year

I’ve visited the city every year for as long as I can remember

There are destinations you visit and recall with affection, and then there are those that leave you desperate to go back. For me, Amsterdam belongs firmly in the latter camp — I’ve now returned every year for the past eight years. Nestled in the Netherlands, Amsterdam boasts a fascinating past, having started life as a modest fishing village along the River Amstel.

Across the centuries, it evolved into one of Europe’s foremost trading hubs. During the Dutch Golden Age of the 17th century, it emerged as among the world’s most prosperous cities, drawing merchants and artists from far and wide. The city’s iconic canal system was constructed during this era, shaping the distinctive layout that captivates visitors to this day.

What captivates me most about Amsterdam is its architectural splendour.

The slender canal houses, adorned with elaborate gables and steeped in centuries of heritage, lend the city a charm unmatched anywhere else across Europe.

Strolling beside the canals feels like entering a living piece of history, yet the city never seems trapped in yesteryear.

Age-old structures nestle seamlessly alongside contemporary cafés, art galleries, eateries, and numerous boutiques.

I’m particularly fond of the Moco Museum in Amsterdam, the Van Gogh Museum, and dining at Pancakes Amsterdam and Sandwichshop Amsterdam.

The canals themselves rank among Amsterdam’s finest draws.

Whether admired from a bridge, discovered by boat, or simply encountered while exploring the streets, they offer a tranquillity I’ve never experienced elsewhere.

Another factor that keeps me coming back is the weather. Despite what many assume, I’ve frequently been blessed with remarkably mild temperatures during my stays.

During my latest visit earlier this month, the mercury hit 28C, creating ideal conditions for lounging by the waterways, relaxing on outdoor terraces and wandering through the streets.

It’s also barely an hour’s flight from London, though I’m equally fond of taking a cruise to the country for a more leisurely journey.

After eight years in a row of visiting the city, my enthusiasm hasn’t waned.

Its convenient location near other destinations, such as Edam, also makes it an excellent starting point for wider exploration.

The blend of fascinating heritage, breathtaking buildings and charming canals keeps pulling me back time and again.

With California facing increasingly destructive wildfires, experts and officials have long urged the strategic removal of dense, flammable vegetation that can erupt into particularly destructive flames from a lightning bolt or the spark of a power line.

But after years of record investment by the state in such wildfire risk mitigation, two key money sources are drying up, potentially reducing the state’s annual budget for vegetation removal by hundreds of millions of dollars.

Wildfire resiliency advocates are warning that the loss of these funds will leave the state vulnerable to devastation, and are calling on California’s next governor to take that threat seriously.

Currently, California relies heavily on two funding sources for wildfire mitigation work: A state program that charges polluters for their emissions and a climate bond approved by voters in 2024.

Late Friday, however, state officials adopted a new structure for the emissions program, called cap-and-invest, that analysts say will likely reduce wildfire mitigation funding by $200 million per year. At the same time, the governor’s latest budget proposal puts the state on track to allocate the majority of the climate bond’s $1.5 billion in wildfire prevention money within just three years.

As a result, California could go from routinely pulling more than $600 million a year from these sources, to just $150 million, according to an estimate from the Wildfire Solutions Coalition — a group of more than 80 organizations representing conservationists, business owners, fire officials and tribal leaders.

The coalition is urging the state to find new sources of funding for the work.

“We have the scientists, we have the technicians, we have the advocates,” said Michelle Decker, who is on the coalition’s executive committee and serves as president and CEO of the Inland Empire Community Foundation. “We see this problem. We can get ahead of this problem. It is a revenue issue.”

California wildfires have become increasingly costly. The 2025 L.A. fires alone caused an estimated $250 billion in damage and economic loss. Insurance companies have already paid out $22.4 billion.

In attempt to reduce the risk of damage to communities and ecosystems, the state has employed a wide range of tactics. These includes fortifying homes against wildfires, replanting fire-ravaged forests and thinning out vegetation with prescribed burns, goat grazing and manual thinning with heavy machinery to reduce the intensity of potential fires.

Research suggests wildfire mitigation work pays off. A recent analysis of 285 fires in the western U.S. found that every dollar spent on landscape projects saved about $3.75 in wildfire damage.

But as funding from cap-and-invest and the climate bond dwindle, the state must increasingly turn to Cal Fire, which devotes only a small portion of its budget to mitigation work.

“This is not an issue that can be pushed off to a timeline based solely on politics,” said Steve Frisch, a founding member of the coalition and president of the Sierra Business Council. “Fire happens whether we want it to or not.”

After a series of destructive wildfires in Northern California and the 2017 Thomas fire in Southern California, the state legislature began to explicitly focus on funding wildfire mitigation.

In 2018, lawmakers directed $200 million per year of cap-and-invest funds to wildfire mitigation projects.

As the Woolsey fire in Southern California and the Camp fire in Paradise raged later that fall, Trump accused the state of “gross mismanagement” of forest lands and threatened to cut off federal funds unless it was corrected.

Gov. Gavin Newsom and the legislature, with a significant budget surplus, began earmarking even more funds, leading to a peak of $1.1 billion in wildfire mitigation investments during the 2021-2022 fiscal year.

After the surplus dwindled, the legislature opted in 2024 to put a $10-billion climate bond in front of voters — $1.5 billion of which was dedicated specifically for wildfire mitigation work.

Newsom has since pointed to this high state funding to call on the federal government to step up its own investments into forest management work.

The federal government manages 57% of all forests in the state. While the U.S. Forest Service spent $3.1 billion mitigating wildfire conditions in the state over the last few years, California spent $4.3 billion, according to the California Forest Resilience and Wildfire Task Force.

However, the state has already allocated about $600 million of the climate bond’s wildfire mitigation pot for the 2024-2025 and current fiscal years. The latest budget proposal would allocate more than $300 million for this upcoming fiscal year. While many advocates support allocating the money quickly, it leaves little for future years.

Once that money is spent, California has to pay off the $10 billion bond with interest. The result is an estimated price tag of $16 billion, paid in roughly $400 million increments every year, for 40 years, according to the state’s Legislative Analyst’s Office.

As for the cap-and-invest funds, a fraught months-long debate at the California Air Resources Board on how to extend the program beyond 2030 resulted in a compromise that will cut the revenue it generates in half, the Legislative Analyst’s Office estimates.

Since other projects get priority — including $1 billion every year for California’s high-speed rail project — the new proposal would “likely leave no funding” for the wildfire and forest resilience line item, the Legislative Analyst’s Office found.

Cal Fire still holds a modest annual budget for wildfire mitigation work. In the 2024-2025 fiscal year, the agency had $500 million for forest management and fire prevention that was not directly tied to cap-and-invest or the bond — up from about $65 million two decades prior.

As for the federal government, independent analyses by Grassroots Wildland Firefighters and NPR found that Forest Service wildfire mitigation work is on the decline amid federal staffing cuts. The Forest Service claims the decrease in work was primarily due to poor weather conditions for activities like prescribed burns and staff being occupied with firefighting.

Both the state and federal government’s investments pale in comparison to the spending of California’s investor-owned utilities. In 2025 alone, the utilities planned to spend more than $9.2 billion on preventing their equipment from sparking the next devastating wildfire, primarily funded by Californians’ electricity bills.

Times staff writer Hayley Smith contributed to this report.

There’s been speculation for years when club sports, travel ball and showcases might make education-based high school sports obsolete or irrelevant.

The showdown is finally happening.

Ganesha High’s baseball team qualified to play in the Southern Section Division 2 championship game on Saturday against Loyola in Rancho Cucamonga, but the San Gabriel Valley Tribune reported that several players and possibly their head coach, Jared Sandler, might not show up if they participate in a baseball camp in Mississippi.

Bring it on. No more playing around. Let everyone know the expectations of being part of the California Interscholastic Federation. When you agree to play in the playoffs, you can’t just decide to leave without notice. Teams and players have dreamed of playing in a championship game. Then one team wants to make a mockery of the final, Ganesha, by using backups.

The YULA and Shalhavet baseball teams were banned from participating in this year’s Southern Section playoffs and placed on probation for pulling out in the middle of the 2025 playoffs to participate in a Jewish baseball tournament in Ohio.

The Southern Section has many options on how to proceed if Ganesha goes through with its decision to violate its commitment to the playoffs, from a postseason ban to removing the school from CIF membership.

In Northern California when a tennis team decided to send its JV team for the regional playoffs, sanctions were imposed. The same penalties might be applied by the Southern Section if it happens in the section championship game.

Ron Nocetti, the executive director of the CIF, said Friday, “We were made aware of this and any decision the Southern Section makes in this matter we support.”

Let’s have this showdown. Let’s see if the Pomona Unified School District, which pays thousands of dollars to support its schools’ athletic program, is going to act and stop this nonsense. Ganesha previously was in the news because many of its players live outside the district and participate through online classes, making the baseball team as close to a travel-ball team as you can get.

As of late Friday afternoon, a Ganesha representative said that most of the players and coach were expected to participate in the championship game.

Ronald Gonzales-Lawrence, director, governmental relations for the Pomona Unified School District, released the following statement:

“At this time, circumstances surrounding Saturday’s CIF Southern Section championship game have been resolved, and Ganesha High School will participate in the championship game as scheduled.

“Questions regarding CIF bylaws, eligibility requirements, championship scheduling decisions are best directed to the CIF Southern Section.

“We are aware of questions regarding travel-related expenses associated with this matter. The district is providing transportation and support for student participation in the CIF Southern Section championship game consistent with its normal practices for student activities and athletic competition. The district is not funding flights, hotel accommodations, or any other expenses associated with the separate out-of-state event.

“The district remains committed to supporting our student-athletes and ensuring compliance with all applicable CIF, district, and school requirements.”

DES MOINES, Iowa — The former superintendent of Iowa’s largest school district who was arrested last year in the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown was sentenced Friday to two years in prison.

Ian Roberts is likely to be deported to his native Guyana in South America once he serves the sentence. He pleaded guilty in January to falsely claiming to be a U.S. citizen and illegally possessing firearms, which together carry a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison. His lawyers had proposed that he be put on probation “to facilitate his removal from the United States,” but prosecutors had argued that his likely deportation should not be a factor.

Prosecutors alleged Roberts knowingly lacked employment authorization for nearly all of his two-decade career in urban education and submitted a counterfeit Social Security card when he was hired as superintendent of the Des Moines public school district, which serves 30,000 students.

Roberts’ stunning case bookended the school year. His September arrest occurred as President Trump’s administration was sending increased numbers of federal immigration officers into American cities to round up immigrants.

Des Moines Public Schools said last month that it revised its conflict-of-interest policy after an audit found Roberts awarded district business to a consulting firm he worked for, affirming findings first reported by the Associated Press in the weeks after federal immigration officers detained him.

Roberts was in his school-issued vehicle when officers stopped him on Sept. 26 in a targeted U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement operation. He allegedly fled before he was located with the help of state troopers. Authorities said a loaded handgun was wrapped in a towel under the seat and $3,000 in cash was in the car. Three other weapons were recovered during a search of his home.

In a court filing, attorneys for Roberts said he has dedicated his life in the U.S. to public service and has not been a threat to public safety. After Roberts married a U.S. citizen, his attorneys said, he was denied lawful permanent residency because he failed to disclose that he had been arrested. He said he did not think he needed to because the charges against him were dropped.

“While Dr. Roberts tried to adjust his status three more times, this initial mistake by Dr. Roberts sealed his fate,” his attorneys wrote. “In the background of his career for the next 24 years, this denial of his adjustment of status haunted Dr. Roberts like a ghost, eventually derailing his life and career.”

Dozens of people submitted letters on Roberts’ behalf to dispute how he has been portrayed and provide details of his positive impact. His lawyers wrote that he likely faces deportation to Guyana, where he will “be left without his career, without his wife, without his children, in a country where he has not lived for thirty years.”

In recommending a three-year sentence, prosecutors described a yearslong and deliberate misrepresentation of his legal status. Prosecutors said a reduced sentence is not appropriate just because Roberts is likely to be deported.

They said they do not know what documents Roberts presented to show eligibility for work dating back to 2008, years before he was approved for temporary status in 2018, but he “deliberately obtained employment without work authorization at school after school, within state after state.”

Fingerhut writes for the Associated Press.

Luka Doncic could be involved in two championship bids this upcoming season.

The Lakers superstar and former Dallas Mavericks general manager Donnie Nelson are leading an investor group that acquired a professional basketball team in Italy, it was announced Friday, with hopes that the franchise could become part of the NBA’s new European venture.

The group plans to move Vanoli Cremona, a team that plays in a northern Italian city about 60 miles southeast of Milan, to Rome, and submitted a bid for the club to join NBA Europe, making Doncic the first player to state his ambition to become part of the NBA’s expansion across the pond.

“I have dreamed about owning a team in Europe for a long time, to finally have this happen is amazing,” Doncic said in a statement. “Vanoli has a great history, and we are ready to take it to the next level in Rome. We have an amazing group of partners, and I really believe we can do something special for basketball in Italy and Europe.”

NBA commissioner Adam Silver said this year that the NBA is working with FIBA, the world governing body for basketball, to begin a stand-alone league in Europe. The league could begin as soon as October 2027 with up to 16 teams hosted in major cities in England, France, Spain, Italy, Germany, Greece and Turkey.

Rome and Milan are the top Italian targets to host NBA Europe teams. Rome, the Italian capital, has not had a Serie A team since 2020, when Virtus Roma ceased operations because of financial difficulties. Vanoli will begin playing in Rome for the 2026-27 season.

“Rome deserves world-class basketball, and we are excited to be bringing it back,” Nelson said in a statement. “Vanoli Cremona has a proud history, and we are committed to honoring that legacy as we build toward an exciting future in Rome. This city has been without top-flight basketball for too long. That changes now. We are bringing the resources, the expertise, and the passion to make this club a source of pride for Rome and for all Italy.”

Nelson, who is the lead investor and managing partner, was the general manager when the Mavericks traded for Doncic on draft night in 2018 and was the architect of Dallas’ 2011 NBA championship team led by German star Dirk Nowitzki. The investor group also includes Valerio Bianchini, a celebrated coach in the Italian league, and Rimantas Kaukėnas, a 17-year pro across European leagues.

The 27-year-old Doncic, who was born in Slovenia and started his professional career with Real Madrid in Spain, is part of a recent wave of international stars taking over the NBA. The last eight most valuable players have been born outside of the United States. Doncic finished fourth in MVP voting this year behind two-time winner Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, who is from Canada, three-time MVP Nikola Jokic, who is from Serbia, and Victor Wembanyama, a 22-year-old Frenchman expected to dominate the league for years.

The NBA played two regular-season games in Europe this season, with the Memphis Grizzlies and Orlando Magic facing off in Berlin and London. Next season, Wembanyama and the San Antonio Spurs will play in his home country against the New Orleans Pelicans and in Manchester, England.

Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) countries are moving towards deeper economic integration through digitisation and AI, as leaders of the bloc met in Astana for a two-day summit.

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During the high-level talks, member states discussed creating a unified digital environment to build a seamless market across a shared economic space of more than 20 million square kilometres.

Delegations focused on trade, joint projects and the development of shared digital tools and AI systems designed to strengthen cooperation and reduce fragmentation across the bloc.

Last year, trade within the union more than doubled, while turnover with third countries rose by 72%, while around 90% of settlements are now conducted in national currencies, as EAEU states also mull a single transit system.

With digitisation driving developments across the union, Kazakhstan’s President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev said trade turnover between EAEU members could increase by around 6%, exceeding €85 billion this year, compared with €80 billion last year.

He added that GDP growth across EAEU countries is projected at around 2.5% for 2026–2027.

Now in its 12th year, the EAEU functions as a single integrated market and free trade zone for its five members – Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Armenia.

The bloc already has agreements in place with a number of countries including Serbia, Vietnam, the UAE, Mongolia and Indonesia. China remains the bloc’s key partner, accounting for around one-third of external trade.

Integration through AI

Kazakhstan’s Tokayev said that during its chairmanship of the EAEU, the country has proposed the practical use of AI to help implement the bloc’s so-called four freedoms, with the aim of strengthening the competitiveness of member states.

Member states also proposed developing common principles for the responsible use of AI, as well as shared computing capacity and joint model development.

Meanwhile, Russia proposed a high-level AI get-together next year to further cooperation on domestic AI models and connecting its IT and energy infrastructure, according to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

On the ground, pilot projects are already being tested at the EAEU level.

In Kazakhstan, several AI-powered digital assistants have been developed by both government agencies and startups to help citizens navigate legal and regulatory systems more easily.

According to Deputy Minister of Artificial Intelligence and Digital Development Dmitry Mun, these AI legal assistants are designed to simplify legislation, reduce bureaucracy, and make regulatory systems more accessible for citizens and businesses.

Some of these tools are now being tested to streamline processes across member states.

Trade corridors and logistics modernisation

Around 85% of goods travelling from China to Europe are routed through the Middle Corridor, according to officials.

Artificial intelligence is increasingly being deployed alongside the TDN and the Digital Transport Corridor along the Trans-Caspian International Transport Route. Together, these measures are expected to increase non-commodity exports by around 30% over the next two years.

Kazakhstan’s Minister of Trade and Integration Arman Shakkaliyev said the country also aims to leverage major transport routes, including the Middle Corridor and the North–South Corridor, to build a fully integrated logistics ecosystem.

The goal, he said, is to position Kazakhstan as a key regional hub where transport routes converge and large export flows are consolidated.

The ambition is to develop a fully functioning system by 2030, with cargo volumes reaching around 10 million tonnes. Work is already under way, including railway modernisation and new infrastructure development.

Putin visit and bilateral agreements

The summit followed Putin’s state visit to Kazakhstan, during which the two countries signed seven key pillars of bilateral cooperation, along with a broader package of agreements covering energy, transport, finance, education and industrial development.

Russia remains Kazakhstan’s largest investor, with nearly €25 billion already invested and plans to increase that figure further. It is also building Kazakhstan’s first nuclear power plant, valued at around €14 billion.

Putin said the plant would account for around 20% of Kazakhstan’s electricity consumption, adding that financing conditions for such projects are in line with international practice.

He noted that the project supports Russian industrial capacity through equipment orders and long-term maintenance contracts, while also strengthening cooperation between the two countries in uranium and nuclear technology.

For Kazakhstan, officials say the project represents both energy security and a step towards moving beyond raw-material exports to high-value technological cooperation.

NEW YORK — The proportion of Americans without health insurance held steady at around 8% of the population in 2025, according to new findings from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The national survey results, released Thursday, show the all-ages uninsured rate has stayed significantly down from where it was several years ago, but the ranks of the uninsured could soon expand as the Trump administration’s sweeping changes to the health landscape begin to take hold.

Massive changes to Medicaid, the government’s safety-net health program for low-income Americans, passed into law last year could result in 10 million more uninsured individuals over a decade, according to Congressional Budget Office estimates.

And the expiration this year of certain Affordable Care Act subsidies — which had offset premium costs — is also contributing to reduced participation in marketplace health programs. Around 5 million fewer people are expected to enroll in those plans in 2026 compared with 2025, according to the healthcare research nonprofit KFF.

The government has multiple programs for tracking Americans’ insurance status, which can give different numbers depending on factors like timing and question wording. Many researchers consider the U.S. Census Bureau to be “the official scorekeeper,” said David Howard, an Emory University health policy and management professor.

But the CDC survey results tracks closely with that, and they offer the first complete data for all of 2025 — the first year of President Trump’s second term in office.

The Trump administration has sought to expand access to low-premium catastrophic health insurance plans and lower drug prices for Americans who don’t have health insurance. It has also suggested that projected insurance enrollment declines indicate a drop-off of fraudulent and ineligible enrollees, rather than eligible Americans.

Although the share of insured and uninsured stayed roughly the same in 2025 as the year before, the number of uninsured grew by about 800,000 — 300,000 of them children. The growth of the overall U.S. population helps explain that.

The survey results also suggest a possible increased insured rate among Hispanic Americans. But that may in part reflect the effects of the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown, if uninsured members of that group left the country, Howard said.

Most Americans 65 and older have health insurance through the federal Medicare program. It’s different for younger Americans, many of whom are covered through a patchwork of public and private insurance programs.

The percentage of Americans under 65 who were uninsured rose in the 1980s, 1990s and early 2000s — from 12% in 1980 to more than 18% in 2010. It fell following passage of the Affordable Care Act in 2010, which expanded Medicaid programs and enacted measures to make affordable health insurance available to more people.

By 2016 it dropped nearly to 10%, before rising to 11 to 12% during Trump’s first administration, according to historical survey data from the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics.

The COVID-19 pandemic saw the rate of uninsured fall again, as a result of government policies put in place to preserve coverage as people faced disruptions related to the pandemic. The rate hit an all-time low in 2023, falling below 9%.

It’s not clear yet how big the increase in uninsured Americans will be this year, but experts agree it will likely rise in the coming years as a result of changes to the Affordable Care Act and Medicaid.

“The decisions being made now — in Congress, state legislatures and state Medicaid agencies — will determine what happens next,” Nancy Brown, chief executive officer of the American Heart Association, said in a statement Thursday.

“Policymakers should act immediately to protect and expand access to affordable coverage, strengthen Medicaid and maintain pathways that make coverage and care accessible,” she said. “Without deliberate action, including reversing dramatic cuts to coverage, uninsured rates will continue to rise, putting quality health care further out of reach.”

Stobbe and Swenson write for the Associated Press.

Hi, and welcome to another edition of Dodgers Dugout. My name is Houston Mitchell and I sort of wished Chris Taylor had signed a one-day contract to retire as a Dodgers.

Taylor is one of those guys who become a fan favorite because they seem to be wringing every ounce of athletic ability out of their body. We could identify with Taylor, because we could imagine us playing the way he did. Play like Shohei Ohtani? No. But play like Taylor? We could fool ourselves into believing that if we just stuck with it, we could have been Chris Taylor. He was us on the field.

This newsletter began a couple of weeks before the 2015 season. And I believe the first group of angry emails I got about something the Dodgers did was June 19, 2016, when the Dodgers traded pitcher Zach Lee to Seattle for some guy named Chris Taylor.

Lee had been touted as one of the best Dodgers pitching prospects in years. In the minors in 2015, he went 13-6 with a 2.63 ERA. Sure, he had a terrible outing in what turned out to be his only start with the Dodgers (4.2 IP, 11 hits, one walk, three strikeouts, 13.50 ERA), but that could happen to anyone. He was the pitcher of the future. Until he wasn’t. And to trade him for this Taylor guy, who in three seasons with the Mariners hit .240/.296/.296? Surely they could have gotten more for him than that! (They couldn’t and don’t call me Shirley.)

So, Taylor had a steep hill to climb. In 34 games with the Dodgers in 2016, he hit .207. And then, well, there’s a reason why Jerry DiPoto, who was GM of the Mariners for the trade, called it the worst deal he ever made.

Before the 2017 season, the Dodgers, or Taylor, or both, unlocked something offensively. He hit .288/.354/.496 with 34 doubles, 21 homers, 72 RBIs and 17 stolen bases in 2017 while playing five different positions and was a key player on the team that reached the World Series before losing to the Houston Astros*. Taylor hit two homers during the NLCS and one during the World Series. He was named co-MVP of the NLCS with Justin Turner. Little-known fact: He didn’t make the team out of spring training. He was brought up from the minors on April 19, 2017, when Logan Forsythe suffered a broken toe when hit by a pitch. How would Dodger, and Taylor’s, fortunes have changed if Forsythe wasn’t hit by that pitch?

In 2018 he hit .254/.331/.444, with 35 doubles and 17 homers, .262/.333/.462 with 29 doubles and 12 homers in 2019 and .270/.366/.476 during the COVID-shortened 2020 season. He made his first and only All-Star team in 2021. And then the wheels started falling off, as he struggled his last couple of seasons with the team.

Here’s a guy who was with the team from 2016-25, and what do we know about him? Not much. He never sought the spotlight, just did his job every day to the best of his abilities.

“He is the consummate pro, the way he did a trust fall when he got here,” Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman said when the Dodgers released Taylor last season. “He came in hungry and wanting to get better, and dove in with our hitting guys, with our position coaches. … He was a huge part of so much success that we’ve enjoyed. Can’t say enough about the human, the worker, the teammate, the player.”

If you dig a little deeper into Taylor, you discover he quietly helped families who were hurt by the devastating wildfires in 2025. His CT3 Foundation raised millions of dollars for organizations in L.A. and his hometown Virginia Beach, including Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, Variety Boys and Girls Club, the Friendship Foundation, Los Angeles Fire Department Foundation, Children’s Hospital of the Kings Daughters, and Roc Solid Foundation.

Taylor’s first career home run was a grand slam with the Dodgers. His 100th career home run was a grand slam with the Dodgers, making him the only player in history whose first and 100th home runs were grand slams!

He appeared in 80 postseason games with L.A., hitting .247/.351/.441 with 13 doubles, nine homers and 26 RBIs. The most important homer may have been his walk-off in the 2021 wild-card game against St. Louis. You can watch that here.

He made an incredible catch in Game 7 of the 2018 NLCS against the Brewers. You can watch that here.

He hit three home runs in Game 5 of the 2021 NLCS against Atlanta. You can watch that here.

He always reminded me of that great quote from the movie “Rudy,” which I am going to alter a bit here:

“You’re 5 foot nothin’, 100 and nothin’, and you have barely a speck of athletic ability … And you’re gonna walk outta here with two World Series rings.”

Thank you, Chris Taylor, for the memories.

*-The Astros cheated during that season and postseason.

Injuries!

Wow, that’s like, three exclamation points in one newsletter. A record. I bought a bunch at the dollar store and need to get rid of them.

Injuries struck the Dodgers this week, and this time not to pitchers.

Kiké Hernández, fresh off the IL, had gone four for four in two games with two doubles and a homer when he came out of Tuesday’s game with what was diagnosed as a torn oblique. He will be out quite a while.

He initially got injured while taking batting practice before his first game back.

“I was pretty embarrassed about it,” Hernández told reporters Wednesday. “I thought it was just weird tightness. Never done an oblique before. So I didn’t really know what I was feeling. Came in today, wasn’t feeling great. I got treatment, but I thought I could play. … Compared to some of the things I’ve played through in the past, it was nothing. And, yeah, it was a little more than nothing.”

On Wednesday. Teoscar Hernández strained his left hamstring while trying to beat out a grounder.

“Don’t know how severe it is; he tested well,” Dave Roberts said after the game. “… There’s just no timeline, but something like that obviously is going to be a few weeks at the minimum. Disappointing. He’s been playing so well and he’s a big part of what we’re doing. So to lose him for any length of time is not great.”

Teoscar had been on a hot streak lately, so it’s doubly infuriating.

Alex Freeland and Ryan Ward were recalled from the minors to replace the injured duo.

Whoops! My bad

Remember that consecutive scoreless innings streak by the bullpen we talked about last time? It ended the night the newsletter came out. Sorry about that.

Up next

Friday: Philadelphia (Zack Wheeler, 4-0, 1.67 ERA) at Dodgers (*Justin Wrobleski, 6-2, 3.07 ERA), 7:15 p.m., Apple TV, AM 570, KTNQ 1020

Saturday: Philadelphia (Andrew Painter, 1-5, 5.40 ERA) at Dodgers (Roki Sasaki, 3-3, 4.93 ERA), 7:10 p.m., Sportsnet LA, AM 570, KTNQ 1020

Sunday: Philadelphia (*Jesús Luzardo, 4-4, 4.38 ERA) at Dodgers (Yoshinobu Yamamoto, 4-4, 3.09 ERA), 1:10 p.m., Sportsnet LA, AM 570, KTNQ 1020

All times Pacific

*-left-handed

In case you missed it

Shaikin: As MLB proposes salary cap, Sacramento pursues team it might not be able to afford

Shaikin: For Dodgers, getting to playoffs is not good enough for Mark Walter. For Lakers?

Kiké Hernández’s oblique shows ‘significant tear’ as utility man returns to IL

How Dodgers pitching coach Mark Prior influenced Eric Lauer at the beginning of his pro career

And finally

Chris Taylor career highlights. Watch and listen here.

Until next time …

Have a comment or something you’d like to see in a future Dodgers newsletter? Email me at houston.mitchell@latimes.com. To get this newsletter in your inbox, click here.

When Compton Unified School Board President Micah Ali checked his mailbox last week, he was in for a shock.

The school district has been making headlines as a state and national leader in student performance gains, and it has been upgrading and replacing its aging campuses to help advance that growth. Next week’s ballot includes a $360-million bond measure called CPT, which would keep that momentum going and replace badly dated Dominguez High School.

So when Ali opened a slate mailer titled “Congresswoman Maxine Waters’ Sample Ballot and Voter Recommendations,” he couldn’t believe her advice on Measure CPT.

Vote “no.”

Given Waters’ stature as a congressional representative for 35 years, Ali said, her slate mailers can swing outcomes.

“Yes, it does carry weight,” Ali said, and the thumbs-down recommendation “can literally cripple our ability to pass this bond.”

Ali was doubly surprised because the mailers went out to voters just a few weeks after Waters attended an unveiling ceremony for the new Compton High School campus. Compton High alums and hip-hop heavyweights Kendrick Lamar and Dr. Dre joined the celebration, and the latter was honored for his $10-million donation to the new performing arts center.

Lunch tables and a temporary cafeteria are set up outdoors at Dominguez High School because of a fire three years ago.

(Eric Thayer / Los Angeles Times)

A second district high school, Centennial, is being replaced with a modern campus, and district officials are hoping Measure CPT passes so Dominguez students aren’t left behind, but also because the district’s other schools would get multiple upgrades and repairs, from infrastructure to classrooms to athletic fields.

I met with Ali on Wednesday afternoon at Dominguez, along with Principal Caleb Oliver. The school turned 70 this year, and it shows. The grounds are scruffy, wiring and plumbing are outdated, the gymnasium air conditioning hasn’t worked in years. To walk the campus is to step back in time — to the Eisenhower administration.

While we were talking, Oliver called out to a senior named Angelina Ramirez, referring to her as a superstar student. I asked Angelina what kind of upgrades the campus could use.

Dominguez High School Principal Caleb Oliver.

(Eric Thayer / Los Angeles Times)

“Well, I like to use the cafeteria as an example,” she said, pointing to where it used to be.

What happened to it?

“It burned down,” she said. An electrical problem was the suspected cause, her principal added.

That was more than three years ago, and since 2023, the cafeteria has been an outdoor plaza.

“I feel like that’s affected students a lot,” Angelina said.

The big question, of course, is why Waters’ campaign committee — Citizens for Waters — recommended a no vote.

I’d like to tell you why it is that a rapper has written a $10-million check in support of Compton’s students while a congresswoman has told them to go fly a kite. But I’ve asked by phone, text and email, and I still don’t have an answer.

After contacting Citizens for Waters, which referred me to the congresswoman, I called her office and emailed her press office, which sent me this response at 7:43 p.m. Thursday:

“Per US House Ethics rules, we are unable to respond to your request.”

I don’t know what rules those are, but the rulebook needs some rewriting if a congresswoman can’t answer a simple question about why her campaign mailer recommends a no vote on a school bond measure.

“We have no idea, and we’re baffled,” Ali said. “Who would oppose the construction of a new school in a community like Compton?”

In the working-class community, the student population is roughly 84% Latino and 14% Black.

I suggested that Ali consider having students march over to Waters’ district office and ask for an explanation.

“We’d rather have these children’s butts in seats and learning,” Ali said, adding that “we need … to continue driving up these test scores.”

Compton school board candidate Tana McCoy talks to school board President Micah Ali about the mailer.

(Eric Thayer / Los Angeles Times)

It’s not as if there is no reasonable opposition to Measure CPT. These kinds of bonds cost taxpayers real money over the course of many years, and CPT would add about $60 per $100,000 of assessed property to annual tax bills.

That would hit working folks and retirees with an added tax burden of between a few hundred and several hundred dollars a year. And taxpayers have been paying off two previous school improvement bond issues, one passed in 2015 and one in 2022.

In addition to the financial burden, according to district parent Anthonia Limon, who wrote the statement against CPT for the L.A. County sample ballot, safety issues have undermined community trust in district leadership.

“Infrastructure alone does not create safe schools,” Limon wrote.

If Waters has similar concerns, that would be one thing. But to my knowledge, and to Ali’s, there has been no public explanation for recommending a no vote. And when you read the fine print on the slate mailer, which advises voters to “take Congresswoman Maxine Waters’ recommendations with you to vote,” it only raises more questions.

“This document was prepared by Citizens for Waters, not an official party organization. Appearance in this mailer does not necessarily imply endorsement of others appearing in this mailer nor does it imply endorsement of, or opposition to, any issues set forth in this mailer,” it says.

Huh?

Are they endorsements or aren’t they?

The Times reported in 2004 that the rep’s daughter, Karen Waters, “has charged candidates for spots on her mother’s ‘slate mailer,’ a sample ballot that many voters in South Los Angeles use to guide their choices.” Last year, the Waters campaign paid a $68,000 fine for campaign finance law violations following a Federal Election Commission investigation that involved Citizens for Waters.

Rep. Maxine Waters’ slate mailer.

(Eric Thayer / Los Angeles Times)

Also in the fine print on the current mailer:

“Appearance is paid for and authorized by each candidate and ballot measure which is designated by” an asterisk.

So are these endorsements or paid advertisements? There’s an asterisk on nearly every endorsement in the mailer, from city council to governor to judgeships to Measure CPT. The way I read this is that various parties paid for endorsements, but the mailer does not reveal who paid, or how much they ponied up. Such mailers, by the way, are not uncommon in California, according to election law experts.

“I think this is misleading for voters,” said Erwin Chemerinsky, dean of the UC Berkeley law school. Although he thinks the endorsements are a form of protected free speech, he said this “reflects a very deep problem in our elections with dark money, when we don’t know where the money is coming from.”

On Thursday, I visited Tana McCoy, a Compton High grad and retired city employee who is running for Compton Unified school board. She showed me the slate mailer delivered to her home, but said she’s going to vote yes on CPT despite Waters’ recommendation.

“Children need to feel good about their environment, because that’s all part of their mental health,” McCoy said.

At Dominguez, where graduates have a 96% college acceptance rate, according to district officials, junior Zaiden Ross gave me a tour that included a stop at a gymnasium fountain that he said hasn’t worked in years. Some fountains are dirty, he added, “and some of the pipes on campus produce water that has, like, extremely high amounts of lead and magnesium.”

Student Zaiden Ross demonstrates a nonworking sink in a bathroom on the campus of Dominguez High School in Compton.

(Eric Thayer / Los Angeles Times)

Zaiden took me to a classroom to show me water samples he’s still testing. Then we visited the robotics classroom, where he turned on a faucet, and the flow was closer to the color of apple juice than water. The air conditioner was rattling, and teacher G.C. Esiobu, who runs the engineering and robotics club, said there had been an “emergency” fix for a busted system. Zaiden gave me a quick rundown of dated computers and other equipment students use to design drones and robots.

And yet despite all that, a display case was filled with trophies. At competitive meets, Esiobu said, “we have been winning with little or nothing.” With equipment upgrades, she added, “just imagine the level we will go.”

There’s still time, before Tuesday’s election, for Waters to visit Dominguez High and maybe get a tour from Zaiden and Esiobu.

If she does, she might rethink that endorsement.

steve.lopez@latimes.com

Anyone trying to avoid the payment may face much higher fees

Millions of people face the prospect of having to pay an extra £1,000 if they want to take a holiday abroad in 2026.

One in five people on NHS waiting lists plan to holiday abroad without travel insurance, according to a recent survey, risking falling ill overseas and incurring hefty healthcare fees. There are currently more than 7.1million adults waiting for consultant-led treatment – and a further 1.7million waiting for a diagnosis – with many unable to take out insurance policies due to the high cost.

Of the 95% who are on, or have been on, a waiting list in the last three years and refuse to miss their holiday, 15% have paid up to £1,000 extra to ensure they’re protected. Many insurers keep their premiums low by not covering existing medical conditions, meaning patients on waiting lists with potentially serious conditions will need to take out specialist cover.

Those waiting for a condition to be diagnosed will find it particularly difficult to find appropriate travel insurance – and one in four plan to holiday without the correct cover. One in 20 currently waiting to be seen by the NHS have found accessing specialist travel insurance so difficult, or so expensive, they haven’t holidayed abroad because of it.

The poll of 2,034 adults commissioned by Wellsoon from Practice Plus Group found adults with hernias are the most likely to holiday without the correct cover, followed by those with cancer. The hardest conditions to find insurance for are heart or blood pressure issues followed by musculoskeletal issues including arthritis, hip or knee pain, back pain, neck or shoulder pain.

A spokesperson for Practice Plus Group said: “It’s a story we hear regularly from people who have a health issue they want to be addressed before they go on holiday, but they’re on a waiting list. They’re worried about going away when they’re in limbo, potentially needing to seek medical help a long way from home and not knowing how much it might cost.

In April 2021, the Financial Conduct Authority introduced new requirements to help consumers with more serious pre-existing medical conditions (PEMCs) better navigate the travel insurance market. Firms that sell travel insurance are required to signpost consumers to one of two directories of specialist firms that provide this type of insurance – one of which is the MoneyHelper directory, provided by the Money and Pensions Service.

A spokesperson from the Money and Pensions Service, which provides a directory of specialist firms that offer travel insurance for pre-existing conditions, said: “If you have a pre-existing health condition you must disclose this to your insurer. Otherwise, when you come to make a claim, it could be rejected.

“Depending on your circumstances, you may be asked to complete a medical exam. This will allow insurance providers to tailor your travel insurance policy to cover your needs. Taking specialist medical travel insurance will give you peace of mind that your medical condition is covered in the event of a claim.

“Our MoneyHelper service provides contact details of companies which specialise in this.”

WASHINGTON — Shrey Parikh felt the pressure of arriving at the Scripps National Spelling Bee as a favorite, but his confidence showed every time he got a word he knew. And when the bee came down to a lightning-round tiebreaker against Ishaan Gupta, Shrey left no doubt.

Shrey turned a tense, high-quality final into a blowout Thursday night, racing through the 90-second “spell-off” and getting 32 words right to be crowned the best young speller in the English language. Ishaan spelled 25 words correctly in the tiebreaker.

A 14-year-old from Rancho Cucamonga, Shrey finished third in 2024 but lost his school bee last year when he was battling a fever. He has dominated the bee circuit since, winning several highly competitive online competitions against many of the same kids he outlasted this week in the nation’s capital.

Ishaan, a 12-year-old seventh-grader from Jersey City, N.J., was a semifinalist this year, outperformed some veteran spellers in the finals, and has another year of eligibility left.

Sarv Dharavane, a 12-year-old sixth-grader from Dunwoody, Ga., finished third for the second consecutive year and has two more years to improve that placement.

For the first time in the bee’s history, second- and third-place finishers from the same year have gone on to win. Faizan Zaki won last year, and two years ago he was the runner-up, just ahead of Shrey.

Sporting a business-casual look with a dark, long-sleeve collared shirt, khakis and sneakers, the lanky Shrey strode to the microphone with a dour, apprehensive expression that instantly vanished when he heard his word from pronouncer Jacques Bailly and nodded vigorously — his tell that, yes, he knew it.

Upon hearing the announcement confirming his victory in the spell-off, Shrey turned and shook his competitor’s hand.

He can credit his victory to intense preparation. Shrey’s coaching team included Sam Evans, who has tutored each of the past three champions, and Sohum Sukhatankar, a co-champion himself in 2019. He competed nonstop against other top spellers, pored through advanced study guides and tried to eliminate the variables that had led to the few unexpected exits of his long spelling career.

Former spellers, coaches and other observers described this group of finalists as unusually strong, and they showed off their skills early by going 18 for 18 to start, breezing through the first spelling and vocabulary rounds. Aiden Meng of Orinda, Calif., ended that streak when he was tripped up by “catometope” to start the second spelling round.

Then the crowd gasped when the bell rung on two thought to be capable of winning it all: Oliver Halkett for “Faesulae” and Zwe Spacetime for “vaesite,” words with tricky combinations of origins and vowel sounds.

The bee’s move to Constitution Hall, a point of contention for spellers and their families because of the inconveniences it caused, helped imbue the event with a lively atmosphere, with more intimate seating and better sight lines bringing the crowd closer to the action.

New television host Mina Kimes of ESPN narrated the action smoothly alongside longtime bee analyst Paul Loeffler.

Nuckols writes for the Associated Press.

MIAMI — The Trump administration has quietly instructed federal prosecutors in Miami to avoid pursuing criminal investigations into Venezuela’s acting President Delcy Rodríguez, a longtime target of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, according to current and former U.S. law enforcement officials, in the latest sign of warming relations between the White House and the oil-rich nation.

It’s unclear whether prosecutors had implicated Rodríguez in any crimes or whether investigators were moving toward an indictment. A Justice Department spokesperson said in an email “there was never an investigation into her to shut down.”

But DEA records obtained by the Associated Press earlier this year show she consistently surfaced on the radar of federal law enforcement dating to at least 2018, though she has never been criminally charged in the U.S. like several other senior Venezuelan officials.

The directive to pause scrutiny into Rodríguez was meant to avoid upsetting the administration’s efforts to stabilize Venezuela after the capture of her predecessor, Nicolás Maduro, among other reasons, a current official said. It was not clear whether the White House, which deferred comment to the Justice Department, was involved in the decision.

“Everybody has been told to stand down,” one of the former officials said.

The former officials, who had been briefed on the development, as well as the current official all spoke to the Associated Press on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to publicly discuss internal deliberations.

Rodríguez, a U.S. attorney representing her and the Venezuelan Communications Ministry didn’t respond to requests for comment.

The move eases pressure on Rodriguez

Removing the threat of potential indictment, even temporarily, eases pressure on Rodríguez as the Trump administration seeks to work with the acting leader to stabilize Venezuela after Maduro’s ouster and open the country to U.S. investment.

President Trump praised Rodríguez as a “terrific person” shortly after the U.S. military took Maduro and his wife to New York to face federal narcotics charges. Both have pleaded not guilty.

In recent months, the U.S. has lifted sanctions against Rodríguez and recognized her as Venezuela’s sole head of state, allowing her to re-establish ties with western banks and more freely work with U.S. investors seeking to tap into the world’s largest petroleum reserves. As ties between the two governments have deepened, some have held out the Venezuelan playbook — characterized by oil blockades, indictments of top leaders and threats of military intervention — as a model to drive regime change from within as the U.S. pressures other longtime adversaries in Iran and Cuba.

Rodríguez and her brother, Jorge Rodríguez, the head of the National Assembly, were hit with U.S. sanctions during Trump’s first term for their role in undermining Venezuelan democracy and cementing Maduro’s authoritarian rule.

Rodríguez “is doing a great job,” Trump wrote on social media in early March. “The Oil is beginning to flow, and the professionalism and dedication between both Countries is a very nice thing to see!”

In recent months, Rodríguez has hosted ceremonies with a steady stream of American oilmen, some of them partaking in high-profile delegations led by U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright and Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum.

Election talk deferred amid Trump’s praise

Missing in all the mutual backslapping is any talk of elections, even as Rodríguez last month blew through a 90-day limit set by Venezuela’s high court to fill Maduro’s position on a temporary basis.

“I don’t know,” she responded in English when a visiting U.S. journalist earlier this month shouted out a question about her time frame for holding elections. “Some time.”

Sen. Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire, the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, has demanded the administration explain its favorable treatment of Rodríguez, calling her a “central figure in Nicolás Maduro’s repressive regime.”

“Sanctions have been lifted on Ms. Rodríguez without any indication that she has taken concrete and meaningful actions to restore democratic order,” Sheehan, joined by Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, wrote in a letter to Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Secretary of Treasury Scott Bessent last week.

Rick de la Torre, a former CIA chief of station in Caracas, said that the decision to shield Rodríguez fits well with the Trump administration’s foreign policy goals in Venezuela.

“She’s a lifelong Marxist and was a senior leader of one of the world’s most corrupt regimes but the U.S. is providing her with breathing space and carrots to lay the foundation for democracy and U.S. investment,” said de la Torre, the CEO of Tower Strategy, which advises companies on Venezuela.

“There’s a shelf life to her utility, however. At some point she will face justice,” he added.

Rodríguez has been on DEA’s radar since 2018

The DEA had amassed a detailed intelligence file on Rodríguez dating to at least 2018, and has received allegations about her ranging from drug trafficking to gold smuggling, the AP reported earlier this year. One confidential informant told the DEA in early 2021 that Rodríguez was using hotels in the Caribbean resort of Isla Margarita “as a front to launder money,” the records show.

Her name has surfaced in nearly a dozen DEA investigations — several of which remained ongoing as recently as this year — involving field offices from Paraguay and Ecuador to Phoenix and New York. She had even been linked to Maduro’s alleged bag man, Alex Saab, whom U.S. authorities first arrested in 2020 on money-laundering charges, the records show.

Rodríguez deported Saab this month as part of a purge of insider businessmen who are accused of having enriched themselves through corrupt dealings with Maduro.

It’s unclear in which Miami investigations Rodríguez’s name surfaced. Two of the former officials said Rodríguez has also come up in meetings with investigators in Tampa, Fla., tasked last year by former Atty. Gen. Pam Bondi with looking into financial crimes in Venezuela.

At the time, Rodríguez was serving as Maduro’s vice president. Justice Department policy requires the attorney general to personally approve the charging of any foreign head of state, who are normally immune from prosecution under international and U.S. law.

Halting high-profile criminal probes of foreign leaders

The pausing of the investigations into Rodríguez comes as the Trump administration has similarly tapped the brakes on ongoing federal investigations into another prominent Latin American leftist, Colombian President Gustavo Petro.

The DEA had also designated Petro a “priority target” over alleged ties to drug traffickers that had been probed for months by federal prosecutors. The New York Times reported in March that U.S. officials recently assured the Colombian government Petro does not face charges in those cases.

Duncan Levin, a former prosecutor who worked for the U.S. attorney’s office in Brooklyn, said it would be “deeply troubling” for law enforcement to be “told to stand down from a legitimate investigation for political or transactional reasons.”

“The White House cannot use criminal enforcement as a diplomatic light switch,” Levin told AP. “DOJ decisions are supposed to be based on law, evidence, policy and public safety — not on whether a foreign official is useful to the administration at a given moment.”

Goodman, Richer and Mustian write for the Associated Press. Richer reported from Washington and Mustian from New York. AP Writer Regina Garcia Cano in Mexico City contributed to this report.

Mason Edwards has first-round hype ahead of July’s 2026 MLB draft for a reason.

USC’s ace takes the mound like a boxer enters the ring, eager to land blow after blow. And as the Trojans (43-15) open the NCAA tournament in College Station, Texas, at 6 p.m. PDT Friday (ESPNU), the southpaw packs a serious punch. He carries a nation-leading 160 strikeouts and the second-best 1.43 ERA.

“They’re getting a competitor,” Edwards said of what people can expect when he pitches. “There have been a lot of situations where I’ve had to battle and fight adversity. So, I think you’ll see a good fight when I toe the rubber. I’m not going to shy away from any type of competition.”

If anything, the competition probably shies away from Edwards.

Named the Big Ten 2026 Pitcher of the Year after stacking a record 113 strikeouts in conference play, Edwards is integral to what has been USC’s best team since the early 2000s.

The junior enters Friday’s regional matchup against Texas State with a perfect 8-0 record through 15 starts and 88 1/3 total innings and has collected nine-plus strikeouts in all but two games during the 2026 season — earning a career-high 16 in a 9-2 home win over Iowa on April 10.

MLB.com ranks Edwards No. 36 in its latest draft prospect rankings. Despite being on his way to becoming a professional baseball player, Edwards remains focused on helping the Trojans pursue their first national title since 1998.

“It’s important to stay present,” Edwards said. “I still play at SC, so I’m still concerned with how USC’s doing and how our team is doing. At the end of the day, that’s what’s important right now. It’s a team sport, it’s not tennis or golf. Got to stay grounded with what’s important. Team winning; going to a regional, winning that; trying to take this team to Omaha. That’s the biggest thing.”

Edwards, 20, is having fun while focusing on the Trojans.

Describing himself as playful, “cool with everyone” and as an “all-around happy” person, Edwards is enjoying his third year at USC, particularly as a teammate everybody can rely on.

Underrecruited during his prep career at Palisades Charter High, Edwards was inconsistent during his first season with the Trojans. He had some promising outings but finished with a 7.88 ERA and 1-3 record through 37 2/3 frames.

Edwards improved as a sophomore, serving as a starter and reliever, finishing with a 3.86 ERA and 3-0 record over 32 2/3 innings. However, he dealt with minor arm injuries and still didn’t have a clear-cut role.

Today, though, Edwards is one of the best pitchers in the country. And his skipper couldn’t be prouder.

“His development’s been really good,” USC coach Andy Stankiewicz said of Edwards. “He’s gotten better. That’s the thing we’re proud of. He’s a guy that’s been in our program for three years. Mason was trying to figure out who he was gonna be. ‘Is he going to be a starter? Is he going to be a reliever? So, he was kind of that spot starter … When he was a youngster, sometimes his misses [were] really big, and they really weren’t competitive pitches. Now, every pitch is pretty competitive.”

Stankiewicz credited Trojans pitching coach Sean Allen for helping Edwards, known for his rising heater, improve his curveball and develop his breaking ball.

The four-year head coach also praised Edwards for being an increasingly confident leader.

“Guys like him,” Stankiewicz said. “Guys enjoy being around him. I enjoy his growth. I enjoy being around him. He’s fun. We can tease each other pretty well and have fun with it. [Edwards was] a typical young man his freshman year, doesn’t say much. And then by the junior, senior year, they just grow up.”

The ace said he appreciates Stankiewicz, noting the coach’s emphasis on making sure players leave the program as “good men.”

Edwards also shouted out Trojans director of player development Josh Goossen-Brown, for being in his corner for years.

“He’s been through it all,” Edwards said of Goossen-Brown. “Been working with him since high school — very early high school — and he works here now. So, very small world, that he was able to get a job here.”

It’s hard not to see how the stars have aligned for Edwards.

While he didn’t consider USC his dream school growing up, Edwards is achieving Trojans royalty status, with loved ones nearby to support his journey in the same threads as great Trojans he idolized such as Randy Johnson and Seth Etherton.

Already named his conference’s best pitcher, Edwards is a semifinalist for both National Pitcher of the Year and for the Golden Spikes Award — given to the best amateur baseball player in America — after becoming the first USC pitcher to surpass 140 strikeouts in a single season since Ian Kennedy in 2005.

Edwards said he has always believed in himself, especially after a particularly rocky freshman campaign when his future appeared far from clear.

“When you’re your own person, you kind of see more than something other people might see,” Edwards said. “But yeah, freshman year, I flashed stuff that I really held onto. It was definitely a roller coaster … but you just hold on to the good things. Really holding on to those positives and trying to take them into the following years has been a big part of why you see that development process.”

A federal judge has declined to halt President Trump’s executive order creating a federal voter list and limiting mail voting, clearing the way for potential sweeping changes in how American elections are run shortly before this year’s midterm elections.

U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols, a Trump appointee in Washington, late Wednesday rejected the request by Democrats and civil rights groups that had argued Trump’s order would likely be found unconstitutional because the states and Congress, not the president, have the power to set election rules. Nichols agreed with the Republican Trump administration’s contention that it was too early to block the order because it has yet to be implemented.

Nichols’ ruling leaves the door open for further challenges when the Trump administration moves to implement the president’s directive. A separate lawsuit seeking to block the executive order is underway in Boston. No matter how rapidly the administration acts, no voting changes are expected during primary elections, which continue into next month.

“The Court recognizes that the Postal Service may ultimately issue a final rule that directly affects Plaintiffs or their members, or that the Government may develop State Citizenship Lists that omit specific individuals due to particularized flaws,” Nichols wrote. “Plaintiffs may, of course, renew their motions if and when those future actions occur. Until then, however, Plaintiffs cannot show that preliminary injunctive relief is warranted.”

The Trump administration has yet to formally issue lists of eligible voters, and those who filed the initial request for a temporary halt said they’d be back if the administration moves in that direction.

“We are ready to resume the fight if and when the administration takes those next steps,” said Juan Proaño, chief executive officer of the League of United Latin American Citizens, one of the organizations that sought the stay from Nichols.

Trump issued the order in March after a bill he supported to overhaul voting stalled in Congress. The order would have had the federal government create a list of eligible voters and then directed the U.S. Postal Service to deliver mail ballots only to those on the list. Election officials argued it was ripe for abuse and could cause chaos, and the postal union has objected to the idea of mail carriers policing ballots.

Since his 2020 presidential election loss to Democrat Joe Biden, Trump has groundlessly claimed mail voting is rife with fraud and has launched a federal investigation into that year’s vote, even though repeated audits and investigations, including ones run by Republicans, found it was free of widespread fraud. Trump also has said he wants to “take over” election administration in Democratic areas.

Democrats and civil rights groups argued it was urgent that Nichols issue a restraining order in the midst of primary season and with states already gearing up for the fall midterm elections.

This was Trump’s second executive order seeking to overhaul elections and voting. His initial election executive order, issued just months after he took office in his second term, has been blocked by multiplefederal judges. That order sought to require documentary proof of citizenship to register to vote, among other changes.

Riccardi writes for the Associated Press.

There she stands, in that iconic hot pink gown, arms thrown open wide as if to both offer herself to the world and embrace what the world offers — love, applause, admiration and diamonds, which are, as she sang from the body-hugging confines of that pink silk in “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes,” a girl’s best friend.

It isn’t her, of course, though it is the dress, designed by William Travilla and now a part of the new “Marilyn Monroe: Hollywood Icon” installation at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures. Opening Sunday, it is just one of many exhibitions and events timed to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Monroe’s birth.

More than 60 years after her death, Monroe still glows brightly in the Hollywood firmament. Her career only lasted 17 years, but during that time she dazzled so brightly that her image, and all that has been projected onto it, remains burned into our collective line of vision, an unfading afterimage of a bursting star.

As the Academy Museum’s exhibit underlines, Marilyn Monroe was a pioneer in many ways.

(Emily Shur / Academy Museum Foundation)

Her death — at 36 by way of overdose — did much to cement her legacy, generating international headlines and then a multitude of conspiracy theories, many of them involving powerful men, including members of the equally mythic Kennedy family.

Tragedy and mystery are powerful binding agents, but they do not quite explain the tower of books that have been, and continue to be, written about her (including several out this year) or the many films made about her life or the art she has inspired, from Andy Warhol’s iconic silkscreen “Marilyn Diptych” (done a year after her death) to Seward Johnson’s massive statue “Forever Marilyn,” which, after some controversy, made its forever home in Palm Springs five years ago.

Marilyn Monroe’s personal items on display include parts of her makeup regimen.

(Emily Shur / Academy Museum Foundation)

As the Academy Museum’s exhibit underlines, Monroe was a pioneer in many ways. In the repressive ‘50s, she was sex positive and spoke openly about psychotherapy and the vagaries of fame. She often defied studio heads, was one of the first actresses to start her own production company and demanded approval of her many photo sessions.

She had multiple marriages, problems with drugs and alcohol and a reputation for being difficult on set, but she was unafraid to both call out the press and banter with them.

Still, she is not seen by the masses as a pioneer, a term that brings to mind scientists and suffragettes. No, Monroe remains a mesmerizing, radiant symbol — of beauty, glamour, sensuality, a life force so rare that it could not be expected to survive long in a world full of envy and petty demands.

In putting together “Marilyn Monroe: Hollywood Icon,” associate curator Sophia Serrano spoke with many devoted fans, including those whose collections helped build the exhibit, and they all said the same thing.

More than 60 years after her death, Marilyn Monroe still glows brightly in the Hollywood firmament.

(Emily Shur / Academy Museum Foundation)

“Even though she had a tragic ending,” Serrano said, “people would say she is a symbol of resilience. Her story is like a movie — an orphan who makes it big, then loses it all. They see her as battling the studio, wanting to get more nuanced roles and not getting the roles she wanted. … A lot of people latch onto her because she gives them hope.”

In many ways, Monroe is, and was, a piece of art herself, onto which we could project our own longings and adulation. But that art, Serrano says, was created by Monroe, with equal parts natural magnetism and a canny, rigorous sense of her own strengths.

In 1952, when she was a rising star, a journalist realized a nude pin-up being used in calendars and posters was Monroe; she had posed for what is now known as the “Golden Dream” series five years before. Monroe was filming 20th Century Fox’s “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes” at the time and studio head Darryl Zanuck pressured her to deny that the photos were of her.

Monroe did the exact opposite, shrugging it off in an interview, in which she said, “I was broke and I needed the money. … I’m not ashamed of it; I’ve done nothing wrong.”

“Marilyn Monroe: Hollywood Icon” opens Sunday at the Academy Museum.

(Emily Shur / Academy Museum Foundation)

Monroe’s unique, and, to a certain extent, self-constructed combination of vulnerability — the wide eyes, the half-open mouth, the child-like voice — and essential grit is what fuels her continued cultural resonance and what forms the guiding principal for the Academy Museum’s exhibit.

An exhibit on the life and legacy of Marilyn Monroe could fill an entire museum so for purposes of this exhibit, Serrano and her team chose objects that were relevant to her life. This being the Academy Museum, much of it focuses on her career in film. Costumes from her various movies (including the original exhibition copy of the famous white dress from “The Seven Year Itch”) occupy a big portion, in part, Serrano says, because Monroe was so often involved in their design.

“She was so smart, looking at these costumes,” Serrano says. “She was obviously Fox’s star for Cinemascope — she’s how they marketed the new technology and she didn’t like how certain silhouettes looked so she would not wear A-lines in Cinemascope because she thought the effect was unflattering. She really paid attention to how things worked and then knew how to control and edit and manage.”

Costumes from Marilyn Monroe’s various movies.

(Emily Shur / Academy Museum Foundation)

The pink gown from “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes” has its own story. Monroe’s character was originally to appear in bejeweled hot pants (also on display), but when the Golden Dream “scandal” broke, Zanuck demanded that she wear something less revealing.

Many personal items are on display as well, including the shoes she wore to her wedding to Joe DiMaggio, a rare apology from gossip columnist Hedda Hopper, marked-up scripts and parts of her makeup regimen (including a face-slimming mask she wore after being told she had a double chin). The love-hate relationship she had with the press is well represented by newspaper clippings and newsreels.

Marilyn Monroe’s famous white dress from “The Seven Year Itch.”

(Emily Shur / Academy Museum Foundation)

A whole room is devoted to scenes from her more famous films and an entire long wall to countless photographs. “She understood the camera better than anyone,” Serrano says, echoing observations made by photographers and actors who worked with her, including Laurence Olivier, who famously did not get along with Monroe during the filming of “The Prince and the Showgirl.”

Her reputation as being difficult on certain sets is also documented in a rather infuriating series of telegrams between director Billy Wilder complaining to her then-husband, playwright Arthur Miller, and Miller responding in defense of his wife.

It is a well-crafted glimpse at Monroe as a totality, including pieces from her Brentwood home and some of her own clothing, which Serrano says was far simpler than the gowns and suits she was photographed in. “Her persona was carefully constructed. She knew how to give just enough, to create the illusion of something.”

A whole room is devoted to scenes from her more famous films and an entire long wall to countless photographs.

(Emily Shur / Academy Museum Foundation)

And maybe that is the reason why Monroe continues to fascinate. Yes, she owned her beauty and sexuality with a boldness that stands out even now. Her relationship with the camera remains unparalleled — when she is in frame, it is almost impossible to look away. Her hip-swaying walk remains iconic and also, perhaps, revealing. It was achieved by putting one foot directly in front of the other, much like a tight-rope walker.

Which in many ways Monroe was, treading the line, invisible to the rest of us, between innocence and worldliness, between vulnerability and power.

The tension between the human need for both love and self-determination powers both art and madness, but never was it so tangibly brought to life than by Marilyn Monroe. Art and artist, creation and creator, she left behind a now-century-old mystery we’re still trying to unravel.

The central bank on Thursday raised its economic growth forecast for South Korea to 2.6 percent for 2026 amid solid exports driven by a semiconductor super cycle.

The revision by the Bank of Korea (BOK) represents a 0.6 percentage-point increase from its previous forecast of 2 percent issued in February.

It is the largest upside revision since May 2021, when the BOK raised its growth projection by 1 percentage point from 3 percent to 4 percent.

For 2027, the central bank estimated its growth outlook at 2.1 percent.

The South Korean economy grew 1.7 percent in the first quarter, marking the sharpest quarterly growth in 5 1/2 years.

The revised outlook broadly aligned with forecasts from other institutions.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) projected growth of 1.9 percent this year, while the Asian Development Bank (ADB) projected 1.9 percent growth.

The Korea Development Institute (KDI) earlier improved its growth forecast to 2.5 percent for 2026 from 1.9 percent.

The BOK also revised up its inflation prediction to 2.7 percent from 2.2 percent, citing higher international oil prices in the aftermath of the U.S.-Iran war.

For 2027, consumer prices are estimated to rise 2.3 percent, according to the BOK.

“The Korean economy is projected to expand by 2.6 percent this year, well above the February forecast of 2 percent, driven by robust semiconductor exports, while government measures, including the supplementary budget, partially offset the Middle East-driven supply shock,” the BOK said in a release.

BOK Gov. Shin Hyun-song said in a press conference that strong exports will likely contribute 0.7 percentage point to the country’s growth this year, alongside the 0.2 percentage point gains generated by the government’s fiscal support and the 0.1 percentage-point increase brought on by the local stock market rally. On the other hand, the ongoing U.S.-Iran war will drag down the economy by 0.4 percentage point, he added.

“Based on our analysis, we concluded that if the situation in the Middle East is resolved early, this year’s growth rate could exceed 2.6 percent,” he said. “We do not think the growth is a short-lived trend.”

The central bank presented an optimistic scenario in which semiconductor-driven exports gain further momentum, raising its growth forecast by 0.5 percentage point for 2026 and 0.3 percentage point for 2027.

Under a pessimistic scenario, however, a possible slowdown in artificial intelligence investments would lower economic growth by 0.3 percentage point this year and 0.2 percentage point next year, the central bank said.

In line with the upbeat outlook, the BOK kept the key interest rate unchanged at 2.5 percent but signaled a possible rate hike in the second half.

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Grizz Chapman, an actor best known for his role as Grizz on NBC’s Emmy-winning comedy “30 Rock,” has died. He was 52.

Chapman’s cousin, Donte Harrison, confirmed the actor’s death on social media.

“Life gave my cousin Grizz Chapman some heavy battles, but he fought them with strength and dignity until the very end,” Harrison wrote. “A lot of people knew him as the sitcom star from 30 Rock, but we knew the man behind the screen. A good heart, good energy, and somebody who made an impact in this life.

“After years of fighting illness and dialysis, he passed peacefully in his sleep on May 22nd, 2026. I’m thankful we got time to reconnect 2 months before his passing.”

Born Mack D. Chapman on April 16, 1974, in Brooklyn, N.Y., Chapman got the name Grizz while working as a security guard at nightclubs around New York. The claim to fame of the 7-foot-tall security guard turned actor would be portraying a character that resembled himself: a towering bodyguard named Grizz.

Chapman played the mild-mannered bodyguard across 80 episodes of the wildly popular sitcom “30 Rock,” which starred Tina Fey, Tracy Morgan and Alec Baldwin. Chapman’s character was part of the entourage of Tracy Jordan (played by Morgan).

Chapman told Cracked in 2024 that landing “30 Rock” was the “hardest/easiest audition I ever had in my life.”

But it wasn’t until the second season of the show that Chapman felt he really broke through as a performer. On Episode 210, he performs a rendition of “Midnight Train to Georgia” alongside the veteran ensemble. “That showed so many levels of our talents — we got a chance to dance, we got a chance to sing, we got a chance to take direction and to be funny.”

In addition to acting in various projects, including the 2014 film “The Cobbler,” which starred Adam Sandler, and the 2016 thriller “Money Monster,” starring George Clooney and Julia Roberts, Chapman was an advocate for the National Kidney Foundation.

The actor battled high blood pressure and kidney disease and struggled with his weight for years, and in 2009, he announced he was seeking a donor for a kidney transplant. During an appearance on “The Dr. Oz Show,” the actor said, “I don’t want to go through this forever.”

Chapman told Dr. Oz that he’d coped with the news by acknowledging it was “a scary situation” but deciding to “face it one way or another.”

When Dr. Oz asked him what he wished for, the actor said, “I want to stay alive.”

Chapman spent nearly two years undergoing dialysis treatments three days a week for 4½ hours a day while filming “30 Rock” and hoping for a donor. In the process, he lost more than 150 pounds, hoping to be fit enough for the procedure. After the episode of “Dr. Oz” aired, a fan of Chapman’s, Ryan Perkins, flew from Arizona to New York to meet the actor. Perkins, then in his early 20s, knew he wanted to do something that could change someone’s life.

“I was emotional. I was excited. I wanted to scream. It was exciting to meet someone with that kind of willingness to help,” Chapman told the East Valley Tribune.

“How do you ever repay someone for something like that? You can’t. It’s not like borrowing $20 from someone and telling them you’re going to give it back. It’s something that you can never repay someone for.”

Travis Kelce has become the latest athlete to buy into a professional sports team, purchasing a minority stake in the Cleveland Guardians, the MLB franchise he rooted for growing up in Cleveland Heights, a vibrant suburb 15 minutes from downtown.

Ballplayers buying into professional sports franchises has become almost routine. And why not? They are wealthy, love sports and often want an ownership stake of a team in a city full of fans who love them back.

Kelce is the latest to do so. The only question is, what took him so long?

“I have so much love for this city,” Kelce told ESPN. “I say it all the time: I’m just a kid from the Heights living the dream. I credit every good thing in my life to Cleveland and being raised here with the values and the people and the work ethic.

“Cleveland Heights is such a diverse and dynamic place. Every friend, neighbor, teacher and teammate — they all made me the man I am today.”

And that man is very wealthy. The Kansas City Chiefs tight end and burgeoning business titan has earned $111 million playing in the NFL. He and his brother Jason have a $100-million deal with Amazon Wondery for their popular New Heights podcast.

Kelce, 36, also makes an estimated $35 million a year from endorsement deals with Nike, Pfizer, State Farm and other major brands.

Oh, and let’s not forget that his fiancee, Taylor Swift, is the wealthiest female musician in the world with an estimated net worth of $1.6 billion.

Although Swift has never publicly mentioned owning a sports franchise, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell did comment on the possibility at a Super Bowl news conference two years ago.

Tom Brady had been approved as part owner of the Raiders, boosting season-ticket sales, leading to this question posed to Goodell.

“With that, has anyone approached Taylor Swift about being a minority partner in the Chiefs?”

Goodell grinned and replied, “I really don’t know the answer to that one. If she’s interested, she has the ability to do it, let’s put it that way.”

The list of athletes who own a piece of sports franchises is long. Begin with Magic Johnson and Billie Jean King, part of the group that owns the Dodgers and Sparks. Kelce’s Chiefs passing partner Patrick Mahomes has been a minority owner of the Kansas City Royals since 2020.

Tennis superstar sisters Venus and Serena Williams became the first black women to hold a stake in an NFL team when they became minority owners of the Miami Dolphins in 2009.

Giannis Antetokounmpo expressed his love for Milwaukee by purchasing a stake in the Brewers baseball team. The Lakers are rumored to possibly trade for the Milwaukee Bucks superstar this offseason. Would that make Antetokounmpo a candidate to take the Angels off the hands of Arte Moreno, who at games has been blistered by a large group of shirtless fans chanting “sell the team?”

Because he is an investor in the Fenway Sports Group, Lakers star LeBron James owns a piece of the Boston Red Sox, Liverpool FC, the Pittsburgh Penguins and RFK Racing. The 41-year-old veteran of 23 NBA seasons makes no secret that he someday wants to own an NBA team.

“I got so much to give to the game. I know what it takes to win at this level. I know talent,” James said in 2021. “I also know how to run a business as well. And so, that is my goal. My goal is to own an NBA franchise.”

James is the first active NBA player to achieve billionaire status, and his estimated net worth of $1.3 billion to $1.5 billion puts him in Swift territory. He might not need to preface his ownership stake with the word minority.

Kelce, meanwhile, is happy for now to own just a piece of the Guardians, whose value has risen from $1 billion four years ago to $1.7 billion today.
“I’ve been lucky enough to have a front-row seat to good ownership in my career, and I know the best teams prioritize culture,” Kelce said. “Everyone is there to play their role, and right now, I’m here to observe and learn and really to support the team and the city when and where I can.”

WASHINGTON — Alabama on Wednesday asked the Supreme Court to allow it to use a congressional map favoring Republicans in this year’s elections, despite a lower court’s ruling that the redistricting plan intentionally discriminates against Black people.

The state’s Republican leadership filed an emergency appeal with the justices a day after a three-judge court refused to let the state use a map it adopted three years ago that has a majority Black population in just one of its seven congressional districts.

The judges instead required Alabama to continue using a court-ordered map that was put in place for the 2024 elections that includes two districts where Black residents comprise a majority or close to it.

Atty. Gen. Steve Marshall told the court that the state did not intentionally discriminate against Black residents and should be allowed to hold elections this year under a map chosen by lawmakers, not judges.

The appeal is the latest development in the fallout from last month’s Supreme Court ruling that struck down a Black-majority district in Louisiana and weakened the federal Voting Rights Act. That ruling has led Republicans in several Southern states, including Alabama, to take steps to reshape voting districts with large minority populations that have elected Democrats.

The redistricting frenzy is part of a broader push by President Trump to try to hold on to Republicans’ slim House majority in the November elections.

The Alabama cases stretches back several years. The three-judge panel in 2023 ruled that a map drawn by Republican state lawmakers intentionally diluted the voting power of Black citizens. The court said the state, which is about 27% Black, should have two districts where Black voters are the majority or close to it. The court-selected map was used in 2024.

After the Supreme Court’s recent ruling in the Louisiana case, Alabama officials moved to implement the 2023 state-drawn map. The Supreme Court’s conservative majority agreed to lift the injunction that had blocked the map’s use and sent the case back to the three-judge panel for reconsideration in light of the Louisiana ruling.

In the meantime, voters cast ballots in Alabama’s May 19 primaries, and Republican Gov. Kay Ivey set new special primaries for Aug. 11 in four congressional districts affected by the map switch.

Upon further review, the judicial panel said it was standing behind its initial finding that there was “undisputed evidence” of intentional racial discrimination, a holding that was independent of and unaffected by the Supreme Court ruling on the Voting Rights Act.

It said the special congressional primaries should instead proceed under the previous court-approved districts.

The use of the court-ordered map led to the 2024 election of U.S. Rep. Shomari Figures, a Black Democrat. State Republicans are seeking to use a map that would give the GOP an opportunity to reclaim the south Alabama seat.

The state is asking for Supreme Court action by Monday as it makes preparations for the special vote in August.

Sherman writes for the Associated Press.

UCLA softball coach Kelly Inouye-Perez expected sophomore Rylee Slimp to deliver under pressure.

Slimp earned first-team all-Big Ten honors as the leadoff hitter for a Bruins team that features slugging stars Megan Grant and Jordan Woolery. She leads a group of underclassmen who helped send UCLA to the Women’s College World Series.

“I have seen Rylee Slimp just play big from travel ball to big moments in high school, and she came here to play on this big stage,” Inouye-Perez said. “I think her biggest asset, besides the fact that she can hit a home run, is that she can hit to all areas of the field, and she has such a good eye.

“I think she wanted to be in this position this year. She wanted to be the leadoff and be an impact player.”

The Austin, Texas, native is hitting .428 with 16 home runs, 56 RBIs, and 94 runs. Slimp broke Natasha Watley’s UCLA single-season runs record of 75, set in 2001, with 94 runs so far this season.

The following interview with Slimp ahead of the Bruins’ WCWS opener against No. 1 seed Alabama on Thursday has been edited for length and clarity.

How do you feel about being recognized by national media, including ESPN, for your role in UCLA’s a lineup?

Slimp: It’s surreal. We’ve broken records and accomplished so much as an offense this year. I’m grateful to be the leadoff and for all of the publicity we’re receiving.

How did you get started playing softball?

Slimp: I played T-ball. My dad gave me lessons and stuff on hitting when I was four. My dad was the one who taught me everything from a young age and kind of grew with me through the sport, and as I got older.

What inspired you to continue to work at softball so that you can compete at UCLA?

Slimp: It was this dream I had when I was a little girl, just starting off playing. I always looked up to the girls playing in the College World Series, and I knew that was a dream of mine very early on.

What was your first contact with the UCLA coaching staff while you were in high school and how did that impact your decision to join the Bruins?

Slimp: Coach Lisa [Fernandez] saw me play at a tournament the summer of my sophomore year. It was right before Sept. 1st and all of that big recruiting stuff. So it happened pretty late in the process with UCLA for me. Coach Lisa saw me play a tournament, and then a few days later, I was out of camp and it kind of took off after that. … I canceled all the other [visits] that I had, and I was like, ‘Oh, I know that this is the place for me, like, I don’t want to be anywhere else.’

What has helped the younger players on this year’s team stay calm under pressure?

Slimp: We do have a new team. We have 10 returners and 10 new Bruins. So we are pretty young as a team. … I think the upperclassmen like Taylor [Tinsley] and Megan [Grant], the seniors, do a good job of sharing their wisdom and helping us grow.

What is something they have taught you?

Slimp: I think, honestly, that the game isn’t as deep as we make it. I think sometimes, as underclassmen, we can make it the end of the world if we go 0 for 3 in a game or we have a bad outing. … The game is meant to be fun, and you’re supposed to enjoy it.

What’s the story behind the Michael Jackson glove the team has been passing around the dugout and featuring on social media?

Slimp: We went and saw the [Michael Jackson] movie as a team. I think 12 of us went, something like that, and since then we’ve just been obsessed with all things Michael Jackson. … We got the gloves. We are doing the second base [celebrations.] We are all things Michael Jackson right now after that movie.

Who bought the glove?

Slimp: That’s a good question because I actually don’t know the answer. I think most of our props and stuff just pop up. I think the [stress ball in the shape of] butter started with [Tinsley] because she’s really into stress balls. … But the home run boxing gloves came from Coach Lisa [Fernandez] and her boxing analogy.

We have a team motto that we’re like boxers. … That’s been the vibe and motto of this team this year to symbolize that. … One of the girl’s sisters bedazzled them, so they are wearing bedazzled boxing gloves that we put around our necks, whoever hits a home run.

Being from Texas, do you have an opinion on what’s better — Whataburger or In-n-Out?

Slimp: I need to be careful how I answer this question because I need to know my audience here, but y’all take your In-N-Out very seriously. I do have to say, I do like In-N-Out more.

What about Texas tacos versus Los Angeles tacos?

Slimp: Oh, yeah, I can talk tacos. The tacos in Texas are definitely better because we have flour tortillas, and apparently, flour tortillas aren’t a thing in California.

What is your go-to taco?

Slimp: I love steak fajita with flour tortilla, of course, cheese, and guac. And honestly, that’s it. I’m pretty simple.

PALM SPRINGS — Barry Manilow steers a golf cart to the end of a long driveway, pulls to a stop and flings a plush toy goose across a manicured lawn to the delight of his two Labrador retrievers.

“OK, where we doing this?” the 82-year-old singer asks about our interview. Dressed in a khaki shirt and slim-fitting rust-colored trousers, he’s got the look of a man prepared to undertake some très chic brush clearance; in reality, he’s motored down here merely to answer questions about his fabulous life and career.

Manilow and his husband and longtime manager, Garry Kief, moved to this sprawling desert estate from Los Angeles in the late 1990s. “We kept coming out, and it’s so beautiful that eventually we said, ‘Screw it — let’s just stay,’” he says. By then, Manilow had long since established himself as one of music’s premier showmen, with a Grammy Award, 11 Top 10 hits and a storied 15-night run at L.A.’s Greek Theatre under his belt.

So you might’ve taken Palm Springs as a sign that he was ready to slow down. Instead, he launched a residency at the Las Vegas Hilton in 2005 that eventually surpassed the length of Elvis Presley’s show there; in 2006, he released “The Greatest Songs of the Fifties,” which went platinum and spawned a series of successful follow-up albums.

Last month, Sabrina Carpenter interpolated a bit of Manilow’s iconic “Copacabana (At the Copa)” into her headlining set at Coachella just days before he was honored by the American Advertising Federation for his work writing commercial jingles. The range of those achievements said something about his blend of music-nerd craft and pop-star razzle-dazzle.

“Barry loves music as much as anyone I’ve ever known,” says Bette Midler, who hired Manilow as her pianist for the name-making gig she played at New York’s Continental Baths in the early 1970s. Performing, Midler adds, “isn’t a job with him — it’s a vocation, a calling.”

Yet now that calling faces a threat. In December, Manilow announced that he’d been diagnosed with lung cancer and that surgery would require him to postpone a number of concert dates; five months later, he has yet to return to the stage — the longest break, COVID-19 aside, he can remember taking in decades.

Fortunately for Manilow, he has a new album, “What a Time,” with which to occupy himself. Due June 5, it consists mostly of original material — his first such LP in nearly 15 years — though it opens with a sumptuous rendition of Peter Allen and Dean Pitchford’s “Once Before I Go.” Manilow notes proudly that the song, which was produced by Kenneth “Babyface” Edmonds, recently made Billboard’s adult contemporary chart, extending his run on that tally beyond the half-century mark.

Barry Manilow performs in Beverly Hills in 2025.

(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)

Still, performing is clearly on his mind as he leads me into a tile-roofed gym equipped with weights, a treadmill and a massage table. Manilow has been working out here every morning, he says, to regain the strength needed for his show; he’s got Vegas dates on the books for July but admits he’s unsure whether they’ll happen or not. We settle into two leather club chairs, his dogs Jake and Abby at his feet.

“Please be brilliant,” he tells me. “Don’t be boring.”

What are you doing on a day you’re not working?
Working.

I see.
Since the surgery, I can’t go on the road. Ninety minutes of screaming in tune, which is what I do for a living — I’m not up for that yet. I will be, but it’s taking a long time to get my voice back. They warned me that I’d have to learn to breathe again. So these days, I get up, I go to my piano and I try to be creative. Before I know it, the afternoon’s over.

Was the diagnosis a shock?
Imagine your doctor saying, “You’ve got lung cancer.”

Fair enough.
I’ll tell you the story. I have terrible hips — bursitis and everything — and they hurt so bad that I thought maybe I broke a bone or something. So I asked my wonderful family doctor, I said, “Can you just do one of those MRIs and see?” Now, before that, I’d had two bad bouts of bronchitis, one after the next. Have you ever had bronchitis?

I have.
It stinks. So I asked him if he could check my hip, and he told the guys that were doing it, “Why don’t you check his lungs?” And I think he might have saved my life because they found a big black thing in my chest. One doctor said it was probably remnants of the bronchitis, the other doctor said it could be cancer. I voted for the bronchitis. But they went back in to see and it was a cancerous tumor.

How’d you react?
When they told me, I was on the road, and I just went back to sound check. What else could I do? I never thought cancer would get me — it wasn’t in the cards. They wanted to get rid of it as soon as possible, so we made a deal: I’d finish the couple of weeks of shows that I had, then I’d go to the hospital and they’d remove it. It was supposed to be a no-brainer — it hadn’t spread yet, thank goodness. But then my AFib kicked in and acid reflux kicked in and pneumonia kicked in. They rushed me to the ICU for seven days.

Barry Manilow with Dionne Warwick in Los Angeles in 1985.

(Paul Harris / Getty Images)

Sorry to be morbid, but were you close to death?
They said at one point — I didn’t hear them say this but I heard that they did say it — “We don’t want to lose him.” It’s all a total blur now. When they finally brought me back to my lovely room at the Eisenhower [medical center], I weighed 128 pounds.

How long you figure it had been since you weighed 128 pounds?
I don’t remember ever being 128.

You said you never thought cancer would get you. Why?
I’m too busy. Pretty stupid. What I realized is that I’ve always been the leader — leader of the band, leader of an audience — but I wasn’t the leader of this one. That was a big lesson for me. I had to rely on everybody else. Nurses, doctors, friends — you should see some of the notes people have sent.

What’s it been like to be offstage for so long?
Agony. Make an album, go on the road, come back, make an album, go on the road — that’s what my life’s been for years. And I like it. Now I just have to get better and do what the doctors are telling me. It’s the only way out.

Well, there’s one other way.
I’m not ready to croak. But I wasn’t ready to stop performing either, and it just went like that [snaps fingers]. The day before surgery, people are screaming, standing ovation, band sounds great. Next day I’m packing to go to the hospital.

Are you working with a vocal coach?
Yep. But I get winded just walking down the hallway. I turn on my old records and sing along, and three songs in I’m like [pants].

Could you do a show where you skip the uptempos? No “It’s a Miracle” or “Copacabana”?
I’m trying ballads too — my ballads end big.

Are you allowed to smoke or drink?
I stopped smoking many, many years ago. I vape but hardly — I just like holding it. I was a great smoker. Brooklyn in the ’50s? Please. I started smoking when I was 9. I got up to three packs of Pall Mall non-filters a day, and it never bothered me — never had any problem breathing. I was just a skinny piano player who smoked. That’s who I am. That’s who I was.

Before he was a skinny piano player, he was a skinny accordion player.

Manilow grew up poor in Brooklyn, the only son of a Jewish mother and an Irish father who split up right after he was born. As a kid he entertained his mom and his maternal grandparents by squeezing out the Jewish folk song “Hava Nagila”; later, his stepfather brought home records by Gerry Mulligan and Judy Garland that opened his mind to jazz and pop.

He says today that he never saw himself as a performer — he wanted to write, arrange, produce. His first success came with jingles for brands like State Farm — “Like a Good Neighbor” is his handiwork — and Band-Aid.

“My ideas were good for pop music because of the commercials,” he says. “The rules are pretty much the same — you need to grab the listener as soon as possible. For a commercial, you’ve got about five seconds. For a pop song, you’ve got 10.”

In 1971, Manilow got the job with Midler and ended up working on her million-selling debut, “The Divine Miss M,” which led to a deal of Manilow’s own with Clive Davis’ Arista Records. Despite Manilow’s insistence that he was a behind-the-scenes guy, he scored a No. 1 hit out of the box with the plaintive “Mandy,” then quickly followed that with another chart-topper, “I Write the Songs” — a pop-philosophical epic, as nobody’s tired of pointing out ever since, that Manilow didn’t actually write.

Barry Manilow at home in Palm Springs.

(Christina House / Los Angeles Times)

Bruce Johnston, who wrote “I Write the Songs” — and won a Grammy for song of the year thanks to Manilow’s recording — says the key to Manilow’s performance is that “he’s never too cool for school.” A Beach Boy for six decades until he retired from the band this year, Johnston adds that Manilow’s rendition of the song, which was also cut by Captain & Tennille and David Cassidy, “is the only one I care about, honestly. He really grabbed it — he’s just as real as he could be.”

After several more Manilow hits — “Tryin’ to Get the Feeling Again,” “Weekend in New England,” “Looks Like We Made It” — Davis asked the singer to produce a would-be comeback album by his latest Arista signing, Dionne Warwick. Warwick’s initial reaction to that idea: “Really?” she says with a laugh. “Did Barry Manilow really know anything about Dionne Warwick? As it turned out, he knew quite a bit,” adds Warwick, who recalls turning up for their first session to discover that Manilow had laid every one of her albums on his piano. “He was letting me know: I know you,” she says.

“Dionne,” the album they made together, went on to win a pair of Grammys and spun off silky hit singles including “Deja Vu” and “I’ll Never Love This Way Again” that reinvigorated Warwick’s career and helped solidify Manilow’s standing as a kind of soft-rock auteur.

Which isn’t to say that rock’s intelligentsia ever viewed him kindly. Though his best music finds an emotional truth in over-the-top theatrics, critics routinely dismissed Manilow as a lightweight or a schlockmeister; even now, he seems an unlikely candidate for the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, where he’s been eligible for induction for decades.

Manilow, who entered the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2002, insists the slights don’t bother him. “I’ve never been one of the guys,” he says. We’ve been talking for a while, and because of the bursitis, perhaps, he’s hoisted one of his legs over the arm of his chair. “I don’t think about awards and parties and stuff like that. I’m very lucky — I live in the most gorgeous place I’ve ever seen and I have the most wonderful partner that you can imagine. I’m grateful he’s chosen to share his life with me. We’ve been together for over 46 years, and we still laugh and we still love each other. That’s the greatest award I’ll ever get.”

Manilow and Kief married in 2014; the singer came out as gay three years later. (Manilow was briefly married to his high school girlfriend, Susan Deixler, in the mid-1960s.) Has he found that the world looks at him differently since he came out?

“It was a non-event. Nobody gave a s—,” he says. “They all knew. I never really hid it, but in the ’70s and ’80s, that would have killed the career, and I didn’t want to do that. So I just never talked about it.” He smiles.

“Garry and I are just two guys that live in a house on a hill with two dogs that we love.”

Like many of Manilow’s hits, “Once Before I Go” was Davis’ idea.

Allen, the late Australian entertainer portrayed by Hugh Jackman in Broadway’s Tony-winning “The Boy From Oz,” had played the tune for Manilow in the early ’80s. “And I loved it,” Manilow says now. “But I was too young to sing a song like that — that song needs age to be able to pull it off honestly.”

Davis first suggested that Manilow perform it in his set at the post-pandemic We Love NYC concert that Davis put on in Central Park in 2021. After the show, which was called off due to weather as Manilow sang “Can’t Smile Without You,” Davis repeatedly advised the singer to record it.

Clive Davis, left, with Barry Manilow at an Arista Records party in Los Angeles in 1989.

(Lester Cohen / Getty Images)

“I don’t know, he had a bug up his ass,” Manilow says. “He loved it, and he loved it for me. And I’m not even on his record label anymore — he’s just a friend at this point. But he was right once again.”

Given the cancer diagnosis, did Manilow worry that fans might interpret the song — a teary goodbye from a well-wishing lover — as a more permanent farewell?

“Not one time has anybody said, ‘Is he talking about dying?’”

You wouldn’t necessarily call “What a Time” a concept album, though many of the songs ponder the ways memory and history can shape a romance. Manilow knows he’s regarded as a singles act but says that putting together LPs is what he’s always enjoyed best. His favorite is 1984’s jazzy “2:00 AM Paradise Cafe,” on which he collaborated with Mulligan, Sarah Vaughan and Mel Tormé.

“That was one where the critics who’d been killing me, they didn’t know I was capable of doing something like that,” he says. “But frankly, I’d been surprised that I was capable of doing the pop stuff.”

You made records of hits from the ’50s, ’60s, ’70s and ’80s. Why’d you stop before “The Greatest Songs of the Nineties”?
Were there songs in the ’90s?

Barry.
Didn’t it start to go downhill?

I can think of a handful of classics by Whitney Houston alone.
You can’t touch those. I’m a good arranger, but you can’t top those records. Maybe four of those albums was enough. I was ready to go back to writing.

You’ve said the problem with modern pop is that there’s no melody anymore.
That’s what I miss. Clive’s been pushing me to do “The Great New American Songbook.”

Like he did with Johnny Mathis a few years ago.
So I’ve been studying the Top 20. The one I like is Lady Gaga and Bruno Mars.

“Die With a Smile.”
Love that. But the way they’re writing songs these days is not the way I know how to write songs. They don’t do a verse, a chorus, a bridge, a chorus, a big ending. To me, when I listen, the songs feel like run-on sentences.

Barry Manilow with his dog Abby.

(Christina House / Los Angeles Times)

I was trying to think of artists older than you who are still performing.
Name me one.

Willie Nelson.
Oh, yeah.

Johnny Mathis.
Mm-hmm.

Frankie Valli.
[Rolls eyes].

You’re invoking the widely held assumption that he lip syncs.
I loved Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons. Who didn’t?

Would you ever lip sync?
I’m terrible at it. I try now and again.

Do you find it morally objectionable?
Depends on the artist. I like being in the moment, not knowing what’s gonna happen in the next bar or at the ending. It’s exciting to me to see if I can make those high notes.

Would not being able to make them mean it’s time to hang it up?
Well, what’s happening right now, I’m on the verge. But I’m getting stronger, so maybe I don’t have to hang it up yet. I look fantastic, but I’m a hundred years old, right? I don’t know how that happened, by the way — I don’t get Botox or anything.

You’ve had no work done?
No! I must say: There was one time when we lived in L.A. that I did do a facelift. But after that it’s just been a little here, a little there.

Wait, I asked you —
“Work” is like a facelift, and I only had one of those. The rest of it — I see something falling down, sure, I’ll do that. I’m as vain as anybody else. One of my old friends, his mother said, “I always knew he was talented, but when did he get so handsome?”