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Ontario Chaffey Community Show Band will present ‘Salute to Entertainment’
The April 13 concert will feature music from Broadway shows, with three guest vocalists.
David Spade calls on California leaders to change course, save entertainment industry
David Spade, Dana Carvey, and Tim Dillon spoke about how the entertainment industry in LA has been in crisis for years, to the point people and projects are fleeing to other states. (Fly on the Wall podcast, April 8, 2026)
Letters to the Editor: Anyone with political aspirations should be fighting to stop Trump
'Everyone knows President Trump is out of control, and yet Congress and the Supreme Court sit back and watch as we circle the drain,' writes an L.A. Times reader.
Climate change is outpacing evolution. Scientists are using DNA to catch up
SAN DIEGO (AP) — Evolution works over millennia. Climate change is moving far faster. That mismatch is killing some of the planet’s most vital ecosystems, from California’s towering redwoods to the…
Trump's divisive role in California politics is on display as GOP prepares election endorsements
Trump's endorsement of Steve Hilton for governor over Chad Bianco has upended the California GOP's strategy, forcing the party to refocus on other races.
Bitter medicine: How California’s hospital bills end up depressing your take-home pay
Hospitals are suing a state agency that limits their cost increases. Their bills inflate health insurance premiums, leaving employers with less money for wages.
California’s crisis in rural health care is also a chance for transparency
Drug discounts aimed at rural hospitals serving uninsured or low-income patients actually profit hospitals that don’t serve those patients.
Steyer wants to end the ‘Trump tax loophole.’ Here's what that means
Tom Steyer’s promise to “reverse the Trump tax loophole” if elected California governor relies on a lot of wishful thinking, political columnist Joe Garofoli writes.
Trump endorsed former Fox host. It could tip balance in this CA race.
Does Trump's backing of former Fox News host Steve Hilton for California governor boost the leading GOP candidate chances? Experts don't think so.
Orange Lutheran, Norco reach championship game at Boras Classic
No. 2 Orange Lutheran will face No. 3 Norco in the Boras Classic championship with the winner becoming the new No. 1 team in Southern California.
U.S. talks with Iran are still on despite tests of ceasefire
The ceasefire U.S.-Iran deal became even more fragile Thursday as Iran said Israeli strikes in Lebanon overnight violated the agreement.
Pink will host 2026 Tony Awards
Raise your glass, pop singer Pink will host the 2026 Tony Awards on June 7.
Apple is Permanently Closing Three Stores in U.S. Today
Apple today announced that it is permanently closing three retail stores in the U.S., including Apple Trumbull in Trumbull, Connecticut, Apple Towson Town Center in Towson, Maryland, and Apple North County in Escondido, California. Apple issued the following statement to MacRumors: At Apple, we are constantly striving to deliver exceptional service and great experiences for our customers.
Allies or Adversaries? Science Diplomacy’s Calibration in the President’s Budget Request
Nestled in the cuts and investments of interest to the S&T community is a more complex story of how the administration is approaching the practice of science diplomacy.
3L Rachel Sadler Charts Path in Brain Health, Technology, and Policy Through UC Law SF’s Health Law Concentration - UC Law San Francisco (Formerly UC Hastings)
3L Rachel Sadler studies health law and policy at UC Law SF while researching the legal implications of neurotechnology and other emerging tools that may affect human cognition. 3L student Rachel Sadler shares how UC Law SF’s Health Law Concentration prepared her for a career focused on the intersection of brain health, government policy, and technology. Gained a detailed understanding of how U.S. health care is regulated and where policy reform is needed through coursework and research. Interned with state and federal agencies that regulate health care services and worked with a major health care provider’s bioethics department. Plans to pursue a career focused on protecting cognitive liberty and mental privacy as new technologies reshape healthcare. 3L Rachel Sadler: The Health Law Concentration has given me fluency in one of the most complex regulated industries and the tools to become an effective advocate for better health policy. Before coming to law school, I spent a decade teaching and working with teachers and administrators on high school programming for multilingual learners. Healthcare kept emerging as the most powerful driver of student outcomes. I wanted to understand how to make effective policy change in this area and how to use existing law to defend people’s health rights in California. Through the concentration’s coursework, I gained a sophisticated understanding of how U.S. healthcare is regulated. I also learned where the pressure points for reform exist. The courses gave me space to develop what became my central research interest: how law and policy can be built to protect human cognition and healthy brain development, particularly regarding new technologies such as generative AI and neurotechnology. The health law faculty were instrumental in that process, genuinely invested in helping me and other students define and pursue our own intellectual vision. During law school, I interned at the General Counsel’s Office for Region IX of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. I also externed at the California Department of Justice’s Health, Education and Welfare Division. Additionally, I externed at Kaiser Permanente Northern California’s Bioethics Department. Alongside those placements, I conducted extensive independent research on mental privacy and emerging neurotechnology, working closely with Professors Emily Murphy and George Horvath. That research became the throughline of my law school experience and the foundation of my current policy focus. I must also credit Nicole Ozer of the Center for Constitutional Democracy (CCD), whose deep knowledge of California privacy law and the public-interest privacy landscape deeply informed my work. I currently serve a research assistant with the CCD, where I spearhead the development of K-12 educational resources in partnership with law faculty and students. I’ve found UC Law SF to be an ideal place for second-career, nontraditional students. There is a tremendous diversity of life and career experience here, and I felt fully welcomed into the community, despite returning as a student at a different stage of life. I came to law school wanting to promote equity in California’s healthcare system. I am leaving with a sharper and more specific ambition: to build a policy career focused on protecting cognitive liberty and mental privacy from technological intrusion. This is both an urgent and underserved area of law, and I want to be part of defining this landscape going forward. Whether as a practicing attorney or a policy advisor, I plan to work on these issues after law school. I strongly recommend UC Law SF and the Health Law Concentration. When I arrived in law school, I worried the concentration would be narrow and that my non-clinical background would be a disadvantage. The opposite was true. The health law faculty thinks about health expansively, encompassing social determinants of health, structural inequity, and emerging technologies alongside the regulatory mechanics of the industry. The faculty are accessible, intellectually generous, and genuinely invested in students’ development. I found my research vision here, and I deeply appreciate the concentration’s role in this. The Evidence of Success series highlights UC Law SF students as they share how the College’s opportunities equip them with the experience, skills, and confidence to excel in the legal profession.
San Quentin Uses Sports as Rehabilitation. It Could Soon Be a Model Elsewhere.
Eli Tan, who covered the San Quentin Giants last year, shares how the story inspired one effort to expand prison sports in California.
K-pop conquered Coachella. Now it's Bini's turn to show off the Philippines
Coachella is 'a great responsibility for us,' the group's Colet added. 'Because we want to open the door to more Filipino art.'
Burcum: Out-of-state ownership might be the right prescription for Allina Health
"Minnesota is on the verge of a momentous health care deal, with California-based Sutter Health recently moving to acquire Minneapolis-based Allina Health," columnist Jill Burcum writes.
Orange Lutheran baseball defeats Gahr in walk-off at Boras Classic
CJ Weinstein delivers an RBI single in the eighth for Orange Lutheran in a 2-1 win over Gahr at the Boras Classic.
ENTERTAINMENT: Dogtown Throwdown in Argenta; UCA stages ‘Little Women’
Main Street between Fourth and Fifth streets in the Argenta Arts District in North Little Rock will shut down Friday and Saturday for Dogtown Throwdown, two days of outdoor dining, live music and “family-friendly activities” with a Cajun theme.
As the cable business ebbs, AMC Networks takes a new name
The New York-based company wants to emphasize production instead of its traditional TV business.
California Supreme Court orders GOP sheriff to pause election probe and preserve seized ballots
The dispute started earlier this year when Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco seized 1,000 boxes of election materials to investigate a complaint from a local citizens group about the ballot count from a November 2025 special election on redistricting.
LAUSD high school sports would halt if unions strike on Tuesday
Three unions set to strike in Los Angeles Unified School District beginning Tuesday if settlement not reached in contract dispute.
Italy’s Giorgia Meloni attempts political reset after referendum defeat
Facing voter backlash and an energy-driven economic squeeze, the prime minister is recalibrating her ties with Washington
Did Trump’s endorsement just shift the California gubernatorial race?
Steve Hilton nod may help Democrats keep power
Bruce Blakeman sues state board over denying him public campaign matching funds
The state Public Campaign Finance Board recently voted 4-3 on a resolution that disqualifies Blakeman from the program over a technicality.
Map of LACMA's David Geffen Galleries: the cafe, wine bar, Koons art
A colorful map to help guide visitors around LACMA's new David Geffen Galleries, including the best way to the wine bar and how to get a great view of Jeff Koons' 'Split-Rocker' topiary sculpture.
Battles over business regulation resume in California's Capitol with new legislation
Lawmakers discussed bills that allow lawsuits against business monopolies and businesses that affect climate change.
Why art is important for your health, just like exercise
Regular participation in the arts improves cognition, lowers blood pressure and reduces stress, according to "Art Cure: The Science of How the Arts Save Lives."
Texas talk of swallowing eastern New Mexico is an old impulse
A legislative directive to study a merger with eastern New Mexico is the latest example of secessionist sentiments around the country. The breakaway notions are fanciful but the discontent is real.
San Francisco Giants – NBC Sports Bay Area & California
Find the latest San Francisco Giants news, highlights, analysis and more with NBC Sports Bay Area and California.
High school baseball and softball: Tuesday's scores
CIF City Section and Southern Section high school baseball and softball scores for Tuesday's games.
California Assembly Health Committee passes 'Next of Kin Notification' bill
Assembly Bill 2598 was introduced in response to KCRA’s “Dignity Delayed.” The investigation revealed a backlog of human remains after patient deaths at Dignity Health hospitals.
Swalwell campaign rejects 'outrageous' allegations of sexual misconduct as Dem activists issue viral warning
Rep. Eric Swalwell denied alleged misconduct claims from Cheyenne Hunt as California governor's race heats up ahead of the May primary election.
Viewpoint: FP10 should remain open, excellent and secure
Europe is right to worry about research security. Foreign interference is real. So is the misuse of sensitive knowledge. Universities working in sensitive areas such as AI, quantum, semiconductors and advanced materials cannot afford to ignore the geopolitical environment around them.But Europe is in danger of drawing the wrong conclusion, one that would increase, not reduce, its strategic vulnerabilities.If the EU applies an “EU preference” logic to the next Framework Programme for research and innovation (FP10), it will weaken one of its greatest strategic assets: a research system built on openness, excellence and international collaboration. In the name of security, Europe could end up advancing science more slowly, innovating less effectively and making itself less attractive to global talent and partners in advanced science and technology.That would be a serious mistake.The EU preference included in Article 10 of the proposed European Competitiveness Fund may make sense in some industrial or deployment contexts, but is far harder to justify when applied to collaborative research in advanced science and technology, where excellence and global connectivity are crucial. Research is not procurement. It does not thrive when isolated. It advances through access to the best ideas, the best people, the best facilities and the best data, wherever they are found. This is why FP10 should not simply absorb industrial policy logic by default. Doing so would risk importing instruments that are ill-suited to research and that ultimately increase vulnerability rather than resilience.For universities of science and technology, the issue is especially acute. These institutions sit at the frontier of knowledge and technology creation in the very fields Europe sees as critical for its future competitiveness and resilience. They know better than most that security risks are real. But they also know that openness and security are not opposites. In practice, they have to be made to work together. Research security is not about closing doors. It is about building resilience through collective responsibility, trust, proportionate safeguards and better governance. That is a fundamentally different approach from default restriction.The risks of non-collaborationThe real danger in the current debate is that Europe talks too much about the risks of collaboration and not enough about the risks of non-collaboration. Those risks are strategic too. Cut researchers off from international networks and Europe loses access to knowledge, data, infrastructures and talent. Slow down global collaboration in critical technologies and Europe slows down its own progress on cutting-edge science. Make participation rules unpredictable and Europe weakens its attractiveness to researchers and investors alike.In other words, over-restricting collaboration will create strategic vulnerabilities, particularly in advanced science and technologies.This point is often underestimated in policy discussions that frame openness mainly as a value to be defended. Europe’s scientific strength, technological development and long-term competitiveness depend on remaining connected to the best research ecosystems in the world. For a continent that wants to accelerate deep tech, strengthen industrial capacity and reduce strategic dependencies, weakening the excellence base would be self-defeating. That does not mean ignoring risk. Quite the opposite. Universities are already strengthening due diligence, internal governance, awareness-raising, screening procedures and compliance support. Across Europe, institutions are working to manage risks linked to foreign interference, sanctions, export controls and the misuse of research. The right response is not complacency. It is better risk management. But that means targeted, evidence-based and proportionate measures, not blunt top-down restrictions with wide spillover effects. In the daily reality of universities, openness and restriction often coexist. The real challenge is how to apply safeguards without sliding into securitisation that damages academic freedom, open science and international cooperation. Restrict partners, not nationsMore restrictive treatment of collaborators from European Economic Area members Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway, or from Switzerland and the UK, is strategically very difficult to justify. These are deeply embedded partners in Europe’s research and innovation ecosystem. Beyond that, Europe should still resist default exclusion and instead rely on case-by-case assessment. The relevant question is not nationality in the abstract. It is the actual risk profile of a collaboration: the institution, the affiliations, the field, the knowledge involved, the intended use and the safeguards available. Screening should focus on institutions and affiliations rather than nationality alone. Related articlesParliament ‘misreads’ link between Horizon Europe and ECF, Commission official saysFrustration grows at governance gap in next Horizon EuropeIf EU preference logic is imported into research without careful calibration, the likely result is a chilling effect. Researchers may step back from legitimate and beneficial collaboration, even where risks are manageable. International partners may see Europe as less predictable. And Europe may end up undermining the very excellence base it needs to compete, scale up and lead in strategic technologies, thereby increasing its dependence on others.FP10 should do the opposite. It should remain open by default, with restrictions used only exceptionally, and then on the basis of clear evidence. It should integrate research security into open science and research integrity frameworks, not set them against each other. And it should recognise that academic freedom, scientific excellence and responsible international collaboration are not obstacles to Europe’s security, they are part of it. Europe needs stronger tools to protect itself. But it also needs the discipline to avoid measures that would weaken it and increase its strategic vulnerabilities in the process. In FP10, that means staying open, excellent and secure.Louise Drogoul is senior advisor for innovation and sustainability at the Cesaer university association.
L.A. election shadow hearing: Democrats, experts defend voting systems
House Democrats gathered in Los Angeles on Tuesday for a "shadow hearing" on midterm election security, where experts echoed their arguments that state-run elections are safe and secure.
Swalwell campaign denies online claims that congressman behaved inappropriately with staffers
A spokesman for Rep. Eric Swalwell, a leading Democratic gubernatorial candidate, on Tuesday denounced online claims that the congressman had inappropriate relationships with young congressional staffers.
Sony Pictures Entertainment to cut hundreds of film and TV jobs
Under the new leadership of CEO Ravi Ahuja, Sony Pictures Entertainment will emphasize franchises and next-gen content. With these changes, the company plans to lay off a few hundred employees across its film, TV and corporate divisions.
‘A blatant political ploy’: California sheriff’s seizure of referendum ballots sets off alarm bells
Chad Bianco of Riverside county obtained warrants to seize ballots cast for state’s successful redistricting referendum
The Boundless Deep: Young Tennyson, Science, and the Crisis of Belief by Richard Holmes
Pantheon Review by Walter Cummins The image of Alfred Tennyson I’ve carried for decades goes back to the childhood card game of Authors that depicts him with a stately continence sharpened by a jutting black beard. He’s formidable, his aura superior. Holmes opens his biography of the youthful Tennyson by describing the similar formality of the imposing Tennyson statue at Trinty College Cambridge, sharing the honor with other Trinity greats, including Isaac Newton, Francis Bacon, and Thomas Babington Macaulay. Holmes doesn’t want to chip away at that statue but rather reveal its inner youthful core of the man—tall, handsome, and talented but unformed, emerging from a disturbed family of addicted or insane male siblings and four unusual sisters struggling under a violent alcoholic clergyman father. Alfred was certainly statuesque, but would he end up a block of unformed stone like his equally promising brothers? He was youngest of three equally regarded Tennyson brothers at Cambridge, all bright, handsome, and talented, in fact Alfred regarded by some as less promising than his elders who also wrote poetry. Yet Alfred wrote one of his major poems, “The Kraken,” at twenty, revealing both his talent, his interest in geological forces, and the haunting creature that embodied his anxieties. While Holmes focuses on Tennyson of the 1830s and 1840s, he can’t tell his story without exploring his involvement with the Victorian intellectual upheaval. Tennyson was fascinated by new scientific perspectives, following the latest findings as soon as books and articles were published. He was especially taken with Charles Lyell’s deep studies of geology and the discovery of fossils and a timeline of the planet’s development that did much to question fundamental religious assumptions. The impact of these discoveries is reflected in Tennyson’s poetry and led to the crisis in belief he shared with so many contemporaries. He was especially taken by the cycles of destruction and renewal that informed the struggles he confronted in In Memoriam, Maud, and Idylls of the King. Tennyson was only one of the eventual major figures at Cambridge at the same time, young men just beginning to realize their potential. Charles Darwin was at Christ College, although there is no evidence that he and Tennyson even met as students or later in life. Yet evolution became significant in Tennyson’s thinking and the issues of his poetry. One of Tennyson’s best and most important Cambridge friends was Edward FitzGerald, who became the translator of The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám and in their on and off relationship served as Tennyson’s harshest critic. FitzGerald was also a friend of the novelist William Makepeace Thackeray, the two of them partying in Paris as undergraduates. That connection led to a friendship between Thackeray and Tennyson. Others who came to play significant roles in Tennyson’s life were Thomas Carlyle, the Brownings, and the Pre-Raphaelites. Tennyson’s deepest friend at college was Arthur Hallam, who at twenty wrote a glowing review of Tennyson’s first poetry collection, travelled on European adventures with him, and fell in love with his sister Emily. Hallam was also regarded as one more very promising Cambridge student. His sudden death at twenty-two in Vienna from a stroke while travelling with his father devastated many friends, but perhaps Tennyson most of all. He did not write immediate poems of grief but took years to compile those collected in In Memoriam A.H.H., published in 1850, almost twenty years after Hallam’s death For all of Tennyson’s early poetic successes and successes, Holmes reveals him as an often troubled young man suffering periods of depression, fearing planetary upheaval, concerned about supporting himself, disappointed in romances, and worried that he would inherit the family’s mental illness tendencies. Yet despite his seeming withdrawals, he was always writing poetry that he kept private and would not let go, constantly revising. 1850 became a transformative year for Tennyson. He finally consented to publishing In Memoriam with a last-minute prologue that acknowledged God and perhaps convinced the religious Emily Sellwood to marry him after years of pursuit.. He opened up to Emily, revealing his struggles with fears of depression and “weird seizures.” The devastating event of that time was the stillborn death of his unnamed first son. It shook him, but Emily’s faith brought them closer and convinced him to believe in an afterlife. Two later sons survived. With the death of William Wordworth in April of 1950, Tennyson was named poet laureate at age forty-one, reluctantly accepting. It’s as if Tennyson’s life split in half in that year. He lived another forty years, now a recognized success, with the prestige of being an official poet writing patriotic verse, wealthy and revered, no longer the insecure young man seeking an outlet for his immense talent. He earned a place in the Authors deck, now dignified and in 1884 elevated to the peerage as Arthur, Lord Tennyson. Richard Holmes is the author of twenty previous books on the Romantics and Victorians, several of which received awards. The Boundless Deep was shortlisted for the 2025 Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction. He captures the complex vicissitudes of Tennyson’s youth, illustrated by frequent excerpts from the poetry, placing that life in the full context of the shattering discoveries that led to an upheaval of thought in the Victorian age.
Trump's message to Iran on deadline day: 'A whole civilization will die tonight'
The extraordinary threat signaled Trump's willingness to authorize U.S. military strikes on Iranian infrastructure if no ceasefire deal is reached by 5 p.m. PDT Tuesday.
This GOP candidate seized a half-million ballots and says he may do it again
Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco, who is running for California governor as a Republican, tried to review ballots despite election officials reaffirming the results.
High school softball top 20 rankings for the Southland
A look at the top 20 high school softball teams in the Southland as ranked by CalHiSports.com for The Times.
New studies of old dogs help scientists understand where they came from
Scientists are tracing back the history of dogs using the oldest genes from the species ever studied
Clippers host Mavericks, eye No. 8 seed in West
With a key play-in tournament seeding matchup set for later in the week, the Los Angeles Clippers are intent to focus on the task at hand when they play host to the Dallas Mavericks on Tuesday at Inglewood, Calif.
2 CSU Campuses Receive $77M to Support Mental Health in L.A.
The Ballmer Group has donated $77 million to two California State University campuses to improve mental health services in the Los Angeles area.
Lil Nas X gets mental health diversion in police battery case
Lil Nas X, who was arrested last August, reportedly will enter a two-year mental health diversion program in the latest step to potentially resolve a felony battery case.
Nebraska’s Berlyn Schutz breaks school record at Stanford invitational
On Friday, April 3 and Saturday, April 4, seven Nebraska Track and Field athletes traveled to Palo Alto, California, for the Stanford Invitational. The Huskers joined 304 other teams for the event.
Trump holds fast to Tuesday deadline, threatening Iran's bridges and power plants
Trump said he was optimistic about the prospects of working with a newly installed Iranian government. But Tehran dismissed the diplomatic overtures as “unrealistic."
Trump endorses ex-UK political strategist Steve Hilton for California governor
Steve Hilton, who advised the former prime minster and hosted a Fox News show, is running as a Republican.
Meet Steve Hilton, the Former U.K. Political Strategist Trump Is Endorsing for California Governor
Hilton is one of two Republican candidates in a highly competitive race to replace California Gov. Gavin Newsom.
UCLA, CSUs receive $110-million donation for mental health
UCLA, Cal State L.A. and Cal State Dominguez Hills have received $110 million from the Ballmer Group to train more students for mental health careers in California.
YouTube’s copyright system strikes again.
Nvidia’s own DLSS 5 trailer was taken down from YouTube after an Italian TV channel — which reportedly used the footage in a segment about the upscaling tech — issued copyright takedown requests for videos using the same clips. The takedown requests impacted some creators using the footage as well. [Image: https://platform.theverge.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/04/nvidia-copyright-takedown.png?quality=90&strip=all]
CNN will host a California gubernatorial primary debate on May 5
CNN will host a California gubernatorial primary debate next month, a potential inflection point in a crowded campaign that Democrats are concerned could provide an opening for Republicans.
Pacific Office Automation Acquires Western Business Products
Acquisiion of Ricoh dealer expands Pacific Office Automation's coverage across Northern California and Southern Oregon along the I-5 corridor.
CNN will televise California gubernatorial primary debate in May
Elex Michaelson and Kaitlan Collins will moderate the event to be held in Los Angeles and airing across CNN's cable channels and streaming platform.
Column: Trump's cries of cheating on mail-in ballots defy logic
President Trump and MAGA Republicans are hallucinating or outright lying about widespread election fraud.
Surprising things about Amtrak's California Zephyr overnight train
I traveled from Chicago to Emeryville, California, on Amtrak's California Zephyr and booked a bedroom. The 53-hour ride was full of surprises.
Amid Trump support, prediction markets face political headwinds
Concerns about illegal gambling have prompted lawmakers to introduce proposals in Congress and the California Legislature to crack down on prediction markets, which are growing in popularity.
Billionaire candidate for California governor catching heat for past business interests, wealth
Hedge fund founder Tom Steyer, among the top Democrats running for governor who has spent more than $100 million of his money on his campaign, faces questions about how he made his wealth.
Why are popcorn buckets popular? Inside the collectibles rage
Struggling movie theaters have turned to selling increasingly elaborate novelty popcorn buckets to increase fans' concessions spending.
Billionaire candidate for California governor catching heat for past business interests, wealth
Hedge fund founder Tom Steyer, among the top Democrats running for governor who has spent more than $100 million of his money on his campaign, faces questions about how he made his wealth.
Former NFL punter Chris Kluwe is ready to turn his activism into a political career
Chris Kluwe never imagined a life in politics, but after years of speaking out, he's now running for a California Assembly seat.
Trump endorses Republican Steve Hilton in California governor’s race
President Donald Trump has thrown his support behind Republican Steve Hilton in the California governor’s race, potentially shaking up a crowded race to replace outgoing Gov. Gavin Newsom.
Bruising Bruins dominate South Carolina, win an NCAA national title
UCLA coach Clori Close built on lessons learned from John Wooden and steered the Bruins to a lopsided win over South Carolina to clinch a national title.
CA lawmakers prompted to address federal CalFresh eligibility cuts
The County Welfare Directors Association of California is urging state lawmakers and Gov. Gavin Newsom to help as food assistance programs face major changes that could result in food insecurity and strained food banks.
In a state that bans online sports betting, why is California allowing people to bet on politics?
Online sports betting is illegal in California but as of right now, it’s apparently legal for most people to bet on politics.
California Politics 360 Full Episode | $13M placed in bets on CA governor's race
Ashley Zavala sits down with Sacramento Assembly Member Maggy Krell about what more she says should be done.
It Was John Wayne’s Political Club. Now It’s Spending Millions on Online Influence
A conservative organization with decades of influence in California has quietly turned attention, and millions of dollars, to a national initiative of right-leaning news operations, records show.
Prep talk: Youth golfers to compete in Drive, Chip and Putt finals
Four golfers from Southern California to compete at Augusta National Golf Club on Sunday in the Drive, Chip and Putt championships.
Why Smart Founders Build Big Business Infrastructure Before They Scale
Scaling a company takes more than grit and growth. Founders who invest early in institutional-grade benefits can reduce risk, attract top talent, and build a culture that performs under pressure.
Trump loses across courts in bruising week of immigration and legal setbacks
Trump suffered an onslaught of court losses this last week on immigration, Jan. 6 liability and the White House ballroom.
A nonpartisan California news site draws worldwide audience
Jack Kavanagh's website, Rough & Tumble, has a worldwide audience despite — or perhaps because of — its lack of flash, commentary and snark. It's a well-respected compendium of politics and policy.
Sports Illustrated is attempting a rebound after layoffs
One of the most respected brand names in journalism is now generating revenue through streaming TV, branded events, ticket services, and international editions.
Microplastics have been found everywhere. That's a problem for research
Microplastics scientists are finding the tiny particles everywhere, even in their own research laboratories. So how do they know if what they're finding is in the sample or contamination from plastic fibers floating in the air?
Inside the Pentagon, fears of a disrupted war effort after Army chief’s ouster
The forced departure of Randy George in the middle of a war created yet another blow to morale inside the Pentagon, where officials expressed dismay over the state of the department's leadership.
WOMEN'S TRACK AND FIELD CAPS PACESETTER SPORTS INVITATIONAL
TERRE HAUTE, Ind. - The IU Indianapolis women's track and field squad closed out the two-day Pacesetter Sports Invitational, hosted by Indiana State on Saturday (Apr. 4). Freshman Sarah Madi-Bouabre earned a runner-up finish in the long jump while Paige Schulte finished fifth in the 200m event and sixth in the 400m.
Letters to Sports: Dodgers off to a roller-coaster start
Readers of the Los Angeles Times Sports section give their thoughts on the Dodgers, MVP candidates, UCLA basketball and more.
Former Turnstile guitarist charged with attempted murder of bandmate’s father
A former guitarist of the Grammy-winning rock band Turnstile has been charged with attempted second-degree murder and assault after he allegedly struck the father of the group’s lead vocalist with
Former Turnstile guitarist charged with attempted murder of bandmate’s father
A former guitarist of the Grammy-winning rock band Turnstile has been charged with attempted second-degree murder and assault after he allegedly struck the father of the group’s lead vocalist with
Dr. Oz calls out Newsom over California health care fraud allegations
CMS Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz discusses concerns over alleged health care fraud in California and its impact on costs on ‘Saturday in America.’
Improve your gut health + save 20% on this probiotic with our coupon code
Improve gut health with 20% off this California Gold Nutrition LactoBif 30 Probiotics for daily use at iHerb.
Cleveland High baseball team surging with nine-game winning streak
Joshua Pearlstein has been leading the way for the Cavaliers with his hitting and pitching.
UC execs’ ties to vendors draw scrutiny as Calif. lawmaker pushes ban
A new bill would block UC executives from being paid by university vendors, a first-in-the-nation proposal targeting potential conflicts of interest.
House Democrats to hold California 'shadow hearings' on midterm election security
House Democrats will hold informal hearings in California on midterm election security, following multiple threats of intervention in state-run voting by the Trump administration.
Ye attempts a comeback with sold-out LA-area concert, support from Lauryn Hill
The artist formerly and possibly again known as Kanye West reveled in support from one of his musical idols, Lauryn Hill, as he staged a sold-out Southern California concert meant to mark a comeback...
Ye attempts a comeback with sold-out LA-area concert, support from Lauryn Hill
The artist formerly and possibly again known as Kanye West reveled in support from one of his musical idols, Lauryn Hill, as he staged a sold-out Southern California concert meant to mark a comeback from years of controversy.
Why are people allowed to bet on politics? | California Politics 360
Right now, at least $13 million has been placed in bets on the California governor's race in a state that doesn't allow online sports betting. KCRA's Ashley Zavala on why people are allowed to bet on politics.
Trump pushing to stabilize college sports and limit transfers
President Trump signs an executive order aimed at fixing college sports that would give federal agencies authority to cut funding at schools that don't comply.
‘This is a recalibration’: Trump Cabinet worries no one is safe after Bondi and Noem firings
When President Donald Trump ousted his attorney general, Pam Bondi, it sent a clear message to his remaining Cabinet members: The job security they’ve enjoyed until now is no longer guaranteed.
Business looking up inside Bakersfield's office market
A pattern repeats itself along Bakersfield's California Avenue professional services corridor west of downtown: Building after building has signs out front advertising space for lease.
Trump's budget singles out L.A. homelessness agency as he proposes housing cuts
Trump’s proposed budget attacks L.A.'s homelessness agency in push to eliminate a federal program that funds housing and services for homeless Americans.
California cracks down on luxury car buyers evading taxes through 'Montana Loophole'
California targets wealthy luxury car owners and dealers using the Montana loophole to avoid sales tax, launching audits to recover millions in revenue.
Gemma 4 and what makes an open model succeed
Having written a lot of model release blog posts, there’s something much harder about reviewing open models when they drop relative to closed models, especially in 2026. In recent years, there were so few open models, so when Llama 3 was released most people were still doing research on Llama 2 and super happy to get an update. When Qwen 3 was released, the Llama 4 fiasco had just gone down, and a whole research community was emerging to study RL on Qwen 2.5 — it was a no brainer to upgrade. Today, when an open model releases, it’s competing with Qwen 3.5, Kimi K2.5, GLM 5, MiniMax M2.5, GPT-OSS, Arcee Large, Nemotron 3, Olmo 3, and others. The space is populated, but still feels full of hidden opportunity. The potential of open models feels like a dark matter, a potential we know is huge, but few clear recipes and examples for how to unlock it are out there. Agentic AI, OpenClaw, and everything brewing in that space is going to spur mass experimentation in open models to complement the likes of Claude and Codex, not replace them. Especially with open models, the benchmarks at release are an extremely incomplete story. In some ways this is exciting, as new open models have a much higher variance and ability to surprise, but it also points at some structural reasons that make building businesses and great AI experiences around open models harder than the closed alternatives. When a new Claude Opus or GPT drops, spending a few hours with them in my agentic workflows is genuinely a good vibe test. For open models, putting them through this test is a category error. Something else to be said about open models in the era of agents is that they get out of the debate of integration, harnesses, and tools and let us see close to the ground on what exactly is the ability of just a model. Of course, we can’t test some things like search abilities without some tool, but being able to measure exactly the pace of progress of the model alone is a welcome simplification to a systematically opaque AI space. Share The list of factors I’d use to assess a new open-weight model I’m considering investing in includes: Model performance (and size) — how this model performs on benchmarks I care about and how it compares to other models of a similar size. Country of origin — some businesses care deeply about provenance, and if a model was built in China or not. Model license — if a model needs legal approval for use, uptake will be slower at mid-sized and large companies. Tooling at release — many models release with half-broken, or at least substantially slower, implementations in popular software like vLLM, Transformers, SGLANG, etc due to pushing the envelope of architectures or tools. Model fine-tunability — how easy or hard it is to modify the given model to your use-case when you actually try and use it. The core problem is that some of these are immediately available at release, e.g. general performance, license, origin, etc. but others such as tooling take day(s) to week(s) to stabilize, and others are open research questions — with no group systematically monitoring fine-tunability. In the early era of open models, the days of Llama 2 or 3 and Qwen pre v3.5, the architectures were fairly simple and the models tended to work out of the box. Some of this was due to the extremely hard work of the Llama, Qwen, Mistral, etc. developer teams. Some is due to the new models being genuinely harder to work with. When it comes to something like Qwen 3.5 or Nemotron 3, with hybrid models (either gated delta net or mamba layers), the tooling is very rough at release. Things you would expect to “just work” often don’t. I’ve been following this area closely since we released Olmo Hybrid with a similar architecture, and Qwen 3.5 is just starting to work well in the various open-source tools that need to all play nice together for RL research. That’s 1.5 months after the release date! This is just to start really investing more into understanding the behavior of the models. Of course, others started working on these models sooner by investing more engineering resources or relying on partially closed software. The fully open and distributed ecosystem takes a long time to get going on some new models. All of this is lead-in for the most important question for open models — how easy is it to adapt to specific use-cases? This is a different problem for different model sizes. Large MoE open-weight models may be used by entities like Cursor who need complex capabilities in their domain, e.g. Composer 2 trained on Kimi K2.5. Other applications can be built on much smaller models, such as Chroma’s Context-1 model for agentic search, built on GPT-OSS 20B. The question of “which models are fine-tunable” is largely background knowledge known by engineers across the industry. There should be a thriving research area here to support the open ecosystem model. The first step is to understand characteristics of different base and post-trained models to understand what they look like. The second step is to tune pretraining recipes for open models so they’re more flexible. Interconnects AI is a reader-supported publication. Consider becoming a subscriber. Subscribe For The ATOM Project and other Interconnects endeavors, we’ve put in substantial effort to measuring adoption trends in the open ecosystem. Everything takes a long time to unfold after a model is first publicly available — and adaptability is why. What we know for sure now, when Qwen has been going from strength to strength with its releases, is that technical staff across the industry has gotten comfortable working with Qwen models. Countless research methods and datasets were made to work with Qwen. It’ll take patience for any other model family to get to this point — a patience I’m not sure many open model builders have. This takes us to Gemma 4, Google’s latest open models. Gemma 3 was released more than a year ago, in March of 2025, and is a bit underrated. Gemma 4 comes in 4 sizes for now, with a bigger, MoE model of over 100B total parameters rumored but not released yet. The models we have today come in sizes of ~5B dense, 8B dense, 26B total 4B active MoE, and 31B dense. I’m most excited that they’re finally adopting a standard Apache 2.0 open source license. This’ll massively boost adoption. The standard of better licenses for strong open-weight LLMs was set by mostly Chinese open model labs in the last 1-2 years, and now U.S. companies are following suit. I will personally be so happy if the horrible Llama licenses and Gemma terms of service were an ~18-month transient dynamic of the industry being nervous about releasing strong open models. The Gemma 4 scores look very solid, the small models have incredible benchmark scores (especially in general domains like LMArena) and the 31B model rivals the recent Qwen 3.5 27B, which is the leading member of that class. The ~30B size range is an important one, as it’s accessible both to researchers and to enterprises looking to deploy the model in real use-cases. Where the 7B model scale is the default for tinkering and research, a 30B model is the default for seeing if an open model can unlock substantial value in your specific workflow — a good mix of intelligence, low price, tractability for downstream training, etc. This takes us back to the above adoption criteria I mentioned for open models and the bigger question — do I think Gemma 4 will be an overwhelming success? Previous Gemma models have been plagued by tooling issues and poorer performance when being finetuned. Gemma 4’s success is going to be entirely determined by ease of use, to a point where a 5-10% swing on benchmarks wouldn’t matter at all. It’s strong enough, small enough, with the right license, and from the U.S., so many companies are going to slot it in. I’m cautiously optimistic that Gemma 4 is going to work better here. Winds are shifting for open models built in America. We saw GPT-OSS go through a bumpy launch to become an overwhelming success. There’s a collective energy around the likes of Reflection, Arcee, Nemotron, Gemma, Olmo, and peers that show substantial demand for building new stacks around open models. There’s capital to be spent on AI stacks across the economy by those who want more ownership of everything, including the model. After launching The ATOM Project 240 days ago, the conversation is shifting into the next stage. Summer of 2025 was a crisis moment where the U.S. AI scene realized it can’t wait and figure out open models after building AGI. The two markets will capture different areas and proceed in parallel. Now that more companies in the U.S. are releasing strong models, we need to improve the ecosystem so that these models are easy to use, understand, and build value around. It’s the hard work to build another inflection point in these adoption plots I’ve been updating consistently, but that’s the work to be done. Join me in it. More data coming soon! Here’s a sneak peek:
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