Thousands of pro-Palestinian demonstrators rallied across California on Monday protesting Israel’s war in Gaza and Lebanon.
The demonstrations come on the anniversary of Oct. 7, when Hamas militants in Gaza attacked Israel, killed an estimated 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took about 250 hostages.
At USC, hundreds of protesters shut down the intersection of Jefferson Boulevard and McClintock Avenue in the afternoon. The crowd held pro-Palestinian signs and chanted, “Free, free Palestine,” according to video posted on social media. Protests were also anticipated at UCLA later in the day.
In the past year, Israeli military operations in Gaza and, more recently, against the Hamas-allied militant group Hezbollah in Lebanon, have been the focus of protests. More than 41,000 Palestinians in Gaza, including many women and children, have died in Israeli attacks, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. In Lebanon, hundreds have been killed and more than 1.2 million people have been displaced, according to the U.N. Refugee Agency.
Demonstrations occurred across the country throughout the weekend and into Monday.
On Sunday, demonstrators filled San Francisco’s Mission District to protest what they said was the oppression of Palestinians. In Orange County, demonstrators gathered along Jeffrey Road in Irvine — one of the city’s main thoroughfares — on Sunday waving Lebanese and Palestinian flags and holding signs that focused on the human cost of the war.
Elsewhere, masked demonstrators set up an encampment outside Ohio Democratic Rep. Greg Landsman’s house in Cincinnati early Sunday. Landsman is Jewish. Protests were also underway in New York City.
The flare-up of the Line fire worsened Monday as evacuation orders expanded and firefighters lost some ground on containment of the San Bernardino County wildfire.
The new acres charred also pushed California across a grim milestone: 1 million acres burned in 2024.
The Line fire, which has been burning in San Bernardino County for almost a month, began spreading faster over the weekend due to abnormally warm temperatures that sucked moisture from vegetation and the air, according to Cal Fire. Containment of the fire slipped from 83% to 78% as of late Monday.
“Firefighters had expected some movement” of the fire, but its behavior “exceeded expectations,” said Cal Fire in a Monday update.
The Red Cross opened a new evacuation shelter at Apple Valley Conference Center on Monday to support those affected by the Line fire, according to the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department. The center is at 14975 Dale Evans Parkway. The evacuation shelter at Redlands East Valley High School, 31000 E. Colton Ave., remained open.
The Line fire has now burned a total of 43,459 acres — which along with previous fires, including the ongoing Bridge and Airport fires — has pushed the total acres burned in California this year to 1,000,181 as of late Monday, according to Cal Fire.
This surpasses by far the total acres burned during the same time period last year — 293,362 — but is roughly on par with the five-year average for the period.
The devastating Park fire in Northern California contributed significantly to the milestone, burning almost 430,000 acres between July 24 and Sept. 26 when it reached full containment. It is the fourth-largest fire in California history, according to Cal Fire.
So far this fire season, a total of 1,433 structures have been destroyed, and one fatality has been reported, the agency said.
The Line fire has damaged or destroyed five structures and resulted in four firefighter injuries. The suspected arson fire started on Sept. 5, and an arrest has been made.
On Sunday, residents in Seven Oaks and the Barton Flats area were ordered to evacuate because of the immediate threat of the fire. On Monday this order was expanded to include Angelus Oaks and the community of Big Bear Lake, including Moonridge, Sugarloaf and south Erwin Lake.
Falling temperatures and rising humidity will give firefighters a brief window to gain more ground against three major Southern California wildfires, officials said Sunday.
“It’s helping out tremendously,” said Capt. Steve Concialdi, acting as public information officer on the Airport fire in Orange and Riverside counties, where overnight humidity levels topped 90% in some areas Saturday.
“It is helping us increase our containment lines and firefighters are able to work longer in these cooler temperatures,” Concialdi said. “We’re not getting heat-related illnesses.”
But there is a mixed blessing in the weather shift.
“We are expecting some fairly strong winds through [Monday] night and also at higher elevations, which could present some issues,” said Bryan Lewis, meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Oxnard.
Even as a moist blanket of air in the marine layer thickens, rising to 4,500 feet by Sunday, conditions above that remain parched. Upper peaks could see wind gusts of up to 45 mph, Lewis said, spelling fresher air for valley residents but posing a challenge to fire crews. Lewis said the marine layer, with its cool, moist air, could deepen to 6,000 feet by Monday.
In San Bernardino County, the Line fire moved at a crawl over the weekend, but the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection said humidity and the chance of light rain late Sunday should give firefighters a chance to douse hot spots and solidify control lines that surround a third of the 36,000-acre fire. The fire was 36% contained as of Sunday afternoon.
Paul Faulstick, 67, walks among the ruins of his friend, David Mix’s, property that was destroyed in the Bridge fire along Bear Canyon Road in Mount Baldy on Thursday. “It was Armageddon-like,” said David Mix, 50, about the fire. “This place is like a relative. I had to know if she was gone,” Mix concluded.
(Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times)
The nearby Bridge fire sprawling nearly 55,000 acres in the San Gabriel Mountains of San Bernardino and Los Angeles counties continued to press north and west, but the agency said firefighters are holding lines to the south and east, though the Mount Baldy area remains under evacuation orders. The fire is only 9% contained.
In the Santa Ana Mountains, the Airport fire made no new advances Saturday night, holding under 24,000 acres and giving ground crews a chance to reach hard-to-access areas around Trabuco Canyon and establish fire lines. To date, 115 residences and three businesses have been destroyed, with injuries reported to 12 firefighters and two civilians. The fire is 19% contained.
Fire plans called for crews of hot shot firefighters to be flown in and dropped off in these remote areas, to establish camps from which they will work for several days dousing anything smoldering. “If the wind shifts or the Santa Ana [wind] kicks up, we want to make sure all of those hot spots are extinguished,” Concialdi said.
With other ground gains, Riverside County on Saturday downgraded evacuation orders in some areas to warning status.
Dry conditions still dominate at upper elevations. State officials said the Line fire near Big Bear Lake continued to be active on higher ground. In the Airport fire, Modjeska Peak remained dry, and state officials warned smoldering vegetation above 4,000 feet still had the potential to flare and roll downhill to ignite unburned vegetation.
The high pressure system that locked Southern California in a heat dome last week has been displaced by the passage of a weak and dying cold front. Local weather forecasts called for temperatures slightly below normal, thick night fog and high humidity, and chances for light rain leading into Monday. Light rain returns to the forecast for Wednesday before National Weather Service forecasts call for temperatures to rise again to slightly above normal.
Air quality advisories remained in effect for all four counties, with smoke choking the air with fine-particulate matter. The South Coast Air Quality Management District advised residents to limit outdoor activity.
A firefighting helicopter battles the Airport fire, dropping water near Santiago Peak on Tuesday. The Airport fire has charred more than 9,000 acres.
Five years after California’s worst modern maritime disaster, relatives of the Conception boat fire victims are angry about what they call the slow pace of accountability, while a top U.S. safety official says the Coast Guard continues to stall on reforms.
Thirty-four people died aboard the Conception on Labor Day in 2019, when a fire erupted on the main deck while dozens of divers slept in a windowless bunk room below. In the smoke and chaos, they desperately tried to find a route to safety on the 75-foot dive boat but could not escape.
Jennifer Homendy, chair of the National Transportation Safety Board, castigated the Coast Guard at a news conference Monday for failing to require safety management systems for small vessels.
“How many deaths have to occur? How many injuries have to occur? How many families have to stand up here at a press conference grieving for their loves ones before action is taken?” Homendy said as she stood near a plaque at Santa Barbara Harbor that commemorates the Conception victims. “And how many times does Congress, which did it again in 2021, [have to] tell the Coast Guard to take action?”
Jennifer Homendy, chair of the National Transportation Safety Board, speaks Monday at Santa Barbara Harbor while among family members of those whose died on the dive boat Conception five years ago.
(Richard Winton / Los Angeles Times)
Homendy, joined by victims’ relatives, said her agency has made recommendations dating back more than two decades for safety management systems — most recently after the Conception fire.
She sent a letter Monday to the Homeland Security secretary and head of the Coast Guard asking to implement change “with all possible haste.”
Coast Guard Vice Adm. Peter Gautier, in a July letter to the NTSB, wrote that it had been “dilgently working” on a notice of a proposed rule making with “all due haste” on safety management systems. But Homendy said that explanation is unacceptable “given the lengthy inaction.”
Homendy said a safety management system sets out common sense rules and procedures about what training must take place, what emergency drills must be done and how roving watches should be in place to detect fires. These were all massive failures five years ago, she said, when five crew members asleep in the wheelhouse on the top deck were jolted awake by shouts of “Fire! Fire!” shortly after 3 a.m.
“We’re gonna die,” one passenger was heard during a haunting, 24-second video recorded by passenger Patricia Ann Beitzinger, according to evidence presented at the the 2023 federal criminal trial of Conception Capt. Jerry Boylan.
The video shows the dark outlines of people trapped in the bunk room as the fire approaches. The voices are muffled and difficult to hear, but prosecutors supplied a transcript to jurors during Boylan’s trial: “There’s got to be a way out.”“There’s got to be more extinguishers.”
All 33 passengers and one crew member would die of smoke inhalation.
Inside the bunk room, victims were found with mismatched shoes, one clutched a phone and another, a flashlight. Two were interlocked so tightly they had to be pried apart. As the passengers fruitlessly tried to escape, Boylan and four crew members jumped from the top deck into the waters of Platts Harbor on Santa Cruz Island. Boylan, who had not ordered a roving night watch as people slept, was convicted in 2023 of seaman’s manslaughter and sentenced in May to four years in federal prison.
The Conception as it appeared at sunrise on Labor Day in 2019, after the fire that left 34 people on board dead.
(National Transportation Safety Board)
Investigators with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives determined that the fire started in a plastic trash can on the main deck on what was to be the final day of a three-day dive trip.
At the time, such bins were forbidden in all vessels’ sleeping areas, and banned from all compartments on newer boats, but were allowed on old ones such as the Conception, records show.
But Homendy said Monday that although the fire may have been caused by cigarattes thrown in a trash can, “more than likely” it was lithium ion batteries from phones and photography that were being charged.
The families have complained for years about what they call foot-dragging by authorities. They also have expressed anger over Boylan remaining free while he appeals his conviction. “We have no rights, we are given no consideration,” said Kathleen McIlvain, who son Charlie McIlvain is among those who died on the Conception.
“It wasn’t an accident, it was a disaster waiting to happen,” said Vicki Moore, whose husband, Raymond “Scott” Chan, 59, and daughter Kendra Chan, 26, died. Speaking at the harbor Monday, she said that although reforms have been made, without the implementation of safety management systems the tragedy will repeat itself.
Meanwhile, lawsuits against the Conception’s owners, Truth Aquatics and its boss, Glen Fritzler, remain unresolved.
NTSB recommendations in the wake of the Conception tragedy for fire detection systems, proper dual escape routes, emergency escape drills and checks on night watches have been implemented. Congress mandated those provisions in December 2020 as part of the Elijah E. Cummings Coast Guard Authorization Act.
But Homendy said that safety gaps persist even with those reforms, and that the Coast Guard has yet to show how it is monitoring those changes.
Jerry Boylan, right, captain of the Conception, arrives in federal court during his 2023 trial.
(Damian Dovarganes / Associated Press)
The rear admiral of the Coast Guard said in a 2021 congressional hearing that in weighing new rules, it is required to consider the economic costs and benefits of implementation.
Homendy said she keeps hearing about the cost, but motioning to the grieving families, she added, “This is the cost.”
“I am begging the Coast Guard to take action,” she said. “If the companies aren’t going to do it, who’s there to protect safety?”
A photo from a previous Conception voyage showing the location of restrooms and the stairway to the upper deck, as well as a polyethylene trash can under the stairs. At right, an image is from a 2019 video taken of the stairway, with shelving installed and a trash can below.
(National Transportation Safety Board)
An NTSB investigation found that the Conception did not operate a roving watch, a failure that allowed the fire in the middle deck of to go undetected for up to half an hour. It did not determine a cause but blamed Truth Aquatics and Fritzler for a lax safety culture.
Prosecutors accused Boylan of a slipshod approach to training, leaving everyone on board responsible for their own safety. Boylan’s lawyer said the lack of a roving watch and the approach to safety training had been part of “the Fritzler way” for decades, referring to the boat’s owner.
Southern California was bracing Monday for a heat wave expected to bring triple-digit temperatures to much of the region this week.
Driven by weak offshore winds and a heat dome over the southwestern United States, temperatures are forecast to rise over the course of the week before peaking Thursday and Friday. Portions of the Los Angeles Basin could reach 113 degrees by the weekend while the mercury could climb to 119 in the Coachella Valley.
“We are in what’s already the hottest time of the year climatically, and we are going to be 10 to 15 degrees above normal, in almost every area from the beach to the deserts,” said meteorologist Ryan Kittell of the National Weather Service’s Oxnard office.
Labor Day was already scorching in many communities, with the San Gabriel Valley forecast to hit 100 degrees and the western San Fernando Valley to see temperatures as high as 103. L.A. neighborhoods closer to the water were to enjoy relatively more moderate conditions in the 80s and low 90s.
Woodland Hills, traditionally the hottest place in L.A., was expected to have temperatures of up to 109 degrees Tuesday, 110 Wednesday and 113 Thursday before falling slightly to 111 on Friday.
In Santa Clarita, temperatures were expected to skyrocket from an uncomfortable 95 degrees on Monday to an oppressive 106 by Thursday. In Palm Springs, Labor Day temperatures of 107 to 111 degrees were to give way to temperatures of 114 to 118 degrees by Thursday.
Dangerously hot conditions were affecting a swath of the country including Nevada and Arizona. Kittell, of the National Weather Service in Oxnard, said that because days are shorter than in June and July, desert areas experience less sun and as a result, there are fewer differences in temperature between them and coastal communities.
He said people who live close to the beach and don’t have air conditioning may not be prepared for the heat.
“Make plans now for how you are going to stay cool,” Kittell said.
Temperatures will ebb slightly over the weekend, but it is not clear when the heat wave will subside.
However uncomfortable, the heat this week is not expected to break records. The record for the first week of September was set in 2020 when temperatures reached 121 in Woodland Hills.
The Nixon fire near Aguanga in southern Riverside County exploded in size after the vegetation fire ignited Monday afternoon, growing to almost 4,000 acres by Tuesday morning, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.
Photos and video from the scene showed some buildings destroyed by flames, but it wasn’t immediately clear how many were damaged and if they were homes. About 2,000 buildings were under evacuation orders and warnings, according to Tawny Castro, a spokesperson for Cal Fire’s Riverside County unit.
Firefighters responded to calls around 12:30 p.m. Monday about the blaze near Richard Nixon Boulevard in Aguanga, not far from Palomar Mountain and Riverside County’s border with San Diego County.
Within a few hours, the fire saw explosive growth, hitting 1,000 acres by 5 p.m. before almost tripling in size by 8 p.m., according to Cal Fire.
It had swelled to 3,750 acres as of Monday morning with no containment. The cause of the fire remains under investigation.
Further norther in Kern County, the Borel fire continued to expand in and around Sequoia National Forest, growing to 57,306 acres Tuesday morning, according to federal officials. It was 17% contained.
The massive Park fire burning in Butte and Tehama counties, which has become the state’s fifth-largest wildfire in recorded history, continued to grow overnight, hitting 383,619 acres as of Tuesday morning, with 14% containment, according to Cal Fire.
Fullerton police said Monday that a man they killed last month appeared to provoke the incident in an effort to die.
On June 15, police said they responded to a 911 call urging the department to send multiple officers to deal with a man who threatened the caller and others with knives on Imperial Highway.
When officers arrived, they found a man who matched the caller’s description holding what appeared to be two knives, according to police.
Officers told the man — later identified as 27-year-old Lorenzo Roger Hills III of Brea — to drop the weapons, but instead he ran at them with the knives in hand, prompting officers to fatally shoot him.
On Monday, police said they recovered two knives and a cellphone. Upon investigation, police said the phone was registered to Hills and was the same one used to make the initial 911 call.
“It is believed Mr. Hills intentionally provoked a deadly police encounter, commonly referred to as ‘suicide-by-cop,’” the department said.
Police on Monday released body camera video that shows Hills running toward officers, who shoot him before he nears them.
Police also released a recording of the 911 call, in which the caller gives his name as Antonio. After the caller reports a mentally ill man wielding knives, the dispatcher tells the caller she’ll remain on the line with him until officers arrive.
The caller responds that he may have to go, but then doesn’t after the dispatcher tells him he must stay on the phone so officers know exactly where the knife-wielding man is.
Before officers arrive, the caller says, “My phone is cutting …” and the line goes dead.
Suicide prevention and crisis counseling resources
If you or someone you know is struggling with suicidal thoughts, seek help from a professional and call 9-8-8. The United States’ first nationwide three-digit mental health crisis hotline 988 will connect callers with trained mental health counselors. Text “HOME” to 741741 in the U.S. and Canada to reach the Crisis Text Line.
Scores of protesters formed a roving pro-Palestinian camp on UCLA’s campus Monday afternoon, reciting the names of thousands of people who have died in Gaza.
After several hours of mostly peaceful demonstration, however, the situation turned chaotic, with Los Angeles police and private security guards forming a skirmish line and confronting protesters who stood behind barricades.
A crowd formed on the opposite side of the skirmish line, with protesters chanting, “Let them go!”
Associate professor Graeme Blair, who is a member of Faculty for Justice in Palestine, said one student went to the hospital for treatment of wounds from a rubber bullet, which he said was fired when students were barricaded near Dodd Hall. He criticized authorities, saying the students had been following dispersal orders throughout the evening.
A UC Police representative declined to answer questions about arrests or whether “less than lethal” weapons were used.
Earlier, police had ordered the demonstrators to disperse at least twice, and the crowd quickly dismantled tents and barricades and moved to different locations on campus.
As protesters marched, one among them was reading aloud names of Palestinians killed.
“They will not die in vain,” protesters chanted after each name. “They will be redeemed.”
Some protesters set roses down next to a coffin painted with the Palestinian flag that sat alongside fake bloodied corpses. A helicopter hovered overhead.
Many protesters declined to give interviews, saying they were not “media liaisons” or “media trained.”
The event was organized by the Students for Justice in Palestine at UCLA. Several faculty members followed the crowd with a banner showing support for the students and the demonstration.
Monday’s event marked the third pro-Palestinian encampment at UCLA in recent weeks, the handling of which has drawn outrage and questions about how ill-prepared the university was for such an event.
The first one was set up April 25, sparking mixed reactions and a largely peaceful counterprotest on April 28.
Two days later, however, UCLA declared the encampment unlawful and directed campus members to leave or face discipline.
Later that night, a violent mob attacked the camp. The few police officers on duty were quickly overwhelmed, and the violence continued for three hours until authorities finally brought the situation under control.
At Monday’s demonstration, most protesters wore surgical masks, and those at the edges of the moving encampment held makeshift wooden shields or set up chicken wire to barricade themselves in. The crowd moved from the courtyard outside Royce Hall to the bottom of the Tongva steps, to the patio behind Kerckhoff Hall, to a courtyard outside Dodd Hall.
Los Angeles police and private security guards formed a line as an unlawful assembly was declared Monday at UCLA.
(Alene Tchekmedyian / Los Angeles Times)
As evening set in, the protesters set up their barricades in the Dodd Hall courtyard. The confrontation escalated as an unlawful assembly was declared. Police and guards formed a line, with protesters shouting, “Cops off campus!”
L.A. Police Capt. Kelly Muniz confirmed to The Times that arrests were made at the protest but did not provide further details.
UCLA professor Yogita Goyal, who teaches English and African American studies, was among faculty on campus Monday expressing support for the protesters. Goyal said police should not have declared an unlawful assembly on Monday — or on April 30 when students were protesting peacefully.
“UCLA leadership should be out here and should be allowing our students to express their political views,” she said.
CHICAGO — A search continues for a missing 47-year-old man who police say may be in need of medical attention.
According to Chicago police, Marshall Washington is missing from the 300 block of North Central Avenue, in the city’s South Austin neighborhood, and has not been contacted since Monday, May 27.
Officers say Washington, who has brown eyes and stands 6-foot-2, weighs around 216 pounds.
A photo provided by Chicago police also shows Washington with a beard, however, it is unclear if he had one at the time of his disappearance.
47-year-old Marshall Washington is missing from the 300 block of North Central Avenue, in the city’s South Austin neighborhood, and has not been contacted since Monday, May 27.
Police say the missing man was last seen wearing all-black clothing.
Authorities say Washington may need medical attention but did not provide further details.
Police notified the public about the missing man’s disappearance in a news release sent out on Thursday afternoon.
Anyone with information on the whereabouts of 47-year-old Marshall Washington is asked to contact the CPD Area 4 Detective Division at 312-746-8251 or dial 911.
Those with information that could help authorities in their investigation can also leave a tip at CPDtip.com. Tips can be filed anonymously.
Long Beach police said Monday that a person killed during a standoff with officers last month was a 17-year-old boy.
On the night of April 26, police were called to a home in the 6800 block of Cerritos Avenue, where a male with a gun was reported to have broken in and demanded items from a minor and two adults inside, the Long Beach Police Department said in a statement.
The suspect, found in the yard of the residence, was believed to be armed, police said.
“Officers engaged in verbal de-escalation for over an hour as they tried to negotiate the suspect’s surrender,” the statement reads.
A replica firearm was recovered by Long Beach police at the scene of a fatal police shooting of a 17-year-old boy.
(Long Beach Police Department)
A SWAT team had been called in and was “on scene and preparing to deploy” when an officer shot the boy, according to police.
The teen was struck once in the upper body. He died at a local hospital.
Officers recovered a replica firearm from the scene, the police statement said.
The teenager was from San Bernardino. His name was not released.
Officers wore body cameras, and the Police Department will make video available to the public after it is reviewed, the department said.
On Monday, the Police Department said detectives had learned there was “an accomplice” in the home invasion who fled before officers arrived.
Iskay Mota, 18, of Modesto, was arrested Wednesday and transported to the Long Beach city jail, where he was booked on suspicion of robbery and held on $100,000 bail, according to police and Los Angeles County inmate records.
Britney Spears and her father Jamie Spears, her former conservator, have settled their protracted legal dispute over the payment of his legal fees and how he managed her finances during her 13-year conservatorship.
The two parties settled for an undisclosed amount Thursday in Los Angeles County Superior Court after first filing about the issue in December 2021. The settlement helps the 42-year-old pop superstar avoid continued litigation, including a hearing that had been set for May, over her father’s alleged financial misconduct during the controversial legal arrangement.
The infamous court-ordered guardianship, which was implemented in 2008 after Spears exhibited a spate of erratic behavior, dictated the superstar’s personal and professional life, and controlled her money, for more than a decade. Jamie Spears, 71, served as the conservator of her person and estate for years before resigning as her personal conservator in 2019 over “personal health reasons.” He was removed as a conservator of her estate in September 2021, and the legal arrangement was terminated altogether more than two years ago, but the fallout over accounting issues and legal fees carried on in court until last week.
“Although the conservatorship was terminated in November 2021, her wish for freedom is now truly complete,” the singer’s attorney, Mathew S. Rosengart, said Monday in a statement to The Times. “As she desired, her freedom now includes that she will no longer need to attend or be involved with court or entangled with legal proceedings in this matter.”
Rosengart, who changed the trajectory of the Grammy winner’s situation after he was hired as her personal attorney in July 2021, said it has been an “honor and privilege to represent, protect, and defend Britney Spears in that matter.”
Jamie Spears’ attorney, Alex Weingarten, also confirmed that a settlement had been reached to resolve all outstanding disputes but would not comment on the specifics because the settlement is confidential.
“At the insistence of counsel for Ms. Spears, the settlement is confidential and I cannot discuss it,” Weingarten said Monday in an email to The Times. “Jamie has nothing to hide and would be happy to disclose everything about every aspect of the conservatorship so that the public knows the actual truth. Jamie loves his daughter very much and has always done everything he can to protect her.”
Last week, Weingarten told People that Jamie Spears is also “thrilled that this is all behind him,” adding that it is “unfortunate that some irresponsible people in Britney’s life chose to drag this on for as long as it has.”
Jamie Spears, who had sought court approval for more than $2 million in payments to multiple law firms before officially relinquishing control of his daughter’s finances, also sought fees to be paid to his own attorneys. However, Rosengart objected to the fees, arguing that Britney Spears should not have to pay her father’s legal bills because he had paid himself millions as her conservator, improperly surveilled her and engaged in financial misconduct during his tenure, the New York Times reported.
Jamie Spears has denied any wrongdoing.
The “… Baby One More Time” and “Toxic” singer appeared to address the latest legal development on Instagram in a since-deleted post that blasted her parents.
“My family hurt me !!! There has been no justice and probably never will be !!!” she wrote, according to a screenshot of the Sunday post published by TMZ.
“The way I was brought up I was always taught the formative of right and wrong but the very two people who brought me up with that method hurt me !!! I am so lucky to be here !!!,” she added.
Spears, who has long contended that she’s afraid of her father, said she hasn’t told her parents her thoughts face to face. The mother of two also said she misses her home in Louisiana and wishes she could visit but “they took everything.”
Meanwhile, citing sources with “direct knowledge,” TMZ reported Monday that Spears is in “serious danger” on both the mental and financial fronts, faring far worse than she had been when she was under the control of the conservatorship.
Rosengart and Weingarten declined to comment on the allegations.
After the conservatorship ended, the “Mickey Mouse Club” alum wrested back control of her life and narrative and has basked in her newfound freedom, including making moves that have seemingly led to new revenue streams.
In 2022, the former Las Vegas headliner landed a $15-million book deal that resulted in the publication of her bombshell memoir “The Woman in Me” last fall. The revelatory account — chronicling her early career, romances with Justin Timberlake and Kevin Federline and the conservatorship — was released to much fanfare and impressive sales. It sold more than 1.1 million copies in the United States its first week. In January, Gallery Books, a division of Simon & Schuster, announced that the book had sold more than 2 million copies in the U.S. alone across multiple formats. The audiobook, recited by Oscar winner Michelle Williams, became the fastest selling in the company’s history.
Hollywood producers, including Brad Pitt, Margot Robbie and Reese Witherspoon, have reportedly also been looking to adapt the book for the big screen.
Although Spears has largely retreated from her live-performance career, she has been flaunting her freedom and lifestyle on Instagram, posting photos from the various destinations she has traveled to via private jet. She is also presumably enjoying the royalties from her 2022 collaboration with Elton John on “Hold Me Closer,” a reimagining of his 1970s classic “Tiny Dancer.”
A Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy was shot Monday on the 10 Freeway, authorities said.
The Sheriff’s Department confirmed to The Times that a deputy assigned to a motorcycle unit was shot on the freeway in West Covina but did not provide additional information, saying the investigation is ongoing.
The westbound lanes of the 10 Freeway were closed in West Covina near Barranca Street, NBC4 reported.
Sources told The Times the deputy was taken to a hospital with a gunshot wound to the back.
Nicole Nishida, a spokeswoman for the department, said the deputy was wearing a bullet-resistant vest and is in stable condition.
Authorities said they are looking into a person of interest in connection with the shooting. Deputies tracked a white van and now have a La Puente home surrounded, sources told The Times.
This is a breaking news story and will be updated with more information as it becomes available.
The death of an infant on the 405 Freeway near Culver City may be connected to a Topanga-area slaying and a deadly crash in Redondo Beach, the Los Angeles Police Department confirmed Monday.
Officers were dispatched to the 6200 block of Variel Avenue in Woodland Hills around 7:35 a.m. Monday, where they found an unresponsive man in his 30s. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
Detectives later learned of two incidents that had occurred earlier in the morning and might have ties to their homicide investigation, LAPD said.
Around 4:30 a.m., officers were called to the northbound 405 Freeway near the Sepulveda Boulevard/Howard Hughes Parkway exit, according to the California Highway Patrol. An infant girl about 5 or 6 months old was found in the roadway, and a 9-year-old girl was found on the right shoulder.
The infant was pronounced dead at the scene, and the girl was taken to a hospital with minor to moderate injuries. A 911 caller reported seeing a black sedan near where the girls were found, according to City News Service.
“At this time, Valley Bureau Homicide detectives are working with the California Highway Patrol on the incident involving the two children and believe it is connected to the Topanga homicide scene,” LAPD said on X.
In a further twist, the LAPD and CHP are collaborating with the Redondo Beach Police Department to determine whether the two violent scenes are connected to a fatal car crash in the beach city that involved a black sedan, L.A. police said.
The collision occurred around 5 a.m. Monday when a female driver crashed into a tree. She was pronounced dead at the scene.
CBS News reported that detectives identified a suspect in their investigation as the mother of the children found on the freeway and the wife of the man found in Topanga.
The LAPD did not confirm this information when reached by phone.
Homeland Security agents conducted searches of Holmby Hills and Miami mansions owned by Sean “Diddy” Combs on Monday as part of a federal inquiry into sex trafficking allegations involving the hip-hop and liquor mogul, law enforcement sources said.
The 17,000-square-foot mansion where Combs debuted his last album a year ago was flooded with Homeland Security Investigations agents, who served a search warrant and gathered evidence on behalf of an investigation being run by the prosecutors in the Southern District of New York, according to law enforcement officials familiar with the inquiry.
“Earlier today, Homeland Security Investigations New York executed law enforcement actions as part of an ongoing investigation, with assistance from HSI Los Angeles, HSI Miami, and our local law enforcement partners. We will provide further information as it becomes available,” an HSI spokesman said in a statement.
Two of Combs’ sons were seen being detained on the Holmby Hills property as agents searched the mansion in footage captured by FOX11 Los Angeles
Shawn Holley, an attorney for Combs, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
A hip-hop star turned entrepreneur, Combs has become the focus of sexual assault and sex trafficking allegations in the last year. The raid is the latest and most serious threat to his gilded lifestyle.
Four separate plaintiffs have filed civil lawsuits against Combs accusing him of rape, sex trafficking a minor, assault and a litany of other alleged abuses, imperiling his empire and sending shock waves through the music industry.
Combs, 54, amassed his fortune first as a hip-hop producer, artist and founder of Bad Boy Entertainment, the label that launched the career of the late Notorious B.I.G., among others. He’d later added lucrative fashion and liquor companies to his ventures, most notably Sean John and Cîroc vodka.
His former girlfriend Casandra Ventura, the singer known as Cassie, accused him of rape and repeated physical assaults, and said he forced her to have sex with male prostitutes in front of him. Joi Dickerson-Neal accused Combs in a suit of drugging and raping her in 1991, recording the attack and then distributing the footage without her consent.
Liza Gardner filed a third suit in which she claimed Combs and Guy singer Aaron Hall sexually assaulted her. Hall could not be reached for comment.
The most recent suit alleges Combs and former Bad Boy label president Harve Pierre gang-raped and sex-trafficked a 17-year-old girl. Pierre said in a statement the allegations were “disgusting,” “false” and a “desperate attempt for financial gain.”
Following the filing of the fourth suit, Combs wrote on Instagram, “Enough is enough. For the last couple of weeks, I have sat silently and watched people try to assassinate my character, destroy my reputation and my legacy. Sickening allegations have been made against me by individuals looking for a quick payday. Let me be absolutely clear: I did not do any of the awful things being alleged. I will fight for my name, my family and for the truth.”
On Monday, Douglas Wigdor, a lawyer for Cassie Ventura and another, unnamed plaintiff, said in response to reports of a search warrant issued on Combs: “We will always support law enforcement when it seeks to prosecute those that have violated the law. Hopefully, this is the beginning of a process that will hold Mr. Combs responsible for his depraved conduct.”
Los Angeles County can expect to see rain across the region beginning Sunday night and continuing through Wednesday, with the latest winter storm system forecast to bring the heaviest rain and threat of flooding along the Central Coast.
Compared with the historic storm that pummeled the region earlier this month, forecasters expect “much less rain” for the county this time but warned that the most intense precipitation will hit during the day Monday and Tuesday night. Over the next three days, downtown could see up to 2.4 inches of rain; Santa Clarita, 2.19 inches; Long Beach, 1.8 inches; and Torrance, 1.97 inches.
The rain may not be as intense as some areas farther north, but there are still concerns about the prospect for flooding, landslides and mudflows — particularly in the Santa Monica Mountains and Hollywood Hills — because of the soaking Southern California received from the previous storm, David Gomberg, a weather service meteorologist in Oxnard, said during an online media briefing Sunday afternoon.
A flood watch was in effect across broad swaths of California.
“Debris flows, mudslides, and landslides could happen just about anywhere within the flood watch area, as even L.A. County — which is expecting somewhat lower rainfall totals — took the brunt of the last storm, leaving them more susceptible to this kind of activity,” the weather service office in Oxnard said Sunday night.
Residents are urged to move parked cars out of low-lying flood-prone areas, to be alert for mudslides and rock slides on or below canyon roads and to prepare for possible flooding and power outages, the weather service said.
The slow-moving storm system began moving into the Central Coast region Saturday night, bringing light rain to Santa Barbara and western San Luis Obispo counties, officials said. The second, more powerful wave of the storm had arrived in Santa Barbara by Sunday evening. Officials warned of gusty winds, an increased chance of thunderstorms, and the possibility of high surf and coastal flooding.
By 8:20 p.m. Sunday, forecasters reported rainfall rates of between 0.3 to 0.5 inches per hour across the Santa Barbara area.
The Central Coast is expected to feel the brunt of this storm, according to the weather service. Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo county foothills and mountain ranges could see 8 to 10 inches of rainfall. The city of Ventura can expect to see up to 3.01 inches, and the city of Santa Barbara 5.66 inches.
High surf advisories are in effect through Tuesday across all beaches in the region, with waves of up to 20 feet expected in some areas. Strong rip currents are expected with large breaking waves at Morro Bay, Port San Luis and Ventura harbors.
There is also a brief risk of “weak tornado activity” during this period in San Luis Obispo County, Gomberg said Sunday.
The greatest threat for coastal flooding — particularly in Malibu and Santa Barbara — will be Tuesday morning, Gomberg said.
Once the system has passed, the state will have a few days to wring itself out before the arrival of another possible system next weekend, Gomberg said, this time coming out of the north and potentially colder.
Times staff writer Thomas Curwen contributed to this report.
Enriqueta Lima stood beside her car in Studio City, holding a puffer jacket over her head as a cold, steady rain fell Monday morning.
Lima, 49, had parked near Fryman Road, a street in a wooded canyon lined with million-dollar homes. She cleans a house there and was trying to figure out if it was safe to keep driving. She had not heard from the homeowners Sunday night, as the slow-moving storm poured down, so she decided to risk the drive to Studio City Monday after dropping her daughter off at school.
“I got scared thinking about driving here,” Lima said in Spanish. “I don’t want to park my car where it’s flooded.”
Mud and water flowed down the street. She got back into her gray sedan and drove away.
Across Southern California, hillside and canyon neighborhoods bore the brunt of the powerful atmospheric river that parked itself over Los Angeles late Sunday just as the Grammys were being handed out at Crypto.com Arena downtown.
The record-breaking deluge — which prompted a state of emergency declaration from Gov. Gavin Newsom — triggered mudslides and evacuations, damaged houses, flooded roadways and knocked out power for thousands of people.
In Northern California, three deaths, all from fallen trees, were attributed to the storm, officials said. One was in Santa Cruz County, one in Sutter County and one in Sacramento County.
Still, amid a massive deployment of emergency response teams, more widespread public safety issues have so far been avoided.
“Things have held. We are in pretty good shape,” Brian Ferguson, a spokesman for the governor’s Office of Emergency Services, said Monday. But, he added, “we are not out of the woods yet.”
The rains will keep coming, off and on, most of the week, according to the National Weather Service. And the cleanup has just begun.
On Monday afternoon in Studio City, yellow trucks from the Los Angeles Bureau of Street Services lined Fryman Road, where a mudslide had coated the roadway in piles of mud, rocks, tree limbs and debris laced with silverware, tools, garden pots and books. The debris field crashed down from Lockridge Road, which sits beneath Dearing Mountain Trail in Fryman Canyon Park.
Longtime resident Scott Toro said the mudslide Sunday night “sounded like a plane crashing.”
“It sounded like, ‘Boom! Boom! Boom!’ and we came outside and saw all this debris,” said Toro, 60. “I saw all these rocks.”
Toro left his home after midnight and stayed at a relative’s house. He said he’s used to water coming down the ravine during storms, but “we’ve never had anything like this.”
In nearby Beverly Glen, on Caribou Lane, an upside-down piano — caked in mud, keys askew — lay in the road. In that neighborhood, mud flows pushed a house off its foundation around 2 a.m. Monday, said Travis Longcore, who lives a few houses down.
“It was a big rumbling sound and then a boom,” he said.
The house, neighbors said, was unoccupied.
The winding residential streets south of the Encino Reservoir, covered with tree branches and muck, were mostly deserted Monday. On nearby Boris Drive, the storm washed away the hillside behind Nathan Khalili’s rented house, leaving a steep, muddy scar in its place.
“I’m usually not worried about storms, but I didn’t think a … landslide would happen,” said Khalili, 23. “I woke up, looked outside and half the mud had slid down the hill.”
Khalili lost power between midnight and 9 a.m. Monday. His phone, on which he sets his morning alarm, died overnight. “I’m supposed to be at work right now,” said Khalili, an insurance broker. “But I accidentally slept in.”
On the Palos Verdes Peninsula, where a landslide caused several homes to slide into a canyon last summer, residents were wary as they watched the downpour.
David Zee, whose house in Rolling Hills Estates was red-tagged after neighboring homes on Peartree Lane collapsed, said he went to his home Monday to check for damage. Though his house is upright, Zee and his family have been displaced since July. The landslide, according to a city report, was triggered by excessive precipitation during a series of heavy storms last winter. Now, every time it rains, Zee worries.
“There’s not much we can do,” he said. “We just have to hope that our hillside, our foundation that our home sits on, doesn’t buckle under the weight of all the rain.”
According to the National Weather Service, a staggering 11.34 inches of rain had fallen in Topanga Canyon by Monday afternoon.
Keith Wilbur, 65, walked along Topanga Canyon Boulevard in rubber rain boots and a plastic poncho. Wilbur was walking home from the Topanga Creek General Store. He said he needed something to drink after his water pipe burst. His hands and forearms were coated in mud. He had hiked about two miles to get to the store and fell in the mud on a closed stretch of Topanga Canyon Boulevard.
“There are cones there stopping cars from going through, but I figured I could walk,” he said.
Wilbur lives on the boulevard and said two creeks intersect on his property. Both were overflowing. He said he and his family got an evacuation notice a few days ago but didn’t want to leave their animals behind.
“I have six peacocks, two dogs and a 400-pound pig,” he said. “How am I supposed to put them all in a car and drive off?”
Also wandering the boulevard on foot was a bearded man in a wetsuit, who carried a neon green kayak and wore a GoPro camera strapped to his chest. He did not give his name but said, a bit sheepishly, that he was going to Topanga Creek, which is usually too dry for kayaking.
Nearby, three young men and a young woman stood ankle-deep in mud as a plow pushed debris to the side of the road. Each held a can of White Claw alcoholic seltzer. Among them, Maxwell Stiggants said his driveway was covered in mud and he couldn’t leave his property by vehicle. A neighbor was driving the plow, trying to clear the area.
“Do we look worried?” Stiggants asked, holding up his drink and chuckling. “It’s either this or a fire.”
Staff writers Ashley Ahn, Hannah Fry, Summer Lin and Hannah Wiley contributed to this report.
On a foggy January morning in his hometown nestled in Northern California wine country, state Sen. Mike McGuire was at an elementary school doing a dance called the “wheelbarrow” and explaining insurance policy to children who were more eager to talk about their 4-H pigs.
The Sonoma County Democrat then rushed off, driving past rolling green hills and dewy vineyards, to have coffee with firefighters who are banking on him to help a region that has been repeatedly devastated by wildfires and often feels overlooked by state leaders.
At the Healdsburg Fire Department, a staffer struggled to get McGuire out the door in time so that he could make it to a Chamber of Commerce event three hours north in Eureka. There, he would partake in a hobby perfectly suited to his sense of urgency and penchant for squeezing as much as he can into the time he has: auctioneering.
New California Senate leader Mike McGuire dances with children at Alexander Valley School in Healdsburg on Jan. 26. (Mackenzie Mays)
“Mike is the Energizer Bunny of California politics. He gets around, he walks the district. It is a hallmark of his approach,” said David McCuan, a political science professor at Sonoma State who taught McGuire there more than 20 years ago. “He believes that hard work and perseverance can offset any challenges he might have.”
Now, McGuire, who was sworn in as the new leader of the California Senate on Monday, will need to harness that energy as he takes on his biggest challenge yet — guiding the Legislature’s upper house as the state grapples with an estimated $38-billion budget deficit. The Senate leader plays a powerful role negotiating the state budget with the governor and the Assembly speaker, making it one of the most influential positions in state government.
At a swearing-in ceremony at the Capitol on Monday, McGuire vowed to “buckle down” and right the budget in the same way that Californians struggling financially are forced to “live within their means” and make sacrifices in their personal spending.
“We know that tough decisions lie ahead,” McGuire said in an emotional speech on the Senate floor that at times drove him to tears. “We are going to protect our progress.”
McGuire was sworn in as he held his squirmy 2-year-old son and stood alongside his wife, a school principal in Healdsburg. Monday’s event played up the small-town hospitality of McGuire’s rural district, with signs that welcomed attendees to “come on in and stay awhile.”
Gov. Gavin Newsom, former Gov. Jerry Brown, California Supreme Court Chief Justice Patricia Guerrero and past Senate leaders including John Burton attended the ceremony. Many from McGuire’s district were also in attendance, including his eighth-grade math teacher.
Despite the budget woes on the horizon, McGuire painted a picture of a resilient California that leads the nation in several policy areas, including climate change and abortion access, even in bad financial times.
“No matter what you watch on cable news, we are America’s economic engine,” he said Monday.
Time is of the essence. McGuire has until 2026 to make his mark as Senate president pro tem; at that time he will be forced out of the Legislature by term limits.
In 1998, when he was 19 years old, Mike McGuire became the youngest person elected to the school board in Healdsburg, the bucolic Sonoma County town where he grew up. He later became the city’s youngest mayor.
(Josh Edelson / For the Times)
He said to expect the Senate to prioritize counties’ “successful implementation” of CARE Court, Gov. Gavin Newsom’s mental health reform plan that could force some people living on the streets to receive treatment.
“No matter if you live in Crescent City, or in downtown L.A., you want the homelessness crisis solved. It’s unacceptable, and the state and our communities must do better,” McGuire said.
But speaking to reporters at the Capitol after Monday’s ceremony, McGuire declined to give details on the plan or signal what is to come otherwise from the Senate this year, saying he still needs to meet with his fellow lawmakers.
Often seen jogging through Capitol corridors to make it to one of several committees he sits on and wearing headphones on the Senate floor so as not to miss a call, McGuire is vowing to pare down his trademark multi-tasking and “laser focus” on issues including affordable housing, fentanyl and retail theft.
His fellow lawmakers from both political parties joked Monday about his stamina, saying they didn’t know he had a desk on the Senate floor because he never sits.
For six months, McGuire has been on the road, traveling to speak with voters beyond his coastal district, which spans seven counties from the Bay Area to the Oregon border. In the month of December alone, he met with climate activists in Sacramento, public transit advocates in San Francisco, business owners in Fresno, wine experts in Sonoma County and homeless advocates in Humboldt County.
“If I have to eat another gas station hot dog, I don’t know what I’m going to do,” he joked.
He’s not up for reelection. It’s just what he does.
“He feeds off of this. It’s not a game, it’s authentic,” said James Gore, a Democratic member of the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors who plans to run for McGuire’s seat when his time is up in 2026.
California Sen. Mike McGuire hugs a firefighter in Healdsburg, where he lives.
(Josh Edelson / For The Times)
His breakneck pace started decades ago with a string of record firsts. In 1998, he became the youngest person elected to the Healdsburg School Board at age 19 in the bucolic town where he grew up. Then he became the city’s youngest mayor. He went on to serve on the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors and by 2014, he was in the state Senate.
McGuire started working in high school at a radio station to help his family make ends meet. He was raised by his mother and grandmother — a hard-nosed prune farmer whom McGuire credits for his career.
“She taught me to be the hardest-working person in the room,” he said of his grandmother. “She told me that there are smarter people than you out in this world and you’ve got to work together.”
But in some ways, McGuire’s appointment comes as a surprise. He represents a rural district in a powerful position long held by senators from major cities. He is a straight white man helping lead a state that is predominantly Latino amid calls for more diversity in Democratic politics.
Former California Senate President Pro Tem Toni Atkins (D-San Diego), left, hugs her successor, Sen. Mike McGuire (D-Healdsburg).
(Rich Pedroncelli / Associated Press)
“It speaks to his leadership,” said Sen. Lena Gonzalez (D-Long Beach), vice chair of the California Latino Legislative Caucus. “Regardless of the identity politics, I really think that he supersedes that with his policies. More than anything, it’s his style of collaboration that is appreciated.”
McGuire nodded to progressive ideals for greater diversity in political representation in his inaugural speech Monday, as both legislative houses — and the governor’s office — are currently led by men.
“Here in the Senate, we look more like the communities we proudly represent,” McGuire said, noting that there are more women and more people of color serving in state office than ever before and vowing to work with minority caucuses to promote their issues.
McGuire gave labor unions credit on Monday, saying that “in California, we go to the mat for the rights of workers.” But in a Democratic supermajority Legislature where unions have a lot of sway, McGuire has not always voted with organized labor. In 2016, he did not support a bill that expanded overtime pay for farmworkers, voicing concerns about the impact on small farmers.
Republicans, too, describe McGuire as a fierce collaborator, negotiator and moderator with no off switch.
“He’s just very hardworking and he’s always on the move. I would say if there was competition for the position, whoever that was wouldn’t have been able to keep up with him in the first place,” Senate Minority Leader Brian Jones (R-Santee) said, noting that he “vigorously” disagrees with many of his policy stances.
McGuire, who warns he sounds “hokey” when he talks about loving his work, said “I’m not big on labels” when asked about being considered a moderate on some issues in the liberal California Legislature. “I’m all about action. My only focus is on delivering results,” he said.
As for what happens when his term is over, McGuire has raised more than $800,000 for a campaign for state insurance commissioner in 2026.
Mike McGuire, D-Healdsburg, holds his son Conner as he is congratulated by state Supreme Court Chief Justice Patricia Guerrero after being sworn in as Senate President Pro Tempore, Monday, Feb. 5, 2024, at the Capitol in Sacramento, Calif. McGuire was joined on the dais by his wife, Erika, left, and Calfornia Gov. Gavin Newsom, right.
(Hector Amezcua / Sacramento Bee via Associated Press)
But his supporters back in his hometown of Healdsburg are certain that his aspirations are bigger than that.
McGuire dodged a question about his plans after the state Senate, saying, “It’s not what’s keeping me up at night.”
As someone who seemingly fills every hour of his calendar, two years is “an eternity.”
Back at Alexander Valley School in Healdsburg, McGuire was speedily teaching 10- and 12-year-olds accustomed to wildfires about “home hardening” and public risk insurance models in his auctioneer voice. He demanded a countdown while he packed in his answers to the children’s questions.
“Time me 60 seconds,” he said. “I want to beat the recess bell.”
A large and dangerous storm system continued its push through Southern California on Monday, bringing life-threatening flooding, damaging winds and record rainfall — with no signs of stopping anytime soon.
Rainfall totals were continuing to pile up, including 10.28 inches in the Topanga area, 9.84 inches around Bel-Air and 5.3 inches in downtown Los Angeles — with much more on the way, according to Ryan Kittell, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service.
“There’s still a lot of rain to come,” he said. “There’s a lot of rain left.”
The plume of moisture was expected to linger over the greater Los Angeles metropolitan area through Monday night, followed by on-and-off rain Tuesday and possibly even some showers Wednesday, Kittell said.
“It’s definitely declining starting Wednesday,” he said, but “it’s not until after Friday that we get the all-clear.”
The atmospheric river also smashed several daily rainfall records on Sunday. Downtown Los Angeles received 4.1 inches of rain — breaking the record of 2.55 inches set on Feb. 4, 1927. It was the area’s 10th wettest day since records began in 1877. Santa Barbara Airport broke a daily record with 2.39 inches of rain on Sunday, as did Los Angeles International Airport with 1.76 inches, and Long Beach Airport with 1.5 inches.
The storm packed a wallop across the state, including flooding, water rescues and damaging winds in the San Francisco Bay Area and down the Central Coast. More than half a million people remained without power statewide Monday morning.
But all eyes were on Southern California on Monday, where urgent flash flood warnings remained in effect for portions of San Bernardino, Ventura and Los Angeles.
Some of the worst effects were expected Monday and Tuesday in portions of Orange, Riverside and San Bernardino counties, where “catastrophic and life-threatening flooding” was possible as the storm continued its crawl toward the state’s southern border, the National Weather Service said.
The San Bernardino Mountains could see up to 8 inches of additional rainfall through Tuesday evening, while the mountains of San Diego and Riverside counties could see an additional 4 inches, the NWS said.
“Storms can change quickly, but let me be clear: This storm is a serious weather event,” Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said during a news conference Sunday. “This has the potential to be a historic storm — severe winds, thunderstorms, and even brief tornadoes.”
Indeed, many Angelenos awakened Monday to a soggy, muddy mess, including dozens of road closures and delays due to flooding and debris, according to the California Department of Transportation, California Highway Patrol and other agencies.
Multiple vehicles were submerged Monday on Piuma Road near Calabasas, and another vehicle was submerged on Balkins Drive in Agoura Hills, according to Los Angeles County sheriff’s officials. Minor debris flows had occurred in Agoura Hills, including one on Cornell Road and one on Eagletown Street. A 10-foot boulder was reported on northbound Malibu Canyon Road about 2 miles north of Pacific Coast Highway.
Some on-ramps and southbound lanes along the 5 Freeway were closed from Burbank to Los Feliz, as was a portion of State Route 23 near Banning Dam in Thousand Oaks, CalTrans said. State Route 33 was closed in both directions between Ojai and Lockwood Valley Road due to mudslides. A video of the area showed chunks of mud and rocks splayed across the road.
Mud was also flowing across the Hollywood Hills, damaging homes and forcing residents to flee. At least two homes were damaged as debris flowed down Lockridge Road near Fryman Canyon in Studio City on Sunday night, and an additional nine homes were evacuated from the area out of concern about additional soil instability. Firefighters evacuated residents from three homes on Boris Drive in Tarzana due to flowing debris.
In Long Beach, 19 people were rescued Sunday from the rocks of the breakwater after the mast of a 40-foot boat they were on broke in high winds.
Officials urged Angelenos to stay home if possible. Those who must drive were advised to do so with caution, and to avoid deep water.
However, schools remained open in the Los Angeles area Monday, except for Vinedale Preparatory Academy in Sun Valley, which was affected by mandatory evacuation orders, and Topanga Elementary Charter School in Topanga. Both schools were affected by potentially dangerous hillside conditions. Students and staff at both schools were directed to other campuses for the day.
The storm also delivered powerful winds Sunday, including gusts up to 83 mph in the San Gabriel Mountains; 58 mph in Newhall Pass and 45 mph in the western San Fernando Valley.
By Monday, the strong gusts associated with the storm had abated into light southeasterly winds.
But slow, steady rain would continue to pour, Kittell said.
“It’s just a tremendous amount of rain in the last 24 hours,” he added.
With this week’s monster storm now expected to make a direct hit on Los Angeles County on Sunday and Monday, officials are urging people to stay off roads amid concerns about flooding and mudslides.
The intense, sustained rains are going to make for an ugly and potentially dangerous Monday commute, and officials said people should avoid being on the roads if possible.
“If anyone has an opportunity to work remotely on Monday, that’s definitely the day to do it,” said Ryan Kittell, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Oxnard.
Forecast worsens for L.A.
The forecast rain totals for Los Angeles County worsened Sunday, with totals generally going up by about 2 inches in some areas. It’s now possible that, by the time this storm tapers off Tuesday, Pasadena could see around 10 inches of rain; with about 7 inches in Northridge, Pomona and Santa Clarita; about 6 inches in downtown Los Angeles, Long Beach and Westlake Village; and about 5 inches in Redondo Beach.
If these totals hold true, the Southland is likely to see widespread flooding and mudflows and debris flows in hillside areas, especially those hit by recent fires.
Danger on roads
“We’re expecting a lot of freeway flooding and road flooding, road closures. Many parked cars will be flooded… especially in low-lying areas of neighborhoods,” Kittell said. “Even if the rain does start to let up on Monday morning, just the sheer amount of rain overnight will cause lingering flooding issues into the morning hours,” Kittell said. “Especially, stay off the freeways.”
Kittell added: “Any areas that are vulnerable to mudslides — this definitely has the signature for that, especially as you get closer to Los Angeles County, but also including Ventura and Santa Barbara County.” Expect plenty of mud, rocks and debris on canyon roads, “flooded neighborhoods,” and the potential for people living near creeks and rivers to need rescue from strong flows.
‘Stay home’
“If you are not home already, please get home and stay home. Stay off the roads,” Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said. “As we anticipate this weather event continuing into the next couple of days, if you are able to work remotely, please stay home.”
L.A. City Council President Paul Krekorian said the anticipated amount of rainfall is rare for Los Angeles, and noted that “we’ve only had this kind of intensity twice before in the last over 40 years, so take it seriously.”
“If you absolutely have to drive, slow down,” Krekorian said. “Don’t drive through flooded areas — there are going to be potholes. There are going to be dangers, and you’re going to be putting not only yourself but others on the road at risk as well.”
Some Los Angeles County employees are being advised to work from home Monday, said Lindsey Horvath, chair of the county Board of Supervisors.
On Thursday, inundated roads clogged the morning commute, closing southbound lanes of the 710 Freeway at Pacific Coast Highway in Long Beach and a portion of PCH at the McClure Tunnel in Santa Monica. In Huntington Beach, a three-mile stretch of PCH was also shut down by flooding.
Almost seven miles of Palos Verdes Drive South from Hawthorne Boulevard to Palos Verdes Drive East closed for a few hours Thursday because of flooding and a mudslide that left debris and mud across the roadway, with authorities urging residents to “shelter in place until the heavy rain passes.”
Floodwaters also submerged vehicles in low-lying areas of Long Beach on Thursday.
Worse than Hilary?
For some of the populous areas of Southern California, this storm will bring winds that will actually be “much stronger” than Tropical Storm Hilary in August, especially in the lower elevations, Kittell said.
Hilary brought most of its rain on the inland side of Southern California’s mountains and in the deserts; this weekend’s storm is focused on “the coastal side of the mountain — so where a lot of people live … the urban, city areas along the coast and valleys, and the south-facing foothills,” he added.
Schools
The L.A. Unified School District will hold classes Monday.
“Our schools represent more than just education. They are the places where many of our kids receive their nutrition,” Supt. Alberto Carvalho said. “After this weekend, many will depend on that breakfast, the lunch, the snack and in many cases, a dinner. Our schools will be open.”
But recognizing the threat of the storm, Carvalho also said parents and staff should not put themselves in danger Monday.
“We will be exercising a great deal of grace, of patience and understanding both with our students as well as our workforce,” Carvalho said. “I urge parents and the workforce to make decisions on the basis of what you know surrounding your community and your journey to your school or place of work. Do not put yourself in danger.”
Chilling rain, swirling gray clouds and blustery winds rolled into Southern California on Sunday as the strongest winter storm of the season geared up to deliver near-record rainfall and life-threatening flash flooding in the region through Tuesday.
The slow-moving atmospheric river was gathering strength Sunday afternoon, spurring the declaration of a state of emergency from Gov. Gavin Newsom in eight Southern California counties, including Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Diego, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara and Ventura. The National Weather Service in Oxnard warned that “all systems are go for one of the most dramatic weather days in recent memory.”
“Storms can change quickly, but let me be clear: This storm is a serious weather event,” Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said during a news conference. “This has the potential to be a historic storm — severe winds, thunderstorms, and even brief tornadoes.”
Palm trees in Santa Barbara bend in the wind on Sunday as hurricane-force gusts battered the seas off California.
(Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Indeed, forecasters said the brunt of the storm appears focused on the Los Angeles area, where the system could park itself for an extended time over the next few days. The storm could drop up to 8 inches of rainfall on the coast and valleys, and up to 14 inches in the foothills and mountains. Snowfall totals of 2 to 5 feet are likely at elevations above 7,000 feet.
“Los Angeles County now seems to be the area of most concern, where the heaviest rain will last the longest,” said Ryan Kittell, a meteorologist with the NWS in Oxnard. The agency has issued dozens of flood watches and storm advisories across the region and the state, including urgent flash flood warnings in parts of Los Angeles, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara and Ventura counties.
“If anyone has an opportunity to work remotely on Monday, that’s definitely the day to do it,” he said.
At the Ventura Harbor just north of L.A. County, as the storm moved into the region, rain was beating down on shops and restaurants that ordinarily draw tourists. It had been hours without a customer at Harbor Market and Liquor, and at a nearby hair salon, stylist Danielle White was weighing whether she should hit the road, worried that flooding could strand her there.
“We’re clearly not going to get any inquiries,” she said, gazing out at the rainfall.
Here’s the latest rain timing/intensity graphic, indicating some minor changes. – Rain totals have been increased: – 4-8″ for coasts/valleys and 8-14″ foothills/mountains – Lower totals for San Luis Obispo County – FLOOD WATCH still in effect for all areas #CAwxpic.twitter.com/YR4WwgWGsA
The storm is expected to “bring a multitude of dangerous weather conditions to the area,” forecasters said.
Evacuation warnings and notices were issued in portions of Ventura, Santa Barbara, Monterey and Los Angeles counties — including parts of Topanga near the Owen and Agua fire burn scars; the Juniper Hills and Valyermo areas near the Bobcat fire burn scar; the Lake Hughes and King Canyon area near the Lake fire burn scar; and the La Tuna Canyon area of Sun Valley near the Land fire burn scar.
Burn scars are subject to an increased risk of flooding and debris flows, and officials urged Angelenos to heed all evacuation orders.
“Make your personal safety your top priority,” said Los Angeles Fire Department Chief Kristin Crowley. “Follow all evacuation orders, avoid travel … If you do have to travel, please, please, slow down and avoid any flooded areas.”
Swift-water rescue teams, urban search-and-rescue teams and other personnel were standing by in preparation for the storm, Crowley said.
Newsom also mobilized a record 8,500 emergency response personnel across the state to assist communities in the path of the storm, his office said.
In addition to a high risk of flash flooding and excessive rainfall, the storm also has the potential to deliver damaging winds. That includes gusts of up to 70 mph in San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara counties through 6 p.m. Sunday, with isolated gusts of up to 90 mph possible in mountain areas.
Ventura and Los Angeles counties could see wind gusts of up to 50 mph between 1 p.m. and 1 a.m., with isolated gusts of up to 70 mph in mountains and hills. The Ventura River is expected to swell and reach its flood stage around 11 p.m. Sunday night.
Inside Ventura’s Pierpont Tacos on Seaward Avenue, Joseph Kenton and Anna Tyler were taking a break from delivering firewood from Ojai on Sunday morning.
“People were freezing in this weather,” said Kenton, who had been out driving for hours making deliveries, between bites of his tacos. “They want wood to stay warm. Anna got up at 5 o’ clock and started splitting wood.”
As the rain started to fall, “it was real dangerous,” he said. “We had to go real slow.”
On Sunday evening, celebrities also began arriving for the 2024 Grammy Awards at Crypto.com Arena in downtown L.A. as the storm began to churn. Several stars were spotted scrambling from their cars to the red carpet with umbrellas.
Waves crash over a breakwater in Alameda, Calif., with the San Francisco skyline in the background on Sunday.
(Noah Berger / Associated Press)
The storm barreled through Northern and Central California before making its way south.
In Northern California, monster winds and downpours began to inundate the region late Saturday, with the worst of the weather kicking into high gear early Sunday. Thousands were without power by late morning, with officials scrambling to respond to downed trees and power lines across the Bay Area and Central Coast, as well as growing concerns about increased flooding.
Delays and cancellations at San Francisco International Airport led the nation Sunday morning, with almost a third of incoming and outgoing flights delayed as of noon Sunday, according to flight tracking website FlightAware.
Bob Rotiski, spokesperson for the airport, said the airport reduced its capacity for flights because of the weather, expecting continued delays through 1 a.m. Monday. He said the average flight was delayed more than 4 hours as of noon Sunday, with the possibility for that to increase.
In Sonoma County, a tree early Sunday fell onto a home; in Palo Alto, a massive tree blocked the eastbound lanes of the Oregon Expressway. Downed power lines closed a stretch of State Road 1 in San Mateo County, and in San Francisco, fallen lines forced traffic detours.
Some of the highest winds early Sunday were recorded in the Big Sur area — up to 88 and 85 mph, said Sarah McCorkle, a National Weather Service meteorologist in the Bay Area. But gusts had also reached as high as 60 mph in the East Bay and were expected to remain a major threat throughout the day, with a high wind warning in effect for much of the state through late Sunday or Monday.
In San Jose, city officials declared a state of emergency ahead of expected flooding along the Guadalupe River, fueled by heavy rains in the Santa Cruz Mountains, where 6 inches of rain is expected through Monday. Officials there ordered the evacuation of people living along the river’s banks, offering free rides and shelter. The river is forecast to peak over 11 feet — almost 2 feet over its flood stage.
Fallen trees and power lines block a road in Pebble Beach, Calif., on Sunday.
(Ryan Sun / Associated Press)
The Carmel River at Robles Del Rio in Monterey County was also expected to flood, reaching almost a foot over its 8.5-foot flood stage by Sunday night, according to the California Nevada River Forecast Center.
McCorkle said the massive winter storm uniquely strengthened directly off the Northern California coast, where a low pressure system dropped down from the Pacific Northwest to merge with a moisture-heavy system moving in from the eastern Pacific.
“That helped intensify the storm from the eastern Pacific,” she said. That rapid intensification Saturday could mean the storm underwent a bombogenesis, often referred to as a bomb cyclone, but McCorkle said that will require post-analysis to confirm.
“Once it strengthened, [the low pressure system] helped draw in the moisture from the subtropics,” McCorkle said, forming a type of atmospheric river that has become known as a “Pineapple Express.” Those two dynamics — the intensified low pressure system and heavy moisture — have helped drive the dangerously high winds and severe rainfall moving across the state, she said.
Although the Bay Area and Central Coast have experienced some significant impacts, “it will be a different story when the storm moves into Southern California,” said Daniel Swain, a climate scientist with UCLA.
“This will have a broader contiguous band of heavy rainfall developing from about Santa Barbara County eastward, and it’s going to be very slow moving,” Swain said during a briefing Sunday.
A man swims chest-deep through flood waters with his cellphone near cars that are submerged in the 2300 block of West Willow Street in Long Beach on Thursday after rain flooded several areas of the city.
(Allen J. Schaben/Los Angeles Times)
Areas south and east of Los Angeles also will not be spared. Conditions in Orange County, the western Inland Empire and the San Bernardino Mountains were expected to deteriorate Sunday into Monday as the storm moves toward San Diego and the Mexican border, according to the National Weather Service in San Diego.
“Precipitation intensity will only increase across these areas on Monday, and life-threatening flash flooding will be possible. By Monday night into Tuesday, the axis of the moisture plume begins to shift farther south and east, reaching Riverside and San Diego Counties,” the agency said.
Rainfall rates in the southernmost part of the state will be modest — up to 0.30 inch per hour — but the relentless nature of the rain will still lead to impressive totals through Tuesday, the agency said.
That includes up to 7 inches in the Santa Ana Mountains; 5 inches in Orange County; 4 inches in the Riverside County Mountains; 2 inches in the Apple and Lucerne valleys; 1.5 inches in the Coachella Valley and 0.75 inch in the San Diego County deserts. The San Bernardino County mountains could see up to 11 inches on south-facing slopes.
Regional public utilities, including California Edison and the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, were preparing to respond to service outages and downed power lines. More than 380,000 people were without power statewide by Sunday afternoon.
“We are taking this storm system very seriously to ensure we are accurately prepared,” Edison spokesman Jeff Monford said. “Our meteorologists discuss the current conditions and the forecast with the teams handling operations and grid management so we can place crews in the most affected areas. We do this to get crews in location before roads may be closed due to flooding or ice.”
The LADWP “will monitor the storm system closely and respond accordingly, with the ability to schedule crews to be available around the clock,” the utility said in a statement. It has also beefed up staffing at call centers to respond to potential increases in calls from customers without power.
“During the storm, winds could blow down large objects such as trees, or cause branches and palm fronds to strike power lines, which could cause power outages,” LADWP said. “This is especially true when soil becomes oversaturated by the rain, causing it to loosen and uproot trees.”
In addition to downed trees, flooding and water intrusion into underground electrical systems may also cause power outages. Repairs may be slower if the affected equipment is underground and crews need to go from vault to vault to identify the source of the damage before repairs can take place.
The utilities urged people to be careful around downed power lines, which can electrify puddles, wet grass and surrounding areas.
“Always assume a downed wire is energized,” Edison said. “Stay away and call 911 immediately.”
As steady rain fell on Sunday, George Camarena, a lifeguard and longshoreman in Ventura, brought his Nintendo down to play video games with friends inside Pierpont Tacos. Earlier in the day, he had gone out to keep an eye on the beach.
“You never want to see someone down in the water” in this weather, he said. A faraway seal had made him look twice, but he was relieved to see no one in the water, just a few neighbors walking their dogs on the beach.
When a rogue wave hit the same area back in December, he had seen people standing on top of their trucks to avoid the water; elderly people with scraped faces; women who wanted to leave but whose keys had been swept away from them, he said.
“Today I’m just keeping my eye out,” he said.
Times audience engagement editor Nicholas Ducassi contributed to this report.
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Hayley Smith, Grace Toohey, Emily Alpert Reyes, Roger Vincent
