Pasadena Mayor Victor Gordo took a break on a warm day, wiped his brow and pointed out the Folgers coffee can in the corner of his office.
He’s told the story many times, but felt it was worth repeating, given recent events.
For years, Gordo’s parents were undocumented. They crossed the border from Zacatecas, Mexico, when he was a young child, settled in Pasadena and raised their family. Gordo’s father was a dishwasher and cook; his mother was a seamstress in a factory that used to be across from City Hall. The family lived in a converted garage.
“Under my parents’ bed was a Folgers coffee can, and in that can was cash, a list of names and phone numbers, copies of birth certificates and identification cards,” said Gordo, who was the oldest child and describes himself as a latchkey kid.
“If my parents didn’t come home, I was to take that can and go knock on the neighbor’s house” and get help, Gordo said.
The can in his office isn’t the original. It’s a replica, and a reminder.
Pasadena Mayor Victor Gordo is the son of immigrant parents.
(Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times)
With federal raids across Southern California, families and neighborhoods have been reeling. People have been afraid to leave the house following arrests at car washes, building supply centers, restaurants, the Garment District and street vending locations.
Gordo knows how they feel.
“We lived in fear, and that’s what’s so offensive about this, and painful, frankly,” he said.
In Pasadena, Gordo said, it hasn’t been clear whether the sweeps are being conducted by legit federal agents or vigilantes. Their cars are unmarked. Their faces are shielded. Their uniforms don’t answer any questions.
In recent days, a man exited a vehicle in Pasadena and pointed a gun in the direction of protesters before speeding away, emergency lights flashing. At a bus stop, several men were detained, some of whom were on their way to work on construction sites in the post-fire rebuilding of Altadena, according to Gordo.
And the city canceled some swimming and other recreational programs Saturday amid fears of increased federal enforcement activity. Gordo told The Times that masked men with guns and vests had chased several men at Villa Parke.
“They’re creating volatile, dangerous situations,” Gordo told me, saying he fears that bullets will fly through neighborhoods, or that police will arrive on scene and not know what’s what or who’s who.
Even people with legal status are wary, Gordo said, because some of the raids appear to be arbitrary and indiscriminate. As my colleague Rachel Uranga reported, the majority of those arrested in the first 10 days of June in Southern California had no criminal records, despite Trump’s vow to reel in “the worst of the worst.”
“I’m carrying my passport with me,” Gordo said.
Pasadena Mayor Victor Gordo outside City Hall in Pasadena.
(Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times)
“The overreach is stigmatizing an entire swath of our society. Whether you look or sound like an immigrant, in the eyes of others, you are automatically considered an outsider, and that’s morally and legally wrong.”
Gordo’s positions on immigration enforcement haven’t always gotten straight A’s from immigrant rights advocates. In 2017, L.A. Progressive said Gordo’s coffee can story was compelling, but accused the then-councilman of waffling on a proposed city ordinance prohibiting police contacts with any federal law enforcement agencies.
The article said Gordo was opposed to local police “having contacts with ICE,” but said on one occasion that he “favored an exception for bad guys.”
Gordo ultimately voted in favor of that ordinance, which passed unanimously, and told me he feels now as he did then. The vast majority of undocumented immigrants are here to work hard and create opportunities for their families, he said. Same as his family. But there have to be consequences for “bad actors,” he added, and that’s a criminal justice matter, not an immigration issue.
“If the federal government or our own police believe there is someone who has violated the law, they should address that issue,” Gordo said. “But they should do it respecting the Constitution of the United States, and what the federal government is doing now is missing due process.”
Also missing, says Gordo, is any conversation about immigration reform that would serve the needs of employers and give immigrants a pathway to making even greater contributions.
He recalled that when he was about 10, his family moved back to Mexico temporarily as part of the process of establishing legal status in the U.S., which was made possible under the Carter administration. His father is a U.S. citizen, as was his late mother. Gordo and a sibling became attorneys; another is a doctor and yet another is an educator.
Now, said Gordo, there’s no path to legalization. There’s just this hypocritical system in which there is demand for immigrant labor in many industries, along with demonization of these very contributors.
Pablo Alvarado, a Pasadena resident and executive director of the National Day Laborer Organizing Network, told me he’s had differences with Gordo over the years. But he thinks the events of the last month have prompted the mayor to more fully embrace his immigrant identity.
“He’s stepping up to the moment and I’m very proud of what he’s doing,” said Alvarado, who has joined Gordo at vigils and demonstrations. “It’s one thing to tell the story of where you came from, and another thing to … confront the powers … behind these unlawful ICE operations. … I think he’s been fearless.”
Gordo told me he visited the Metropolitan Detention Center in downtown Los Angeles on June 18, with Rep. Judy Chu (D-Monterey Park) and state Sen. Sasha Renée Pérez (D-Alhambra), to check on arrestees. They were denied entry, but Gordo met a distraught woman from Pomona who was not being allowed to deliver heart medication to her husband.
Gordo offered his services as an attorney and was allowed entry along with the woman. He said he later learned that the husband had been arrested during his lunch break on a landscaping job, had been in the country 22 years with no criminal record and was in the process of obtaining a green card.
Gordo said that when he and the woman entered the detention center, the husband and wife were separated by a glass partition.
“She was crying and shaking,” Gordo said. “He was telling her it was all going to be okay. He was comforting her, and trying to smile.”
The partition had a small opening. They couldn’t fit their hands through it, but Gordo watched as the pair hooked their pinky fingers.
“All she could muster was, ‘I told you,’” Gordo said. “‘I told you not to go to work.’”
Former Vice President Kamala Harris’ husband, attorney Doug Emhoff, is joining the USC faculty to teach law students, the university plans to announce later Monday.
Emhoff, who received his law degree from USC in 1990, will start the job at the USC Gould School of Law on July 1. He taught at Georgetown University’s law school while his wife served as then-President Biden’s vice president and when she was the 2024 Democratic nominee for president.
“One of the best parts of my time as Second Gentleman was spending time with these students and young people all around the country — so I look forward to continuing to share my experiences with the next generation and hearing from them in the vibrant academic community at USC,” Emhoff said in a statement.
The announcement comes as Harris weighs running for California governor next year, a decision she is not expected to make until the end of the summer. On Monday, she made a surprise virtual appearance at a summit of Free & Just, an organization focused on highlighting the stories of people impacted by the reduction of access to abortion and other reproductive healthcare services.
Emhoff said mentoring law students is particularly critical at this time in the nation’s history.
“In this difficult moment for the legal community, I believe it is more important than ever to instill in the next generation of lawyers the same principles that drove me to the legal profession: the imperative of speaking out on behalf of the vulnerable, standing up for the rule of law, defending every citizen’s fundamental rights, and always fighting for justice, without fear or favor,” Emhoff said.
Emhoff, who lives in Brentwood with Harris, will remain a partner at the global law firm of Willkie Farr & Gallagher, which in April was among the firms that struck a deal with President Trump’s administration agreeing to conform with the president’s policies. The firm agreed to provide at least $100 million in pro bono legal work during Trump’s time in the White House and beyond, which the president said at the time will be dedicated to helping veterans, Gold Star families, law enforcement members and first responders.
Emhoff’s continued employment at the firm in the aftermath of the agreement raised eyebrows in progressive circles. He said Monday that he continues to disagree with his firm’s decision to settle with the White House, but remains at the firm because of his faith in his colleagues’ principles, which he said were demonstrated by pro bono work the firm’s attorneys from across the country did during the federal immigration raids by ICE agents and border patrol officers in Los Angeles
“I remain confident in the firm’s values, its phenomenal people, and meaningful work we’re doing for our clients and the communities we serve, which have not changed since the settlement—and that’s why I remain at the firm,” Emhoff said.
Days after the firm struck the deal, Emhoff said he disagreed with the decision.
“At this critical moment, this very critical moment, I urge my colleagues across the legal profession to remain vigilant, engaged, and unafraid to challenge actions that may erode our fundamental rights,” Emhoff said on April 3 at a gala dinner for Bet Tzedek, a Los Angeles-based legal aid organization where he has long volunteered. “Cause we know, the work of justice is never easy, but it is always necessary.”
WASHINGTON — Coming to court this week, a police officer’s widow wanted to prove that a man assaulted her husband during a mob’s attack on the U.S. Capitol and ultimately was responsible for her husband’s suicide nine days later. A jury’s verdict on Friday amounted to only a partial victory for Erin Smith in a lawsuit over her husband’s death.
The eight-member jury held a 69-year-old chiropractor, David Walls-Kaufman, liable for assaulting Metropolitan Police Officer Jeffrey Smith inside the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. They will hear more trial testimony before deciding whether to award Erin Smith any monetary damages over her husband’s assault.
But the judge presiding over the civil trial dismissed Erin Smith’s wrongful death claim against Walls-Kaufman before jurors began deliberating. U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes said no reasonable juror could conclude that Walls-Kaufman’s actions were capable of causing a traumatic brain injury leading to Jeffrey Smith’s death.
Reyes divided the trial into two stages: one on the merits of Erin Smith’s claims and another on damages. The damages phase is expected to stretch into next week.
Erin Smith claimed Walls-Kaufman gave her husband a concussion as they scuffled inside the Capitol. Jeffrey Smith was driving to work for the first time after the Capitol riot when he shot and killed himself with his service weapon.
His widow claims Walls-Kaufman struck her 35-year-old husband in the head with his own police baton inside the Capitol, causing psychological and physical trauma that led to his suicide. Jeffrey Smith had no history of mental health problems before the Jan. 6 riot, but his mood and behavior changed after suffering a concussion, according to his wife and parents.
Walls-Kaufman, who lived near the Capitol, denies assaulting Jeffrey Smith. He says any injuries that the officer suffered on Jan. 6 occurred later in the day, when another rioter threw a pole that struck Jeffrey Smith around his head.
Walls-Kaufman served a 60-day prison sentence after pleading guilty to a Capitol riot-related misdemeanor in January 2023, but he was pardoned in January. On his first day back in the White House, President Donald Trump pardoned, commuted prison sentences or ordered the dismissal of cases for all of the nearly 1,600 people charged in the attack.
Trump’s sweeping act of clemency didn’t erase Erin Smith’s lawsuit against Walls-Kaufman.
Erin Smith, the trial’s first witness, recalled packing a lunch for her husband and kissing him as he headed off to work on Jan. 15, 2021, for the first time after the riot.
“I told him I loved him, said I would see him when he got home,” she testified.
Within hours, police officers knocked on her door and informed her that her husband was dead. She was stunned to learn that he shot himself with his service weapon in his own car.
“It was the most traumatic words I’ve ever heard,” she recalled. “You just don’t know what to do.”
Walls-Kaufman’s attorney, Hughie Hunt, urged jurors to “separate emotion” and concentrate on the facts of the case.
“This is tragic, but that doesn’t place anything at the foot of my client,” Hunt said during the trial’s opening statements.
Jeffrey Smith’s body camera captured video of his scuffle with Walls-Kaufman. In his testimony, Walls-Kaufman said he was overcome by “sensory overload” and “mass confusion” as police tried to usher the crowd out of the Capitol.
“I couldn’t tell who was pushing who or from what direction,” he said.
The police department medically evaluated Jeffrey Smith and cleared him to return to full duty before he killed himself. Hunt said there is no evidence that his client intentionally struck Jeffrey Smith.
“The claim rests entirely on ambiguous video footage subject to interpretation and lacks corroborating eyewitness testimony,” Hunt wrote in a court filing in the case.
More than 100 law enforcement officers were injured during the riot. Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick collapsed and died a day after engaging with the rioters. A medical examiner later determined he suffered a stroke and died of natural causes. Howard Liebengood, a Capitol police officer who responded to the riot, also died by suicide after the attack.
In 2022, the District of Columbia Police and Firefighters’ Retirement and Relief Board determined that Jeffrey Smith was injured in the line of duty and the injury was the “sole and direct cause of his death,” according to the lawsuit.
Chances are, you’ve seen (or heard) Judy Greer in one of her many roles over her prolific, multidecade career. She’s played Maggie Lang in “Ant-Man,” voiced Cheryl Tunt in the long-running animated adult sitcom “Archer,” and appeared as Jennifer Garner’s bestie in the 2004 rom-com classic “13 Going on 30” (the two are friends IRL too). She’s also joining the cast for the second season of Garner’s Apple TV series “The Last Thing He Told Me.”
In Sunday Funday, L.A. people give us a play-by-play of their ideal Sunday around town. Find ideas and inspiration on where to go, what to eat and how to enjoy life on the weekends.
Streaming now is Apple TV+’s heartfelt new golf comedy, “Stick,” in which Greer plays Amber-Linn — not a best friend, but the ex-wife of former professional golfer Pryce Cahill, played by Owen Wilson. You don’t have to be a fan of the sport to watch. “Honestly, I’m not a golfer and I love it,” she says.
As for her perfect Sunday, she’ll stick close to Larchmont, where she’s lived for 20 years. “I travel a lot for work, so I don’t always like to go far and wide on my weekends,” she says. “My dream Sunday is to not actually exit the threshold, but today I’m going to.” And she’ll get a lot done, from reading a’plenty to hitting up the farmers market and Dodger Stadium, taking in a movie and getting quality time with her husband, Dean Johnsen, her stepkids and her terrier mix, Mary Richards.
6:30 a.m.: A pot of coffee and reading in bed
I get up at 6, 6:30, and not on purpose. My husband likes to sleep, so if the sun’s out, I can read in bed. If not, sometimes I’ll come downstairs and read and have coffee, and then when he wakes up, I’ll go back up and we’ll have coffee in bed together. I love to start my day with a pot of coffee in bed.
The coffee maker, it’s like a basic bitch, a Cuisinart coffee maker. We get this brand called Punk Bunny. That’s our favorite kind of coffee. We did recently try the dark roast, but we both have decided it’s too much for us. We’re going back down to the medium dark roast. And I just put soy milk in it.
Whenever I’m traveling for work and staying in these Airbnbs and apartments and stuff, there’ll be a cappuccino maker, and we’ll always be like, should we get one of those? and then we never end up doing it. If I go out to a cafe, like Lamill or Go Get ‘Em Tiger on Larchmont, I’ll get a cappuccino, but I don’t need to be making cappuccinos in my house.
9 a.m.: Two loops around the Silver Lake Reservoir
Then I would drive to the Silver Lake Reservoir, and I would walk around it twice, which is probably just under five miles. I would take my sweet dog — she’s a really good walker, even though she’s tiny. After my walk, I would make a parfait for myself at home. I also like to go and get the protein pancakes at Cafe Gratitude. That would be a really big treat. I don’t love getting breakfast on Larchmont on Sundays because it’s so crowded.
11 a.m.: Hit up the Larchmont Village Farmers Market
My husband and I, we’re not cooks or chefs or anything. We have a couple go-tos at the farmers market: There’s the soup guy who has the frozen soup, and I like to get flowers and usually berries. We don’t really eat meat, but once in a while we’ll treat ourselves to salmon. My husband will make salmon on the grill, so he’ll get fish from the fishmonger and sometimes those Parmesan crisps he really likes (and then I eat them, even though he is like, they’re for me). If we’re thinking of making a big salad or something, we’ll get salad stuff. But again, we’re not those people, even though we really want to be those people.
Noon: Stop at Chevalier’s Books
Then I would walk down to Chevalier’s, our little local bookstore, and say hi to everyone who works there and wander around a bit. I have so many books and it’s a problem, but then there’s usually something there that just came out that I’m really excited about, and so I’ll get it. I’ve lately been buying hardcovers because it’s kind of fun to have a first edition of something that could potentially win the Nobel Prize or Pulitzer.
My husband was like, “The thing about you is you buy a lot of books, but you do read them.” So I’m not just randomly buying books. I’m reading a book by Barbara Kingsolver right now called “Unsheltered.” That one I think I probably swiped out of a little library on a dog walk because it’s definitely not brand new. I just finished “Martyr!” [by Kaveh Akbar] and I was so blown away that I almost didn’t even want to read another book for a while.
1 p.m.: A quick dip in the pool, some shopping and Dodger Stadium
Now, we’re coming home, and we’re going to rinse off in the pool, which is gross, but I don’t care. And then we’re decking ourselves out in our Dodger gear and we’re going to go to Dodger Stadium and we’re going to watch the Dodgers win at Dodger Stadium. We would meet my stepkids there and the four of us would watch the Dodger game and they would have some beers and probably some nachos. I’d sit with my peanuts and Diet Coke, and we would watch the Dodgers. I love Sundays at the ballpark because it’s fun, it’s chill, it’s tons of families.
Dodger Stadium has really become one of my favorite places in Los Angeles. It’s just a really beautiful place. Sometimes I’ll walk around the whole loop of the stadium, just get my steps in, wander around and see everybody, and see all the food.
4 p.m.: An afternoon movie and the best popcorn
Mann Chinese [TCL Chinese Theatres] is where my husband and I mostly go to the movies because it’s weirdly closer to our house, but kind of a pain in the ass because it’s really touristy. But now we know where to park and how to get in and out really quickly. So we’ve got it down.
I’m probably going to get myself into a lot of trouble now, but we pop our own popcorn. This is husband territory; he makes it on the stovetop with kernels and coconut oil. We’re an Orville Redenbacher family. I’m not ashamed to say we have tried all the fancy popcorn kernels, but honestly, I feel like Orville gives you the best pop, so that’s what we buy.
Oh, I’ll show you something dorky. Hold on. [Greer disappears and returns with a large Ziploc bag.] I usually sneak it in my tote bag. I love having popcorn in the movies, but the movie popcorn is usually not super good for us. Sometimes I will also sneak in some dried mangoes, and usually I’ll still buy a Diet Coke. I feel guilty not buying anything.
I love that big theater. It’s just so beautiful. There are such great movie theaters in L.A., such old theaters, and that one is so historical. I’ve been to a bunch of movie premieres there too. But probably I prefer it when I’m just like a citizen watching a movie.
7 p.m.: Pasta for dinner
I would finish my day by going to dinner atOsteria Mamma and getting — I don’t want to get in trouble for this, because they took it off the menu — their pasta pomodoro. Sometimes I’m just like, “Can you just make me the pasta pomodoro?” It’s just so good. My husband gets the cacio pepe, which they make tableside in this huge cheese wheel, which is bananas, and I like their tricolore salad. We usually split that. Yeah, we’d have a nice little cozy dinner and not have to cook on a Sunday night. We didn’t really buy much at the farmers market anyway, let’s be honest.
8 p.m.: Watch a little TV or read in bed
Sometimes we’re watching a show and we’ll watch an episode, or we’ll just go to bed and read in bed. I like to ascend around 9. This week, I’ve been really tired, so I’ve been going up at 8:30. I’m like, the sun is still out. But by the time I’m done with all my ablutions and the flossing and all the things, it’s definitely almost dark. I get cuddly with my dog and read for a little while, and then, yeah, lights out by 10, but that’s even sometimes a little bit late. On a Sunday, I want to get a really good night’s sleep before Monday morning.
ST. PAUL, Minn. — Hundreds of people, some clutching candles or carrying flowers to lay in front of a memorial, gathered outside Minnesota’s Capitol on Wednesday evening for a vigil to remember a prominent state lawmaker and her husband who were gunned down at their home.
As a brass quintet from the Minnesota Orchestra played, Gov. Tim Walz wiped away tears and comforted attendees at the gathering for former House Speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark, who were killed early Saturday in the northern Minneapolis suburbs.
Colin Hortman, the Hortmans’ son, embraced Walz and lay a photo of his parents on the memorial.
The memorial, which sprang up outside the Capitol after the killings, features flowers, American flags, photos and sticky notes with such messages as, “Thank you for always believing in me and in Minnesota” and “We got this from here. Thank you for everything.”
Wednesday’s vigil also included a Native American drum circle, a string quartet and the crowd singing “Amazing Grace.”
Around the gathering, there was a heavy police presence, with law enforcement blocking off streets leading up to the Capitol and state troopers standing guard.
The event didn’t include a speaking program and attendees were instructed not to bring signs of any kind.
The man charged in federal and state court with killing the Hortmans, Vance Boelter, is also accused of shooting another Democratic lawmaker, Sen. John Hoffman, and his wife, Yvette, at their home a few miles away in Champlin. They survived and are recovering. Federal prosecutors have declined to speculate about a motive.
Boelter’s attorneys have declined to comment on the charges.
Hortman had served as the top House Democratic leader since 2017, and six years as speaker, starting in 2019. Under a power-sharing deal after the 2024 election left the House tied, her title became speaker emerita and Republican Rep. Lisa Demuth became speaker.
Walz has described Hortman as his closest political ally and “the most consequential Speaker in state history.”
The Hortmans were alumni of the University of Minnesota, which held a midday memorial gathering on the Minneapolis campus.
Rebecca Cunningham, the university’s president, spoke during the event about the grief and outrage people are grappling with along with questions about how things got to this point.
“I don’t have the answers to these questions but I know that finding answers starts with the coming together in community as we are today,” she said.
Funeral information for the Hortmans has not been announced.
Vancleave and Golden write for the Associated Press. Golden reported from Seattle. AP writer Steve Karnowski in Minneapolis contributed to this report.
The assassination of one Democratic Minnesota state lawmaker and her husband and the shooting of another lawmaker and his wife at their homes are just the latest addition to a long and unsettling roll call of political violence in the United States.
The list, in the last two months alone: the killing of two Israeli Embassy staffers in Washington, D.C.; the firebombing of a Colorado march calling for the release of Israeli hostages; and the firebombing of the official residence of Pennsylvania’s governor — on a Jewish holiday while he and his family were inside.
Here is a sampling of other attacks before that — the assassination of a healthcare executive on the streets of New York City late last year; the attempted assassination of Donald Trump at a Pennsylvania rally during his presidential campaign last year; the 2022 attack on the husband of then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) by a believer in right-wing conspiracy theories; and the 2017 shooting of Rep. Steve Scalise (R-La.) by a gunman at a congressional softball game practice.
“We’ve entered into this especially scary time in the country where it feels the sort of norms and rhetoric and rules that would tamp down on violence have been lifted,” said Matt Dallek, a political scientist at Georgetown University who studies extremism. “A lot of people are receiving signals from the culture.”
Individual shootings and massacres
Politics have also driven large-scale massacres. Gunmen who killed 11 worshipers at a synagogue in Pittsburgh in 2018, 23 shoppers at a heavily Latino Walmart in El Paso in 2019 and 10 Black people at a Buffalo, N.Y., grocery store in 2022 each cited the conspiracy theory that a secret cabal of Jews was trying to replace white people with people of color. That has become a staple on parts of the right that support Trump’s push to limit immigration.
The Anti-Defamation League found that from 2022 through 2024, all of the 61 political killings in the United States were committed by right-wing extremists. That changed on the first day of 2025, when a Texas man flying the flag of the Islamic State group killed 14 people by driving his truck through a crowded New Orleans street before being fatally shot by police.
“You’re seeing acts of violence from all different ideologies,” said Jacob Ware, a fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations who researches terrorism. “It feels more random and chaotic and more frequent.”
The United States has a long and grim history of political violence, including presidential assassinations dating to the killing of President Abraham Lincoln, lynchings and other violence aimed at Black people in the South, and the 1954 shooting inside Congress by four Puerto Rican nationalists. Experts say the last few years, however, have reached a level not seen since the tumultuous days of the 1960s and 1970s, when political leaders the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., President Kennedy, Malcolm X and Robert F. Kennedy were assassinated.
Ware noted that the most recent surge comes after the new Trump administration has closed units that focus on investigating white supremacist extremism and pushed federal law enforcement to spend less time on anti-terrorism and more on detaining people who are in the country illegally.
“We’re at the point, after these six weeks, where we have to ask about how effectively the Trump administration is combating terrorism,” Ware said.
One of Trump’s first acts in office was to pardon those involved in the largest act of domestic political violence this century — the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the U.S. Capitol by a pro-Trump mob intended to prevent Congress from certifying Trump’s 2020 election loss.
Those pardons broadcast a signal to would-be extremists on either side of the political debate, Dallek said: “They sent a very strong message that violence, as long as you’re a Trump supporter, will be permitted and may be rewarded.”
Ideologies not always aligned — or coherent
Often, those who engage in political violence don’t have clearly defined ideologies that easily map onto the country’s partisan divides. A man who died after he detonated a car bomb outside a Palm Springs fertility clinic last month left writings urging people not to procreate and expressed what the FBI called “nihilistic ideations.”
But each political attack seems to inspire partisans to find evidence the attacker is on the other side. Little was known about the man police identified as a suspect in the Minnesota attacks, 57-year-old Vance Boelter. Authorities say they found a list of other apparent targets that included other Democratic officials, abortion clinics and abortion rights advocates, as well as fliers for the day’s anti-Trump “No Kings” parades.
Conservatives online seized on the fliers — and the fact that Boelter had apparently once been reappointed to a state workforce development board by Democratic Gov. Tim Walz — to claim the suspect must be a liberal. “The far left is murderously violent,” billionaire Elon Musk posted on his social media site, X.
It was reminiscent of the fallout from the attack on Paul Pelosi, the former House speaker’s then-82-year-old husband, who was seriously injured by a man wielding a hammer. Right-wing figures falsely theorized the assailant was a secret lover rather than what authorities said he was: a believer in pro-Trump conspiracy theories who broke into the Pelosi home echoing Jan. 6 rioters who broke into the Capitol by saying: “Where is Nancy?!”
No prominent Republican ever denounced the Pelosi assault, and GOP leaders including Trump joked about the attack at public events in its aftermath.
On Saturday, Nancy Pelosi posted a statement on X decrying the Minnesota attack. “All of us must remember that it’s not only the act of violence, but also the reaction to it, that can normalize it,” she wrote.
After mocking the Pelosis after the 2022 attack, Trump on Saturday joined in the bipartisan condemnation of the Minnesota shootings, calling them “horrific violence.” The president has, however, consistently broken new ground with his bellicose rhetoric toward his political opponents, whom he routinely calls “sick” and “evil,” and has talked repeatedly about how violence is needed to quell protests.
The Minnesota attack occurred after Trump took the extraordinary step of mobilizing the military to try to control protests against his administration’s immigration operations in Los Angeles during the last week, when he pledged to “HIT” disrespectful protesters and warned of a “migrant invasion” of the city.
Dallek said Trump has been “both a victim and an accelerant” of the charged, dehumanizing political rhetoric that is flooding the country.
“It feels as if the extremists are in the saddle,” he said, “and the extremists are the ones driving our rhetoric and politics.”
BLAINE, Minn. — Minnesota’s House Democratic leader Melissa Hortman and her husband were killed in a politically motivated assassination, Gov. Tim Walz announced Saturday. A second lawmaker and his wife were shot and wounded.
“We must all, in Minnesota and across the country, stand against all forms of political violence,” Walz said at a news conference Saturday. “Those responsible for this will be held accountable.”
The wounded lawmaker was identified as state Sen. John Hoffman, also a Democrat, who was first elected in 2012. He runs Hoffman Strategic Advisors, a consulting firm. He previously served as vice chair of the Anoka Hennepin School Board, which manages the largest school district in Minnesota. Hoffman is married and has one daughter.
Hortman was the top House Democratic leader in the state Legislature and is a former House speaker. She was first elected in 2004.
Both Hoffman and Hortman represented districts north of Minneapolis.
Drew Evans, superintendent of the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, said that authorities were actively searching for a suspect. Hortman and her spouse died from gunshot wounds, Evans said.
Public Safety Commissioner Bob Johnson said at the news conference with Walz that the suspect was posing as a law enforcement officer.
The “suspect exploited the trust of our uniforms, what our uniforms are meant to represent. That betrayal is deeply disturbing to those of us who wear the badge with honor and responsibility,” Johnson said.
The shootings happened at a time when political leaders nationwide have been attacked, harassed and intimidated amid deep ideological divisions.
Former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, leader of Giffords, a national gun violence prevention group, said in a statement: “I am horrified and heartbroken by last night’s attack on two patriotic public servants. My family and I know the horror of a targeted shooting all too well. An attack against lawmakers is an attack on American democracy itself. Leaders must speak out and condemn the fomenting violent extremism that threatens everything this country stands for.”
Giffords, an Arizona Democrat, was shot in the head in 2011 by a gunman who killed six people and injured 12 others. She stepped down from Congress in January 2012 to focus on her recovery.
Third-generation actor and director Bryce Dallas Howard has a lot going on — so much so that when The Times caught up with her recently, she was just getting over laryngitis. “Last week, it was like I would open my mouth and it was air coming out,” she said, admitting that it’s challenging for her to be disciplined about, say, not speaking. But you can’t really blame her: Talking is part of the business. And there’s a lot of business to attend to.
In Sunday Funday, L.A. people give us a play-by-play of their ideal Sunday around town. Find ideas and inspiration on where to go, what to eat and how to enjoy life on the weekends.
On Thursday, Howard’s action comedy “Deep Cover” arrived on Prime Video. Howard stars alongside Orlando Bloom and Nick Mohammed as three improv actors recruited by the police to help with sting operations, hilariously committing to the bit. Prior to that, Howard directed and produced the Disney+ documentary “Pets,” which examines the relationship between people and their furry friends.
She’s starred as Claire Dearing in the “Jurassic World” franchise (”If the team would ever have Claire back, I’ll be there in a heartbeat,” she says), appeared in the acclaimed TV show “Black Mirror” and directed episodes of “The Mandalorian” and “Skeleton Crew,” to name a few recent career highlights. (In her spare time, she’s getting a degree from an online fine arts school.)
The ideal Sunday, then, for this NYU grad — whose first onscreen appearance at age 7 was as an extra in her dad Ron Howard’s “Parenthood” — includes lots of hot chocolate (”I always say I should have a T-shirt that says, ‘Powered by hot chocolate’ ”) and delicious food (”I like to eat little yummy things throughout the day”). There’s also time with her husband, Seth Gabel, their kids, Theo, 18, and Bea, 13, and their beloved pets. And don’t forget, she has to finish that portfolio for art school!
This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.
7 a.m.: Rise and hot chocolate time
I love to sleep, but I’ve got cats and dogs, and they don’t really let me sleep, and I sort of feel my best when I’m waking up around 7. So an ideal Sunday would definitely start on the early side.
I can’t drink coffee anymore. I used to love it, and now my tummy is too middle-aged for it. But I do hot chocolate, nice hot chocolate. That’s my coffee or tea. I’ve got one of those little Hotel Chocolat [hot chocolate makers]. You put chocolate powder in milk, and it froths. I got it as a gift, actually, from the producers on “Deep Cover.”
8 a.m.: Doughnuts and a dog walk at Dockweiler Beach
I love Dockweiler Beach. I filmed an M83 music video that I directed there with Lily Collins years ago; it was my first introduction to the beach. I just love to drive down there and then just walk around. It’s so beautiful.
We have two dogs, but I would only take [the younger] one. The other has a shorter walk. She’s been very clear with us: She’s a little older; message received. The younger one is a little over a year old. We can do up to three miles together, and then she’s very, very happy.
My favorite Sunday food situation is definitely Sidecar Doughnuts. They have gluten-free doughnuts, like a weekly special, and they have a vegan doughnut that’s also usually gluten-free, so I’ll get both of those and take them to the beach. My favorite is the Old Fashion — whenever it’s Old Fashion I get very excited — or the Celebration Cake.
11 a.m.: Art and art supply shopping
My favorite art supply store in Los Angeles is called Graphaids in Culver City. It’s a family-owned art store, and they have just a wonderful selection of supplies. In October, I’m going to be graduating from an online fine arts school called Milan Art Institute. It’s been very rewarding and very fun. You learn all of it — art drawing, oil painting, mixed media. I’m in the portfolio stage, so I do a lot of mixed media, and then I usually do a layer of oil over it.
Graphaids has been there through the entire journey. I started the program in October of 2023, when I was going into the store not knowing what anything meant, and then getting to know the folks who work there. They’re all artists. They want to save you money. They care about hobbyists; they care about professionals. They care about students. It’s beautiful. Now I go in the store and I’m like,“Could I have this solvent, please? And I would love this medium, please.” It’s much more “you know what you’re after” now.
On a Sunday, I would be working on my portfolio at home, and then — this isn’t Los Angeles, but it’s California — I love to take online Case for Making classes. Those are watercolor classes. My kids will usually join in if they’re around and the social calendar permits it.
1 p.m.: Brunch and walking and shopping in Culver City or Venice
Destroyer in Culver City is really, really good. They’ve got a great plant-centric menu, which is good because one of my kids doesn’t really eat meat, and I also like that it’s kind of elevated. I like the raw oatmeal soaked in date-almond milk.
I also love Gjelina in Venice; it’s elevated, but it’s also relaxed. Ideally I’d go with my family, and my best friend — we’ve been best friends since we were 15 — lives in Venice. So we would definitely meet up at Gjelina. Part of the fun there is you’re waiting to get in, so you can walk up and down Abbot Kinney. My favorite makeup store in Los Angeles, Apple Doll, has a storefront on Abbot Kinney. They have this Nectar Salve that I’m obsessed with.
If we have brunch in Culver City, afterward I would probably go to Arcana. I love that bookstore. So I would go there with my best friend on this perfect Sunday. The reason we like these areas is they’re really walkable. I was raised mostly on the East Coast and I went to NYU, so being able to walk places — it’s very important.
4 p.m.: An afternoon chocolate fix
When we moved to the Westside, I got really into John Kelly Chocolates [in Santa Monica]. It’s high-end chocolate. On a dream Sunday, absolutely, I would go there. And I’m also going to Sprinkles and getting red velvet, gluten-free cupcakes.
6 p.m.: Dinner in — or more snacks out
I love to order delivery from Burger Lounge that my son will then go and pick up because he likes saving money on delivery. I love the classic burger. They have really great gluten-free buns.
I also like going to AOC winebar, sitting at the bar and not ordering a big meal. Their bacon-wrapped dates are really, really delicious.
8 p.m.: Pajama walk around the neighborhood
I think we might’ve made this up — I don’t think I read about it anywhere — when the kids were younger, we would do this thing I would call pajama walks. It was a way for me to force them to get into their pajamas before it got dark and to keep a schedule according to the cycle of the sun and get us all outside after dinner.
Now it’s basically my husband’s and my way of sneaking out of the house. We’ll invite the kids, and a lot of times they’ll want to come. If they don’t, it’s just a great way for my husband and me to get a little bit of one-on-one time together. I’ll still wear pajamas; I’ll just throw a coat over it. The world has more loungewear these days, so you can’t even tell.
9 p.m.: ‘Landscape Artist of the Year’ and a little painting before bed
I’m actually pretty careful about screen time during the weekend if I can help it, but my husband and I like to watch “Landscape Artist of the Year,” the British feel-good show. Then usually I will paint, and that’s usually when I’m working on my portfolio stuff. (On an ideal Sunday, we’re not having to stress last-minute about our daughter having homework.)
I love to listen to audiobooks while I’m painting. I’ve been relistening to books that I read when I was younger. I just did a third time through “A Movable Feast.” It’s so fun to just listen to the stories. The next day, I’ve got to be up at 7, so I’ll paint until about 10:30 and then just go to sleep.
There are many factors that led Taylor Jenkins Reid to choose space as the backdrop of her new novel, “Atmosphere,” a thrilling love story set at NASA in the 1980s.
One may very well have been her L.A. commute.
In Sunday Funday, L.A. people give us a play-by-play of their ideal Sunday around town. Find ideas and inspiration on where to go, what to eat and how to enjoy life on the weekends.
Specifically, her journey along the Dr. Sally Ride Memorial Highway, a portion of the 101 Freeway in Encino. “I am sure that it worked its way into my subconscious,” Reid says. “It was there waiting for me because I’ve driven by that sign so many times.”
So much of Encino and the Valley inspires Reid, the author of a shining repertoire of bestselling novels including “Daisy Jones & the Six” and “The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo.” She talks about the hikes, the views and the charming restaurants that have stood for generations. Here’s how she’d spend a perfect day in L.A. with her husband, Alex Jenkins Reid, and their 8-year-old daughter, Lilah.
8 a.m. Wake up and grab a book Everybody in my house is reading in bed. I am reading “Harlem Rhapsody” by Victoria Christopher Murray. I have been late multiple mornings now because of how much I’m enjoying it. It’s like, “Oh, sorry, I was reading.” My kid does the same thing. She and I will both be like, “Wait, it’s already 7:40? You’re supposed to be in school!” But both of us are reading.
9:30 a.m.: A place where everybody knows your name My family and I love to go to this small diner in the Valley called Millie’s. It’s a no-frills place, but the food is so good and my husband’s family has been going there for at least 30 years. The server always remembers my husband’s grandpa and asks how his grandma’s doing and how his mom is doing and his brothers are doing. It has such a lovely small-town feel to it. Also, the tortilla soup is incredibly good. It’s, like, one of my favorite things
10:30 a.m.: Hit the trail After that, I inevitably will try to bribe my daughter into a hike. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. The thing is, she actually does love to hike and just forgets that she does. Where I love to go — and I have not been able to because of the fires — is the Upper Canyonback Trailhead [temporarily closed] in Encino Hills. There are two ways you can go. If you go to the left, there’s a really great view of the city. You can see down to Century City and even downtown on a clear day. And the hills are gorgeous. But if you go to the right, you can see the Encino Reservoir and eventually you get to a decommissioned Nike missile silo. We make a game-time decision.
Noon: A bookstore afternoon Then I have to make good on the way that I bribed my kid and one of her favorite things to do is go to Vroman’s in Pasadena. It has one of the best children’s book sections in Los Angeles — it takes up half of their second floor. She’ll grab a bunch of books, I will have grabbed books from downstairs and we’ll be sitting on a bench reading them. And you know, my husband’s like, “Dude, would you like to leave and actually pay for these?”
2 p.m.: Hop around Old Town Pasadena Not that far from Vroman’s, there’s this intersection that has so many things that all of us like. Motto Tea Cafe serves Japanese soufflé-style pancakes. They’re so fluffy! My daughter normally gets the plain ones with the Nutella cream on top. This place is often quite packed, so we order in advance. Then there’s this ice cream place called Kinrose Creamery that is unbelievable. They indulged me by letting me try basically every flavor. They have a sour cherry with candy floss that is unlike anything I’ve ever had. And there’s a park near there, Central Park, that is really beautiful and has a very expansive playground area. And so my kid will go play for a little while.
3:30 p.m.: Indulge an obsession On the walk back to our car, I will go to Farrow & Ball and just look at paint colors. I’m completely obsessed with paint colors, so I make my family go pretty often. I never have a reason to be there. When the person is like, “How can I help you? Are you looking to paint something?” I’m like, “No, I just want to look at paint colors.” They’ve got great names for all their paint — I could probably name them all for you, literally. The ones I have in my house: Dead Salmon, Skimming Stone, Wimborne White. My daughter and I have become obsessed with a very pretty coral-y orange called Naperon. Both of us are like, “We have to paint something Naperon!”
There’s a woman who is the color curator for Farrow & Ball and her name is Joa Studholme. She’s the only person that is famous to me and my daughter. She makes these videos where she’s talking about why they came up with a paint color and my kid and I will just watch them four different times.
5:30 p.m.: Best pasta ever Every Sunday night, we eat takeout from Lido Pizza. Doesn’t matter the fanciest place I’ve ever been to — this is the best pasta. I love it so much. And there’s something about their salad dressing that is exactly what my taste buds want in a salad dressing. I have gone so far as to order a full jug of it for my house.
It’s such a humble, unassuming place. We’ve been taking my daughter there since she was a baby. When the movie “Booksmart” came out, we were watching it and saw that a whole scene takes place in the Lido parking lot. We eat there every single Sunday night, and at this point, they have to just know the call is coming sometime around 5:30.
7:45 p.m.: The “Goodnight Special” My daughter gets into bed and reads for an hour. During that time, my husband and I will watch an episode of something — lately, we’ve been watching “The Studio.” Then when it’s time to go to bed, she comes out of her bedroom and asks for the “Goodnight Special.” It’s when I hold her for a minute and sing to her. She called it that just one day. She was like, “I need the ‘Goodnight Special.’” I was like, “I think I know what you mean by that.” And then my husband and I will go to bed around 10:30.
Actor Jonathan Joss, whose varied career notably included roles on “King of the Hill” and “Parks and Recreation,” has died. He was killed Sunday in a shooting in San Antonio, according to police.
According to an incident report shared with The Times, officers responded Sunday evening to a shooting at the 200 block of Dorsey Drive where they found Joss near the roadway. First responders “attempted life saving measures” until EMS officers arrived. He was pronounced dead at the scene, police said. He was 59.
Police did not disclose details about what led to the shooting, but said officers found and arrested the alleged shooter. Sigfredo Alvarez Ceja, 56, was booked Monday morning on suspicion of murder. His bond is set at $200,000, according to TMZ, which broke the news of Joss’ death.
The Times could not reach a legal representative for Alvarez Ceja. San Antonio police said it is investigating the shooting.
The actor’s husband, Tristan Kern de Gonzales, alleged in a Facebook post shared Monday that he and Joss suffered “openly homophobic” harassment and threats prior to the fatal shooting, which he claimed was also motivated by homophobia. Gonzales wrote that he and Joss had returned Sunday the site of the actor’s San Antonio home — which burned down in January — to check their mail. The actor also lost three dogs in the fire. The men “discovered the skull of one of our dogs and its harness placed in clear view” and “began yelling and crying in response to the pain of what we saw,” Gonzales wrote.
A man approached them, “started yelling violent homophobic slurs” and “raised a gun from his lap and fired,” Gonzales wrote. He said Joss pushed him out of the way, saving his life, and added that his husband “was murdered by someone who could not stand the sight of two men loving each other.”
“I was with him when he passed,” he wrote. “I told him how much he was loved.”
Joss, born December 1965, is best known for voicing John Redcorn, Hank Hill’s neighbor on the hit Fox animated series “King of the Hill.” Joss lent his voice to the series from 1997 to 2009, taking over from original voice actor Victor Aaron. He also voiced John Redcorn for the show’s video game tie-in in 2000.
Joss spoke about his ties to his longtime character in April as he lamented not being invited to an event promoting the “King of the Hill” revival. Hulu announced Friday that Season 14 of “King of the Hill” will premiere in August. The voice cast touts Mike Judge, Kathy Najimy, Pamela Adlon, Johnny Hardwick, Stephen Root, Lauren Tom, and Toby Huss. Joss recorded lines for the revival prior to his death, according to Variety.
“This show was a part of my life for many years,” he wrote on Facebook. “That character, that voice, that story…they were my home, my pride, my connection to something bigger than myself.”
Joss, who studied acting at Our Lady of the Lake University, began acting in the mid-1990s with minor roles in TV projects including “Walker, Texas Ranger” and the miniseries “Dead Man’s Walk.”
In addition to “King of the Hill,” Joss is known for portraying Wamapoke elder and casino owner Chief Ken Hotate in NBC’s “Parks and Recreation,” where he appeared alongside star Amy Poehler. In the series, Joss’ Ken dissuades Poehler’s peppy protagonist Leslie Knope from hosting a local festival on sacred burial grounds.
“There are two things I know about white people,” he jokes in the series. “They love Matchbox Twenty and they are terrified of curses.”
His television credits also include the Paramount+ drama “Tulsa King,” “Ray Donovan,” “Friday Night Lights,” “ER” and “Charmed.”
Joss’ resumé includes films “The Magnificent Seven,” “True Grit” and “8 Seconds,” among others. He also lent his voice to several video games, including “Red Dead Redemption,” “Days Gone,” “Wasteland 3” and “Cyberpunk 2077.”
The actor embarked on several fan events, including meet-and-greets and Q&As, in the months before his death. On Sunday morning, he recalled meeting fans at Tribe Comics and Games in Austin: “Last night’s gig was amazing — huge thanks to everyone who came out and showed us love!” In the same post, Joss told followers he was seeking a ride to San Antonio.
Joss is survived by his husband. They got married this year on Valentine’s Day. Joss referenced the devastation of losing his home in April, writing in his Facebook post he has since “been rebuilding, piece by piece, soul by soul.”
He added, addressing fans: “You’ve been the ones to lift me up, to remind me of the impact I’ve made, and to carry me through some of the darkest day[s] of my life. Your love means more than I can ever say.”
Gonzales wrote in Monday’s statement he and Joss were were in the process of finding a new home and “planning our future together.” He thanked Joss’ fans for their support and vowed to protect and carry on the actor’s legacy.
“Jonathan saved my life. I will carry that forward. I will protect what he built,” Gonzales wrote.
Things got heated between Elizabeth Banks and Jessica Biel last summer. Sweat was poured. Scores were settled. Justin Timberlake even got involved.
The intense showdowns occurred on a New York City padel court when the women had days off from filming their new Prime Video limited series, “The Better Sister,” now streaming. Squaring off in the increasingly popular racquet sport, the actors, along with Biel’s husband, Timberlake, and Banks’ husband, Max Handelman, “had a blast kicking each other’s asses,” Biel said.
Back on “The Better Sister” set, Banks and Biel were happy to play on the same team. There, they both served as stars and executive producers, and they praised the collaborative, ego-free environment overseen by showrunners Olivia Milch and Regina Corrado. (Though their competitive streak did continue with between-takes Bananagrams.)
“This was a group of, frankly, a lot of moms, who were like, ‘We don’t have time for nonsense. We want our crew home to have dinner with their families,’ ” Banks said. “There was a lot of mutual respect going on, but then we all demanded the best from each other.”
The eight-episode whodunit, adapted from the 2019 novel by Alafair Burke, is a twisty, Shakespearean tale: Two estranged sisters, the glamorous, successful Chloe (Biel) and the recovering addict Nicky (Banks), are thrust back together when Chloe’s husband, Adam (Corey Stoll) — who used to be Nicky’s husband — is murdered. When Nicky and Adam’s son, Ethan (Maxwell Acee Donovan) — who was raised by Chloe and Adam — is arrested for the crime, the sisters must untangle a web of family secrets and betrayal. Yeah, it’s complicated.
Elizabeth Banks, top, and Jessica Biel in a scene from “The Better Sister.”
(Jojo Whilden / Prime Video)
“So many shows I’ve written on are about muscular, macho men doing violent things to each other,” said Corrado, whose past work includes “Sons of Anarchy” and “Deadwood.” “But I think the scariest thing is women in this space and the intimate damage we can do to each other, particularly as sisters.”
While Biel, 43, and Banks, 51, both rose to prominence as actors, they’ve been increasingly expanding their resumes behind the camera. Over the past decade, Banks has directed films, including “Cocaine Bear,” “Pitch Perfect 2” and the 2019 “Charlie’s Angels” reboot, and produced numerous projects under her and Handelman’s Brownstone Productions banner.
Biel has likewise segued into producing with her company, Iron Ocean, which backed the psychological thriller series “Cruel Summer,” “The Sinner” and “Candy,” the latter two in which she also starred. (Biel is also in early development on a reboot of “7th Heaven,” the ‘90s series on which she got her start as the rebellious Mary Camden, though she won’t reprise her role.)
For Biel, those recent thriller projects, along with “The Better Sister,” speak to what she finds “endlessly interesting.” “Why do humans do the things that they do?” she said. “When you’re pressed up against the wall and you’re fighting for your life or to keep your kids safe, what would you do? How far would you go?”
In a joint video interview, Banks and Biel discussed making “The Better Sister” and their decades of experience that led them here. These are edited excerpts from the conversation, which includes a few spoilers.
What initially attracted you to “The Better Sister” and your specific roles?
Biel: I first read for the Nicky part, and I was definitely interested in it. Then, a couple days later, I got the call saying, “They want you for Chloe.” When I heard that Elizabeth was talking to them about Nicky, I was like, oh, yes. This makes more sense to me now. I’ve also heard for a million years that we look like sisters.
Banks: I had never heard a bad word about Jessica Biel in the industry. She was known as kind, generous, talented, a great collaborator, easy to be around. And I thought, well, that sounds easy and fun. Craig Gillespie, who directed our pilot, got on with me and said, “I want you to be a mess, Banks. It needs more humor, and you’ll be funny.” He sold me on this messy Nicky, in contrast to Jessica, and I thought that sounded like a great idea all across the board.
“I love that I got to reset my career, and I’ve been able to do it multiple times,” said Elizabeth Banks, who has starred in comedies and dramas onscreen.
(Annie Noelker / For The Times)
Elizabeth, as an actor, you’ve received the most recognition for your comedic roles, but you’ve been focused lately on quieter, dramatic parts. Is that a direction you’d always hoped to go in?
Banks: It’s interesting. I started my career in a lot of dramas. Man, I remember making “Seabiscuit.” It was nominated for seven Academy Awards. It was very serious fare, and I was put in that [dramatic] box early on. It honestly took making “The 40-Year-Old Virgin” to even clue people in that I was funny. Like, I knew I was. I thought I was going to come in and do rom-coms, but when I started making films, it wasn’t a skill that was asked of me. I love that I got to reset my career, and I’ve been able to do it multiple times.
The very title of this series, “The Better Sister,” pits these two women against each other. How have you seen that comparison game play out in your own experiences in this industry?
Biel: You’re constantly compared. At least back in the day, it felt like people were trying to keep women away from each other. You’d sit in an audition room, and there would be this energy because your agents and managers would have made you feel like these women are your competition. There really was a feeling of ”you are against everybody, and everybody is against you.” I feel like that’s changed so much, but this industry is cutthroat. I have a lot of real experience in feeling less than, feeling judged, feeling like the industry has been putting their thumb on top of you, and you have to fight, fight, fight for every opportunity.
Banks: I had a similar experience coming up as an ingénue. There’s a scarcity mentality, like there’s only so many roles. Now we have all of this incredible data, like what the Geena Davis Institute has collected, about women’s roles in Hollywood. At some point, I just looked around and thought, the numbers are against me. The very first film I ever made [“Wet Hot American Summer”] was with Paul Rudd and Bradley Cooper, and they went on to play superheroes. I’m never going to get that, especially once I got over a certain age. You start to understand that it’s systemic, and it is a numbers game. You can keep playing that game, or you can do what so many incredible women have done before me, which is create your own opportunities.
I know that we are encouraging the next generation because I made a movie with them called “Bottoms.” Emma Seligman, Rachel Sennott and Ayo Edebiri, they’re doing it now. They’re going to make their own stuff, and it’s incredible. I think the industry has changed because women changed it. I just want to make sure that we have actually learned the lessons, and we are creating the opportunities.
Biel: I really do hope it is different and better and more fair and more loving because, man, it was hard.
One of the big themes in this show is trust. This idea of, can we trust our family? Can we trust our partners? Can we trust the police? Can we trust our memories? Did working on this show make you question anything about your own realities?
Banks: My father served in Vietnam, and we never talked about it when I was a kid. Vietnam vets suffered when they came back. America was not interested in them. What does that do to people’s psyches that had served their country and now they’re being spit at? This brought up a lot of those notions for me about how little you actually know your parents when you’re a child and how the layers come out the older you get.
I was the older sister, and I was able to protect my younger sister from the version of my father that I knew. He didn’t give that version to her because he and my mom had learned a lesson about what was going on with him. I’m 11 years older than my brother. He did not get the same version of my parents that I did.
“Where I parallel a little bit in Chloe’s world is this weird, naive trust of police,” Jessica Biel said about her character. “It’s interesting watching Elizabeth in the scenes where she’s expressing Nicky’s feelings about, ‘Don’t trust these people. Don’t give them anything.’ ”
(Annie Noelker / For The Times)
Biel: Where I parallel a little bit in Chloe’s world is this weird, naive trust of police. It’s interesting watching Elizabeth in the scenes where she’s expressing Nicky’s feelings about, “Don’t trust these people. Don’t give them anything.” I was wondering if I have those same thoughts that Chloe does, where I would just offer up information that I shouldn’t because I trust that they’re here to protect me. Would I be in a situation where I would not be taking care of myself or my family members because I felt obligated to almost please this police department who is supposed to help me?
So, [I was] trying to understand that system a little bit better, alongside all the questions you have about your parents and what version you got as a child. My brother and I are three years apart, but I was working when I was really young, and he wasn’t. He was at home. I basically abandoned him. But I was so self-absorbed, I didn’t think about it in that way. I just was doing what was my passion. I know he had a very different experience in our family than I did. I feel nervous to talk to him about it sometimes because I have guilt around that. He was in my shadow, and I left him.
Spoilers for the final episodes — we ultimately learn that Nicky killed Adam, and that reveal puts everything we’ve seen her do thus far in a different light. Elizabeth, what went into playing a character who’s keeping a huge secret from everyone, including the audience, for so long?
Banks: Look, I literally say right after he gets arrested, “Tell them it was me. I’ll say I did it.” But nobody’s going to believe her. I was actually always thinking about “Presumed Innocent,” the original [film], where she knows all along that she can make him free. Ethan’s not going to jail. Nicky was willing and ready every minute of this entire series to offer herself up and say, “I’m going to jail for this. I did it.” I think she almost expects that it’s where her life is supposed to go — but she also can’t let Adam win. So, there is a lot of strategy going on for Nicky. She’s playing chess, and she’s playing the long game, and poor Chloe is not in on any of it.
Chloe then ends up framing Adam’s boss for the murder in the finale. Jessica, how did you feel about that decision and the motivations around it?
Biel: It felt to me that it was what had to happen. Because once it’s revealed that Adam set Nicky up and pushed those drugs on her, and she’s not this horrific mom, her son was not in danger — that realization for Chloe is just like — oh, my God — everything that she has done has been in vain. She ruined her sister’s life. She’s taken over being the mother of this child. For what? It’s all a lie. So, when all of that comes out, that is the moment where she is 100% loyal to Nicky. They are officially in it together. Now she has to protect Nicky in order to protect Ethan, and to do that, we need somebody to take the blame for this because we are all culpable. Everybody is playing their part, and nobody is innocent.
Elizabeth Banks and Maxwell Acee Donovan, who plays her son Ethan in the series.
(Jojo Whilden / Prime Video)
There’s a line in the show to the effect of, “Nothing ever really disappears,” whether that’s because of the stories that people tell about us or the permanence of the internet. Is there a story or project that’s followed you around that you wish would go away?
Biel: I’m sure you could dig up some stuff about me, and I would probably be like, “Oh, yeah, that wasn’t the best choice.” But you have to fall on your face, look like an idiot, sound like an idiot and get back up and go, “All right, won’t do that again.” I don’t know where I would be if I didn’t stumble around a little bit. I don’t want to be stumbling around too much anymore at this age.
On the flip side, what past chapter of your life are you the most proud of?
Banks: I really am proud that I was able to use the opportunity that came during “The Hunger Games,” where I had this guaranteed work with these big movies. I started my family then, and I started my directing career then, and it was because I wasn’t out there shaking it trying to make a living. It was a real gift to have some security for a hot minute because it allowed me to look around and go, is this what I really want? What are my priorities? What opportunities can I pursue while I have this security? I’m proud that I took advantage of it.
Biel: I think back in my early 20s, taking the opportunity to start my little [production] company [with co-founder Michelle Purple], which was dumb and small and lame for like 10 years. We didn’t make anything, and it was a disaster. But we hustled, I took control and said I’m going to start making headway to make things for me. I’m not going to just sit and wait for a phone call from my agents, which is what I had been told to do. I started procuring material and working with writers and learning how to develop them. Now, my little company is making some stuff, which is cool.
Neither of you come from industry families. Did you feel like outsiders stepping into that world?
Banks: I still feel like an outsider.
Biel: I was going to say the same thing!
Banks: I know my worth, and I know what I’ve earned, so I don’t have impostor syndrome anymore. But I do feel like there’s a party in Hollywood that I’m not necessarily on the inside of. It keeps me scrappy, to be honest.
Biel: It also keeps you from getting lost in the sauce. You’re not paying so much attention to everybody else or what you’re not getting. It’s a good mindset to be in because you just focus on what you’re doing. When I’m outputting creatively, that’s what fuels me. The joy is in doing it.
Deysi Vargas’ daughter was nearly 2½ when she took her first steps.
The girl was a year delayed because she had spent most of her short life in a hospital in Playa del Carmen, Mexico, tethered to feeding tubes 24 hours a day. She has short bowel syndrome, a rare condition that prevents her body from completely absorbing the nutrients of regular food.
Vargas and her husband were desperate to get their daughter, whom The Times is identifying by her initials, S.G.V., better medical care. In 2023, they received temporary humanitarian permission to enter the U.S. legally through Tijuana.
Now in Bakersfield, the family received notice last month that their legal status had been terminated. The letter warned them: “It is in your best interest to avoid deportation and leave the United States of your own accord.”
But doing so would put S.G.V., now a bubbly 4-year-old, at immediate risk of death.
“This is a textbook example of medical need,” said the family’s attorney, Rebecca Brown, of the pro bono legal firm Public Counsel. “This child will die and there’s no sense for that to happen. It would just be a cruel sacrifice.”
A spokesperson for U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services declined to comment.
S.G.V.’s medication is stored in a small refrigerator.
Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, where the girl regularly receives treatment, declined to comment. But in a letter requested by the family, Dr. John Arsenault of CHLA wrote that he sees the girl every six weeks.
If there is an interruption in her daily nutrition system, called Total Parenteral Nutrition (TPN), the doctor wrote, “this could be fatal within a matter of days.”
“As such, patients on home TPN are not allowed to leave the country because the infrastructure to provide TPN or provide immediate intervention if there is a problem with IV access depends on our program’s utilization of U.S.-based healthcare resources and does not transfer across borders,” Arsenault wrote.
Vargas, 28, is from the Mexican state of Oaxaca; her husband, 34, is from Colombia. They met in Cancun, where they were working. Just before S.G.V. was born, the couple moved to nearby Playa del Carmen so her husband could work as an Uber driver.
The girl was born a month premature and quickly taken to intensive care. After doctors discovered her condition, she underwent six surgeries to fix an intestinal blockage. But Vargas said the doctors cut out too much, and the girl was left with short bowels. She experienced repeated blood infections, including one that nearly killed her.
The girl’s weight fluctuated severely. One month, she would look emaciated, her tiny limbs and bulging stomach incongruous with the family’s relative access to resources. Another month, she was as round-cheeked as any other baby.
When S.G.V. was 7 months old, a doctor suggested that the family relocate to Mexico City, where pediatric care for short bowel syndrome was the best in the country. But although her condition initially improved, the blood infections continued.
Unable to work, Vargas spent all day, every day, at the hospital with her daughter. Some days, she said, nurses would mistakenly administer the wrong medication to S.G.V. Other days, Vargas would arrive to find that her daughter had thrown up on herself overnight and no one had cleaned her up.
As part of her daily routine, Deysi Vargas runs a saline solution through her daughter’s intravenous line.
Vargas tried to keep a watchful eye over her daughter. Even so, she said a nurse once mistakenly sped up S.G.V.’s nutrition system, causing her to quickly pee it out. The girl became dehydrated and her glucose levels skyrocketed before doctors whisked her to intensive care, where her condition stabilized.
S.G.V. as a baby, taken in Mexico before treatment for short bowel syndrome.
(Deysi Vargas)
Vargas had read about children similar to her daughter going on to have normal lives in other countries. In Mexico, her daughter was being kept alive — but at 2, her condition had not improved.
So when Vargas learned that the Biden administration had begun offering migrants appointments with border agents through a phone application called CBP One, she signed up. Those let in received two-year protection from deportation and work permits.
With the appointment set for July 31, 2023, Vargas and her family set out for Tijuana two days earlier. She carefully carried her daughter out of the hospital, her nutrition bags still connected intravenously.
Her husband told agents that he had once been kidnapped by cartel members in Mexico who extorted money and threatened to kill him. They also looked at the girl, whose vulnerable condition was obvious.
“God knew she needed better treatment,” Vargas said. “When we got to the entrance, they saw her and asked us if we needed medical help.”
By that afternoon, the family had been whisked to Rady Children’s Hospital-San Diego.
S.G.V. quickly improved. Although she once was hooked up 24 hours a day to the feeding system that delivered nutrients directly into the bloodstream, doctors began weaning her off as her intestines got stronger.
The Trump administration has revoked the family’s humanitarian parole that they received in 2023 to treat the 4-year-old girl’s short bowel syndrome. Doctors say she could die within days without treatment.
A year later, doctors referred her to Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, which has one of the top-ranked gastroenterology programs in the country.
Both of her parents worked, holding down odd jobs, and by September 2024, the family had settled in Bakersfield and S.G.V. was discharged from the hospital.
For the first time, S.G.V. experienced the outside world. At Walmart, her eyes widened from the shopping cart and she and her mom strolled the aisles.
“It was incredible,” Vargas said. “I had waited so long for doctors to tell me, ‘Ma’am, your daughter is OK now. She can go home.’”
Now, the girl spends 14 hours each night hooked up to the intravenous feeding system. She wears a backpack to take it on the go.
Four times a day, for an hour, her mom administers a different type of nutrition that goes straight into her stomach through a gastric tube. When the girl goes to preschool, she takes a larger backpack containing the milky fluid, and the school nurse administers her noon feeding.
Before S.G.V. takes a shower, Vargas unplugs her IV tubes, flushes them with saline and tapes a plastic sheet over her chest to keep water from getting in and infecting the area.
On a recent morning, Vargas dressed the girl in pink leggings, a Hello Kitty T-shirt and black Puma sneakers. As they left hand-in-hand for preschool, S.G.V.’s curly black hair was still wet and the adult-size backpack dangled behind her knees as she walked.
S.G.V.’s care is covered through Medi-Cal. But life in the U.S. isn’t cheap.
Their modest living room contains little more than a hot plate on a folding table, a mini-fridge, a single chair and an IV bag stand. With no full kitchen, Vargas mostly makes sandwiches or soups. The fridge is filled with S.G.V.’s nutrition packs.
Vargas recently found steady work cleaning a restaurant. Finally, she thought, the family was achieving a sense of stability.
Then in April she received the notice from immigration authorities. This month, she received a notice terminating her employment authorization.
Vargas said she and her husband sometimes eat just once a day after paying rent and utilities, as well as for diapers and other necessities. Her husband is currently unemployed because of an injury, and she fears that losing her income could leave them homeless.
The thought of being forced by immigration agents to return to Mexico terrifies Vargas.
“I know the treatment they have there for her is not adequate, because we already lived it,” she said. “Those were bad times. Here she is living the most normal life possible.”
If not for her daughter’s medical condition, Vargas said, they probably would still be in Mexico. They want to stay only for as long as the girl needs treatment. Exactly how long that could be is unclear, but the couple are hopeful that their child’s condition will improve enough that she stops requiring supplemental nutrition.
Brown, their lawyer, submitted a petition for a continuation of their temporary humanitarian legal status based on S.G.V.’s medical condition. She believes the family’s legal status was prematurely terminated by mistake.
President Trump lambasted Biden over his broad expansion of programs allowing humanitarian entry, known as parole. On his first day in office, Trump issued an executive order to ensure that the discretionary authority be “exercised on only a case-by-case basis” for urgent humanitarian reasons or a significant public benefit.
Deysi Vargas and her daughter, S.G.V., walk about 15 minutes to the child’s preschool.
“This is the intended purpose — to help the most vulnerable who need attention here,” Brown said. “We can avoid having harmed the child and the family.”
Although Trump said on the campaign trail that he would target criminals for deportation, his administration quickly began revoking the legal status of immigrants who have no criminal history.
The Trump administration has stripped humanitarian protections from hundreds of thousands of immigrants who entered the U.S. under various Biden-era programs. Thousands of people who similarly entered the country using the CBP One app received notices from the federal government around the same time Vargas did, ordering them to leave voluntarily or face criminal prosecution and other legal actions.
The same phone app that Vargas used to enter the country has since been turned into CBP Home, to help immigrants such as her self-deport. If not, it says, “the federal government will find you.”
Times staff photographer Myung J. Chun in Bakersfield contributed to this report.
“Vacation” and “sex” were once my two favorite words. Put them together and you’ve got the mecca of pleasure: a romp in Egyptian cotton sheets followed by a juicy room service cheeseburger. Can you say sex in Italian? I can — “sesso” — because my husband and I copulated our way across the country early in our relationship. On our honeymoon in Hawaii two decades ago, we barely left our room and nearly missed the luau. Every getaway back then offered foreplay with a view.
And then we had a kid.
Still, the lure of vacation sex beckons. And not just for me and my husband. According to a survey conducted for the book “Tell Me What You Want: The Science of Sexual Desire and How It Can Help You Improve Your Sex Life,” 90% of people fantasized about sex in a hotel.
“All couples put ‘vacation sex’ on a pedestal because we’re more relaxed and playful when we get out of our daily routines,” says sex therapist Emily Morse, author of “Smart Sex: How to Boost Your Sex IQ and Own Your Pleasure” and host of the podcast “Sex With Emily.” “But we shouldn’t lose that intimacy because we travel with kids.”
So when my husband and I decided to celebrate 20 years of marriage by returning to Maui with our mercurial teen daughter Tess in tow, we vowed to get it on at least once on our trip. We started with a rough strategy: booking a 640-square-foot room with two queen beds. If you’re in the mood to get frisky during your family vacation, here are some tips to consider.
Plan like a pro
If you want to engage in some intimate time, add it to your itinerary before you take off. “You have to schedule sex like you schedule snorkeling or any excursion,” says Morse. “If you wait around for it to happen, it won’t happen.”
Sophie Pierce, a mom to three daughters ages 8, 9 and 14, doesn’t take chances when she and her husband ex-Navy SEAL Neil Mahoney travel. They think — and act — ahead, so they’re not completely disappointed if it doesn’t happen during the trip. “We always have sex the night before we leave for a family vacation, just in case,” says Pierce, the founder of three dance studios in Los Angeles. “But that doesn’t mean we won’t try.”
My husband and I didn’t have a strategy before we left L.A., but I did sneak sensual incidentals like lacy lingerie and a discreet bottle of lubricant into my suitcase. “Pack a sex toy too,” advises Morse, who says we’re more likely to be open to experimentation away from home. We agreed not to bring any work responsibilities on our trip. We’re both screenwriters, so we’re constantly polishing a script or crafting a pitch. I figured that by eliminating the stress of meeting deadlines, we upped the chances of having sex.
Lean into the hotel’s kid activities
Hotels and resorts see you, exhausted parents. Properties are upping their game for young guests with more exciting programming and cooler kids clubs. At the Ojai Valley Inn’s “night camp,” for instance, you can sign the children up for a scavenger hunt followed by dinner, a movie and s’mores. (Surely, that buys you enough time for a romp.) La Quinta Resort & Club in the desert offers junior pickleball clinics, along with massages and facials for tweens and teens up to age 15. At Alisal Ranch in Solvang, kids can hang out at the bar and paint horseshoes or take a riding lesson. Got littler ones? Some clubs, like Kidtopia at the Omni La Costa in Carlsbad, cater to infants (6 months and older) with nurseries on-site. Many hotels also offer babysitting services.
Note that clubs typically cater to the toddler-through-12 set. But there are exceptions, like the teen club at Grand Velas in Los Cabos that programs TikTok challenges, dance-offs at a dedicated nightclub with a DJ and karaoke events. At the Grand Wailea where we stayed, however, teens like my daughter Tess just side-eyed each other in the lobby. There was a family lounge on the property with darts and virtual reality, but it wasn’t a magnet for adolescents during our stay.
“We’re not comfortable getting sitters we don’t know on vacation,” says Pierce, who, instead, might pretend to leave the sunscreen in the room and put her teen daughter in charge to duck away from the hotel pool for a quickie with her husband. Or put the younger girls in a shared tub, but take the bath towels and mat so they can’t interrupt mom and dad in the bedroom. (Clearly, Pierce’s kids are way into self-care.)
For middle school teacher Vanessa Orellana — mom to a daughter, 6, and 1-year-old twins — the windows of opportunity for adult time on vacation call for quiet. “Between hotel beds that squeak and the in-laws’ walls, we’ve identified two golden windows for potential action: nap time and post-bedtime,” she says. “But even then, success is a coin toss. Our 8-year-old could pop up like a ninja, asking for water.”
Be flexible
Life happens, even on vacation. Prepare to pivot to plan B. My husband and I sent our daughter on an errand one morning at the 40-acre Maui resort, but she came back to fetch her AirPods and interrupted our marathon kiss. We shrugged it off and then held hands by the pool. Morse advises: “With kids, you may have to redefine intimacy on your trip. It could be flirting or even just making out after they go to bed.”
Pierce and her husband know their sex will be quick, if it happens at all. One dad of a toddler told me he and his husband have a ritual in which they text erotic messages to each other when they’re on vacation — and then promptly delete them. Just be sure to manage your expectations and laugh at any aborted attempts at intimacy.
“We’ve got an unspoken agreement: no guilt, no grumbling. Just a ‘to be continued’ knowing glance,” says Orellana. “It’s about connection, trust and keeping the spark alive through the sheer chaos of life with little humans.”
In the end, my husband and I did not get lucky. On our final night in Maui, we hit nearby award-winning restaurant Ko, where kids eat for 50% off. Unfortunately, a huge dinner of fresh crudo, lobster tempura, octopus and kobe beef — along with multiple desserts — made us shudder at the idea of any activity. So we had failed at our grand plan. But was our vacation ruined? Not at all. Ultimately, my family bonded in a way that doesn’t come easy with a teen. We swam with turtles, thrift-shopped around upcountry and held hands (for three whole seconds) while watching a sunset.
And on our first night back at home, my husband and I finally had sex. No fancy sheets or room service, but I did shout, “Aloooha!”
Amanda Holden is gracing our screens for Britain’s Got Talent and her new Netflix show. But away from TV fame, she has shared her beauty secrets and life at her ‘dream home’
17:00, 24 May 2025Updated 17:03, 24 May 2025
Amanda Holden swears by one certain beauty treatment (Image: Karwai Tang/WireImage)
Amanda Holden is back on our screens for Britain’s Got Talent as the final of the show fast approaches. But away from her hectic work life, including her new Netflix series, Cheat: Unfinished Business, which was released earlier this year, the TV presenter enjoys a slower pace back in her Surrey mansion.
The 54-year-old has been happily married to her music producer husband Chris Hughes for almost two decades, after they met in the United States. Together, they share two daughters, Lexi, 19, and 13-year-old Hollie.
Over the years, the Heart presenter has retained her bombshell status by keeping fit and up to date with the latest beauty treatments. She even revealed her favourite trick for staying youthful.
As she graces our screens, we’ve taken a glimpse into her lavish life – from her best beauty hacks to eye-watering net worth and family home life.
Amanda pictured in full glam at Britain’s Got Talent semi-final photocall (Image: PA)
Secret to ‘ever-evolving’ marriage
Amanda and Chris first met in the United States in 2003, and got married five years later at St Margaret’s Church in Somerset, followed by a reception at Babington House.
Despite being together for over two decades, she recently revealed why their relationship still feels so fresh. The mum of two explained how happy she is to be in a “lovely, secure relationship”.
She told Hello: “We have ups and downs like everyone else. But when I was looking at the pain and suffering that some of the people we were working with were going through, I felt so grateful that I had somebody in my life with no complications.”
The Britain’s Got Talent judge added: “My husband and I always have this joke where we go: ‘God, our relationship still feels so fresh. Twenty-two years does feel like a long time, but it still feels new to me. I think that’s because it’s ever-evolving.”
Facial she swears by
Amanda shared details of her ‘incredible’ facial (Image: Getty Images)
The TV star has revealed the £700 beauty treatment she swears has reversed her age. It involves sitting down for an hour to get micro-needling, and it’s not for the faint-hearted.
The process includes 24 coated pins which need to be penetrated into the subdermal tissue and coagulate the fat to remodel the face. She boasted about the “incredible” treatment on Instagram and said: “I’ve had collagen wave facials to smooth out my skin ever since @nilamholmes made it available at @dermaspa_mk. It has always given me an incredible lift.
“The other week before filming started on the @bgt live shows, Nilam suggested I try a new natural treatment called Morpheus8! The results have been absolutely amazing. I’ve noticed a real plumpness to my skin and it’s much tighter!”
Huge net worth
Paul C Brunson and Amanda Holden host the Netflix show, Cheat Unfinished Business(Image: Tom Dymond/Netflix)
The glam radio presenter is not only back on Britain’s Got Talent, but is also co-presenting a new dating show with Married at First Sight star, Paul Bronson. Together, they invite estranged couples to have a second chance at love on Netflix.
With her multi-layered career continuing to grow, Amanda now has an impressive net worth of around £3.6 million. While her husband appears to have a net worth of £4.5 million.
She previously spoke about how Chris offers her stability and said: “He’s rubbish at romance, but he’s there for the solid things, such as keeping my car clean and making sure I relax. He’s a proper bloke who looks after me. I’m a strong, opinionated woman, but he helps steer the Mandy ship.”
‘Dream home’
The TV star has shared a glimpse inside her home(Image: mirror.co.uk)
Amanda and Chris reside in the charming village of Cobham in their lavish Surrey mansion, which is thought to be worth around £7 million. Describing her home, she previously told Mail Online: “This is my dream home. My entire life I have wanted the dream home, and you know you do the stepping up and now I’ve finally got it.”
Amanda also shared with The Mirror: “I am house proud, but I’ve got two kids, two dogs and a cat, so it’s a family house. Everything is washable and wipeable. It’s so open plan my littlest can cycle her bike around.
“I don’t have carpets on the ground floor and this is disgusting but I was doing an interview a while ago and my puppy pooed on the floor during the chat. But you don’t worry if you have wooden floors. Two words: wipe clean.”
“Today” show host Sheinelle Jones’ husband, Uche Ojeh, has died of brain cancer at age 45. The two were married for 17 years.
Co-host Savannah Guthrie, surrounded by her colleagues, announced the news “with profound sadness” Friday morning during the show. Ojeh fought “a courageous battle with an aggressive form of brain cancer called glioblastoma,” she said.
“There are no words for the pain we feel for Sheinelle and their three young children,” she continued. “Uche was an incredible person. We all loved him.”
Jones posted a photo of her husband on Friday along with video from that broadcast. Her simple caption offered thanks to all who had supported them during Ojeh’s illness.
“Uche was an extraordinary person. Full of light and heart and faith,” Guthrie wrote in comments. “Sheinelle, my dearest, we love you and the kids with all of our hearts. I marvel at your strength. You are surrounded by love now and forever.”
“Love you Sheinelle…we wrap our arms around you now and forever!,” co-host Jenna Hager wrote. Talk-show and former “Today” host Tamron Hall and former “Today” co-host Hoda Kotb offered their condolences.
Meteorologist and third-hour “Today” co-host Dylan Dreyer joined in, writing, “Hoping you can find peace in the love and prayers that surround you and your incredible children. I’m so lucky to have known Uche and his spirit lives on in your family.”
Glioblastoma is the most aggressive form of brain and spinal cord cancer, the Glioblastoma Foundation says, with a current standard of care that doesn’t help much. The average survival time for people who get treatment is 15 months after diagnosis, according to the foundation, compared with three to six months for those who do not. While research on new treatments has been promising, according to the Mayo Clinic, the condition has no cure.
The Mayo Clinic says the disease is most often diagnosed when people are in their mid-60s. Singer Michael Bolton, 72, announced last month that he has been diagnosed with glioblastoma after initially suffering nausea and balance issues in 2023. His diagnosis and emergency brain surgery came in January 2024.
Jones, who anchors the third hour of “Today” with Dreyer, Craig Melvin and Al Roker, has been absent from the show since mid-December, managing what she called “a family health matter.”
At the time, the 11-year NBC News veteran did not disclose details but acknowledged her support system within and beyond the “Today” studio, saying that it “means so much to me.” People reported in January that the situation was “serious” but didn’t involve Jones or her three children with Ojeh: son Kayin, 15, and twins Clara and Uche, 14.
Ojeh married Jones in September 2007 after meeting during the 1990s on the campus of Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill., when she was walking to class and he was a high school senior visiting campus. She decided to act like a “fake tour guide,” she told her alma mater’s magazine in 2024.
“I told him I would take him around,” Jones said, “because he was cute.”
Uche Ojeh – the husband of Sheinelle Jones – has died following a battle with brain cancer. He was 45 years old when he died and the news was shared with TODAY viewers live on air
At least three people aboard a jet headed for Montgomery-Gibbs Executive Airport in San Diego were killed when the aircraft crashed into a neighborhood early Thursday.
The Federal Aviation Administration said six people were on the Cessna 550 when it crashed amid dense fog around 3:45 a.m. While authorities have not named anyone who died in the crash, a spokesperson for Sound Talent Group, a San Diego-based music agency, confirmed to The Times that the company lost three employees.
Among them was Dave Shapiro, the company’s co-founder. The other employees were not named.
“We are devastated by the loss of our co-founder, colleagues and friends,” read a company statement. “Our hearts go out to their families and to everyone impacted by today’s tragedy. Thank you so much for respecting their privacy at this time.”
Dave Shapiro, 42
Shapiro’s digital presence encapsulated the spirit of an adventurer. He was a music agent, airplane and helicopter pilot, husband, puppy dad and retired BASE jumper, according to his Instagram bio.
Shapiro, who co-founded Sound Talent Group in 2018, also started Velocity Aviation, a company that offers scenic flight tours in San Diego and Homer, Alaska. The aviation company also specializes in aircraft leasing, aircraft sales consulting, ferry flights and flight instruction, according to the Velocity Aviation website.
Shapiro took his first flight class in 2005 as a 22-year-old executive in the music business and was immediately “hooked to all things aviation,” the website reads.
Shapiro also owned a restaurant, record label and a merchandise manufacturing business.
“From BASE jumping to aerobatic flying, Helicopters to twin engines, flight instructing to furthering his own education, doesn’t matter to Dave as long as he gets to be in the sky,” the Velocity Aviation website reads. “With over 15 years of flight experience, thousands of hours logged, and over a million miles flown, Dave continues to grow his experience and share it with the aviation community through the many services Velocity Aviation offers.”
Videos on Instagram show him performing rolls and other aerobatic maneuvers while piloting an aircraft. In 2020, he posted a photo of his pilot licenses announcing that he’d been certified as an airline transport pilot.
“For non-aviators, this is the license above commercial. Although I have a career and don’t plan to change that I always want to learn more and be a better pilot,” he wrote in the caption. “Passed the check ride a couple months ago and got my cert in the mail! Did the test in a citation 525 series so I’m now rated for the CJ jets too. Fun times.”
Flying was more than a business to Shapiro. It was also an element of one of life’s biggest milestones — his wedding.
In 2016, Shapiro and his wife boarded a bright red plane mounted with skis to fly over Denali National Park in Alaska to get to their ceremony. The couple said “I do” on Kahiltna Glacier — the bride wearing a gold sequined dress and the groom a dark suit and an Iron Maiden T-shirt.
Shapiro’s wife detailed the whirlwind celebration in a story published online, ending it with a message of adoration for her groom: “my beautiful husband, thank you for existing and I love you way more.”
An outpouring of condolences were posted to social media Thursday. The music industry veteran worked as a band manager, promoter and other roles in American metalcore, pop-punk and emo rock music.
“He was my manager and agent for years and a huge part of my career as a producer and musician,” musician Carson Slovak wrote on Facebook. “He was a truly good person and an inspiration to countless people. His contributions to the music industry are legendary and his charitable spirit had a profound effect on so many. I’m heartbroken and in shock.”
Bill D’Arcangelo, an artist manager at Mid Atlantic Management, said in a post on Facebook that Shapiro was “a pillar of the music industry that will never be replicated or replaced.”
Reddit founder Alexis Ohanian has bought a stake in Women’s Super League champions Chelsea.
Ohanian, who is the husband of American tennis star Serena Williams, will have a seat on the club’s board after purchasing a 8-10% share, believed to be worth around £20m.
In a post to X, external, Ohanian said: “I’ve bet big on women’s sports before, and I’m doing it again.
“I’m proud to announce that I’m joining Chelsea as an investor and board member. I’m honored for the chance to help this iconic club become every American’s favorite WSL team and much, much more.”
He also posted images of Chelsea kits with the names of his children, Olympia and Adira, on the backs.
The 42-year-old has invested in women’s football previously, as the largest shareholder in American club side Angel City FC until it was sold in 2024 for £192.3 million – the highest price for a women’s sports team until this deal.
