saturday

SAINT PAUL, Minn. — David Martinez scored early in the first half and that was all Hugo Lloris needed as LAFC ended Minnesota United’s four-match winning streak with a 1-0 victory on Saturday.

LAFC (6-2-2) snapped an 0-2-1 winless stretch with the victory between two clubs tied for third in the Western Conference entering play. Minnesota United (5-3-2) was unbeaten in its previous five outings.

Martinez scored for the third time this season to give LAFC a 1-0 lead in the ninth minute. It was the 10th career goal for the 20-year-old in 55 matches. Timothy Tillman collected his second assist of the season, and Stephen Eustáquio notched his third in his fifth career match.

Lloris finished with five saves for LAFC. The 39-year-old has a league-leading eight clean sheets in nine starts this season. It was his 32nd shutout in 78 career matches.

Drake Callender saved six shots for Minnesota United.

All four goals Lloris has surrendered this season came in a home loss to the San José Earthquakes a week ago. That ended a 593-minute scoreless run to begin the season. He dueled Zack Steffan and the visiting Colorado Rapids to a 0-0 draw on Wednesday.

Joaquín Pereyra had a potential tying shot hit the left post on a giveaway in the 77th minute.

Callender made a save on shots by Jeremy Ebobissie in the 85th minute and Denis Bouanga in the 87th to keep the home team in it. He also had a kick save on a shot by Bouanga in the third minute of stoppage time.

Lloris had a save on a header by Pereyra in the final seconds to preserve the victory. Lloris saved a shot by James Rodríguez that was on target from 35 yards out in stoppage time to keep LAFC in front at the half.

Up next: LAFC visits San Diego FC next Saturday; Minnesota visits the Columbus Crew .

Florida center Jake Slaughter gets set during a game against Kentucky in 2024.

(Gary McCullough / Associated Press)

6-4, 303 pounds | Florida | Round 2, Pick 63

Notable: Slaughter was a finalist for the 2025 Rimington Trophy, awarded to the top center in college football. He was a two-time All-American and three-year starter at Florida.

Last season: Slaughter, 23, ranked 18th among FBS centers in pass block grade (84.1) and third in run block grade (80.2) in 2025, per Pro Football Focus. Over 748 snaps last season, he allowed four total pressures, one sack and one hit on his way to earning All-Southeastern conference honors.

Why the Chargers drafted him: Despite Slaughter playing as a center in college, the Chargers are confident he can compete with Trevor Penning for a starting job at left guard. The Chargers like his versatility at both guard positions and center, offering them a potential starter at either position and much-needed depth. After last season’s struggles to protect quarterback Justin Herbert in the wake of injuries to Rashawn Slater and Joe Alt, it makes perfect sense Harbaugh and general manager Joe Hortiz would use a Day 2 pick to extend their flexibility on the offensive line.

Ready to sing along from your couch? The Amazon Music Stagecoach Saturday livestream has you covered. For a heartfelt ballad, you’ll be able to tune in as Teddy Swims and Lainey Wilson take the Stagecoach stage. Take a trip back in time to watch Bush perform, then end the night tuning into Mr. Worldwide taking over the desert as Pitbull closes out the Saturday performances.

The festival will be livestreamed on Amazon Music, Prime Video and Twitch. On Sirius XM’s the Highway (channel 56), you can listen to exclusive interviews and live performances. Their station Y’allternative will also be covering the festival on Saturday.

Note that if you wanted to catch Journey or Diplo with Theo Von and Caleb Pressley, they are not currently scheduled to be on the stream, but you can follow along with our team posting live updates in the field.

Here are updated set times for the Stagecoach livestream Saturday performances (times presented in PDT):

Channel 1

3:10 p.m. Kevin Smiley; 3:30 p.m. Braxton Keith; 4:05 p.m. Redferrin; 4:40 p.m. Corey Kent; 5:35 p.m. Teddy Swims; 6:20 p.m. Treaty Oak Revival; 7:20 p.m. Little Big Town; 8:20 p.m. Riley Green; 9:30 p.m. Lainey Wilson; 11 p.m. Pitbull

Channel 2

3:10 p.m. S.G. Goodman; 3:30 p.m. Lane Pittman; 4:05 p.m. Benjamin Tod; 4:40 p.m. Michael Marcagi; 5:20 p.m. Willow Avalon; 5:55 p.m. Billy Bob Thornton & the Boxmasters; 6:40 p.m. Chase Matthew; 7:20 p.m. Charles Wesley Godwin; 8:10 p.m. Bush; 9:10 p.m. Gavin Adcock; 10:20 p.m. Two Friends

Sirius XM The Highway

4 p.m. Corey Kent; 6:30 p.m. Little Big Town; 7:50 p.m. Riley Green; 9 p.m. Lainey Wilson

Sirius XM Y’allternative

9 a.m. the Red Clay Strays; 11 a.m. Larkin Poe; 12 p.m. Ole 60; 1 p.m. Sam Barber; 2 p.m. the Marcus King Band; 6 p.m. S.G. Goodman; 8 p.m. Treaty Oak Revival

April 24 (UPI) — Hundreds of rallies are planned nationwide on Saturday as part of a “Communities Not Cages” action aimed at protesting the number of people detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

The protests come amid ICE’s plans to construct eight new detection centers and 16 processing centers, adding at least 116,000 beds to the number the agency has available for detaining people who are allegedly in the country illegally, Axios reported.

At the end of March, No Kings held its third protest — which saw more than 3,000 simultaneous demonstrations across the United States — since President Donald Trump retook office and engaged in a crackdown on immigration.

Detention Watch Network, the organization behind this Saturday’s rallies, called the scouting, purchasing and retrofitting of warehouses to detain between 1,500 and 10,000 people each “particularly horrifying.”

“Shockingly, ICE’s budget now exceeds many militaries around the world,” the organization said on its website.

“In the face of the administration’s unrelenting expansion of immigration detention, communities across the country are demanding to shut down detention centers and halt detention expansion,” it said.

One local group that is coordinating with Detention Watch Network’s “Communities Not Cages National Day of Action” is Shut Down Etowah, a group that previously protested the Biden administration until it stopped detaining people there, AL.com reported.

The Etowah County, Ala., facility is “too broken to be fixed,” the group said this week in a press release, noting that its’ “atrocious” conditions include bed bugs, 23-hour lockdowns and light fixtures that have not been fixed.

ICE earlier this year said it was launching a program under section 287(g) of the Immigration and Nationality Act after lauding its 2025 record of motivating 2.5 million alleged illegal immigrants to leave the country, more than 600,000 of whom were arrested and deported.

April 24 (UPI) — Talks with Iran are set to resume with special envoy Steve Witkoff and President Donald Trump‘s adviser and son-in-law Jared Kushner heading to Pakistan on Saturday to meet with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, the White House confirmed Friday.

Iranian state news agency IRNA said that no meeting has been scheduled, Axios reported.

“The Iranians want to talk. They want to talk in person, and the president is always willing to give diplomacy a chance,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters Friday.

“We hope progress will be made, and we hope that positive development will come from this meeting. We have certainly seen some progress from the Iranian side in the last few days.”

Araghchi landed in Islamabad on Friday night for talks with Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar and Field Marshal Asim Munir, Axios reported.

A Pakistani official told Axios that the meeting was expected to focus on relaunching negotiations with the Trump administration.

“A trilateral meeting with the U.S. will be assessed after our meeting with Araghchi,” the Pakistani official said.

“We’ve certainly seen some progress from the Iranian side in the last couple of days. Again, the president has made the decision to send Steve [Witkoff] and Jared [Kushner] to hear the Iranians out, and so we’ll see what they have to say this weekend,” Leavitt said about the potential for a peace deal.

Araghchi is scheduled to travel from Islamabad to Muscat, Oman, and then on to Moscow, Axios said. It’s not clear when he will meet with Witkoff and Kushner. Two sources told Axios that the meeting could happen Monday, after Kushner and Witkoff have talks with Pakistani mediators.

Vice President JD Vance will not travel to Pakistan for these meetings.

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Above all else, the Lakers were committed to being resilient in Game 1 of the playoffs.

Even if they were missing their starting backcourt, the Lakers were committed to being resilient against the rugged and physical Houston Rockets, who were playing without Kevin Durant after the star suffered a bruised knee in practice.

And as a group the Lakers were resilient, following the lead of LeBron James and a career-best outing from Luke Kennard to pull out a gritty 107-98 win over the Rockets Saturday at Crypto.com Arena.

James was magnificent, collecting a near triple-double with 19 points on nine-for-15 shooting, 13 assists and eight rebounds.

Kennard was outstanding in his new role as facilitator and a main hub of the offense, scoring a playoff career-high 27 points. His three three-pointers in the fourth quarter gave the Lakers the separation they needed to take a 1-0 lead in the best-of-seven series. He was nine-for-13 shooting from the field and five for five from three-point range.

But James tied Hall of Famers Karl Malone and John Stockton by appearing in his 19th postseason, and Kennard had plenty of help from the rest of their starting mates.

Deande Ayton had a double-double with 19 points and 11 rebounds, Marcus Smart had 15 points and eight assists and Rui Hachimura scored 14.

Game 2 is Tuesday night here.

James had eight assists in the first quarter, his career-high for assists in any quarter of a playoff game.

The Lakers followed his lead.

They started the game with a purpose, making their first four shots, missing the next and then making their next four in a row to finish the first quarter shooting 15 of 19 from the field— 78.9%.

Kennard was the best in the group, shooting five for six in the first quarter and scoring 11 points to help the Lakers open a 33-29 lead by the end of the first 12 minutes.

Injured Rockets star Kevin Durant, third from left on bench, watches Lakers star LeBron James inbound the basketball during Game 1.

(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

But the game slowed down in the second quarter when the Lakers scored just 17 points while the Rockets could muster 19.

Forty minutes before the Lakers tipped off against the Rockets, Luka Doncic was seen walking down the hallway with his bodyguard toward L.A.’s locker room. Doncic was not playing because of a Grade 2 left hamstring strain, joining teammate Austin Reaves (Grade 2 left oblique muscle train) on the bench dressed in street clothes.

The Rockets announced that Durant was out for the first game because of a right knee contusion that occurred during practice Wednesday. Durant, the Rockets’ leading scorer (26.0 points per game), worked about before the game but was unable to play because of “soreness and tenderness.” The Rockets hope he’ll be available for Game 2.

“Bumped a knee in practice one of our days, on Wednesday,” Rockets coach Ime Udoka said. “Hopefully it’s a one-game thing, but [he] tried it out just shortly ago and didn’t feel good enough.”

For the Lakers, there was an element of shock they had to deal with when Doncic and Reaves were injured at Oklahoma City on April 2.

They eventually got past that, winning their last three games to end the regular season.

“Ten days ago, when our guys get hurt, I think it’s easy to look at adversity and the ups and downs of an NBA season as like some form of the basketball gods punishing you,” Lakers coach JJ Redick said. “The reality is it’s opportunities to build resilience. … Smart said it after our last regular-season game: ‘We’re right where we’re supposed to be.’ I think the whole season for the staff, our players, our team, our group, it’s been about building resiliency, and that’s what you need in the playoffs.”

After record-setting performances in the 4×100 relays last weekend at the Arcadia Invitational, the Servite and Rosary relay teams will try to do it again on Saturday at the Mt. SAC Relays at Mt. San Antonio College.

The Servite relay team of sophomores Jace Wells, Jorden Wells and Kamil Pelovello and junior Benjamin Harris ran it in 39.70 seconds at Arcadia, the fastest in state history.

Rosary, which is the sister school for Servite, featured sophomore Tra’via Flournoy, senior Justine Wilson, junior Pfeiffer Lee and sophomore Maliyah Collins running 44.23, breaking Long Beach Poly’s 22-year-old state record of 44.50.

Coach Brandon Thomas works with both teams and said he wanted to support the track community by having both participate.

Defending state high jump champion JJ Harel will compete in his specialty after winning at Arcadia with a mark of 6 feet, 9 inches. He’s still only a few weeks into training because of a previous injury.

This is a daily look at the positive happenings in high school sports. To submit any news, please email eric.sondheimer@latimes.com.

The high-powered Indy cars that will be racing in Sunday’s Grand Prix of Long Beach will burn about two gallons of fuel on each of their 90 trips around the tight 1.968-mile street course.

So if all 27 cars that start the race also finish it, the field will use 4,860 gallons of fuel. And that doesn’t include the fuel used in qualifying or in the other five classifications of cars that will be participating in the three days of racing in Long Beach.

That’s a lot of fuel for drivers who will end up in the same place they started, especially when seven weeks of war in the Middle East has driven the price of gasoline to record highs. However, the fuel the IndyCar series uses differs significantly from what that comes out of the pump at the gas station.

“This year marks the fourth season that IndyCar has used 100% renewable race fuel for the NTT IndyCar Series — the first motorsport series in North America to utilize this type of fuel,” an IndyCar spokesperson wrote in a statement. “Developed through a collaboration with Shell, this innovative fuel consists of a blend of second-generation ethanol derived from sugarcane waste and other biofuels mainly derived from animal waste. The use of this renewable race fuel enables a 60% reduction in life cycle greenhouse gas emissions.”

So while driving Indy cars 177 miles in a circle may seem wasteful during a gas crunch, Sunday’s race will have a negligible affect on the price and availability of fuel at service stations. The greater impact will be made by fans driving to Long Beach; last year’s three-day race weekend drew more than 200,000 people.

When the final horn sounded Saturday on the Kings’ 1-0 matinee win over the Edmonton Oilers, Anze Kopitar made his way to center ice, a microphone in his hand and his heart in pieces.

“Thank you very much,” he said to the fans, his voice cracking. “Thank you for being here.”

Kopitar then held his hands in front of him and folded his fingers into the shape of a heart before skating away — not quite into the sunset, but headed in that direction.

Kopitar announced in September that this season would be his last, so unless the Kings make the playoffs — a distinct possibility after the team’s fourth win a row and fifth in six games, its best streak of the season — Saturday marked the final home appearance of a brilliant 20-year career spent entirely in Los Angeles.

The Kings’ Anze Kopitar vies for position in front of the Oilers’ Darnell Nurse during the second period on Saturday at Crypto.com Arena.

(Scott Strazzante/For The Times)

And the announced crowd of 18,145 at Crypto.com Arena made sure he knew that parting is such sweet sorrow, standing and cheering long after the game had ended.

“Eventually it was going to happen,” Kopitar, 38, reflected before the game. “Whether it was this year or two years from now, there was going to be a last day. And I’m very OK with my decision.”

Kopitar will leave having written his name all over the Kings’ record book. He’s the all-time franchise leader in points (1,314), assists (862), game-winning goals (79) and games played (1,518). He ranks third in goals (452) and power-play goals (129).

And most importantly, he played a starring role on the Kings’ only two Stanley Cup championships, leading both the 2011-12 and 2013-14 teams in goals, assists and points.

“Over 700 people have put the Kings’ uniform on,” said Daryl Evans, who was one of the 700 before retiring to become a broadcaster with the team. “He stands at the top of the mountain as one of the greatest — if not the greatest — to do so. He’s a great hockey player, as we can all see. But he’s a better person off the ice.”

It’s that second part, Evans said, that will make Kopitar difficult to replace.

“Records are made to be beaten. But the intangibles, the things that he did as the team’s captain, the leadership that he provided, the type of a player he was, very unselfish,” Evans said. “He’s one of those guys who’s a special player.”

The Kings got the only goal they would need Saturday 7:34 into the first period when Artemi Panarin stripped Edmonton’s Evan Bouchard of the puck at the Kings’ blue line and took off the other way, skating in alone on Oilers’ goalie Connor Ingram, then beating him on a wrist shot from between the circles.

Kings players react as Anze Kopitar speaks to fans after his final regular-season home game, a 1-0 win over the Edmonton Oilers on Saturday.

(Scott Strazzante/For The Times)

The goal was Panarin’s ninth in 23 games since joining the Kings just ahead of the Olympic break. Edmonton nearly pulled that back midway through the period when Curtis Lazar tipped the puck by Kings’ goalie Anton Forsberg, only to have defenseman Cody Ceci dive through the crease and swipe it away with a desperate one-handed wave of his stick.

Forsberg was brilliant the rest of the way, stopping 27 shots to post his 11^th career shutout and win his season-best fourth game in a row, preserving the Kings’ one-point lead over Nashville in the race for the Western Conference’s final wild-card playoff berth.

The son of a coach, Kopitar was born in the former Yugoslavia, in the mining town of Jesenice near the border with Austria, an area that became part of Slovenia when that country declared independence just before Kopitar’s fourth birthday.

At 16, he led the new country’s first-tier professional league in scoring, so he moved to Sweden in search of a challenge — and led that country’s top junior league with 49 points in 30 games. That drew the attention of the Kings, who took Kopitar with the 11th overall pick in the 2005 draft.

Fourteen months later he became the first Slovenian to play in the NHL, making his debut as a teenager and scoring two goals against the Ducks. He never looked back — nor looked to play elsewhere, twice signing contract extensions with the Kings rather than test the free-agent market. (Not that he needed to test the free-agent market since he made more than $140 million in his two decades with the Kings, becoming the best-paid player in team history.)

“I’ve always felt extremely comfortable in L.A.,” said Kopitar, whose two children were born here. “The organization has been world-class since I got here, so I had no desire to go anywhere else.”

Anze Kopitar celebrates with the Stanley Cup after the Kings’ win over the New Jersey Devils in 2012.

(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

As a result only six players in league history have played more games with a single organization, making Kopitar’s name synonymous with the franchise.

“The greatest to play for the Kings,” said Luc Robitaille, the franchise leader in goals (557) as a player and now the team’s president. “What’s he meant to this franchise — you know this franchise never won and he came along and we won two [Stanley Cups]. So he deserves all the credits and everything that’s coming his way.”

He’s also among the last of a dying breed: a two-way center who stood out on both ends of the ice, but was also gentlemanly enough to win the Lady Byng trophy three times. Only one player has won the NHL’s top sportsmanship award more often this century.

“Every coach would love to have him because he never cheats the game,” Evans said of Kopitar, who this month was also nominated for the Bill Masterton Memorial Trophy, which recognizes the player who “best exemplifies the qualities of perseverance, sportsmanship and dedication to ice hockey.”

“He’s got a lot of pride and he doesn’t want to let his teammates down,” Evans said. “He’s been a student of the game from Day 1. He plays the game the right way. If you could tell a player ‘watch somebody,’ there’s a guy you want to watch.”

Kopitar’s numbers have declined this season, owing partly to a pair of lower-body injuries that caused him to miss significant time in both October and January. That’s left him on pace to finish with fewer than 16 goals in a full season for just the third time while his 24 assists and 36 points are career lows.

But he has the best plus/minus number on the team and he’s winning a career-best 57.7% of his faceoffs, including four crucial draws deep in the Kings’ end in the final minute Saturday.

“It’s been, obviously, an up-and-down season,” he said. “Some good, some bad, some ugly.”

Kopitar admits the goodbyes have been emotional at times. On his final visit to Madison Square Garden last month, for example, he and former teammate Jonathan Quick exchanged several hugs after the game.

“I’m enjoying it,” he added. “I’m not sad about it. I guess I’m staying in the moment and enjoying the moment.”

The Kings’ Anze Kopitar tries to flip a shot past Edmonton goaltender Connor Ingram Saturday at Crypto.com Arena.

(Scott Strazzante/For The Times)

The Kings can extend Kopitar’s farewell tour by at least a couple of weeks by making the playoffs, a task that’s looking much more likely than it did a week ago. After Saturday’s win the Kings not only lead Nashville in the wild-card race, holding a game in hand over the Predators, but they are just two points out of third place in the Pacific Division standings.

“He hopes he’s going to play here again,” Kings coach D.J. Smith said of Kopitar’s possible postseason encore.

Just where and when the team might open the postseason — if, indeed, it qualifies — is up in the air since the Kings could finish anywhere from first to fifth in the division, leaving them with more than a dozen possible playoff scenarios. So when the team leaves for its final three-game trip of the season Sunday, the players have been told to pack for 10 days.

Either way Kopitar isn’t changing his mind; when the Kings’ season ends — whenever that is — his career will end as well. So will his time in Los Angeles since Kopitar is selling his Manhattan Beach home and moving back to Slovenia to accept a new role as a full-time father.

“I’m going to be a dad,” he said. “I’m going to just relax and see how long it takes to get bored and then we’ll figure it out from there. Of course I’m going to miss this place. But it was a family decision, obviously, to move.

“As much as this place is super nice and the community was great to us, it’s time to slow down the tempo a little bit and enjoy life. But I’ll make it back here for sure.”

There is a new “Fab Four” in the making and they are the Friars.

Servite’s 4×100 relay clocked 39.70 seconds Saturday at the Arcadia Invitational, breaking the state record it set at the same meet last year.

Sophomores Jace Wells, Jorden Wells and Kamil Pelovello and junior Benjamin Harris left runner-up El Cerrito (40.57) and third-place Notre Dame of Sherman Oaks (41.02) far behind and later claimed their best is yet to come.

“We still want to drop more times in the coming weeks,” said Harris, who joined Jaelen hunter, Robert Gardener and Jorden Wells to run the event in 40 flat last year while also setting the meet record in the 4×200. “We work on passing the baton once a week and we’ll go back to the drawing board to make it even better. The most important thing is we got the stick around safely and finished the race healthy.”

“We have great chemistry — we all get along with each other,” added Pelovello, who handled the third leg Saturday for the defending state champions. “We’ll go back to the lab to see if we can do even better but what more can you ask for?”

After an hour’s rest, Harris had enough energy to take first in the 100-meter dash in 10.32 seconds — one hundredth of a second faster than his runner-up time last year.

Later, Pelovello (21.14), Jorden Wells (21.14) and Jace Wells (21.25) swept the top three spots in the 200 meters. The Friars pulled out of the 4×400 relay, but by then they had established themselves as the team to beat in the Southern Section.

Rosary’s Maliyah Collins (left) breaks the tape ahead of Calabasas’ Marley Scoggins in the girls’ 4×100 relay.

(Steve Galluzzo / For The Times)

So too did Fullerton Rosary, Servite’s sister school, in the girls’ 4×100 relay. Royals speedsters Tra’via Flournoy, Justine Wilson, junior Pfeiffer Lee and Maliyah Collins won in 44.23, breaking Long Beach Poly’s 22-year-old state record of 44.50.

“I’m in disbelief but I knew we ran something real fast,” said Collins, a sophomore who held off Marley Scoggins of Calabasas on the anchor leg. “Shout-out to Calabasas for a great race, but this is our spotlight. This is a proud moment for us and the boys.”

Rosary ran 45.57 last spring — the fourth fastest time in meet history — anchored by Wilson. On Saturday, the Royals posted the third-fastest national high school time ever.

Savoring the day’s successes was former UCLA All-American sprinter Brandon Thomas, who coaches both Servite and Rosary.

The opening relays set the stage for the most decorated runner of the meet, senior Quincy Wilson, who traveled across the country to put his talent on display.

Every eye in the stadium was fixed on Wilson as he knelt in the starting blocks awaiting the start of the 400 meters. When the gun sounded he accelerated from Lane 5 as if shot out of a cannon, picked up speed on every stride and circled the oval in 45.48 seconds — breaking the meet record as spectators watched in awe.

Olympian Quincy Wilson (center) cruises to victory in the 400-meter dash in a meet record 45.48 seconds.

(Steve Galluzzo / For The Times)

The senior from Bullis School in Maryland gained worldwide fame as a 16-year-old in 2024 when he became the youngest male U.S. Olympic track athlete, helping the 4×400 relay team qualify for the finals in Paris.

The crowd roared when Wilson got introduced for the one-lapper, then the star closed the show by anchoring the Bulldogs’ 4×400 relay, which won in 3:09.14, the second-fastest all-time at Arcadia.

Wilson broke his own national indoor 400 record with a 45.37 effort at the New Balance Nationals last month in Boston. Now 18, he has won four straight national indoor titles. As he proved Saturday, he is not too shabby outdoors, either.

While Wilson drew the most attention, the 58th edition of the nation’s premier high school track and field meet also spotlighted many of the Southland’s finest athletes.

San Jacinto Valley Academy 10th-grader Kaahliyah Lacy, a distant cousin of Florence Griffith-Joyner, won the Invitational girls 300 hurdles in 40.81 while Arkansas-bound senior Braelyn Combe of Corona Santiago ran 2:05.12 to take second in the girls 800 meters, edged at the finish by Union Catholic’s Paige Sheppard.

Jurupa Valley senior AB Hernandez doubled in the girls’ triple jump (42-6) and long jump (20-3) and placed third in the high jump at 5-8. Julia Teven of Brea Olinda won with a height of 5-10.

Aliso Niguel senior Jaslene Massey, an Oregon commit who won the shot put at the Nike Indoor Nationals with a throw of 54-2.75 inches (sixth-best in U.S. high school history) and posted a national-leading discus mark of 188-7 at the Asics Irvine Invitational, won the shot put Saturday with a mark of 53-2 and also took first in the discus (182-2).

Sherman Oaks Notre Dame senior Josh Harel, the reigning state high jump champion, cleared 6-9 to win the event Saturday.

Dodgers manager Dave Roberts was tracking right-hander Emmet Sheehan’s velocity against the Rangers Saturday, but it wasn’t going to be his primary measurement of the start.

“I think right now, where he’s at, the hitters will tell us the most, not the radar gun,” Roberts said before the Dodgers’ 6-3 win.

Sheehan had both in his first quality start of the season.

Just look at the way he attacked Jake Burger in the sixth inning to close his outing. Sheehan threw three fastballs in the at-bat. That pitch averaged at 95.2 mph on Saturday, almost 1 ½ mph over his season average. And even as his pitch count climbed into the mid-70s, he was sitting at around 94 mph.

Dodger Teoscar Hernández watches his three-run homer clear the left center wall during a win over the Texas Rangers Saturday at Dodger Stadium.

(Gina Ferazzi/Los Angeles Times)

The last pitch he threw was a slider off the plate. Burger was able to get a piece of it, but only enough to ground out to first.

Saturday’s start was Sheehan’s best based on both consistency and results. He held the Rangers to three runs and four hits in six innings.

He’d found a cue in his work between starts. And if the adjustment unlocks a consistent run, that would do a lot to stabilize the Dodgers’ rotation at the back end.

“One of the big things this week was the glove tap,” Sheehan said. “Just timing everything up. Before, I feel like I was getting in good positions, I just wasn’t timing everything up the right way. I think that helped a lot.”

He was cruising through most of it — other than the two home runs he surrendered to Rangers leadoff hitter Brandon Nimmo.

Sheehan turned around his start immediately after the first long ball, on the second pitch of the game.

He came in throwing hard, pumping 96.2 mph on the first fastball, a ball inside, and 95.7 on the second. The latter drifted over the plate, and Nimmo lined it to straightaway center field, just over the “395” printed on the wall.

Sheehan, undeterred, retired the next eight batters. Nimmo hit a two-out ground-rule double that bounced over the left-field fence in his next at-bat, but Sheehan struck out Ezequiel Duran on a slider to quickly end the inning.

Only two Rangers besides Nimmo reached base against Sheehan. Evan Carter drew a leadoff walk in the fifth, and Josh Jung led off the sixth with a single into shallow center field.

Other than that, Sheehan recorded six strikeouts and generated mostly groundball contact.

He was also pitching with a lead for most of his outing, thanks to a solo homer from Shohei Ohtani and three-run shot from Teoscar Hernández in the first. The Dodgers added to their lead in the third inning with two walks, a single, and a run-scoring double play.

So, when the Rangers’ lineup turned over again, and Nimmo stepped up to the plate with a runner on base in the sixth, Sheehan was working with a four-run cushion.

Dodgers pitcher Alex Vesia celebrates after earning a save during the Dodgers’ win over the Texas Rangers on Saturday at Dodger Stadium.

(Gina Ferazzi/Los Angeles Times)

Sheehan stayed away from his fastball, but Nimmo managed to get a hold of an inside slider.

Again, Sheehan responded with three straight outs, this time all infield grounders.

The Dodgers’ bullpen turned in a scoreless performance for three innings, even with Roberts staying away from closer Edwin Díaz, whose velocity was down Friday in his first blown save of the season.

And in the eighth, center fielder Andy Pages kept up his red-hot offensive start to the season with an RBI single into left field for insurance.

The Dodgers are off to the best offensive start of any National League team, whether they’re measured by runs (89), batting average (.297), slugging percentage (.507) or offensive fWAR (30.0).

The unknown entering the game was Sheehan, who had been working through directional issues in his delivery.

“There’s a little bit of east-west with him, and that’s kind of how he gets his power,” Roberts said. “But I think that towards the end of the year and spring, it got a little bit too east-west, where you’re just not back to front as far as direction.”

Everything was synced up for him Saturday, and even Nimmo couldn’t ruin that breakthrough.

“It can definitely be tough sometimes,” Sheehan said. “The past like month and a half we’ve been trying to work on it. It felt like at times it wasn’t progressing the way it should, but just stuck with it.”

Snell feels good after live BP

Left-hander Blake Snell threw an inning of live batting practice at Dodger Stadium on Saturday before the Dodgers’ game against the Rangers, taking a new step in his rehab progression.

“It’s very big,” Snell said. “…To be able to face two good hitters and feel good — I’ve got a lot of work to do still, but definitely a big step.”

Snell was delayed in his buildup entering spring training, after pitching through the postseason. He also dealt with shoulder issues last season, sidelined for about four months with what the Dodgers identified as inflammation in his left shoulder.

“I feel great,” Snell said. “I’ve done a lot of different things than I did last year when I was in this position. So I feel way better. I’m just very excited about how I feel right now, where I’m at, getting back to some normalcy again feels really good. I just can’t wait to pitch.”

He revisited old workouts, added Pilates to his routine and changed his diet.

Snell, an avid gamer, has also kept up his Twitch livestream activity while on the injured list. He recently responded to a harsh comment from a critic about his injury while streaming, cursing as he challenged anyone to match his World Series contributions amid pain. The clip naturally circulated widely on social media.

“I’m trying to game with my people, then trolls want to get in there and got something to say,” he said and then broke into a smile. “I should watch my language a little bit, but outside of that, it was pretty true. I’m going to have fun, going to be myself. I’ve got to watch my language though. If my mom sees that. … She probably will.”

He’s bracing for her call if she does.

Snell will continue to build up his workload in a simulated game environment, before eventually leaving on a minor-league rehab assignment. He didn’t say how many live BP sessions he’d need before that next step.

“You got to talk to the jefes,” he said.

Sitting in the dugout, Snell nodded up to the field where some of those bosses — president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman, general manager Brandon Gomes and Roberts — stood talking.

Roberts later speculated that Snell would build up to about three innings before pitching in games.

“I just miss pitching, it’s what I love,” Snell said. “So to be able to do that again, I was very excited coming to the field today. Like, I finally get to throw and pitch and see where I’m at, see if I’m good, bad, kind of figure myself out.”

On Saturday, he just wanted to throw strikes, see how his stuff played, and get feedback from utility player Tommy Edman and outfielder Alex Call, who faced him.

“The next one I want to be more crisp, want to hit locations more,” he said. “I only have so many starts left before I’m back. So I really have to hone in and make sure these weeks are very important.”

Injury updates

Edman, who underwent ankle surgery this offseason, is still on track to be activated around late May, Roberts said Saturday. In addition to taking live batting practice, he’s been running, but not quite at full speed, according to Roberts.

Shortstop Mookie Betts (strained right oblique) played catch on the field before the game Saturday.

Coachella’s got you all in your head? Think you’d rather watch Bieber while you’re in your bed?

Then you’re in luck! Hot off the success of both “Swag” albums and a (literally) stripped down Grammys performance, Beliebers will be able to watch Justin Bieber’s day 2 headlining set at 11:25 p.m. on the Coachella YouTube livestream.

Before Bieber takes the Main Stage, viewers at home will be able to catch The Strokes, Labrinth and David Byrne at the Outdoor Theatre, PinkPantheress at the Mojave and more.

And check out Coachella’s livestream app on iOS and Android.

Here’s who you can watch on Saturday’s livestream feeds (times presented in PDT):

Main Stage

5:30 p.m. Addison Rae; 7 p.m. Giveon; 9 p.m. The Strokes; 11:25 p.m. Justin Bieber

Outdoor Theatre

4 p.m. Los Hermanos Flores; 5:10 p.m. Alex G; 6:10 p.m. Blondshell; 7:05 p.m. Sombr; 8:30 p.m. Labrinth; 10:20 p.m. David Byrne

Sahara

4:00 p.m. Zulan; 5 p.m. Hamdi; 6:15 p.m. Yousuke Yukimatsu; 7:15 p.m. Teed; 8 p.m. Nine Inch Noize; 9:10 p.m. Rezz; 10:30 p.m. Adriatique; 11:55 p.m. Worship

Mojave

4 p.m. Jack White; 4:50 p.m. Fujii Kaze; 5:50 p.m. Royel Otis; 7:30 p.m. Taemin; 8:55 p.m. PinkPantheress; 10:15 p.m. Interpol

Gobi

4:05 p.m. Whatmore; 5:10 p.m. Luisa Sonza; 6:15 p.m. Geese; 7:05 p.m. Noga Erez; 7:50 p.m. Davido; 9 p.m. Bia; 10:10 p.m. Morat

Sonora

4:20 p.m. Ecca Vandal; 5:30 p.m. Ceremony; 6:40 p.m. Rusowsky; 7:50 p.m. 54 Ultra; 8:45 p.m. Die Spitz; 9:45 p.m. Mind Enterprises; 10:45 p.m. Freak Slug

Quasar

5 p.m. Joezi; 7 p.m. Afrojack x Shimza

There’s been a delay on the livestream during previous festivals, so don’t worry if Bieber, The Strokes or another one of your favorite artists starts a little later than their posted time.

AUGUSTA, Ga. — The most unexpected of revelations unfolded Saturday at the Masters.

It became a golf tournament.

Rory McIlroy, who built the biggest 36-hole lead in history, wobbled and wilted — one shot in the water, another in the woods — while others surged and made a run at the reigning champion.

Cameron Young, who was eight back of McIlroy to start the day, overtook the Grand Slam winner late in the day. McIlroy briefly reclaimed a one-shot lead but gave that back with a bogey on 17, bending over in exasperation when he left a par putt just short.

Cameron Young fist bumps his caddie, Kyle Sterbinsky, on the 18th green during the third round of the Masters on Saturday in Augusta, Ga.

(Jared C. Tilton / Getty Images)

Young, whose first PGA Tour victory came last August, heads into the final round tied atop the leaderboard with McIlroy at 11 under par.

The 28-year-old from Westchester County, N.Y., is going to take a business-as-usual approach to the biggest day of his career. He plans to start the day with Mass at a nearby church — before taking on Amen Corner.

“It might be difficult to go undetected, but it’s not going to stop us,” said Young, who has three children younger than 5. “We’ll find somewhere and take the kids. We’ll be out in full force just like usual.”

Saturday was a remarkable turnaround for Young, who was all but cooked on Thursday, playing the first seven holes in four over par. He bounced back strong with a 67 on Friday, and a 65 on Saturday, collecting a combined 14 birdies over those rounds.

Rory McIlroy reacts in frustration on the 18th green during the third round of the Masters on Sunday in Augusta, Ga.

(Maddie Meyer / Getty Images)

“I don’t get the sense I’ll be the fan favorite,” Young said. “Rory’s kind of a world favorite in the golf world. A year ago if I’d been in the same situation, there would have been very little [fan support], and now there’s probably a little more. So I’ll take what I can get.”

A host of other competitors moved within striking distance of their first green jacket — Sam Burns, Nick Lowry, Jason Day and Justin Rose.

Lowry had a hole-in-one on No. 6, a decade after acing the 16th. He became the first player in Masters history to record multiple holes-in-one.

Scottie Sheffler, ranked No. 1 in the world, started the day at even par but shot 65 to climb into the mix at four shots back, saying, “I don’t feel like I’m out of the tournament.”

For Day, the key to his 68 was staying patient. He three-putted the opening hole for bogey but kept his cool.

“Statistically I average around four to five birdies a round, so I just knew they were going to come,” he said. “I just didn’t know when they were going to come.”

He got hot from the 12th through 15th holes, stringing together four birdies in a row.

Day has been in contention at the Masters several times, finishing second in 2015.

“I feel like the guys that are leading right now have all the pressure,” he said. “I’m just kind of the chaser. Usually the chasers don’t really have a lot of the pressure.”

That Collin Morikawa is even relevant at this point is stunning, considering the physical battle he’s enduring. The two-time major winner shot 68 on Saturday despite issues with an injury — possibly his back — affecting his legs. He said he’s swinging at roughly half-speed.

“My legs aren’t moving the way they used to,” he said. “So then I’m throwing my arms, and I’m having to time up my arms. So, like, every swing I’m putting at, I am essentially just throwing my arms at the ball hoping that it squares everything up.”

Morikawa was six shots back along with former UCLA standout Jake Knapp and one behind another former Bruin, Patrick Cantlay (five back).

SACRAMENTO — The fallout over sexual misconduct allegations against Rep. Eric Swalwell grew Saturday as his fellow gubernatorial candidates faced a new race and Democrats were forced into a rapid test of how they respond to accusations of sexual misconduct.

Within hours of the accusations against Swalwell being made public, the Northern California congressman’s campaign began to unravel and a chorus of top Democrats urged him to drop out. Staff members resigned, his fundraising website went offline and allies moved quickly to distance themselves from a candidate who had been gaining momentum as a front-runner in the race to lead the Golden State.

The repercussions extended beyond Swalwell’s campaign for governor. The Manhattan district attorney’s office opened an investigation into sexual assault allegations against Swalwell by a former staffer and issued a statement Saturday that urged “survivors and anyone with knowledge of these allegations to contact our Special Victims Division.” Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.) posted a video on X saying that she plans to force a House vote next week to expel Swalwell.

Swalwell has denied the allegations, calling them “flat [out] false.”

The upheaval has created an opening for lesser-known contenders to gain traction just as voters are beginning to turn their attention to the race — a spotlight now intensified by the controversy.

The speed and severity of the response underscores how quickly political support can erode — and reflects a broader shift in how such allegations are handled in the post-#MeToo era, which has been intensified by the scrutiny surrounding the late financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

“Ask any woman staffer over the age of 45 what her experience was like, and this was a fairly prevalent sort of situation,” said Elizabeth Ashford, a veteran Democratic strategist. “It was allowed. I really think it shows a lot of growth on the part of political professionalism, that these things are taken seriously.”

As of Saturday afternoon, Swalwell ignored calls to drop out of the race and resign from Congress, even as outrage and criticism swelled. A Bay Area fundraiser was canceled and major institutional backers abandoned the campaign. The California Labor Federation withdrew its endorsement, SEIU California rescinded its backing and urged Swalwell to exit the race, and the California Police Chiefs Assn. suspended its support.

Speculation swirled Saturday about Swalwell’s whereabouts after the congressman announced that he intended to spend time with his wife.

A man who opened the door of Swalwell’s rental home in Livermore early Saturday refused to talk to a Times reporter. Swalwell has claimed that he rents space in the one-story house, located on a quiet cul-de-sac. He also owns a home in Washington, D.C., but no one inside responded when a reporter rang Saturday.

Livermore residents couldn’t escape news of the scandal. “Swalwell faces assault claims,” read the front page of the East Bay Times, stacked up at the Lucky grocery story around the corner from Swalwell’s rental home.

The most serious allegation against Swalwell is from a woman who worked for the congressman who said their relationship was at times consensual, but that he sexually assaulted her twice when she was too intoxicated to consent, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. Three other women have also accused Swalwell of sexual misconduct, including sending unsolicited nude photos, according to CNN.

The allegations prompted several members of his campaign to abruptly walk away from their jobs. One senior campaign staffer said they resigned after hearing the seriousness of the allegations, adding that they didn’t want to be put in a position where they were using their own credibility to defend Swalwell.

Former staffers in Swalwell’s congressional office traded messages in group texts after the news reports, with many expressing shock and horror at the allegations, according to two former employees.

A group of senior staff in Swalwell’s congressional office and campaign said in a statement Saturday that they “stand with our former colleague and the other women who have come forward” and that others “should stand with them, too.”

Kyle Alagood, an attorney who worked for Swalwell’s congressional office and his short-lived presidential campaign, told The Times he was “disgusted and pissed off.”

“I pray he has the decency to resign for the sake of his wife and kids,” said Alagood, adding that Swalwell must also “face the full legal consequences of his actions.”

Rob Stutzman, a longtime GOP strategist, said the impact of Swalwell’s political advisers quitting and his endorsements being yanked has sunk his chances in the governor’s race whether he stays in or not.

Stutzman advised former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger during the 2003 recall when The Times reported allegations of inappropriate behavior with women during his bodybuilding and film career. Stutzman said the severity of the allegations against Swalwell makes the situation very different from that involving Schwarzenegger, who didn’t lose endorsements.

“If this had been the circumstances … I would have quit,” Stutzman said. “They’re just not the same.”

While Swalwell’s political future hangs in the balance, political insiders are closely watching who will be the beneficiary of the chaos. There are eight Democrats running: billionaire Tom Steyer, former Orange County Rep. Katie Porter, state schools Supt. Tony Thurmond, former U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra, San José Mayor Matt Mahan, former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, former state Controller Betty Yee and Swalwell. There are two GOP candidates: Steve Hilton, a former Fox News commentator, and Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco.

Loyola Marymount University law professor Jessica Levinson said that with key endorsements, such as labor, now back up for grabs, anyone can jump to the front of the pack. She said the safest bet on who will gain an advantage is Porter and Steyer, who with Swalwell have been the top candidates in recent opinion polls.

“But, I think this is a race where there is no heir apparent,” Levinson said. “You can’t rule out surprises anymore in this race.”

Paul Mitchell, a veteran Democratic strategist, agreed that the upheaval benefits Porter and Steyer, adding that Swalwell’s chances have been reduced to zero.

“First off, I think that staying in the race is not tenable,” Mitchell said. “And so if he does drop out of the race, what it means is that you’re going to have a lot of progressive voters looking for somebody else to go to and the primary beneficiaries should be Porter and Steyer right now, because they’re the other two that are in that kind of first tier of Democratic candidates that have been splitting up that progressive base.”

Allegations of inappropriate behavior by Swalwell had circulated for weeks on social media and in political circles. Once the San Francisco Chronicle and CNN posted stories with details from women accusing Swalwell of sexual misconduct, including rape, the swift rebuke was likened by one political strategist to a bomb detonating.

Those media outlets reported that the staff member accusing Swalwell of rape was 21 when she began working for him in 2019 in his Castro Valley district office. She said Swalwell, who is nearly two decades older, quickly began sending her messages and then nude pictures on Snapchat, a platform in which messages and images disappear after being viewed.

She said that in September 2019 she had drinks with the congressman, blacked out and could tell she had had intercourse when she woke up naked in Swalwell’s hotel bed, according to the report. In a separate encounter years later, she said he forced himself on her while she was too intoxicated to consent and despite her protests.

She said she did not report the incidents to police, citing fears she would not be believed and concerns about professional repercussions.

Another woman who began messaging with Swalwell about her interest in Democratic politics last year said she met him for drinks and that she was attempting to fend off his advances without hurting potential job opportunities when she began feeling “really fuzzy” and intoxicated, according to CNN. She told the outlet that she ended up in Swalwell’s hotel room without a memory of how she got there.

Social media creator Ally Sammarco said Swalwell sent her unsolicited nude pictures in 2021, when she was 24 years old. Another woman in her 20s, who works in marketing, said the congressman sent her unsolicited videos of his penis.

Swalwell, who is married with three young children, posted a video on Instagram on Friday in which he called the accusations of inappropriate behavior “flat [out] false,” while also acknowledging unspecified poor behavior.

“I don’t suggest to you in any way that I am perfect or that I am a saint,” he said in the video. “I’ve certainly made mistakes in judgment in my past. But those mistakes are between me and my wife. And to her I apologize deeply for putting her in this position.”

Elias Dabaie, an attorney representing Swalwell, sent cease-and-desist letters to at least two people demanding that they stop accusing the congressman of sexual assault, according to CNN. Dabaie was asked by CNN whether the congressman’s comments can be construed as acknowledging that he cheated on his wife, while denying doing anything illegal.

“I’m not going to get into the details of that,” Dabaie said.

Times staff writers Melody Peterson and Gavin Quinton contributed to this report.

Olympian Quincy Wilson from Bullis High in Maryland is ready to unleash his speed in two relay races and the 400 at Saturday’s Arcadia Invitational at Arcadia High. The night portion begins at 5 p.m.

Servite’s 4×100-meter relay team set a state record last week, becoming the first to break 40 seconds in the event. The Friars will be strong contenders in both events.

Jaslene Massey of Aliso Niguel is among the best all time to compete in the girls’ shot put and discus, and she always likes to perform well at Arcadia.

Defending state champion high jumper JJ Harel from Sherman Oaks Notre Dame will compete even though he only recently returned to full-time practice.

There should be lots of outstanding performances in the boys’ and girls’ 100 meters.

This is a daily look at the positive happenings in high school sports. To submit any news, please email eric.sondheimer@latimes.com.

Saturday Kitchen was back on screens for another episode but, before the show went live, host Matt Tebbutt suffered an unfortunate accident.

Matt Tebbutt has revealed he suffered a painful injury just moments before he appeared on Saturday Kitchen.

The beloved BBC show returned to screens on Saturday morning (April 11) with Matt back at the helm. Joining Matt on the programme were chefs John Chantarasak, Niklas Ekstedt and Thomasina Miers.

Chart-topping singer Jack Savoretti also made an appearance – in which viewers had to vote on whether he would have his version of food heaven or food hell. Drinks expert Helen McGinn was on hand too, to discuss some booze.

However, just minutes in and Matt revealed things took a worrying turn moments before the show went live, after he suffered a painful injury.

Talking to Helen, Matt revealed: “So I burnt my lips in rehearsal. Does it look like I’ve got fillers?” Helen replied: “It doesn’t look bad at the moment,” to which Matt shared: “I’ve got a blister there. It only hurts when I talk.”

Helen then said: “It’s going to hurt later.” Matt quipped: “Shall I not talk?” Giggling, Helen added: “I don’t know if you can get away with that!” Trying not to move his sore lips, Matt said: “Tell us about the wine,” as Helen laughed and replied: “I’ll give you a straw later.”

Matt quipped back: “I’ll dribble it all out, like you’ve been at the dentist.” Touching his sore lip Matt continued: “That’s what I feel like.”

It comes after Matt returned to Saturday Kitchen last month after spending some time in Australia. Earlier in March, audiences saw The One Show’s Alex Jones take the presenter’s chair as she was accompanied by Mike Reid, Adejoké Bakare, Bryn Williams and special guest Phil Wang.

While Matt appeared on the programme the previous week, the BBC star confirmed it was a pre-recorded episode as he posted updates from Australia with his Instagram followers.

Nevertheless, the 52-year-old presenter was back in charge once more in March as he paused to commend Alex for stepping in.

He remarked: “Before we go on with our usual nonsense, we should say how well Alex did last week. Well done, Alex Jones.”

Saturday Kitchen airs every Saturday at 10am on BBC One.

I’ve rarely been more embarrassed.

Saturday Kitchen has been a regular part of the weekend for millions of people over the years. In the days before I had children, I enjoyed nothing more than starting off the weekend slowly with some relaxing, wholesome TV over brunch and a cup of coffee.

I adored not only the live studio cooking fronted first by the legendary James Martin then the equally watchable Matt Tebbutt, but also the segments from the likes of Rick Stein, Mary Berry or the great Keith Floyd slurping his wine while cooking up his rustic, no-nonsense meals somewhere in the south of France.

In fact, I loved it so much that I actually appeared on the show. Remember those days when two random members of the public would be studio guests and would sit at the table off to the side of the set while the guest chefs and celebrities wondered who they were and what they were doing there? Yep, I was one of those.

This was obviously quite a while ago — Saturday Kitchen stopped having members of the public as guests back in 2012, with James Martin saying afterwards: “That wasn’t my decision. I liked having the studio guests. It was the BBC’s decision. Budget cuts — and don’t look at me, I didn’t get a pay rise.”

James wasn’t the only one who was disappointed, with viewers taking to forums to ask why the show had got rid of its non-celebrity guests. One said: “Every Saturday without fail I watched Saturday Kitchen. Now it is just another cookery programme with, nine times out of ten, a boring guest. Bring back the viewer guests, get rid of the celeb.”

Not everyone agreed, though, with one saying: “Er, the viewer guests did nothing, they were hardly ever interviewed, they added little to the programme. So how can that be a loss?”

Viewers also speculated whether their sudden absence was down to the cost to the BBC of paying the guests’ hotel and transport costs. However, having been a Saturday Kitchen guest, I can confirm that the BBC didn’t pay for either of these things. Rightly so, of course.

This is how it worked. There were always two guests, usually a couple (or two friends if someone’s other half was too embarrassed to go on with them). You had to submit an application, including a picture, and then hope for the best.

Not long after we submitted our application, my partner and I got a phone call from a show producer telling us they would like us to be guests on the show. She said something like “As soon as we saw your picture we knew we had to have you on the show.” Which, if you had seen the picture, or any picture of me really, you would find hard to believe. Still, the flattery worked and we were booked on.

The only instruction I can remember being given about our appearance was not to wear black. I forgot this instruction and wore a black shirt, meaning I had to scrabble around on the day to find something to wear over it — which ended up being a beige-coloured tank top. Lovely.

Next we had to get ourselves to the Saturday Kitchen studio, which at that time was in the Kennington area of London, not far from the Oval cricket ground. We were asked to arrive at a stupidly early time in the morning (the show starts at 10am) and were shown into the green room to wait. We were even there before James Martin because I remember him arriving in the car park outside in what my partner described as “one of his funny little sports cars”.

We got to watch from the wings as James and the guest chefs practised their dishes and then it came time for the live show to start. I don’t remember being told not to speak unless spoken to but I didn’t say a word during the entire live broadcast. My partner was interviewed, though, and described having recently cooked a lobster when we’d been guests in a Michelin-starred kitchen.

Her description had the celebrity guest, Eve Myles, laughing out loud and James abruptly moved the conversation on! I still remember the warm way Eve laughed, she seemed genuinely tickled.

But after the show came a moment I still cringe about. I happened to leave the studio at the same time as Eve, who has just starred in one of the best TV crime dramas I’ve seen in a long time. As we both lived in roughly the same area of the UK at the time, I offered her a lift for the 150-mile journey home. Obviously, as any sensible person (let alone a well-known TV star) would, she politely declined this offer of a long lift home to Wales in a battered old Fiesta from a stranger. A less kind celebrity may well have been more blunt in her refusal. But Eve did her best to be polite despite my idiocy, which I’ve always remembered.

Incredibly, this wasn’t my only cringeworthy moment from that day. I’ve also worried ever since that I offended the hugely successful TV chef Jason Atherton, when I asked him at the chef’s table during a break in live filming why he didn’t have a recipe book out. He replied: “I do.” This was way back in 2008 but I’ve still not fully got over the embarrassment.

So, if Eve or Jason happen to read this, please accept my very late apologies. Thankfully, I don’t think I embarrassed myself in front of James Martin or the show’s other guest chef, Bryn Williams (they must have had a Welsh theme that day) and I’ll always remember being on the show. It’s a shame no one gets to any longer. Bring back the guests, BBC!

SACRAMENTO — Attempting to force a state budget agreement, California Controller Kathleen Connell said Monday she is considering withholding lawmakers’ salaries, and cannot pay 35,000 state employees if the Legislature and Gov. Pete Wilson fail to approve a budget by Saturday’s constitutional deadline.

Without a budget, Connell said, she also will have no choice but to delay payments of some Medi-Cal bills, such as prescriptions, for elderly people–a step that would add pressure on lawmakers to approve a spending plan.

Under the state Constitution, California must have a new budget by the July 1 start of the 1995-1996 fiscal year. But Wilson and the Legislature remain far apart and seem to be in no rush to approve a budget.

In recent years, it has become common for the deadline to pass without a budget. In 1992, the state went more than 60 days without a budget, leading state government to pay its employees and vendors with IOUs.

Connell, who is in her first year in office and who issues the checks for the state, said California has the cash to pay its bills. However, without agreement on a budget measure authorizing state spending in the new fiscal year, Connell said she will have no choice but to delay paying vendors, some medical bills for the elderly, the blind and the disabled, and as many as 35,000 state employees, including management officials.

“I don’t think any taxpayer is going to be sympathetic to the idea that we have the cash but are not paying our bills,” said Connell, a Democrat.

Connell last week suggested that she would withhold lawmakers’ pay starting July 1 if they had not approved a budget by the deadline. But she softened her position after concluding that there may be a constitutional requirement that she issue their checks. However, Connell said she is still studying the question.

“I’m raising a moral issue here,” Connell said after a speech in Sacramento. “If there are [state] employees who are not going to be paid because we have partisan politics dominating the Legislature, then there has to be a question of who else should accept responsibility.”

In the Legislature, the Senate-Assembly budget conference committee met Monday afternoon. But Wilson and top legislative leaders have not scheduled budget talks to resolve differences.

Wilson has proposed a $56-billion budget that includes deep welfare cuts and requires 10% increases in state college and university tuition. Wilson also is pushing for a 15% income tax cut over three years–an idea opposed by many Democrats.

“We fully expect to have a budget in the month of July,” Wilson spokesman Paul Kranhold said. “We are hopeful that the Legislature will forward us a budget by Saturday, or soon afterward.”

The amount separating Democrats and Republicans is relatively small–$1.8 billion–compared to other years of the Wilson Administration, when the gap between Wilson’s proposals and what the Legislature proposed ranged from $5 billion to $14 billion. But rancor is so dividing the Assembly this year that partisans in the budget fight have yet to take the first steps toward a solution.

“It can happen by Saturday,” said Assembly Republican Leader Jim Brulte. “There is no reason that it couldn’t or shouldn’t happen by Saturday. But I don’t know if it will.”

Past court orders require that, even without a budget, the state pay to keep schools open and issue checks to welfare recipients. The state also will continue to meet its bond debt and pension payments, Connell said.

But starting Saturday, Connell said, the state will not pay vendors who perform various services for the state, or deliver goods to state prisons and state hospitals. Without a budget, she said, state agencies that lease space will be unable to pay rent and cannot pay utility bills. Payments for services such as nursing home care or food deliveries to prisons would be delayed until a budget is approved.

“The effect of having no budget begins immediately. It begins on July 1, and the damage will grow with each day,” Connell said.

If the state goes without a budget through July, the missed payments would total at least $360 million for Medi-Cal and state assistance to counties to operate trial courts. The total for employees was not known.

Unlike 1992, the last time there was a lengthy budget deadlock, the state cannot use IOUs to pay its workers who fall under the Fair Labor Standards Act.

A federal judge, acting on a lawsuit brought by state employees, ruled last year that the state acted illegally in 1992 by issuing the IOUs, and that roughly 120,000 workers covered by the Fair Labor Standards Act must be paid even if there is no budget.

But between 33,000 and 35,000 state workers are not covered by the act, raising the possibility that they will not be paid on time for work done after July 1.

The employees whose pay is in jeopardy include Wilson’s political appointees, and heads of departments and middle-level managers. Professionals such as deputy attorneys general and state physicians and dentists also may have their paychecks delayed. An aide to Connell said the controller’s office is reviewing the law to determine whether judges and other judicial officials can be paid.

The first state employees to miss a paycheck would be in the Department of Transportation, where 50 management employees would miss July 15 paychecks for work done after July 1.

Gov. Pete Wilson has criticized the commission’s findings, and Sens. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) and Feinstein have urged the President to throw out the panel’s work entirely. Rep. Vic Fazio (D-West Sacramento), whose district includes the threatened Air Force base, wants Clinton to send the report back and ask the commission to redraft it without the McClellan closure recommendation.

The Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival posted set times for Weekend 1 of the 2026 edition and a former headliner has been added to the lineup.

Jack White, who was the musical guest on “Saturday Night Live” with host Jack Black over the weekend, will be the opening performer in the Mojave Tent on Saturday playing from 3 to 3:45 p.m.

White is the latest festival alum added to the bill for a surprise slot in recent years, joining the likes of Weezer and Ed Sheeran in 2025, Blink-182 in 2023 and Arcade Fire in 2022.

White last headlined the festival as a solo act in 2015. He was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame last year as a member of the White Stripes, which played Coachella in 2003.

The sold-out festival is topped by Sabrina Carpenter on Friday, Justin Bieber on Saturday and Karol G on Sunday. Carpenter has the earliest headlining spot of the three, with a set scheduled for 9:05 to 10:35 p.m. Following Carpenter on opening night is electronic artist Anyma, who is debuting a production called “Æden” at midnight on the Coachella stage.

Nine Inch Noize, the collaboration between Nine Inch Nails’ Trent Reznor and German producer Boys Noize, will be in the Sahara Tent on Saturday night from 8 to 8:45 p.m.

Coachella hasn’t announced Weekend 2 set times yet.

Earlier on Monday, Coachella posted more information about the mysterious Radiohead activation on the poster dubbed “the Bunker.”

A post on Coachella’s Instagram called it the debut of “Radiohead Motion Picture House Kid A Mnesia,” with a 75-minute-long large format film from band frontman Thom Yorke and band artist Stanley Donwood of “sketches, paintings, collages, audio recordings and handwritten notes” captured during the recording of “Kid A” and “Amnesiac.”

It’s free to see, but there’s a reservation system for a time slot. People who can’t make a reservation will be admitted on a first-come, first-served basis.

On the Coachella website, it describes the Bunker as being located near the Sahara Tent.

This is the weekend high school track and field takes center stage in Southern California. Quincy Wilson, who won a gold medal at the age of 16 at the 2024 Olympic Games, is coming from Maryland to compete in the 400 and two relays at the Arcadia Invitational at Arcadia High on Saturday.

“I’m so fired up,” Servite coach Brandon Thomas said.

And Thomas isn’t running.

Servite’s 4×100 and 4×400 relay teams will have to deal with Bullis High and Wilson running the anchor leg in races that should have fans standing on their feet while listening to the oohs and aahs.

“From a competitive standpoint, they’re excited to compete against the country’s best,” Thomas said.

Servite’s 4×100 relay team sent a message on Saturday, becoming the first to break 40 seconds in California history, winning in 39.82 at Trabuco Hills.

It’s all a perfect setup, from the atmosphere to the stiff competition, to prepare for next month’s section and state championships.

There’s two Loyola High athletes, sprinter Zion Phelps and 400 runner Ejam Yohannes, who hope to use Arcadia as a springboard to continue their early success this season.

Zion Phelps of Loyola edges Emmanuel Pullins of Sherman Oaks Notre Dame in the 100 meters on Tuesday, winning in 10.56 seconds. Pullins rans 10.59.

(Craig Weston)

Phelps is in his first year of track after being a defensive back and receiver for the football team. He and Loyola’s new coach, Sharaud Moore, were having conversions during the fall.

“He swore up and down he was the fastest kid in the school,” Moore said. “Yeah, put your money where your mouth is.”

Said Phelps: “I told him, ‘Just wait.’ I knew I had that speed and wanted to prove it.”

He ran a wind-aided 100-meter time of 10.39 seconds this spring. Last week in a Mission League dual meet against Sherman Oaks Notre Dame, he won with a time of 10.56.

Said Moore: “I was his harshest critic on the field.“We’re going back and forth and he was right. He’s s really fast.”

Showing his speed is legitimate will help with his football recruiting going into his senior year in the fall.

“Definitely this year has pushed my recruitment out there with my track times,” Phelps said. “I wanted to show the. I’m dedicated to this and being a multi-sport athlete. It will translate a lot.”

Yohannes, set to face Wilson in the 400, has an equally compelling story. He never played organized sports until joining the track team as a freshman. His parents came here from the small African country of Eritrea. His first name is Ethiopian.

He ran the 400 in 52.48 seconds as a freshman, focused more on having fun. Sophomore season he dropped to 50.75 and said to himself, “Wow, I’m fast.” He started getting serious.

“Now I wanted to be better,” he said.

An injury in January of last year didn’t let him get the foundation to run as fast as he hoped. He dropped to 47.69. Then Moore became coach, and Yohannes finally put in months of training to build a foundation.

“He comes in and kills me,” Yohannes said.

Then came the reward — 46.11 on March 21. In his final tuneup on Saturday, he ran 47.17 at the Red Rock Running Invitational.

“He’s a student and studies racing, training, race plans, athletes, programs,” Moore said.

As for facing Wilson, Yohannes’ attitude is bring him on.

“I’m excited to go out there,” he said. “It’s great competition. If I don’t believe I can win, nobody else can. If I don’t believe in myself, it’s over. I’m going to give my best. I might be crazy to saying this, but I think I have chance. He’s world class already in high school. He’s top of the line talent, It’s whoever wins on that given day. This is going to be unreal pressure knowing if I win, my name is out there. That puts me on the map. I can dream.”