family

PROVIDENCE, R.I. — A federal judge has blocked the Trump administration’s sweeping demands for confidential transgender patient information from Rhode Island’s largest hospital that provides gender-affirming care to minors.

U.S. District Judge Mary McElroy’s Wednesday ruling is the latest setback for the U.S. Department of Justice, where at least seven other federal courts have agreed to quash or limit the expansive civil subpoenas sent to more than 20 doctors and hospitals last summer.

McElroy’s decision also echoed similar concerns raised by judges surrounding the expansive scope of the subpoenas, describing the Justice Department as having “immense prosecutorial authority and discretion” but no longer trustworthy it will enforce its power fairly and honestly.

“DOJ has proven unworthy of this trust at every point in this case,” McElroy wrote.

A Justice Department spokesperson said Thursday that it would appeal and continue with its investigations.

“The Rhode Island court’s attack on the professionalism and integrity of DOJ attorneys is outrageous and unjustified,” the department said.

According to the subpoenas, the Justice Department had demanded Rhode Island Hospital hand over the birth dates, Social Security numbers and addresses of every patient who received transgender care over the past five years. It also included instructions to provide all documents detailing adverse side effects in minor patients who received gender-related care, assessments that formed the basis for prescribing puberty blockers or hormone therapy, as well as patient intake forms and guardian authorization.

The Justice Department has repeatedly argued that the information sought in the subpoenas is needed to investigate possible fraud or unlawful off-label promotion of drugs. Most recently during a hearing in Rhode Island, the DOJ said that the investigation was taking place in the Northern District of Texas, where the court’s chief judge ordered Rhode Island Hospital to comply with the subpoena before McElroy’s decision voided the subpoena.

Assistant U.S. Atty. Brantley Mayers told McElroy during the hearing that the Justice Department is investigating potential “misbranding” of drugs approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, such as puberty blockers for young people. While off-label prescribing is legal, Mayers said that the DOJ is concerned that pharmaceutical companies are providing “financial incentives” to Rhode Island doctors to prescribe the drugs.

The subpoenas were crucial in getting the names of children and their families so the Justice Department could interview them.

McElroy rejected that argument.

“The administration has publicly characterized gender-affirming care for minors as abuse, directed the DOJ to bring its practice to an end, and celebrated when hospitals curtailed such programs as a result of this subpoena campaign,” McElroy wrote.

The Rhode Island decision is the latest development in the fight over transgender youth health records. Earlier this week, 11 families filed a class-action lawsuit seeking to block the Justice Department from obtaining the documents. The lawsuit, filed in Maryland’s federal court, is backed by families with transgender children who have received care from hospitals across the U.S.

And separately, a New York hospital announced that it received a grand jury subpoena from federal prosecutors in Texas seeking information about children who received gender-affirming care and the medical providers who administered it.

NYU Langone is the first hospital system to publicly acknowledge receiving a subpoena for such records as part of a federal criminal investigation. But the institution said in its statement Tuesday it was one of several that received a subpoena out of the Northern District of Texas on May 7. It said it was deciding on how to respond.

“The government cannot use its subpoena power to intimidate families out of seeking lawful medical care. To trans and gender-diverse children and their families, we want you to know that you are valued, you are not alone,” Kevin Love Hubbard, an attorney with the Lawyers’ Committee of Rhode Island, who represented the plaintiffs in the case, said in a statement.

Gender-affirming care includes a range of medical and mental health services to support a person’s gender identity, including when it’s different from the sex they were assigned at birth. It may include counseling, medications that block puberty, hormone therapy to produce physical changes or surgeries to transform chests and genitals, although those are rare for minors.

Most major medical groups say access to the treatment is important for those with gender dysphoria and see gender as existing along a spectrum.

At least 27 states have adopted laws restricting or banning the care for minors, while several others have adopted laws or policies protecting access to transgender healthcare.

Kruesi writes for the Associated Press.

Donald Gibb, the actor who played the hulking fraternity bro Ogre in “Revenge of the Nerds” and Ray “Tiny” Jackson in “Bloodsport,” has died. He was 71.

Gibb’s son Travis confirmed his father’s death to TMZ on Tuesday evening after he died earlier that day at home in Texas surrounded by family. Gibb, a former professional wrestler under the name “Don Gibb,” succumbed to “health complications,” according to his son.

A statement from the family, provided to People, described Gibb as a father, grandfather, great-grandfather, brother, uncle, friend and actor.

“Known for his larger-than-life presence on screen and his kindness off screen, he brought joy, laughter, and unforgettable memories to countless people throughout his life and career,” the statement said.

“Above all else, Donald treasured his faith and the people he loved,” it continued. “His strength, generosity, and spirit will never be forgotten by those who had the privilege of knowing him personally and by the many fans whose lives he touched over the years.”

“Bloodsport” star Jean-Claude Van Damme remembered Gibb in an Instagram story, posting a photo from 1986 and writing “Rest in peace, my brother.” He also reposted a reel showing himself and Gibb in the 1988 movie.

“Whether he was the lovable brute Ogre in Revenge of the Nerds or the fearless Ray Jackson in Bloodsport, Donald brought a heart as big as his frame to every role,” the caption on the reposted reel said. “Watching him alongside Jean-Claude Van Damme was the ultimate display of brotherhood on screen. In the clip, JCVD asks, ‘What took you so long?’ It’s a bitter-sweet reminder that while he’s gone too soon, his legacy in the martial arts and 80s cinema world is timeless. ‘Anytime, anyplace, anywhere.’”

A representative for Gibb didn’t respond immediately Wednesday to The Times’ request for comment.

Gibb had about 100 credits, including the sequels “Bloodsport” and the movie and TV sequels to “Nerds.”

Born Aug. 4, 1954, Gibb started his career in the early 1980s with uncredited roles in “Any Which Way You Can,” “Stripes” and “Conan the Barbarian.” His TV credits included episodes of “Cheers,” “MacGyver” and “The Young and the Restless.”

He acted into 2011, then tagged on one last credit, for the 2026 movie release “Hands.” According to IMDb, that filmed sometime in 2023 or 2024.

NIKITA Kuzmin shared a heartbreaking post to Instagram today announcing his grandad has died.

The emotional tribute received a lot of love from fans as well as other members of the Strictly cast.

In the first picture in the carousel of snaps, Nikita is pictured beside his granddad beaming at the camera.

Others show the duo spending time with friends and other members of family.

The professional dancer emotionally penned a tribute in the post’s caption, writing: “Looking at these pictures my heart is beating so fast and I’m not sure what to write or how to even begin expressing how much I love you.

“Just memories of when I thought you’re the fastest walker in the world and how when I was a teenager I was proud of speeding past you, but you still were the quickest grandad in town.

tumbleweed

Awkward moment Amber Davies’ Strictly gag falls flat & leaves Claudia speechless

off stage

Strictly’s Nikita Kuzmin shares pic with Amber Davies’ boyfriend after head kiss

“But specially how much you always took care of us, no matter what, always there.”

Nikita finished the post off by writing, ‘I love you, Grandpa,” in Russian followed by a red love heart emoji.

Strictly contestant Tasha Ghouri led the comment section, sharing two love heart emojis.

Actress Sarah Hadland added another series of hearts.

Meanwhile a fan wrote: “Thinking of you and your family. Sending hugs.”

Another fan added: “Sending so much love.”

Nikita joined Strictly Come Dancing as a pro dancer back in 2021.

In his first year on the show he was paired alongside Gordon Ramsay‘s daughter Tilly.

It’s early in the morning, and Birmingham baseball coach Matt Mowry is at the supermarket looking through the flowers section before classes begin. He’s engaged in an unseen, often undervalued duty as a coach — providing comfort to players and their families.

One of his players, 16-year-old sophomore outfielder JJ Rodriguez, lost his father, Anthony, 53, on a Saturday morning last month when he died in his sleep at home. Mowry is looking for a bouquet of flowers to present to JJ’s mother, Nancy, before his first game back.

There are no easy answers how to help a family dealing with grief. Mowry went through his own tragedy in 2022 when his wife, Amy, died of cancer. He prays for her before each game, looking up to the sky while grasping his wife’s necklace, then kissing a ring that has her fingerprint tattooed on it.

The message Mowry told JJ: “Times are going to be tough There’s moments you’re going to break down. It’s OK. You don’t have to hide it.”

The reason No. 1-seeded Birmingham doesn’t open the City Section Open Division baseball playoffs until Thursday is because Anthony’s funeral is Wednesday, and players and coaches will be there to provide support.

Anthony Rodriguez, the father of Birmingham baseball player JJ Rodriguez, died last month.

(Eric Sondheimer / Los Angeles)

JJ missed a couple days of school and one game after his father’s death. He wanted to be alone and was skeptical about coming back any time soon.

“He would message me and tell me coming here and being around my teammates would make me more comfortable and get my mind off things,” JJ said of Mowry. “I wanted to be alone a little bit because my mind was not in the right place. But the day I came back, I learned these guys are my family.”

JJ has become an important part of his team, starting in left field while batting No. 9 in the order. The Patriots won their first West Valley League title in 20 years and are trying to win their sixth City title under Mowry.

JJ and his mother have appreciated the emotional support, allowing them to try to heal from their sorrow.

His mother told him, “Be strong for everyone else. Your dad will always be proud of you.”

There’s a candle in the room where his father was found.

“I sometimes go there and be alone at night and talk to myself,” he said.

Before games, JJ says a prayer and thinks of his father.

“Every game,” he said. “It’s for you, Dad.”

On May 23, the City final will take place at Dodger Stadium.

Imagine the thrill for players of the two teams who reach the final. They’ll get to walk the infield, put some grass in their pockets, look up into the stands, hang out in the dugout of the two-time defending world champions.

For JJ, his father won’t be able to watch him. Or maybe he will. Every day is a step forward to healing. It’s hard, but he’s got a coach watching over him.

“I talked to him about what my son went through in the same situation,” Mowry said. “I had him get back out with the guys and be there whether he practiced or played.”

JJ is back and thankful to his baseball family.

Jason Collins, the NBA’s first openly gay player who went on to become a pioneer for inclusion and an ambassador for the league, has died after an eight-month battle with an aggressive form of a brain tumor, his family announced Tuesday.

Collins, who starred at Stanford and Harvard-Westlake High, where he helped the Wolverins win to back-to-back Division III state titles along with twin brother Jarron, spent 13 years as a player in the league for six different franchises. He revealed in 2013 that he was gay, an announcement that came toward the end of his playing career.

Collins had been diagnosed with Stage 4 glioblastoma, which has an extremely low survival rate. He was 47.

“Jason changed lives in unexpected ways and was an inspiration to all who knew him and to those who admired him from afar,” Collins’ family said in a statement released through the NBA. “We are grateful for the outpouring of love and prayers over the past eight months and for the exceptional medical care Jason received from his doctors and nurses. Our family will miss him dearly.”

Just last week, Collins received the inaugural Bill Walton Global Champion Award at the Green Sports Alliance Summit. He was too ill to attend so Jarron Collins accepted for him.

“I told my brother this before I came here: He’s the bravest, strongest man I’ve ever known,” Jarron Collins said while accepting that award.

Jason Collins averaged 3.6 points and 3.7 rebounds in his career. He helped the New Jersey Nets reach two NBA Finals and in his best season averaged 6.4 points and 6.1 rebounds for them in 2004-05.

“Jason Collins’ impact and influence extended far beyond basketball as he helped make the NBA, WNBA and larger sports community more inclusive and welcoming for future generations,” NBA commissioner Adam Silver said. “He exemplified outstanding leadership and professionalism throughout his 13-year NBA career and in his dedicated work as an NBA Cares Ambassador. Jason will be remembered not only for breaking barriers, but also for the kindness and humanity that defined his life and touched so many others.

“On behalf of the NBA, I send my heartfelt condolences to Jason’s husband, Brunson, and his family, friends and colleagues across our leagues.”

Jason Collins revealed his sexuality in a first-person account for Sports Illustrated in April 2013. He was a free agent at the time, said he wanted to keep playing, and went on to play in 22 games with Brooklyn the following season.

“If I had my way, someone else would have already done this,” he wrote at that time. “Nobody has, which is why I’m raising my hand.”

His decision was widely lauded, with star players such as Kobe Bryant quickly speaking out in support of Collins. There was even support from the White House and then-former President Bill Clinton — whose daughter, Chelsea, went to Stanford with Collins. At Stanford, Collins was roommates with someone who was part of another American political dynasty, that being Joe Kennedy III, who spent eight years in Congress representing Massachusetts.

Collins, in the piece for Sports Illustrated, wrote that he realized he needed to go public about his sexuality when Kennedy walked in Boston’s gay pride parade in 2012 — but Collins couldn’t do the same.

Until then, Collins kept his feelings about gay rights close to the vest. He wore jersey No. 98 for the majority of his final three playing stints with Boston, Washington and Brooklyn — a nod to the year that Matthew Shepard, a gay college student in Wyoming, was killed. He also wore 46 in one game for the Nets, since it was the only jersey the team had available when he signed.

Collins made nearly 61% of his shots in his career at Stanford, which remains a school record. He was an honorable mention selection for the Associated Press’ All-America team in 2001, a few months before the Houston Rockets took him with the 18th pick in that year’s NBA draft.

“It’s a sad day for all of us associated with Stanford basketball when we lose one of the program’s greats,” former Stanford coach Mike Montgomery said. “We all have great memories of Jason and the kind of person he was. It’s hard to separate Jarron and Jason because they thought so alike, but even though he was an identical twin, Jason was unique in his own way. The impact he had on Stanford was immense, as he could match up against anyone in the country because he was big, smart, strong and skilled, all while being a very bright and nice person.”

Brandon Clarke, a former first-round draft pick who spent all seven of his NBA seasons with the Memphis Grizzlies, has died. He was 29.

His agency, Priority Sports, confirmed the news Tuesday on social media. No cause of death has been disclosed.

“Everyone loved BC because he was always there as the most supportive friend you could ever imagine,” the agency wrote. “He was so unique in the joy he brought to all of those in his life. It’s just impossible to put into words how much he’ll be missed. We love you, BC.”

Born in Vancouver, Canada, Clarke played basketball at Desert Vista High School in Phoenix, Ariz., before spending two years at San Jose State and one at Gonzaga. He was selected at No. 21 overall by the Oklahoma City Thunder in the 2021 NBA draft but he was traded to the Grizzlies weeks later.

Clarke played in 309 games for Memphis but only two this past season because of injuries. Clarke averaged 10.2 points and 5.5 rebounds during his career.

“We are heartbroken by the tragic loss of Brandon Clarke,” the Grizzlies said in a statement. “Brandon was an outstanding teammate and an even better person whose impact on the organization and the greater Memphis community will not be forgotten. We express our deepest condolences to his family and loved ones during this difficult time.”

NBA commissioner Adam Silver also released a statement.

“We are devastated to learn of the passing of Brandon Clarke,” Silver said. “As one of the longest-tenured members of the Grizzlies, Brandon was a beloved teammate and leader who played the game with enormous passion and grit. Our thoughts and sympathies are with Brandon’s family, friends and the Grizzlies organization.”

It’s been years since Los Angeles County voters met a sales tax they didn’t like.

They agreed to pay half a cent more at the cash register to fund buses, trains and pothole fillings in 2016. The next year, they gave a quarter-cent more to fund homeless services. In 2024, voters bumped it up to a half–cent.

But with the electorate in a dour mood and reeling from rocketing gas prices, some speculate voters’ willingness to tax themselves may be dwindling as ballots arrive for the June 2 primary election.

“This is going to be a tougher year for taxes than prior years,” said former supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky, who pushed through a property tax ballot measure in 2002 to fund the county’s trauma care network. “There’s a limit to the tolerance people have for increasing their own taxes.”

Los Angeles County voters will soon decide whether they want to pay a temporary half-cent sales tax to shore up the region’s public healthcare system, which is facing dramatic federal funding cuts. Officials estimate the county will lose more than $2 billion in healthcare funding over the next three years.

The county currently has a base sales tax rate of 9.75%, and cities impose additional local taxes on top of that. If approved, the tax would take effect Oct. 1 and last for five years. The exact tax rate would vary depending on the city.

Voters haven’t said no to a sales tax hike since 2012, when a transportation measure fell just short with 66.1% support. It needed 66.7% to pass.

The healthcare sales tax has a lower bar to clear. The supervisors voted to put the measure on the ballot as a general tax, which gives them more leeway with how the money is spent and only requires a simple majority to pass.

But even that threshold may prove difficult. Polling from March suggested the measure was losing among L.A. city voters, who are often more generous than county voters at large. Angelenos will also find their ballot crowded with other tax hike proposals, which may leave some voters feeling picky.

“People have a very discerning instinct,” said Yaroslavsky. “They will pick and choose what they think is important.”

Despite no organized opposition, a flurry of cities, as well as the editorial board of the Los Angeles Daily News, have loudly spurned the idea, arguing it will make the region even less affordable.

“It’s just terrible timing,” said Paul Little, the head of the Pasadena Chamber of Commerce. “Costs are going through the roof for everything.”

With weeks to go until election day, healthcare workers and advocates supporting the measure have gone full steam ahead with mailers, marches and a social media campaign depicting a wallowing penny finding its lost sense of purpose with the measure. The campaign’s top funders are St. John’s Community Health and SEIU, who frame the measure as life or death for thousands of uninsured residents.

“Think about that person you know in your family who is asthmatic and relies on that inhaler, who has rheumatoid arthritis, who is diabetic,” said Supervisor Holly Mitchell at a recent town hall held in support of the measure. “And think about whether or not you’re willing to spend a half a penny — 50 cents on every hundred dollars — to make sure that that family, friend or neighbor gets what they need to be healthy.”

The supervisors voted 4-1 to put the sales tax on the ballot. Supervisor Kathryn Barger was the lone no vote.

Supporters say the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, signed by President Trump last July, is an existential threat to the public health system, leaving the county without reimbursement for the medical care of many Californians who are losing Medi-Cal coverage. The looming multibillion-dollar hole in the budget raises the prospect of hospital cutbacks, staff layoffs and possible emergency room closures, they say.

Here’s a riddle for you: A conservative Republican senator, a top economic advisor to the Trump White House and a venture capitalist walk into a conference room at a financial conference and claim a new government program will be a boon for all American families.

Question: Do you think these people are looking out for your interests?

If you trust Sen. Ted Cruz, economic advisor Kevin Hassett and millionaire Brad Gerstner to do so, feel free to stop reading here.

If you’re skeptical, read on.

But keep in mind that Cruz (R-Tex.) was last seen in these pages promoting yet another big tax break for the 1%, Hassett appeared the other day on Fox Business arguing that while Americans are spending a lot more on gasoline, “they’re spending more on everything else too” on their credit cards, as if forcing households to max out their credit is a good thing; and Gerstner is, well, a millionaire tech investor.

At their panel discussion on May 4 at the annual Milken conference, Cruz, Hassett, Gerstner and their interlocutor, Michael Milken, talked as though the Trump accounts would be so fabulous for average American families that they would obviate the need for Social Security.

“Here’s the dirty little secret,” Cruz said. “Trump accounts are Social Security personal accounts.”

Milken echoed that thought: “Do you have the right to decide where your money goes, or should you be giving it to the government and [letting] them decide where it goes?”

That gave the game away — this is yet another effort by Republicans and conservatives to end a program they’ve been trying to kill, and to give Wall Street firms a bigger bite of your retirement resources.

Let’s start with a primer about the Trump accounts, which were part of last year’s GOP budget bill and will be open to investment starting on July 4.

The headline pitch for these accounts is that they’ll be seeded with a one-time $1,000 government contribution for children born from 2025 through 2028, unless Congress extends the government donation. Accounts can be opened for children born before or after those dates, but they won’t get the government donation.

Families can add up to another $5,000 in contributions every year until the child reaches 18, but those donations won’t be tax-deductible.

The money must be invested in low-cost stock index funds or exchange-traded stock index funds, and can’t be withdrawn for any reason without penalty until age 18. After that, the funds can be withdrawn without penalty for certain purposes such as educational expenses or the purchase of a first home. The accounts eventually become converted to conventional individual retirement accounts, or IRAs, and distributions will be taxed as ordinary income, though family contributions will be returned tax-free.

That $1,000 donation is the best feature of the accounts. But that may be their only good feature. For almost all the financial goals confronting average American families, such as saving for college or retirement, they’re inferior to tax-advantaged savings plans already on the books.

Like those programs, they’re much more advantageous for wealthier than to low-income families: Wealthier families typically have the wherewithal to make their annual contributions, and get a larger break from the tax deferrals of investment growth within the accounts because their tax rates are higher.

Though their promoters claim that the accounts will level the economic playing field for all families — “helping the bottom 10%,” Hassett said on the panel — that’s not the case. “Clearly, the program is structured to subsidize savings for those who already have the capacity to save, rather than meaningfully closing the wealth gap,” observes Sheryl Rowling of Morningstar.

Another drawback cited by economists and financial planners is that the accounts are locked into corporate equity investments. Before the beneficiary reaches age 18, the investment mix can’t be adjusted. That’s dangerous because portfolio concentrations in corporate shares are inherently risky.

“A high school senior who plans to enroll in college next year cannot change the investment to a lower-risk portfolio,” say, to a mix of equities and bonds, notes Greg Leiserson of the Tax Law Center at NYU. “If the market crashes the summer before she plans to enroll, the Trump Account is of greatly reduced use.”

Trump account promoters have massively overstated the potential wealth gains for ordinary Americans. At the Milken conference, Cruz said that a child with a Trump account will have about $170,000 in it when he or she reaches 18 and $700,000 at age 35. “And very quickly after that, you get into the millions,” he said.

Cruz did acknowledge that those figures apply to households that “contribute regularly.” In fact, they apply largely to households that contribute the maximum $5,000 every year.

The White House estimates of potential returns are based on questionable assumptions about stock market gains over the 18-year periods in which the accounts will grow on a tax-deferred basis.

According to the government’s own estimates, the account of a family taking the $1,000 seed money but making no contributions beyond that would have as little as $2,577 in their account after 18 years if stock market returns come to 5.4% over that period.

The government estimates, however, that the account would hold $730,395 if the family contributes the maximum every year and the stock market returns more than 18%. Another 10 years of growth at that level, and the account would grow to $1.9 million when the child reaches age 28.

The problem with long-term market estimates, such as the ones offered by the White House, is that they’re highly variable. No 18-year periods are the same. One thousand dollars deposited in a hypothetical account invested in a Standard & Poor’s 500 index fund would grow to about $6,600 if its 18-year lifetime culminated in 2025; if the 18 years ended in 2008, however, that deposit would have grown only to $3,960. In the 18-year period that ended in 1960, the account would have grown only to $2,940. What will the next 18 years bring? Who knows?

Variability like this, along with the sheer uncertainty of stock market projections for the future, helped sink George W. Bush’s 2005 attempt to convert Social Security into private accounts, which was also pitched as a key to minting millionaires by the millions through the magic of the market.

I asked the White House to respond to these criticisms. Spokesman Kush Desai called my questions “both a stupid and out-of-touch take,” asserting that the accounts are “already shaping up to make a generational difference for working-class children.”

The truth is that if Trump were really intent on taking steps to “strengthen the financial security of American workers” and creating a “path to prosperity for a generation of American kids,” as he claims to be, he and his GOP followers in Congress wouldn’t have scissored away the American safety net, which is what they’ve done.

They wouldn’t have imposed new work requirements and narrowed eligibility standards for food stamps, resulting in the exclusion of more than 3 million people from the program, a decline of 8%. They wouldn’t have cut nearly $1 trillion in funding for Medicaid over 10 years, jeopardizing coverage for 3.6 million young adults. They wouldn’t have allowed Affordable Care Act premium subsidies to expire, resulting in a drop in Obamacare enrollments of about 1.2 million Americans this year compared with last year.

If they really cared about educational opportunities for “a generation of American kids,” they wouldn’t have narrowed eligibility for higher education Pell grants, and wouldn’t slash research grants for universities coast to coast.

So how can families better prepare for college and retirement expenses? For education, 529 plans are probably preferable to Trump accounts. The investment choices are more flexible, withdrawals are tax-free at the federal level and sometimes at state levels if used for most education expenses, and there are no federal limits on contributions (contributions aren’t tax-deductible).

For retirement, advisers have been favoring Roth IRAs. Contributions are not tax-deductible, and this year can be made by couples filing jointly with taxable income up to $242,000 ($153,000 for singles) and are limited to $7,500 a year ($8,600 for those 50 and older). But withdrawals aren’t taxed if you’ve held the account for at least five years and you take the money out after you turn 59 1⁄2.

The bottom line, then, is this. Take the $1,000 if your child is eligible. As Rowling wisely advises, “Any time the government offers free money, you should take it.”

As for the rest, treat any claims offered by Trump account promoters as inherently suspect.

Also known as Sky City, Acoma is a Native community of earthen homes perched atop a 357-foot-high mesa. It has been occupied for roughly 1,000 years by the Acoma Pueblo tribe, which is independent of the nearby Navajo, Zuni and Laguna, with its own language and about 5,000 enrolled members.

Thanks to revenues from their Sky City Casino and hotel along Interstate 40, the Acoma also have a large, handsome Haa’ku Museum and Sky City Cultural Center next to the historic mesa. There, outsiders can gather for escorted tours of 60 to 90 minutes, mostly walking. It’s $30 per adult. Photography, binoculars and note-taking are closely restricted, and outsiders are generally forbidden from the mesa except on tours.

My group of 18 travelers was led by guide Gail Toribio, 27. After a quick bus ride up a steep road built in the 1950s, we found ourselves on top of the mesa, facing one massive church, about 500 homes and several pottery stalls that materialize during tours. The views were spectacular, the pottery was full of painstaking detail, and it was fascinating to see the ancient and modern elements together in the hilltop homes. But the biggest thing and most astonishing story on the mesa is the San Estévan del Rey Mission.

When Spanish troops and missionaries showed up in the 16th century, they forced labor and Christianity upon Native groups, often slaughtering and maiming those who resisted, including many Acoma. By the 1640s, forced labor had produced the church on the mesa, its 40-foot-long ponderosa pine beams dragged from Mt. Taylor, more than 30 miles away. Somehow, when the area’s tribes rose up in the Pueblo Indian revolt of 1680 and killed most of the Catholic priests in New Mexico, the church endured. And over time, Toribio told us, most Acoma families settled into a sort of dual faith, combining their traditional beliefs with Catholic rituals, including Christmas.

After the church, we walked among two-story homes that were here long before the first Europeans showed up. (Only a handful of the homes are still occupied full time.)

“I was actually raised up there,” potter Gwen Patricio, 52, told me back at the visitor center. “No electricity, no running water. They asked the elders if they wanted electricity, but they said no.”

Route 66 was 20 years old and World War II had just ended when Bobby Troup, an aspiring songwriter from Pennsylvania, decided to go west. As it turned out, that drive in early 1946 did more than anyone could have imagined to establish the road as a symbol of footloose American freedom.

Stories, photos and travel recommendations from America’s Mother Road

Troup, 25 at the time, had already earned an economics degree from the University of Pennsylvania, written a hit song (1941’s “Daddy,” sung by Sammy Kaye), worked for bandleader Tommy Dorsey and served as a Marine through the war years. But to restart his career as a songwriter and actor, he believed that he needed to be in Los Angeles. So he and his wife, Cynthia, pointed their 1941 Buick toward California.

They started on U.S. 40, then picked up Route 66 in Illinois. Along the way, as Troup told author Michael Wallis in the book “Route 66: The Mother Road,” Cynthia came up with a phrase she thought was songworthy.

Bobby Troup, composer of the hit song “Route 66” and grand marshal of Duarte, Calif.’s Salute to Route 66 parade, rides in a 1948 Buick convertible and waves to fans in 1996.

(Louisa Gauerke / Associated Press)

“Get your kicks on Route 66,” she said.

Troup took it from there, creating “a kind of musical map of the highway.”

As Troup later recalled in an introduction to a Route 66 book by Tom Snyder, they heard Louis Armstrong play a club in St. Louis, stopped at Meramec Caverns in Missouri and found that “a good part of the highway was absolutely miserable — narrow, just two lanes, and very twisting through the Ozarks and Kansas.” Then came a snowstorm in Texas.

By the end of the drive, the up-tempo tune was half-done. Then, not quite a week after arrival, Troup landed a chance to pitch a few songs to Nat “King” Cole, who had already won fame with hits including “Sweet Lorraine” and “Straighten Up and Fly Right.”

They were sitting by a piano on stage — after Cole’s last set of the night at the Trocadero on Sunset Strip — when the nervous young songwriter decided to share his unfinished road song.

“I got up on the riser, pulled the piano bench back a little bit — and it went over the side and I fell over backwards,” Troup confessed in a later interview.

Still, Cole “loved it,” Troup recalled. “As a matter of fact, he got on the piano with me and played it.”

This was February. By mid-March, the song was done and Cole was recording it in a studio on Santa Monica Boulevard, part of Route 66.

The finished version name-checked a dozen cities along the route, including these words:

Now you go through Saint Looey

Joplin, Missouri,

And Oklahoma City is mighty pretty.

You see Amarillo,

Gallup, New Mexico,

Flagstaff, Arizona.

Don’t forget Winona,

Kingman, Barstow, San Bernardino.

Won’t you get hip to this timely tip

When you make that California trip

Get your kicks on Route 66.

In April, Capitol Records released “(Get Your Kicks on) Route 66” and the tune quickly rose to #11 on the Billboard chart of top-selling singles. Before 1946 was out, it had been recorded again, this time by Bing Crosby with the Andrews Sisters. That version went to #14.

Musicians Nat “King” Cole, left, and Bing Crosby, circa 1945.

(NBC / NBCU Photo Bank / NBCUniversal via Getty Images via Getty Images)

Coming just as postwar America was rediscovering leisure travel, the song was a big hit — and for many, a painful irony. Even with guidance from the Green Book used by many African American travelers in those days, it would have been deeply risky — and illegal in some places — for any Black man, Nat King Cole included, to eat and sleep on Route 66. This was a year before Jackie Robinson integrated baseball’s major leagues, two years before the U.S. Army was integrated.

As Candacy Taylor puts it in her 2020 book “Overground Railroad: The Green Book and the Roots of Black Travel in America,” “the open road wasn’t open to all.” Into the 1950s, Taylor writes, “about 35% of the counties on Route 66 didn’t allow Black motorists after 6 p.m.” and six of the eight states on the route still had segregation laws. Cole may have helped sell Route 66, Taylor writes, but “the carefree adventure he was promoting was not meant for him.”

Documentary photographer Candacy Taylor at the New Aster Motel in Los Angeles in 2016. In her book “Overground Railroad,” she writes about the discrimination Black travelers faced while driving on Route 66.

(Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)

Two years after recording the song, when the increasingly wealthy Cole and his family bought a Hancock Park mansion and became the neighborhood’s first Black homeowners, many neighbors tried to keep him out, poisoned the family dog and burned racist insults into his lawn.

The Coles stayed put. The family was still in that home on South Muirfield Road in 1956, when Cole became the first African American to host a network television show, and in 1965, when Cole died of cancer at 45.

Troup, who later was divorced from Cynthia and married singer/actor Julie London, went on to record more than a dozen albums and had other songs recorded by Little Richard and Miles Davis. As an actor, Troup filled many guest-star roles on television, played Dr. Joe Early on the 1970s TV show “Emergency!” and had a small part in Robert Altman’s 1970 film “MASH.”

Meanwhile, the song kept rolling. As years passed, Perry Como, Sammy Davis Jr., Chuck Berry, the Rolling Stones, the Manhattan Transfer, Michael Martin Murphey, Asleep at the Wheel, Buckwheat Zydeco, Depeche Mode, Glenn Frey, the Brian Setzer Orchestra and John Mayer recorded versions. At different points in the 2006 movie “Cars,” you hear Berry’s and Mayer’s versions. Troup, who died in 1999, never forgot the difference the song made, both in his life and the way people think about the road.

“On the basis of that song, I was able to go out and buy a house and stay in California,” Troup told Wallis. “I never realized when I was putting it together that I was writing about the most famous highway in the world. I just thought I was writing about a road — not a legend.”

The Rolling Stones are among the countless musicians who have recorded versions of “Route 66.”

(David Redfern / Redferns via Getty Images)

Matt’s family say he often struggled to emotionally switch off from football, and that negative comments on social media had begun to have an impact on his mental health.

He found breaking bad news to players about their place in the squad or future plans particularly difficult emotionally, according to Debbie.

“Matt always felt so bad having to let someone down,” she explains. “There would be tears, they might have shouted at him, and the player’s family and the fans could sometimes be negative towards him too.

“He and other staff members would make the decisions but, because he had to deliver the news, the emotional burden all came down on to him.

“Matt was there for everybody and he hated letting people down. He looked out for everyone else, but sadly not himself.”

In the summer leading up to his death, Matt had been appointed manager of Burnley in the third tier.

But Matt’s family say he wasn’t happy with the way the club was being run. WSL side Leicester City made it known they were interested in hiring Matt.

BBC Sport understands Burnley turned down an offer from Leicester to buy out the rest of Matt’s contract. Matt then resigned, but the move to Leicester never came to pass.

Burnley placed Matt on gardening leave, meaning he was unable to work or talk to other clubs for a period of three months.

Burnley declined a request to comment from BBC Sport on the nature of Matt’s departure from the club.

In a pre-inquest review hearing last week, Debbie alleged that Burnley “bullied” Matt. The inquest was adjourned indefinitely.

Burnley said they were “aware of an ongoing legal process and will not be making any comment at this time”.

Debbie believes the time Matt was unable to work contributed to a deterioration in his mental state.

“He wasn’t allowed to say goodbye to his players or tell them why he left,” Debbie says. “That had a huge impact on him.

“He was finding it hard, [worrying about] how he would provide for the family. I was working three jobs just to get us through.

“I think he felt like a bit of a failure.”

Claim your free family day pass to English Heritage sites, valid until Sunday, 14 June 2026. Simply cut out your voucher from today’s paper and present it at the site of your choice.

Spring is in full swing at English Heritage sites around the UK, and you can discover them for FREE with this amazing offer in the paper starting from Tuesday.

Using the voucher in the Daily Mirror, you and your family can gain access to spectacular woodland castles, colourful country houses and Victorian gardens in full bloom.

The pass covers up to two adults and three children, or one adult and four children, or two adults. It is valid until Sunday, 14 June 2026, and is inclusive of the bank holiday.

There are hundreds of historic sites across the country just waiting to be discovered and each one has a fascinating story to tell. There is everything from Viking attacks and medieval mayhem to Georgian glamour and Second World War heroics.

READ MORE: The Victorian hilltop fort built to repel an invasion which never happenedREAD MORE: UK village has one of the ‘most remarkable Roman finds’ and is packed with cosy pubs

So whatever you and your family enjoy – whether it’s a stroll around striking gardens and castles, exploring hidden tunnels or learning about World War II, historic monarchs, and the Viking way of life – you’re bound to find something to keep every member of the family happy and entertained.

And you can make the most of the season with plenty of outdoor space, fun-packed playgrounds and cafes with outdoor seating serving up ice creams, delicious lunches and refreshing drinks.

Whether you explore a Roman fortress, a royal palace or a rambling ruined abbey there’s no better way to seize the season and head out into history with friends and family

How to claim

Cut out the voucher and present it at your chosen English Heritage site by Sunday June 14, 2026, inclusive.

Please check the English Heritage website for opening times.

These are just some of the English Heritage sites you could visit

Dover Castle — An English fortress atop the White Cliffs of Dover, where visitors can explore wartime tunnels and a medieval keep

Osborne — The seaside palace of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert on the Isle of Wight

Pendennis Castle — The Tudor fortress in Falmouth, Cornwall, built by Henry VIII where visitors now find hidden tunnels, sweeping views, and lawns for picnics

Hadrian’s Wall — The historical landmark in Northumberland which was built by the Romans to guard the north-west frontier of their empire

Kenilworth Castle and Elizabethan Garden — A medieval fortress turned beautiful garden in Warwickshire

Whitby Abbey — A striking 7th-century gothic monastery sitting in the historic fishing port of Whitby

Walmer House and Gardens — A Tudor fortress turned country house, which has been the official residence of the Lord Warden of the Cinque Port for three centuries

Down House — The home of Charles Darwin where he wrote On the Origin of Species, where you’ll find his “outdoor laboratory” and extensive gardens

At these sites, you can make the most of the temperate season with plenty of outdoor space and playgrounds for kids to run around in, as well as in- and outdoor cafés with serving ice creams, lunches and drinks.

Plus, you can get a scone for just £1 when bought with any hot drink in an English Heritage café.

Stonehenge and some other sites are not included in this offer.

For full terms and conditions visit the English Heritage website.

MARTIN Short has revealed daughter Katherine’s death has been a ‘nightmare for the family’ & opens up about her mental health.

The Only Murders in the Building star was left heartbroken in February when his eldest daughter was found dead.

The 42-year-old was found dead inside her Hollywood Hills home after a call was made to police about a potential suicide.

Now on CBS News Sunday Morning, Martin, 76, gave an emotional interview about her passing, and the years she spent battling with her mental health.

He said: “You know, it’s been a nightmare for the family, but the understanding that mental health – and cancer, my wife had – are both diseases.

“And sometimes with diseases, they are terminal and my daughter fought for a long time with extreme mental health, borderline personality disorder and other things as well.

Read More on Martin Short

tough times

Devastated Martin Short steps out for first time since daughter’s tragic death

TRAGIC LOSS

Martin Short’s daughter Katherine was found dead after shooting herself aged 42

“And did the best she could, until she couldn’t.”

He then referred to his late wife Nancy, who passed away in 2010 after battling ovarian cancer, saying: “So Nan’s last words to me were ‘Mart let me go’ and she was just saying ‘dad, let me go’.”

Katherine’s official death certificate from the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health confirmed she died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head.

The document also confirmed she had been cremated.

Authorities discovered Katherine behind a locked door inside the property.

A note was recovered at the scene, though its contents have not been made public.

Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? player who scooped £500,000 explains how it will make a huge difference to their lives after tough times

Andrew Fanko missed out on the chance to take the jackpot on Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? – but insisted his £500,000 prize had still saved his family financially.

The 44-year-old and his wife Frankie, who live in Market Harborough in Leicestershire with their six-year-old daughter, both work as translators. Andrew admitted work has been thin on the ground recently, as AI was putting them out of business, putting him under further pressure on him to do well on the show.

He made it to the million pound question but decided against answering it as he couldn’t be certain – and if he had gone with the ITV audience he would have been WRONG. It still meant he walked away with half a million pounds and played one of the best games in the show’s history.

Asked how the money will change his life, Andrew said: “It’s come at a really, really lovely time. First because our work has been kind of thrown under the bus a bit in the last few years because of AI. We are both translators and the freelance translation market has pretty much died to death in the last five to 10 years so although I’m lucky enough to have an in-house position at the moment, I don’t know how long that’s going to last, and Frankie’s work has dried up quite a lot so this will really make a huge difference to us.

“If either of us want to retrain or anything like that, it gives us the chance to be able to do that and I don’t think early retirement is a possibility, but it certainly makes our lives a lot easier.

“We genuinely were getting pretty concerned about the work situation. It was getting pretty stressful. Knowing that it is gonna come in fairly soon has been absolutely massive for us. It’s made a huge difference. We both feel a lot lighter, a lot more positive.”

Andrew sailed through the ITV show until hesitating on Question 12 for £125,000 about which cell type does not have a nucleus. He phoned his friend Jonathan who was 60 percent sure it is bacteria, and after using his 50-50 went with this correct answer.

He stumbled again on a question 14 for £500,000 about which character is killed in Murder on the Orient Express. He tried to get help from host Jeremy Clarkson but when that failed, correctly guessed Sam Ratchett.

His final question for £1 million was to name which one out of the four people named was an EGOT winner, meaning having scooped four different arts prizes including an Emmy and an Oscar.

He didn’t know the answer and asked the audience but the majority of them thought it was Bette Midler. After taking the £500,000 and not answering, Andrew was told the correct answer was Andrew Loyd Webber.

Reflecting on missing out on the big prize, Andrew said: “I’m fine with it. Honestly. The only way I wouldn’t have been fine with just missing out is if I had known the answer to the million pound question and not gone for it, but I just didn’t know it. So it is the best of all worlds really because I’ve been able to win a really life changing sum of money, genuinely life changing, and I know I couldn’t have done any better. So yeah, I have no regrets at all.

“The main pressure I felt was on the half a million pound question. So the Agatha Christie question, Frankie(wife) is a massive Agatha Christie fan. So I was like I could feel the eyes kind of burning into the back of my head. I knew that she would know it in a heartbeat. But I had to think about it, quite a lot before I was confident enough to go for it.”

Andrew and his wife are both big quiz fans and he has previously been on MasterMind, 15-1, Only Connect, and Brain of Britain. The couple also won on Eggheads with two friends, taking a £33,000 prize between them.

His big win has not put him off having a go at other TV quizzes.

He revealed: “I probably will do stuff in the future. Just because I absolutely love it. It might be harder to get on now, I guess, but you know… Mastermind. I got to the semi final four years ago and I still have ambitions to do well on Mastermind.. perhaps not immediately because I do want to take a little break from it, but yeah, I think Mastermind in the future is the one that I want another crack at. So the last time I did Britain at the Winter Olympics and African World Heritage sites.. so quite a range. I’d maybe do something like the TV show Spooks or perhaps something to do with Liverpool Football Club, although that’s been done loads of times. Something else sporty, I think.”

Now the episode has aired his long wait for the money is now almost over, having filmed the show last year, and once paid he will take his daughter Jemima to Disneyland and to buy his wife a new car.

He speaks French, Italian and Spanish but the first holiday they take will actually be a cruise to the Norwegian fjords with extended family.

Andrew said: “I wasn’t really nervous in the chair itself. I enjoyed it. I love answering quiz questions and it is what I spend most of my time doing. But the actual win with the lights and Jeremy and the audience and everything.. you do sort of lose a bit of perspective of where you are.

“I would say, the biggest tip I’ve got is probably to practise the fastest figure first – because that’s the key. I think once you get in the chair, that’s the great thing about Millionaire and the format is that once you get in the chair, anyone can win a huge amount of money because I don’t think they ever ask you sort of really, really genuinely very hard questions.

“It’s just such a wide range of things that that’s what makes it hard to progress quite a long way, but they can just fall for you. “But I would definitely practise faster than the first at home before you go and also while you’re practising in ‘the millionaire’s row’ where you sit before you go on, you get a chance to sort of get your fingers ready and practise on.”

Last month viewers saw Roman Dubowski win £1million in the opening episode of the series. He told the Mirror he celebrated with a cup of tea after he correctly answered that a Bass Ale logo appeared in the novel ‘Ulysses’ and paintings by Picasso and Manet.

There have been a total of seven winners of the £1million in the UK since the show began in 1998. Clarkson replaced Chris Tarrant as the host when the show returned in 2018 after a four year break.

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For Vince Gervasi, chief executive of Triscenic Production Services, it was yet another body blow.

His company, a leading supplier of set and scenery storage and transportation for the film industry, was poised for a turnaround after nearly three years of losing money.

Then, last week, he said a line producer on “Shark Tank,” one of his long-standing clients, called him to say the hit ABC reality show was relocating production from the Sony Pictures Studios lot in Culver City to Atlanta.

“They said it was too expensive here to do anything,” Gervasi recalled being told. “I said, ‘Are you kidding me?’ This show has money.’”

For the last six years, Triscenic had dedicated a 70,000-square-foot warehouse at its Santa Clarita facility to store the show’s items, transporting them in 30 custom made semitrucks between seasons.

Battered by the pandemic, the dual labor strikes, economic downturns and consolidations, Gervasi told The Times in 2024 that he had laid off 78 of his 85 employees and winnowed down his once-buzzing operations that housed sets and scenery across 2 million square feet in 41 buildings to half that, with the expectation that things would bounce back.

Like many other local film industry veterans, he is still waiting.

Vince Gervasi, at Triscenic Production Services, in Santa Clarita.

(Bob Doyle)

“I’ve been doing this for 41 years. I’ve seen the good and the bad — this is a complete decimation. It’s unprecedented.”

From florists to prop rentals to catering and beyond, production services and craft businesses are the hub and spoke of L.A.’s film and TV industry. But many of these businesses — some of which have been family-operated for generations — are struggling to weather a post-pandemic slump in film activity deepened by runaway production, media consolidation and the end of the streaming boom.

Film shoot days in the Los Angeles region have fallen nearly 50% since 2019, according to FilmLA data reviewed by The Times. Employment in Los Angeles County’s motion picture and sound recording industry has similarly plummeted, with a loss of some 57,000 jobs in the last four years, federal labor data show.

The slowdown has become a major issue in the L.A. mayoral race as evidence mounts of the economic toll on the city.

Just last month major industry vendor Quixote — whose Star Waggons trailers were once ubiquitous on the streets of L.A. — announced that it was winding down most of its sound stage business in Los Angeles, closing its operations in Atlanta and laying off 70 employees.

In a note to its clients and partners, Hudson Pacific Properties Inc., Quixote’s parent company, said that “we have persisted through the prolonged and ongoing slowdown in commercial, television and film production. But ultimately, industry conditions have forced difficult decisions.”

Between 2022 and 2025, more than 80 such businesses across Los Angeles have closed down, according to a list compiled by the ACME Directory, a production resource that connects TV and film professionals with specialized products and services.

“It’s, in many ways, a much bigger reflection of the contraction we’re seeing in the industry right now,” said Kevin Klowden, a senior fellow at the Milken Institute, focused on entertainment and technology. “The surge in demand for streaming and the consequential demand to catch up on content hid the fact that the industry was shrinking.”

Last October, the family-run Costume Rentals Corp. began liquidating its inventory after dressing film and television characters for 50 years. The North Hollywood firm provided costumes for “Forrest Gump,” “Apocalypse Now,” “Fast and Furious” and, more recently, the 2024 Bob Dylan biopic, “A Complete Unknown.”

A year earlier, Valentino’s Costume Group closed its doors after two decades in business and sold off its 400,000 items. At the time, Shon LeBlanc, the North Hollywood shop’s last owner standing, said he had endured a “perfect storm” of calamities and was drowning in debt following the cancellation of 15 shows in a single week.

Even the legendary Western Costume, which has been in business since 1912, has been hurt by the slowdown. During the 2023 strikes by writers and actors, Western Costume furloughed 43 employees, or about two-thirds of its staff. Recently, the North Hollywood costume mecca, which has supplied such classic films as “Gone with the Wind,” “The Wizard of Oz,” “The Sound of Music” and the TV series “Mad Men,” furloughed an unspecified number of its workers, said two people familiar with the matter who were not authorized to speak publicly.

A representative of Western Costume did not respond to a request for comment.

Marc Meyer, the owner of Faux Library Studio Props, had strained to stay in business through the pandemic shutdown and the 2023 labor strikes — laying off 11 of his 13 employees.

By the start of 2024, Meyer, a set decorator who was credited with inventing the fake movie book, was drastically behind on rent, owing $500,000, he said.

Marc Meyer, closed the doors on Faux Library Studio Props in North Hollywood after almost 25 years in business.

(Mel Melcon/Los Angeles Times)

Meyer’s landlord had given him a week to come up with more than $100,000 in unpaid rent or vacate the 89,000-square-foot warehouse in North Hollywood filled with props, books, antique furniture and other items that have decorated such film and TV sets as “Angels & Demons” and “The X-Files” for almost a quarter-century.

Meyer came up with $45,000 to mollify his landlord, garnering a month’s reprieve. A GoFundMe was set up during the strikes and a host of industry colleagues such as “Top Gun: Maverick” set decorator Jan Pascale stepped up, buying props to help fill his coffers.

A year later, Meyer was out of business, selling off Faux Library for parts in a massive auction. He died last July at 77.

“The change in our city is palpable,” said writer and director Sarah Adina Smith, a co-founder of Stay in LA’s, a grassroots campaign aimed at increasing film and television production in Los Angeles. “It’s not just that so many crafts and artists are out of work, but you see small businesses, too. In L.A., we’re an ecosystem fed in large part by creative jobs, and that is quickly vanishing.”

Marlon Gilbert still waxes nostalgic about the days his Commerce-based company, Gilbert Production Service, stored and transported scenery and props for TV shows including “Dancing with the Stars” and feature films like “Batman.” At one time, he said, he was handling seven active TV shows in a single season.

“When it was still on Fox, the ‘American Idol’ finale, we had like 20 semitrucks going in and out. Money was flowing like crazy,” he said. “But eventually times got hard for them, and they cut back on their production stuff.”

By last year, Gilbert was down to just three clients. “It wasn’t sustainable,” he said.

In December, after three decades, the family-owned business filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and shut down too.

“I couldn’t pay rent on our warehouse lease, I blew through my savings and my 401(k),” he said. After his wife was hospitalized following multiple strokes in 2023, he said, “I didn’t have the energy to beat the bush for new business.”

“I would’ve liked to have gone out with more panache and made a big splash and money selling the business. But there was nothing left to sell.”

Scott Niner, president and owner of Dangling Carrot Creative, checks on a robotic machine as it fabricates at his shop in North Hollywood.

(Jason Armond/Los Angeles Times)

Scott Niner, president and owner of Dangling Carrot Creative, offers a case study in how production service businesses have navigated the tidal wave of upheavals.

After 18 years in business creating graphic signage, custom flooring and wallpaper to make sets look exactly as art directors dreamed up, the company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy last April.

Before the pandemic, Niner’s Valencia-based business was thriving.

In 2014, he opened a Georgia satellite office to service the film and TV productions that had migrated to take advantage of the state’s generous tax credits. He steadily expanded his workforce to 32 employees in L.A. and Georgia.

Production was so plentiful that he even branched into the bakery business in 2018, delivering graphics and cupcakes in the same order. At its peak, Dangling Carrot generated $800,000 a month.

When the pandemic shutdown hit, Niner’s monthly revenue dropped to $50,000, he said. He kept his workers employed by making face shields that he donated to hospitals.

“I hung in there, and it was painful,” said Niner, who received some government assistance.

During the strikes in 2023, he drained his 401(k) and his union pension to keep his shop open and his workers employed.

Niner said he deployed a strategy of “pivoting and praying.” He shifted his business to focus more on fabrication, making giant 3-D-printed items for movie premieres, 25-foot-long, 8-foot-tall and 8-foot-deep ammo chests for a “Call of Duty” promotion and even graphics at airports.

Last last month, Niner sold off his Georgia business as filming in that state shifted to the U.K. He downsized his home and moved his business from Valencia to a much smaller building in North Hollywood. He is now down to 11 employees.

“I have a very bright outlook on the future, especially because we’re getting phone calls from people who never would have called us because all the other guys are out of business,” he said. “There’s something to be said about the last man standing. But I’m the last man standing on $2 million in debt. I’m more like lying down.”

The industry got a reprieve last week when CBS announced that it was relocating its hit drama “Tracker” to Los Angeles from Vancouver, Canada, after receiving a $48-million tax credit. Many view such moves, however, as small wins over comprehensive ones.

“There’s been a fundamental change happening here over the past five years,” said Cale Thomas, a makeup artist who has worked on “Guardians of the Galaxy 3” and the recent biopic “Michael.”

Thomas, who is a member of Stay in LA, acknowledges that California’s step last year to double its tax incentives has helped to spur an uptick in local production, but that has not stopped the outflow of productions or resolved a host of restrictions and costs that have hampered the industry.

He worked on “The Mandalorian” and other Lucasfilm series that stream on Disney+ for five years. “We shot in Manhattan Beach Studios,” he said, but noted that Lucasfilm has since moved one show to the U.K. and produced two others there.

“This has been devastating for our industry,” he said. “Hundreds of generational family businesses aren’t being used anymore.”

The pain points are not confined to Hollywood.

Last year, Marvel Studios — which had made Georgia, known as Hollywood of the South, its primary filming center for such major franchises as “Avengers: Infinity War” — relocated much of its production to the U.K.

The impact has meant even fewer domestic productions causing an even bigger ripple effect.

Among the high-profile casualties was Hackman Capital Partners, which aggressively snapped up studios, acquiring $10 billion in assets under management before production activity plummeted nationwide.

In January, the company defaulted on its $1.1-billion mortgage on Radford Studio Center, the historic lot where “Seinfeld” and “Gunsmoke” were filmed and which gave Studio City its name.

Earlier this year, Hackman Capital Partners defaulted on its $1.1-billion mortgage on Radford Studio Center, the historic lot where “Seinfeld” and “Gunsmoke” were filmed.

(Gary Coronado/Los Angeles Times)

Three months later, lender Deutsche Bank filed a foreclosure complaint on the also-historic Kaufman Astoria Studios in Queens, N.Y., home to “Sesame Street” and “Succession.”

Kaufman, also owned by Hackman Capital Partners, defaulted on an outstanding loan balance of $359 million that was due to be paid last fall, according to CRE Daily.

Gregg Bilson sold ISS Props, the Sunland-based company his father founded in 1977, to Manhattan Beach Studios, part of Hackman Capital Partners, five years ago, staying on as CEO to help run and expand the company.

After 40 years in the business, he retired last August with a little more than a year and a half left on his contract.

Bilson now sees himself as a Hollywood relic.

“Many of my contemporaries and I have had conversations where we say we saw the best of the film and TV industry when it was an art form,” Bilson said. “It will never be the same.”

For Sarah Gorden, Mother’s Day is special because it’s not just a celebration of motherhood. For her, it’s also a celebration of perseverance, grit and survival.

Especially survival.

Gorden became pregnant during her junior year of college and for most of the next 12 years, she tried to balance her life as a professional soccer player with her responsibilities as a single mother. It wasn’t easy.

“I honestly look back and I have no idea how we got through that,” said Gorden, who made $8,000 as an NWSL rookie with the Chicago Red Stars in 2016, less than the city’s minimum wage. “We’re making no money. We were definitely using government assistance and government aid. And then the help of family and friends.

“I’m impressed and proud of the part of me that got through that. But it was no way to live.”

As the memories come flooding back, so do the tears.

Angel City midfielder Ariadina Alves Borges walks off the pitch with her son, Luca, at BMO Stadium on May 2.

(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)

“It’s so difficult to explain,” said Gorden, now 33 and the captain at Angel City, as she dabbed at the tears with a tissue. “Not having enough money, not having enough time, wondering if I’m being selfish, wondering if I’m making the right decision. Ultimately it came down to: I didn’t feel like I had another [choice].”

A decade later, the NWSL minimum wage is $50,500 and the league’s collective bargaining agreement guarantees mothers job protection, full salary and benefits for the duration of a pregnancy-related absence, stipends for child care and subsidized arrangements for women traveling with children up to age 14.

Angel City, founded by three mothers, has gone beyond what the league has mandated by supporting mothers with perks that include a well-stocked nursery at the team’s training facility on the campus of Cal Lutheran University.

“From the beginning, we always strive to support the whole player. Physically, mentally, emotionally, psychologically,” said Julie Uhrman, one of Angel City’s founders and now a principal adviser to the team. “And then to support them if they came in as parents or became parents. That’s not just players. Staff too.”

Uhrman, who raised two children while building a successful career as a media and entertainment executive, speaks from experience.

“They can do both and they can excel at both,” she said of her players. “And we’re going to provide the support and the environment for them to do that.”

On its active roster of 25 players, Angel City has four mothers — the most in the NWSL. The work that went into the infrastructure now in place for them originated with Sarah Smith, the team’s former director of medical and performance.

Smith, who left the club in January and now advises elite athletes — primarily skiers — in Utah, said the support she got from Uhrman and others during her own pregnancy two and a half years ago inspired and informed her work with Angel City.

“Having the leadership of the club and the female leaders in the club, and then wanting to be able to support all of the players through their different journeys, through motherhood, I was really glad to be part of that,” she said. “But it really started with the fact that I had just gone through it, and I was able to share those experiences.”

Angel City forward Sydney Leroux’s 9-year-old son, Cassius, waits for his mom to leave a team huddle at BMO Stadium on May 2.

(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)

The first player she guided through that journey was Scottish forward Claire Emslie, who gave birth to a son in December.

“I’ll be honest. Having seen how much she wanted to do for moms in the game made me excited to become a mom,” Emslie said. “We weren’t even thinking about having a kid. But knowing what she wanted to do if there was a pregnant player made me want to have a kid because I knew that this is the best place I could possibly be.”

Emslie, 32, was cleared to suit up for Angel City’s game with San Diego on Saturday — the day before Mother’s Day — after missing the past 12 months on maternity leave. But she continued to train until just before giving birth and that, combined with the year off from the weekly pounding of professional soccer and the physiological changes her body went through during pregnancy, have made her better, she says.

“I feel better. I’m different,” she said. “I got a lot stronger and that’s something you can’t build while you’re in competition. My speed is back. I think I’m actually faster. And there’s also sort of an effect where you’ve got more red blood cells in your system now. So they say your cardio is actually better.”

The prime years for a women’s soccer player — between the ages of 25 and 29 — overlap with their prime reproductive years. Until recently, however, women had to make a choice between a family and a career. Now many are choosing to do both.

Sophia Wilson, a former NWSL scoring champion and MVP, and Mallory Swanson, her teammate on the U.S. Women’s National Team, both missed play in 2025 to give birth. They are among the 28 mothers in the league, and more are coming with the most recent NWSL availability report showing six teams missing players going on maternity leave.

Angel City player Claire Emslie, who is pregnant, tours a nursery the team built for players.

(Courtesy of Angel City FC)

Emslie’s own experiences tell her those numbers will continue to grow.

“I got to a point where I need[ed] to start thinking about life after football. And if I want to have a family, because of the biological clock, I need to start trying soon,” Emslie said. “It’s now kind of a normal thing to have a baby and come back.”

“Now I wish I’d done it younger,” she added. “Having a baby and continuing to play, they’re on the journey with you. So to have, say, five, six years professional football with a family, that’s amazing.”

Smith believes the willingness of star players such as Wilson and Swanson — and before them, Alex Morgan and Manchester United’s Hannah Blundell — has brought important focus to the issue of motherhood in soccer.

“That is where the game is going. I think you probably can see it across the league, the number of mothers,” Smith said. “And that’s a variety of circumstances. It may be mothers whose partners have carried children. It may be also players that are thinking about having children later and want to freeze their eggs. What I wanted to make sure is that we, we supported all of those different circumstances.”

That included designing and stocking the nursery at the training facility Angel City inherited from the NFL’s Rams in the fall of 2024.

“We put stuff in there for Caiden, for Sarah’s son, because it wasn’t just for Claire,” Smith said. “We wanted to make sure that all of the players and their partners felt good and comfortable. You just want to take a little bit of stress off of the players.”

Angel City captain Sarah Gorden with her oldest son, Caiden, during a photo shoot.

(Courtesy of Angel City FC)

When the club inherited the nine-acre practice facility in 2024 from the Rams, Angel City designated the largest of the offices for the nursery. The office belonged to head coach Sean McVay, and now it features walls painted pink and light blue and a crib, a changing table and a menagerie of stuffed animals.

“We want players to come to Angel City because we are the absolute best place for you to grow as an athlete, as a human,” Uhrman said. “And, you know, thinking about the fact that they might want to become mothers at some time or they’re coming in as mothers is really important.”

Gorden remembers a time not so long ago when that wasn’t the case. Early in her career in Chicago, she said she had to bring her son to a team meeting and was punished by being benched. Another time she couldn’t find child care on the day of a game — a Mother’s Day game.

“I just remember bawling all morning and just feeling so stressed,” she said.

Gorden has a fiance who is helping with parenting and her son Caiden, now in middle school, has grown into a sweet, empathetic boy.

“So yeah,” Gorden said, smiling through the tears, “a lot of progress. The league gets it now.”

On Mother’s Day, let’s salute two single mothers who became the No. 1 fans for their sports-playing sons and stayed by their side through good and bad times.

Sylmar pitcher Matthew Torres has tried to make it through life without a father after his parents’ separation when he was 12.

“He’s not been to any high school games,” Torres said.

Enter his mother, Roxanne, who has raised four boys and one girl by multitasking and embracing sports activities. She intervened to help Matthew make it through tough times.

“Her bringing me to church and getting to know God has made me the man I am today,” the 6-foot-3, 185-pound senior said.

Torres became the No. 1 pitcher in the Valley Mission League this season with an 8-0 record while also hitting .488. He helped Sylmar win the league title and become the No. 1 seed for the City Section Division I playoffs.

He has a secret plan scheduled for Sunday to salute his mother. Who doesn’t like surprises?

At Carson High, All-City quarterback Chris Fields has a mother, Shere Fletcher, who could play or coach football the way she has dived headfirst into learning the sport to be at the side of her son.

There were once tough times as a family. Fields said the family was “impoverished.” Mom worked multiple jobs while also studying but sacrificed everything to make sure her son and daughter could have a bright future. She became a paralegal and never misses a practice or game. She should be called “Coach Fletcher” but prefers mom.

“I’ve been through everything with my mom,” Fields said.

Her Mother’s Day gift since the 49ers are her favorite team is a vintage Jerry Rice jersey and a trip to Santa Anita.

There are plenty of moms who’ve spent countless hours driving, feeding and motivating their sports-playing sons and daughters through highs and lows.

Happy Mother’s Day to all.

This is a daily look at the positive happenings in high school sports. To submit any news, please email eric.sondheimer@latimes.com.

SACRAMENTO — Newborns won’t be leaving the hospital empty-handed in California.

Gov. Gavin Newsom announced on Friday that the state is partnering with Baby2Baby to provide 400 free diapers to every newborn. Baby2Baby is a national nonprofit based in California that provides clothing and other basic necessities to children.

The governor said it would help families with the rising cost of living.

“Since the pandemic, we have seen the cost of diapers go up by 45%,” said Newsom, speaking at a press conference in San Francisco. “One out of four families skip meals to pay for diapers.”

The new program, dubbed the Golden State Start, will launch this summer. Participating hospitals will distribute the diapers to families at the time of discharge. Forty million diapers will be distributed during the program’s first year, with a goal of later expanding the program to provide 160 million.

Newsom said the state will prioritize hospitals that serve large numbers of parents enrolled in Medi-Cal, California’s version of the federal Medicaid program providing healthcare coverage to low-income Americans. The state plans to later expand to additional hospitals and birthing centers.

The governor described the program as the first of its kind in the nation.

“We are not imitating; we are a model to others,” he said.

Kim Johnson, secretary of the California Health and Human Services Agency, said the initiative would help families enjoy their first few weeks at home with a new baby.

“The first days at home with a newborn should be focused on the love, connection, and joy of an expanded family, not stress about affording diapers,” Johnson said in a statement. “This program helps ensure families can begin that journey with greater stability and peace of mind.”

The National Diaper Bank Network, a national nonprofit that tracks diaper insecurity, found about 60% of low-income families nationwide struggle with the cost of diapers and rely on less-frequent changes to get by. The organization said dirty diapers leave babies at risk of developing rashes or urinary tract infections.

BBC radio presenter Dave Llewellyn has died aged 57 after two decades on air – as his devastated family release a touching tribute.

The Radio Tees star – famed for his distinctive bright red hair – was hailed as the “most loving father and husband” by his daughter Amy.

Dave worked as a travel presenter in the north east region for more than 20 years – famously starting out as the “eye in the sky” in a plane.

Alongside his traffic updates, the larger-than-life DJ also co-hosted a gardening show at the weekends.

And for the past six years, he was a producer on BBC Radio Tees, most recently working on Gary Philipson’s daytime programme.

The presenter, hailed as “incredibly modest and generous” by his daughter Amy, died after a short illness.

She said: “Outside of his work he loved his family and his music.

“His true talent shone through while he was playing his keyboards, synthesisers and bass.

“He was the most loving father and husband, always going out of his way to make us happy.

“He will be sadly missed by everyone who knew him, especially our beloved dog Cupid who always saw a taste of his generosity, usually in the form of a shared sausage sandwich.”

More to follow… For the latest news on this story keep checking back at The Sun Online

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DENISE van Outen has opened up about her heartbreak over losing a Towie “family member” as she revealed plans to pay tribute to Jake Hall.

The TV star shared an emotional message, reflecting on the devastating loss.

The Only Way is Essex star Jake Hall was found dead at a Spanish holiday villa with head injuries after a night out partying on Thursday.

He was a regular on the reality TV series from series 14 to series 17. 

Denise has been voicing the show since it started in 2010 and has opened up about his tragic death.

She told the Daily Mail: “I’ve worked on the show since it started and with any loss within our TOWIE family it is heartbreaking.

GONE TOO SOON

Jake Hall’s heartbreaking future plans revealed before tragic death aged 35

HORROR SCENE

Inside £200-a-night Majorca villa where tragic Towie star Jake Hall died

“But he was so lovely whenever I saw him out and he was so friendly and so talented.

“I really feel for his family, my thoughts go out to them, and it is just really sad and he was way too young to go.

“I do wonder what TOWIE will do, I think they’ll do a tribute as they’ve lost a few people recently. I was just really really shocked when I saw it.”

Cops found the 35-year-old former reality show hunk in a pool of blood with fatal head wounds apparently caused by shards of glass.

Officers say inquiries focused on the theory of a tragic accident in which the 6ft 4ins star smashed his head through a glass door.

A source said: “Witnesses told investigators he had been out partying all night and decided to carry on the party back at the place he was renting.

“It appears from what police have been told that he became agitated, possibly from alcohol and other substances he may have consumed.”

The source also said at one point things “turned aggressive” and he may have “tried to harm himself by banging his head against things.”

Officers were called to the rented house in Santa Margalida in the north of the holiday island at around 7.30am on Wednesday morning.

A police source said: “We are focusing on the theory the victim died in a tragic accident after hitting his head against the glass door but it is still too early to say definitely what happened.”

No arrests were believed to have been made as inquiries continued and an autopsy is due to take place in the Majorcan capital, Palma.

An ongoing investigation is being led by the Spanish Civil Guard.

He often spent time in Majorca where he had a second home used as a base for work and leisure.

Jake had a daughter, River, with model and Real Housewives of Cheshire star Misse Beqiri.

A statement shared by her talent agent said: “At this time, Misse’s focus is on supporting and protecting their child as they come to terms with this devastating loss.

“The family are asking for privacy, compassion and respect while they grieve privately.”

Jake joined TOWIE in 2015, and dated co-star Chloe Lewis before leaving the programme in 2024.

He also ran a menswear brand called By Jake Hall.

Martin Clunes disclosed that the family member was “very precious”, saying they did everything together on his Dorset farm, where he lives with wife Philippa Braithwaite

Martin Clunes has opened up about a devastating family loss, describing his “buddy” as “one in a million”. Since relocating from London to a 130-acre farm near Beaminster, Dorset, in 2007, the Doc Martin star has resided on the £5 million property alongside dogs, horses, cattle, sheep and chickens throughout the years.

Animals also take centre stage in his latest book, Training John and Murray. Amazon’s description reveals it chronicles the “whirlwind of chaos” unleashed by two Jack Russell puppies that he brought into his household.

Within the book, Martin recalls how a litter of Jack Russells came “wriggling into the world“. The dog lover said they were tiny; indeed, they were small enough to nestle in the “palm of a hand” and featured two “celestial” brothers.

Martin wrote: “I didn’t know it then, but these two little celestial wolves would soon change our lives, push us to the brink and turn our whole world upside down.”

He also reflected on losing his “very precious” dog, Jim.

He wrote: “The previous year, we’d lost my very own and very precious Jack Russell, Jim, to liver cancer. Jim was everything I hadn’t realised that I wanted from a dog. He was one in a million.

“For fourteen years, he had been my buddy and my right-hand dog. We did everything around the farm together. He had actually been a surprise Christmas present.”

This follows Martin’s admission that he wished he had “more work” while discussing the pressures of running a farm. Martin, who resides with his wife, Philippa Braithwaite, previously described the property as his “favourite place in the world”.

Martin acknowledged that it’s an “expensive” enterprise, especially regarding staffing expenses and his passion for food and drink. He told The Times: “I wish I had more work because we’re very expensive to run.”

He added: “If I didn’t employ people and enjoy food and drink so much, it might wash its face, but yes – if I don’t work, within a year we’d have to sell up.”

Speaking to Dorset Magazine, the Men Behaving Badly actor revealed they’d originally wanted a field to get a pony for their daughter, Emily Clunes (now an equine veterinary nurse), but “suddenly 130 acres came up”.

It appears that it’s all worth it, though, as Martin previously revealed in an interview with the Express that he “can go for weeks without leaving” the farm and said he enjoys feeling “connected to the seasons” there.

He said: “It’s my favourite place in the world. I can go for weeks without leaving the farm. I like being connected to the seasons in a real way – making hay, worrying about the grass, watching the leaves come and go, and caring for the animals.”

A NEW festival style experience is coming to Center Parcs this summer.

The Sherwood Forest retreat has revealed plans for its Forest Summer Social.

Starting this month, the Woodland Garden will be transformed into a huge attraction, with an outdoor cinema in the centre.

This will show everything from films like Mamma Mia and Frozen to live sports such as the World Cup and F1.

Guests will be able to prebook deckhairs and popcorn, or can turn up with their own blankets.

Also in the Woodland Garden will be activities such as the Forest Craft Room for arty activities, as well as the Family Nature Quest.

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Light up the Forest will let guests use bicycle power to light up the woodlands too.

The Summer Social Kitchen will be serving street food while drinks will be on offer at the Aspall Bar.

All of the experiences are included in the stay excluding the Forest Craft Room and any food and drink.

The new experience will run from May 25 to August 31.

Other new activities at Sherwood Forest include the Treetop Glider, a wires ride that launched earlier this week, and new padel tennis courts.

It is also the only park to have The Dozing Duck, a lounge area with breakfast and lunch as well as a playground, shuffleboard and crazy pool.

Kids will also love the VOYA Teen Glow Facial, the first spa treatment in the UK designed for younger skin.

And guests can buy exclusive Joules x Center Parcs merchandise at Sherwood Forest, with bags, t shirs and hats.

New premium lodges opened across Sherwood Forest too – here’s what they look like.

Tempted? Here’s how to get a more affordable Center Parcs holiday.