Party

At least four people have been killed in a mass shooting at a child’s birthday party in California.

Ten others were injured in the shooting at a restaurant on Saturday evening, in the state’s northern city of Stockton.

Local police say the victims include adults and children. The conditions of the injured have not been confirmed.

A suspect is still on the loose and police say they believe the shooting may have been “targeted”.

The San Joaquin county sheriff’s office said the shooting happened shortly before 18:00 local time (02:00 GMT Sunday), and is appealing to anyone with “information, video footage, or who may have witnessed any part of the incident” to come forward.

Spokesperson Heather Brent described the incident as “unfathomable”, adding: “This is a very active and ongoing investigation, and information remains limited.

“Early indications suggest this may be a targeted incident, and investigators are exploring all possibilities.

Stockton’s Mayor Christina Fugazi called the shooting “unacceptable”.

“Families should be together instead of at the hospital, standing next to their loved one, praying that they survive.”

Authorities have not yet released information about the attacker’s identity or motive behind the attack on a family gathering.

At least four people have been killed and 10 wounded after a shooting during a family gathering in northern California’s Stockton, local authorities said.

The shooting took place at a child’s birthday party, Stockton’s Vice Mayor Jason Lee said in a Facebook post late on Saturday.

“I am in contact with staff and public safety officials to understand exactly what happened, and I will be pushing for answers,” he said.

Heather Brent, a spokesperson for the San Joaquin County sheriff’s office, said the victims included both children and adults.

The shooting occurred inside the banquet hall, which shares a car park with other businesses.

“We can confirm at this time that approximately 14 individuals were struck by gunfire, and four victims have been confirmed deceased,” San Joaquin County Sheriff’s Office said in a post on X.

“This is a very active and ongoing investigation, and information remains limited. Early indications suggest this may be a targeted incident, and investigators are exploring all possibilities.”

Police said they received reports shortly before 6pm (02:00 GMT) of a shooting that occurred near the 1900 block of Lucile Avenue in Stockton.

The authorities have not yet released information about the identity or the motive of the attacker. They did not immediately provide information on the severity of the injuries of the surviving victims.

The office of Governor Gavin Newsom said he has been briefed on the “horrific shooting” in Stockton and will be following up on the evolving situation.

Internal rifts deepen in Corbyn’s Your Party as cofounder Zahra Sultana skips first day of conference amid expulsions from the party.

Veteran British socialist Jeremy Corbyn’s new left-wing political party faced a new crisis after its cofounder, Zarah Sultana, pledged to skip the first day of its inaugural conference.

Corbyn had called for members to “come together” at the opening of the conference on Saturday, with the party seeking to move on from a messy launch and become a viable left-wing challenger to the governing Labour Party.

“As a party, we’ve got to come together and be united because division and disunity will not serve the interests of the people that we want to represent,” Corbyn told the conference in the northwestern English city of Liverpool.

A few hours later, a spokesperson for Sultana said that she would not enter the conference hall on Saturday in protest at one of her supporters being denied entry to the event and several others being expelled from the party over alleged membership of the far-left Socialist Workers Party.

“I’m disappointed to see on the morning of our founding conference, people who have travelled from all over the country, spent a lot of money on their train fare, on hotels, on being able to participate in this conference, being told that they have been expelled,” she told UK’s Press Association news agency.

“That is a culture that is reminiscent of the Labour Party, how there were witch hunts on the eve of conference, how members were treated with contempt.”

Corbyn, 76, and Sultana, 32, both former Labour MPs, have been in frequent dispute since they announced the party in July.

A spokesperson for the new party, currently called Your Party, defended the expulsions.

“Members of another national political party signed up to Your Party in contravention of clearly stated membership rules – and these rules were enforced,” the spokesperson said.

This is the latest blow for a party hoping to make gains on the left as British politics fractures into a multiparty system and Labour moves rightward on some issues.

Two of the four independent MPs who initially signed up later quit over the divisions, which have included a row over a botched membership launch and threats of legal action.

Over the course of the conference, members are set to choose the party’s official name and decide whether it should have a single leader or be led by its members.

California voters, it appears, have tired of peace and freedom–well, of Peace & Freedom, anyway–forcing the one and only Jan B. Tucker to take his leftist politics elsewhere.

Tucker, a Toluca Lake-based private eye and activist for every leftist cause under the sun, was the last hope for the state’s Peace & Freedom Party, which formed in California amid the political upheaval of 1968.

His campaign for state treasurer last year, “Tucker for Treasurer: Politics as Unusual,” represented the best chance for Peace & Freedom to maintain its spot on the state ballot. Tucker had run for governor and president on the Peace & Freedom ticket in previous years, and has a politician’s gift for self-promotion.

But Tucker’s third-party candidacy–which espoused such unorthodox fiscal views as using the power of the state stock portfolio to help break the glass ceiling for women and minorities–failed to ignite the liberal crowd.

He gathered less than 2% of the vote, the amount required for a party to stay on the ballot, and Secretary of State Bill Jones has since announced that Peace & Freedom has gone the way of Nehru jackets and the Age of Aquarius.

Peace & Freedom loyalists could get back on the ballot by increasing the number of voters registered to the party. There is little indication that is going to happen. But Tucker–who is active in the local chapters of the National Organization for Women, the National Assn. for the Advancement of Colored People, a local newspaper guild and an animal-rights organization–isn’t about to give up the fight just yet. He plans to do what any crafty politician would do under the circumstances: adapt.

Tucker is going to team up with another minor party on the left, the Green Party, which, not coincidentally, has been gaining in popularity at the same time Peace & Freedom has been losing it. He believes the leadership of his new party is more grounded in reality.

“The Greens don’t have the ideological baggage and weirdo reputation that the Peace & Freedom Party has,” Tucker said. “It’s hard to be taken seriously when the party leaders stand up at conventions and say, ‘We are the new Bolsheviks.’ I tried to take some new recruits there, and they said, ‘This is “Alice in Wonderland.” ’ “

His next candidacy, he said, will be for U.S. Senate. In the meantime, Tucker says he will urge that his new party try to deal with what he sees as its biggest weakness: lack of minority representation.

“It’s a marriage whose time has come,” he said of his conversion to Green. “I’d like to help the Greens to diversify their ranks, because they need it. Their heart’s in the right place.”

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NO REST: As if Rep. James Rogan (R-Glendale) didn’t have enough liberals angry at him. Now he is being accused of getting in the way of world peace.

Rogan, fresh off his controversial role as prosecutor in President Clinton’s Senate impeachment trial, was awarded straight Fs on the latest political report card of California Peace Action, a group that fights the proliferation of nuclear weapons and arms sales to recognized dictatorships. The Peace Action claims to be the state’s largest “peace” organization, with a statewide membership of 33,000.

“While Rep. Rogan’s role in the impeachment process has received a great deal of attention, we don’t want people to overlook his terrible record on nuclear weapons, human rights and wasteful military spending,” said Danielle Babineau, the group’s southern California political director. “You can’t do worse than an F.”

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EAR TO THE RAIL: When City Council candidates went door to door recently trying to qualify for the April 13 ballot, residents asked about one issue more than any other.

Should the San Fernando Valley break away from Los Angeles and form its own city?

“That was the most consistent question that people asked me about,” said David R. Guzman Sr., one of four candidates challenging Councilman Hal Bernson in the northwest Valley’s 12th District.

Guzman said most residents doubted that the Valley would be better off after a breakaway from Los Angeles, a skepticism he and many other candidates share.

“They are afraid of it because they fear it may add to the red tape and cost the Valley more,” said Guzman, who isn’t convinced secession is a good idea.

Secession has divided candidates vying for four Valley seats on the City Council, an informal survey found. Most said the issue of Valley cityhood will be a major point of discussion in their campaigns.

Bernson supported a study of cityhood, but has declined to take a position on secession, citing his service on the county commission that is examining the financial issues involved, said Ali Sar, a spokesman.

Among other 12th District candidates, newsletter publisher Marilyn Stout said she does not believe secession is the answer, while attorney Charles Rubel said the Valley would be better off as a separate city.

“I’m definitely for it, if it’s feasible,” Rubel said, adding he believes it will bring government closer to Valley residents.

Stout said she would prefer to see charter reform bring city residents together.

“It [cityhood] would worsen the quality of life throughout the city,” Stout said.

In the race for the 2nd District seat in the East Valley, Councilman Joel Wachs was one of the first to sign a petition calling for a study of cityhood, but has said he wants to see the study results before taking a position on secession.

Second District challenger Kathy Anthony, who runs a Sunland tailoring business, said the Valley has been shortchanged by the rest of Los Angeles.

“Unfortunately, I don’t feel we have an option” but to secede, Anthony said. “We have to do something to get attention and dollars back to the Valley.”

John Spishak, another 2nd District candidate, also believes secession will improve the quality of life for Valley residents.

“I’m definitely for it,” he said. “People are so tired of what they are not getting from City Hall.”

In the 7th Council District, covering the northeast Valley, front-runner candidates Corinne Sanchez and Alex Padilla have not yet taken positions on secession, but Ollie McCaulley supports it. Barbara Perkins is not sure it’s a good idea.

“It’s long overdue,” McCaulley said. “The San Fernando Valley should be its own city. We are such a large part of the tax base, but we’re not getting the services in return.”

McCaulley said 90% of the voters he spoke with asked him about his stand on secession, but unlike Guzman’s experience, the vast majority were in favor, he said.

Perkins resigned as a board member of Valley VOTE because she believed the group was promoting Valley cityhood, not just a study of the issue.

“I don’t see any indication that we’re going to be better off if we [secede],” Perkins said. “I support going ahead with the study, but I can’t be supportive of secession at this time.”

*

ANOTHER BREAKUP: In filing for divorce from state Sen. Richard Alarcon, Corina Alarcon enlisted the help of an attorney who knows what it is like to oppose a powerful spouse.

She has retained attorney Manley Freid, who has represented a who’s-who of spouses breaking from powerful people, including one of Mayor Richard Riordan’s former wives.

Freid said he has also represented Tom Arnold against Roseanne Barr, Loni Anderson against Burt Reynolds and Lee Iacocca’s former wife in her divorce from the ex-Chrysler chairman.

Corina Alarcon said she has received a lot of backing from community leaders, including a vigil last week attended by about 30 supporters who are upset at Richard Alarcon’s decision to separate from his wife right after he was elected to the Senate.

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DEMOCRATS’ DARTBOARD

Rep. James Rogan of Glendale has become a key target for Democrats. A3

Richard Rider would love to have Gov. Pete Wilson’s job. He dreams of hacking away at bureaucracy, crushing all new tax legislation under a huge rubber stamp that reads “VETO.” He’s even imagined the sound this would make: whoooomp!

Rider, the Libertarian candidate for governor, is a realist, however. The 49-year-old stockbroker from San Diego knows that a minor party candidate such as himself has no hope of being elected governor Nov. 8. Still, he thinks he can help defeat Wilson (whom Rider deems a “wimp” and a “Benedict Arnold” masquerading as a Republican), which is why, not long ago, he wrote Democrat Kathleen Brown a letter asking for $500,000.

“I’m the Libertarian Party gubernatorial candidate. Normally that might elicit nothing more from you than a yawn. But I can get you elected,” Rider wrote. “What you need is a third candidate to drain votes from Wilson. I can do that. . . . Dollar for dollar, there is no better use for your campaign funds than in my race for governor.”

Rider’s pitch must have sounded presumptuous coming from a man unknown to most Californians. Like the other minor party candidates for governor–Jerome McCready of the American Independent Party and Gloria La Riva of the Peace & Freedom Party–Rider was not invited to participate in the recent televised debate between Wilson and Brown. He lacks money, exposure and governmental experience.

But Rider has one very powerful thing going for him: a dissatisfied electorate. A recent Times poll shows that California voters are unhappy with Brown and Wilson and that three out of every five are planning to vote for the “lesser of two evils” for governor. If just a tiny fraction of those people vote for a so-called third party candidate, political analysts say, it could alter the race.

“In this state, where elections are won or lost by 1 or 2 points, third party candidates can decide elections,” said Bill Press, chairman of the California Democratic Party, who has followed Rider’s candidacy with interest. “If I had an extra $500,000, I would give it to Richard Rider and it would be money well spent. . . . Every vote he gets is one vote Pete Wilson doesn’t.”

Taken together, the four minor parties that have qualified to appear on the California ballot–American Independent, Green, Libertarian, and Peace & Freedom–represent 456,000 voters, or about 3% of the state’s electorate.

The American Independent and Libertarian parties, though they differ on many principles, are both committed to strictly limiting the power of government and to cutting taxes. Conventional wisdom says that to vote for one of these parties’ candidates is to take a vote away from a Republican candidate.

The Green and the Peace & Freedom parties, though also very different from one another, both seek social justice and equality. These parties are more likely to appeal to voters who might otherwise cast ballots for Democrats.

These minor parties’ candidates face an uphill battle. Virtually ignored by the press and by their more mainstream rivals, they have trouble raising the money needed for expensive broadcast advertising and direct mail flyers. As a result, minor party candidates can campaign tirelessly, making speeches and walking precincts, and still remain largely unknown.

La Riva, the Peace & Freedom candidate for governor, is a printer and labor organizer in San Francisco. McCready, the American Independent nominee, runs a shop that sells pre-hung doors and other construction materials in Castroville. Rider, who closed his financial planning business at the end of last year, is the only minor party candidate who has campaigned for governor full time.

Nevertheless, Press, the Democratic Party chairman, believes that politicians who ignore these alternative candidates do so at their own peril. This year, he has gone so far as to donate his own money to keep a Green Party gubernatorial candidate from competing with Brown.

Leading up to the June primary election, three candidates were vying for the Green gubernatorial nomination–despite widespread concern within the party that a Green nominee would siphon votes from Brown in the general election. Then, one Green leader launched a campaign urging Greens to vote for “None of the Above”–an option that allows Greens to choose no candidate.

Eager to safeguard Brown voters, Press sent a $500 donation to the none-of-the-above campaign, dubbed Friends of Nobody. Then he sent letters to his friends asking them to do the same.

“I raised $5,000 to $6,000 or more for their campaign,” Press said proudly, recalling that the effort to gain more votes for no one than for any of the candidates was successful. “Nobody won. Which I considered a victory.”

Third party candidates are familiar with this kind of circular reasoning. They see no shame in losing, as long as they have introduced new ideas into the race. And they believe that every vote cast for a minor party candidate puts a little more pressure on the major parties to shape up.

That is why a conservative such as Rider is working so hard to help a Democrat such as Brown. Rider is probably the only Brown supporter who wants to do away with state income taxes, abolish the workers’ compensation system and phase out all welfare payments. He wants to repeal the law that requires motorcyclists to wear helmets. He believes the Endangered Species Act will result in the nationalization of all property. And he supports the death penalty–which Brown opposes, though she pledges to enforce it as governor.

“Obviously, I’m no fan of the Democrats’ pipe dream of a socialist utopia. . . . Kathleen Brown would make a terrible governor,” Rider said.

But Brown would do less damage than Wilson, Rider added, and a Brown victory would send a clear signal to the GOP. If he could do that, Rider said, he would feel like a winner no matter how badly he lost.

And, he said, Wilson is not a true Republican.

“Brown is a very ineffective Democrat. Wilson is a very effective Democrat. It’s time the Republican Party stopped running stealth Democrats for governor,” Rider said. “If I pull enough conservative votes to cause Wilson to lose, then Republicans will have to start running real limited-government candidates such as Ron Unz.”

Rider is a big fan of Unz, the 32-year-old Silicon Valley entrepreneur who challenged Wilson for the Republican gubernatorial nomination last spring. Before the primary, Rider endorsed Unz, knowing full well it might cost him some votes. Then after Unz lost, while winning 34% of the Republican vote, Rider began presenting himself as the next best thing.

Unz recently wrote letters that were published in the state’s major newspapers urging his supporters not to launch an Unz write-in campaign Nov. 8. Although he stopped short of endorsing Rider, Unz asked the 700,000 people who voted for him to support “candidates up and down the ticket who are true to the core values of the Republican Party–smaller government, lower taxes and fewer regulations.”

Rider said that is as good as an Unz endorsement. After all, Rider proposes cutting 90% of all state regulations. And he so abhors taxes that he closed his financial planning office in large part to avoid paying them.

“I was working until July 19 for the government,” he said. “For a Libertarian, that’s unacceptable.”

Rider has made sacrifices to run for governor. To enable him to afford campaigning full time, Rider and his wife pulled their two sons out of private school. (“May God forgive me for that,” he said.) The campaign, headquartered in one of his spare bedrooms with a “Rider for Governor” bumper sticker taped to the door, is truly no-frills.

His phones are answered by two volunteers–retirees who refer to Rider as “Guv.” When Rider is on the road, he often sleeps on supporters’ couches. Recently, when he heard about a promotion for a time-share condominium, he and his wife went and sat through the pitch. The reason: In exchange for their time, they received free plane tickets to San Francisco, a city where Rider wanted to campaign.

Most of the $40,000 Rider has been able to raise has gone to buy cable television time for his lone commercial, which features the candidate in a butcher’s smock, whacking a sausage with a meat cleaver and exclaiming, “Wilson won’t cut taxes, but I will!” By Nov. 8 this spot will have aired in the state’s five major media markets, and Rider hopes that combined with his frequent talk-radio appearances, it will get people’s attention.

Wilson campaign officials do not appear worried. With the latest Times poll showing the incumbent 9 points ahead of Brown among likely voters, Rider is barely a blip on the radar screen.

But against all odds, Rider perseveres. He knows that some people see voting for him as a waste.

“We’ve been taught since childhood that third parties are dangerous or crazy or both,” he said, recalling that when he first heard about the Libertarian Party in the 1970s he thought it was a “left-wing, commie group.”

“And yeah, sure, we’re not going to win,” he said. “But the success of a third party is in changing the direction of the country. . . . You vote to send a message to whoever’s in power that this is the direction you want to go.”

Meanwhile, the fund-raising message Rider sent Brown has yet to yield a single penny. Brown campaign spokesman John Whitehurst said he was unaware of the letter asking for $500,000.

Rider is not bitter. If Brown is not farsighted enough to see that a hefty donation to Rider for Governor could result in her own election, he said, it is her loss.

“I keep checking the mail,” he said. “Without my effort, they’re dead meat.”

Reporting from Sacramento — It was an iconic image: Phyllis Lyon and Del Martin, longtime partners and lesbian activists, embracing after being wed in San Francisco City Hall. The first same-sex couple in the country to receive a marriage license was joined by city officials and advocates choked with emotion — but not the man who set their nuptials in motion, Gavin Newsom.

Instead, the then-San Francisco mayor was purposefully absent, sitting in his office and anxiously awaiting word that the ceremony had been performed before a court could interfere.

Newsom’s decision to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples — just a month into his term — was at once slapdash and choreographed. Almost immediately it spun out of his control. What was meant to be a short-lived act of civil disobedience on Feb. 12, 2004, turned into a 29-day saga during which more than 4,000 couples wed, catapulting Newsom into the national fray.

The move drew rebukes from social conservatives and prominent Democrats, including gay rights icons and Newsom’s political mentors. The fallout rippled into the 2004 presidential election and the successful 2008 campaign for Proposition 8, which banned gay marriages in California.

Now, five years since the U.S. Supreme Court made marriage equality the law of the land, Newsom has made his decision a central selling point in his campaign for governor. In one television ad, he appears with Lyon — whose spouse died in 2008 — reminiscing with a photo album.

Would Newsom as governor take the same risks? “I hope so,” he said in an interview this month. “I’m an idealist … I embrace that.”

There was no hint that gay marriage would be anywhere on Newsom’s agenda when he ran for mayor in 2003. A county supervisor since 1997, he was seen as the conservative candidate — for San Francisco, at least.

Nationally, the issue was gaining prominence. A Massachusetts court case was laying the groundwork to force that state to legally recognize same-sex marriage. In his 2004 State of the Union, President George W. Bush lambasted “activist judges” for redefining marriage. He threatened to back a constitutional amendment to define marriage as between a man and a woman.

Newsom, who listened to the address from the House of Representatives gallery as a guest of Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco), has said that was the moment he knew he had to do something.

Soon after he told his chief of staff, Steve Kawa, who is gay, that he intended to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples. In a municipal quirk — as mayor of San Francisco, both a city and a county — he had authority to do so.

Kawa said his reaction was stunned silence. He and others among Newsom’s senior staff initially had reservations.

As lieutenant governor, Gavin Newsom has had few duties — and he skipped many of them »

“People felt like this could really do him harm,” said Joyce Newstat, then Newsom’s policy director. “This could really hold back his own ability to accomplish what he wanted to accomplish as mayor. It would destroy his political career.”

The hesitation was shared by prominent gay rights activists. Kate Kendell, executive director of the National Center for Lesbian Rights, said her first reaction was fear. In a call with Kawa, she said she appreciated Newsom’s support, but noted Bush’s speech. “We just barely won in Massachusetts. These wins are very fragile,” Kendell said she told the chief of staff. She ultimately came around.

In the course of days, the ceremony was carefully orchestrated. The officiant would be Mabel Teng, the assessor-recorder whose core job was to maintain marriage licenses. Newsom would not be present, to avoid accusations of injecting politics into the proceedings. And the first couple would be Martin and Lyon, who at the time had been together more than 50 years.

Newsom and his allies assumed the courts would shut them down immediately. California voters had passed Proposition 22 in 2000, which said only marriages between a man and a woman would be valid in the state.

But the courts declined to intervene for nearly a month. The image of Lyon and Martin soon gave way to the scene of a line of hopeful couples wrapped around San Francisco City Hall, undeterred by protesters.

Gay rights advocates said the pictures of relatable, ebullient couples instantly humanized the debate over marriage equality.

Newsom eventually officiated a handful of marriages, including Kawa’s and Newstat’s respective ceremonies with their partners.

Opponents of same-sex marriage said Newsom was flagrantly ignoring the will of Californians.

“Mayor Newsom lied when he swore to uphold the law,” Randy Thomasson, who runs Save California, a socially conservative group, said in an interview. “When he raised his right hand, it was almost like he was giving one finger, figuratively, to the people.”

High-stakes California governor’s race debate gets testy as personal and political attacks fly »

The California Supreme Court halted the weddings on March 11, and the court later nullified those marriages that had been performed. Newsom was chastised for not following the law as written; one justice said he had “created a mess.”

But by then Newsom had become an unlikely face for marriage equality; news stories from the time emphasized that he was straight and married. Kendell said it was precisely because Newsom did not have a reputation as an outspoken liberal that he was able to make his decision.

“This move by Newsom played against type,” she said. “People did not expect this Irish Catholic, straight … middle-of-the-road moderate to do something so audacious.”

The mayor’s growing national stature as a gay rights warrior irked some who long had worked for the cause.

“I really think he stood on the shoulders of a lot of people who had suffered and died,” said Tom Ammiano, a former supervisor and assemblyman who is gay. “It really wasn’t all about him, but he made it all about him.”

Republicans predictably made Newsom their foe, and Democrats cringed at how his move might energize social conservatives to vote against them in the 2004 presidential election.

Former Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.), who is gay, said Newsom had imperiled the strategy in Massachusetts — to show that allowing same-sex marriage in one state would not be disruptive — before the right was pursued elsewhere.

“It troubled me as an example of the kind of politics that puts the interest of the political actor ahead of the cause,” Frank said.

Newsom now dismisses that criticism as “purely political arguments.”

“If they told me it was the wrong thing to do because it was the wrong thing to do, then I would’ve listened to that argument,” he said. “They never said that. They said it was too much, too soon, too fast. That’s not going to convince me.”

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), a mentor of Newsom’s, said at the time he was partly to blame for John Kerry’s presidential loss. Newsom said the criticism was “heavy,” but he understood the thinking behind it. They repaired their relationship, he said, tongue slightly in cheek, “the old-fashioned way — by never discussing it.”

Now, Feinstein said, she believes “history has proven that Gavin Newsom made the right decision, a very bold decision, which paved the way for marriage equality.”

The California Supreme Court ultimately struck down the state’s gay marriage ban in 2008, prompting a triumphant Newsom to declare that marriage equality would happen “whether you like it or not.” The backers of Proposition 8, which sought to amend the state Constitution to prohibit same-sex marriage, capitalized on those comments in a campaign ad.

That ad and Proposition 8’s success once again put Newsom on the defensive for harming the cause he had so forcefully backed. The ban set in place by Proposition 8 remained in effect until 2013, when the U.S. Supreme Court overturned it and, in a separate ruling, found that same-sex couples could marry nationwide.

Newsom said he has no regrets about his decision. But he said he sees the experience now “with a different set of eyes,” with more effort toward “thinking through the intended and the unintended.”

“On such an emotional issue — such a raw issue dividing families, not least my own, down the middle — it’s about what the system can absorb,” Newsom said. “I think about that now differently, absolutely.”

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SHARON Osbourne made her first red carpet appearance since husband Ozzy’s death last night, as she attended a London event with daughter Kelly. 

Ozzy sadly passed away aged 76 on July 22, with the cause of death later revealed to be a cardiac arrest. 

Last night Sharon, 73, and Kelly, 41, stepped out for a party at Japanese restaurant Aki London. 

The mother and daughter duo put on a glitzy display, with music manager Sharon stunning in a sequined floor-length red dress. 

Meanwhile Kelly opted for a halter-neck baby pink number studded with rhinestones. 

Kelly has been supporting her mother through their loss, previously revealing she slept in her parents’ bed for two months after Ozzy passed away.

emotions flow

Sharon Osbourne breaks down as Donald Trump pays tribute to late husband Ozzy

sad loss

Sharon Osbourne suffers more heartache as she reveals death of beloved dog

In a special episode of their family podcast titled Remembering Ozzy, Sharon confessed she “hates” going to bed at night.

Kelly said: “I mean, I slept with you for the first two months so that you weren’t on your own.

“But then I felt like you needed some space.”

She then confessed how her daily routine had been altered and admitted: “I wake up and for the first three seconds I feel normal.

“And then I remember everything.

“Mornings are the hardest for me. What is the morning?

“Because it happened in the morning. And I used to spend most of my time with Dad in the morning.”

Kelly then told how she still cries such a lot since Ozzy’s death.

She added: “It’s just all I seem to find myself doing these days because I miss him so much.”

Sharon and Ozzy’s son Jack, 40, is currently taking part in I’m a Celebrity and recently left fans concerned as he ended up in tears while discussing Ozzy.

During a discussion with Eddie Kadi, Jack was asked what he missed most about Ozzy.

As he attempted to answer the question, Jack became overcome with emotion as he tried to compose himself.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to bring it out like that,” Eddie expressed as Jack said: “No it’s fine.”

“I haven’t experienced what you’ve experienced,” he told the grief-stricken star before asking him: “What do you miss most about your pops?”

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Again, Jack was unable to answer the question as he held his face into his hands and sobbed.

He finally expressed: “Just his energy. He had this force, so hard to describe. But he had this energy.”

Reporting from Palm Desert — It was a cool and rainy day when elders of the Republican tribe recently gathered to honor one of their own.

The honoree, Stuart K. Spencer, was unmistakable in his white duck pants and a lime-green sport coat so bright it almost hurt to see. A reformed chain-smoker, he snapped merrily away on a wad of chewing gum.

The event marked Spencer’s 90th birthday, but the mood beneath the surface conviviality was unsettled and gray, like the clouds fringing the mountains outside.

If the occasion was intended as a personal celebration, it also had the feel of a wake for a time in politics long passed.

Spencer — savvy, irreverent, profane — spent decades as one of the most successful and admired consultants in the campaign business. The hundreds, both Democrat and Republican, who paid homage at a desert country club included the alumni of several past GOP administrations, in both Washington and Sacramento.

Along with former Vice President Dick Cheney and former California Gov. Pete Wilson, veterans of the Reagan years turned out in force. It was Spencer, more than anyone, who took a political long shot and washed-up B-movie actor and helped transform him into the Reagan of legend.

“This is the gang that could actually shoot straight,” said one longtime GOP operative, peering at the largely silver-haired assembly.

Inevitably, private conversation turned to the current occupant of the White House, a member, nominally, of the same political party as those Republicans present.

Feelings ranged from horror to perplexity. Not from jealousy; most of those in attendance had long ago held the reins of power and were comfortably settled in their memories. Rather, it was the startling dysfunction of the fledgling Trump administration.

Yes, said one veteran of the Reagan White House, there was infighting and jockeying early on then too, but not the public knife-fighting of competing Trump factions.

“We weren’t going on the Sunday TV shows to grandstand,” he said, requesting anonymity, still finding it uncomfortable to criticize a fellow Republican on the record. “We were nose to the grindstone, focused on policy” — which grew out of Ronald Reagan’s deep-seated philosophy, not the whims of a blustery, seemingly improvisational president.

When the time came for testimonials, there was plenty of impertinent humor and fond reminiscing: about midnight phone calls from Nancy Reagan, drinking North Carolina moonshine, and the time Spencer dropped an F-bomb in the Oval Office to advise President Ford to stick to the Rose Garden and not try to out-campaign Jimmy Carter.

“Stu called them as he saw them,” said former Gov. Wilson, dryly.

Jerry Lewis, not the comedian but a former congressman from the Inland Empire, offered one of several elegies.

Once among the most powerful members of Congress, he was known during 30-plus years representing Riverside and San Bernardino counties for a willingness to work across the partisan aisle, a facility — along with a desire to legislate and not just obstruct — that now seems almost quaint.

“I’d love to see us return to a time when people actually talked to each other,” Lewis said, to a ripple of applause.

Taking his turn at the microphone, Spencer was funny and poignant.

The thing he really likes about living a long life, he said, is that all of his enemies are now dead. Then he saluted some of them: liberals like Jesse Unruh, the legendary Assembly speaker, and Phillip Burton, the formidable San Francisco congressman, who fiercely battled Reagan and his policies. They were men of honor and principle, Spencer said, and he misses them.

His brand of Republicanism — support for legal abortion, certain gun controls and, most urgently, a need to reach out to voters who are not white or conservative — has grown largely out of fashion in the political party to which he devoted his life. He spent 70 years laboring on behalf of the GOP only to be called a RINO, or Republican In Name Only, Spencer said with wonder.

Among the behaviors he models is discretion — Spencer is one of the few insiders who didn’t cash in on his Reagan years — and an abiding respect for the political process and its practitioners. Though no fan of President Trump, he was measured in his critique.

“Today, half of America is holding its breath,” he said. “I’m one of them.”

He warned against lashing out in anger, or turning disappointment into hatred, even as he challenged some of Trump’s more preposterous claims, including the falsehood that he was victimized by millions of illegal votes cast for Democrat Hillary Clinton.

“You need to win with class and lose with class,” Spencer said.

He took particular umbrage at those wrapping Trump — another political amateur who improbably made his way to the White House — in the Reagan mantle. The late president “had class and a totally different belief system,” Spencer said.

He wished Trump well. But, he said, “he is President Trump, not President Reagan.”

There was no audible dissent.

The program ended with a Sinatra impersonator singing a customized version of “My Way.” Then the guest of honor quietly slipped out the sliding glass doors, riding past Gerald Ford Drive as he made his way home.

[email protected]

@markzbarabak on Twitter

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THE road to Adam Peaty and Holly Ramsay’s wedding has been anything but smooth, with a family feud overshadowing their upcoming nuptials.

But I hear fans will soon see the couple in happier times, as their engagement do last December was filmed by Netflix for her chef dad, Gordon’s, docuseries.

They celebrated with friends and family, including Adam’s mum Caroline, who is not invited to their wedding in Bath next month as they are now estranged.

But the scenes are still expected to be part of Being Gordon Ramsay, which sees the chef juggling his personal life with opening five new London restaurants.

A source said: “Adam’s family were at the engagement party, when relations were much better.

“Things went downhill from there.

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“His mum was unhappy some of the family weren’t there and confronted Gordon at the event.

“Guests were made to sign non-disclosure agreements and hand in phones as the party was filmed.”

So many people I know are desperate to find out what really caused the fallout.

The show is due to hit Netflix in February, and I’m sure viewers will be glued to their screens . . . 

PUP IS PINKY SPICE

MEL B was radiant on the red carpet at The Beauty Awards, but I have a feeling her pet pooch is even more pampered than she is.

The Spice Girls star looked trendy in a cropped blazer, mini skirt and towering knee-high boots as she clutched her tiny dog Cookie as she arrived at the bash in London.

And she had clearly pushed the boat out to prepare her pup for the glitz and glamour of the evening, by dying the fur on her head pink.

Kerry Katona was also there and was snapped snogging her boyfriend Paolo Margaglione, who she met on Celebs Go Dating, while Ekin-Su Culculoglu looked fabulous in a white dress.

WHAT A HORROR, SCARLETT

PREPARE for a scare, as one of Hollywood’s biggest stars, Scarlett Johansson, will feature in the next Exorcist film.

She has joined the horror franchise for the upcoming movie, once again coming from writer and director Mike Flanagan.

He said: “Scarlett is a brilliant actress whose captivating performances always feel grounded and real, from genre films to summer blockbusters, and I couldn’t be happier to have her join this Exorcist film.”

The last film, 2023’s The Exorcist: Believer, had an underwhelming reception, but the hope is that having Scarlett on board will breathe new life into the franchise relaunch.

She certainly has form with relaunches, having been part of Jurassic World Rebirth earlier this year, which made $869million.

WICKED WEEKEND AT BOX OFFICE

ARIANA GRANDE and Cynthia Erivo’s hard work has paid off, because Wicked: For Good managed to conjure up magical box office takings at the weekend.

The movie raked in £17.8million in just three days, making it the biggest opening weekend in the UK since Margot Robbie‘s Barbie in 2023, which took £18.5m.

The figure is 30 per cent higher than the first Wicked film – which came out last November – and the highest ever opening for a stage musical adaptation.

Now it faces a fight to become the biggest film of the year, with hopes it will surpass Jack Black’s A Minecraft Movie, which has taken £56.4million in the UK since its release in March.

But there could well be more of Ariana’s Galinda on screens if fans get their way.

Wicked author Gregory Maguire has announced he is working on a prequel story about the character’s early life called Galinda: A Charmed Childhood, which will be published by HarperCollins next September.

That’s on top of his Elphaba prequel Elphie, which came out earlier this year.

Quizzed on the prospect of more films in the saga, director Jon M. Chu said: “Who knows? But that was never part of the equation. And I just finished this! I know Universal would want to do it, but that’s hard.”

OLLY ON PULL AT ALBUM BASH

OLLY MURS hosted the launch of album Knees Up at his favourite East London boozer.

And Bizarre’s Jack couldn’t resist getting behind the bar with him at The Birdcage in Bethnal Green to see who could pull the best pint.

While Olly declared his one a “thing of beauty”, Jack’s was a disaster – despite having worked at his local Spoons.

At The Birdcage, in Bethnal Green, Olly said: “We have spent a lot of time in this pub so it’s only fitting we have the launch of the album here with a quiz, games, karaoke, cake and darts.

“There’s always a moment to be a lad, right? And that’s what this album is about – I’m going back to my roots.”

COUNTRY music superstar Zach Bryan is ready to take the UK by storm with a series of massive shows here next summer.

The American singer will perform at Liverpool’s Anfield Stadium on June 12, Edinburgh’s Murrayfield on June 14 and Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London on June 16 and 17.

Tickets go on sale next Friday at 10am.

WITH three No1 albums to his name, Dave has conquered the world of music and now he’s hoping to make you giggle, too.

The rapper, who went very serious on his latest hit record The Boy Who Played The Harp, has revealed he now wants to become a comedian.

In a new interview with The Face, Dave said: “I’m trying to get into stand-up comedy and one of my sketches is that I don’t know how to whistle.

“I’m inherently shy and introverted.”

Sometimes, that can make for the funniest people.

But when Dave’s not making music in the studio or writing gags, he is trying to create positive change in London – via social media.

He said he regularly sends messages directly to London mayor Sadiq Khan, suggesting how he can improve the capital.

Dave said: “I’m telling him: ‘Yo, this is what I think is going on’.

“Not everyone’s going to have a direct line to Sadiq Khan, but you can put a message out to your MP.”

OASIS have said “there will now be a pause for a period of reflection” after completing their reunion tour – but it sounds like Liam Gallagher is ready to go again.

When asked what he wants for Christmas, Liam said on X: “A European tour”.

He added: “There’s loads more classics we need to play for you when we go out again.”

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But when one fan said they were convinced a new album was on the way, Liam replied: “It’s not, I honestly don’t see the point, it won’t be as good as the old stuff.

“I’m quite happy singing the old stuff I’m not 1 of those w*****s that need to keep pushing it forward or sideways or backwards in some cases. Nostalgia forever.”

Today we discuss Texas, overreaction and the voluminous field of candidates for California governor.

Is there anyone who is not running for governor?

I’m not. And neither are my two cats. At least they weren’t as of this morning, when we discussed the race before breakfast.

That leaves us somewhat short of the 135 candidates who ran in California’s 2003 recall gubernatorial election. But not by much.

I count nearly a dozen serious candidates, with possibly more to come. Why so many?

Opportunity.

This is the most wide-open race for California governor in decades. By comparison, you’d have to go back to at least 1998, when Lt. Gov. Gray Davis surged past a pair of moneybag candidates, Al Checchi and Rep. Jane Harman, in the Democratic primary, then stomped Republican Atty. Gen. Dan Lungren in November to win the general election.

Now, as then, there is no one who even remotely resembles a prohibitive front-runner.

Polling in the governor’s race has shown former Democratic Rep. Katie Porter and Chad Bianco, Riverside County’s Republican sheriff, narrowly leading the field. But with support for both in the middling 13%-to-21% range, we’re not talking about a pair of world-beaters.

Like nature, political ambition abhors a vacuum.

Speaking of moneybags…

Tom Steyer!

Yes.

After making a bundle as a hedge fund manager, the San Francisco billionaire and environmental activist has been panting after public office for years. Running for president didn’t work out in 2020, even after Steyer spent more than $345 million on his effort. (That’s close to what the Dodgers spent on their 2025 payroll.)

So now Steyer is running for governor, a move he appeared to telegraph by airing nearly $13 million in self-promotional ads that, oh yes, supported passage of Proposition 50, the Democratic gerrymander initiative.

What are his chances?

Longtime readers of this column — both of you! — will know I make no predictions.

But California voters have never looked favorably upon rich candidates trying to make the leap from political civilian to the governorship or U.S. Senate. In fact, over the last 50-plus years, a gilded gallery of the well-to-do have tried and spectacularly failed.

Perhaps Steyer will display the policy chops or the razzle and dazzle they all lacked. But his launch video certainly didn’t shatter any molds. Rather, it presented a stereotypical grab bag of redwood trees, potshots at Sacramento, multicultural images of hard-working-everyday-folk, a promise to fight, a pledge to build more housing and, of course, a dash of profanity because, gosh darn it, nothing says “unbridled authenticity” like a political candidate swearing!

Maybe his fellow billionaire, Rick Caruso, will show more creativity and imagination if he gets into the governor’s race.

At least Democrats have been showing signs of life.

Indeed. Dare I say, the party’s mood swing from near-suicidal to euphoric has been quite something.

Winning gubernatorial elections in New Jersey and Virginia — not by a little, but a lot — and prevailing in down-ballot contests in Pennsylvania and Georgia had a remarkably transformative effect. (Zohran Mamdani’s mayoral victory in sky-blue New York City was no big surprise once the democratic socialist prevailed in the primary.)

Literally overnight, Democrats seized the momentum heading into the 2026 midterm election, while Republicans have begun scrambling to reposition their party and recraft its messaging.

All that being said, even before their buoyant off-year performance those widespread reports of Democrats’ demise were greatly … well, we’ll leave that Mark Twain chestnut alone. As analyst Charlie Cook points out, 2024 was a deeply disappointing year for the party. But it wasn’t a disaster.

Democrats gained two House seats. There was no net change in any of the 11 gubernatorial races and legislative contests across 44 states ended in something close to a wash. The party lost four Senate seats — and control of the chamber — but three of those losses came in the red states of Montana, Ohio and West Virginia.

“This is not to argue that Democrats had a great night in November 2024, but it certainly wasn’t a massacre or a party-wide repudiation,” Cook wrote in a recent posting. “If voters had intended to take it out on the party as a whole, the results would have looked quite different.”

Rather than a wholesale takedown of Democrats, the result seemed very much a rejection of President Biden and, by extension, his hasty replacement on the ballot, Vice President Kamala Harris.

What does that mean going forth?

If you’re asking whether Democrats will win control of the House or Senate…

Yes?!?

…I haven’t a clue.

Democrats need to gain three seats to take control of the House and both history and Trump’s sagging approval ratings — especially as pertains to the economy — augur well for their chances. The president’s party has lost House seats in 20 of the last 22 midterm elections and, according to Inside Elections, the fewest number of seats that flipped was four.

That’s why I thought Proposition 50, which sets out to all but decapitate California Republicans in Congress, was a bad and unnecessary move, effectively disenfranchising millions of non-Democratic voters.

An appeals court last week tossed out a Republican gerrymander in Texas, putting Democrats in an even stronger position, though the legal wrangling is far from over. The Supreme Court temporarily blocked the decision, pending review. And still to come is a high court ruling that could gut the Voting Rights Act and yield Republicans a dozen or more House seats nationwide.

So the fight for control is far from decided.

As for the Senate, Republicans stand a much better chance of keeping control, given how the seats contested in 2026 are located on largely favorable GOP terrain.

But until the votes are counted, nobody knows what will happen. That’s the thing about elections: they help keep wiseacres like me honest.

DENISE Van Outen was all smiles as she hit the decks and kicked off Christmas party season. 

The actress and presenter was a surprise DJ at the Toca Social VIP press night at Westfield Shopping Centre. 

Dressed in a glittering jacket and black trousers, Denise beamed as she got the party going with the big day barely a month away. 

It comes just weeks after the star opened up about hitting the studio to work on an Ibiza inspired album. 

Chatting to The Sun last month, Denise said: “I’ve been writing not just this kind of music [ballads] but also dance tunes. 

“I’ve started to get a real feel for what’s out there and I’ve been playing around with writing.

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“I just love it, I like the creative process.”

On whether she will release her electronic tunes, she added: “I’m working on one at the moment, so yeah, 100 per cent.”

Also at the bash was nepo-baby royalty Princess and Junior Andre. 

Taking a leaf out of mum Katie Price‘s book, Princess, 18, opted for a tight black top and leggings and draped a faux fur jacket over her arms. 

The budding fashionista matched the fluffy garment with a pair of maroon PVC boots. 

Girl group Sweet Love looked effortlessly cool in coordinated crop tops and loose trousers, while Love Island’s Harry Cooskley cut a a stylish figure in a tight long-sleeve top and pleated trousers.

MANY celebs these days are pretty boring and spend their nights drinking matcha tea with LED masks strapped to their faces rather than falling out of clubs after a booze- filled night.

But Leonardo DiCaprio is bucking the clean-living trend and is busy proving he is still one of Hollywood’s most hardcore partiers.

One of my Mayfair moles told me the Titanic actor headed to posh members-only club Annabel’s in London on Tuesday night, after appearing at the BFI Southbank to talk about his new action ­comedy film, One Battle After Another.

Leo partied with his best pal Tobey Maguire until the early hours.

“Leo came in to Annabel’s and ­settled in for a big night with his mate,” my insider said.

“ He’d been at the BFI on the Southbank and came for a private dinner.

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“It coincided with their Christmas light switch on which was really special.

“Alexandra Burke performed and it was an amazing evening.

“Leo and Tobey got food as well and, as you’d expect, there were plenty of female fans hanging around to enjoy a drink with them.

“They absolutely love Leo at Annabel’s because he’s a big spender and a nice guy — there’s never any trouble and he’s really low-key.

“He stayed until around 12;30am ­yesterday before leaving with Tobey.”

After One Battle After Another came out in September, Leo is now waiting on the green light for his next big movie role.

He is being lined up to star in Michael Mann’s sequel to 1995 cult classic Heat.

Leo is said to be in the frame to take the role of Chris Shiherlis, who was played by Val Kilmer in the original.

Christian Bale is now in talks to come on board too, with the final cast yet to be ­confirmed.

Heat is one of my all-time favourite films but to this day I still scream in frustration about why Robert De Niro‘s master criminal Neil McCauley chose to scupper his own escape by ­stopping off to kill the evil Waingro.

You should have gone straight to the plane, Neil. You fool.

ROSIE’S LAID BACK STYLE

IT’S little wonder Rosalia needed a lie-down on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon – because she had to try to teach him how to sing.

The Spanish star, whose new album Lux reached No4 in the charts last Friday, warned US host Jimmy that “some songs are harder than others” before she got him to have a bash at singing her hit La Perla.

To put it kindly, Rosalia had her work cut out with Jimmy’s vocals, but luckily for her fans she then got up on stage to give her own rather more tuneful performance of the song.

Fans will next see Rosalia on screen in the third season of teen drama Euphoria.

She kept schtum about which part she will be taking on but opened up about juggling the recording of Lux with filming the hit HBO series.

Rosalia said: “I had to divide my mind between both, and it was the first time, also, that I was doing something like this – preparing a character and studying lines.

“These are new things for me. It’s very different from making an album and making music.”

POSH’S SPICY CRUZ TRACK

I THOUGHT hell would freeze over before I saw Victoria Beckham singing a Spice Girls song again, but it seems her son Cruz’s passion for music is ­rubbing off on her.

The fledgling musician posted a video on Instagram yesterday playing the guitar and singing the girl group’s 1998 No1 Viva Forever – duetting with his make-up-free mum, Posh.

And props to Victoria, she sounded pretty good during the jam session in their living room, although I wasn’t quite as keen when husband DAVID joined in with some falsetto backing vocals.

He commented on the video: “Sorry, I ruined it.”

I can’t help but feel like this is a clue, after months of discussions that the Spice Girls will do something together to mark their 30th ­anniversary in 2026.

Last month, Victoria even said the idea of a residency at Las Vegas venue Sphere was “tempting”.

The vocal cords are warmed up, so shout when you’re ready to Spice Up Your Life, Posh.

ACE MYLES BASTILLES THE SHOW

BASTILLE brought their From All Sides tour to an end with a massive show at London’s O2 Arena, where they were joined on stage by one of my ­favourite stars of 2025, Luton-born Myles Smith.

The band, celebrating 15 years together, played their 2012 hit Flaws with Myles amid a mighty set which saw them play tracks covering their entire career.

Emotional frontman Dan Smith told the crowd: “It’s f***ing mental that we’re allowed to play here.

“We’ve been away for a ­couple of years and it’s very surreal being back up on this stage.”

Bastille played ten dates across the country and debuted their new single Save My Soul, ahead of its release tomorrow.

It’s been a while since their last proper album, so I’m ­hoping they’ll get back in the studio soon to get the next one done.

ZAYN: I’M JUST LIKE EMINEM

ZAYN MALIK has revealed he practised singing Mario’s Let Me Love You for a whole year before auditioning for The X Factor.

The former One Direction star spoke to BBC Radio 1 in a special interview last night, which you can listen back to now on BBC Sounds.

During the chat, Zayn said: “I listened to this a lot around the time when I was first starting to sing. Probably around 15 or 16, I started taking it more seriously.

“I practised that song for about a year before I went on X Factor and sang that as my first audition song.

“It has a near and dear place in my heart. It is the song that changed my life.”

Bradford-born Zayn also said he felt a synergy with Eminem and compared his life growing up in the north to the US rapper’s tough upbringing in Detroit.

Zayn added: “I remember watching Eight Mile for the first time when I was growing up in Bradford and that movie inspired me.

“It felt like he was growing up in a similar environment to me. The things he overcame and did were incredibly inspiring.

“Eminem will always be one of the top rappers in my book.”

YUNGBLUD IS BOY FOR ME

YUNGBLUD has been forced by ­doctors to pull the plug on touring until the end of the year, after concerns were raised about voice issues and blood test results.

But that means the star has plenty of time to read the script for a new biopic about Boy George‘s life.

George’s manager, Paul Kemsley, has told us that Doncaster-born Yungblud is the Culture Club singer’s first choice to play him.

Speaking at the launch of reality star Mauricio Umansky’s new ­collaboration with clothing brand Ari, Paul said: “Yungblud is the man that we want to play George, and George wants him too. We have told the film company that is our plan.

“We hope to have cameras filming at some point next year.

“Yungblud can really capture the essence of George, ­especially as a young man, and show the world what a trailblazer he was.”

Yungblud has previously said he’s keen to take on the role, so if their schedules can align, he could soon be on set.

He’s had a stellar year, with a No1 album and Grammy nominations, so it’s little wonder Boy George is keen to sign him.

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The Shape Of You singer’s hot sauce brand Tingly Ted’s has teamed up with Hungry Horse to offer 5,000 free meals.

The chain is hosting a “Bear Hunt”, with beer mats featuring the Tingly Ted bear logo and a special QR code.

Porsha Williams of “The Real Housewives of Atlanta” appears to have gotten a mouthful from a woman on her flight back to Georgia from Las Vegas on Sunday night, her lawyer says.

The Atlanta Police Department said Tuesday that it had investigated the incident, then handed off victim and witness statements to the FBI. It didn’t identify Williams specifically.

“Upon arrival, officers made contact with two females who may have been involved in the dispute,” the department said in a statement on its website. “Preliminary investigation indicated that both parties may have been involved in a verbal dispute that reportedly escalated into a physical dispute during an inbound flight to Atlanta.”

Now, the real housewife’s attorney, Joe Habachy, did identify his client specifically, saying in a statement, “Ms. Williams was verbally assaulted by an irate and unhinged passenger without provocation. The passenger then proceeded to make false allegations that were in direct conflict with observations from several eyewitnesses.”

The women were separated “on the scene,” according to police, and both parties were interviewed by officers.

Williams had been at the BravoCon 2025 fan fest in Las Vegas before she was videotaped walking with the officers who met her at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport. TMZ posted the video Monday. A Delta spokesperson told that site that both women had been spoken to on the plane as well as at the airport.

“FBI Atlanta is aware of the incident on the flight,” a representative for that office said in a statement Tuesday. “It is unknown at this time if federal charges will apply.”

But attorney Habachy said that’s par for the course when something happens on a plane. “[F]ederal authorities are required to conduct an investigation involving all parties to determine what, if any, offenses occurred,” he said, adding that Williams intended to cooperate with law enforcement “to whatever extent necessary.”

She is confident the other passenger ultimately will be charged, he said.

WASHINGTON — When President Trump doesn’t like someone, he knows how to show it. In just the last few days, he’s described Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene as a traitor, mocked Rep. Thomas Massie’s second marriage after his first wife died and demanded that comedian Seth Meyers get fired from his late-night television show.

But he had nothing bad to say about two people roiling his party: white nationalist Nick Fuentes and conservative commentator Tucker Carlson. The former Fox News host recently hosted Fuentes for a friendly interview, where he declined to challenge his guest’s bigoted beliefs or a remark about problems with “organized Jewry in America.”

Asked about the controversy that has been rippling through Republican circles for weeks, Trump did not criticize Fuentes and praised Carlson for having “said good things about me over the years.”

The president’s answer echoes his longstanding reluctance to disavow — and sometimes, his willingness to embrace — right-wing figures who have inched their way from the political fringe to the Republican mainstream.

“We are disappointed in President Trump,” said Morton Klein, president of the conservative Zionist Organization of America, adding that he should “rethink and retract” his comments.

The threat of antisemitism, which has percolated across the political spectrum, will likely be a recurring political issue in the coming year, as Democrats and Republicans battle for control of Congress in the midterms. Although Trump has targeted left-wing campus activism as a hive of anti-Jewish sentiment, Fuentes’ influence is a test of whether conservatives are willing to accommodate bigots as part of their political coalition.

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The turmoil has already engulfed the Heritage Foundation, a leading think tank whose president Kevin Roberts initially refused to distance himself from Carlson. A member of Heritage’s board of trustees, Robert George, announced his resignation Monday, which followed a recent decision by an antisemitism task force to sever its ties with the organization.

Although Roberts has apologized, George said “we reached an impasse” because he didn’t fully retract his original support for Carlson.

“I pray that Heritage’s research and advocacy will be guided by the conviction that each and every member of the human family, irrespective of race, ethnicity, religion, or anything else, as a creature fashioned in the very image of God, is ‘created equal’ and ‘endowed by our Creator with certain unalienable rights,’” George wrote on Facebook, quoting the Declaration of Independence.

Laurie Cardoza-Moore, an evangelical conservative activist and film producer, joined Heritage’s antisemitism task force in June but stepped away when Roberts refused to resign.

“If we aren’t solid on condemning antisemitism, shame on us,” she said Monday.

Cardoza-Moore praised Trump’s record on supporting Israel but said he fell short on Sunday while talking about Carlson and Fuentes.

“We can all agree — and I wish — that he would have gone further,” she said.

It’s unclear what kind of pressure Trump will face despite his previous dalliance with Fuentes, who had dinner with the past-and-future president at his Mar-a-Lago club in between his two terms.

“I don’t think President Trump during his first or second term could be acting more strongly to prevent antisemitism,” said Matthew Brooks, executive director of the Republican Jewish Coalition. He noted Trump’s first-term relocation of the U.S. embassy in Israel to Jerusalem and, more recently, the president’s handling of the war in Gaza.

This is not the first time Trump has shied away from criticizing fringe elements on the right. During his first campaign for president, Trump initially declined to disavow support from white nationalist David Duke, saying, “I just don’t know anything about him.”

He claimed there were “very fine people on both sides” during racist violence in Charlottesville, Virginia. While running for reelection, he told the extremist Proud Boys to “stand back and stand by.”

Trump’s unwillingness to condemn either Fuentes or Carlson has the potential to prolong a rift within the Republican Party. On Sunday, as he prepared to fly back to Washington from a weekend in Florida, Trump praised Carlson and said “you can’t tell him who to interview.”

“If he wants to interview Nick Fuentes — I don’t know much about him — but if he wants to do it, get the word out,” Trump said. “People have to decide.”

Fuentes liked what he heard, posting “Thank you Mr. President!” on social media.

Trump’s remarks run counter to a wave of objections that have flowed from key Republicans. The issue will be the focus of a planned gathering of pro-Israel conservative leaders on Tuesday in Washington called “Exposing and Countering Extremism and Antisemitism on the Political Right.”

The event features U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee, Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council, Ralph Reed of the Faith and Freedom Coalition, and Klein, of the Zionist Organization of America.

Perkins said the event has been discussed for some time. “But with recent comments by folks like Tucker, there was an urgency to go ahead and hold the conference,” he said.

The recent annual summit of the Republican Jewish Coalition in Las Vegas was similarly focused on condemning antisemitism within the party, a shift from the original plans to celebrate the ceasefire in Gaza and the return of Hamas-held hostages.

Brooks said at the time, “We are at this point in what I consider sort of the early stages of an undeclared civil war within the Republican Party, as it relates to Israel, and antisemitism and the Jewish community.”

“And it’s really going to be our challenge going forward to combat that before it has a chance to grow and metastasize in the Republican Party,” Brooks said.

During one part of the conference, college students waved red signs that read, “Tucker is not MAGA.”

Trump addressed the summit by prerecorded video, using his time to promote his administration’s support for Israel. He did not mention the controversy that had dominated the conference.

Megerian and Beaumont write for the Associated Press. Beaumont reported from Des Moines, Iowa. Adriana Gomez Licon in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. contributed to this report.

WASHINGTON — Rep. Adam Gray was one of only six House Democrats — and the only one from California — who voted with Republicans in favor of a deal to end the government shutdown, and there was a calculated reason behind that decision.

Gray, a first-term Democrat from the Central Valley, is running for reelection in a majority Latino district that national Republicans are expected to heavily target as they defend their narrow House majority in next fall’s midterm elections. Last year, Gray won his seat by 187 votes, and although redistricting has since made the 13th District more favorable to Democrats, it remains highly competitive.

The Merced Democrat’s vote reflects the political reality of representing one of the nation’s few battleground districts. Gray is positioning himself as an independent-minded Democrat willing to buck leadership on politically divisive issues. The shutdown deal gave him a rare opportunity to put that in practice, even at the risk of frustrating members of his own party.

“I know it is not comfortable, and I know there’s people that are going to be mad at me,” Gray told The Times. “But I am not here to win an argument. I am here to actually help fix problems with people in my community, and I know I did the right thing.”

Democratic representatives and senators for weeks were steadfast in opposing a shutdown deal that did not include language to extend Obamacare tax credits that are set to expire at the end of the year, and as a result, leave millions of Americans with higher healthcare costs.

In Gray’s district, more than half of residents rely on Medi-Cal or have coverage through the Affordable Care Act marketplace, making them vulnerable to rising healthcare costs — a pocketbook issue that is likely to factor into an already competitive congressional race.

Beyond healthcare, nearly 48,000 families in his largely rural district rely on food benefits through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, known as SNAP, according to the latest data provided by the Department of Agriculture. Those benefits were put at risk during the shutdown as funding for the federal program commonly called food stamps was caught up in legal disputes.

As the shutdown dragged on without meaningful negotiations on healthcare, Gray said, he grew concerned that Republicans were too comfortable “using vulnerable Americans as political leverage.”

Ultimately, Gray was among just 13 Democrats — six in the House, seven in the Senate — who went against their party to end the shutdown that had dragged on an historic 43 days.

“The government is reopening because Democrats were willing to compromise,” Gray said.

The deal, which was signed by President Trump last week, will fund the government through January 2026 and reinstate federal workers who were laid off during the shutdown. It will also fund SNAP through September 2026, a provision that Gray says he wanted to secure because he worries that partisanship could lead to another shutdown in January.

Republicans attack his position

Although Gray voted with Republicans over the shutdown, national Republican operatives still see his seat as a main target ahead of next year’s election — and there is good reason for that.

The seat has a history of party flipping.

In 2024, Gray won his seat by 187 votes, the slimmest margin of any race in the country. His opponent, Republican John Duarte, who cast himself a centrist in the race, had only held the seat for one term before being beat. (And he defeated Gray two years earlier by just 564 votes.)

President Trump carried the 13th last year by five points, underscoring the competitiveness of the Central Valley district which backed Joe Biden in the first Biden-Trump matchup of 2020.

The passage of Proposition 50 has made the district safer for Democrats as the new congressional map shifts parts of Stockton, Modesto and northern Stanislaus County into the district, while removing more conservative, rural territory west of Fresno. Still, it remains a highly competitive district.

Like Duarte, Gray has positioned himself as a centrist, but that hasn’t stopped Republicans from portraying him as being from the party’s far-left flank.

Christian Martinez, a spokesperson for the National Republican Congressional Committee, is now focusing on Gray’s voting history on the shutdown as a reason to criticize the incumbent. Specifically, how Gray in September abstained from voting on a bill that would have prevented the shutdown.

“Instead of delivering results for Californians, out-of-touch Democrat Adam Gray is too busy appeasing his radical socialist base, and now he’s fully responsible for holding Americans hostage with the longest government shutdown in history,” Martinez said.

Martinez added that “hardworking Californians paid the price for his refusal to vote to keep the government open, and next November, they’ll send him packing.”

Gray is now facing a Republican challenge from former Stockton Mayor Kevin Lincoln. When Lincoln announced his bid on Nov. 6, before the shutdown deal vote, he criticized Gray for not doing enough to prevent the shutdown in the first place.

“Washington politicians like Adam Gray have fallen in line with a failed liberal agenda that’s made life less affordable and less safe,” Lincoln said in a statement.

Moving forward, Gray sees the vote as an opportunity to reset negotiations and find a bipartisan solution before funding runs out again on Jan. 30, 2026.

“I think we’re moving in the right direction,” Gray said. “I hope my colleagues have the courage to do the right thing over the next days.”

Back in his district, Democrats have had a mixed reaction to his vote. As for his congressional colleagues, they have not offered up much criticism, choosing to let Gray explain his vote to the ever-changeable 13th District.

WASHINGTON — Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York is facing mounting pressure to step aside as leader of the Senate Democratic caucus after eight members voted against his wishes Sunday, joining Republicans in a bid to end the longest government shutdown in history.

The vote was just the latest development in a troubling week for the 74-year-old Schumer, who, after eight years as the top Senate Democrat, has faced growing calls from within the party to make way for a new generation of leadership.

Elections last week revealed the emergence of a growing progressive movement in Schumer’s hometown, where the longtime senator declined to endorse Zohran Mamdani in his successful bid for New York City mayor.

National progressive organizations on Monday urged him to step down and have encouraged a popular congresswoman in the state, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, to run for his Senate seat in 2029. Polls show Schumer faces the lowest approval numbers of any national leader in Washington.

His leadership troubles come on the heels of Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco), the first female speaker of the House, announcing her retirement, a decision that generated praise across the political aisle last week reflecting on her shrewd ability to control a sprawling House Democratic caucus during high-stakes votes.

“Schumer is no longer effective and should be replaced,” Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Fremont) wrote on X after the Sunday night vote. “If you can’t lead the fight to stop healthcare premiums from skyrocketing for Americans, what will you fight for?”

Hakeem Jeffries of New York, the top Democrat in the House, told reporters Monday that he strongly disapproved of the emerging deal in the Senate, where seven Democrats and one independent who caucuses with the party voted to proceed with government funding.

For seven weeks, House and Senate Democrats said they would not vote for legislation to reopen the government unless they were able to secure an extension of health insurance subsidies. But the deal reached in the Senate indicated how some Democrats gave in on that bottom-line negotiation.

Schumer reiterated his disapproval of the spending deal in a speech from the floor Monday. He criticized the compromise as a “Republican bill” even though members of his party helped broker the deal.

“Republicans now own this healthcare crisis,” Schumer said. “They knew it was coming. We wanted to fix it and they said no, and now it is on them.”

As Schumer delivered his speech, Jeffries spoke to reporters at a news conference on the other side of the Capitol.

Asked whether he thought Schumer remained an effective leader and should remain in his position, Jeffries replied, “yes and yes.”

When pressed to elaborate, Jeffries said “the overwhelming majority of Senate Democrats led by Chuck Schumer waged a valiant fight,” and turned his disapproval to the Democrats who voted with Republicans on the bill.

“I am not going to explain what a handful of Senate Democrats have decided to do,” Jeffries said. “That’s their explanation to offer to the American people.”

Now that the effort turns to the House, Jeffries said Democrats in the chamber will try to block a deal that does not address healthcare costs.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom offered harsh criticism of Senate Democrats on Monday, who he said had “rolled over.”

After speaking at the Milken Institute’s Global Investors’ Symposium in São Paulo, Newsom told The Times that the move blunted the momentum his party was experiencing following a string of victories last week.

“You don’t start something unless you’re going to finish,” said Newsom, who next heads to the climate summit known as COP30 in Belém, Brazil. “Why the hell did we do this in the first place? We could have gotten this deal in 20 minutes. … Honestly, I don’t know what’s going on with my party.”

Zach Wahls, a Democratic candidate for Senate in Iowa, said Schumer had “failed to lead this party in one of its most critical moments,” calling for him to step down. And Rep. Seth Moulton, a Democrat from Massachusetts, wrote that an effective leader would have been able to keep party members in line.

“Tonight is another example of why we need new leadership,” Moulton wrote on X.

The eight members who voted to reopen the government — 15% of the Senate Democratic caucus — voted directly against Schumer, who voted against the measure.

Wahls speculated that the moderate members who voted with Republicans were privately given Schumer’s blessing to do so.

“The fact that he voted against this deal, while he clearly gave it his blessing in private, is a perfect illustration of why people no longer trust the Democratic Party,” Wahls said, “and as long as he stays in a leadership role, it is going to be impossible for anybody — whether it’s in Iowa or any other swing state — to win a majority.”

Times staff writers Wilner and Ceballos reported from Washington, and Gutierrez contributed from São Paulo.

PALM DESERT — Joy Miedecke, who runs the largest Republican club in the Coachella Valley, handed out scores of “No on Prop. 50” lawn signs before election day.

But Tuesday morning, she knew the ballot measure would pass.

Proposition 50, Gov. Gavin Newsom’s plan to challenge President Trump, easily prevailed last week. The ballot measure, created to level the playing field with Republican gerrymandering efforts in Texas and other GOP states, reconfigured California congressional districts to favor Democrats as they try to take back the U.S. House of Representatives in next year’s midterms.

As a consequence, Coachella Valley’s Republicans could soon be represented by anti-Trump Democrats in Washington.

California Republicans, far outnumbered by those on the left, for years have felt ignored in a state where Democrats reign, and the passage of Proposition 50 only adds to the sense of political hopelessness.

“The Democrats get their way because we don’t have enough people,” said Miedecke, of her party’s struggles in California.

Bordered by the San Jacinto and Santa Rosa mountains, the desert basin has long been a magnet for conservative retirees and vacationers, including former Republican presidents.

A cluster of palm trees light the evening landscape on Frank Sinatra Drive in Rancho Mirage.

(Gina Ferazzi/Los Angeles Times)

The local hospital is named after President Eisenhower. President Ford enjoyed the many emerald golf courses in his later years and his wife, former first lady Betty Ford, founded her namesake addiction treatment center in the desert valley.

Voters in Indian Wells, parts of La Quinta and Cahuilla Hills backed Trump in the 2024 presidential election. Under Prop. 50, some or all of those areas will move to a congressional district led by Democrat Raul Ruiz, an emergency room physician raised in the Coachella Valley, or join with left-leaning San Diego County suburbs in a new meandering district specifically crafted to favor Democratic candidates.

Joy Miedecke of Indio is president of the East Valley Republican Women Patriots. She blames the California GOP for failing to adequately fund opposition to Proposition 50.

“The party is at the bottom,” said Miedecke, 80. “It’s at the very bottom. We have nowhere to go but up.”

Sitting in her club’s retail store on Wednesday, Miedecke blamed the California Republican Party and its allies, saying they failed to raise enough money to blunt Prop. 50’s anti-Trump message.

A life-sized cardboard cutout of California Republican gubernatorial candidate and Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco stood near stacks of red MAGA hats and “Alligator Alcatraz” T-shirts. A President Reagan cardboard cutout also greeted visitors.

Volunteer Chris Mahr checks signatures on petitions at the East Valley Republican Women Patriots on Nov. 6 in Palm Desert. Republicans fear Proposition 50’s passage will weaken representation in the Coachella Valley.

Republican voters in the Coachella Valley spent the days after the Nov. 4 special election criticizing the Republican Party and California’s Democratic leadership. In Facebook chat groups, in bars and on neighborhood walks, locals weighed in on the new congressional district lines and the proxy battle between Trump and Newsom.

On Wednesday, gleaming Lincoln Navigators and Cadillac Escalades cruised down a main drag, past tidy green lawns before disappearing into residential communities hidden behind sand-colored gates.

Kay Hillery, 89, who lives in an Indian Wells neighborhood known for its architecturally significant Midcentury Modern homes, is bracing for more bad news.

She anticipates that GOP congressional candidates will have a harder time raising money because the new districts marginalize Republicans.

“I am ashamed of the Republicans for not getting out the vote,” said Hillery, who moved to the desert from Arcadia in 1989.

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1. A ceramic figurine of Trump is on display at the East Valley Republican Women Patriots store in Palm Desert. 2. A Trump key chain dangles on top of a large God Bless America button which hangs next to a hair dryer and a Bible inside “Just Marylou” hair salon. 3. Inside the “Just Marylou” hair salon is decorated in Republican posters and slogans.

Voters who backed Prop. 50, however, were reenergized.

“It’s important to take a position when we need to, and we needed to take a position as a state,” said Linda Blank, president of the Indian Wells Preservation Foundation.

Indian Wells is best known for its premiere tennis tournament, top-level golf courses and palm tree-lined roadways. Eisenhower, who lived in Indian Wells part time, is memorialized with a statue outside City Hall.

The heavily Republican city for years hosted the state’s Republican Party convention and donor retreats organized by right-wing libertarians David and Charles Koch. (David Koch died in 2019.)

Following Tuesday’s election, Indian Wells will lose its Republican representative, Ken Calvert, and become part of the newly drawn district that reaches into San Diego County.

That area is represented by Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Bonsall), but Democrats are trying to oust him by extending his district into bluer neighborhoods.

Michael Ford, left, Sonny Bono, center, and John Gardner Ford, right of Bono, attend the third day of the 1976 Republican National Convention at Kemper Arena in Kansas City, Mo.

(Guy DeLort/Penske Media via Getty Images)

A major portion of the Riverside County desert region once was represented by Rep. Sonny Bono, the singer, who was a Republican. After he was killed in a ski accident in 1998, his wife, Mary Bono, also a Republican, ran for his seat and served in Congress until 2013.

The Coachella Valley is now a political patchwork, home also to the Democratic havens of Palm Springs and Cathedral City and divided towns of Rancho Mirage and Palm Desert.

Today, the region is split into congressional districts held by Calvert, a Republican who lives in far-off Corona, and Democrat Ruiz.

Calvert announced last week that he’ll run in a new district in Orange and Riverside counties. The good news for Calvert is that it’s a heavily Republican district. The bad news is Republican Rep. Young Kim of Anaheim Hills is also running in that district.

Calvert, in an emailed statement, blamed Newsom for disenfranchising Republicans throughout California — who account for 5.7 million of the 22.9 million voters in the state.

“Conservatives deserve to have their voices heard, not be drowned out by partisan moves to advance a one-sided political agenda,” said Calvert. His office didn’t respond when asked about the congressman’s views on Texas’ redistricting actions.

Indian Wells Mayor Bruce Whitman said Calvert was instrumental in directing millions of dollars to a wash project that will help development.

U.S. flags adorn El Paseo Shopping District on Nov. 6 in Palm Desert.

In nearby liberal Palm Springs, city leaders passed a resolution supporting immigrants and celebrated an all-LGBTQ+ city council in 2017.

Indian Wells’ political leadership remains apolitical, Whitman said.

“National issues like sanctuary city resolutions, or resolutions supporting Israel or Palestinians — it’s just not our thing,” he said.

At the Nest bar in Indian Wells, tourists from Canada and Oregon on Wednesday night mingled with silver-haired locals.

As Michael Jackson’s “Billie Jean” played, 60-something resident John — who declined to give his last name— predicted the redistricting wars would end as a “wash” between California and Texas.

“It’s just a game,” he said, sounding dismissive.

Sandra Schulz of Palm Desert, executive vice president of the East Valley Republican Women Patriots, stands in front of a wall covered with Trump photographs and paintings on Nov. 6 in Palm Desert.

Dan Schnur, who teaches political communications at USC and UC Berkeley, sees another outcome. Taking away congressional representation from the party’s last remaining conservative bastions leaves the party even less relevant, he said.

The California Republican Party hasn’t done meaningful statewide work since then-Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger left office, Schnur said.

“They decided many years ago that they just weren’t going to engage seriously in state politics anymore,” said Schnur. “If you’re a California Republican, you focus on national politics and you work on local races.”

Tourists look at the Republican items in the store window at the East Valley Republican Women Patriots store on Nov. 6 in Palm Desert.

In 2007, then-Gov. Schwarzenegger spoke at a GOP state party convention in Indian Wells and warned his fellow Republicans that they needed to pivot to the political center and attract more moderates.

Schwarzenegger drew a parallel to the film industry, telling the convention crowd: “We are dying at the box office. We are not filling the seats.”

The former governor opposed Prop. 50, but limited his involvement with Republicans in the campaign to defeat the measure.

Indian Wells resident Peter Rammer, 69, a retired tech executive, described himself as a Republican who didn’t always vote along party lines. He is increasingly frustrated with Democrats’ handling of homelessness in California.

He voted against Prop. 50, but predicted the Democratic wins in New Jersey and Virginia would force the Republican Party to pay more attention to regional issues.

“I’m just not happy with how everything is going on the country right now,” said Rammer, standing outside Indian Wells City Hall. “There’s just so much turmoil, it’s crazy. But Trump — the guy I voted for — causes a lot of it.”

American flags adorn El Paseo Shopping District in staunchly Republican Palm Desert.

Back in Palm Desert, Republican club president Miedecke was focused on the next campaign: Getting the word out about a ballot measure by Assemblymember Carl DeMaio (R-San Diego).

It would require voter ID and proof of citizenship in California elections — another polarizing issue.