TOKYO — President Trump opened his visit to Japan on Monday with greetings from the emperor a day before he meets new Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, who is banking on building a friendly personal relationship with the U.S. leader to ease trade tensions.
One key to this strategy might lie in an idea floated by Japan’s government to buy a fleet of Ford F-150 trucks, a meaningful gesture that may also be impractical given the narrow streets in Tokyo and other Japanese cities.
It’s an early diplomatic test for Takaichi, the first woman to lead Japan. She took office only last week, and has a tenuous coalition backing her.
Trump instantly bought into the idea of Ford trucks as he flew to Asia aboard Air Force One.
“She has good taste,” Trump told reporters. “That’s a hot truck.”
Japanese Emperor Naruhito welcomed Trump at the Imperial Palace after the president’s arrival, and the two spoke for about 30 minutes. Trump straightened his jacket as he stood next to Naruhito for photos before the two sat across a round table, with flowers in the middle, for their talks.
“A great man!” he said twice while pointing to the emperor. Trump last saw the emperor in 2019, soon after Naruhito ascended the Chrysanthemum Throne, becoming the first foreign dignitary invited to the palace.
Trump and Takaichi spoke over the phone while the president was mid-flight on Saturday. Takaichi stressed her status as a protege of the late Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, a favorite of Trump’s from his first term, and said she praised him for brokering the Gaza ceasefire that led to the return of hostages held by Hamas.
“I thought [Trump] is a very cheerful and fun person,” she said. “He well recognizes me and said he remembers me as a politician whom [former] Prime Minister Abe really cared about,” she said. “And I told the president that I extremely look forward to welcoming him in Tokyo.”
Trump spent Sunday in Malaysia, where he participated in a regional summit, and departed Monday morning for Japan. While on Air Force One on Monday, he said he planned to talk in Tokyo about the “great friendship” between the U.S. and Japan.
Resetting the trade relationship
Beneath the hospitality is the search for a strategy to navigate the increasingly complex trade relationship that Trump shook up earlier this year with tariffs.
Trump wants allies to buy more American goods and also make financial commitments to build factories and energy infrastructure in the U.S.
The meetings in Japan come before Trump’s sit-down with Chinese leader Xi Jinping on Thursday in South Korea.
Both the U.S. and Japan have sought to limit China’s manufacturing ambitions, as the emergence of Chinese electric vehicles, artificial intelligence and advanced computer chips could undermine the American and Japanese economies.
“In light of the planned meeting between Trump and Xi Jinping shortly afterward, Trump may also be considering how he might strengthen his hand by demonstrating the robustness of the U.S.-Japan relationship,” said Kristi Govella, Japan chair at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington think tank.
Japan’s previous administration agreed in September to invest $550 billion in the U.S., which led Trump to trim a threatened 25% tariff on Japanese goods to 15%. But Japan wants the investments to favor Japanese vendors and contractors.
Japan’s economy and trade minister, Ryosei Akazawa, has said his ministry is compiling a list of projects in computer chips and energy to try to meet the investment target.
“As far as I know, I’m hearing that there are a number of Japanese companies that are showing interest,” he told reporters Friday, though he did not give further details.
Ford trucks in Tokyo would be a powerful symbol
Japanese officials are looking at the possibility of buying more American soybeans, liquefied natural gas and autos. The U.S.-China trade conflict has shut American soybeans out of the Chinese market, leading China to seek more Brazilian supply. China reported no U.S. soybean imports in September, a first since November 2018.
For Trump, the prospect of Ford trucks in the skyscrapered streets of Tokyo would be a win. The administration has long complained that American vehicles were being shut out of a market that is the home of Toyota, Honda, Nissan, Isuzu, Mitsubishi and Subaru. In a September interview on CNBC, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said Japan wouldn’t buy U.S.-branded vehicles because “Chevys” were popular with Japanese gangsters.
Takaichi may arrange for Ford F-150 trucks to be showcased in a place Trump gets to see them, Japan’s Nikkei newspaper reported. The government is considering importing the trucks for its transport ministry to use for inspecting roads and infrastructure, though there are concerns that the F-150 could cause congestion on narrow Japanese streets.
“We appreciate President Trump’s advocating for American made products,” Ford spokesperson Dave Tovar said. “We would be excited to introduce America’s best-selling truck to work and government customers in Japan.”
Japanese media have reported that Toyota Motor Corp. Chairman Akio Toyoda could announce plans to import his company’s American-made cars back to Japan during a dinner with Trump and other business leaders on Wednesday.
The gestures — combined with Takaichi’s connection to Abe — should help her deal with Trump, who seems predisposed to like her.
“I think she’s going to be great,” Trump said aboard Air Force One. “She’s a great friend of Mr. Abe, who was a great man.”
In 2016, Abe gave Trump a high-end golf club to celebrate his first election, and the leaders bonded over their love of golf. Trump often expresses sadness about Abe’s 2022 assassination.
But there are risks for Takaichi in emphasizing her ties to Abe, said Rintaro Nishimura, who specializes in Japan at the advisory firm The Asia Group.
“Because it’s Takaichi’s first diplomatic engagement I think she wants to start with sort of a bang,” Nishimura said. “Succeeding the Abe-line rhetoric is definitely going to be part of this engagement, although some also suggest that leaning too heavily on the Abe line might not exactly be good for her for creating her own kind of portfolio, her status as Japan’s leader.”
Following his meeting with Takaichi on Tuesday, Trump will give a speech aboard the USS George Washington aircraft carrier anchored in Japan, then hold a dinner with business leaders. Trump plans to leave for South Korea on Wednesday.
But aboard Air Force One on Monday, he told reporters that he was also ready to meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, should that be an option.
“If he wants to meet, I’ll be in South Korea,” Trump said.
Boak and Yamaguchi write for the Associated Press. AP writer Chris Megerian contributed to this report from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy warned Sunday that he’s about to make good on a threat to revoke millions in federal funds for California because he says the state is illegally issuing commercial driver’s licenses to noncitizens.
In an appearance on Fox News Channel’s “Sunday Morning Futures” Duffy said California Gov. Gavin Newsom has refused to comply with U.S. Department of Transportation rules that require the state to stop issuing such licenses and review those already issued.
“So, one, I’m about to pull $160 million from California,” Duffy said. “And, as we pull more money, we also have the option of pulling California’s ability to issue commercial driver’s licenses.”
Newsom’s press office did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment on the matter Sunday, but California has defended its practices previously. When Duffy threatened to revoke funds last month, a spokesperson for the governor dismissed the attack and noted that commercial license holders from California have a significantly lower rate of crashes than the national average and the Texas average, which is the only state with more licensed commercial drivers.
Last month, the Transportation Department tightened commercial driver’s license requirements for noncitizens after three fatal crashes that officials said were caused by immigrant truck drivers. Only three specific classes of visa holders will be eligible for CDLs under the new rules and states must verify an applicant’s immigration status in a federal database. The licenses will be valid for up to one year unless the applicant’s visa expires sooner.
Duffy said last month that California should never have issued 25% of 145 licenses investigators reviewed. He cited four California licenses that remained valid after the driver’s work permit expired — sometimes years after. The state had 30 days to come up with a plan to comply or lose funding.
A nationwide commercial driver’s license audit began after officials say a driver in the country illegally made a U-turn and caused a crash in Florida that killed three people. The audit found licenses that were issued improperly in California, Colorado, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Texas and Washington.
Duffy said Sunday that California has unlawfully issued tens of thousands of these licenses to noncitizens.
“So you have 60,000 people on the roads who shouldn’t have licenses,” Duffy said. “They’re driving fuel tankers, they’re driving school buses, and we have seen some of the crashes on American roadways that come from these people who shouldn’t have these licenses.”
Duffy said earlier this month that he would withhold $40 million from California because it is the only state that is failing to enforce English language requirements for truckers. California defended its practices in a formal response to the Transportation Department, but federal officials were not satisfied.
The investigation launched after the Florida crash found what Duffy called significant failures in the way California is enforcing rules that took effect in June after one of President Trump’s executive orders. California had issued the driver a commercial license, but these English rules predate the crash.
INDIANAPOLIS — Former USC quarterback Mark Sanchez was pepper-sprayed and stabbed multiple times during a late-night altercation with a 69-year-old truck driver in a downtown Indianapolis alley, which resulted in criminal charges against the Fox Sports analyst, according to court records filed Sunday.
Based on hotel video footage of the altercation early Saturday and the driver’s statement to police, an Indianapolis police affidavit alleges that Sanchez, smelling of alcohol, accosted the driver of a box truck that backed into a hotel’s loading docks, leading to a confrontation outside the vehicle that prompted the driver to defensively pull out a knife.
Sanchez was hospitalized with stab wounds to his upper right torso, the affidavit signed by a police detective said. Sanchez remained hospitalized early Sunday, according to police. The truck driver, identified as P.T., had a cut to his left cheek, it said.
Sanchez was in stable condition, Fox Sports said Saturday. There was no immediate update Sunday.
His initial court hearing was set for Tuesday in a Marion County courtroom.
Sanchez stabbed multiple times
As the altercation escalated, the driver feared “‘this guy is trying to kill me’” and pulled his knife as Sanchez came at him, the affidavit said. Sanchez was initially stabbed two or three times, then stabbed again when he went at the driver again, it said.
“The next thing P.T. knew was Mr. Sanchez looked at him with a look of shock, he slowly turned around and Mr. Sanchez took off northbound in the alley,” the document said.
Sanchez was in Indianapolis to call Sunday’s Raiders-Colts game. Instead, he was charged with battery resulting in injury, unauthorized entry of a motor vehicle and public intoxication — all misdemeanors. Police got a warrant to obtain Sanchez’s phone and clothes from the hospital, the document said.
There were no immediate court records indicating whether Sanchez had legal representation yet.
Marion County prosecutor Ryan Mears said Sunday that his office would “follow the facts and the law wherever they lead.”
“What began as a disagreement between a 38-year-old former professional athlete and a 69-year-old man should not have escalated into violence or left anyone seriously injured,” Mears said in a statement.
Fox Sports announcers acknowledge Sanchez’s absence
Sanchez told police at the hospital that all he could remember was grabbing for a window, the court document said. Sanchez said he didn’t know who else was involved or where the altercation happened.
“Friday night in Indianapolis, one of our team members, Mark Sanchez, was involved in an incident that, to be honest, we are still trying to wrap our heads around,” Curt Menefee said Sunday on Fox’s primary NFL pregame show. “At this time, our thoughts and prayers are with Mark and his family and all of those involved.”
Fox Sports play-by-play announcer Chris Myers also acknowledged Sanchez’s absence on Sunday before introducing Sanchez’s replacement, Brady Quinn. Myers said he wanted to send thoughts and prayers to Sanchez and everyone involved in the incident.
Police officers found Sanchez with the stab wounds when they were dispatched to a downtown pub about 12:35 a.m. Saturday. The truck driver was found in the alley.
Details of the confrontation were disclosed in the affidavit, based on video footage and the truck driver’s statement to police.
The video showed a man believed to be Sanchez running in the alley toward the truck, the affidavit said. The driver works for a company that specializes in commercial cooking oil recycling and disposal, and he was performed his work duties, it said.
Sanchez opened the truck door and began talking to the driver, the affidavit said. Sanchez told the driver he couldn’t be at the loading dock and that Sanchez had spoken to the hotel manager, the document said. Sanchez smelled of alcohol and his speech was slurred, the driver told police.
Affidavit says Sanchez threw truck driver to ground
Sanchez followed the driver from side to side of the truck, the court document said. When the driver darted toward the driver’s door, video showed Sanchez “grabbing and throwing” the driver toward a hotel wall, it said. The fight continued against a dumpster and Sanchez threw the driver to the ground, it said.
Sanchez climbed into the truck but got out when told by the driver he wasn’t allowed in, it said. Sanchez repeated that he spoke to a manager and didn’t want the driver to replace fryer oil, the document said. Sanchez tried again to get into the truck and blocked the driver from calling his manager, it said.
Believing he was in danger, the driver grabbed pepper spray from his pocket and sprayed Sanchez’s face, it said. Sanchez wiped his face and advanced toward the driver again, it said.
The driver then pulled his knife and stabbed Sanchez as the ex-quarterback came at him, it said. The driver fell onto pallets on the ground, he told police.
“While P.T. was on the ground, he could only see the feet of Mr. Sanchez coming at him, making P.T. realize that he was in a life-or-death situation,” the affidavit said.
The driver made it to his feet and stabbed Sanchez the last time as Sanchez came at him, it said.
Sanchez had a 10-year NFL career before retiring in 2019. He appeared on ABC and ESPN for two years before joining Fox Sports as a game analyst in 2021. The Long Beach native led Mission Viejo to a 27-1 record as a starting quarterback, winning a Southern Section Division II title in 2004. He later starred at USC from 2006 to 2008, passing for 3,965 yards and 41 touchdowns en route to a Rose Bowl win.
He left college early and was selected by the New York Jets with the fifth pick in the 2009 NFL draft. Sanchez also appeared in games with Philadelphia, Dallas and Washington.
Schreiner and Marot write for the Associated Press.
SANTA YNEZ — Shaun Cassidy steers his Dodge Ram 250 into the parking lot of the Maverick Saloon and throws open the truck’s passenger door, refrigerated air whooshing out of the cab, where he sits behind the wheel wearing sunglasses, black jeans and a black T-shirt.
The onetime teen idol who topped Billboard’s Hot 100 in 1977 with his chirpy cover of the Crystals’ “Da Doo Ron Ron” — this was seven years after Cassidy’s mother, Shirley Jones, and his half brother, David Cassidy, hit No. 1 as the Partridge Family with “I Think I Love You” — has made a lunch reservation at a vineyard not far from where he lives in Santa Barbara County so the two of us can talk about his upcoming concert tour.
“But the place is as big as Knott’s Berry Farm, and I didn’t want to spend 20 minutes looking for you,” he says, with a laugh. “That’s why I thought better to pick you up here.”
The drive also allows Cassidy, 66, to show off a bit of the picturesque region he’s called home since 2011, when he moved from Hidden Hills with his wife, Tracey, and their four children. (He has three more children from two previous marriages.) “It’s not as remote as it was before the pandemic,” says Cassidy, who’s spent the last few decades working behind the scenes in television. Through the truck’s windows, a panini shop and a microblading clinic roll by. “COVID happened, and suddenly it became part of Los Angeles — a lot of new people,” he says.
“But I grew up in L.A. and New York” — Cassidy’s dad was the actor Jack Cassidy — “and I always envied people that came from somewhere else. My folks told us, ‘Don’t worry, we’re gonna buy a farm in Pennsylvania or move upstate,’ and it never happened.” Here in the Santa Ynez Valley, Cassidy adds, “I’ve managed to manifest the family life that my father always told me was important but somehow couldn’t find for himself.”
Now he’s leaving home for his most extensive run of shows in more than 40 years.
Cassidy’s tour, which kicks off Saturday at Nashville’s Grand Ole Opry and has dates scheduled through March, will revisit the lightweight pop pleasures of the musical career he maintained alongside his role as Joe Hardy on TV’s “The Hardy Boys Mysteries.” As the younger brother of an established heartthrob, Cassidy came in hot: His self-titled debut for Warner Bros. Records went platinum within months and spun off three Top 10 singles in “That’s Rock ’n’ Roll,” “Da Doo Ron Ron” and “Hey Deanie”; Cassidy was even nominated for best new artist at the Grammy Awards in 1978, where he turned up onstage in a white pantsuit at age 19 for a bum-waggling rendition of “That’s Rock ’n’ Roll.”
“This young man,” proclaimed the show’s host, John Denver, “is definitely going places.”
Shaun Cassidy at the 20th Grammy Awards in Los Angeles in 1978.
(UPI / Bettmann Archive / Getty Images)
Four more LPs came in quick succession, ending with the willfully eccentric “Wasp,” for which Cassidy recruited Todd Rundgren as his producer. Then, following a 1980 gig at Houston’s Astrodome, Cassidy abruptly quit music to focus on writing and acting, which he describes as his real passion.
“I didn’t love being famous,” he says, as we pull onto a dirt road approaching Vega Vineyard & Farm. “But I think I needed to be famous. I came from a family where everyone was well known, and I didn’t want to go through life being someone’s kid or someone’s brother. So I had to sort of step out into the spotlight and announce myself, and once that was done, I could figure out what I want to do.”
Why return to the stage now? For one thing, Cassidy says he’s singing better at the moment than he ever has — a claim supported by his old friend Bernie Taupin.
“Shaun’s voice has matured in the best way possible,” says the lyricist known for his half-century-long collaboration with Elton John. “But the other thing is that he’s a born raconteur.”
Indeed, Cassidy’s road show, which he’s been workshopping sporadically since 2019, is a songs-and-stories affair in which he looks back on an eventful life he has yet to recount in a book. “You have to be fearless and brutally honest when you write a memoir,” he says, pointing to Patti Smith’s “Just Kids” (2010) as one worth aspiring to. “David wrote a s— book, and my mother wrote a s— book, so I feel a bit of responsibility to represent my family accurately and honestly.”
We’re seated now at a picnic table in the shade, where a server has brought over several bottles from Cassidy’s line of wines — the line is called My First Crush, which is perfect — and a couple of Greek salads. “I don’t think there’s anything I’d be scared to write,” Cassidy says. “My bigger fear would be hurting people.”
Who have you used as a comparison point to explain your ’70s stardom to your youngest child? She has the poster on her wall: Harry Styles. And I didn’t say it to her; her mother did: “You know, your father was that guy.” My daughter’s like, “That old in guy there? Not possible.” But there was a chain you could tie me into. My record had been No. 1 a week or two before Elvis died, so when that happened, lots of reporters called me: “How do you feel about Elvis passing? How do you feel about walking in the King’s shoes?” I was like, “If he’s dead at 42, I don’t want to be in those shoes.”
Did you actually say that to a reporter? I was too polite. But there’s a lot of truth in it. Ricky Nelson had just been a guest on “The Hardy Boys,” and I remember thinking that I didn’t want to be guest starring on a TV show in 20 years. Look, my brother David didn’t handle fame well. I had a model for what not to do, and I had a model for what to do: my mother, who’s 91 and lives five minutes away and is as gracious and lovely and happy a human being as you’ll ever meet.
I like to say I’m in show business, but I’m not of it. I love the work and the creativity — I’m not a red carpet guy. She never was either. She was like, “They tell me where to go, I show up, I do it.” And people love her.
There’s a great photo of you in the L.A. Times in 1978 standing in your backyard next to a swimming pool. I got “The Hardy Boys” when I was 18 — still living at home with my mom in Beverly Hills. My parents are separated — my father died while I was shooting the pilot, which was pretty traumatic — and I’m like, I gotta get out of here. The family’s business manager calls a bank and says, “He’s top of show on a new series making $2,500 a week.” They got me a loan to buy a house without a down payment. So I went and bought a house on the weekend while my mother was out of town.
Was she pissed? No, she wasn’t. She was happy for me — sort of. Yeah, maybe. I don’t know.
You went through the whole emotional spectrum in that answer. It was weird. I only lived there for like a year because now I’m making a lot of money, so the business manager says, “You need to buy real estate and you need to spend more money,” which is dumb, as it turns out. Keep that little house you bought with your first check and put the rest of it in the stock market, and you won’t need to worry about anything forever.
So somebody finds me a place on Mulholland. Warren Beatty is over here, Brando and Nicholson are over here — Valley view, Beverly Hills view, on a promontory with a pool. This is the house in the picture. When I first go up to see it, there’s a recording truck in the driveway and all this recording equipment inside. Fleetwood Mac are there doing something. I’d met Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks.
Shirley Jones and Shaun Cassidy at the 73rd Tony Awards in New York in 2019.
(Bruce Glikas / WireImage)
What, as proud Warner Bros. recording artists? Just at parties in L.A. before they joined Fleetwood Mac. I was out all the time. My parents sent me to boarding school in Pennsylvania in ’73 — I ditched the entire time on a train into New York to go to CBGB’s and Max’s Kansas City. Danny Fields took me to CBGB’s to see the Ramones when he was managing them. And why did I know Danny Fields when I was 15? Because he was writing for 16 Magazine where [editor in chief] Gloria Stavers was putting pictures of me in there with no record deal: “It’s another Cassidy — isn’t he cute?”
Danny was interesting. He’d managed Iggy Pop, and I knew Iggy — Jim — from hanging out on Sunset because this was the time Jim was living in Hollywood kind of between jobs. Smart guy — big influence on me. Early on, I played Rodney Bingenheimer’s club. I’m there shirtless with a bow tie, screaming, looking kind of like Iggy at 14 or 15.
It’s wild that your most chaotic years happened before you were even 18. They cleaned me up. I was on “The Hardy Boys” playing a character who really couldn’t look like a punk. My earring had to go.
You ever feel hemmed in by the job? No, because I was playing a character, and my identity wasn’t tied to the success of the show. Miguel Ferrer was one of my closest friends, and his dad, Joe — José Ferrer, real actor’s actor — I remember he said to me, “So, my boy, you’re thinking of going into the business? Let me give you a piece of advice: I have known success and failure, and they are both impostors.” He took it from Rudyard Kipling, I think. But it stuck with me. Anything I did, even “Wasp” — I don’t view that remotely as a failure. I view it actually as a bold awakening.
One of the great pop-idol freak-outs, 1980’s “Wasp” found Cassidy alternately crooning, yowling and barking his way through new-wave-y covers of tunes by the likes of David Bowie, the Who and Talking Heads while backed by members of Rundgren’s group Utopia.
“All I wanted to do was work with Todd,” says Cassidy, who’d been unhappy making “Room Service” in 1979 “because there was so much pressure from the record company to dive into disco, which I was never a fan of and which felt completely inauthentic for me.” By that time, Rundgren had produced hip records for the New York Dolls and the Patti Smith Group in addition to scoring hits of his own like “I Saw the Light” and “Hello It’s Me.” “He said to me, ‘You’re an actor — let’s do some acting.’ So we created some characters and experimented with different things.”
The album bombed. “My audience wasn’t ready for it, and there was no new audience showing up on FM radio that was gonna embrace me,” says Cassidy. “I think eight people bought it.”
Having been told by a Warner Bros. executive that he should go away — “And he was 100% right” — Cassidy “stayed home for the ’80s,” he says. “My big spending spree would be Friday night. I’d take my rock-star money to Crown Books and bring home $250 worth of books in my Porsche.”
In 1993, he let his brother lure him into co-starring in the musical “Blood Brothers” on Broadway.
“I turned him down three times,” says Cassidy, as we open a second bottle of wine. “I already had a deal at Universal as a writer with an office and an assistant, and I’d sold a couple movies for television. I was on my way, and David’s pitching me: ‘No, no, no — we can be the kings of Broadway!’” He takes a sip. “As it turned out, it was great — really emotionally satisfying. And the show was a big hit.” (David died from liver failure in 2017.)
Yet “Blood Brothers” was enough limelight for Shaun, who quickly turned back to TV. “American Gothic,” the first show he created, premiered in 1995 — an achievement that, he says, “meant a lot more than having ‘Da Doo Ron Ron’ as a No. 1 record.” Since then he’s been an executive producer on “Cover Me,” “Cold Case,” “The Agency” and “New Amsterdam,” among other series.
“He reinvented a whole new Shaun Cassidy career,” says Steve Lukather, the Toto guitarist who’s been friends with Cassidy since he appeared in an episode of “The Hardy Boys.” Cassidy’s wife, who’s also worked in TV, didn’t even know he’d been a musician when they met on one of his shows.
“I said, ‘Where you from?’ and Tracey said, ‘Miami,’” the singer recalls. “I said, ‘Oh, I played Miami.’ She goes, ‘What position?’ ”
Still, Lukather reckons that more recently his pal “started missing being onstage a little bit. He knows where it’s at.” Cassidy, who plans to play bass in the show, called Lukather not long ago for some guidance on the instrument. “I told him to play simple — don’t overthink it. It’s not like he’s going out and doing the Mahavishnu set.”
It’s half past 3, and Cassidy has a virtual pitch meeting for a new show at 4 p.m. But first he has to pick up his youngest daughter from school, so we hop back in his truck and head there from the vineyard.
On the ride he says he’s been working on a couple of new songs — the first of his own that he’s recorded since the handful he placed on his albums back in the day alongside stuff by pros like Eric Carmen, Brian Wilson and Carole Bayer Sager. One of them sounds like it could’ve been cut by Mel Tormé, he says. “The other one, it’s very anthemic — I don’t know, maybe like the Killers.”
“It’s been fun to see him to go the piano instead of the computer as an outlet for his passion for storytelling,” Tracey tells me later, though of course Cassidy knows that fans will show up to his gigs wanting to hear the classics.
Who did you long to be at the height of your teen idolhood? First concert I saw was the Rolling Stones at the Forum in 1972, with Stevie Wonder opening. I took pictures and put those pictures on my wall. Mick and Keith in ’72 — that was a show. I saw David Bowie on “Diamond Dogs” in ’74. And I saw Iggy a lot. Somewhere in between those three is where I wanted to be. Obviously, I was safer than that.
What do you see when you watch the kid singing “That’s Rock ’n’ Roll” at the Grammys? He’s confident, but he’s not cocky. I remember afterwards Lou Rawls said to me, “Son, never turn your back on the audience.” I said, “They seemed to like it when I shook my ass.”
You lost best new artist that night. So did Foreigner. Lou Gramm somewhere is still upset.
I wondered if you remembered who else was in the category. Debby, of course.
Debby Boone, who won — another nepo baby. Hey, if your dad owns a hardware store and you take over the hardware store, I have no issue with that at all. I don’t know who else. Andy Gibb?
Stephen Bishop and Andy Gibb. I knew Andy a little bit.
Kind of a similar deal to you, right? Younger brother of a pop sensation. He had a different challenge, though. This is me being shrink, but I don’t think that anybody got to really know who he was, because Barry [Gibb] was so strong. And I don’t think Andy had a problem with that. I’m sure growing up, he was like, “I want to be a Bee Gee too,” and Barry said, “OK, here’s how we do that.”
David Cassidy, left, with Shaun Cassidy, circa 1975.
(Michael Ochs Archives / Getty Images)
What was your relationship like with David in terms of the advice you took or rejected? David never gave me advice. I think it was very difficult for him because he was at a career low point. I would ask him, “What do you think of this?” and I could tell he was conflicted about it. It wasn’t that he didn’t want me to have success. But he was in a place where it was hard for him to enjoy my success, I think. And I knew that, so I didn’t talk to him about it.
What’d you think when he posed nude on the cover of Rolling Stone? I thought it was dumb. That was his “Wasp” moment — I thought, You’re putting a bullet in something here, whether you know it or not. Now, I’m not so sure. It’s a cool picture. All I know is he complained a lot in the press. He had a chip on his shoulder because he wasn’t Eric Clapton or Jimi Hendrix or somebody that he revered. It’s like, “OK, play as well as Hendrix and maybe you’ll be Hendrix. But you’re a really charming guy on a big hit television show, and 8 billion people are in love with you. Tell me why this is a bad deal.”
Why did you understand that and he didn’t? Because I’m Shirley’s son and he’s not. And I got to watch him — I saw how you can handle it differently.
You never burned to be taken seriously? I took myself seriously. I’m very secure, and that’s rare in show business. I never needed the love of the audience to feel like I was whole.
You got that love elsewhere, and David didn’t. He would say that.
Was he not right? Maybe. I mean, to my mother I could do no wrong — to the point that she had no credibility. But if you’re going to err on one side, that’s a better side than, “Where are my parents?” Both of his parents were actors — they were gone a lot. Then his father left his mother to marry a movie star and have me. David would have every reason in the world to hate me as a little boy, but he didn’t.
My brother was a really sweet — I’m gonna get choked up talking about him — he was a really sweet soul who got hurt and couldn’t overcome that. I’m not a psychiatrist, but I spent a lot of time with him. Again, “Blood Brothers” was great because it was an equalizer. I wasn’t the flavor of the moment, and neither was he. That’s one of the things I miss most about him — that he was the only person in the world I could talk to about our experience.
Francisco Longoria, a San Bernardino man who was driving his truck when a masked U.S. Customs and Border Protection officer shot at it, has been arrested and charged by federal authorities. They allege he assaulted immigration officers during the incident.
In a statement, Longoria’s attorneys said Homeland Security Investigations agents arrived at the Longoria household at 4:18 a.m. Thursday, with an armored personnel carrier, a type of military vehicle, and deployed more than a dozen “fully armed and armored” agents to swarm the home, breaking the locks on his gate. An agent called out to Longoria to come out, using a bullhorn, as agents stood at each door and pointed their rifles at the door and at the occupants inside, the attorneys said.
“These are the type of tactics reserved for dangerous criminals such as violent gang members, drug lords, and terrorists,” the attorneys said. “It was clearly intended to intimidate and punish Mr. Longoria and his family for daring to speak out about their attempted murder by ICE and CBP agents on August 16th.”
On that day, federal immigration officers stopped Longoria in San Bernardino. During the encounter, Longoria, who was in his truck with his 18-year-old son and 23-year-old son-in-law, feared for his safety and drove off after masked officers shattered his car window, his attorneys said.
Department of Homeland Security officials have said officers were injured during the encounter when Longoria tried to “run them down.” Longoria’s attorneys dispute their client injured the officers or attempted to hit them, and earlier this week they called for an investigation of the shooting.
On Friday morning, the U.S. attorney’s office confirmed that Homeland Security Investigations agents arrested Longoria the day before. Word of his arrest was earlier reported by the San Bernardino Sun.
Ciaran McEvoy, spokesman for the U.S. attorney’s office in Los Angeles, said Longoria made an initial appearance before a U.S. District Court judge in Riverside, and is set to be arraigned on Sept. 30. The federal magistrate judge ordered him released on a $5,000 bond.
Longoria was being held at the San Bernardino County jail, in custody of the U.S. Marshals Service, as of Thursday afternoon, McEvoy said in an email.
“Since Longoria is an illegal alien, ICE has a detainer on him,” he said. Longoria’s attorneys said their client was transferred into Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody as of Friday.
An unnamed Department of Homeland Security spokesperson confirmed federal agents arrested Longoria at his home.
“CBP and ICE remain committed to enforcing the law, protecting officers, and keeping dangerous criminals off America’s streets — even as local officials in California undermine those efforts,” the official said.
According to a criminal complaint submitted by a Homeland Security Investigations agent, whose name is redacted, Longoria is facing a charge of assault on a federal officer with a deadly/dangerous weapon.
In the complaint, the agent, who interviewed the officers who stopped Longoria, said the officers had stopped Longoria’s GMC pickup truck to conduct “an immigration check.” Two of them were ICE officers and the other two were CBP officers.
The complaint states that the officers were identifiable by their visible clothing marked with “police.”
After they stopped Longoria’s truck, the complaint states, he refused to comply with the demands to turn off his vehicle and roll down the window. One of the CBP officers, identified as J.C., decided to break the window after Longoria refused the commands, and was allegedly struck by the driver’s door on his left elbow and left calf. The passenger side window was also shattered by agents during the encounter.
Another CBP officer was allegedly struck by the front bumper/fender of the truck on his right leg. “The Truck kept pushing Officer S.T., and Officer S.T. shot at the Truck, afraid for his life,” according to the complaint.
Longoria’s attorneys had previously released surveillance video of the incident, which appears to dispute a key claim by Homeland Security — that Longoria drove his truck toward officers and injured them.
In the surveillance video, the moment Longoria drives away, officers on both sides of the truck remain in sight of the video, and they then pile into their vehicles and pursue Longoria’s truck down a side street.
After Longoria drove off, the family called 911. While San Bernardino police were questioning Longoria, the immigration officers arrived, and family members identified the one they believed had shot at the truck.
At the initial court appearance, the judge questioned the assistant U.S. attorney prosecuting the case, Cory Burleson, about the government’s claim that it was conducting an “immigration check,” a term he couldn’t clarify when asked by the court, according to Longoria’s attorneys. Burleson also claimed Longoria was stopped due to a traffic violation, but couldn’t identify the violation, his attorneys said. When the judge asked Burleson to identify the alleged injuries of the officers, Burleson said he was “not aware of any injuries,” Longoria’s attorneys said.
Longoria’s attorneys said their client was granted bond, but because of the ICE hold, has since been transferred into ICE custody, which they believe is the “true purpose of this false and baseless charge.”
“No reasonable prosecutor could believe that a conviction would be secured against Mr. Longoria for the August 16th stop, when every video supports Mr. Longoria’s version of events and directly contradicts DHS’ story,” his attorneys said. “Yet [the Department of Justice] will not drop the charges; it has been their practice during this Administration to pursue charges based on unsubstantiated and false affidavits in order to arrest individuals and then turn them over to ICE.”
His attorneys said they intend to continue advocating for Longoria, his son and son-in-law.
“We are in contact with local and State authorities and are encouraging a state investigation and criminal charges against the ICE/CBP agents,” the attorneys said.
This article is part of The Times’ equity reporting initiative,funded by the James Irvine Foundation, exploring the challenges facing low-income workers and the efforts being made to addressCalifornia’s economic divide.
FORT PIERCE, Fla. — A truck driver accused of making an illegal U-turn that killed three people in Florida last week who the Trump administration said was in the U.S. illegally was denied bond Saturday.
The crash sparked a clash between the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and California Gov. Gavin Newsom over Harjinder Singh, a native of India who obtained a work permit and driver’s license in the state.
Singh was charged with three state counts of vehicular homicide and immigration violations, and he was denied bond on all charges. He is being held in the St. Lucie County Jail, Lt. Andrew Bolonka from the St. Lucie County Sheriff’s Office said. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has put a hold on him.
Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said issuing a commercial license to someone in the country illegally is “asinine.” California is one of 19 states, in addition to the District of Columbia, that issues licenses regardless of immigration status. Supporters say that lets people work, visit doctors and travel safely.
Newsom’s press office responded in a social media post on X that Singh obtained a work permit while Donald Trump was president, which McLaughlin disputed.
Florida authorities said Singh entered the U.S. illegally from Mexico in 2018.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis dispatched Lt. Gov. Jay Collins to California to escort Singh onto an airplane Thursday.
Singh made the illegal turn on the highway about 50 miles north of West Palm Beach, according to the Florida Highway Patrol. A minivan in the neighboring lane was unable to avoid the truck’s trailer and slammed into it, killing the minivan’s driver and two passengers.
Singh and a passenger in his truck were not injured.
WASHINGTON — A year after being lauded for its plan to replace thousands of aging, gas-powered mail trucks with a mostly electric fleet, the U.S. Postal Service is facing congressional attempts to strip billions in federal EV funding.
In June, the Senate parliamentarian blocked a Republican proposal in President Trump’s massive tax-and-spending bill to sell off the agency’s new electric vehicles and infrastructure and revoke remaining federal money. But efforts to halt the fleet’s shift to clean energy continue in the name of cost savings.
Donald Maston, president of the National Rural Letter Carriers’ Assn., said canceling the program now would have the opposite effect, squandering millions of dollars.
“I think it would be shortsighted for Congress to now suddenly decide they’re going to try to go backwards and take the money away for the EVs or stop that process, because that’s just going to be a bunch of money on infrastructure that’s been wasted,” he said.
Beyond that, many in the scientific community fear the government could pass on an opportunity to reduce carbon emissions that contribute to global warming when urgent action is needed.
Reducing emissions
A 2022 University of Michigan study found the new electric postal vehicles could cut total greenhouse gas emissions by up to 20 million tons over the predicted, cumulative 20-year lifetime of the trucks. That’s a fraction of the more than 6 billion metric tons emitted annually in the United States, said Professor Gregory A. Keoleian, co-director of the university’s Center for Sustainable Systems. But he said the push toward electric vehicles is critical and needs to accelerate, given the intensifying effects of climate change.
“We’re already falling short of goals for reducing emissions,” Keoleian said. “We’ve been making progress, but the actions being taken or proposed will really reverse decarbonization progress that has been made to date.”
Many GOP lawmakers share Trump’s criticism of the Biden-era green energy push and say the Postal Service spending should focus only on delivering mail.
Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) said that “it didn’t make sense for the Postal Service to invest so heavily in an all-electric force.” She said she will pursue legislation to rescind what is left of the $3 billion from the Inflation Reduction Act allocated to help cover the $10-billion cost of new postal vehicles.
Ernst has called the EV initiative a “boondoggle” and “a textbook example of waste,” citing delays, high costs and concerns over cold-weather performance.
“You always evaluate the programs, see if they are working. But the rate at which the company that’s providing those vehicles is able to produce them, they are so far behind schedule, they will never be able to fulfill that contract,” Ernst said during a recent appearance at the Iowa State Fair, referring to Wisconsin-based Oshkosh Defense.
“For now,” she added, “gas-powered vehicles — use some ethanol in them — I think is wonderful.”
Corn-based ethanol is a boon to Iowa’s farmers, but the effort to reverse course has other Republican support.
Rep. Michael Cloud (R-Texas), a co-sponsor of the rollback effort, has said the EV order should be canceled because the project “has delivered nothing but delays, defective trucks and skyrocketing costs.”
The Postal Service maintains that the production delay of the Next Generation Delivery Vehicles was “very modest” and not unexpected.
“The production quantity ramp-up was planned for and intended to be very gradual in the early months to allow time for potential modest production or supplier issues to be successfully resolved,” spokesperson Kim Frum said.
Modernization efforts
The independent, self-funded federal agency, which is paid for mostly by postage and product sales, is in the middle of a $40-billion, 10-year modernization and financial stabilization plan. The EV effort had the full backing of Democratic President Biden, who pledged to move toward an all-electric federal fleet of car and trucks.
The “Deliver for America” plan calls for modernizing the ground fleet, notably the Grumman Long Life Vehicle, which dates to 1987 and is very fuel-inefficient, at 9 mpg. The vehicles are well past their projected 24-year lifespan and are prone to breakdowns and even fires.
“Our mechanics are miracle workers,” said Mark Dimondstein, president of the American Postal Workers Union. “The parts are not available. They fabricate them. They do the best they can.”
The Postal Service announced in 2022 it would deploy at least 66,000 electric vehicles by 2028, including commercial off-the-shelf models, after years of deliberation and criticism it was moving too slowly to reduce emissions. By 2024, the agency was awarded a Presidential Sustainability Award for its efforts to electrify the largest fleet in the federal government.
Building new postal trucks
In 2021, Oshkosh Defense was awarded a contract for up to 165,000 battery electric and internal combustion engine Next Generation vehicles over 10 years.
The first of the odd-looking trucks, with hoods resembling a duck’s bill, began service in Georgia last year. Designed for greater package capacity, the trucks are equipped with airbags, blind-spot monitoring, collision sensors, 360-degree cameras and antilock brakes.
There’s also a new creature comfort: air-conditioning.
Douglas Lape, special assistant to the president of the National Assn. of Letter Carriers and a former carrier, is among numerous postal employees who have had a say in the new design. He marvels at how Oshkosh designed and built a new vehicle, transforming an old North Carolina warehouse into a factory along the way.
“I was in that building when it was nothing but shelving,” he said. “And now, being a completely functioning plant where everything is built in-house — they press the bodies in there, they do all of the assembly — it’s really amazing, in my opinion.”
Where things stand now
The agency has so far ordered 51,500 New Generation vehicles, including 35,000 battery-powered vehicles. To date, it has received 300 battery vehicles and 1,000 gas-powered ones.
Then-Postmaster General Louis DeJoy said in 2022 the agency expected to purchase chiefly zero-emissions delivery vehicles by 2026. It still needs some internal combustion engine vehicles that travel longer distances.
Frum, the Postal Service spokesperson, said the planned electric vehicle purchases were “carefully considered from a business perspective” and are being deployed to routes and facilities where they will save money.
The agency has also received more than 8,200 of 9,250 Ford E-Transit electric vehicles it has ordered, she said.
Ernst said it’s fine for the Postal Service to use EVs already purchased.
“But you know what? We need to be smart about the way we are providing services through the federal government,” she said. “And that was not a smart move.”
Maxwell Woody, lead author of the University of Michigan study, made the opposite case.
Postal vehicles, he said, have low average speeds and a high number of stops and starts that enable regenerative braking. Routes average under 30 miles and are known in advance, making planning easier.
“It’s the perfect application for an electric vehicle,” he said, “and it’s a particularly inefficient application for an internal combustion engine vehicle.”
Haigh writes for the Associated Press. AP writer Hannah Fingerhut in Des Moines contributed to this report.
Vehicle overturned after Israeli forces directed it down an ‘unsafe road’, local officials tell WAFA news agency.
At least 20 Palestinians have been killed and many injured after a truck carrying humanitarian aid overturned onto a crowd of people in central Gaza, according to the Government Media Office in the enclave.
The incident occurred on Wednesday as large numbers of Palestinians gathered in central Gaza in search of food and basic supplies, amid an increasingly dire humanitarian crisis.
Local officials quoted by the official Palestinian news agency Wafa said the vehicle overturned after Israeli forces directed it down what they described as an “unsafe road”.
Gaza Civil Defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal said that 20 people were killed and dozens were wounded in the incident while hundreds of civilians were waiting for aid, the AFP news agency reported.
“Despite the recent limited allowance of a few aid trucks, the occupation deliberately obstructs the safe passage and distribution of this aid,” the Gaza Government Media Office said in a statement.
“It forces drivers to navigate routes overcrowded with starving civilians who have been waiting for weeks for the most basic necessities. This often results in desperate crowds swarming the trucks and forcibly seizing their contents.”
The incident comes as humanitarian organisations warn of famine and disease spreading across the enclave, while deaths from starvation and malnutrition continue to rise.
At least three people died from malnutrition on Wednesday, medical sources told Al Jazeera. A source at al-Shifa Hospital in northern Gaza confirmed that Hiba Yasser Abu Naji, a child, died from malnutrition. An infant also died from malnutrition, according to the source. An adult from Jabalia was also reported to have died as a result of malnutrition.
On Monday, the Israeli military permitted 95 aid trucks to enter Gaza – a figure far below the 600 trucks a day needed to meet basic requirements, according to UNRWA. The current daily average is 85 trucks.
Meanwhile, Palestinians approaching aid distribution sites run by the notorious GHF have frequently come under Israeli fire since the organisation launched operations in late May. Such shootings have become near-daily occurrences near its sites in central and southern Gaza.
Jens Laerke, a spokesperson for OCHA, said that while some aid was entering the enclave, “there should be hundreds and hundreds of trucks entering Gaza every day for months or years to come.
“People are dying every day. This is a crisis on the brink of famine,” he said, adding that tonnes of life-saving aid remain stuck at border crossings due to bureaucratic delays and a lack of safe access.
Elsewhere in Gaza, several Palestinians were killed in Israeli attacks across the enclave.
Al-Awda Hospital reported that five people – including a woman and two children – were killed, and others wounded, in an Israeli raid on a house north of the Nuseirat refugee camp.
Four more people were killed in an Israeli raid on two homes in the Shujayea neighbourhood of Gaza City.
The city of Los Angeles must pay nearly $50 million to a man who has been in a coma since he was hit by a sanitation truck while crossing a street in Encino, a jury decided Thursday.
Kamran Hakimi, now 61, was in a crosswalk at Hayvenhurst Avenue and Ventura Boulevard last August when the sanitation truck struck him. Hakimi had a green light, and the driver made an “unsafe right turn,” according to Hakimi’s attorneys.
A handlebar on the front of the truck hit Hakimi’s head and flung him to the asphalt, where he hit his head, the attorneys said. Hakimi briefly stood and flashed a thumbs up before losing consciousness.
“Mr. Hakimi’s life, and the lives of his family, are forever changed due to the negligence of a City of Los Angeles employee,” said Rahul Ravipudi, one of Hakimi’s attorneys. “This verdict upholds the dignity of the life Mr. Hakimi enjoyed before this tragedy and we are grateful to the jury who carefully considered all the evidence and provided Mr. Hakimi with the means necessary to get the higher level of care he so desperately needs.”
Hakimi is a father of five and worked in real estate before the crash. In October, his attorneys filed a lawsuit against the city in Los Angeles Superior Court.
The city admitted that the driver failed to yield to Hakimi, according to Hakimi’s attorneys. But at trial, the city “disputed the damages suffered by Mr. Hakimi, arguing that his life expectancy was limited and that the value of his non-economic damages, including pain and suffering, emotional distress, and loss of enjoyment of life, was minimized because he was in a comatose state,” Hakimi’s attorneys said.
The jury ordered the city to pay Hakimi $48.8 million, including $25 million for future pain and suffering and $10 million for future medical expenses.
The verdict, which comes as the city continues to struggle with escalating legal liability payouts, was larger than any single payout by the city in the last two fiscal years, according to data provided by the City Attorney’s Office. The city can still appeal.
Another Hakimi attorney, Brian Panish, said the case never should have gone to trial, blaming City Attorney Hydee Feldstein Soto for refusing to settle the case.
“The city attorney chose to force this case to trial, rejected all reasonable settlement proposals … There were many reasonable proposals made by an independent mediator chosen by the city,” Panish said.
Feldstein Soto, through her press office, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Panish echoed arguments made by plaintiffs’ attorneys who have said that Feldstein Soto’s legal strategies have contributed to rising legal liability costs. They claim that Feldstein Soto has taken cases to trial that she should have settled, resulting in bigger verdicts if the city is found liable.
The city paid out a total of $289 million, its highest liability costs ever, in the fiscal year 2025.
People asked to avoid swarms of stinging insects after truck hauling 250 million bees rolls over near the Canadian border.
A truck carrying millions of honeybees has overturned in the northwestern United States, prompting emergency warnings from local authorities.
The truck, carrying approximately 31,751kg (70,000 pounds) of active beehives, overturned on Friday in Washington state’s Whatcom County – a rural area near the Canadian border, about 48km (30 miles) south of Vancouver.
“250 million bees are now loose,” the Whatcom County Sheriff’s Office (WCSO) announced on its official social media page. “Avoid the area due to the potential of bee escaping and swarming.”
Authorities sealed off parts of the area and urged the public to keep a safe distance of at least 200 yards (182 metres) as officials and bee experts helped recover, restore and reset the hives, according to the sheriff’s office.
The goal, officials said, is to safely re-hive the bees and help them locate their queens, a process that could take up to 48 hours.
While some beekeepers focus solely on honey production, many others lease their hives to farmers who rely on bees to pollinate their crops. The loss of millions of bees, even temporarily, could threaten the productivity of nearby farms during the growing season.
“While there is no general health risk to the public, anyone who is allergic to bee stings or has concerns should check the State Department of Health webpage on bees and wasps,” WCSO said.
Honeybees are crucial to the food supply, pollinating more than 100 crops including nuts, vegetables, berries, citrus and melons. Bees and other pollinators have been declining for years, and experts blame insecticides, parasites, disease, climate change and lack of a diverse food supply.
In 2018, the United Nations General Assembly sponsored the first “World Bee Day” on May 20 to bring attention to the bees’ plight.
Beekeepers often transport millions of bees from one location to another because leaving them in one location for too long can deplete resources for other pollinators, The Seattle Times newspaper reported.
In 2015, 14 million bees escaped a truck north of Seattle on Interstate 5 and started stinging people, the newspaper reported at the time.
