Miller

Kaylon Miller was on the six yard line in the fourth quarter, blocking on a USC run play when he saw King Miller, his running back and twin brother, blow right past him.

“Run, run, go, go!” he remembers shouting as King bumped it outside and crossed the Nebraska goal line for the go-ahead touchdown that would ultimately be the game winner in the Trojans’ 21-17 Big Ten win last Saturday in Lincoln.

When King turned around in the end zone, it was his brother who was the first to greet him; the two brothers shared a moment as their facemasks clashed into each other. Both walk ons. Both finding opportunities to get on the field as redshirt freshmen — and both making the most of those opportunities.

“You owe me a burger,” King remembers Kaylon telling him.

Kaylon has been happy to see his brother succeed — King Miller was pressed into duty last month due to injuries, and he responded with big games against Michigan and Notre Dame — but he continued to wait for his moment. Then in the first quarter against the Cornhuskers, right guard Alani Noa went down with an injury. Kaylon was standing next to USC offensive line coach Zach Hanson, who turned to him.

“This is your opportunity,” Hanson told him. “Let’s go.”

It was Kaylon’s turn.

“Honestly, just a remarkable story that I’ll be able to tell when I’m older,” he said. “Obviously, everybody wants their opportunity to go and play and you just have to be ready when your number’s called on. It just so happened that mine had to be that night.

“I just knew that when I got that opportunity I was gonna make the most of it.”

And make the most of it he did. Despite taking all of his practice reps that week at center, Miller stepped in at guard and didn’t just hold it together — he elevated the o-line in a low-scoring slugfest against a tough Nebraska defense.

Allowing zero pressures on the night, Miller recorded a pass block grade of 88.2, the third-best in the Big Ten last week and the sixth-best among Power Four guards.

“Played awesome. He really did,” Trojans coach Lincoln Riley said. “He was physical, he pass pro’ed well. He was really physical in his pull game, was really sharp assignment-wise, which — I know I’ve mentioned several times — was all the more impressive because he really hadn’t been able to take a lot of practice reps at guard. Thoroughly impressed.”

While Miller still says he feels more confident snapping the ball due to the more compact nature that comes with playing center, he attributes his success at right guard to being able to rely on his teammates. The o-line, especially at guard, is a symbiotic relationship. So much of it is depending on the tackles and center for help (and vice versa), and Miller was 100% confident in his teammates next to him.

Things could’ve gone south with Miller playing for the first time in an intense road environment at Memorial Stadium. The Huskers, and the 86,529 fans in attendance, were dressed in all black. Black balloons were released by a raucous crowd each time Nebraska scored. But in between series, left tackle Elijah Paige — who made his return from a knee injury he suffered in Week 4 against Michigan State — kept Miller’s mind right.

“Just treat it like practice,” Paige said. “Obviously, that’s a pretty hostile environment. It’s one of the best environments out there. So obviously that can get to you, the noise can get to you, everything can get to you. But I kind of just tell him to focus in and act like this is a Tuesday or Wednesday practice.”

As the Trojans prepare to host Northwestern on a short week, Miller’s trying to think too much about what happened the week before; he knows opportunities can be taken away just as quickly as they’re earned. He likes to lean on a saying he tells his twin brother all the time:

“Never look back upon any situation that you’ve ever been in, just look forward because nothing that you did in the past can be taken back. You can only have your eyes in tunnel vision, forward.”

As for the burger that King still owes him?

“I ain’t get him it yet, but I got to,” King said with a laugh. “I don’t know when it is, he gonna keep asking me about it for sure, but I got him one day.”

OVER one million people watched as Brittany Miller made the perfect roast potato over the weekend – for her perfect twins in her perfect home with her perfect smile.

But behind the 29-year-old influencer’s flawless façade lies a sinister web of lies which saw her fake cancer and con her followers. Now, for the first time we reveal the truth behind her shock scam – and why she’ll stop at nothing to achieve fame.

In 2017, Brittany was an unknown 21-year-old living in Oxfordshire, with dreams of becoming the next big social media influencer. Her small online community were then left shocked when she claimed to have been diagnosed with stage three gastric cancer. 

Her friends rallied around her – a crowdfunding page was set up to help support her financially and interest around her started growing.

But then just as fast as her cancer news started spreading – it then disappeared and wasn’t mentioned again. No trace of her extraordinary lie could be found online. 

It wasn’t until 2020 when Brittany collaborated with a breast cancer awareness charity that her former best friend decided to speak out – revealing the whole thing had been a scam. 

Brittany lied to us all – not just her friends but also her followers online

Former friend

The police have confirmed to The Sun that Brittany was indeed convicted of her crime – fraud by false representation.

In July 2020, she was given a conditional discharge for 12 months and was forced to pay compensation and costs to the Crown Prosecution Service. 

Her criminal record will no longer show up on basic checks, which has left her victims furious. 

Speaking anonymously, a former pal revealed that Brittany had in fact been the one to set up the JustGiving page and had begged her friends to circulate it for her.

They told us: “Brittany lied to us all – not just her friends but also her followers online. 

“Now people are following her and they have no idea what she is really like.

“Yes it happened years ago but lying about cancer is really wrong. Lots of her followers will have family members living with cancer but little do they know that every time they watch one of her videos, they are giving money to a fraud.”

MAKING CASH AND FALLING OUT

Indeed, Brittany has built herself a successful online career. Her videos are mostly her dishing up huge meals, making home comfort food or showing hauls from Temu or Shein.

It might not be groundbreaking stuff but she has 3.5 million people following her on TikTok.

Her boyfriend, Ash Griffiths, regularly features in her clips and in July last year she gave birth to identical twins, Elijah and Emiliano, who have also become a big part of her content. 

The couple recently moved into a plush new home in East Sussex, thanks to the proceeds from Brittany’s TikTok account.

Looking back, another friend recalled how Brittany would tell her she was in hospital, having treatment, including radiotherapy and would guilt trip her when she wasn’t available to hang out with her.

Things came to a head when the pal accused Brittany of stealing money from her grandma.

In messages seen by The Sun, someone appearing to be Brittany admits to taking the cash but blames it on the strong medication she was taking. The pair fell out shortly after. 

In the weeks and months after Brittany’s crime was revealed, there has been a lot of online speculation but she has never addressed what happened. 

The former pal told us: “Brittany has done what she can to erase her history and will delete any comments referencing it.

“It’s pretty scary to think she was happy to lie about cancer and makes you wonder just how far she will go to be super successful.

“This isn’t about getting revenge on her, it’s about people knowing the truth, which they deserve.”

PAST MISTAKES AND PRESENT ISSUES

The cancer scam wasn’t the only time Brittany has been caught telling lies.

In 2018, she was convicted of travelling on the railway without having paid the fare. She gave the officer of the railway company a fake name and address. She was fined £320. 

In recent months, Brittany’s parenting has also come under question and  she revealed how an anonymous hater had accused her of child abuse.

Ash, who is the father of their twins, was even quizzed on her being an alcoholic and a “druggy.”

I’m in the spotlight, I get millions of views every video, I get it, there’s nasty people out there

Brittany on her fame

Unlike in the past, Brittany decided to be very open about what had been going on and, in an emotional video, she acknowledged that someone reported her to social services, not only accusing her of child abuse, but holding her responsible for “lots of things”.

She confirmed that she “got questioned about everything” and was “really upset” when she spoke to them on the phone, so much so that she “kept having to pause” because she was crying so much.

No further action was taken but the whole incident left Brittany shaken up. 

She said at the time: “People are so desperate for my downfall and bringing me down, but bringing my children into it is ludicrous – why would you want to do that to them, innocent babies?

“Do what you want to me, whatever, but to them, innocent children who are clearly very happy and healthy babies, that’s crazy, you’re an actual weirdo, you’re an actual loser.”

Brittany added:  “Never in a million years did I think I’d have to go through something like this – obviously, I’m in the spotlight, I get millions of views every video, I get it, there’s nasty people out there, I understand that. 

“I just think, how cruel can you actually be? So, so cruel.”

It’s not just Brittany who has been left shaken up by it all – her former friends now fear they will be targeted by trolls accusing them of spreading lies to social services.

An insider said: “It feels like trouble follows Brittany. She might have this perfect life on social media but it’s not the truth. This drama with social services won’t be the last she’s involved in. But she’s built up an incredible following now – and they will support her, no matter what.”

Brittany has been contacted for comment.

“CBS Saturday Morning” co-hosts Michelle Miller and Dana Jacobson are among the nearly 100 news division employees cut as part of a massive round of layoffs at parent company Paramount.

The program is getting a new format that will align it closer to the weekday show “CBS Mornings,” according to people familiar with the plans who were not authorized to comment publicly. Brian Applegate, the executive producer of the Saturday program, is out as well.

CBS has also canceled “CBS Mornings Plus,” an extension of its morning program that ran in several markets including Los Angeles. “CBS Evening News Plus,” a streaming program anchored by John Dickerson is also being shuttered. Dickerson announced Monday he is leaving the network.

Several correspondents have already been laid off, including Debora Patta, who covered the Gaza war for the network; Janet Shamlian; and Nikki Battiste. A CBS News representative declined comment.

The cuts are part of parent company Paramount’s reduction of 1,000 employees across all of its divisions. New owners Skydance Media are looking to reduce cots by $2 billion across the company, with a second round of cuts expected later this year.

Miller was a prolific correspondent for CBS News in addition to her Saturday co-host duties, contributing pieces to “CBS Sunday Morning” and “48 Hours.” She also was a frequent fill-in for Gayle King on the weekday morning program.

Miller, 52, is a Los Angeles native and the daughter of Dr. Ross Miller, a trauma surgeon who served on the city council in Compton. She worked at the Los Angeles Times in the early 1990s.

Miller covered a wide range of stories at CBS News, and paid special attention to issues or racism and social injustice. She is married to Marc Morial, the former mayor of New Orleans who is currently head of the National Urban League.

Jacobson, 52 has been with CBS News since 2015. She previously spent a decade at ESPN, where she appeared on “First Take” and “SportsCenter.”

Miller and Jacobson have served as co-hosts of “CBS Saturday Morning” since 2018 when it was called “CBS This Morning Saturday.”

Hello! I’m Mark Olsen. Welcome to another edition of your regular field guide to a world of Only Good Movies.

This has turned into one of those weeks when there are just way too many movies opening. From titles that premiered earlier in the year, to films that popped up only recently, distributors have decided that today is the time to drop them in theaters. It can make for some tough calls as a moviegoer but hopefully ones with pleasant returns. Here’s some intel.

Mary Bronstein’s “If I Had Legs I’d Kick You” was a standout at Sundance in January and remains one of the most powerful films of the year. Rose Byrne gives a knockout performance as Linda, a mother struggling to hold onto her own unraveling sense of self as she cares for her ill daughter.

Rose Byrne in the movie “If I Had Legs I’d Kick You.”

(Logan White / A24)

In his review Glenn Whipp said, “Linda makes dozens of bad decisions in ‘If I Had Legs I’d Kick You,’ many of them seemingly indefensible until you realize that just how utterly isolated she feels. … Bronstein demands you pay attention to her, and with Byrne diving headfirst into the character’s harrowing panic, you will find you have no other choice.”

Speaking to Esther Zuckerman for a wide-ranging feature, Byrne said of the part: “Anything dealing with motherhood and shame around motherhood, whether it’s disappointment, failure — she’s got this line in the movie, ‘I wasn’t meant to do this’ — these are pretty radical things to say. People aren’t comfortable with that. So performance-wise, that was the hardest part because it was like a tightrope, the tightrope of this woman.”

Another Sundance premiere hitting theaters this week is director Bill Condon’s adaptation of “Kiss of the Spider Woman,” starring Diego Luna, Tonatiuh and Jennifer Lopez. Already a novel, a movie and a Broadway show, the story involves two men imprisoned in an Argentine jail for political crimes during the 1980s, with Lopez playing a fantasy film star who exists in their imaginations — a reverie to which they can escape.

Tonatiuh in the movie “Kiss of the Spider Woman.”

(Roadside Attractions)

For our fall preview, Carlos Aguilar spoke to Tonatiuh, a native of L.A.’s Boyle Heights, whose performance is a true breakout.

“When I first met Jennifer, I was like, ‘Oh, my God — that’s Jennifer Lopez. What the hell?’ ” he recalled, with the enthusiasm of a true fan. “I must have turned left on the wrong street because now I’m standing in front of her. How did this happen? What life am I living?”

After praising both Lopez and Tonatiuh in her review of the film, Amy Nicholson wrote, “Still, my favorite performance has to be Luna’s, whose Valentin is at once strong and vulnerable, like a mutt attempting to fend off a bear. He’s the only one who doesn’t need to prove he’s a great actor, yet he feels like a revelation. Watching him gradually turn tender sends tingles through your heartstrings.”

Among the other new releases this week is “Urchin,” the directing debut from Harris Dickinson, and the documentary “Orwell: 2+2=5,” directed by Raoul Peck. There’s also Derek Cianfrance’s true-crime comedy “Roofman,” Kathryn Bigelow’s nuclear-war thriller “A House of Dynamite” and Luca Guadagnino’s campus-set cancel culture drama “After the Hunt.”

Rebecca Miller retro and ‘Mr. Scorsese’

Robert De Niro, left, and Martin Scorsese in an undated photo from Rebecca Miller’s documentary series “Mr. Scorsese.”

(Apple TV+)

The American Cinematheque is celebrating filmmaker Rebecca Miller this weekend with a four-title retrospective plus a preview of her documentary series “Mr. Scorsese,” a five-part portrait of the life and career of Martin Scorsese.

Miller will introduce a Saturday screening of her 2023 rom-com “She Came to Me,” starring Anne Hathaway and Peter Dinklage, then do a Q&A for the first two episodes of the Scorsese project on Sunday. Also screening in the series will be 2016’s “Maggie’s Plan,” starring Julianne Moore, Ethan Hawke and Greta Gerwig; Miller’s 2002 Sundance grand jury prize winner “Personal Velocity”; and 2005’s “The Ballad of Jack and Rose,” starring Miller’s husband Daniel Day-Lewis, screening with an introduction from co-star Camilla Belle.

Ethan Hawke and Greta Gerwig in “Maggie’s Plan,” written and directed by Rebecca Miller.

(Sony Pictures Classics)

I spoke to Miller this week about the retrospective and her new Scorsese project, which premieres Oct. 17 on Apple TV+. Along with extensive interviews with Scorsese himself, the series includes insights from collaborators such as Robert De Niro, Paul Schrader and longtime editor Thelma Schoonmaker as well as childhood friends, Scorsese’s children, ex-wives and fellow filmmakers such as Steven Spielberg, Brian De Palma, Ari Aster, Benny Safdie and Spike Lee.

“It feels like such an honor and so weird in a way,” said Miller of the notion of having a retrospective. “You feel like you’re just in the middle of making everything, but then you realize, no, I’ve been making these films for 30 years. And it’ll be really interesting to see how the films play now for people. It’s exciting to have them still be sort of alive.”

When you look back on your own movies, what comes to mind for you?

Funnily enough, there is a connection between “Personal Velocity” and Martin Scorsese, which is that when I was about to shoot personal “Velocity,” I was in Rome, on the set of “Gangs of New York,” and I was watching the snack trolley go by and thinking my entire budget is probably the same as their snack budget. And thinking: What am I doing? What was I thinking? How am I going to do this? But talking to [“Gangs” cinematographer] Michael Ballhaus, I told him how long we had to shoot everything, and he said, “Oh, I envy you. We shot ‘The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant’ in 10 days.” He was looking back on his days with Fassbinder as the good old days.

Then Marty gave me some advice on films with voiceovers to watch, and he ended up watching “Personal Velocity.” It was the first of my films that he saw, which then led probably to this [doc series] because he knew my films quite well. He watched them as time went on.

What interested you in Scorsese as a subject?

I knew that he was Catholic, that there was a strong spiritual element to his films. But I was interested in how that Catholicism kind of jogged with his fascination, or apparent fascination, with violence. Who is that person? How do those two things go together? And I thought that could be part of my exploration. I had a sense that all his work has a spiritual undercurrent in it, which I think it does. And I think that’s one of the things that I try to explore in the documentary. I felt I had something a little bit different to offer, for that reason.

The big questions that he’s asking: Are we essentially good? Are we essentially evil? And his immense honesty with himself about who he really is, the darkness of his own soul. I don’t think that people are usually that honest with themselves. And you realize that part of his greatness has to do with his willingness to look at himself.

Martin Scorsese in an undated photo from Rebecca Miller’s documentary series “Mr. Scorsese.”

(Apple TV+)

As much as we think we know about Scorsese, he seemed so candid about some of the darkest moments of his life, especially when he talks about his drug overdose and hospitalization in the late 1970s or about some of his issues with Hollywood, especially around “The Last Temptation of Christ.” Were you ever surprised that he was so willing to go there with you?

Oh, yeah, I was. I really didn’t know what to expect. I didn’t have an agenda. I had the scaffolding of the films themselves and a strong sense that this was a man that you can’t separate from the films. So the thing is like a dance, it’s like a permanent tango between those two things. You’re not going to pry them apart. I didn’t know about the addiction. I didn’t know a lot of these things. My questions are totally genuine, there’s no manipulation. It’s all me. I was very prepared in terms of the films. But in terms of the chronology and the connective tissue of his life, I was really right there discovering it.

Martin Scorsese at work on his film “Killers of the Flower Moon,” as seen in Rebecca Miller’s documenary series “Mr. Scorsese.”

(Apple TV+)

You’re catching him such a remarkable point in his life and career. He seems very happy and settled in his personal life and yet he still makes something like “Killers of the Flower Moon,” full of passion and fire. What do you make of that?

[Screenwriter] Jay [Cocks] says he’s learned that he can be selfish in his art, but he doesn’t have to be selfish in his life. Even if your outside is regular, your inside can be boiling. And I think Marty’s inside is always going to be boiling. The seas are not calm in there and never will be.

‘They Live’ and ‘Josie and the Pussycats,’ together at last

Roddy Piper in John Carpenter’s 1988 thriller “They Live.”

(Sunset Boulevard / Corbis )

There’s a real art to putting together a double bill. Sure, you can just program movies that have the same director or share the same on-screen talent. But what about deep, thematic links that might not otherwise be noticed?

The New Beverly has put together an inspired double bill playing on Friday, Saturday and Sunday of John Carpenter’s 1988 “They Live” and Deborah Kaplan and Harry Elfont’s 2001 “Josie and the Pussycats.” Though one is a rough-and-tumble sci-fi action picture and the other a satirical teen-pop fantasia, they both use the idea of subliminal messages to explore how consumer culture can be a means of control.

In “They Live,” wrestler-turned-actor “Rowdy” Roddy Piper plays a drifter who lands in Los Angeles and discovers a secret network fighting against an invasion of aliens living among us.

In Michael Wilmington’s original review, after joking the movie could be called “Invasion of the Space Yuppies,” he adds, “You can forgive the movie everything because of the sheer nasty pizzazz of its central concept. … The movie daffily mixes up the paranoia of the Red Scare monster movies of the ’50’s with a different kind of nightmare: the radical’s belief that everything is tightly controlled by a small, malicious ruling elite. Everything — the flat lighting, the crazily protracted action scenes, the monolithic beat and vamp of the score — reinforces a mood of murderous persecution mania.”

Rosario Dawson, from left, Rachael Leigh Cook and Tara Reid in the movie “Josie and the Pussycats.”

(Joseph Lederer / Universal Studios)

In “Josie and the Pussycats,” a small-town rock ‘n’ roll band (Rachael Leigh Cook, Tara Reid and Rosario Dawson) are plucked from obscurity when they are signed to a major record label and all their dreams of stardom seem to come true. But they come to realize the company’s executives (a brilliant pairing of Parker Posey and Allan Cumming) are using them for their own nefarious purposes.

Aside from some very hummable songs, the film has a truly epic amount of corporate logos and branding that appears throughout. Many reviewers at the time brought this up, including the L.A. Times’ own Kenneth Turan, who noted, “It’s a potent reminder that no matter how innocent a film may seem, there’s a Hollywood cash register behind almost every frame.” In subsequent interviews, Kaplan and Elfont confirmed these were not instances of paid product placement and, in fact, the production had to fight to get them all on-screen.

Points of interest

‘Eight Men Out’ in 35mm

Charlie Sheen, center, in a scene from the film “Eight Men Out.”

(Archive Photos / Getty Images)

Writer-director John Sayles has been so consistently good for so long that it is easy to take his work for granted. Case in point: 1988’s “Eight Men Out,” which tells the story of the infamous “Black Sox” scandal, when players from the Chicago White Sox were accused of intentionally throwing the 1919 World Series in league with underworld gamblers. The movie is playing on Sunday at Vidiots in 35mm.

The film captures much of what makes Sayles so special, particularly his unique grasp of the interplay between social and economic dynamics — a sense of how things work and why. He also fully grasps the deeper implications of the forces of greed and money setting themselves upon such an unassailable symbol of wholesome Americana as baseball. It’s also what makes the movie particularly worth a revisit now. With a phenomenal cast that includes John Cusack, David Straithairn, D.B. Sweeney, Charlie Sheen, John Mahoney, Christopher Lloyd, Michael Lerner and Sayles himself, the film was a relatively early effort from cinematographer Robert Richardson, who would go on to work repeatedly with Martin Scorsese and Quentin Tarantino.

In a review at the time, Sheila Benson wrote, “ ‘Eight Men Out’ is not a bad movie for an election year. Everything that politicians cherish as ‘old-fashioned’ and ‘American’ is here. The Grand Old Game. Idealistic little kids. Straw hats and cat’s-whisker crystal sets. And under the slogans and the platitudes, a terrifying erosion and no one to answer for it. No wonder Sayles, hardly an unpolitical animal, found it such a relevant story nearly 70 years later.”

‘The Sound of Music’ in 70mm

Julie Andrews, center, in the 1965 musical “The Sound of Music.”

(20th Century-Fox)

On Sunday the Academy Museum will screen Robert Wise’s “The Sound of Music” in 70mm, a rare opportunity to see this classic in the premium format on which it was originally released. Based on the stage musical by Rodgers and Hammerstein , the film would eventually win five Oscars, including director and best picture.

Starring Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer, it’s the story of the singing Von Trapp family, eventually forced to flee their native Austria as the Nazis take power.

In a Times review from March 1965, Philip K. Scheuer wrote of Wise and his collaborators, “They have taken this sweet, sometimes saccharine and structurally slight story of the Von Trapp Family Singers and transformed it into close to three hours of visual and vocal broilliaance, all in the universal terms of cinema. They have invested it with new delights and even a sense of depth in human relationships — not to mention the swooning beauty of Salzburg and the Austrian Alps, which the stage, of course, could only suggest.”

Even notorious gossip columnist Hedda Hopper liked the movie, presciently writing, “The picture is superb — dramatically, musically, cinematically. Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer were born for their roles. … All children — from 7 to 90 — wil love it. The following morning I woke up singing. Producer-director Bob Wise did a magnificent job and 20th [Century Fox] will hear nothing but the sound of money for years to come.”

Every morning, Darnell Miller walks his 10-year-old brother, Fredrick, to elementary school, then walks another 20 minutes to Santee High in downtown Los Angeles. Before football practice, when the bell rings in the afternoon, he sometimes jogs to pick up his brother, then walks him home or takes him to practice.

This is a peek into the life of the 17-year-old Miller, a soft-spoken senior who leads the City Section in rushing at midseason with 1,159 yards and 13 touchdowns for 4-1 Santee.

As an example of his talent, the 6-foot, 170-pound Miller made such a positive impression in a 43-7 loss to University that the opposing coach, Bryan Robinson, said, “He’s the No. 1 running back in the City Section.”

Miller rushed for 209 yards in the defeat. He also plays basketball, runs track and has a 4.6 second 40-yard time.

He used to play youth football at age 6 and was so scared of being tackled that he kept running away from defenders when he had the ball.

He moved from Memphis to Los Angeles at the end of 2018. He didn’t play football his freshman year at Santee. He played point guard on varsity basketball. The football coaches noticed him.

“The coaches made me come out,” Miller said. “They kept asking me and I said I’d give it a try. Now I love it.”

He was a receiver last season until switching to running back at midseason after an injury to a teammate. He also plays defensive back.

“He’s a natural at running back,” coach John Petty said.

Santee High running back Darnell Miller, right, takes his 10-year-old brother, Fredrick, to elementary school each morning.

(Eric Sondheimer / Los Angeles Times)

Raised by a single mother, Miller relishes his role watching over his fifth-grade brother who sometimes joins him on the football bus to road games. The two are so quiet and shy that it might take a third person to get them to speak up. Playing football has helped Miller become more vocal but his performances are speaking for him.

Miller has a warning. “I feel I can still get better,” he said.

Let’s review some midseason excellence with some player-of-the year candidates:

• Quarterback Luke Fahey, Mission Viejo. Having guided the Diablos to wins over Santa Margarita, Folsom and San Diego Lincoln, Fahey has shown accuracy and great judgment. He has completed 74% of his passes with 12 touchdowns and one interception.
• Taylor Lee, Oxnard Pacifica. The junior quarterback has gone on a touchdown throwing barrage with 19 in his last three games for unbeaten Pacifica. Tougher competition begins in the Marmonte League.
• Madden Williams, St. John Bosco. The senior receiver is living up to expectations in playing his best in big games. He has 13 receptions for 331 yards and four touchdowns entering Trinity League play.
• Jaden Walk-Green, Corona Centennial: A junior safety who started the season unknown, he has made an impact with his athleticism. He starts in center field for the baseball and is versatile on the football field, batting down balls, making tackles and serving as the Huskies’ kicker.
• Mark Bowman, Mater Dei: He’s a senior tight end showing everyone why he might be the best in the country. The Monarchs haven’t throw many passes to him because they have so many top receivers, but he had two touchdown catches last week against Bishop Gorman and contributes on almost every play with his blocking.
• Isaiah Arriaza, Damien. The Spartans are 5-0 behind their senior quarterback. Arriaza has passed for 1,491 yards and 14 touchdowns.
• Rocco Tompkins, JSerra. The linebacker and running back is only 5-10, but what a first five games he’s had. He leads the Southern Section in tackling. “He’s a tackling machine,” coach Victor Santa Cruz said.
• Madden Riordan, Sierra Canyon. On perhaps the best defense in the Southland, you don’t mess with Riordan, a defensive back who has two interceptions and 16 solo tackles. He had 10 interceptions last season.
• Khary Wilder, Gardena Serra: The defensive lineman has contributed six sacks and 17 solo tackles while coming ready to cause havoc every game.
• Max Meier, Loyola: The defensive lineman has seven sacks and helped out on 40 tackles while showing Stanford has stolen a rising talent.
• Caden Jones, Crean Lutheran. The junior quarterback and star point guard has completed 76% of his passes for 1,432 yards and 10 touchdowns with zero interceptions for the 5-0 Saints.

Players exceeding expectations: Sophomore quarterback Chase Curren, Crespi; senior quarterback Jack Thomas, Palisades; sophomore quarterback Gino Wang, JSerra; junior receiver Paul Turner, Birmingham.

Surprise teams: 1. Los Alamitos (7-0), 2. Beaumont (4-1), 3. Norco (5-0), 4. Moorpark (5-0), 5. Crespi (5-0), 6. Torrance (5-0).

HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL WEEK 1

(Games at 7 p.m. unless noted)

THURSDAY’S SCHEDULE

CITY SECTION

Nonleague

Arleta at Cleveland

Bell at Marquez, 7:30 p.m.

Belmont at West Adams, 4 p.m.

Bernstein at Locke

Canoga Park at Hollywood

Chatsworth at Franklin

Chavez at San Fernando

Dorsey at Carson, 7:30 p.m.

Fremont at LA University

Gardena at South East, 4 p.m.

Granada Hills at Venice

Granada Hills Kennedy at San Pedro, 7:30 p.m.

Grant at Los Angeles, 4 p.m.

Huntington Park at Wilmington Banning

Legacy at Maywood CES

Lincoln at Legacy

LA Marshall at Sylmar

Maywood CES at Mendez

Monroe at Taft

Panorama at Manual Arts

Rancho Dominguez at Contreras, 4 p.m.

Reseda at Hawkins, 7:30 p.m.

Santee at Rivera

Sotomayor at Van Nuys

Torres at Jefferson

Washington at Westchester, 7:30 p.m.

SOUTHERN SECTION

Nonleague

Artesia at Maranatha

Calabasas at Castaic

Cantwell-Sacred Heart at Montebello

Cathedral at Beaumont, 7:30 p.m.

Charter Oak vs. Upland at SoFi Stadium, 5 p.m.

Citrus Hill at Miller, 7:30 p.m.

Compton Centennial at Compton

Corona at Bloomington, 7:30 p.m.

Corona Centennial at Santa Margarita

Covina at Baldwin Park

Garey at Pomona

Great Oak at Rancho Verde, 7:30 p.m.

Hillcrest at Corona Santiago, 7:30 p.m.

La Sierra at West Valley

Liberty at Sultana, 7:30 p.m.

Los Osos at Alta Loma

Mountain View at Workman

Norwalk at Santa Fe

Ontario at San Gorgonio, 7:30 p.m.

Pioneer at Loara, 6:30 p.m.

Rancho Alamitos at Garden Grove Santiago

Redlands at Banning

Saddleback at South El Monte

San Juan Hills at Eastvale Roosevelt

San Marino at La Salle

Santa Ana at Placentia Valencia

Serrano at Barstow, 7:30 p.m.

St. Genevieve at Antelope Valley

Troy at La Mirada

Vista del Lago at Valley View, 7:30 p.m.

West Covina at Los Altos

Westminster at Buena Park

Yorba Linda vs. Edison at Huntington Beach

INTERSECTIONAL

Bakersfield at Garfield

Bosco Tech at LA Wilson

Crenshaw at Long Beach Jordan

Culver City at King-Drew

Gardena Serra at LA Hamilton

Jackson Hole (WY) at Linfield Christian, 7:30 p.m.

Lawndale at LA Roosevelt

Long Beach Cabrillo at LA Jordan

Los Alamitos at Narbonne

Lynwood at South Gate

Monrovia at Eagle Rock

Palisades at Harvard-Westlake

Paramount at Fairfax

Vasquez at Roybal

8-MAN

CITY

New Designs University Park at Sherman Oaks CES

INTERSECTIONAL

Public Safety Academy at East Valley

Milken at Valley Oaks CES

FRIDAY’S SCHEDULE

SOUTHERN SECTION

Adelanto at Ridgecrest Burroughs

Anaheim Canyon vs. Ayala at SoFi Stadium, 5 p.m.

Apple Valley at Highland

Aquinas at Glendora

Arlington at Ramona

Arroyo at South Torrance

Arroyo Grande at Newbury Park

Arroyo Valley at Nuview Bridge

Azusa at Ganesha

Bell Gardens at El Rancho

Bermuda Dunes Desert Christian at Riverside Prep

Bishop Diego vs. West Ranch at Valencia

Bishop Montgomery vs. Mater Dei at Santa Ana Bowl

Bolsa Grande at Ocean View

Brea Olinda at Cypress

Brentwood at Hueneme

Burbank Burroughs vs. Hart at College of the Canyons

California at Sunny Hills

Canyon Country Canyon at Buena

Carter at Don Lugo

Cerritos at Gahr

Chaffey at Fillmore

Chino vs. Summit at Miller, 7:30 p.m.

Claremont at Diamond Bar

Compton Centennial at Compton

Corona del Mar at Santa Barbara

Crescenta Valley at Knight

Damien at JSerra

Del Sol at Viewpoint

Diamond Ranch at Bonita

Downey at Orange Vista

Duarte at Glendale

Eastside at Mary Star

Eisenhower at Colton

El Modena at Dana Hills

El Monte at Alhambra

El Toro at Aliso Niguel

Esperanza at Fountain Valley

Estancia at Costa Mesa

Etiwanda at Citrus Valley

Gabrielino at Whittier

Garden Grove Pacifica vs. Garden Grove at SoFi Stadium, 8:30 p.m.

Godinez at Westminster La Quinta

Golden Valley at Crespi

Grace at Arrowhead Christian

Granite Hills at Patriot

Hacienda Heights Wilson at Rowland

Hawthorne at Firebaugh

Hemet at Salesian

Hesperia at Jurupa Hills

Huntington Beach at Trabuco Hills

Indio at Fullerton

Irvine at Portola

Jurupa Valley at Fontana

Kaiser at Heritage

King at San Jacinto

La Canada at Santa Paula

La Habra at Northview

La Palma Kennedy at Woodbridge

La Quinta at Yucca Valley

La Serna at Schurr

La Sierra at West Valley

Laguna Hills at Orange

Lakeside at Tahquitz

Lancaster at Newport Harbor

Littlerock at St. Bernard

Long Beach Wilson at Marina

Los Amigos at Silver Valley

Loyola at Millikan

Magnolia at Compton Early College

Mira Costa at St. Francis

Mission Viejo at St. Paul

Montclair at Walnut

Murrieta Mesa at Vista Murrieta

Murrieta Valley at Servite

Norco at Colony

Northwood at Sonora

Oak Hills at Bishop Amat

Palm Springs at Grand Terrace

Palmdale at Leuzinger

Paloma Valley at Moreno Valley

Paraclete at San Marcos

Pasadena Marshall at Dominguez

Quartz Hill at Rio Hondo Prep

Rancho Christian at Norte Vista

Rancho Cucamonga at Orange Lutheran

Rancho Mirage at Coachella Valley

Redlands East Valley at Perris

Redondo at El Dorado

Rim of the World at Big Bear

Rio Mesa at Camarillo

Riverside North at Riverside Poly

Rosemead at San Gabriel

Rubidoux at Pacific

San Bernardino at Cathedral City

San Dimas at Pasadena

San Jacinto Valley Academy at Desert Mirage

Santa Ana Calvary Chapel at Cerritos Valley Christian

Santa Clara at Century

Santa Monica at Laguna Beach

Santa Rosa Academy at California Military Institute

Saugus at Oak Park

Savanna at Glenn

Segerstrom at Santa Ana Valley

Sherman Oaks Notre Dame at Alemany

Sierra Canyon at Oaks Christian

Sierra Vista at Keppel

Silverado at Yucaipa

South Hills at Ontario Christian

South Pasadena at Arcadia

St. Anthony at Lakewood

St. Monica at Peninsula, 4:30 p.m.

St. Pius X-St. Matthias at Crean Lutheran

Temecula Prep at Rialto

Temecula Valley at Elsinore

Temescal Canyon at El Segundo

Temple City at La Puente

Torrance at West Torrance

Trinity Classical at Nordhoff

Tustin at Foothill

Upland at Charter Oak

Valencia at Chaminade

Ventura at Thousand Oaks

Villa Park at Western

Western Christian at Riverside Notre Dame

Westlake at Agoura

Xavier Prep at Desert Hot Springs

INTERSECTIONAL

‘Aiea (HI) at Palos Verdes, 3 p.m.

Angelou at Hoover, 5:30 p.m.

Anza Hamilton at El Cajon Foothills Christian

Beckman at Chula Vista Eastlake

Beverly Hills at Washington

Gilbert (AZ) Campo Verde at Capistrano Valley

Canyon Springs at Fallbrook

El Camino Real at Heritage Christian

El Paso (TX) Eastwood at St. John Bosco

Fresno Bullard at Mayfair

Long Beach Poly at San Diego Lincoln

Mesa (AZ) Westwood at Burbank

Moorpark at Bakersfield Centennial

Nogales at Henderson (NV) Lake Mead Academy

North Hollywood at Village Christian

Oceanside El Camino at Chino Hills

Palm Desert at El Centro Central

Riverton (UT) at San Clemente

Scripps Ranch at Warren

Shadow Hills at Palo Verde Valley

Simi Valley at Las Vegas Shadow Ridge

St. Bonaventure at Birmingham

Tesoro at North County San Marcos, 7:15 p.m.

Victor Valley at North Las Vegas (NV) Legacy

8-MAN

SOUTHERN SECTION

Faith Baptist at Chadwick, 3:30 p.m.

Highland Entrepreneur at PAL Charter, 3 p.m.

Malibu at Coast Union, 6 p.m.

Lucerne Valley at Southlands Christian

Noli Indian at Calvary Baptist

INTERSECTIONAL

CSDR at Animo Jackie Robinson

Desert Christian at Laton

Frazier Mountain at Lancaster Baptist, 7:30 p.m.

Maricopa at Alpaugh

New Designs Watts at Valley Oaks Charter

SATURDAY’S SCHEDULE

SOUTHERN SECTION

Irvine University at Capistrano Valley Christian, 1 p.m.

Whittier Christian at Webb, 1 p.m.

8-MAN

SOUTHERN SECTION

Avalon at Santa Clarita Christian, 12:30 p.m.

California Lutheran at Hesperia Christian, 6 p.m.

Santa Ana Magnolia Science at Downey Calvary Chapel, 6 p.m.

Santa Maria Valley Christian at Cate, 1:30 p.m.

Vista Meridian at Lighthouse Christian

INTERSECTIONAL

Academy for Careers & Exploration at Lone Pine, 5 p.m.

Cuyama Valley at Bakersfield Legacy Christian Academy

Monterey Trinity Christian at San Luis Obispo Classical Academy, 2 p.m.

Orcutt Academy at Laguna Blanca, 1 p.m.

Sage Hill at Fresno Christian, 8:30 p.m.

Harbor Miller and Elijah Wynder scored their first career goals in MLS, Gabriel Pec also scored a goal, and the Galaxy beat the Colorado Rapids 3-0 on Saturday night to snap a four-game MLS winless streak.

JT Marcinkowski made his first MLS appearance since 2023 and had a save for the Galaxy (4-16-7). The 28-year-old, who signed with the Galaxy in January after seven seasons with San José, missed the 2024 season while recovering from knee surgery.

Miller, an 18-year-old defender, gave the Galaxy a 1-0 lead in the seventh minute. On the counter-attack, Miller ran onto a centering pass played by Miki Yamane and blasted a first-touch shot from near the penalty spot into the net.

The 22-year-old Wynder tapped a pass from the center of the area to Yamane on the right side. Yamane played a first-touch pass back to Wynder, who redirected it into the net from near the penalty spot to make it 2-0 in the 55th.

Pec, on the counter-attack, ran onto a long ball played ahead by Marco Reus and outraced the defense to the edge of the six-yard box where he slipped a shot between the legs of goalkeeper Zack Steffen to cap the scoring in the 75th minute.

Steffen stopped two shots for Colorado (10-12-6).

Aug. 20 (UPI) — As protesters chanted nearby, U.S. Vice President JD Vance, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller visited National Guardsmen in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday amid what the Trump administration says is a crime crackdown.

The three Trump administration officials greeted National Guard troops at the capital’s Union Station while positioned near a table containing hamburgers for the troops, PBS News reported.

“In just the past nine days, we’ve seen a 35% reduction in violent crime,” Vance told those in attendance.

“We’ve seen over a 50% reduction in robberies,” he added. “We’re seeing really substantial effects because these guys are busting their a*****.”

Vance said he wanted to thank the National Guard troops in person and hand out some hamburgers to show his appreciation for their efforts.

Hegseth said the National Guard deployments in Washington are needed to ensure residents, visitors and those who work in the capital are safe.

“The American people, the residents of D.C., deserve a safe and beautiful city,” Hegseth said. “That’s our mission.”

He called the National Guard troops “patriots who serve the country” and want to make Washington a “beautiful, safe capital.”

The National Guard troops are “proud of this mission” and making sure “law and order is established here in the capital,” Hegseth added.

He said the Defense Department is providing the resources that the troops need and working with law enforcement partners to ensure safety in Washington.

Pro-Palestinian protesters gathered and chanted near Union Station, which drew a rebuke from Vance.

He said the protesters “hate the idea that Americans can enjoy their communities,” according to PBS News.

Vance said he went to Union Station with Hegseth and Miller because criminal activity was very high there, which local officials deny.

Miller added to Vance’s criticism of the protesters by calling them “stupid white hippies” and said they do not represent Washington, D.C.’s residents, The Hill reported.

“We are not going to let the communists destroy a great American city, let alone the nation’s capital,” Miller said.

“All these demonstrators you’ve seen out here in recent days, all these elderly white hippies, they’re not part of the city and never have been,” Miller said.

“We’re going to ignore these stupid white hippies that all need to go home and take a nap because they’re all over 90 years old,” he added.

Trump last week put the federal government in control of Washington’s Metropolitan Police Department, which has been accused of falsifying crime data. Though Trump administration officials have characterized crime in the city as out of control, in actuality, crime in the district has fallen in recent years or remained flat.

An agreement on Friday put the police department under local control, but Trump sought and received National Guard deployments from West Virginia, South Carolina, Mississippi, Ohio, Tennessee and Louisiana.

About 1,200 National Guard troops are slated for deployment in the capital, in addition to 800 Washington National Guard troops who already are there, according to The Washington Post.

The son of former Aberdeen and Falkirk striker Lee Miller has already made 76 senior appearances.

He was a near ever-present last season as Motherwell finished eighth in the Scottish Premiership, scoring four goals in his 41 appearances and earning his first two Scotland caps.

Asked about Miller’s absence on Saturday, Askou said: “Yes, it was a final call with everything taken into consideration.

“It’s not a secret that there are things going on in the background. We know he’s been out for four weeks.

“How much risk are you willing to take on a player like him in that situation? The decision was that we kept him out of it.”

If you’re looking for a football team that almost certainly will be improved over last season, Bellflower High fits the profile.

The Buccaneers went 0-10. Amir Neal was a starter and never quit. His mom kept telling him, “It’s going to get better, it’s going to get better.”

And it has with the hiring of first-year coach Keith Miller, who has brought along his 14-year-old freshman son, Austin, who’s 6 feet 5.

“We’re going to compete for championships and scholarships,” Miller vowed at a media day on Saturday.

Miller was an assistant at Bellflower when his brother, Jason, was head coach. His daughter plays flag football at Bellflower, so the Millers figure to be influential in the sports programs.

Having Austin around should help. He’s a receiver who’s still growing. New quarterback Elacion Saxton will try to use Miller’s size and athleticism for big plays.

Austin was asked if during a car ride his father treats him differently depending on his performance.

“There’s no difference whether there’s a good game or bad game,” he said. “My dad still loves me.”

After a follow-up question, Austin finally admitted a good game gets him a stop at Chipotle.

Let’s see how many stops he gets this season.

The Steve Miller Band has pulled the plug on its 2025 tour a month before it was set to kick off. Why? In the band’s words: “Blame it on the weather.”

The California rock group announced Wednesday that it has called off the remainder of its 2025 tour, including several shows in New York and concerts in Southern California, citing several extreme weather conditions.

“The combination of extreme heat, unpredictable flooding, tornadoes, hurricanes and massive forest fires makes these risks for you our audience, the band and the crew unacceptable,” the “Fly Like an Eagle” group said in a statement shared on its social media pages.

The Steve Miller Band announced its tour in March. In May, the group revealed that the slate of live shows would take its members across North America, starting with the East Coast in August. Shows in San Diego, Inglewood and Anaheim were set for November. While the announcement comes amid climate crises, including the fatal floods in the Northeast and Texas, the band did not specify which areas or weather events posed a risk to its tour plans.

Wednesday’s statement also left the possibility of future live performances pretty open-ended: “Don’t know where, don’t know when…We hope to see you all again.”

Though the group concluded its statement by wishing fans “peace, love and happiness,” it was met with division in the comments section. On Instagram, several followers said that they understood the rock band’s decision to call off the tour, while others wrote that they found the justification “odd” and speculated on reasons for the abrupt cancellation.

A representative for the rock group did not immediately respond to The Times’ request for additional information.

Just a day before its sudden announcement, the group continued to promote the tour on social media. On Tuesday, the band’s X (formerly Twitter) and Instagram pages published a photo of Miller, 81, receiving his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1987.

“Catch him and the band on tour starting next month,” said the caption accompanying the photo. The post at the time directed followers to the band’s website to purchase tickets.

Fans visiting the website are now met with the cancellation notice.

The Steve Miller Band was founded in the 1960s and is led by its namesake Grammy-winning vocalist and guitarist. It is also known for songs such as “Jungle Love,” “Abracadabra,” “Take the Money and Run” and “Space Cowboy.”

On a palm tree-lined bluff overlooking the Pacific Ocean, thousands of people rallied against the Trump administration in one of many “No Kings Day” protests around the country last month.

Here in Santa Monica, the well-heeled and beachy protesters also had a localized message: America, we’re sorry.

“Santa Monica apologies for Stephen Miller,” a bearded man in a straw hat proclaimed via hand-scrawled poster board.

“Stephen Miller, who raised you?” another protester inquired in purple puff paint. Others paired the White House deputy chief of staff’s name with expletives.

Amid the false accusations and acrid clashes of President Trump’s inner circle, few acolytes have survived longer than Miller.

The 39-year-old has remained essential through Trump’s second term, piloting an immigration platform that has sowed fear across wide swaths of the country — nowhere more so than greater Los Angeles, where federal agents have mounted a relentless assault on immigrants, sweeping up thousands in deportation raids.

In the long shadow of his policies, local and national observers alike are paying renewed attention to Miller’s upbringing in the famously liberal enclave once dubbed “the People’s Republic of Santa Monica.”

“I think people are sad that the words ‘Santa Monica’ and ‘Stephen Miller’ are synonymous, because no one wants that connection,” said Santa Monica Mayor Lana Negrete.

Though often seen as a liberal enclave, Santa Monica is also where conservative strategist Stephen Miller grew up.

(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)

How did the same 8.3-square-mile city that helped pioneer curbside recycling and strict rent control laws produce a man responsible for Trump’s most draconian policies?

Some are also questioning whether the administration’s focus on Los Angeles is a form of revenge on Miller’s spurned hometown.

When rumors of ICE agents seizing nannies at a Santa Monica park frantically flashed across social networks, Justin Gordon, who went to Hebrew school and high school with Miller, immediately thought his classmate must have personally directed the raid on their local park.

The reports proved spurious, but Gordon still saw an emotional truth.

“In the back of my mind, I’ve always thought, ‘This is Stephen Miller getting back at the city of Los Angeles,’ ” Gordon said.

In the eight years since Miller rose to fame and became an outsized antagonist on the American left, his Santa Monica villain origin story has been exhaustively documented, picked over and reanalyzed.

At the far edge of the American west, a brash adolescent came of age in a coastal community where the establishment prided itself on being antiestablishment. What choice would a young reactionary iconoclast have but to veer right?

Santa Monica was a town in flux when Miller was in high school at the turn of the millennium: a Berkeley meets Beverly Hills where haughty affluence was rapidly eclipsing the Birkenstocks and counterculture bumper stickers. It was also a tale of two cities, with moguls and the upper middle class north of Montana, and pockets of poverty and gang violence in the southern end of town.

Nowhere was this more evident than at Santa Monica High School, where the academics were nationally renowned, the student body resembled a United Colors of Benetton ad and a ’90s strain of “Free to Be … You and Me” liberalism reigned supreme.

The parade of cultural affinity clubs, diversity events and policies that sought to make the school more equitable nauseated Miller.

And the teenage provocateur made no secret of that revulsion, loudly belittling his fellow students. His bitter shtick offered a prescient preview of the grievance politics that would fuel his future boss into power.

Miller has said his years in high school were the hardest of his life, filled with pushback for his “vitriolic viewpoints,” according to Jean Guerrero, a former Times columnist and author of the 2020 Miller biography “Hatemonger.”

“And for whatever reason, he’s had this grievance about that ever since, and he’s been trying through various means, to have what I see as a form of revenge on the communities that rejected him in Los Angeles,” Guerrero said.

Stephen Miller when he was a student at Santa Monica High.

(Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times)

Through the White House, Miller did not respond to a request for comment. But anecdotes of Miller’s trollish high school antics have been exhaustively chronicled in the media.

There was the fight to restore the recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance on his bleeding heart campus. His frequent railing against “rampant political correctness,” multiculturalism and the perceived failings of his Latino classmates. Allegedly dumping his middle school best friend for being Latino.

Perhaps most infamous is a campaign speech, seared into the brains of thousands of Samohi classmates, in which he seemingly absolved students of their responsibility to clean up after themselves.

“I will say and I will do things that no one else in their right mind would say or do,” Miller told the crowd, according to a video obtained by Univision. “Am I the only one who is sick and tired of being told to pick up our trash when we have plenty of janitors who are paid to do it for us?”

Students jeered and booed as Miller was escorted off the stage, according to several attendees. He lost that student government election.

“The only compliment I think I’ve ever come up with for Stephen is that there are plenty of conservatives and far-right wing conspiracy theorists and hate mongers that spout what he spouted from behind a computer screen. I have not in my life before or after seen someone do it in an amphitheater full of their high school colleagues,” said Miller’s classmate Kesha Ram Hinsdale, now majority leader of the Vermont state Senate.

Santa Monica High was a hothouse of political engagement, where students — the children of entertainment executives, bankers and lawyers, as well as nannies, day laborers and wait staff — were finding their footing as activists.

Students arrive for a summer school session at Santa Monica High School in 2011.

(Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)

They had watched Proposition 187 pass in their early childhoods, stoking divisions and energizing a wave of Latino activists. (The 1994 ballot measure, which aimed to block undocumented immigrants from accessing public education and other state services, was ultimately blocked by the courts.)

They marched with labor leader Dolores Huerta in support of workers at a neighborhood hotel and protested against the growing threat of war in Iraq.

Despite the kumbaya vibes, Santa Monica High was hardly a post-racial utopia. Students often self-segregated, and the school’s academic sheen was riven by racial division.

Puckish, clad in a suit and preternaturally confident, a teenage Miller was a regular presence at school board meetings. He argued for an English-only school district, decried the board’s focus on equity and generally sought to puncture progressive ideals and push buttons.

“We all knew who he was, and knew him by name,” said Rep. Julia Brownley (D-Westlake Village), a Santa Monica-Malibu school board member from 1994 to 2006.

Miller was raised by Jewish Democrats several generations removed from their own asylum-seeking immigrant story. He enjoyed a comfortable childhood north of Montana, until the family real estate company faltered in the early ’90s and the Millers eventually relocated to a smaller rental on Santa Monica’s shabbier southern end.

Reactionary conservatism didn’t become a defining aspect of Miller’s persona until he started high school, according to Jason Islas, one of his best friends in middle school.

The friendship dissolved the summer before they started at Samohi when, in Islas’ telling, Miller called and announced that they would no longer be hanging out.

Miller delivered the news brusquely, citing Islas’ lack of confidence, his teenage acne and his Latino heritage in a “businesslike tone.”

“It was pretty cruel, even for a teenager,” Islas recalled.

Through a spokesperson, Miller denied this account in 2017. But his derision toward Latino classmates is well-documented — in his own words.

“There are usually very few, if any, Hispanic students in my honors classes, despite the large number of Hispanic students that attend our school,” a 16-year-old Miller wrote in a 2002 letter to a local paper.

The letter denounced the fact that school announcements were made in English and Spanish, “preventing Spanish speakers from standing on their own” and making “a mockery of the American ideal of personal accomplishment.”

Captivated by right-wing radio hosts like Rush Limbaugh and Larry Elder, Miller was a frequent guest on Elder’s show as a teenager, complaining about other perceived liberal excesses of his high school.

After graduating in 2003, Miller went to Duke University before landing on Capitol Hill, where he threaded his way up the far-right thicket with then-Rep. Michele Bachmann of Minnesota and then-Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama.

Many of his grievance-fueled Samohi talking points found their way into the first Trump campaign, where Miller had a mind-meld of sorts with the future leader of the free world.

In Trump’s second term, Miller has moved faster and gone further than during the first term, when he advocated unsuccessfully for using the military to push immigration enforcement. This time around, the administration has deployed troops to an American city in a staggering show of force, with masked agents raiding businesses and public spaces.

Ari Rosmarin, a civil rights lawyer who also attended Santa Monica High, said Miller has always had a keen eye for picking fights that would generate maximum hate, outrage and attention. It’s the through line connecting his youthful theatrics with the current assault on Los Angeles, Rosmarin said.

“He knows L.A. — knows that it’s home to both a super, super diverse and beautiful immigrant community, but also home to tons of media, cultural capital, financial capital,” Rosmarin said. “I think in those ways, it’s a particularly attractive site for a battle if your goal is not just a policy outcome, but a political and cultural attack.”

Miller and his dad have always maintained playing regularly is the priority.

Moving away from these shores might be his best chance to do that, while others also think it would be a good fit for his game.

Both Udinese and Union Saint-Gilloise reportedly had bids rejected for Miller in January, and they will unlikely to be the last offers coming in.

Talented young Scottish players have increasingly looked to move abroad in recent seasons.

Whether it is Aaron Hickey and Lewis Ferguson enhancing their careers while playing at Bologna, or Max Johnston tasting title success and Champions League football after leaving Motherwell for Sturm Graz in Austria, the template is there.

Others like recent Scotland debutants Josh Doig and Andy Irving have also progressed in their careers through playing regularly abroad, while there is the influence of more senior players Scott McTominay and Billy Gilmour at Napoli.

“Lennon’s next move is so important, because a lot of players will get sucked into going to just a massive club and going, right, I’ve arrived,” dad Lee said.

“But there needs to be a lot of thought process, and there has been a lot of thought process of his next move, because it’s a development move again.

“This is what we planned out for him, in terms of playing loads of games in the first team, doing really well, and it’s on him to do that.

“There was a pathway there at Motherwell, and the next one, for me, is important because he has to play, he has to develop, he has to then kick on again.

“Once he’s round about better players, no disrespect to the Motherwell players, but once he’s round about top class elite players, he will then kick on again, in my opinion.

“And I think he has that inner belief, and it’s not arrogance, it’s just a belief. And he wants to play football.”

McALESTER, Okla. — Oklahoma executed a man Thursday whose transfer to state custody was expedited by the Trump administration.

John Fitzgerald Hanson, 61, received a three-drug lethal injection at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester and was pronounced dead at 10:11 a.m., prison officials said. Hanson was sentenced to die after he was convicted of carjacking, kidnapping and killing a Tulsa woman in 1999.

“Peace to everyone,” Hanson said while strapped to a gurney inside the prison’s death chamber.

The execution began at 10:01 a.m. After the lethal drugs began to flow, a doctor entered the death chamber at 10:06 a.m. and declared him unconscious.

Hanson, whose name in some federal court records is George John Hanson, had been serving a life sentence in federal prison in Louisiana for several unrelated federal convictions. Federal officials transferred him to Oklahoma’s custody in March to follow through on President Trump’s sweeping executive order to more actively support the death penalty.

Hanson’s attorneys argued in a last-minute appeal that he did not receive a fair clemency hearing last month, claiming that one of the board members who denied him clemency was biased because he worked for the Tulsa County district attorney’s office when Hanson was prosecuted. A district court judge this week issued a temporary stay halting the execution, but that was later vacated.

Prosecutors alleged Hanson and accomplice Victor Miller kidnapped Mary Bowles from a Tulsa shopping mall. Prosecutors alleged the pair drove Bowles to a gravel pit near Owasso, where Miller shot and killed property owner Jerald Thurman. The two then drove Bowles a short distance away, where Hanson shot and killed Bowles, according to prosecutors. Miller received a no-parole life prison sentence for his role.

Thurman’s son, Jacob Thurman, witnessed Thursday’s execution and said it was the culmination of “the longest nightmare of our lives.”

“All families lose in this situation,” he said. “No one’s a winner.”

Bowles’ niece, Sara Mooney, expressed frustration that the litigation over Hanson’s death sentence dragged on for decades, calling it an “expensive and ridiculous exercise.”

“Capital punishment is not an effective form of justice when it takes 26 years,” she said.

During last month’s clemency hearing, Hanson expressed remorse for his involvement in the crimes and apologized to the victims’ families.

“I’m not an evil person,” Hanson said via a video link from the prison. “I was caught in a situation I couldn’t control. I can’t change the past, but I would if I could.”

Hanson’s attorneys acknowledged that he participated in the kidnapping and carjacking, but said there was no definitive evidence that he shot and killed Bowles. They painted Hanson as a troubled youth with autism who was controlled and manipulated by the domineering Miller.

Both Oklahoma Atty. Gen. Gentner Drummond and his predecessor, John O’Connor, had sought Hanson’s transfer during President Biden’s administration, but the U.S. Bureau of Prisons denied it, saying the transfer was not in the public interest.

Murphy writes for the Associated Press.

Veteran ABC News correspondent Terry Moran is leaving the network, following his suspension over social media posts that were harshly critical of the Trump White House.

Moran, 65, was suspended Sunday after statements on X that described President Trump and Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller as “world class” haters. He also called Miller “vile.”

Moran, a senior national correspondent for the news division who interviewed Trump in the Oval Office in April, is not a commentator. An ABC News representative said his actions violated editorial standards and his contract was not renewed. He had been with the network since 1997.

“We are at the end of our agreement with Terry Moran and based on his recent post — which was a clear violation of ABC News policies — we have made the decision to not renew,” the representative said in a statement. “At ABC News, we hold all of our reporters to the highest standards of objectivity, fairness and professionalism, and we remain committed to delivering straightforward, trusted journalism.”

Moran’s expulsion from the network is a sign that news organizations are concerned about journalists incurring the wrath of Trump, who has shown a willingness to fight back against his critics in the press. Moran is the first high profile journalist to lose his job over publicly lambasting the president and his aides.

Moran wrote on a now deleted X post that “Miller is a man who is richly endowed with the capacity for hatred. He’s a world-class hater…You can see this just by looking at him because you can see that his hatreds are his spiritual nourishment. He eats his hate.”

Other outlets are getting pummeled by the White House as well, such as PBS and NPR. Trump wants their federal funding ended, calling their programming “left wing propaganda.”

Trump is suing CBS News over a “60 Minutes” interview in October that he claims was deceptively edited to help his 2024 election opponent, then-Vice President Kamala Harris. The suit — an obstacle to CBS parent Paramount Global’s deal to merge with Skydance Media — has gone to a mediator.

ABC News paid $16 million to settle a lawsuit Trump filed over statements by “Good Morning America” co-host George Stephanopoulos, who incorrectly said on air that the president had been liable of rape, when it was sexual abuse. Walt Disney Co. Chief Executive Bob Iger has asked that ABC’s “The View” spend less time talking about Trump, who typically leads the daytime talk show’s hot topics segment.

Former CNN anchor Jim Acosta — who battled Trump in the White House briefing room during the president’s first term — left the network rather than take a midnight time slot that would have lowered his profile considerably. Acosta has since launched his own program on Substack.

Danny Miller joined the Loose Women live from the Emmerdale studio this morning, as he seemingly ‘confirmed’ a return for Robert Sugden during his wedding to John Sugden

It’s set to be a huge week in Emmerdale this week with the wedding of Aaron Dingle and John Sugden. However, we’ve all watched enough soaps by now to know that weddings never come without drama. Aaron actor Danny Miller has ‘confirmed’ it will be the exact same for his.

For weeks, rumours have been spreading that Aaron’s ex husband, and John’s brother, Robert Sugden (Ryan Hawley) would be making his return to the soap. The character was last seen in the soap in 2019 after being written out of the show in an “explosive” storyline involving the death of Lee Posner, his sister Victoria’s rapist.

The character was sentenced to 14 years in jail, but as we know, anything can happen in soap land. Could he be released from jail early? Theories have been flying around, and now Danny seemingly confirmed his return while being grilled by the Loose Women.

Denise Welch wasn’t letting Danny go without speaking about the rumours, as she asked the actor: “Is there likely to be a RobRon rerun?”

A nervous Danny chuckled: “It’s so weird, the line’s just gone down as you’ve asked that question,” as the whole studio burst into laughter. Although he wasn’t giving too much away, Danny assured Emmerdale fans they can expect many surprises during the week.

“What I will say is there are some surprises, whether that happens or not, I don’t know. But certainly what I can say is that originally when this idea was pitched and thought about, Robert, whoever that is, wasn’t part of the plan.”

Danny then seemingly confirmed he was now part of the plan as he continued: “But..” before stopping. He then continued: “You’ll just have to wait and see. That’s the idea of me being here. Otherwise it would be boring if I told you either way.”

Danny then laughed: “I can’t remember.” However, nothing was getting past Janet Street-Porter, as she responded: “It’s obvious! This storyline is so complicated your getting confused yourself.”

The star recently announced that his wife Steph was expecting their third baby, as he told the Loose Women: “We’re so lucky. We had days where we thought we’d never have a baby and now we’ve got three.

“Steph is the most amazing mum and amazing wife. I’m very lucky to have her.”

Emmerdale airs weeknights at 7:30pm on ITV1 and ITVX, with an hour-long episode on Thursdays.

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Orange County Dist. Atty. Todd Spitzer appeared at a civil trial this week and denied claims he retaliated against a former executive and whistleblower who sought to protect female prosecutors who were sexually harassed in the D.A.’s office.

In a lawsuit filed against the county by former senior assistant Dist. Atty. Tracy Miller, at one point the highest-ranking woman in the prosecutors office, Spitzer and others are accused of retaliation and trying to force Miller out of her job after she questioned Spitzer’s actions as D.A. Those actions included his handling of allegations that a male superior, who was also the best man at Spitzer’s wedding, sexually harassed young female prosecutors.

Spitzer denied the accusations during hours of testimony that became at times tense and emotional. In a San Diego courtroom this week, Spitzer acknowledged deep tensions within the D.A.’s office following his 2018 election victory over former Orange County Dist. Atty. Tony Rackauckas.

Spitzer, who appeared to wipe away tears during his testimony, told jurors he believed he was walking “in the lions’ den” after winning the election and expected opposition from employees who had worked for Rackauckas.

“I knew it was going to be miserable, and it was miserable,” Spitzer said, his voice cracking.

In her lawsuit, Miller alleges that Spitzer and former chief assistant Dist. Atty. Shawn Nelson — who is now an Orange County Superior Court Judge — forced the prosecutor out through “purposeful and intentional retaliation.” The reason for this, Miller alleges, is that she was protecting female subordinates who had reported sexual misconduct by a male superior, Gary LoGalbo, who is now deceased.

“Miller was punished for refusing to allow Spitzer to lionize the predator, gaslight, and further savage the reputation of the victims,” her lawsuit says.

According to the suit, Miller had also raised concerns about Spitzer’s handling of the D.A.’s office, including worries that Spitzer had violated the Racial Justice Act by bringing up questions of race while trying to determine whether or not to seek the death penalty against a Black defendant. She also claimed that Spitzer considered a prosecutor’s race in assignments and that he had possibly undermined a homicide case.

But it was the allegations of sexual harassment against LoGalbo, a former friend and roommate of Spitzer’s, that plaintiff attorneys say most threatened Spitzer’s leadership and prompted him to target Miller.

“[Spitzer] knew that if this was believed, the (district attorney’s) office would suffer one of the worst scandals ever,” said John Barnett, an attorney representing Miller during his opening statement Monday. “He punished (Miller) for protecting one of her young prosecutors.”

Attorneys representing the county, as well as Spitzer and Nelson, argue that the men wanted Miller to stay in the prosecutor’s office and valued her experience, pointing out they promoted four women to top positions due to her recommendations.

Defense Attorney Tracey Kennedy argued during her opening statement Monday that even though LoGalbo had been friends with Spitzer years ago, the relationship had changed by the time the allegations were raised.

“(Spitzer) had no reason to protect Mr. LoGalbo at the expense of the Orange County DA’s office, and the expense of his career,” Kennedy said.

Instead, she said, Spitzer and Nelson had set out to make much needed reforms for the office.

“They had a mission to change the D.A.’s office,” she said.

The county investigation substantiated the sexual harassment allegations against LoGalbo, but an April 2021 report found that allegations of retaliation were unsubstantiated because no actions were taken against the employees.

Much of Spitzer’s time on the witness stand Tuesday centered on his role in the LoGalbo investigation, and what appeared to be differing versions of what occurred. At one point during questioning, Spitzer disclosed that the version of events he gave the county’s investigator during the internal probe — about a highly scrutinized private meeting with a supervisor — had been “inaccurate.”

Chris Duff, a former senior deputy district attorney, had told the county investigator that Spitzer met with him in the law library of a Westminster courthouse in January 2021 and instructed him to write up one of the sexual harassment victims in her upcoming evaluation for being “untruthful.” Duff said he refused to do so, according to a report of the internal investigation.

Spitzer initially denied discussing the evaluation during the meeting and told the investigator, Elisabeth Frater, that he “never said that” to Duff because he didn’t want anything “to be perceived in any way whatsoever that we were retaliating against her.”

But in court this week, Spitzer offered a different version of events.

“What I told Frater was inaccurate,” Spitzer said, adding that he did discuss concerns he had about the female prosecutor’s honesty regarding an email she wrote. “I did talk to Duff about that.”

But Spitzer maintained his concerns were about the prosecutor’s veracity, and not about the claims she had raised against LoGalbo.

After Duff met with Spitzer, Miller sent a note to Spitzer telling the district attorney she was aware of the conversation, and arguing against writing up the female prosecutor.

During his testimony, Spitzer said that he was disappointed with Miller, and that she had not gone directly to him with her concerns about various issues.

At one point, Spitzer said, he had grown to wonder why Miller would take notes during executive meetings.

“You could see anytime a subject came up, Tracy was taking notes about our meetings,” Spitzer said. “There was a point of time where it was very curious to me, why do you seem to be memorializing everything we’re doing?”

When he was first elected in 2018, Spitzer said he believed he was walking “in the lions’ den” and expected opposition from his direct reports. For that reason, he said, he chose Shawn Nelson to be his number two.

“I picked him because I was going into battle, in the lions’ den,” Spitzer said.

Miller’s lawsuit is just the latest in a series of troubles that have recently hit the district attorney’s office, including allegations of retaliation raised by top prosecutors and investigators in the office.

The county is also facing eight sexual harassment lawsuits involving allegations against LoGalbo.

In March, a now-retired investigator of the office also sent letters to the California attorney general, the U.S. Department of Justice, the State Bar of California, and other agencies to investigate Spitzer and other top officials at the prosecutor’s office.