Couple

WASHINGTON — A Florida janitor and his wife identified themselves Monday as the source of a clandestine tape recording of House Speaker Newt Gingrich and his aides and said that they had turned it over to the ranking Democrat on the House Ethics Committee not knowing that it might be illegal.

John Martin, a school custodian in the small town of Fort White, Fla., and his wife, Alice, a teacher’s aide, insisted that they were not motivated by partisan politics when they hand-delivered the tape recording to Rep. Jim McDermott (D-Wash.).

Republicans deny that the speaker said or did anything improper by participating in the call. Moreover, they suggest that McDermott has tainted the ethics process and possibly violated federal law by providing the tape recording to the news media. McDermott has declined to discuss the accusations.

“This case is so open and shut that even Barney Fife could solve it,” said GOP Conference Chairman John A. Boehner (R-Ohio), who was vacationing in northern Florida when the call occurred and used his wife’s cellular phone to participate. The Martins’ police scanner apparently picked up the transmission from the Boehner phone.

Boehner criticized the Justice Department for not quickly launching an investigation of the circumstances surrounding the tape recording, as requested Friday by House Judiciary Committee Chairman Henry J. Hyde (R-Ill.).

McDermott declined to comment on the Martins’ account of events. He issued a brief statement late Monday noting that he had discussed the matter with Rep. Nancy L. Johnson (R-Conn.), who chairs the Ethics Committee.

“I have not made comments about the substance before the committee in the past,” McDermott said. “I have no comment now.”

*

“These are very serious allegations,” Johnson said. “I would need more information before commenting further.”

Rich Galen, spokesman for the National Republican Congressional Committee, asked: “How can the Democrats allow James McDermott to participate any further in this case knowing he is implicated in a potential felony?

“Secondly, what do the leaders of the Democrats in Congress intend to do with their colleague or is this the beginning of a cover-up?”

Appearing at a news conference with their lawyer in Gainesville, Fla., the Martins said that they were listening to a police scanner in their car during a Christmas shopping trip on Dec. 21 when the scanner picked up a telephone conference call between the speaker and other top Republicans.

The couple said they began taping the call, using a hand-held tape recorder that they had with them in the car, after hearing the Georgia Republican’s ethics case mentioned in the conversation and deducing that the participants were prominent congressional Republicans. Public disclosure of the conference call has sparked a political firestorm.

The conference call occurred on the same day that Gingrich admitted wrongdoing to the Ethics Committee and pledged not to organize a campaign to counter the effects of his admissions. Democrats say that the recording shows Gingrich was orchestrating the Republican response to the Ethics Committee’s initial findings.

Gingrich has admitted violating House rules in connection with a college course he once taught and is awaiting a decision on the punishment he will receive.

While the interception of cellular telephone calls is a violation of federal law, there was disagreement among attorneys on whether a case against the Martins or McDermott would stand up in court.

Former House Counsel Stanley Brand cited an exemption in the federal wiretap law for transmissions of “private land mobile communications, including police or fire or information readily accessible to the general public.”

“It seems like nobody in the chain of the transaction is without some serious defenses to any charge,” Brand said.

The Martins’ attorney, Larry Turner, acknowledged that the couple had unknowingly risked state and federal prosecution when they taped the conversation. Still, he said, the facts ought to discourage officials from pursuing charges against them.

“Once it’s understood that these folks are Mr. and Mrs. John Q. Citizen, who happened to discover something they thought was pertinent to the Ethics [Committee] and did what I think we want citizens to do. . . . my hope is that those who are responsible for making prosecuting decisions will decide [that] it shouldn’t be prosecuted,” Turner said. “If they determine to prosecute it, we’ll defend it.”

Although disclosure of the Dec. 21 conference call has raised questions about Gingrich’s compliance with the agreement he struck with the ethics panel, it appears to have created significant political problems for Democrats as well.

“I think you’re going to see Republicans jump on [the tape controversy] and say, ‘Look at what the Democrats are willing to stoop to in order to politicize the ethics process,’ ” said David M. McIntosh (R-Ind.). “I bet McDermott will hear from his own people: ‘What did you do? You just blew it for us.’ ”

Asked what should happen to McDermott if it were proved that he leaked the tape, McIntosh said: “I think he should certainly step down from the ethics panel and consider resigning his seat in Congress.”

McDermott sent the tape to the Ethics Committee Monday afternoon. The committee’s chief counsel, Theodore J. Van Der Meid, wrote McDermott that “the material you sent to the committee at 4:33 p.m. this afternoon was not accepted.

“By direction of the chair and after consultation with the chief of the criminal division of the Department of Justice, the contents of the envelope including the audio cassette tape and the cover letter were hand delivered to the Department of Justice early this evening,” Van Der Meid’s letter said.

The cover letter was from McDermott to the committee, Van Der Meid said. He did not release it.

The Martins said that, first, they delivered the tape in a sealed envelope to the Gainesville office of their local congresswoman, Rep. Karen L. Thurman (D-Fla.). Staff members there sent it by overnight mail to Thurman’s Washington office but the congresswoman returned it to the Martins unopened when the couple visited Washington several days later.

Thurman suggested that the Martins give the tape to the Ethics Committee, aides said. The Martins proposed to deliver the tape to the highest-ranking Democrat on the panel and Thurman aides said that they provided the name of McDermott.

The Martins are both active Democrats in northern Florida. John Martin served as treasurer of the Columbia County Democratic Party, while Alice Martin served as secretary. The couple recently attended a campaign event for freshman Rep. Allen Boyd Jr., who invited them to Washington for last week’s congressional swearing-in ceremony.

Speaking outside their lawyer’s office with their grown children nearby, the Martins downplayed any political motives and said that they are simply interested citizens who suddenly found themselves at the center of a political maelstrom.

“This fell into their laps,” said Robert Griscti, one of their attorneys. “They follow the news and knew it was significant. These are common, everyday, ordinary American people but they’re not stupid people. While they’re Democrats and somewhat politically active, they felt it was their responsibility as Americans to do what they did.”

*

John Martin, 50, said that he purchased a 200-channel police scanner from Radio Shack in the fall and had picked up some cellular telephone conversations before. Alice Martin, 48, said she began taping the conversation because she was excited about passing along a piece of history to her grandson, who is due to be born at the end of the month.

“I was so excited to think that I actually heard a real politician’s voice,” said Alice Martin, who appeared to be fighting back tears at one point during the news conference. “We were thrilled.”

After their recent trip to Washington, the couple gushed about the magnificence of the Capitol, how they had become lost while trying to find the Ethics Committee’s basement offices, and how they had relied on a Capitol Hill police officer to point out McDermott.

“We told [McDermott] we had something to turn over to the Ethics Committee,” Alice Martin said. “He took the envelope in his hand and said he would listen to it.”

BBC

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Chad Baker-Mazara scored scored a career-high 34 points and Jordan Marsh hit a contested three-pointer at the buzzer to lift USC to a 107-106 win over Troy on Thursday night.

Troy, coming off a 108-107 double-overtime win at San Diego State on Tuesday, led throughout the third overtime but threw the ball away into the front court after rebounding Baker-Mazara’s missed drive with about 10 seconds to go. Rodney Rice got the loose ball and fired it ahead to Marsh, who took a couple of dribbles and hit from almost straightaway.

Rice had 26 points and nine assists for USC (4-0) and Ezra Ausar 22 points, which was outrebounded 63-39, including 25-7 on the offensive end.

Cooper Campbell had a career-high 32 points, 10 in the third overtime, for Troy (4-3), including a pair of his career-high six three-pointers to start the final overtime, plus 12 rebounds and eight assists. Victor Valdes had 24 points, Theo Send scored 20 points and Thomas Dowd had 19 points and 12 rebounds.

Campbell forced overtime with a three-pointer from the right wing a couple steps behind the line with 7.8 seconds to play, tying the game 68-68. Rice’s turn-around jumper from the foul line bounced off the rim as time ran out.

It was the same in overtime, but Seng made a pair of layups with less than 20 seconds to go, tying the game at 78. A long heave wasn’t close for USC.

Troy got its first lead since late in the first half when Seng opened the second overtime with a basket. Baker-Mazara scored eight points and USC was up two when Dowd put up a contested shot in the lane to tie it at 89 with 22.1 seconds to go. Baker-Mazara failed to convert a drive as time ran out.

Both teams struggled on offense in the first half, which finished tied at 29. Neither team led by more than five and there were 15 lead changes.

Up next: USC plays Boise State on Monday in the Maui Invitational.

Two more former employees are taking legal action against Motown legend Smokey Robinson and his wife Frances Robinson, adding their allegations of sexual assault against the singer to a $50-million lawsuit filed earlier this year.

The women who sued the spouses in May for sexual assault and failure to pay overtime filed a motion last week in Los Angeles County Superior Court seeking to amend their initial complaint to include new claims from a fifth housekeeper and a man who detailed the couple’s cars. They both alleged separate incidents of Robinson grabbing their hands to touch his erect penis while they were working at his Chatsworth residence.

Robinson’s attorney Christopher Frost dismissed the latest round of allegations in a statement shared with multiple outlets but did not immediately respond to a Los Angeles Times request for comment Thursday. Frost said the two accusers — identified in court documents as Jane Doe 5 and John Doe 1 — are part of “the same group of people who have conspired together against the Robinsons and are laying out their claims for maximum adverse publicity.”

Frost, who previously dismissed the original May complaint as an “ugly method of trying to extract money from an 85-year-old American icon,” remained firm in those views. “This group of people, who hide behind anonymity, and their attorneys seek global publicity while making the ugliest of false allegations,” Frost told TMZ.

The plaintiffs’ motion outlined the proposed changes for the amended complaint, describing the alleged sexual assault that Jane Doe 5 and John Doe 1 faced during their tenure. Jane Doe 5 is described as a housekeeper who worked for the Robinsons in 2005 until 2011. She took a leave of absence because of a work-related injury but returned around 2007.

According to the motion, Jane Doe 5 says the singer (real name William Robinson Jr.) often called her from the second-floor bathroom and asked him to scrub his back. The Grammy-winning artist would allegedly turn to face her with an erect penis while he was showering before turning again for her to scrub his back. She alleges that on more than 10 occasions, he grabbed her hand in an attempt to force her to touch his erection. She “would strongly resist by forcibly pushing his hands away, and would escape from the bathroom,” the motion said.

Allegedly, Robinson often walked around the house naked and would rub his elbow against Jane Doe 5’s chest. This prompted her to get a breast reduction in 2015, years after she stopped working for the celebrity spouses. She claims the singer propositioned her for sex numerous times, including after declining to rehire her when he suggested she “accompany him to a nearby hotel.”

Jane Doe 5 also seeks legal action against Frances Robinson, whom she accuses of perpetuating “a hostile work environment.” She alleges Frances blamed her for getting injured while cleaning the home’s chimney and told her to keep working despite it. Jane Doe 5 accused Frances of failing to take “appropriate corrective action” to prevent her husband’s alleged sexual misconduct and echoes previous claims that Frances screamed at employees and “used ethnically pejorative words and language.”

She also repeats previous allegations that the spouses, who married in 2022, failed to pay minimum wage or overtime, echoing claims mentioned in the original lawsuit.

The motion described John Doe 1 as a more recent employee, who was hired in 2013 to detail the couple’s cars and other related services. He was subject to Smokey Robinson’s “sexually harassing conduct” shortly after he began working for the couple, the motion alleged. John Doe 1 said the singer would often appear at his workplace outside the home wearing only underwear and “would then touch and fondle his erect penis” in “plain view.” The artist allegedly made suggestive gestures and remarks, including beckoning John Doe 1 to join him in an “interior room” by his workspace.

Though John Doe 1 rejected the singer’s repeated advances and urged him to “put some clothes on,” in 2022 the musician grabbed his accuser’s hand and attempted to put it on his erection, the motion said. John Doe 1 “immediately withdrew, turned away and left.”

He claims the Robinsons ended his services shortly after the incident, but about a year later, they requested that he return. Smokey Robinson allegedly continued appearing “partially clothed, touching himself” and making sexually suggestive remarks, the motion said. John Doe 1 “experienced humiliation, emotional distress and ongoing fear for his safety and dignity.” He ultimately stopped working for the singer and his wife after learning of similar allegations from former employees.

John Doe 1 is not seeking action on wage-related counts but rather for claims including sexual battery, assault, gender violence, and negligent infliction of emotional distress.

A hearing for the motion is set for Jan. 6, and a trial for October 2027.

Sasha Jones and Rhian Ewer, both 33, flew from Manchester Airport to Copenhagen for a Christmas market day trip that they said worked out cheaper than staying in the UK

A couple jetted off to Copenhagen for a 14-hour Christmas market visit, claiming it was cheaper than attending one in the UK.

Sasha Jones and Rhian Ewer, both 33, embarked on their festive adventure from Manchester Airport with a return fare of just £58.

The pair boarded a 6.50am Ryanair flight and touched down in the Danish capital around 9.30am local time. Upon arrival, they made a beeline for Tivoli Gardens, one of Europe’s most renowned Christmas attractions.

They spent the entire day immersed in the festive spirit, perusing stalls and enjoying rides. “Christmas is our favourite time of year,” Sasha, from Warrington, Cheshire, shared with Luxury Travel Daily. “We love adventures, and Christmas always feels really magical, and the draw for us was the combination of markets and rides”.

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“The markets were great, with lots of local sellers and homemade crafts and trinkets, although the markets within the gardens didn’t have many food and drink stalls. We had a fantastic day, the mix of markets and rides kept us entertained and busy. We even got to meet Santa Claus, who remembered us from our trip to Lapland earlier this year.

“It was such a fun experience, it was great to see how the markets differ from the ones back home and to see a variety of stalls. It was perfect, once the sun set, it took the place to a whole new level. The city had such a wholesome feel, and we were sad to leave. We spoke about putting our tree up the day after we got back, and were really in the spirit and were ready to start the festivities.”

They forked out just £52.40 on a return taxi to Manchester airport and utilised Copenhagen’s metro to reach the city centre for only £3.50 each way.

READ MORE: 10 overlooked European Christmas markets with stunning views and cheap drinks

Due to Rhian’s disability access, Sasha was able to gain entry as a carer, meaning their full access ticket with rides cost just £45 in total.

The duo kept expenses low by bringing their own breakfast bagels from home. Lunch came to £7 for chicken strips, and they dined at a burger bar, spending around £40 for two burgers, chips and drinks.

They boarded a 9.50pm Easyjet flight home and touched down in Manchester at 11pm. The entire trip cost the pair £113 each, and they reckon a journey to London’s Christmas markets would have set them back twice as much. Pub general manager, Sasha, added: “It’s cheaper than travelling to London for the markets.

“It usually costs at least £80 for a return from Warrington to London. And we explored markets in a completely different country, but were in our own beds at the end of the day. It was an amazing day.”

Are you someone who loves extreme day trips and have a travel story you want to share? Email [email protected]

A GROOM en route to his £2,000 honeymoon has claimed he was banned from boarding an international flight because of a faint “stamp smudge” on his passport.

South Yorkshire newlyweds Josh, 31, and Eden Reekie’s plan to fly to Thailand in October was foiled when Etihad Airways staff flagged an issue with the pair’s travel documents.

The couple had booked a TUI holiday package to Phuket, forking out £2,400 to celebrate a second honeymoon after tying the knot in 2024.

Staff at the Etihad check-in desk at Manchester Airport “immediately” flagged an issue with both passports, making the couple wait.

After an anxiety-riddled 30 minutes, Eden’s passport was cleared, but Josh was told he would be unable to fly due to his passport being “water damaged”.

Josh said: “The duty manager started checking [the passports] and taking photos of them”.

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“No one told us anything about what was happening, she just turned around and said ‘I’m really sorry but you can’t fly’,” he said.

Ironically, the faint smudge on a 2019 Thai travel stamp left him unable to board the flight.

The revelation shocked the industrial electrician from Barnsley, who said he had used his passport for international travel 12 times this year without issue.

“I hadn’t long flown with that passport so I didn’t think there was anything wrong with it,” he said.

“I travelled 12 times in 11 months with that passport and had no issues.

“Fair enough there’s a smudged stamp, but who’s to say that didn’t happen when they stamped it and closed the passport.”

In a bid to get on their holiday, Josh and Eden scrambled to apply for a new passport; however, holiday provider TUI cancelled their return flight and accommodation.

“We were really looking forward to it,” Josh said.

“We went and stood outside and just didn’t know what to do.

“It’s a very surreal feeling walking into an airport then walking out of the departure lounge.”

With Josh able to get a new passport within two days, the dismayed couple coughed up more cash for a last-minute trip to Cyprus.

They have since demanded compensation from Etihad and TUI.

“I felt really disappointed because there was no empathy or remorse from Etihad Airways,” Josh said.

“I know they probably see it daily but people save up all year to go on holiday.

“We were stressed because of all the money we’d spent.”

Josh said he “couldn’t understand” how one airline staff member had total authority.

“For someone on the check-in desk to just say ‘you’re not going’,” he said.

“How [can] someone have that authority to refuse you and not be able to get a second opinion.

“If it was the picture page, I could understand it, but the fact it was the stamp page just annoyed me.”

Josh said they’d been left “gutted” and described the event as “soul destroying”.

“I just hope it doesn’t happen to anyone else,” he said.

“We’d like our money back. We’ve had no help from TUI or Etihad.”

In response, an Etihad spokesperson said Thailand‘s immigration authorities had advised airline staff “not to board the passenger based on the passport’s condition”.

“A passenger flying from Manchester to Phuket on October 7 was denied boarding due to visible water damage in their passport at the time of check-in,” the spokesperson said.

“Check-in staff therefore did not allow the passenger to board in compliance with regulatory guidance and destination entry requirements based on the condition of the passport at the time of travel.”

The spokesperson said “British passports must be machine-readable and fully intact, with no torn pages, water damage, delamination or illegible details, to comply with Thailand’s immigration policy”.

TUI has been contacted for comment.

Another newlywed recently suffered a honeymoon nightmare when her face collapsed after her trip was cancelled at the last minute.

Gail Morgan, 50, suffered a Bell’s Palsy attack, paralysing the muscles down one side of her face after the £6,000 cruise was postponed just prior to boarding – and then axed completely.

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Gail and new husband Pepe Davies, 53, from Wales, had flown out to Miami following their glam wedding only to be told the liner had suffered a “technical issue”.

Gail said “Celebrity Cruises didn’t even inform” the couple of the cancellation, however they were later issued a credit voucher, totalling £2,619.

Married at First Sight UK couple Leisha and Reiss have confirmed they are no longer together after the groom decided to end their marriage following the final vows

A Married at First Sight UK couple have called it quits after their final vows.

The E4 reality show, which has become one of the most talked-about dating experiments on telly, has kept viewers hooked for ten weeks.

One couple who’ve had a rollercoaster journey throughout the series are Leisha and Reiss.

The bride even found herself in hot water with co-stars Leah and Leigh after she shared a smooch with the latter during a day out with the cast.

Despite their turbulent time on the TV show, the couple made it to the final vows where they had to decide whether to stay together or part ways.

During their final vows, the couple voiced their worries about whether their relationship was robust enough to last, reports OK!.

To add to the drama, Leisha had already confessed her love for Reiss, but he was moving at a slower pace and chose not to reciprocate.

No one expected Reiss to commit to Leisha at the final ceremony, but he shocked everyone by agreeing that their marriage was far from over.

After a moment of uncertainty, they both confirmed that they wanted to continue their marriage beyond the experiment.

However, it seems the couple couldn’t make things work in the real world. During the first part of the eagerly awaited reunion on Thursday (November 13) night, Leisha broke down as she confessed she still loves Reiss.

Just before reuniting with her fellow castmates, Leisha confessed: “When we left the experiment, I was worried that I was more into the marriage than he was but we both worked hard to make it work.”

Reiss explained to the camera: “Since leaving the experiment, Leisha came down to see me and then I went up to Scotland.

“We had some cracking times and she is a beautiful girl inside and out but sadly we couldn’t make things work. I’ve not seen Leisha since it ended.”

An emotional Leisha couldn’t hold back her tears as she admitted: “I am devastated that my married with Reiss hasn’t worked out because I still love Reiss and I think about him everyday.”

She added: “So right now I’m feeling really sad because I really wanted it to work and I put my heart and soul into it and it just wasn’t reciprocated.”

Married at First Sight UK is available to stream on Channel 4

Leah Williams and Joshua Scully were lured to Mykonos, a Greek island popular with tourists, by watching videos posted on social media apps, such as TikTok and Instagram

A British couple who booked a holiday after watching videos on TikTok and Instagram left Mykonos early — because there was “nothing to do”.

Leah Williams and Joshua Scully claim restaurants and bars at Platis Gialos on the Greek island took their bookings only to close for the season before they got there last month. The couple, who have children, have now warned tourists “not to believe everything you see on social media” following their miserable experience.

They say clips and photographs on TikTok and Instagram — often posted by businesses on Mykonos — were actually taken in the summer, but they believed they portrayed a warm and bustling environment in the autumn. Leah, 27, said in fact beaches were empty amid the cloudy and windy weather, while all the shopfronts appeared to have their shutters down. She and her partner eventually ditched Mykonos for Cyprus, spending more than £700 on new flights and accommodation.

And the gloom nearly derailed Josh’s plans to propose to Leah during a sunset boat tour. This was cancelled so Joshua, 30, popped the question on a boat he hired in Paphos, Cyprus, instead.

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But on the island of Mykonos, Leah and Josh found they could only have food and drinks during the hotel meal times. They felt there was “nothing to do” — hindered by the unfortunate weather — and so rarely left their first hotel room.

Leah, who lives in Chesterfield, Derbyshire, with Joshua, said: “We’ve got children so it’s rare we get a chance to go away. We were given a few dates we could go in October.

“I knew it was off-season and everyone was saying it was shutting at the end of October so we decided to book it. There were lots of little bars and restaurants and we booked them, we had confirmation from all of the places.

“The week before travelling a lot of them sent us emails to cancel our bookings because they decided to shut for the season. I knew the weather wouldn’t be boiling hot, but there was nothing open around our hotel, there was nowhere we could get a drink from or get snacks, we could only eat at the times the hotel restaurant was open.

“If we wanted a drink outside of those times, we just couldn’t get one because there was nowhere. We walked for about half an hour and walked to all the shops around us and they were all shut.”

Leah, who is an aesthetic practitioner, has now warned holidaymakers to not believe everything on social media, as the couple had done their research and were still disappointed.

“Don’t believe everything you see on social media; I had looked at things on TikTok and Instagram and places in Mykonos were posting on their Instagram stories photos of sunny days and sunsets… We were booked for five nights and we ended up staying two. The day after we got there, we looked at flights to Cyprus because we knew the weather was better there,” the mum continued.

“There was nothing to do but sit in the room. The weather was a big part of it. I’d looked at a spa and things like that to give us something to do and nothing was open.

“It was raining all day. There was only one place that didn’t cancel on us but that was after we left. This one place posted a really nice sunset and we were there and it was dark and miserable.

“They are probably posting pictures from summer and make you think that’s what you’re going to get. We didn’t want to waste it just being sat in a room all week. The weather in Cyprus was really nice, everywhere was open.”

A man has slammed an ‘entitled’ couple for stealing his sun loungers at a holiday resort in the Caribbean, but while some people agree with his stance, others say he is part of the problem

A man has sparked a debate after sharing how he took revenge on an ‘entitled’ couple for stealing his sun loungers at a holiday resort. He explained how he and his wife were enjoying a well-earned vacation in the Caribbean after saving up for a week of relaxation.

He explained: “It wasn’t very crowded. We picked out a couple of nice loungers and spent most of the week there with no issues. Another couple showed up a few days before we were scheduled to leave. My wife caught them looking at us a few times over a couple of days.”

On their last morning at the resort, they noticed the couple’s belongings spread across their loungers.

While they wouldn’t have had an issue with this if the couple were sitting on them taking in the sun, the man explained how the couple “didn’t show up until noon”.

He said: “Later, after they arrived and we saw who it was, my wife said they stole our spot on purpose.

“Confirmed when my wife was in the water and saw then walk by me in our new, less awesome spot. They looked at me and started laughing.”

Before leaving the resort to fly home the next day, the man came up with a plan to teach them a lesson they’d never forget.

“We were leaving the next day,” he added. “We went down very early, spread fresh towels on the loungers, put fresh folded towels down, and left our leftover suntan lotion and our inflatable floats on the loungers.

“Hope they spent all day waiting to see who stole their spot.”

While some users praised him for his revenge, others say he’s “just as bad” because he tried to claim the same beds all week long.

Commenting on his post, one user said: “I don’t get it… you thought the loungers belonged to you for the whole week?”

Another user added: “Every resort and cruise ship needs to adopt the policy of not saving seats. If you get up to go jump in the pool for a bit and leave your belongings there, fine.

“But leaving a towel on a chair all day is silly, and I have seen some places that have signage saying that towels left on chairs like that will be taken by staff.”

A third user said: “People who think they own a spot at a hotel are the worst.”

One more user added: “They were the hotels loungers – for the hotels guests. First come, first served.

“If you want your personal loungers then pack them into your cases and take them with you.

“Then you intentionally left a bunch of junk and littered the place up. And now you’re bragging about it.”

Kieran Culkin and wife Jazz Charton made good on their Emmys pact, recently welcoming their third child, according to the former’s “Succession” co-star.

Oscar and Emmy winner Culkin’s on-screen sister Sarah Snook, also an Emmy-winning actor, announced the arrival of the couple’s newest child while speaking to Access Hollywood on Monday. “I met the little baby, it’s so cute,” she said during the premiere of Peacock’s “All Her Fault.”

“They’re very happy and so cute,” she added.

A representative for Culkin did not immediately respond to a request for confirmation. Charton, a contributor for the Financial Times, has not yet publicly addressed the arrival of their littlest one.

“A Real Pain” star Culkin, younger brother of “Home Alone” star Macaulay Culkin, tied the knot with Charton in 2013. They share two children, Kinsey Sioux and Wilder Wolf, and lovingly teased a plan to grow their family during the 75th Emmy Awards in January 2024.

Culkin, 43, famously used part of his acceptance speech for the lead actor prize to remind Charton, 37, of the deal they had struck prior to the ceremony. As he acknowledged his wife and children, Culkin declared, “I want more.”

“You said ‘maybe,’ if I win! I love you so much,” he told Charton from stage.

Charton confirmed that baby No. 3 was on the way in late September, sharing a cheeky Instagram post that also tapped into her well-documented fan love for “Matrix” star Keanu Reeves. “Saw Keanu Reeves on broadway and now I’m 9 months pregnant,” she captioned her post, which featured photos of her baby bump, “This is very on brand for me.”

She revealed she was expecting amid the debut of Reeves and longtime “Bill & Ted” collaborator Alex Winter’s production of “Waiting for Godot.” She quipped in her caption that she had “made a deal with this baby to let me make it to this [show] before labor, not sure what it wants in return but I’m CLEARLY a woman of my word.”

Snook, the first to break the couple’s baby news, has remained close to her “Succession” co-star since the hit HBO drama concluded two years ago. Culkin and Snook respectively starred as Roman and Shiv Roy, two of numerous potential — ahem — successors to media mogul Logan Roy (Brian Cox). “Succession” aired from 2018 to 2023 and won a total of 19 Primetime Emmy Awards, including acting prizes for Culkin, Snook and co-stars Jeremy Strong and Matthew Macfadyen.

With the arrival of Culkin and Charton’s third child, it’s clear that the “Succession” legacy now extends past powerhouse performances, viral memes and memorable lines. Anyone got a ludicrously capacious baby bag?

MADISON, Wis. — Out in Wisconsin’s state capital, where the orange leaves are falling and every other person seems to wear the red and white of the University of Wisconsin Badgers, the pride and pain of rooting for the Dodgers in 2025 played out in the household of Carolina Sarmiento and Revel Sims.

They’re urban planning professors, Southern California natives — he’s from Eagle Rock, she’s from Santa Ana; they met at UCLA — and longtime friends of mine who have lived in Madison for a decade but are still involved in immigrant and anti-gentrification activism back home. I visited them recently as part of a speaking tour of Midwestern colleges and found myself in the middle of a debate that passed through the lives of too many people we know back home.

It’s one that’s unlikely to completely fade away no matter how many rings and parades the Boys in Blue rack up:

Is it OK to, well, revel, in this year’s World Series champs?

On one hand the Dodgers won back-to-back titles for their first time ever and became the first team to do so in a generation. The squad looked like Los Angeles at its best: people from across the world who set aside their egos to win and bring joy to millions of Angelenos in a most difficult year for the City of Angels.

L.A., a city long synonymous with winning — the weather, the teams, the people, the food — has suffered a terrible losing streak that started with the deadly and catastrophic Eaton and Palisades fires and continues with mass deportations that the Trump administration vows to escalate.

That’s where the rub came for Sarmiento and other Dodgers fans. For them, the actions and inactions of the team this year have been indefensible.

“For me, it started when the Dodgers went to the White House,” said the 45-year-old as we drove to their blue-and-white house. She especially took issue with shortstop Mookie Betts, who skipped a White House visit in 2019 when he was with the World Series-winning Boston Red Sox but shook Trump’s hand this time around, describing his previous snub as “very selfish.”

“Who got in his ear?” she exclaimed, bringing out dried mangoes for us to snack on as we waited for Sims to come home. “Since when has standing up for injustice been about you?”

Sarmiento didn’t grow up a Dodgers fan but bought into the team once she and Sims became a couple. They and their two young sons usually attended Dodgers games on trips back home and regularly caught the Dodgers in Milwaukee whenever they played the Brewers. One time, manager Dave Roberts “happily” signed a jersey for them when the family ran into him at a hotel, Sarmiento said.

In Madison, she long wore a Dodgers sweatshirt emblazoned with the Mexican flag that Sims bought for her because “it was a way to represent home. But not anymore. I tell Revel, ‘Babe, I’m not asking you to boycott the Dodgers forever, but they gotta give us something back.’”

Sure, the Dodgers blocked federal agents from entering the Dodger Stadium parking lot in June just after la migra raided a Home Depot facility. Shortly after, the team donated $1 million to the California Community Foundation to disburse to nonprofits assisting families affected by Trump’s deportation Leviathan.

But as the summer went along, Sarmiento grew frustrated that only Dodgers outfielder Kiké Hernández spoke out against immigration raids and Trump’s deployment of the Marines and National Guard. She also wondered why Dodgers chairman Mark Walter wouldn’t address charges that companies he has investments in do business with Trump’s deportation machine. One has a stake in a private prison company that contracts with the federal government to run immigrant detention centers; another has a joint venture with Palantir, which ICE has contracted to create data surveillance systems that would make the Eye of Sauron from “The Lord of the Rings” series seem as innocuous as a teddy bear.

“After a while, it’s like a woman who knows her partner is a cheater but keeps saying, ‘He’s not a cheater, he’s not a cheater’ and then gets upset when he cheats on her again. At that point, all you can say is, ‘Girl…‘”

I brought up how many Dodgers fans I know saw the team’s World Series win as a giant middle finger to Trump.

The heroes of Games 6 and 7, outfielders Kiké Hernández and second baseman Miguel Rojas, come respectively from Puerto Rico and Venezuela, a commonwealth Trump has neglected and a country he’s salivating to invade. The team’s most popular player, Shohei Ohtani, still proudly speaks in his native Japanese despite being in the U.S. for eight years and knowing some English. Tens of thousands of fans came out for the Dodgers victory parade and celebration at Dodger Stadium, many of them undoubtedly immigrants.

Isn’t it OK to let folks be happy?

“It’s like community benefit agreements,” Sarmiento responded, referring to a tactic by neighborhood groups that sees them win commitments from developers on issues like open space, union contracts and affordable housing with the threat of protests and lawsuits. “You know what’s coming, so you try to get something out of it. This year was a political moment that fans could’ve taken and they didn’t, so the Dodgers gave nothing.”

We greeted Sims as he walked in. The two of us walked down to the basement, where he watched the World Series in exile on a big-screen TV.

“It’s a little lonely being a Dodgers fan out here,” joked the 48-year-old, although he was heartened to have seen a fellow University of Wisconsin professor decked out in a Freddie Freeman jersey earlier in the day. Sims grew up going to Dodger Stadium with his father and remembered going to games on his own in the mid-2000s “when it wasn’t a pretty time.”

He brought up the Dodgers’ owner from that era: Frank McCourt, who raised ticket and concession prices seemingly every year and who still partially owns the parking lots surrounding Dodger Stadium. Fans responded to his disastrous regime by protesting before and during games. “It was disheartening to not see that in the stadium this year, when there was an even bigger problem going on.”

Sims felt “conflicted” rooting for the Dodgers this year. He watched every game he could but admitted he found the team celebrating ethnic pride nights “hollow” as raids increased across Los Angeles and the Trump administration attacked the rights of groups that the Dodgers were honoring.

“It would’ve been easy [for the Dodgers] to make a bland statement — ‘We’re a team full of immigrants in a city of immigrants and we’re proud of us all’ — and you wouldn’t have to go any further. They have a historical obligation to do that because of their history.”

But not rooting for the Dodgers was never an option.

Pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto stands onstage at the World Series celebration at Dodger Stadium on Monday.

(Carlin Stiehl / For The Times)

“I want to see L.A. people happy. The parade! It’s a free holiday. People just ditch work and don’t get in trouble for it. We’re the only city — not New York, not Boston, not San Francisco — with a chant against us. We’re despised and misunderstood. So if the Dodgers win, L.A. wins.”

Sarmiento joined us. “She’s my better political half,” Sims cracked. “Caro said to pick another sport.”

“No I didn’t!” she kindly replied. “I just said to take a pause, just for now. A political pause.”

Sims admitted that that a vintage jacket that he used to bring out every October as the Dodgers made another playoff run and Wisconsin turns cold was still in the closet. “I haven’t worn any gear all year.”

“When you went to the game!” Sarmiento shot back, referring to a visit to Milwaukee earlier this year with his local softball team.

“I went with a Valenzuela jersey to represent L.A.,” Sims responded as Sarmiento shook her head.

He laughed.

“I love the team. I just don’t like this team for not saying anything. But it’s what I signed up for.”

It isn’t crazy: Carly Rae Jepsen is expecting her first child with husband Cole M.G.N.

The Canadian singer-songwriter announced her pregnancy Monday in an Instagram post, sharing a few black-and-white photos of the couple and Jepsen’s baby bump that hint there may be some kicking going on.

“Oh hi baby,” Jepsen, 39, wrote in the caption along with a heart emoji. Her 40-year-old husband, whose full name is Cole Marsden Greif-Neill, is feeling so much love and excitement that he has been rendered speechless, if the multiple heart-eyes emojis are any indication.

According to the couple’s wedding spread in Vogue, Jepsen and the Grammy Award-winning producer tied the knot in October, and the couple had been trying to get pregnant while planning their New York wedding. The musicians first met as colleagues in 2021 and started dating in 2022 before getting getting engaged in September of last year.

In 2023, Jepsen told People that their first collaboration, the song “So Right” from her album “The Loveliest Time,” was in essence the couple’s “meet-cute.”

“This is our first little baby out in the world,” Jepsen told the outlet at the time. “I think you’ll see a lot more of our collaboration together for future projects.”

Known for her earworm 2012 hit “Call Me Maybe,” Jepsen most recently celebrated the 10th anniversary of the release of “Emotion” with a sold-out show at the Troubadour, where she performed the entirety of the 2015 album.

“‘Emotion’ was like an introduction to my authentic version of what pop music was,” Jepsen said of the LP in 2020. “I was itching to share something different, because I knew that ‘Call Me Maybe’ wasn’t the only color of what I had to offer.”