week

Actions, we know, have consequences. And an apparent Marxist’s cold-blooded murder of two Israeli Embassy staffers in Washington on Wednesday night was the natural and inevitable consequence of a conscientious, years-long campaign to dehumanize Jews and otherize all supporters of the world’s only Jewish state.

Seriously, what did you think was going to happen?

Some of President Trump’s more colorful all-caps and exclamation-mark-filled social media posts evince an impending jackboot, we’re sometimes told. (Hold aside, for now, columnist Salena Zito’s apt 2016 quip about taking Trump seriously but not literally.) Words either have meaning or they don’t. And many left-wing Americans have, for a long time now, argued that they have tremendous meaning. How often, as the concept of the “microaggression” and its campus “safe space” corollary took off last decade, were we told that “words are violence”? (I’ll answer: A lot!)

So are we really not supposed to take seriously the clear calls for Jewish genocide that have erupted on American campuses and throughout American streets since the Hamas pogrom of Oct. 7, 2023? Are we really supposed to believe that chants such as “globalize the intifada,” “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” and “there is only one solution, intifada revolution” are vague and open to competing interpretations?

That doesn’t even pass the laugh test.

When pro-Israel Jewish American Paul Kessler died after being hit on the head during a clash of protesters in Thousand Oaks on Nov. 5, 2023, that is what “intifada revolution” looks like in practice. When Israeli woman Tzeela Gez was murdered by a jihadist while en route to the hospital to deliver her baby earlier this month, that was what “from the river to the sea” looks like in practice. And when two young Israeli Embassy staffers were executed while leaving an event this week at Washington’s Capital Jewish Museum, that is what “globalize the intifada” looks like in practice.

Really, what did you think was going to happen?

Indeed, it is the easily foreseeable nature of Wednesday night’s slayings that is perhaps the most tragic part of it all. The suspect in the deaths of Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim left behind a handy manifesto laying out a clear political motivation. This was not a random drive-by shooting. Hardly. This was a deliberate act — what appears to be an act of domestic terrorism. And the suspect, Elias Rodriguez, has a long history of involvement in far-left activist causes. If the killer intended to target Jews, then the fact that both victims were apparently Christian only underscores the “globalize” part of “globalize the intifada.”

Zito had it right back in 2016: Trump’s social media posts should be taken seriously, not literally. But when it comes to the murderous, genocidal clamoring for Jewish and Israeli blood that has become increasingly ubiquitous ever since the Jews themselves suffered their single bloodiest day since the Third Reich, such anti-Israel and antisemitic words must be taken both seriously and literally.

A previous generation of lawmakers once urged Americans to fight the terrorists “over there” so that they can’t harm us “here.” How quaint! The discomfiting reality in the year 2025 is this: The radicals, both homegrown and foreign-born alike, are already here. There are monsters in our midst.

And those monsters are not limited to jihadists. Domestic terrorists these days come from all backgrounds. The deaths of two Israeli diplomats are yet another reminder (not that we needed it): Politically motivated violence in the contemporary United States is not an equivalent problem on both the left and the right.

In 2012, Floyd Lee Corkins attempted to shoot up the socially conservative Family Research Council because he heard it was “anti-gay.” In 2017, James Hodgkinson shot up the Republican congressional baseball team a few weeks after posting on Facebook that Trump is a “traitor” and threat to “our democracy.” In 2022, Nicholas Roske flew cross-country to try to assassinate Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh and thus prevent Roe vs. Wade from being overturned. Earlier this year, anti-Elon Musk activists burned and looted Teslas — and assaulted Tesla drivers — because of Musk’s Trump administration work with his cost-cutting Department of Government Efficiency. And who can forget Luigi Mangione, who is charged in the shooting death of UnitedHealthcare Chief Executive Brian Thompson?

Both “sides” are not culpable here. They just aren’t. Israel supporters in America aren’t out there gunning down people waving the PLO flag. Nor are capitalists out there gunning down socialists.

There is a real darkness out there in certain — increasingly widespread — pockets of the American activist left. Sure, parts of the right are also lost at the moment — but this is not an apples-to-apples comparison.

Regardless, the violence must end. And we must stop treating open calls for murder or genocide as morally acceptable “speech.” Let’s pull ourselves back from the brink before more blood is shed.

Josh Hammer’s latest book is “Israel and Civilization: The Fate of the Jewish Nation and the Destiny of the West.” This article was produced in collaboration with Creators Syndicate. @josh_hammer

NEW YORK — Sean “Diddy” Combs’ one-time personal assistant testified Wednesday that he was in charge of cleaning up hotel rooms after the hip-hop mogul’s sex marathons — tossing out empty alcohol bottles, baby oil and drugs, tidying pillows and making it look as if nothing had happened.

Implied in the job was that “protecting him and protecting his public image were important to him,” George Kaplan told jurors at Combs’ sex trafficking trial in federal court in Manhattan.

“That’s what I was keen on doing,” Kaplan said.

Kaplan, who worked for Combs from 2013 to 2015, said the Bad Boy Records founder would sometimes summon him to a hotel room to deliver a “medicine kit,” a bag full of prescription pills and over-the-counter pain medications. He said Combs also dispatched him to buy drugs, including MDMA, also known as ecstasy.

Kaplan, 34, was granted immunity to testify after initially telling the court that he would invoke his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination. Prosecutors contend Combs leaned on employees and used his music and fashion empire to facilitate and cover up his behavior, sometimes making threats to keep them in line and his misconduct hush-hush.

Kaplan testified that Combs threatened his job on a monthly basis, once berating him for buying the wrong size bottled water. Combs’ longtime girlfriend, the R&B singer Cassie, testified that Kaplan quit after seeing Combs beat her.

Kaplan’s testimony resumes Thursday. He’ll be followed by rapper and actor Kid Cudi.

Cudi, whose legal name is Scott Mescudi, is expected to testify about his brief relationship with Cassie in 2011. Prosecutors say Combs was so upset that he arranged to have Cudi’s convertible firebombed.

Also Wednesday, a federal agent showed jurors two handguns he said were found in a March 2024 raid at Combs’ Miami-area home, along with photos of ammunition and a wooden box marked “Puffy” — one of his nicknames — that the agent said contained psilocybin, MDMA and other drugs.

Investigators also found items prosecutors say were hallmarks of “freak-offs,” including dozens of bottles of baby oil and lubricant, said Homeland Security Investigations Special Agent Gerard Gannon.

Combs’ lawyer Teny Geragos suggested the search — which involved 80 to 90 agents, an armored vehicle smashing the security gate, handcuffed employees and boat patrols — was overkill. Combs’ Los Angeles mansion was also searched.

Gannon confirmed the federal investigation began the day after Cassie filed a lawsuit in November 2023 alleging that Combs abused her for years and involved her in hundreds of “freak-offs” with him and male sex workers. He soon settled for $20 million, she said.

Combs has pleaded not guilty to charges alleging he leveraged his fame and fortune to control Cassie and other people through threats and violence. His lawyers say the evidence reflects domestic violence, not racketeering or sex trafficking.

Jurors also heard from a psychologist who delved into the complexities of abusive relationships. Dawn Hughes explained victims often experience a “low sense of self” and tend to stay with abusers because they yearn for love and compassion they experienced in a relationship’s early “honeymoon phase.”

Hughes also explained how a victim’s memory can sometimes become jumbled — retaining awareness of abuse, but mixing up details. Hughes, who was paid $6,000 by the prosecution to testify, didn’t examine or mention Cassie or Combs, but her testimony paralleled some of what Cassie said she experienced with him.

Cassie testified that she started dating Cudi in late 2011. Although she and Combs broke up, they still engaged in “freak-offs,” she said. It was during such an encounter that Combs looked at her phone and figured out she was seeing Cudi, Cassie said.

Cassie’s mother, Regina Ventura, testified Tuesday that Cassie emailed her in December 2011 that Combs was so angry about the relationship that he planned to release explicit videos of her and have someone hurt Cassie and Cudi. Regina Ventura said she Combs also demanded $20,000. Scared for her daughter’s safety, she said she sent Combs the money, only to have it returned by Combs days later.

Cassie testified that she broke up with Cudi before the end of the year.

“It was just too much,” she said. “Too much danger, too much uncertainty of, like, what could happen if we continued to see each other.”

After Cassie reunited with Combs, he told her that Cudi’s car would be blown up and that he wanted Cudi’s friends there to see it, Cassie said.

Sisak and Neumeister write for the Associated Press. AP reporter Julie Walker contributed to this report.

WASHINGTON — President Trump implored House Republicans at the Capitol to drop their fights over his big tax-cut bill and get it done, using encouraging words but also the hardened language of politics over the multitrillion-dollar package that is at risk of collapsing before planned votes this week.

During the more than hourlong session Tuesday, Trump warned Republicans to not touch Medicaid with cuts, and he told New York lawmakers to end their fight for a bigger local tax deduction, reversing his own campaign promise. The president, heading into the meeting, called himself a “cheerleader” for the Republican Party and praised Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.). But he also criticized at least one of the GOP holdouts as a “grandstander” and warned that anyone who doesn’t support the bill would be a “fool.”

“We have unbelievable unity,” Trump said as he exited. “I think we’re going to get everything we want.”

The president arrived at a pivotal moment. Negotiations are slogging along and it’s not at all clear the package, with its sweeping tax breaks and cuts to Medicaid, food stamps and green energy programs, has the support needed from the House’s slim Republican majority. Lawmakers are also being asked to add some $350 billion to Trump’s border security, deportation and defense agenda.

Inside, he spoke privately in what one lawmaker called the president’s “weaving” style, and took questions.

The president also made it clear he’s losing patience with the various holdout factions of the House Republicans, according to a senior White House official who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the private meeting.

But Trump disputed that notion as well as reports that he used an expletive in warning against cutting Medicaid. Instead, he said afterward, “That was a meeting of love.” He received several standing ovations, Republicans said.

Yet it was not at all clear that Trump, who was brought in to seal the deal, changed minds.

“We’re still a long ways away,” said Rep. Andy Harris (R-Md.), the chair of the House Freedom Caucus.

Conservatives are insisting on quicker, steeper cuts to federal programs to offset the costs of the trillions of dollars in lost tax revenue. At the same time, a core group of lawmakers from New York and other high-tax states wants bigger tax breaks for their voters back home. Worries about piling onto the nation’s $36-trillion debt are stark.

With House Democrats lined up against the package, calling it a giveaway to the wealthy at the expense of safety net programs, GOP leaders have almost no votes to spare. A key committee hearing is set for the middle of the night Tuesday in hopes of a House floor vote by Wednesday afternoon.

“They literally are trying to take healthcare away from millions of Americans at this very moment in the dead of night,” said House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York.

Trump has been pushing hard for Republicans to unite behind the bill, the president’s signature domestic policy initiative in Congress.

Asked about one of the conservative Republicans, Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky, Trump lashed out.

“I think he is a grandstander, frankly,” the president continued. “I think he should be voted out of office.”

But Massie, a renegade who wears a clock lapel pin that tallies the nation’s debt load, said afterward he’s still a no vote.

Also unmoved was Rep. Mike Lawler, one of the New York Republicans leading the fight for a bigger state and local tax deduction, known as SALT: “As it stands right now, I do not support the bill. Period.”

The sprawling 1,116-page package carries Trump’s title, the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” as well as his campaign promises to extend the tax breaks approved during his first term while adding new ones, including no taxes on tips, automobile loan interest and Social Security.

Yet, the price tag is rising and lawmakers are wary of the votes ahead, particularly as the economy teeters with uncertainty.

The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, a nonpartisan fiscal watchdog group, estimates that the House bill is shaping up to add roughly $3.3 trillion to the debt over the next decade.

Republicans criticizing the measure argued that the bill’s new spending and tax cuts are front-loaded, while the measures to offset the cost are back-loaded.

In particular, the conservative Republicans are looking to speed up the new work requirements that Republicans want to enact for able-bodied participants in Medicaid. They had been proposed to start Jan. 1, 2029, but Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) said on CNBC that work requirements for some Medicaid beneficiaries would begin in early 2027.

At least 7.6 million fewer people are expected to have health insurance under the initial Medicaid changes, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said last week.

Republican holdouts are also looking to more quickly halt green energy tax breaks, which had been approved as part of the Biden-era Inflation Reduction Act, and are now being used for renewable energy projects across the nation.

But for every change Johnson considers to appease the hard-right conservatives, he risks losing support from more traditional and centrist Republicans. Many have signed letters protesting deep cuts to Medicaid and food assistance programs and the rolling back of clean energy tax credits.

At its core, the sprawling legislative package permanently extends the existing income tax cuts and bolsters the standard deduction, increasing it to $32,000 for joint filers, and the child tax credit to $2,500.

The New Yorkers are fighting for a larger state and local tax deduction beyond the bill’s proposal. As it stands, the bill would triple what’s currently a $10,000 cap on the state and local tax deduction, increasing it to $30,000 for joint filers with incomes up to $400,000 a year. They have proposed a deduction of $62,000 for single filers and $124,000 for joint filers.

Trump, who had campaigned on fully reinstating the unlimited SALT deduction, now appears to be satisfied with the proposed compromise, arguing it only benefits “all the Democratic” states.

If the bill passes the House this week, it would move to the Senate, where Republicans are also eyeing changes.

Mascaro, Freking, Askarinam and Cappelletti write for the Associated Press. AP writers Darlene Superville and Seung Min Kim contributed to this report.

SEOUL, May 20 (UPI) — South Korea sent a delegation to Washington to hold a second round of technical discussions this week over the Trump administration’s proposed “reciprocal” tariffs, Seoul’s Trade Ministry said Tuesday, with both sides aiming to reach an agreement by July.

A South Korean delegation led by senior ministry official Jang Sung-gil will visit Washington for talks slated to run from Tuesday through Thursday, the Trade Ministry said.

Discussions will be centered on the six areas of trade balance, non-tariff measures, economic security, digital trade, country of origin of products and commercial considerations, the ministry said. The agenda was set during a meeting held on the sidelines of last week’s Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation trade ministers’ meeting, held on South Korea’s southern resort island of Jeju.

“Through this technology consultation, we will respond from the perspective of prioritizing national interests in order to derive the direction of a mutually beneficial agreement centered on the areas that both sides have discussed so far,” Jang said.

This week’s discussions follow a first round of working-level talks held May 1 in Washington.

South Korea is facing 25% tariffs threatened by U.S. President Donald Trump as part of his sweeping package of “Liberation Day” trade measures. Trump announced the tariffs on April 2 but quickly put their implementation on hold for 90 days. Tariffs on steel and automobiles, two key South Korean industries, are already in place.

Seoul and Washington agreed to work toward a “package” deal on trade and other related issues before July 8, when the 90-day pause on tariffs is set to expire, South Korean Trade Minister Ahn Duk-geun said in April.

The uncertain trade environment has shaken the export-dependent Asian powerhouse, which saw its economy unexpectedly shrink in the first quarter of the year.

Last month, the International Monetary Fund sharply cut its forecast for South Korea’s 2025 economic growth as part of an overall global decline reflecting “effective tariff rates at levels not seen in a century and a highly unpredictable environment.”

The April edition of the IMF’s quarterly World Economic Outlook projected 1% growth for Asia’s fourth-largest economy, down from a 2% forecast in its previous edition.

South Korea is looking to get a reduction or exemption from the American tariffs, Trade Minister Ahn Duk-geun said Friday after he met with U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer at the APEC event in Jeju.

“In Friday’s meeting, we tried to raise awareness that South Korea has a bilateral free trade agreement with the United States, unlike some other countries, and has expanded trade and investment with the U.S. under the FTA,” Ahn told reporters at a press briefing.

“We are continuing to request exemption from all reciprocal tariffs and item tariffs against us,” Ahn added in a statement. “Our government will actively consult with the United States to establish a mutually beneficial solution by prioritizing national interests.”

If you want to understand what’s going on in the streaming business, go find Elmo and Cookie Monster.

Netflix’s recent deal to stream the upcoming season of “Sesame Street” is, on its own, a major step in the entertainment giant’s effort to become a go-to destination for preschooler programming. At the same time, it’s a useful way to understand one of the media industry’s other big stories of the last week — Warner Bros. Discovery’s re-rebranding of its streaming service back to HBO Max.

First, the deal itself.

Los Gatos, Calif.-based Netflix will begin streaming the beloved children’s show’s upcoming 56th season, along with 90 hours of older episodes, later this year. New “Sesame Street” episodes will continue to air in the U.S. on PBS’ stations and digital platforms, the nonprofit Sesame Workshop’s longtime TV partner (which could use a win amid Congress’ efforts to defund public broadcasting). Episodes will premiere the same day on PBS and Netflix.

The new season will be released in three batches, and will include some format changes and the return of popular segments such as “Elmo’s World” and “Cookie Monster’s Foodie Truck.” Episodes will now be built around one 11-minute story, reflecting the shorter attention spans of younger viewers. The partnership includes a new animated segment, “Tales from 123.” Additionally, Netflix will be able to develop “Sesame Street” video games.

Netflix is welcoming “Sesame Street” to its block after HBO parent company Warner Bros. Discovery opted not to re-up its deal for new episodes, citing a shift in corporate priorities during a period of harsh cost-cutting.

HBO — and by extension, the streaming service known until recently as Max — had been the home of “Sesame Street” for years. The company then called Time Warner inked its deal with Sesame Workshop a decade ago, before AT&T or David Zaslav and his Discovery empire entered the picture.

Having Big Bird appear on the exclusive and adult-skewing “Game of Thrones” network never made much sense, but the deal was a lifeline for Sesame Workshop and kept the show alive, though it raised concerns among parent groups.

After AT&T took over, WarnerMedia launched HBO Max, a much reviled rebranding that was meant to make room for more populist content, including “Friends” and “The Big Bang Theory.” It also allowed for more kids’ programming, such as shows from Cartoon Network and Hanna-Barbera, along with “Sesame Street.”

Then came Zaslav, who stripped HBO from the streamer’s name entirely, leaving it as just Max. Part of the justification of the change was that the name HBO, while well known and respected among fancy people in New York and L.A., was a turnoff for Middle America and those who might otherwise sign up to binge-watch “Dr. Pimple Popper” and Guy Fieri.

The executives were also convinced that the HBO brand, known for “The Sopranos” and “Sex and the City,” was a deterrent for parents.

This was the era when streaming services were trying to be everything to everyone, and were losing billions of dollars trying to catch up to Netflix. Few companies other than Walt Disney Co. and HBO had distinct brands that made sense to people outside corporate conference rooms.

The decision to excise the HBO moniker was widely derided at the time as flawed managerial thinking.

Larry Vincent, a professor at USC Marshall School of Business and former UTA chief branding officer, called it a “classic case of right question, wrong answer” that will go down alongside New Coke in the annals of marketing blunders.

The name HBO has historically stood for quality, to the point that when people try to describe Apple TV+’s boutique streaming strategy, they compare it to early HBO. Last week, in an effective mea culpa during the media business’ big upfront week of presentations for advertisers, the company said the service would be called HBO Max again.

“It just violated everything we know about how you build a premium brand,” Vincent said of the earlier rebrand. “HBO has been at this for 50 years. It connotes a certain level of quality…. What we see now is that this is a reset to going back to the default position, because they realized this was silly.”

The backpedaling move drew howls from social media, journalists and rivals. Even Max’s own X account joined in on the fun. Warner Bros. Discovery executives were bracing for whatever John Oliver would say Sunday night during his show, and the comedian — never shy about bashing his own bosses — did not disappoint.

The decision was an admission of a couple things: First, that trying to be an “everything store” for entertainment was foolhardy when Netflix and Amazon both serve that exact purpose; and second, that it was a mistake to shy away from the brand that makes the streaming offering special.

Casey Bloys, chairman of HBO and Max content, said in a statement that returning to the old name “clearly states our implicit promise to deliver content that is recognized as unique and, to steal a line we always said at HBO, worth paying for.”

As my colleague Stephen Battaglio recently pointed out, when media companies put out new streaming services these days, there’s a tendency to avoid the now-cliche plus sign and stick with the brand name consumers already understand.

For example, Disney’s new $30 a month ESPN flagship service is simply called ESPN (ESPN+ is already taken by a more limited service).

Under Bloys, HBO has continued its tradition of highly regarded original series, with recent examples including the latest seasons of “The White Lotus,” “The Last of Us” and “The Righteous Gemstones.”

The brand confusion is still real, though. I’ve spoken with agents and read publications that should know better that mistakenly think “Hacks” and “The Pitt” are HBO shows, when they’re actually Max originals. That may not be important to consumers, but within the industry and for artists, it matters.

As for preschool-focused programming such as “Sesame Street,” that’s no longer a priority for Warner Bros. Discovery’s streaming strategy. The company has said it now wants to focus on “stories for adults and families.”

People who want shows for their toddlers can find them almost anywhere, including for free on YouTube. Disney+, of course, has troves of kids content, including Australia’s acclaimed and much-watched “Bluey.”

And, increasingly, kids are tuning into Netflix, which is now the land of “Ms. Rachel,” “CoComelon” and “Blippi,” all of which rose to popularity on YouTube. Kids and family programming now accounts for 15% of the platform’s viewership, according to the company. Netflix also has “Peppa Pig” and “Hot Wheels Let’s Race.”

Suffice to say, if you want or need to turn your little ones into couch zombies for a while, Netflix has an increasingly crowded ZIP Code of shows for you.

Stuff we wrote

Numbers of the week

Cable’s consolidation continues with Friday’s announcement that Charter and Cox will merge in a $34.5-billion deal, uniting Southern California’s two major cable TV and internet providers.

The Charter-Cox combination would have 38 million customer homes in the nation, a larger footprint than longtime cable leader Comcast.

Of the many interesting aspects of the deal, this one is particularly relevant to Los Angeles residents — if approved by Charter shareholders and regulators, the merger would end one of the longest TV sports blackouts, my colleague Meg James reports.

Cox customers in Rancho Palos Verdes, Rolling Hills Estates and Orange County would finally have the Dodgers’ TV channel available in their lineups. For more than a decade, Cox has refused to carry SportsNet LA because of its high cost.

New Line Cinema’s horror franchise revival “Final Destination: Bloodlines” won the weekend box office with $51 million in the U.S. and Canada (more than $100 million globally), exceeding pre-release analyst estimates.

The horror genre’s power to draw moviegoers is undeniable. The marketing was clever (complete with morbid 3D billboards), and this series has built-in nostalgic value. The new grisly supernatural teen movie comes 14 years after the previous one, “Final Destination 5.” The audience response has been generally positive.

With a reported production budget of $50 million, this was a no-brainer, and another win for Warner Bros. chiefs Michael De Luca and Pam Abdy coming after “Minecraft” and “Sinners.” All eyes are now on James Gunn’s “Superman,” coming in July.

Finally …

Listen: “Chaise Longue” rock band Wet Leg has new music on the way. Here’s a preview.

NEW YORK — Less than three weeks after his release from an immigration jail, the Palestinian activist Mohsen Mahdawi strode across the graduation stage at Columbia University on Monday morning, savoring a moment the Trump administration had fought to make impossible.

Draped in a keffiyeh, Mahdawi, 34, paused to listen to the swell of cheers from his fellow graduates. Then he joined a vigil just outside Columbia’s gates, raising a photograph of his classmate Mahmoud Khalil, who remains in federal custody.

“It’s very mixed emotions,” Mahdawi told The Associated Press. “The Trump administration wanted to rob me of this opportunity. They wanted me to be in a prison, in prison clothes, to not have education and to not have joy or celebration.”

Mahdawi, a 34-year-old legal resident of the U.S., was detained during an April 14 citizenship interview in Vermont, part of the widening federal crackdown on pro-Palestinian activists.

He was released two weeks later by a judge, who likened the government’s actions to McCarthyist repression. Federal officials have not accused Mahdawi of committing a crime but argued that he and other student activists should be deported for beliefs that may undermine U.S. foreign policy.

For Mahdawi, who earned a bachelor’s degree in philosophy from Columbia’s School of General Studies, the graduation marked a bittersweet return to a university that he says has betrayed him and other students.

“The senior administration is selling the soul of this university to the Trump administration, participating in the destruction and the degradation of our democracy,” Mahdawi said.

He pointed to Columbia’s decision to acquiesce to the Trump administration’s demands — including placing its Middle Eastern studies department under new leadership — as well as its failure to speak out against his and Khalil’s arrest.

He said Columbia’s leadership had denied his pleas for protection prior to his arrest, then ignored his attorney’s request for a letter supporting his release from jail.

A spokesperson for Columbia University did not return an emailed inquiry.

Mahdawi was born in a refugee camp in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and moved to the United States in 2014. At Columbia, he organized campus protests, led a Buddhist association and co-founded the Palestinian Student Union with Khalil.

Khalil would have received his diploma from a Columbia master’s program in international studies later this week. He remains jailed in Louisiana as he awaits a decision from a federal judge about his possible release.

As he prepares for a lengthy legal battle, Mahdawi faces his own uncertain future. He was previously admitted to a master’s degree program at Columbia, where he planned to study “peacekeeping and conflict resolution” in the fall. But he is reconsidering his options after learning this month that he would not receive financial aid.

For now, he said, he would continue to advocate for the Palestinian cause, buoyed by the support he says he has received from the larger Columbia community.

“When I went on the stage, the message was very clear and loud: They are cheering up for the idea of justice, for the idea of peace, for the idea of equality, for the idea of humanity, and nothing will stop us from continuing to do that. Not the Trump administration nor Columbia University,” he said.

The School of General Studies graduation comes two days before Columbia’s university-wide commencement, as colleges across the country are bracing for possible disruptions.

Last week, New York University announced it would withhold the diploma of a student speaker who criticized Israel’s attacks on Palestinians in his graduation speech.

Offenhartz writes for the Associated Press.

Four years later, the memory remains uncomfortably fresh.

The last time the Dodgers tried to defend a World Series title, they racked up 106 victories. They matched the best winning percentage in the franchise’s Los Angeles history. They had seven All-Stars and three Cy Young vote-getters.

And it still wasn’t enough to win them the National League West.

The San Francisco Giants, the Dodgers still well remember, won 107 games in the 2021 season, marking the only time in the last dozen years someone else has claimed the division crown. The Dodgers eventually knocked the Giants out of the playoffs that October, but their elongated path through the postseason as a wild card team left them gassed in the NL Championship Series. They were eliminated six wins shy of a repeat title.

For president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman, the experience underscored an all-important truth.

“Our primary goal during the regular season is to win the division,” Friedman said. “That is what we feel like puts us in the best position to accomplish our ultimate goal.”

Thus, with another tight division race looming this year, the Dodgers didn’t wait to act aggressively this week.

Austin Barnes and Chris Taylor were struggling. Dalton Rushing and Hyeseong Kim looked like intriguing big-league options. And in two moves that were made in an effort to “win as many games as we can” in this season’s World Series title defense, Friedman said, the longtime veterans were released to make room for the rookies. Sentimentality lost out to the odds of even slightly better regular-season success.

“This has been a very emotional week for all of us,” Friedman said, addressing reporters hours after Taylor was released on Sunday. Barnes was designated for assignment earlier in the week. “Barnsey and CT have been in the middle of some huge moments for this organization. Both guys have left an indelible mark on our culture and where we’re at this point. So the decisions were incredibly difficult. The conversations were tough.”

“But,” Friedman countered, “with where we are, the division race, the composition of roster, everything — we felt like this was in the Dodgers’ best interest … [to] put us in a position to best win the World Series this year.”

Note the first factor Friedman mentioned in his answer.

Though the Dodgers are tied for the best record in the National League at 29-18, they continue to nurse the slimmest of NL West leads, entering Monday just one game up on the rival San Diego Padres (27-18) and upstart San Francisco Giants (28-19), and only four games clear of even the fourth-place Arizona Diamondbacks (25-22).

With their pitching staff already in tatters, at least temporarily, because of a wave of early-season injuries, the importance of consistent offense has also suddenly heightened; the Dodgers needing to maximize the production of their lineup to help offset a 4.18 team ERA that ranks 21st in the majors.

In a world where the Dodgers were running away with the division, or pitching the way they expected after two offseasons of spending heavily on the mound, maybe they could have tolerated Barnes’ and Taylor’s combined .208 batting average. They might have been more comfortable giving two longtime cornerstones of the franchise a longer leash to turn things around.

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Instead, as club brass surveyed this year’s competitive division landscape, they recognized that — this season more than most — every single victory could matter come the end of the campaign. That every single loss would make the challenge of winning another World Series incrementally tougher.

So, as Rushing crushed triple-A pitching and Kim excelled in what was initially planned to be only a brief big-league call-up, the Dodgers did what they felt like they must. Rushing replaced Barnes as backup catcher. Taylor was cut loose so Kim wouldn’t be sent back to the minors. And a roster that once seemed too top-heavy now has, at least in theory, more potential impact options to bring off the bench.

“We didn’t feel like coming into the season this was something that we would necessarily be doing in May,” Friedman said. “But with where we were, all things factored in, while not easy, we felt like it was the right thing to do.”

There were other reasons, of course, the Dodgers felt motivated to make such emotionally conflicting decisions now.

Manager Dave Roberts noted that Rushing (who was batting .308 in the minors this year, and has started his big-league career an impressive four-for-10) and Kim (who has hit .452 since arriving in the majors, and has impacted games with his versatile glove and lightning-quick speed) deserved opportunities for more prominent roles.

With most of the team’s core players on the wrong side of 30, there are longer-term considerations about developing younger talent as well.

“I think some of it is the [division] race,” Roberts said. “Some of it is, you still want to continue to develop young players and give them opportunities with a veteran ball club.”

Eventually, it was always likely that Rushing would force his way to the majors, and that Kim would carve out a niche with his well-rounded skill set.

But the early pressure being applied by the team’s NL West rivals still sped up that timeline. The Dodgers remember what happened in 2021. And, wary of having that reality repeat itself, they didn’t wait to begin acting with urgency this year.

“We saw it in 2021, winning 106 games and not winning the division,” Friedman said. “We have a tough division [again this year]. We’ve got some really good teams in our division who are playing well. And so for us, it’s about doing everything we can each night to try to win a game.”

Hi, and welcome to another edition of Prep Rally. It’s the greatest weekend for City Section athletics, because the baseball championship games in Open Division and Division I will be held Saturday at Dodger Stadium.

Tantalizingly close

Venice’s Canon King (left) gives a chest bump after his home run against Chatsworth.

(Craig Weston)

It’s the week in City Section sports where dreams come true. The City Section Open Division and Division I baseball championship games will be played Saturday at Dodger Stadium.

“It’s magical,” Venice center fielder Canon King said of what the experience would be like.

A semifinal doubleheader is set for Tuesday at Cal State Northridge in the Open Division, with Birmingham playing El Camino Real at 3 p.m. and Venice facing Sylmar at 6 p.m. In Division I, the semifinals are Wednesday at Stengel Field in Glendale. Taft will play Carson at 3 p.m., followed by Verdugo Hills against Banning at 6 p.m.

Venice, the No. 1 seed, has been led by King, who has hit six home runs. Here’s a profile of him and his teammates.

Baseball

It’s nervous time in the Southern Section baseball playoffs that resume Tuesday. Top-seeded Corona, which got a first-round bye in Division 1, makes its debut at home against Los Osos and will send out pitcher Seth Hernandez, who is 17-0 in high school baseball.

There are no upsets in Division 1 despite the seedings. It’s still about ace vs. ace. The one interesting thing to watch is how well the four teams who got first-round byes perform after being inactive for more than a week. That’s Corona, Crespi, Huntington Beach and St. John Bosco. They better be ready to perform with their ace pitchers or suffer an early exit.

Quentin Young of Oaks Christian has hit 14 home runs.

(Craig Weston)

The Trinity League has done best with Orange Lutheran, Mater Dei, Servite and Santa Margarita all winning their playoff openers. It was a big day for Oaks Christian and Quentin Young, who hit his 14th home run.

Here’s the updated schedule.

Softball

Jackie Morales is one of six freshman contributors for Sherman Oaks Notre Dame.

(Greg Fiore)

Sherman Oaks Notre Dame has become the surprise team in high school softball, eliminating last season’s Division 1 runner-up Orange Lutheran in a 9-7 stunner, then beating El Segundo 12-10. Who says you need a standout pitcher with a freshman named Jackie Morales?

All Morales did was hit four home runs on the week, including three against Orange Lutheran. Top-seeded Norco remains the favorite in Division 1, but in a season without any dominant pitcher, the Knights’ hitting could keep them going far. Notre Dame hosts El Modena in Wednesday’s quarterfinals. Here’s the complete pairings.

The City Section announced its playoff pairings, with Granada Hills seeded No. 1. Here’s the pairings.

Lacrosse

Loyola has been the No. 1 lacrosse team all season and delivered a second Southern Section title with an 11-3 win over Mater Dei in the Division 1 final. Cash Ginsberg scored three goals and Tripp King had two goals.

Foothill upset No. 1-seeded Mira Costa 12-7 to win the Division 1 girls title. Foothill lost to Marlborough in last year’s final. Brynn Perkins scored five goals.

Track

Benjamin Harris of Servite shows emotion after his win in Division 200 final. He also won the 100.

(Craig Weston)

The weather was cool and overcast, but there were some terrific individual and team performances at the Southern Section track and field championships at Moorpark.

There were two ties for team titles in Division 4 boys (Serra and Viewpoint) and girls (St. Mary’s and Rosary). And Division 3 boys came down to the 4×400 relay with Sherman Oaks Notre Dame prevailing over Servite.

Servite’s Benjamin Harris, only a sophomore, ran a 10.32 100 meters. Rodney Sermons, a junior USC commit at Rancho Cucamonga, ran a 10.36 100. Here’s a rundown on the day’s activities.

On Saturday, the Southern Section will hold its Masters Meet at Moorpark and for the first time have 18 qualifiers competing in races and field events, up from nine.

The City Section will hold its championships Thursday at Birmingham High using the school’s new Mondo track surface.

Volleyball

Connor Koski hammers a kill over Venice’s Sam Engelen in the City Section Open Division boys’ volleyball final at Birmingham High on May 17, 2025.

(Steve Galluzzo / For The Times)

El Camino Real stunned top-seeded Venice to win the City Section Open Division championship. The Royals have one of the brightest young coaches in the Southland in Alyssa Lee, who used to play girls volleyball for Tom Harp at Granada Hills. She’s now won a boys title, girls title and beach title.

Here’s the report.

Mira Costa won the Southern Section Division 1 championship. The state championships begin this week. Here are the pairings.

Pitchers to watch

Angel Cervantes of Warren, a UCLA commit, is one of the hardest throwers in the Southland.

(Nick Koza)

There are lots of pitchers scheduled to make an impact in the Southern Section baseball playoffs.

Here’s a look at pitchers to watch over the next couple of weeks.

Interactive sports exhibit

Former UCLA softball pitcher Rachel Garcia stands in the batting cage as the digital Rachel Garcia pitches to visitors at the new Game On! exhibition prepares to open on Thursday at the California Science Center.

(Eric Sondheimer / Los Angeles Times)

The California Science Center next to the Coliseum has opened a free interactive sports exhibit that will stay open through the 2028 Olympic Games. It’s phenomenal, allowing kids and adults to learn about science and participate in baseball, softball, climbing, soccer, basketball and other sports. The first day it was opened saw more than 1,300 visitors.

Here’s a look at something that should become very popular.

Golf

Here come the freshmen. At the Northern Regional for individual golf, freshman Brandon Anderson of Buena won with a 63 and second was freshman Jaden Soong of St. Francis. The individual championships will take place Thursday at Temecula Creek Country Club.

Team titles are scheduled Monday and Tuesday.

Hello Eric

Eric Sondheimer answers questions.

(Nick Koza / For the Times)

It’s time to start a weekly help guide for parents, athletes, coaches, even officials. I’m going to ask questions and answer them with help from others.

First question: “How do I get my coach to notice me more?”

Get to practices before anyone else. Stay until everyone leaves. That lets the coach know you are passionate and committed to getting better. Volunteer to do the little things that coaches notice, like helping to clean a gym floor or bring out water. Show hustle whenever you can. Be bold and talk to your coach and tell him or her that you want to reach your full potential and would appreciate any feedback.

The key is working hard when no one is watching. The coach will see the development and provide a reward known as playing time. If not, keep doing it for yourself and your future. Good grades always bring a smile to any coach. Run extra laps. And you might even tell your coach, “You’re doing a really good job.” They like compliments.

Notes . . .

Former NFL defensive back Troy Hill is the new head football coach at his alma mater, St. Bonaventure. He becomes the second ex-NFL player recently headed to high school football, joining Carson Palmer, who went to Santa Margarita. . . .

Junior receiver Devin Olmande of Newbury Park has committed to San Jose State. . . .

Irvine University and Woodbridge won the Southern Section Open Division and Division 1 tennis championships. Here’s a report on Woodbridge’s win. . . .

Mission Viejo won the Millikan seven on seven passing tournament, defeating San Diego Lincoln in the final. Charter Oak won its own passing tournament title, defeating Rancho Cucamonga, and San Juan Hills defeated Capistrano Valley in the championship of the Dana Hills passing tournament. . . .

Thatcher Fahlbusch from Mira Costa has committed to Hawaii for volleyball.

From the archives: Easton Hawk

Easton Hawk during his Granada Hills days.

(Eric Sondheimer / Los Angeles Times)

UCLA was searching for a reliable closer in baseball this season, and look who’s emerged late in the season: freshman Easton Hawk from Granada Hills High.

He entered the week with four saves in 17 appearances but has come on strong this month to give the Bruins hope he can be a stopper in the NCAA playoffs. UCLA shared the regular season Big 10 championship with Oregon.

He’s always had good velocity. Throwing strikes is important at the collegiate level.

Here’s a story from 2023.

Recommendations

From ESPN, a story on Palisades High’s baseball team rising up despite obstacles from the Palisades fire.

From Globalsportmatters.com, a story on youth sports and mental health challenges.

Tweets you might have missed

Ahmaud Arbery. His name is just one that we’ve come to associate with senseless racial violence in America. On the afternoon of Feb. 23, 2020, in Georgia’s Glynn County, Arbery, 25, was out running when three white men chased him down and shot him. His death ricocheted across the nation just three months before the murder of George Floyd by a white Minneapolis police officer.

Now, five years later, the Grammy-winning choral ensemble Tonality is dedicating a show to Arbery at the Wallis in Beverly Hills. The May 24 program, “Put Your Guns Down,” includes the world premiere of founding Artistic Director Alexander Lloyd Blake’s piece “Running From, Running To: A Musical Reflection on Ahmaud Arbery.”

Tonality choral ensemble during a performance.

(Dorian Bonner)

Arbery’s mother, Wanda Cooper-Jones, will attend the concert and has already heard Blake’s 30-minute work for choir, orchestra and soloists. She took time while traveling to answer questions via email about experiencing the music.

“When I first heard the composition, I was overwhelmed. It’s beautiful. I wish I could play it over and over again,” Cooper-Jones wrote. “The fact that someone took the time to honor Ahmaud in this way — it means more than I can put into words. One of the movements is called ‘Running Free,’ and when I heard that, I told Alex that it was like we were made to make a connection.”

After Arbery’s death, Cooper-Jones channeled her grief into creating the Ahmaud Arbery Foundation, which champions mental health awareness and provides scholarships and youth development camps for young Black men.

“One of my favorite quotes from Ahmaud is, ‘When life gets hard, you gotta get hard with it,’” Cooper-Jones wrote. “I hear his voice saying that all the time, especially when I get to the point where I want to give up. Starting the Ahmaud Arbery Foundation hasn’t been easy. It’s hard work. But those words keep me going.”

Arbery, Cooper-Jones explained, inspired everything she does.

“He had a way of leaving every person with ‘I love you,’ no matter who they were. Since losing him, I try to do the same, letting people know I love them, just in case I leave here tomorrow,” she said. “Through the foundation, I’m working to be the change for young Black men like Ahmaud who may be facing mental health challenges or simply struggling to find their place in the world. If they choose running as their outlet, I want them to be able to run free, without fear. That’s what this work is about, honoring Ahmaud’s legacy by fighting for freedom, for justice, and for love.”

Tonality’s Blake also wants to honor Arbery’s life with his music.

“I remember reading about Ahmaud Arbery’s story in 2020 and feeling a deep frustration at how little attention it received. That frustration led me to create a project in 2020 with 60 Black musicians to honor the countless Black lives lost without consequence,” Blake wrote in an email. “‘Running From, Running To’ is my way of ensuring his story is not forgotten — a reflection of our need to remember, to heal, and to strive toward justice that has yet to be fully realized.”

Tonality founding Artistic Director Alexander Lloyd Blake.

(Dorian Bonner)

“Put Your Guns Down,” begins at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday at the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts. Tickets can be purchased at thewallis.org.

I’m arts and culture writer Jessica Gelt, grateful for Cooper-Jones’ reflections on the power of love. Here’s a rundown of this week’s other arts news.

Best bets: On our radar this week

‘Califas Trilogy’

Playwright and actor Roger Q. Mason made waves with their play “Lavendar Men,” which reimagined Abraham Lincoln’s life through a queer lens. Now Mason has launched the “Califas Trilogy,” plays exploring the California dream at various points in the past, present and future. Times contributor Amanda L. Andrei sat down with Mason to discuss the works, two of which are up and running. Check them out and dive into Mason’s story.
“California Story” runs through June 3 at Caminito Theatre of Los Angeles City College “Hide and Hide” runs through May 29 at Skylight Theatre in L.A.; “Juana Maria” runs May 25-June 1 at Caminito Theatre. www.califastrilogy.com

‘Schoenberg in Hollywood’

Tod Machover’s opera “Schoenberg in Hollywood” is based on a remarkable incident from 1935: In the office of legendary Hollywood producer Irving Thalberg, composer Arnold Schoenberg asks for more than an astronomical fee to score the MGM feature film adaptation of Pearl S. Buck’s “The Good Earth.” He also asks for full control of the movie’s sound — and wants the actors to recite their lines to his musical rhythms. Three more performances of “Schoenberg in Hollywood” by the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music are scheduled this week at the Nimoy Theater in Westwood. Until then, you can read music critic Mark Swed’s take on Schoenberg and his contribution to the L.A. sound.
7:30 p.m. Monday, Tuesday and Thursday. Nimoy Theater, 1262 Westwood Blvd., L.A. schoolofmusic.ucla.edu

Culture news and the SoCal scene

Elizabeth Reaser and Jason Butler Harner, who star as Nora and Torvald in “A Doll’s House, Part 2,” at the Pasadena Playhouse on Friday, May 2, 2025.

(Carlin Stiehl / Los Angeles Times)

Since Henrik Ibsen’s classic play “A Doll’s House” premiered in 1879, one thing has not changed: It’s still shocking for a woman to walk out on her child. Which is where playwright Lucas Hnath’s starts his 2017 play, “A Doll’s House, Part 2”: 15 years after Ibsen’s female protagonist, Nora, left her husband and daughter to find her own way in life. In a new production at Pasadena Playhouse, screen actors Elizabeth Reaser and Jason Butler Harner play Nora and husband Torvald, coming up with their own answers about what these two former life partners may now think and feel about each other. Read all about the show here.

Times theater critic Charles McNulty, a part-time professor at CalArts, enjoyed reading playwright Sarah Ruhl’s new book, “Lessons From My Teachers.” Ruhl is a playwriting instructor at Yale who finds plenty to learn from her students. “Even in the classroom, with its necessary hierarchies and rigorously observed boundaries, teaching isn’t a one-way street,” McNulty writes in review of the book. “Authority is enriched, not undermined, by intellectual challenge. The most thrilling moments in my years of teaching drama have come when in the dialectical heat of class discussion, a new way of understanding a scene or a character’s psychology emerges from conflicting perspectives.”

Maestro Esa-Pekka Salonen conducts the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Pierre-Laurent Aimard at piano at the Walt Disney Concert Hall.

(David Swanson/For The Times)

The classical music world is abuzz with the thought that conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen might return to lead the Los Angeles Philharmonic after Music and Artistic Director Gustavo Dudamel leaves at the end of next season to take over the New York Philharmonic. Times critic Swed ruminates on the possibility of Salonen playing a transitional role for a couple years while the search continues for a permanent successor.

Joe Ngo, Abraham Kim, Kelsey Angel Baehrens, Jane Lui and Tim Liu in “Cambodian Rock Band” at East West Players.

(Teolindo)

Massive cutbacks to the National Endowment for the Arts continue to send shock waves through L.A.’s arts community. East West Players announced that it lost a $20,000 grant meant to support the creative team behind the world premiere of Prince Gomolvilas’ “Paranormal Inside,” scheduled for the fall. “The loss of this funding represents more than a financial setback; it is a symbolic blow to our mission and to the creatives who rely on institutional support to tell vital, underrepresented stories,” the theater wrote in an email to supporters. The loss, which represents 10% of the budget for the project, couldn’t come at a worse time for the company, which in April was forced to layoff five full-time staff members. The theater is calling on members of the community to help fundraise and to contact their local representatives to protest the Trump administration’s proposed elimination of the NEA.

A massive art installation created by transgender and nonbinary artists in support of visibility and acceptance for their community was unveiled Saturday in Washington, D.C. The “Freedom to Be” project was spearheaded by the American Civil Liberties Union and helped kick off World Pride in the capital by displaying hundreds of quilts meant to build on the legacy of the 1987 AIDS Memorial Quilt.

The Getty has announced the lineup for its free outdoor summer concert series, “Off the 405.” This year’s performers include Bartees Strange, Cate Le Bon, Helado Negro, Alabaster DePlume and Moses Sumney. Check out the full schedule here.

And last but not least

Times travel writer Christopher Reynolds, who may have the best job at the paper, just released this list of “the 34 coolest, kitschiest, most fascinating motels in California,” which appeals to just about every aspect of my personality and taste. Now I just need a few months off — and a lottery win — to stay at each and every one.

WASHINGTON — Republicans advanced their massive tax cut and border security package out of a key House committee during a rare Sunday night vote as conservatives who blocked the measure two days earlier reversed course after gaining commitments on the package’s spending cuts.

Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) met with Republican lawmakers shortly before the meeting, telling reporters that the changes agreed to were “just some minor modifications. Not a huge thing.”

Democrats on the panel pressed for more details about the changes that Republicans had agreed to in the private negotiations. But Rep. Jodey Arrington (R-Texas), the chairman of the House Budget Committee, said he could not do so.

“Deliberations continue at this very moment,” Arrington said. “They will continue on into the week, and I suspect right up until the time we put this big, beautiful bill on the floor of the House.”

The first time Republicans tried advancing the bill out of the Budget Committee, hard-right Republicans joined with Democrats in voting against sending the measure to the full House. Five Republicans voted no, one on procedural grounds, the other four voicing concerns about the bill’s effect on federal budget deficits.

On Sunday evening, the four voicing concerns about the deficit voted present, and the measure passed by a vote of 17 to 16.

Johnson is looking to put the bill on the House floor before the end of the week.

“This is the vehicle through which we will deliver on the mandate that the American people gave us in the last election,” he said on “Fox News Sunday” in advance of the vote.

The Republicans who criticized the measure noted that the bill’s new spending and tax cuts are front-loaded in the bill, while the measures to offset the cost are back-loaded. For example, they are looking to speed up the new work requirements that Republicans want to enact for Medicaid recipients. Those requirements would not kick in until 2029 under the current bill.

“We are writing checks we cannot cash, and our children are going to pay the price,” said Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas), a member of the committee. “Something needs to change, or you’re not going to get my support.”

Johnson said the start date for the work requirements was designed to give states time to “retool their systems” and to “make sure that all the new laws and all the new safeguards that we’re placing can actually be enforced.”

Roy was joined in voting no by Reps. Ralph Norman of South Carolina, Josh Brecheen of Oklahoma and Rep. Andrew Clyde of Georgia. Rep. Lloyd Smucker of Pennsylvania switched his vote to no in a procedural step so it could be reconsidered later.

The vote against advancing the bill had come after President Trump urged Republicans in a social media post to unite behind it.

At its core, the sprawling package permanently extends the existing income tax cuts that were approved during Trump’s first term, in 2017, and adds temporary new ones that the president campaigned on in 2024, including no taxes on tips, overtime pay and auto loan interest payments. The measure also proposes big spending increases for border security and defense.

The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, a nonpartisan fiscal watchdog group, estimates that the House bill is shaping up to add roughly $3.3 trillion to the debt over the next decade.

Democrats are overwhelmingly opposed to the measure, which Republicans have labeled “The One, Big, Beautiful Bill Act.” Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) called it “one big, beautiful betrayal” in Friday’s hearing.

“This spending bill is terrible, and I think the American people know that,” Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.) said on CNN’s “State of the Union’’ on Sunday. “There is nothing wrong with us bringing the government in balance. But there is a problem when that balance comes on the back of working men and women. And that’s what is happening here.”

Johnson is not just having to address the concerns of those in his conference who raised concerns about the deficit. He’s also facing pressure from centrists who will be warily eyeing the proposed changes to Medicaid, food assistance programs and the rolling back of clean energy tax credits. Republican lawmakers from New York and elsewhere are also demanding a much large state and local tax deduction.

As it stands, the bill proposes tripling what’s currently a $10,000 cap on the state and local tax deduction, increasing it to $30,000 for joint filers with incomes up to $400,000 a year.

Rep. Nick LaLota, one of the New York GOP lawmakers leading the effort to lift the cap, said they have proposed a deduction of $62,000 for single filers and $124,000 for joint filers.

If the bill passes the House this week, it would move to the Senate, where Republicans are seeking additional changes that could make final passage in the House more difficult.

Johnson said: “The package that we send over there will be one that was very carefully negotiated and delicately balanced, and we hope that they don’t make many modifications to it because that will ensure its passage quickly.”

Freking and Mascaro write for the Associated Press.

Welcome to Screen Gab, the newsletter for everyone who is feeling better about their perpetual identity crisis after watching streamer Max flip-flop its name back to HBO Max.

This week delivered some fun roasting after Warner Bros. Discovery announced the company’s streaming platform Max was undergoing yet another rebranding and reverting to one of its previous names to restore the HBO television branding to its name. The internet — including the company itself — quickly mocked the backpedaling with memes expressing relief of order being restored. What’s old is new again, right? There’s another classic media entity making headlines this week: “Saturday Night Live” will close out its 50th season. TV editor Maira Garcia reflects on the milestone season of the iconic sketch comedy show in this week’s Break Down.

Also in Screen Gab No. 181, our experts recommend a celebrity podcast worth watching on YouTube — hold the eye-roll, this one will make you feel like your hanging with friends — and a documentary that looks back on the campaign to appoint the first deaf president at Gallaudet University, which is specifically geared to deaf and hard-of-hearing students. And for viewers who like to plan ahead, our guides on the 15 TV shows and 18 films to watch this summer are linked and ready to be added to your bookmarks. Plus, Melissa Fumero stops by Guest Spot to discuss the Season 1 finale of “Grosse Pointe Garden Society” and her hopes for a second season.

ICYMI

Must-read stories you might have missed

Jenna Ortega in “Wednesday” Season 2; Dominique Thorne in “Ironheart”; Paul Reubens as Pee-wee Herman; Michael C. Hall in “Dexter: Resurrection”; Jason Momoa in “Chief of War.”

(Illustration by Stephanie Jones / Los Angeles Times; photos Netflix; Marvel; Getty Images; Showtime; Apple TV+)

15 TV shows we’re looking forward to watching this summer: There’s a lot of great television coming this summer, including the return of favorites like “The Bear” and “Wednesday,” and new series like “Ironheart,” “Too Much” and “Alien: Earth.”

The 18 summer movies we’re most excited about: The season looks strong, loaded with the kind of big Hollywood swings, smart indie alternatives and a fair amount of delicious-looking dumb, necessary in every summer diet.

The blessings of Ann Dowd as Aunt Lydia in ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’: Powerfully portrayed by Ann Dowd, the initial villain of “The Handmaid’s Tale” has become a symbol of transformation and the bridge between two series.

‘Andor’s’ Elizabeth Dulau on Kleya’s ‘heartbreaking’ moment with Luthen: “Andor” actor Elizabeth Dulau on Kleya’s Season 2 arc, her sacrifice in Episode 10 and becoming part of “Star Wars” lore.

Turn on

Recommendations from the film and TV experts at The Times

Jerry Covell in AppleTV+’s “Deaf President Now!”

(Apple TV+)

“Deaf President Now!” (Apple TV+)

This newly released documentary that premiered at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year follows a history-making protest led by students at Gallaudet University in 1988, when the school’s board of trustees voted to install a hearing president over two deaf candidates. The university, located in the nation’s capital, has the distinction of being the first school of higher learning designed for deaf students. And after decades of hearing leadership, the students had had enough. The documentary features footage of the protests and interviews with the student leaders, who passionately explain why it was important to have a president that understood what it was like to exist in a world that regularly discriminated against them. Their protest would go on to help pave the way for the Americans with Disabilities Act, a pivotal civil rights law. — Maira Garcia

Amy Poehler’s weekly video podcast series, “Good Hang With Amy Poehler,” features conversations with celebrity guests.

(Spotify)

“Good Hang With Amy Poehler” (YouTube and various audio platforms)

In this land of a thousand podcasts, where every other celebrity is a host, you choose your shows like you choose your friends. The wonderful Amy Poehler debuted hers this March (“I like to be five or six years late to any trend,” as she puts it). And its title, “Good Hang With Amy Poehler,” is nothing but accurate; it has the air not of an interview show but of a conversation between pals you’ve been privileged to join — silently, of course, because what could you add to Poehler’s talks with Paul Rudd, Martin Short, Jack Black, Kathryn Hahn, Michelle Obama, Ike Barinholtz or Rashida Jones? At the beginning of each episode, the host quizzes the guest’s friends on what questions she should ask, so, if you tune into her episode with Tina Fey — unmissable, obviously — you get a bonus of Seth Meyers, Zarna Garg, Rachel Dratch and Fred Armisen making each other laugh. “I’m not here to change your life,” said Poehler, kicking off her series. “I don’t care if you get any better. I don’t have any advice for you. I just want us to have fun.” Includes many ’90s cultural references. Watch the video version of the podcast for the visual sunshine, but it’s great either way. — Robert Lloyd

Guest spot

A weekly chat with actors, writers, directors and more about what they’re working on — and what they’re watching

Melissa Fumero as Birdie in NBC’s “Grosse Point Garden Society.”

( Matt Miller / NBC)

In “Grosse Pointe Garden Society,” the soapy drama that follows four members of a gardening club in a wealthy Detroit suburb who are scrambling to cover up a shocking murder, Melissa Fumero is able to mine humor in the dark corners of the stressful situation her character is navigating. The “Brooklyn Nine-Nine” alum plays Birdie, a loud and brash socialite and romance novelist who is carrying her own secrets in the middle of this murder mystery. The dark comedy reaches its Season 1 conclusion Friday on NBC and it’s poised to bring a new set of twists and cliffhangers as the group tries to evade law enforcement and a private eye plotting blackmail. But the series faces its own uncertain future. It’s the last of NBC’s scripted programs without a renewal or cancellation; there are reports that a potential second season could land on Peacock. Fumero stopped by Guest Spot to discuss her hopes for a second season and the classic rom-com she hopes never gets Hollywood remake treatment. — Yvonne Villarreal

Ahead of the Season 1 finale, what can you tease about where things end with Birdie that makes you eager to continue her story?

The stakes are really high for Birdie when Season 1 ends. She has everything she’s ever wanted, but the really dark cloud of her choices and circumstances hangs over her. I think she’s probably terrified of losing it all, which maybe makes her make more bad choices? I hope we get renewed because I really want to know what happens next!

What have you found intriguing about exploring a character like Birdie, who has such a layered backstory, against the backdrop of friends unexpectedly committing a crime?

What intrigued me the most about Birdie was definitely the “what you see is not what you get” aspect of her character. On the surface, she’s powerful, self-assured, glamorous, wild and free-spirited; and while most of that is true, she is also really lost, vulnerable, and maybe having a bit of an identity crisis. Then she’s plopped into this garden club with three people who become friends — maybe the first real friends she’s ever had — and they all get roped into this crazy, mostly accidental murder. That’s A LOT of fun stuff to explore and play, and a dream for any actor, honestly.

What have you watched recently that you’re recommending to everyone you know?

I am VERY into “The Last of Us” [HBO Max] right now. This season is insane, and I look forward to it every week. It’s such an exciting and heart-wrenching show. Isabela Merced (who I am a fan of and love seeing a Latina play a leading role on such an epic show) and Bella Ramsey are doing such extraordinary work. It’s also very dark, but I find myself drawn to darker things these days — there’s something cathartic about it.

I think that’s why even “Grosse Pointe Garden Society” is such a fun watch.We don’t go too dark. But there are days where the world really feels like it’s on fire and I find myself wanting to watch people survive things, big or small. It’s weirdly comforting.

What’s your go-to comfort watch, the film or TV show you return to again and again?

“When Harry Met Sally” [VOD]. It’s a perfect movie. A perfect rom-com. If it’s on a streamer or playing live, I will watch. It’s on a lot of airlines, and I’d say my last five viewings were on flights. I should just buy it, but I’m afraid I’ll put it on every night and never watch anything else ever again. It’s so good. I hope they never, ever try to remake it. Don’t touch it. It’s too perfect.

Break down

Times staffers chew on the pop culture of the moment — love it, hate it or somewhere in between

Musical guest Bad Bunny, host Scarlett Johansson and Kenan Thompson during promos for “Saturday Night Live’s” season finale.

(Rosalind O’Connor / NBC)

“Saturday Night Live’s” historic Season 50 is coming to a close this weekend, with Scarlett Johansson as host, and it’s been nothing short of memorable. There were many cameos, whether political figures (Kamala Harris, Tim Kaine) or celebrities in the zeitgeist (Julia Fox, Sam Rockwell), multihyphenate hosts (Lady Gaga, Ariana Grande) and regular appearances from former cast members, including Maya Rudolph, Mike Myers, Andy Samberg and Dana Carvey. But what also made this season special was the programming that happened outside of it: “SNL50: The Homecoming Concert,” which featured a phenomenal lineup of musicians and comedy skits; a live prime-time special; and a pair of docuseries that shed light on the show’s history, “Beyond Saturday Night” and “Ladies & Gentlemen… 50 Years of SNL Music.”

The series’ effect on television and comedy over the decades cannot be overstated, having churned out dozens of film and TV stars, now mainstays and creators in their own right (Tina Fey, Adam Sandler, Chris Rock and Eddie Murphy, to name a few); memorable sketches that have become a part of pop culture lingo and a visual language through costumes that have elevated jokes into comedic art. As television critic Robert Lloyd wrote in an essay reflecting on the show’s 50th, the show survives through constant churn, whether through hosts, cast members or the comedy it produces. And even as culture and technology evolves, it remains a stalwart of television: “Counted out more than once, it has risen from the mat to fight again, new wins erasing old losses — a once and future champ.” — Maira Garcia

For anybody confused about whether Gov. Gavin Newsom planned to come to Los Angeles’ rescue Wednesday when he announced his May revision to the state budget, a clue could be found on the front page of his spending plan.

In an AI-generated image, the budget cover page featured the Golden Gate Bridge and the San Francisco skyline, along with office workers who appear to be chatting it up in a forest glade next to an electric vehicle charging station. Not a hint of Los Angeles was anywhere to be seen.

Deeper in the budget proposal, no salvation was found for L.A. And at a news conference Wednesday, Newsom said flatly that he did not plan to provide cash to help dig the city out of its budget hole. The city is facing a $1-billion shortfall due to inflated personnel costs, higher than ever liability lawsuit payouts and below-expected revenues.

“The state’s not in a position to write a check,” Newsom said. “When you’re requesting things that have nothing to do with disaster recovery, that’s a nonstarter … I don’t need to highlight examples of requests from the city and county that were not related to disaster recovery and this state is not in a position, never have been, even in other times, to address those requests, particularly at this time.”

The governor’s rejection of Mayor Karen Bass’ pleas for state aid came as he discussed the state’s own economic woes. The state is confronting a $12-billion budget deficit in part due to a “Trump Slump,” Newsom said. The governor had to make cuts to his own signature program offering healthcare to immigrants without proper documentation.

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass delivers her State of the City address at L.A. City Hall on April 21.

(Carlin Stiehl/Los Angeles Times)

The governor made sure to remind reporters Wednesday that the state had been more than willing to help with fire recovery efforts, but said that was the limit of its generosity. Newsom said that of the $2.5 billion offered to Los Angeles after the fires, more than $1 billion remained unused. That funding helped with emergency response and initial recovery from the January wildfires.

Despite Newsom’s edict, Bass didn’t appear ready to throw in the towel. She said she and the governor were “in sync” and in regular contact about the situation. State money to help with the budget crisis would be fire-recovery-related, Bass insisted.

“We had to spend a great deal of money of our general fund related to the wildfires. If we are able to get that reimbursed that relieves some of the pressure from the general fund,” Bass said in an interview with The Times. “We submitted a document to him where we are asking him if the state would be willing to give us the money up front that FEMA will reimburse — so we are requesting 100% fire-related.”

Bass visited Sacramento in March and April. She and L.A. legislators first requested $1.893 billion in state aid to help with the budget crisis and disaster recovery. The mayor has since pared down the request, but the amount she is now requesting is not public.

In the initial request, they asked for $638 million for “protecting city services under budgetary strain.” That request is likely dead. But the $301-million request for “a loan to support disaster recovery expenses pending FEMA reimbursement” still stands.

Bass said she most recently met with the governor two weeks ago, and he informed the mayor that the state’s financial situation was not looking good.

The revision is just a starting point for final budgetary negotiations between the governor and the Legislature, and the state budget won’t be completed until at least mid-June, weeks after the deadline for the City Council to approve its own budget.

“We have 36 members of the L.A. delegation fighting for the city and we’ll just have to wait and see what happens in June,” said Assemblymember Tina McKinnor, who chairs the Los Angeles County Legislative Delegation.

McKinnor said she is confident that the state budget will have money not just for fire recovery, but also to help the city manage its broader financial woes.

“We will not fail L.A.,” McKinnor said.

With the state lifeline in serious doubt, the cuts the city will have to make to balance its budget took another step toward reality.

While Bass is still hopeful for state aid, the council seemed less hopeful.

“We expected and planned for this outcome, but that doesn’t make it any less frustrating. The governor’s decision to withhold support from California’s largest city after we experienced the most devastating natural disaster in the state’s history is a serious mistake, with consequences for both our long-term recovery and the strength of the state’s economy,” said Katy Yaroslavsky, who chairs the council’s budget committee.

“This will not be a ‘no-layoff’ budget,” Yaroslavsky said on May 8 at a budget hearing.

Bass stressed that she is still trying to avoid any layoffs. The city plans to avert further layoffs by transferring employees to the proprietary departments, like the harbor, the airport and perhaps the Department of Water & Power.

“We’re all working very, very hard with the same goal in mind and that is having a balanced, responsible budget that avoids laying off city workers,” she said Thursday.

State of play

— MOURNING ONE OF CITY HALL’S OWN: Former chief of staff to Councilmember Kevin de León and longtime L.A. politico Jennifer Barraza Mendoza died Tuesday at 37 following a long battle with cancer. Barraza Mendoza began her career organizing with SEIU Local 99, helped lead De León’s Senate campaign and also served as a principal at Hilltop Public Solutions, among other roles. “In a political world of shapeshifters, she stood out as fiercely loyal and guided by principle,” De León said in a statement. “She never sought the spotlight — but when tested, she rose with unmatched strength to protect her team, her community, and what she knew was right.”

— MINIMUM WAGE WAR: The City Council voted Wednesday for a sweeping package of minimum wage increases for hotel workers and employees of companies at Los Angeles International Airport. One hotel executive said the proposal, which would take the wage to $30 in July 2028, would kill his company’s plan for a new 395-room hotel tower in Universal City. Other hotel companies predicted they would scale back or shutter their restaurant operations. The hotel workers’ union countered by saying business groups have made similar warnings in the past, only to be proved wrong.

— SECOND TIME’S A CHARM: Surprise! On Friday, the City Council had to schedule a do-over vote on its tourism wage proposal. That vote, called as part of a special noon meeting, came two days after City Atty. Hydee Feldstein Soto’s office warned that Wednesday’s vote had the potential to violate the city’s public meeting law.

Los Angeles Councilwoman Eunisses Hernandez in December in Los Angeles.

(Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times)

— READY TO RELAUNCH: Councilmember Eunisses Hernandez plans to host her campaign kickoff event for her reelection bid Saturday in Highland Park, where she was born and raised. She already has a few competitors in the race, including Raul Claros, who used to serve on the Affordable Housing Commission, and Sylvia Robledo, a former council aide.

The left-wing councilmember has already won the endorsements of Council President Marqueece Harris-Dawson and from colleagues Heather Hutt, Ysabel Jurado, Hugo Soto-Martinez and Nithya Raman. Controller Kenneth Mejia also endorsed her.

— PHOTO BOMB: Recently pictured with Eunisses Hernandez: Political consultant Rick Jacobs — the former senior aide to then-Mayor Eric Garcetti who was accused of sexual harassment. Jacobs now works as a consultant for the politically powerful Southwest Regional Council of Carpenters. Per a post on Jacobs’ LinkedIn, Hernandez posed for a photo this week with Jacobs and several union members while presenting the group with a city certificate of recognition.

Jacobs has denied the harassment allegations, but the scandal bedeviled Garcetti in his final years in office and nearly derailed his ambassadorship to India. Jacobs has remained in the political mix — some may remember his controversial appearance at Bass’ exclusive 2022 post-inauguration Getty House afterparty. Also worth noting: The Carpenters are major players in local elections, and their PAC spent nearly $150,000 supporting Hernandez’s then-opponent Gil Cedillo in the 2022 election.

“Councilmember Hernandez was proud to stand with the carpenters who built the little library at North East New Beginnings, the first-of-its-kind interim housing site she opened in 2024. She was there to honor their craftsmanship and community contribution — nothing more. She did not choose who else appeared in the photo,” said Naomi Villagomez Roochnik, a spokesperson for Hernandez.

— PARK GETS AN OPPONENT: Public Counsel attorney Faizah Malik is challenging Councilmember Traci Park from the left, the tenants rights lawyer announced Thursday. Malik is styling her campaign in the mold of prior progressive incumbent ousters, she said, though she has yet to garner any of their endorsements. But she did get an Instagram signal boost from former CD 11 Councilmember Mike Bonin, who characterized her as “A Westside leader who will fight for YOU and your family.” Meanwhile, centrist group Thrive LA had a fundraiser for Park this week, and declared her its first endorsement of the 2026 cycle.

— FIREFIGHT: Active and retired firefighters blasted the council’s recommendation to nix 42 “Emergency Incident Technicians,” who help develop firefighting strategy and account for firefighters during blazes. In a letter to the council, the firefighters said the 1998 death of firefighter Joseph Dupee was linked to removal of EITs during a previous budget crisis.

“Please do not repeat the same mistake that was made in 1998 when EITs were removed and said removal was found to be a contributing factor in the death of LAFD Captain Joseph Dupee,” the firefighters wrote.

— EMPLOYMENT LAW AND ORDER: Some LAPD officers are hitting the jackpot on what are known as “LAPD lottery” cases. The city has paid out nearly $70 million over the last three years to officers who have sued the department after alleging they were the victims of sexual harassment, racial discrimination or retaliation against whistleblowers.

The massive payouts are not helping the city’s coffers. One of the leading causes of the current fiscal crisis is the ballooning liability payments that the city makes in settlements and jury verdicts.

— WATER OLYMPICS: L.A. County’s plan to run a water taxi between Long Beach and San Pedro during the Olympics paddled forward this week. Supervisor Janice Hahn introduced a motion, with co-author Mayor Bass, to launch a feasibility study assessing ridership demand, cost and possible routes.

“[The water taxi] would give residents, workers and tourists an affordable alternative to driving and parking at these Games venues,” Hahn said.

— ROBO-PERMIT: City and county residents submitting plans to rebuild their burned down properties could have their first interaction with an AI bot who would inspect their plans before a human. Wildfire recovery foundations purchased the AI permitting software, developed by Australian tech firm Archistar, and donated it to the city and county. The tech was largely paid for by Steadfast L.A., Rick Caruso’s nonprofit.

— TRUMP’S VETS MOVE: President Trump signed an executive order calling on the Department of Veterans Affairs to house up to 6,000 homeless veterans on its West Los Angeles campus, but even promoters of the idea are skeptical of the commander in chief’s follow-through.

“If this had come from any other president, I’d pop the Champagne,” said Rep. Brad Sherman (D-Sherman Oaks), whose district includes the West Los Angeles campus. Trump, he said, follows up on “like one out of 10 things that he announces. You just never know which one. You never know to what extent.”

— ADDRESSING THE ELEPHANTS IN THE ROOM: A Los Angeles County Superior Court judge denied a motion for a temporary restraining order Thursday that sought to stop the L.A. Zoo from transferring elephants Tina and Billy to the Tulsa Zoo. The judge said the decision was out of the court’s purview. The zoo said Thursday that the “difficult decision” to relocate the pachyderms was made with the “care and well being” of the animals at top of mind.

“Activist agendas and protests are rightfully not a consideration in decisions that impact animal care,” the statement said.

— CHARTER SQUABBLE: Bass made her four appointments to the Charter Reform Commission this week. She selected Raymond Meza, Melinda Murray, Christina Sanchez and Robert Lewis to serve as commissioners. She also named Justin Ramirez as the executive director of the commission. Bass’s appointments came on the heels of reform advocate Rob Quan sending out mailers about the mayor’s delay in making appointments, which left the commission unable to get to work.

“Karen Bass wasted eight months. That was when her appointments were due. Eight months ago,” Quan said in an interview.

— WORKDAY TROUBLE: The Department of Water and Power is slated to adopt a new human resources software, Workday, in mid-June. But Gus Corona, business manager of IBEW Local 18, warned of “serious concerns” and the potential for “widespread problems and administrative chaos.” In a letter this week to DWP CEO Janisse Quiñones, which The Times obtained, Corona said there was a “consistent lack of clarity” about the new system, especially around union dues and benefit deductions, retroactive pay and cost of living adjustments. “The level of uncertainty so close to a planned launch date is deeply troubling,” Corona wrote.

Quick Hits

• Where is Inside Safe? The mayor’s signature homelessness program went to Councilmember Curren Price’s district: 37th Street and Flower Street, according to the mayor’s office.
• On the docket for next week: The full City Council is scheduled to take up the proposed city budget for 2025-26 — and the mayor’s proposal for city employee layoffs — on Thursday.

Stay in touch

That’s it for this week! Send your questions, comments and gossip to [email protected]. Did a friend forward you this email? Sign up here to get it in your inbox every Saturday morning.

Chefs who behave badly get their own show. Also, pink Champagne cake at Madonna Inn plus more road food favorites. And can fish be too fresh? I’m Laurie Ochoa, general manager of L.A. Times Food, with this week’s Tasting Notes.

Too hot in the kitchen

Some of the contestants in the NBC competition show “Yes, Chef!” From left, Michelle Francis, Katsuji Tanabe, Jake Lawler, Peter Richardson, Christopher Morales and Julia Chebotar. Martha Stewart and chef José Andrés host.

(Pief Weyman / NBC via Getty Images)

“For far too long,” Martha Stewart says into the camera during the opening moments of NBC’s new “Yes, Chef!” cooking competition show, “the pressure of the kitchen has been an excuse for out-of-control behavior.”

“That kind of behavior doesn’t make a great chef,” adds her co-host, chef José Andrés. “It holds them back.”

Stewart and Andrés are correct. And yet, that kind of behavior — yelling at fellow chefs, throwing pans in frustration, undermining colleagues and sometimes inflicting more harmful abuse — has been the roiling soup that has fed reality TV cooking competitions for more than 25 years. It’s also been the kind of behavior that restaurant workers have tried, with varying degrees of success, to root out as cheffing became an aspirational profession instead of disrespected grunt work.

You can read about the pain as well as the allure of working in and around restaurant kitchens in several recent memoirs, including Laurie Woolever’s “Care and Feeding,” which restaurant critic Bill Addison praised in this newsletter last month, Hannah Selinger’s “Cellar Rat: My Life in the Restaurant Underbelly” and books by two chefs and reality TV cooking show insiders, Tom Colicchio’s “Why I Cook” and Kristen Kish’s “Accidentally on Purpose,” which I wrote about last week.

If you’ve watched even a few minutes of a reality TV cooking competition — from “Hell’s Kitchen’s” Gordon Ramsay angrily dumping out a contestant’s overcooked steak to even the sweet contestants on “The Great British Baking Show” expressing frustration — chances are good that you’ve seen how the kitchen pressure Stewart talks about often does lead to bad behavior.

So can a reality TV cooking competition really help chefs become better people — and better bosses?

Possibly. But three episodes into the inaugural season of “Yes, Chef!” — a show cast with “12 professional chefs, each with one thing standing in their way: themselves,” Stewart says — it looks as though the cards are stacked against redemption.

“In our kitchen,” Stewart tells viewers about the chefs, “it takes a lot more than good food to win. They’ll need to figure out how to work together.”

Andrés and Stewart have a lot of life experience and advice to offer, with Stewart admitting, “I have been known to be a perfectionist. And that kind of holds you back sometimes.”

But when it comes down to which team wins and which team loses, it turns out that good food does matter more than bad behavior. (Note that there are spoilers ahead if you haven’t watched the show yet.)

After TV competition show veteran and designated villain Katsuji Tanabe (“Top Chef,” “Chopped”) takes all the eggs in the kitchen so that the opposing team has none to work with, he and his teammates are rewarded with a win. The reasoning: The losing chefs struggled to, in the language of the show, “pivot.”

Even worse for the development of the chefs, the decision of who stays and who goes at the end of each episode is not made by Andrés or Stewart. Instead, a one-on-one cook-off is set up between the contestant deemed to be the Most Valuable Chef (MVC) and another contestant that the MVC strategically chooses to go up against. If the MVC wins, the challenger chef goes home. But if the challenger chef beats the MVC, the challenger becomes the decider. So far, this has led to one of the better chefs, Torrece “Chef T” Gregoire, being booted largely to reduce the competition, followed by the executioner of that decision, Michelle Francis, getting axed in the next episode, possibly comeuppance for sending home a popular player the week before and partly because of her dish — even though she was handicapped by the egg theft.

The sharp edges and head games almost feel retro, closer to the template set 25 years ago this month when “Survivor” first aired and popularized the whole “I’m not here to make friends” trope that was common in sports and then became emblematic of reality TV posturing.

We’ll see as the season progresses whether the chefs can turn around the bad attitudes and insecurities that led to them being cast on the show. I certainly hope Andrés and Stewart are given more time to guide the chefs toward their better selves in future episodes.

But if you want to watch a show where the chefs are modeling kitchen behavior we’d like to see more of in our star chefs, may I suggest the current season of Bravo’s “Top Chef.”

Both “Yes, Chef!” and “Top Chef” are made by the production company Magical Elves, but “Top Chef,” now in its 22nd season, is showcasing a group of chefs who actually seem to care about each other. Yes, there are big personalities on the show, notably Massimo Piedimonte, who often generates eye rolls by the other chefs when his bravado goes overboard. But he is seen in quieter moments trying to tame his impulses and become a better person. And there is genuine emotion displayed when chef Tristen Epps gets word right before a big challenge that his father-in-law has died and his mother encourages him to continue competing. The entire show, from the production staffer who takes him off the set to his fellow competitors seem to support him.

There is even camaraderie among the losing contestants who try to work their way back into the competition through the spin-off “Last Chance Kitchen,” judged solo by Colicchio showing his mentoring skills. When Chicago’s North Pond chef César Murillo is pitted against three-time “Last Chance” winner Katianna Hong, co-owner of the recently closed Arts District restaurant Yangban, there is support and respect shown for both talented competitors by the eliminated chefs watching the proceedings, including chef Kat Turner of L.A.’s Highly Likely.

“Top Chef” contestants Katianna Hong, left, and Cesar Murillo before the judges.

(David Moir / Bravo via Getty Images)

“Top Chef” used to have a lot more hotheads. “I’m not your bitch, bitch,” was a catchphrase in the show’s early years when one chef pushed another too far. But the new season, which has just a few more episodes to go, is proving that you can cool down the temperature in the kitchen and still entertain.

Think pink

The very pink dining room at San Luis Obispo’s Madonna Inn; inset, the Inn’s pink Champagne cake.

(Nic Coury and David Fotus / For The Times)

To celebrate the 100th anniversary of the motel — the first use of the word is credited to the 1925 opening of the Milestone Mo-Tel in San Luis Obispo — Food’s writers and editors joined our colleagues in Features to put together Motel California, a story series that includes a guide to the state’s “34 coolest, kitschiest, most fascinating motels” and our team’s picks for the best roadside diners and restaurants. Also in the package: Christopher Reynolds’ account of his 2,500-mile search for California’s greatest motels, a roadside attractions guide and Marah Eakin’s profile of Barkev Msrlyan, creator of the Merch Motel brand of retro souvenirs.

Food’s Stephanie Breijo spent time at the very pink San Luis Obispo landmark, the Madonna Inn, and says that the “maze-like, kaleidoscopic lair of chroma and whimsy is home to some of the most iconic food on the Central Coast.” She came away with insider knowledge of the red oak grills at Alex Madonna’s Gold Rush Steak House and of the Inn’s famed pink Champagne cakes — made in the hundreds each week. But the pink cake recipe remains a secret. Breijo did, however, get the recipe for the Inn’s Pink Cloud cocktail — topped with whipped cream and a cherry.

Plus: Julie Wolfson guides us to some great coffee shops along the Santa Barbara coast.

L.A. Timeless

(Samantha Hahn / For The Times)

This week, the paper introduced a new feature, L.A. Timeless, which highlights stories from our archives. The first two stories this week come from former L.A. Times restaurant critic Ruth Reichl, who wrote about learning to shop for fish at L.A. supermarkets with Jon Rowley, the man Julia Child once called “the fish missionary.” I got to go along on that reporting trip all those years ago and I’ll never forget the lessons Rowley taught us. Her companion story on Rowley went into one of his obsessions: “[T]hat fish can be too fresh … a fish coming out of rigor mortis five or six days after harvest (in ice, of course) can be far better eating than a fish less than one day out of the water.”

Great Australian Bite

Chef Curtis Stone poses at his Four Stones Farm in Agoura Hills.

(Juliana Yamada / Los Angeles Times)

Tickets are on sale for our second-annual Great Australian Bite. Last year, we were on the Malibu Pier. This year, chef Curtis Stone is hosting the event with Tourism Australia on his Four Stones Farm. He’s partnering with chef Clare Falzon of the restaurant Staġuni in South Australia’s Barossa. Read more about the event and how to get tickets here.

Also …

On Pasjoli’s bar menu, the dry-aged beef burger is topped with white cheddar, red onion “au poivre” and a marrow aioli on a brioche bun.

(Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times)

• Jenn Harris reports on the reasons behind the upcoming two-week closure (starting May 31) of Dave Beran’s Pasjoli, the Santa Monica restaurant that, she writes, “has undergone a series of changes to its menu and format, ever striving to embody the spirit of the neighborhood French bistro.” Now that Beran has Seline as an outlet for his fine-dining tendencies, he can relax more at Pasjoli. When it reopens June 12, the restaurant should be, Harris writes, “more approachable, more interactive and a lot more fun.”
• Stephanie Breijo reports that after a health department shutdown, AC Barbeque restaurant, owned by comedians Anthony Anderson and Cedric the Entertainer, has reopened in Century City.
• Breijo also reports that Michelin is adding three L.A. restaurants to its 2025 California guide with a full new list to be revealed June 25.
• And, for good measure, Breijo also has restaurant opening news on Anthony Wang’s recently opened Firstborn, “one of L.A.’s most exciting new Chinese restaurants,” a Brentwood outpost of Beverly Hills’ steak-focused Matu called Matu Kai, sandwich shop All Too Well, the Pasadena branch of Sarah Hymanson and Sara Kramer’s Kismet Rotisserie, Kristin Colazas Rodriguez’s Colossus in San Pedro and details of Dine Latino Restaurant Week.

Amid all of Casandra Ventura’s troubling testimony this week about life with Sean “Diddy” Combs and his “freak-off” fetish, don’t be troubled thinking about what might have happened between Combs and Justin Bieber, who was launched into the mogul’s circle when he was a teen.

Despite persistent speculation as footage of the two together has surfaced, Team Bieber said Thursday that nothing happened. Move along, nothing to see here.

The speculation comes at a time when Bieber has been worrying fans with photos showing him smoking — a shot posted Thursday had the self-declared former substance abuser sitting with a bong quite obviously in his lap — and “It’s a cult” rumors about the church he has been attending, Churchome in Beverly Hills. (Churchome pastor Judah Smith denies those rumors, by the way.) Bieber’s decision in recent years to sell his catalog for $200 million is said to have been motivated by the pop star allegedly finding himself completely broke despite generating many millions for himself and others while touring.

The new dad’s marriage is rumored to be in trouble as well, though on Friday the Biebs tagged wife Hailey in an Instagram story showing a male lion lovingly caressing a female lion with its nose and teeth.

Combs, of course, is on trial on charges of sex trafficking, racketeering and more. This week in court has seen dramatic testimony from Combs’ former girlfriend Cassie.

But back to Bieber, who was discovered by Scooter Braun in 2008 and quickly signed to a label run by Braun and Usher. Usher was a Combs protégé who was sent by record executive and producer L.A. Reid to live with the mogul in the ’90s and maybe learn a few things. The “Yeah” singer was 15 when he moved to New York. Combs became Usher’s legal guardian.

Reid wrote in his 2016 tell-all memoir “Sing to Me,” via Rolling Stone, “‘Will you take this kid and teach him your swagger?’ I said. ‘Can you just give him some of your flavor?’ And so I sent Usher to New York for what I called the ‘Puffy Flavor Camp.’”

He added, “I was turning him over to the wildest party guy in the country at an age when I still needed to get his mother’s permission, but he went to New York for almost a year. I didn’t know whether I was being irresponsible or having an epiphany.”

Usher would tell Howard Stern in 2016 that he “got a chance to see some things” while living with Combs.

“I went there to see the lifestyle, and I saw it. I don’t know if I could indulge and understand what I was even looking at,” he said on Stern’s show. “I had curiosity of my own. I just didn’t understand it. It was pretty wild. It was crazy.”

Usher said he was mostly focused on making music at the time, no matter what “curious” things might have gone on around him.

So when Bieber and Usher connected, could a Combs meet be far behind?

Sean “Diddy” Combs, from left, Justin Bieber and Rick Ross at a Ciroc vodka party in Atlanta in early 2014, when Bieber was 19.

(Prince Williams / FilmMagic via Getty Images)

Combs and the “Baby” singer made news with an interview on Jimmy Kimmel’s show after the “Justin Bieber’s 48 Hrs with Diddy” video was posted on YouTube in November 2009.

In the video, Combs showed Bieber a silver Lamborghini and told him, “The keys is yours, you know, when you hit 16.” That was after Bieber pitched driving it right away with Combs in the passenger seat, because he had his permit. After staring at the kid for a moment, Combs simply said, “No.” Then he promised him the mansion when he turned 18. Combs didn’t have legal guardianship of Bieber like he did with Usher, he said, but they would be together for the next 48 hours.

“He knows better than to talk about the things that he’s done with big brother Puff on national television,” Combs said later in the Kimmel interview, adding, “Everything ain’t for everybody.” That was after he described Bieber as “a little brother” and “one of the greatest kids you could ever know” who could always call up and ask him for industry advice.

The two would continue to cross paths, including at parties for Combs’ vodka Ciroc, a brand the embattled mogul cut ties with in January 2024.

Bieber’s camp released a statement Thursday asserting that nothing untoward ever happened between the two.

“Although Justin is not among Sean Combs’ victims, there are individuals who were genuinely harmed by him,” a spokesperson for Bieber told TMZ. “Shifting focus away from this reality detracts from the justice these victims rightfully deserve.”

The Times was unable to reach a Bieber representative Friday.

A game between Angel City and the Utah Royals should not have continued after Savy King collapsed on the field and had to be hospitalized, the National Women’s Soccer League said Friday.

The league said it came to the conclusion after reviewing its protocols and listening to feedback from stakeholders. There were persistent questions this week about the league’s procedures.

A league statement expressed regret for allowing last Friday’s match in Los Angeles to go on after the 20-year-old Angel City defender was carted off the field while shaken players and fans looked on.

“The health and well being of the entire NWSL community remains our top priority, and in any similar situation going forward the game should and would be abandoned,” said the statement.

King underwent surgery Tuesday after doctors discovered a heart abnormality. The team announced she is recovering and her prognosis is good.

The NWSL Players Assn. was among those that said the match should have been suspended after King’s collapse in the 74th minute. The players’ union issued a statement Friday saying it was grateful the league listened to the concerns.

“The league’s acknowledgment that the game should have ended — and its commitment to adopting this protocol for the future, should it ever be needed — represents a meaningful step forward,” the NWSLPA said. “It’s a change made possible by the strength and unity of our players. Player safety is not a slogan. It is a practice.”

The NWSL said earlier this week that it was reviewing its protocols. The league ultimately makes the decision when it comes to suspending, canceling or postponing games.

NWSL rules for 2025 state that the league “recognizes that emergencies may arise which make the start or progression of a Game inadvisable or dangerous for participants and spectators. Certain event categories automatically trigger the League Office into an evaluation of whether delay or postponement is necessary.”

Angel City interim coach Sam Laity said Friday it had been a challenging week for the team, but he was grateful for the medical professionals who treated King and all those from around the league who reached out in support.

“I think everybody’s very relieved to hear that Savy’s surgery was successful and the outlook for the future is very positive,” he said. “And in terms of the game continuing, I agree with the statements that the league recently made, and they’re working to ensure that this type of situation is dealt with in a different fashion moving forward.”

King was the second-overall pick in the 2024 NWSL draft by expansion Bay FC and played 18 games for the club. She was traded to Angel City in February and had started in all eight games for the team this season.

Peterson writes for the Associated Press.

More than 19 months into its war on Gaza, Israel shows few signs that it is relenting. The last week has shown the opposite, an intensification of violence across the besieged Palestinian territory, leaving hundreds dead, and hundreds of thousands terrified of what comes next.

This was a week where United States President Donald Trump toured the Middle East, visiting Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. There had been hope that some kind of ceasefire deal would be announced, or that the US would put more pressure on Israel to seriously come to the negotiating table. That was particularly the case after Hamas released a US-Israeli captive on Monday without demanding anything in exchange.

Ultimately, none of that happened, with Trump returning to his idea of US involvement in the future administration of whatever is left of Gaza, while acknowledging that Palestinians there were starving.

Israel also intercepted a number of missiles fired by Yemen’s Houthi rebels, before attacking Yemen itself on Friday.

Lets take a closer look at a week that has devastated Gaza, and left Palestinians there feeling even more abandoned.

How many Palestinians were killed in Gaza this week?

According to figures compiled by Al Jazeera, at least 370 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli attacks since Sunday. The violence has been particularly deadly in the second half of the week, with medical sources reporting the killing of at least 100 Palestinians on Friday, and 143 on Thursday. Many of those killed have been women and children.

These are some of the worst single-day death tolls since the beginning of the war in October 2023.

The killings put the total death toll reported by the Gaza Ministry of Health more than 53,000, although the territory’s Government Media Office’s death toll now sits at more than 61,700, as it includes thousands of Palestinians still under the rubble who are presumed dead.

Israeli attacks have targeted the whole Gaza Strip, with a particular focus on the north. Hospitals have also repeatedly been bombed by Israel.

What is being done to alleviate the hunger crisis in Gaza?

The humanitarian crisis in Gaza has been caused by Israel’s complete blockade of the entry of all food and medication to the Strip since March 2, a decision it made when the ceasefire was still ongoing, and one that goes against international law.

A report released on Monday by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) initiative said that the Gaza Strip was “still confronted with a critical risk of famine”, with half a million people facing starvation and 93 percent of its more than 2 million population at severe risk.

People are already starving to death – Gaza authorities last week said that 57 people had died as a result of starvation.

Trump acknowledged that “a lot of people are starving” in Gaza and said that the US was “going to get that taken care of”, but provided few details. The US has backed a new body called the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation that it says will start work in Gaza by the end of the month.

But the plan has been rejected by the United Nations and other humanitarian groups, who say that the plan would lead to more displacement for Palestinians in Gaza, as it would only disperse aid in some areas of Gaza, and set a dangerous precedent for the delivery of aid in warzones.

The UN has reiterated that it has the capacity to deliver aid across Gaza, but is being prevented from doing so by Israel. It says it has enough aid ready to deliver to feed all of the Palestinians in Gaza for four months, if Israel allows its trucks in.

What are Palestinians calling for?

Palestinians in Gaza have been recounting the horrors of the past week, desperately calling for the world to act and stop Israel’s bombing.

In northern Gaza’s Jabalia refugee camp, one of the worst hit areas, one civilian had a simple message – “either kill us or let us live.”

“All of [the strikes] were targeting civilians. All the houses are being bombed – everything is gone,” Ahmed Mansour told Al Jazeera. “What is a person supposed to do? They’re all making a joke out of us. I’m heading to the coast now. We’ve been displaced more than 50 times – either kill us or let us live.”

Taher al-Nunu, a senior Hamas official, also called on Friday for the US to put more pressure on Israel to open the crossings into Gaza and “allow the immediate entry of humanitarian aid – food, medicine and fuel – to the hospitals in the Gaza Strip”.

What does Israel want?

The Israeli government has made it clear that it is unwilling to agree to a deal that would end the war in return for the release of all the Israeli captives still held in Gaza, despite widespread domestic support for such a deal.

Instead, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks of total victory against Hamas, although it is difficult to see what that would entail.

Instead, the war drags on, and Netanyahu said on Monday that preparations were continuing for “an intensification of the fighting”. Last week, he said that Israel was planning for the “total conquest” of Gaza.

Trump left the Middle East this week with no ceasefire deal agreed, only saying, “We’re going to find out pretty soon” when asked whether a deal was in place for the return of Israel’s captives.

Meanwhile, the Israeli newspaper Ha’aretz reported that Israel’s position was “rigid” and that the US had “lost interest”. A source told the newspaper that US envoy Steve Witkoff was “no longer involved”.

“He’s waiting to hear what we want, and since we don’t want anything, he has nothing left to do,” the source said.

I created my first Instagram account in March 2015 when I was 13 years old. Back then, social media was just a space for me to share photos of my cats and keep an eye on whatever One Direction was up to. Fast forward 10 years, and social media is now a tool I use to keep in touch with family and follow along with politics – while still, of course, sharing photos of my cat.

I’ve always had quite a toxic relationship with social media. I’ve gone back and forth on the idea of deleting all of my accounts and never touching an app again, but I could never bring myself to do it. As someone who has moved cross country multiple times, I don’t want to lose contact with almost everyone I grew up with, and social media is an amazing tool to discover and connect with LGBTQIA+ communities that I wouldn’t have otherwise found. The truth is, I’d feel extremely lonely if it wasn’t for social media.

Though it’s important to me to keep up with current events, the whiplash of scrolling from a cute guinea pig video to a violent debate over basic human rights was starting to have a serious effect on my mental health. I was doom scrolling more than ever, to the point where I needed to put a one hour screen time limit on certain apps for my own sanity.

So, I decided to create myself a digital safe space, a place where I could access the positive, uplifting side of social media, while avoiding the content that was impacting my mental health.

I recently created a brand new account to share my artwork, but I made an effort to only follow other artists and regularly search for arty advice, tips and tricks. The algorithm must have caught on pretty quickly, because suddenly my explore page was entirely made up of artists and small business owners who were sharing their incredible artwork and uplifting each other. All of a sudden I was in a space that was wholeheartedly positive, creative and inspiring.

This wasn’t at all what I was used to on my personal account, which was rampant with politics and people arguing with each other. Of course, the concept of having a second Instagram account wasn’t something that was new to me – I’ve had an account specifically for sharing sunset photography, one for special effects makeup and various “aesthetic accounts” – but this was the first time I intentionally curated an algorithm. It just so happened to be an overwhelmingly positive community I chose to seek out.

For the last 18 months, the city of Rancho Palos Verdes has been struggling to address a worsening local emergency — the dramatic expansion of an ancient landslide zone that has torn homes apart, buckled roadways and halted utility services.

Triggered by a succession of heavy winter rains in 2023 and 2024, the ongoing land movement has upended the lives of residents and cast the city into financial uncertainty. Without significant outside aid, officials say they expect to spend about $37 million this fiscal year on emergency landslide mitigation — a sum nearly equal to the city’s annual operating budget.

Now, to make matters worse, the Trump administration has announced that it will cease funding the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities grants — a major pot of money the city hoped to use to finance a long-term prevention and stabilization plan.

“The BRIC program was yet another example of a wasteful and ineffective FEMA program,” read the administration announcement. “It was more concerned with political agendas than helping Americans affected by natural disasters.”

For the city of Rancho Palos Verdes, the action amounts to the likely loss of $16 million for stabilization work. It also marks a striking reversal in federal support for local slide mitigation efforts.

In September 2024, a campaigning Trump visited his nearby Trump National Golf Club to say that government needed to do more to help residents in the slide area. “The mountain is moving and it could be stopped, but they need some help from the government. So, I hope they get the help,” Trump said.

Last week, city officials again extended a local emergency declaration as the crisis continues to pose unprecedented strain on city finances.

“We are running out of money quickly,” Rancho Palos Verdes Mayor Dave Bradley said at a recent City Council meeting. “We are dramatically coming to the end of our rope to be able to [continue landslide mitigation efforts]. … We are spending major percentages on our total budget on this one issue.”

The majority of those allocated funds have gone toward a collection of new underground “de-watering” wells, which pump out the groundwater that lubricates landslide slip planes — a strategy that geologists have credited with helping to ease the movement in recent months.

Millions of dollars have also gone toward repeated repairs to Palos Verdes Drive South — which continues to crack and shift — as well as efforts to fill fissures, improve drainage and maintain important infrastructure, such as sewer and power lines.

While the city isn’t yet facing a major budget shortfall, its reserve funds have quickly dwindled over the last two years. By next fiscal year — which begins in July — the city expects to have only $3.5 million in unallocated capital improvement reserves, down from $35 million three years ago, according to city data. And while landslides have been the most pressing concern of late, city officials say they now face an estimated $80 million in other capital projects.

“Without a doubt, we need outside help for this landslide,” said Ramzi Awwad, the city’s public works director. He said the city is working to find and apply for other federal and state funding sources, but has run into roadblocks because landslides are not typically included within most disaster or emergency response frameworks.

“This is a disaster … very much exacerbated by severe weather and severe climate change,” Bradley recently testified before the California Assembly Committee on Emergency Management. He called the growing price tag for necessary response “unsustainable.”

Many areas of the Rancho Palos Verdes landslide complex — which covers more than 700 acres and includes about 400 homes — are still moving as much as 1.5 feet a month, damaging property and infrastructure, according to the city. Other sections that shifted several inches a week at the peak of movement in August 2024 have slowed or completely halted. City officials attribute those improvements to the ongoing mitigation projects as well as a much drier winter — but they say more work is needed to keep the area safe and accessible.

Officials argue the loss of FEMA funding could stymie long-term slide prevention efforts that were in the works for years before land movement drastically accelerated last year.

The Portuguese Bend Landslide Remediation Project, which calls for the installation of a series of water pumps called hydraugers, as well as other measures to keep water from entering the ground, was initially awarded a $23-million FEMA BRIC grant in 2023, Awwad said. The grant was later reduced to $16 million.

The project is separate from the city’s ongoing emergency response, but key to long-term stability in the area, Awwad said.

Rancho Palos Verdes officials dispute the administration’s assertion that the BRIC grant program is “wasteful and ineffective.” Instead, they say it represented a lifeline for a small city that has long dealt with landslides.

For decades, the city’s most dramatic landslide — the Portuguese Bend slide — has moved as much as 8.5 feet a year, or approximately an inch or two per week. Last summer, it was moving about a foot a week. Other nearby landslides, including Abalone Cove and Klondike Canyon, also saw dramatic acceleration last year, but those areas are not a part of the long-term stabilization plan.

Shown is a view of a large fissure in Rancho Palos Verdes’ Portuguese Bend neighborhood. Landslides have accelerated in the city following back-to-back wet winters in 2023 and 2024.

(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

“Losing the BRIC funding will jeopardize the city’s ability to implement long-term efforts to slow the Portuguese Bend landslide and prevent the kind of emergency we are experiencing now from happening again,” Megan Barnes, a city spokesperson, said.

Because BRIC grants were earmarked for preventive measures, the city was unable to use the money for its emergency response. But in recent weeks, the city completed the first phase of the long-term project — planning, engineering and final designs — after FEMA approved $2.3 million for that initial work.

Officials say the city has yet to receive that portion of the funding, and it is now unclear whether it ever will.

“We are still seeking clarification on the next steps for what, if any, portion of the BRIC grant may be available,” Barnes said. “We continue to strongly urge our federal, state and county partners to recognize the urgency of this situation and continue to support the city in protecting our residents and vital infrastructure.”

Awwad said it’s not just the local residents who benefit from such stabilization efforts; it also helps the thousands of motorists who use Palos Verdes Drive South and thousands more residents who rely on the county-run sewer line that runs alongside the road.

“This is a regional issue,” Awwad said.

Barnes said the city is considering applying to FEMA’s Hazard Mitigation Grant Program for the project, but securing state or federal funding for stabilization projects has been a challenge.

After the Biden administration declared the 2023-2024 winter storms a federal disaster, the city applied to FEMA for over $60 million in disaster reimbursements, linking its landslide mitigation work to the heavy rainfall. But FEMA officials rejected almost all of the city’s request.

The city has appealed that decision, but it seems unlikely federal officials will reverse course. In a recent letter to FEMA about the appeal, the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services recommended the appeal not be granted because the landslides “were unstable prior to disaster” and therefore not a “direct result of the declared disaster.”

“Cal OES agrees with [the city] that the winter storms… may have greatly accelerated the sliding,” the letter said. “However … the pre-existing instability dating back to 2018 makes that work ineligible per FEMA policy. “

The most significant outside funding the city has received has come from Los Angeles County. Supervisor Janice Hahn secured $5 million for the landslide response — more than $2 million of which has been distributed to homeowners for direct assistance through $10,000 payments. The county’s flood control district also allocated the city $2 million to help cover costs preparing for the rainy season.

In 2023, the city also received $2 million from Congress after U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) helped secure the funds for landslide remediation.

The city’s most dramatic financial support — if it comes through — would be a $42-million buyout program that was awarded last year by FEMA. With that money, city officials expect a buyout of 23 homes in the landslide zone, 15 of which have been red-tagged, or deemed unlivable. FEMA has yet to allocate those funds, Barnes said, but even if it does, none of the money would go toward slide mitigation or prevention.

In the face of such difficulties, city officials have thrown their support behind a bill that could change how the state classifies emergencies.

Assemblymember Al Muratsuchi (D-Rolling Hills Estates) introduced AB 986, which would add landslides as a condition that could constitute a state of emergency — a change that could free up a pool of state funds for Rancho Palos Verdes.

He called the bill “a common sense proposal” after seeing what the Rancho Palos Verdes landslide zone has been dealing with, but similar bills in the past have failed.

“The Palos Verdes peninsula … has been witnessing what I call a slow-moving train wreck,” Muratsuchi testified at an Emergency Management Committee hearing last month. “Homes are being torn apart. … The road is being torn apart, utilities are being cut off. By any common sense definition: a natural disaster.”