An iPhone safety feature is drawing renewed attention after six skiers were rescued during California’s deadliest recorded avalanche, with survivors using satellite messaging to stay in contact with emergency responders when traditional cell service failed.
The skiers were able to communicate with authorities using Apple’s Emergency SOS via satellite feature when they found themselves outside cellular and Wi-Fi coverage.
Remote Areas
Apple introduced Emergency SOS via satellite with the iPhone 14 lineup. The feature is available on supported models running iOS 16.1 or later and is designed for use in remote areas where cellular signals are not accessible.
The satellite tool, available on newer iPhone models, allows users to text emergency services directly when traditional networks are unavailable. As interest in the feature grows, Apple users have been discussing how it works—and whether it should remain free.
In the Lake Tahoe rescue, communication between the stranded group and emergency personnel proved critical.
Rescuers ultimately found the group roughly 11 hours after the avalanche began, according to reports from Inc.
Nevada County Sheriff Shannan Moon described the strength of the slide, saying: “A two would bury a person. A three would bury a house and it’s right in the middle of those two.”
‘Life saving’
Reddit contributors reacting to the story said the feature justified the cost of newer iPhones.
“This is probably the best feature the iPhone has ever added, possibly only behind fall detection in Apple Watches,” a fan declared on Reddit.
Another agreed that, “This is the kind of feature that justifies the premium. Most people will never need it, but for the ones who do, it’s literally life-saving.”
Some critics, however, raised concerns about reports that the feature may not remain free indefinitely.
“The only worry is that it’s still planned to be a paid feature… which I think is completely wrong,” one remarked.
Apple advises users to first attempt calling 911 or local emergency services, even if their regular carrier shows no service.
If the call fails, iPhones will display an option to use Emergency Text via Satellite. Users can tap “Report Emergency” and follow on-screen prompts while keeping the phone held naturally with a clear line of sight to the sky.
Once connected, the iPhone shares critical information with responders, including the user’s location, elevation, Medical ID (if set up), emergency contacts, responses to an emergency questionnaire and the device’s battery level.
Risks Posed
Apple also recommends trying the built-in demo under Settings > Emergency SOS before traveling to remote areas. The demo does not contact emergency services, but walks users through the satellite connection process.
Emergency SOS via satellite is not available in all countries and regions and works only on supported models.
As extreme weather and backcountry travel continue to pose risks, the Lake Tahoe rescue has prompted renewed attention on how smartphones can function as a lifeline when traditional networks fail.
Newsweek has reached out to Apple for comment via email.
To read how Newsweek uses AI as a newsroom tool, click here.
Those “jury duty” scam calls many Central Floridians have been getting may be coming from an unexpected place: a prison — linked to organized criminal networks.A joint investigation involving state and federal agencies found inmates inside a Georgia prison were behind a wave of jury duty scams targeting victims across the country, including Florida. Sarasota Detective Andrew Rowe says the jury duty scam network he has been investigating has moved staggering amounts of money. He said that “from September 2023 through roughly November 2024, $87 million flowed through one platform alone.”Rowe’s investigation began about two years ago and ultimately helped connect the scam calls to a Georgia prison. He believes roughly 90% of the scam jury duty calls hitting Central Florida trace back to the same perpetrators.The breakthrough came in January 2024, when a Sarasota woman received a call saying she had missed jury duty. Investigators say she was pressured into sending about $18,000 in bitcoin. Rowe and his partner traced the money to a woman in Macon, Georgia. She told police her boyfriend — who was incarcerated — was using cellphones inside the prison to run the scam.That raised a major question: How are inmates getting phones behind bars?Rowe says the investigation expanded quickly, including evidence suggesting contraband was being delivered by drones dropping bags containing items like phones and drugs. To confirm what they were hearing, Rowe says investigators received a call from the inmate. In the background, he says, they could hear the sounds of prison life: cell doors and inmates yelling.How the scam sounds so realDetectives say the scammers do their homework to make the calls convincing. They use real deputy names found on agency Facebook pages and spoof numbers. He says the inmates also pull personal details using online search tools.In one recent case reported in Volusia County, a scammer posed as the sheriff’s second-in-command, Chief Deputy Brian Henderson. A recording captured the fake message:”This is Chief Deputy Brian Henderson … Volusia County Sheriff’s Department. I need you to give me a call back.”Investigators say the voice was not Henderson’s.A local case tied to the Georgia inmatesMarion County deputies recorded at least one case believed to be linked to the same Georgia inmate group. In that case, a woman lost $4,000 after receiving a call that sounded legitimate and included personal information like her name, address and date of birth.When she told the scammer she was going to call her son, who works for the Marion County Sheriff’s Office, the report states the caller insisted there was no need, saying they had already spoken to him, even referencing him by name.Detectives say fear is the weapon. Victims are told they could be arrested if they do not comply, and many of the people targeted could lose their jobs if they were arrested for a felony. Rowe says scammers also appear to target people with professional licenses — such as medical licenses — because Florida’s public records make many of those details searchable.Investigators say it’s bigger than one caseIn the Sarasota investigation, indictments were secured for an inmate and his girlfriend, who are awaiting sentencing. However, Rowe says the operation likely extends beyond one couple.”This is much bigger. We have a pretty good suspicion that this is being done to support the gangs on the outside.”What you should doLaw enforcement’s message is simple: Do not send money, gift cards, or cryptocurrency to anyone saying you missed jury duty — and do not trust caller ID.If you get a call like this, hang up and contact your local sheriff’s office using a verified number from the agency’s official website.
Those “jury duty” scam calls many Central Floridians have been getting may be coming from an unexpected place: a prison — linked to organized criminal networks.
A joint investigation involving state and federal agencies found inmates inside a Georgia prison were behind a wave of jury duty scams targeting victims across the country, including Florida.
Sarasota Detective Andrew Rowe says the jury duty scam network he has been investigating has moved staggering amounts of money. He said that “from September 2023 through roughly November 2024, $87 million flowed through one [pay] platform alone.”
Rowe’s investigation began about two years ago and ultimately helped connect the scam calls to a Georgia prison. He believes roughly 90% of the scam jury duty calls hitting Central Florida trace back to the same perpetrators.
The breakthrough came in January 2024, when a Sarasota woman received a call saying she had missed jury duty. Investigators say she was pressured into sending about $18,000 in bitcoin.
Rowe and his partner traced the money to a woman in Macon, Georgia. She told police her boyfriend — who was incarcerated — was using cellphones inside the prison to run the scam.
That raised a major question: How are inmates getting phones behind bars?
Rowe says the investigation expanded quickly, including evidence suggesting contraband was being delivered by drones dropping bags containing items like phones and drugs.
To confirm what they were hearing, Rowe says investigators received a call from the inmate. In the background, he says, they could hear the sounds of prison life: cell doors and inmates yelling.
How the scam sounds so real
Detectives say the scammers do their homework to make the calls convincing. They use real deputy names found on agency Facebook pages and spoof numbers. He says the inmates also pull personal details using online search tools.
In one recent case reported in Volusia County, a scammer posed as the sheriff’s second-in-command, Chief Deputy Brian Henderson. A recording captured the fake message:
“This is Chief Deputy Brian Henderson … Volusia County Sheriff’s Department. I need you to give me a call back.”
Investigators say the voice was not Henderson’s.
A local case tied to the Georgia inmates
Marion County deputies recorded at least one case believed to be linked to the same Georgia inmate group. In that case, a woman lost $4,000 after receiving a call that sounded legitimate and included personal information like her name, address and date of birth.
When she told the scammer she was going to call her son, who works for the Marion County Sheriff’s Office, the report states the caller insisted there was no need, saying they had already spoken to him, even referencing him by name.
Detectives say fear is the weapon. Victims are told they could be arrested if they do not comply, and many of the people targeted could lose their jobs if they were arrested for a felony.
Rowe says scammers also appear to target people with professional licenses — such as medical licenses — because Florida’s public records make many of those details searchable.
Investigators say it’s bigger than one case
In the Sarasota investigation, indictments were secured for an inmate and his girlfriend, who are awaiting sentencing. However, Rowe says the operation likely extends beyond one couple.
“This is much bigger. We have a pretty good suspicion that this is being done to support the gangs on the outside.”
What you should do
Law enforcement’s message is simple: Do not send money, gift cards, or cryptocurrency to anyone saying you missed jury duty — and do not trust caller ID.
If you get a call like this, hang up and contact your local sheriff’s office using a verified number from the agency’s official website.
A convicted bank robber — who also once stole the identity of one of the world’s richest men in order to pocket his $1.4-million tax refund — now awaits sentencing for a different kind of fraud scheme, one that targeted Southern California surfers.
Moundir Kamil, 56, was the mastermind behind a nearly $1-million scheme that targeted surfers while they were catching waves, according to federal prosecutors.
Orange County resident Kamil, along with accomplices Jordan Adams and Jennifer Pruneda, pleaded guilty in September to conspiracy to commit bank fraud, attempted bank fraud and aggravated identity theft. Sentencing for Kamil is expected to take place Wednesday in downtown Los Angeles.
According to court documents and media reports, Kamil and his co-conspirators burglarized vehicles to steal credit cards, debit cards, phones and other forms of identification to later make fraudulent purchases, including luxury items and expensive electronics, totaling at least $850,000.
The larceny took place across various Southern California beaches including Pacific Palisades, Malibu and Manhattan Beach, as well as beaches in San Diego County and other popular surfing spots, from April 2021 through December 2022.
In one case reported by a Newport Beach surfer, he discovered that someone had taken his keys from his beachside apartment and used them to steal his wallet and phone from his car while he surfed. The thief was later identified and alleged to be part of an organized crime ring led by Kamil.
The scheme also involved lookouts who would watch where surfers would stash their keys before they hit the waves; then a partner in crime would grab the key and break into the car, taking phones and wallets. Kamil was able to hack facial recognition software on phones to get into the victims’ apps, prosecutors said. The thieves would then empty out bank and other accounts.
When credit card companies would call to check on fraudulent activity, the thieves would answer the phone and approve the charges, documents show.
Kamil is no stranger to money schemes.
In 2011, he pleaded guilty to one count of bank fraud for stealing a nearly $1.4-million tax refund check from billionaire Donald Bren, a real estate mogul and Irvine Co. chairman.
A federal judge ordered Kamil to pay $1.1 million in restitution. He was also sentenced to 99 days in jail and three years’ probation, which included seeking mental health treatments for a gambling addiction.
Back in 2003, he was convicted of robbing six banks across Orange County, for which he was sentenced to 30 months in federal prison and dubbed the “Give Me More Bandit,” due to his demands for extra cash from tellers.
Cybersecurity experts are warning about scammers using QR codes to take advantage of unsuspecting victims.What is a QR code?Short for “quick response” code, the small barcodes are ubiquitous, getting scanned using a phone’s camera to link to restaurant menus, online payment systems or any other digital task.”We’re all familiar with these things,” said Jean-Paul Bergeaux, the federal chief technology officer for GuidePoint Security. “The concept is, ‘How do we give people a way to get to a link, where they don’t have to enter it, to simplify our life,’ which it does very well.”How does ‘Quishing’ work?Unfortunately, like most things, scammers are finding ways to use QR codes as part of a scam that’s known as “Quishing.””You’re just scanning it and hitting it and saying go, and so you can go anywhere, and the bad guys can send you anywhere,” Bergeaux said. “That’s the hook for them, right? It’s not only just ubiquitous and everywhere, but there’s a bit of (anonymity) to it.” Bergeaux said scammers most commonly use QR codes to send you to a dummy website to get your information — and money.”They’re going to steal things from your phone. They’re going to steal your information. They’re going to steal your accounts just by scanning it,” Bergeaux said.It happened in BaltimoreSo, say you’re trying to park your car. A fake QR code posted on a parking meter could take you to a website that looks like you’re paying for parking, when in reality, a scammer just stole your credit card information.It’s a problem that was reported in Baltimore earlier this year, when the Parking Authority of Baltimore City warned drivers not to scan QR codes on its meters.How do I avoid QR code scams?There are ways to protect yourself. For one, check whether the QR code has been tampered with, or whether it’s just covered up by a sticker or piece of paper. You could also avoid using them altogether.”You can simply just go to the app store, download the ParkMobile app — or whatever the app is —yourself, and don’t take the risk of being sent somewhere you potentially don’t want to go,” Bergeaux said.It’s also good practice to not reuse passwords and to turn on multi-factor authentication to keep information safe in your most important accounts.What do I do if I fell victim to a QR code scam?If hackers do access your phone, don’t wait to act.”The first thing is, what did they get? If they got an account, reset the account, retake control over that account, whatever that account is,” Bergeaux said.Bergeaux warned that even if a QR code is made with good intentions, the websites used to create the QR codes can sometimes do so maliciously. So, if something seems off or doesn’t seem right, check with the company or organization before scanning a QR code or clicking any links.
Cybersecurity experts are warning about scammers using QR codes to take advantage of unsuspecting victims.
What is a QR code?
Short for “quick response” code, the small barcodes are ubiquitous, getting scanned using a phone’s camera to link to restaurant menus, online payment systems or any other digital task.
“We’re all familiar with these things,” said Jean-Paul Bergeaux, the federal chief technology officer for GuidePoint Security. “The concept is, ‘How do we give people a way to get to a link, where they don’t have to enter it, to simplify our life,’ which it does very well.”
How does ‘Quishing’ work?
Unfortunately, like most things, scammers are finding ways to use QR codes as part of a scam that’s known as “Quishing.”
“You’re just scanning it and hitting it and saying go, and so you can go anywhere, and the bad guys can send you anywhere,” Bergeaux said. “That’s the hook for them, right? It’s not only just ubiquitous and everywhere, but there’s a bit of (anonymity) to it.”
Bergeaux said scammers most commonly use QR codes to send you to a dummy website to get your information — and money.
“They’re going to steal things from your phone. They’re going to steal your information. They’re going to steal your accounts just by scanning it,” Bergeaux said.
It happened in Baltimore
So, say you’re trying to park your car. A fake QR code posted on a parking meter could take you to a website that looks like you’re paying for parking, when in reality, a scammer just stole your credit card information.
There are ways to protect yourself. For one, check whether the QR code has been tampered with, or whether it’s just covered up by a sticker or piece of paper. You could also avoid using them altogether.
“You can simply just go to the app store, download the ParkMobile app — or whatever the app is —yourself, and don’t take the risk of being sent somewhere you potentially don’t want to go,” Bergeaux said.
It’s also good practice to not reuse passwords and to turn on multi-factor authentication to keep information safe in your most important accounts.
What do I do if I fell victim to a QR code scam?
If hackers do access your phone, don’t wait to act.
“The first thing is, what did they get? If they got an account, reset the account, retake control over that account, whatever that account is,” Bergeaux said.
Bergeaux warned that even if a QR code is made with good intentions, the websites used to create the QR codes can sometimes do so maliciously. So, if something seems off or doesn’t seem right, check with the company or organization before scanning a QR code or clicking any links.
A Stanislaus County official confirmed Tuesday that a comedian had threatened him. County deputies have since arrested the comedian in connection with the threat.Anthony Krayenhagen faces a charge of making threats against an elected official, the Stanislaus County Sheriff’s Office said. Deputies took him into custody on Nov. 20.Channce Condit, the District 5 representative for the Stanislaus County Board of Supervisors, said Krayenhagen made the threat over the phone. He said the comedian reached out to his office and that he called Krayenhagen back on Nov. 12.Condit said that was when Krayenhagen threatened his life. The county supervisor called the sheriff’s office after the call, prompting an investigation.When asked if he attended one of Krayenhagen’s comedy shows a few months prior, Condit confirmed that he was with a group when someone from that group got into a back-and-forth with Krayenhagen.Condit said he was not part of the argument and that the comedy show is not connected with the threat made.See news happening? Send us your photos or videos if it’s safe to do so at kcra.com/upload.See more coverage of top California stories here | Download our app | Subscribe to our morning newsletter | Find us on YouTube here and subscribe to our channel
MODESTO, Calif. —
A Stanislaus County official confirmed Tuesday that a comedian had threatened him. County deputies have since arrested the comedian in connection with the threat.
Anthony Krayenhagen faces a charge of making threats against an elected official, the Stanislaus County Sheriff’s Office said. Deputies took him into custody on Nov. 20.
Channce Condit, the District 5 representative for the Stanislaus County Board of Supervisors, said Krayenhagen made the threat over the phone. He said the comedian reached out to his office and that he called Krayenhagen back on Nov. 12.
Condit said that was when Krayenhagen threatened his life. The county supervisor called the sheriff’s office after the call, prompting an investigation.
When asked if he attended one of Krayenhagen’s comedy shows a few months prior, Condit confirmed that he was with a group when someone from that group got into a back-and-forth with Krayenhagen.
Condit said he was not part of the argument and that the comedy show is not connected with the threat made.
See news happening? Send us your photos or videos if it’s safe to do so at kcra.com/upload.
Know someone who lives in their kitchen. These delicious proof tools make mealtime simpler and make great gifts. I’m going to show you three amazing products, ones we’ve tested, we just love, and they’re unbelievably versatile. First, this warming mat is great for holiday parties and buffets and costs about $40 on Amazon. The temperature, set the timer for it to shut off. This is *** must, must have, especially if you’re doing *** lot of cooking. It’s it’s the holidays and you’ve got big pots and you don’t have much space. If you’re always on the go, check out NutriBullet’s $70 portable rechargeable blender. You can even use your laptop to charge it. You’re at your desk the middle of the day. You’re like, you know what, it’s smoothie time. And what is totally awesome is you don’t have to lug around this the base, the base and just take this. It’s done, boom. Finally, this space saving collapsible steamer and strainer from Williams Sonoma costs just under $30. It pops open like this, and you can either use it to steam or you can fully immerse whatever food you want to cook. Give the gift of self-care. Women’s Health has you covered with gift suggestions that are equal parts relaxing and thoughtful. We have curated *** few of our favorite gifts and products that will make an amazing present for anyone in your life that needs *** little extra rest or relaxation, and don’t we all? First up, the $19 Beauty Sleep fabric spray from Laundreist. Put it on your pillow for *** calming effect before bed. This is *** very light scent that is made to help you relax and ease stress and fall asleep faster. There’s also an active wear version that is great for refreshing gym clothes. Next, Nodpod’s $38 weighted sleep mask. So *** lot of sleep masks, when you wrap them around your head. They can be kind of uncomfortable when you’re laying on your back or on your side. This one really takes away that whole issue. And for *** soft, luxurious splurge, Brook Lennon’s super plush robe starts at $95. The Women’s Health editors are obsessed with this robe because it is really like stepping into *** five-star spa when you get out of the shower. Shopping for someone who loves their home, look no further than these Good Housekeeping approved gifts. The three gifts that we’ve chosen here today for the home are award winners and editor favorites from Good Housekeeping for 2025. 1st, something practical and perfect for anyone with *** green thumb. These $14 Fiskers pruning and gardening shears. This pair of shears from Fisker’s cuts easily. Through stems and branches whether you’re pruning house plants or pruning shrubs outside, we love that they’re easy to lock and unlock and that they come with *** lifetime guarantee. Next, *** gift that brings peace of mind, the $75 smoke and carbon monoxide detector from Kitty is Ring App enabled and connects to your smartphone. The detector will ping your phone at the first sight of danger. And simultaneously sound an alarm through all of the connected detectors in your home. And for the home cook who loves *** clean countertop, the KitchenAid Go cordless kitchen vacuum costs about $89. They’re your batch cooking on Sundays like me or baking for the holidays. We all know what *** mess the kitchen counter and stove can look like after this vacuum gets into every corner and crevice and makes kitchen clean up quick and easy. Looking for something special for the beauty lovers in your life? Cosmopolitan has you covered. Cosmo Beauty editors test products all year long. We’re always researching, reviewing, swiping, swatching all of the newest beauty launches. Let’s start small and affordable with *** perfect stocking stuffer. These $9 lip balms from EELF come in tons of colors. You can use them on your own or layered over ***. Lip pencil for *** fun lip combo, but really great stocking stuffer at $9. You can’t go wrong. Next, Dazzle Dry’s fast track mini kit for $39 you’ll get salon quality nails at home. So on average, you’ll get 10 days out of *** Dazzle Dry Manny. You can do it at home. It’s inexpensive, but the best part is it dries in literally 5 minutes for that fresh from the salon blowout. Multi-stylers are having *** major moment. The T3 Air is *** splurge at $250 but that’s half the price of *** Dyson Airwrap. So there’s one base, and then there’s all these interchangeable parts. This is the blow dryer, round brush, really good for *** bouncy blowout, and then two interchangeable curling wands, super easy to use, works on all hair types, and also comes in three really cute colors. Shopping for the outdoorsmen or woman in your life, Men’s Health has *** few solid picks to choose from. all year long at Men’s Health, our team is testing the latest and greatest in new gear. Like these tumblers, Arctic has been one of Men’s Health’s top cooler brands for years. Now they have *** $20 to $25 happy hour collection. What I love about these is that they’re. Insulated, that means that anything you’re putting into them, whether it’s wine or coffee or even an old fashioned, doesn’t take on that tinny metallic taste for camping trips, the $40 Coast voice control lantern is *** great find. Now these things can operate with *** button press, but you can also activate this little one here and say coast red. And it changes for you and for *** sensible splurge, the Amaze Fit Active 2 smartwatch costs about $100. *** lot of guys on staff have these, including myself. Set up is *** cinch. It’s incredibly easy to navigate and it has *** 160+ workout mode so you can specialize it to whatever kind of active guy in your life.
The ultimate editor-approved holiday gift guide
Our experts from Good Housekeeping, Men’s Health, Women’s Health, Cosmopolitan and Delish share their top holiday gift picks.
Looking for the perfect gift this holiday season? We teamed up with editors from Cosmopolitan, Men’s Health, Women’s Health, Good Housekeeping and Delish to round up thoughtful, top-tested gifts for everyone on your list. Cosmopolitan-approved gifts for the beauty lover For an easy stocking stuffer, check out e.l.f.’s Glow Reviver Melting Lip Balms, which come in a variety of colors for $9. “You can use them on your own or layered over a lip pencil for a fun lip combo,” said Lauren Balsamo, beauty director at Cosmopolitan. If you are shopping for someone who loves doing their nails at home, Dazzle Dry’s Fast Track Mini Kit offers long-lasting polish that dries super fast. “It’s inexpensive, but the best part is it dries in literally five minutes,” Balsamo said. For a beauty splurge, the T3 Aire 360 multi-styler includes interchangeable attachments for blowouts, curls and more. It’s “super easy to use, works on all hair types, and comes in three really cute colors,” Balsamo said.Men’s Health-approved outdoor gifts If you are shopping for someone who loves the outdoors, RTIC’s Happy Hour Collection includes insulated tumblers that keep drinks cold. “What I love about these is that they’re ceramic insulated,” said Paul Kita, deputy editor at Men’s Health. “Whether it’s wine or coffee or even an old fashioned, it doesn’t take on that tinny metallic taste.” For campers, the Coast EAL35R voice-controlled lantern is a hands-free lighting option that responds to simple commands. “If a guy in your life loves camping but he doesn’t like getting up off of the camp chair, this is the gift for him,” Kita said.For a tech-forward gift, Amazfit’s Active 2 Adventure Smartwatch offers easy setup, crisp visibility in bright light and more than 160 workout modes. “A lot of guys on staff have these, including myself,” Kita said. “You can specialize it to whatever kind of active guy’s in your life.” Cozy gifts backed by Women’s Health To elevate a bedtime routine, The Laundress Beauty Sleep Fabric Spray adds a light, calming scent to bedding and pajamas. “This is a very light scent that is made to help you relax and ease stress and fall asleep faster,” said Abigail Cuffey, executive editor at Women’s Health. There is also an activewear version that is great for refreshing your gym clothes. For a comfort-focused gift, the Nodpod weighted sleep mask provides gentle pressure similar to a weighted blanket. “It just feels like a weighted hug on your face and on your eyes at night,” Cuffey said.If you want to splurge, Brooklinen’s Super-Plush Robe brings spa-level softness to everyday routines. “It is really like stepping into a five-star spa when you get out of the shower,” Cuffey said. Home gifts approved by Good Housekeeping For plant lovers, Fiskars’ pruning shears make trimming stems and branches easy thanks to their sturdy construction and smooth locking mechanism. “We love that they’re easy to lock and unlock and that they come with a lifetime guarantee,” said Elspeth Velten, Good Housekeeping’s editor in chief. To add safety and peace of mind at home, Kidde’s smart smoke and carbon monoxide detector connects to a phone and links with other alarms in the house. “The detector will ping your phone at the first sight of danger and simultaneously sound an alarm,” Velten said.For quick cleanups, the KitchenAid Go cordless kitchen vacuum tackles crumbs on counters, stoves and tight corners. “This vacuum gets into every corner and crevice and makes kitchen cleanup quick and easy,” Velten said. Foodie gifts loved by Delish For holiday hosting, the rollable FYY warming mat keeps dishes warm for hours without taking up extra space. “This is a must-must-have, especially if you’re doing a lot of cooking … and you don’t have much space,” said Robert Seixas, senior food director at Delish.For the smoothie lover, the is rechargeable, travel-friendly and great for keeping at your desk. “You can even use your laptop to charge it,” Seixas said.For an inexpensive tool that saves cabinet space, the Williams Sonoma Silicone Steamer Basket is collapsible, making storage easy. “You can either use it to steam or fully immerse whatever food you want to cook,” Seixas said. Need holiday recipe ideas to go with your new kitchen tools? Explore the new Delish app for endless cooking inspiration.
For an easy stocking stuffer, check out e.l.f.’s Glow Reviver Melting Lip Balms, which come in a variety of colors for $9. “You can use them on your own or layered over a lip pencil for a fun lip combo,” said Lauren Balsamo, beauty director at Cosmopolitan.
If you are shopping for someone who loves doing their nails at home, Dazzle Dry’s Fast Track Mini Kit offers long-lasting polish that dries super fast. “It’s inexpensive, but the best part is it dries in literally five minutes,” Balsamo said.
For a beauty splurge, the T3 Aire 360 multi-styler includes interchangeable attachments for blowouts, curls and more. It’s “super easy to use, works on all hair types, and comes in three really cute colors,” Balsamo said.
Elf Glow Reviver Melting Lip Balm
Dazzle Dry Fast Track Cherry Mini Kit
Men’s Health-approved outdoor gifts
If you are shopping for someone who loves the outdoors, RTIC’s Happy Hour Collection includes insulated tumblers that keep drinks cold. “What I love about these is that they’re ceramic insulated,” said Paul Kita, deputy editor at Men’s Health. “Whether it’s wine or coffee or even an old fashioned, it doesn’t take on that tinny metallic taste.”
For campers, the Coast EAL35R voice-controlled lantern is a hands-free lighting option that responds to simple commands. “If a guy in your life loves camping but he doesn’t like getting up off of the camp chair, this is the gift for him,” Kita said.
For a tech-forward gift, Amazfit’s Active 2 Adventure Smartwatch offers easy setup, crisp visibility in bright light and more than 160 workout modes. “A lot of guys on staff have these, including myself,” Kita said. “You can specialize it to whatever kind of active guy’s in your life.”
Happy Hour Lowball Tumbler
RTIC Happy Hour Pint Tumbler
Coast EAL35R Voice Control Lantern
Cozy gifts backed by Women’s Health
To elevate a bedtime routine, The Laundress Beauty Sleep Fabric Spray adds a light, calming scent to bedding and pajamas. “This is a very light scent that is made to help you relax and ease stress and fall asleep faster,” said Abigail Cuffey, executive editor at Women’s Health. There is also an activewear version that is great for refreshing your gym clothes.
For a comfort-focused gift, the Nodpod weighted sleep mask provides gentle pressure similar to a weighted blanket. “It just feels like a weighted hug on your face and on your eyes at night,” Cuffey said.
If you want to splurge, Brooklinen’s Super-Plush Robe brings spa-level softness to everyday routines. “It is really like stepping into a five-star spa when you get out of the shower,” Cuffey said.
Laundress Beauty Sleep Fabric Spray
Laundress Activewear Fabric Spray
Brooklinen Super-Plush Robe
Home gifts approved by Good Housekeeping
For plant lovers, Fiskars’ pruning shears make trimming stems and branches easy thanks to their sturdy construction and smooth locking mechanism. “We love that they’re easy to lock and unlock and that they come with a lifetime guarantee,” said Elspeth Velten, Good Housekeeping’s editor in chief.
To add safety and peace of mind at home, Kidde’s smart smoke and carbon monoxide detector connects to a phone and links with other alarms in the house. “The detector will ping your phone at the first sight of danger and simultaneously sound an alarm,” Velten said.
For quick cleanups, the KitchenAid Go cordless kitchen vacuum tackles crumbs on counters, stoves and tight corners. “This vacuum gets into every corner and crevice and makes kitchen cleanup quick and easy,” Velten said.
Fiskars Bypass Pruning Shears
Kidde Ring App Enabled Smart Smoke & Carbon Monoxide Detector
KitchenAid Go™ Cordless Kitchen Vacuum
Foodie gifts loved by Delish
For holiday hosting, the rollable FYY warming mat keeps dishes warm for hours without taking up extra space. “This is a must-must-have, especially if you’re doing a lot of cooking … and you don’t have much space,” said Robert Seixas, senior food director at Delish.
For the smoothie lover, the is rechargeable, travel-friendly and great for keeping at your desk. “You can even use your laptop to charge it,” Seixas said.
For an inexpensive tool that saves cabinet space, the Williams Sonoma Silicone Steamer Basket is collapsible, making storage easy. “You can either use it to steam or fully immerse whatever food you want to cook,” Seixas said.
Nutribullet Flex Portable Blender
Williams Sonoma Silicone Steamer Basket
williams-sonoma.com
$29.95
Need holiday recipe ideas to go with your new kitchen tools? Explore the new Delish app for endless cooking inspiration.
Know someone who lives in their kitchen. These delicious proof tools make mealtime simpler and make great gifts. I’m going to show you three amazing products, ones we’ve tested, we just love, and they’re unbelievably versatile. First, this warming mat is great for holiday parties and buffets and costs about $40 on Amazon. The temperature, set the timer for it to shut off. This is *** must, must have, especially if you’re doing *** lot of cooking. It’s it’s the holidays and you’ve got big pots and you don’t have much space. If you’re always on the go, check out NutriBullet’s $70 portable rechargeable blender. You can even use your laptop to charge it. You’re at your desk the middle of the day. You’re like, you know what, it’s smoothie time. And what is totally awesome is you don’t have to lug around this the base, the base and just take this. It’s done, boom. Finally, this space saving collapsible steamer and strainer from Williams Sonoma costs just under $30. It pops open like this, and you can either use it to steam or you can fully immerse whatever food you want to cook. Give the gift of self-care. Women’s Health has you covered with gift suggestions that are equal parts relaxing and thoughtful. We have curated *** few of our favorite gifts and products that will make an amazing present for anyone in your life that needs *** little extra rest or relaxation, and don’t we all? First up, the $19 Beauty Sleep fabric spray from Laundreist. Put it on your pillow for *** calming effect before bed. This is *** very light scent that is made to help you relax and ease stress and fall asleep faster. There’s also an active wear version that is great for refreshing gym clothes. Next, Nodpod’s $38 weighted sleep mask. So *** lot of sleep masks, when you wrap them around your head. They can be kind of uncomfortable when you’re laying on your back or on your side. This one really takes away that whole issue. And for *** soft, luxurious splurge, Brook Lennon’s super plush robe starts at $95. The Women’s Health editors are obsessed with this robe because it is really like stepping into *** five-star spa when you get out of the shower. Shopping for someone who loves their home, look no further than these Good Housekeeping approved gifts. The three gifts that we’ve chosen here today for the home are award winners and editor favorites from Good Housekeeping for 2025. 1st, something practical and perfect for anyone with *** green thumb. These $14 Fiskers pruning and gardening shears. This pair of shears from Fisker’s cuts easily. Through stems and branches whether you’re pruning house plants or pruning shrubs outside, we love that they’re easy to lock and unlock and that they come with *** lifetime guarantee. Next, *** gift that brings peace of mind, the $75 smoke and carbon monoxide detector from Kitty is Ring App enabled and connects to your smartphone. The detector will ping your phone at the first sight of danger. And simultaneously sound an alarm through all of the connected detectors in your home. And for the home cook who loves *** clean countertop, the KitchenAid Go cordless kitchen vacuum costs about $89. They’re your batch cooking on Sundays like me or baking for the holidays. We all know what *** mess the kitchen counter and stove can look like after this vacuum gets into every corner and crevice and makes kitchen clean up quick and easy. Looking for something special for the beauty lovers in your life? Cosmopolitan has you covered. Cosmo Beauty editors test products all year long. We’re always researching, reviewing, swiping, swatching all of the newest beauty launches. Let’s start small and affordable with *** perfect stocking stuffer. These $9 lip balms from EELF come in tons of colors. You can use them on your own or layered over ***. Lip pencil for *** fun lip combo, but really great stocking stuffer at $9. You can’t go wrong. Next, Dazzle Dry’s fast track mini kit for $39 you’ll get salon quality nails at home. So on average, you’ll get 10 days out of *** Dazzle Dry Manny. You can do it at home. It’s inexpensive, but the best part is it dries in literally 5 minutes for that fresh from the salon blowout. Multi-stylers are having *** major moment. The T3 Air is *** splurge at $250 but that’s half the price of *** Dyson Airwrap. So there’s one base, and then there’s all these interchangeable parts. This is the blow dryer, round brush, really good for *** bouncy blowout, and then two interchangeable curling wands, super easy to use, works on all hair types, and also comes in three really cute colors. Shopping for the outdoorsmen or woman in your life, Men’s Health has *** few solid picks to choose from. all year long at Men’s Health, our team is testing the latest and greatest in new gear. Like these tumblers, Arctic has been one of Men’s Health’s top cooler brands for years. Now they have *** $20 to $25 happy hour collection. What I love about these is that they’re. Insulated, that means that anything you’re putting into them, whether it’s wine or coffee or even an old fashioned, doesn’t take on that tinny metallic taste for camping trips, the $40 Coast voice control lantern is *** great find. Now these things can operate with *** button press, but you can also activate this little one here and say coast red. And it changes for you and for *** sensible splurge, the Amaze Fit Active 2 smartwatch costs about $100. *** lot of guys on staff have these, including myself. Set up is *** cinch. It’s incredibly easy to navigate and it has *** 160+ workout mode so you can specialize it to whatever kind of active guy in your life.
The ultimate editor-approved holiday gift guide
Our experts from Good Housekeeping, Men’s Health, Women’s Health, Cosmopolitan and Delish share their top holiday gift picks.
Looking for the perfect gift this holiday season? We teamed up with editors from Cosmopolitan, Men’s Health, Women’s Health, Good Housekeeping and Delish to round up thoughtful, top-tested gifts for everyone on your list. Cosmopolitan-approved gifts for the beauty lover For an easy stocking stuffer, check out e.l.f.’s Glow Reviver Melting Lip Balms, which come in a variety of colors for $9. “You can use them on your own or layered over a lip pencil for a fun lip combo,” said Lauren Balsamo, beauty director at Cosmopolitan. If you are shopping for someone who loves doing their nails at home, Dazzle Dry’s Fast Track Mini Kit offers long-lasting polish that dries super fast. “It’s inexpensive, but the best part is it dries in literally five minutes,” Balsamo said. For a beauty splurge, the T3 Aire 360 multi-styler includes interchangeable attachments for blowouts, curls and more. It’s “super easy to use, works on all hair types, and comes in three really cute colors,” Balsamo said.Men’s Health-approved outdoor gifts If you are shopping for someone who loves the outdoors, RTIC’s Happy Hour Collection includes insulated tumblers that keep drinks cold. “What I love about these is that they’re ceramic insulated,” said Paul Kita, deputy editor at Men’s Health. “Whether it’s wine or coffee or even an old fashioned, it doesn’t take on that tinny metallic taste.” For campers, the Coast EAL35R voice-controlled lantern is a hands-free lighting option that responds to simple commands. “If a guy in your life loves camping but he doesn’t like getting up off of the camp chair, this is the gift for him,” Kita said.For a tech-forward gift, Amazfit’s Active 2 Adventure Smartwatch offers easy setup, crisp visibility in bright light and more than 160 workout modes. “A lot of guys on staff have these, including myself,” Kita said. “You can specialize it to whatever kind of active guy’s in your life.” Cozy gifts backed by Women’s Health To elevate a bedtime routine, The Laundress Beauty Sleep Fabric Spray adds a light, calming scent to bedding and pajamas. “This is a very light scent that is made to help you relax and ease stress and fall asleep faster,” said Abigail Cuffey, executive editor at Women’s Health. There is also an activewear version that is great for refreshing your gym clothes. For a comfort-focused gift, the Nodpod weighted sleep mask provides gentle pressure similar to a weighted blanket. “It just feels like a weighted hug on your face and on your eyes at night,” Cuffey said.If you want to splurge, Brooklinen’s Super-Plush Robe brings spa-level softness to everyday routines. “It is really like stepping into a five-star spa when you get out of the shower,” Cuffey said. Home gifts approved by Good Housekeeping For plant lovers, Fiskars’ pruning shears make trimming stems and branches easy thanks to their sturdy construction and smooth locking mechanism. “We love that they’re easy to lock and unlock and that they come with a lifetime guarantee,” said Elspeth Velten, Good Housekeeping’s editor in chief. To add safety and peace of mind at home, Kidde’s smart smoke and carbon monoxide detector connects to a phone and links with other alarms in the house. “The detector will ping your phone at the first sight of danger and simultaneously sound an alarm,” Velten said.For quick cleanups, the KitchenAid Go cordless kitchen vacuum tackles crumbs on counters, stoves and tight corners. “This vacuum gets into every corner and crevice and makes kitchen cleanup quick and easy,” Velten said. Foodie gifts loved by Delish For holiday hosting, the rollable FYY warming mat keeps dishes warm for hours without taking up extra space. “This is a must-must-have, especially if you’re doing a lot of cooking … and you don’t have much space,” said Robert Seixas, senior food director at Delish.For the smoothie lover, the is rechargeable, travel-friendly and great for keeping at your desk. “You can even use your laptop to charge it,” Seixas said.For an inexpensive tool that saves cabinet space, the Williams Sonoma Silicone Steamer Basket is collapsible, making storage easy. “You can either use it to steam or fully immerse whatever food you want to cook,” Seixas said. Need holiday recipe ideas to go with your new kitchen tools? Explore the new Delish app for endless cooking inspiration.
For an easy stocking stuffer, check out e.l.f.’s Glow Reviver Melting Lip Balms, which come in a variety of colors for $9. “You can use them on your own or layered over a lip pencil for a fun lip combo,” said Lauren Balsamo, beauty director at Cosmopolitan.
If you are shopping for someone who loves doing their nails at home, Dazzle Dry’s Fast Track Mini Kit offers long-lasting polish that dries super fast. “It’s inexpensive, but the best part is it dries in literally five minutes,” Balsamo said.
For a beauty splurge, the T3 Aire 360 multi-styler includes interchangeable attachments for blowouts, curls and more. It’s “super easy to use, works on all hair types, and comes in three really cute colors,” Balsamo said.
Elf Glow Reviver Melting Lip Balm
Dazzle Dry Fast Track Cherry Mini Kit
Men’s Health-approved outdoor gifts
If you are shopping for someone who loves the outdoors, RTIC’s Happy Hour Collection includes insulated tumblers that keep drinks cold. “What I love about these is that they’re ceramic insulated,” said Paul Kita, deputy editor at Men’s Health. “Whether it’s wine or coffee or even an old fashioned, it doesn’t take on that tinny metallic taste.”
For campers, the Coast EAL35R voice-controlled lantern is a hands-free lighting option that responds to simple commands. “If a guy in your life loves camping but he doesn’t like getting up off of the camp chair, this is the gift for him,” Kita said.
For a tech-forward gift, Amazfit’s Active 2 Adventure Smartwatch offers easy setup, crisp visibility in bright light and more than 160 workout modes. “A lot of guys on staff have these, including myself,” Kita said. “You can specialize it to whatever kind of active guy’s in your life.”
Happy Hour Lowball Tumbler
RTIC Happy Hour Pint Tumbler
Coast EAL35R Voice Control Lantern
Cozy gifts backed by Women’s Health
To elevate a bedtime routine, The Laundress Beauty Sleep Fabric Spray adds a light, calming scent to bedding and pajamas. “This is a very light scent that is made to help you relax and ease stress and fall asleep faster,” said Abigail Cuffey, executive editor at Women’s Health. There is also an activewear version that is great for refreshing your gym clothes.
For a comfort-focused gift, the Nodpod weighted sleep mask provides gentle pressure similar to a weighted blanket. “It just feels like a weighted hug on your face and on your eyes at night,” Cuffey said.
If you want to splurge, Brooklinen’s Super-Plush Robe brings spa-level softness to everyday routines. “It is really like stepping into a five-star spa when you get out of the shower,” Cuffey said.
Laundress Beauty Sleep Fabric Spray
Laundress Activewear Fabric Spray
Brooklinen Super-Plush Robe
Home gifts approved by Good Housekeeping
For plant lovers, Fiskars’ pruning shears make trimming stems and branches easy thanks to their sturdy construction and smooth locking mechanism. “We love that they’re easy to lock and unlock and that they come with a lifetime guarantee,” said Elspeth Velten, Good Housekeeping’s editor in chief.
To add safety and peace of mind at home, Kidde’s smart smoke and carbon monoxide detector connects to a phone and links with other alarms in the house. “The detector will ping your phone at the first sight of danger and simultaneously sound an alarm,” Velten said.
For quick cleanups, the KitchenAid Go cordless kitchen vacuum tackles crumbs on counters, stoves and tight corners. “This vacuum gets into every corner and crevice and makes kitchen cleanup quick and easy,” Velten said.
Fiskars Bypass Pruning Shears
Kidde Ring App Enabled Smart Smoke & Carbon Monoxide Detector
KitchenAid Go™ Cordless Kitchen Vacuum
Foodie gifts loved by Delish
For holiday hosting, the rollable FYY warming mat keeps dishes warm for hours without taking up extra space. “This is a must-must-have, especially if you’re doing a lot of cooking … and you don’t have much space,” said Robert Seixas, senior food director at Delish.
For the smoothie lover, the is rechargeable, travel-friendly and great for keeping at your desk. “You can even use your laptop to charge it,” Seixas said.
For an inexpensive tool that saves cabinet space, the Williams Sonoma Silicone Steamer Basket is collapsible, making storage easy. “You can either use it to steam or fully immerse whatever food you want to cook,” Seixas said.
Nutribullet Flex Portable Blender
Williams Sonoma Silicone Steamer Basket
williams-sonoma.com
$29.95
Need holiday recipe ideas to go with your new kitchen tools? Explore the new Delish app for endless cooking inspiration.
WASHINGTON — No one seems to know what happened to Vicente Ventura Aguilar.
A witness told his brother and attorneys that the 44-year-old Mexican immigrant, who doesn’t have lawful immigration status, was taken into custody by immigration authorities on Oct. 7 in SouthLos Angeles and suffered a medical emergency.
But it’s been more than six weeks since then, and Ventura Aguilar’s family still hasn’t heard from him.
The Department of Homeland Security said 73 people from Mexico were arrested in the Los Angeles area between Oct. 7 and 8.
“None of them were Ventura Aguilar,” said Tricia McLaughlin, the assistant Homeland Security public affairs secretary.
“For the record, illegal aliens in detention have access to phones to contact family members and attorneys,” she added.
McLaughlin did not answer questions about what the agency did to determine whether Ventura Aguilar had ever been in its custody, such as checking for anyone with the same date of birth, variations of his name, or identifying detainees who received medical attention near the California border around Oct. 8.
Lindsay Toczylowski, co-founder of the Immigrant Defenders Law Center who is representing Ventura Aguilar’s family, said DHS never responded to her inquiries about him.
The family of Vicente Ventura Aguilar, 44, says he has been missing since Oct. 7 when a friend saw him arrested by federal immigration agents in Los Angeles. Homeland Security officials say he was never in their custody.
(Family of Vicente Ventura Aguilar)
“There’s only one agency that has answers,” she said. “Their refusal to provide this family with answers, their refusal to provide his attorneys with answers, says something about the lack of care and the cruelty of the moment right now for DHS.”
His family and lawyers checked with local hospitals and the Mexican consulate without success. They enlisted help from the office of Rep. Sydney Kamlager-Dove (D-Los Angeles), whose staff called the Los Angeles and San Diego county medical examiner’s offices. Neither had someone matching his name or description.
The Los Angeles Police Department also told Kamlager-Dove’s office that he isn’t in their system. His brother, Felipe Aguilar, said the family filed a missing person’s report with LAPD on Nov. 7.
“We’re sad and worried,” Felipe Aguilar said. “He’s my brother and we miss him here at home. He’s a very good person. We only hope to God that he’s alive.”
Felipe Aguilar said his brother, who has lived in the U.S. for around 17 years, left home around 8:15 a.m. on Oct. 7 to catch the bus for an interview for a sanitation job when he ran into friends on the corner near a local liquor store. He had his phone but had left his wallet at home.
One of those friends told Felipe Aguilar and his lawyers that he and Ventura Aguilar were detained by immigration agents and then held at B-18, a temporary holding facility at the federal building in downtown Los Angeles.
The friend was deported the next day to Tijuana. He spoke to the family in a phone call from Mexico.
According to Felipe Aguilar and Toczylowski, the friend said Ventura Aguilar began to shake, went unconscious and fell to the ground while shackled on Oct. 8 at a facility near the border. The impact caused his face to bleed.
The friend said that facility staff called for an ambulance and moved the other detainees to a different room. Toczylowski said that was the last time anyone saw Ventura Aguilar.
She said the rapid timeline between when Ventura Aguilar was arrested to when he disappeared is emblematic of what she views as a broad lack of due process for people in government custody under the Trump administration and shows that “we don’t know who’s being deported from the United States.”
Felipe Aguilar said he called his brother’s cell phone after hearing about the arrests but it went straight to voicemail.
Felipe Aguilar said that while his brother is generally healthy, he saw a cardiologist a couple years ago about chest pain. He was on prescribed medication and his condition had improved.
His family and lawyers said Ventura Aguilar might have given immigration agents a fake name when he was arrested. Some detained people offer up a wrong name or alias, and that would explain why he never showed up in Homeland Security records. Toczylowski said federal agents sometimes misspell the name of the person they are booking into custody.
Vicente Ventura Aguilar, who has been missing since Oct. 7, had lived in the United States for 17 years, his family said.
(Family of Vicente Ventura Aguilar)
But she said the agency should make a significant attempt to search for him, such as by using biometric data or his photo.
“To me, that’s another symptom of the chaos of the immigration enforcement system as it’s happening right now,” she said of the issues with accurately identifying detainees. “And it’s what happens when you are indiscriminately, racially profiling people and picking them up off the street and holding them in conditions that are substandard, and then deporting people without due process. Mistakes get made. Right now, what we want to know is what mistakes were made here, and where is Vicente now?”
Surveillance footage from a nearby business reviewed by MS NOW shows Ventura Aguilar on the sidewalk five minutes before masked agents begin making arrests in South Los Angeles. The footage doesn’t show him being arrested, but two witnesses told the outlet that they saw agents handcuff Ventura Aguilar and place him in a van.
In a letter sent to DHS leaders Friday, Kamlager-Dove asked what steps DHS has taken to determine whether anyone matching Ventura Aguilar’s identifiers was detained last month and whether the agency has documented any medical events or hospital transports involving people taken into custody around Oct. 7-8.
“Given the length of time since Mr. Ventura Aguilar’s disappearance and the credible concern that he may have been misidentified, injured, or otherwise unaccounted for during the enforcement action, I urgently request that DHS and ICE conduct an immediate and comprehensive review” by Nov. 29, Kamlager-Dove wrote in her letter.
Kamlager-Dove said her most common immigration requests from constituents are for help with visas and passports.
“Never in all the years did I expect to get a call about someone who has completely disappeared off the face of the earth, and also never did I think that I would find myself not just calling ICE and Border Patrol but checking hospitals, checking with LAPD and checking morgues to find a constituent,” she said. “It’s horrifying and it’s completely dystopian.”
She said families across Los Angeles deserve answers and need to know whether something similar could happen to them.
The Rockefeller Center Christmas tree was hoisted aloft at its new home in Manhattan on Saturday, marking the start of New York City’s holiday season.This year’s tree is a 75-foot-tall Norway spruce from the upstate town of East Greenbush, a suburb of Albany. After being cut down this week, it made the roughly 150-mile journey south on a flatbed truck, drawing curious onlookers along the way.The crowds were much bigger at 30 Rockefeller Plaza, where workers used cranes to hoist the 11-ton tree into position overlooking the iconic skating rink. People gathered with coffee cups and phones as crews secured the spruce and began the careful process of stabilizing it.The tree will soon be decorated with more than 50,000 multicolored, energy-efficient LED lights and crowned with a Swarovski star weighing 900 pounds.It will be lit Dec. 3 during a live TV broadcast hosted by country music star Reba McEntire and remain on display until mid-January, after which it will be milled into lumber for use by the affordable housing nonprofit Habitat for Humanity.The tree was donated by homeowner Judy Russ and her family. She said it was planted by her husband’s great-grandparents in the 1920s.”For this to now become the center of New York City Christmas is incredible,” Russ told the radio station 1010 WINS.The first Rockefeller Center Christmas tree was put up by workers in 1931 to raise spirits during the Great Depression. The comparatively modest 20-foot balsam fir was outfitted with garlands handmade by the workers’ families.The tradition stuck as the first tree-lighting ceremony was held in 1933.
NEW YORK —
The Rockefeller Center Christmas tree was hoisted aloft at its new home in Manhattan on Saturday, marking the start of New York City’s holiday season.
This year’s tree is a 75-foot-tall Norway spruce from the upstate town of East Greenbush, a suburb of Albany. After being cut down this week, it made the roughly 150-mile journey south on a flatbed truck, drawing curious onlookers along the way.
The crowds were much bigger at 30 Rockefeller Plaza, where workers used cranes to hoist the 11-ton tree into position overlooking the iconic skating rink. People gathered with coffee cups and phones as crews secured the spruce and began the careful process of stabilizing it.
The tree will soon be decorated with more than 50,000 multicolored, energy-efficient LED lights and crowned with a Swarovski star weighing 900 pounds.
It will be lit Dec. 3 during a live TV broadcast hosted by country music star Reba McEntire and remain on display until mid-January, after which it will be milled into lumber for use by the affordable housing nonprofit Habitat for Humanity.
The tree was donated by homeowner Judy Russ and her family. She said it was planted by her husband’s great-grandparents in the 1920s.
“For this to now become the center of New York City Christmas is incredible,” Russ told the radio station 1010 WINS.
The first Rockefeller Center Christmas tree was put up by workers in 1931 to raise spirits during the Great Depression. The comparatively modest 20-foot balsam fir was outfitted with garlands handmade by the workers’ families.
The tradition stuck as the first tree-lighting ceremony was held in 1933.
Tina Nixon’s holiday went from bad to worse after she requested a refund from travel website Booking.com.
Within 15 minutes of making the request via email, Ms Nixon was called by an apologetic man, promising her money would be returned.
In a whirlwind of rushed instructions, she handed over the details of her travel bank account containing thousands of dollars.
Ms Nixon and her husband realised it was a scam before any large amount of money was lost, but she remains suspicious about how the operation gained access to her phone number.
The pair had travelled to Western Australia from New Zealand for a holiday in October and used Booking.com to book two nights at a large holiday house in a popular tourist spot, Jurien Bay.
Tina and David Nixon realised they were being subjected to a phishing scam before they lost money. (Supplied: Tina Nixon)
Accommodation was ‘unsavoury’
On arrival, she said it was clear the house had not been cleaned after the previous visitors, some amenities were faulty, and the promised hot tub was nowhere in sight.
Disappointed with the “unsavoury” experience and unable to contact the owner, Ms Nixon emailed Booking.com’s customer service inbox requesting a refund.
Not long after sending the email, Ms Nixon received a call on the messaging app WhatsApp.
“Booking.com said someone would contact me, so I wasn’t surprised when I got contacted, but it was quite fast,”
she said.
A professional-sounding male voice was on the other end of the call, apologising to Ms Nixon for her sub-par accommodation.
“I thought, ‘He sounds pretty decent,’” Ms Nixon said.
A scammer contacted Ms Nixon by WhatsApp and asked for personal information. (Supplied: Tina Nixon)
On the man’s request, Ms Nixon filled out a form that asked for her credit card details, including the CVC security code.
The man then requested she use a third-party platform to provide personal information, claiming her identity had to be verified for “anti-money laundering reasons”.
“That doesn’t surprise me because that happens a lot in New Zealand,” she explained.
“In this age, you get so used to different platforms that you just don’t think twice.“
Fortunately, Ms Nixon’s husband raised doubts about the man’s credibility and the couple discovered through her banking app that the account she had provided the details for had already been “pinged” multiple times by the identity verification app.
Ms Nixon immediately froze her card and moved most of her money to another account.
When she temporarily unfroze the card the next day, she was charged $11 by Uber Eats in Kenya.
“I could’ve lost thousands very quickly,” she said.
Tactics for trust
The former journalist said she should have known better than to be tricked by the scammer, but there were several tactics at play.
“They talk really, really fast, and I think this is where they get a lot of older people,” she said.
“They’re constantly reassuring you that everything’s right, and you’re thinking you’re going to get your $500 back as a refund.”
Additionally, Ms Nixon said the phone call appeared to originate from England, where the company has an office.
Jurien Bay is a popular coastal destination in Western Australia. (ABC News: Chris Lewis)
Don’t share details
Ms Nixon has since continued liaising with Booking.com via the customer service email and was fully refunded for her stay.
A spokesperson for Booking.com said it would never ask customers to provide credit card details through text, messaging apps or email, and that it would only request payments via its own platform.
Part of the encounter with the scammer. (Supplied: Tina Nixon)
“Should a customer have any concern about a payment message, we ask them to carefully check the payment policy details on their booking confirmation to be sure that any message is legitimate,” they said.
However, Ms Nixon remains suspicious that there could have been a data breach on the travel website.
“I haven’t quite finished working out how they knew exactly how to contact me,” she said.
“I want to know, is my information out there as a result of a previous hack?”
Booking.com did not answer questions about whether there had been any breaches in its security and how it would respond.
The regulatory body for data leaks from Booking.com is the Dutch data protection authority.
The authority said Booking.com had reported several data breaches in the past.
Phishing dollars climb
The National Anti-Scam Centre says “phishing,” where scammers contact victims pretending to be from a legitimate business, has swindled victims of more than $17 million in Australia this year, nearly double last year’s losses.
Nearly 25,000 phishing scams have been reported to Scamwatch in 2025 to date, with the most common demographic of people reporting scams aged 65 years and over.
A National Anti-Scam Centre spokesperson urged people to never provide personal, credit card or online account details after receiving a call claiming to be from their bank or any other organisation.
“Ask for their name and contact number and make an independent check with the organisation in question before calling back,” they advised.
A man was arrested after he was accused of using AirPods to stalk a woman, according to the Winter Springs Police Department. On Tuesday, a woman told police she was in fear for her life after a man had been harassing her for some time. The suspect, Luis Rendon, was accused of constantly messaging and calling the victim using private or blocked numbers, the victim told police. He was also accused of sending her Zelle payment requests to her bank, using the “memo” box as a form of text message. Police said Rendon got a job where the victim worked “to be around her,” forcing the victim to change schedules. The victim told police that Rendon would come outside of her apartment in the middle of the night and threaten her to come out. Things escalated after Rendon started messaging the victim, claiming to know her whereabouts at all times and who she was with, according to police. The victim decided to have her vehicle inspected because she felt Rendon was following or tracking her.Upon inspection, an Apple AirPod case and earbuds were found inside a gray plastic bag, neatly tied into a ball and tucked away in the undercarriage of her vehicle.Police explained this device includes a tracking feature that enables users to monitor “MyDevices” by connecting it to the owner’s phone. Police spoke with Rendon about the claims against him, and he ultimately confessed to them. He told police he liked her and wanted to know where she was going. He was placed under arrest for stalking and invasion of privacy, according to police.
LONGWOOD, Fla. —
A man was arrested after he was accused of using AirPods to stalk a woman, according to the Winter Springs Police Department.
On Tuesday, a woman told police she was in fear for her life after a man had been harassing her for some time.
The suspect, Luis Rendon, was accused of constantly messaging and calling the victim using private or blocked numbers, the victim told police.
He was also accused of sending her Zelle payment requests to her bank, using the “memo” box as a form of text message.
Police said Rendon got a job where the victim worked “to be around her,” forcing the victim to change schedules.
The victim told police that Rendon would come outside of her apartment in the middle of the night and threaten her to come out.
Things escalated after Rendon started messaging the victim, claiming to know her whereabouts at all times and who she was with, according to police.
The victim decided to have her vehicle inspected because she felt Rendon was following or tracking her.
Upon inspection, an Apple AirPod case and earbuds were found inside a gray plastic bag, neatly tied into a ball and tucked away in the undercarriage of her vehicle.
Police explained this device includes a tracking feature that enables users to monitor “MyDevices” by connecting it to the owner’s phone.
Police spoke with Rendon about the claims against him, and he ultimately confessed to them. He told police he liked her and wanted to know where she was going.
He was placed under arrest for stalking and invasion of privacy, according to police.
Here’s a roundup of answers to three questions from readers.
1. My younger employees prefer communicating by text
I manage a team of five younger professionals, all between the ages of 25 to 30. I have noticed that each of them prefers to communicate with me almost exclusively by text message or through the chat feature in our collaboration software. Conversations by phone, video, or in-person only happen when I initiate them.
An Inc.com Featured Presentation
When I initiate an in-person conversation or phone call, my employees don’t seem opposed and typically are very engaged, but if left up to them it seems like all of the interaction with me would be via text or chat. In my own career, I’ve always valued being able to talk one-on-one with my manager, whether it’s during a formal meeting or impromptu. Is the preference my employees show for engaging with me by text or chat generational or should this be a warning sign that my team does not view me as approachable, or doesn’t place much value in one-on-one time with me as a manager?
Green responds:
I’m not a fan of broad statements about generations because people are individuals…but in general there has been a cultural shift away from phone calls and toward other methods of communication. Not just among 20-somethings, but more broadly. And since your employees’ entire time in the workforce has been since that shift started, it makes sense that you’d see it reflected in them.
Since they’re very engaged when you initiate calls or talk in-person, I wouldn’t worry that they don’t find you approachable or don’t value their time with you. Those communication methods just aren’t their go-tos. If you want, you could always ask them about it; maybe it’ll turn out that they think of calling or stopping by in-person as more of an interruption to you, and think they’re respecting your time by not doing it. But lots of people of all ages have just fallen into this particular set of preferences, and that’s likely all it is.
2. Screening out bigots in interviews
A member of our team was recently fired. There had been numerous problems with this teammate, including various remarks made to women and gay men that were not acceptable. So now the search is on to find a replacement.
How do we ensure we don’t hire another bigot? I can’t flat out ask, “Are you comfortable working with women? How about gay men?” Can I? As a gay man myself, one thought I’ve had is to say, “I’m [name], and I live in the [part of town] of [city] with my husband and dog. [more basic personal info].” If they make a face or seem taken aback, red flag. Is this a reasonable approach or is there a better way?
Green responds:
Sharing information about yourself is fine to do. But you’re more likely to get a better sense if you ask about these issues more directly. For example, you could ask, “To what extent have you worked on teams with a broad diversity of race, gender, and sexual orientation, and what have you learned from those experiences?” If this person will be managing anyone, you could ask, “Can you tell me about a time that you had particular success in building an equitable and inclusive team with a variety of demographics, or when you faced an obstacle in doing that? What happened and how did you approach it?” (These questions also signal something about your culture to your candidates, which is useful.)
3. How to unfriend someone I have to fire
A few years back, I started at a new company in a mid-level role. During that time, I accepted Facebook friend requests from a few coworkers, all at my level. Generally speaking, I’m fine being friends with coworkers on Facebook as I don’t share anything I wouldn’t want the entire world to see. However, since then I was promoted to the director of our department. I am still friends with coworkers, because I’m comfortable with the content I share being appropriate for the workplace.
However, I am in the process of terminating an employee on my team, who I am still friends with on Facebook. I understand that they most likely won’t want to remain social media friends with a boss who just let them go. I don’t want to put this employee in any more of an uncomfortable position, knowing how stressful and upsetting losing a job already is. Do I unfriend them prior to letting them go, unfriend them when we finalize the termination, or just see what happens and let them decide if they want to disconnect?
Green responds:
Definitely don’t unfriend the person right before letting them go; if they notice, it’ll look ominous and awfully cold. Frankly, doing it right afterwards will look pretty cold too! You’re better off leaving it in their hands; they can unfriend you if they want, block your posts, or whatever they’re comfortable with.
For what it’s worth, ideally you would have disconnected from anyone you managed on Facebook when you became the director, because this is only the first of a bunch of awkward situations that could come up. It’s not enough that you’re not concerned about what you might post; being connected to them means you might see things they’d rather their boss not see or think about (their politics, health, family, whatever it might be) — and it’s less fraught for you to take the lead on fixing that than it is for them. And if you disconnect from everyone at once, it’s easy to explain it’s not personal and you just don’t want them to feel like you’re watching what they post.
U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., said the Biden administration’s FBI tapped several Republican senators’ phones while investigating 2020 election interference.
“Yesterday we learned that the FBI tapped my phone … tapped Lindsey Graham’s phone, tapped Marsha Blackburn’s phone, tapped five other phones of United States senators,” Hawley said Oct. 7 during a Senate Judiciary Committee oversight hearing of the Justice Department with Attorney General Pam Bondi.
Wiretapping refers to the real-time recording or surveillance of telephone or other electronic communication and is governed by a series of federal laws.
Hawley referred to a one-page FBI document from September 2023 about the investigation into 2020 election interference. U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, Senate Judiciary Committee chairman, made the document public the day before the hearing.
Sign up for PolitiFact texts
Grassley’s Oct. 6 press release did not use the word “wiretap.” It said the FBI targeted Republican lawmakers’ cell phones for “tolling data.” They were Hawley, Graham of South Carolina, Blackburn and Bill Hagerty of Tennessee, Dan Sullivan of Alaska, Tommy Tuberville of Alabama, Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming, and Rep. Mike Kelly of Pennsylvania. Grassley’s press release cited nine lawmakers, while Hawley referred to himself and seven other senators.
In 2023, the FBI sought and obtained data about the lawmakers’ phone use from Jan. 4 to 7, 2021, Grassley’s release said. “That data shows when and to whom a call is made, as well as the duration and general location data of the call. The data does not include the content of the call.”
Those dates are around the time of the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the U.S. Capitol.
Grassley called the FBI effort “disturbing and outrageous political conduct.”
Some — but not all — of the lawmakers had objected to at least one state’s election results showing that Joe Biden won the 2020 election. And some of the lawmakers had a connection to some Republicans’ effort to submit fake elector certificates saying that Donald Trump won in states where Biden won.
Legal experts said Hawley misused the term “tapping” to describe the data searches.
“I don’t think as a technical legal matter the sweep of metadata constitutes wiretapping, since that is when the government intercepts the content of conversations via electronic surveillance,” said Stan Brand, a longtime attorney with experience in congressional matters.
The process “was not a wiretap,” said Cheryl Bader, a Fordham University clinical associate law professor. “What was sought was basically a record of phone numbers dialed from a specific phone number.”
When PolitiFact asked Hawley’s office for evidence that these tactics involved wiretapping, his staff pointed us to two Oct. 7 social mediaposts in which he repeated his statement but didn’t provide additional evidence.
The investigation, dubbed Arctic Frost, launched in 2022 to look into what the FBI said was a “conspiracy to overturn the results of the 2020 Presidential Election so that former President Trump could remain in office.” Special Counsel Jack Smith led the probe.
In 2023, a grand jury indicted Trump for attempting to subvert the 2020 presidential election. The case was dropped after Trump won the 2024 election.
Grassley is leading a committee investigation into the government’s actions during Arctic Frost.
‘Tolling data’ is not the same as wiretapping
Wiretaps are generally disallowed under the law, but exceptions exist for law enforcement purposes approved by a judge.
Bader characterized the process for securing a wiretap as “arduous.”
“A wiretap requires permission of the court based on probable cause,” she said.
The permission process typically requires law enforcement to provide a basis for suspecting an offense warranting the use of a wiretap for further investigation; affirmation that alternate means have been exhausted; and a proposed period for the wiretap to be active.
The tolling data that Grassley described — such as who called who and for how long — “is a standard investigative tool and does not involve listening to the substance of conversations,” said Joan Meyer, of counsel to the law firm Benesch Friedlander Coplan & Aronoff LLP. “Federal prosecutors use this all the time.”
The process for securing call logs or metadata requires a subpoena but is less arduous than for wiretaps, Bader said. She said the requirement for obtaining data is relevancy of the information, not probable cause, as a wiretap requires.
“The law does not afford the same privacy protection to a list of numbers dialed from or coming into a phone account that it affords to the words uttered in a private telephone conversation,” she said.
Brand — who represented Rep. Scott Perry, R-Pa., after his phone was seized by the Justice Department as part of the Jan. 6 investigation — said Hawley could make a reasonableargument that the FBI’s actions were improper, based on the Speech and Debate clause of the Constitution, which says members of the House and Senate “shall not be questioned” for “any Speech or Debate in either House.”
Our ruling
Hawley said, “The FBI tapped my phone” and those of other senators.
Hawley misused the term “tapping.”
Grassley said what was obtained was data — such as who was called and when — not the calls’ content.
Legal experts said wiretapping would involve real-time surveillance or recording of electronic conversations, not just call logs or metadata.
The two bodies discovered on a brush-covered slope in the Montecito Hills were not easily identified.
The victims were “faceless” after being shot and bludgeoned beyond recognition, according to Los Angeles County prosecutor Stephen Lonseth.
But there were clues: A tattoo with a family name. Fingernails painted aqua blue, a teenage girl’s beauty routine.
One had the word “hoe” written on her stomach in blood. The autopsy showed she was around seven weeks pregnant.
Flowers that were left for Gabriella Calzada and Brianna Gallegos at an entrance to Ernest E. Debs Regional Park in November 2015 near where they were found dead.
(Rick Loomis / Los Angeles Times)
Investigators found the remains in a ditch in Ernest E. Debs Regional Park on Oct. 28, 2015. Using tattoos and dental records, police identified the victims as Gabriella Calzada, 19, and Brianna Gallegos, 17, who was carrying the baby.
Police interviewed a prime suspect within the first week: Jose Echeverria, 18, whose name Gallegos had tattooed on her chest. Four months later, detectives seemingly caught him confessing on a jailhouse recording that he and Dallas Pineda, 17, had brought the young women to the park and killed them.
But what seemed like an open-and-shut case dragged on for nearly a decade. Until Monday, when a jury convicted Echeverria and Pineda of first-degree murder.
Even by the glacial standards of L.A. County — where proceedings are known to crawl along due to frequent delays and a pandemic-fueled backlog — the path to justice was painfully slow.
Jose Echeverria listens to closing arguments in his murder trial at the Clara Shortridge Foltz Criminal Justice Center.
(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)
The recent trial dredged up old memories, with some evidence suggesting gang loyalties pushed Echeverria and Pineda to commit the grisly crime — while prosecutor David Ayvazian alleged a more sinister motive.
“They didn’t kill these girls because they were rivals, they used that as an excuse. They liked it,” Ayvazian said. “They set up this murder. They beat these girls to a bloody pulp.”
When prosecutors displayed gruesome crime scene photos that showed how Calzada and Gallegos looked when they were found, some members of the jury recoiled. One woman covered her mouth in shock. Someone in the courtroom whispered: “Jesus.”
Adam Garcia, who discovered the bodies while walking his dogs, testified that so much time had passed he could recall only “flashes” of what he saw. Judging by the amount of blood, he assumed a coyote had killed something.
“I can’t hold the image too well,” he said. “It was shocking, I guess, for me to see that.”
Police questioned Echeverria in his home a week after the killings. He said he had been in a relationship with Gallegos, but it was winding down because she got out of hand when she drank. They socialized with Pineda and Calzada, who were a couple.
In a photo displayed in court, the four smile and pose holding beer cans, arms slung over each other’s shoulders.
Prosecutor David Ayvazian makes his closing arguments at the murder trial of Jose Echeverria and Dallas Pineda, with photos of victims Gabriella Calzada, left, and Brianna Gallegos displayed.
(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)
“I remember making bad choices as a kid,” prosecutor Ayvazian said during closing arguments, referencing the girls’ decision to hang out with Echeverria and Pineda. He called them “wannabe gangsters.”
Detectives noted that Echeverria had scratch marks on his arms, as if he’d been in a struggle. He went by the nicknames “Klepto” and “Diablo,” and had recently been jumped into 18th Street, a large street gang.
But investigators had no weapon or links that connected him to the crime scene.
Trial evidence showed Echeverria used the Facebook messaging app to plan a meet-up with Gallegos and Calzada in Debs Park.
Valeria Maldonado, now 29, was living with Calzada and her parents when she went missing. Maldonado said the last time they spoke was by phone, when Calzada and Gallegos were headed by bus to Echeverria’s neighborhood.
The next day, after Calzada didn’t come home, Maldonado reached out to Echeverria, who said the girls never showed up for their planned meeting.
“Man she was the girl” Echeverria wrote.
Prosecutors noted that his use of past tense was suspicious. Although the bodies had been discovered in the park that morning, they had not yet been identified. All anyone knew was that Calzada and Gallegos were missing.
Maldonado answered with a question mark.
“She the home girl thas what I meant , have mas love for her” Echeverria wrote.
Four months after the young women turned up dead, Echeverria was arrested as a suspect in a drive-by gang shooting. Detectives put him in a cell with an undercover informant, who posed as a fellow 18th Street member. Still new to the gang, Echeverria fell for the ruse.
The informant asked Echeverria how the women he called his friends ended up in the park, according to a translation of the conversation in Spanish played in court.
“Well, we took them up there,” Echeverria said, recounting how they first shot at the women with a .22 rifle.
Community members lead a vigil in memory of Gabriella Calzada and Brianna Gallegos in November 2015 at Ernst E. Debs Regional Park.
(Los Angeles Times)
“Okay, so after you guys shot them, they didn’t completely die?” the informant asked.
“No,” Echeverria said.
“So what did you do?”
“Ah … con una piedra.” Echeverria said. “Uh … with a rock.”
They didn’t plan the killing ahead of time, Echeverria told the informant, but were provoked when one of them said, “F— 18th Street.”
Echeverria faked an alibi by taking Calzada’s phone and using her Facebook account to call himself after the killings, he told the informant.
Afterward, Echeverria said he took the phone, smashed it with a hammer until it leaked battery acid, put it in a sock and tossed it on top of Huntington Elementary School.
LAPD Det. Frank Carrillo testified that when he and his partner climbed on top of the school, they found a smashed phone inside a black sock.
Echeverria’s younger friend Pineda was also in police custody, and authorities decided to pull the same move on him. Locked up in juvenile hall, Pineda unburdened himself to an informant whom investigators arranged to be his cellmate.
According to a recording of the conversation played in court, Pineda said he feared older members of 18th Street would “greenlight” him because they had killed two young women without permission.
The gun they used had been given to someone else to get rid of, he said, and Echeverria went back to the scene with his brother to pick up the shell casings before the bodies were found. Pineda took the “big ass rock” they used to beat the girls and threw it in a nearby dumpster.
The gun, rock and casings were never found by police.
“We picked up afterwards,” Pineda told the informant.
Although both men admitted to aspects of the murder, defense attorney for Pineda, Mia Yamamoto, argued that the evidence did not show that he participated in the violence at all; instead, she painted him as an innocent bystander paralyzed by fear and implicated by a burst of violence from Echeverria.
Pineda allegedly missed three or four times with the rifle before Echeverria pulled the gun from him and shot Gallegos.
“How can you miss unless you’ve intended to miss?” Yamamoto asked.
Despite the recordings that made it seem like an open-and-shut case, the prosecutions of Echeverria and Pineda stretched on for years, winding through the L.A. County courts.
“This case took nearly 10 years to resolve due to a series of legal and procedural requirements beyond the control of the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office,” the office said in a statement to The Times.
Initially filed as a death penalty case and subjected to a lengthy review, the process of seeking to try Pineda as an adult further prolonged the proceedings.
Both defendants had other cases pending that needed to be resolved before the trial began, furthering the delays, according to the D.A.’s office.
Then the COVID-19 pandemic shut down the state — and by extension, the court system. It aged the case by at least three years, said Ayvazian, the prosecutor.
Even as Echeverria and Pineda’s fate went to the jury last week, delays continued. Jurors told the court one person was holding out because they believed the jailhouse tapes should not have been permitted as evidence.
On Monday afternoon, the foreperson finally read out the verdict, finding Echeverria and Pineda guilty on two counts of murder in the first degree. The convictions, combined with charging enhancements added for the crime of “lying in wait” and committing multiple killings, will ensure life terms when when they are sentenced in December.
Families of the two victims did not respond to interview requests.
After the verdict Monday, Calzada’s mother was seen tearfully thanking the jury in Spanish. The long wait for justice was finally over.
My son is in the age of video games, and I wrestle with the idea of screentime because it’s also his “socializing” time.
With all this, I’ve gotten my first dose of how young kids today handle their newfound freedom of interacting online. A lot of the time, video calls come through on my phone as well as his tablet so I can monitor things. But these kids call at all times, all day long, INCESSANTLY. Mine included. Here are my gripes – I discuss these with my son and hope you guys do too.
– Call ONCE. You don’t need to call once, twice, fourteen times. The person at the other end will see they had a missed call and at what time. I had a little boy call my phone 12 times before I picked up and, as politely as possible, told him to STOP IT!!!
– If someone signs off, wait for them to call you back later. My son will tell a friend he has to go have dinner, and 10 minutes later, that said friend is calling back.
– Sign off politely. I hate to generalize, but boys seem a bit more abrupt and quick to say “hi” and “bye” on a call. There are still certain courtesies that should be in place when calling each other, no? “Hi, how are you? How was your day?” “I’ve gotta go but have a good night. Nice playing with you. See you tomorrow. Bye.” I ask the bean to get off for the evening and he blurts out to his friends, “I’ve gotta leave. Bye.” And just hangs up. We’re working on this.
– Forget the group calls. If four kids play together, they’ll do a group call, which means that EVERY SINGLE TIME they play together afterwards, your device will ring. Even when they’re just trying to reach one of the four.
Let’s all make sure we have a little sit-down with our kiddos to discuss this. If this is just the beginning of the online play, open communication is super important from the get-go. Plus: I’m losing my mind over here with the incessant calls. Thanks.
A full-time work-from-home mom, Jennifer Cox (our “Supermom in Training”) loves dabbling in healthy cooking, craft projects, family outings, and more.
When Leah Marx began visiting Men’s Central Jail in downtown Los Angeles in 2010, it did not immediately raise alarm among the people who ran it. Most of the time, jailers just looked at her federal ID and let her in without asking why she was there. If they did, she said she was investigating a human trafficking case. It was a good-sounding story. Believable. Perfect to deter further questions.
Marx was in her late 20s, just beyond her rookie year at the FBI. She had been sitting at her desk when her supervisor handed her a letter from an inmate alleging jailers were brutalizing people in their custody. It was different from other letters. It had details.
Now she and her FBI colleagues were at the jail conducting secret interviews, trying to separate fact from rumor. The L.A. County Sheriff’s Department ran the jails. With a daily population of 14,000 inmates or more, it was the nation’s largest jail system, and had been known for years as a cauldron of violence and dysfunction.
An inmate at Men’s Central Jail in downtown Los Angeles.
(Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)
The agency was in the hands of a would-be reformer, Sheriff Lee Baca. He’d promised transparency. He’d won praise for his ambitious inmate education program. But stories persisted of violent and corrupt jailers, of deputy gangs, of an institutional culture so entrenched it resisted all efforts to root it out.
Marx seemed an improbable federal agent (at first, even to herself). She had been getting a master’s degree in social work when someone suggested she try the FBI. She did not know they hired people like her.
She was new to L.A., and living alone with her dog. As she gathered inmate stories, she made it a point to emphasize that their charges were irrelevant to her.
“I think they started to believe that I was there to actually hear what was going on,” she told The Times.
Inmates were telling her versions of the same story. A jailer would assault an inmate while yelling “Stop resisting,” then charge the inmate with assault on a police officer.
Then-Sheriff Lee Baca meets with inmates at Men’s Central Jail in Los Angeles in October 2011 to listen to their complains and issues about the jail.
(Los Angeles Times)
As she weighed the credibility of inmates against jailers, Marx was informed by a painful episode in her family history. Growing up in Wisconsin, she knew only the outlines of a tragedy too painful for the family to discuss — her grandmother and uncle had long ago died in a house fire in California.
In high school, she learned that the fire had been intentionally set, that the suspected arsonist worked at the local police department. He’d benefited from the air of impunity his position afforded.
“Someone’s position doesn’t dictate whether they are more truthful or less truthful than anyone else,” Marx would recall. “You don’t get instant credibility due to your position or your role.”
In this series, Christopher Goffard revisits old crimes in Los Angeles and beyond, from the famous to the forgotten, the consequential to the obscure, diving into archives and the memories of those who were there.
At the jail, she found an inmate eager to help — Anthony Brown, a bank robber waiting to be transported to state prison on a 423-year prison sentence.
He told her about a jailer who had offered to bring him a contraband cellphone for the right price, and she orchestrated a sting in summer 2011. An undercover agent handed over the money, and the jailer delivered the phone to Brown.
The phone was supposed to help Brown document what he saw. And it gave the FBI leverage to launch an ambitious operation. The FBI would rent out a warehouse said to be full of drugs, and use the compromised jailer to recruit corrupt colleagues to moonlight as guards.
But the plan was dead before it could even get off the ground. Nor did Brown get anything useful with his phone during the week and a half that he had it. On Aug. 8, 2011, deputies found the phone in his cell, stashed in a Doritos bag.
Baca shakes hands with a trainee at a 2022 graduation ceremony at the Sheriff’s Training Academy and Regional Services Center in Whittier.
(Los Angeles Times)
Baca did not talk like other lawmen. He often sounded like a social worker, or a panelist at a self-improvement seminar. “I tend to be one that says, ‘All right, constant growth, constant creativity,’” he would say. “All humanity matters.”
Baca had been raised by his grandparents in a Mexican American family in L.A. He dug ditches, washed cars and hauled barley sacks. He joined the Sheriff’s Department at age 23 in 1965, got a PhD from USC and worked his way up to become one of the state’s highest-ranking Latino law officers.
When he took over the Sheriff’s Department in 1998, he promised a new age of law enforcement at the vast, scandal-plagued agency. By the summer of 2011, he was almost 70 and had run the department for 13 years. Voters had reelected him three times.
Baca celebrates with supporters at a Pasadena hotel in November 1998 after hearing he leads the sheriff’s race.
(Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)
When it became clear that the FBI had been secretly investigating his jails for a long time, the man who preached reform and accountability faced an unprecedented test. He could cooperate fully with the federal investigation. Instead, he decided to go to war.
His department turned Marx’s informant into a ghost, shuttling him between facilities under a series of fake names, as Marx tried doggedly to find him. Even a federal writ failed to produce him. When Marx finally found him 18 days later, at Lancaster State Prison, he met her with hostile silence — he believed the FBI had left him for dead.
Baca, furious about the intrusion onto his turf, told the local FOX 11 morning show “Good Day L.A.” that the feds had broken the law by planting a phone on one of his inmates.
“Who polices the police?” a host asked.
“We police ourselves,” Baca replied.
Even as he spoke, his department had a surveillance team on Marx. That afternoon in September 2011, as she approached her apartment, two sheriff’s sergeants were waiting for her.
“I’m in the process of swearing out a declaration for an arrest warrant for you,” said Sgt. Scott Craig. He had his jacket off, and his gun was showing.
Marx interpreted it as an attempt to intimidate her. She told him to call the FBI.
“And the first thought I had is if they were willing to come to my house and do this, what else are they capable of?” she said.
U.S. Atty. Andre Birotte Jr. announces indictments of Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department officials in 2013.
(Los Angeles Times)
Baca confronted U.S. Atty. Andre Birotte, who had approved the jail investigation. According to Birotte’s trial testimony later, Baca erupted angrily, “I’m the goddamn sheriff. These are my goddamn jails. You want to gun up in here? Is that what you want?” Birotte took the phrase to mean, “Do you want our agencies to go to war?”
Inside the FBI, there was an ongoing debate about whether to include Baca in the jail investigation. He was a valuable law enforcement ally. His deputies worked with the feds on many task forces. But the incident outside Marx’s apartment largely ended that debate.
“If that isn’t a clear indication that we cannot work with them, I don’t know what is,” said Carlos Narro, who was the FBI’s public corruption supervisor in L.A. at the time.
The sheriff had catastrophically misjudged his adversary. Instead of quashing the probe, his heavy-handed tactics had only fueled it. Was it possible to expand the case beyond civil rights violations to an obstruction of justice case? How exactly was Brown made to vanish inside the jail system?
James Sexton had some answers. The son of a Southern sheriff, he had joined the LASD hoping to make his name. He was only a few months into his job as a custody deputy at the downtown jail in 2009 when he learned the price of nonconformity. A robbery suspect sucker-punched him, he says, and his colleagues ostracized him for failing to retaliate with a beating.
Still, Sexton’s tech prowess and other skills began to win him some attention, and ultimately earned him a job with an elite intelligence unit. In August 2011, his expertise with the jail computer system made him useful. The brass had an unusual request. They wanted him to make an informant disappear.
“We were going to make it difficult for other law enforcement agencies to find him on the computer,” he said. “And then they all looked at me.”
Sexton had learned the price of defiance. He helped to change Brown’s name. The aliases included John Rodriguez, Kevin King, Chris Johnson and Robin Banks.
When sheriff’s officials decided to unload Brown on the state prison system, Sexton wrote an email notifying his bosses.
“Gents,” Sexton wrote, “I’m going to handle booking our friend back under his true alias.”
The email would become a crucial piece of evidence. In it, Sexton coined the term that would become inseparable from the whole scheme. The subject line: Operation Pandora’s Box.
Sexton thought the Brown episode was behind him. But in early 2012, he said, he was scared. He had reported misconduct on an unrelated case, involving another jailer’s possible association with a skinhead gang.
He knew he would never be trusted again. Co-workers were calling him a rat.
He decided to become an informant for Leah Marx. He was surprised at how little she acted like a cop. “I got a social worker,” he said. “You gotta love the calculation of the FBI. She is easy to talk to. I should have been smarter.”
The main exercise yard on the roof of Men’s Central Jail.
(Los Angeles Times)
Sexton talked to the FBI dozens of times. He told a federal grand jury how he had manipulated the jail computers to hide Brown from his federal handlers. This admission would hurt him severely. In December 2013, he was indicted, one of 18 current or former sworn members charged with civil rights violations, corruption, inmate abuse or obstruction. Among them were the two sergeants who had confronted Marx outside her home.
At trial, Sexton’s attorney portrayed him as an “overeager kid” trying to help the FBI, a low-ranking jailer who exaggerated his importance in the scheme. The attorney compared him to Walter Mitty, the character with the boring office job who escapes into elaborate imaginative worlds — a defense Sexton hated. He was convicted and received an 18-month term. He was thrown into solitary confinement. He counted the days by plucking teeth off a comb.
After four months in prison, Sexton appeared before a federal judge and said, “I stand before you as a broken man.” The prosecutor agreed to let him go home.
The sheriff was not an easy man to pin down. As he sat down to face questions from the feds, his sentences traveled winding paths through vague precincts to fog-filled destinations.
He bragged about the thousands of inmates who were getting an education in his jails, thanks to programs he had established. “No one is a greater believer in inmate rights than I am,” he said.
His answers were frequently long-winded, muddled and incoherent. Again and again, he denied having advance knowledge of what his department had done — from making Brown disappear, to threatening Marx with arrest.
The FBI had not asked his permission to infiltrate his jails because it had not trusted him, but Baca seemed to find this fact intolerable, if not incomprehensible. He seemed personally hurt by it.
“There’s no evidence of a malicious intent on my part to undermine the mission of the FBI,” Baca said. “You wanna catch all the crooked deputies I have; in fact, it’s helpful because I don’t have enough budget to do it all myself.”
For Baca, this interview — which prosecutors would portray as a web of falsehoods — represented the culmination of a long series of misjudgments and self-inflicted wounds.
Baca announcing in January 2014 that he would not seek a fifth term.
(Los Angeles Times)
Baca had once told the ACLU, “I will never, ever resign. I intend to be sheriff as long as I live.” He had run unopposed at the last election, his fourth. But in January 2014, he stood outside the department’s Monterey Park headquarters, fighting emotion as he announced his resignation. He had been sheriff for 15 years and had worked at the department for nearly half a century.
In late 2016, the 74-year-old Baca went to trial. His supporters wore lapel pins in the shape of a badge. His defense: He had been in the dark about what his subordinates were doing to foil the feds. Some of Baca’s prominent friends, including two former L.A. County district attorneys, testified to his law-abiding reputation. The jury deadlocked.
At the retrial, prosecutors called convicted high-ranking co-conspirators to the stand. A former captain said Baca had personally approved the plan to send sergeants to Marx’s house, adding: “his advice to us was just not to put handcuffs on her.”
In March 2017, Baca became the 10th and highest-ranking participant in the obstruction scheme to be convicted. His lawyer pleaded with the judge, saying Baca had Alzheimer’s disease that amounted to its own terrible punishment, “a sentence that will leave him a mere shell of his former self.” But the judge gave Baca three years, excoriating him for abusing the public trust.
Baca, flanked by attorneys David and Nathan Hochman, leaves federal court in Los Angeles after he was arraigned on charges of obstructing justice, and lying to the federal government. Nathan Hochman is now L.A. County district attorney.
(Los Angeles Times)
At 77, Baca turned himself into a low-security facility outside El Paso. According to a friendly biography, he reorganized the prison library and renovated the prison pond, and cleared brush from the grounds. He inspired other inmates by his example. He made friends, he gave advice. He told people to make use of their time.
He went home in 2021. Three years later, at age 82, he wandered away from home in San Marino. He turned up six miles away at a Denny’s, badly confused.
If not for Baca’s decision to “gun up” against the feds, they probably would have brought a handful of civil rights cases against jailers — and Baca would have won reelection.
“All the big prosecutions we did was because of how they reacted,” says Brandon Fox, the former prosecutor. “This was an existential threat to the Sheriff’s Department, but it was of their own making because of what they did.”
Brown is in state prison serving his 423 years. He filed suit claiming the Sheriff’s Department had effectively kidnapped him during those 18 days, and the L.A. County Board of Supervisors approved a $1-million payout to settle the claim. Among the ironies: He got nothing of value on the cellphone that so enraged the sheriff, and prosecutors never called him to testify at trial, knowing the defense was likely to eviscerate him.
In the end, 22 members of the Sheriff’s Department were convicted as a result of the probe initiated by special agent Leah Marx. It seems likely her youth and inexperience helped her, that veteran agents would have weighed the odds and decided it wasn’t worth pursuing.
“We don’t know how many more civil rights cases we could have brought because the department came in and disrupted our investigation,” Marx says. “They tried to intentionally stop what we were doing. And so, sadly, we don’t know where it would’ve gone. And that’s a little frustrating.” The podcast “Crimes of the Times,” featuring “Pandora’s Box: The Fall of L.A.’s Sheriff,” is now available wherever you get your podcasts.
Nothing on Tuesday launched its newest flagship phone after a two-year gap. At an event in London, the company unveiled the Phone (3), which starts at $799 and aims to take on bigwigs like Samsung and Apple with its differentiated design and features targeting tech enthusiasts.
Since releasing Phone (1) in 2022, the GV-backed startup has relied on a transparent design to make its phone stand out from others.
The Phone (3) follows that same design language, but it introduces a stranger camera arrangement that forgoes the typical square or circular alignment found on other smartphone devices. (If you are someone who gets triggered by unaligned elements on websites or apps, this camera arrangement might make you mad!)
Image Credits:Nothing
Nothing has also favored arranging LEDs on its back — a feature that it calls Glyph. This was always somewhat gimmicky, but the company made use of this to show you different alerts and notifications using the LED lights.
Old Glyph interface on Phone (2)Image Credits:TechCrunch/Brian Heater
Now, the company is replacing Glyph with a small circular mini LED screen, called Glyph Matrix, on the back of the device at the top right.
This addition displays 16-bit styled patterns, which can offer more information than the earlier Glyph arrangement.
The company is also releasing mini-apps for this interface, such as spin the bottle and rock, paper, scissors.
The new Glyph Matrix interface is on the top rightImage Credits:Nothing
It is 2025, so the phone has to include some AI-powered features, too. At launch this includes two features called Essential Space and Essential Search.
The company first debuted Essential Space, an app to save screenshots and take notes, on the Nothing Phone (3a) Pro. Now, Nothing is upgrading this app to let you record meetings and view an AI transcription and summary.
To use the feature, you’ll have to press the Essential key and place the phone with the screen side down to start the recording. While this sounds potentially useful, Nothing doesn’t have a web interface to access these transcriptions and summaries at this time.
Nothing is also debuting Essential Search — a feature like the iPhone’s Spotlight search — and infusing it with AI.
This search feature allows you to search for settings, files, or photos on your phone by typing in keywords.
Plus, you can type in natural language queries to get web results by pressing a button next to the search bar. This is similar to iPhone’s upgraded Siri interface, which is integrated with ChatGPT.
Specifications and availability
The new smartphone has comparable specifications to other companies’ Android flagships.
This includes a 6.67-inch AMOLED screen with 1.5K resolution, which is protected by Gorilla Glass 7i. The device is powered by a Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 processor, built on a 4-nanometer architecture.
The trio of cameras all have a 50-megapixel resolution, but play different roles. The main camera has a 1.3-inch sensor, which is 20% bigger than Phone (2), at a f/1.68 aperture; the periscope telephoto lens offers 3x optical zoom, and 60x digital zoom with AI Super Res Zoom; and the ultra-wide lens provides a 114-degree field of view.
Nothing is also upgrading the selfie camera from 32 megapixels to 50 megapixels.
The Phone (3) has a 5,150 mAh battery (5,500 mAh in its India variant) with support for 65W wired charging and 15W wireless charging.
The company said the phone will ship with Nothing OS 3.5, which is based on Android 15, and will be updated to Nothing OS 4.0, based on Android 16, later this year. It noted that the flagship device will get five years of software updates and seven years of security updates.
The company will sell the 256GB model of the Phone (3) for $799 and the 512GB model for $899. At this price, the phone directly competes with the Samsung Galaxy S25, which was released at a base price of $799 earlier this year.
Preorders for the device begin on July 4 with general availability on July 15.
I honestly never thought I’d pose this question, but are we ready to push buttons again? As the era of Y2k fashion surges on, we’re constantly hankering for more nostalgia. We’ve brought back trucker hats, Juicy Couture, and now maybe even the flip phone.
When I was growing up, I loved to play with my dad’s Motorola Razr. In my eyes, there was no cooler phone in the world. I loved the way you could be so sassy and smack your phone closed when you were finished with a call.
Back then even the Blackberry was all the rage. It wasn’t a flip phone, per-se, but you there was something so camp about typing on BBM to your friends even though your fingers were too big for the buttons.
Now that the world has turned into an “iPhone or bust” culture, it’s hard to imagine the flip phone being a viable option once more. They had impossible internet service, were most functional for phone calls, and they weren’t fast.
But, never say never. Paris Hilton — our beacon for all things the Y2k aesthetic — stepped out on September 5 with her husband, Carter Reum, toting a hot pink Motorola RAZR flip phone.
Yes, the classic flip is back in production with a new twist. The razr+ is a reimagined take on our OG fave: a touchscreen phone that folds up and flips any way you’d like.
While I — like you, I’m sure — worried about the possibility of sitting on your phone and shattering the screen… It turns out the razr+ is stress tested and has the capability to last underwater for up to 30 minutes.
What a fun alternative to the iPhone — which only seems to get worse over time. And now you can hang up the phone in such a sassy manner everyone will know precisely how you feel.
NEW YORK (WABC) — The FBI conducted searches at the homes of two of New York City Mayor Eric Adams’ closest aides, sources familiar with the investigation told ABC News, and subpoenaed the cellphones of at least seven people in the NYPD.
The Hamilton Heights home of First Deputy Mayor Sheena Wright and the Hollis, Queens home of Deputy Mayor for Public Safety Phil Banks were searched as part of an ongoing investigation, the sources said.
The searches began Wednesday morning but news broke of the raids on Thursday afternoon. It is likely they both occurred at dawn Wednesday.
The FBI seized evidence, including electronics from Wright, as part of the searches, according to sources.
Wright shares her Hamilton Heights home with her partner, Schools Chancellor David Banks, who is the brother of Phil Banks.
No charges have been filed and the investigation continues by the FBI and U.S. Attorneys Office in Lower Manhattan.
Wright and Banks are the highest-ranking Adams administration officials to have their homes searched by federal investigators.
In total, seven people in the NYPD received subpoenas for their phones, which they turned over, an official said.
At least four were NYPD executives, the rank of captains or above. At least three others in the NYPD also had their phones subpoenaed.
An NYPD spokesperson released the following statement:
“The Department is aware of an investigation by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York involving members of service. The Department is fully cooperating in the investigation. Any questions regarding the investigation should be directed to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.”
“I think the most important thing that I must do is to send the right message to my team and all the employees in the city, we’re going to comply with whatever rules, and we’re going to follow the law, and we’re going to make sure that whatever information is needed, we’re going to turn over that information, and that is what we have been doing since the beginning,” Adams said.
Federal officials have previously executed search warrants at the homes of:
Rana Abbasova, the mayor’s international affairs aide
Winnie Greco, a special adviser to the mayor and director of Asian affairs
Adams reiterated that he is not aware of “any wrongdoings or misgivings” from anyone on his team and they will continue to cooperate.
“I wake up every morning with the same feeling, commit yourself to the city, and for the entire years of my life, I follow the rules and procedures,” Adams said. “And you know, I’m confident that everything is reviewed. We’re going to comply with whatever information that’s needed and to make sure that this has come to a completion.”
The mayor’s chief counsel Lisa Zornberg released a statement saying: “Investigators have not indicated to us the mayor or his staff are targets of any investigation. As a former member of law enforcement, the mayor has repeatedly made clear that all members of the team need to follow the law.”
A source familiar with the matter said the searches do not appear to be related to the investigation into whether Adams accepted donations from Turkey in exchange for official favors.
The FBI declined to comment and a spokesman for the US Attorney’s office for the Southern District of New York declined to comment.
Have a breaking news tip or an idea for a story we should cover? Send it to Eyewitness News using the form below. If attaching a video or photo, terms of use apply.
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.
