Trouble

It’s dead certain that if you’ve been a television critic for, ahem, a number of years, you’re going to have reviewed a passel of shows based on the writing of Stephen King, America’s most adapted, if not necessarily most adaptable author. (It’s been a mere three months since the last, “The Institute,” on MGM+.) The latest float in this long parade premieres Sunday on HBO — it’s “It: Welcome to Derry,” a prequel to the 2017 film, “It” (and its 2019 follow-up, “It: Chapter Two”) based on King’s 1986 creepy clown novel, each of which made a packet. (There was a 1990 TV miniseries version as well.)

Developed by Andy Muschietti (director of the films), Barbara Muschietti and Jason Fuchs, “Derry” is an extension of the brand rather than an adaptation, which features a white-faced circus-style clown called Pennywise (Bill Skarsgård, back from the movies) who lives in the sewer and comes around every 27 years to feed on children’s fear — fear being the preferred dish of many famous monsters of filmland, and white-faced circus clowns having lost all goodwill in the culture. (No thanks to King. Or Krusty.) And while I assume some of the series’ points may be found within King’s original 1,138-page novel, life is short and that is going to have to remain an assumption. In any case, it’s very much a work of television — not what I’d call prestige television, despite a modicum of well-done fright effects — just ordinary, workman-like TV, with monsters. (Or one monster in many forms.)

It’s 1962 in Derry, Maine, and everywhere else. (Subsequent seasons — prequel prequels — will reportedly be set in 1935 and 1908.) The Cold War is heating up. Schoolchildren, forced to watch animated films about the effects of a nuclear blast, are ducking and covering beneath their desks (a psychological rather than a practical exercise). But the threat of annihilation has done nothing to slow them in their teenage rituals. Bullies chase a target down the street. A group of snobby girls is called the Pattycakes, because they play patty cake, and their leader is named Patty. On the other hand are the kids we care about, the outsiders, banded together in unpopularity. It’s a paradoxical quality of horror films that to be an outsider either qualifies you as a hero or the monster — the insiders are usually just food. Not that the monsters are particular about whom they eat.

We open in a movie theater. Robert Preston is on the screen in “The Music Man,” performing “Ya Got Trouble.” (Chronologically accurate foreshadowing!) In the audience is Matty (Miles Ekhardt), a boy way too old to be sucking on a pacifier. Chased from the theater — he’s been sneaking in — it’s a snowy night, and he accepts a ride from a seemingly normal family, who quickly turn abnormal. Suddenly it’s four months later and Matty is an officially missing child.

Taylour Paige, Blake Cameron James and Jovan Adepo play the Hanlon family, who have just moved to Derry, Maine.

(Brooke Palmer / HBO)

The series begins promisingly, setting up (as in “It,” or, hmmm, “Stranger Things”) a company of junior investigators. Phil (Jack Molloy Legault) has a lot of thoughts about aliens and sex; Teddy (Mikkal Karim Fidler) is studious and serious and has thoughts about Matty. Lilly (Clara Stack) is called “loony” because she spent time in a sanitarium — the King-canonical Juniper Hill Asylum — after her father died in a pickle factory accident. (Not played for laughs, although the pickle is perhaps the funniest of all foods.) Lilly thinks she heard Matty singing “Trouble” through the drain in her bathtub; Ronnie (Amanda Christine), the daughter of the cinema’s projectionist Hank (Stephen Rider), has heard voices in the theater’s pipes. The kids run the film, and supernatural mayhem ensues. It’s pretty crazy! Gross hallucinations — or are they? — will afflict them through the series.

Meanwhile, Air Force Maj. Leroy Hanlon (Jovan Adepo) has been transferred to the local base, where secret doings are afoot, involving (classic plot line) the military’s desire to claim and weaponize whatever barely understood dangerous thing that’s out there in the woods. (His value to this operation is that he cannot feel fear, the result of a brain injury.) The Hanlons — including wife Charlotte (Taylour Paige), a civil rights activist in a Jackie Kennedy pillbox hat, and son Will (Blake Cameron James) — are Black (as are Ronnie and her father, seemingly accounting for 100% of Derry’s in-town African American population). “Don’t be looking for trouble,” Leroy tells Charlotte, who responds, “There’s going to be trouble anywhere we go. That’s the country you swore your life to defend.” Will, who is scientific, will become friends with Rich (Arian S. Cartaya), an appealingly goofy kid in a band uniform; they’ll both wind up on the Pennywise case.

Typically, the kids — also including Marge (Matilda Lawler, the secret weapon of “Station Eleven” and “The Santa Clauses”), Lilly’s socially desperate friend — are the strongest element in the story and the show; their energy overwhelms the obviousness of the narrative, and whatever takes us away from them, into pace-slowing side plots, is time less well spent.

What else? There’s a Native American element — including the old Indian burial ground story — represented by Rose (Kimberly Guerrero), who runs a thrift store (called Second Hand Rose, in a nice nod to Fanny Brice) and whose indomitable air makes her a kind of counterpart and potential ally to Charlotte. Manifest destiny gets a mention, and the plot will conventionally pose Native humbleness against white hubris. Dick Hallorann (Chris Chalk) is a Black serviceman with a tragic mental gift, used cruelly by his superiors — a familiar King type. Racism is a recurring theme without becoming a consistent plot point, with messages for 2025. (Rich: “This is America. You can’t just throw people in jail for nothing.” Will: “Are we talking about the same country?”)

Also: A statue of Paul Bunyan is going up in town — and in fact a 31-foot-tall Bunyan statue was unveiled in Bangor, Maine, in 1959. This is pointed to a couple of times, so I would imagine some kind of Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man scenario coming in the series’ unseen back half. Or something.

Horror, especially body-horror — there are two monstrous birth sequences in the five episodes, out of nine, available to review — has, you may have noticed, moved from the fringes to the center of popular (even high) culture, with A-list stars signing on and Oscar and Emmy nominations not unlikely. Indeed, the good, cheap, unrespectable, unambitious variety of scare flick has mostly disappeared from the big screen. That “Welcome to Derry” is more of a cheesy B-picture than its makers might like to imagine, assembled from worked-over tropes — somewhat excusable for King having originated many of them — is more in its favor than not. TV remains a haven for cheesiness. Long may it remain so.

DeShaun Foster is a beloved Bruin, so the doubts of his being in over his head as the UCLA football coach are merely whispered. Attending a recent panel discussion, I heard Times columnist Bill Plaschke refer to Coach Foster as “a placeholder.” Saturday’s game against Utah only solidified both perceptions. In today’s college football landscape there are plenty of teams who use the transfer portal to be competitive while building toward something better. One game in, UCLA appears to be failing miserably to do so. As a 42-year season-ticket holder and alumnus, the football program, its fans, and the university deserve so much more.

Eric Forseth
Murrieta

All we heard from UCLA preseason was Nico, Nico, Nico [Iamaleava]. After watching his performance against unranked Utah, he has to be the most overrated transfer in the country. Add in the fact that the defense was absolutely pathetic, it’s another losing season. Rose Bowl you better order more tarps.

Joe Novak
La Crescenta

As I walked out of the UCLA-Utah football game in disgust in the fourth quarter after watching an uninspired and incompetent defense and a team that looked, frankly, soft, I had to smile as the PA system in the Rose Bowl appropriately blasted the song “Build Me Up Buttercup.” Uninspired and untalented. Basically, buttercups.

Alan Abajian
Alta Loma

Will somebody please explain to the Bruin defense that it is called TACKLE football??

Steve Cizmar
Huntington Beach

After UCLA’s humiliating, devastating and humbling 43-10 loss to Utah in the season opener, coach DeShaun Foster said, “We were close.”

Close to what, Division II?

Jack Wolf
Westwood

JJ Bleday hit a three-run homer during a seven-run third inning, Mason Barnett recovered after giving up four runs in the first inning, and the Athletics beat the Angels 10-4 on Friday night.

Barnett (1-1) hit a batter and walked three — two with the bases loaded — during a shaky first inning, but the 24-year-old right-hander blanked the Angels on one hit and struck out eight over the next four innings to earn his first win in his second big league start.

Angels right-hander José Soriano (10-10), who threw 12⅔ scoreless innings in his previous two starts, was rocked for eight runs and six hits in 2⅓ innings, with five strikeouts and four walks.

The Athletics (65-77) trailed 4-2 when Shea Langeliers opened the third with a single and Tyler Soderstrom hit a one-out single. Jacob Wilson walked to load the bases, and Lawrence Butler drove in a run with an infield single.

Zack Gelof’s RBI single made it 4-4, Wilson scored on a wild pitch for a 5-4 lead, and Bleday’s opposite-field shot made it 8-4. Brent Rooker was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded for the final run.

A’s relievers Justin Sterner, Elvis Alvarado and Michael Kelly combined for four hitless innings, and Butler capped a three-hit night with a solo homer in the ninth.

José Ureña gave up two hits and struck out six in five scoreless innings for the Angels (66-75).

Key moment: Bleday turned a 5-4 A’s lead into an 8-4 cushion in the third when he drove a full-count sinker from Soriano 353 feet to left for his 13th homer.

Key stat: Soriano and Barnett combined to throw 63 pitches, walk six, hit a batter and give up six runs in an ugly 30-minute first inning.

Up next: Athletics RHP J.T. Ginn (2-6, 5.17 ERA) opposes Angels LHP Yusei Kikuchi (6-10, 3.83) on Saturday night.

CUTTING Angela Rayner loose will not end the trouble she has caused Sir Keir Starmer – in fact it could get a whole lot worse.

Millions of appalled voters will rightly expect her to scurry sheepishly off into the deep freeze along with any future ambitions.

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But to her legions of militant supporters, she is far from a busted flush – she is a martyr, and soon quite possibly their Red Queen over the water.

It is no secret Rayner is far to the left of Starmer, and that theirs has always been a tricky forced political marriage.

Remember when Sir Keir tried to clip her wings in 2021 only to end up giving her a promotion after she kicked off big time?

Now outside the Cabinet tent – and with no real sense of loyalty to the PM – she could turn from his right-hand woman into a right old headache.

Many in the Labour tribe are already furious with Starmer for turning his back on the left-wing causes he once championed.

From welfare, to taxes, to migration, there is no shortage of issues on which soft-left MPs are ready to scrap with No10.

As the PM tries to stem the bleeding to Reform with more hardline policies, those rows will only intensify.

Especially given Jeremy Corbyn’s new rabble and the Greens threaten to sap voters from Labour’s leftward flank.

In this looming battle for the soul of the party, it is easy to see Rayner emerging as the socialists’ standard bearer.

With the might of the unions and members also on her side, Rayner could quickly accumulate a large powerbase.

Maybe one even big enough to mobilise against her old boss.

Think of the grief Boris Johnson or Nigel Lawson caused Theresa May and Margaret Thatcher from the backbenches, leading to their downfalls.

Starmer had no choice but to push Rayner out.

Her fate was set as soon as Sir Laurie Magnus threw the book at her for breaking the ministerial code.

In this looming battle for the soul of the party, it is easy to see Rayner emerging as the socialists’ standard bearer

His gushing, personal, hand-written goodbye note is as clear a sign as any that he wanted to give her the heave-ho in as gentle a way as possible.

But it might not stay friendly for long.

“I am not a crook,” President Nixon said in 1973.

“I’m not a dictator,” President Trump insisted on Monday.

And with that, another famously false presidential proclamation entered the annals of memorable statements no president should ever feel compelled to make.

It took months more for Nixon’s crimes to force him to resign in 1974 ahead of his all-but-certain removal by Congress. But a half-century later, Trump is unabashedly showing every day that he really does aspire to be a dictator. Unlike Nixon, he doesn’t have to fear a supposedly coequal Congress: It’s run by slavish fellow Republicans who’ve forfeited their constitutional powers over spending, tariffs, appointments and more. Lower courts have checked Trump’s lawlessness, but a too-deferential Supreme Court gets the last word and empowers him more than not.

Americans are indeed in proverbial uncharted waters. Four months ago, conservative columnist David Brooks of the New York Times wrote — uncharacteristically for a self-described “mild” guy — “It’s time for a comprehensive national civic uprising.” It’s now past time.

Perhaps more troubling than Trump’s “not a dictator” comment was a related one that he made on Monday and reiterated on Tuesday during a three-hour televised Cabinet praise meeting (don’t these folks have jobs?). “A lot of people are saying maybe we like a dictator,” he said. Alas, for once Trump isn’t wrong. MAGA Republicans are loyal to the man, not the party, and give Trump the sort of support no president in memory has enjoyed.

A poll from the independent Public Religion Research Institute earlier this year showed that a majority of Americans — 52% — agreed that Trump is a “dangerous dictator whose power should be limited before he destroys American democracy.” Those who disagreed were overwhelmingly Republicans, 81% of whom said Trump “should be given the power he needs.” Americans’ split on this fundamental question shows the extent to which Trump has cleaved a country founded and long-flourishing on checks and balances and the rule of law, not men.

That Trump would explicitly address the dictator issue this week reflects just how head-spinningly fast his dictatorial actions have been coming at us.

The militarization of the nation’s capital continues, reinforced with National Guard units from six red states, on trumped-up claims of a crime emergency. Trump served notice in recent days that the thousands of troops and federal agents will remain on Washington’s streets indefinitely despite a federal law setting a 30-day limit — “We’re not playing games,” he told troops on Friday — and that Chicago, Baltimore, New York and perhaps San Francisco are next.

In all cases, as with Los Angeles, Il Duce is acting over the objections of elected officials. But who cares about stinking elections? Trump warned on Friday from his gilded Oval Office that Washington’s thrice-elected Mayor Muriel Bowser “better get her act straight or she won’t be mayor very long, because we’ll take it over with the federal government.” And after Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, another Democrat, slammed Trump for his threats, El Presidente replied that he has “the right to do anything I want to do.”

This is scary stuff, and it’s being normalized by the sheer firehose nature of Trump’s outrages and by the capitulation of his Cabinet, Congress, corporations and rightwing media. That’s why the remaining citizenry must take a stand, literally.

Trump’s sycophants atop the Pentagon and intelligence agencies, the equally unfit Pete Hegseth and Tulsi Gabbard, continued their purge of senior military officials and intelligence experts whose loyalties to Trump are suspect. And on Friday, the FBI raided the home of former Trump advisor John Bolton, in a chilling signal to other critics.

In a first for a president, Trump on Tuesday tried to fire a member of the independent Federal Reserve board, Biden appointee Lisa D. Cook, in apparent violation of federal law aiming to protect the Fed against just such political interference. The Fed’s independence has been central to the United States’ role as the globe’s preeminent economic power; investors worldwide believe the central bank won’t act on a president’s whims. But Trump is determined to cement a majority that will deeply cut interest rates, inflation be damned. Cook is suing to keep her job, setting up a Fed-backed showdown likely headed to the Supreme Court. Despite its partiality to a president’s power over independent federal agencies, the court has repeatedly suggested that the Fed is an exception. Let’s hope.

Trump, who regularly assails Democrats as socialists and communists, now boasts of compelling private corporations to give the government a stake. Speaking on Monday about a new deal in which the beleaguered head of chipmaker Intel agreed to give the government a 10% stake, Trump declared, “I hope I have many more cases like it.” And yet we get more crickets from Republicans who profess to be the party of free enterprise and free markets.

The president’s campaign against federal judges who oppose him continues as well. On Tuesday it was one of his own appointees, U.S. District Judge Thomas Cullen, who tossed Trump’s lawsuit against the entire federal judiciary in Maryland. To accept the president’s suit, Cullen wrote, would violate precedent, constitutional tradition and the rule of law.

Alas, such violations pretty much sum up Trump’s record so far.

He’s trying to rewrite history at the Smithsonian Institution, including whitewashing slavery, and dictating to law firms, universities and state legislatures. On Tuesday, Trump had Republican state legislators from Indiana to the White House to press them to join those in Texas and other red states who are, on his orders, redrawing House districts expressly so Democrats don’t win control of Congress in next year’s midterm elections.

Amid all this, the New Yorker was out with an exhaustive review of Trump’s finances that conservatively concluded that he’s already profited on the presidency by $3.4 billion. If he’s not careful, Trump won’t only be denying he’s a dictator; he’ll be echoing Nixon on the crook rap.

Bluesky: @jackiecalmes
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BigBear.ai Holdings (BBAI -0.09%) has been a volatile stock to hold over the past year, with its price ranging between a low of $1.26 and a high of $10.36. Recently, the company reported earnings, and it has once again disappointed investors, sending BigBear’s stock back into another tailspin.

For all the hype and excitement surrounding the company’s artificial intelligence (AI)-powered business software, BigBear has failed to deliver strong results time and time again. In its most recent quarter, the company not only badly missed expectations, but it also slashed its guidance.

Is the stock in trouble, and could this be the start of a much bigger and prolonged sell-off for the tech company, or could BigBear make for a good contrarian buy today?

Image source: Getty Images.

Big miss highlights the company’s dependency on government contracts

On Aug. 11, BigBear reported its quarterly numbers for the period ending June 30. Revenue of $32.5 million declined by 18% year over year, and the company’s operating loss grew from $16.7 million to $90.3 million. With numbers like that, it’s not much of a surprise that the stock fell after the release of the report. Wall Street analysts were expecting revenue to come in around $40.6 million.

The reason for the big drop in revenue was a result of “disruptions” in the federal contracts the company has with the government, particularly with programs supporting the U.S. Army. The government’s “efficiency efforts” have impacted not only this past quarter’s results but also resulted in BigBear reducing its guidance for the full year. The company now anticipates its full-year revenue will be within a range of $125 million to $140 million, versus its previous guidance of $160 million to $180 million.

For investors, the concern is that government spending can have a significant impact on BigBear’s financials and dictate its growth. The company needs to diversify its customer base; otherwise, government cutbacks could continue to weigh down its top line in the future.

Lack of revenue growth isn’t BigBear’s only problem

It’s bad news for a growth stock to show no growth, and for its sales to actually decline on a year-over-year basis. But a more troubling issue I see is that BigBear’s gross profit margins are low for a software company. It reported a gross margin of $8.1 million last quarter, which was just 25% of its top line.

Many investors see BigBear as potentially being the next Palantir Technologies. But consider that Palantir’s gross margins are far stronger — about 80% of revenue, which enables the data analytics company to comfortably post a profit.

If BigBear isn’t generating enough gross profit, that will make it incredibly difficult for the company to get anywhere near breakeven. And it may also suggest that it is pricing its software solutions too low, perhaps for the sake of growing revenue. But without strong margins, revenue growth alone isn’t going to make BigBear a strong company to invest in.

BigBear has a lot of work to do before it becomes a good stock to own

For BigBear to be a good business to invest in, it needs to diversify its operations so that it isn’t so dependent on government spending. It also needs to improve its gross margins. Without those two things, it’s going to be extremely difficult for the company to consistently grow its top line and have any hope of becoming profitable in the foreseeable future.

Until that happens, I would suggest staying away from the stock as BigBear has been a highly risky and volatile investment to hang on to thus far, and I don’t think that’s going to change anytime soon.

Good morning, and welcome to L.A. on the Record — our City Hall newsletter. It’s Julia Wick, giving you the latest on city and county government.

Rick Cole has forgotten more about municipal government than most of us will ever know.

The 72-year-old former mayor (Pasadena), city manager (Ventura, Azusa, Santa Monica) and deputy mayor (Los Angeles) returned for a third stint at Los Angeles City Hall in 2022, bringing a depth of experience to political neophyte and then-newly elected City Controller Kenneth Mejia’s office as Mejia’s chief deputy.

After two and a half years in City Hall East, Cole announced last month that he would be leaving his post to focus on the Pasadena City Council, which he joined again last year.

Cole knew that holding down “a more-than-full-time role in LA and a more-than-part-time role in Pasadena” would be difficult to juggle, he wrote in a LinkedIn post, and ultimately decided he couldn’t do both jobs justice.

In a goodbye presentation to the L.A. City Council, he sounded the alarm, saying he has never been more worried about the city.

We sat down with Cole to discuss that speech and his fears. Here’s some of our conversation, very lightly edited and condensed for clarity.

Tell me about the speech you gave at council. What motivated it?

I’ve never been more alarmed about the future of Los Angeles. I delineated the existential challenges facing the city, which have been decades in the making. Politics needs to be looking out at the future and not just reacting to the crises of the day. And Los Angeles needs bold, systemic reform to meet the moment.

Why are you so alarmed about the future of Los Angeles?

It’s a converging set of crises. You have a homelessness emergency, an affordable housing crisis, a billion-dollar structural financial challenge that’s resulted in the loss of thousands of key city jobs. You had a firestorm that destroyed an entire neighborhood. And you have the federal government at war with the people in the government of Los Angeles.

And underneath that, you have an existential challenge to Hollywood, which is unfolding. And you have crumbling infrastructure.

And you have people feeling that government can’t really fix any of these things, that the money we spend gets wasted, fair or unfair. That’s a challenge.

Do you think the government is wasting taxpayer money?

Every institution has some level of waste. The problem with Los Angeles government and the public sector in California is an aversion to innovation.

We’ve fallen behind the private sector in adapting to the new world of advancing technology and changing demographics. That’s fixable, and that’s what I was advocating for.

What would it look like to fix these problems? Who’s responsible, and who is currently dropping the ball?

The lack of responsibility is built into the City Charter.

Tell me more about what you mean by that.

The people who originally wrote the charter a hundred years ago intentionally designed the system to diffuse authority, which therefore diffused accountability. So it’s really difficult to know who is in charge of any given thing.

A clear example is that the department heads have 16 bosses. They report to the mayor, but in each of the council districts, the council members think that the department heads report to them. That they … have to make the council member happy with what’s going on in their district, whether it’s trimming trees on a particular street or fixing a sidewalk in front of a constituent’s home, the general managers [of city departments] are subject to extreme and constant political pressure.

That distracts them from fixing the system so that we’re doing a better job, so that there are fewer resident complaints, so that a constituent wouldn’t have to go to their council member to get their street fixed. The street would get fixed every 10 years.

But if you are have 16 bosses and and a continually shifting set of priorities, it’s difficult, if not impossible, to put in place systemic solutions.

And in terms of who do you blame: Do you blame the general manager? Do you blame the mayor? Do you blame your council member? Do you blame the lack of resources that the city has to allocate?

The answer is yes.

What needs to change?

What I advocated is designing the city to work in the 21st century, which means a chief operating officer who works for the mayor to make sure the city runs effectively across 44 departments. We don’t have such a person now.

It means a chief financial officer. The responsibilities of a chief financial officer are [currently] divided between four different offices in the city, so it’s difficult, again, to point to one person who’s in charge of keeping the city fiscally sound.

The charter calls for a one-year budget, but we could do a two-year budget and simply update it once a year and be consistent with the City Charter. But then we would have a much broader view of the city’s financial future, and we wouldn’t waste so much time on a budget process that takes 11 of the 12 months and produces very little change.

State of play

— SAFER CITY: L.A. is on pace for its lowest homicide total in nearly 60 years as killings plummet, according to an LAPD tally. The falling murder rate mirrors a national trend in other big cities. As my colleague Libor Jany reports, it also paints a decidedly different picture than the Gotham City image offered by President Trump and other senior U.S. officials as justification for the deployment of military troops in L.A. in recent weeks.

—MORE RAIDS FALLOUT: Mayor Karen Bass announced a plan Friday to provide direct cash assistance to people who have been affected by the Trump administration’s sweeping immigration raids. The money will come from philanthropic partners, not city coffers, and the cash cards will be distributed by immigrant rights groups.

—MOTION TO INTERVENE: The city and county of Los Angeles are among the local governments seeking to join a lawsuit calling on the Trump administration to stop “unlawful detentions” during the ongoing immigration sweeps. The lawsuit was filed by the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California, Public Counsel and immigrant rights groups last week.

—IN MEMORIAM: Longtime former executive director of the Pat Brown Institute for Public Affairs Jaime Regalado died last month at age 80. Born in Boyle Heights, Regalado served in the U.S. Navy and was the founding editor of California Politics & Policy and the California Policy Issues Annual. He led the Pat Brown Institute at Cal State L.A. from 1991 to 2011.

—“SOMEONE GOOFED”: When L.A. County Supervisors Lindsey Horvath and Janice Hahn co-wrote Measure G, a sprawling overhaul of county government that voters passed last November, they didn’t realize they would also be repealing Measure J, a landmark criminal justice measure that voters had passed four years earlier. Thanks to an administrative screw-up for the ages, that’s exactly what happened. The relevant changes won’t go into effect until 2028, so county leaders have some time to undo their oops.

—DISASTER AVERTED: A potentially tragic situation was averted Wednesday night, after all 31 workers in a partially collapsed Los Angeles County sanitation tunnel were able to make their way to safety. Work on the tunnel has been halted, and the county sanitation district board is looking into what caused the collapse.

—POSTCARD FROM SANTA MONICA: In the long shadow of White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller‘s hard-line anti-immigration policies, local and national observers alike are paying renewed attention to Miller’s upbringing in the famously liberal enclave once dubbed “the People’s Republic of Santa Monica.” Join me for a deep dive into Miller’s time at Santa Monica High School and learn why some of his former classmates think he’s getting his revenge on Southern California.

QUICK HITS

• On the docket for next week: The city’s charter reform commission will meet Wednesday afternoon. The City Council remains on recess.
• Where is Inside Safe? The mayor’s program to combat homelessness was in South Los Angeles this week, according to a tweet from Bass’ office.
• A political poem to pair with your morning coffee: “I Am Waiting” by Lawrence Ferlinghetti.

Stay in touch

That’s it for this week! Send your questions, comments and gossip to [email protected]. Did a friend forward you this email? Sign up here to get it in your inbox every Saturday morning.

The last time Shohei Ohtani thought he might be in trouble was when his name was linked to a federal investigation into illegal sports gambling in March 2024.

His name was soon cleared by authorities, who charged and convicted Ohtani’s interpreter, Ippei Mizuhara, in federal court with surreptitiously stealing more than $17 million from the Dodgers superstar to pay off an Orange County bookmaker.

Ohtani wondered if something was amiss Wednesday when manager Dave Roberts summoned him before the Dodgers’ home game against the New York Mets.

But not for long. Ohtani rushed into Roberts’ office, saw a bright pink remote-controlled toy car on the ground and immediately started laughing.

“I have a gift for you,” Roberts told him. “Actually, for your daughter.”

“For my daughter? OK, thank you.” Ohtani replied.

“This is from my wife [Tricia] and me to you and your family and your daughter,” Roberts said. “So, we have jokes always. This is a little bit of a joke. It’s a Porsche. This is going to be your daughter’s first car.”

“Thank you, I love it,” Ohtani said. He tapped the car with his hand and said in English, “I thought I’m in trouble. Some trouble,” evoking laughter from Roberts and others in the room.

Ohtani had gifted Roberts a tiny toy Porsche a year ago when he broke Roberts’ franchise record of seven home runs by a Japanese-born player, placing it in the manager’s parking lot space as a practical joke.

When Ohtani signed with the Dodgers in December 2023, he gifted Ashley Kelly, the wife of pitcher Joe Kelly, a Porsche — not a toy — for Kelly giving up No. 17. Roberts kidded Ohtani about gifting him when the modest record was inevitably broken, and the new Dodgers slugger obliged with the toy.

It took Roberts — born in Naha, Okinawa, to a Japanese mother and American father — a year to reciprocate.

“Shohei has been very gracious and we’ve got this long-running practical joke,” Roberts said on video. “This is more of a sincere gesture, not necessarily a practical joke but I wanted to present it to him.”

Ohtani and his wife, Mamiko Tanaka, have not revealed the name of their daughter, who was born April 19.

“I am so grateful to my loving wife who gave birth to our healthy beautiful daughter,” Ohtani wrote on social media at the time. “To my daughter, thank you for making us very nervous yet super anxious parents.”

Super anxious? Wait until she starts driving.

The warning from China’s embassy in the Philippines follows criticism from a top EU official about Beijing’s conduct.

China has told the European Union to stop “provoking trouble” in the South China Sea after EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas expressed concerns about Beijing’s coercive activities in the strategically important waterway.

“We urge the EU to genuinely respect China’s territorial sovereignty and maritime rights and interests in the South China Sea and to stop provoking trouble,” a spokesperson for China’s embassy in Manila said in a statement on Thursday.

China said the EU had no right to interfere in regional issues, and advised the Philippines that it should stop “fantasising about relying on external forces” to resolve disputes regarding the sovereignty of the South China Sea.

The warning from China’s embassy follows a meeting between Kallas and the Philippines’ foreign minister, Enrique Manalo, in Manila earlier this week, where they announced a new security and defence dialogue between the EU and the Philippines to counter threats like foreign interference, cyberattacks and misinformation campaigns.

The two sides also expressed concerns about China’s “illegal, coercive, aggressive and deceptive measures” against Philippine vessels and aircraft carrying out lawful maritime operations in the South China Sea.

When asked by reporters about the EU’s red lines towards China in the South China Sea, Kallas said that the EU is committed to upholding peace and a rules-based order.

“We reject any unilateral changes to the status quo, including use of coercion,” Kallas said.

Half a dozen countries, including the Philippines, lay claim to different parts of the South China Sea, but Beijing claims sovereignty over almost all of it.

The conflicting claims extend into the exclusive economic zones of Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam, leading to frequent altercations between China and its neighbours.

Shawn Kemp’s name has long been synonymous with prodigious talent, a ton of trouble and wasted opportunity.

Now he’ll likely also be known for a jail sentence.

Kemp, 55, pleaded guilty to second-degree assault Tuesday for shooting at two men inside a vehicle in a Tacoma, Wash., mall parking lot. The plea was part of an agreement in Pierce County Superior Court in which prosecutors will recommend nine months of confinement in the county jail when Kemp is sentenced in August.

Kemp was initially charged with one count of first-degree assault with a firearm enhancement after the March 2003 shooting, and prosecutors last week added another count of assault as well as a drive-by shooting charge. No one was hurt, but the Toyota 4Runner the men were inside and another vehicle were damaged.

Kemp contended in a court filing that he fired in self-defense after one of the men shot at him. The 4Runner drove off before Tacoma police arrived, and and an empty holster was found inside the vehicle when it was discovered abandoned days later.

“Shawn is committed to moving forward in a positive direction,” Kemp’s attorney Tim Leary told the Seattle Times. “He was presented with an offer from the state that allows him to take responsibility, but I think also recognizes the self-defense nature of how this transpired.”

Seattle SuperSonics’ Shawn Kemp going in for a dunk against the Houston Rockets during their NBA playoff game May 5, 1997, in Houston.

(Pat Sullivan / Associated Press)

Kemp famously battled cocaine addiction and fathered at least seven children with six different women during a 15-year NBA career that began when he was 19 years old in 1989.

Kemp was arrested in 2006 for drug possession in Washington after he was found with cocaine, marijuana, and a pistol.

Growth has been halting, however, even for someone who sprouted 13 inches between the ninth and 11th grades, topping out at 6-foot-10. His weight ballooned during his career from 230 pounds to more than 300, yet he remained capable of dominating on the court.

That was long ago, though. And on Tuesday in court, his attorney explained that Kemp’s truck was broken into on March 8, 2023, when he and other employees who worked at his marijuana dispensary, Kemp’s Cannabis, were attending a concert in Seattle.

According to court documents, Kemp’s cellphone and game-worn Kemp and Gary Payton jerseys were among the items stolen. Kemp used a phone tracking app to look for the thieves, and confronted the driver of the 4Runner in a Tacoma mall parking lot.

A man in the back seat shot at Kemp with a handgun, according to the filing, and Kemp returned fire. The 4Runner fled, and when the vehicle was found abandoned days later, an empty holster was found inside but there was no gun, documents said.

As part of his plea, Kemp cannot possess a firearm. In addition to the proposed nine-month sentence, Kemp will spend one year in community custody and pay restitution.

“His plan is to tell the community about the dangers of gun violence, really to be a positive influence on youth,” Aaron Kiviat, another of Kemp’s attorneys, told the Seattle Times.

In a statement outlining the plea agreement, Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Thomas Howe said that the case should be resolved ahead of trial because the two alleged victims were illegally in possession of Kemp’s belongings.

Both alleged victims are currently serving prison sentences in other cases. One is serving a seven-year sentence, in part for a July 2023 shooting in which he mistook the victim for Kemp. The same man recently filed a civil suit against Kemp stemming from the mall shooting.

Nicknamed the “Reign Man,” Kemp made $91,572,963 during his 15-year NBA career that ended in 2004. He was a six-time All-Star and helped the Seattle SuperSonics to the NBA finals in 1996 when he averaged a career-high 21.2 points a game. Kemp also played for the Cleveland Cavaliers, Portland Trail Blazers and Orlando Magic.

Kemp reflected on the ups and downs of his career on the All the Smoke podcast with former NBA players Matt Barnes and Stephen Jackson, saying, “Going through some problems and stuff that I went through in my career also hurts you at the end. But I think when you look at the good side of it, and you compare the numbers and stuff, I’m right there with some of the best ones.”