CHICAGO — President-elect Bill Clinton used a community college in Chicago Monday to try out an updated economic message that Americans will be hearing frequently from him in the weeks to come: We’re not out of the woods yet.
“When you read that things are getting better with the unemployment rate, inflation rate, housing starts, things of that kind, that’s a good thing,” Clinton told an audience of some 150 students at Wilbur Wright Community College on this city’s northwest side. But, he warned, those improvements are merely part of the short-term business cycle.
“Underneath that,” he said, are “20 years of problems.”
“We may or may not be coming out of the recession,” Clinton said. “There are some good indicators that we are, but the long-term problems are there and that is what I have to address.”
Clinton’s statements reflect a basic dilemma that he faces: He relied on a bad economy to help him get elected. And while he would like to see improvements, he must rely on continued worries about the economy to get his programs enacted over what is certain to be fierce opposition from vested interests in Washington. In addition, of course, having defeated President Bush on the issue of the economy, Clinton would like to be able to say that economic improvements occurred on his watch, not on that of his predecessor.
With the economy showing steady signs of improvement, those factors have impelled Clinton and his aides to try with increasing diligence to focus public attention on the long-term trends of economic stagnation–and his long-term agenda to change them–rather than on talk of a short-term stimulus to help an economy that may well be moving out of recession on its own.
The emphasis on the long-term agenda will be central to the economic conference that Clinton plans to convene in Little Rock next week. Aides envision the conclave in large part as a tutorial to explain to Americans why the country needs Clinton’s agenda of raising taxes, revamping the health care system, and increasing spending on education, training and new technologies to reduce the deficit.
In answering questions from the students, Clinton provided the most detailed view since the election of how he intends to form a coherent agenda out of the many promises he made in the campaign.
Repeatedly he referred to two key proposals: His plan for a national service trust fund to let Americans finance their educations by borrowing money and paying part of it back through public-service work, and his plans to reform the nation’s health care system.
Changing the health care system is the one thing that he would do “if I could wave a magic wand,” Clinton said, reminding the students of the effect that rising health care costs have had on the ability of American companies to compete.
At the same time, the session with the students showcased a shift in Clinton’s rhetoric from the language of the campaign to the sterner realities of governing. During the campaign, Clinton struggled against his natural tendency to give four-part answers to all questions. Now he appears to have given up that fight.
And repeatedly, as the students asked Clinton for more federal money for program after program, the President-elect, mindful of the massive deficit he soon will inherit, responded with a polite version of “no.”
One woman asked if he would provide special incentives for minority students to attend college. No, Clinton said, the goal should be to make loans and scholarship funds broadly available and then recruit in minority communities. A nursing student asked about special incentives to encourage people to pursue nursing careers. No, Clinton replied, noting that nursing salaries have gone up because of shortages.
Still another noted that some of the classes he wanted to take have been canceled due to a lack of funds. Could the federal government help? he asked. “The federal government, with the huge deficits we are now facing, does not have the capacity to take over substantial funding of the community college system,” Clinton replied.
Despite that, Clinton seemed to win the student’s enthusiasm simply by having shown up.
“He could have just gone to Princeton or Yale and spoken in their auditorium. Instead he came here,” said Erika Marie Dimitrijevic, a 35-year-old mother who attends an ultrasound training program at the school. “I think he wants to get closer to the people.”
Dimitrijevic is in many ways representative of the school, whose average student is a 31-year-old woman. Roughly 50% of the 14,000 Wright students are white, while 20% are black and 30% are Latino. About 15% are women who head households.
The President-elect also used the occasion to score some points with the area’s political leaders, who were crucial in his battles to win his party’s nomination and to defeat President Bush. They will be equally important to whatever success he manages in the next four years. Clinton took time to meet with Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley, along with Daley’s brother William, who has been touted in Chicago as a potential secretary of transportation in the Clinton Administration.
And in speaking to the students, Clinton made a point of praising their local congressman, Rep. Dan Rostenkowski, chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, whose panel will have jurisdiction over much of Clinton’s economic and health care proposals and whose help Clinton has courted assiduously in recent weeks.
If he succeeds in changing the nation’s health care system, “it will be in no small measure because of Danny Rostenkowski’s leadership,” he said.
Later in the day, Clinton arrived in Washington and courted members of Congress by attending a reception for newly elected freshmen.
He will spend most of today on Capitol Hill, meeting with freshmen congressmen again as well as with congressional committee chairmen.
Clinton’s attempts to woo members of Congress, both the powerful and the new, are in sharp–and deliberate–contrast to the approach of Jimmy Carter, the last Democratic President, whose relations with Capitol Hill were tense and troubled. Clinton and his aides, by contrast, have taken every possible opportunity to try to bring members of Congress onto his team, an effort which is likely to include appointing several to his Cabinet.
The first of those expected Cabinet appointments are expected later this week.
As Clinton left the White House guest quarters at Blair House Monday night, en route to a party at the home of Washington Post Co. Chairwoman Katharine Graham, he was accompanied by several members of his transition team and Lawrence Summers, a World Bank economist, who is considered a possible choice for economic security adviser.
After a scheduled return to Little Rock tonight, Clinton likely will resign from the post of governor Wednesday, closing a 12-year chapter of his life. He is also expected to release new ethics guidelines for his Administration.
Researcher Tracy Shryer in Chicago contributed to this story.
Friends, motorists, fellow Americans: The road ahead is far from straight. But it will take us through eight states and dozens of small towns, past Muffler Men and Patel motels, beneath the bright lights of Tulsa and Tucumcari, up close to Edward Hopper’s “Nighthawks” and Angel Delgadillo’s barber chair.
In other words, it’s Route 66, an American artifact that turns 100 in November and seems to contain more curiosities and paradoxes than the Midwest has cornstalks.
To see all that up close and catch America’s Main Street making ready for its centennial summer, I drove the entire stretch — from Chicago to Albuquerque in one trip, then Albuquerque to Santa Monica in another, a combined 17 days on the road.
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Even before that first day of driving brought me to Springfield, Ill., I’d realized that more days would have been better. As traveler Leonidas Georgiou of Greece told me, “This is a lifetime journey.”
You quickly see that this 2,448-mile route is actually a medley of rural highways, small-town main streets, frontage roads and inescapable bits of Interstate 40. You roll from Midwest farmland to Southwest desert to the Pacific, rising and falling between sea level and 7,000 feet. The roadside signs and buildings, restored and ruined, cry out for more than a drive-by snap. And people are happy to see you, because Route 66 is what keeps some of these towns alive.
Beginning with your first miles — and a cup of coffee at Lou Mitchell’s diner in Chicago — you meet all sorts of travelers. A mother and daughter from New York. The California couple who just retired from the Air Force. The European cop who persuaded his mom to come along, then had her sleep in the car to save money. The “roadies,” many of them retired, who return every year. Some come for the scenery, some for the signage, some for the conversations.
Depending on whom you ask, this might be the most famous highway in the world. It is the inspiration for a short, happy song that’s lasted 80 years (Bobby Troup’s “[Get Your Kicks on] Route 66”) and a long, sad book that’s lasted 87 (John Steinbeck’s “The Grapes of Wrath”). Then again, if you were born in this century, you probably know the road’s story best from the 2006 Disney-Pixar movie “Cars.”
As the miles go by, you realize that Route 66 hasn’t been strictly American for a long time. Many Route 66 merchants and hoteliers say that most of their customers are travelers from abroad. Beyond that, many Route 66 entrepreneurs are from families that came to the U.S. in the last 50 years. I met a restaurateur from Lebanon, one motel owner from the Netherlands and four more motel owners, all named Patel, whose families arrived from India after 1965.
Route 66 west of Seligman, Ariz.
(Christopher Reynolds / Los Angeles Times)
“You never know what language or accent you’re going to hear,” says Rhys Martin, Tulsa, Okla.-based manager for the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s Preserve Route 66 initiative. “You’ve got new business owners. You’ve got unique cuisine. You’ve got this cultural diversity. You’ve got the African American experience. It’s more complicated than just a trip back in time.”
And this year is especially complicated.
Hundreds of small businesses along the route have been investing in centennial upgrades and celebrations, including a 19-day national caravan that begins June 6 in Santa Monica. But 2025 was slow on 66, in part because many Canadian visitors stayed away after President Trump proposed taking over their country.
1.) Views of the Chicago skyline from Navy Pier. 2.) Millennium Park, Chicago.(Christopher Reynolds / Los Angeles Times)
Now, on the brink of summer, soaring gasoline prices could keep many Americans home, and President Trump’s America-first rhetoric and nonresident fees might drive more international travelers elsewhere.
“We all worry about that,” says Terri Ryburn, owner of Ryburn Place Gifts & Gab in a 1930s gas station in Normal, Ill.
“We need new roadies,” says Anna Marie Gonzalez, co-owner of the Aztec Motel & Creative Space in Seligman, Ariz. “And the roadies need to be American this year.”
Now my rented Ford Escape SUV is rolling and my windshield is full of rural Illinois. Water towers, grain elevators, flags on barns. Black and white cows.
The skyline view from Chicago’s Navy Pier is half a day behind me, as are the crowds around the big silver bean in Millennium Park and the great American artworks in the Art Institute of Chicago (where “Nighthawks” hangs).
Experts say that about 85% of the old highway is still drivable. But some states post more signs than others. And everywhere, people steal signs.
Ah, but not these signs. One for a barn sale off Stripmine Road. A warning that Funks Grove has sold out of pure maple syrup. Somebody selling deer pee to hunters.
When I cross the state line, I face a billboard pitching “Uranus Fudge Factory, Missouri’s No. 2 Attraction.”
After I pass the exit comes the sequel message: “Uranus is behind you.”
The Wagon Wheel Motel stands along Route 66 in Cuba, Mo.
(Christopher Reynolds / Los Angeles Times)
The Route 66 timeline starts in November 1926. That’s when state and federal transportation officials embraced the idea of connecting scores of cities and small towns with one long, paved road.
As I pull over for a barbecue dinner in tiny Cuba, Mo., the 90-year-old Wagon Wheel Motel pops up like a slideshow illustration of that time. The stone-walled motel looks unchanged in decades, but sleepy.
“Never closed,” says a sign in the window with a phone number. “If office locked we are close by.”
The Rockwood Motor Court in Springfield, Mo., is a window into the same era. Built in 1929, my $77 room is compact and the plumbing is delicate, but all the vintage vibes are present. Phyllis Ferguson, desk clerk, owner and “old building hugger,” is full of tips on roadside businesses and where to stay, because “I know these little tourist courts are getting fewer and farther between.”
Boots Court motel opened in 1939 to capitalize on Route 66 traffic in Carthage, Mo.
(Christopher Reynolds / Los Angeles Times)
In Carthage, Mo., at Boots Court, desk clerk Jason Shelfer shows me a splendidly restored 1939 room where Clark Gable slept and tells me he never appreciated the reach of Route 66 until now.
“When people from Brazil come to Carthage, Missouri,” Shelfer says, “something magical is happening.”
And there’s another side to this magic: 66 can also be invisible up close. Not just because of missing signs, but because it has aliases everywhere. It’s Jackson Boulevard in parts of Chicago, Garrison Avenue in Carthage and Main Street in Galena, Ks., where 18-year-old cashier Kassidy Kell welcomes me into Gearhead Curios.
“Before my job,” she confesses, “I had no idea what the thing was with Route 66.”
It was John Steinbeck who called 66 the Mother Road. But if the Mother Road has a father, it’s probably Cyrus Avery, a Tulsa businessman and big wheel on the Oklahoma Highway Commission in the 1920s. Avery, who now has his own plaza in Tulsa, campaigned for a Chicago-Los Angeles route through his hometown. Little did he know what was coming.
The Cyrus Avery Centennial Plaza features a bronze sculpture called “East Meets West,” just off the now-closed Cyrus Avery Route 66 Memorial Bridge in Tulsa, Okla.
(Mike Simons / For The Times)
Within a decade, drought and Depression had forced legions of Dust Bowl migrants from Oklahoma and beyond on desperate journeys west, using Route 66.
A decade beyond that, the end of World War II in 1945 filled the road again, this time with happy travelers.
That postwar era is what many people now think of as a simpler time, and perhaps a better one. But segregation and “sundown towns” were still in place along much of the route. For travelers of color, a carefree road trip would have been impossible. And for many Native Americans, the roadside proliferation of cowboy/Indian caricatures would have been nothing to smile at.
But these were years that reshaped the look of Route 66. Hundreds of motels, shops and gas stations rose along the road, often designed in bold geometry and bright colors.
Mary Beth Babcock at her shop Buck Atom’s Cosmic Curios in Tulsa, Okla. In the background is her giant, Stella Atom.
(Mike Simons / For The Times)
Flash forward now to Tulsa’s Meadow Gold District, a.k.a. “land of the giants.” In 2018, retailing veteran Mary Beth Babcock took over an old gas station, dubbed it Buck Atom’s Cosmic Curios on 66, and soon opened more shops nearby.
Then, to get attention and make drivers smile, she put up a few “muffler men” — roadside fiberglass giants. She started with Buck and Stella Atom, a space cowboy and cowgirl who loom over 11th Street, looking to the past and future.
“Americana!” says Babcock. “Road trip! Who wouldn’t want to do that?”
Near the east edge of the Texas panhandle stands the most elegant gas station you’ll ever see: the 1936 U-Drop Inn and Tower Station in Shamrock, which drips with Art Deco style. (No, you can’t get gas there. But you can eat at the cafe inside or charge your Tesla in back.)
In Groom, stopping for gas, I spy the largest cross I have ever seen — 190 feet high and 110 feet wide. Nearby, I glimpse a crooked water tower — built to attract tourists and billed as the Leaning Tower of Texas.
Sorry, Groom. I’m not stopping.
The fastidiously restored U-Drop Inn, a Streamline Moderne filling station and cafe in Shamrock, Texas, is one of the architectural standouts of Route 66. It doesn’t sell gas, though.
(Christopher Reynolds / Los Angeles Times)
I reach Amarillo just in time, grab paint cans and hustle out to the field where a line of 10 old Cadillacs stand half-buried. As the sun sets, they throw 50-foot shadows while the scent of spray paint fills the air.
This is Cadillac Ranch, an art installation from the 1970s where visitors are free to add their own paint, whatever they like. Mine says “Read Something.”
Next comes Tucumcari, N.M., one of the few places to sleep between Albuquerque and Amarillo. Because of that, it used to get thousands of road-trippers. They’d slowly roll down the main drag, choosing favorites from a riot of snappy names and caricatures lit in gleaming neon.
“They tell me it was like driving into a little Las Vegas,” says Gar Engman, owner of Tee Pee Curios.
But I-40 changed everything.
In 1956, President Eisenhower called for a better interstate highway system. By the mid-1960s, wider, faster interstates started opening, flanked by chain hotels and restaurants. After I-40 bypassed Tucumcari in 1981, and train service dropped off as well, Tucumcari crashed. Just about every town along 66 has a version of this story, especially in New Mexico and Arizona.
Visitors to the Cadillac Ranch art installation in Amarillo, Texas, are allowed to spray-paint the 10 Cadillacs half-buried in the ground there.
(Christopher Reynolds / Los Angeles Times)
So is Tucumcari a ghost town? Not exactly. Many buildings stand empty and the Apache Motel’s vintage sign rests flat in a parking lot like a fallen soldier. But several motels are clearly doing fine, as is Tee Pee Curios. At night you still see a great set of signs. Most dramatic is the Blue Swallow Motel with its bird in flight, cursive letters and promise of “100% refrigerated air” — maybe the most photographed sign on 66. But you can’t ignore Motel Safari, the Roadrunner Lodge and La Cita restaurant, which wears a red sombrero and serves a fine Frito pie.
In Newkirk, N.M., four turkeys cross the road, leaving me groping for a punch line.
In Santa Rosa, N.M., I tiptoe into the Blue Hole, an artesian well that’s always 62 degrees, then tiptoe out again.
Turkeys on Route 66, Newkirk, N.M.
(Christopher Reynolds / Los Angeles Times)
In Albuquerque, I roll past many blighted blocks on Central Avenue, then jog 65 miles northwest to sample the art and wealth of Santa Fe.
In the farmers market there, I give public poet William Curius $20 to pound out a Route 66 poem on his Royal typewriter. In 20 minutes, he comes up with a solid effort, but it’s nothing compared to his answer when I ask his age.
“I don’t identify with age. This is how you die. Counting each year.”
In Petrified Forest National Park — the only national park directly on the route — I hike among red rocks and howling wind.
By the time I reach Williams, Ariz., several people have told me that the European travelers know more about Route 66 than the Americans do. So when I see four guys from Greece on the sidewalk, I try that idea on them. Alex Andros, age 30, nods immediately.
“If you come to Greece,” he says,”you probably know more Greek mythology than us. So that makes sense.”
Now we arrive at Seligman, Ariz. It’s tiny, with a population south of 800. But in the lore of Route 66, Seligman is big. Because of Angel Delgadillo.
By 1985, though the roadway was still mostly intact, Route 66 was officially obsolete, decommissioned as a federal highway. Starved for visitors, Seligman was dying. But Delgadillo, a barber with deep roots in the town, had an idea. He and his wife, Vilma, rallied business people from nearby towns to seek historic status for their stretch of Route 66. After they prevailed, they started a statewide organization and set a national movement in motion.
Angel & Vilma Delgadillo’s Original Route 66 Gift Shop on Route 66 through Seligman, Ariz. (Mark Lipczynski / For The Times)
Scenes from Route 66 in Williams, Ariz. (Mark Lipczynski / For The Times)
The Delgadillos’ business, now a gift shop, endures on Seligman’s main drag, as do Vilma and Angel, who celebrated his 99th birthday in April. Two daughters help run the shop, which includes an old barber chair where you can sit for a selfie.
The westernmost stretch of 66 in Arizona is a driver’s dream and a magnet for motorcycles. Those 158 miles make up the longest-surviving continuous stretch of Old 66, beginning just east of Seligman, veering away from the railroad tracks, cutting through Kingman, twisting and turning through Oatman and the Black Mountains, eventually rejoining I-40 at the state line.
Then it’s time to cross the Colorado River. Roar through Needles. Pause at the Roy’s sign in Amboy for dusk. Crash for the night in Barstow.
At San Bernardino’s Wigwam Motel, I wind up chatting with a mother-daughter duo of Canadian travelers.
“I was against coming down,” admits Sharon Prinz, 75, of British Columbia.
1.) The stretch of old Route 66 between Kingman and Topock in western Arizona is known as “Arizona Sidewinder” for its 191 turns, often without guardrails. The old mining town of Oatman, known for its roaming donkeys, is on the way. (Christopher Reynolds / Los Angeles Times)2.) The Magic Lamp Inn in Rancho Cucamonga. (David Fouts / For The Times)3.) Foothill Drive-In sign on the campus of Azusa Pacific University. (David Fouts / For The Times)
“It’s a timing thing,” says Wendy Prinz, 51, who talked her mom into coming. “If you put off something for a year, you might never get the chance.”
The end is near, and I’m feeling like a marathoner at Mile 25. Creeping along Foothill, Colorado, Sunset and Santa Monica boulevards, I scan the scene for old signs. Rancho Cucamonga’s Magic Lamp Inn! Azusa’s Foothill Drive-In! (But there is no drive-in, just the sign.)
And then, at dusk, it appears: the Santa Monica Pier and the sign declaring I’ve reached the “end of the trail.”
All those miles. Yet already, I’m making a mental list of stops to add and detours to try next time.
A sign marking the end of Route 66 on the Santa Monica Pier.
(David Fouts / For The Times)
“It’s so easy to use up all your time and end up running behind,” says Ian Bowen, manager of the pier’s 66 to Cali kiosk. “It took me six years to do the whole road.” And then, he adds, “you become part of the community.”
And you see how, in so many ways, the road is one long small town. When Brenda at the Midpoint Cafe in Texas sends a guest westward with a coconut cream pie for Robert and Dawn at the Blue Swallow Motel, Robert and Dawn thank her on Facebook (“It’s like a hug in a box”) and scores of roadies applaud. When Angel Delgadillo turns 99, West Side Lilo’s Cafe is ready with carrot cake. After Beth Hilburn adds a giant outside her Hi-Way Cafe, Mary Beth Babcock heads over from Tulsa to Vinita to say hi.
And when a rookie roadie finishes his first 66 trip, he has to wonder: Who will be out there this summer? Will it be enough to keep this fragile recovery going?
If this is the story of America’s Main Street, what’s the next chapter?
The league’s worst team this season is getting the No. 1 pick in the NBA draft.
The Washington Wizards won the draft lottery on Sunday and are poised to pick first overall for the first time since choosing John Wall in that spot in 2010. Wall was the Wizards’ on-stage representative for the lottery.
Washington had a 14% chance of winning No. 1, tied with Brooklyn and Indiana for the best odds. The Wizards had basically a 50-50 chance of getting either a top-four pick or the No. 5 spot.
But three consecutive years of losing — the three worst seasons in the franchise’s 65-year history — finally paid off Sunday for the Wizards, who went 17-65 this season and even allowed Miami’s Bam Adebayo to score 83 points for the league’s second-highest single-game total ever.
The Wizards swung deals to land Trae Young and Anthony Davis last season, and now they have a chance to add an immediate impact player with the No. 1 pick.
Utah will pick No. 2, Memphis will pick No. 3 and Chicago will pick No. 4.
The Clippers got the fifth pick — via a trade with the Pacers — followed by No. 6 Brooklyn, No. 7 Sacramento, No. 8 Atlanta, No. 9 Dallas, No. 10 Milwaukee, No. 11 Golden State, No. 12 Oklahoma City, No. 13 Miami and No. 14 Charlotte.
The draft begins June 23 in New York. The draft combine in Chicago starts on Monday.
No. 1 pick possibilities
There are four candidates that generally are considered front-runners to be the No. 1 pick, all of them entering the draft after their freshman years of college. They are:
— BYU’s AJ Dybantsa, who led the nation in scoring at 25.5 points per game in his lone college season.
— Duke’s Cameron Boozer, the AP player of the year who averaged 22.5 points and 10.1 rebounds.
— Kansas’ Darryn Peterson, who averaged 20.2 points in 24 games for the Jayhawks.
— North Carolina’s Caleb Wilson, who averaged 19.8 points and 9.4 rebounds on 58% shooting.
All four of those players, and a few other likely first-round selections, were all among those in the studio for the announcement of the lottery results Sunday at Chicago’s Navy Pier.
“Standing here is kind of crazy,” Dybantsa said. “One of these teams is going to be home.”
Last of this format (probably)
This was the eighth, and likely final, year of this version of an NBA draft lottery, with the worst teams having a 14% chance of winning.
Framework fell into place last month on changes meant to further discourage tanking, and the league’s Board of Governors is expected to ratify that plan in the next few weeks — with general managers meeting in Chicago on Tuesday to discuss them presumably for one last time.
The three worst teams, starting next season, would have a 5.4% chance of winning — with the next seven teams all having an 8.1% chance of winning. The lottery would grow from 14 to 16 teams if the plan, as expected, is approved.
The reality star announced the news during her final performance of “Chicago” on Sunday. Leavitt has played tap-dancing murderess Roxie Hart in the Broadway revival since February. TMZ published a video of the moment, in which a Broadway castmate shows Leavitt a newspaper mid-scene. Leavitt, in character as Hart, points to the headline and reads aloud: “Whitney Leavitt announces she’s leaving ‘The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives.’” The audience is heard hollering and cheering.
Leavitt followed the big reveal with an Instagram video Tuesday morning and assured fans that, although the forthcoming season will be her last, she would still appear in Season 5 of the Hulu series.
“It’s honestly so crazy to me looking back on this journey, because I had been trying to get into theater, film, way before ‘Secret Lives’ even came into my life,” she said. “The reality show just fell into my lap organically and I said yes to it. It’s definitely not the path that I had envisioned in my mind to get to where I am today, but I wouldn’t change a thing. I have experienced so much with this group of women, and through that process, I have also learned so much about myself.”
Leavitt continued, saying that the “Mormon Wives” had been through so much together, including more extreme highs and lows than audiences have seen. “No matter what happens with our relationships, that is something that will always be a part of our life, that will always be a part of my life, and I wouldn’t change a thing.”
“The times I’ve walked away from ‘MomTok,’ it came from a place of anger and frustration,” she continued. “But this time, it’s significantly different, because I’m leaving with gratitude. I feel content. I feel like this is a chapter that’s closing in my life, and honestly, I believe that’s how it was always meant to be. I’m so grateful for ‘The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives.’ It’s gotten me where I am today. It’s given me the opportunities that you all have seen. But I’m ready. I’m ready for the next chapter. And I cannot wait to share with you guys what’s next.”
Much like her “Chicago” character, Leavitt’s place in the spotlight has come with less-than-favorable tabloid fodder. She told “Oprah Daily” that, although she doesn’t fully agree that she’s a series “villain,” she’s embraced her on-screen persona. She’s been candid about being a “very ambitious woman” and using “Secret Lives” as a launchpad for a career in Hollywood — and this isn’t the first time she’s departed the show.
“I had walked away from the show,” she told Gayle King about her brief hiatus after Season 2. “I wasn’t enjoying it anymore. I left the show, and then they were almost midway through the season, and I got a call from the producers, and they said, ‘If you come back, we know that you really want this opportunity to go on “Dancing With the Stars,” but the only way that you would get this opportunity is to come back and film.’”
Last year, Leavitt partnered up with pro dancer Mark Ballas and competed on Season 34 of “Dancing With the Stars.” She was eliminated in the semifinals, finishing in sixth place, but her “Cell Block Tango” performance impressed casting directors of the long-running Broadway production. One thing led to another, and the reality star was headed to Broadway.
Although Salt Lake City may not be known for the excitement synonymous with the Big Apple, Leavitt has plenty of drama to keep her busy back in production on “Mormon Wives.”
The show hit pause in March amid a series of domestic violence investigations involving stars Taylor Frankie Paul and her on-again, off-again partner Dakota Mortensen. The Salt Lake County district attorney’s office announced in mid-April that it would not be filing charges against Paul, and shortly after, the Hulu series said it would resume filming Season 5.
In the comments section of Leavitt’s Instagram video announcing her departure, Paul wrote, “You will be missed. Chase those dreams my girl. I’m excited to see your next chapter.”
LOUISVILLE, Ky. — It’s Kentucky Derby Day, also known as the day everyone waits around for eight hours to watch a two-minute horse race.
But that’s part of what makes the Derby what it is … not just a race, but an event. And maybe 8 a.m. PDT is a little early to begin your neighborhood party, but we’re not judging. Besides, if you’re reading this in the Eastern Time Zone, 11 a.m. is prime brunch time.
What you really want to know, though, is what time the horses actually will break from the gate at Churchill Downs. For the seventh straight year, the official post time is 6:57 p.m. EDT, though a timeline released Friday at the track said the horses would load into the gate at 7:01, with a start at 7:02.
To spare you the math, that’s 3:57 p.m. in Los Angeles and the rest of the Pacific Time Zone, with the race starting just after 4. (In the last six years, the race has gone off sometime between 3:59 and 4:05.)
But you don’t want to just tune into NBC at the top of the hour. There’s the walkover of the horses from the stable area to the paddock beginning at about 3:15 PDT, the call for “Riders Up” (from retired jockey Pat Day) at 3:44, the “Call to the Post” at 3:45 and the University of Louisville choir singing “My Old Kentucky Home” right after that.
If you’re interested in any of the 11 races at Churchill Downs before the Derby, and there are some good ones, they begin at 8 a.m. PDT. The first two races are available on FanDuel TV (yes, it’s still in business) before Peacock and NBCSN take over at 9 a.m. That’s where the next four races, including two graded stakes, will be televised.
Then, once NBC’s coverage of the Premier League soccer game between Arsenal and Fulham ends at 11:30, the network will show the rest of the card, which features five stakes races leading up to the Derby.
The Derby does not end NBC’s sports day, however. After the trophy presentation, the network hopes much of its audience sticks around for Game 7 of the NBA Eastern Conference playoff series between the Philadelphia 76ers and Boston Celtics. Tipoff is scheduled for shortly after 4:30 p.m. PDT.
Zayn Malik, the former One Direction star turned solo artist, canceled all U.S. dates for his upcoming tour. The hitmaker was recently hospitalized for an undisclosed illness.
“To my fans: Thank you so much for all the support and love you’ve shown me on the album release and more importantly your love, prayers, and well wishes for my health,” Malik wrote Friday in an Instagram story. “I’ve felt it, and it’s meant the world. I’ve been at home recovering and I’m doing well and will be better and stronger than before.
“I’ve had to take another look at my schedule for the months ahead and have to reduce the number of shows on the KONNAKOL Tour,” he continued. “I want to make sure I still get out and see as many of you as I possibly can. I’m really looking forward to playing these shows for you, and I hope to see the rest of you around the world very soon. Big Love, Z”
While the “Side Effects” singer still has forthcoming shows in the United Kingdom and Mexico later this month, he nixed the U.S. leg of the tour, which was slated to kick off this July in Philadelphia. Other major stops included Pittsburgh, Milwaukee, Chicago, Indianapolis, Nashville, Phoenix, San Diego, Inglewood, Anaheim, San Francisco and Seattle, with the tour concluding in Miami on Nov. 20.
The announcement comes weeks after Malik, 33, revealed he was hospitalized. The singer didn’t disclose what condition he was suffering from, but on April 17 — the day his latest album “Konnakol” dropped — he shared a since-expired Instagram story that included selfies of the singer in a hospital bed hooked up to an IV.
“To my fans – Thank you to all of you for your love & support now & always – been a long week and am still unexpectedly recovering,” he wrote alongside the photo. “Heartbroken that I can’t see you all this week, I wouldn’t be in the place I am today without you guys and am so thankful for your understanding.”
The “Prayers” singer also thanked “all the incredible hospital staff of [doctors], nurses, cardiologist, management, admin and everyone who had helped along the way and continue to”.
Earlier this year, Malik performed his first ever seven-night residency in Las Vegas at Dolby Live at Park MGM.
April 25 (UPI) — Two police officers were wounded in a shooting Saturday at a Chicago hospital, leaving one of them in critical condition, officials said.
The two officers were shot at Endeavor Health Swedish Hospital on the north side of Chicago at around 11 a.m., the hospital’s parent company said on Facebook. Endeavor said the shooter was brought to the Emergency Department for treatment around 9 a.m. CDT Saturday in the custody of the officers. He was wanded and escorted by the officers at all times, Endeavor said. At around 11 a.m. he shot the officers and left the building. He was caught and is in police custody.
Law enforcement sources told the Chicago Sun Times that the shooter disarmed one of the officers before opening fire.
No patients or hospital staff were injured.
“The safety of our patients and team members remains our top priority,” Endeavor said. “We are cooperating with law enforcement during their investigation and our deepest compassion remains with the officers and their families.”
Billy Donovan has resigned as head coach of the Chicago Bulls, ending his six-season tenure, after missing out on the play-offs.
The Bulls wanted to retain Donovan’s services despite parting company with vice president of basketball operations Arturas Karnisovas and general manager Marc Eversley on 6 April.
Donovan, 66, held an option in his contract for next season but has decided to step down to allow a new coach to rebuild.
“After a series of thoughtful and extensive discussions with ownership regarding the future of the organisation, I have decided to step away as the head coach of the Chicago Bulls, to allow the search process to unfold,” Donovan said.
“I believe it is in the best interest of the Bulls, to allow the new leader to build out the staff as they see fit.”
