Los Angeles mayor lifts curfew imposed after immigration raids, protests
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) -Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass on Tuesday lifted a curfew imposed on part of the city's downtown to curb crime in the wake of raids on undocumented migrants that prompted protests.
The restriction on people's movements went into place last Tuesday, affecting about one square mile of the city's downtown between 8 p.m. local time (0300 GMT on Wednesday) and 6 a.m. the following morning.
On Monday, Bass said the curfew would be reduced, with a later start time of 10pm, as acts of violence, vandalism and looting had markedly declined. On Tuesday, it fully ended.
"The curfew, coupled with ongoing crime prevention efforts, have been largely successful in protecting stores, restaurants, businesses and residential communities from bad actors who do not care about the immigrant community," she said in a statement.
The heightened immigration enforcement in the city prompted the strongest backlash to President Donald Trump since he returned to power in January, pitting the Republican enacting a campaign pledge to deport immigrants against Democratic leaders in California who opposed the tactics.
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31 minutes ago
Minnesota shooting suspect started as a frustrated idealist, his writings show
Vance Boelter was preoccupied with societal problems and how he could fix them to serve the greater good, according to some of his previous writings and the man who worked with Boelter for more than a decade doing web design for a series of his projects. Before allegedly carrying out a "political assassination" on Saturday, Boelter was "clearly very religious, very passionate," and "devout, and sincere in his beliefs," said Charlie Kalech, CEO of the web design firm J-Town, commissioned by Boelter. But at that time, Boelter appeared to show no signs of the violent extremism of which he's now accused, Kalech said. Boelter is charged with killing Democratic Minnesota state Rep. Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark, and wounding Democratic state Sen. John Hoffman and his wife. Allegedly posing as a police officer over Father's Day weekend, authorities said Boelter "shot them in cold blood" in an alleged early-morning rampage that launched a two-day manhunt. However, in the preceding years, Boelter seemed like a hard worker striving to make his ideas real, and sometimes, struggling to make ends meet. His fervent personality frothed with big, civic-minded ideas on how to "make the world a better place," Kalech said. In the professional relationship they had, Boelter was clearly "idealistic." "I think he sincerely believed in the projects that we worked on, that he was acting for the greater good," Kalech told ABC News. "I certainly never got the impression he saw himself as a savior. He just thought of himself as a smart guy who figured out the solution to problems, and it's not so difficult – so let's just do it. Like a call to action kind of person." Most of those grand-scale projects never came to fruition, and the last time Kalech said he had contact with Boelter was May 2022. But in planning documents and PowerPoint presentations shared with ABC News, which Kalech said Boelter wrote for the web design, Boelter detailed lengthy proposals that expressed frustration with what he saw as unjust suffering that needed to be stopped. Some of those projects were also sweeping, to the point of quixotic -- even for the deepest-pocketed entrepreneur. Boelter first reached out to Kalech's firm for a book he had written, "Revoformation," which Kalech took to be a mashup between "revolution" and "reformation." It's also the name of the ministry Boelter had once tried to get off the ground, according to the organization's tax forms. "It seemed to me like maybe he volunteered more than what was good for him. In other words, he gave too much away instead of worrying about earning money, because he didn't always have money," Kalech said. "It was never clear to me if the ministry really existed. Are there congregants? Is there a constituency? I don't know. Or was it like something in his head that he was trying to make? That was never clear to me." Kalech recalled that Boelter chose his firm for the work because they are Jerusalem-based, and he wanted to support Israel. Boelter's interest in religion's impact on society is reflected in a "Revoformation" PowerPoint that Kalech said Boelter gave him, dated September 2017. "I am very concerned that the leadership in the U.S. is slowly turning against Israel because we are losing our Judaic / Christian foundations that was [sic] once very strong," the presentation said. "I believe that if the Christians are united and the people who are leading this Revoformation are a blessing to Israel that it will be good for both Israel and the U.S." Over the years, Boelter would reach out with what appeared to be exponentially ambitious endeavors, Kalech said: "What he wanted to take on, I think, might have been bigger." Boelter wanted to end American hunger, according to another project's PowerPoint. And while the idea would require massive changes to current laws and food regulation, it appeared Boelter dismissed that as surmountable if only elected officials could get on board. "American Hunger isn't a food availability problem," the presentation said. "American Hunger is a tool that has been used to manipulate and control a vast number of American's [sic], with the highest percentage being people of color. This tool can and should be broken now, and failure to do so will be seen as intentional criminal negligence by future generations." "We should be embarrassed as a nation that we let this happen and have not correctly [sic] this injustice 100 years ago," one slide said. One slide how described how his own lived experience informed his idea, referring to him in the third person: "several times in his life Vance Boelter was the first person on the scene of very bad head on car accidents," and that he was able to help "without fear of doing something wrong" because he was "protected" by Good Samaritan law – which could and should be applied to food waste, the slide said. To keep an eye on which lawmakers supported the necessary legislation, "there needs to be a tracking mechanism," the presentation said, where citizens could "see listed every singe [sic] elected official and where they stand on the Law (Food Providers Good Samaritan Law)." "Those few that come out and try to convince people that it is better to destroy food than to give it away free to people, will be quickly seen for who they are. Food Slavers that have profited off the hunger of people for years," the 18-slide, nearly 2,000-word presentation said. "At least in his mind and on paper, he was solving problems," Kalech told ABC News. "He would think about things and then have a euphoric moment and write out a manifesto of, How am I going to solve this? And then bring those thoughts to paper and bring that paper to an action plan and try to implement it." The last project Kalech said Boelter wanted to engage him for was a multifaceted collection of corporations to help start-up and expanding businesses in the Democratic Republic of Congo, all under the umbrella "Red Lion Group." The 14-page, over 6,000-word planning document for the project outlined ideas for what Red Lion Group would offer: ranging widely from "security services" to agricultural and weapons manufacturing sectors, medical supplies, investment services, martial arts, oil and gas and waste management. Red Lion would also serve in media spaces: with "CONGOWOOD" Film Productions "to be what Hollywood is to American movies and what Bollywood is to Indian movies." Boelter was to have a 49% minority ownership of the group, with a business partner owning 51%. "The Africa thing, the Red Lion thing, we didn't really get into it, because it became pretty apparent pretty soon that he just didn't have the funds to go ahead," Kalech said – at least, as far as his web design services were concerned. "He was interested in doing good," Kalech said. "But moderation in all things, and when good becomes extreme, it actually becomes bad," adding that hurting anyone crosses a "red line." "The question one keeps coming back to is – what makes the seesaw tip? Like, he's good, he's good, he's good, he's acting for the greater good, he has all these good ideas, he's trying to engage community, serving on a government committee, he's engaging churches and places of worship, and then something happens, and he goes ballistic," Kalech said. "Who would do that? Someone who's absolutely desperate, just seeing that there's no other choice. That's the only thing I can imagine. But look, obviously someone like this is not operating on the same frequency as we are," Kalech said. "They're blinded by their faith, or their beliefs. And, you know, especially something like murder, it's so ironic, because that's one of the big 10."
Yahoo
33 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Wall Street futures steady ahead of Fed's interest rate verdict
(Reuters) -U.S. stock index futures edged higher on Wednesday ahead of the Federal Reserve's monetary policy decision, while the Israel-Iran conflict entered its sixth day, with new missile strikes launched from both sides. A Federal Reserve monetary policy decision is due at 02:00 p.m. ET where policymakers are widely expected to leave interest rates unchanged at the 4.25%-4.5% range. Investors will focus on Fed Chair Jerome Powell's comments to gauge how he plans to combat the risk of rising prices, which remain a dominant concern for the central bank. The central bank is expected to balance the risk of slowing growth and higher inflation. "A lot has happened since their last meeting in early May ... given that uncertainty and the potential for fresh inflationary spikes, they're widely expected to keep rates on hold again," Jim Reid, global head of macro and thematic research at Deutsche Bank, said in a note. Money market moves show traders are pricing in about 46 basis points of rate cuts by the end of 2025, with a 56% chance of a 25-bps rate cut in September, according to CME Group's FedWatch tool. With conflict escalating in the oil-rich Middle East, markets have been on edge over the possibility of a more direct U.S. military involvement in the Israel-Iran aerial war. A source familiar with internal discussions said U.S. President Donald Trump and his team were considering a number of options, which included joining Israel in strikes against Iranian nuclear sites. At 05:37 a.m. ET, Dow E-minis were up 89 points, or 0.21%, S&P 500 E-minis were up 16.5 points, or 0.28%. Nasdaq 100 E-minis were up 75.5 points, or 0.35%. Initial jobless claims data is scheduled at 08:30 a.m. ET. Among premarket movers, shares of Tesla rose nearly 1%. Shares of stablecoin issuer Circle Internet rose 3.1% after the U.S. Senate passed a bill to create a regulatory framework for dollar-pegged cryptocurrency tokens known as stablecoins. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
San Francisco Chronicle
33 minutes ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
Civil rights agency's acting chief to face questions on anti-DEI, transgender stances
WASHINGTON, D.C. (AP) — The acting chief of the country's top agency for enforcing worker rights will face questions at a Senate committee hearing Wednesday over her efforts to prioritize anti-diversity investigations while sidelining certain racial and gender discrimination cases and quashing protections for transgender workers. Andrea Lucas, who was first appointed to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in 2020 and elevated to acting chief in January, is one of four Labor Department nominees to appear before the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions. Her nomination to serve another five-year term as an EEOC commissioner requires Senate confirmation, though whether she stays on as chief will be up to President Donald Trump. Lucas, an outspoken critic of diversity, equity and inclusion practices and promoter of the idea that there are only two immutable sexes, has moved swiftly to enact Trump's civil rights agenda after he abruptly fired two of the EEOC's Democratic commissioners before the end of their five-year terms, an unprecedented move in the agency's 60-year history that has been challenged in a lawsuit. Lucas is prioritizing worker rights that conservatives argue have been ignored by the EEOC. That includes investigating company DEI practices, defending the rights of women to same-sex spaces and fighting anti-Christian bias in the workplace. Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy, chairman of the Senate committee holding the hearing, has championed many of those causes. He accused the EEOC under the Biden administration of 'injecting its far-left" agenda into the workplace, including by updating sexual harassment guidelines to warn against misgendering transgender workers and including abortion as a pregnancy-related condition under regulations for the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act. Questioning the EEOC's independence Democrats on the committee are likely to grill Lucas over criticism that she overstepped her authority by profoundly shifting the EEOC's direction to the whims of the president in the absence of a quorum, which commission has lacked since Trump fired the two commissioners. Sen. Patty Murray, a member of the committee, said she will oppose any EEOC nominations unless Trump reinstates the two fired Democratic commissioners, which she and more than 200 other Democratic senators and Congress members condemned in a letter to the president as an abuse of power. 'President Trump is weaponizing the independent EEOC to serve his personal political agenda, firing commissioners without cause and warping the mission of the EEOC beyond recognition,' Murray said in a statement ahead of the hearing. 'Commissioner Lucas is a right-wing extremist who has been in lockstep behind Trump's pro-discrimination agenda.' Lucas has made clear her views of the limitations of the EEOC's autonomy. In a recent memo to employers, Lucas declared that the 'EEOC is an executive branch agency, not an independent agency" that will "fully and robustly comply" with all executive orders. That includes two orders that Trump signed in January: one directing federal agencies to eliminate their own DEI activities and end any 'equity-related' grants or contracts, and the other imposing a certification provision on all companies and institutions with government contracts or grant dollars to demonstrate that they don't operate DEI programs. The EEOC's new approach alarmed more than 30 civil rights groups, which sent a letter to the Senate committee demanding that Lucas face a hearing. The groups argued that the EEOC was created by Congress under 1964 Civil Rights Act to be a bipartisan agency that would function independently from the executive branch. The EEOC, the only federal agency empowered to investigate employment discrimination in the private sector, received more than 88,000 charges of workplace discrimination in fiscal year 2024. Its commissioners are appointed by the president to staggered terms, and no more than three can be from the same party. Much of the EEOC's authority is granted by Congress, including the obligation to investigate all complaints and enact regulations for implementing some laws. EEOC shifts the focus of discrimination cases Under Lucas, the EEOC dropped seven of its own lawsuits on behalf of transgender or nonbinary workers. It also moved to drop a racial discrimination case on behalf of Black, Native American and multiracial job applicants after Trump ordered federal agencies to stop pursuing discrimination that falls under 'disparate impact liability,' which aims to identify practices that systematically exclude certain demographic groups. Instead, Lucas has turned the EEOC's attention to investigating company DEI practices. In her most high profile move, she sent letters to 20 law firms demanding information about diversity fellowships and other programs she claimed could be evidence of discriminatory practices. Lucas has also repeatedly encouraged workers nationwide to come forward with DEI complaints. She launched a hotline for whistleblowers and said workers should be encouraged to report bad DEI practices after a Supreme Court decision made it easier for white and other non-minority workers to bring reverse-discrimination lawsuits. ________ The Associated Press' women in the workforce and state government coverage receives financial support from Pivotal Ventures. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP's standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at
