company.

The academy cited YouTube's global scale as a reason for the move, reflecting the increasingly international focus of the organiza-

tion.

The departure of the Emmy Awards was not sudden. Executives at the broadcast networks have groused for years that the telecast had become an advertisement for their competition, first when premium cable networks such as HBO and Showtime scored multiple wins and nominations. The delta between the taste of Emmy voters and broadcast TV viewing widened even more as streaming platforms dominated the top categories, and the ratings fell sharply, bottoming out at a record low in early 2024.

Most of the exposure for the broadcast networks on the Emmys in recent years has come through tributes to classic shows and the “In Memoriam” segments.

This year's telecast on NBC and Peacock was watched by 6.7 million viewers, according to Nielsen, down nearly $10\%$ from the year before.

Amazon will pay \$15 million annually in its six-year deal with the Television Academy, a substantial increase over what the broadcast networks were paying.

It may take some work to turn the program into a moneymaker again. Executives at Netflix — who are taking a closer look at costs as the streaming behemoth matures — considered a bid for the Emmys telecast, but could not see a way to make the show profitable, according to one person familiar with the discussions who was not authorized to com-

ment publicly.

But a property that no longer is a good business proposition for the networks can still be attractive to a streamer that wants to make a statement.

"The Emmys may not attract tens of millions of viewers, but they do provide Amazon with a prestigious awards show, which can more closely associate premium TV with Prime Video in the minds of consumers," said Brandon Katz, director of insights and content strategy at Greenlight Analytics.

Katz said adding a major awards program such as the Emmys will help attract advertisers to Prime Video that want to reach audiences who watch live. "As live appointment viewing, it can also feed Amazon's ad tier," he said. "They're not really buying a new audience — they're buying a new toy for their existing audience to play with."

Amazon Prime Video hasn't been as competitive in the Emmys as rivals HBO Max, Apple TV and Netflix. But it will be able to feature the stars of its original shows as presenters, as the broadcast networks have done for years. And the biggest winners at the last two Emmys, Apple TV's "Widow's Bay" and "The Studio," can both be watched on Prime Video through its partnership with Apple TV. Television Academy Chairman Cris Abrego said Prime's role as a TV hub factored into the decision.

The Television Academy also touted the global reach of Prime Video, which will show the ceremony in more than 200 countries and territories. “Television has never been more global, and the Emmys should be a celebration that the world can share,” Abrego said in a statement when the deal was announced last week. The telecast will also be available to view without a Prime Video subscription.

Purists may lament that a program celebrating television will no longer be shown on the networks that built the medium. But the audience has already moved to streaming services, which now account for half of all video consumption, according to Nielsen. Having a major awards show with a long legacy will add to their stature.

“They get to bring their execs and talents, they get to throw big parties and appear big players, which they increasingly are,” Kahl said.

Networks have pushed back against the shift to clips where they could. Kahl recalls that when CBS was negotiating its rights deal for the Grammy Awards, the network tried to further delay the time between the live broadcast and the posting of clips on social media as a way to drive more viewers to the telecast.

Not every trophy show is leaving broadcast, though.

Although Disney no longer wanted to shell out more than \$100 million a year to carry the Oscars, the company was willing to take on the Grammy Awards when CBS decided to pass.

ABC has a 10-year agreement to carry the Recording Academy's annual show starting in 2027, paying in the range of \$50 million a year. The telecast will also stream on Disney+ and Hulu. The belief inside ABC is that music-driven awards shows have broader appeal than movies and television, which have become more niche in the age of streaming.

The Grammy Awards celebrate the hottest current stars but also pay homage to older legendary acts, giving it broader appeal. One person familiar with the negotiations said it was important to the Recording Academy to reach the millions of viewers still showing up to watch traditional television.

Disney is also expected to look for synergies between the Grammy Awards on Feb. 7 and its first Super Bowl telecast since 2006, which airs the following week on Feb. 14.

A walk-on by Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce with Taylor Swift? Don't count it out.

PRESIDENT TRUMP and Meta's Mark Zuckerberg listen as Anthropic's Dario Amodei speaks to reporters last month in Washington.

BUSINESS

AI companies celebrate federal leeway on safety

BY GARANCE BURKE

Tech Week is in full bloom in San Francisco, packing the city's restaurants this week with venture capitalists and AI founders ebullient about the White House's stance on regulating artificial intelligence — namely, don't do it.

And after months of debate about leading AI companies' unchecked AI agents meddling with everything, including U.S. government websites and healthcare data, the nation now finds itself further from governing AI systems than it was a few years ago.

President Trump brought tech titans to Washington late last month for a luncheon and ceremonial signing of a voluntary safety pact he described as “almost a constitution” surrounding “Super Intelligence,” the administration’s new preferred term for AI.

The 308-word agreement lays out that advanced AI labs should follow safety protocols and set up internal teams to monitor their own progress, but the administration has yet to provide details on how, in OpenAI Chief Executive Sam Altman's words, to keep "bad things" from happening.

Safety challenges were not top of mind inside a crowded event space in San Francisco on Wednesday, where founders and funders said the government's hands-off approach would net higher profits for companies building AI-powered defense and security systems.

Panelists praised the government's bullish industry support at one meeting aimed at "investing in the forefront," part of the blitz of popup events organized by Andreessen Horowitz, a venture firm whose head is a Trump science and tech advisor.

"I want to start with one figure that I think really emphasizes the investment opportunity of defense, and that's \$1 trillion. The U.S. government, for the first time, is allocating \$1 trillion to its defense spending. And \$13.5 billion of that will go to autonomous systems and AI," said Kyle Stanford, a venture capital research director at PitchBook, a market intelligence platform. "That has obviously brought a lot of capital into defense tech spending, more than we've ever seen."

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New concerns emerge on AI safety

A day later, three researchers at OpenAI's headquarters said the ChatGPT maker had fired them, posting that “fear and unclear rules stymie AI safety work.” Separately, David Robinson, a leader on OpenAI’s safety team until he recently resigned, said he was worried about letting the advanced labs police themselves.

“This is no substitute for hard law, and it does give a lot of freedom to the companies,” Robinson said. “The time between model generations is measured in weeks ... and I think we have some very serious safety challenges in front of us in the nearer term.”

Trump has staked his political capital on the AI industry's success, saying its unbridled development is key to winning the AI race against China. On the first day of his second term, the Republican president repealed a Biden-era executive order aimed in part at guarding against the risks that AI systems pose to consumers, workers and national security.

His administration has since reoriented federal policy away from oversight and toward rapid growth, including by canceling previous requirements for AI developers to share safety test results with the federal government. In December, Trump signed an executive order aimed at blocking AI regulations at the state level, saying a patchwork of rules could stifle the industry.

Even as Silicon Valley companies have disclosed their models' involvement in troubling cyberattacks throughout the year, the burgeoning tech sector has continued to drive economic growth.

Concerns about AI safety centered on existential risk, rather than current real-world harms, landed at the center of debates last month, when a relatively unknown Anthropic engineer quit and called for a pause on tech development to keep “superhuman” systems from eluding controls. Then, Anthropic and OpenAI CEOs echoed the call to slow AI development. To some critics, their manifestos appeared aimed at currying favor with investors ahead of their public listings and the elections, when the political tides could turn with many voters opposed to data centers.

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Pact preserves latitude for firms

As calls mounted for stricter control of AI, the administration brought tech executives to the White House for lunch, followed by a ceremonial signing of the agreement on AI safety.

"I'm seeing tremendous self-policing," Trump told reporters after the event.

The document was signed by representatives of OpenAI, Anthropic, Meta,

Google, SpaceXAI and Nvidia.

OpenAI is committed to embedding external assessors and finalizing contracts with third-party safety assessors, said a spokesperson, who referred the AP to a company post stating that the researchers were fired for violating “clear policies on handling sensitive information.”

Google referred to CEO Sundar Pichai's post that the company conducts appropriate testing and evaluations and is collaborating "to establish norms and build public confidence."

Meta recently updated its standards for training, evaluating and releasing its most capable AI models, and spokesman Andy Stone pointed to efforts to refine its board of directors' governance structure.

Nvidia and SpaceXAI did not respond to requests for comment.

Anthropic, which voluntarily disclosed Friday that its agents submitted a false tip to a Philadelphia police website about an unsolved homicide case, is bringing in independent evaluators and discussing collaborations with industry groups, a spokesperson said.

In a statement, the White House reiterated Trump's comments about working with industry to balance innovation and security and did not directly answer questions about how the administration plans to monitor the AI companies' implementation.

Following the new Anthropic disclosure, it added that the Trump administration expected full transparency from the company, calling notification and remediation “not optional. It is a critical national security obligation.”

Under Democratic President Biden, leading AI companies also made voluntary commitments to promote "safe, secure, and transparent development" of their models that included specific guidelines for tests and transparency reports. The current accord lacks that, said Sarah Myers West, a former senior AI advisor to the Federal Trade Commission.

“Across the board, this self-regulatory approach has consistently done one thing, which is failed to work. It’s failed to in any meaningful way ensure that these companies are honestly even keeping their house in order, let alone ensuring that they are compliant with existing law,” said Myers West, now co-executive director of the New York-based nonprofit AI Now. “All that they’re getting is grace from this government.”

After last month's lunch-eon with Trump, the FTC said it had opened an investigation into OpenAI, Anthropic and other companies over dangers their technology may pose to consumers. The FTC didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.

Trump recently appointed National Intelligence Director Jay Clayton and FTC Chairman Andrew Ferguson to serve on his new “Super Intelligence Force,” which the president said would keep the U.S. dominant in AI development. He posted Thursday that the White House would consider anyone who does not refer to AI using his preferred term as “THE ENEMY!”

Members of Congress, as well as civil liberties and consumer rights groups, have pushed for more regulations on AI, saying there is not enough oversight.

Graham Steele, a former assistant secretary in the U.S. Treasury Department, said even if AI companies set up internal evaluation teams or hire outside evaluators, such a structure can make them vulnerable to undue pressure on their work.

“We live in a democratic society. Are they the right ones to have the power to be able to make decisions that have broad, structural, social, and political consequences?” Steele said.

Burke writes for the Associated Press.

MARKET ROUNDUP

Stocks hover near Wall St.'s record in mixed trading

BY DAMIAN J. TROISE AND ALEX VEIGA

NEW YORK — Wall Street kicked off a busy week on Monday with a mixed finish for the major U.S. stock indexes, although the market remained near its all-time high.

The Standard & Poor's 500 index slipped 4.30 points, or 0.1%, to 7,807.24 after wavering between small gains and losses. The benchmark index set a record high on Oct. 6 and is up 14% so far this year.

The Dow Jones industrial average rose 195.60 points, or 0.4%, to close at 51,850.55, and the Nasdaq composite fell 120.27 points, or 0.4%, to 27,245.90.

Shares in roughly 64% of the companies in the S&P 500 rose, led by communication services stocks. Meta Platforms rose 3.4%, T-Mobile added 2.2%, AT&T gained 1.4% and Verizon Communications rose 2.7%.

Energy stocks had some of the biggest gains as oil prices kept rising. Chevron rose 1.4%.

Despite those gains, a slide in big technology stocks dragged the market into the red.

Micron Technology fell 3.9%, Advanced Micro Devices dropped 2.3%, Broadcom slid 1.9% and Nvidia gave up 1.3%. They are among several companies in the sector with big stock values that tend to have a heavy influence on the market. They have also been the driving force behind the broader market's record gains throughout the year. | NYSE | NASD | Vol. (in mil.) | 3663 | 3061 | Pvs. Volume | 4299 | 2756 | Advanced | 1239 | 1331 | Declined | 1389 | 2098 | New Highs | 45 | 116 | New Lows | 92 | 335 | Those companies could face more scrutiny from investors during this round of corporate earnings as Wall Street tries to get a better sense of whether the stock gains made during the frenzy over artificial intelligence can translate into future growth.

“AI continues to support growth, reinforcing the outlook for tech and critical suppliers across the supply chain,” Magdalena Ocampo, market strategist at Principal Asset Management, wrote in a report. “Yet uncertainty about AI's long-term impact persists, making future gains more reliant on earnings delivery rather than potential."

Stocks are reaching for records often because of the tech sector but remain very volatile on a daily basis, partly because of big shifts in oil prices and their effect on bond yields and inflation.

The price of Brent crude, the international standard, rose 1.8% to settle at \$106.65 per barrel. Prices have been swinging between \$96 and nearly \$110 in the last month over uncertainty about the U.S. war with Iran and its continued effect on global energy supplies and inflation.

Prices jumped despite

President Trump's announcement on social media Friday that he struck a deal with President Vladimir Putin to buy Russian diesel, aiming to tamp down a spike in fuel prices ahead of the Nov. 3 U.S. midterm elections. The plan, though, runs counter to U.S. efforts to cut the flow of money Russia gets from oil and gas sales that can be used to pay for its war against Ukraine.

Higher oil prices have been driving gasoline prices higher. That's a direct hit to many people's wallets, as gasoline is usually a necessary expense. The rise in diesel is more indirect, raising the costs for just about any shipped product, which usually results in higher prices for everything, including food and clothing.

The surge in energy prices and its effect on the broader economy will be a key focus this week as Wall Street reviews several important economic updates. They include fresh data on the housing market, inflation and retail sales.

The big updates this week involve reports about inflation hitting consumers and businesses. On Wednesday, the government will release the closely watched consumer price index, which measures price changes for a wide variety of products and services. Economists expect the index to show the rate of inflation worsened to 3.6% in September from 3.4% in August.

A report on inflation called the producer price index will be released Thursday and is also expected to show that inflation remains stubbornly high. It measures inflation faced by businesses before it hits consumers.

An update on how consumers are reacting to high prices will be released Thursday. Economists expect the report on retail sales for September to show that households pulled back on spending.

The rate of inflation by any measure remains well above the Federal Reserve's target rate of 2%. That prompted the central bank to raise its benchmark interest rate at its last meeting in an effort to cool inflation. Wall Street expects another rate hike before the year ends.

Inflation and expectations for high interest rates have been driving Treasury yields higher in the bond market. The 10-year Treasury yield, which influences mortgage rates, recently touched its highest level since 2002. It has since eased a bit and stood at 5.24% late Friday. U.S. bond trading was closed Monday for the Columbus Day holiday.

Higher mortgage rates have been weighing on the housing market and Wall Street will get an update Tuesday on home sales.

The latest round of corporate earnings updates ramps up this week with financial results from banks. Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo will report their results Tuesday and Bank of America will report its results Wednesday. They have been reporting record profits throughout the year, and Wall Street expects more of the same for the latest quarter.

Markets in Europe gained ground and markets in Asia were mostly lower. Markets in Tokyo were closed for a holiday.

Troise and Veiga write for the Associated Press. AP writers Michelle Chapman and Elaine Kurtenbach contributed to this report.

Voices KAREN STABINER GUEST CONTRIBUTOR

Restaurants that blossom without putting down roots

‘Moveable feast’ is now a business model for restaurateurs who rent space in kitchens and serve wherever they can

O

After a couple of failed partnerships, 31-year-old chef Ronnie Muñoz decided to strike out on his own. But the chasm between employee and owner is wide, and treacherous, and expensive, so he opted for a safer transition than a lease on a permanent place. Muñoz's dream lives for the moment in his brother's borrowed Ford Transit Connect van, which he drives from one pop-up location to another, a moveable feast that relies on other people's restaurants, bakeries and breweries.

Momentum is essential. He opened for business a year ago in the driveway of his home, and by March he was on the road, serving customers in one ZIP code or another as opportunity allowed. Camello is not yet a brick-and-mortar restaurant but more than a portable food stall, a half-step that relies on people who lend his dream a hand.

My first visit was to East Hollywood, thanks to the dual draw of light weekend traffic and flavor combinations I needed to taste to appreciate. Since then, tracking Camello has become a favorite work-break distraction. I am willing to do two things I rarely do — take a drive across the city and stand in line — because tenacity and great food deserve our support, even if the ambience is heavy on street noise.

Muñoz started out with a signature meal-in-a-sandwich, a homemade pita made with Tehachapi Grain Project blue corn flour, stuffed with fillings that reflected both Mexican and Levantine cuisines. He listed every new menu item and location on social media, and by late summer was posting happy photos with messages like, "sold out 60 sandwiches in thirty minutes!" after a stop at downtown's Boomtown Brewery. He bought a rotisserie roaster for the chickens he intends to add to the menu, and started a conversation with a landlord at what might become a real home.

For now he does his prep work in a rented commercial kitchen and then loads the truck with fillings and sauces he can assemble wherever he's going, pitas and a pita warmer, a compact refrigerator, a cutting board, and storage containers. In late September he joined the ranks at Smorgasburg L.A., on Sundays; for that he packs a generator as well.

If a restaurant charges him more than his sales warranted, he finds others. Clémence de Lutz, whose Petitgrain Boulangerie in Santa Monica is closed on Mondays and Tuesdays — and who began her own career filling orders out of a rented commercial kitchen — provides a frequent home away from home, Muñoz's customer line on those days a junior version of the one the bakery draws Wednesday through Sunday.

SMORGASBURG L.A. incubates some businesses that aspire to have permanent addresses.

MARIAH TAUGER Los Angeles Times

There are unexpected side benefits to tracking and visiting pop-ups. The drive through neighborhoods, rather than past them on the freeway, is a nice reminder of how many discrete towns there are inside L.A.'s city limits. Supporting an incipient restaurant is something I can do to help make sure a block's future doesn't devolve into a repeating row of national food franchises.

At the recent mayoral debate, Mayor Karen Bass equated street food vendors who set up right in front of restaurants with homeless people whose presence there deters customers, a position she quickly recanted after a storm of criticism, her office announcing, "she stands firmly with street vendors."

Ironically, her qualifier about location might have struck a chord if not for its tone. I've heard complaints from restaurant owners for years about unfair competition from nearby vendors who don't have to pay rent or utilities and can charge less because of it. But the city of Los Angeles occupies almost 470 square miles and is home to almost 4 million people. Surely there is more than enough room for everyone — street vendor, pop-up, restaurant.

There's conceptual room, too. When I want to be looked after, I head to a full-service restaurant on a nearby stretch of local businesses. When I want to eat at home while I watch the nightly news, I go to my favorite food stall or check out Camello's latest location. Apples and oranges.

Besides, where does the mayor think the next generation of neighborhood restaurants is going to come from? Some young chefs have name recognition and the investors who come with it. Venture capitalists have lately fallen for restaurants, as though they were adorable rescue dogs — and wouldn't it feel good to save one? Not everyone attracts financial attention, though, and what seems like good fortune at the start isn't, always; it can come with strings attached. Muñoz prefers to operate on his own, and, while Camello's truck and driveway, his experience and contacts, put him a significant step ahead of food stalls, they are all part of the city's adjunct hospitality universe.

Some will stay where they are because the price of admission is too steep, but some members of this temporary population are poised for the next step. The only difference between them and the previous generation of ambitious chefs, the ones who shot forward too fast and too often flamed out, is pacing. It might be the one thing that saves them, in the long run.

We diners need to slow down, as well. I've never before heard so much kill-the-messenger noise directed at restaurants, which boils down to: "I am not going out anymore, it's too expensive and I can cook this stuff at home instead of being ripped off." Well, no, you can't, and service counts for something, and inflation is not a restaurant's fault. They're reeling from sticker shock just like the rest of us.

I am not suggesting we have an obligation to dine at ear-splitting, high-concept, table-churning establishments. I am saying we should take care of our good-neighbor food operations, even if it requires a GPS to do so, as they try to take care of us — and try not to get ahead of themselves.

Which brings me back to Muñoz and others like him. I'm hopeful about a next generation that sees modulated growth as a survival strategy, not a consolation prize, even if it means packing and unpacking that truck and commuting to tomorrow's temporary home.

KAREN STABINER is the author of the forthcoming “Try One Bite: Saving My Life, One Restaurant at a Time.”

Bell County Sheriff's Department via Associated Press

FT. HORD shooter Nidal Malik Hasan is scheduled to be executed on Dec. 3.

A disturbing return to barbarity

Re "Execution of Ft. Hood shooter to be livestreamed," Oct. 9

As a 1960 graduate of the Air Force Academy and as a United States Air Force officer, I have loyally served this country, believing that we are civilized and morally upright. But I must vehemently object to the decision to livestream the execution of convicted Ft. Hood shooter Nidal Malik Hasan. It is an appalling abandonment of dignity, civilized standards of justice and the moral code of the citizens of the country.

The enormity of Hasan's crimes is beyond dispute. But what possible public good is served by broadcasting the deliberate killing of a human being? The secretary of Defense should understand that the United States military represents the values of our nation. Turning an execution into a public spectacle demeans those values, dishonors the solemnity of military justice and risks reducing state-sanctioned killing to entertainment.

Transparency in government does not require turning death into a televised event.

We are a nation that claims to uphold human dignity and the rule of law. Publicly broadcasting an execution is not a demonstration of strength or justice. It is a disturbing regression toward the barbaric spectacles of centuries past.

The decision should be reversed. The president and “secretary of war” should be sanctioned if not impeached on this gross idea.

Disgust, shock, despair — no words can describe my feelings upon learning of the planned public execution of Nidal Malik Hasan by firing squad, as announced by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. The depth of moral depravity this illus-

trates is beyond imagination. How have the people of the United States allowed our leaders to sink to this level? What comes next? Shall we follow 18th century France and 20th century Nazi Germany and restore the guillotine, or simply go

Los Angeles Times

FOUNDED DECEMBER 4, 1881

A California Times Publication

BEN FURUTA

Alhambra

back to our 17th century colonial past and burn people at the stake? Or shall we take a lesson from medieval times and draw and quarter our enemies?

This planned public execution is also incredibly stupid. Blinded by his own

LETTERS

fury and lust for revenge, Hegseth will have granted Hasan what may be his greatest wish: being remembered as a martyr. Rather than being nearly forgotten as just one of many mass murderers the U.S. has spawned, he will be identified in history as the first person in nearly a century to be executed in this way. The execution will be remembered as a turning point in U.S. history, marking a moral and political decline that will definitively end the era of U.S. global leadership.

We cannot allow such barbarism to take place. We cannot allow our country to sink to the level of North Korea or Iran. It is time for all of us who are committed to our country to stand up and speak out against this reprehensible plan. No to firing squads, no to public executions and no to Hegseth.

GENEVIEVE GIULIANO

Huntington Beach

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:

I am disgusted and outraged at our government's intention to livestream an execution. Are we no better than the terrorists livestreaming their beheadings and executions? I always thought our country was better than this.

I am a new grandmother of a 10-month-old, and I fear for his future. I don't want him to grow up in a country that celebrates this kind of hate. What is the point of this sensationalism? What will we gain aside from more condemnation from our world partners? Is there any way to stop this grotesque and regressive act?

Anna Born

Los Angeles

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: :

It is hard to argue that Hasan, who killed 13 people, deserves any form of mercy. Nevertheless, Hegseth's proposed livestreaming of an execution is an ominous prospect — one that could later be applied to political dissidents under the charge of treason.

If they are showing us videos of executions, they should show us the unedited Sept. 2, 2025, execution of two men who were hanging on to a burning, sinking boat. Justification for the killing was provided under the pretext that the two men could continue to use the boat to deliver drugs. Hegseth maintains this video cannot be shown to the public as its content is top-secret. This top secret may be that the U.S. military ignored the laws of war to achieve expediency.

KEN HENSE

Los Angeles

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: :

Re “Public execution plan draws disgust,” Oct. 10

Vice President J.D. Vance thinks that he has the moral standing to rebuke the pope on matters of theology, but when it comes to a barbaric public execution, all he can say is that he won't watch it. Profile in cowardice.

PAUL HUNT

Sierra Madre

I loved Patt Morrison's piece on personalized California license plates. I'm a native Angeleno and have been living in Malibu for the past 20 years. I've always marveled at how many Malibuites give a shoutout to their hometown with "BU"-themed plates — "BU BORN," "BU MAMA," "BU SURF," etc. I started taking photos of them, and every so often would post a half dozen on a group I created on Nextdoor.

After doing that for a while, I had amassed quite the collection, and decided to assemble a photo montage as an art piece, which was on display at the local Tracy Park Gallery this summer. The piece, titled “Bu Plate Special,” has 122 plates organized thematically (starting with “BU,” ending with “BU,” “PCH,” “Zuma,” “Pt. Dume,” etc.). I’ve collected another 20 since the piece was completed, yet I’m sure it’s still a small fraction of all the plates out there.

MICHAEL KORY

Malibu

Why I'm rooting for 'Verity'

Re “Verity” gives its trio of actors roles to bite into,” Oct. 5

I was pleased to see that the Los Angeles Times review of the new film “Verity” was favorable.

For reasons that should become obvious by the end of this letter, I would love to see “Verity” become a film classic, or at least maybe a cult or niche favorite. I can also deal with it if it is just a flash in the pan and fades into film obscurity.

But if it were to become a monumental flop, which the reviewers and reporters seem to universally think “Digger” is destined to become and thus, Verity is a name (along with the likes of Ishtar, Gigli or, I guess, Digger) that is doomed to forever be associated with the definition of bad cinema — well, that is a destiny I surely do not want to endure for the rest of my life.

ART VERITY

Sherman Oaks

---

HOW TO WRITE TO US

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

Voices JON DUFFY CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Public execution? Yes, this is who we are

DEFENSE SECRETARY Pete Hegseth's performative, livestreamed killing of a former Army psychiatrist is intended to intimidate.

WIN McNAMEE Getty Images

FORMER ARMY psychiatrist Nidal Hasan murdered 13 people and wounded 32 others at Ft. Hood, Texas, in 2009. His guilt is not in

doubt. Nothing about his crime invites sympathy. But Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth wants Americans to watch him die.

After Hegseth announced plans to livestream Hasan's Dec. 3 execution by firing squad, retired Admiral James Stavridis, a former NATO supreme allied commander, condemned the spectacle. "It is not who we are as a military or a nation," he said.

Stavridis is right about who we should be. The moral character of the condemned does not determine the moral obligations of the state. Executing a paralyzed prisoner before a public audience demonstrates nothing about American strength. It transforms state violence into grotesque entertainment. But I fear the admiral is wrong about who we are.

Americans have repeated some version of “this is not who we are” whenever the government crosses another boundary we once considered unthinkable. The phrase draws a reassuring line between the country we believe in and the cruelty before us.

But repeated often enough, it becomes a means of absolution. If cruelty is inherently un-American, then acts committed by American institutions somehow don't really count as evidence about the country itself. We can condemn each new abuse as an aberration while avoiding the harder question raised by their accumulation.

Masked federal agents now patrol American neighborhoods, seize people and move them through a detention system largely hidden from public view.

Families and children are confined in degrading conditions, and people are deported to countries they may never have seen.

The military kills people aboard small boats without publicly identifying them, presenting the evidence against them or explaining the legal authority for their deaths.

American forces destroyed a school filled with children more than seven months ago, yet the government has neither acknowledged responsibility nor held anyone publicly accountable.

These are not warnings about what America might someday become. They are happening now, carried out by American institutions, under American authority and in the name of the American

people.

This is who we are.

It is not all that we are, and it is not who we must remain. But we don't defend America's character by refusing to recognize ourselves in the conduct of our own government. We are simply protecting ourselves from having to confront it.

The administration's treatment of violence follows a consistent logic. It conceals victims, evidence and consequences that might expose its failures while displaying violence it believes will demonstrate its power. In both cases, the people involved cease to be treated as human beings. They are political instruments — invisible when their suffering is inconvenient and displayed when their punishment is useful.

The proposed execution of Hasan matters beyond the death penalty itself. By livestreaming it, Hegseth would turn the soldiers carrying it out into performers in a government production and the public to become its audience. The spectacle is meant to teach us something about power. If we choose to watch, it will also teach us something about ourselves.

Calling this “who we are” will understandably anger Americans who have opposed these policies, marched against them, challenged them in court or exposed them through journalism. Responsibility is not distributed equally. The official who orders an abuse bears more responsibility than the citizen who struggles unsuccessfully to stop it.

Slavery was American, and so was abolition. The incarceration of Japanese Americans was American, and so were those who opposed it. Abu Ghraib was American, and so were the people who exposed it. Resistance to cruelty is also part of who we are.

But a history of resistance does not allow us to disown the cruelty. The Constitution begins with “We the People.” Those words claim democratic power, but they also assign democratic responsibility. We cannot take collective credit for the country's achievements while treating its abuses as the work of some alien government. What is done under American authority and in our name belongs to all of us. So does the responsibility to decide whether it continues.

The Constitution does not assume that American virtue is fixed or automatic. It charges us with forming a more perfect union. Those words acknowledge failure and impose an obligation to demand more from ourselves.

That obligation becomes concrete this November. Most of the officials responsible for these acts will not appear on the ballot. But Americans will decide whether to elect a Congress willing to hold them accountable.

Congress can compel testimony and obtain records. It can investigate killings at sea, the deaths of children in their school and the conditions inside detention facilities. It can restrict the money used to carry out violence in our name and insist that executive power operate under law and in public view. The Congress Americans elect will help determine whether cruelty is constrained or rewarded.

Candidates for Congress should be asked whether they will use those powers. Voters should listen carefully to the answers — and to the silence that so often substitutes for one.

If we elect lawmakers who excuse these acts, conceal them or refuse to investigate them, we cannot continue calling the conduct an aberration. We will have chosen to permit it.

“This is not who we are” is a noble aspiration. But aspirations do not enforce themselves. In a democracy, they become real only when citizens insist that their government honor them. If this is not who we are, we must prove it.

Voices DEAN FLOREZ GUEST CONTRIBUTOR

Communities should require that data centers contribute

Each major project should fund at least one substantial technology program tied to an identified public need

CALIFORNIA HAS always hidden the true price of progress somewhere beyond the horizon. The water arrives

The water arrives from a distant river. The electricity crosses a mountain range. By the time the benefits reach us, the damage has been assigned elsewhere.

Now the future is arriving in windowless buildings.

Data centers are rising from industrial corridors and farmland with the appetite of cities. They pull electricity by the hundreds of megawatts. Inside, servers build fortunes. Outside, residents open their utility bills and wonder what will remain.

Before California approves another facility, every host community deserves an answer: What will this project make better here?

Gov. Gavin Newsom recently signed seven laws that begin to make the hidden costs visible. Until those are in effect, a company could arrive with the appetite of a city and quietly leave its bill for wires and water with people who never asked for it.

Now utility regulators must reckon with what it takes to serve that appetite. The rates and connection terms are meant to make new users shoulder their share of the grid and the electricity it must supply, instead of loading those costs onto a family studying its bill. Regulators must now make that promise real.

The water, too, must come into the open. Data centers are water guzzlers, using huge volumes for cooling. Before construction, a developer must show where that water will come from, how the facility will fare in drought and who will pay for the new pipes. After the servers begin to hum, estimates must give way to actual water use. State planners will gain an account of energy consumption and efficiency. A town needs numbers it can see.

A 33-MEGAWATT data center in Vernon shows a new kind of infrastructure rising in the state.

And the project can no longer pass under a blanket environmental exemption. A quicker path through court is reserved for facilities that meet demanding conditions on clean power, water and protection of ratepayers. In California, speed must be earned.

These laws draw a floor beneath the bargain. They do not guarantee that a neighborhood gains something lasting from the land, power and water it commits. California should establish a “community benefit standard” for every new data center and major expansion. Protect the resources of the place. Pay every cost the project creates. Then deliver a public benefit that residents can see, measure and enforce.

The first requirements are obligations, not generosity. Developers must disclose projected electricity demand, water consumption, emissions, noise and infrastructure needs. That includes drought, extreme heat and nearby projects. Households cannot pay for capacity reserved by a corporation that

may never use it.

No company should receive applause for obeying environmental law. Efficient cooling is not a community gift when the machinery is necessary to run the servers. A research grant cannot excuse an unacceptable water plan. Public benefits cannot purchase permission to pollute a neighborhood or drain an aquifer.

Only after those tests are met does the additional bargain begin.

Each major project should fund at least one substantial technology program tied to an identified public need. Residents and public agencies would help choose the priority. California should measure what changes, not what gets announced.

One developer might finance advanced water reuse with a local district beyond what is required to address its own demand. The compact would state how much freshwater demand must be eliminated, how savings will be verified and who will operate the system. Buying equipment would not count. Producing verified water savings would.

Another facility might guarantee computing capacity to California hospitals and universities studying rare diseases, cancer or wildfire behavior. The agreement would specify secure access, support and computing hours, and bind the tenant. Researchers would receive usable capacity, not whatever remains after commercial customers finish.

A third project could finance batteries and controls that keep a clinic, cooling center or water system operating during an outage. The equipment must serve the public in an emergency. Backup power reserved for company servers would not qualify.

Every project must still provide a direct local benefit. A statewide research program may supplement that commitment, but it cannot replace it.

The compact would name beneficiaries, funding, responsible parties, milestones and penalties for failure. Its duties would survive a sale or tenant change. Independent verification would report delivery, not spending.

If one method underperforms, the agreements between data centers and communities should permit another. The obligation itself remains.

Contribution levels should reflect project size. Small facilities

Devil rays, hammerheads and wahoos in Southland waters

Photographs by GARY CORONADO For The Times

OLIVIA SOLIS casts her line aboard the Dana Pride, top left. Top right, Captain Brandon Erdo helps Angel Dominguez remove a hook from a yellowfin tuna. Above, David Koligian is framed by fishing rods on the vessel.

‘We’re seeing fish that should be in Cabo San Lucas right now. The entire ecosystem has shifted.’

— OWYN SNODGRASS, fish biologist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

[Catch, from A1]

that currently exist in the Pacific have boosted a warm blob of water that began to appear off California's coast earlier this year.

Combined, the conditions are welcoming fish that are typically rare to these waters, like the bullet tuna, which typically swims in the Indian and Atlantic oceans or around Hawaii and the central Pacific.

In the last few months, sea creatures such as whale and hammerhead sharks, devil rays, wahoos and other fish species have been seen by beachgoers and amateur anglers from Orange County to Malibu.

“We’re seeing fish that should be in Cabo San Lucas right now,” National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration fish biologist Owyn Snodgrass said. “The entire ecosystem has shifted.”

For recreational fish companies, the super El Niño is supercharging their business. Tuna and other sought-after species are being caught in U.S. waters by the thousands, some for the first time in two years. It has also been a historic year for marlin fishing, data show, with more of the large fish caught this year than any year since 1990.

“This is the future’s ‘Good old days,’ ” said Mike Conroy, president of the Sportfishing Assn. of California. “The ‘Remember when’ days.”

But the reality out at sea is much more complicated. While there is widespread agreement that there are fish off California's coast that haven't been seen here since the last major El Niño and marine heat wave a decade ago, for reasons scientists can't fully explain, there's just not as many of them being caught as last time.

The initial frenzy aboard the Dana Pride after Freeman's success subsided quickly.

“Who wants a bullet tuna?” shouted a deckhand, dropping it in the sack of a willing angler. As it turns out, anglers said, bullet tuna don’t keep well, so they’re not a popular catch even in their regular turf.

Erdo ordered everyone to reel their lines in so he could move on to another spot.

An uneasy quiet took over the boat as customers waited for another catch.

With his blood-spattered feet resting below a panel of monitors in the wheelhouse, the captain used binoculars to scan the water around him, looking for any sign of life that could mean fish were near.

That could be kelp, which attract small fish seeking safety, in turn attracting larger fish looking for a meal. It could also mean birds diving into the water, or simply disturbed water indicating fish at the surface.

The sonar pinged about once a second, scanning the water 500 feet in every direction for fish, while another machine scanned the water immediately below the boat. Early in the trip, Erdo followed a large pod of dolphins that took turns blasting out of the water, appearing to put on a performance for the boat.

“So far so good,” said Jacob Rubio, who had snagged some bullet tuna on his hook but lost them before he could reel them in. “It’s still early.”

Last year, Dana Wharf Sportfishing and Whale Watching boats, including the Dana Pride, caught only two yellowfin tuna, said owner Donna Kalez, citing data from sportfishingreport.com, a website that publishes sportfishing companies' catches. This year, they've already netted more than 5,800, along with more than 150 mahi-mahi that also prefer more tropical waters.

The last time the company was catching yellowfin anywhere like this was in 2014 and 2015, when the water was again unusually warm and they caught nearly 10,000.

“Thus far, fishing for mahi-mahi, yellowfin tuna, skipjack, yellowtail and bonito has been good," fisheries scientist Lyall Bellquist said in an email after reviewing the state's commercial passenger fishing vessel catch data for The Times. "But we're not yet seeing the huge spike in catch that we expected to see in association with the El Niño."

One possible explanation could lie in the differences between the marine heat waves this year versus back then, NOAA research oceanographer Andrew Leising said.

From the fall of 2014 into the summer of 2015, a marine heat wave set itself up off the coast of California, which scientists nicknamed “the blob.” The phenomenon disrupted the food chain, sending ripples through the commercial and recreational fishing industries. El Niño conditions also sprang up in 2015 but did not produce significant rainfall.

By the end of September 2014, anglers on commercial passengers boats like the Dana Pride had caught 101,610 yellowfin tuna and 9,200 skipjack tuna off the California coast. By that point in 2015, they'd caught 88,590 yellowfin and 17,950 skipjack tuna.

This year, they've caught 10,980 yellowfin and 2,440 skipjack tuna through September. To underscore how unusual this year still is, California Department of Fish and Wildlife data show that no yellowfin tuna or skipjack tuna were caught off the California coast at all in the last two years. (The state excludes fish catch data if fewer than three boats reported catching a species.)

Bellquist said the lower catch numbers compared with the last major warm water year could be “due to a combination of reduced offshore fishing effort this year for economic reasons, and reduced yellowfin tuna availability relative to 2015 for oceanographic reasons.”

A preliminary analysis Bellquist performed on fish catch data indicates there have been 25% fewer anglers making trips on boats like the Dana Pride than in 2015. And there are “significant, fundamental oceanographic differences” between the 2014 and 2015 “blob” and the marine heat wave that’s been occurring for months this year, he said.

Erdo, the Dana Pride captain, said the talk about the El Niño hasn't quite lived up to the reality.

"It was hyped up so much," he said.

Even the California Department of Fish and Wildlife has noticed the gap between the hype about the fishing on social media and the reality, senior environmental scientist Elizabeth Hellmers said.

“Exaggeration is just part of being a fisherman,” Hellmers said.

By around 12:40 p.m., Erdo had found a couple of boats near a patch of floating kelp and joined them, when finally the bite was on.

Multiple anglers reeled in yellowfin tuna, which were visible through the clear water flitting back and forth near the boat. They were about 40 to 50 feet deep, the captain said, and he suggested that people drop their lures to around that depth to entice the fish to bite.

But the fish soon stopped biting, likely because they had been gorging on tuna crabs, Erdo said, a species drawn into Southern California by the warm water.

By the end of the day, the Dana Pride's haul consisted of 120 bullet tuna, 17 yellowfin tuna, three skipjack tuna and one mahi-mahi. Freeman and his son each landed a yellowfin, while Rubio and his son came away with a handful of bullet tuna but no yellowfin.

"Not an epic day by any means," Erdo said over the loudspeaker as the anglers got ready to get off the boat. "Keep an eye on the fish counts. I don't think this fish is going anywhere."

Record storms are hitting, reshaping California's coast

[Storms, from A1] cific is influenced by several factors, including a long-term ocean heating trend caused by global warming, and higher nearshore ocean temperatures and a decrease in wind shear from El Niño, which can significantly weaken hurricane activity, UC Agriculture and Natural Resources climate scientist Daniel Swain explained during a recent webinar.

“El Niño in the Pacific Basin decreases wind shear, so it removes the inhibitive storm-decapitating effect of wind shear at the same time that it amplifies water temperature,” Swain said. “So it adds more fuel and it makes that fuel more likely to take advantage of its environment.”

Typically, once storms enter the cooler water in the eastern tropical Pacific, they weaken significantly. But the marine heat wave and El Niño conditions — bringing ocean temperatures 10 to 13 degrees higher than normal — have provided a more conducive environment for hurricanes such as Rachel to get close enough to affect the California coast.

These storms, combined with high tides and the Kelvin wave, which can add 6 to 12 inches to background sea levels, have resulted in significant damage and a re-shaping of the coast over the summer.

And it's not over yet, experts say.

Hurricane Simon, currently spinning along Mexico's west coast, is expected to make landfall there this week, and forecasters say there's roughly a $90\%$ chance of another cyclone formation in the next seven days.

"I wouldn't be surprised if we saw a couple more hurricanes or tropical systems forming in the Central Pacific, South Pacific area," said Kristan Lund, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Oxnard.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Climate Prediction Center said last week that there was virtually a 100% chance that the El Niño this season will be categorized as "very strong." There's also an 83% chance that this El Niño will be the strongest on record, going back to 1950, up from a 75% probability forecast last month.

Southern California also is bracing to see what El Niño has in store this winter.

Even if it doesn't result in torrential rain, El Niño can wreak havoc on the coastline.

Beaches typically go through a seasonal cycle with powerful winter waves

ALLEN J. SCHABEN Los Angeles Times

A LONG BEACH lifeguard patrols the damaged boardwalk last week as a wave slams into seawall boards.

dragging sand out to sea and more mild summer waves depositing the sand back onshore. But El Niño winters generally bring even stronger waves, resulting in more sand loss and erosion.

"There's likely to be pretty profound influences along the coast," Cayan said of the months ahead. "There [are] also cliff failures and other impacts when you get these big waves that are higher and more active than normal, so there's a lot of concern about that."

Two of the strongest El Niños in the last 75 years, in 1982-83 and 1997-98, were associated with extensive damage to the Southern California coast, battering homes, flooding streets and damaging piers.

Another one — in 2015-16 — did not result in above-average rain but did cause record coastal erosion. During that winter, researchers determined that the more extreme waves were about

50% larger than usual and the level of beach erosion was 76% higher than normal.

“Since that really big winter in 1983, we’ve had several occasions of pretty active winter storms, but we’ve sort of dodged bullets because those storms, in general, didn’t fall upon the highest tides,” Cayan said. “So this winter, again, it’s going to be sort of a luck of the draw.”

This winter, if El Niño-fueled storms arrive during king tides, it's likely that California will see significant coastal erosion, flooding and damage, Cayan said. King tides, which can push water levels past 7 feet, or higher during El Niño, are expected around Thanksgiving, Christmas and late January.

“Those periods are really critical for the fate of the California coastline and infrastructure this winter,” Cayan said.

CALIFORNIA

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 13, 2026 :: LATIMES.COM/CALIFORNIA

Photographs by CHRISTINA HOUSE Los Angeles Times

ELLA Leverton, 4, whose father is among those working on the restoration of the Griffith Park merry-go-round, checks out the horses.

It could be a long spin cycle

By Todd Martens

Nestled a short stroll from the Griffith Park Ranger Station, near some tennis courts and not far from the remains of the park's original zoo, lies a gem that is on most days behind lock and key. The Griffith Park merry-go-round, which turned 100 this year, stands motionless, many of its 66 wooden horses weathered and caught mid-ascent.

But the effort to ensure that they once again rise, fall and spin around a spherical base has begun. The Griffith Park merry-go-round is being resurrected by a group of passionate supporters and volunteers, some of whom are veterans of the theme park industry. Collectively, they argue that this isn't simply a relic from another era but a place of multi-generational connection, a reminder of the beauty of handmade art and a statement piece of Los Angeles.

Closed since the COVID-19 pandemic, save for a brief but limited run in 2022, the Griffith Park carousel is now under city control, purchased last year for \$1 million. That's a veritable

Plans are underway to make Griffith Park's landmark carousel operational again, with help from theme park designers. But it could take years and cost millions.

TRACY JAMES, who works in the L.A. Department of Recreation and Parks, is leading the restoration effort. "This is the jewel in the middle of the city," she says.

bargain for such a museum piece, argues Tracy James, who is leading the efforts to restore the project, one that's expected to take at least two years and cost millions.

“This is the jewel in the middle of the city,” says James, who works in the Department of Recreation and Parks and focuses on Griffith Park. “The ornamentation and the craftsmanship represent a bygone era.”

There was a real fear, James says, that the merry-go-round would fall into the hands of a private collector, as the carousel, if not officially, has long symbolically belonged to L.A. A piece of whimsy, artistry and play in the middle of a natural wonderland, it is where Walt Disney is said to have dreamed up the vision for what would become Disneyland and a site that has witnessed civil rights actions and 1960s-era love-ins. To some, it's a beacon of hope in the midst of an imperfect urban fabric that has long prioritized the fantastical.

“I got teary-eyed when I walked up,” says Wendy Osmundson, who approached the carousel while on a stroll [See Carousel, B2]

Storms' costly toll on Long Beach

Heavy surf further damages boardwalk and leads to homes being red-tagged.

BY DEBORAH VANKIN

A trio of storms since early September has put considerable strain on the historic Long Beach boardwalk, which collapsed further between 64th and 65th Place on Seaside Walk during a weekend of heavy surf.

The city's public works team and its Parks, Recreation and Marine bureau were working to secure the boardwalk, putting up sandbags and rebuilding a berm to stop water intrusion. Officials are also continuing to monitor coastal homes that were red- and yellow-tagged during the weekend onslaught.

Mud and sand inundated the Long Beach Peninsula as waves breached the boardwalk's protective timber bulkhead.

Inspectors red-tagged eight buildings, accounting for 13 residences, with one building yellow-tagged, according to a city news release. Red indicates an address is unsafe to enter, while yellow restricts use.

The fact that the damage to the boardwalk is cumulative presents a particular challenge, Long Beach Fire Department spokesperson Melanie Miller said Sunday.

"The collapse began when [Hurricane] Marie came" in early September, she said, "and it's been building off of that. Then Hurricane Polo, now [Tropical Storm] Rachel. It's been continuous damage since then.

"There have been preparations — we even deployed 3,000-pound sandbags," Miller added, "but you can only do so much during low tide; there are limited windows of opportunity. And the dynamics are working against you."

Long Beach Mayor Rex Richardson said that the city was taking the situation "very seriously" and that it [See Long Beach, B6]

Medi-Cal waits at a crossroads

State's health program for poor people needs the next governor's help with big changes.

By Christine Mai-Duc

In March 2025, when California ran out of Medicaid funds to pay doctors and hospitals, the state borrowed \$3.4 billion to keep the program afloat. It was, as a spokesperson for Gov. Gavin Newsom insisted, nothing new. Indeed, a handful of times over the years, the state had taken out internal, short-term loans to sustain its healthcare program for poor and disabled people.

The unprecedented move came a few months later, when Newsom and Democratic state lawmakers agreed to pay down the loan — which grew to \$4.4 billion — over 10 years instead of later in the year. California's healthcare safety net, it seemed, was buckling.

Rising healthcare costs systemwide were partly to blame.

But so were several stateled expansions that made California's Medicaid program, known as Medi-Cal, one of the nation's most generous.

Now, with congressional Republicans' One Big Beautiful Bill Act expected to reduce federal Medicaid spending by more than \$900 billion over 10 years, California and dozens of other states must contemplate the limits of their generosity. The problem is particularly acute in the nation's most populous state, which spends more on Medicaid than New York and Texas combined.

“We know we can’t afford to serve everybody we want to serve in the model that we have today,” said Mark Ghaly, the former top New-som health official who now co-chairs the Future of Medi-Cal Commission, a 29-person panel with the goal of modernizing and sustaining California’s Medicaid program for those who need it. “What can we do differently? What can we do smarter?”

The 2025 law that New-

som, a Democrat, has

dubbed President Trump's

[See Medi-Cal, B5]

Historic Black church burns for third time in South L.A.

The 2-story building had been abandoned since an initial fire in 2013

BY HAILEY

BRANSON-POTTS

THE BUILDING “looks like it’s going to be a complete tear-down,” an LAFD official said. It once housed the Crouch Memorial Church of God in Christ.

KAYLA BARTKOWSKI Los Angeles Times

A historic Black church in South Los Angeles that had been severely damaged in two previous fires went up in flames for a third time before sunrise Monday.

A fire at the vacant house of worship at East 27th and Paloma streets was reported just after 3:30 a.m., and the two-story wooden building "looks like it's going to be a complete tear-down," said Jennifer Middleton, a spokesperson for the Los Angeles Fire Department.

Flames ripped through the roof, and it took about 180 firefighters more than an hour and 36 minutes to knock down the blaze at 1001 E. 27th St.

An arson investigation is underway, Middleton said.

“Luckily, there are no injuries,” she said, adding that heavy-equipment crews were on scene early Monday [See Church, B6]

CHRISTINA HOUSE Los Angeles Times

Getting an L.A. landmark up and spinning again

THE HORSES of the Griffith Park carousel are known for their flowing, wind-blown manes and heavily detailed secondary carvings.

CHRISTINA HOUSE Los Angeles Times

USC / Corbis / Getty Images

[Carousel, from B1]

AT LEFT, the organ inside the merry-go-around. Above, visitors ride the attraction, a favorite haunt of Walt Disney and his daughters, in August 1951.

around the park during a recent open house. Osmundson reflected on a day, decades ago, when the merry-go-round saved the family's Christmas.

“I was 21, and my mom's kitchen burned down,” Osmundson says. “We couldn't have Christmas at my mom's house. Everyone came to my one-bedroom apartment in Los Feliz, and me and my three sisters came here and rode the carousel. We were adults, but it was really great. I'd love to see it restored.”

Joining the project to do just that are some of the brightest minds in the theme park and amusement industry, and they're doing so without pay and on their own time. Kurt Sawitskas has already spent weeks analyzing the carousel's innards, marveling at its antique nature, but also amazed that it's still mostly intact.

"Honestly, I don't think carousels were ever intended to last 100 years," Sawitskas says. "And now here we are with a carousel that's 100 years old. We want to honor it and make it run again."

Sawitskas' day job is at Walt Disney Imagineering, the creative arm of the company responsible for theme park design. Beginning to think ahead toward retirement, Sawitskas says he was looking for a project in which he could volunteer his time and expertise. He found it.

Built in 1926, near the end of what many consider the heyday of the American carousel, the Griffith Park merry-go-round began its life in San Diego and was relocated to Los Angeles in the depths of the Great Depression in 1937. It is the showcase product of the Spillman Engineering Co., whose carousel horses were known for the flowing, wind-blown manes and heavily detailed secondary carvings on the portion of their bodies that face viewers, known as the “romance” side.

A few, for instance, have lion heads extending from their chest. Others have cherubs reaching toward the horse's face. All are adorned with jewels and tails made of real horsehair, many of which have been eaten by squirrels or other critters. Griffith Park's carousel is especially unique in that it also has horses from master carvers Charles Looff and Charles Carmel, considered the finest carousel craftsmen of the era.

The few carousel companies that survived the Depression largely did so by switching to a cheaper, mass-produced product, such as transitioning from wood to aluminum. An art was lost.

"It's brought to me a real appreciation of the deeper aesthetic," Sawitskas says. He mentions this as he's giv-

ing a tour of the horses, emphasizing how the thickness of the paint created a sense of depth in the figures — a saddle, for instance, with a crisscrossing chessboard-like pattern, or elsewhere an aged leathery toughness. “I recognize what is attractive about an amusement like this, and that’s the ability to return again and again and still see something different."

Sawitskas has recruited a pair of co-workers, Troy Leverton and Pim Renting, who work in various aspects of ride engineering, to help in the task. For Leverton, restoring the carousel is important in bringing a piece of history back to the city, one centered on affordable outdoor entertainment.

"I brought my nieces here 10-plus years ago, and rode it and it was really cool," Leverton says. "Unfortunately, since my daughter has been born, this has been shut down. So it was like, you know what, I live in the city, and it'd be really cool to be a part of something that is doing something for the city. I want to bring my daughter back here when it is running."

MARKETPLACE JOBS · REAL ESTATE · MORE | HOW TO PLACE AN AD | Self-service 24/7: latimes.com/placead | Contact us by phone 24/7: 800-234-4444 | ADVERTISING POLICIESFor Los Angeles Times advertising terms and conditions go to:www.latimes.com/about/la-ads-terms-20181105-htmlstory.html | "There's no way to just keep painting over this and hiding the problem," Sawitskas says. "We really need to get down to the bottom. A lot of the horses have small fractures in the wood joints that need to be repaired as well. You can't do that on top of paint. You need to be at the wood. We have some very nice ways to get down to the wood without destroying the wood itself, just lifting the paint off. We want to restore all the worn wood and reintroduce the carving lines."

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And that says nothing of the mechanical adjustments and efforts to make the carousel compliant with the Americans With Disabilities Act. The Griffith Park carousel has one speed — 14 mph — and the hope is to update it with some modern controls to create a smoother ride. All of this is why James is estimating the tally to restore the carousel will top \$3 million or \$4 million. An assessment is expected in the coming weeks, and fundraising will occur via the nonprofit Friends of Griffith Park. James will be hosting open houses on as many Saturdays as she can, posting updates on the Griffith merry-go-round project Instagram page.

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As the world turned, so did the carousel. In 1961, for instance, a riot erupted at the merry-go-round when police officers alleged a 17-year-old Black rider failed to pay for his admission. Onlookers leaped to the teen's defense, and it took 75 officers to quell the disturbance. Later that decade, hippie love-ins were held regularly at the base of the carousel, occasionally drawing the likes of the Hells Angels or law enforcement. The merry-go-round also became a gathering spot for a candlelight vigil when the Grateful Dead's Jerry Garcia died in 1995.

More information.

In a flash.

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LEGAL NOTICE

You're connected.

And today, even in its shuttered and bruised state, it stands defiantly — a testament to handmade art at a time the world is spinning toward all-digital everything.

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.

"One of the biggest challenges here is making it look new again," Sawitskas says. "But I think if we do that, it's going to be a treasure."

It's also not lost on them that there's an association between the company they work for and the carousel, although it's important to stress they are not volunteering their time as representatives of the Walt Disney Co.

Published in The Los Angeles Times on: October 13, 2026

love is...

Notification is hereby given that CMB Wing Lung Bank Limited, with its principal place of business at 45 Des Voeux Road, Central, Hong Kong, has filed an application with the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) on or about October 13, 2026, for permission to change the location of CMB Wing Lung Bank Ltd. LA Branch, from 2 Park Plaza, Suite 100, Irvine, CA 92614 to 201 E Valley Blvd, Alhambra, CA 91801. The proposed relocation will not alter the types of business conducted by the branch.

One that, by the time it's operational, will twirl gallantly into its next century.

Any person wishing to comment on this application may file comments in writing with the Director for Large Bank Licensing at Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), 7 Times Square Tower, 10th Floor, New York, New York, 10036 or by emailing LicensingPublicComments@occ.treas.gov within thirty (30) days of the date of this publication. A person who wishes to view the public file should submit a written request to the Director for Licensing at Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), 7 Times Square Tower, 11th Floor, New York, New York, 10036 or by emailing Licensing@occ.treas.gov.

"There's obviously a connection with Walt Disney and what we do," Leverton says. "There's a lot of history here. The industry was born out of Disneyland, and Disneyland was born out of this place."

The story goes that Disney would bring his daughters to the merry-go-round, sit on a bench and dream of a place where adults and children could be entertained together. Both Disney and the company have long told this tale, and a bench, as well as one of the original horses from the carousel, can be found on Disneyland's Main Street, U.S.A. (There were initially 68 horses, but one, says James, is at Disneyland, and another is with a former owner.)

With Disneyland's King Arthur Carousel, which itself dates to the 1920s, Disney requested a number of modifications that closely match the Griffith Park attraction, such as wanting all its animals to be "jumpers" that look as if they're galloping.

James, along with Sawitskas and his pals, want the carousel to be restored to its original glory, a magnificent, gleaming merry-go-round that inspired Disney to dream. On a recent Saturday, Sawitskas hopped on a ladder to analyze the condition of the mechanisms that raise and lower the horses and started poring over carousel history books to match the horses with their original paint colors. In the 1920s, lead paint was used, which must be stripped away.

CITY & STATE

GENARO MOLINA Los Angeles Times

BRAVING THE WAVES

A surfer glides through rough water at Venice Beach on Saturday as Tropical Storm Rachel approached.

Fullerton halts surveillance

A FLOCK Safety license plate camera is mounted on a pole in Garden Grove.

The city puts its Flock Safety license plate reading system on hold for six months.

BY GABRIEL SAN ROMÁN

The Fullerton City Council, having heard from residents leery of losing their privacy to surveillance technology, voted to turn off more than a dozen Flock Safety license plate readers for a six-month period.

Fullerton, on a 3-1 vote of the council earlier this month, became the first city in Orange County to suspend its use of Flock cameras. The panel's majority favored the moratorium and pledged to host a community meeting on the policing tool while assessing any effect going dark would have on crime-solving statistics.

“Let’s see how effective they are,” Councilmember Ahmad Zahra said of the cameras. “Let’s see if, in the next six months, we [are] achieving the same results without them or not.”

Fullerton has used automated license plate reader technology since 2007. The city first contracted with Flock five years ago. The surveillance system, which includes 17 stationary and two mobile cameras, does not record audio or video. It does take still photographs of vehicles and their license plates.

Data are stored for 30 days, while backup data take a week longer before deletion.

In a presentation to the council, Fullerton Police Chief Jon Radius argued the cameras have helped his detectives solve an array of crimes, including burglaries and attempted murder.

“It is simply a tool that provides a lead,” he said. “No arrests are based simply on a photograph.”

Radius added that data gathered by the Flock camera system cannot be shared for federal immigration enforcement under state law. His department also tightened its auditing timeline of the system from annually to quarterly reviews.

Despite his assurances, the discussion in Fullerton came as the surveillance technology has sparked controversy nationwide in cases where officers have accessed Flock camera data to stalk women. In April, a former Costa Mesa police officer pleaded guilty to using Flock data to track his wife, an ex-girlfriend and another person.

The American Civil Liberties Union has also called for a “Get the Flock Out” movement, calling the cameras a “creepy” building block of a mass surveillance state with little to no transparency, oversight or regulation.

In Orange County, activists have sounded calls to cancel Flock contracts amid similar concerns in cities including Costa Mesa and Santa Ana. Costa Mesa kept its Flock camera system but retooled its data retention and sharing terms.

Oftentimes at bitter odds, a cross-section of Fullerton liberals and libertarians found common cause in opposing Flock cameras. More than a dozen speakers criticized the camera system, with some favoring its removal from the city.

Councilmember Shana Charles wanted to be responsive to the community's concerns but stopped shy of calling for an immediate contract cancellation.

“I don’t think we should just rip out the cameras right now,” she said. “I do think we should turn them off and we should have a community meeting.”

Fullerton is under contract with Flock through 2028. Radius reported that the city pays \$51,000 annually for its 19 cameras.

Councilmember Jamie Valencia sounded the lone voice in favor of keeping the camera system intact without a moratorium.

“I don’t feel comfortable turning off the cameras, because it’s been helping our police officers,” she said.

Valencia later tried to persuade her council colleagues to cut the moratorium down to two or three months instead.

Councilmember Nick Dunlap proved to be the swing vote for a full six-month pause.

“You start to think about what it means to be an American and to live in a free society, where you have this database with active surveillance taking place and they’re tracking you in different locations,” he said. “The technology is doing one thing today, but how will it be positioned in the future and what will that do in terms of surveilling us?”

Councilmembers voted 3 to 1 for the moratorium with Valencia dissenting and Mayor Fred Jung absent.

At the end of the six-month period, the council will look at crime-solving data trends, work with Flock on audit protocols and review its policies.

Fullerton's moratorium does not affect Cal State Fullerton, which has 46 Axion license plate reader cameras that are not under the city's jurisdiction.

San Román writes for Times Community News.

Suit against education board trustee is dismissed

A neighbor had accused O.C. official of attacking and choking him in 2023.

BY SALVADOR

HERNANDEZ

A lawsuit that accused an Orange County Board of Education trustee of attacking and choking a neighbor during a road rage incident has been dismissed, court records show.

The lawsuit claimed Ken Williams Jr., who currently serves in District 3, in March 2023 threw his then-20-year-old neighbor to the ground and put his hands around his neck during a road rage incident in Mission Viejo.

The 20-year-old was taken to a nearby hospital and the two men were cited for assault and battery, but the Orange County district attorney's office at the time said prosecutors who reviewed the case were unable to determine, beyond a reasonable doubt, who the primary aggressor was.

Williams' neighbor, Caden O'Malley, filed suit in January 2024.

The suit alleged that Williams slammed his brakes while O'Malley was driving behind him on El Toro Road and that, when O'Malley tried to pass him on the left side, Williams began to speed up his Cadillac Escalade.

After more back and forth on the road between the two, the drivers pulled over and a physical altercation ensued, according to

DON LEACH Daily Pilot

KEN WILLIAMS JR., above, “maintained that he was acting in self-defense,” his lawyer said.

the lawsuit.

At the request of O'Malley's attorney, Robert Vannah, the case was dismissed with prejudice in July, meaning claims tied to this incident cannot be refiled in civil court.

Vannah declined to comment on the case.

Williams' attorney, David E. Libman, said his client and O'Malley had maintained different versions of how the incident unfolded.

“Dr. Williams has always maintained that he was acting in self-defense,” Libman wrote in an email. “The parties entered an agreement in June 2026 in exchange for a mutual release of claims; no money was exchanged. Per that settlement, the dismissal was then filed by Mr. O'Malley.”

Williams, who was first elected to the board in 1996, was facing a reelection campaign in March 2024. He was reelected to the board and is serving a four-year term.

2 children killed in apparent attempt at murder-suicide

They were shot by a man believed to be their father, who hurt himself, LAPD says.

By Noah Haggerty

Two children were shot and killed by a man believed to be their father in Pico-Union on Sunday afternoon, according to the Los Angeles Police Department. The man then shot himself.

The children were thought to be 4 and 10 years old, police said.

The shooting occurred around 12:40 p.m. near Catalina Street and Venice Boulevard.

According to TV station KTLA, a witness riding an L.A. Metro bus said she saw the drama unfold in broad daylight.

Police could not confirm those details, but video from local news stations showed L.A. Fire Department and police vehicles gathered at a site on a sidewalk, and a street was blocked off by yellow police tape.

The children and the man were taken to a hospital, where the children were pronounced dead. The man, whose condition was not immediately clear, remains in custody at the hospital.

Police do not believe there is any remaining threat to the community.

Influencer found competent to be tried on theft charges

BY RICHARD WINTON

A social media influencer accused of ripping off wealthy suitors is competent to stand trial in Los Angeles County on criminal charges that she seduced and stole from rich men, a judge announced Friday.

Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Maria Cavalluzzi said Friday that Dr. Phani Tumu, a psychiatrist, found OnlyFans model and influencer Adva Lavie "presently competent," and that criminal proceedings will resume in the Van Nuys courthouse after more than a month of delays.

Lavie, who has pleaded not guilty to the charges, was not in the Hollywood court Friday.

Her attorneys, who argued she was not competent to stand trial, agreed with the determination given the passage of time. Lavie has been in the Los Angeles County Jail since July, when she was arrested while out at a Beverly Hills restaurant for not wearing her court-assigned ankle monitor.

Lavie, 29, who also goes by the names Mia Ventura, Shoshana and Shana, is charged with two counts of grand theft and two counts of first-degree residential burglary from incidents that occurred between 2023 and 2025 in L.A. County.

Lavie used dating apps to steal from wealthy older men and younger women in Westlake Village, West Hollywood, Los Angeles and Beverly Hills, prosecutors said in charging documents.

A search warrant obtained by The Times revealed that the influencer was also under investigation

L.A. County Sheriff's Department

ADVA LAVIE is accused of seducing and stealing from wealthy suitors.

for allegedly drugging her onetime billionaire fiancé with ketamine. The Los Angeles Police Department in August sought a warrant to search her phone. In the warrant request, the LAPD said a Beverly Hills police detective saw Lavie in July taking selfies inside the French Mediterranean restaurant Azur while out on bail. According to the warrant, the detective, Steve Own, noted she did not appear to be wearing her court-appointed ankle monitor.

"Own was familiar with Lavie because he himself had been investigating whether Lavie was drugging her fiancé Steve Cloobeck with ketamine," LAPD Det. Andrea Marsh wrote in the warrant affidavit.

Cloobeck, 64, is a former California gubernatorial candidate and a well-known figure in Democratic politics. He had already filed a report with Beverly Hills police, a source familiar with the case told The Times. The details of that report were not available, and the circumstances around the department's drugging investigation were not revealed in the warrant. Beverly Hills police declined to comment.

Jeremy Lessen, one of Lavie's criminal attorneys, has declined to comment on the drugging allegation.

According to the LAPD warrant that revealed the ketamine investigation, while Lavie was out on bail last year, she went to the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival. During that trip, Indio police say she stole an \$8,600 Rolex, \$700 Louis Vuitton sunglasses, a \$700 Louis Vuitton card holder and nearly \$2,000 in cash, then drove off in the victim's Cybertruck.

When the Beverly Hills detective spotted Lavie at the restaurant without her ankle monitor, the warrant says, he reached out to officials who confirmed Lavie's monitor showed her location at the nearby Peninsula Hotel. She was then taken into custody.

After her arrest, Lavie's attorneys unsuccessfully sought a mental health diversion for her case. During a hearing over that issue last month, prosecutors revealed jailhouse recordings in which Lavie bragged about exploiting Cloobeck.

In May, Cloobeck was arrested and charged with three counts of attempting to dissuade a witness from testifying and one count of harassment for making annoying phone calls, according to a criminal complaint. The name of the witness at the heart of those allegations has not been disclosed.

Cloobeck's attorney has called the charges false. A spokesman for the billionaire declined to comment on the Beverly Hills drug investigation.

Los Angeles Times

L.A. OMNIVORE

A newsletter tackling the stickiest food and culture questions.

In each dispatch of L.A. Omnivore, award-winning Times reporter and SoCal native Daniel Hernandez digs into the way our food cultures interplay with everything around us, including street life, art, politics, media and more.

SIGN UP

latimes.com/newsletters

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THE WEATHER

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Today in Southern California

Dry; warming the rest of the week: As a storm moves farther to the east Tuesday and Wednesday and upper-level high pressure builds close to the West Coast, dry weather will prevail. Tuesday will not be as cool as recent days and the warming will continue Wednesday. High pressure to the north and a developing low to the south will bring very warm to hot weather Thursday into the weekend with Santa Ana winds.

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5-day forecasts

High/low temperatures are average forecasts for entire zone. | L.A. Basin | Valleys | Beaches | Mountains | Deserts | Today | 76|57 | 76|55 | 73|57 | 48|25 | 78|58 | Mostly sunny | Mostly sunny; warmer | Mostly sunny | Mostly sunny; cold | Mostly sunny; cool | Wednesday | Sunny | 81/60 | Sunny | 84/59 | Sunny | 80/60 | Sunny; cool | 55/30 | Sunny | 84/63 | Thursday | Sunny; warm | 90/66 | Breezy | 88/70 | Sunny; warm | 86/70 | Sunny; cool | 58/37 | Sunny | 90/71 | Friday | Sunny and hot | 95/67 | Windy, warm | 91/67 | Sunny; warm | 89/67 | Sunny | 58/37 | Hazy sun | 90/69 | Saturday | Sunny; warm | 90/68 | Sunny and hot | 94/62 | Sunny; warm | 86/66 | Partly sunny | 69/39 | Sunny | 88/69 | ---

Surf and sea

POINT CONCEPTION TO MEXICO

Inner waters: Wind light, becoming northwest 6-12 knots. Seas 3-5 feet. Swell south 3 feet at about 16 seconds and west 2-3 feet at 10 seconds.

Surf zone: The risk of strong and dangerous rip currents is high at all area beaches, except S.B. beaches, which have a moderate risk. | County | Height | Period | Direction | Temp | Santa Barbara | 2-4' | 17 sec | S | 68 | Ventura | 3-5' | 16 sec | S | 69 | Los Angeles | 3-6' | 16 sec | S | 71 | Orange | 3-6' | 17 sec | S | 72 | San Diego | 3-6' | 16 sec | S | 72 | Today | 10:38a | 5.9 Hi | 4:20a | 2.2 Lo | ---- Hi | 5:54p | 0.2 Lo | Wed. | 12:20a | 3.6 Hi | 4:37a | 2.6 Lo | 11:05a | 5.6 Hi | 6:42p | 0.5 Lo | ---

UV index

Minutes to burn for sensitive people

Las Vegas, 45 Phoenix, 45

Los Angeles, 45 San Francisco, 45

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Sun and moon

California cities\* | City | Mon.* | Today | Wed. | Hi | Lo | Prcp. | Hi | Lo | Hi | Lo | Anaheim | 69 | 54 | .24 | 75 | 53 | 83 | 58 | Avalon/Catalina | 61 | 53 | Tr | 64 | 57 | 74 | 65 | Bakersfield | 72 | 51 | -- | 73 | 52 | 78 | 53 | Barstow | 69 | 51 | Tr | 68 | 49 | 76 | 52 | Big Bear Lake | 46 | 27 | .11 | 48 | 25 | 55 | 30 | Bishop | 64 | 38 | -- | 66 | 33 | 78 | 42 | Burbank | 66 | 51 | .02 | 74 | 54 | 82 | 59 | Camarillo | 70 | 49 | .16 | 74 | 53 | 80 | 56 | Chatsworth | 63 | 50 | .11 | 77 | 54 | 84 | 59 | Chino | 65 | 50 | .05 | 75 | 48 | 84 | 52 | Compton | 68 | 56 | .22 | 77 | 57 | 84 | 58 | Dana Point | 68 | 57 | .31 | 70 | 58 | 78 | 61 | Death Valley | 82 | 67 | .02 | 83 | 67 | 90 | 70 | Del Mar | 71 | 59 | .12 | 72 | 57 | 75 | 57 | Escondido | 70 | 51 | .15 | 72 | 48 | 80 | 51 | Eureka | 60 | 38 | -- | 60 | 41 | 61 | 44 | Fallbrook | 66 | 50 | .22 | 72 | 48 | 79 | 52 | Fresno | 72 | 50 | -- | 74 | 50 | 79 | 54 | Fullerton | 67 | 55 | .25 | 75 | 54 | 82 | 57 | Hemet | 62 | 49 | .34 | 69 | 46 | 77 | 51 | Hesperia | 55 | 43 | .20 | 64 | 39 | 72 | 46 | Huntington Beach | 69 | 58 | .24 | 73 | 58 | 80 | 61 | Idyllwild | 46 | 40 | .11 | 55 | 45 | 62 | 50 | Irvine | 70 | 56 | .11 | 75 | 54 | 84 | 60 | Temperature | Los Angeles | Fullerton | Ventura* | High/low | 66/58 | 67/58 | 67/58 | Normal high/low | 79/61 | 81/59 | 75/54 | High/low a year ago | 79/56 | 79/57 | 74/62 | Record high/date | 99/2011 | 105/2011 | 95/1983 | Record low/date | 43/1886 | 46/2008 | 44/2008 | ---

Almanac | City | Mon.* | Today | Wed. | Hi | Lo | Prcp. | Hi | Lo | Hi | Lo | L.A. D'ntown/USC | 67 | 55 | .07 | 76 | 57 | 81 | 60 | L.A. Int'l. Airport | 68 | 58 | .19 | 73 | 59 | 79 | 61 | Laguna Beach | 65 | 56 | .28 | 70 | 56 | 77 | 62 | Lancaster | 65 | 46 | -- | 68 | 37 | 78 | 40 | Long Beach | 71 | 56 | .38 | 75 | 56 | 83 | 59 | Mammoth Lakes | 47 | 28 | .02 | 50 | 22 | 63 | 29 | Mission Viejo | 64 | 54 | .26 | 72 | 52 | 82 | 58 | Monrovia | 67 | 52 | .20 | 76 | 56 | 83 | 60 | Monterey | 68 | 49 | -- | 69 | 48 | 72 | 51 | Mt. Wilson | 45 | 36 | .02 | 49 | 43 | 57 | 50 | Needles | 77 | 58 | .09 | 75 | 57 | 81 | 62 | Newport Beach | 68 | 59 | .12 | 73 | 58 | 80 | 61 | Northridge | 65 | 50 | .07 | 78 | 55 | 85 | 58 | Oakland | 68 | 49 | -- | 74 | 49 | 75 | 51 | Oceanside | 69 | 50 | .18 | 74 | 45 | 82 | 48 | Ojai | 70 | 45 | .10 | 75 | 52 | 84 | 54 | Ontario | 62 | 53 | .07 | 73 | 53 | 83 | 59 | Palm Springs | 73 | 59 | .01 | 78 | 58 | 84 | 63 | Pasadena | 64 | 52 | .17 | 74 | 56 | 83 | 61 | Paso Robles | 70 | 40 | -- | 77 | 37 | 81 | 39 | Redding | 73 | 48 | -- | 79 | 49 | 88 | 55 | Riverside | 62 | 50 | .04 | 71 | 47 | 80 | 51 | Sacramento | 74 | 47 | -- | 77 | 43 | 79 | 49 | San Bernardino | 61 | 52 | .38 | 74 | 49 | 82 | 55 | 24-hour total (as of 2 p.m.) | 0.02 | 0.26 | 0.09 | Season total (since Oct. 1) | 0.05 | 0.52 | 0.25 | Last season (Oct. 1 to date) | 0.00 | 0.01 | Trace | Season norm (Oct. 1 to date) | 0.17 | 0.14 | 0.16 | Humidity (high/low) | 86/60 | 96/60 | 89/40 | City | Mon.* | Today | Wed. | Hi | Lo | Prcp. | Hi | Lo | Hi | Lo | San Diego | 71 | 60 | .04 | 73 | 56 | 79 | 58 | San Francisco | 68 | 49 | -- | 72 | 51 | 73 | 52 | San Gabriel | 66 | 53 | .20 | 76 | 55 | 82 | 59 | San Jose | 71 | 49 | -- | 76 | 49 | 80 | 52 | San Luis Obispo | 68 | 47 | -- | 73 | 46 | 81 | 47 | Santa Ana | 70 | 59 | .08 | 74 | 58 | 81 | 61 | Santa Barbara | 72 | 50 | Tr | 76 | 50 | 80 | 52 | Santa Clarita | 66 | 44 | .09 | 76 | 49 | 84 | 56 | Santa Monica Pier | 68 | 55 | .05 | 73 | 57 | 80 | 60 | Santa Paula | 70 | 45 | .13 | 74 | 52 | 83 | 56 | Santa Rosa | 71 | 39 | -- | 80 | 41 | 85 | 42 | Simi Valley | 64 | 46 | .04 | 76 | 52 | 84 | 55 | Tahoe Valley | 48 | 21 | .02 | 53 | 21 | 63 | 29 | Temecula | 63 | 48 | .38 | 72 | 46 | 82 | 51 | Thousand Oaks | 67 | 48 | .05 | 76 | 52 | 84 | 55 | Torrance | 68 | 60 | .00 | 75 | 59 | 79 | 62 | UCLA | 67 | 55 | .27 | 74 | 57 | 82 | 61 | Van Nuys | 67 | 50 | .01 | 77 | 57 | 85 | 61 | Ventura | 69 | 51 | .09 | 72 | 57 | 78 | 57 | Whittier Hills | 67 | 55 | .33 | 76 | 55 | 83 | 60 | Woodland Hills | 65 | 51 | .07 | 78 | 55 | 85 | 58 | Wrightwood | 46 | 40 | .14 | 53 | 40 | 62 | 48 | Yorba Linda | 66 | 51 | .33 | 74 | 51 | 83 | 55 | Yosemite Valley | 55 | 39 | .09 | 70 | 42 | 77 | 48 | ---

Today in North America

Storm lingers in the Rockies: A slow-moving storm will bring showers, thunder and high-elevation snow from Wyoming, Utah and Colorado. Thunderstorms from Missouri and Kansas through west Texas will usher in the risk of flooding downpours, hail and damaging wind gusts. | Showers | T-storms | Rain | Flurries | Snow | Ice | Shown are areas of precipitation and high temperatures for the day.

MONDAY'S EXTREMES AS OF 2 P.M. FOR THE 48 CONTIGUOUS STATES

High 96 in Zapata, Texas Low 15 in Alturas, Calif. | City | Monday* | Today | Hi | Lo | Prcp. | Hi | Lo | Sky | Albany | 66 | 51 | .30 | 66 | 62 | Sh | Albuquerque | 78 | 59 | Tr | 73 | 53 | Pc | Anchorage | 47 | 41 | .08 | 44 | 33 | Sh | Aspen | 68 | 44 | .18 | 55 | 37 | Ts | Atlanta | 83 | 58 | -- | 89 | 63 | Su | Austin | 89 | 70 | .04 | 93 | 78 | Ts | Baltimore | 75 | 59 | .27 | 82 | 63 | Su | Boise | 56 | 39 | .02 | 62 | 36 | Su | Boston | 71 | 50 | .84 | 64 | 60 | Cy | Buffalo | 66 | 53 | Tr | 77 | 58 | Ts | Burlington, Vt. | 62 | 51 | .23 | 56 | 50 | R | Charleston, S.C. | 85 | 62 | -- | 86 | 65 | Su | Charlotte | 84 | 61 | -- | 85 | 59 | Su | Chicago | 88 | 63 | -- | 82 | 64 | Cy | Cincinnati | 83 | 52 | -- | 88 | 68 | Su | Cleveland | 77 | 60 | .02 | 85 | 63 | Pc | Columbia, S.C. | 85 | 61 | -- | 87 | 59 | Su | Columbus | 77 | 60 | -- | 86 | 66 | Pc | Dallas/FLWorth | 91 | 71 | -- | 92 | 77 | Ts | Denver | 81 | 59 | Tr | 66 | 42 | Pc | Detroit | 80 | 57 | -- | 83 | 61 | Pc | El Paso | 86 | 64 | -- | 84 | 62 | Pc | Eugene | 67 | 32 | -- | 67 | 39 | Pc | Fort Myers | 88 | 74 | .04 | 89 | 71 | Pc | Hartford | 72 | 50 | .20 | 63 | 60 | Cy | Honolulu | 88 | 73 | -- | 87 | 73 | Su | Houston | 89 | 69 | .04 | 91 | 77 | Ts | Indianapolis | 86 | 52 | -- | 89 | 69 | Su | Jacksonville, Fla. | 85 | 64 | -- | 87 | 63 | Su | Kansas City | 88 | 71 | Tr | 89 | 66 | Ts | Knoxville | 80 | 60 | -- | 86 | 60 | Su | Las Vegas | 73 | 63 | .04 | 66 | 55 | Pc | Louisville | 86 | 55 | -- | 89 | 70 | Su | Medford | 68 | 33 | -- | 71 | 37 | Pc | Memphis | 91 | 64 | -- | 92 | 73 | Su | Miami | 90 | 80 | .17 | 90 | 76 | Su | Milwaukee | 88 | 63 | -- | 75 | 58 | Pc | Minneapolis | 80 | 64 | .02 | 63 | 47 | Sh | Nashville | 89 | 55 | -- | 92 | 65 | Su | New Orleans | 89 | 64 | -- | 89 | 66 | Su | New York | 69 | 54 | .14 | 71 | 65 | Pc | Norfolk | 71 | 64 | Tr | 82 | 65 | Su | Oklahoma City | 89 | 70 | -- | 90 | 74 | Pc | Omaha | 92 | 68 | -- | 74 | 52 | Pc | Orlando | 86 | 66 | -- | 88 | 70 | Su | Philadelphia | 74 | 57 | .39 | 80 | 66 | Fg | Phoenix | 83 | 70 | .04 | 80 | 59 | Sh | Pittsburgh | 69 | 57 | Tr | 81 | 65 | Pc | Portland, Ore. | 66 | 39 | -- | 65 | 48 | Pc | Providence | 71 | 51 | .91 | 64 | 61 | Pc | Raleigh/Durham | 82 | 64 | -- | 86 | 62 | Su | Reno | 57 | 39 | Tr | 59 | 34 | Pc | Richmond | 77 | 62 | .04 | 85 | 64 | Su | St. Louis | 92 | 69 | -- | 95 | 75 | Pc | Salt Lake City | 57 | 52 | .30 | 50 | 43 | Ts | ---

U.S. cities | City | Monday* | Today | Hi | Lo | Prcp. | Hi | Lo | Sky | Seattle | 63 | 42 | -- | 61 | 53 | Cy | Tampa | 88 | 70 | -- | 89 | 72 | Su | Tucson | 77 | 66 | Tr | 79 | 57 | Sh | Tulsa | 91 | 71 | -- | 92 | 76 | Pc | Washington, D.C. | 76 | 60 | .17 | 83 | 65 | Su | Wichita | 88 | 68 | -- | 93 | 67 | Ts | World | Acapulco | 89 | 77 | -- | 89 | 77 | Pc | Amsterdam | 61 | 43 | .03 | 68 | 51 | Sh | Athens | 79 | 64 | .01 | 69 | 60 | Sh | Bangkok | 91 | 81 | .01 | 93 | 78 | R | Barcelona | 75 | 61 | -- | 77 | 64 | Pc | Berlin | 57 | 41 | -- | 61 | 52 | Pc | Cabo San Lucas | 91 | 74 | .05 | 89 | 75 | Pc | Cairo | 85 | 65 | -- | 86 | 69 | Hz | Dubai | 97 | 85 | -- | 102 | 86 | Hz | Dublin | 70 | 55 | .03 | 60 | 49 | Sh | Havana | 90 | 76 | -- | 89 | 74 | Sh | Ho Chi Minh City | 91 | 79 | .16 | 89 | 78 | R | Hong Kong | 90 | 79 | -- | 91 | 78 | Su | Istanbul | 73 | 63 | .01 | 67 | 62 | R | Jerusalem | 76 | 66 | -- | 78 | 63 | Pc | Johannesburg | 83 | 55 | -- | 85 | 58 | Pc | Kuala Lumpur | 91 | 76 | .50 | 92 | 75 | Ts | Lima | 82 | 71 | -- | 81 | 72 | Pc | London | 64 | 50 | .14 | 70 | 48 | Pc | Madrid | 81 | 52 | -- | 83 | 56 | Su | Mecca | 101 | 77 | -- | 100 | 81 | Hz | Mexico City | 76 | 58 | .19 | 77 | 56 | R | Montreal | 61 | 55 | .11 | 49 | 44 | R | Moscow | 57 | 53 | .04 | 50 | 45 | R | Mumbai | 100 | 84 | -- | 99 | 80 | Hz | New Delhi | 84 | 67 | .01 | 90 | 73 | Su | Paris | 70 | 45 | -- | 75 | 50 | Sh | Prague | 55 | 41 | .01 | 58 | 48 | Su | Rome | 77 | 63 | -- | 75 | 51 | Su | Seoul | 82 | 63 | .80 | 70 | 48 | Sh | Singapore | 90 | 82 | .08 | 91 | 80 | Sh | Taipei City | 86 | 70 | -- | 92 | 68 | Su | Tokyo | 77 | 68 | -- | 77 | 70 | Su | Vancouver | 58 | 37 | -- | 56 | 51 | Cy | Vienna | 61 | 48 | -- | 62 | 43 | Su | Key: Su sunny; Pc partly cloudy; Cy cloudy; Fg foggy; Prcp precipitation; Dr drizzle; Hz hazy Sh showers; Ts thunderstorms; R rain; Sn snow; Sf snow flurries; I ice; Rs rain/snow; W windy; Tr trace. Notes: National extremes exclude Alaska and Hawaii. \* - data estimated. Monday's readings as of 2 p.m.

AccuWeather. We Save Lives Get the AccuWeather app

Medicaid reckoning awaits state's next governor

[Medi-Cal, from B1]

JAE C. HONG Associated Press

CANDIDATES for governor Steve Hilton, left, and Xavier Becerra don't have significant Medi-Cal proposals.

"Big Ugly Bill" is expected to leave millions more Americans without health insurance, mostly because of new work requirements.

It also curbs the use of healthcare provider taxes and other strategies states have deployed to maximize federal funds. Some state lawmakers and consumer advocates have argued the federal cuts, along with rising costs, present an opportunity for the next governor to overhaul a program plagued by long appointment wait times, low reimbursement rates for healthcare providers, and volatile financing.

"If we continue to just give millions and millions into the same system and expect something different — I'm sick and tired of that," said state Sen. Caroline Menjivar (D-Panorama City). Roughly half of the constituents in her district rely on Medi-Cal.

Democratic lawmakers, who have often clashed with Newsom on Medi-Cal rollbacks, succeeded in getting him to delay a number of painful cuts until 2027 in the hope that a new governor might reverse them.

So far, neither of the gubernatorial candidates running in the November election to replace Newsom has offered substantive proposals for a program that covers 1 in 3 Californians — roughly 13.6 million people.

Republican Steve Hilton, a former Fox News commentator, wants to pare back Medi-Cal eligibility and has promised to end coverage for immigrants without legal status, citing that benefit as an example of “wildly unsustainable” state spending. Democrat Xavier Becerra, who has spent decades trying to expand government-funded healthcare, has promised to protect Californians from the massive federal cuts and find and cut billions in administrative waste.

---

Expanding coverage

President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the law that established Medicaid and Medicare in 1965 to cover certain low-income groups, such as families with children, older people and those with disabilities. Over the last six decades, states have substantially widened that pool, most notably under the Affordable Care Act's Medicaid expansion to childless adults.

spent his career defending.

Starting in 2024, California offered healthcare coverage to all low-income residents, regardless of age or immigration status, although lawmakers scaled that back this year.

At the same time, the state opted to cover a slew of non-mandated benefits, such as physical therapy, hospice care and housing assistance.

“California has always struggled with wanting to have as broad a program as possible but then having to figure out a way to pay,” said

Jennifer Kent, who oversaw Medi-Cal under Gov. Jerry Brown, a Democrat.

Since 2010, California's Medi-Cal enrollment has nearly doubled while spending has ballooned from \$50 billion a year to \$222 billion. It now makes up more than 40% of overall state spending, according to the non-partisan Legislative Analyst's Office.

Conservatives argue the program is bloated and rife with fraud. They say the federal changes will force states to refocus resources on the neediest.

"The role of the safety net programs was just that — to be a safety net," Hilton said in an interview. "I don't think it's a particularly positive boast to say $40\%$ of Californians should be on a program that was designed for people living in poverty."

Becerra declined an interview request.

Nelly, a 59-year-old from Los Angeles County, was one of millions who have benefited from the state's Medi-Cal expansion, but she was initially reluctant to sign up.

For years after she left her corporate job to care for her ailing mother, Nelly said, she didn't consider applying. She remained uninsured until three years ago, when she woke up and couldn't see out of her left eye.

She enrolled in Medi-Cal in the emergency room. It now covers her appointments with specialists and transportation to and from. While her condition may exempt her from the new Medicaid work requirements, Nelly said, she's still worried about losing coverage after experiencing numerous paperwork hiccups simply trying to renew.

Nelly, who asked that her full name not be used because she hasn't told her family about her condition, said she understands not everyone on the program may need it. But, she added, "it should be there for someone like me."

---

Tough choices

When Republican state lawmakers got wind of New- som's plan to stretch the debt repayment over a decade, they accused Democrats of trying to "paper over" the state's structural deficit.

"This leaves future governors and legislatures to clean up the mess," stated a July 2025 memo from GOP senators.

The Legislative Analyst's Office later called the maneuver “unusual.” That could leave Becerra, the favorite to succeed Newsom, as the face of staggering changes to a program he

More than 2 million Californians under age 65 could lose health coverage over the next four years as a result of the state and federal policy changes, according to recent estimates by the UC Berkeley Labor Center and the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research. At least 730,000 residents have already disenrolled since June 2025.

State agencies are scrambling to implement new federal work requirement rules for adult Medicaid enrollees under 65, hoping to automate as much verification as possible to blunt coverage losses. And in 2028, states will be required to charge some enrollees fees for many services, making it harder for them to maintain coverage.

Disability rights activists say new asset limits will prevent Californians from getting needed home care. Counties, deemed by state law to be healthcare providers of last resort, say they need immediate funding for the millions of uninsured patients they anticipate in the new year.

Hospital administrators have urged policymakers to help them keep their facilities stable.

Martin Luther King Jr. Community Hospital in Los Angeles treats five times the patients it was designed to serve, and 80% of patients are uninsured or on Medi-Cal.

“We already have an extremely overcrowded, overburdened emergency department,” MLK Community Healthcare Chief Executive Elaine Batchlor said. “Insured care will turn into uncompensated care, and the financial burden for that will fall on providers.”

Mai-Duc writes for KFF Health News, a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs at KFF — an independent source of health policy research, polling and journalism.

KAYLA BARTKOWSKI Los Angeles Times

WAVES crash against East Seaside Walk on the Long Beach Peninsula on Sunday. Eight buildings have been red-tagged by inspectors.

In Long Beach, storms are taking a toll

“ALL we have is hope and sand,” peninsula resident John Hernando said Saturday.

MYUNG J. CHUN Los Angeles Times

[Long Beach, from B1] underscored “an importance to be incredibly serious in our region and in our state around climate resilience and coastal resiliency.”

He said the crumbling boardwalk is a historic thread in the city's fabric.

“This is one of the oldest boardwalks in California and lots of memories were made on that boardwalk,” he said in an interview Sunday. “If we want to retain these iconic spaces on our coastline, it’s going to take real investment to make sure that we have an iconic, quality waterfront, a coastline that is resilient and acknowledges the changing climate.”

That investment will be expensive, Richardson said.

“You have to build more climate-resilient infrastructure. Because 100 years ago it wasn't necessarily anticipated that we'd have this cadence of pressure — three major storm systems in six weeks is unprecedented in this region.”

Long Beach has de-

signed a “seven-point plan,”

formalized shortly after

Hurricane Marie, that addresses repairing what's been damaged, putting more sand back on the beach, creating additional layers of protection and pursuing longer-term solutions and funding, said Laath Martin, a spokesperson for the city manager's office.

"As we responded to [Marie], we also looked at future plans and ways to address [the storms] in the immediate, moderate and long term," Martin said. "We've had two additional storms since then. Some of the work is underway, and some is coming within days, weeks and months, depending."

As of now, the city is in emergency response mode. It's reinforcing the boardwalk with lumber and using the 3,000-pound sandbags to “deflect wave energy on the beach side of the bulkhead, the seawall,” Martin said. “It takes a lot of the brunt of the damage.”

Martin said the city had accelerated certain projects to start as soon as next week, particularly the Alamitos Bay Entrance Channel Dredging Project, which will relocate sand from the peninsula and wid- en the beach by about 200 feet.

“We have to do a few things before then to ready it,” Martin said, “so our crews can safely work in those conditions.”

Longer term, the city has secured a contractor to carry out permanent repairs. The cost is estimated at \$1.5 million to \$3.6 million, Martin said. The money will come from the city's Tidelands Emergency Reserves for coastal projects.

“Because we're using a lot of materials right now to make emergency repairs to keep people safe, we then have to purchase more materials to do the permanent repairs,” Martin said. “That's why there's such a wide range.”

Martin said the city expected to complete permanent repairs to the bulkhead and boardwalk by the end of this year.

"With El Niño, we expect more storms. They built the timeline around anticipated storms to the best in our ability," he said. "But this far in advance, you never know."

Hidden cameras alleged at auto shop

Owner of Covina firm

secretly recorded

people using the

bathroom, police say.

By Iris Kwok

A Southern California business owner is accused of hiding numerous cameras in his shop's bathroom to secretly record people as well as concealing a camera in his shoe to take upskirt photos, police say.

Covina auto repair shop owner Bryce Neighbors, 39, was arrested on Sept. 30 in the 1200 block of North Palm Avenue in Upland on suspicion of possessing and distributing child sexual abuse material amid an ongoing investigation, the Ontario Police Department said in a statement.

Neighbors was booked at the West Valley Detention Center on multiple felony charges, including commercial distribution of obscene material depicting minors and possessing or controlling child sex abuse material. He posted bail and was released Oct. 1, San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department inmate records show.

The Upland resident owns Young's Automotive in Covina, according to the statement, where he is accused of placing the cameras to record unsuspecting victims using the bathroom.

The Ontario Police Department said in a statement Thursday that detectives from its Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force were seeking the public's help in finding additional victims.

Anyone with witness or victim information can contact the Ontario Police Department at (909) 986-6711.

Obituaries

Place a paid notice latimes.com/placeobituary

Search obituary notice archives:

legacy.com/obituaries/latimes

Geoffrey A. Berkin

July 26, 1951 -

October 2, 2026

Geoffrey A. Berkin passed away peacefully at home on October 2, 2026, after a brief but intense bout with highly aggressive prostate cancer complicated by other health conditions.

Geoff was born on July 26, 1951, in Chicago, Illinois. He is predeceased by his mother, Isabelle (nee Starr) Berkin and stepmother, Alice (nee Richman) Berkin. He is survived by his father, Bernard (Yvonne Kant) Berkin; son Richard Berkin; and siblings Julian (Denise) Berkin, Dena (Hugh Mendelsohn) Berkin, Donna (Michael Jacobson) Lenhoff, and Alan (Eric Yeo) Lenhoff.

Geoff attended UCLA School of Theatre Arts, receiving his B.A. in Motion Pictures/Television in 1973. He earned his J.D. from UCLA School of Law in 1983. His law practice centered on contractual obligations in the entertainment industry, and he gave many continuing legal education presentations and published numerous legal articles as well as two treatise chapters on this subject.

Geoff was passionate about the right of every individual to autonomy, dignity, and liberty, without interference by the government or those who seek to elevate their own values above others' rights.

Memorial donations to Tourette Association of America, https://tourette.org/, would be greatly appreciated.

For further information see www.legacy.com/legacy/geoffrey-berkin.

---

Leonard Larks

Dr. Larks was born in 1937, loving spouse of Eleanor, Optical Engineer, Chief of Optometry at Kaiser. Dr. Larks died on 7/23/26 and is survived by daughters Caryn, Doris, & Deena, and grandsons Garrett & Wesley-Chad.

To place an obituary notice please go to:

---

latimes.com/placeobituary

or call

800-234-4444

Los Angeles Times

L.A. FIREFIGHTERS responded before sunrise Monday to the church in the 27th Street Historic District.

OnScene.TV

Burned church building was listed on National Register of Historic Places

[Church, from B1]

doing some demolition work. The building, she said, has been red-tagged. Although there is potential smoke or water damage to some neighboring structures, the fire was contained to the church.

The former Crouch Memorial Church of God in Christ was built in 1905, according to property records, and is part of a historic Black neighborhood, the 27th Street Historic District, that is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

It first burned in October 2013 in a massive blaze, during which two Los Angeles firefighters were injured.

When firefighters arrived that morning, they saw flames shooting from the attic. Within 15 minutes of their arrival, portions of the attic and second floor collapsed, trapping a firefighter in heavily burning debris and forcing him to use his emergency air canister to breathe, according to an LAFD significant incident summary report.

"I got fire all around me. ... I got fire all around me," he could be heard saying over emergency radio transmissions before his colleagues carried him to safety. Another firefighter involved in the rescue was briefly evaluated for injuries, the report said.

A third firefighter was injured by what he said felt like an electric shock while he was on an aerial ladder spraying water onto the building.

Fire officials said that blaze appeared to have been accidental. At the time, Lawrence Magee, then 66, who has been the church's pastor since 2011, said he may have unintentionally started the fire after he turned on a gas heater, telling reporters outside the charred building: "I feel terrible."

"The historic church suffered grave damage and is considered a total loss monetarily," the 2013 LAFD report read.

But the blighted, white-painted structure stood for more than a decade. Graffiti covered its charred facade, and it became a source of frustration for the neighborhood, attracting squatters and illegal garbage dumping.

The dilapidated building burned in another fire in 2024.

The abandoned Roman-esque Revival-style building has been the source of numerous complaints to the city's Department of Building and Safety since the initial fire.

Last month, the department ordered the building's owner to immediately remove all fire-damaged debris "that pose a Present, [imminent], extreme and immediate hazard or danger to life or limb, health or safety."

Property records show Crouch Memorial Church of God in Christ as the property's most recent owner. Magee could not be reached for comment.

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 13, 2026 Los Angeles Times LATIMES.COM/DODGERS

PLAYOFFS

6

IA

4

NLCS

BREWERS LEAD, 2-0

W: ROMERO

L: STEWART

S: ASHBY

GAME 3: WEDNESDAY AT DODGERS

5 P.M. TV: FS1

Photographs by ROBERT GAUTHIER Los Angeles Times

BRICE TURANG of the Brewers celebrates his RBI single in the eighth inning, which gave Milwaukee an insurance run in its Game 2 win at home in the NLCS.

BEER BATTERED

No heroics from Yamamoto or Dodgers' lineup as team limps home down 2-0

By Maddie Lee

MILWAUKEE — Yoshinobu Yamamoto stood on the same mound where just a year ago he'd thrown a complete game and was pummeled by Brewers fans' chants:

"Yel-li! Yel-li!"

This time, en route to the Dodgers' 7-4 loss to Milwaukee in Game 2 of the National League Championship Series, Yamamoto had lasted only $2^{2/3}$ innings.

As American Family Field celebrated Brewers captain Christian Yelich's two-run single for an early lead, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts emerged from the visiting dugout, ready to take the ball from the starter who'd made himself a household name with his postseason heroics.

Yamamoto's early exit put the onus on the Dodgers' bullpen in a back-and-forth contest. And the Brewers' bullpen shut down the Dodgers' offense for the second straight game, pitching five hitless innings. The Dodgers finished with just three hits.

The NLCS heads to Los Angeles with the Brewers leading 2-0 in the best-of-seven series. The Dodgers will have homefield advantage for the next three games, needing to win four of the next five to return to the World Series.

It was the second straight highly touted pitching matchup of the series, pitting Yamamoto against Logan Henderson, the Brewers' 24-year-old budding star.

MANAGER Dave Roberts, left, pulls Dodgers starter Yoshinobu Yamamoto in the third inning. During last season's NLCS triumph, Yamamoto pitched a complete game in Game 2.

While Yamamoto exited after giving up three runs and four hits in the shortest start of his career, he had a solid defense backing him. Against Henderson, the Dodgers took advantage of mistakes by the Brewers' usually sound defense to score four runs against him, only two of which were earned.

The Dodgers' offense started to chip away at Henderson right away. Leadoff hitter Mookie Betts worked a walk, which included a successful ABS challenge that turned a strikeout into a full count.

Betts then advanced to second on Freddie Freeman's groundout to second and to third on a wild pitch.

The night before, Teoscar Hernández had zeroed in on the Dodgers' at-bats with runners in scoring position in his postgame comments.

“We did a pretty good job,” he said after the Dodgers’ 2-1 loss in Game 1. “We just didn’t get the job done when we needed with guys in scoring position.”

His first at-bat Monday came with Betts 90 feet from home plate. Roberts had swapped Hernández and slumping Will Smith in the batting order, moving Hernández up to third and Smith down to fifth.

"For Teo to get three cracks at this guy, I [See Dodgers, D6]

Note: Overtime or shootout losses are worth one point.

---

PRO CALENDAR | TUE13 | WED14 | THU15 | FRI16 | SAT17 | | MILW.*5FS1 | MILW.*6FS1 | MILW.*^6FS1 | KAMS | NEXT: SUNDAY VS. ARIZONA, 1:05 P.M., FOX | CHARGERS | NEXT: SUNDAY AT KANSAS CITY, 1:25 P.M., CBS | KINGS | EDMONTON7:30ABTV, DAZN | BOSTON6ABTV | DUCKS | CALGARY6:45KCOP, Prime | BOSTON7KCOP, Prime | GALAXY | PORTLAND7:30Apple TV | SAN DIEGO7:30Apple TV | LAFC | AUSTIN7:30Apple TV | at New York City4:30Apple TV | ANGEL CITY | at Denver5:45lon | LAKERS: Today vs. Golden State in Las Vegas (preseason), 7 p.m., SpecSN, NBA TV

CLIPPERS: Wednesday vs. Denver (preseason), 7:30 p.m., KTLA, NBA TV

\* NL Championship Series ^ if necessary Shade denotes home games. Times Pacific.

---

TODAY ON THE AIR | TIME | EVENT | TV; RADIO | BASEBALL: MLB PLAYOFFS | 5 p.m. | ALCS, Game 2, Cleveland at Tampa Bay | TBS, TruTV, UniMas | BASKETBALL: INTERNATIONAL | 1:30 a.m. (Wed.) | NBL, BNZ at Sydney | NBA | BASKETBALL: NBA PRESEASON | 4 p.m. | Cleveland at Orlando | NBCSN, Peacock | 7 p.m. | Golden State vs. Lakers | SpecSN, NBA; 710 | COLLEGE FOOTBALL | 4 p.m. | Delaware at Middle Tennessee | CBSSN | 5 p.m. | Florida International at Jacksonville State | ESPNU | COLLEGE GOLF | 6 a.m. (Wed.) | St. Andrews Links Collegiate, final round | Golf | COLLEGE SOCCER: MEN | 4 p.m. | Michigan at Michigan State | Big Ten | HOCKEY | 3 p.m. | New Jersey at Detroit | ESPN | 5:30 p.m. | Colorado at Dallas | ESPN | 6:45 p.m. | Calgary at Ducks | KCOP, Prime Video | 7:30 p.m. | Edmonton at Kings | ABTV, DAZN; 830 | 8 p.m. | Boston at San José | ESPN | SOCCER | 9:45 a.m. | UEFA Champions League, Lens vs. Sporting CP | CBSSN, Paramount+ | Noon | UEFA Champions League, RB Leipzig vs. PSV Eindhoven | CBSSN, Paramount+ | Noon | UEFA Champions League, Atletico Madrid vs. Manchester United | Paramount+, TUDN | 1 p.m. | Africa Cup, Angola vs. Mozambique | belN | 4 p.m. | Women's international friendly, U.S. vs. Spain | TNT, Universo | TENNIS | 8 p.m. | ATP, Shanghai, round of 16; WTA, Wuhan, early rounds | Tennis | ---

SPORTS EXTRA

For coverage of late NFL and MLB postseason games, see our daily digital eNewspaper. Subscribers get free access to an exclusive “Sports Extra.” View it on your phone, tablet or computer at latimes.com/enewspaper.

BARELY 17, Cavan Sullivan (8) became the youngest scorer in U.S. Soccer history with a goal against Mexico.

Rick Scuteri Associated Press

U.S. youth movement paying off

ANALYSIS

Teenagers praised by Pochettino after four convincing wins to start World Cup cycle.

---

By Kevin Baxter

The U.S. men's national team has opened a World Cup cycle with four consecutive victories for the first time since ... well, since ever.

What Mauricio Pochettino did with the U.S. team in the opening camp of the new World Cup quadrennium never had been done before. And Pochettino did it while using 28 players, including 13 who earned their first caps with the senior national team.

The kids were all right, as it turned out, with more than half of the 12 U.S. goals in the four games coming from teenagers who were playing with the team for the first time. So when the coach calls up his regulars next month for a two-leg Nations League quarterfinal with Haiti — the first competitive matches of the new cycle — expect some of those new players to receive invitations too.

“They are so smart. They have talent,” Pochettino said. “With more experience with these young talented players, plus the senior players that we have, we have a very good mix. I hope that we can guide this group of players to reach our best level and compete in our best way to try to be with the big national teams in the future.”

Others players who are age-eligible will join Steve Cherundolo's U23 national team and begin prepara-

tions for the 2028 L.A. Olympics. The U.S. may be beginning the push for the next World Cup and Olympics with the deepest and most talented player pool in its history.

“So happy. So, so happy,” Pochettino gushed after last Tuesday’s 1-0 win over Canada. “Not because of the results but because of the performance and the commitment that the players showed. That is the way that we want to be in the future.”

Yes, this all could be a mirage. It wouldn't be the first time we've been fooled.

Remember the 2006 cycle? After reaching the quarterfinals in 2002, a U.S. team that featured Landon Donovan, Clint Dempsey, Tim Howard, Kasey Keller and Brian McBride lost just 10 of 63 games over the next four years and was ranked No. 4 in the world before the World Cup in Germany.

It didn't win a game in the tournament.

Or how about this past summer? A golden generation of Weston McKennie, Christian Pulisic, Tyler Adams and Timothy Weah had been groomed for years for this one tournament. Pochettino openly talked about reaching the final.

Instead, the U.S. went out in the round of 16 for the fourth time in as many World Cups.

So while history insists it's wise to greet any success by the U.S. with a generous amount of skepticism, the early returns suggest this cycle could be different. The U.S. played quality teams in this international window — Mexico and Canada also reached the final 16 of this summer's World Cup and are ranked among the top 30 in the world by FIFA, Mexico at 10 and Canada at 27.

The U.S. shut out both of them.

With the next World Cup still four years away, however, Pochettino is looking beyond the results toward building something enduring.

"Not talking only about the results, talking about the way that we competed and the way that we came together, I think it was amazing," he said. "That is a starting point to keep going with the basis and the principle that we were talking about. To develop and evolve in this way.

"The effort was massive. To play always with the same effort, the same commitment and the same passion, that is a thing that we need to keep."

Assuring that happens, Pochettino said, is a job for the coaching staff.

"How are we going to evolve with them?" he said. "How we are going to protect, how are we are going to guide, how are we are going to make them understand that now they have more responsibility? That is a mentality that we are trying to apply."

Some players already proved they have the talent. Winger Cavan Sullivan, who will leave the Philadelphia Union for Manchester City next year, made three appearances, starting twice, in the fall window and became the youngest scorer in U.S. Soccer history with his goal against Mexico four days after his 17th birthday.

That broke a record teammate Mathias Albert, also 17, had set less than a week earlier against Peru. Last April, Albert, a month shy of his 17th birthday, became the youngest American to play in the German Bundesliga when he came off the bench for Dortmund.

Striker Julian Hall scored in each of his first three senior national team appearances, against Chile, Peru and Mexico. Just 18, he's already made more than 60 appearances and scored 13 MLS goals for the New York Red Bulls. Orlando City forward Justin Ellis, 19, had two goals in his first three international games, including the game-winner against Canada.

Then there's goalkeeper Diego Kochen, 20, who has made 37 appearances for Barcelona's B team. He played 135 minutes against Peru and Mexico and did not give up a goal. No position on the U.S. team is as wide open as goalkeeper, and Kochen has shown he deserves to be in the conversation.

All four very well could be called up for the Nations League matches, but they certainly will form the foundation of Cherundolo's Olympic team in two years. And there could be more young players coming, Pochettino said.

"It's a big pool," he said. "In this window, certain players made their debut. But there are plenty of other young players who are on our radar and we are assessing them. Here in the USA but also outside the USA.

"We are watching different young kids that maybe, in the future, will have the opportunity."

Four games into the new World Cup cycle, that future may be brighter — and closer — than ever.

St. Louis' romp over Galaxy ties record

Holse's hat trick helps run unbeaten streak to 20 games and match MLS mark set in 2016.

MLS STANDINGS

Through Sunday

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Carlo Holse scored three goals in the first 21 minutes and had the second hat trick in club history to help St. Louis City beat the Galaxy 6-2 on Sunday night to extend their unbeaten streak across all competitions to 20 games and tie the MLS record.

St. Louis, which is 13-0-5 in its past 18 regular-season games, tied the mark set when the New York Red Bulls went unbeaten in an MLS-record 20 consecutive games across all competitions in 2016.

WESTERN CONFERENCE

Rafael Navarro converted from the penalty spot in the 45th minute, scored again in the 53rd and added two assists for St. Louis (14-6-8). Lukas MacNaughton scored on a diving header in the seventh minute of first-half stoppage time and Roman Burki had five saves.

Holse opened the scoring in the second minute, added a goal in the seventh and skipped a shot inside the right post from the center of the area to make it 3-0 in the 21st minute to record the second-fastest hat trick in MLS history. Hany Mukhtar scored three goals for Nashville in the first 16 minutes of a 5-1 win over Chicago on July 17, 2021.

The Galaxy's Kyogo Fu-ruhashi went off because of an apparent hamstring injury and was replaced in the 10th minute by João Klauss, whose goal in the 71st minute capped the scoring.

EASTERN CONFERENCE | W | L | T | Pts | GF | GA | Vancouver | 15 | 7 | 6 | 51 | 61 | 30 | St Louis City | 14 | 6 | 8 | 50 | 54 | 38 | FC Dallas | 13 | 7 | 8 | 47 | 52 | 45 | San Jose | 13 | 8 | 7 | 46 | 50 | 40 | Houston | 13 | 9 | 6 | 45 | 36 | 34 | LAFC | 11 | 9 | 9 | 42 | 44 | 31 | Seattle | 11 | 9 | 8 | 41 | 38 | 35 | Colorado | 11 | 13 | 4 | 37 | 39 | 39 | GALAXY | 9 | 11 | 9 | 36 | 39 | 50 | Portland | 9 | 13 | 6 | 33 | 51 | 54 | Real Salt Lake | 9 | 14 | 5 | 32 | 41 | 46 | San Diego FC | 8 | 12 | 8 | 32 | 48 | 51 | Austin FC | 7 | 11 | 10 | 31 | 36 | 51 | Minnesota United | 7 | 12 | 9 | 30 | 42 | 51 | Sporting Kansas City | 6 | 18 | 4 | 22 | 35 | 68 | W | L | T | Pts | GF | GA | Nashville | 19 | 3 | 6 | 63 | 59 | 22 | Inter Miami CF | 13 | 5 | 10 | 49 | 68 | 50 | Chicago | 14 | 8 | 6 | 48 | 51 | 40 | New England | 14 | 10 | 4 | 46 | 45 | 39 | Charlotte FC | 13 | 8 | 7 | 46 | 50 | 40 | Philadelphia | 12 | 10 | 6 | 42 | 56 | 45 | Orlando City | 11 | 13 | 4 | 37 | 51 | 66 | New York | 10 | 12 | 6 | 36 | 38 | 52 | Cincinnati | 9 | 9 | 9 | 36 | 58 | 65 | New York City FC | 8 | 11 | 9 | 33 | 42 | 38 | Toronto FC | 7 | 10 | 11 | 32 | 41 | 52 | D.C. United | 6 | 9 | 12 | 30 | 34 | 46 | Columbus | 8 | 15 | 5 | 29 | 41 | 46 | Atlanta | 7 | 15 | 6 | 27 | 33 | 48 | CF Montréal | 6 | 16 | 6 | 24 | 35 | 56 | Zizou Bergs stunned second-seeded Carlos Alcaraz 7-5, 7-6 (4) to advance to the fourth round of the Shanghai Masters on Monday.

Bergs converted his first match point with a ninth ace to beat the tournament favorite in the biggest win of his career. It was the second encounter on the tour between the pair and a first victory for Bergs.

Klauss, a 29-year-old midfielder in his first season with the Galaxy, had St. Louis City's first hat trick in a 3-3 tie with the Galaxy on June 14, 2025.

Robert Taylor scored in the 31st minute for the Galaxy (9-11-9).

St. Louis beat the Galaxy 3-1 on July 22 at Dignity Health Sports Park.

THE DAY IN SPORTS

Alcaraz suffers big upset in Shanghai

WIRE REPORTS

After the match, the Belgian said he has “too much respect for [top players], which is part of my culture and I’m proud of that. But it gets a little bit in the way when you have to play them.”

He added this result can help him change that.

“To have this moment, for me it is a little bit of a relief,” Bergs said. “I feel like now I really can win against these guys. Not just I can play against them, but I can win against them.”

The loss for Alcaraz means that Alexander Zverev will complete the year as the No. 1.

Next, Bergs will face Tommy Paul after the American knocked out defending champion Valentin Vacherot 6-4, 6-2.

Also, fifth-seeded Daniil Medvedev eased past Dalibor Svrcina 6-2, 6-3. Fourth-seeded Felix Auger-Aliassime eliminated Pablo Carreno Busta 6-3, 4-6, 6-1 and Stefanos Tsitsipas came from a set down to knock out 11th-seeded Taylor Fritz 3-6, 7-5, 6-3.

ETC.

---

Dream searching for Finals venue

The Atlanta Dream will be hosting Games 3 and 4 of the WNBA Finals next week, but it's still not known where those contests will be played.

Atlanta would love to play those games at State Farm Arena, where the Hawks play, because it seats more than 17,000 fans. But that site isn't available because of a concert by singer Sombr the night of Game 3, and the Hawks have their home opener the night of Game 4.

With a 12:30 p.m. PDT start for Game 4, there wouldn't be enough time to get the arena ready for the Hawks game. If the WNBA Finals go to six games, State Farm Arena also isn't available for Game 6 on Oct. 29 as the Hawks have another home contest that evening.

The Dream played most of their games this season at Gateway Center Arena, which holds only 3,500 fans.

No. 6 Alabama is preparing to play without leading wide receiver Ryan Coleman-Williams at 14th-ranked Tennessee on Saturday. Crimson Tide coach Kalen DeBoer said Coleman-Williams is doubtful for the Southeastern Conference rivalry game as the team captain is dealing with multiple injuries, including a concussion....Auburn will be without standout linebacker Xavier Atkins, the team's second-leading tackler, against top-ranked Georgia on Saturday, coach Alex Golesh announced without revealing the reason.

Dallas Stars veteran forward Matt Duchene is expected to miss about three months after the team said he had surgery to repair a core injury. Duchene hasn't played this season. ... Arizona State is in talks with Colorado Avalanche assistant and former NHL coach Dave Hakstol to serve as its interim hockey coach as the school investigates an outdoor workout that left a player on life support. Avalanche coach Jared Bednar said the Avalanche have granted Hakstol permission to speak with Arizona State about the position.

Cristiano Ronaldo and Al-Nassr's AFC Champions League Elite match against Uzbekistan's Neftchi Fergana was delayed by an hour in Riyadh after Saudi Arabia's Civil Defense issued a security alert.

A game-worn, auto-

graphed Michael Jordan

road jersey from the 1998

NBA Finals has been pri-

vately sold for \$14 million,

Pennsylvania-based Hunt

Auctions announced, calling

it the highest price paid for a

piece of basketball memorab-

bilia.

The auction house identified the buyer as Miami real estate investor Ron Fir-man.

NHL STANDINGS

Through Sunday

WESTERN CONFERENCE | WESTERN CONFERENCE | Pacific | W | L | OL | Pts | GF | GA | Vegas | 5 | 1 | 0 | 10 | 23 | 14 | Edmonton | 4 | 0 | 1 | 9 | 25 | 17 | DUCKS | 4 | 1 | 0 | 8 | 18 | 13 | Seattle | 4 | 2 | 0 | 8 | 26 | 17 | San Jose | 3 | 2 | 0 | 6 | 13 | 17 | Vancouver | 2 | 5 | 0 | 4 | 24 | 35 | KINGS | 0 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 10 | 17 | Calgary | 0 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 8 | 27 | Central | W | L | OL | Pts | GF | GA | Utah | 4 | 2 | 0 | 8 | 22 | 15 | Minnesota | 3 | 1 | 1 | 7 | 15 | 9 | Winnipeg | 3 | 1 | 1 | 7 | 13 | 15 | Colorado | 3 | 2 | 0 | 6 | 26 | 17 | Nashville | 2 | 1 | 2 | 6 | 14 | 14 | Dallas | 2 | 2 | 1 | 5 | 11 | 8 | St. Louis | 2 | 2 | 1 | 5 | 14 | 16 | Chicago | 1 | 5 | 0 | 2 | 12 | 26 | EASTERN CONFERENCE | EASTERN CONFERENCE | Metropolitan | W | L | OL | Pts | GF | GA | Carolina | 5 | 1 | 1 | 11 | 27 | 17 | NY Rangers | 5 | 2 | 0 | 10 | 23 | 13 | Pittsburgh | 3 | 2 | 1 | 7 | 22 | 17 | Washington | 3 | 2 | 0 | 6 | 17 | 14 | New Jersey | 2 | 2 | 0 | 4 | 10 | 14 | Columbus | 2 | 2 | 0 | 4 | 13 | 14 | NY Islanders | 2 | 3 | 0 | 4 | 16 | 13 | Philadelphia | 0 | 5 | 2 | 2 | 8 | 28 | Atlantic | W | L | OL | Pts | GF | GA | Tampa Bay | 4 | 1 | 0 | 8 | 16 | 12 | Ottawa | 4 | 1 | 0 | 8 | 15 | 11 | Boston | 4 | 2 | 0 | 8 | 20 | 13 | Toronto | 3 | 2 | 1 | 7 | 20 | 18 | Florida | 2 | 1 | 2 | 6 | 9 | 12 | Montreal | 2 | 2 | 1 | 5 | 15 | 19 | Buffalo | 2 | 3 | 0 | 4 | 11 | 19 | Detroit | 1 | 3 | 1 | 3 | 10 | 15 | Today's games

Calgary at DUCKS 6:45 p.m.

Edmonton at KINGS. 7:30 p.m.

New Jersey at Detroit. 3 p.m.

Florida at Columbus. 3:15 p.m.

Buffalo at Montreal. 3:30 p.m.

Washington at Carolina. 3:45 p.m.

Seattle at Philadelphia. 4 p.m.

Tampa Bay at N.Y. Rangers. 4:15 p.m.

St. Louis at Omaha. 4:30 p.m.

Vancouver at N.Y. Islanders. 4:45 p.m.

Pittsburgh at Chicago. .5 p.m.

Minnesota at Winnipeg. 5:15 p.m.

Colorado at Dallas. 5:30 p.m.

Vegas at Nashville. 5:45 p.m.

Toronto at Utah. .6 p.m.

Boston at San Jose. .8 p.m.

With Iamaleava out, UCLA to start Dieffenbach

QUARTERBACK Nico Iamaleava, right, was ruled out during halftime of Bruins' win Saturday. Coach Bob Chesney said there is “serious concern” about the injury.

LYDIA ELY Associated Press

Star quarterback is expected to miss rest of season after knee injury against Oregon.

BY CONNOR DULLINGER

UCLA coach Bob Chesney wasn't ready to declare the end of UCLA senior starting quarterback Nico Iamaleava's season on Monday, but the forecast was grim.

Iamaleava is expected to miss the rest of this season with a knee injury, according to a person with knowledge of the injury not authorized to discuss it publicly.

Chesney said he is waiting for UCLA doctors to "make the final call on things."

"He has a meeting later today, and he'll have a whole lot more clarity on exactly where things are at," Chesney said of Iamaleava during a news conference Monday. "Everything being reported is what's being reported. There is a serious concern at this moment, but at the same point in time, there is nothing that has been fully ruled at this moment."

The injury is a blow for the No. 12 Bruins, who are 5-0 during Chesney's first season and have a favorable path to the College Football Playoff.

Chesney said that while Ty Dieffenbach and Madden Iamaleava, Nico's younger brother, both earned the right to start, Chesney will start Dieffenbach going forward and see how it plays out.

Nico sustained the injury at the end of the first half of UCLA's win over Oregon.

The quarterback was running with the ball when he was spun around and tackled. He grabbed his leg as he was hit in the head by Oregon's Bear Alexander. Chesney said Nico told him, "They keep punching me in the face." The coach said he didn't see the hit until he watched a recording of the game, but the punch was "egregious" and "it was a shame" that the officials

missed it.

Nico tried to keep playing, but he was ruled out during halftime and eventually emerged from the locker room in the third quarter wearing street clothes.

Chesney said that he saw Nico Monday morning and that he's in a good place mentally and wants to figure out exactly where he stands.

Dieffenbach, an Agoura High alum who started last season at Cal Poly, ran the UCLA offense during the second half. He completed three passes for 43 yards and one touchdown, helping the

Bruins earn a 17-15 win.

“I thought he did a good job,” Chesney said of Dieffenbach. “He threw some really nice, accurate footballs, catchable footballs. He stepped up in the moment where we needed him to, and then at the same point in time, he commanded the offense very well. What got him there is that we’re really looking at this on a week-to-week basis, and he had a really good week of practice. He did a really good job, and he brings a lot to the table.”

Madden appeared in two games this season, taking over the offense against Purdue when his older brother went down with a shoulder injury and against Maryland with UCLA up multiple scores.

Chesney turned to Dieffenbach, who previously spent two seasons at Pittsburgh without playing, during one of the biggest moments of the season. Dieffenbach said after the win he didn't know he would be asked to take over when Nico was sidelined.

When the head coach went into the locker room at halftime to tell Dieffenbach that he would be the starter, the signal-caller responded with two words: "Let's go." Chesney said that he saw zero nerves from Dieffenbach.

Chesney said Saturday the decision to play Dieffenbach instead of Madden against the Ducks was based on the game script and the threat of Dieffenbach in the ground game, but the coach noted Monday that he thinks Madden could have succeeded as well.

“We are really on a week-to-week basis here, and this week we felt like we had to run a little bit more with the quarterback possibly, and that's where I felt Ty had a really nice week and that put us in that spot,” Chesney said Saturday after the win. “This is just one of those things that I'm sure if Madden would've went in there, he would have done a phenomenal job as well. But I thought Ty was the guy we decided on at this moment

UP NEXT

12 UCLA vs. Wisconsin

at the Rose Bowl

Saturday, 4:30 p.m.

TV: NBC

based on the previous week of practice."

Chesney and Dieffenbach acknowledged that the fight for a spot on the UCLA depth chart never ends.

"Every week is a battle between me and Madden for the two-spot, and I mean both of us were executing in practice," Dieffenbach said Saturday. "When I heard that I was [going to play, it was] just tunnel vision, just ready to go execute."

With injuries piling up five games into a perfect season, Chesney is using the shifts in the depth chart as an opportunity to keep players on their toes.

“You're going to have guys that can't make it the whole season,” Chesney said. “Our job is to be ready. And that's what the message was the other day. If you think you're a three, get ready. You might be a two. If you think you're a two, get ready, you might be a one, and when that light shines on you, you're either exposed or revealed. So let's make sure that you're revealed.”

NFL REPORT

Greenlaw banned for one game

WIRE REPORTS

San Francisco 49ers linebacker Dre Greenlaw was suspended for one game after head-butting Seattle's Ernest Jones IV following a late hit on the Seahawks' sideline.

The NFL issued the suspension on Monday, saying the headbutt of a player without a helmet during Sunday's 32-29 win against Seattle was “contrary to the generally understood principles of sportsmanship.”

Greenlaw will miss San Francisco's game next Monday night against Washington, pending an appeal.

Greenlaw has a history of infractions. He has been ejected two other times in his career. He had a sideline altercation with Philadelphia's head of security, Dom DiSandro, in 2023 and also was disqualified for a helmet-to-helmet hit on the Chargers' Justin Herbert in 2022.

Greenlaw also was suspended for one game last season when he played in Denver for berating an official after a win over the New York Giants.

Greenlaw was fined \$11,941 for taunting the Broncos' sideline in a win last week.

The latest infraction came in the second quarter on Sunday, when Sam Darnold scrambled and was hit late by Greenlaw after going out of bounds, leading to a personal foul.

Several Seahawks defenders immediately confronted Greenlaw after the

ERIC THAYER Los Angeles Times

Rams wide receiver Puka Nacua, top, gets tackled during the first quarter against the first-place Bills at Sofi Stadium on Monday night. For full coverage, visit latimes.com/sports or go to our e-newspaper.

THE TIMES' FLAG FOOTBALL RANKINGS

hit, and Greenlaw responded by head-butting Jones. Jones was bleeding after the hit, and Greenlaw was ejected.

"You're going to get baited big time when, especially when, you're on their bench," coach Kyle Shana-han said after the game. "They told me that he had butted a guy without a helmet. So if that's exactly what happened, then yeah, we got to be a lot smarter than that. Can't do that."

---

49ers' Samuel out as well, with injury

By Steve Galluzzo

49ers receiver Deebo Samuel will miss at least a few weeks after injuring a hamstring in the win over the Seahawks. Shanahan said Monday that Samuel "got it pretty good."

The injury to Samuel is the latest to hit the 49ers' depleted receiving room. Samuel re-signed with San Francisco early in training camp after spending last season in Washington and provided an early spark this season.

Samuel has 16 catches for 206 yards and three touchdowns and 78 yards rushing on nine carries and was the team's top kick returner.

Projected starter Ricky Pearsall had season-ending knee surgery early in training camp, and rookie De'Zhaun Stribling had surgery after sustaining an ankle injury in the opener that will sideline him for at least another month. Demarcus Robinson is on injured reserve because of a high ankle sprain, and

Christian Kirk has been out since the opening week of training camp because of a calf injury.

---

Penix injured in Falcons' OT loss

Falcons quarterback Michael Penix Jr. sustained a rib injury when he was sacked by Ravens linebacker Tavius Robinson late in Atlanta's 30-23 overtime loss to Baltimore on Sunday night and was unable to finish the game.

Penix was hopeful to play in overtime, but during the Ravens' opening possession of the extra session, Penix said the pain was getting worse and worse as his body cooled down.

“I did take some throws on the sideline to see how I felt, and I did not feel like I was going to be able to give our team what we needed to be able to help us win that football game because of the pain that I was feeling,” Penix said.

After he was sacked with

27 seconds left in regulation, Penix stayed down and was attended to by athletic trainers. He was replaced for one play by Tua Tagovailoa but then reentered the game for one play, throwing an incomplete pass on third down.

Tyler Huntley led Baltimore to a tying touchdown and two-point conversion in the last minute of regulation and then scored on a one-yard sneak in overtime as the Ravens rallied.

Etc.

Caleb Williams could return for the Chicago Bears this weekend at Atlanta, but coach Ben Johnson was noncommittal when asked who would serve as the No. 1 quarterback if Williams isn't available for practice on Wednesday. ... The Dallas Cowboys are bringing former NFL coach Mike Pettine out of retirement to serve as a senior assistant to defensive coordinator Christian Parker, whose debut in his new position is off to a rough start.

TAKING THEM BY THE HORNS

NFL STANDINGS

Through Sunday

NATIONAL CONFERENCE | NATIONAL SOUTH BANANA | West | W | L | T | Pct. | PF | PA | San Francisco | 5 | 0 | 0 | 1.000 | 154 | 93 | Seattle | 3 | 2 | 0 | .600 | 134 | 105 | RAMS | 2 | 2 | 0 | .500 | 85 | 83 | Arizona | 1 | 4 | 0 | .200 | 108 | 162 | North | W | L | T | Pct. | PF | PA | Minnesota | 5 | 0 | 0 | 1.000 | 109 | 64 | Green Bay | 3 | 2 | 0 | .600 | 104 | 112 | Detroit | 3 | 2 | 0 | .600 | 164 | 148 | Chicago | 3 | 2 | 0 | .600 | 119 | 96 | South | W | L | T | Pct. | PF | PA | Carolina | 2 | 2 | 0 | .500 | 121 | 109 | Atlanta | 2 | 3 | 0 | .400 | 119 | 122 | Tampa Bay | 1 | 4 | 0 | .200 | 100 | 112 | New Orleans | 1 | 4 | 0 | .200 | 118 | 151 | East | W | L | T | Pct. | PF | PA | N.Y. Giants | 3 | 1 | 1 | .700 | 109 | 106 | Philadelphia | 2 | 3 | 0 | .400 | 92 | 112 | Dallas | 2 | 3 | 0 | .400 | 138 | 136 | Washington | 1 | 3 | 1 | .300 | 115 | 149 | AMERICAN CONFERENCE | AMERICAN CONFERENCE | West | W | L | T | Pct. | PF | PA | Kansas City | 4 | 0 | 0 | 1.000 | 118 | 77 | Denver | 3 | 2 | 0 | .600 | 97 | 111 | Las Vegas | 3 | 2 | 0 | .600 | 132 | 129 | CHARGERS | 0 | 5 | 0 | .000 | 84 | 129 | North | W | L | T | Pct. | PF | PA | Baltimore | 4 | 1 | 0 | .800 | 146 | 119 | Cleveland | 3 | 2 | 0 | .600 | 93 | 112 | Pittsburgh | 3 | 2 | 0 | .600 | 111 | 109 | Cincinnati | 3 | 2 | 0 | .600 | 128 | 109 | South | W | L | T | Pct. | PF | PA | Jacksonville | 4 | 1 | 0 | .800 | 123 | 70 | Indianapolis | 2 | 3 | 0 | .400 | 124 | 138 | Houston | 1 | 4 | 0 | .200 | 110 | 112 | Tennessee | 0 | 5 | 0 | .000 | 58 | 109 | East | W | L | T | Pct. | PF | PA | Buffalo | 3 | 1 | 0 | .750 | 127 | 107 | New England | 3 | 2 | 0 | .600 | 110 | 94 | N.Y. Jets | 2 | 3 | 0 | .400 | 93 | 96 | Miami | 0 | 5 | 0 | .000 | 70 | 132 | THURSDAY'S RESULT

Tampa Bay 24, Dallas 16

SUNDAY'S RESULTS

Denver 23, CHARGERS 17

Jacksonville 19, Philadelphia 17

Cincinnati 31, Miami 24

Green Bay 31, Chicago 7

Houston 26, Tennessee 3

Minnesota 23, New Orleans 13

N.Y. Giants 27, Washington 27 (OT)

N.Y. Jets 17, Cleveland 12

New England 45, Las Vegas 17

Pittsburgh 34, Indianapolis 22

Detroit 45, Arizona 21

San Francisco 32, Seattle 29

Baltimore 30, Atlanta 23 (OT)

MONDAY'S RESULT

Buffalo at RAMS, late

Bye week: Kansas City, Carolina

WEEK 6

THURSDAY'S GAME

Arizona at RAMS 1:05 p.m.

CHARGERS at Kansas City, 1:25 p.m.

Houston vs Jacksonville at London, 6:30 a.m.

Baltimore at Cleveland, 10 a.m.

Carolina at Philadelphia, 10 a.m.

Chicago at Atlanta, 10 a.m.

N.Y. Jets at New England, 10 a.m.

New Orleans at N.Y. Giants, 10 a.m.

Pittsburgh at Tampa Bay, 10 a.m.

Tennessee at Indianapolis, 10 a.m.

Buffalo at Las Vegas, 1:25 p.m.

Dallas at Green Bay, 5:20 p.m.

OCT. 19

Washington at San Francisco, 5:15

Bye week: Cincinnati, Miami, Detroit, Minnesota | Rk. | School (W-L) | Comment | 1 | JSERRA (23-0) | Kate Meier has accounted for 98 touchdowns (77 passing, 21 rushing) with a 122.3 quarterback rating. Next: Wednesday at Orange Lutheran. | 2 | ORANGE LUTHERAN (16-3) | Senior quarterback Alyssa McClure has completed 349 of 589 passes for 3,064 yards and 40 touchdowns. Next: Wednesday vs. JSerra. | 3 | HUNTINGTON BEACH (21-3) | Senior wide receiver Shelby Nguyen has 137 receptions for 1,442 yards and 24 touchdowns. Next: Monday vs. Newport Harbor. | 4 | NEWPORT HARBOR (19-4) | Scarlett Guyser has thrown for 13 touchdowns and run for two more in the Sailors' past four games. Next: Monday at Huntington Beach. | 5 | MATER DEI (17-6) | Kendra Hansen has caught 96 passes for 1,143 yards and 22 touchdowns and has 44 flag pulls on defense. Next: Tuesday vs. Santa Margarita. | 6 | LAKEWOOD ST. JOSEPH (18-1) | Jaclynn Brennan has 42 catches for 769 yards and 15 touchdowns with eight interceptions on defense. Next: Monday at Bishop Amat. | 7 | DOS PUEBLOS (17-3) | Kinda Ahmad-Reda has 71 receptions for 817 yards and 13 touchdowns with 74 flag pulls on defense. Next: Tuesday at Rio Mesa. | 8 | WESTLAKE (20-3) | Olivia Elsokary has 141 receptions for 1,983 yards and 46 touchdowns with 25 interceptions on defense. Next: Tuesday vs. Oaks Christian. | 9 | EDISON (20-6) | Beat Corona Del Mar twice in five days led by Sadie Olivares, who made 11 catches for 142 yards and five scores. Next: Wednesday at Western Christian. | 10 | OXNARD (18-5) | Ryanna Harris finishes the regular season with 28 touchdowns passing, 30 rushing and eight receiving. Next: Bye | THE TIMES' CITY FOOTBALL RANKINGS

By Eric Sondheimer | Rk. | School (W-L) | Comment (last week's ranking) | 1 | CARSON (6-1) | QB Chris Fields III has opened up his recruiting while showing off his talent. (1) | 2 | CLEVELAND (7-0) | Cavaliers appear headed to a rare West Valley League title. (2) | 3 | CRENSHAW (5-2) | Cougars need top defensive performance vs. King/Drew on Friday. (3) | 4 | SAN PEDRO (6-1) | On Oct. 23, it's San Pedro at Carson. (4) | 5 | BIRMINGHAM (2-5) | Patriots may have discovered new QB in Delvin Young. (5) | 6 | KING/DREW (4-3) | Golden Eagles need breakthrough win vs. Crenshaw. (6) | 7 | KENNEDY (7-0) | Golden Cougars continue path to Valley Mission League title. (7) | 8 | GARFIELD (6-1) | Ceasar Reyes has rushed for 1,695 yards and 25 touchdowns. (8) | 9 | MARSHALL (7-0) | Sophomore Emmanuel Garcia leads the team with 41 tackles. (9) | 10 | HAMILTON (3-4) | It's final exam time with key game vs. Palisades. (10) | NLCS | DODGERS VS. MILWAUKEE: GAME 1 FLASHBACK

Skubal on their side, but it goes up in smoke

BRICE TURANG ends his home-run trot amid fireworks at American Family Field on Sunday night to tie the score in the fourth inning.

ROBERT GAUTHIER Los Angeles Times

Dodgers' big deadline deal for ace doesn't net win despite them chasing Misiorowski.

BY MADDIE LEE

MILWAUKEE — First and foremost, the Dodgers wanted Tarik Skubal on their team. When they pursued him at the trade deadline, they saw him as the rare player who could improve their odds of winning a third straight World Series.

It didn't hurt that by acquiring him they prevented other postseason contenders, including the Milwaukee Brewers, from landing the two-time Cy Young Award winner. The Dodgers guaranteed that they wouldn't have to face him in October.

"I'm sure it's in the back of your head, the teams that are interested," president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman said Sunday before the Dodgers' 2-1 loss to the Brewers in Game 1 of the National League Championship Series. "Certainly not a driver, but not nothing either. As far as how happy I am, I am very happy it's Skubal versus Miz and not Miz and Skubal [for the Brewers] in the next two."

That sentiment rang even truer when the Dodgers dropped Game 1 at American Family Field, despite forcing "Miz" — Jacob Misiorowski, the NL Cy Young favorite — out of the game in just $4 \frac{1}{3}$ innings, and despite having Skubal, who struck out seven in five innings but gave up two runs in a fine effort, on their side.

“That’s our job, trying to get the starter, especially when you’re facing a guy like him, out of the game early,” said left fielder Teoscar Hernández, who logged two hits against Misiorowski. “I think we did a pretty good job, we just didn’t get the job done when we needed with guys in scoring position.”

The Dodgers hit into three inning-ending double plays in the first five innings and overall left nine men on base, going one for six with runners in scoring position.

In a role reversal, the Dodgers, who scored almost exclusively via the home run in the first round, pulled ahead with a pesky approach at the plate.

Designated hitter Shohei Ohtani opened the second inning with a four-pitch walk. Then Hernández and Andy Pages hit opposite-field singles to move Ohtani around the bases and give the Dodgers a 1-0 lead.

Taking a similar “grind him out” approach to the one they deployed against Atlanta Braves ace Chris Sale in Game 3 of the Division Series, the Dodgers forced Misiorowski to throw 35 pitches in the inning — 10 alone to Kyle Tucker, who worked a walk.

By the third inning, Misiorowski's fastball velocity, which touched 104 mph, had dropped to double digits. And though the Dodgers didn't score again against him, they continued to rack up his pitch count. By the time he exited with one out in the fifth, it was at 94.

The Brewers, known for their peskiness, instead tied the score with one swing against Skubal. In the bottom of the fourth inning, Brice Turang got the barrel of his bat to an inside sinker and lifted it over the fence in left-center, into the Brewers' bullpen.

"A 2-0 sinker in, I mean, I'm going to live with that, left-on-left," Skubal said. "He put a good swing on it. The first at-bat he broke his bat [on a similar pitch], ground ball."

Though the Brewers have players who can hit home runs, they pulled ahead the next inning with a sequence more closely aligned with their identity.

Skubal walked Garrett Mitchell on five pitches. Brewers rookie Cooper Pratt moved him into scoring position with a sacrifice bunt. And then Luis Lara sent a ground-ball single through the middle of the infield to drive in the go-ahead

run.

"The leadoff walk just can't happen," Skubal said. "It gives them an opportunity to create something, and ultimately that's all they needed today."

Skubal battled traffic to get out of the inning without giving up another run. But in such a tight game, that marked the end of his start.

The American Family Field atmosphere added an extra charge to the close contest. The home crowd was perhaps its loudest (until an ear-splitting cheer at the final out) when it took issue with a balk call against Misiorowski. It looked as if he had picked off Hernández to end the fourth inning, but Hernández instead was awarded second base.

That play still was seared into their collective memory when Dodgers left-hander Alex Vesia picked off Jake

Bauers at first base. Brewers fans shouted “balk!” over and over.

The bullpens battled to a scoreless draw, the Dodgers' last stand falling flat after Tucker and pinch-hitting rookie Josue De Paula drew a pair of two-out walks against Brewers closer Trevor Megill. Mookie Betts drove a fly ball to the warning track, momentarily silencing the crowd, until Mitchell closed his glove around it. So the edge the Brewers gained against Skubal held.

“You can’t go into a long series against a team that has the best record in baseball and expect to just win four,” manager Dave Roberts said after the game. “It’s going to be a long series. We knew it coming in. We had our chances, but they made plays, pitches when they needed to. We’ve just got to reset. We've got our guy going [Monday], who we trust undoubtedly, and we've got to win a baseball game."

That guy is right-hander Yoshinobu Yamamoto, who last year threw a complete game at American Family Field in Game 2 of the NLCS.

The road doesn't get much easier for the Dodgers' offense Monday, when it'll face Logan Henderson, who held them to one run in seven innings when the Brewers came to L.A. in August. But imagine if instead the Brewers had outbid the Dodgers and they had to go through Skubal first.

“It would look really different,” Roberts said Saturday. “What those guys do — they had the best record in baseball. Certainly when you’re talking about a seven-game series, to see Tarik on the other side … the series would look a lot different.”

Voices BILL PLASCHKE COLUMNIST

If they don't hop to it, Dodgers risk getting brewed

just has that knack to get a hit, a big hit."

BREWERS pitcher Jacob Misiorowski celebrates after striking out Kyle Tucker in Game 1 of the NLCS.

't wasn't a baseball game, it was a sucker punch.

Ouch! Ooof! What? Who are these

Milwaukee Brewers?

What happened to that docile, small-town bunch that was once embarrassingly soft? What happened to the team with great stats but none of the swagger, a team that the Dodgers swept last October in a playoff series that wasn't that close?

The Dodgers entered the National League Championship Series at Milwaukee's American Family Field on Sunday knowing the Brewers had the best record in baseball, the best batting average in baseball, the best bullpen in baseball, and still...

They had to be convinced this wasn't the same Brewers team that had famously rolled over one short year ago.

Well, um... duck!

In a first round that portended a lengthy and bloody fight, the Dodgers clutched to a 1-0 lead after three innings with ace Tarik Skubal on the mound and Brewers ace Jacob Misiorowski headed for the showers.

Then they lost it.

They lost to a rare Brewers home run. They lost to a trademark Brewers bunt. They lost to four stifling Brewers relievers.

In the end, they lost the series opener 2-1 to a relentless Brewers effort filled with all the muscle and hustle of their football-toting neighbors up in Green Bay.

This time, when they were knocked down, the Brewers didn't stay down.

This time, the Brewers swung back and swung

harder and eventually landed a stunning blow deep into the Dodgers' psyche.

This time, it's clearly going to be different.

This time, they tied the game in the fourth inning on a Brice Turang home run, then took the lead an inning later on a perfect example of the manufactured attack that is pure Brewerball.

Garrett Mitchell walked, rookie Cooper Pratt laid down a sacrifice bunt, and light-hitting Luis Lara banged the next pitch up the middle to score Mitchell from second for the 2-1 lead.

From there, the league's best bullpen held the Dodgers to two singles in the last four innings, with the Dodgers stranding two runners on base in two of them. On a night they ended three innings with double plays and showed they still have not focused their post-season hitting efforts, the final inning epitomized the frustration.

With two outs against closer Trevor Megill, Kyle Tucker drew a seven-pitch walk and kid pinch-hitter Josue De Paula drew a walk, and the sort of heroics the Dodgers have displayed for the previous two postseasons were all set up for Mookie Betts.

And he promptly lofted the second pitch to center fielder Mitchell, who made the catch and screamed and flexed with the sort of hearty celebration that usually comes from the

Dodgers.

A different day indeed.

A different day indeed. Last season in the NLCS, the Dodgers won the opener by this exact same score and the series was never really close. Don't expect the Brewers to follow the same path, but also don't expect this to be easy.

The Dodgers should get the equalizer in this best-of-seven series Monday afternoon with October superstar Yoshinobu Yamamoto facing relatively untested Logan Henderson.

But who knows? If the Brewers are going to act like this for a week, the Dodgers could be in big trouble.

The two-time defending champions aren't panicking. But they're not happy either. And if you listen

closely, perhaps you can pick up a scent of worry.

"Yeah, you can't go into a long series against a team that has the best record in baseball and expect to just win four," Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. "It's going to be a long series. We knew it coming in. We had our chances, but they made plays, pitches when they needed to."

And the Dodgers, particularly one man in the middle of their order and behind the plate, failed to do the same.

Will Smith grounded into a double play and went hitless in three at-bats and is one for 19 in the playoffs.

"Yeah, he's not swinging the bat well," said Roberts, who remains hopeful. "He

More of a lost cause is Shohei Ohtani, who banged out a single in three at-bats and is three for 16 in the postseason.

The Brewers seem better able to handle slumps from their stars because they're all about the business of creating runs from what unselfish soul finds himself in the spotlight.

When asked about the key to this culture, Turang said, “I think the buy-in factor with everyone buying into what we’re trying to accomplish and kind of our style of play. Then not only that, like guys are getting more experience, they’re learning the game — even for me, still learning, getting experience. That’s a big factor in this.”

Spoken like a guy who believes his team is on the verge of taking the next step. Turang said the key is what happens when they are faced with adversity — like Sunday night.

“Then not giving up when we are behind in the game and knowing that we can do it, we can make up runs,” he said. “This group is really, really good with that.”

As for the Dodgers, they know they're really, really good at just about everything. But they know that time could be quickly running out on their chance to once again show it.

"We've just got to reset," Roberts said. "We've got our guy going tomorrow, who we trust undoubtedly, and we've got to win a baseball game."

This October, against this newly rumpled and roughneck version of the Brewers, that's going to be easier said than done.

NLCS | DODGERS VS. MILWAUKEE: GAME 1 FLASHBACK

Voices BILL SHAIKIN COLUMNIST

It's time for Dodger baseball. Or maybe it isn't

ROBERT GAUTHIER Los Angeles Times

KYLE TUCKER reacts after striking out during the seventh inning of Game 1.

T

MILWAUKEE —

he Dodgers

executed their

game plan and

lost. The Milwaukee Brewers

executed their game plan and won.

Back in California, Dodgers fans screamed at their television sets. This is post-season baseball, where the best pitchers take center stage and runs are at a premium.

Why don't the Dodgers at least try to mimic the Brewers? Would a stolen base or a sacrifice bunt every so often kill the Dodgers?

"I think we should play Dodger baseball," shortstop Mookie Betts said. "So, whatever Dodger baseball is, that's what we should do. We should not try and play Milwaukee Brewers baseball."

And what is Dodger baseball?

"It's a very complex thing," Betts said. "We pitch. We play defense. We hit. We've got to figure out a way to get some timely hits. If we've got to steal a base, we'll steal a base. But we don't need to change our identity."

In the big picture, no need to overreact to the Dodgers' 2-1 loss in the National League Championship Series opener.

But take a close look at the bottom of the fifth inning, when the Brewers scored the decisive run. With the score tied 1-1, Garrett Mitchell walked to start the inning, and Cooper Pratt sacrificed him to second. Luis Lara singled him home, scoring a runner in scoring position.

Joey Ortiz then grounded into what would have been a double play, had the Brewers not started Lara from first base. That was huge: Ortiz was out at first but, by staying out of the double play, the Brewers forced Dodgers starter Tarik Skubal to throw an additional 15 pitches to secure that third out.

That forced the Dodgers to remove Skubal from the game after he made 26 pitches in the fifth inning, and 81 overall.

“They’re willing to give up an out to get a guy in scoring position to get a hit,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said.

The Dodgers have not dropped a sacrifice bunt this postseason. In their World Series championship run last year, they dropped five sacrifice bunts: two by outfielder Andy Pages, who wasn't hitting; two by light-hitting backup catcher Ben Rortvedt; and one by infielder Miguel Rojas.

This is Dodger baseball: The Dodgers hit 50 more home runs this season than the Brewers, who finished last in the NL in homers.

The Brewers had more than twice as many stolen bases as the Dodgers and more than twice as many sacrifice bunts. The Dodgers' NLCS roster accounted for six sacrifices this season, including three by infielder-outfielder Tommy Edman.

Brice Turang, who bats second for Milwaukee, homered off Skubal in the fourth inning Sunday and sacrificed in the eighth.

If you want to say the

Dodgers should slug away and play for the big inning, fine. If you want to say the Dodgers should be reluctant to bunt in October with players not asked to bunt during the regular season, Edman isn't buying that.

"It's definitely tough," Edman said. "But it's definitely something that we should all be able to do. If you're a big leaguer, you should be able to do everything on the field that you're asked to do. If that's what the situation of the game calls for, we should be able to do it."

The Brewers have played five postseason games, scoring 15 runs. They have won four games, three of them by one run. If the Dodgers can take a few big swings, they could get mighty comfortable.

The Dodgers also have played five postseason games, scoring 15 runs. But here's a defining difference: In each of their five games, the Brewers have two hits with runners in scoring position.

In their five games, the Dodgers have a total of two hits with runners in scoring position.

This is the place where you, gentle reader, remind me that I said the Dodgers executed their game plan. What the heck?

They did, actually: They thought their best chance to win was to run up the pitch count on Milwaukee ace Jacob Misiorowski and get him out of the game early.

Seven of the first nine batters did not swing at the first pitch. More than half the at-bats off Misiorowski took at least four pitches.

They fouled off 20 pitches and got him out of the game after $4^{1/3}$ innings, so the Milwaukee bullpen would have to cover more innings than he would.

“We lost, so it didn’t really work,” Betts said. “But we did a good job with some good at-bats and fouled off some pitches and made him work. That’s really all you can do.”

The Brewers have scored five of their 15 runs via the home run, the Dodgers 11 of 15. Do the Dodgers need to mix in some small ball and change their approach at bat?

"I don't think guys are going up there trying to hit home runs," Betts said. "Guys are going up there just trying to have good at-bats.

“Sometimes, you get ‘em. Sometimes you don’t. But we are playing against a really good team. We just have to put it behind us and just come out and play Dodger baseball.”

It's time for Dodger baseball. Lose Game 2, and the Dodgers will be two defeats from a bitter winter.

ROBERT GAUTHIER Los Angeles Times

WILL SMITH, playing Monday, was hitting .053 in playoffs but has “earned everyone’s trust” on the Dodgers.

For Dodgers, Smith is still a catch

He's in hitting slump, but his contributions behind the plate mean he won't be benched.

BY KEVIN BAXTER

MILWAUKEE — The Dodgers have a big hole in the middle of their batting order, and it's not Shohei Ohtani.

If anything, Ohtani has reemerged as an offensive force in the cleanup spot, singling, walking and scoring the Dodgers' only run Sunday in a 2-1 loss to the Milwaukee Brewers in Game 1 of the National League Championship Series.

The problem is with the guy hitting in front of Ohtani.

Will Smith walked in four plate appearances Sunday, marking just the second time he's reached base in the postseason. In the four Division Series games against the Atlanta Braves, he had a single in 16 at-bats, striking out seven times. He's hitting .053 in the playoffs — only Cleveland's Ángel Martínez has a lower average among players with at least nine postseason at-bats.

But there's not much the Dodgers can do about it. The Dodgers are built to win with pitching and Smith, the team's catcher, is the guy they rely on to guide those pitchers through games.

Dalton Rushing, who started just five fewer games behind the plate than Smith during the regular season, is injured and not on the play-off roster. Hunter Feduccia, who did make the team, caught just 15 complete games this season and isn't an option to start in the playoffs.

"Yeah, I'm not going to put Feduccia in place of Will Smith," Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. "That's just not going to happen."

So Roberts and the Dodgers are left to muddle on with Smith regardless of how much he struggles offensively. That's because he's far more valuable crouching behind the plate than standing next to it.

"I don't even know how he's performing offensively," said Tarik Skubal, who took the loss Sunday. "Catchers, I think it's the most important position on the field. They're the ones calling pitches, dictating game flow, rhythm, all that type of stuff. I'm going to trust those guys always."

Smith appears to be executing his catching duties very well, since opponents have scored just 10 runs and are hitting .160 against the Dodgers this postseason.

Only Tampa Bay, which has played two fewer games, has done better.

As for what Smith thinks, the Dodgers did not make him available to the media Sunday. But speaking before Monday's Game 2, Smith said he's not panicking.

“I feel like I’ve earned everyone’s trust here,” he said. “It’s the postseason, so it’s a little more elevated. I really don’t think there’s much to it.”

He remained in the line-up for Monday's game, but was moved to fifth.

Moving down in the line-up worked for Ohtani, who had as many strikeouts as hits in the first two games of the Division Series, when he batted second. Since being dropped in the order, he has reached base four times in three games, stolen a base and scored twice.

"There's always lineup construction. I can think it through. He's not swinging the bat well," Roberts said of Smith. "It's hard because of the body of work, he just has that knack to get a hit, to get a big hit."

That's exactly what happened last fall when Smith's two-out, 11th-inning home run in Game 7 of the World Series helped the Dodgers win a second straight title.

Smith was on the injured list for 86 days this summer with neck disk inflammation, returning for the final month of the season when he slashed .290/.400/.548. He has cooled off considerably in October, just as he did last year, when he returned from a right hand contusion three games into the playoffs and got just two hits in his first 14 at-bats.

He recovered to bat .400 in last year's NLCS win over Milwaukee, then broke a 4-4 tie with his winning homer against the Toronto Blue Jays. Just as important, though, Smith caught all but 11 innings in the Dodgers' final 15 postseason games — including two 11-inning games and another that lasted 18 innings.

Smith has rarely hit well in the postseason, batting just .206 in 18 playoff series, which may explain Roberts' lack of panic. Plus, Roberts knows his All-Star catcher has helped him win three World Series rings, and if the Dodgers are to get another, it will be on the strength of their pitching, not their hitting.

And that side of Smith's game is as strong as ever.

"To be honest, that's not where my focus is with Will," Skubal said of his catcher's hitting. "My focus is what he's doing behind the dish and he's very important. He's very important to the entire pitching staff."

Voices MIRJAM SWANSON COLUMNIST

Plenty of traffic on bases, but they may be stuck in neutral

MILWAUKEE - imagine a nurse asking the Dodgers: "Any allergies?"

MILWAUKEE -

And the Dodgers responding: "Oh, just RISP."

"Just RISP?" the nurse would ask, incredulously. "Just hitting with runners in scoring position? Fellas, that's serious. That could be season-ending."

“Oh, it’s OK,” the Dodgers would say, “because we can always slug to counteract it. And we have incredible starting pitching, so we can get away with it.”

That would not make the nurse — or any Dodger fan sweating out this postseason — feel better.

Especially not after watching how consequential the Dodgers' lack of timely hitting was Sunday in Game 1 of the best-of-seven National League Championship Series, a 2-1 loss to the Milwaukee Brewers.

The Dodgers left nine runners on base, and they went one for six with runners in scoring position.

Thus far, Andy Pages appears to be the only one on the team somewhat immune to the inopportune blues, because while in five postseason games the Dodgers are collectively two for 22 with runners in scoring position, he has both of those hits. But he also struck out with runners on the corners in the sixth inning Sunday.

Continuing to squander so many opportunities is bound to come with a price.

Squandering so many competitive at-bats against the Brewers' flame-throwing Jacob Misiorowski is going to cost the Dodgers.

Squandering slumping Shohei Ohtani's single — a Sho-poke to left-center field was just his third hit in these playoffs — is going to haunt them.

The Dodgers are going to squander the grandest opportunity of all — the possibility of the three-peat, something only two other MLB franchises have pulled off, and none in the National League.

They know this.

"The offense has to find a way to get some more timely hits," said Mookie Betts, who got a pitch in the middle of the zone but flew out to center field to end the game with two runners aboard.

"We do have to keep applying pressure, but we've got to find a way to break through."

That's L.A. traffic for ya. It stinks if you get stuck in it, but it's also a sign of a desirable situation, of good weather and lively culture and plentiful entertainment options that include, typically, winning baseball.

The Dodgers have left 7.19 runners on base per game this season and postseason, more than all but three teams, and they rank 15th with 3.5 runners left in scoring position. That they regularly get so many runners on is a good thing; leaving so many of them stranded isn't.

"It depends on your perspective," Betts said Sunday. "For us, obviously it sucks. But it's encouraging just because we keep applying pressure. That's all you can really do and hope that somebody gets that hit. They got it, they got their hit. At some point we've got to get ours."

The Brewers left seven runners on Sunday and they went two for seven with runners in scoring position. That one extra hit — not only getting something brewing, but following through, manufacturing a second run with a sacrifice bunt and a timely single — was the difference.

"Some of it is just baseball," Betts added. "We hit into a couple double plays and just didn't really get to build any innings."

The Dodgers actually hit into three double plays Sunday — an entirely characteristic plot point for an older, slower team that hit into a National League-leading 128 double plays this season.

"Just didn't get the hit with guys in scoring position," said Teoscar Hernández, who singled twice and was stranded each time. "We need to be better in that situation."

How? What's the prescription? Is there a reliable antihistamine for these chronic RISP woes?

"Just keep grinding," Hernández said. "Get a good pitch and don't miss it. They're not going to miss a lot, so when you get one you just have to put a good swing on it."

It isn't only the NBA that's a make-or-miss league, turns out.

And Kobe Bryant's famous “job’s not finished” postseason credo really is about taking it one step at a time, all the way through the finish line.

The Dodgers need to finish the job, need to bring home some baserunners — or they won't be bringing home a third consecutive World Series championship.

Voices BILL SHAIKIN COLUMNIST

Not in rare air yet, but this era is peak Dodgers

THE DODGERS, showing off their rings in a March ceremony, are trying to become the first NL team to three-peat. An argument can be made that this is already the golden era of the franchise.

ALLEN J. SCHABEN Los Angeles Times

For the better part of a decade, Andrew Friedman and Stan Kasten have talked about a shared goal of making

this the golden era of Dodgers baseball.

No team in major league history has more consecutive post-season appearances than these Dodgers. No National League team has won three consecutive World Series championships, but the Dodgers could complete that trifecta this month.

So, Mr. Friedman, mission accomplished?

"I don't think I'm qualified to answer the question," said Friedman, the Dodgers' president of baseball operations, "but also, I don't think I have the perspective for it right now. Look forward to after I get fired or whatever, and being able to look back on it and the specialness of this time."

Who, I asked him, might be qualified to answer the question? "Bill," he said, "I'd like my to

I will, but not without soliciting opinions first. Mr. Kasten, what say you?

"I'm not a historian," said Kasten, the team president. "A historian, 10 years from now. That's who you should ask. Go find someone."

I don't have 10 years to wait, plus artificial intelligence might kill us all by then. But I liked Kasten's idea of finding a historian, so I found two, and I asked them each the same question: Do the Dodgers need to three-peat to clinch this time as the golden era of Dodgers baseball?

Mark Langill, the Dodgers' historian for the last 33 years, said he was “cracking up” when he heard Friedman's words. He pointed to the 14 consecutive postseason appearances.

“What people don’t realize is,” Langill said, “the previous record was two.

"So, before, you'd have maybe the team of a generation: the Kirk Gibson year, the year of Fernando, the year of Drysdale and Koufax. But you never had the sustained part."

And what did Langill find so funny about what Friedman said?

“Obviously, he’s just being modest, but this is one of the greatest executives you will ever see in the sport,” Langill said. “He’s doing the ‘aw shucks’ and everything like that. He may not feel comfortable saying this, but I’m feeling comfortable saying it’s one of the most amazing streaks, not only in the history of the Dodgers, but in the history of sports.”

So, with or without a three-peat, is this the Dodgers' golden era?

"It's definitely the golden era," Langill said.

The reply from John Thorn, the official historian of Major League Baseball, was far less conclusive.

"I do believe this is a golden era for Dodger baseball," Thorn said.

A golden era, not the golden era, at least not yet.

Before Friedman and Kasten arrived, there was little dispute about the Dodgers' golden era. It took place in Brooklyn, and it was immortalized in the book "The Boys of Summer."

The 1955 Brooklyn Dodgers, the first World Series championship team in franchise history, featured eight Hall of Famers: infielders Jackie Robinson, Pee Wee Reese and Gil Hodges, outfielder Duke Snider, catcher Roy Campanella and manager Walter Alston, plus cameo appearances from rookie pitchers Sandy Koufax and Tommy Lasorda.

The Dodgers of this era feature almost certain Hall of Famers in pitcher Clayton Kershaw, first baseman Freddie Freeman, shortstop and right fielder Mookie Betts, pitcher and designated hitter Shohei Ohtani and manager

Dave Roberts, plus perhaps closer Kenley Jansen and emerging candidate Yoshinobu Yamamoto.

What makes the Dodgers' three championships in this era stand out is that they navigated multiple postseason rounds each time. In the Brooklyn era, the league champion advanced directly to the World Series. Those Dodgers won five National League titles within 10 years and lost two others on the final day of the regular season. These Dodgers are trying to win their sixth NL title in 10 years.

And, had the current percentage of teams that make the postseason been in effect in Brooklyn times, the Boys of Summer would have made the playoffs in every year from 1945 to 1957 — that is, 13 consecutive postseason appearances. That would have meant eight additional chances at a championship.

"I think this would be — with a third consecutive World Series — THE Golden Era for the Dodgers," Thorn said. "Otherwise, if the Dodgers do not win it all, I would tilt to the Boys of Summer."

My tiebreaker: The mythology and romance of the Boys of Summer live on to this day, and the annual Jackie Robinson Day celebrations help keep the memory of those Brooklyn teams alive. However, these Dodgers are global celebrities in a way that would not be possible without modern technology and, of course, Ohtani.

They win, relentlessly and unapologetically. Love them or love to hate them, these Dodgers smash attendance records home and away, drive their sport forward here and abroad, and stir passion beyond the eastern half of the United States, the only place that major league teams called home until the Dodgers moved west.

For me, this already is the golden age of the Dodgers, whatever happens this October notwithstanding. What say you?

Dodgers limp home down 2-0 to Brewers in series

[Dodgers, from D1] like it," Roberts said.

Right away, Hernández delivered. He fell into an 0-and-2 count but prolonged the at-bat and drove a fastball into right-center for a sacrifice fly.

The Brewers, however, evened the score without delay. Yamamoto struck out Jackson Chourio — whose leadoff home run last year was the lone run in Yamamoto's NLCS complete game — to open the frame.

Then Brice Turang worked a full count and hit an opposite-field double. And William Contreras fought off a low slider, poking it into shallow left field to tie the game.

Photographs by ROBERT GAUTHIER Los Angeles Times

Two innings later, the Dodgers took the lead again, rewarded for hard contact as the Brewers' defense showed its first signs of sloppy play. Tommy Edman led off with a single, and then Betts scorched a 100.9-mph one-hopper at shortstop Cooper Pratt, who mishandled it, giving Betts a single to put two runners on. Edman then advanced to third on a fly ball by Freeman.

Henderson tried to pick off Edman, but his errant throw gave the Dodgers the lead.

It didn't last long.

In the bottom of the third, Yamamoto gave up a leadoff single and issued two walks before Yelich came up with two outs and drove a curveball into center for two runs.

The first walk, to Turang, included a borderline ball four call. And the second, to Jake Bauers, came after 12 pitches.

As soon as Yamamoto left the game, it was clear it would be an uphill battle for the Dodgers.

The Dodgers retook the lead in the fifth inning with some more help from the Brewers.

After Kyle Tucker's leadoff double, Edman laid down a sacrifice bunt. Henderson picked it up and sailed a throw to first, allowing the tying run to score.

But, as had been the pattern to start the game, that 4-3 lead didn't hold for long.

SHOHEI Ohtani loses his bat striking out in the sixth. He went 0 for 4 and struck out twice as the Dodgers managed just three hits.

Later in the inning, after former Dodger Dustin May replaced Henderson, Freddie Freeman hit a sacrifice fly, and Edman scored the go-ahead run.

Roberts brought in left-hander Kris Bubic, replacing right-hander Roki Sasaki after a hitless inning, to face the left-handed-heavy heart of the order. But Bubic missed down the middle to the right-handed-hitting Contreras, who gave the fastball a ride over the center field wall, tying the game.

The Brewers added insurance runs in the eighth inning, on RBI singles by Turang against right-hander Edgardo Henriquez and Bauers against Justin Wrobleski.

In the sixth, against Dodgers right-hander Brock Stewart, Contreras singled in the go-ahead run in a traffic-filled inning that included a Freeman error on a muffed pickoff attempt. Dodgers left-hander Tanner Scott came to the rescue and struck out Bauers and Yelich to end the inning, and then Garrett Mitchell to kick off the seventh.

DAVID Hamilton dives back as Freddie Freeman can't catch the pickoff throw. Hamilton advanced and later scored for a 5-4 lead.

CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES

NATIONAL LEAGUE

Best-of-seven series

Dodgers vs. Milwaukee

Brewers lead, 2-0

Game 1: Milwaukee 2, Dodgers 1

Game 2: Milwaukee 7, Dodgers 4

Game 3: Wednesday at Dodgers, 5

Game 4: Thursday at Dodgers, 6

Game 5: Friday at Dodgers, 6\*

Game 6: Sunday at Milwaukee, 5\*

Game 7: Monday at Milwaukee, 5\*

TV: Games 3-6 on FSI, Game 7 on Fox or FSI

---

AMERICAN LEAGUE Best-of-seven series

Tampa Bay vs. Cleveland

Game 1: Monday at Tampa Bay, late

Game 2: Today at Tampa Bay, 5

Game 3: Thursday at Cleveland, 3

Game 4: Friday at Cleveland, 3

Game 5: Saturday at Cleveland, 5\*

Game 6: Monday at Tampa Bay, 2\*

Game 7: Oct. 20 Tampa Bay, 5\*

TV: TBS, HBO Max

\* if necessary | Times p.m., PDT

SUNDAY'S NLCS GAME 1

MILWAUKEE 2, DODGERS 1 | Dodgers | AB | R | H | BI | Avg. | Milwaukee | AB | R | H | BI | Avg. | Betts ss | 4 | 0 | 1 | 0 | .250 | Churg. lf | 4 | 0 | 2 | 0 | .500 | Freeman 1b | 4 | 0 | 1 | 0 | .250 | Turang 2b | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | .500 | Smith c | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .000 | Contreras c | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .000 | Ohtani dh | 3 | 1 | 1 | 0 | .333 | Bauers 1b | 3 | 0 | 1 | 0 | .333 | T.Hernández lf | 4 | 0 | 2 | 0 | .500 | Vaughn dh | 3 | 0 | 1 | 0 | .333 | Muncy 3b | 4 | 0 | 1 | 0 | .250 | Mitchell cf | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | .000 | Pages cf | 4 | 0 | 1 | 1 | .250 | Pratt ss | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .000 | Tucker rf | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .000 | Lara rf | 3 | 0 | 1 | 1 | .333 | E.Hernández 2b | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .000 | Ortiz 3b | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .000 | a-De Paula | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Totals | 26 | 2 | 6 | 2 | 1-Edman | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | --- | Totals | 31 | 1 | 7 | 1 | Dodgers | 010 | 000 | 000 - 1 | 7 | 0 | Milwaukee | 000 | 110 | 00x - 2 | 6 | 0 | Walks—Dodgers 6: Betts 1, Smith 1, Oltani 1, Tucker 2, De Paula Milwaukee 5: Turang 1, Contreras 1, Bauers 1, Vaughn 1, Mitchell 1. Strikeouts—Dodgers 8: Freeman 1, Oltani 1, T.Heméndez 1, Muncy 2, Pages 1, Tucker 2. Milwaukee 13: Chourio 1, Contreras 2, Bauers 2, Vaughn 1, Mitchell 1, Pratt 2, Lara 2, Ortiz 2. LOB—Dodgers 9, Milwaukee 7. 2B—Vaughn (1). HR—Turang (1), off Skubal. RBIs—Pages (1), Turang (1), Lara (1). CS—Bauers (1). S—Pratt, Turang. Runners left in scoring position—Dodgers 3 (Betts, Pages, Tucker); Milwaukee 5 (Mitchell 2, Contreras 2, Pratt). RISP—Dodgers 1 for 6; Milwaukee 2 for 7. Runners moved up—Mitchell, Ortiz. GIDP—Smith, E.Heméndez, Freeman. Vaughn. DP—Dodgers 1 (E.Heméndez, Betts, Freeman); Milwaukee 3 (Pratt, Turang, Bauers); Pratt, Turang, Bayes; Turang | Pratt, Bauers). | Dodgers | IP | H | R | ER | BB | SO | NP | ERA | Skubal, L, 0-1 | 5 | 5 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 7 | 81 | 3.60 | Vesia | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 16 | 0.00 | Phillips | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 17 | 0.00 | Scott | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 9 | 0.00 | Milwaukee | IP | H | R | ER | BB | SO | NP | ERA | Misiorowski | $4\frac{1}{3}$ | 5 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 5 | 94 | 2.08 | Hall, W, 1-0 | $3\frac{1}{3}$ | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 0.00 | Uribe, H, 1 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 15 | 0.00 | Ashby, H, 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 26 | 0.00 | Megill, S, 1-1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 19 | 0.00 | Inherited runners-scored—Scott 1-0, Hall 1-0. IBB—off Scott (Contreras), off Scott (Vaughn). U—Edwin Moscoso, Mark Wegner, Ryan Additon, Alan Porter T—2:55. Tickets sold—42,617 (41,700).

Los Angeles Times SPORTS EXTRA

A TIMES E-NEWSPAPER EXCLUSIVE :: TUESDAY, OCTOBER 13, 2026

ERIC THAYER Los Angeles Times

HARRISON MEVIS (92) reacts to his potential game-winning overtime kick falling short after the Bills partially blocked it en route to a 37-34 win over the Rams.

Special teams woes send Rams to OT loss

But it has turned into a special teams nightmare.

for a 34-27 lead with 1:39 left.

BY GARY KLEIN

So supposedly loaded were the Super Bowl-favorite Rams, they earned four prime-time appearances in their first five games.

And from a purely entertainment standpoint, the Rams were not living up to their billing.

Monday night's matchup against the Buffalo Bills provided the latest showcase.

The Rams delivered some thrills — but not a victory.

Tyler Bass kicked a 45-yard field goal with 1:55 left in overtime, sending the Rams to a 37-34 loss before 73,882 at SoFi Stadium.

for a 44-42 victory, the teams put on a show.

Special teams miscues and penalties once again hampered the Rams in a game that featured three touchdown passes by Matthew Stafford and a career-best 17 catches by Puka Nacua.

Just as they did two years ago, when the Rams outlasted the Bills

But the Rams' record dropped to 2-3.

Monday's game was a matchup between the two previous NFL most valuable players, Stafford and Bills quarterback Josh Allen, who won the award in 2024. It was the first game between consecutive MVPs who play in separate conferences since 2015 when Peyton Manning went against Aaron Rodgers.

Stafford completed 40 of 54 passes for 383 yards, including two touchdown passes to Davante Adams and another to Nacua, who had 138 receiving yards.

Allen, who accounted for six touchdowns in the 44-42 loss to the Rams two years ago, completed 12 of 19 passes for 210 yards and a touchdown, and he rushed for 121 yards and a touchdown as the Bills improved to 4-1.

This was supposed to be a special season for the Rams.

Harrison Mevis failed to convert two field-goal attempts, including a potential winning kick in overtime that was blocked by Buffalo linebacker Greg Rousseau. The Rams also gave up a 70-yard return on the opening kickoff.

The Rams continued their penalty-filled foibles: They were flagged 11 times for 84 yards, many of the presnap variety that drives coach Sean McVay crazy.

Special teams miscues and penalties hampered the Rams in the first half, and they trailed 13-7 at halftime.

The Rams took the lead early in the second half when Stafford engineered a 60-yard drive that ended with Blake Corum's one-yard touchdown run.

But late in the third quarter, the Bills took the lead on Allen's touchdown pass to receiver Keon Coleman. The Bills missed the extrapoint attempt, leaving them with a 19-14 lead.

The Rams immediately answered, Stafford connecting with tight end Tyler Higbee for 28 yards, before Corum caught a pass and turned it into a 34-yard gain. That set up Stafford's two-yard touchdown pass to Nacua early in the fourth quarter, but Stafford was sacked on a two-point conversion attempt, leaving the Rams with a 20-19 lead.

Allen then directed an 80-yard drive that he capped with a one-yard sneak for a score, and his two-point conversion pass to tight end Dalton Kincaid gave the Bills a 27-20 lead with 11:28 left.

But the Rams tied the score on the next possession on a five-yard touchdown reception by Adams.

Allen, however, got the ball with more than seven minutes left and had 15- and 21-yard scrambles during a drive that ended with James Cook II scoring on a five-yard run

On the ensuing possession, Stafford completed a 14-yard pass to Adams and, one play later, found Nacua for 16 yards and then Adams for 15. A one-handed catch for nine yards by Kyren Williams moved the ball to the one-yard line, and Williams scored on the next play with five seconds left in regulation. Mevis' extra point tied the score.

The Bills got the ball first in overtime and appeared on their way to a field goal or touchdown when Khalil Shakir gained 57 yards on a catch-and-run to the Rams' 22. Rams safety Kamren Kinchens prevented Shakir from scoring when he just barely managed to trip up the Buffalo receiver.

But on the next play, Nate Landman punched the ball from Cook's grasp, and Aaron Donald recovered the fumble. Stafford drove the Rams to the Bills' 30, but the Bills blocked Mevis' kick, setting the stage for the winning drive.

DeLauter, Ramírez lead the Guardians to Game 1 win over Rays

WIRE REPORTS

Nathaniel Lowe hit a tiebreaking, two-run single in the eighth inning, Chase DeLauter and Patrick Bailey hit solo homers off Drew Rasmussen, and the Cleveland Guardians beat the Tampa Bay Rays 7-3 in Game 1 of the American League Championship Series on Monday night.

Junior Caminero and Jonny DeLuca had RBI singles off Foster Griffin in the first inning, and Cedric Mullins hit a solo homer for the Rays, who never trailed in a sweep of the New York Yankees in their division series.

“I know the guys will come back and respond tomorrow,” Tampa Bay manager Kevin Cash said.

Game 2 is Tuesday night at Tropicana Field. Rookie left-hander Parker Messick starts for Cleveland, and right-hander Freddy Peralta takes the mound for the Rays.

Five relievers combined for five innings of one-run, two-hit ball for the Guardians, who became only the 11th team to overcome a 2-0 deficit in a best-of-five playoff series with a victory over the Chicago White Sox on Saturday night.

Cade Smith, who pitched in all five games against Chicago, tossed a perfect ninth.

"Obviously we came off an emotional series, had a quick turnaround. But these guys come ready to play every day. Couldn't be more proud of them," Cleveland manager Stephen Vogt said.

DAVID J. PHILLIP Associated Press

THE GUARDIANS' José Ramírez and Chase DeLauter celebrate after scoring on a single by Nathaniel Lowe in the eighth inning of Cleveland's 7-3 win over the Rays in ALCS Game 1 on Monday.

Rasmussen took a 2-0 lead into the sixth before DeLauter led off with an opposite-field homer to left-center. Bailey started the seventh with a towering shot to center that went an estimated 436 feet, ending Rasmussen's night.

José Ramírez led off the eighth with an infield single off Tyler Wells, and DeLauter ripped a double to right. After Wells retired Jo Adell on a grounder to second, Ian Seymour entered. Lowe lined an 0-and-2 pitch up the middle to drive in two, giving Cleveland a 4-2 lead.

Mullins connected off Erik Sabrowski in the bottom half.

Ramirez, whose two-run homer lifted Cleveland to a 2-0 win in Game 5 versus Chicago, provided an insurance run with an RBI single off Cole Sulser in the ninth. He helped the Guardians get two more by breaking for third with two outs and two strikes on Adell. Caminero ran to cover the bag and was out of position when Adell hit a sharp grounder toward third. The ball rolled into left field for a two-run double.

A crowd of 35,361 fans waved yellow rally towels and rang cowbells at Tropicana Field in the Rays' third appearance in the ALCS in the franchise's 29-season history.

NHL Ducks' Gauthier and Poehling day to day

They were fired up when the 98-win Rays jumped ahead 2-0 in the first, and Rasmussen battled to keep it there until the sixth.

Coming off that dominant performance against the Yankees, Rasmussen went six-plus tough innings. The two-time All-Star right-hander gave up a hit to the second batter he faced and eight total, striking out seven.

Griffin gave up two runs and five hits in four innings.

The Rays gave up just 12 hits in three games against the Yankees, but the Guardians got 14 in the series opener, including three apiece from Ramírez and DeLauter.

Ducks forwards Cutter Gauthier and Ryan Poehling are day to day with injuries, the team announced on social media.

Gauthier suffered a reported upper-body injury on Sunday night, when he exited the game after playing just five shifts against the Calgary Flames.

Poehling was injured while scoring a shorthanded goal in the Ducks' 4-2 win at Calgary. Poehling crashed into the net and didn't re-turn to the game.

Anaheim finishes a home-and-home set with the Flames on Tuesday night at Honda Center.

Buffalo Sabres coach Lindy Ruff listed captain Rasmus Dahlin as day to day after he left Monday's game because of an injury, while adding the defenseman won't initially join the team for its three-game road trip.

Without revealing the exact nature of the injury, Ruff said Dahlin was hurt in following through on taking a shot early in the second period of a 5-3 win against the Florida Panthers.

Go to our website for takeaways from The Times' staff on your favorite home teams at latimes.com/sports.

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Kids find a voice in comedy

Local mentorship programs help young people get laughs and build confidence.

BY ADA TSENG

Growing up in L.A., Samantha Linderman attended a middle school that was just three blocks away from the Los Angeles School of Comedy, but she was always too intimidated to step inside.

Linderman was 19 when she finally worked up the courage to try her hand at stand-up. Calling the L.A. School of Comedy led to a direct line with founder Sunda Croonquist. Linderman took her first class four days later and was already on-stage the next day. Four years later, she's pursuing stand-up professionally and working at the very same comedy club as a "concierge of comedy," handling bookings and leading youth classes.

Though she dreams of a career like Adam Sandler's, she knows she's coming up in an industry that's drastically different from the one that shaped the stars before her.

The classic paths to Hollywood are dissolving in real time, driven by media con-[See Comedy, E6]

JASON HAMM L.A. School of Comedy

SAMANTHA Linder-

man hosts shows at the

L.A. School of Comedy.

'NAZA' exposes Israeli AI use

Israel's use of AI for strikes in Gaza is examined in the documentary film "NAZA." E2

Lens on world's first trillionaire

A four-hour film documentary looks at one of the world's most polarizing figures, Elon Musk. E3

Comic ....E4-5

Puzzles ....E5

ETIENNE LAURENT For De Los

"I WANT them to see me as somebody that they can trust," Navarrette says of audiences. She is seen at Burbank's Green Man Store.

DE LOS

WORKING, NOT WISHING

S

urrounded by colorful candles, crystals and all manner of mystical artifacts, the popular — but thankfully fictional — One Wish Willow sits on a shelf protected under a glass dome, like the magical rose in "Beauty and the Beast," inside the n Store in Burbank.

The wish-granting branch packaged in an eye-catching box is flanked by framed photos of "Obsession," the small-scale horror film turned global box-office smash to which it is central. The shrine to this movie prop is here because the esoteric shop — or portal to the otherworldly, depending on whom you ask — served as the filming location where Bear (Michael Johnston), a young man in unrequited love, purchased the One Wish Willow.

---

Inde Navarrette's breakout role in the surprise blockbuster horror 'Obsession' has brought more roles — and Oscar buzz

BY CARLOS AGUILAR

Nikki, the object of Bear's desire who becomes disturbingly infatuated with him after he makes a dangerous wish, is played by Inde Navarrette, an actor who quickly went from struggling to find work to becoming one of the most sought-after names in Hollywood after the film's May release. She is now attached to multiple high-profile projects.

Throughout the whirlwind of the movie's production and release, however, Navarrette, 25, had never actually visited the store. Her character has no scenes here, but the transaction made inside these walls deeply impacts her. On a September morning, she finally made it in.

"We brought Nikki to where it all began, and she feels good in here," Navarrette tells me with a hearty chuckle [See Actor, E3]

Brandon Flowers tries on country

The Killers frontman went to Nashville to cut a solo LP, but still keeps his Vegas croon.

MIKAEL WOOD

POP MUSIC CRITIC

Brandon Flowers stands onstage at the Ford Theatre wearing a sharp black suit and a bejeweled bolo tie and tells the audience about his cousin Bobby's job parking cars in the 110-degree heat of the Las Vegas Strip.

“That was gonna be me in another life, only my big plan was to work at the Bellagio,” he adds. “Nicer place, more tips.”

As the frontman of the Killers, Flowers, 45, has spent more than two decades singing about the struggles and the temptations at the heart of the American dream. But on his new solo album, "Thrasher," he trades the Killers' gleaming, synth-laced rock for the crackling sound of hand-played country music.

He cut the LP at Nashville's historic RCA Studio A, where country giants like Dolly Parton and Waylon Jennings once worked; not only that, but to accompany him he recruited veteran session players including David Rawlings, Bruce Bouton and 85-year-old Charlie McCoy, who played harmonica on George Jones' immortal "He Stopped Loving Her Today."

Yet for all its old-school country cred, “Thrasher” also emphasizes Flowers’ [See Flowers, E2]

“THERE'S more quiet in these songs — more room for the story to be told,” says Flowers of “Thrasher.”

Chris PHELPS

A tour of L.A.'s punk history, courtesy of Tequila Mockingbird

Westlake exhibit of her archives captures an era of defiance, nihilism and music.

By August Brown

Tequila Mockingbird remembers the exact night she became a punk historian. "Darby Crash asked me to do this," she said, walking around the Goethe-Institut Los Angeles' Westlake gallery, showing off rare show posters, Gothic Vivienne Westwood outfits, videos and photographs from grotty dives in the early days of the L.A. scene.

She pointed to a picture of a snarling Crash, performing with the Germs at the

Starwood on Aug. 27, 1980. "That's the day he asked me to keep punk rock alive."

Five decades later, Mockingbird's done a comprehensive job of it. The musician, curator, TV producer, visual artist and collector has an ongoing exhibition from her personal catalog of L.A. punk artifacts and ephemera. (The rest is in the Tequila Mockingbird L.A. Punk Museum collection, at UCLA's library.) She has bashed heads in pits with nearly everyone in the "Decline of Western Civilization" cinematic universe.

The Times spoke with Mockingbird about how a counterculture movement like punk has been co-opted and reclaimed, and if L.A.'s nihilistic feelings back then

[See Mockingbird, E6]

Review ROBERT ABELE

'NAZA' details Israeli AI-aided strikes in Gaza

DIRECTOR Yuval Abraham, right, in Tel Aviv with anonymous “NAZA” subject.

The Guardian

Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor's latest documentary is deeply disturbing.

Using interviews filmed on rooftops at night in Tel Aviv, the documentary "NAZA" uncovers Israel's brutal methodology of warfare in Gaza since the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, massacre that took 250 hostages and killed at least 1,200 people. The testimony offered by these insiders is under the cloak of darkness, but the light it shines on the mass killing of Palestinian civilians is so harsh it burns the conscience. (The title refers to the Israel Defense Forces' use of an acronym for the Hebrew term for collateral damage: nezek agavi.)

Israeli directors Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor, half of the quartet (with Basel Adra and Hamdan Ballal) behind the Oscar-winning “No Other Land,” secured one-on-one interviews with 24 Israeli intelligence personnel and soldiers, digitally altering their faces and voices while their silhouettes are framed by the lit cityscape. Sitting across from interviewer

Abraham, they recount their participation in a military campaign that has killed more than 73,000 in Gaza, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, and is ongoing. Used as an estimation of casualties — just put a number in front, “20 NAZA”— it suggests a battle calculation that has permitted the detachment of moral consquences.

One participant makes his need for anonymity clear: "Israel will put me in jail." At the same time, there has been clamor for the exposure of these sources so they can be prosecuted for war crimes. The uproar over "NAZA" has also led the filmmakers to be called traitors in their country. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has threatened to revoke their citizenship.

It all speaks to the power of a well-timed movie, since much of the reporting in "NAZA" has already been published by the Guardian, a co-producer of the documentary, and corroborated by other news outlets. After its theatrical run, the Guardian will stream "NAZA" for free on its website.

The picture painted by the interview subjects, who occasionally draw sketches of weapons-screen interfaces on notepads, is of a computerized tracking-and-killing apparatus, culled from the surveillance Israel keeps of nearly every phone in Gaza. The system is augmented by AI that isn't always accurate about a target's presence yet is implemented with airstrikes. Eavesdropping on children is used to track a targeted father's arrival home in a program called "Where's Daddy?" As one person says, "You hack her phone and

then kill her."

What's chilling about these interviews is how they don't feel like whistleblowing but, rather, a fact-finding inquiry with available explainers who betray little affect or remorse, even when the topic of personal doubt arises. When one is asked whether this is genocide, the answer comes back, "Yes." "NAZA" eschews probing for guilty feelings, though, because the point is to unearth a process of obliteration:

how it works and what it looks like as implemented by the willing. "My role is technical," a subject says.

In between these interviews are glimpses of the occasional Israeli news media snippet and at one point an archival reminder of the circumstances of Tel Aviv's founding. But most insistently, the interstitial visuals are cinematographer Szor's night shots of apartment facades in modern Tel Aviv: citizens at rest with their

'NAZA'

In Hebrew and English, with subtitles.

Not rated

Running time: 1 hour,

17 minutes

Playing: In limited release

loved ones, working out or eating in front of their televisions. It's a casual surveilling of placidity just up the coast from the atrocities we hear about. "NAZA" isn't just tough-to-hear journalism, it's real filmmaking, the visual juxtapositions getting us to think about who doesn't get to enjoy a quiet evening at home, especially when remote war-waging starts to look like a goal-oriented office shift with a lunch break — or a video game.

Wherever you fall regarding the continued destruction of Gaza, what the filmmakers of “NAZA” make disturbingly clear is that the simplest machinery to spread dehumanization and death is happening now, easing its users into acceptance and rewriting everything about the moral cost of conflict. It’s stone-cold frightening.

Killers frontman heads to Nashville to cut a solo album

"THIS IS an authentic part of myself," says Brandon Flowers, playing last month at the Ford, of his solo LP.

Rob Loud

[Flowers, from E1]

roots as a Vegas showman — his tremulous croon, his go-for-broke emotion, his almost preacherly understanding of how to take a crowd up (and up) and how to take it back down. Think Glen Campbell or Donny Osmond.

“Or Wayne Newton,” says Rawlings with admiration. The guitarist, known for his long collaboration with Gillian Welch, performed with Flowers at July’s Newport Folk Festival. “It’s really thrilling to see the way he inhabits this stuff on-stage,” he adds. “I have such incredible respect for anybody who knows how to entertain at that level because it’s an absolute gift — and it’s really hard work.”

Flowers, who grew up in Las Vegas and Utah and who shares three sons with his wife, spoke about the album in his dressing room last month a few hours before the Ford show. A sequel to “Thrasher,” recorded during the same sessions, is due out next year.

The Nashville OGs who played on these records — do you think they were impressed by you?

I think they were refreshed. I think they didn't quite know what they were getting into and were pleasantly surprised.

For you, it was a different way of working, right? These players are artists. But it's also just another day on the job.

You feel that: “Charlie’s got to leave at 4 to go to the Opry.” He still gets his licks in.

I wonder what it would've sounded like to cut 10 Killers classics with this band.

Probably like the Traveling Wilburys or something. The second album has some of that DNA. This one was more of a narrative album — a lot of stories. The other one, it's more in the romantic realm. I'm excited to get it out. I have another one cooking.

---

A third album?

Well, because they're so efficient. It's opened up a door for me that I feel like I'll always be able to explore. If I have 10 songs, I can go to Nashville for five days and cut the whole thing. We do two songs a day, no problem.

You've said there's this idea in rock music that making an album needs to feel like climbing a mountain.

I blame it on U2. You don't feel like you're doing it right if you're not doing that. We really went into that on "Sam's Town" — we climbed Everest, man. When we finished "Sam's Town," I remember the last day — it was like 6 in the morning, the sun was up and we were finally done. What a relief it was.

Now the veil has been lifted.

It doesn't have to be like that.

Did you get a feel for Nashville as a town while you were there?

I got a breakfast spot: Cafe Roze. I don't want to blow it up too much because I want to be able to get in. But you know Cafe Stella in Silver Lake? They used to have my favorite breakfast in the world: sourdough, soft scramble, prosciutto and Parmesan. And they have that exact thing at Cafe Roze — it's like I'm transported back. I could eat it every day with a side of avocado.

“Thrasher” follows a number of country excursions by rappers and pop stars. Do you have any anxiety about being seen as a carpetbagger?

No, because I'm not trying to bulldoze my way into the world and open a bar in Nashville. This is an authentic part of myself — I have an education in this music. People have a lot of preconceptions about country music, especially lately. Everyone says the same thing: cold beer, dirt road, Friday night. But there's such an art to the tradition — it's a soulful artistic endeavor. I'm trying to come at it from that angle.

What's your relationship with modern country music — Morgan Wallen and Miranda Lambert and the like?

I don't have one. It's more people that are on the fringes, I guess — Jason Isbell or Sturgill Simpson. I got Sturgill's guitar player because I was a fan of that stuff.

Before I heard "Thrasher,"

I expected kind of a stripped-down Isbell vibe.

I could see him doing “In a Heartbeat” or “Miss America.” But once we got to Nashville and got the guys in the room, it just got a little more pep in its step.

Does being embraced by the Nashville industry feel like a reasonable goal?

That's a whole other nut to crack. You hear stories about Dwight Yoakam having a tough time — and he brought some heat. Or John Prine just because he was from Illinois and not from further south. I'm not gonna go on a campaign to prove how worthy I am.

You've been dinged by people who think you're putting on an accent on this record.

I feel like this is more how I speak than maybe they're accustomed to. I don't know, I might've leaned in a couple times. There is a Utah accent — it was something I was embarrassed by when I was younger. But now I've lived there 16 years of my life total, so it just starts feeding its way back in.

Is your vocal approach different for country than for rock?

There's more quiet in these songs — more room for the story to be told. In the rock band, I'm competing — everybody wants to be heard — whereas this one, there's this beautiful thing where the guys don't mind being in the background. They want to frame the picture, and I'm the picture.

Did you find yourself making more of an effort to enunciate?

I've always been cognizant of that. Just today, there was a band — I won't say who it was — but I was interested in hearing their new thing, and I didn't understand a word until the chorus. I was rooting for the guy the whole time, but it's like: How can I fall in love with this if I don't know what's happening?

Got some questions about specific songs. "One of Us" is about your brother-in-law, which made me realize how few people write songs about their in-laws.

He passed away unexpectedly a few years ago. You know, I'm the youngest of six, and he married my oldest sister. She's 17 years my senior, so when they got married, I was a kid — he became my big brother and was a masculine figure in my life and all that. There's your family and then there's your found family, and he's part of my found family. I wanted to honor him, and this is my way of doing it.

I assume your sister's heard the song.

Oh yeah. A lot of those moments happen on this record where I had to play the song for the person, and you just can't help but be brought closer together. You're taking part in their grief but we're also celebrating him. It was beautiful.

"Miss America" is about another one of your sisters. The one next in line.

She's addressing an abusive ex, and you sing it from her point of view — from a woman's perspective.

It just started like that. I don't remember a moment of thinking: Am I gonna do this from the outside or am I gonna step into her shoes? Maybe it's something to do with that Tom Waits song ["Christmas Card from a Hooker in Minneapolis"] — something about that maybe gave me permission.

Did you play "Miss America" for that sister?

It felt like the gentlemanly thing to do. If she'd said no, I would've been heartbroken because I think "Miss America" is gorgeous — I'm really proud to be part of it. But I would've honored her wishes.

In "An American Dream," the point of view seems to keep shifting. At one point I think the narrator becomes Elvis Presley?

Chorus 1, I'm singing with this man that used to give me cigars and tobacco when I was a kid — we're singing it together. Giving a 13-year-old Red Man tobacco — there was nothing shady about it, or nothing too shady — but it was still a wild move. Then Chorus 2, Elvis and I are both singing — I see it that way.

Which era of Elvis are you envisioning?

Whenever I think of him, I think of him in '68. Nobody's ever looked that good — it's not fair.

You're known for your flights of lyrical fancy: "Burning down the highway skyline in the back of a hurricane," for instance, from the Killers' "When You Were Young." Did country music allow for those flourishes?

Verse 2 of “Does It Ever Cross Your Mind?” is a great example: “I could’ve been born in Bangladesh but I wasn’t / I was born here with just enough jelly beans in my basket to ask you to go wishing on a star.” That’s fun.

In “An American Dream” you say, “We blew through starlight on bricklayers’ knees.”

We're performers, and we're here to entertain you. But we're working-class men, me and Elvis.

Some of these lines get at this crucial point that I think your music makes, which is that pageantry and sincerity can coexist.

I think people get confused a lot — they might look at a line like the one you just talked about and think it's total bull—. It's annoying to me to read a review and see where they just don't get it — and they think they're the smart one. I saw someone talking about my tropes, and they brought up the Bangladesh line. I thought: What are you talking about? That's the most left-field line.

You're challenging the listener to accept that over the top doesn't necessarily mean phony.

It's so American to be over the top and to still have substance. That's the chorus of "An American Dream": "Gold and silver / God and glitter." I guess I'm trying to spoon-feed it there a little bit.

Plenty of Killers songs involve people making bad decisions. How do you think about the degenerate's place in country music?

It's funny how people aren't quite familiar with how wild it was. The same person in me that was excited about old Depeche Mode stories still gets excited about old George Jones stories. And a part of me yearns for that. But I keep it under wraps.

Your oldest son is 19, which means you became a dad at a fairly young age.

It was just par for the course. I grew up in an LDS family — my sisters were having kids when they were 17 and 18. So having Ammon at 26 — that was the oldest anyone had had their first child in my family. They were like, “Brandon might be gay.”

How did you reconcile the rock star and new dad halves of your life?

It sort of gave me a direction early on because I was a little bit teetering in those days. Who's ready to have this wild fame brought on them at such a young age? We weren't the Beatles, but "Hot Fuss" and "Sam's Town" were really successful records — we went straight to arenas. It was tough to navigate, and family gave me an anchor.

Do you hear before parenthood and after parenthood in your music?

There's a song called "Be Still" on the fourth record — a song to the kids. But I don't know if the writing changed that much. Everybody was getting older in the band, so whatever happened, you can't place the blame just on me.

ETIENNE LAURENT For De Los

Latino fans embrace star of ‘Obsession’

[Actor, from E1] [126] at the space that's become a destination for "Obsession" obsessives.

Under a black coat, the petite and poised Navarrette sits on a stool. She is mostly soft-spoken—except for when she belts out a laugh — and straddles the glamour of a major star on the rise with the unpretentious candidness of someone still thrilled by the ride she's on.

Only a year ago, after “Obsession” premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival, and before it grossed \$519.4 million worldwide, her professional reality looked much different.

"I was definitely not in the position that I am now," Navarrette says. "I was really trying to find new work, and I wasn't getting many jobs, but now I think everything's changed and I'm really happy that 'Obsession' showed people what I'm capable of."

Before the surprise blockbuster horror hit, Navarrette's supporting role in the series "Superman & Lois" was her most notable credit. Playing Nikki, who, under the spell of the One Wish Willow displays extreme emotions, was exactly the kind of acting challenge she needed. When it came, it felt like kismet.

"I was like, 'This is perfect. There's so much to play with here. And even if it doesn't go big, people at least can look back at this movie and say, "She could play girl next door, she could play crazy, she could play deep, she could play this or that." It's just a well of ranges," she says.

Navarrette says she only became fully aware of the phenomenon “Obsession” had become when those closest to her reacted positively.

"I didn't realize until the massive wave on social media and my little brother, who's 18, and his friends being like, 'Dude, that's kind of sick.' Because everything else they've kind of been like, 'Pfft, whatever, that's cool.' [Laughs]. But this was the first thing that excited him. I was like, 'Oh OK, this means something.'

Navarrette's Mexican American father is a U.S. Marine and her Australian mother is a hairstylist. Though born in Tucson, she grew up in the Central California city of Visalia. Her parents divorced during her early childhood, and Navarrette remembers first telling her mother she wanted to be an actor around age 5.

Her family imbued in her a love for cinema. Her Mexican American loved ones enjoy comedies like “Jackass” and “White Chicks,” while her more religious Australian relatives watch the Oscars and love classics like “Funny Girl.” That Navarrette turned out to be a precocious movie watcher might be the result of her exposure to a wide spectrum of films.

“I’ve lived a life where I needed to understand emotion at a very young age,” she says. “And I feel like I found that home in movies. I’ve always just been an emotional child.”

"Emotion is a language that I understand very well and that's why I liked adult movies growing up and I'd get in trouble, movies like 'Leon the Professional' or 'Gladiator' or 'Seven,' " she recalls. "I just felt like kids' movies didn't fully give me what I felt like I was experiencing on the inside."

Horror movies also came into her purview by way of her Mexican American family, in particular her aunt Maria. "When I tell you growing up at my tía's house, all of the horror movies that would be playing, and I had a friend in high school whose mom was really into brujería and we would watch Rob Zombie and we'd talk about the spirits in the house," Navarrette recalls.

"I would love to know the history as to why Latinos love horror so much," she adds.

When “Obsession” premiered, Navarrette went with her tía Maria and other family members to watch at the movie theater in Visalia she frequented growing up. Tía Maria offered her precious validation.

"The whole time she was, 'Mija, this is good,' " Navarrette recalls. "It was really nice because she's the horror woman. She's tatted up

— I have a biker family. She has the devil on this arm and the angel on this arm. She's a punk Chicana."

As a kid in Visalia, which is more than half Latino, Navarrette never questioned her pride in her identity as a Latina. It was only when as a teenager she and her family moved to Redondo Beach, with the intention of being closer to Los Angeles in order for her to pursue an acting career, that others disputed her Latinidad.

"My family doesn't speak Spanish because we're very ingrained in what is considered America," she explains. "My abuelito's side also has [Indigenous roots]."

In the wake of the “Obsession” craze, however, Navarrette has reveled in seeing Latinos embrace her.

"Whenever I started having people question it, I started questioning it myself like, 'I don't speak Spanish, but neither do my dad and my abuelito.' But my abuelito had dark skin. My dad is darker than me, and because I'm lighter, it's questioned, which I understand. And there's also a privilege that comes with that," she says. "But I'm very proud of it and it made me really happy to have people pull me in and be like, 'No, she is Latina and she's ours.'

"I WOULD love to know the history as to why Latinos love horror so much," actor Inde Navarrette says.

ETIENNE LAURENT For De Los

A ONE WISH WILLOW, a plot device in “Obsession,” at the Green Man Store.

IN "OBSESSION," Nikki (Navarrette) is infatuated with Bear (Michael Johnston) after he makes a wish.

Focus Features

Navarrette is aware of the memes that refer to Nikki as a “toxica”—a popular term among Latinos online to describe a woman who displays toxic behavior in romantic relationships — but she doesn’t believe that applies to her character. If anything, she felt the label used her identity as a Mexican American woman, whether maliciously or not, to reduce Nikki to a stereotype.

“Whenever I first saw that I kind of cried because it made me really sad that people took my pride in being Mexican and saw it as, ‘Let’s degrade this person’s experience,’” Navarrette says. “There’s this idea that Latina women are just so intense and so crazy. But let’s look a lot deeper than that. It did hurt my feelings. But I can understand where they’re coming from. It’s a surface-level thing to say and sometimes jokes are just that.”

finity for acting at a YMCA summer camp, Navarrette landed her first acting job, a commercial where they made her drive a car. Her aptitude for drama came naturally. And though she has never taken formal acting classes, Navarrette credits her seventh-grade English teacher, Ms. Patton, for instilling in her to “feel her feet.”

At 13, after showing an af-

There's an instinctual quality to how Navarrette has navigated her career thus far. The name she uses professionally, Inde, for example, is a nickname her grandfather and her mother gave her as a child, because of her independence. "My abuelito never called me Danielle at all. He called me Inde," she says.

“I know that sounds strange, but acting is never just in your head, it’s in your feet, it’s in your knees, depending on the person that you are,” she explains.

When it came time to fill out her Screen Actors Guild documents, she went with that name instead of Danielle or Fabiola, her middle name. “I felt closer to Inde because it felt more like me,”

she adds. “I don’t know whether or not it was because I was called that every single day by my mom and by my abuelito, who I would see after school, because my mom still had to work.”

Now after the wallop of success thanks to “Obsession” and with Oscar buzz on her name, Navarrette is able to be choosier about the roles she takes.

She believes she's earned the audience's trust with Nikki and wants to preserve that bond moving forward.

"I want them to see me as somebody that they can trust with characters," she says. "Even if they don't necessarily like the movie or the character, they know that it's something that I really loved and that I could chameleon myself into rather than just a paycheck."

In the future, Navarrette intends to write and direct her own films, but for now, she is preparing to play Rogue, a misunderstood mutant who absorbs others' powers by touching them, in filmmaker Jake Schreier's upcoming "X-Men" movie.

"I'm doing everything humanly possible because I love that character. I've studied that character. I want to do it justice for myself, for Jake, for what they want to portray and also for what I as a fan want her to be like. I'm doing everything, exclamation point."

When I suggest that she has probably been asked countless times if she would pick up a One Wish Willow and ask for something, Navarrette explains people just assume she would: "I actually haven't been asked if I would use it. I've been asked what I would wish for."

"I don't think I would because I have a very big complex about not feeling deserving of something until it happens. Like with the Oscar buzz, I don't consider it a thing until it happens," she adds. "That's also a way of protecting myself. I wouldn't wish for anything. I would work hard for it and see if it happens. I hope, not wish. It's different."

Review ROBERT ABELE

The many angles of polarizing tech titan Elon Musk

MUSK at a Trump rally in Pennsylvania in 2024, as seen in the documentary.

The Oscar-winning documentarian Alex Gibney focuses on the world's richest human.

Is there anything more worrisome about today's tech titans than the fact that they present as abundance-minded optimists but in actuality are gluttonous, scorched-earth pessimists?

Documentarian Alex Gibney is no stranger to dissections of corrupting power — from his feature dives into Enron, Elizabeth Holmes and Scientology. He frames his deeply researched four-hour psych eval “Musk” as the reality check we all need when the world’s richest, most cult-powerful human keeps pushing migration to Mars. Musk might need Earth to become uninhabitable to justify the trip.

Musk's Tesla cars, SpaceX rockets and Starlink satellites have inspired awe while his "dark MAGA" politics, limited knowledge and petty ego have made him plutocrat Enemy No. 1.

Other behavior-coded prisms through which to view Musk — an immigrant whom American fascists love — include his oft-stated belief that we're living in a simulation. He also loves video games. Gibney sporadically complements his archival materials and many interviews with the metaphoric imagery of player-one gaming: toggling between identities, first-person shooter modes. He also shrewdly compares Musk to the protagonist of a 1930s film adapted from an H.G.

Wells story, “The Man Who Could Work Miracles,” about an ordinary guy bestowed with world-altering powers by the gods. (It doesn’t go well.)

There's even a computer-generated Elon, a by-product of Gibney not securing a face-to-face interview with the tycoon himself. Avatar Musk, meant to appear like AI slop and spouting commentary culled from the totality of his recorded interviews, is pretty gimmicky. But its strangeness also seems appropriate, considering the epic oddity of the South African's ascension from mistrusted Silicon Valley wannabe to ever-confident cheerleader for space dreams and electric vehicles.

Musk is savvy at securing investment, whether his shiny pronouncements

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'Musk'

Rated: R, for language and brief violent content

Running time: 3 hours, 55 minutes (including intermission)

Playing: AMC Century City 15, AMC Burbank 16

about the future prove real or not. It's why Gibney's surest, most clear-eyed take is that Musk is less a visionary than a self-promoter — selling Autopilot in Teslas when it led to deaths, being recklessly bullish about AI—and the greatest artificial stock-pumper of all time.

Musk's forthright, crusty dad, Errol, sounds almost proud that something was bullied out of his son, but the movie avoids filling out that traumatic childhood. More heartbreaking is ex-wife Justine Musk's well-articulated experience of Musk's cruel domestic side — especially where trans daughter Jenna was involved. Ashley St. Clair, the right-wing influencer and one of Musk's many baby mamas, chillingly completes the portrait of someone who sees fatherhood as an NDA arrangement to help facilitate a genetic army. She watched him up close as he cozied up to Donald Trump, grew his online fandom after taking over Twitter and consolidated his data power. St. Clair simply calls him a “nuke,” one that might readily self-detonate at the slightest bruising of his self-image.

With a built-in intermission dividing his rise (SpaceX, Tesla) from his rightward shift (Twitter, Trump), it's wild how much the documentary's second half makes you long for the garden variety tech-bro obnoxiousness of the first. The running time seems a lot for one's tolerance of a supervilain story and not enough, since the story of DOGE, a venal propaganda folly with a human cost, really needs its own separate feature.

Even a four-hour “Musk” can’t keep up with the unelected trillionaire’s financially self-serving governmental meddling, considering the recent news of his involvement in a Department of Defense AI warfare study. Maybe his conning can be curtailed someday, but the thought there’d ever be enough distracting chaos for a similarly lengthy follow-up is almost too much to bear.

©2026 LALO ALCARAZ Distributed by Andrews McMeel Syndication www.lalocalcaraz.com latocalcaraz@yahoo.com IG: @lalocalcaraz1

LA CUCARACHA By Lalo Alcaraz

CRABGRASS By Tauhid Bondia

PICKLES By Brian Crane

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COMICS

BABY BLUES By Jerry Scott & Rick Kirkman

CURTIS By Ray Billingsley

CRANKSHAFT By Tom Batiuk & Chuck Ayers

LOOSE PARTS By Dave Blazek

JUMP START By Robb Armstrong

PEARLS BEFORE SWINE By Stephan Pastis

MACANUDO By Liniers

LIO By Mark Tatulli

BLONDIE By Dean Young & John Marshall

ZITS By Jerry Scott & Jim Borgman

BETWEEN FRIENDS By Sandra Bell-Lundy

TUNDRA By Chad Carpenter

BIZARRO By Wayno and Piraro

SIX CHIX By Bianca Xunise

DRABBLE By Kevin Fagan

FRAZZ By Jef Mallett

MUTTS By Patrick McDonnell

NON SEQUITUR By Wiley

PEANUTS By Charles M. Schulz

COMICS

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SUDOKU

©2026 The Mepham Group. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency. All rights reserved. Solutions to Monday'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.

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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

©2026 KenKen Puzzle, LLC www.kenken.com

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HOROSCOPE

By Holiday Mathis

Aries (March 21-April 19). You will get new information that makes you wonder if you should keep going past the gate. Trust the message.

Taurus (April 20-May 20). You will be tempted to share something about yourself, but think twice. Do you know this person well enough?

Gemini (May 21-June 21). When relationships unfold in stages, you enjoy them more. The pacing is an essential part of the experience.

Cancer (June 22-July 22). Someone will ask you to make an exception. Before you say yes, consider the question behind the question.

Leo (July 23-Aug. 22). You have something new to show people, though you may feel protective of it. Choose your audience carefully.

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CROSSWORD

Virgo (Aug. 23-Sept. 22). Someone may want to become more involved with your family. Invite them closer at your own pace. Parts of your life are private.

Libra (Sept. 23-Oct. 23). More and more, you are living in a way that shows people who you are and lets them adore you.

Scorpio (Oct. 24-Nov. 21). Decide early on how much you're comfortable giving, then give that amount with an open hand and keep the rest in your pocket.

Sagittarius (Nov. 22-Dec. 21). This day seems ripe for venturing and no one ventures like you. Because of this, you'll get the most excitement for your time when you go it alone.

Capricorn (Dec. 22-Jan. 19). Ideas are coming together in your mind, but they're too early to discuss. Wait until you're ready.

Aquarius (Jan. 20-Feb. 18). The world asks for your time, contacts, ideas or help.

Edited By Patti Varol

Just remember that you're not obligated to give anything at all.

Pisces (Feb. 19-March 20). More people are seeing your work these days. Enjoy the attention and decide how much more you want them to know.

Today's birthday (Oct. 13). In your Year of the Legend, you'll refine yours, adding chapters of whimsy and accomplishment, and overwriting the less interesting or definitive parts of your story with the experiences you will be proud to be known for. More highlights: Investments in you — your skills, your home, your appearance — will pay off. What and whom you take care of will thrive. Two awards. Taurus and Capricorn adore you. Lucky numbers: 5, 36, 4, 44 and 19.

Mathis writes her column for Creators Syndicate Inc. The horoscope should be read for entertainment.

DOWN

1 “Hacks” comedy writer Daniels

2 Impact sound

3 The “A” of A/S/L

4 “Let’s catch some waves!”

5 Whodunit suspect

By Zachary Edward-Brown & Shannon Rapp

ACROSS

1 Make red-faced

6 Feature of some Southern accents

11 Bread with caraway seeds

14 Like unhelpful hints

15 Civic-minded brand?

16 Snakelike fish

17 Seth MacFarlane cartoon series

19 Language in which "Baw pen nyang" means "It's nothing"

20 Ballpark snack

21 Hotel customer

23 Lane of "Superman"

26 Conversation that might involve Jordan and LeBron

29 Promises

31 Solemn acts

32 Letter before lambda

33 Moral wrong

34 Get a better loan rate, for short

37 \_out a living

38 Big lottery win

42 \_sum: bite-sized Chinese fare

43 Truly engrossed

45 Quaker possessive

46 Running track shapes, often

48 Seven, in Spanish

50 Sea cow

52 "Room" Best Actress Oscar winner

55 Take a day off, say

56 Baggy

57 \_frutti

59 Wine cask wood

60 Green Bay Packers fans, or what 17-, 26-, 38-, and 52-Across have

66 Carry-on screeners: Abbr.

67 Bridgestone products

68 Bright courtyards

69 "Charlotte's Web" enclosure

70 Bowling score indicated by a slash

71 Used a keyboard

6 Marvel villain played by Josh Brolin

7 Fictional chocolatier

8 "On top of that ... "

9 Secrecy doc

10 Gizmo

11 Information on a movie poster

12 Baker's supply

13 Mexican corn dish

18 Bird house?

22 App with a Women Drivers option

23 L.A. NBAer

24 Honshu port city

25 Server's query after a drink order, perhaps

27 Journey

28 T. rex, for one

30 TV friend of Sheldon and Howard

33 Cloud location

35 Computer folder contents

36 "Nothing for me, thanks!"

39 Flour for chapati and roti

40 "Believe" diva

41 Heavy load

44 Formal neckwear

47 Assortment

49 Puts in office

50 Styling foam

51 Poker stake

52 Rorschach test shapes

53 Cook in an oven

54 Pilot

58 The one there

61 \_hop music

62 Slice of history

63 Dada artist Jean

64 Monopoly cube

65 Melancholy

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