Latest news with #LosAngelesTimes
New Straits Times
11 hours ago
- Entertainment
- New Straits Times
#SHOWBIZ: Kool & the Gang's Michael Sumler dies in car crash at 71
LOS ANGELES: Michael Sumler, also known as Chicago Mike, who served as a hype man and stylist for the soul-funk band Kool & the Gang, died on Sunday in a car crash in Georgia. He was 71. His death was confirmed by a band spokesman, according to the Los Angeles Times. Atlanta TV station 11Alive reported that Sumler was killed when his car collided with another vehicle on Veterans Memorial Highway in Georgia's Cobb County. Sumler had performed on Sunday evening with the group Con Funk Shun, whose member Michael Cooper paid tribute, saying, "We had no idea that Sunday night's Love's Train would be your last ride. Rest in heavenly peace." Kool & the Gang, known for hits such as 'Ladies Night' and 'Celebration', described Sumler as their "longtime wardrobe valet" from 2000 to 2015, ensuring the band "looked their best on stage every night." He also "hyped the crowd with his energy and dance moves." The group, formed in the mid-1960s, was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame last year and is recognised as "the most sampled group in hip-hop history."
Yahoo
21 hours ago
- General
- Yahoo
Dodgers reliever Evan Phillips to undergo season-ending Tommy John surgery
Dodgers pitcher Evan Phillips delivers against the Pittsburgh Pirates on April 26. Phillips will undergo season-ending Tommy John surgery on June 4, Dave Roberts said. (Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times) Dodgers reliever Evan Phillips is scheduled to get Tommy John surgery next week and will miss the rest of the season, manager Dave Roberts announced Friday. Phillips had missed the last three weeks because of forearm discomfort — and had not progressed in his recovery despite initial optimism that he would only miss the minimum 15 days on the injured list. Advertisement Phillips, 30, started this season in the IL while recovering from a partially torn rotator cuff he suffered in last year's postseason. He returned in late April and made seven scoreless appearances before getting hurt during the Dodgers' trip to Miami earlier this month. Read more: Shaikin: 'Another log on the fire.' Yankees eager to avenge World Series meltdown against Dodgers Betts out with toe injury Shortstop Mookie Betts was not in the team's lineup for Friday's series opener against the New York Yankees with a toe injury. According to Roberts, Betts stubbed his toe after the team returned from this week's road trip on Wednesday. He was initially expected to play Friday, but had trouble putting on his cleats before the game. Advertisement Betts will get an X-ray, Roberts said, and is considered day-to-day. Sign up for more Dodgers news with Dodgers Dugout. Delivered at the start of each series. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Yahoo
a day ago
- Science
- Yahoo
Wildfire threatens Joshua trees in area considered a 'last refuge' for the species
A fire ignited in the Covington Flats area of Joshua Tree National Park on Friday afternoon and burned 165 acres in a region that experts say is critical to the species' future in a warming climate. Meg Rockwell, a spokesperson for the national park, said it wasn't immediately clear if any Joshua trees in the area had burned, but she said there are major concerns about the possibility of damage to the trees. "This area is important for the long-term survival of the Joshua trees," Rockwell said. "It's that last refuge." San Bernardino County Fire officials said no structures are threatened. Read more: World's oldest trees threatened by Silver fire in Inyo County. Crews halt spread of blaze The Covington Flats region—located in a northwestern section of the park—is known as a "climate refugia" sitting at a slightly higher elevation, which brings cooler temperatures and more rainfall. These slight differences could be enough, experts say, to to allow Joshua trees to continue to survive and reproduce even under a hotter, drier climate that is expected in the coming decades. The iconic trees are not adapted to wildfire, meaning any fire damage can be devastating to the population. The Eureka fire was reported around noon Friday and had no containment as of 2:30 p.m. The park reported temperatures Friday around 85 degrees with wind gusts up to about 20 mph in the area. Rockwell said additional fire crews from the Bureau of Land Management and San Bernardino County had been called in to assist with the firefight. Read more: How large fires are altering the face of California's Mojave Desert The Joshua tree is cherished for its distinctive silhouette and singular role as a linchpin of the Mojave Desert ecosystem. Yet the iconic succulent is losing suitable habitat at a brisk clip due to climate change, worsening wildfires and development, scientists and environmental advocates say. While the Joshua tree is currently ubiquitous, climate models show there won't be much suitable habitat left by the end of the century. That's why protecting areas like Covington Flats is so important, Rockwell said. But, experts have also found that many of these cooler, higher-elevation areas — that are more hospitable for Joshua trees — are also susceptible to wildfires because they tend to have denser vegetation. Two large wildfires have killed an estimated 1.8 million Joshua trees in and around the Mojave National Preserve since 2020. Staff writer Alex Wigglesworth contributed to this report. Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Forbes
a day ago
- Business
- Forbes
The Cannabis Industry Tries To Police Itself In California
A laboratory worker tests cannabis for harmful contaminants. (Photo by Robert ATANASOVSKI / AFP) ... More (Photo by ROBERT ATANASOVSKI/AFP via Getty Images) No one likes dirty weed. Or unclean air or polluted water. Most citizens are too busy to keep track of what's clean and what's not, so they depend on the government to do that work for them. They expect their hard-earned tax dollars will be used for basic services like clean water and air. When these basic services are not done properly, scandal erupts as whistleblowers or journalists uncover the truth. Contaminated drinking water in Flint, Michigan, is one example that captured the nation's attention. In my home state of California, a giant scandal erupted in June 2024 when the Los Angeles Times and Weed Week reported that many cannabis brands were contaminated with pesticides and heavy metals despite lab testing being a big part of the regulatory framework for legalization. In fact, a majority of legal brands and illicit products that the Times and Weed Week independently lab tested failed. Further examination of these press reports finds one scary pesticide after another was found in the legal supply chain. Consumer confidence may have taken a big hit as a result. The reports also indicate that the Department of Cannabis Control (DCC), the regulating body of legal weed in the state, failed to do its job by properly regulating the labs that do the testing. As a result, the Times found that many labs falsify reports to give their clients a clean bill of health or higher potency results, or both. This corruption should, in theory, be easy to detect by the DCC within their own lab-testing facility but no such facility currently exists or is operational as of this writing. It's no secret that legal weed is heavily regulated and taxed in California but surprisingly, the commercial lab-testing facilities were largely left alone with no state lab to verify results and hold actors accountable. Given the existential nature of the scandal on consumer confidence, the legal cannabis industry has taken action to step into this regulatory void with a nonprofit organization called the Environmental and Consumer Protection Organization (ECCO) launched in December 2024. The intent is to give consumers more confidence that cannabis products sold in the licensed market are clean. The ECCO certification logo allows consumers to quickly identify clean products in California ... More dispensaries. ECCO has developed its own set of lab-testing standards for cannabis covering 138 harmful contaminants, far more than what the state DCC requires. Brands can sign up and pay a monthly fee to become members and enter into the lab-testing protocols that ECCO has developed. If a brand passes the tests, it can be certified by ECCO with a ECCO certification logo on products allowing consumers to quickly identify compliant products. "We built ECCO because the industry was operating on broken trust,' said Ford Smith, ECCO founding member and CEO of Ultranative. 'When lab results are manipulated, when contaminants are overlooked, it's not just bad business — it's a public health failure.' Smith was mindful not to throw regulators under the bus when I spoke to him. 'We're not here to play gotcha,' he said. 'We're here to give consumers, patients, and responsible operators a way to rebuild confidence with real transparency and science-backed standards.' When I emailed the DCC for comment, they pointed me to their own data and a report prepared by a third-party economic organization indicating growth in the legal market in 2024. The DCC didn't address the LA Times reporting or the industry forming ECCO in response to that reporting. 'The Department of Cannabis Control's data, and ERA's California Cannabis Market Report, shows an increase in the licensed market through the end of 2024, which belies a lack of consumer trust,' said David Hafner, media relations manager for the DCC. 'To this end, the Department is closely monitoring its licensees as evidenced by the 117 actions taken against licensees and 52 recalls issued in 2025. The Department has no opinion regarding ECCO's claims, its business model, or its motivations.' ECCO is currently working with two lab-testing facilities that have the necessary equipment to complete the rigorous testing panel they've developed. The labs were chosen for their track record of resisting 'THC inflation' and for having transparent ownership willing to share data and undergo the ECCO protocols. This includes blind testing and third-party audits conducted by ECCO. Testing labs Infinite and Anresco are currently doing the testing for ECCO but the organization hopes to bring more labs on in the future. ECCO recently released their first blind-testing audit that's at the core of their attempt to hold the industry accountable. ECCO purchases two SKUs from random licensed cannabis dispensaries and sends them off to the labs. This is essentially what the LA Times did when they dropped their investigative reporting last June. ECCO audits both member brands and non-member brands. The nine member brands all passed the first audit and several non-member brands failed. ECCO has not published the brands that failed yet but that may be due to sharing information and data with the DCC, which is the enforcement agency for any violations. ECCO has described the relationship with the DCC as 'cautiously collaborative' while maintaining their complete independence from the DCC. The collective goal is to get dirty products off the shelf in California as quickly as possible. Citizens may be comforted to see the cannabis industry in California doing the hard work of holding itself accountable especially after the LA Times story dropped. It took about a year for the industry to respond by forming ECCO, developing the lab-testing panel, and conducting the first audit. In my experience, getting this far in one year is laudable and ECCO has other initiatives to build trust with consumers. In the near future, ECCO plans to create displays at retailers like Catalyst, one of the largest in the state, to further inform consumers. Elliot Lewis, CEO of Catalyst, has been a big champion of ECCO on social media. There's still a big challenge ahead to scale ECCO. It's a big state with hundreds of brands and operators. ECCO will need more than the current dozen members to become viable. More large operators like Catalyst will need to embrace ECCO to give it more traction in the market and inform consumers that ECCO exists. There are also other certification organizations like Clean Green and Sun and Earth, which mainly deal with farm certifications not manufacturers. Yet certificate fragmentation may be a concern when funding is limited (as it always is) and consumers may already be confused. The future of ECCO will depend on the willingness of the industry to undergo more scrutiny, buy into the lab-testing protocols, be willing to be held accountable publicly, and tell the story to consumers with transparency and trust. Whether or not the industry is both willing and able to scale ECCO may determine its fate with consumers. Media outlets like the LA Times and Weed Week will no doubt investigate the supply chain again. As the old saying goes, the whole world is watching. If ECCO reaches its potential, then future investigations by the media should be more positive. At that point, the industry may be able to take a bow instead of hanging its head.
Wall Street Journal
a day ago
- General
- Wall Street Journal
Imagine Spending All Weekend Listening to Progressive Activists
Today's headline isn't intended to spoil the mood with summer just around the corner. But political news from the West Coast carries the intriguing possibility that even pillars of the Democratic Party find their activist base just as tiresome as the rest of the country does. Maybe the progressive era really is over. Seema Mehta reports for the Los Angeles Times:
