resume

Last year, LAPD leaders quietly brought on a temporary consultant to advise on how to give the department’s battered public image a spit shine.

In a proposal reviewed by The Times, the consultant wrote that the LAPD’s standing as “one of the most prominent and visible law enforcement agencies in the world” was on the line.

The name of the person offering to help chart the path forward was not mentioned when the contract went before the Police Commission for approval. Nor did it come up Feb 3. when, after a heated debate, the City Council approved the creation of a new LAPD communications strategist role with an annual salary of $191,000.

LAPD Deputy Chief Jonathan Pinto, head of the Human Resources Bureau, acknowledged under questioning from council members that the department already had someone in mind for the role — but declined to say who.

Numerous department sources, who were not authorized to speak publicly about the confidential personnel matter, identified the candidate as the consultant: Robert Port, a filmmaker, writer and director who has worked for decades in Hollywood.

Port declined to comment, as did an LAPD spokesperson.

Winner of a 2003 Academy Award for his documentary short “Twin Towers,” about a pair of brothers — a policeman and a fireman — who responded to the World Trade Center on 9/11, Port has served as an executive producer or written for shows ranging from Amazon Prime’s “Jack Ryan” to “Numb3rs” on CBS.

A biography attached to his consulting proposal says he has been a reserve Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy for the last decade. His ties to LAPD Chief Jim McDonnell and the city’s former top cop, William Bratton, date back years through shared East Coast roots.

In his consulting proposal, Port said he would “outline a forward-looking plan that strengthens messaging, builds trust, supports officer morale, and protects the LAPD’s image as the most professional and polished agency in the country.”

“In other words, let’s bring some luster back to the badge!” he wrote.

But the secrecy around Port’s hiring has already triggered fresh criticism, along with questions about whether the LAPD — which already has multiple officers working in its press shop — really needs more help communicating.

During the City Council hearing last week, Pinto said the department’s press shop would continue focusing on dealing with outside media inquiries, but that the new civil service-exempt role would draft “comprehensive integrated communication plans.”

Reporting directly to McDonnell, the position would allow the department to present a clear, unified message to the agency’s 8,700-some officers, said Pinto, while building “brand awareness” and boosting recruitment.

Several council members questioned how the new position might influence the LAPD’s messaging, noting that McDonnell has been out of lockstep with city leaders on issues such as the response to federal immigration enforcement and the use of force against protesters.

Others on the council pressed Pinto about what they saw as a lack of clarity on the job description.

“If we’ve got nothing to hide, then we shouldn’t be acting like we have something to hide,” said Councilmember Monica Rodriguez, adding that she was uncomfortable approving such a high salary given the city’s financial straits and the possibility of other civilian employees being furloughed.

The council eventually voted 10 to 5 to approve the position.

Port has kept a relatively low public profile since he started his consulting work last fall, mostly operating behind the scenes. Images posted on social media showed him walking around the crime scene at the Brentwood home of Rob Reiner, where authorities say the filmmaker and his wife were murdered by their son in December.

In his consulting proposal, Port cited conversations with McDonnell, Assistant Chief Dominic Choi and other department leaders in which they “emphasized the need for outside expertise in shaping the department’s image, both within the organization and to the public in all aspects of communication, video, and media.”

Among his proposals was to create a more “centralized” social media strategy rather than continuing to let the LAPD’s 21 stations spread across the city each handle their own online accounts.

“The goal is to maintain strong community engagement while also giving the LAPD a single, recognizable voice across all platforms and portraying its positive messaging to fellow Angelians.”

For decades, Hollywood helped sell the LAPD’s nationwide image as the epitome of professional law enforcement with shows such as “Dragnet,” “Adam-12” and “T.J. Hooker.” Today, Port said, that relationship was “less structured.” Using his industry background, he said, he could help the department better vet proposals, including a recent pitch from a major production company for a “ride-along”-style reality series.

He also suggested that he could advise a public relations firm previously hired by the LAPD to overhaul its marketing strategy. “Port’s experience in storytelling and award-winning creative expertise in advertising enable him to review these materials with a critical eye,” the proposal said.

Port’s four-month media consulting contract was paid for by a $20,000 donation from the Police Foundation, a nonprofit group that raises funds for LAPD equipment and offers other forms of support. The paperwork around the donation did not include Port’s name but said that the money would go to pay for a consultant “to develop forward-looking, integrated communications plan that strengthens messaging, builds trust, and supports officer morale.”

Then-Commissioner Erroll Southers voted against the contract, saying at the time he was uncomfortable with the department’s unwillingness to share details about the position — even with its civilian bosses.

The decision to try to bring on Port marks the latest shakeup of the department’s press office. The unit has had four different police captains in as many years, and the chief civilian spokesperson job has been vacant since the abrupt resignation of Jennifer Forkish last October.

Second round of talks to follow negotiations last month that appeared to make little progress on key issue of territory.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says a second round of trilateral talks on ending the war with Russia will take place in Abu Dhabi this week as the fate of a temporary energy ceasefire hangs in the balance.

Zelenskyy, whose country’s energy system has come under relentless attack in one of the coldest winters in years, said envoys from the United States, Russia and Ukraine would meet in Abu Dhabi on Wednesday and Thursday.

“Ukraine is ready for a substantive discussion, and we are interested in ensuring that the outcome brings us closer to a real and dignified end to the war,” he said on Sunday amid continuing US pressure to reach a deal with Russia after almost four years of war.

The first round of trilateral negotiations took place in late January but appeared to make little progress on the vital question of territory. Moscow still is demanding Kyiv cede a fifth of the Donetsk region that it still controls, which Zelenskyy’s government is refusing to do. The next round had been scheduled to take place on Sunday but may have been delayed because of the US-Iran crisis.

US President Donald Trump, who has said he wants to be remembered as a “peacemaker”, has repeatedly said a deal to end the Ukraine war is close and on Thursday announced that Russian President Vladimir Putin had agreed to stop strikes on energy targets for a week due to cold weather.

The terms of his agreement with Putin were not clear, but the Kremlin said on Friday that it had agreed to halt strikes on energy infrastructure until Sunday. Ukraine appeared to believe the suspension was supposed to last until the following Friday.

Medvedev says Russian victory near

Meanwhile, US envoy Steve Witkoff said on Saturday that he held constructive talks with Russian envoy Kirill Dmitriev in Florida.

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner and White House senior adviser Josh Gruenbaum also attended the talks. Witkoff said afterwards that he was “encouraged by this meeting that Russia is working toward securing peace in Ukraine”.

On Sunday, former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev praised Trump as a “peacemaker”, telling the Reuters news agency that Russia would “soon” achieve a military victory in the Ukraine war.

“But it is equally important to think about what will happen next. After all, the goal of victory is to prevent new conflicts. This is absolutely obvious,” said the hawkish former president, who now serves as deputy chairman of Russia’s Security Council.

Neither Ukraine nor Russia have reported major strikes on their energy infrastructure in recent days although Zelenskyy said Russia was trying “to destroy logistics and connectivity between cities and communities” through air attacks.

In southeastern Ukraine, two people were killed overnight in a drone strike on a residential building in the city of Dnipro, and six people were wounded in an attack on a maternity hospital in Zaporizhzhia, regional officials said.

Caracas, January 30, 2026 (venezuelanalysis.com) – Venezuelan Acting President, Delcy Rodríguez, welcomed the “lifting of restrictions on the country’s commercial airspace”, which had been in place since last November, following talks with the US government.

Speaking at a rally on Thursday, Rodríguez said she received a phone call from US President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio to address the issue as part of a “working agenda” between the two countries that includes the resumption of diplomatic relations.

“Let all the airlines that need to come, come. Let all the investors that need to come, come”, Rodríguez said. She assumed office following the kidnapping of President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, amid the January 3 US attacks.

Earlier in the day, Trump ordered the reopening of “all Venezuelan airspace” to commercial flights, stating that US citizens would be able to travel safely and that Venezuelans wishing to return—either permanently or temporarily—would also be able to do so.

Trump ordered Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy and other officials, including military commanders, to ensure the reopening was “immediate.”

Trump went on to describe the exchange with his Venezuelan counterpart as “highly positive,” emphasizing that “relations have been very solid and very good.” He further sought to reassure international travelers by stressing that they would be safe while in Venezuelan territory.

Following the announcements, the US Federal Aviation Administration confirmed that it had removed four Notices to Airmen (NOTAM) in the Caribbean region, including one related to Venezuela. “They were issued as a precautionary measure and are no longer necessary”, the agency argued.

Likewise on Thursday, American Airlines announced its intention to resume daily direct flights between the United States and Venezuela, becoming the first US airline to take such a step.

The company, which began operations in Venezuela in 1987, stated that the resumption of the route would be subject to approval by both US and Venezuelan authorities, as well as the corresponding security assessments.

American Airlines Chief Commercial Officer Nat Pieper said the company was eager to offer its customers the opportunity to reunite with family members and to generate new business and trade opportunities with the United States.

Direct flights between the two countries were suspended in 2019, the same year diplomatic relations between Washington and Caracas were severed after the US recognized Juan Guaidó as Venezuela’s interim president.

Last November, Trump declared that Venezuela’s airspace should be considered “completely closed.” A flurry of NOTAM warnings led international airlines to suspend their connections to the Caribbean country. Caracas withdrew licenses from several companies, including TAP, Iberia and Turkish Airlines.

On January 13, Panama’s Copa Airlines announced the resumption of flights to and from Caracas.

Embassy reopening in the works

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Wednesday during a Senate hearing that he expects the United States to reestablish a diplomatic presence in Venezuela in the near future. “We have a team there evaluating it, and I think we’ll be able to open a diplomatic presence soon,” he said.

Rubio argued that such a presence would allow Washington to “have real-time information and interact not only with government officials but also with members of civil society and the opposition.”

Laura Dogu has so far been appointed to lead the diplomatic mission from the Venezuela Affairs Unit in Bogotá, Colombia. According to CNN, the CIA is looking to establish a “foothold” in the South American country that may preced the formal arrival of US diplomats.

For her part, Rodríguez has defended her administration’s diplomatic engagement with the United States, while also urging Venezuelan political sectors to resolve their differences and internal conflicts without “orders from Washington.”

Edited by Ricardo Vaz in Caracas.

The WNBA and the players union will meet Monday in New York for the first time in weeks to try to move the stalled collective bargaining negotiations forward.

Kelsey Plum, who is vice president of the players union, mentioned the meeting to reporters Friday while preparing for a game in Philadelphia with the Unrivaled three-on-three league.

“We’ll learn a lot from this meeting. I’m not trying to put it on the meeting, but this is a meeting that I think everyone understands what’s at stake,” Plum said. “The league has their timelines; we as players understand what’s at stake. I always come into anything that I do with a great attitude, and I’m going to see the best in this.”

Plum, the former Sparks guard who is an unrestricted free agent, will be joined by other members of the executive council, including Nneka Ogwumike and Napheesa Collier, as well as union leadership.

The league will have its regular negotiating team, including commissioner Cathy Engelbert, the labor relations committee and a few other owners, according to a person familiar with the situation. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the negotiations.

The person said the league had been asking for the meeting for weeks and it was agreed upon by the union Thursday.

Players said union leadership had been chatting with them frequently.

“Both sides want to get something done, we just got to make moves to get there,” Chicago guard Rachel Banham said. ”It’s got to be an actual negotiation with compromise.”

New York guard Natasha Cloud took a more hardened stance.

“It would be the worst business decision of any business to not literally pay the players that make your business go. Without us, there is no W season,” she said.

Talks to reach a new CBA haven’t had much traction over the last few weeks, as the union says it is waiting for a response to a proposal it sent around Christmas that included a 30% gross revenue share for the players. According to another person familiar with the negotiations, the league didn’t feel that proposal was much different than the previous one the union sent.

That person spoke on condition of anonymity also because of the sensitive nature of the negotiations.

The league’s most recent offer last month would guarantee a maximum base salary of $1 million that could reach $1.3 million through revenue sharing. That’s up from the current $249,000 and could grow to nearly $2 million over the life of the agreement, the person told the Associated Press.

The two sides have been in a “status quo” period after the latest extension of the CBA ran out Jan. 9. They agreed to a moratorium a few days later that halted the initial stages of free agency in which teams would seek to deliver qualifying offers and franchise tag designations to players.

If a new CBA isn’t agreed upon soon, it could delay the start of the season. It’s already delayed the expansion draft for Toronto and Portland. The league did release its schedule last week with the regular season set to begin May 8.

The last CBA was announced in the middle of January 2020, a month after it was agreed to. It easily could take two months from when a new CBA is reached to get to the start of free agency, which was supposed to begin Sunday.

Feinberg writes for the Associated Press.