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Harold Greene dead: Los Angeles news anchor was 82

Harold Greene, a beloved Los Angeles news anchor, has died. He was 82.

His daughter, Courtney Greene, shared news of his passing on Wednesday via Facebook, adding that she was by his side, alongside his wife, Charlene Greene, when he “signed off for the last time.”

His cause of death has not yet been announced by the family, but his daughter shared that “there was an extraordinary amount of love in the room” when he passed.

“We have a feeling he’s already settling into the great newsroom in the sky, no doubt with a few suggestions on how things should be run,” Courtney wrote in the Facebook post.

Harold Greene began his career as a reporter and producer for KABC (ABC7) Los Angeles in 1970. Throughout the decade, he shared his talent across other newsrooms in California, including San Diego, where he helped launch KCST-TV (now KNSD) and a short stint in the Bay Area at the CBS affiliate KPIX-TV, where he co-anchored alongside Dave McElhatton, who died in 2010.

Greene later returned to ABC7 for multiple stints, according to the news outlet, including their top-rated “Eyewitness News” team. His final return to the flagship station was in 1982, when he was hired as a reporter and weekend anchor. He served as host/celebrity interviewer of locally produced programs such as “Hollywood Close-Up” and “A.M. Los Angeles” for the station.

In 1986, he earned one of 10 Golden Mike Awards for his coverage of the Cerritos air disaster. He left ABC7 in 2000, but continued his work as a dynamic anchor at KCBS-TV and KCAL-TV until his retirement in 2008.

His on-air image was reportedly the inspiration behind the mustachioed protagonist portrayed by Will Ferrell in the 2004 comedy “Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy.”

Over his career, Greene earned multiple Emmys and three Edward R. Murrow awards, and he received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1999.

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Packers’ Christian Watson returns to game after leaving in ambulance

Christian Watson didn’t literally come back from the dead on “Thursday Night Football.”

But what the Green Bay Packers receiver pulled off during his team’s 27-19 win over the Carolina Panthers was nearly as dramatic.

“He resurrected himself,” quarterback Jordan Love said during a postgame interview on Prime Video.

Injured while making a 53-yard catch at the 9:11 mark of the second quarter — he later said he might have landed with the ball or his elbow in his chest — Watson was having trouble breathing on the field and coughed up some blood on the sideline. Prime cameras showed him climbing into an ambulance under his own power and still wearing his pads.

Less than an hour later, the same cameras showed Watson climbing out of the ambulance and jogging out of the tunnel at Lambeau Field, much to the surprise and delight of his teammates and the crowd.

“It was super dramatic,” Watson told reporters in the locker room after the game. “I used to watch WWE as a kid — I felt like I was watching ‘WWE SmackDown vs. Raw’ or something out there, you know, seeing the cameras on me when I got out of the ambulance, that was a little crazy. It was a surreal experience, no doubt, just to go through that and have you know the fans cheering for me getting back out there. It was definitely exciting.”

It was a scene Watson would have liked to have avoided in the first place.

“I never wanted to go” to the hospital, Watson said during an on-field interview with Prime after the game. “I was hoping that they would let me off. I said it was feeling better once I kind of caught my breath, but they said there was a couple signs that made them have to take me over there. I was just praying that it was good enough where I could come back out here.”

Watson, who was able to keep up with the game on a doctor’s phone, said he was told he had broken a rib. He was cleared to return after a CT scan showed no signs of internal bleeding.

“I was spitting a little blood [on the sideline] at first, so they just wanted to make sure there was nothing crazy,” Watson said. “I cleared everything and was able to get back out.”

Donning extra padding to protect his ribs, Watson re-entered the game with 4:01 remaining in the third quarter and was targeted on the first play. The deep pass from Love was knocked away by Carolina’s Nick Scott, with Panthers cornerback Marco Wilson landing on Watson’s chest at the end of the play.

But the NFL’s second-leading receiver said he was happy just to be back on the field.

“I had so much adrenaline that it didn’t really hit me right away, but definitely, definitely felt that one,” said Watson, who caught two passes for 13 yards after his return and finished the night with eight catches for 113 yards.

“That’s pretty remarkable,” coach Matt LaFleur said of Watson’s performance. “He had a heck of a night. Just can’t imagine what he would have had had he not missed so much time.”

“I think it shows resiliency, I think it shows toughness, and I think it just shows the love that he has for this team,” safety Xavier McKinney told reporters after the game. “Sometimes, you might see that happen and he had his 100 yards, and he could’ve just sat it. But the fact that he wasn’t satisfied and the fact that he felt like and he knew that we still needed him out there and he still said, ‘OK, I love this team and I want to be able to go out here for this team and do that,’ that gains our respect.”

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‘Nocturne’ star Liev Schreiber apologizes for berating reporter

Liev Schreiber owned up to his intense behavior at the “Nocturne” premiere last week, apologizing for scolding a red carpet reporter.

“I didn’t do well,” the Emmy-winning “Ray Donovan” and “Spotlight” star said while recalling his side of the viral red carpet exchange for “Late Night with Seth Meyers” on Monday.

“She hit my Achilles’ heel,” Schreiber explained later in his late-night segment.

His exchange with an Apple TV reporter sparked headlines last week, with the actor berating the reporter on video for her question during his series’ Hollywood premiere. The 59-year-old star appeared to take issue with the reporter asking him to describe “Nocturne” in three words. He could be seen apparently telling the reporter to “talk to people like they value what they do.”

“Three words isn’t gonna do anything for anybody and the monkey who f— thought of that is shooting themselves in the foot,” he says in the video. “It’s not a f— sound bite, especially when we’re doing it in-house for our own people.”

He further suggested that the reporter “engage” with the individuals involved in the project, which is an Apple TV production.

During his late-night appearance, Schreiber made it quite clear he has a bone to pick with increasingly reductive language, lamenting the use of emojis to communicate thoughts. The Tony winner, directing William Shakespeare’s “Measure for Measure” for the USC School of Dramatic Arts, spoke on Monday about “what a responsibility it is to articulate” and joked, “I might not be the best person on the press line that ever was on the press line.”

Schreiber said he’s now “at that age where I don’t do things terribly quickly” and fessed up to his “terrible tirade about monkeys and profanity.”

“I apologize,”he said, adding he and the reporter smoothed things over and ultimately engaged in a “great” conversation about the series.

“Nocturne” stars Schreiber, “Atlanta” alumna Zazie Beetz and Emmy winner Stephen Graham and begins streaming Friday. Adapted from Lars Kepler’s bestselling novel, the series centers on Schreiber’s ex-cop whose move to a small western Pennsylvania town spurs a string of disappearances possibly tied to a serial killer.

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Deion Sanders says his $50,000 offer to reporters was just a joke

Deion Sanders was just kidding.

The Colorado Buffaloes coach told reporters on Tuesday that he actually would not be willing pay them or any of their colleagues to refrain from covering him, despite what a close associate of his said during a livestream days earlier.

“Oh, no, no, no. I think you misinterpreted that,” Sanders said. “That was a joke. That’s what we were saying, like, some people live on your name.”

YouTube host and documentary maker Christopher Neely brought up the topic on Saturday during a livestream on “Thee Pregame Network.” A longtime videographer for Sanders, Neely mentioned that some members of the media seem to thrive off of negative coverage of Sanders, nicknamed Coach Prime.

“For the most part, the people that attack him wouldn’t be making the money they were making if he wasn’t here to attack,” Neely said, “which is why he told some of them, ‘Hey man, let’s just do this. I’ll give you $50,000 to not mention my name for a year.’ And ain’t nobody took the deal yet.”

Neely added: “You love talking about this man so much, and you make so much talking about this man that you turn the deal down. That’s what we’re dealing with.”

On Tuesday afternoon, Neely addressed the matter on “TMR Live,” the daily livestream he co-hosts with BiggDogg Chico. Neely clarified that Sanders made the so-called offer while joking around on the show in May and hadn’t actually floated the idea to actual media members.

“This was clearly a tongue-in-cheek, joking example to prove a point that there’s so many people who are negative toward us and they’re making so much money being negative toward us that even if I offered them what they were making or more, they still wouldn’t stop,” said Neely, who played the clip of a smiling Sanders making the comment in the spring.

“All I did this weekend on like October 26 was say, ‘Hey, by the way, ain’t nobody still reached out to Coach Prime and say, ‘Hey, give me that 50, I’ll stop talking about you.’ And then what do they do? [They said] ‘Neely says Coach Prime’s feelings are hurt and he wants to pay people to not talk about him.’”

Neely added: “He was clearly playing. Do you think this man with all he’s worth and been through and been talked about since he first caught a ball that he would literally pay somebody in Colorado to stop talking about him? He’s got better ways to blow $50,000.”

Although amused by the notion, Sanders made it clear that reporters aren’t going to get a dime from him.

“I would never offer a man money not to say — I don’t give a darn what you say about me,” Sanders said. “That was really a joke about someone who is prospering off of your name and your brand but they don’t like you.”

A two-time Super Bowl champion, one-time NFL defensive player of the year and a 2011 inductee into the Pro Football Hall of Fame, Sanders became Colorado’s head coach in 2023. Since then, the Buffaloes have gone 18-26, including a 9-4 effort from a 2024 roster that including his son Shedeur Sanders, who is now with the Cleveland Browns, and Heisman Trophy winner Travis Hunter, now with the Jacksonville Jaguars.

The team is 2-5 and 0-4 in the Big 12 Conference this year. It hosts conference foe Kansas State (4-3, 1-3) on Saturday.

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Trump administration files lawsuit to block possible Democratic win in Alaska Senate race

The Trump administration has filed a lawsuit to block certification of the Senate race in Alaska if Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan loses the contest while another candidate with the same name is on the ballot, kicking off what many have feared could become a lengthy battle between the U.S. government and states over certifying an election where the president’s party is struggling.

Many in both parties believe the fight could come down to Alaska, where Sullivan faces Democrat Mary Peltola. Also on the Alaska ballot is a Daniel J. Sullivan from the tiny fishing community of Petersburg. He has said he decided to run on his own, but Republicans have contended he’s a Democratic plant to siphon votes away from their candidate.

On Thursday, the Department of Justice filed a lawsuit in federal court in Alaska demanding that the state be blocked from certifying a Peltola win if the other Sullivan remains on the ballot. “The United States accordingly brings this lawsuit to protect the integrity of the 2026 Senate election in Alaska,” the lawsuit alleges, contending that federal law requires states to protect the integrity of federal elections.

The Alaska Supreme Court rejected previous Republican efforts to remove the other Sullivan from the ballot, and the state’s Republican officials made the decisions about how to list him on the ballot. The other Sullivan will appear without a party designation next to his name, while the senator will be listed as the Republican incumbent. Alaska’s ranked choice voting system also will allow voters to select both of the men if confused.

The Trump Department of Justice has increasingly been used to bolster the president’s political operation, targeting his enemies and filing lawsuits against Democratic-controlled states in the run up to the election. Democrats and many voting rights advocates have long feared the Trump administration will try to block certification of elections the president’s party loses much as Trump unsuccessfully tried to do when he lost the 2020 presidential election.

Earlier Thursday, U.S. Atty. Gen. Todd Blanche told reporters that was unlikely outside of extreme circumstances. “It is not DOJ’s intention to and it’s never our intention to improperly interfere with elections or the state certification process,” the attorney general told reporters in Virginia.

Derek Muller, a law professor at Notre Dame University, said the lawsuit will likely only kick in if Republicans narrowly lose the Alaska Senate race and that it does not seem to have legal merit. “The statute simply doesn’t let the Department of Justice enjoin certification,” he said.

Riccardi writes for the Associated Press.

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Liev Schreiber scolds Apple TV reporter on ‘Nocturne’ red carpet

Liev Schreiber appeared to be scolding an interviewer Tuesday during the red-carpet premiere for his new Apple TV series, “Nocturne.”

A bystander captured a behind-the-scenes snippet of the 59-year-old, who was seen speaking to a female reporter, likely part of the Apple TV team.

“Talk to people like they value what they do,” Schreiber said in the clip. “It’s not a f— sound bite, especially when we’re doing it in-house for our own people.”

The Tony Award winner added, “We’re trying to make the show compelling” and suggested that the reporter “engage” with the individuals involved in the project.

It is unclear what question was asked in the lead-up to the awkward interaction, although the “Ray Donovan” actor followed up with: “Three words isn’t gonna do anything for anybody and the monkey who f— thought of that is shooting themselves in the foot.”

The woman, who was holding an Apple TV microphone, continued to smile, telling someone in the background, “I hope you’re rolling on this.”

“What I’m trying to say is,” Schreiber continued, “if you wanna give them something that they can use, talk to people like they’re humans, not like they’re social media.”

The woman then appeared to reframe her question, to which the “Spotlight” actor agreed to respond on camera, adding, “That’s a real question; let’s talk about that.”

The Times reached out to Schreiber’s representatives and Apple TV but did not hear back.

Schreiber is both executive producer and star of “Nocturne,” which is set to premiere Oct. 30.

The drama is based on the Lars Kepler crime novels, including “The Sandman” and “Lazarus.” The series follows Jonah Lynn (played by Schreiber), an ex-soldier turned homicide detective who moves from Philadelphia to western Pennsylvania for a quieter life. But the town is shaken up by an imprisoned serial killer, Jurek Walter (“Adolescence” actor Stephen Graham), which prompts FBI agent Saga Bauer (“Atlanta’s” Zazie Beetz) to go undercover.

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NFL fines 3 coaches $250K for berating officials, but they may not pay

Three NFL head coaches were each fined $250,000 Wednesday for their conduct toward game officials. Yet apparently nobody has to whip out a checkbook quite yet.

The fines are on hold and could be rescinded altogether if the coaches behave themselves going forward, according to multiple reports.

The New England Patriots’ Mike Vrabel, the Philadelphia Eagles’ Nick Sirianni and the New York Jets’ Aaron Glenn were hit with the fines, which were put into abeyance pending future interaction with officials.

The NFL did not disclose the specific behavior that prompted the organization to single out those coaches, although all three have had visible sideline beef with officials this season.

Vrabel left the coaching box to confront an official late in the first half of the Patriots’ 29-26 victory over the Buffalo Bills on Oct. 5, losing his cool over a defensive holding call against Patriots’ cornerback Marcus Jones. Vrabel was hit with a 15-yard unsportsmanlike conduct penalty.

Referee Bill Vinovich said afterward that Vrabel was flagged for using profanity toward an official. Vrabel told reporters that Vinovich “was a little sensitive. I told him it was a terrible — I’m not going to say effing call. I’ve said that 87 times since I’ve been a head coach. It was nothing derogatory.”

A week later, Glenn went on a tirade while surrounded by three officials during the Jets’ victory over the Browns. Sirianni has had several sideline temper tantrums, including one Sept. 28 after Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts was called for intentional grounding.

Troy Vincent, the NFL executive vice president of football operations, told reporters Wednesday at the owners meetings in New York City that sportsmanship was a discussion item. The fines appear to be sending a message that relationships between coaches, game officials and players need to be more civil.

The NFL suspended game officials Jeff Seeman and Adrian Hill on Oct. 5 following separate incidents of unprofessional conduct toward players. Seeman appeared to curse at Arizona Cardinals tight end Trey McBride, and Hill confronted Minnesota Vikings linebacker Eric Wilson after being inadvertently knocked down.

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Al Jazeera reporter harassed, struck on head amid France protests, looting | Protests

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Al Jazeera reporter harassed, struck on head amid France protests, looting

Al Jazeera’s Rosie Rosie Birchard was harassed by protesters looting shops in Rennes, France, and struck on the head by an object thrown during the unrest. Her report comes amid nationwide demonstrations over education and living costs, with clashes, fires and looting reported across several cities.

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Trump casts doubt on press secretary Zacharia’s future

Will Weissert and Seung Min Kim

President Trump signaled Friday that his embattled new press secretary, Katie Zacharia, may be on her way out — a mere week after he picked her for the post.

Speaking to reporters on the White House lawn as he left for a rally in Georgia, Trump said he’d spoken to Zacharia and that he felt she didn’t deserve what he called negative media coverage.

Recounting what was said in that conversation, the president suggested that Zacharia might not stay on the job for long: “I told her, ‘I think you’re better off being happy.’”

He added: “I said, ‘Katie, do you need this? I don’t think you need this,’” and that he wanted “her to have a good life” and not be subjected to criticism, which he likened to being “brutalized by the media.”

The president said he’d make a final determination later, perhaps after his campaign travel on Friday and this weekend, adding, “When I get back, we’re gonna talk.”

Zacharia’s short tenure has been defined by questions about her professional background and lack of polish in fielding questions from journalists.

She was a surprise choice when Trump announced her appointment on Oct. 9, as the successor to Karoline Leavitt, the youngest-ever White House press secretary who had been part of Trump’s inner circle for years.

Zacharia came under immediate scrutiny when she appeared uncomfortable during her inaugural briefing, delivering halting remarks touting the president and his accomplishments.

She took questions from just three reporters, all from conservative-leaning or Trump-friendly outlets, and left after only about 14 minutes.

Zacharia has said she wanted to keep her briefing short to ensure Trump had enough time later that morning for his own question-and-answer session with reporters, and that she had not been fully briefed by White House staff beforehand.

She later traveled with Trump when he held rallies on Wednesday and Thursday in Alaska, Arizona and Montana — but did not hold more press briefings.

In an appearance on Fox News Channel earlier Friday, Zacharia was asked if she had the president’s confidence and responded: “I hope to be able to build the trust and confidence of everyone around me.”

But she also wouldn’t say when her next press briefing might be.

Zacharia, a Pepperdine University law graduate, also faced criticism for calling herself a “lawyer” when she had not passed a bar exam or was otherwise credentialed to practice.

She had described herself as such when appearing as a commentator on conservative television outlets. Zacharia said the term was a proper one to use when she was offering legal analysis, and said she had worked as a lawyer in China.

Zacharia said Friday on Fox News that she wasn’t asked about passing the bar before becoming press secretary, and Trump noted in his subsequent comments that she was hired as a spokesperson for the White House, not as an attorney.

Before joining the White House, Zacharia had been working in communications for Trump Media, the company that oversees the president’s social media site, Truth Social. She also briefly worked at the Department of Homeland Security during the second Trump administration.

Weissert and Kim write for the Associated Press.

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Russia arrests Japanese reporter for alleged espionage | Espionage News

Suspect was arrested on Russia’s far-eastern Sakhalin Island before being transferred to Moscow, says Russia’s FSB.

Russian authorities say they have arrested a Japanese journalist on the far eastern Sakhalin Island, accusing him of espionage.

The Federal Security Service (FSB) announced the arrest on Tuesday, saying the man was believed to have gathered information on Russia’s defence capabilities for Japanese intelligence. The charges carry up to 20 years in prison.

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Russia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs named the journalist as Imai Yuki, who it said worked for Japan’s Hokkaido Shimbun newspaper.

The Japanese government was trying to verify reports of the journalist’s detention, according to an official at Tokyo’s embassy in Moscow cited by Japan’s Kyodo news agency.

The journalist was arrested on Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, the main city on Sakhalin Island, as he was preparing to leave Russia, said the FSB. He was then flown to Moscow, where a court ordered him to be held behind bars pending the probe, the agency added.

A video shared by Russia’s TASS news agency, attributed to the FSB, shows masked officers appearing to handcuff the suspect in a hotel room, before transporting him to an interrogation room.

The suspect was then shown boarding a plane accompanied by two FSB servicemen, before appearing in a cage on trial in a Moscow court, which authorised his custody for nearly two months.

The Japanese man’s arrest comes amid a spike in tensions between Russia and Japan following Russian President Vladimir Putin’s trip in August to the Kuril Islands, the Moscow-controlled Pacific archipelago that is claimed by both countries.

The Sakhalin region includes Sakhalin Island and the four southernmost islands of the Kuril chain, which Japan calls the Northern Territories.

Russia and Japan never signed a formal World War II peace treaty, with the main obstacle being the ⁠unresolved territorial dispute over the Kuril Islands.

Authorities in Russia have arrested numerous foreigners for alleged espionage since it invaded neighbouring Ukraine in 2022.

One of the most prominent cases was the detention of Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich in 2023. He was found guilty of espionage by ‌a ‌Russian court, sentenced to 16 years and then freed in a major prisoner swap involving Russia and Western countries in August 2024.

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Katie Zacharia, Trump’s new White House press secretary, makes a brief appearance before reporters

Michelle L. Price and Darlene Superville

Katie Zacharia, the new White House press secretary, faced reporters for the first time on Tuesday for a very brief turn at the lectern, taking a handful of questions before abruptly wrapping it up.

Zacharia, a conservative commentator who most recently worked for President Trump’s social media company, was named to the job on Friday, succeeding Karoline Leavitt, who left in August and is taking a job with Fox News Channel.

Zacharia told reporters her goal is to “amplify” what Trump is doing and that the president is “his own best spokesperson.”

She quickly proved that Tuesday, appearing for only 14 minutes and taking questions from just three outlets before telling reporters they could go ask the president their questions on the South Lawn of the White House as he prepared to leave for a campaign trip.

“In fact, I am going to end it because President Trump is heading out to Marine One for our historic trip to Alaska, and we can ask him all of the questions out there,” she said.

As Trump left the White House for his trip, he praised Zacharia’s performance to reporters.

“I thought she did excellent,” he said. “She did very good.”

Before taking the questions, Zacharia read slowly from an opening statement that began with a focus on Trump’s recent campaign rallies ahead of the midterm elections and his policies on energy, tariffs, immigration and more since he returned to office.

In naming Zacharia, who has a law degree from Pepperdine University, Trump described her as “a loyal and brilliant supporter, right from the beginning.” She briefly worked as a spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security earlier this year and has been a commentator for Fox News and Newsmax.

She told reporters that she viewed her role as press secretary to be no different than the way she advocated for Trump while outside the government.

“I get to do what I was doing on the outside already, which was hoping to amplify, multiply and expand upon President Trump’s incredible agenda for the American people,” she said.

She also thanked Trump and said, “I have wanted to work for him for a very long time.”

She took her first question from Breitbart News, the right-wing outlet which has become more influential in the Trump era, and committed to keeping the “new media” rotation created under her predecessor to bring additional media outlets into news briefings and the White House press pool.

But Zacharia did make some big news: she said that Trump had asked for the resignation of Kimberly Guilfoyle, the U.S. ambassador to Greece, after a series of reports alleging she has engaged in improper and possibly illegal conduct before and during her tenure in Athens.

“She has been a wonderful asset to the team and we wish her well,” Zacharia said.

Price and Superville write for the Associated Press. AP writers Seung Min Kim, Josh Boak and Collin Binkley in Washington and Mike Catalini in Morrisville, Pa., contributed to this report.

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A reporter on why the L.A. City Hall audio leak scandal should still matter

Do you remember what you were doing when the infamous L.A. City Hall racist audio leak scandal broke four years ago?

I always will: I was naked.

You’re reading the Essential California newsletter

L.A. Times reporters guide you through the most important news, features and recommendations of the morning.

Sunday morning, Oct. 9, 2022, around 8 a.m., I was about to take a shower when I decided to check my cellphone one more time. Thank God I did: If I hadn’t, I would’ve been half an hour late on assisting in one of the most explosive stories ever to hit L.A. politics.

Via Slack, Times assistant managing editor Steve Clow asked if I could serve as a second set of ears on audio that my colleagues had unearthed involving four of the most powerful L.A. políticos at the time: City Council President Nury Martinez, Councilmembers Gil Cedillo and Kevin de León, and L.A. County Federation of Labor President Ron Herrera. I was still in my birthday suit (sorry for the visual, gentle readers, but I’m sworn to report the facts on this job) when I played the snippet Clow shared: Martinez describing the Black son of then-Councilmember Mike Bonin as “su negrito” — his darky.

I put on my shorts and told my wife I wouldn’t be helping at her restaurant that day.

Clow sent me more clips over the next hour, each crasser than the other — I remember gasping audibly at the part when the four were laughing as Martinez referred to Oaxacans as “ugly.” That morning, my colleagues Benjamin Oreskes, Dakota Smith, Julia Wick and David Zahniser published their first story on the fiasco, which turned out to be a secretly recorded conversation from a year earlier that someone had posted on Reddit just the day before.

The scandal quickly became a national sensation, with even then-President Joe Biden weighing in. L.A. wretched in collective disgust and demanded action, which definitely came: Martinez and Herrera quickly resigned, while Cedillo — who had already lost his reelection bid — would stay on until his bitter end, and De León wouldn’t leave until challenger Ysabel Jurado destroyed him in his 2024 reelection bid. The electoral repercussions of the audio leak can still be felt four years later in this election, as Nithya Raman stages a strong challenge against incumbent Karen Bass — a sentence no one would’ve believed in the fall of 2022, when Bass was on the cusp of winning her first term, and Raman was the lone democratic socialist on the council.

I would’ve figured the anniversary of something as titanic as all of the above would’ve sparked more commemorations than just my columna this week. Nope! L.A. has moved on to the point that Cedillo wasn’t booted from a group photo that included current District 9 council candidate Jose Ugarte, former Assemblymember Wendy Carrillo, former Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and current Assemblymember Mark Gonzalez — because even Chicanosauruses can survive a political asteroid, I guess?

Having political leaders spew racist, homophobic nonsense now seems like the good ol’ days in an era where infernos destroy or stink up swaths of L.A., immigration agents terrorize immigrants from Westwood to the Eastside, and a spokesperson for a sitting American president denies that the commander in chief suggested Iran bomb the City of Angels, even though he said it during a campaign rally.

I shouldn’t really be surprised, I guess: L.A. infamously loves to forget its own history. But I would urge all you readers to read the great, Pulitzer Prize-winning coverage my colleagues did in the aftermath of the audio leak scandal, because it captured the city at its worst — but also its finest as residents fought back and demanded politicians do better.

Four years later, we can only hope this upcoming election shows more of the same.

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Apple Butter on a plate and inside a jar

(Rebecca Peloquin / For The Times)

This recipe makes apple butter that is less sweet than most; use more sugar if you like, but don’t use less or there won’t be enough to properly preserve the pureed apples.

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Meals Clothing co-founder Sam Salad stands amid his food-inspired, L.A.-made workwear in his Highland Park store

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