The Sheraton Boston Hotel is offering guests the chance to spend the night inside a life-sized replica of the beloved “Goodnight Moon” bedroom.The suite is a full-scale replica of the Great Green Room from the beloved 1947 children’s book by Margaret Wise Brown.The whimsical room is perched on the 24th floor of the hotel and has views of the Charles River. It features green walls, red carpet, a glowing LED fireplace and even a working dollhouse.The suite also comes with other custom amenities, including a plush bunny for each child and turndown service complete with milk and cookies served in a keepsake porcelain bowl.
The Sheraton Boston Hotel is offering guests the chance to spend the night inside a life-sized replica of the beloved “Goodnight Moon” bedroom.
The suite is a full-scale replica of the Great Green Room from the beloved 1947 children’s book by Margaret Wise Brown.
The whimsical room is perched on the 24th floor of the hotel and has views of the Charles River. It features green walls, red carpet, a glowing LED fireplace and even a working dollhouse.
The suite also comes with other custom amenities, including a plush bunny for each child and turndown service complete with milk and cookies served in a keepsake porcelain bowl.
An Ohio couple tied the knot in Covington during a special ceremony in front of a special guest.This wedding centered on their 3-year-old daughter, who was born with serious health complications. The new Mr. and Mrs. Wise exchanged vows surrounded by their sweet children. The magical night was also a miracle night because their little girl was there.Doctors told the couple that the odds were stacked against baby Oakleigh.“They told us that, you know, she may not be here for this. So it is definitely very emotional,” said dad Mike.Mike and Samantha spent years making wishes in hospital waiting rooms and years wishing for more moments with their little girl.Wednesday, when it came time to kiss the bride, Oakleigh was by her parents’ side.The couple says Kenton County Magistrate Stephen Hoffman made their wish come true.Hoffman was touched by their story. He says he wanted to surprise the couple with something special, so he planned the ceremony.”I just wish that they have the best of life and everything they can do for their whole family,” says Hoffman.This special occasion is proof that love conquers all.”Have faith in your heart, because things can always turn around, and I think we’re proof of that,” said Mike.Next week, the Wise family is getting another wish granted thanks to Make-A-Wish. The foundation is sending them to Florida for a Disney World vacation.
An Ohio couple tied the knot in Covington during a special ceremony in front of a special guest.
This wedding centered on their 3-year-old daughter, who was born with serious health complications.
The new Mr. and Mrs. Wise exchanged vows surrounded by their sweet children. The magical night was also a miracle night because their little girl was there.
Doctors told the couple that the odds were stacked against baby Oakleigh.
“They told us that, you know, she may not be here for this. So it is definitely very emotional,” said dad Mike.
Mike and Samantha spent years making wishes in hospital waiting rooms and years wishing for more moments with their little girl.
Wednesday, when it came time to kiss the bride, Oakleigh was by her parents’ side.
The couple says Kenton County Magistrate Stephen Hoffman made their wish come true.
Hoffman was touched by their story. He says he wanted to surprise the couple with something special, so he planned the ceremony.
“I just wish that they have the best of life and everything they can do for their whole family,” says Hoffman.
This special occasion is proof that love conquers all.
“Have faith in your heart, because things can always turn around, and I think we’re proof of that,” said Mike.
Next week, the Wise family is getting another wish granted thanks to Make-A-Wish. The foundation is sending them to Florida for a Disney World vacation.
Governor relives firebomb attack, harrowing escape in exclusive walkthrough of home
Governor, thank you for sitting down with us and uh allowing us to see what has been going on here inside of the residence. Um, I know you’ve spoken at times over the last several months about how you were doing, but 6 months later, um, how are you feeling? How are you and your family doing? I mean, thanks for asking, you know, we’re OK, um, I I think in the. Initial weeks it was really hard just as *** dad trying to get your kids through that trying to process it myself Laurie trying to process it trying to continue to you know run the Commonwealth and be here for the wonderful people that work at the residences and and it was *** lot and, and you know we worked our way through that um we were there for the kids I think got them through it. Over the last couple weeks since um the conviction, I, I think it you know it, it sort of brought it back up again um while we’re pleased that there’s some finality and some closure to this chapter, you know, seeing the video and. Sort of having to go through that again that was hard hard for our family but we’re working our way through it. I, I can tell you that I’m more focused and determined than ever before to do this work. uh I’m not afraid, uh, but it certainly has an impact. How has it changed you as you look at not only your role as the governor but also uh as the head of *** family as as *** father? Yeah. I don’t think any parent can ever be prepared for something like this as *** parent, you know, all you want is for your kids to be healthy and safe and have opportunity in life and I think every parent, uh, universally wants that for their kids and so when you realize that the job you’ve chosen the career path you’ve chosen, the work you love to do, put your kids’ lives at risk and compromise one of those central tenets you have as *** parent, um. It’s really hard so that that’s been hard for me as *** dad to work through. I, I think what it has, um, caused me to do is just not cause that’s not the right word, but what what it’s led me to do is just be more present for my kids, um, try and be there when they wanna have *** catch or they just wanna do something and answer their questions just be super attentive to what’s on their mind. uh, I think sometimes I’m probably annoying to them when I go, hey buddy, what’s up? Is there anything you wanna ask me anything on your mind? Um, but I, I just have found that being more attentive, more connected, answering their questions, uh, you know, has helped us, helped us get through this. I don’t know that I have *** perfect answer, um, and I’m processing it every day, and I think Gloria and I strive every day to be better parents, you know, to our kids as I think every parent does, and, um. You know we’ve got some amazing children that that that have you know they’re just really strong to the core and they’ve gotten through this. When you talk about being here at the residence, whether it’s having stayed overnight here since the incident or or just been visiting and hosting an event uh like state dinner. Have things changed for you when you walk through the halls, when you walk through this garden area. Yeah, candidly, um, one of the things I like to do is after, you know, my meetings or *** dinner meeting or an event or whatever it is, I work really late, as you know I get up really early, you know, so it might be 10 o’clock at night. Um, and I will get on the phone, throw my AirPods on, and I will walk these gardens because rather than sitting still I like to move and as I walk here I can’t help but think, you know, the steps that he took or where he hid or the windows that he he broke through and it probably will be some time till I can shake that now I’m not afraid it doesn’t make me not want to come outside, um, you know, I still sleep here and spend *** lot of time here with our family. So I’m, I’m not afraid, but, but I’d be lying if I said I don’t think about it when I opened the double doors that lead to, you know, our, our more private area, those are double doors he was trying to kick down and get through. I’d be lying if I said when I grabbed the door handle to open it up and go through, I, I don’t think about that. Again, not in *** way that that holds me back or in *** way that stops me from doing what I gotta do, um, but it’s present and, and I think about it. When you’re having moments like that, perhaps over the last several months where you’re thinking about what happened, maybe, uh, you know, you, you remember some of those emotions they come back to you *** little bit. Who have you leaned on the most over these last 6 months to try to uh. Whether it’s come to terms or or just deal with the emotions Laurie, um, I, I, someone asked me the other day, you know, did you go to therapy for this and, and I didn’t, not because I think there’s any shame in therapy. I think it’s *** wonderful thing, but for, for Laurie and I think because we experienced it together, um, processing it together, talking about it together. Um, telling her what I’m thinking and what I’m feeling when I’m wandering here in the gardens or whether I’m upstairs, you know, in the living quarters above where the, the attack took place, um, I think just being able to talk with her has been the, the most important thing, you know, Laura and I, uh. Walk every day when we’re together and if we’re not together you know I’m here and she’s back in Montgomery County with the kids or something. I, I’ll still throw throw my airpods on and walk and talk to her that way. I think just that process of walking of talking, she’s my best friend in the world since the 9th grade that’s, yeah, that’s really helped me get through this. You know this event obviously brought *** lot of attention to the governor’s residence and I know we’re gonna walk around in *** little bit with all the attention, all the scrutiny, how, how do you balance all of that happening while you’re still trying to do your job, still trying to deal with, uh, the emotions of what happened. Is it difficult to process all of that sometimes? Yeah, and, and look, I mean. Like anyone, I value my privacy and I don’t really have any. I mean, I’m not, I’m not complaining. I asked for this job and, and I love this job and I wanna do it for *** good long while, but you know you, you do give up that sense of privacy and so even more so now, um, you lose that privacy. I, I think you know as I walk around these grounds late at night we now have armed troopers who are who are here. Um, you look through the windows and there’s like *** waviness to it because we’ve got ballistic shields on the windows. I mean, and *** lot of other technology and stuff here that’s been installed to keep us safe and so while it’s comforting to know that my family and I are safe and guests are safe and the staff is safe, you know, I don’t know anybody really wants to live in, you know, with ballistic windows knowing that there are people that wanna do you harm and. I think for for us I I just try and have comfort in knowing that we got wonderful people in the state police there to keep us safe. This is just the reality of the world we’re in and I and I can’t let it slow me down or deter me from from doing the work I’m doing, but it does, you know, it does take some getting used to and and certainly something that we’re constantly processing. We talked with Colonel Paris earlier today and he admitted there were failures that uh evening when you talk about that and trying to come back here and and be here and you look around at all the different things that are happening, the new barrier on the outside, some of the new technology that is going in, um, do you feel confident that they have taken the steps to make this place safer than it was on that evening? I do now I mean I I I I was rattled. Uh, you know, that day and in the days thereafter I asked *** lot of questions about how could this happen. Um, they had some answers and to Colonel Paris is great credit, um, he thought we needed an outside, you know, expert to come in and do an assessment here and at our home and, and in the way we travel and make sure that we were safe not only here but in in all different, you know, aspects of our lives. I, I am now confident that they’ve taken the steps and continue to take the steps necessary. To keep me and my family safe, to keep the staff and others safe that that are here and to make sure our guests are safe. So yeah, I’ve got confidence in the state police. I really do. And you know, I wanted to ask obviously Cody Ballmer, um. In the investigation they they were able to determine that he had uh what sounded like *** political motivated reason for for doing what he was doing. We talk about political violence we talk about the fact that there was an attempted murder of you at this residence. With what we continue to see, do you feel like as it pertains to political violence we need to, uh, look back on things like this and say we really have to do *** better job as *** society, not allowing it to happen absolutely and and I think it starts with. All leaders speaking and acting the moral clarity to condemn political violence, I think it requires all of us to take down the temperature we can have strong disagreements with, you know, the, the political opposition without treating them like they’re our enemy. You know, I think our our politics in many ways have gotten so dark and and political violence is certainly quite dark, but I’ve also just seen an extraordinary amount of light from, you know, ordinary Pennsylvanians who are just really good and decent people who, who pray for us who, who want society to be less violent who wanna just disagree agreeably with politicians or agree with them if their positions happen to be in sync. Uh, but I, I think too often times our political leaders are not good examples of, of what we need more of, um, and, and so I’ve made it *** point. I, I know others have. Spencer Cox, *** good friend of mine, the governor of Utah, has, you know, of trying to make sure that the rhetoric is, is toned down, that we find more common ground even if we might have *** disagreement on *** policy. And that we universally condemn political violence and and not allow *** certain group or type of person or person with *** certain ideology to think their hateful rhetoric or their violence is OK. None of that type of hate, none of that type of violence is OK and it’s got to be universally condemned. Before we look around the residents and you, you know, before, before we, we go through some of the steps about what occurred that night, I, I wanted to ask for you. With everything that’s happened over the last 6 months with with what happened on that evening. Is there anything you feel like people just haven’t understood about that and, and, and, you know, something you perhaps haven’t articulated yet as far as, you know, your emotions or perhaps just the experience of trying to process all that and. I don’t know, Tom. I mean, I’m still processing *** lot of it. And I don’t expect Pennsylvanians to bear my burden, you know, this is my responsibility to bear. I do think *** lot of people were shocked when they saw the videos that came out, uh, just *** couple weeks ago when, um, when he was convicted and sentenced up to 50 years in prison when they saw just how brazen the attack was, how deep he got into the residence, the destruction that, uh, that took place, the fact that, you know. He pled guilty to trying to kill me. Um, I think that was *** shock to *** lot of people, you know, who hadn’t seen that video and didn’t realize just the extent of the damage and. And how, how much in danger my family and I were and uh I think that’s that that was *** shock to *** lot of people. I, I don’t want Pennsylvanians to be worried about me or our family or this or be burdened by it. I want them to go about their their daily lives and know I’m working my *** off for them to make their lives better. That’s my job and I love what I do and and I’m gonna keep doing it and and working incredibly hard for them. With everything that’s been happening, will you be, will you be excited when this place has all the construction equipment gone? I gotta say, I mean the construction has been *** challenge not just for our family but the wonderful people that work here. We’ve tried really hard to still be able to bring people in and have the events tonight we’re honored to host the state dinner. Um, which usually here state dinner you think *** bunch of insiders get to come to *** fancy meal. Actually my wife Laurie, our first lady changed that concept. We now honor 10 unsung heroes in in communities across Pennsylvania. We honor them. With the fancy dinner here and and give them the Governor’s Keystone Award for um their incredible contributions to to our commonwealth so we’re really excited to have that uh in here. I wish the gardens were put back together. I wish the outside looked *** little better but um it will and and I I also want all of our neighbors here to know that we realized this has been. Um, disturbing to them, it doesn’t look as pretty as it did before. It’s gonna look amazing when it’s done. We’re gonna plant *** lot more trees and, and beautify the area. We, we have *** commitment not just to our safety and security here for visitors but also to make it beautiful on the outside for for neighbors as well. So sure, I’d love for the construction to be over soon, but we’re not letting uh letting it hold us back. We’re gonna keep going forward. Do you think that’s when things might start to feel normal again? Maybe yeah yeah I think um. You know, no normal for you may maybe the ability to take *** bike ride or take *** walk and kinda just be able to blend in we, we don’t really have that ability right now and um particularly with so many people around so I think the fewer people that are around, the more we can get back. Our, uh, semblance of normalcy sure that’d be great, but I, I do have to say to the amazing people who have worked here, I mean they’ve been working almost nonstop since the moments after the police released this scene to us, um, and let us get going with the rebuild. So I, I have no complaints. The people here have worked really, really hard. I’m excited for them to finish their job and, and, and to get it, get it all back in tip top shape for the public. Governor, thank you.
Governor relives firebomb attack, harrowing escape in exclusive walkthrough of home
Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro spoke exclusively with Hearst sister station WGAL about the arson attack on the state governor’s residence earlier this year and walked the station through the grounds and residence to describe how it happened. Touring grounds, governor’s homeDuring a walkthrough of the gardens, Shapiro describes how the intruder, Cody Balmer, scaled what was then a six-foot fence, hid near a brick gazebo in a once-wooded area, and initially evaded troopers. “That’s where he climbed over (a fence) with relative ease,” Shapiro said, pointing out an area where a brick wall is now being built. “And he sort of hid back here in what used to be a pretty wooded area … after one of the troopers realized that there was a breach of the fence came to try to find him, and missed him.”Carrying a metal hammer and a bag of Molotov cocktails, Balmer moved deliberately to a window, smashed it, and hurled a firebomb that gutted the room. He then broke another window, climbed inside, and tried to reach double doors leading to the family’s living and work areas. The double doors had been locked just minutes earlier. “And this is the window that he smashed and climbed through, wielding this metal hammer that he admitted he was going to use to kill me if he found me,” Shapiro said.Balmer prowled about inside, kicking doors, but as the smoke thickened, he turned back.Shapiro called the incident a clear security failure but said state police have learned from it and upgrades are in place. He recounted his family’s evacuation down a back stairwell and his later return with firefighters, where dense smoke, water, and wreckage made it evident the blaze was intentional.”I remember as I was walking down the hallway in the house, you couldn’t see your hand in front of you. The smoke was so thick it was burning your nose, your eyes,” Shapiro said. “You could hear the water dripping. And obviously I’m no expert, but I had assumed up until that moment when I came back in here, whatever it was about, you know, two or three in the morning, that it was an accident, that something caught fire in the kitchen or, you know, something like that or a faulty wire. And then when I walked in this room and saw what it looked like … I realized, OK, I don’t think this was an accident. And then, sure enough, a few minutes later, I was informed it was an attack. And it was very purposeful.”You can watch the full tour of the grounds and residence with Shapiro in the video player below.Security improvements, costsRebuilding began immediately — ceilings, floors, windows, and a melted chandelier were replaced — and the room was restored to its original look, being prepared to host a state dinner honoring 10 Pennsylvanians. In a letter to the Pennsylvania House and Senate, the Department of General Services laid out how much it would cost to repair the governor’s residence and make various security improvements that were deemed necessary after numerous vulnerabilities were exposed. The total cost for the restoration and security enhancements totaled roughly $40 million. The Department of General Services provided the following breakdown as well as explanations for each expenditure. You can read the full letter here. $6.44 million: Estimated cost to restore the residence to pre-event condition. $14 million: Outer perimeter, barrier replacement.$6.3 million: Updated cameras, improved lighting motion sensors.$8 million: Retrofit existing windows with bulletproof, shatter-proof glass.$4 million: Fire suppression system.”The horrifying attack on the Governor, his family, and Commonwealth property, coupled with the unfortunate rise in political violence across our country, has made these updates necessary to protect the Governor and his family and ensure the continued operation of the executive branch of the Commonwealth. No family should have to live behind bulletproof glass or behind large walls – but the nature of the threats against elected officials today require us to take these important steps,” the letter said.Arsonist sentencedOn Oct. 14, Cody Balmer pleaded guilty to setting fire to the Pennsylvania governor’s residence in April. Balmer was convicted of attempted homicide, aggravated arson and terrorism. The judge sentenced him to 25 to 50 years in prison.Motive behind attackBalmer admitted to targeting the residence due to Shapiro’s stance on the war in Gaza.
Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro spoke exclusively with Hearst sister station WGAL about the arson attack on the state governor’s residence earlier this year and walked the station through the grounds and residence to describe how it happened.
Touring grounds, governor’s home
During a walkthrough of the gardens, Shapiro describes how the intruder, Cody Balmer, scaled what was then a six-foot fence, hid near a brick gazebo in a once-wooded area, and initially evaded troopers.
“That’s where he climbed over (a fence) with relative ease,” Shapiro said, pointing out an area where a brick wall is now being built. “And he sort of hid back here in what used to be a pretty wooded area … after one of the troopers realized that there was a breach of the fence came to try to find him, and missed him.”
WGAL
The governor points to the area where Balmer scaled a fence.
Carrying a metal hammer and a bag of Molotov cocktails, Balmer moved deliberately to a window, smashed it, and hurled a firebomb that gutted the room.
He then broke another window, climbed inside, and tried to reach double doors leading to the family’s living and work areas. The double doors had been locked just minutes earlier.
“And this is the window that he smashed and climbed through, wielding this metal hammer that he admitted he was going to use to kill me if he found me,” Shapiro said.
Balmer prowled about inside, kicking doors, but as the smoke thickened, he turned back.
Shapiro called the incident a clear security failure but said state police have learned from it and upgrades are in place. He recounted his family’s evacuation down a back stairwell and his later return with firefighters, where dense smoke, water, and wreckage made it evident the blaze was intentional.
“I remember as I was walking down the hallway in the house, you couldn’t see your hand in front of you. The smoke was so thick it was burning your nose, your eyes,” Shapiro said. “You could hear the water dripping. And obviously I’m no expert, but I had assumed up until that moment when I came back in here, whatever it was about, you know, two or three in the morning, that it was an accident, that something caught fire in the kitchen or, you know, something like that or a faulty wire. And then when I walked in this room and saw what it looked like … I realized, OK, I don’t think this was an accident. And then, sure enough, a few minutes later, I was informed it was an attack. And it was very purposeful.”
You can watch the full tour of the grounds and residence with Shapiro in the video player below.
Security improvements, costs
Rebuilding began immediately — ceilings, floors, windows, and a melted chandelier were replaced — and the room was restored to its original look, being prepared to host a state dinner honoring 10 Pennsylvanians.
In a letter to the Pennsylvania House and Senate, the Department of General Services laid out how much it would cost to repair the governor’s residence and make various security improvements that were deemed necessary after numerous vulnerabilities were exposed.
The total cost for the restoration and security enhancements totaled roughly $40 million. The Department of General Services provided the following breakdown as well as explanations for each expenditure. You can read the full letter here.
$6.44 million: Estimated cost to restore the residence to pre-event condition.
$8 million: Retrofit existing windows with bulletproof, shatter-proof glass.
$4 million: Fire suppression system.
“The horrifying attack on the Governor, his family, and Commonwealth property, coupled with the unfortunate rise in political violence across our country, has made these updates necessary to protect the Governor and his family and ensure the continued operation of the executive branch of the Commonwealth. No family should have to live behind bulletproof glass or behind large walls – but the nature of the threats against elected officials today require us to take these important steps,” the letter said.
Arsonist sentenced
On Oct. 14, Cody Balmer pleaded guilty to setting fire to the Pennsylvania governor’s residence in April.
Balmer was convicted of attempted homicide, aggravated arson and terrorism. The judge sentenced him to 25 to 50 years in prison.
Motive behind attack
Balmer admitted to targeting the residence due to Shapiro’s stance on the war in Gaza.
Art imitates life, and life can be horrifying. Every axe-murdering psychopath the ever stalked the pages of a thriller novel owes their existence to a real world killer. Fiction has its basis in fact, and the fact is, planet Earth is not a very nice place. Man eating beasts, cannibal murderers, this world has seen it all. While good horror fiction can haunt our dreams, real-life horror stories disturb our waking ours. The cosmic writers’ room that governs our reality has come up with some seriously chilling plot twists over the years, and these novels are inspired by the real life monsters that make our world a worse place. These are 10 books based on horrifying true stories, for the true crime lover in you.
The Hunger
(G.P. Putnam’s Sons)
Human history is littered with examples of us going places we shouldn’t. The Mariana Trench. Outer space. The peak of some desolate mountain top, places that weren’t meant to be seen by human eyes. The Hunger by Alma Katsu is the story of one of the most famous doomed expeditions in American history: that of the Donner Party. This party was anything but festive – in 1846, a group of 87 men, women and children all journeyed up into the Sierra Nevada on a trek to California. After becoming snowbound, they had to rely on each other to survive – not in a cooperative sense, but cannibalistic one. According to Katsu’s retelling of the tale, these deplorable events may have had supernatural causes. Maybe the Donner’s didn’t eat each other, maybe there was something else in the mountains, something hungry for them?
The Amityville Horror
(Bantam Books)
The Amityville Horror by Jay Anson is the ultimate haunted house story, a recounting of one of the infamous paranormal experiences in American history. In 1975, 23 year old Ronald DeFeo Jr. murdered six members of his family in their suburban home. One year later, the Lutz family moved in to the DeFeo’s old place. Over a period of 28 days, the family claims to have been plagued by supernatural horrors – hauntings by the restless spirits of the dead. After listening to hours worth of tape recordings made by the Lutzes about their experiences, Anson wrote the manuscript that would later become the novel. While framed as a truthful account of Lutz’ experiences, the book is not without controversy, and critics have claimed that details have been embellished or made up. Whether fact or fiction, the truth is clear: this one of the most unsettling horror novels ever written.
The Exorcist
(Harper Collins)
The Exorcist by William Blatty is the stuff of horror legend, its film adaption is often hailed as one of the finest works in the genre. The famous plot revolves around a little girl possessed by an ancient demon, and the efforts taken to exorcise it by her mother and a pair of Catholic priests. The novel was inspired by a genuine exorcism that took place in 1949 – that of Ronald Edwin Hunkeler, previously known under the pseudonym Roland Doe. Hunkeler, a former Nasa employee, claimed he began experiencing malevolent supernatural events at 14. A Jesuit priest conducted over 20 exorcism rituals on Ronald while he was a teenager, during which he allegedly screamed phrases in Latin. The story was later covered in The Washington Post in 1949, and Blatty was inspired to write The Exorcist after hearing about it.
The Girl Next Door
(Leisure Books)
The Girl Next Door by Jack Ketchum is the story of teenage Meg and her disabled sister Sarah, who are kept imprisoned in a basement by their aunt and her three children. As the days turn to weeks, Sarah and Meg are subject to increasingly brutal tortures by their cousins – tortures spurred on by their psychopathic guardian. A boy named David, who serves as the novel’s narrator, attempts to rescue the two sisters – things don’t go as planned. Horrifying and brutal, the novel was inspired by the real life murder of Sylvia Likens – who was tortured by her caretaker Gertrude Baniszewski, some of Baniszewski’s children, and even some of her neighbors. It’s a deeply painful read, an echo of one of the most infamous killings in American history.
Room
(Little, Brown and Company)
Room by Emma Donoghue is the story of a five year old boy raised in captivity. Jack has lived his entire life within the confines of a single room alongside his mother, who herself has been there for seven years. Told from Jack’s point of view, the novel details’ his mother’s escape attempt – one that will free them from the grip of their terrifying captor Old Nick. The novel was inspired by the real life case of Elisabeth Fritzl, who was held captive by her father Josef for 24 years. He used her as a sex slave, and she was forced to bear him multiple children – children that served as her only company. In spite of the horrific real life story that inspired it, Room is an unexpectedly uplifting novel – a story of mother’s love told from her son’s point of view, detailing her determination to provide her child with a better life than the one they live.
Burial Rites
(Little, Brown and Company)
Burial Rites by Hannah Kent is inspired by the true story of Agnes Magnúsdóttir – the last woman who was executed in Iceland. A servant, Agnes was charged with murder of her former master and was exiled to a remote farm to await her death. The farmer and his family were horrified, shunning the woman accused of such a brutal crime. As the days passes however, the family learned that there are two sides to this story, and Agnes tells a very different tale than the one that they heard. While the real details behind the murder are unclear to this day, Kent paints Agnes in a sympathetic light – a woman who was a victim of both prejudice and circumstance.
Alias Grace
(Doubleday)
Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood is a historical fiction inspired by the story of Grace Marks, a servant who was convicted of killing her employer and his housekeeper/mistress. While languishing in prison, Grace is visited by a character of Atwood’s invention – a doctor named Simon Jordan, who is researching the case. Acting on behalf of those who believe Grace is innocent, Simon attempts to separate fact from fiction surrounding the day of the murder – a day that Grace herself can’t remember. What begins as a clinical study of criminality soon blossoms into a genuine connection as Simon attempts to absolve Grace of a crime she appears not to have committed – a crime that may stem from a supernatural cause.
The Devil In The White City
(Crown Publishers)
The Devil In The White City by Erik Larson is a historical fiction about a real life event so unbelievable it sounds completely made up. It’s the story of the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair – a worldwide gathering of artists and inventors unveiling their incredible creations. The novel branches into two intertwining narratives, one following the event’s architect Daniel H. Burnham, the other following H.H. Holmes – a now infamous serial killer. Holmes oversaw the creation of the World’s Fair Hotel – a labyrinthian piece of architecture that doubled as a series of torture chambers. The novel details how Holmes lured his victims to the hotel, trapping them within the structure and carrying out his gruesome murders using a built in crematorium and gas chamber. While the novel (and the press at the time of Holmes was caught) embellished some of the facts, much of what transpired at “The Murder Hotel” actually happened. Real life can sometimes be stranger (and far more horrible) than fiction.
The Terror
(Back Bay Books)
The Terror by Dan Simmons tells the tale of the HMS Terror, an unfortunately named vessel that was lost during Captain Sir John Franklin’s doomed expedition to find the Northwest Passage in 1845. Seeking to establish a route through the Arctic Circle, Franklin and his men became icebound during the voyage. As if a combination of dwindling temperatures and food supplies wasn’t bad enough, the men discover that they are being hunted by something malevolent that stalks the snow. Inspired by Inuit myth, The Terror is a chilly historical horror that elicits the exact reaction the title suggests.
The Hidden People
(Arcadia)
The Hidden People by Alison Littlewood is inspired by the real life murder of Bridget Cleary – who was set on fire by her husband on suspicion that she was a changeling. Changelings are spirits of European folklore, fae beings that were said to be able to take human form. The novel takes place after the death of Lizzie Higgs – a woman immolated by a husband, who believed her to be something other than what she seemed. Her cousin Albie Mirralls leaves his life in London behind the piece together the details of Lizzie’s death, journeying to the remote town of Halfoak – where the “hidden people” are said to roam. It’s a stunning work of folk horror like The Witch and Midsommar, and deserves its own A24 adaptation
Sarah Fimm (they/them) is actually nine choirs of biblically accurate angels crammed into one pair of $10 overalls. They have been writing articles for nerds on the internet for less than a year now. They really like anime. Like… REALLY like it. Like you know those annoying little kids that will only eat hotdogs and chicken fingers? They’re like that… but with anime. It’s starting to get sad.
On his first full day back in Washington, House Speaker Mike Johnson sat for hours in a closed-door interview with six women who say they were abused by the late Jeffrey Epstein.Johnson’s presence in the room on the first day of a frenetically busy September on Capitol Hill underscores how significant the issue of Epstein’s past crimes has become within the GOP.Within days, House Republicans are expected to take their first major floor votes on forcing President Donald Trump’s administration to release more records related to the case. And Johnson — like his members — is under intense pressure to meet the base’s demands for transparency without going against the wishes of the president, whose inner circle has attempted to quiet this summer’s political firestorm over Epstein.“The fact that Mike Johnson sat there for two and a half hours — we’re serious about this,” House Oversight Chairman James Comer told reporters after leaving the meeting Tuesday. “We’re going to do everything we can to make this right.”Johnson himself told reporters the testimonials he heard were “heartbreaking and infuriating” and said “there were tears in the room. There was outrage.”Five weeks ago, Johnson and his leadership team had hoped that sending lawmakers home early to their districts for their August recess would defuse tension around the issue. But the return of Congress to Washington showed that the pressure on GOP leaders has only continued to build.That pressure on Republicans will dramatically increase on Wednesday, when Rep. Thomas Massie and his Democratic counterpart in the effort, Rep. Ro Khanna of California, will hold a press conference in which some of Epstein’s survivors are expected to speak publicly for the first time.Massie and Khanna are leading a push to force the full House to vote on a resolution that would require Trump’s Justice Department to turn over all documents related to Epstein or his crimes. Under their maneuver, known as a discharge petition, Massie would need just five more Republicans to force the bill to the floor since every Democrat is expected to sign on.So far, two other Republicans have signaled they’ll support it: Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia and Rep. Lauren Boebert of Colorado. Other Republicans who have supported the bill itself — including Reps. Anna Paulina Luna of Florida, Eli Crane of Arizona and Tim Burchett of Tennessee — were either noncommittal or suggested they would not support the discharge petition when asked by CNN on Tuesday.The House Oversight Committee has been leading an investigation into Epstein after some Republicans joined with Democrats to compel a subpoena to the Justice Department for records. The panel on Tuesday night released more than 33,000 pages related to the case – all of the subpoenaed documents the panel had obtained earlier this summer.But the public release of information has not stopped the push for more transparency that has ratcheted up the pressure on Johnson. Massie and Democrats said nearly all of those documents had already been made public as part of various court cases and that it did not alter their push for their own Epstein measure.As part of its investigation, the Oversight Committee hosted a meeting on Tuesday with several survivors who are planning to speak at Wednesday’s press conference. In that closed-door meeting, several of them shared chilling stories of abuse. GOP Rep. Nancy Mace, one of the lawmakers in the room who has spoken out about being raped at age 16, left the meeting in tears.Inside the room, one survivor said the women had been told by Epstein that they were disposable and threatened against coming forward, according to a person in the room who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a private meeting. The women were told if they went to police that Epstein had powerful friends, that person said.If the bipartisan Epstein resolution does pass the House, its fate is unclear in the Senate. But it would be an extraordinary move by a GOP-controlled Congress to take against a president of its own party.To prevent such an escalation, Johnson and the White House are attempting to sell their GOP members on an alternative path. They have backed a non-binding resolution that encourages the Oversight Committee’s investigation. And Johnson stressed the importance of the work of that panel, in part by sitting in on one of the sessions himself.“I sat by him in our meeting and listened to his compassion for these survivors. I listened to his questions,” Greene said of Johnson as she left the meeting. “I’ve listened to some of his plans that he has going forward. I do think he’s doing a great job there.”Even so, Greene is one of the three Republicans so far willing to buck her leadership on the discharge petition. She said it was nothing against Johnson personally, but that she decided: “I just think we need to do everything we can to bring it out.”Inside the House GOP conference, some Republicans are privately dreading weeks of questions about the Epstein matter and would rather move onto issues like appropriations, tariffs or Russian sanctions, according to multiple lawmakers and senior aides. But many of those GOP lawmakers also realize that there is a small but vocal faction of their party that is deeply invested in getting more answers on Epstein and that they can’t be seen as dropping the issue.Democrats, meanwhile, are accusing Johnson of attempting to stonewall further investigations in Congress.Rep. Melanie Stansbury of New Mexico told reporters after the meeting that Johnson was advocating that the investigation should remain within the Oversight panel — rather than expanding the probe to include more committees.“In the room with six victims of sexual violence by Jeffrey Epstein, it was suggested by Democrats that this be investigated using the full force of every committee here in Congress. And the speaker ended by saying he didn’t think that was necessary. He’d like to just keep it in the Oversight Committee,” Stansbury said. “That is where the speaker actually chose to end this conversation.”Johnson, speaking after the Tuesday meeting, vowed “transparency” in releasing information to the public, and said that Trump shares the same perspective.“That’s his mindset. And he wants the American people to have information so they can draw their own conclusions. I’ve talked with him about this very subject myself.. He also, just as we do, is insistent that we protect the innocent victims, and that’s what this has been about,” he said.
WASHINGTON —
On his first full day back in Washington, House Speaker Mike Johnson sat for hours in a closed-door interview with six women who say they were abused by the late Jeffrey Epstein.
Johnson’s presence in the room on the first day of a frenetically busy September on Capitol Hill underscores how significant the issue of Epstein’s past crimes has become within the GOP.
Within days, House Republicans are expected to take their first major floor votes on forcing President Donald Trump’s administration to release more records related to the case. And Johnson — like his members — is under intense pressure to meet the base’s demands for transparency without going against the wishes of the president, whose inner circle has attempted to quiet this summer’s political firestorm over Epstein.
“The fact that Mike Johnson sat there for two and a half hours — we’re serious about this,” House Oversight Chairman James Comer told reporters after leaving the meeting Tuesday. “We’re going to do everything we can to make this right.”
Johnson himself told reporters the testimonials he heard were “heartbreaking and infuriating” and said “there were tears in the room. There was outrage.”
Five weeks ago, Johnson and his leadership team had hoped that sending lawmakers home early to their districts for their August recess would defuse tension around the issue. But the return of Congress to Washington showed that the pressure on GOP leaders has only continued to build.
That pressure on Republicans will dramatically increase on Wednesday, when Rep. Thomas Massie and his Democratic counterpart in the effort, Rep. Ro Khanna of California, will hold a press conference in which some of Epstein’s survivors are expected to speak publicly for the first time.
Massie and Khanna are leading a push to force the full House to vote on a resolution that would require Trump’s Justice Department to turn over all documents related to Epstein or his crimes. Under their maneuver, known as a discharge petition, Massie would need just five more Republicans to force the bill to the floor since every Democrat is expected to sign on.
So far, two other Republicans have signaled they’ll support it: Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia and Rep. Lauren Boebert of Colorado. Other Republicans who have supported the bill itself — including Reps. Anna Paulina Luna of Florida, Eli Crane of Arizona and Tim Burchett of Tennessee — were either noncommittal or suggested they would not support the discharge petition when asked by CNN on Tuesday.
The House Oversight Committee has been leading an investigation into Epstein after some Republicans joined with Democrats to compel a subpoena to the Justice Department for records. The panel on Tuesday night released more than 33,000 pages related to the case – all of the subpoenaed documents the panel had obtained earlier this summer.
But the public release of information has not stopped the push for more transparency that has ratcheted up the pressure on Johnson. Massie and Democrats said nearly all of those documents had already been made public as part of various court cases and that it did not alter their push for their own Epstein measure.
As part of its investigation, the Oversight Committee hosted a meeting on Tuesday with several survivors who are planning to speak at Wednesday’s press conference. In that closed-door meeting, several of them shared chilling stories of abuse. GOP Rep. Nancy Mace, one of the lawmakers in the room who has spoken out about being raped at age 16, left the meeting in tears.
Inside the room, one survivor said the women had been told by Epstein that they were disposable and threatened against coming forward, according to a person in the room who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a private meeting. The women were told if they went to police that Epstein had powerful friends, that person said.
If the bipartisan Epstein resolution does pass the House, its fate is unclear in the Senate. But it would be an extraordinary move by a GOP-controlled Congress to take against a president of its own party.
To prevent such an escalation, Johnson and the White House are attempting to sell their GOP members on an alternative path. They have backed a non-binding resolution that encourages the Oversight Committee’s investigation. And Johnson stressed the importance of the work of that panel, in part by sitting in on one of the sessions himself.
“I sat by him in our meeting and listened to his compassion for these survivors. I listened to his questions,” Greene said of Johnson as she left the meeting. “I’ve listened to some of his plans that he has going forward. I do think he’s doing a great job there.”
Even so, Greene is one of the three Republicans so far willing to buck her leadership on the discharge petition. She said it was nothing against Johnson personally, but that she decided: “I just think we need to do everything we can to bring it out.”
Inside the House GOP conference, some Republicans are privately dreading weeks of questions about the Epstein matter and would rather move onto issues like appropriations, tariffs or Russian sanctions, according to multiple lawmakers and senior aides. But many of those GOP lawmakers also realize that there is a small but vocal faction of their party that is deeply invested in getting more answers on Epstein and that they can’t be seen as dropping the issue.
Democrats, meanwhile, are accusing Johnson of attempting to stonewall further investigations in Congress.
Rep. Melanie Stansbury of New Mexico told reporters after the meeting that Johnson was advocating that the investigation should remain within the Oversight panel — rather than expanding the probe to include more committees.
“In the room with six victims of sexual violence by Jeffrey Epstein, it was suggested by Democrats that this be investigated using the full force of every committee here in Congress. And the speaker ended by saying he didn’t think that was necessary. He’d like to just keep it in the Oversight Committee,” Stansbury said. “That is where the speaker actually chose to end this conversation.”
Johnson, speaking after the Tuesday meeting, vowed “transparency” in releasing information to the public, and said that Trump shares the same perspective.
“That’s his mindset. And he wants the American people to have information so they can draw their own conclusions. I’ve talked with him about this very subject myself.. He also, just as we do, is insistent that we protect the innocent victims, and that’s what this has been about,” he said.
WASHINGTON — Mattresses on the floor, next to bunk beds, in meeting rooms and gymnasiums. No access to a bathroom or drinking water. Hourlong lines to buy food at the commissary or to make a phone call.
These are some of the conditions described by lawyers and the people held at immigrant detention facilities around the country over the last few months. The number of detained immigrants surpassed a record 60,000 this month. A Los Angeles Times analysis of public data shows that more than a third of ICE detainees have spent time in an overcapacity dedicated detention center this year.
In the first half of the year, at least 19 out of 49 dedicated detention facilities exceeded their rated bed capacity and many more holding facilities and local jails exceeded their agreed-upon immigrant detainee capacity. During the height of arrest activity in June, facilities that were used to operating with plenty of available beds suddenly found themselves responsible for the meals, medical attention, safety and sleeping space for four times as many detainees as they had the previous year.
“There are so many things we’ve seen before — poor food quality, abuse by guards, not having clean clothes or underwear, not getting hygiene products,” said Silky Shah, executive director of Detention Watch Network, a coalition that aims to abolish immigrant detention. “But the scale at which it’s happening feels greater, because it’s happening everywhere and people are sleeping on floors.”
Shah said there’s no semblance of dignity now. “I’ve been doing this for many years; I don’t think I even had the imagination of it getting this bad,” she added.
Shah said conditions have deteriorated in part because of how quickly this administration scaled up arrests. It took the first Trump administration more than two years to reach its peak of about 55,0000 detainees in 2019.
Assistant Homeland Security Secretary Tricia McLaughlin called the allegations about inhumane detention conditions false and a “hoax.” She said the agency has significantly expanded detention space in places such as Indiana and Nebraska and is working to rapidly remove detainees from those facilities to their countries of origin.
McLaughlin emphasized that the department provides comprehensive medical care, but did not respond to questions about other conditions.
Detainees do stretches outdoors as a helicopter flies overhead at U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Krome detention center in Miami on July 4, 2025.
(Rebecca Blackwell / Associated Press)
At the Krome North Service Processing Center in Miami, the maximum number of detainees in a day in 2024 was 615, four more than the rated bed capacity of 611. In late June of this year, the detainee population reached 1,961, more than three times the capacity. The facility, which is near the Everglades, spent 161 days in the beginning of the year with more people to house than beds.
Miami attorney Katie Blankenship of the legal aid organization Sanctuary of the South represents people detained at Krome. Last month, she saw nine Black men piled into a visitation room, surrounded with glass windows, that holds a small table and four chairs. They had pushed the table against the wall and spread a cardboard box flat across the floor, where they were taking turns sleeping.
The men had no access to a bathroom or drinking water. They stood because there was no room to sit.
Blankenship said three of the men put their documents up to the window so she could better understand their cases. All had overstayed their visas and were detained as part of an immigration enforcement action, not criminal proceedings.
Another time, Blankenship said, she saw an elderly man cramped up in pain, unable to move, on the floor of a bigger room. Other men put chairs together and lifted him so he could rest more comfortably while guards looked on, she said.
Blankenship visits often enough that people held in the visitation and holding rooms recognize her as a lawyer whenever she walks by. They bang on the glass, yell out their identification numbers and plead for help, she said.
“These are images that won’t leave me,” Blankenship said. “It’s dystopian.”
Krome is unique in the dramatic fluctuation of its detainee population. On Feb. 18, the facility saw its biggest single-day increase. A total of 521 individuals were booked in, most transferred from hold rooms across the state, including Orlando and Tampa. Hold rooms are temporary spaces for detainees to await further processing for transfers, medical treatment or other movement into or out of a facility. They are to be used to hold individuals for no more than 12 hours.
On the day after its huge influx, Krome received a waiver exempting the facility from the requirement to log hold room activity. But it never resumed the logs. Homeland Security did not respond to a request for an explanation of the exception.
After reaching their first peak of 1,764 on March 16, the trend reversed.
Rep. Frederica Wilson (D-Fla.) visited Krome on April 24. In the weeks before the visit, hundreds of detainees were transferred out. Most were moved to other facilities in Florida, some to Texas and Louisiana.
“When those lawmakers came around, they got rid of a whole bunch of detainees,” said Blankenship’s client Mopvens Louisdor.
The 30-year-old man from Haiti said conditions started to deteriorate around March as hundreds of extra people were packed into the facility.
Staffers are so overwhelmed that for detainees who can’t leave their cells for meals, he said, “by the time food gets to us, it’s cold.”
Also during this time, from April 29 through May 1, the facility underwent a compliance inspection conducted by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Office of Detention Oversight. Despite the dramatic reduction in the population, the inspection found several issues with crowding and meals. Some rooms exceeded the 25-person capacity for each and some hold times were nearly double the 12-hour limit. Inspectors observed detainees sleeping on the hold room floors without pillows or blankets. Staffers had not recorded offering a meal to the detainees in the hold rooms for more than six hours.
Hold rooms are not designed for long waits
ICE detention standards require just 7 square feet of unencumbered space for each detainee. Seating must provide 18 inches of space per detainee.
LOS ANGELES TIMES
Sanitary and medical attention were also areas of concern noted in the inspection. In most units, there were too many detainees for the number of toilets, showers and sinks. Some medical records showed that staffers failed to complete required mental and medical health screenings for new arrivals, and failed to complete tuberculosis screenings.
Detainees have tested positive for tuberculosis at facilities such as the Anchorage Correctional Complex in Alaska and the Adelanto ICE Processing Center in California. McLaughlin, the Homeland Security assistant secretary, said that detainees are screened for tuberculosis within 12 hours of arrival and that anyone who refuses a test is isolated as a precaution.
“It is a long-standing practice to provide comprehensive medical care from the moment an alien enters ICE custody,” she said. “This includes medical, dental, and mental health intake screening within 12 hours of arriving at each detention facility, a full health assessment within 14 days of entering ICE custody or arrival at a facility, and access to medical appointments and 24-hour emergency care.”
Facility administrators built a tented area outside the main building to process arriving detainees, but it wasn’t enough to alleviate the overcrowding, Louisdor said. Earlier this month, areas with space for around 65 detainees were holding more than 100, with cots spread across the floor between bunk beds.
Over-capacity facilities can feel extremely cramped
Bed capacity ratings are based on facility design. Guidelines require 50 square feet of space for each individual. When buildings designed to those specifications go over their rated capacity, there is not enough room to house additional detainees safely and comfortably.
American Correctional Association and Immigration and Customs Enforcement
LOS ANGELES TIMES
Louisdor said a young man who uses a wheelchair had resorted to relieving himself in a water bottle because staffers weren’t available to escort him to the restroom.
During the daily hour that detainees are allowed outside for recreation, 300 people stood shoulder to shoulder, he said, making it difficult to get enough exercise. When fights occasionally broke out, guards could do little to stop them, he said.
The line to buy food or hygiene products at the commissary was so long that sometimes detainees left empty-handed.
Louisdor said he has bipolar disorder, for which he takes medication. The day he had a court hearing, the staff mistakenly gave him double the dosage, leaving him unable to stand.
Since then, Louisdor said, conditions have slightly improved, though dormitories are still substantially overcrowded.
In California, detainees and lawyers similarly reported that medical care has deteriorated.
Tracy Crowley, a staff attorney at Immigrant Defenders Law Center, said clients with serious conditions such as hypertension, diabetes and cancer don’t receive their medication some days.
Cells that house up to eight people are packed with 11. With air conditioning blasting all night, detainees have told her the floor is cold and they have gotten sick. Another common complaint, she said, is that clothes and bedding are so dirty that some clients are getting rashes all over their bodies, making it difficult to sleep.
Luis at Chicano Park in San Diego on Aug. 23, 2025.
(Ariana Drehsler / For The Times)
One such client is Luis, a 40-year-old from Colombia who was arrested in May at the immigration court in San Diego after a hearing over his pending asylum petition. Luis asked to be identified by his middle name out of concern over his legal case.
When he first arrived at Otay Mesa Detention Center, Luis said, the facility was already filled to the maximum capacity. By the time he left June 30, it was overcrowded. Rooms that slept six suddenly had 10 people. Mattresses were placed in a mixed-use room and in the gym.
Luis developed a rash, but at the medical clinic he was given allergy medication and sleeping pills. The infection continued until finally he showed it over a video call to his mother, who had worked in public health, and she told him to request an anti-fungal cream.
Luis was held at Otay Mesa Detention Center after his May arrest. It was at capacity when he arrived but by the time he left in June, it was overcrowded, he said.
(Ariana Drehsler / For The Times)
Other detainees often complained to Luis that their medication doses were incomplete or missing, including two men in his dorm who took anti-psychotic medication.
“They would get stressed out, start to fight — everything irritated them,” he said. “That affected all of us.”
Crowley said the facility doesn’t have the infrastructure or staff to hold as many people as are there now. The legal system also can’t process them in a timely manner, she said, forcing people to wait months for a hearing.
The administration’s push to detain more people is only compounding existing issues, Crowley said.
“They’re self-imposing the limit, and most of the people involved in that decision-making are financially incentivized to house more and more people,” she said. “Where is the limit with this administration?”
Members of the California National Guard load a truck outside the ICE Processing Center in Adelanto, Calif., on July 11, 2025.
(Patrick T. Fallon / AFP/Getty Images)
Other facilities in California faced similar challenges. At the Adelanto ICE Processing Center, the number of detainees soared to 1,000 from 300 over a week in June, prompting an outcry over deteriorated conditions.
As of July 29, Adelanto held 1,640 detainees. The Desert View Annex, an adjacent facility also operated by the GEO Group, held 451.
Disability Rights California toured the facility and interviewed staffers and 18 people held there. The advocacy organization released a report last month detailing its findings, including substantial delays in meal distribution, a shortage of drinking water, and laundry washing delays, leading many detainees to remain in soiled clothing for long periods.
In a letter released last month, 85 Adelanto detainees wrote, “They always serve the food cold … sometimes we don’t have water for 2 to 7 hours and they said to us to drink from the sink.”
At the Stewart Detention Center in Lumpkin, Ga., Rodney Taylor, a double amputee, was rendered nearly immobile.
Taylor, who was born in Liberia, uses electronic prosthetic legs that must be charged and can’t get wet. The outlets in his dormitory were inoperable, and because of the overcrowding and short-staffing, guards couldn’t take him to another area to plug them in, said his fiancee, Mildred Pierre.
“When they’re not charged they’re super heavy, like dead weight,” she said. It becomes difficult to balance without falling.
Pierre said the air conditioning in his unit didn’t work for two months, causing water to puddle on the floor. Taylor feared he would slip while walking and fall — which happened once in May — and damage the expensive prosthetics.
Last month, Taylor refused to participate in the daily detainee count, telling guards he wouldn’t leave his cell unless they agreed to leave the cell doors open to let the air circulate.
“They didn’t take him to charge his legs and now they wanted him to walk through water and go in a hot room,” Pierre recalled. “He said no — he stood his ground.”
Several guards surrounded him, yelling, Pierre said. They placed him in solitary confinement for three days as punishment, she said.
After living in her two-bedroom apartment in Los Feliz for more than a decade, Debra Weiss encountered a problem experienced by many renters in Los Angeles: She was evicted.
“I moved into the apartment in 2014, and four years later, my landlord sold it to a wealthy family who bought it at a loss,” said Weiss, 69, who works as a textile artist and was evicted last year. “They knew they couldn’t evict us due to rent control.”
In this series, we spotlight L.A. rentals with style. From perfect gallery walls to temporary decor hacks, these renters get creative, even in small spaces. And Angelenos need the inspiration: Most are renters.
When the landlords put the three-unit complex on the market in 2022, however, they offered Weiss $50,000 to move out — far more than the amount required by law — to make the building easier for them to sell. She declined, concerned it would affect her Social Security benefits, as there is a limit to how much one can earn and still receive full benefits.
Then, last February, the three tenants received eviction notices under the Ellis Act, which allows landlords to evict renters from rent-controlled apartments if the building is being torn down or removed from the rental market. It’s currently for sale for $3.2 million.
As a senior, Weiss was entitled to a full year’s notice because she had lived in her unit for more than a year. Still, she knew she would eventually have to move out of the comfortable 1,200-square-foot duplex, for which she paid $2,670 a month in rent.
Artist Debra Weiss stands in her dining room where she often works as a fiber artist.
When she began looking for another apartment in the area, Weiss quickly learned that she could no longer afford to live in Los Feliz. “The apartments were so much more expensive than what I was used to paying, and they had no parking or a washer and dryer,” she said. (Weiss was paid $24,650 in relocation assistance, which was taxed, due to her age and the length of time she lived in her Los Feliz apartment.)
She also visited some small studios and considered purchasing a TIC, or Tenancy in Common, where buyers purchase a share in a corporation that owns a building. However, to secure a loan, she’d need someone to co-sign. “Even though they are cute, they are tiny and not necessarily in the best neighborhoods,” she said. Another option, a Craftsman apartment near USC, wasn’t in a good walking neighborhood, something that was important to Weiss. It was also dark and hundreds of dollars more a month than her previous apartment. “I’m almost 70 years old and I need light to work,” she added.
Handknitted sculptures, embroidered weavings and a tufted rug adorn the guest room.
When her son-in-law spotted a charming two-bedroom apartment near the Los Angeles County Museum of Art for $2,950 a month on Zillow, Weiss decided to check it out.
“My initial reaction was, ‘I want this,’ ” Weiss said of the fourplex.
The rental had high ceilings, oak floors, ample sunlight, an appealing fireplace, a garage and a washer and dryer. A newly redone modern kitchen felt out of character for the 1930s building, but that didn’t bother Weiss. “The kitchen is a blank canvas,” she said of the all-white cabinets and countertops. “The white background makes all of my stuff stand out,” including ceramics by Mt. Washington Pottery and Altadena artist Linda Hsiao.
Weiss knits a sweater for her granddaughter with yarn she purchased in Japan.
Concerned that the landlord wouldn’t want to rent to her because of her age, she was pleasantly surprised when she got the apartment. “The light is amazing,” Weiss said. “I was initially worried about some of the modern touches like the overhead lighting, but it floods the room with bright light that allows me to work at night.”
Nearly a year after moving in, Weiss has filled the apartment with her stitched collages, quilts and the artworks of others, many of which she described as “trades.” “I like color and pattern and objects,” she said as she pointed out some Japanese ceramics on her buffet and a dress that she crocheted with scraps of fabric, yarn and metal.
In the guest room, a wall hanging composed of three separate weavings in a gingham check pattern is embroidered with a series of characters she based on her 5-year-old granddaughter’s drawings. “It’s about people coming together in chaos and supporting each other,” Weiss said. “I like the pattern; it reminds me of eating together on picnic tables.”
“I like objects,” Weiss said of the many treasures and collections of things that are featured throughout her rental.
On the opposite wall of the guest room above her sewing machine, a series of metal sculptures she knitted with copper and silver hangs alongside cloth dolls and purses. In the corner, a cowl made of macrame, textiles and yarn adorns a mannequin. There’s also a colorful latch hook rug that she made with acrylic yarn that looks more like artwork than a functional accessory.
In her bedroom, a coverlet that Weiss assembled from vintage quilts adorns the bed.
The long hallway ends at the laundry room and is lined with her colorful quilts, some of which are mounted on Homasote board, along with weavings and stitched works, which, like her cooking, are improvisational.
“I work without planning and respond to the materials and see what it becomes,” she said. “I start knitting and see where it goes. I get excited about the material, and then I go for it. “
The hallway in Weiss’s apartment is lined with her artworks.
Much of the wood furniture in her apartment was made by her father, who died 13 years ago.
“I’ve had this since my kids were little, and you can see all the markings,” she said of the hutch in the corner of her dining room. “My dad made it 40 years ago for the Van Nuys house I grew up in.”
It is here, at the dining room table that her father made, that she works, hosts workshops and teaches lessons in fiber art, collage and stitching. Later this year, she hopes to host a sale of her work at a holiday open house in her apartment.
Weiss is an expert in mixing texture, pattern and color in her Mid-Wilshire apartment.
The mixing of colorful Persian rugs, textiles, natural materials, chunky wood pieces and intricately knitted metal sculptures creates a warm balance throughout her apartment.
Bursting with color and pattern, the rooms offer a sense of calm that Weiss appreciates as a woman who raised three daughters alone and has had to pivot during major life changes. Over the years, she has run a clothing company, Rebe, which closed in 2019 due to economic uncertainty, declared bankruptcy and sold her Woodland Hills house. Most recently, she was forced to weather the eviction process.
“I’ve always been an entrepreneur,” said Weiss, who works six to eight hours a day at home and sells her artwork and sewing patterns on her Specks and Keepings website and at L.A. Homefarm in Glassell Park. “I’ll always figure out a way to make money by selling the things that I make.”
Even though the process of having to move was stressful, Weiss is happy with her new home and neighborhood. “I take the Metro bus everywhere and hardly ever drive,” she said. “I go to the Hollywood Farmer’s Market on Sundays. Kaiser is nearby and I can walk to LACMA. Everything worked out perfectly.”
Weiss pulls out a drawer of her flat files cabinet filled with her artwork.
“The People’s House” opens Monday to the public in Washington D.C., offering visitors an immersive experience to a life-sized replica of the Oval Office. Curators say the exhibit gives people a chance to act as a sitting president or as a cabinet member.The experience also allows visitors to attend a cabinet meeting and vote on a course of action for the president. There are virtual recreations of other parts of the West Wing, such as the Cabinet Room where leaders advise the president. Innovative technology provides experiences of the State Floor, including the East, Green, Blue, and Red Rooms.The centerpiece of the experience is The Oval Office replica, complete with exact copies of President Joe Biden’s desk and armchairs, even down to the family Bible. The White House Historical Association says the decor will change with each sitting president.”When a family comes to Washington D.C. and they have a limited amount of time, we hope they have the opportunity to get a White House tour, but most won’t have that,” White House Historical Association President Stewart McLaurin said. “So, to learn about the presidency and the White House, you simply come across the street of the White House to 1700 Pennsylvania Avenue and we give you that experience to learn.”The White House Historical Association raised $60 million for the project and is trying to raise $50 million to keep it going. Timed tickets to “The People’s House” are free.
WASHINGTON —
“The People’s House” opens Monday to the public in Washington D.C., offering visitors an immersive experience to a life-sized replica of the Oval Office. Curators say the exhibit gives people a chance to act as a sitting president or as a cabinet member.
The experience also allows visitors to attend a cabinet meeting and vote on a course of action for the president. There are virtual recreations of other parts of the West Wing, such as the Cabinet Room where leaders advise the president. Innovative technology provides experiences of the State Floor, including the East, Green, Blue, and Red Rooms.
The centerpiece of the experience is The Oval Office replica, complete with exact copies of President Joe Biden’s desk and armchairs, even down to the family Bible. The White House Historical Association says the decor will change with each sitting president.
“When a family comes to Washington D.C. and they have a limited amount of time, we hope they have the opportunity to get a White House tour, but most won’t have that,” White House Historical Association President Stewart McLaurin said. “So, to learn about the presidency and the White House, you simply come across the street of the White House to 1700 Pennsylvania Avenue and we give you that experience to learn.”
The White House Historical Association raised $60 million for the project and is trying to raise $50 million to keep it going.
Construction of a new high-rise addition to the Hilton hotel in Universal City was approved by the Los Angeles Planning Commission, clearing a major hurdle for the long-planned expansion.
The decision comes as Universal Studios and other popular tourist destinations in the region shine for hoteliers even as other properties in California’s urban centers struggle to fill their rooms.
The commission recommended last week that the City Council approve construction of an 18-story addition to the 24-story Hilton Los Angeles/Universal City hotel, which opened in 1984. The addition would have 395 rooms, bringing the total between the two structures to 890 rooms, putting that Hilton among the ranks of the largest hotels in Los Angeles County.
Hotels near popular leisure destinations such as Disneyland and Universal Studios Hollywood are outperforming California hotels that are intended to serve business travelers and meetings, said hotel consultant Alan Reay, president of Atlas Hospitality Group.
“Big full-service hotels have been really impacted by the work-from-home movement and the pullback of the convention and meeting business,” Reay said.
Universal City is “a little island that is doing phenomenally well,” he said, with average occupancy at the Hilton there at 92% last year.
“I don’t know any other hotels that are running that kind of occupancy” at a similar price point, he said. “That really tells you the strength of the location and the strength of the brand.
“It makes sense to add the rooms,” said Reay, who is not involved in the planned development.
The addition would include, three restaurants, two swimming pools and an expansion of the existing three-level parking garage.
(Ankrom Moisan)
The expansion is proposed by Sun Hill Properties Inc., which owns the Universal City hotel operated by Hilton.
Sun Hill President Mark Davis said the company is “immensely gratified” to have the Planning Commission’s endorsement.
“We still believe in the future of L.A. and the continued growth of our primary demand driver, Universal Studios Theme Park, the key magnet to attract tourism to the City of Angels,” he said in a statement.
If approved by the City Council, construction would take about 30 months, according to city documents recommending development. An expansion of the Hilton was first proposed in 2017 by a previous owner of the property, who estimated at the time that more than 70% of guests were there to visit the Universal Studios Hollywood theme park that features the $500-million Wizarding World of Harry Potter.
The design of the addition by architecture firm Ankrom Moisan also calls for a spa, three restaurants, an indoor-outdoor bar, two swimming pools, a lobby connecting to the existing hotel building and an expansion of the existing three-level parking garage.
The planned expansion, which Sun Hill intends to complete in time to serve the 2028 Olympics, comes as hotel sales are flagging in Los Angeles County and throughout the state amid high interest rates and as smaller-sized deals have been a drag on the market, according to a recent report from Atlas Hospitality.
Times staff writer Caroline Petrow-Cohen contributed to this report.
Two years ago, Entree introduced itself to Chicago, taking over the South Loop space where the city’s only Michelin-starred restaurant south of Roosevelt stood. Entree delivered meal kits, searching for a sweet spot for folks fed up with fees and mistakes from third-party couriers and restaurant customers who missed eating out during the pandemic. As the business grew, its owners knew they had an asset in their dining room. They threw pop-ups and opened the bar area earlier this year while unveiling a new name for on-premise dining, Oliver’s.
In late August the time finally arrived as Oliver’s dining room finally debuted. The added real estate will give Oliver’s chef Alex Carnovale more room to play. He’s already established a menu of favorites including roast chicken, a burger, and diver scallops. The French Laundry alum has shown his ambitions while developing the menus for Entree’s delivery side. With Oliver’s, Carnovale no longer has to worry about whether his food will survive a car ride.
The space is warmer, with a supper club feeling that presents a departure from the modern vibe of the previous tenant. Specifically, Oliver’s was going for a 1930s speakeasy feel. It’s a comfy place to enjoy truffle gnocchi or tomato risotto. As the bar opened first, the drink program had time to mature under the leadership of Luke DeYoung who worked a Sepia and Scofflaw. A gin martini is garnished with caviar-stuffed olive. There are non-alcoholic options, and a deep wine list, too. Happy hour specials have already launched, and bar snacks include Italian beef popcorn, cheddar fries, and beef-fat griddled sourdough from Publican Quality Bread. The latter is served with whipped parmesan and steak sauce.
Walk through the space below. Oliver’s dining room is now open.
Oliver’s, 1930 S. Wabash Avenue, open 5 p.m. to 10 p.m., Tuesday through Saturday, reservations via Tock.
It’s been a year since scintillating South Asian restaurant Vajra moved from West Town into the Wicker Park space where to Spring and Trencherman called home. But until last week, the restaurant was take-out only as ownership worked out what it wanted to do inside their new home near Wicker Park’s six corners.
Last weekend Vajra began bar service. They’ll serve cocktails and bar bites like momos and a goat burger. But the big news for fans of Vajra’s delectable dishes like Sichuan Chicken Chili, Goan Shrimp Curry, and malai kofta is that the dining room will finally debut to the public on Thursday, August 1. Reservations are live via Tock.
Restablishing the bar means a reunion with star bartender Juanjo Pulgarin. Vajra specializes in Nepali and Indian cuisine, with the two countries diverging but coming from the same culinary traditions. But until recently, South Asian restaurants in America didn’t focus too much on cocktails. Liquor licenses are expensive, especially for the first wave of immigrant restaurant owners. There are also cultural taboos surrounding alcohol in some South Asian communities.
Juanjo PulgarinAshok Selvam/Eater Chicago
But not everyone carries those old-school traditions, and often time dissolves those binds. Pulgarin, who is Colombian and grew up in Spain, thrilled customers with a high-end program utilizing mixology tricks and ingredients seen at fancy cocktail bars. That earned Pulgarin a 2020 Jean Banchet Award nomination for best bartender. But as management closed Vajra’s dining room and bar during the pandemic, Pulgarin left Vajra and is now the lead bartender at Gold Coast steakhouse Maple & Ash where he’s helping the company relaunch its 8 Bar to open more locations across the country.
Pulgarin’s drinks include a riff on mango lassi, called Xanadu y El Cielo. Lassi, a non-alcoholic drink famous in northern India, is known for its viscous texture. When served traditionally it’s akin to a cheesecake milkshake and it comes in sweet or savory versions. Vajra’s version captures the flavor without the thickness, creating a light drink made with whisky, amaro, nixta, yogurt, coconut milk, mango, and citrus. Pulgarin loves the looks of drinkers expecting the traditional take and seeing their surprise when they see and taste his version. Another drink, Sakura Garden, is made with gin, sake, watermelon, saffron, lychee, and lime. Pulgarin helped create the menu and he’s close with management so he can pursue other projects, like Maple & Ash, while contributing to Vajra.
When Vajra opened in 2019, they were ahead of the South Asian cocktail revolution. This was before Lilac Tiger and Kama opened.
Co-owner Dipesh Kakshapaty says his team was worried that folks would want a full at the bar and that’s why they scaled back. They served a version of the goat burger in the past, as many restaurants pivoted to simpler food during the pandemic because of to-go operations — It’s also cheaper from a labor standpoint. The burger’s return made sense as Vajra builds out its bar menu.
It’s been a journey since 2020 when the restaurant shifted to takeout and delivery-only, pushed by the pandemic, and then challenges at their original location, 1329 W. Chicago Avenue — now home to Jook Sing — prevent them from reopening. Vajra closed in January 2022 but some members of ownership pursued a new restaurant venture but that never gained much traction. It would reopen for takeout and delivery in September 2022 inside the same West Town location. They moved to Wicker Park nine months later.
The previous tenant, Ooh Wee It Is, never opened — despite putting up signs. That stretch of Wicker Park has been tough to crack, but Vajra hopes a hearty cocktail program, an established takeout and delivery business, and some of the best Indian and Nepali food in town can create a sustainable operation.
Vajra, 2039 W. North Avenue, bar open now, dining room opening Thursday, August 1, reservations via Tock.
At a fraught moment in President Biden’s reelection campaign, as he faces calls to drop out of the race due to serious flubs at last week’s debate, Vice President Kamala Harris addressed donors at a private fundraiser Tuesday in San Francisco and focused on the election as a choice between civil liberties and dictatorship.
“Let’s just deal with the elephant in the room. There are actually two: One is the debate, and the other is Trump,” Harris said to light laughter from a group of about 35 supporters at the Nob Hill condo of real estate executive Susan Lowenberg, in a high-rise building overlooking the city and bay.
“The debate, as the president said, [was] not his finest hour. We all know that,” Harris told the room. But the outcome of the election, she added, “cannot be determined by one day in June.”
“It is still the fact that the stakes are so high in this election. It is still the fact that the race is close. It is still the fact that there is a profound contrast on the two sides of the split screen in terms of who stands for what and what each has accomplished,” she said. “And it’s still true that Trump is a liar.”
Her appearance at the San Francisco fundraiser came the same day Trump’s campaign reported raising $331 million compared with Biden’s $264 million during the second quarter of this year, eliminating the cash advantage Biden previously had over Trump.
“President Trump’s campaign fundraising operation is thriving day after day and month after month,” the Republican’s top campaign advisors, Chris LaCivita and Susie Wiles, said in a statement. “This fundraising momentum is likely to grow even more as we head into a world-class convention and see the Democrats continue their circular firing squad in the aftermath of Biden’s debate collapse.”
Harris didn’t say anything further about Biden’s debate performance while a Times reporter was present at Tuesday’s private fundraiser.
Elizabeth Ashford, a Democratic strategist who served as Harris’ chief of staff during her tenure as California’s attorney general, applauded Harris’ focus in recent days on delivering a crisp, clear message to an anxious American electorate. Harris’ job, Ashford said, is to focus on the administration’s accomplishments, and to demonstrate to voters — without actually saying it — that she can step in if necessary to effectively lead the nation.
“That is where I would be singularly focused,” Ashford said. “One of Kamala’s areas of growth has been to be really confident in how she communicates. And this is that moment.”
A new CNN poll indicates some 75% of voters think Democrats would have a better shot at keeping the White House if they swapped Biden out for someone new. The poll also showed nearly as much support for Harris as for Trump in a hypothetical matchup — with 47% of registered voters surveyed nationwide saying they would support Trump and 45% saying they would vote for Harris. The same poll indicated the difference between the current likely candidates was larger, with 49% backing Trump and 43% favoring Biden.
At the fundraiser Tuesday, Harris seemed comfortable and relaxed in a room full of longtime donors and friends stretching back to her start in San Francisco politics as district attorney 20 years ago.
Harris touted the administration’s policy accomplishments, such as capping the price of insulin for seniors on Medicare and erasing student loan debt for millions of borrowers. She highlighted the White House’s commitment to mitigating climate change through investments in green energy, and its support for reproductive freedoms and other rights for women and marginalized communities.
“There is an awareness among the American people that there is a full-on attack — an intentional attack — against hard-fought, hard-won freedoms and liberties,” she said.
Those stakes became “even higher” with the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision on Monday that gave Trump — and possibly future presidents — legal immunity from criminal charges stemming from official actions while in office, Harris said.
“And let’s not forget, Donald Trump has openly said he admires dictators and intends to be ‘a dictator on Day One,’” Harris said. “We gotta fight, and we know how to fight.”
Raphael Simon here — Rafi, as you may remember me.
We last saw each other in 1982 at a magnet school in Los Angeles, where I was your student.
You were a terrific teacher, Mr. H — smart, witty, occasionally tough, with a genuine enthusiasm for the subjects you taught. But I am not writing to thank you for what I learned in your class; this isn’t one of those letters. Nor am I writing to accuse you of anything; this isn’t one of those letters either.
I am writing to apologize.
Like most apologies, this one is purely performative. It changes nothing. Nonetheless, I feel compelled to confess.
The belly dancer? My bad.
I found her. I hired her. I was responsible for the whole thing, except the belly dancing itself.
You do remember the belly dancer, don’t you? Let me back up.
When I was in ninth grade, I took your hybrid history and English class called Research Writing, in which we learned such things as how to use card catalogs, document sources and format footnotes — once-vital skills now lost to time and ChatGPT.
For my first paper, I chose to write about the Black Hole of Calcutta, only to discover that the name had nothing to do with astronomical black holes, much less the all-nude musical “Oh! Calcutta!” For my historical fiction project, I wrote a mystery story about Napoleon’s exile on Elba — a subject I picked mainly because Napoleons were a type of pastry I loved.
To state the obvious, nothing we covered in your class justified having a half-naked woman dance around our desks.
You were in your 30s. Slim, fair-skinned, wavy brown hair. Casually preppy.
I was 14, pimply, bookish. A typical if slightly effeminate adolescent Jewish boy, California version. I was also, at the time, just beginning to suspect something about myself, or just beginning to begin to suspect.
In any case, I liked you. All your students liked you. Research Writing was an honors class. We sat in a circle rather than in rows. Naturally, we wanted to celebrate your birthday. A birthday surprise — that was the pretext I sold my classmates on.
Why a belly dancer and not, say, a birthday cake?
For one thing, belly dancing played a larger role in my imagination than you might expect. This was mostly due to my grandmother Esther, who had an enduring fascination with belly dancers. She would describe the way they moved their tummies as if by magic with muscles unknown to the rest of us. A powerful female force, sexy and not subservient.
I first saw live belly dancers at my favorite restaurant, Moun of Tunis, on Sunset, where diners sat on low banquettes and ate off brass tables. At hourly intervals, music would start to play and women in their sequins and silks would emerge from behind a curtain to shimmy and shake their way across the room — heaven.
It was from Moun of Tunis that I got the name of your dancer. Funny to think what a difficult task that must have been. I would have had to consult the Yellow Pages, or more likely, call Information — something my parents frowned upon because of the toll. When I phoned the restaurant, I would have had to speak to a live human and explain what I wanted. All this before cold-calling a belly dancer.
On your birthday, I remember being nervous, uncertain that she would come. I jumped up when I heard the knock on the door.
Our classroom was in a bungalow, and she was standing on the stoop, dyed black hair, bright red lipstick, a trench coat covering her costume and a boombox under her arm.
I’d been so excited; now, too late, I was overcome by doubt. I ushered her into the room.My classmates giggled. I pointed to you. “There’s the birthday boy.”
Without a word, she put on her music, unbuttoned her coat and began to whirl.
The dance is hazy in my mind, a blur of translucent black veils and long silvery scarves.
She circled the room, then circled you, then the room again — sexy but never too sexy.
While the rest of the class hooted and hollered, I watched your expressions. Your face paled, then reddened, then paled again. It showed a flash, but no more than a flash, of anger, and intense embarrassment, and eventually, polite patience and forced good humor.
Of course, it was precisely to read your reactions that I’d arranged the surprise. And that’s the real reason for this apology.
Your possible gayness had been a subject of debate among your students, not in a malicious way, more in a fun if gossipy way. Then a month or two before your birthday, you came close to speaking our speculations aloud.
I don’t remember the context. Perhaps we were talking about Anita Bryant or some other anti-gay crusader. Or, closer to home, the Briggs Initiative, which had almost succeeded in banning gays and lesbians from teaching in California a few years earlier.
I only remember the phrase you used at one point: “my gay friends and my straight friends.” As though they were equal categories. As though friends — anyone — might as easily be gay as straight.
As though you, our teacher, might be.
In 1982, the idea of an openly gay teacher was controversial in a way that is hard to fathom in California today — or in parts of California today. (The attempt to ban LGBTQ+ books and squelch LGBTQ+ speech has recently spread to such nearby locales as Glendale and Huntington Beach.) For you to suggest you might be gay, however ambiguously, must have taken tremendous courage.
And I rewarded your courage by bullying you, with a belly dancer.
A test, I’d called it, when I pitched the idea to my classmates. What was I expecting? Were you supposed to pant like a horny cartoon character if you were straight? And if you were gay, what then? Turn green?
Whether or not the word “test” entered your mind, judging from your reactions, you sensed that your sexuality was being challenged. I am so sorry. The premise of the stunt was as offensive as it was absurd.
I wasn’t brave enough to claim credit, but I suspect that you suspected. In my memory, a knowing look or two passed between us. Perhaps you understood what I did not: that in testing you for signs of homosexuality, I was trying to inoculate myself against the same condition.
When the belly dancer finished dancing, you applauded, very much as if you’d enjoyed yourself. You thanked us for your birthday surprise, even though we all knew it had been more birthday prank than birthday present.
So I guess this is a thank-you letter, after all. Thank you for being more forgiving than furious. Thank you for not interrogating too closely who hired the belly dancer, or why.
And most of all, thank you for instilling in your students the idea that gay might be OK, even if it would take this gay student several more years to absorb that simple lesson.
Sincerely, Rafi
Raphael Simon is better known aschildren’s authorPseudonymous Bosch. He and his husband live in Pasadena with their two daughters. Mr. H, as it turns out, does remember the belly dancer. He and his husband just celebrated 30 years together.
A Los Angeles police officer who shot and killed a 14-year-old girl through the wall of a changing room at a Burlington Coat Factory store in North Hollywood was cleared of wrongdoing Tuesday by the California Department of Justice.
California Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta’s office said Officer William Jones used reasonable force in the 2021 incident because he was responding to a report of a possible active shooter.
That information turned out to be wrong — the suspect, Daniel Elena-Lopez, was carrying a bike lock, not a gun.
Footage released by the Los Angeles Police Department showed that when Jones arrived at the scene, toting a high-powered rifle, he rushed to the front of a phalanx of officers advancing toward the store’s home goods section, where he opened fire almost immediately upon encountering Elena-Lopez.
One of rounds that Jones fired “skipped off” a floor tile, the attorney general’s report said, and sailed into a fitting room where Valentina Orellana-Peralta was hiding with her mother. She was pronounced dead at the scene.
The shooting drew widespread outrage and grief, while bringing demands for the officer who killed her to be criminally charged. The Orellana-Peralta family has a pending civil lawsuit against the city of Los Angeles, alleging failures in training and oversight contributed to the deadly outcome. Attorneys in the case did not respond to a request for comment Wednesday.
The LAPD did not immediately respond to an inquiry about the case.
While an internal LAPD review panel was split on whether Jones’ decision to open fire was justified, then-chief Michel Moore ultimately ruled in 2022 that the shots violated department policy and that the officer should have taken more time to assess the situation. In a rare split with the chief, the Police Commission concluded that only Jones’ second and third shots were out of policy.
No LAPD officer has been charged in an on-duty shooting by county or state prosecutors in nearly two decades. Under Dist. Atty. George Gascón, L.A. County prosecutors have been more aggressive in filing cases against law enforcement officers who use force on duty though, bringing assault and manslaughter charges against Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies and Torrance police officers in recent years.
The attorney general’s office noted Jones had heard reports that Elena-Lopez was threatening customers at the store with a gun. The information was later amended, but it’s not clear whether Jones heard these later radio broadcasts, the office said. A toxicology report showed Elena-Lopez had been using methamphetamine.
Orellana-Peralta was a bystander in the store. She had arrived from her native Chile about six months prior, her family said, with dreams of becoming an engineer and a U.S. citizen. According to her family’s lawsuit, which was filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court earlier this month, the girl’s mother “watched helplessly as her daughter died while still in her arms.”
The attorney general’s office said that other officers at the scene had formulated a plan to try to stop Elena-Lopez by firing a .40mm “less-lethal” round at him, but Jones was unaware of their plan. Jones’ perception that he was shooting to stop an armed threat means he can’t be held criminally liable for the errant bullet that killed the teenager, based on a legal theory known as “transferred intent,” the office said.
The attorney general’s report called for the LAPD to improve its communication and coordination in emergency responses, but said it could not pursue charges against Jones because the killing of Orellana Peralta was “unintended and unforeseeable.”
After reviewing the report, civil rights attorney Jim DeSimone, who has brought wrongful-death suits against law enforcement agencies across the state, said the case highlights the need for officers to have better “situational awareness” before opening fire.
“It’s clear that with the number of officers, and less-lethal options, that Mr. Lopez could have been apprehended without killing an innocent human being,” he said.
Times staff writer James Queally contributed to this report.
Six months after closing, workers from the Signature Room have won a $1.5 million lawsuit against their former employers as a federal judge ruled that Infusion Management Group broke Illinois law by failing to give workers proper notice of their decision to shutter, which happened on September 28.
Unite Local No. 1 represented 132 former workers at the restaurant that stood on the 95th floor of the Hancock Center. State law, under the Workers Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act, mandates employers to inform their employees with a 60-day notice of their decision to close. This applies to workplaces with 75 or more full-time employees. The $1.5 million is for back pay and benefits. That total comes out to about $11,363 per worker if it’s divided equally. The court ruling was made on March 14, according to the Sun-Times. The paper also reports workers celebrated with a cake decorated with the words “Justice is served.” Infusion wasn’t reached for comment.
Tortilla plant workers file NLRB complaint
Seven months after factory workers from El Milagro tortillas won an NLRB complaint against their employers, workers from another Chicago tortilla factory are claiming their employers aren’t treating them fairly. On Thursday, Authentico Foods workers filed a retaliation complaint with the NLRB as a news release from Arise Chicago says employees at Authentico’s Archer Heights factory have been threatened with layoffs. Arise, a faith-based worker’s rights group that’s done labor organizing in Chicago’s Spanish-speaking communities frames the threat as retaliation for worker protests that have dated back to 2022. Authentico is the maker of the popular supermarket brands El Ranchero and La Guadalupana. Inspired by their peers at El Milagro, workers at Authnetico’s three plants claim similar complaints — abusive managers, low pay, and insufficient breaks under state law.
One Off launches app
One Off Hospitality, the owners of Big Star, the Publican family of restaurants, Avec, and influential cocktail bar Violet Hour, have launched an app with a customer loyalty program. The 27-year-old group, founded in 1997 when Blackbird opened in West Loop, is one of the city’s most recognized groups thanks to partners Donnie Madia, executive chef Paul Kahan, Eduard Seitan, Peter Garfield, Terry Alexander, and the late Rick Diarmit.
The app offers discounts with a points system based on customer spending and allows One Off to better track customer preferences. In a news release, CEO Karen Browne says the project has been years in the making and that made sense “as a growing restaurant group.”
One Off joins Lettuce Entertain You Enterprises as Chicago-based restaurant groups with apps and programs.
For those who don’t know, Cloudfare encrypts their data using the randomness of a lava lamp. “To produce the unpredictable, chaotic data necessary for strong encryption, a computer must have a source of random data. The “real world” turns out to be a great source for randomness, because events in the physical world are unpredictable.”
California Republican Rep. Tom McClintock said Wednesday he bucked his party to vote against impeaching Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas because it would cheapen the use of the greatest punishment Congress has.
“It dumbs down the standard of impeachment to a point where it will become a constant fixture in our national life every time the White House is held by one party and the Congress by another,” McClintock told The Times on Wednesday. “That’s exactly what the American founders feared and that’s why they were very careful to specify narrow limits to its use.”
The Tuesday evening failed 214-216 vote was a stunning setback for House Republicans, who had been signaling plans to impeach Mayorkas since they retook control of the chamber last year.
McClintock, a stalwart conservative from Elk Grove, has been known as a constitutional originalist willing to break with his party when he feels it is necessary. That’s included supporting marijuana legalization and opposing the 2017 Republican tax bill because it curtailed the popular state and local tax deduction, also known as SALT.
“I’ve learned over the years if you’re going to be an outlier, you better be damn sure you’re right, and I took the time and I’m damn sure I’m right,” McClintock said.
McClintock explained his reasoning in a 10-page memo early Tuesday before the impeachment failed.
In the memo, McClintock said the two articles of impeachment “fail to identify an impeachable crime that Mayorkas has committed. In effect they stretch and distort the Constitution in order to hold the administration accountable for stretching and distorting the law.”
The articles accuse Mayorkas of failing to properly enforce the nation’s immigration laws and breaching public trust. Republicans have accused Mayorkas of ending immigration policies in place during the Trump administration and enacting new immigration policies under President Biden that they say have encouraged more people to come.
The White House has argued that a Cabinet secretary shouldn’t be impeached over a policy disagreement and that the policies in place address immigration within the scope of the budget that Congress approves.
McClintock said new laws or more money won’t help. He said if voters are unhappy with immigration policy, they need to give Republicans control of the government.
“This problem will not be fixed by passing bills that won’t be signed or laws that won’t be enforced, or funds that will be used only to admit illegal aliens and not to expel them,” he said. “And it won’t be fixed by replacing one left-wing official with another.”
The vote against impeachment was a surprise, caused by a combination of Republican absences on the floor Tuesday, the “no” votes from four Republicans and the surprise appearance of a shoe-less, scrubs-wearing Democrat straight from surgery at a local hospital.
McClintock was one of four Republicans to vote no on impeaching Mayorkas. One of those no votes, by Rep. Blake Moore (R-Utah), the vice chair of the conference, was a tactical no. If a member of leadership votes no, they can bring the issue back up at a later date.
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) stressed Wednesday that while the failure was a setback, he plans to bring the impeachment articles up again.
“Democracy is messy. We live in a time of divided government. We have a razor-thin margin here and every vote counts,” Johnson said. “We will pass those articles of impeachment. We’ll do it on the next round.”
One of the other no votes, Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-Wis.), was being pressured to change his mind while the vote was taking place, but McClintock said he wasn’t pressured to change his vote by House leadership or his fellow Republican representatives.
“They all have been very respectful and recognize the position that I’ve taken is in support of our Constitution and the process that makes this government run,” he told The Times.
“He’s failing his oath of office,” she said, referring to McClintock. “He needs to grow some courage and read the room. The room is our country and the American people are fed up. … He needs to do the right thing.”
In a CSPAN interview Wednesday, McClintock pushed back.
“Instead of reading the room, I would suggest that maybe she read the Constitution that she took an oath to support and defend,” he said. “The Constitution very clearly lays out the grounds for impeachment. This dumbs down those grounds dramatically and would set a precedent that could be turned against the conservatives on the Supreme Court or a future Republican administration the moment the Democrats take control of the Congress.”
John Latino, the chef and founder of the Bongo Room, the Wicker Park restaurant that helped usher in the phenomenon of brunch in Chicago, has died.
A South Side native, Latino opened the original Bongo Room in 1993 with longtime friend and business partner Derrick Robles in Wicker Park. The duo earned legions of fans over their 30-year partnership, attracting admirers and imitators with a joyful take that raised the bar on breakfast and brunch all over town.
The 58-year-old Latino died suddenly of natural causes on Thursday, January 11 in Chicago, Robles says.
“John really spoke with his food,” Robles says. “He was a quiet man, shy most of the time… We never really sought out recognition, we just kind of kept our nose to the grindstone and blinders on to focus on the restaurant, letting John’s food and our service speak for itself.”
They would move from the original Damen Avenue location four years after opening. Long weekend brunch lines would regularly stretch onto the sidewalk of Milwaukee Avenue outside the current location in Wicker Park with customers indulging in specialty pancakes and other items. While chefs famously hate brunch, Bongo Room embraced it and customers woke up early to get on the waitlist. Bongo Room is hailed as one of the restaurants that turned Wicker Park into a brunch village. Bongo Room also provides a haven for weekday breakfast for neighborhood locals.
Derrick Robles (left) and John Latino (right) founded Bongo Room in 1993.Derrick Robles
Robles, who grew up in Beverly, met Latino in 1992 when they worked together at Gold Coast’s famed Pump Room, but the men had crossed paths before. Robles recalls first seeing Latino in 1988 across the room at now-shuttered LGBTQ nightclub icon Berlin. “He was kind of goth back then, he wore kilts and combat boots and had his hair spiked up 10 inches high,” Robles says.
While Robles was growing weary of hospitality, Latino, then a student at Kendall College, always wanted to open a restaurant. That dream became a reality faster than they anticipated when a friend of Latino wanted to get out of a lease at 1560 N. Damen Avenue, the present site of Stan’s Donuts. That’s where Robles and Latino debuted their first location. After struggling the first year and a half with operations, challenges that Robles says contributed to the end of their romantic relationship, Latino developed a series of dishes that would become the restaurant’s signature, like fluffy lemon ricotta pancakes and banana bread French toast.
Robles and Latino were best friends and business partners for three decades.Derrick Robles
1994 was a red-letter year for Bongo Room thanks to rockstar Liz Phair, a Chicagoan who recorded her debut album Exile in Guyville at nearby Idful Music studio. Phair (also a former regular at indie rock dive Rainbo Club) met a reporter for an interview in Rolling Stone over Latino’s blueberry pancakes, and the restaurant snagged a mention in the article.
Longtime friend Margaret MacKay held several positions at Bongo Room in the late ‘90s and says the restaurant’s popularity never went to Latino’s head. “He was a perfectionist,” she says. “He wanted to touch every plate [because] every plate had meaning to him. He felt like it was a reflection on him and [Robles].”
During the early years of Bongo Room, Chicago businesses generally didn’t advertise their LGBTQ ownership. While the restaurant was never awash in rainbow flags, Robles says they never hid who they were. He credits that to the accepting atmosphere of Wicker Park at the time, then an artist enclave where “everyone could be who they wanted to be and live without judgment,” relative to other parts of the city.
Latino and Robles sought out a larger space and in 1997 relocated to 1470 N. Milwaukee Avenue. Six years later, they opened a South Loop location (it closed in 2019) and expanded in 2012 to Andersonville. Since 2020, however, the business has struggled, says Robles.
As he grieves for Latino, he is unsure of what the future holds for Bongo Room. Weekend business has returned to about 80 percent of pre-pandemic levels, but weekday numbers remain dramatically reduced.
“[His] passing, on a personal level, has been so incredibly devastating and soul-crushing for me,” Robles says. “For me, it’s kind of like losing my left arm and I don’t know how to envision staying open without him…. it’s knowing there will never be another John Latino spring or fall menu — that was a rude awakening. It was a jolt, that it won’t happen again.”
News of Latino’s death spread quickly among the extended Bongo Room community, with friends and former employees across the country reconnecting to share memories from years past. MacKay remembers Latino’s affectionate, kind demeanor, as well as his apparent inability to say a bad word about anyone, including the most difficult patrons.
“I’d like for people to think that about me, but it really was the case with [Latino],” MacKay says. “He was always just lighthearted to be around, loving, like a unicorn. To me, he was one of a kind.”
Robles agrees. “In the restaurant business, you can come across some pretty challenging customers, and we did throughout the past three decades,” he says. “But John never had an unkind word for anybody… He’d do anything for the people he loved. It wasn’t easy to get into John’s circle, but once you were in, you were in for life.”
Funeral services were held on Wednesday, January 17 at Lawn Funeral Home in Tinley Park.
The Queen Mary has for years been a landmark for the city of Long Beach, an iconic ocean liner that acted as a majestic sentry at the port and a popular attraction for both tourists and locals.
But the aging ship has in recent years become more of a white elephant in need of millions of dollars in repairs just to stay afloat.
Years of mounting financial woes, a pandemic shutdown and much-needed repairs made for an uncertain future for the Queen Mary. Financial audits showed the ship was running a deficit, and at least one report warned that it was at risk of sinking if it didn’t get millions of dollars in repairs.
But now, the 90-year-old ship seems to be headed for smoother sailing, with financial records showing it is finally turning a profit for the city of Long Beach.
On the ocean liner that has been turned into a hotel and tourist attraction, rooms are being booked, visitors are touring the ship, and the Queen Mary’s operator said the number of visitors has been outpacing the figures from before the COVID pandemic, signaling a new, hopefully better, era for the famous ship docked in the Long Beach Harbor.
But the recent financial turnaround will do little in the short term to address the hundreds of millions of dollars in repairs needed to keep the ship afloat and open to the public.
The Queen Mary closed for more than three years because of the pandemic, and stayed closed due to much-needed repairs. But once the ship reopened in April — this time under the city’s direction instead of a leaseholder — visitors began to return in greater numbers. The ship has about 200 rooms and several large halls that can be booked for weddings and other gatherings.
“Even though it’s been here since 1967, it was kind of a relaunch — a new Queen Mary if you will,” said Steve Caloca, managing director of the ship under the contracted operator, Evolution.
It was a slow reopening, with just over a dozen rooms booked in the Queen Mary in all of April. But financial records obtained by The Times show the number of bookings quickly multiplied in the coming weeks.
By July, more than 4,300 room nights were booked in the Queen Mary, and the ship’s operator has seen at least 3,730 bookings a month since.
“We reopened after a three-and-a-half-year hiatus, which is nice, and we’re making money, which is nice,” Caloca said.
The Queen Mary was still operating in a deficit during the first two months it reopened, according to financial information provided by the city. By June, however, the ship’s revenue began to outpace its expenses.
According to city records, between June and October of last year, the ship generated more than $12.6 million in revenue and more than $3 million in profits.
It’s not just rooms in the ship’s hotel that are bringing in visitors and their cash either, Caloca said.
“We were getting the word out that there are things to do here,” he said. “It’s not just a beautiful ship.”
The Queen Mary began to offer old and new tours of the 1,019.5-foot ship, and hosting events to draw in locals, like $10 entry fees on Tuesdays, he said.
A game room and revamped observation bar are there for overnight and day guests, and the ship also rolled out the commodore’s office, where officers are available to answer guests’ questions about the ship.
“We asked, what can guests do now that they’re staying at the Queen Mary, what kind of content can we provide?” Caloca said. “We’re able to create things for people to do here in Long Beach.”
But the ship has also needed, and continues to need, repairs and maintenance, he said.
Much of the work done on the ship has centered on keeping the ship safe for visitors, as well as regular upkeep like painting, new flooring and lighting, and replacing new boilers and electrical transformers on the ship.
For the Queen Mary, which has been in dire need of repairs and work for years, turning a profit in 2023 is a significant turnabout in its recent history.
Financial audits of the ship obtained by The Times shows that from 2007 to 2009, the Queen Mary continued to see losses of more than $31 million.
A profit could mean the ship could get some much-needed TLC to keep it financially, and literally, afloat.
“When we get excited about the money, it’s not that we made a profit,” Caloca said. “It’s that we made money, but now we can put it back on the ship that we love so much.”
The city of Long Beach took over the Queen Mary in 2021, after worries that the aging ship was not being maintained. One 2017 study of the ship found that it needed up to $289 million in upgrades and renovations, including much-needed work to keep parts of it from flooding.
Making the ship a profit center for the city has been a challenge for several lease operators — including the Walt Disney Co. — that have been hired to operate the ship over the last few decades.
Now, the profits coming in can also be geared toward new activities and entertainment to keep attracting guests into the Queen Mary, Caloca said.
This summer, operators hope to reopen a movie theater at the ship, which can also double as a lecture hall and host other events, Caloca said. Another 100 rooms are expected to open by April.
“It’s not just, ‘Let’s fix it so it doesn’t break,” Caloca said. “It’s also, ‘Let’s fix it and make it so people want to come.’”
Travis Reid was frustrated. Three packages of cash the Baltimore drug dealer had mailed to his cocaine supplier in Los Angeles had gone missing.
Out $377,000, Reid thought the supplier, Gary Davidson, was cheating him. “I was playing fair with y’all,” one of Reid’s associates recalled him saying. Davidson, the associate added, “wasn’t playing fair.”
Reid’s answer was to lure Davidson into a drug deal, execute him and steal 10 kilograms of cocaine to recoup his losses, Deputy Dist. Atty. Victor Avila told jurors on Monday in closing arguments at a trial for murder and attempted robbery charges against Reid and a co-defendant.
Killed alongside Davidson, 39, in his Porter Ranch home the afternoon of Feb. 18, 2019, were Jesus Perez, 34, and Benito Vasquez Lopez, 46. Perez and Vasquez Lopez, who supplied the cocaine that Davidson thought he’d be selling to Reid, were gunned down because they were witnesses, Avila argued.
“It doesn’t get more violent, more personal, than the way they died,” he said.
An attorney for Reid, 44, conceded his client sold drugs and acknowledged he was at the scene of the crime, but argued it was an unidentified man from Davidson’s violent milieu who killed him.
“This is the drug game,” the attorney, Tony Garcia, told jurors. “Everybody’s got guns.”
Avila said that in 2017 the U.S. Postal Service began seizing kilograms of cocaine mailed from Chatsworth and Northridge to locations in Maryland and Pennsylvania. Postal inspectors also intercepted shipments of money mailed from Owings Mill, Md., a suburb of Baltimore, to the San Fernando Valley. Over a three-day period in 2018, Reid lost three packages of cash, totaling $377,000, Avila said.
Gregory Palmer, a street-level dealer in Baltimore who bought cocaine from Reid, testified that Reid blamed someone named Gary for $450,000 to $600,000 in losses. Reid said he needed guns and silencers, according to Palmer, who testified in exchange for leniency on robbery charges.
Prosecutors said Reid recruited a childhood friend, Kenneth Peterson, 45, to build the silencers. They presented records showing that Peterson, who lived in Durham, N.C., bought silencer components online and researched subsonic ammunition, which is quieter than standard rounds.
Aware that Davidson lived in a gated community, Reid knew he needed to kill him without making a lot of noise, Avila argued to the jury. If neighbors heard the shots, he’d never be able to escape.
Palmer testified he drove two handguns and two silencers in a rented Chrysler Pacifica minivan from Baltimore to Los Angeles, a drive that took two and a half days. He met Reid and Peterson at a Travelodge motel in Burbank, where they’d rented two rooms after flying into LAX. According to Palmer, Reid and Peterson put on latex gloves before loading the guns and fitting them with the silencers, which were homemade and fashioned from the tube-shaped handles of flashlights.
The next day, Reid and Peterson checked out of one of their rooms. A housekeeper found three live rounds of subsonic ammunition on the floor, along with blue latex gloves, Avila said. The manager called the police.
Reid and Peterson met Davidson at a shopping center in Northridge that afternoon. Believing he was going to sell Reid some cocaine, Davidson arranged for his suppliers, Perez and Vasquez Lopez, to bring the product to his home in Porter Ranch’s Renaissance gated community, Avila said.
Surveillance footage showed Davidson driving a Dodge minivan that Reid had rented through the complex’s security gate at 2:34 p.m., with Peterson beside him. Reid followed in Davidson’s Honda Accord.
Only the minivan would exit, 19 minutes later.
Avila said that based on the position of the bodies and other evidence inside the two-story, five-bedroom home, Davidson probably went into a bedroom with Reid to make what he thought would be the exchange. He died wearing the latex gloves he typically wore during drug deals, Avila said.
While Reid killed Davidson, Peterson held Perez and Vasquez Lopez at gunpoint in another room, the prosecutor argued. A woman who’d been sleeping upstairs heard several “popping sounds” and the noise of men screaming, Avila said.
All three men were shot in the head and chest. The house was littered with casings from subsonic ammunition of the same brand recovered from the motel room, Avila said.
“It’s all about the money,” he argued. “It’s all about the drugs. Anyone who gets in the way, they’re done.”
Surveillance footage from the Travelodge showed Reid and Peterson return to the motel, where a Burbank police cruiser was parked outside. An officer was inside the manager’s office, collecting the ammunition seized from their room.
In the garage of Davidson’s home, police found 2 kilograms of cocaine stamped with a “CAT” logo that resembled one found on Caterpiller brand heavy equipment. They discovered 5 more kilograms in the Toyota Camry that Perez and Vasquez Lopez had driven.
Avila argued that Reid and Peterson stole some of the cocaine and shipped it back to Maryland, showing the jury a video filmed by one of Reid’s street-level customers that shows a brick of cocaine stamped with the CAT logo.
Peterson’s attorney, Janae Torrez, argued that beyond his friendship with Reid, her client had no connection to the drug trade and its web of supply networks and violent men.
“Kenneth has nothing to do with this — nothing to do with this world, nothing to do with this intricacy of how things are moving,” she said.
Reid’s lawyer said no one but Palmer, a street dealer who was motivated to lie to lighten his prison sentence, described a dispute between his client and Davidson.
Garcia said that because the money seized by the Postal Service was Davidson’s — Reid was paying him for cocaine that had been extended on credit — it should have been Davidson who felt cheated by the losses, not Reid.
“We don’t know who pulled the trigger,” he insisted.
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