OMAHA HAS A NEW ADDITION TO THE 100 CLUB. SARAH ROUNTREE CELEBRATED A CENTURY OF CIVIL RIGHTS ACTIVISM TODAY. NEWSWATCH SEVEN’S IZZY JUUL WAS AT SARAH’S BIRTHDAY PARTY AND SHARES HER STORY. TRAILBLAZER I CAN. HISTORY MAKER ALL WORDS TO DESCRIBE THE BIRTHDAY GIRL SARAH ROUNTREE. SHE’S THE LAST SURVIVING MEMBER OF THE COMMITTEE FOR CIVIL LIBERTIES IN OMAHA’S NEWEST 100 YEAR OLD. HELLO EVERYONE! I AM SO HAPPY AND GOD BLESS ALL OF YOU FOR COMING FOR MY BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION. SHE IS 100 YEARS YOUNG. AMEN. YES, SHE’S STILL GOT THE FIGHT IN HER. THE FIRST THING SHE SAID TO ME WAS WE’RE GOING TO START UP THE FOR SALE AGAIN. ROUNTREE WAS AT THE FOREFRONT OF THE 1960S CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT HERE IN OMAHA. THEY DIDN’T TALK ABOUT BLACK HISTORY BACK THEN. THEY DIDN’T DO ANY OF THAT. AND IT BECAUSE OF SEVERAL ROUNTREE THAT WE ARE NOW ABLE TO TALK ABOUT BLACK HISTORY. SHE WAS THE RIGHT HAND AT FORT SILL DOING EVERYTHING FROM FIGHTING SEGREGATION TO TEACHING THEIR KIDS. I’M SURE THAT THE DEPARTED CIVIL RIGHTS MEMBERS FOR HCL MEMBERS ARE LOOKING. THEIR SPIRIT IS HERE TODAY, AND THEY’RE SMILING AND THEY’RE HAPPY. SHE ALWAYS WAS READY TO FIGHT THE GOOD FIGHT AND GET INTO GOOD TROUBLE. ROUNTREE AND HER WORK HAVE BEEN ETCHED INTO OMAHA’S HISTORY. A STREET IN HER NAME AND A PROCLAMATION FROM MAYOR JOHN EWING JR HIMSELF. MANY YEARS OF FAITHFUL SERVICE AND MEANINGFUL CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE OMAHA COMMUNITY, LEAVING AN INDELIBLE MARK OF KINDNESS ON ALL THOSE WHO HAVE HAD THE PRIVILEGE OF KNOWING HER. IN OMAHA, IZZY FONFARA JUUL KETV NEWSWATCH SEVEN. HAPPY BIRTHDAY SARAH! CAN YOU IMAGINE EVERYTHIN
Civil rights activist celebrates 100th birthday
Sarah Rountree is the last surviving member of the Committee for Civil Liberties.
Civil rights advocate Sarah Rountree celebrated 100 years of activism Monday.Her friends describe her as a “trailblazer, icon history maker.”Rountree is the last surviving member of the Committee for Civil Liberties, a civil rights organization founded in the 1960s.”Hello everyone, I am so happy,” Rountree said at the start of her party. “God bless all of you for coming to my birthday celebration.””She is 100 years young, she’s still got the fight,” the Rev. Darryl Eure, son of another 4CL member, said. “You know, the first thing she said to me was, ‘We’re going to start up the 4CL again.”Rountree was at the forefront of the 1960s civil rights movement in Omaha.”They didn’t talk about Black history back then,” Eure said. “They didn’t do any of that, and it’s because of Sarah Rountree that we are now able to talk about Black history.”She was the right hand at 4CL, doing everything from fighting segregation to teaching kids.”I’m sure that the departed civil rights members, 4CL members, are looking. Their spirits are here today, and they’re smiling, and they’re happy,” Rountree said. “She always was ready to fight the good fight and get into good trouble,” Eure said.Rountree and her work have been etched into Omaha’s history. She has a street in her name and received a proclamation from city Mayor John Ewing Jr. at her party on Sunday.”Mrs. Rountree has dedicated many years of faithful service and meaningful contributions to the Omaha community, leaving an indelible mark of kindness on all those who have had the privilege of knowing her,” the proclamation reads.Family and friends said she is a firecracker who loves to dance to her favorite song, “She’s a Bad Mama Jama” by Carl Carlton.Rountree continued her activism well into her 90s, using her knowledge and reputation to raise awareness of the water crisis in Flint, Michigan. She will be the keynote speaker during Catholic Charities’ celebration of African American history at the end of February.
OMAHA, Neb. —
Civil rights advocate Sarah Rountree celebrated 100 years of activism Monday.
Her friends describe her as a “trailblazer, icon [and] history maker.”
Rountree is the last surviving member of the Committee for Civil Liberties, a civil rights organization founded in the 1960s.
“Hello everyone, I am so happy,” Rountree said at the start of her party. “God bless all of you for coming to my birthday celebration.”
“She is 100 years young, she’s still got the fight,” the Rev. Darryl Eure, son of another 4CL member, said. “You know, the first thing she said to me was, ‘We’re going to start up the 4CL again.”
Rountree was at the forefront of the 1960s civil rights movement in Omaha.
“They didn’t talk about Black history back then,” Eure said. “They didn’t do any of that, and it’s because of Sarah Rountree that we are now able to talk about Black history.”
She was the right hand at 4CL, doing everything from fighting segregation to teaching kids.
“I’m sure that the departed civil rights members, 4CL members, are looking. Their spirits are here today, and they’re smiling, and they’re happy,” Rountree said.
“She always was ready to fight the good fight and get into good trouble,” Eure said.
Rountree and her work have been etched into Omaha’s history. She has a street in her name and received a proclamation from city Mayor John Ewing Jr. at her party on Sunday.
“Mrs. Rountree has dedicated many years of faithful service and meaningful contributions to the Omaha community, leaving an indelible mark of kindness on all those who have had the privilege of knowing her,” the proclamation reads.
Family and friends said she is a firecracker who loves to dance to her favorite song, “She’s a Bad Mama Jama” by Carl Carlton.
Rountree continued her activism well into her 90s, using her knowledge and reputation to raise awareness of the water crisis in Flint, Michigan. She will be the keynote speaker during Catholic Charities’ celebration of African American history at the end of February.
WASHINGTON — Twelve House Democrats who last year sued the Trump administration over a policy limiting congressional oversight of immigrant detention facilities returned to federal court Monday to challenge a second, new policy imposing further limits on such unannounced visits.
In December, those members of Congress won their lawsuit challenging a Department of Homeland Security policy from June that required a week’s notice from lawmakers before an oversight visit. Now they’re accusing Homeland Security of having “secretly reimposed” the requirement last week.
In a Jan. 8 memorandum, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem wrote that “Facility visit requests must be made a minimum of seven (7) calendar days in advance. Any requests to shorten that time must be approved by me.”
The lawmakers who challenged the policies are led by Rep. Joe Neguse (D-Colo.) and include five members from California: Reps. Robert Garcia (D-Long Beach), Lou Correa (D-Santa Ana), Jimmy Gomez (D-Los Angeles), Raul Ruiz (D-Indio) and Norma Torres (D-Pomona).
Last summer, as immigration raids spread through Los Angeles and other parts of Southern California, many Democrats including those named in the lawsuit were denied entry to local detention facilities. Before then, unannounced inspections had been a common, long-standing practice under congressional oversight powers.
“The duplicate notice policy is a transparent attempt by DHS to again subvert Congress’s will…and this Court’s stay of DHS’s oversight visit policy,” the plaintiffs wrote in a federal court motion Monday requesting an emergency hearing.
On Saturday, three days after Renee Nicole Good was shot and killed by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent, three members of Congress from Minnesota attempted to conduct an oversight visit of an ICE facility near Minneapolis. They were denied access.
Afterward, lawyers for Homeland Security notified the lawmakers and the court of the new policy, according to the court filing.
In a joint statement, the plaintiffs wrote that “rather than complying with the law, the Department of Homeland Security is attempting to get around this order by re-imposing the same unlawful policy.”
“This is unacceptable,” they said. “Oversight is a core responsibility of Members of Congress, and a constitutional duty we do not take lightly. It is not something the executive branch can turn on or off at will.”
Congress has stipulated in yearly appropriations packages since 2020 that funds may not be used to prevent a member of Congress “from entering, for the purpose of conducting oversight, any facility operated by or for the Department of Homeland Security used to detain or otherwise house aliens.”
That language formed the basis of the decision last month by U.S. District Court Judge Jia Cobb in Washington, who found that lawmakers cannot be denied entry for visits “unless and until” the government could show that no appropriations money was being used to operate detention facilities.
In her policy memorandum, Noem wrote that funds from the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which supplied roughly $170 billion toward immigration and border enforcement, are not subject to the limitations of the yearly appropriations law.
“ICE must ensure that this policy is implemented and enforced exclusively with money appropriated by OBBBA,” Noem said.
Noem said the new policy is justified because unannounced visits pull ICE officers away from their normal duties. “Moreover, there is an increasing trend of replacing legitimate oversight activities with circus-like publicity stunts, all of which creates a chaotic environment with heightened emotions,” she wrote.
The lawmakers, in the court filing, argued it’s clear that the new policy violates the law.
“It is practically impossible that the development, promulgation, communication, and implementation of this policy has been, and will be, accomplished — as required — without using a single dollar of annually appropriated funds,” they wrote.
American Reich: A Murder in Orange County, Neo-Nazis, and a New Age of Hate
By Eric Lichtblau Little Brown and Company: 352 pages, $30
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Have you heard of Orange County? It’s where the good Republicans go before they die.
It should come as no surprise that Orange County, a beloved county for the grandfather of modern American conservatism, Ronald Reagan, would be the fertile landscape for far-right ideology and white supremacy. Reaganomics aside, the O.C. has long since held a special if not slightly off-putting place, of oceanfront leisure, modern luxury and all-American family entertainment — famed by hit shows (“The Real Housewives of Orange County,” “The O.C.” and “Laguna Beach,” among others). Even crime in Orange County has been sensationalized and glamorized, with themes veneered by opulence, secrecy and illusions of suburban perfection. To Eric Lichtblau, the Pulitzer Prize winner and former Los Angeles Times reporter, the real story is far-right terrorism — and its unspoken grip on the county’s story.
“One of the reasons I decided to focus on Orange County is that it’s not the norm — not what you think of as the Deep South. It’s Disneyland. It’s California,” Lichtblau says. “These are people who are trying to take back America from the shores of Orange County because it’s gotten too brown in their view.”
His newest investigative book, “American Reich,” focuses on the 2018 murder of gay Jewish teenager Blaze Bernstein as a lens to examine Orange County and how the hate-driven murder at the hands of a former classmate connects to a national web of white supremacy and terrorism.
I grew up a few miles away from Bernstein, attending a performing arts school similar to his — and Sam Woodward’s. I remember the early discovery of the murder where Woodward became a suspect, followed by the news that the case was being investigated as a hate crime. The murder followed the news cycle for years to come, but in its coverage, there was a lack of continuity in seeing how this event fit into a broader pattern and history ingrained in Orange County. There was a bar down the street from me where an Iranian American man was stabbed just for not being white. The seaside park of Marblehead, where friends and I visited for homecoming photos during sunset, was reported as a morning meet-up spot for neo-Nazis in skeleton masks training for “white unity” combat. These were just some of the myriad events Lichtblau explores as symptoms of something more unsettling than one-offs.
Samuel Lincoln Woodward, of Newport Beach, speaks with his attorney during his 2018 arraignment on murder charges in the death of Blaze Bernstein.
(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)
Lichtblau began the book in 2020, in the midst of COVID. He wanted to find a place emblematic of the national epidemic that he, like many others, was witnessing — some of the highest record of anti-Asian attacks, assaults on Black, Latino and LGBTQ+ communities, and rising extremist rhetoric and actions.
“Orange County kind of fit a lot of those boxes,” Lichtblau says. “The horrible tragedy with Blaze Bernstein being killed by one of his high school classmates — who had been radicalized — reflected a growing brazenness of the white supremacy movement we’ve seen as a whole in America in recent years.”
Bernstein’s death had been only two years prior. The Ivy League student had agreed to meet former classmate Woodward one evening during winter break. The two had never been close; Woodward had been a lone wolf during his brief time at the Orange County School of the Arts, before transferring due to the school’s liberalness. On two separate occasions over the years, Woodward had reached out to Bernstein under the pretense of grappling with his own sexuality. Bernstein had no idea he was being baited, or that his former classmate was part of a sprawling underground network of far-right extremists — connected to mass shooters, longtime Charles Manson followers, neo-Nazi camps, and online chains where members bonded over a shared fantasy of harming minorities and starting a white revolution.
“But how is this happening in 2025?”
These networks didn’t appear out of nowhere. They had long been planted in Orange County’s soil, leading back to the early 1900s when the county was home to sprawling orange groves.
Mexican laborers, who formed the backbone of the orange-grove economy (second to oil and generating wealth that even rivaled the Gold Rush), were met with violence when the unionized laborers wanted to strike for better conditions. The Orange County sheriff, also an orange grower, issued an order. “SHOOT TO KILL, SAYS SHERIFF,” the banner headline in the Santa Ana Register read. Chinese immigrants also faced violence. They had played a large role in building the county’s state of governance, but were blamed for a case of leprosy, and at the suggestion of a councilman, had their community of Chinatown torched while the white residents watched.
Gideon Bernstein and Jeanne Pepper Bernstein, center, parents of Blaze Bernstein, speak during a news conference after a 2018 sentencing for Samuel Woodward at Orange County Superior Court.
(Jeff Gritchen/Pool / Orange County Register)
Leading up to the new millennium brought an onslaught of white power rock coming out of the county’s music scene. Members with shaved heads and Nazi memorabilia would dance to rage-fueled declarations of white supremacy, clashing, if not worse, with non-white members of the community while listening to lyrics like, “When the last white moves out of O.C., the American flag will leave with me… We’ll die for a land that’s yours and mine” (from the band Youngland).
“It’s come and gone,” says Lichtblau, who noticed these currents shifting in the early 2000s — and over the years, when Reagandland broke in certain parts to become purple. Even with sights of blue amid red, Trump on the landscape brought a new wave — one that Lichtblau explains was fueled by “claiming their country back” and “capturing the moment that Trump released.”
It can be hard to fathom the reality: that the Orange County of white supremacy exists alongside an Orange County shaped both economically and culturally by its immigrant communities, where since 2004, the majority of its residents are people of color. Then again, to anyone who has spent considerable time there, you’ll notice the strange cognitive dissonance among its cultural landscape.
It’s a peculiar sight to see a MAGA stand selling nativist slogans on a Spanish-named street, or Confederate flags in the back of pickup trucks pulling into the parking lots of neighborhood taquerias or Vietnamese pho shops for a meal. Or some of the families who have lived in the county for generations still employing Latino workers, yet inside their living rooms Fox News will be playing alarmist rhetoric about “Latinos,” alongside Reagan-era memorabilia proudly displayed alongside framed Bible verses. This split reality — a multicultural community and one of the far-right — oddly fills the framework of a county born from a split with its neighbor, L.A., only to develop an aggressive identity against said neighbor’s perceived liberalness.
It’s this cultural rejection that led to “the orange curtain” or the “Orange County bubble,” which suggest these racially-charged ideologies stay contained or, exhaustingly, echo within the county’s sphere. On the contrary, Lichtblau has seen how these white suburban views spill outward. Look no further than the U.S. Capitol insurrection on Jan. 6, also the book’s release date.
While popular belief might assume these insurrectionists came from deeply conservative areas, it was actually the contrary, as Lichtblau explains. “It was from places like Orange County,” he says, “where the voting patterns were seeing the most shift.” Some might argue — adamantly or reluctantly — that Jan. 6 was merely a stop-the-steal protest gone wrong, a momentary lapse or mob mentality. But Lichtblau sees something much larger. “This was white pride on display. There was a lot of neo-Nazi stuff, including a lot of Orange County people stuff.”
As a society, it’s been collectively decided to expect the profile of the lone wolf killer, the outcast, wearing an identity strung from the illusions of a white man’s oppression — the type to rail against unemployment benefits but still cash the check. Someone like Sam Woodward, cut from the vestiges of the once venerable conservative Americana family, the type of God-fearing Christians who, as “American Reich” studies in the Woodward household, teach and bond over ideological hate, and even while entrenched in a murder case, continuously reach out to the victim’s family to the point where the judge has to intervene. The existence of these suburban families is known, as is the slippery hope one will never cross paths with them in this ever-spinning round of American roulette. But neither these individuals nor their hate crimes are random, as Lichtblau discusses, and the lone wolves aren’t as alone as assumed. These underground channels have long been ingrained in the American groundscape like landmines, now reactivated by a far-right digital landscape that connects these members and multiplies their ideologies on a national level. Lichtblau’s new investigation goes beyond the paradigm of Orange County to show a deeper cultural epidemic that’s been taking shape.
Beavin Pappas is an arts and culture writer. Raised in Orange County, he now splits his time between New York and Cairo, where he is at work on his debut book.
Federal authorities said Monday that they foiled a plot to bomb multiple sites of two U.S. companies on New Year’s Eve in Southern California after arresting members of an extremist anti-capitalist and anti-government group.The four suspects were arrested Friday in the Mojave Desert east of Los Angeles as they were rehearsing their plot, First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli said during a news conference. Officials showed reporters surveillance aerial footage of the suspects moving a large black object in the desert to a table. Officials said they were able to make the arrests before the suspects assembled a functional explosive device.In the criminal complaint, the four suspects named are Audrey Illeene Carroll, 30; Zachary Aaron Page, 32; Dante Gaffield, 24; and Tina Lai, 41. They are all from the Los Angeles area, Essayli said.Officials did not describe a motive but said they are members of an offshoot of a group dubbed the Turtle Island Liberation Front. The group calls for decolonization, tribal sovereignty and “the working class to rise up and fight back against capitalism,” according to the criminal complaint.The term “Turtle Island” is used by some Indigenous peoples to describe North America in a way that reflects its existence outside of the colonial boundaries put in place by the U.S. and Canada. It comes from Indigenous creation stories where the continent was formed on the back of a giant turtle.Officials also found “Free Palestine” flyers at the desert campsite where the suspects were working with the bomb-making materials.The charges against each suspect include conspiracy and possession of a destructive device. Essayli said additional charges were expected in coming weeks.The four suspects’ attorneys did not immediately return requests for comment, and The Associated Press was unable to reach family members. AP also sent Turtle Island Liberation Front’s social media accounts messages asking for comment but did not get a response.Alleged plot had multiple targetsEssayli said Carroll last month created a detailed plan to bomb five or more business locations across Southern California on New Year’s Eve. He declined to name the companies but described them as “Amazon-type” logistical centers.“Carroll’s bomb plot was explicit,” Essayli said. “It included step-by-step instructions to build IEDs… and listed multiple targets across Orange County and Los Angeles.”The plan included planting backpacks filled with complex pipe bombs that were set to be detonated simultaneously at midnight on New Year’s Eve at five locations, according to officials and the criminal complaint. New Year’s Eve was identified as an opportune time in the plan that stated “fireworks will be going off at this time so explosions will be less likely to be noticed,” according to the investigation.The eight-page handwritten plan titled “OPERATION MIDNIGHT SUN” stated more locations could be added. The locations were identified as property and facilities operated by two separate companies tied to activities affecting interstate and foreign commerce, according to the complaint.Two of the group’s members also had discussed plans for future attacks targeting Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents and vehicles with pipe bombs in 2026, according to the criminal complaint.Carroll noted “that would take some of them out and scare the rest of them,’” according to the complaint.The plans were discussed both at an in-person meeting with members in Los Angeles and through an encrypted messaging app, Essayli said.‘Bomb-making components’ found at campsitePhotos included in the court documents show a desert campsite with what investigators said were bomb-making materials strewn across plastic folding tables.The suspects “all brought bomb-making components to the campsite, including various sizes of PVC pipes, suspected potassium nitrate, charcoal, charcoal powder, sulfur powder, and material to be used as fuses, among others,” the complaint states.The plan included instructions on how to manufacture the bombs and also how to avoid leaving evidence behind that could be traced back to the group, officials said. The suspects recently had acquired precursor chemicals and other items, including purchases from Amazon, according to the complaint.The FBI moved in last week as they rehearsed the attack in the desert near Twentynine Palms, California, officials said.“They had everything they needed to make an operational bomb at that location,” Essayli said.Authorities issued search warrants and found posters for the Turtle Island Liberation Front at Carroll’s home that called for “Death to America,” and “Death to ICE,” Essayli said. In Page’s residence, police found a copy of the detailed bomb plan, he added.Los Angeles Police Chief Jim McDonnell said while federal and local officials disagree on the Trump administration’s immigration raids, they come together still to protect residents. The LAPD does not stop people or take action for any reason related to immigration status, and it doesn’t enforce immigration laws, a practice that has been in place for 45 years.“The successful disruption of this plot is a powerful testament to the strength of our unified response,” McDonnell said.The suspects were taken into custody without incident. They were scheduled to appear in court in Los Angeles Monday afternoon.___Watson reported from San Diego. Associated Press journalists Jessica Hill in Las Vegas and Graham Lee Brewer in Norman, Oklahoma, contributed to this report.
LOS ANGELES —
Federal authorities said Monday that they foiled a plot to bomb multiple sites of two U.S. companies on New Year’s Eve in Southern California after arresting members of an extremist anti-capitalist and anti-government group.
The four suspects were arrested Friday in the Mojave Desert east of Los Angeles as they were rehearsing their plot, First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli said during a news conference. Officials showed reporters surveillance aerial footage of the suspects moving a large black object in the desert to a table. Officials said they were able to make the arrests before the suspects assembled a functional explosive device.
In the criminal complaint, the four suspects named are Audrey Illeene Carroll, 30; Zachary Aaron Page, 32; Dante Gaffield, 24; and Tina Lai, 41. They are all from the Los Angeles area, Essayli said.
Officials did not describe a motive but said they are members of an offshoot of a group dubbed the Turtle Island Liberation Front. The group calls for decolonization, tribal sovereignty and “the working class to rise up and fight back against capitalism,” according to the criminal complaint.
The term “Turtle Island” is used by some Indigenous peoples to describe North America in a way that reflects its existence outside of the colonial boundaries put in place by the U.S. and Canada. It comes from Indigenous creation stories where the continent was formed on the back of a giant turtle.
Officials also found “Free Palestine” flyers at the desert campsite where the suspects were working with the bomb-making materials.
The charges against each suspect include conspiracy and possession of a destructive device. Essayli said additional charges were expected in coming weeks.
The four suspects’ attorneys did not immediately return requests for comment, and The Associated Press was unable to reach family members. AP also sent Turtle Island Liberation Front’s social media accounts messages asking for comment but did not get a response.
Alleged plot had multiple targets
Essayli said Carroll last month created a detailed plan to bomb five or more business locations across Southern California on New Year’s Eve. He declined to name the companies but described them as “Amazon-type” logistical centers.
“Carroll’s bomb plot was explicit,” Essayli said. “It included step-by-step instructions to build IEDs… and listed multiple targets across Orange County and Los Angeles.”
The plan included planting backpacks filled with complex pipe bombs that were set to be detonated simultaneously at midnight on New Year’s Eve at five locations, according to officials and the criminal complaint. New Year’s Eve was identified as an opportune time in the plan that stated “fireworks will be going off at this time so explosions will be less likely to be noticed,” according to the investigation.
The eight-page handwritten plan titled “OPERATION MIDNIGHT SUN” stated more locations could be added. The locations were identified as property and facilities operated by two separate companies tied to activities affecting interstate and foreign commerce, according to the complaint.
Two of the group’s members also had discussed plans for future attacks targeting Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents and vehicles with pipe bombs in 2026, according to the criminal complaint.
Carroll noted “that would take some of them out and scare the rest of them,’” according to the complaint.
The plans were discussed both at an in-person meeting with members in Los Angeles and through an encrypted messaging app, Essayli said.
‘Bomb-making components’ found at campsite
Photos included in the court documents show a desert campsite with what investigators said were bomb-making materials strewn across plastic folding tables.
The suspects “all brought bomb-making components to the campsite, including various sizes of PVC pipes, suspected potassium nitrate, charcoal, charcoal powder, sulfur powder, and material to be used as fuses, among others,” the complaint states.
The plan included instructions on how to manufacture the bombs and also how to avoid leaving evidence behind that could be traced back to the group, officials said. The suspects recently had acquired precursor chemicals and other items, including purchases from Amazon, according to the complaint.
The FBI moved in last week as they rehearsed the attack in the desert near Twentynine Palms, California, officials said.
“They had everything they needed to make an operational bomb at that location,” Essayli said.
Authorities issued search warrants and found posters for the Turtle Island Liberation Front at Carroll’s home that called for “Death to America,” and “Death to ICE,” Essayli said. In Page’s residence, police found a copy of the detailed bomb plan, he added.
Los Angeles Police Chief Jim McDonnell said while federal and local officials disagree on the Trump administration’s immigration raids, they come together still to protect residents. The LAPD does not stop people or take action for any reason related to immigration status, and it doesn’t enforce immigration laws, a practice that has been in place for 45 years.
“The successful disruption of this plot is a powerful testament to the strength of our unified response,” McDonnell said.
The suspects were taken into custody without incident. They were scheduled to appear in court in Los Angeles Monday afternoon.
___
Watson reported from San Diego. Associated Press journalists Jessica Hill in Las Vegas and Graham Lee Brewer in Norman, Oklahoma, contributed to this report.
‘We all panicked and ran’: Brown University freshman speaks after deadly shooting
PROVIDENCE TODAY. THAT’S RIGHT. BEN, THAT VIGIL ACTUALLY JUST WRAPPED UP A FEW MOMENTS AGO HERE AT LIPPITT MEMORIAL PARK. AND YOU CAN SEE PEOPLE ARE STILL LINGERING AROUND HERE WANTING TO BE IN COMMUNITY AFTER THIS UNTHINKABLE TRAGEDY HAPPENED AT BROWN UNIVERSITY. IT WAS REALLY A BEAUTIFUL CEREMONY. THERE WAS SINGING, THERE WAS PRAYER, AND OF COURSE, COMMUNITY COMING TOGETHER AFTER THIS UNIMAGINABLE EVENT. I SPOKE TO SEVERAL PEOPLE HERE, BOTH COMMUNITY MEMBERS, FACULTY AT THE UNIVERSITY AND PEOPLE WHO LIVE IN THIS AREA, ALL SAYING THEY THEY COULD NOT BELIEVE SOMETHING LIKE THIS HAPPENED HERE. THERE WAS ACTUALLY A HOLIDAY EVENT ALREADY SCHEDULED TO TAKE PLACE AT THIS PARK. OF COURSE, WITH EVERYTHING HAPPENING AT BROWN UNIVERSITY, THE EVENT RAPIDLY SWITCHED INTO A VIGIL AND A MOMENT FOR THE COMMUNITY TO COME TOGETHER. HERE’S WHAT SOME PEOPLE HAD TO SAY ABOUT HOW TIGHT KNIT THIS PLACE IS. THIS IS A SMALL SCHOOL. EVERYONE KNOWS EVERYONE. IT’S GREAT. STRENGTH IS ITS INTIMACY, AND WE’RE SEEING THAT TONIGHT. AND, YOU KNOW, IT’S TERRIBLE REASON FOR US TO GET TOGETHER. BUT IT IS VERY HEARTWARMING TO SEE HOW MANY PEOPLE ARE HERE AND HOW MUCH LOVE THERE IS. THE RED CROSS WAS ALSO HERE, AS WELL AS OTHER COMMUNITY PARTNERS, MAKING SURE EVERYONE HAD EVERYTHING THEY NEEDED TO BE ABLE TO COME TOGETHER SAFELY. THERE’S ALSO ENHANCED LAW ENFORCEMENT PRESENCE HERE. I CAN TELL YOU THERE HAVE BEEN MULTIPLE PATROLS HAPPENING AROUND THIS PARK, AS WELL AS LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICERS WALKING THROUGHOUT THE CROWD, MAKING SURE EVERYONE FELT COMFORTABLE. BUT OF COURSE, AFTER SOMETHING LIKE THIS HAPPENS, THE COMMUNITY WANTS TO COME TOGETHER. AND FROM WHAT EVERYONE IS SAYING, PROVIDENCE IS SUCH A TIGHT KNIT COMMUNITY. THEY REALLY WANT IT TO BE TOGETHER IN THIS MOMENT. AND THAT’S EXACTLY WHAT THEY DID. FOR NOW, WE’RE LIVE IN PROVIDENCE, RHODE ISLAND. DANAE BUCCI WCVB NEWSCENTER 5. AND OUR THANKS TO JENNY FOR THAT. AND IF YOU’RE NOT FAMILIAR WITH PROVIDENCE AND BROWN UNIVERSITY, SO HERE ON THAT SIDE OF THE STREET IS THE ENGINEERING BUILDING. BARRAS AND HOLLY ON THIS SIDE OF THE STREET ARE HOMES. THIS UNIVERSITY IS VERY MUCH INTERCONNECTED AND INTERTWINED WITH PROVIDENCE NEIGHBORHOODS HERE. AND SO THIS EVENT, THIS SHOOTING IS CERTAINLY IMPACTING MORE THAN JUST THE BROWN UNIVERSITY COMMUNITY. IT’S IMPACTING THE GREATER PROVIDENCE COMMUNITY AS WELL. OUR CAITLIN GALEHOUSE, WITH THIS PART OF THE STORY, AS A LOT OF BUSINESSES IN THIS CITY STILL REMAIN CLOSED, THE PROVIDENCE COMMUNITY HAS BEEN SHAKEN BY THIS TRAGEDY. WE’RE IN WAYLAND SQUARE. THIS IS ABOUT A MILE OFF CAMPUS, AND IT’S BEEN RELATIVELY QUIET THIS AFTERNOON. IN FACT, SOME STORES ARE ACTUALLY CLOSED BECAUSE OF THE SHOOTING. I DIDN’T KNOW WHAT WAS GOING ON AT ALL. FEAR, ANXIETY. TRAGEDY. STRIKING PROVIDENCE SATURDAY AFTER A MAN OPENED FIRE IN A CLASSROOM AT BROWN UNIVERSITY, KILLING TWO STUDENTS AND INJURING NINE OTHERS. THIS IS DEFINITELY BONDING EVERYONE CLOSER TOGETHER. KIND OF SOUNDS AS HORRIBLE AS IT IS. IT’S KIND OF LIKE TRAUMA BONDING IN A WAY. WE’RE ALL HERE AT THE SAME EXACT UNIVERSITY, YOU KNOW, GOING THROUGH THE SAME THINGS. IT’S BEEN ONE DAY SINCE THE TRAGIC INCIDENT BROKE OUT AT THE UNIVERSITY, AND MANY ARE STILL DIGESTING THE REALITY OF WHAT HAPPENED. I’M JUST SADDENED FOR THE BROWN COMMUNITY AND THE ENTIRE STATE. IT’S JUST TRAGIC, THE THE TRAGEDY BEING SO CLOSE TO CHRISTMAS AND, YOU KNOW, FINISHING OUT THE SCHOOL YEAR AND READY TO CELEBRATE YOUR ACCOMPLISHMENTS AND ALL, TO HAVE THAT TAKEN AWAY JUST BY SOME SENSELESS ACT. THE SHELTER IN PLACE ORDER WAS LIFTED EARLY SUNDAY MORNING, BUT THE STREETS ARE STILL QUIET, PROBABLY LESS PEOPLE OUT OF THE COFFEE SHOPS THERE WAS YESTERDAY. WE WERE GOING TO GO OUT TO DINNER. WE DID, AND OBVIOUSLY WE JUST STAYED INSIDE. IT’S A LOT. IT’S IT’S SAD. IT’S SCARY. WE HAD A LOT OF PEOPLE, COWORKERS, THINGS LIKE THAT, CHECKING IN ON US LAST NIGHT. AND I HAVE A LOT OF FRIENDS THAT ALSO KIND OF LIVE LIKE SURROUNDING EAST SIDE AREA. SO YEAH, EVERYONE JUST TRYING TO FIGURE OUT HOW TO HOW TO PROCESS AND HOW TO MOVE ON. BROWN UNIVERSITY HAS CANCELED CLASSES AND FINAL EXAMS FOR THE REMAINDER OF THE SEMESTER DUE TO THE CIRCUMSTANCES. REPORTING IN P
‘We all panicked and ran’: Brown University freshman speaks after deadly shooting
A shooting Saturday at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, that killed two students and injured nine others has left many students, families and city officials struggling to process the tragedy. Members of the Brown community expressed shock and sadness as they mourned the loss of the two students. Video above: Brown University students, community shaken by campus mass shootingAuthorities said the person believed to be responsible fled the scene, prompting a shelter-in-place order that lasted into the early morning hours Sunday. Students were told to stay where they were, silence their cellphones and, at one point, hide. Drew Nelson, a freshman at Brown, described the terrifying moments after the shooting. “We were running out probably a minute or two after the shooting, and there were already, I would guess, between five and 10 cop cars outside. I didn’t see anything that would, I would call a suspect. I didn’t see the shooter. I just kept running until I was nowhere near the building,” he said. Students are now leaving campus and returning home, but for many, that process of healing is only beginning.
A shooting Saturday at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, that killed two students and injured nine others has left many students, families and city officials struggling to process the tragedy.
Members of the Brown community expressed shock and sadness as they mourned the loss of the two students.
Video above: Brown University students, community shaken by campus mass shooting
Authorities said the person believed to be responsible fled the scene, prompting a shelter-in-place order that lasted into the early morning hours Sunday.
Students were told to stay where they were, silence their cellphones and, at one point, hide.
Drew Nelson, a freshman at Brown, described the terrifying moments after the shooting.
“We were running out probably a minute or two after the shooting, and there were already, I would guess, between five and 10 cop cars outside. I didn’t see anything that would, I would call a suspect. I didn’t see the shooter. I just kept running until I was nowhere near the building,” he said.
Students are now leaving campus and returning home, but for many, that process of healing is only beginning.
CARACAS, Venezuela — On the face of it, the United States appears closer than ever to mounting a military campaign to remove President Nicolás Maduro from power in Venezuela.
President Trump says he has authorized the CIA to conduct covert operations inside the Caribbean nation, and has massed troops, fighter jets and warships just off its coastline.
U.S. service members in the region have been barred from taking Thanksgiving leave. Airlines have canceled flights to Venezuela after the Federal Aviation Administration warned of a “potentially hazardous situation” there. And on Monday the White House officially designated Maduro as a member of an international terrorist group.
In Caracas, the nation’s capital, there is a palpable sense of anxiety, especially as each new bellicose pronouncement emerges from Washington.
“People are very tense,” said Rosa María López, 47, a podiatrist and mother of two. “Although no one says anything because they are afraid.”
Traffic is sparse at the Simon Bolivar Maiquetia International Airport in Maiquetia, Venezuela, on Sunday after several international airlines canceled flights following a warning from the Federal Aviation Administration about a hazardous situation in Venezuelan airspace.
(Ariana Cubillos / Associated Press)
Trump has been presented with a set of military options by the Pentagon, a source familiar with the matter told The Times, and is said to be weighing his options. Still, his plans for Venezuela remain opaque.
Trump, even while warning of a possible military action, has also continually floated the possibility of negotiations, saying he “probably would talk” to Maduro at some point.
“I don’t rule out anything,” Trump said last week.
Now people in both the U.S. and Venezuela are wondering: is the U.S. military buildup in the Caribbean the prelude to an invasion, or a bluff intended to pressure Maduro to make a deal?
There are members of the White House — especially Secretary of State Marco Rubio — who are desperate to unseat Maduro, a leftist autocrat whom the U.S. does not recognize as Venezuela’s legitimately elected president.
But other members of Trump’s team seem more intent on securing access to Venezuela’s oil riches, and keeping them from China and Russia, than pushing for regime change. Parties of that camp might be willing to accept a deal with Venezuela that does not call for Maduro’s exit and a plan for a democratic transition.
Months of U.S. saber-rattling without any direct military action against the Maduro government may be weakening the Americans’ negotiating position, said Geoff Ramsey, a Venezuela expert at the Atlantic Council, a Washington-based research group. “There is a psychological component to this operation, and it’s starting to lose its credibility,” he said. “I do fear that the regime thinks that it has weathered the worst of U.S. pressure.”
Maduro, for his part, insists he is open to dialogue. “Whoever in the U.S. wants to talk with Venezuela can do so,” he said this week. “We cannot allow the bombing and massacre of a Christian people — the people of Venezuela.”
Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, speaking Friday at the presidential palace in Caracas, has insisted he is open to dialogue with the United States.
(Cristian Hernandez / Associated Press)
For years, he has refused efforts to force him from office, even in the face of punishing U.S. sanctions, domestic protests against his rule and various offensives during the first Trump administration that Caracas deemed as coup attempts. Experts say there is no evidence that Trump’s buildup of troops — or his attacks on alleged drug traffickers off of Venezuela’s coast — has weakened Maduro’s support amid the military or other hard-core backers.
Venezuela, meanwhile, has sought to use the prospect of a U.S. invasion to bolster support at home.
On Monday, top officials here took aim at the State Department’s designation of an alleged Venezuelan drug cartel as a foreign terrorist group. Rubio claims the Cartel de los Soles is “headed by Nicolás Maduro and other high-ranking individuals of the illegitimate Maduro regime who have corrupted Venezuela’s military, intelligence, legislature and judiciary.”
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth praised the declaration for introducing “a whole bunch of new options” to fight what he described as “narco-terrorists” and “illegitimate regimes.”
The Venezuelan government says the Cartel de los Soles does not exist. Foreign Minister Yván Gil described Monday’s designation as a “ridiculous fabrication.” The U.S., he said, is using a “vile lie to justify an illegitimate and illegal intervention against Venezuela under the classic U.S. format of regime change.”
The truth is somewhere in the middle.
The Cartel de los Soles, experts say, is less a traditional cartel — with a centralized command structure directing various cells — than a shorthand term used in the media and elsewhere to describe a loose group of corrupt Venezuelan military officials implicated in the drug trade.
The name, Cartel of the Suns, derives from the sun insignia found on the uniforms of Venezuelan soldiers, much like stars on U.S. military uniforms. It has been around since the early 1990s, when Venezuela was an important trans-shipment point for Colombian cocaine bound for the U.S. market. Today, only a small portion of cocaine trafficked to the U.S. moves through Venezuela.
Venezuelan journalist Ronna Rísquez Sánchez said it is unclear whether Maduro actually directs illicit activities conducted by his military or simply allows it to transpire among his government. Either way, she said, it is “happening under his nose.”
But she did not rule out that seizing on Maduro’s possible links to drug trafficking might be a convenient “pretext” for U.S. political machinations.
For the people of Venezuela, recent weeks have seen a heightened sense of uncertainty and anguish as people ponder ever-conflicting reports about a possible U.S. strike.
More than a decade of political, social and economic upheaval has left people exhausted and numbed, often unable to believe anything they hear about the future of Maduro’s government. There is a widespread sense of resignation and a feeling that things can only get worse.
“Every week we hear they are going to get rid of Maduro, but he’s still here,” said Inés Rojas, 25, a street vendor in Caracas. “We all want a change, but a change that improves things, not makes them worse. We young people don’t have a future. The doors of immigration are closed, we are locked in here, not knowing what is going to happen.”
Mostly, people seem to want an end to the overwhelming feeling of not knowing what comes next.
“I pray every day that this uncertainty ends,” said Cristina López Castillo, 37, an unemployed office worker who favors Maduro’s removal from office. “We don’t have a future — or a present. We live every day wondering what will happen tomorrow. I have more fear of hunger than of Trump.”
Still, Maduro retains many backers — and not only among the military and political elite who have seen their loyalty rewarded with additional wealth. Many people remain thankful for the social welfare legacy of Maduro and his predecessor, Hugo Chavez, and are wary of U.S. motivations in Venezuela.
“We Venezuelans do not want to be anyone’s colony, nor do we want anyone to drop bombs on us to get rid of a president,” said José Gregorio Martínez Pina, 45, a construction worker in the capital.
“Is Maduro a narco? I haven’t seen any proof,” he said. “And if they have it, they should present it, instead of having a country living under terror for weeks.”
Times staff writers Linthicum and McDonnell reported in Mexico City. Mogollón, a special correspondent, reported in Caracas. Michael Wilner in the Times’ Washington bureau also contributed reporting.
Kate Linthicum, Patrick J. McDonnell, Mery Mogollón
Registered nurses who work at 19 University of California facilities have ratified a new contract after voting concluded Saturday.
The contract will cover some 25,000 registered nurses and includes protections to improve patient safety and nurse retention through Jan. 31, 2029, according to the California Nurses Assn.
The pact includes a minimum 18.5% increase in pay, caps on healthcare increases, restrictions on UC floating RNs between facilities, improvements to meal and rest breaks and workplace violence-prevention policies, the association said.
“University of California RNs organized for and won important patient protections at the bargaining table, like curbing the rampant misuse of floating and ensuring safeguards on artificial intelligence,” said Kristan Delmarty, an RN and member of the UC bargaining team.
“As a result of the commitment of all CAN members, we won a contract that will improve outcomes for nurses and our patients,’’ said Marlene Tucay, an RN at UC Irvine and member of the bargaining team.
Under the contract, RNs were guaranteed a central role in selecting, designing and validating new technology, including AI systems, the CNA stated.
WASHINGTON — President Trump on Thursday said he believed Democratic lawmakers who publicly urged active service members to “refuse illegal orders” amounted to seditious behavior, which he said should be punishable by death.
“It’s called SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR AT THE HIGHEST LEVEL. Each one of these traitors to our Country should be ARRESTED AND PUT ON TRIAL. Their words cannot be allowed to stand — We won’t have a Country anymore!!! An example MUST BE SET,” Trump said in a social media post.
Trump went on to amplify more than a dozen social media posts from other people, who in reaction to Trump’s post called for the Democrats to be arrested, charged and in one instance hanged. Trump then continued: “SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR, punishable by DEATH!”
The Democratic lawmakers who released the video — Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly, Michigan Sen. Alyssa Slotkin, Pennsylvania Rep. Chris Deluzio, New Hampshire Rep. Maggie Goodlander, Pennsylvania Rep. Chrissy Houlahan and Colorado Rep. Jason Crow — served in the military or as intelligence officers.
They did not specify which orders they were referring to. But they said the Trump administration was “pitting our uniformed military and intelligence community professional against American citizens” and that threats to the Constitution were coming “from right here at home.”
The video, which was posted on Tuesday, quickly drew criticism from Republicans, including Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth who characterized it as “Stage 4 [Trump Derangement Syndrome].” But Trump, who first reacted to the video on Thursday, saw the video as more than partisan speech.
“SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR FROM TRAITORS!!! LOCK THEM UP???” Trump said in another post.
When asked Thursday if the president wanted to execute members of Congress, as suggested in one of his social media posts, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said “no.”
But, Leavitt said, the president does want to see them be “held accountable.”
“That is a very, very dangerous message and it is perhaps punishable by law,” Leavitt said. “I’ll leave that to the Department of justice and the Department of War to decide.”
What the law says
Under a federal law known as “seditious conspiracy,” it is a crime for two or more individuals to “conspire to overthrow, put down, or to destroy by force the Government of the United States” or to “prevent, hinder or delay the execution of any law of the United States” by force.
A seditious conspiracy charge is punishable by up to 20 years in prison.
Federal courts and legal scholars have long emphasized that seditious conspiracy charges apply only to coordinated efforts to use force against the government, rather than political dissent.
The last time federal prosecutors pursued seditious conspiracy charges was in connection with the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. Members of the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers were convicted of seditious conspiracy and other charges for plotting to prevent by force the transfer of presidential power to Joe Biden.
Among the convicted individuals was former Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio, whose 22-year sentence was the stiffest of any of the Jan. 6 rioters. Trump pardoned him earlier this year.
Hours after the president’s posts, the six Democratic lawmakers issued a joint statement, calling on Americans to “unite and condemn the President’s calls for our murder and political violence.”
“What’s most telling is that the President considers it punishable by death for us to restate the law,” the lawmakers said in a statement posted to X. “Our service members should know that we have their backs as they fulfill their oath to the Constitution and obligation to follow only lawful orders.”
Democratic leaders in Washington and across the country denounced Trump’s post.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) said in a statement with other Democratic leaders that Trump’s comments were “disgusting and dangerous death threats against members of Congress.” They added that they had been in contact with U.S. Capitol Police to ensure the safety of the Democrat lawmakers and their families.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom reacted to the posts by saying Trump “is sick in the head” for calling for the death of Democratic lawmakers.
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!”
German prosecutors said on Wednesday they have arrested a suspected Hamas member accused of procuring weapons that they assume were intended for attacks on Israeli or Jewish institutions.
The suspect was arrested on the motorway as he entered Germany from the Czech Republic, the federal public prosecutor’s office in Karlsruhe said.
He is to be brought before an investigating judge in Karlsruhe, who will decide whether he is to be remanded in custody.
Prosecutors accuse the Lebanese-born suspect of membership in a foreign terrorist organization.
In August, he allegedly procured a fully automatic rifle, eight pistols and over 600 rounds of ammunition in Germany. He is then believed to have transported them to Berlin to pass them to another suspected Hamas member who was already in pre-trial detention.
The weapons and ammunition were seized at the time of the arrest.
The Danish police also searched premises belonging to the man and to another suspect in Copenhagen and the surrounding area, prosecutors said.
Last month, German prosecutors arrested three suspected Hamas members in Berlin, who are in pre-trial detention.
The three suspects, including a naturalized Lebanese-born man and a naturalized Syrian-born man, are accused of having procured firearms and ammunition since at least the summer of 2025.
“The weapons were to be used by Hamas for assassinations targeting Israeli or Jewish institutions in Germany,” prosecutors said. However, there was apparently no concrete plan for an attack.
In early November, a weapons cache was found in Vienna linked to the three suspects arrested in Berlin. Austria’s DSN domestic intelligence agency said five handguns and 10 magazines were seized.
“The weapons cache is attributed to structures of the terrorist organization Hamas operating abroad,” the DSN said.
Last week, another man was arrested in London who is alleged to have transported weapons to Vienna as a member of Hamas. According to the DSN, the man is a 39-year-old British citizen. He is to be extradited to Germany.
The Palestinian militant group Hamas launched an unprecedented attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, in which 1,200 people were killed and more than 250 were taken hostage. The onslaught sparked the Gaza war.
WASHINGTON — Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York is facing mounting pressure to step aside as leader of the Senate Democratic caucus after eight members voted against his wishes Sunday, joining Republicans in a bid to end the longest government shutdown in history.
The vote was just the latest development in a troubling week for the 74-year-old Schumer, who, after eight years as the top Senate Democrat, has faced growing calls from within the party to make way for a new generation of leadership.
Elections last week revealed the emergence of a growing progressive movement in Schumer’s hometown, where the longtime senator declined to endorse Zohran Mamdani in his successful bid for New York City mayor.
National progressive organizations on Monday urged him to step down and have encouraged a popular congresswoman in the state, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, to run for his Senate seat in 2029. Polls show Schumer faces the lowest approval numbers of any national leader in Washington.
His leadership troubles come on the heels of Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco), the first female speaker of the House, announcing her retirement, a decision that generated praise across the political aisle last week reflecting on her shrewd ability to control a sprawling House Democratic caucus during high-stakes votes.
“Schumer is no longer effective and should be replaced,” Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Fremont) wrote on X after the Sunday night vote. “If you can’t lead the fight to stop healthcare premiums from skyrocketing for Americans, what will you fight for?”
Hakeem Jeffries of New York, the top Democrat in the House, told reporters Monday that he strongly disapproved of the emerging deal in the Senate, where seven Democrats and one independent who caucuses with the party voted to proceed with government funding.
For seven weeks, House and Senate Democrats said they would not vote for legislation to reopen the government unless they were able to secure an extension of health insurance subsidies. But the deal reached in the Senate indicated how some Democrats gave in on that bottom-line negotiation.
Schumer reiterated his disapproval of the spending deal in a speech from the floor Monday. He criticized the compromise as a “Republican bill” even though members of his party helped broker the deal.
“Republicans now own this healthcare crisis,” Schumer said. “They knew it was coming. We wanted to fix it and they said no, and now it is on them.”
As Schumer delivered his speech, Jeffries spoke to reporters at a news conference on the other side of the Capitol.
Asked whether he thought Schumer remained an effective leader and should remain in his position, Jeffries replied, “yes and yes.”
When pressed to elaborate, Jeffries said “the overwhelming majority of Senate Democrats led by Chuck Schumer waged a valiant fight,” and turned his disapproval to the Democrats who voted with Republicans on the bill.
“I am not going to explain what a handful of Senate Democrats have decided to do,” Jeffries said. “That’s their explanation to offer to the American people.”
Now that the effort turns to the House, Jeffries said Democrats in the chamber will try to block a deal that does not address healthcare costs.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom offered harsh criticism of Senate Democrats on Monday, who he said had “rolled over.”
After speaking at the Milken Institute’s Global Investors’ Symposium in São Paulo, Newsom told The Times that the move blunted the momentum his party was experiencing following a string of victories last week.
“You don’t start something unless you’re going to finish,” said Newsom, who next heads to the climate summit known as COP30 in Belém, Brazil. “Why the hell did we do this in the first place? We could have gotten this deal in 20 minutes. … Honestly, I don’t know what’s going on with my party.”
Zach Wahls, a Democratic candidate for Senate in Iowa, said Schumer had “failed to lead this party in one of its most critical moments,” calling for him to step down. And Rep. Seth Moulton, a Democrat from Massachusetts, wrote that an effective leader would have been able to keep party members in line.
“Tonight is another example of why we need new leadership,” Moulton wrote on X.
The eight members who voted to reopen the government — 15% of the Senate Democratic caucus — voted directly against Schumer, who voted against the measure.
Wahls speculated that the moderate members who voted with Republicans were privately given Schumer’s blessing to do so.
“The fact that he voted against this deal, while he clearly gave it his blessing in private, is a perfect illustration of why people no longer trust the Democratic Party,” Wahls said, “and as long as he stays in a leadership role, it is going to be impossible for anybody — whether it’s in Iowa or any other swing state — to win a majority.”
Times staff writers Wilner and Ceballos reported from Washington, and Gutierrez contributed from São Paulo.
MEXICO CITY — Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum was strolling through her city’s capital this week, heading from one government office to another, when she stopped to take selfies with a crowd of admirers.
A man approached from behind, slipped his arm around Sheinbaum’s shoulder, leaned in to plant a kiss on her neck and briefly grabbed her chest before an aide pushed him away.
The groping incident, which was captured on video by bystanders Tuesday, sparked outrage nationally and put renewed focus on the rampant sexual harassment faced by women here.
Sheinbaum, who last year was sworn in as Mexico’s first female leader, has seized the chance to raise awareness about the issue.
“If they do this to the president,” she asked Wednesday, “what must happen to all the young women in the country?”
Speaking at her daily news conference, Sheinbaum said that she had filed a criminal complaint against her aggressor, whom authorities reported was drunk at the time of the incident and had been detained.
Sheinbaum said her government will also review state laws to ensure that street harassment is categorized as a crime throughout Mexico and launch a campaign to combat the phenomenon.
“I decided to file a complaint because this is something … all women in our country experience,” Sheinbaum said. “I experienced it before I was president. It shouldn’t happen. No one should violate our personal space. No man has the right to violate that space.”
Sheinbaum leaves a rally in Mexico City in 2023 while campaigning for president.
(Eduardo Verdugo / Associated Press)
Like her populist predecessor, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, Sheinbaum often walks the streets without bodyguards, saying she likes to be close to the people.
But the practice has come under scrutiny given the dozens of killings each year of Mexican political candidates and elected leaders. Over the weekend, the outspoken mayor of Uruapan, a city in Michoácan state, was gunned down at a public event celebrating the Day of the Dead holiday despite being protected by armed police and members of the National Guard.
Tuesday’s incident in Mexico City provoked outrage across the country, with many women saying it embodied the street harassment that is commonplace in many parts of the country.
“If the most powerful woman in Mexico experienced harassment, what can women who travel on public transportation or walk alone every day expect?” Congresswoman Ivonne Ortega wrote on X. “This is the reality that millions of women and girls face daily.”
Feminist social movements have gained ground in Mexico in recent years, sparked by the #MeToo movement in the United States and Mexico’s high rates of violence against women. Each spring, hundreds of thousands of protesters take to the streets to demand gender parity and policies that protect women’s lives.
Sheinbaum’s landslide victory in the 2024 presidential election highlighted the vast strides made by women in Mexican politics, a phenomenon aided by a law requiring that at least 50% of all candidates in federal, state and municipal elections are female.
Sheinbaum has frequently described her win as a victory for all women. “I did not arrive alone,” she says. “We all arrived.”
Yet violence against women persists, with an average of 10 women or girls slain nationwide each day, according to the government.
And street harassment is still pervasive. A few years ago, the hashtag #MiPrimerAcoso — “my first harassment” — went viral, with tens of thousands of women sharing stories of the first time they were touched, stared at or verbally harassed in the streets.
Writer Brenda Lozano said on X that Tuesday’s incident wasn’t due to alcohol or Sheinbaum’s lack of security. “The reasons she was harassed are patriarchy and sexism.”
Women march in Mexico City in a 2020 protest against gender violence.
(Pedro Pardo /AFP via Getty Images)
A United Nations report found that nearly half of Mexican women have been subjected to rape, groping or other forms of sexual violence. A 2014 survey of female transit riders in 16 cities around the world by the Thompson Reuters Foundation found that Mexico City had the biggest problem with sexual harassment, with 64% of respondents reporting having been victimized.
The Mexico City government has long provided women-only subway cars, and has even sought to combat harassment by arming female commuters with rape whistles. Some feminists oppose those measures, saying it puts the onus on women to protect themselves instead of pushing men to change their behavior.
Mexico City Mayor Clara Brugada said on Wednesday that the man who groped the president would be prosecuted to the full extent of the law.
“‘We’ve all arrived’ is not a slogan,” said Brugada, a member of Sheinbaum’s Morena party. “It’s a commitment to not look the other way, to not allow misogyny to remain hidden in custom, to not accept one more humiliation, one more abuse, one more femicide.”
While there were widespread expressions of support for Sheinbaum, there were also some on social media who criticized her for making too much of the incident. Others slammed Sheinbaum for smiling as she tried to slip away from the man’s grip, and for not pushing him away herself.
At her news conference, Sheinbaum said she hadn’t realized the extent of the harassment until she saw a video of what had happened.
She had chosen to walk between meetings rather than take a car for a simple reason. “We were running late,” she said. “It was faster.”
Also on Wednesday, Sheinbaum voiced support for Mexico’s Miss Universe representative, Fátima Bosch, who made headlines when she walked out of the competition Tuesday after being publicly berated by a male pageant official, who called her “dumb.”
Sheinbaum referenced a sexist saying that was once common in Mexico: “She’s prettier when she’s quiet.”
“Women,” Sheinbaum said, “are prettier when we raise our voices.”
Times staff writer Patrick J. McDonnell and Cecilia Sánchez Vidal in Mexico City contributed to this report.
WASHINGTON — Twenty-two days into the government shutdown, California Rep. Kevin Kiley spent an hour of his morning in Washington guiding a group of middle school students from Grass Valley through the empty corridors of the U.S. Capitol.
Normally, one of his staff members would have led the tour. But the Capitol is closed to all tours during the shutdown, unless the elected member is present. So the schoolchildren from Lyman Gilmore Middle School ended up with Kiley, a Republican from Rocklin, as their personal tour guide.
“I would have visited with these kids anyway,” Kiley said in his office after the event. “But I actually got to go on the whole tour of the Capitol with them as well.”
Kiley’s impromptu tour is an example of how members of California’s congressional delegation are improvising their routines as the shutdown drags on and most of Washington remains at a standstill.
Some are in Washington in case negotiations resume, others are back at home in their districts meeting with federal workers who are furloughed or working without pay, giving interviews or visiting community health centers that rely on tax credits central to the budget negotiations. One member attended the groundbreaking of a flood control project in their district. Others are traveling back and forth.
“I’ve had to fly back to Washington for caucus meetings, while the opposition, the Republicans, don’t even convene and meet,” Rep. Maxine Waters, a longtime Los Angeles Democrat, said in an interview. “We will meet anytime, anyplace, anywhere, with [House Speaker Mike] Johnson, with the president, with the Senate, to do everything that we can to open up the government. We are absolutely unified on that.”
The shutdown is being felt across California, which has the most federal workers outside the District of Columbia. Food assistance benefits for millions of low-income Californians could soon be delayed. And millions of Californians could see their healthcare premiums rise sharply if Affordable Care Act subsidies are allowed to expire.
For the California delegation, the fallout at home has become impossible to ignore. Yet the shutdown is in its fourth week with no end in sight.
In the House, Johnson has refused to call members back into session and prevented them from doing legislative work. Many California lawmakers — including Kiley, one of the few GOP lawmakers to openly criticize him — have been dismayed by the deadlock.
“I have certainly emphasized the point that the House needs to be in session, and that canceling a month’s worth of session is not a good thing for the House or the country,” Kiley said, noting that he had privately met with Johnson.
Kiley, who represented parts of the Sacramento suburbs and Lake Tahoe, is facing political uncertainty as California voters weigh whether to approve Proposition 50 on Nov. 4. The measure would redraw the state’s congressional districts to better favor Democrats, leaving Kiley at risk, even though the Republican says he believes he could still win if his right-leaning district is redrawn.
The Senate has been more active, holding a series of votes on the floor and congressional hearings with Atty. Gen. Pam Bondi and CIA Director John Ratcliffe. The chamber, however, has been unable to reach a deal to reopen the government. On Thursday, the 23rd day of the shutdown, the Senate failed to advance competing measures that would have paid federal employees who have been working without compensation.
The Republicans’ plan would have paid active-duty members of the military and some federal workers during the shutdown. Democrats backed a bill that would have paid all federal workers and barred the Trump administration from laying off any more federal employees.
“California has one of the largest federal workforces in the country, and no federal worker or service member should miss their paychecks because Donald Trump and Republicans refused to come to the table to protect Americans’ health care,” Sen. Alex Padilla said in a statement.
Working conditions get harder
The strain on federal employees — including those who work for California’s 54 delegation members — are starting to become more apparent.
Dozens of them have been working full time without pay. Their jobs include answering phone calls and requests from constituents, setting the schedules for elected officials, writing policy memos and handling messaging for their offices.
House Speaker Mike Johnson speaks about the shutdown at a news conference Thursday with other Republican House members.
(Eric Lee / Getty Images)
At the end of October, House staffers — who are paid on a monthly basis — are expected to miss their first paycheck.
Some have been quietly told to consider borrowing money from the U.S. Senate Federal Credit Union, which is offering a “government shutdown relief loan program” that includes a no-interest loan of up to $5,000 to be repaid in full after 90 days.
The mundane has also been disrupted. Some of the cafeterias and coffee carts that are usually open to staffers are closed. The lines to enter office buildings are long because fewer entrances are open.
The hallways leading to the offices of California’s elected officials are quiet, except for the faint sound of occasional elevator dings. Many of their doors are adorned with signs that show who they blame for the government shutdown.
“Trump and Republicans shut down the government,” reads a sign posted on the door that leads into Rep. Norma Torres’ (D-Pomona) office. “Our office is OPEN — WORKING for the American people.”
Rep. Ted Lieu, a Democrat from Torrance, posted a similar sign outside his office.
A sign is posted outside of the office of Rep. Ted Lieu, a California Democrat, in Washington on Wednesday.
(Ana Ceballos / Los Angeles Times)
Rep. Vince Fong, a Republican who represents the Central Valley, has been traveling between Washington and his district. Two weeks into the shutdown, he met with veterans from the Central Valley Honor Flight and Kern County Honor Flight to make sure that their planned tour of the Capitol was not disrupted by the shutdown. Like Kiley’s tour with the schoolchildren, an elected member needed to be present for the tour to go on.
“His presence ensured the tour could continue as planned,” Fong’s office said.
During the tour, veterans were able to see Johnson as well, his office said.
Shutdown highlights deep divisions
California’s congressional delegation mirrors the broader stalemate in Washington, where entrenched positions have kept both parties at a negotiation impasse.
Democrats are steadfast in their position that they will not agree to a deal unless Republicans extend the Affordable Care Act tax credits expiring at the end of the year, while Republicans are accusing Democrats of failing to reopen the government for political gain.
Kiley is one of the few Republicans who has called on Johnson to negotiate with Democrats on healthcare. Kiley said he thinks there is a “a lot of room to negotiate” because there is concern on both sides of the aisle if the tax credits expire.
“If people see a massive increase in their premiums … that’s not a good thing,” he said. “Especially in California, where the cost of living is already so high, and you’re suddenly having to pay a lot more for healthcare.”
Rep. Robert Garcia, the chair of the House Democratic Caucus, in a press event Wednesday with five other California Democrats talked about the need to fight for the healthcare credits.
Garcia, of Long Beach, said he recently visited a healthcare center in San Bernardino County that serves seniors with disabilities. He said the cuts would be “devastating” and would prompt the center to close.
“That’s why we are doing everything in our power to negotiate a deal that reopens the federal government and saves healthcare,” he said.
As the shutdown continues, many Democrats are digging their heels on the issue.
At an Oct. 3 event outside of Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center, for instance, Rep. Laura Friedman held a news conference with nurses and hospital staff and said she would not vote for a bill to reopen the government unless there is a deal on healthcare.
Last week, the Glendale Democrat said her position hasn’t changed.
“I will not support a shutdown deal that strips healthcare from tens of thousands of my constituents,” she said.
With the fate of President’s Trump’s right-wing agenda at stake, the California ballot measure crafted to tilt Congress to Democratic control has turned into a fight among millionaires and billionaires, a former president, a past movie-star governor and the nation’s top partisans.
Californians have been inundated with political ads popping up on every screen — no cellphone, computer or living-room television is spared — trying to sway them about Proposition 50, which will reconfigure the districts of the largest state congressional delegation in the union.
Unions representing California school teachers, carpenters, state workers and nurses have plowed more than $23 million into efforts to pass Proposition 50, according to an analysis of campaign finance disclosure reports about donations exceeding $100,000. That’s nearly one-third of the six-figure donations reported through Thursday.
Not only do these groups have major interests in the state capitol, including charter school reform, minimum wage hikes and preserving government healthcare programs, they also are deeply aligned with efforts by Gov. Gavin Newsom and his fellow Democrats to put their party in control of the U.S. House of Representatives in the 2026 election. “There are real issues here that are at stake,” said veteran Democratic strategist Gale Kaufman, who has represented several unions that have contributed to Newsom’s committee supporting Proposition 50.
“There’s always a risk when making sizable donations, that you’re putting yourself out there,” Kaufman said. “But the truth is on Proposition 50, I think it’s much less calculated than normal contributions. It really is about the issue, not about currying favor with members of the Legislature, or the congressional delegation, or the governor. Even though, of course, it benefits them if we win.”
High stakes brings in big money from across the nation
Newsom’s pro-Proposition 50 committee has raised more than $116 million, according to campaign disclosure filings through Thursday afternoon, though that number is sure to increase once additional donations are disclosed in the latest fundraising reports that are due by midnight Thursday.
The multimillion-dollar donations provide the best evidence of what’s at stake, and how Proposition 50 could determine control of the House during the final two years of Trump’s presidency. If the Democrats take control of the House, not only could that derail major parts of Trumps agenda, it probably would lead to a slew of congressional hearings on Trump’s immigration crackdown, use of the military in American cities, accepting a $400-million luxury airliner from Qatari’s royal family, the cutting of research funding to universities and the president’s ties to sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, among many others.
The House Majority PAC — the Democrats’ congressional fundraising arm — has donated at least $15 million to the pro-Proposition 50 campaign, and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) was in Los Angeles to campaign for the ballot measure last weekend. Obama joined Newsom on a livestream promoting the proposition Wednesday, and Democratic National Committee Chairman Ken Martin hosted a bilingual phone bank in Los Angeles on Thursday.
“Make no mistake about what they’re trying to do and why it’s so important that we fight back,” Martin said. “We’re not going to be the only party with one hand tied behind our back. If they want a showdown, we’re going to give them a showdown and in just a little under two weeks it starts right here with Prop. 50 in California.”
Billionaire financier George Soros — a generous donor to liberal causes and a bogeyman to Republicans — has contributed $10 million. Others have chosen to fund separate entities campaigning in favor of Proposition 50, notably billionaire hedge-fund founder Tom Steyer, who chipped in $12 million.
On the opposition side, the largest donor is Charles Munger Jr., the son of the longtime investment partner of billionaire Warren Buffett, who has contributed $32.8 million to one of the two main committees opposing Proposition 50. The Congressional Leadership Fund — the GOP’s political arm in the House — has donated $5 million to the other main anti-Proposition 50 committee and $8 million to the California Republican Party.
Although Republicans may control the White House and Congress, the California GOP wields no real power in Sacramento, so it’s not surprising that Republican efforts opposing Proposition 50 have not received major donations from entities with business before the state.
The California Chamber of Commerce opted to remain neutral on Proposition 50. Chevron and the California Resources Corp., petroleum companies that have given to California Republicans in the past, also remain on the sidelines.
In contrast, Democrats control every statewide office and hold supermajorities in both houses of the California Legislature. The pro-Proposition 50 campaign has been showered with donations from groups aligned with Sacramento’s legislative leaders — with labor organizations chief among them.
Among the labor donors, the powerful carpenters unions have donated at least $4 million. Newsom hailed them in July when he signed legislation altering a landmark environmental law for urban apartment developments to boost the supply of housing. The California Conference of Carpenters union has become one of the most pro-housing voices in the state.
“This is the third of the last four years we’ve been together signing landmark housing reforms, and it simply would not have happened without the Carpenters,” Newsom said at the time.
Daniel M. Curtin, director of the California Conference of Carpenters, pointed to a letter he wrote to legislators in August urging them to put redistricting on the ballot because of the effect of Trump’s policies on the state’s workers.
“These are not normal times, and this isn’t politics as usual. Not only has the Trump administration denied disaster assistance to victims of California’s devastating forest fires, he’s damaging our CA economy with mass arrests of law-abiding workers without warrants,” wrote Curtin, whose union has 70,000 members in the state. “The Trump administration is now unilaterally withdrawing from legally binding union collective bargaining agreements with federal workforce unions. The President has made it clear that this is just the beginning.”
Proposition 50 was prompted by Trump urging Republican leaders in Texas to redraw their congressional districts to boost the number of GOP members in the House and keep the party in control after the 2026 election. Newsom sought to counter the move by altering California’s congressional boundaries in a rare mid-decade redistricting.
With 52 members in the House, the state has the largest congressional delegation in the nation. But unlike many states, California’s districts are drawn by an independent commission created by voters in 2010 in an effort to end partisan gerrymandering and incumbent protection.
The state’s districts would not have been redrawn until after the 2030 U.S. census, but the Legislature and Newsom agreed in August to put Proposition 50, which would give Democrats the potential to pick up five seats, on the November ballot.
Money from California unions pours in
Although much of the money supporting the efforts comes from wealth Democratic donors and partisan groups aimed at helping Democrats take control of Congress, a significant portion comes from labor unions.
The Service Employees International Union, which represents more than 700,000 healthcare workers, social workers, in-home caregivers and school employees and other state and local government workers, has contributed more than $5.5 million to the committee.
On Oct. 12, the union celebrated Newsom signing bills ensuring that workers, regardless of immigration status, are informed about their civil and labor rights under state and federal law as well as updating legal guidance to state and local agencies about protecting private information, such as court records and medical data, from being misused by federal authorities.
“Thank you to Governor Newsom for … standing up to federal overreach and indiscriminate, violent attacks on our communities,” David Huerta, president of SEIU California, said in a statement.
Huerta was arrested during the first day of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids in Los Angeles in June and charged with a felony. But federal prosecutors are instead pursuing a misdemeanor case against him, according to a Friday court filing.
An SEIU representative did not respond to requests for comment.
The California Teachers Assn., another potent force in state politics, has contributed more than $3.3 million, along with millions more from other education unions such as the National Education Assn., the California Federation of Teachers and the American Federation of Teachers.
CTA had a mixed record in this year’s legislative session.
Newsom vetoed a bill to crack down on charter school fraud, Senate Bill 414. The CTA opposed the bill, arguing that it didn’t go far enough to target fraud in some of the schools, and had urged the governor to reject it.
Newsom signed CTA-backed bills that placed strict limits on ICE agents’ access to school grounds. But he also vetoed union-backed bill that would have required the state Board of Education to adopt health education instructional materials by July 1, 2028.
CTA President David Goldberg said their donations are driven not only by issues important to the union’s members, but also the students they serve who are dependent on federally funded assistance programs and impacted by policies such as immigration.
“It’s about our livelihood but it really is about fundamental issues … for people who serve students who are just incredibly under attack right now,” Goldberg said.
“The governor’s support for labor would be exactly the same with or without Proposition 50 on the ballot. But he would acknowledge this year is more urgent than ever for labor and working people,” said Newsom spokesperson Bob Salladay. “Trump is taking a wrecking ball to collective bargaining, to fair wages and safe working conditions. He would be backing them up under any circumstances, but especially now.”
Critics of Proposition 50 argue that these contributions are among the reasons voters should oppose the ballot measure.
“The independent redistricting commission exists to prevent conflicts of interest and money from influencing line drawing,” said Amy Thoma, a spokesperson for the Voters First Coalition, the committee backed by Munger Jr., who bankrolled the 2010 ballot measure to create the independent commission. “That’s why we want to preserve its independence.”
Other labor leaders argued that although they are not always in lockstep with Newsom, they need to support Proposition 50 because of the importance of Democrats winning the congressional majority next year.
Lorena Gonzalez, the head of the powerful California Labor Federation, said the timing of the member unions’ donations of millions of dollars to Newsom’s ballot measure committee for an election taking place shortly after the bill-signing period was “unfortunate” and “weird.”
“Because we have so many bills in front of him, we were gun-shy,” she said, noting that the federation has sparred with the governor over issues such as the effect of artificial intelligence in the workplace. “Never be too close to your elected officials. Because we see the good, the bad, the ugly.”
Times staff writers Andrea Flores and Brittny Mejia contributed to this report.
On a recent Sunday morning in Provo, Utah, a small congregation of about two dozen people gathered in a church hall for ward services. At the front of the room stood the bishop, who blessed the bread and water in Spanish before passing the trays around for the congregation. The melodic sounds of the piano reverberated across the room as members sang “Welcome Home” — a new hymn for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Ward services like this have brought a consistent comfort and sense of community for Izzy, who came to Provo to study at Brigham Young University a few years ago. But lately, the increased possibility of ICE raids across the country has made him nervous.
“I just couldn’t focus. Just instant anxiety and fear. I worried about my family, and how I was gonna get through this year or the next four or three,” Izzy said. The prospect of an ICE recruitment fair nearby also disturbed him.
When he was just a toddler, Izzy and his parents came from Venezuela to the United States in search of a better life. Then one Christmas, Mormon missionaries brought gifts to their home in West Valley. He and his family were sealed in Utah. He was accepted into the DACA program, Deferred Action for Child Arrivals, years ago.
For many Latino members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, there is an ambivalent sense of the Church’s stance on immigrants. There is discontent about how explicit the Church has been in condemning ongoing ICE raids, compared to Catholic leaders for example, while others have focused on providing individual help to those in need.
The church has previously issued statements regarding immigration in 2011 and 2018 about the separation of families at the U.S.-Mexico border. But its most recent statement published in January listed three points in order. While it reads similarly to past statements on loving thy neighbor and concern about keeping families together, the first point this time notably focused on “obeying the law.”
When The Times reached out to ask about why the new statement was numbered and in this order, the Church declined to comment.
The Salt Lake Temple in Salt Lake City, Utah.
(Isaac Hale / For The Times)
Dr. David-James Gonzales, a ward leader and history professor at BYU who studies Latino civil rights and migration, notes that the political climate has shifted on immigration in 2025.
“This issue is one of the most polarizing issues nationally and it has split the Church,” he said, adding that it’s fair to question the way the statement is written. “If I’m analyzing it as a historian, it’s speaking to this moment that the Church needs to make clear to this administration that it’s not a sanctuary church.”
The Church does not release publicly any demographic data, but according to a 2009 Pew Research Center report, 86% of the Church’s membership is white. Latinos are some of the fastest growing members worldwide, thanks to missionary work in countries like Mexico, Brazil and Peru.
Yet despite the growth in Spanish-speaking wards and a more diverse Mormon community, many interviewed for this story still feel they face challenges of racism and belonging.
This January, Brigham Young University shut down its “Dreamers” resource hub for undocumented students, after facing backlash from state leaders who complained that their tithings — or 10% obligated donations to the Church — were being used for illegal immigrants. Nori Gomez, the founding member of the Dreamer resource center, said the program’s offices started receiving threatening phone calls. The university eventually removed the resource page.
“It was the highlight of my BYU experience,” she said. “But with how much universities are being attacked right now, I don’t agree with it, but I see why.”
Students like Izzy had found a sense of community among other DACA recipients through these online resources. Shutting the center down added another chilling effect for church members.
For former LDS leaders like Dr. Ignacio Garcia, a retired Latino studies professor and former bishop at a local Spanish-speaking ward, the Church’s silence has been disappointing.
“The Church’s struggle has a lot to do with some of its members, some of its very conservative white members,” Garcia said. “[These congregants] will love you as an individual member in your ward, but then go out and condemn all immigrants.”
In July, following hours of public comment from more than 100 community members opposing ICE’s presence in Utah, the Utah County Commission voted unanimously to enter a cooperative agreement with ICE to share data and work on a joint task force with local police. The county sheriff argued that a collaboration would allow more leeway for local officials to inject “Utah County values” into enforcement and public safety rather than allowing complete federal oversight.
Evelyn R. has worked as a trainer in Provo for young Mormons who are about to embark on their 18 to 24-month missions domestically and abroad. As a DACA recipient herself who previously served a Spanish-speaking mission in Georgia, she has overheard mixed feelings from attendees at the center about how undocumented people can even be baptized.
“[One girl said] you’re not really going to get anywhere with these people because they can’t get baptized. Because in order to be a member of the Church, you need to be abiding by the laws of the land, which is Article 12 of the faith,” Evelyn said.
Article 12 refers to a revelation written by Joseph Smith, stating, “we believe in being subject to kings, presidents, rulers, and magistrates, in obeying, honoring, and sustaining the law.” The article has guided members to be good citizens in their communities.
Evelyn said she had to ask her mission president if this was true. He reassured her that being undocumented did not gatekeep someone from belonging. It’s a stance that the First Presidency, the Church’s highest officials, also affirmed, saying that being undocumented should not itself prevent “an otherwise worthy Church member” from entering the temple or being ordained to priesthood, and calling upon congregation members to avoid being judgmental. As a convert to the Church and someone who comes from a diverse background, she said mixed responses like this were really hard to hear.
“God doesn’t care about our status or who we are, where we came from in order to be a member of the Church,” she said. Some days, she feels that she can identify as a member of the Church, but not necessarily as part of larger “Mormon culture” — one that might be predominantly white and more conservative on politics in Utah.
“We’re teaching principles and the doctrine of Christ,” she said. “I don’t think we’re necessarily learning how to apply those things.”
People pass portraits of previous members of the First Presidency before the 195th Semiannual General Conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on Oct. 4.
(Isaac Hale / Associated Press)
Luna Alvarez-Sproul, 25, works as a school teacher in Draper, Utah, where she often translates documents into Spanish for parents. She spent 18 months serving a Spanish-speaking mission in Salmon, Idaho, where many ranch hands were seasonal employees from Latin America.
“As a missionary, we didn’t have to receive special permission from somebody in order to baptize an undocumented individual,” she recalled. “But there [are] so many members of our church that don’t believe that they should be here with their families, which I feel is contradictory in and of itself.”
When guidance can vary so much, some church leaders have taken a more locally-focused ward approach — such as delivering food aid to members, helping out with rent or even sharing personal contacts with immigration lawyers. But addressing topics like the ICE raids during a service is likely taboo.
“Leaders are trained and asked to be very careful about how they address it. And I think that puts them in a really hard situation, especially when they have members of their congregation that are affected by this,” Izzy said.
The frustration may also have to do with reconciling religious principles with the views that are held by many people in the Church.
Other members disagree about an institution-wide response. Julia, who asked to use a pseudonym due to her undocumented status, has seen firsthand the ways that individual actions have been kind to her.
“I don’t think the Mormon Church should be responsible for us. The gospel teaches us to be independent,” she said.
Utah also has infrastructure for many undocumented people to succeed in their daily life, she noted; it was the first state in 2005 to implement the “driver’s privilege card,” a driver’s license specifically for those who were undocumented, allowing them to commute to work and obtain insurance.
People wear “We Are Charlie” shirts at a vigil for political activist Charlie Kirk on Sept. 12 in Provo, Utah.
(Michael Ciaglo / Getty Images)
Just a few miles away in Orem, conservative influencer Charlie Kirk was shot at Utah Valley University during a debate less than a week before I conducted these interviews. Hundreds of students and local community members attended vigils, laying bouquets of fresh flowers and American flags alongside crosses and the Book of Mormon on university lawns. “If you want unity, say his name UV,” one poster said. Others were adorned with Bible verses as the air echoed with different Mormon hymns.
The LDS Church released a statement condemning the violence and lawless behavior.
Isa Benjamin Garcia spent some time reflecting on the week’s tragic events after the Sunday ward service. As a daughter of a Mexican immigrant, she became more worried when President Trump rescinded a Biden-era policy that excluded churches and schools from immigration raids.
“There’s a lot of rhetoric around violence, but it’s not acknowledged all the other violence that has been and is,” she said, referring to ICE raids, including an incident where a day laborer died after running away from ICE in California.
Other members echoed this sentiment. “Something I’ve been wrestling with over the last few months is why the Church doesn’t say, ‘This is wrong.’ Like this isn’t what Christ would have us do,” said Benjamin Garcia.
People visit a memorial honoring Charlie Kirk at Timpanogos Regional Hospital in Orem, Utah, on Sept. 11.
(Laura Seitz / Associated Press)
In August, BYU’s Office of Belonging launched an immigration-focused eight-week course to help people gain a “basic understanding of complex immigration policies.” The goal is to equip more nonprofit workers to become partially accredited to represent clients in front of United States Citizenship and Immigration Services.
Gonzales, the ward leader and professor at BYU, believes this step speaks volumes about the Church’s efforts, despite challenges earlier this year with the takedown of its Dreamer center.
“My heart was warmed seeing that,” he said. “BYU is a part of the Church and is a university that stands to help promote the Church’s ecclesiastical mission. I think that’s a form of messaging through one of its institutions.”
Ultimately, when facing these hurdles and different interpretations of what the Book of Mormon or the Church says, members focus on their relationship to the gospel.
“We also believe that we are the Church, and we believe that it is our responsibility to make it better. And that is what God is asking of us, and that’s what Christ is asking of us,” Benjamin Garcia said. She then paused.
“Despite feelings of frustration or questions, what keeps a lot of us here, despite any of that, is that we have a conviction.”
An assailant drove a car into people outside a synagogue Thursday in northern England and then began stabbing them, killing two and seriously wounding four in a terrorist attack on the holiest day of the Jewish year, police said.Officers shot and killed the suspect outside Manchester, police said, though authorities took some time to confirm he was dead because he was wearing a vest that made it appear as if he had explosives. Authorities later said he did not have a bomb.The Metropolitan Police in London, who lead counter-terrorism policing operations, declared the rampage a terrorist attack.Assistant Commissioner Laurence Taylor said two other suspects were arrested, though he provided no further information on the arrests. He said police believe they know the identity of the man who carried out the attack but have not confirmed it.The attack took place as people gathered at an Orthodox synagogue in a suburban neighborhood of Manchester on Yom Kippur, the day of atonement and the most solemn day in the Jewish calendar. Police said the two people killed were Jewish.Antisemitic incidents in the U.K. have hit record levels following Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel and Israel’s ensuing military campaign in Gaza, according to Community Security Trust, an advocacy group for British Jews that works to eliminate antisemitism.More than 1,500 incidents were reported in the first half of the year, the second-highest six-month total reported since the record set over the same period a year earlier.“This is every rabbi’s or every Jewish person’s worst nightmare,” said Rabbi Jonathan Romain, of Maidenhead Synagogue and head of the Rabbinic Court of Great Britain. “Not only is this a sacred day, the most sacred in the Jewish calendar, but it’s also a time of mass gathering.”Witnesses describe a car driving toward the synagogue and then a stabbing attackGreater Manchester Police said they were called to the Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation Synagogue around 9:30 a.m. — shortly after services had begun.Chief Constable Stephen Watson said the man drove directly at pedestrians outside the synagogue and then attacked them with a knife.Chava Lewin, who lives next to the synagogue, said she heard a bang and thought it might be a firework until her husband ran inside their house and said there had been a “terrorist attack.”A witness told her that she saw a car driving erratically crash into the gates of the house of worship.“She thought maybe he had a heart attack,” Lewin said. “The second he got out of the car, he started stabbing anyone near him. He went for the security guard and tried to break into the synagogue.”Minutes later, police fired shots, hitting the assailant.Video on social media showed police with guns pointed at a person lying on the ground beneath a blue Star of David on the brick wall of the synagogue.A bystander could be heard on the video saying the man had a bomb and was trying to detonate it. When the man tried to stand up, a gunshot rang out and he fell to the ground.On the sidewalk outside the synagogue gate nearby, the body of another person lay in a pool of blood.Watson credited security guards and congregants for their bravery in preventing the assailant from getting inside the prayer service.Police later detonated an explosion to get into the suspect’s car.Manchester was the site of Britain’s deadliest attack in recent years, the 2017 suicide bombing at an Ariana Grande concert that killed 22 people.Authorities declare an emergencyImmediately after the attack, police declared “Plato,” the national code word used by police and emergency services when responding to a “marauding terror attack.”Prime Minister Keir Starmer said he was appalled by the attack and that additional police officers would be deployed at synagogues across the U.K.He flew back to London early from a summit of European leaders in Copenhagen, Denmark, to chair a meeting of the government’s emergency committee.“The fact that this has taken place on Yom Kippur, the holiest day in the Jewish calendar, makes it all the more horrific,” Starmer said on the X platform.King Charles III said he and Queen Camilla were “deeply shocked and saddened″ to learn of the attack “on such a significant day for the Jewish community.”“Our thoughts and prayers are with all those affected by this appalling incident, and we greatly appreciate the swift actions of the emergency services,’′ he said on his social media feed.___Pylas and Melley reported from London.
MANCHESTER, England —
An assailant drove a car into people outside a synagogue Thursday in northern England and then began stabbing them, killing two and seriously wounding four in a terrorist attack on the holiest day of the Jewish year, police said.
Officers shot and killed the suspect outside Manchester, police said, though authorities took some time to confirm he was dead because he was wearing a vest that made it appear as if he had explosives. Authorities later said he did not have a bomb.
The Metropolitan Police in London, who lead counter-terrorism policing operations, declared the rampage a terrorist attack.
Assistant Commissioner Laurence Taylor said two other suspects were arrested, though he provided no further information on the arrests. He said police believe they know the identity of the man who carried out the attack but have not confirmed it.
The attack took place as people gathered at an Orthodox synagogue in a suburban neighborhood of Manchester on Yom Kippur, the day of atonement and the most solemn day in the Jewish calendar. Police said the two people killed were Jewish.
Antisemitic incidents in the U.K. have hit record levels following Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel and Israel’s ensuing military campaign in Gaza, according to Community Security Trust, an advocacy group for British Jews that works to eliminate antisemitism.
More than 1,500 incidents were reported in the first half of the year, the second-highest six-month total reported since the record set over the same period a year earlier.
“This is every rabbi’s or every Jewish person’s worst nightmare,” said Rabbi Jonathan Romain, of Maidenhead Synagogue and head of the Rabbinic Court of Great Britain. “Not only is this a sacred day, the most sacred in the Jewish calendar, but it’s also a time of mass gathering.”
Witnesses describe a car driving toward the synagogue and then a stabbing attack
Greater Manchester Police said they were called to the Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation Synagogue around 9:30 a.m. — shortly after services had begun.
Chief Constable Stephen Watson said the man drove directly at pedestrians outside the synagogue and then attacked them with a knife.
Chava Lewin, who lives next to the synagogue, said she heard a bang and thought it might be a firework until her husband ran inside their house and said there had been a “terrorist attack.”
A witness told her that she saw a car driving erratically crash into the gates of the house of worship.
“She thought maybe he had a heart attack,” Lewin said. “The second he got out of the car, he started stabbing anyone near him. He went for the security guard and tried to break into the synagogue.”
Minutes later, police fired shots, hitting the assailant.
Video on social media showed police with guns pointed at a person lying on the ground beneath a blue Star of David on the brick wall of the synagogue.
A bystander could be heard on the video saying the man had a bomb and was trying to detonate it. When the man tried to stand up, a gunshot rang out and he fell to the ground.
On the sidewalk outside the synagogue gate nearby, the body of another person lay in a pool of blood.
Watson credited security guards and congregants for their bravery in preventing the assailant from getting inside the prayer service.
Police later detonated an explosion to get into the suspect’s car.
Manchester was the site of Britain’s deadliest attack in recent years, the 2017 suicide bombing at an Ariana Grande concert that killed 22 people.
Authorities declare an emergency
Immediately after the attack, police declared “Plato,” the national code word used by police and emergency services when responding to a “marauding terror attack.”
Prime Minister Keir Starmer said he was appalled by the attack and that additional police officers would be deployed at synagogues across the U.K.
He flew back to London early from a summit of European leaders in Copenhagen, Denmark, to chair a meeting of the government’s emergency committee.
“The fact that this has taken place on Yom Kippur, the holiest day in the Jewish calendar, makes it all the more horrific,” Starmer said on the X platform.
King Charles III said he and Queen Camilla were “deeply shocked and saddened″ to learn of the attack “on such a significant day for the Jewish community.”
“Our thoughts and prayers are with all those affected by this appalling incident, and we greatly appreciate the swift actions of the emergency services,’′ he said on his social media feed.
Police say four people have been injured after a car was driven at members of the public and a man was stabbed outside a synagogue in the north of the UK city of Manchester.In a series of posts on X, Greater Manchester Police said they were called to the Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation Synagogue in Crumpsall shortly after 9:30 a.m. by a member of the public. The caller said he witnessed a car being driven towards members of the public and that one man had been stabbed.It said that minutes later shots were fired by firearms officers.“One man has been shot, believed to be the offender,” it added.It said that four members of the public were being treated for injuries caused by both the vehicle and stab wounds.Andy Burnham, the mayor of the Greater Manchester area, told BBC Radio the “immediate danger appears to be over.”The incident came as members of the Jewish community observe Yom Kippur, which is considered the holiest day in the Jewish calendar.
MANCHESTER, England —
Police say four people have been injured after a car was driven at members of the public and a man was stabbed outside a synagogue in the north of the UK city of Manchester.
In a series of posts on X, Greater Manchester Police said they were called to the Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation Synagogue in Crumpsall shortly after 9:30 a.m. by a member of the public. The caller said he witnessed a car being driven towards members of the public and that one man had been stabbed.
It said that minutes later shots were fired by firearms officers.
“One man has been shot, believed to be the offender,” it added.
It said that four members of the public were being treated for injuries caused by both the vehicle and stab wounds.
Andy Burnham, the mayor of the Greater Manchester area, told BBC Radio the “immediate danger appears to be over.”
The incident came as members of the Jewish community observe Yom Kippur, which is considered the holiest day in the Jewish calendar.
The man who opened fire in a Michigan church and killed four people while setting it ablaze long harbored hatred toward the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, according to longtime friends, and told a stranger who showed up at his door days before that attack that Mormons were the “Antichrist.” The suspect, identified as 40-year-old Thomas Jacob Sanford, began making those sentiments known years ago following his return from Utah, where he dated but later broke up with a girlfriend who was a member of the Mormon faith, two childhood friends said Tuesday. Sanford had moved to Utah after leaving the Marines and told his friends he had become addicted to methamphetamines.No longer the happy-go-lucky kid who was voted class clown of their graduating class, Sanford routinely spouted off about his grievances against the church, his friends said. The first time they heard it was at a wedding 13 years ago.”We were like, ‘Come on, we don’t want to hear this,’” said Bobby Kalush, who grew up down the road from Sanford. “When he came back from Utah, he was a completely different person.”Just six days before Sunday’s attack, those grudges were still boiling at the surface, said Kris Johns, a city council candidate who described a bizarre brush with Sanford while door-knocking for his campaign.The two were speaking at Sanford’s home in Burton about gun rights when Sanford physically leaned in, Johns said, and asked, “What do you know about Mormons?”For close to 15 minutes, Sanford spoke in controlled and calm tones about the Mormon faith, saying he was concerned about their beliefs while expressing that he was a Christian. Sanford then said he believed that Mormons are the “Antichrist,” according to Johns.”That’s something I’ll never forget,” he said.Police have released very few details about Sanford, who died after being shot by officers, and have refused to discuss what might have motivated the attack at the church, which was reduced to rubble in Grand Blanc Township, about 60 miles north of Detroit.On Tuesday, Sanford’s family released a statement through a lawyer, expressing condolences. “No words can adequately convey our sorrow for the victims and their families,” they said. Sanford served four years in the Marine Corps after enlisting in 2004 and deployed once to Iraq for seven months, according to military records. His commander during the deployment, David Hochheimer, said the unit never saw combat or incoming fire. “It was a relatively quiet time,” he said on Tuesday.Sanford moved to Utah shortly after leaving the military. His friends said they noticed a change after he moved back home, thinking his battle with addiction was to blame. Kalush said his friend was no longer the “short, stocky ball of energy” who once bought dozens of flowers to give out to girls before the homecoming dance.Around bonfires with friends, it wasn’t unusual for Sanford to start talking about how Mormons were going to take over, said Frances Tersigni, who along with his twin brother was among Sanford’s best friends.”It was just so random. It was like, ‘Why Mormons dude?’” Tersigni said. “It’s hard to explain. We didn’t take it serious.” But there were no signs that he was a threat to anyone, Tersigni said. An avid hunter, Sanford was married now and raising a child at home.”He never once, never, said ‘I’ve got to do something,’” he said. “There’s a Jake we all knew, and there was one who was hidden. It wasn’t apparent to us.” Federal investigators remained at the church Tuesday as heavy machinery began moving debris from the church.Authorities have not yet released the names of the four people who died or the eight people — ages 6 to 78 — who were wounded and expected to survive. Among the wounded were a father and his young son, according to a GoFundMe post.One of those who died was being remembered as a grandfather who adored spending time with his family. John Bond, a Navy veteran, was well-known in the community and loved golfing and trains, according to friends organizing fundraising for the family.Another victim was identified online by family as Pat Howard.”Uncle Pat was so many things. … In my mind I see him mid conversation, his eyebrows raised, his eyes bright and a smile just starting to show,” niece Maureen Seliger said on Facebook. Jeffrey Schaub, bishop of the Grand Blanc church, said in a video posted Monday that the attack has left the community reeling.”As you can expect, our members are quite shaken in spirit and in body,” he said. “And it hurts.”There has been an outpouring of support from different faith communities, he said. “It was very humbling to see how much good there is in the world today and that, above all, we are all children of the same Father in heaven,” he said, with a tremor in his voice.Sanford drove his truck into the church’s brick wall while members were gathered inside Sunday morning. He apparently used gas to start the fire and also had explosive devices, said James Dier of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.Flames and smoke poured from the church for hours after the attack.Jerry Eaton, 78, who lives across the street, sheltered seven people who fled the church, including a mother with her four young children. He was watching television when he heard the shooting.”I’ve done a lot of hunting, so I know the sound of gunfire,” he said. “As much as I didn’t want to believe it, that’s exactly what it sounded like.” White reported from Detroit. Associated Press reporter John Seewer in Toledo, Ohio, contributed to this report.
GRAND BLANC TOWNSHIP, Mich. —
The man who opened fire in a Michigan church and killed four people while setting it ablaze long harbored hatred toward the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, according to longtime friends, and told a stranger who showed up at his door days before that attack that Mormons were the “Antichrist.”
The suspect, identified as 40-year-old Thomas Jacob Sanford, began making those sentiments known years ago following his return from Utah, where he dated but later broke up with a girlfriend who was a member of the Mormon faith, two childhood friends said Tuesday. Sanford had moved to Utah after leaving the Marines and told his friends he had become addicted to methamphetamines.
No longer the happy-go-lucky kid who was voted class clown of their graduating class, Sanford routinely spouted off about his grievances against the church, his friends said. The first time they heard it was at a wedding 13 years ago.
“We were like, ‘Come on, we don’t want to hear this,’” said Bobby Kalush, who grew up down the road from Sanford. “When he came back from Utah, he was a completely different person.”
Just six days before Sunday’s attack, those grudges were still boiling at the surface, said Kris Johns, a city council candidate who described a bizarre brush with Sanford while door-knocking for his campaign.
The two were speaking at Sanford’s home in Burton about gun rights when Sanford physically leaned in, Johns said, and asked, “What do you know about Mormons?”
For close to 15 minutes, Sanford spoke in controlled and calm tones about the Mormon faith, saying he was concerned about their beliefs while expressing that he was a Christian. Sanford then said he believed that Mormons are the “Antichrist,” according to Johns.
“That’s something I’ll never forget,” he said.
Police have released very few details about Sanford, who died after being shot by officers, and have refused to discuss what might have motivated the attack at the church, which was reduced to rubble in Grand Blanc Township, about 60 miles north of Detroit.
On Tuesday, Sanford’s family released a statement through a lawyer, expressing condolences. “No words can adequately convey our sorrow for the victims and their families,” they said.
Sanford served four years in the Marine Corps after enlisting in 2004 and deployed once to Iraq for seven months, according to military records. His commander during the deployment, David Hochheimer, said the unit never saw combat or incoming fire. “It was a relatively quiet time,” he said on Tuesday.
Sanford moved to Utah shortly after leaving the military. His friends said they noticed a change after he moved back home, thinking his battle with addiction was to blame. Kalush said his friend was no longer the “short, stocky ball of energy” who once bought dozens of flowers to give out to girls before the homecoming dance.
Around bonfires with friends, it wasn’t unusual for Sanford to start talking about how Mormons were going to take over, said Frances Tersigni, who along with his twin brother was among Sanford’s best friends.
“It was just so random. It was like, ‘Why Mormons dude?’” Tersigni said. “It’s hard to explain. We didn’t take it serious.”
But there were no signs that he was a threat to anyone, Tersigni said. An avid hunter, Sanford was married now and raising a child at home.
“He never once, never, said ‘I’ve got to do something,’” he said. “There’s a Jake we all knew, and there was one who was hidden. It wasn’t apparent to us.”
Federal investigators remained at the church Tuesday as heavy machinery began moving debris from the church.
Authorities have not yet released the names of the four people who died or the eight people — ages 6 to 78 — who were wounded and expected to survive. Among the wounded were a father and his young son, according to a GoFundMe post.
One of those who died was being remembered as a grandfather who adored spending time with his family. John Bond, a Navy veteran, was well-known in the community and loved golfing and trains, according to friends organizing fundraising for the family.
“Uncle Pat was so many things. … In my mind I see him mid conversation, his eyebrows raised, his eyes bright and a smile just starting to show,” niece Maureen Seliger said on Facebook.
Jeffrey Schaub, bishop of the Grand Blanc church, said in a video posted Monday that the attack has left the community reeling.
“As you can expect, our members are quite shaken in spirit and in body,” he said. “And it hurts.”
There has been an outpouring of support from different faith communities, he said. “It was very humbling to see how much good there is in the world today and that, above all, we are all children of the same Father in heaven,” he said, with a tremor in his voice.
Sanford drove his truck into the church’s brick wall while members were gathered inside Sunday morning. He apparently used gas to start the fire and also had explosive devices, said James Dier of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
Flames and smoke poured from the church for hours after the attack.
Jerry Eaton, 78, who lives across the street, sheltered seven people who fled the church, including a mother with her four young children. He was watching television when he heard the shooting.
“I’ve done a lot of hunting, so I know the sound of gunfire,” he said. “As much as I didn’t want to believe it, that’s exactly what it sounded like.”
White reported from Detroit. Associated Press reporter John Seewer in Toledo, Ohio, contributed to this report.
A polarizing figure on the Los Angeles Police Commission will retain his seat despite having never received an approval vote from the City Council.
Erroll Southers, who previously served as president of the civilian panel that watches over the LAPD, has taken criticism for what critics say is his unwillingness to provide oversight of police Chief Jim McDonnell, while also facing renewed scrutiny in recent months for his past counterterrorism studies in Israel.
For the record:
9:33 a.m. Oct. 1, 2025An earlier version of this story reported that Erroll Southers’ nomination was not on the City Council’s agenda last week. Southers was on the agenda but the council continued the matter and took no vote.
New members of any city commission must typically be approved by a City Council vote within 45 days of their nomination. Mayor Karen Bass put forward Southers in mid-August, but his first scheduled vote was delayed because he was traveling, and the council continued the matter without explanation at a meeting Friday in Van Nuys. Now that his 45-day window has elapsed, multiple officials told The Times that city rules allow Southers to continue in the position by default for a full five-year term because he was already serving on an interim basis.
Around City Hall, news of the council’s inaction set off speculation about whether it was the result of a scheduling mix-up — or because Southers’ backers didn’t believe he could get enough votes.
Failing to vote on a member of one of city’s most important and high-profile commissions is almost unheard of, said Zev Yaroslavsky, a former councilman and L.A. County supervisor now at UCLA.
“They have responsibility to confirm or not confirm,” he said of the council. “I never understood why you would campaign for office, as hard as you campaign to get there, and not vote on something that’s as important to the public.”
Appointed by the mayor, police commissioners act much like a corporate board of directors, setting the LAPD policies, approving its budget and providing oversight, including reviews of officer shootings and other serious uses of force.
Southers, 68, has been a member of the panel since 2023, when Bass picked him to serve out the term of a departing commissioner.
A former FBI agent and Santa Monica cop turned top security official at USC, Southers helped lead the nationwide search for the next LAPD chief. The position eventually went to McDonnell — who like Southers served as director of the school’s Safe Communities Institute.
His backers say that Southers has been committed to his role, participating in numerous listening sessions with Angelenos to learn what qualities they wanted in a police chief. He has also become a regular presence at LAPD recruitment events and graduations.
Zach Seidl, a mayoral spokesperson, praised Southers for his stewardship of the commission, saying the career lawman “brings deep knowledge of the police department’s operations, a commitment to the continued development of policies that further transparency and accountability, and trusted relationships with community members and law enforcement.”
But more than any other commissioner, Southers has accumulated a loud chorus of detractors who oppose keeping him in the key oversight role.
Although it has long been part of his resume, Southers’ work in the mid-2000s in Israel has especially become a lighting rod due to the ongoing crisis in Gaza.
Last month, a United Nations commission accused Israel of committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza in retaliation for the Hamas militant attacks that left 1,200 dead and 251 others kidnapped on Oct. 7, 2023.
Israel’s military campaign has so far killed more than 66,000 people, the vast majority of them civilians, according to Gaza health officials and international aid groups.
Although Southers has said little publicly about the conflict, he has previously described traveling to Israel and studying with the Israel Defense Forces to learn about anti-terrorism strategies for his academic work.
His opponents have argued his writings suggest that authorities should use an individual’s public support for controversial causes as a potential warning sign of extremism. Such arguments, they say, can be used to justify the criminalization of minority groups or silence dissent.
Southers weathered calls for his resignation from the commission last year after he was among the USC officials responsible for clearing encampments occupied by pro-Palestinian protesters on the school’s campus.
Others have focused on his oversight of McDonnell. Far too often, critics say, he has let the chief off the hook after recent controversies. Most recently Southers and his fellow commissioners have faced calls to put more checks on aggressive behavior by LAPD officers toward journalists and nonviolent protesters.
Shootings by police have also been a point of contention with Southers. LAPD officers opened fire 31 times in the first nine months of this year, already surpassing the total number of shootings in 2024.
The commission ordered the department to present a report on the shootings, but that was not nearly enough to satisfy Greg “Baba” Akili, a longtime civil rights advocate with Black Lives Matter-Los Angeles who has frequently spoken out against Southers’ nomination.
As commission president, he said, Southers seemed more willing to shut down public speakers at the board’s meetings than to question the department’s narrative of recent events.
“It’s like having a member of the police force on the commission,” Akili said of Southers. “We don’t want to see just Black faces in high places: We want people who actually … uplift the public.”
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the nation’s Health secretary and a longtime vaccine skeptic, struck a defiant tone Thursday as he faced bipartisan criticism over changes he has made to reorganize federal health agencies and vaccine policies, telling senators that he is determined to “eliminate politics from science.”
In the testy appearance before the Senate Finance Committee, Kennedy repeatedly defended his record in heated exchanges with senators from both parties and questioned data that show the effectiveness of vaccines. In turn, senators accused him of taking actions that contradict his promise seven months earlier that he would do “nothing that makes it difficult or discourages people from taking vaccines.”
“Secretary Kennedy, in your confirmation hearing you promised to uphold the highest standard for vaccines. Since then, I’ve grown deeply concerned,” Sen. John Barrasso of Wyoming, a top-ranking Senate Republican and a physician, said during the hearing.
Kennedy forcefully denied that he has limited access to vaccines and defended his record in restoring trust in federal healthcare agencies under the umbrella of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
“They deserve the truth and that’s what we’re going to give them for the first time in the history of the agency,” Kennedy told senators.
From the outset, it was expected that Democrats would slam Kennedy’s record. Some of them called on him to resign and accused him of politicizing federal health policy decisions. Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon, the committee’s ranking Democrat, said he believed Kennedy’s “primary interest is to take vaccines away from Americans.”
“During his confirmation process, he claimed to be pro-safety and pro-science, but his actions reveal a steadfast commitment to elevating junk science and fringe conspiracies,” Wyden said.
Criticism during the three-hour hearing also came from Republicans, in a rare rebuke of a Trump administration official from a Republican-led committee.
Three Republicans, including Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, who was key in advancing Kennedy’s nomination, joined Democrats in criticizing Kennedy’s actions. Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina at one point told Kennedy that remarks he gave to the panel during the confirmation process “seem to contradict” what he is doing now as Health secretary.
The decorum usually associated with congressional hearings at times fell by the wayside. Kennedy and senators repeatedly shouted over one another, accused each other of lying and engaged in name-calling. In one instance, Kennedy told Sen. Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.) that she was engaging in “crazy talk” when asked about vaccine access. Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) called Kennedy a “charlatan.”
Thursday’s session marked a peak of bipartisan frustration over a string of controversial decisions by Kennedy that have thrown his department into disarray. Kennedy dismissed an entire advisory panel responsible for vaccine recommendations and replaced its members with known vaccine skeptics. He withdrew $500 million in funding earmarked for developing vaccines against respiratory viruses. And, just last week, he ousted the newly appointed director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention following disagreements over vaccine policy.
In an op-ed published in the Wall Street Journal on Thursday, Susan Monarez, the former CDC director, wrote that she was forced out after she declined to recommend people “who have publicly expressed antivaccine rhetoric” to an influential vaccine advisory panel.
At the hearing, Kennedy said Monarez was lying and that the shakeup at the CDC was “absolutely necessary.” He added that he fired her because he asked her if she was trustworthy, and she told him, “no.”
“We depoliticized it and put great scientists on it from a very diverse group, very, very pro-vaccine,” he said.
In questioning, however, members of his own party pressed him on his support for vaccines. At one point, Cassidy, a physician, read an email from a physician friend who said patients 65 and older need a prescription to get a COVID-19 shot.
“I would say effectively we are denying people vaccines,” Cassidy said.
“You’re wrong,” Kennedy responded.
Under new federal guidelines approved last week, adults younger than 65 who are otherwise healthy would need to consult with a healthcare provider before getting the shot. The move has made it more difficult for people to access the COVID-19 vaccine.
During the hearing, Kennedy said he could not say whether the COVID-19 vaccines had prevented any deaths, citing “data chaos” within the federal agency.
“I have no idea how many lives it saved, but it saved quite a few,” he said.
In that same exchange, Cassidy asked Kennedy if he believed President Trump deserved a Nobel Prize for his administration’s work on Operation Warp Speed, the initiative that sped the development of the COVID-19 vaccine and treatments.
“Absolutely,” Kennedy said.
Cassidy said he was surprised at his answer because he believes Kennedy is trying to restrict access to the COVID-19 vaccine. He also expressed dismay at Kennedy’s decision to cancel $500 million in contracts to develop vaccines using mRNA technology, which Cassidy said was key to the operation.
Kennedy’s position on vaccines has reverberated beyond Capitol Hill.
Ahead of the hearing, more than 1,000 employees at the health agency and national health organizations called on Kennedy to resign. Seemingly in support of Kennedy’s direction, Florida announced plans to become the first state to end all vaccines mandated, including for schoolchildren. And three Democratic-led states — California, Washington and Oregon — have created an alliance to counter turmoil within the federal public health agency.
The states said the focus of their health alliance will be on ensuring that the public has access to credible information about the safety and efficacy of vaccines.
Almost as if in a parallel universe, Kennedy told senators on Thursday that his goal was to achieve the same thing, after facing hours of criticism on his vaccine policies.
“I am not going to sign on to something if I can’t make it with scientific certainty,” he said. “It doesn’t mean I am antivax, it just means I am pro-science.”
