A look at this week’s top high school football games in the Southland.
FRIDAY
Baltimore St. Frances (1-0) at St. John Bosco (2-0), 7 p.m.
Two nationally ranked powerhouses meet to keep their mythical national championship hopes alive. St. John Bosco coach Jason Negro said St. Frances has as much talent as any team in the country. The Braves have an impressive group of six linebackers that willl try to use their speed to deal with St. Frances’ big-play weapons. It’s another opportunity for sophomore quarterback Koa Malau’ulu to get the ball to his prolific group of receivers. The pick: St. John Bosco.
Folsom (2-0) at Mission Viejo (2-0), 7 p.m.
One of Northern California’s top teams is led by Brigham Young-bound quarterback Ryder Lyons. Mission Viejo counters with Ohio State-bound quarterback Luke Fahey. It should be an offensive slugfest. The pick: Mission Viejo.
BBC pundits Katy Daley-Mclean and Maggie Alphonsi choose their starting Red Roses team ahead of their final Pool A match against Australia in the Women’s Rugby World Cup.
But for their most intriguing recent draft pick, it’s also the opening day of a different kind of season.
In the 17th round of last month’s MLB draft, the Dodgers took a flier on University of Missouri pitcher Sam Horn, a 6-foot-4 right-hander with a big fastball, a promising slider and an athletic, projectable build.
Like most late-round prospects hoping to become a diamond in the rough, Horn came with questions. He pitched just 15 innings in his college career after undergoing Tommy John surgery as a sophomore. His limited body of work led to a wide range of scouting opinions.
In Horn’s case, however, the biggest unknowns had nothing to do with his potential as a pitcher.
Because, starting Thursday night, he will also be under center as quarterback for Missouri’s football team.
Horn is not only a two-sport athlete, but someone still undecided on whether his future will be on a mound or the gridiron. As a quarterback, he was a four-star recruit in Missouri’s 2022 signing class. And this fall, he has been locked in a battle with Penn State transfer Beau Pribula, jockeying for first-string signal-caller duties at an SEC program coming off a 10-win season.
When Missouri opens its 2025 football schedule Thursday night against Central Arkansas, Pribula will play the first half, and Horn will play the second half. As for the rest of the season, Missouri coach Eli Drinkwitz has yet to hand either player all the keys to the offense.
“I think both quarterbacks have done an excellent job of doing the things that we’ve asked them to do, and there wasn’t enough separation that I felt like there was a clear-cut starter,” Drinkwitz told reporters this week. “And so the next-best evaluation is in a live football game to see how guys respond, not only to preparation and a game plan, but also respond to a crowd, also respond to being tackled and being hit.”
It’s a QB battle that Dodgers officials have followed with fascination throughout Missouri’s fall camp.
Already, the club has signed Horn to a baseball contract with an almost $500,000 signing bonus (well above the norm for the 525th overall pick).
The question now is whether he ever ends up playing for them.
“We’re pleasantly hoping he does,” Dodgers vice president of baseball operations Billy Gasparino said this week. “We think there’s a whole window of opportunity to get him much better, and quickly.”
Once upon a time, the Dodgers viewed Horn as one of college baseball’s better pitching prospects. Even in a limited sample size as a freshman in 2023, Gasparino said the team evaluated him as having potential future first-round talent.
“He’s a tremendous athlete,” said Gasparino, the longtime point man for the Dodgers’ draft operations. “He has really good arm action. I think that part was very elite.”
By the time Horn actually became draft-eligible this summer, though, uncertainties about his future made his scouting process unique.
All along, Horn signaled to MLB teams that he wanted to play football this fall. As a redshirt junior, he will have another season of eligibility in football next year as well. Gasparino said the narrative around Horn, who is originally from Lawrenceville, Ga., is that “baseball is his first love.”
“But,” Gasparino added, “he definitely seemed split on what he wanted to do going forward.”
This is not the first recent example of the Dodgers drafting a power-conference college quarterback.
Two years ago, they used their final 20th-round selection in the 2023 draft on then-Oregon State quarterback DJ Uiagalelei, a former two-sport star at St. John Bosco. Uiagalelei, however, never signed with the team. As a highly-touted five-star talent with NFL aspirations, he never made the switch to baseball either, his draft rights with the Dodgers lapsing after he transferred to Florida State for the 2024 football season.
Horn’s situation appears to be different. Unlike Uiagalelei (who never actually pitched collegiately), he spent the last three years on Missouri’s baseball team. And if he doesn’t win the starting quarterback job with the Tigers football squad this fall, his odds of reporting to the Dodgers next spring figure to be much more realistic.
That’s why, as Missouri’s QB battle has unfolded this preseason, Gasparino scoured Missouri recruiting site message boards and local news outlets, looking for any indication of which way the program was leaning.
“The coach is going to give nothing,” Gasparino said jokingly. “So you kind of have to go on the message boards, and to the local writers, to figure out, ‘Alright, who is winning? What is going on?’ It’s been kind of a hard read.”
Leading up to the draft, Horn’s situation also required extra scouting legwork. The Dodgers dusted off his old freshman year and high school evaluations, after he pitched just 10 ⅔ innings in Missouri’s spring baseball season coming off his Tommy John procedure. They also reached out to NFL scouting departments and college football recruiters, “just to figure out how talented he was at football,” Gasparino said.
The Dodgers do have downside protection if Horn ultimately decides to stick with the football, with Gasparino noting that “to actually get his signing bonus, he has to come to us.”
But in the meantime, they’ll be keeping a close eye on Missouri’s football season — starting with Thursday night’s opener in which Horn is slated to see the field.
“Definitely gonna be watching,” Gasparino said. “I mean, I guess first, it’s like, don’t get hurt. But also just hoping that the right answer becomes very clear on what he should do sport-wise … Of course, we’d be disappointed if it’s not baseball. But would hate another year of in-between.”
A director of national intelligence who’s shown no great abundance of that quality but, rather, an eagerness to twist and bend facts like a coat hanger, serving whatever cockamamie claim the president burps up.
Because, after all, obeisance and lay-down-your-life loyalty are the main prerequisites for service in the Trump administration, along with the all-important consideration of how one comes across on television.
How else to explain the chief federal prosecutor he’s imposed on Nevada, Sigal Chattah?
Chattah, 50, devoted years to a not-particularly-noteworthy legal career, practicing domestic and international law at her Las Vegas firm and teaching political science for a time at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. In 2022, Chattah was the Republican nominee for state attorney general, losing rather handily to incumbent Democrat Aaron Ford.
But not before distinguishing herself as a notably reprehensible candidate.
Among other things, Chattah compared Ford to the leader of Hamas and said that her opponent, who happens to be Black, “should be hanging from a f— crane.” (The Israeli-born Chattah told the Las Vegas Review Journal the “smart-ass comment” was a tongue-in-cheek expression derived from her Middle East background.)
A pugnacious poster on social media — another perceived asset in Trump World — Chattah called a Black member of Congress a “hood rat,” a Black female prosecutor “ghetto” and a Black “Saturday Night Live” cast member a “monkey.”
She suggested immigrants — make that “invaders” — and college protesters should be shot and transgenderism should be treated with “meds or commitment to an in-patient facility.”
It’s hardly unusual for a president to pick a member of his party to serve as U.S. attorney, replacing the choice of a previous administration. In fact, even though justice is supposed to be blind and thus, theoretically above political considerations, that’s how the selection process usually works.
But Trump has broken new and treacherous ground by installing not just partisans as federal prosecutors but lackeys — starting with Atty. Gen. Pam Bondi — who’ve shown their allegiance not to fair-minded application of the law but rather delivering on the feral impulses of their White House patron.
Bondi appointed Essayli on an interim basis in early April. His appointment was limited to 120 days; normally within that time he would have been formally nominated and faced confirmation by the U.S. Senate. Knowing the latter was unlikely, the Trump administration executed an end run and named Essayli “acting U.S. attorney,” which gives him an additional 210 days in the job before he faces formal confirmation.
As it happened, the very same day that maneuvering took place, prosecutors moved to dismiss charges in a criminal case involving one of Trump’s political donors.
Coincidence?
The same sleight-of-hand — interim appointment, designation as “acting U.S. attorney” — was used to extend the tenure of Trump sycophants as chief federal prosecutors in New Jersey, New Mexico, upstate New York and, in Chattah’s case, Nevada.
(In a setback for Trump, a federal judge ruled last week that his former personal attorney, Alina Habba, was unlawfully serving as New Jersey’s top prosecutor, though the order was put on hold pending appeal.)
Chattah’s partisanship is plain as a desert squall. In a remarkable breach of protocol and ethics — not to mention the federal law forbidding employees from mixing work and politics — she kept her position as Nevada’s representative on the Republican National Committee even as she served as interim U.S. attorney.
Last month, in the final days before Chattah’s interim appointment ended, more than 100 retired state and federal judges wrote Nevada’s chief federal district judge to object to her continued service. The group said Chattah’s history of “racially charged, violence-tinged, and inflammatory public statements” was disqualifying.
The Trump administration extended her tenure nonetheless.
As part of their unavailing effort, the judges quoted a 1940 speech then-U.S. Atty. Gen. Robert H. Jackson delivered, citing the immense power and responsibility that rests with a U.S. attorney.
“The prosecutor has more control over life, liberty, and reputation than any other person in America. His discretion is tremendous,” said Jackson, who went on to serve as one of the Supreme Court’s most distinguished justices. “… The prosecutor can order arrests, present cases to the grand jury in secret session, and on the basis of his one-sided presentation of the facts, can cause the citizen to be indicted and held for trial.
“While the prosecutor at his best is one of the most beneficent forces in our society, when he acts from malice or other base motives, he is one of the worst.”
Obviously, Jackson never knew Chattah or other Trump appointees besmirching the halls of justice. But the late justice, buried at Maple Grove Cemetery in Frewsburg, N.Y., is doubtless turning somersaults in his grave.
A look at two of this week’s top high school football games in the Southland:
THURSDAY
Corona Centennial (1-0) vs. Santa Margarita (0-1) at Trabuco Hills, 7:30 p.m.
Centennial is trying to go to 2-0 against Trinity League teams after a 42-14 win over Servite. Quarterback Dominick Catalano made an impressive senior debut running the offense. It will be a lot tougher against a Santa Margarita defense with an active, aggressive front seven. Look for the Eagles to try to get the ball more often to receiver Trent Mosley. The pick: Santa Margarita.
FRIDAY
Valencia (1-0) at Chaminade (1-0), 7 p.m.
Chaminade upset Oaks Christian last week, showing off its very good offensive line. Valencia has a top dual-threat quarterback in Brady Bretthauer, plus explosive running back Brian Bonner. The pick: Valencia.
Hello! I’m Mark Olsen. Welcome to another edition of your regular field guide to a world of Only Good Movies.
The LAT published its fall movies preview this week, taking a look at what is coming up through Thanksgiving. There is a list of the 21 movies we’re most excited about, which includes a broad selection of styles, genres and tones.
Some of these titles have already been seen at festivals, but many have not. And if even a fraction of them pan out, it should make for quite a season.
Zoey Deutch, photographed in Hollywood in July.
(Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times)
I spoke to actor Zoey Deutch and director Richard Linklater about their collaboration on “Nouvelle Vague,” about the making of Jean-Luc Godard’s groundbreaking 1960 debut feature “Breathless.” Deutch plays American-born actor Jean Seberg, who was living in Paris at the time and agreed to be in the movie. After Godard’s film made her an international star, Seberg had an unpredictable career until her death in 1979 at only age 40.
“Is the rest of her life incredibly fascinating and intense and tragic? Yes,” said Deutch. “But Rick was really adamant on telling a story at a very specific moment in time. We’re not telling anything that happens after. Godard is not a legend yet. You don’t know who this guy is, what he’s doing. He’s not who he was later. Don’t read the last page of the book when we’re still on Page 1.”
“When I first met Jennifer, I was like, ‘Oh my God, that’s Jennifer Lopez, what the hell?’” Tonatiuh recalled. “I must have turned left on the wrong street because now I’m standing in front of her. How did this happen? What life am I living?”
And Tim Grierson spoke to Michael McKean, Harry Shearer and Christopher Guest for an in-character interview as David St. Hubbins, Derek Smalls and Nigel Tufnel from the rock group Spinal Tap for their long-awaited sequel, “Spinal Tap II: The End Continues.” (Director Rob Reiner also is interviewed in character as documentary filmmaker Marty DiBergi.)
“Can I ask a question?” Tufnel interjects at one point. “This has begun? The interview?”
Pocasters choice at ‘Friend of the Fest’
Shelley Duvall, left, Wesley Ivan Hurt and Robin Williams in Robert Altman’s “Popeye.”
(American Cinematheque)
Already underway, this year marks the third edition of the American Cinematheque’s “Friend of the Fest” series, in which podcasters pick their favorite movies to show. Most of the screenings will have the podcast hosts doing live intros, while some will even be recording live shows on site.
“It’s mostly trying to find that middle ground,” said Cindy Flores, film programmer at the American Cinematheque, in an interview this week. “You don’t have to be a connoisseur or a film geek or a cinephile. Everybody loves film. And that’s the great thing about the podcast festival is that you get to see a wide variety of titles and choices and things that people are interested in.”
The popular Ringer podcast network will have four shows represented, with “The Big Picture” selecting “Michael Clayton,” “The Watch” showing “24 Hour Party People,” “House of R” choosing “Mad Max: Fury Road” and “The Midnight Boys” presenting “Blade.”
Other podcasts in the series include “The Dana Gould Hour” showing “Carnival of Souls,” “Office Hours Live” with the “Weird Al” Yankovic-starring “UHF” (in a rare 35mm print with possible surprise guests), “Upstairs Neighbors” showing “Bottoms,” “Lifted” showing “Misssissippi Masala,” “Cinematic Void” screening “River’s Edge,” “Flightless Bird” choosing “Metallica: Some Kind of Monster” and “Ticklish Business” presenting “Design for Living.”
A scene from the 1985 movie “Clue.”
(American Cinematheque)
The LAT’s own Amy Nicholson, along with her “Unspooled” co-host Paul Scheer, have selected the Kevin Costner sci-fi film “Waterworld.”
The “Linoleum Knife” podcast will screen “Clue” from a newly-made DCP that will feature only one of the film’s multiple endings, selected by hosts Alonso Duralde and Dave White.
The podcast “Perf Damage” is hosted by the husband-and-wife team of Charlotte Barker and Adam Barker, who actually worked on restoring their selection: the L.A. premiere of the new 4K update of Robert Altman’s “Popeye.”
Marc Maron, who will be shutting down his “WTF” podcast later this year, will screen Altman’s “McCabe & Mrs. Miller.”
Points of interest
Elizabeth Taylor triple bill
Elizabeth Taylor on the set of the 1968 film “Boom!”
(Express Newspapers / Getty Images)
As part of its “Summer of Camp” series, the Academy Museum will feature on Sunday a triple bill of Elizabeth Taylor movies, all screening in 35mm, with “Secret Ceremony” and “Boom!” — both from 1968 and directed by Joseph Losey — and then Brian G. Hutton’s 1972 “X Y & Zee.” These are all visually rapturous movies with some amazing costumes and will make for an incredible daylong experience.
In the horror-tinged psychodrama “Secret Ceremony,” Taylor co-stars with Mia Farrow and Robert Mitchum. Adapted by Tennessee Williams from his own play “The Milk Train Doesn’t Stop Here Anymore,” “Boom!” pairs Taylor with her real-life paramour Richard Burton in some astonishing Mediterranean locations. “X Y & Zee” co-stars Michael Caine.
In May 1968, Times film critic Charles Champlin wrote, “Filmland’s reigning vaudeville act, the Flying Burtons, are together again in a sleek, aberrational and posturing piece of nonsense called ‘Boom!’ … ‘Boom!’ is gorgeous to look at. Losey’s sense of place is I think unsurpassed by any director now working, and Mrs. Goforth’s house, with its sun-baked walls and cool, dark, artful interiors, its talking bird and chained monkey, the waves crashing on the rocks below the terrace, is perfectly realized.”
Elizabeth Taylor, with producer Elliott Kastner on the set of “X, Y and Zee” in London in 1971.
(Frank Barratt / Getty Images)
In June 1968, Kevin Thomas published an interview with playwright Williams. Of “Boom!” he said, “It’s a beautiful picture, the best ever made of one of my plays. I think Elizabeth has never been that good before. I don’t know whether the public is going to buy it, for Lord’s sake. I hope they do for Elizabeth’s sake as well as my own. … I can always make out, but inwardly she’s a very fragile being.”
In his Nov. 1968 review of “Secret Ceremony,” Champlin continued the thought on Losey, writing, “His most notable gift is the care and skill with which he conveys the atmosphere generated by a particular house or place.”
In a 1970 item as Taylor was about to begin shooting “X Y & Zee,” she was asked if she would consider retiring. “I’m so lazy, I think I should retire,” she responded. “The unfortunate thing is I enjoy acting.”
‘The Diary of a Teenage Girl’ 10-year anniversary
Kristen Wiig, left, Bel Powley and Alexander Skarsgård in the movie “The Diary of a Teenage Girl.”
(Sony Pictures Classics)
Also on Sunday, the Gardena Cinema will host a 10th anniversary screening of “The Diary of a Teenage Girl” with a Q&A with producer Miranda Bailey. Adapted from the hybrid novel by Phoebe Gloeckner, it was the debut feature from Marielle Heller, who would go on to make “Can You Ever Forgive Me?” as well as “A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood” and “Nightbitch.”
Starring Bel Powley, Kristen Wiig and Alexander Skarsgård, the story is about the sexual awakening of a 15-year-old girl in 1976 San Francisco.
Reviewing the film, Rebecca Keegan wrote, “Big summer action movies can be thrilling, but if you really want to feel your heart pounding out of your chest, try being a 15-year-old girl for 101 minutes. That’s the running time of ‘The Diary of a Teenage Girl,’ a rare gem of a movie that takes its audience inside the ecstatic, confused and unapologetically horny brain of a girl named Minnie Goetze. ‘Diary’ is a vivid and often shocking story of growing up female in 1976 San Francisco, told with tenderness and humor by first-time director Marielle Heller and starring a blue-eyed lightning bolt of an actress named Bel Powley as Minnie.”
In an interview with the director at the time, Heller said, “Teenage girls are represented really poorly; I think we as a society are afraid of teenage girls. We’re definitely afraid of their sexuality, and so teenage girls are either shown in this really virginal state or this really slutty state, but it’s never what it actually felt like to be a teenage girl as a full human.
“You’re just as complete of a person as a teenage boy,” she added. “Holden Caulfield is a really complex character, so where’s our female Holden Caulfield? It just felt really important, the chance to represent teenage girls in a way that actually felt real.”
‘Cooley High’
On Wednesday the Academy Museum will present 1975’s “Cooley High” in 35mm with director Michael Schultz and actors Lawrence-Hilton Jacobs and Glynn Turman present for a conversation with academy governor and filmmaker Ava DuVernay.
Written by Eric Monte and based on his own experiences growing up in Chicago, the film is set in 1964 and follows two high school friends through a series of endearingly freewheeling misadventures.
In a 2019 article on the occasion of a screening and tribute at the Academy’s Samuel Goldwyn Theater — now included on the Criterion Collection disc of the film — Susan King spoke to many involved in the making of “Cooley High.” Robert Townsend, who would go on to make “Hollywood Shuffle” and most recently be seen on “The Bear,” had a one-line role as a teenager. “The movie changed my life,” he would say.
“It’s a movie, but it’s making me laugh, it’s making me think, and to me that’s what real movies do — speak to people that look like me and speak to everybody,” said Townsend. “That was my first lesson from Michael Schultz.”
‘The Lovers on the Bridge’ in 4K
Denis Lavant and Juliette Binoche in the movie “The Lovers on the Bridge.”
First shown at the 1991 Cannes Film Festival, the movie would not get a release in America until 1999. The story of a street performer (Denis Lavant) and an artist losing her eyesight (Juliette Binoche), the film is told with dazzling flair and overwhelming style. Unable to shoot on the actual Pont Neuf bridge in Paris where the plot is set, Carax built a full-scale replica, said to be at the time the largest set ever built in France.
Writing about the film in 1999, Kevin Thomas said, “Leos Carax’s ‘The Lovers on the Bridge’ has the raw, gritty look of a documentary on the homeless, but it is in the grand tradition of heady screen romances. It’s a throwback to the golden era of both Hollywood and of the fatalistic French cinema that teamed such international icons as Jean Gabin and Michelle Morgan … a go-for-broke dazzler that takes constant chances, dares to go over the top, indulges in one anticlimactic scene after another, only to make such risks pay off all the more at the finish.”
A look at two of this week’s top high school football games:
FRIDAY
Mission Viejo vs. Santa Margarita at Trabuco Hills
Carson Palmer debuts as head coach for Santa Margarita, which has perhaps the toughest schedule in Southern California. It won’t be easy taking down quarterback Luke Fahey and the Diablos, but the return of Trent Mosley at receiver, the arrival of Trace Johnson at quarterback and a strong defensive line make this the most intriguing game of the night. The pick: Mission Viejo.
Eagle Rock at Granada Hills Kennedy
It’s two All-City quarterbacks going at it, with Liam Pasten vs. Diego Montes. Both teams are favored to win their respective leagues, so this is big for playoff seedings. The pick: Eagle Rock.
Chris Waddle: They’ve got a great squad. They bought a lot of players last year and it has taken time for them to get the balance right, but you saw things come together when they won the Club World Cup and I am really expecting them to kick on. They won’t walk it, but they are going to create chances and score a lot of goals.
Nedum Onuoha: They’ll be part of the title race for longer this season than the last. Under Enzo Maresca they have a clear way to play and players who are constantly improving. They’ll be a threat to everyone, which is why they’re champions of the world.
Rachel Brown-Finnis: People scoffed and were very cynical about the Club World Cup but winning it has given them some momentum, especially with the young players they have got. They are such a young team and are still learning, so you are going to see more fluctuations in form than with, say, Liverpool, but they will come into the season flying. I’d be shocked if they don’t win at least one trophy, and you cannot dismiss them as title contenders.
Ellen White: Chelsea put players on these massively long contracts and there are always lots of ins and outs but they have been developing the team they wanted, especially what Maresca has wanted, over the past couple of seasons.
Troy Deeney: They are strong in every position but their inexperience and late start to pre-season after winning the Club World Cup will come back to haunt them in later rounds.
Lindsay Johnson: A busy summer will maybe impact them over a long season.
Chris Sutton: I wonder how much the Club World Cup will take out of them, mentally as much as physically. You need rest in that way too.
Pat Nevin: They look sharp and the new buys are just fabulous – Estevao Willian has every chance of being the best in the business. In the past, Chelsea have relied on Cole Palmer, but maybe not anymore. They will hit the ground running but there is a wall up ahead that they might run into, which is December and January. If you hear anyone say the phrase ‘they have started really well, the summer has not affected them’, then shake your head – the problem comes later.
ATLANTA — The name was a surprise, but the pick should not have been.
The bromide about teams picking the best available player rather than drafting for need does not apply to the Angels, at least not in the Perry Minasian era. The Angels’ front office must try to win now, with an ownership that does not believe in rebuilding, and without huge investments in major league free agency, international scouting or player development.
The Angels needed pitching. They drafted a college pitcher Sunday, in line with their no-margin-for-error strategy of selecting top college players and pushing them into the major leagues.
It’s been an emotional year for Bremner, who lost his mother to breast cancer in June.
On the day after she died, he saluted her in a long Instagram post that started this way: “Saying goodbye to you has been the hardest thing I have had to go through in my life. Why did this evil disease have to come into the life of such a pure hearted soul. Somehow through all this pain, darkness, and suffering there is light.”
The last four words: “rest easy my angel”
When his name was called Sunday, Bremner thought of his mother.
“I went to the Angels,” he said. “It’s weird how life works.”
The Angels invited him to Anaheim for a private workout last week. In a draft in which the hype around college pitchers focused on three left-handers from the Southeastern Conference, Bremner said his advisers told him about an hour before the draft started that the Angels might pick him.
And, after the Washington Nationals took high school shortstop Eli Willits — the son of former Angels outfielder Reggie Willits — with the No. 1 pick, the Angels were on the clock.
They had their pick of any pitcher in the country. They could have grabbed one of the SEC pitchers, or Corona High phenom Seth Hernandez. They went with the big right-hander from the Big West, with a fastball and a changeup that might already be ready for Anaheim.
The immediate expectation was that the Angels would cut a discount deal with Bremner, enabling him to collect a seven-figure bonus while enabling them to allocate more of their draft pool to swipe talented lower-round players away from college commitments. Bremner and Tim McIlvaine, the Angels’ scouting director, danced around that topic on Sunday.
But, if you’re the Angels, none of that scheming really matters if you don’t hit on the second overall pick of the draft.
McIlvaine said Bremner’s changeup gives him a go-to pitch, with a slider under development and a body that has yet to fill out.
“There’s a lot you can really dream on,” McIlvaine said.
The Angels need him to be right, and they need Bremner as a starter. A two-pitch pitcher would make a fine major league reliever, and don’t be surprised to see the Angels consider launching his major league career in that role later this season, if they stay afloat in the wild-card race. That could give them nine of their first-round picks on their active roster.
But you don’t use a first-round pick on a setup man. The Angels drafted two other pitchers among the top 10 overall picks within the past five years, and Reid Detmers and Sam Bachman now are setup men. Under Minasian, who was hired after the 2020 season, the Angels have drafted one pitcher that has delivered more than 1.0 WAR: Ben Joyce, a potential closer but now an injured setup man.
And the Angels’ second-round pick Sunday: an actual reliever, from the SEC. He is Chase Shores, who closed the College World Series clincher for Louisiana State and threw 47 pitches clocked at 100 mph or harder during the NCAA tournament.
As Bremner said, life works in weird ways.
“If you look at his second half of the year,” McIlvaine said, “I’d put it up against anybody in the country.”
In the second half of the season, his mother was dying.
“She came out to all the games,” he said, “all the way to the point where her body wouldn’t let her any more.”
In his last two games, weeks before she died, he gave up one run in 13-⅓ innings, walking two and striking out 23. That resilience was not lost on the Angels.
“I think, funny enough, as she got worse, that’s when I got stronger on the field,” Bremner said. “I feel I did a very good job of using that kind of negative energy and challenging it into pitching.
“Pitching angry, or pitching for her, or pitching for something bigger than myself, I feel like, in a way, it helped me on the field. But it’s not easy mentally to wrap my head around what’s going on off the field while trying to compete at a high level.”
That made Sunday a very different, and entirely memorable, mother’s day.
“I know she is watching over me,” he said, “and I know she is so proud of me.”
His mother, Jen, was born in Canada. The Canadians already are calling for him to represent her home country in the World Baseball Classic next spring, to honor her memory after losing her to cancer. Another pretty good ballplayer plays for Team Canada for the same reason, so you never know: Bremner could be teammates with Freddie Freeman next spring and Mike Trout next summer.
MILWAUKEE — Clayton Kershaw has been an All-Star 10 times before.
But no selection surprised him quite like this year’s.
Included on the National League All-Star team as a “Legend Pick” by Commissioner Rob Manfred in recognition of his career accomplishments, Kershaw did not get any advance warning from Manfred or anyone in the league office that he would be in the “Midsummer Classic.”
When manager Dave Roberts gathered his Dodgers team to announce the club’s All-Star selections on Sunday, Kershaw forgot that the “Legend Pick” — which has been used in the past for players such as Albert Pujols and Miguel Cabrera — was even a thing.
Thus, when Roberts announced Kershaw’s name, the 37-year-old was caught more than a little off-guard — having made just nine starts this season since returning from offseason toe and knee surgeries.
“Obviously, I don’t deserve to get to go this season, haven’t pitched very much,” he deadpanned. “I don’t know if Doc was going for the surprise factor or not. But I had no idea until he said it.”
But by Monday, the meaningfulness of what he described as a “tremendous honor” had also set in, with Kershaw expressing gratitude for what will be his 11th career selection, tied for the most among active players with Mike Trout.
“You never take for granted getting to go to an All-Star Game, regardless of the circumstances,” Kershaw said. “At the end of the day, it’s weird but cool, so I’m just going to enjoy it.”
While Kershaw’s limited workload would normally not warrant an All-Star selection, his stats haven’t been too far off that pace this year: A 4-0 record, 3.43 ERA and 1.254 WHIP in what is the 18th season of his future Hall of Fame career.
“I think there’s some good and some bad,” Kershaw said of his season so far. “I wouldn’t say happy, but I wouldn’t say disappointed either. I would say kind of right in the middle.”
The highlight of the campaign, of course, came in Kershaw’s last start, when he became the 20th pitcher in MLB history to record 3,000 career strikeouts.
But at this stage of his career, Kershaw’s real satisfaction has been with his health — finally past the various back, elbow, shoulder, knee and toe injuries that had plagued him over the last several seasons.
“I think the biggest thing is just the mental toll [that takes on you],” Kershaw said. “Anyone that has been dealing with stuff, I think it’s always in the back of your head. You wake up and you test it and you move around and you test it to see if it hurts, see how bad it hurts. [Now], instead of wondering if you can pitch, it’s just a matter of how you’re going to pitch. I don’t think I took into appreciation the mental toll that takes over time. So to just worry about pitching is nice, for sure.”
It has also allowed Kershaw “to get the reps and go back out and be able to feel OK in between starts to work on some stuff,” he said. “Figure out some different things mechanically and pitch-wise and stuff.”
Long-term, Kershaw still hasn’t decided if this will be his final season.
“I don’t know what is going to happen in the future,” he said. “I really have no idea when it comes to the years beyond this one. So I’m just trying to enjoy it, be part of a really good team this year.”
When it comes to next week’s All-Star Game, he isn’t even sure if he’ll pitch in the showcase exhibition, which will be held at Truist Park in Atlanta.
“I’d love to pitch but I don’t want to take an inning away from somebody who’s never done it before or this is their first year or whatever,” he said. “I’ll enjoy just to hang or pitch or whatever.”
On Monday, Kershaw’s focus was instead on his final start of the first half: A scheduled Tuesday outing against the Milwaukee Brewers and their 23-year-old rookie starlet, Jacob Misiorowski.
Kershaw, 14 years Misiorowski’s senior, laughed when asked what it’s like to be the elder statesman in such high-profile matchups now.
“I saw a couple highlights [of him], know he throws hard,” Kershaw said. “But so does everybody. Except me.”
The Angels placed rookie second baseman Christian Moore on the 10-day injured list with a sprained left thumb on Thursday.
Moore left the Angels’ 8-3 loss to the Atlanta Braves on Wednesday night with the injury. Moore suffered the injury when he dove for Ozzie Albies’ ground ball in the sixth inning. Moore’s hand bent awkwardly when he hit the ground.
Angels interim manager Ray Montgomery said he was grateful Moore would not require surgery, though he wouldn’t put a timetable on how much time the rookie might miss.
“Anytime you see somebody like him have an injury like that, you fear the worst,” Montgomery said, adding the hope Moore could miss two weeks might be “looking at the best-case scenario.”
Moore, a 2024 first-round draft pick from Tennessee, was hitting .189 in 53 at-bats following his promotion to the Angels on June 13.
Infielder Chad Stevens, whose contract was selected from triple-A Salt Lake, moved into the starting lineup at second base on Thursday night in his major league debut.
“He’s been playing really well,” Montgomery said of Stevens. “He’s done everything he can do to earn this opportunity.”
The 26-year-old Stevens was hitting .307 with 14 homers at Salt Lake.
The Angels released right-hander Héctor Neris, who had a 7.80 ERA in 23 games.
For Ken Holland, the Kings’ decidedly old-school general manager, new isn’t necessarily better. Take the NHL draft, for example.
Holland presided over more than a quarter-century of drafts with the Detroit Red Wings and Edmonton Oilers, and they were generally held in one place, with everyone from the executives doing the drafting to the players being drafted on site.
On Friday, for the first time in a non-pandemic environment, the draft was conducted semi-remotely, with the top 93 draft-eligible players and their families filling some of the seats in the half-empty Peacock Theater in Los Angeles while team representatives made their selections from their home markets.
And whatever the league was attempting to accomplish with the decentralized format, other than saving on travel, it didn’t work.
After each pick was announced on a giant video board that took up two-thirds of the theater’s massive stage, players made their way up the aisle to be greeted by Commissioner Gary Bettman. They then pulled on a team jersey and hat before being led into the “Draft House” — a small virtual reality room in the center of the stage — for what amounted to a congratulatory Zoom call with the club’s brass.
The Peacock Theater in downtown Los Angeles hosts the NHL draft.
(Juan Ocampo / NHLI via Getty Images)
The young men were celebrating the biggest moment of their lives yet they came off like Dorothy speaking to the Wizard of Oz. Much of it was awkward, especially when James Hagens, the eighth selection, was left waving at Boston Bruins general manager Don Sweeney after the audio in the Bruins’ war room in Boston went mute. That was just one of multiple technical glitches that included echoes and timing delays that left players and executives talking over one another.
When it became obvious the painfully slow-paced event would plod past 4½ hours, the Draft House was closed to some teams.
Brady Martin, the fifth pick, didn’t even bother to come to L.A. So when Nashville announced his selection — via a celebrity video taped at a golf course — the NHL showed a video of Martin working on his family’s farm. Russian goaltender Pyotr Andreyanov wouldn’t even get that treatment. When he was announced as the 20th overall pick, the NHL had nothing to show, making Andreyanov the first no-show of the no-show draft.
Matthew Schaefer, a 17-year-old defenseman from Hamilton, Canada,, who was taken with the No. 1 pick by the New York Islanders, said being part of video draft did not spoil his big day.
Matthew Schaefer stands between Michael Misa, left, and Anton Frondell after being selected 1-2-3, respectively, in the NHL draft at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles on Friday.
(Bruce Bennett / Getty Images)
“I’m just honored to be picked,” said Schaefer who cried, alongside his dad and brother, when his name was called. “I dreamt about it my whole life. It’s such an honor. Especially the first pick overall.”
For Holland, however, none of that counts as progress.
“I’m old and I’m old fashioned. So I like the old way,” said the Kings general manager, whose view was shared by other GMs around the league. “You draft some player in the sixth round and all of a sudden you hear ‘yay!’ way up in the corner. It’s him, it’s his family, and they’re all excited to hear [his] name announced by an NHL team.
“This weekend, to me, is about the young players.”
Aside from the technical difficulties, the actual draft went largely to form. The Ducks, as expected, took Roger McQueen, an 18-year-old forward from Saskatchewan, with their top pick, the 10th overall selection. The Kings, meanwhile, traded their first pick, No. 24 overall, to the Pittsburgh Penguins. After moving down seven spots they took right-handed-shooting defenseman Henry Brzustewicz, 18, a Michigan native, with the penultimate pick of the first day.
Round two through seven of the draft will be conducted Saturday.
Roger McQueen, second from right, poses for photos with NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman, right, and actors Joshua Jackson, left, and Marguerite Moreau, second from left, after being drafted by the Ducks at No. 10 overall.
(Damian Dovarganes / Associated Press)
The Ducks, who had a top-10 pick for a seventh straight year, see the 6-foot-5 McQueen as a raw talent who can develop into a top-line center.
“He has a big body. But what goes along with that is his skill and skating ability,” said general manager Pat Verbeek, whose team has 10 picks this weekend.
For the Kings, this draft was the first public move in what could be an intense couple of weeks. Defenseman Vladislav Gavrikov and winger Andrei Kuzmenko are unrestricted free agents and the team would like to re-sign both before they hit the open market Tuesday.
“If we re-sign Gavrikov, there’s not going to be a ton of change,” Holland said. “If we don’t, then there’s going to be change.”
Gavrikov, 29, emerged as a solid presence on the blue line, playing a career-high 82 games and posting the best goals-against average of the 17 defensemen to play at least 1,500 minutes. Former Kings GM Rob Blake made Gavrikov a contract offer last March, said Holland, who has since sweetened the deal twice. Replacing him, the GM said, could require a couple of signings.
Kuzmenko, 29, reenergized the offense after coming over from Philadelphia at the trade deadline, with the Kings going 17-5 and averaging nearly four goals a game down the stretch.
Kings fans cheer after Henry Brzustewicz is drafted by the team at No. 31 overall.
(Damian Dovarganes / Associated Press)
“We like Kuzmenko. Kuzmenko likes it here; he likes his role,” Holland said. “I’m talking to him. I talked two, three, four times this week with his agent. So we’ll see.”
Signing both players would put a big dent in the Kings’ $21.7 million in salary-cap space.
“We have a lot of cap space but it doesn’t take much and it’s gone,” Holland said. “We’ve got to figure out how we want to spend our money and they need to figure out how much money they can get.”
Aside from Gavrikov and Kuzmenko, the Kings don’t have many loose ends to tie up. The team is confident it can get forward Alex Laferriere, a restricted free agent, to agree to a short-term deal and it has to decide whether to re-sign David Rittich, an unrestricted free agent, as the backup to starting goalkeeper Darcy Kuemper.
Two players who could be moving on are forward Tanner Jeannot and defenseman Jordan Spence, both of whom are looking for more ice time and may have to leave to get it.
Wilbur Ross became rich investing in faltering businesses like steel mills and coal mines, finding a fortune in blue-collar industries that others dismissed as beyond saving.
But before he was scooping up Rust Belt factories, the banker was sizing up another troubled asset: Donald Trump. More than two decades ago, Ross represented bondholders who were gunning for Trump after he failed to pay back the high-interest loans he had taken out to build his casino empire.
For the record:
3:04 a.m. June 23, 2019A earlier version of this article listed House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy’s party affiliation as Democrat. He is a Republican.
When Ross arrived in Atlantic City, N.J., for negotiations in 1990, he found a throng of journalists and curious onlookers eager to catch a glimpse of Trump, according to “The Vulture Investors,” by Hilary Rosenberg. For the quiet Ross, the scene inspired a revelation: Trump’s flashy image had resilience.
Ross embarked on a strategy that helped Trump avoid a personal bankruptcy that could have derailed his unlikely trajectory from real-estate mogul to reality television star to president-elect.
Consider it another investment that has paid off for Ross, whom Trump recently tapped to lead the Department of Commerce. A private equity billionaire who once led a secret Wall Street fraternity, Ross is among the rich, loyal insiders Trump picked for a Cabinet that is shaping up as the wealthiest in history.
If confirmed by the Senate, the 79-year-old veteran investor will spearhead trade policy and business development in the new administration.
Trump rejected criticism that Ross was too out of touch to serve, saying during a rally last week in Cincinnati that Ross was chosen because “this guy knows how to make money, folks.”
Trump added, “I put on a killer.”
Ross, however, once spared Trump.
The future president-elect at one time owned a quarter of Atlantic City’s casino market. But Trump was heavily in debt, and he started missing bond payments on his — and Atlantic City’s — largest casino, the Taj Mahal, in 1990.
Donald Trump celebrates the grand opening of the Taj Mahal in 1990. The Atlantic City casino was in financial trouble later that year.
(Mike Derer / Associated Press )
Ross, then an investment banker working for Rothschild Inc., helped bondholders negotiate with Trump, whose finances were unraveling. The final deal reduced Trump’s ownership stake in the Taj but left him in charge, and bondholders were unhappy when Ross presented the plan.
“Why did we make a deal with him?” one asked, according to Rosenberg’s book.
Ross insisted that Trump was worth saving.
“The Trump name is still very much an asset,” he said.
Trump himself proved to be less of a sure bet. Though the agreement allowed Trump to soldier on in Atlantic City, his casinos landed in bankruptcy court twice more.
The president-elect respects Ross’ deal-making skills, said Jason Miller, the communications director for Trump’s transition team.
“He’s seen Mr. Ross up close and personal,” Miller said. “He knows that he can depend on him.”
Ross grew up in New Jersey and attended a Jesuit prep school in New York before earning degrees from Yale and the Harvard Business School. He spent two decades at Rothschild working on bankruptcies before starting his own private equity firm, WL Ross & Co., in 2000.
A Palm Beach, Fla., resident who owns an art collection valued at nine figures and is worth an estimated $2.5 billion according to Forbes, Ross earned a reputation as a so-called vulture investor for finding profits in dying businesses. Ross described himself differently in an interview with New York magazine: “We’re a phoenix that rebuilds itself from the ashes.”
At the Commerce Department, Ross would oversee a portfolio containing responsibilities as diverse as weather research and promoting minority-owned businesses. However, with Trump in the White House, foreign trade likely will be the issue that gets the most of Ross’ attention. Trump has promised to remake free-trade deals.
President-elect Donald Trump, left, with Commerce secretary pick Wilbur Ross, whose estimated worth is $2.5 billion.
(Carolyn Kaster / Associated Press)
The department has wide latitude to determine when other countries are violating trade rules, experts said, allowing U.S. officials to slap tariffs on imports or find loopholes in international agreements.
The Trump administration won’t rush toward tariffs but wants to renegotiate some deals, Ross told CNBC after he was tapped by Trump.
“We’ve been doing a lot of dumb trade,” he said, echoing Trump’s campaign-trail rhetoric.
Trump’s pronouncement that companies that leave the U.S. will face a 35% tariff on goods they want to sell domestically has been met with a tepid response from his fellow Republicans. GOP leaders on Capitol Hill suggested this week that they would not go along with such a proposal, though they emphasized that they would wait to hear exactly what Trump had in mind.
“Take a deep breath. He’s not sworn in yet,” House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Bakersfield) told reporters. “Let’s not predetermine what the outcome of this stuff is.”
Even Trump’s vice president-elect, Mike Pence, deflected when asked repeatedly on MSNBC whether he agrees with the proposed tariff.
“What we don’t want to do is for companies to say it cost — it costs this much to manufacture it overseas and sell it in the United States and it costs this much in taxes and regulations and other burdens to manufacture here,” Pence said Tuesday on “Morning Joe.”
Ross, though, helped formulate Trump’s economic policies, which include tax cuts, reduced regulations on energy production and privately financed infrastructure spending spurred by tax credits.
Peter Navarro, a UC Irvine professor who worked with Ross on the proposals as a Trump adviser, praised Ross for his “precision, compassion, humility and subtle humor.”
“Donald Trump continues to choose very well for America,” Navarro said.
A report from Moody’s, however, predicted that Trump’s plans would lead to a recession, while the Tax Foundation projected that deficits would increase, conclusions that Navarro and Ross have dismissed.
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) slammed Trump’s choice of Ross. Democrats have no power to block his eventual nomination.
“Choosing a practiced corporate raider to head the Commerce Department reflects Republicans’ disdain for hard-working Americans struggling to make ends meet,” she said in a statement. “With sprawling conflicts of interest and a troubling record on worker safety, Democrats have serious concerns that Wilbur Ross’ corporate interests will trump the concerns of American families, entrepreneurs and our economic security.”
Her reference to worker safety was particularly damning. Ross’ private equity fund bought financially troubled coal operations several years ago, and in West Virginia, one of them, the Sago mine, suffered a collapse that killed a dozen people in 2006.
Miller defended Ross’ response to the blast, noting that Ross raised money to help families of the victims and invested in better mining safety.
Ross’ record with steel companies is less controversial. Under the banner of the International Steel Group, he acquired mills on the verge of being shuttered when their owners fell into bankruptcy. The company became the largest producer of steel in the country, and Ross sold the operations for $4.5 billion two years after he entered the industry.
Despite his Wall Street background, Ross had a good relationship with labor. Leo Gerard, president of the United Steelworkers, said that his exchanges with Ross weren’t “peaches and cream,” but he was open to workers’ concerns.
“Lots of these folks are bottom-feeders. They come in, and they strip the assets,” Gerard said of other investors. “Wilbur went the other way.”
WASHINGTON — A top Justice Department official suggested the Trump administration might have to ignore court orders as it prepared to deport Venezuelan migrants it accused of being gang members, a fired department lawyer alleged in a whistleblower complaint made public Tuesday.
The whistleblower’s claims about Principal Assistant Deputy Atty. Gen. Emil Bove come a day before Bove is set to face lawmakers Wednesday for his confirmation hearing to become a federal appeals court judge.
In a letter seeking a congressional and Justice Department watchdog investigation, the former government lawyer, Erez Reuveni, alleges he was pushed out and publicly disparaged after resisting efforts to defy judges and make arguments in court that were false or had no legal basis.
The most explosive allegation in the letter from Reuveni’s lawyers centers on a Justice Department meeting in March concerning President Trump’s plans to invoke the Alien Enemies Act over what the president claimed was an invasion by the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua. Reuveni says Bove raised the possibility that a court might block the deportations before they could happen. Reuveni claims Bove used a profanity, saying the department would need to consider telling the courts “f— you,” and “ignore any such order,” according to the filing.
“Mr. Reuveni was stunned by Bove’s statement because, to Mr. Reuveni’s knowledge, no one in DOJ leadership — in any Administration — had ever suggested the Department of Justice could blatantly ignore court orders, especially with” an expletive, the filing says. In the weeks after the meeting, Reuveni says he raised concerns in several cases about efforts to violate court orders through “lack of candor, deliberate delay and disinformation.”
Reuveni’s claims were first reported Tuesday by the New York Times.
Deputy Atty. Gen. Todd Blanche called the allegations “utterly false,” saying that he was at the March meeting and “at no time did anyone suggest a court order should not be followed.”
“Planting a false hit piece the day before a confirmation hearing is something we have come to expect from the media, but it does not mean it should be tolerated,” Blanche wrote in a post on X.
Reuveni had been promoted under the Trump administration to serve as acting deputy director of the Office of Immigration Litigation after working for the Justice Department for nearly 15 years under both Republican and Democratic administrations.
Reuveni’s firing came after he acknowledged in an April court hearing that a Salvadoran man, Kilmar Abrego Garcia, should not have been deported to an El Salvador prison, and expressed frustration over a lack of information about the administration’s actions. After that hearing, Reuveni says, he refused to sign on to an appeal brief in Abrego Garcia’s case that included arguments that were “contrary to law, frivolous, and untrue.”
“The consequences of DOJ’s actions Mr. Reuveni reports have grave impacts not only for the safety of individuals removed from the country in violation of court orders, but also for the constitutional rights and protections of all persons — citizen and noncitizen alike — who are potential victims of flagrant deliberate disregard of due process and the rule of law by the agency charged with upholding it,” Reuveni’s lawyers wrote.
U.S. District Judge James E. Boasberg in April found probable cause to hold the Trump administration in criminal contempt for violating his order to not deport anyone in its custody under the Alien Enemies Act. Boasberg had told the administration to turn around any planes that already headed to El Salvador, but that did not happen.
The administration has argued it did not violate any orders, saying the court decision didn’t apply to planes that had lready left U.S. airspace by the time Boasberg’s command came down.
Trump nominated Bove last month to fill a vacancy on the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which hears cases from Delaware, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. He was already expected to face tough questioning before the Senate Judiciary Committee given his role in some of the department’s most scrutinized actions since Trump’s return to the White House in January.
The top Democrat on the committee, Sen. Dick Durbin, said Tuesday that the allegations from Reuveni are part of a “broader pattern by President Trump and his allies to undermine the Justice Department’s commitment to the rule of law.”
“I want to thank Mr. Reuveni for exercising his right to speak up and bring accountability to Mr. Bove,” Durbin said in a statement. “And I implore my Senate Republican colleagues: do not turn a blind eye to the dire consequences of confirming Mr. Bove to a lifetime position as a circuit court judge.”
Democrats have raised alarm about several other actions by Bove, including his order to dismiss New York Mayor Eric Adams’ corruption case that led to the resignation of a top New York federal prosecutor and other senior Justice Department officials. Bove also accused FBI officials of “insubordination” for refusing to hand over the names of agents who investigated the U.S. Capitol riot, and ordered the firings of a group of prosecutors involved in the Jan. 6 criminal cases.
England captain Ben Stokes says it would have been “remarkable” to drop Ollie Pope from the team to face India after he scored 171 in the previous Test against Zimbabwe.
The last time it ran a similar deal was back in September, and that was only for 3 months of streaming.
However, this promotion comes directly from Disney itself, making it a brilliant chance to save money on one of the most popular streaming services around.
With this plan, you can stream in Full HD on two devices at the same time, and content is broken up by adverts.
Yep, it’s the no-frills version of Disney+ – but it’s still an absolute bargain at that reduced monthly cost.
For just £1.99 a month, you’ll get access to the entire Disney+ catalogue.
Parents, I imagine, will particularly appreciate this deal, with the school summer holidays fast approaching.
Naturally, the entire catalogue of Disney’s classic animated films is available to stream.
The latest addition to the platform is the live-action remake of Snow White – perfect if you missed it in cinemas (and are ready to face those CGI dwarves).
For Star Wars fans, the critically acclaimed Andor Series 2 is now available to stream in full.
Marvel lovers also have plenty to get excited about, with the latest series, Ironheart, set to premiere on 25th June.
But for my money, the biggest show on the horizon is Series 4 of The Bear.
This intense, heart-stirring and ever-so-slightly-stressful cooking drama is one of the best shows on TV, and the new season drops on 26th June.
I’ve been working up an appetite for this since thatSeason 3 finale last year.
Honestly, it’s worth the £1.99-per-month sign-up all by itself, in my opinion.
Kitchen dramas, superheroes, guilty-pleasure Mormon wife reality TV – it’s all there on Disney+.
Just make sure you sign up this month, before it returns to standard price.
SACRAMENTO — California’s state Democrats are shaking up leadership, with the Senate Democratic Caucus pledging unanimous support to Sen. Monique Limón (D-Goleta), who will take over as Senate president pro tem in early 2026.
Limón, who was elected to the state Senate in 2020, is chair of the Senate Democratic Caucus and the Senate banking committee. The 45-year-old Central Coast native served in the Assembly for four years before her Senate campaign and worked in higher education at UC Santa Barbara and the Santa Barbara County School Board before entering politics.
She highlighted the importance of the moment, noting that the caucus, amid ICE raids led by the Trump administration targeting minorities in Los Angeles and across the state, elected her — the first woman of color to hold the position.
The uncertain times, she said, were “a reminder of why leadership today, tomorrow and in the future matters, because leadership thinks about and influences the direction in all moments, but, in particular, in these very challenging moments. And for me, it is unbelievably humbling to be here.”
Recently, Limón has been vocal on the Sable Offshore Pipeline project, which aims to repair and reopen a pipeline off the coast of Santa Barbara County that spilled 21,000 gallons of crude oil in 2015. This year she wrote a measure, Senate Bill 542, in response to the project that would require more community input on reopening pipelines and better safety guidelines to find weak points that could lead to another spill.
“No one has fought harder to make college more affordable than Monique Limón,” said current Senate President Pro Tem Mike McGuire (D-Healdsburg), who also applauded her work on wildfire recovery. “She is a tireless voice for the Central Coast in rural parts of this great state.”
McGuire took leadership of the Senate in a unanimous vote by Democrats with former speaker and gubernatorial candidate Toni Atkins’ blessing in February. He pledged to protect the state’s progressive ideals ahead of a problematic state budget that continued to bubble over, with the Trump administration and Republican-controlled Congress supporting cuts in federal aid to the state for heathcare for low-income Californians, education and research and other essential programs.
The Sonoma County Democrat’s takeover was part of a wider change — both legislative houses were led by lawmakers from Northern California this year, leaving Southern California legislators with limited control. Limón’s district covers Santa Barbara County and parts of Ventura and San Luis Obispo counties.
McGuire terms out of office next year and may be planning a run for insurance commissioner in 2026 but wouldn’t confirm his plans despite collecting more than $220,000 in contributions so far this year.
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They’ve long been hedging their bets. But Southeast Asian nations are caught in the dispute between the United States and China. The trade-dependent countries are under threat from Trump’s tariffs, too. They face a delicate balancing act between economic survival and strategic neutrality. The message was clear at the Association of Southeast Asian Nations – ASEAN’s recent summit in the Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur. Member countries are recalibrating their economic partnerships to insulate their economies. That includes a push to deepen trade ties with China and Gulf countries.
When the world calls you “Little Al,” you’re going to do what it takes to be seen.
That’s what I thought after spending an hour last week at the Porsche Experience Center in Carson with the city’s former mayor, Albert Robles.
He’s not the Albert Robles who was found guilty 19 years ago of fleecing South Gate out of $20 million as treasurer — that’s Big Al Robles. Little Al is the one who has tried to be a political somebody in L.A. County for over 30 years, only to almost always fall short, his career careening from one controversy to another.
In 2006, he represented three men who moved to Vernon in an attempt to take over the City Council; they all lost. That same year, Little Al represented Big Al — no, they’re not actually related — at the latter’s sentencing and argued that his client deserved leniency since what he did was common in California politics. The presiding judge replied, “What you have just said is among the most absurd things I have ever heard.”
Then-Carson Mayor Al Robles during a Carson City Council meeting at City Hall in 2015.
(Los Angeles Times)
The year after he was elected Carson’s mayor in 2015, the Fair Political Practices Commission fined Robles $12,000 to resolve allegations of campaign finance law violations. Two years after that, Robles’ 24-year tenure on the board of directors for Water Replenishment District of Southern California — an obscure agency that provides water for 44 cities in L.A. County — ended after a Superior Court judge ruled he couldn’t hold that seat at the same time that he was serving as mayor.
He lost the mayoral seat in the 2020 general election after striking out in his bid for county supervisor in the primary election earlier that year. Robles has been unsuccessful in two other races since — for an L.A. County Superior Court seat in 2022, and a state Senate primary last year where he garnered just 8.5% of the vote.
“I keep thinking I’m done and then I’m not done,” the 56-year-old joked at one point in our conversation as Caymans and Carreras roared through the test track as we lounged in a nearby patio. “It’s kind of like they dragged me back in.”
“Whether or not she lives in [Huntington Park], whether or not she’s an angel, whether or not she’s Charles Manson, that doesn’t matter: She was denied the process that all of us are entitled to,” Robles said.
Um, Manson?
He’s also representing another former Huntington Park council member, Valentin Amezquita, in another lawsuit against the city. That one demands the city hold a special election for Castillo’s former seat, which Amezquita unsuccessfully applied for.
Wait, aren’t the lawsuits contradicting each other?
A judge told him the same thing, Robles admitted. He told me he filed them to expose what he described as Huntington Park’s “hypocrisy” for supposedly following the city charter over the Castillo matter, but ignoring it when choosing her replacement.
“It’s just like what’s happening at the federal level, as far as I see it,” Robles grumbled. Earlier, he compared the lack of due process Castillo allegedly faced to Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the Salvadoran national illegally deported by the Trump administration to his home country. “It’s frustrating.”
The more he talked, the more it became evident Robles wants to be seen as the crusader he’s always imagined himself to be and is annoyed that he’s not.
Carson Mayor Albert Robles speaks during a hearing about a proposed $480-million desalination plant in El Segundo in 2019 at the Carson Event Center.
(Dania Maxwell / Los Angeles Times)
His grievances are many.
He continues to hold a grudge against former L.A. County Dist. Atty. Steve Cooley, whom he described as “corrupt … and I’ll call him that to his face.” Cooley, for his part, told The Times in 2013 that when Robles unsuccessfully ran against him in 2008, he was “probably the most unqualified candidate ever” because of his political past.
Robles bragged that he torpedoed Cooley’s career.
“It’s an exaggeration — over-embellishment — on my part, but I actually take credit for” Cooley losing his 2010 bid to become California attorney general. “Because when I ran against him, I caused him to spend money — money that he otherwise would have had for the AG race. And if [Cooley] had that additional half a million dollars that he had to spend for the DA race, he may have won.”
He thinks Latino politicians need to close ranks like he feels other ethnicities do.
Case in point: Operation Dirty Pond, an L.A. County district attorney probe into a long-delayed Huntington Park aquatic park. In February, investigators raided City Hall and the homes of seven individuals, including two former council members and two current ones. Robles said the probe doesn’t “make sense” and is further proof that Latino politicians are held to a higher standard than other politicians.
“If Esmeralda were Black or Asian, or hell — dare I say — even white, I think it would be reported differently. I honestly believe that. Because those communities are willing to set aside their differences for the better good, because they know that, hey, if one person is being mistreated, we all are.”
Once he realized I wanted to discuss his own political travails as much as of his clients, Robles said the better setting for our chat would’ve been the Albert Robles Center, a water treatment center in Pico Rivera that opened in 2019.
“That structure, you know, everyone loves it now. Everyone celebrates that it’s there. But surprise, surprise: not one environmental group, not one came out and supported our effort to build it up. … Nobody fought more for that building, for that project, than me.”
This set off more grievances.
Robles was bitter that L.A.’s “Latino power elite” hadn’t listened to him and invested more time and effort in the South Bay, where Latinos make up a majority of the population in many cities but have little political representation.
“They just see us as differently and the resources to organize and build up that political power base never materialized,” he said. “I don’t know if they see it as ‘Oh, those are more affluent communities, they don’t need our help.’ I don’t know.”
He was also “disheartened” by Black residents that opposed district elections in Carson that would have probably brought more Latinos onto the council. They were introduced in 2020 after a lawsuit alleged Latino voters were disenfranchised in the city. Since then, there hasn’t been a Latino elected to the City Council.
“We would have members of the African American community come up and say, ‘Well, we have a Latino mayor. We don’t need districts. Latinos should vote — stop speaking Spanish, and learn to vote.’ And then I would say, ‘You know, everything you’re saying is what whites said about Blacks in the South. And they’re like, ‘That’s not true.’ So, like, some forgot their history and now we seem to have fallen into the politics of, ‘If it’s not us, it can’t be them.’”
We climbed upstairs to the Porsche Experience Center’s viewing deck so Robles could pose for photos. Workers at the venue’s restaurant greeted him, drawing the first genuine smile Robles had flashed all afternoon.
He then mentioned that somewhere in the building was his name. I thought it would be on a plaque commemorating the debut of the Porsche Experience Center in 2016, when Robles was mayor. But it turned out to be his John Hancock alongside a bunch of others on a whiteboard in a room facing the parking lot.
The room was locked.
Robles wondered out loud if he should ask the staff to open it so we could take a better look. Instead, we peered through a window.
“It’s right there,” he told me, trying to describe where exactly it was among all the other signatures. “Well, you’re not familiar with it so you probably can’t see it.”
