Trump formally accepts defeat in $5 million E. Jean Carroll sexual abuse lawsuit

• September 29, 2026

Marking a novel development in his years-long legal battle with E. Jean Carroll, President Trump formally accepted defeat on Tuesday, withdrawing a failed effort to claw back some $5 million from the writer whom he was held liable for sexually abusing.

In a one-page order, the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals dismissed Trump’s appeal with prejudice, as agreed to by both sides, and noted he had withdrawn a motion seeking to pause a lower court ruling directing the payout. Trump’s appeal bid had been rendered null and void after he struck out at the U.S. Supreme Court twice this summer.

The July 9 release of funds to Carroll was triggered after the nation’s highest court declined to take up Trump’s appeal at the end of its term in June. Trump tried to claw back the money and asked the justices to reconsider, but they shot him down again in August, rendering moot the matter thrown out on Tuesday.

While a formality, Trump throwing in the towel was a rare sight on the lengthy court dockets covering his litigation with Carroll.

The money — totaling around $5.8 million, with interest — had been locked away in escrow for three years as Trump relentlessly appealed a jury’s May 2023 verdict finding he sexually assaulted Carroll, 82, inside a Midtown department store in 1996.

The former “Elle” columnist is still waiting to be paid the additional $83 million Trump owes her in a separate lawsuit she also won in 2023.

Trump has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn the findings in that case holding him liable for repeatedly defaming Carroll after she went public with her allegations, resulting in a torrent of death threats. A jury in January 2024 decided the mammoth sum owed.

In a statement, a spokesman for Trump’s legal team said, “The American People stand with President Trump as they demand an immediate end to all of the Witch Hunts, including the Democrat-funded travesty of the Carroll Hoaxes. President Trump will keep winning against Liberal Lawfare, as he continues to focus on his mission to Make America Great Again.”

Carroll’s lawyer declined to comment.

​ Orange County Register 

Kings 2026-27 season preview: A new era gets underway

• September 29, 2026

EL SEGUNDO –– The 60th year of Kings hockey will get underway Wednesday when the team travels to Denver, seeking to avenge a first-round sweep by the Colorado Avalanche.

Though they’ve had to get up from the poker table early in each of the past five postseasons, the Kings continued pushing more chips into the pot as they signed aging veteran after aging veteran in an attempt to right a ship that went off course after a disastrous 2023 offseason from which they have yet to recover.

The biggest shift for the Kings was behind the bench, with an overhauled coaching staff seeking to shake the doldrums of a stretch where they changed coaches roughly as often as they changed underwear.

In a Western Conference and Pacific Division that are still relatively thin, the Kings will again seek to move forward in the Stanley Cup Playoffs for the first time since 2014. Only the Detroit Red Wings, who last won a series in 2013, are experiencing a longer wait to advance.

New captain, new coach, new weapons

While the Kings neither blew up their roster nor went for broke to add to it this offseason, they hired their first name-brand coach, Peter Laviolette, since Todd McLellan arrived. Then they added winger Mats Zuccarello on a savvy deal whose balance can largely roll into next season’s cap considerations before naming defenseman Drew Doughty as the team captain.

Laviolette not only has one of the highest pedigrees among NHL coaches with the seventh-most victories in league history, but a reputation for making a swift impact. He’ll be reunited with flanker Artemi Panarin, whom the Kings added in February and previously thrived under Laviolette as a New York Ranger. He’ll also guide another offensive savant, Zuccarello, who had 54 points in 59 games for the Minnesota Wild last season.

Doughty, who joined the organization in 2008 and has long been an alternate captain, received the “C” from Anže Kopitar. Kopitar was more of a leader by example that brought the group back to the center from its highs and lows, while Doughty has long been the more fiery and bombastic voice in the room.

“He’s so emotional, he’s so vocal, he wants to win and he’s so open and honest. He doesn’t think he’s the smartest guy in the room; he wants everyone to be involved,” said blue-liner Brian Dumoulin, who played under Kopitar as well as Sidney Crosby in Pittsburgh. “When you talk about those other leaders that I’ve had, he fits right into that group.”

Special teams: nowhere to go but up

The Kings sank like a stone in the league standings – they went from sixth to 20th among 32 teams – and on the penalty kill, dropping from eighth to 30th year-over-year. The loss of top defenseman Vladislav Gavrikov on the heels of Matt Roy’s departure may have played a role, but it will soon be known if those declines were aberrations or new norms.

The power play was even more concerning, however, motivating general manager Ken Holland to work the phones in February and again in June. They had ranked 30th in the NHL before the 2025 trade deadline and only improved on that rating marginally last season, when they finished 28th.

Enter Panarin, a beacon of sentience in a formerly somnambulist man-advantage group that dragged his comrades into the fight. He’ll be joined this year by Zuccarello, 39, who shares Panarin’s prescience with the extra man as well as his ability to make deft cross-ice passes. The two will start the year on the top power-play unit, one that looked promising in the preseason.

“He’s great. He’s so smart. He’s a smaller guy and not the fastest guy, but he can still be ahead of the game,” winger Adrian Kempe said of Zuccarello. “He thinks the game so well, and that’s why he’s still producing at this level at the age he is.”

Escaping Round 1

Although making the playoffs was hardly a given after the San Jose Sharks and St. Louis Blues were among the teams that improved over the summer, the Kings could find themselves in the postseason for a sixth consecutive spring.

That will mean trying to avoid a sixth consecutive first-round knockout, with 2022’s seven-game dogfight against the Edmonton Oilers descending into the past two seasons, which have resulted in a reverse-sweep and a plain old sweep, respectively.

While the reacquisition of winger Corey Perry, adding veteran utility forward Erik Haula, a full year of deadline-snag center Scott Laughton, the eventual return of flanker Kevin Fiala from a broken leg, Kempe’s hefty new contract and Zuccarello’s arrival might offer cause for optimism, Panarin still figures to be the biggest needle-mover. Laviolette wasn’t trying to put a saddle on his Russian mustang, who had his most productive season under Laviolette in 2023-24.

“With his creativity, I don’t think you can try to harness that, I think you have to let that go,” Laviolette said. “I’ve coached him before, he’s a competitor, he’s highly skilled and he’s an elite player that can make a difference in a game, and I don’t want to do anything that constrains him from reaching that level.”

​ Orange County Register 

Teamsters warn of countywide strike if labor negotiations continue to stall

• September 29, 2026

More than 400 employees of county departments responsible for roads, parks and waste operations warned Tuesday of a potential strike as union negotiations with county leaders drag on for a new labor agreement — a work stoppage that could disrupt services for roughly 3 million residents.

The last three-year contract workers represented by Teamsters Local 952 had expired June 25.

“We just want to feel valued,” Jacob Thompson, a five-year OC Waste & Recycling employee assigned to the Prima Deshecha Landfill in San Juan Capistrano, said at a press conference ahead of Tuesday’s OC Board of Supervisors meeting. “Many of us are still struggling to put food on the table, gas in our cars and make it from one paycheck to the next.”

Workers said they are asking the county for better benefits and a wage increase that would keep up with the rising cost of living. Members of the bargaining team said negotiations with county leaders have stalled over the past six months.

The union, which represents 465 county workers spanning three departments, has also filed an unfair labor practice complaint alleging the county failed to bargain in good faith.

Bargaining team members said until recently the county offered no wage increase. The Teamsters said it approached the county in December to begin negotiations on the new contract, several months before the previous contract expired.

Union members voted down the county’s latest one-year proposal of a 3% raise with no retroactive pay — an offer workers said “falls short of recognizing the value of their work.”

“The pay is too low, some of our laborers make just above minimum wage,” said Thompson, adding that some employees face a two-hour commute from Riverside County cities such as Hemet, Murrieta and Lake Elsinore because they can’t afford to live where they work.

“We had a laborer leave the county and go back to a job at Disneyland because the pay, benefits and commute made more sense for them,” he added. “Think about that.”

County spokesperson Molly Nichelson said Tuesday the county “is currently in negotiations with labor groups including the Teamsters” and “cannot comment further at this time.”

Represented workers include heavy equipment operators who maintain roads and infrastructure and fleet mechanics who keep county vehicles running for OC Public Works; OC Waste & Recycling crews who process waste at the county’s three landfills in Brea, Irvine and San Juan Capistrano; and OC Community Resources employees who staff the county animal shelter and maintain regional parks and beaches.

This is a developing story; please check back for updates.

​ Orange County Register 

Deesha Philyaw says freedom fuels ‘True Confessions of First Lady Freeman’

• September 29, 2026

Deesha Philyaw’s debut short story collection, “The Secret Lives of Church Ladies,” was rejected by major publishing houses before being picked up by West Virginia University Press. The book would go on to win the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction, the Story Prize, an LA Times Book Prize for first fiction, and it was a finalist for the National Book Award for Fiction. Now, Philyaw, who is developing her work for the screen and hosting two podcasts, returns with her long-awaited debut novel, “The True Confessions of First Lady Freeman.” Here she responds to the Q&A via email and shares insights into the writing of the novel. 

Q. Congratulations on the publication of “The True Confessions of First Lady Freeman.” Would you please describe the novel for readers who haven’t had the chance to read it yet?

Thank you! The novel follows Scharisse Freeman, who comes from a humble background but lives a very charmed life, having married a powerful and popular megachurch pastor. Her world is upended when a sensational scandal breaks and secrets from her past come to light.

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Q. What makes the church so rich a subject for you? 

For better or worse, the evangelical church’s teachings were foundational for me as a child and into my adolescence. I didn’t always have the language for the contradictions and wrongs I observed, or for the doubts and questions I had back then. But I know now that I was troubled by the religious hypocrisy, abuse, and gendered double standards I witnessed or experienced, all of which have their roots, as the church itself does, in patriarchy and White supremacy.

So I carried my concerns and unspoken questions into adulthood such that when I began writing nearly 30 years ago, I recalled the women and girls of my youth, those in and outside of the church, who bore the brunt of the church at its worst. There’s often so much for us former and current church girls to unlearn, to heal from, particularly around sex. And I was, and still am, drawn to imagining and writing stories about how women get free in this regard.

Q. You’ve been thinking about the character Scharisse Freeman for a long time; is that correct?

 Yes. I started the earliest drafts of her story in 2006.

Q. In “The True Confessions of First Lady Freeman,” you play with the form of the novel by using script-like dialogue, footnotes and emails. Can you talk about your approach to writing the book?

I play with form every chance I get, and in “True Confessions,” so many opportunities presented themselves. I didn’t include the forms when I outlined the novel; they hadn’t yet come to mind. But when I got to those moments while drafting the story, they just felt appropriate, organic, to show up as they did in the narrative. The forms are really a map of how my brain works, how I think, the little asides and detours that are always skipping along beside the main narrative of my thoughts. Scharisse is the same way.

Plus, I get bored easily, and the shifts in form allow me to entertain myself and hold my own interest. From a craft perspective, the different forms are unique ways to reveal character, capitalize on the setting, present backstory, and move the story forward.

22 new books coming in October 2026 to add to your reading list

Q. It’s probably not shocking to say that people enjoy sex and comedy, but a lot of novels don’t include much of either. Were you ever tempted to write your book in a different way?

The sex was always there, but I decided to make the novel satirical at the 14-year mark, in 2020. Originally, Scharisse was very earnest, self-pitying, and passive. I didn’t like that. Leaning into satire, playing with the pageantry, performance, and optics of Black church culture as embodied in the role of the first lady — this gave me the perfect means to make Scharisse less earnest, more real, more self-determining, and more fun to write, while still confronting the tough issues around the church’s failings.

Q. When we last spoke in 2022, you told me that you are “doing what Toni Morrison told us to do, which is to use our power to empower someone else.” Can you talk about how that philosophy has guided you and your work?

It would be so easy to just put my head down and do my work and not think about how other writers are faring in the publishing industry. But instead, I try to mentor, formally and informally, answer questions, make introductions, share opportunities, and also blurb, as much as I am able.

As far as my work, I’m guided more in terms of how I work than what I write. I see myself as part of literary communities, some large, some small, some very personal, some strictly professional. But in all cases, I operate from an ethic of care and community; I don’t see fellow writers as competition.

Q. Are there some authors or books you’d like to recommend?

I’ll recommend one that I’m currently reading to blurb, Monica West’s “Light the Way,” and one that I just finished and blurbed, Dawnie Walton’s “These Girls Out Here.” Both are these authors’ sophomore novels, and both are terrific.

Q. What’s your ideal book or comfort read?

 Something smart, irreverent, and fictional. I’m still laughing and thinking about Andie Davis’ 2024 debut novel, “Let Me Liberate You.”

Q. What’s a question you wish someone would ask you about this book? 

I welcome more questions about Petra, Schar’s best friend. I love Schar, but Petra’s consistently been my favorite character from the outset. She’s deeply principled, but also deeply hilarious and [does not care what anyone else thinks]. I love that. She’s not at all religious, but she behaves more like Christ than any of the Christians in my novel.

Q. Would you tell us something about your book that no one knows?

I finished the final, final draft of this book while sitting in the lobby of a hotel in my hometown of Jacksonville, Florida.

Map: 100 Southern California independent bookstores to visit in 2026

​ Orange County Register 

ICE arrests near California courthouses targeted by new law

• September 29, 2026

An Inland Empire state senator’s bill aimed at limiting immigration arrests outside California courthouses, became law Tuesday, Sept. 29.

Gov. Gavin Newsom signed SB 873 as part of a package of bills intended to protect immigrants’ rights amid the Trump administration’s ongoing illegal immigration crackdown that’s deported hundreds of thousands, rattled communities and spurred protests as well as allegations of abuse at detention facilities and civil rights violations by federal officers.

RELATED: How a bill would make it harder for ICE to make arrests near California courthouses

Sponsored by Sen. Eloise Gómez Reyes, D-San Bernardino, the bill requires federal immigrant agents “to present a valid judicial warrant and clearly identify themselves before making certain arrests within 1,000 feet of a California courthouse,” a news release from the senator’s office read.

“Justice cannot work when people are afraid to walk through courthouse doors,” Reyes said in the release. “No victim, witness, or family member should have to choose between seeking justice and risking civil arrest.”

In the same release, Tina Rosales-Torres of the Western Center on Law & Poverty said: “When immigrants are afraid to enter our courthouses because they fear being arrested by ICE, it undermines more than their individual ability to seek justice, it threatens the principles that protect all of us.”

Representatives of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement did not immediately respond Tuesday to a request for comment.

Federal officials have said that courthouse arrests are an effective and efficient tool for safely detaining people. First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli of the Department of Justice’s Central District of California office has said state laws don’t apply to federal law enforcement.

SB 873’s critics included San Bernardino County Sheriff Shannon Dicus, who argued the bill is unconstitutional and sets up a no-win scenario for local law enforcement.

Sheriff’s deputies, who are responsible for courthouse security, run the risk of breaking federal law if they try to stop a courthouse arrest, Dicus said. Deputies could be sued civilly if they don’t intervene, he added.

SB 873 takes effect Jan. 1.

Other immigration-related bills signed by Newsom on Tuesday include a 25% tax on private detention facilities, restrictions on the use of state land for immigration enforcement and a ban on ICE officers who have committed serious, on-the-job misconduct becoming peace officers or public employees in California.

“California is taking action to strengthen transparency, accountability, and oversight around immigration enforcement in our state,” Newsom said in a statement. “This is about stepping up where the federal government has failed our communities.”

​ Orange County Register 

Homeland Security taps $20M in taxpayer funds for pro-Trump ads

• September 29, 2026

By LISA MASCARO and ALI SWENSON

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Department of Homeland Security has tapped $20 million to pay for the campaign-style ads glorifying President Donald Trump that have drawn widespread criticism from Republicans and Democrats as a blatant misuse of taxpayer dollars that likely runs afoul of anti-propaganda law.

In a letter Tuesday to Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin, two top Democratic senators said that the money is being drawn from Trump’s so-called “One Big Beautiful Bill” and was supposed to go for U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

“We should not have to remind you that using government funding to create or air political ads like the ones that have been running over the last few days is illegal and a shockingly corrupt misuse of taxpayer dollars,” wrote Sen. Patty Murray of Washington, the top Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Committee, and Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut, the ranking Democrat on the subcommittee that handles Homeland Security funding.

The senators, in their letter to Mullin, demanded answers within the next 48 hours about “how this president is literally stealing their tax dollars to air campaign ads celebrating himself.”

They asked the secretary if the department plans to use additional federal funds to air these ads or create new ones, and if so to share contracting information with the Congress. They also asked Mullin if he had spoken to Trump about using the taxpayer funds for the ads.

The political uproar over Trump’s hagiographic ads, which started running last week during popular TV shows, including college and National Football League programming, has not abated as critics on the left and right raise alarms about the use of taxpayer funds, particularly so close to the midterm elections.

The White House has defended the advertisements, which disclose that they are funded by the U.S. government, as public service announcements.

Ad spend is up to $2.5m as criticism and legal scrutiny grow

The unusual commercials, which echo the GOP’s midterm election slogans, against imagery of Trump’s tenure in office — one with a “Love me, Love me” song refrain in the background — appear to violate a law against congressionally appropriated funds being used for propaganda. Experts also have said the ads, which are airing on network and cable TV and streaming, differ from other administrations’ PSAs because they aren’t designed to help Americans access any specific program.

Over the weekend, a new ad promoting the president resembles a black-and-white video from his own 2024 campaign that shows Trump walking down a hallway as his voice can be heard warning of a “final battle” against “globalists” and “warmongers.” It ends with Trump staring straight into the camera lens with the “Paid for by the U.S. Government” message printed.

Sen. Thom Tillis, a Republican from North Carolina, compared Trump’s ads to those used by authoritarian former leader Viktor Orban of Hungary. Senate Majority Leader John Thune, a Republican from South Dakota, said it “shouldn’t be paid for with taxpayer dollars.”

Data from the outside firm AdImpact shows more than $2.5 million was spent on the three ads over the past seven days. The actual amount spent could be significantly more, depending on whether networks classified the ads as political.

The senators said that DHS has committed $20 million to the campaign.

A person who was unauthorized to discuss the situation and granted anonymity confirmed the findings, which were first reported by the Wall Street Journal.

Trump’s ads use taxpayer dollars, likely skirting the law

The unusual ad campaign comes as Republicans face an increasingly volatile midterm election season with their control of the House and Senate — and Trump’s future agenda — all at risk.

Voters say they are struggling with high prices of gas and groceries, and are concerned about the lengthy U.S. war against Iran, now in its seventh month. Democrats are gearing up for vast oversight of Trump and his administration if they seize power, and impeachment is not off the table.

House Democrats said Trump’s director of the Office of Management and Budget, Russ Vought, moved the money from Homeland Security to the ad campaign on Sept. 19.

The Homeland Security funds are part of a whopping $175 billion Congress gave the department in the “Big, Beautiful, Bill” as part of his immigration enforcement and deportation agenda. Democrats voted against that package, which Trump signed into law last summer, in part because of its steep cuts to Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, known as SNAP.

Rep. Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut, the top Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee, and Rep. Henry Cuellar of Texas, the ranking Democrat on the Homeland Security subcommittee, said that after gutting $1 trillion from Medicaid and social services and “more than quadrupling funding for mass deportations, it turns out the Trump administration used Republicans’ One Big Beautiful Bill to pay for President Trump’s political ads.”

They said when Democrats regain control, they “will work to uncover and reverse misuses of taxpayer money like this and hold those who abused their power accountable.”

What’s also striking about the administration’s use of taxpayer dollars for the ads is that Trump’s own political campaign committee MAGA Inc. is sitting on hundreds of millions of dollars of funding that could be used during the midterm season. Groups aligned with MAGA Inc. have started shelling out funds for the House and Senate races.

The administration has defended the use of the taxpayer dollars for the ads and shown no signs of changing course.

​ Orange County Register 

Supreme Court lets quick deportations to third countries resume for now while it weighs Trump policy

• September 29, 2026

By LINDSAY WHITEHURST

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court on Tuesday let President Donald Trump’s administration continue deporting people to countries other than their own for now, while the justices consider whether the policy is legal.

The high court said it will hear arguments in December on the policy. Lower courts found migrants must have a meaningful chance to object before being sent to countries where they have no ties.

The apparent 6-3 order halts an appeals court ruling for now.

Federal attorneys said the lower-court decision forced the cancellation of a deportation flight carrying about 70 people bound for three countries.

The justices previously allowed the deportation flights, a core Trump administration policy, to temporarily continue when the case came before them last year.

Under a series of often-secret agreements, the Trump administration has deported some 25,000 people to more than two dozen countries, including Liberia and Guyana. The vast majority have been sent to Mexico.

Trump’s Republican administration has said that it sends people with final deportation orders to third countries when they can’t be returned to their homelands or their native countries won’t accept them, including those who have criminal convictions. Those governments provide assurances that people won’t be persecuted or tortured, federal attorneys said.

But some migrants have nevertheless found themselves imprisoned in countries they’d never heard of before their arrivals. Some also face serious safety risks and are left with little choice except to return to the home countries they were fleeing. Many have no criminal convictions and have been found to be at risk of torture or persecution, attorneys for the immigrants said.

The case comes amid a sweeping immigration crackdown by the Trump administration, which has pledged to deport millions of people who are living in the United States illegally.

Follow the AP’s coverage of the U.S. Supreme Court at https://apnews.com/hub/us-supreme-court.

​ Orange County Register 

OpenAI CEO announces new AI agent and avoids mention of security concerns at developer conference

• September 29, 2026

By KAITLYN HUAMANI, AP Technology Writer

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman introduced a “remarkably capable, always-on” artificial intelligence agent at an appearance Tuesday where he avoided any reference to security concerns around the company’s most advanced models.

At the company’s annual developer conference, Altman made a slew of product announcements and updates, including the company’s new agents, called Dots. The agents, designed to complete ongoing tasks proactively on behalf of users, are a competitor of Meta’s personal agent Muse, which exploded in popularity after Meta’s own conference last week.

Dot agents will be “like an AI helper that always has your back, inspired by the cool versions of what we all watched in movies growing up,” Altman said.

On Monday, OpenAI said it was holding off on the release of a new AI model out of security concerns voiced by its researchers. The disclosure followed broader calls within the industry to decelerate the pace of the technology’s advance to let safety measures catch up.

In his remarks on stage, Altman did not address the scrapped model, but he did offer some parting words about how the AI boom should be considered more like a period of renaissance than an industrial revolution.

“The best version of AI is not about making people cogs in a giant machine, ever whirring faster and faster. There are some parts of life that we cannot and should not automate,” Altman said. “AI should be about giving people more power over their own lives, more tools to create, learn, discover, expand knowledge.”

The company also announced the release of GPT-6.1 Sol, an upgraded version of its model GPT-6 Sol, and a premium speed tier called “Ultrafast,” among other launches and updates.

OpenAI’s announcements came as Altman’s industry peers were meeting with President Donald Trump Tuesday. While many in Silicon Valley have called for the government to help establish guardrails for the technology, Trump has pushed back against the idea of greater government oversight of AI.

While Altman was not in attendance because of the conference, OpenAI president and co-founder Greg Brockman was at the White House, along with Dario Amodei of Anthropic, Amazon chief Jeff Bezos, Nvidia’s Jensen Huang, Tesla and SpaceX’s Elon Musk and Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella. Several other industry leaders joined them, along with senior administration officials and House Speaker Mike Johnson.

​ Orange County Register