An independent expenditure committee backed by Silicon Valley executives spent $4.8 million on television ads supporting San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan’s gubernatorial bid that will begin airing Thursday.
The two 30-second ads highlight the Democrat’s life story — being raised in a working-class family and working on a grounds crew and as a middle school teacher — and his accomplishments leading the state’s third-largest city.
Mahan’s parents “taught him the difference between nice to have and need to have,” a narrator says in one of the ads. “So as mayor of San Jose, Matt focused on the basics and delivered results on the things that matter most. The safest big city in America, a sharp drop in street homelessness and thousands of homes built. As governor, Matt Mahan will focus on results Californians need to have, like affordable homes, safe neighborhoods and good schools.”
The ads, which will air statewide on broadcast and cable TV, were paid for by an independent-expenditure committee called California Back to Basics Supporting Matt Mahan for Governor 2026.
The group has not yet filed any fundraising reports with the secretary of state’s office, but the ads’ disclosure says the top donors are billionaire venture capitalist Michael Moritz, luxury sleepwear company founder Ashley Merrill and Silicon Valley entrepreneur Michael Seibel.
Billionaire Los Angeles developer Rick Caruso, who considered running for governor or mayor of Los Angeles but ultimately decided against seeking either post, is involved in the effort, according to a strategist working for the committee who requested anonymity to speak about it.
The committee legally cannot coordinate with Mahan’s campaign, which he launched four weeks ago. Although Mahan lacks the name recognition of several other candidates in the crowded field running to replace termed-out Gov. Gavin Newsom, his fundraising prowess, notably among tech industry leaders, is notable. He has raised nearly $9.2 million in large donations since entering the gubernatorial race.
Long before he had a $15-million bounty on his head as the leader of Mexico’s ruthless Jalisco New Generation cartel, Nemesio Rubén Oseguera Cervantes was a scruffy-haired kid trying to eke out a living on the streets of San Francisco.
He crossed the border illegally sometime before he turned 20, making the migrant’s journey north from the avocado and lime orchards that surround his family’s small town in the state of Michoacán. He was picked up first on meth charges on May 14, 1986, according to news reports and a San Francisco police booking photo, which shows him in a blue hoodie scowling into the camera. He was arrested twice more, finally for selling $9,500 worth of heroin to two undercover officers at a bar in 1992.
He went to prison, got deported and, despite his record, became a local police officer back home.
So began the criminal career of one of the most infamous figures in the world of international drug trafficking. It ended in spectacular and violent fashion Sunday, with Mexican authorities announcing that the kingpin nicknamed “El Mencho” had been killed in a shootout with government forces in Jalisco, the state his group, known as the CJNG, has long dominated.
The killing unleashed shock waves of violence across the swaths of Mexico where the CJNG holds sway. Flights into some Jalisco airports were grounded and cartel gunmen blockaded highways by setting fire to vehicles in 20 states, according to Mexican authorities. The country’s top security official said 25 members of the National Guard were killed Sunday in reprisal attacks. President Claudia Sheinbaum called on the public to remain calm and maintained that most territory in the country was in a state of “complete normality.”
The discord between the president’s remarks and the images circulating on social media of torched cars billowing dark plumes of smoke — along with swirling rumors over the degree of U.S. involvement in the operation — has added a murky coda to Oseguera’s violent and tumultuous life. He rose from small-time California drug peddler to the head of an organized crime group with tentacles that stretch around the globe, an ascension that tracks with the broader evolution of Mexico’s cartels.
Oseguera, the leader of the Jalisco New Generation cartel, is shown with his son Ruben Oseguera Gonzalez, known as El Menchito, in an evidence photo used by federal prosecutors.
(U.S. District Court)
Once almost solely dedicated to moving illicit substances to meet the demand of American consumers, the groups have diversified their business to include human smuggling, extortion, fuel theft and even, according to recent U.S. Treasury Department filings against the CJNG, a timeshare fraud scheme that targeted tourists in Puerto Vallarta.
The narco-blockades that have upended life in parts of Mexico since Sunday also reflect the CJNG’s fearsome power as a paramilitary organization. The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration estimated in 2023 that the cartel employs nearly 20,000 “members, associates, facilitators and brokers” in various countries. Cells in Mexico are armed to the teeth with military-grade weaponry, including drones that drop explosives, improvised land mines and .50-caliber rifles that fire carrot-sized armor-piercing bullets. The Trump administration designated the CJNG as a terrorist group last year, escalating the pressure that U.S. officials have long exerted on Mexican authorities to dismantle the group and take out its founder.
Although experts said his death was a major blow to the CJNG, they also cautioned that Oseguera’s creation has metastasized beyond the point where decapitating the primary head will cause the hydra-like infrastructure to collapse.
Paul Craine, the former head of the DEA in Mexico, said Oseguera pioneered a sort of franchise system, where local criminal groups are co-opted and allowed to fly the CJNG banner — as long as they pay tribute.
With various factions controlled by key lieutenants, some of them close relatives, Oseguera’s moniker has been invoked to instill terror and keep subordinates in line, Craine said. The group — accused of assassinating politicians, journalists, environmental activists, police officers and anyone else who dares stand in their way — has frequently issued menacing communiques, usually delivered by masked gunmen who say they are speaking on behalf of El Mencho.
“Mencho’s name and Mencho’s aura carried a lot of legend, it sowed fear,” Craine said. “He was the end-all, be-all figurehead.”
Oseguera’s connections to California extend beyond his early days in the Bay Area. The DEA’s office in Los Angeles has led the agency’s case against him and his close relatives, and the family’s ties to the region have spilled out in court filings.
In 2024, federal authorities arrested a suspected high-ranking cartel member who was accused of faking his death and hiding out in Riverside, where he enjoyed a life of luxury. Authorities said Cristian Fernando Gutierrez-Ochoa began working for the CJNG around 2014, and later married El Mencho’s youngest daughter, identified in court records as a U.S. citizen who owns a coffee shop in Riverside. Gutierrez-Ochoa pleaded guilty last year to money laundering conspiracy charges and was sentenced to nearly 12 years in prison.
It’s unclear exactly when Oseguera left his job as a local police officer and continued his life of crime, but at some point in the 1990s, Mexican authorities have said he began working as an enforcer for Los Cuinis and what was then known as the Milenio cartel. He gained a reputation for his love of cockfights, also calling himself “El Señor de Los Gallos” — the lord of the roosters.
Pedestrians walk past a bus burned on the highway in Cointzio, Michoacán, on Sunday after Mexico’s president announced the death of Oseguera.
(Armando Solis / Associated Press)
A former cartel associate, Margarito “Jay” Flores, who grew up in Chicago and, along with his twin brother, Pedro, became a high-level trafficker moving large drug shipments from Mexico, recalled his first encounter with El Mencho in 2007 in Puerto Vallarta. Flores, who eventually left the cartel life and has since cooperated extensively with U.S. authorities, told The Times that he and his brother, along with their wives, were detained by Mexican federal police officers after a night out partying.
Flores said he dropped the names of several top capos trying to secure his release, but it wasn’t until he mentioned knowing El Mencho that his captors showed any reaction.
“When I said that name, all their eyes lit up,” Flores said.
Flores said that after a series of phone calls, El Mencho and a large contingent of cartel gunmen arrived and ordered the Mexican authorities to release their captives. Oseguera was small — standing barely 5 feet 6 with “the build of a jockey,” Flores said, but “confident and fearless.”
In a brief standoff with Mexican law enforcement, Flores said, Oseguera had told the chief Mexican official: “We’re all going to do this the right way, or we’re all going to die.”
The twins were released, and Oseguera sent them on their way with a convoy of sicarios — hitmen — for safekeeping. At that time he was only a local chieftain, but Flores said was not surprised that Oseguera later went on to form his own cartel.
“He ruled with violence and fear,” Flores said. “He didn’t just want to be the boss, he wanted the world to know he was the boss.”
Times staff writers Kate Linthicum and Patrick McDonnell contributed to this report.
In the fall of 2023, the California Legislature tasked the state’s fire safety regulators with writing a report that some housing affordability advocates say could make it easier to build bigger, airier and better-lit apartment buildings in California’s housing-strapped cities.
The Office of the State Fire Marshal was given until Jan. 1 to come up with a report on single-stair apartment buildings — a type of midsized multifamily development legal in much of the world, but effectively banned across most of North America.
More than a month later, single-stair advocates are still waiting on that report — though a draft version obtained by CalMatters hints that the office may be considering a modest change to the state building code.
“They were given a deadline,” said Stephen Smith, founder of the Center for Building in North America, which advocates for cost-reducing changes to building regulations.
That safety-minded code is meant to provide residents with multiple escape routes in a fire. But it has also become a focal point of criticism among a growing number of housing advocates, architects and urbanists, who say it raises the costs of multifamily construction, limits where apartments can be built, pushes developers toward darkened studios and away from family-sized apartments and provides limited health and safety benefits.
“I know there’s been a real desire among politicians in California to change the state’s image as a slow-moving state, but in this case I don’t see it,” said Smith, who was also a member of the working group of fire service professionals, building-code experts and housing advocates tasked with writing the first draft of the report for the state fire marshal. The group’s last meeting was Nov. 4.
“This report is still under review and we will publish the report as soon as it is approved for publication,” said Wes Maxey, Cal Fire’s assistant deputy director of legislation, in an email. He would not say when the report is expected to be released or what the holdup is about.
The state Legislature regularly assigns research reports of this kind to various corners of the state bureaucracy — and, as CalMatters has reported before, the state bureaucracy regularly blows past its assigned deadlines.
But the single-stair analysis has garnered considerable interest outside of Sacramento.
Rules in California (with the one, recent exception of Culver City) require apartment buildings taller than three stories to have at least two staircases connected by a hallway.
The Legislature was clearly interested in raising that height limit when it ordered the report in the first place.
“Many European countries allow buildings with single staircases and have better records on fire safety than the United States,” said Assemblymember Alex Lee, a Milpitas Democrat, urging a “yes” vote on his bill in the summer of 2023. “I believe having the fire marshal conduct the study will start the conversation about leveraging existing fire and emergency response technologies and strategies to maximize housing projects.”
Local fire marshals, fire chiefs and firefighting unions have, by and large, opposed easing staircase requirements in the building code wherever they’ve been proposed.
The final report is likely to disappoint either those organized fire services — a politically powerful constituency — or “Yes In My Backyard” advocates that have found an ally in Gov. Gavin Newsom.
A draft version of the report circulated among stakeholders in late October included a half-hearted endorsement of a change to the state building code. If the state fire marshal recommends new policy, the draft reads, the change should only be from a three-story maximum up to four. Any new four-story single-stair structures should also be restricted in size and abide by a number of other added safety-oriented restrictions, the report added.
Culver City, west of downtown Los Angeles, passed a single-stair ordinance last year to nix the second-stair requirement in certain apartment buildings up to six stories. Six stories is also the cutoff in New York City, Seattle and Honolulu. In Georgia, Vermont, Puerto Rico and Portland, Ore., the maximum is four.
The draft report, which is not final, also went out of its way to emphasize “the near unanimous feedback from California Fire Departments who are opposed to permitting single-exit stairway construction … greater than 3 stories.”
Whenever it is finalized and published, the report won’t have the force of law. But should state legislators opt to take up the issue in the future, its final recommendations are likely to carry weight with undecided lawmakers.
Southern California lost a conservation champion as the Friends of Big Bear Valley announced the death Wednesday of Sandy Steers, a biologist and the group’s executive director, at the age of 73.
The group marked Steers’ death “with heavy hearts and great sadness.” The environmental education nonprofit said it would be providing more information but asked for “time to grieve and process this sad news.”
Although Steers spearheaded many projects and fought developers who tried to build in Big Bear Valley, she was perhaps best known for her eagle advocacy.
That changed in 2009 when a male juvenile from Catalina began to nest in Big Bear during the summer. Shortly after, a pair of eagles nested on the north side, bolstering Big Bear Valley’s role as vital habitat for the birds of prey.
By the fall of 2011, the first bald eagle chick, named Jackie, hatched in the Big Bear Valley to parents Ricky and Lucy.
Friends of Big Bear Valley documented and monitored the eagles and spent two years fundraising and planning for their biggest venture: installing cameras trained on the eagles’ nest.
Steers and the Friends of Big Bear Valley turned the local nesting eagles into a sensation, with thousands of monthly fans logging in to the camera feed to keep track of the arrival of new adults and their offspring.
Jackie, the hatchling from 2011, is now the star of a 24-hour webcam that monitors her and her partner, Shadow, 145 feet up in a Jeffrey pine overlooking Big Bear Lake.
It was that inside access provided by Steers and that Friends of Big Bear Valley that kept thousands of viewers coming back.
The “Truman Show”-like window into the eagles’ lives has played a major role in their fame, but it doesn’t fully explain it. Other nest cams across the country don’t get as much attention.
Jenny Voisard, media and website manager for Friends of Big Bear Valley, chalks it up partly to Jackie’s and Shadow’s highly individual personalities. There’s also the dedication of the nonprofit and its volunteers. Steers, who once volunteered as an eagle counter for the U.S. Forest Service, became a key authority on Jackie and Shadow.
Years ago, Steers dedicated herself to keeping an eye on a newly hatched chick, watching as it grew and eventually took flight.
“She totally fell in love with this eagle,” Voisard said. That eagle is believed to be Jackie.
Roughly 25 years ago, the original anti-development nonprofit, the Friends of the Fawnskin, named for the Big Bear Lake north shore community, was formed to fight a planned area residential development. Steers, who had just moved into the area from the more developed south shore, joined the group. Most of those founders eventually segued to the newer Friends of Big Bear Valley in the 2010s.
Watch L.A. Times Today at 8 p.m. on Spectrum News 1 on Channel 1 or live stream on the Spectrum News App. Palos Verdes Peninsula and Orange County viewers can watch on Cox Systems on channel 99.
Although that effort fizzled, another found success.
In September, San Bernardino County supervisors approved the 50-home project called Moon Camp despite claims that it will take away valuable foraging areas for the raptors. San Bernardino County officials insist the project won’t harm the eagles, saying it went through “extensive environmental review” to ensure that.
The site is less than a mile from Jackie and Shadow’s nest, and would be visible from the 24-hour live cam.
Bald eagle eggs only hatch about 50% of the time, but the success rate seemed even lower in Big Bear. The camera was installed to help wildlife experts figure out what was going on, Voisard said. A second camera capturing a wider view of their habitat was added in 2021.
Today, a small squad of volunteers and contractors watch and record data on Jackie and Shadow every second of the day. Some observers are overseas to keep tabs when those in the U.S. are sleeping. They track who is in the nest and count every stick and “fluff” delivery. They document eagle calls, mating and all things egg.
The nonprofit also keeps a public-facing “eagle log,” which provides updates on what the power couple is up to, along with analysis of their behaviors and educational tidbits.
Steers “believed that having a balance of story, and science is the way to reach people,” Voisard said. “This was all her vision.”
The fandom transcends nationality, religion, age and political persuasion, she said. Many schools use the nest cam as an educational tool, introducing kids to Jackie and Shadow. Older and disabled watchers are able to connect to nature they may not be able to easily access. Some emergency room workers watch to unwind from their stressful jobs.
As for Steers, the renaissance woman had a bachelor’s degree in biology from UCLA, but her interests took her in numerous directions.
“She worked for NASA, led tours in the Galapagos and ran a technology consulting company,” Voisard told The Times. “She also was a screenwriter and author.”
She was a practitioner of Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP), the Inca tradition of Shamanic Healing and believed in past lives.
Her spiritually was formed after she recovered from Stage 4 cancer through the use of alternative techniques, according to her website.
Steers will long be remembered for her connection with and support of Jackie and Shadow. She spoke with The Times in 2024 about the lessons the pair had for the fans of their webcam.
They “are extremely resilient and strong. … I like to think they’re teaching people resilience and to take things as they come.”
Staff writer Clara Harter contributed to this report.
Los Angeles Archbishop José H. Gomez celebrated what he called a “Mass for Peace” at Our Lady of the Angels on Wednesday, stopping just short of a direct appeal to the Trump administration to draw down its aggressive immigration enforcement efforts as protesters gathered blocks away.
“We are united with everybody in our country praying for peace, and specifically praying for immigrants in our country,” Gomez said during an address from the pulpit Wednesday afternoon.
“Today, we especially pray for our government leaders, for the law enforcement officers and for those protesting and defending the immigrant families in this struggle here in Los Angeles.”
As police helicopters buzzed overhead monitoring the demonstration nearby, the archbishop called on God to “awaken again the conscience of Americans.”
Parishioners fill the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels for a Mass led by Archbishop José H. Gomez.
(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)
His remarks coincided with a student walkout, with teen protesters converging on the Metropolitan Detention Center about a mile away.
More than 500 students carrying signs and draped in flags gathered at the intersection of Aliso and Los Angeles streets and marched to the jail, where a swarm of police stood behind yellow caution tape.
Kiro Perez, a freshman from Robert F. Kennedy Community Schools, held a sign above her faded green hair that read, “My parents work more than the President.”
“I’m fighting for my father, my mom, my siblings and everyone else,” Kiro said.
After working for more than a decade, her father had his application for a green card approved less than two years ago, Kiro said. She said that for months, he has obsessively checked ICE activity and has lived in fear.
“I don’t want him to feel scared anymore,” she said.
Los Angeles is the largest archdiocese in the United States, home to 3.8 million Catholics. A plurality of the faithful are immigrants and the overwhelming majority are Latino. Born in Mexico, Gomez is the first Latino person to serve as archbishop of Los Angeles, and the highest-ranking Latino bishop in the United States, according to the church.
Faith leaders have increasingly been at odds with the president, despite longtime strategic alignment between the administration and the ascendant conservative wing of American Catholicism.
Archbishop José H. Gomez leads Mass on Wednesday.
(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times )
“I don’t know if anyone’s OK with what’s happening right now,” said Isaac Cuevas, the archdiocese senior director of life, justice and peace. “We shouldn’t be these kinds of people.”
The region’s Catholic institutions responded to last year’s aggressive raids with an outpouring of charity, reorganizing many food pantries around grocery delivery and ministering directly to communities many described as under siege.
But the political response was more muted. Some clergy members joined protests, but the church largely shied from similar action at the highest levels.
A nun makes her way through the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels on Wednesday.
(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)
“It breaks my heart, because I’m an immigrant,” said Lupita Sanchez, a Franciscan nun who joined the Mass on Wednesday. “The only way that we can help the world is by praying.”
Prayer was at the heart of Gomez’s message Wednesday as well. But other Catholics were more critical.
“The clergy who are the boots on the ground were out there from Day One, not only doing charity but working for justice,” said Catholic activist Rosa Manriquez. “We now have quite a few bishops and cardinals coming out and being present, which is very important. As far as our archdiocese is concerned — not so much.”
Gomez is a longtime member of Opus Dei, a conservative Catholic movement with deep ties to the Trump administration.
Vice President JD Vance underwent a 2019 conversion steeped in some of the group’s most prominent thinkers. The late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia was a member, and five of the nine sitting justices are conservative Catholics with ties to the group.
Members of the Catholic Church fill the cathedral.
(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)
Trump’s newest 9th Circuit appointee, Eric Tung, also converted under the movement’s influence.
“During the time of the rise of this regime, our archbishop was the president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops,” Manriquez said. “Their silence enabled this. You can’t argue with the statistics of how many Catholics voted for this regime.”
In the 2024 election, 1 in 5 Trump voters identified as Catholic, a Pew Research Center study found.
Pope Leo XIV, shown leading a Mass in December, has forcefully condemned the Trump administration’s aggressive tactics.
(Chris McGrath / Getty Images)
Pope Leo XIV, who became bishop of Rome after Pope Francis’ death last spring, has forcefully condemned the administration’s aggressive tactics, calling them “extremely disrespectful.” Last fall, the powerful U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops voted overwhelmingly in support of a “special message” decrying militarized immigration enforcement and pleading for reform.
“To our immigrant brothers and sisters, we stand with you in your suffering,” they wrote. “We oppose the indiscriminate mass deportation of people.”
Times staff writer Christopher Buchanan contributed to this report.
Aloka the Peace Dog was reunited with the Walk for Peace monks for the first time since undergoing leg surgery following an injury during the 2,300-mile Walk for Peace in early January. The reunion happened in Charlotte, North Carolina, where Aloka briefly appeared in front of supporters during the group’s lunch stop. He appeared to be in good spirits. The monks say his spirits remain high and he is healing well. “We are happy to share that Aloka is recovering very well from his surgery,” the group wrote on a Facebook post after his surgery.Video below: More about the Walk for Peace and the monks’ stop in North CarolinaA team at the Charleston Veterinary Referral Center in Charleston, South Carolina, performed the surgery and assisted Aloka through the early stages of his recovery.The monks say Aloka received a professional therapy massage and red-light therapy. He will not be walking with the group for now so he can continue healing.Find a map of the monks’ path on sister statin WXII’s website.
Aloka the Peace Dog was reunited with the Walk for Peace monks for the first time since undergoing leg surgery following an injury during the 2,300-mile Walk for Peace in early January.
The reunion happened in Charlotte, North Carolina, where Aloka briefly appeared in front of supporters during the group’s lunch stop. He appeared to be in good spirits.
The monks say his spirits remain high and he is healing well. “We are happy to share that Aloka is recovering very well from his surgery,” the group wrote on a Facebook post after his surgery.
Video below: More about the Walk for Peace and the monks’ stop in North Carolina
A team at the Charleston Veterinary Referral Center in Charleston, South Carolina, performed the surgery and assisted Aloka through the early stages of his recovery.
The monks say Aloka received a professional therapy massage and red-light therapy. He will not be walking with the group for now so he can continue healing.
Protesters gather outside Orlando City Hall after ICE fatally shoots Minneapolis woman
AND THERE HAVE BEEN PROTESTS ERUPTING ACROSS THE COUNTRY AFTER THIS. THIS IS A LOOK AT DEMONSTRATIONS IN LOUISIANA AND NEW YORK. AND EVEN HERE IN CENTRAL FLORIDA. THE GROUP ORLANDO, 5150, RALLIED OUTSIDE OF ORLANDO CITY HALL TONIGHT PROTESTING THE MINNEAPOLIS SHOOTING. WESH 2’S TONY ATKINS IS THERE LIVE RIGHT NOW? TONY. THE GROUP ORGANIZED A PROTEST JUST HOURS BEFORE IT HAPPENED. YEAH. JESSE. TONIGHT THEY CALLED IT AN EMERGENCY PROTEST. ABOUT FOUR DOZEN DEMONSTRATORS GATHERED OUTSIDE CITY HALL HERE. IN RESPONSE TO THAT ICE INVOLVED SHOOTING. THAT HAPPENED MORE THAN 1500 MILES NORTH IN MINNESOTA. COCO TRUMP AND I HAVE GOT TO GO. HEY, HEY! HO HO. A GROUP OF DEMONSTRATORS GATHERED OUTSIDE ORLANDO CITY HALL DECRYING ICE AND ITS PRESENCE OVER THE COURSE OF THE PAST YEAR. TRUMP AND THE BILLIONAIRE CRONIES WILL STOP AT NOTHING FROM USING ICE AS A SWORD AGAINST THE WORKING CLASS. THE UPROAR COMES AFTER A 37 YEAR OLD WOMAN WAS SHOT AND KILLED BY AN ICE AGENT DURING A PROTEST WEDNESDAY. THE NEWS, EMOTIONAL FOR PASTOR SARAH ROBINSON, WHO JOINED THE ORLANDO DEMONSTRATION. YOU KNOW, IT’S THE REASON I BECAME A PASTOR. NO. KNOW I STAIN OUR STREETS TO LOVE PEOPLE. WELL, THERE’S NO PEACE TO CARE FOR OUR COMMUNITIES, TO MAKE THRIVING. FLOURISHING COMMUNITIES. WHAT’S HAPPENING NOW IS SO ANTITHETICAL TO THAT. STAND UP. FIGHT BACK. WEDNESDAY’S PROTEST WAS ORGANIZED 2.5 HOURS BEFORE IT HAPPENED IN DOWNTOWN ORLANDO. ORGANIZERS CALLING IT AN EMERGENCY PROTEST. THIS PERSON WAS SHOT AT POINT BLANK RANGE IN A HIGHLY STRESSFUL SITUATION, AND THE ICE AGENTS HAD NO JUSTIFICATION WHATSOEVER FOR THIS KILLING. EVERYONE IS HERE BECAUSE OF THEIR LOVE FOR OTHERS. THAT’S WHY WE’RE HERE. AND THIS IS OUR LOVE. OUT LOUD. AND ORGANIZERS SAY THEY’RE GOING TO CONTINUE TO DEMONSTRATE AS THEY CONTINUE TO PUSH FOR CHANGE FOLLOWING THIS DEADLY SHOOTING. I’M COVERING ORANGE COUNTY LIVE IN DOWNTOWN ORLANDO AT CITY HALL. TONY ATKINS WESH TWO NEWS. ALL RIGHT, TONY, THANK YOU. NOW, THIS SHOOTING, EXPERTS SAY, WILL HAVE IMPACTS ON IMMIGRATION ENFORCEMENT NATIONWIDE. THOSE ARE YET TO BE SEEN. OF COURSE, WE’RE GOING TO CONTINUE FOLLOWING ALL OF THIS
Protesters gather outside Orlando City Hall after ICE fatally shoots Minneapolis woman
A protest was organized outside of Orlando City Hall at approximately 5:45 p.m. on Wednesday, where people gathered to repudiate the fatal shooting of a woman in Minneapolis by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer.Groups including Orlando 50501, The Family Support Network, the Immigrants Are Welcomed Here Coalition and the Hope Community Center, will be there.>> This is a developing story and will be updated as new information is released.
ORLANDO, Fla. —
A protest was organized outside of Orlando City Hall at approximately 5:45 p.m. on Wednesday, where people gathered to repudiate the fatal shooting of a woman in Minneapolis by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer.
Groups including Orlando 50501, The Family Support Network, the Immigrants Are Welcomed Here Coalition and the Hope Community Center, will be there.
>> This is a developing story and will be updated as new information is released.
An Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer shot and killed a Minneapolis driver on Wednesday during the Trump administration’s latest immigration crackdown on a major American city — a shooting that federal officials said was an act of self-defense but that the city’s mayor described as “reckless” and unnecessary.LIVE video above: Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz holds press conference on deadly ICE shootingThe woman was shot in a residential neighborhood south of downtown Minneapolis, just a few blocks from some of the oldest immigrant markets and about a mile (1.6 kilometers) from where George Floyd was killed by police in 2020. Her killing quickly drew a crowd of angry protesters.Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, during a visit to Texas, described the incident as an “act of domestic terrorism” carried out against ICE officers by a woman who “attempted to run them over and rammed them with her vehicle. An officer of ours acted quickly and defensively, shot, to protect himself and the people around him.”But Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey blasted that characterization as “garbage” and criticized the federal deployment of more than 2,000 officers to the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul as part of the immigration crackdown.“What they are doing is not to provide safety in America. What they are doing is causing chaos and distrust,” Frey said, calling on the immigration agents to leave. “They’re ripping families apart. They’re sowing chaos on our streets, and in this case, quite literally killing people.”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“They are already trying to spin this as an action of self-defense. Having seen the video myself, I wanna tell everybody directly, that is bullshit,” the mayor said.Videos taken by bystanders with different vantage points and posted to social media show an officer approaching an SUV stopped across the middle of the road, demanding the driver open the door and grabbing the handle. The SUV begins to pull forward and a different ICE officer standing in front of the vehicle pulls his weapon and immediately fires at least two shots into the SUV at close range, jumping back as the vehicle moves toward him.Video below: Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey says federal agents are “sowing chaos on our streets”It was not clear from the videos if the vehicle made contact with the officer. The SUV then sped into two cars parked on a curb nearby before crashing to a stop. Witnesses screamed obscenities, expressing shock at what they’d seen.The shooting marks a dramatic escalation of the latest in a series of immigration enforcement operations in major cities under the Trump administration. The death of the Minneapolis woman, whose name wasn’t immediately released, was at least the fifth linked to immigration crackdowns.The Twin Cities have been on edge since DHS announced Tuesday that it had launched the operation, which is at least partly tied to allegations of fraud involving Somali residents. During her Texas visit, Noem confirmed that DHS had deployed more than 2,000 officers to the area and said they had already made “hundreds and hundreds” of arrests.Video above: Witness describes Minneapolis shooting involving ICE officerMinneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara briefly described the shooting to reporters but, unlike federal officials, gave no indication that the 37-year-old driver was trying to harm anyone. He said she had been shot in the head.“This woman was in her vehicle and was blocking the roadway on Portland Avenue. … At some point a federal law enforcement officer approached her on foot and the vehicle began to drive off,” the chief said. “At least two shots were fired. The vehicle then crashed on the side of the roadway.”A large throng of protesters gathered at the scene after the shooting, where they vented their anger at the local and federal officers who were there, including Gregory Bovino, a senior U.S. Customs and Border Patrol official who has been the face of crackdowns in Los Angeles, Chicago and elsewhere.In a scene that hearkened back to the Los Angeles and Chicago crackdowns, bystanders heckled the officers and blew whistles that have become ubiquitous during the operations.“Shame! Shame! Shame!” and “ICE out of Minnesota!” they loudly chanted from behind the police tape.For nearly a year, migrant rights advocates and neighborhood activists across the Twin Cities have been preparing to mobilize in the event of an immigration enforcement surge. From houses of worship to mobile home parks, they have set up very active online networks, scanned license plates for possible federal vehicles and bought whistles and other noisemaking devices to alert neighborhoods of any enforcement presence.On Tuesday night, the Immigration Defense Network, a coalition of groups serving immigrants in Minnesota, held a training session for about 100 people who were willing to hit the streets to monitor the federal enforcement operation.
MINNEAPOLIS —
An Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer shot and killed a Minneapolis driver on Wednesday during the Trump administration’s latest immigration crackdown on a major American city — a shooting that federal officials said was an act of self-defense but that the city’s mayor described as “reckless” and unnecessary.
LIVE video above: Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz holds press conference on deadly ICE shooting
The woman was shot in a residential neighborhood south of downtown Minneapolis, just a few blocks from some of the oldest immigrant markets and about a mile (1.6 kilometers) from where George Floyd was killed by police in 2020. Her killing quickly drew a crowd of angry protesters.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, during a visit to Texas, described the incident as an “act of domestic terrorism” carried out against ICE officers by a woman who “attempted to run them over and rammed them with her vehicle. An officer of ours acted quickly and defensively, shot, to protect himself and the people around him.”
But Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey blasted that characterization as “garbage” and criticized the federal deployment of more than 2,000 officers to the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul as part of the immigration crackdown.
“What they are doing is not to provide safety in America. What they are doing is causing chaos and distrust,” Frey said, calling on the immigration agents to leave. “They’re ripping families apart. They’re sowing chaos on our streets, and in this case, quite literally killing people.”
“They are already trying to spin this as an action of self-defense. Having seen the video myself, I wanna tell everybody directly, that is bullshit,” the mayor said.
Videos taken by bystanders with different vantage points and posted to social media show an officer approaching an SUV stopped across the middle of the road, demanding the driver open the door and grabbing the handle. The SUV begins to pull forward and a different ICE officer standing in front of the vehicle pulls his weapon and immediately fires at least two shots into the SUV at close range, jumping back as the vehicle moves toward him.
Video below: Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey says federal agents are “sowing chaos on our streets”
It was not clear from the videos if the vehicle made contact with the officer. The SUV then sped into two cars parked on a curb nearby before crashing to a stop. Witnesses screamed obscenities, expressing shock at what they’d seen.
The shooting marks a dramatic escalation of the latest in a series of immigration enforcement operations in major cities under the Trump administration. The death of the Minneapolis woman, whose name wasn’t immediately released, was at least the fifth linked to immigration crackdowns.
The Twin Cities have been on edge since DHS announced Tuesday that it had launched the operation, which is at least partly tied to allegations of fraud involving Somali residents. During her Texas visit, Noem confirmed that DHS had deployed more than 2,000 officers to the area and said they had already made “hundreds and hundreds” of arrests.
Video above: Witness describes Minneapolis shooting involving ICE officer
Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara briefly described the shooting to reporters but, unlike federal officials, gave no indication that the 37-year-old driver was trying to harm anyone. He said she had been shot in the head.
“This woman was in her vehicle and was blocking the roadway on Portland Avenue. … At some point a federal law enforcement officer approached her on foot and the vehicle began to drive off,” the chief said. “At least two shots were fired. The vehicle then crashed on the side of the roadway.”
A large throng of protesters gathered at the scene after the shooting, where they vented their anger at the local and federal officers who were there, including Gregory Bovino, a senior U.S. Customs and Border Patrol official who has been the face of crackdowns in Los Angeles, Chicago and elsewhere.
In a scene that hearkened back to the Los Angeles and Chicago crackdowns, bystanders heckled the officers and blew whistles that have become ubiquitous during the operations.
“Shame! Shame! Shame!” and “ICE out of Minnesota!” they loudly chanted from behind the police tape.
For nearly a year, migrant rights advocates and neighborhood activists across the Twin Cities have been preparing to mobilize in the event of an immigration enforcement surge. From houses of worship to mobile home parks, they have set up very active online networks, scanned license plates for possible federal vehicles and bought whistles and other noisemaking devices to alert neighborhoods of any enforcement presence.
On Tuesday night, the Immigration Defense Network, a coalition of groups serving immigrants in Minnesota, held a training session for about 100 people who were willing to hit the streets to monitor the federal enforcement operation.
A federal officer shot and killed a Minneapolis motorist when she allegedly tried to run over law enforcement officers during an immigration crackdown in the city, authorities said Wednesday.The Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer shot the woman in her vehicle in a residential neighborhood in Minneapolis, Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement.Livestream above: Officials speak at press conference on shooting of woman by ICE agent in MinneapolisThe shooting marks a dramatic escalation of the latest in a series of immigration enforcement operations in major American cities under the Trump administration. The woman is at least the fifth person killed in a handful of states since 2024.The Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul have been on edge since DHS announced Tuesday that it had launched the operation, with 2,000 agents and officers expected to participate in the crackdown tied in part to allegations of fraud involving Somali residents.A large throng of protesters gathered at the scene after Wednesday’s shooting, where they vented their anger at the local and federal officers who were there, including Gregory Bovino, a senior U.S. Customs and Border Patrol official who has been the face of crackdowns in Los Angeles, Chicago and elsewhere.In a scene similar to the Los Angeles and Chicago crackdowns, bystanders heckled the officers and blew whistles that have become ubiquitous during the crackdowns.“Shame! Shame! Shame!” and “ICE out of Minnesota!” they loudly chanted from behind the police tape.After the shooting, Mayor Jacob Frey said immigration agents were “causing chaos in our city.”“We are demanding ICE leave the city and state immediately. We stand rock solid with our immigrant and refugee communities,” Frey said on social media.The area where the shooting occurred is a modest neighborhood south of downtown Minneapolis, just a few blocks from some of the oldest immigrant markets in the area and a mile from where George Floyd was killed by police in 2020.The Immigration Defense Network, a coalition of groups serving immigrants in Minnesota, held a training session Tuesday night for about 100 people who are willing to hit the streets to monitor the federal enforcement.“I feel like I’m an ordinary person, and I have the ability do something so I need to do it,” Mary Moran told KMSP-TV. Dell’Orto reported from St. Paul, Minnesota. Associated Press reporter Ed White in Detroit contributed.
MINNEAPOLIS —
A federal officer shot and killed a Minneapolis motorist when she allegedly tried to run over law enforcement officers during an immigration crackdown in the city, authorities said Wednesday.
The Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer shot the woman in her vehicle in a residential neighborhood in Minneapolis, Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement.
Livestream above: Officials speak at press conference on shooting of woman by ICE agent in Minneapolis
The shooting marks a dramatic escalation of the latest in a series of immigration enforcement operations in major American cities under the Trump administration. The woman is at least the fifth person killed in a handful of states since 2024.
The Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul have been on edge since DHS announced Tuesday that it had launched the operation, with 2,000 agents and officers expected to participate in the crackdown tied in part to allegations of fraud involving Somali residents.
A large throng of protesters gathered at the scene after Wednesday’s shooting, where they vented their anger at the local and federal officers who were there, including Gregory Bovino, a senior U.S. Customs and Border Patrol official who has been the face of crackdowns in Los Angeles, Chicago and elsewhere.
In a scene similar to the Los Angeles and Chicago crackdowns, bystanders heckled the officers and blew whistles that have become ubiquitous during the crackdowns.
“Shame! Shame! Shame!” and “ICE out of Minnesota!” they loudly chanted from behind the police tape.
After the shooting, Mayor Jacob Frey said immigration agents were “causing chaos in our city.”
“We are demanding ICE leave the city and state immediately. We stand rock solid with our immigrant and refugee communities,” Frey said on social media.
The area where the shooting occurred is a modest neighborhood south of downtown Minneapolis, just a few blocks from some of the oldest immigrant markets in the area and a mile from where George Floyd was killed by police in 2020.
The Immigration Defense Network, a coalition of groups serving immigrants in Minnesota, held a training session Tuesday night for about 100 people who are willing to hit the streets to monitor the federal enforcement.
“I feel like I’m an ordinary person, and I have the ability do something so I need to do it,” Mary Moran told KMSP-TV.
Dell’Orto reported from St. Paul, Minnesota. Associated Press reporter Ed White in Detroit contributed.
Two leaders of a group described as “cult-like” by authorities in the Inland Empire have been arrested along with a prominent member on suspicion of murder amid multiple investigations into the disappearance of two former members and the death of a 4-year-old boy many years ago.
Darryl Muzic Martin, 58, who identifies himself as the pastor of His Way Spirit Led Assemblies, and Shelley Bailey “Kat” Martin, 62, who refers to herself as a prophetess and a gifted oracle, have been arrested on suspicion of murder along with member Rudy Moreno, 43, according to Redlands police.
The leaders of the group have been under investigation in connection with the disappearance of former member Emilio Ghanem in May 2023 after visiting a Redlands Starbucks. Separately, Claremont police are investigating the disappearance of Moreno’s brother, Ruben, who was also a member, while Colton police have been probing the death of 4-year-old Timothy Thomas in 2010, who was in the Martins’ custody when he died after not receiving medical treatment.
Authorities have yet to explain whom they allege each person killed. But Darryl Martin’s booking records in the Riverside County jail show he was held on allegations of murder, possession of a machine gun, and explosives. His wife was booked in the San Bernardino County jail on suspicion of murder and possession of a machine gun. Moreno was booked on suspicion of second-degree murder, possession of a firearm by a felon, and possession of a machine gun. The arrests occurred Thursday morning.
On Aug. 6, Redlands police, with help from the FBI, swarmed the current base of His Way Spirit Led Assemblies in Hemet as part of the investigation into the disappearance of Ghanem.
Emilio Ghanem was reported missing in May 2023.
(Redlands Police Department)
Four residents were briefly detained, with two booked on unrelated weapons charges, police said. Several illegal firearms — converted fully automatic rifles, short-barreled rifles and unserialized ghost guns, were recovered.
Police conducted a similar raid on Aug. 12 at a remote compound connected to the group in the Riverside County town of Anza, where they briefly detained eight people and recovered electronic devices and other digital evidence, according to Redlands Police Department spokesperson Carl Baker.
Officers at that time also detained the Martins at a motel in Laguna Hills but ultimately released them without seeking any criminal charges.
But the investigation did not stop.
Authorities began giving the group a closer look last year, after Ghanem had disappeared and investigators found the truck he’d been driving along with other evidence that led them to believe a homicide may have occurred.
Ghanem joined His Way Spirit Led Assemblies around 2000 and helped launch a pest control business run by the group, called Fullshield Inc., his sister, Jennifer Ghanem, said.
For many years, he lived in one of the group’s Colton homes.
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A California religious group that police describe as ‘cult-like’ has landed in the spotlight after a 4-year-old boy died and two members disappeared.
In April 2023, Ghanem left both the religious group and the company it operated, MaxGuard, behind and moved to Nashville to reunite with his family. Ghanem started his own pest control company, then returned to the Inland Empire to open a satellite office to win back some of his old clients before he disappeared.
While Redlands police were looking into Ghanem’s disappearance, over the summer Claremont police announced that another missing man, Ruben Moreno, had been affiliated with the group. Moreno was reported missing in 2019.
As word of the Redlands police investigation spread, Colton police renewed its investigation into the death of 4-year-old Timothy Thomas on Jan. 16, 2010 — after he died within an hour of the 911 call, according to the coroner’s report. He was in the custody of Darryl and Shelley Martin at the time.
Authorities are investigating the circumstances surrounding the January 2010 death of Timothy Thomas.
(Colton Police Department)
Timothy’s cause of death was ruled to be septic shock due to a ruptured appendix, according to the coroner’s report. Detectives suspect neglect also played a role, according to Colton detectives.
Police recommended charges against the Martins in 2010, but the San Bernardino County district attorney’s office declined to prosecute.
Neither the Martins nor their attorney has responded to The Times’ inquiries.
Timothy Thomas was staying with members of His Way Spirit Led Assemblies in Colton when he suffered a medical emergency, authorities say.
(Daniel Flesher / LA Times Studios)
When Timothy died, group members were uncooperative with the investigation and gave conflicting testimony, making it challenging to prosecute the case, authorities said.
At the time, then-Det. Jack Morenberg, who was investigating, expressed concern over allegations of child abuse and said the home had the appearance of a possible “‘cult-like’ ministry,” according to the coroner’s investigative report.
As part of the probe, Darryl Martin told police that Timothy’s parents had given him and his wife temporary custody of their three children because their mother had problems and couldn’t provide a stable home, according to the report. One of Timothy’s aunts told police that the Martins would not allow the boy’s mother to see him, or her other children.
A second aunt felt that Darryl Martin was responsible for Timothy’s death and reported this to Colton police and child protective services in an effort to get the boy’s two remaining siblings removed from the house, according to the report. That aunt said that Martin had instructed Timothy not to vomit and “showed him how to place his hand over his mouth to stop the vomit from coming out,” the report states.
Since Timothy’s death, several members have parted ways with the group and recently revised their statements to Colton police, saying that their original testimony was made under duress from the group’s leaders, Colton police Sgt. Shawn McFarland told The Times recently.
In September, Colton police officials said they planned to resubmit the death investigation to prosecutors based on new evidence.
Because of the statute of limitations, McFarland said, the only charge available to pursue is child homicide or murder.
WASHINGTON — Justice Department leadership has directed the FBI to “compile a list of groups or entities engaged in acts that may constitute domestic terrorism” by the start of next year, and to establish a “cash reward system” that incentivizes individuals to report on their fellow Americans, according to a memo reviewed by The Times.
Law enforcement agencies are directed in the memo, dated Dec. 4, to identify “domestic terrorists” who use violence, or the threat of violence, to advance political and social agendas, including “adherence to radical gender ideology, anti-Americanism, anti-capitalism, or anti-Christianity.”
Although the memo does not mention protests against President Trump’s immigration crackdown directly, it says that problematic “political and social agendas” could include “opposition to law and immigration enforcement, extreme views in favor of mass migration and open borders.”
The memo, sent by Atty, Gen. Pam Bondi to federal prosecutors and law enforcement agencies, follows on a presidential memorandum signed by Trump in the immediate aftermath of the killing of Charlie Kirk, a prominent conservative figure, that gave civil rights groups pause over the potential targeting of political activists, donors and nonprofits opposed to the president.
The memo also outlines what it says are causes of domestic terrorist activity, including “hostility towards traditional views on family, religion, and morality.”
“Federal law enforcement will prioritize this threat. Where federal crime is encountered, federal agents will act,” the memo states.
Some national security experts said the memo represents a dramatic operational shift, by directing federal prosecutors and agents to approach domestic terrorism in a way that is “ideologically one-sided.” At worst, critics said, the memo provides legal justification for criminalizing free speech.
“I think this causes a chilling impact, because it definitely seems to be directing enforcement toward particular points of view,” Mary McCord, a former acting assistant attorney general for national security, said in an interview.
The memo, for example, primarily focuses on antifa-aligned extremism, but omits other trends that in recent years have been identified as rising domestic threats, such as violent white supremacy. Since Trump resumed office, the FBI has cut its office designated to focus on domestic extremism, withdrawing resources from investigations into white supremacists and right-wing antigovernment groups.
The memo’s push to collect intelligence on antifa through internal lists and public tip lines also raised questions over the scope of the investigative mission, and how wide a net investigators might cast.
“Whether you’re going to a protest, whether you’re considering a piece of legislation, whether you’re considering undertaking a particular business activity, the ambiguity will affect your risk profile,” Thomas Brzozowski, a former counsel for domestic terrorism at the Justice Department, said in an interview.
“It is the unknown that people will fear,” he added.
Protesters in 1980s style aerobic outfits work out during a demonstration dubbed “Sweatin’ Out the Fascists” on Sunday in Portland, Ore.
(Natalie Behring / Getty Images)
Groups such as the American Civil Liberties Union have expressed alarm over the new policy, which could be used by the Justice Department to target civil society groups and Democratic individuals and entities with burdensome investigations.
But the White House argues that Democratic appointees under the Biden administration targeted conservative extremists in similar ways.
Members of Trump’s team have embraced political retribution as a policy course. Ed Martin, the president’s pardon attorney, has openly advocated for Justice Department investigations that would burden who Trump perceives as his enemies, alongside leniency for his friends and allies.
“No MAGA left behind,” Martin wrote on social media in May.
Law enforcement agencies are directed in the memo to “zealously” investigate those involved in what it calls potential domestic terrorist actions, including “doxing” law enforcement. Authorities are also directed to “map the full network of culpable actors” potentially tied to crime.
Domestic terrorism is not an official designation in U.S. law. But the directive cites over two dozen existing laws that could substantiate charges against domestic extremists and their supporters, such as conspiracy to injure an officer, seditious conspiracy and mail and wire fraud.
Only in a footnote of the memo does the Justice Department acknowledge that the U.S. government cannot “investigate, collect, or maintain information on U.S. persons solely for the purpose of monitoring activities protected by the First Amendment.”
“No investigation may be opened based solely on activities protected by the First Amendment or the lawful exercise of rights secured by the Constitution or laws of the United States,” the footnote says.
Some tension could arise when citizens report what they believe to be suspected domestic terrorism to the FBI.
The memo directs the FBI online tip line to allow “witnesses and citizen journalists” to report videos, recordings and photos of what they believe to be suspected acts of domestic violence, and establish a “cash reward system” for information that leads to an arrest.
“People will inform because they want to get paid,” Brzozowski said. He added that some information could end up being unreliable and likely be related to other Americans exercising their constitutional rights.
State and local law enforcement agencies that adhere to the Justice Department directive will be prioritized for federal grant funding.
A man dressed as a bee participates in the No Kings Day of Peaceful Action in downtown Los Angeles on Oct. 18.
(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)
One of the directives in the memo would require the FBI to disseminate an “intelligence bulletin on Antifa and Antifa-aligned anarchist violent extremist groups” early next year.
“The bulletin should describe the relevant organizations structures, funding sources, and tactics so that law enforcement partners can effectively investigate and policy makers can effectively understand the nature and gravity of the threat posed by these extremist groups,” the memo states.
The mission will cross several agencies, with the FBI working alongside joint terrorism task forces nationwide, as well as the Counterterrorism Division and the National Threat Operations Center, among others, to provide updates to Justice Department leadership every 30 days.
The Orlando Dreamers group, which has spent years pushing for MLB expansion or relocation to the region, is using the high-profile gathering to continue its pitch.The meetings, which conclude Thursday, bring together team executives, owners and league officials from across baseball.The group shared on social media that its representatives were on site this week, including Hall of Famer Barry Larkin, who serves as a partner and ambassador for the Dreamers.“Since they were in our backyard, we thought it would be a good idea to get our information out there,” Larkin told WESH 2 News.Larkin said he spent the past several days meeting with team owners, fans and MLB executives, stressing that Orlando is prepared should the league decide to expand or relocate a franchise. He added that many around baseball are noting how seriously Orlando is positioning itself.“I wasn’t really surprised by how many people didn’t realize Orlando was a true player in all of this,” he said. “It’ll be interesting now to see what cities are a potential for expansion or relocation.”Larkin said the group’s financing model could also set Orlando apart.“Another thing about this that’s very unique is that there’s financing in place, where an ownership group will not be encumbered with providing financing for a stadium,” he said.Earlier this year, the Dreamers attempted to pursue ownership of the Tampa Bay Rays before the franchise was sold to a Jacksonville-based group. Larkin said the Dreamers have continued to make progress behind the scenes as they wait for the right opportunity.“There’s only so many things that we can control,” he said. “And what we can control, I think we’ve done a pretty good job of pushing that forward.”Dreamers co-founder Kim Schnorf said conversations at the winter meetings reinforced the group’s belief that it’s now a matter of when — not if — the league is ready to move forward with expansion.For now, the group says it will continue its push as MLB weighs its next steps.
ORLANDO, Fla. —
The Orlando Dreamers group, which has spent years pushing for MLB expansion or relocation to the region, is using the high-profile gathering to continue its pitch.
The meetings, which conclude Thursday, bring together team executives, owners and league officials from across baseball.
The group shared on social media that its representatives were on site this week, including Hall of Famer Barry Larkin, who serves as a partner and ambassador for the Dreamers.
“Since they were in our backyard, we thought it would be a good idea to get our information out there,” Larkin told WESH 2 News.
Larkin said he spent the past several days meeting with team owners, fans and MLB executives, stressing that Orlando is prepared should the league decide to expand or relocate a franchise. He added that many around baseball are noting how seriously Orlando is positioning itself.
“I wasn’t really surprised by how many people didn’t realize Orlando was a true player in all of this,” he said. “It’ll be interesting now to see what cities are a potential for expansion or relocation.”
Larkin said the group’s financing model could also set Orlando apart.
“Another thing about this that’s very unique is that there’s financing in place, where an ownership group will not be encumbered with providing financing for a stadium,” he said.
Earlier this year, the Dreamers attempted to pursue ownership of the Tampa Bay Rays before the franchise was sold to a Jacksonville-based group. Larkin said the Dreamers have continued to make progress behind the scenes as they wait for the right opportunity.
“There’s only so many things that we can control,” he said. “And what we can control, I think we’ve done a pretty good job of pushing that forward.”
Dreamers co-founder Kim Schnorf said conversations at the winter meetings reinforced the group’s belief that it’s now a matter of when — not if — the league is ready to move forward with expansion.
For now, the group says it will continue its push as MLB weighs its next steps.
A pro-housing group sued Gov. Newsom on Wednesday over his decision to restrict SB 9, a housing law that allows owners to parcel up their properties, in the wake of the January fires.
YIMBY Law, a San Francisco-based organization, alleges that Newsom’s executive order over the summer allowing cities to suspend SB 9 is a constitutional overreach and violates the California Emergency Services Act, which states that emergency powers can only be used to mitigate ongoing disasters, not potential ones.
It’s the latest chapter in the fight over how much density should be allowed in the rebuilding of fire-stricken communities such as Altadena and Pacific Palisades.
Proponents of SB 9, a 2021 state law that allows homeowners to split single-family lots into as many as four properties, claim it’s a valuable tool to address the housing crisis by adding density. They also claim it’s a resource for fire victims hoping to sell their properties, since land that can be subdivided is more valuable than a single-family lot.
Critics claim that the density afforded by SB 9 would destroy the character of single-family neighborhoods, while also slowing down evacuations in fire-prone areas by packing in more homes and residents.
Newsom sided with the critics in July, signing an executive order allowing L.A.-area governments to suspend SB 9. Many took him up on the offer immediately, including Mayor Bass, as well as officials in Pasadena, Malibu and L.A. County. All are named in the lawsuit along with Gov. Newsom.
“SB 9 adds housing and flexibility,” said YIMBY Law executive director Sonja Trauss. “We want everyone to be able to rebuild, but suspending SB 9 devalues those properties.”
Trauss said many fire victims are underinsured and currently deciding whether it’s financially possible to rebuild. For many, a helpful option would be to use SB 9 to divide the lot into two, then sell one and use the money to build on the other.
She added that the move seemed out of step with Gov. Newsom’s other initiatives in the wake of the fires, including streamlining the permitting process for single-family homes and ADUs.
“If you want to build a 3,000-square-foot house and a 700-square-foot ADU, it’s easier. But if you want to build two homes as a duplex, it’s harder,” Trauss said. “It’s baffling.”
A spokesperson for Newsom defended the move in a statement.
“We will not allow outside groups — even longstanding allies — to attack the Palisades, and communities in the highest fire risk areas throughout L.A. County, or undermine local flexibility after the horror of these fires,” said spokesperson Tara Gallegos. “Our obligation is to survivors, full stop. We will not negotiate that away. If defending them requires drawing firm lines, we will draw them.”
The suit was originally supposed to be filed on Monday, Dec. 8, but was delayed after potential movement from Newsom’s office to restore SB 9 in fire areas, a spokesperson for YIMBY Law said.
An agreement was never reached, and the suit was filed on Wednesday.
A Stanislaus County official confirmed Tuesday that a comedian had threatened him. County deputies have since arrested the comedian in connection with the threat.Anthony Krayenhagen faces a charge of making threats against an elected official, the Stanislaus County Sheriff’s Office said. Deputies took him into custody on Nov. 20.Channce Condit, the District 5 representative for the Stanislaus County Board of Supervisors, said Krayenhagen made the threat over the phone. He said the comedian reached out to his office and that he called Krayenhagen back on Nov. 12.Condit said that was when Krayenhagen threatened his life. The county supervisor called the sheriff’s office after the call, prompting an investigation.When asked if he attended one of Krayenhagen’s comedy shows a few months prior, Condit confirmed that he was with a group when someone from that group got into a back-and-forth with Krayenhagen.Condit said he was not part of the argument and that the comedy show is not connected with the threat made.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
MODESTO, Calif. —
A Stanislaus County official confirmed Tuesday that a comedian had threatened him. County deputies have since arrested the comedian in connection with the threat.
Anthony Krayenhagen faces a charge of making threats against an elected official, the Stanislaus County Sheriff’s Office said. Deputies took him into custody on Nov. 20.
Channce Condit, the District 5 representative for the Stanislaus County Board of Supervisors, said Krayenhagen made the threat over the phone. He said the comedian reached out to his office and that he called Krayenhagen back on Nov. 12.
Condit said that was when Krayenhagen threatened his life. The county supervisor called the sheriff’s office after the call, prompting an investigation.
When asked if he attended one of Krayenhagen’s comedy shows a few months prior, Condit confirmed that he was with a group when someone from that group got into a back-and-forth with Krayenhagen.
Condit said he was not part of the argument and that the comedy show is not connected with the threat made.
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The Volusia County Sheriff’s Office released a video showing a group of people attempting to break into a home in Deltona and then opening fire when they were unable to gain entry.The video, posted on social media, shows four individuals approaching a residence on Wainwright Street, with detectives noting that three of them appear to be carrying guns.The group tried to break into the home, and when they couldn’t, they started shooting, VCSO said.Timothy Haight told WESH 2 he lives a few hundred feet from the road where the shooting happened and heard the whole thing. Saying, “I am a night owl, so I was up at four o’clock, and my desk is right next to the back door. Just heard the gunshots like literally as if they were happening in my backyard.”VCSO said they spotted the group’s car on I-4 and followed it into Orange County before losing it.Investigators collected evidence outside the home, with evidence markers visible on the residence signifying each bullet.Neighbors reported hearing the shots around 3 a.m. Deputies confirmed that no one was hurt during the incident.The Sheriff’s Office said deputies are still pursuing leads in the case.
DELTONA, Fla. —
The Volusia County Sheriff’s Office released a video showing a group of people attempting to break into a home in Deltona and then opening fire when they were unable to gain entry.
The video, posted on social media, shows four individuals approaching a residence on Wainwright Street, with detectives noting that three of them appear to be carrying guns.
The group tried to break into the home, and when they couldn’t, they started shooting, VCSO said.
Timothy Haight told WESH 2 he lives a few hundred feet from the road where the shooting happened and heard the whole thing.
Saying, “I am a night owl, so I was up at four o’clock, and my desk is right next to the back door. Just heard the gunshots like literally as if they were happening in my backyard.”
VCSO said they spotted the group’s car on I-4 and followed it into Orange County before losing it.
Investigators collected evidence outside the home, with evidence markers visible on the residence signifying each bullet.
Neighbors reported hearing the shots around 3 a.m. Deputies confirmed that no one was hurt during the incident.
The Sheriff’s Office said deputies are still pursuing leads in the case.
A planned labor strike by University of California nurses has been called off after the university system and the nurses’ union reached a tentative deal on pay and benefits, both groups announced Sunday.
The four-year deal, between UC and the California Nurses Assn., covers some 25,000 registered nurses working across 19 UC facilities. The two groups had been bargaining over a new contract since June.
The deal follows another one announced on Nov. 8 between UC and the University Professional and Technical Employees union, which represents 21,000 healthcare, research and technical professionals across the UC system. Those groups had been negotiating a new contract for 17 months.
The nurses’ union had planned to strike Monday and Tuesday in solidarity with a third union, AFSCME 3299, which represents patient care technical workers, custodians, food service employees, security guards, secretaries and other workers at UC hospitals and campuses.
Kristan Delmarty, a registered nurse at UCLA Santa Monica and member of the nurses association’s board of directors and bargaining team, said the union “organized for and won important patient protections” in the deal — which she said nurses will vote to approve this week.
“Going into this round of bargaining, it was our priority to ensure UC nurses were given the resources to care for our patients and ourselves after years of short-staffing and under-resourcing,” she said. “We achieved our goal and now we stand together with our AFSCME colleagues, whose essential work demands the same resources guaranteed by a fair contract.”
The nurses association said thousands of its members still planned to join AFSCME picket lines “while not on work time.”
UC officials also lauded the deal. Missy Matella, associate vice president for systemwide employee and labor relations, said it “reflects the tireless work and collaboration of UC’s bargaining team, medical center leaders, and systemwide leadership working hand in hand with our dedicated nurses.”
“We’re grateful to the nurses and the CNA bargaining team for their partnership and shared commitment to what matters most: our patients and the UC community,” Matella said. “This strong, forward-looking deal honors the vital role nurses play in delivering exceptional care and advancing UC’s public service mission.”
AFSCME 3299 was still planning to strike. On Sunday morning, it posted a video to social media of members readying strike signs.
“When we show up together, we win together. This is for our families, our patients, and for the future we deserve!” the group wrote on X. “Members and allies, bring your energy, see you on the line!”
Trailblazing civil rights leader the Rev. Jesse Jackson was hospitalized in Chicago on Wednesday due to symptoms from the neurodegenerative condition progressive supranuclear palsy.
His hospitalization was confirmed in a statement by the Rainbow PUSH Coalition, a social justice organization founded by Jackson.
The 84-year-old Baptist minister and political figure has been battling the neurodegenerative condition for more than a decade, according to the statement. He was initially diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease, but the PSP diagnosis was confirmed in April.
PSP is an atypical parkinsonian disorder, a group of neurodegenerative disorders that resemble Parkinson’s disease in some motor symptoms but typically have more a rapid progression and severe prognosis.
Thea rare brain disease results from a build-up of tau protein in areas of the brain that control body movement, causing progressively degenerative symptoms including trouble balancing, inability to aim the eyes, slurred speech, loss of walking and challenges swallowing.
The civil rights leader was born in 1941 in segregated Greenville, S.C., and rose to prominence alongside the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. in the 1960s.
He advocated for corporations to hire more Black Americans through Operation PUSH and founded the Rainbow Coalition in the 1980s to unite marginalized groups and working-class voters around shared goals of social, economic and political justice as well as greater political representations. He was the first Black presidential candidate to attract major national support, winning 3.5 million votes in 1984 and 7 million in 1988.
A Christian missionary father and his daughter were killed when a small plane bound for a hurricane relief mission in Jamaica crashed in a South Florida neighborhood.Christian ministry organization Ignite the Fire identified the two victims of the Monday morning crash as the group’s founder, Alexander Wurm, 53, and his daughter Serena Wurm, 22.The pair were bringing humanitarian aid to Jamaica, according to the organization, when the Beechcraft King Air plane they were flying in crashed into a pond in a residential area of the Fort Lauderdale suburb of Coral Springs, narrowly missing homes. As of Tuesday morning, investigators had not reported any other victims. In recent weeks, Alexander Wurm had helped deliver medical supplies, water filters and StarLink satellite internet equipment to Jamaica for the relief organization Crisis Response International, according to a video statement the group posted online. “He really made a difference in the lives of the people on the ground by getting the resources in that he did. He saved lives and he gave his life,” Crisis Response International founder Sean Malone added. According to Federal Aviation Administration records, the plane was manufactured in 1976 and its registered owner is listed as International Air Services, a company that markets itself as specializing in providing trust agreements to non-U.S. citizens that enable them to register their aircraft with the FAA. A person who answered the company’s phone Monday afternoon declined to answer questions from a reporter, stating “no comment” and ending the phone call.Posts by Alexander Wurm on social media in recent days suggested the evangelist had recently acquired the plane to further his missionary work across the Caribbean, describing the aircraft as “an older King Air with brand new engines,” and “perfect” to ferry deliveries of generators, batteries and building materials to Jamaica. Photos and videos on social media show Wurm posing for a picture in the plane’s cockpit and unloading boxes of supplies from the packed aircraft with teams of volunteers.The flight tracking website FlightAware shows the plane made four other trips to or from Jamaica in the past week, traveling between George Town in the Cayman Islands and Montego Bay and Negril in Jamaica, before landing in Fort Lauderdale on Friday. A powerful Category 5 storm, Hurricane Melissa made landfall in Jamaica on Oct. 28 and tied for the strongest landfalling Atlantic hurricane in history. The storm also caused devastation in Cuba, Haiti and the Dominican Republic and prompted relief organizations to mobilize.
Christian ministry organization Ignite the Fire identified the two victims of the Monday morning crash as the group’s founder, Alexander Wurm, 53, and his daughter Serena Wurm, 22.
The pair were bringing humanitarian aid to Jamaica, according to the organization, when the Beechcraft King Air plane they were flying in crashed into a pond in a residential area of the Fort Lauderdale suburb of Coral Springs, narrowly missing homes. As of Tuesday morning, investigators had not reported any other victims.
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In recent weeks, Alexander Wurm had helped deliver medical supplies, water filters and StarLink satellite internet equipment to Jamaica for the relief organization Crisis Response International, according to a video statement the group posted online.
“He really made a difference in the lives of the people on the ground by getting the resources in that he did. He saved lives and he gave his life,” Crisis Response International founder Sean Malone added.
According to Federal Aviation Administration records, the plane was manufactured in 1976 and its registered owner is listed as International Air Services, a company that markets itself as specializing in providing trust agreements to non-U.S. citizens that enable them to register their aircraft with the FAA. A person who answered the company’s phone Monday afternoon declined to answer questions from a reporter, stating “no comment” and ending the phone call.
Posts by Alexander Wurm on social media in recent days suggested the evangelist had recently acquired the plane to further his missionary work across the Caribbean, describing the aircraft as “an older King Air with brand new engines,” and “perfect” to ferry deliveries of generators, batteries and building materials to Jamaica.
Photos and videos on social media show Wurm posing for a picture in the plane’s cockpit and unloading boxes of supplies from the packed aircraft with teams of volunteers.
The flight tracking website FlightAware shows the plane made four other trips to or from Jamaica in the past week, traveling between George Town in the Cayman Islands and Montego Bay and Negril in Jamaica, before landing in Fort Lauderdale on Friday.
A powerful Category 5 storm, Hurricane Melissa made landfall in Jamaica on Oct. 28 and tied for the strongest landfalling Atlantic hurricane in history. The storm also caused devastation in Cuba, Haiti and the Dominican Republic and prompted relief organizations to mobilize.
A man was fatally shot in Long Beach early Saturday after getting into a fight with a group of people at a local bar, police said.
The shooting happened in the 100 block of La Verne Avenue before 1:39 a.m. following an altercation earlier in the evening, according to a news release from the Long Beach Police Department. The man suspected of shooting the victim during the confrontation fled the scene in a vehicle.
Officers responded to the report of a shooting and provided medical aid until the Long Beach Fire Department arrived, but the victim died at the scene. It’s unknown whether the suspect knew the victim.
The identity of the victim has not been released because the County of Los Angeles Medical Examiner is notifying the man’s next of kin, police said.
Anyone with information about the shootingis asked to contact homicide detectives at (562) 570-7244. Anonymous tips can be sent to “LA Crime Stoppers” by calling 800-222-TIPS (8477), downloading the “P3 Tips” app on a smartphone or by visiting www.LACrimeStoppers.org.
Fullerton police said they discovered the bodies of four people inside a residence after a friend reported they had overdosed and were not breathing.
Authorities said they were called to an apartment in the 100 block of Wilshire Avenue at 11:01 a.m. on Tuesday and the bodies were discovered.
“There is no immediate threat to the public,” the police said in a statement.
Two women console each other after learning of the deaths of four softball teammates.
(KTLA-TV Channel 5)
Detectives have launched a death investigation. Authorities have not confirmed the identities of the deceased, but a friend of the group told KTLA-TV Channel 5 that they were all part of the same softball team.
Police did not confirm the deaths were a result of a drug overdose and could not immediately be reached for additional comment on Wednesday.
But drug use has become a growing concern in the county in recent years.
In Orange County, the rate of death due to opioid overdose nearly tripled from 2017 to 2021, from 7.9 deaths per 100,000 to 23.2. The largest increase occurred during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, with the overdose rate rising 88% between 2019 and 2020, according to the Orange County Health Care Agency.
