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SOUTH HAVEN, Mich. — U.S. Rep. Haley Stevens is spending the closing weeks of Michigan’s Democratic Senate primary making a simple case: she’s the candidate who wins.
Stevens flipped a Republican-held House seat in suburban Detroit in 2018 and hasn’t lost since, including surviving a bruising primary against a fellow Democratic incumbent after redistricting in 2022. She says it’s what sets her apart from her opponent in the Aug. 4 primary, progressive Abdul El-Sayed.
“It is not a hypothetical that I beat Republicans,” Stevens told The Associated Press after a campaign stop in West Michigan this week. “I win tough races. I have had Republicans throw everything at me and still managed to win.”
Holding Michigan’s Senate seat is essential to any Democratic path back to the Senate majority this fall. That imperative only grew this week after Democrats’ nominee in Maine, Graham Platner, said he planned to drop out after he was accused of sexual assault, threatening another seat the party had hoped to keep competitive. While no Republican has won a U.S. Senate seat in Michigan since 1994, former U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers came within 20,000 votes of doing so in 2024.
That calculation has led Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer and influential Michigan Democrats, including former Sen. Debbie Stabenow, to rally behind Stevens, arguing she gives Democrats their strongest chance in November against Rogers, who is running again.
But if electability is the party establishment’s top priority, it’s an open question whether Democratic primary voters agree.
“Democratic leadership should think more in terms of what we want to accomplish, and less about, ‘We’ve got to make it appeal to everybody,’” said Dave Burdick, 71, of Douglas, Michigan. He’s backing El-Sayed, who has surged by arguing that Democrats don’t have to run to the middle to win.
El-Sayed has built his campaign around bold policy proposals, rejecting corporate PAC money and casting himself as an alternative to the status quo of the Democratic Party.
“People don’t want a moderate. They want somebody who’s going to come in and effect change,” Burdick added.
On a summer afternoon in South Haven, a community along Lake Michigan, Stevens walks into a pet supply store with the ease of a seasoned campaigner. Within minutes, she’s chatting with the owner about the area, greeting reporters by first name and striking up conversations with customers. She slips easily between small talk and campaign mode, asking about customers’ lives before mentioning legislation she’s championed and asking for their vote.
“I thought she was great fun,” said owner Roxanne Leder. “She was energetic and had a positive outlook.”
It’s the kind of campaigning Stevens’ allies say has defined her political career. They acknowledge she lacks the viral progressive moments that have fueled El-Sayed’s rise, but say she’s at her best in small rooms, union halls and local businesses — which they say is where elections are won.
Stevens has leaned into that contrast herself.
“Unlike my opponent, I’m not running at the first mic or camera I see,” Stevens said during a debate Tuesday. “We do not need a celebrity senator. We need a workhorse.”
It’s also a style familiar to Michigan Democrats. From former Gov. Jennifer Granholm to current-Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, successful statewide candidates have often paired an upbeat, personable campaign style with a pragmatic message centered on economic issues.
But unlike Granholm or Whitmer, Stevens has yet to generate the kind of broad grassroots enthusiasm that defined their statewide campaigns. El-Sayed, meanwhile, has packed rallies with progressive supporters and high-profile endorsers.
Stevens has leaned more heavily on tens of millions of dollars in outside spending, which could become one of Stevens’ biggest liabilities in the primary. Outside groups have spent more than $30 million to boost her candidacy, dwarfing the spending behind El-Sayed. The largest spender, United Democracy Project, the super PAC affiliated with the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, or AIPAC, has spent more than $13 million on Stevens’ behalf and reserved another $7 million before the primary.
For Burdick, the 71-year-old El-Sayed supporter, that spending is disqualifying. He said he would not vote for Stevens in the general election because of her support from AIPAC.
Leder, by contrast, said she expects to vote for Stevens in August because she’s far more familiar with the congresswoman than with El-Sayed. She said she still plans to do more research before making a final decision.
“I’m just a Democrat,” said Leder. “Please, please no Mike Rogers.”
El-Sayed is running on Medicare for All, campaign finance reform, abolishing the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency and ending all U.S. weapons sales to Israel. He’s also a Muslim who has never held elected office.
To many Democratic leaders in Washington, that makes him a risky nominee in a battleground state often viewed as moderate and centered on manufacturing.
But Michigan has repeatedly rewarded candidates who cast themselves as outsiders challenging the political establishment. In 2016, Sen. Bernie Sanders defeated Hillary Clinton in the state’s Democratic presidential primary by running against party leaders. Donald Trump later built his own anti-establishment coalition, carrying Michigan in 2016 and again in 2024.
Burdick, a self-described “old white guy living in rural Michigan” who is a democratic socialist, said Trump and Sanders resonated with voters because they were upset.
“Well, you know what? They’re still mad,” he said. “They portray people like Abdul as unrealistic, but I think it’s unrealistic to think that we can continue the way that we’re heading.”
On Sunday, state Sen. Mallory McMorrow suspended her campaign. It prompted establishment Democrats to jump off the sidelines and back Stevens, including Democratic group EMILY’s List and Attorney General Dana Nessel.
“Haley is wicked smart, has won multiple highly competitive races, and she connects with people on a level so sincere and genuine that everyone who meets her feels truly seen and heard,” Nessel said in a statement.
El-Sayed has also built support among labor groups that have played an influential role in Democratic politics, including an endorsement from the United Auto Workers.
Fems for Dems, an influential Democratic grassroots group in the state, is not endorsing in the primary. But its founder, Lori Goldman, told AP in an interview that she planned to vote for El-Sayed.
“I personally am not going to have business as usual when I go to the ballot box. I want to vote for people, candidates that are going to go there and fight on our behalf,” she said.
Goldman, who founded the group 10 years ago in the politically important Oakland County, acknowledges the changing dynamics of Democratic primaries.
“Who would the natural choice be 10 years ago? Haley Stevens, right? Because we just followed the party line,” she said.
“People are breaking away from the party line. People want change.”
Cappelletti writes for the Associated Press.
StubHub is getting a red card from some World Cup fans
Two World Cup customers are suing the New York-based ticket-selling company, alleging “false and misleading” advertising that left them without tickets or a refund for the World Cup games they paid to attend.
In federal court in New York last week, two Californians — Julia Reeker Moghal and Reuben Renteria — sued StubHub seeking monetary damages and a ban on the company selling World Cup tickets. The lawsuit aims to become a class action and comes after weeks of fierce criticism and complaints from customers regarding the company’s practices.
Throughout the World Cup, videos have emerged on Instagram and TikTok of StubHub customers describing their nightmare experiences with the ticket-selling platform.
Some said they had purchased tickets to World Cup games as early as November of last year, booked flights and hotels and arranged travel plans, then StubHub notified them days to weeks before the match of a refund for their tickets, which they never requested.
There were similar complaints about last-minute cancellations from people who bought Coachella tickets on StubHub.
In the lawsuit, Moghal said she had purchased three tickets for nearly $2,000 for the June 18 match between Switzerland and Bosnia-Herzegovina at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, which were then canceled by StubHub. Moghal said she was contacted by StubHub and told her tickets would remain canceled, then was later told the tickets would be available one hour before the game.
When the match began, Moghal said she was at SoFi Stadium, but the tickets never came.
Renteria said he paid around $2,300 for the June 18 Mexico versus South Korea match in Guadalajara, Mexico, but they were canceled
“Devoted soccer fans have traveled from around the world to attend World Cup matches — and they reasonably relied on StubHub to provide the tickets they paid for as well as on StubHub’s warranty,” Blake Hunter Yagman, the attorney representing the two, said in a statement. “Instead of rewarding their business, StubHub sold them World Cup tickets that they either could not provide or on speculation, only to be stranded, in many cases, at the stadium gates without any recourse.”
According to StubHub’s website, its Fan Protect Guarantee states the platform will deliver valid tickets or refund in the event of a ticket issue, and that it will “go out of our way to find replacement tickets” of a comparable value. The lawsuit alleges the replacement tickets many fans were given by StubHub were worse than their original tickets.
FIFA, the World Cup organizer, states in its terms and conditions that the FIFA Marketplace, its own ticket-selling platform, is the only authorized platform for World Cup tickets, and that only tickets purchased through it are guaranteed by FIFA to be valid.
Despite the risk of purchasing through a third-party platform such as StubHub, many fans opted to do so to avoid the 30% FIFA resale tax, believing that the Fan Protect Guarantee would safeguard their order.
Since World Cup tickets began selling on FIFA Marketplace last September, fans have expressed disappointment in the expensive price tag. FIFA utilized a dynamic pricing system for the sale, and as sales phases progressed leading up to the games, the cost of tickets increased tremendously. In March, the extreme cost of tickets prompted 69 members of Congress to write a letter to FIFA urging them to lower their prices.
Tickets for the upcoming Friday match between Spain and Belgium in Los Angeles are selling on StubHub for over $1,300.
StubHub said in various statements to the news and in legal proceedings that ticket cancellations were a result of transfer problems and issues with FIFA’s ticketing infrastructure.
StubHub did not respond to requests for comment.
A FIFA spokesperson responded to this accusation in a statement, saying, “FIFA has no visibility over, or control of, secondary market ticket transactions carried out on third-party platforms. The transactions facilitated on these platforms occur entirely independently of FIFA’s official ticketing platform. With reference to the reliability of the services available to fans on FIFA’s official ticket platform, FIFA rejects any suggestion that the functional issues being experienced by users of third-party platforms with respect to FIFA World Cup 2026 tickets are the result of FIFA’s ticketing infrastructure.”
I’m Laurie Ochoa, general manager of L.A. Times Food, with a packed summer vacation edition of Tasting Notes.
The sourdough-enhanced interior of the cinnamon bun at Daegens in Oslo, Norway.
(Laurie Ochoa / Los Angeles Times)
Norway is not only the land of the Viking Row, one of the most captivating national fandom displays to emerge during this year’s World Cup — and certain to be seen when Erling Haaland and the Martin Ødegaard-led team battle five-time champs Brazil. Norway is also home to one of the world’s greatest cinnamon rolls.
Until I went to Oslo recently, the best cinnamon roll I’d ever eaten was in Chicago — at the venerable Swedish-American diner Ann Sather, where a milky sugar glaze used to be drizzled onto the still-warm, pillowy pastry right at the table. (These days the rolls are glazed in the kitchen after they’re baked.)
Los Angeles, of course, also has show-stopping cinnamon rolls. This spring, Food senior editor Danielle Dorsey, with help from Stephanie Breijo, Jenn Harris and Angela Osorio, put together a guide to 11 of L.A.’s most intriguing cinnamon rolls, including the hip-hop-inspired over-the-top creations at All About the Cinnamon, the sweet-savory buns with honey and sesame seeds at Modu and the tallboy “cinnamon goo”-filled rolls topped with caramel-toffee sauce from SweetBoy. Harris also recommends the especially decadent cinnamon roll served during brunch at Baltaire in Brentwood, where the cake-size roll is wheeled out on a cart and “slathered with frosting at the table.”
In Oslo, however, I discovered a cinnamon bun that stripped away the excess and let the essence of the spiced dough reveal itself.
Daegens, a tiny cafe and bakery hidden away in Oslo’s pretty Lilleborg neighborhood, is run by Anta Stinnerbom, a young entrepreneur who spent several months sharpening his coffee knowledge and barista skills at the acclaimed roastery Tim Wendelboe and is now deep into his explorations of sourdough baking. It’s the sourdough, in fact, that gives the Daegens cinnamon bun its character.
Baker and barista Anta Stinnerbom at his Daegens cafe in Oslo.
(Laurie Ochoa / Los Angeles Times)
Even more than Stinnerbom’s cardamom bun — which some praise as the best in Oslo — the more elemental cinnamon notes, enhanced with lemon zest and juice, allow the sourdough’s multifaceted dimensions to come through. Not just tang, but the taste of time.
When you can’t decide between Anta Stinnerbom’s cardamom bun, front, or cinnamon bun at Daegens in Oslo … get both.
(Laurie Ochoa / Los Angeles Times)
Daegens’ BMO (bolle med ost), which the Oslo bakery makes with a good seeded sourdough roll topped with fresh butter and cheese.
(Laurie Ochoa / Los Angeles Times)
The discovery of a great sourdough cinnamon bun is just one of the reasons I love to travel.
Lately, I’ve been absorbed in the world of Norwegian writer Karl Ove Knausgaard, both for his most recent novel, “The School of Night,” which features a grand-scale narcissist captured in a Faustian downfall, and for “So Much Longing in So Little Space,” which documents the author’s search for the meaning of art through his encounters with the work of Edvard Munch. At Oslo’s boldly vertical, 13-story Munch museum and Bergen’s more contemplative Munch collection at the Kode museum’s Rasmus Meyer galleries, I was able to see for myself the wild stylistic leaps taken by the artist before and after “The Scream,” including the paintings he did for the women’s cafeteria at Oslo’s Freia chocolate factory.
But it was only after the first of many good meals in Oslo that I started to get a feel for the city. As I wrote in the introduction to our new collection of summer vacation dining guides, traveling with an eater’s mindset gives us a deeper understanding of places we’ve read about in cookbooks and novels or seen in movies and paintings. Wandering markets, eating at food stalls, sitting among locals and fellow travelers at the restaurants that embody a city or its surrounding countryside … these are the ways we absorb the rhythm of a place. Its flavors and ways of living are revealed to us over dinner or even a simple morning coffee accompanied by a beautifully baked cinnamon bun.
(Giacomo Bagnara / For The Times)
For those of us lucky enough to write about food for a living, each vacation is a chance to add one more spot on our individualized maps of the world’s great places to eat. And this year, we’re sharing our personal maps and notes on places we’ve loved during our wanderings with readers.
Restaurant critic Bill Addison explored Melbourne, whose “modern dining moment,” he says, “derives from the immigrant communities that have rooted in the city since its founding,” making it “innately familiar to Angelenos, and also something wholly distinct to experience.” Then he shared 25 Melbourne restaurants, coffee shops and bars that showed the ambition of its dining scene.
(Photo illustration by Los Angeles Times)
Addison, restaurant critic Jenn Harris, deputy food editor Betty Hallock and I shared a personal list of 33 Paris restaurants and bars we love. Reporter Stephanie Breijo and senior food editor Danielle Dorsey wrote about their 15 favorite London pubs, food halls and bake shops. Addison and Hallock detail 17 splendid Tokyo dining suggestions. I detail 9 reasons Michelin-ignored Lima is one of the world’s greatest restaurant cities and came back from Hong Kong with 10 great eating experiences. And food editor Daniel Hernandez filed three reports from Mexico: an updated guide to 17 new and old favorites in Mexico City, a to-do list for exploring often-overlooked Colima, Mexico’s smallest state, and a fascinating look at how palm wine from Colima is at the heart of “a flourishing culinary movement rooted in its 250 years of trade with the Philippines.”
Given that these suggestions are not meant to be definitive — they are our personal favorites — we know that there are many other worthy places to explore. We’d love to hear from you if you have your own personal picks. We’ve built a form for entering your favorites from around the world and will publish the results in the coming weeks.
And if you’re staying closer to home, check Danielle Dorsey and Stephanie Breijo’s guide to the 23 best new L.A. bars, Dorsey’s choices for the best new L.A. rooftops for drinking and eating and the entire food team’s picks for 50 essential L.A. dining experiences.
We’ve also introduced a new way to save your favorite recommendations and build your own custom guides. Times senior product manager Jeff Poirier explains the new feature, which includes maps and is as simple to use as hitting the “save” button on any individual entry.
Los Angeles Times cooking editor Cody Reiss
(Stephanie Breijo / Los Angeles Times )
We are thrilled to introduce our new cooking editor Cody Reiss, who learned most of what he knows about cooking professionally at Alice Waters’ Chez Panisse Cafe in Berkeley and did time behind the counter at Murray’s Cheese in New York. He also had a part in Eva Victor‘s “Sorry, Baby” and played himself in the very funny “narrative cooking short” “Breakfast for Liz.” Read more about Cody in his hello to readers, which describes the teaching approach he’s aiming for in the food videos he’ll be doing. And check out the videos he released this week on why you should throw away your salt shaker and how to cut a tomato. Finally, with Cody taking over our Cooking Newsletter — which is moving from Sundays to Fridays so that you can have more time to plan your weekend cooking — now is an excellent time to sign up for the free weekly dispatch if you’re not already a subscriber. This week, he provides two crucial lessons on salt and why you might be using it wrong.
Chilaquiles, molletes and salsas at Taquearte in Pico Rivera.
(Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times)
Restaurant critic Jenn Harris’ latest review is about Pico Rivera’s Taquearte, which happens to be one of my favorite places to get chilaquiles and a loaded Mexico City-style taco campechano, which made our 101 Best L.A. Tacos list. I first heard about Taquearte from my mom and her friend Pablo. (She went to high school in Pico Rivera and lives in nearby Whittier.) Harris bookmarked the place when Eater’s Bill Esparza wrote about the chilaquiles as L.A.’s best. Harris wholeheartedly agrees and loved how “the chips … were noticeably thin, delicate but sturdy enough to retain their crunch. They hovered in a magical state of limbo between wet and dry, crisp and wilted.”
More restaurants recommendations: 7 L.A. spots for bandeja paisa, Colombia’s classic lunch platter by Angela Osorio, 9 great places to try Midwest-style tavern pizza in L.A. by Kelly Dobkin and the best places to eat and drink in July, according to our Food writers.
Chef Joshua Gil, pictured January 17, 2024.
(Tharini Shanmugarajah)
Joshua Gil, who “helped recontextualize and reimagine Mexican food in L.A.,” as reporter Stephanie Breijo wrote, died last week after a four-year fight with cancer.
Gil, who is credited with helping the late Joe Miller‘s now-closed Joe’s Restaurant in Venice gain a Michelin star, and went on to co-found the much-missed Tacos Punta Cabras and Hamburguesas Punta Cabras, as well as the pop-up Supper Liberation Front, established the Alta California restaurants Mírame in Beverly Hills, which closed in 2023, and the still-running Mírate in Los Feliz, which Gil left after a legal dispute. He also established the rooftop raw bar Mother of Pearl, which is closed at the moment, and the teppanyaki restaurant Maison Kasai, both at the downtown L.A. dining collection Level 8.
In an extensive story about Gil opening the now-closed Three Flames in the midst of cancer treatment and his drive to continue mentoring chefs, such as Macheen‘s Jonathan Perez, he told Breijo, “I’m a very stubborn a—. I like telling people, ‘I’m Mexican. I don’t know how to give up.’”
Chef Katsuya Uechi in 2016 at the 10th anniversary celebration of the Brentwood location of Katsuya.
(Michael Kovac / Getty Images for Katsuya)
Late last week, we also got word that Katsuya Uechi, the sushi master whose name has become synonymous with the global Katsuya brand, has died at the age of 67.
“The Okinawa-born chef altered the DNA of the L.A. sushi scene with his innovative, genre-bending creations,” writes Melody Xu of the chef who first came to prominence for many L.A. diners at Sushi Katsu-ya in Studio City, which he opened in 1997. “Spicy tuna crispy rice, which he debuted in the early 2000s, has since become a modern staple in sushi restaurants across the U.S.”
Our L.A. Times restaurant experts share insights and off-the-cuff takes on where they’re eating right now.
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Amid the puestas of Olvera Street in downtown Los Angeles.
(Etienne Laurent/For The Times)
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Airlines have different rules(Image: Getty)
Budget airline easyJet has urged a customer to get in touch after she queried whether she needed to make an amendment to her booking. The prospective passenger had secured a holiday with the carrier but had concerns about a potential issue with her trip.
Taking to the easyJet holidays Facebook page, Jessica asked: “Booked holiday with my “first” and “last name” My “given name” on my passport includes my middle name.
“Do I need to amend my booking? I fly in 2 weeks and haven’t yet checked in if that makes a difference.”
She received a response from easyJet stating: “According to the International Air Transport Association (IATA), there’s no middle name rule as such, but their guidance is the recorded name on a reservation and ticket should match the name in your official travel document.” A follow-up reply from Anga then added: “Hi Jessica, thank you for reaching out.
“Please note that the name on your booking needs to match what is on your passport. To assist you with adding your middle name, kindly DM us with your booking reference, booker’s name and email address used on the booking.”
The UK government website advises travellers to ensure two key things are consistent when booking a trip, reports the Liverpool Echo. It states: “The name on your passport must match the one you use when you book your travel.”
However, it does not clarify whether a middle name featured in your passport must also be included when making a booking. Different airlines have their own policies, so it’s always advisable to check with them directly if you have any worries about anything on your travel documents.
Ryanair, for instance, addresses the question on its website, stating: “For security reasons, the first name and surname on your booking must match the names on your travel document(s). We do not require middle name or second/double-barrelled surnames for flights.”
Jet2 similarly states that middle names aren’t required, except in one particular scenario. On its website, it explains: “We don’t we don’t need your middle name(s) on your booking unless two people on the booking have identical first and last names. Please make sure all names are spelt exactly as they are on your passport.”
Tui has also confirmed it’s not essential. Responding to a query about the website not accepting a full name, it clarified: “Our website only allows for a maximum 15 characters in the name box.
“Just enter what you can and contact us so we can make a note of your full name on the system. Just so you know, we only need your title, first name and surname. You don’t have to include middle names.”