increase

Los Angeles mayoral candidate Austin Beutner took aim at the rising cost of basic city services Thursday, saying Mayor Karen Bass and her administration have contributed to an affordability crisis that is “crushing families.”

Beutner, appearing outside Van Nuys City Hall, pointed to the City Council’s recent decision to increase trash collection fees to nearly $56 per month, up from $36.32 for single-family homes and duplexes and $24.33 for three- and four-unit apartment buildings.

Since Bass took office in December 2022, the city also hiked sewer service fees, which are on track to double over a four-year period. In addition, Beutner said, the Department of Water and Power pushed up the cost of water and electrical service by 52% and 19%, respectively.

“I’m talking about the cost-of-living crisis that’s crushing families,” he said. “L.A. is a very, very special place, but every day it’s becoming less affordable.”

Beutner, speaking before a group of reporters, would not commit to rolling back any of those increases. Instead, he urged Bass to call a special session of the City Council to explain the decisions that led to the increases.

“Tell me the cost of those choices, and then we can have an informed conversation as to whether it was a good choice or a bad choice — or whether I’d make the same choice,” said Beutner, who has worked as superintendent of L.A. schools and as a high-level deputy mayor.

When the City Council took up the sewer rates last year, sanitation officials argued the increase was needed to cover rising construction and labor costs — and ramp up the repair and replacement of aging pipes.

This year sanitation officials also pushed for a package of trash fee hikes, saying the rates had not increased in 17 years. They argued that the city’s budget has been subsidizing the cost of residential trash pickup for customers in single-family homes and small apartments.

Doug Herman, spokesperson for the Bass reelection campaign, defended the trash and sewer service fee increases, saying both were long overdue. Bass took action, he said, because previous city leaders failed to make the hard choices necessary to balance the budget and fix deteriorating sewer pipes.

“Nobody was willing to face the music and request the rate hikes to do that necessary work,” he said.

DWP spokesperson Michelle Figueroa acknowledged that electrical rates have gone up. However, she said in an email, the DWP’s residential rates remain lower than other utilities, including Southern California Edison and San Diego Gas & Electric.

By focusing on cost-of-living concerns, Beutner’s campaign has been emphasizing an issue that is at the forefront of next week’s election for New York City mayor. In that contest, State Assembly member Zohran Mamdani has promised to lower consumer costs, in part by freezing the rent for rent-stabilized apartments and making rides on city buses free.

Since announcing his candidacy this month, Beutner has offered few cost-of-living policy prescriptions, other than to say he supports “in concept” Senate Bill 79, a newly signed state law that allows taller, denser buildings to be approved near public transit stops. Instead, he mostly has derided a wide array of increases, including a recent hike in parking rates.

Beutner contends that the city’s various increases will add more than $1,200 per year to the average household customer’s bill from the Department of Water and Power, which includes the cost not just of utilities but also trash removal and sewer service.

Herman pushed back on that estimate, saying it relies on “flawed assumptions,” incorporating fees that apply to only a portion of ratepayers.

In a new campaign video, Beutner warned that city leaders also are laying plans to more than double what property owners pay in street lighting assessments. He also accused the DWP of relying increasingly on “adjustment factors” to increase the amount customers pay for water and electricity, instead of hiking the base rate.

The DWP needs to be more transparent about those increases and why they were needed, Beutner said.

SACRAMENTO — Some witty person long ago gave us this immortal line: “No man’s life, liberty or property are safe while the legislature is in session.”

Humorist Will Rogers usually is credited — wrongly. Mark Twain, too, falsely.

The real author was Gideon J. Tucker, a former newspaper editor who founded the New York Daily News. He later became a state legislator and judge, and he crafted the comment in an 1866 court opinion.

Anyway, Californians are safe from further legislative harm for now. State lawmakers have gone home for the year after passing 917 bills. Gov. Gavin Newsom signed 794 (87%) and vetoed 123 (13%).

I’m not aware of any person’s life being jeopardized. Well, maybe after the lawmakers and governor cut back Medi-Cal healthcare for undocumented immigrants to save money.

One could argue — and many interests did — that what the Legislature did to increase housing availability made some existing residential neighborhoods less safe from congestion and possible declining property values.

But kudos to the lawmakers and governor for enacting major housing legislation that should have been passed years ago.

Public pressure generated by unaffordable costs — both for homebuyers and renters — spurred the politicians into significant action to remove regulatory barriers and encourage much more development. The goal is to close the gap between short supply and high demand.

But legislative passage was achieved over stiff opposition from some cities — especially Los Angeles — that objected to loss of local control.

“It’s a touchy issue that affects zoning and is always going to be controversial,” says state Sen. Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco), who finessed through a bill that will allow construction of residential high-rises up to nine stories near transit hubs such as light-rail and bus stations. The measure overrides local zoning ordinances.

Wiener had been trying unsuccessfully for eight years to get similar legislation passed. Finally, a fire was lit under legislators by their constituents.

“The public understands we’ve screwed ourselves by making it so hard to build homes,” Wiener says.

But to win support, he had to accept tons of exceptions. For example, the bill will affect only counties with at least 15 passenger rail stations. There are eight: Los Angeles, Orange, San Diego, San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Alameda and Sacramento.

“Over time it will have a big effect, but it’s going to be gradual,” Wiener says.

Dan Dunmoyer, who heads the California Building Industry Assn., calls it “a positive step in the right direction.”

Yes, and that direction is up rather than sideways. California could accommodate a cherished ranch-house lifestyle when the population was only a third or half the nearly 40 million people it is today. But sprawling horizontally has become impossibly pricey for too many and also resulted in long smog-spewing commutes and risky encroachment into wildfire country.

Dozens of housing bills were passed and signed this year, ranging from minutia to major.

The Legislature continued to peck away at the much-abused California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). Opponents of projects have used the act to block construction for reasons other than environmental protection. Local NIMBYs — ”Not in my backyard” — have resisted neighborhood growth. Businesses have tried to avoid competition. Unions have practiced “greenmail” by threatening lawsuits unless developers signed labor agreements.

Another Wiener bill narrowed CEQA requirements for commercial housing construction. It also exempted from CEQA a bunch of nonresidental projects, including health clinics, manufacturing facilities and child-care centers.

A bill by Assemblymember Buffy Wicks (D-Oakland) exempted most urban infill housing projects from CEQA.

You can’t argue that the Legislature wasn’t productive this year. But you can spar over whether some of the production was a mistake. Some bills were both good and bad. That’s the nature of compromise in a functioning democracy.

One example: The state’s complex cap-and-trade program was extended beyond 2030 to 2045. That’s probably a good thing. It’s funded by businesses buying permits to emit greenhouse gases and pays for lots of clean energy projects.

But a questionable major piece of that legislation — demanded by Newsom — was a 20-year, $1-billion annual commitment of cap-and-trade money for California’s disappointing bullet train project.

The project was sold to voters in 2008 as a high-speed rail line connecting Los Angeles and San Francisco. It’s $100 billion over budget and far behind its promised 2020 completion. No tracks have even been laid. The new infusion of cap-and-trade money will merely pay for the initial 171-mile section between Merced and Bakersfield, which the state vows to open by 2033. Hot darn!

Newsom muscled through the bill at the last moment. The Legislature should have taken more time to study the project’s future.

One gutsy thing Democratic legislators and the governor did — given that “oil,” among the left, has become the new hated pejorative sidekick of “tobacco” — was to permit production of 2,000 more wells annually in oil-rich Kern County.

It was part of a compromise: Drilling in federal offshore waters was made more difficult by tightening pipeline regulations.

Credit the persistent Sen. Shannon Grove, a conservative Republican from Bakersfield who is adept at working across the aisle.

“Kern County knows how to produce energy,” she told colleagues during the Senate floor debate, citing not only oil but wind, solar and battery storage. “We are the experts. We are not the enemy.”

But what mostly motivated Newsom and legislators was the threat of even higher gas prices as two large California oil refineries prepare to shut down. Most Democrats agreed that the politically smart move was to allow more oil production, even as the state attempts to transcend entirely to clean energy.

Let’s not forget the most important bill the Legislature annually passes: the state budget. This year’s totaled $325 billion and allegedly covered a $15-billion deficit through borrowing, a few cuts and numerous gimmicks.

Nonpartisan Legislative Analyst Gabriel Petek last week projected deficit spending of up to $25 billion annually for the next three years.

In California, no state bank account is safe when the Legislature is in session.

What else you should be reading

The must-read: Sen. Scott Wiener to run for congressional seat held by Rep. Nancy Pelosi
California vs. Trump: Federal troops in San Francisco? Locals, leaders scoff at Trump’s plan
The L.A. Times Special: One of O.C.’s loudest pro-immigrant politicians is one of the unlikeliest

Until next week,
George Skelton

—
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It was a major talking point in the final months of Donald Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign: If re-elected, the Republican leader pledged to make in vitro fertilisation (IVF) free for those seeking to get pregnant.

“Under the Trump administration, we are going to be paying for that treatment,” Trump told NBC News last year, adding that his plans would cover “all Americans that get it, all Americans that need it”.

“We’re going to be paying for that treatment. Or we’re going to be mandating that the insurance company pay.”

While that campaign promise remains unrealised, the Trump administration took a step on Thursday to make the procedure more accessible.

Speaking from the Oval Office, Trump announced a collaboration with the company EMD Serono, a subsidiary of the pharmaceutical giant Merck, to offer lower-priced fertility drugs on his upcoming prescription marketplace, TrumpRx.

“ EMD Serono, the largest fertility drug manufacturer in the world, has agreed to provide massive discounts to all fertility drugs they sell in the United States, including the most popular drug of all, the IVF drug Gonal-F,” Trump told reporters.

Expanding TrumpRx project

The announcement marks the third major pharmaceutical company to agree to provide discounted products on TrumpRx, a direct-to-consumer website slated to launch in 2026.

Trump had threatened drug companies in September with a 100-percent tariff on their products unless they started to build manufacturing facilities in the US.

But that tariff was postponed after the pharmaceutical manufacturer Pfizer announced a deal with TrumpRx on September 30, a day before the tax hike was slated to hit. AstraZeneca, another power player in the industry, followed suit last week.

In Thursday’s news conference, Trump once again credited his tariff threats with bringing the companies to heel.

“They’ll bring a significant portion of their drug manufacturing back to the United States,” Trump said of EMD Serono. “That’s for a lot of reasons, but primarily because of the election result, November 5th, and maybe most importantly because of the tariffs.”

In addition to the forthcoming discounts from EMD Serono, Trump indicated he would encourage insurance companies to expand coverage for IVF treatments.

In the US, laws vary by state as to whether health insurance must cover fertility treatments like IVF. Trump touted the guidance as a breakthrough in making reproductive healthcare more accessible and affordable.

“Effective immediately, for the first time ever, we will make it legal for companies to offer supplemental insurance plans specifically for fertility,” Trump said.

“ Americans will be able to opt in, do specialised coverage, just as they get vision and dental insurance.”

Those plans typically come at an extra fee, on top of regular health insurance rates. That raises questions about how effective the new insurance guidance will be.

More than 26 million Americans – roughly 8 percent of the population – are uninsured, according to US census data. Even more lack access to supplemental policies for dental and vision care.

The American Dental Association, an industry professional group, estimates more than 22 percent of US adults lacked dental insurance as of 2021.

Trump seemed to acknowledge gaps in coverage during his remarks, but he maintained that the new government guidance would offer some adults a pathway to parenthood.

“They’re going to get fertility insurance for the first time,” he continued. “So I don’t know.  I don’t know how well these things are covered.”

A campaign-trail controversy

The Republican leader also credited a 2024 court decision with propelling him to focus on IVF treatments.

IVF involves removing eggs from a patient’s ovaries and fertilising them in a laboratory environment. These eggs are then inserted into the patient’s uterus or frozen for future use.

The use of such treatments is on the rise in the US: In 2023, the American Society for Reproductive Medicine found that 95,860 babies were born as the result of an IVF procedure.

But in February the following year, a ruling from the Alabama Supreme Court prompted fears about whether IVF would remain widely available.

In a novel decision, the court – located in a strongly conservative state – ruled that embryos created through IVF could be considered children under state law, thereby making the destruction of such embryos potentially a criminal act.

The decision sent shockwaves throughout the IVF industry, with clinics in Alabama temporarily suspending services. Discarding embryos is standard practice in IVF: Generally, more eggs are collected than will ultimately be used, and not all fertilised eggs will be suitable to start a pregnancy.

Within weeks, the Alabama state legislature stepped in to shield IVF providers from prosecution. But the ruling created lingering concerns that IVF could be targeted by anti-abortion rights advocates.

On Thursday, Trump revisited that controversy, which happened in the midst of his re-election bid. He called the court’s ruling a “bad decision” and credited it with helping to make him aware of IVF.

“I wasn’t that familiar with it,” Trump said. “Now I think I’ve sort of become the father.”

Senator Katie Britt, who represents the state of Alabama, echoed that evaluation, praising Trump for taking steps to protect IVF.

Thursday was not the first time Trump has gestured at lowering costs for the fertility procedure. In February, he also issued a presidential order calling on his administration to start “protecting IVF access and aggressively reducing out-of-pocket and health plan costs”.

“ Mr President, this is the most pro-IVF thing that any president in the history of the United States of America has done,” Britt told Trump on Thursday. “You are the reason why the Republican Party is now the party of parents.”

Addressing the US birthrate

Trump, who previously called himself the “fertilisation president”  during a Women’s History Month event, also framed the new measures as progress towards increasing the US birthrate.

In April, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported that fertility remained at a historic low, rising slightly in 2024 to 1.6 births per woman.

Those numbers have fuelled a push within the Republican Party to ignite a new baby boom, with right-wing figures like tech billionaire Elon Musk going so far as to call the low birthrate “the biggest danger civilization faces by far”.

At Thursday’s meeting, top figures in the Trump administration echoed those concerns, including Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr.

“We are below replacement right now,” he said, referencing the number of births needed to outpace deaths in the US. “That is a national security threat to our country.”

Mehmet Oz, who serves under Kennedy as the administrator for Medicaid services, took a more positive approach, framing the new IVF guidance as the beginning of a reversal of that downward trend.

“There are going to be a lot of Trump babies,” Oz quipped. “I think that’s probably a good thing. But it turns out the fundamental creative force in society is about making babies.”

But it remains to be seen if insurance companies and employers will follow through with Trump’s guidance to offer supplemental fertility benefits for adults seeking to get pregnant.

Most Americans receive health insurance as part of their workplace benefits. Senator Britt argued the guidelines would put employers “in the driver’s seat”, allowing them to shape the benefits they offer to their workers.

“Employers are going to be able to decide how to cover the root causes of infertility, things like obesity and metabolic health, and other things that are impacting infertility,” she said. “We want employers to be the ones that can make those decisions, not the government.”

But for Democrats, the guidance fell far short of what Trump promised on the campaign trail.

“Donald Trump lied when he pledged to make IVF available to every family for FREE,” Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts posted afterwards on social media. “It’s insulting – a broken promise.”

Reality television production in Los Angeles declined sharply this summer, leading to a nearly 21% drop in overall TV shoot days, a new report shows.

The total number of shoot days in the greater L.A. area from July to September was 4,380, down 13.2% compared to a year ago, according to data from FilmLA, a nonprofit that handles film permits for the Los Angeles region.

The third-quarter data does not reflect the full effect of the state’s newly bolstered film and TV tax credit program, which was passed this summer.

In the most recent round, 22 TV series were chosen amid a nearly 400% increase in applications, with 18 of those shows primarily filming in the L.A. area.

Projects that received an incentive have 180 days to start production after notice of their award, and it often takes time to commence filming.

Because of that, FilmLA executives were not surprised to see on-location production continue to slip during the summer months.

“Fortunately, we’ve already begun to see early signs of these incentives having their desired effect,” he said. “We’re excited to be taking calls from productions looking to line up their locations and pull permits,” FilmLA Vice President Philip Sokoloski said in a statement.

TV production totaled 1,441 shoot days, down 20.7% compared to the same time period last year. The decline is especially significant because TV is the region’s main driver of production.

Reality TV dropped to 649 shoot days, down 31.4% compared to last year. Other genres of TV production also saw a downturn — drama (down 19%) and pilots (down 34.5%). Production of television comedies, however, was a bright spot with 79 shoot days, up 41.1%.

Feature film production in L.A. also ticked up with 522 shoot days, an increase of 9.7% compared to last year. But commercial production, which does not receive a tax incentive, was down 17.9% to 668 shoot days.

The report’s “other” category, which includes student films, still photo shoots and documentaries, saw a decrease of 9.9% to 1,749 shoot days.

A shoot day represents one crew’s permission to film at a single location in a 24-hour period.

Al Jazeera’s Nils Alder has been seeing how Lithuania’s military forces are staying ready, at a time of increasing concern over Russia’s military activity.

Many Los Angeles residents will soon be paying significantly more for trash collection after the City Council voted Tuesday to finalize a dramatic fee increase.

The trash program had become heavily subsidized, to the tune of about $500,000 a day, which officials said was no longer viable given the city’s dire financial straits, which left them scrambling to close a nearly $1-billion budget deficit earlier this year.

Having the cost subsidized by the city for so long contributed to that deficit, according to City Administrative Officer Matt Szabo.

“It should have been corrected a long time ago,” Szabo said. “If we didn’t get this rate increase, the subsidy would have been more than $200 million this year.”

The city hadn’t raised trash pickup fees in 17 years, and a 2016 state law governing organic waste disposal significantly increased operational costs. Large raises for city sanitation workers and rising equipment costs also bumped up expenditures.

Once the new fees go into effect, probably in mid-November, residents of single-family homes or apartments with four units or less will pay $55.95 a month per unit.

That sum is more than double the $24.33 a month that occupants of triplexes and fourplexes had been paying, and a roughly 50% increase on the $36.32 previously paid by residents of single-family homes and duplexes.

Those customers put their waste in black bins for regular trash, blue bins for recycling and green bins for organic waste, which are emptied by city workers once a week. Larger apartment buildings will be unaffected by the changes, because their waste collection is administered through a separate program.

The fees will increase by an additional $10 over the next four years.

By next year, the increased fees will reflect the actual cost of trash pickup and will be on par with or slightly below what residents pay in nearby cities such as Long Beach, Pasadena, Culver City and Glendale.

Still, the new fees will almost certainly engender sticker shock for L.A. residents already contending with skyrocketing insurance premiums, rising rents and eye-popping grocery prices. Rates will be reduced for low-income customers who qualify for the city’s EZ-SAVE or Lifeline programs.

The City Council approved the increase on a 12-2 vote, with Councilmembers Monica Rodriguez and Adrin Nazarian dissenting.

Last week, the council also voted to raise the prices and hours of city parking meters.

“After approving a $2.6-billion Convention Center expansion, the council is asking residents to pay more for basic services like trash collection while delivering less. That doesn’t reflect the priorities of working Angelenos,” Rodriguez said after Tuesday’s vote. “I can’t, in good conscience, support that approach.”

A number of factors catalyzed the city’s financial issues, which exploded into public view during the budget process earlier this year. Los Angeles had taken in weaker than expected tax revenues, paid out more in legal liabilities and adopted large-scale raises for city employees.

When Mayor Karen Bass first presented her budget in the spring, layoffs for more than 1,600 city workers were on the table. She and the City Council were ultimately able to avoid those cuts through a number of cost-saving measures.

Tuesday’s final vote on the trash fees came nearly six months after the council gave preliminary approval to the plan.

The matter was complicated by Proposition 218, a 1996 statewide ballot measure designed to make it harder for local governments to raise taxes and fees. To satisfy the proposition’s requirements, the city had to hold public hearings and give every affected resident the opportunity to weigh in via a notice mailed to their homes before the increase could move forward.

The fee hike legislation still has to be signed by the mayor and formally published by the city clerk. The fee can’t go into effect until 31 days after that, or mid-November at the earliest.

The city budget, however, was calculated under the assumption that the new fees would go into effect Oct. 1. The delay will leave the city on the hook for an extra $500,000 a day.

Because Tuesday’s vote was not unanimous, the ordinance will receive a second reading next week before the council formally approves it and sends it to the mayor — a technicality that will cost the city $3.5 million. The mayor plans to sign it as soon as she receives it, her office said.

The delay to mid-November will cost the city a total of at least $22 million, creating another deficit that will have to be adjusted for down the line.

Still, some residents decried the ballooning fees, with one calling the increase “preposterous.”

“Listen to our cries,” the person, who did not give their name,said in a written public comment. “We can barely keep a roof over our heads — at this time! Los Angeles is falling apart. It is your job to fix it more practically.”

The Historic Highland Park Neighborhood Council also opposed the rate hike, arguing that residents are already facing steep cost-of-living increases and that layering more fees on top of that would be “neither fair nor sustainable.”

The last time the city increased trash fees, back in the summer of 2008, City Controller Kenneth Mejia was a few months out of high school, George W. Bush was in the Oval Office and Katy Perry’s “I Kissed a Girl” was topping the Billboard charts.

Amid a global economic downturn, the city was facing widespread cuts, and leaders looked — as they often do — to the price tag of city services to try to balance the budget.

Times staff writers David Zahniser and Dakota Smith contributed to this report.

It’s no secret that flights and hotels have increased in price, but for one traveller, the cost of their trip was dubbed ‘a trip to the moon with NASA’ as it saw a whopping price increase

Gone are the days of booking a flight seat for £15.99 and an all-inclusive hotel for £100 as prices for a getaway abroad shoot up. But for one traveller, they were left baffled after their holiday package increased by a whopping £17million, prompting people to label it as much as a “trip to the moon with NASA”.

The holidaymaker, who didn’t reveal the exact details of their elaborate holiday, shared a screenshot of the cost inflation while using the TUI website. What started out as an £8million trip jumped to a staggering increase of £17million.

In a message on the TUI website, with the title ‘The cost of your holiday has increased’, it read: “We’re sorry to say the price for your holiday has gone up by £17734902.34. It’s because this trip uses flights from a third-party airline.

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“We receive the latest prices from the airline a few times each day, but the price might change when we come to request the actual seats. Your new total is shown in the holiday summary.”

While it’s uncertain what the traveller put into the booking website, he shared the screenshot and wrote on Reddit: “So, £297 for both with flights seemed a little too good to be true, so I went through the motions. Unfortunately for me, I don’t have £18,000,000 in the bank to spend 4 days in Athens, even with the £2m discount.”

The post was met with a flurry of comments as everyone applauded the post. One asked: “Who are the third party airline, NASA?”

A second added: “Just a short layover on the moon.” “Sounds more like a Space X side hustle to me. Uber x Space X if you will”, a third penned.

“NASA’s having a…. bit of time off”, another shared. “Its only £120 deposit. Put it on klarna,” a fifth wrote.

While another wrote: “I feel you OP. I hate when they add on that little 69p to the price like that too. Like it’s such a sneaky trick. You can sort of rationalise it by convincing yourself you’re only paying £8867599 but let’s be honest here, you’re really paying more like £8867600.”

Someone else remarked: “Nothing beats a Jet2 holiday”, before another chimed in with: “And right now you can save £1m per person. That’s £4m off for a family of four!”

A TUI spokesperson said the error was likely caused by a technical error, and they’d like to apologise for the confusion.

After making a cameo during Shakira and Jennifer Lopez’s 2020 halftime show in Miami, Bad Bunny will return to the Super Bowl stage next year — this time, as the headlining act.

The 2026 Super Bowl LX will take place Feb. 8 at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif. The Puerto Rican hitmaker’s performance is expected to be the first fully Spanish-language performance on the stage, and he’s the first Latino man to headline.

The announcement came after Bad Bunny, full name Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio, said he would not tour his latest album, “Debí Tirar Más Fotos,” to the continental U.S. due to the ongoing threat of ICE arresting his concertgoers. “There was the issue of — like, f— ICE could be outside [my concert]. And it’s something that we were talking about and very concerned about,” he told i-D magazine.

Instead, the Grammy-winning artist’s No Me Quiero Ir de Aquí (I Don’t Want to Leave Here) residency — which took place at the Coliseo de Puerto Rico in San Juan — brought an estimated $733 million to Puerto Rico as 600,000-plus tourists came to the island for his concert.

As an unincorporated territory of the United States, Puerto Rico still has an ICE presence. In June 2025, Benito posted footage on his Instagram stories of an ICE raid in progress in Carolina, showcasing agents arresting alleged undocumented immigrants.

Yet since announcing his Super Bowl halftime show, the singer hasn’t voiced concerns about ICE. His post on X, which strays from his previous remarks on avoiding the States as a stance against ICE, reads: “I’ve been thinking about it these days, and after discussing it with my team, I think I’ll do just one date in the United States.”

As Santa Clara County is a sanctuary jurisdiction, Lina Baroudi, an immigration attorney in San Jose, believes local law enforcement is unlikely to cooperate with ICE. “Federal agents can operate independently. Sanctuary laws don’t prevent them from entering public spaces or executing federal warrants,” she says.

Between January and July in the Bay Area, ICE made 2,640 arrests— a 123% increase compared with 2024. “By June 2025, around 60% of ICE daily arrests in California were of people without criminal charges or convictions,” Baroudi says. The agency has historically had an increased presence in cities hosting the Super Bowl. ICE will likely be prohibited from operating inside the stadium, but ICE can operate in public spaces such as the parking lot, where fans may gather to hear the performance.

Amid an uptick in violent ICE arrests, mass deportations, people dying in ICE custody and the Supreme Court’s approval of profiling people for speaking Spanish, it’s of deep cultural significance that Bad Bunny will perform at the Super Bowl. Still, some fans are speculating that his firm stance against performing in the U.S. due to ICE was performative, now that he has accepted the Super Bowl gig.

And yet, given the Trump administration’s hostility toward immigrants and Spanish speakers in the U.S., it feels especially poignant that the country’s biggest sporting event of the year will showcase a performance sung entirely in Spanish.

“What I’m feeling goes beyond myself,” Bad Bunny said in a statement. “It’s for those who came before me and ran countless yards so I could come in and score a touchdown… this is for my people, my culture and our history. Ve y dile a tu abuela, que seremos el HALFTIME SHOW DEL SUPER BOWL.”

It’s worth noting that Bad Bunny’s appearance at the Super Bowl poses a massive commercial advantage for the NFL. Second to the United States, the largest resale of Super Bowl tickets on StubHub were purchased by fans in Mexico. There are 39 million Latine fans of the league in the U.S., making them the most rapidly growing fan base. Latine viewership of the Super Bowl rose 51% from 2021 to 2024.

The NFL has made a concerted effort over the years to globalize American football, with a special focus on building a fan base in Latin America; it recently enlisted Colombian pop star Karol G to perform at a halftime show in Brazil. Given that the Latine buying power in the U.S. is estimated at $3.6 trillion, tapping Bad Bunny as the headliner is a strategic move toward the league’s international expansion.

The global superstar’s performance will likely boost ratings as well. Bad Bunny broke Amazon Music’s livestream record last week with the most-watched single artist performance on the platform. Upon its release in January, “Debí Tirar Más Fotos” topped the Billboard 200 and maintained Bad Bunny’s place as one of Spotify’s most-streamed artists in three of the past five years.

Year after year, since 2022, artists have broken the record for the highest viewership during a Super Bowl halftime show. During the 2025 Super Bowl, Kendrick Lamar drew the largest audience ever, with 133.5 million people tuning in for his performance, surpassing the actual game’s viewership.

While the Bad Bunny halftime show has the potential to break viewership records, bring in new audiences and educate viewers on the Puerto Rico he loves — it also poses a potential security risk for his Latine fans in attendance, who deserve solidarity and increased institutional support.

Seventeen days. That’s how much longer Social Security beneficiaries must wait to find out how big their “raise” will be in 2026.

The Social Security cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) countdown is about to kick into overdrive. But you don’t have to sit on pins and needles in anticipation of the official COLA announcement on Oct. 15, 2025, to have a pretty good feel for what the increase will be.

Image source: Getty Images.

The best COLA prediction right now

If you want to know how big of a Social Security benefit increase to expect, probably the best place to turn is The Senior Citizens League (TSCL). This nonprofit organization has advocated for seniors since 1992, initially as part of The Retired Enlisted Association and then as an independent entity beginning in 1994.

TSCL developed a sophisticated statistical model that projects the next Social Security COLA. This model is updated monthly. It incorporates inflation and unemployment data, as well as the interest rates set by the Federal Reserve.

Earlier this month, TSCL announced its final prediction for the 2026 Social Security COLA. The organization projects an increase of 2.7%, a little higher than the 2.5% COLA given in 2025. It’s also slightly above the average benefit adjustment over the last 20 years of 2.6%.

How much additional money will this COLA give retirees? It depends on your current benefit amount, of course. However, the average increase will be $54 per month if TSCL’s model is right.

What could change by Oct. 15?

The Social Security Administration (SSA) already has most of the data it needs to calculate next year’s COLA. It will receive the last piece on Oct. 15 when the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) releases its inflation numbers for September.

SSA doesn’t use the most widely followed inflation metric in the BLS report, the Consumer Price Index. Instead, the agency bases the annual Social Security COLA on a different statistic — the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers (CPI-W). As its name indicates, this index measures how much prices have increased for blue-collar workers in urban areas.

The COLA is calculated by determining the percentage increase (if any) between the CPI-W for the third quarter of the current year and the CPI-W in the third quarter of the previous year. SSA only needs to plug in the CPI-W for September to crunch the numbers.

Could the actual 2026 COLA that will be announced on Oct. 15 differ from the 2.7% predicted by TSCL? Absolutely. Inflation could be higher in September than anticipated, perhaps due to the impact of tariffs making their way through the U.S. economy. On the other hand, the effects of tariffs could be more muted than TSCL’s model projects, resulting in a lower COLA. Either way, TSCL’s projected number will probably be close to the actual 2026 COLA.

One “gotcha”

Retirees shouldn’t count on having an additional 2.7%, give or take a couple of percentage points, reach their bank accounts, though. There’s one “gotcha” that will likely reduce how much extra money you’ll receive.

Most retirees ages 65 and older have their Medicare premiums automatically deducted from their monthly Social Security benefit payments. Unfortunately, your Medicare Part B premiums will almost certainly be much higher than the expected 2.7% Social Security increase.

The Medicare Trustees project that Part B premiums will rise by 11.6%. This translates to an extra expense of $21.50, enough to wipe out much of the average retiree COLA of $54. The annual Medicare Part B deductible will also likely jump by $31 to $288 next year.

The countdown is on for finding out the exact amounts for the 2026 Medicare Part B premiums and deductibles, too. While the numbers will probably be announced in October, retirees might not learn how their pocketbooks will be impacted as soon as they learn what their Social Security COLA will be.

Global spending on artificial intelligence (AI) is set to reach $1.5 trillion this year, according to estimates from Gartner. Even with the huge amount businesses and tech companies are already spending, that number is forecast to climb even further well into the future. The analysts at Gartner expect total spending to hit $2 trillion in 2026. Many analysts see total spending climbing through the end of the decade in order to take advantage of the massive opportunity and promises of generative AI.

One company managed to build a massive $10 billion business out of demand for artificial intelligence compute in just a few years, and it expects to capture a significant amount of market share over the next few years. In fact, management said it expects that $10 billion in annual sales to grow to $144 billion in sales within five years. And it has the contracts to back it up.

Image source: Getty Images.

The massive opportunity ahead

A handful of companies are rapidly building out data centers and leasing space and equipment in order to meet the demand of tech companies training and using large language models. Some contracts from companies like OpenAI and Anthropic, two leading LLM developers, are worth tens of billions of dollars per year. And the biggest cloud computing platforms — owned by Amazon (AMZN -0.84%), Microsoft (MSFT -0.64%), and Alphabet (GOOG -0.53%) (GOOGL -0.56%) — are unable to keep up with the growing demand.

As AI companies look to diversify their compute providers, Oracle (ORCL -5.55%) has emerged as a strong alternative with excellent networking capabilities and competitive pricing. However, its Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) is lacking in scale relative to the three market leaders. That didn’t stop OpenAI from committing $300 billion to Oracle’s cloud business over five years starting in 2027.

As a result, Oracle reported a huge increase in its backlog of remaining performance obligations. The amount stood at $455 billion as of the end of the company’s first quarter, up from $137 billion at the end of the fourth quarter. While $300 billion of that is tied to OpenAI, Oracle added another $18 billion in contracts on top of that.

And management expects to sign additional contracts in the near future. It said OCI’s remaining performance obligations will likely exceed $500 billion by the end of the current quarter.

If management succeeds in growing OCI from $10 billion to $144 billion over the next five years, it’ll end the decade with a cloud business similar in size to Alphabet’s, based on current growth rates. If it can manage to earn similar operating margins as the three big providers today (20% to 37%), it could produce a huge boost to its existing earnings.

While management notes it already has the backlog to support its revenue outlook, it’s important to consider the significant risks that come with investing in Oracle stock right now.

The future is not guaranteed

Oracle burned $5.9 billion in cash over the past 12 months as it expanded OCI capacity. It took on $27 billion worth of debt over the past year, and it now holds $111 billion of debt on its balance sheet. It’ll have to take on more debt and burn more cash to build out the capacity needed to meet demand for its cloud computing business.

To put things in perspective, Microsoft is committing to $30 billion in capital expenditures for the current quarter, and it’ll likely maintain that pace throughout the year. Amazon expects to spend over $100 billion in 2025, mostly on additional compute capacity. Alphabet updated its target spend to $85 billion for the year, as demand for its cloud infrastructure continues to outstrip supply.

They all have significant backlogs, but none is as big as Oracle’s is now. Oracle plans to spend $35 billion this year, with OCI revenue of $18 billion.

Meanwhile, its three biggest competitors are producing strong positive free cash flow thanks to the fact that they already have large, established cloud businesses and massive businesses outside of cloud computing. Oracle’s legacy software business doesn’t generate nearly enough cash to keep up with the demand for AI compute.

But it’s not just the financing risk Oracle faces. It also takes on the risk of a long-term contract with OpenAI. The generative AI leader has committed to spending $30 billion on Oracle’s compute starting in 2027 and ramping up from there. But the company itself is only bringing in $13 billion in revenue this year, according to its CFO’s outlook. It’s also committed to spending $10 billion with Broadcom, not to mention its existing cloud computing deals with Microsoft and Alphabet.

It’s also unclear how profitable the OpenAI deal will be if it comes to full fruition. Oracle must have offered very attractive pricing relative to its larger competitors to attract such a big commitment. That could result in a significantly worse margin profile relative to Amazon, Microsoft, and Alphabet.

Nonetheless, shares of Oracle have now skyrocketed in price, reaching a forward PE ratio of 45 based on estimates for fiscal 2026. That’s far higher than its larger cloud competitors, making the stock a much riskier investment. If Oracle can execute, build the capacity it needs, and OpenAI holds up its end of the deal, it could be a huge winner over the next five years. But the other three cloud computing providers’ stocks look like much better values with much less risk right now.

A UK airport is reportedly in talks to increase its number of flights, with hopes to become a “major hub” for holidaymaker around Europe.

Huge upgrades are included in the plans which hopes to have the airport better connected to more destinations.

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East Midlands Airport is having talks “already underway” with airlines about plans for more cargo and passenger flights.

Currently, passengers can fly to and from 70 destinations through East Midlands Airport.

These include countries in Europe and North Africa.

But new commerical director, Adam Andrews, revealed the airport wants to provide more one-stop connections for passengers.

He said: “We will build relationships with key decision makers and businesses from our region and its large three big cities to understand how we can work together to maximise the airports potential what they want from their local airport.

“This includes looking to increase the mix of leisure destinations, introduce business routes and enable year-round connectivity to the world.”

Increasing flight options during peak seasons, such as summer holidays, is in the works.

And plans for more flights during the traditional off-peak seasons are also being considered.

This would mean travellers are able to just go to their local airport for their flights rather than having to get across the country first.

Andrews hopes to draw on the airport’s success as the UK’s “number one express air freight hub” due to being central to both the country and world.

East Midlands Airport is strategically located between Africa, Europe and the US.

It has been a hub for low-budget airlines like Jet2, Ryanair and TUI Airways.

The airfield was originally built as a Royal Air Force station in 1943, before it was redeveloped as a civilian airport in 1965.

Busiest routes from East Midlands Aiport have been Alicante, Tenerife, and Mallorca.

But it has no direct access via a passenger rail network, with the nearest being East Midlands Parkway about four miles away.

Proposals have been made in the past for a dedicated railway station to be installed at the airport, but is unlikely to be completed for another decade or so.

Plans for East Midlands Airport come after it was announced over the weekend the Gatwick Airport would be getting a new full runway.

Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander signed off on the plan that involves a £2.2billion expansion.

The project will shift Gatwick’s emergency runway 12 metres north so it can be used alongside the main strip.

This will pave way for 100,000 extra flights a year from the second busiest airport in the UK.

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Sept. 11 (UPI) — The House of Representatives on Thursday passed the “Stop Illegal Entry Act,” which increases potential prison sentences for those who are convicted of repeatedly illegally entering the United States.

The proposed Stop Illegal Entry Act of 2025 is part of the Trump administration’s and the GOP’s efforts to discourage illegal immigration and related crimes.

Eleven Democrats joined with Republicans to approve House Resolution 3486, 226-197, and sent the measure to the Senate, where a similar measure has been introduced, Roll Call reported.

“The Biden Administration let over 10 million illegal immigrants into the country and failed to prosecute those who defied U.S.immigration law,” said sponsor Rep. Stephanie Bice, R-Okla.

“These individuals included people from countries designated as state sponsors of terror, with 400 illegal aliens on the Terrorist Watch List being encountered at the border,” Bice continued.

“We must deter future illegal immigration and give our law enforcement and border patrol officers the tools they need to hold dangerous criminals accountable.”

The measure would set a mandatory prison sentence of at least five years and up to life for those who are convicted of a felony after illegally entering the nation.

The resolution also increases to five years the prior maximum sentence of two years for those convicted of repeated illegal entry.

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said the measure includes “common-sense provisions” that deter illegal entry into the United States.

“Deterrence is an effective method of prevention, and the Stop Illegal Entry Act delivers the enforcement measures necessary to help strengthen law and order at our border,” Johnson said.

American Civil Liberties Union officials oppose the measure’s passage and in a press release said H.R. 3486 “would impose extreme prison sentences” on asylum seekers, teenagers and people trying to reunite with their families.

“H.R. 3486 would supercharge President Trump’s reckless deportation drive, which is already damaging our economy and destabilizing communities,” said Mike Zamore, ACLU national director of policy and government affairs.

“This legislation would hand the Trump administration more tools to criminalize immigrants and terrorize communities at the same time they are deploying federal agents and the military to our streets,” he continued.

“It would also undermine public safety by diverting more resources away from youth services and prevention programs that actually improve community safety.”

It was picture day at Dodger Stadium on Tuesday, one of those quaint baseball traditions that has endured long past its usefulness.

So the team set up three rows of aluminum risers in shallow center field and the players, wearing impossibly white uniforms, filed out of the clubhouse just before 3 p.m., passing up batting practice to pose for the cameras. For a sport that thrives on routine, the afternoon had a unique last-day-of-school vibe.

“It’s a weird day,” manager Dave Roberts agreed.

But picture day also serves to bring the end of the season into tighter focus since it usually happens in the final three weeks. And the players who climb those risers are the ones who will decide the team’s postseason fate.

That was especially true for the Dodgers, who rode another splendid pitching performance — this one from Emmet Sheehan — to a 7-2 victory over the Colorado Rockies. Sheehan, bidding for a spot in the playoff rotation, was backed by four homers, including a pair of solo shots from Teoscar Hernández, who had his first three-hit night in more than a month.

The win, the team’s third in a row, coupled with San Diego’s loss to Cincinnati, expanded the Dodgers’ lead in the National League West to two games over the second-place Padres with just 17 left to play.

“It’s getting down to the wire,” Roberts said.

The Dodgers’ starting pitching is already in postseason form, posting a 1.41 ERA over the past five games. On Tuesday it was Sheehan’s turn on the mound and he set down the first 15 Rockies in order, becoming the third Dodger starter in four games to take a no-hitter into the sixth inning.

He wound up scattering three hits and a walk over seven innings, striking out nine to earn his fourth victory in five decisions. The win was also Sheehan’s fourth victory in as many appearances against Colorado.

Roberts said his team’s starting pitchers are all competing to one-up each other, giving the significance of the games now.

“They’re feeding off one another,” he said. “The pitchers are of the mind that these are very, very important games. It’s kind of the playoff mentality. The catchers are calling games in that vein.

“The defense has been really focused getting off the baseball. There’s a heightened level of focus across the board.”

That even spread to the offense, said Mookie Betts, whose two-run home run in the third extended his streak of reaching base safely to 15 straight games.

Mookie Betts is very happy after his two-run homer in the third inning.

(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)

“It’s really neat being on this side,” Betts, who had multiple RBIs for a fourth straight game, said of watching the Dodger pitchers work. “If you kind of take a step back and look at it, there’s a lot of teams that would ask for something like this. Those guys give us opportunity to win every day.

“It’s really important for us as on the offensive side not to take that for granted.”

Although the Dodgers entered Tuesday second to last in the majors with an average of 3.14 runs a game in September, against Colorado starter Germán Márquez (3-13), whose ERA (6.31) looks more like a mortgage rate, they ran out to a 5-0 lead after five innings. As a result the focus turned to Sheehan, who needed just 59 pitches to cruise through five perfect innings, striking out five.

“I probably knew,” Sheehan, pitching on the 60th anniversary of Sandy Koufax’s perfect game, said when asked if he was aware he was more than halfway to matching that. “But I was definitely not thinking about it.”

The right-hander said he tried to cross up the Rockies by moving away from his fastball and going with a slider to the glove side instead.

“I felt like I was executing the slider pretty well,” he said. “The more I throw it, the easier it gets to get it to that spot. It’s an important pitch for me.”

Kyle Karros ended the suspense when he lined Sheehan’s first pitch of the sixth inning over a leaping Max Muncy at third for a single. Two more singles brought Karros around to score, ending the shutout as well.

Still Sheehan (6-3) was more than good enough to win for the fourth time in five decisions, lowering his ERA to 3.32 and forcing his way into the conversation over a role on the postseason roster.

“He’s unflappable,” Roberts said. “He knows he’s talented and he knows how to execute pitches. He’s got good stuff. No moment is too big for him. So I can’t speak to what role, but I know that he’s a viable option for us now and going forward.”

Tuesday’s win also left Sheehan unbeaten on picture day, something he nearly skipped as the scheduled starting pitcher.

“I wasn’t going go out there,” he said. “But I was like, I missed the last two. I gotta be out there.”

After all, it’s a tradition.

From Kevin Baxter: It was picture day at Dodger Stadium on Tuesday, one of those quaint baseball traditions that has endured long past its usefulness.

So the team set up three rows of aluminum risers in shallow center field and the players, wearing impossibly white uniforms, filed out of the clubhouse just before 3 p.m., passing up batting practice to pose for the cameras. For a sport that thrives on routine, the afternoon had a unique last-day-of-school vibe.

“It’s a weird day,” manager Dave Roberts agreed.

But picture day also serves to bring the end of the season into tighter focus since it usually happens in the final three weeks. And the players who climb those risers are the ones who will decide the team’s postseason fate.

That was especially true for the Dodgers, who rode another splendid pitching performance — this one from Emmet Sheehan — to a 7-2 victory over the Colorado Rockies. Sheehan, bidding for a spot in the playoff rotation, was backed by four homers, including a pair of solo shots from Teoscar Hernández, who had his first three-hit night in more than a month.

The win, the team’s third in a row, coupled with San Diego’s loss to Cincinnati, expanded the Dodgers’ lead in the National League West to two games over the second-place Padres with just 17 left to play.

“It’s getting down to the wire,” Roberts said.

Continue reading here

Hernández: Can starting pitching carry the Dodgers in October? Dave Roberts may not have a choice

Strong rehab outing could put Roki Sasaki back in Dodgers’ postseason roster contention

Dodgers box score

MLB standings

ANGELS

Kyle Hendricks threw seven shutout innings, Chris Taylor and Yoán Moncada hit three-run homers, and the Angels scored all of their runs with two out in a 12-2 victory over the Minnesota Twins on Tuesday night.

Hendricks (7-9) gave up four hits, struck out six and walked one in his best start of the season, throwing 58 of 80 pitches for strikes. Right-hander Zabby Matthews (4-5) took the loss, giving up five runs and seven hits in 4 ⅔ innings.

The Angels had 17 hits and went eight for 17 with runners in scoring position. Leadoff man Mike Trout and Moncada each scored three runs. Luis Rengifo delivered two clutch hits, a two-out, two-run single in the first inning and a two-out RBI single in the fifth, as the Angels built a 5-0 lead.

Continue reading here

Angels box score

MLB standings

From Ben Bolch: The numbers are in, and they’re not good.

None of them.

There are 134 teams in the Football Bowl Subdivision. UCLA ranks near the bottom in the most significant statistical categories, a big reason the Bruins have started the season 0-2.

Scoring offense? The Bruins are tied for No. 115, averaging 16.5 points per game.

Scoring defense? UCLA is tied for No. 120, giving up 36.5 points per game.

Penalties? The Bruins are No. 121, averaging 79.5 yards per game.

Opposing third-down conversions? UCLA is No. 133, opponents converting 70.4% of their chances.

Continue reading here

ANGEL CITY

From Kevin Baxter: It was a moment that should have been celebrated on both sides of the Atlantic. What could prove to be the most expensive transfer in women’s soccer history — and already is the largest outgoing transfer in NWSL history — had sent Alyssa Thompson from Angel City and the NWSL to Chelsea of England’s Women’s Super League.

It was a monumental deal, one that could come to define Thompson’s career and help repair Angel City’s brand as a rich club that has mostly bumbled its way through its first four seasons.

It was a massive win for the player and both clubs.

Yet before the ink on the agreement had dried Angel City was already tarnishing what it should have been cheering. Coach Alexander Straus refused to even say Thompson’s name, opening a conference call with reporters Thursday by insisting he would not answer questions about “a certain player” or “a certain transfer.”

It was the second time in four days Straus refused to acknowledge his team’s best player.

Thompson, of course, has never been “a certain player” or “a certain transfer.” She’s a player Angel City moved heaven and earth to draft and sign in 2023, giving her a contract worth an estimated $1 million, then one of the richest in the NWSL. She’s a player who went on to become the club’s all-time leader in goals and rank sixth in appearances.

Continue reading here

USMNT ends winless streak against top-25 opponents by beating Japan

SPARKS

Dearica Hamby scored 16 of her 25 points in the fourth quarter, Rae Burrell had a career-high 20 points off the bench and the Sparks beat the Phoenix Mercury 88-83 on Tuesday night but the Sparks were eliminated from the playoff race.

The Sparks needed a win and a Seattle loss to send the chase for the last playoff spot to the last day of the season on Thursday, but the Storm pulled out a 74-73 win over Golden State.

Phoenix, the No. 4 seed, will host fifth-seeded New York, the defending champion, in the best-of-three series when the playoffs open on Sunday.

Continue reading here

Sparks box score

WNBA standings

THIS DAY IN SPORTS HISTORY

1933 — Fred Perry wins his first U.S. men’s singles title with a 6-3, 11-13, 4-6, 6-0, 6-1 victory over Australian Jack Crawford.

1937 — The Cleveland Rams play their first NFL game and lose 28-0 to the Detroit Lions.

1962 — Rod Laver becomes the first man since Don Budge in 1938 to win the Grand Slam beating Roy Emerson 6-2, 6-4, 5-7, 6-4, at the U.S. Open. Margaret Smith becomes the first Australian woman to win the U.S. Open with a 9-7, 6-4 win over Darlene Hard.

1966 — Muhammad Ali knocks out Karl Mildenberger in the 12th round in Frankfurt, Germany, to retain his world heavyweight title.

1967 — John Newcombe beats Clark Graebner to win the men’s title in the U.S. Lawn Tennis Association championships. Billie Jean King wins the singles, doubles and mixed doubles championships.

1972 — The United States men’s basketball team loses its first game in Olympic competition. The Soviet Union wins 51-50 with the help of a controversial ending. Dr. William Jones, secretary general of the International Amateur Basketball Federation, tells the referees to have the players replay the final three seconds and the Soviets score a last-second bucket. The Americans, who had the lead when the buzzer sounded the first time, protest in vain. The U.S. team later refuses to accept the silver medal.

1972 — Emerson Fittipaldi wins the Italian Grand Prix to become the youngest to win a Formula I championship. Fittipaldi, 25, wins his fifth race of the season and clinches the title with two races remaining.

1978 — Jimmy Connors becomes the only player to win the U.S. Open on three different surfaces, with a 6-4, 6-2, 6-2 win over Bjorn Borg. Connors wins the first men’s final played on the Deco Turf II courts at the new USTA National Tennis Center. Connors had won the 1974 U.S. Open on grass and the 1976 U.S. Open on clay courts.

1983 — Larry Holmes TKOs Scott Frank in 5 for heavyweight boxing title.

1988 — Steffi Graf becomes the third women to complete the Grand Slam, defeating Gabriela Sabatini 6-3, 3-6, 6-1 in the U.S. Open.

1989 — Five days after hitting a HR for Yankees in a 12-2 win over the Mariners, MLB and NFL player Deion Sanders returns a punt 68 yards for a touchdown, his first.

1989 — Indianapolis running back Eric Dickerson rushes for 106 yards against San Francisco to become the fastest player to top the 10,000 yard plateau; 91st career game.

1993 — Pernell Whitaker and Julio Cesar Chavez fight to a majority draw. Two judges score the fight 115-115 and the third scores the fight 115-113 for Whitaker. It’s the first blemish on Chavez’s record who was 87-0 entering the bout.

1995 — Pete Sampras wins his third U.S. Open men’s singles title, taking down the No. 1 seed and defending champion Andre Agassi, 6-4, 6-3, 4-6, 7-5.

1995 — Fuad Reveiz of the Minnesota Vikings sets an NFL record for consecutive field goals, converting from 32 and 27 yards to give him 30 in a row.

2004 — Zippy Chippy, thoroughbred racing’s lovable loser, makes it 0-for-100 when he finishes last in an eight-horse field at the Three-County Fairgrounds in Northampton, Mass.

2006 — Roger Federer defeats Andy Roddick 6-2, 4-6, 7-5, 6-1 in the U.S. Open final for his third major championship this year and ninth of his career. Federer becomes the first man ever to win back-to-back Wimbledon and U.S. Open crowns for three straight years.

2006 — Peyton Manning and the Indianapolis Colts make fewer mistakes than Eli Manning and the New York Giants in the first NFL game to feature two brothers starting at quarterback. Big brother Peyton is 25-of-41 for 276 yards and a touchdown and the Colts score on five of their first seven possessions to defeat Eli and the Giants 26-21.

2012 — Andy Murray wins the U.S. Open in five grueling sets to become the first British man since 1936 to capture a Grand Slam title. Murray beats defending champion Novak Djokovic 7-6 (10), 7-5, 2-6, 3-6, 6-2 in his fifth try in the final of a major tournament.

2017 — Rafael Nadal wins his 16th Grand Slam title by sweeping Kevin Anderson 6-3, 6-3, 6-4 in the U.S. Open final.

2017 — The Rams rout the Indianapolis Colts 46-9 in 31-year-old Sean McVay’s impressive debut as the youngest head coach in modern league history.

THIS DAY IN BASEBALL HISTORY

1919 — Cleveland’s Ray Caldwell pitched a no-hitter against the New York Yankees, a 3-0 victory by the Indians in the opening game of a doubleheader.

1950 — Joe DiMaggio became the first player to hit three home runs in one game at Griffith Stadium, and the New York Yankees beat the Washington Senators 8-1.

1967 — Joe Horlen of the Chicago White Sox beat the Detroit Tigers with a 6-0 no-hitter in the first game of a doubleheader.

1969 — The New York Mets swept Montreal in a doubleheader at Shea Stadium, 3-2 in 12 innings and 7-1. The victories moved the Mets into first place in the NL East for their first time on top.

1974 — Lou Brock tied Maury Wills’ single-season stolen base record in the first inning against the Philadelphia Phillies. He broke the record with steal No. 105 in the seventh inning.

1977 — Roy Howell hit two home runs, two doubles and a single and drove in nine runs, powering Toronto past the New York Yankees 19-3.

1980 — Bill Gullickson struck out 18 — the most by a rookie — to lead the Montreal Expos past the Chicago Cubs 4-2.

1997 — Mark McGwire joined Babe Ruth as the only players in major league history with consecutive 50-homer seasons by hitting a 446-foot shot off Shawn Estes in the third inning of St. Louis’ game against at San Francisco. McGwire, who hit a major league-leading 52 homers for Oakland last season, became the first player with back-to-back 50-homer seasons since Ruth did it in 1927 and 1928.

2000 — Arizona’s Randy Johnson became the 12th player to reach 3,000 strikeouts, fanning a season-high 14 in seven innings in the Diamondbacks’ 4-3 loss to Florida in 12 innings.

2003 — St. Louis’ Tony La Russa became the eighth manager in major league history to reach 2,000 wins when the Cardinals beat Colorado 10-2. La Russa is 2,000-1,782 in 25 seasons with the Chicago White Sox, Oakland and St. Louis.

2007 — Kurt Suzuki and Dan Johnson hit grand slams to power Oakland past Seattle 9-3.

2013 — Mark Trumbo matched a team record with four extra-base hits, including back-to-back home runs with Josh Hamilton, and the Angels beat Toronto 12-6.

2017 — Aaron Judge became the second major league rookie with a 40-homer season, going deep twice in New York’s 16-7 rout of the Texas Rangers 16-7.

2022 — 42-year-old Albert Pujols, who has stated many times that he will retire at the end of the season, hits his 17th homer of the year and No. 696 of his career off J.T. Brubaker of the Pirates in the sixth inning of a 7-5 Cardinals win to tie Alex Rodriguez for fourth place on the all-time list.

2024 — By leading off the bottom of the first with a homer off Taj Bradley at Citizens Bank Park, Kyle Schwarber sets a new record with his 14th leadoff homer of the season. The Phillies go on to defeat the Rays, 9-4. The previous record holder was Alfonso Soriano, who had hit 13 such long balls for the 2003 Yankees.

Compiled by the Associated Press

Until next time…

That concludes today’s newsletter. If you have any feedback, ideas for improvement or things you’d like to see, email me at [email protected]. To get this newsletter in your inbox, click here.

Aug. 31 (UPI) — Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem on Sunday confirmed the Trump administration plans to increase immigration resources in Chicago amid a planned federal crackdown on crime in the city.

In an appearance on CBS News’ Face the Nation, Noem said Immigration and Customs Enforcement would be expanding operations in Chicago to “go after the worst of the worst in the country, like President [Donald] Trump has told us to do.”

She said the agency would be “focusing on those that are perpetuating murder and rape and trafficking of drugs and humans across our country, knowing that every single citizen deserves to be safe.”

Noem’s comments come after weeks of Trump leveraging federal resources — namely the National Guard — to target crime in cities he deems unsafe. He deployed troops to Washington, D.C., in August to crack down on crime, which he described as “out of control.”

Speaking Aug. 11 about the deployment, Trump called out other cities with high crime, including Chicago, Baltimore, Oakland, Calif., and New York City. He followed that up Saturday with a Truth Social post calling Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker “weak and pathetic,” saying he should straighten out crime or “we’re coming.”

In response to Trump’s threats to send National Guard troops to Chicago, Mayor Brandon Johnson on Saturday signed an executive order seeking to avoid militarization in the city. The order demands that Trump end “his threats to deploy the National Guard” to Chicago.

“I do not take this executive action lightly,” Johnson said during a signing ceremony. “I would’ve preferred to work more collaboratively to pass legislation … but unfortunately, we do not have the luxury of time. We have received credible reports that we have days, not weeks, before our city sees some kind of militarized activity by the federal government.”

In an appearance on Face the Nation, Pritzker said no one in the Trump administration has reach out to him or any other officials in Chicago about a possible deployment of National Guard troops to the city, which he described as “an invasion.” He said federal agencies should coordinate with local law enforcement.

“But they don’t want to do that either, and I must say, it’s disruptive, it’s dangerous,” Pritzker said. “It tends to inflame passions on the ground when they don’t let us know what their plans are, and when we can’t coordinate with them.”

He said if Trump does send National Guard troops to Chicago, he’ll take it to the courts.

“Any kind of troops on the streets of an American city don’t belong unless there is an insurrection, unless there is truly an emergency,” he said. “There is not.”

Aug. 30 (UPI) — Passengers on Southeastern Philadelphia Transportation Authority buses won’t pay higher fares or deal with more service reductions at least until Thursday.

Philadelphia County Court of Common Pleas Judge Sierra Thomas Street temporarily enjoined SEPTA from raising fares by 21.5% on Monday and cutting more services on Tuesday after conducting an emergency hearing on Friday.

The injunction also stops SEPTA from reducing more routes, imposing curfews, closing stations and eliminating special services.

“The judge wants us to keep service at the levels we’re running today,” SEPTA General Manager Scott Sauer told WPVI-TV.

“That’s going to take a lot of effort,” Sauer said. “We need 10 days to turn this around. We’re going to take a look at how best we can comply with that order.”

Another hearing on the matter is scheduled on Thursday.

SEPTA on Thursday announced it would raise fares by 21.5% on Monday and impose an additional 20% service reduction for Regional Rail, but the ruling delays those cuts.

SEPTA has a $213 million budget deficit and did not succeed in gaining new state funding.

The rate increase would raise to $2.90 the base fare for bus and Metro trips, which ties New York for the nation’s highest.

“We are now at a place that none of us ever wanted to be,” Sauer said in a SEPTA news release issued on Thursday.

“Wait times between trips are longer and vehicles are more crowded, affecting thousands of people trying to get to work and school on time,” he added.

SEPTA on Sunday cut 20% of bus and Metro services, including eliminating 32 bus routes.

SEPTA also has frozen all hiring, including bus drivers, as of Monday and has had a shortage of bus drivers since the pandemic.

Additional service cuts are planned on Jan. 1, with the elimination of 18 bus routes and five regional rail lines, while imposing a 9 p.m. curfew on all rail services.

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Sustainable fuel ‘nonsense’

If a major hurricane approaches Central Florida this season, Maria knows it’s dangerous to stay inside her wooden, trailer-like home. In past storms, she evacuated to her sister’s sturdier house. If she couldn’t get there, a shelter set up at the local high school served as a refuge if needed.

But with accelerating detentions and deportations of immigrants across her community of Apopka, 20 miles northwest of Orlando, Maria, an agricultural worker from Mexico without permanent U.S. legal status, doesn’t know if those options are safe. All risk encountering immigration enforcement agents.

“They can go where they want,” said Maria, 50, who insisted the Associated Press not use her last name for fear of detention. “There is no limit.”

Natural disasters have long posed singular risks for people in the United States without permanent legal status. But with the arrival of peak Atlantic hurricane season, immigrants and their advocates say President Donald Trump’s robust immigration enforcement agenda has increased the danger.

Places considered neutral spaces by immigrants such as schools, hospitals and emergency management agencies are now suspect, and advocates say agreements by local law enforcement to collaborate with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement make them more vulnerable and compel a choice between being physically safe and avoiding detention.

“Am I going to risk the storm or risk endangering my family at the shelter?” said Dominique O’Connor, an organizer at the Farmworker Association of Florida. “You’re going to meet enforcement either way.”

For O’Connor and for many immigrants, it’s about storms. But people without permanent legal status could face these decisions anywhere that extreme heat, wildfires or other severe weather could necessitate evacuating, getting supplies or even seeking medical care.

Federal and state agencies have said little on whether immigration enforcement would be suspended in a disaster. It wouldn’t make much difference to Maria: “With all we’ve lived, we’ve lost trust.”

New policies deepen concerns

Efforts by Trump’s Republican administration to exponentially expand immigration enforcement capacity mean many of the agencies active in disaster response are increasingly entangled in immigration enforcement.

Since January, hundreds of law enforcement agencies have signed 287(g) agreements, allowing them to perform certain immigration enforcement actions. Most of the agreements are in hurricane-prone Florida and Texas.

Florida’s Division of Emergency Management oversees building the state’s new detention facilities, like the one called “Alligator Alcatraz” in the Everglades. Federal Emergency Management Agency funds are being used to build additional detention centers around the country, and the Department of Homeland Security temporarily reassigned some FEMA staff to assist ICE.

The National Guard, often seen passing out food and water after disasters, has been activated to support U.S. Customs and Border Protection operations and help at detention centers.

These dual roles can make for an intimidating scene during a disaster. After floods in July, more than 2,100 personnel from 20 state agencies aided the far-reaching response effort in Central Texas, along with CBP officers. Police controlled entry into hard-hit areas. Texas Department of Public Safety and private security officers staffed entrances to disaster recovery centers set up by FEMA.

That unsettled even families with permanent legal status, said Rae Cardenas, executive director of Doyle Community Center in Kerrville, Texas. Cardenas helped coordinate with the Mexican Consulate in San Antonio to replace documents for people who lived behind police checkpoints.

“Some families are afraid to go get their mail because their legal documents were washed away,” Cardenas said.

In Florida, these policies could make people unwilling to drive evacuation roads. Traffic stops are a frequent tool of detention, and Florida passed a law in February criminalizing entry into the state by those without legal status, though a judge temporarily blocked it.

There may be fewer places to evacuate now that public shelters, often guarded by police or requiring ID to enter, are no longer considered “protected areas” by DHS. The agency in January rescinded a policy of President Joe Biden, a Democrat, to avoid enforcement in places like schools, medical facilities and emergency response sites.

The fears extend even into disaster recovery. On top of meeting law enforcement at FEMA recovery centers, mixed-status households that qualify for help from the agency might hesitate to apply for fear of their information being accessed by other agencies, said Esmeralda Ledezma, communications associate with the Houston-based nonprofit Woori Juntos. “Even if you have the right to federal aid, you’re afraid to be punished for it,” Ledezma said.

In past emergencies, DHS has put out messaging stating it would suspend immigration enforcement. The agency’s policy now is unclear.

DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in an email that CBP had not issued any guidance “because there have been no natural disasters affecting border enforcement.” She did not address what directions were given during CBP’s activation in the Texas floods or whether ICE would be active during a disaster.

Florida’s Division of Emergency Management did not respond to questions related to its policies toward people without legal status. Texas’ Division of Emergency Management referred The Associated Press to Republican Gov. Greg Abbott’s office, which did not respond.

Building local resilience is a priority

In spite of the crackdown, local officials in some hurricane-prone areas are expanding outreach to immigrant populations. “We are trying to move forward with business as usual,” said Gracia Fernandez, language access coordinator for Alachua County in Central Florida.

The county launched a program last year to translate and distribute emergency communications in Spanish, Haitian Creole and other languages. Now staffers want to spread the word that county shelters won’t require IDs, but since they’re public spaces, Fernandez acknowledged there’s not much they can do if ICE comes.

“There is still a risk,” she said. “But we will try our best to help people feel safe.”

As immigrant communities are pushed deeper into the shadows, more responsibility falls on nonprofits, and communities themselves, to keep each other safe.

Hope Community Center in Apopka has pushed local officials to commit to not requiring IDs at shelters and sandbag distribution points. During an evacuation, the facility becomes an alternative shelter and a command center, from which staffers translate and send out emergency communications in multiple languages. For those who won’t leave their homes, staffers do door-to-door wellness checks, delivering food and water.

“It’s a very grassroots, underground operation,” said Felipe Sousa Lazaballet, the center’s executive director.

Preparing the community is challenging when it’s consumed by the daily crises wrought by detentions and deportations, Sousa Lazaballet said.

“All of us are in triage mode,” he said. “Every day there is an emergency, so the community is not necessarily thinking about hurricane season yet. That’s why we have to have a plan.”

Angueira writes for the Associated Press.

The addition of girls flag football is helping fuel rising participation in high school sports nationally, with a record 8,260,891 boys and girls having participated in the last school year, according to the annual survey from the National Federation of State High School Assns. released on Monday.

There were 68,847 girls playing flag football, a 60% increase from the previous year.

Girls sports led the increases, including wrestling rising 15%.

Football remains the most popular boys sports at 1,001,039. Track and field tops girls sports at 513,808.

Girls flag football has been rising in popularity in Southern California. In the Los Angeles City Section, there are now more flag football teams (91) than 11-man football teams (71).

July 17 (UPI) — For its second quarter this year, Netflix reported total revenues of $11.08 billion, with an operating income of $3.8 billion and margin of 34.1%, which are way up from last year and beyond market estimates.

Netflix isn’t releasing subscriber figures, choosing instead to focus on revenue. It’s trying out new revenue models, including advertising.

New price increases with slow customer turnover are what likely caused the strong margins, according to the Hollywood Reporter. Earnings in the United States and Canada grew by 15%, a boost from 9% in Q1.

Forecasted revenue for Q3 is $11.5 billion in revenue, $3.6 billion in operating income, and operating margins of 31.5%.

Netflix said in May that its ad tier surpassed 94 million monthly subscribers. This tier has more than 50% of the company’s new signups. It raised the price of the ad tier for the first time in January to $7.99 a month.

The company expects to double its ad revenue in 2025.

“We believe our ad tech platform is foundational to our long-term ads strategy and, over time, will enable us to offer better measurement, enhanced targeting, innovative ad formats and expanded programmatic capabilities,” the company said in its quarterly shareholder letter.

The company also shared its Engagement Report, which listed what members watched so far this year. It said people watched more than 95 billion hours of Netflix, watching a wide range of genres and languages.

Netflix original shows such as Orange Is the New Black, Ozark and Money Heist all had more than 100 million hours viewed. Movies such as Red Notice, Leo and We Can Be Heroes each had more than 20 million views.

“Watchtime — or engagement — is our best indicator of member happiness,” the company said. “When people watch more, they stick around longer and recommend Netflix to others.”

Company CEO Ted Sarandos said on Netflix’s quarterly earnings call: “Look, we want to be in business with the best creatives on the planet, regardless where they come from. Some of them are here in Hollywood. Others are in Korea, some are in India, and some are creators that distribute only on social media platforms, and most of them have not yet been discovered.”