JAKARTA, Indonesia: Nearly 2,000 people, most of them students, fell ill in suspected food poisoning outbreaks linked to President Prabowo Subianto ‘s flagship Free Nutritious Meals program this week, raising fresh concerns about food safety as the government rapidly expands the multibillion-dollar initiative nationwide, officials said Saturday.
The incidents, reported between Tuesday and Thursday in East Java, Central Java, West Sumatra, Aceh and South Sulawesi, affected about 1,950 students, teachers and Islamic boarding school pupils who became sick after consuming meals distributed under the government program, known by its Indonesian acronym MBG.
The outbreaks are the latest setback for Prabowo’s signature free meals program, which has been rolled out across the archipelago despite repeated food poisoning incidents and corruption allegations.
The largest outbreak was reported in Central Java’s Rembang regency, where 752 students and 25 teachers at State Senior High School 1 Lasem, suffered diarrhea, nausea, vomiting and stomach pain after eating meals provided through the program, according to Rembang Health Office head Ali Syofi’i.
In Sidoarjo, East Java, 730 people, most of them students at the Manbaul Hikam Islamic boarding school, were affected in another suspected food poisoning incident linked to the program. Sidoarjo health office chief Lakhsmie Herawati Yuwantina said 706 victims had been discharged and were recovering at home.
Authorities also reported 276 suspected cases involving students and teachers in Agam regency, West Sumatra, where food distribution from the local nutrition service center was suspended pending an investigation. In Aceh’s Bener Meriah regency, 15 elementary school students and a school principal were treated after experiencing dizziness, nausea and other symptoms following a school meal.
Another 152 students from two junior high schools in Tana Toraja, South Sulawesi, were treated at three hospitals after developing symptoms consistent with food poisoning. Regent Zadrak Tombeq ordered hospitals and health centers to prioritize treatment for the victims.
No deaths have been reported, and authorities are investigating the causes of the outbreaks.
The latest incidents add to a growing number of food poisoning cases linked to the program since its launch in January 2025. According to Health Ministry surveillance data as of Sept. 2, food poisoning incidents associated with MBG have affected 50,059 people in 560 cases across 245 districts and cities in 36 provinces.
In a hearing with the House’s Commission IX overseeing health issues, National Nutrition Agency chief Sudaryono said internal reviews found that roughly 80 percent to 90 percent of previous food poisoning incidents were linked to failures to follow food safety procedures, including rules governing food storage, receipt of ingredients, temperature control and consumption deadlines.
“The recent incidents in Sidoarjo, Agam, Rembang and other areas have been a major blow for us,” said Sudaryono, who like many Indonesians uses a single name.
He said the agency was tightening oversight of meal providers and reviewing about 27,000 meal distribution centers nationwide. Inspectors have found hundreds of allegedly fictitious facilities, while at least 833 kitchens have been shut down for failing to meet hygiene and sanitation standards.
The free meals program aims to combat malnutrition and reduce childhood stunting by providing meals to nearly 90 million students, toddlers and pregnant women. The initiative, expected to cost about $28 billion through 2029, is a cornerstone of Prabowo’s administration and one of his key campaign promises.
The first edition of the remade “60 Minutes” under CBS News editor in chief Bari Weiss debuts Sept. 13 with a reliable formula from the venerable newsmagazine’s playbook.
Correspondent Jon Wertheim will lead off the 59th season with an in-depth look at the Los Angeles Rams, the favorite of oddsmakers to win the Super Bowl this season. Wertheim sits down with Rams general manager Les Snead, head coach Sean McVay and veteran quarterback Matthew Stafford. The segment will also explore team owner Stan Kroenke’s investment in technology, including artificial intelligence, to help the team gain an edge on the field.
Jon Wertheim interviews Los Angeles Rams head coach Sean McVay.
(CBS News)
“60 Minutes” has often turned to sports-related segments when a season premiere follows a late afternoon NFL game. Last year, Wertheim profiled Ultimate Fighting Championship Chief Executive Dana White for the 58th season premiere. The program scored more than 10 million viewers and was the most-watched non-sports program of the week. In 2023, Wertheim interviewed University of Colorado head football coach Deion Sanders for the 56th season opener.
CBS News will be under pressure to have “60 Minutes” get off to a strong start in the ratings following the major upheaval at the program earlier this year.
After the completion of a successful season where ratings were up 9% over the previous year, Weiss fired “60 Minutes” correspondents Sharyn Alfonsi and Cecilia Vega — both of whom complained that the executive pushed them to add right-wing talking points to their stories. Weiss also dismissed “60 Minutes” executive producer Tanya Simon and replaced her with screenwriter and documentary filmmaker Nick Bilton, who has no previous experience in TV news.
In response to the firings, longtime correspondent Scott Pelley accused Weiss of “murdering” the program and claimed she was putting “her thumb on the scale” for more favorable coverage of President Trump’s administration. Pelley was shown the door with cause after confronting management at a June 1 meeting. CBS denied the claims.
The discord meant the program spent much of the summer hiring replacement correspondents, including Ross Douthat, a conservative New York Times opinion writer with no experience as a TV journalist.
Weiss, founder of the heterodox digital news site the Free Press, was hired by Paramount Chief Executive David Ellison with a mandate to pull the news division to the political center. The stated goal has put every move by Weiss under heavy scrutiny, as many critics have suggested she is at the network to placate the Trump White House while Paramount pursues its acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery.
Other new “60 Minutes” contributors include author and journalist Sebastian Junger, former CNN and Vice News correspondent Gianna Toboni, and Trevor Phillips, a British journalist who joined CBS News earlier this year as a senior global affairs correspondent. They will join correspondents Wertheim, Norah O’Donnell, Bill Whitaker and Lesley Stahl.
The program will also feature stories with CBS News correspondents outside of the core group at “60 Minutes,” such as Seth Doane and Matt Gutman.
The other two segments on the “60 Minutes” premiere, — which could include a significant newsmaker interview, — will be announced sometime next week.
This year’s premiere should get a strong boost, as most of the country will get CBS coverage of a late afternoon match-up between the Green Bay Packers and the Minnesota Vikings, two contenders in the highly competitive NFC North. The network’s pregame show “The NFL Today” is traveling to Green Bay for the telecast.
The time is now in Berkeley.
“I’m very confident. I think we have the opportunity to go out and be successful,” said Ron Rivera, California’s athletic director and football general manager. “If we can be successful early on, we can most certainly build faster than anticipated as well.”
The Golden Bears haven’t delivered an eight-win season since 2009, an outright conference title since 1958 or a national championship since 1937.
Led by a tenacious new head coach and a left-handed prodigy under center, with a loaded offense and an aligned administration to match, the Golden Bears are earnest as ever entering Saturday night’s home opener against UCLA.
“You can feel the anticipation in the locker room,” Cal quarterback Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele said. “Everyone’s excited to go out there and play for each other and represent the Bears.”
Cal coach Tosh Lupoi waves to fans before throwing out the first pitch before a Giants-Marlins game on April 24.
(Jeff Chiu / Associated Press)
California’s renewed belief largely stems from first-time skipper Tosh Lupoi, who has instilled enthusiasm at his alma mater since taking over for the fired Justin Wilcox in December.
“He’s not scared to get … too hyped,” Golden Bears linebacker AJ Tuitele said of Lupoi said. “The players just match his energy. It’s a big deal for us.”
A Bay Area native, Lupoi was a defensive lineman for the Golden Bears from 2000-05 and became the youngest full-time coach in program history at 26, emerging as an elite recruiter as California’s defensive line coach on Jeff Tedford’s staff from 2008-11.
Lupoi later gained experience at Washington, Alabama, in the NFL and, most recently, as Oregon’s defensive coordinator for the past four seasons. But leading the Cal has always been his dream.
“Every waking second of my life will be dedicated to the success of this program,” Lupoi said during his introductory news conference. “No matter what I say, it’s going to be based off of my actions. And I’m a man of action.”
Nine months in, Lupoi has worked to mold a program that lives by three pillars: relentless effort, ball excellence and power of unit.
The confidence is contagious, prompting Lupoi to take the tarps off at Memorial Stadium for the first time in several years and allow thousands more tickets to be sold for the highly anticipated opener against UCLA.
“Butts in the seats and eyes on the television,” Rivera said. “That engagement is so important.”
Cal quarterback Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele looks to throw a pass against Hawaii during the Hawai’i Bowl on Dec. 24 in Honolulu.
(Darryl Oumi / Getty Images)
The Golden Bears also have a proven leader in Sagapolutele, also known as JKS, on their side.
Sagapolutele threw for 3,454 yards and 18 touchdowns as a true freshman with a limited supporting cast and suspect offensive line. A folk hero in his home state of Hawaii, Sagapolutele is projected to be a first-round prospect in the 2028 NFL draft.
The 20-year-old has shown poise in the pocket, patience when going through progressions and ability to throw receivers open anywhere on the field.
“Even if you’re covered, he finds back shoulders and back hips,” UCLA coach Bob Chesney said of Sagapolutele. “Even when under duress … [the football] seems to still be put right on the money. … A kid that’s very hard to fluster.”
He’ll be manning a pro-style scheme in 2026 constructed by first-time offensive coordinator Jordan Somerville, who comes to Berkeley after three years as Baker Mayfield’s assistant quarterbacks coach with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
“[Sagapolutele] is everything that is said about him,” Somerville said. “He is awesome to be around.”
Washington running back Adam Mohammed is tackled by UCLA linebacker Jonjon Vaughns at the Rose Bowl on Nov. 22. Mohammed has transferred to Cal, calling it “a great place to be.”
(Eric Thayer/Los Angeles Times)
The Golden Bears assembled what recruiting network 247Sports called the ACC’s second-best transfer portal class this spring, rebuilding its defense with younger, high-ceiling players and stocking its offense with more proven talent.
“Cal is a great place to be,” said running back Adam Mohammed, who transferred in from Washington. “You get a good degree and a great education [and an] NFL coaching staff. That basically sums it up.”
It’ll be on first-time coordinator Michael Hutchings, who was the Minnesota Vikings’ safety coach for the last three years, to put together a competent defense. He has solid returning options to work with as well as an influx of transfers.
“Control what we can control [and] focus on us,” Hutchings said of his approach.
The offense’s personnel is much simpler. In Somerville’s system, Sagapolutele will work alongside seasoned transfers, including running backs Mohammed and Carter Vargas (UC Davis), wideouts Chase Hendricks (Ohio), Ian Strong (Rutgers) and Cooper Perry (Oregon), tight end Dorian Thomas (New Mexico) and right tackle Jimothy Lewis (Mississippi State).
California beat several bluebloods in the transfer portal and continues to win high school recruiting battles, with an elite 2027 class on the horizon led by Westlake wideout Charles Davis and Chaparral quarterback Dane Weber.
Assistant general manager Marshall Cherrington, who has largely led the Golden Bears’ roster-building efforts for nearly eight years, remembers when major recruiting wins weren’t realistic.
“The access we have now is unparalleled to what we’ve had here in my time,” Cherrington said. “The positive trajectory only improves the opportunities to do more selecting rather than recruiting.
“It’s not like, ‘Oh, we can’t go after a kid because he’s in Florida or Mississippi or wherever.’ It’s like, ‘Oh, we got access.’”
Cal football general manager Ron Rivera, right, and new football coach Tosh Lupoi hold up a jersey during Lupoi’s introductory news conference on Dec. 5.
(Thearon W. Henderson / Getty Images)
Lupoi was the missing piece alongside Rivera and Chancellor Rich Lyons, forming a trio of Berkeley graduates who understand the importance of elevating the university’s profile with a contending football program.
“It’s hard to overstate the importance and benefit of the fact that Tosh, Ron Rivera and I are all Cal alumni who share profound respect for Berkeley’s values, traditions, and persistent pursuit of excellence in all that we do,” Lyons said.
The trio has worked to tap into Berkeley’s alumni network, from Silicon Valley to the NFL — and it’s paying off.
California Athletics recently announced it received $88.5 million in “gifts and pledges” from July 2025 to June 2026, in a year when the football team posted a 7-6 record and both basketball programs missed the big dance.
“This is not a normal university in terms of what people expect and don’t expect from you,” Rivera said. “The expectations at Cal are high.”
It all starts with Saturday’s “Pac-12 After Dark” throwback against UCLA, with game kicking off at 7:30 p.m. and airing on ESPN.
“You should be really excited about what you’re going to see,” Sagapolutele added. “You’re going to want to keep coming to our games, for sure.”
Norah O’Donnell is returning to “CBS Mornings” in what is expected to be the start of a significant revamp of the struggling program.
CBS News told staffers Thursday that the former anchor of the “CBS Evening News” will become a co-anchor of the morning show on Tuesday Sept. 8 alongside Gayle King and Nate Burleson. O’Donnell is also a full-time correspondent at “60 Minutes.”
The addition of O’Donnell is the first step in a makeover for “CBS Mornings,” which will be redesigned to have a faster pace and more live interviews, according to people familiar with the plans and were not authorized to discuss them publicly.
There is also talk it will become more of a discussion program similar to MS NOW’s “Morning Joe.” The memo announcing her return was written by Jon Tower, a “CBS Mornings” senior producer who once worked on that program.
O’Donnell, 52, was part of the trio of co-hosts that gave CBS News the highest ratings in three decades, “CBS This Morning,” when she shared the desk with King and Charlie Rose. The program launched in 2012 and saw its ratings increase for five straight years. The audience levels fell off when Rose departed the program after he was hit with sexual harassment allegations in 2017.
“CBS This Morning” was renamed “CBS Mornings” in 2021, and adapted the theme music of the network’s popular weekend program “CBS Sunday Morning.” But the revamp never lived up to a promise to deliver the same in-depth stories as the Sunday program and failed to draw new viewers.
“CBS Mornings” has long been the ratings also-ran in the mornings behind NBC’s “Today” and ABC’s “Good Morning America.” But the program has hit record audience lows this year in part due to the cancellation of “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.”
Colbert was replaced by “Comics Unleashed” which is attracting about a third of the “Late Show” audience which was just over 2 million viewers. As a result, far fewer viewers are leaving their sets tuned to CBS after switching off for the night.
O’Donnell left the morning shift in 2019 to become anchor of the “CBS Evening News.” The program remained in third place in the ratings behind “ABC World News Tonight” and “NBC Nightly News,” but performed far better than John Dickerson and Maurice DuBois, the anchors who replaced her in 2025 and only lasted a year before they were replaced by Tony Dokoupil.
O’Donnell was content with a new role as a senior correspondent and contributor to “60 Minutes.” She has steered clear of controversies that have occurred at CBS News since Bari Weiss was installed as editor-in-chief, and showed a willingness to step up for big assignments.
O’Donnell’s put-me-in-coach attitude has turned out to serve her well as she was elevated to a full-time correspondent at “60 Minutes” and will soon be the center of a revamped morning program.
O’Donnell joined CBS News in 2011 as chief White House correspondent after a 12-year run at NBC News.
Expect a rich fall season of ambitious, revelatory shows across Los Angeles museums this fall, including blown glass, taxidermy and landmark retrospectives of work by Doyle Lane, Laura Andreson, Roy DeCarava and Mavis Pusey.
Source link
After sparse attendance during USC’s season-opening win over San José State turned the Trojans into a national punchline during the weekend, USC coach Lincoln Riley responded Tuesday, dismissing what he called a “false narrative” being spread about the program in recent days.
“I think that comes from a lot of people who don’t follow our program, most of those who have never stepped foot in the Coliseum,” Riley said. “The reality is, during my years here, attendance has gone up every single year. As has our play in the Coliseum, including running the table last year in front of a lot of epic atmospheres. And I expect that to happen again this year.”
Average attendance for USC football games at the Coliseum actually dropped from the 2024 to the 2025 season, from an average of 71,571 to 67,783. But the 2025 season also featured fewer marquee home matchups, plus one game soaked by heavy rain (Iowa), and it was still the second-best average attendance of Riley’s four seasons as coach.
Saturday, though, marked the smallest home crowd at USC since late in the 2018 season, when the Trojans had their worst finish for the program in a quarter century, under former coach Clay Helton.
Much of that was due to the scorching heat throughout the Southland, which reached a heat index about 100 at the Coliseum on Saturday. It was so hot and humid that Lee Feaster, a native Texas and the father of freshman wideout Boobie Feaster, said on Tuesday that his wife passed out during the game and still had blisters.
But the attendance announced by USC — 51,144 — admittedly felt generous.
Attendance was that low just once under Helton, for a 38-35 loss to Arizona State, the weekend before Halloween in 2018. But average attendance plummeted after the 2017 season as fan sentiment turned on Helton. For the rest of Helton’s tenure, from 2018 to the start of 2021, USC reached the 60,000-fan mark just four times.
Empty swaths of Coliseum bleachers hadn’t been as much of a concern for Riley, who had never fallen below the 60,000-fan mark at home until Saturday. But as photos of the poor attendance circulated on social media during the weekend, USC chose to release a statement responding to the online derision.
“We understand the factors that impacted Saturday’s attendance,” the statement read. “We have high expectations and a premier home schedule this season, and we know the competitive advantage an electric Coliseum atmosphere can provide our program. We thank our fans who showed up Saturday and look forward to seeing increased attendance the rest of the season.”
The response, though, only poured gasoline on a viral fire.
By Monday, the conversation had crossed over from critical posts on social media to Riley’s coaching peers roasting USC, starting with his alma mater.
“Not to take any shots because I have a lot of respect for USC and Lincoln Riley, but man it’s really awesome to be playing Lubbock, Texas, in front of 60,000,” Texas Tech coach Joey McGuire said. “And it’s going to be warm. It’s going to be every bit as warm as it was Saturday. The great thing is we’ve got some really tough people in West Texas that love their football. They’re gonna show up no matter what the weather’s like. There’s not going to be any excuses of why they’re not here for us.”
A fan covers takes cover under a poster during USC’s season opener against San José State Saturday at the Coliseum.
(Ronaldo Bolanos/Los Angeles Times)
New California coach Tosh Lupoi piled on some more Tuesday.
“To turn on the TV, to see that environment in Los Angeles, that’s disheartening to see,” Lupoi said in Berkeley. “I can guarantee you, that’s a completely different environment here.”
USC should have a much more temperate environment to play on Friday, when it kicks off against Fresno State at 6 p.m. at the Coliseum. And Riley knows the world will be watching closely, to see how many seats are filled for the Trojans’ second game.
“This is USC, right?” Riley said. “People are going to pay attention. People are going to have an opinion. It’s part of being a blueblood school.”
The California Legislature just passed two bills that advocates say will greatly improve access to small-scale solar for renters, people in condos and others who don’t have access to their roofs or can’t afford a full rooftop array.
On Sunday night, lawmakers approved Assembly Bill 1813, a third-time effort to force the California Public Utilities Commission to develop a more robust community solar program, in which residents sign up to participate in a small solar array near where they live and pay monthly at a discount on their electrical bills.
“California’s clean energy transition should benefit everyone, not just those who can afford rooftop solar,” said Assemblymember Chris Ward (D-San Diego), the bill’s author.
Last week, with Senate Bill 868, California’s Legislature also became the latest to legalize plug-in solar. Also known as “balcony solar,” these systems allow anyone — renter or owner — to set small panels on their patios or fences and plug them directly into wall outlets to lower bills without having to navigate utility permissions.
“It’s an idea whose time has come,” said bill author Sen. Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco), who noted the devices can bring down bills by hundreds of dollars a year. “It’ll be very beneficial for people who are looking to lower their cost of living.”
The votes come after some difficult years for rooftop solar in California thanks to strong pushback from utility companies. The state had been a leader nationally on solar energy in the 2000s. But installation rates plummeted in 2022 after Gov. Gavin Newsom’s Public Utilities Commission sharply cut back incentives for customers.
Utilities that lobbied for the change argued that compensating rooftop solar at a higher rate meant that people without solar panels were disproportionately paying the costs of maintaining the overhead lines that everyone uses.
This year, utilities made similar arguments against both the community solar and balcony solar bills.
Pacific Gas & Electric was successful in inserting an end date for Wiener’s SB 868 balcony solar bill, so, if it is signed into law, the Legislature will have to reauthorize it before 2030.
“While the bill establishes additional guardrails, it also creates a period through 2030 during which plug-in solar devices not meeting key safety and certification requirements could be purchased and used in California,” PG&E spokeswoman Lynsey Paulo said. “We believe customers and emergency personnel deserve the protections that come from clear safety standards and established interconnection processes from the outset.”
Both bills now go to the governor’s desk.
If signed, the balcony solar bill will go into effect once systems have been certified as safe for use in the U.S. by a nationally recognized testing laboratory like UL Solutions. Balcony panels are already certified in Germany, where plug-in solar is popular. Advocates say U.S. certifications will come through soon.
Community solar reform could have a harder time clearing Newsom’s desk, as the Public Utilities Commission, appointed by the governor, has previously opposed this type of program.
All the state’s big investor-owned utilities lobbied against the community solar bill, AB 1813, which would require them to compensate community solar developers and customers at higher rates than those established under the Public Utilities Commission’s current program.
That program, finalized this year, relies on canceled federal funding and incentives that developers say are too low for them to launch new projects.
“We remain opposed to AB 1813 because it would shift significant costs to customers who do not participate in the program,” PG&E’s Paulo said. “This legislation is about profits for solar companies, not customer affordability.”
The Public Advocates Office, the independent consumer advocate at the Public Utilities Commission, said recent amendments to the bill did not address its concerns about shifting costs from one group of ratepayers to another.
“We support expanding community solar so renters and other Californians who cannot install rooftop solar can benefit from clean energy. But the savings for participants should not be financed by raising bills for everyone else,” said Mary Flannelly, a spokesperson for the Public Advocates Office. “Our analysis of AB 1813 estimates that it could shift about $1.5 billion a year onto customers who cannot participate — roughly $12 more per month on average — a sizeable cost.”
Southern California Edison also has opposed the bill. SCE spokesperson David Eisenhauer said it would “expose customers to higher rates and unreasonable costs compared to more cost-effective clean energy sources.”
But Ward disputes that any costs will be shifted to people who don’t have solar. He cited two recent studies that indicate all consumers will benefit from reduced costs when community solar is more available. One found if the state added 5.4 gigawatts of community solar and energy storage, all ratepayers could save $6.5 billion by reducing costs for gas generation, electricity imports and transmission.
Ward and a coalition of environmental groups, solar developers and the Utility Reform Network, a ratepayer advocacy group, have tried for years to get the Public Utilities Commission to adopt their vision for a community solar program that would serve people who don’t own or don’t have access to their roofs. Several other states have them.
The bill would compensate community solar developers and customers at a rate that advocates say more accurately accounts for the savings solar brings to the grid, especially on hot days when the system is stressed.
Wiener said both bills are important for helping individuals and communities “to not be trapped in the monopoly utility model that is so expensive.”
“We should empower people to generate their own electricity and to lower their electric bills,” he said.
The Legislature also passed Senate Bill 913, which would allow batteries, electric vehicles, smart thermostats and other consumer-owned devices to be bundled together and counted as a reliable source of electricity for the state’s grid.
Brandon Garcia, California director for Advanced Energy United, an association representing clean energy businesses, said it would help reduce strain on the grid and keep electricity costs in check while “giving customer-owned resources a fair opportunity to compete and deliver reliable energy at an affordable price.”
State lawmakers have approved a series of modest changes intended to bolster California’s film and TV tax credit program.
Among the key revisions, independent filmmakers would be exempted from the $5 million state corporate tax credit cap that was approved earlier this year as part of Gov. Gavin Newsom’s state budget.
Film industry advocates lobbied hard for a carve-out, saying the cap would undercut gains made under the current film and TV tax credit program at a time when Hollywood has been reeling from job losses.
The exemption is a compromise. Film industry advocates were hoping all types of producers would be exempt from the corporate tax cap.
The bill includes other changes intended to help Hollywood, such as allowing companies to carry forward older tax credits for up to 15 years (the old limit was nine) and reducing the discount they are charged when they opt to seek a cash refund on unused credits.
Producers will also be able to collect their refund money more quickly — within two years instead of five.
California offers tax credits of up to 35% on qualified expenses, which can be applied to any tax liabilities the production companies have in the state. The program allocates $750 million annually in film and TV tax breaks.
The budget trailer bill was introduced to the Senate on Friday by Assemblyman Rick Chavez Zbur (D-Los Angeles), chair of the Assembly Democratic Caucus and Senator Ben Allen (D-Santa Monica).
The new cap, issued by Gov. Newsom, would have undermined the “competitiveness” of the current California Film and Television Jobs Program, said the Entertainment Union Coalition, an advocacy group that supports the bill. But with these new modifications, the group — which represents the Directors Guild, SAG-AFTRA, IATSE and more — said the program will be able to continue to “support the fragile recovery of our industry here in California.”
“Most importantly, we want to recognize the major role our members played in today’s success as advocates for their industry in California,” Rebecca Rhine, the coalition’s president, said in a statement. “They sent an unprecedented 450,000 letters to the California legislature, making clear the negative impact that SB 122 [the new cap] would have on their livelihoods, their families, and their communities.”
Over the program’s first full year in its expanded $750-million form, the California Film Commission says it delivered $6.6 billion in direct production spending and $4.3 billion in qualified expenditures, supporting nearly 35,000 cast and crew jobs across 6,630 filming days statewide.
The bill cleared the Assembly floor by a vote of 68-2, with the Senate approving its companion measure by a vote of 32 in favor, 8 against the same day. It now awaits Gov. Newsom’s signature.
“It’s a good day that we took steps to strengthen the program and while we have to do more next year, this was a crucial first step,” Zbur said in an interview.
Zbur said he believes everyone in the state’s film and TV tax credit program should have been exempted from the corporate tax credit cap and he plans to look at that within the context of next year’s budget.
“There were budget implications to doing that, so we really did all the things that are viable to do in this legislative session,” Zbur said.
It’s back-to-school time for the Broad.
The Broad museum is launching a new educational initiative, it announced on Saturday. “Our Block, Our Stories” will pair students with contemporary artists to explore how those artists have been inspired by their local neighborhoods, communities and personal experiences.
The program, open to grades 3 through 12, includes off-site activities and field trips to the museum. The Broad is paying for students’ transport to the museum.
The inaugural project will focus on South Los Angeles students and spotlight L.A. artist Lauren Halsey. Students will visit Halsey’s South L.A. sculpture garden, “sister dreamer, lauren halsey’s architectural ode to tha surge n splurge of south central los angeles,” to explore themes of neighborhood, memory and belonging. Halsey’s work, which debuted in March, was presented by Los Angeles Nomadic Division and curated by LAND co-founder Christine Y. Kim.
Students will then, on the same day, travel to the Broad for guided tours, discussions and writing prompts. They’ll be encouraged to connect their personal experiences to works in the museum’s collection while also considering how they might creatively express their own life stories, from their individual communities, through art. April De Leon, Broad interim school program manager, is overseeing the program.
“It’s so we can bring hundreds of young people [to the museum] so they can be inspired to be creative — and in a way that helps their community, gives back to their community, transforms their community and their city,” said Ed Patuto, Broad director for audience engagement. “We’ll look at how other artists, too — like Mark Bradford, John Ahearn and Rigoberto Torres — deal with their neighborhoods and opportunities in their neighborhoods for inspiration.”
The museum will provide educators with on-site worksheets and background materials on the artists, along with other pre-visit and post-visit resources in English and Spanish.
Field trips to the museum begin Sept. 18, though the Broad is still enrolling schools in the program. It’s giving priority to schools and youth organizations in and around South L.A. The Halsey program runs through Dec. 11.
Lauren Halsey’s South L.A. sculpture garden, “sister dreamer.”
(Allen Chen @_h_studio)
Patuto said that Halsey was the perfect artist to launch the program. Not only is her work represented in the Broad’s collection, but “she’s an artist who’s influenced by her community and, like a Mark Bradford, is actually building something in her community, for her community,” he said. “And that needs to be supported by arts institutions around the city.”
The idea behind the sculpture park, when Halsey first conceived it about 16 years ago, she said in an interview, was a space that represents and pays homage to the neighborhood, both aesthetically and conceptually.
“The heroes, the poetics, the material culture, the everyday,” she said. “But also, that it’s a sculpture park that serves — and for free — the neighborhood and L.A. at large.”
The Broad says it will continue to develop “learning modules” over the next several years.
The next one will launch in conjunction with the upcoming exhibition, “Has the myth been shattered,” opening in November. The show of Broad collection works spanning six decades, as curated by Jen Vanegas Rocha, addresses myths “and the way social media, mass media, can kind of mythologize things that happened to us,” Patuto said.
Free, youth-oriented cultural programming such as “Our Block, Our Stories” is a game-changer, Halsey said, adding that field trips she took to LACMA in middle school helped give her confidence to create and solidify her identity as an artist.
She hopes the Broad’s new educational initiative does the same for other young artists.
“It builds pride in one’s own neighborhood and validates experiences and expands on the possibility of what you can be as a young child and sparks your imagination,” she said. “I didn’t have that growing up in South Central, this access to art. So it’s really cool that the Broad came in and is partnering with me to bring this amazing, free programming to the neighborhood.”
Ukranian center Kate Koval will not return to Louisiana State’s basketball team next season, coach Kim Mulkey said in a statement released by the Tigers on Monday.
Koval’s decision to leave the program comes less than two weeks after LSU announced the signing of Russian teenager Anna Minaeva. Koval was born and raised in Kyiv, Ukraine’s capital city, and her father is a drone operator fighting against Russia in its four-year invasion of Ukraine. According to nola.com, Koval said last season that she worried for her father’s life “every single day.”
“Kate came to see me on Sunday and told me that after much consideration, she will be leaving the program for personal reasons,” Mulkey said in her statement. “We will respect her privacy on her decision, but we had a long talk about it, and it was a hard decision for her. I know it is hard because she loves LSU.
“Kate is a great person. She has to do what she feels is right for her, and we fully support her in that. We all wish her the best.”
No announcement has been made about a future basketball home for Kobal, a 6-foot-5 rising junior who played at Notre Dame as a freshman before averaging 8.3 points, 6.3 rebounds and 1.2 blocks for the Tigers last season.
Minaeva, also a 6-5 center, is 17 but has previously played professionally with MBA Moscow. Mulkey told nola.com that she spoke with Koval earlier in the offseason before starting the recruiting process with Minaeva.
“I want you to understand I’m not here to ask you to change how you feel about Russia,” Mulkey said she told Koval. “I’m just here out of respect for your family and out of respect for you to let you know. Because I know how personal it is for you.
“Know that what I have to do in this business, I cannot make a decision to not recruit somebody that can help our program because of a conflict between two countries.”
agafapaperiapunta/iStock Editorial via Getty Images
Deutsche Bank (DB) said on Monday that its new €500M share buyback program will begin on August 25.
The largest German lender had announced the new stock repurchase program as part of its second-quarter earnings release.
The program will be
Nithya Raman has made Los Angeles’ struggle to combat homelessness a key plank in her mayoral campaign, yet her own record on the matter has itself become an issue with her ouster as head of the City Council committee seeking solutions to the crisis.
Mayor Karen Bass is at the helm of the city’s battle against homelessness, but since 2023 Raman has been the second-most powerful official as chair of the City Council’s Housing and Homelessness Committee. That changed this month, when council President Marqueece Harris-Dawson, a key Bass ally, split the committee in two and removed Raman as its chair, effective Sept. 1.
Raman claims that politics were at play, casting her removal as a hit job for her decision to challenge Bass. Harris-Dawson disputes that, saying Raman failed to lead the committee with the urgency needed to combat L.A.’s enduring homelessness crisis.
“The committee is behind in excess of more than 100 issues,” said Harris-Dawson in an interview. “There are very serious decisions to make over what happens with homelessness. We needed someone who could focus on that and get it done and get it done quickly and show ability to build consensus.”
Beyond the dispute over Raman’s leadership of the committee, there are clear policy disagreements between the mayor and the council member over the best way to combat the crisis.
A Metro bus passes by a man sleeping on the sidewalk on North Spring Street in downtown Friday.
(Christina House / Los Angeles Times)
Raman contends that Bass’ signature program Inside Safe, which dismantles encampments and moves people living there into motels, hotels and interim housing, is overly expensive and unsustainable. On average, the cost of housing these individuals runs about $82,000 a year, according to city reports.
Raman has repeatedly signed off on funding for the program, but has become more critical of it in the last year.
Despite the city’s efforts, L.A.’s unsheltered homeless population — those living outdoors or in their vehicles — went up by 7.9% after two consecutive years of decreases, the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority reported last month.
“The approach to homelessness that Mayor Bass has led and defended has brought us here,” Raman said after LAHSA’s report was released.
Raman has called for the use of time-limited subsidies, or rental vouchers, to house homeless Angelenos in private residences — at a city-estimated cost of $30,000, less than half the price of an average Inside Safe bed. Raman says she would “significantly expand” the city’s investment in the vouchers if she became mayor.
“For the same amount of money, we could rent three apartments using a short-term rental voucher and provide intensive services — housing more people in a program that has delivered much better outcomes,” Raman says in her mayoral policy platform on homelessness.
Even so, the more than $60-million voucher program Raman has already pushed through her committee has so far struggled to get off the ground under a tight timeline, and Raman’s critics have seized on the delay as evidence of the council member’s ineffectiveness.
Pedestrians pass by a homeless encampment along the 101 northbound offramp, at right, near City Hall Friday.
(Christina House / Los Angeles Times)
A city consultant on the program set a goal of having 600 households moved into leases by July 1 of this year, and 2,000 households moved in by next April. But as of that July 1 date, only three households had moved into homes via the vouchers, housing officials said in a report.
By Aug. 13, however, the number had jumped to 54 households, “with new move ins happening nearly every day,” the housing department said in a report.
Bass’ campaign spokesperson, Alex Stack, cited the sluggish start to the program and said subsidies are only a small part of the fight against homelessness.
“It’s not the silver bullet Raman’s selling,” Stack said.
In an interview, Raman said that the contracting process slowed the start of the program, but that time-limited subsidies are a great way to free up space in city shelters by moving those people into private housing.
“This is a cost-effective program that has very good outcomes in the past in terms of percentage of people moving on to permanent housing,” she said.
Nithya Rama listens to a question at the mayoral debate hosted by the Sherman Oaks Homeowners Assn.
(David Butow / For The Times)
Raman added that the council will continue to monitor data from the program and make fixes as needed if it doesn’t move fast enough.
Homeless services providers working with the city on the program said part of the challenge has been getting a completely new program off the ground.
“It’s definitely been slower than I think most people anticipated,” said Sasha Morozov, the regional director of supportive services for PATH, a nonprofit contracting with the city for the program.
But Morozov said the program is speeding up now and she believed the 2,000 slots will be filled on time.
Raman said she ran for council largely to take on the homelessness crisis in Los Angeles. She says she is running for mayor for the same reason.
She’s cited a 49% drop in street homelessness in her district over the past year as a clear sign that she is equipped to bring down homelessness citywide. Bass counters it was her efforts through Inside Safe that brought homelessness down in Raman’s district.
People living on the street in downtown L.A. gather cardboard for shelter during a heat wave last month.
(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)
While chair of the Housing and Homelessness Committee, Raman established monitoring of all the city’s spending on homelessness and tracking of 35 key performance metrics to see how effective the city’s investments are. She also stewarded the creation of a Bureau of Homelessness Oversight within the city’s Housing Department that is responsible for coordinating and overseeing the city’s homelessness system.
Her critics say that Raman’s tenure atop the committee hasn’t adequately met the moment facing the city of Los Angeles — with the Trump administration and county both moving to cut funding from LAHSA, the joint city-county authority responsible for homeless services. Meanwhile, the city is still managing a landmark federal lawsuit settlement, which requires it to invest in thousands of new shelter beds in its response to homelessness.
“She’s been in this building … longer than Karen Bass,” said Councilmember Monica Rodriguez, who served on the committee under Raman. “It’s convenient now for her to saddle all blame on the mayor when she rubber-stamped Inside Safe and stood in lockstep with the mayor.”
Mayor Karen Bass, left, and City Council member Monica Rodriguez at City Hall.
(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)
Rodriguez has specifically accused Raman — as chair of the committee — of slow-walking Rodriguez’s proposal from 2024 for the city to study a plan to separate itself from LAHSA and form its own department that would directly contract with homeless services providers.
Rodriguez said it took Raman months to schedule her motion in committee and that, while it was pending, the county removed most of its funding from LAHSA.
“The city has been left flatfooted because she wouldn’t lead our conversation. She wouldn’t schedule our items. She set us up for failure,” Rodriguez said.
Raman tried until the last minute to get the county to remain in LAHSA.
While Rodriguez’s motion was waiting on a report, Raman made her own proposal to create a Bureau of Homelessness Oversight within the Los Angeles Housing Department to keep track of the city’s more than $1-billion annual investment in homelessness response.
The council moved that bureau forward last year, and a spokesperson for the Housing Department said that seven positions have been hired within the bureau handling contracts and data oversight.
Harris-Dawson said a seven-person bureau isn’t adequate.
Raman said the bureau was a starting point that could one day lead to a department, which she said would be expensive and take a long time to stand up.
“This was not precluding [the creation of a department],” Raman told The Times. “This was trying to speed up that staffing faster than the departmental process normally takes in this city.”
Raman said she talked to Bass about creating a department for homelessness in late 2023 or early 2024, but the mayor told her to move ahead with the bureau instead. Bass representatives didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Paige Sterling, a spokesperson for the mayor, said that Bass and Raman discussed the bureau in 2025, during the budget process. The mayor opposed a standalone department at the time because it “would add to the bureaucracy,” and the bureau was a compromise, Sterling said.
“The mayor signed a budget with funding and positions for the bureau, which begins to give the city the capacity it needs to start overseeing homelessness as we evaluate what the future governance of this issue looks like,” Sterling said.
Raman has touted the bureau as a success that provides clear oversight of how the city spends its money, but has also claimed that the mayor’s office has moved too slowly to staff the bureau. The Housing Department still hasn’t hired an assistant general manager to oversee it.
The rotunda at L.A. City Hall.
(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)
Raman hasn’t been endorsed for mayor by any of her colleagues on the council, and some of those who served on her homelessness and housing panel say she did a shoddy job as its chair. They complain that she frequently canceled meetings and allowed hundreds of motions to pile up without getting moved through council.
“It had started to feel less like a policymaking body and more like a scholastic seminar — a lot of philosophizing, a lot of talk about feelings, but not enough substantive questions or direction on policy to present to staff,” Councilmember Imelda Padilla said in a statement to The Times.
In response, Raman said her committee focused on data to make sure the city’s investment in fighting homelessness is paying off.
“That doesn’t feel scholarly to me, that feels like oversight and accountability — exactly what the public is asking for for one of our largest investments as a city,” she said.
The full council, meanwhile, has agreed to review its relationship with LAHSA and the county, and to study creating a new department to centralize homelessness oversight.
“This conversation that we’re having about this … is long overdue,” said Councilmember John Lee.
Raman will have a seat on the new homelessness committee, but it will be chaired by Councilmember Ysabel Jurado. Padilla was named chair of the new Housing Committee.
Raman’s final meeting as committee chair was supposed to be Wednesday.
She didn’t show up.
With an ever-present smile, infectious spirit and larger-than-life personality, defensive back Cole Martin is always undeniably himself.
And that was evident when he introduced himself — alongside defensive backs Rodrick Pleasant and Scooter Jackson — to Bob Chesney during the head football coach’s first day in the UCLA facility.
“That’s him from Day One,” Chesney said, noting Martin has never changed the high energy he brought to the program on the day they met.
Martin is no stranger to the Bruins.
The Pasadena native grew up around the program and attended UCLA games at the Rose Bowl, where his dad, Demetrice Martin, was the defensive backs coach from 2012-2017.
“Growing up as a kid running around here, I just want to see this university back on top,” Martin said during UCLA spring workouts.
And while Cole Martin spent his first two seasons at Oregon and Arizona State, the defensive back followed his father back to Westwood ahead of the 2025 season.
During his inaugural year as a Bruin, Martin was one of three players to start all 12 games and ranked fourth on the team in total tackles with 65.
But after a 3-9 season, during which former head coach DeShaun Foster, defensive coordinator Ikaika Malloe and offensive coordinator Tino Sunseri departed the program, Cole entered the transfer portal.
And while his father left for Arizona State to become a defensive analyst, Martin, alongside Jackson and Pleasant, ultimately decided to stay after meeting Chesney and hearing his vision.
“California boys, we are all here after coaches parted and we were up here, and Chesney came and we had a conversation with him and we all got together after and we were like, ‘He’s different,’” Martin said. “Being able to have that conversation and be genuine with your brothers who you had a hard season with, and you got a coach that is trying to change the whole trajectory. You have got to believe in somebody, and he’s somebody you can believe in.”
UCLA defensive back Cole Martin lines up on the field during the Bruins’ 2025 spring game.
(Carlin Stiehl/Los Angeles Times)
After his first meeting with Chesney, Martin withdrew his name from the portal and got to work in Westwood.
While 10 transfers Chesney brought with him from James Madison know his system, Martin has demonstrated a natural understanding of the coach’s values.
Chesney selected Martin to be one of his first ambassadors to regional and national media outlets covering Big Ten football media days in Chicago, joining linebacker Sammy Omosigho and quarterback Nico Iamaleava representing the Bruins. Chesney called Martin an unbelievable leader and said that his energy will give people a window into what his program strives to look like.
“You just felt Cole’s personality and his infectious positivity, and I just said, ‘Man, we need this kid to stay. This kid is what I feel like our team should be like on a day-to-day basis,’ and he’s done a really good job of that,” Chesney said Monday while recalling his first impression of Martin.
Martin said Chesney’s focus on a family culture and competition has helped him thrive in a deep, experienced defensive back group.
“It’s a brotherhood. He does a great job of making sure that everybody buys into building that relationship with your brother next to you, the little things, such as more talking in the locker room, or doing things extra,” Martin said of Chesney. “He’s done a great job at doing that and it feels like a full brotherhood here.”
Chesney said that Cole is recovering from a minor injury during preseason camp, but he refuses to let his absence on the turf affect his impact on the squad.
“He’s been out for a little bit here, working through a muscle thing, but he’s still present,” Chesney said. “You watch him move around; he’s really close right now, and he’ll never stop being himself, which is great.”
Mérida, August 19, 2026 (venezuelanalysis.com) – The Venezuelan government led by Acting President Delcy Rodríguez announced the creation of the National Training Program for Construction Workers.
According to official sources, the initiative seeks to professionalize workers in key trades, including plumbers, masons, electricians, blacksmiths, and carpenters, to integrate them into housing and infrastructure projects amid the country’s post-earthquake recovery efforts.
The project is being coordinated by several institutions, including the Education and Labor Ministries, the INCES vocational training institute, and the “Venezuela Rises” program created by the government in the wake of the June 24 double earthquake. The training initiative will begin in Caracas and nearby areas.
Rodríguez, in a meeting with the government team, said that the people interested in this program “can register through the Homeland system. Registration will begin on August 24.” She also said that the persons “can be nominated by municipal administrations or at INCES offices throughout the country.”
She added that the program is “open to individuals with prior experience, training, or knowledge in this area, as well as those who wish to learn the trade.”
In parallel, the Venezuelan executive delivered 48 new apartments on Monday in the Ciudad Tiuna housing complex in Caracas to families who lost their homes in the recent earthquake.
According to official figures, the government has assigned 335 homes to affected families so far, with authorities estimating that around 25,000 new homes will be needed for those displaced by the natural disaster.
“By December we will have completed some 4,000 homes to hand over to those who are in the temporary camps,” the acting president pledged during Monday’s event in Ciudad Tiuna, one of the largest housing complexes of Venezuela’s Great Housing Mission (GMVV).
Furthermore, in Ciudad Caribia, another major GMVV development, authorities are advancing in the construction of 1,000 new transitional homes where displaced families will relocate to while permanent housing projects are finalized.
Alongside the housing initiatives, the Rodríguez administration is also boosting credit programs for reconstruction projects. On Saturday, the acting president announced loans to 157 condominium boards in several parts of Caracas.
The subsidized credit line, part of the “Venezuela Rises” Plan, is intended for structural repairs, common area maintenance, and public utility fixes. The Venezuelan government has likewise launched loan programs for housing purchases.
According to the latest official figures released, the total death toll from the June 24 earthquake currently stands at 6,438 people. Authorities are presently focused on rubble removal operations, as well as controlled demolitions of buildings with heavily compromised structures in La Guaira State, the hardest-hit area.
Venezuela’s seismology institute FUNVISIS has registered over 1,400 aftershocks since the June tremors. The latest one, on Tuesday, had a magnitude of 4.0 with an epicenter located 10 kilometers northwest of La Guaira. There were no reports of damage.
Alongside the post-earthquake recovery initiatives, Acting President Rodríguez also announced a new National Popular Consultation scheduled for October 18, 2026. It had originally been slated for October 11.
A prior consultation set for July was postponed following the double earthquake.
The National Popular Consultation sees communities organized in communal circuits vote directly on local infrastructure and social projects to be funded by the national government. In prior editions, each winning project received US $10,000 of funding. According to Venezuelan officials, the upcoming vote will also extend to condominium boards and neighborhood associations.
In a conference call with government officials and grassroots spokespeople, Rodríguez emphasized that the consultations reinforce “the path of participatory and protagonistic democracy.”
Edited by Ricardo Vaz in Caracas.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is pitching a plan to help shield local police officers who make immigration arrests from possible financial consequences if they are accused of on-duty misconduct.
The agency is proposing to subsidize liability insurance for state and local officers who are trained and deputized to enforce federal immigration laws, according to a planning document published Friday.
ICE’s partnerships with local departments have soared since President Trump returned to the White House last year and may get an additional boost with liability insurance by removing a hurdle that has made some local police departments reluctant to join. The Associated Press is the first to report on this insurance proposal.
Under the plan, officers would purchase insurance covering up to $500,000 in personal liability, which typically funds legal fees, settlements and judgments. Officers would be reimbursed up to $250 annually — roughly what the insurance is expected to cost.
One prominent critic of ICE’s immigration crackdown said the program would be yet another way for officers to avoid personal accountability for misconduct.
“The concern here is that ICE is going above and beyond to guarantee law enforcement does not have even the slightest risk of liability for violating Americans’ rights while helping ICE arrest people,” said David Bier, director of immigration studies at the Cato Institute, who has called on Congress to make it easier to sue ICE agents for wrongdoing.
ICE outlined the plan in a document informing industry officials that it is considering hiring a contractor to help provide outreach, training and communications support for its so-called 287(g) partnerships with local departments, which are named for a section of a 1996 immigration law. The contractor would hire the insurance vendor and process the reimbursements, among other tasks.
ICE has asked for industry feedback by Thursday. The proposed timeline for launching the program and its estimated cost are unclear.
ICE had no immediate comment on the plan.
During Trump’s second term, ICE has offered generous financial incentives to participating local agencies, increasing the number who have partnered with the federal government, as well as the number of arrests.
Nearly 1,600 agencies in 32 states now have agreements to participate in ICE’s task force model, in which trained local officers can interrogate, arrest and charge people suspected of being in the country illegally, according to ICE data.
Departments qualify for funding to help cover expenses like their officers’ pay, equipment and vehicles. With encouragement from state and local Republican officials, agencies in Florida, Texas, Oklahoma and Georgia have been among the leaders.
Arrests made through such programs jumped to an average of 3,000 per month in the first two months of 2026, according to the most recent ICE data provided to the University of California Berkeley’s Deportation Data Project. That compares to a monthly average of 250 in 2024 under President Biden.
As local officers increasingly carry out federal immigration work, they and their departments have expressed concerns about the civil liability that could result from claims alleging excessive use of force, wrongful arrest and illegal search and seizure, among other things.
That’s because insurance policies that cover their local work may not apply. Pennsylvania’s risk pool, for instance, recently made clear that it would exclude “proactive immigration enforcement activities” from coverage, forcing several participating counties to search for other insurance options.
Butler County Sheriff Michael Slupe said he found insurance to cover his 13 deputies participating in the program at a cost of $20,000 in annual premiums.
“I want to make sure the guys are additionally covered, so we had to spend the money,” he said, adding that federal funding would cover the cost.
Federal officers usually enjoy legal immunities and a government-funded defense when they face lawsuits. But those protections may not always apply to local officers, which has heightened their concerns over liability and the need for insurance.
Although civil lawsuits are the main concern, professional liability insurance typically helps cover legal fees for officers facing criminal investigations as well.
Justin Smith, a former Colorado sheriff who is executive director of the National Sheriffs’ Assn., said ICE’s plan sounds promising and that he was eager to speak with ICE about how the plan would work.
Smith said he has shared concerns with ICE that some sheriffs are reluctant to join the partnerships because of the potential liability at a time when immigration enforcement faces intense public protests and media scrutiny. Smith said others who are partnering with ICE have already started facing legal claims tied to their immigration work, which can be costly whether or not deputies are ultimately found to have done anything wrong.
“Right now, any time you are working on immigration there is going to be a much higher potential for there being problems and having suits and issues,” he said. “They’re recognizing that it is a different environment. And I think trying to be good partners with us as best they can.”
Under their agreements, ICE warns local departments that they are responsible for the costs of incidents that give rise to liability. But it seeks to reduce the risk by saying local officers performing ICE-authorized functions are “acting under color of federal authority,” which would bar lawsuits against individual officers.
The agreements also state that local officers who face civil lawsuits can ask the U.S. Department of Justice to represent them, and that ICE will generally support their requests. But the final decision on whether to do so rests with the department.
Foley writes for the Associated Press.
Former NFL quarterback Derek Carr has joined UCLA’s coaching staff as a special advisor to coach Bob Chesney.
The Bruins announced the hiring Monday of the 35-year-old Carr, who is volunteering in his first major coaching role.
The longtime Raiders starter will help Chesney and the Bruins’ offensive staff with game planning and strategy, and he will work with UCLA‘s quarterbacks.
“His experience, leadership and football knowledge will be an incredible resource for our coaching staff and student-athletes,” Chesney said in a statement. “What stands out most is his passion for the game and his commitment to developing young people. Derek will have a tremendous impact on our players and is a great addition to our program.”
Chesney and his staff are in their first season in Westwood after he was hired away from James Madison last December. Carr’s connection to the job was through Bruins general manager Darrick Yray, an offensive assistant and an assistant director of football operations at Fresno State during Carr’s prolific career with the Bulldogs.
“I’ve known Darrick for a long time and have great respect for the work he’s done throughout his career,” Carr said in a statement. “The opportunity to help coach Chesney, the staff and the quarterbacks at UCLA was one that really excited me. I’m looking forward to sharing my experiences and helping support the program in any way I can.”
Carr is 22nd in NFL history after passing for 41,245 yards during his 11-season career with the Raiders and the New Orleans Saints. He is the Raiders’ career leader in yards passing, completions and passing touchdowns.
Carr was a four-time Pro Bowl selection in Oakland and Las Vegas. After two subsequent seasons as the Saints’ starter, Carr retired from the NFL in May 2025 because of a serious right shoulder injury.
Carr’s No. 4 is retired at Fresno State after he passed for 12,842 yards and 113 touchdowns, leading the nation in both categories in 2013 while winning the Sammy Baugh Trophy.
At UCLA, Carr will work with presumptive starter Nico Iamaleava, the Tennessee transfer and Long Beach native who passed for 1,928 yards and 13 touchdowns last season for the Bruins. Iamaleava’s younger brother, Madden, is expected to be their backup quarterback in his second season in the program.
Even before this high-profile addition to his staff, Chesney was already building early momentum in his significant rebuilding project at a program that has foundered over the past decade.
Chip Kelly produced six mediocre seasons before he bolted from Westwood in February 2024, leaving the Bruins in the lurch after that winter’s coaching cycle had largely ended. Former UCLA star DeShaun Foster took over on short notice, but was fired three games into his second season last fall before the Bruins finished 3-9.
Beacham writes for the Associated Press.
SACRAMENTO — Lawyer Kamalpreet Chohan ran her finger down a list of 57 names of people scheduled to appear during a morning of hearings at the immigration court in Sacramento and pointed out one glaring commonality.
“None of these folks are represented,” she said.
Chohan is the coordinator of a program that sends volunteer lawyers to immigration courts to assist people without representation and help them navigate the complicated legal system, where the stakes are a future in the U.S. or deportation.
Appearing without a lawyer opens up even greater risk under the second Trump administration, with the courts playing a key role in its mass deportation agenda. Courts are increasingly denying asylum, deportation officers have arrested immigrants in court hallways and the administration has packed courtrooms to cut backlogs and reduced lead time on hearings, causing people to miss them.
Data show that legal representation can be crucial to winning in court, but many immigrants, unable to pay for a private lawyer or find a pro bono one, navigate the system without an attorney at their side.
“Folks go into immigration court not knowing what’s happening. They come out not knowing what’s happening. And when there’s an attorney present,” Chohan said, “it’s just so helpful.”
Unlike criminal court, there is no guaranteed lawyer in immigration courts.
Immigrants have to hire one at a cost of thousands of dollars or hope to get represented by one of the nonprofit organizations assisting low-income immigrants. But waitlists with those organizations are long, and many parts of the country just do not have that many immigration attorneys.
Of the roughly 3.2 million pending deportation cases currently in U.S. immigration courts, people in 52% of those cases do not have a lawyer, according to an analysis of immigration court data by the Vera Institute of Justice, a think tank.
A Congressional Research Service study from 2024 found that only 19% of people who did not have a lawyer won asylum or another avenue to stay in the United States. Among those who did have a lawyer, 47% were successful.
“Having an attorney is just super critical to be able to navigate the system successfully,” said Adriel Orozco of the advocacy group American Immigration Council.
Chohan said she frequently runs into people who have been scammed by lawyers or people posing as lawyers who take their money but do nothing for their case.
“I will give him a list of attorneys who are free and we have vetted,” she said, referring to one man who said he had been scammed. “They have long waitlists, but he should still ask.”
Speaking later to the Associated Press, the man described how he left Guatemala after being threatened by gangs and came to the U.S. in 2024 seeking asylum. Ever since, he said, he has done everything that has been asked of him while he tries to make ends meet, occasionally painting houses. He spent $4,500 on a lawyer who in the end did nothing to help him, he said.
“He turned out to be a scammer,” said the man, who did not want to be identified for fear of endangering his case. He is worried about what comes next in court after being warned by the judge that he could be deported. “I don’t know what I’m going to do,” he said.
Outside the Sacramento building where the court is housed is a long line of immigrants waiting for appointments with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which is in the same building. Volunteers with a local anti-ICE resistance group stand ready to help.
Upstairs, two immigration judges are on the bench. One hears the in-depth individual cases of immigrants who are pursuing their claim of asylum.
The other judge has the master calendar docket, where dozens of immigrants will appear in brief hearings geared at making sure their case is ready to go to the next step.
Signs taped to the wall remind people not to make audio or video recordings inside the court complex. A security guard makes sure no one loiters in the hallways. Most people clutch stacks of papers documenting their cases.
After immigrants file into the courtroom for their hearings, Judge Susan Phan introduces Chohan and describes the services her organization offers.
“You are not required to meet with her, but it is a rare opportunity that we have someone volunteering their time,” Phan said before launching into the day’s work.
Chohan, who works with the California Immigration Project, starts each hearing in the courtroom. She has a clipboard to take notes, extra copies of forms and a crate of books for restless children attending court with their parents. She spends the bulk of her time in the waiting room, talking to clients after their hearings and scanning their documents to flesh out what else they need.
Speaking to one young man from Mexico, she asks to see his asylum application, noting that the judge had pointed out that it was lacking in detail.
“Sometimes judges can deny a claim if there isn’t enough detail,” she said through one of the organization’s volunteer interpreters.
The organization frequently holds clinics to help immigrants fill out their asylum application. Chohan said she will alert him to the next one.
Another woman holding a stack of documents is there with her son and wanted to make sure her children could come with her if she is deported. Chohan also briefed her on what to expect at her upcoming asylum hearing and said the organization would send her an asylum filing guide.
Chohan highlighted places on forms where people need to give answers or answer in more detail. It’s OK to write “none, ” but she advises them to not leave boxes blank.
Everything submitted in Spanish must be accompanied by a translation into English that must be done by a person, not an automatic online translator. Copies of every page of a passport must be submitted. Documents must be sent in two weeks before the applicant’s hearing so the judge can review them.
Over and over, Chohan reminds immigrants to download their receipt showing they paid the $102 asylum application fee so they can submit it to the court.
Chohan said a lot of these procedures and forms are discussed in court, but it is happening fast and immigrants are listening through an interpreter, so they don’t always understand.
“A lot of times when they go into court, they’re just happy that they’re out of court and they’re not being arrested,” she said.
Chohan has witnessed the upheaval in the immigration courts during President Trump’s second term.
She was in the court hallways last summer when ICE officers waited to arrest immigrants after their hearings. Earlier this summer she watched as the administration started holding “mega masters,” hearings with dozens of respondents at a time that are meant to clear a backlog but have created chaos.
Chohan said there are not enough pro bono lawyers in the Sacramento area to help everyone who needs one, so the “attorney of the day” program is often the next best thing. She believes everyone should have access to a lawyer.
Until that day, she said, the program “helps bridge that gap.”
Santana writes for the Associated Press.