week

Whether it’s fans, players, umpires or his father yelling at 15-year-old freshman pitcher Carlos Acuna, the chances that he’ll show any emotion are slim and none.

“I don’t like showing my emotions,” he said. “Once the other team sees it, that’s when they get a groove going. I hide it pretty good.”

He deserves an Academy Award for acting calm, cool and collected no matter the situation.

Few freshman pitchers in the history of Birmingham High’s baseball program have performed as well as Acuna, who entered this week with a 7-0 record, 1.09 ERA and 70 strikeouts in 57 innings.

“It’s been going amazing,” Patriots pitching coach Gus Rico said.

Rico has known Acuna since he was 7 years old while coaching him on his son’s travel ball team.

“He’s got an amazing arm and his baseball IQ is pretty good,” Rico said.

Acuna’s father, Roger, and mother, Lisa, played baseball and softball, respectively, at Burbank High. Roger continued to play adult league baseball and would bring Carlos to games. The Acunas are such a passionate baseball family that everyone sits at home in front of the television watching Dodgers games.

“My dad goes crazy,” said the 5-foot-11, 188-pound right-hander, who plays shortstop when he’s not pitching. “It’s pretty funny.”

Acuna‘s father makes sure his son is learning lessons while watching the pros pitch. Acuna said seeing pitchers have the same routine and throw the ball “around the zone consistently” are two lessons.

His off-speed pitches have been effective this season. He has a slider, change-up, curveball and sinker to go with a good fastball.

He credits playing against older kids in helping his transition to high school.

“I’m used to bigger, older kids,” he said. “I know if I can’t get them with a fastball, I have to go off speed.”

The early days on varsity were about making sure his new teammates thought he belonged. He had to earn their respect. Seniors always have skepticism about freshmen.

“Once you prove you can be there, you love it,” he said.

Birmingham has won five City Section championships in 19 seasons under coach Matt Mowry but zero West Valley League titles. The Patriots lost to El Camino Real 1-0 on Tuesday, leaving them at second place in the West Valley League. Once again, they’ll focus on the Open Division playoffs. Pairings will be announced Saturday and the championship game is May 24 at Dodger Stadium.

Imagine what it would be like if Acuna got a chance to play at Dodger Stadium.

“Pitching at Dodger Stadium would be crazy because I grew up watching my favorite players there,” he said.

Acuna and senior Allen Olmos give Birmingham a formidable 1-2 pitching duo. They figure to do most of Birmingham’s pitching during the playoffs.

Last week, Acuna was sick and vomiting but still able to throw 5 1/3 innings and give up just one run in a loss to Granada Hills.

The pressure of the playoffs is something Acuna intends to embrace. Yes, players in the dugout will be shouting a little louder and the stakes will be higher, but he’s no ordinary 15-year-old.

“I’m really excited because I haven’t been there before,” he said. “I want to see the atmosphere.”

If the atmosphere is anything like watching a Dodgers game at home, he’ll be well-prepared for the challenges ahead.

WASHINGTON — Wall Street veteran Frank Bisignano was confirmed by the Senate on Tuesday to lead the Social Security Administration, taking over at a turbulent time for the agency that provides benefits to more than 70 million Americans.

The Senate confirmed Bisignano in a 53-47 vote.

Bisignano’s confirmation comes after a months-long series of announcements at the Social Security Administration of mass federal worker layoffs, cuts to programs, office closures and a planned cut to nationwide Social Security phone services, which were eventually walked back.

Many of the changes are driven by the Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency, headed by billionaire advisor Elon Musk, who said this week that he is preparing to wind down his role with the administration. The upheaval has made Social Security a major focus of Democrats, including former President Biden, who said in his first public speech since leaving office that Republican President Trump has “taken a hatchet” to the program.

Bisignano, a self-professed “DOGE person,” has served as chair of Fiserv, a payments and financial services tech firm since 2020. He is a onetime defender of corporate policies to protect LGBTQ+ people from discrimination. Bisignano takes over from the agency’s acting commissioner, DOGE supporter Leland Dudek. Bisignano’s term ends in January 2031.

Asked during his March confirmation hearing whether Social Security should be privatized, Bisignano responded: “I’ve never heard a word of it, and I’ve never thought about it.”

Democrats and activists have for weeks railed against Bisignano’s confirmation, holding rallies and other events protesting his nomination.

During the final roll call vote, Oregon Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden called Bisignano “unfit” to be the steward of Americans’ Social Security benefits. Wyden said Trump wants Bisignano to “gut” Social security, and that Republicans who support Bisignano’s confirmation would be responsible if their grandmother misses a Social Security check and can’t pay rent.

“By confirming Mr. Bisignano, the Senate will be signing a death sentence to Social Security as we know it today,” Wyden said.

The chaos at the the agency began shortly after acting commissioner Michelle King stepped down in February, a move that came after DOGE sought access to Social Security recipient information. That prompted a lawsuit by labor unions and retirees, who asked a federal court to issue an emergency order limiting DOGE’s access to Social Security data.

Most recently, the full panel of judges on the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals voted 9 to 6 not to lift restrictions on the access that DOGE has to Social Security systems containing personal data on millions of Americans.

Also in February, the agency announced plans to cut 7,000 people from the agency payroll through layoffs, employee reassignments and an offer of voluntary separation agreements, as part of an intensified effort to shrink the size of the federal workforce.

Dudek also announced a plan to require in-person identity checks for millions of new and existing recipients while simultaneously closing government offices. That sparked a furor among lawmakers, advocacy groups and program recipients who are worried that the government is placing unnecessary barriers in front of an already vulnerable population. That plan has since been rolled back.

The Social Security Administration provides benefits to roughly 72.5 million people, including retirees and children.

Hussein writes for the Associated Press.

MIAMI — Two days, maybe three.

When Mookie Betts first came down with a stomach bug the week the Dodgers were scheduled to leave for their season-opening trip to Japan in March, that’s how long the team’s do-everything superstar initially thought he’d feel unwell.

“I thought it was just gonna be a little two-day sickness, and that was gonna be it,” Betts said. “Go to Japan. By the time you get there, probably have a day down. Then be fine by the day before the game.”

Looking back on what instead became a two-week ordeal that derailed his opening month to the season, Betts can do nothing but shake his head.

Entering this season, the 32-year-old former MVP was filled with excitement.

After a three-month cameo at shortstop last year, Betts was returning to the position on a full-time basis, confident that the strides he made this winter would lead to stark improvement after last season’s error-filled experiment.

Behind the scenes, Betts felt his swing was in a great place, too, setting high baseline marks in bat speed and quality of contact as he ramped up during spring camp.

“In spring training,” co-hitting coach Robert Van Scoyoc said, “he was in a great spot.”

Then, however, his stomach illness changed everything. And more than a month later, the after-effects have continued to linger.

For two weeks, Betts could hardly eat solid foods, failing to keep down the little he did consume. By the time opening day arrived, he had lost nearly 20 pounds — and much of the progress he made over the winter.

“I didn’t realize how coming back so much underweight would affect me even now,” Betts said. “Trying to do that 20 pounds lighter, I just created some really, really, really bad habits, man.”

Throughout his 12-year career, the consistency of Betts’ swing has been the bedrock of his offensive success. Given his wiry 5-foot-10 frame, and naturally below-average bat speed, he’s never had much margin for error or inefficiency in his hitting mechanics. If not for the robotic-like precision he possesses in the batter’s box, he would have never been a seven-time Silver Slugger, or the majors’ most undersized power threat.

“I’m not Shohei,” Betts said. “I can’t, unfortunately, not have my A-swing that day but still run into something and [have it] go over the fence or whatever. Even when I have my A-swing, if I don’t get it, it’s not gonna be a homer. If I don’t flush that ball in that gap, they’re gonna catch it.”

“And that,” Betts added, “is when I’m fully healthy.”

For much of April, he saw what happens when he’s not.

Though Betts long ago returned to full health, as well as his typical 180-pound playing weight, he has only recently started to look more like his old self again at the plate. Entering Tuesday, he was on an eight-game on-base streak. In five of them, he had multiple hits, including a double, a triple and his first home run in 13 games.

The Dodgers’ Mookie Betts singles to left in the first inning of Monday’s game against the Miami Marlins.

(Marta Lavandier / Associated Press)

He’s not all the way back yet, still hitting just .266 on the season. What he bluntly described as a “garbage” opening month, in which batting average dipped as low as .230, remains a source of frustration, even as he has slowly started correcting some underlying issues.

“Mentally, it was challenging [for him],” Van Scoyoc siad. “Just feeling like he didn’t get the benefits of all the hard work [he put in during the offseason].”

In the midst of Betts’ slump, questions emerged about whether his move back to shortstop was having an impact on his bat; whether he could still be the same hitter while taking on a demanding defensive position.

In Betts’ view, however, shortstop has been a blessing, not a burden.

“I enjoy my process,” he said. “That’s the No. 1 thing,”

Recalibrating his swing amid wildly fluctuating weight, on the other hand, has been a more tedious process.

At first, the ill effects of Betts’ two-week illness were not immediately evident. He was sent home from the team’s Japan trip early. But he recovered in time to collect six hits, three of them home runs, during the Dodgers’ undefeated opening homestand.

By the middle of April, Betts was also back to his pre-illness playing weight, having worked with the Dodgers’ performance staff, as well as his own personal trainer and chef, to devise a bulked-up meal plan that maximized his intake of macronutrients.

“We didn’t go the Michael Phelps route,” joked major league development integration coach Brandon McDaniel, referencing the former Olympic swimmer’s notorious 10,000-calorie diet. “But [his weight] stabilized pretty well.”

In that interim period, though, Betts’ bat speed began to suffer. After averaging only 69 mph last year, which ranked in the 13th percentile among MLB hitters according to the league’s Statcast system, it dropped to almost 67 mph during the opening month of this season.

That didn’t come as a surprise to the Dodgers’ hitting coaches, even after Betts’ gain in that metric early on this spring.

“You’re not impacting the ball the same way you were,” the Dodgers’ other hitting coach, Aaron Bates, said, “because you don’t have the weight behind it.”

But as Betts made an effort to try and start swinging harder, all he did was create mechanical flaws he has since had to correct. The biggest issue “had to do with how his arms and hands load, and how that affects the rest of his body,” Van Scoyoc said.

Fixing it has been an uphill battle.

“At first, it was cool. When I first came back, I hit a couple homers. The habits didn’t creep all the way in,” Betts said. “But then they started creeping in. And that’s what you’ve seen here recently. The product of some really bad habits from being so light.”

The Los Angeles Dodgers actually have one of the best records in baseball, but no one seems to be too thrilled by it. Injuries, question marks and hitters not hitting are issues.

Over 22 games from April 2-28, Betts performed nowhere near his eight-time All-Star standards. He batted .202 with just three doubles and one home run. He was swinging at the right pitches (he struck out just nine times in those 98 plate appearances), but managed little more than soft pop-ups and routine groundouts.

“He’s one of those guys that can’t really be that far off [in his mechanics],” Bates said. “When he’s synced up right, he’s one of the best in baseball. But being that he’s 180 pounds, he doesn’t have a lot of margin for error.”

Betts still produced in other ways. Defensively, he is top-10 among MLB shortstops in fielding percentage, defensive runs saved and outs above average.

But as the Dodgers endured a team-wide malaise that plagued them for much of April, Betts’ offensive struggles loomed as a prominent factor.

“Obviously the results haven’t been there,” Betts said. “I’ve been trying to get this bad habit out.”

This past week, it has seemingly started to happen.

Betts entered Tuesday with 12 hits and 10 RBIs during his last eight games. Manager Dave Roberts has noticed “more convicted swipes” in the batter’s box. His bat speed has also started to tick back toward his pre-illness levels.

The Dodgers’ offense, not coincidentally, has improved right along with him — the club scoring 73 runs and hitting .329 as a team over its last nine games.

That’s why, as Betts discussed the state of his game during the Dodgers’ trip this week, he didn’t sound defeated, nor resentful about his physical limitations.

He was looking past his opening month, and an illness that lasted longer than he ever expected.

“It’s hard to get lost in the results. It’s not a good place to be,” he said. “So I’m really trying to just get lost in the process and make sure I’m prepared.”

Since Sunday night, Hollywood has been trying to make heads or tails of President Trump’s bombshell proposal to levy 100% tariffs on films made outside of the U.S.

Ostensibly, the Trump tariff plan is part of an effort to bring Hollywood productions back home, after decades of runaway production.

Remarkably few movies are made entirely in the U.S. — let alone Los Angeles — because studios have been lured abroad to countries including Canada, Britain, Australia, Hungary and Bulgaria by generous government incentives. Special effects are often outsourced overseas.

This has contributed to what leaders in California now call a crisis for the state’s production economy. The Los Angeles area also faces stiff competition from other states, including Georgia and New York.

So Trump has clearly identified a real problem, though the solution he offered is questionable, to say the least. Filmmakers say they want to shoot in the States but need help to make it financially feasible. Tariffs won’t help with that. In fact, they’ll make it worse.

“It’s great that the president is starting to pay attention,” said Jeffrey Greenstein, who has produced movies shot in multiple countries. “So let’s have a real conversation about it and figure out the best way to start bringing movies back.”

The chaotic and vague way Trump’s plan was announced sent studio executives scrambling to figure out what it all meant. The notion seemed ill-thought-out and knee-jerk, many producers said.

How do you even put a tariff on movies, which are distributed digitally? Why tariffs, rather than a robust national tax credit program, which many in the industry have advocated for?

“Nobody knows and I don’t suspect we will for awhile,” said one executive who was not authorized to comment. “Is [the tariff] on domestically funded foreign productions? Is it on foreign funded ones? Is the tariff on film revenues or film costs on those projects or both, etc., etc., etc. What constitutes a feature? Who knows.”

Who knows, indeed.

Before Sunday’s announcement, actor Jon Voight, one of Trump’s “special ambassadors” to Hollywood, traveled to Florida with his manager Steven Paul for a meeting with Trump at Mar-a-Lago to present a plan for the film industry. Ideas addressed included federal tax incentives, job training and “tariffs in certain limited circumstances,” according to a statement from Paul’s production company.

Gov. Gavin Newsom has now called on Trump to create a $7.5-billion federal film tax credit program. The governor’s office reached out to the White House Monday evening to encourage Trump to work with California to create a federal credit modeled after the state’s program.

Some executives and producers said the tariff idea would hasten Hollywood’s demise rather than save it, because of the increased costs for studios that are already under financial pressure. Reciprocal tariffs from other territories could follow. China is already getting more restrictive for American movies thanks to Trump trade policies.

Already, there are signs that the administration might be walking the proposal back, leaving entertainment business analysts to doubt that the idea will actually go into effect.

Nonetheless, the turmoil could cast a pall over the Cannes Film Festival this month, where a lot of indie movie deals happen.

“It still creates a headache for the film business and particularly indie film if there is yet more uncertainty in an already fragile marketplace, particularly among the banks and investors,” said Stuart Ford, head of Los Angeles-based film and TV company AGC Studios.

Just what Hollywood needs — more uncertainty.

Read my colleagues Meg James and Samantha Masunaga for more on the tariff situation.

IFC’s new look at 25 years old

Indie movie stalwart IFC Films has seen dramatic changes in the specialty film market since it launched 25 years ago.

The challenges are real, as streaming changes moviegoer habits and the box office continues to creep back from the pandemic doldrums. Meanwhile, newer entrants — including A24, Neon and Angel Studios — have reshaped the business by establishing themselves as fresh brands that mean something to their target audiences.

The types of movies that draw independent film fans to theaters have also shifted radically, especially compared to the early 2000s when IFC released “My Big Fat Greek Wedding,” by far its biggest hit. Even 2014, the year the company put out Richard Linklater’s best picture Oscar nominee “Boyhood,” seems a lifetime away.

The market now is younger and hungrier for horror movies, thrillers and edgy genre mashups. At the same time, the major Hollywood studios have, with few exceptions, turned their attention to broad-based tentpole movies, which gives companies like IFC an opportunity to make a bigger mark.

“The audience for what I would call specialty now is very different than it was a few years ago,” said IFC Entertainment Group head Scott Shooman. “It’s not just older-skewing dramas anymore.”

With all that in mind, New York-based IFC on Tuesday unveiled a brand refresh, changing its name to Independent Film Co. As part of the rebranding effort, the company unveiled a new logo and a “customized audio logo” created by Adam “Adrock” Horovitz of the Beastie Boys.

Independent Film Company’s new logo.

The change is part of a broader rejiggering of film assets within parent company AMC Networks. Independent Film Co. will exist under the newly named IFC Entertainment Group, an umbrella that also includes the IFC Center movie theater, fellow distribution arm RLJE and the horror streaming service Shudder, which turns a decade old this year.

“As the consumer becomes more familiar with brands and who’s purveying the movies, it becomes important for us to refresh the brand,” Shooman said. “It’s gonna take the movies to fill it out, but that’s something that we look forward to doing.”

As the independent space has evolved, so has IFC’s strategy.

The company is aiming to release fewer films while taking bigger swings with more commercial-leaning movies and heftier budgets. Currently, the group releases about 50 movies a year, which according to Shooman is getting closer to the ideal number. About 30 of those releases are through the Shudder arm, a handful of which also go into theaters.

For the rest, 12 are from Independent Film Co. and eight are under the RLJE banner, and all of those are released theatrically. As the company refines its strategy, it’s moving further away from the foreign films and documentaries that helped define the brand years ago, though it will still do one or two of those a year, Shooman said.

“We’re gonna be sniper oriented on those and really make sure that they are the needle-moving films in that space,” he said.

IFC is coming off a strong couple of years, fielding commercial successes including Colin and Cameron Cairnes’ “Late Night With the Devil” and Chris Nash’s “In a Violent Nature,” along with prestigious titles such as “The Taste of Things” and the Academy Award-nominated stop-motion animated feature “Memoir of a Snail.”

Upcoming releases include Eli Craig’s “Clown in a Cornfield”; Sean Byrne’s thriller “Dangerous Animals,” which debuts at Cannes Directors’ Fortnight; and Jay Duplass’ “The Baltimorons.”

Essential to the larger IFC strategy is Shudder, which over the last 10 years has established itself as a destination for horror fans with its mix of new titles and handpicked library selections.

Shudder was, for example, the home of Coralie Fargeat’s first feature, “Revenge,” before she went on to make “The Substance.” It was also behind the 2022 experimental and divisive microbudget film “Skinamarink” from Kyle Edward Ball. Last year, it released “Oddity,” its second time working with Irish director Damian McCarthy.

“As we’re able to grow as a company, we’ve become synonymous with taste, with quality and with author-driven impactful horror,” said Emily Gotto, Shudder’s head of acquisitions and production.

Shudder prides itself on the way it curates its platform with a human touch, not by algorithm.

Some of Shudder’s best gets have been older, little-seen titles with which the company can make a splash. The best example perhaps was when the company secured the rights to the 1981 body horror classic “Possession,” which hadn’t been widely available through streaming or video on-demand.

That coup was a prime example of how the company can make “subscriber events” out of releasing older titles, said Shudder’s programming and acquisitions head Sam Zimmerman, who is in charge of curating the streamer’s offering.

Zimmerman said the company succeeds when “we follow our taste and our passion and release and make movies that take someone a foot further than they thought they were going to go that day.”

“Having that instinct confirmed is both surprising but exciting to me,” he said, “because I think that’s what people want out of horror.”

Finally …

Listen: The blues great Buddy Guy is in the news because of “Sinners,” so why not?

Bad Bunny fans, prepare your wallets and passports, because the Puerto Rican singer is embarking on his “Debí Tirar Más Fotos” world tour.

The Grammy-winning singer announced new shows Monday, via a short clip on Instagram that featured his animated concho frog exclaiming, “at last!” before shooting off his paper plane into the ether.

The 23-date stadium tour will kick off Nov. 21 in the Dominican Republic, followed by shows in Costa Rica, Mexico, Colombia, Peru, Chile and Argentina.

The 31-year-old singer will also stop in Brazil, Australia and Japan, and will return to Europe for the first time since his 2019 “X 100pre” Tour.

News of this world tour comes two months before the trap-reggaeton star embarks on his sold-out residency, “No Me Quiero Ir de Aquí,” this summer at the José Miguel Agrelot Coliseum of Puerto Rico, better known locally as “el Choliseo.”

Upon its release earlier this year, his critically-acclaimed sixth studio album, “Debí Tirar Más Fotos,” spent three weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard 200, and has remained in the top 10 albums for the subsequent 13 weeks.

Bad Bunny has kept busy since the release of “DTmF,” appearing in a steamy Calvin Klein Underwear spring campaign and performing on NPR’s Tiny Desk concert series. The “Baile Inolvidable” singer is also slated to be the musical guest on “Saturday Night Live” on May 17 to close out the show’s milestone 50th season. He will also also appear on-screen in Netflix’s “Happy Gilmore 2” and Darren Aronofsky’s film “Caught Stealing,” which will hit theaters Aug. 29.

His last tour, the 2024 “Most Wanted” tour, grossed over $208 million, selling over 700,000 tickets, according to Pollstar. His Puerto Rican residency has sold over 400,000, both online and through in-person sales.

Tickets for the world tour go on sale Friday at depuertoricopalmundo.com.

More high-stakes drama is expected in soapland next week, from Emmerdale to Home and Away. From rivalries to secrets and bombshells, here’s what you need to know.

Nate Robinson’s death remains an elephant in the room next week in Emmerdale as John Sugden secretly revels in the secrecy – but walls could start closing in on him when Moira Dingle (Natalie J Robb) makes a huge discovery.

The paramedic played by Oliver Farnworth has been hiding in plain sight while Nate’s family have tried to get in touch with the hunk – from his confused wife Tracy (Amy Walsh) to his shocked father Cain (Jeff Hordley). But will his secrets be uncovered?

Over in Coronation Street, Kit Green (Jacob Roberts) is rattled when he bumps into a newcomer on the cobbles. And it becomes clear he’s keeping plenty of secrets from his loved ones in Weatherfield.

Meanwhile, Harvey and Jean’s relationship in EastEnders is slowly heading towards the rocks as the Slaters still reel after Martin Fowler’s death. But can the couple, respectively portrayed by Ross Boatman and Gillian Wright, overcome the rough patch?

Elsewhere, small soaps will have their own share of twists and turns. Things are coming to a head in Hollyoaks while Darcy’s true motives in Neighbours are slowly coming to light.

READ MORE: ‘Charlotte Tilbury’s new double-ended lip liner makes my lips look like they have filler’

Emmerdale

John secretly enjoys the attention over his upcoming heroism award but he misses the event when he prioritises Aaron, who has a mental health crisis.

Vic (Isabel Hodgins) and Tracy later hold a celebration in the Woolpack to make it up to him – but Mackenzie (Lawrence Robb) is annoyed to have missed out and he’s jealous of John and Aaron’s (Danny Miller) relationship.

Later, stags gather for the stag do, excited for their paintballing plans. But Mack is left uneasy when he receives a chilling warning from John. Battle begins in the woods and Mack is determined to thwart John, no matter the cost. Could it backfire?

Moira discovers a serious leak with the slurry tank and Mack gets the blame. However, everyone feels guilty when Cain reports the slurry has affected the village’s main water supply and young Harry is rushed to hospital after having drunk some of the contaminated water.

Moira is also thrown when she receives a letter addressed to “The Family of Emma Barton ” and she wrestles with her conscience as she chooses whether or not to tell Ross. Later, Moira is haunted by memories of her past.

Elsewhere, living arrangements are causing Liam (Jonny McPherson) unease when he catches Mandy (Lisa Riley) in an unguarded moment. Trouble then intervenes when Manpreet drops a bombshell on the village GP.

Coronation Street

At the wedding fayre, Leanne (Jane Danson) isn’t happy about the position of the Speed Daal pitch, and Debbie (Sue Devaney) tries to ignore her. But she’s left floundering when she loses her clipboard – and Leanne makes things worse with her comments.

Debbie loses her temper, attempting to move the stand herself but she cuts her hand in the process. In the Bistro, Abi (Sally Carman) and Debbie order soft drinks with lunch but Debbie switches to a large vodka when Ronnie (Vinta Morgan) arrives. Drunken Debbie later staggers to the loos as she tells Abi she’s had some bad news.

Mick takes a swig of his tea and spits it out. Liam laughs – he’s laced the drink with washing powder. Determined to make him pay, Mick locks Liam in the toolshed. But his actions have dire consequences with Gary (Mikey North) and Maria (Samia Longchambon).

Elsewhere, Kit is taken aback when he sees Lou in the pub. Lou tells Tracy that she and Kit go way back. Later, when Bernie calls at Kit’s flat, hoping he’ll open up about his woes, flashbacks reveal Kit’s chequered past – and the secrets that bind him to Mick and Lou. Lauren confesses to Bobby she had no choice but to use the money he gave her for a deposit on a flat. Bobby makes a huge decision.

EastEnders

Harvey prepares for the Slaters’ camping trip but Jean refuses to go without Stacey. Harvey manages to convince Stacey to come – but his work is undone when Lily insists she doesn’t want Stacey to tag along.

Harvey tries to seek solace with Kathy (Gillian Taylforth) in the café but he receives the cold shoulder. Later, Jean takes him by surprise by popping the question.

Vicki and Ross worry over Joel’s recent behaviour and she tries to persuade Ross to talk with Ravi (Aaron Thiara) and Priya (Sophie Khan Levy). Instead, Ross seeks out Avani, unaware that Suki is watching from afar.

Suki’s suspicions grow when both Avani and Ross give different accounts of events, forcing Vicki to reveal Avani slept with Joel. Later on, a huge confrontation ensues at No.43 as Ravi sees red.

Gina grows concerned for Harry and secretly shares her worries with Teddy and Nicola when they accost her in the Minute Mart. The couple head to the Arches to speak with Harry but he dismisses their worries before riling at Gina. Jay warns Gina about the blossoming friendship – but is he right to worry?

Meanwhile, Linda (Kellie Bright) is confused when Phil (Steve McFadden) is reluctant to call Sharon and he reveals she’s slept with Grant. Later, Linda tries to persuade Phil to give Sharon a chance.

Hollyoaks

Tony and Diane are trying to encourage Ro to open up but he lies that he’s been attending a support group. When Diane decides to pay the group a visit, Ro is nowhere to be found.

Meanwhile, the lad slips quietly into the flat above The Dog, contemplating suicide. Rex and Ste are anxious when Lucas plans to fly abroad with Dillon and Frankie.

But when Frankie gets another chance with Ray, both she and Dillon are caught red-handed as Ray collapses. Elsewhere, Prince helps Freddie plan a surprise proposal for Mercedes.

Neighbours

Wendy is doubtful Andrew is being unfaithful but Nicolette continues to cast doubt and insists she could catch him with a fake profile. Later, Nicolette makes a huge discovery.

Meanwhile, Darcy checks Amanda’s shares and sees they’ve risen in price. He later searches Amanda’s apartment for her shareholding documents.

But he quickly becomes concerned his real intentions will be exposed. Meanwhile, Karl arranges to meet up with a former Erinsborough resident, determined to get to the truth. Elsewhere, Paul balances two women in his life before making a grand gesture.

Home and Away

Ziggy and Mackenzie are in mortal danger when they’re forced to drive two escaped prisoners – leaving Dean and Levi in hot pursuit. Kirby and Bree treat Rose to lunch for her last day at work as the detective gears up for an emotional exit.

Meanwhile, Cash encounters members of the gang the River Boys and he’s determined to know more about the reports of street racing. Justin catches Marilyn on the phone pretending to be Roo – she’s fishing for information on Eliza’s past. But what will she find?

Like this story? For more of the latest showbiz news and gossip, follow Mirror Celebs on TikTok, Snapchat, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and Threads.

Enzo Fernandez (Chelsea) and Youri Tielemans (Aston Villa): These two are on a similar trajectory. Really impressive performance: box to box, combative and they did everything they needed to do. Tielemans has been great for Villa and now Villa are trying to work out who fits in around him. Before it was chopping and changing – was it Amadou Onana, was it John McGinn? Now it’s Tielemans and whoever. Fernandez is the same: a £100m price tag, won the World Cup. Everyone was a little bit worried, but he’s chipping in with goal after goal and performance after performance.

Kevin Schade (Brentford): Two goals against Man Utd gets you a lot of credit but everyone talks a lot about Yoane Wissa and Bryan Mbeumo – obviously because these guys are very good and very talented – but he’s chipped away. He lost a long time to injury but since he’s been back in the fold he deserves a bit of credit – because to score two against Manchester United is always special.

Julio Enciso (Ipswich): He showed real class and real quality, even with Ipswich dead and buried in the league. I’ve been in dressing rooms where people like that say they’re injured and go back to their parent club because the job is done, but he did the opposite. He took the game to Everton, was the best player on the pitch and showed he is Premier League quality, whether that be with another team in the Prem or back with Brighton. Very, very good goal. Unbelievable goal, actually – a contender for goal of the season.

Cole Palmer (Chelsea): It wasn’t his best game but everything he did had real quality and class. He’s not in it for the goal. I think it’s his movement, the way he was gliding past people and looking like he was, it was all good fun.

President Trump continues to press for control over institutions that shape the arts, culture — and history. Last week the administration removed board members appointed by former President Biden from the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C., including former second gentleman Doug Emhoff, the husband of former Vice President Kamala Harris.

“Holocaust remembrance and education should never be politicized,” Emhoff, who is Jewish and a leader in fighting rising antisemitism against Jewish Americans, wrote on social media after his termination. “To turn one of the worst atrocities in history into a wedge issue is dangerous — and it dishonors the memory of six million Jews murdered by Nazis that this museum was created to preserve.”

A few days earlier, the Associated Press reported that a week of events connected with the city’s World Pride Festival celebrating the LGBTQ+ community had been quietly canceled at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. The news was not surprising to those who have followed the national arts institution since Trump fired much of the board and orchestrated his appointment as chairman.

A page on the Kennedy Center website still references its Tapestry of Pride programming, but it doesn’t connect to any events. Groups planning festivities at the center told the AP that after Trump’s takeover, their contact with the venue went dark, forcing them to relocate their performances to other venues.

One sign of resistance, however, flashed on Friday, when House Democrats asked the Smithsonian’s inspector general to investigate the legality of Trump’s executive order threatening to pull funding for museums with ideology that the president deemed “improper.” That announcement follows resistance seen on a more local level, including the Japanese American National Museum in L.A. declaring that it would not bend to pressure to scrub references to diversity, equity and inclusion from its website. “Our community is based on diversity, equity is guaranteed to us in the Constitution, and inclusion is what we believe in,” a museum official said.

I’m culture writer Jessica Gelt, here with Ashley Lee with your weekly arts news and some worthwhile diversions from our reality.

Best bets: On our radar this week

Analia Saban with her “Broken Vase” project at Gemini G.E.L. in 2016.

(Sidney B. Felsen)

Analia Saban and Printmaking in L.A.

“Saban has made it her cunning practice to reconstitute painting and sculpture, to fiddle with foundations, essences and definitions, to take nothing for granted,” wrote Times contributor Leah Ollman of Analia Saban in 2017. The artist will be joined by Naoko Takahatake (director and chief curator of the UCLA Grunwald Center of the Graphic Arts), Case Hudson (master printer at Gemini G.E.L.), Shaye Remba (director of Mixografia) and Francesco Siqueiros (founder of El Nopal Press) in a conversation exploring the place of printmaking in her creative practice, as well as her many collaborations with renowned print shops around Los Angeles. The free talk takes place Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. Hammer Museum, 10899 Wilshire Blvd., Westwood. hammer.ucla.edu

Esa-Pekka Salonen Leads Debussy and Boulez

To mark the 100th anniversary of the birth of revolutionary French composer and conductor Pierre Boulez, the Los Angeles Philharmonic (which Boulez conducted often), French pianist Pierre-Laurent Aimard (whom Boulez invited to be in his Ensemble Intercontemporain) and L.A. Dance Project will join Esa-Pekka Salonen for a program that Times classical music critic Mark Swed touted last month. The belated birthday concerts (Boulez was born March 26) take place Thursday, Saturday and Sunday. (Another Boulez-centric event is set for May 30 at UCLA’s Nimoy Theater, with L.A. pianist Gloria Cheng and Dutch pianist Ralph van Raat performing Boulez’s two-piano “Structures,” along with pieces by John Cage, Stravinsky and Frank Zappa.) This week’s concerts will be at Walt Disney Concert Hall, 111 S. Grand Ave., downtown. laphil.com

Michael Luo and Charles Yu

“Strangers in the Land: Exclusion, Belonging, and the Epic Story of the Chinese in America” tells the story of the Chinese populations who were lured to the United States in the 19th century to work, only to be expelled later by politicians as a perceived national threat. Writers Bloc presents a conversation about the book between author Michael Luo, also the executive editor of the New Yorker and a former New York Times journalist, and Charles Yu, author of the novel “Interior Chinatown.” The talk takes place Monday at 7:30 p.m. The Ebell of Los Angeles, 741 S. Lucerne Blvd., Mid-Wilshire. ebellofla.org

— Ashley Lee

The week ahead: A curated calendar

Monday

ASCAP Foundation Musical Theatre Fest Stephen Schwartz hosts this two-night event: Monday features “Songs From the Cutting Room Floor,” composers performing tunes that were painfully excised from their hit musicals; in Tuesday’s Musical Theatre Workshop, composers present excerpts from “Piney Needlesmith and the Road Less Traveled” and “Weekend.”

7:30 p.m. Monday. 7 p.m. Tuesday. The Wallis, 9390 N. Santa Monica Blvd., Beverly Hills. thewallis.org

1975: Fifty Is the New Hollywood The Who’s musical “Tommy,” directed by Ken Russell, launches this tribute to one of the landmark years in cinema; other films (with special guests) include “Dog Day Afternoon,” “Nashville,” “The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser” and “Cooley High” (with Michael Schultz, Glynn Turman and Lawrence Hilton-Jacobs).

1 and 4 p.m.; series continues through May 26. Egyptian Theatre, 6712 Hollywood Blvd., L.A. egyptiantheatre.com

Tuesday

Dr. Phil Live With Adam Ray The lighthearted lampooning of the TV therapist returns with an all-star supporting cast of comedians in an array of ridiculous sketches.

8 p.m. Comedy Store, 8433 Sunset Blvd., L.A. www.showclix.com

Life of Pi A 16-year-old boy survives on a lifeboat with a hyena, a zebra, an orangutan and a 450-pound Bengal tiger in Lolita Chakrabarti’s adventurous stage adaptation of Yann Martel’s bestselling novel.

Through June 1. Ahmanson Theatre, 135 N. Grand Ave., downtown L.A. centertheatregroup.org

Wednesday

Central Cee The U.K. rapper tours behind his debut LP, “Can’t Rush Greatness.”

7 p.m. Hollywood Palladium, 6215 Sunset Blvd., Hollywood. hollywoodpalladium.com

Thursday

J Balvin The reggaeton singer goes “Back to the Rayo” on his tour.

8 p.m. Toyota Arena, 4000 Ontario Center, Ontario; 8 p.m. Friday. Kia Forum, 3900 W. Manchester Blvd., Inglewood. jbalvin.com

Debussy & Boulez Esa-Pekka Salonen leads the L.A. Phil in a program contrasting Bartók and the two iconic French composers.

8 p.m. Thursday and Saturday; 2 p.m. Sunday. Walt Disney Concert Hall, 111 S. Grand Ave., downtown L.A. laphil.com

Love’s End French director Maurice Attias brings a slice of French culture to L.A. with the West Coast premiere of “Clôture de l’amour” (Love’s End) by celebrated French playwright Pascal Rambert in an English translation by Jim Fletcher and Kate Moran.

8 p.m. Friday and Saturday, 2 p.m. Sunday, through June 15. Odyssey Theatre, 2055 S. Sepulveda Blvd., L.A. odysseytheatre.com

Yo La Tengo An evening with the eclectic indie rock band and its most recent album, “This Stupid World.”

8 p.m. The Novo, 800 W. Olympic Blvd., L.A. thenovodtla.com

Culture news and the SoCal scene

Helen J. Shen and Darren Criss in “Maybe Happy Ending” on Broadway.

(Matthew Murphy and Evan Zimmerman)

Tony Awards

When nominations were announced, even the most bankable star power couldn’t push aside artistic innovation in the races for theater’s biggest honors. Broadway is awash in big names — Denzel Washington, Jake Gyllenhaal, George Clooney, Kieran Culkin — and even bigger ticket prices this season, but only one of those megastars received a nomination: Clooney for his work in “Good Night, and Good Luck.” Bob Odenkirk also earned a nod for his role in the revival of David Mamet’s “Glengarry Glen Ross.” “Buena Vista Social Club,” “Death Becomes Her” and “Maybe Happy Ending” led the pack with 10 nominations each. Read all about the nominations here.

Times theater critic Charles McNulty offered his take in a piece titled “Tony nominations reward audacious risk-taking on Broadway.” ICYMI, you can catch up with McNulty’s earlier assessment of this year’s crop of new shows.

Art lovers view select art pieces at an exhibition preview party/dinner for Frieze LA on Feb. 15, 2022, in Santa Monica.

(Jason Armond/Los Angeles Times)

Frieze

Ownership of the Frieze art organization is changing hands. Beverly Hills entertainment company Endeavor is selling it to a new events and experiences company launched by Endeavor’s founder, agent Ari Emanuel. Times staff writer Wendy Lee has the full story of the transfer of ownership, reportedly worth an estimated $200 million.

Gustavo Dudamel

Beloved L.A. Phil music and artistic director Gustavo Dudamel is heading to New York City in advance of his move there to take over the New York Philharmonic at the end of the 2025-26 season. He may still belong to L.A., but this summer he’s scheduled to conduct four free New York Phil concerts in parks around the Big Apple.

Hollywood Fringe

The 15th annual theater festival is on the calendar for June 12-29, and tickets for hundreds of shows, featuring a wealth of local and national talent, are on sale now.

LACO

The Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra recently held a sold-out gala at the Skirball Cultural Center that raised more than $1 million for the organization. Paul Broucek, president of Warner Bros. Pictures Music, was honored at the event, as were longtime LACO supporters Sandy and Pat Gage.

— Jessica Gelt

And last but not least

Want a ridiculously filling, meat, cheese, egg and potato-stuffed breakfast burrito? Head to Pasadena!

A look at the top 25 high school baseball teams in the Southland after Week 11.

Rk. School (Rec.); Comment; ranking last week

1. CORONA (26-2); 88 strikeouts in 42 1/3 innings for Seth Hernandez; 1

2. CRESPI (23-3); Clinched the Mission League championship; 2

3. HUNTINGTON BEACH (22-4); Trevor Goldenetz has 30 hits, 19 RBIs; 3

4. ST. JOHN BOSCO (22-4); Noah Everly is rising as hitter, pitcher; 4

5. AQUINAS (22-2); Jonathan Tena is batting .435; 5

6. ORANGE LUTHERAN (21-6); Finished second in Trinity League; 6

7. HARVARD-WESTLAKE (18-8); Sophomore Ira Rootman having big season; 7

8. LA MIRADA (19-6); Faces Arcadia, Tesoro to close out regular season; 8

9. VILLA PARK (21-5); Huge week for junior Aidan Young, now hitting .430; 9

10. CYPRESS (16-10); Two-game series with El Modena for league title; 10

11. SUMMIT (22-3); Finishes with two-game series against Rialto; 11

12. NEWPORT HARBOR (22-6); Surging Sailors have won five straight; 13

13. NORCO (20-8); Surging Cougars have won 12 of last 13 games; 12

14. VISTA MURRIETA (19-5-1); Southwestern League champions; 14

15. EL DORADO (19-7); Showdown with Villa Park this week; 15

16. MIRA COSTA (24-2); Unbeaten Bay League champions; 16

17. ARCADIA (24-2); Unbeaten Pacific League champion; 18

18. SANTA MARGARITA (15-12); Third place in Trinity League; 20

19. LOS ALAMITOS (17-9-2); Third place in Sunset League; 22

20. ARLINGTON (20-6); Ivy League champions; 23

21. ROYAL (22-4); Showdown with Simi Valley to decide league title; 24

22. SERVITE (14-13); Hoping for at-large berth to Division 1 playoffs; 25

23. LOS OSOS (18-6); Leading Baseline League with three games to play; NR

24. PALM DESERT (24-4); Zach Gibbs (7-0) and Jake Brende (8-1) are one-two duo; NR

25. AYALA (18-8); Palomares League champion; 19

Getty Images

Molly-Mae, Tommy Fury and a ‘media frenzy’

Getty Images

I Kissed A Boy is back

Sonic the Hedgehog fans rejoice

Sega

PinkPantheress album

Happy birthday, Sir David Attenborough

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Other highlights this week

The meal with a slice of cantaloupe at the end. Plus, breakfast burritos, Issa Rae’s new pizzeria, remembering the Napa Valley icon at the middle of the “Apostrophe War” and “the art world’s strange relationship with food.” I’m Laurie Ochoa, general manager of L.A. Times Food, with this week’s Tasting Notes.

Bunch a brunch

Brunch dishes and cocktails served at downtown L.A.’s Redbird.

(Shelby Moore / For The Times)

Chefs famously hate brunch. It’s not considered a “serious” meal. All that day drinking. All that hollandaise sauce. And, in recent years, plate after plate of avocado toast. Would their Blood Mary-soused customers even notice if the food wasn’t as sharp at brunch as at dinner?

And yet, here in Los Angeles some of our best chefs are making brunch a meal to take seriously. As senior Food editor Danielle Dorsey points out in our newly released guide to 32 great L.A. brunch spots, the same scallop tostada, crudo and lobster bisque roll you find at dinner at Ari Kolender‘s Found Oyster, is served at brunch. Jenn Harris says “Top Chef” star Brooke Williamson is serving elevated versions of brunch classics at Playa Provisions. Betty Hallock loves the Japanese breakfast picks at Azay, in Little Tokyo (where I’m also a regular). And at Neal Fraser‘s Redbird I love the tender biscuits with strawberry-rhubarb jam, duck confit chilaquiles plus shrimp and grits.

Then there is the excess of Baltaire in Brentwood, “with tableside mimosas, a Champagne cart, a Bloody Mary cart, caviar bumps and a raw bar,” Harris writes, as well as prime filet Benedict and a “Wagyu cheeseburger stacked on a buttery brioche bun with truffle mayonnaise.” The whole thing “feels like a lavish party, with music from a DJ and a crowd that arrives dressed for the occasion.”

It all fits with what Dorsey says in the guide’s introduction: “Weekend brunch invites us to suspend belief. It’s easy to pretend that eggs don’t run $10 for a dozen as we order forearm-length breakfast burritos and plate-sized scrambles. Furthermore, it’s an excuse to say yes — yes to adding avocado, bacon and another round of drinks.”

Of course, “The Simpsons” nailed the idea of brunch back in 1990 when Marge’s bowling instructor Jacques (voiced with a full sitcom French accent by Albert Brooks) tried to seduce her with a brunch invitation: “You’ll love it. It’s not quite breakfast, it’s not quite lunch, but it comes with a slice of cantaloupe at the end. You don’t get completely what you would at breakfast, but you get a good meal.”

More morning excess

Breakfast burritos from BBAD in Pasadena.

(Jon Demorest Photography)

Columnist Jenn Harris focused this week on the breakfast burritos of Pasadena. Namely, those of the storefront spot BBAD (her current favorite) at the Pasadena Hotel and Pool lobby and content creator Josh Elkin‘s breakfast chimichanga available this month at Dog Haus, with special mentions for Lucky Boy Burgers and Wake and Lake. Plus, she throws in the West L.A. spot Sobuneh for good measure. “What makes a great breakfast burrito great,” she writes, “is the insides, the way the melted cheese fuses with the crispy potatoes on a cushion of fluffy eggs. And the construction accounts for half of the burrito’s appeal.”

‘No shrinking violet’

Carl Doumani, founder of Stags’ Leap Winery in Napa Valley.

(Courtesy of Julie Ann Kodmur)

I knew Carl Doumani only from afar, through one of his daughters, Lissa Doumani, who ran one of Napa Valley’s great now-gone restaurants, Terra, with her husband, Hiro Sone. (The two fell in love when they were young chefs in the kitchen at the original Spago in West Hollywood.) At Terra, Sone was known for his exquisite fish dishes, though I was most drawn to his earthier tripe stew, which at one point he made with Rancho Gordo beans and topped with Hokkaido scallops. I also once had the chance to stay in a guest house on Doumani’s Stags’ Leap Winery estate (now owned by Treasury Wine Estates) when Jonathan Gold and I were asked to speak at a food writers’ conference with a few other journalists, including Ruth Reichl and the Atlantic magazine’s Corby Kummer at the Culinary Institute of America in St. Helena. I remember a brigade of Weber grills set up on the grounds near the main house as the sun set over the vineyards for a wine-and-barbecue dinner that we attended as workshop participants. When I heard that Doumani had died last week at 92, I thought about the beauty of the land he once owned and understood one of the reasons the Los Angeles-born developer uprooted his family and moved to the Napa Valley.

Carl Doumani, founder of Stags’ Leap Winery, with his first wife, Joanne, at CIro’s in Los Angeles in the 1950s.

(Courtesy of Kayne Doumani.)

Food contributor Patrick Comiskey met Doumani when he was researching the Petite Sirah chapter of his book “American Rhône.” In his obit and appreciation of Doumani, he writes about the confusion between Stags’ Leap Winery and Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars, which was founded by the late Warren Winiarski and won the famed Judgment of Paris. Winiarski sued Doumani when the dormant Stags’ Leap Winery was revived, leading to what became as the “Apostrophe War” when Doumani didn’t back down. (Both names were allowed to stand.) Doumani’s “general obstreperousness,” as Comiskey put it, attracted other “like-minded winery owners” who “came to be known as the GONADS, or, the Gastronomical Order for Nonsensical and Dissipatory [sic] Society.” The wine icon “lived the life of a bon vivant and raconteur that amounts to a fading breed in the Valley.”

Cookbook love

Now Serving co-owner Ken Concepcion, left, at Food’s Festival of Books booth with Ari Kolender, chef of Found Oyster and Queens Raw Bar & Grill, with his new book “How to Cook the Finest Things in the Sea.”

(Laurie Ochoa / Los Angeles Times)

We loved talking with so many readers this past weekend at our Food x Now Serving booth at the L.A. Times Festival of Books. We’ll have more on the authors who appeared next week. Meanwhile, Stephanie Breijo wrote about the new initiative launched this week by cookbook store Now Serving to help those who lost their homes in the Eaton and Palisades fires rebuild their cookbook collections. You can help by either buying requested cookbooks or participating in a series of raffles to raise money to replace the books that burned.

Bread and chocolate

Bittersweet chocolate tartufo with olive oil gelato and olive oil-fried croutons by Nancy Silverton.

(Don Kelsen / Los Angeles Times)

Last week’s Cooking newsletter, which is sent out on Sundays — here’s a link if you don’t subscribe to the free newsletter — came from Food contributor Carolynn Carreño, who wrote about “the simple and decadent combination of bread and chocolate” and included four recipes from the Times archives: Nancy Silverton‘s Bittersweet Chocolate Tartufo With Olive Oil-Fried Croutons, Ray Garcia’s Chocolate and Banana Bread Pudding and Pinot Bistro‘s Chocolate Croissant Pudding and Emily Alben‘s Chocolate Gelt Babka With Hazelnut Amaretti Filling and Chocolate Espresso Glaze.

New restaurants and guides …

Issa Rae’s new Downtown Dough serves wood-fired pizzas along with pastas, wood-grilled steaks and more.

(Jakob N. Layman / Downtown Dough)

Also …

Finally …

Thanks to the sorely missed Carolina Miranda, who used to write this paper’s Essential Arts newsletter (plus many more essential stories), for sending me this essay from ArtReview by Chris Fite-Wassilak, which looks at “the art world’s strange relationship with food.”

“Food is art, great,” Fite-Wassilak writes. “So why does it need to be constantly reframed as something transgressive or new to art?”

When Mayor Karen Bass spoke about budget cuts during her State of the City address — before she even mentioned laying off city employees — she made clear that her own office would not be spared.

It seemed like a solidarity-building pledge — like a captain going down with the ship.

“We reduced funding for the mayor’s office,” she said in the April 21 speech.

This is my third week covering City Hall for The Times. It’s my first budget season (my colleague David Zahniser has been covering L.A. city budgets since I was 6), and it’s a doozy. The city is facing a $1-billion shortfall caused in large part by rising personnel costs, soaring legal payouts and a slowdown in the local economy.

When I heard the mayor’s words, I made a reasonable assumption — that the operating budget for her office would decrease from the year before.

I was incorrect.

When the mayor released her proposed budget later that day, I turned to the section for her office, only to find, to my confusion, that it had grown — from $10.1 million in fiscal year 2024-2025 to $10.7 million in 2025-2026. The office was also spared from having to lay off a single member of its 94-person team, even while Bass was proposing 1,650 layoffs elsewhere in city government.

So by what logic could the mayor’s office still have reduced its funding?

Zach Seidl, deputy mayor of communications, said the city administrative officer’s recalculation of the coming fiscal year’s budget actually showed a $1.2-million decrease. Employees in the mayor’s office are not getting regularly scheduled cost-of-living raises. The first, coming in June, would have been a 4% increase. The next, in December, would have been another 2% increase. And the final one in June 2026 would have been another 4%.

Seidl said that while the proposed budget for the mayor’s office is higher than last year, it is reduced from where it could have been if the raises had gone into effect. He called this a 10% cut to the office.

Some outside of the mayor’s office were less convinced by the what-goes-up-has-gone-down explanation.

Roy Samaan, an L.A. city planner and president of the Board of Governors of the Engineers and Architects Assn., said that when he heard the mayor say she would reduce funding for her own office, he thought it was only fair. The City Planning Department where he works saw its proposed operating budget slashed from nearly $72 million this fiscal year to just under $56.5 million next year.

“I thought in the spirit of shared sacrifice that [cutting the mayor’s office] made sense,” he said.

But he was frustrated when he looked at the numbers.

“I’m sure in the long run, through their budget calculations, they can show that an increase is actually a decrease. … But I know our members in the Planning Department and throughout the city that are slated to be eliminated have noticed the increase in the mayor’s office budget, and it strikes them as hypocritical, frankly.”

In the mayor’s proposed budget, the City Council’s operating budget went up, from $37.2 million to $39.3 million, while the council took a $4.7-million “one-time salary reduction.”

“The manner in which the elected offices manage their funding reductions is at their discretion,” said Matt Szabo, the city administrative officer.

Council President Marqueece Harris-Dawson said the council is exploring options to achieve budget reductions.

“All options are on the table. The whole city is being asked to sacrifice, this includes the council as well,” he said in a statement to The Times.

The City Council’s budget committee is holding several weeks of hearings, with the full council voting on the final budget by June 1.

Bass has said she would take a pay cut herself, answering “absolutely” when a constituent asked if she would do so.

“The mayor is also taking a personal cut to her paycheck,” Seidl confirmed to The Times. He did not specify the amount.

State of play

— DEBRIS-BE-GONE: The mayor said Friday that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has now cleared more than 1,000 properties of the debris left from the Palisades fire. “Our recovery effort is on track to be the fastest in modern California history,” she said. Nearly 650,000 tons of debris have been removed from the Palisades fire zone, and about 55 properties are being cleared per day, according to her office.

ANEMIC RECALL FUNDRAISING: The latest fundraising numbers are in, and the campaign to recall the mayor had a little less than $500,000 in hand at the end of March, after expenses. Nicole Shanahan put in $500,000 and conservative gubernatorial candidate Steve Hilton contributed $25,000. Meanwhile, Bass’ anti-recall committee collected $250,000 from the Bass-affiliated Sea Change PAC and $200,000 from former Assembly Speaker and Actum managing partner Fabian Núñez’s leftover campaign cash.

— STRIKE FORCE: Tens of thousands of Los Angeles County workers represented by Service Employees International Union Local 721 walked off the job this week at libraries, parks, health clinics and other government facilities. Union members want the county to fill vacant positions and say they’ve been insulted by the pay proposals offered by county negotiators. The 48-hour strike ended Wednesday.

— GIMME SHELTER: Animal rescue advocates have been up in arms over the mayor’s proposed budget for the Animal Services Department, voicing alarm at the potential for layoffs and shelter closures. As it turns out, the money to avoid those cuts was in the budget all along.

— POLICE PLANNING: Los Angeles Police Department Chief Jim McDonnell is contemplating an organizational overhaul of his department — and relying on the think tank RAND for guidance. But his efforts may be complicated by the mayor’s proposal to lay off 400 civilian staffers at the department, a move that could force police officers to take on desk jobs and other non-patrol duties.

— WORKING OVERTIME: The head of United Firefighters of Los Angeles City Local 112 earned about $540,000 in 2022, in part by racking up serious overtime hours at fire stations, according to a Times investigation. Union President Freddy Escobar collected $198,155 in overtime pay that year. Escobar did not respond to inquiries about his pay.

— YOUTH HOSTILE?: The mayor’s proposed budget calls for the elimination of the city’s Youth Development Department, with some of its duties folded into another agency. Councilmember Monica Rodriguez, who worked to create the agency and is also a frequent Bass critic, has been speaking out against the move.

— GONDOLA LEFT HANGING: A state appeals court threw a roadblock in front of the proposed Dodger Stadium gondola this week, overturning the project’s environmental impact report. The court said the document failed to properly address construction noise and the effects on nearby parkland. Backers of the project called those issues “minor, technical matters.”

— HALTING HATE SPEECH: The City Council held off on approving a prohibition on two epithets — one targeting Black people, the other disparaging women — after a closed-door meeting on the legal issues. The council then referred the proposal back to the rules committee for more deliberations. “This thing is very much alive. It’s getting stronger by the day,” said Council President Marqueece Harris-Dawson, who authored the proposed ban.

— LOSING CONTROL: State Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta is considering placing L.A. County’s juvenile halls in receivership, effectively removing them from the county’s control. The move comes after years of chaos inside those facilities, including a spate of overdoses inside the newly reopened Los Padrinos Juvenile Hall.

— RUNNING SMOOTHLY: Bass announced Friday that she had helped mediate a deadlock between the L.A. Marathon and the Oscars, which were slated to take place on the same day in 2026. The result would have been chaos and “logistical conflicts such as overlapping routes,” the mayor’s office said. The agreement allows both events to take place in March next year. The Oscars will take place March 15. The marathon has not announced its date yet.

— (UN)HIDDEN GUNS: City Controller Kenneth Mejia’s latest one-minute budget update got some extra attention on Instagram for his wardrobe choice: a sleeveless vest embroidered with the city seal and his name. Several commenters joked that Mejia’s “sleeves budget” had been cut, with the controller responding, “This budget deficit cutting everything” with a sobbing emoji. Another commenter wrote, “You are amazing and this is extremely helpful but wearing the city vest raw is wild.” Mejia clarified that he was not, in fact, wearing the vest “raw” but had “a muscle shirt (sleeveless) underneath.”

QUICK HITS

• Where is Inside Safe? The mayor’s signature program to address homelessness went to the area around 69th Street and Avalon Boulevard in South Los Angeles, which is represented by Councilmember Curren Price.
• On the docket for next week: The council’s budget committee continues drilling down on the mayor’s proposed budget on Monday, looking at the Animal Services Department, the Cultural Affairs Department and the Los Angeles Zoo, among others.

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.

IT’S the most wonderful time of the year, but for one woman, Christmas is a year-round celebration. 

From keeping her tree up all year to steadily stocking her festive food cupboard, this Christmas fan spends every week preparing for the big day.  

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Sharing a video on her TikTok page, ‘christmasdisneycrazylady,’ she revealed to her 175.8k followers the latest additions to her Christmas food stash. 

Explaining her approach, she said she shops throughout the year, buying a few items each week to spread the cost and ensure she’s ready by December.  

One of the items added to her cupboard this week was apple sauce, which she admits might be a bit unusual.

She explained that although it’s traditionally paired with pork, she loves having it with turkey on her Christmas dinner.

In fact, apple sauce is just one of her favourite condiments for the big meal, alongside cranberry and mint sauce. 

She added that Christmas is the only time of year she buys it, making it a must-have for her festive preparations.  

Next on her list was a large jar of chunky Branston pickle, another item she only purchases during the holiday season. 

She said it’s perfect for Boxing Day or Christmas Eve when enjoying picky bits and leftovers, making it a staple for her Christmas cupboard.  

Finally, she shared her love for foil roasting tins, which she described as a lifesaver on Christmas Day.

In less than 24hours, the TikToker’s video received 66.3 views with 209 people rushing to the comments section to share their thoughts. 

One wrote: “I buy gifts or it’s all the time to put away. 

“My daughter’s 30th birthday was sorted about six years ago and it’s not till next year, she’s still 28, I just remember.”

Another asked: “Do you have a budget or do you end up spending more doing this way I just always see something else.” 

To which the Christmas fan replied with: “I don’t have a budget but I don’t over spend either.” 

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In another video, the Christmas fan also revealed how she still has her Christmas tree up from last year. 

One of her followers jokingly said: “You never took it down.” 

To which she replied with a video of her cheersing with a Disney Christmas themed mug, and her tree behind her.

May 2 (UPI) — U.S. stocks ended the week on a high note after a good nonfarms report for April and a willingness by China to soften the trade war with the United States, easing recession concerns.

The Standard & Poor’s 500, Nasdaq Composite and the Dow Jones Industrial Average index also ended last week in positive territory.

The three indices are above the day after April 2 when President Donald Trump announced tariffs on Liberation Day. The markets closed before his announcement.

The S&P rose 82.53 points, or 1.47%, to close at 5,686.67, the index’s ninth consecutive day of increases, the longest since November 2004. The record high was 6,144.15 on Feb. 19 but dropped to 4,982.77 on April 8.

The DJIA climbed 564.47, or 1.39%, to close at 41,317.43. The index hit a record 45,014 on Dec. 4 but had dropped as low as 37,645.59 on April 8.

And tech-heavy Nasdaq increased 266.99, or 1.51%, to close at 17,977.73. The index went into a bear market on April 4 for the first time since 2022 and further dropped to 15,267.913 on April 8. The record high was 20,173.89 on Dec. 16.

All 11 sectors tracked by CNBC rose Friday, led by communications services at 2.3%, financials at 2.15% and materials at 1.66%. The smallest was consumer staples at 0.6%

The benchmark 10-year bonds’ yield rose to 4.308%. Gold was at $3,247.40 for an ounce, below the record $3,425.30 on April 27. And West Intermediate Crude Oil was at $58.38 a barrel, the lowest since January 2021.

In the morning, the Commerce Department announced payrolls grew by 177,000 in April. It was down from 228,000 in March but much better than feared after recession worries ramped up last month. The unemployment rate stood at 4.2%.”

“Markets breathed a sigh of relief this morning as the jobs data came in better than expected,” Chris Zaccarelli, chief investment officer at Northlight Asset Management, told CNBC. “While recession fears are still simmering on the back burner, the buy-the-dip dynamic can continue — at least until the tariff pause runs out.”

“U.S. employment remains strong despite tariff uncertainty,” David Russell, global head of market strategy at TradeStation, in remarks obtained by CNN. “These numbers show leaders have breathing room to avoid a recession if they’re able to resolve trade issues sooner rather than later.”

On Wednesday, the government announced the U.S. gross national product contracted at 0.3%, the worst quarter since 2022. A recession is defined as consecutive quarters of negative GDP.

Also, China said it is evaluating starting trade negotiations with the United States.

“If the U.S. wants to talk, it should show its sincerity and be prepared to correct its wrong practices and canceled the unilateral tariffs,” CNBC reported.

Senior U.S. officials reached out “through relevant parties multiple times, a spokesperson for China’s Commerce Ministry said in a statement Friday.

The United States has slapped a 145% tariffs on products coming from China. That nation retaliated with 125%. Later, the United States exempted electronic products with them instead 20%.

Also, Trump signed an executive order Wednesday exempting imported cars and parts from the lofty levies.

“Everything is on the table for the economic relationship,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said. “I am confident that the Chinese will want to reach a deal. And as I said, this is going to be a multistep process. First, we need to de-escalate, and then over time, we will start focusing on a larger trade deal.”

Trump has paused retaliatory tariffs announced on April 2 until July 9. They include America’s greatest allies: 26% against India, 25% against South Korea, 24% against Japan and 20% against the 27 members of the European Union.

It’s also 46% against Vietnam and 49% against Cambodia.

The baseline 10% tariffs remain against most of the U.S. trading partners.

Hey everyone, this is Dan Woike and welcome to the Lakers newsletter, the one place on the internet where I can, proudly, share with you readers that Flava Flav and Shane McMahon witnessed the Lakers get eliminated from ownership’s seats near courtside. Are they to blame? Of course not.

But with the sting from the season ending so fresh, why not throw a stray into the second row. Everyone else is seemingly catching one.

So why do I think the Lakers lost? Well, thanks for asking.

The blame game

Let’s establish some things off the bat. Minnesota is good, and this season the Timberwolves were statistically better than the Lakers on both sides of the ball. Hindsight makes that seem obvious, but I think we (and I include myself) were a little too tantalized by what the Lakers were able to do in some big moments this season while ignoring some of the deficiencies they were able to mask with effort and intensity.

Cool, so that’s out of the way. So why did they lose? They needed to address these problems:

OFFENSE!

After Luka Doncic debuted for the Lakers in February, the team failed to score at least 105 points only three times (one of those games, LeBron James got hurt and another he didn’t play).

They cleared that bar just once in their abbreviated postseason, in Game 4 in Minnesota, and they needed 19 threes to get 113 points.

The Lakers struggled all season to hit shots against Minnesota and were extra bad in the playoffs, held below 100 points three times, all at home.

One of the big reasons the Lakers decided to play small in the series was to create more spacing and scoring, and the Lakers didn’t make enough shots or create enough consistent advantages to keep Minnesota in rotations.

It’s simplistic, but experiencing these games in person, it just looked a lot easier for Minnesota to score than it did for the Lakers. Credit the Timberwolves’ defense for a lot of it, but the Lakers were just too easily disconnected from one another on the offensive end.

Coaching and roster

These two are totally combined, with JJ Redick saying Friday that his philosophy as a coach is maxing out the capability of the talent on the roster in the style that best suits the players.

And it became super-duper obvious as the Lakers prepared for the playoffs that they thought they were best suited by playing small.

Playing small certainly affected their energy levels — players will tell you that it’s the most tiring way to play. And it became clear that the Lakers weren’t comfortable playing Jaxson Hayes in any meaningful way in this series.

Another capable big man would’ve helped the Lakers close out possessions, which would’ve helped them get out in transition more, which conceivably would’ve helped the offensive production.

Even if the Lakers didn’t want to play Hayes, they probably should’ve realized that they more or less had to. And in talking with other coaches around the league, that would’ve meant leaning in more than the quick shifts he was getting in the first and third quarters.

The Lakers’ roster was too dependent on specialists, leaving the team without the kind of versatility that Minnesota was able to use. You need two-way players in the playoffs. The Lakers didn’t have anywhere close to enough of them.

And yeah, 24 straight minutes is too much.

Stars

This one is easy: The Lakers’ best players weren’t good enough. Doncic was great offensively in Games 1 and 2, but James still was working through the hip injury he suffered at the end of the season. James worked himself into the series in Game 3, but Doncic was stricken with a virus. In Game 4 as James and Doncic recovered, Austin Reaves never got on track as he looked not physically there on the offensive end, particularly off the dribble. And in Game 5, Doncic injured his back, James knocked knees and Reaves struggled with his outside shot and ability to create separation off drives.

None of these are credible excuses. All three of the Lakers’ best offensive players were well enough to play. All three could’ve impacted the series in key moments the way Anthony Edwards and Julius Randle did. And all three didn’t, the Lakers badly losing the fourth-quarter moments those three were expected to control.

Scheduling update

Thanks so much to everyone for following along this season here, at latimes.com and on social media. It was a wild season. I’m going to take a few weeks off from the newsletter before checking back in periodically through the offseason and whenever news breaks.

Song of the week

“Hang With Me” by Robyn

Thanks for the hang. See you soon.

In case you missed it

Lakers’ season comes to a disappointing end with first-round loss to Timberwolves

Plashcke: Lakers’ season ends in humiliation … and hope

LeBron James’ future: What’s next for the Lakers star?

What will the Lakers roster look like following another first-round playoff exit?

‘Kobe is L.A.’ Luka Doncic donates $5,000 to restore vandalized Kobe and Gianna Bryant mural

‘We just gotta still believe.’ Lakers focus on snapping fourth-quarter skids

LeBron and Lakers falter late in loss to Minnesota, moving to brink of elimination

Hernández: With their season in danger of ending, Lakers are running out of answers

With Luka Doncic ailing, LeBron James’ historic night can’t save Lakers in Game 3 loss

Hernández: Can the Lakers overcome their biggest vulnerability exposed during their Game 3 loss?

‘Be a banshee’: How the Lakers cultivated a winning spirit

WASHINGTON — President Trump on Thursday signed an executive order aiming to slash public subsidies to PBS and NPR as he alleged “bias” in the broadcasters’ reporting.

The order instructs the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and other federal agencies “to cease Federal funding for NPR and PBS” and further requires that that they work to root out indirect sources of public financing for the news organizations. The White House, in a social media posting announcing the signing, said the outlets “receive millions from taxpayers to spread radical, woke propaganda disguised as ‘news.’”

The broadcasters get roughly half a billion dollars in public money through the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, and have been preparing for the possibility of stiff cuts since Trump’s election, as Republicans have long complained about them.

Paula Kerger, PBS’ CEO and president, said in a statement last month that the Trump administration’s effort to rescind funding for public media would “disrupt the essential service PBS and local member stations provide to the American people.”

“There’s nothing more American than PBS, and our work is only possible because of the bipartisan support we have always received from Congress,” she said. “This public-private partnership allows us to help prepare millions of children for success in school and in life and also supports enriching and inspiring programs of the highest quality.”

The Corporation for Public Broadcasting sued Trump this week over his move to fire three members of its five-person board, contending that the president was exceeding his authority and that the move would deprive the board of a quorum needed to conduct business.

Just two weeks ago, the White House said it would be asking Congress to rescind funding for the CPB as part of a $9.1-billion package of cuts. That package, however, which budget director Russell Vought said would likely be the first of several, has not yet been sent to Capitol Hill.

AP congressional correspondent Lisa Mascaro contributed to this report.