father

The ex-guitarist of Turnstile has been arrested for allegedly intentionally hitting the lead singer’s father with a car.

Brady Ebert, a founding member of the Baltimore hardcore punk band, was arrested Tuesday in Silver Spring, Md., on charges of attempted murder in the second degree and first-degree assault.

Montgomery County Police responded to a call Sunday saying a pedestrian had been struck by a car. Upon arrival at the front yard of a home, officers discovered William Yates, the 79-year-old father of Turnstile frontman Brendan Yates, with “trauma to his lower extremities,” the Baltimore Banner reported.

William Yates and his family told police that Ebert first drove up to their house “honking his horn and yelling obscenities,” per Fox 5 in Washington, D.C. Ebert then allegedly returned and hit the elder Yates with his car.

According to the Banner, police obtained surveillance video of the incident that shows Yates moving out of the way and throwing a rock at Ebert’s vehicle and Ebert then accelerating up the driveway before swerving and striking Yates with his car. Yates told police that before first responders arrived, Ebert returned once again to yell that he “deserved it.”

Turnstile told Pitchfork in a statement that Yates underwent surgery for the “severe physical trauma” he sustained during the altercation and that the band’s members are “hoping for the best possible outcome in his recovery.”

“Turnstile cut ties with Brady Ebert in 2022 in response to a consistent pattern of harmful behavior affecting himself, the band, and the community,” the “Never Enough” band said in the statement. “After exhausting every available resource to support his access to help and recovery, a boundary ultimately had to be set when healthy communication was no longer possible and he began threatening violence.”

“We have no language left for Brady,” the band added.

Formed in 2010, Turnstile broke into the mainstream with the 2021 album “Glow On,” which earned the band its first Grammy nominations. The band’s first Grammys came in February 2026 for metal performance (“Birds”) and rock album (“Never Enough”). Turnstile is scheduled to perform at both weekends of the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival later this month.

“Kim’s Convenience” may not win points for originality, but originality isn’t really the point of an immigrant family drama meant to be instantly, one might say universally, recognizable.

The play, which opened Tuesday at the Ahmanson Theatre, was a runaway hit at the 2011 Toronto Fringe Festival. That success led to a larger production at Toronto’s Soulpepper Theatre that brought more attention to the show, paving the way for runs off-Broadway, in London’s West End and Washington, D.C.

But the show’s familiarity has another source. “Kim’s Convenience,” which was turned into a sitcom for Canada’s CBC, found an international audience on Netflix.

The story is set in Toronto, and the Kim family (owners of the titular convenience store) is of Korean background. But immigrants from Ireland, Italy, Latin America, India and Eastern Europe and their more assimilated children won’t have any problems relating to the generational conflicts at the heart of this gentle comedy.

Author Ins Choi, who once played the role of the prodigal son, has matured into the part of Appa, the patriarch who left Korea with his wife, Umma (Esther Chung), to start a new life in Canada. He opened a 7-Eleven-style shop, which he once considered calling 7-12, and has been living above the store with his family in what has been an all-hands operation.

Appa made sacrifices to give his son and daughter a better life — and he’s more than happy to tick off a list of what everyone owes him. He’s a mostly benevolent tyrant, but his crotchety side can get ugly and he’s not always in control of his temper. His son Jung (Ryan Jinn) ran away at 16, absconding with money from the store safe, after one of Appa’s flare-ups sent him to the hospital.

Janet (Kelly Seo), Appa’s 30-year-old unmarried daughter, bears the brunt of being the adult child who remained at home. She still works at the store, though her true calling is photography. Her father considers this just a hobby, a weekend recreation that shouldn’t interfere with her taking over the store one day. But she has other ideas for her future.

Change is coming whether Appa likes it or not. A Walmart is heading to the area, and with this news comes an unexpected offer for the shop that would allow him to comfortably retire. But selling the store is tantamount to discarding his story.

Brandon McKnight, left, and Kelly Seo in “Kim’s Convenience.”

(Dahlia Katz)

He explains this to Janet, hoping that she’ll continue his legacy. But she’s put her life on hold for too long. Both her parents never let her forget that she still doesn’t have a husband. But how can she get married when her father subjects any man she dates to the third degree?

Alex (Brandon McKnight), the police officer who answers the 911 call Appa had Janet place to report a Japanese car parked illegally by the store (he still hasn’t forgiven Japan for its invasion of Korea), turns out to be a childhood friend of Jung’s — and someone Janet used to have a crush on. The sparks between them are obvious, and Appa, the soul of indiscretion, can’t help meddling in his overbearing way.

Choi isn’t averse to shtick, if the result is an explosion of audience laughter. One comic gimmick involves Appa’s superhuman grip that can subdue even the mightiest of men. A shoplifter (also played by McKnight, who portrays all the customers and passersby) learns the hard way that Appa is not to be underestimated.

Esther Chung, left, and Ins Choi in “Kim’s Convenience” at the Ahmanson.

(Dahlia Katz)

The scene involves an unsavory routine on how to recognize a shoplifter. Janet challenges Appa’s racist assumptions, but father knows best and no one can convince him otherwise. Janet can’t win with him, but don’t count Appa’s daughter out.

Or his son, for that matter. Jung, who had a stint in rehab, hasn’t had an easy path in life, but he’s stayed in touch with his mother and eventually he and his dad will have their dramatically inevitable reckoning. There’s something determinedly hopeful about “Kim’s Convenience,” which like the store it’s named after, wants its patrons to leave satisfied.

The cast members, under the direction of Weyni Mengesha, all deserve high customer ratings. Choi’s Appa is impossible to stay mad at even when he’s said or done something unforgivable. He doesn’t mean to offend, though other people’s feelings are a luxury he has never been able to afford.

Still, his paternal bluntness is not without its infuriating charm, as when he informs his headstrong daughter, “You have to understand, now is desperation time for you. Sudden death, overtime, penalty kick shoot out. Expiration date is over. Take over store is only choice you having.”

Esther Chung and Ryan Jinn in “Kim’s Convenience” at the Ahmanson.

(Dahlia Katz)

Seo’s Janet is as feisty as she is loyal, making it easy to root for her and her quickly budding romance with McKnight’s worthy Alex. Chung’s Umma doesn’t take up a lot of room in the play, but her maternal presence registers sharply nonetheless. Jinn endows Jung with hidden dimensions of pain and regret.

But the most vivid performance might in fact be the convenience store itself, brought to fluorescent, sanitized, colorful life by scenic designer Joanna Yu and lighting designer Wen-Ling Liao. Nicole Eun-Ju Bell’s video and projection designs subtly transpose the setting when, for instance, Umma meets up with her son at church. The production seems right at home at the Ahmanson, a function of both the broad sitcom-friendly style and the warm Korean American reception that was audible at Tuesday’s opening.

“Kim’s Convenience” has an eager-to-please TV sensibility that can seem formulaic at times. But representation, particularly these days, can be a radical act, and there’s something heartening at the sight of the Kim family enjoying their turn in the mainstream spotlight.

It’s an hour before Monroe High’s baseball team takes infield practice. In the dugout dressed in his uniform, Miguel Gonzalez has his scissors out giving a free haircut to a teammate.

“Ten out of 10,” infielder Alexander Hernandez said when describing Gonzalez’s barber skills.

His pitching skills aren’t bad either. He struck out 12 in six innings in his season debut. He’s 5-0 with a 0.69 ERA. He’s a four-year varsity player for the surprising Vikings, who are 13-1 to start this season under second-year coach Eddie Alcantar.

The fact that Gonzalez is still playing might come as the biggest surprise if you knew all the responsibilities he faces as an 18-year-old.

Alcantar was getting worried last January when Gonzalez didn’t show up for winter workouts.

“I have a rule if you don’t show up for practice, you don’t play,” Alcantar said.

They finally met and Gonzalez revealed he’s been too busy working as a barber. And then came the big news: He’s going to become a father in July.

The Monroe High baseball team is off to an 13-1 start.

(Eric Sondheimer / Los Angeles Times)

It’s a delicate balancing act between work, school, baseball and the seriousness of being a parent as a teenager.

“I’ve been able to figure scheduling little by little,” Gonzalez said. “I do sleep. Maybe five hours.”

Gonzalez said he worked seven days a week as a barber during the summer. He’s been saving for his future while also making sure he did not have to ask his parents for money. He works weekends and sometimes has to leave practice after an hour for work.

As far as baseball, he added a slider this season, picked up some velocity and tries to throw three pitches for strikes.

Against Eagle Rock, he struck out 10 and gave up two hits in a 3-1 win. Against Arleta, he struck out 10 in six innings during a 6-1 victory with one walk. Against Westchester, he got two outs — both strikeouts — in a 3-1 win. Against Vaughn, he gave up two hits in six innings of a 2-0 victory..

Monroe, which used to be a City Section powerhouse in the 1970s when Denny Holt was head coach, also has received a strong season from junior Luis Martinez, who has 21 hits and is batting .500.

Pitcher Miguel Gonzalez has helped Monroe to an 13-1 start with a 5-0 record and 0.69 ERA.

(Eric Sondheimer / Los Angeles Times)

He said his parents have been supportive: “They have told me it’s a really big responsibility.”

After high school, he plans to go to an occupational school to learn more about being a barber. He’d love to continue playing baseball, but that will depend on his development and his priorities. So far, his balancing act is keeping him levelheaded and determined.

He’s been working since he was 5 when he helped his father in landscaping. He switched to cutting hair and loves it. His clients swear by him.

“He’s a good kid,” Alcantar said.

The anti-nuclear artists collective whose work is on display at Pitzer College in Claremont never predicted a nuclear proliferation crisis would break out in the Middle East during their exhibit, or how grimly topical their work would quickly become as a result.

“Atomic Dragons,” wrapping April 4 with a closing-day symposium of nuclear experts, is the work of SWANS, which stands for Slow War Against the Nuclear State. The group is made up of artists, activists and academics with ties to the nuclear industry, including children and spouses of nuclear industrial complex workers — putting a new spin on the “nuclear family.”

The show examines the environmental and human cost of the atomic era through an artistic lens, tracing present day nuclear risk back to its Cold War roots.

The SWANS’ warning call has always been clear, but ”Atomic Dragons” took on a whole new meaning when the United States and Israel launched a joint assault on Iran over its illicit stockpile of nuclear materials Feb. 28, three weeks after the show opened.

“We’re at the start of what will be an exceedingly dangerous period in terms of the Iranian nuclear program,” nuclear policy expert Scott Sagan, who co-directs Stanford’s Center for International Security and Cooperation, said. “We’re likely to have a major, major conflict over this.”

In a time of acute nuclear anxiety, SWANS is an outlet through which the artists process the fear and gravity of our atomic reality.

Fiona Amundsen, “Yoshino Cherry Tree, Sanyo Buntokuden, Hiroshima (lovingly held),” 2025, from the series, “The Trees are Leaking Light,” 2024-25, 4 x 5 inch negative processed using seaweed, gathered from the ocean current of the Fukushima wastewater release, inkjet washi photograph.

(Chloe Shrager)

“My maybe-naive hope is that the artworks help to provide an avenue into that understanding of the severity of what it means to play with the nuclear,” said Fiona Amundsen, whose arresting film photography of three trees in Hiroshima that survived the 1945 nuclear bomb was developed using contaminated seaweed growing in the Fukushima wastewater release line.

The resulting images are dotted with delicate white flares: trace amounts of radioactive tritium that transferred to the film from the nuclear effluent during the chemical processing, bearing physical witness to the usually invisible effects of radiation.

Amundsen’s work is in keeping with the rest of the show, which fills two halls at the liberal arts school with visual and multimedia works that probe the persistence of radioactive materials. Artifacts from the birth of the nuclear age are also featured, including items recovered from postwar Hiroshima and a letter from the father of the nuclear bomb, Robert J. Oppenheimer.

The artworks are as likely to unsettle as they are to move.

Elin o’Hara slavick labored over an expansive series of photochemical drawings of every above-ground nuclear test — 528 in total, a selection of which are featured in the exhibit— on salvaged darkroom paper from Caltech, the institution that played a role in developing the detonators for the U.S. nuclear bombs dropped on Japan under the top secret Project Camel.

elin o’Hara slavick, selection from “There Have Been 528 Atmospheric Nuclear Tests to Date,” 2022, photo-chemical drawings on outdated and fogged silver gelatin paper.

(Chloe Shrager)

Slavick said she found the abandoned silver-gelatin paper, which was fogged despite being stored in closed boxes, in the basement of the university near a door labeled “Radiation Science,” which led her to believe radiation exposure from Caltech’s Manhattan Project past distorted the photographic paper.

SWANS seems to double as a support group for families impacted by the nuclear industry. Many members believe they’ve lost loved ones to radiation, or were themselves likely impacted by early-life exposure as children of Manhattan Project engineers. The tension between the anti-nuclear artwork and its artists’ familial ties to the production of the very technology they reject is an enticing dance of its own.

Judith Dancoff, “The Milk Pathway (still),” 2023, video, briefcase, antique milk bottles, and tempera.

(Chloe Shrager)

Writer Judith Dancoff links her hyperthyroidism and long-term reproductive issues from a pituitary gland tumor to childhood radiation exposure during a summer spent at the Oak Ridge uranium enrichment site in Tennessee where her father worked as a student of Oppenheimer. Her father died young of cancer, and the story is woven into her featured SWANS work.

One of the largest pieces on display at “Atomic Dragons” is Nancy Buchanan’s interactive full-wall exhibit of documents her father brought home from his government work as a Manhattan Project physicist, alongside material from the FBI file on his mysterious death, on display for viewers to read under looming red letters spelling out “SECURITY.”

Nancy Buchanan, “Security,” 1987, installation with file folders, photos, map pins, and documents.

(Chloe Shrager)

The current crisis in Iran has sent memories bubbling to the surface for the collective, and chills down the spines of viewers.

Many have expressed fears of an Orwellian-style forever war, or worse, the use of the atomic weapon invented “to end all wars” in a twisted attempt to do so, poisoning the region as a byproduct. But nuclear policy expert Sagan said the likelihood of the conflict escalating to involve nuclear weapons is “exceedingly low,” even if Iran has the capability to build them.

Iran possesses enough 60% highly-enriched uranium to build about 10 nuclear weapons if further enriched to 90% weapons grade, he said. This could take a matter of weeks to complete depending on the state of Iran’s enrichment centrifuges, which Trump claimed to have “obliterated” during air strikes in June.

Iran could also craft a primitive nuclear device out of minimally enriched materials for an offensive attack (“60% could actually create an explosion, it just wouldn’t be a very efficient one,” according to Sagan), but George Perkovich, senior fellow for the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace’s Nuclear Policy Program and author of “How to Assess Nuclear Threats in the 21st Century,” points out that “you have to build more than one for it to be useful,” especially under the wrath of a nuclear-armed West’s expected response.

What is more likely, and probably more dangerous, experts say, is the now-heightened long-term risk of global proliferation. “This war is going to suggest to some countries that if they want to secure their sovereignty, they need nuclear weapons,” Sagan said.

elin o’Hara slavick, selection from “There Have Been 528 Atmospheric Nuclear Tests to Date,” 2022, photo-chemical drawings on outdated and fogged silver gelatin paper.

(Chloe Shrager)

Since 1968, the world nuclear order has rested on the delicate architecture of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, enforcing the international norm that countries without nuclear weapons won’t try to get them, and countries with nuclear weapons won’t help arm their allies. Now, experts say the rulebook has been thrown out.

“What this does is it breaks the old system that was based on the non-proliferation treaty,” said Perkovich, who has worked on nuclear issues for 44 years. “It’s now ‘might makes right,’ everybody’s on their own, friends versus enemies. I think the terms now change, and we’re not bargaining.”

Though the timing of the military operation in Iran with the “Atomic Dragons” exhibit could not be described as kismet as much as brutally ironic, slavick said the “sick and sad thing” is that “it’s always topical when you’re an American.”

“We do this. We wage wars. We are the leading nuclear country,” she said, speaking to the heart of the SWANS message: In a world where nuclear materials exist, it is not a matter of if humans will be harmed, but when.

There is a historic relationship between visual art and nuclear war, said Jim Walsh, a senior research associate at the MIT Security Studies Program on nuclear weapons risk issues in Iran and North Korea, who is also a speaker at the exhibit’s closing symposium. As the world enters a “more disruptive period” after the post-Cold War cooling of nuclear tensions, he expects to soon see “a flowering of artistic projects,” as nuclear risk reaches a local peak. “It’s a super powerful thing involving life and death, the planet, the entire environment, love and hate,” he said.

“Atomic Dragons,” which also features work created decades ago, highlights questions that are as relevant today as they were at the dawn of the nuclear era: Can we make the world safe enough so we can once again dream? Is the strength of a country found in its military rather than its culture? Is fear our gross national product?

MINNEAPOLIS — Airport security video shows another way federal agents are taking immigrants to detention centers — in some cases they’re using commercial flights, with escorts dressed like any other passenger.

Video obtained through a public records request shows a 5-year-old boy who became a face of the immigration crackdown in Minneapolis being flown with his father to Texas on a Delta Air Lines flight, just a day after they were taken into custody. He had been detained while wearing a bunny hat.

Adrian Conejo Arias and son Liam Conejo Ramos seemed calm in these recordings as they were being escorted through the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport by a man and two women dressed in plain clothes. Since the father and boy didn’t appear to be in custody, their trip to San Antonio probably went unnoticed by fellow passengers.

The Trump administration, like its predecessors, is mostly using ICE Air Operations charter flights as it detains hundreds of thousands of people for deportation. Human rights monitors are trying to keep track as detainees are loaded onto planes in shackles in parts of airports the public can’t easily see.

The video of Liam and his father, they say, exposes another route that’s harder for rights monitors to document, despite happening in plain view inside the same airport terminals where Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents wearing tactical, military-style gear are now being deployed to support security checkpoints.

What happened in this case?

The father, who was seeking asylum from Ecuador, and son were detained by ICE officers in Minnesota on Jan. 20 and taken to Texas. They were released on a judge’s orders and returned to Minnesota, but then an immigration judge denied their asylum request. The family’s lawyer said they’re appealing.

The video that revealed their commercial airline travel was first obtained by Nick Benson, an aviation enthusiast and activist with MN 50501, a grassroots group involved in anti-ICE and No Kings protests. Benson said he’s never seen children while monitoring ICE charter flights, so he suspected the agency was flying them commercially. He identified the time and day the father and son were flown out of Minneapolis, filed a public records request for the security video — and there they were.

The Associated Press obtained the same video through a similar request to the MSP Airport Police Department. It shows the father carrying the boy’s Spider-Man backpack as a woman shows an airline agent their boarding passes. A man and the other woman follow them onto the jet bridge.

Delta declined to comment on the video. But the airline said most government travel is booked through third-party agencies, with no advance notice about who is flying or why. The Department of Homeland Security did not immediately return messages seeking comment.

What is ICE Air?

ICE Air Operations transfers and deports people mostly using flights chartered through airline broker CSI Aviation, which has subcontracted with small airlines such as GlobalX, Eastern Air Express, Bighorn Airways, Key Lime Air and Avelo Airlines.

ICE Air continues to rapidly expand both domestic transfer and deportation flights, according to Human Rights First, which documented 1,630 immigration enforcement flights in February alone. Of that total, 183 were deportation flights and 1,170 were domestic transfer flights.

ICE also uses U.S. Coast Guard planes. Flight Monitor said it has tracked hundreds of flights since June in which Coast Guard planes were used to transport immigrants domestically.

“It seems that ICE sometimes uses commercial flights to destinations where they don’t carry out kind of larger scale ICE Air deportation flights,” said Savi Arvey, director of research and analysis for refugee and immigrant rights at Human Rights First.

The monitors use flight-tracking websites to follow the charter planes, but these tools can’t track individual passengers on commercial flights, making them “less in the public eye,” Arvey said. “It adds another level of opaqueness.”

Bellisle and Vancleave write for the Associated Press. Bellisle reported from Seattle. AP writers Rio Yamat in Las Vegas and Rebecca Santana in Washington contributed to this report.

Jeff Webb, known as the “founder of modern cheerleading” for his role in turning the activity into a competitive sport, died Thursday following “a tragic accident,” a family spokesperson said Tuesday. He was 76.

A former yell leader for the University of Oklahoma cheerleading squad, Webb went on to form several organizations — including Varsity Spirit, the Universal Cheerleaders Assn. and the International Cheer Union — that helped him reshape what was once largely a sideline activity into an International Olympic Committee-recognized sport that features elements of gymnastics, stunts and dance.

Cheer Daily reports that an email sent by Varsity Spirit president Bill Seely to the company’s community said that Webb fell while playing pickleball earlier this month and suffered a severe head injury.

Webb was buried in a private ceremony for family on Sunday. A larger celebration of life will be held at a later date.

“Our father was, at his core, a man of inexhaustible energy, and he poured that energy into everything he did, from revolutionizing cheerleading to his never-ending — and constantly growing — list of activities,” Webb’s children said in a statement.

An avid outdoorsman, Webb managed a farm and hunting lodge and enjoyed offshore fishing and boating. He was also a pilot, author, publisher and guitar player.

“He brought that same spirit of dedication and encouragement to being a father and grandfather,” his children added. “To most people he is a legendary entrepreneur — to us, he was our soccer coach and on-demand comedian, our mentor and father-daughter dance partner, our solace and our source of strength.

“He taught us by example that a life well lived contains balance, that seriousness and silliness are not in fact opposites, that focus and discipline do not and should not preclude care and kindness.”

Through his organizations, Webb established hundreds of cheerleading competitions — including national championships that have been broadcast on ESPN for decades — and training camps. He was a pioneer in the manufacturing and marketing of cheerleading apparel and equipment and also played a role in establishing safety guidelines for the sport.

“The founder of modern cheerleading, [Webb] spent his life building the sport he loved and advocating for young people everywhere,” the International Cheer Union wrote on Facebook. “Our thoughts are with his family, friends and the entire global cheer community.

Varsity Spirit wrote on Instagram: “Join us in honoring the life and legacy of Jeff Webb, founder of Varsity Spirit and modern cheerleading. His impact has built a community that will continue to inspire generations to come.”

The Varsity Spirit post included a tribute video that featured an audio clip of Webb discussing the instant he realized just how much of an impact his efforts had on the sport.

“I was at UCA High School Nationals, and I looked out there — everybody had a smile on their face,” Webb said. “People think this is a little corny, but I had this almost epiphany experience. And it was just this emotion that came over me. It was, how lucky am I? How fortunate have I been to be able to have this idea and to build on it and have fabulous people kind of hook their star to my vision and for us together to build this great thing?”

Webb is survived by his wife, Gina, and his children, Jeffery and Caroline, and two grandchildren.

Call them the Geek Squad, the Surfer Dudes or the Genius Squad from Redondo Union High.

In an unprecedented achievement, three starters for the Sea Hawks’ 13-2 volleyball team — Tommy Spalding, Vaughan Flaherty and Carter Mirabal — are headed to MIT this fall.

Their final assignment in Advanced Placement Physics 2 should be figuring out the astronomical odds of how three best friends from the same volleyball team could be admitted to one of the most prestigious universities in the world.

“There’s no way,” was the reaction of Mirabal’s father when he heard the news.

“It’s crazy,” coach Kevin Norman said.

Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak founded Apple hanging out in a garage. Who knows what inventions, ideas or technological feats will be imagined in gyms or on surfboards as these three Southern California teenagers unleash their brain power and love for having fun on the East Coast.

“Probably twice a week, I’ll call him, ‘Yo, I have this idea,’” Spalding said of his conversations with Mirabal. “Ninety-nine percent of the time, we usually don’t do anything about it. But it’s throwing ideas out there and hopefully one is going to stick.”

One Spalding idea: “When I was driving home from Joshua Tree, I was stuck in traffic. I was like, ‘Dude, what if we made a Google Maps type of app that utilized AI and had a camera in your car that analyzed the road, tells you what lane to be in to go the fastest and also be able to look at the traffic lights and tell you if this left arrow is red, then go straight, turn left at the next street.”

Elon Musk, beware.

MIT-bound Redondo Union volleyball players Tommy Spalding, left, Vaughan Flaherty and Carter Mirabal.

(Eric Sondheimer / Los Angeles Times)

They’ve formed a band, “Ratiohead,” a parody of the English rock band Radiohead, with lyrics from math. They’re preparing for the battle of the bands. Spalding is the vocalist, Maribal is on keyboard and Flaherty, the 6-foot-5 redhead, plays guitar.

“We’re looking for a drummer,” Spalding said.

Spalding has a 4.65 GPA and 1490 SAT score. Flaherty is at 4.4 and 1560. Mirabal is at 4.4 and 1510. Spalding said his hardest class was AP European history. Mirabal chose honors chemistry. Each received one B in four years of high school. Flaherty has received multiple Bs and said, “I think it goes to show you that you don’t have to be perfect to get into these schools if you have the potential and you’re willing to work hard and be a good fit.”

Flaherty is so witty he might be able to do a comedy routine, with Spalding serving as his wing man.

“Someone might have messed up, but I’m not going to tell them,” Flaherty said of the threesome earning a spot in the MIT class of 2030.

“Maybe it was chemistry,” Spalding quipped.

If they can make a movie, “The Social Network,” about the invention of Facebook. and a TV series, “Big Bang Theory,” about smart geeks, just wait until someone figures out the entertainment value following around this threesome.

Spalding has all the attributes of a future entrepreneur and loves tinkering with cars. He sent a two-minute video to MIT as part of his application process that showed himself and his father, Michael, turning a 2002 yellow school bus into an RV.

Mirabal has his own YouTube channel, “Carter’s Stuff Review.” He wants to be a mechanical engineer and explore the business side. Flaherty would be happy sending rockets and satellites into space while living near the beach.

All three hang out at the beach, either playing volleyball or surfing. Spalding brought his grandfather’s ping-pong table to the volleyball room at school for more fun. Cornhole is another game they play.

None set out at the beginning of high school seeking a path that leads to MIT, which accepts only about five students for every 100 applicants. “We weren’t taking the classes because we want to go to MIT,” Spalding said. “We just enjoy the subjects.”

There are smart genes in their families. Spalding’s parents are both educators, one an AP physics teacher at Peninsula High, the other a middle school vice principal. Mirabal’s father is an accountant. Flaherty’s father owns two Handel’s ice cream stores (everyone wants to hang out with Flaherty on a hot day).

Each has a story to tell about how they learned of being accepted to MIT.

Mirabal was playing volleyball in his backyard on Dec. 15 with teammates. He was going to wait until his friends left to check the email for fear of rejection. Instead, with them huddled around, he opened the email and everyone started screaming, “Yo!”

Spalding was with Mirabal and headed home to share the moment with his parents when he received a text from the MIT volleyball coach walking out the door congratulating him. “Welcome to the MIT family,” it read.

Flaherty had to wait until March 14 — Pi Day — to see if he was going to make it three for three.

He was driving home from Joshua Tree national park with his girlfriend and Tommy’s girlfriend in the car. The traffic was so bad it came to a standstill so he checked his cellphone.

“I opened it up. I saw the confetti but didn’t realize what it meant until I got a couple lines down,” he said. “The first reaction was disbelief because I thought there was no chance after these two got in.”

In fact, Flaherty said the person doing the MIT interview admitted later, “I’m not going to lie. I thought that was the killer for your application.”

They’ll be playing NCAA Division III volleyball. Mirabal and Spalding will be roommates. “Vaughan will room with someone else because he said he’d be too comfortable with us and be a bad roommate,” Spalding said.

So are they really OK leaving Southern California?

“I wouldn’t say OK with it,” Spalding said.

“It is a sacrifice,” Mirabal said.

Just know the beach will always draw them back to sunny Southern California as the three sat in the Redondo Union volleyball locker room wearing shorts, sandals and their MIT shirts.

“As much as we study, I feel at the end of the day we want to have fun,” Spalding said.

They’re not expecting to re-create “Animal House” at MIT, but let’s see what happens when three surfer dudes from the same high school in California show up with open minds and lots of ideas to explore.

Ben Keaton, who is best known for playing Father Austin Purcell in the iconic Channel 4 sitcom, has died at the age of 70 – tributes have poured in for the ‘wonderful actor’

Father Ted actor Ben Keaton has passed away aged 70. Keaton, who portrayed Father Austin Purcell in the beloved comedy series, alongside appearances in Casualty and Doctors, died at Lincoln County Hospital on Friday, it has been announced.

His death notice reads: “Ben will be forever greatly missed, loved and fondly remembered by his ex-wife Polly, son Waldo and daughter Daisy, brothers Des and Thom, sister Jeanette.”

In tribute, the Nottingham Playhouse said: “We are so sorry to hear of the death of Ben Keaton, a wonderful actor who is fondly remembered in our 2008 production of Vertigo. Sending our deepest sympathies to his family and friends.”

READ MORE: Family friend of Brit, 22, left to rot in Dubai jail shares update on ‘year of hell’READ MORE: Donald Trump threatens to obliterate Iran’s power plants and gives 48 hour deadline

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Meanwhile, a Father Ted fan X account shared: “Saddened to hear of the passing of actor Ben Keaton. We knew him as Father Austin Purcell (one of my favourite one-off characters). He was a regular at ComicCon events, so I imagine many got to meet him over the years. My thoughts are with his family, friends, and many fans.”, reports the Daily Star.

Outside his television work, the Irishman was a distinguished stage performer. He dedicated much of his professional life to The Royal Exchange Theatre in Manchester, appearing in an eclectic array of productions from American Buffalo to Hay Fever.

A versatile artist, he co-established the improv group South Of The River and served in a senior position at the Creative Academy. His awards collection showcased his range, including the 1986 Perrier Comedy Award and two Best Actor accolades from the Manchester Evening News, culminating in a nomination for the esteemed Laurence Olivier Awards.

Honouring him in a message on X (formerly Twitter), one admirer wrote: “RIP Ben Keaton. A great actor and comedian – there can be little praise higher (if at all) in that he stole the scene every time he appeared in Father Ted. Off to the great parochial house in the sky.”

In 2022, Keaton witnessed an unexpected surge in digital popularity after being surrounded by fans seeking autographs at the CovCon event in Coventry. The frenzy intensified when he joined forces with fellow Father Ted cast members Joe Rooney (Father Damo), Michael Redmond (Father Stone), and Patrick McDonnell (Eoin McLove) to film an impromptu TikTok video.

Looking back on the viral sensation, Keaton told The Irish Sun: “The video went from 500 views to 50,000 and up and up. Joe now says we are up at half a million views on TikTok. It’s incredible.” He confessed he was frequently astonished by the lasting impact of his fleeting, scene-stealing turn as the world’s most tedious priest.

Drawing comparisons to his other roles, Keaton remarked: “I appeared in Casualty for three years, nobody cares. I did three minutes on Father Ted and it’s all people want to talk about and something which just sails through time.”

For more of the latest showbiz news and gossip, follow Mirror Celebs on TikTok, Snapchat, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and Threads.

Neil Sedaka, the singer and songwriter whose signature hits include “Calendar Girl” and “Breaking Up Is Hard to Do,” died of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease.

The condition is caused by the buildup of plaque — meaning fats, cholesterol and other substances — in and on the artery walls, which can lead to events such as heart attacks, strokes and aneurysms. According to the American Heart Assn., atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death worldwide.

The musician’s death certificate, published Wednesday by the New York Post, also listed kidney failure as a contributing factor.

Sedaka died Feb. 27 in Los Angeles at age 86. The songwriter’s family previously told The Times that his death was sudden.

“Our family is devastated by the sudden passing of our beloved husband, father and grandfather, Neil Sedaka,” their statement read. “A true rock and roll legend, an inspiration to millions, but most importantly, at least to those of us who were lucky enough to know him, an incredible human being who will be deeply missed.”

Born and raised in Brooklyn, N.Y., Sedaka was a Juilliard-trained classical pianist who translated his skill to pop stardom in the 1960s. His popularity as a performer waxed and waned over the years, but he maintained a steady career writing hits for other artists for decades, collaborating with lyricists such as Howard Greenfield.

“Songwriting is a difficult undertaking that gets harder and harder because you have to top your past work,” Sedaka told The Times in 1996. “You have to keep proving yourself. … It’s wonderful to sing ‘Calendar Girl’ and ‘Breaking Up Is Hard to Do,’ but you need more than that. You have to break new ground. As an artist, I have to choose what I feel is good and hope that the public will go along with it.”

Sedaka is survived by his wife Leba; children Dara and Marc; and three grandchildren.

SACRAMENTO — Every two years, elite athletes compete in the Olympics, biennial plants — like carrots and onions — produce seeds and people across America look on with consternation and mounting impatience as California counts its election ballots.

The prolonged tally has become as much a part of electioneering in the Golden State as wall-to-wall advertising, high-flown promises and overstuffed mailboxes groaning beneath the weight of endless campaign fliers.

The tabulation — which can last weeks past election day — is the product, in large part, of a commendable objective: Encouraging as many people as possible to vote.

California, which mails a ballot to every eligible voter, ranks near the top of states in the ease of its elections. That’s something to be celebrated. Voting is a way to help steer the direction of our state and nation and invest, as an active participant, in its future.

Yay, participatory democracy!

Unfortunately, the lag time between election day and the final results has led to all sorts of wild, unfounded claims, peddled mainly by Republicans seeking to curry favor with the sore-losing President Trump by parroting his conspiratorial gabbling.

“They hold the elections open for weeks after election day,” House Speaker Mike Johnson said recently, falsely suggesting that chicanery cost the GOP three House seats in California in 2024. “It looks on its face to be fraudulent.”

That’s a lot of, um, hooey.

There is no rampant cheating or election fraud in California. Period. Full stop.

Still, those sorts of phony statements have deeply diminished faith in our elections and our increasingly rickety democracy.

So — what if it were possible to preserve California’s friendly voting system while, at the same time, speeding up the tabulation of its many millions of ballots?

Kim Alexander believes it’s possible to do both.

“We need to stop explaining why it’s taking so long and start figuring out how to [produce election results] in a more satisfying way,” she said. “There are a lot of things that we could do better and do differently. It just takes some creative thinking and some will.”

Simply put, “The longer it takes to count ballots, the more voter confidence erodes.”

Alexander, head of the nonpartisan California Voter Foundation, has spent more than three decades working to make the state’s elections more efficient, more transparent and more accountable.

Her interest in politics and election mechanics came about while growing up in Culver City, where her father served as a councilman and mayor.

As a 7-year-old, stationed in the garage, it was Alexander’s job to track the returns in her dad’s first campaign, toting up the numbers at an election night party while her mom, posted in the kitchen, called the city clerk for updates. Even at that young age, Alexander learned the importance of a fair and efficient tabulation process.

Over the years, she watched as her father’s political career was stymied by a Democratic gerrymander, which blocked any hopes he had of being elected to Congress or the Legislature as a moderate Republican. She saw firsthand the influence of money in politics. (Her father told her of turning away donations that came with strings attached.) That helped turn her into a political reformer.

After working as a legislative staffer and serving a stint at Common Cause, the good-government lobbying group, Alexander took over the California Voter Foundation in 1994.

As a political noncombatant, Alexander won’t say how it feels, and whether these days she’s more or less optimistic, watching as reckless attacks on our elections come from inside the White House. “I like to describe myself as a realist with high goals,” is all she’d allow.

There are good reasons why it takes California so long to count its ballots.

First off, there are a lot of them; more than 16 million residents voted in the last presidential election, more than the population of all but 10 states. Voting by mail has exploded in popularity and it takes longer to count those ballots, as many don’t arrive until after election day. Also, there are a number of safeguards to prevent fraud and ensure an accurate count. “We’re checking all the signatures,” Alexander said. “We’re making sure nobody votes twice.”

Simply explaining those facts can help build trust, she said. However, that won’t speed up the state’s vote counting. Here, Alexander suggested, are some things that can:

— Increase funding for California’s 58 counties to expand equipment, staff and the space needed to process ballots. In recent years, the state has been asking local election officials to do more and more without reimbursing their costs.

— Educate voters and encourage them to turn their ballots in earlier. Along those lines, a system called “sign, scan and go” allows voters to return their mail ballots in person at a designated polling place. A pilot program in Placer County found that that shaved three to four days off processing time. The system could be implemented statewide.

— Better manage California’s voter database, doing so from the top down in Sacramento, rather than having counties oversee their data and feed it into the system. That bottom-up approach creates delays and a lag time in processing ballots.

— Create “ballot swap” days to speed delivery of out-of-county ballots where they belong, also saving time. (Under California law, voters can return their ballot anywhere in the state, but it must be routed to their home county to be tabulated. That process can now take more than a week.)

The problem, apart from perennial budget pressures, is that interest in election mechanics — a technical and arcane subject if ever there was one — is episodic and fleeting. It’s like worrying about a leaky roof when the temperature is 95 degrees outside and the sun is blazing.

But even without voters clamoring to address California’s slow-poke vote count, lawmakers should act.

Gov. Gavin Newsom recently rose to defend the state’s “safe and secure elections” against one of Trump’s many unwarranted attacks. If he wants to burnish his credentials for a 2028 presidential run — which Newsom very much does — one way would be to speed up delivery of its election results.

That way the rest of the country won’t be asking again in November: What the heck’s with California?

A Lebanese father mourned the death of his four daughters, mother, father, brother-in-law and nephew, after they were killed in an Israeli attack. Israel has killed at least 770 people in Lebanon since last Monday. Around 750,000 have been forcibly displaced.

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WASHINGTON — Days after he was named Iran’s next supreme leader, and over a week since U.S. and Israeli bombing wiped out much of his family, Mojtaba Khamenei issued his first statement on Thursday demanding vengeance against the alliance over the war it unleashed.

He called on Iranian forces to continue thwarting vital shipping traffic through the Strait of Hormuz. He vowed to open new fronts against the United States and Israel. And he warned that Gulf states hosting U.S. bases would remain targets of Iranian attack.

Yet, what concerned the White House most was what the new supreme leader didn’t say.

Khamenei made no mention of a strategic endeavor that had brought the Islamic Republic to war: Its nuclear program, suspected for decades of harboring military dimensions.

The omission was not lost on officials in the Trump administration, who told The Times they are largely in the dark over the new supreme leader’s stance on whether Iran should break out to build a nuclear weapon.

Khamenei’s deep alliance with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, which has advocated for weaponization in the past, has raised concern that the new leader will depart from his father’s long-standing position against building a bomb.

U.S. intelligence assessments long held that the late ayatollah, Ali Khamenei, had adopted a strategy of remaining at the threshold of developing a nuclear weapon while avoiding the costs and risks of actually building one. In 2003, as the United States invaded Iraq over false claims that Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction, Khamenei issued a religious edict — a fatwa — declaring nuclear weapons to be forbidden under Islam.

That doctrine is now in doubt, with the new supreme leader wounded and stewing underground over the U.S. assault that has devastated Iran’s military and killed his father, his mother and his sister, among other family members.

Concern among U.S. officials comes as Trump has expressed interest in ending the war “very soon,” even though a stockpile of uranium — a key ingredient in the construction of nuclear weapons — remains buried but accessible to Iranian authorities.

Defense officials are skeptical that the nuclear program can be fully dismantled without sending in a substantial U.S. ground force, an escalation that Trump has sought to avoid. But ending the war with Iran’s nuclear infrastructure partially intact could have devastating repercussions. The U.S.-Israeli campaign could force the new Iranian leader to conclude that regime survival requires a nuclear deterrent, one official said.

“Even if President Trump declares victory tomorrow, and points to the damage done to Iran’s conventional military, the fact of the matter is you have a more hardline regime in place with the key ingredients for a nuclear weapon,” said Eric Brewer, deputy vice president of the nuclear materials security program at the Nuclear Threat Initiative, who noted that Tehran still has a stockpile of 60% enriched uranium — close to weapons grade — and advanced centrifuges to take it over the finish line.

“What’s the plan for day after,” Brewer added, “as Iran starts to build back, and potentially seeks nuclear weapons?”

Patrick Clawson, director of the Iran program at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, said that Mojtaba Khamenei’s position on the nuclear program has been a stubborn mystery. Reports spreading on social media that he opposed the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, a nuclear deal brokered among world powers and Iran during the Obama administration, are unsubstantiated, he said.

“While Mojtaba often advised his father on domestic issues, there is much less information about his position on foreign affairs, other than opposition to Israel,” Clawson said. “I have never seen any indications he took a position about the JCPOA.”

President Trump has outlined the destruction of Iran’s nuclear capabilities as a major goal. But in closed door briefings to Congress, defense officials have been less emphatic, according to Democratic lawmakers.

On Tuesday, shortly after Khamenei was named to succeed his father, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth warned him to disavow continued nuclear work in an exchange with reporters.

“He would be wise to heed the words of our president, which is to not pursue nuclear weapons,” Hegseth said, “and come out and state as such.”