High school basketball in Southern California will be without one of its finest coaches this season.
Stephen Singleton, who guided Eastvale Roosevelt to state and Southern Section Open Division championships last season, announced his retirement from coaching on Thursday after 10 years at Roosevelt and 25 years in the business. He will continue as a teacher.
Singleton intends to spend more time coaching his young son.
He also won a state Division I title in 2017 with Roosevelt and won a state Division II title coaching briefly at Dominguez in Compton in 2001.
With official basketball practice starting soon, Roosevelt intends to open the position to all candidates, but there’s two assistants who are teachers at the school that could possibly ease the transition if they are interested in the head coaching position.
It felt like the kind of thing that must happen in Hollywood all the time: a hundred bucks to be a movie extra.
Austin Beagle, 31, and Nevada Barker, 30, said they were trying to sign up for food stamps this spring when someone offered them a background role outside a county social services office in Long Beach. They thought the gig seemed intriguing, albeit a bit unusual.
The offer came not from a casting director, but a man hawking free cellphones. The filming location was, oddly enough, a law firm in downtown Los Angeles.
Like many DTLA clients, Austin Beagle and Nevada Barker signed a retainer agreement that entitles the firm to 45% of their payout.
(Joe Garcia / For The Times)
Maybe this was how actors were recruited here, they figured. The couple had recently moved from the remote ranching town of Stinnett in the Texas panhandle, and the recruiter seemed to appreciate their Southern drawl. They hopped on a bus, excited to make $200 between them.
“They said we’d be extras,” said Beagle, who was unemployed at the time. “But when we got to the office, that’s not what it was at all.”
The couple said they arrived at the lobby of Downtown LA Law Group. A Times investigation published earlier this month found seven plaintiffs represented by the firm who claimed they received cash from recruiters to sue the county over sex abuse, which could violate state law. Two said they had never been abused and were told to manufacture their claims.
Downtown LA Law Group has denied any involvement with the recruiters who allegedly paid plaintiffs. The firm said in a statement it would never “encourage or tolerate anyone lying about being abused” and has been conducting additional screening to remove “false or exaggerated claims” from its caseload.
Four days after The Times’ investigation was published, the firm asked for a lawsuit on behalf of Carlshawn Stovall, one of the men who said he fabricated claims, to be dismissed with prejudice, meaning the case cannot be refiled.
The firm requested a second case spurred by Juan Fajardo, who said he made up a claim using the name of a family member, to be dismissed with prejudice on Sept. 9 after Fajardo says he told lawyers he wanted to drop the lawsuit.
Now, with Beagle and Barker, two more have come forward to allege they were told to invent the stories that led to their lawsuits.
Austin Beagle and Nevada Barker said they’d been in Southern California only a few months when they were flagged down outside a social services office where they were hoping to enroll in food stamps. The couple have since moved back to Stinnett, Texas.
(Joe Garcia / For The Times)
The couple said that when they arrived at DTLA’s offices in April, a man came down to the lobby with a clipboard and gave them a piece of paper to memorize before going upstairs. They assumed this was the role they’d be playing — with room to go off script.
“They told us to say that we were sexually abused and harassed by the guards in … Las P? I can’t think of the institution’s name,” said Beagle, who added he was told to say the incidents occurred around 2005.
“The worse it was the better,” he recalled being told.
On April 29, Downtown LA Law Group filed a lawsuit against the county on behalf of 63 plaintiffs, including Beagle and Barker, who claimed they were abused at Los Padrinos, L.A. County’s juvenile hall in Downey. The couple are now part of the $4-billion settlement.
Allegations of potential fraud and pay-to-sue tactics have rocked both L.A. County government and powerhouse law firms, which are scrambling to figure out how to salvage the largest sex abuse settlement in U.S. history.
Perhaps no group has been shaken more than sex abuse victims themselves, who fear allegations of false claims could derail what they hoped would be a life-changing settlement.
“I just couldn’t believe it,” said Jimmy Vigil, 45, who sued the county in December 2022 for alleged sexual abuse by a probation officer at a detention camp in Lancaster.
Vigil said he was repeatedly molested as a 14-year-old and forced to masturbate in front of other teens while the guard watched.
“It makes me feel disgusted,” said Vigil, now a mental health case manager in Ventura County. “You have absolutely no clue what I went through. You have no clue how hard I have strived in life to make it to where I am at today.”
Jimmy Vigil, now a mental health case worker in Ventura, said he was repeatedly molested as a teenager and forced to masturbate in front of other teens.
(Christina House / Los Angeles Times)
Barker and Beagle said that after memorizing the card with the basics of their story, they were taken upstairs to a room at DTLA’s office where about 20 people were waiting. Everyone seemed confused, they said.
They “were asking us ‘Hey, did y’all promise to get paid? And we said ‘Yeah, somebody told us that we’d get paid $100 if we come in,” Beagle said. “Everybody was just concerned about getting paid whatever they were promised.”
DTLA said in a statement it has “never directed, nor do we have any knowledge that anyone was ever paid, hired, or brought to the DTLA office, or was asked to memorize a script of any kind under the guise of filmmaking,”
“We are not filmmakers,” the firm said. “No one authorized on behalf of the firm has ever promised or implied movie extra work as a means of retaining clients.”
Beagle and Barker said they were called in together to a glass cubicle where a woman spent 15-20 minutes asking them questions about their story of abuse. Barker said she struggled to come up with details because “it was all made-up stuff.”
Beagle said he thought maybe the staffers in the law firm were also acting, pretending not to know this was “a fake thing.”
“Like, they were testing us all out to see if we knew how to act — just play the part,” Beagle said. “Like, this was a trial thing.”
The couple said they were befuddled at the interaction but figured they’d done enough to get their money; the receptionist told them to come back in a few hours to collect.
The firm said, in some circumstances, it provides “interest free loans to clients once they have retained our services.”
Beagle and Barker said they frittered away two hours at Pershing Square a few blocks away until around 4 p.m. It was only when they came back to the firm, they said, that it became clear there was no movie.
A man named Kevin paid them $100 each, and told them they were part of a massive settlement involving juvenile halls they’d never heard about until that afternoon. The man told them they could get $100 for each additional person they referred to go through the same process, Beagle said.
“We walked out thinking I don’t know how legit this is and we might even get f— in trouble for it,” Beagle said.
Like most sexual abuse lawsuits, the suit was filed using only plaintiffs’ initials. The Times reviewed paperwork that DTLA provided to Beagle and Barker, which they signed in order to become clients on April 21 and to opt into the L.A. County settlement on May 29.
Under the settlement, each plaintiff could be eligible for anywhere from $100,000 to $3 million. Retainer agreements for Beagle and Barker reviewed by The Times show DTLA would get 45% of their payout.
Beagle and Barker said they aren’t banking on getting any money from L.A. County. After all, they said, they grew up in Texas, more than a thousand miles away from the abuse-plagued facilities.
“We need it, but it’s not ours. It’s like finding a wallet,” Barker said. “Return it.”
A Times investigation published earlier this month found plaintiffs represented by Downtown LA Law Group who claimed they received cash from recruiters to sue L.A. County over sex abuse. Four now say they were told to make up the claims.
(Carlin Stiehl / Los Angeles Times)
Among some survivors, there is a palpable fear that the fraud allegations will steamroll the settlement, overshadowing the fact that many county-run facilities were home to unchecked abuse and torpedoing their chance of receiving a life-changing sum.
The Times interviewed eight victims for this article represented by Slater Slater Schulman, ACTS LAW Firm, McNicholas & McNicholas, and Becker Law Group. Many said they were aghast at learning the worst years of their life may have become fodder for quick cash.
“It felt like a kick in the gut,” said Trinidad Pena, 52. “For somebody just to lie about it was just sickening.”
On Sept. 18, Pena said, she was eating a pancake breakfast at a homeless services center in Long Beach when she learned she had something in common with a woman sitting on the picnic bench next to her.
Both had filed lawsuits against L.A. County alleging sexual abuse at county-run facilities. Both of them were part of the county’s $4-billion settlement. But she was the only one, she believed, who had actually been abused.
The woman told her she’d been paid $20 to sue by a woman who hung around on the sidewalk outside the community center clutching a clipboard, she said.
The Times could not reach the recruiters allegedly responsible for paying plaintiffs for comment.
Trinidad Pena, who sued in 2022 over sex abuse, said she was jarred to find herself at breakfast with a woman who told her she’d been paid to sue the county.
(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)
Pena sued L.A. County in December 2022 over an alleged rape when she was 12 by a staff member at MacLaren Children’s Center, a shuttered youth shelter now infamous for predatory staff. No amount of cash is going to erase the scars from that, she says. But it would help.
Last month, Pena traded in her New Orleans shotgun apartment for the streets of Southern California, where she was raised. The move was, she said, a Hail Mary attempt to get medical treatment through the state’s public benefits for a cyst sprouting behind her right eye that made her vision wobble and her head crackle with pain.
She is currently living on $1,206 a month in and out of her van with a failing shunt in her head, which doctors implanted to treat her cyst. She eats mostly the nonperishable Trader Joe’s snacks she brought from Louisiana.
A six- or seven-figure settlement could help save her life, Pena said.
“I’m going to have myself a hell of a Charlie Sheen party and take a nosedive off a balcony at the Chateau Marmont if I do not get some sort of relief,” said Pena, who says she grew up in foster care near the legendary West Hollywood hotel.
Part of what has made the false claims so infuriating, victims say, is that L.A. County youth detention facilities were indeed home to horrific abuse decades ago.
Kizzie Jones, 47, said she’s on antidepressants as a result of a female probation officer who allegedly molested her twice a week and groomed her with bags of chips and bottles of conditioner.
Robert Williams, 41, says he has no friends — a near-total isolation he said traces back to repeated sexual assaults in the shower he suffered as a teen.
Mario Paz, 39, said a guard molested him under the guise of soothing his genitals with milk after he was pepper sprayed while naked. The abuse, he says, has left him traumatized to the point that he is unable to change his children’s Pampers.
All three of them filed lawsuits against the county alleging sexual abuse by county probation officers.
Mario Paz, 39, said his time at Los Padrinos Juvenile Hall left him traumatized and damaged the relationship he has with his own children.
(Christina House / Los Angeles Times)
“For someone to capitalize on something that they never endured or never experienced, I think it’s a travesty,” said Cornelious Thompson, a 51-year-old community health worker, who sued the county in December 2022.
When he was around 13 at Los Padrinos, Thompson says he was put on psychiatric medication that knocked him out. He woke up in his unit sore with his pants hanging by his knees, bleeding. It took him years to tell anyone.
He said he recently lost his job with a contractor for the county’s health department due to budget cuts. The county had to slash spending, in part, to pay for the $4-billion settlement.
It was “bittersweet,” he says, losing his job because the county was finally paying for what he said he endured as a teenager.
Only now, a new fear has crept in as two more people say they made up claims: Will he still be believed?
The third time just might be the charm for investors.
Is past and present stock market performance a good predictor of how the market will perform in the future? It can be sometimes. Otherwise, no one would bother incorporating historical stock data into models that attempt to project future performance.
With that in mind, investors might want to pay attention to what’s going on now with the S&P 500(^GSPC 1.56%) in relation to what it’s done in years past. The benchmark index is poised to do something that’s only happened 11 times in 100 years. And it could signal a big move for the stock market in 2026.
Image source: Getty Images.
The third time’s the charm
The S&P 500 soared 26% in 2023. It followed with a 25% gain in 2024. As of the market close on Oct. 10, 2025, the S&P is up a little over 11%. As things stand right now, it’s on course to finish the year with a double-digit percentage gain for the third consecutive year.
Such an achievement is rarer than you might think. Over the last 100 years, the S&P 500 has delivered double-digit returns for three consecutive years only 11 times. Technically, the index has only existed in its current form, including 500 companies, for 68 years. However, the S&P 500’s predecessor — the S&P 90 — dates back to 1926.
Granted, the stock market could end 2025 on a negative note. President Trump’s latest threat of additional 100% tariffs on all Chinese imports, on top of 30% tariffs already in place, is causing significant angst among investors.
It doesn’t help matters that the S&P 500 has been trading at record highs. The Buffett indicator, a ratio of total U.S. stock market capitalization to GDP, is well above a level that its namesake, legendary investor Warren Buffett, has said was “playing with fire.”
However, even if the S&P 500 falls over the next few weeks, a rebound to get the index back into double-digit gain territory would still be quite possible. Stocks often enjoy momentum at the end of a year thanks to a phenomenon known as the Santa Claus rally.
A history of big moves following three double-digit years
What could a third consecutive year of double-digit gains for the S&P 500 potentially mean for stocks in 2026? History shows that big moves often follow.
In three of the 11 cases over the last 100 years where the S&P jumped by double digits for three years in a row, the trend soon came to an abrupt end. For example, the S&P 500’s predecessor began with a bang in 1926, racking up three back-to-back double-digit returns. However, any student of history knows what happened in 1929: The stock market crash in October of that year brought a screeching halt to the previous momentum. The S&P finished the year down 8% and continued to decline for the next three years.
More recently, the index generated strong double-digit returns in 2019, 2020, and 2021. But the S&P 500 plunged 18% in 2022 as the Federal Reserve cranked up interest rates.
In four of the 11 cases, though, the strong momentum extended into a fourth year. The first occurrence came during World War II. The S&P soared 20% in 1942, followed by a gain of nearly 26% in 1943 and a 36% jump in 1944. The best was yet to come, with the index skyrocketing 36% in 1945 as the war ended.
Another great example of a three-year streak continuing into a fourth year was during the heady dot-com boom of the 1990s. The S&P 500 delivered returns of 22% or more in 1995, 1996, and 1997. It slowed only slightly in 1998, with a nice gain of 21%.
History shows that big moves are common after three consecutive years of double-digit gains by the S&P 500. Unfortunately, stocks tumble nearly as often as they jump in the following year. How will the S&P 500 perform in 2026? It’s impossible to know for sure.
What is possible to know, though, is that the S&P 500 has always risen over the long term in the past. The Rolling Stones weren’t talking about the stock market when they sang “Time Is on My Side,” but their premise definitely applies to investing. Regardless of what the S&P 500 does next year, investors who maintain a long-term perspective are likely to make money.
Keith Speights has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
Hi and welcome to another edition of Dodgers Dugout. My name is Houston Mitchell, and I can picture Vin Scully and Bob Uecker sitting on a cloud, watching this series.
—First, the bad news: In the NLCS, the Dodgers will be facing the team with the best record in baseball, the Milwaukee Brewers. And the Brewers went 6-0 against the Dodgers this season, outscoring them 31-16.
—The good news: None of that means anything in the postseason.
—This is the seventh time a team has swept an opponent in the regular season and met that same team in the postseason. A look:
2015 NLCS: Chicago swept the Mets in the season, 7-0. Mets swept the Cubs in the NLCS, 4-0.
2014 World Series: Kansas City swept San Francisco in the season, 3-0. Giants beat the Royals in the World Series, 4-3.
2009 ALDS: Yankees swept Minnesota in the season, 7-0. Yankees swept the Twins in the ALDS, 3-0.
2007 ALDS: Yankees swept Cleveland in the season, 6-0. Indians beat the Yankees in the ALDS, 3-1.
2006 World Series: Detroit swept St. Louis during the season, 3-0. Cardinals beat the Tigers in the World Series, 4-1.
2003 ALDS: Yankees swept Minnesota during the season, 7-0. Yankees beat the Twins in the ALDS, 3-1.
—Who will be on the NLCS roster? We should find out a few hours before game time today. With it being a seven-game series, I would expect fewer position players and more pitchers, but which relievers make the team?
—The Dodgers will start Blake Snell in Game 1 and Yoshinobu Yamamoto in Game 2 against the Brewers, who have not announced a Game 1 starter, but their ace, Freddy Peralta, will start Game 2.
—The Dodgers need another reliever to step up in this series, as it seems unlikely that Roki Sasaki can pitch three innings every game. Will they keep Justin Wrobleski on the roster? Which right-handers will they add? Ben Casparius?
—The biggest question on offense: Can Shohei Ohtani start hitting again? He went one for 18 in the NLDS, with nine strikeouts.
—The Brewers used a ton of lefties against Ohtani. “There were at-bats that didn’t go the way I thought they would,” Ohtani said after the Game 4 victory. “The opposing pitchers didn’t make many mistakes. They pitched wonderfully, in a way that’s worthy for the postseason. There were a lot of games like that for both teams.”
—Dave Roberts’ take: “Hoping that he can do a little self-reflecting on that series, and how aggressive he was outside of the strike zone, passive in the zone. The at-bat quality needs to get better.”
—Not only Ohtani, but the Dodgers overall are much more successful when they remain patient and work the count. It also allows them to get to the other team’s bullpen quicker. Wearing out the other team’s bullpen will be key the longer the series goes.
—The ALCS features teams that joined the league in 1977: Seattle and Toronto. The Mariners are the only current MLB team to never play in the World Series.
—Once again, the Dodgers’ opponent will have home-field advantage.
—I could go on and on with thoughts and reflections, but it doesn’t mean much. The postseason is all new, and anything can happen. Just hang on and enjoy the ride.
Prediction: Dodgers in 6.
Let’s take a look at how the teams compare and where they ranked among the 30 teams:
Batting
Runs per game Dodgers, 5.09 (2nd) Brewers, 4.98 (3rd) MLB average, 4.45
Batting average with two out and runners in scoring position Dodgers, .271 (1st) Brewers, .265 (3rd) MLB average, .233
As you can see, the Dodgers have more power, but the Brewers are more pesky on offense, getting more singles and stealing more bases. They stole two bases in the NLDS, the Dodgers haven’t tried to steal a base in the postseason.
Pitching
ERA Brewers, 3.58 (2nd) Dodgers, 3.95 (16th) MLB average, 4.15
Team ERA after All-Star break Dodgers, 3.45 (2nd) Brewers, 3.49 (3rd) MLB average, 4.28
When comparing the main players on the teams, keep in mind that players can move around depending on who is starting and managerial whim. For a full look at the Brewers statistically, click here.
First base Dodgers, Freddie Freeman, .295/.367/.502, 39 doubles, 24 homers, 90 RBIs Brewers, Andrew Vaughn, .308/.375/.493, 14 doubles, 9 homers, 46 RBIs
Rhys Hoskins was the Brewers’ starting first baseman when the season begam, but he was injured and sidelined for a couple of months. When he came back, Vaughn had won the job.
Second base Dodgers, Miguel Rojas, .262/.318/.397, 18 doubles, 7 homers, 27 RBIs Dodgers, Tommy Edman, .225/.274/.382, 13 doubles, 13 homers, 49 RBIs Brewers, Brice Turang, .288/.359/.435, 28 doubles, 18 homers, 81 RBIs
Third base Dodgers, Max Muncy, .243/.376/.470, 10 doubles, 19 homers, 67 RBIs Brewers, Caleb Durbin, .256/.334/.387, 25 doubles, 11 homers, 53 RBIs
The Brewers used Megill and Ashby as openers in the NLDS against the Cubs, including using Megill, their closer, as the opener in the decisive Game 5. He pitched a perfect inning, then gave way to Misiorowski, who pitched four innings, giving up one run. So the Brewers are not afraid to think outside the box as far as their pitching staff is concerned.
*-left-handed
Poll results
Which team would you rather have the Dodgers face in the NLCS? After 10,236 votes, the results:
Have a comment or something you’d like to see in a future Dodgers newsletter? Email me at [email protected]. To get this newsletter in your inbox, click here.
This week’s City Section top 10 high school football rankings by The Times:
1. BIRMINGHAM (4-3): The Patriots have 51 consecutive victories against City Section opponents, so any computer rankings that don’t have them at the top are ignoring history.
2. CARSON (4-3): The Colts are on collision path to face San Pedro on Oct. 30 to determine the Marine League championship.
3. PALISADES (7-0): Jack Thomas had 460 yards passing and five touchdowns in a 56-54 win over Venice.
4. SAN PEDRO (4-4): Pirates quarterback Seth Solorio has passed the 2,000-yard mark this season.
5. GARFIELD (5-2): The Eastern League championship will be decided Friday night at South Gate.
6. KENNEDY (6-1): In Diego Montes the Golden Cougars trust.
7. EAGLE ROCK (5-2): Northern League title showdown at Franklin on Friday night.
8. KING/DREW (5-1): Sophomore defensive lineman Kenneth Webb is having big season.
9. VENICE (3-4): Joshua Aaron rushed for 170 yards and four touchdowns in loss to Palisades.
10. FRANKLIN (6-1): Senior Albert Cardenas is coming through at quarterback.
Hello! I’m Mark Olsen. Welcome to another edition of your regular field guide to a world of Only Good Movies.
This has turned into one of those weeks when there are just way too many movies opening. From titles that premiered earlier in the year, to films that popped up only recently, distributors have decided that today is the time to drop them in theaters. It can make for some tough calls as a moviegoer but hopefully ones with pleasant returns. Here’s some intel.
Mary Bronstein’s “If I Had Legs I’d Kick You” was a standout at Sundance in January and remains one of the most powerful films of the year. Rose Byrne gives a knockout performance as Linda, a mother struggling to hold onto her own unraveling sense of self as she cares for her ill daughter.
Rose Byrne in the movie “If I Had Legs I’d Kick You.”
(Logan White / A24)
In his review Glenn Whipp said, “Linda makes dozens of bad decisions in ‘If I Had Legs I’d Kick You,’ many of them seemingly indefensible until you realize that just how utterly isolated she feels. … Bronstein demands you pay attention to her, and with Byrne diving headfirst into the character’s harrowing panic, you will find you have no other choice.”
Speaking to Esther Zuckerman for a wide-ranging feature, Byrne said of the part: “Anything dealing with motherhood and shame around motherhood, whether it’s disappointment, failure — she’s got this line in the movie, ‘I wasn’t meant to do this’ — these are pretty radical things to say. People aren’t comfortable with that. So performance-wise, that was the hardest part because it was like a tightrope, the tightrope of this woman.”
Another Sundance premiere hitting theaters this week is director Bill Condon’s adaptation of “Kiss of the Spider Woman,” starring Diego Luna, Tonatiuh and Jennifer Lopez. Already a novel, a movie and a Broadway show, the story involves two men imprisoned in an Argentine jail for political crimes during the 1980s, with Lopez playing a fantasy film star who exists in their imaginations — a reverie to which they can escape.
Tonatiuh in the movie “Kiss of the Spider Woman.”
(Roadside Attractions)
For our fall preview, Carlos Aguilar spoke to Tonatiuh, a native of L.A.’s Boyle Heights, whose performance is a true breakout.
“When I first met Jennifer, I was like, ‘Oh, my God — that’s Jennifer Lopez. What the hell?’ ” he recalled, with the enthusiasm of a true fan. “I must have turned left on the wrong street because now I’m standing in front of her. How did this happen? What life am I living?”
After praising both Lopez and Tonatiuh in her review of the film, Amy Nicholson wrote, “Still, my favorite performance has to be Luna’s, whose Valentin is at once strong and vulnerable, like a mutt attempting to fend off a bear. He’s the only one who doesn’t need to prove he’s a great actor, yet he feels like a revelation. Watching him gradually turn tender sends tingles through your heartstrings.”
Robert De Niro, left, and Martin Scorsese in an undated photo from Rebecca Miller’s documentary series “Mr. Scorsese.”
(Apple TV+)
The American Cinematheque is celebrating filmmaker Rebecca Miller this weekend with a four-title retrospective plus a preview of her documentary series “Mr. Scorsese,” a five-part portrait of the life and career of Martin Scorsese.
Miller will introduce a Saturday screening of her 2023 rom-com “She Came to Me,” starring Anne Hathaway and Peter Dinklage, then do a Q&A for the first two episodes of the Scorsese project on Sunday. Also screening in the series will be 2016’s “Maggie’s Plan,” starring Julianne Moore, Ethan Hawke and Greta Gerwig; Miller’s 2002 Sundance grand jury prize winner “Personal Velocity”; and 2005’s “The Ballad of Jack and Rose,” starring Miller’s husband Daniel Day-Lewis, screening with an introduction from co-star Camilla Belle.
Ethan Hawke and Greta Gerwig in “Maggie’s Plan,” written and directed by Rebecca Miller.
(Sony Pictures Classics)
I spoke to Miller this week about the retrospective and her new Scorsese project, which premieres Oct. 17 on Apple TV+. Along with extensive interviews with Scorsese himself, the series includes insights from collaborators such as Robert De Niro, Paul Schrader and longtime editor Thelma Schoonmaker as well as childhood friends, Scorsese’s children, ex-wives and fellow filmmakers such as Steven Spielberg, Brian De Palma, Ari Aster, Benny Safdie and Spike Lee.
“It feels like such an honor and so weird in a way,” said Miller of the notion of having a retrospective. “You feel like you’re just in the middle of making everything, but then you realize, no, I’ve been making these films for 30 years. And it’ll be really interesting to see how the films play now for people. It’s exciting to have them still be sort of alive.”
When you look back on your own movies, what comes to mind for you?
Funnily enough, there is a connection between “Personal Velocity” and Martin Scorsese, which is that when I was about to shoot personal “Velocity,” I was in Rome, on the set of “Gangs of New York,” and I was watching the snack trolley go by and thinking my entire budget is probably the same as their snack budget. And thinking: What am I doing? What was I thinking? How am I going to do this? But talking to [“Gangs” cinematographer] Michael Ballhaus, I told him how long we had to shoot everything, and he said, “Oh, I envy you. We shot ‘The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant’ in 10 days.” He was looking back on his days with Fassbinder as the good old days.
Then Marty gave me some advice on films with voiceovers to watch, and he ended up watching “Personal Velocity.” It was the first of my films that he saw, which then led probably to this [doc series] because he knew my films quite well. He watched them as time went on.
What interested you in Scorsese as a subject?
I knew that he was Catholic, that there was a strong spiritual element to his films. But I was interested in how that Catholicism kind of jogged with his fascination, or apparent fascination, with violence. Who is that person? How do those two things go together? And I thought that could be part of my exploration. I had a sense that all his work has a spiritual undercurrent in it, which I think it does. And I think that’s one of the things that I try to explore in the documentary. I felt I had something a little bit different to offer, for that reason.
The big questions that he’s asking: Are we essentially good? Are we essentially evil? And his immense honesty with himself about who he really is, the darkness of his own soul. I don’t think that people are usually that honest with themselves. And you realize that part of his greatness has to do with his willingness to look at himself.
Martin Scorsese in an undated photo from Rebecca Miller’s documentary series “Mr. Scorsese.”
(Apple TV+)
As much as we think we know about Scorsese, he seemed so candid about some of the darkest moments of his life, especially when he talks about his drug overdose and hospitalization in the late 1970s or about some of his issues with Hollywood, especially around “The Last Temptation of Christ.” Were you ever surprised that he was so willing to go there with you?
Oh, yeah, I was. I really didn’t know what to expect. I didn’t have an agenda. I had the scaffolding of the films themselves and a strong sense that this was a man that you can’t separate from the films. So the thing is like a dance, it’s like a permanent tango between those two things. You’re not going to pry them apart. I didn’t know about the addiction. I didn’t know a lot of these things. My questions are totally genuine, there’s no manipulation. It’s all me. I was very prepared in terms of the films. But in terms of the chronology and the connective tissue of his life, I was really right there discovering it.
Martin Scorsese at work on his film “Killers of the Flower Moon,” as seen in Rebecca Miller’s documenary series “Mr. Scorsese.”
(Apple TV+)
You’re catching him such a remarkable point in his life and career. He seems very happy and settled in his personal life and yet he still makes something like “Killers of the Flower Moon,” full of passion and fire. What do you make of that?
[Screenwriter] Jay [Cocks] says he’s learned that he can be selfish in his art, but he doesn’t have to be selfish in his life. Even if your outside is regular, your inside can be boiling. And I think Marty’s inside is always going to be boiling. The seas are not calm in there and never will be.
‘They Live’ and ‘Josie and the Pussycats,’ together at last
Roddy Piper in John Carpenter’s 1988 thriller “They Live.”
(Sunset Boulevard / Corbis )
There’s a real art to putting together a double bill. Sure, you can just program movies that have the same director or share the same on-screen talent. But what about deep, thematic links that might not otherwise be noticed?
The New Beverly has put together an inspired double bill playing on Friday, Saturday and Sunday of John Carpenter’s 1988 “They Live” and Deborah Kaplan and Harry Elfont’s 2001 “Josie and the Pussycats.” Though one is a rough-and-tumble sci-fi action picture and the other a satirical teen-pop fantasia, they both use the idea of subliminal messages to explore how consumer culture can be a means of control.
In “They Live,” wrestler-turned-actor “Rowdy” Roddy Piper plays a drifter who lands in Los Angeles and discovers a secret network fighting against an invasion of aliens living among us.
In Michael Wilmington’s original review, after joking the movie could be called “Invasion of the Space Yuppies,” he adds, “You can forgive the movie everything because of the sheer nasty pizzazz of its central concept. … The movie daffily mixes up the paranoia of the Red Scare monster movies of the ’50’s with a different kind of nightmare: the radical’s belief that everything is tightly controlled by a small, malicious ruling elite. Everything — the flat lighting, the crazily protracted action scenes, the monolithic beat and vamp of the score — reinforces a mood of murderous persecution mania.”
Rosario Dawson, from left, Rachael Leigh Cook and Tara Reid in the movie “Josie and the Pussycats.”
(Joseph Lederer / Universal Studios)
In “Josie and the Pussycats,” a small-town rock ‘n’ roll band (Rachael Leigh Cook, Tara Reid and Rosario Dawson) are plucked from obscurity when they are signed to a major record label and all their dreams of stardom seem to come true. But they come to realize the company’s executives (a brilliant pairing of Parker Posey and Allan Cumming) are using them for their own nefarious purposes.
Aside from some very hummable songs, the film has a truly epic amount of corporate logos and branding that appears throughout. Many reviewers at the time brought this up, including the L.A. Times’ own Kenneth Turan, who noted, “It’s a potent reminder that no matter how innocent a film may seem, there’s a Hollywood cash register behind almost every frame.” In subsequent interviews, Kaplan and Elfont confirmed these were not instances of paid product placement and, in fact, the production had to fight to get them all on-screen.
Points of interest
‘Eight Men Out’ in 35mm
Charlie Sheen, center, in a scene from the film “Eight Men Out.”
(Archive Photos / Getty Images)
Writer-director John Sayles has been so consistently good for so long that it is easy to take his work for granted. Case in point: 1988’s “Eight Men Out,” which tells the story of the infamous “Black Sox” scandal, when players from the Chicago White Sox were accused of intentionally throwing the 1919 World Series in league with underworld gamblers. The movie is playing on Sunday at Vidiots in 35mm.
The film captures much of what makes Sayles so special, particularly his unique grasp of the interplay between social and economic dynamics — a sense of how things work and why. He also fully grasps the deeper implications of the forces of greed and money setting themselves upon such an unassailable symbol of wholesome Americana as baseball. It’s also what makes the movie particularly worth a revisit now. With a phenomenal cast that includes John Cusack, David Straithairn, D.B. Sweeney, Charlie Sheen, John Mahoney, Christopher Lloyd, Michael Lerner and Sayles himself, the film was a relatively early effort from cinematographer Robert Richardson, who would go on to work repeatedly with Martin Scorsese and Quentin Tarantino.
In a review at the time, Sheila Benson wrote, “ ‘Eight Men Out’ is not a bad movie for an election year. Everything that politicians cherish as ‘old-fashioned’ and ‘American’ is here. The Grand Old Game. Idealistic little kids. Straw hats and cat’s-whisker crystal sets. And under the slogans and the platitudes, a terrifying erosion and no one to answer for it. No wonder Sayles, hardly an unpolitical animal, found it such a relevant story nearly 70 years later.”
‘The Sound of Music’ in 70mm
Julie Andrews, center, in the 1965 musical “The Sound of Music.”
(20th Century-Fox)
On Sunday the Academy Museum will screen Robert Wise’s “The Sound of Music” in 70mm, a rare opportunity to see this classic in the premium format on which it was originally released. Based on the stage musical by Rodgers and Hammerstein , the film would eventually win five Oscars, including director and best picture.
Starring Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer, it’s the story of the singing Von Trapp family, eventually forced to flee their native Austria as the Nazis take power.
In a Times review from March 1965, Philip K. Scheuer wrote of Wise and his collaborators, “They have taken this sweet, sometimes saccharine and structurally slight story of the Von Trapp Family Singers and transformed it into close to three hours of visual and vocal broilliaance, all in the universal terms of cinema. They have invested it with new delights and even a sense of depth in human relationships — not to mention the swooning beauty of Salzburg and the Austrian Alps, which the stage, of course, could only suggest.”
Even notorious gossip columnist Hedda Hopper liked the movie, presciently writing, “The picture is superb — dramatically, musically, cinematically. Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer were born for their roles. … All children — from 7 to 90 — wil love it. The following morning I woke up singing. Producer-director Bob Wise did a magnificent job and 20th [Century Fox] will hear nothing but the sound of money for years to come.”
Brooke Knowles knew she wanted the black puppy posted on the Facebook page of a self-described home breeder of Coton De Tulears. He looked like he’d have an outgoing personality.
She put down a nonrefundable deposit and drove to Temecula to pick him up. She paid about $2,000 and named him Ted.
Before she even left for home, Ted vomited and had diarrhea on the grass outside. He was lethargic, his chest soaked with drool.
A closer look later at the paperwork provided by the seller revealed something else unsettling: Ted wasn’t bred in California. He had been imported from a kennel in Utah.
“I thought that I was getting a dog that had been bred at his home,” Knowles said in a series of interviews with The Times. “This poor puppy, he was so traumatized.”
On Thursday, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a series of animal welfare bills into state law that will restrict puppy sales and strengthen protections for buyers like Knowles. The bills were introduced as a result of a Times investigation last year that detailed how designer dogs are trucked into California from out-of-state commercial breeders and resold by people saying they were small, local operators.
The three bills Newsom signed into law are:
Assembly Bill 519 by Assemblymember Marc Berman (D-Menlo Park) bans online marketplaces where dogs are sold by brokers, which is defined as any person or business that sells or transports a dog bred by someone else for profit. That includes major national pet retailers, including PuppySpot, as well as California-based operations that resell puppies bred elsewhere. The law applies to dogs, cats and rabbits under a year old. It does not apply to police dogs or service animals and provides an exemption for shelters, rescues and 4H clubs.
AB 506 by Assemblymember Steve Bennett (D-Ventura) voids pet purchase contracts involving California buyers if the seller requires a nonrefundable deposit. The law also makes the pet seller liable if they fail to disclose breeder details and medical history.
Senate Bill 312 by state Sen. Tom Umberg (D-Orange) requires pet sellers to share health certificates with the California Department of Food and Agriculture, which would then make them available without redactions to the public.
The bills were supported by California Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta, who said they are “an important step in shutting down deceptive sales tactics of these puppy brokers.”
“Sunlight is the best disinfectant, and it’s time to shine a light on puppy mills,” Newsom said in a statement. “Greater transparency in pet purchases will bring to light abusive practices that take advantage of pets in order to exploit hopeful pet owners. Today’s legislation protects both animals and Californians by addressing fraudulent pet breeding and selling practices.”
Lawmakers said new laws close loopholes that emerged after California in 2019 banned the sale of commercially bred dogs, cats and rabbits in pet stores. That retail ban did not apply to online sales, which surged during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Times’ investigation found that in the years after the retail ban took effect, a network of resellers stepped in to replace pet stores, often posing as local breeders and masking where puppies were actually bred. Some buyers later discovered they had purchased dogs from sellers using fake names or disposable phone numbers after their pets became ill or died.
Times reporters analyzed the movement of more than 71,000 dogs coming into California since 2019 by requesting certificates of veterinary inspection, which are issued by a federally accredited veterinarian listing where the animal came from, its destination and verification that it is healthy enough to travel.
The California Department of Food and Agriculture has long received those health certificates from other states by mistake — the records are supposed to go to county public health departments — and, in recent years, made it a practice to immediately destroy them. Dog importers who were supposed to submit the records to counties largely failed to do so.
The Times obtained the records by requesting the documents from every other state. In the days following the story’s publication, lawmakers and animal advocates called on the state’s Food and Agriculture Department to stop “destroying evidence” of the deceptive practices by purging the records. The department began preserving the records thereafter, but released them with significant redactions.
In one instance, the state redacted the name and address of a person with numerous shipments of puppies from Ohio. The Times obtained the same travel certificates without redactions from the Ohio Department of Agriculture. The address listed on the records is for a Home Depot in Milpitas. The phone number on some of those travel certificates belongs to Randy Kadee Vo.
The Times’ reporting last year found Vo’s name and various Bay Area addresses, including a warehouse, were listed as the destination for 1,900 dogs imported into California since 2019. At the time, he disputed that number but declined to say how many he had imported. People who bought puppies from Vo told The Times that they were told they were buying puppies that were locally bred.
Shortly after The Times questioned Vo about the imports, a different name, along with the Home Depot address, began appearing on health certificates with his phone number. Vo did not respond to a request for comment.
The Times identified hundreds of records detailing other sellers with names that appear to be fake or addresses that go to unaffiliated businesses, shopping centers and commercial mailbox offices.
While the new laws were championed by animal welfare groups, some have questioned how adequately the laws will be enforced by state officials — particularly when it comes to policing out-of-state facilities selling online and then shipping puppies directly California buyers.
“Enforcement will now fall on nonprofits like ours to monitor and report issues that we see, in hopes that the agencies act,” said Mindi Callison, head of the Iowa-based anti-puppy-mill nonprofit Bailing Out Benji.
Callison said lawmakers should next turn their focus to requiring California breeders to be licensed, similar to standards in Iowa, Missouri and other states. California does not have a statewide licensing program, instead relying on local jurisdictions for oversight. While some cities and counties require breeders to be licensed and inspected, little information is available online to help consumers vet them.
“There is a higher risk of dogs being kept in inhumane conditions in states where there are no regulations to follow and have no eyes on them,” Callison said.
Opponents of the legislation argued that California’s previous attempts to cut off the supply from puppy mills by banning pet store sales only fueled an unregulated marketplace — and warned banning brokers will do the same.
“Eliminating these brokers will not reduce demand for pets; it will simply force more Californians into unregulated, riskier marketplaces,” said Alyssa Miller-Hurley of the Pet Advocacy Network, which represents breeders, retailers and pet owners, in a letter opposing the legislation.
For consumers like Knowles, the lack of transparency when buying her puppy Ted has been long-lasting and costly. More than a year after Knowles took the puppy to her home in Long Beach, he developed stomach issues that got so bad he wound up in the emergency room. She also had doubts that her puppy was a purebred Coton De Tulear as advertised.
She said a pet DNA test confirmed those suspicions and connected her with other people whose dogs were purchased from the same seller. The test results said one of the dogs share the same amount of DNA as people do with their full siblings – and that they’re mutts.
“We call him the most expensive rescue dog we’ve ever had,” Knowles said of Ted, who is now on a restrictive diet. “Our group started to call our dogs ‘Fauxtons,’ since they weren’t Cotons.”
Knowles sued the seller, Tweed Fox of Carlsbad Cotons, over the test results showing Ted was not a purebred puppy, but said she lost.
“Really the core issue is … masquerading to be something you’re not,” she said.
Fox told The Times that he began sourcing from a Utah company during the Covid pandemic, when the demand for puppies spiked beyond the number he was able to breed at home.
He thought the Utah puppies were purebreds because they came with the proper registration paperwork, but said that “turned out not to be the case.” He said he did not mislead customers because he was in fact a home breeder, and only advertised the out-of-state puppies as Coton de Tulears, “which is what I thought I was purchasing.”
“You only can breed so many in a home,” he said. “I thought I was providing equal quality puppies at the time, and apparently, I wasn’t at that point, except for my own home bred.”
Fox said he has since moved to Dallas, where he breeds and sells Cotons. While the California broker law won’t impact him now that he’s left the state, he said he refuses to buy anyone else’s puppies for resale.
“I only sell my own,” he said. “I’m not in the business to cheat people out of anything.”
A fan who spent hundreds of dollars for tickets to what he thought would be one of LeBron James’ final NBA games is looking to recoup the money in small claims court after it turned out “The Second Deicision” teased by the Lakers superstar had nothing to do with his retirement.
Norwalk resident Andrew Garcia filed a claim Tuesday in Los Angeles County Superior Court that states that James owes him $865.66 because of “fraud, deception, misrepresentation, and any and all basis of legal recovery.”
Garcia told The Times that he spent that amount for two tickets to the Lakers’ game against the Cleveland Cavaliers on March 31, 2026, at Crypto.com Arena , thinking it would be the 40-year-old NBA icon’s final game against the team that drafted him in 2003.
He and other basketball fans were under that impression after James posted Monday on X that he would be announcing “the decision of all decisions” the next day. The post included a video clip teasing “The Second Decision,” a clear reference to 2010’s “The Decision,” in which James famously announced he was going to “take my talents to South Beach” to play for the Miami Heat.
Garcia said he purchased the tickets within 10 minutes of James’ social media post.
“I was like, ‘Holy s—, LeBron is going to retire! We’ve got to get tickets now,’” the 29-year-old Garcia said. “Like, literally, because if he formally makes this announcement, you know, there’s gonna be some significant price changes, right?”
Garcia is a huge fan of the Lakers and James, as well as an avid basketball fan in general, so he thought it would be cool to see the NBA’s all-time leading scorer play for the last time against the team with which he started his career and brought its first title in 2016 after his return from Miami.
“Moments like that, I understand the value,” Garcia said. “There still may be some moderate value [to the tickets], however it’s not the same without him retiring. I remember Kobe’s last year, it was kind of what this would have been, per se, where every ticket was worth a lot. Every game had value. …
“I missed out on that. I was a little bit younger at the time. I obviously wasn’t in a position to where I could just buy tickets unfortunately at that age. I believe I was like 18 or 19 at the time. And that’s one of my biggest regrets as a sports fan. I really wish I could have gotten the Kobe’s last year. So I see this as a potential to kind of make up for what I lost with Kobe.”
But “The Second Decision” ended up having nothing to do with retirement. It was merely a Hennessy ad.
So now Garcia wants his money back.
“There is no circumstance absent him saying he’s gonna retire that I would have bought tickets that far in advance,” Garcia said. “I mean, I buy tickets, but I don’t buy tickets five months’ advance. I’m the kind of person that buys tickets five hours in advance. It was solely, solely, solely based on that. So that’s why I was really thinking, ‘You know what, this might be grounds for a case.’ ”
The Times reached out to an attorney said to be working with James related to the claim but did not receive an immediate response.
In light of everything that has happened this week, though, Garcia said he’d still be willing to pay the same amount of money to see James play during his eventual retirement tour.
“Of course,” Garcia said. “I would probably spend more, because life is all about memories and experiences.”
Five-plus years ago, during the early days of COVID-19, we sent the first edition of Boiling Point. I wrote then that there would “always be people who say it’s the wrong time to talk about carbon emissions, or water pollution, or the extinction crisis.” But even amid a deadly pandemic and stay-at-home orders, I argued, it was more important than ever to keep the climate crisis front and center.
The same is true now — yes, even amid the Trump administration’s escalating attacks on democracy and dissent and immigrants. Which is why, even though I’m leaving the L.A. Times, Boiling Point will continue.
Yes, you read that correctly. I’ve made the difficult decision to leave the L.A. Times. Tuesday was my last day.
But I’m not done telling stories about climate. And neither are my wonderful friends and colleagues.
You’re reading Boiling Point
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I’m not quite ready to share my own plans yet. If you want to keep following my work, please send me an email at [email protected], and I promise to keep you updated. I’m excited for what comes next.
It’s a bittersweet moment, though. Working at The Times has been one of the great privileges of my life; thank you for inviting me into your inboxes, and making time to read my stories when you could have been scrolling or streaming. I’m grateful for our dialogue, our debates, our disagreements. I hope we’ll have many more.
Starting next week, several of my colleagues will take turns writing Boiling Point. It’ll look a little different than it does now, with a combination of analysis and news roundup. Each edition will have a unique focus, based on the reporter’s expertise: Ian James will cover water, for instance, while Lila Seidman will tackle wildlife and Tony Briscoe will handle air quality. You’ll get a wide range of thoughtful perspectives.
The newsletter will still arrive in your inbox every Thursday. It’ll still be worth opening.
Just like climate, journalism is more important now than ever. Local journalism especially.
Thank you for everything. Onward.
ONE MORE THING
On the southern end of Del Mar, train tracks run precariously close to the edge of rapidly crumbling cliffs.
(John Gibbins / San Diego Union-Tribune)
For nostalgia’s sake, here are some of my favorite environmental stories and series the L.A. Times has produced during my seven years here — including, no shame, one of my own:
This is the latest edition of Boiling Point, a newsletter about climate change and the environment in the American West. Sign up here to get it in your inbox. And listen to our Boiling Point podcast here.
Proposition 50 would shift the state’s congressional district lines to favor Democrats. It is Gov, Gavin Newsom’s response to a similar effort in Texas designed to put more Republicans in Congress. The new district lines would override those created by the state’s nonpartisan, independent redistricting commission.
Supporters include Democratic politicians and party organizations and labor unions. Newsom has said that this is a needed step to counter President Trump and to protect Californians. Republicans oppose the measure, arguing that partisan maps would take the state backward.
Overall fundraising
The Times is tracking contributions to one committee supporting Proposition 50 and two committees opposing the measure. Many committees have contributed to these main committees.
The Times is tracking contributions to the main fundraising committee supporting Proposition 50, which is controlled by Newsom. George Soros’ Fund for Policy Reform is the top donor with $10 million. House Majority PAC, the second-largest donor, aims to elect Democrats to the U.S. House of Representatives. Labor unions are also major supporters.
The measure has received support from several business executive and philanthropist donors, including Michael Moritz, Gwendolyn Sontheim and Reed Hastings.
Almost 150,000 individuals gave $100 or more. More than $11 million, about 14% of the total raised, came from small-dollar contributors, or those who gave less than $100.
Biggest opposition
The Times is also tracking contributions to two main opposition committees. Most of the money to these groups has come from extremely large contributions from a handful of donors.
Charles Munger, Jr., son of the former Berkshire Hathaway vice chairman, contributed more than $32 million to the Hold Politicians Accountable PAC.
Small-dollar contributions have made up $7,500 of the total raised.
The Congressional Leadership Fund has given $5 million to the Stop Sacramento’s Power Grab committee.
Hi, and welcome to another edition of Prep Rally. I’m Eric Sondheimer. Basketball season is a month away, and the big question is did everyone learn something from the football scandals this fall?
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The Southern Section has made more than 40 fall athletes ineligible for two years for violating CIF bylaw 202, which involves providing false information on transfer paperwork. The majority are football players. Players have left California to play elsewhere. Bishop Montgomery, which had 24 transfers declared ineligible, has seen students move to Arizona and Florida. A Long Beach Millikan player also left for Arizona.
Athletic directors will soon start submitting transfer paperwork for numerous basketball players. How many will try to gain immediate eligibility with a valid change of residence? How many will seek sit-out period eligibility? How many will be declared ineligible because of undue influence, otherwise known as illegal recruiting?
Southern Section commissioner Mike West has received support from some football coaches for having his assistant commissioners enforce and uncover rule violations among transfers. But there’s lots of skepticism whether basketball will face the same scrutiny since powerful programs have been relying on transfers for years and one of the continuing public perception issues, right or wrong, has been “unequal” enforcement of rules.
West has insisted the Southern Section is committed to using its new investigative tools to determine the accuracy of transfer paperwork submitted by schools as filled out by parents, so athletic directors and principals have been put on notice to investigate before making a decision to send in the paperwork.
If there are lots of sit-out period athletes, it will mean teams won’t be at full strength until Dec. 26, the day the sit-out period ends for boys and girls basketball. And, as shown during football season, just because the Southern Section initially approves or denies a transfer, it doesn’t mean the athlete’s status won’t change when additional facts are brought forward.
Call it Crampgate. While Sierra Canyon rolled to a 30-0 victory over Gardena Serra, a controversial decision by the Trailblazers to purposely fake cramps in retaliation for what it thought was Serra’s repeated issues with cramps caused quite a debate. Here’s the story.
There were a number of losses by top 25 teams. No. 8 Orange Lutheran lost 25-10 to No. 4 Mater Dei. No. 9 Vista Murrieta lost 28-20 to Chaparral. No. 10 Servite lost 17-7 to No. 6 Santa Margarita. No. 11 Damien lost 24-22 to Rancho Cucamonga. No. 12 San Juan Hills lost 33-10 to No. 17 Corona del Mar.
Leuzinger defeated Inglewood 43-32 for the first time since 1999 in a Bay League showdown. Next up is another great league matchup, with Palos Verdes playing Leuzinger on Thursday at 8:30 p.m. at SoFi Stadium.
Mary Star took control of the Camino Real League with a 21-12 win over St. Genevieve. Sophomore running back Johnny Rivera, with nearly 800 yards rushing, has provided a big boost this season.
Corona Centennial coach Matt Logan (right) receives trophy from athletic director Tony Barile after 300th coaching win.
Crenshaw wide receiver Deance’ Lewis (11) celebrates his touchdown with tight end De’Andre Kirkpatrick (10) against Dorsey.
(Gina Ferazzi/Los Angeles Times)
Crenshaw continues to make strides, knocking off rival Dorsey 12-8 in a game that featured a halftime concert by Mustard. Here’s the report.
The Western League began with the expected wins by Hamilton, Venice and Palisades. Hamilton won’t find out where it stands until facing Palisades on Oct. 24 and Venice on Oct. 30. The big matchup is on Friday when Venice hosts Palisades.
Van Nuys defeated Sylmar for the first time in more than 30 years 49-46. Coach Ken Osorio credited his offensive line that features right tackle Ernesto Gomez, right guard Jiancarlos Lopez, center Omar Hernandez, left guard Angel Avendano and left tackle Eli Taitz. Quarterback Carlos Herrera ran for four touchdowns and threw another.
Gardena began Marine League play with a 29-6 win over Banning. Quarterback Kevin Martinez had two touchdowns passing and two touchdowns running.
Eagle Rock handed Marshall its first defeat 41-7 in a Northern League opener.
Quarterback Brady Smigiel of Newbury Park, The Times’ reigning player of the year in Southern California, suffered a torn ACL knee injury on Friday night against Santa Barbara, ending his high school career, his father, Joe, said. He’s committed to Michigan and will undergo surgery.
Newbury Park quarterback Brady Smigiel suffered a torn ACL injury to his knee on Friday.
(Steve Galluzzo / For The Times)
He came into this season with 11,222 career yards passing and 147 touchdowns. This season, in six games, he passed for 1,624 yards and 15 touchdowns.
From the moment I saw Brady Smigiel as a freshman in a summer passing tournament, I was convinced he had the ability to be a top quarterback. He got better every season. A leader. A fighter. To see him and his father together for four years was special at Newbury Park.
His work ethic combined with surgery should allow him to have a complete recovery. He will go down as one of the most prolific football players in Ventura County history.
JSerra quarterback Kate Meier reaches across the goal line for the winning touchdown an instant before her flag is pulled.
(Steve Galluzzo / For The Times)
The showdown between No. 1 Orange Lutheran and No. 2 JSerra turned out as fun as expected, with JSerra winning 18-7 on the strength of four interceptions. Here’s the report.
Dos Pueblos quarterback Kacey Hurley and coach Doug Caines bump fists.
It was a big week for Sierra Canyon. The Trailblazers went to five sets to win their Mission League showdown against Marymount 25-19, 24-26, 25-22, 25-27, 15-11.
Then Sierra Canyon won the Mira Costa/Redondo Union tournament championship over Archbishop Mitty, which pretty much makes the Trailblazers the top team in Southern California and perhaps the state.
Shalen Sheppard has left Brentwood for Crossroads.
(Eric Sondheimer / Los Angeles Times)
Shalen Sheppard, a 6-foot-8 sophomore who was expected to be the standout basketball player at Brentwood, has transferred to rival Crossroads. Brentwood coach Ryan Bailey developed him into one of the top freshman players last season. …
Tyran Stokes from Sherman Oaks Notre Dame and Brandon McCoy from Sierra Canyon have signed NIL deals with Nike. …
Tajh Ariza of St. John Bosco, last season’s co-City Section basketball player of the year at Westchester, has committed to Oregon. …
Three-time Olympic gold medalist Melissa Seidemann is the new girls water polo coach at Orange Lutheran. Here’s the report. …
Adam Goldstein was named baseball coach at Agoura. …
Junior lacrosse player Brody Booen of Santa Margarita has committed to Virginia. …
Tight end Keawe Browne of Corona Centennial has committed to Boise State. …
San Pedro softball player Caroline Baker has committed to Louisiana Tech. …
Quarterback Kade Casillas of Lakewood has committed to Wayne State. …
Former Crespi and UC Riverside basketball player Kyle Owens has died after a bout with cancer. He was 24. …
Pitcher Abby Ford of JSerra has committed to Washington for softball.
From the archives: Romeo Doubs
Green Bay Packers’ Romeo Doubs.
(Morry Gash / Associated Press)
Former Jefferson High standout Romeo Doubshas become a standout receiver in the NFL with the Green Bay Packers. His is a great story to tell, having been a double-wing T quarterback at Jefferson in the City Section. He got a scholarship to Nevada and kept improving as a receiver.
From Substack, a story on former Sherman Oaks Notre Dame star Giancarlo Stanton.
From the Washington Post, a story on a high school football team with two former Super Bowl winners on the coaching staff.
From the Orange County Register, a story on former Loyola linebacker Scott Taylor contributing for UCLA as a freshman.
Tweets you might have missed
Hunter Greene is the third pitcher in MLB history to pitch 100 or more innings and average at least 10 strikeouts per nine innings in each of his first four seasons (2022-25). The others are Yu Darvish (first five seasons: 2012-17; DNP in 2015) and Mark Prior (2002-05). pic.twitter.com/FBqyrIyOB1
What can coaches do anymore. You coach, you sit down a player to get him to understand what you want, they either learn or rebel. It’s a crazy time to coach. Criticism is forbidden. Saying only good things is a must even if it’s untrue. Good luck to all.
Two great football coaches. Dick Bruich and Dave White. They had some battles in the 1980s and 1990s at Fontana and Edison, respectively. pic.twitter.com/agELy3KtWc
The Marmonte League needs to change its league name for teams in the league playing football only next season. Options: Surfer League. 101 League. We shake hands League.
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Welcome back to the Times of Troy newsletter, where we’re back from the bye, recharged and ready for the gauntlet ahead on USC’s schedule. Here’s hoping you had a nice relaxing weekend away that didn’t involve yelling at the television about your team’s struggling secondary.
Following that lead, we’re going to step away from the football field for this week to talk about something that every college football program could use more of these days, but never seems to get enough of:
Money.
Fight on! Are you a true Trojans fan?
First, let me take you back four years before the Pac-12 imploded, to when then-Pac-12 commissioner Larry Scott had a big idea to save his flailing conference.
His plan? Sell off a 15% stake of the Pac-12 to a private equity firm for a reported infusion of $1 billion, which Scott hoped would be enough to help stabilize the conference. At the time, the Pac-12’s media rights deal was only providing about $30 million per school annually. A private equity investment, Scott figured, would add tens of millions to that total, helping to hopefully keep the Pac-12 afloat until the conference’s next media rights negotiation.
But the plan never came to fruition, and the Pac-12 unraveled. The reason it didn’t work then was the presidents and chancellors of the Pac-12’s member schools had no stomach for selling off a stake in their conference to a private equity firm, no matter how desperate the conference was. USC, in particular, was one of the most vocal detractors. Viewing itself as the crown jewel of the conference, it already wasn’t happy with the equal distribution of media revenue. It saw no reason, at the time, to give away more valuable equity in its brand while locking into that arrangement for a longer period.
Had Scott managed to make that deal, who knows what might have happened with the Pac-12.
But almost seven years later, private equity firms are once again swirling like vultures overhead. As first reported last week by ESPN, USC’s new conference, the Big Ten, is now seriously considering a $2-billion private equity infusion. That deal would also reportedly lock in the conference’s members through 2046, injecting at least a little stability into an especially unstable landscape.
A decision is expected in the coming weeks, and the conference is looking for consensus among schools to move forward. But USC had no interest in such a deal before. Why would that be different now?
Well, for one, college sports have gotten a lot more expensive in the wake of the House settlement. Even before adding a $20.5 million line item to its budget, USC’s athletic expenses were among the highest in the nation at $242 million, according to the most recent Department of Education data. And that figure doesn’t consider the $200-million football facility currently being built or the millions of scholarship money that needs to be raised or the $200-million budget deficit the larger university finds itself in.
A nine-figure private equity check would go a long way in soothing those financial concerns. Especially at the Big Ten’s smaller schools. But it wouldn’t solve every revenue problem in USC’s future. And it would be foolish to think that money doesn’t come with strings attached, even if the discussed deal does at least attempt to mitigate that influence.
The deal would create a separate corporate structure that would handle all things related to revenue generation within the Big Ten. That revenue would then be distributed between 20 equity stakeholders — the 18 conference schools, the league office and this private equity firm.
So the private equity firm wouldn’t own a piece of USC athletics, so much as it would own a share of the Big Ten’s business interests. That setup would then theoretically limit the investor’s control and keep private equity out of other decisions pertaining to Big Ten athletics, which had been the fear of Pac-12 presidents when the conference previously turned up its nose to such an investment.
There are still many unknowns here, most notably how the revenue would be distributed. But there’s no reason to think the conference’s biggest brands, such as USC or Michigan or Ohio State, would sign on to any deal that didn’t include distribution of that revenue that significantly favored those schools.
That appears to be the plan. But as of now, neither Michigan nor Ohio State is on board yet.
“I believe selling off Michigan’s precious public university assets would betray our responsibility to students and taxpayers,” Jordan Acker, a member of Michigan’s Board of Regents, wrote on social media.
And in this case, the buyer has an entirely different mission than the other stakeholders involved. Private equity firms exist solely to provide up-front capital in order to eliminate risk, turn a profit and then exit the marketplace. There’s no reason to think it would be different in this case. Which doesn’t exactly jibe in the marketplace that is college athletics.
So is a $100-million check worth giving away that control? For Purdue or Rutgers, probably. For USC? I’m not so sure.
USC, like Michigan and Ohio State, has yet to sign off on plans for conference-wide private equity investment and still has questions about the potential deal, a person familiar with the decision not authorized to discuss it publicly told The Times. But the school wants to be good partners in the conference, and of course, it could always use an infusion of cash.
But does USC really need money that badly? The athletic department has already taken significant steps to raise revenue in light of the House settlement, including striking a massive, new 15-year multimedia rights deal with Learfield. USC doesn’t necessarily need the Big Ten or its new private equity partner to create conference-wide revenue streams where it could just strike deals on its own. Nor does it need assurances of the Big Ten’s long-term stability enough to sacrifice equity.
USC once made a mistake by accepting an equal share as its peers in the Pac-12. But it can’t make that mistake again. By virtue of its brand, USC is always going to have a seat at the table.
And if the Big Ten is getting into bed with private equity, it should be using every bit of that leverage to get the best possible deal. There’s no world in which USC should accept a smaller slice of that pie than Michigan or Ohio State, no matter the history of the other two.
Calling all questions!
Have any questions, comments or concerns about USC coming out of the bye week?
Send them along to [email protected] or shoot me a DM @RyanKartje on X or @rkartje on Instagram by Monday night, and I’ll include the best ones in a video mailbag I’m planning to put out early next week.
—Kilian O’Connor is out for at least two games with a knee injury, and maybe more. J’Onre Reed will start at center in his place. Most assumed that Reed would be the starter when he joined USC in the offseason. But O’Connor, a former walk-on, won the job in camp. Which, depending on your perspective, is either troubling for Reed or encouraging for O’Connor. Nonetheless, this is a guy who started 25 games at Syracuse. I’d hope, if USC made a point to pursue him in the portal, that Reed should be at least a passable replacement for a former walk-on. That said, the next two games — against Michigan and Notre Dame — wouldn’t have been a cake walk for USC’s offensive front even at full strength.
—Freshman All-American Caden Chittenden is getting healthier, but don’t expect him to be handed kicking duties when he returns. USC brought in Chittenden after a tremendous freshman season at Nevada Las Vegas to solve its field goal woes. But he’s been dealing with a hamstring injury since the preseason, and in his place, Ryon Sayeri has been as good as anyone could have hoped. Sayeri has hit eight of nine field goals, third-best in the Big Ten, and all 28 extra point attempts. On kickoffs, he’s been “a machine.” “If a guy is playing at a high level, no matter who it is, we wouldn’t make a change just because of that,” Riley said last week. Don’t be surprised if he keeps the job the rest of the way, regardless of Chittenden’s status.
—USC’s top guard, Rodney Rice, will miss the next few weeks with a shoulder injury. Not ideal, obviously. But Rice should be ready to go for the basketball season opener on Nov. 3, when the Trojans take on Cal Poly. Assuming he returns to full health, he’s primed for a big season as the engine of USC’s offense.
—Former Trojan quarterback Mark Sanchez was stabbed and later arrested after allegedly drunkenly assaulting a 69-year old man in Indianapolis on Friday night. When the story was first reported, it seemed like Sanchez was the victim of a violent attack. Turns out, the police believe it was the other way around. The other man involved, a 69-year-old grease disposal truck driver, told police that Sanchez tried to break into his truck and assaulted him when he refused to move his truck from an alleyway, according to police records. The man first pepper sprayed Sanchez, then, allegedly fearing for his life, stabbed Sanchez multiple times in the chest. Sanchez was eventually taken to the hospital in critical condition, and he later told police that he didn’t know who stabbed him. He’s now in stable condition.
—The NCAA tournament is “inching closer” to expanding to 76 teams. That’s according to Yahoo’s Ross Dellenger, who reported that the expansion would likely feature a 12-game opening round in multiple cities, as opposed to the four-team “First Four” matchups which traditionally took place in Dayton, Ohio. I suppose this was inevitable, with so much TV money to be made with the tournament. But I’m not sure if anyone outside of TV execs are really clamoring for this expansion.
Olympic sports spotlight
Many of you have asked and I have heard your pleas for more Olympics sports coverage in the newsletter! So from here on out, most Mondays, we’re going to zoom in on a standout team or athlete from one of USC’s non-revenue programs.
Maribel Flores was named Pac-12 freshman of the year two years ago, but she missed part of the next women’s soccer season to play for Mexico at the U20 World Cup and tallied just a single point as a sophomore.
Now, as a junior, Flores is back in peak form. She has 15 points across 11 games for USC, which ranks third in the Big Ten.
USC struggled without a win through the first three weeks of September, but has since gotten back on track with a three-game win streak. After a road swing through Minnesota and Iowa next week, the Trojans won’t have to leave L.A. for the rest of the regular season. For now, they’re just one game behind UCLA, in second place in the Big Ten.
Phil Parma (Philip Seymour Hoffman), in ‘Magnolia.’
(Peter Sorel/New Line Cinema)
Inspired by last week’s pick in this space, “One Battle After Another,” which exceeded my sky-high expectations, I’ve decided to dive back into the Paul Thomas Anderson filmography and check off the boxes I’ve missed.
First up in that quest was “Magnolia,” a sprawling, three-hour epic that I’ve been meaning to watch for many years. Set in the San Fernando Valley, where many of Anderson’s films take place, it follows an ensemble of interconnected narratives that Anderson somehow manages to weave into one story. Incredible writing. Amazing acting. As if I needed any more evidence of Anderson’s genius, “Magnolia” only solidified my adoration of his work.
Until next time …
That concludes today’s newsletter. If you have any feedback, ideas for improvement or things you’d like to see, email me at [email protected], and follow me on X at @Ryan_Kartje. To get this newsletter in your inbox, click here.
OAKLAND — The world of Frank Wishom was collapsing fast in 2003 when he started talking to the FBI.
The high-tech company he had nurtured for a decade was failing. The woman in his life for 20 years had dumped him. And his diabetes was flaring so severely he expected to lose his legs.
Then, after undergoing vein surgery in fall 2003, the 62-year-old businessman had a heart attack and died.
Whatever he said to the FBI remains a mystery, because officials refuse to talk about the federal investigation that now threatens California’s new state Senate leader.
But Wishom’s friends, relatives and associates — some of whom have been contacted by FBI agents — are convinced that his allegations about public corruption here figure in the probe.
The grand jury investigation is swirling around Sen. Don Perata (D-Oakland) and Wishom’s ex-girlfriend, prominent Oakland lobbyist Lily Hu, who once worked as a Perata aide.
In November, subpoenas were issued seeking information about payments and communications involving Perata and more than a dozen people and companies associated with him, including his two grown children, his former business partner and Hu.
On Dec. 15, federal agents executed search warrants on the homes of Perata and his son, a political consultant who has worked on the senator’s campaigns.
Perata has denied any wrongdoing and said that he was prepared to cooperate with investigators.
Hu’s attorney, Doron Weinberg, said the investigation was triggered by baseless allegations raised by Wishom as a result of his breakup with Hu.
“Frank apparently was far off the deep end, acting irrationally and doing unreasonable things,” Weinberg said. “In his mental state, he would have accused her of anything.”
It was in the mid-1980s that Wishom began his relationship with Hu, a personable and hard-driving native of Taiwan. She and Wishom soon grew so close that some friends thought they were married.
For years, Hu had shared her upscale home with Wishom, a telecommunications contractor who wore $400 shoes, drove a big BMW, sailed a yacht and told people he once played football at nearby UC Berkeley.
The couple had been a fixture in this city’s political and social life and threw lavish holiday parties with catered food.
Wishom was known by many as “Big Frank,” a charismatic 6-foot-4 man who advocated causes for urban youths and helped fellow African Americans with their careers. But relatives and friends also saw a grandiose personality with a self-destructive business style, an explosive temper and a tendency to shade facts, or worse.
“He lived a complete farce,” said Deirdre Wishom, his oldest daughter and a schoolteacher living in Stockton. “My father was a notorious liar.”
Divorced twice, Wishom met Hu, a college dropout in her late 20s, at a birthday party. They fell in love and soon were working together at a firm Wishom was managing, friends say.
Within a few years, Wishom had established himself as a highly visible member of Oakland’s business and professional community.
After stints at several companies, Wishom launched a consulting business, F2 Technologies, with a partner whose name also was Frank. They later split.
Hu was working in telecommunications marketing, was president of Oakland Chinatown’s Chamber of Commerce and was running for City Council.
She lost the election, but after serving as a part-time field representative in Perata’s Assembly district office in 1997, she started a lobbying firm.
Hu and Wishom were political allies and friends of Perata, a Democrat who ascended from county supervisor to state assemblyman and senator. When Wishom became active in the prestigious service group 100 Black Men, it was no surprise that Perata was sitting at F2’s table during an event. Wishom was a forceful speaker and a natural salesman who landed several contracts with government agencies in the Bay Area.
He also benefited from Hu’s high visibility as one of the city’s busiest lobbyists, according to friends. In 1998, he won a $4.7-million contract to upgrade Oakland’s computers to avert Y2K meltdowns.
But like other tech companies, F2 began a downhill slide, and word got out that Wishom was better at landing contracts than executing them, said his longtime friend Herman Blackmon. “But he was such a good guy and knew so many people that he was able to deflect criticism.”
Wishom was hit by numerous federal and state tax liens.
The year 2003 erased most of the good things in Wishom’s life, and the stresses began to mount.
In March, Hu broke up with him, and he moved out of the house. In July, his mother died, and F2 Technologies filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy protection.
About that time, Wishom sounded out political newsletter publisher Sanji Handa, a friend. Wishom indicated he had bank records and other documentation that would be devastating to Perata and his allies, Handa recalled. “He said he was going to the FBI.”
In September 2003, Hu obtained a temporary restraining order, alleging that Wishom was constantly calling and following her and threatening her male friends.
Wishom’s own psychiatrist even warned Hu about his emotional state.
In his written denial of the harassment charge, Wishom alleged that he was the one being threatened. He said he received an anonymous call from a man who said, “Keep your mouth shut, or you will find yourself floating in the bay.”
Wishom also wrote that the FBI “is investigating Ms. Hu’s conduct in regard to her lobbying activities, and her activities with politicians.”
In a Sept. 22, 2003, letter to Wishom’s attorney, Hu’s attorney accused Wishom of bullying Hu through threats to “expose” false information about her. “She has no reason to believe that the FBI is investigating her, and she is not taking or giving any ‘kickbacks,’ ” the attorney wrote.
One source, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said Wishom specifically alleged in their conversations that kickbacks from government contracts were being laundered through payments for consulting work by Wishom and others.
Attorney Colin Cooper confirmed that he represented Wishom for about a month just before his death.
“I know he was being queried by the FBI, and he wanted me to help him,” Cooper said. “We never had a meeting with the FBI because he passed away.”
At one point, Wishom arranged a meeting with Perata in Sacramento to discuss his contracting business, but nothing apparently came of it. A Perata spokesman declined to comment.
During the breakup with Hu and the demise of his business, Wishom was depressed, friends and relatives agree. His diabetes worsened, and he told people that he feared that his legs would have to be amputated. While hospitalized after vein surgery, on Oct. 2, 2003, Wishom died of a heart attack.
More than 200 people, including Perata and Hu, attended Wishom’s memorial service. A newspaper account repeated one of Wishom’s tallest tales — that he had played football at UC Berkeley. A spokeswoman said the university had no record of him attending, and his oldest daughter said flatly, “He did not set foot on a campus.”
Wishom did not change his will, leaving everything to Hu. But there was nothing except debts — and the allegations of a dead man.
“What it feels like to me,” said Wishom’s first wife, Marie Henry of Palo Alto, “is the man is haunting her from his grave.”
Hello! I’m Mark Olsen. Welcome to another edition of your regular field guide to a world of Only Good Movies.
Among the week’s new releases is “The Smashing Machine,” written and directed by Benny Safdie and starring Dwayne Johnson as Mark Kerr, an early mixed-martial-arts fighting champion who saw his career flame out before the sport became a lucrative cultural phenomenon.
Safdie is known for the movies he made with his brother Josh, such as “Good Time” and “Uncut Gems,” and more recently created the series “The Curse” with Nathan Fielder. Safdie won the directing prize at the Venice Film Festival for “The Smashing Machine,” his first solo feature.
Dwayne Johnson in the movie “The Smashing Machine.”
(A24)
In her review of the film, Amy Nicholson wrote about Safdie and Johnson, noting, “These two high-intensity talents, each with something to prove, seem to have egged each other on to be exhaustingly photorealistic. Johnson, squeezed into a wig so tight we get a vicarious headache, has pumped up his deltoids to nearly reach his prosthetic cauliflower ears. And Safdie is so devoted to duplicating the earthy brown decor of Kerr’s late-’90s nouveau riche Phoenix home that you’d think he was restoring Notre Dame.”
I spoke to Safdie earlier this week. He explained how he and Kerr held each other’s hands during the film’s emotional premiere screening at Venice and what it has meant for them to go through the process of seeing through the project together.
“I wanted him to feel some kind of ownership of the movie and his life. And it was very meaningful to me,” says Safdie of Kerr. “Now I hear him talk about it and it’s very interesting because he can say, ‘Oh, I see where I made mistakes in that relationship.’ And he can take ownership of them. And part of it is I wanted to make a movie about somebody’s perspective on life changing.”
A celebration of Jafar Panahi
A scene from the movie “It Was Just an Accident.”
(Neon)
The American Cinematheque is launching a tribute series to Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi this week. Winner of the Palme d’Or at this year’s Cannes Film Festival for the dramatic thriller “It Was Just an Accident,” Panahi has become Iran’s most high-profile dissident filmmaker, having been repeatedly jailed, placed under house arrest and officially banned from making films.
Yet none of that has stopped him. Panahi is now one of only four filmmakers ever to win the Palme d’Or, Berlin’s Golden Bear and Venice’s Golden Lion, alongside such giants as Michelangelo Antonioni, Robert Altman and Henri-Georges Clouzot. And “Accident” has been selected to be France’s entry for the international feature Oscar race.
Panahi was scheduled to appear at three events in Los Angeles next week as part of the tribute, but he may not make it. His appearances at the New York Film Festival (now in progress), including a scheduled talk with Martin Scorsese, had to be canceled due to a delay in Panahi receiving his visa to enter the country, reportedly a result of the federal government shutdown.
Even if Panahi does not make it to L.A., his films will play on and deserve to be seen. “Accident” will screen in a double-bill with 2003’s “Crimson Gold” at the Aero on Tuesday. On Wednesday, Panahi’s 1995 debut feature “The White Balloon,” co-written with Abbas Kiarostami, will play in 35mm at the Los Feliz 3. Later on Wednesday at the LF3, Panahi’s 2000 drama “The Circle” will screen in a 35mm print from the Yale Film Archive, along with the 2010 short “The Accordion.”
In 1996, Kenneth Turan had this to write about “The White Balloon”: “A completely charming, unhurried slice of life, it is both slow and sure-handed as it follows a small but fearsomely determined little girl on her amusing search for just the right ceremonial goldfish for her family’s new year’s celebration.”
Discussing “The Circle” in 2001, Turan said, “Restrained yet powerful, devastating in its emotional effects, ‘The Circle’ is a landmark in Iranian cinema. By combining two things that are relatively rare in that country’s production — unapologetically dramatic storytelling and an implicit challenge to the prevailing political ideology — this new film by producer-director Jafar Panahi creates a potent synthesis.”
With or without Panahi in attendance, these are deeply necessary films that speak to their respective moments — and all too much to our current one.
‘All the President’s Men’ and remembering Robert Redford
Robert Redford, right, and Dustin Hoffman in the movie “All the President’s Men.”
(Sunset Boulevard / Corbis via Getty Images)
Screenings have already begun to pop up in tribute to Robert Redford, who died recently at age 89. On Friday, Vidiots will screen Alan J. Pakula’s 1976 political thriller “All the President’s Men” in 35mm along with Phil Alden Robinson’s 1992 caper comedy “Sneakers.” On Sunday, Vidiots will also show Sydney Pollack’s 1973 romantic drama “The Way We Were.” (The Academy Museum will screen “The Way We Were” on Oct. 26.)
The American Cinematheque will also be a launching a Redford tribute series starting on Monday with a screening of Tony Scott’s 2001 thriller “Spy Game.” Other films currently scheduled include “Jeremiah Johnson,” “The Sting,” “Three Days of the Condor,” “Indecent Proposal,” “Sneakers” and a 35mm showing of “All the President’s Men.” That barely scratches the surface of Redford’s work as an actor, let alone as a director, so more events are likely to come.
Redford was deeply involved in bringing “All the President’s Men” to the screen as quickly as possible following the Watergate scandal. Writing about “All the President’s Men” in 1976, Charles Champlin said the film has “a clarity born of historical perspective but also a newly quickened feeling of national concern. The central drama and suspense of ‘All the President’s Men’ is a reminder of the narrow margin of our safety and how close the coverup came to working. … The film invites no comfort. It was a narrow and almost accidental escape and the weight of a corrupted government had been tilted against the truth as never before. But never again? The movie makes no preachment but you are bound to think anew that forgiveness and forgetfulness ought to be two starkly different commodities.”
Points of interest
‘Rosemary’s Baby’ in 35mm
Mia Farrow in the 1968 horror landmark “Rosemary’s Baby.”
(Criterion Collection)
“Rosemary’s Baby,” a 1968 adaptation of the novel by Ira Levin written and directed by Roman Polanski (and produced by exploitation impresario William Castle), is still considered one of the creepiest movies of all time. The film stars Mia Farrow as Rosemary Woodhouse, who has moved into a grand old apartment building in New York City with her actor husband, Guy (John Cassavetes). After she becomes pregnant, it begins to seem as if her nosy neighbors have been part of a coven of witches scheming to give birth to the son of Satan. Ruth Gordon won a supporting actress Oscar for her role as one of the neighbors. The movie plays in 35mm Tuesday through Thursday at the New Beverly.
Even back in 1968, the film touched off a nerve with reviewers, including our own. In his original June 1968 review, Champlin wrote, “Having paid my critical respects, I must then add that I found ‘Rosemary’s Baby’ a most desperately sick and obscene motion picture whose ultimate horror — in my very private opinion — was that it was made at all. It seems a singularly appropriate symbol of an age which, believing in nothing, will believe anything. … It is also all so sleazy and sick at heart. And the horror is that it presumes we are too indifferent to perceive what its horrors really are.”
‘The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie’
An image from Luis Buñuel’s “The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie.”
(Rialto Pictures)
Winner of the Oscar for international feature film and nominated for original screenplay, 1972’s “The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie” was directed by Luis Buñuel, who wrote the script with Jean-Claude Carrière. Screening at the Academy Museum as part of a series dedicated to Buñuel, the film is a bold satire of societal conventions — one that still largely holds up, as a group of friends meets for a series of meals.
In a November 1972 review, Charles Champlin wrote, “Watching a Buñuel film is a special experience because he creats a special world, somewhere west of hard reality but dealing — mockingly — with social reality and always reflecting Buñuel’s almost puritanical rage at any misuse of power, fiscal, political, ecclesiastical, military, social. … The surrealist attack sometimes makes him sound more formidable that he is. In fact he’s a sly humanist who has here created one of his most easily enjoyable works.”
In other news
PTA, ranked
Joaquin Phoenix in the movie “Inherent Vice.”
(Wilson Webb / Warner Bros.)
Last week, we mentioned Paul Thomas Anderson’s “One Battle After Another,” which Amy Nicholson declared “fun and fizzy.” So this week, I set about the popular task of placing the new film within a ranking of Anderson’s 10 feature films, from his 1996 feature debut “Hard Eight” onward.
As I noted in the introduction, “More so than with other directors, it’s always tempting to overly psychologize Paul Thomas Anderson’s films, looking for traces of his personal development and hints of autobiography: the father figures of ‘Magnolia’ or ‘The Master,’ the partnership of ‘Phantom Thread,’ parenthood in the new ‘One Battle After Another.’ Yet two things truly set his work apart. There’s the incredibly high level of craft in each of them, giving each a unique feel, sensibility and visual identity, and also the deeply felt humanism: a pure love of people, for all their faults and foibles.
“Anderson is an 11-time Academy Award nominee without ever having won, a situation that could rectify itself soon enough, and it speaks to the extremely high bar set by his filmography that one could easily reverse the following list and still end up with a credible, if perhaps more idiosyncratic ranking. Reorder the films however you like — they are all, still, at the very least, extremely good. Simply put, there’s no one doing it like him.”
Would you have a different title at No. 1? Let us know in the comments.
Every day, some of L.A.’s poorest residents line up outside the county benefits office in South Central, weaving their way through a swarm of salesmen hawking deals that feel too good to be true.
Would you like $15 for a quick blood pressure exam? A free phone? Perhaps, $2 for a COVID swab?
How about cash to sign up to sue L.A. County for sexual abuse at juvenile halls?
Over the last year, a Times investigation found a practice of paying for plaintiffs among a nebulous network of vendors, who usher people desperate for cash toward a law firm that could profit significantly from their business.
The Times spent two weeks outside the county social services office in South Central Los Angeles, where a constant flow of people applied for food stamps and cash aid, and spoke with seven people who said they were paid there within the last year to sue the county for sex abuse.
Most said they were abused inside the county’s juvenile halls, but had not planned to sue until they were flagged down on the sidewalk and offered cash. Two people said they were told to fabricate stories of abuse.
All the claims involving alleged payments were filed by Downtown LA Law Group, a pivotal player in the county’s recent $4-billion settlement for sex abuse inside its juvenile halls and foster homes — the largest such payout in U.S. history. Of the roughly 11,000 plaintiffs in the settlement, The Times found that nearly one-fourth were represented by the firm.
Marlon Bland, 31, said he got $200 — half in cash outside the county’s social services office and the other half when he went to meet with lawyers from Downtown LA Law Group, or DTLA. The receptionist there handed him a $100 check, he said. DTLA sued the county on his behalf Aug. 23, 2024.
Kevin Richardson, 59, whose suit was filed by DTLA on Oct. 15, said he got $50 outside the social services office.
Quantavia Smith, 38, whose suit was filed by DTLA on April 29, said a vendor drove her to the office of a downtown law firm and then gave her $200.
The Times could not reach the vendors for the story, and DTLA attorneys declined to be interviewed. The law firm strongly denied paying people to sue and said no representative of the firm had been authorized to make payments.
“We do not pay our clients to file lawsuits, and we strongly oppose such actions,” the law firm said. “If we ever became aware that anyone associated with us, in any capacity, did such a thing — we would end our relationship with them immediately. We want justice for real victims.”
California law bans a practice known as capping, in which non-attorneys directly solicit or procure clients to sign up for lawsuits with a law firm.
DTLA did not answer questions about how the people who said they were paid to sue ended up with the law firm.
The firm’s statement said all their cases go through an intense review process “that tests for truthfulness and has many checks and balances.”
“As a result of this stringent quality control, we have rejected clients whose cases did not meet our criteria,” the firm said. “We are confident that the claims we have filed are valid and will withstand judicial scrutiny.”
For the last year, a mystery has vexed veteran sex abuse attorneys: How did a law firm best known for representing victims of auto accidents attract so many sex abuse plaintiffs in less than two years?
According to a Times analysis of court records, DTLA has amassed more than 2,700 people to sue L.A. County, more than nearly any other law firm involved in the settlement. The firm will get nearly half the payout for each client, per retainer agreements viewed by The Times.
Two legal experts warned, speaking generally, that offering people cash to sue, particularly those who are financially on the brink, could invite fraud into the historic sex abuse settlement.
“Of course, it makes the chance of fraudulent claims more likely,” said Richard Zitrin, a legal ethics professor at UC Law SF.
Some plaintiffs say they were explicitly told to make up claims.
“They tell you what to say,” said Carlshawn Stovall, 43, who said he was given about $20 by a vendor outside the benefits office to sue. “You’re supposed to make it up.”
Stovall said he gave the vendor his cellphone number and was told a lawyer would call him soon and ask him a few questions: What facility were you in? What year? How were you abused?
The vendor handed him a postcard-sized “script” of how to respond, he said. He didn’t need to worry about getting fact-checked, the vendor told him, as the county had no records of who was in its facilities decades ago. It seemed “a good way to get some quick money,” he said.
By the time the call came, he said, he’d lost the script, so he ad-libbed that probation officers watched him masturbate in the shower. The call, he said, lasted less than ten minutes and he never heard from them again.
On Nov. 7, DTLA filed a lawsuit on his behalf alleging he was “sexually harassed and abused” by staff in Central Juvenile Hall. Stovall said he was never in juvenile hall — much less abused there.
“I was a good kid,” he said, laughing.
Juan Fajardo said he used to sell phones next to the lawsuit vendors. He said he would watch a man pull up outside the social services office in a Tesla most Fridays and hand the recruiters cash, which they would dole out the following week to potential plaintiffs. The recruiters told him they were paid per person they signed up, he said.
“‘Just make up a story, say you got touched, here’s $50,’” Fajardo recalled the recruiters who set up shop next to him saying. “They’ll give it to you and then say, ‘Hey you never know, you might even get a lawsuit.’”
One recruiter also sold phones, he recounted. When someone wanted to get a phone, he said, he’d watch the recruiter first take a call on the new phone and make up a story of abuse under the customer’s name. The recruiter would then hand the customer their new phone and pocket the $50 for himself, Fajardo said.
After a few months of watching, Fajardo said, he decided to make up a story, too. He didn’t want to give his real name, so he gave the recruiter the name of a family member and a fake birthday. He said he took $50 and later got a call from a law firm. Ten minutes after the call, he said, he was told his case had been accepted.
DTLA filed the lawsuit under the family’s member name on Aug. 28, 2024. Fajardo said he doesn’t feel right trying to collect the money.
“I said something like, ‘They videotaped us while we’re in the showers, touching us while they pat us down,’” he recounted. “That’s what everyone was saying. I was like, ‘I’ll just use that instead of trying to make up a whole different lie.’”
Most plaintiffs The Times spoke with only knew the first names of the vendors, which some referred to as “recruiters” for the law firm, and said they hadn’t seen them for a few months.
They would usually hang around the people offering free phones right next to the entrance to the county building, according to some who said they were paid.
“It’s been three different people that I’ve seen. They come randomly, maybe once or twice a month,” said Oscar Garcia, who sells cigarettes on the sidewalk. “They promise them $50 to sign.”
Like most sexual abuse cases, all of DTLA’s lawsuits that are part of the massive settlement were filed using only the victim’s initials — JOHN DOE A.R., JANE DOE M.P. The Times confirmed the seven people who said they were paid had lawsuits filed by DTLA through sources with access to plaintiffs’ real names and case numbers.
After The Times reached out to DTLA for comment, the firm called two people The Times had spoken with on the record into its office on Sept. 11 and told them to stop speaking with the reporter.
One man, whom The Times is not naming as he later asked to not be included in the story, called The Times the morning of Sept. 11 and said the firm had ordered him a ride from the broken down car he was living out of in South Central to the firm’s office. He said an attorney had warned him that The Times was doing a “smear article” and didn’t want plaintiffs like him receiving any money from the settlement.
Mitchell Langberg, a defamation lawyer retained by the firm, sent The Times a sworn declaration from the man later that day, accusing the reporter of pretending to be a representative of DTLA to lure him into speaking freely.
The man had saved the reporter’s number in his phone as belonging to the “LA TIMES,” had his picture taken by a Times photographer, sent emails to the reporter’s L.A. Times email account and texted asking when the story would run in the paper.
Shortly afterward, some of the DTLA clients interviewed for this story received a text from the firm, they said, warning them against speaking with reporters:
“If you have been contacted, please notify our office immediately,” the text read.
The litigation floodgates opened in 2020 after California passed a law allowing survivors of childhood sexual abuse to sue the perpetrator even though the statute of limitations had passed on their cases.
Since then, law firms have hunted aggressively for lucrative cases, flooding social media with ads and quietly tapping third parties to find former occupants of county-run juvenile halls and foster homes. The effort has met little resistance from L.A. County officials, who say they threw out relevant records long ago.
This spring, the county agreed to pay $4 billion to settle thousands of sex abuse claims dating back to the 1950s without taking depositions or knowing the names of thousands of plaintiffs. Rather, the vetting had been done almost entirely by attorneys who stand to walk away with more than a billion dollars in fees.
It is a lopsided system that, some attorneys concede, risks squandering taxpayer money meant for victims who suffered egregious abuse as children in the county’s custody.
“The whole thing just stinks,” said John Manly, a longtime sex abuse lawyer who served as a lead attorney in the settlements against USA Gymnastics doctor Larry Nassar and USC gynecologist George Tyndall. “It looks to me like a third of these cases are total bull—, and [the county] is paying for no reason.”
As a state lawmaker, Lorena Gonzalez pushed for AB 218, which gave victims a new window to sue over childhood sexual abuse. Gonzalez, now the president of the California Federation of Labor Unions, said she believes plaintiff lawyers have taken advantage of the law change.
(K.C. Alfred / San Diego Union-Tribune)
Manly’s law firm, Manly, Stewart & Finaldi, is one of three prominent law firms that sued the county under the law change, but did not join the settlement.
DTLA was started by two cousins, Daniel Azizi and Farid Yaghoubtil, and their childhood friend Salar Hendizadeh, the partners told commercial real estate company CoStar after expanding in 2023 to a new Banksy-adorned office building downtown. Attorneys focus on the typical cases for most personal injury firms — dog bites, falls and auto accidents.
The firm became the scourge of ride app companies such as Uber, which sued DTLA and another law firm in federal court in July. The ride app giant alleged that the firms had filed a flurry of “fraudulent claims” and colluded with an Encino-based doctor to inflate the cost of plaintiffs’ medical expenses. The lawsuit is ongoing. In an Instagram post, DTLA called it a “calculated attempt by a billion-dollar corporation” to suppress legitimate claims.
In an interview in June before The Times learned of the alleged vendor payments, attorney Andrew Morrow, the lead attorney in nearly all the firm’s sex abuse cases against the county, said DTLA’s success was due to the reputation he had cultivated as “the therapy guy … out in the streets of downtown LA.” Clients called him, he said, because they knew the firm would connect them with a therapist.
“And I said, Well, let me ask you this, do you have a lawsuit? Were you a victim?” Morrow said of the calls. “We were filling a void in the marketplace.”
Some of the DTLA clients The Times interviewed said they spoke with a therapist provided by the firm. Four said they never heard from the firm after the day they signed up for a lawsuit.
Morrow said sexual abuse cases were “a little bit of a new frontier” for him. He had previously specialized in real estate, entertainment and insurance litigation at a firm he founded before switching to DTLA in 2023, according to his old bio.
He is now one of the region’s most prolific filers of sexual abuse cases. His cases, he said, are vetted for fraud through mental health professionals.
“I’m sure there are firms that still have cases like that,” he said. “We don’t because, like I said, ours go to therapy, and our doctors identify that stuff.”
For thousands of sex abuse victims, the law worked as intended.
With the passage of AB 218 in 2020, survivors had until they were 40 rather than 26 to sue their abuser, giving them a chance to get financial compensation for horrors they were far too young to grapple with — much less sue over — as children. Stories of abuse that had been hidden for decades surfaced, as did the names of prolific abusers, some of whom were still working with minors.
But it also put a massive target on the budgets of government entities, which had long ago thrown out records that could be used for a defense. Former state lawmaker Lorena Gonzalez, who spearheaded the law, says she’s been disturbed by how it’s panned out.
“It’s clear that the State Bar and attorneys themselves cannot hold themselves accountable,” said Gonzalez, now the president of the California Federation of Labor Unions. “What they’re doing, I think, to the cities and counties is deplorable.”
Following the law change, firms began amassing thousands of clients to sue the county through social media campaigns promising payouts and privacy.
“You’re going to be a Jane Doe or a John Doe,” Morrow told potential clients in a video posted to the firm’s TikTok page last year. “No one’s ever going to know your name.”
The cases are lucrative for attorneys, many of whom will receive 40% of their clients’ payouts, according to retainer agreements viewed by The Times. That includes New York City-based Slater Slater Schulman, which has roughly 3,700 clients; Boca-Raton-based Herman Law, with about 800 clients; and Los Angeles-based Becker Law Group and McNicholas & McNicholas, for which The Times found a combined 1,100 plaintiffs. Todd Becker, with Becker Law Group, said their fee differs from plaintiff to plaintiff.
DTLA has the highest contingency fee The Times found, requiring 45% of any payout. DTLA said its fee structure is “entirely standard within the industry.” These fees typically range from 33% to 40%, according to the American Bar Assn.
With most retainers on the higher end of the range, some attorneys involved in the settlement estimate $1.5 billion in taxpayer money could easily flow to lawyers — close to what the county Fire Department spends in a year.
As the county prepares to start dispensing money in January, some firms say they’ve started to find a few flaws in their caseload.
Becker Law Group said in a July court filing that four of the firm’s clients recently told the firm they weren’t abused. Patrick McNicholas, who co-counsels cases with the firm, said the lawsuits were weeded out as part of the firm’s vetting process.
Slater Slater Schulman, which has filed more cases than any other law firm, stated in a September filing that client John Doe J.S. “should not have been included.” The firm previously said in a lawsuit that he had been sexually assaulted at Los Padrinos Juvenile Hall in Downey beginning in 2006 when he was 13.
Slater Slater Schulman has found similar problems in its avalanche of sex abuse cases against the Boy Scouts of America. On Sept. 9, retired U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Barbara Houser, who is overseeing the $2.4-billion victim settlement trust, singled out Slater Slater Schulman for a pattern of “irregularities” and “procedural and factual problems” among its plaintiffs. The firm previously said it represented roughly 14,000 victims.
The firm was asked to pay for an “independent third party” to investigate its cases for fraud before going through the trust’s standard vetting process. Clifford Robert, an outside attorney representing the firm in its issues with the Boy Scout cases, said Slater Slater Schulman is “working tirelessly” to address the issues and that justice for survivors is its top priority.
Tammy Rogers, 56, hired the Slater firm in 2022 to sue after a staff member at MacLaren Children’s Center, a county-run children’s facility now infamous for abuse, allegedly molested her when she was about 9. She said she’s grown unnerved by the financial incentive lawyers like hers have in amassing unwieldy numbers of clients.
“You can’t get ahold of them,” she said of her firm, which has filed cases on behalf of hundreds of new plaintiffs since the settlement was finalized. “I called them repeatedly, repeatedly, repeatedly.”
Tammy Rogers, 56, said a staff member at MacLaren Children’s Center sexually abused her when she was 9, an incident that sent her spiraling toward drugs and tortured relationships with men. She sued the county in 2022.
(Carlin Stiehl / Los Angeles Times)
County and plaintiff lawyers nailed down the $4-billion figure on Oct. 30. Since then, thousands more plaintiffs have been added.
“[Firms think] ‘there’s a fund out there, and I’m going to do everything in my power to get as much as I can,’” said one attorney suing the county over sex abuse, who declined to be named, fearing professional repercussions.
It’s a fund, critics say, with few safeguards for fake claims.
The cases will be reviewed by retired Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Louis Meisinger, who mediated similar settlements for the victims of the 2023 Maui wildfires and the 2017 Las Vegas concert mass shooting. Any plaintiff who wants to skip that vetting process can take $150,000 in a lump sum at the start of next year.
Meisinger will distribute the remaining money after reviewing fact sheets from the victims. If Meisinger believes a case is fraudulent, the county can either give the plaintiff $50,000 to resolve it or get it booted from the settlement, meaning it would work its own way through the court system, according to an allocation protocol reviewed by The Times.
Otherwise, the minimum amount a client can get is $100,000, according to the protocol. The most is $3 million, far less than some victims who suffered egregious abuse feel they deserve.
“I spent two years being tortured by some grown ass men. I mean, I even gave them names,” said a man who was granted anonymity to discuss his case. “It seems like, once again, I’m being taken advantage of.”
He said he had hoped to use the money to buy 60 acres of land for a group home that would give orphaned children the joy he says was snuffed out of him before he hit puberty. At age 10, he said, he was raped and forced to perform oral sex on a man at MacLaren Children’s Center. At age 43, he said, he can’t smell Pine-Sol without flashbacks to the supply closet favored by his abusers as a site for their assaults.
Trinidad Pena, 52, said she desperately needs the settlement money to pay for medical care, overdue bills and therapy. At age 12, she said, she was impregnated by a staff member at MacLaren Children’s Center — an assault that has haunted her since the 1980s.
“What kind of rights did I have as a 12-year-old to sign away another human being?” asked Pena, who recalls seeing the baby for seven minutes before the girl was given to a family in Laguna Hills through a closed adoption. “The lawyers are being made millionaires, but we are just going to be able to pay our back taxes.”
The county was never interested in a fight.
Once the deluge of lawsuits started, county lawyers had just one goal: to make the cases go away without the county going bankrupt.
They did not want to risk a trial. Early in negotiations, county lawyers understood they were looking at a number of cases of brutal rape and molestation that could easily make a disgusted jury award the type of budget-busting $135-million verdict that got handed to the Moreno Valley Unified School District in 2023 for the sexual abuse of two students by a middle school teacher. The district hired him despite a past arrest for molesting his foster son, according to the lawsuit.
Attorney John Manly said he believes the county did not do enough vetting of the cases. Manly’s law firm, Manly, Stewart & Finaldi, is one of three prominent law firms that sued the county under the law change, but did not join the $4-billion settlement.
(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)
If there were even 30 cases that appalled the jury as much as that one, the county would risk paying far more than $4 billion. Better, the county lawyers reasoned, to come up with a total sum that wouldn’t drain coffers of the government, which is responsible for the social safety net for the poorest residents, and let someone else divvy it up among the thousands of victims. With a $45-billion budget, they could make $4 billion work if most county agencies trimmed their spending.
Andy Baum, the county’s outside attorney leading the defense effort, told a judge in a June hearing that he viewed it as an “inventory settlement.” There were simply too many cases, the county felt, to fight individually. And so lawyers conducted only basic vetting of the claims — most of which were filed in court with a pseudonym, an unnamed abuser, and a sentence or two about the abuse. They took no depositions, according to multiple lawyers involved in the settlement.
“We have thousands of cases, and we don’t even have the most fundamental information,” Baum said at the hearing.
The county also allowed many cases to become part of the settlement without the paperwork the law requires. Under state law, cases in which the victim is older than 40 must be filed with a certificate from a therapist, who can attest that there is a “reasonable basis” to believe the plaintiff was sexually abused.
DTLA, which specialized in these cases, filed many of its older lawsuits without the certificate, considered by the Legislature as a critical way to prevent fraudulent claims. The county lawyers never protested, explaining in the June court hearing that they wanted to make sure DTLA’s cases were quickly ushered into the nearly finalized settlement.
“We had a gun to our head,” Baum told Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Lawrence Riff, who’s overseeing the juvenile hall abuse cases, when pressed by the judge on why he waived the rule.
DTLA said nearly all of its certificates have since been filed, but did not provide numbers on how many remain outstanding.
The paltry defense launched by the county has some rethinking the law that started the deluge.
Sen. John Laird (D-Santa Cruz) tried to push through a bill this session intended as a lifeline to entities drowning in sex abuse lawsuits by limiting the window victims would have to sue. He pulled it last month after outcry from victim advocacy groups that said it trampled on the rights of survivors.
Maryland went further after being flooded with sex abuse claims for juvenile facilities following a similar state law change in 2023. This spring, the state capped sex abuse cases against government entities at $400,000 and limited attorneys’ fees to 25% for cases resolved in court.
That’s not happening in California.
“It’s just, in my view, not politically viable,” Laird said.
Some lawmakers who try to change the law have faced brutal pushback by law firms, including Manly, Stewart & Finaldi, which has run ads branding such bills as “predator” protection.
“I don’t see the appetite,” he said.
For L.A. County, the pace of cases remains relentless.
Since the announcement of the $4-billion settlement, James Harris Law, a Seattle-based firm that specializes in mass torts, has been aggressively recruiting clients through social media ads that tell “abused juvies” they can qualify in 30 seconds for up to $1 million.
After The Times entered a reporter’s cellphone number in one of the firm’s ads on Instagram, a representative from the firm’s intake department called more than 38 times.
Harris said his firm runs a “straightforward public awareness campaign” and didn’t believe his ads contained dollar amounts. The sums were removed from the ads after The Times contacted Harris.
The marketing proved fruitful. This summer, months after the county announced the settlement, Baum said, James Harris called him to discuss his brimming inventory: 2,500 new cases.
Baum said the newcomer acknowledged he was “late to the party.”
Sean Greene and Gabrielle LaMarr LeMee contributed to this report.
Thanks to their underwhelming regular season, their march toward postseason history began before the month even started.
This season’s team, coaches and players acknowledged repeatedly in recent weeks, had played their way into this spot: Having to begin the playoffs on the last day of September, in a daunting best-of-three wild-card series against the Cincinnati Reds on Tuesday; facing the slimmest of margins in their pursuit of back-to-back World Series championships, having won the National League West but failed to secure a top-two playoff spot.
That meant, unlike the last three years, the Dodgers did not have a bye to the division series.
It meant, this fall, they had to hit the ground running.
“The pitfalls are just [avoiding] kind of easing your way into a series,” manager Dave Roberts said Tuesday afternoon.
But, he added declaratively, “I don’t see that as a problem.”
In a 10-5 Game 1 defeat of the Reds at Dodger Stadium, it indeed was not.
Shohei Ohtani led off with a home run. Blake Snell was superb in a seven-inning, two-run start. And in a rollocking two-batter sequence in the bottom of the third inning, the Dodgers broke the score wide open, with Teoscar Hernández hitting a three-run bomb moments before Tommy Edman went back-to-back with a solo shot.
The 73-year-old Washington was the oldest manager in the majors during his two seasons with the Angels, who hired him in November 2023. The Angels had the worst season in franchise history in 2024, going 63-99 after the free-agency departure of two-way superstar Shohei Ohtani.
From Broderick Turner: LeBron James did not participate in the Lakers’ first day of training camp Tuesday because of “nerve irritation in the glute.”
James’ teammates Marcus Smart, Gabe Vincent and Adou Thiero were “under either return to play protocols or modified protocols” during the team’s first sessions.
James is entering his NBA-record 23rd season and the goal is to ramp him up to be ready for the regular-season opener Oct. 21 against the Golden State Warriors at Crypto.com Arena.
“Yeah, I think it’s probably a little bit longer of a ramp-up leading into opening night for him just obviously in Year 23, it’s uncharted territory here,” Lakers coach JJ Redick said. “So, I felt, and in talking with performance and in talking with Mike (Mancias, James’ personal trainer) and LeBron, like probably did too much last year in camp, which was great for me as a first-year head coach to get buy-in from him.
From Ben Bolch: After a disappointing start to the season in which UCLA’s offense ranked among the worst in the nation, the Bruins and offensive coordinator Tino Sunseri mutually parted ways Tuesday evening, a university official told The Times.
The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the move has not been publicly announced.
Tight ends coach Jerry Neuheisel will be the offensive playcaller when the Bruins (0-4 overall, 0-1 Big Ten) face No. 7 Penn State (3-1, 0-1) on Saturday at the Rose Bowl. Plans are underway to finalize additional staff and it is anticipated that former UCLA offensive coordinator Noel Mazzone will assume analyst responsibilities, pending completion of the appropriate university processes.
From Kevin Baxter: The soccer world is about to become a colder, darker and meaner place.
On Tuesday, Angel City’s Ali Riley will announce she is retiring at the end of this season. And when she leaves, all the joy, fun and beauty she brought to the field will leave with her.
Set aside, for a moment, her accomplishments, which are considerable: She played in five World Cups, made five Olympic teams, played in four of the biggest leagues in the world and captained Angel City in the club’s first game.
1945 — World heavyweight boxing champion Joe Louis is discharged from U.S. army after being awarded the Legion of Merit.
1967 — Richard Petty continues phenomenal NASCAR winning streak by taking the Wilkes 400 at North Wilkesboro Speedway; unprecedented 10th consecutive victory.
1975 — In the “Thrilla in Manila,” Muhammad Ali beats Joe Frazier in 14 rounds to retain his world heavyweight title.
1977 — 75,646 fans come to the Meadowlands to see soccer great Pele play his farewell game. Pele plays the first half with the New York Cosmos and the second half with his former team, Santos of Brazil.
1988 — Flamboyant American sprinter Florence Griffith-Joyner wins her third gold medal of the Seoul Olympics anchoring the victorious US 4 x 100m relay team.
1988 — Steffi Graf beats Gabriela Sabatini 6-3, 6-3 to win the women’s singles tennis gold medal at the Seoul Olympics; clinches first and only Golden Slam in history (Grand Slam & Olympics).
1993 — In his first World Boxing Council heavyweight title defense Lennox Lewis beats fellow Londoner Frank Bruno by TKO in 7 at the National Stadium in Cardiff, Wales.
1997 — Kevin Garnett agrees to terms with the Minnesota Timberwolves on the richest long-term contract in professional sports history, a six-year deal worth more than $125 million.
1999 — In a blockbuster NBA trade, the Houston Rockets move All Star forward Scottie Pippen to Portland Trail Blazers for Kelvin Cato, Stacey Augmon, Walt Williams, Carlos Rogers, Ed Gray and Brian Shaw.
2000 — NBA stars Ray Allen and Vince Carter each score 13 points as the U.S. beats France 85-75 to win the men’s basketball gold medal at the Sydney Olympics.
2000 — United States wins the most medals (97), and the most gold medals (40) in Summer Olympics held in Sydney, Australia.
2006 — Tiger Woods matches his longest PGA Tour winning streak of six at the American Express Championship. Woods finishes with a 4-under 67 for an eight-shot victory. It’s also his eighth victory of the year, making him the first player in PGA Tour history to win at least eight times in three seasons.
2011 — Tyler Wilson throws for a school-record 510 yards and Jarius Wright catches 13 passes for a school-record 281 yards as Arkansas turns an 18-point halftime deficit into a 42-38 victory over Texas A&M.
2017 — Frankie Dettori wins an unprecedented fifth Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe as Enable caps a memorable season. Enable, the 10-11 favorite, leads for most of Europe’s richest horse race to claim her fifth consecutive victory after wins in the Epsom Oaks, the Irish Oaks, the King George VI & Queen Elizabeth Stakes and the Yorkshire Oaks. The filly wins by 2 1/2 lengths over Cloth Of Stars.
2017 — Houston’s Deshaun Watson becomes the first rookie to throw four touchdowns and run for another one, since Fran Tarkenton in 1961 and tied an NFL record for most TDs by a rookie quarterback in Houston’s 57-14 victory.
2017 — Todd Gurley scores the go-ahead touchdown on a 53-yard catch-and-run, and Greg Zuerlein kicks a career-high seven field goals to lead the Rams to a 35-30 win over Dallas.
THIS DAY IN BASEBALL HISTORY
1903 — The Pittsburgh Pirates defeated the Boston Red Sox 7-3 in the first World Series game. Jimmy Sebring hit the first series home run. Deacon Phillippe was the winning pitcher and Cy Young the loser.
1932 — Babe Ruth, as legend has it, called his home run against Chicago’s Charlie Root in the fifth inning of Game 3 of the World Series, won by the New York Yankees 7-5 at Wrigley Field. Ruth and Lou Gehrig each hit two homers for the Yankees.
1946 — For the first time in major league history, a playoff series to determine a league’s championship was played between the St. Louis Cardinals and the Brooklyn Dodgers. The Cardinals won the first game 4-2, with Howie Pollet holding the Dodgers to two hits — a homer and RBI single by Howie Schultz.
1950 — The Philadelphia Phillies clinched the NL pennant with a 4-1 10-inning victory over the Brooklyn Dodgers on the season’s last day. Dick Sisler’s three-run homer off Don Newcombe in the top of the 10th inning came after outfielder Richie Ashburn saved the game in the ninth.
1961 — Roger Maris hit his 61st home run against Tracy Stallard of the Boston Red Sox at Yankee Stadium. The homer eclipsed Babe Ruth’s 34-year-old single-season home run record. The Yankees won 1-0.
1967 — The Boston Red Sox won the American League pennant with a 5-3 win over the Twins on the final day of the season. Boston’s Carl Yastrzemski went 4-for-4 and finished with 44 home runs, 121 RBIs and a .326 average to win the Triple Crown.
1973 — The New York Mets beat the Chicago Cubs 6-1 to win the National League East. It was the first game of a scheduled make-up doubleheader at Wrigley Field, a day after the regular season ended. The Mets, 11 1/2 games behind and in last place on Aug. 5, won their 82nd game, the lowest number of victories to win a title.
1978 — The Cleveland Indians beat the New York Yankees 9-2 on the last day of the season to force a one-game playoff between the Yankees and the Boston Red Sox. The Red Sox won their eighth straight game with a 5-0 victory over the Toronto Blue Jays.
1988 — Tony Gwynn went 2-for-3 to raise his league-leading batting average to .313 but hurt his hand in a 6-3 victory over the Houston Astros. Gwynn is the first NL batting champion to win the title with an average below .320. The previous low was Larry Doyle’s .320 in 1915.
2000 — Detroit’s Shane Halter became the fourth major leaguer to play all nine positions in a game. He capped his adventure by scoring the winning run in the bottom of the ninth inning to lift the Tigers over Minnesota 12-11.
2004 — Ichiro Suzuki set the major league record for hits in a season. He broke George Sisler’s 84-year-old mark with two early singles, and the Seattle Mariners beat the Texas Rangers 8-3. Sisler set the hits record of 257 in 1920 with the St. Louis Browns over a 154-game schedule. Suzuki broke it in the Mariners’ 160th game.
2007 — Matt Holliday and the Colorado Rockies scored on Jamey Carroll’s shallow fly, capping a three-run rally in the 13th inning against Trevor Hoffman. He led the Rockies past the San Diego Padres 9-8 in a tiebreaker for the NL wild card.
2018 — Lorenzo Cain hit a tiebreaking RBI single in the eighth inning, Christian Yelich had three more hits, sending the Milwaukee Brewers to their first NL Central title since 2011 by downing the Chicago Cubs 3-1 in a tiebreaker game. Yelich won the NL batting title with a .326 average. He fell one home run and one RBI short of what would’ve been the NL’s first Triple Crown since Joe Medwick in 1937.
2022 — The Dodgers become only the third team in the history of the National League (and seventh in the majors) to win 110 games in a season with a 6-4 win over the Rockies. Only the 1906 Cubs and 1909 Pirates have preceded them in the senior circuit.
Compiled by the Associated Press
Until next time…
That concludes today’s newsletter. If you have any feedback, ideas for improvement or things you’d like to see, email me at [email protected]. To get this newsletter in your inbox, click here.
Don’t look now, but the leading Republican candidate in the Oct. 7 gubernatorial recall election may once have been an illegal alien.
I don’t find that too surprising, much less distressing, but it will surely drive some vociferous nativists in California’s body politic to even greater distraction. Here they spend all their time and energy warning about a Mexican takeover of the Golden State, and California’s first governor who was once an illegal alien may turn out to be from Austria.
I refer, of course, to Arnold Schwarzenegger. The bodybuilder turned movie actor remains, according to the polls, the best hope that California’s GOP has of taking the governorship if state voters decide to oust Gov. Gray Davis next month. Schwarzenegger has managed to maintain that lead despite being jostled by a crowded field of would-be replacements for Davis that includes Sacramento veterans Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante, a Democrat, and state Sen. Tom McClintock (R-Thousand Oaks).
Schwarzenegger has done it with a well-funded campaign that is tightly controlled and carefully scripted to avoid tough questions on complex issues like immigration. But lately his campaign staff has taken to evading questions not just about immigration in general but specifically about the former immigration status of their own candidate.
Those discomfiting questions were triggered by a series of articles in the San Jose Mercury News. An investigation by the newspaper found that Schwarzenegger, who immigrated to the United States in 1968, may have violated U.S. immigration laws on at least two occasions.
The first time was shortly after he entered the United States on a visa that allows athletes to train and compete here and receive expenses. But, according to his own biography, he also received a weekly salary as a consultant to a bodybuilding-industry entrepreneur. The second time may have been in the 1970s when Schwarzenegger had a temporary work visa but also started a bricklaying business. Several immigration attorneys and experts interviewed by the Mercury News said that in both instances Schwarzenegger may have been in technical violation of U.S. law, making him — horror of horrors — an illegal immigrant.
The Schwarzenegger campaign has refused requests from the Mercury News and other news media for copies of the candidate’s immigration files. “I have clean immigration papers,” the actor said in response to one query. “I have done everything legally.”
Maybe. Maybe not. But if Schwarzenegger’s immigration status does wind up being a bit murkier than first advertised, he is just one of millions of recent immigrants to this country who have faced similar problems thanks to the vagaries of U.S. immigration laws and the notorious incompetence of the federal bureaucrats who enforce them.
Indeed, the technical nature of the violations Schwarzenegger may have committed is probably why the Mercury News’ stories have not caused a bigger stir. After all, it’s not as if the newspaper found out the actor had crossed the border hidden in the trunk of a Volkswagen.
Of course, if Schwarzenegger had gotten into this country by sneaking across the U.S.-Mexico border, his oft-stated claim that he understands the plight of the many poor immigrants living and working in this state illegally might ring truer than it does. It could also win him a few more votes from those immigrants from Mexico and Central America who are new U.S. citizens. And it might even convince Latinos that Schwarzenegger really is different from those Republicans who see California’s immigration problem not as too many immigrants but as too many Latino immigrants.
That is the image problem Republicans have had in California since 1994, when former California Gov. Pete Wilson — now one of Schwarzenegger’s top campaign advisors — cynically used Proposition 187 to win a tough reelection campaign.
Wilson’s victory proved pyrrhic, of course. First, the courts tossed aside 187, which would have barred illegal immigrants from getting public services. Then the anti-Mexican tone of the campaign on behalf of the initiative angered thousands of new Latino voters.
That’s why Wilson and other GOP leaders in the nation’s biggest state are now looking to a political neophyte — and possible onetime illegal immigrant — for deliverance from their status as an endangered political species in California.
Seventy percent of the 20 most destructive wildfires in state history have occurred since fall 2017, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.
To understand the pace and extent of rebuilding in the most significant of these fires, The Times relied on data from state and local governments.
The Times obtained data in February from the Cal Fire Damage Inspection Database, known as DINS, which documents buildings burned in wildfires. We filtered for residential structures — single-residence, multiple-residence and mixed-use commercial/residential — that were destroyed.
We limited our reporting to fires that destroyed 1,000 or more residential structures during this period — aside from January’s Palisades and Eaton fires in Los Angeles County. There were five: Tubbs (2017), Carr (2018), Camp (2018), Woolsey (2018) and North Complex (2020).
The Times analysis showed 22,438 residential structures burned in the five fires. About 75% were single-family homes, 23% were mobile homes and fewer than 2% were apartment, condominium or other multifamily buildings. Because of data limitations, a multifamily building was counted as one residential structure no matter how many units it had. In its reporting, The Times used “residential structure” and “home” interchangeably.
The fires destroyed homes across 16 local jurisdictions. To determine when and how many homes were rebuilt, The Times in March and April collected certificate of occupancy data from building departments in each community. Additionally, The Times accessed data from the California Department of Housing and Community Development, which regulates mobile home parks.
Using GIS software, The Times plotted coordinates in the Cal Fire data to match each destroyed structure to the city or county responsible for issuing a permit to rebuild it. From there, The Times merged assessor parcel numbers of destroyed homes from the Cal Fire data with those of rebuilt homes from local and state building data obtained from each jurisdiction. Finally, The Times summarized certificates of occupancy issued by day to plot the reconstruction timeline for each fire. For uniformity, the results are limited to homes approved prior to April 1.
The Times deviated from its methodology for a specific situation. The Tubbs fire destroyed a 162-lot mobile home park in Santa Rosa. Two apartment buildings for low-income senior citizens together comprising 132 units have been built on the site. Given that the Times analysis designated 162 mobile homes as destroyed, the analysis was adjusted to count the 132 replacement apartment units.
Overall, the analysis concluded that 8,420 homes have been rebuilt, 38% of those destroyed in the five fires.
The Times results could differ from reports published by some jurisdictions for two reasons: Local jurisdictions may have conducted more rigorous inventories of destroyed buildings than detailed in the Cal Fire DINS data and their rebuilding numbers can be continuously updated.
