honored

“Los Angeles sports legend” is the most appropriate way to describe the contributions of Gail Goodrich, who returned to Southern California on Friday as an 82-year-old full of stamina and humbleness after his alma mater, Sun Valley Poly High, named its gymnasium the Gail Goodrich Sports Complex.

“This is where it all started,” Goodrich said. “I have great memories here. I’m emotional that they’re going to name the gym after me. I had great coaches. I had great teammates. I’ve been one to always look to the future. Today is a day to recall and look back.”

There are few individuals in sports history who achieved what he accomplished in his hometown as a basketball standout. He led Poly to the City championship over Manual Arts in 1961, helped UCLA win two NCAA titles under coach John Wooden, including a record-setting 42-point performance in the 1965 final, and won an NBA title as the Lakers’ leading scorer in 1971-72 on a team that had a 33-game winning streak and featured fellow future Hall of Famers Jerry West and Wilt Chamberlain.

In the 1961 title game, Goodrich suffered an ankle injury in the third quarter. He came back to dominate the fourth quarter, finishing with 29 points. He played the game on a Wednesday, graduated on a Friday and was at UCLA that Monday.

Four of Goodrich’s high school teammates attended Friday’s ceremony, including center Ernie Brandt, who said, “I’m the guy who passed the ball to him all the time.”

This was the second gym-naming ceremony for Goodrich, who traveled from his home in Idaho in 2015 to see Madison Middle School in North Hollywood name its gym the Gail Goodrich Sports Center.

He graduated from Madison at 5 feet 2 and 99 pounds. At Poly, by his senior year, he was nearing 6 feet tall. He was known for his accurate left-handed shooting touch. He recalled how his father built a basket at home and he practiced into the night.

“I lived at the Poly gym. I became a gym rat. The gym became my second home,” he said.

He helped launch Wooden’s UCLA basketball dynasty that would lead to 10 titles in 12 years. Assistant coach Jerry Norman was one of the few recruiters to pay attention to him in high school and was at Poly on Friday. Goodrich was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1996.

In 2014, Goodrich wrote about Wooden, “He never talked about winning. He talked about being a success and being able to look in the mirror at the end of the day. If you did the very best you could, that’s all anybody could ask.”

Poly opened its gym two seasons ago. Officials sought recommendations for dedicating the gym. Poly coach Joe Wyatt said there was no need for debate.

“I said, ‘Gail Goodrich.’ That’s an easy one. That’s perfect,” Wyatt said.

“As a friend told me, ‘I reached the top of the mountain for my craft,’” Goodrich told Poly students who filled up the bleachers. “Yes, you will get roadblocks and get knocked down. Sometimes you have to take three steps back, but find your mountain and don’t let anyone tell you you can’t do it.”

Director Ryan Coogler and artist Mary Corse will be honored at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art’s 14th annual Art+Film Gala, the museum announced Sunday.

The splashy, high-fashion dinner is co-chaired by LACMA trustee Eva Chow and Leonardo DiCaprio, and is scheduled to take place on Nov. 1. It will be the last such event to occur before the museum opens its new Peter Zumthor-designed building next spring.

Los Angeles is uniquely suited for the gala, which seeks to highlight and strengthen the connections between film and visual art by bringing the two communities together in grand style. Last year’s honorees were Baz Luhrmann and Simone Leigh, and per usual, a host of celebrity guests attended the party including Blake Lively, Kim Kardashian, Laura Dern, Viola Davis, Andrew Garfield and Sarah Paulson. Charli XCX closed out the night with a banger.

LACMA Director and Chief Executive Michael Govan called last year’s event, which raised $6.4 million, its most successful ever. Proceeds go toward LACMA’s mission of making film more central to its programming, as well as toward funding exhibitions, acquisitions and educational programming.

Mary Corse will be honored at LACMA’s Art + Film gala.

(Indah Datou)

Other previous honorees include artists Helen Pashgian, Betye Saar, Catherine Opie, Mark Bradford, Robert Irwin, James Turrell, Barbara Kruger, David Hockney, Ed Ruscha and John Baldessari. On the film side there has been Park Chan-wook, Alfonso Cuarón, Guillermo del Toro, George Lucas, Kathryn Bigelow, Alejandro González Iñárritu, Quentin Tarantino, Martin Scorsese, Stanley Kubrick and Clint Eastwood.

Coogler — who directed “Black Panther,” “Creed” and “Fruitvale Station” — is having a stellar year. His gory Southern-vampire horror film “Sinners,” which was released in mid-April, has been a massive hit. The film, which had a budget of $90 million, grossed $48 million in ticket sales in the U.S. and Canada during its opening weekend, and has gone on to gross more than $365 million worldwide.

Topanga-based painter Mary Corse is known for her connection to Southern California’s Light and Space movement, but her career has been defined by her willingness to experiment with form and various materials, including ceramics and acrylic on canvas. Corse devoted much of her life to her “White Light” series, which involves layering tiny glass beads — called microspheres — over white acrylic paint for a constantly shifting, reflective effect.

“Mary Corse has continually expanded the possibilities of painting in her exquisite works, which invite us to think deeply about the nature of perception,” said Govan in a statement. “Ryan Coogler’s films do something equally transformative. Through masterful storytelling and visual innovation, he reframes history, redefines narratives and opens new worlds of possibility.”

Veteran music supervisor Robin Kaye, best known for her lengthy tenure on “American Idol,” leaves behind a legacy of “light, kindness, and joy.”

Singer-songwriter and former “Idol” contestant Didi Benami in a Tuesday Instagram story praised Kaye as “one of the kindest souls I’ve ever had the privilege of working with” as she mourned the executive’s death. Kaye and her husband Tom Deluca are the victims of a double homicide that occurred in their Encino home, Los Angeles police announced Tuesday. They both died at age 70.

“Still in disbelief and trying to make sense of it all. My heart is broken. Some souls leave a light behind even after they’re gone,” Benami wrote in another Instagram post shared Wednesday. “Robin, you are so loved. Always will be. Honoring the light, kindness, and joy you brought into this world. May your memory— and the love you gave —never be forgotten.”

Vocal coach Benami, who competed on Season 9 of “Idol,” was among the musicians and music industry figures paying tribute on social media to Kaye and her contributions. Kaye served as a music supervisor on “American Idol” from 2009 to 2023 and contributed to nearly 300 episodes during her tenure.

In a statement shared with The Times on Tuesday, a spokesperson for “American Idol” described Kaye as a “cornerstone of the ‘Idol’ family” and said the production was “devastated” by news of her and Deluca’s deaths. “She was truly loved and respected by all who came in contact with her,” the statement added.

Randy Jackson, one of “American Idol’s” original trio of judges, echoed those sentiments on Instagram, writing on Tuesday that Kaye was a “dear friend to me and so many — judges, executives, contestants, publishers, writers, producers, and artists alike.” He posted a photo of himself with Kaye, noting in his caption that she “consistently went the extra mile, meticulously ensuring songs were placed and cleared for the show.”

“She was truly one of a kind,” he said.

In a call with The Times on Wednesday, longtime “Idol” music provider Brad Segal highlighted Kaye’s sympathetic nature, loyalty and her dedicated work ethic. “We all hope for that when you meet somebody,” he said. Segal said he met Kaye in the early aughts and had crossed paths with her over the years at other TV productions.

He praised Kaye’s wealth of “knowledge of all types of music” and he said she provided a comfortable working experience that helped set the foundation of their years-long collaborations on “Idol.” Segal told The Times that Kaye was accommodating to her collaborators, ranging from him to the contestants she worked with. Simply, “she cared.”

“She cared about what she did. She cared about being fair,” Segal said.

Kaye and Deluca are believed to have been killed after walking in on a burglary suspect inside their $4.5-million home Thursday, according to LAPD. The suspect — identified by homicide investigators as 22-year-old Encino resident Raymond Boodarian — is believed to have entered the heavily secured home through an unlocked door, police said. After the couple returned home, “a confrontation ensued, which resulted in the suspect taking their lives,” police said.

Their bodies were not discovered until officers responded Monday around 2:30 p.m. to a welfare check in the 4700 block of White Oak Avenue, where they discovered two people inside the home, LAPD Det. Meghan Aguilar said early Tuesday. Paramedics responded and declared the pair dead at the scene.

Boodarian was apprehended Tuesday without incident by LAPD and FBI task force officers, Los Angeles Police Lt. Guy Golan, said. The killings appeared to be random, Golan said, but investigators were looking for any connection between the suspect and Deluca and Kaye.

Times staff writer Richard Winton and deputy editor Joe Serna contributed to this report.

Dodgers utility player Kiké Hernández was not born and raised in Los Angeles.

A North Hollywood mural seemingly inspired by the San Juan, Puerto Rico, native’s stance on immigration sweeps shows that doesn’t matter.

Hernández began a June 14 Instagram post by stating, “I may not be Born & Raised, but this city adopted me as one of their own.”

Local artist Louie Palsino has cemented the second part of that statement in a new mural on the side of the Noho Tires & Wheels building on the 5600 block of Lankershim Boulevard. It features Hernández’s image surrounded by the words “Born X Raised” and “Los Angeles.”

Hernández said plenty more in the post, which seems to have inspired Palsino. The two-time World Series champion expressed support for his adopted city’s immigrants and dismay at how many of them were being treated in a series of sweeps by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The sweeps in Los Angeles have sparked protests locally and elsewhere in the country.

“I am saddened and infuriated by what’s happening in our country and our city,” Hernández wrote. “Los Angeles and Dodger fans have welcomed me, supported me and shown me nothing but kindness and love. This is my second home. And I cannot stand to see our community being violated, profiled, abused and ripped apart. ALL people deserve to be treated with respect, dignity and human rights.”

Under the name Sloe Motions, Palsino has painted a number of high-profile murals, including one in the Fashion District of Kobe and Gianna Bryant that was vandalized, restored, then vandalized again all within the last few months.

He declined to discuss the Hernández mural for this story, instead directing The Times to a statement he posted about it on Instagram last week.

“Thank you @kikehndez for standing up for what is right and for Los Angeles,” Palsino wrote. “this ain’t a political post or anything to stir up any government agenda to divide us. this is just paying homage to standing up for what is right and a real one.god over government.”

Palsino painted the Hernández mural on a building that already featured two of his other Dodgers-themed pieces — one of legendary broadcaster Vin Scully on an adjoining wall and one of iconic Mexican pitcher Fernando Valenzuela on the gate in front of the garage’s driveway

When the gate is pulled open, a split image of Valenzuela and Hernandez is created.

Local artist Louie Palsino has painted several Dodgers-themed murals on the Noho Tires & Wheels building in North Hollywood, including images of (clockwise from left) Vin Scully, Kiké Hernández and Fernando Valenzuela.

(Chuck Schilken / Los Angeles Times)

Hernández has been a Dodgers fan favorite since his first stint with the team in 2015-20. In 2017, he hit three home runs, including a grand slam, in Game 5 of the National League Championship Series against the Chicago Cubs to help send the Dodgers to the World Series.

He signed with the Boston Red Sox as a free agent after the Dodgers’ 2020 World Series championship, but returned to L.A. in a July 2023 trade. Hernández hit .262 in 54 games with the Dodgers that season, helping him earn a one-year, $4-million contract for 2024.

Last postseason, Hernández was a key member of another Dodgers championship team. He hit one of the Dodgers’ two solo home runs in a 2-0 win against the San Diego Padres in the decisive Game 5 of the NL Division Series. He then contributed seven hits and four RBIs in the NLCS against the New York Mets and five hits against the New York Yankees in the 2024 World Series.

When Candace Parker was on the court, the Sparks were dominant. On the afternoon her jersey was retired, they had a chance to channel that energy — but the Sparks were anything but overpowering.

In a matchup between the two franchises Parker led to WNBA titles — the Sparks and Chicago Sky — her hometown team played spoiler, earning a 92-85 victory at Crypto.com Arena.

Angel Reese, the self-proclaimed queen of “Mebounds,” proved too much for L.A. to handle — for the second time in five days.

Reese finished with 16 rebounds, including four on the offensive glass. Her impact extended beyond the boards, with Reese adding 24 points and seven assists.

Entering the game, Sparks coach Lynne Roberts praised Reese as “elite,” underscoring her high motor and physicality, adding that the Sparks would need to be the aggressors to slow her down.

But they were out-hustled and out-muscled down the final stretch of the game.

“We just got to be tougher,” Roberts said. “Sustain runs, handle adversity, performance issues, bad calls — whatever.”

For the Sparks, it was a must-win game — not only to build on their recent 85–75 win over the Indiana Fever, but also to avoid spoiling Parker’s retirement celebration.

“We would have loved [to have won],” Roberts added. “I think we all wanted that win for her, so it’s disappointing — it’s kind of extra disappointing.”

Sparks guard Kelsey Plum (10) draws a foul while driving in front of Chicago Sky forward Angel Reese Sunday at Crytpo.com Arena.

(Jessie Alcheh / Associated Press)

While the Sparks (5-12) struggled against Reese for most of the game, forward Emma Cannon gave L.A. a surge off the bench. Undersized Cannon made life difficult for Reese during key stretches, drawing a technical foul during a tense third-quarter exchange in the post.

Cannon’s second-half performance briefly turned the tide. With the Sparks trailing by 12 — their largest deficit of the game — Cannon helped fuel a 24–5 run that put L.A. ahead 60–53. She finished with a season-high 15 points in four minutes.

But the Sky didn’t go away. By the end of the third, the Sparks led just 62–61 — and in the fourth, Chicago closed strong. Behind Reese, the Sky ballooned the lead back to double digits — 82–72 — too much for the Sparks to overcome.

“We have to learn how to finish games, and it’s not necessarily what the other team does,” Cannon said. “It’s just about us actually digging in and buying in and finishing it.”

A rally in the final minutes, led by Kelsey Plum, Azurá Stevens and Dearica Hamby, fell short.

Plum (22 points), Stevens (17 points) and Hamby (20 points) accounted for the bulk of the Sparks’ offense, combining for 59 of the team’s 85 points.

“It’s a choice when you’re hit with adversity or you lose, when you don’t perform the way you want to,” Roberts said on learning lessons from losses. “It’s a choice as to how you approach it, and there is no magic formula.”

Parker honored

The game was a tribute to Parker. At the arena entrance, fans were greeted by a purple and gold floral arrangement shaped like the No. 3. Video messages from Lakers legends, including Magic Johnson and Michael Cooper, played throughout the festivities.

Before Parker received a thunderous ovation as her No. 3 jersey was revealed in the rafters, she addressed the fans.

“They say athletes have two deaths — one being when your career ends — but I look at it as two lives,” Parker said during her halftime speech. “It’s never easy to put the ball down and move from your first love. That’s something I learned throughout my career here through basketball, and I’m going to carry it into the next phase of life.”

Former Sparks star Candace Parker waves while standing beside her family during her jersey retirement ceremony Sunday at Crypto.com Arena.

(Jessie Alcheh / Associated Press)

Before the game, she also reflected on the full-circle moment — standing in the same arena where she won her first WNBA championship, fittingly against her hometown team, the Chicago Sky. She won a title with the Sky in 2021 and will see her jersey retired by the franchise this August.

“Seeing the No. 3 in the rafters where I first picked up the ball, and where is home now, is incredible,” Parker said. “It’s about dreams and opportunity. … So I hope that that inspires those little girls out there.”

Her jersey is just the third retired in Sparks history, joining former teammate Leslie’s No. 9 and longtime general manager Penny Toler’s No. 11.

“When it was time for me to say goodbye, I knew when I handed the keys to Candace Parker,” said Leslie, who introduced Parker during the halftime jersey retirement ceremony. “She not only took the key to the building — but she ran with it.”

WASHINGTON — President Trump honored Juneteenth in each of his first four years as president, even before it became a federal holiday. He even claimed once to have made it “famous.”

But on this year’s Juneteenth holiday on Thursday, the usually talkative president kept silent about a day important to Black Americans for marking the end of slavery in the country he leads again.

No words about it from his lips, on paper or through his social media site.

Asked whether Trump would commemorate Juneteenth in any way, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters: “I’m not tracking his signature on a proclamation today. I know this is a federal holiday. I want to thank all of you for showing up to work. We are certainly here. We’re working 24/7 right now.”

Asked in a follow-up question whether Trump might recognize the occasion another way or on another day, Leavitt said, “I just answered that question for you.”

Trump’s silence was a sharp contrast from his prior acknowledgment of the holiday. Juneteenth celebrates the end of slavery in the United States by commemorating June 19, 1865, when Union soldiers brought the news of freedom to enslaved Black people in Galveston, Texas. Their freedom came more than two years after President Abraham Lincoln liberated slaves in the Confederacy by signing the Emancipation Proclamation during the Civil War.

Trump’s quiet on the issue also deviated from White House guidance that Trump planned to sign a Juneteenth proclamation. Leavitt didn’t explain the change. Trump held no public events Thursday, but he shared statements about Iran, the TikTok app and Fed chairman Jerome Powell on his social media site.

He had more to say about Juneteenth in yearly statements in his first term.

In 2017, Trump invoked the “soulful festivities and emotional rejoicing” that swept through the Galveston crowd when a major general delivered the news that all enslaved people were free.

He told the Galveston story in each of the next three years. “Together, we honor the unbreakable spirit and countless contributions of generations of African Americans to the story of American greatness,” he added in his 2018 statement.

In 2019: “Across our country, the contributions of African Americans continue to enrich every facet of American life.”

In 2020: “June reminds us of both the unimaginable injustice of slavery and the incomparable joy that must have attended emancipation. It is both a remembrance of a blight on our history and a celebration of our Nation’s unsurpassed ability to triumph over darkness.”

In 2020, after suspending his campaign rallies because of the COVID-19 pandemic, Trump chose Tulsa, Okla., as the place to resume his public gatherings, and scheduled a rally for June 19. But the decision met with such fierce criticism that Trump postponed the event by a day.

Black leaders had said it was offensive for Trump to choose June 19 and Tulsa for a campaign event, given the significance of Juneteenth and Tulsa being the place where, in 1921, a white mob looted and burned that city’s Greenwood district, an economically thriving area referred to as Black Wall Street. As many as 300 Black Tulsans were killed, and thousands were temporarily held in internment camps overseen by the National Guard.

In an interview with the Wall Street Journal days before the rally, Trump tried to put a positive spin on the situation by claiming that he had made Juneteenth “famous.” He said he changed the rally date out of respect for two African American friends and supporters.

“I did something good. I made it famous. I made Juneteenth very famous,” Trump said. “It’s actually an important event, it’s an important time. But nobody had heard of it. Very few people have heard of it.”

Generations of Black Americans celebrated Juneteenth long before it became a federal holiday in 2021 with the stroke of former President Joe Biden’s pen.

Later in 2020, Trump sought to woo Black voters with a series of campaign promises, including establishing Juneteenth as a federal holiday.

He lost the election, and that made it possible for Biden to sign the legislation establishing Juneteenth as the newest federal holiday.

Last year, Biden spoke briefly at a holiday concert on the South Lawn that featured performances by Gladys Knight and Patti LaBelle. Former Vice President Kamala Harris danced onstage with gospel singer Kirk Franklin.

Biden was spending this year’s holiday in Galveston, Texas, where he was set to speak at a historic African Methodist Episcopal church.

Superville writes for the Associated Press. AP writer Calvin Woodward contributed to this report.

The accomplished mother that photographer-writer Rachel Elizabeth Seed never knew is the star of her deeply affecting “A Photographic Memory,” one of last year’s best documentaries, finally making its way to Los Angeles theaters. This poetic gem is a journey from the weight of absence to the serenity of presence, thanks in no small part to the inquisitive, gifted woman pulled from obscurity: Sheila Turner-Seed, whose life was short but full and worth revitalizing.

Turner-Seed, a journalist, was 42 when she died in 1979, leaving behind an 18-month-old daughter, a bereft photographer husband (Brian Seed) and a legacy of wide-ranging, globe-trotting reportage that culminated in a renowned oral and visual history called “Images of Man.” The project was anchored by Turner-Seed’s groundbreaking interviews with the world’s best living photographers at the time, including Henri Cartier-Bresson, Cecil Beaton, Lisette Model and Gordon Parks. And though she only ever referred to herself as an amateur with a camera, Turner-Seed once saw a photo of hers land on the cover of the New York Times.

That her daughter also pursued photography and nonfiction storytelling could be viewed as the manifestation of a deeply felt connection. Was following her mother’s passion the most readily available way to process a personal loss the director essentially had no memory of? Seed only began exploring the true breadth and emotion of her mother’s legacy when she herself reached the age that her mom died, a milestone fraught for many grown, parentless children.

What the younger Seed found, accompanied by memories from her mother’s colleagues, was a rich archive of adventurous work and personal expression: photos, journals, contact sheets, Super8 film, audio pieces and a trove of interviews. These discussions reveal a soulful, probing mind that not only kept her subjects on their toes, but warmly elicited thoughtful answers about the nature of their moment-in-time art.

Turner-Seed’s own writing lays bare a struggle for self-fulfillment, to reconcile the traditional values pushed by her Jewish immigrant parents with a restless need to discover and make her own way. In an especially revealing journal entry from 1972, she wonders if she’ll grow in her chosen fields if she marries and has a child — but also, will she want to? A lanky, warm presence with a sociable smile, Turner-Seed is never far from a keenly observed thought or ambivalent feeling.

Why “A Photographic Memory” stands out, however, is her daughter’s handling of this precious life. It’s a heartbreakingly imaginative conjuring of the parent-child connection that never came to be, but which Seed and her editors (including documentary cutting legend Maya Daisy Hawke) finesse to life.

With melancholy and playfulness both, Seed threads in her own introspective voice-over and contemporary footage (poring over material, visiting her dad, sparring with a boyfriend). She also adds grainy period re-creations of her mom’s interviews, Seed playing her own parent in these 8mm snippets. Eventually, technology allows these distant intimates to share a frame.

Biographical and essayistic, “A Photographic Memory” suggests both a woman interested in locating her remarkable mother, gone too soon, and an artist exploring her own place. Of the impulse to take a photo, to grab the moment, we hear Cartier-Bresson excitedly tell Turner-Seed, “Life is once, forever.” Her future daughter’s marvelous movie embodies that idea beautifully.

June 10 (UPI) — President Donald Trump announced Tuesday that Army bases, which honored Confederate leaders before 2023, will have their original names reinstated. Trump said, “it’s no time to change.”

Trump made the announcement during a speech at Fort Bragg to celebrate the Army’s 250th birthday, which will also be celebrated this weekend in Washington, D.C., with a military parade.

“For a little breaking news, we are also going to be restoring the names to Fort Pickett, Fort Hood, Fort Gordon, Fort Rucker, Fort Polk, Fort A.P. Hill and Fort Robert E. Lee,” Trump said.

“We won a lot of battles out of those forts. It’s no time to change. And I’m superstitious. I like to keep it going,” he added.

Fort Bragg’s name was recently restored from Fort Liberty after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth signed an order earlier this year. Instead of honoring Confederate general Braxton Bragg, the base now honors World War II paratrooper and Silver Star recipient Roland Bragg.

“Fort Bragg, it shall always remain. That’s never going to be happening again,” Trump said Tuesday.

The Pentagon also restored Fort Moore’s original name to Fort Benning, with the retired name honoring a different man and not Confederate general, Lt. Gen. Henry Benning. The Georgia base now honors Corporal Fred Benning, who was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross for extraordinary heroism during World War I.

While most of the bases will be renamed in honor of someone with the same surname, Trump implied that Fort A.P. Hill and Fort Robert E. Lee would not.

“We won two world wars in those forts,” Trump told supporters last July during a campaign rally, as he criticized the Biden administration for dropping the bases’ original names.

Former President Biden ordered the bases be renamed in 2021 following Black Lives Matter protests the previous year. Biden signed a bill that created a naming commission to change the names of forts that honored Confederates, while giving the commission three years to complete the job.

During Tuesday’s speech, Trump also discussed the protests in Los Angeles and his deployment of National Guardsmen and Marines, saying “this anarchy will not stand.”

“Generations of Army heroes did not shed their blood on distant shores only to watch our country be destroyed by invasion and third world lawlessness here at home, like is happening in California,” Trump said.

“As commander in chief, I will not let that happen. It’s never going to happen. What you’re witnessing in California is a full-blown assault on peace, on public order and on national sovereignty carried out by rioters bearing foreign flags with the aim of continuing a foreign invasion of our country,” the president continued.

“This week, we remember that we only have a country because we first had an Army — and after 250 years, we still proudly declare that we are free because you are strong.”

The Army will continue the celebration of its 250th anniversary with a military parade on Saturday in Washington, D.C. Saturday is also Flag Day and Trump’s 79th birthday.