Bill

A woman recently booked a holiday to Turkey and she can’t believe how much it cost. Suzanna was floored when she saw her bill for her recent trip away in the sun

A woman booked a holiday to Turkey, but was left floored when she realised how much it cost, and it’s not the only thing that’s left people stunned at the holiday hotspot recently. Suzanna, known as suzannatravelsolo on TikTok, recently admitted she jetted off for a few days in the sun to have a break from “rainy Liverpool“.

Even though she enjoyed her time away, she admitted she was taken aback when she realised how much it would cost her to spend the weekend in Turkey. In a candid video shared online she claimed she bagged a weekend away in Turkey for “less than £200.00”, and this included taxi fees, so it was pretty good.

The news may surprise some people as it’s been heavily documented that, in recent years, tourists think Turkey has become expensive. Just a few months ago, Brits admitted they were looking for “cheaper options”, as they claimed the hotspot has witnessed such high levels of inflation.

However, Suzanna said she had a bargain break away and she opened up about it in a few videos. However, she did warn it can be come expensive when you actually land at the destination.

In a different video, Suzanna explained whether she thinks it’s cheaper in Turkey or Hurghada, Egypt. She said she did notice it was pricey when she was out and about.

Suzanna explained: “The beach clubs in Hurghada are much better and a lot cheaper. I mean, if you drink, you’re going to spend a lot of money, because it was £12.00 for a cocktail.

“If you wanted vodka and Sprite, a vodka was just £11.00 on its own without a mixer. £11.00 for a vodka. I found local restaurants in the area I’m staying – the food has been lovely.

“You can get good value if you shop around. Tourists spots are just so, so expensive. Turkey will always be a part of my life, but Hurghada wins hands down for value and for what you get for your money.

“I mean, to just go on a boat trip here you’re talking €60.00. In Hurghada, we do it for €30,00, so there’s a big difference in the price. Turkey is still there in my heart.”

In the video, Suzanna also stated she had bed and breakfast, and people were quick to comment and share their thoughts. Some had similar views.

One said: “Love Turkey but my favourite will always be Egypt. We used to go to Luxor for two weeks and then go to Hurghada for a few days in between.”

Another added: “Definitely stay away from tourist spots, but I prefer that anyway – wherever I go.” Some people love Turkey though, as someone else wrote: “I’d personally choose Turkey – we’ve had the best holidays there, twice last year.”

One more commented: “Just came back from Hurghada and absolutely loved it – can’t wait to return. Great people – fab holiday.”

Is Turkey becoming expensive?

There are a few reasons why prices are said to have shot up in parts of Turkey. If you’re wondering about the situation, Statista has offered an explanation as to why it may be happening.

The website reads: “Domestic producer price indices have been continuously rising, which has directly resulted in a price increase in all consumer goods and services. Accordingly, the Consumer Price Index (CPI) in all commodity groups increased extremely since 2022.

“In the same year, the food and non-alcoholic beverages category had one of the highest inflation rates in the CPI. This particularly affected Turkish consumers, as these products accounted for the highest share of household expenditure in 2023.

“Since 2020, food prices have increased significantly around the world, and Turkey is no exception. Although inflation has started to slow down recently, food prices in Turkey continue to go up steadily, increasing by 48.6 percent in November 2024 compared to the same month in the previous year.

“It is not surprising that food inflation has not simmered down, as the producer price index (PPI) of agricultural products followed a constant increasing trend in the country over the past few years.”

However, it’s said Turkey is taking steps to help boost tourism, including addressing rising prices, making tourist offerings more diverse and investing in infrastructure. The Government is said to be working to reduce inflation, and some people are also promoting niche tourism areas like spas and health care.

I have a suggestion: Treat yourself to a beautiful meal, right now, at one of the Los Angeles restaurants where the chefs really invest in seasonal produce. There is nothing, anywhere, like the high-ripe flavors and rainbow pigments of California fruits and vegetables at the close of summer. We know this, but the knowing hits different when the produce is freshly considered by our finest culinary minds.

It’s an excellent time for a spontaneous indulgence. Late August and through September is shoulder season for finer-dining in L.A. Vacations are done, kids are back in school, we settle in at work and home before the holiday blur. Reservations are often easier to score. Many of our favorite dining rooms could use our presence. The ingredients are so urgent, I’d nudge you even to show up solo at a restaurant’s bar and savor just a plate or two of summer’s final splendors.

Where to taste the end of summer in L.A.

The cooking at Rustic Canyon, guided by chef de cuisine Elijah DeLeon, is particularly exciting at this annual juncture, when the greatness of the raw product is a given and the deeper pleasure comes from the savvy, daily-changing flavor combinations. His weaving of spells began with a plate of halved greengage plums from Andy’s Orchard — a fruit Lucas Peterson once rightly dubbed the “Holy Grail of stone fruit” — filled with a cherry paste cleverly mimicking the Mexican candy Chamoy.

Charcoal-grilled Jimmy Nardello peppers were paired with hunks of white peach and dusted with fennel pollen, a garnish that can sometimes seem precious and innocuous but here added the right offsetting licorice nip. White cheddar blanketed a spread of earthy-sweet corn kernels and snipped shishito peppers, a feel-good riff that fell somewhere between Midwestern creamed corn and Korean corn cheese. Tiny Sungold tomatoes rolled like marbles around nearly translucent sea bass, crowned for contrast with an oversize round of orange-ish butter flecked with herbs and Calabrian chiles.

Jimmy Nardello peppers and white peaches at an August meal at Rustic Canyon in Santa Monica.

(Bill Addison / Los Angeles Times)

A meaty pork chop arrived with thin ribbons of zucchini that had been glossed in mustard vinaigrette. The effect was more of a glow than a zap, lifting the pork with gentle acid while allowing the vegetable to also shine. So light-handed, so summery.

DeLeon’s menu moves at warp speed during these heady months; I see figs and purslane currently adorn the pork chop this week, and the variety of snacking plums are speckled Mirabelles.

More summer-themed suggestions

For dining inspiration, here’s a rundown of some other spectacular summertime dishes I’ve had in the last month. They’re going fast, agriculturally speaking. Acorn squash and apples have their own joys, but nothing beats the moment we’re in.

Yess has opened for lunch service, and the menu includes Junya Yamasaki’s famed “monk’s chirashi.” A recent version, splayed over rice, modeled peaches, plums, cucumbers, peas still dangling from their pods and handsomely veiny shiso leaves.

A summertime version of “monk’s chirashi” at Yess in the Arts District.

(Bill Addison / Los Angeles Times)

I’ve written plenty lately about the glories of the vegetable cooking at RVR in Venice. Go straight for the peaches and purple daikon stung with tosazu (vinegar-based dressing smoky with katsuobushi) and aromatic accents of pickled Fresno chiles, ginger and crushed Marcona almond.

It isn’t summer without at least one cracker-thin bar pie at Quarter Sheets (available Tuesday, Wednesday and Sunday, for dine-in only) scattered with Jimmy Nardellos and sausage.

Two perennial favorites for savory-leaning stone fruit salads: The beauty at Kismet fragrant with lemon balm and dressed in turmeric-whey vinaigrette that adds intriguing color and weight, and the tomato and stone fruit salad at Majordomo splashed with a perfectly balanced sherry vinaigrette and flecked with shiso.

Dunsmoor’s summer menu straddles the influence of parallel agrarian regions: California and the American South. A simple platter of sliced duck ham and fleshy Honeyloupe melon from Weiser Farms brought the theme home early in the meal.

Smoked moulard duck ham with Weiser Farms Honeyloupe melon at Dunsmoor

(Bill Addison / Los Angeles Times)

Camélia in the Arts District is operating at the height of its powers. A late summer dinner: a fluffy salad of greens with slices of yellow peach and hidden walnuts, generously covered in shaved Comté and tensed with calamansi vinaigrette, followed by soft-shell crab tempura over a fresh sauce vierge made with bright, chewy-soft Sungolds. I’m a cheese freak, so a Comté tart with bruléed figs for dessert didn’t feel redundant.

Speaking of stunning salads: They never disappoint at A.O.C. in West Hollywood. Case in point: tender arugula arranged with cherries and nectarines, an ash-ripened goat cheese called Linedeline with the scent of mushrooms and, to drive home the intensity, a garlicky, pesto-like aillade bright green with pistachios.

Birdie G’s, one of the sister Santa Monica restaurants to Rustic Canyon where Jeremy Fox can frequently be seen on the path, has brought back its incredible relish tray featuring five-onion dip. Look for the shimmery sprigs of ice plant among the spectrum of geometric carved vegetables.

Birdie G’s relish plate, pictured in 2019. It’s always changing.

(Mariah Tauger / Los Angeles Times)

When do I know summer is over? When Nicole Rucker and her team stop baking pies with stone fruits at Fat & Flour. I just checked with Rucker, and the last of the peaches are touch and go. Fall might be here sooner than I’m willing to admit.

Food Bowl tickets

VIP tickets (allowing early entry) to The Times’ Food Bowl Night Market, presented by Square, are already sold out for the Saturday-night session taking place Oct. 11 at City Market Social House in downtown L.A. Friday-night VIP tickets are still available, but going fast. More than 40 restaurants are participating, including Holbox, Baroo, the Brothers Sushi, OyBar, Heritage Barbecue, Crudo e Nudo, Hummingbird Ceviche House, Rossoblu, Perilla L.A., Evil Cooks, Villa’s Tacos, Holy Basil and Luv2Eat Thai Bistro. Check lafoodbowl.com for tickets and info.

Also …

• This week I review 88 Club, the Beverly Hills fine-dining Chinese restaurant that’s the latest project from star chef Mei Lin and restaurateur Francis Miranda. I love the shrimp toast hands-down, and there’s plenty else to think through.
• Anyone else want to disappear into a big, nap-inducing pile of flapjacks this weekend? Khushbu Shah powered through diners, cafes and brunch stalwarts to name her 11 favorite plates of pancakes in L.A.
• Stephanie Breijo has news of the latest sushi sensation: Kiyoshi Kimura, a prolific sushi restaurateur in Japan known as the “Tuna King,” has debuted his first U.S. restaurant, Sushi Zanmai, in Koreatown.
• Jenn Harris singles out the best sourdough in the known universe. It’s made in Orange County, and it’s purple.
• Some uplifting news from Suhauna Hussain: A new owner aims to reopen the Original Pantry, the iconic eatery in downtown Los Angeles that closed earlier this year, by New Year’s Eve. His goal is also to re-employ the staff of 25 who had been laid off.
• As we head into the best time for oysters, Ari Kolender of Found Oyster and Queen’s Raw Bar & Grill shows us the right way to shuck them.

One bill aims to raise lagging reading skills among California children by mandating how schools teach this critical subject. Another seeks to overhaul cafeteria meals by eliminating highly processed foods. A third aims to protect students from being derailed by discrimination.

These bills and others passed by the Legislature in the session’s final busy days will directly affect the classroom experience of some 5.8 million California public schools students. Broadly speaking, these bills target students’ minds, health and emotional well-being — and the results were not without controversy.

The measures now land on the desk of Gov. Gavin Newsom, who has until Oct. 12 to approve or reject them.

Assembly Bill 715: Anti-discrimination

Among the most hotly contested education-related measures, Assembly Bill 715 was spawned from dissatisfaction — largely among a coalition of Jewish groups — to the way ethnic studies is being taught in some California classrooms. Critics say that in some schools, ethnic studies classes have improperly focused on the Israel-Palestinian conflict and that they reflect bias against Jews. The allegations of bias are denied by those instructors who include the conflict in their syllabus.

The final version of the bill — paired with companion Senate Bill 48 — would expand the focus beyond antisemitism, a revision that responds to those who questioned why the original bill language addressed only discrimination against Jews.

“California has taken a historic stand against antisemitism in our schools,” said David Bocarsly, executive director of the Jewish Public Affairs Committee of California. “For far too long, Jewish students have endured slurs, bullying, and open hostility in their classrooms with nowhere to turn. AB 715 is a promise to those students — and to all children in California — that they are not invisible, that their safety and dignity matter.”

The legislation that finally emerged would create a state Office for Civil Rights that reports to the governor’s cabinet. It would take on a monitoring and assistance mission — fielding complaints and questions; preparing learning materials and reports on identifying and combating discrimination; and helping teachers, schools and school districts comply with state anti-discrimination laws.

Different forms of discrimination would be addressed by a specialized coordinator — one each for antisemitism, religious discrimination, race and ethnicity discrimination, gender discrimination and LGBTQ+ discrimination.

Issues related to ethnic studies would include ensuring anti-discriminatory course and teacher training materials. To investigate formal complaints, the state would rely on an existing complaint procedure, which examines alleged violations involving discrimination, harassment, intimidation and bullying.

Critics of AB 715 — which include the California Teachers Assn. — acknowledge that bill was revised to address their concerns but still oppose it. They say it could chill discussion of controversial issues in ethnic students and elsewhere and also falsely equate legitimate criticism of Israel with antisemitism.

AB 1454: Science of Reading

A sweeping bill would overhaul how reading is taught in California classrooms — mandating phonics-based lessons and culminating decades of debate on how best to teach children this foundational skill. The bill is unusual in a state that generally emphasizes local control over instruction.

AB 1454 would require school districts to adopt instructional materials grounded in what supporters call the “science of reading,” which is based on research about how young children learn to read.

The now-favored approach leans heavily on decoding and sounding out words based on the letter sounds, while laying out five pillars for more effective instruction: phonemic awareness (the sounds that letters make), phonics, reading fluency, vocabulary and comprehension.

The hope is that this teaching style will boost persistently disappointing test scores.

A 2022 study of 300 school districts in California found that fewer than 2% of districts were using curricula that proponents viewed as sufficiently strong in science-of-reading practices.

These advocates have long been critical of alternative “whole language” approaches that rely heavily on the concept that children are more engaged when they learn to read with less emphasis on decoding words. Teachers focus instead on surrounding children with books to foster a love of reading, directing children to figure out unknown words based on context, pictures and other clues.

“Transforming California’s education system requires a coordinated approach rooted in proven solutions,” said Marshall Tuck, CEO of EdVoice, an education advocacy nonprofit that has championed the change.

Many California teachers, however, remain committed to different methods and chafe at a state-mandated approach, especially one that runs counter to their classroom experience and previous training. Advocates for students learning English have voiced especially strong opposition to the science-of-reading philosophy.

AB 1264: Ultra-processed foods

Chicken nuggets, corn dogs, packaged frozen pizza, chips, canned fruits and sugary cereals are the types of ultra-processed foods in school meals targeted in Assembly Bill 1264, which would require healthier cafeteria options in the years ahead.

Heavily processed foods often include reconstituted meat along with chemical additives such as preservatives, emulsifiers, coloring and other ingredients absent from scratch cooking — not to mention added sugars, fats and salt — that together can harm students “physical and mental health and interfere with their ability to learn,” according to bill author Assemblyman Jesse Gabriel (D-Encino).

The bill was opposed by manufacturers who considered it too constraining and too subject to non-scientific whims.

The final version eased some concerns by setting up a review process rather than simply listing foods and chemicals to ban. There also is a gradual phase-in over several years.

The expectation is that processed foods that remain on the menu will be healthier and also that there will be an acceleration of efforts to prepare foods within school kitchens, relying as much as possible on local and fresh ingredients.

AB 564: Cannabis tax and child care

The Legislature also voted to claw back an increase to the cannabis excise tax, which took effect in July and raised the state tax rate paid by consumers to 19%. The goal is to bolster the struggling legal-cannabis industry. A chunk of child-care funding is among the casualties of the lower tax revenue.

Assembly Bill 564 would mean an estimated $180-million annual reduction for law enforcement, child care, services for at-risk youth and environmental cleanup. Of the total, about $81 million would have funded subsidized child-care slots for about 8,000 children from low-income families. Overall, the state budget to assist with child care is $7 billion, a figure that advocates view as short of what’s needed, especially with further potential cuts looming.

Other notable measures

Assembly Bill 461 would end the treatment of truancy as a crime under state law. Existing law can subject the parent or guardian of a student who is chronically absent or late to school with a fine of up to $2,000 and imprisonment for up to one year.

Prosecutions are rare and the potential penalties are typically viewed as deterrents. But the pendulum in California has shifted away from tough-on-truancy measures to alternatives such as counseling and family assistance.

The Legislature also has passed bills in support of immigrant families, that will frequently have a carryover effect on how schools operate, such as a bill that bars immigration officers from campus unless they have a valid judicial warrant.

Times staff writer Daniel Miller contributed to this report. Gold reports for The Times’ early childhood education initiative, focusing on the learning and development of California children from birth to age 5. For more information about the initiative and its philanthropic funders, go to latimes.com/earlyed.

SACRAMENTO — State lawmakers on Friday advanced a plan that would allow California colleges to offer preferential admission to students who are descended from enslaved people, part of an ongoing effort by Democrats to address the legacy of slavery in the United States.

The legislation, Assembly Bill 7, would allow — but not require — the University of California, Cal State and private colleges to give admissions preference to applicants who can prove they are directly related to someone who was enslaved in America before 1900.

If signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom, the effort could put the Golden State on yet another collision course with the Trump administration, which has diversity initiatives and universities in its crosshairs.

“While we like to pretend access to institutions of higher learning is fair and merit-based and equal, we know that it is not,” said Assemblymember Isaac Bryan (D-Los Angeles), who authored the bill, before the final vote Friday. “If you are the relative or the descendant of somebody who is rich or powerful or well connected, or an alumni of one of these illustrious institutions, you got priority consideration.”

But, Bryan said, “There’s a legacy that we don’t ever acknowledge in education … the legacy of exclusion, of harm.”

The bill is a top priority of the Legislative Black Caucus, which introduced 15 bills this year aimed at addressing the lingering effects of slavery and systemic racism in California.

Although California entered the Union as a “free state” in 1850, slavery continued in the Golden State after the state Constitution outlawed it in 1849. Slavery was abolished nationwide by the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution in 1865 after the Civil War.

California voters barred colleges from considering race, sex, ethnicity or national origin in admissions nearly three decades ago by passing Proposition 209. Two years ago, the U.S. Supreme Court found that affirmative action in university admissions violates the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment.

Bryan and other backers stressed that the language of the bill had been narrowly tailored to comply with Proposition 209 by focusing on lineage, rather than race. Being a descendant of a slave is not a proxy for race, they said, because not all enslaved people were Black, and not all Black Americans are descended from slaves.

“The story of our country is such that people who look like me and people who do not look like me could be descendants of American chattel slavery,” said Bryan, who is Black, during a July debate over the bill.

Supporters of the measure say that Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas noted in his concurrence in the 2023 affirmative action case that refugees and formerly enslaved people who received benefits from the government after the Civil War were a “race-neutral category, not blacks writ large,” and that the term “freedman” was a “decidedly underinclusive proxy for race.”

Andrew Quinio, an attorney for the conservative Pacific Legal Foundation, told lawmakers during earlier debates on the bill that lineage is, in fact, a proxy for race because being a descendant of an American slave is “so closely intertwined” with being Black.

Instead, he said, the bill could give colleges a green light to give preference to “victims of racial discrimination in public education, regardless of race,” which would treat students as individuals, rather than relying on “stereotypes about their circumstances based on their race and ancestry.”

Were California “confident in the overlap of students who have experienced present discrimination and students who are descendants of slaves, then giving preference based on whether a student has experienced present discrimination would not exclude descendants of slaves,” he said.

Earlier this week, the Democratic-led Legislature also passed Senate Bill 518, which would create a new office called the Bureau for Descendants of American Slavery. That bureau would create a process to determine whether someone is the descendant of a slave and to certify someone’s claim to help them access benefits.

The legislature also approved Assembly Bill 57, by Assemblymember Tina McKinnor (D-Hawthorne), which would help descendants of slavery build generational wealth by becoming homeowners.

The bill would set aside 10% of the loans from a popular program called California Dream for All, which offers first-time home buyers a loan worth up to 20% of the purchase price of a house or condo, capped at $150,000.

The loans don’t accrue interest or require monthly payments. Instead, when the mortgage is refinanced or the house is sold, the borrower pays back the original loan, plus 20% of its increase in value.

McKinnor said during debates over the bill that the legacy of slavery and racism has created stark disparities in home ownership rates, with descendants of slaves about 30 percentage points behind white households.

The Legislature also passed McKinnor’s AB 67, which sets up a process for people who said they or their families lost property to the government through “racially motivated eminent domain” to seek to have the property returned or to be paid.

Nonpartisan legislative analysts said that the bill could create costs “in the tens of millions to hundreds of millions of dollars,” depending on the number of claims submitted, the value of the properties and the associated legal costs.

California became the first state government in the country to study reparations after the 2020 killing of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer sparked a national conversation on racial justice.

Newsom and state lawmakers passed a law to create a “first in the nation” task force to study and propose remedies to help atone for the legacy of slavery. That panel spent years working on a 1,080-page report on the effects of slavery and the discriminatory policies sanctioned by the government after slavery was abolished.

The report recommended more than 100 policies to help address persistent racial disparities, including reforms to the criminal justice system and the housing market, the first of which were taken up last year by the Legislature’s Black Caucus.

Hamstrung by a budget deficit, lawmakers passed 10 of 14 bills in the reparations package last year, which reform advocates felt were lackluster.

How Californians feel about reparations depends on what is under discussion. A poll by the L.A. Times and the UC Berkeley Institute for Governmental Studies in 2023 found that voters opposed the idea of cash reparations by a 2-to-1 margin, but had a more nuanced view on the lasting legacy of slavery and how the state should address those wrongs.

Most voters agreed that slavery still affects today’s Black residents, and more than half said California is either not doing enough, or just enough, to ensure a fair shake at success.

California banned slavery in its 1849 Constitution and entered the Union as a “free state” under the Compromise of 1850, but loopholes in the legal system allowed slavery and discrimination against formerly enslaved people to continue.

California passed a fugitive slave law — rare among free states — in 1852 that allowed slaveholders to use violence to capture enslaved people who had fled to the Golden State. Slavery was abolished by the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution in 1865, ratified after the end of the Civil War.

Census records show about 200 enslaved African descendants lived in California in that year, though at least one estimate from the era suggested that the population was closer to 1,500, according to the report drafted by the reparations task force.

SACRAMENTO — In howling winds and choking smoke during the January fires that devastated Altadena and Pacific Palisades, more than 1,100 incarcerated firefighters cleared brush and dug fire lines, some for wages of less than $30 per day.

Those firefighters could soon see a major raise. On Thursday, California lawmakers unanimously approved a plan to pay incarcerated firefighters the federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour while assigned to an active fire, a raise of more than 700%.

“Nobody who puts their life on the line for other people should earn any less than the federal minimum wage,” said the bill’s author, Assemblymember Isaac Bryan (D-Los Angeles), before the Thursday vote.

Bryan’s legislation, Assembly Bill 247, would take effect immediately if signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom. Newsom’s office said he typically does not comment on pending legislation. But in July, he signed a budget that set aside $10 million for incarcerated firefighter wages.

Working at one of the state’s 35 minimum-security fire camps is a voluntary and coveted job, giving inmates a chance to spend time outside prison walls, help their communities and get paroled more quickly.

Incarcerated firefighters don’t wield hoses, but clear brush and dig containment lines while working on front-line hand crews and do work such as cooking and laundry to keep fire camps running.

Prison fire crews at times make up more than 1 in 4 of the firefighters battling California’s wildfires, and have drawn international praise during major wildfire seasons. After the January fires in Los Angeles, celebrity Kim Kardashian called them “heroes” who deserved a raise.

The state’s 2,000 or so incarcerated firefighters earn $5.80 to $10.24 per day at fire camps, and an extra $1 an hour during active wildfires, according to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. That means the lowest-paid firefighters earn $29.80 per 24-hour shift and the highest-paid, $34.24.

Higher wages are not only a key way to recognize the life-risking contributions made by incarcerated firefighters, backers said, but could also help inmates build up some savings before they are paroled, or more quickly pay restitution to their victims.

Republican lawmakers who backed the plan emphasized the life-changing nature of finding work with meaning.

“When we talk about anti-recidivism, when we talk about programs that work, this is one of the absolute best,” said Assemblymember Heath Flora (R-Ripon).

Flora said he worked alongside incarcerated and formerly incarcerated firefighters during 15 years as a volunteer firefighter, and said they were “some of the hardest working individuals I’ve ever had the pleasure of working with.”

Bryan originally had proposed a $19 hourly wage, similar to the wage earned by entry-level firefighters with the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. During the summer’s budget negotiations, that wage was trimmed to $7.25.

A lobbyist for the California State Sheriffs’ Assn., which opposed the bill, told lawmakers in July that incarcerated firefighters already are “receiving compensation in different ways.” Prison workers assigned to hand crews have their sentences reduced by two days for each day they serve on an active fire.

State Sen. Kelly Seyarto (R-Murrieta), who co-sponsored the bill, cautioned in July that paying higher wages could lead to hiring fewer incarcerated firefighters overall.

The cost to the state will depend on the number of inmate crews staffed and the severity of the fire season.

From 2020 to 2024, inmate firefighters spent 1,382,117 hours fighting fires for $1 per hour, according to a bill analysis by legislative staff. The state would have paid about $10 million in wages — or about $8.6 million more — had the federal minimum wage been in place over those five fire seasons, analysts said.

Years with more fire activity would be more expensive for the state. In 2020, the largest wildfire season in modern history, the state spent about $2.1 million on inmate firefighter wages at $1 per hour, which would have cost $15 million under the new bill language.

The bill follows years of effort to help improve the working conditions of inmate firefighters.

The number of inmates working on fire crews has shrunk by more than half since 2005, from a peak of about 4,250 that year to slightly less than 2,000 this year, according to the corrections department.

The number fell off sharply after the California policy known as realignment in 2011, which shifted many people who were convicted of nonserious, nonviolent and nonsexual offenses from California state prisons to county jails.

California bars people with a felony conviction from receiving an emergency medical technician, or EMT, certification for a decade after their release from prison. There is a lifetime ban for those convicted of two or more felonies.

In 2020, Newsom signed a bill allowing formerly incarcerated firefighters who were convicted of nonviolent, nonsexual offenses to appeal a court to expunge their criminal records and waive their parole time.

The Legislature this week also passed AB 218, by Assemblymembers Josh Lowenthal (D-Long Beach) and Sade Elhawary (D-Los Angeles), which would require prison officials to draft rules by 2027 to recommend incarcerated firefighters for resentencing.

A number of other bills dealing with fire issues are still pending in the Legislature in its final week of the year. Those include:

• AB 226, which would allow the California FAIR Plan, the state’s home insurer of last resort, to increase its capacity to pay out claims by issuing bonds or seeking a line of credit.
• AB 1032, which would require healthcare insurers to cover 12 visits a year with a licensed behavioral health provider, including mental health and substance abuse counselors, to residents affected by wildfires.

The California Legislature on Thursday passed a pair of bills to prohibit on-duty law enforcement officers, including federal immigration agents, from masking their faces and to require them to identify themselves.

Senate Bill 627, written by Sens. Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) and Jesse Arreguín (D-Berkeley), includes exceptions for SWAT teams and others. The measure was introduced after the Trump administration ordered immigration raids throughout the Los Angeles area earlier this year.

Federal officers in army-green neck gaiters or other face coverings have jumped out of vans and cars to detain individuals across California this summer as part of President Trump’s mass deportation program, prompting a wave of criticism from Democratic leaders.

Representatives for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security defend the face coverings, arguing that identifying officers subjects to them to retaliation and violence.

If supported by Gov. Gavin Newsom, the law would apply to local and federal officers, but not state officers such as California Highway Patrol officers. Wiener, when asked about that exemption on the Senate floor, declined to elaborate.

Leaders in Los Angeles County are exploring a similar measure to ban masks despite some legal experts’ view that the supremacy clause of the U.S. Constitution dictates that federal law takes precedence over state law.

The bill’s backers argue that permitting officers to disguise themselves creates scenarios where impostors may stop and detain migrants, which undermines public trust and ultimately hinders legitimate law enforcement operations.

“The idea that in California we would have law enforcement officers running around with ski masks is terrifying,” Wiener said in a brief interview. “It destroys confidence in law enforcement.”

Wiener’s bill allows exceptions for masks, including for undercover officers. Medical coverings are also allowed. .

Senate Bill 805, a measure by Sen. Sasha Renée Pérez (D-Alhambra) that targets immigration officers who are in plainclothes but don’t identify themselves, also passed the state Legislature on Thursday.

Her bill requires law enforcement officers in plain clothes to display their agency, as well as either a badge number or name, with some exemptions.

Sacramento, California – On a sunny August morning, 60-year-old Gurtej Singh Cheema performed his morning prayers at his home in Sacramento. Then, the retired clinical professor of internal medicine made his way downtown to join more than 150 other Sikh Americans at California’s State Capitol.

He was there to speak in support of a state bill that, to many Sikhs, represents a matter of safety for the community.

California is home to an estimated 250,000 Sikhs, according to the community advocacy group, Sikh Coalition. They represent 40 percent of the nation’s Sikhs – who first made California their home more than a century ago.

But a spate of attacks and threats against community activists in North America over the past two years, which United States and Canadian officials have accused India of orchestrating, have left many Sikhs on edge, fearing for their safety and questioning whether law enforcement can protect them.

That’s what a new anti-intimidation bill seeks to address, according to its authors and advocates: If passed, it would require California to train officers in recognising and responding to what is known as “transnational repression” – attempts by foreign governments to target diaspora communities, in practice. The training would be developed by the state’s Office of Emergency Services.

“California can’t protect our most vulnerable communities if our officers don’t even recognize the threat,” Anna Caballero, a Democratic state senator and author of the bill, said in the statement shared with Al Jazeera. “The bill closes a critical gap in our public safety system and gives law enforcement the training they need to identify foreign interference when it happens in our neighborhoods.”

But the draft legislation, co-authored by California’s first Sikh Assemblywoman Jasmeet Bains, and Assemblywoman Esmeralda Soria, has also opened up deep divisions within an Indian American community already polarised along political lines.

Several influential American Sikh advocacy groups – the Sikh American Legal Defense and Education Fund, Sikh Coalition and Jakara Movement among them – have backed the bill. Groups representing Indians of other major faiths, such as Hindus for Human Rights and the Indian American Muslim Council, have also supported the draft legislation, as has the California Police Chiefs Association.

But in the opposite corner stand Hindu-American groups like the Hindu American Foundation and the Coalition of Hindus of North America, as well as a Jewish group, Bay Area Jewish Coalition and even a Sikh group, The Khalsa Today. The Santa Clara Attorney’s office and Riverside County Sheriff’s Office have also opposed the bill.

Critics of the bill argue that it risks targeting sections of the diaspora – such as Hindu Americans opposed to the Khalistan movement, a campaign for the creation of a separate Sikh nation carved out of India – and could end up deepening biases against India and Hindu Americans.

The Riverside County Sheriff’s Office said that it had “concerns regarding the bill’s potential implications, particularly its impact on law enforcement practices and the inadvertent targeting of diaspora communities in Riverside County”.

But as Cheema stood with other Sikh Americans gathered at the state legislature on August 20 to testify before the Assembly Appropriations Committee, the urgency felt by many in the room was clear: Some had driven all night from Los Angeles, 620km (385 miles) away from Sacramento. Others took time off from work to be there.

“Any efforts that help a community feel safe, and you are a part of that community – naturally, you would support it,” Cheema, who also represented the Capital Sikh Center in Sacramento at the hearing, told Al Jazeera.

‘Harassment by foreign actors’

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) defines transnational repression as the acts of foreign governments when they reach beyond their borders to intimidate, silence, coerce, harass or harm members of their diaspora and exile communities in the United States.

The bill marks the second major legislation in recent years that has split South Asian diaspora groups in California. A 2023 bill that specified caste as a protected category under California’s anti-discrimination laws was vetoed by Governor Gavin Newsom after several Hindu-American groups lobbied against it. They argued that the state’s existing anti-discrimination laws already protected people from caste-based bias, and that specifying the new category was an indirect attack on Hinduism.

The California Assembly has now passed the new anti-intimidation bill. It will now return to the California Senate – which had passed an earlier version of the legislation – for another vote, expected this week. If it passes in the upper house of the California legislature, the bill will head to Newsom’s desk for his signature.

Thomas Blom Hansen, professor of anthropology at Stanford University, said the bill addresses concerns around online trolling, surveillance and harassment of individuals based on their political beliefs or affiliations – often influenced by foreign governments or political movements.

“The bill doesn’t name any specific country – it’s a general framework to provide additional protection to immigrants and diaspora communities from harassment by foreign actors,” Hansen told Al Jazeera.

But the backdrop of the bill does suggest that concerns over India and its alleged targeting of Sikh dissidents have been a major driver. Hansen noted that Senator Caballero comes from the 14th State Senate district, which has a significant Sikh population.

In 2023, Canada officially accused India of masterminding the assassination in June that year of Sikh separatist Hardeep Singh Nijjar in British Columbia. India has rejected the accusation, but relations between the two nations plummeted as a result – and remain tense, as Canada continues to pursue the allegations against individuals it arrested and that it says worked for New Delhi.

In November that year, US prosecutors also accused Indian intelligence agencies of plotting the assassination of Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, a New York-based Sikh activist. That plot was exposed after an alleged Indian agent accidentally ended up hiring an FBI informant for the hit job. Pannun leads Sikhs of Justice, a Sikh separatist advocacy group that India declared unlawful in 2019.

Several other Sikh activists in Canada and the US have received warnings from law enforcement agencies that they could be targeted.

Even Bains, the co-author of the new bill, has faced intimidation. In August 2023, after California recognised the 1984 massacre of thousands of Sikhs in India – following the assassination of then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi by her Sikh bodyguards – as a genocide, four men, apparently of Indian origin, visited her office. They allegedly threatened her, saying they would “do whatever it takes to go after you”.

Harman Singh, executive director of the Sikh Coalition, said the bill was timely.

“If a gurdwara committee leader calls the police to report a man who claims to be from the government of India coming to the gurdwara asking about other committee members’ immigration status, the trained officers will react to that very differently than those who aren’t,” Singh told Al Jazeera.

Vivek Kembaiyan of Hindus for Human Rights echoed Singh. The majority of crime is investigated at the local level, he said, and local law enforcement needs training to investigate transnational crimes.

Could ‘institutionalise biases’

But not everyone agrees.

Some groups argue that the bill is primarily meant to target India and Indian Americans, and especially suppress opposition to the Khalistan movement.

Samir Kalra, the 46-year-old managing director at the Hindu American Foundation, has emerged as one of the bill’s most vocal opponents.

“I believe that they have not gone far enough in providing adequate guardrails and safeguards to ensure that law enforcement does not institutionalise biases against groups from specific countries of origin and or with certain viewpoints on geopolitical issues,” Kalra, a native of the Bay Area, told Al Jazeera.

Kalra pointed to the supporters of the bill.

“The vast majority of supporters of this bill who have shown up to multiple hearings are of Indian origin and have focused on India in their comments and press statements around this bill. India is listed as a top transnational repression government,” he said. “It’s very clear that the true target of this bill is India and Indian Americans.”

Many Hindu temples, he said, had been desecrated in recent months with pro-Khalistan slogans.

“How can the Hindu American community feel safe and secure reporting these incidents without fear of being accused of being a foreign agent or having law enforcement downplaying the vandalisms?” he asked.

But Harman Singh rejected the suggestion that the bill was dividing the Indian American community along religious lines. “The coalition of groups supporting includes both Sikh and Hindu organisations as well as Muslim, Kashmiri, Iranian, South Asian, immigrants’ rights, human rights, and law enforcement organisations,” Singh said.

Some critics have expressed fears that activists training officers in recognising transnational attacks could institutionalise biases against specific communities.

But the Sikh Coalition’s Singh said those worries were unfounded. The training, he said, “will be created by professionals within those organisations, rather than ‘a small group of activists,’ so this criticism is not based in reality.”

‘My voice is being heard’

Rohit Chopra, a professor of communication at Santa Clara University in California, said critics of other governments “are all too routinely harassed, threatened, or even assaulted by foreign governments or their proxies within the US”.

“Even if the bill has some deterrent effect, which I believe it will, it will be well worth it,” Chopra told Al Jazeera. He emphasised that the bill does not restrict its ambit to any one country or a particular group of nations.

To Stanford University’s Hansen, that in effect raises questions about why some groups are opposed to the bill.

“When an organisation comes out strongly against such a bill, it almost feels like a preemptive admission – as if they see themselves as being implicated by what the bill seeks to prevent,” Hansen said.

Back in Sacramento, Cheema remains hopeful that the bill will pass. For him, the bill represents something far more significant than policy – recognition and protection on US soil.

“I could be the next victim if the law enforcement in my community is not able to recognise foreign interference,” Cheema said. “It doesn’t matter who is indulging in it or which country, I would naturally like my police officers to be aware of the threats.”

“If any group feels threatened, then all sections of society should make efforts to protect their people. This reassures me that my voice is being heard”, Cheema said.

California police officers accused of misconduct are already shielded by some of the strictest confidentiality laws in the country, but state lawmakers are considering adding more layers of secrecy this week.

The state Legislature is weighing Assembly Bill 1178, which press advocates and police watchdogs said would drastically expand the number of officers whose personnel records were exempt from public disclosure, essentially gutting police transparency bills passed in 2018 and 2021.

Last-minute changes to the bill last week would have allowed law enforcement agencies to deny requests for public records related to any officer who has worked an undercover assignment within the last two years, received a death threat in the last 10 years or anyone who has been assigned to a state or federal task force.

The office of Assemblywoman Blanca Pacheco (D-Downey) said the bill was initially “very narrowly targeted” to protect the identifies of active undercover officers who did not commit misconduct and are not under investigation but were present during wrongdoing by others.

Pacehco’s spokeswoman, Alina Evans, said the bill was amended in the state Senate at the request of the state Department of Justice, and Evans said the bill will not move forward if it is reinserted.

Asked for details about why the California Department of Justice pushed for the amendment, a spokesperson for state Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta said: “We regularly provide technical assistance on legislation, but we can’t comment on any specific discussions with legislative offices or committees.”

Opponents contend that the proposal’s original language could still allow undercover officers to have their names kept secret even if they are involved in a fatal shooting or accused of serious misconduct, but Evans said their names would still be subject to disclosure, just like any other officer’s would be under the current law.

The last-minute lobbying push around Pacheco’s proposal is one of several late bids to water down pro-transparency bills that have been introduced this year, said Shayla Wilson, policy and advocacy advisor for La Defensa, a criminal justice reform advocacy group.

“At a time when public trust in law enforcement continues to dwindle, further redactions in police misconduct records is not the right move,” she said. “Generally the public is unaware of how often these [police misconduct] violations happen, or how egregious they are.”

Transparency advocates have sought to expand public access to police personnel files, as well as records related to civilian oversight bodies and misconduct litigation. Efforts to open access to misconduct records have repeatedly run into aggressive opposition from police unions, one of the most powerful political forces in the Capitol.

LAPD officers conduct an operation on Slauson Avenue in July.

(Luke Johnson / Los Angeles Times)

The unions and their allies have argued that California’s confidentiality rules protect officer safety and privacy — and prevent so-called doxxing incidents, in which personal information about officers is spread online.

LAPD Chief Jim McDonnell did not respond to several attempts for comment through a spokesperson. The Police Commission, the department’s civilian watchdog, said in a statement that it supports Pacheco’s legislation.

“There is valid concern for the safety of officers whose assignments require anonymity as well as employees who have been subject to death threats — and their families. The Commission does believe that transparency is important but feels it is crucial to strike a balance between the public’s right to know and the safety of officers and their families,” the statement said.

The commission’s statement did not cite specifics but noted, “there have been times when the disclosure of records has provided safety concerns for officers and by default an [undue] level of access to their families, including their minor children.”

The proposed changes to state law come amid ongoing litigation over the publication of thousands of mugshot-style photos of LAPD officers obtained by an L.A.-based journalist and the watchdog group Stop LAPD Spying Coalition.

The journalist, Ben Camacho, obtained the images via a California Public Records Act request and published them on a searchable website called Watch the Watchers. The site describes itself as a transparency tool for people to identify officers who have committed misconduct.

But shortly after the site went live in March 2023, LAPD officials announced that they had inadvertently released photos of officers who worked undercover. The disclosure led to a tangle of legal cases, including a claim filed by the city of L.A. against Camacho and his organization trying to claw back the pictures.

Last June, the city settled the suit, agreeing to pay the legal bills for Camacho and Stop LAPD Spying. In the process, the city has backed away from initial claims that many of the officers whose photos were released were put in danger because they worked undercover. Police unions also sued over the photos, making similar arguments about the safety of officers being compromised, but their claim against the LAPD was dropped in April.

The Los Angeles Times was among the outlets to join a coalition of news organizations that spoke out against the city’s lawsuit against Camacho, arguing that forcing him to return the photos “would set a dangerous precedent that will undermine the news media’s ability to freely disseminate lawfully obtained information to the public.”

Los Angeles City Atty. Hydee Feldstein Soto is among those who has lobbied California lawmakers to weaken the state’s public records law. In the summer of 2023, she proposed a change that would allow government agencies to decline future public records requests that seek “images or data that may personally identify” employees.

SACRAMENTO — Amid concerns that refinery closures could send gas prices soaring, California legislative leaders Wednesday introduced a last-minute deal aimed at increasing oil production to shore up the struggling fossil-fuel industry while further restricting offshore drilling.

The compromise, brokered by Gov. Gavin Newsom, Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas and Senate Pro Tem Mike McGuire, would streamline environmental approvals for new wells in oil-rich Kern County and increase oil production. The bill also would make offshore drilling more difficult by tightening the safety and regulatory requirements for pipelines.

With support from Rivas and McGuire, Senate Bill 237 is expected to pass as part of a flurry of last-minute activity during the Legislature’s final week. Newsom’s office said the governor “looks forward to signing it when it reaches his desk.”

The late introduction of the measure may force the Legislature to extend its 2025 session, set to end Friday, by another day because bills must be in print for 72 hours before they can be voted on.

The bill was introduced Wednesday as part of a package of energy policies that aims to address growing concerns about affordability and the closure of California oil refineries.

Valero and Phillips 66 plan to close plants in the San Francisco Bay Area and Los Angeles County’s South Bay, which would reduce California’s in-state oil refining capacity by an estimated 20%. Industry experts warn that losing refining capacity could lead to more volatile gas prices.

The closures have become a sore spot for Newsom and for state Democrats, pitting their longtime clean-energy goals against concerns about the rising cost of living — a major political liability.

The package tries to strike a balance between the oil industry and climate activists, but neither side seemed particularly pleased: Environmental groups panned the agreements, and industry groups said they were still reviewing the bill.

“I don’t think what’s in that legislation is going to keep refineries open,” said Michael Wara, the director of Stanford University’s Climate and Energy Policy Program.

Crude oil produced in California makes up a fraction of what refineries turn into gasoline, he said, so although increasing production may help stabilize the decline of local oil companies, it won’t benefit the refineries.

The bill would grant statutory approval for up to 2,000 new wells per year in the oil fields of Kern County, the heart of California oil country, which produce about three-fourths of the state’s crude oil. That legislative fix, effective through 2036, would in effect circumvent years of legal challenges by environmental groups seeking to stymie drilling.

The state, which has championed and pioneered progressive environmental policies to slash carbon emissions, also is home to a billion-dollar oil industry that helps power its economy and has significant political sway in Sacramento. Despite steady declines in production, California remains the eighth-largest crude oil producing state in the nation, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

Hollin Kretzmann, an attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity’s Climate Law Institute, said the legislation “acknowledges the harms of oil drilling yet takes radical steps to boost it.”

“Removing environmental safeguards won’t reverse the terminal decline of California oil production but it will allow the industry to do more damage on its way out the door,” Kretzmann said, adding that it will have “no impact on refinery closures or gas prices.”

Ted Cordova, a vice president of E&B Natural Resources, an oil and natural gas company with operations in Kern County, told reporters earlier this week that California needs to reverse falling oil production to keep refineries operating. He said his firm gets emails from pipeline companies saying they are operating “at dangerously low levels, can you send us more?”

The bill also has the potential to create new hurdles for Sable Offshore Corp., the Texas oil firm that is moving toward restarting offshore drilling along Santa Barbara County’s coast, depending on when the company navigates through a litany of ongoing litigation and necessary state approvals.

The company has moved forward on repairs to the network of oil pipelines that burst in 2015 in one of the state’s worst oil spills, despite opposition from the California Coastal Commission.

The bill, which would take effect in January, reasserts the authority of the commission to oversee pipeline repair projects and requires the “best available technology” for any pipe transporting petroleum from offshore. That could add lengthy governmental reviews for Sable if the operation isn’t running by January.

The company, despite reports that it’s running low on capital and has suffered repeated setbacks, continues to say it hopes to begin sales as soon as possible.

Representatives from Sable did not respond to questions Wednesday.

Mary Nichols, an attorney at UCLA Law’s Emmett Institute on Climate Change and the Environment, said the bill probably wouldn’t affect the ongoing project off Santa Barbara County’s coast — which remains tied up in litigation — but makes clear that there’s no easy path for any other company looking to take advantage of offshore oil in federal waters under the oil-friendly Trump administration.

“This was designed to send a message to anybody else who might be thinking about doing the same thing,” said Nichols, a former chair of the California Air Resources Board.

Lawmakers also introduced a tentative deal on cap-and-trade, an ambitious climate program that has raised roughly $31 billion since its inception 11 years ago. The revised language would extend the program from its current 2030 deadline until 2045.

The program, last renewed in 2017, requires major polluters such as power plants and oil refineries to purchase credits for each ton of carbon dioxide they emit, and allows those companies buy or sell their unused credits at quarterly auctions.

Assemblymember Lori D. Wilson (D-Suisun City), one of the authors of SB 237, said she was glad to make progress on the push and pull between the state’s fuel needs and its commitment to green energy. She said she understands there are environmental concerns, but “at the end of the day, our purpose was an issue of petroleum supply.”

“We all don’t want an import model,” she said.

Times staff writers Melody Gutierrez and Hayley Smith contributed to this report.

On the night TJ McGee overdosed from a mixture of drugs and alcohol in his freshman year at UC Berkeley, his friends found him passed out in the hallway by their shared dorm room.

The roommates tried to help, but when McGee stopped breathing, they called 911.

McGee survived and, racked with guilt over what happened that night, committed to confronting his substance-use problem. Then, in the days that followed, McGee received a surprise email from campus officials that ushered in a whole new wave of emotions.

The letter said the administration would be placing McGee on academic probation for violating Berkeley’s residential conduct rules against drug and alcohol possession, use and distribution — possibly jeopardizing his academic career.

“They made me feel as if I was a villain for the choices I made,” said McGee, 20, now a junior. “I felt shameful enough already.”

Today, McGee speaks regularly in support of California State Assembly Bill 602, which would prohibit public colleges and universities from punishing students if they call 911 during an overdose emergency, or if a peer does so on their behalf. It requires schools to offer rehabilitation options and requires students who seek emergency medical assistance to complete a treatment program.

“The bill would protect students just like me from even receiving a letter like that,” and ensures that they are given care instead, McGee said.

The bill recently passed in both houses of the state Legislature; it awaits Gov. Gavin Newsom’s signature. A spokesperson for Newsom said he typically does not comment on pending legislation.

Despite a recent nationwide plunge in the number of deaths stemming from synthetic opioids such as fentanyl and contaminated versions of those drugs, overdose remains the leading cause of death for Americans age 18 to 44, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Though numbers could be revised as new data from California come in, the CDC provisionally estimates a 21% drop in overdose deaths in the state to 9,660 between March 2024 and March 2025, compared with 12,247 in the previous 12-month period. Opioid-related deaths, in particular from fentanyl, made up the bulk of California’s overdose fatalities in 2023, the most recent year for which statistics are available on the state’s opioid-prevention website.

In response, California started requiring campus health centers at most public colleges and universities to make the opioid overdose-reversing nasal spray Narcan available to students in campus residences.

McGee said that while he hadn’t taken any opioids the night of his overdose, he was administered Narcan while incapacitated.

Advocates for AB 602 say more needs to be done to increase the likelihood that college students will seek immediate help during a drug-related emergency.

It’s important for lawmakers and college officials to realize how much fear is involved when an overdose occurs — not just with the person who is overdosing but among peers who seek to help but don’t want to get a friend in trouble, said UC Berkeley student Saanvi Arora. She is the founder and executive director of Youth Power Project, a nonprofit that helps young people who’ve had adverse health experiences use their personal stories to promote policy reforms.

“California has dramatically increased investments in school-based mental health and crisis-intervention resources and access, for example to fentanyl testing strips on college campuses and access to Narcan,” Arora said. “But one big gap that we see … is that there’s still a really low utilization rate among young people and students.”

Fear of academic probation, suspension or expulsion leads some students with substance-use problems to avoid reaching out to residential advisors, instructors or school administrators for help, leaving them feeling so isolated that they see few other options besides turning to the police as a last resort or doing nothing at all, Arora said.

Youth Power Project authored a bill to combat these problems; Assemblymember Matt Haney (D-San Francisco), its chief sponsor, introduced it to the state Legislature this past spring. “During an overdose any hesitation can be deadly,” the lawmaker said in a statement. “AB 602 makes it clear that calling 911 will never cost you your academic future.”

Campus discipline and legal prosecution can be counterproductive if the goal is to prevent overdose deaths, said Evan Schreiber, a licensed clinical social worker and director of substance abuse disorder services at APLA Health, an L.A.-based nonprofit that offers mental-health and substance-use services and backs the bill.

“By removing the fear of consequences, you’re going to encourage more people to get help,” Schreiber said.

Schreiber and Arora said AB 602 extends to places of higher learning some of the protections guaranteed to Californians outside of campuses under the “911 Good Samaritan Law,” which went into effect in 2013 to increase the reporting of fentanyl poisoning and prevent opioid deaths.

That law protects people from arrest and prosecution if they seek medical aid during an overdose-related emergency, as well as individuals who step in to help by calling 911. It doesn’t, however, cover disciplinary actions imposed by colleges and universities.

One difference between the 911 Good Samaritan Law and the version of AB 602 that passed both houses of the Legislature is that the latter does not cover students who call on behalf of an overdosing peer and who are themselves found to have violated campus alcohol and drug policies, said Nate Allbee, a spokesperson for Haney. Allbee noted that Haney hopes to add this protection in the future.

Even though AB 602 doesn’t include all of the protections that supporters wanted, the rule solves what Arora identified as a major problem: UCs, Cal State campuses and community colleges in California are governed by a patchwork of policies and conduct codes regarding substance use that differ from campus to campus, making it difficult for students to know where they stand when they are in crisis.

McGee said he wished he’d learned more about the support services that were available to him at Berkeley before his overdose. But he was already struggling emotionally and living on his own when he entered college in fall 2023.

McGee described growing up in an environment in which substance use was common. He never felt that he could turn to anyone close to him to work through feelings of loneliness and bouts of depression. It was easier to block it all out by partying.

McGee started using harder drugs, missing classes and spending whole days in bed while coming down from his benders. He wouldn’t eat. Friends would ask what’s wrong, but he’d stare at the wall and ignore them. His grade-point average plummeted to 2.3.

Some of the friends who helped McGee on the night of his overdose grew distant for a time, too dismayed over the turmoil he was causing himself and those around him.

McGee knew he needed to keep trying to salvage his academic career and earn back the trust of his peers. All he could think was: “I need to fix my grades. I need to fix myself.”

One day during his recovery, McGee sat his friends down, apologized and explained what he was going through.

Then in his sophomore year, McGee happened to be lobbying lawmakers in Sacramento over campus funding cuts when he overheard a separate group of students from Youth Power Project talking about a bill they authored that would become AB 602.

It was like eavesdropping on a dark chapter in his own life. McGee agreed to present the bill to Haney and share his experience at meetings with legislators and in hearings.

McGee’s disciplinary probation on campus lasts until the end of 2025, but working on the overdose bill has given him a new sense of purpose. A psychology major, McGee eventually took on public policy as a minor.

“I feel like I became a part of this bill and it became such a large source of hope for me,” McGee said. “It would be amazing to see this support and care implemented nationally. This is not just a California issue.”

California electric customers would pay $9 billion more to shore up the state’s wildfire fund under a last-minute deal reached behind closed doors that was introduced as legislation on Wednesday.

Southern California Edison, and the state’s two other large for-profit electric companies, had been lobbying Gov. Gavin Newsom and legislative leaders, urging them to pass legislation to replenish the state’s $21-billion fund that pays for damages of utility-caused fires.

State officials have warned the fund could be wiped out by damages from the Eaton fire, which killed 19 people and destroyed a large swath of Altadena on Jan. 7.

Customers of the three utilities are already on the hook for contributing $10.5 billion to the original fund through a surcharge of about $3 on their monthly bills.

If approved, the bill amendments made on Wednesday would have customers pay $9 billion more by extending that surcharge by 10 years beyond 2035, when it was set to expire.

Under the deal, the three electric companies’ shareholders would also pay an additional $9 billion into the fund. That means the fund would increase by $18 billion if the legislation, known as SB 254, passes.

Consumer advocates and environmentalists tracking the bill said they were still trying to understand all the provisions of the 229-page bill, which had been debated in hearings in recent months, but was then significantly amended without public input. The new draft of the bill was published at 9:12 a.m. on Wednesday.

“It’s a complete gut and amend,” said Bernadette Del Chiaro, senior vice president at the Environmental Working Group. “It’s an end run around the normal legislative process.”

The complex proposal was introduced just days before the state legislature’s session ends, which means it may receive little public debate.

The session was scheduled to end on Friday, but any amendments must be public for 72 hours, which would push a vote to Saturday morning.

Mark Toney, executive director of The Utility Reform Network, a consumer group, said he was disappointed that ratepayers — who are already paying the country’s second highest electric rates — would have to pay more. But he pointed to some measures that could help reduce the upward pressure on bills.

For example, utilities would be required to finance some expensive transmission projects through a lower-cost method of public financing that legislators said could save ratepayers $3 billion.

Toney said after reviewing the bill’s language his group planned to support it even though it “falls short of addressing the growing affordability crisis.”

Assemblymember Cottie Petrie-Norris (D-Irvine), the bill’s co-author, defended the last minute amendments, saying the legislature needed to move quickly to bolster the fund as the wildfire season begins in California.

She said many of the provisions added to SB 254, including the public financing of transmission lines, had been included in other bills that had been repeatedly been debated in public hearings.

Petrie-Norris, who is chair of the Assembly Utilities and Energy Committee, defended the process and said that she believed electric customers were getting “a good deal” since half the $18 billion addition into the fund would come from utility shareholders.

Also, under the plan, she said, the three utilities must spend billions of dollars more on wildfire prevention costs, which they can’t earn a profit on.

The share prices of Edison International, Pacific Gas & Electric, and Sempra, the parent company of San Diego Gas & Electric all rose Wednesday on the news.

Newsom and lawmakers created the state wildfire fund in 2019 through a bill known as AB 1054 to protect the three utilities from bankruptcy in the event their electric lines sparked a catastrophic wildfire.

Under the law’s protective measures, Edison could pay nothing or just a fraction of the damages for the Eaton fire if its equipment is found to have sparked the fire.

A representative for Newsom did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The investigation into the fire is ongoing. Edison has said a leading theory is that a century-old transmission line, not used since the 1970s, somehow re-energized and sparked the blaze.

The insured property losses alone could be as much as $15.2 billion, according to an estimate released in July by state officials. That amount does not include uninsured losses or damages beyond those to property, such as wrongful death claims. A study by UCLA estimated losses at $24 billion to $45 billion.

Damages from the Palisades fire, which also ignited on Jan. 7, are not covered by the state wildfire fund. The city of Los Angeles’ Department of Water and Power, a municipal utility, services the area of Pacific Palisades destroyed by that fire.

Only customers of Edison, PG&E and San Diego Gas & Electric pay to support the wildfire fund. And only those three utilities are covered by its protections.

WASHINGTON — President Trump’s emergency order over the nation’s capital, which federalized its police force and launched a surge of law enforcement into the city, is set to expire overnight Wednesday after Congress failed to extend it.

But the clash between Republicans and the heavily Democratic district over its autonomy was only set to intensify, with a House committee beginning to debate 13 bills that would wrest away even more of the city’s control if approved.

Mayor Muriel Bowser’s office said the order expires at midnight. The National Guard and some other federal agencies will continue their deployment and it’s not clear when that might end.

Trump’s takeover of Washington’s policing and Wednesday’s discussions in the House underscore how interlinked the capital is with the federal government and how much the city’s capacity to govern is beholden to federal decisions.

Trump’s order federalized the local police force

For the last 30 days, the city’s local Metropolitan Police Department has been under the control of the president for use in what he described as a crime-fighting initiative.

Local police joined hundreds of federal law enforcement officers and agents on sweeps and roundups and other police operations. About 2,000 members of the National Guard from D.C. as well as seven states were also part of the surge of law enforcement.

Crime has dropped during the surge, according to figures from the White House and the local police department, but data also showed crime was falling in the lead up to the federal takeover.

Congress, satisfied by steps that Bowser has taken to ensure that the cooperation with the city will continue, decided not to extend the emergency, returning the police to district control.

But Bowser, who has walked a tightrope in collaborating with Trump in an effort to protect the city’s home rule, must now pivot to a Congress that has jurisdiction over the city. The next order of business is a series of proposals that will be debated Wednesday by the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.

Some of the House bills focus on law enforcement

Thirteen of the bills call for repealing or changing D.C. laws. Some provisions in play would remove the district’s elected attorney general, who recently asked a judge to intervene in the takeover. Others would allow the president to appoint someone to the position.

There is also a move to lower the age of trying juveniles to 14 from 16 for certain crimes, and one to change the bail system and remove methods the council can use to extend emergency bills.

Even if the bills pass the committee and House, the question is whether they can get through the filibuster-proof Senate. D.C. activists have already begun lobbying Senate Democrats.

Bowser urged the leaders of the House Oversight Committee to reject those proposals.

She argued that a bill sponsored by Rep. Paul Gosar, a member of the conservative House Freedom Caucus, would “make the District less efficient, competitive, and responsive.” She said she looks forward to working with the committee to build a “productive partnership” that “respects the will of D.C. residents and honors the principles of home rule.”

Republican Rep. Ron Estes and several Republican colleagues said they want their constituents to feel safe visiting the capital, and noted the recent murder of an intern who worked in Estes’ office. “We want to make sure that we have a capital that Americans are proud of,” Estes said.

Members of the Republican Study Committee in the House held a news conference Sept. 2 praising Trump’s intervention and supporting codifying his executive order.

“Congress has a clear constitutional authority over D.C., and we will use it without hesitation to continue making D.C. safe and great again,” said Rep. August Pfluger, chairman of that committee.

D.C. mayor says the bills challenge the city’s autonomy

Bowser said the bills are an affront to the city’s autonomy and said “laws affecting the district should be made by the district.”

The district is granted autonomy through a limited home rule agreement passed in 1973 but federal political leaders retain significant control over local affairs, including the approval of the budget and laws passed by the D.C council.

Bowser has said repeatedly that statehood, a nonstarter for Republicans in Congress, is the only solution.

Fields and Askarinam write for the Associated Press. AP reporter Ashraf Khalil contributed to this report.

A PENSIONER is having to sell her home to cover a £113,000 legal bill after losing a five-year dispute over a 1ft strip of land.

Jenny Field, 76, was told to pay £14,000 after her initial court defeat to Pauline Clark, 64, but her repeated challenges saw the total rocket.

A judge has now told her she must pay the resultant £113,126 in three months or flog her £600,000 bungalow in Hamworthy, Dorset, so the cash can be recouped.

The divorcee told a court: “I am selling it because I have to and I’m fed up with living here but I will offer to pay her £1 per week.”

Their feud began in 2020 after Mrs Clark replaced a fence between the properties.

Ms Field claimed it had encroached on her garden and had it demolished, but Mrs Clark sued for damages and won the first case in 2022.

Several appeals followed and Ms Field was accused of wasting time by bombarding the court with papers.

A bid by her to sue for £500,000 in damages was also dismissed as “totally without merit”.

District Judge Ross Fentem said Mrs Clark had been kept from money owed to her for a long time and told Bournemouth county court the order for sale was “a last resort and draconian remedy”.

1

SACRAMENTO — State lawmakers approved a bill Monday that would ban online pet dealer websites and shadowy middlemen who pose as local breeders from selling dogs to California consumers — the latest move to curtail the pipeline from out-of-state puppy mills.

Assemblymember Marc Berman (D-Menlo Park) said Assembly Bill 519 will help ensure buyers aren’t misled about where their puppies come from after a Times investigation last year detailed how designer dogs are trucked into California from out-of-state commercial breeders and resold by people claiming to be small, local operators.

“AB 519 would close this loophole that allows this dishonest practice,” Berman said.

California became the first state in the nation with a 2019 law to bar pet stores from selling commercially bred dogs. That retail ban, however, did not apply to online pet sales, which grew rapidly during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Berman’s bill would ban online marketplaces where dogs are sold by brokers, which is defined as any person or business that sells or transports a dog bred by someone else for profit. That would include major national pet retailers such as PuppySpot as well as California-based operations that market themselves as pet matchmakers. AB 519, which now heads to Gov. Gavin Newsom for his consideration, applies to dogs, cats and rabbits under a year old.

Puppy Spot opposed the bill, writing in a letter to lawmakers that it would dismantle a system they say works for families — particularly those seeking specific breeds for allergy concerns. PuppySpot CEO Claire Komorowski wrote to Berman in May that their online marketplace maintains internal breeder standards that exceed regulatory mandates.

“We believe this bill penalizes responsible, transparent operations while doing little to prevent the underground or unregulated sales that put animal health and consumer trust at risk,” PuppySpot CEO Claire Komorowski wrote to Berman in May.

The bill does not apply to police dogs or service animals and provides an exemption for shelters, rescues and 4H clubs.

“This measure is an important step in shutting down deceptive sales tactics of these puppy brokers and lessening the financial and emotional harm to families who unknowingly purchase sick or poorly bred pets,” Attorney General Rob Bonta wrote in a letter of support for the bill. “By eliminating the profit incentive for brokers while preserving legitimate avenues for Californians to obtain animals, AB 519 protects consumers, supports shelters and rescues that are already at capacity, and advances California’s commitment to the humane treatment of animals.”

Two other bills stemming from The Times’ investigation are expected to pass the Legislature this week as lawmakers wrap up session and send a flurry of bills to the governor. The package of bills has overwhelming bipartisan support.

AB 506 by Assemblymember Steve Bennett (D-Ventura) would void pet purchase contracts involving California buyers if the pet seller requires a nonrefundable deposit. The bill would also make the pet seller liable if they fail to disclose the breeder’s name and information, as well as medical information about the animal.

The Times’ investigation found that some puppies advertised on social media, online marketplaces or through breeder websites as being California-bred were actually imported from out-of-state puppy mills. To trace dogs back to mass breeding facilities, The Times requested Certificates of Veterinary Inspection, which are issued by a federally accredited veterinarian listing where the animal came from, its destination and verification it is healthy to travel.

The California Department of Food and Agriculture has long received those health certificates from other states by mistake — the records are supposed to go to county public health departments — and, in recent years, made it a practice to immediately destroy them. Dog importers who were supposed to submit the records to counties largely failed to do so.

The Times analyzed the movement of more than 71,000 dogs into California since 2019, when the pet retail ban went into effect. The travel certificates showed how a network of resellers replaced pet stores as middlemen while disguising where puppies were actually bred. In some cases, new owners discovered that they were sold a puppy by a person using a fake name and temporary phone numbers after their new pet became sick or died.

After The Times’ reporting, lawmakers and animal activists called on the state agriculture department to stop “destroying evidence” of the decepitive practices by destroying the records. The department began preserving the records thereafter, but has so far released the records with significant redactions.

SB 312 by state Sen. Tom Umberg (D-Orange) would require pet sellers to share the travel certificate with the state agriculture agency, which would then make them available without redactions to the public. An earlier version of the bill required the state department to publish information from the certificates online, but that was removed amid opposition.

“Given the high propensity for misleading consumers and the large volume of dogs entering the state, the health certificate information is in the public interest for individual consumers to review to confirm information conveyed to them by sellers and to also hopefully be helpful to humane law enforcement agencieds as they work to investigate fraud and malfeasance,” said Bennet said Monday in support of Umberg’s bill.

Williard (Bill) Christine Jr., a multiple award-winning journalist who spent 23 years covering horse racing for the Los Angeles Times, died on Monday (Aug. 25) after being diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia three years ago. He died at his home in Hermosa Beach, with family by his side. He was 87.

While Christine was known in Southern California as the Times’ voice of horse racing, it was really just the end of a storied career that saw him at seven different newspapers over 42 years that also contained a stopover in racing pubic relations.

Former Los Angeles Times reporter Bill Christine.

(Christine family)

He was the author of three books, one on Roberto Clemente, another on jockey Bill Hartack and one on a pair of songwriters. After leaving newspapers, he liked to investigate and write about true crime, especially in his hometown of East St. Louis.

Christine won Eclipse Awards for outstanding writing about horse racing, in 1984 and 2004. In 2000, he was given Walter Haight Award for career excellence in turf writing. He won the David F. Woods Memorial Award in 1991 and 1992 for his coverage of the Preakness Stakes.

He was also president of the National Turf Writers and Broadcasters, a group that also includes public relations people, from 1990 to 1992.

“Bill was an old school journalist,” said Mike Willman the former longtime media relations executive at Santa Anita. “He kept copious notes and was a contrarian by nature. He was fair and extremely knowledgeable.

“He really enjoyed being around the people in racing. You could take issue with something he wrote and then debate it and there was never any animus. I really respected him for that.”

Even after he retired, Christine would write emails to friends and colleagues recounting people and events from his career in racing and baseball.

Born in Illinois, he attended Southern Illinois Carbondale where he graduated in 1963 and wrote for the college newspaper. His first job out of college was at the East St. Louis Journal, where he covered baseball among other sports. After two years he moved to the Baltimore News American, followed by the Louisville Times, Pittsburgh Press, Chicago Daily News and Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, where he was briefly the sports editor.

It was then that he switched to public relations taking the top media job at Commodore Downs in Pennsylvania, followed by four years as the assistant to the executive vice president at the National Thoroughbred Racing Assn.

The Times rarely hires people from the public relations side, but then sports editor Bill Dwyre decided to take a chance.

“Bill Christine was my first hire as sports editor of The Times, and being the first, it was a big deal not only for me, but for people watching me and trying to figure out what I was thinking and how I would cover each sport,” said Dwyre, who later went on to cover horse racing for The Times.

Former Los Angeles Times reporter Bill Christine receives an Eclipse Award honoring his horse racing reporting.

(Christine family)

“It was 1981. I interviewed some of the best national turf writers, including Maryjean Wall, Jennie Rees and Jack Mann, as well as Christine. I knew Bill better than the others because I had been his roommate at API (American Press Institute). … I liked that Bill was a great story-teller and that his newspaper experience went beyond just turf writing — he had covered lots of baseball on deadline and had also been the sports editor of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

“When he came to The Times, Santa Anita and Hollywood Park and Del Mar were booming and he worked tirelessly to give the sport the coverage it deserved.”

Bob Mieszerski, who has reported and handicapped horse racing in Southern California for many years and worked alongside Christine after Mieszerski came to the Times and added a full page of racing daily, echoed Dwyre’s sentiment about his abilities and presence.

“He was very welcoming to me when I joined the Times and I always appreciated that,” Mieszerski said. “He was a great storyteller and I Ioved hearing him recall anecdotes about different people — both in and out of racing — that he encountered.”

Dan Smith, the retired marketing and media head at Del Mar, remembers Christine for his very distinctive laugh.

“It was like ghee, ghee, ghee,” Smith said struggling to duplicate the sound. “It was very distinctive and very unique.

“He was also a big movie buff. He and his wife went to a lot of movies. And we loved to discuss movies. He followed all of that very closely.”

Christine was known for his strong opinions, which sometimes put him at odds with the people he covered.

Christine’s most notable feud was with Wayne Lukas, who didn’t speak to the reporter for several years after something Christine wrote.

“He wasn’t reluctant to discuss his opinions, which a lot of people didn’t agree with, but that was OK,” Smith said.

Dwyre, who would often change beats every year, once offered Christine the Dodgers job, arguably the best job in the department, because Christine had been complaining about needing something new. But in the end, Christine decided he would rather cover racing.

“He really knew his baseball and had a Hall of Fame ballot,” Willman remembers. “You might have your own opinion and if it disagreed with Bill’s, he had all the ammunition to show you why he was right.”

Even if Christine’s daily coverage was often buried on a page deep in the section, surrounded by handicapping and small-type results, Christine would rise to the occasion and give you a well crafted non-obvious story.

“I remember often doing critiques for my staff, especially those who had put out the previous morning’s paper,” Dwyre said. “I would hold up the sports section and ask which story that was in the section should have been on the front page and wasn’t. Invariably, it was a Christine horse racing story.”

The press box at Del Mar, named in honor of Dan Smith, has a wall where the pictures of deceased turf writers go.

“I guess his picture will go on the wall soon,” Smith said. “We’ve still got a few spots left and hope we don’t fill them anytime soon.”

Christine is survived by his wife of 43 years, Pat, and two twin daughters, Laura and Leslie, his first wife, Dianne, and stepson Chris.

Christine asked that his body be donated to USC for medical research. After the cremains are returned, there will be a small celebration of life.

This is the story of two Republican doctor-senators named Bill.

One of them, as majority leader from 2003 to 2007, helped a self-described “compassionate conservative” Republican president pass a Medicare prescription drug plan and the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), “the largest commitment by any nation to address a single disease in history.”

The other, as a member of the Senate Finance Committee, voted to send Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s nomination as secretary of Health and Human Services to the Senate floor. It was a 14-13 vote, so his was a crucial “aye” that allowed a conspiracy theorist, disinformation spreader and anti-vaxxer to become the top public health official in America. He already has defunded world-changing mRNA vaccine research, imposed major restrictions on access to COVID vaccines amid a surging variant of the virus and triggered a crisis at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“The firewall between science and ideology is completely broken down,” Dr. Demetre Daskalakis, former director of the CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, said Sunday on ABC’s “This Week.” He was part of the shocking CDC leadership exodus last week after the Trump administration forced out CDC Director Susan Monarez.

The trajectory from heart and lung transplant surgeon Bill Frist of Tennessee to gastroenterologist Bill Cassidy of Louisiana is emblematic of the dark Republican Party journey on science and health — from the Bush family to the Trump family, from American greatness to self-defeating denialism on everything from vaccines to cancer research.

There are four doctors in the Senate: Cassidy, orthopedic surgeon John Barrasso of Wyoming, obstetrician-gynecologist Roger Marshall of Kansas and ophthalmologist Rand Paul of Kentucky. All are Republicans and all voted in February to confirm Kennedy.

Eleven of the 17 medical doctors in the House are Republicans, and all of them voted for the nearly $1 trillion in Medicaid cuts in the vast tax-and-spending law that Trump signed on July 4. So did the four dentists in the House, all of them Republicans. The American Dental Assn. endorsed three of them. The fourth is Arizona’s Paul Gosar, a top competitor with Kennedy in the medical disinformation space whose siblings have made ads urging voters to reject him.

Frist was the only doctor in the Senate when he served. After leaving the Senate in early 2007, he joined the Bipartisan Policy Center, where he is a senior fellow and co-chair of its Health Project. He has been on the board of directors of the Nature Conservancy since 2015, and was elected to a three-year term as global board chair in 2022.

Frist has sharply criticized the Medicaid cuts passed into law this year, saying they threaten rural hospitals and public health. Last spring, accepting a 2025 Earth Award from Time Magazine, he said climate health is crucial to human health, and he urged a personal approach to raise American awareness. He often describes his environmental and health missions as inseparable. “Planetary health is human health. Let’s lead with science, unity, and urgency,” he posted on X on Earth Day.

Good luck with that, at least in the short term. The same new law that cuts Medicaid also cuts funds for renewable energy projects and incentives, with conservationists predicting more pollution, fewer jobs and higher energy costs as a result. Only three Republican senators bucked the party tide on that bill, and Paul was the only doctor among them. His breaking point was a provision raising the U.S. debt limit to $5 trillion — not Medicaid or clean energy cuts affecting health.

Cassidy, of course, voted for it. And when Monarez found herself in Kennedy’s crosshairs over vaccines, Cassidy privately intervened for her, which backfired. Now, having failed to spare America this nightmare when he could have, the senator is threatening “oversight” by the health committee he chairs and trying to get a Sept. 18 meeting of unqualified Kennedy-appointed vaccine “advisors” postponed.

This is thin gruel, especially from a doctor once committed to public health and science writ large. Cassidy co-founded a clinic that gave free dental and medical care to the working uninsured, his website says, and created a public-private partnership that vaccinated 36,000 children for hepatitis at no cost to their families. During the Biden presidency, he voted for bipartisan gun safety and infrastructure bills and the bipartisan CHIPS and Science Act to bolster the U.S. semiconductor industry. He was also one of five Republicans voting for a small-business COVID relief bill.

Even more notably, in the Senate impeachment trial after the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot, Cassidy voted to convict Trump of “incitement of insurrection.” “Our Constitution and our country is more important than any one person. I voted to convict President Trump because he is guilty,” he said then. The Louisiana Republican Party censured him the same day.

Now running for his third term, Cassidy is already facing primary challengers who don’t have that baggage. They include state Treasurer John Fleming, a former congressman who worked for Trump in the White House, and public service commissioner Eric Skrmetta, who chaired all three of Trump’s presidential campaigns in Louisiana.

Fleming has said Cassidy’s vote to convict Trump failed the people of Louisiana. And that’s the problem with today’s Republican Party. The truth is that since that brave vote, Cassidy has failed all Americans. He has also assured that his legacy will be the wreckage of our once world-class public health and medical research programs.

On the other side, there is the 314 Action group that is recruiting and funding Democratic doctors and other Democratic scientists to run for office. It’s an openly partisan operation, right up to a snarky-ish all-caps X post about its $1-million commitment to California’s fight to neutralize the five new House seats Texas is trying to add. What else can you do when the other major party, even its medical professionals, is leading, aiding and abetting in the GOP war on science?

“If @SenBillCassidy had a spine, a known anti-vax conspiracy theorist wouldn’t be destroying our public health,” the group posted last Wednesday on X. “He had an opportunity to thwart the confirmation of RFK Jr.,” 314 Action president and founder Shaughnessy Naughton told me in a recent interview. “Instead he chose to go down a different path and go against what his life experience and professional training told him was a dangerous nominee to lead our health services. And he did it anyway. … That is shameful.”

In February, before Kennedy was confirmed, the conservative New York Times columnist Bret Stephens rated him “worst nominee in U.S. Cabinet history.” And then Stephens suggested the person he preferred for the job: Bill Frist.

Jill Lawrence is an opinion writer and author of “The Art of the Political Deal: How Congress Beat the Odds and Broke Through Gridlock.” @jilldlawrence.bsky.social

WASHINGTON — Survivors of Jeffrey Epstein’s sexual abuse made their voices heard Tuesday on Capitol Hill, pressuring lawmakers to force the release of the sex trafficking investigation into the late financier and pushing back President Trump’s effort to dismiss the issue as a “hoax.”

In a news conference on the Capitol lawn that drew hundreds of supporters and chants of “release the files,” the women shared — some publicly for the first time — how they were lured into Epstein’s abuse by his former girlfriend, Ghislaine Maxwell. They demanded that the Trump administration provide transparency and accountability for what they endured as teenagers.

It was a striking stand as the push for disclosure of the so-called Epstein files reached a pivotal moment in Washington. Lawmakers are battling over how Congress should delve into the Epstein saga while the Republican president, after initially signaling support for transparency on the campaign trail, has been dismissing the matter as a “Democrat hoax.”

“No matter what you do it’s going to keep going,” Trump said Wednesday. He added, “Really, I think it’s enough.”

But the survivors on Capitol Hill, as well as at least one of Trump’s closest allies in Congress, disagreed. Some of the women pleaded for Trump to support their cause.

“It feels like you just want to explode inside because nobody, again, is understanding that this is a real situation. These women are real. We’re here in person,” said Haley Robson, one of the survivors who said she is a registered Republican.

Epstein killed himself in a Manhattan jail while awaiting trial in 2019 on charges that said he sexually abused and trafficked dozens of underage girls. The case was brought more than a decade after he secretly cut a deal with federal prosecutors in Florida to dispose of nearly identical allegations. Epstein was accused of paying underage girls hundreds of dollars in cash for massages and then molesting them.

Maxwell, Epstein’s longtime confidant and former girlfriend, was convicted in 2021 and sentenced to 20 years in prison for luring teenage girls for him to abuse. Four women testified at her trial that they were abused by Epstein as teens in the 1990s and early 2000s at his homes in Florida, New York and New Mexico. The allegations have also spawned dozens of lawsuits.

Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, who is usually closely aligned with Trump, described her support for a bill that would force the Justice Department to release the information it has compiled on Epstein as a moral fight against sexual predation.

“This isn’t one political party or the other. It’s a culmination of everyone work together to silence these women and protect Jeffrey Epstein and his cabal,” Greene said at the news conference.

She is one of four Republicans — three of them women — who have defied House GOP leadership and the White House in an effort to force a vote on their bill. House Speaker Mike Johnson is trying to quash the effort by putting forward his own resolution and arguing that a concurrent investigation by the House Oversight Committee is the best way for Congress to deliver transparency.

“I think the Oversight probe is going to be wide and expansive, and they’re going to follow the truth wherever it leads,” Johnson, R-La., said.

He added that the White House was complying with the committee to release information and that he had spoken with Trump about it Tuesday night. “He says, ‘Get it out there, put it all out there,’” Johnson told reporters.

The Oversight Committee on Tuesday night released what it said was the first tranche of documents and files it has received from the Justice Department on the Epstein case. The folders — posted on Google Drive — contained hundreds of image files of years-old court filings related to Epstein, but contained practically nothing new.

Meanwhile, the White House was warning House members that support for the bill to require the DOJ to release the files would be seen as a hostile act. Rep. Thomas Massie, a Kentucky Republican who is pressing for the bill, said that the White House was sending that message because “They’ve dug in.”

“They decided they don’t want it released,” he said. “It’s a political threat.”

But with Trump sending a strong message and Republican leadership moving forward with an alternative resolution, Massie was left looking for support from at least two more Republicans willing to cross political lines. It would take six GOP members, as well as all House Democrats, to force a vote on their bill. And even if that passes the House, it would still need to pass the Senate and be signed by Trump.

Still, the survivors saw this moment as their best chance in years to gain some justice for what had been done by Epstein, who died in as New York jail cell in 2019 while facing sex trafficking charges.

“Justice and accountability are not favors from the powerful. They are obligations decades overdue” Jess Michaels, a survivor who said she was first abused by Epstein in 1991, told the rally on the Capitol lawn. “This moment began with Epstein’s crimes. But it’s going to be remembered for survivors demanding justice, demanding truth, demanding accountability.”

Groves writes for the Associated Press.

A restaurant in Spain has shared a photo of a receipt with a huge €63,000 (£55,000) bill racked up on it – and people are desperate to know who could have paid it

A Spanish restaurant has shared of a receipt showing an eye-watering €63,000 (£55,000) bill, that a group of tourists unbelievably walked away from.

The eatery teased that the party might have featured a well-known American sporting celebrity. Situated in Palmanova, Majorca, the waterfront establishment appealed on social media: “Whose bill is this? Tag them below, please – we’d like to talk..”

Sharp-eyed observers noticed that a massive chunk of the total was splashed on “various fish”. With such an astronomical sum, punters in the replies have been desperately attempting to identify who could possibly fork out this much at a restaurant.

A fierce discussion has erupted in the comments section as people scramble to determine who would blow this kind of cash at the venue.

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The establishment later revealed that 18 guests were accommodated at the table and suggested the party might have featured a well-known American sporting celebrity, according to Majorca Daily Bulletin.

The mystery diners didn’t just splash out on grub but also shelled out a fortune on premium beverages.

Another entry on the receipt shows valet parking, which forms part of the venue’s upmarket offerings.

The Instagram post exploded online with countless users desperate to uncover the identity of the enigmatic customer, reports the Express.

It has now become the hottest topic across Majorca as residents attempt to crack who splashed out on one of the island’s priciest ever dinners.

Majorca stands as one of the biggest islands in the Balearics and serves as a beloved getaway destination. The island boasts crystal clear waters and breathtaking beaches, making it a must-visit destination that draws in two million Brits per year.

As if we needed another reason to question Woody Allen’s judgment, the 89-year-old director praised President Trump as “polite” and “a pleasure to work with” on Bill Maher’s podcast, “Club Random.”

Allen, who cast Trump in a cameo appearance for his 1998 film “Celebrity,” said on Monday’s podcast that the then-real estate mogul “hit his mark, did everything correctly and had a real flair for show business.”

“As an actor, he was very good,” Allen said. “He was very convincing, and he has a charismatic quality as an actor. And I’m surprised he wanted to go into politics. Politics is nothing but headaches and critical decisions and agony.”

Trump’s latest critical decision as commander in chief? Sharing the filmmaker’s positive comments on his Truth Social account. Heavy hangs the crown …

But why would Trump even want Allen on his side?

Allen’s legacy as a groundbreaking filmmaker was tarnished by revelations about his personal life that emerged in the 1990s. It was revealed that he had a romantic relationship with his then-girlfriend Mia Farrow’s adopted daughter, Soon-Yi Previn. He was 56. She was 21. Allen’s own daughter with Farrow, Dylan, would later accuse Allen of sexually molesting her, claims that he denies. Even if fans want to separate the artist from news stories about the man, it’s difficult given that Allen’s films often reflect an obsession with youthful — and occasionally underage — women.

The president has been doing everything possible to bury his past associations with older men who allegedly prey on younger women. There’s this guy named Jeffrey Epstein …

There’s obviously no comparing Allen to the late convicted child sex trafficker, but why even open the door to such scrutiny? It’s because a compliment is a compliment, and there are so few of them coming from Hollywood that Trump could not help but copy, paste and post.

More troubling is that Allen now joins Maher in normalizing America’s first president who operates like a dictator, describing Trump as “pleasant,” “gracious,” even “measured.” Meanwhile, the White House is siccing militarized forces on American cities, trying to deport planeloads of children and attempting to rig the 2026 midterms.

Maher responded to Allen’s flattering words about Trump with mock outrage: “How dare you?!”

Allen may have surprised listeners who know the director as a master satirist of the flawed personality, but Maher was right on brand. The 69-year-old has forged a career playing to all sides of contentious issues while sincerely committing to none.

Earlier this year, the host of HBO’s “Real Time With Bill Maher,” who describes himself as a “vocal critic” of Trump, caught flak for dining with the president at Mar-a-Lago, then later describing Trump as “gracious,” “not fake” and that “everything I’ve ever not liked about him was absent.” He praised Trump for being “measured” and not like the “person who plays a crazy person on TV.”

Larry David, the creator of “Seinfeld” and star of “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” responded to Maher’s laudatory dinner recollection with a satirical essay in the New York Times titled “My Dinner With Adolf.” David wrote from the perspective of a “vocal critic” of the Nazi dictator who, over dinner, finds Hitler to be surprisingly “disarming” and “authentic.” The essay went viral.

During Monday’s podcast, Allen counterbalanced his kind words about Trump with the revelation that he voted for former Vice President Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential election. He also said that he disagrees with Trump on “99%” of issues.

After wondering aloud why Trump went into politics, Allen said, “This was a guy I used to see at the Knicks games, and he liked to play golf, and he liked to judge beauty contests, and he liked to do things that were enjoyable and relaxing. Why anyone would want to suddenly have to deal with the issues of politics is beyond me.”

Perhaps it’s about seizing total power? Exacting revenge on enemies such as his former national security advisor John Bolton? Scrubbing the Epstein files? Profiting off his office?

But let’s get back to Allen.

The director reiterated that he disagreed “with many, almost all, not all, but almost all of his politics, of his policies. I can only judge what I know from directing him in film. And he was pleasant to work [with], and very professional, very polite to everyone…

“If he would let me direct him now that he’s president, I think I could do wonders.”

He kids. But it was only just a few days ago that Allen came under fire for virtually attending the Moscow Film Festival as a guest of honor. He praised Russian cinema and hinted at wanting to shoot a film in the country. After some “measured” thought, perhaps Putin will get a cameo.

Bill Ackman is one of the most closely followed investment managers on Wall Street. His Pershing Square Capital Management hedge fund holds just a handful of high-conviction positions, and he typically holds those positions for the long run.

Ackman is often forthcoming with the biggest moves in his portfolio. He’ll usually disclose new trades through his social media accounts or monthly updates to his hedge fund investors. But Pershing Square’s quarterly 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) can provide a full accounting of the hedge fund’s portfolio of publicly traded U.S. stocks.

Ackman made a couple of big moves last quarter, and now holds roughly 58% of the portfolio in just three companies.

Image source: Getty Images.

1. Uber (20.6%)

Ackman made a massive investment in Uber Technologies (UBER -2.28%) at the start of 2025, accumulating 30.3 million shares for Pershing Square. That immediately made the stock the hedge fund’s largest position, and it’s only grown bigger since. Uber shares are up 57% so far in 2025 as of this writing.

Uber continues to see strong adoption for both its mobility and delivery service. Total users climbed to 180 million last quarter, up 15% year over year, and it saw a 2% increase in trips per user. Delivery gross bookings climbed 20% year over year and produced strong EBITDA margin expansion. As a result, the company saw adjusted EBITDA growth of 35% year over year.

But the threat of autonomous vehicles is weighing on Uber stock. Ackman believes self-driving cars will benefit Uber in the long run, as it operates the network required for connecting vehicles with riders. That kind of network effect is hard to replicate, giving Uber a competitive advantage and a significant stake in the autonomous vehicle industry. To that end, the company has already partnered with 20 different companies, including AV leader Alphabet‘s (GOOG 0.56%) (GOOGL 0.63%) Waymo.

Shares of Uber currently trade for about 1.2 times its gross bookings over the past year. But with expectations for growth in the high teens, that puts it down closer to a 1 multiple. That’s historically been a good price to pay for the stock. In more traditional valuation metrics, its stock price is 3.9 times forward revenue expectations. Its enterprise value of $206 billion as of this writing is less than 24 times 2025 adjusted EBITDA expectations. Even after its strong performance in 2025, Uber shares still look about fairly valued.

2. Brookfield Corp (19.7%)

Ackman built a position in diversified asset manager Brookfield Corporation (BN -0.08%) over the last five quarters, adding to it each quarter since Pershing Square’s initial purchase in the second quarter of 2024. As a result, the stock is now the hedge fund’s second-largest position.

Brookfield saw its distributable earnings excluding carried interest and gains from selling investments climb 13% on a per-share basis last quarter. The company expects to produce distributable earnings growth of 21% per year from 2024 through 2029.

A huge growth driver for Brookfield is its Wealth Solutions segment, which grew total insurance assets to $135 billion as of the end of June. Its annualized earnings are now $1.7 billion.

The business is growing quickly. Just two years ago, insurance assets totaled $45 billion. Management expects the growth to continue with assets topping $300 billion by 2029. At that point, the segment will be the conglomerate’s largest contributor to distributable earnings.

Management is using its free cash flow to buy back shares and invest in new assets. This could further increase distributable earnings per share above its guidance for 21% organic growth over the next few years. Shares currently trade for less than 20 times management’s expectations for 2025 distributable earnings, offering compelling value for investors.

3. Alphabet (17.9%)

Ackman first bought shares of Alphabet in early 2023, shortly after the release of OpenAI’s ChatGPT. While many saw the growth of generative AI as a major threat to Alphabet’s Google, Ackman thought the market overreacted, offering a bargain price for the stock. While he trimmed the position a bit in 2024, he’s added back to it over the first two quarters of 2025, preferring the Class A shares (which come with voting rights).

Alphabet has produced strong financial results in 2025. Its core advertising business climbed 10% year over year last quarter, with particularly strong results from Google Search (up 12%). That speaks to the company’s efforts to incorporate generative AI into its search business with features like AI Overviews and Google Lens. The former has increased engagement and user satisfaction, according to management, while the latter lends itself to high-value product searches.

Alphabet has seen tremendous results in its Google Cloud business, which supplies compute power to AI developers. Sales increased 32% year over year, with operating margin expanding to 22% for the business. Overall, Google Cloud accounted for 43% of the total increase in Alphabet’s operating earnings last quarter, despite its relatively small size compared to the Search business.

That said, the company faces potential regulatory challenges to its business. The Department of Justice has ruled that it operates an illegal monopoly. The company is awaiting a ruling on required remedies, which could include divesting its Chrome browser or a ban on contracts positioning Google as the default search engine in other browsers.

As a result, Alphabet shares trade for less than 21 times forward earnings expectations. That’s the lowest multiple among the “Magnificent Seven” stocks and a great price for one of the leading AI companies in the world.