pass

NFL teams are living on the edge.

Sure, it’s a quarterback’s league, but a major focus of the upcoming NFL draft will be about getting to the quarterback. This class is loaded with talented pass rushers, and teams figure to take advantage of that early and often. This mock draft has edge rushers off the board with the second, third and fourth selections.

How appropriate that the April 23-25 draft will be held for the first time in Pittsburgh, birthplace of the Steel Curtain.

The Steelers, incidentally, take a receiver in this mock — and there are lots of talented prospects at that spot, too. This contemplates the Rams selecting USC receiver Makai Lemon, although it’s entirely possible that the sure-handed Trojans star will already be gone by the time the 13th pick rolls around.

The Chargers, meanwhile, take an offensive lineman to address the need that haunted them all last season after they were ravaged by injuries up front.

One look at how the draft could unfold:

1. Las Vegas Raiders: QB Fernando Mendoza (Indiana) — Tom Brady loves him. The Raiders are trying to build something, and this Heisman winner figures to be a cornerstone.

2. New York Jets: Edge Arvell Reese (Ohio State) — Jets had zero interceptions and four takeaways last season, both NFL records, and think Reese has some Micah Parsons qualities.

3. Arizona Cardinals: Edge David Bailey (Texas Tech) — As pass rushers go, the Cardinals have Josh Sweat, who isn’t particularly happy, and a bunch of young guys who have struggled to stay healthy.

4. Tennessee Titans: Edge Rueben Bain Jr. (Miami) — Although they have been collecting defensive linemen, the Titans still need help at the edge. Also could use a supporting cast for Cam Ward.

Notre Dame running back Jeremiyah Love carries the ball against Pittsburgh in November.

(Gene J. Puskar / Associated Press)

5. New York Giants: RB Jeremiyah Love (Notre Dame) — John Harbaugh doesn’t always draft for need, and he loves to pound defenses with a running game. Love is the best in this class.

6. Cleveland Browns: OT Monroe Freeling (Georgia) — The Browns are completely rebooting their offensive line and had hoped to sign Packers free agent tackle Rasheed Walker, instead nabbed by Carolina.

7. Washington Commanders: S Caleb Downs (Ohio State) — The Commanders could use help at virtually every position — everything but QB — and a game-changing defensive back would get a warm welcome.

8. New Orleans Saints: LB Sonny Styles (Ohio State) — Saints might go receiver here, but Saints need a defensive stalwart too. If Love and Downs are gone — as they are in this mock — Styles would be a fit.

9. Kansas City Chiefs: WR Carnell Tate (Ohio State) — The cupboard is bare at receiver with just Xavier Worthy and Jalen Royals, so the Chiefs are desperate for some help there. Not the first time.

10. Cincinnati Bengals: CB Mansoor Delane (Louisiana State) — The Bengals are bringing back virtually their entire offense and have spent the offseason coming up with ways to improve their historically bad defense.

11. Miami Dolphins: WR Jordyn Tyson (Arizona State) — The Dolphins are trading Jaylen Waddle to Denver for another pick, so they immediately address their need for another playmaking receiver.

12. Dallas Cowboys: CB Jermod McCoy (Tennessee) — The Cowboys traded for Rashan Gary, which addressed their need at edge. Here’s a chance to upgrade at corner.

Wide receiver Makai Lemon runs with the ball during USC’s pro day on March 12.

(Kyusung Gong / Associated Press)

13. Rams: WR Makai Lemon (USC) — Having raided Kansas City’s defensive backfield, the Rams can stay put and take a receiver, or maybe trade up for a long-term bookend to Puka Nacua.

14. Baltimore Ravens: G Olaivavega Ioane (Penn State) — The Ravens have an opening at both guard and center, so they turn their attention to the interior of their offensive line.

15. Tampa Bay: Edge Keldric Faulk (Auburn) — The Buccaneers are sorely lacking when it comes to generating pressure off the edge, and Haason Reddick hasn’t been the answer.

16. New York Jets: WR Omar Cooper Jr. (Indiana) — The Jets need a No. 2 receiver to line up opposite Garrett Wilson and command some attention on the outside.

17. Detroit Lions: Edge Akheem Mesidor (Miami) — The Lions need someone they can pair with Aidan Hutchinson to put pressure on opposing quarterbacks, and Mesidor has a lot of potential.

18. Minnesota Vikings: S Dillon Thieneman (Oregon) — Harrison Smith is 37 and the Vikings need to start planning for the future at that position; they need another defensive back.

19. Carolina Panthers: OL Spencer Fano (Utah) — Fano can play all five positions on the offensive line, and that’s awfully enticing for a franchise with an injured left tackle and in need of a center.

20. Dallas Cowboys: LB Jacob Rodriguez (Texas Tech) — Micah Parsons is gone, and the Cowboys allowed 6.1 yards per play last season, second worst in the league. They need help all over.

21. Pittsburgh Steelers: CB Avieon Terrell (Clemson) — A receiver would be nice, but the Steelers can get one later. Terrell gives the Steelers depth and potentially a long-term bookend to Joey Porter Jr.

Miami offensive lineman Francis Mauigoa prepares for a snap against Louisville in October.

(Doug Murray / Associated Press)

22. Chargers: OL Francis Mauigoa (Miami) — With all the problems the Chargers have had cobbling together an offensive line, they need to focus on protecting Justin Herbert.

23. Philadelphia Eagles: S Emmanuel McNeil-Warren (Toledo) — Reed Blankenship, a fixture in Philadelphia’s defense and a QB in the secondary, signed with Houston as a free agent.

24. Cleveland Browns: CB Colton Hood (Tennessee) — The Browns addressed their offense with the sixth pick and now can focus on a defensive position of need. Corner is key.

25. Chicago Bears: CB Chris Johnson (San Diego State) — Tyrique Stevenson is the fourth-most-targeted corner in the league. The Bears need to upgrade at that spot opposite Jaylon Johnson.

26. Buffalo Bills OL Kadyn Proctor (Alabama) — Buffalo wants to run the ball, and Proctor is an outstanding downhill run blocker. He can also move inside and benefit a team that needs interior help.

27. San Francisco 49ers: OT Blake Miller (Clemson) — The 49ers have to plan for their future at both tackle spots. Miller is durable and a particularly adept pass blocker.

28. Houston Texans: OT Caleb Lomu (Utah) — Houston’s offensive line has been a problem for years and that’s not going away. Lomu is young but terrific in pass protection. Good news for C.J. Stroud.

29. Kansas City Chiefs: Edge Cashius Howell (Texas A&M) — Kansas City’s pass rush has declined two years in a row. The Chiefs need help in a lot of areas, but getting to passer is vital.

30. Miami Dolphins: Edge T.J. Parker (Clemson) — The Dolphins have an underwhelming cluster of pass rushers, led by Chop Robinson. They need help pressuring the quarterback so they will be looking for an edge rusher.

31. New England Patriots: TE Kenyon Sadiq (Oregon) — Mike Vrabel has already tipped his hand about his interest in this class of tight ends. Give Drake Maye another weapon at the position.

32. Seattle Seahawks: RB Jadarian Price (Notre Dame) — Two ball carriers from the same college backfield in the opening round? The defending Super Bowl champions need to start reconstructing a backfield.

Warning comes as 400 million barrels of oil are being released from global reserves during waterway’s closure.

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) says it will not allow “a litre of oil” through the Strait of Hormuz as the closure of the key Gulf waterway continues to roil global energy markets during the US-Israeli war on Iran.

A spokesperson for the IRGC’s Khatam al-Anbiya Headquarters said on Wednesday that any vessel linked to the United States and Israel or their allies “will be considered a legitimate target”.

“You will not be able to artificially lower the price of oil. Expect oil at $200 per barrel,” the spokesperson said in a statement. “The price of oil depends on regional security, and you are the main source of insecurity in the region.”

Global oil prices have fluctuated wildly this week during continued US-Israeli attacks against Iran, which has retaliated by firing missiles and drones at targets across the wider Middle East.

The closure of the Strait of Hormuz, through which about one-fifth of the world’s oil supplies transit, and production slowdowns in some Gulf countries have raised concerns of further disruptions.

Concerns around the duration of the war, which began on February 28 and has shown no sign of abating, are also adding to uncertainty, sending oil prices soaring.

On Wednesday, three ships were hit by projectiles in the Strait of Hormuz, maritime security and risk firms said, including a Thai-flagged cargo vessel that came under attack about 11 nautical miles (18km) north of Oman.

Release of oil reserves

World leaders, including members of the Group of Seven (G7) and the European Union, have been mulling what action to take in response to the war’s impact on global economies.

Christian Bueger, a professor of international relations at the University of Copenhagen and an expert in maritime security, said Europe will be facing “a major energy supply crisis” if the Strait of Hormuz is not reopened.

“For the shipping industry right now, it’s impossible to go through the Strait of Hormuz,” Bueger told Al Jazeera. “And if there are not stronger signals in the near future that they can at least try to go through the strait, then we are looking at a major shipping crisis, which can last weeks if not months.”

On Wednesday, the International Energy Agency (IEA) announced that its 32 member countries had unanimously agreed to release 400 million barrels of oil from their emergency reserves to try to lower prices.

“This is a major action aiming to alleviate the immediate impacts of the disruption in markets,” IEA Executive Director Fatih Birol said during an address from the agency’s headquarters in Paris.

“But to be clear, the most important thing for a return to stable flows of oil and gas is the resumption of transit through the Strait of Hormuz,” he added.

The reserve supplies will be made available “over a timeframe that is appropriate” for each member state, the IEA said in a statement without providing details.

German Economy and Energy Minister Katherina Reiche said earlier in the day that the country would comply with the release while Austria also said it would make part of its emergency oil reserve available and extend its national strategic gas reserve.

Meanwhile, Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry said it would release about 80 million barrels from its private and national oil reserves.

Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said the country, which gets about 70 percent of its oil imports through the Strait of Hormuz, would begin releasing the reserves on Monday.

Lakers star Luka Doncic was fined $50,000 on Tuesday for directing an “inappropriate and unprofessional gesture toward a game official” during the Lakers’ win over the New York Knicks on Sunday, the NBA announced.

The moment came during the third quarter when Doncic didn’t get the charge call after stepping in front of Knicks forward Mohamed Diawara in transition. Diawara dumped off a pass to Josh Hart for an easy layup, while Doncic, lying flat on his back under the basket, looked at the closest official and rubbed his fingers together as if flashing money.

Doncic was not penalized during the game, which the Lakers won 110-97, but he has had his battles with referees this season. With 15 technical fouls, he is just one away from a mandatory one-game suspension. He is one technical foul behind league leader Dillon Brooks.

Doncic did later draw a charge in the game. He has drawn a career-high 12 charges this season, which ranks third on the team. The Lakers lead the NBA in charges drawn with 53, led by Marcus Smart’s 16 and Austin Reaves’ 14.

“Just trying to copy Marcus and AR,” Doncic said.

Myles Garrett is in a hurry to become the greatest pass rusher in NFL history. The Cleveland Browns All-Pro defensive end set the single-season sack record in 2025 and has cracked the top 20 career leaders after only nine seasons.

“I’m going to take that down, and I prefer I take it down in the next five years,” Garrett told Casino Guru News last month.

Off the field, however, his urgency to get from point A to B is a problem. He’s accumulating speeding tickets at an alarming rate.

On Feb. 21, Garrett was handed his ninth speeding ticket since his NFL career began in 2017. He was cited for driving 94 mph in a 70-mph zone on Interstate 71 between Cleveland and Columbus, Ohio.

The citation from the Wayne County Sheriff’s Office says Garrett was driving his green 2024 Porsche at 1:35 a.m., returning home after attending a Miami of Ohio basketball game in Oxford.

Body cam footage shows the officer telling Garrett that she kept the charge under 100 mph so that a court appearance wouldn’t be mandatory. Garrett reportedly still holds a Texas driver’s license — he attended Texas A&M — and told the officer that he did not have an Ohio license.

Cleveland Browns’ Myles Garrett wears a jacket displaying his girlfriend Chloe Kim before the women’s snowboarding halfpipe finals at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Livigno, Italy.

(Lindsey Wasson / AP)

The officer wrote that the famously affable Garrett was “kind and cooperative,” and that drugs and alcohol were not a factor.

Garrett’s need for speed flies in the face of his persona. He has written poetry since high school, peppers social media with inspirational sayings and donates time and money to several charities.

His girlfriend is two-time gold-medal-winning U.S. Olympic snowboarder Chloe Kim, for whom he wrote a poem he shared on social media: “You enrapture fools to kings, and exist without a peer, put on this Earth for many things, but our love is why you’re here.”

Verse hasn’t slowed his roll. On Aug. 9 he was cited for ticket No. 8, clocked at 100 mph in a 60-mph zone in a Cleveland suburb a day after the Browns returned home from a preseason game at Carolina.

Garrett’s seventh ticket followed a frightening crash in 2022. He flipped his gray 2021 Porsche 911 Turbo S off State Road in Sharon Township and he and a female passenger were injured. He was cited for failing to control his vehicle due to unsafe speeds on what had been a slick roadway.

A witness told a responding police officer that Garrett’s vehicle went airborne, took out a fire hydrant and rolled three times. Garrett sustained shoulder and biceps sprains and was sidelined for the Browns’ game that week against the Atlanta Falcons. His companion was not seriously injured.

Cleveland television station WKYC reported that in September 2021 Garrett was stopped twice in a 24-hour period — for driving 120 and 105 mph. The infractions occurred on Interstate 71 in Medina County, where the speed limit is 70 mph, and he paid fines of $267 and $287.

A year earlier, Garrett was cited for driving 100 mph in a 65-mph zone of Interstate 77 — again while driving a Porsche — and paid a $308 fine. He accumulated his first batch of speeding tickets in 2017 and 2018, and the police reports recite similar circumstances: Garrett driving well over the speed limit, cited without incident, paid a nominal fine.

The piddly fines certainly aren’t a deterrent. Garrett, 30, and the Browns agreed to a four-year contract extension in March 2025 that made him the highest-paid non-quarterback in NFL history at the time. The deal pays the seven-time All-Pro more than $40 million a season and includes more than $123 million in guaranteed money.

He set the NFL single-season sack record with 23.0 last season, surpassing the 22.5 accumulated by T.J. Watt and Michael Strahan. Garrett has 125.5 career sacks, averaging 14 a season, a pace that would enable him to break Bruce Smith’s career record of 200 in five years.

“That is definitely on my mind to go out there and get,” Garrett said. “That’s a goal I’ve had for years now since college.”

Garrett has declined to discuss his driving habits.

“I’d honestly prefer to talk about football and this team than anything I’m doing off the field other than the back-to-school event that I did the other day,” he told reporters after ticket No. 8 in August, referring to a charity appearance.

“I try to keep my personal life personal. And I’d rather focus on this team when I can.”

The ruling Democratic Party (DP) and the main opposition People Power Party (PPP) agreed Wednesday to pass a special U.S. investment bill without delay in consideration of the national interest, with a parliamentary vote expected on March 12.

The two sides reached the consensus during their talks at the National Assembly, agreeing to cooperate in passing the special bill to carry out Seoul’s investment pledges to Washington as part of a trade deal reached by the two countries last year, following tariff actions by U.S. President Donald Trump.

“We heard from the PPP side that they will complete the review of the special U.S. investment bill by March 9 as planned,” DP Rep. Cheon Jun-ho told reporters. “If things proceed as planned, the bill will be submitted and put to a vote during a parliamentary plenary session on March 12 at the latest.”

PPP Rep. Yoo Sang-beom said the agreement was reached under the understanding that the U.S. would expect the bill to be passed as scheduled given the “turbulent international situation stemming from the war between the U.S. and Iran.”

“The U.S. could take very strong retaliatory measures if the legislative process is delayed,” Yoo said. “We decided to process the bill after comprehensive consideration of the national interest.”

In January, Trump threatened to raise reciprocal tariffs on South Korean goods back to 25 percent from 15 percent, citing a delay in Seoul’s legislative process needed to move the trade deal forward.

Meanwhile, the rival parties failed to narrow differences at Wednesday’s meeting over proposed mergers between the central city of Daejeon and South Chungcheong Province, and another between Daegu and North Gyeongsang Province.

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Devon Toews scored the tiebreaking goal late in the third period, Martin Necas added an empty-netter to go with two assists, and the Colorado Avalanche defeated the Kings 4-2 on Monday night.

Toews got free in the slot and converted Nathan MacKinnon’s pass with 4:55 remaining to help the Avalanche (40-10-9) become the first NHL team with 40 wins this season.

MacKinnon and Gabriel Landeskog each had a goal and an assist. Mackenzie Blackwood made 19 saves for Colorado, which has won five of seven.

Brandt Clarke had a power-play goal, Angus Booth scored in his NHL debut, and Anton Forsberg made 35 saves for the Kings, who were playing their first game since firing coach Jim Hiller on Sunday and replacing him on an interim basis with D.J. Smith.

The Kings were also missing seven key players because of injury or illness, including medalists from the Olympic hockey tournament at the Milan-Cortina Games in defenseman Drew Doughty, forwards Joel Armia and Quinton Byfield and goalie Darcy Kuemper. Those absences led to the Kings giving three players their NHL debuts in Booth, center Kenny Connors and winger Jared Wright.

With Kuemper ill, the Kings also recalled Erik Portillo to back up Forsberg. Armia was placed on injured reserve before the game.

The Avalanche capitalized early, scoring twice in the opening 10:13 on one-timers from MacKinnon and Landeskog, before the Kings responded with a power-play goal from Clarke late in the first period.

An early whistle wiped out Necas putting in a rebound early in the second, and Booth got to the top of the crease to tip in Brian Dumoulin’s centering pass to tie it 2-all at 8:32.

Ebrahim Jabari, a senior adviser to the IRGC’s commander-in-chief, reiterates that the Strait of Hormuz is ‘closed’.

A commander in Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has said the Strait of Hormuz is closed and warned that any vessel attempting to pass through will be attacked, according to Iranian state media.

“The strait is closed. If anyone tries to pass, the heroes of the Revolutionary Guard and the regular navy will set those ships ablaze,” Ebrahim Jabari, a senior adviser to the IRGC’s commander-in-chief, said on Monday.

Tehran has targeted infrastructure critical to the world’s energy production as part of its retaliation for the Israeli and US bombing campaign that began on Saturday and killed Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and other senior officials.

“We will also attack oil pipelines and will not allow a single drop of oil to leave the region. Oil price will reach $200 in the coming days,” Jabbari said in a post on the IRGC’s Telegram channel.

“The Americans, with debts of thousands of billions of dollars, are dependent on the region’s oil, but they should know that not even a drop of oil will reach them,” he was also quoted as saying by the semi-official Tasnim news agency.

Rising energy prices

The Strait of Hormuz, which lies between Iran and Oman, is one of the world’s most critical oil transit routes, with roughly 20 percent of global oil supplies passing through it.

Any disruptions there will further send crude prices soaring and raise fears of a regional escalation.

Energy prices already rose sharply earlier on Monday as disruptions to tanker traffic through the strait, and damage to production facilities, raised uncertainty about how the US-Israeli attacks on Iran would affect supply to the world economy.

The biggest shock was to natural gas prices, which rose by almost 50 percent in Europe and nearly 40 percent in Asia as QatarEnergy, a major supplier, halted the production of liquefied natural gas after its LNG facilities were attacked.

Earlier, Saudi Arabia’s Ras Tanura oil refinery also came under attack from drones, and its defences downed the incoming aircraft, a military spokesman told the state-run Saudi Press Agency. The refinery has a capacity of more than half a million barrels of crude oil a day.

In response, the US said it would take action ⁠to mitigate rising energy prices due to the war with Iran, according to US Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

“Starting tomorrow, you will see us rolling out those phases to ⁠try to mitigate against ⁠that… We anticipated this could be an issue,” Rubio said.

Early in Michael McIndoe’s shift on Jan. 2, 2025, his crew got their marching orders: Pick up hoses left overnight at the scene of the Lachman fire.

McIndoe, a captain at Fire Station 69 in Pacific Palisades, didn’t think the plan was a good idea, he said in sworn testimony obtained by The Times. He had read the National Weather Service’s forecast for the day — temperatures were expected to be warmer — and handling any lingering hot spots would be easier with hoses in place.

While he was still at the station, he said, he relayed his concerns by phone to Battalion Chief Mario Garcia, who was in charge of the operation.

Garcia “said something along the lines of, ‘OK. Let me go check it out, and then I’ll get back to you,’ ” McIndoe testified last month.

Despite the warning, Garcia’s orders never changed, and McIndoe spent a couple hours or so that morning rolling up hose lines.

At one point, McIndoe said, he came across a smoldering ash pit. He retrieved a backpack with water from his engine, sprayed into the ground with a couple gallons of water and dug up the dirt with his hand tool until he was satisfied it was cool.

Days later, amid high winds, embers from the Lachman fire ignited into the Palisades fire, which killed 12 people and destroyed thousands of homes.

McIndoe was one of a dozen Los Angeles firefighters deposed in January in a lawsuit filed by Palisades fire victims against the city and the state. Transcripts and videos of the testimony were released Thursday and Friday, backing up earlier reporting by The Times that crews were ordered to pack up their hoses despite signs that the Lachman fire was not completely out.

One firefighter, Scott Pike, testified that he informed a captain of hot spots and ash pits in the area but that he never received orders to take care of the hazards.

Garcia testified that no one informed him of any concerns about picking up the hoses and that he believed the decision was made before his shift.

The testimony raises questions about why LAFD officials did not address concerns expressed to them about weather conditions and potentially dangerous hot spots that could flare up into another fire. With Pike and McIndoe saying they were following directions from above, and Garcia and the battalion chief from the prior shift appearing to pass the buck to others, it is unclear who made the decision to leave the Lachman fire.

LAFD spokesperson Stephanie Bishop declined to answer the question of who decided to pull the hoses, citing an ongoing investigation. She also would not answer whether officials had identified the captain whom Pike spoke with or determined what the captain did with his concerns.

Pike said he did not know the captain’s name but believed the captain was from Engine 69.

McIndoe testified that he was the captain on Engine 69 that day. In an email Saturday, McIndoe said he was not authorized to speak with the media but wanted to correct the record: “I did not speak to, nor do I recall seeing, Firefighter Pike the day that we picked up hose at the Lachman fire.”

Garcia did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Pike did not respond to a request for comment.

That day, McIndoe testified, he saw Garcia on the hill picking up hoses and brought up their earlier conversation.

“I just went up to him, and I said, ‘Hey, I hope you don’t think I’m just trying to get out of work,’ ” McIndoe said. “And he said, no, that’s — that’s fine. Something along those lines, and that that’s all I can really recall.”

He said he was trying to clarify with Garcia that he believed “that the hose should stay up a little bit longer.”

Garcia testified that when he got to the burn scar, no one raised any concerns about the hose pickup, nor did he see any need to leave the equipment at the site.

He said he thought the decision to pick up the hoses was made before his shift — though he was “not 100 percent sure” — and that it was a “collaborative decision, based off all the information that was received.”

By the time he got up to the burn area, Garcia testified, half the hose had already been picked up. He walked the perimeter to ensure there was a line cut around it and that it was cold, and did not see any smoke or any sign that the fire was not fully extinguished.

“Came across several members,” he said. “Nobody mentioned anything about there being any concerns of any sort.”

Battalion Chief Martin Mullen, who was on duty before Garcia, testified that he walked the perimeter four times and left the hose lines in place overnight as a precaution, keeping two assistant chiefs, Vinny Alvarado and Joseph Everett, in the loop. Mullen said they informed another top chief, Phillip Fligiel.

The hoses could be hooked up again quickly “if something were to happen,” Mullen testified.

Mullen testified that he also notified Garcia: “I told him I left him hose lines in place overnight, you need to walk that and make sure there’s nothing going on up there.”

Mullen, who said he was not involved in deciding when to pick up the hoses, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

In an email Sunday, Everett said: “I was not present or assigned to that incident. As a result I made no command decisions nor do I have information as to anyones testimony.”

Text messages obtained by The Times through a public records request in December show that Fligiel, Alvarado and Everett were making plans to remove the equipment on Jan. 1. The Lachman fire, which federal prosecutors believe was deliberately set, flared up shortly after midnight on Jan. 1, 2025. A few hours later, at 4:46 a.m., the LAFD announced that it was fully contained at eight acres.

“I imagine it might take all day to get that hose off the hill,” Fligiel said in a group chat early the morning of Jan. 1. “Make sure that plan is coordinated.”

At 1:35 p.m. on Jan. 2, Garcia texted Fligiel and Everett: “All hose and equipment has been picked up.”

Earlier that day, Pike was making troubling observations that led him to think that the entire area needed to be re-investigated. He saw about five smoky areas and ash pits, including one he remembered vividly that was too hot to touch with his gloved hand.

“So I just kicked it with my boot to kind of expose it, and there was, like red hot, like, coals,” he testified. “And I even heard crackling.”

Pike, a 23-year LAFD veteran based at a station in Sunland, was working an overtime shift at Fire Station 23, the LAFD’s second outpost in the Palisades, that day. He relayed his observations to a captain and two firefighters.

“That’s how I approached him, is like, ‘Hey, Cap … We have hot spots in general. We have some ash pits,’ ” Pike testified about his conversation with the captain. “That’s an alert to double-check the whole area and maybe we need to switch our tactics.”

Pike testified that it was not his job “to overstep and tell him what to do. He earned that rank.”

The captain, he said, suggested possibly bringing hand tools or a backpack filled with water up the hill to extinguish any hot spots. Pike went back to picking up the hose while awaiting new orders, which never came.

Pike testified that he felt his colleagues — the captain and two firefighters — blew him off.

“It kind of sits heavy with me that nobody listened to me,” he said.

In his deposition, McIndoe did not recall details about other conversations he had that day.

He was asked by a plaintiffs’ attorney: “Any dialogue with anyone else that you haven’t told me about concerning any of the work that was being done up there at the Lachman fire site, in terms of checking for smokers? Making sure that you got all the hose? Anything like that?”

McIndoe responded: “I don’t recall specific conversations. I think I may have had a conversation with one or two of the other captains that were on scene before we left.”

McIndoe testified that he told that captain — whom he said was from Fire Station 37 — that he thought it would be a good idea to leave the hose out because the warm weather could preheat the ground and bring up smokers, “and it would be nice to have the hose lines in place to address those.”

The Times reported in October that crews were ordered to leave the Lachman fire, even though the ground was still smoldering and rocks were hot to the touch.

In a text message reviewed by The Times, a firefighter who was at the scene wrote that Garcia had been told it was a “bad idea” to leave because of the visible signs of smoking terrain, which crews feared could start a new fire if left unprotected.

“And the rest is history,” the firefighter wrote.

Annual passes can be a great way to keep the kids entertained through the school holidays, and give you unlimited visits to Merlin’s theme parks throughout the year, as well as some other perks

If you’re already wondering how to keep the kids entertained for the Easter holidays, as well as the looming six week school holidays, then this deal might help you out.

Merlin, who own over 20 UK attractions including Alton Towers, Thorpe Park and LEGOLAND Windsor has slashed the cost of the Merlin Annual Pass , meaning families can now enjoy a year of theme park fun from just £99 per person.

The spring sale, which launched today and runs until March 29, offers discounts on Merlin’s three annual pass types.

The Essential Merlin Annual Pass is the cheapest option, with the price cut from £139 to £99 in the sale. This pass offers 339 days of unlimited entry to Merlin attractions, with some restrictions on bank holidays and summer weekends. An availability calendar shows which dates are restricted for certain passes.

The Gold pass, which includes extra perks such as free parking and up to 20% off shops and restaurants in each of the attractions, has been cut from £239 to £189. There’s also a Platinum pass with no date restrictions, four Bring a Friend tickets a year, and a free one-shot Fastrack per visit. This usually costs £299 and is £249 in the spring sale.

You can also opt for a monthly membership, with the cost of a Gold membership reduced from £19.99 to £16.99 a month, and the Platinum level reduced from £24.99 to £20.99 monthly if you sign up during the sale period.

If your family are fans of a particular theme park, or you only plan to go to a local attraction, then some Merlin parks also offer their own annual passes. For example, Alton Towers’ annual pass starts at just £64 a year, the same price as a yearly pass for Chessington World of Adventures. However, it’s worth considering whether you want to limit yourself to one place or if you’d prefer to have lots of options for days out.

Tesco shoppers can also use Clubcard points to get into many Merlin attractions. For example, 50p worth of Clubcard vouchers can be exchanged for £1 to spend on Thorpe Park tickets. If you’re a Blue Light Card holder there are also a number of theme park deals to be snapped up during the year, including Member Days where cardholders enjoy discounted entry, smaller crowds, and free parking.

Annual passholders will be able to enjoy new attractions in 2026 including Alton Towers’ Bluey The Ride: Here Come the Grannies, which opens March 28. Spring 2026 will also see the opening of the World of PAW Patrol in Chessington, while over in LEGOLAND® Windsor, the resort will have a year of celebrations to make its 30th anniversary.

If your family are fans of a particular theme park, or you only plan to go to a local attraction, then some Merlin parks also offer their own annual passes. For example, Alton Towers’ annual pass starts at just £64 a year, the same price as a yearly pass for Chessington World of Adventures. However, it’s worth considering whether you want to limit yourself to one place or if you’d prefer to have lots of options for days out.

Tesco shoppers can also use Clubcard points to get into many Merlin attractions. For example, 50p worth of Clubcard vouchers can be exchanged for £1 to spend on Thorpe Park tickets. If you’re a Blue Light Card holder there are also a number of theme park deals to be snapped up during the year, including Member Days where cardholders enjoy discounted entry, smaller crowds, and free parking.

Full list of attractions where the Merlin Annual Pass can be used

• Alton Towers Resort
• Chessington World Of Adventures Resort
• LEGOLAND® Windsor Resort
• The London Eye
• Thorpe Park
• SEA LIFE London
• National SEA LIFE Centre Birmingham
• SEA LIFE Manchester
• SEA LIFE Blackpool
• SEA LIFE Brighton
• SEA LIFE Weymouth Adventure Park
• SEA LIFE Great Yarmouth
• SEA LIFE Sanctuary Hunstanton
• SEA LIFE Scarborough
• SEA LIFE Loch Lomond
• Warwick Castle
• Madame Tussauds London
• Shrek’s Adventure! London
• LEGOLAND® Discovery Centre Birmingham
• LEGOLAND® Discovery Centre Manchester
• The London Dungeon
• The York Dungeon
• The Edinburgh Dungeon
• Cadbury World

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THERE’S still time to take advantage of the ‘stay for a night, play for a year’ theme park offer for huge savings.

The deal means that my family can visit theme parks and attractions like Alton Towers and Legoland all year round, plus enjoy an overnight stay and breakfast for less than it would normally cost for two annual passes.

We’re avid fans of rollercoasters and rides and last year visited Alton Towers, Chessington, Thorpe Park and Warwick Castle, so I couldn’t believe my eyes when this offer popped up.

I paid less than £250 for an overnight stay at Thorpe Park, which includes breakfast and free parking during your stay, and now have four Merlin passes that I can use all year round.

An essential pass is normally £139, so it’s a massive saving just on the passes alone.

You need to be clever about how you use the deal, which ends this weekend, to get the most for your money.

FUN FREEBIES

Huge list of 100 free family days out this spring – from concerts to festivals

FEB-ULOUS TIME

February half term days out for UNDER £10, including free and £1 attractions

First of all, try to find a midweek date for your theme park stay by checking out if you have a school inset day during the promotion period, which runs until June.

If you go in the school holidays or on a Saturday night, an overnight stay will invariably cost more.

Luckily we have an inset day in May, which is the perfect time to make the most of this offer.

Secondly, take a look at all the different Merlin attractions that offer accommodation, as there’s often a huge difference in room prices.

In general, I’ve found Thorpe Park to be the cheapest and Legoland or Alton Towers the most expensive.

Don’t forget to check out Warwick Castle as it’s easy to overlook that as a place that offers overnight stays and the rooms there tend to be good value for money, especially if you’re visiting with small children.

My friend found a room for her family of four for just £219.

My third tip would be to think carefully about what combination of people you’ll book for. 

We have two adults and three children in my family and if I book an overnight stay for all of us, that rules out some of the cheaper accommodation options because the camping pods at both Alton Towers and Legoland can only sleep four.

There’s more choice for a smaller family, so it could be more cost-effective to choose that, especially if some of your family won’t be available for the overnight stay anyway.

I have children at both primary and secondary schools now, so they don’t all have the same inset days.

If you go down that route, you won’t then have free passes for all your family members.

But an easy hack to sort that is to sign up for Sun Club membership, as you get two free tickets to many Merlin attractions like Chessington and Alton Towers with that.

So you can book your pair of free tickets when they are on offer with Sun Club and then use your annual passes for entry for the rest of your party on the same day.

There are a few pitfalls you need to watch out for – some dates are excluded from the essential pass, but maybe not as many as you might expect.

The 25 days you can’t use your pass mainly fall on bank holiday weekends and Saturdays in August. I was pleasantly surprised by how many dates were included.

Remember that you’ll need to pay for parking each visit as that’s not covered by the essential pass.

If you’re going to be visiting a lot, a gold pass costing £239 does include parking, so it may be worth grabbing one for a single family member to use alongside your essential passes.

Parking at Alton Towers has risen to £13 this year and the other parks aren’t far behind, so it can quickly add up if you visit multiple times over the year.

It’s not just theme parks that are covered – you get free entry to 20 attractions like Cadbury World in Birmingham, the London Eye and the Legoland Discovery Centres in Birmingham and Manchester with the pass.

One notable exception is the Alton Towers waterpark, but you do get discounted entry with your annual pass.

So don’t miss out – book before this bargain ends for a full year of family fun.

For more on theme parks, one writer went to the European theme park where you ‘travel through time’ and the rides roar past your hotel room.

And another writer spent three days at Universal’s huge new £7bn theme park – all the things worth doing… and the bits to skip.

RICHMOND, Va. — Democrats passed a new congressional map through the Virginia legislature on Friday that aims to help their party win four more seats in the national redistricting battle. It’s a flex of state Democrats’ political power, however hurdles remain before they can benefit from friendlier U.S. House district boundaries in this year’s midterm elections.

A judge in Tazewell, a conservative area in Southwest Virginia, has effectively blocked a voter referendum on the redrawn maps from happening on April 21 by granting a temporary restraining order, issued Thursday.

Democrats are appealing that decision and another by the same judge, who ruled last month that Democrats illegally rushed the planned voter referendum on their constitutional amendment to allow the remapping. The state’s Supreme Court picked up the party’s appeal of the earlier ruling.

The judge’s order prohibits officials from preparing for the referendum through March 18. But early voting for it was slated to start March 6, meaning Democrats would have to get a favorable court ruling within two weeks to stick with that timeline.

If Democrats get to carry out a referendum, voters will choose whether to temporarily adopt new congressional districts and then return to Virginia’s standard process after the 2030 census. Democrats wanted to publish the new map ahead of the April vote.

President Trump launched an unusual mid-decade redistricting battle last year by pushing Republican officials in Texas to redraw districts to help his party win more seats. The goal was for the GOP to hold on to a narrow House majority in the face of political headwinds that typically favor the party out of power in midterms.

Instead, it created a burst of redistricting efforts nationwide. So far, Republicans believe they can win nine more House seats in Texas, Missouri, North Carolina and Ohio. Democrats think they can win six more seats in California and Utah, and are hoping to fully or partially make up the remaining three-seat margin in Virginia.

Democratic lawmakers in Virginia have sought to portray their redistricting push as a response to Trump’s overreach.

“The president of the United States, who apparently only one half of this chamber knows how to stand up to, basically directed states to grab power,” Virginia’s Democratic Senate Majority Leader Scott Surovell said in February. “To basically maintain his power indefinitely — to rig the game, rig the system.”

Republicans have sounded aghast. House Minority Leader Terry Kilgore described the remap as a way for liberals in northern Virginia’s Arlington, Fairfax and Prince William counties to commandeer the rest of the state.

“In southwest Virginia, we have this saying … They say, ‘Terry, you do a good job up there, but you know, Virginia stops at Roanoke,” Kilgore previously said, referring to how some people across Virginia’s Appalachian region feel unrepresented in state politics. “That’s not going to be the same saying anymore, because Virginia is now going to stop just a little bit west of Prince William County.”

Virginia is currently represented in the U.S. House by six Democrats and five Republicans who ran in districts imposed by a court after a bipartisan legislative commission failed to agree on a map after the 2020 census.

Legislation that would put the Democrats’ more gerrymandered map into effect if voters approve the referendum now awaits the signature of Democratic Gov. Abigail Spanberger, who has indicated that she would support it.

“Virginia has the opportunity and responsibility to be responsive in the face of efforts across the country to change maps,” Spanberger said as she approved the referendum.

Democratic candidates are already lining up in anticipation. “Dopesick” author Beth Macy and former U.S. Rep. Tom Perriello launched campaigns in red areas that would be moved into districts with more registered Democrats.

Virginia Del. Dan Helmer and former federal prosecutor J.P. Cooney, who helped investigate Trump and was fired by him, have launched campaigns in a formerly rural district that would now mostly include voters just outside the nation’s capital. And former Democratic congresswoman Elaine Luria is mounting a comeback against Republican Rep. Jen Kiggans, who ousted her in 2022, in a competitive district that the map has made slightly more favorable to Democrats.

Diaz writes for the Associated Press.