ALEXANDRIA, Va. — A federal judge on Wednesday ordered prosecutors in the criminal case of former FBI Director James Comey to produce a trove of materials from the investigation, saying he was concerned that the Justice Department’s position had been to “indict first and investigate later.”
Magistrate Judge William Fitzpatrick instructed prosecutors to produce by the end of the day on Thursday grand jury materials and other evidence that investigators seized during the investigation. The order followed arguments in which Comey’s attorneys said they were at a disadvantage because they had not been able to review materials that were gathered years ago.
Comey, who attended the hearing but did not speak, is charged with lying to Congress in 2020 in a case filed days after President Trump appeared to urge his attorney general to prosecute the former FBI director and other perceived political enemies. He has pleaded not guilty, and his lawyers have argued that it’s a vindictive prosecution brought at the direction of the Republican president and must be dismissed.
At issue at Wednesday’s hearing were communications seized by investigators who in 2019 and 2020 executed search warrants of devices belonging to Daniel Richman, a Columbia University law professor and close friend of Comey who had also served as a special government employee at the FBI.
Richman factors into the case because prosecutors say that Comey had encouraged him to engage with reporters about matters related to the FBI and that Comey therefore lied to Congress when he denied having authorized anyone at the FBI to serve as an anonymous source. But Comey’s lawyers say he was explicitly responding to a question about whether he had authorized former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe to serve as an anonymous source.
Comey’s lawyers told the judge they had not reviewed the materials taken from Richman and thus could not know what information was privileged.
“We’re going to fix that, and we’re going to fix that today,” the judge said.
Comey’s indictment came days after Trump in a social media post called on Atty. Gen. Pam Bondi to take action against Comey and other longtime foes of the president. The indictment was brought by Lindsey Halligan, a former White House aide and Trump lawyer who was installed as U.S. attorney after the longtime prosecutor who had been overseeing the investigation resigned under administration pressure to indict Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James.
The Justice Department in court papers earlier this week defended the president’s social media post, contending it reflects “legitimate prosecutorial motive” and is no basis to dismiss the indictment.
Oct. 18 (UPI) — U.S. Customs & Border Patrol agricultural specialists at the Port of San Luis in Arizona intercepted an insect not previously identified in the United States: Osbornellus sallus.
CBP Tucson office specialists found the pests during a routine inspection of a radicchio shipment arriving from Mexico at the port halfway between San Diego and Tucson, according to the agency on Friday.
Radicchio is a bitter and spicy leaf vegetable.
The Osbornellus sallus — which is a type of leafhopper that feeds on plants by sucking sap from grasses, trees and shrubs — was sent to an entomologist with the U.S. Department of Agriculture and Plant Health Inspection Service Plant Inspection and Quarantine.
USDA’s National Identification service confirmed it was a “first-in-the-nation” interception, and it is a potential threat to U.S. agriculture.
It was sent back to Mexico in accordance with protocol.
There are at least 105 species of Osboronellius, according to the National Museum of Natural History. Sallus is the Latin species name that translates to salty in English.
“CBP agriculture specialists are highly trained in detecting harmful pests,” Guadalupe Ramirez, director of field operations in Tucson, said.
“We have a great working relationship with our USDA partners and together we protect the nation from a variety of evolving dynamic threats such as invasive pests that could harm the United States’ agriculture resources,” Ramirez said.
CBP’s Office of Field Operations is part of Homeland Security.
These REITs can help you generate a growing stream of monthly dividend income.
Real estate investing can be a great way to make some passive income. You have lots of options, including purchasing a rental property, investing in a real estate partnership, or buying a real estate investment trust (REIT). Each one has its benefits and drawbacks.
REITs can be a great choice because they enable you to build a diversified real estate portfolio that produces lots of steady passive income. For example, you could collect nearly $250 of dividend income each month by investing $50,000 into these three top monthly dividend-paying REITs:
Data source: Google Finance and author’s calculations. Note: Dividend yield as of Oct. 1, 2025.
Another great thing about REITs is their accessibility — you don’t have to invest much to get started and can easily buy and sell shares in your brokerage account. So, don’t fret if you don’t have $50,000 to invest in REITs right now. You can start by investing a small amount each month and gradually build your passive income portfolio. Here’s why these REITs are excellent choices for those seeking to build passive income from real estate.
Realty Income
Realty Income has a simple mission: It aims to provide its investors with dependable monthly dividend income that steadily rises. The REIT has certainly delivered on its mission over the years.
The landlord has raised its monthly dividend payment 132 times since its public market listing in 1994. It has delivered 112 consecutive quarterly increases and raised its payment at least once each year for more than three decades, growing it at a 4.2% compound annual rate during that period.
Realty Income backs its high-yielding monthly dividend with a high-quality real estate portfolio. It owns retail, industrial, gaming, and other properties secured by long-term net leases with many of the world’s leading companies. Those leases provide it with very stable rental income, 75% of which it pays out in dividends. Realty Income retains the rest to invest in additional income-producing properties that grow its income and dividend.
Healthpeak Properties
Healthpeak Properties is new to paying monthly dividends, having switched from a quarterly schedule earlier this year. The REIT owns a diversified portfolio of healthcare-related properties, including medical office buildings, laboratories, and senior housing. It leases these properties to healthcare systems, biopharma companies, and physicians’ groups under long-term leases that feature annual escalation clauses.
The healthcare REIT had maintained its dividend payment at a steady rate over the past few years, allowing its growing rental income to steadily reduce its dividend payout ratio, which is now down to 75%. With its financial profile now healthier, Healthpeak has begun increasing its dividend, providing its investors with a 2% raise earlier this year.
Healthpeak should be able to continue growing its dividend in the future. Rental escalation clauses should boost its income by around 3% per year. Meanwhile, the REIT has growing financial flexibility to invest in additional income-producing healthcare properties.
EPR Properties
EPR Properties invests in experiential real estate, including movie theaters, eat-and-play venues, wellness properties, and attractions. It leases these properties back to operating companies, primarily under long-term net leases.
The REIT pays out around 70% of its cash flow in dividends each year, retaining the rest to invest in additional income-producing experiential properties. It currently plans to invest between $200 million and $300 million each year. It acquires properties and invests in experiential build-to-suit development and redevelopment projects. EPR has already committed to investing $109 million into projects it expects to fund over the next 18 months.
This investment range can support a low- to mid-single-digit annual growth rate in its cash flow per share. That should support a similar growth rate in its dividend payment. EPR is on track to grow its cash flow per share by around 4.3% this year and has already increased its monthly dividend payment by 3.5% this year.
Ideal REITs to own for passive income
If you want to start building passive income, consider adding Realty Income, Healthpeak Properties, and EPR Properties to your portfolio. Their growing real estate assets and history of steadily rising monthly dividends make them compelling options for anyone seeking dependable and increasing passive income. Investing in these REITs can help you take the first step toward securing your financial future.
Matt DiLallo has positions in EPR Properties and Realty Income. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends EPR Properties and Realty Income. The Motley Fool recommends Healthpeak Properties. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
I have a suggestion: Treat yourself to a beautiful meal, right now, at one of the Los Angeles restaurants where the chefs really invest in seasonal produce. There is nothing, anywhere, like the high-ripe flavors and rainbow pigments of California fruits and vegetables at the close of summer. We know this, but the knowing hits different when the produce is freshly considered by our finest culinary minds.
It’s an excellent time for a spontaneous indulgence. Late August and through September is shoulder season for finer-dining in L.A. Vacations are done, kids are back in school, we settle in at work and home before the holiday blur. Reservations are often easier to score. Many of our favorite dining rooms could use our presence. The ingredients are so urgent, I’d nudge you even to show up solo at a restaurant’s bar and savor just a plate or two of summer’s final splendors.
Where to taste the end of summer in L.A.
The cooking at Rustic Canyon, guided by chef de cuisine Elijah DeLeon, is particularly exciting at this annual juncture, when the greatness of the raw product is a given and the deeper pleasure comes from the savvy, daily-changing flavor combinations. His weaving of spells began with a plate of halved greengage plums from Andy’s Orchard — a fruit Lucas Peterson once rightly dubbed the “Holy Grail of stone fruit” — filled with a cherry paste cleverly mimicking the Mexican candy Chamoy.
Charcoal-grilled Jimmy Nardello peppers were paired with hunks of white peach and dusted with fennel pollen, a garnish that can sometimes seem precious and innocuous but here added the right offsetting licorice nip. White cheddar blanketed a spread of earthy-sweet corn kernels and snipped shishito peppers, a feel-good riff that fell somewhere between Midwestern creamed corn and Korean corn cheese. Tiny Sungold tomatoes rolled like marbles around nearly translucent sea bass, crowned for contrast with an oversize round of orange-ish butter flecked with herbs and Calabrian chiles.
Jimmy Nardello peppers and white peaches at an August meal at Rustic Canyon in Santa Monica.
(Bill Addison / Los Angeles Times)
A meaty pork chop arrived with thin ribbons of zucchini that had been glossed in mustard vinaigrette. The effect was more of a glow than a zap, lifting the pork with gentle acid while allowing the vegetable to also shine. So light-handed, so summery.
DeLeon’s menu moves at warp speed during these heady months; I see figs and purslane currently adorn the pork chop this week, and the variety of snacking plums are speckled Mirabelles.
More summer-themed suggestions
For dining inspiration, here’s a rundown of some other spectacular summertime dishes I’ve had in the last month. They’re going fast, agriculturally speaking. Acorn squash and apples have their own joys, but nothing beats the moment we’re in.
Yess has opened for lunch service, and the menu includes Junya Yamasaki’s famed “monk’s chirashi.” A recent version, splayed over rice, modeled peaches, plums, cucumbers, peas still dangling from their pods and handsomely veiny shiso leaves.
A summertime version of “monk’s chirashi” at Yess in the Arts District.
(Bill Addison / Los Angeles Times)
I’ve written plenty lately about the glories of the vegetable cooking at RVR in Venice. Go straight for the peaches and purple daikon stung with tosazu (vinegar-based dressing smoky with katsuobushi) and aromatic accents of pickled Fresno chiles, ginger and crushed Marcona almond.
It isn’t summer without at least one cracker-thin bar pie at Quarter Sheets (available Tuesday, Wednesday and Sunday, for dine-in only) scattered with Jimmy Nardellos and sausage.
Two perennial favorites for savory-leaning stone fruit salads: The beauty at Kismet fragrant with lemon balm and dressed in turmeric-whey vinaigrette that adds intriguing color and weight, and the tomato and stone fruit salad at Majordomo splashed with a perfectly balanced sherry vinaigrette and flecked with shiso.
Dunsmoor’s summer menu straddles the influence of parallel agrarian regions: California and the American South. A simple platter of sliced duck ham and fleshy Honeyloupe melon from Weiser Farms brought the theme home early in the meal.
Smoked moulard duck ham with Weiser Farms Honeyloupe melon at Dunsmoor
(Bill Addison / Los Angeles Times)
Camélia in the Arts District is operating at the height of its powers. A late summer dinner: a fluffy salad of greens with slices of yellow peach and hidden walnuts, generously covered in shaved Comté and tensed with calamansi vinaigrette, followed by soft-shell crab tempura over a fresh sauce vierge made with bright, chewy-soft Sungolds. I’m a cheese freak, so a Comté tart with bruléed figs for dessert didn’t feel redundant.
Speaking of stunning salads: They never disappoint at A.O.C. in West Hollywood. Case in point: tender arugula arranged with cherries and nectarines, an ash-ripened goat cheese called Linedeline with the scent of mushrooms and, to drive home the intensity, a garlicky, pesto-like aillade bright green with pistachios.
Birdie G’s, one of the sister Santa Monica restaurants to Rustic Canyon where Jeremy Fox can frequently be seen on the path, has brought back its incredible relish tray featuring five-onion dip. Look for the shimmery sprigs of ice plant among the spectrum of geometric carved vegetables.
Birdie G’s relish plate, pictured in 2019. It’s always changing.
(Mariah Tauger / Los Angeles Times)
When do I know summer is over? When Nicole Rucker and her team stop baking pies with stone fruits at Fat & Flour. I just checked with Rucker, and the last of the peaches are touch and go. Fall might be here sooner than I’m willing to admit.
Newsletter
You’re reading Tasting Notes
Our L.A. Times restaurant experts share insights and off-the-cuff takes on where they’re eating right now.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
Food Bowl tickets
VIP tickets (allowing early entry) to The Times’ Food Bowl Night Market, presented by Square, are already sold out for the Saturday-night session taking place Oct. 11 at City Market Social House in downtown L.A. Friday-night VIP tickets are still available, but going fast. More than 40 restaurants are participating, including Holbox, Baroo, the Brothers Sushi, OyBar,Heritage Barbecue, Crudo e Nudo, Hummingbird Ceviche House, Rossoblu, Perilla L.A., Evil Cooks, Villa’s Tacos, Holy Basil and Luv2Eat Thai Bistro. Check lafoodbowl.com for tickets and info.
Also …
This week I review 88 Club, the Beverly Hills fine-dining Chinese restaurant that’s the latest project from star chef Mei Lin and restaurateur Francis Miranda. I love the shrimp toast hands-down, and there’s plenty else to think through.
Anyone else want to disappear into a big, nap-inducing pile of flapjacks this weekend? Khushbu Shah powered through diners, cafes and brunch stalwarts to name her 11 favorite plates of pancakes in L.A.
Stephanie Breijo has news of the latest sushi sensation: Kiyoshi Kimura, a prolific sushi restaurateur in Japan known as the “Tuna King,” has debuted his first U.S. restaurant, Sushi Zanmai, in Koreatown.
Some uplifting news from Suhauna Hussain: A new owner aims to reopen the Original Pantry, the iconic eatery in downtown Los Angeles that closed earlier this year, by New Year’s Eve. His goal is also to re-employ the staff of 25 who had been laid off.
As we head into the best time for oysters, Ari Kolender of Found Oyster and Queen’s Raw Bar & Grill shows us the right way to shuck them.
The UK government is urging Brits planning trips to Spain to ensure they have a copy of this document to hand, or they could face a large fine
Brits may need to show this document to enter the country(Image: Westend61 via Getty Images)
British holidaymakers plotting a Spanish holiday could face massive fines of up to €6,900 (£5,900) if caught without the proper paperwork in a post-Brexit travel clampdown. Spain’s Ministry of the Interior alongside the Ministry of Health have laid down the law with a new regulation that Brit tourists heading for some sunshine need to know.
UK travellers to Spain now need to provide evidence of comprehensive travel insurance upon arrival. And a European Health Insurance Card (EHIC), or Global Health Insurance Card (GHIC), will not be enough to cover your stay.
Private health insurance, complete with full coverage, will now be required for all holidaymakers. According to Travel and Tour World, it’s mandatory for British visitors to offer up proof of health insurance which covers emergencies, hospital stays, and repatriation, and your policy should not have hefty excesses or exclude existing health conditions.
Holidaymakers could even be turned away without the correct documents(Image: Getty Images)
Spanish Health Minister Carolina Darias said: “The health of our visitors is a priority. We are committed to ensuring that all travellers, including British nationals, have the necessary coverage to protect themselves and the local healthcare system.”
If tourists arrive without the right health insurance , they could even find themselves turned away at Spanish borders. Worse still, those on holiday without insurance may get hit with fines climbing up to £5,900, reports Bristol Live.
The UK government has stepped in with key advice for holidaymakers, emphasising the importance of obtaining proper travel insurance before jetting off to Spain, and recommending that travellers carry evidence of their coverage.
In a statement issued by the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), they advised: “If you choose to travel, research your destinations and get appropriate travel insurance. Insurance should cover your itinerary, planned activities and expenses in an emergency.”
They also pressed on the significance of getting travel insurance before departure, saying: “If you travel internationally you should buy appropriate travel insurance before you go, covering you for existing physical or mental health conditions (including those currently under investigation) and any activities you will be doing whilst you are away.”
Official guidance concludes: “If you do not have appropriate insurance before you travel, you could be liable for emergency expenses, including medical treatment, which may cost thousands of pounds.”
The change comes among a raft of amendments to rules for Brits visiting Spain, with UK tourists urged to check documents such as their passport before they jet off.
Spain has also created a new national register for tourist accommodation in a bid to cut down on unlicensed short-term rentals.
The director of national intelligence had previously said Iran was not building nuclear weapons
Tulsi Gabbard says Iran could produce nuclear weapons “within weeks”, months after she testified before Congress that the country was not building them.
The US Director of National Intelligence said her March testimony – in which she said Iran had a stock of materials but was not building these weapons – had been taken out of context by “dishonest media”.
Her change of position came after Donald Trump said she was “wrong” and that intelligence showed Iran had a “tremendous amount of material” and could have a nuclear weapon “within months”.
Iran has always said that its nuclear programme is entirely peaceful and that it has never sought to develop a nuclear weapon.
On Thursday Trump said he was giving Tehran the “maximum” of two weeks to reach a deal on its nuclear activities with Washington. He said he would soon decide whether the US should join Israel’s strikes on Iran.
Disagreement has been building within Trump’s “America First” movement over whether the US should enter the conflict.
On Saturday morning, Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said his country was “absolutely ready for a negotiated solution” on their nuclear programme but that Iran “cannot go through negotiations with the US when our people are under bombardment”.
In her post on social media, Gabbard said US intelligence showed Iran is “at the point that it can produce a nuclear weapon within weeks to months”.
“President Trump has been clear that can’t happen, and I agree,” she added.
Gabbard shared a video of her full testimony before Congress in March, where she said US intelligence agencies had concluded Iran was not building nuclear weapons.
Experts also determined Iran had not resumed its suspended 2003 nuclear weapons programme, she added in the clip, even as the nation’s stockpile of enriched uranium – a component of such weapons – was at an all-time high.
In her testimony, she said Iran’s stock was “unprecedented for a state without nuclear weapons”.
Gabbard’s March testimony has been previously criticised by Trump, who earlier told reporters he did not “care what she said”.
The US president said he believes Iran were “very close to having a weapon” and his country would not allow that to happen.
Watch: Trump says Tulsi Gabbard is “wrong” on Iran
In 2015, Iran agreed a long-term deal on its nuclear programme with a group of world powers after years of tension over the country’s alleged efforts to develop a nuclear weapon.
Iran had been engaging in talks with the US this year over its nuclear programme and was scheduled to hold a further round when Israel launched strikes on Iran on 13 June, which Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said targeted “the heart” of Iran’s nuclear programme.
“If not stopped, Iran could produce a nuclear weapon in a very short time,” Netanyahu claimed.
Israeli air strikes have destroyed Iranian military facilities and weapons, and killed senior military commanders and nuclear scientists.
Iran’s health ministry said on Saturday that at least 430 people had been killed, while a human rights group, the Human Rights Activists News Agency, put the unofficial death toll at 657 on Friday.
Iran has retaliated with missile and drone strikes against Israel, killing 25 people including one who suffered a heart attack.
England score two second-half goals to come from behind against the Netherlands in their opening game of the Women’s European U19 Championship in Tarnobrzeg, Poland.
