A man helped rescue a pregnant woman from a vehicle in a pond off Interstate 95 in Florida. Hours later, she gave birth to the child.Logan Hayes had been driving to work near Stuart before 8 a.m. Friday before the Gatlin exit near the weigh station.”As I was driving by, I saw this car in the pond,” he told WPBF.The vehicle was sinking. He jumped into the cold waters, swam out to the vehicle, and pulled the woman to shore.Hayes later learned the woman was pregnant. Martin County Fire Rescue crews arrived minutes later. The patient was taken to HCA Florida Lawnwood Hospital in Fort Pierce with serious injuries.MCFD divers entered the water to confirm no other occupants were inside and to assist with scene recovery.”Great teamwork by all responding units and the citizens on scene,” the agency posted on Facebook.SLCScanner’s Dan Toback, who posts information on the Treasure Coast, called it “an incredible story.”
A man helped rescue a pregnant woman from a vehicle in a pond off Interstate 95 in Florida. Hours later, she gave birth to the child.
Logan Hayes had been driving to work near Stuart before 8 a.m. Friday before the Gatlin exit near the weigh station.
“As I was driving by, I saw this car in the pond,” he told WPBF.
The vehicle was sinking. He jumped into the cold waters, swam out to the vehicle, and pulled the woman to shore.
Hayes later learned the woman was pregnant.
Martin County Fire Rescue crews arrived minutes later.
The patient was taken to HCA Florida Lawnwood Hospital in Fort Pierce with serious injuries.
MCFD divers entered the water to confirm no other occupants were inside and to assist with scene recovery.
“Great teamwork by all responding units and the citizens on scene,” the agency posted on Facebook.
SLCScanner’s Dan Toback, who posts information on the Treasure Coast, called it “an incredible story.”
A dissenting panel of federal judges for the Ninth Circuit on Friday deemed California’s open carry ban in most counties unconstitutional.The ruling comes following a challenge by Mark Baird, who the San Francisco Chronicle identifies as a gun owner from Siskiyou County. Baird specifically challenged California’s restriction on open carry in counties with a population greater than 200,000.(Video Above: California ammunition background check law is unconstitutional)The panel ruled 2-1 in Baird’s favor. In favor of Baird, Judge Lawrence VanDyke noted that the restrictions apply to roughly 95% of the state’s population. And for those counties with populations under 200,000, the judge notes that those wanting to open carry need to apply for a license allowing them to do so, but that the ability to secure the license is “unclear.””California admits that it has no record of even one open-carry license being issued, and one potential reason is that California has misled its citizens about how to apply for an open-carry license,” the ruling’s summary states, referring to the opinions of VanDyke and Judge Kenneth K. Lee. The panel held that the open carry ban was inconsistent with the Second Amendment’s right to bear arms as applied to states under the Fourteenth Amendment. It also referred to the standard applied in 2022’s New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen, which established that “historical record makes unmistakably plain that open carry is part of this Nation’s history and tradition.”Judge N. Randy Smith, who dissented in part, noted that “open carry is not conduct that is covered by the plain text of the Second Amendment.” Smith also noted that reasoning in the Bruen case allows California to lawfully eliminate one manner of public carry to protect citizens, “so long as its citizens may carry weapons in another manner that allows for self-defense.”Smith asserted that because California allows concealed carry, it may restrict open carry.While the court primarily sided with Baird, it also rejected his related challenge to California’s licensing requirements in counties with fewer than 200,000 residents. Those counties may issue open-carry permits.See the full ruling here. Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office slammed the ruling on social media Friday. “California just got military troops with weapons of war off of the streets of our cities, but now Republican activists on the Ninth Circuit want to replace them with gunslingers and return to the days of the Wild West. California’s law was carefully crafted to comply with the Second Amendment and we’re confident this decision will not stand,” the Newsom’s office said.KCRA 3 has reached out to California Attorney General Rob Bonta’s Office for comment.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
A dissenting panel of federal judges for the Ninth Circuit on Friday deemed California’s open carry ban in most counties unconstitutional.
(Video Above: California ammunition background check law is unconstitutional)
The panel ruled 2-1 in Baird’s favor.
In favor of Baird, Judge Lawrence VanDyke noted that the restrictions apply to roughly 95% of the state’s population. And for those counties with populations under 200,000, the judge notes that those wanting to open carry need to apply for a license allowing them to do so, but that the ability to secure the license is “unclear.”
“California admits that it has no record of even one open-carry license being issued, and one potential reason is that California has misled its citizens about how to apply for an open-carry license,” the ruling’s summary states, referring to the opinions of VanDyke and Judge Kenneth K. Lee.
The panel held that the open carry ban was inconsistent with the Second Amendment’s right to bear arms as applied to states under the Fourteenth Amendment. It also referred to the standard applied in 2022’s New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen, which established that “historical record makes unmistakably plain that open carry is part of this Nation’s history and tradition.”
Judge N. Randy Smith, who dissented in part, noted that “open carry is not conduct that is covered by the plain text of the Second Amendment.” Smith also noted that reasoning in the Bruen case allows California to lawfully eliminate one manner of public carry to protect citizens, “so long as its citizens may carry weapons in another manner that allows for self-defense.”
Smith asserted that because California allows concealed carry, it may restrict open carry.
While the court primarily sided with Baird, it also rejected his related challenge to California’s licensing requirements in counties with fewer than 200,000 residents. Those counties may issue open-carry permits.
Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office slammed the ruling on social media Friday.
“California just got military troops with weapons of war off of the streets of our cities, but now Republican activists on the Ninth Circuit want to replace them with gunslingers and return to the days of the Wild West. California’s law was carefully crafted to comply with the Second Amendment and we’re confident this decision will not stand,” the Newsom’s office said.
KCRA 3 has reached out to California Attorney General Rob Bonta’s Office for comment.
Here, they renew their annual tradition of looking at the year past and offering some thoughts on what the new year may bring.
Chabria: Welp, that was something. I can’t say 2025 was a stellar year for the American experiment, but it certainly will make the history books.
Before we dive into pure politics, I’ll start with something positive. I met a married couple at a No Kings rally in Sacramento who were dressed up as dinosaurs, inspired by the Portland Frog, an activist who wears an inflatable amphibian suit.
When I asked why, the husband told me, “If you don’t do something soon, you will have democracy be extinct.”
Crowds participate in No Kings Day in downtown Los Angeles in October.
(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)
I loved that so many Americans were doing something by turning out to not just protest policies that hit personally, but to rally in support of democracy writ large. For many, it was their first time taking this kind of action, and they were doing it in a way that expressed optimism and possibility rather than giving in to anger or despair. Where there is humor, there is hope.
While eggs and gas are no longer exorbitant, the cost of just about everything else continues to climb. Or, in the case of beef, utility bills and insurance, skyrocket.
The John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts is another of the long-standing institutions Trump has smeared his name across.
(Jacquelyn Martin / Associated Press)
Meantime, the president seems less concerned with improving voters’ lives than smearing his name on every object he lays his eyes on, one of the latest examples being the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.
I wonder: Why stop there? Why not brand these the United States of Trump-erica, then boast we live in the “hottest” country on Planet Trump?
Chabria: Stop giving him ideas!
You and I agree that it’s been a difficult year full of absurdity, but we’ve disagreed on how seriously to take Trump as a threat to democracy. As the year closes, I am more concerned than ever.
It’s not the ugly antics of ego that alarm me, but the devastating policies that will be hard to undo — if we get the chance to undo them.
Now, we are seeing overt antisemitism and racism on the MAGA right, with alarming acceptance from many. The far right has championed a debate as dumb as it is frightening, about “heritage” Americans being somehow a higher class of citizens than nonwhites.
Vice President JD Vance speaks at the University of Mississippi in Oxford.
(Gerald Herbert / Associated Press)
Recently, Vice President JD Vance gave a speech in which he announced, “In the United States of America, you don’t have to apologize for being white anymore,” and Trump has said he wants to start taking away citizenship from legal immigrants. Both men claim America is a Christian nation, and eschew diversity as a value.
Do you still think American democracy is secure, and this political moment will pass without lasting damage to our democratic norms?
Barabak: I’ll start with some differentiation.
I agree that Trump is sowing seeds or, more specifically, enacting policies and programs, that will germinate and do damage for many years to come.
Alienating our allies, terrorizing communities with his prejudicial anti-immigrant policies — which go far beyond a reasonable tightening of border security — starving science and other research programs. The list is a long and depressing one, as you suggest.
But I do believe — cue the trumpets and cherubs — there is nothing beyond the power of voters to fix.
To quote, well, me, there is no organism on the planet more sensitive to heat and light than a politician. We’ve already seen an anti-Trump backlash in a series of elections held this year, in red and blue state alike. A strong repudiation in the 2026 midterm election will do more than all the editorial tut-tutting and protest marches combined. (Not that either are bad things.)
A stressed-out seeming poll worker in a polling station at Los Angeles’ Union Station.
(Eric Thayer / Los Angeles Times)
The best way to preserve our democracy and uphold America’s values is for unhappy citizens to register their dissent via the ballot box. And to address at least one of your concerns, I’m not too worried about Trump somehow nullifying the results, given legal checks and the decentralization of our election system.
Installing lawmakers in Congress with a mandate to hold Trump to account would be a good start toward repairing at least some of the damage he’s wrought. And if it turns into a Republican rout, it’ll be quite something to watch the president’s onetime allies run for the hills as fast as their weak knees allow.
Chabria: OMG! It’s a holiday miracle. We agree!
I think the midterms will be messy, but I don’t think this will be an election where Trump, or anyone, outright tries to undo overall results.
Although I do think the groundwork will be laid to sow further doubt in our election integrity ahead of 2028, and we will see bogus claims of fraud and lawsuits.
So the midterms very well could be a reset if Democrats take control of something, anything. We would likely not see past damage repaired, but may see enough opposition to slow the pace of whatever is happening now, and offer transparency and oversight.
But the 2026 election only matters if people vote, which historically is not something a great number of people do in midterms. At this point, there are few people out there who haven’t heard about the stakes in November, but that still doesn’t translate to folks — lazy, busy, distracted — weighing in.
If proposed restrictions on mail-in ballots or voter identification take effect, even just in some states, that will also change the outcomes.
But there is hope, always hope.
Barabak: On that note, let’s recognize a few of the many good things that happened in 2025.
MacKenzie Scott donated $700 million to more than a dozen historically Black colleges and universities, showing that not all tech billionaires are selfish and venal.
The Dodgers won their second championship and, while this San Francisco Giants fan was not pleased, their seven-game thriller against the Toronto Blue Jays was a World Series for the ages.
Any others, beside your demonstrating dinos, who deserve commendation?
Pope Leo XIV waves after delivering the Christmas Day blessing from the main balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican.
(Gregorio Borgia / Associated Press)
Chabria: Though I’m not Catholic, I have been surprisingly inspired by Pope Leo XIV.
So I’ll leave us with a bit of his advice for the future: “Be agents of communion, capable of breaking down the logic of division and polarization, of individualism and egocentrism.”
Many of us are tired, and suffering from Trump fatigue. Regardless, to put it in nonpapal terms, it may be a dumpster — but we’re all in it together.
Barabak: I’d like to end, as we do each year, with a thank you to our readers.
Anita and I wouldn’t be here — which would greatly please some folks — but for you. (And a special nod to the paid subscribers out there. You help keep the lights on.)
Here’s wishing each and all a happy, healthy and prosperous new year.
Call it an accident, call it the plan. But don’t stoop to the reprehensible gaslighting of calling it a lie: It is fact that federal agents have detained and arrested dozens, if not hundreds, of United States citizens as part of immigration sweeps, regardless of what Kristi Noem would like us to believe.
During a congressional hearing Thursday, Noem, our secretary of Homeland Security and self-appointed Cruelty Barbie, reiterated her oft-used and patently false line that only the worst of the worst are being targeted by immigration authorities. That comes after weeks of her department posting online, on its ever-more far-right social media accounts, that claims of American citizens being rounded up and held incommunicado are “fake news” or a “hoax.”
“Stop fear-mongering. ICE does NOT arrest or deport U.S. citizens,” Homeland Security recently posted on the former Twitter.
Tuesday, at a different congressional hearing, a handful of citizens — including two Californians — told their stories of being grabbed by faceless masked men and being whisked away to holding cells where they were denied access to phones, lawyers, medications and a variety of other legal rights.
Their testimony accompanied the release of a congressional report by the Senate’s Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations in which 22 American citizens, including a dozen from the Golden State, told their own shocking, terrifying tales of manhandling and detentions by what can only be described as secret police — armed agents who wouldn’t identify themselves and often seemed to lack basic training required for safe urban policing.
These stories and the courageous Americans who are stepping forward to tell them are history in the making — a history I hope we regret but not forget.
Immigration enforcement, boosted by unprecedented amounts of funding, is about to ramp up even more. Noem and her agents are reveling in impunity, attempting to erase and rewrite reality as they go — while our Supreme Court crushes precedent and common sense to further empower this presidency. Until the midterms, there is little hope of any check on power.
Under those circumstances, for these folks to put their stories on the record is both an act of bravery and patriotism, because they now know better than most what it means to have the chaotic brutality of this administration focused on them. It’s incumbent upon the rest of us to hear them, and protest peacefully not only rights being trampled, but our government demanding we believe lies.
“I’ve always said that immigrants who are given the great privilege of becoming citizens are also some of the most patriotic people in this country. I know you all love your country. I love our country, and this is not the America that we believe in or that we fought so hard for. Every person, every U.S. citizen, has rights,” Rep. Robert Garcia (D-Long Beach) said as the hearing began.
Less than 5 feet tall, Velez is a graduate of Cal Poly Pomona who was working in the garment district in June when ICE began its raids. Her mom and teenage sister had just dropped her off when masked men swarmed out of unmarked cars and began chasing brown people. Velez didn’t know what was happening, but when one man charged her, she held up her work bag in defense. The bag did not protect her. Neither did her telling the agents she is a U.S. citizen.
“He handcuffed me without checking my ID. They ignored me as I repeated it again and again that I am a U.S. citizen,” she told committee members. “They did not care.”
Velez, still unsure who the man was who forced her into an SUV, managed to open the door and run to an LAPD officer, begging for help. But when the masked man noticed she was loose, he “ran up screaming, ‘She’s mine’” the congressional report says.
The police officer sent her back to the unmarked car, beginning a 48-hour ordeal that ended with her being charged with assault of a federal officer — charges eventually dropped after her lawyer demanded body camera footage and alleged witness statements. (The minority staff report was released by Rep. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, the highest-ranking Democrat on the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations.)
“I never imagined this would be occurring, here, in America,” Velez told lawmakers. “DHS likes … to brand us as criminals, stripping us of our dignity. They want to paint us as the worst of the worst, but the truth is, we are human beings with no criminal record.”
This if-you’re-brown-you’re-going-down tactic is likely to become more common because it is now legal.
In Noem vs. Vasquez Perdomo, a September court decision, Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote that it was reasonable for officers to stop people who looked foreign and were engaged in activities associated with undocumented people — such as soliciting work at a Home Depot or attending a Spanish-language event, as long as authorities “promptly” let the person go if they prove citizenship. These are now known as “Kavanaugh stops.”
Disregarding how racist and problematic that policy is, “promptly” seems to be up for debate.
Javier Ramirez, born in San Bernardino, testified as “a proud American citizen who has never known the weight of a criminal record.”
He’s a father of three who was working at his car lot in June when he noticed a strange SUV idling on his private property with a bunch of men inside. When he approached, they jumped out, armed with assault weapons, and grabbed him.
“This was a terrifying situation,” Ramirez said. But then it got worse.
One of the men yelled, “Get him. He’s Mexican!”
On video shot by a bystander, Javier can be heard shouting, “I have my passport!” according to the congressional report, but the agents didn’t care. When Ramirez asked why they were holding him, an agent told him, “We’re trying to figure that out.”
Like Velez, Ramirez was put in detention. A severe diabetic, he was denied medication until he became seriously ill, he told investigators. Though he asked for a lawyer, he was not allowed to contact one — but the interrogation continued.
After his release, five days later, he had to seek further medical treatment. He, too, was charged with assault of a federal agent, along with obstruction and resisting arrest. The bogus charges were also later dropped.
“I should not have to live in fear of being targeted simply for the color of my skin or the other language I speak,” he told the committee. “I share my story not just for myself, but for everyone who has been unjustly treated, for those whose voice has been silenced.”
You know the poem, folks. It starts when “they came” for the vulnerable. Thankfully, though people such as Ramirez and Velez may be vulnerable due to their pigmentation, they are not meek and they won’t be silenced. Our democracy, our safety as a nation of laws, depends on not just hearing their stories, but also standing peacefully against such abuses of power.
Because these abuses only end when the people decide they’ve had enough — not just of the lawlessness, but of the lies that empower it.
The Trump administration filed a federal suit Thursday against California and its public university systems, alleging the practice of offering in-state college tuition rates to undocumented immigrants who graduate from California high schools is illegal.
The suit, which named Gov. Gavin Newsom, state Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta, the UC Board of Regents, the Cal State University Board of Trustees and the Board of Governors for the California Community Colleges, also seeks to end provisions in the California Dream Act that allow students who lack documentation to apply for state-funded financial aid.
“California is illegally discriminating against American students and families by offering exclusive tuition benefits for non-citizens,” U.S. Atty. Gen. Pam Bondi said in a Department of Justice statement, saying the state has a “flagrant disregard for federal law.”
“These laws unconstitutionally discriminate against U.S. citizens who are not afforded the same reduced tuition rates, scholarships, or subsidies, create incentives for illegal immigration, and reward illegal immigrants with benefits that U.S. citizens are not eligible for, all in direct conflict with federal law,” the statement said.
Spokespersons for Bonta and CSU declined to comment, saying they had not seen copies of the complaint.
UC officials and a spokesperson for Newsom, who was named because he is an ex-officio board member for CSU and UC, were not immediately available to comment.
The tuition suit targets Assembly Bill 540, which passed with bipartisan support in 2001 and offers in-state tuition rates to undocumented students who completed high school in California. The law also offers in-state tuition to U.S. citizens who graduated from California schools but moved out of the state before enrolling in college.
Between 2,000 and 4,000 students attending the University of California — with its total enrollment of nearly 296,000 — are estimated to be undocumented. Across California State University campuses, there are about 9,500 immigrants without documentation enrolled out of 461,000 students. The state’s biggest undocumented group, estimated to be 70,000, are community college students.
The Trump administration’s challenge to California’s tuition statute focuses on a 1996 federal law that says people in the U.S. without legal permission should “not be eligible on the basis of residence within a state … for any post-secondary education benefit unless a citizen or national of the United States is eligible for such a benefit … without regard to whether the citizen or national is such a resident.”
Critics say the law does not speak specifically to tuition rates. Some courts have interpreted the word “benefit” to include cheaper tuition.
Scholars have also debated whether the federal law affects California tuition rates for because it applies to citizens and noncitizens alike.
The California law has withstood earlier challenges. The state Supreme Court upheld it in 2010 after out-of-state students sued. The U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal of the case.
In those cases, judges said undocumented immigrants were not receiving preferential treatment because of their immigration status but because they attended and graduated from California schools. They said U.S. citizens who graduated from the state’s schools had the same opportunity.
Thursday’s complaint was filed in Eastern District of California. It follows actions the Trump administration has taken against tuition practices in Texas, Kentucky, Illinois, Oklahoma and Minnesota.
In June, after the Trump administration sued over the law in Texas, the state agreed to stop giving in-state tuition to undocumented immigrant students.
A woman who was attacked and sexually assaulted while out for a walk on the Venice Canals in April has filed a $5-million claim against the city of Los Angeles, charging that the government was derelict in its duty to provide safe streets and protect its citizens.
Mary Klein, 55, who suffered a savage beating that left her with missing teeth and a blood clot in her brain, was attacked around 10:30 p.m. April 6 as she strolled through the upscale seaside neighborhood. Another woman, Sarah Alden, 53, was also attacked that night and later died.
Police later arrested Anthony Francisco Jones, 29; he was charged with two counts of forcible rape, murder, attempted murder, mayhem, torture and sodomy by use of force. He pleaded not guilty to the charges.
The Times does not normally identify victims of sexual assault, but Klein came forward to share her story, saying people should take it as a wake-up call that more social services are needed for people suffering from mental illness and more police protection is needed for everyone.
“That’s why all this crime is happening — we’re ignoring the extreme mental health crisis going on in our streets,” she said this summer.
In filing her claim, Klein said she is trying to drive home the point that the government must do more to protect its citizens. The attack on her, she said, has turned her into an activist for public safety.
Los Angeles City officials could not immediately be reached for comment on the claim.
Klein filmed herself walking up to Los Angeles City Hall on Friday to submit her claim, speaking into the camera as the government buildings loomed behind her. A claim against the city can be a precursor to a lawsuit.
“There is a dereliction of duty by the government in Los Angeles, in California,” she says in her video. “A dereliction of duty to protect its citizens from the criminals and also to fund the police correctly.”
“I have lifelong damages to my jaw, my brain, blood clotting in my brain, due to a transient attacking me on an un-patrolled street in Venice,” she said. The street, she said, “was dark, no lighting, a public street where numerous incidents of violent crime and murder have occurred, and still absolutely no police presence on the street.”
“That’s not the police’s fault,” she said. “That’s the people who defund the police.”
In an interview, she said she was appreciative of Los Angeles officials, including Mayor Karen Bass, the City Council and the Los Angeles Police Department. She said she supports Bass’s goal to expand the LAPD by 1,000 officers.
“This is not about City Hall,” she said. “I see them doing a lot of work to help the community.” But the government as a whole must do more, she said.
We all want to look expensive and luxurious, right? If you’re a 20-something like me, though, you might not have thousands of dollars to spare. But investing in an under-$500 watch from Citizen? That’s something my wallet and I can get behind. Its watches have this air of elegance that makes them the perfect accessory for acing the quiet-luxury aesthetic. The best part is that you really only need one signature timepiece. (But I wouldn’t blame you if you wanted to grab a few styles to match different looks.) I also love that nearly all of the watches in the collection are solar-powered because let’s face it—I don’t have the time or desire to replace batteries. Whether you’re in the market for one or three of these sustainable watches, I’ve curated the best quiet-luxury timepieces for any style or mood.
