Latest news with #Michaelson
Los Angeles Times
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- Los Angeles Times
Long time anchor Elex Michaelson exits Fox station KTTV
Elex Michaelson, veteran anchor of KTTV's evening and late night newscasts, is departing the station. A representative for KTTV parent Fox Television Stations confirmed Michaelson's plan to exit. which was described as amicable. Michaelson did not respond to a request for comment. People familiar with his plans who were not authorized to comment said the anchor was leaving for another position. Michaelson, 38, has been with the Los Angeles outlet since 2017. He co-anchored the 5 p.m. and 10 p.m. newscasts with Christine Devine and the 6 p.m. edition with Maria Tellez. Michaelson is also host and producer of the weekly statewide political talk show 'The Issue Is,' which airs on various TV stations throughout the state in addition to KTTV. He previously worked at Disney-owned Los Angeles station KABC-TV and XETV in San Diego. The Agoura Hills native's first job in broadcasting was as an intern at KTTV. Michaelson is a well liked figure in Los Angeles media circles. Some of that good will is due to his mother's baked goods, which are prepared on Thursday and given to guests at the Friday taping of 'The Issue Is.' Michaelson is the winner of eight local Emmy Awards, seven Golden Mics, and six L.A. Press Club awards including TV Journalist of the Year. While at KTTV, Michaelson organized and co-moderated debates for California governor, U.S. senator, L.A. mayor, L.A. county sheriff, and multiple congressional races. He also covered national politics for the station. Matt Hamilton contributed to this report.
Los Angeles Times
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- Los Angeles Times
The cookies that unite California's politicians, no matter their party
Fox 11 anchor Elex Michaelson is one of the nice guys in L.A. media. His tough-but-fair-and-especially-polite lines of questioning made him a natural to help moderate debates for the L.A. mayoral and sheriff's races three years ago. The 38-year-old Agoura Hills native is so nice that he's known not just for his work but also … his mom's cookies and brownies. Michaelson gifts every guest who treks up to Fox 11's West L.A. studios for his weekly public affairs show 'The Issue Is' a box of the desserts. We're talking former California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, billionaire Rick Caruso, L.A. County Dist. Atty. Nathan Hochman, Democratic Rep. Nancy Pelosi and dozens of other political heavyweights on both sides of the proverbial aisle. U.S. Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) once brought a bag of Porto's to Michaelson's team in gratitude for all the cookies and brownies he had received over the years. Former Congress member and current California gubernatorial candidate Katie Porter sent Elex's mom, Crystal, a handwritten thank-you note. 'Every single time I see [L.A. County Sheriff] Robert Luna, he brings them up without fail,' Michaelson said with pride in a phone interview. One not-so-famous person who has been lucky enough to enjoy them? Me. Elex recently gave me a box when I appeared on 'The Issue Is' just after U.S. Border Patrol sector chief Gregory Bovino, who took time off from bloviating about the border to accept the goodies because even la migra gets sweets, I guess. Crystal Michaelson's cookies and brownies are worthy of a stall at the Hollywood farmers market, and I'm not saying that just so I can appear on 'The Issue Is' again soon. The cookies last time around were blondies studded with chocolate chips and M&Ms. Slightly toasted on the outside, chewy on the inside, thick yet airy and spiked with an extra dash of vanilla, the blondies were beautiful. Just as delicious were the brownies, all about the firm, dark-chocolate-derived fudge that crackled with each bite. Both featured a generous sprinkling of sea salt, the crystals perfectly cutting through all the sugar and butter. They didn't last the drive back to Orange County. When Elex took his mom to a holiday party hosted by then-Vice President Kamala Harris some years back, most of the movers and shakers greeted her with the same enthusiasm they showed her son because of what she bakes. 'I'm not really a baker!' insisted Crystal, an artist by trade. She makes the goodies every Thursday afternoon, the day before 'The Issue Is' tapes, with an occasional assist by Elex. 'But it's turned into a whole thing!' The tradition dates back to elementary school, when Crystal treated Elex's teachers and classmates to them as 'a thank you.' Elex took some to the first and last day of his college internship for Fox 11 to hand out to the newsroom, then repeated the gesture when he worked at XETV in San Diego and ABC 7 in Los Angeles before returning to Fox 11. 'Their first and last impression of me,' he said, 'were these cookies.' Michaelson repeated the move every day for the first week of 'The Issue Is.' The inaugural guests were Newsom, then-Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff (now California's junior U.S. senator), and commentator Areva Martin. 'Everyone loved the cookies so much that they joked, 'We won't return unless we get more cookies,'' Michaelson said. The crew insisted they get treated to them one more week, 'and my mom just never really stopped since then,' even baking and shipping them to regular guests during the COVID era as a Christmas gift. 'One of the only things that seems to unite Republicans and Democrats [in California] is these cookies and brownies,' Elex said. 'There's nothing like the unifying power of food to bring people together to not just talk, but listen to each other.' Crystal gets a shout-out in the show's closing credits for 'cookies, brownies and moral support.' She learned the recipes as a teen, from a family friend. They're baked in a Pyrex baking dish, sliced into squares, then put in cardboard boxes that she decorates by writing, 'The Issue Is ... ' People have suggested Crystal sell them, but she declines: 'I'm not a baker.' For now, she's flattered by all the attention — Newsom once wrote a letter on his official letterhead raving about them. The only issue she sees with them …is Elex. 'He eats them too much,' Crystal said. 'I've said before that maybe I should make them a little bit healthier. And everyone said, 'No, don't do that!'' Today's photo of the day is from photographer Tyler Matthew Oyer of a 200-person literary reading inside of a pool at the Korean Spa. Jim Rainey, staff writerDiamy Wang, homepage internIzzy Nunes, audience internKevinisha Walker, multiplatform editorAndrew Campa, Sunday writerKarim Doumar, head of newsletters How can we make this newsletter more useful? Send comments to essentialcalifornia@ Check our top stories, topics and the latest articles on
Yahoo
28-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
L.A. Times sues city over Mayor Bass' deleted text messages during fire response
The Los Angeles Times filed a lawsuit Thursday against the city of L.A., accusing officials of unlawfully withholding and deleting the mayor's text messages and other public records from January's firestorm. The city has already turned over many of the exchanges between Mayor Karen Bass and other officials sought by Times reporters. But officials have argued they are not compelled to do so under state public records laws. The Times disagreed. Empowering public officials to scrub their records or to decide which are subject to the law sets a dangerous precedent, Thursday's suit argued. "It's bigger than these text messages," said Kelly Aviles, outside counsel for The Times. "The city seems to believe they can destroy whatever they want whenever they want, and that they don't have a duty to the public to retain public records." Read more: L.A. mayor's text messages provide vivid window into early fire response Politics reporter Julia Wick and investigative reporter Matt Hamilton joined the action as L.A. residents, aiming to block city officials from destroying protected material. Bass was in Ghana when the fires broke out on Jan. 7. She joined a Biden administration delegation feting the country's new president, despite warnings about the explosive potential of incoming Santa Ana winds. That choice may well decide her political future. Exchanges published by The Times this week gave the first clear picture into the mayor's early actions as the city caught fire and burned. Yet those exchanges with her staff and senior government officials could have remained secret, since Bass' messages had been set to auto-delete after 30 days — far shorter than the two-year retention period outlined in the city's administrative code. Officials initially told Wick those texts did not exist, and then said that they had been deleted. After months of back and forth with the paper, the mayor's office ultimately said it was able to recover the deleted texts, and last week provided about 125 messages, noting that an unspecified number of others were 'redacted and/or withheld' based on exemptions to the law. "The Mayor's office has responded to hundreds of public records requests since she was elected and we will continue to do so," said David Michaelson, counsel to the mayor. "The Mayor's office released responsive texts to a PRA request from the Times last week and the Office will continue to respond to public record requests." Read more: LAFD actions in Palisades fire shrouded in secrecy as city refuses to release records Still, Michaelson told Wick the texts were beyond the reach of the California Public Records Act. The mayor's texts were "ephemeral," Michaelson told Wick in a March 7 email, and thus protected from public scrutiny. He cited a 1981 Supreme Court decision that cast "fleeting thoughts and random bits of information" as exempt from records requests. But that ruling does not apply to officials' text messages and other electronic communication, Times attorneys argued. In an era of life-or-death decisions made on six-inch screens, the paper's suit makes the case that what politicians type with two thumbs is as durable as what they pen by hand. Under California law, any writing about public business, regardless of format, is covered by the records act and must be turned over. "The City's apparent position that an official may delete a text communication at any time as 'ephemeral' until a public records request is received would destroy the presumption of access to public records," The Times' lawsuit said. "All a public official would have to do to avoid public scrutiny is destroy the texts immediately after creating them." The mayor's texts are not the only records City Hall appears to have destroyed, the lawsuit alleged. Nor are they the only ones the paper's journalists are still seeking as part of their ongoing investigation of the fires. On Jan. 9, investigative reporter Alene Tchekmedyian sought "emails, text messages, reports, planning documents and memos — about fire planning and predeployment resources" from then-L.A. Fire Chief Kristin Crowley and her subordinates. On Feb. 19, City Hall reporter David Zahniser petitioned 'copies of correspondence regarding emergency preparations, high winds, wildfire conditions and the National Weather Service" involving City Council President Marqueece Harris Dawson while he served as acting mayor in Bass' absence. Zahniser received some records, but not the text messages he'd asked for. Tchekmedyian's request was denied in total. Questions about how American leaders communicate and what happens to those exchanges gained new urgency this week after senior White House officials were revealed to have mistakenly added a journalist to their Signal group chat while planning an air raid in Yemen. Read more: With billions at stake, lawyers pour into Altadena and race to courthouse On Thursday, Washington, D.C. Federal District Judge James E. Basberg ordered the participants of that chat to save the exchange in its entirety and to turn over their records of it. Shading such material from public records laws now on the argument they're fleeting and inconsequential defies reality, The Times' attorney said. "What you have to retain and what you have to turn over is based on the content of the communication, not based on the form or manner of the communication that you choose to use," Avilas said. The suit seeks to ensure important records "are not just destroyed at the city's whim." 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.
Los Angeles Times
28-03-2025
- Politics
- Los Angeles Times
L.A. Times sues city over Mayor Bass' deleted text messages during fire response
The Los Angeles Times filed a lawsuit Thursday against the city of L.A., accusing officials of unlawfully withholding and deleting the mayor's text messages and other public records from January's firestorm. The city has already turned over many of the exchanges between Mayor Karen Bass and other officials sought by Times reporters. But officials have argued they are not compelled to do so under state public records laws. The Times disagreed. Empowering public officials to scrub their records or to decide which are subject to the law sets a dangerous precedent, Thursday's suit argued. 'It's bigger than these text messages,' said Kelly Aviles, outside counsel for The Times. 'The city seems to believe they can destroy whatever they want whenever they want, and that they don't have a duty to the public to retain public records.' Politics reporter Julia Wick and investigative reporter Matt Hamilton joined the action as L.A. residents, aiming to block city officials from destroying protected material. Bass was in Ghana when the fires broke out on Jan. 7. She joined a Biden administration delegation feting the country's new president, despite warnings about the explosive potential of incoming Santa Ana winds. That choice may well decide her political future. Exchanges published by The Times this week gave the first clear picture into the mayor's early actions as the city caught fire and burned. Yet those exchanges with her staff and senior government officials could have remained secret, since Bass' messages had been set to auto-delete after 30 days — far shorter than the two-year retention period outlined in the city's administrative code. Officials initially told Wick those texts did not exist, and then said that they had been deleted. After months of back and forth with the paper, the mayor's office ultimately said it was able to recover the deleted texts, and last week provided about 125 messages, noting that an unspecified number of others were 'redacted and/or withheld' based on exemptions to the law. 'The Mayor's office has responded to hundreds of public records requests since she was elected and we will continue to do so,' said David Michaelson, counsel to the mayor. 'The Mayor's office released responsive texts to a PRA request from the Times last week and the Office will continue to respond to public record requests.' Still, Michaelson told Wick the texts were beyond the reach of the California Public Records Act. The mayor's texts were 'ephemeral,' Michaelson told Wick in a March 7 email, and thus protected from public scrutiny. He cited a 1981 Supreme Court decision that cast 'fleeting thoughts and random bits of information' as exempt from records requests. But that ruling does not apply to officials' text messages and other electronic communication, Times attorneys argued. In an era of life-or-death decisions made on six-inch screens, the paper's suit makes the case that what politicians type with two thumbs is as durable as what they pen by hand. Under California law, any writing about public business, regardless of format, is covered by the records act and must be turned over. 'The City's apparent position that an official may delete a text communication at any time as 'ephemeral' until a public records request is received would destroy the presumption of access to public records,' The Times' lawsuit said. 'All a public official would have to do to avoid public scrutiny is destroy the texts immediately after creating them.' The mayor's texts are not the only records City Hall appears to have destroyed, the lawsuit alleged. Nor are they the only ones the paper's journalists are still seeking as part of their ongoing investigation of the fires. On Jan. 9, investigative reporter Alene Tchekmedyian sought 'emails, text messages, reports, planning documents and memos — about fire planning and predeployment resources' from then-L.A. Fire Chief Kristin Crowley and her subordinates. On Feb. 19, City Hall reporter David Zahniser petitioned 'copies of correspondence regarding emergency preparations, high winds, wildfire conditions and the National Weather Service' involving City Council President Marqueece Harris Dawson while he served as acting mayor in Bass' absence. Zahniser received some records, but not the text messages he'd asked for. Tchekmedyian's request was denied in total. Questions about how American leaders communicate and what happens to those exchanges gained new urgency this week after senior White House officials were revealed to have mistakenly added a journalist to their Signal group chat while planning an air raid in Yemen. On Thursday, Washington, D.C. Federal District Judge James E. Basberg ordered the participants of that chat to save the exchange in its entirety and to turn over their records of it. Shading such material from public records laws now on the argument they're fleeting and inconsequential defies reality, The Times' attorney said. 'What you have to retain and what you have to turn over is based on the content of the communication, not based on the form or manner of the communication that you choose to use,' Avilas said. The suit seeks to ensure important records 'are not just destroyed at the city's whim.'
Los Angeles Times
09-03-2025
- General
- Los Angeles Times
Mayor Karen Bass is deleting her text messages, raising eyebrows and questions
Good morning, and welcome to the Essential California newsletter. It's Sunday. I'm your host, Andrew J. Campa. Here's what you need to know to start your weekend: Shortly after the Palisades fire erupted on Jan. 7, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass hopped on a flight home. She was roughly 7,000 miles away on a diplomatic trip to Ghana and faced a roughly 24-hour return trip. During that time, her staff said they were in constant contact with the mayor. What was communicated, however, remains a mystery. My colleagues Julia Wick and Matt Hamilton discovered that Bass' text messages during this time were not saved. They had a simple question: Why? Tale of the text A city lawyer, David Michaelson, told The Times that Bass' phone is set not to save text messages, and there is 'no requirement that a city official or employee' do so. This is despite the fact that the city's own document retention policies require most records be kept for two years at least. How did the text issue come about? Times reporters filed a public records request with the city on Jan. 10. They specifically asked for all text messages sent and received by the mayor as she was returning from Africa on Jan. 7 or Jan. 8 that specifically mentioned fire response or travel plans. Bass left Accra, Ghana, at about 9 p.m. on Jan. 7, (1 p.m. local time) and traveled the first leg on a military plane, where she could make phone calls and communicate by text and email. The next morning, she flew commercial from Washington Dulles International Airport and would have been able to communicate only by email and text. She reached Los Angeles International Airport at 11:24 a.m. on Jan. 8, according to her itinerary and flight records. It took about two months, but Bass' office eventually responded to The Times' request, saying it had 'no responsive records.' Interpretation of text obligations Michaelson said Friday that Bass' phone auto-deletes text messages. He added that this wasn't new and the setting has been in place for at least two years. Michaelson contended that city administrative code regarding retention, particularly Los Angeles Administrative Code Section 12.3(b)(6), does not apply to texts. That statute dictates that most records 'shall be retained for a minimum of two years unless a shorter period is otherwise permitted by law or a longer period is otherwise required by law, or unless, consistent with state law, a different period of retention is established by order or resolution of the Council.' That interpretation received some push back, however. Other agencies and officials have released a multitude of records from the early days of the fire in response to public records requests. California law dictates the release of these kind of records, unless there is a specific exemption. First Amendment Coalition Legal Director David Loy argued that Bass' texts should be retained. 'As I read the plain language of L.A.'s own administrative code, the city imposed upon itself a more stringent record retention requirement than state law might otherwise require,' he told The Times. For more, check out the full article. Trump administration policies and reactions Los Angeles fires and recovery Final days of Gene Hackman South by Southwest and Entertainment News More big stories Get unlimited access to the Los Angeles Times. Subscribe here. Column One is The Times' home for narrative and long-form journalism. Here's a great piece from this past week: In prison and seemingly unable to escape a destructive cycle that began when he was a child, Ahmed Bellozo spent hours watching investigative journalism shows, educational documentaries and Huell Howser's homespun travelogue, 'California's Gold.' It was a way, he said, to distract from his pain. Years later, out of prison and wanting a drastic change in his life, Bellozo turned to those shows for inspiration as he reinvented himself on social media as the star of 'On the Tira' — a video series that's part showcase of local landmarks, part investigative journalism and part hyperlocal news about fires and car accidents across the Inland Empire communities he's lived in for most of his life. More great reads How can we make this newsletter more useful? Send comments to essentialcalifornia@ Going out Staying in Get wrapped up in tantalizing stories about dating, relationships and marriage. That evening outside Eaton Canyon, the fire spread without halting. First it was 400 acres without containment, then 800. She had loved the canyon. It offered a sanctuary after her divorce. It is a place where she built a life with her husband and child. Though her house did not burn, the scars from the Eaton fire run deep. Will she fall in love with Eaton Canyon again as she once did? Have a great weekend, from the Essential California team Andrew J. Campa, reporterLuke Money, news editor Check our top stories, topics and the latest articles on
