That was overheard on Friday morning as two City Section cross-country runners walked together in the rain at Pierce College at the cross-country prelims.
TikTok didn’t exist 50 years ago when I went to my first City Section cross-country meet. My annual pilgrimage to the City prelims or finals always leads me to discover a story for readers to enjoy. It’s like a squirrel looking for a nut — it’s certain to be found. Since cross-country was one of the first sports I covered, I always want to return because it is so indicative of what high school sports is supposed to be about: Athletes competing for the love of their sport.
City cross-country also gives you an added insight into what Los Angeles looks like with the many different nationalities represented. There were athletes from 77 Los Angeles Unified School District schools who were transported by 34 buses. Rival athletes (Carson and Banning, among others) shared buses because of cutbacks to transportation dispatchers and holding the event on a Friday. When you add charter schools, there were close to 140 schools’ athletes participating in the prelims.
All it takes to find a story is show up and ask a coach.
My annual visit to City Section cross country, the first sport I covered 50 years ago. So many charter schools now but the environment is the same. Boys and girls running for the love of running. No one talking NIL or transfers. Maybe the last bastion of high school sports from… pic.twitter.com/IqpKMCehce
This year’s feel-good story is about 16-year-old junior Miguel Mora of Carson. He had never run cross-country in his life until this winter. He was a soccer player for 10 years, playing junior varsity at Carson. He was always leading the soccer team when it came to running.
“I ran a 4:42 mile, and I had no training,” Mora said. “So I was like, ‘Oh, I want to see what I can do.’”
He gave up soccer, which his soccer-fan father initially didn’t like. After Mora won the Marine League 1,600 title last spring, he remembers visiting his father in the bleachers and seeing him smile.
“He said, “Congrats. You made the right choice.’”
Ethan Funk (right) of Palisades and Miguel Mora of Carson finished one-two at the City Section Division I cross country prelims. They will face off in Saturday’s finals at Pierce College.
(Eric Sondheimer / Los Angeles Times)
Despite his limited cross-country experience, Mora is one of the favorites to win the City Division I championship on Nov. 21 at Pierce College. He finished second at Friday’s prelims with a time of 15:26.30. The winner was another junior, Ethan Funk of Palisades who ran 15:23.70.
Funk and Mora were friendly with each other before the race. Again, these cross-country athletes are different. There’s no trash talking, no disrespect. Their task is grueling, and they understand what an accomplishment it is to train by running 16 miles in a week and three miles in a race.
“It makes me push myself to the max,” said Mora, who’s an A student and takes calculus.
As for switching sports, Mora said, “I feel like I was wasting my potential. So I decided to stick to track.”
Welcome to the world of high school cross-country, where there are stories to tell at every race if you ask.
The MLB free agent market is beginning to shake out, spurred into action during the general managers meetings in Las Vegas this week.
Reliever acquisitions have been the first wave, with Emilio Pagán landing with the Tigers for one year and $11.5 million, and Ryan Weiss with the Padres for $1.85 million during the meetings. Former Dodger Evan Phillips signed with the Braves on Thursday for three years, $35 million.
Left-hander Alex Vesia, who has been with the Dodgers for the last six seasons, is also expected to garner plenty of early interest on the free agent market.
On Friday, first baseman Jake Bauers added a tally to the position-player side, agreeing to a deal with the Red Sox. Fresh off a career year and World Series title, Bauers reportedly is set to ink a four-year, $58 million contract.
So teams aren’t waiting until after the impending lockout to reinforce their rosters. But that still leaves a wide range of possibilities before the current CBA expires on Dec. 1.
“We’re totally focused on business as usual, trying to make sure we’re as prepared as possible in case things happen in different ways,” Dodgers general manager Brandon Gomes said. “Whether that’s trade or free agency, continue to put ourselves in a position to be able to act if something comes up that we feel like is really important to helping our team, both short-term and long-term.”
That was a common refrain from leaders of baseball operations departments around the league.
“Business as usual for us,” new Orioles GM Jared Banner said. “We’re looking to get better, and that’s our focus here. So we’ll just read and react as each day passes by.”
Business as usual, however, means a variety of things for different teams.
“We are always going to be on the front end of aggression with how we operate in the market,” Mariners president of baseball operations Jerry Dipoto said. “So whether the market wants to operate faster or slower than it typically does, we’re usually not listening. … Teams know that typically, if we don’t start the hot stove, we’re among the starters. So our behavior won’t change much, and my general resting place is, if our behavior is going to be unaffected, I don’t sweat too much what the other 29 teams will do, unless they’re holding us up.”
The Mariners took that aggressive approach before the last lockout, too. They were one of the major contributors to an active first month of free agency, during which teams committed a whopping $1.9 billion before Dec. 2, 2021.
“It’s definitely a convenient thing to point to because there just aren’t a lot of situations that are even remotely similar to this,” Tigers president of baseball operations Scott Harris said of the record flurry of activity five years ago. “I don’t think it’s going to follow the same course; I would expect it not to.”
Looming beyond this lockout is the threat of a salary cap. And though the MLB Players Assn. has made it clear that it will continue to fight the owners’ push for an overhaul of the current structure, teams also can’t completely ignore the possibility of a salary cap, or some other guardrails on spending in the next CBA.
The owners’ latest proposal reportedly included a salary cap of about $258.2 million, depending on next year’s revenue, to be implemented in 2028.
Though many around the industry expect that, in the case of a salary cap, MLB would build in a gradual rollout or specific exceptions to make the massive change a little less destabilizing, such a shift would pose a challenge to large-payroll teams like the Dodgers.
The Dodgers have some money set to come off the books in 2028 — veteran first baseman Freddie Freeman’s contract expires after next season, and Teoscar Hernández, Max Muncy and Hyeseong Kim have 2028 club options. But the Dodgers’ current commitments for 2028 (over $275 million in CBT payroll, according to Spotrac) already put them above MLB’s latest proposed salary cap.
“We’ll put ourselves in position to see what’s available, and then go from there because we really don’t know what any of that looks like,” Gomes said. “So we have to function with what we know right now.”
The Dodgers at least don’t have many glaring needs going into 2027. At the top of the list will be their bullpen and bench, markets that they could explore in the coming weeks.
They’ve also remained in touch with top free agent Tarik Skubal’s representatives, after a largely successful trade-deadline union this past season, and are set to meet with him. But it is still unclear just how aggressive the Dodgers will be, or whether Skubal will agree to a contract by Dec. 1.
DODGE CITY, Kan. — Jose Del Real looked over the crowd from the stage in a park, at hundreds of his neighbors with furious signs tucked under their arms, voicing their anger at immigration agents who had descended on their town and started rounding up their friends and family. His daughters, in the front row, were crying.
Del Real, an Army veteran who served two tours in Iraq, hadn’t voted in a decade. He thought it wouldn’t matter in this ruby red corner of Kansas. But the midterm election was weeks away. He draped an American flag over his shoulders, put on his Iraq veteran cap and ended his speech with a message: “None of this matters if you do not vote. Let’s go vote.”
They did. This county and two of its neighbors in southwestern Kansas, Republican strongholds where a steady stream of immigrants have settled over the decades to work at feed lots and slaughterhouses, swung wildly to the left. The shift helped elect a Democratic U.S. senator from Kansas for the first time in nearly a century, signaling the limits of President Donald Trump’s aggressive deportation agenda.
Since Democrats won back control of Congress in a decisive rebuke to Republicans, Trump has sent mixed messages about how he plans to handle immigration enforcement going forward. He suggested that his approach to deportations was too harsh but also named hard-liner Stephen Miller as his new White House chief of staff. Both parties will be recalibrating their approach ahead of the next presidential campaign.
Here in Kansas, late September raids ignited a maelstrom of rage, turning many who had been apathetic, like Del Real, into determined voters.
Masked officers in tactical gear banged on doors before dawn. They stopped cars in the middle of intersections. Businesses shuttered. Families feared leaving their houses. Children stopped going to school. Some livestreamed themselves being detained. One man pleaded “God help me” in Spanish, his hands shaking, as he asked anyone watching to let his family know.
The resistance came not only from Democrats or the Latino population, which has grown to about two-thirds of Dodge City. Kansas’ embattled Republican senator, Roger Marshall, who would lose his reelection bid to Adam Hamilton, issued a statement pleading with the administration to consult local officials before launching raids.
Del Real regrets he didn’t vote in 2024, when Trump roared back into office pledging mass deportations.
“We had to see it in front of us,” Del Real said. “I had to see it in the flesh.”
This corner of Kansas is responsible for much of the country’s beef
The gates leading into Dodge City boast that it’s the “Queen of the Cowtowns.” Its main street is named after the classic Western set here, “Gunsmoke.” Murals celebrating cowboy history mix with evidence of a changing culture: storefronts showcasing quinceañera dresses, Mexican bakeries, city signs printed in both Spanish and English.
Del Real’s family came from Mexico when he was a kindergartner. Like most here, they came to work. The area — Dodge City and the region’s other hubs, Garden City and Liberal — is known as the Golden Triangle of Meatpacking, responsible for about a quarter of the U.S. beef supply.
Some here thought their importance to the nation’s food might spare them from the administration’s deportation campaigns, said Amy Soberanes, a 25-year-old local organizer.
Soberanes, the daughter of Mexican immigrants, said she and others tried for years to get people — particularly their young, Latino neighbors — engaged.
But, from rural Kansas, immigration raids in places like Minneapolis and Chicago felt abstract.
Then they saw their own streets in social media videos.
People were furious, said Soberanes, who worried the daily protests could get out of hand. They told people not to slash tires or break windows, to store up their anger and take it out on Election Day.
“We’ll see them at the ballot box,” she recalls repeating.
Her phone rang and rang. People she’d hassled to vote for years asked: How do I register?
“If ICE hadn’t come, we would still be red, 100%,” she said. “And so I thank Donald Trump for sending immigration here.”
Answers about the immigration raids never came
No one knew immigration officers were coming.
Dodge City Commissioner Rick Sowers said he and other city officials found out just like everyone else, through social media or masses of unmarked trucks on their neighbors’ lawns.
They scrambled to get answers from the federal government – who they were looking for, who was in charge, how long they would stay – and never did.
The Trump administration issued statements naming five “heinous criminals” they said had been arrested. But the Wichita Eagle dug into that claim and found none of those people were actually apprehended during the surge: Four had been deported months before and the fifth was already in prison, the newspaper found.
The agency said it detained 104 people from southwest Kansas.
Local officials have still never seen a list, Sowers said.
Local Republican Chairman Scott Fischer, who describes himself as a supporter of strong borders, was surprised by the operation’s intensity.
“There was a little showmanship,” he said. “I don’t know why it was like that.”
He said he still considers the county red — it voted, narrowly, for Republican gubernatorial candidate Ty Masterson. The Associated Press called that race Thursday: Masterson lost to Democrat Cindy Holscher.
But some Dodge City Republicans abandoned the party in the U.S. Senate race.
Dr. Russell Arben Fox, political science professor at Friends University in Wichita, said swings as dramatic as that one couldn’t have happened without some white, moderate Republicans changing their minds.
More than half of Kansas voters in the Senate race disapprove of how ICE is handling its job, according to The AP Voter Poll, a survey of more than 100,000 midterm voters. That’s consistent with the 61% of voters who say this nationally.
Most of the Latino immigrants here are hard-working, family-oriented, faithful people – a perfect fit for conservative Kansas values, Fischer said, so local Republicans tend to have a nuanced view on immigration.
Some public officials have for years begged the federal government for reforms to provide a pathway for these workers who run the region’s economy.
“In general terms, mass deportation is not practical,” Fischer said. “When we say send them all home, what does that mean? Who is them?”
Dodge City residents came together to help during the raids
To many here, “them” this time meant relatives and friends. In this small town, nearly everybody is connected to everybody else, so they did what they could to help.
Oscar Soto delivered food to people afraid to leave home during the deportation raids.
He started calling it “the black week,” after the black plague. That’s what it felt like to him, a pestilence that arrived suddenly.
His mother came here from Mexico, he said, and though she is here legally, she was terrified.
“It seemed unreal,” he said. “It was stuff that’s never been seen here, and it was day after day after day.”
He works at a family-owned grocery, and strung a garland of flags from around the world above the counter when it opened. Most customers are from Mexico and Guatemala, he said, but he wanted to signal that the store was for everyone.
Then he hung a big American flag from the ceiling. It means to him that anyone, from anywhere, can come here, work hard and build a life, free from fear.
That belief in the American dream was shaken for him when ICE arrived.
So he registered to vote for the first time at age 39.
He stood in line to cast his ballot, amazed by how many young, Latino voters were waiting along with him.
Galofaro writes for the Associated Press. AP writers Nicholas Riccardi in Denver and Linley Sanders in Washington contributed to this report.
DENVER — Fresh off the best electoral performance in half a century, Democratic officials and strategists converged on Denver Thursday to plot a further course for the party and revel in their gains.
The two-day What’s Next conference, hosted by a new group called Majority Democrats, was put on politicos’ calendars months ago as another stepping stone as the party charted its way out of its post-2024 political wilderness.
Now Democrats will have to figure out what to do with majorities in both chambers of Congress and control of at least 12 new state legislative chambers.
“The fever has broken. The fog has lifted,” said Mitch Landrieu, the former Democratic mayor of New Orleans. “And now it falls upon us to rebuild the foundation of this great nation and to fulfill the promise of America.”
Barely a week after voters repudiated President Trump and his Republican Party, Texas Sen.-elect James Talarico said Democrats must work with him. Voters are hungry for results and can’t wait two years for Trump to leave office, he said, urging Democrats to avoid both intraparty fights and excessive caution.
“We can’t let them down,” Talarico said. “We can’t play it safe. We can’t get bogged down in the same petty fights. We can’t settle for nibbling around the edges, or results people will only feel a decade from now.”
Former Atty. Gen. Eric Holder echoed that theme, saying now “is not a time for timidity” and warning Democrats against aimlessly reaching for bipartisanship.
“For too long, Democrats, unlike Republicans, have been uncomfortable with the acquisition and the use of power,” Holder said. “This must end.”
Armed with charts, graphs and preliminary data about who voted and why, Democratic data analysts tried to explain a shockingly widespread victory that few saw coming. Democrats won because so many 2024 Trump voters stayed home, said David Shor, one of the party’s most prominent number crunchers.
“The reality is that most of the voters we lost two years ago still have not become Democrats,” Shor said. To win them back, the new Democratic majority needs to stay focused on addressing the economic concerns that are top of mind for voters, he said.
The conference features newly elected Democrats and potential presidential candidates, including former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker and Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro.
It’s a who’s-who of rising Democratic talent and a showcase for the party.
The gathering is also a showcase of sorts for Denver, which remains in the hunt for the party’s 2028 convention after last hosting one in 2008. The city is selling itself as a modern example of a purple state turning solid blue.
The Democrats gathered at a concert venue in central Denver. Attendees could crowd into the auditorium or watch speakers on a Jumbotron in an outside plaza flanked by food trucks and, on the horizon, 14,000-foot-high snowcapped peaks.
The group Majority Democrats seeks to bridge the traditional left-center splits that have riven the party for years, particularly since the 2024 election that returned Trump to the White House. It particularly positions itself as the voice of a new generation of party leaders tired of old ideological and establishment battles, and the speaker list skews noticeably young.
Rob Sand, who was elected Iowa’s first Democratic governor in nearly two decades, explained his decision to hold town hall meetings in every county and allow anyone to ask questions unfiltered. Voters want politicians who listen and answer their questions honestly, he said.
“There’s literally no question that I can be asked, no answer that I could give, no matter how bad, that would speak more loudly than me handing the microphone to someone at my event who says they are Republican,” Sand said.
The conference also includes various party leaders, such as the likely next House speaker, Hakeem Jeffries, who has engendered suspicion among some on the left who continue to target the party’s Washington power structure.
Riccardi and Cooper write for the Associated Press. Cooper reported from Phoenix.
Calling all fans of the wizarding world, a special Harry Potter Christmas market will be taking place for the first time ever this year for some sorcery during the festive season
The Harry Potter Christmas market is said to be a world first(Image: Getty Images/Stock Image)
Nothing beats wandering around a Christmas market with a cup of steaming mulled wine to the sound of merry jingles, while browsing the wooden chalets stocked with gifts and seasonal goodies. And it’s about to get a lot better, as a new Harry Potter Christmas market is opening for the very first time.
In a world first, the new Christmas market launching this year will feature designs in the style of those in the new Harry Potter HBO series, which is set to be released on 25 December, 2026, along with cabins and themed culinary offerings. Yet, those eager to discover a slice of the wizarding world will need to plan a festive getaway and catch a short flight to Germany, where it will be held.
In an announcement from Skydance, which has merged with Paramount, they confirmed: “The magic of Hogwarts is coming to Munich: To celebrate the launch of the new HBO Original series ‘Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone,’ HBO Max is transforming Munich’s Praterinsel into an enchanting Christmas market. Visitors can immerse themselves in the world of the new HBO Original series even before the premiere.
“From November 28th to December 6th, Praterinsel will be transformed into a festive world of experiences, designed entirely in the style of the new series. In a Christmas atmosphere, guests can get a first glimpse of the HBO Original series, right in the heart of Munich and even before its official premiere.”
They further explained: “The Christmas market is inspired by ‘Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone’ and offers many activities and attractions for fans of all ages. Atmospheric photo opportunities in the style of the series invite visitors to capture memories of their visit. Food and other culinary offerings inspired by the ‘Harry Potter’ world bring the magic to the table. Guests can also expect further surprises.”
The Harry Potter Christmas Market will take place on Praterinsel in Munich, but you’ll have to plan accordingly if you want to visit, as it won’t be there for long. The spellbinding event will only be held from Saturday, 28 November until Sunday, 6 December, 2026, yet there’s still plenty of time to book your festive escape to experience the magic.
Skydance added: “With the transformation of Praterinsel, HBO Max brings the magic of one of the world’s most popular stories to the Bavarian capital and gets fans in the mood for the start of the new HBO Original series in a very special way.”
As Potter fans eagerly wait for the market to arrive, a huge amount of excitement has already been sparked. One commented on a Reddit post: “I’m going and am so excited!! I’ve been looking forward to this show for YEARS now, so I’m so happy that finally there is an event in my area where I can celebrate it.”
“Omg this is amazing,” another shared on Instagram, while another declared, “We need to go to Germany”. Others raised concerns about what it will actually include. However, one local had some reassurance. “Christmas markets in Germany are usually great as it is. I would go regardless if I was anywhere near Munich and had the time off work,” they shared.
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Sunny Ozell, the wife of late actor Patrick Stewart, paid tribute to her husband two weeks after his death on social media.
“[T]he grief continues to come in waves,” the musician wrote Wednesday on Instagram. Ozell’s remembrance included a black-and-white photo of her embracing Stewart from behind. “My heart had to grow to contain my love for Patrick, and he changed me for the better, forever.”
Stewart, best known for his portrayal of Jean-Luc Picard in “Star Trek” series and films and Charles Xavier in the “X-Men” franchise, died Oct. 28 at age 86. The actor had been battling Alzheimer’s disease and Lewy body dementia. He died “in the loving care of his beloved wife Sunny,” according to the Oct. 29 announcement.
Ozell added that she has “also been experiencing such deep, profound gratitude” amid her grief.
“We left nothing unsaid. He knew I loved him, and I know he loved me,” she shared on Instagram. “Patrick and I truly authentically saw one another, and we amplified each other’s best qualities. We shared nearly two decades together, and we filled those years with so much living.”
Stewart and Ozell met in 2008 at a restaurant in Brooklyn where the latter was working as a server at the time. The couple married in 2013 after years of dating. Stewart’s longtime friend and fellow “X-Men” actor Ian McKellan officiated the wedding.
Patrick Stewart played Professor Charles Xavier in “X-Men.”
(Attila Dory / 20th Century Fox)
In her social media statement, Ozell also expressed her appreciation for the sympathy and support from well-wishers.
“I’ve been overwhelmed by the public response to Patrick’s death, and while I’m not at all surprised that he touched so many, I’m sincerely moved by the outpouring of sadness and loss,” she wrote. “Thank you all for your condolences, they mean so, so much to me.”
Stewart’s final appearance as Professor X will be in Marvel’s “Avengers: Doomsday,” to be released Dec. 18.
Just before spring training began last January, Chicago Cubs outfielder Pete Crow-Armstrong was part of a group of former Harvard-Westlake High players who returned to O’Malley Field to have their jersey numbers painted on the outfield wall. This was before PCA mania had erupted, before any MVP talk had surfaced, before anyone could have predicted the breakthrough season he would deliver in 2026.
Crow-Armstrong signed autographs for kids, met with varsity players and humbly talked about what he had learned from his high school days that abruptly ended in the spring of 2020 because of the pandemic.
Before the PCA mania, before the MVP season that will be finalized on Thursday, Pete Crow-Armstrong returned to Harvard-Westlake’s O’Malley field last January humble and ready to get to work. He deserves it. pic.twitter.com/oZkiA24mDM
“It’s been a nice, steady progression for the first five years of my career,” he said. “I’m definitely learning a good set of patience that I didn’t have before that. It’s a slow burning sport. It takes a lot of time to try and perfect your craft. I’m going out every day and making the most of it.”
On Thursday, Crow-Armstrong ended the two-year reign of Dodgers two-way star Shohei Ohtani as National League MVP with the announcement that he had won MVP honors during a season in which he hit 45 home runs, stole 41 bases, had 107 RBIs and batted .280.
His coach at Harvard-Westlake, Jared Halpert, left Los Angeles on Wednesday night to fly to Chicago for the celebration.
“You combine the talent and commitment of what he has and you get what we just saw this year,” Halpert said. “It was remarkable.”
Former Harvard-Westlake standouts Jack Flaherty, left, and Pete Crow-Armstrong reunite at Dodger Stadium.
(Jared Halpert)
Crow-Armstrong, 24, is the first Southern California product to be named NL MVP since Christian Yelich (Westlake) received the honor for the Brewers in 2018, with Giancarlo Stanton (Sherman Oaks Notre Dame) winning in 2017 for the Marlins. Jordan Alvarez of the Houston Astros was selected the American League MVP.
Harvard-Westlake had become known as the school for pitchers after producing first-round draft picks Jack Flaherty, Lucas Giolito and Max Fried. Now come the hitters. Crow-Armstrong, a center fielder, was taken in the first round in 2020 by the New York Mets before being traded to the Cubs in 2021. Infielder Bryce Rainer is working his way up the Detroit Tigers organization after being a first-round pick in 2024.
Crow-Armstrong was always known for his speed, defensive prowess and hitting skills, but this year saw Crow-Armstrong unleash a power surge as the Cubs’ leadoff hitter that energized baseball fans in Chicago and elsewhere. His speed running the bases, leaping skills in the outfield, arm strength and patience at the plate after a slow start created the perfect storm to produce an MVP season.
“I’m always willing to do whatever it takes,” he said on the MLB Network. “My coaching staff was very patient with me through my struggles early in the season.”
Earlier this week, some of the Harvard-Westlake players who met Crow-Armstrong last January offered their opinions of his MVP season.
Ira Rootman, a center fielder committed to Texas, said, “I’ve gotten to interact with him multiple times. Seeing what he did, it means it’s possible for anyone. It’s a real inspiration. He talks a lot about the mental side. I think that’s something incredibly important.”
Jake Kim, an outfielder committed to UCLA, said, “It shows that our program and the standard of how we do it and the standard to win and be great speaks volumes about our coaches and how we work around here.”
Being the son of two actors, Crow-Armstrong understood what being in the spotlight looked like and even though he angered Dodger fans with comments last spring in a magazine, he’s always been known as a competitor and shown respect and appreciation for those supporting the game of baseball.
He and his parents have moved out of Los Angeles to be closer to Chicago, but the former Sherman Oaks Little Leaguer won’t forget how the talent level growing up in sunny Southern California helped give him the opportunity to be a major leaguer and reach a level few ever attain.
Intelligence experts say that China continues to ramp up its network of spies and assets across California, as underscored this week after Nvidia Chief Executive Jensen Huang admitted he was embroiled in an extramarital affair when allegations surfaced that he had a relationship with a suspected Chinese spy. On Thursday morning, Huang announced his resignation.
“For years, the FBI has been sounding the alarm regarding China’s ambitious efforts to gain technological, economic and geopolitical superiority,” said former Assistant Chief Horace Frank of the Los Angeles Police Department, who oversaw intelligence. “Their activities constitute a long-term strategic threat — not only to the United States, but to the world. Their counterintelligence strategy is not only about stealing secrets today; it’s about securing strategic advantages tomorrow. They recognize that human vulnerabilities (sex, money, ego and ambition) can be crucial when it comes to them attaining this quest for global dominance.”
For China, California is a key espionage hub because it combines three attractive targets: advanced technology industries, major research universities and a large concentration of scientists, engineers and entrepreneurs, according to William Hannas, lead analyst at Georgetown’s Center for Security and Emerging Technology. China’s main objectives are to accelerate its technological development, reduce dependence on foreign suppliers and achieve leadership in strategically important fields, including artificial intelligence, Hannas said.
“Silicon Valley is especially important,” he said, “because it offers access not only to existing technologies, but also to innovations at their earliest stages.”
California is also a focal point of China’s espionage efforts, some experts say, because it has the highest number of Chinese residents in the continental U.S.
“It has been easier for both the spies and agents of influence to hide in plain sight, because they can more easily integrate themselves into their communities compared to places with a lower proportion of Asian Americans and Chinese residing overseas,” said Victor Shih, director of the 21st Century China Center at the UC San Diego School of Global Policy and Strategy.
Walking a fine line
For the U.S., Shih said, guarding against Chinese spies involves a delicate balance.
Officials must avoid politicizing the issue in such a way that they cast suspicion on Chinese scientists or Asian Americans based on race and ethnicity.
Already, many Chinese people working for California companies feel like they are being targeted, he said, and some complain the suspicion means they are passed over for promotions. And there have been high-profile cases of Asian Americans unfairly accused of spying.
“Corporations need to put a lot of race and nationality neutral policies in place to secure their property rights,” Shih said. “Things were way too lax before, but now we’re running the risk of a witch hunt. The worst thing that could happen, and is somewhat happening now, is that a witch hunt in the U.S. drives many otherwise totally innocent scientists to China, and ends up helping China to develop technologies that one day will replace U.S. technology or even challenge U.S. military superiority.”
A race for technology leadership
Beijing’s leaders are seeking to catch up with — and eventually surpass — the U.S. in the frontier spheres of defense, aerospace and technology. Increasingly, China is also positioning assets in California to launch cyberhacking attacks and seek political influence and spread propaganda, intelligence experts said.
“They will try anything,” said retired FBI Supervisory Special Agent James Gaylord said of China’s Ministry of State Security, the nation’s principal civilian intelligence and security service.
Gaylord, who led multiple counterintelligence operations in California, said Chinese spies and agents are everywhere in the state, infiltrating private companies and even government offices.
“Unlike the Russians, the Chinese favor a shotgun approach,” he said. “‘A thousand grains of sands’ is how they refer to it.”
In addition to cultivating relationships with California’s technology CEOs to secure direct insights into U.S. artificial intelligence policies, China’s spies are also logging on to social media to try to cultivate relationships with students at top research institutions such as Stanford University.
As some spies adopt the ancient espionage practice of honey potting, using sexual or romantic allure to extract sensitive information, Gaylord frequently delivers a blunt warning to California’s tech bosses.
“If you’ve got access to technology, if you’re a billionaire and a 50-year-old balding man, and you’ve got a 25-year-old woman thinking you’re hilarious and the most interesting thing, it’s not you,” he tells them. “It is what you have access to.”
Chinese spies have embarked on affairs with high-level California politicians. According to declassified FBI interviews, disgraced former U.S. Rep. Eric Swalwell told investigators in 2015 that he had sexual relations a handful of times with Christine Fang, a suspected Chinese spy.
They have also compromised U.S. counterintelligence. In 2001, the FBI opened an inquiry after receiving credible information that Katrina Leung, a San Marino businesswoman it recruited as an informant in the early 1980s, was actively working as a double agent for China. It discovered that Leung, whose code name was “Parlor Maid,” was in a sexual relationship with her agency handler of 18 years, FBI Supervisory Special Agent James J. Smith, and had an affair with William Cleveland, another FBI agent. It also found that, over the years, FBI officials had learned of several incidents indicating that Leung provided classified U.S. government information to China.
Leung was charged in 2003 with obtaining, copying and retaining national security documents, but the U.S. government ultimately blocked the defense from talking to a key witness: her former FBI supervisor, Smith. After pleading guilty to lesser charges, Leung avoided a stiff prison sentence. She and Smith now live together, according to public records, in a $1.4-million San Leandro home in Alameda County.
A long history of spycraft
According to Hannas, China’s foreign technology acquisition program dates to the 1950s. Initially, the focus was on obtaining specific military technologies and components. Then, it expanded to manufacturing processes, advanced commercial technologies and, eventually, the underlying science from which new technologies emerge.
“The methods expanded accordingly, from conventional espionage and technology purchases to cyber operations, academic collaborations, talent recruitment, overseas investments, and systematic exploitation of publicly available research,” Hannas said. “The objective evolved from acquiring particular products to acquiring the capacity to innovate.”
One of the earliest documented occurrences of Chinese espionage in California occurred in 1979, the year Beijing and Washington set aside their differences and established full diplomatic relations.
According to the Department of Justice, Dongfan “Greg” Chung, a Chinese-born aerospace engineer who worked on NASA’s space shuttle program in Downey, sent a technology professor in China three sets of classified documents by sea freight. He then wrote to the professor to ask what else he could do for his homeland.
About 27 years later, FBI officials searching Chung’s home found more than 250,000 pages of documents containing decades’ worth of sensitive trade secrets that Chung had shared with China, including stress analysis reports and design information for the space shuttle, B-1 bomber engineering manuals, and plans for the fueling system of a Delta IV rocket.
Investigators found out about Chung when they were investigating Chi Mak, a Chinese-born electrical engineer who orchestrated one of the most notorious family-run espionage rings.
A devout Maoist who worked for Power Paragon, Mak allowed China to make 20-year leaps in technology, said Gaylord, who led the landmark counterintelligence investigation. Mak gave China the Quiet Electric Drive to subdue the sound of submarine propulsion, the advance combat system called AEGIS, and the Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System allowing jets to carry heavier payloads off aircraft carriers that is now on China’s fleet. In 2008, he was sentenced to more than 24 years in prison.
The convictions of Chung didn’t stop China.
In 2020, a former USC professor, Hao Zhang, was sentenced to 18 months in federal prison for conspiring to steal smartphone signal technology. In 2024, former U.S. Navy sailor Wenheng Zhao received 27 months in prison for delivering military operation details to a Chinese intelligence officer. In January, Jinchao Wei, a former sailor on the USS Essex in San Diego, was sentenced to more than 16 years for espionage after taking bribes for photos and documents.
China tends to have a different relationship with its spies than nations such as Russia.
In addition to using highly trained Ministry of State Security agents, Shih said, it relies on a much larger number of amateurs and ordinary Chinese people to assist with technology acquisition, political influence and harassment of dissidents — and it doesn’t care what happens to them.
“In the Cold War, they used to say, ‘I got one of your guys, you got one of my guys, we’ll trade,’” Shih said. “The Chinese government has never tried to get any of these people back. It’s like, well, if you get caught, you go to jail. That’s it. Too bad.”
MINNEAPOLIS — Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested and deported more people during the last fiscal year than at any time in its 23-year history, the Department of Homeland Security said Wednesday, as President Trump followed through on promises of mass deportations that helped win back the White House but also fueled the political blowback that led to Democrats’ overwhelming victory in last week’s midterm elections.
ICE said it deported 483,200 people in the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, the highest number since 2014, when 405,090 people were deported under then-President Obama, and some activists labeled him the “deporter in chief.”
The 2026 numbers were up 9% from its previous high of 442,640 in the same period a year earlier and up 78% from 271,480 in 2024, the last year of Joe Biden’s presidency.
ICE had not released such counts since Trump returned to the White House, including for 2025.
“Thanks to President Trump’s leadership, ICE has been unleashed to target and remove illegal aliens so that we can save American lives,” said Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin.
Yet much remained unsaid in the Homeland Security news release, including how many deportees had criminal histories and a detailed breakdown of the statistics. In addition, deportation numbers can be notoriously fuzzy, with totals counted in different ways in different years.
“It is accurate that ICE is making record numbers of arrests,” said Marc R. Rosenblum, a visiting fellow at the Migration Policy Institute and a former top official overseeing statistics at the Department of Homeland Security. “They have record resources. They’ve doubled their staffing. They’re getting a lot of support from other law enforcement agencies.”
But the sparse data in Wednesday’s announcement means “we can’t really see what’s going on in any kind of detailed way.”
Trump had campaigned on ridding America of criminal migrants, saying he’d be targeting the “worst of the worst.”
But that is rarely the case. In July, for instance, only roughly one-quarter of deportees had criminal convictions, according to the Deportation Data Project. More than half weren’t even facing charges.
The numbers released Wednesday also fell well short of the White House goal of 1 million deportations annually, a promise it made when it received billions in additional funding from Congress, supercharging the government’s immigration bureaucracy.
Trump returned to power last year promising to end illegal crossings at the southern border. His administration has pushed through restrictions on both legal and illegal immigration and sped up deportations. Immigration crackdown operations are often purposefully high-profile, in part to frighten migrants into leaving of their own accord.
But the crackdown hasn’t always gone as planned.
The biggest shift came this year in Minneapolis, when more than 2,000 federal officers were deployed to the city and thousands of protesters turned out to confront masked and often heavily armed agents spilling from convoys of unmarked vehicles.
Two U.S. citizens — Renee Good and Alex Pretti, both 37 — were killed in confrontations with agents, and the administration quickly backed away from high-profile operations.
Although arrests dropped after the killings, they quickly returned to record numbers, albeit in quieter immigration sweeps.
By last week’s elections the White House’s immigration message had splintered, with even some deeply Republican rural areas voting Democratic after people saw longtime migrant neighbors, many of them key workers on farms, ranches and meat-processing facilities, taken in arrests.
The highest recorded number of deportations came during President Eisenhower’s crackdown on illegal immigrants from Mexico. The often-chaotic policy saw deportation numbers spike dramatically in the early 1950s, cresting at 1.1 million in 1954.
LAS VEGAS — When the Dodgers and Cubs met at the beginning of August, it was notable that Cubs center fielder Pete Crow-Armstrong was even challenging Dodgers superstar Shohei Ohtani for National League most valuable player.
Ohtani was on a streak of three straight MVP seasons and working to return to the mound after what was expected to be a temporary shutdown around the All-Star break. So even as Ohtani and Crow-Armstrong traded leadoff home runs, it felt like a peak in a race that could tilt in Ohtani’s favor in the final months of the season.
Tilt it did — the other way.
Ohtani never did return to the mound, and his offense suffered as injuries mounted down the stretch. Crow-Armstrong never cooled off and ran away with the MVP, officially claiming the award Thursday in a unanimous vote. He was the 11th unanimous NL MVP in the history of the award. Ohtani finished second.
Ohtani’s two-way skill set is so unique that any time he pitches and hits for an entire season, he’s practically guaranteed the MVP — he won the award twice with the Angels in 2021 and 2023 before winning two with the Dodgers in 2024 and 2025. But the Dodgers’ first attempt at guiding him though a full two-way season crashed and burned in the wake of a lingering left knee injury and recurring right biceps issue.
Pete Crow-Armstrong of the Chicago Cubs.
(Isaac Wasserman / Getty Images)
The Dodgers are set on having Ohtani return to two-way duties in 2027. But now they’re left to diagnose what went wrong this year and figure out how to avoid the same pitfalls moving forward.
“The good thing is, it’s going to be a normal offseason,” general manager Brandon Gomes said, referring to Ohtani’s health status. “And as we get deeper into the offseason, understanding what our roster looks like, and then having those conversations of, ‘How do we best lay this out to set everybody up to be as good as they can come October?’
“And that’s always the goal. I know it’s so boring and we pound it into the ground. But I think for Sho in particular, it’s like, ‘Hey, let’s get back to feeling 100%, have the normal offseason, like you’re going to have, and then have that conversation based on what our team looks like and rotation and all of that.”
The Dodgers have made clear that plotting Ohtani’s pitching plan will be a collaborative effort that will involve conversations throughout the year. But they have plenty of options for how they could manage his workload.
They could pull him from the batting order on days he pitches, and/or build in more full recovery days after his starts on the mound. They add more days in between his pitching starts. They could have him lighten his pitching load midseason and then ramp up again for the postseason. They could delay his return to the mound.
“I think Shohei’s open to putting the team in the best position to win,” Gomes said. “And I think that is the number one thing that he’s shown over and over again, is that he cares deeply about the Dodgers winning and puts that at the forefront. So I think that’s why these conversations are really important.”
The Dodgers are missing one major piece of information that will affect their path forward: the length of the 2027 season.
Privately, baseball agents and executives’ estimates span a wide range of possibilities, from a sub-100-game season, to a late start but no games lost. It will remain ambiguous well into the lockout, which owners are expected to impose when the current collective bargaining agreement expires on Dec. 1.
So, pitchers across MLB will have the unenviable task of planning their offseason buildup without the clarity of an opening-day target.
In that kind of environment, it could be in Ohtani’s best interest to put off a pitching ramp-up at least until the lockout ends and the season schedule is set. But he and the Dodgers have a little over two weeks to talk through those decisions. Once the lockout begins, teams will be restricted from communicating with the players on their 40-man rosters.
Said Gomes: “I feel strongly that Sho will have himself prepared in the way that he feels is best to go out and dominate next year.”
WASHINGTON — Andy Soma, 24, doesn’t identify with either political party, and he’s been skipping elections since he became old enough to vote. But this year, disappointed with the economy and President Trump’s war with Iran, he cast his midterm ballot for Roy Cooper, the North Carolina Democrat now headed to the Senate.
“I would describe it as the first time that I’ve truly felt the need to vote,” said Soma, who is pursuing a Ph.D. in mathematics at North Carolina State University. He said he wanted to “kind of take a stand, if you will.”
Young voters overwhelmingly turned their backs on Republicans on Tuesday, erasing the gains Trump had made in the 2024 presidential election. Voters under age 30 moved left by double digits in nearly all the major Senate races compared with two years earlier.
It was a similar story in House campaigns across the country. The AP Voter Poll, a survey of more than 100,000 midterm voters, showed that about three-quarters of voters under 30 supported their local Democratic candidate, while about one-quarter voted for the Republican.
The support for Democrats outpaces even 2018, when Trump’s Republican Party suffered midterm losses during his first term, and is a dramatic shift from 2024, when young voters were roughly split between Trump and Democrat Kamala Harris, according to AP VoteCast, a survey of more than 120,000 voters that year.
For Soma, the tipping point was Trump’s broken pledge that he would keep the U.S. out of Middle East conflicts, a sentiment that student after student echoed in interviews on the university’s Raleigh campus the day after the election.
Other young voters who broke for Democrats this year said their choices were motivated by personal experiences, including working multiple jobs to get by and watching artificial intelligence data center projects advance into their communities.
“I’m trying to save money and buy a house and all that, but it’s difficult right now,” said Corey Herzog, 28, an independent-turned-Democrat in the traditionally conservative town of Celina, Ohio. Herzog works at Walmart during the day and bartends at night, all while building out a small side business selling house plants.
John Della Volpe, a pollster who regularly surveys U.S. youth for the Harvard Kennedy School’s Institute of Politics, said the whiplash over the past two elections suggests that young voters aren’t a generation of Democrats or Republicans.
“They’re up for grabs,” he said. “Especially given the state of the economy and their concerns about the future.”
In 2024, Trump won over young men. This year, many sat out or backed Democrats
To win back the presidency two years ago, Trump courted young men who felt disillusioned by economic stagnation, interventionist foreign policy and the government’s focus on diversity, equity and inclusion. He attended football games and UFC matches and appeared on podcasts with comedians who rebuffed “cancel culture.”
More than half of male voters under 30 supported him in 2024, according to AP VoteCast.
But once in office, Trump started the war with Iran and rammed through tariff policies that continued to drive up inflation. He also resisted releasing documents about convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and launched an immigration crackdown that faced widespread criticism.
“This was the perfect cocktail for disaster,” said Charlie Sabgir, director of the Washington-based Young Men Research Project.
Young voters’ unhappiness on every major issue in the midterm election was palpable. Voters under 30 were more likely than older age groups to say the cost of living was crucial for their vote for Congress, and to say the U.S. was wrong to take military action against Iran.
About half of young voters said they were angry about the way things were going in the U.S. today, compared with only about one-third of voters 65 and older.
The anti-Trump backlash was particularly strong among young voters
Even in a year when anti-Trump backlash was one of the major themes, young voters stood out.
Only about one-quarter of voters under 30 said Trump is a strong leader or has the mental capacity to serve effectively as president, according to The AP Voter Poll. That’s a sharp contrast with 2024, when about half of voters under 30 felt Trump was a strong leader and mentally fit. The decline was larger than in any other age group.
“This cultural coalition and cultural cache that Trump had behind him going into 2024 — they’ve clearly soured on him,” Sabgir said.
About 6 in 10 voters under 30 said one reason for their House vote was to express opposition to Trump.
A national consortium of college Republican groups put out a statement making their dissatisfaction clear, writing that young Republicans “were not given what they were promised.”
“In the wake of last night’s election results, the College Republican Patriot Coalition unequivocally lays the blame for the greatest Republican defeat by Democrats since 1974 at the feet of the Trump administration and the Republican Party,” the group said in a statement.
Kidus Girma, campaigns director for the left-leaning Sunrise Movement, said that while he was knocking on doors in Michigan, he met young men who may not typically turn out in a midterm election but did this time because they were disappointed by Trump.
He recalled one person who complained that he was struggling to find a job even though Trump was insisting the economy is going great.
“It’s like this deep disillusionment with the statements the president makes versus the material impacts people are facing in their everyday lives,” Girma said.
Gen Z voters get their ‘millennial optimism’ moment. But to keep them, Democrats must deliver
Sarah Stull, an 18-year-old student at the University of Texas at Austin, thought it was funny that so many of her classmates spent Halloween dressed up as “millennial optimism,” wearing skinny jeans and infinity scarves with grins on their faces to satirize the elder generation for being unabashedly hopeful.
Stull got the joke. Like others her age, she described herself as “very sarcastic, very jaded — and do sometimes expect the worst.”
But Tuesday night, sitting in a dorm room with friends watching election results stream in, that all went out the window.
“We were freaking out, all of us were crying,” said the young Democrat, who voted for James Talarico for Senate and Gina Hinojosa for governor. “I just felt this sense of community that I had never felt before.”
She posted a video of herself and friends on TikTok, literally jumping for joy outside the Texas Capitol, captioning it “millennial optimism cause texas went blue.”
Young adults like Stull — who was 7 when Trump rode down the escalator in New York’s Trump Tower in 2015 to announce his first presidential campaign — have only ever known “the Trumpification of politics,” said Katherine Haenschen, a political science and communication professor at Northeastern University. Now that era seems to be coming to a close, bringing hope for the first time to left-leaning young people.
But it’s a fragile moment.
Dakota Hall, executive director of the progressive youth political organization Alliance for Youth Action, said he thinks young voters could shift to the right again if Democrats leading Congress don’t do enough to lower the cost of living, regulate AI and address government corruption.
“Young people have a very short leash,” Hall said. “If you do not deliver, ’28 will be a rough road ahead.”
Swenson, Rankin and Thomson-Deveaux write for the Associated Press. Rankin reported from Raleigh, N.C.
WASHINGTON — President Trump on Thursday pulled Vice President JD Vance away from negotiations with Iran, suggesting that the United States no longer needs to pursue a deal to end the Middle East conflict and instead directing Vance to turn his attention to corruption in states run by Democrats.
“We don’t need a deal with Iran. Those days have long since passed,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “We’ve got their money, Hundreds of Billions of Dollars, and we’ve got the Strait!”
In the same post, Trump said he asked Vance, who has played a central role in talks with Tehran, to “focus his complete and total attention on the Massive Corruption and Crime taking place in Democrat run Cities and States.” He singled out California, Minnesota and Illinois, calling them “poorly run, corrupt disasters.”
The reassignment came as Vance and other Republicans have blamed the Iran war for the party’s sweeping losses in last week’s midterm elections. The morning after the election, Vance wrote in a lengthy social media post that “the reason we lost is the war.”
“If you’d like to argue it was worth it, that losing the Senate for the next six years was worth it, then do so. Argue it was worthwhile cost to pay,” Vance wrote. “Agree or disagree, that’s at least honest. But everyone knows why we lost.”
Trump insisted the post had not damaged their relationship, telling reporters last week that “a lot of people didn’t like his comments,” but that he didn’t mind them.
A White House official on Thursday said the United States remains in a “very strong position” in negotiations with Iran, citing a naval blockade and control of the Strait of Hormuz — even though there is evidence that struggles continue over the key oil route.
“President Trump holds all the cards, will do what is best for the United States, and will make sure that Iran will never have a nuclear weapon,” the official said.
Trump’s decision to pull away Vance from the talks was among a flurry of social media posts he fired off early Thursday morning that conveyed the president has little appetite for changing course nine days after voters rebuked his policies, in large part due to economic struggles triggered by the war.
President Trump speaks during an event Wednesday to mark Veterans Day at Arlington National Cemetery.
(Mark Schiefelbein / Associated Press)
In a series of posts that began around 6 a.m., Trump threatened to impose new tariffs on Mexico, called for the prosecution of Democratic lawmakers he has previously threatened, declared that Democrats were “CORRUPT AND EVIL” and claimed without evidence that they had won the midterms by cheating.
Trump also claimed an “invasion” of migrants was coming from Mexico in “huge CARAVANS,” returning to language he used to rally his base shortly after taking office. And at one point, he even cast doubt over this year’s election results, calling it a “perceived loss by the Republicans in the Midterms.”
It was yet another sign that Trump wanted to double down on the very issues that exit polls showed voters rejected on election day. His posts were a departure from a more reflective tone Trump had struck in the hours after the midterms, when he congratulated Democrats for their victories and conceded that his immigration policies and the war had played a role in his party’s losses.
“Congratulations to the Democrats. They did a good job. They’ve been looking for this one for 11 years and they finally got it,” the president told Fox News on the night of the election.
But, he added: “I don’t view it as a hit on me. I think we’ve had the greatest two years in the history of the president in terms of the economy, in terms of all the things that we’ve done.”
Democrats won at least 55 seats in the Senate and are projected to have control of at least 255 seats in the House, flipping seats in Republican strongholds like Kansas and Mississippi — a stunning sweep that Republicans have warned could take years to recover from.
In the days since the election, Trump has taken an aggressive approach to fighting the new Democratic majorities.
The White House’s top lawyers on Wednesday warned of the possibility of criminal inquiries into House Democrats who investigate Trump when they assume power next year.
He also attacked Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), who is expected to lead Democrats in the Senate, for saying he wants to address corruption in the United States. Schumer has said this in reference to dealings within the Trump administration.
“I assume he is referring to Democrat run Blue States such as California, Minnesota, Illinois, Maine and New York,” Trump wrote. “Hopefully his words will ring true! It will be an honor to work with him on this very big Democrat problem that, when solved, will literally balance the Budget of the U.S.”
The three pillars of Dan Hicks’ career as an NBC Sports broadcaster were golf, the Olympics and Notre Dame football, in no particular order. Yet the towering pillars in his life were his wife of 32 years, ESPN broadcaster Hannah Storm, and their three daughters.
Storm broke the news Thursday that Hicks died suddenly a day earlier at 64, triggering an outpouring of grief, heartfelt condolences and tributes.
“Our family is heartbroken by the sudden and unexpected passing of Dan following an acute illness,” Storm wrote on social media. “He was a devoted husband of over 30 years, loving father to our three daughters, and cherished friend to so many. His loss is immeasurable.”
May 2025 photo of Hannah Storm and Dan Hicks in New York City.
(Santiago Felipe/Getty Images)
Hicks was a familiar, authoritative voice during NBC coverage of 26 years of the PGA Tour, 16 Olympics beginning with the 1992 Barcelona Games and seven seasons of Notre Dame football. He was scheduled to call Saturday’s game between the Irish and Boston College.
“Dan Hicks was an extraordinary colleague, friend and person. In his 34 years at NBC Sports, he was an exceptional storyteller and caller of games and events who elevated some of the biggest moments in sports history,” NBC Sports president Rick Cordella, executive producer Sam Flood and executive producer Molly Solomon said in a statement.
“But far beyond his on-air excellence, Dan was a better person who welcomed teammates with a smile, a joke, or a word of encouragement, sometimes all three in the same sentence.”
Hicks anchored the network’s golf coverage of the U.S. Open, The Open Championship, Ryder Cup, Presidents Cup and the U.S. Women’s Open. He won a Sports Emmy for his work on the 2024 Paris Olympics and was the Alpine skiing play-by-play announcer at the Milan Cortina Games last winter.
His most famous call on the golf course came at the 2008 U.S. Open when Tiger Woods sunk a 12-foot putt to force a playoff at Torrey Pines. Hicks waited for the crowd to erupt then said in an even voice: “Expect anything different?”
On a recent podcast, Hicks described what he considered the most important element of broadcasting.
“I always remind myself, and I remind young broadcasters coming up, you’ve got to make the people that the audience is watching, you’ve got to make them care about those people,” he said. “And how do you do that? You’ve got to tell some personal stories. You’ve got to introduce the audience to, who is this person? Why are they here? What was their journey like to get here? And so, if you use that element, the numbers game doesn’t matter. If you care about somebody, then you are invested in the telecast.”
Hicks and Storm met in 1989 while both worked at CNN Sports Tonight, where Storm was the first female host. They began dating a year later and married Jan. 8, 1994. Storm spent a decade with Hicks at NBC covering four Olympic games and Major League Baseball before moving to CBS News for six years and to ESPN in 2008 where she currently is a Sports Center anchor.
“We are deeply saddened by the sudden passing of Dan Hicks, a respected voice in sports broadcasting and husband of ESPN anchor Hannah Storm,” ESPN chairman Jimmy Pitaro said in a statement. “Hannah is a cherished member of the ESPN family, and our hearts are with her, their three daughters and all who knew and loved Dan, including his NBC colleagues, during this incredibly difficult time. We extend our deepest condolences and stand alongside Hannah and her family.”
Rory McIlroy holds the 2025 Players trophy as he is interviewed by Dan Hicks after McIlroy in Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla.
(David Cannon / Getty Images)
Storm posted a photo of her with Hicks on social media along with her statement, which concluded, “Dan was truly one of a kind and, quite simply, the person everyone wanted to be around. When he walked into a room, he brought the energy, the laughter and the people together. He was endlessly kind, thoughtful and funny, and he made everyone feel like they mattered.
“Our three daughters and I are heartbroken. We are grateful for the love and support surrounding our family during this incredibly difficult time. There are simply no words to express how much he will be missed.”
Hicks is survived by Storm and their daughters Hannah, Ellery and Riley.
You couldn’t have kept our hope for a revived democracy alive a little longer? You couldn’t pretend to have a spine, or leadership, respect for voters, or even just a plan — for more than seven days?
On the first Tuesday after the blue tsunami supposedly restored the checks and balances of our government, barely 170 hours into this shift of power, a vote to stop Republicans from burying an effort to impeach Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth was tanked by … Democrats. Eleven of them, to be precise, who didn’t show up to cast their vote in the House, thereby letting the impeachment effort be rolled into an early grave in the committee process.
New Mexico Rep. Melanie Stansbury, one of the Absent 11, had this to say about getting stuck in traffic on her way back from a Democratic cocktail party and missing the vote: “There is no one who is more disappointed in myself than me that I was not here that the moment that gavel dropped.”
Actually, Mel, there is.
In fact, there are millions of folks more disappointed in you than you are — in all Democrats, for that matter. Not only are they disappointed, they’re rightfully angry, which is a major, magical feat when seven days ago, America was embracing the Democratic Party in a way it hasn’t in more than a decade. It’s actually impressive Democrats could screw up so badly, so quickly.
So what really went wrong? Were Republicans just too organized? Democrats sloppy? Should the 11 be held responsible, or is it a larger Democrat mess?
Or did, as Stansbury explained, a slow-rolling bus really just destroy the Democrats’ comeback?
The California 3
Three of the Absent 11 were Californians, so let’s take a look at that. Santa Ana’s Lou Correa knew in advance he wouldn’t be at the vote for medical reasons. On Monday, he told media that he was having a surgery and couldn’t travel — but he didn’t think he would be missing much.
“Other than the [Pete] Hegseth impeachment, there’s nothing else,” Correa said in an interview, adding that he supported impeachment of the Defense secretary.
But it turned out he had a heart attack and Tuesday needed emergency open-heart surgery, so fair. Correa gets a pass.
Democratic standard-bearer Nancy Pelosi was also in California instead of Congress, having flown back that day. Surely, this lioness of the left must have a good reason?
“Speaker Emerita Pelosi returned to San Francisco to join and honor local veterans at Swords to Plowshares’ 30th Annual Veterans Day Celebration tonight, an important and longstanding district tradition she regularly attends and will mark for the last time as a Member of Congress by receiving the Lifetime Advocate for Veterans Award,” her spokesperson told SFGate.
Sure, great, OK. Like you know, protecting them from an amateurish “secretary of War” who has decimated the leadership ranks of the military and is being accused of perhaps ordering extrajudicial killings?
And what about Julia Brownley, the soon-to-retire Westlake Village congresswoman who was also absent?
She posted on Facebook that “Hegseth is one of the most incompetent, corrupt, and underqualified Secretaries of Defense in the history of our nation.”
But, as she “and many of my colleagues were rushing to the floor to support Hegseth’s impeachment, [Speaker] Mike Johnson closed the vote before we could.”
D’oh!
I sent multiple emails to her office asking why she was so late, but didn’t receive a response. Other outlets have indicated she was stuck in traffic too.
“We knew that this vote was coming, so people should have gotten their raggedy selves up these steps to vote,” she said. “There is no reason why we should have lost this vote because of attendance issues.”
But was it really the Absent 11’s fault?
Leadership vacuum
Multiple news outlets have reported that the postelection celebration that pulled so many party members away from Congress and into traffic was also attended by Democratic Whip Katherine Clark of Massachusetts. The whip, for those who don’t know, is the party member elected to herd the rest into voting.
The Wall Street Journal reported Clark left the party early because she heard about the logjam and didn’t want to miss the vote — but apparently didn’t tell her colleagues?
At a Wednesday morning meeting, Clark apparently expressed her disappointment that her fellow Congress members didn’t show up, which, again, is her responsibility to ensure that they do. One job, Madame Whip, one job.
But critics, especially on the progressive left, are attacking him for failing to round up support on this vote — there was, apparently, no be-there-or-face-consequences message.
Jeffries has been criticized in the past for seemingly failing to understand just how anxious the Democratic base is for action, and failing to keep his party on track. He’s also been criticized as a less-than-dynamic communicator.
It’s more than possible that Democrats didn’t think this was the right time to impeach Hegseth, with the articles introduced by Kentucky Republican Rep. Thomas Massie. The impeachment effort was somewhat doomed in the House from the start, and the Senate, where an impeachment trial would be held, is for now still Republican dominated.
Maybe Jeffries is playing chess, opting for strategy over optics.
The real lesson
But it’s irrelevant whether this was strategy or screw-up — it’s a sour start. The Democrats just proved in short order that they do not understand this moment in American politics, and they are really, really bad at communicating.
Both of those are politically deadly. If Democrats, or the leadership under Jeffries, thought that this vote didn’t matter to the public or that it wasn’t the best way to go, they were wrong.
Whether this impeachment was going to be successful or just symbolic, it was the symbol voters wanted. It was an easy way for Democrats to show they heard the message from this election and were taking voters seriously.
If there was indeed a masterful backroom political strategy to not voting, Democrats needed to communicate that in advance. Before they put a knife in Massie’s back and ours, there needed to be solid, clear messaging about why the blade was for the greater good. Because, seriously, Hegseth is unqualified and dangerous.
This debacle does not bode well for what comes in the next session of Congress. Voters didn’t elect Democrats to play secretive games, to plot and plan in the dark for future moves, or worse — to continue the status quo of wandering around in disarray as Republicans stay in lockstep.
Seven days, Democrats. I’ve bought fish that lasted longer.
Stephen Miller was already one of the most powerful people in Washington when he stepped in to replace Susie Wiles as President Trump’s chief of staff on Monday, a position that expands his extraordinary influence over the hard-charging executive.
But whether the bellicose former Santa Monica High School Viking can make good on his muscular threats as Trump’s new right-hand man remains an open question — one the courts have begun to answer, even as pundits disagree.
“The single biggest takeaway of this whole announcement is what it symbolizes and the message it sends to Democrats,” said Josh Hammer, senior counsel for the Article III Project, a conservative advocacy organization that promises to “bring brass knuckles to fight leftist lawfare.”
Miller has long sought to jail journalists, undermine the authority of judges, surge armed soldiers into American streets and suspend the writ of habeas corpus, a legal process that allows immigrants to challenge their detention.
But despite his “Darth Vader Sith lord persona,” Hammer said, the new White House chief of staff may find himself hemmed in by the role of a bureaucrat.
“I can’t imagine anything like that is remotely under consideration,” Hammer said. “He’d be the first to admit that he’s essentially there as an operative.”
Many critics echoed that assessment, with caveats.
“Stephen Miller has been calling a lot of the shots already,” said Bruce D. Brown, president of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press. “The combination of his elevation and the shake-up in the national security division at the Justice Department suggests that we might be in for a rocky ride in the remaining two years of the administration.”
Still, Miller’s power to avenge the president may be limited after his party was pummeled in the midterms.
The drubbing has already put the pair at odds over Miller’s much-maligned mass deportation program, which Trump acknowledged “was too tough,” in an interview Sunday with Ross Douthat on “60 Minutes.”
“I’d love to do something on immigration,” Trump said. “I think that’s something that’s actually doable.”
That could inflame Miller, the effort’s architect.
“This is his baby,” Hammer said. “I’m sure he’ll be poring over the data to try to talk the president out of” walking it back.
Miller also faces growing opposition from the courts to his wish list, with recent appellate decisions on press leaks and military deployments breaking in his opponents’ favor.
Then, on Tuesday, a 4th Circuit panel ruled the Justice Department could not compel LinkedIn to hand over a trove of records that the department hoped would help it ferret out leaks, noting that “press freedom is among those things viewed by autocrats worldwide as a threat to their grip on power.”
“This ruling is a big deal and will quickly become one of the leading opinions in the area,” Brown said. “The court recognized that confidential sources are the ‘lifeblood’ of investigative reporting and that dragnet demands from technology companies to reveal those sources violate the law.”
Miller has also floated removing “crazy communist” federal judges or suspending the right of habeas corpus, which has increasingly been used by immigrants held in federal detention facilities to petition judges to order their release.
President Lincoln took the extraordinary step of suspending habeas corpus in order to detain Confederate sympathizers, spies and saboteurs during the U.S. Civil War — a move that earned him the epithet “King Lincoln” and spurred bitter court fights and ugly battles in Congress.
Miller has argued that Trump has the authority to suspend the law because immigrants arriving at the border constitute an “invasion” — a legally dubious claim, especially as the president likes to boast that the border is more secure than ever.
Miller would face almost insurmountable opposition from both the Supreme Court and a newly Democratic Congress, both of which are likely to argue the power to impeach judges or suspend basic rights belong to Capitol Hill, experts said.
“You can’t just fire a federal judge because you don’t like what they’re doing,” said retired U.S. District Judge Jeremy Fogel of Keep Our Republic’s Article III Coalition. “One of the reasons we went to war with Britain is because the king kept firing judges because he didn’t like their rulings.”
Sowing distrust in the judiciary and sweeping judges off the bench have become a go-to play for autocrats in countries such as Turkey and Hungary, he said. Similar attempts have sparked widespread street protests in Israel and Mexico in recent years.
“It’s not like we’re the only country where these kinds of conflicts come up, but what’s unique about us is we probably have stronger guardrails,” Fogel said.
He and others worried the rough-and-tumble rhetorical style Miller helped define could continue to cause problems, even if legal efforts to remove judges or muzzle journalists fail.
“When judges are called rogues or radicals, not long after that you start seeing memes on social media saying that person should be dead,” Fogel said.
“I’m sure the debasement of journalists will continue,” Brown agreed. “That threat continues to be the highest priority.”
Despite Miller’s pugnacious pronouncements, his best bet may be quiet backroom dealing to consolidate what remains of Republican power — including efforts to push through confirmation of Trump’s pending judicial nominees before the end of the year.
“At a bare minimum, the pending lower court nominations have to be confirmed — it should be the lowest of the low-hanging fruit,” Hammer said. “Now’s really the time. This is the race.”
There are currently 11 District Court nominees pending, and more than a dozen additional vacancies Trump could struggle to fill once the new Congress is sworn in on Jan. 3.
After that, pundits predict a flurry of official inquiries that could sweep up many top administration officials, including Miller himself.
“Stephen Miller is at the center of the major policy decisions happening in the administration,” said Rep. Robert Garcia (D-Long Beach), who will head the House Oversight Committee next year. “We believe he’s been at the center of actions that are unconstitutional, unjust and possibly illegal, so we’re of course going to investigate that.”
Ahead of the November elections, candidates in Arizona seized on one issue like never before: water.
Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs ran ads touting her record, saying: “Those before me didn’t protect our water, so I tackled the problem.” She handily won reelection.
Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes and Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs share the stage during a Democratic rally in Phoenix.
(Rebecca Noble / Getty Images)
Atty. Gen. Kris Mayes also made water a central issue, saying in a campaign ad: “If it’s Arizona’s water, I’ll always fight to protect it.” She similarly trounced her Republican challenger.
The surge in water-focused campaigning reflects growing concerns among voters about the shrinking Colorado River and chronic overpumping of groundwater.
“Water is now among the very top issues,” said Christopher Kuzdas, the Environmental Defense Fund’s water program director in Arizona. “People increasingly relate water to their ability to make choices about their future — the opportunity to stay in a place and build a life.”
The subject has become top-of-mind for many as the desert state braces for more cuts to its allotment of Colorado River water. Arizona recently joined a lawsuit by Nevada against the Trump administration to challenge its plan for mandatory cutbacks, arguing it would harm the state’s economy.
In California, in contrast, water was less prominent in most political campaigns.
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One exception was Republican gubernatorial contender Steve Hilton, who sought to woo voters with his calls for delivering more water to farms and cities. In the Central Valley, some of his campaign signs declared: “For Water & Jobs.”
But ultimately Hilton’s calls seemed to gain little traction. Democrat Xavier Becerra won by a large margin.
Some Arizona voters have become alarmed about how out-of-state companies and investors have set up large farms in the desert where they can pump unlimited groundwater from wells, with some exporting alfalfa overseas.
Both Hobbs and Mayes have targeted a giant Saudi-owned hay farm in western Arizona, and campaigned on their efforts to rein in its heavy water use.
An irrigation system sprays an alfalfa field in December 2025 near Vicksburg, Ariz. The Saudi-owned company Fondomonte Arizona LLC has been growing alfalfa on desert farmland.
(Kayla Bartkowski / Los Angeles Times)
“It takes about 12 gallons of water to grow just one alfalfa plant. But there’s a Saudi-owned mega-farm in Arizona growing millions of them,” the attorney general said in one commercial. “That’s why I sued, just like I’ve sued other companies abusing Arizona’s water supply.”
The company, Fondomonte, also owns land in California. It recently said it is “committed to progressive, efficient agricultural practices,” and has invested in “the latest technology to conserve water” on its farms.
A survey earlier this year by the Center for the Future of Arizona confirmed that water has risen to the top of voters’ concerns, and that 69% do not believe the state will have enough over the long term to support people, agriculture and economic growth. The survey also found 78% want stronger protections for groundwater in rural areas — which Hobbs’ administration has begun to adopt.
Over the last four years, state officials have established three new regulated areas to limit pumping by farms where groundwater levels are dropping. Hobbs has tailored her message to indicate she isn’t anti-farming but will prioritize solutions where large farms are taking too much groundwater. In one ad, farmer Ed Curry endorsed Hobbs as a leader who is helping to address his area’s water problem.
In a post on the Environmental Defense Fund’s website, Kuzdas wrote that concerns about water have gone “from obscurity to the mainstream,” thanks in part to extensive journalism examining the subject. (He credited a 2019 Arizona Republic investigation that I wrote with then-colleague Rob O’Dell for helping to put the groundwater crisis on the agenda.)
He also credited residents who have organized and spoken out to demand change in areas where wells have run dry.
At the same time, the constant news coverage of the Colorado River’s low reservoirs over the last year has more people concerned about the state’s water future as climate change intensifies drought. By this summer, Kuzdas said he was seeing political ads on water almost every day.
He said unlike issues such as the economy or education, water tends to be a nonpartisan issue, and that makes him hopeful the state’s leaders can take bigger, more creative steps toward solutions.
“I do think that water has some traction and legs for a while as a top electoral issue,” he said, “because the challenges we face are so significant.”
A 2014 aerial view of the valley where the proposed Sites Reservoir is slated to be built near Maxwell, Calif.
(Risa Johnson / California Department of Water Resources)
More water news
California water regulators have cleared the way for construction of Sites Reservoir, the state’s first large reservoir in decades. I reported for The Times on the decision by the State Water Resources Control Board after a heated debate. Gov. Gavin Newsom and leaders of water agencies say the reservoir is vital to a modern California water system. Tribes say it will destroy sacred sites, and others argue the $7-billion project is too costly and will harm fish and the environment.
The decision followed another vote by the same board approving controversial changes to how the state controls water pumping in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, the heart of the state water system.
My L.A. Times colleague Susanne Rust wrote about alarming new research on plastic pollution. A scientist skied into remote wilderness areas of the Sierra Nevada to take samples of freshly fallen snow. Everywhere she looked, she found microplastics.
A deckhand holds a dorado aboard the sportfishing boat Dana Pride in September.
(Gary Coronado / For The Times)
More climate and environment news
The extremely warm ocean waters along the California coast, fueled by climate change and the strong El Niño, continue to set records and drive extraordinary shifts in fish and other marine life. Joshua Partlow writes in the Atlantic that El Niño, which has pushed the ocean temperature to 11 degrees higher than average, has brought entire tropical ecosystems north, including whale sharks, giant manta rays and reef fish.
The superheated ocean waters have been bringing dramatic transformations for months. Fedor Zarkhin reported for The Times that anglers on sportfishing boats have been catching tuna, mahi-mahi and wahoo, which aren’t usually found off Southern California. Last week, my colleague Corinne Purtill covered the news when a third olive ridley sea turtle laid its eggs in Southern California. The shifts in the ocean are also leaving victims, as thousands of emaciated seabirds have washed up dead on beaches.
Sen. Alan Armstrong of Oklahoma pushed for a provision in a permitting reform bill that would limit states’ power to block gas pipelines. As Nicholas Kusnetz and Lauren Dalban report for Inside Climate News, Armstrong could stand to gain financially.
As U.N. climate talks began in Turkey this week, Secretary-General António Guterres said in an interview with AP reporter Seth Borenstein that as global warming brings worsening heat waves, storms, floods and droughts, it’s time fossil fuel companies start paying taxes on their windfall profits to support countries grappling with the most severe effects.
“This is a moment of truths,” Guterres said. “We can no longer wait. … Everybody must do more, everybody must do more now.”
This is the latest edition of Boiling Point, a newsletter about climate change and the environment in California and the West. Sign up here to get it in your inbox.
And catch the latest episode of the Boiling Point Podcast: This week hear film director Richard Ladkani talk about the documentary he has produced with Indigenous leader Juma Xipaia about her years of struggle to protect the forests and rivers of the Amazon.
I get it. We’re barely into November. You haven’t put away the Halloween décor yet, even though you finished eating all the leftover candy (even those off-brand Whoppers) days ago.
But for many of us, the most wonderful time of the year arrived early, on Nov. 3, with the midterm election rebuke of corruption, unnecessary wars, cruelty, racism, misogyny, taxpayer-funded vanity projects, and the soaring cost of just about everything.
Democrats flipped the House, the Senate, governorships and state houses in areas that were once as red as the stiff holiday dress mom forced you to wear to the school pageant.
And I did wear that dress, even though I’m an Ali. Muslims can be just as secular as any other faith. My dad, an Iraqi Shiite, bought a live tree every year. My mom, an Anglo Cali girl who was raised Protestant, taught him — and her kids — how to string the lights, space out the ornaments and delicately hang the tinsel rather than throw it on in clumps (chucking it was way more fun, of course).
Supporters of Texas Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico cheer as they watch midterm election returns come in.
(Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images)
Christmas equaled happiness. It still does.
I’m the weirdo who listens to Christmas music year-round, particularly when times get tough. Suffice to say that over the last decade, there’s been a lot of yuletide listening in July, or May, or whenever it felt like the implosion of democracy and the rise of something much darker was too much to handle without the buoyant cheer of Gene Autry’s “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” or the soothing calm of Burl Ives “Silent Night.”
They got me through a lot: The Muslim ban. Brett Kavanaugh’s SCOTUS hearing. The abortion ban. Gutting the Voting Rights Act. January 6th. Gaza. DOGE. Bombing a school in Iran. ICE sweeps, deportations and killings. The stupid ballroom. The stupid Melania documentary.
Vince Guaraldi’s “Skating” didn’t do much to stop the Big Lie or expose the contents of the Epstein Files, but it did offer a small dose of joy when there was little to be found.
There are others out there like me, who’ve let it slip that they were listening to the London Philharmonic’s “Carol of the Bells” deep into summer because they needed to. It was paramount to their mental health.
The irony is that over the years, angry readers and trolls have accused me of wanting to “cancel Christmas” because my writing, or mere existence, challenged their idea of what American faith is, or should be. As if there was only one, and everyone practiced it.
If only I’d sent them back a musical Christmas card. The tune would be Booker T. & the M.G.’s jaunty version of “Jingle Bells.” The message: “Peace on earth, good will toward men, women, and non-binary.”
Why do the best comebacks always arrive after the fact?
Before anyone takes offense, I’m wholly aware there is a much deeper meaning behind the holiday, and I respect that. My warm and fuzzy feelings for the C9 incandescent bulb and my Mr. Christmas magnetized skating rink are just that, feelings. They come in handy when a safe harbor is needed.
For example: Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announces that the government plans to livestream an execution. Seek refuge in Johnny Mathis’ “Calypso Noel.”
Let’s get back to the tree.
Our 7.5-foot Vickerman White Spruce with 750 multicolored LED bulbs with an easy to assemble, snap-in trunk has been up the day after Thanksgiving every year since 2016, when President Trump won his first term, and my first assignment as a critic was to cover his inauguration. Like “Mame,” I just needed a little Christmas! Right that very minute!
To be fair, he had yet to prove himself. But there were clues to how bad things might get should he win: He initially declined to disavow an endorsement from former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke. He boasted on a hot mic about sexually assaulting women. He refused to publicly release his tax returns, as if there was something to hide.
With each passing year of MAGA toxicity, I kept the tree up a little longer and made Valentine’s Day a reasonable cut-off date.
My reasons are different for wanting to put the tree up now, well before Thanksgiving, let alone Christmas. It’s not about bringing me joy, but about reflecting how good it feels now that the country stands a chance of repairing the damage from a decade of Trumpism. MAGA is falling. Hegseth is headed toward impeachment. Tesla has ended production of the Cybertruck.
Cue the music. Plug in the tree. It’s never too early to celebrate.
In the aftermath of widespread Republican losses in the midterm election, California GOP Chair Corrin Rankin announced Wednesday night that she would not seek reelection next year.
“The recent election results have reinforced something I have said consistently throughout my chairmanship,” she said in a statement. “We must move beyond competing organizations and disconnected efforts toward a unified, coordinated strategy that puts winning ahead of everything else.”
The party held eight seats in California’s 52-member congressional delegation and is projected to lose at least half. In the state legislature, the GOP is projected to lose 8 of their 20 seats in the Assembly and as many as three of their 10 seats in the Senate.
Such losses would result in the fewest Republicans in both state bodies since the 1875-76 session, according to Alex Vassar, communications manager at the California State Library.
Rankin, the former statewide president of the California Bail Agents Assn., was elected chair in March 2025. Her decision to not run for reelection comes amid a challenging moment for Republicans in California and nationwide with many questioning the party’s direction in the wake of election losses this month.
The state GOP has been spiraling in voter registration and financial support for years. The party that launched the careers of Presidents Reagan and Nixon last elected GOP candidates to statewide office two decades ago. Registered Democrats outnumber Republicans by 20 points, according to the secretary of state’s office as of Oct. 19.
State Assemblyman Carl DeMaio (R-Valley Center) questioned Rankin’s competence for the leadership role, saying in an interview with The Times that the chairwoman “doesn’t know how to manage a taco stand.”
DeMaio also took aim at the state party, saying that it will take more than a new chair to fix the GOP.
“What we first need to do is get a plan to fundamentally restructure the entire party,” he said.
He said that the “new California Republican Party has to have clearly defined roles, and they have to cut their budget down to the bare minimum with 100% of the remaining resources going to candidate support.”
Rankin followed in the footsteps of two state party leaders who were able to raise significant funds because of their relationships — Jessica Millan Patterson, a close ally of former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Bakersfield) and powerful former legislative leader Jim Brulte.
Rankin didn’t have such relationships, and fundraising suffered.
The state Democratic Party received nearly $40.9 million in contributions this year through Oct. 17. The state GOP raised nearly $3.3 million in the same stretch, during a time when Republicans were swamping Democrats nationwide in fundraising, according to the secretary of state’s office.
State Sen. Tony Strickland of Huntington Beach, who conceded his race for reelection this week, is the name most prominently mentioned as a potential successor to Rankin. Others include Rep. James Gallagher (R-Yuba City) and 2026 GOP gubernatorial candidate Steve Hilton, both of whom also lost their bids last week.
Former state GOP Chair Ron Nehring pointed to Rankin’s roots as a GOP volunteer who rose through the ranks to become a party leader at an incredibly challenging time for Republicans.
“She got baptism by boiling oil in this election cycle,” he said.
LAS VEGAS — The Dodgers’ early offseason to-do list includes a meeting with top free agent Tarik Skubal, the two-time Cy Young winner who they acquired at the trade deadline this year.
Other than the Dodgers’ National League Championship Series exit, the three-month fling was as happy of a partnership as either side could have hoped.
Skubal jelled with the group immediately, becoming especially close friends with fellow lefty Blake Snell, who promised that he’d worked to recruit Skubal back this offseason. And after posting a 2.61 ERA in 10 starts, Skubal, the Dodgers’ Game 1 starter in both playoff series, limited postseason opponents to a total of three runs.
“I know that he enjoyed his time here, we loved having him, so I think that’s certainly helpful as far as these conversations go,” Dodgers general manager Brandon Gomes said Tuesday at General Managers meetings. “And outside of that, he’s earned the right to be in this position and figure out what’s best for him and his family.”
That position, while it guarantees him a highly lucrative contract, is complicated by the impending lockout. Skubal’s agent, Scott Boras, when asked during his media availability Wednesday whether he’d consider a shorter deal with a higher average annual value, said he wouldn’t discuss contract negotiations. But creativity around the structure of a deal could help counter teams’ anxieties over a possible salary cap in the next Collective Bargaining Agreement.
It’s clear already that CBA uncertainty won’t fully freeze the market in November. But executives and agents alike have expressed skepticism that the expected lockout will inspire the same kind of spending flurry that arose in 2021, the end of the last CBA cycle.
Boras, however, argued against the notion that salary cap talk could put a damper on the superstar market before Dec. 1, when the lockout is expected to go into effect.
“Much like 2021, there’s a clear intent on a group of players, and we have no reservations by any teams that they’re going to operate within their abilities and freedoms because they want they don’t want to lose to their competitors,” Boras told reporters. “They want the market to be what it is for them, and they’re utilizing their rights to compete. I think they’re very concerned about losing the opportunity to sign select, key players, and they’re pursuing it aggressively.”
The Dodgers are among the teams planning to meet with Skubal, a group that reportedly includes the Mets, Padres and others.
The Dodgers certainly have a track record of splashy offseason deals with eye-popping numbers. Look no further than last offseason, when they broke records with their signings of closer Edwin Díaz (three years, $69 million, highest AAV for a relief pitcher) and right fielder Kyle Tucker (four years, $240 million, highest present-day AAV).
Even the Dodgers’ trade-deadline acquisition of Skubal appeared to be superfluous at the time. Once two-way phenom Shohei Ohtani’s health forced him to give up on pitching for the rest of the season, however, Skubal’s addition maintained the Dodgers rotation’s status as one of the most talented in MLB history.
They were not, however, among the most aggressive teams before the last lockout. And their approach to Skubal’s free agency will hinge, in part, on how they evaluate their starting pitching needs.
That picture isn’t clear, either.
“We’ve talked about the different paths that you can go down, and what does that look like,” Gomes said. “Do you need it? I don’t know. Do you want it? Maybe. You may not know that you need it until it’s too late. So I think it’s balancing all of this, as different scenarios play out. … The floor right now is really high. We do have a good amount of depth in our pitching. So now it’s just taking into account, what makes sense for us based on different avenues of how things shake out.”
As the Dodgers project out the potential of their rotation, they can reasonably expect improvement from some of their younger pitchers. They were pleased with the step forward that right-hander Roki Sasaki took this year.
“Expect him to take another big step forward,” Gomes said, “and really become the front-line-type guy that he knows that he can be and we know he can be.”
Regardless of lefty Justin Wrobleski’s second-half regression, he earned his first All-Star nod with a dominant first half. Though right-hander Emmet Sheehan had an up-and-down season, the Dodgers continue to believe in his upside. And they expect Gavin Stone, who last pitched in the majors in 2024, to be part of the equation, after a long road back from shoulder surgery.
They still have the star power of Yoshinobu Yamamoto, a two-time All-Star and 2025 World Series MVP, Snell, a two-time Cy Young winner, and Tyler Glasnow.
Ohtani’s return to the mound, however, raises the most questions. The Dodgers expect him to return to two-way duties, that much is clear. But they have yet to lay out a plan for how to keep him healthy for the season while doing so.
“I think it’s just making sure that we are taking all of the information into account and trying to set up a system that allows him to pitch and be successful and be healthy towards the end,” Gomes said. “Because we know how dominant he can be on the mound.”
Ozzy Osbourne was rock ‘n’ roll’s Prince of Darkness — and also a much-beloved bumbling reality show dad. Inventive bassist Geezer Butler put words into Ozzy’s mouth as Black Sabbath’s main lyricist, his muscular playing anchoring the quartet’s rhythm section alongside drummer Bill Ward.
But it’s guitarist Tony Iommi whose iconic riffs built the Sabbath sound. The hugely influential aural architect found his signature style after a horrific accident at a sheet-metal plant when he was just 17. The teen was about to quit the factory, but on his last day, the tips of his middle and ring fingers of his right hand were sliced off in a piece of machinery. As a left-hander, Iommi used his right for fretting, and for creating a song’s mood and melody.
From the ominous timbre of the first song in their 1970 debut LP, “Black Sabbath,” to legendary cuts including “N.I.B.,” “Paranoid” and “Iron Man,” Iommi’s self-made fingertip “thimbles” and adaptive way of playing created unforgettable and hugely influential riffs. The guitarist’s instantly recognizable style and tone are as vital and memorable more than 50 years later on his new solo album, “From the Dark.”
Via phone from his home in the Cotswolds, England, a day before the London premiere of the concert documentary film “Ozzy & Black Sabbath: Back to the Beginning,” Iommi is humble, low-key and congenial. While he’s excited about “From the Dark,” he’s still stunned by the 2025 loss of his longtime friend and bandmate Osbourne.
He speaks with slight trepidation about his upcoming viewing of the concert documentary, which chronicles Osbourne’s final live performance and Sabbath reunion.
Tony Iommi’s amputated fingertips could have ended his guitar career. Instead, homemade thimbles and a new playing style helped create Black Sabbath’s defining, generations-shaping riffs.
(Ross Halfin)
“It’s weird for me,” Iommi says. “In my own heart, I don’t particularly really want to see it because it brings back so many memories with Oz of course. For me, on that last gig, seeing him not being able to move wasn’t particularly the way I’d seen him — all the years he’s been running around the stage. That’s how I know him, and then to see him sitting down on a throne…”
However, for most of the four-song final performance, which saw Sabbath reuniting with drummer Ward for the first time in more than two decades, Osbourne was not in the guitarist’s sights. “I stood at the back because Bill wanted me to stand by him. We hadn’t played live with Bill for 20 years, so Bill said, ‘Would you stand by me, if I forget anything or miss anything?’ I don’t know what I could have done, but I did do that,” Iommi says.
“[The event] was a very strange experience. It’s great for all the other bands who came to the show and supported Sabbath. That was fantastic, and they were all really nice and no egos. It was a great setup, and I was really proud of everybody coming along to be involved in it and tip their hat towards us. It was lovely, of course, for the fans.”
In rehearsal, while Osbourne was joking around, “you could see he was in pain,” recalls Iommi. “Basically, he was carried in, and we were all shocked. We just didn’t know what to say. It was a strange, strange feeling.”
When the singer died only 17 days after the concert, even his bandmates were shocked by the suddenness. “I spoke to him the night before he passed, and he said to me, ‘Oh, God, I’ve been really tired, I feel really tired. I can’t stay awake. I’m exhausted.’ I said to him, ‘You’re bound to feel it.” We’ve been rehearsing the show, it’s been a bit stressful. We’ve had a lot of things to do.’ Ozzy said, ‘But I just can’t.” I just feel tired.’ And of course, the next day he’d gone. Really, it was such a shock.”
At 78, the Birmingham-born guitarist is releasing From the Dark, a solo album built around his signature heavy sound and a new lineup of collaborators.
(Ross Halfin)
At that time, Iommi had the seeds of the songs that would become “From the Dark.” It began with a scent: “I did a couple of instrumental tracks for a perfume [ad campaign]. Then I thought, ‘I’ll start writing some instrumentals for an album,’ and I did three or four. Then I changed my mind and thought, ‘I want to do one with a vocalist.’ ”
If Tony Iommi were a perfume, he’d smell like cinnamon, patchouli and leather. In fact, he is one, with three unisex fragrances by Italian luxury brand Xerjoff under his name. One — with notes of rum, bergamot and Ambergris, is called Monkey Special, named after his 1964 Gibson SG guitar. “It’s not a cheap perfume, I might say,” Iommi says. “In England, they stock it in Harrods and Selfridges. It’s been very successful and very different for me to do something like that.”
Following his perfumey instrumentals, the songwriter began collaborating with journeyman Norwegian vocalist Jørn Lande, bassist Becky Baldwin and drummer Karl Brazil, who has worked with pop icons Robbie Williams and James Blunt. The latter two hail from Iommi’s and Sabbath’s hometown, Birmingham, England.
“I met Jørn years ago when I was going to do another album, and it ended up with [former Deep Purple bassist/singer] Glenn Hughes on it. But I’d done a track with Jørn, and I liked the idea. But at the time, the record company wanted to use somebody a bit more known, so I did the album with Glenn.”
Lande ended up singing on a 2010 live show following the death of second Black Sabbath singer Ronnie James Dio, stepping into the frontman’s shoes for the band, which was then going by the name Heaven & Hell. “I was really pleased with what he’d done, and I always had it in mind to use him somewhere along the line, doing an album together, and that’s how it worked out.”
Born 78 years ago, in Birmingham — the town where Sabbath first formed and later performed its final show in 2025 — Iommi remains defined by his signature look. It is hard to imagine the guitar legend without his trademark black shirt, large silver cross, blue-tinted glasses and leather coat. His playing — down-tuning his guitar to lower the pitch for a menacing and heavier sound — may have morphed very slightly over the years, but “I think you just do it naturally without even thinking about it. My writing ideas are still the same. I still come up with miserable stuff,” he says, chuckling. “I like to do riffs and whatnot, so I enjoy that.”
Tony Iommi with his band vocalist Jørn Lande (far right), bassist Becky Baldwin, and drummer Karl Brazil and producer Mike Exeter
(Tina Korhonen)
On “From the Dark,” lyrics are all Lande; Iommi has no interest in telling his own stories using words. Yet a new tune like “Beyond the Dead” seems as if it could be about Iommi’s 2011 diagnosis and treatment for early-stage non-Hodgkin lymphoma.
Not so, the guitarist affirms, while acknowledging that the lyrics could be read that way.
“It was about beyond the living, beyond the dead, and coming back. Really deep, but that’s good. I do love what he’s done. When somebody like Jørn comes in, as with Dio, they’d write their own lyrics, and I prefer that because they’re going to sing them,” Iommi explains. “It’s like somebody saying to me, ‘Play this and play that.’ I want to play what I feel and what’s coming from me.”
There was a time when Sabbath did take a slightly different approach to writing and recording, but it wasn’t at their own initiative. In 2001, the band recorded “13,” Sabbath’s 19th and final studio album. It was the first studio record with Osbourne since 1978’s “Never Say Die,” and producer Rick Rubin was on board for the reunion.
What did Iommi learn from Rubin?
“I learned not to use a producer again,” he quipped. “It was strange because Rick wasn’t there most of the time. He’d be there for a certain recording, then he’d disappear. I’d written a lot of the stuff, and then we’d play it, and he go, ‘I don’t like that bit, I don’t like that part,’ and then disappear.
“One Friday he phoned me up — because he wouldn’t talk to the others [Osbourne, Butler]. He wanted me to relate what he’d said to the others. He said, ‘Could you write a song over the weekend that’s like “Planet Caravan,” so we can record it on Monday?’ I went, ‘What?!!’ But it happens that I did do it.” The end result was “Zeitgeist.”
Iommi is still processing Ozzy Osbourne’s death, just 17 days after Black Sabbath’s final performance, and says watching the concert film will bring back painful memories.
(Ross Halfin)
Iommi’s key plans for his new lineup and record were to make sure the players brought a healthy dose of enthusiasm. Baldwin is the first female he’s been in a band with. Iommi has a comfort zone, so he’d originally wanted Butler on the new album, which didn’t work out logistically. “Becky happened to be a big fan of Geezer, so we got Becky over to my home studio, and I did throw her in the deep end a bit,” admits Iommi. “I gave her the first track, which was ‘World Alone.’ I said, ‘Play that.’ She listened to it a bit and started playing it. It was really good. I just wanted to see what she’d be like straight away, just to see what she came up with, which was a bit horrible of me, I suppose.
“She worked out really good. The other thing is enthusiasm,” he continued. “I wanted people involved in this that really love what they do and really enjoy playing, and she constantly wants to play and be involved in the music, and it’s a great attitude.”
Another Brit superstar who also opts to play with relatively unknown, ardent players is Zeppelin’s Robert Plant. “He’s the same,” Iommi acknowledges. “We spoke about this, myself and Planty, because obviously we’ve known each other a long time. He could have easily done Zeppelin, but he wanted to do what he wanted to do.”
What a collaboration Iommi and Plant would be.
“I did say to him one time about doing something together, but again, he got his own thing, and I did [too]. Who knows? We’ve talked about it a couple of times, but he’s into a certain flavor of music that he likes to play, which is different to what I play, really. I don’t discard anything that way. If something comes up that’s a good idea and somebody’s into it, then I’m going to have a go.”
It’s been 26 years since Iommi’s debut, a self-titled solo album with a roster of guest vocalists including Osbourne, Dave Grohl, Henry Rollins and Pantera’s Philip Anselmo. “How fast it goes,” Iommi says with a chuckle. “Twenty-one years ago was my last solo album. And that’s long enough, isn’t it? But I was just busy with the Sabbath thing and then other things, including the Sabbath ballet.”
While fans would adore a tour, Iommi says he’d only do the occasional “one-off.” He will allow a moment of supposition, if pressed. “I suppose if I did something like that, I’d probably do some Dio stuff and maybe [one-time Sabbath vocalist] Tony Martin and maybe ‘Paranoid,’ ‘Iron Man.’ I haven’t really thought about it. Again, it’s not Sabbath,” he concludes. “It would be an Iommi thing, but it is part of my background. So I suppose I would play some of the old ones.”
It’s business as usual for President Trump’s deportation offensive despite the Republican wipeout in the midterm elections.
In Los Angeles, masked immigration officers in body armor blocked a hospital emergency room driveway in a heavily Latino neighborhood early Saturday. In central Alabama, twin 19-year-old brothers from Venezuela were arrested while driving back to college a day after the election.
Advocates reported arrests from California to Michigan to Massachusetts. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has not released numbers.
After Democrats trounced the GOP and won control of the next Congress, Trump said his immigration crackdown may have been “too tough” and suggested it was time to sit down with the rival party.
“I’d love to do something on immigration,” he said in an interview with CBS “60 Minutes” recorded Friday.
Hours later, he named Stephen Miller, the architect of his hard-line immigration agenda, as his new chief of staff. Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin, meanwhile, said his orders had not changed.
“Deportations will continue,” Mullin wrote in an online post the day after the election, warning that ICE takes no days off and that “this includes on Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Election Day.”
María Bilbao, a campaign coordinator for the American Friends Service Committee in Miami, said she has received at least one call a day from someone detained in South Florida since the election.
“Everything remains exactly the same. The arrests have not ceased at all,” Bilbao said.
Florida Highway Patrol officers and ICE agents have detained people in their cars, as well as places including supermarkets, pharmacies and gas stations. Immigrants under supervision have also been arrested when they showed up at ICE’s Miami office for their appointments.
Officers assembled outside a Los Angeles hospital
Erick Gasca, 31, got home Friday night after an evening playing board games with friends. He lives near Adventist Health White Memorial Medical Center in Los Angeles.
An “unprecedented” number of vehicles with tinted windows and no license plates were parked near the hospital’s emergency room entrance, he said.
“I thought they were going to raid the hospital or something,” he recalled.
The Department of Homeland Security declined to explain the officers’ presence there, though Bill Essayli, the top Justice Department prosecutor in Los Angeles, said they were bringing a detainee for medical treatment. Essayli said two people were arrested for assaulting federal agents.
“ICE does not target hospitals, schools, or churches,” the Department of Homeland Security said in a statement.
The agents’ presence attracted some 30 residents and passersby. Footage shot by Gasca’s cousin, Michelle Rivera, shows protesters shouting and officers pinning someone down.
The hospital said it wasn’t involved.
“White Memorial does not participate in immigration enforcement,” hospital president Daniel Fontoura said in a statement, adding it would not let such activities “compromise our commitment to patient care and safety.”
A couple is arrested at the Phoenix airport
A married couple from Orlando, Fla., was arrested Saturday at the airport in Phoenix while traveling to a funeral.
Gustavo Romanello and Agustin Baccega, both from Argentina, have work permits while they seek asylum after entering the United States about six years ago, according to Jonathan Batchelor, a family friend.
Batchelor was on the phone with them at the time. A mutual friend died Friday and the couple was visiting for the funeral Saturday. As the couple left the airport, two casually dressed officers asked if one was Agustin Baccega. Batchelor heard the officer say, “Asylum seekers are not in the United States legally.”
Batchelor said he could hear Romanello walking alongside his husband during the arrest and asking the officers how to collect his things. Batchelor said they then asked what his name was, “and then the guard said, ‘Oh, do you have another set of handcuffs? This is another one.’”
The voices grew distant, and the call then ended.
Both men remain in detention centers. They worked as acrobats in Florida and had no criminal record, Batchelor said.
“This is just taking good people who have been following the rules out of their lives and out of the lives of those who rely upon them and care about them,” Batchelor said.
The Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the arrests.
Twin brothers seized while driving back to college
The brothers were headed back to college after visiting their parents when they were stopped in a small city in central Alabama.
Luis and Carlos Orta-Santoro, 19-year-olds born in Venezuela and living in the U.S. for four years, are soccer players at Wallace State Community College in Hanceville, Ala.
Relatives say they have pending asylum applications, valid work permits, and no criminal records. Both are now in an immigration detention facility.
“Our family is devastated,” said their aunt, Carolina Orta.
Homeland Security said that while they had entered the country legally, they had “overstayed in defiance of our laws,” and their case would be heard by an immigration judge. It said pending asylum applications do not confer legal status in the U.S.
The school said in a statement, “Both young men are valued members of the Wallace State community, and our thoughts are with them during this difficult time. We sincerely hope for a positive resolution to their situation.”
A Haitian boy is taken into custody, drawing protests in San Diego
An 8-year-old Haitian boy had been living with his uncle in San Diego since his father was deported last year. The uncle, who is not a legal guardian, took him to an ICE office when the boy was summoned Nov. 4 and taken into custody.
That left the boy “without the support of their family, community and their school,” according to a letter to top administration officials from San Diego Unified School District Superintendent Fabi Bagula and school board members.
“Children should not lose access to education simply because of circumstances unfolding around them,” they wrote.
ICE has defended its actions.
Johny Oxeda, pastor of the Fairmount Haitian Community Church, which helped get legal representation for the boy, said he’ll ultimately benefit by going through legal channels.
Activists, though, were furious.
“This is not child protection,” said Guerline Jozef of Haitian Bridge Alliance, adding, “this is state-inflicted trauma.”
Gonzalez and Sullivan write for the Associated Press. AP reporters Gisela Salomon in Miami and Elliot Spagat in San Diego contributed to this report.
Along 2,400 miles of Route 66, small towns and road-trippers will be marking the highway’s 100th anniversary Wednesday. But for many business owners along the Mother Road, the birthday gifts have been coming in for months, thanks to a surge in spending by centennial travelers.
Hundreds of small businesses invested in upgrades and celebrations for 2026 — particularly during summer’s busy road trip season — including concerts, car shows, signs, murals, publications and a 19-day national caravan that began in Santa Monica in June.
“I’d say we’ve had probably double the travelers and double the spending,” said Gar Engman, owner of TeePee Curios, a novelty shop in Tucumcari, N.M., comparing this year with 2025.
Not every entrepreneur had numbers that rosy, and there’s no official measure of this year’s business along the route. But after driving the route myself for a Times travel guide that published in May, I reached out this week to several entrepreneurs I met on the way, and most said business was up sharply this year. In addition, many said they were seeing more Americans on the road this year — a notable trend, since international travelers have been the lifeblood of Route 66 for many years.
All along the road, there had been doubts about centennial traffic, given gas prices (up 30% from last year) and the many Route 66 devotees who come from countries that have been maligned or targeted for higher tariffs by President Trump, including the United Kingdom, France and Germany. Several entrepreneurs along the road said some international travelers did stay away, including Canadians who have been avoiding U.S. travel since 2025, when President Trump made comments about annexing Canada. But in many cases homegrown travelers filled the gap.
An amateur photographer captures the Roy’s sign in Amboy.
(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)
At Roy’s in Amboy, manager Kenneth Large said 2026 has been “fantastic” so far, with receipts at his gas station and shop up 18% to 20% over last year. International visitors are still the majority of his customers, Large said, but “I think there were more domestic travelers this year.”
At the Aztec Motel & Creative Space in Seligman, Ariz., “it’s been a roller-coaster,” said co-owner Anne Marie Gonzalez. “Our numbers here were almost nonexistent until August. We were getting really worried. And then it finally kicked in.” Though her 2026 numbers remain behind 2025 and 2024, Gonzalez said, she has seen “more Americans than ever. … People seemed to decide to do it at the last minute.”
Sebastiaan de Boorder and Anna Marie Gonzalez own and operate the Aztec Motel and Creative Space in Seligman, Ariz.
(Christopher Reynolds / Los Angeles Times)
When I called the U Drop Inn Cafe in Shamrock, Texas, co-owner Lianne Halpern started by saying “Give me one second! Let me just take this dessert to this table.”
“It’s been huge,” she said a moment later. “Right now, we’re probably up about 30% year over year. … It’s always been disproportionately international versus domestic and I would stay that’s still true.”
The U Drop Inn Cafe, part of a 1936 Streamline Moderne filling station in Shamrock, Texas, is run by Lianne and Aldo Halpern.
(Christopher Reynolds / Los Angeles Times)
At the Rockwood Motor Court in Springfield, Mo., “it’s just been stellar,” said owner Phyllis Ferguson. Ferguson, whose motel has just 10 rooms, said that in June she filled 286 of 300 room-nights. By the end of that month, she said, she was already on the brink of passing her room-night total for all of 2025.
She was further encouraged by the number of younger travelers this year — so many, Ferguson said, that “I think Route 66 has become the honeymoon destination of young European couples.”
In Clinton, Okla., the Oklahoma Route 66 Museum reported that through the first half of 2026, business quadrupled over the first half of 2025.
In Tulsa, Buck Atom’s Atomic Curios and Meadow Gold Mack’s Route 66 Outpost have drawn a mix of young and old customers with their blend of irreverent and vintage wares items, perhaps offering a peek at the route’s future.
Rhys Martin, manager of the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s Route 66 program, said the positive reports have been fairly consistent along the highway’s “linear community,” which stretches from town to town across eight states.
Nov. 11, 1926, is considered the route’s official birth date because that’s when a group of state and national transportation officials formally agreed, after months of debate, that a highway would connect cities and towns from Chicago to Los Angeles, and that it would bear the number 66. It was another 12 years before the entire route was paved.
Martin was in Los Angeles over the weekend for a screening of director John Paget’s documentary “Route 66: The Main Street of America.” But he will soon be traveling to Washington, D.C., where Route 66 boosters are pushing a pair of identical bills that call for creation of a Route 66 National Historic Trail. In the House of Representatives, HR5470 still needs to clear a committee before a House vote. In the Senate, Martin said, S2887 awaits a full Senate vote.
The road “touches so many communities at so many levels,” Martin said. “It isn’t just good for the towns, it’s good for the story of the country.”
