The former chairman of the Los Angeles County Sheriff Civilian Oversight Commission is under investigation for alleged retaliation against a Sheriff’s Department sergeant who faced scrutiny for his role in a unit accused of pursuing politically motivated cases.
Sean Kennedy, a Loyola Law School professor who resigned from the commission this year, received notification from a law firm that said it had “been engaged by the Office of the County Counsel to conduct a neutral investigation into an allegation that you retaliated against Sergeant Max Fernandez,” according to an email reviewed by The Times.
Kennedy and other members of the commission questioned Fernandez last year about his connections to the Sheriff’s Department’s now-disbanded Civil Rights and Public Integrity Detail, a controversial unit that operated under then-Sheriff Alex Villanueva.
Kennedy said the commission’s inquiry into Fernandez appears to be what landed him in the crosshairs of the investigation he now faces. Kennedy denied any wrongdoing in a text message Thursday.
“I was just doing my job as an oversight official tasked by the commission to conduct the questioning at an official public hearing,” he wrote.
Last week, Kennedy received an email from Matthias H. Wagener, co-partner of Wagener Law, stating that the county had launched an investigation.
“The main allegation is that you attempted to discredit Sergeant Fernandez in various ways because of his role in investigating Commissioner Patti Giggans during his tenure on the former Civil Rights & Public Corruption Detail Unit,” Wagener wrote. “It has been alleged that you retaliated for personal reasons relating to your relationship with Commissioner Giggans, as her friend and her attorney.”
The Office of the County Counsel confirmed in an emailed statement that “a confidential workplace investigation into recent allegations of retaliation” is underway, but declined to identify whom it is investigating or who alleged retaliation, citing a need to “ensure the integrity of the investigation and to protect the privacy of” the parties.
“In accordance with its anti-retaliation policies and procedures, LA County investigates complaints made by employees who allege they have been subjected to retaliation for engaging in protected activities in the workplace,” the statement said.
The Sheriff’s Department said in an email that it “has no investigation into Mr. Kennedy.”
Reached by phone Thursday, Fernandez said that he doesn’t “know anything about” the investigation and that he has not “talked to anybody at county counsel.”
“This is the first I’m hearing about it,” he said. “Who started this investigation? They haven’t contacted me. I don’t know how that got into their hands.”
In a phone interview, Kennedy described the inquiry as “extraordinary.”
“I think that this is just the latest in a long line of Sheriff’s Department employees doing really anything they can to thwart meaningful oversight,” Kennedy said. “So now we’re at the point where they’re filing bogus retaliation complaints against commissioners for doing their jobs.”
Kennedy resigned from the Civilian Oversight Commission in February after county lawyers attempted to thwart the body from filing an amicus brief in the criminal case against Diana Teran, who served as an advisor to then-L.A. County Dist. Atty. George Gascón.
The public corruption unit led several high-profile investigations during Villanueva’s term as sheriff, including inquiries into Giggans, the Civilian Oversight Commission, then-L.A. County Supervisor Shelia Kuehl and former Times reporter Maya Lau.
One of the unit’s investigations involved a whistleblower who alleged that the Metropolitan Transportation Authority unfairly awarded more than $800,000 worth of contracts to a nonprofit run by Giggans, a friend of Kuehl’s and vocal critic of Villanueva. The investigation made headlines when sheriff’s deputies with guns and battering rams raided Kuehl’s Santa Monica home one early morning in 2022.
The investigation ended without any criminal charges last summer, when the California Department of Justice concluded that there was a “lack of evidence of wrongdoing.”
Asked Thursday about the claim that Kennedy — who served as a lawyer for her while she was being investigated by the public corruption unit — interrogated Fernandez as a form of retaliation, Giggans called it “bogus” and said Fernandez “was subpoenaed because of his actions as a rogue sheriff’s deputy.”
Lau filed a lawsuit last month alleging the criminal investigation into her activities as a journalist violated her 1st Amendment rights. California Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta ultimately declined to prosecute the case against Lau.
Critics have repeatedly alleged that Villanueva used the unit to target his political enemies, a charge the former sheriff has disputed.
In October, Kennedy and other members of the Civilian Oversight Commission spent five hours interrogating Fernandez and former homicide Det. Mark Lillienfeld about the public corruption unit, of which they were members.
Kennedy questioned Fernandez’s credibility during the exchange, asking about People vs. Aquino, a ruling by an appellate court in the mid-2000s that found he had provided false testimony during a criminal trial that was “deliberate and no slip of the tongue.”
Fernandez argued that he had “never lied on the stand,” adding that “that’s ridiculous, I’m an anti-corruption cop.”
Fernandez also fielded questions about whether he was a member of a deputy gang. Critics have accused deputy cliques of engaging in brawls and other misconduct.
Fernandez said he was not in a deputy gang or problematic subgroup. But he acknowledged that he drew a picture of a warrior in the early 2000s that he got tattooed on his body.
A lieutenant tattooed with that image previously testified that it is associated with the Gladiators deputy subgroup, of which Fernandez has denied being a member.
Kennedy also asked Fernandez about a 2003 incident in which he shot and killed a 27-year-old man in Compton. Fernandez alleged the man pointed a gun at him, but sheriff’s investigators later found he was unarmed.
In a 2021 memo to oversight officials, Kennedy called for a state or federal investigation into the Civil Rights and Public Integrity Detail and its “pattern of targeting” critics of the Sheriff’s Department.
Then-Undersheriff Tim Murakami responded in a letter, writing that the memo contained “wild accusations.”
On May 30, Wagener questioned Kennedy about “why I examined Max Fernandez about his fatal shooting of a community member, his Gladiators tattoo, his perjury in People v. Aquino, and why he put references to people’s sexual orientation in a search warrant application,” Kennedy wrote in a text message Thursday. “I told him I was just asking questions that relate to oversight.”
Robert Bonner, chair of the Civilian Oversight Commission, provided an emailed statement that called the investigation into Kennedy “extremely troubling and terribly ironic.”
“The allegation itself is rich,” Bonner wrote. “But that [it is being] given any credence by County Counsel can only serve to intimidate other Commissioners from asking hard questions.”
A former cast member at a Disney theme park has said there’s one thing she wishes guests would stop doing while visiting, and it can ruin someone’s day if you break the unwritten rule
You should follow these rules when visiting a Disney park (stock photo)(Image: Getty Images)
When you go to a Disney theme park like Disney World or Disneyland, there are some golden rules you should follow. For example, most people know that adults are banned from dressing up as Disney characters because they might confuse children into thinking they’re the real cast members, and there’s also a ban on bringing folding chairs and drones into the parks because of the disruption they might cause.
But did you know there are also rules about how to interact with cast members? Many of these are unspoken, but there are some things you should never do when you meet the actors and actresses who are dressed up as your favourite Disney characters.
Kayla Nicole, a former Disney cast member, shared a video on TikTok in which she highlighted the number one thing she wished people would stop doing when they line up to meet Disney princesses.
During her eight years as a cast member, the woman played a number of roles at the park, including Ariel from The Little Mermaid, Merida from Brave, and Cinderella. She said that if you’re ever meeting two characters at once, you should never ignore one in favour of the other.
She explained: “If you’re in a meet-and-greet location like the hall, where you have one princess on this carpet and a different princess on the other carpet, do not skip one to go to the other.
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“Operationally, that tiny little area between princesses is getting clogged up. But beyond the operational aspect, there’s a humanity aspect. How would you feel getting consistently skipped over? With side eyes and smirks and backs turned, not even acknowledging you.
“Per our rules, we’re supposed to average around 70 seconds for each interaction to make it fair for every family. So if you’re skipping a princess, you are saving one minute of your time and potentially causing a world of hurt to that performer.”
Kayla said that despite the cast members doing everything in their power to embody the character they’re playing, they are still real people underneath the costume, and they have real feelings. She also said this can be even more difficult for people of colour playing princesses like Tiana from The Princess and the Frog or Elena from Elena of Avalor.
She added: “Imagine you’re a person of colour playing Elena or Tiana, the two characters that meet in the hall. In real life, you feel looked over, given fewer opportunities, etc, and then you come to your job and people are still looking over you.
“We’ve had to stop loading the rooms so many times throughout my Disney career because my Elena was crying at how she was being treated. I promise you, you’re still going to make that Space Mountain fast pass.
“If you’re a guest, just walk up, smile, and say hey. The performer should, in theory, take the reins and guide the entire interaction from there on. Just ‘yes and’ everything they say and it’ll be over before you know it.”
Several commenters on the video shared their own experiences with seeing Disney princesses skipped over, especially when it comes to lesser-known characters.
One person said: “Elena was my daughter’s favourite princess when we went. People kept skipping her over, and she spent extra time with my little, and we never knew of that princess before.”
Another added: “I never watched Elena’s show, but we had such a great interaction when I met her! I’m glad she took the reins because honestly, I was so nervous about what to say to her. Total sweetheart!”
June 5 (UPI) — NATO defense ministers are proposing a 5% annual investment in defense spending by member nations to enhance defensive capabilities during a meeting in Brussels on Thursday.
The proposed defense investment plan would require member nations to invest 5% of their respective gross domestic products in defense, NATO officials announced.
The change would make NATO a “stronger, fairer, more lethal alliance and ensure warfighting readiness for years to come,” according to NATO.
The ministers’ plan describes “exactly what capabilities allies need to invest over their coming years … to keep our deterrence and defense strong and our one billion people safe,” NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said.
U.S. supports increased NATO member spending
Many NATO members currently spend about 2% of their respective GDPs, which President Donald Trump has said is insufficient.
The 5% defense investment by NATO member states is virtually assured, U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told media upon arriving for Thursday’s meeting.
“We’re here to continue the work that President Trump started, which is a commitment to 5% defense spending across this alliance, which we think will happen,” Hegseth said.
“There are a few countries that are not quite there yet,” Hegseth added. “I won’t name any names, [but] we will get them there.”
If approved during the upcoming NATO Summit, defense investments would require respective member nations to spend equal to 3.5% of GDP on core defense spending, plus 1.5% in annual defense and security investments, including infrastructure.
The two-day NATO Summit is scheduled to start on June 24 at The Hague.
An ad hoc NATO-Ukraine Council also met and reaffirmed NATO’s support of Ukraine and agreed that nuclear deterrence is its primary goal.
Ukrainian Defense Minister Rustem Umerov and European Union Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Minister Kaja Kallas joined the council to discuss support for Ukraine.
Rutte said NATO allies have pledged nearly $23 billion in security assistance for Ukraine in 2025 and are focused on preventing the use of nuclear weapons by Russia and other nations.
The final meeting of NATO ministers during the summit also affirmed the alliance’s focus on nuclear deterrence.
“Nuclear deterrence remains the cornerstone of alliance security,” Rutte said.
“We will ensure that NATO’s nuclear capability remains strong and effective in order to preserve peace, prevent coercion and deter aggression.”
Trump nominates U.S. general for NATO commander
Trump also nominated U.S. Air Force Lt. Gen. Alexus Grynkewich to lead combined U.S. and NATO forces in Europe.
If approved during the NATO Summit, Grynkewich would become NATO’s supreme allied commander for Europe and commander of the U.S. European Command.
Trump is scheduled to attend the NATO Summit.
If approved by NATO member states, Grynkewich would replace current Supreme Allied Commander Gen. Chris Cavoli.
Grynkewich is an experienced fighter pilot, and his nomination affirms that the United States would continue to emphasize defensive security for Europe.
A U.S. officer has been NATO’s supreme allied commander since Gen. Dwight Eisenhower first held the post in 1951.
WASHINGTON — President Trump ordered his administration on Wednesday to investigate then-President Biden’s use of an autopen to sign pardons and other documents, increasing the pressure on his predecessor as House Republicans also requested interviews with members of Biden’s inner circle.
An autopen is a mechanical device that is used to replicate a person’s authentic signature, and presidents have used them for decades. However, Trump has frequently suggested that some of Biden’s actions are invalid because his aides were usurping presidential authority to cover up what Trump claims is Biden’s cognitive decline.
“This conspiracy marks one of the most dangerous and concerning scandals in American history,” Trump wrote in a memo. “The American public was purposefully shielded from discovering who wielded the executive power, all while Biden’s signature was deployed across thousands of documents to effect radical policy shifts.”
Trump directed Atty. Gen. Pam Bondi and White House Counsel David Warrington to handle the investigation.
Meanwhile, House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer of Kentucky, a Republican, requested transcribed interviews with five Biden aides, alleging they had participated in a “cover-up” that amounted to “one of the greatest scandals in our nation’s history.”
“These five former senior advisors were eyewitnesses to President Biden’s condition and operations within the Biden White House,” Comer said in a statement. “They must appear before the House Oversight Committee and provide truthful answers about President Biden’s cognitive state and who was calling the shots.”
Interviews were requested with White House senior advisors Mike Donilon and Anita Dunn, former White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain, former Deputy Chief of Staff Bruce Reed and Steve Ricchetti, a former counselor to the president.
Comer reiterated his call for Biden’s physician, Kevin O’Connor, and former senior White House aides Annie Tomasini, Anthony Bernal, Ashley Williams and Neera Tanden to appear before the committee. He warned subpoenas would be issued this week if they refuse to schedule voluntary interviews.
“I think that people will start coming in the next two weeks,” Comer told reporters. He added that the committee would release a report with its findings, “and we’ll release the transcribed interviews, so it’ll be very transparent.”
Democrats have dismissed the effort as a distraction.
“Chairman Comer had his big shot in the last Congress to impeach Joe Biden and it was, of course, a spectacular flop,” said Rep. Jamie Raskin, the Maryland Democrat who served as the ranking member on the Oversight Committee in the previous Congress. “And now he’s just living off of a spent dream. It’s over. And he should give up the whole thing.”
Republicans on the committee are eager to pursue the investigation.
“The American people didn’t elect a bureaucracy to run the country,” said Rep. Brandon Gill, a freshman Republican from Texas. “I think that the American people deserve to know the truth and they want to know the truth of what happened.”
The Republican inquiry so far has focused on the final executive actions of Biden’s administration, which included the issuing of new federal rules and presidential pardons that they claim may be invalid.
Comer cited the book “Original Sin” by CNN’s Jake Tapper and Axios’ Alex Thompson, which details concerns and debates inside the White House and Democratic Party over Biden’s mental state and age.
In the book, Tapper and Thompson wrote, “Five people were running the country, and Joe Biden was at best a senior member of the board.”
Biden and members of his family have vigorously denied the book’s claims.
“This book is political fairy smut for the permanent, professional chattering class,” said Naomi Biden, the former president’s granddaughter.
Biden withdrew from the presidential race last summer after a debate against Trump in which he appeared to lose his train of thought multiple times, muttered inaudible answers and misnamed different government programs.
The disastrous debate performance pushed questions about his age and mental acuity to the forefront, ultimately leading Biden to withdraw from the presidential race. He was replaced on the ticket by Kamala Harris, who lost the election to Trump.
Brown and Megerian write for the Associated Press.
Chad Rivera gingerly makes his way to the edge of what looks like an emptied out swimming pool, a lime-green skateboard in one hand, a white cane in the other. At 58, he’s legally blind, but he’s been skateboarding since he was 5, so what’s about to happen is part muscle memory, part “trust fall.”
Deathracer Chad Rivera is 58 and blind, but says he’ll never give up skateboarding.
Dozens of other skateboarders — mostly men in their 50s and 60s decked out in skating gear — roll along the periphery, watching on, at Encinitas Skate Park near San Diego. It’s not yet 11 a.m., but punk music blasts from the speakers, punctuated by the rumbling and clanking of skateboard wheels on concrete.
Standing at the deep end, Rivera considers the pool bowl’s nine-foot concrete walls. He sets down his white cane and secures the tail of his board on the pool’s rim with one foot, the rest of the board hanging in the air, like a mini diving board. He then steps onto the front of the board with his other foot and throws his body weight forward, “dropping in.”
He races down and around the sides of the walls before flipping around and landing back up on the pool deck.
It’s a frightening move to watch, but Rivera now beams, triumphant, eyes shining.
“Woo! Feel it and kill it,” says Rivera, a retired grape grower who’s suffered from a rare optic nerve disease since he was 22. “It always feels good, so I keep doing it. I’ll never stop, no matter how old I get.”
Rivera is a member of Deathracer413, a group of older skateboarders who believe that skateboarding is their key to longevity. They grew up amid the ’70s and ’80s skate scene and are as passionate about the sport as when they were teens. Many of them are now retired and the joy they get from skateboarding, the sense of community and the health benefits, such as core strength and balance, keep them young, they say. The inherent danger gives them an adrenaline rush that, they argue, keeps their brains sharp.
“Our slogan is: Keep dropping in or you’ll be dropping out,” says the group’s founder, Doug Marker, a former professional skateboarder and retired construction worker who’s lived in San Diego his entire life. Marker, who also surfs, plays guitar and rides motorcycles, is 63 going on 16, with silver hair and a skate-park suntan. On this Saturday morning, he’s wearing baggy shorts, Vans sneakers and a graphic T-shirt featuring “Death Racer” in heavy metal band-like typography.
“Knowing you can get hurt keeps you ultra-focused,” Marker says. “And trusting that you can do it — believing in yourself — is hugely empowering. I keep dropping in, I keep going. It’s put me into a bubble where I never feel like I’m getting older.”
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Marker founded Deathracer413 in 2011 to draw like-minded people who are “living life to the fullest,” he says. The name Deathracer reminded him of a motorcycle club and 413 are his initials, numerically. It was just a loose social affiliation at first, but in 2020 Marker launched the Deathracer413 Road Show, an invitation to join him in skating a different skate park every Saturday.
Deathracer413 now includes former and current pro skateboarders doing tricks alongside average enthusiasts and late-life skating newbies. There are a handful of women in the group as well as a few children honing their skills with the masters.
Marker estimates there are about 1,300 members of the group internationally, though typically only about 20-30 locals attend on any given Saturday. He welcomes anyone into the club and mails them a “welcome letter” and custom Deathracer413 patch that he designed. Hundreds of recipients remain members from afar, kindred spirits who share a “full throttle” outlook on life and participate via social media. Others have trekked from Australia, Germany, Belgium and the UK to skate with Deathracer413.
“’Cause now everybody’s retired and can travel,” Marker says. “They’re finding destinations to come and skateboard and San Diego’s a top one. So they come.”
‘I’ll stop when my body tells me to stop’
The deathracers catch up with one another, fist bumping and drinking beers, as one of them drops into the pool bowl.
As Deathracer413 celebrates its 200th skating session, the vibe is affectionate and rambunctious, jovial retiree backyard barbecue meets heavily tattooed skater meetup. More than 50 members — many with bushy gray beards, paunchy bellies and caps reading “The Goonies: Never Say Die” or “Independent” — mingle on the pool deck, cracking open beers, fist-bumping one another and catching up on life as the Ramones’ “I Wanna Be Sedated” fades into Bikini Kill’s “Rebel Girl” on the sound system.
The skaters drop into the pool one after another — swirling and swooshing around, “carving” and “grinding,” before popping back up — in such tight succession it feels choreographed. It’s as if we’re inside a pinball machine, with tiny objects orbiting around one another maniacally, wheels spinning, helmets twisting, boards whizzing by or flying into the air before crashing back down. Every so often someone wipes out, sliding across the pool bottom, sparking cheers of encouragement.
“I feel like the older I get the more I worry about getting hurt — because it lasts longer,” admits skateboarding legend Steve Caballero, 60. “If you think about it, it’s kind of a scary sport. You can get really hurt.”
Caballero has been a pro skateboarder since he was 15 and fear doesn’t stop him today — “I’ll stop when my body tells me to stop,” he says. He performs one of his signature moves, sliding along the rim of the pool on the skateboard truck instead of the wheels. No small feat for a body that’s endured more than 45 years of extreme athletics. A documentary about his life, “Steve Caballero: The Legend of the Dragon,” debuts this November.
Legendary skateboarder and deathracer Steve Caballero, 60, has been pro since he was 15.
“It definitely keeps me in shape,” he says. “It keeps me youthful-thinking, staying creative and being challenged. I think when people get older they quit doing these things because they feel like they should. I’m trying to show people, hey, even in your older age you can still have fun and challenge yourself.”
The feeling of freedom, the thrill of sailing through the air, is worth the risk to Barry Blumenthal, 60, a retired stockbroker.
“I’m more worried about crashing my car. I mean, I wear gear in here,” Blumenthal says. “Skating is just extreme fun where you can’t help but grin. It’s kid-like. It’s a fountain of youth experience. You’re chasing stoke.”
Pushing the boundaries of skating
Wiping out is part of the process, the Deathracers say. It’s still “kid-like” fun, “a fountain of youth experience.”
No doubt “dropping in” and “chasing stoke” for eternity would be “rad.” But is there any validity to Deathracer413’s claims that skateboarding promotes health and longevity?
“I’d worry about fractures,” says Dr. Jeremy Swisher, a UCLA sports medicine physician. “As you get older, it takes the body longer to heal. But it comes down to a risk-benefit analysis. The endorphins, the adrenaline — the joy of it — as well as the new challenges that stress the mind in a good way would be very mentally stimulating. You’re forming new neural pathways as you’re trying new moves. It would help keep the brain young and fresh.”
“I race cars for a hobby, and I know what that does for my aging,” adds Dr. Eric Verdin, president and chief executive of the Buck Institute for Research on Aging in Northern California. “Finding a thing that you’re passionate about, having a sense of community, not to mention the balance and motor coordination — skateboarding is extremely physical — all of that is part of healthy aging.”
Skateboarding has been around in California since the 1950s — a way to recreate surfing, but on dry land. “Vertical skateboarding,” which the Deathracers partake in, grew out of SoCal kids commandeering emptied backyard swimming pools. It was especially prevalent during the 1976-77 drought, when residents had to drain their pools and kids began performing elaborate airborne tricks. Skate parks emerged and “vert skating,” as it was dubbed, became a phenomenon.
Doug Marker, founder of Deathracer413, shows off the ring and patch he designed, bearing the group’s name.
The first park in California opened in Carlsbad in 1976 and the San Diego area is still considered a central hub for the sport. So today there’s a critical mass of ’70s and ’80s-era skateboarding devotees who still live nearby. That’s why Deathracer413 — the only club of its kind in the area, Marker says — has so many active members.
“There hasn’t ever been 60-year-plus [vert skaters] before,” Marker says. “The sport’s not that old. So that’s kind of our thing — we’re just gonna keep pushing the bar.”
In that sense, Deathracer413 is more than a subcultural vestige — its members present a sports medicine study of sorts, says Michael Burnett, editor in chief of “Thrasher Magazine,” a longtime skateboarding publication.
“A lot of people here are older than me,” says John Preston Brooks, 56.
“There were a few old-guy outliers, but this is the first generation of older skaters,” Burnett says. “We’re now witnessing how long someone can physically skateboard for — this is the test. It’s uncharted territory.”
Still, many of the Deathracers have modifed their skating techniques as they’ve aged. Marker says he now skates within 80-85% of his ability range to be safe. Others admit that the inevitable — death — is on their minds.
“As an older adult, you can get into your head about, oh, how much time do I have left?” says John Preston Brooks, 56. “But a lot of people here are older than me and it just makes me realize I got a lot more time to do the things I love and make the best of life.”
David Skinner, 60, a retired school teacher, says he’s realistic about his physical limits.
“A lot of us have health issues,” he says. “We’re not necessarily trying to cheat death, but we’re definitely trying to stay ahead. We know it’s coming, but we wanna keep dropping in and having fun, and this gives us a venue to do it.
A brotherhood, even if you no longer skate
As the day grinds on, the skate session morphs into an actual barbecue. Marker fires up the grill, tossing on an assortment of meat: burgers, bratwursts, hot dogs. Plumes of aromatic smoke float over the pool bowl, which is still getting some action.
Lance Smith, 74, stands off to the side of the bowl, a Coors Light in one hand, a Nikon camera in the other. With his dark sunglasses, soul patch of facial hair above his chin and trucker hat that reads “Old Bro,” he appears like someone’s cool great-uncle. He can’t skate anymore due to three replacements — two hip, one knee — after years of skateboarding injuries. (“I wouldn’t trade it for anything,” he says.) But Smith, who documented the SoCal skateboarding scene in the ’70s and photo edited the book “Tracker: Forty Years of Skateboard History,” still attends Deathracer413 events nearly every Saturday. He photographs club members in action.
Doug Marker mans the grill as the afternoon skate session morphs into a barbecue.
“It’s the community,” Smith says, stretching out his arm and snapping a passing skater. “I get enjoyment out of shooting pictures and seeing my friends skateboard. And, yeah, drinking a Coors Light.”
Deathracer413 is both a brotherhood and a sisterhood, says Tuli Lam, 31, a physical therapy student and one of the only women skaters in attendance today. “When I’m here, I’m just one of the guys. We’re bonded by skating.”
That camaraderie is evident when the group presents Marker with a gift of thanks.
“OK, gather round! Bring it in!” yells Lansing Pope, 58.
The skaters crowd around, stretching their necks to see what’s in the wrapped box Marker is tearing open.
“It’s a knee brace!” someone yells.
“It’s a crutch!” says another.
“Something for his prostate?” jokes a third.
“Whoa, super dope,” Marker says. (It’s a leather Deathracer413 bedroll for his motorcycle.) “I’m super stoked.”
The skateboarders presented Doug Marker with a gift, a custom Deathracer413 bedroll for his motorcycle.
“Till your wheels fall off!” several guys scream in unison, fists in the air.
Then, as if on cue, the skaters disperse around the pool bowl, streaming in and out of it, the sound of rattling wheels and screeching metal on concrete filling the space.
Tye Donnelly, 54, surveys the scene from a nearby picnic table, an electric guitar on his lap. He noodles on it, playing a mix of Black Sabbath and reggae.
“When I was 18, I never thought I’d be the old age of 20 and still skateboarding,” he says. “At 54, I thought I’d have a hat on, a suit, with a newspaper. But it turns out you can skateboard your whole life. And I’m thankful for this group — because it wasn’t like this back in the day.”
Caballero sums up senior skateboarding best: “This is the new bingo.”
The Avengers will return slightly later than expected.
Disney is pushing back the release dates of its next two “Avengers” movies. “Avengers: Doomsday” is now slated to hit theaters Dec. 18, 2026, and “Avengers: Secret Wars” will be released Dec. 17, 2027. Both films were previously planned for May in their respective years.
In March, Marvel revealed, in a five-plus hour livestream, 27 members of the “Doomsday” cast, which includes veteran “Avengers” stars Chris Hemsworth (Thor), Anthony Mackie (Sam Wilson/Captain America), Sebastian Stan (Bucky Barnes), Paul Rudd (Scott Lang/Ant-Man) and Tom Hiddleston (Loki), as well as “Thunderbolts*” (a.k.a. New Avengers) actors Florence Pugh (Yelena Belova), David Harbour (Alexei Shostakov/Red Guardian), Lewis Pullman (Bob Reynolds), Wyatt Russell (John Walker) and Hannah John-Kamen (Ava Starr/Ghost).
“Doomsday” will also feature members of the MCU’s newest superhero team, the Fantastic Four. Pedro Pascal (Reed Richards), Vanessa Kirby (Sue Storm), Joseph Quinn (Johnny Storm) and Ebon Moss-Bachrach (Ben Grimm) will make their debut in the upcoming “The Fantastic Four: First Steps,” which bows in theaters July 25. “First Steps” will mark the beginning of the MCU’s Phase 6. For now, Sony and Marvel’s “Spider-Man: Brand New Day” is the only MCU film expected to be released between “First Steps” and “Doomsday” on July 31, 2026.
The MCU’s Phase 5 will officially conclude on TV with the upcoming series “Ironheart,” which premieres June 24 on Disney+.
Amid the “Avengers” release date shuffle, Disney also revealed that its “The Devil Wears Prada” sequel, which will reportedly see Meryl Streep’s Miranda Priestly navigating the decline of magazine publishing (too real, says this reporter), is scheduled to open May 1, 2026, while Ridley Scott’s adaptation of the post-apocalyptic “The Dog Stars” will hit theaters March 27, 2026.
Only a few months ago, former Irvine Vice Mayor Tammy Kim had aspirations of returning to the City Council she previously served on for four years.
Now her immediate goal is to fight off charges that could put her in prison for several years.
The Orange County district attorney’s office announced Thursday afternoon that Kim was charged with 10 felonies tied to allegedly lying about her residency during her City Council tenure and while campaigning for mayor last fall.
Kim was formally charged with three felony counts of perjury by declaration, three felony counts of filing a false document, and one felony count each of a public official aiding the illegal casting of votes, of filing false nominations papers, of knowing of the registration of someone not entitled to vote and of voter registration fraud. She was also charged with a misdemeanor of making a false statement.
She could spend up to 11 years and two months in state prison and county jail if convicted on all counts.
She is scheduled to be arraigned Friday morning.
Kim briefly responded to a call from The Times, saying she was advised not to share too much per her attorney, Caroline Hahn.
“We’re entering a not guilty plea,” Kim said.
Hahn added that she and her client “planned to launch a vigorous defense” but did not answer further questions.
Kim is accused of using two fraudulent addresses while running for mayor in the November 2024 election and then in a City Council special election in early 2025, according to the criminal complaint. She owned a condo in the city’s 3rd District, where she had lived since 2015, according to a separate lawsuit filed against Kim to get her thrown off the City Council ballot.
Kim won election to the Irvine City Council in November 2020, receiving nearly 44,000 votes a 14-person, top-three-candidate race.
At that time, city elections in Irvine used an at-large voting system, meaning candidates could live anywhere in the city.
The city moved to district elections in the fall 2024, requiring council members to live in the districts they represent. Only voters from those districts could vote for those candidates.
Kim served until November 2024 when she ran for and ultimately lost a mayoral campaign to Councilmember Larry Agran by a margin of nearly 5,000 votes.
The district attorney’s office believes Kim improperly used an address to run for mayor, no longer claiming to live in the 3rd District condo she had owned for a decade.
To run for mayor, Kim changed her California driver’s license and her voter registration to a home in the 5th District, where she never lived, according to the criminal complaint.
The home belonged to a family Kim met through a Korean teaching class, the complaint alleges. Kim did not inform the family that she was using their address, according to the complaint.
She has been charged with certifying that address as her own under the penalty of perjury.
Kim eventually finished her campaign and voted in November’s mayoral race based out of the 5th Diistrict home.
Shortly after her defeat, Kim declared her candidacy in December to fill the now- vacant 5th District seat, which Agran left after winning the mayoral election.
Kim eventually found a room in another 5th District home on Jan. 10 and changed her California driver’s registration that same day, according to the complaint. She then filed new nomination paperwork with the new 5th District address, according to the complaint.
Later that month, former mayoral candidate Ron Scolesdang sued Kim, claiming that she was fraudulently using an incorrect address. Scolesdang had hired a private investigator to monitor Kim, according to that lawsuit.
Kim eventually dropped out of the race on Feb. 7, the same day a Superior Court judge removed her name from the ballot.
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Thursday upheld, for now, President Trump’s decision to fire two agency officials who had fixed terms that were set by Congress.
By a 6-3 vote, the justices set aside rulings that would have reinstated Gwynne Wilcox to the National Labor Relations Board and Cathy Harris to the Merit Systems Protection Board. Both were appointees of President Biden.
The decision is the latest in which the court’s conservative majority sided with the president’s power to fire agency officials in violation of long-standing laws.
“Because the Constitution vests the executive power in the President, he may remove without cause executive officers who exercise that power on his behalf,” the court said in an unsigned order.
But the justices were quick to add the Federal Reserve Board is not affected by this decision.
“The Federal Reserve is a uniquely structured, quasi-private entity that follows in the distinct historical tradition of the First and Second Banks of the United States,” the court said.
At issue is a fundamental dispute over whether the Constitution gave the president or Congress the power to set the structure of the federal government.
In 1935, the court ruled unanimously that Congress can create independent and “nonpartisan” boards and commissions whose members are appointed by the president for a fixed term. The court then drew a distinction between “purely executive officers” who were under the president’s control and members of boards whose duties were more judicial or legislative.
But in recent years, conservatives have questioned that precedent and argued that the president has the executive power to hire and fire all officials of the government.
Shortly after taking office, Trump fired Wilcox and Harris even though their terms had not expired. They sued contending the firings were illegal and violated the law.
They won before a federal judge and the U.S. court of appeals.
Those judges cited the Supreme Court’s 1935 decision that upheld Congress’ authority to create independent boards whose members are appointed by the president to serve a fixed-term.
Trump’s lawyers say the Constitution gives the president full executive power, including control of agencies. And that in turns gives him the authority to fire officials who were appointed to a fixed term by another president, they said in Trump vs. Wilcox.
Justice Elena Kagan filed an eight-page dissent joined by Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson.
“Today’s order favors the President over our precedent; and it does so unrestrained by the rules of briefing and argument—and the passage of time— needed to discipline our decision-making,” Kagan wrote. “I would deny the President’s application. I would do so based on the will of Congress, this Court’s seminal decision approving independent agencies’ for-cause protections, and the ensuing 90 years of this Nation’s history.”
The court said its decision was not final.
The NLRB was created by Congress in 1935 as a semi-independent agency tasked with enforcing the labor laws. Its general counsel serves as a prosecutor while the board‘s five members act as judges who review administrative decisions arising from unfair-labor claims brought by unions.
Under the law, the president appoints the general counsel who can be fired but board members have five-year terms. They may be fired for “neglect of duty or malfeasance in office,” but not simply because of political disagreements.
Trump could have controlled the board by appointing members to fill two vacancies. He chose instead to fire Wilcox, leaving the board without a quorum of three members.
Wilcox argued there was no reason to rush to change the law.
“Over the past two centuries, Congress has embedded modest for-cause removal restrictions in the structure of numerous multi-member agencies,” she said in response to the administration’s appeal. She noted that all past presidents — Republicans and Democrats — did not challenge those limits.
The Merit System Protections Board was created by Congress in 1978 as a part of a civil service reform law. Its three board members have seven-year terms, and they review complaints from federal civil servants who allege they were fired for partisan or other inappropriate reasons.
Trump’s decision to fire Harris also left the board without a quorum.
WASHINGTON — Landmark legislation that would rewrite the tax code and levy steep cuts to programs providing healthcare and food stamps to the poor passed the House early Thursday, a development that was celebrated by President Trump despite the bill facing an uncertain future among Senate Republicans.
The measure, titled the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” would boost funding for border security and the Defense Department, eliminate taxes on tips and overtime, provide a new tax deduction to seniors and renew the 2017 tax cuts passed during the first Trump administration. To pay for those new funding commitments, the bill proposes eliminating green energy tax benefits passed under President Biden, as well as an estimated $1 trillion in cuts to Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.
Even still, the bill would add so much money to the debt that Congress may be forced to execute cuts across the board, including hundreds of billions to Medicare, in a process known as sequestration, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.
The House vote fell along party lines. By opposing the bill, the Trump administration said that Democrats were supporting the largest tax increase on middle-class Americans in decades, a reference to the upcoming expiration of Trump’s 2017 tax cuts at the end of the year.
Democrats, on the other hand, have accused Republicans of voting for the deepest cuts to healthcare in modern times. By creating new barriers to Medicaid coverage through the introduction of work hour requirements, as well as increasing premiums under the Affordable Care Act, the CBO and other nonpartisan organizations estimate up to 14 million Americans could lose their insurance coverage.
Those drastic changes to the healthcare landscape have given pause to several Republican senators.
Sen. Susan Collins of Maine has said she is “very wary of cutting Medicaid.” Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri said he “can’t support” substantial cuts to Medicaid benefits. And after the vote on Thursday, Sen. Roger Marshall of Kansas said that material changes should be expected to the House bill.
“We need to go back through that bill with a fine tooth comb and make it better,” Marshall said in an interview with Newsmax. “I think there’s opportunities in Medicaid to make that bill better, to make sure that we strengthen it, that we preserve it for those who need it most.”
Any Senate rollback of cuts to the Medicaid program could face resistance from the House Freedom Caucus during the reconciliation process. Members of that group, which proclaims a commitment to fiscal conservatism, have called for even deeper cuts to the Medicaid program.
Rep. Andy Harris of Maryland, chair of the House Freedom Caucus, voted “present” early Thursday morning, preserving negotiating leverage as the bill makes its way across Capitol Hill.
“I voted to move the bill along in the process for the president,” Harris wrote on social media. “There is still a lot of work to be done in deficit reduction and ending waste, fraud, and abuse in the Medicaid program.”
The vote came hours after Trump met with GOP holdouts at the White House. As late as Wednesday afternoon, before meeting with the president, several of those lawmakers were casting doubt on the prospects of the bill’s passage this week, ahead of a Memorial Day deadline set by House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Louisiana Republican.
Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina was dismissive of the Freedom Caucus on Thursday, telling CNN that the cuts they are pushing for would barely make a dent in the national debt.
“You had your chance,” Graham said to the caucus. “Some of these cuts are not real. We’re talking about over a decade — you know, if you do $1.5 trillion, that’s like a percent and a half. So let’s don’t get high on our horse here that we’ve somehow made some major advancement of reducing spending, because we didn’t.”
Sen. Kevin Cramer of North Dakota also mocked the caucus, calling it “rich” for its members to lecture Senate Republicans on fiscal conservatism, “and end up with not that conservative a bill.” The CBO estimates the House legislation would result in a $3.8-trillion increase to the deficit.
If passed, the new work requirements to Medicaid would kick in at the end of 2026, right after the midterm elections. Green energy tax credits would phase out for any project that is not already under construction 60 days after the law comes into force.
The cap on the state and local tax deduction, known as SALT, will increase to $40,000 from $10,000, phasing out for individuals and households making more than $500,000. And while the president campaigned on a promise to eliminate taxes on Social Security, a parliamentary rule precluded Republicans from including a full cut. Instead, the bill proposes an enhanced tax deduction for senior citizens of up to $4,000.
On Truth Social, the president’s social media platform, Trump wrote that the bill is “arguably the most significant piece of Legislation that will ever be signed in the History of our Country!”
“There is no time to waste,” he added. Johnson, the speaker, has set a goal of sending the bill to the president’s desk by Independence Day.
Trump’s press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, said the president’s team was “suiting up” for negotiations with the Senate now that the bill has passed the House. “We will see how it goes,” she said.
“The ‘One Big Beautiful Bill’ is named the ‘One Big Beautiful Bill’ for a reason, because it is a one big beautiful bill that encompasses just about everything this president could want for the American public. It delivers on so many of his core campaign promises. So surely we want to see those campaign promises signed into law,” Leavitt said. “He’s expecting them to get busy on this bill and send it to his desk as soon as possible.”
The two House Republicans who voted against the bill, Thomas Massie of Kentucky and Warren Davidson of Ohio, should face primary challenges for their defiance of the president’s directive, Leavitt added.
“What’s the alternative, I would ask those members of Congress. Did they want to see a tax hike? Did they want to see our country go bankrupt? That’s the alternative by them trying to vote no,” she said. “The president believes that the Republican Party needs to be unified.”
Mr Ó hAnnaidh, who performs under the name Mo Chara, is due to appear at Westminster Magistrates’ Court next month
A member of Irish language hip-hop group Kneecap has been charged with a terror offence after allegedly displaying a flag in support of proscribed organisation Hezbollah at a London gig.
Liam Óg Ó hAnnaidh, 27, has been charged by the Metropolitan Police after an incident on 21 November 2024 at the O2 Forum in Kentish Town, London.
Mr Ó hAnnaidh, who performs under the name Mo Chara, is due to appear at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Wednesday 18 June.
Officers from the Met’s counter terrorism command were made aware on 22 April of an online video from the event.
Belfast man Mr Ó hAnnaidh has been charged under the name Liam O’Hanna.
An investigation was carried out, which led to the Crown Prosecution Service authorising charge.
Earlier this month, the Met said it would investigate online videos allegedly showing the group calling for the death of British MPs and shouting “up Hamas, up Hezbollah”.
Both Hamas and Hezbollah are banned in the UK and it is a crime to express support for them.
Hezbollah is a Shia Muslim political and military group in Lebanon which has been involved in a series of violent conflicts.
Kneecap say they have never supported Hamas or Hezbollah and would not incite violence against any individual. They say the video in question has been taken out of context.
A number of gigs featuring the band have been called off since the videos emerged.
They are currently scheduled to headline Wide Awake festival in Brockwell Park, south London, on Friday.
Reuters
The group go by the stage names of Mo Chara, DJ Próvaí and Móglaí Bap
Kneecap are an Irish-speaking rap trio who have courted controversy with their provocative lyrics and merchandise.
The group was formed in 2017 by three friends who go by the stage names of Mo Chara, Móglaí Bap and DJ Próvaí.
Their rise to fame inspired a semi-fictionalised film starring Oscar-nominated actor Michael Fassbender.
In April, the group faced criticism and commercial consequences after displaying messages about the war in Gaza during their set at US music festival Coachella last month.
Following this, footage emerged from previous gigs, which were investigation by counter-terrorism officers.
Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch shared one of the videos and renewed her criticism of the Labour government for last year settling a legal case brought by the group.
It related to a decision Badenoch made when she was a minister to withdraw an arts grant.
RICHMOND, Va. — U.S. Rep. Gerald “Gerry” Connolly, an outspoken Democrat who sought key reforms in the federal government while bringing transformational development to his populous Virginia district, died Wednesday. He was 75.
Connolly, who most recently held a prominent position as the ranking member of the House Oversight Committee, served in Congress for more than 16 years.
He died at home in the company of family members, his family said in a statement. Connolly announced in 2024 that he had esophageal cancer and said a few months later that he planned to retire from Congress. His death leaves House Republicans with a 220-212 majority.
The spirited and at times bullheaded Fairfax Democrat became known for his voluble nature and willingness to engage in spirited debates. In one hearing, he accused Republicans of engaging in a witch hunt against the IRS, asking a witness if they ever read Arthur Miller’s “The Crucible.”
“I am heartbroken over the loss of my dear friend,” said Democratic Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia. “To me, he exemplified the very best of public service.” He said Connolly “met every challenge with tenacity and purpose, including his final battle with cancer, which he faced with courage, grace, and quiet dignity.”
A fixture of Virginia politics for three decades, Connolly was first elected to the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors in 1995. On the county board, he steered the transition of northern Virginia’s Tysons Corner from a traffic-heavy mall area to a downtown business hub.
In 2003, Connolly was elected board chairman, and he continued pushing for transportation investment that had been debated among officials for decades. Connolly sought billions in state and federal dollars to develop the regional rail system’s Silver Line connecting the national capital region to Tysons Corner.
Connolly’s dream was realized with the Silver Line’s opening in 2014, and eight years later, the rail line was extended an extra 11 miles to reach Dulles International Airport.
As the extension opened in 2022, Connolly said: “Doing big things is difficult — the world is filled with naysayers.”
Connolly’s local government experience launched his congressional career. He was elected in 2008 after flipping an open Republican-held seat by nearly 42,000 votes. In his victory speech, Connolly said he would use his position to ensure the federal bureaucracy is “a responsive, accountable instrument for the people we serve.”
“If we insist the government must work for all of our citizens again, we cannot fail,” Connolly said.
Connolly got his first taste of Congress while working as a staffer for the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations in the 1980s. Decades later, Connolly became a member of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs.
He also served as a member of the House Oversight Committee and led Democrats on subcommittees on government innovation and information technology.
Connolly cosponsored the 2010 Telework Enhancement Act, which requires federal agencies to allow a portion of their employees to telework at least one day a week. In 2014, he cosponsored another bill that reformed federal IT management and has since saved the government billions of dollars, according to the Government Accountability Office.
He also closely followed the financial burden of the slowing U.S. Postal Service, becoming a prominent voice accusing President Trump and former Postmaster General Louis DeJoy of seeking to winnow the postal service to suppress mail-in ballots during the 2020 presidential election.
Connolly reached a new milestone late last year as he was chosen ranking member of the House Oversight Committee. He defeated Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez for the position. The victory came shortly after Connolly announced that he had been diagnosed with esophageal cancer and would undergo chemotherapy and immunotherapy.
As ranking member, Connolly called on inspectors general to investigate the Department of Government Efficiency. He and other Democrats also introduced a pair of resolutions demanding the Trump administration turn over documents and information about billionaire advisor Elon Musk’s potential conflicts of interest and the firings of federal workers.
He said in late April that after “grueling treatments,” he learned that the cancer had returned and that he decided to step down from his post on the committee and would not seek reelection.
“With no rancor and a full heart, I move into this final chapter full of pride in what we’ve accomplished together over 30 years,” he said.
British police say Mo Chara displayed a flag of Lebanon’s Hezbollah at a concert.
A member of the Irish rap band Kneecap has been charged with a “terrorism” offence in the United Kingdom for waving a flag of the armed Lebanese group Hezbollah at a concert in November 2024 in London.
Liam O’Hanna, whose stage name is Mo Chara, is due to appear at Westminster Magistrates’ Court in London on June 18, charged under the Terrorism Act, British police said on Wednesday.
Kneecap has been vocal in its support for the Palestinian cause since the October 7, 2023-led Hamas attacks and Israel’s devastating war on Gaza, equating the struggles of the Irish under British colonial rule to that of Palestinians under that of Israel.
Pro-Palestinian chants are a regular fixture in their gigs. The band says they have been targets of a smear campaign for calling out Israel’s genocidal war.
KNEECAP STATEMENT:
Since our statements at Coachella — exposing the ongoing genocide against the Palestinian people — we have faced a coordinated smear campaign.
For over a year, we have used our shows to call out the British and Irish governments’ complicity in war crimes.… pic.twitter.com/mBojb5QBOP
The Belfast trio is also well known for its political and satirical lyrics and use of symbolism associated with the Irish Republican movement, which seeks to unite Northern Ireland, currently part of the UK, with the Republic of Ireland.
More than 3,600 people were killed during three decades of violence in Northern Ireland during “The Troubles” involving the Irish Republican Army (IRA), pro-British Loyalist militias and the UK security forces.
Kneecap takes its name from a brutal punishment, which involved being shot in the kneecaps, that was meted out by paramilitary groups to informers and drug dealers.
The band has been praised for invigorating the Irish-language cultural scene in Northern Ireland, where the status of the language remains a contested political issue in a society still split between Protestant British Unionists and Catholic Irish Nationalist communities.
It has also been criticised for lyrics laden with expletives and drug references.
Kneecap came under intense scrutiny and criticism last month during their performance at the music festival Coachella in California when they projected the words “F*** Israel. Free Palestine.” on stage.
“The Irish not so long ago were persecuted by the Brits, but we were never bombed from the f****** skies with nowhere to go! The Palestinians have nowhere to go – it’s their f****** home and they’re bombing them from the sky. If you’re not calling it a genocide what the f*** are you calling it?” read the words projected by Mo Chara.
Kneecap came under renewed scrutiny at the start of this month when UK intelligence said they would investigate comments made by the rap group about UK and Middle East politics.
They were reported to police over footage from a 2024 concert in which a band member appeared to say: “The only good Tory is a dead Tory. Kill your local MP.” Footage from another concert, in 2023, appears to show a member of the trio shouting “Up Hamas, Up Hezbollah” – the UK considers both to be “terrorist” organisations.
In response, Kneecap said it had “never supported Hamas or Hezbollah,” and accused “establishment figures” of taking comments out of context to “manufacture moral hysteria” because of the band’s criticism of Israel’s attacks on Palestinians in Gaza.
Several Kneecap gigs have been cancelled as a result of the controversy, and some British lawmakers have called on organisers of June’s Glastonbury Festival to scrap a planned performance by the group.
A bipartisan group of Congressional representatives are calling on Secretary of State Marco Rubio to streamline the government’s visa processing system to ensure visitors from abroad will be able to attend next year’s FIFA World Cup as well as the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.
The World Cup, which kicks off in less than 400 days, is expected to generate $3.75 billion in economic activity in the U.S. With SoFi Stadium in Inglewood hosting eight games, the economic impact on Southern California is estimated at nearly $600 million.
But cost-cutting measures proposed by Rubio could threaten that by reducing staff and closing some embassies and consulates, increasing visa wait times and making an already cumbersome system more complicated and costly. That could keep tens of thousands of fans at home.
Even without the changes, six countries have at least one U.S. diplomatic post with visa wait times that extend beyond the start of the World Cup.
Rubio is scheduled to appear Wednesday before the House Foreign Affairs Committee where he will be asked about the visa process, said Rep. Sydney Kamlager-Dove (D-Los Angeles). Kamlager-Dove, a member of that committee and a proponent of sports diplomacy, laid out her concerns and those of her colleagues in two-page letter addressed to Rubio and signed by 52 representatives, including Rep. Young Kim (R-Anaheim Hills), the first Republican to sign on; Tom Cole (R-Oklahoma), chairman of the House Appropriations Committee; and Ted Lieu (D-Manhattan Beach), a member of Democratic House leadership.
“I’m hoping to get some answers and some solutions,” said Kamlager-Dove, whose sprawling districts ranges from the border with Beverly Hills to South Los Angeles. “This is a real problem because it impacts attendance and it impacts economic activity.”
The 2026 World Cup will be the largest in history, with a record 48 countries participating. It will also be the first World Cup played in three countries, with Mexico and Canada sharing host duties with the U.S. However the vast majority of the games — 78 of 104 — will be played in 11 U.S. cities between June 11 and July 19, 2026.
“The economic stakes of these games and significant for red and blue districts nationwide, as is the diplomatic and soft-power opportunity of being at the center of the international sports universe,” Kamlager-Dove wrote in her letter. “However the success of these games hinges on the State Department’s ability to efficiently process the visa applications of spectators, athletes and media.”
Kamlager-Dove believes the opportunity is too important to be sacrificed to politics.
“The United States has an obligation to put its best foot forward as the host of these games,” she said. “Sports diplomacy is an important tool for us as we continue to talk about peace and cooperation. It’s also so important as we recognize all of the different ethnic communities that help make up the United States and want to root for their home team.
“And so you want restaurants to be full, clubs and bars to be full, hotels to be full.”
Earlier this month President Trump held the first meeting of a White House task force charged with overseeing what the president called “the biggest, safest and most extraordinary soccer tournament in history.” But the administration has sent mixed signals over exactly how welcoming it intends to be.
At that meeting attended by FIFA president Gianni Infantino, Vice President JD Vance — co-chair of the task force — said the U.S. wants foreign visitors “to come, we want them to celebrate, we want them to watch the games. But when the time is up we want them to go home, otherwise they will have to talk to Secretary Noem.” He referred to Homeland Security secretary Kristi Noem, whose agency has detained and interrogated visa holders at U.S. points of entry.
“It is up to [Rubio] to square that circle for us when he comes to our committee,” Kamlager-Dove said. “The good news is you have Republicans and Democrats asking these questions. These games are non-partisan. And I believe that these are practical, logistical, solvable log jams that deserve a solution.
“Staff the State Department to focus on them. Accelerate and streamline these processes and prioritize diplomacy. Because the games are diplomatic.”
Federal prosecutors alleged Democratic Rep. LaMonica McIver of New Jersey pushed and grabbed officers while attempting to block the arrest of the Newark, N.J., mayor outside an immigration detention facility, according to charges in court papers unsealed on Tuesday.
In an eight-page complaint, interim U.S. Atty. Alina Habba’s office said McIver was protesting the removal of Newark Mayor Ras Baraka from a congressional tour of the Delaney Hall detention center in Newark on May 9.
The complaint says she attempted to stop the arrest of the mayor and pushed into agents for Homeland Security Investigations and Immigration and Customs Enforcement. She faces two counts of assaulting, resisting and impeding an officer.
McIver has denied any wrongdoing and has accused federal agents of escalating the situation by arresting the mayor. She denounced the charge as “purely political” and said prosecutors are distorting her actions in an effort to deter legislative oversight.
Habba had charged Baraka with trespassing after his arrest but dismissed the allegation on Monday when she said in a social media post that she instead was charging the congresswoman.
Prosecuting McIver is a rare federal criminal case against a sitting member of Congress for allegations other than fraud or corruption.
The case instantly taps into a broader and more consequential struggle between a Trump administration engaged in overhauling immigration policy and a Democratic Party scrambling to respond.
Within minutes of Habba’s announcement, McIver’s Democratic colleagues cast the prosecution as an infringement on lawmakers’ official duties to serve their constituents and an effort to silence their opposition to an immigration policy that helped propel the president back into power but now has emerged as a divisive fault line in American political discourse.
Members of Congress are authorized by law to go into federal immigration facilities as part of their oversight powers, even without advance notice. Congress passed a 2019 appropriations bill that spelled out the authority.
A nearly two-minute clip released by the Homeland Security Department shows McIver on the facility side of a chain-link fence just before the arrest of the mayor on the street side of the fence. She and uniformed officials go through the gate and she joins others shouting they should circle the mayor. The video shows McIver in a tightly packed group of people and officers. At one point, her left elbow and then her right elbow push into an officer wearing a dark face covering and an olive green uniform emblazoned with the word “Police” on it.
It isn’t clear from body camera video whether that contact was intentional, incidental or a result of jostling in the chaotic scene.
The complaint says she “slammed” her forearm into an agent and then tried to restrain the agent by grabbing him.
Tom Homan, President Trump’s top border advisor, said during an interview on Fox News on Tuesday that “she broke the law and we’re going to hold her accountable.”
“You can’t put hands on an ICE employee,” he said. “We’re not going to tolerate it.”
McIver, 38, first came to Congress in September in a special election after the death of Rep. Donald Payne Jr. left a vacancy in the 10th District. She was then elected to a full term in November. A Newark native, she served as the president of the Newark City Council from 2022 to 2024 and worked in the city’s public schools before that.
House Democratic leaders decried the criminal case against their colleague in a lengthy statement in which they called the charge “extreme, morally bankrupt” and lacking “any basis in law or fact.”
Catalini, Richer and Tucker write for the Associated Press.
SACRAMENTO — Latino legislators criticized Gov. Gavin Newsom’s proposed budget cuts to Medi-Cal Monday afternoon, saying the plan to freeze enrollment and charge premiums for those adult immigrants without documentation already enrolled was a betrayal of California’s promise to protect the vulnerable.
Legislative pushback for the May budget revision, released by Newsom last week, comes after the governor announced an additional $12-billion budget shortfall for the upcoming fiscal year.
State Senator María Elena Durazo (D-Los Angeles) said the plan to charge adult undocumented immigrants $100 per month for Medi-Cal was a form of redlining, and Assemblymember Mia Bonta (D-Alameda) said she doubted the two-tiered system was constitutional.
“The governor is proposing a troubling precedent — raising prices on one group of Californians based solely on their immigration status. It is illegal for Kaiser to do this. It is illegal for United Healthcare to do this. It is illegal for any doctor, hospital or clinic to charge higher prices to undocumented customers,” Durazo said at a California Latino Legislative Caucus rally outside the state Capitol on Monday.
The influential Latino Legislative Caucus has staunchly opposed cuts to Medi-Cal, the state’s expanded version of the federal Medicaid program. The objections come despite California expecting decreased revenue in part due to President Trump’s tariff policies and increases in state spending, including the recent expansion of Medi-Cal coverage to cover all eligible Californians, including immigrants lacking documentation.
State Senator Caroline Menjivar (D-Panorama City), chair of a budget subcommittee on health, said Newsom’s proposal scapegoats immigrants for California’s economic woes. Immigrants, she said, are essential to California’s robust economy, recently ranked as the fourth largest in the world.
“If you were to remove the name from this document — if you were to remove the state, and people would just read this off to you and you closed your eyes — you would think, ‘Oh, that’s a budget proposed by a Republican in, perhaps, Alabama,’” she said.
During his news conference on Wednesday, Newsom encouraged state lawmakers and specially members of the Latino caucus to offer alternatives to balance the state budget if they disagreed with his proposal.
“Good people have different ideas, and I look forward to their ideas,” Newsom said.
On Monday, members of the Latino caucus did not mention any specific measures they would take instead of cutting Medi-Cal access, but pledged to offer budget balancing proposals in the days and weeks to come.
