I’m going to start this story on a quiet tree-lined street in Mar Vista, where a couple I met with on Thursday — the day after the L.A. mayoral debate — have a problem.
It’s not an unusual matter, as things go in Los Angeles. On both sides of the street, the sidewalk rises and falls, uprooted and cracked by shallow roots because over many decades, the trees were not properly maintained.
John Coanda, 61, who grew up in Los Angeles, was never bothered by torn-up sidewalks as a kid.
“In fact,” he said when he first emailed me about his predicament, “my friends and I sometimes used the ramping pavement as jumps for our bicycles.”
But his wife, Barbara, was diagnosed in 2024 with ALS, and she uses a wheelchair. When John pushes her, they can’t use the sidewalk if they want to go to the store or meet with friends, or just enjoy a nice pass through the neighborhood without getting into a vehicle.
So John pushes Barbara’s wheelchair in the street, which creates an obvious safety problem. And despite John’s best efforts to get City Hall to fix the sidewalks, he’s not expecting help anytime soon.
I’ll circle back to this story in a bit, but first, about that debate.
I recruited a half-dozen L.A. residents to watch and send me their thoughts about how the candidates tackled the important issues. And then I felt guilty for having done so, because the candidates didn’t do much tackling at all.
Candidate Spencer Pratt is shown on a television while journalists work during the 2026 Los Angeles mayoral debate at Skirball Cultural Center.
(Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times)
They hit their talking points, for sure, and Mayor Karen Bass, Councilmember Nithya Raman and TV personality Spencer Pratt each had their moments. But by the end of the debate, and two straight nights of gubernatorial debates as well, I came away thinking there were no clear winners, but there was a definite loser.
Voters.
This is the fault of the format more than of the candidates themselves. The deck is stacked against meaningful, substantive discussions, especially when moderators ask — as they did several times — for one-word answers.
“Moderator questions are so meaningless … and they make it easy for candidates to take potshots at each other,” said longtime political sage Darry Sragow. “The format is guaranteed to elicit nothing that matters.”
It’d be better to have single-issue debates, and to have candidates pressed for details by journalists who cover those issues and can push back against unrealistic promises and expose a lack of depth.
My debate watchers did some of that themselves. CSUN librarian Yi Ding had praise and criticism for each candidate, but was looking for concrete plans and didn’t get many.
Ding was also disappointed that two other mayoral candidates — Ray Huang and Adam Miller — were not invited to the debate, and I agree with her. Both have been polling low, but with so many undecided voters, and such high unfavorability ratings for Bass, they should have been in the mix.
Mike Washington, a retired pharmacist and West Adams resident, said Bass has done better than previous mayors on homelessness and he didn’t think Raman or Pratt came off as worthy of bumping her out of City Hall.
“The public would have benefited from more questions related to the challenges young people are facing,” said Juan Solorio Jr., president of the San Fernando Valley Young Democrats club. His colleague David Ramirez agreed, saying he was hoping for “more discussion about the cost of living for young adults,” but he and Solorio are both backing Bass.
West L.A. software developer Mike Eveloff asked the million-dollar question in one of his many observations during the debate:
“Why is LA spending record amounts on homelessness, fire, police, and infrastructure while results deteriorate? Streets and sidewalks crumble. Even the city emblem right in front of City Hall is deteriorated. With the World Cup and Olympics approaching, voters need to know: Do these leaders have the financial discipline and operational competence to manage a fourteen billion dollar city?”
Venice resident Dennis Hathaway, author of “An Octogenarian’s Journal,” said he thinks “these kinds of debates are pretty non-edifying.” And, as someone I wrote about two years ago regarding busted sidewalks in his neighborhood, he shared this lament about Thursday’s debate:
“No mention of broken sidewalks, potholed streets, other deteriorated infrastructure. To me, that’s a much more important subject than non-citizens voting in city elections.”
(Bass did say during the debate that there was a new infrastucture plan in place, and that’s a step in the right direction. But there was no discussion, and when you read the details, 2028 Olympics projects will be prioritized, and it’ll take years to figure out how to fund thousands of additional much-needed fixes.)
The Coandas live not far from Hathaway, and their lives have been upended first by Barbara’s diagnosis and then by John getting laid off in February from his job as a data analyst. Barbara still teaches French via Zoom, and John is tending to her needs. They started a Gofundme campaign to help pay their bills.
With Barbara in a wheelchair, John contacted the city’s Safe Sidewalks L.A. program last fall, and I think it’s fair to say that name is somewhere between a misnomer and a bad joke.
The “program” responded by email on Halloween, appropriately enough, informing him that under the City Council-approved “Sidewalk Repair Program Prioritization and Scoring System,” his request for help merits only 15 points out of a possible 45.
“Currently,” he was informed, “the estimated wait time for completion of an Access Request with a score of 15 is in excess of 10 years.”
Happy Halloween.
Over the years, responsibility for sidewalk repairs has shifted between the city and homeowners. There’s a rebate program available to people who repair their own sidewalks, but it’s capped at an amount that doesn’t always cover the costs. And ruptured pavement is keeping lots of lawyers busy with trip-and-fall lawsuits that cost the city millions each year.
Barbara Durieux Coanda, who has ALS, and her husband, John Coanda, make their way down the ramp in front of their home in Mar Vista.
(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)
Coanda told me he doesn’t have the funds at the moment to pay for repairs, and even if he did, there are several more sidewalk disaster zones on both sides of his street, so he’d still have to push his wife’s wheelchair in the street even if he fixed the cracks in front of his own house.
Barbara graciously said she thinks the city has other, higher priorities, but in November her husband contacted the office of Councilmember Traci Park, saying he was told that he would have to wait 10 years for repairs.
“Sadly,” he wrote, “I don’t think my wife will live that long.”
A Park staffer wrote back, saying, “The turnaround time does sound realistic given the budgetary crisis the city finds itself in.” But, the staffer added, maybe the council member’s office could “help move the needle on this request.”
Coanda said he’s been too busy with his wife’s issues to follow up. But Pete Brown, Park’s communications director, told me Friday afternoon that the office is exploring ways to pay for fixes that don’t take 10 years, including the use of discretionary funds.
I don’t know how that might play out, but I do know that L.A. doesn’t need another debate like the last one.
We need a mayor and council members who refuse to accept that it takes 10 years to create safe passage for a wheelchair.
In the national capital of broken sidewalks, we need concrete plans.
Kyle Loftis, who started filming street racing with a point-and-shoot camera and went on to become a pioneer in car culture media, has died, his company confirmed Wednesday. He was 43.
“We are extremely saddened to share that Kyle Loftis, the founder of 1320video, passed away last night,” the company wrote in a statement posted on social media. “We are in a state of shock.”
No cause of death has been disclosed.
The Sarpy County Sheriff’s Office and Gretna Fire Department in Nebraska responded to Loftis’ home Tuesday night, a spokesperson for the sheriff’s office said in a statement emailed to The Times.
“Loftis was declared deceased; his death is not suspicious,” the spokesperson wrote. “Out of respect for privacy, we will not be releasing further details.”
According to his LinkedIn page, Loftis attended the University of Nebraska at Omaha from 2000-2005 and earned a bachelor’s degree in management of information systems.
It was there, Loftis said in a 2023 video on his company’s YouTube channel, that his interests in car stereos and photography evolved into a passion for street racing — in particular, capturing races in still photos and on video and making that media available to fans.
“I’m a hardcore ‘car nut’ that’s taken his love for cars and turned it into the most amazing ‘job’ of my life,” Loftis wrote on LinkedIn. “Through my business, 1320Video, I’m able to experience the craziest & best automotive events (fitting my tastes) and share them with millions of people around the world!”
Back in the early days, Loftis posted his work on message boards and sold it on DVDs. For nearly 10 years after college, he worked for PayPal while building his motorsports media business on his own time. He dedicated himself to 1320Video full time starting in January 2015.
Currently, 1320Video has nearly 4 million subscribers on YouTube, more than 6 million followers on Facebook and nearly 3 million followers on Instagram.
“Kyle’s passion for motorsports inspired millions of people around the world and we will never forget what he has done to grow our beloved sport,” 1320Video wrote. “Kyle was a beam of light at every gathering… his enthusiasm, kindness, and creativeness was contagious.
“Let us pray that Kyle is in a better place.”
Garrett Mitchell — the YouTuber and stock car racer known as Cleetus McFarland — posted a tribute to his longtime friend on Facebook.
“Completely shocked about the loss of Kyle,” Mitchell wrote. “The most influential person on my life. We’re crushed. Please pray for his Mother and close friends, they need it most.”
The Humboldt County Office of Elections made an unnerving discovery Monday: a stack of 596 sealed ballots from the most recent election left at the bottom of a locked voting drop box.
The uncounted ballots would not have affected the outcome of the November statewide special election for Proposition 50, the county office said in a news release Wednesday. However, officials said they’re working hard to have all the votes legally counted.
The office discovered that the ballots were uncounted because of a staff error. When workers checked the drop box, there was a miscommunication about whether it had been fully emptied, the office said.
“That outcome is unacceptable and runs counter to the core of what this office stands for,” Juan Pablo Cervantes, county clerk-recorder and registrar of voters, said in a statement. “While the mistake occurred after an election worker did not follow proper procedures, the responsibility for what happened ultimately sits with me.”
After the ballots were discovered, elections staff confirmed that the sealed ballots had not been tampered with, and they worked with the California secretary of state to determine next steps. Under California law, the ballots should have been counted before the election was certified on Dec. 5 and destroyed six months later.
The Office of Elections said it had altered its protocols to ensure such a mistake does not take place again, implementing a new “lock out, tag out” procedure to ensure each drop box is empty and secured before election results are finalized.
“I promise you that we are taking this seriously,” Cervantes said. “We will strengthen our processes and continue pushing toward the standard our community expects and deserves.”
The discovery comes as California continues to be under a microscope for allegations of voter fraud.
Within minutes of polls opening for California’s special election in November, President Trump took to Truth Social to claim that the Proposition 50 vote — which redrew several congressional districts to favor Democratic candidates — was rigged.
“The Unconstitutional Redistricting Vote in California is a GIANT SCAM in that the entire process, in particular the Voting itself, is RIGGED,” Trump wrote.
When asked later that day to explain Trump’s claims on how the election was allegedly rigged, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said California has “a universal mail-in voting system, which we know is ripe for fraud.” She also accused the state of counting ballots from undocumented immigrants.
Elections officials and Democratic leaders including Gov. Gavin Newsom decried those claims as baseless. “The bottom line is California elections have been validated by the courts,” California Secretary of State Shirley Weber said in a November statement.
More recently, Republican gubernatorial candidate Chad Bianco has drawn scrutiny for using his position as Riverside County sheriff to seize some 650,000 ballots in the county to determine whether they were fraudulently counted. Critics decried the move as another attempt by Republican election deniers to disenfranchise voters.
Humboldt County, which encompasses 4,052 square miles of rural California below the Oregon border, has largely avoided election-related turmoil in recent years. In 2008, however, Humboldt election officials discovered that software they used to tally votes had failed to count 197 ballots from one precinct.
PORTSMOUTH, Va. — The FBI searched the Virginia state Senate leader’s office on Wednesday as part of a corruption investigation, a person familiar with the matter said. Federal agents also were seen at the senator’s nearby cannabis business.
The search at Virginia Sen. L. Louise Lucas’s district office in Portsmouth comes after the Democrat helped lead the state’s recent redistricting effort.
The FBI said only that it was conducting a court-authorized search warrant in Portsmouth. The person who confirmed the FBI’s search was not authorized to discuss an ongoing investigation by name and spoke to the Associated Press on condition of anonymity.
Besides the search at Lucas’ office, agents in FBI T-shirts also went into the nearby Cannabis Outlet, which she opened in 2021. Several entrances to its cannabis store parking lot were blocked by unmarked vehicles with flashing blue lights.
Lucas — a prominent backer of legalizing marijuana — has said the store sells legal hemp and CBD products. It has drawn scrutiny from local media amid allegations that some products were mislabeled.
Virginia has legalized pot possession, but retail sales of recreational marijuana remain illegal in the state.
A message seeking comment was left Wednesday on a cellphone for Lucas, who has been a state senator for 34 years.
State House Speaker Don Scott said he was deeply concerned by the FBI search.
“Right now, there is far more theatrics and speculation than actual information available to the public,” Scott, a Democrat, said in a statement, adding that more facts were needed “before anyone rushes to political conclusions.”
Gov. Abigail Spanberger declined to comment. Some other Virginia Democrats were quick to note that the search comes as the FBI and Justice Department have opened a spate of politically charged investigations into perceived adversaries of President Trump.
The context “must be acknowledged,” U.S. Rep. Bobby Scott said in a social media post.
Last week, the Justice Department charged former FBI Director James Comey with making a threatening Instagram post against Trump, an accusation that Comey — who for nearly a decade has drawn the president’s ire — has denied. A separate mortgage fraud case, ultimately dismissed by a court, targeted Democratic New York Atty. Gen. Letitia James, who had brought a major civil fraud lawsuit against Trump and his business.
The FBI and Justice Department have also provoked concerns among Democrats about ongoing election-related investigations, including the seizure by agents of ballots and other information from Fulton County, Ga.
Lucas has been a vocal leader of Virginia’s redistricting effort, which voters approved last month. A sign urging people to “vote yes” to “stop the MAGA power grab” still hung Wednesday on a fence separating her office’s parking lot from the parking for the cannabis shop.
Amid a national, state-by-state partisan redistricting fight kicked off by Trump’s desire to aid his fellow Republicans, Virginia voters OK’d a Democrat-backed constitutional amendment authorizing new U.S. House districts. The plan could help the party win up to four additional seats.
“We are not going to let anyone tilt the system without a response,” Lucas said after the vote. Trump, meanwhile, denounced the results.
The state Supreme Court let the referendum proceed but has yet to rule whether the effort is legal. The court is considering an appeal of a lower-court judge’s ruling that the amendment is invalid because lawmakers violated procedural requirements.
Voting districts typically are redrawn once a decade, after each census. But Trump last year urged Texas Republicans to redraw House districts to give the GOP an edge in the midterms. California Democrats reciprocated, and redistricting efforts soon cascaded across states.
Lucas, 82, has been a figure in Virginia politics since the 1980s, when she became the first Black woman elected to a City Council seat in her native Portsmouth. She now is the first woman and first African American to serve as the body’s president pro tempore.
Earlier in life, she was the Norfolk Naval Shipyard’s first female shipfitter, according to her biography in the state library. The job entails making, installing and repairing sometimes enormous metal assemblies for vessels.
In recent years, she has been the chief executive of a Portsmouth business that runs residences, day programs and transportation for intellectually disabled adults.
Tucker, Breed and Peltz write for the Associated Press. AP writers Dylan Lovan in Louisville, Ky.; Jake Offenhartz in New York; and Claudia Lauder in Philadelphia contributed to this report.
The internet’s most controversial looksmaxxer is in hot water again.
Clavicular, born Braden Eric Peters, has been charged in Florida’s Miami-Dade County in connection with a video that circulated on social media showing an alligator, which appeared to be dead already, being shot repeatedly in the Everglades. Two others are also facing charges in connection with the incident: Andrew Morales, 22, known online by the moniker “Cuban Tarzan,” and Yabdiel Anibal Cotto Torres, 26, who goes by “Baby Alien.”
Peters is facing a misdemeanor charge of unlawfully discharging a firearm in a public place, according to court records obtained by The Times. The Miami-Dade state attorney’s office filed the charges April 29.
Steven Kramer and Jeffrey Neiman, attorneys for Peters, told The Times in a text message, “Our client has been summoned to appear for a misdemeanor charge that stems from following the instructions of a licensed airboat guide. He relied on that guidance. No animals or people were harmed. We are confident that once the full picture is understood, people will see this for what it is.”
The shooting took place at the Everglades and Francis S. Taylor Wildlife Management Area boat ramp dock on or about March 26, court records said. The video shows the men aboard an airboat firing at the alligator more than a dozen times.
“Yeah, it’s definitely dead,” Peters is heard saying after firing.
Shortly after the video went live on social media, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission announced it had launched an investigation into the incident.
“Florida’s wildlife and waterways deserve respect, not content farming,” Lt. Gov. Jay Collins said March 26 on X. “Under my watch, anyone who abuses wildlife in Florida will be held accountable to the fullest extent of the law.”
Morales’ attorney Richard Cooper emailed The Times a statement Wednesday. “We urge the public not to rush to judgment. Importantly, there is no allegation that any animal was injured, and the available evidence does not support the sensationalized narrative that has circulated online,” the statement read. “My client relied on information and guidance provided by those in authority and had no criminal intent.”
The same week Peters’ alligator video caught the authorities’ attention, the manosphere influencer was arrested on suspicion of misdemeanor battery. He was taken into custody on a warrant issued by the Osceola County Sheriff’s Office and released soon after on bond. Police allege that in February the 20-year-old internet celebrity instigated a fight between his girlfriend, Violet Lentz, 24, and a 19-year-old influencer at a Kissimmee, Fla., short-term rental. That incident was also live streamed to his hundreds of thousands of followers.
Then in April, Peters was live streaming from a Miami nightclub when he appeared to overdose on camera. In the video, Peters is seen taking a swig of an unknown substance and then subsequently starting to mumble, sway and close his eyes as the camera panned away.
TMZ obtained the audio from a 911 call alerting emergency services to the possible overdose of a 20-year-old man. Additional videos, taken by bystanders, showed Peters being carried out of the nightclub.
A source close to Peters told The Times that he was hospitalized for the overdose and checked himself out the following morning. Within hours of his release from the hospital, he was back on streaming platform Kick and telling his followers he would be out at a nightclub that night to promote its grand opening.
Three of the leading candidates for Los Angeles mayor — incumbent Karen Bass, Councilmember Nithya Raman and reality television personality Spencer Pratt — will share the stage for a debate Wednesday evening.
The hour-long forum, broadcast on NBC4 and Telemundo 52, will be held at the Skirball Cultural Center in Brentwood starting at 5 p.m.
The debate will also air online at nbcla.com and telemundo52.com and be available via streaming channels on platforms like Amazon Fire TV, Roku and Samsung TV Plus.
Voters have already been mailed their ballots for the June 2 primary election, which can be returned by mail or at designated drop box locations. In-person voting is already open at the county’s Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk’s office in Norwalk, and will expand to county Vote Centers starting May 23.
Wednesday’s debate will be moderated by anchor Colleen Williams and political reporter Conan Nolan of KNBC-TV, and anchor Enrique Chiabra of Telemundo 52. The debate is held in partnership with Loyola Marymount University and the Skirball Cultural Center.
Guatemalan Attorney General Consuelo Porras arrives April 9 at the Nominating Commission in Guatemala City, Guatemala, for an interview as part of the selection process for attorney general and head of the Public Prosecutor’s Office from 2026 to 2030. She lacked support for another term. Photo by Alex Cruz/EPA
May 6 (UPI) — Consuelo Porras, Guatemala’s attorney general, will leave office May 17 after years of confrontation with President Bernardo Arévalo.
Porras is ending an eight-year term that began in 2018 under sanctions imposed by the United States, the European Union and more than 40 countries that accused her of corruption and undermining democracy by attempting to interfere with the results of Guatemala’s 2023 presidential election.
The relationship between Porras and Arévalo was marked by open confrontation and institutional hostility since the president’s electoral victory in 2023.
Arévalo repeatedly accused Porras of leading an “attempted coup” through judicial investigations aimed at dismantling Semilla, the political party that brought him to power, and blocking his inauguration. Porras defended her actions as enforcement of the law.
After taking office, Arévalo sought to remove her through legal reforms and public meetings that she refused to attend, deepening a political crisis in which the executive branch and the Public Ministry operated as opposing forces until the end of her tenure.
Arévalo announced Tuesday that he had officially appointed attorney Gabriel García Luna to lead the Public Ministry for the 2026-2030 term.
Este es un momento de grandes decisiones.
Que este sea el inicio de una nueva etapa de justicia. El pueblo lo exige y lo merece. pic.twitter.com/OuZK5FpAMt— Bernardo Arévalo (@BArevalodeLeon) May 6, 2026
While announcing the appointment, Arévalo said the decision was intended to mark the beginning of a “new stage of justice” in response to demands from the Guatemalan people.
The president said the Public Ministry requires leadership capable of “rescuing” the institution and strengthening its independence. He added that the new attorney general would not serve the interests of the government or “particular or spurious political interests,” but instead guarantee impartial justice.
According to reports by Guatemalan newspaper Prensa Libre and Argentine outlet Infobae, Arévalo justified his choice by saying the country needs officials capable of rebuilding judicial institutions after years of crisis.
Porras attempted to seek a third term, but failed to secure enough votes from the nominating commission to reach the final shortlist of six candidates presented to the president.
Before leaving office, she also unsuccessfully sought a seat on Guatemala’s Constitutional Court, a position that would have granted her immunity from possible future legal proceedings.
Among the most serious allegations she could face is a criminal complaint related to her alleged connection to a network of illegal adoptions of Indigenous children during the 1980s. United Nations experts have already called for independent investigations into the case.
Civil society organizations have also documented at least 16 alleged cases involving misuse of the criminal justice system, including political persecution against the Semilla party, journalists and judicial officials.
Although Guatemala’s current Supreme Court blocked several attempts to strip Porras of immunity while she remained in office, her departure could allow the next attorney general to reopen those complaints and launch additional investigations into alleged obstruction of justice and corruption during her administration.
U.S. sanctions mainly involved the revocation of her visa and a permanent ban on entering the country for both her and her husband after she was designated a “corrupt and anti-democratic actor” under the Engel List.
The U.S. Engel List is a State Department-mandated public sanctions list that names foreign individuals from Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, and, since 2021, Nicaragua whom the United States determined engaged in significant corruption, undermined democratic institutions or obstructed corruption investigations. Those on the list are barred from entering the United States and have their visas revoked.
That designation later served as the basis for the European Union and Canada to impose harsher sanctions, including the freezing of assets and bank accounts in those jurisdictions, sharply restricting her financial freedom outside Guatemala.
In June 2017, with President Trump newly installed in office for the first time, one of the biggest battles with the administration was about oil. He’d just named the chief executive of Exxon Mobil, Rex Tillerson, as his secretary of State, even though great reporting — in this newspaper among others — had recently shown that the company knew all about, and lied all about, climate change as far back as the 1980s.
Back east, the attorneys general of New York and Massachusetts were trying to take the oil giant on, initiating investigations of the company to try to hold it accountable. Environmental advocates and consumer groups were pressing hard for California Atty. Gen. Kamala Harris to join in, and she seemed to be considering it. Then she left the office to assume her new U.S. Senate seat, and the decision fell to her replacement, Xavier Becerra — now a leading candidate for California governor.
As I wrote in these pages at the time, it was a great test for him, and a great curiosity that he was staying silent, “since the rest of Sacramento is hard at work dealing with climate change.” I was not the only one who noticed. Seventy thousand Californians signed petitions demanding action. Eight California representatives in Congress — including Jared Huffman and Ted Lieu — sent him a letter demanding a “vigorous” inquiry and pointing out that it was particularly important because the newly elected Trump administration was clearly favoring the oil industry. “California has led the world in responding to the dangers of climate change, and we know that it will continue to do so,” they wrote. “You now have a leading role in that effort.” But ultimately Becerra did not have a leading role, or indeed any role at all: He punted, as this editorial page pointed out. What Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) is now trying to do by statute — immunize the big oil companies from prosecution for climate liability — Becerra accomplished by sheer silence.
In the years since, of course, California has paid a huge price for our inaction on climate. Just looking at wildfire, there were of course the great blazes that Los Angeles County will never forget in 2025, but also the 2020 August Complex fire in Humboldt and Mendocino counties, the 2021 Dixie fire up north, the 2017 conflagration across Napa and Sonoma counties, the 2017 Thomas fire in Ventura and Santa Barbara counties, the 2018 Camp fire that devastated Paradise — the list goes sadly on and on and on.
Meanwhile, Big Oil and its friends at Big Utility have racked up huge profits, and Californians have faced ever higher bills. An unhobbled oil industry played a huge role in reelecting Trump in 2024 and in taking us to war with Iran.
And through it all, during his years as attorney general, Becerra did little or nothing to help. As I said all those years ago, it’s a mystery why, though I fear the mystery gets clearer with each campaign funding filing over his long career. As California’s top prosecutor, he took big donations from oil industry giants such as Chevron, and also from energy companies Sempra and Southern California Edison. As a member of Congress, he took larger checks from Pacific Gas and Electric and Edison International.
This time around, as he seeks the governor’s office, Chevron has maxed out its contributions to his campaign, the first time they’ve found a gubernatorial candidate to back in a decade. Meanwhile, across the country, leading progressives have signed a pledge refusing fossil fuel donations. Another gubernatorial contender, Katie Porter, is among them. Needless to say, Becerra is not.
The California chapters of Third Act — a group of Americans over 60 that I helped found — canvassed their members last month and issued an endorsement of Tom Steyer, on the grounds that he had worked hard over the years to address energy and climate issues. Instead of taking money from Big Oil, he’s given money, time and counsel to those of us volunteering in the fight against the industry. In fact, I think that whether one is most concerned about lowering utility bills with clean energy or protecting California’s forests, beaches and insurance rates from the global warming threat, he’d be the most climate-conscious elected official in America.
But Third Act was also founded to help protect our democracy. And that means disconnecting public policy from campaign donations. We need leaders who will do the right thing for us, not for their donors. Steyer has called on Becerra to return his donations from Big Oil. That would be a start, but it doesn’t really make up for the wasted decade we’ll never get back.
Bill McKibben is the founder of Third Act and the author, most recently, of “Here Comes the Sun: A Last Chance for the Climate, a Fresh Chance for Our Civilization.”
Tom Steyer is trying to sell himself to voters as an agent of change.
He has vowed to take on entrenched political and economic forces to create affordable housing, make the wealthy pay more in taxes, lower energy bills and protect the environment.
But perhaps the biggest change he is selling is his own.
The hedge-fund billionaire turned climate activist has faced criticism throughout his campaign for past investments in coal plants and private prisons, to name a few, that helped build his fortune and gave him the means to spend more than $150 million of his own money in his quest for the governor’s mansion.
Steyer’s prolific spending has blanketed the airwaves with television ads and helped propel him near the top of an unsettled gubernatorial field in the polls.
The 68-year-old San Franciscan has helped put many Democratic candidates in office as one of the party’s biggest political donors in the past two decades, but has never held public office himself.
He spent more than $340 million in the 2020 Democratic presidential primary, but dropped out after placing third in the primary in South Carolina, where he had invested heavily.
There is a long tradition of wealthy, self-funding candidates, and the results are mixed at best. Billionaire Michael Bloomberg spent more than $260 million to win three terms as New York City mayor. But he spent more than $1 billion on a 2020 presidential bid and lasted only four days longer in the race than Steyer. Two years later, real estate developer Rick Caruso spent more than $100 million in an effort to become Los Angeles mayor but lost handily to Karen Bass.
Hoping for a better result in his current race, Steyer has staked out a position as the most progressive candidate in the field — touting an endorsement from the Bernie Sanders-affiliated Our Revolution. He’s picked up other key endorsements, too, from the California Teachers Assn., California Nurses Assn. and numerous environmental groups.
But he faces the challenge of convincing enough liberal voters to support a billionaire with controversial past investments the same year a tax on billionaires, currently enjoying strong support, is poised to be on the November ballot.
“This election is about who you can trust to fight for you,” former Rep. Katie Porter said during an April 22 gubernatorial debate in San Francisco. “One candidate is a billionaire who got rich off polluters and ICE prisons and is now using that money to fund his election.”
Steyer said he understands the broad concerns about his wealth and is willing to vote for the billionaires’ tax in November.
“I know that people are skeptical of billionaires, and I’m skeptical of billionaires,” Steyer said Tuesday in an interview with The Times. “But if you look at this race, I’m the only progressive in the race. I’m the person who’s taking on the corporate special interests.”
He pointed to the millions spent by a super PAC supported by the real estate industry and Pacific Gas & Electric — which Steyer has pledged to break up to bring down utility costs — as evidence that he is the candidate most feared by moneyed interests in the state.
“The companies that are running up the costs are fighting like hell, because that’s how they make their money,” he said. “But somebody’s got to stand up to them.”
The departure of former Rep. Eric Swalwell from the race last month after sexual assault allegations doesn’t appear to have resulted in a major surge of support for Steyer. Rather, it is Xavier Becerra, the former Health and Human Services secretary, who seems to have gained momentum.
But veteran California pollster Mark Baldassare said that he hasn’t counted out Steyer yet.
Tom Steyer, in 2013, as he was campaigning against the Keystone XL oil pipeline.
(David Paul Morris / Bloomberg)
“It would be easy to say that he’s reached his peak, except for the fact that there are so many undecideds and Steyer has so many resources at his disposal,” said Baldassare, the statewide survey director for the Public Policy Institute of California.
Steyer has poured at least $875 million into federal and state political committees since 2010, according to an analysis conducted for The Times by OpenSecrets, and federal and state campaign finance records. That total includes the nearly half a billion dollars he has spent on his two races.
In 2013, Steyer left his investment firm and launched NextGen Climate, a progressive political action group geared toward addressing climate change. He has given nearly $270 million to a super PAC affiliated with the group, which was later renamed NextGen America.
The committee has spent tens of millions of dollars on campaigns opposing fossil fuel interests and supporting progressive candidates, though Steyer’s financial support for the group has decreased as he has run for office.
The billionaire also established his climate bona fides by opposing the Keystone XL pipeline during the Obama administration, which became a national proxy fight over climate policy, and by backing environmental ballot measures in California.
Among them was a $5-million investment in 2010’s “No on Prop. 23” campaign, which defeated a conservative effort to overturn California’s greenhouse gas emission reduction law.
Two years later, Steyer invested about $29.5 million in Proposition 39, a winning measure to recoup money from corporate tax breaks to help pay for clean energy projects.
Privileged upbringing and a ‘desire to compete’
Steyer’s unconventional path to politics began with a privileged upbringing on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. He studied at the elite Buckley School and Philips Exeter Academy before attending college at Yale University, where he captained the men’s soccer team and graduated in 1979.
After a brief stint on Wall Street, he got a master’s degree in business administration at Stanford University, where he met his future wife, Kat Taylor. They wed on the Stanford campus in 1986.
Steyer worked hard — very hard — at making money.
He was one of several “Wall Street Prodigies” featured in a Wall Street Journal profile from the same year he was married.
Steyer’s work began at 5 a.m. in the office and he seldom took days off — he fretted he wouldn’t have time for a honeymoon.
He eschewed the trappings of wealth — driving an eight-year-old Honda — motivated instead by a “desire to compete, excel and keep struggling to do better.”
Steyer began cutting political checks soon after, but his real emergence as a major political donor came during the 2004 presidential campaign, when he pledged to raise more than $100,000 for John Kerry’s campaign and was talked about as a potential political appointee at the U.S. Treasury Department in a Kerry administration.
Steyer hired Kerry to join his sustainable investment company Galvanize in 2024. Steyer stepped down from the company before entering the governor’s race.
The year 2004 was pivotal for another reason.
A group of students at his two alma maters, Yale and Stanford, along with those at a handful of other elite universities, began a campaign to pressure the endowments at their institutions to stop investing with Steyer’s hedge fund, Farallon Capital Management.
They cited concerns about some of the firm’s investments, including a coal burning plant in Indonesia and a joint venture between Farallon and Yale to pump out water from an aquifer in Colorado adjacent to the Great Sand Dunes National Park.
“Stated simply, we do not want our universities to profit from investments that harm other communities,” the students wrote in an open letter to Steyer. “We are concerned about the impact some of Farallon’s recent investments have had.”
Steyer told the students he appreciated “the importance of the issues that you raise,” but defended his firm’s work, saying that it acted “responsibly and ethically.”
Looking back on that time now, Steyer said it was a turning point.
“I think that experience really was a wake-up call to me,” he said. “It’s when I started to very seriously consider leaving Farallon. I really felt like if I was going to be the person with my values, I was going to have to leave and be independent and do what was right.”
Three years later, Steyer and his wife began their initial pivot to public service, opening a bank in Oakland that would cater to low-income customers
Tom Steyer, seeking the Democratic presidential nomination, greets people at an event in Des Moines, Iowa, in 2019.
(Scott Olson / Getty Images)
But this initial venture highlighted the inevitable collision course between Steyer’s burgeoning activism and his firm’s investments.
At an event that year with then-Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums, Steyer and Taylor pledged $1 million in loans to support vulnerable people in Oakland facing foreclosure in the wake of the subprime mortgage crisis.
Left unsaid was the fact that Steyer’s firm had extensive financial ties to San Diego’s Accredited Home Lenders, one of the biggest subprime mortgage lenders in the country.
The transformation to climate activist
Steyer and his wife began writing bigger philanthropic checks and in 2010 took the Giving Pledge, promising to donate at least half of their wealth before they died.
In 2009, they gave $40 million to endow the TomKat Center for Sustainable Energy at Stanford, the first of several multimillion-dollar gifts to Stanford and Yale to support climate-focused ventures. They pledged $7 million to create the Steyer-Taylor Center for Energy Policy and Finance, also at Stanford, in 2010. It closed last year after its endowment came to an end.
And in 2011, the couple donated $25 million to Yale to help establish an Energy Sciences Institute focused on developing sustainable energy solutions.
But even as Steyer undertook his public transformation from investor to climate activist, his firm continued to make decisions out of step with his newfound commitment.
In 2011, for example, the firm purchased 1.8 million shares of BP, a year after the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, in which a BP-operated project dumped nearly 5 million barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico.
Steyer resigned from the firm at the end of 2012, though he still has millions of dollars invested in the firm .
Environmentalists have largely been willing to forgive Steyer’s past investments.
“There’s no question he’d be the most knowledgeable and committed climate advocate that’s ever held really high office in America,” climate activist and author Bill McKibben recently toldPolitico.
While the nonprofit California Environmental Voters hasendorsed both Katie Porter and Tom Steyer in the race, Steyer, in particular, has “taken on Big Oil dollar for dollar, toe to toe, and beaten them,” said Mary Creasman, the group’s chief executive.
“He has made this his career and his investment and his passion, so it’s authentic, and voters see that,” she said.
Leah Stokes, an associate professor of environmental politics at UC Santa Barbara, said she’s impressed by Steyer’s climate track record and progressive campaign platform, noting that he’s been an active presence in California’s climate movement for more than 15 years.
That includes not only his work on ballot initiatives and clean energy technology, but also his focus on biodiversity loss and carbon sequestration at his 1,800-acre TomKat Ranch in Pescadero, where researchers are studying regenerative agriculture.
But Steyer has also played a role in elevating climate into a national political issue — including in the early 2010s when it wasn’t a “politically hot topic,” Stokes said.
“He has been willing to spend an enormous amount of his personal money on elections on climate — whether it’s propositions, whether it’s himself running for president on basically a climate platform, whether it’s the Next Gen giant voter turnout campaign,” she said. “I think he has recognized … that politics is where we have to invest our time if we want to make a difference on the climate crisis.”
Despite concerns raised about Steyer’s early investments into fossil fuels through Farallon, Stokes said she’s more apt to criticize candidates who are taking money from oil companies today, such as Becerra, who accepted a $39,200 donation from Chevron for his gubernatorial campaign.
She was also heartened by the fact that Pacific Gas & Electric has funded a $10-million PAC opposing Steyer, because she said it indicates that he aims to hold utility companies accountable for skyrocketing electricity prices amid soaring profits.
“We could actually have a shot here at having somebody who cares about climate change, who wants to hold utilities accountable, who wants to hold big polluters accountable,” Stokes said. “That would just be transformative.”
Energy costs weigh heavily on voters
Steyer’s focus on climate issues and energy affordability could also be a strategic boon in the governor’s race.
Sixty percent of voters in the state see climate change as a major threat to the country and believe that the government is not doing enough to address it, according to polling from the Public Policy Institute of California.
“Californians connect the dots between what’s going on with extreme climate and wildfires and climate,” said Baldassare, the institute’s survey director.
Recent polling has also shown that voters are very concerned about energy affordability and rising utility costs, with 13% of Americans naming it as the most important financial problem facing their family — a 10-point increase from last year, according to an AprilGallup poll.
Overall, energy costs tied housing costs as the second-biggest concern following the high cost of living, the poll found.
In November, Democrats who campaigned heavily around energy affordabilityswept the field in key races in New Jersey, Virginia and Georgia. Residential electric prices increased nearly 11% between January 2025 and this February, according to the latest available data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
“Voters are supporting candidates who are leaning into these issues,” Creasman said.
Wieder reported from Washington and Smith from Los Angeles.
BATON ROUGE, La. — Louisiana Republicans eliminated an elected position days before an exonerated man who overwhelmingly won the New Orleans-based clerk seat was set to take office.
Republican Gov. Jeff Landry on Thursday quietly signed into law legislation abolishing the long-standing Orleans Parish clerk of criminal court position, according to Louisiana Secretary of State spokesperson Trey Williams.
Republicans say wiping away the office is a consolidation effort meant to make the local judicial system more efficient and cut costs. But Democrats condemn the change as government overreach, arguing that it infringes on a predominantly Black parish’s decision at the polls.
Calvin Duncan, who spent nearly 30 years behind bars for a crime he did not commit, easily won election to the criminal court clerk position in November, beating the incumbent and earning more than two-thirds of the vote. He had been set to take office Monday and has asked a federal judge to allow him to take office as scheduled.
“It’s a sad thing to see the state government repeating what happened to Black public officials during Reconstruction,” Duncan said. “They will do what they do, and I will do whatever I have to do to vindicate the voters of New Orleans and make sure that what happened to me never happens to anybody else.”
Landry did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Duncan, a Democrat whose murder conviction was vacated in 2021 after evidence emerged that police officers lied in court, has vowed to help fix the system that once failed him.
Duncan, 63, and his supporters say he is being targeted by the most powerful Republicans in the state, including those who have denied his innocence, even though Duncan’s name is listed on the National Registry of Exonerations.
“We’re doing something because powerful people don’t like him,” Rep. Mandie Landry, a New Orleans Democrat, told lawmakers during a legislative committee hearing in April. Landry, who is not related to the governor, described the Republican efforts as “atrocious” and worries what they could mean for other elected positions in the state.
Law consolidates two court clerk positions
Republicans say the legislation consolidates the civil and criminal court clerks’ offices in Orleans Parish, putting it in line with all other parishes in the state, which have a single clerk’s office. The civil clerk position would remain and absorb the criminal clerk’s role.
Eliminating the clerk position saves the state about $27,000 and the city $233,000, according to the office of the legislative auditor, which added that the long-term costs of consolidation are “unknown.” The legislation also shifts about $1.17 million in state expenditures to the parish. The civil and criminal court clerks have separate physical offices and different case management systems.
The governor told the Associated Press that eliminating Duncan’s elected office was about improving government efficiency and “cleaning up a system in Orleans Parish that has been plagued by dysfunction and corruption for years.”
The consolidation is part of a broader GOP effort during the ongoing legislative session to overhaul the judiciary in New Orleans — including bills that propose abolishing several other elected judicial positions in the parish. However, those jobs would be eliminated further down the line, allowing officials to serve out their terms.
The bill’s Republican author, Sen. Jay Morris, who represents a district several hours from New Orleans, said the goal was to implement the clerk consolidation before Duncan takes office, preventing him from starting a four-year term. Morris acknowledged that he expects lawsuits to be filed because of this law but believes the change to be constitutional.
“It’s unfortunate for Mr. Duncan, I concede that,” Morris told lawmakers in April. “He seems very nice, but we don’t make policy around here for just one person.”
Concerns of disenfranchisement
Although conversations have revolved around Duncan, many also raise concerns about how the change potentially could disenfranchise voters — a heightened worry in a deeply red state that has been central to efforts to weaken the Voting Rights Act, including the case at issue in a landmark Supreme Court ruling last week. Orleans Parish is a Democratic hub with a predominantly Black electorate.
“Mr. Duncan was elected by 68% of the vote in a city that’s majority African American. This is the will of the people, and what your bill attempts to do is usurp the will of the people,” Rep. Edmond Jordan, a Democrat, told Morris.
Well before the legislation reached the governor’s desk, Duncan said he could see the writing on the wall. Ahead of the outcome, Duncan’s advocates held a ceremonial swearing-in for him. Hundreds of people gathered on the steps of the Orleans Parish criminal courthouse to support him.
Duncan told lawmakers that along the campaign trail last year, he spoke with many people who told him they typically abstain from voting in elections. “Now, this bill tells people exactly what they had believed — that their vote doesn’t count,” he said.
Cline and Brook write for the Associated Press and reported from Baton Rouge, La., and New Orleans, respectively.
Everyone wants to be “The Devil Wears Prada 2,” as the 20-year sequel strutted to an estimated $77 million in the U.S. and Canada in its opening weekend, highlighting the spending power of women moviegoers at the box office.
The film, which returned stars Meryl Streep, Anne Hathaway, Emily Blunt and Stanley Tucci, nudged out Lionsgate’s “Michael” for the domestic top spot at theaters this weekend. In its second outing, the Michael Jackson biopic brought in $54 million, upping its overall North American total to $183.8 million and its cumulative global haul to $423.9 million.
Worldwide, Walt Disney Co.-owned 20th Century Studios’ “The Devil Wears Prada 2” brought in $233.6 million, according to studio estimates. The theatrical revenue, both domestic and worldwide, edged studio expectations. Already, the film has brought in 72% of the total revenue that the original movie made ($326 million).
The 2006 original has become a cult classic, with lines like Streep’s infamous “that’s all” and Tucci’s “gird your loins” now millennial catchphrases. The popularity of that film has continued over time with repeat viewings on cable television and the Disney+ streaming service.
“Nostalgia is a big driving factor for movies like this,” Andrew Cripps, head of theatrical distribution for Walt Disney Studios, said. “It’s just one of those movies that got into the zeitgeist.”
The fashion-forward sequel had a production budget of about $100 million. The film notched a 77% approval rating on aggregator Rotten Tomatoes.
Women comprised the majority of the audience for “The Devil Wears Prada 2” this weekend, representing 71% of moviegoers, according to data from EntTelligence.
The strong showing for “The Devil Wears Prada 2” highlights the spending potential of female moviegoers, who have had few big movies aimed at them in the last few years.
Despite the billion-dollar blockbuster that was “Barbie” in 2023, Hollywood has largely failed to consistently deliver big films targeted to women. That’s led multiple box office analysts and studio executives to note that the industry is leaving money on the table.
In the past, comparable titles to “The Devil Wears Prada 2” would have been 2008’s “Mamma Mia” or the “Sex in the City” film, but those kinds of movies are now few and far between.
“There haven’t been enough movies for females,” Cripps said. “When you can give them a good movie, as long as the movie plays well and I think this one plays brilliantly, there’s a big audience out there.”
Universal Pictures, Nintendo and Illumination’s “The Super Mario Galaxy Movie” continued its run with a third place finish of $12.1 million at the box office this weekend, followed by Amazon MGM Studios’ “Project Hail Mary” in fourth and Neon’s horror flick “Hokum” in fifth, according to Comscore data.
Turkey is one of the most popular destination for British holidaymakers
Holidaymakers heading to Turkey are being warned(Image: Nick Brundle Photography via Getty Images)
The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) is continuing to warn travellers heading to Turkey following the deaths of several British holidaymakers. The FCDO is responsible for issuing regular travel advice covering approximately 226 overseas countries and territories.
FCDO updates include guidance on safety and security, regional risks, health, and much more. Part of its advice for Turkey highlights popular holiday activities that have left people dead or seriously hurt, with the Foreign Office stating: “British nationals have been injured and killed doing extreme sports.
“Only use reputable operators. Make sure you are given full instructions and training before your activity. Make sure your travel insurance covers you for all activities you do. Always read the details of your insurance cover, especially the small print and exclusions on your policy.
“Paragliding is an extreme sport and carries the risk of serious injury or death. British nationals have died or been seriously injured whilst paragliding in Turkey. Make sure you are given full instructions and training before your activity.
“If you are near where paragliding activities take place, be aware that the landing area may be in a public area. Keep a reasonable distance from potential landing zones for your personal safety.”
The guidance further warns that quad biking carries comparable dangers, while jeep safaris have been involved in “a number of reported accidents in recent years”. Turkey remains a firm favourite amongst British holidaymakers, and current guidance advises that you should only purchase alcoholic drinks from licensed shops, bars and hotels, steer clear of homemade spirits, ensure bottle seals are unbroken, and scrutinise labels for poor print quality or spelling mistakes.
Should you or anyone in your travel party fall ill after consuming alcohol, seek emergency medical assistance immediately. FCDO advice reads: “There has been an increase in cases of serious illness caused by alcoholic drinks containing methanol in popular travel destinations around the world. In Turkey, including Ankara and Istanbul, people have died or suffered serious illness after drinking illegally produced local spirits and counterfeit bottles of branded alcohol.
“Even small amounts of methanol can kill. It is not possible to identify methanol in alcoholic drinks by taste or smell. Seek urgent medical attention if you or someone you are travelling with show the signs of methanol poisoning after drinking.”
Visitors to Turkey are also cautioned about the dangers of swimming. The FCDO states: “Every year, people drown in the sea and in swimming pools in Turkey. Always supervise children, even if they can swim or there is a lifeguard present.
“Take care when swimming in the sea. Some beaches may have strong undercurrents. Hidden rocks or shallow depths can cause serious injury or death. Do not dive into unknown water.”
People planning holidays should check that their destionation has no new alerts or warnings
Some areas have a blanket warning, and others may have specific areas that should stay off-limits(Image: Craig Hastings via Getty)
The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) has significantly expanded its ‘red list’ in recent months due to regional escalations, particularly in the Middle East and Eastern Europe. It is important to be aware of which parts of the world pose a greater risk to tourists than others.
While it is not advisable to ignore the Foreign Office’s advice, doing so is likely to invalidate any insurance that travellers have obtained. In most cases, insurers will not cover people who knowingly go against FCDO advice and take risks. If you absolutely must travel to a high-risk area, you may need to look for specialised travel insurance companies that provide specific cover for such scenarios, according to ABTA.
As of April 28, 2026, the following list summarises the countries for which the Foreign Office has specific safety advice for travelling. In some cases, it issues a blanket alert urging people to reconsider visiting countries that are unsafe across all areas. Some areas have partial warnings in place. If people are visiting the area, check the Foreign Office website for the latest updates and warnings.
Countries where the Foreign Office currently advises against all travel:
Afghanistan
Belarus
Burkina Faso
Central African Republic (CAR)
Eritrea
Haiti
Iran
Iraq
Israel
Lebanon
Mali
Niger
Palestine (Occupied Palestinian Territories)
Russia
South Sudan
Sudan (most of the country)
Syria
Ukraine (most of the country)
Yemen
Countries where the Foreign Office advises against all but essential travel:
Bahrain
Cuba (entire island)
Ecuador (coastal provinces)
Egypt (significant parts: Western Desert, North South Sinai)
India (significant parts: Manipur, Pakistan border)
Rhetoric dehumanizing immigrant and Latino communities may appear more open and in-your-face in the current political climate. But that has not been a barrier for Latinos seeking elective office or high-level roles in government.
Voters are choosing an increasing number of nonwhite Hispanic leaders to local elective office — and many of the leaders are the first Latinos to hold their seats. Some political science experts attribute the rise of Latino leadership to years of grassroots organizing, coupled with ongoing demonization of their communities by Trump administration officials and conservative activists.
“That’s the difference now, is that there’s this extra incentive of an unrelenting attack on Latinos across the country,” said Anna Sampaio, an ethnic studies professor at Santa Clara University who specializes in race and gender politics.
There are currently an estimated 7,700 Latino elected officials nationwide, according to data from the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials. That’s up from 6,883 officials in 2020.
Estimated to number as many as 55 million people — 16% of the U.S. population — Latinos are the largest ethnic minority in the country, with politics, interests and priorities as diverse as the national origins represented within their population. But Latinos also are underrepresented as a demographic across elective offices.
Since the beginning of President Trump’s second term, Latino communities have been a target of his hard-line immigration tactics. The feeling of attack doesn’t stop there. From memes shared from the official White House page perpetuating Hispanic stereotypes, a federally led English-only initiative and an anti-diversity, equity and inclusion push have painted a target on Latinos across the country.
It’s all led to more Latinos seeking office to defend their communities and give voice to those who may be afraid to speak out in the current political climate. As a result, legislators have proposed measures that include providing community members with protections against the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, halting the approval of ICE detention centers in their cities, and calling for a stop to ICE funding, among other actions.
Pennsylvania Latino mayor makes history
Lancaster, Pennsylvania, with a roughly 40% Hispanic population, recently elected Jaime Arroyo their first Latino mayor. Arroyo took office in January, after being elected with 85% of the vote.
“I think being the first Latino to be in this role and the first person of color to be mayor of Lancaster City has been exciting,” Arroyo told The Associated Press, adding that he finds it “extremely exciting to lead and represent our community in this role.”
With rhetoric and national policies — such as heightened immigration enforcement — hurting the Latino communities, Arroyo said, diverse representation in government is more important than ever. He also believes that the rise of elected Latino officials over the last couple of years is the result of generations of Latinos being politically active fighting for civil rights.
“We’re starting to see a lot of the fruits of that labor come to fruition,” Arroyo said. “There’s never a perfect time to serve your community, there’s the right time. And I think right now is the right time for a lot of Latinos to step up into these roles, especially with everything that is going on.”
Latino representation expanding in city councils
Many more Latinos made history when they took office in earlier this year.
In Iowa, Rob Barron was sworn in Jan. 12 as the first Latino representative on the Des Moines City Council. Antonio Pacheco was sworn on Jan. 7 to be the first Latino member of the city council in Conyers, Georgia. In Ohio, Eileen Torres became the first Mexican American women to win a city council seat in Lorain. Sabrina Gonzalez also took office there as the first Puerto Rican women to serve.
And in Michigan, Clara Martinez and Deyanira Nevarez Martinez were sworn in Jan. 1 to the Lansing City Council, making the city the first in the U.S. to have a council with majority Latino representation.
Martinez said her election, and that of Nevarez Martinez, makes a bit statement about “what people are truly open to despite the national rhetoric.”
“I think because of the rhetoric that we are having to face and some of the backlash on the national stage, I think that’s just fueled the fire for so many people,” she said.
The Salt Lake City Council also has a Latino majority, with four of seven seats, after Erika Carlsen, the granddaughter of Mexican immigrants, was sworn in on Jan. 5. Carlsen said her success is possible because of current and previous generations that put in the work to create spaces where Latinas were encouraged to take leadership positions.
“I feel like I’m building on early generations of leadership,” Carlsen said. “That’s both an honor and responsibility to improve Salt Lake City for the people who live here.”
Carlsen said even if representation at the federal level is not high or visible she said having representation at the local level can have a huge impact.
“I think that it’s critically important that we continue to build on this momentum,” Carlsen said. “The majority of change that can happen starts locally, it doesn’t start in Washington but in City Hall, school boards and neighborhoods conversations. That’s the kind of momentum I’d love to see all across the United States.”
Carolina Welles, executive director of The First Ask, an organization that supports first-time female candidates at the state level, said the reason why Latino representation is more visible at the local level is because those leaders are able to built trust with their community much easier given their proximity.
“They actually know what people care about,” Welles said. “They have a stake because they are facing similar things.”
Local level Latino leadership builds on state and federal representation
It’s not just at the local level. Latinos are making inroads at the federal level too.
The 119th Congress has 56 Hispanic or Latino members. That shakes out to 10.35% of total membership, according to the Congressional Research Service.
For comparison, there were only 14 Hispanic or Latino members and all were male in the 99th Congress, 40 years ago.
At the start of 2025, there were seven Hispanic U.S. senators. That number decreased to six when then Sen. Marco Rubio resigned to become the Secretary of State, the first Latino to hold the position.
Last year also marked a record for Latinas at the state level. Latinas held 214, or 2.9%, of seats in state legislatures, according to the Center for American Women and Politics. That was up from 192 seats in 2024.
Currently, New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham is the only active Latina governor in the U.S. Only two Latinas have been elected governor in U.S. history, and both were in New Mexico.
In March, Gina Hinojosa won the Democratic nomination for governor, making her the second Latina to win a major party gubernatorial nomination in Texas.
Latinos saw the biggest rise in elected officials during the Trump administration in response to attacks on their fundamental rights, said Sampaio, the Santa Clara University professor. She said that trend is likely to continue as the administration continues its attacks on immigrant communities.
“We’re likely to see more Latinos run for office at the local level, at the state level and even at the national level in response to the attack on simply their existence,” Sampaio said. “It is unwittingly both terrorizing the Latino community as well as mobilizing communities.”
Hold everything. Hollywood’s Lexington Park will not be getting a new playground after all, and that’s both good news and bad news.
To explain, let me take you back to April 15, when I tagged along with Sabine Phillips on her weekly three-hour inspection of the neighborhood’s chronic trash problem. Phillips, a housekeeper by trade, was hired by one of her clients a few years ago to help clean up their streets.
So each Wednesday, Phillips went out on her yellow Huffy cruiser and routinely logged 50 or more illegally dumped items and reported them to the city’s 311 system for pickup. And each Saturday, she filled up to four or five big bags with smaller bits and scraps of debris.
Near the end of my three hours with Phillips, who got help that day from volunteer Keith Johnson, we visited the Lexington pocket park. There were no kids there, and there never are, Phillips said. That’s because of the glass and needles in the sand, drug activity, sporadic violence, gang tags on the slide and homeless camps.
A guy from the Recreation and Parks Department showed up and said the park was in line for a possible upgrade that could cost as much as $300,000. In my April 18 column, I questioned the wisdom of investing in a playground that would remain unsafe unless there was a plan to address all the aforementioned issues.
Nick Barnes-Batista, communications director for L.A. City Councilmember Hugo Soto-Martínez, wrote to tell me his office was unaware of any playground projects planned for that park.
A spokesperson for Recreation and Parks told me that despite what was said by the employee I met in the park, there is no “immediate playground replacement project on the books.” But the department is “working closely” with the councilman’s office “to identify funding sources and to work with the community on broader park improvements and/or uses.”
OK, so it’s good news that taxpayer funds won’t be plowed into a park that could well be lost to the neighborhood almost immediately, due to all the aforementioned problems.
But it’s bad news and sad commentary that a park in the densely populated heart of the city will remain unusable for the foreseeable future.
The more important consideration, though, is the question of what’s being done to prevent the illegal dumping of furniture, mattresses and other items that sit curbside and often end up as the building blocks of new homeless encampments.
There’s a concentration of social service agencies in the neighborhood, said Stefanie Keenan, a longtime neighborhood volunteer and activist. She’s the one who hired her housekeeper to help look after the neighborhood, and she insists there is not enough enforcement of existing laws to address problems that are both a nuisance and a public safety threat, given the crime and all-too-frequent fires.
A woman pushes her walker past debris in Council District 13 in Los Angeles on Friday.
(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)
Soto-Martínez agreed to talk to me about all of this on Friday morning, when he dropped by the Bresee Foundation, a nonprofit with a range of enrichment activities for youngsters and families in the largely low-income immigrant community, as well as homelessness prevention programs. Staff and volunteers, recruited with support from the council office, were about to head into nearby streets with shovels, brooms and trash bags.
Soto-Martínez acknowledged his district’s many challenges, told the gathering that the strength of a community is its people, and thanked them for their service.
The councilman, a former labor leader who joined the growing progressive wing of the L.A. City Council in 2022 with support from the local chapter of Democratic Socialists of America, has three challengers in the June 2 primary (Colter Carlisle, Dylan Kendall and Rich Sarian). He told me the city has to do a better job of educating people about illegal dumping and how to report it. A related challenge, he said, “is how quickly can we get to it. And that is a budget issue because we’ve cut so many positions on trash pickup.”
Soto-Martínez said his office used discretionary funds to hire two crews from the L.A. Conservation Corps for trash pickup. On homelessness, he said, he has a team strategizing to address the needs, and a medical team that works the streets, and a tiny home village is in the works.
But the housing shortage is a major challenge, he said, and when it comes to entrenched homelessness, “we’re now starting to deal with much more difficult cases.” Namely severe mental illness and serious addiction, both of which generally come under county jurisdiction.
“We created another team that goes out every single day. We door-knock, email and phone-bank people who are at risk of eviction,” Soto-Martínez said, adding that homelessness has declined by 25% during his three years in office.
So what is his message to constituents who say they don’t see enough progress?
“We ask them to give us patience and grace,” he said. “There’s a lot of examples like this, where we’re not just dealing with one thing. We’re dealing with four or five things.”
All of that is true, but the patience he asks for is wearing thin among some constituents.
“We need to find common ground and work together,” Soto-Martínez said. “You know, they see trash as an issue, and they’re doing it their way and we’re doing it our way. But how can we team up and do it together? You know, we’re happy to build those networks out, and under many of the issues they describe, I’m not disagreeing. … We all have the same goal.”
L.A. City Councilmember Hugo Soto-Martínez gives a pep talk to volunteers before they leave to clean their neighborhood streets of garbage and debris.
(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)
When Soto-Martínez departed for another appointment, the volunteers took to the streets, filling trash bags. They worked their way up Vermont, and a Bresee employee told me he works the same streets every day, trying to clear a path for “safe passage” as students walk to and from school.
As I said in the earlier column, it’s an inspiration to see people step up for their communities, whether out of pride or frustration. And it’s also reasonable to expect more from City Hall.
I drove over to Western and Sierra Vista, met up with Keenan, and told her about my conversation with Soto-Martínez. She said lax city policies and frequent non-response to citizen pleas for help have created the unsolved problems residents deal with daily. She said city officials have to do a better job of helping homeless people off the streets and preventing further deterioration of neighborhoods.
She was encouraged by a message she got from a representative of Mayor Karen Bass’ office who wants to tour the neighborhood with her.
We walked west on Sierra Vista and came upon a dumped sofa, some cabinets, mattresses, and a man who has been living in a curbside encampment for months. He sat near his belongings, which spilled into the street.
Why hasn’t this been addressed? Keenan wondered aloud. She has decided to stop paying her housekeeper to help address the neighborhood’s needs, and she predicted things will only get worse because of it.
I drove over to the Lexington pocket park, which Soto-Martínez called a priority, among many other priorities. Friday was a holiday — Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day. With schools closed, the park would have been a great little neighborhood asset.
But the entrance was closed, with a lock on the gate, and two tarped dwellings were set up against the iron fencing of the empty park.
Terrorists have attacked at various locations and soldiers are ‘currently engaged in eliminating the attackers’
14:29, 25 Apr 2026Updated 14:53, 25 Apr 2026
Bamako International Airport has closed after the attacks, the Foreign Office said
The Foreign Office this afternoon said people should not travel to Mali after a sderies of attacks today. Officials co-ordinated attacks have struck the country.
Gunmen attacked several locations in Mali’s capital and other cities early on Saturday in a possible co-ordinated assault, residents and authorities said. Mali’s army said in a statement “unidentified armed terrorist groups targeted certain locations and barracks in the capital”. It added that soldiers were “currently engaged in eliminating the attackers”.
The Foreign Office told British citizens today: “A series of coordinated attacks occurred in multiple locations including Kidal, Gao, Kati, Sevare and in the vicinity of Bamako International Airport on 25th April, which has temporarily closed.
“If you are in Mali, you should stay indoors where possible, avoid crowded places and areas of military or police activity, and follow guidance issued by local authorities. We continue to advise against all travel to Mali.”
Previously the Foreign Office told people to only leave via the airport as overland routes are ‘too dangerous.’ It added: “This is due to terrorist attacks along national highways.
“Terrorist group Jama’a Nusrat ul-Islam wa al-Muslimin (JNIM) has implemented blockades on key routes throughout Southern and Western Mali, including the capital city of Bamako. These blockades are targeting fuel trucks and are enforcing checkpoints for individuals attempting to pass through them. Attacks can occur at any time.
“There is a high threat of kidnapping and criminal activity across Mali, including in the capital, Bamako. If you choose to remain in Mali, you do so at your own risk. You should have a personal emergency plan that does not rely on the UK government.
Mali has been plagued by insurgencies fought by affiliates of al Qaida and the so-called Islamic State group, as well as a separatist rebellion in the north.
An Associated Press journalist in the capital Bamako heard sustained heavy weapons and automatic rifle gunfire coming from Modibo Keita International Airport, around 15km (nine miles) from the city centre, and saw a helicopter over nearby neighbourhoods.
The airport is adjacent to an air base used by Mali’s air force. A resident living near the airport also reported gunfire and three helicopters patrolling overhead.
Residents in other cities in Mali reported gunfire and blasts on Saturday morning, suggesting a possible co-ordinated attack by armed groups.
Gunmen entered the northeastern city of Kidal, taking control of some neighbourhoods and leading to gunfire exchanges with the army, a former mayor of Kidal told AP over the phone.
The Azawad separatist movement has been fighting for years to create the state of Azawad in northern Mali. They once drove security forces from the region, before a 2015 peace deal that has since collapsed paved the way for some ex-rebels to be integrated into the Malian military.
Mohamed Elmaouloud Ramadane, a spokesman for the Azawad Liberation Front, said on Facebook its forces had taken control of several areas of Kidal and Gao, another northeastern city. The AP could not independently verify his claim.
A resident of Gao said gunfire and explosions started in the early hours of Saturday and could still be heard in the late morning.
“The force of the explosions is making the doors and windows of my house shake. I’m scared out of my wits,” the resident told AP by phone. He spoke on condition of anonymity. The resident said the gunfire came from the army camp and the airport, which are next to each other.
A resident of Kati, a town near Bamako that is home to Mali’s main military base, also said he was woken up early in the morning by the sounds of gunfire and explosions.
General Assimi Goita, the leader of Mali’s military junta, lives in Kati.
In 2024, an al Qaida-linked group claimed an attack on Bamako’s airport and a military training camp in the capital, killing scores of people.
Mali, alongside neighbouring Niger and Burkina Faso, has long been battling armed groups affiliated with al Qaida and the Islamic State group, a fight that has escalated over the past decade.
Following military coups, the juntas in the three countries have turned from Western allies to Russia for help combating Islamic militants.
But the security situation in Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso has worsened in recent times, analysts say, with a record number of attacks by militants. Government forces have also been accused of killing civilians they suspect of collaborating with militants.
A high number of cases were reported in the last 12 months – with a 5-fold increase in some areas – and 143 deaths
Man applies insect repellent on his hand. Foreign Office is telling people to take precautions when visiting some countries due to yellow fever outbreaks(Image: Getty)
Travellers have been warned about the resurgence of a disease spread by mosquitos with ‘high risk’ in 42 countries. The Foreign Office-backed Travel Health Pro website this week issued an alert over the virus spreading in parts of Africa, Central and South America, and in Trinidad in the Caribbean.
Yellow Fever can cause a serious haemorrhagic illness that can be fatal for humans. Yellow fever vaccination and mosquito bite avoidance are important preventive measures against the disease, officials said. Yellow fevefr virus can cause an illness that results in jaundice , yellowing of the skin and eyes, and bleeding with severe damage to the major organs such as liver, kidneys and heart. The mortality rate is high in those who develop severe disease.
Travel Health Pro said yellow fever is a risk in areas of 13 countries and territories in South and Central America. A high number of cases were reported from this region in 2025, with 346 confirmed human cases (including 143 deaths) from seven countries.
This represents a 5.6-fold increase in cases compared to 2024. Since the beginning of 2026, a total of 41 confirmed cases (including 18 deaths) have been reported from four countries: Bolivia, Colombia, Peru and Venezuela.
In 2024, most yellow fever cases were reported from the Amazon region. Officials said: “While YF cases continue to be reported in this area, cases have since been reported in a wider geographic area, outside the Amazon region. This includes in Sao Paulo State in Brazil and Tolima Department in Colombia. In addition, reports suggest recent human YF cases in Venezuela have occurred in an area that had not previously been considered a risk for YF disease.
“Risk of YF outbreaks in South America remains high. An outbreak in Colombia has been ongoing since mid-2024, with 153 confirmed cases (including 62 deaths) reported. The confirmed reporting of YF cases in a wider geographic area, including cases related to jungle transmission near to urban centres, increases the risk of urban outbreaks [1]. While YF vaccination is one of the most successful public health interventions to prevent YF disease, the COVID-19 pandemic, among other factors, has led to a reduction of YF vaccine cover in the local population.”
It added that yell;ow fever risk countries in Africa continue to report probable and confirmed cases. During 2024, confirmed cases of YF were reported in countries with no recent history of transmission and suboptimal vaccination coverage.
WHO also advise that in some African countries, there may be under-reporting of YF due to surveillance and data collection issues. The risk of YF transmission remains high in endemic areas of Africa. The mosquitoes (Aedes spp.) that transmit YF are common in many urban areas in Africa. This significantly increases the risk of YF spreading, especially in heavily populated areas, which could lead to the rapid onset of YF outbreaks.
Countries with a risk of yellow fever transmission as defined by the World Health Organization
Africa
Angola
Benin
Burkina Faso
Burundi
Cameroon
Central African Republic
Chad*
Congo
Côte d’Ivoire (Ivory Coast)
Democratic Republic of the Congo
Equatorial Guinea
Ethiopia*
Gabon
The Gambia
Ghana
Guinea
Guinea-Bissau
Kenya*
Liberia
Mali*
Mauritania*
Niger*
Nigeria
Senegal
Sierra Leone
South Sudan
Sudan*
Togo
Uganda
Central and South America
Argentina*
Bolivia*
Brazil*
Colombia*
Ecuador*
French Guiana
Guyana
Panama*
Paraguay*
Peru*
Suriname
Trinidad and Tobago*
Venezuela*
*Only some parts of this country have a risk of yellow fever disease. Remaining areas either have low potential for yellow fever transmission or no risk.
Signs and symptoms
YF varies in severity. The infection has an incubation period (time from infected mosquito feeding to symptoms developing) of three to six days. Initial symptoms include myalgia (muscle pain), pyrexia (high temperature), headache, anorexia (lack of appetite), nausea, and vomiting. In many patients there will be improvement in symptoms and gradual recovery three to four days after the onset of symptoms.
Within 24 hours of an apparent recovery, 15 to 25 percent of patients progress to a more serious illness. This takes the form of an acute haemorrhagic fever, in which there may be bleeding from the mouth, eyes, ears, and stomach, pronounced jaundice (yellowing of the skin, from which the disease gets its name), and renal (kidney) damage. The patient develops shock and there is deterioration of major organ function; 20 to 50 percent of patients who develop this form of the disease do not survive [22]. Infection results in lifelong immunity in those who recover.
Spain is the most popular holiday destination for Brits
Millions of Brits head to Spain each year(Image: Terroa via Getty Images)
Now that warmer weather is finally arriving, many of us are casting our eyes towards the summer months and planning holidays. Spain remains the most sought-after destination for British travellers, with millions descending on the European nation each year, eager to soak up the sunshine, lounge on its beaches and sample the local food.
When heading abroad, it’s crucial to familiarise yourself with any local laws or regulations you’ll need to abide by during your stay. And if Spain is on your radar this year, there’s one balcony rule you might not be aware of.
The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) routinely issues travel guidance for Brits venturing to more than 220 countries and territories across the globe. Within its extensive advice for Spain, the FCDO makes specific mention of balconies.
While balconies are great for offering a view and giving guests a spot to unwind in the open air, holidaymakers are expected to conduct themselves appropriately. FCDO guidance for Spain reads: “Hotels and other establishments will evict you if you behave dangerously on balconies. You could also get a fine.”
Those heading to Spain are also reminded that they must produce ID if requested by a police officer. The FCDO adds: “This includes the Guardia Civil and national, regional and local police forces.
“The police have the right to hold you at a police station until they have confirmed your identity. Ignoring direct requests of a police officer can be considered as ‘disobedience’, which is a criminal offence.”
WASHINGTON — The Justice Department has ended its probe into Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell, clearing a major roadblock to the confirmation of his successor, Kevin Warsh.
U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeannine Pirro said on X that her office was ending its probe into the Fed’s extensive building renovations because the Fed’s Inspector General would scrutinize them instead.
The decision ends an investigation, one of several undertaken by the Justice Department into President Trump’s perceived adversaries, that for months had failed to gain traction as prosecutors struggled to articulate a basis to suspect criminal conduct.
A prosecutor handling the case conceded at a closed-door court hearing in March that the government hadn’t yet found any evidence of a crime, and a judge subsequently quashed subpoenas issued to the Federal Reserve. The judge, James Boasberg, said prosecutors had produced “essentially zero evidence” to suspect Powell of a crime. Boasberg prosecutors’ justification for the subpoenas as “thin and unsubstantiated.”
More recently, prosecutors made an unannounced visit to a construction site at the Fed’s headquarters but were turned away, drawing a rebuke from a defense attorney in the case who called the maneuver “not appropriate.”
The move could lead to a swift confirmation vote by the Senate for Warsh, a former top Fed official whom Trump, a Republican, nominated in January to replace Powell, whose term as chair ends May 15. Sen. Thom Tillis, a North Carolina Republican, has said he would oppose Warsh until the investigation was resolved, effectively blocking his confirmation.
Warsh said Tuesday that he never promised the White House that he would cut interest rates, even as the president renewed his calls for the central bank to do so.
“The president never once asked me to commit to any particular interest rate decision, period,” Kevin Warsh, a former top Fed official, said under questioning by the Senate Banking Committee. “Nor would I ever agree to do so if he had. … I will be an independent actor if confirmed as chair of the Federal Reserve.”
Warsh’s comments came just hours after Trump, in an interview on CNBC, was asked if he would be disappointed if Warsh didn’t immediately cut rates and responded, “I would.”
HARRISBURG, Pa. — Pennsylvania’s treasurer refused Thursday to approve payments for more than $1 million in security systems and other upgrades to the private home of Gov. Josh Shapiro, changes that were made after an intruder set fire to the state-owned governor’s residence last year in an attempt to kill the Democrat.
The treasurer, Republican Stacy Garrity, said there is no legal authorization to use taxpayer dollars to reimburse contractors for the security upgrades on private property, even the private home of a governor.
The Pennsylvania State Police submitted the reimbursement requests to the Treasury Department but “appear to have simply ignored the statutory limits and restrictions on spending and procurement,” Garrity said during a news conference in her offices.
The state police agency has other options to get taxpayer dollars to underwrite the work, which has already been done. The agency could ask lawmakers to explicitly authorize the payments or enter the state’s settlement process for disputes between contractors and state agencies, Garrity said.
Shapiro, who is considered a potential top-tier contender for the White House in the 2028 presidential election, is running for reelection this year for a second term as governor. After last year’s attack, he emerged as a prominent voice in condemning political violence.
Garrity is expected to be Shapiro’s main opponent in the fall election. She is both endorsed by the state GOP and uncontested for the GOP nomination in Pennsylvania’s May 19 primary election.
The treasurer said the decision wasn’t political and that “I don’t play these kind of political games.”
But Shapiro’s office blasted Garrity’s decision as a “shameful political action without legal basis” and said the state police was exploring options to ensure it protects its authority and that the contractors get paid.
“The Treasurer should put partisanship aside, follow the law, and show some humanity for a family that has experienced real trauma, the state troopers who protect them every day, and the vendors and workers who the treasurer has now refused to pay,” the governor’s office said in a written statement.
Garrity said the security and well-being of public officials and their families is of the “utmost importance” to her and that “an attack on the governor is an attack on all of us.”
Still, she said, her department does not have the legal authority to issue the payments.
The security upgrades at Shapiro’s home were something of a secret until his administration informed lawmakers about them in a letter last fall. In it, the Cabinet official in charge of state property told lawmakers that “the threat to a high-profile elected official like Governor Shapiro does not end when he leaves the Governor’s Residence.”
State officials haven’t detailed those upgrades, citing safety reasons. Shapiro, his wife and two of his four children still live in the private residence, in Abington, a Philadelphia suburb.
However, plans for a security fence there spawned dueling lawsuits between the Shapiros and a neighbor over who rightfully owns a sliver of land abutting the two properties.
So far, the Treasury Department said Thursday it has paid more than $26 million in security upgrades and remediations at the governor’s state-owned residence in Harrisburg, where the Shapiros often stay. Those renovations included an “anti-climb” iron fence that is much higher than the one scaled by the intruder, Cody Balmer.
Balmer last year pleaded guilty to the attempted murder of Shapiro. Under a plea deal, Balmer was sentenced to 25 to 50 years in prison, far less than he could have faced if the case had gone to trial.
He climbed over a 7-foot iron security fence in the middle of the night, eluded two state troopers stationed at the residence and used beer bottles filled with gasoline to set fire to the residence, just hours after Shapiro had hosted a Passover Seder to celebrate the first night of the Jewish holiday.
The fire forced Shapiro, his wife, children and members of his extended family to flee, as firefighters battled the blaze. The residence, built in the 1960s along the Susquehanna River about 2 miles north of the state Capitol, was badly damaged but has since been renovated.
In the aftermath of a recent data breach that saw hackers make off with a vast trove of confidential police records, Los Angeles leaders have sought an explanation from the city’s top lawyer, whose office was targeted.
What they have gotten so far, according to Councilmember Ysabel Jurado, are answers that only leave more questions.
In an interview, Jurado said she had expected City Atty. Hydee Feldstein Soto to appear before the Government Operations committee this week, but instead had received an internal report offering a “high level view” of the breach that left many key details unaddressed.
“When did the city attorney’s office become aware, what actions were taken, and why were city officials not notified promptly?” Jurado said. “Right now, we’re still left to question and trying to assemble the information.”
The Times reported the existence of the hack last week, prompting further scrutiny by public officials — some of whom, like Jurado, said they hadn’t previously been informed. Since then, The Times has reviewed an inventory of 337,000 files that were compromised.
The documents amount to millions of pages, and appear to mostly come from civil lawsuits against the city that have been resolved in court. They range in nature from trip-and-fall cases to police excessive force.
During a brief discussion at the council committee Tuesday morning, Jurado said she had received information that an internal link used by the city attorney’s office to access the files had been clicked at least 5,000 times on the first day of the breach, which is thought to have occurred sometime in March.
The files were not secured by a password, according to sources who spoke previously with The Times and requested anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the ongoing investigation. A senior police official last week assured the department’s civilian bosses, the Police Commission, that none of the department’s own systems had been compromised.
Jurado said she wanted answers for why and how the city had managed to leave exposed sensitive records, such as medical reports, autopsy photos and witness names.
“It’s just horrific to think that that was out there,” Jurado said.
The city attorney’s office responded to questions from The Times by referring to a public report issued April 17, which said a preliminary investigation indicated that “the incident was contained to that third-party environment, and that no other City applications, systems, or department records were accessed or affected.”
The report noted that the hackers teased “small samples” of the data on its dark web site over a week starting March 20, before publishing the whole thing on March 27. The data were taken down after about eight hours, and then reappeared again twice in early April, the report said.
In a separate letter to the police union, the office said it would begin notifying people whose information was compromised “without unreasonable delay.”
The inventory reviewed by The Times shows personnel files for LAPD officers who were accused of using excessive force against a Black military veteran during a traffic stop in 2021. Another file included the identities of witnesses who saw a man die after LAPD officers knelt on him during an arrest, the records reviewed by The Times showed.
Thousands of hours of uncut body camera footage were released. There were also medical records from thousands of cases in which police and other city employees were accused of misconduct. At least 1,060 of the files are labeled as confidential, the inventory says.
The city attorney’s office has said that it alerted senior LAPD officials and the city’s IT department as soon as they discovered the leak, and has in the weeks since been in regular contact with other city departments to assess the scope of the leak. The FBI has begun investigating the matter.
The situation has already cost Feldstein Soto, who is up for reelection, the endorsement of the powerful union for the LAPD’s rank-and-file officers, which withdrew its support after accusing the city attorney of failing to disclose the full extent of the breach.
The leak follows Feldstein Soto’s efforts to weaken the state’s public records law after the release of many police officer photos and other materials, which she demanded be returned.
Several attorneys whose cases were included in the list of compromised files told The Times they have not yet heard from city officials. Some said they could foresee the records leaked being used as justification to reopen old cases — or initiate new ones.
“I’m curious to know what exactly it is that the city attorney’s office had that they may not have disclosed to us in discovery,” Arnoldo Casillas, an attorney for the family of Eric Rivera, a 20-year-old man whose family sued after he was killed by police in Wilmington in 2017 and whose files are among those included in the leak, according to the inventory reviewed by The Times.
The case was later dismissed, but the family has filed an appeal.
Other attorneys whose lawsuits against the city and LAPD were listed among the hacked materials said they wanted to know exactly what was included in the files.
“You’d think that they would notify [the affected parties] and tell them that they’re working to get their information back,” he said.
Experts said similar cyberattacks on government offices across the country have shown it can take months or years for the dust to fully settle and the full scope of the damage to emerge.
James E. Lee, president of the Identity Theft Resource Center, a nonprofit organization that provides advice and assistance related to identity theft, said last year alone the center documented an all-time high of 3,322 hacks.
That’s almost certainly an undercount, given the number of cases that go undetected or unreported, Lee said. Of the recorded incidents, roughly 165 targeted government agencies — up from 47 in 2020, he said.
In the past, according to Lee, many attacks of government entities were carried out by state-sponsored actors, but the emergence of AI-powered hacking tools have allowed everyday people to carry off such incursions.
“They want data that they can repurpose: anything that’s going to have financial information, anything that’s going to have driver’s license information is going to be very valuable to them,” he said.
Matthew McNicholas, a lawyer who has represented many officers in their lawsuits against the city, said he has fielded numerous calls from clients worried their personnel and medical records were exposed.
The leaked records, the inventory shows, include a case in which McNicholas sued the city on behalf of a victim who said they’d been sexually molested as a minor by an employee at a city-run recreational center.
McNicholas said he is worried that the leak will expose the private information of police whistleblowers who came forward to reveal discrimination and other misconduct.
