A child was seriously injured Wednesday afternoon after the electric dirt bike they were riding collided with a van at a Melbourne intersection.Melbourne police responded to the crash involving a 2001 Chrysler van and an electric dirt bike at approximately 4:17 p.m. at the intersection of Wickham Road and Lake Washington Road.The child riding the electric dirt bike sustained serious bodily injuries and was airlifted to Orlando Health Arnold Palmer Hospital for Children in Orlando. A landing zone was established at a nearby golf course for the transport. The child is currently being treated.According to the initial investigation, the electric dirt bike was traveling west on Lake Washington, west of Wickham, when the Chrysler van, leaving a parking lot on the northwest corner of the intersection, attempted to travel east on Lake Washington.The van pulled out in front of the dirt bike, causing the bike to strike the driver’s side of the van.Police said alcohol and drugs do not appear to be factors in the crash. The Melbourne Police Department’s Traffic Enforcement Unit is investigating the incident.Anyone with information is encouraged to contact Traffic Enforcement Unit Officer Costello at (321) 616-6027 or anonymously through Crimeline at 800-423-TIPS (8477) or www.crimeline.org.
MELBOURNE, Fla. —
A child was seriously injured Wednesday afternoon after the electric dirt bike they were riding collided with a van at a Melbourne intersection.
Melbourne police responded to the crash involving a 2001 Chrysler van and an electric dirt bike at approximately 4:17 p.m. at the intersection of Wickham Road and Lake Washington Road.
The child riding the electric dirt bike sustained serious bodily injuries and was airlifted to Orlando Health Arnold Palmer Hospital for Children in Orlando. A landing zone was established at a nearby golf course for the transport. The child is currently being treated.
According to the initial investigation, the electric dirt bike was traveling west on Lake Washington, west of Wickham, when the Chrysler van, leaving a parking lot on the northwest corner of the intersection, attempted to travel east on Lake Washington.
The van pulled out in front of the dirt bike, causing the bike to strike the driver’s side of the van.
Police said alcohol and drugs do not appear to be factors in the crash. The Melbourne Police Department’s Traffic Enforcement Unit is investigating the incident.
Anyone with information is encouraged to contact Traffic Enforcement Unit Officer Costello at (321) 616-6027 or anonymously through Crimeline at 800-423-TIPS (8477) or www.crimeline.org.
Haro, 32, who initially pleaded not guilty, reversed course and pleaded guilty on Oct. 16 to one count each of murder, assault on a child under 8 causing death and filing a false police report, according to the Riverside County district attorney’s office.
He and his wife, Rebecca Haro, 41, reported that their son was kidnapped after someone attacked her in a Yucaipa parking lot on Aug. 14. But detectives quickly found holes in their story and charged both parents with murder.
On Monday, Haro received a sentence of 25 years to life for murder as well as a 180-day sentence for the false police report.
Because he committed these crimes while on probation, he must also serve a sentence of six years and eight months that he previously received in a child abuse case, prosecutors said.
Emmanuel Haro was reported kidnapped, but his parents later faced murder charges.
(San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department)
Haro was convicted of felony willful child endangerment in 2023 after his baby daughter was taken to the hospital in 2018 with a skull fracture, several healing fractures to her ribs, a brain hemorrhage, swelling in the neck and a healing tibia fracture in her leg, according to a police affidavit for an arrest warrant.
A judge later suspended that sentence — a decision that Riverside County Dist. Atty. Mike Hestrin lambasted at an Aug. 27 news conference.
“If that judge had done his job as he should have done, Emmanuel would be alive today,” Hestrin said. “That’s a shame and it’s an outrage.”
Haro has been credited with 551 days of time served and, as a result of the aggregated charges, will spend a minimum of 30 years in prison before he becomes eligible for parole.
Although baby Emmanuel’s body has yet to be found, prosecutors believe that multiple acts of abuse and physical assault led to the boy’s death.
The mother has maintained her not guilty plea to charges of murder and filing a false police report. She is due back in court for a felony settlement conference on Jan. 21, prosecutors said.
“The lies told in this case only deepened the tragedy of Emmanuel’s death,” Hestrin said in a Monday statement. “While today’s sentence represents a measure of accountability for Jake Haro, our office will continue to seek justice as the case against his co-defendant moves forward.”
Prosecutors allege that the couple deliberately faked the child’s kidnapping. When investigators with the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department questioned the mother about inconsistencies in her police report, the couple stopped cooperating.
A week later, they were arrested at their Cabazon home. In August, authorities removed another 2-year-old child from the couple’s custody and scoured a field in Moreno Valley accompanied by Haro in a jail jumpsuit.
Baby Emmanuel’s remains have yet to be found.
Times staff writer Nathan Solis contributed to this report.
One of the monkeys that escaped last week after a truck overturned on a Mississippi highway was shot and killed early Sunday by a woman who says she feared for the safety of her children.Jessica Bond Ferguson said she was alerted early Sunday by her 16-year-old son who said he thought he had seen a monkey running in the yard outside their home near Heidelberg, Mississippi. She got out of bed, grabbed her firearm and her cellphone and stepped outside where she saw the monkey about 60 feet away.Bond Ferguson said she and other residents had been warned that the escaped monkeys carried diseases so she fired her gun.“I did what any other mother would do to protect her children,” Bond Ferguson, who has five children ranging in age from 4 to 16, told The Associated Press. “I shot at it and it just stood there, and I shot again, and he backed up and that’s when he fell.”The Jasper County Sheriff’s Office confirmed in a social media post that a homeowner had found one of the monkeys on their property Sunday morning but said the office didn’t have any details. The Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries, and Parks took possession of the monkey, the sheriff’s office said.Before Bond Ferguson had gone out the door, she had called the police and was told to keep an eye on the monkey. But she said she worried that if the monkey got away it would threaten children at another house.“If it attacked somebody’s kid, and I could have stopped it, that would be a lot on me,” said Bond Ferguson, a 35-year-old professional chef. “It’s kind of scary and dangerous that they are running around, and people have kids playing in their yards.”The Rhesus monkeys had been housed at the Tulane University National Biomedical Research Center in New Orleans, Louisiana, which routinely provides primates to scientific research organizations, according to the university. In a statement last week, Tulane said the monkeys do not belong to the university, and they were not being transported by the university.A truck carrying the monkeys overturned Tuesday on Interstate 59 north of Heidelberg. Of the 21 monkeys in the truck, 13 were found at the scene of the accident and arrived at their original destination last week, according to Tulane. Another five were killed in the hunt for them and three remained on the loose before Sunday.The Mississippi Highway Patrol has said it was investigating the cause of the crash, which occurred about 100 miles from the state capital, Jackson.Rhesus monkeys typically weigh about 16 pounds and are among the most medically studied animals on the planet. Video recorded after the crash showed monkeys crawling through tall grass beside the interstate, where wooden crates labeled “live animals” were crumpled and strewn about.Jasper County Sheriff Randy Johnson had said Tulane officials reported the monkeys were not infectious, despite initial reports by the truck’s occupants warning that the monkeys were dangerous and harboring various diseases. Nonetheless, Johnson said the monkeys still needed to be “neutralized” because of their aggressive nature.The monkeys had recently received checkups confirming they were pathogen-free, Tulane said in a statement Wednesday.Rhesus macaques “are known to be aggressive,” according to the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks. It said the agency’s conservation workers were working with sheriff’s officials in the search for the animals.The search comes about one year after 43 Rhesus macaques escaped from a South Carolina compound that breeds them for medical research because an employee didn’t fully lock an enclosure. Employees from the Alpha Genesis facility in Yemassee, South Carolina, had set up traps to capture them.
JASPER COUNTY, Miss. —
One of the monkeys that escaped last week after a truck overturned on a Mississippi highway was shot and killed early Sunday by a woman who says she feared for the safety of her children.
Jessica Bond Ferguson said she was alerted early Sunday by her 16-year-old son who said he thought he had seen a monkey running in the yard outside their home near Heidelberg, Mississippi. She got out of bed, grabbed her firearm and her cellphone and stepped outside where she saw the monkey about 60 feet away.
Bond Ferguson said she and other residents had been warned that the escaped monkeys carried diseases so she fired her gun.
“I did what any other mother would do to protect her children,” Bond Ferguson, who has five children ranging in age from 4 to 16, told The Associated Press. “I shot at it and it just stood there, and I shot again, and he backed up and that’s when he fell.”
The Jasper County Sheriff’s Office confirmed in a social media post that a homeowner had found one of the monkeys on their property Sunday morning but said the office didn’t have any details. The Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries, and Parks took possession of the monkey, the sheriff’s office said.
Before Bond Ferguson had gone out the door, she had called the police and was told to keep an eye on the monkey. But she said she worried that if the monkey got away it would threaten children at another house.
“If it attacked somebody’s kid, and I could have stopped it, that would be a lot on me,” said Bond Ferguson, a 35-year-old professional chef. “It’s kind of scary and dangerous that they are running around, and people have kids playing in their yards.”
The Rhesus monkeys had been housed at the Tulane University National Biomedical Research Center in New Orleans, Louisiana, which routinely provides primates to scientific research organizations, according to the university. In a statement last week, Tulane said the monkeys do not belong to the university, and they were not being transported by the university.
A truck carrying the monkeys overturned Tuesday on Interstate 59 north of Heidelberg. Of the 21 monkeys in the truck, 13 were found at the scene of the accident and arrived at their original destination last week, according to Tulane. Another five were killed in the hunt for them and three remained on the loose before Sunday.
The Mississippi Highway Patrol has said it was investigating the cause of the crash, which occurred about 100 miles from the state capital, Jackson.
Rhesus monkeys typically weigh about 16 pounds and are among the most medically studied animals on the planet. Video recorded after the crash showed monkeys crawling through tall grass beside the interstate, where wooden crates labeled “live animals” were crumpled and strewn about.
Jasper County Sheriff Randy Johnson had said Tulane officials reported the monkeys were not infectious, despite initial reports by the truck’s occupants warning that the monkeys were dangerous and harboring various diseases. Nonetheless, Johnson said the monkeys still needed to be “neutralized” because of their aggressive nature.
The monkeys had recently received checkups confirming they were pathogen-free, Tulane said in a statement Wednesday.
Rhesus macaques “are known to be aggressive,” according to the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks. It said the agency’s conservation workers were working with sheriff’s officials in the search for the animals.
The search comes about one year after 43 Rhesus macaques escaped from a South Carolina compound that breeds them for medical research because an employee didn’t fully lock an enclosure. Employees from the Alpha Genesis facility in Yemassee, South Carolina, had set up traps to capture them.
On Saturday morning, Genaro Alfonzo pulled up to the Kia Forum in Inglewood wearing his Dodgers hat and jersey, with a flag for his Boys in Blue flapping from a Toyota pickup truck.
But the morning after his beloved Dodgers won Game 6 of the World Series against the Toronto Blue Jays, Alfonzo was not happy. It was nearly 11 a.m., and the 70-year-old had not yet eaten.
“Just this,” he said, tearing up as he held up a blue plastic coffee cup, half empty. “I’m not working. My wife’s not working — there’s no work. The market is expensive.”
Alfonzo was among thousands of people who showed up to a drive-through food distribution event Saturday at the Kia Forum put on by the Los Angeles Regional Food Bank on the first day of a lapse in funding for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP.
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It was the first day of the month — the first day of a pause in federal food assistance for millions of low-income Americans, including 5.5 million Californians, because of the government shutdown that began Oct. 1.
On Friday,two federal judges, in separate rulings, ordered the U.S. Department of Agriculture to begin using more than $5 billion in contingency funds for SNAP during the government shutdown. But they gave the agency until Monday to figure out how to do so.
Although the orders were a win for people who rely on SNAP, they did not mean that recipients would be spared a lapse in food aid. Over the weekend, state and local food banks scrambled to prepare for a deluge of need.
People pick up food distributed by Noel Community Organization at the Lily of the Valley Church of God In Christ Saturday in Long Beach.
(Eric Thayer/Los Angeles Times)
California Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta — whose office helped bring about a lawsuit by a coalition of Democrat-led states against the Trump administration over the food aid cutoff — said Thursday that a ruling in the states’ favor would not mean SNAP funds would immediately be loaded onto CalFresh and other benefit cards.
“Our best estimates are that [SNAP benefit] cards could be loaded and used in about a week,” he said, adding that “there could be about a week where people are hungry and need food.” For new program applicants, he said, the delay could be even longer.
On Saturday, amid gray skies and fog, scores of volunteers for the Los Angeles Regional Food Bank gathered outside the Forum to serve Angelenos looking to stock their shelves and refrigerators for what could become the longest shutdown since 2018, when the government was shut down for 35 days.
Volunteers disbursed food containers for about 5,000 vehicles, according to the food bank. Each offering had items for about 40 meals, with whole grains, fresh produce, tortillas, canned tuna, yogurt and frozen chicken.
“This is what large-scale disaster relief looks like,” said Michael Flood, chief executive of the food bank. “It’s about getting as much as possible out to as many people as possible — safely and in a short time.”
Fueled by bins of snacks — chips, oranges and bottled water — many volunteers expressed enthusiasm for the long day ahead.
“I’m just happy to be here — it’s a great opportunity to help people,” said Jordan Diaz, 35.
Ron Del Rio, 54, said he was happy to help but angry about the circumstances.
“It’s frustrating and heartbreaking to see people who are hungry,” he said. “It’s just so unsettling that it has to be this way. Why are there 5,000 cars coming through here in a country that is so rich?”
Norma White gives Dario Medina a free haircut as people wait to pick up food distributed by Noel Community Organization at the Lily of the Valley Church of God In Christ Saturday in Long Beach.
(Eric Thayer/Los Angeles Times)
About 600,000 SNAP recipients live in Los Angeles, according to Mayor Karen Bass, who said in a statement Friday that “no one in Los Angeles should have to worry about putting food on the table because of circumstances beyond their control.”
For volunteer Diane Jackson, 72, loading up cars with boxes of fresh produce hit close to home. Her son had been in line to receive food earlier that morning.
“He has 7 children!” she said. “He made sure to come out here. I’m so glad they’re here — it feels good.”
Volunteers were greeted with fist bumps, air kisses and shouted thank yous.
As she waited in line, Maxx Bush, 79, who lives near the Forum, said she was angry because people’s incomes are not increasing, even as groceries, housing, insurance, medication, gasoline and other necessities are becoming more expensive.
“Our elected officials are letting us down because we vote and put these people in office, and they tend to get a personal vendetta going with each other and forget about the main thing, which is the people.”
In their opposition to states’ request for a temporary restraining order requiring the disbursement of contingency funds, attorneys for the USDA argued that the $5.25 billion is reserved “in the event of natural disasters and other uncontrollable catastrophes” and could cause more disruptions later. The emergency funds will not cover the roughly $9 billion required for all November benefits, according to the USDA.
Last week, Gov. Gavin Newsom activated the National Guard to help package food and directed $80 million to food banks to stock up. More than 63% of SNAP recipients in California are children or elderly people, Newsom’s office said.
“I have instructed our lawyers to ask the Court to clarify how we can legally fund SNAP as soon as possible,” President Trump saidin a post on Truth Social on Friday. “It is already delayed enough due to the Democrats keeping the Government closed … it will BE MY HONOR to provide the funding.”
On Saturday, Bonta snapped back.
“The Trump Admin CHOSE to withhold food assistance from people in need. They CHOSE to let people go hungry and now are only changing their tune thanks to lawsuits,” Bonta said on X. “It should have never gotten this far in the first place.”
Two people leave a food distribution site Saturday in Long Beach.
(Eric Thayer/Los Angeles Times)
Around noon on Saturday, the parking lot at the Forum was a cacophony of sound: car engines rumbling, car stereos blasting music, fire engines blaring in the distance, children shrieking, airplanes roaring en route to nearby LAX.
Rayvone Douthard, 51, picked up food in a white Nissan truck with his windows down and stereo blaring a cover by the band Tierra of the 1967 song “Together.” Douthard, a DJ who wore a brightly colored tie-dye T-shirt, said he received federal food aid and was concerned about the delay in funding.
“It’s not right,” he said. “Donald Trump needs to stop what he’s doing. Everyone needs food.”
Then he turned his music up again.
“But I feel positive about this,” he said, gesturing at the bustling parking lot. “Everybody working together. Like the song says!”
A handful of Colorado families sued the Adams County Sheriff’s Office this week for refusing to allow in-person jail visits and instead requiring inmates and family members to pay for phone and video calls through a system that has, in five years, put $3.1 million into the sheriff’s coffers.
The lawsuit is focused on visits between parents and children, and argues that prohibiting in-person contact between parents and their kids is both a violation of their constitutional rights and likely to cause long-term harm to everyone involved. The proposed class-action case includes both minor children who want to visit their incarcerated fathers, and mothers who want to visit their incarcerated sons.
“They’ve denied children the right to have contact visits with their parents, to be hugged by them, to look them in the eyes, to have the in-person relationship that is so necessary, especially for a child’s healthy development,” said Dan Meyer, litigation and policy director at Spero Justice Center, one of several organizations involved in the lawsuit.
The Colorado case is the third lawsuit filed as part of a recent nationwide effort to force jails to allow in-person family visits.
Adams County Sheriff’s Office spokesman Sgt. Shea Haney declined to comment on the lawsuit.
The plaintiffs include 4- and 6-year-old siblings in Adams County who have not been able to visit their father since he was jailed in February, as well as a 9-year-old boy whose stepfather was jailed from June to October.
“To have to tell my child he wasn’t allowed to go see his dad, it was just really painful,” said Autumn Ray, mother of the 9-year-old boy.
She spent as much as $400 a month on calls to the jail during her husband’s incarceration, she said. A phone call to the jail currently costs 15 cents a minute, while video calls cost 20 cents a minute, according to the lawsuit.
Ray’s calls to the jail routinely stretched over an hour, she said, in part because the system for making calls often did not work, so she and her husband, whom she declined to name, would have more to catch up on when they could connect. The parents decided that spending the money on the phone calls was necessary as their son struggled with his dad’s absence, she said.
“His dad and I talked and decided it was worth using some of our savings for him to still be able to talk to his dad on the phone, because otherwise the full brunt of parenting a neurodivergent, grief-stricken child was fully on me,” she said.
The lawsuit alleges that the sheriff’s office is denying in-person visits to ramp up profits from the video and phone calls, and notes that the Colorado Supreme Court ordered the Adams County sheriff to allow in-person jail visits in 1978 — an order they say still stands. The jail has rooms dedicated to such visits that are going unused, the lawsuit alleges.
The jail has not allowed in-person visits for family and friends since at least 2006, and stopped offering free video calls at kiosks in its lobby in 2020, according to the complaint.
The jail now uses a company called HomeWAV to allow video and phone calls between inmates and their friends and family. The arrangement calls for the sheriff’s office to receive at least 40% of video call money and 80% of phone call money, according to the lawsuit.
The sheriff’s office has received $3.1 million under the contract since 2020, while HomeWAV has earned about $1.7 million, according to the complaint.
“We are confident this can be done safely and affordably,” Meyer said.
Colorado lawmakers this year passed a new law that made in-person visitation a right for prisoners, and specified that it could not be replaced with video calls. The state’s prisons are run separately from county jails.
Alexandra Jordan, an attorney at Public Justice, a nonprofit legal advocacy organization also involved in the lawsuit, said the visitation policy is entirely within the control of Adams County officials.
“They could choose to change their policy tomorrow, and we hope that they do,” she said.
Ray, whose husband was recently transferred to a state prison, is now going through a 60-day waiting period before she and her son can visit in person. She marked the date — in the first week of December — on the calendar for her son, so he could see the first time in six months they’ll be able to visit his dad face to face.
Today’s class is in session and we’re learning to speak fluent gin alpha. Our instructors, PE teacher Aidan Worzea. Be in the middle school, um, we got 900 kids here. Uh, we have over 50 in every PE class here, so I’m constantly around them. Hadley. He did get on that one. I’ll give you that one. Today’s lesson translating the ever evolving middle school dictionary. Do you agree with what’s on the board so far? He did like kind of *** good job. According to Mr. Worzea, the top tier terms are locked, rage bait, hu, and their ultimate favorite, 67. So I give the 67 there. 67 is the most. Um, I hear clock it now recently *** ton. I see clock it and before you can even instruct once you say 6, you know it’s 7 and they’re going to interrupt. What does it? Mean? I believe it came from *** basketball player, the Ball family, LeAngelo Ball, I think, came up with the song of it, um, and then I heard that it was, they asked how tall was he? and they’re like, I don’t know, maybe 6 or 7. I think it really like popped off when like *** kid, Mason said 67. Just when you thought you had those, the kids hit you with *** new 1, 41, the opposite hand motion, and then bop. That’s like someone who’s had multiple girlfriends or boyfriends. It’s like, you’re *** bop. Got it. Don’t be *** bop. And then there’s Italian brain rock. Characters. So if you look up, there’s like burper Bata bump, shore. Um, ballerina cappuccino and perhaps the strangest one, it’s just like something people like to say like they’ll just like go around and be like, stop digging in your *** twin, which means nothing. random stuff on the internet. Huzz is *** new one as well. I hear it. I got some mixed emotions, but what I think it means is like crush. Maybe next week I’ll be told *** new one from one of the students, but uh. Uh, I learned from them and, uh, right now this is the main ones that I’m hearing for sure. Translation, just smile, nod, and clock it. Any advice for parents? I would say just if you’re hearing some of these different words, let’s make sure we kind of ask the meeting, um, because we don’t want our kids to go around, uh, saying things that they don’t know the meaning of it, um, and also that the meeting is, you know, good, something we want to be sharing out for sure.
A new internet slang meme taking over children’s vocabulary, 6-7, is now Dictionary.com’s 2025 Word of the Year.The meme is pronounced “six seven,” not “sixty seven,” like most would think, and has become a cultural phenomenon for Gen Alpha. Children have been saying the two numbers together with a hand gesture that someone would use to weigh two options. The phrase has gone viral on TikTok, with many people confused about its meaning. However, the meme itself has no real meaning and is said in a variety of ways. “It’s part inside joke, part social signal and part performance,” Steve Johnson, director of lexicography for the Dictionary Media Group at IXL Learning, said to USA Today. “When people say it, they’re not just repeating a meme; they’re shouting a feeling. It’s one of the first Words of the Year that works as an interjection – a burst of energy that spreads and connects people long before anyone agrees on what it actually means.”The meme started when Skrilla released his song “Doot Doot,” where he raps, “6-7, I just bipped right on the highway.”From there, people began using the lyrics “six seven” from the Skrilla song as background audio in videos. One video in particular that went viral said NBA player LaMelo Ball plays basketball like he’s 6 feet, 2 inches tall instead of his height of 6 feet, 7 inches.After that one video went viral, 6-7 became all the rage for the kids, and now it is being said everywhere.
A new internet slang meme taking over children’s vocabulary, 6-7, is now Dictionary.com‘s 2025 Word of the Year.
The meme is pronounced “six seven,” not “sixty seven,” like most would think, and has become a cultural phenomenon for Gen Alpha. Children have been saying the two numbers together with a hand gesture that someone would use to weigh two options.
The phrase has gone viral on TikTok, with many people confused about its meaning.
However, the meme itself has no real meaning and is said in a variety of ways.
“It’s part inside joke, part social signal and part performance,” Steve Johnson, director of lexicography for the Dictionary Media Group at IXL Learning, said to USA Today. “When people say it, they’re not just repeating a meme; they’re shouting a feeling. It’s one of the first Words of the Year that works as an interjection – a burst of energy that spreads and connects people long before anyone agrees on what it actually means.”
The meme started when Skrilla released his song “Doot Doot,” where he raps, “6-7, I just bipped right on the highway.”
From there, people began using the lyrics “six seven” from the Skrilla song as background audio in videos. One video in particular that went viral said NBA player LaMelo Ball plays basketball like he’s 6 feet, 2 inches tall instead of his height of 6 feet, 7 inches.
After that one video went viral, 6-7 became all the rage for the kids, and now it is being said everywhere.
Police are investigating the death of an infant found not far from the USC campus on Monday morning.
About 1:30 a.m. Los Angeles police were dispatched to the 3100 block of McClintock Avenue, said Officer Jeff Lee.
When they arrived, officers found a “deceased, full-term infant,” Lee said.
The child’s cause of death has not yet been determined by the county medical examiner and the investigation is ongoing, Lee said.
Details on where the infant was found on McClintock Avenue were not immediately available.
USC students were seen going in and out of student building F in the 3100 block of McClintock Avenue, according to KABC.
“It was really scary actually for everybody because we didn’t know what was happening and then we did find out it was happening right next to where we lived,” student Sofia Matin told the station. “It was very unsettling.”
The owner of a day care in Manteca has been arrested in connection with a 5-month-old infant’s death while he was under her care, officials said Monday.Roxanne Helus, owner of the Cherished Years Daycare that is run at her home along the 2300 block of Merlin Lane, faces a charge of felony child endangerment, the Manteca Police Department said. The agency plans to file additional charges, which would include causing death to a child under 8 years old.Police said at 1:25 p.m. on Oct. 22, officers went to the day care for a report of an infant not breathing. There, they found an adult at the scene providing CPR to the infant, later identified as Christian Olvera.Officers took over CPR until the Manteca Fire Department and medics arrived to also perform CPR, police said. Christian was taken to a nearby hospital and was later transferred to Oakland Children’s Hospital, where he died on Oct. 24.Police said there were no signs of trauma, and Christian’s cause of death will be determined by the results of an autopsy.”We hear about this happening all the time, and you never think it’s going to happen to you,” said Christian’s aunt, Erica Valdivia.When officers first got to the day care, police said they learned that Helus was intoxicated when Christian stopped breathing. There were three other adults and three day care children at the time. The children were checked and found to be unharmed.Helus was booked in the San Joaquin County Jail, but police said she has since bailed out.”It’s just been an unbearable pain and loss for our family,” Valdivia said.It is not known how long Helus’ day care has been in business, and police were also not immediately aware of her prior history. California Community Care Licensing, which has jurisdiction over licensed day cares, is assisting police with the investigation.Anyone with information related to the case is asked to call police at 209-456-8101 and reference case No. 25-04723.See news happening? Send us your photos or videos if it’s safe to do so at kcra.com/upload.See more coverage of top California stories here | Download our app | Subscribe to our morning newsletter | Find us on YouTube here and subscribe to our channel
MANTECA, Calif. —
The owner of a day care in Manteca has been arrested in connection with a 5-month-old infant’s death while he was under her care, officials said Monday.
Roxanne Helus, owner of the Cherished Years Daycare that is run at her home along the 2300 block of Merlin Lane, faces a charge of felony child endangerment, the Manteca Police Department said. The agency plans to file additional charges, which would include causing death to a child under 8 years old.
Police said at 1:25 p.m. on Oct. 22, officers went to the day care for a report of an infant not breathing. There, they found an adult at the scene providing CPR to the infant, later identified as Christian Olvera.
Emily New Born Photography
Officers took over CPR until the Manteca Fire Department and medics arrived to also perform CPR, police said. Christian was taken to a nearby hospital and was later transferred to Oakland Children’s Hospital, where he died on Oct. 24.
Police said there were no signs of trauma, and Christian’s cause of death will be determined by the results of an autopsy.
“We hear about this happening all the time, and you never think it’s going to happen to you,” said Christian’s aunt, Erica Valdivia.
When officers first got to the day care, police said they learned that Helus was intoxicated when Christian stopped breathing. There were three other adults and three day care children at the time. The children were checked and found to be unharmed.
Helus was booked in the San Joaquin County Jail, but police said she has since bailed out.
“It’s just been an unbearable pain and loss for our family,” Valdivia said.
It is not known how long Helus’ day care has been in business, and police were also not immediately aware of her prior history. California Community Care Licensing, which has jurisdiction over licensed day cares, is assisting police with the investigation.
Anyone with information related to the case is asked to call police at 209-456-8101 and reference case No. 25-04723.
See news happening? Send us your photos or videos if it’s safe to do so at kcra.com/upload.
When jurors returned to a West L.A. courtroom to deliver their verdict in a child sex abuse case earlier this month, one key person was missing: the defendant.
John Kaleel — a veteran piano teacher who has given lessons to the families of several Hollywood power players — faced allegations that he sexually abused one of his students in 2013.
Kaleel, 69, pleaded no contest in 2016 to committing a lewd act with a teenage student, but later fought to have the plea overturned after realizing the felony conviction would be grounds for deportation to his native Australia. L.A. County prosecutors then retried him and, while the case was pending, he was released on his own recognizance.
On Oct. 8 — the same day jurors in the Airport Courthouse found him guilty of five counts of sexual abuse — Kaleel slipped out of the country, according to a statement from the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department and court records.
The Sheriff’s Department did not say where they believed Kaleel had fled to. Court records show prosecutors filed an application to seek an “Extradition/Fugitive Hardcopy Warrant,” but it contained no details about how he absconded and a spokesperson for the district attorney’s office declined to answer questions.
Kaleel’s attorney, Kate Hardie, said she last saw her client when she drove him home from court on Oct. 7, the day before the verdict was handed down, and has had no contact with him since. Kaleel has been a lawful permanent resident of the U.S. since the 1980s, according to Hardie. Attempts by The Times to contact Kaleel were unsuccessful.
A spokeswoman for the district attorney’s office declined to discuss what steps it would take to get Kaleel back in custody in Los Angeles. Hardie said her client faces at least a decade in state prison at sentencing.
Hardie accused the district attorney’s office of carrying out a “vindictive prosecution” against Kaleel, who had already served a year in jail and spent time in a federal immigration detention center after his original plea deal.
Kaleel taught private lessons for more than a quarter-century in L.A., and his clients included “Hollywood industry professionals and students who have pursued successful music careers,” according to his website. The web page boasted testimonials from the creators of critically acclaimed television series, including “Mad Men” and “Orange Is the New Black,” who praised his work with their children.
Emmy-award winning animation director Genndy Tartakovsky, who created several famous cartoons, including “Dexter’s Laboratory” and “Samurai Jack,” also referred to Kaleel as a “gift,” according to the website.
“I have never seen my three children become more inspired or enthusiastic for anything as much as they did for your piano classes,” Tartakovsky said, according to an earlier version of Kaleel’s business website.
The testimonials disappeared from the website on Monday, after The Times began contacting representatives for those quoted.
Spokespersons for Jenji Kohan, who created “Orange Is the New Black,” and Matthew Weiner, the writer behind “Mad Men,” both denied giving Kaleel any endorsements or the permission to post any comment on his website. A representative for Tartakovsky declined to comment. Court records show Tartakovsky’s wife and one of his children, a former student of Kaleel’s, testified on the teacher’s behalf at trial.
“Mr. Kaleel has always maintained his innocence and that he took his initial plea bargain on the advice of counsel to avoid a harsher sentence should he lose at trial,” Hardie said. “He later learned of the immigration consequences when he was placed in an immigration custody facility for 8 [or] 9 months and faced removal proceedings.”
Hardie argued her client was the victim of a “trial tax,” which references prosecutors often seeking to punish defendants more severely when they don’t take a plea. Hardie also said Sheriff’s Department detectives interviewed many of Kaleel’s students “and found no other student who complained of Kaleel being inappropriate.”
The alleged victim in the case first contacted the Sheriff’s Department in 2015. The boy said he was 15 when Kaleel acted inappropriately by asking “to take measurements of [the victim’s] body parts, including his penis,” according to court records.
Two years later, Kaleel convinced the boy that they should masturbate together while on a FaceTime call because that’s “what friends do,” records show. In September 2013, prosecutors alleged, Kaleel invited the boy over and they smoked marijuana together before having oral sex.
A friend of the victim also testified at trial that Kaleel attempted to engage in sexual conduct with him, but that count was not charged, according to court records. Hardie said her client had no physical contact with that boy.
After Kaleel struck a plea deal, he was taken into custody by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and served with a deportation order. He successfully challenged his removal at the Board of Immigration Appeals in 2019, according to his former immigration attorney, Mfon Anthony Ikon.
Ikon said the U.S. Department of Homeland Security then abandoned its attempts to deport Kaleel.
Representatives for ICE and DHS did not respond to a request for comment.
In 2022, Kaleel convinced a judge to overturn his plea to the initial sex crimes charge on the grounds that he didn’t fully understand the impact it might have on his immigration status, records show.
Dmitry Gorin, a former L.A. County prosecutor who has tried cases in the area for the last three decades, said it’s rare — but not unprecedented — for defendants to vanish on the eve of a verdict.
“It’s an unusual situation,” he said. “But people’s conduct can be very unpredictable when they’re facing tremendous time in prison.”
Eight children were killed in domestic violence incidents across Colorado in 2024 — the highest number since the state began tracking annual domestic violence deaths eight years ago, according to a report released Tuesday by the Domestic Violence Fatality Review Board.
The youngest child to die was 3-month-old Lesley Younghee Kim, who was found dead with her mortally injured mother in a Denver home in July 2024.
“It’s a wakeup call, I hope, for people in Colorado,” said Whitney Woods, executive director of the Rose Andom Center, which helped compile the board’s report. “This is a real problem.”
Seventy-two people died in domestic violence incidents statewide in 2024. That’s up 24% from the 58 domestic violence deaths in 2023 but remains below pandemic-era peaks, when 94 people died in 2022 and 92 people died in 2021.
The pandemic years also saw elevated numbers of children killed, with four children killed in 2021 and six in 2022. Across the other years, no more than three children died in any given year, the board’s reports show.
Five of the eight children killed in 2024 died amid custody disputes between their parents, the report found.
“These findings highlight custody litigation as a high-risk period for families experiencing domestic violence and point to the urgent need for stronger safeguards within family court proceedings,” the report concluded. The legislatively-mandated board, chaired by Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser, began tracking domestic violence statewide in 2017 and makes annual recommendations for policy changes aimed at preventing deaths.
The fatality review board last year recommended that the state’s child and family investigators and parental responsibilities evaluators go through training on domestic violence, particularly around understanding the dynamics of domestic violence and how to evaluate the risk of lethality during the custody process. The Colorado Judicial Department is still developing such training, with work continuing in 2026, the report noted.
“That is to my mind a call to action,” Weiser said. “And we are working with the court system on this right now — how do we make sure our family courts and the general system for addressing domestic violence provides protection, support, services, so that we don’t see these deaths happen?”
The increase in domestic violence deaths came even as statewide homicides declined 17% to a five-year low. Roughly one in six homicide victims in Colorado in 2024 died during domestic violence incidents. Domestic violence victims account for 18% of all homicide victims statewide, the highest proportion in five years, the annual review found.
“That is really alarming in this line of work, for us,” Woods said.
The increase in domestic violence homicides amid the drop in overall homicides “suggests that while broader public safety interventions may be reducing general violence, they are not having the same impact on (domestic violence fatalities),” the report found.
The increase also comes at a time when many organizations aimed at preventing domestic violence and supporting survivors are facing funding shortfalls and uncertainty, Woods noted.
Among the 72 people killed in 2024, 38 were victims of domestic violence, 26 were perpetrators of domestic violence and eight — all of the children — were considered ‘collateral victims.’ The victims were overwhelmingly female and the perpetrators overwhelmingly male.
Across all 72 deaths, guns were used 75% of the time. The second most common type of attack was asphyxiation, which was involved in 8% of all deaths, followed by a knife or sharp object, used in 7% of deaths.
“Occasionally, people will make comments like, ‘If someone wants to kill someone they can kill them with a knife,’” Weiser said. “I think it’s fair to say access to firearms makes it far more likely that a domestic violence perpetrator will kill somebody.”
Removing guns from a suspect when domestic violence begins can be an effective prevention strategy, Woods said.
The report makes a number of recommendations aimed at preventing domestic violence deaths, including passing a new state law that would require police officers to take guns (those in plain sight or discovered during a lawful search) from domestic violence suspects at the time of arrest and hold onto those guns for 48 hours or until the suspect first appears in court. Suspects could then retrieve their guns if they were allowed to legally posses them.
“By empowering officers to disarm abusers immediately at the scene, the proposed law would provide urgent protection for victims and responding officers, create a period to reduce the chance of lethal escalation, and provide a tool for law enforcement to fill the relinquishment gap,” the report reads.
The report also recommends adjusting Colorado’s laws around third-degree assault, suggests law enforcement should give resources to both people involved in a domestic violence incident even when there is not enough evidence to make an arrest, and widening the scope of material gathered by local fatality review boards.
BACK TO YOU, ERIN. THANK YOU. JUST INTO THE KCRA THREE NEWSROOM, STOCKTON POLICE SAY A FIVE YEAR OLD BOY IS IN CRITICAL CONDITION AFTER A CAR CRASH. THIS HAPPENED NEAR PACIFIC AVENUE IN NORTH BANK COURT AROUND 1230 THIS MORNING. OFFICERS SAY THAT TWO VEHICLES WERE INVOLVED. ONE DRIVER, A 25 YEAR OLD MAN, THE OTHER A 42 YEAR OLD WOMAN. THEY WERE BOTH TREATED AT THE SCENE. THE WOMAN HAD A FIVE YEAR OLD BOY IN THE CAR WITH HER. HE WAS TAKEN TO THE HOSPITAL IN CRITICAL CON
Child critically injured, 2 adults hurt after overnight Stockton crash, police say
A child is in critical condition, and two adults were injured after an overnight Stockton crash, officials said Tuesday. Officers went to Pacific Avenue and Northbank Court around 12:31 a.m. for a report of a vehicle collision, the Stockton Police Department said. There, they found two vehicles.Inside one was a 25-year-old man, police said. The other vehicle had a 42-year-old woman and a boy who is about 5 years old.Police said the boy was taken to a hospital and is in critical condition. The two drivers were treated at the scene.Investigators are now looking into the cause of the crash. Details were not released on whether DUI or speeding were factors.See news happening? Send us your photos or videos if it’s safe to do so at kcra.com/upload.See more coverage of top California stories here | Download our app | Subscribe to our morning newsletter | Find us on YouTube here and subscribe to our channel
STOCKTON, Calif. —
A child is in critical condition, and two adults were injured after an overnight Stockton crash, officials said Tuesday.
Officers went to Pacific Avenue and Northbank Court around 12:31 a.m. for a report of a vehicle collision, the Stockton Police Department said. There, they found two vehicles.
Inside one was a 25-year-old man, police said. The other vehicle had a 42-year-old woman and a boy who is about 5 years old.
Police said the boy was taken to a hospital and is in critical condition. The two drivers were treated at the scene.
Investigators are now looking into the cause of the crash. Details were not released on whether DUI or speeding were factors.
See news happening? Send us your photos or videos if it’s safe to do so at kcra.com/upload.
Gov. Gavin Newsom issued a stark warning Monday that food assistance benefits for millions of low-income Californians could be delayed starting Nov. 1 if the ongoing federal shutdown does not end by Thursday.
The benefits, issued under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, and formerly called food stamps, include federally funded benefits loaded onto CalFresh cards. They support some 5.5 million Californians.
Newsom blamed the potential SNAP disruption — and the shutdown more broadly — on President Trump and slammed the timing of the potential cutoff just as the Thanksgiving holiday approaches.
“Trump’s failure to open the federal government is now endangering people’s lives and making basic needs like food more expensive — just as the holidays arrive,” Newsom said. “It is long past time for Republicans in Congress to grow a spine, stand up to Trump, and deliver for the American people.”
The White House responded by blaming the shutdown on Democrats, as it has done before.
Abigail Jackson, a White House spokeswoman, said the “Democrats’ decision to shut down the government is hurting Americans across the country,” and that Democrats “can choose to reopen the government at any point” by voting for a continuing resolution to fund the government as budget negotiations continue, which she said they repeatedly did during the Biden administration.
“Newscum should urge his Democrat pals to stop hurting the American people,” Jackson said, using a favorite Trump insult for Newsom. “The Trump Administration is working day and night to mitigate the pain Democrats are causing, and even that is upsetting the Left, with many Democrats criticizing the President’s effort to pay the troops and fund food assistance for women and children.”
Congressional Republicans also have blamed the shutdown and resulting interruptions to federal programs on Democrats, who are refusing to vote for a Republican-backed funding measure based in large part on Republican decisions to eliminate subsidies for healthcare plans relied on by millions of Americans.
Newsom’s warning about SNAP benefits followed similar alerts from other states on both sides of the political aisle, after the U.S. Department of Agriculture warned state agencies in an Oct. 10 letter that the shutdown may interrupt funding for the benefits.
States have to take action to issue November benefits before the month ends, so the shutdown would have to end sooner than Nov. 1 for the benefits to be available in time.
Newsom’s office said Californians could see their benefits interrupted or delayed if the shutdown is not ended by Thursday. The Texas Health and Human Services Department warned that SNAP benefits for November “won’t be issued if the federal government shutdown continues past Oct. 27.”
Newsom’s office said a cutoff of funds would affect federally funded CalFresh benefits, but also some other state-funded benefits. More than 63% of SNAP recipients in California are children or elderly people, Newsom’s office said.
In her own statement, First Partner of California Jennifer Siebel Newsom said, “Government should be measured by how we protect people’s lives, their health, and their well-being. Parents and caregivers should not be forced to choose between buying groceries or paying bills.”
States were already gearing up for other changes to SNAP eligibility based on the Republican-passed “Big Beautiful Bill,” which set new limits on SNAP benefits, including for nonworking adults. Republicans have argued that such restrictions will encourage more able-bodied adults to get back into the workforce to support their families themselves.
Many Democrats and advocacy organizations that work to protect low-income families and children have argued that restricting SNAP benefits has a disproportionately large effect on some of the most vulnerable people in the country, including poor children.
According to the USDA, about 41.7 million Americans were served by SNAP benefits per month in fiscal 2024, at an annual cost of nearly $100 billion. The USDA has some contingency funding it can utilize to continue benefits in the short term, but does not have enough to cover all monthly benefits, advocates said.
Andrew Cheyne, managing director of public policy at the advocacy group End Child Poverty California, urged the USDA to utilize its contingency funding and any other funding stream possible to prevent a disruption to SNAP benefits, which he said would be “disastrous.”
“CalFresh is a lifeline for 5.5 million Californians who rely on the program to eat. That includes 2 million children. It is unconscionable that we are only days away from children and families not knowing where their next meal is going to come from,” Cheyne said.
He said the science is clear that “even a brief period of food insecurity has long-term consequences for children’s growth and development.”
Ted Lempert, president of Children Now, said a disruption would be “horrific.”
“We speak out for the needs of kids and families, and kids need food — basic support to live and function and go to school,” he said. “So this could be really devastating.”
Times staff writer Jenny Gold contributed to this report.
The Russian invasion of Ukraine has displaced millions, scattering families across the country and abroad. For many, heavy fighting in the east means crowded shelters, borrowed beds and fading hope.Related video above: President Trump signals he’s holding back on long-range missiles for UkraineAbout 400 miles west of the front line, however, a privately built settlement near Kyiv offers a rare reprieve: stable housing, personal space and the dignity of a locked door.This is Hansen Village. Its rows of modular homes provide housing for 2,000 people who are mostly displaced from occupied territories. Children ride bikes along paved lanes, passing amenities like a swimming pool, basketball court, health clinic and school.The village is the creation of Dell Loy Hansen, a Utah real estate developer who has spent over $140 million building and repairing homes across Ukraine since 2022.At 72, he’s eager to do more.A new missionHansen’s arrival in Ukraine followed a public reckoning. In 2020, he sold his Major League Soccer team, Real Salt Lake, after reports that he made racist comments. He denied the allegations in an interview with The Associated Press but said the experience ultimately gave him a new mission.“I went through something painful, but it gave me humility,” he said. “That humility led me to Ukraine.”Seeing people lose everything, Hansen said he felt compelled to act. “This isn’t charity to me, it’s responsibility,” he said. “If you can build, then build. Don’t just watch.”Hansen now oversees more than a dozen projects in Ukraine: expanding Hansen Village, providing cash and other assistance to elderly people and families, and supporting a prosthetics clinic.He’s planning a cemetery to honor displaced people, and a not-for-profit affordable housing program designed to be scaled up nationally.Ukraine’s housing crisis is staggering. Nearly one in three citizens have fled their homes, including 4.5 million registered as internally displaced.Around the eastern city of Dnipro, volunteers convert old buildings into shelters as evacuees arrive daily from the war-torn Donbas region. One site — a crumbling Soviet-era dorm — now houses 149 elderly residents, mostly in their seventies and eighties.Funding comes from a patchwork of donations: foreign aid, local charities and individual contributions including cash, volunteer labor or old appliances and boxes of food, all put together to meet urgent needs.“I call it begging: knocking on every door, and explaining why each small thing is necessary,” said Veronika Chumak, who runs the center. “But we keep going. Our mission is to restore people’s sense of life.”Valentina Khusak, 86, was evacuated by charity volunteers from Myrnohrad, a coal-mining town, after Russian shelling cut off water and power. She lost her husband and son before the war.“Maybe we’ll return home, maybe not,” she said. “What matters is that places like this exist — where the old and lonely are treated with warmth and respect.”A nation under strainUkraine’s government is struggling to fund shelters and repairs as its relief budget buckles under relentless missile and drone attacks on infrastructure.By late 2024, 13% of Ukrainian homes were damaged or destroyed, according to a U.N.-led assessment. The cost of national reconstruction is estimated to be $524 billion, nearly triple the country’s annual economic output.Since June, Ukraine has evacuated over 100,000 more people from the east, expanding shelters and transit hubs. New evacuees are handed an emergency government subsidy payment of $260.Yevhen Tuzov, who helped thousands find shelter during the 2022 siege of Mariupol, said many feel forgotten.“Sometimes six strangers must live together in one small room,” Tuzov said. “For elderly people, this is humiliating.“What Hansen is doing is great — to build villages — but why can’t we do that too?”’People here don’t need miracles’Hansen began his work after visiting Ukraine in early 2022. He started by wiring cash aid to families, then used his decades of experience to build modular housing.Mykyta Bogomol, 16, lives in foster care apartments at Hansen Village with seven other children and two dogs. He fled the southern Kherson region after Russian occupation and flooding.“Life here is good,” he said. “During the occupation, it was terrifying. Soldiers forced kids into Russian schools. Here, I finally feel safe.”Hansen visits Ukraine several times a year. From Salt Lake City, he spends hours daily on video calls, tracking war updates, coordinating aid, and lobbying U.S. lawmakers.“I’ve built homes all my life, but nothing has meant more to me than this,” he said. “People here don’t need miracles — just a roof, safety, and someone who doesn’t give up on them.”A fraction of what’s neededLast year, Hansen sold part of his businesses for $14 million — all of it, he said, went to Ukraine.Still, his contribution is a fraction of what’s needed. With entire towns uninhabitable, private aid remains vital but insufficient.Hansen has met with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who thanked him for supporting vulnerable communities. Later this year, Hansen will receive one of Ukraine’s highest civilian honors — an award he says is not for himself.“I don’t need recognition,” he said. “If this award makes the elderly and displaced more visible, then it means something. Otherwise, it’s just a medal.” Associated Press journalists Volodymyr Yurchuk in Kyiv, Ukraine, and Vasilisa Stepanenko and Dmytro Zhyhinas in Pavlohrad, Ukraine, contributed to this report.
TARASIVKA, Ukraine —
The Russian invasion of Ukraine has displaced millions, scattering families across the country and abroad. For many, heavy fighting in the east means crowded shelters, borrowed beds and fading hope.
Related video above: President Trump signals he’s holding back on long-range missiles for Ukraine
About 400 miles west of the front line, however, a privately built settlement near Kyiv offers a rare reprieve: stable housing, personal space and the dignity of a locked door.
This is Hansen Village. Its rows of modular homes provide housing for 2,000 people who are mostly displaced from occupied territories. Children ride bikes along paved lanes, passing amenities like a swimming pool, basketball court, health clinic and school.
The village is the creation of Dell Loy Hansen, a Utah real estate developer who has spent over $140 million building and repairing homes across Ukraine since 2022.
At 72, he’s eager to do more.
A new mission
Hansen’s arrival in Ukraine followed a public reckoning. In 2020, he sold his Major League Soccer team, Real Salt Lake, after reports that he made racist comments. He denied the allegations in an interview with The Associated Press but said the experience ultimately gave him a new mission.
“I went through something painful, but it gave me humility,” he said. “That humility led me to Ukraine.”
Seeing people lose everything, Hansen said he felt compelled to act. “This isn’t charity to me, it’s responsibility,” he said. “If you can build, then build. Don’t just watch.”
Hansen now oversees more than a dozen projects in Ukraine: expanding Hansen Village, providing cash and other assistance to elderly people and families, and supporting a prosthetics clinic.
He’s planning a cemetery to honor displaced people, and a not-for-profit affordable housing program designed to be scaled up nationally.
Ukraine’s housing crisis is staggering. Nearly one in three citizens have fled their homes, including 4.5 million registered as internally displaced.
Around the eastern city of Dnipro, volunteers convert old buildings into shelters as evacuees arrive daily from the war-torn Donbas region. One site — a crumbling Soviet-era dorm — now houses 149 elderly residents, mostly in their seventies and eighties.
Funding comes from a patchwork of donations: foreign aid, local charities and individual contributions including cash, volunteer labor or old appliances and boxes of food, all put together to meet urgent needs.
“I call it begging: knocking on every door, and explaining why each small thing is necessary,” said Veronika Chumak, who runs the center. “But we keep going. Our mission is to restore people’s sense of life.”
Valentina Khusak, 86, was evacuated by charity volunteers from Myrnohrad, a coal-mining town, after Russian shelling cut off water and power. She lost her husband and son before the war.
“Maybe we’ll return home, maybe not,” she said. “What matters is that places like this exist — where the old and lonely are treated with warmth and respect.”
A nation under strain
Ukraine’s government is struggling to fund shelters and repairs as its relief budget buckles under relentless missile and drone attacks on infrastructure.
By late 2024, 13% of Ukrainian homes were damaged or destroyed, according to a U.N.-led assessment. The cost of national reconstruction is estimated to be $524 billion, nearly triple the country’s annual economic output.
Since June, Ukraine has evacuated over 100,000 more people from the east, expanding shelters and transit hubs. New evacuees are handed an emergency government subsidy payment of $260.
Yevhen Tuzov, who helped thousands find shelter during the 2022 siege of Mariupol, said many feel forgotten.
“Sometimes six strangers must live together in one small room,” Tuzov said. “For elderly people, this is humiliating.
“What Hansen is doing is great — to build villages — but why can’t we do that too?”
‘People here don’t need miracles’
Hansen began his work after visiting Ukraine in early 2022. He started by wiring cash aid to families, then used his decades of experience to build modular housing.
Mykyta Bogomol, 16, lives in foster care apartments at Hansen Village with seven other children and two dogs. He fled the southern Kherson region after Russian occupation and flooding.
“Life here is good,” he said. “During the occupation, it was terrifying. Soldiers forced kids into Russian schools. Here, I finally feel safe.”
Hansen visits Ukraine several times a year. From Salt Lake City, he spends hours daily on video calls, tracking war updates, coordinating aid, and lobbying U.S. lawmakers.
“I’ve built homes all my life, but nothing has meant more to me than this,” he said. “People here don’t need miracles — just a roof, safety, and someone who doesn’t give up on them.”
A fraction of what’s needed
Last year, Hansen sold part of his businesses for $14 million — all of it, he said, went to Ukraine.
Still, his contribution is a fraction of what’s needed. With entire towns uninhabitable, private aid remains vital but insufficient.
Hansen has met with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who thanked him for supporting vulnerable communities. Later this year, Hansen will receive one of Ukraine’s highest civilian honors — an award he says is not for himself.
“I don’t need recognition,” he said. “If this award makes the elderly and displaced more visible, then it means something. Otherwise, it’s just a medal.”
Associated Press journalists Volodymyr Yurchuk in Kyiv, Ukraine, and Vasilisa Stepanenko and Dmytro Zhyhinas in Pavlohrad, Ukraine, contributed to this report.
When Texas neurologist Hamid Kadiwala told his parents he was heading to Gaza to volunteer at a hospital there, they begged him to reconsider.
“Why would you take that risk?” they asked. What about his Fort Worth medical practice? His wife? His four children?
But Kadiwala, 42, had been deeply shaken by images from Gaza of mass death and destruction and felt a responsibility to act. Israel’s siege on the small, densely populated Gaza Strip was “a history-shaking event,” Kadiwala said. “I want my kids to be able to say that their father was one of those who tried to help.”
Kadiwala is one of dozens of American doctors and nurses who have worked in the Gaza Strip since 2023, when Israel began bombing the enclave in retaliation for the deadly Hamas attacks of Oct. 7.
Neurologist Hamid Kadiwala poses for a portrait at Tarrant Neurology Consultants in Fort Worth.
(Desiree Rios / For The Times)
The volunteers — men and women of all ages, agnostics as well as Muslims, Christians and Jews — have labored under the constant threat of violence, amid raging disease and with little access to food and medicine they need to save lives.
Many are hopeful that the new ceasefire between Israel and Hamas that took effect Friday will halt the violence. But even with new aid rolling in, the humanitarian crisis in Gaza remains daunting.
With foreign journalists largely barred from Gaza and more than 200 Palestinian media workers slain by Israeli bombs and bullets, on-the-ground testimony from doctors and nurses has been critical to helping the world understand the horrors unfolding.
But bearing witness comes at a steep personal cost.
As Kadiwala drove into the enclave in a United Nations convoy late last year, he saw an endless expanse of gray rubble. Emaciated young men swarmed his vehicle. The sky buzzed with drones. Bombs sounded like rolling thunder.
Kadiwala compared the landscape with dystopian films such as “Mad Max.” “It’s so hard to understand because our brains have never seen something like that,” he said.
He knew that worse was yet to come.
“You have to get numb,” he told himself as he prepared to enter Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis, where he would be living and working for more than a month. “These patients are here for help, not to see me cry.”
Child patients are forced to share beds or lie on makeshift mattresses placed in the corridors due to limited resources and space at Nasser Hospital as the pediatric ward of the hospital is overwhelmed with the waves of displaced families arriving from the north in Khan Yunis, Gaza, on Sept. 22.
(Abdallah F.s. Alattar / Anadolu via Getty Images)
Death in Gaza
The explosions began each morning shortly before the call to prayer.
“Within 20 minutes, there would be 150 people sprawled wall-to-wall with serious injuries,” said Mark Perlmutter, an orthopedic surgeon from North Carolina who has been to Gaza twice, and who was working at Nasser in March in the violent days after a ceasefire broke.
Perlmutter, 70, had volunteered on more than 40 humanitarian missions: in Haiti after its devastating earthquake, in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina and in New York after the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center.
Nothing prepared him for Gaza.
Hospitals stank of sewage and death. Doctors operated without antibiotics or soap. Never before had he seen so many children among the casualties. The hospital filled with shell-shocked kids who had been wrenched from collapsed buildings and others with bullet wounds in their chests and heads.
“I would step over babies that were dying,” he said. “I would see their blood expanding on the floor, knowing that I had no chance of saving them.”
Palestinians try to put out a fire at the emergency department of the Nasser Hospital after it was hit by an Israeli airstrike in Khan Yunis on March 23.
(AFP via Getty Images)
In one haunting experience, an injured boy lying on the ground reached for Perlmutter’s leg, too weak to talk. Perlmutter knew it was too late for the boy, but that other patients still had a shot at survival.
“I had to pull my pant leg away to get to one I could save,” he said.
Perlmutter is Jewish and until visiting Gaza was a supporter of Israel. Around his neck he wears as a pendant a mezuzah, which contains a small scroll with verses from the Torah. It was a gift from his late father, a doctor who survived the Holocaust.
But working in Gaza changed him.
After treating so many kids with gunshot wounds, he became convinced that Israelis were deliberately targeting children, which the Israeli military denies.
As he toiled, he and another doctor, California surgeon Feroze Sidhwa, began taking photos of the carnage. Together they would go on to publish essays in U.S. media outlets detailing what they had seen and to send letters to American leaders begging for an arms embargo. Sidhwa would conduct a poll of dozens of American doctors, nurses and medics who said they, too, had treated preteen children who had been shot in the head.
Activism was a new calling for Perlmutter. He knew it might cost him relationships with loved ones who supported Israel and possibly even patients at his medical practice back in North Carolina. He knew it was straining his relationship with his wife. But he plowed ahead.
“It’s hard to see so many kids die in front of you and not make that your life.”
Hospitals under siege
Andee Vaughan, a 43-year-old trauma nurse, has spent much of her life in ambulances, emergency rooms and on backcountry search-and-rescue trips in her home state of Washington. She spent months providing medical care on the front lines of the war in Ukraine.
She prides herself on maintaining her cool, even under trying circumstances. But while volunteering at Al-Quds Hospital in Gaza City, she often felt tears welling up.
It wasn’t the mayhem of mass casualty events that shook her, nor the sound of shallow breaths as a patient who had been shot in the skull slipped toward death.
It was the seemingly countless victims who under normal circumstances could have been saved.
Like the boy she watched suffocate because the hospital didn’t have enough ventilators. Or patients who perished from treatable infections for lack of antibiotics and proper dressings for wounds.
Andee Vaughan, bottom right, worked day and night for three months at Al-Quds Hospital in Gaza City.
(Courtesy of Andee Vaughan)
“I am haunted by the patients on my watch who probably shouldn’t have died,” Vaughan said.
Virtually every person she encountered suffered from diarrhea, skin infections, lung problems and chronic hunger, she said. That included exhausted Palestinian doctors and nurses, many of whom had lost family members, been displaced from their homes and were living in crowded tent cities where hundreds of people shared a single toilet. Many Palestinian medical staffers have been working without pay.
“You have a whole system in survival mode,” said Vaughan, who contracted giardia shortly after arriving in Gaza and who ate just once a day because there was so little food.
Vaughan spent three months in Gaza and volunteered to stay longer. Then her hospital came under attack.
As Israeli forces advanced on Gaza City to confront what they described as the last major Hamas stronghold in the strip, Al-Quds was sprayed by gunfire and rocked by bombs. Most of its windows were blown out. A tank missile hit an oxygen room, destroying everything inside.
Vaughan filmed videos that showed Israeli quadcopters — drones equipped with guns — hitting targets around the hospital.
“They are systematically destroying all of Gaza,” she said. “They’re shooting everything, even the donkeys.”
Andee Vaughan, center, cuts the shirt off a young patient at Al-Quds Hospital in Gaza City.
(Courtesy of Andee Vaughan)
Just a third of Gaza’s 176 hospitals and clinics are functional, and nearly 1,700 healthcare workers have been killed since the war began, according to the World Health Organization.
It is not lost on Vaughan that most of the weapons used in those attacks come from the United States, which has provided Israel $21.7 billion in military assistance since the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led attack, according to a study by the Costs of War project at Brown University.
U.S. involvement in the war is what prompted Vaughan to volunteer in Gaza in the first place. “I was there in some ways to make amends for the damage that we have done,” she said.
Vaughan was evacuated from Gaza last month, bidding goodbye to colleagues and patients who were so malnourished their bones jutted from their skin like tent poles.
She was ferried to Jordan, where on her first morning since leaving Gaza she went down to breakfast, saw a buffet overflowing with food, and began to sob.
Coming home
Dr. Bilal Piracha talks to a nurse about a patient’s condition at White Rock Medical Center in Dallas on Oct. 6. Piracha has been to the Gaza Strip three times this year, performing humanitarian work at a local hospital.
(Emil T. Lippe / For The Times)
After three tours in Gaza, Dallas emergency room doctor Bilal Piracha now works with a kaffiyeh draped over his scrubs.
The black-and-white scarf, a symbol of Palestinian liberation, often sparks comments from patients, some of them disapproving. Piracha, 45, welcomes the opportunity to talk about his experience.
“This is what I have seen with my own eyes,” he tells them. “The destruction of hospitals, the destruction of nearly every building, the killing of men, women and children.”
Dr. Bilal Piracha stands inside an emergency operating room at White Rock Medical Center in Dallas on Oct. 6.
(Emil T. Lippe / For The Times)
Like many other U.S. doctors and nurses who have spent time in Gaza, Piracha is racked with survivor’s guilt, unable to forget the patients he couldn’t help, the mass graves he saw filled with bodies, the hunger in the eyes of the local colleagues he left behind.
“Life has lost its meaning,” he said. “Things that once felt important no longer do.”
He now spends most of his free time speaking out against the siege, traveling throughout the U.S. to meet with members of Congress and making frequent appearances on TV and podcasts. He has marched in antiwar protests and dropped massive banners from Texas highways that say: Let Gaza live.
He is in frequent touch with doctors in Gaza, who are hopeful that the new ceasefire will put a stop to the violence, but say massive amounts of medical supplies and other humanitarian aid are needed immediately.
Piracha doesn’t know what to tell them.
“We can give them words of hope and prayers, but that is it,” he said.
One May morning in 1961, 21-year-old Manuel Alvarado strapped on his huaraches, stuffed three changes of clothes and a thin blanket into a nylon tote bag and bid his parents farewell. He was leaving their rancho of La Cañada, Zacatecas for el Norte.
The United States had been kind and cruel to his farming family. His uncles had regaled him with tales of the easy money available for legal seasonal workers — known as braceros — which allowed them to buy land and livestock back home.
His father, however, was one of a million-plus Mexican men deported in 1955 during Operation Wetback, an Eisenhower administration policy of mass removal in the name of national security and taking back jobs for Americans.
“They sent my father to the border with only the clothes on his back,” Alvarado, now 85, told me in Spanish while sinking into a comfy couch at his daughter’s well-kept Anaheim home.
His father’s mistreatment didn’t scare Alvarado back then. He boarded a train with his uncles and cousins bound for Chihuahua, where a Mexican health official checked everyone’s hands at a recruiting office to make sure they were calloused enough for the hard work ahead. The Alvarados then crossed into a processing center near El Paso. There, American health inspectors typically forced aspiring braceros to strip naked before subjecting them to blood tests, X-rays, rectal exams and a final dusting of their bodies and clothes with DDT.
Next came an overnight bus ride to their final destination: tiny Swink, Colo., where Japanese American farmers had previously employed Alvarado’s wealthier uncles, writing a letter of recommendation this time to make crossing over easier. Alvarado stayed there until November before returning home. For the next three summers, he worked as a bracero.
A crowd of Mexicans gathers at the Mexicali border crossing seeking work in the United States during the Bracero Program.
(Los Angeles Times)
“No regrets,” Alvarado said of those years.
He was dressed in standard Mexican grandpa attire: long flannel shirt, blue hat, jeans and sneakers along with a salt-and-pepper mustache and a leather cellphone case hanging from his belt. A nice Stetson was nearby for when it was time to take his portrait. Photos of his grandchildren decorated the living room, along with a Mickey Mouse statue in a skeleton costume and a glass cabinet filled with commemorative tumblers.
“We were very poor in the rancho,” Alvarado said, recounting how he had to gather and sell firewood as a child to help out his parents. “If it didn’t rain, there would be no harvest and pure misery. The Bracero Program helped a lot of people.”
Alvarado is a family friend. He knew my paternal grandfather, José Arellano, who grew up one rancho away and toiled in orange groves in Anaheim as a bracero in the 1950s, across the street from the elementary school my sister and I would later attend. My Pepe was one of the estimated 2 million Mexican men who took advantage of a program that fundamentally changed the economies of both their home and adopted countries.
My dad suggested I speak to Alvarado after I asked him and my uncles about my Pepe’s experience and they admitted to not knowing anything. I especially wanted to hear Alvarado’s insights at a time when farmers are pleading with Donald Trump to stop his deportation tsunami because crops are rotting in the fields — something the president acknowledges is a problem.
“We can’t let our farmers not have anybody,” Trump told CNBC in August, musing in the same interview that he wanted to figure out a way to allow agricultural workers to work legally because “these people do it naturally,” while “people that live in the inner city are not doing that work.”
That’s why Texas Rep. Monica De La Cruz introduced the Bracero 2.0 Act this summer, arguing that the original program — which ended in 1964 after civil rights activists complained that it exploited migrant workers — “created new opportunities for millions and provided critical support for Texas agriculture.”
When I told Alvarado about a possible revival, he sat up and shook his head.
“If that happens, those people will be treated like slaves,” the ex-bracero responded. “Just like what happened to us.”
October 1963 photo of Mexican workers in the bracero program working in pepper fields in Fresno County.
(Bill Murphy/Los Angeles Times)
Though two months shy of 86, Alvarado remembers those bracero days like they happened last week. The amount he was paid: 45 cents an hour in Colorado to harvest onions and melons. Fifty cents for every box of tomatoes in Stockton the following year. $2.25 per pound of cotton in Dell City, Texas, where the farmer’s son frantically biked into the fields to yell that John F. Kennedy had been assassinated. The farmer then gathered everyone around his truck to hear about the tragedy on the radio.
Fourteen hours a day, seven days a week was the norm. Saturday evenings were spent going into the nearest town to buy provisions and a few hours of entertainment — movies, dancing, drinking. Sometimes, the farmers gave the braceros free food, which was required per the agreement between the U.S. and Mexican governments. Most of the time, they didn’t.
“At night, you couldn’t even stand up straight anymore,” said Alvarado, flinching at the memory. His uncles ribbed him — “They’d tell me, ‘Now you know what el Norte is, so you know how to win money. Learn to love it.’”
But not everything went terribly.
In Swink, the Japanese American bosses gave Alvarado and his relatives a private cottage, although baths were limited to wading into irrigation canals or boiling water for themselves, “al estilo rancho.” The Hiraki family talked to the Mexican workers about their incarceration by the U.S. government during World War II, to show that racism could be overcome. In Texas, a white foreman stopped Alvarado and his group from picking in cotton fields just before a plane covered the crop with DDT.
“The Americans were very kind,” Alvarado continued. That included the Border Patrol. “They’d go up to us in the field. ‘Good morning, everyone. Please let us see your papers.’ They were always very respectful.”
My father scoffed. “No, I don’t believe that.”
Alvarado smiled at my dad. “Sí, Lorenzo. Not like today.
“What I didn’t like were the Mexican bosses in California,” he continued. They were the ones who treated us like slaves. They’d yell all the time — ‘¡Dóblense [Get to it], wetbacks!’ — and then they used even worse words.”
As the years passed, it became harder to get papers to work legally in the U.S. Since La Cañada was so small, the Mexican government only allowed three of its residents to become braceros each year via a lottery. The Japanese Americans in Colorado never sponsored Alvarado again, after he declined an offer to enlist in the military. He won the lottery in 1962, then bought someone else’s number the following two years.
In 1965, La Cañada’s men waited for the annual arrival of Mexican government officials to allot the bracero slots. But no one came.
Alvarado laughed. “That’s when people started to come to el Norte another way.”
A monument dedicated to braceros in downtown Los Angeles.
(Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)
And that’s what he did too, entering the country illegally a few years later to work in Pasadena restaurants before moving to Anaheim for its large jerezano diaspora. His wife and eight children eventually followed. They became citizens after the 1986 amnesty, and Alvarado frequently spoke of his bracero past to his family — “so they know how people came here to sacrifice so their children could study and prepare for better things.”
All of his children bought homes with their blue-collar incomes. His grandchildren earned college degrees; two of them served in the military.
I asked him if a guest worker program could succeed today.
“It wouldn’t be good, and it makes no sense,” Alvarado said. “Why not let the people here stay? They’re already working. Deporting them is horrible. And then to bring people to replace them? The people who’ll come will have no rights other than to come and get kicked out at the will of the government.“
In the 2000s, braceros brought a class-action lawsuit after discovering that the U.S. had withheld 10% of their earnings each year and handed the money to Mexico. The Mexican government agreed to pay up to $3,800 to each surviving bracero who lived in the U.S., but Alvarado never applied.
“One’s ignorant about those things or just gets too busy to bother,” he said. “Besides, I found my good life my own way. But it reminded me that when you signed that contract, you had no opportunities besides whatever mercy farmers gave you.”
Could Trump find American-born workers to do agricultural work? Alvarado’s face scrunched.
“They wouldn’t hire people from here. They don’t want it. I never saw white people work alongside us Mexicans. White people have another mentality, different expectations. They think different from someone from the rancho.”
“They want easy jobs,” my dad joked.
“No, Lorenzo. They don’t want to suffer.”
Alvarado’s soft voice became even more tender. “They shouldn’t.”
PORTLAND, Ore. — There is a rhetorical battle raging here in this heavily Democratic city, known for its delicious coffee, plethora of fancy restaurants, bespoke doughnuts and also for its small faction of black-clad activists.
It started Saturday when President Trump suddenly announced that he was sending the National Guard to “war-ravaged” Portland — where a small group of demonstrators have been staging a monthslong protest at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement building south of downtown.
Oregon officials have pushed back forcefully, flooding their own social media with images of colorful cafe tables, sun-drenched farmers markets, rose gardens in full bloom and parks bursting with children, families and frolicking dogs. Officials would prefer the city be known for its Portlandia vibe, and are begging residents to stay peaceful and not give the Trump administration a protest spectacle.
A protester waves to Department of Homeland Security officials as they walk to the gates of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility after inspecting an area outside in Portland, Ore.
(Jenny Kane / Associated Press)
“There is no need or legal justification for military troops,” Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek has said, over and over again, on her Instagram and in texts to President Trump that have been released publicly. Officials have gone to court seeking an order to stop the deployment, with a hearing set for Friday.
But the president seems resolute. In a Tuesday speech before a gathering of generals and admirals, he sketched out a controversial vision of dispatching troops to Democratic cities “as training grounds for our military” to combat an “invasion from within.” He described Portland as “a nightmare” that “looks like a warzone … like World War II.”
“The Radical Left’s reign of terror in Portland ends now,” a White House press release read, “with President Donald J. Trump mobilizing federal resources to stopAntifa-led hellfire in its tracks.”
Trump’s targeting of Portland comes after he deployed troops to Washington, D.C., and Los Angeles, and threatened to do so elsewhere. The president says he is delivering on campaign pledges to restore public safety, but detractors say he’s attempting to intimidate and provoke Democratic strongholds, while distracting the nation from his various controversies.
As they wait to see whether and when the National Guard will arrive, city residents this week reacted with a mixture of rage, bafflement and sorrow.
A man rests under a public art sculpture in downtown Portland, Ore.
(Richard Darbonne / For The Times)
Many acknowledged that Portland has problems: Homelessness and open drug abuse are endemic, and encampments crowd some sidewalks. The city’s downtown has never recovered from pandemic closures and rioting that took place during George Floyd protests in 2020.
More recently, Intel — one of Oregon’s largest private employers — announced it was laying off 2,400 employees in a county just west of Portland. Like Los Angeles and many other cities, Portland has seen a big drop in tourism this year, a trend that city leaders say is not helped by Trump’s military interventions.
“We need federal help to renew our infrastructure, and build affordable housing, to help clean our rivers and plant trees,” said Portland Mayor Keith Wilson on his social media. “Instead of help, they’re sending armored vehicles and masked men.”
All across the city this week, residents echoed similar themes.
“Nothing is happening here. This is a gorgeous, peaceful city,” said Hannah O’Malley, who was snacking on french fries at a table with a view of the Willamette River outside the Portland Sports Bar and Grill.
Patrons are reflected in the window at Honey Pearl Cafe PDX in downtown Portland.
(Richard Darbonne / For The Times)
The restaurant was just a few blocks from an Immigration and Customs Enforcement building where the ongoing demonstration has become the latest focus of the president’s ire against the city.
A small group of people — a number of them women in their 60s and 70s with gray braids and top-of-the-line rain jackets — have been congregating here for months to protest the federal immigration crackdown.
In June, there were several clashes with law enforcement at the site. Police declared a riot one night, and on another night made several arrests outside the facility, including one person accused of choking a police officer. On Tuesday, the Department of Homeland Security announced that they had arrested “four criminal illegal aliens” who allegedly conducted laser strikes on a Border Patrol helicopter “in an attempt to temporarily blind the pilot.”
But day in and day out, the protests have been largely peaceful and fairly small and nothing the city’s police force can’t handle, according to city officials and the protesters themselves.
On Monday afternoon, a group of about 40 people including grandmothers, parents and their children, and a man in a chicken costume, held flowers and signs. A few yelled abuse through a metal gate at ICE officers standing in the driveway.
People protest outside a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility on Sept. 28 in Portland, Ore.
(Jenny Kane / Associated Press)
“We’re so scary,” joked Kat Barnard, 67, a retired accountant for nonprofits who said she began protesting a few months ago, fitting it in between caring for her grandson. She added that she has found a sense of community while standing against the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown. “I’ve met so many people,” she said. “It’s just beautiful. It makes me happy.”
A few miles away, in the cafe at the city’s famed bookstore, Powell’s Books, a trio of retired friends bemoaned their beloved city’s negative image.
“This is the most peaceful, kind community I’ve ever lived in” said Lynne Avril, 74, who moved to Portland from Phoenix a few years ago. Avril, a retired illustrator who penned the artwork for the young Amelia Bedelia books, said she routinely walks home alone late at night through the city’s darkened streets, and feels perfectly safe doing so.
The president “wants another spectacle,” added Avril’s friend, Signa Schuster, 73, a retired estate manager.
“That’s what we’re afraid of,” answered Avril.
“There’s no problem here,” added Annie Olsen, 72, a retired federal worker. “It’s all performative and stupid.”
Still, the women said, they are keenly aware that their beloved city has a negative reputation nationally. Avril said that when she told friends in Phoenix that she had decided to move to Portland, “People were like: ‘Why would you move here [with] all the violence?’”
Olsen sighed and nodded. “So much misinformation,” she said.
In the front lobby of the famed bookstore, the local bestseller lists provided a window into many residents’ concerns. Two books on authoritarianism and censorship — George Orwell’s “1984” and Ray Bradbury’s “Fahrenheit 451” — were on the shelves. Over in nonfiction, it was the same story, with “How Fascism Works” and “On Tyranny” both making appearances.
The Willamette River runs through downtown Portland, Ore.
(Richard Darbonne / For The Times)
But outside, the sky was blue and bright despite the rain in the forecast and many residents were doing what Portlanders do with an unexpected gift from the weather gods: They were jogging and biking along the Willamette River, and sitting in outdoor cafes sipping their city’s famous coffee and nibbling on buttery pastries.
“Trump is unhinged,” said Shannon O’Connor, 57. She said that Portland has problems for sure — “homelessness, fentanyl, a huge drug problem” — but unrest is not among them.
Sprawled on a sidewalk near a freeway on-ramp, a man calling himself “Rabbit” was panhandling for money accompanied by his two beagle-pit bull mixes, Pooh Bear and Piglet.
Rabbit, 48, said he hadn’t heard of the president’s plan to send in the National Guard, but didn’t think it was necessary. He had come to Portland two years ago “to get away from all the craziness,” he said, and found it to be safe. “I haven’t been threatened yet,” he said, then knocked on wood.
Many residents said they think the president may be confusing what is happening in Portland now with a period in 2020 in which the city was briefly convulsed over Black Live Matter protests.
“We had a lot of trouble then,” said a woman who asked to be referred to only as “Sue” for fear of being doxed. “Nothing like that now.” A lifelong Portlander, she is retired and among those who have been demonstrating at the ICE facility south of downtown.
She and other residents said they have noticed that clips of the riots and other violence from 2020 have recently been recirculating on social media and even some cable news shows.
“Either he is mistaken or it is part of his propaganda,” she said of the president’s portrayal of Portland, adding that it makes her “very sad. I’ve never protested until this go-around. But we have to do something.”
As afternoon turned to evening Tuesday, the blue skies over the city gave way to clouds and drizzle. The parks and outdoor cafes emptied out.
As night fell, the retired women and children who had been protesting outside the ICE facility went home, and more and more younger people began to take their places.
By 10 p.m., law enforcement was massed on the roof of the ICE building in tactical gear. Black-clad protesters — watched over by local television reporters and some independent media — played cat and mouse with the officers, stepping toward the building only to be repelled by rounds of pepper balls.
A 39-year-old man, who asked to be called “Mushu” and who had only his eyes visible amid his black garb, stood on the corner across the street, gesturing to the independent media livestreaming the protests. “They are showing that hell that is Portland,” he said, his voice dripping with irony.
About the same time, Katie Daviscourt, a reporter with the Post Millennial, posted on X that she had been “assaulted by an Antifa agitator.” She also tweeted that “the suspect escaped into the Antifa safe house.”
A few minutes later, a group of officers burst out of a van and appeared to detain one of the protesters. Then the officers dispersed, and the standoff resumed.
Around the corner, a couple with gray hair sporting sleek rain jackets walked their little dog along the street. If they were concerned about the made-for-video drama that was playing out a few yards away, they didn’t show it. They just continued to walk their dog.
On Wednesday morning, the president weighed in again, writing on Truth Social, “Conditions continue to deteriorate into lawless mayhem.”
Staff at Colorado’s juvenile detention centers violated policies meant to protect youth during strip searches more than 1,000 times during nine months between 2023 and 2025, according to a new review by the Child Protection Ombudsman of Colorado released Tuesday.
There is no effective oversight to ensure strip searches at juvenile detention centers are justified and properly documented, the review found, and the vast majority of youth strip searches did not reveal any contraband, raising questions about how Colorado Division of Youth Services staff members are using the invasive procedure.
In one instance, five youth in a detention center were strip-searched because one of them might have been charging a vape pen in a computer classroom, the review found. In another instance, a 14-year-old boy was held in a room by himself for more than 10 hours until he consented to a strip search. Another time, a youth was strip-searched three times in one day because staff believed he possessed drug paraphernalia, the report found.
Nothing was found during any of those searches, the office reported.
AnneMarie Harper, a spokeswoman for the Division of Youth Services, said in a statement Tuesday that the agency would investigate the ombudsman’s findings.
“When it comes to searches of youth in our care, DYS staff is trained to balance personal privacy while also taking a trauma-informed approach,” she said. “These efforts help to make sure that dangerous materials and substances that could put all youth and staff at risk are not in our facilities.”
The ombudsman’s office discovered 1,006 policy violations across 1,009 youth strip searches statewide during three three-month stretches in 2023, 2024 and 2025. Division of Youth Services staff members failed to document supervisor approval for searches, conducted searches with just one staff member present when two are required, and failed to clearly document the reasons for searches or the results, according to the report.
“When you are talking about the strip search of youth, we have to be incredibly careful that we are documenting every detail and trying to treat these youth as safely as possible,” said Stephanie Villafuerte, the child protection ombudsman.
‘Reasonable suspicion’ for search
About 2,000 youth between the ages of 10 and 21 are housed at juvenile detention centers statewide, according to the report. They are strip-searched when they arrive at the facilities, after visits with family, and after returning to the detention centers from court or other appointments. But they are also subject to strip searches when a staff member has “reasonable suspicion” to believe a juvenile might have contraband.
The ombudsman’s review focused only on those searches for reasonable suspicion, which the report noted is “arguably the most subjective” reason for a search, a process during which youth fully undress and an adult staff member looks at their naked body.
The practice is inherently traumatic, even when done completely within policy, the report noted. Youth who are committed to a detention center are more likely than other juveniles to have suffered abuse and neglect, and strip searches can retraumatize them.
“Strip searches are traumatizing for anyone, and perhaps particularly for teenagers,” said Jessica Feierman, senior managing director at Juvenile Law Center. “They are very aware of their bodies, their bodies are changing, so it is a moment where a strip search can have unique harm.”
Strip searches should be used sparingly, she said, and ideally not at all — alternatives like handheld metal detectors or airport-style body scanners can often be just as effective at revealing contraband, Feierman said.
The sheer number of strip searches of Colorado youth, the missing documentation about how the searches were conducted and why, and the low amount of contraband recovered raise concern, she said.
“All of those things suggest a heavy overreliance on strip searches, even though they are so harmful to young people,” she said.
On average, DYS staff members found contraband in just 10% of the 1,009 strip searches for reasonable suspicion that the ombudsman’s office reviewed.
That low percentage suggests that detention center staff are misusing strip searches, said Dana Flores, senior manager for youth justice in Colorado at the National Center for Youth Law.
“The report indicates that DYS staff are treating strip searches as a mechanism to assert power and control, and that is not rehabilitative,” she said. “That is just an abuse of discretion by adults who are supposed to be providing trauma-informed care to young people we know have already experienced trauma. If only 10% are turning up contraband, and that is the rationale behind strip searches… there must be a motivation for staff to keep doing this that goes above and beyond simply seeking contraband.”
Contraband — in particular, cocaine and fentanyl — is a ubiquitous problem across Colorado’s youth detention centers, she added, noting that kids who are jailed often search for ways to escape reality. Strip searches of youth don’t address the big-picture problem, she said.
“That ultimately isn’t going to address the root cause of the problem, which is that this youth has access to contraband,” she said. “So you could strip search a kid on Monday and find drugs on their person — the larger question is what are you doing to provide that young person with the appropriate behavioral health treatment and education to address what may be a substance abuse disorder?”
‘We don’t have documentation’
Division of Youth Services workers document strip searches in handwritten logs, the review found. That log is supposed to include information on when the search was conducted, who approved and carried out the search, the purpose of the search and the outcome.
However, the Child Protection Ombudsman’s review found the information in the log was often missing, Villafuerte said.
“We don’t know whether these searches are being conducted in a way that is incorrect, because we don’t have documentation,” she said. “Oftentimes, we don’t know who conducted the search, we don’t know if one or more people were present, we don’t know the underlying reasonable suspicion behind the reason to search. Without having the information, it makes it incredibly difficult to understand whether these searches are being conducted in a way that is effective, and if not, what can we do to make them effective.”
The office’s review was prompted by a youth who filed a complaint in which he alleged he was being wrongly targeted for weekly strip searches. The lack of proper documentation in that youth’s case led the office to conduct a statewide review, which showed similar problems.
The ombudsman’s office recommended that the Division of Youth Services keep electronic records about strip searches instead of handwritten ones. The office also recommended more oversight of strip searches for reasonable suspicion by the Division of Youth Services Quality Assurance, a unit within the state Department of Human Services that is tasked with oversight of the juvenile detention centers.
The unit has previously reviewed strip searches for youth when they enter a detention center, but has not regularly reviewed practices around strip searches for reasonable suspicion, the ombudsman’s office found.
The ombudsman’s report comes as the Division of Youth Services shut down the long-troubled Lookout Mountain Youth Services Center in Golden last month amid escalating issues with violence and drugs.
Israeli strikes and gunfire killed at least 59 people across Gaza, health officials said Saturday, as international pressure grows for a ceasefire and hostage return deal while Israel’s leader remained defiant about continuing the war.Related video above: Palestinian president speaks by video at UNAmong the dead were those hit by two strikes in the Nuseirat refugee camp — nine from the same family in a house and, later, 15 in the same camp, including women and children, according to staff at al-Awda Hospital, where the bodies were brought. Five others were killed when a strike hit a tent for the displaced, according to Nasser Hospital, which received the dead.Israel’s army said it was not aware of anyone being killed by gunfire Saturday in southern Gaza, nor of a strike in the Nuseirat area during the time and at the location provided by the hospital.The director of Shifa Hospital in Gaza City told The Associated Press that medical teams there were concerned about Israeli “tanks approaching the vicinity of the hospital,” restricting access to the facility where 159 patients are being treated.“The bombardment has not stopped for a single moment,” Dr. Mohamed Abu Selmiya said.He added that 14 premature babies were treated in incubators in Helou Hospital, though the head of neonatal intensive care there, Dr. Nasser Bulbul, has said that the facility’s main gate was closed because of drones flying over the building. Netanyahu and Trump scheduled to meet as pressure growsThe attacks came hours after a defiant Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told fellow world leaders at the U.N. General Assembly Friday that his nation “must finish the job” against Hamas in Gaza.Netanyahu’s words, aimed as much at his increasingly divided domestic audience as the global one, began after dozens of delegates from multiple nations walked out of the U.N. General Assembly hall en masse Friday morning as he began speaking.International pressure on Israel to end the war is increasing, as is Israel’s isolation, with a growing list of countries, including the United Kingdom, France and Australia, deciding recently to recognize Palestinian statehood — something Israel rejects.A U.N. commission of inquiry recently determined that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza.Countries have been lobbying U.S. President Donald Trump to press Israel for a ceasefire. On Friday, Trump told reporters on the White House lawn that he believes the U.S. is close to achieving a deal on easing fighting in Gaza that “will get the hostages back” and “end the war.”Trump and Netanyahu are scheduled to meet Monday, and Trump said on social media Friday that “very inspired and productive discussions” and “intense negotiations” about Gaza are ongoing with countries in the region.Yet, Israel is pressing ahead with another major ground operation in Gaza City, which experts say is experiencing famine. More than 300,000 people have fled, but up to 700,000 are still there, many because they can’t afford to relocate.Hospitals are short on supplies and targeted by airstrikesThe strikes Saturday morning demolished a house in Gaza City’s Tufah neighborhood, killing at least 11 people, more than half of them women and children, according to Al-Ahly Hospital, where the bodies were brought. Four other people were killed when an airstrike hit their homes in the Shati refugee camp, according to Shifa Hospital. Six other Palestinians were killed by Israeli gunfire while seeking aid in southern and central Gaza, according to the Nasser and Al Awda hospitals.Hospitals and health clinics in Gaza City are on the brink of collapse. Nearly two weeks into the offensive, two clinics have been destroyed by airstrikes, two hospitals shut down after being damaged and others are barely functioning, with medicine, equipment, food and fuel in short supply, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.Many patients and staff have been forced to flee hospitals, leaving behind only a few doctors and nurses to tend to children in incubators or other patients too ill to move.On Friday, aid group Doctors Without Borders said it was forced to suspend activities in Gaza City. The group said Israeli tanks were less than a kilometer (half a mile) from its facilities, creating an “unacceptable level of risk” for its staff.Meanwhile, the food situation in the north has also worsened, as Israel has halted aid deliveries through its crossing into northern Gaza since Sept. 12 and has increasingly rejected U.N. requests to bring supplies from southern Gaza into the north, the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said.Israel’s campaign in Gaza has killed more than 65,000 people and wounded more than 167,000 others, Gaza’s Health Ministry said. It doesn’t distinguish between civilians and combatants, but says women and children make up around half the fatalities. The ministry is part of the Hamas-run government, but U.N. agencies and many independent experts consider its figures to be the most reliable estimate of wartime casualties.Israel’s campaign was triggered when Hamas-led militants stormed into Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing around 1,200 people and taking 251 hostage. Forty-eight captives remain in Gaza, around 20 of them believed by Israel to be alive, after most of the rest were freed in ceasefires or other deals. Magdy reported from Cairo, Egypt.
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip —
Israeli strikes and gunfire killed at least 59 people across Gaza, health officials said Saturday, as international pressure grows for a ceasefire and hostage return deal while Israel’s leader remained defiant about continuing the war.
Related video above: Palestinian president speaks by video at UN
Among the dead were those hit by two strikes in the Nuseirat refugee camp — nine from the same family in a house and, later, 15 in the same camp, including women and children, according to staff at al-Awda Hospital, where the bodies were brought. Five others were killed when a strike hit a tent for the displaced, according to Nasser Hospital, which received the dead.
Israel’s army said it was not aware of anyone being killed by gunfire Saturday in southern Gaza, nor of a strike in the Nuseirat area during the time and at the location provided by the hospital.
The director of Shifa Hospital in Gaza City told The Associated Press that medical teams there were concerned about Israeli “tanks approaching the vicinity of the hospital,” restricting access to the facility where 159 patients are being treated.
“The bombardment has not stopped for a single moment,” Dr. Mohamed Abu Selmiya said.
He added that 14 premature babies were treated in incubators in Helou Hospital, though the head of neonatal intensive care there, Dr. Nasser Bulbul, has said that the facility’s main gate was closed because of drones flying over the building.
Netanyahu and Trump scheduled to meet as pressure grows
The attacks came hours after a defiant Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told fellow world leaders at the U.N. General Assembly Friday that his nation “must finish the job” against Hamas in Gaza.
Netanyahu’s words, aimed as much at his increasingly divided domestic audience as the global one, began after dozens of delegates from multiple nations walked out of the U.N. General Assembly hall en masse Friday morning as he began speaking.
International pressure on Israel to end the war is increasing, as is Israel’s isolation, with a growing list of countries, including the United Kingdom, France and Australia, deciding recently to recognize Palestinian statehood — something Israel rejects.
A U.N. commission of inquiry recently determined that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza.
Countries have been lobbying U.S. President Donald Trump to press Israel for a ceasefire. On Friday, Trump told reporters on the White House lawn that he believes the U.S. is close to achieving a deal on easing fighting in Gaza that “will get the hostages back” and “end the war.”
Trump and Netanyahu are scheduled to meet Monday, and Trump said on social media Friday that “very inspired and productive discussions” and “intense negotiations” about Gaza are ongoing with countries in the region.
Yet, Israel is pressing ahead with another major ground operation in Gaza City, which experts say is experiencing famine. More than 300,000 people have fled, but up to 700,000 are still there, many because they can’t afford to relocate.
Hospitals are short on supplies and targeted by airstrikes
The strikes Saturday morning demolished a house in Gaza City’s Tufah neighborhood, killing at least 11 people, more than half of them women and children, according to Al-Ahly Hospital, where the bodies were brought. Four other people were killed when an airstrike hit their homes in the Shati refugee camp, according to Shifa Hospital. Six other Palestinians were killed by Israeli gunfire while seeking aid in southern and central Gaza, according to the Nasser and Al Awda hospitals.
Hospitals and health clinics in Gaza City are on the brink of collapse. Nearly two weeks into the offensive, two clinics have been destroyed by airstrikes, two hospitals shut down after being damaged and others are barely functioning, with medicine, equipment, food and fuel in short supply, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.
Many patients and staff have been forced to flee hospitals, leaving behind only a few doctors and nurses to tend to children in incubators or other patients too ill to move.
On Friday, aid group Doctors Without Borders said it was forced to suspend activities in Gaza City. The group said Israeli tanks were less than a kilometer (half a mile) from its facilities, creating an “unacceptable level of risk” for its staff.
Meanwhile, the food situation in the north has also worsened, as Israel has halted aid deliveries through its crossing into northern Gaza since Sept. 12 and has increasingly rejected U.N. requests to bring supplies from southern Gaza into the north, the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said.
Israel’s campaign in Gaza has killed more than 65,000 people and wounded more than 167,000 others, Gaza’s Health Ministry said. It doesn’t distinguish between civilians and combatants, but says women and children make up around half the fatalities. The ministry is part of the Hamas-run government, but U.N. agencies and many independent experts consider its figures to be the most reliable estimate of wartime casualties.
Israel’s campaign was triggered when Hamas-led militants stormed into Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing around 1,200 people and taking 251 hostage. Forty-eight captives remain in Gaza, around 20 of them believed by Israel to be alive, after most of the rest were freed in ceasefires or other deals.
President Donald Trump’s administration is asking the Supreme Court to uphold his birthright citizenship order declaring that children born to parents who are in the United States illegally or temporarily are not American citizens.Previous reporting: A legal win for birthright citizenship after Supreme Court setbackThe appeal, shared with The Associated Press on Saturday, sets in motion a process at the high court that could lead to a definitive ruling from the justices by early summer on whether the citizenship restrictions are constitutional.Lower-court judges have so far blocked them from taking effect anywhere. The Republican administration is not asking the court to let the restrictions take effect before it rules.The Justice Department’s petition has been shared with lawyers for parties challenging the order, but is not yet docketed at the Supreme Court.Any decision on whether to take up the case is probably months away, and arguments probably would not take place until the late winter or early spring.“The lower court’s decisions invalidated a policy of prime importance to the president and his administration in a manner that undermines our border security,” Solicitor General D. John Sauer wrote. “Those decisions confer, without lawful justification, the privilege of American citizenship on hundreds of thousands of unqualified people.”Cody Wofsy, an American Civil Liberties Union lawyer who represents children who would be affected by Trump’s restrictions, said the administration’s plan is plainly unconstitutional.“This executive order is illegal, full stop, and no amount of maneuvering from the administration is going to change that. We will continue to ensure that no baby’s citizenship is ever stripped away by this cruel and senseless order,” Wofsy said in an email.Trump signed an executive order on the first day of his second term in the White House that would upend more than 125 years of understanding that the Constitution’s 14th Amendment confers citizenship on everyone born on American soil, with narrow exceptions for the children of foreign diplomats and those born to a foreign occupying force.In a series of decisions, lower courts have struck down the executive order as unconstitutional, or likely so, even after a Supreme Court ruling in late June that limited judges’ use of nationwide injunctions.While the Supreme Court curbed the use of nationwide injunctions, it did not rule out other court orders that could have nationwide effects, including in class-action lawsuits and those brought by states. The justices did not decide at that time whether the underlying citizenship order is constitutional.But every lower court that has looked at the issue has concluded that Trump’s order violates or likely violates the 14th Amendment, which was intended to ensure that Black people, including former slaves, had citizenship.The administration is appealing two cases.The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit in San Francisco ruled in July that a group of states that sued over the order needed a nationwide injunction to prevent the problems that would be caused by birthright citizenship being in effect in some states and not others.Also in July, a federal judge in New Hampshire blocked the citizenship order in a class-action lawsuit including all children who would be affected.Birthright citizenship automatically makes anyone born in the United States an American citizen, including children born to mothers who are in the country illegally, under long-standing rules. The right was enshrined soon after the Civil War in the first sentence of the 14th Amendment.The administration has asserted that children of noncitizens are not “subject to the jurisdiction” of the United States and therefore not entitled to citizenship.
WASHINGTON —
President Donald Trump’s administration is asking the Supreme Court to uphold his birthright citizenship order declaring that children born to parents who are in the United States illegally or temporarily are not American citizens.
Previous reporting: A legal win for birthright citizenship after Supreme Court setback
The appeal, shared with The Associated Press on Saturday, sets in motion a process at the high court that could lead to a definitive ruling from the justices by early summer on whether the citizenship restrictions are constitutional.
Lower-court judges have so far blocked them from taking effect anywhere. The Republican administration is not asking the court to let the restrictions take effect before it rules.
The Justice Department’s petition has been shared with lawyers for parties challenging the order, but is not yet docketed at the Supreme Court.
Any decision on whether to take up the case is probably months away, and arguments probably would not take place until the late winter or early spring.
“The lower court’s decisions invalidated a policy of prime importance to the president and his administration in a manner that undermines our border security,” Solicitor General D. John Sauer wrote. “Those decisions confer, without lawful justification, the privilege of American citizenship on hundreds of thousands of unqualified people.”
Cody Wofsy, an American Civil Liberties Union lawyer who represents children who would be affected by Trump’s restrictions, said the administration’s plan is plainly unconstitutional.
“This executive order is illegal, full stop, and no amount of maneuvering from the administration is going to change that. We will continue to ensure that no baby’s citizenship is ever stripped away by this cruel and senseless order,” Wofsy said in an email.
Trump signed an executive order on the first day of his second term in the White House that would upend more than 125 years of understanding that the Constitution’s 14th Amendment confers citizenship on everyone born on American soil, with narrow exceptions for the children of foreign diplomats and those born to a foreign occupying force.
In a series of decisions, lower courts have struck down the executive order as unconstitutional, or likely so, even after a Supreme Court ruling in late June that limited judges’ use of nationwide injunctions.
While the Supreme Court curbed the use of nationwide injunctions, it did not rule out other court orders that could have nationwide effects, including in class-action lawsuits and those brought by states. The justices did not decide at that time whether the underlying citizenship order is constitutional.
But every lower court that has looked at the issue has concluded that Trump’s order violates or likely violates the 14th Amendment, which was intended to ensure that Black people, including former slaves, had citizenship.
The administration is appealing two cases.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit in San Francisco ruled in July that a group of states that sued over the order needed a nationwide injunction to prevent the problems that would be caused by birthright citizenship being in effect in some states and not others.
Also in July, a federal judge in New Hampshire blocked the citizenship order in a class-action lawsuit including all children who would be affected.
Birthright citizenship automatically makes anyone born in the United States an American citizen, including children born to mothers who are in the country illegally, under long-standing rules. The right was enshrined soon after the Civil War in the first sentence of the 14th Amendment.
The administration has asserted that children of noncitizens are not “subject to the jurisdiction” of the United States and therefore not entitled to citizenship.
A senior U.S. Justice Department official sent a letter to a lawyer for relatives of victims killed in the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, asking pointed questions about a retired FBI agent’s involvement in a defamation lawsuit that led to a $1.4 billion judgment against conspiracy theorist Alex Jones.Ed Martin Jr., who leads the Justice Department’s “weaponization working group,” asked in the letter whether retired agent William Aldenberg received any financial benefits from helping to organize the lawsuit, in which he was a plaintiff along with victims’ family members.Aldenberg, like the parents and other relatives of the 20 children and six educators killed in the 2012 school shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, has been the subject of false conspiracy theories spread by Jones on his “Infowars” broadcasts.Aldenberg was among the law enforcement officers who responded to the school and found the dead children. That then led to years of abuse from people who believed the shooting was a hoax, he has said. His share of the judgment totaled around $120 million.Martin sends lawyer letter asking about retired agentIn a Sept. 15 letter to Christopher Mattei, a lawyer who represents Sandy Hook families, Martin suggested he was scrutinizing Aldenberg’s role in the lawsuit.“As you may know, there are criminal laws protecting the citizens from actions by government employees who may be acting for personal benefit,” Martin wrote.Mattei responded to the letter in a text message to The Associated Press.“Thanks to the courage of the Sandy Hook families, Infowars will soon be finished,” he said, referring to the families’ efforts in court to liquidate Jones’ assets to help pay the judgment. “In his last gasps, Jones is once again harassing them, only now with the corrupt complicity of at least one DOJ official. It’s as disgusting as it is pathetic, and we will not stand for it.”The Justice Department said it had no immediate comment Tuesday.Martin, who has been examining President Donald Trump’s claims of anti-conservative bias inside the Justice Department, has sent letters to a host of targets in other, unrelated matters, seeking information or making appeals, but it’s unclear whether such requests have amounted to anything.Jones posted a copy of the letter on his X account Tuesday, saying “Breaking! The DOJ’s Task Force On Government Weaponization Against The American People Has Launched An Investigation Into The Democrat Party / FBI Directing Illegal Law-fare Against Alex Jones And Infowars.”Retired agent testified at the trialAldenberg joined the relatives of eight Sandy Hook victims in suing Jones, alleging defamation and infliction of emotional distress.Aldenberg was one of the first witnesses to testify at the trial in 2022. He broke down on the witness stand as he described entering the two classrooms where children and educators were shot.He also testified about how he and others in the community and law enforcement were targeted with threats and conspiracy theories, including one that claimed he was an actor who also pretended to be the father of a victim.Messages were left at a phone listing and email addresses listed for Aldenberg in public records.Relatives of the shooting victims testified that they were subjected to violent threats, in-person harassment and abusive comments on social media because of Jones.Martin has been serving as head of the Justice Department’s “weaponization working group” since his nomination for top federal prosecutor in Washington was pulled amid bipartisan concerns about his modest legal experience and his advocacy for Jan. 6 rioters.Attorney General Pam Bondi created the group to scrutinize matters in which conservatives have claimed they were unfairly targeted or treated.Martin was also recently named a special prosecutor to help conduct the separate mortgage fraud investigations into Democratic New York Attorney General Letitia James and U.S. Sen. Adam Schiff.In his letter to Mattei, he asked for several pieces of information and requested that the lawyer respond by Sept. 29.In the letter, Martin asks Mattei to keep the correspondence confidential because “I do not wish to litigate this in the media.” On Sept. 14, Jones posted a photo on his X account of him and Martin together, saying the two met in Washington, D.C.Jones recently asked the U.S. Supreme Court to hear his appeal of the $1.4 billion judgment. He also is appealing a $49 million judgment in a similar lawsuit in Texas filed by two other parents of children killed in Newtown. He has cited free speech rights, but he has acknowledged that the shooting was “100% real.”Jones claims Democrats have been targeting him for his speech.He filed for bankruptcy in late 2022. The Sandy Hook plaintiffs are now trying to liquidate Infowars’ assets in state court proceedings in Texas.
A senior U.S. Justice Department official sent a letter to a lawyer for relatives of victims killed in the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, asking pointed questions about a retired FBI agent’s involvement in a defamation lawsuit that led to a $1.4 billion judgment against conspiracy theorist Alex Jones.
Ed Martin Jr., who leads the Justice Department’s “weaponization working group,” asked in the letter whether retired agent William Aldenberg received any financial benefits from helping to organize the lawsuit, in which he was a plaintiff along with victims’ family members.
Aldenberg, like the parents and other relatives of the 20 children and six educators killed in the 2012 school shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, has been the subject of false conspiracy theories spread by Jones on his “Infowars” broadcasts.
Aldenberg was among the law enforcement officers who responded to the school and found the dead children. That then led to years of abuse from people who believed the shooting was a hoax, he has said. His share of the judgment totaled around $120 million.
Martin sends lawyer letter asking about retired agent
In a Sept. 15 letter to Christopher Mattei, a lawyer who represents Sandy Hook families, Martin suggested he was scrutinizing Aldenberg’s role in the lawsuit.
“As you may know, there are criminal laws protecting the citizens from actions by government employees who may be acting for personal benefit,” Martin wrote.
Mattei responded to the letter in a text message to The Associated Press.
“Thanks to the courage of the Sandy Hook families, Infowars will soon be finished,” he said, referring to the families’ efforts in court to liquidate Jones’ assets to help pay the judgment. “In his last gasps, Jones is once again harassing them, only now with the corrupt complicity of at least one DOJ official. It’s as disgusting as it is pathetic, and we will not stand for it.”
The Justice Department said it had no immediate comment Tuesday.
Martin, who has been examining President Donald Trump’s claims of anti-conservative bias inside the Justice Department, has sent letters to a host of targets in other, unrelated matters, seeking information or making appeals, but it’s unclear whether such requests have amounted to anything.
Jones posted a copy of the letter on his X account Tuesday, saying “Breaking! The DOJ’s Task Force On Government Weaponization Against The American People Has Launched An Investigation Into The Democrat Party / FBI Directing Illegal Law-fare Against Alex Jones And Infowars.”
Retired agent testified at the trial
Aldenberg joined the relatives of eight Sandy Hook victims in suing Jones, alleging defamation and infliction of emotional distress.
Aldenberg was one of the first witnesses to testify at the trial in 2022. He broke down on the witness stand as he described entering the two classrooms where children and educators were shot.
He also testified about how he and others in the community and law enforcement were targeted with threats and conspiracy theories, including one that claimed he was an actor who also pretended to be the father of a victim.
Messages were left at a phone listing and email addresses listed for Aldenberg in public records.
Relatives of the shooting victims testified that they were subjected to violent threats, in-person harassment and abusive comments on social media because of Jones.
Martin has been serving as head of the Justice Department’s “weaponization working group” since his nomination for top federal prosecutor in Washington was pulled amid bipartisan concerns about his modest legal experience and his advocacy for Jan. 6 rioters.
Attorney General Pam Bondi created the group to scrutinize matters in which conservatives have claimed they were unfairly targeted or treated.
Martin was also recently named a special prosecutor to help conduct the separate mortgage fraud investigations into Democratic New York Attorney General Letitia James and U.S. Sen. Adam Schiff.
In his letter to Mattei, he asked for several pieces of information and requested that the lawyer respond by Sept. 29.
In the letter, Martin asks Mattei to keep the correspondence confidential because “I do not wish to litigate this in the media.” On Sept. 14, Jones posted a photo on his X account of him and Martin together, saying the two met in Washington, D.C.
Jones recently asked the U.S. Supreme Court to hear his appeal of the $1.4 billion judgment. He also is appealing a $49 million judgment in a similar lawsuit in Texas filed by two other parents of children killed in Newtown. He has cited free speech rights, but he has acknowledged that the shooting was “100% real.”
Jones claims Democrats have been targeting him for his speech.
He filed for bankruptcy in late 2022. The Sandy Hook plaintiffs are now trying to liquidate Infowars’ assets in state court proceedings in Texas.
