Dan Snow explores the ruins of Machu Picchu in a compelling new show for 5. But the father-of-three was struck when he discovered the mummified remains of a young girl.
Dan Snow was struck by a shock moment in his new Channel 5 show
Scaling Machu Picchu, Dan Snow ’s latest adventure is anything but ordinary. But he was rattled by his encounter with a 600-year-old Inca mummy.
The historian and presenter, 46, fronts Machu Picchu: The Discovery with Dan Snow on Channel 5, diving deep into the secrets of the ancient Peruvian city lost to the jungle for centuries.
“It is the most splendid and overwhelming location for a historical site. Nothing can prepare you for arriving there,” he says, “I’d never visited before and it was one of my bucket list places. I was so desperate to do it.”
Alongside the stunning scenery came cultural revelations. “The Incas were very different,” he says, “To understand their belief systems, you have to turn everything you understand from the West on its head.
They used to keep their Emperors mummified, bringing them out on special occasions. Death wasn’t the end for them. That was difficult because it’s so different.”
He adds: “Seeing the way the landscape is kind of organised – like a great big Coliseum. Such beautiful mountains, river valleys and then stunning buildings.
All built with these extraordinary, exquisite stonemasonry techniques of the Inca. It is truly like a lost city in the jungle. It’s the thing you dream about when you’re a little kid.”
But one of the most striking of the show moments came when Dan encountered the frozen remains of a 12-year-old-girl, sacrificed to the mountain gods.
“She was perfectly preserved in ice,” he says, “I had to hold her for a minute. She was my daughter’s age. It was one of the most overwhelming things.”
Dan Snow explores the ruins of the lost city of Machu Picchu in his new show – and he comes face to face with a 6,000-year-old mummy
Dan has been married to criminologist and philanthropist Lady Edwina Louise Grosvenor since November 2010. Edwina is the second daughter of the 6th Duke of Westminster, Gerald Cavendish Grosvenor. She and Dan lead a happy family life in the New Forest with their three children.
Hidden from Spanish invaders and swallowed by rainforest, Machu Picchu remained untouched for centuries. “It was just so inaccessible,” says Dan.
The Spanish never managed to get to it. Everything grows so fast that it was abandoned: The Spanish never found it, and before you know it the jungle had just taken over.”
But reaching it wasn’t easy. “It was a really challenging place to film. Carrying all our equipment over these mountain paths,” he says, “At one stage, we were swinging the camera, and I almost fell off into the valley below. It was exhausting.”
The altitude only made things worse. “People were having nosebleeds as we were trying to operate equipment,” Dan adds. “Even in Cusco, one of the highest cities on Earth. It was one of the more challenging places I have had to operate for sure.”
Now back from his visit, Dan’s wanderlust is far from cured. “I’d love to visit Easter Island,” he says, “There are Roman ruins in North Africa, even in China! The great happiness is that there’s always opportunities.”
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The hope was that the Angels could use Tuesday’s ninth-inning rally to muster up something worth talking about at the plate.
On Tuesday, Yoán Moncada homered. Taylor Ward singled. Luis Rengifo brought home a run with a line drive up the middle. Despite falling a run short, stringing a few hits together showed that the Angels could build off each other to produce runs.
However, instead of breaking through as an offense, the Angels were shut out by the Yankees 1-0 on Wednesday night, securing a sweep and turning the Angels’ eight-game win streak of weeks past into more of a blip on the radar than a sign of life.
Catcher Logan O’Hoppe struck out looking to end the game on a breaking ball well off the strike zone. After the game, O’Hoppe was adamant that it was a ball, as was manager Ron Washington, but said it’s just part of the game and “out of our control.”
Regardless, the Angels were scoreless entering their final three outs again — Angel Stadium playing home to an offense in need of a pulse check.
“I don’t know,” O’Hoppe said when asked about the skidding offense. “I don’t know, but we’re not gonna panic. We gotta have, what, 100 games left, so we’re not gonna panic.”
Entering the game, the Angels (25-30) walked the least and struck out the second-most in MLB. Wednesday was mostly more of the same. The Angels drew two walks, one of them with two out in the ninth, but were able to snap their three-game streak of double-digit strikeouts — punching out just eight times.
Washington managed the game as if his team needed the victory. He tried anything to salvage a homestand in which the Halos ultimately dropped five of six and scored just three runs. When Aaron Judge walked to the plate in the first and second innings, Washington greeted the Yankees slugger — owner of the top batting average (.391) in MLB — with a free base.
The strategy that made Judge the first Yankees player to intentionally walk twice in the first two innings of a game since Gene Woodling on Aug. 30, 1953, worked once, but led to the only run of the game in its other appearance.
“He’s dangerous — a lot of respect, lot of respect,” Washington said, referencing a moment in which Judge flashed four fingers to him in the seventh on the on-deck circle. “I don’t know what could have happened in that game if I wouldn’t have walked him those first two times. You don’t mess with that. I don’t care how he’s swinging the bat, you don’t mess with that if you don’t have to.”
After Judge was walked with a man on in the first, Cody Bellinger walked — one of Angels starting pitcher Yusei Kikuchi’s five walks — to load the bases. The next batter, Anthony Volpe, hit a sacrifice fly to center field and brought home a run.
Kikuchi (93 pitches, 51 for strikes) struggled with command once again, with his league-high walk rate rearing its ugly head. The Japanese southpaw loaded the bases in each of the first two innings, but settled down to make it through five innings, giving up five hits and striking out four. Despite Kikuchi battling through the fifth — and the Angels bullpen tossing four scoreless innings — with how the Angels have been at the plate over their last five games, one run was all the Yankees needed Wednesday.
“It was tough navigating through the first couple innings there, but I think the fourth and fifth inning went really well,” Kikuchi said through an interpreter. “I think I ended off on a good note.”
In perhaps the biggest cheer of the night at the Big A, right-hander Ryan Zeferjahn struck Judge out looking with a 99.1-mph fastball in the seventh inning.
Those cheers, however, turned to boos as O’Hoppe trotted back to the dugout as the final out. Now, the offense will look to recover away from Anaheim and see if it can rediscover what made it click against the Dodgers and Athletics.
Cleveland and Boston await the Angels next as they’ll first face the Guardians at Progressive Field on Friday to begin their six-game trip.
Angels reshuffle roster
The Angels made a flurry of roster moves before Wednesday’s game, designating veteran infielder Tim Anderson and catcher Chuckie Robinson for assignment, while optioning left-hander Jake Eder to triple-A Salt Lake City.
In corresponding moves, right-handed relief pitcher Robert Stephenson — who’d been out after undergoing Tommy John surgery in April 2024 — was activated off the 60-day injured list, and infielder Scott Kingery was recalled from triple-A Salt Lake City.
Washington said his hope for Stephenson, who signed a three-year, $33-million deal with the Angels before the 2024 season, is to be eased back into a high-leverage role. Stephenson said he is looking forward to the role he can play on the major league roster.
“To me, it’s like, probably just like, up there with making my debut,” said Stephenson, who made his season and Angels debut Wednesday, tossing a scoreless sixth inning. “I feel like it’s gonna be pretty special for me.”
Kingery, on the other hand, hasn’t appeared in the major leagues since 2022. Bursting on the scene as a top prospect with the Philadelphia Phillies, he featured heavily in the 2018 and 2019 campaigns after signing a six-year, $24-million contract extension before making his MLB debut.
The 31-year-old, who Washington said will play center field, second base and third base, put up 2.7 wins-above-replacement in 2019 before struggling to find any resemblance to his previous success — playing in just 16 combined games in 2021 and 2022 — and was eventually traded to the Angels in November 2024 after spending most of the last four seasons in the minor leagues.
“It’s hard, it’s a hard game,” Kingery said. “Stuff happens throughout your career, and you got to find ways to battle that and just keep on going. Just keep the foot on the pedal and find ways to make things work.”
Trout nears return
Mike Trout (left knee) continues to check the boxes as he nears a return from the injured list. The longest-tenured Angel and three-time MVP faced live pitching from a minor league pitcher on Wednesday, and performed baserunning drills with more intensity than earlier this week, Washington said.
Washington added that Trout began to cut and stop while running, but he still wasn’t going at 100%.
“Came out of it very well,” Washington said. “He looks good.”
Trout was hitting .179 with nine home runs and 18 RBIs before suffering a bone bruise in his left knee on April 30.
Myriad calamities could hit the city of Los Angeles in coming years: Wildfires. Floods. Mudslides. Drought. And of course, the Big One.
Yet this month, L.A. leaders once again balked at dramatically increasing the budget of the city’s Emergency Management Department, even as the office coordinates recovery from the Palisades fire and is tasked with helping prepare for a variety of disasters and high-profile events, such as the 2028 Summer Olympics.
Facing a nearly $1-billion budget shortfall, the L.A. City Council voted 12 to 3 last week to pass a budget that rejected the funding increases requested by EMD leaders to hire more staffers and fix broken security equipment around its facility.
The only budgetary increase for EMD will come through bureaucratic restructuring. The department will absorb the five-person Climate Emergency Mobilization Office, which Mayor Karen Bass had slated for elimination in her initial proposal to trim the budget deficit.
The funding allotment for EMD — with an operating budget of about $4.5 million — puts the department short of similar big cities in California and beyond.
As a 2022 audit by then-City Controller Ron Galperin noted, San Diego ($2.46), Long Beach ($2.26) and San Francisco ($7.59) all spent more per capita on emergency management than L.A., which then spent $1.56 per resident. Whereas L.A. has a staff of roughly 30, New York, with more than double the population of L.A., has 200 people in its emergency management team, and Philadelphia, with a population less than half of L.A.’s, has 53.
The current leaders of EMD, General Manager Carol Parks and Assistant General Manager Jim Featherstone, had specifically requested funding this spring to build an in-house recovery team to better equip the city for the Palisades recovery as well as future disasters.
“We are one of the most populous and at-risk jurisdictions in the nation, if not in the world,” Featherstone told the L.A. City Council’s budget committee April 30. “I won’t say negligent, but it’s really not in the city’s best interest to [not] have a recovery capability for a disaster similar to the one we just experienced.”
Zach Seidl, a spokesperson for Bass, pushed back against the idea that EMD’s funding level would hamper the Palisades fire recovery or preparation for the Olympic Games and 2026 World Cup.
“During a difficult budget year, Mayor Bass focused on emergency management to keep Angelenos safe — that absolutely includes ensuring EMD has continued staffing and resources,” Seidl said in a statement. “We will continue to push forward with one of the fastest recovery efforts in state history.”
Councilmember Traci Park — who represents the Palisades — was among the trio on the City Council who opposed the budget that passed last week, citing insufficient funding for public safety as one of her main objections.
“It’s inevitable that we are going to have another disaster, and we still won’t be prepared. We’ll be in the same position we were before,” said Pete Brown, a spokesperson for Park, who decried cuts to EMD and a lack of resources for the Police and Fire departments.
“We got a horrible taste of what it’s like when we are not prepared,” Brown said, “and despite all of that, we haven’t learned a lesson from it, and we are doing the same thing.”
Rick Caruso, the developer whom Bass defeated in the 2022 mayoral race, called both the budget proposal put forward by Bass and the spending plan approved by the City Council “a blatant display of mismanagement and bad judgment,” expressing incredulity over the rationale for EMD’s funding level.
“We are in an earthquake zone. We are in a fire zone. Come on,” Caruso said in an interview.
Seidl, Bass’ spokesperson, disputed that L.A. had not learned from the Palisades fire and emphasized that the spending on emergency management included “continued and new investments” in EMD as well as the city’s police and fire agencies.
Emergency management experts, audits commissioned by the city and EMD’s current leadership have warned that the department lacked the staff and funding to accomplish its mandate in one of the nation’s most disaster-prone regions.
“That department could be the world leader in emergency management, and it could be the standard for the rest of the country, but with a third of the staff and a tenth of the budget that they need, that’s not possible,” said Nick Lowe, an independent emergency management consultant and the president and chief executive of CPARS Consulting.
The general manager of EMD and an agency spokesperson did not respond to written questions last week about the approved budget.
In recent public statements, Parks disclosed that her budget requests this year received opposition and appeared to have been whittled down.
She told the Ad Hoc Committee for L.A. Recovery in March that she had sought 24 more staffers at EMD, but that officials under the city administrative officer balked at her request.
Featherstone, who is now coordinating the Palisades fire recovery, said Parks’ requests received “a qualitative negative response,” and suggested that there was a lack of understanding or appreciation of the import of EMD’s role.
“There was a qualitative opinion not in favor of Ms. Parks having these positions and people who aren’t emergency managers opined about the value or the worth of these positions,” Featherstone said.
Parks said she scaled her request down “given the city’s current fiscal situation,” adding, “I need a minimum of 10” more positions. In a memo, Parks said these 10 positions would cost about $1.1 million per year.
When Bass unveiled her budget proposal, those 10 additional positions were not included; EMD remained at roughly 30 positions, similar to previous years, which costs about $7.5 million when pensions, healthcare and other expenses are included. Bass’ budget proposal touted that she was able to preserve all of EMD’s positions while other departments faced steep staff and funding cuts.
Both Parks and Featherstone had argued for the creation of a designated, in-house recovery team, which EMD has lacked. When the Palisades fire broke out in January, EMD had no person assigned full-time to recovery and instead had to move its limited staff onto a recovery unit. Bass also retained Hagerty Consulting, a private firm, to boost EMD and provide instant expertise on a yearlong contract for up to $10 million, much of which Bass’ spokesperson said is reimbursable by the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
Still, Featherstone has told the City Council that, since L.A. had no in-house recovery expertise, the need to train and create an in-house team has occupied much of the initial Palisades fire recovery effort.
Phasing in an in-house recovery and reconstruction division with 10 staffers would cost an additional $1.5 million next year, according to a memo prepared by the city administrative officer. Hiring an additional 21 staffers to prepare for the Olympics and other major events would cost nearly $3 million.
Parks also requested $209,000 to repair the video system at the emergency operations center, saying the lack of surveillance cameras posed a threat to city employees.
“Multiple incidents have occurred where the safety and security of the facility have been compromised without resolution due to the failing camera system,” Parks wrote in a budget memo submitted this spring.
The request for funding for replacement cameras was also denied.
L.A. officials have long been warned that EMD lacks resources. The 2022 audit by Galperin, the former city controller, found that L.A. provided less emergency management funding than peer cities, and that the COVID-19 pandemic “strained EMD resources and staffing, causing several existing preparedness programs to lag behind, likely impacting the City’s readiness for future emergencies.”
The lack of training and funding became apparent at a budget hearing in April 2024. Councilmember Katy Yaroslavsky asked Parks directly at the meeting: “With your current budget, are you able to staff your [emergency] response centers 24/7 during emergencies?”
“The answer is no,” Parks said. “If there are multiple days that the emergency operations center needs to be activated, we do not have enough staff.”
During the Palisades fire, EMD said it had to bring in additional emergency management officials from other cities to sustain the emergency operations center around the clock.
Lowe said L.A. leaders had failed to recognize EMD’s role within the broader public safety infrastructure of the city.
“I’m not sure at a political level that the city understands and appreciates emergency management and the purpose of the department, and that trickles down to the budget and the size of the department,” Lowe said.
For anybody confused about whether Gov. Gavin Newsom planned to come to Los Angeles’ rescue Wednesday when he announced his May revision to the state budget, a clue could be found on the front page of his spending plan.
In an AI-generated image, the budget cover page featured the Golden Gate Bridge and the San Francisco skyline, along with office workers who appear to be chatting it up in a forest glade next to an electric vehicle charging station. Not a hint of Los Angeles was anywhere to be seen.
Deeper in the budget proposal, no salvation was found for L.A. And at a news conference Wednesday, Newsom said flatly that he did not plan to provide cash to help dig the city out of its budget hole. The city is facing a $1-billion shortfall due to inflated personnel costs, higher than ever liability lawsuit payouts and below-expected revenues.
“The state’s not in a position to write a check,” Newsom said. “When you’re requesting things that have nothing to do with disaster recovery, that’s a nonstarter … I don’t need to highlight examples of requests from the city and county that were not related to disaster recovery and this state is not in a position, never have been, even in other times, to address those requests, particularly at this time.”
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass delivers her State of the City address at L.A. City Hall on April 21.
(Carlin Stiehl/Los Angeles Times)
The governor made sure to remind reporters Wednesday that the state had been more than willing to help with fire recovery efforts, but said that was the limit of its generosity. Newsom said that of the $2.5 billion offered to Los Angeles after the fires, more than $1 billion remained unused. That funding helped with emergency response and initial recovery from the January wildfires.
Despite Newsom’s edict, Bass didn’t appear ready to throw in the towel. She said she and the governor were “in sync” and in regular contact about the situation. State money to help with the budget crisis would be fire-recovery-related, Bass insisted.
“We had to spend a great deal of money of our general fund related to the wildfires. If we are able to get that reimbursed that relieves some of the pressure from the general fund,” Bass said in an interview with The Times. “We submitted a document to him where we are asking him if the state would be willing to give us the money up front that FEMA will reimburse — so we are requesting 100% fire-related.”
Bass visited Sacramento in March and April. She and L.A. legislators first requested $1.893 billion in state aid to help with the budget crisis and disaster recovery. The mayor has since pared down the request, but the amount she is now requesting is not public.
In the initial request, they asked for $638 million for “protecting city services under budgetary strain.” That request is likely dead. But the $301-million request for “a loan to support disaster recovery expenses pending FEMA reimbursement” still stands.
Bass said she most recently met with the governor two weeks ago, and he informed the mayor that the state’s financial situation was not looking good.
The revision is just a starting point for final budgetary negotiations between the governor and the Legislature, and the state budget won’t be completed until at least mid-June, weeks after the deadline for the City Council to approve its own budget.
“We have 36 members of the L.A. delegation fighting for the city and we’ll just have to wait and see what happens in June,” said Assemblymember Tina McKinnor, who chairs the Los Angeles County Legislative Delegation.
McKinnor said she is confident that the state budget will have money not just for fire recovery, but also to help the city manage its broader financial woes.
“We will not fail L.A.,” McKinnor said.
With the state lifeline in serious doubt, the cuts the city will have to make to balance its budget took another step toward reality.
While Bass is still hopeful for state aid, the council seemed less hopeful.
“We expected and planned for this outcome, but that doesn’t make it any less frustrating. The governor’s decision to withhold support from California’s largest city after we experienced the most devastating natural disaster in the state’s history is a serious mistake, with consequences for both our long-term recovery and the strength of the state’s economy,” said Katy Yaroslavsky, who chairs the council’s budget committee.
“This will not be a ‘no-layoff’ budget,” Yaroslavsky said on May 8 at a budget hearing.
Bass stressed that she is still trying to avoid any layoffs. The city plans to avert further layoffs by transferring employees to the proprietary departments, like the harbor, the airport and perhaps the Department of Water & Power.
“We’re all working very, very hard with the same goal in mind and that is having a balanced, responsible budget that avoids laying off city workers,” she said Thursday.
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State of play
—MOURNING ONE OF CITY HALL’S OWN: Former chief of staff to Councilmember Kevin de León and longtime L.A. politico Jennifer Barraza Mendoza died Tuesday at 37 following a long battle with cancer. Barraza Mendoza began her career organizing with SEIU Local 99, helped lead De León’s Senate campaign and also served as a principal at Hilltop Public Solutions, among other roles. “In a political world of shapeshifters, she stood out as fiercely loyal and guided by principle,” De León said in a statement. “She never sought the spotlight — but when tested, she rose with unmatched strength to protect her team, her community, and what she knew was right.”
— MINIMUM WAGE WAR: The City Council voted Wednesday for a sweeping package of minimum wage increases for hotel workers and employees of companies at Los Angeles International Airport. One hotel executive said the proposal, which would take the wage to $30 in July 2028, would kill his company’s plan for a new 395-room hotel tower in Universal City. Other hotel companies predicted they would scale back or shutter their restaurant operations. The hotel workers’ union countered by saying business groups have made similar warnings in the past, only to be proved wrong.
— SECOND TIME’S A CHARM: Surprise! On Friday, the City Council had to schedule a do-over vote on its tourism wage proposal. That vote, called as part of a special noon meeting, came two days after City Atty. Hydee Feldstein Soto’s office warned that Wednesday’s vote had the potential to violate the city’s public meeting law.
Los Angeles Councilwoman Eunisses Hernandez in December in Los Angeles.
(Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times)
— READY TO RELAUNCH: Councilmember Eunisses Hernandez plans to host her campaign kickoff event for her reelection bid Saturday in Highland Park, where she was born and raised. She already has a few competitors in the race, including Raul Claros, who used to serve on the Affordable Housing Commission, and Sylvia Robledo, a former council aide.
The left-wing councilmember has already won the endorsements of Council President Marqueece Harris-Dawson and from colleagues Heather Hutt, Ysabel Jurado, Hugo Soto-Martinez and Nithya Raman. Controller Kenneth Mejia also endorsed her.
— PHOTO BOMB: Recently pictured with Eunisses Hernandez: Political consultant Rick Jacobs — the former senior aide to then-Mayor Eric Garcetti who was accused of sexual harassment. Jacobs now works as a consultant for the politically powerful Southwest Regional Council of Carpenters. Per a post on Jacobs’ LinkedIn, Hernandez posed for a photo this week with Jacobs and several union members while presenting the group with a city certificate of recognition.
Jacobs has denied the harassment allegations, but the scandal bedeviled Garcetti in his final years in office and nearly derailed his ambassadorship to India. Jacobs has remained in the political mix — some may remember his controversial appearance at Bass’ exclusive 2022 post-inauguration Getty House afterparty. Also worth noting: The Carpenters are major players in local elections, and their PAC spent nearly $150,000 supporting Hernandez’s then-opponent Gil Cedillo in the 2022 election.
“Councilmember Hernandez was proud to stand with the carpenters who built the little library at North East New Beginnings, the first-of-its-kind interim housing site she opened in 2024. She was there to honor their craftsmanship and community contribution — nothing more. She did not choose who else appeared in the photo,” said Naomi Villagomez Roochnik, a spokesperson for Hernandez.
— PARK GETS AN OPPONENT: Public Counsel attorney Faizah Malik is challenging Councilmember Traci Park from the left, the tenants rights lawyer announced Thursday. Malik is styling her campaign in the mold of prior progressive incumbent ousters, she said, though she has yet to garner any of their endorsements. But she did get an Instagram signal boost from former CD 11 Councilmember Mike Bonin, who characterized her as “A Westside leader who will fight for YOU and your family.” Meanwhile, centrist group Thrive LA had a fundraiser for Park this week, and declared her its first endorsement of the 2026 cycle.
— FIREFIGHT: Active and retired firefighters blasted the council’s recommendation to nix 42 “Emergency Incident Technicians,” who help develop firefighting strategy and account for firefighters during blazes. In a letter to the council, the firefighters said the 1998 death of firefighter Joseph Dupee was linked to removal of EITs during a previous budget crisis.
“Please do not repeat the same mistake that was made in 1998 when EITs were removed and said removal was found to be a contributing factor in the death of LAFD Captain Joseph Dupee,” the firefighters wrote.
— EMPLOYMENT LAW AND ORDER: Some LAPD officers are hitting the jackpot on what are known as “LAPD lottery” cases. The city has paid out nearly $70 million over the last three years to officers who have sued the department after alleging they were the victims of sexual harassment, racial discrimination or retaliation against whistleblowers.
The massive payouts are not helping the city’s coffers. One of the leading causes of the current fiscal crisis is the ballooning liability payments that the city makes in settlements and jury verdicts.
— WATER OLYMPICS: L.A. County’s plan to run a water taxi between Long Beach and San Pedro during the Olympics paddled forward this week. Supervisor Janice Hahn introduced a motion, with co-author Mayor Bass, to launch a feasibility study assessing ridership demand, cost and possible routes.
“[The water taxi] would give residents, workers and tourists an affordable alternative to driving and parking at these Games venues,” Hahn said.
— ROBO-PERMIT: City and county residents submitting plans to rebuild their burned down properties could have their first interaction with an AI bot who would inspect their plans before a human. Wildfire recovery foundations purchased the AI permitting software, developed by Australian tech firm Archistar, and donated it to the city and county. The tech was largely paid for by Steadfast L.A., Rick Caruso’s nonprofit.
— TRUMP’S VETS MOVE: President Trump signed an executive order calling on the Department of Veterans Affairs to house up to 6,000 homeless veterans on its West Los Angeles campus, but even promoters of the idea are skeptical of the commander in chief’s follow-through.
“If this had come from any other president, I’d pop the Champagne,” said Rep. Brad Sherman (D-Sherman Oaks), whose district includes the West Los Angeles campus. Trump, he said, follows up on “like one out of 10 things that he announces. You just never know which one. You never know to what extent.”
— ADDRESSING THE ELEPHANTS IN THE ROOM: A Los Angeles County Superior Court judge denied a motion for a temporary restraining order Thursday that sought to stop the L.A. Zoo from transferring elephants Tina and Billy to the Tulsa Zoo. The judge said the decision was out of the court’s purview. The zoo said Thursday that the “difficult decision” to relocate the pachyderms was made with the “care and well being” of the animals at top of mind.
“Activist agendas and protests are rightfully not a consideration in decisions that impact animal care,” the statement said.
— CHARTER SQUABBLE: Bass made her four appointments to the Charter Reform Commission this week. She selected Raymond Meza, Melinda Murray, Christina Sanchez and Robert Lewis to serve as commissioners. She also named Justin Ramirez as the executive director of the commission. Bass’s appointments came on the heels of reform advocate Rob Quan sending out mailers about the mayor’s delay in making appointments, which left the commission unable to get to work.
“Karen Bass wasted eight months. That was when her appointments were due. Eight months ago,” Quan said in an interview.
— WORKDAY TROUBLE: The Department of Water and Power is slated to adopt a new human resources software, Workday, in mid-June. But Gus Corona, business manager of IBEW Local 18, warned of “serious concerns” and the potential for “widespread problems and administrative chaos.” In a letter this week to DWP CEO Janisse Quiñones, which The Times obtained, Corona said there was a “consistent lack of clarity” about the new system, especially around union dues and benefit deductions, retroactive pay and cost of living adjustments. “The level of uncertainty so close to a planned launch date is deeply troubling,” Corona wrote.
Quick Hits
Where is Inside Safe? The mayor’s signature homelessness program went to Councilmember Curren Price’s district: 37th Street and Flower Street, according to the mayor’s office.
On the docket for next week: The full City Council is scheduled to take up the proposed city budget for 2025-26 — and the mayor’s proposal for city employee layoffs — on Thursday.
Stay in touch
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