Blue

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Adrian Kempe scored his second goal of the game with 1:26 left in overtime to give the Kings a 5-4 win over the Columbus Blue Jackets on Monday.

With the victory, the Kings moved within a point of Seattle in the race for the final Western Conference wild-card spot.

Columbus tied the score late for the second straight home game. Kirill Marchenko scored on the power play at 18:04 to force the extra period.

Brian Dumoulin had a goal and two assists. Scott Laughton scored for the second straight game since joining the Kings from Toronto and added an assist. Artemi Panarin also scored. Anton Forsberg made 28 saves for the Kings in the opener of a five-game trip.

Connor Garland scored twice — his first goals since coming to Columbus from Vancouver — and Denton Mateychuk added a goal and an assist. Jet Greaves made 26 saves for Columbus, which has lost two straight at home.

The Blue Jackets are two points behind Boston in the race for the second Eastern Conference wild-card spot, and three points behind the Islanders for third in the Metropolitan Division.

The Kings killed off a high-sticking double minor to start the game before Dumoulin set up Laughton in front of the net at 6:46 of the first. Panarin made it 2-0 at 14:47 with his second goal since joining the Kings from the New York Rangers on Feb. 4.

Garland cut the lead in half with 2:25 left in the period, snapping a career-long 24-game scoring drought. Mateychuk tied it with 9:07 remaining in the second period, and Garland’s second goal put Columbus ahead 81 seconds later.

The lead was short-lived as Kempe tied the game with 5:51 remaining in the second period. Kopitar’s assist was his 167th on a game-tying goal, the most in Kings history.

Dumoulin scored with 9:53 left in the third period, but Marchenko tied it with a power-play goal with 1:56 left,

Columbus defenseman Erik Gudbranson, who missed 42 games earlier this season due to injury, left in the first period with an upper-body injury and did not return.

The game had a rare afternoon weekday start after being rescheduled from Jan. 26 because of a blizzard in Columbus.

Up next for the Kings: at Boston on Tuesday.

In national terms, California is about as indelibly blue as the political process permits, but an unusually comprehensive exit poll of voters in Tuesday’s presidential election confirms that Los Angeles is perhaps the bluest of the blue; it is now more liberal and Democratic than the state as a whole.

The nonpartisan, citywide survey was conducted by Loyola Marymount’s Center for the Study of Los Angeles under the direction of Fernando Guerra, and the results are revealing. While 43% of the nation’s white voters cast ballots for Barack Obama, 76% of L.A.’s white electorate went for the president-elect. Similarly, while the Democratic candidate won 66% of the Latino vote nationally, he carried 77% of L.A. Latinos. The city’s African Americans matched national percentages: Obama got 97% of their vote. He also was the choice of 67% of L.A.’s Asian Americans (nationally, Asian Americans are usually too small a group to get counted effectively in exit polls).

Across the city, 71% of voters told the Loyola pollsters that race was “not at all” important in their decision on which presidential candidate to back, but what’s interesting is that Los Angeles’ white voters emerged from Tuesday’s general election as the most liberal constituency in the city. If you take as your measure the two hot-button statewide propositions on the ballot — parental notification for teenagers seeking abortion and a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage — white voters’ social liberality is strikingly apparent.

Fully 69% of white voters opposed Proposition 4 (parental notification), and 73% voted against Proposition 8 (prohibiting same-sex marriage). Latinos voted for both proposals — 47% to 39% for parental notification and 48% to 42% to prohibit same-sex marriage. (When totals don’t add up to 100%, it’s because not all those questioned voted or revealed their votes on every issue to the pollsters.) Blacks and Asians split their vote on the social issues: A 45% plurality of African Americans opposed parental notification; 57% supported the ban on same-sex marriage. Asian Americans went the other way: 57% were against banning gay marriage, while a 42% plurality supported parental notification.

Geographically, the Loyola poll overturned the longtime local political assumption that the San Fernando Valley is generally more conservative than the city south of the Santa Monica Mountains: 72% of Valley voters went for Obama, as opposed to 78% of the rest of the city’s electorate. Similarly, a solid majority of Valley voters opposed parental notification (57%, which was higher than the city as a whole, at 51%) and a stunning 63% of Valley ballots were cast against the same-sex marriage ban. The rest of the city opposed the measure 54% to 31%.

All four of the city’s largest ethnic groups — whites, Latinos, blacks and Asians — are more liberal and more heavily Democratic than their counterparts statewide. Looking at same-sex marriage, for example, Loyola’s Guerra pointed out that 70% of blacks statewide opposed Proposition 8, compared to L.A.’s 57%.

So, with a mayoral election just over the horizon, what do these new realities suggest about the future of politics in Los Angeles? As Guerra said, it will be “much, much tougher for a Riordan-type Republican candidate to win the mayor’s office, somebody like Rick Caruso,” the billionaire shopping mall developer who announced Friday that he wouldn’t be running.

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While the old divisions between Valley voters and the rest of the city have been swept away, Guerra says that some of the center’s other work suggests that pockets of traditional conservatism remain. Some districts north of the Santa Monicas may continue to elect relatively more conservative City Council members while voting with the rest of the city’s liberal majority on national, state and even citywide issues.

Other research by the Loyola-based center has verified a trend that may be increasingly decisive in local politics: Latinos’ overwhelmingly pro-union sentiment. Latino voters are virtually across-the-board supporters of organized labor and its agenda. In part, that’s because the region’s resurgent unions are essentially a Latino movement, which is one of the reasons labor here has championed immigrants’ rights so strongly. The loyalty is reciprocal; one of the significant things Guerra and his colleagues have discovered is that Latinos support organized labor whether or not anybody in the family pays union dues. In fact, nonunion Latino households are more likely to endorse labor’s agenda at the polls than white union members.

“To win in the future,” Guerra said Friday, “citywide candidates will need to put together a coalition of liberal whites, Latinos and unions. Tap them, and you’ve got an unbeatable combination.”

You’ve also got a very different Los Angeles.

Traditionally, officeholders here have been elected by one city to govern another. That is, the electors have been older, whiter, more conservative and more affluent than the majority of Angeleos; they have had interests — and they expected the officials they chose to serve them. Those who have been governed mostly have been younger, browner, blacker and far poorer than the electors; they have had — and they continue to have — needs, which sometimes have been met and, too often, haven’t.

The disconnect between the traditional electors’ interests and the civic majority’s needs is the source of much of our civic dysfunction. When the overwhelming majority of this new Los Angeles told the Loyola pollsters that they voted for the presidential candidate they felt would “bring change,” they may have had more than the White House in mind.

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timothy.rutten@latimes.com

As a powerful blizzard blankets the East Coast in snow, another force of nature is preparing to take over the chilly streets of Manhattan.

Los Angeles-based singer-songwriter Gaby Moreno will make her Broadway debut as Persephone, the leading lady of Anaïs Mitchell’s Tony Award-winning musical “Hadestown,” beginning Tuesday at the Walter Kerr Theatre in New York City.

Exploring themes of climate change to a New Orleans jazz- and American folk-laden soundtrack, “Hadestown” — a retelling of the Greek myths of Hades and Persephone, as well as Orpheus and Eurydice — will open just as New York transitions out of the harsh winter. Moreno, 44, takes a video call from The Times during her second day of rehearsals, as she is learning how to play Persephone, goddess of spring — and in this play, a wine-drunk lush.

“For the first few minutes I was like, ‘Can I do this? I feel like a klutz,’” she says of her character’s flailing steps, meant to distinguish the inebriated goddess, who splits her time between the underworld and the surface of the Earth.

“I’ve never been drunk because I don’t like the taste of alcohol,” says Moreno, giggling. “But there’s a lot of numbers where I’m drunk-singing and dancing around, so that’s the acting part.”

As a theatrical performer of her own songs, Moreno feels firmly in her element on Broadway. But she arrives as a decorated musician who has woven Latin American, blues and soul traditions into nine bilingual albums — including her 2024 Grammy Award-winning acoustic album “X Mí.”

For Moreno, who was born in Guatemala City, passion for musical theater was seeded during a trip to New York City with her family when she was 13 years old. That’s when they saw “Les Misérables” and “The Phantom of the Opera” on Broadway.

“I went back home [to Guatemala] thinking, this is a dream of mine,” she recalls.

But the trip to the Big Apple also illuminated another path for Moreno. Then just a starry-eyed Catholic schoolgirl, she remembers walking down Times Square and hearing a woman singing in the streets in a style unknown to her. Curious, she went up to the busker to ask her what type of music she was singing; it was the blues, she says.

Moreno scored blues compilation albums she would bring back to her native Guatemala. Locked in her bedroom, the first track that played was Koko Taylor’s 1965 rendition of “Wang Dang Doodle,” the party anthem originally composed by Willie Dixon.

“That’s the moment I’ll never forget,” says Moreno.

She would absorb every cadence of the African American folk genre, transfixed by the bewitching vocals of 1920s blues icons like Bessie Smith and Ma Rainey, as well as luminous jazz ballads by  Ella Fitzgerald,  Billie Holiday and Nina Simone.

“Every musician should always try to find the roots to see where all that comes from,” says Moreno of her early musical explorations. “You might discover something completely new.”

Growing up as the proud daughter of Lucy Bonilla, one of Guatemala’s most charming radio broadcasters, Moreno starred alongside her mother and sisters in a series of cheeky Salvadoran seasoning commercials. She even recorded voice-overs for Central America’s most beloved chicken restaurant chain, Pollo Campero.

At 10 years old, she performed as an opening act for Ricky Martin in 1991, to the credit of her father, a concert promoter who reeled international stars to Guatemala.

“It was such a wonderful experience. I got to discover that I loved singing on stage,” says Moreno, who sang Disney songs as well as her own compositions. “I felt right at home.”

Yearning to start a music career in the States — “that’s where the [music I like] comes from,” she says — Moreno recorded a cover of a popular Guatemalan waltz called “Luna de Xelajú.” Her mother sent her demo to a producer in Miami, who then linked the young singer to a music manager in Los Angeles.

At 18 years old, she signed a recording contract with Warner Brothers and moved to L.A. There she enrolled in the Musicians Institute’s Vocal Certificate program, which allowed her to apply for a student visa and remain in the U.S.

With a deep passion for American blues and folk traditions, Moreno wondered if she could integrate those sounds with elements of Latin American folk music. But her label discouraged her from doing so, believing it would “confuse [the] audience,” she says.

“It took a while for me to find my own voice and to find where I belonged in this music world,” says Moreno. “Because at the beginning, [labels] were telling me you can’t sing in both languages — you gotta pick a lane.”

Following a disastrous 2001 merger between AOL and Time Warner, Moreno’s recording contract fell through. She later signed with Epic Records under Sony Music Entertainment — then run by Chairman and CEO Tommy Mottola — but they dropped the singer, following the decline in CD sales and rise of digital file-sharing sites like Napster and Limewire.

“I didn’t even get past recording an album,” she says of this period in her life.

Behind the scenes, Moreno formulated her own Spanish-language takes on jazz, which listeners can hear in the 2006 funky, spy-like chromatic track “Escondidos” — which includes a kazoo solo in its outro. The enigmatic song earned her the Grand Prize in the John Lennon Songwriting Contest that year, making it the first time a Latin category took home the top prize.

“People kept telling me what to do, how to sound, what kind of music I should do, how I should dress. Blah, blah blah,” says Moreno when she was under a label. “At some point I said, ‘Screw it.’”

With nothing to lose — and no label looking to strip her of tender heart and free spirit — Moreno saw an opening to release music independently on MySpace, where she uploaded her 2008 debut album, “Still The Unknown.” (Much of Moreno’s music is still archived on the social network.)

“If all should fail you, there’s still the unknown,” sang Moreno with a warm, coffeehouse-friendly cadence in the title track.

“Maybe it’ll work out, maybe it won’t, but at least I’ll be doing something that I really love,” she adds, looking back on that time. After its debut, she says she gave a copy to her friend, composer Patrick Warren, who was touring with Tracy Chapman. The “Fast Car” singer heard the LP and asked Moreno to open for her Our Bright Future tour in the summer of 2009.

“It was just me and my acoustic guitar, going with [Chapman] for three weeks all over the U.S.,” says Moreno.

Moreno’s ingenuity as an independent bilingual creative allowed her to freely partake in various opportunities in entertainment. Some might recognize her bubbly folk theme from the NBC mockumentary sitcom “Parks and Recreation,” which stretched across seven seasons between 2009 and 2015.

Others might recall her smokey vocals in the song “Mal Hombre,” as featured in Guillermo del Toro’s “Cabinet of Curiosities” — or in the final season of Netflix’s “Orange is the New Black” which featured her heart-wrenching cover of the traditional Mexican huapango “Cucurrucucú Paloma.” She can also be heard in the 2022 animated film “Puss in Boots: The Last Wish,” singing a swooning ballad titled “Por Que te Vas.”

Still, Moreno declares she hasn’t found mainstream success as a musician.

“I’m perfectly fine with that. I am so happy at this point in my life where I can make music for a living, [which is] hard to do as an independent artist,” she says.

For an indie artist, Moreno boasts an impressive slate of accolades. She’s earned three Grammy nominations, including in the category of Latin pop album in 2017 for “Ilusión” and Latin rock/alternative album in 2022 for “Alegoria.” In 2024, she finally took home the gramophone for Latin pop album for her album “X Mí (Vol. 1),” an acoustic medley of all her previously recorded songs, including the song that started it all: “Luna de Xelajú.”

“She’s powerful the way that water is flowing and it’s light, but it’s unstoppable and effervescent,” says award-winning actor Oscar Isaac.

A Guatemalan-born musician himself, Issac befriended Moreno in 2013. Emmy-nominated for his role in “Scenes From a Marriage,” the actor was in town for the 2022 awards show when he and Moreno recorded “Luna de Xelajú” at the Palace Theater in downtown L.A. The two would later perform the ballad live on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon in 2024.

For Isaac, the stresses of everyday life melted away when the two got to jam together. They’ve performed a handful of times over the years, including live at the Lincoln Center for its American Songbook series in 2019.

“When I think of her, she feels very much like home,” he adds.

Guatemala — which is also known as the “Land of the Eternal Spring” — is always on Moreno’s mind.

Last year, she starred in “Lamento,” a musical short film made inside an abandoned Guatemalan beach resort; once a popular seaside destination known as Turicentro Likin, it is now tucked away behind the mangroves. Starring a stacked Guatemalan cast, including actor Tony Revolori, the project underlined the encroaching impacts of climate change that corrode once treasured memories, including those of Moreno, who grew up visiting the vacation destination.

“It’s something that brings me joy to work with people from my country,” she says.

It was only fitting that the folk-soul singer would be selected to represent Persephone in “Hadestown” — a victim of environmental destruction, yet whose duality brings life and prosperity back to a world that is constantly freezing or aflame.

Yet before she can truly represent both the queen of the underworld and goddess of spring, Moreno must first survive the gauntlet that is the New York winter.

“One thing I can tell you is: I cannot wait to bring on the spring,” she says.

BRITAIN’S answer to the Mediterranean with sandy beaches and palm-tree-lined promenades, won’t have a single Blue Flag beach this year.

Devon‘s English Riviera, formed of three towns – Paignton, Brixham and Torquay – will lose all of its Blue Flag beaches this year after the local council agreed to scrap the scheme.

At a recent meeting, Torbay Council agreed to leave the internationally recognised scheme which awards high-quality beaches.

While the English Riviera stretches across the South Devon coast, every single one of its awarded beaches sits under Torbay Council’s control.

There are six beaches in total with the award including Broadsands Beach in Paignton; Oddicombe Beach in Torquay; Preston Beach in Paignton; Torre Abbey Sands in Torquay; Breakwater Beach in Brixham and Meadfoot Beach in Torquay.

One beach – Oddicombe in Torquay – has even held a Blue Flag status since the scheme launched 38 years ago.

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The council has said that the decision has been made as local leaders believe the scheme wasn’t meeting the bay’s needs anymore and that it had become too expensive, reports theBBC.

The scheme has recently updated its criteria to include a requirement for designated zones for swimmers, surfers, boarders and motor boats at each beach.

However, for smaller coves, Torbay Council believes this is unpractical.

Councillor Martin Brook said: “I think the Blue Flag lot have shot themselves in the foot.

“Places all over the country are going to pull out of the scheme.”

The council is now planning to introduce a new scheme that would be run locally called the English Riviera Beach Standards (ERBS) scheme.

ERBS will replace the Blue Flag scheme, managing all of Torbay’s 25 beaches and coves and it would cost £260,000 less to run.

It will also allow the council to test the water standards more frequently.

The beaches will be accessed against three categories.

The first is ‘excellence’, which celebrates the highest-quality beaches in the area – ones that consistently have a great visitor experience.

The second category is ‘quality’, which looks at what unique offerings each beach has.

And the third category is ‘natural’, which highlights unspoilt beaches in the region.

Each beach will be assessed every year under the new scheme.

According to the council, the scheme will also allow water to be monitored more often, there to be a stronger focus on environmental protection and sustainability, visitor experience to be improved, be better value for money and more accurately present Torbay’s coastline.

Councillor Adam Billings, Cabinet Member for Pride in Place and Parking, said: “Torbay’s coastline is central to our identity, and these new beach awards will highlight just how deeply we value and protect it.

“By creating a locally designed system, we can focus on what truly matters to our communities, our visitors and our environment.”

Under the new ratings current Blue Flag beaches Oddicombe, Meadfoot, Torre Abbey, Broadsands and Breakwater would all move into the ‘excellence’ category.

Then in the ‘quality’ category, Maidencombe, Anstey’s Cove, Goodrington North and Goodrington South beaches would feature.

And finally, Watcombe, Petitor, Babbacombe, Peaked Tor, Corbyn Head, Livermead, Fairy Cove, Oyster Cove, Saltern Cove, Armchair Cove, Elberry Cove, Churston, Fishcombe, St Mary’s Bay, Beacon Cove and Hollicombe beaches would be in the ‘natural’ category.

The council added how Paignton and Preston Beaches will currently not be categorised due to a multi-million waterfront upgrade project taking place.

Locals are skeptical about the idea of a new scheme though, with one person commenting on social media: “Is the blue flag recognised across the globe?

“Why replace (your words) something that has been around for over 40 years. Unless you look to make cut backs on facilities.”

Another added: “Why have a local system that means nothing to our visitors…. Stick to the Blue Flag system that is known throughout the UK.”

The new scheme is set to come into force on March 2, with the former £11,000 Blue Flag budget being used to set up the scheme.

In other beach news, world famous UK beach closed to the public after storm damage.

Plus, our 26 must-visit UK beaches for 2026 – including tropical-feel spots and family-friendly finds.

It’s apparently naming season for autonomous air combat drones. Earlier today, we reported that General Atomics had given the name Dark Merlin to its YFQ-42A Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA) design. Now Northrop Grumman has stamped a new name on its YFQ-48A: Talon Blue.

Northrop Grumman first unveiled the drone this past December, at which time it was referred to simply as Project Talon, as you can read more about in our initial report here. Later that month, the U.S. Air Force gave it the formal designation YFQ-48A, and described it as “strong contender” to be part of its future CCA fleets. Currently, General Atomics’ YFQ-42A and Anduril’s YFQ-44A are the designs formally in development as part of the first phase, or Increment 1, of the Air Force’s CCA program. Northrop Grumman may now be under contract for the program’s Increment 2, but this remains unconfirmed.

The “YFQ-48A Talon Blue’s designation within the Air Force’s Collaborative Combat Aircraft program underscores the strategic alignment between Northrop Grumman’s manufacturing agility and the Air Force’s acquisition goals for low-cost, cutting-edge technology,” according to a press release the company put out today. “The aircraft’s design provides mission versatility through advanced modular manufacturing techniques that reduce part count and overall weight – shortening production timelines without sacrificing capability.”

The release does not offer a clear explanation of the significance of the new Talon Blue name. Northrop Grumman previously told TWZ and other outlets that the Project Talon moniker was a callback to the T-38 Talon jet trainer, as both had been designed with high performance, high maneuverability, and affordability in mind.

“And it’s got a cool sound to it, too,” Tom Jones, President of Northrop Grumman’s Aeronautics Systems sector, at the time of the drone’s official unveiling.

As for the new Blue addition to its name, this could be another callback, this time to Northrop’s hugely successful Tacit Blue demonstrator, aka the ‘Whale,’ which revolutionized America’s understanding of stealth technology at the dawn of the stealth age. Lockheed’s stealth demonstrator that led to the F-117 Nighthawk stealth combat jet was also called Have Blue. As TWZ has noted previously, the YFQ-48A is clearly optimized with low-observable (stealthy) characteristics. It also shares many similar features and a general layout with Tacit Blue. You can read more about what else is known about the Talon Blue design so far here.

Regardless, the Talon Blue name is welcome. As we noted with the announcement of the Dark Merlin name for General Atomics’ YFQ-42A, the nomenclatures and terms associated with the U.S. Air Force’s CCA program can often be obtuse to the general public. Being able to use specific names for the different drones helps. Anduril’s YFQ-44A has carried the nickname Fury from the very start, which traces back to its origins as a ‘red air’ training drone.

Beyond the YFQ-48A, Northrop Grumman is now also describing Project Talon as an entire “portfolio of modular, cost-effective and rapidly deployable aircraft that meet the customers’ autonomy needs.” That portfolio includes Talon IQ, formerly called Beacon, a “next-generation autonomous testbed ecosystem” that has been leveraging the Prism autonomy suite and Scaled Composite’s Model 437 Vanguard jet. Scaled Composites is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Northrop Grumman that was also involved in the development of Talon Blue.

Digital Ecosystem Takes Flight

Northrop Grumman has also now released a picture of the YFQ-48A flanked by the Model 437 and one of Scaled Composites’ earlier Model 401 jets, also known as the ‘Son of Ares,’ but it is not immediately clear if the latter is also part of the Project Talon portfolio. The Model 437 evolved from the Model 401. Concepts for uncrewed versions of the Model 401 and Model 437 have been shown in the past.

In December, Northrop Grumman said it was targeting a first flight for YFQ-48A about nine months down the road, or sometime in August of this year.

In terms of the Air Force’s CCA program, the service still has yet to make a decision about which Increment 1 CCA design, or both, it wants to buy in larger numbers. Nine companies are also now under contract to refine concepts under Increment 2. To date, the Air Force has not disclosed the names of any of the Increment 2 awardees, which, as noted, could include Northrop Grumman.

When it comes to the YFQ-48A, the company could also pitch it to prospective foreign customers. The marketspace for CCA-type drones, like what is now dubbed the Talon Blue, is steadily growing globally.

Contact the author: howard@thewarzone.com

When I asked Nordine Nid Hsain, the owner of my favourite Parisian bistro, why he sold up and left the capital to join the arty diaspora living in the Mediterranean port of Sète, he said: “What really drew me here was not Sète itself, but the natural paradise of the adjoining Thau lagoon. I love cycling and, after 10 years here, I am still excited to go out every day to explore the bike paths that run around the lagoon.”

He added: “There’s always something new to discover – beaches; wetland landscapes; enjoying a plate of freshly harvested oysters at the water’s edge; riding through the vineyards then tasting the wine in the vigneron’s cellar.”