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  • Explaining California’s billionaire tax: The proposals, the backlash and the exodus

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    The battle over a new tax on California’s billionaires is set to heat up in the coming months as citizens spar over whether the state should squeeze its ultra-rich to better serve its ordinary residents.

    The proposed billionaire tax that triggered the tempest is still far from being approved by voters or even making the ballot, but the idea has already sparked backlash from vocal tech moguls — some of whom have already shifted their bases outside the state.

    Under the Billionaire Tax Act, Californians worth more than $1 billion would pay a one-time 5% tax on their total wealth. The Service Employees International Union-United Healthcare Workers West, the union behind the act, said the measure would raise much-needed money for healthcare, education and food assistance programs.

    Other unions have piled on billionaires, targeting the rich in Los Angeles.

    A group of Los Angeles labor unions said Wednesday that it is proposing a ballot measure to raise taxes on companies whose chief executive officers earn 50 times more than their median-paid employees.

    Here is how this fight could continue to play out in the Golden State:

    Who would be affected?

    The California billionaire tax would apply to about 200 California billionaires who reside in the state as of Jan. 1. Roughly 90% of funds would go to healthcare and the rest to public K-14 education and state food assistance.

    The tax, due in 2027, would exclude real estate, pensions and retirement accounts, according to an analysis from the Legislative Analyst’s Office, a nonpartisan government agency. Billionaires could spread out the tax payment over five years, but would have to pay more.

    Which billionaires are already distancing themselves from California?

    Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin

    Google is still headquartered in California, but December filings to the California Secretary of State show other companies tied to Page and Brin recently converted out of the state.

    One filing, for example, shows that one of the companies they managed, now named T-Rex Holdings, moved from Palo Alto to Reno last month.

    Business Insider and the New York Times earlier reported on these filings. Google didn’t respond to a request for comment.

    Palantir co-founder Peter Thiel

    Thiel Capital, based in Los Angeles, announced in December it opened an office in Miami. The firm didn’t respond to a request for comment. Thiel recently contributed $3 million to the political action committee of the California Business Roundtable, which is opposing the ballot measure, records provided to the Secretary of State’s Office show.

    Oracle co-founder and Chief Technology Officer Larry Ellison

    Years before the wealth tax proposal, Ellison began pulling back from California, but he’s continued to distance himself farther from the state since the proposal emerged.

    Last year, Ellison sold his San Francisco mansion for $45 million. The home on 2850 Broadway was sold off-market in mid-December, according to Redfin.

    Oracle declined to comment.

    DoorDash co-founder and Chief Technology Officer Andy Fang

    Fang, who was born and raised in California, said on X that he loves the state but is thinking about moving.

    “Stupid wealth tax proposals like this make it irresponsible for me not to plan leaving the state,” he said.

    DoorDash didn’t respond to a request for comment.

    What would it still take to become law?

    To qualify for the ballot, proponents of the proposal, led by the healthcare union, must gather nearly 875,000 registered voter signatures and submit them to county elections officials by June 24.

    If it makes it on the November ballot, the proposal would be the focus of intense scrutiny and debate as both sides have already lined up big war chests to bombard voters with their positions. A majority of voters would need to approve the ballot measure.

    Lawyers for billionaires have also signaled the battle won’t be over even if the ballot measure passes.

    “Our clients are prepared to mount a vigorous constitutional challenge if this measure advances,” wrote Alex Spiro, an attorney who has represented billionaires such as Elon Musk in a December letter to California Gov. Gavin Newsom.

    What are the initiative’s chances?

    It’s unclear if the ballot measure has a good chance of passing in November. Newsom opposes the tax, and his support has proved important for ballot measures.

    In 2022, he opposed a ballot measure that would have subsidized the electric vehicle market by raising taxes on Californians who earn more than $2 million annually. The measure failed. The following year, he opposed legislation to tax assets exceeding $50 million. The bill was shelved before the Legislature could vote on it. A bill that would impose an annual tax on California residents whose net worth surpassed $30 million also failed in 2020.

    However, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Fremont) have backed the wealth tax proposal, and Californians have passed temporary tax measures before. In 2012, they approved Proposition 30 to increase sales tax and personal income tax for residents with an annual income of more than $250,000.

    Could it solve California’s problems?

    The Legislative Analyst’s Office said in a December letter that the state would probably collect tens of billions of dollars from the wealth tax, but it could also lose other tax revenue.

    “The exact amount the state would collect is very hard to predict for many reasons. For example, it is hard to know what actions billionaires would take to reduce the amount of tax they pay. Also, much of the wealth is based on stock prices, which are always changing,” the letter said.

    California economist Kevin Klowden said the tax could create future budget problems for the state. “The catch is that this is a one-off fix for what is a systemic problem,” he said.

    Supporters of the proposal said the measure would raise about $100 billion and pushed back against the idea that billionaires would flee.

    “We see a lot of cheap talk from billionaires,” said UC Berkeley law professor Brian Galle, who helped write the proposal. “Some people do actually leave and change their behavior, but the vast bulk of wealthy people don’t, because it doesn’t make sense.”

    Still, the pushback has been escalating.

    Palo Alto-based venture capitalist Chamath Palihapitiya estimates that the lost revenues from the billionaires who have already left the state would lead to more losses in tax revenues than gained by the new tax.

    “By starting this ill-conceived attempt at an asset tax, the California budget deficit will explode,” he posted on X. “And we still don’t know if the tax will even make the ballot.”

    The union backing the initiative says “the billionaire exodus narrative” is “wildly overstated.”

    “Right now, it appears the overwhelming majority of billionaires have chosen to stay in California past the Jan. 1 deadline,” said Suzanne Jimenez, chief of staff at SEIU-United Healthcare Workers West. “Only a very small percentage left before the deadline, despite weeks of Chicken Little talking points claiming a modest tax would trigger a mass departure.”

    Times staff writer Seema Mehta contributed to this report.

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    Queenie Wong

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  • Elon Musk company bot apologizes for sharing sexualized images of children

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    Grok, the chatbot of Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence company xAI, published sexualized images of children as its guardrails seem to have failed when it was prompted with vile user requests.

    Users used prompts such as “put her in a bikini” under pictures of real people on X to get Grok to generate nonconsensual images of them in inappropriate attire. The morphed images created on Grok’s account are posted publicly on X, Musk’s social media platform.

    The AI complied with requests to morph images of minors even though that is a violation of its own acceptable use policy.

    “There are isolated cases where users prompted for and received AI images depicting minors in minimal clothing, like the example you referenced,” Grok responded to a user on X. “xAI has safeguards, but improvements are ongoing to block such requests entirely.”

    xAI did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

    Its chatbot posted an apology.

    “I deeply regret an incident on Dec 28, 2025, where I generated and shared an AI image of two young girls (estimated ages 12-16) in sexualized attire based on a user’s prompt,” said a post on Grok’s profile. “This violated ethical standards and potentially US laws on CSAM. It was a failure in safeguards, and I’m sorry for any harm caused. xAI is reviewing to prevent future issues.”

    The government of India notified X that it risked losing legal immunity if the company did not submit a report within 72 hours on the actions taken to stop the generation and distribution of obscene, nonconsensual images targeting women.

    Critics have accused xAI of allowing AI-enabled harassment, and were shocked and angered by the existence of a feature for seamless AI manipulation and undressing requests.

    “How is this not illegal?” journalist Samantha Smith posted on X, decrying the creation of her own nonconsensual sexualized photo.

    Musk’s xAI has positioned Grok as an “anti-woke” chatbot that is programmed to be more open and edgy than competing chatbots such as ChatGPT.

    In May, Grok posted about “white genocide,” repeating conspiracy theories of Black South Africans persecuting the white minority, in response to an unrelated question.

    In June, the company apologized when Grok posted a series of antisemitic remarks praising Adolf Hitler.

    Companies such as Google and OpenAI, which also operate AI image generators, have much more restrictive guidelines around content.

    The proliferation of nonconsensual deepfake imagery has coincided with broad AI adoption, with a 400% increase in AI child sexual abuse imagery in the first half of 2025, according to Internet Watch Foundation.

    xAI introduced “Spicy Mode” in its image and video generation tool in August for verified adult subscribers to create sensual content.

    Some adult-content creators on X prompted Grok to generate sexualized images to market themselves, kickstarting an internet trend a few days ago, according to Copyleaks, an AI text and image detection company.

    The testing of the limits of Grok devolved into a free-for-all as users asked it to create sexualized images of celebrities and others.

    xAI is reportedly valued at more than $200 billion, and has been investing billions of dollars to build the largest data center in the world to power its AI applications.

    However, Grok’s capabilities still lag competing AI models such as ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini, that have amassed more users, while Grok has turned to sexual AI companions and risque chats to boost growth.

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    Nilesh Christopher

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  • Sacramento plans to add more trees as it faces service-request backlog

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    The “City of Trees” is facing a big backlog. Except in cases of an emergency, it could take crews one to two years to respond to concerns about trees on Sacramento property.Even as the city struggles to keep up, it is making plans to plant more trees in the years ahead, meaning the workload is only expected to grow.Sacramento’s identity is deeply rooted in its dense urban forest.”We pride ourselves on being the city with the most trees,” said East Sacramento resident Brett Davison.However, he and his neighbors say they have been dealing with a growing concern over the upkeep of all these city trees.”I have neighbors where it’s gotten under their roof tiles,” he said. “I just think of it as a safety issue.”A safety issue that has insurance companies taking notice.”Their insurance company flew a drone over their house,” Davison said of his neighbors.The issue comes as California is in the midst of an insurance crisis.”The insurance company had said, ‘You can’t. You’ve got to trim it back,’” he said.Davison heard the same thing from his insurance company.Since the trees are on public property maintained by the city, they say they have tried to report concerns to Sacramento over the last year or so. But the response had them stumped.”At that point, they were booked out for two and a half years for any sort of maintenance or thinning of trees in Sacramento,” Davison said. “I thought he was kidding.”KCRA 3 Investigates confirmed that, for requests the city deems non-emergencies, there is a backlog, often with a wait time of at least one year.”It’s been frustrating,” Davison said. Sacramento Media & Communications Specialist Gabby Miller, who handles inquiries involving the city’s Urban Forestry Division, declined an interview on the topic.Only by email would she say that the root cause of all this stems from staffing shortages and the 2023 storms that did unprecedented damage.Here is the prepared statement Miller provided:”The City of Sacramento maintains more than 100,000 trees in streets and parks across the city’s 100 square miles. Each tree is pruned on a proactive cycle that typically takes five to seven years to complete.”Residents who have concerns about City trees or would like to request pruning are encouraged to use the 311 Customer Service Center, either by dialing 311 or emailing 311@cityofsacramento.org. This system ensures requests are documented and tracked through to completion.”The City typically receives more than 500 service requests each month related to tree issues, with numbers increasing significantly during extreme weather. Emergency calls—such as when a tree or branch poses an immediate risk to public safety—are responded to within one hour, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Non-emergency requests usually receive an initial response within 48 hours. Crews prioritize work based on severity and efficiency, so that as many requests as possible are completed each month.”Severe storms in 2023 caused unprecedented damage to trees throughout Sacramento. Combined with staffing shortages in the Urban Forestry section, this created a backlog of non-emergency requests, with many taking a year or longer to address. Despite these challenges, the City has managed to keep up with emergency requests.”Substantial efforts have been made to improve the situation, including hiring more staff in Urban Forestry and directing additional resources to tree care service contracts. These steps have already accelerated pruning efforts and begun to reduce the backlog in recent months. While progress has been significant, the City recognizes there is still more work ahead before service levels fully meet public expectations.”One East Sacramento resident said he was finally able to get his concern taken care of after reaching out to Councilmember Pluckebaum.The councilmember told KCRA 3 Investigates that he usually gets a call a week about a limb falling on a car or a fence.However, on New Year’s Day in 2023, the calls to the city seemed endless.”That was a really big storm. It was significant and expensive,” Pluckebaum said.He said the city has a contract with West Coast Arborists, and the company had to bring in all its arborists from the West Coast to respond.”Fourteen hundred people to swarm the city and clear our streets, but it also cleared our budget,” Pluckebaum said.Nearly three years later, the city’s still feeling the fallout.”Our only answer is to figure out how to either reduce costs and/or raise revenue such to provide for that level of service that the folks expect,” he said.”Is there anything in the works to take any of those steps that you know of?” KCRA 3 Investigates’ Lysée Mitri asked.”No, unfortunately, it’s probably going to require yet another tax measure. We don’t have another strategy in the near term. We’re looking at budget cuts for the next three years,” Councilmember Pluckebaum said.Meanwhile, beyond three years, the job of maintaining trees is only expected to grow.In June, the city council voted unanimously to try to double the tree canopy by 2045, focusing on areas that currently lack tree cover. The plan will mean more trees on both public and private property.”Voting to increase the tree canopy is like, you know, voting for puppy dogs or apple pie, right? These are uncontroversial types of initiatives. Now, a discussion about how to pay for it is a whole other conversation,” Pluckebaum said.Currently, about 10% of trees in Sacramento are maintained by the city. It’s not clear if that would continue to be the case, but the newly adopted Sacramento Urban Forest Plan estimates that full implementation means the city would need an extra $12-13 million a year. “I’m all about more trees. Bring it on. I love, I love the trees, but you better have enough maintenance crews to handle what you’ve got going on first before you add any more,” Davison said.For many, the current financial landscape is sowing seeds of doubt.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

    SACRAMENTO, Calif. —

    The “City of Trees” is facing a big backlog. Except in cases of an emergency, it could take crews one to two years to respond to concerns about trees on Sacramento property.

    Even as the city struggles to keep up, it is making plans to plant more trees in the years ahead, meaning the workload is only expected to grow.

    Sacramento’s identity is deeply rooted in its dense urban forest.

    “We pride ourselves on being the city with the most trees,” said East Sacramento resident Brett Davison.

    However, he and his neighbors say they have been dealing with a growing concern over the upkeep of all these city trees.

    “I have neighbors where it’s gotten under their roof tiles,” he said. “I just think of it as a safety issue.”

    A safety issue that has insurance companies taking notice.

    “Their insurance company flew a drone over their house,” Davison said of his neighbors.

    The issue comes as California is in the midst of an insurance crisis.

    “The insurance company had said, ‘You can’t. You’ve got to trim it back,’” he said.

    Davison heard the same thing from his insurance company.

    Since the trees are on public property maintained by the city, they say they have tried to report concerns to Sacramento over the last year or so. But the response had them stumped.

    “At that point, they were booked out for two and a half years for any sort of maintenance or thinning of trees in Sacramento,” Davison said. “I thought he was kidding.”

    KCRA 3 Investigates confirmed that, for requests the city deems non-emergencies, there is a backlog, often with a wait time of at least one year.

    “It’s been frustrating,” Davison said.

    Sacramento Media & Communications Specialist Gabby Miller, who handles inquiries involving the city’s Urban Forestry Division, declined an interview on the topic.

    Only by email would she say that the root cause of all this stems from staffing shortages and the 2023 storms that did unprecedented damage.

    Here is the prepared statement Miller provided:

    “The City of Sacramento maintains more than 100,000 trees in streets and parks across the city’s 100 square miles. Each tree is pruned on a proactive cycle that typically takes five to seven years to complete.

    “Residents who have concerns about City trees or would like to request pruning are encouraged to use the 311 Customer Service Center, either by dialing 311 or emailing 311@cityofsacramento.org. This system ensures requests are documented and tracked through to completion.

    “The City typically receives more than 500 service requests each month related to tree issues, with numbers increasing significantly during extreme weather. Emergency calls—such as when a tree or branch poses an immediate risk to public safety—are responded to within one hour, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Non-emergency requests usually receive an initial response within 48 hours. Crews prioritize work based on severity and efficiency, so that as many requests as possible are completed each month.

    “Severe storms in 2023 caused unprecedented damage to trees throughout Sacramento. Combined with staffing shortages in the Urban Forestry section, this created a backlog of non-emergency requests, with many taking a year or longer to address. Despite these challenges, the City has managed to keep up with emergency requests.

    “Substantial efforts have been made to improve the situation, including hiring more staff in Urban Forestry and directing additional resources to tree care service contracts. These steps have already accelerated pruning efforts and begun to reduce the backlog in recent months. While progress has been significant, the City recognizes there is still more work ahead before service levels fully meet public expectations.”

    One East Sacramento resident said he was finally able to get his concern taken care of after reaching out to Councilmember Pluckebaum.

    The councilmember told KCRA 3 Investigates that he usually gets a call a week about a limb falling on a car or a fence.

    However, on New Year’s Day in 2023, the calls to the city seemed endless.

    “That was a really big storm. It was significant and expensive,” Pluckebaum said.

    He said the city has a contract with West Coast Arborists, and the company had to bring in all its arborists from the West Coast to respond.

    “Fourteen hundred people to swarm the city and clear our streets, but it also cleared our budget,” Pluckebaum said.

    Nearly three years later, the city’s still feeling the fallout.

    “Our only answer is to figure out how to either reduce costs and/or raise revenue such to provide for that level of service that the folks expect,” he said.

    “Is there anything in the works to take any of those steps that you know of?” KCRA 3 Investigates’ Lysée Mitri asked.

    “No, unfortunately, it’s probably going to require yet another tax measure. We don’t have another strategy in the near term. We’re looking at budget cuts for the next three years,” Councilmember Pluckebaum said.

    Meanwhile, beyond three years, the job of maintaining trees is only expected to grow.

    In June, the city council voted unanimously to try to double the tree canopy by 2045, focusing on areas that currently lack tree cover. The plan will mean more trees on both public and private property.

    “Voting to increase the tree canopy is like, you know, voting for puppy dogs or apple pie, right? These are uncontroversial types of initiatives. Now, a discussion about how to pay for it is a whole other conversation,” Pluckebaum said.

    Currently, about 10% of trees in Sacramento are maintained by the city. It’s not clear if that would continue to be the case, but the newly adopted Sacramento Urban Forest Plan estimates that full implementation means the city would need an extra $12-13 million a year.

    “I’m all about more trees. Bring it on. I love, I love the trees, but you better have enough maintenance crews to handle what you’ve got going on first before you add any more,” Davison said.

    For many, the current financial landscape is sowing seeds of doubt.

    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

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  • Hollywood piano teacher who fled country before sex abuse verdict arrested in Australia

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    A piano teacher to the stars who fled the country last month just before a jury found him guilty of sexually abusing a student was arrested in Australia, authorities said.

    John Kaleel, 69, was taken into custody by Australian Federal Police on Oct. 31, according to Nicole Nishida, spokeswoman for the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, the agency investigating him in the United States.

    It was not clear where Kaleel was arrested, and Australian authorities did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

    Kaleel, an Australian national, was facing a retrial on multiple counts of sexually abusing a student last month when he fled the country on Oct. 8, according to the Sheriff’s Department.

    Kaleel disappeared while jurors were deliberating at the Airport Courthouse. His attorney, Kate Hardie, said she last saw Kaleel after driving him home from court on Oct. 7. She declined to comment on his arrest.

    It is expected that Kaleel will be returned to the U.S., where he faces a lengthy prison sentence after he was convicted of multiple counts of committing lewd acts with a child.

    Kaleel taught private piano lessons in the U.S. for more than 25 years, and his clients included the children of the creators of beloved television series such as “Mad Men” and “Orange Is the New Black.” But he became the subject of a Sheriff’s Department investigation in 2015 when a student told detectives Kaleel had been acting inappropriately toward him for years.

    The boy said he was 12 when Kaleel asked “to take measurements of [the victim’s] body parts, including his penis,” according to court records. Kaleel later convinced the boy that they should masturbate together while on a FaceTime call because that’s “what friends do,” records show.

    When the victim was 15, prosecutors allege, Kaleel invited him over in September 2013 and they smoked marijuana together before having oral sex.

    Kaleel initially pleaded no contest to one count of committing lewd acts with a child in 2016, but later appealed the deal on the grounds that he didn’t know how it would affect his immigration status. Kaleel has been a lawful permanent resident of the U.S. since the 1980s, according to Hardie, but found himself in the custody of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement following the plea.

    Kaleel successfully appealed a deportation order and convinced an L.A. County judge to throw out the plea deal, but the L.A. County district attorney’s office decided to retry him.

    “Mr. Kaleel has always maintained his innocence and that he took his initial plea bargain on the advice of counsel to avoid a harsher sentence should he lose at trial,” Hardie previously told The Times.

    The district attorney’s office did not respond to a request for comment and has not discussed what, if any, efforts it has taken to return Kaleel to the U.S. since his arrest.

    Court records show prosecutors filed an application for an extradition warrant last month.

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    James Queally

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  • Federal shutdown stalls legal battles between California, Trump administration

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    Days before the Trump administration was supposed to file its response to a California lawsuit challenging its targeting of gender-affirming care providers, attorneys for the U.S. Justice Department asked a federal judge to temporarily halt the proceedings.

    Given the federal shutdown, they argued, they just didn’t have the lawyers to do the work.

    “Department of Justice attorneys and employees of the federal defendants are prohibited from working, even on a voluntary basis, except in very limited circumstances, including ‘emergencies involving the safety of human life or the protection of property,’” they wrote in their filing Oct. 1, the first day of the shutdown.

    The district judge presiding over the case, which California filed in federal court in Massachusetts along with a coalition of other Democrat-led states, agreed, and promptly granted the request.

    It was just one example of the now weeks-old federal shutdown grinding to a halt important litigation between California and the Trump administration, in policy battles with major implications for people’s lives.

    The same day, in the same Massachusetts court, Justice Department attorneys were granted a pause in a lawsuit in which California and other states are challenging mass firings at the U.S. Department of Education, after noting that department funding had been suspended and it didn’t know “when such funding will be restored by Congress.”

    The same day in U.S. District Court in Central California, the Trump administration asked for a similar pause in a lawsuit that it had brought against California, challenging the state’s refusal to provide its voter registration rolls to the administration.

    Justice Department attorneys wrote that they “greatly regret any disruption caused to the Court and the other litigants,” but needed to pause the proceedings until they were “permitted to resume their usual civil litigation functions.”

    Since then, the court in Central California has advised the parties of alternative dispute resolution options and outside groups — including the NAACP — have filed motions to intervene in the case, but no major developments have occurred.

    The pauses in litigation — only a portion of those that have occurred in courts across the country — were an example of sweeping, real-world, high-stakes effects of the federal government shutdown that average Americans may not consider when thinking about the shutdown’s impact on their lives.

    Federal employees working in safety and other crucial roles — such as air traffic controllers — have remained on the job, even without pay, but many others have been forced to stay home. The Justice Department did not spell out which of its attorneys had been benched by the shutdown, but made clear that some who had been working on the cases in question were no longer doing so.

    Federal litigation often takes years to resolve, and brief pauses in proceedings are not uncommon. However, extended disruptions — such as one that could occur if the shutdown drags on — would take a toll, forestalling legal answers in some of the most important policy battles in the country.

    California Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta, whose office has sued the Trump administration more than 40 times since January, has not challenged every request for a pause by the Trump administration — especially in cases where the status quo favors the state.

    However, it has challenged pauses in other cases, with some success.

    For example, in that same Massachusetts federal courthouse Oct. 1, Justice Department attorneys asked a judge to temporarily halt proceedings in a case in which California and other states are suing to block the administration’s targeted defunding of Planned Parenthood and other abortion providers.

    Their arguments were the same as in the other cases: Given the shutdown, they didn’t have the attorneys to do the necessary legal work.

    In response, attorneys for California and the other states pushed back, noting that the shutdown had not stopped Department of Health and Human Services officials from moving forward with the measure to defund Planned Parenthood — so the states’ residents remained at imminent risk of losing necessary healthcare.

    “The risks of irreparable harms are especially high because it is unclear how long the lapse in appropriations will continue, meaning relief may not be available for months at which point numerous health centers will likely be forced to close due to a lack of funds,” the states argued.

    On Oct. 8, U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani denied the government’s request for a pause, finding that the states’ interest in proceeding with the case “outweighs” the administration’s interest in pausing it.

    Talwani’s argument, in part, was that her order denying a pause would provide Justice Department officials the legal authority to continue litigating the case despite the shutdown.

    Bonta said in a statement that “Trump owns this shutdown” and “the devastation it’s causing to hardworking everyday Americans,” adding that his office will not let Trump use it to cause even more harm by delaying relief in court cases.

    “We’re not letting his Administration use this shutdown as an excuse to continue implementing his unlawful agenda unchecked. Until we get relief for Californians, we’re not backing down — and neither are the courts,” Bonta said. “We can’t wait for Trump to finally let our government reopen before these cases are heard.”

    Trump and Republicans in Congress have blamed the shutdown on Democrats.

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    Kevin Rector

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  • Former MLB pitcher Dan Serafini wants new trial in Tahoe murder case claiming jury misconduct

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    Former Major League Baseball pitcher Dan Serafini is back in court Tuesday, as he and his new lawyer, Barry Zimmerman, request a new trial following his July murder conviction.A Placer County jury convicted Serafini in July of shooting his in-laws in an ambush attack at their Tahoe home in June 2021. That attack left Gary Spohr, 70, dead, and critically injured Wendy Wood, 68. She died by suicide years later despite making a full recovery.Serafini, 51, has not been sentenced yet, and he asked for new counsel after the conviction. That sentencing has been delayed until the request for a new trial is heard.In court documents, Serafini has pointed to KCRA’s interview with three jurors days after they delivered their verdict. The documents claimed the interview demonstrated jury misconduct.Three jurors, including the jury foreperson, testified in Tuesday’s hearing about their decision-making process. Zimmerman questioned the jurors about their deliberations, particularly their use of screenshots from two security videos entered into evidence. The videos included footage from the Elko, Nevada, Red Lion lobby showing Serafini the day before the shootings, and a driveway surveillance video capturing the killer entering the victims’ home. The jurors explained they needed screenshots because they could not play the videos side by side for comparison.In the exclusive interview with KCRA 3 days after the verdict, jury foreperson Caryn Schroeder explained the process. “We looked at those videos over and over. We were taking stills. We were creating slides side by side,” Schroeder said. “We were really analyzing, could the person in this video match who we knew was Daniel Serafini from the Red Lion video?”Zimmerman also asked the jurors about the interview they did with KCRA 3 News after the conviction. Assistant Chief Deputy District Attorney Rick Miller also asked the jurors if they considered other evidence from the six-week-long trial. Schroeder emphasized their thoroughness on the stand. “We took it very seriously. We were very invested and spent a lot of time deliberating. It was a long trial. We made sure we were following the jury instructions,” she said. “We really deliberated a lot.”The attorneys will be back before the judge to continue presenting their arguments over a motion for a new trial on Oct. 20.The judge will take the motion under advisement and is expected to return a ruling Oct. 28, the same day as Serafini’s sentencing. KCRA 3’s Michelle Bandur is at the court proceedings and will have updates on air and online. Download our app for the latest alerts.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

    AUBURN, Calif. —

    Former Major League Baseball pitcher Dan Serafini is back in court Tuesday, as he and his new lawyer, Barry Zimmerman, request a new trial following his July murder conviction.

    A Placer County jury convicted Serafini in July of shooting his in-laws in an ambush attack at their Tahoe home in June 2021. That attack left Gary Spohr, 70, dead, and critically injured Wendy Wood, 68. She died by suicide years later despite making a full recovery.

    Serafini, 51, has not been sentenced yet, and he asked for new counsel after the conviction. That sentencing has been delayed until the request for a new trial is heard.

    In court documents, Serafini has pointed to KCRA’s interview with three jurors days after they delivered their verdict. The documents claimed the interview demonstrated jury misconduct.

    Three jurors, including the jury foreperson, testified in Tuesday’s hearing about their decision-making process.

    Zimmerman questioned the jurors about their deliberations, particularly their use of screenshots from two security videos entered into evidence. The videos included footage from the Elko, Nevada, Red Lion lobby showing Serafini the day before the shootings, and a driveway surveillance video capturing the killer entering the victims’ home. The jurors explained they needed screenshots because they could not play the videos side by side for comparison.

    In the exclusive interview with KCRA 3 days after the verdict, jury foreperson Caryn Schroeder explained the process.

    “We looked at those videos over and over. We were taking stills. We were creating slides side by side,” Schroeder said. “We were really analyzing, could the person in this video match who we knew was Daniel Serafini from the Red Lion video?”

    Zimmerman also asked the jurors about the interview they did with KCRA 3 News after the conviction.

    Assistant Chief Deputy District Attorney Rick Miller also asked the jurors if they considered other evidence from the six-week-long trial. Schroeder emphasized their thoroughness on the stand.

    “We took it very seriously. We were very invested and spent a lot of time deliberating. It was a long trial. We made sure we were following the jury instructions,” she said. “We really deliberated a lot.”

    The attorneys will be back before the judge to continue presenting their arguments over a motion for a new trial on Oct. 20.

    The judge will take the motion under advisement and is expected to return a ruling Oct. 28, the same day as Serafini’s sentencing.

    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

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  • Louisiana’s governor asks for National Guard deployment to New Orleans and other cities

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    Louisiana’s Republican governor asked for National Guard deployments to New Orleans and other cities, saying Monday that his state needs help fighting crime and praising President Donald Trump’s decision to send troops to Washington and Memphis.Gov. Jeff Landry, a Trump ally, asked for up to 1,000 troops through fiscal year 2026 in a letter sent to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. It comes weeks after Trump suggested New Orleans could be one of his next targets for deploying the National Guard to fight crime.Trump also sent troops in recent months to Los Angeles and his administration has announced plans for similar actions in other major cities, including Chicago and Portland, Oregon.Landry said his request “builds on the proven success” of deployments to Washington and Memphis. While Trump has ordered troops into Memphis with the backing of Tennessee’s Republican governor, as of Monday night there had yet to be a large-scale operation in the city.“Federal partnerships in our toughest cities have worked, and now, with the support of President Trump and Secretary Hegseth, we are taking the next step by bringing in the National Guard,” Landry said.Leaders in Democratic-controlled states have criticized the planned deployments. In Oregon, elected officials have said troops in Portland are not needed.In his request, Landry said there has been “elevated violent crime rates” in Shreveport, Baton Rouge and New Orleans as well as shortages in local law enforcement. He said the state’s vulnerability to natural disasters made the issue more challenging and that extra support would be especially helpful for major events, including Mardi Gras and college football bowl games.But crime in some of the state’s biggest cities has actually decreased recently, with New Orleans, seeing a particularly steep drop in 2025 that has put it on pace to have its lowest number of killings in more than five decades.Preliminary data from the city police department shows that there have been 75 homicides so far in 2025. That count includes the 14 revelers who were killed on New Year’s Day during a truck attack on Bourbon Street. Last year, there were 124 homicides. In 2023 there were 193.In Baton Rouge, the state capital, has also seen a decrease in homicides compared to last year, according to police department figures. Data also shows, however, that robberies and assaults are on pace to surpass last year’s numbers.___Associated Press reporter Sara Cline contributed to this report.

    Louisiana’s Republican governor asked for National Guard deployments to New Orleans and other cities, saying Monday that his state needs help fighting crime and praising President Donald Trump’s decision to send troops to Washington and Memphis.

    Gov. Jeff Landry, a Trump ally, asked for up to 1,000 troops through fiscal year 2026 in a letter sent to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. It comes weeks after Trump suggested New Orleans could be one of his next targets for deploying the National Guard to fight crime.

    Trump also sent troops in recent months to Los Angeles and his administration has announced plans for similar actions in other major cities, including Chicago and Portland, Oregon.

    Landry said his request “builds on the proven success” of deployments to Washington and Memphis. While Trump has ordered troops into Memphis with the backing of Tennessee’s Republican governor, as of Monday night there had yet to be a large-scale operation in the city.

    “Federal partnerships in our toughest cities have worked, and now, with the support of President Trump and Secretary Hegseth, we are taking the next step by bringing in the National Guard,” Landry said.

    Leaders in Democratic-controlled states have criticized the planned deployments. In Oregon, elected officials have said troops in Portland are not needed.

    In his request, Landry said there has been “elevated violent crime rates” in Shreveport, Baton Rouge and New Orleans as well as shortages in local law enforcement. He said the state’s vulnerability to natural disasters made the issue more challenging and that extra support would be especially helpful for major events, including Mardi Gras and college football bowl games.

    But crime in some of the state’s biggest cities has actually decreased recently, with New Orleans, seeing a particularly steep drop in 2025 that has put it on pace to have its lowest number of killings in more than five decades.

    Preliminary data from the city police department shows that there have been 75 homicides so far in 2025. That count includes the 14 revelers who were killed on New Year’s Day during a truck attack on Bourbon Street. Last year, there were 124 homicides. In 2023 there were 193.

    In Baton Rouge, the state capital, has also seen a decrease in homicides compared to last year, according to police department figures. Data also shows, however, that robberies and assaults are on pace to surpass last year’s numbers.

    ___

    Associated Press reporter Sara Cline contributed to this report.

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  • California ‘MAGA Dentist’ under fire for viral joke about hurting liberal patients

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    A self-proclaimed “MAGA Dentist” is facing backlash after a video of her joking about turning down pain-relieving gas for liberal patients at her Santa Clarita clinic blew up online.

    Dr. Harleen Grewal of Skyline Smiles made this quip and other wisecracks about her distaste for left-leaning clients during a speech at the Republican Liberty Gala in 2021, comments that recently attracted mass attention after a video of the speech went viral on TikTok. That video has since been taken down, but recorded versions of it and response videos criticizing Grewal continue to circulate.

    “I have a secret hat I use sometimes, it says, ‘Make your smile great again,’” she said at the gala. “So I wear that when I work with my patients, when they look horrified or complain, I quietly cut back on the laughing gas.”

    In the address, she also jokes about missing the days when “the Dems stayed home during COVID with their masks on” as well as liberals’ reaction when they see the photo wall of Republican leaders in the office: “You’d think their butt was on fire. They jump up and take off as if Trump was coming in the room.”

    The comments were met with laughter within the context of the Republican gala but have been met with outrage on the internet as well as calls to report Grewal to the California Dental Board.

    “Dental care by a dentist who acknowledges that she doesn’t control your pain based on your political party? How does she have a license to practice?” wrote one person in a Yelp post.

    More than 100 one-star reviews were left on her business’ Yelp page this week, with reviewers lambasting her remarks at the gala. Yelp has since temporarily disabled the review function for Skyline Smiles, stating that due to increased attention in the news people are likely to be writing about their personal views as opposed to a firsthand consumer experience.

    Grewal did not respond to a request for comment and has not issued a recent public statement on the viral video. On Thursday morning, however, she posted a video on the MAGA Dentist and Skyline Smiles Instagram accounts with the caption, “At Skyline Smiles, every patient is family. We treat all of our patients with the same level of care, compassion, and respect because that’s what you deserve!”

    By Thursday evening, both Instagram accounts were disabled.

    The outrage incited by the videos was so far-reaching that a dental office in Chicago called Skyline Smiles — which has no affiliation with the Santa Clarita business — has received multiple one-star reviews as people online mistake it for Grewal’s dentistry, said Dr. Deepak Neduvelil, who owns the Chicago clinic.

    Grewal has previously addressed criticisms about her gala jokes and her melding of business and politics.

    In an op-ed titled “You Can’t Cancel Me” published in the Santa Clarita Valley Signal this month, Grewal said “these attacks have only made me more determined to stand tall, speak louder and fight harder.”

    In the article, Grewal said that the California Dental Board had previously sent an investigator to her clinic after someone accused her of torturing patients who didn’t share her political views — a complaint Grewal said was based on “a lighthearted joke” she made at the Republican Liberty Gala.

    “My words were twisted, and my career was targeted,” she wrote, “but I didn’t back down.”

    The California Dental Board said it does not comment on whether complaints are submitted to the board as complaints and investigations are confidential.

    Grewal also wrote that authorities had investigated her clinic following “completely false and totally unfounded” allegations that she was running an illegal ballot-harvesting operation from her office during the last election cycle. In a clip shared on her now-disabled Instagram, Grewal said that she had a ballot box in her office “not only collecting Republican ballots, but anybody’s ballots, everybody should be able to vote.”

    The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, which provides policing services in Santa Clarita, said deputies would respond to any call for service but did not provide details on whether they had responded to calls concerning Grewal’s clinic.

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    Clara Harter

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  • High-speed rail project slated to received $20 billion in state funding

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    California’s high-speed rail project is slated to receive $1 billion a year in funding through the state’s cap-and-trade program for the next 20 years — a relief to lawmakers who had urged the Legislature to approve the request as billions of dollars in federal funding remain in jeopardy.

    State leaders called the move, which is pending a final vote from the Legislature, a necessary step to cementing investments from the private sector — an area of focus for project officials. And the project’s chief executive, Ian Choudri, said the agreement is crucial to completing the current priority — a 171-mile portion from Merced to Bakersfield — by 2033.

    “This funding agreement resolves all identified funding gaps for the Early Operating Segment in the Central Valley and opens the door for meaningful public-private engagement with the program,” Choudri said in a statement. “And we must also work toward securing the long-term funding — beyond today’s commitment — that can bring high-speed rail to California’s population centers, where ridership and revenue growth will in turn support future expansions.”

    The project was originally proposed with a 2020 completion date, but so far, no segment of the line has been completed. It’s also about $100 billion over the original $33 billion budget that was originally proposed to voters and has received considerable pushback from Republican lawmakers and some Democrats. The Trump administration recently moved to pull $4 billion in funding that was slated for construction in the Central Valley; in turn, the state sued.

    Still, advocates of the project believe it’s crucial to the state’s economy and to the nation’s innovation in transit.

    “We applaud Governor Newsom and legislative leaders for their commitment and determination to make High-Speed Rail a success,” former U.S. Secretary of Transportation and Co-Chair of U.S. High Speed Rail Ray LaHood said in a statement. “The agreement represents the most important step forward to date for this transformational project.”

    State Sen. Dave Cortese (D-San Jose), who chairs the Senate’s Transportation Committee, said the Legislature “must act quickly to pass this plan and keep California on track to deliver America’s first true high-speed rail.”

    Construction on the project has been limited to the Central Valley. Choudri has said that the project could take decades to connect the line from Los Angeles to San Francisco and it’s unclear when construction would begin elsewhere in the state. A recent report from the authority proposed next alternatives for the project that would connect the Central Valley to Gilroy and Palmdale. In those scenarios, regional transit would fill in the gaps to San Francisco and Los Angeles.

    L.A.-area lawmakers recently requested an annual $3.3-billion investment in transit from the state’s cap-and-trade fund, acknowledging that although high-speed rail is a state priority, L.A. County should not be overlooked when it comes to increasing more immediate transit investments in the state’s most populous county. Citing equity, health and climate needs, the delegation pushed for greater investment in bus, rail and regional connectors.

    According to a recent report from the Southern California Assn. of Governments, L.A. County accounts for 82% of Southern California’s bus ridership. Although public transit use is high, lawmakers and transit leaders have said that expansion and improvements are necessary.

    “Millions of Los Angeles County residents already depend on Metro bus and rail, Metrolink, and municipal operators. Yet service has not kept pace with need: transit ridership is still 25-30% below pre-pandemic levels, even as freeway traffic has nearly fully rebounded,” the delegation’s letter stated. “Without significant investment, super commuters from the Valley, South LA, and the Inland Empire remain locked into long, expensive car trips.”

    Funding commitments for L.A. County transit were maintained from the last budget, but the delegation’s request for billions in cap-and-trade funds has yet to come through.

    “The state budget deal in June 2025 restored $1.1 billion in flexible transit funding from the GGRF, which benefits transit operations statewide, including L.A. County,” Sen. Lola Smallwood-Cuevas’ (D-Los Angeles) office said.

    Smallwood-Cuevas said the point of the request was to ensure that transit needs of the Los Angeles region aren’t lost.

    “We recognize what it means when folks in L.A. County get out of their cars and onto public transit — that is the greatest reduction that can happen,” she said. “We fully intend to see an opportunity where we can address some of that ridership and look at ways to ensure an equitable opportunity that invests in our regional transit public transit, while we also work to build what I call the spine of our transit, a high speed rail program that will run up and down the state and connect to our regional public transit arteries.”

    State Sen. Henry Stern (D-Los Angeles) said that the state’s investments toward wildfire recovery in Pacific Palisades and Altadena “does not mean that you should leave the largest segment of drivers anywhere in the world languishing in traffic forever.”

    “It’s not that there’d be nothing [for transit funding],” Stern said. “It’s just that we think there should be more.”

    The Los Angeles area isn’t facing the same state funding hurdle of the Bay Area, where lawmakers have scrambled to obtain a $750-million transit loan, warning that key services like BART could be significantly affected without the funds.

    Roughly $14 billion has been spent on the high-speed rail project so far, which has created roughly 15,000 jobs in the Central Valley. Theoretically, the train will eventually boost economies statewide.

    Eli Lipmen of MoveLA believes that the investments will help transit in the Los Angeles region by expanding access, long before there’s a direct high-speed rail connection.

    “Wer’e building an incredible transit system with LA Metro, but we need that regional system to get out to Orange County, San Bernardino, Riverside, Ventura County,” Lipmen said.

    “So we’re making those investments even if high-speed rail doesn’t come here right away to improve those connections for constituents. That’s a good thing.”

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    Colleen Shalby

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  • Judge grants Wonderful’s request to halt UFW effort to unionize company’s workers

    Judge grants Wonderful’s request to halt UFW effort to unionize company’s workers

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    After more than a month of deliberation, a Kern County Superior Court judge has sided with Wonderful Co. and issued a preliminary injunction that will temporarily halt a contentious bargaining process between the agricultural giant and the state’s largest farmworker union.

    In a ruling issued Thursday, Judge Bernard C. Barmann said Wonderful “was likely to prevail” in its legal challenge to the state’s relatively new system for organizing farmworkers and faced irreparable harm if the United Farm Workers is allowed to unionize the company’s nursery workers before the case is decided.

    “The court finds that the public interest weighs in favor of preliminary injunctive relief given the constitutional rights at stake in this matter,” Barmann wrote in the 21-page decision. Wonderful “has met its burden that a preliminary injunction should issue until the matter may be heard fully on the merits.”

    Wonderful, the $6-billion agricultural powerhouse owned by Stewart and Lynda Resnick, sued the state Agricultural Labor Relations Board in May, challenging the constitutionality of the state’s so-called card-check system, which Gov. Gavin Newsom signed into law in 2022. Under its provisions, a union can organize farmworkers by inviting them to sign authorization cards at off-site meetings, without notifying an employer, rather than voting by secret ballot at a designated polling place.

    Union organizers had pressed for the revised card-check law, contending the secret ballot process left workers fearful of retaliation from their employer.

    But Wonderful, whose portfolio includes such well-known brands as FIJI Water and POM Wonderful, alleges in its lawsuit that the law deprives employers of due process on multiple fronts. Among them: forcing a company to enter a collective bargaining agreement even if it has formally appealed the ALRB’s certification of a union vote and presented what it believes is evidence that the voting process was fraudulent.

    The temporary injunction marks the latest twist in a tumultuous dispute over the UFW’s unionization campaign at Wonderful Nurseries in Wasco, the nation’s largest grapevine nursery.

    In late February, the UFW filed a petition with the labor relations board, asserting that a majority of the 600-plus farmworkers at the nursery had signed authorization cards and asking that the UFW be certified as their union representative.

    Within days, Wonderful accused the UFW of having baited farmworkers into signing the authorization cards under the guise of helping them apply for $600 in federal relief for farmworkers who labored during the pandemic. And the company submitted nearly 150 signed declarations from nursery workers saying they had not understood that by signing the cards they were voting to unionize.

    The UFW countered that Wonderful had intimidated workers into making false statements and had brought in a labor consultant with a reputation as a union buster to manipulate their emotions in the weeks that followed.

    The ALRB acknowledged receiving the worker declarations from Wonderful; nonetheless, the regional director of the labor board moved forward three days later to certify the union’s petition. She has said in subsequent hearings that she felt she had to move quickly under the timeline laid out in the card-check law, and that at the time she did not think the statute authorized her to investigate allegations of misconduct.

    Wonderful appealed the ALRB’s certification.

    Under the provisions of the card-check law, the UFW’s efforts to bargain with the company on behalf of its nursery workers moved forward, even as Wonderful’s appeal of the certification works its way through the ALRB’s administrative hearing process. The ALRB issued a ruling last week ordering Wonderful to enter into a mandatory mediation process to establish a collective bargaining agreement.

    In its lawsuit, filed in May, Wonderful challenges the constitutionality of the card-check system on multiple fronts. Among them: that the company’s due process rights were violated when the labor board moved to certify the UFW’s petition before investigating the company’s allegations that the vote was fraudulent; and more broadly that the card-check system does not have adequate safeguards in place to ensure the veracity of the voting process.

    The company asked the judge to halt the unionization effort at its nursery, as well as the ALRB’s administrative hearing process, while the lawsuit moved forward in Kern County court.

    In a statement released Thursday evening, Rob Yraceburu, president of Wonderful Nurseries, said the company was “gratified” by the court’s decision to pause the certification process until the constitutionality of the card check law can be “fully and properly considered.”

    “In addition,” Yraceburu said, “farmworkers had been wrongly barred from objecting to a union being forced on them, and this ruling states that Wonderful indeed has the standing to fight to ensure those constitutional rights of farmworkers, including their due process and First Amendment rights, are not violated.”

    UFW spokesperson Elizabeth Strater countered that the ruling “ignores 89 years of labor law precedent” and indicated the decision to grant the injunction would be appealed.

    “There is already a process to address wrongdoing in elections and Wonderful was in the middle of that process. Why does Wonderful want to halt that process and silence workers so their voices are not heard?” Strater said. “It’s very clear Wonderful is determined to use its considerable resources to deny farmworkers their rights.”

    In a May 30 filing, the state had urged the court to deny Wonderful’s request for an injunction. California Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta, arguing on behalf of the ALRB, said Wonderful had failed to demonstrate that the card-check law was causing “irreparable harm or any likelihood of deprivation of its rights.” Bonta also argued that the Superior Court lacked jurisdiction in the case.

    Santiago Avila-Gomez, executive secretary with the ALRB, said Thursday evening the agency is “reviewing the ruling carefully and won’t have further comment at this time.”

    The UFW, meanwhile, is pursuing its own legal action against Wonderful. The union has filed a formal complaint of unfair labor practices with the ALRB, accusing Wonderful of coercing workers into attending “captive audience” meetings to urge employees to reject UFW representation. ALRB General Counsel Julia Montgomery issued a complaint in April, similar to an indictment, alleging Wonderful committed unfair labor practices by unlawfully assisting them in drafting declarations to revoke their authorization cards.

    The company has largely denied the allegations.

    This article is part of The Times’ equity reporting initiative, funded by the James Irvine Foundation, exploring the challenges facing low-income workers and the efforts being made to address California’s economic divide.

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    Melissa Gomez, Rebecca Plevin

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  • Before mob attack, UCLA police chief was ordered to create security plan but didn’t, sources say

    Before mob attack, UCLA police chief was ordered to create security plan but didn’t, sources say

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    On the morning before a mob attacked a pro-Palestinian student encampment at UCLA, campus Police Chief John Thomas assured university leadership that he could mobilize law enforcement “in minutes” — a miscalculation from the three hours it took to actually bring in enough officers to quell the violence, according to three sources.

    Days earlier, campus leadership had directed Thomas to create a safety plan that would protect the UCLA community after the encampment was put up last week and began drawing agitators, the sources said. The chief was told to spare no expense to bring in other UC police officers, offer overtime and hire as many private security officers needed to keep the peace.

    But Thomas did not provide a plan to senior UCLA leadership — even after he was again asked to provide one after skirmishes broke out between Israel supporters and pro-Palestinian advocates at dueling rallies Sunday.

    The account of Thomas’ actions leading up to the attack was provided by three sources who were not authorized to speak publicly.

    Thomas did not immediately respond to a request for comment. UCLA also declined to comment.

    But internal calls are growing for the police chief to step aside as University of California President Michael V. Drake initiates an independent review of UCLA’s response, the sources said. The police chief reports to Vice Chancellor Michael Beck, who oversees the UCLA Police Department and the Office of Emergency Management. Beck did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

    A spokesperson for Gov. Gavin Newsom has also called for answers to explain “the limited and delayed campus law enforcement response at UCLA.”

    UCLA Chancellor Gene Block described the attack in a statement as a “a dark chapter in our campus’s history” and said the university was “carefully examining our own security processes in light of recent events.”

    Key questions involve when officials decided to bring in help from other agencies and whether help could have arrived sooner. Outside police forces generally do not enter the campus without the university’s approval, since it functions as an independent municipal entity although it is on state land.

    The Times reported Thursday that the UCLA Police Department had asked other campuses for additional police officers five days before the attack. The reporting was based on documents the paper reviewed and information from the head of the UC police officers union. Only a few on-duty UCLA police officers were on hand to protect the encampment Tuesday night.

    The mutual aid requests made Thursday and Friday, April 25-26 — which would have provided UCLA with more officers as they dealt with the camp and a dueling area erected by pro-Israel activists — were both canceled by Thomas because the protests were peaceful, the sources said.

    The responsibility to call for mutual aid through the UC Systemwide Response Team — a group of about 80 officers across the 10 campuses — has to be made by the host university’s chief of police, according to the UC police procedures manual. Internal questions have been raised as to whether, following skirmishes Sunday, Thomas issued another request after being directed to maintain a peaceful environment.

    The union issued a statement this week placing the responsibility for the UC police response in the hands of “campus leadership,” saying the strategic direction was controlled by administrators. The three sources said, however, that such direction to prepare a plan, with enough officers to ensure safety, was given to Thomas multiple times.

    The attack began Tuesday about 10:30 p.m., when a large group of agitators — some wearing black outfits and white masks — arrived on campus and assaulted campers, ripped down barricades, hurled objects at the encampment and those inside and threw firecrackers into the area.

    Campers, some holding lumber and wearing goggles and helmets, rallied to defend the site’s perimeter. Some used pepper spray to defend themselves. Several were injured, including four Daily Bruin student journalists.

    Only a few on-duty UCLA police officers were on hand to protect the encampment, one source told The Times. Thomas told the Daily Bruin his officers came under attack while helping an injured woman and had to leave.

    Law enforcement sources said it took time for the LAPD, California Highway Patrol and other agencies to mobilize the large number of officers needed. A larger force began moving into the area after 1:30 a.m. Wednesday and fully contained the situation after 3 a.m.

    UCLA declared the encampment unlawful Tuesday and asked participants to leave or face possible discipline. The next day, the campus called in police, who dismantled tents and arrested more than 200 protesters in clashes early Thursday that lasted for hours. Several protesters were injured.

    The UC Board of Regents held a closed-door meeting Friday to discuss the campus protests.

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    Teresa Watanabe

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  • Two people stabbed after fight on 405 and 10 freeways, CHP says

    Two people stabbed after fight on 405 and 10 freeways, CHP says

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    Two people were stabbed and taken to a hospital after an altercation on the 405 and 10 freeways, according to the California Highway Patrol.

    The stabbings occurred after a fight between two people, during which at least one was stabbed, CHP officers said over radio communications reviewed by The Times. The stabbings were reported on the 405 near the National Boulevard exit and on the 10 Freeway near the Bundy Drive exit, though it was not immediately clear where exactly the stabbings took place, or if they had occurred on the freeway.

    A woman reported that her husband had been stabbed by a man with a pocketknife and that the assailant may have been stabbed as well during the fight, according to police radio.

    One of the stabbing victims was in a white truck, while the other was in a Toyota Camry, according to radio communications.

    The victims were being taken to Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center for treatment.

    CHP did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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    Noah Goldberg

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  • Tribal leaders cite problems with California’s Feather Alert for Native people who go missing

    Tribal leaders cite problems with California’s Feather Alert for Native people who go missing

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    SACRAMENTO — 

    When Yurok tribal member Danielle Ipiña-Vigil disappeared in San Francisco last summer, her family requested that state police issue a Feather Alert — an emergency notification meant to help authorities locate Indigenous people who go missing in California.

    But the request was denied, making Ipiña-Vigil one of three known cases of Native people living in California who went missing in the last year and for whom a Feather Alert request was dismissed. Since the system began a year ago, authorities have issued just two of the five Feather Alerts requested, according to the California Highway Patrol.

    A CHP official said local officers denied the requests because they did not meet the criteria, which include that the person went missing under suspicious circumstances and is believed by officials to be in danger.

    But the denials have fueled concerns in Native communities that the system meant to help locate missing Indigenous people is not working as intended.

    “We’ve had two successful Feather Alerts and numerous denials,” Taralyn Ipiña said while talking about her sister Danielle, who went missing in June, during a somber news conference Wednesday. She was later found, and details on her case are limited. “Being denied a Feather Alert based on opinions contradicts the very basis of [this] legislation.”

    Now Sacramento policymakers are re-evaluating how well the law is working. More than a dozen California tribal members gathered at the Capitol last week demanding information about the three denied missing-person alerts. They are also asking to remove a statute that requires local law enforcement to act as the buffer between tribes and the CHP, and to instead open the door for state and tribal police to work together.

    “The alert has to be issued by CHP the way it’s structured. But the middleman is the local law enforcement agency that the request comes into,” said CHP Commissioner Sean Duryee, who testified at the hearing. “Some do really, really good. What’s been expressed to us is that sometimes that middleman creates issues for the tribal communities.”

    The Feather Alert, signed into law in 2022, was designed to be similar to the Amber Alert, which since its inception in 1996 has located more than 1,100 missing children nationwide. Assemblymember James Ramos (D-Highland), who was the first California Native American elected to the Legislature, argued that the state needed a separate system for missing Indigenous people because of high rates of violence and abductions in tribal communities. It’s one of seven categories of missing-person alerts in California.

    New data show that the CHP approved all six Amber Alert requests it received in the same year it denied three of the Feather Alert requests.

    Leaders and members from tribes around the state, including the Yurok and Me-wuk, arrived early at the Capitol asking for clarity on those requirements and for reports of missing persons to be treated with urgency.

    “We can’t be caught in the middle of California Highway Patrol and the tribe,” said Chairman Joe James of the Yurok Tribe, who live near the lower Klamath River. “Why were they getting denied?”

    There are 151 active cases of missing American Indian/Alaska Natives in California. At least one of the denied Feather Alerts came out of Humboldt County, which currently has the highest number of cases.

    Duryee didn’t go into detail during the hearing about the denied cases, citing privacy laws, but said that the officer who responded to the requests “didn’t feel like the criteria were met.”

    Tribal members said these denials are reminiscent of historical traumas linked to decades of under-reported cases of missing and murdered people — the reason the Feather Alert was created in the first place.

    “There are so many factors that go into determining if they’re missing,” Duryee said. “Just because someone doesn’t qualify for Feather Alert doesn’t mean we wash our hands clean.”

    Duryee said law enforcement agencies still have the power to do “traditional police work,” such as using license plate recognition or cellphone data. “Just because an alert is not issued doesn’t mean law enforcement isn’t working on it,” he said.

    During the emotional hours-long hearing before the Assembly Select Committee on Native American Affairs, Indigenous individuals voiced mistrust in the state’s system for reporting crimes and missing persons.

    Merri Lopez-Keifer, director of Native Affairs for the California Department of Justice, testified that her team is re-evaluating data about crime against tribal members, citing potential “misidentification” of race and “underreporting.” She said missing-person reports allow for only one race category to be selected, which does not account for the “vast landscape and regional variations” across the state.

    “This approach may overlook potential cases involving multi-racial individuals,” Lopez-Keifer said. “It is especially relevant in the context of American Indian/Alaska Natives who are often racially misclassified as white, Hispanic or Asian.”

    “We don’t necessarily know the number, it’s the truth,” she said.

    Tribal communities are asking for amendments to the law, including giving tribal law enforcement authority to issue Feather Alerts. Ramos said he plans to propose legislation in the coming weeks.

    “Today’s hearing was meant to put ideas out into the open,” he told The Times. “And now we will go to work.”

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    Anabel Sosa

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  • FBI arrests L.A. actor and Republican Party official over alleged involvement in Jan. 6 riot

    FBI arrests L.A. actor and Republican Party official over alleged involvement in Jan. 6 riot

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    A Los Angeles County Republican Party executive board member was arrested on charges related to entering the U.S. Capitol during the riot on Jan. 6, 2021, according to news reports and party officials.

    Siaka Massaquoi, first vice-chair of the L.A. County Republican Party, was arrested Thursday by FBI agents at a Los Angeles airport, reported Red State, a conservative news media outlet for which Massaquoi is a columnist. Massaquoi was reportedly returning with his wife from Nashville, where the couple attended the premiere of the Daily Wire’s new film “Lady Ballers,” a controversial comedy mocking transgender athletes.

    Massaquoi was taken into custody on misdemeanor charges including trespassing, disorderly conduct and parading or demonstrating in a Capitol building, and he was held in jail overnight and released on a $1,000 bond Friday, Red State reported.

    A spokesperson for the Republican Party of L.A. County confirmed the arrest and said more information would be provided later.

    In a post Saturday on social media platform X, formerly Twitter, Massaquoi shared a video clip of a livestream from inside the Capitol on Jan. 6, writing: “Witness why I was raided 2 years ago and recently arrested and charged Nov 30th 2023 almost 3 years later.”

    Authorities raided Massaquoi’s North Hollywood home in June 2021 because of his associations on “a social media app,” a law enforcement source said at the time. Massaquoi posted an Instagram video after the raid in which he said, “I did nothing wrong on the 6th … did nothing violent.”

    The 71-second video shared by Massaquoi on Saturday appears to show him holding his phone up to record or stream video among about a dozen protesters, some with their faces covered or wearing Trump 2020 hats, crowded at the threshold of a door into the Capitol. Dozens of Capitol Police officers, many in riot gear, fill the hallway and appear to be trying to get the Trump supporters out of the building. Some of those in the video say they are “trying” to leave but are blocked by the crowds.

    Massaquoi did not respond to requests from The Times for comment.

    In comments to Red State, Massaquoi said he was “grateful to Jesus for being with me and my family throughout this unbelievable event.”

    “Charlotte and I are so grateful for all the love and support we have received so far and know we will get through this with God’s grace. Thank you for your prayers and support,” Massaquoi said.

    The U.S. attorney’s office for the District of Columbia is prosecuting the case. The office did not immediately return requests for comment.

    Massaquoi, an actor whose IMDb credits include bit parts on shows including Fox’s “Lethal Weapon,” also filmed himself at a protest that shut down the COVID-19 vaccination site at Dodger Stadium in January 2021.

    Times staff writer Richard Winton contributed to this report.

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    Alexandra E. Petri

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  • Is ’90 Day Fiancé’ having an effect on visa approvals? A new report argues it is

    Is ’90 Day Fiancé’ having an effect on visa approvals? A new report argues it is

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    WASHINGTON, D.C. — 

    Since it first aired in 2014, TLC’s “90 Day Fiancé” has shown viewers the complexities of long-distance, international romances between U.S. citizens and people from foreign countries. But as the reality TV series has grown in popularity over the last decade, the approval rate for fiancé visas has dropped.

    Those things could be linked, according to a report released Monday by Boundless Immigration, a tech company that helps people navigate immigration processes. The organization is looking into the ways in which the series might be affecting regular visa applicants, and says that while the show raised awareness about the visa process, it may have led to increased scrutiny of applications.

    U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, however, said there isn’t any correlation between the show and the approval process.

    “Requests for immigration benefits are not determined based on television entertainment or other forms of media content,” spokesman Matthew Bourke said.

    “USCIS adjudicators individually evaluate every request for immigration benefits fairly, humanely and efficiently before issuing a determination,” Bourke said.

    Viewership for “90 Day Fiancé” has steadily increased since the show launched in 2014, according to the report. Meanwhile, the approval rate for fiancé visas dropped nearly by a quarter, from 87% in fiscal year 2015 to 63% in 2022, according to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services data.

    Before the show started, the approval rate was 75% in 2013. Data through the third quarter of this fiscal year show a 75% approval rate of applications processed so far. Still, Boundless Immigration said, the drop after “90 Day Fiancé” began airing is worth continuing to examine.

    “The vast majority of Americans and even members of Congress would agree that keeping people in purgatory or keeping families from starting their lives together is probably not the best way of operating for the country,” said Boundless Immigration’s chief executive Xiao Wang, adding that the company has had clients who were featured on the show.

    Representatives for TLC did not respond to requests for comment.

    The K-1 visa is designed to reunite U.S. citizens with their foreign fiancés, giving them 90 days to get married before the visa expires.

    But as with all immigration processes, the pandemic caused significant delays for fiancé visas. Early this year, the average processing time for the I-129F petition by the U.S. citizen fiancé for their foreign partner — a critical step in the visa process — ballooned to 21 months from seven months, according to the report.

    On an episode of “90 Fiancé: Before the 90 Days,” participant Gino Palazzolo lamented how difficult it was leaving his partner, Jasmine Pineda, after he proposed to her in Panama.

    “As soon as I got home, I filed the K-1 visa to bring Jasmine to the United States,” Palazzolo says on the episode. “But, you know, it’s taken a long time to process. We’re at, like, 12 months. So that makes Jasmine frustrated, because she wants to be with me now, and it causes friction between us.”

    Though the show hasn’t led to an increase in fiancé visa applications, the backlog of applications waiting to be processed has more than doubled since before the pandemic to 51,500, according to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services data.

    Although visa issuances have risen since 2020, they are still nowhere near pre-pandemic levels, according to the report. Fiancé visas make up less than half a percent of all yearly non-immigrant visa admissions.

    Bourke of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services said the agency recently implemented changes to reduce the backlog of fiancé visa cases after the pandemic caused an agency-wide hiring freeze. Appropriations by Congress last year have been critical to reducing the backlog, he said, and proposed application fee increases would also help.

    California is among the most common states for fiancé visa holders, as well as Texas, Florida and New York, according to the report.

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    Andrea Castillo

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  • Paramedics work on unconscious person in CBD – Medical Marijuana Program Connection

    Paramedics work on unconscious person in CBD – Medical Marijuana Program Connection

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    Paramedics work on unconscious person in CBD Original Author Link click here to read complete story.. … Read More

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    MMP News Author

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