One woman was killed and another was wounded after a shooting in Wilmington on Thursday night.
The shooting occurred around 8:50 p.m. on West D Street, according to the Los Angeles Police Department.
A woman was shot in the back and transported to a local hospital in critical condition where she later died, said Officer Sal Ramirez.
The second woman was shot in the arm and is in unknown condition.
Three people are in critical condition after a shooting in South Los Angeles Thursday night, according to the Los Angeles Police Department.
The shooting occurred in the 1700 block of Western 84th Street around 10 p.m.
A man approached a vehicle and fired inside before fleeing the scene in an unknown car, police said.
One victim was shot in the stomach and was transported to a local hospital. Another victim was transported to Harbor-UCLA Medical Center and the third victim was transported to California Harbor Hospital, police added.
Actor Richard Anderson, who was best known for his roles in the 1970s television shows “The Six Million Dollar Man” and “The Bionic Woman,” died Thursday.
Anderson, who was 91, died of natural causes, a family spokesman told the Associated Press.
The 6-foot-4-inch New Jersey native played Oscar Goldman in “The Six Million Dollar Man,” the boss at a secret government spy agency. His co-star, Lee Majors, played a U.S. astronaut who gains supernatural powers thanks to the government rebuilding his body after a bad crash.
Notably, Anderson simultaneously starred in “The Bionic Woman,” a spinoff in which the same spy agency also gives actor Lindsay Wagner powers after her character nearly dies in a skydiving accident.
While frequently appearing on television shows such as “Perry Mason” and “The Fugitive,” Anderson also had roles in movies such as “Paths of Glory,” “The Long Hot Summer,” “Compulsion” and others.
Anderson married and divorced twice; he had three daughters with his first wife, Katharine Thalberg.
A day after he was released from the custody of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Romulo Avelica-Gonzalez — the local father who spent six months in detention after being arrested outside his daughter's Lincoln Heights school — appeared outside the L.A. County Sheriff's Department's Temple Street headquarters on Thursday to speak in support of a bill that would designate California as a "sanctuary state."
Kareen Wynter reports for the KTLA 5 News at 3 on Aug. 31, 2017.
People blocked from entering the United States under President Donald Trump’s first travel ban can now reapply for visas to enter the US, according to a settlement reached in the case that temporarily blocked the travel ban back in January.
In the brief period after the first travel ban went into effect on January 27, a number of people with valid visas were denied entry into the US and put on planes back to where they came from. Two of those people, Iraqi nationals Hameed Khalid Darweesh and Haider Sameer Abdulkhaleq Alshawi, filed suit after being detained at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York.
Less than 24 hours after Trump signed the executive order, “Protecting the Nation from Foreign Terrorist Entry into the United States,” a federal judge ruled in the their case, Darweesh et al. vs Trump, that the travel ban was unconstitutional. Because the case was filed as a class action lawsuit, the ruling temporarily blocked the travel ban from being implemented nationwide.
The Supreme Court in June allowed parts of Trump’s second travel ban executive order to go into effect and will hear oral arguments on the case in October.
According to the settlement in the first travel ban case, all of those people who were denied entry but had proper documentation can now reapply for visas to enter the US.
“Although the government dragged its feet for far too long, it has finally agreed to do the right thing and provide those excluded under the first Muslim ban with proper notice of their right to come to the United States,” Lee Gelernt, ACLU’s deputy director for the Immigration Rights Project, said in a press release.
The government plans to send letters to notify those who were denied entry under the first travel ban that they are now eligible to reapply for a visa — using the most current information from their visa applications. The letters will include a list of free legal service providers who can help the applicants reapply, and they will be written in English, Farsi and Arabic, according to the settlement.
While the government has not provided a list of the people who will receive the letter, the settlement states that those who “provided contact information in visa applications” and “applied for admission at a port of entry in the United States, were found inadmissible solely as a result of the Executive Order, withdrew their applications for admission, and since their withdrawal have neither entered the US nor sought a visa for future travel to the US” will receive letters.
About 2,000 people were detained during the almost 24-hour time period from when the first travel ban went into effect to when the temporary stay blocked the travel ban from being implemented. Roughly 140 people were denied entry and sent back to their country of origin in that time period, according to Gelernt, based on documents the ACLU obtained from a Freedom of Information Act request.
The Department of Justice will designate a liaison to review these applications for three months after the letters have been sent out, according to the settlement.
There is no guarantee that individuals who reapply will be given visas if they are found ineligible through the normal visa process, according to the settlement. The plaintiffs, Darweesh and Alshawi, agreed to drop any claims they had against the government in the settlement.
No monetary compensation was awarded to either plaintiff.
“It means a lot to me to be in America,” Darweesh said in a press release. “The United States is a great country because of its people. I’m glad that the lawsuit is over. Me and my family are safe. My kids go to school. We can now live a normal life. I suffered back home, but I have my rights now. I’m a human.”
More than 60,000 people are set to be evacuated from the center of Frankfurt on Sunday after a massive World War II bomb was discovered beneath the German city.
The bomb was found during work Tuesday on a construction site on Wismarer Street close to the Goethe University Frankfurt compound, according to a statement by Frankfurt police.
Police said the size of the bomb made extensive evacuation measures necessary.
The device is a British bomb, specifically a 1.4-ton HC 4000 air mine, the statement said, and is under guard by police. There is no danger to the public, police said, but they will be evacuating the area as a precaution while they defuse the bomb.
The evacuation will take place at 8 a.m. local time on Sunday, authorities said.
The operation to defuse the bomb is expected to begin at midday and to take approximately four hours.
World War II may have ended over 70 years ago, but its legacy still lingers in cities across Germany.
In May, more than 50,000 people were asked to leave Hanover after a bomb was discovered during pre-construction work on a site in the Vahrenwald district.
On Christmas Day 2016, another 50,000 were evacuated from Augsburg in south Germany after a 1.8-ton bomb was found beneath an underground parking garage.
Even the coast in Newport Beach was hot on Thursday morning, when one local resident described conditions as "sultry." Mark Mester reports for the KTLA Morning News on Aug. 31, 2017.
A Los Angeles police officer and three others were injured after a house caught fire in Wilmington on Thursday, according to the Los Angeles Fire Department.
The fire began around 5:44 p.m. at a two-story home in the 700 block of North Hawaiian Avenue with heavy smoke being seen from the second floor.
Firefighters arrived at the scene a short time later and rescued four people from the burning building, authorities said.
A 15-year-old boy and 12-year-old girl were transported to a local hospital in critical condition. The LAPD officer is listed in fair condition, the Department added.
The condition of the fourth victim is unknown.
Check back for updates on this developing story.
Fans of Porto’s Bakery, the locally celebrated Cuban eatery, will no longer have to trek to the San Fernando Valley or South Los Angeles to feast on some of their favorite delicacies.
Betty Porto, center, is one of three siblings who run Porto’s Bakery & Cafe, the family business founded by their Cuban emigre parents. (Credit: Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)
The legendary café will be operating a pop-up location in Century City from Sept. 9 until March 4 as part of “Cuba Is,” an exhibition examining the communist nation put on by the Annenberg Space for Photography.
The Doña Dulce Cafe will open next to the installation at 2000 Avenue of the Stars and offer a selection of Porto’s famous desserts, including milk’n berries, cappuccino mousse and mango mousse.
The bakery will also supply two specialty desserts tied into the event’s theme: the “Taste of Cuba,” with one guava-cheese pastry and two cheese pastries, and “Havana Kiss,” with three flavors of besito cookies and coconut glaze.
The limited menu will, unfortunately, not include savory items such as potato balls and empañadas.
The pop-up café wouldn’t be complete without strong, Cuban coffee. Beans from Café La Llave, a roaster that traces its roots back to Cuba and is owned by Vernon-based F. Gaviña & Sons, will be used to whip up traditional Cuban favorites including the café cubano, cortadito and café con leche.
The Doña Dulce Cafe will operate Wednesday through Sunday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., at the Annenberg Space for Photography, 2000 Avenue of the Stars in Century City, beginning Sept. 9.
The “Cuba Is” exhibition will open at the same time and place, featuring more than 120 photos that seek to explore the realities of life in the isolated island nation. Admission is free.
UC Berkeley isn’t the only California academic institution bracing for a torrent of controversy when former Breitbart editor Milo Yiannopoulos comes to campus this fall.
Cal State Fullerton’s chapter of the College Republicans is finalizing plans to host the conservative lightning rod at a Halloween speaking engagement.
“At this point, it’s pretty much a done deal. We’re just formalizing it,” said senior Christopher Boyle, the group’s president emeritus.
“It’s really just the fine details — things like how the room will be set up — that’s holding it back,” he said.
Read the full story on LATimes.com.
Police are looking for a man who attacked a deputy district attorney while she was jogging in Newport Beach early Thursday.
Newport Beach police received a call at 5:50 a.m. from an employee at Newport Workout, at 747 Dover Drive, who reported that a female jogger came into the business saying she had been attacked.
The woman had a cut on her head and was taken to a trauma center for treatment, according to Newport Beach police spokeswoman Jennifer Manzella.
Police do not suspect the man was trying to sexually assault or rob the woman, Manzella said. It is not clear what his motivation might have been.
Read the full story on LATimes.com.
Hail and rain fell in multiple areas of Southern California Thursday afternoon, adding a wild edge to an oppressive and continuing heat wave.
Beginning about 3 p.m., severe thunderstorm warnings were issued in multiple area of the Inland Empire, including Lake Elsinore, Wildomar, Riverside, Fontana, Rialto and Moreno Valley.
A flash-flood warning was in effect through 7 p.m.
KTLA viewers sent the station video of hail and rain pounding their neighborhoods. In Wildomar, a fierce storm knocked a patio chair into Bernardo Flores’s sliding glass door, he said. He captured video of an intense downfall of hail.
The temperature dropped from 108 degrees to 69 degrees when the storm went through Wildomar, the National Weather Service’s San Diego office said.
Heavy rain was also reported in the Santa Clarita Valley and along the Grapevine, the weather service’s Oxnard office said.
Burbank, meanwhile, hit 108 degrees, breaking a 2007 106-degree record for the date.
A daycare center was evacuated and 10 cars were damaged at the College of the Canyons in Santa Clarita after 4-acre brush fire began burning near campus.
The blaze began around 3 p.m. near West Valencia Boulevard and North Tourney Road, according to the Los Angeles County Fire Department.
No structures were threatened from the fire but the daycare center at the College of the Canyons was evacuated and relocated within the college, fire authorities said.
Evening classes have not been cancelled, according to a tweet from the College of Canyons.
Valencia Boulevard is currently closed and expected to reopen around 6 p.m., college officials added.
The suspect in the vicious assault of a San Pedro 15-year-old boy in was arrested on Thursday after serving time on unrelated charges, officials said.
Evan Jimenez is seen in photos posted on a GoFundMe on April 1, 2017.
Jaymel Williams, 20, was arrested in Long Beach just after 10 a.m. in connection with the beating of Evan Jimenez, who was attacked in an alley while walking home from a friend’s house, according to Sgt. Ricky Osburn with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.
Sheriff’s officials identified Williams as a suspect in May, but the Long Beach resident had been in custody in San Bernardino until “a week or two ago,” Osburn said.
Deputies learned of his whereabouts Thursday morning and promptly took him into custody, he added. Osburn did not specify what charges Williams was arrested on suspicion of.
Detectives had been monitoring Williams following the March 30 attack, first identifying him as a person of interest after speaking with bystanders who witnessed the incident.
Friends say Jimenez was hit over the head and in the face with a glass bottle, stepped on and “beaten beyond recognition” and left unconscious. Some officials believe it was an act of gang initiation.
Jimenez was found by a good Samaritan who took him to the hospital, where he spent weeks in the intensive care unit before beginning physical therapy.
“He’s having to really learn to walk and remember things,” his aunt, Cortney Steinhoff, told KTLA in April. “He’s really confused. He doesn’t really know what’s going on, what’s happened.”
Parts of Southern California such as Rancho Cucamonga saw rain followed by triple-digit temperatures on Wednesday through Thursday, with some areas experiencing lightning strikes and thunder.
Erin Myers reports for the KTLA 5 News at 1 on August 31, 2017.
Crystal Izarraraz is seen in photos released by San Fernando police.
Crystal Izarraraz has been described by police as a “high risk” missing child who is diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, according to a press release from the San Fernando Police Department.
She is described by police as Hispanic/white with light brown eyes and light brown hair. She is 5 feet 3 inches and weighs about 135 pounds, police said.
Anyone who has seen Izarraraz or has information about her whereabouts is urged to call Detective Diaz with the San Fernando Police Department at 818-348-5800 or by email at EDiaz@sfcity.org. Information can also be forwarded to 747-206-3071 or 818-799-8289.
Aric Harding returned to his flooded home in Friendswood, south of Houston, to pick up some stuffed animals and toys to comfort his seven children who were taking shelter at a nearby house.
One of his sons is an avid piano player and was concerned the family’s piano would be destroyed by flood water. When Harding found the water hadn’t covered the piano, he sat down and began to play.
“I decided to take a moment and play and take it all in,” he told CNN on Thursday.
He posted the video of the moment on Instagram with the caption,”I think it’s all finally sinking in a little. What we used to have going as a city is gone. I really think God is going to do something completely new here. I am excited to see the new beauty in the suffering.”
Harding, whose children range in age from 5 to 13, says he’s been heartened by the response.
“One person, who I don’t even know, offered to send us a new piano,” he said.
On Thursday, Harding and his neighbors were beginning the clean up operation on his street.
“All of the eight houses on my street were flooded,” he said.
“The kids are with their grandparents and we are all working together as a community on the cleanup,” he said.
Two Bakersfield police officers were shot and a suspect was killed late Wednesday when the officers responded to a report of a man with gun, authorities said.
Authorities received the call about 9:18 p.m. from a home in the 600 block of Pacheco Road, according to Sgt. Ryan Kroeker, spokesman for the Bakersfield Police Department. “Sounds of a disturbance” could be heard in the background, he said in a statement.
About 14 minutes later, the officers arrived and reported that they had contacted the suspect, the sergeant said.
“A short time later, officers reported that an officer-involved shooting had occurred, and the suspect and officers had been struck by gunfire,” Kroeker said.
Read the full story on LATimes.com.
A Georgia police officer was recorded telling a woman “You’re not black. Remember, we only kill black people,” during a DUI traffic stop last year.
The incident occurred on July of 2016, but Cobb County Police Chief Mike Register was notified of the dashboard video late last week, according to the department. The video surfaced after WSB, a television station in Atlanta, submitted an open-records request.
WSB reports that the department is going to fire the officer in the video, identified as Lt. Greg Abbott. He has already been placed on administrative leave as the department investigates.
During the caught-on-camera exchange, Abbott informs the woman that she’s going to jail, and tells her to call the person coming to pick her up to let that person know.
The woman says she didn’t want to reach down for her phone for fear of being shot, adding, “I’ve just seen way too many videos of cops … ”
“But you’re not black,” Abbott says, interrupting her. “Remember, we only kill black people. Yeah, we only kill black people, right? All the videos you’ve seen, have you only seen black people get killed? You have.”
Police Chief Register said in a statement, “No matter what the context, statements like these are unacceptable and are not indicative of the type of culture we are trying to facilitate here in the police department, as well as within the county,”
The driver’s attorney, Suri Chadha Jimenez, told the Washington Post he was shocked by the video, saying it made him cringe. “I had to replay it. I thought, ‘There’s no way.'”
Chadha said he thought the officer might have been being sarcastic after the passenger talked back to him, saying, “He thought it was a joke, but it’s not a joke to many people.”
“I have seen the video and obviously have great concerns,” said Cobb County Chairman Mike Boyce in a statement to Atlanta television station WGCL. “I find the comments on the video repugnant and offensive beyond measure. I have personally spoken with Mrs. Deane Bonner of the Cobb NAACP and Ben Williams, chairman of the Cobb chapter of the SCLC and expressed my deep disappointment about this behavior. I have been assured that we will take quick and decisive action.”
President Donald Trump will donate $1 million of his fortune to recovery efforts in Texas, though the White House says he hasn’t determined which group or groups will receive the donation.
President Donald Trump gives a thumbs up as he walks with first lady Melania Trump prior to their Marine One departure for Texas from the White House Aug. 29, 2017. (Credit: Alex Wong/Getty Images)
“He would like to join in the efforts that a lot of people we have seen across the country do,” press secretary Sarah Sanders told reporters at the White House, saying the funds would come from the President’s “personal money.”
She said the President hadn’t determined which organization to support.
“He actually asked that I check with the folks in this room since you are very good at research and have been doing a lot of reporting into the groups and organizations that are best and most effective in helping and providing aid, and he’d like some suggestions from the folks here and I’d be happy to take those,” she said during the daily press briefing.
On Tuesday, the President’s campaign asked supporters to donate to charities involved in the Texas recovery effort. Sanders couldn’t say on Tuesday afternoon or Wednesday whether the President had yet donated funds himself, saying only that he was looking into it.
Asked Thursday whether the donation would come from Trump’s own fortune or from the coffers of the Trump Organization, Sanders indicated she wasn’t sure legally where the donation would originate, but that it would be the President’s personal money.
The U.S. government is taking Estée Lauder to court over its family leave policy for new fathers.
A father lures his child along with an iPhone during warmups before babies race in the NYC Triathlon’s annual Diaper Derby, July 14, 2017, in New York City. (Credit: Dominick Reuter / AFP / Getty Images)
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission filed a lawsuit against the cosmetics company on Wednesday, claiming that a policy that effectively gives new mothers six weeks off to bond with a newborn baby, while giving fathers only two weeks off, is discriminatory against men.
“It is wonderful when employers provide paid parental leave and flexible work arrangements, but federal law requires equal pay, including benefits, for equal work, and that applies to men as well as women,” Mindy Weinstein, the acting director of the EEOC’s Washington field office, said in a statement.
Estée Lauder launched its family leave program in 2013, according to the suit. It includes benefits for new mothers and fathers in addition to the disability leave it already offered to new mothers to recover from childbirth.
The company said it cannot comment on pending litigation.
If the case succeeds, the limited number of U.S. businesses with paid parental leave policies could have to make some changes, said Kristen Smith, a lawyer at Bond Schoeneck & King who represents employers.
“This has been brewing for awhile,” Smith said. “There’s a trend in the past five years where high-profile companies are enhancing their parental leave policies, and there’s been a lot of debate under the law about to what extent the policies need to be gender neutral.”
Paid family leave is not currently mandated by federal law. The only states that offer it are California, Rhode Island and New Jersey, though New York will implement it in January.
That means just 17% of employers offered paid parental leave in 2016, according to a study conducted by the Society for Human Resource Management.
At those companies, female employees received 41 days of paid maternity leave on average, while male employees received 22 days of paid paternity leave, according to SHRM data.
The EEOC says Estée Lauder’s setup is in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex, and the Equal Pay Act of 1963, which bars sex-based discrimination between men and women working at the same firm under comparable circumstances.
Under this legislation, employers should approach child-related leave with two distinct categories in mind, according to an EEOC spokeswoman. There’s medical leave related to the physical process of giving birth, and there’s separate leave that’s granted so new parents can bond with and care for their infant.
“Leave related to pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions can be limited to women affected by those conditions. However, parental leave must be provided to similarly situated men and women on the same terms,” the agency spokeswoman said.
The argument: If companies are going to offer paid parental leave, news moms and dads must get the same deal.
“The grounds are pretty simple,” said Barbara Zack Quindel, a labor attorney based in Milwaukee who advocates on behalf of employees. “Both Title VII and the Equal Pay Act say you can’t treat men and women differently when it comes to compensation.”
But in putting up a legal challenge against Estée Lauder, the EEOC is also taking a risk, Smith said, noting that some employers could decide that offering paid parental leave could slow down business.
“There’s a hesitation by some employers to just make it a blanket six weeks [or] twelve weeks for all employees,” she said. “There’s worries about attendance.”
The EEOC, which said in its press release that “addressing sex-based pay discrimination, including in benefits such as paid leave, is a priority” for the commission, told CNNMoney that it believes this is the first time it has taken up a case on parental leave.
It had initially tried to settle the case with Estée Lauder out of court, the agency said.
Gas prices spiked overnight and are up 10 cents a gallon since Hurricane Harvey struck Texas.
The national average price for a gallon of regular jumped nearly 5 cents to $2.45 a gallon on Thursday, according to AAA. And price spikes are even more severe in the Southeast — up 17 cents in Georgia for the week and up 20 cents in South Carolina.
Gas futures shot up more than 10% Thursday, suggesting that prices will keep climbing.
An oil refinery is seen on Aug. 25, 2017, in Corpus Christi, Texas just before getting hit by Harvey. (Credit: Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
“There’s a worry now that most of the Texas refineries could be compromised for weeks rather than days” said Tom Kloza, chief oil analyst for the Oil Price Information Service, which tracks prices for AAA. He expects prices to climb by at least another 5 cents a gallon in the coming days, and that the national average could get as high as $2.75 a gallon in a worst case scenario.
The Trump administration tapped into the emergency Strategic Petroleum Reserve Thursday in response to the major refinery outages on the U.S. Gulf Coast caused by Hurricane Harvey.
Nearly 30% of the nation’s refining capacity along the Gulf Coast has been shut or reduced operations due to flood waters associated with the storm. Motiva’s massive Port Arthur refinery, the largest in the U.S., shut down on Wednesday due to “increasing local flood conditions,” while Valero also closed its Port Arthur refinery on Wednesday.
Related: Harvey shuts down major fuel pipeline supplying East Coast
Earlier in the week ExxonMobil’s Baytown Texas refinery, which is the second-largest in the country, was shut down due to roof damage caused by heavy rain.
The refinery shutdowns caused the Colonial Pipeline to shut part of its operation from the Texas Gulf Coast because it doesn’t have enough product to move through the pipeline. The pipeline is key to moving gasoline, jet fuel and other refined products to points along the East Coast from Florida to New Jersey. While part of the pipeline was still operating, “we don’t know how much its carrying,” Kloza said. “I’m sure it’s less than maximum.”
A break in the same pipeline in September 2016 caused gasoline shortages and prices to spike about 20 cents a gallon in Alabama, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia.
The question now is how long it takes the closed refineries to get back online. Kloza said it took about six weeks for the system to get back to normal after Katrina.
The Department of Homeland Security will announce Thursday which vendors have been selected to build some protoypes for President Donald Trump’s promised US-Mexico border wall, a step forward for the project after months of delays.
The announcement comes after the Government Accountability Office on Friday dismissed a protest filed on the contract awards that had delayed the projects, wrapping early a process that could have pushed the delay into November. DHS had originally targeted June for the beginning of construction, but the process had dragged further into the summer as the contracts were decided.
Customs and Border Protection will announce the top designs for a concrete wall that will be built along the San Diego border at 1 p.m. PT. There were two requests for proposals: a 30-foot high concrete wall design and then any other alternatives. The latter will be announced at a later date, CBP said.
People look at the border through the border fence at the Border Field Park in Playas de Tijuana in Tijuana on Aug. 22, 2017. (Credit: Guillermo Arias / AFP / Getty Images)
CBP has said it anticipates building four to eight prototypes.
In late July, CBP’s legislative affairs office sent out a memo, obtained by CNN, that two companies that were not selected to be finalists — who then were asked to submit more detailed proposals — filed a total of four protests of the process. While two of the protests, from WNIS, were dismissed, two from Penna Group were put under review by GAO.
On Friday, in an announcement of the dismissal of the protest, CBP did note that once contracts are awarded, companies will have another opportunity to protest, which could add further delays. Nevertheless, CBP said “we are confident in our processes, and we will proceed deliberately, to ensure compliance with the law.”
The prototypes will “help us create a ‘design standard’ for operational walls,” CBP said. “The new designs would be added to our menu of existing designs, and allow us to tailor a specific wall design to the unique demands of individual areas of the border.”
The money for the process came from $20 million that Congress authorized the Department of Homeland Security to pull from other places in the budget earlier this year. Congress has not yet authorized any further money to actually build new miles of wall, though Trump has issued a threat to shut down the government if they don’t do so this year.
The U.S. announced Thursday it will shutter the Russian consulate in San Francisco, as well as annexes in Washington and New York, in response to mandated staff cuts at the U.S. mission in Russia.
The move comes one day before Moscow’s deadline for U.S. personnel to leave their positions and will take effect Saturday.
“The United States has fully implemented the decision by the Government of the Russian Federation to reduce the size of our mission in Russia,” State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said in a statement announcing the decision. “We believe this action was unwarranted and detrimental to the overall relationship between our countries.”
A view of the Russian consulate in San Francisco on Aug. 31, 2017, the same day of its closure. (Credit: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
“In the spirit of parity invoked by the Russians,” she continued, “we are requiring the Russian government to close its Consulate General in San Francisco, a chancery annex in Washington, DC, and a consular annex in New York City.”
Nauert also noted the United States was allowing Russia to maintain additional annexes “in an effort to arrest the downward spiral in our relationship,” but was “prepared to take further action as necessary and as warranted.”
The Russian Foreign Ministry acknowledged the move in a statement on their website, saying Tillerson spoke directly with Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov in a phone call, and that Lavrov “expressed regret at the escalation of tension in bilateral relations, which was not initiated by (Russia), and indicated that Moscow will carefully study the new measures announced by the Americans, after which we will inform them of our reaction.”
Back in Washington, a senior administration official told reporters on a conference call that the United States would not be expelling any Russian personnel through this action, and that the Russian government could reassign its staff to other consulates or annexes. The two affected annexes, the official said, housed Russian trade missions.
Despite the order, the official insisted the administration’s goal “is really to find a way to get to better relations between our two countries.”
The move is the latest in a series of escalating diplomatic penalties between the United States and Russia that began in the aftermath of last year’s U.S. presidential election.
In July, the Russian Foreign Ministry ordered the United States cut its diplomatic staff in Russia by nearly half and announced it would seize two U.S. diplomatic properties in response to expanded sanctions passed by Congress.
The senior administration official who briefed reporters Thursday confirmed that the United States has fully complied with Russia’s staff reduction order, and that visa processing — which was temporarily halted after the initial announcement — will resume shortly at a “much-reduced rate.”
In late 2016, former President Barack Obama ordered the expulsion of 35 Russian diplomats, and the seizure of two Russian government compounds in response to alleged Russian meddling in the U.S. presidential election. At the time, the Kremlin announced it would not retaliate immediately, but rather, consider further action “based on the policies of the Trump administration.”
Maybe putting Harriet Tubman on the new $20 bill isn’t a done deal after all.
An artist’s rendering shows what a $20 bill could look like with Harriet Tubman on it. (Credit: WGN)
Back in in April 2016, Obama Treasury Secretary Jack Lew, said that the black abolitionist hero would appear on a new version of the bill. It would be the first time a woman has appeared on U.S. paper currency in over 100 years — and the first time ever for a black woman.
In a CNBC interview that aired Thursday, however, current Treasury leader Steven Mnuchin was asked whether he supports putting Tubman on the $20 bill.
He responded, “Ultimately we will be looking at this issue, [but] It’s not something that I’m focused on at the moment.”
Mnuchin added that his primary concern regarding paper currency is to bolster its anti-counterfeiting features.
“That’s what I’m focused on at the moment,” Mnuchin said.
Lew had worked alongside then-Treasurer Rosie Rios for more than a year on plans to reinvent the U.S. banknote to incorporate a woman’s portrait.
Initially, the focus was solely on the $10 bill, since it was the next denomination slated for a security update.
But after plans to boot Alexander Hamilton off the $10 bill sparked backlash, Treasury came up with a plan to eventually redesign three different notes in order to incorporate women:
— The $10 bill would keep Hamilton on the front, and the back would have a montage of women involved in the American suffrage movement — including Lucretia Mott, Sojourner Truth, Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Alice Paul.
— The $20 bill would replace Andrew Jackson with Tubman. That move elicited cheers from activists who wanted Jackson, who has been criticized for his role in displacing Native Americans in the 1800s, off the $20.
— The $5 bill will keep Abraham Lincoln, the 16th president, on the front. The back of the bill will depict the Lincoln Memorial along with portraits of individuals involved in historic events that took place there — including Marian Anderson and Eleanor Roosevelt.
Mnuchin was only asked directly about plans for the $20 bill. Treasury declined to comment.
Trump: Tubman on the $20 bill is ‘pure political correctness’
Mnuchin’s boss, President Trump, said he disagrees with Lew’s decision during the presidential campaign last year.
Trump said in April 2016 that he thinks Tubman is “fantastic,” but that Jackson “had a great history” and removing him would be “pure political correctness.”
He doubled down on his admiration for Jackson in an eyebrow-raising interview with SiriusXM last May. Trump claimed Jackson, a slave owner, could have prevented the Civil War — even though Jackson died 16 years before it started.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday.
The U.S. Bureau of Engraving and Printing, which is part of Treasury, is in charge of the banknote redesign. The bureau has “not received any instructions to change our present course,” spokesperson Lydia Washington told CNNMoney on Thursday.
“We’re still following previous guidance,” Washington said, referring to Lew’s instructions. “But that does not mean that things can’t change.”
She said it’s still “very early” in the redesign process. And, like Mnuchin, she emphasized that redesign efforts are centered around security concerns.
Across the state, families are searching tirelessly for missing relatives six days after Harvey first pummeled the Texas coast.
The Coast Guard has rescued more than 6,000 people, and Houston police and firefighters have rescued several thousand more.
But at least 37 Texans have died from Harvey's wrath.
Among the dead is a Houston man who was electrocuted while walking in floodwaters. Andrew Pasek was walking through 4 feet of water trying to get to his sister's house when he accidentally stepped on a live electrical wire.
"He felt the charge and knew something was wrong right away and tried to shake it off right away," said his mother, Jodell.
The 25-year-old quickly asked a friend to get away from him "because if you do, you know, you will go too," he told his friend.
His mother said no one tried to resuscitate him for an hour until the electricity was turned off.
"It could have been anybody," she said.
Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo said Wednesday he believes the death toll will rise.
"We just pray that the body count ... won't rise significantly." Acevedo said.
But Houston received a bit of good news Thursday. The pool level at Barker Reservoir -- which officials feared would overflow -- has peaked and is going down, the Army Corps of Engineers said.
And the city's Addicks Reservoir, which was overwhelmed and caused widespread flooding this week, has also peaked. The water in that reservoir is also receding.
weather pattern that’s brought stifling heat and humidity along with scattered thunderstorms continued to cause problems in Southern California overnight as heavy power demands and lightning strikes cut electricity to thousands.
In Boyle Heights, an estimated 11,000 Department of Water and Power customers were without power between Wednesday night and Thursday morning as high demand overloaded equipment to the point of failure, the agency said. Power was restored by 6 a.m., officials said.
Lightning is seen in Adelanto in San Bernardino County on Aug. 30, 2017. It also happened in parts of Los Angeles County, including Boyle Heights. (Credit: KTLA)
In all, about 14,000 DWP customers lost electricity overnight as crews worked to reroute power to less-used equipment, the agency said.
The toll on the region’s power grid has been a concern for days as temperatures have hovered in the triple digits during the day and 70s or 80s at night. Temperatures remained even warmer in the deserts, where cities like Palm Springs had a low of 90 degrees overnight Wednesday, the National Weather Service said.
Read the full story on LATimes.com.
Certified personal trainer/barre instructor and creator of the Love Sweat Fitness online community on IG and YouTube Katie Dunlop joined us live with tips on how to avoid the Freshman 15. Katie has a remarkable real-life weight loss journey. After she lost nearly 45-pounds by making smart and careful life changes, she was inspired to share her tips/meals/workouts with the world through her social channels. For more information on Katie, daily workouts, meal ideas and fitness tips, visit her website or follow her on social media.
Look for our heat wave to likely continue into next week. Henry DiCarlo has KTLA’s forecast on Aug. 31, 2017.
Two brothers have been arrested on suspicion of burglary and felony vandalism after breaking into an Orange County mega-church Wednesday night with a replica rifle and a smoke bomb, police said.
Paul Vincent Vielkind, 24, and Brandon Joseph Vielkind, 22, of Riverside surrendered to police after a brief standoff outside Harvest Orange County, a nondenominational evangelical church in Irvine. One of the men was naked, while the other was wearing only underwear, authorities said.
Brandon (left) and Paul Vielkind are seen in photos released by the Irvine Police Department on Aug. 31, 2017.
A security guard called police around 7:10 p.m. saying he saw two men carrying what looked like a rifle break into the church through a glass door.
Irvine police officers, including a SWAT team, responded to the scene and were able to watch the brothers inside the church thanks to surveillance cameras inside, police said.
Read the full story on LATimes.com.
Los Angeles were in pursuit of a stolen truck in the Santa Monica area Thursday morning, according to authorities.
The chase started at about 10:20 a.m. and went through the 4600 block of Lincoln Boulevard shortly before ending, LAPD Officer Tony Im said. The stolen vehicle is a 2016 Ford F150, he said.
The man driving the stolen pick-up truck could be seen surrendering to police officers shortly before 11 a.m., in aerial video from Sky5.
He was seen standing with his hands up and then lying on the ground before three LAPD patrol vehicles. He was then handcuffed, arrested and taken into custody.
A man who poured gasoline on himself and threatened deputies with a steering wheel club in Loma Linda was taken to a local hospital after being subdued, authorities said Thursday.
Emergency responders rush to the scene of an emergency in a file photo. (Credit: MattGush/iStock)
The incident occurred about 11 p.m. Tuesday near the intersection of Anderson Street and Prospect Avenue, the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department stated in a news release.
Responding deputies found the gasoline covered man sitting in a vehicle and hitting himself in the head with the steering wheel club.
The deputies managed to calm the unidentified man down for a short while until he exited the vehicle with the club raised over his head, the news release stated.
When the man began to advance toward the deputies, a “less than lethal” bean bag shotgun was used to subdue him, The Sheriff’s Department stated.
The man told authorities he had been using methamphetamine and would have set himself on fire if he had been able to find his lighter.
He was taken to a local hospital for medical and psychological evaluation.
The historic railway in downtown Los Angeles known as Angels Flight will reopen to the public on Wednesday after shutting down in 2013 when it derailed, and not for the first time.
First opening in 1901, at a different location just about a block away, the orange and black-colored railway connects passengers over a steep but short distance of just a quarter mile between Grand Avenue and Hill Street. It has a storied but flawed reputation in L.A., facing multiple derailments over the years including one that killed a man and injured seven others in 2001.
The Angels Flight Railway is seen in 2010. (Robyn Beck/ AFP/Getty Images) Images)
Now, after capturing attention most recently with a scene in the Oscar-winning film La La Land, Angels Flight will reopen to the public — four years after its most recent closure. Rides will cost $1 or 50 cents for L.A. Metro riders and the railway will operate from 6:45 a.m. to 10:00 p.m., seven days a week and 365 days a year, including all holidays, according to its website.
A number of private companies have helped pay for the railway’s restoration, working with the city and covering costs for safety upgrades required by the California Public Utilities Commission for reopening, as the Los Angeles Times reports.
Nuria Haliwanger is CEO of ACS Infrastructure, the main company that worked with the Angels Flight Railway Foundation to fund and execute the railway’s reconstruction. She said its 116-year history made it a project worth doing.
“Historically, it’s been here since 1901, so it’s one of the iconic features and landmarks of Los Angeles,” she told KTLA. “That was what we really wanted to be part of.”
ACS and the Angels Flight Railway Foundation will be responsible for operating the railway for the next 30 years.
The last time Angels Flight was running was in 2013, when it derailed off the tracks with six passengers on board. No one was injured that time.
Still, the incident put the safety of the historical landmark into question and prompted another closure.
People walk past the idle and vanadalized Angels Flight in downtown Los Angeles on Sept. 9, 2016. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)
While the railway has since been repaired and restored, after years of sitting idle and collecting graffiti, its history of riding off the tracks more than once is notable.
After the railway’s fatal accident in 2001, investigators found that safety oversight and design of its reconstruction was inadequate, with flawed braking systems needing repair and reconstruction costs amounting to just over $1.5 million in order for the rail to operate again, according to a report from the National Transportation Safety Board.
That federal report also directly blamed not just the maker of Angels Flight, but also city officials with the Los Angeles Community Redevelopment Agency as well as the California Public Utilities Commission for their “failure … to ensure that the railway system conformed to initial safety design specifications and known funicular safety standards.”
But the city of Los Angeles has promised to make sure safety standards are up to par this time.
In March, the mayor’s office announced that the California Public Utilities Commission certified a plan to upgrade the railway to meet “the highest safety standards,” according to a press release.
The revival of Angels Flights seems to fit into a broader renaissance of the city of L.A., given a coming arrival of new museums and transportation projects totaling $120 billion over the next 40 years — “one of the most ambitious public works in U.S. history,” as The Guardian reports.
“At a moment when downtown is experiencing this resurgence, the timing couldn’t be better,” Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti said at a news conference about Angels Flight., the L.A. Times reports.
Gayle Anderson was live in San Pedro for LA Fleet Week® 2017 which features something for everyone. Friday, September 1 through Monday, September 4 are the public tour days for 2017! Each day, you can enjoy:
The Visiting Ships:
View the ships on the live camera as they sail into the Port of Los Angeles Main Channel!
For a complete listing of daily activities, please check the website.
L.A. FLEET WEEK!
Port of Los Angeles
Los Angeles Cruise Terminal
100 Swinford Street
San Pedro, CA 90731
If you have questions or complaints, please feel free to contact me at Gayle.Anderson@KTLA.com or call 1-323-460-5732.
Have a GREAT day!
During his nearly five years heading the tiny Centinela Valley Union High School District, prosecutors say, Jose A. Fernandez devised policies to dramatically pad his salary and retirement benefits.
In 2013 alone, supervising a handful of schools in Hawthorne and Lawndale, the former superintendent pocketed $663,000 in pay and benefits. He kept the school board in the dark, prosecutors say, covering his actions with lies and misrepresentations.
Jose A. Fernandez, former superintendent of the Centinela Valley Union High School District, is seen on school grounds. (Luis Sinco/Los Angeles Times)
Now, Fernandez, 57, is facing a dozen public corruption charges and up to 15 years in state prison. Records show he was arrested Wednesday morning and booked into Los Angeles County jail.
Fernandez was charged with six counts of conflict of interest, three counts of misappropriation of public funds, two counts of grand theft and one count of embezzlement with allegations of excessive taking because of the dollar amounts involved, according to the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office.
Read the full story on LATimes.com.
Electronics retailer Best Buy said Wednesday that a viral photo of cases of water selling near Houston for more than $40 was “a big mistake.”
The photo shows a 12-pack case of Smartwater being advertised for $29.98 each, while 24-packs of Dasani were shown to cost $42.96.
The company was accused of price gouging in the wake of Hurricane Harvey and was quickly ridiculed on social media when the photo was posted.
But the company told CNBC that it does not sell water by the case and the signage promoting the offer was a mistake made by several employees.
Best Buy sells individual water bottles at checkout counters.
“This was a big mistake on the part of a few employees at one store on Friday,” a company spokesman told CNBC. “As a company we are focused on helping, not hurting affected people. We’re sorry and it won’t happen again.
“Not as an excuse but as an explanation, we don’t typically sell cases of water. The mistake was made when employees priced a case of water using the single-bottle price for each bottle in the case.”
The company issued an official statement on Wednesday:
“First, this was clearly a mistake in a single store. We feel terrible about this because, as a company we are focused on helping, not hurting people affected by this terrible event. We are all deeply sorry that we gave anyone even the momentary impression that we were trying to take advantage of the situation.
Second, by way of explanation and not as an excuse: we don’t typically sell cases of water and don’t have pricing for it in our computer system. The mistake was made when we priced a case of water by multiplying the cost of one bottle by the number of bottles in a case – arriving at a number that is far, far higher than normal.
Finally, please know how much we regret that this happened. It was an isolated incident in one store, on one day. We feel especially bad given that thousands of our friends and colleagues are affected by the hurricane.”
Wells Fargo has uncovered up to 1.4 million more fake accounts after digging deeper into the bank’s broken sales culture.
A sign is seen on a Wells Fargo ATM at one of their bank branches on Sept. 9, 2016 in Miami. (Credit: Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
The findings show that Wells Fargo’s problems are worse than the bank previously admitted to when the scandal began almost a year ago.
Wells Fargo now says it has found a total of up to 3.5 million potentially fake bank and credit card accounts, up from its earlier tally of approximately 2.1 million. The additional fake accounts were discovered by a previously-announced analysis that went back to January 2009 and that reviewed the original May 2011 to mid-2015 period.
About 190,000 accounts were slapped with unnecessary fees for these accounts, Wells Fargo said. That’s up from 130,000 previously.
Wells Fargo also discovered a new problem: thousands of customers were also enrolled in online bill pay without their authorization. The review found 528,000 potentially unauthorized online bill pay enrollments.
Related: Wells Fargo accused of ripping off mom-and-pop shops
Wells Fargo blamed unrealistic sales goals placed on employees for encouraging the unauthorized bill pay and bank account openings.
“We apologize to everyone who was harmed by unacceptable sales practices that occurred in our retail bank,” Wells Fargo CEO Tim Sloan said in a statement.
Wells Fargo is trying to make things right by scrapping its sales goals, installing new management and paying out millions in refunds.
Wells Fargo said it will now pay a total of $6.1 million to refund customers for unauthorized bank and credit card accounts, up from $3.3 million previously.
The bank also promised to pay $910,000 to refund customers for the 528,000 potentially improper online bill pay enrollments.
Additionally, Wells Fargo has agreed to a $142 million national class action settlement to cover fake accounts that were opened back to 2002. That settlement received preliminary approval from a federal judge in July.
Related: Wells Fargo customer: It felt like my car was held as extortion
Wells Fargo is struggling to put the fake account scandal that began in September 2016 behind it. New allegations of harming customers have rocked the bank in recent months.
In late July, Wells Fargo admitted to forcing up to 570,000 borrowers into unneeded auto insurance. About 20,000 of those customers may have had their cars repossessed due to these unnecessary insurance costs.
Wells Fargo has also been accused in a recent lawsuit of ripping off vulnerable mom-and-pop businesses on credit card fees — an allegation that the bank has denied.
For years, scientists have drawn up terrifying scenarios of widespread destruction and chaos that would come to Southern California when a catastrophic earthquake hits.
A quake as strong as magnitude 8.2 is possible on the southern San Andreas fault and would “cause damage in every city” in Southern California, said seismologist Lucy Jones. In this photo, the remains of a collapsed Kaiser building is seen following the 1994 Northridge earthquake. (Credit: Jonathan Alcorn / For the Times)
Their efforts to warn the public may get an unlikely boost from the unprecedented disaster unfolding in Houston, where Tropical Storm Harvey dumped trillions of gallons of rain across Texas and brought America’s fourth-largest city to its knees.
While epic flooding is different from a powerful temblor, both natural disasters fundamentally alter daily life for months or years.
In recent years, officials have drawn up detailed scenarios of what would happen if a huge quake struck this region, part of a larger campaign to better prepare.
Read the full story on LATimes.com.
Jerry Springer says he is still deciding whether he will run for Ohio governor in 2018.
TV Host Jerry Springer celebrates the taping of ‘The Jerry Springer Show’ 20th anniversary show at Military Island, Times Square on October 11, 2010 in New York City. (Credit: Michael Loccisano/Getty Images)
“I know there’s talk … I haven’t decided anything … and certainly no announcement Monday,” the TV host and former Democratic Cincinnati mayor told CNN in an email statement issued by his publicist Wednesday. “I’m in Cleveland that day giving a speech at the Labor Day rally supporting unions.”
Speculation around Springer’s potential gubernatorial bid has been growing for several months.
Springer’s friend and podcast co-host Jene Galvin told the Cincinnati Enquirer “there have been who have asked him to run for governor, and he is considering it and will decide that pretty soon.”
The Enquirer also reported Wednesday that Springer is soliciting feedback from Ohio State Sen. Sandra Williams, Democratic Reps. Janine Boyd and Stephanie Howse, and political consultants.
“Glad to be in attendance @ rep’s Stephanie Howse and Janine Boyd fundraiser w/Jerry Springer, possible candidate for Gov. of Ohio,” Williams tweeted Tuesday.
“He’s very serious,” Williams said of Springer’s interest in running, in an interview with Cleveland.com.
The fundraiser was held at Nighttown, a Cleveland Heights jazz club and restaurant.
“We had a huge crowd,” Nighttown owner Brendan Ring told CNN in a phone interview. “People were actively asking Jerry Springer to consider running for governor.”
Ring said Springer gave a brief speech at the fundraiser.
“In his speech that night, while he didn’t commit to saying he would run, he definitely seems like he’s considering it based on what I heard … he seemed like he was listening to everybody. i spoke to him at length myself, a very interesting character.”
Last week, Springer reportedly asked some Cleveland Democrats: “Is it too late to enter the Ohio governor’s race?”
Springer, 73, previously considered running for US Senate in 2000 and 2004, but decided against it.
He has previously attributed the rumors around his potential bid for governor to former reality TV star Donald Trump’s successful White House bid.
“What’s probably giving it more juice this time is the Trump victory,” Springer told the Enquirer in February. “People are thinking that somebody outside the traditional political establishment can win. His constituency is basically mine. These are fans of the show. I could be Trump without the racism.”
But people continued to discuss Springer’s potential return to politics.
In late May, Business Insider, citing more than half a dozen Democrats familiar with the race, reported influential Ohio Democrats — including former Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland and Hamilton County Democratic Party Chairman Tim Burke — pushed for Springer to run.
The Facebook description for Monday’s rally — titled Labor Day Rally with Jerry Springer — reads: “Together with our allies, we will call on all elected leaders and candidates to publicly declare on Labor Day that they will stand with working people, raise wages, and support our right to join unions so everyday Americans have a fighting chance of getting ahead in our economy.”
In an interview with CNN’s Brooke Baldwin in May of 2016, Springer — who supported Democrat Hillary Clinton in 2016 — was seemingly unsurprised by Trump’s popularity. He said that since President Ronald Reagan, a generation of Americans has grown up believing government is the problem in America.
“The celebrity in politics was inevitable,” Springer said.
Since Trump’s win, a growing number of celebrities have expressed interest in running for office, or have not ruled out pursuing politics in the future.
Speculation around former pro wrestler and actor Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson as a presidential nominee ticked up in May, when GQ published an article with the headline “Dwayne Johnson for President!”
“I think it’s a real possibility,” Johnson told the publication when asked if he would ever run.
In July, a West Virginia resident created a campaign committee called “Run The Rock 2020” to draft Johnson as a presidential candidate in 2020.
Musician Kid Rock teased a potential bid for US Senate, but ultimately used the social media hype around the buzz to announce his non-profit designed to promote voter registration.
More recently, in August, Caitlyn Jenner told radio host John Catsimatidi she “would look for a senatorial run.”
