A man was shot by police at a Longwood gas station after officers responded to a mental health call that escalated into a dangerous situation on Tuesday night. The Longwood Police Department responded to a convenience store at 1001 West State Road 434 around 9:11 p.m. after reports of an armed, suicidal man inside.Once police arrived, they attempted to de-escalate the situation by speaking with the man. However, police said he did not comply and kept his hands hidden inside his waistband. Police said the man then suddenly moved his hands in a way the officer believed was threatening, causing the officer to fire his weapon and strike the man.Officers immediately provided first aid until fire rescue arrived. The man was taken to the hospital and is expected to survive. No officers were injured in the incident.The Florida Department of Law Enforcement is conducting an independent investigation, which is standard in cases like this. Longwood police said this remains an active investigation.
LONGWOOD, Fla. —
A man was shot by police at a Longwood gas station after officers responded to a mental health call that escalated into a dangerous situation on Tuesday night.
The Longwood Police Department responded to a convenience store at 1001 West State Road 434 around 9:11 p.m. after reports of an armed, suicidal man inside.
Once police arrived, they attempted to de-escalate the situation by speaking with the man.
However, police said he did not comply and kept his hands hidden inside his waistband.
Police said the man then suddenly moved his hands in a way the officer believed was threatening, causing the officer to fire his weapon and strike the man.
Officers immediately provided first aid until fire rescue arrived. The man was taken to the hospital and is expected to survive.
No officers were injured in the incident.
The Florida Department of Law Enforcement is conducting an independent investigation, which is standard in cases like this.
Longwood police said this remains an active investigation.
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!”
When it comes to Proposition 50, Marcia Owens is a bit fuzzy on the details.
She knows, vaguely, it has something to do with how California draws the boundaries for its 52 congressional districts, a convoluted and arcane process that’s not exactly top of the mind for your average person. But Owens is abundantly clear when it comes to her intent in Tuesday’s special election.
“I’m voting to take power out of Trump’s hands and put it back in the hands of the people,” said Owens, 48, a vocational nurse in Riverside. “He’s making a lot of illogical decisions that are really wreaking havoc on our country. He’s not putting our interests first, making sure that an individual has food on the table, they can pay their rent, pay electric bills, pay for healthcare.”
Peter Arensburger, a fellow Democrat who also lives in Riverside, was blunter still.
President Trump, said the 55-year-old college professor, “is trying to rule as a dictator” and Republicans are doing absolutely nothing to stop him.
So, Arensburger said, California voters will do it for them.
Or at least try.
“It’s a false equivalency,” he said, “to say that we need to do everything on an even keel in California, but Texas” — which redrew its political map to boost Republicans — “can do whatever they want.”
A reasoned attempt to even things out in response to Texas’ attempt to nab five more congressional seats. Or a ruthless gambit to drive the California GOP to near-extinction.
It all depends on your perspective.
Above all, Proposition 50 has become a political ink-blot test; what many California voters see depends on, politically, where they stand.
Mary Ann Rounsavall thinks the measure is “horrible,” because that’s how the Fontana retiree feels about its chief proponent, Gavin Newsom.
“He’s a jerk,” the 75-year-old Republican fairly spat, as if the act of forming the governor’s name left a bad taste in her mouth. “No one believes anything he says.”
Timothy, a fellow Republican who withheld his last name to avoid online trolls, echoed the sentiment.
“It’s just Gavin Newsom playing political games,” said the 39-year-old warehouse manager, who commutes from West Covina to his job at a plumbing supplier in Ontario. “They always talk about Trump. ‘Trump, Trump, Trump.’ Get off of Trump. I’ve been hearing this crap ever since he started running.”
Riverside and San Bernardino counties form the heart of the Inland Empire. The next-door neighbors are politically purple: more Republican than the state as a whole, but not as conservative as California’s more rural reaches. That means neither party has an upper hand, a parity reflected in dozens of interviews with voters across the sprawling region.
On a recent smoggy morning, the hulking San Bernardino Mountains veiled by a gray-brown haze, Eric Lawson paused to offer his thoughts.
The 66-year-old independent has no use for politicians of any stripe. “They’re all crooks,” he said. “All of them.”
Lawson called Proposition 50 a waste of time and money.
Gerrymandering — the dark art of drawing political lines to benefit one party over another — is, as he pointed out, hardly new. (In fact, the term is rooted in the name of Elbridge Gerry, one of the nation’s founders.)
What has Lawson particularly steamed is the cost of “this stupid election,” which is pushing $300 million.
“We talk and talk and talk and we print money for all this talk,” said Lawson, who lives in Ontario and consults in the auto industry. “But that money doesn’t go where it’s supposed to go.”
Although sentiments were evenly split in those several dozen conversations, all indications suggest that Proposition 50 is headed toward passage Tuesday, possibly by a wide margin. After raising a tidal wave of cash, Newsom last week told small donors that’s enough, thanks. The opposition has all but given up and resigned itself to defeat.
It comes down to math. Proposition 50 has become a test of party muscle and a talisman of partisan faith and California has a lot more Democrats and Democrat-leaning independents than Republicans and GOP-leaning independents.
Andrea Fisher, who opposes the initiative, is well aware of that fact. “I’m a conservative,” she said, “in a state that’s not very conservative.”
She has come to accept that reality, but fears things will get worse if Democrats have their way and slash California’s already-scanty Republican ranks on Capitol Hill. Among those targeted for ouster is Ken Calvert, a 16-term GOP incumbent who represents a good slice of Riverside County.
“I feel like it’s going to eliminate my voice,” said Fisher, 48, a food server at her daughter’s school in Riverside. “If I’m 40% of the vote” — roughly the percentage Trump received statewide in 2024 — “then we in that population should have fair representation. We’re still their constituents.” (In Riverside County, Trump edged Kamala Harris 49% to 48%.)
Amber Pelland says Proposition 50 will hurt voters by putting redistricting back into the hands of politicians.
(Allen J. Schaben/Los Angeles Times)
Amber Pelland, 46, who works in the nonprofit field in Corona, feels by “sticking it to Trump” — a tagline in one of the TV ads supporting Proposition 50 — voters will be sticking it to themselves. Passage would erase the political map drawn by an independent commission, which voters empowered in 2010 for the express purpose of wrestling redistricting away from self-dealing lawmakers in Washington and Sacramento.
“I don’t care if you hate the person or don’t hate the person,” said Pelland, a Republican who backs the president. “It’s just going to hurt voters by taking the power away from the people.”
Even some backers of Proposition 50 flinched at the notion of sidelining the redistricting commission and undoing its painstaking, nonpartisan work. What helps make it palatable, they said, is the requirement — written into the ballot measure — that congressional redistricting will revert to the commission after the 2030 census, when California’s next set of congressional maps is due to be drafted.
“I’m glad that it’s temporary because I don’t think redistricting should be done in order to give one political party greater power over another,” said Carole, a Riverside Democrat. “I think it’s something that should be decided over a long period and not in a rush.” (She also withheld her last name so her husband, who serves in the community, wouldn’t be hassled for her opinion.)
Texas, Carole suggested, has forced California to act because of its extreme action, redistricting at mid-decade at Trump’s command. “It’s important to think about the country as a whole,” said the 51-year-old academic researcher, “and to respond to what’s being done, especially with the pressure coming from the White House.”
Felise Self-Visnic, a 71-year-old retired schoolteacher, agreed.
She was shopping at a Trader Joe’s in Riverside in an orange ball cap that read “Human-Kind (Be Both).” Back home, in her garage-door window, is a poster that reads “No Kings.”
She described Proposition 50 as a stopgap measure that will return power to the commission once the urgency of today’s political upheaval has passed. But even if that wasn’t the case, the Democrat said, she would still vote in favor.
“Anything,” Self-Visnic said, “to fight fascism, which is where we’re heading.”
Shocking health announcement coming from the Biden family. Former President Joe Biden diagnosed with an aggressive form of prostate cancer that has spread to his bones. His personal office releasing this statement on Sunday saying Last week, President Joe Biden was seen for *** new finding of *** prostate nodule after experiencing increasing urinary symptoms. On Friday, he was diagnosed with prostate cancer. By *** Gleason score of 9 with metastasis to the bone. While this represents *** more aggressive form of the disease, the cancer appears to be hormone sensitive, which allows for effective management. The statement went on to say that the 82-year-old and his family are reviewing treatment options. The fact that we’re told that this is metastatic now, the 5 year survival rate on average is about 33%. So you know there are some people that do well and some people that don’t do well. The American Cancer Society estimates 1 in 8 men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer during their lifetime. Because there’s such *** high volume, there’s *** lot of research dedicated to its treatment. Medical experts say cancer that has spread to *** patient’s bones can add further complications. Biden, as I said, has always lived his life. In the public eye and has always thought there was *** value in showing other people going through difficult times. His former Vice President Kamala Harris posting this on X. Joe is *** fighter, and I know he will face this challenge with the same strength, resilience, and optimism that have always defined his life and leadership. We are hopeful for *** full and speedy recovery. I’m Jen Sullivan reporting.
Former President Joe Biden has started radiation therapy as part of his treatment for prostate cancer, a spokesperson for the former president told CNN.Video above from May 2025: Former President Joe Biden has been diagnosed with an “aggressive” form of prostate cancer”As part of a treatment plan for prostate cancer, President Biden is currently undergoing radiation therapy and hormone treatment,” the spokesperson said.The news was first reported by NBC News. A spokesperson for the former president, who turns 83 next month, did not give a timeline for the treatment.Biden’s personal office revealed in May that he had been diagnosed with an “aggressive form” of prostate cancer that had spread to his bones.”The expectation is we’re going to be able to beat this,” Biden told CNN in his first comments about the diagnosis two weeks after he received it. “It’s not in any organ, it’s in – my bones are strong, it hadn’t penetrated. So, I’m feeling good.”He added that he had started a pill regimen to treat the cancer.Last month, Biden had Mohs surgery, an operation used to remove skin cancer lesions. In that procedure, thin layers of skin are removed and examined under a microscope until the doctor sees no signs of skin cancer cells. It’s typically used to treat cancerous lesions that have returned after previous treatment, are fast-growing, or are in important areas like the face, hands or genitals.In 2023, while president, Biden had a lesion removed from his chest, which later tested positive for basal cell carcinoma. At the time, Dr. Kevin O’Connor, who served as Biden’s physician in the White House, said “all cancerous tissue was successfully removed” and Biden would continue “dermatological surveillance.”Basal cell carcinoma is the most common type of skin cancer. It’s slow-growing and usually curable.
Former President Joe Biden has started radiation therapy as part of his treatment for prostate cancer, a spokesperson for the former president told CNN.
Video above from May 2025: Former President Joe Biden has been diagnosed with an “aggressive” form of prostate cancer
“As part of a treatment plan for prostate cancer, President Biden is currently undergoing radiation therapy and hormone treatment,” the spokesperson said.
The news was first reported by NBC News. A spokesperson for the former president, who turns 83 next month, did not give a timeline for the treatment.
Biden’s personal office revealed in May that he had been diagnosed with an “aggressive form” of prostate cancer that had spread to his bones.
“The expectation is we’re going to be able to beat this,” Biden told CNN in his first comments about the diagnosis two weeks after he received it. “It’s not in any organ, it’s in – my bones are strong, it hadn’t penetrated. So, I’m feeling good.”
He added that he had started a pill regimen to treat the cancer.
Last month, Biden had Mohs surgery, an operation used to remove skin cancer lesions. In that procedure, thin layers of skin are removed and examined under a microscope until the doctor sees no signs of skin cancer cells. It’s typically used to treat cancerous lesions that have returned after previous treatment, are fast-growing, or are in important areas like the face, hands or genitals.
In 2023, while president, Biden had a lesion removed from his chest, which later tested positive for basal cell carcinoma. At the time, Dr. Kevin O’Connor, who served as Biden’s physician in the White House, said “all cancerous tissue was successfully removed” and Biden would continue “dermatological surveillance.”
Basal cell carcinoma is the most common type of skin cancer. It’s slow-growing and usually curable.
Shocking health announcement coming from the Biden family. Former President Joe Biden diagnosed with an aggressive form of prostate cancer that has spread to his bones. His personal office releasing this statement on Sunday saying Last week, President Joe Biden was seen for *** new finding of *** prostate nodule after experiencing increasing urinary symptoms. On Friday, he was diagnosed with prostate cancer. By *** Gleason score of 9 with metastasis to the bone. While this represents *** more aggressive form of the disease, the cancer appears to be hormone sensitive, which allows for effective management. The statement went on to say that the 82-year-old and his family are reviewing treatment options. The fact that we’re told that this is metastatic now, the 5 year survival rate on average is about 33%. So you know there are some people that do well and some people that don’t do well. The American Cancer Society estimates 1 in 8 men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer during their lifetime. Because there’s such *** high volume, there’s *** lot of research dedicated to its treatment. Medical experts say cancer that has spread to *** patient’s bones can add further complications. Biden, as I said, has always lived his life. In the public eye and has always thought there was *** value in showing other people going through difficult times. His former Vice President Kamala Harris posting this on X. Joe is *** fighter, and I know he will face this challenge with the same strength, resilience, and optimism that have always defined his life and leadership. We are hopeful for *** full and speedy recovery. I’m Jen Sullivan reporting.
Former President Joe Biden has started radiation therapy as part of his treatment for prostate cancer, a spokesperson for the former president told CNN.Video above from May 2025: Former President Joe Biden has been diagnosed with an “aggressive” form of prostate cancer”As part of a treatment plan for prostate cancer, President Biden is currently undergoing radiation therapy and hormone treatment,” the spokesperson said.The news was first reported by NBC News. A spokesperson for the former president, who turns 83 next month, did not give a timeline for the treatment.Biden’s personal office revealed in May that he had been diagnosed with an “aggressive form” of prostate cancer that had spread to his bones.”The expectation is we’re going to be able to beat this,” Biden told CNN in his first comments about the diagnosis two weeks after he received it. “It’s not in any organ, it’s in – my bones are strong, it hadn’t penetrated. So, I’m feeling good.”He added that he had started a pill regimen to treat the cancer.Last month, Biden had Mohs surgery, an operation used to remove skin cancer lesions. In that procedure, thin layers of skin are removed and examined under a microscope until the doctor sees no signs of skin cancer cells. It’s typically used to treat cancerous lesions that have returned after previous treatment, are fast-growing, or are in important areas like the face, hands or genitals.In 2023, while president, Biden had a lesion removed from his chest, which later tested positive for basal cell carcinoma. At the time, Dr. Kevin O’Connor, who served as Biden’s physician in the White House, said “all cancerous tissue was successfully removed” and Biden would continue “dermatological surveillance.”Basal cell carcinoma is the most common type of skin cancer. It’s slow-growing and usually curable.
Former President Joe Biden has started radiation therapy as part of his treatment for prostate cancer, a spokesperson for the former president told CNN.
Video above from May 2025: Former President Joe Biden has been diagnosed with an “aggressive” form of prostate cancer
“As part of a treatment plan for prostate cancer, President Biden is currently undergoing radiation therapy and hormone treatment,” the spokesperson said.
The news was first reported by NBC News. A spokesperson for the former president, who turns 83 next month, did not give a timeline for the treatment.
Biden’s personal office revealed in May that he had been diagnosed with an “aggressive form” of prostate cancer that had spread to his bones.
“The expectation is we’re going to be able to beat this,” Biden told CNN in his first comments about the diagnosis two weeks after he received it. “It’s not in any organ, it’s in – my bones are strong, it hadn’t penetrated. So, I’m feeling good.”
He added that he had started a pill regimen to treat the cancer.
Last month, Biden had Mohs surgery, an operation used to remove skin cancer lesions. In that procedure, thin layers of skin are removed and examined under a microscope until the doctor sees no signs of skin cancer cells. It’s typically used to treat cancerous lesions that have returned after previous treatment, are fast-growing, or are in important areas like the face, hands or genitals.
In 2023, while president, Biden had a lesion removed from his chest, which later tested positive for basal cell carcinoma. At the time, Dr. Kevin O’Connor, who served as Biden’s physician in the White House, said “all cancerous tissue was successfully removed” and Biden would continue “dermatological surveillance.”
Basal cell carcinoma is the most common type of skin cancer. It’s slow-growing and usually curable.
More than 30 people have been arrested after officials say “influencers” broke into the Kentucky Speedway and posted videos to social media.Gallatin County Sheriff Bud Webster says it’s been happening since June, when the first video was posted to social media. Video above: Kentucky Speedway treats seniors to victory lap around racetrack”It’s been quite the ordeal since then,” Webster said. “When they post to social media, it’s my understanding that they get paid if they get so many followers or hits, so that’s what the purpose of it is.”He said they’ve been getting into the speedway by jumping the fence or even cutting through.”There’s been vandalism and damage to the property,” Webster said.While the speedway no longer hosts NASCAR or IndyCar races, it’s still used for smaller events. Parts of the property are also rented out to companies.”I’m not sure what the future holds for the speedway, but they still maintain the property, they still operate, and they have staff on hand,” Webster said.He said videos have prompted others to go inside.”Those gentlemen had posted to social media about an abandoned speedway and since then, it’s been one group after another coming in there from all over,” Webster said. The sheriff emphasized that the Kentucky Speedway is private property and is not abandoned.The Kentucky Speedway opened in June 2000 and is owned by Speedway Motorsports.
More than 30 people have been arrested after officials say “influencers” broke into the Kentucky Speedway and posted videos to social media.
Gallatin County Sheriff Bud Webster says it’s been happening since June, when the first video was posted to social media.
Video above: Kentucky Speedway treats seniors to victory lap around racetrack
“It’s been quite the ordeal since then,” Webster said. “When they post to social media, it’s my understanding that they get paid if they get so many followers or hits, so that’s what the purpose of it is.”
He said they’ve been getting into the speedway by jumping the fence or even cutting through.
“There’s been vandalism and damage to the property,” Webster said.
While the speedway no longer hosts NASCAR or IndyCar races, it’s still used for smaller events. Parts of the property are also rented out to companies.
“I’m not sure what the future holds for the speedway, but they still maintain the property, they still operate, and they have staff on hand,” Webster said.
He said videos have prompted others to go inside.
“Those gentlemen had posted to social media about an abandoned speedway and since then, it’s been one group after another coming in there from all over,” Webster said.
The sheriff emphasized that the Kentucky Speedway is private property and is not abandoned.
The Kentucky Speedway opened in June 2000 and is owned by Speedway Motorsports.
Picking up dog poo isn’t anyone’s favorite activity (not that we’ve come across anyway), but it is a necessary must. And we’re trusting that everyone in Austin, and beyond, understands that this is a dirty job that can’t be ignored.
Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. George Gascón will announce criminal charges Monday in the slaying of “General Hospital” actor Johnny Wactor, who was killed in May by men suspected of trying to steal the catalytic converter from his car.
Los Angeles Police Department Interim Chief Dominic Choi will also be on hand at the press conference scheduled for 3 p.m. at the Hall of Justice downtown, according to a news release from the L.A. County district attorney’s office issued Sunday.
Four men were arrested in connection to the killing, LAPD announced last week. Law enforcement sources told The Times the investigation had focused on Florencia 13 gang members tied to catalytic converter thefts in the region.
After reviewing videos and interviewing witnesses, LAPD homicide detectives identified three men, one with distinctive facial tattoos, who they say jacked up Wactor’s car on Hope Street near Pico Boulevard in order to steal its catalytic converter on the morning of May 25. Wactor was shot when he confronted the men.
Robert Barceleau, Leonel Gutierrez and Sergio Estrada were booked on suspicion of murder Thursday and held in lieu of $2-million bail, according to L.A. County Sheriff’s Department records. An additional person, Frank Olano, 22, was arrested on suspicion of being an accessory to murder.
Wactor had just finished a late night bartending shift at the nearby Level 8 bar about 3:20 a.m when he and co-worker Anita Joy were walking to his car and interrupted the thieves.
Wactor first thought his car was being towed, Joy said. After realizing that wasn’t the case, he asked the men to leave, showing his open hands to indicate he wasn’t a threat. Nevertheless, he was shot at close range, Joy said. A security guard from the bar said he found Joy and the mortally wounded Wactor and called 911.
After the shooting, the suspects fled north on Hope Street in a stolen getaway car described as a 2018 black four-door Infiniti Q50 with a tan interior, police said.
Thieves target catalytic converters because they contain precious metals, including rhodium, palladium and platinum. They can sell for hundreds of dollars to auto parts suppliers or scrapyards, where they can be melted down and the valuable metals extracted.
Thefts of catalytic converters skyrocketed in California during the COVID-19 pandemic. That prompted new state laws that make it illegal for recyclers to buy the parts from anyone other than the vehicle’s legal owner or a licensed dealer. Penalties were increased for buyers who fail to certify that a catalytic converter wasn’t stolen.
On the morning before a mob attacked a pro-Palestinian student encampment at UCLA, campus Police Chief John Thomas assured university leadership that he could mobilize law enforcement “in minutes” — a miscalculation from the three hours it took to actually bring in enough officers to quell the violence, according to three sources.
Days earlier, campus leadership had directed Thomas to create a safety plan that would protect the UCLA community after the encampment was put up last week and began drawing agitators, the sources said. The chief was told to spare no expense to bring in other UC police officers, offer overtime and hire as many private security officers needed to keep the peace.
But Thomas did not provide a plan to senior UCLA leadership — even after he was again asked to provide one after skirmishes broke out between Israel supporters and pro-Palestinian advocates at dueling rallies Sunday.
The account of Thomas’ actions leading up to the attack was provided by three sources who were not authorized to speak publicly.
Thomas did not immediately respond to a request for comment. UCLA also declined to comment.
But internal calls are growing for the police chief to step aside as University of California President Michael V. Drake initiates an independent review of UCLA’s response, the sources said. The police chief reports to Vice Chancellor Michael Beck, who oversees the UCLA Police Department and the Office of Emergency Management. Beck did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
A spokesperson for Gov. Gavin Newsom has also called for answers to explain “the limited and delayed campus law enforcement response at UCLA.”
UCLA Chancellor Gene Block described the attack in a statement as a “a dark chapter in our campus’s history” and said the university was “carefully examining our own security processes in light of recent events.”
Key questions involve when officials decided to bring in help from other agencies and whether help could have arrived sooner. Outside police forces generally do not enter the campus without the university’s approval, since it functions as an independent municipal entity although it is on state land.
The Times reported Thursday that the UCLA Police Department had asked other campuses for additional police officers five days before the attack. The reporting was based on documents the paper reviewed and information from the head of the UC police officers union.Only a few on-duty UCLA police officers were on hand to protect the encampment Tuesday night.
The mutual aid requests made Thursday and Friday, April 25-26 — which would have provided UCLA with more officers as they dealt with the camp and a dueling area erected by pro-Israel activists — were both canceled by Thomas because the protests were peaceful, the sources said.
The responsibility to call for mutual aid through the UC Systemwide Response Team — a group of about 80 officers across the 10 campuses — has to be made by the host university’s chief of police, according to the UC police procedures manual. Internal questions have been raised as to whether, following skirmishes Sunday, Thomas issued another request after being directed to maintain a peaceful environment.
The union issued a statement this week placing the responsibility for the UC police response in the hands of “campus leadership,” saying the strategic direction was controlled by administrators. The three sources said, however, that such direction to prepare a plan, with enough officers to ensure safety, was given to Thomas multiple times.
The attack began Tuesday about 10:30 p.m., when a large group of agitators — some wearing black outfits and white masks — arrived on campus and assaulted campers, ripped down barricades, hurled objects at the encampment and those inside and threw firecrackers into the area.
Campers, some holding lumber and wearing goggles and helmets, rallied to defend the site’s perimeter. Some used pepper spray to defend themselves. Several were injured, including four Daily Bruin student journalists.
Only a few on-duty UCLA police officers were on hand to protect the encampment, one source told The Times. Thomas told the Daily Bruin his officers came under attack while helping an injured woman and had to leave.
Law enforcement sources said it took time for the LAPD, California Highway Patrol and other agencies to mobilize the large number of officers needed. A larger force began moving into the area after 1:30 a.m. Wednesday and fully contained the situation after 3 a.m.
UCLA declared the encampment unlawful Tuesday and asked participants to leave or face possible discipline. The next day, the campus called in police, who dismantled tents and arrested more than 200 protesters in clashes early Thursday that lasted for hours. Several protesters were injured.
The UC Board of Regents held a closed-door meeting Friday to discuss the campus protests.
Ahead of the winter respiratory virus season, many parents were relieved the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved a shot to combat respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV, for infants and toddlers this summer.
But the shot is hard to come by.
RSV is a common respiratory virus that usually causes mild, cold-like symptoms in most adults who recover in a week or two, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. But that’s not the case for infants and toddlers, who are at higher risk of the virus becoming severe or life-threatening.
Two months later, federal regulators approved the first long-lasting shot for infants younger than 8 months who are entering their first RSV season. According to the CDC, Nirsevimab, which is made by AstraZeneca and sold under the brand name Beyfortus, reduces the risk of severe RSV by 80%. One dose lasts about five months, the length of the average RSV season.
The shot does not activate the immune system the way a vaccine would, but instead introduces antibodies to protect against RSV. Health officials with the CDC say once the antibodies are out of a baby’s system, the immunity is also gone.
Amid the peak of RSV season, there has been unprecedented demand for the shot and not enough supplies to go around.
The CDC recently announced the release of more than 77,000 additional doses to be distributed immediately to physicians and hospitals through the Vaccines for Children Program. The CDC and FDA are working with drug manufacturers to ensure availability through early next year.
What preventive measures can parents can take?
Children at high risk include those 6 months and younger, infants born prematurely, those younger than 2 with congenital heart disease and those with weakened immune systems who have neuromuscular disorders, according to the American Lung Assn.
Previously, the only immunization against severe RSV for babies was a shot women could get during weeks 32 through 36 of pregnancy. That shot is still available and recommended September through January.
There also are everyday preventive measures to help reduce the spread of RSV and other respiratory illnesses, according to health agencies such as the CDC, American Lung Assn. and the California Department of Public Health:
Stay home if you’re feeling sick.
If you need to leave your home, consider wearing a mask in crowded or indoor areas.
Wash your hands with soap and water for at least 20 seconds.
Avoid touching your face with unwashed hands.
Cover your mouth and nose when you cough and sneeze.
Avoid close contact with others, such as kissing, shaking hands and sharing cups and utensils.
Clean frequently touched surfaces, including doorknobs and mobile devices.
What are the signs of RSV?
RSV affects both the upper respiratory system, which includes the nose and throat, and the lower respiratory system, which includes the lungs.
The virus is highly transmissible. You can catch it if the droplets from an infected person’s cough or sneeze get in your eyes, nose or mouth; if you touch a surface (such as a doorknob) that has the virus on it and then touch your face before washing your hands; or if you have direct contact with the virus (for example, by kissing the face of a child with RSV). Being in crowded places with people who may be infected or having exposure to other children or siblings who may be infected are common ways to pick up the virus.
RSV can survive for many hours on hard surfaces such as tables and crib rails; it has a shorter life span on softer surfaces such as tissues and hands.
A person infected with RSV is usually contagious for three to eight days. However, some infants and people with weakened immune systems can continue to spread the virus for as long as four weeks, even after their symptoms go away, according to the CDC.
Virtually all children get an RSV infection by the time they are 2, but the virus can cause complications, the CDC said.
Health agencies recommend parents reach out to their healthcare provider if their child is showing signs of infection.
According to health officials at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, the most common symptoms are runny nose; fever; cough; short periods without breathing; trouble eating, drinking or swallowing; wheezing, flaring of nostrils or straining of the chest or stomach while breathing; breathing faster than usual or trouble breathing; and turning blue around the lips and fingers.
These symptoms can seem like other health conditions, so the hospital advises parents to have their child see a healthcare provider for a diagnosis.
Paul Pelosi, husband of former U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, offered chilling details in federal court on Monday of the night he was allegedly attacked and bludgeoned with a hammer by a man now on trial for attempted kidnapping and assault.
Paul Pelosi, 83, took the stand on the second day of the federal trial against David DePape, who faces federal charges for attempting to kidnap the Democratic congresswoman and assaulting her husband with the intent to interfere with the lawmaker’s official duties or retaliate against her.
DePape, 43, is accused of traveling from his Richmond residence to the Pelosis’ San Francisco home the early morning of Oct. 28, 2022, in search of the lawmaker, allegedly with plans to hold her hostage and question her regarding far-right conspiracy theories involving the Democratic Party and a list of politicians and public figures.
Instead of finding Nancy Pelosi, who was in Washington at the time, DePape wandered through the quiet Pacific Heights home before stumbling upon a bedroom with her husband sleeping inside.
“The door opened and a very large man came in, with a hammer in one hand and some ties in the other hand,” Paul Pelosi testified. “And he said ‘Where’s Nancy?’ And I think that’s what woke me up.”
Until then, it was a typical evening.
Paul Pelosi told jurors he’d gone to dinner that night in San Francisco. He went to sleep as usual between 11:30 p.m. and midnight, bringing a cup of ice water he took to bed each evening. He didn’t set the alarm system, which the family only used when they were out of town, because it’s sensitive and will go off easily with people in the home.
A couple of hours later, Paul Pelosi woke up in “tremendous shock” after realizing that “someone had broken into the house.”
“And looking at him and looking at the hammer and the ties, I recognized that I was in serious danger,” he said. “And so I tried to stay as calm as possible.”
Paul Pelosi said he told DePape that his wife was in Washington.
“Well then we’re going to have to wait for her,” Paul Pelosi said DePape responded.
DePape told Paul Pelosi that his wife was the “leader of the pack,” and “he had to take her out,” he testified. Because she wasn’t home, Paul Pelosi said DePape told him he had to tie him up and wait for her.
“He had these cords in his hand. I assume that’s what he was going to use,” he said.
Paul Pelosi said he first tried to move toward the elevator outside the couple’s bedroom, which had a telephone inside. But DePape caught on, Paul Pelosi said, so instead he moved toward his bathroom where he charged his cellphone each night.
He called 911, but didn’t feel like he could be honest with the dispatcher about the situation. DePape still had the hammer, and was demanding that Paul Pelosi tell the dispatcher that he was just a friend of the family.
“And looking at him and looking at the hammer and the ties, I recognized that I was in serious danger,” Paul Pelosi, shown above, told the jury in the federal trial against David DePape. “And so I tried to stay as calm as possible.”
(Noah Berger / Associated Press)
According to his court testimony, Paul Pelosi hung up the 911 call, and tried to reason with the intruder. DePape said he was tired, and wanted to tie Paul Pelosi up so that he could get some sleep. Paul Pelosi suggested the two men walk downstairs, where DePape left his two backpacks and other belongings. Paul Pelosi said he knew that if the police came, they needed to get downstairs where it would be easier to arrest the suspect.
“He said, ‘Oh, the police are going to be here, it’s over for me, I’m going to have to take you out,’ things like that,” Paul Pelosi said DePape told him. “I said ‘No, they’re probably not going to come. They’re probably not going to come.’
“And then the police were at the door.”
Police body camera footage shows Paul Pelosi — holding his cup of water — opening the door with DePape standing next to him. The two were fighting for control of the hammer, which officers ordered them to drop.
DePape instead grabbed it from Paul Pelosi and swung it at his head multiple times, fracturing his skull and causing injuries to his arm and hand. Photo and video evidence shown to the jury on Thursday depict Paul Pelosi lying in a pool of his blood, struggling to breathe as police tackled DePape.
He was hospitalized for more than a week at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital for a fractured skill and other injuries. He received a dozen stitches on the back of his right arm, he said, and his badly damaged left hand was also treated. Paul Pelosi told the jurors that the plastic surgeon was able to reconstruct his hand and avoid doing skin grafts, while his head injury recovery included regaining his balance and “getting my walking back.”
Paul Pelosi recounted the attack as his daughter, Christine Pelosi, sat in the far back corner of the courtroom and while DePape watched from beside his defense attorneys.
Despite the graphic testimony and evidence, the trial is considered far from an easy assault case. Prosecutors bear the burden of proving that the attack was due to Nancy Pelosi’s role as House Speaker, and that DePape intended to kidnap her after breaking into the lawmaker’s home.
Assistant U.S. Atty. Laura Vartain Horn told the federal court jury in her opening arguments on Thursday that DePape had gone to the couple’s home that early morning with the idea to hold Nancy Pelosi “hostage,” “break her kneecaps” and “teach her a lesson.”
“When the defendant broke into the speaker’s home, he had a plan,” Horn told the jury of 12 men and three women. “It was a violent plan.”
Prosecutors attempted to bolster their argument on Monday when questioning FBI Special Agent Stephanie Minor, who has handled the case over the last year. Minor walked the jurors through a series of videos showing DePape traveling from the East Bay to the Pelosis’ home, and described a list of his internet searches in the days leading up to the attack.
Minor explained how DePape had extensively researched the Pelosi family, along with others on his so-called target list, and paid for a service that provided their emails and home addresses. The prosecution also played a recording of a phone call DePape made to a reporter earlier this year, in which he seemingly apologizes for not being successful in his mission.
“I have an important message for everyone in America. You’re welcome,” he said. “I would also like to apologize…I’m so sorry I didn’t get more of them.”
But federal public defenders Jodi Linker and Angela Chuang have disputed the argument that DePape intended to kidnap Nancy Pelosi or attack Paul Pelosi because of his wife’s official position in Congress.
Instead, they claim that the Pelosi home was the first stop in a broader scheme to end corruption and other offenses he believed were being committed by the Democratic Party and public officials and celebrities.
DePape’s plan was to use Nancy Pelosi to put an end to his QAnon-like theory that Democratic politicians and public officials were abusing and trafficking children, the jury was told.
“This is not a who done it,” Linker told the jury in her opening argument. It was a “why done it,” she said, “and the why matters.”
The assault has inspired additional conspiracies and prompted political attacks against the Pelosi family, including from former President Trump.
Along with the federal criminal case, DePape faces separate state charges including assault with a deadly weapon, elder abuse, burglary and threats to a public official and their family.
Paul Pelosi said he’s mostly recovered from his injuries, but that he still suffers from lightheadedness and headaches.
“There are still lumps on my head. If I run my fingers, I can still feel dents and lumps,” he said. “They’re not as sensitive to the touch as they were.”
The recovery process was “very painful,” he said. He said that he had not read news related to the incident, nor had he listened to the tapes or watched the videos.
“I’ve tried to put it out of my mind,” he said, taking periodic pauses to maintain his composure.
“I’ve made the best effort I possibly can to not relive this.”
Solstice Canyon in the Santa Monica Mountains was temporarily closed this week after a mountain lion injured a person and tried to attack an unleashed dog, according to officials with the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area.
On Tuesday, a person walking a small dog on a leash was injured when a mountain lion tried to attack the dog, officials wrote in a social media post. The person had a scratch and a puncture wound on their hand; National Park Service rangers gave medical aid at the scene. The dog wasn’t hurt. A second mountain lion was also spotted in the area during the incident.
The park was closed until 8 a.m. Thursday while park wildlife biologists assessed the situation, according to officials.
“Mountain lions are unpredictable, wild animals,” officials wrote. “While conflicts with humans are rare, there is always a risk when you are recreating in areas used by mountain lions.”
Experts recommend that if you encounter a mountain lion, make yourself as intimidating and large as possible by waving your arms, yelling and throwing objects toward the animal. Back away and allow space for the mountain lion to move away and don’t turn around and run.
The last mountain lion attack was about a year ago when the famed cougar, P-22, killed a Chihuahua on its leash after stalking a dog walker in Hollywood Hills, according to the National Park Service. The mountain lion was euthanized because of severe injuries in December 2022.
Mark Sklansky, a pediatric cardiologist at UCLA, has not shaken a hand in several years. The last time he did so, it was only “because I knew I was going to go to the bathroom right afterwards,” he told me. “I think it’s a really bad practice.” From where he’s standing, probably a safe distance away, our palms and fingers are just not sanitary. “They’re wet; they’re warm; they’re what we use to touch everything we touch,” he said. “It’s not rocket science: The hand is a very good medium to transmit disease.”
It’s a message that Sklansky has been proselytizing for the better part of a decade—via word of mouth among his patients, impassioned calls to action in medical journals, even DIY musicvideos that warn against puttin’ ’er there. But for a long time, his calls to action were met with scoffs and skepticism.
So when the coronavirus started its sweep across the United States three years ago, Sklansky couldn’t help but feel a smidgen of hope. He watched as corporate America pocketed its dealmaking palms, as sports teams traded end-of-game grasps for air-fives, and as The New Yorker eulogized the gesture’s untimely end. My colleague Megan Garber celebrated the handshake’s demise, as didAnthony Fauci. The coronavirus was a horror, but perhaps it could also be a wake-up call. Maybe, just maybe, the handshake was at last dead. “I was optimistic that it was going to be it,” Sklansky told me.
But the death knell rang too soon. “Handshakes are back,” says Diane Gottsman, an etiquette expert and the founder of the Protocol School of Texas. The gesture is too ingrained, too beloved, too irreplaceable for even a global crisis to send it to an early grave. “The handshake is the vampire that didn’t die,” says Ken Carter, a psychologist at Emory University. “I can tell you that it lives: I shook a stranger’s hand yesterday.”
The base science of the matter hasn’t changed. Hands are humans’ primary tools of touch, and people (especiallymen) don’t devotemuch time to washing them. “If you actually sample hands, the grossness is something quite exceptional,” says Ella Al-Shamahi, an anthropologist and the author of the book The Handshake: A Gripping History. And shakes, with their characteristic palm-to-palm squeezes, are a whole lot more prone to spread microbes than alternatives such as fist bumps.
Not all of that is necessarily bad: Many of the microscopic passengers on our skin are harmless, or even beneficial. “The vast majority of handshakes are completely safe,” says David Whitworth, a microbiologist at Aberystwyth University, in Wales, who’s studied the griminess of human hands. But not all manual microbes are benign. Norovirus, a nasty diarrheal disease infamous for sparking outbreaks on cruise ships, can spread easily via skin; so can certain respiratory viruses such as RSV.
The irony of the recent handshake hiatus is that SARS-CoV-2, the microbe that inspired it, isn’t much of a touchable danger. “The risk is just not very high,” says Jessica Malaty Rivera, an infectious-disease epidemiologist at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security. Despite early pandemic worries, this particular coronavirus is more likely to use breath as a conduit than contaminated surfaces. That’s not to say that the virus couldn’t hop from hand to hand after, say, an ill-timed sneeze or cough right before a shake. But Emily Landon, an infectious-disease physician and hand-hygiene expert at the University of Chicago, thinks it would take a hefty dose of snot or phlegm, followed by some unwashed snacking or nose-picking by the recipient, to really pose a threat. So maybe it’s no shock that as 2020’s frantic sanitizing ebbed, handshakes started creeping back.
Frankly, that doesn’t have to be the end of the world. Even when considering more shake-spreadable pathogens, it’s a lot easier to break hand-based chains of transmission than airborne ones. “As long as you have good hygiene habits and you keep your hands away from your face,” Landon told me, “it doesn’t really matter if you shake other people’s hands.” (Similar rules apply to doorknobs, light switches, subway handrails, phones, and other germy perils.) Then again, that requires actually cleaning your hands, which, as Sklansky will glady point out, most people—even health-care workers—are still pretty terrible about.
For now, shakes don’t seem to be back to 2019 levels—at least, not the last time researchers checked, in the summer of 2022. But Gottsman thinks their full resurgence may be only a matter of time. Among her clients in the corporate world, where grips and grasps are currency, handshakes once again abound. No other gesture, she told me, hits the same tactile sweet spot: just enough touch to feel personal connection, but sans the extra intimacy of a kiss or hug. Fist bumps, waves, and elbow touches just don’t measure up. At the pandemic’s worst, when no one was willing to go palm-to-palm, “it felt like something was missing,” Carter told me. The lack of handshakes wasn’t merely a reminder that COVID was here; it signaled that the comforts of routine interaction were not.
If handshakes survive the COVID era—as they seem almost certain to do—this won’t be the only disease outbreak they outlive, Al-Shamahi told me. When yellow fever pummeled Philadelphia in the late 18th century, locals began to shrink “back with affright at even the offer of a hand,” as the economist Matthew Carey wrote at the time. Fears of cholera in the 1890s prompted a small cadre of Russians to establish an anti-handshake society, whose members were fined three rubles for every verboten grasp. During the flu pandemic that began in 1918, the town of Prescott, Arizona, went so far as to ban the practice. Each time, the handshake bounced back. Al-Shamahi remembers rolling her eyes a bit in 2020, when she saw outlets forecasting the handshake’s untimely end. “I was like, ‘I can’t believe you guys are writing the obituary,’” she told me. “That is clearly not what is happening here.”
Handshakes do seem to have a knack for enduring through the ages. A commonly cited origin story for the handshake points to the ancient Greeks, who may have deployed the behavior as a way to prove that they weren’t concealing a weapon. But Al-Shamahi thinks the roots of handshaking go way further back. Chimpanzees—from whom humans split some 7 million years ago—appear to engage in a similar behavior in the aftermath of fights. Across species, handshakes probably exchange all sorts of sensory information, Al-Shamahi said. They may even leave chemical residues on our palm that we can later subconsciously smell.
Handshakes aren’t a matter of survival: Plenty of communities around the world get by just fine without them, opting instead for, say, the namaste or a hand over the heart. But palm pumping seems to have stuck around in several societies for good reason, outlasting other customs such as curtsies and bows. Handshakes are mutual, usually consensual; they’re imbued with an egalitarian feel. “I don’t think it’s a coincidence that you see the rise of the handshake amongst all the greetings at a time when democracy was on the rise,” Al-Shamahi told me. The handshake is even, to some extent, built into the foundation of the United States: Thomas Jefferson persuaded many of his contemporaries to adopt the practice, which he felt was more befitting of democracy than the snobbish flourishes of British court.
American attitudes toward handshakes still might have undergone lasting, COVID-inspired change. Gottsman is optimistic that people will continue to be more considerate of those who are less eager to shake hands. There are plenty of good reasons for abstaining, she points out: having a vulnerable family member at home, or simply wanting to avoid any extra risk of getting sick. And these days, it doesn’t feel so strange to skip the shake. “I think it’s less a part of our cultural vernacular now,” Landon told me.
Sklansky, once again in the minority, is disappointed by the recent turn of events. “I used to say, ‘Wow, it took a pandemic to end the handshake,’” he told me. “Now I realize, even a pandemic has failed to rid us of the handshake.” But he’s not ready to give up. In 2015, he and a team of his colleagues cordoned off part of his hospital as a “handshake-free zone”—an initiative that, he told me, was largely a success among health-care workers and patients alike. The designation faded after a year or two, but Sklansky hopes that something similar could soon return. In the meantime, he’ll settle for declining every proffered palm that comes his way—although, if you go for something else, he’d rather you not choose the fist bump: “Sometimes,” he told me, “they just go too hard.”
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There was one thing my husband and I vowed when we had our son almost six years ago: no sleeping in our bed. And he never did. Not even once. Until he was 4… and I decided that I wanted to sleep with him. I wanted to cuddle him and fall asleep to the sound of his methodical breathing. And I figured, “I’m allowed. He’s mine. I can do whatever I want.”
So I let him.
Now I know what you’re thinking: the end of the story is that I have a 6-year-old kid who won’t leave my bed. True… but it’s not because of him. It’s because of me.
I love it. I love co-sleeping.
My husband does shift work, and it’s never the same shift, and quite selfishly, I sleep better when it’s my son and I. We have the same early-to-bed, early-morning routine, so it works better for me. My hubby graciously takes the bean’s bed, and he and I share the bigger bed.
I still test the waters and make sure he’s still okay sleeping on his own, so he’s most definitely not in my bed every night. And he’s fine – he knows that if he starts making a fuss about always sleeping with us that we’ll put an end to it forever. So he’ll casually ask over dinner, “Am I allowed to sleep in your bed tonight,” and if we answer, “No, bud, tonight you sleep in your bed,” he concedes no problem.
I know I will only get to sleep with my son for so long, to cuddle him and hold his hand while I drift off to sleep. So if I can, and it isn’t hurting anyone (like making him more dependant or less of a good sleeper), I’m gonna.
A full-time work-from-home mom, Jennifer Cox (our “Supermom in Training”) loves dabbling in healthy cooking, craft projects, family outings, and more, sharing with readers everything she knows about being an (almost) superhero mommy.
There was one thing my husband and I vowed when we had our son almost six years ago: no sleeping in our bed. And he never did. Not even once. Until he was 4… and I decided that I wanted to sleep with him. I wanted to cuddle him and fall asleep to the sound of his methodical breathing. And I figured, “I’m allowed. He’s mine. I can do whatever I want.”
So I let him.
Now I know what you’re thinking: the end of the story is that I have a 6-year-old kid who won’t leave my bed. True… but it’s not because of him. It’s because of me.
I love it. I love co-sleeping.
My husband does shift work, and it’s never the same shift, and quite selfishly, I sleep better when it’s my son and I. We have the same early-to-bed, early-morning routine, so it works better for me. My hubby graciously takes the bean’s bed, and he and I share the bigger bed.
I still test the waters and make sure he’s still okay sleeping on his own, so he’s most definitely not in my bed every night. And he’s fine – he knows that if he starts making a fuss about always sleeping with us that we’ll put an end to it forever. So he’ll casually ask over dinner, “Am I allowed to sleep in your bed tonight,” and if we answer, “No, bud, tonight you sleep in your bed,” he concedes no problem.
I know I will only get to sleep with my son for so long, to cuddle him and hold his hand while I drift off to sleep. So if I can, and it isn’t hurting anyone (like making him more dependant or less of a good sleeper), I’m gonna.
A full-time work-from-home mom, Jennifer Cox (our “Supermom in Training”) loves dabbling in healthy cooking, craft projects, family outings, and more, sharing with readers everything she knows about being an (almost) superhero mommy.
