Wednesday

HIGH SCHOOL BASKETBALL
WEDNESDAY’S RESULTS

BOYS
CITY SECTION
AMIT 59, Sun Valley Magnet 38
Bernstein 71, Contreras 26
Crenshaw 55, King/Drew 39
Fulton 50, Vaughn 48
Hollywood 104, Belmont 10
LA Hamilton 71, Downtown Magnets 69
MSAR 67, Valor Academy 56
MSCP 84, Larchmont Charter 25
Northridge Academy 59, VAAS 12
Orthopaedic 69, Animo Bunche 34
RFK Community 73, Jefferson 70
Royal 54, Mendez 52
View Park 55, Bell 48
Wilmington Banning 62, Elizabeth 26

SOUTHERN SECTION
Arroyo 54, South El Monte 50
Chadwick 91, Paramount 63
Damien 66, Aquinas 41
Downey 57, Workman 22
Edgewood 52, West Covina 43
Flintridge Prep 80, ISLA 15
Gabrielino 91, Mountain View 46
Garden Grove 58, Irvine University 56
Hemet 56, Valley View 55
Highland 68, Lancaster 34
Hillcrest 57, Orange Vista 56
Indian Springs 64, Citrus Valley 55
Laguna Beach 70, Costa Mesa 46
Lakeside 54, Canyon Springs 50
La Palma 69, Westminster 18
Maricopa 47, Laton 17
Moreno Valley 52, Arlington 42
North Torrance 75, Bellflower 30
Pasadena Marshal 75, El Monte 51
Peninsula 65, Redondo Union 63
Perris 63, Riverside North 62
Pilgrim 71, Westmark 39
Public Safety Academy 51, River Springs Charter 44
Quartz Hill 76, Antelope Valley 44
Redondo Union 76, Peninsula 18
Riverside King 61, Chaparral 55
Riverside Poly 54, Liberty 43
Samueli Academy 49, Bolsa Grande 48
San Fernando Academy 71, Summit View 19
Segerstrom 66, Loara 38
Sierra Vista 62, Covina 58
Temple City 51, El Rancho 46
Thousand Oaks 65, Shalhevet 38
Torrance 76, El Segundo 37
Vista del Lago 57, Heritage 51

INTERSECTIONAL
Dorsey 60, Lawndale 55
Grace 68, Panorama 34
LA Roosevelt 42, Alhambra 39
San Gabriel 50, Maywood CES 23
Westchester 48, Compton Centennial 36

GIRLS
CITY SECTION
AMIT 25, Sun Valley Magnet 20
Bernstein 56, Contreras 13
Cleveland 64, North Hollywood 24
Hollywood 63, Belmont 13
King/Drew 60, Crenshaw 12
Larchmont Charter 36, MSCP 33
MSAR 42, Valor Academy 29
Orthopaedic 28, Animo Bunche 5
Rancho Dominguez 31, Elizabeth 20
South East 51, Lakeview Charter 23
Washington 65, Fremont 10

SOUTHERN SECTION
Agoura 65, Simi Valley 38
Buena Park 78, Westminster 29
Citrus Valley 43, Indio 24
Covina 56, Garey 25
CSDR 71, Victor Valley 33
El Modena 37, Edison 29
Flintridge Prep 85, Westridge 9
Gabrielino 81, Mountain View 4
Hemet 51, Valley View 24
Jurupa Valley 29, Indian Springs 20
Knight 81, Littlerock 8
Lancaster 60, Highland 40
Laton 29, Maricopa 8
Liberty 59, Citrus Hill 28
Los Altos 59, Anaheim 42
Los Amigos 39, Saddleback 19
Mira Costa 54, West Torrance 50
Newbury Park 53, Oxnard Pacifica 34
Oxnard 50, Santa Paula 42
Quartz Hill 57, Antelope Valley 18
Rancho Verde 46, Perris 19
Ramona 56, Gahr 29
Rancho Christian 100, Heritage 41
Riverside North 47, Vista del Lago 34
Riverside King 63, Xaxier Prep 38
Riverside Poly 73, Paloma Valley 38
River Springs Charter 35, Public Safety Academy 15
San Gabriel 46, Edgewood 26
San Gabriel Academy 63, Compton Centennial 62
Savanna 52, Costa Mesa 38
South El Monte 24, Arroyo 21
Thousand Oaks 69, Shalhevet 39
Torrance 74, El Segundo 36
Upland 44, Rosemead 27
Woodbridge 48, Century 6
Yorba Linda 64, Placentia Valencia 44

WASHINGTON — FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino said Wednesday that he will resign from the bureau next month, ending a brief and tumultuous tenure in which he clashed with the Justice Department over the handling of the Jeffrey Epstein files and was forced to reconcile the realities of his law enforcement job with provocative claims he made in his prior role as a popular podcast host.

The departure, which had been expected, would be among the highest-profile resignations of the Trump administration. It comes as FBI leadership has been buffeted by criticism over Director Kash Patel’s use of a government plane for personal purposes and social media posts about active investigations.

Bongino announced his planned departure in a post on X in which he said he was grateful for the “opportunity to serve with purpose.” He did not say precisely when in January he would leave or detail his future plans.

President Trump said earlier Wednesday, in response to a question about Bongino’s fate: “Dan did a great job. I think he wants to go back to his show.”

Bongino was always an unconventional pick for the No. 2 job at the FBI, a position that historically has entailed oversight of the bureau’s day-to-day operations and typically has been held by a career agent. Though he had previously worked as a New York City police officer and Secret Service agent, neither he nor Patel had any experience at the FBI before being picked for their jobs.

Nonetheless, Bongino was installed in the role in March by Trump after years as a conservative podcast host, where he used his platform to repeatedly rail against FBI leadership and to encourage conspiracy theories related to the Epstein sex-trafficking case and pipe bombs discovered in Washington on Jan. 6, 2021.

Once in the position, Bongino struggled to placate elements of Trump’s base who expected him to quickly deliver the reform he had claimed was needed at the FBI and to uncover the truths he had said had been hidden by the federal government.

On the Epstein case, for instance, he had previously challenged the official ruling that the wealthy financier had taken his own life in a New York jail soon after his 2019 arrest. But once in the FBI, he said in a Fox News interview: “I’ve seen the whole file. He killed himself.”

Bongino had separately speculated as recently as last year that the pipe bombs placed on the eve of the Jan. 6 Capitol riot were an “inside job” and part of a “massive cover-up.” But after the FBI earlier this month arrested a 30-year-old Virginia man with no evident connection to the federal government, Bongino was pressed about his prior comments.

“I was paid in the past for my opinions,” Bongino said in a Fox News interview. “One day I will be back in that space, but that’s not what I’m paid for now. I’m paid to be your deputy director, and we base investigations on facts.”

Tucker writes for the Associated Press.

MEXICO CITY — President Trump has ordered a partial blockade on oil tankers going to and from Venezuela, potentially crippling the nation’s already battered economy, and accused Caracas of stealing “oil, land other assets” from the United States — a significant escalation of Washington’s unrelenting campaign against the government of President Nicolás Maduro.

Asked about Venezuela on Wednesday, Trump said the United States will be “getting land, oil rights and whatever we had.”

“We want it back,” Trump said without further elaboration. It was unclear if Trump planned to say more about Venezuela in a televised address to the nation late Wednesday night.

The blockade, which aims to cripple the key component of Venezuela’s faltering, oil-dependent economy, comes as the Trump administration has bolstered military forces in the Caribbean, blown up more than two dozen boats allegedly ferrying illicit drugs in both the Caribbean and the Pacific, and threatened military strikes on Venezuela and neighboring Colombia.

“Venezuela is completely surrounded by the largest Armada ever assembled in the History of South America,” Trump said in a rambling post Tuesday night on his Truth Social site. “It will only get bigger, and the shock to them will be like nothing they have ever seen before.”

Not long after Trump announced the blockade Tuesday night, the government of Venezuela denounced the move and other Trump efforts as an attempt to “rob the riches that belong to our people.”

Leaders of other Latin American nations called for calm and United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, after a phone call with Maduro, called on U.N. members to “exert restraint and de-escalate tensions to preserve regional stability.”

Also Wednesday, Trump received rare pushback from the Republican-dominated Congress, where some lawmakers are pressuring the administration to disclose more information about its deadly attacks on alleged drug boats.

The Senate gave final approval to a $900-billion defense policy package that, among other things, would require the administration to disclose to lawmakers specific orders behind the boat strikes along with unedited videos of the deadly attacks. If the administration does not comply, the bill would withhold a quarter of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s travel budget.

The bill’s passage came a day after Hegseth and Secretary Marco Rubio came to Capitol Hill to brief lawmakers on the U.S. military campaign. The briefings left lawmakers with mixed reaction, largely with Republicans backing the campaign and Democrats expressing concern about it.

The White House has said its military campaign in Venezuela is meant to curb drug trafficking, but the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration data shows that Venezuela is a relatively minor player in the U.S.-bound drug trade.

Trump also declared that the South American country had been designated a “foreign terrorist organization.” That would apparently make Venezuela the first nation ever slapped with a classification normally reserved for armed groups deemed hostile to the United States or its allies. The consequences remain unclear for Venezuela.

Regional responses to the Trump threats highlight the new ideological fault lines in Latin America, where right-wing governments in recent years have won elections in Chile, Argentina and Ecuador.

The leftist leaders of the region’s two most populous nations — Brazil and Mexico — have called for restraint in Venezuela.

“Whatever one thinks about the Venezuelan government or the presidency of Maduro, the position of Mexico should always be: No to intervention, no to foreign meddling,” Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said Wednesday, calling on the United Nations to look for a peaceful solution and avoid any bloodshed.

Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has also urged Trump to pull back from confrontation. “The power of the word can outweigh the power of the gun,” Lula said he told Trump recently, offering to facilitate talks with the Maduro government.

But Chile’s right-wing president-elect, José Antonio Kast, said he supports regime-change in Venezuela, asserting that it would reduce migration from Venezuela to other nations in the region.

“If someone is going to do it, let’s be clear that it solves a gigantic problem for us and all of Latin America, all of South America, and even for countries in Europe,” Kast said, referring to Venezuelan immigration.

In his Tuesday post, Trump said he had ordered a “complete blockade of all sanctioned oil tankers going into, and out of, Venezuela.” While potentially devastating to Venezuela’s economy, the fact that the blockade will only affect tankers already sanctioned by U.S. authorities does give Venezuela some breathing room, at least for now.

Experts estimated that only between one-third and one-half of tankers transporting crude to and from Venezuela are likely part of the so-called “dark fleet” of sanctioned tankers. The ships typically ferry crude from Venezuela and Iran, two nations under heavy U.S. trade and economic bans.

However, experts said that even a partial blockade will be a major hit for Venezuela’s feeble economy, reeling under more than a decade of of U.S. penalties. And Washington can continue adding to the list of sanctioned tankers.

“The United States can keep sanctioning more tankers, and that would leave Venezuela with almost no income,” said David A. Smilde, a Venezuela expert at Tulane University. “That would probably cause a famine in the country.”

The growing pressure, analysts said, will likely mean the diminishing number of firms willing to take the risk of transporting Venezuelan crude will up their prices, putting more pressure on Caracas. Purchasers in China and elsewhere will also likely demand price cuts to buy Venezuelan oil.

Trump has said that Maduro must go because he is a “narco-terrorist” and heads the “Cartel de los Soles,” which the While House calls is a drug-trafficking syndicate. Trump has put a $50 million bounty on Maduro’s head. Experts say that Cartel de los Soles is not a functioning cartel, but a short-hand term for Venezuelan military officers who have been involved in the drug trade for decades, long before Maduro or his predecessor and mentor, the late Hugo Chávez, took office.

In his comments on Tuesday, Trump denounced the nationalization of the Venezuelan oil industry, a process that began in the 1970s, when Caracas was a strong ally of Washington.

Echoing Trump’s point that Venezuela “stole” U.S. assets was Stephen Miller, Trump’s homeland security advisor, who declared on X: “American sweat, ingenuity and toil created the oil industry in Venezuela. Its tyrannical expropriation was the largest recorded theft of American wealth and property.”

Among those believed to be driving Trump’s efforts to oust Maduro is Secretary of State Maro Rubio, the son of Cuban immigrants to Florida. Rubio has long been an outspoken opponent of the communist governments in Havana and Caracas. Venezuelan oil has helped the economies of left-wing governments in both Cuba and Nicaragua.

Christopher Sabatini, a senior fellow for Latin America at Chatham House, said Rubio has been on a long-time campaign to remove Maduro.”He has his own political project,” Sabatini said. “He wants to get rid of the dictators in Venezuela and Cuba.”

Staff writers McDonnell and Linthicum reported from Mexico City and Ceballos from Washington. Contributing was special correspondent Mery Mogollón in Caracas.

U.S. senators peppered Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr with questions during a wide-ranging hearing exploring media censorship, the FCC’s oversight and Carr’s alleged intimidation tactics during the firestorm over ABC comedian Jimmy Kimmel’s comments earlier this fall.

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) called Wednesday’s hearing of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee following the furor over ABC’s brief suspension of “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” amid social media backlash over Kimmel’s remarks in the wake of conservative activist Charlie Kirk’s killing.

Walt Disney Co. leaders yanked Kimmel off the air Sept. 17, hours after Carr suggested that Disney-owned ABC should punish the late-night comedian for his remarks — or face FCC scrutiny. Soon, two major TV station groups announced that they were pulling Kimmel’s show, although both reinstated the program several days after ABC resumed production.

Progressives were riled by the President Trump-appointed chairman’s seeming willingness to go after broadcasters in an alleged violation of their First Amendment rights. At the time, a few fellow Republicans, including Cruz, blasted Carr for suggesting to ABC: “We can do this the easy way or hard way.”

Cruz, in September, said that Carr’s comments belonged in the mob movie “Goodfellas.”

On Wednesday, Carr said his comments about Kimmel were not intended as threats against Disney or the two ABC-affiliated station groups that preempted Kimmel’s show.

The chairman argued the FCC had statutory authority to make sure that TV stations acted in the public interest, although Carr did not clarify how one jumbled sentence in Kimmel’s Sept. 15 monologue violated the broadcasters’ obligation to serve its communities.

Cruz was conciliatory Wednesday, praising Carr’s work in his first year as FCC chairman. However, Democrats on the panel attempted to pivot much of the three-hour session into a public airing of the Trump administration’s desire to punish broadcasters whom the president doesn’t like — and Carr’s seeming willingness to go along.

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) called Wednesday’s Senate committee hearing.

(Associated Press)

Carr was challenged by numerous Democrats who suggested he was demonstrating fealty to the president rather than running the FCC as an independent licensing body.

Despite the landmark Communications Act of 1934, which created the FCC, the agency isn’t exactly independent, Carr and fellow Republican Commissioner Olivia Trusty testified.

The two Republicans said because Trump has the power to hire and fire commissioners, the FCC was more akin to other agencies within the federal government.

“Then is President Trump your boss?” asked Sen. Andy Kim (D-N.J.). The senator then asked Carr whether he remembered his oath of office. Federal officials, including Carr, have sworn to protect the Constitution.

“The American people are your boss,” Kim said. “Have you ever had a conversation with the president or senior administration officials about using the FCC to go after critics?”

Carr declined to answer.

Protesters flocked to Hollywood to protest the preemption of “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” after ABC briefly pulled the late-night host off air indefinitely over comments he made about the fatal shooting of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.

(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)

The lone Democrat on the FCC, Anna M. Gomez, was frequently at odds with her fellow commissioners, including during an exploration of whether she felt the FCC was doing Trump’s bidding in its approach to merger approvals.

Trump separately continued his rant on media organizations he doesn’t like, writing in a Truth Social post that NBC News “should be ashamed of themselves in allowing garbage ‘interviews’” of his political rivals, in this case Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.).

Trump wrote that NBC and other broadcasters should pay “significant amounts of money for using the very valuable” public airwaves.

Earlier this year, FCC approval of the Larry Ellison family’s takeover of Paramount stalled for months until Paramount agreed to pay Trump $16 million to settle a lawsuit over his grievances with edits of a CBS “60 Minutes” pre-election interview with Kamala Harris.

“Without a doubt, the FCC is leveraging its authority over mergers and enforcement proceedings in order to influence content,” Gomez said.

Parts of the hearing devolved into partisan bickering over whether Democrats or Republicans had a worse track record of trampling on the 1st Amendment. Cruz and other Republicans referenced a 2018 letter, signed by three Democrats on the committee, which asked the FCC to investigate conservative TV station owner Sinclair Broadcast Group.

“Suddenly Democrats have discovered the 1st Amendment,” Cruz said. “Maybe remember it when Democrats are in power. The 1st Amendment is not a one-way license for one team to abuse the power.

“We should respect the free speech of all Americans, regardless of party,” Cruz said.

WASHINGTON — Four centrist Republicans broke with Speaker Mike Johnson on Wednesday and signed onto a Democratic-led petition that will force a House vote on extending for three years an enhanced pandemic-era subsidy that lowers health insurance costs for millions of Americans.

The stunning move comes after House Republican leaders pushed ahead with a health care bill that does not address the soaring monthly premiums that millions of people will soon endure when the tax credits for those who buy insurance through the Affordable Care Act expire at year’s end.

Democrats led by Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York needed 218 signatures to force a floor vote on their bill, which would extend the subsides for three years.

Republican Reps. Brian Fitzpatrick, Robert Bresnahan and Ryan Mackenzie, all from Pennsylvania, and Mike Lawler of New York signed on Wednesday morning, pushing it to the magic number of 218. A vote on the subsidy bill could come as soon as January under House rules.

“Unfortunately, it is House leadership themselves that have forced this outcome.” Fitzpatrick said in a statement.

Origins of a Republican revolt

The revolt against GOP leadership came after days of talks centered on the health care subsidies.

Johnson, R-La., had discussed allowing more politically vulnerable GOP lawmakers a chance to vote on bills that would temporarily extend the subsidies while also adding changes such as income caps for beneficiaries. But after days of discussions, the leadership sided with the more conservative wing of the party’s conference, which has assailed the subsidies as propping up a failed marketplace through the ACA, which is widely known as “Obamacare.”

House Republicans pushed ahead Wednesday a 100-plus-page health care package without the subsidies, instead focusing on long-sought GOP proposals designed to expand insurance coverage options for small businesses and the self-employed.

Fitzpatrick and Lawler tried to add a temporary extension of the subsidies to the bill, but were denied.

“Our only request was a floor vote on this compromise, so that the American People’s voice could be heard on this issue. That request was rejected. Then, at the request of House leadership I, along with my colleagues, filed multiple amendments, and testified at length to those amendments,” Fitzpatrick said. “House leadership then decided to reject every single one of these amendments.

“As I’ve stated many times before, the only policy that is worse than a clean three-year extension without any reforms, is a policy of complete expiration without any bridge,” Fitzpatrick said.

Lawler, in a social media post, similarly said that “the failure of leadership” to permit a vote had left him with “no choice” but to sign the petition. He urged Johnson to bring the plan up for an immediate floor vote.

Path ahead is uncertain

Even if the subsidy bill were to pass the House, which is far from assured, it would face an arduous climb in the Republican-led Senate.

Republicans last week voted down a three-year extension of the subsidies and proposed an alternative that also failed. But in an encouraging sign for Democrats, four Republican senators crossed party lines to support their proposal.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., argued against the Democratic extension as “an attempt to disguise the real impact of Obamacare’s spiraling health care costs.”

Freking writes for the Associated Press.

Jim Ward, a prolific voice actor whose work spans Nickelodeon shows “Fairly OddParents,” “Danny Phantom” and video games including “Ratchet & Clank,” has died. He was 66.

Ward died Wednesday, his former radio co-host commentator Stephanie Miller announced. “Our Good friend, Jim Ward passed away yesterday,” she tweeted Thursday. “We’re going to spend the morning remembering his brilliance.”

She first broke the news Wednesday, informing her followers on X (formerly Twitter) of “one of saddest messages I have ever received from the amazing Mrs. Jim Ward.” The voice actor co-hosted and often appeared as a guest on Miller’s eponymous syndicated talk radio program from 2004 to 2021.

Ward’s wife, Janice Ward, confirmed to TMZ that he died because of complications from advanced Alzheimer’s disease and was receiving treatment in Los Angeles before his death.

Though Ward often imitated public figures on Miller’s show, he is best known for voicing a wide variety of characters, including real estate tycoon Doug Dimmadome (the famed owner of the Dimmsdale Dimmadome) and dogged news anchor Chet Ubetcha on “The Fairly OddParents.” He also voiced various roles in series “My Life as a Teenage Robot,” “Danny Phantom,” “Ben 10,” “The Replacements” and dozens of other animated shows. In 2009, he earned a Daytime Emmy for his performance in the revival of “Biker Mice From Mars.”

Butch Hartman, the creator and animator for “Fairly OddParents” and “Danny Phantom,” mourned his longtime collaborator on social media. “To say the voice over world has lost a giant is an understatement,” Hartman said on Instagram, hours after Ward’s death.

“Rest in peace, dear friend and thank you for blessing us with your incredible talent and charm,” Hartman added. “Love you, brother.”

In the realm of video games, Ward’s voice acting credits were plentiful and ranged from the adventure classic “Escape From Monkey Island” in 2000 to the anti-Nazi shooter “Wolfenstein” in 2009 to the western-themed “Red Dead Redemption II” in 2018. Most notably, Ward voiced camera-ready space hero Captain Qwark in Insomniac Games’ “Ratchet & Clank” franchise, from the original game’s release in 2002 to its re-release in 2016, and the sequels and various shorts in between.

Ward’s video game voice credits also include the inaugural “Call of Duty,” “Resident Evil 4,” “Final Fantasy XIII,” “BioShock 2,” “Fallout: New Vegas” and numerous gaming tie-ins for TV and film projects.

WASHINGTON — The Senate on Thursday rejected legislation to extend Affordable Care Act tax credits, essentially guaranteeing that millions of Americans will see a steep rise in costs at the beginning of the year.

Senators rejected a Democratic bill to extend the subsidies for three years and a Republican alternative that would have created new health savings accounts — an unceremonious end to a monthslong effort by Democrats to prevent the COVID-19-era subsidies from expiring on Jan. 1.

Ahead of the votes, Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer of New York warned Republicans that if they did not vote to extend the tax credits, “there won’t be another chance to act,” before premiums rise for many people who buy insurance off the ACA marketplaces.

“Let’s avert a disaster,” Schumer said. “The American people are watching.”

Republicans have argued that Affordable Care Act plans are too expensive and need to be overhauled. The health savings accounts in the GOP bill would give money directly to consumers instead of to insurance companies, an idea that has been echoed by President Trump. But Democrats immediately rejected the plan, saying that the accounts wouldn’t be enough to cover costs for most consumers.

Some Republicans have pushed their colleagues to extend the credits, including Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina, who said they should vote for a short-term extension so they can find agreement on the issue next year. “It’s too complicated and too difficult to get done in the limited time that we have left,” Tillis said Wednesday.

But despite the bipartisan desire to continue the credits, Republicans and Democrats have never engaged in meaningful or high-level negotiations on a solution, even after a small group of centrist Democrats struck a deal with Republicans last month to end the 43-day government shutdown in exchange for a vote on extending the ACA subsidies. Most Democratic lawmakers opposed the move as many Republicans made clear that they wanted the tax credits to expire.

The deal raised hopes for bipartisan compromise on healthcare. But that quickly faded with a lack of any real bipartisan talks.

The dueling Senate votes are the latest political messaging exercise in a Congress that has operated almost entirely on partisan terms, as Republicans pushed through a massive tax and spending cuts bill this summer using budget maneuvers that eliminated the need for Democratic votes. They also tweaked Senate rules to push past a Democratic blockade of all of Trump’s nominees.

An intractable issue

The votes were also the latest failed salvo in the debate over the Affordable Care Act, President Obama’s signature law that Democrats passed along party lines in 2010 to expand access to insurance coverage.

Republicans have tried unsuccessfully since then to repeal or overhaul the law, arguing that healthcare is still too expensive. But they have struggled to find an alternative. In the meantime, Democrats have made the policy a central political issue in several elections, betting that the millions of people who buy healthcare on the government marketplaces want to keep their coverage.

“When people’s monthly payments spike next year, they’ll know it was Republicans that made it happen,” Schumer said in November, while making clear that Democrats would not seek compromise.

Even if they view it as a political win, the failed votes are a loss for Democrats who demanded an extension of the benefits as they forced a government shutdown for six weeks in October and November — and for the millions of people facing premium increases on Jan. 1.

Maine Sen. Angus King, an independent who caucuses with Democrats, said the group tried to negotiate with Republicans after the shutdown ended. But, he said, the talks became unproductive when Republicans demanded language adding new limits for abortion coverage that were a “red line” for Democrats. He said Republicans were going to “own these increases.”

A plethora of plans, but little agreement

Republicans have used the looming expiration of the subsidies to renew their longstanding criticisms of the ACA, also called Obamacare, and to try, once more, to agree on what should be done.

Thune announced earlier this week that the GOP conference had decided to vote on the bill led by Louisiana Sen. Bill Cassidy, the chairman of the Senate Health, Labor, Education and Pensions Committee, and Idaho Sen. Mike Crapo, the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, even as several Republican senators proposed alternate ideas.

In the House, Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) has promised a vote next week. Republicans weighed different options in a conference meeting on Wednesday, with no apparent consensus.

Republican moderates in the House who could have competitive reelection bids next year are pushing Johnson to find a way to extend the subsidies. But more conservative members want to see the law overhauled.

Rep. Kevin Kiley (R-Rocklin) has pushed for a temporary extension, which he said could be an opening to take further steps on healthcare.

If they fail to act and healthcare costs go up, the approval rating for Congress “will get even lower,” Kiley said.

Jalonick writes for the Associated Press. AP writers Kevin Freking and Joey Cappelletti contributed to this report.

HIGH SCHOOL BASKETBALL

WEDNESDAY’S RESULTS
BOYS
CITY SECTION
Arleta 61, Chavez 21
Bernstein 51, RFK Community 40
Bravo 70, Roosevelt 63
Canoga Park 68, Reseda 21
Carson 52, Wilmington Banning 44
Central City Value 51, Animo Bunche 46
Chatsworth 69, Sylmar 52
Contreras 51, Mendez 40
Diego Rivera 58, Iovine and Young Center 30
Downtown Magnets 96, Annenberg 20
Fairfax 65, LA University 26
Foshay 94, Horace Mann UCLA Community 49
Garfield 66, South East 33
Granada Hills Kennedy 52, Van Nuys 38
Hawkins 80, Port of Los Angeles 72
Huntington Park 51, South Gate 38
Jefferson 74, Santee 63
King/Drew 58, LA Jordan 52
LACES 38, Westchester 36
LA Hamilton 82, LA Wilson 65
Lincoln 56, Hollywood 40
Locke 60, Dymally 21
Los Angeles 70, Angelou 32
MSAR 39, Bert Corona Charter 38
MSCP 108, Stella 22
Orthopaedic 67, Aspire Ollin 18
Palisades 75, Venice 55
San Fernando 89, Panorama 38
Washington 86, Crenshaw 56
West Adams 58, Manual Arts 48

SOUTHERN SECTION
Ambassador 53, NOVA Academy 42
Anaheim Canyon 77, Norte Vista 63
Apple Valley 92, Barstow 87
Arcadia 58, Pasadena 53
Arroyo 58, El Rancho 51
Banning 61, Rubidoux 57
Bassett 56, EF Academy 30
Capistrano Valley 59, Laguna Beach 47
Chino Hills 68, Corona Santiago 62
Coachella Valley 59, Cathedral City 38
Corona Centennial 79, Calvary Chapel 30
Corona del Mar 64, Great Oak 43
CSDR 59, La Sierra Academy 28
Edgewood 53, Santa Ana Valley 23
Elsinore 65, Murrieta Valley 60
Estancia 64, Nogales 25
Etiwanda 58, Cypress 42
Foothill Tech 49, St. Bonaventure 46
Fountain Valley 65, Irvine University 47
Garden Grove 62, Magnolia 40
Glendora 70, Brea Olinda 65
Glenn 67, Eastside Christian 12
Grace 51, Villanova Prep 38
Heritage Christian 53, Aquinas 29
Holy Martyrs Armenian 60, Calvary Baptist 48
Knight 80, Palmdale 41
La Canada 67, La Puente 21
La Habra 59, Huntington Beach 50
La Palma Kennedy 38, Garden Grove Pacifica 36
Los Alamitos 89, Cerritos 54
Los Altos 83, Savanna 56
Marina 70, Ocean View 37
Mater Dei 90, Jurupa Hills 70
Mayfair 63, Warren 54
Millikan 61, Leuzinger 43
Mission Viejo 67, Sage Hill 60
Monrovia 67, Pomona 22
Montclair 62, Patriot 61
Oaks Christian 77, Simi Valley 32
Orange Vista 72, Heritage 61
Pacific Lutheran 65, Animo Leadership 51
PACS 60, Santa Clarita Christian 46
Paloma Valley 55, Moreno Valley 50
Pasadena Poly 59, Gabrielino 39
Peninsula 61, Temescal Canyon 53
Quartz Hill 73, Lancaster 53
Rancho Verde 83, Sonora 71
Redlands East Valley 81, Grand Terrace 41
Rialto 65, Granite Hills 23
Riverside King 79, Arlington 42
Rolling Hills Prep 79, CAMS 23
Samueli Academy 47, Century 42
San Gabriel 67, Pasadena Marshall 41
Santa Ana 48, Orange 35
Santa Barbara Providence 86, Oak Grove 34
Sierra Canyon 89, Rancho Christian 57
Silver Valley 68, Western Christian 57
Silverado 61, Ridgecrest Burroughs 24
South Hills 36, West Covina 35
St. John Bosco 62, Fairmont Prep 56
St. Pius X-St. Matthias Academy 83, Whittier 40
Valley View 65, Vista del Lago 64
Vasquez 76, St. Genevieve 68
Verbum Dei 64, Long Beach Wilson 58
Westlake 75, Buckley 62

INTERSECTIONAL
Alemany 66, Granada Hills 65
Duarte 69, CHAMPS 28
Garces Memorial 58, Paraclete 49
Legacy Christian Academy 66, Birmingham 47
Mira Mesa 60, Murrieta Mesa 48
Newport Beach Pacifica Christian 66, Seattle (WA) King’s 35
Rancho Mirage 65, Brawley 58
SEED: LA 85, Magnolia Science Academy 21

GIRLS
CITY SECTION
Animo Bunche 35, Central City Value 33
Annenberg 38, Downtown Magnets 4
Arleta 68, Chavez 6
Bell 50, Legacy 15
Carson 36, Wilmington Banning 33
Diego Rivera 47, Iovine and Young Center 3
Foshay 39, Horace Mann UCLA Community 25
Garfield 62, South East 31
Granada Hills Kennedy 72, Van Nuys 8
Hawkins 79, Port of Los Angeles 32
Huntington Park 57, South Gate 17
LA Fairfax 40, LA University 19
LA Wilson 64, Elizabeth 6
Locke 30, Dymally 10
Los Angeles 30, Angelou 28
Mendez 19, Contreras 16
MSCP 46, Stella 15
Palisades 60, Venice 56
Reseda 36, Canoga Park 18
RFK Community 44, Bernstein 32
San Fernando 54, Panorama 18
San Pedro 78, Rancho Dominguez 7
Verdugo Hills 47, North Hollywood 36
West Adams 51, Manual Arts 12
Westchester 84, LACES 34

SOUTHERN SECTION
Acaciawood 39, Liberty Christian 10
Alemany 74, YULA 34
Aliso Niguel 52, Capistrano Valley 29
Apple Valley 51, Barstow 21
Arcadia 59, Pasadena 29
Banning 33, Rubidoux 16
Carpinteria 54, Nordhoff 39
Carter 65, La Sierra 23
Citrus Valley 56, Perris 30
Colony 45, Fontana 42
Compton Centennial 41, San Gabriel Academy 36
CSDR 66, La Sierra Academy 8
Dana Hills 45, Northwood 40
Dominguez 56, La Puente 24
Fillmore 46, Channel Islands 34
Flintridge Sacred Heart 51, Burbank Providence 32
Garden Grove 33, Los Amigos 29
Glendora 67, Patriot 27
Heritage 74, Chaparral 37
Hesperia Christian 45, Arrowhead Christian 33
Indian Springs 47, Tahquitz 42
La Serna 57, La Habra 28
Long Beach Wilson 46, Whitney 42
Los Amigos 37, Santa Ana Valley 28
Milken 53, Notre Dame Academy 39
Montclair 33, Arroyo 19
Norwalk 66, Workman 24
Ontario Christian 98, Sherman Oaks Notre Dame 25
Pasadena Poly 65, Westridge 9
Redlands 60, Arlington 29
Redondo Union 50, Harvard-Westlake 37
Rosamond 57, Desert 13
Rosary Academy 70, Wiseburn Da Vinci 39
St. Lucy’s 25, Bloomington 11
St. Margaret’s 52, El Toro 46
Sunny Hills 47, Paramount 40
Temecula Valley 42, Desert Christian Academy 35
Thousand Oaks 63, Canyon Country Canyon 43
Upland 39, Temescal Canyon 38
Vista Murrieta 48, Ayala 47
Walnut 52, Millikan 40
Yorba Linda 44, Northview 28

INTERSECTIONAL
Birmingham 52, La Canada 41
Centennial (CO) Eagle Crest
Gertz-Ressler 36, Beverly Hills 31

Michigan has fired head football coach Sherrone Moore with cause after a university investigation found “credible evidence” he had “engaged in an inappropriate relationship with a staff member,” the school announced Wednesday.

“This conduct constitutes a clear violation of University policy,” athletic director Warde Manuel said in a statement, “and U-M maintains zero tolerance for such behavior.”

Moore started at Michigan in 2018 as tight ends coach and worked his way up to offensive coordinator. He was named head coach in January 2024, weeks after the Wolverines won the College Football Playoff national championship, after Jim Harbaugh left to become coach of the Chargers.

The Wolverines went 8-5 in Sherrone’s first season, including a win over Alabama in the ReliaQuest Bowl, and 9-3 this season, earning a spot in the Citrus Bowl against Texas on Dec. 31.

Associate head coach Biff Poggi has been named interim head coach. Poggi also served as interim coach for two games in 2025 while Sherrone was suspended after an NCAA investigation into Michigan’s sign-stealing scandal.

A federal judge ruled Wednesday that the Trump administration must immediately end the deployment of the National Guard in Los Angeles, the latest legal blow to the president’s embattled efforts to police American streets with armed soldiers.

Senior U.S. District Judge Charles R. Breyer said in his ruling that command of the remaining 300 federalized National Guard troops must return to Gov. Gavin Newsom, who sued the administration in June after it commandeered thousands of troops to quell protests over immigration enforcement in Los Angeles.

On June 12, Breyer ruled that deployment illegal — a decision that was challenged and ultimately reversed by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. The court said the esoteric statute Trump invoked to wrest command of the Guard from the governor afforded him “a great level of deference” to determine whether a rebellion was underway in Los Angeles, as the Justice Department claimed at the time.

The same sequence repeated this autumn in Oregon, where 200 California Guard troops were sent to help quash demonstrations outside an ICE facility.

Unlike in California, the Oregon decision was vacated amid claims the Justice Department inflated the number of federal protective personnel it said were detailed to Portland and misrepresented other facts to the court.

The decision is now under review by a larger panel of the 9th Circuit, while the Supreme Court weighs an almost identical challenge to the deployment in Illinois.

In both cases, conservative judicial appointees have signaled skepticism about the president’s authority to order boots on the ground, and to keep troops federalized indefinitely.

“States are not only owed protection by the federal government, they are owed protection from it,” Judge Jay Bybee wrote in a lengthy filing Tuesday in support of the 9th Circuit review. “There is no greater threat to the sovereignty of the states than an assertion of federal control over their domestic affairs.”

The “domestic violence” clause of the Constitution was part of a careful compromise between its framers allowing the president to deploy armed soldiers against citizens “only as a last resort,” the judge argued. The president should be compelled to provide some proof of his claims and the states should be empowered to test it — “particularly in the face of contrary evidence.”

That position earned him a sharp rebuke from the court’s newest member, Trump appointee Judge Eric Tung, who echoed the administration’s claim that its deployments were “unreviewable” by the courts.

A demonstrator interacts with U.S. Marines and National Guard troops standing in line at the entrance of the Metropolitan Detention Center following federal immigration operations in July.

(Etienne Laurent / AFP via Getty Images)

Their exchange reflects a deepening rift on the 9th Circuit, once the most liberal appellate division in the United States.

Trump remade the 9th Circuit in his first term, naming 10 judges to the bench. Those picks were largely curated by Leonard Leo of the libertarian-leaning Federalist Society.

But Leo has since lost favor to Tung’s longtime friend Mike Davis of the Article III Project, whose recommendations tack well to the right of his predecessor, experts said.

Still, infighting on the appellate bench is far from the only hurdle facing Trump’s domestic deployments.

In October, the Supreme Court ordered both the administration and the state of Illinois to address a theory by Georgetown University law professor Martin S. Lederman, who argued the statute only allows presidents to federalize the National Guard after they send in the army.

“If the court wants to rule against Trump on this, that’s the least offensive way,” said Eric J. Segall, a professor at Georgia State College of Law. “It’s a way to avoid all factual determinations for the moment.”

But such a ruling could open the door to even more aggressive military action in the future, he and others warn.

“If the Supreme Court comes in and says, ‘you have to use the active duty military before you can use the National Guard,’ it has the effect of saying everything that happened until now [was illegal],” said David Janovsky from the Project on Government Oversight. “But then you have the prospect of more active duty troops getting deployed.”

Congress, too, is taking a fine-toothed comb to Trump’s troop cases. The Senate Armed Services Committee is set to hear testimony Thursday from military top brass about repeated domestic deployments.

“Across the United States, Donald Trump has illegally deployed our nation’s servicemembers into American cities under unclear and false pretexts and despite the costs to our military and civil rights,” Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.) said in a statement announcing the hearing. “The American people and our troops deserve answers.”

Meanwhile, the Trump administration has continued to broaden its claims of executive power in court.

In recent weeks, Department of Justice lawyers have argued that, once federalized, state Guard troops would remain under the president’s command in perpetuity. Breyer called that position “contrary to law” in his ruling Wednesday.

“Defendants’ argument for a president to hold unchecked power to control state troops would wholly upend the federalism that is at the heart of our system of government,” Breyer wrote.

California leaders cheered Wednesday’s ruling as a turning point in what until now has been an uphill legal battle to constrain the president’s use of state troops. The order was set to take effect on Monday, though it was all but certain to be appealed to the 9th Circuit.

“The President deployed these brave men and women against their own communities, removing them from essential public safety operations,” Newsom said in a statement Wednesday morning. “We look forward to all National Guard servicemembers being returned to state service.”

Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta called it “a good day for our democracy and the strength of the rule of law.”

Still, some legal scholars and civil liberties experts warn repeated deployments — and the slogging court battles that attend them — could inure the public to further politicization of the military around the midterms.

“The sense of normalization is probably part of the plan here,” Janovsky said. “Having troops trained for war on the streets of American cities puts everyone at more risk. The more we normalize the blurring of those lines, the higher the risk that troops will be used for inappropriate purposes against the American people.”

Times staff writers Kevin Rector and Jenny Jarvie contributed to this report.