Juvenile driver killed near Dana Point Harbor, 5 others taken to hospital

• May 7, 2025

A juvenile driver was killed in a vehicle collision before noon on Tuesday, May 6, near the Dana Point Harbor, with five others transported to a hospital with unknown injuries.

The six occupants — all believed to be juveniles — were in a Dodge pickup truck in the single-vehicle collision, with the vehicle hitting a tree, sheriff’s Sgt. Gerard McCann said.

The crash happened near Baby Beach at 11:47 a.m.

The major accident investigating team was on the scene Tuesday afternoon. What led to the crash was unclear.

​ Orange County Register 

Man who crashed into gate at Jennifer Aniston’s home is identified

• May 6, 2025

Authorities on Tuesday released the name of the suspect who crashed a vehicle into the front gate of actress Jennifer Aniston’s Bel Air home.

The suspect was identified as Jimmy Wayne Carwyle, 48, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Inmate Information Center, which also said he was arrested about 12:30 p.m. Monday by officers from the Los Angeles Police Department’s West Los Angeles station.

The crash occurred around 12:30 p.m., and private security guards at the home helped detain the man at the scene, authorities said.

Police said Aniston was home at the time. The driver, however, never made it past the front gate of the estate.

It was unclear what motivated the man to drive into the gate.

Carwyle was arrested on suspicion of felony vandalism in the 900 block of Airole Way, according to the LAPD’s Media Relations Division. He was taken to a hospital in response to complaints of pain.

He was temporarily housed at the LAPD’s Van Nuys jail before being transferred at about 7:45 a.m. Tuesday to the Inmate Reception Center at 450 Bauchet St., according to the sheriff’s Inmate Information Center.

He was being held without bail, but no charges had been filed as of Tuesday.

​ Orange County Register 

Declassified intelligence memo contradicts Trump’s claims linking gang to Venezuelan government

• May 6, 2025

By DAVID KLEPPER

WASHINGTON (AP) — A newly declassified U.S. intelligence assessment confirms that analysts at American spy agencies found no coordination between Tren de Aragua and the Venezuelan government, contradicting statements the Trump administration used to justify invoking the Alien Enemies Act and deporting Venezuelan immigrants.

The redacted memo from the National Intelligence Council said there was no indication that Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro or other senior government officials are directing the actions of Tren de Aragua, a gang that originated in a prison in Venezuela. That is even as some mid- to low-level Venezuelan officials may have ties to the gang for financial gain, the document says.

“While Venezuela’s permissive environment enables TDA to operate, the Maduro regime probably does not have a policy of cooperating with TDA and is not directing TDA movement to and operations in the United States,” the memo reads. “Furthermore, most of the IC judges that intelligence indicating that regime leaders are directing or enabling TDA migration to the United States is not credible.”

Trump has invoked the Alien Enemies Act to speed the deportations of people his administration has labeled members of the gang. The 18th century wartime law was created to give the president the power to imprison or deport noncitizens in a time of war. It has been used three times, most recently when Japanese Americans were detained during World War II.

Tren de Aragua has been linked to a series of kidnappings, extortion and other crimes throughout the Western Hemisphere. Those activities are tied to a mass exodus of millions of Venezuelans as their country’s economy unraveled over the past decade.

The National Intelligence Council helps to coordinate the work of the nation’s intelligence services and its conclusions reflect the findings of individual agencies.

While the assessment found no evidence of significant coordination between Maduro and the gang, it noted that FBI analysts had reason to believe some Venezuelan officials may have helped some gang members move to the U.S. and other countries “to advance what they see as the Maduro regime’s goal of destabilizing governments and undermining public safety,” according to the assessment.

A spokesperson for Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard rejected claims that the assessment contradicted the White House and noted that it did find some ties between mid- and low-level officials in Maduro’s government and the gang.

Gabbard’s office, which oversees and coordinates the work of the nation’s 18 intelligence agencies, “fully supports the assessment that the foreign terrorist organization, Tren De Aragua, is acting with the support of the Maduro Regime, and thus subject to arrest, detention, and removal as alien enemies of the United States,” the spokesperson, Alexa Henning, said in a statement.

The assessment, which includes significant redactions, was released after the Freedom of the Press Foundation filed an open records request. Lauren Harper, who holds the Daniel Ellsberg Chair on Government Secrecy at the foundation, said it is critical to push for government transparency, especially as the Trump administration signals it may subpoena reporters to investigate government leakers.

“The public deserves to read this document,” Harper said of the assessment.

Two federal judges have found that Trump is improperly using the Alien Enemies Act and barred the administration from removing immigrants under it.

District Court Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein in New York said Tuesday that the 1798 law cannot be used against Tren de Aragua because it is not attacking the United States. “TdA may well be engaged in narcotics trafficking, but that is a criminal matter, not an invasion or predatory incursion,” Hellerstein wrote.

Democrats in Congress welcomed the assessment’s release and questioned why Gabbard has supported Trump’s justification for deportations, given her knowledge of the assessment.

In a statement, Reps. Jim Himes of Connecticut and Joaquin Castro of Texas said Gabbard needs to explain why her public comments don’t match the assessment of her own agencies.

“The most basic responsibility of the director of national intelligence is to speak truth to power and, where possible, the American people,” said the lawmakers, who both serve on the House Intelligence Committee. “Misrepresenting intelligence in public causes grave damage.”

Associated Press writer Michelle L. Price in Washington contributed to this report.

​ Orange County Register 

Civil rights lawsuit filed in Florida deputy’s killing of US Airman Roger Fortson

• May 6, 2025

By KATE PAYNE

The family of a U.S. airman who was fatally shot by a Florida sheriff’s deputy inside his own home in 2024 filed a federal civil rights lawsuit Tuesday over his killing.

The complaint filed in a Pensacola courthouse alleges that Deputy Eddie Duran used excessive and unconstitutional deadly force when he shot Senior Airman Roger Fortson just seconds after the Black 23-year-old opened his apartment door on May 3, 2024. Duran identifies as Hispanic, according to his voter registration.

Fortson’s family is represented by Ben Crump, a civil rights attorney who has been involved in a number of cases involving law enforcement killings of Black people, including those of Michael Brown, Breonna Taylor, Tyre Nichols and George Floyd.

Duran has pleaded not guilty to a charge of manslaughter with a firearm.

The complaint also details alleged failures by the Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office in training and supervision and claims that staff at the apartment complex where Fortson lived provided misleading information that led to the fatal law enforcement response.

Duran came to Fortson’s door in Fort Walton Beach in response to a report of a physical fight inside an apartment. A worker there identified Fortson’s apartment as the location of a loud argument, according to sheriff’s investigators.

Fortson, who was assigned to the 4th Special Operations Squadron at Hurlburt Field, was alone at the time, talking with his girlfriend on a FaceTime video call.

Duran’s body camera video showed what happened next.

The deputy pounded at the door repeatedly and yelled, “Sheriff’s office — open the door!” Fortson opened the door with his legally purchased gun in his right hand, pointed to the ground.

The deputy said, “Step back,” then immediately began firing. Fortson fell backward onto the floor. Only then did the deputy yell, “Drop the gun!”

Deputies had never been called to Fortson’s apartment before, 911 records show, but they had been called to a nearby unit 10 times in the previous eight months, including once for a domestic disturbance.

The fatal shooting renewed debate on police killings and race, and occurred against a wider backdrop of increased attention by the military to racial issues in its ranks.

It is highly unusual for Florida law enforcement officers to be charged for an on-duty killing. Convictions in such cases are even rarer.

Kate Payne is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.

​ Orange County Register 

Four-way tie for first? One of the possibilities in OC softball races

• May 6, 2025

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A look at some of the top Orange County softball playoff races for the final week of the regular season:

Crestview League: The league has played three rounds of games but there is a chance for a four-way tie for first place. The contenders are Pacifica (15-10, 7-4), El Modena (18-8, 7-5), Canyon (19-8, 6-5) and Cypress (18-9, 6-5).

With one game left, the four teams are vying for the league’s three automatic playoff spots. All four teams are in the O.C. Top 10 this week.

A four-way deadlock will occur Tuesday if Cypress defeats visiting Pacifica and Canyon beats visiting Esperanza (6-21, 2-9).

If there is a four-way tie for first place, the teams’ head-to-head record within the four-team group will be used as part of the tiebreaker, Century Conference president Ray Elliott said. In that scenario, Canyon and Cypress would have 5-4 records while El Modena and Pacifica would have 4-5 records.

With the teams separated into a pair of ties, the results of their three-game league series would supply the final separation in the tiebreaker, Elliott said.

Canyon would earn the league’s No. 1 automatic playoff berth based on winning the league series 2-1 against Cypress, which would take the league’s second CIF bid. El Modena would claim the No. 3 automatic playoff entry over Pacifica because it won the teams’ series 2-1.

In this scenario, Pacifica — the two-time defending Division 1 champion — would be seeking an at-large berth to the playoffs.

Of all the potential scenarios involving the four teams, only El Modena has clinched at least a top-three finish.

The Division 1 playoffs will feature a 32-team bracket, said Thom Simmons, assistant commissioner and section spokesperson.

Trinity League: Mater Dei (15-11-1, 4-4) and Santa Margarita (18-8-1, 4-4) enter the final round Tuesday tied for second place. One of the league’s two automatic playoff spots has been claimed by league champion Orange Lutheran (22-4, 6-2).

Mater Dei plays Orange Lutheran at Fountain Valley Sports Park while Santa Margarita pays host to JSerra (14-13, 2-6).

If Mater Dei and Santa Margarita tie for second, the Monarchs will earn the automatic berth based on winning the teams’ league series 2-1.

Sunset League: The race to watch is for fourth place and the final automatic playoff spot in the seven-team league. Fountain Valley (14-11, 6-5) and Edison (11-13, 6-5) are tied entering their games Tuesday against first-place Los Alamitos (15-12, 9-2) and Huntington Beach (20-7, 9-2), respectively.

Fountain Valley and Edison have split their two league games. If the Barons and Chargers finish tied for fourth, they would meet Wednesday at Huntington Beach in a one-game playoff, Edison athletic director Rich Boyce said.

South Coast League: Mission Viejo edged Tesoro 3-2 on Monday to join Capistrano Valley as an automatic playoff qualifier. The Cougars (15-10, 5-2) and Diablos (13-13, 5-2) are tied for first with one game remaining.

Aliso Niguel (14-12-1, 3-4) needs to beat host Capistrano Valley on Tuesday to force a tie with Tesoro (11-10, 4-4) for third place. If there is a tie, a one-game playoff for the spot would be played at El Toro on Wednesday, Wolverines athletic director Andrew Mashburn said.

Freeway League: Sonora (16-8, 4-7) and Villa Park (13-14, 4-7) are tied for third place entering their league finales on Tuesday. The Raiders play host to second-place El Dorado (16-11, 6-5) while the Spartans play host to Sunny Hills (9-13, 2-9).

If Sonora and Villa Park tie for third, the Raiders would earn the league’s third and final automatic playoff based on winning the league series 2-1, Elliott confirmed.

NOTES

The CIF-SS playoff pairings are scheduled to be released Monday at noon. …

Huntington Beach’s Bree Carlson, Santa Margarita’s Payton Kennedy and Villa Park’s Julianna Romero are tied for the county lead in home runs with 11. …

Marina co-coach Dan Hay earned his 305th career win Monday. He has previously coached at Huntington Beach and Canyon. …

Orange Lutheran center fielder Kai Minor and Rosary shortstop Jenna Caldera have been nominated for Gatorade state player of the year, their coaches said.

​ Orange County Register 

Trump says the US will stop bombing Yemen’s Houthis after rebels say they’ll stop targeting ships

• May 6, 2025

By WILL WEISSERT

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump said Tuesday that he’s ordering a halt to nearly two months of U.S. airstrikes on Yemen’s Houthis, saying the Iran-backed rebels have indicated that “they don’t want to fight anymore” and have pledged to stop attacking ships along a vital global trade route.

“We’re going to stop the bombing of the Houthis, effective immediately,” Trump said at the start of his Oval Office meeting with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney.

Trump said the Houthis had indicated to U.S. officials that “they don’t want to fight anymore. They just don’t want to fight. And we will honor that, and we will stop the bombings.”

That likely means an abrupt end to a campaign of airstrikes that began in March, when Trump promised to use “overwhelming lethal force” after the Houthis said they would resume attacks on Israeli vessels sailing off Yemen in response to Israel’s mounting another blockade on the Gaza Strip.

At the time, they described the warning as affecting the Red Sea, the Gulf of Aden, the Bab el-Mandeb Strait and the Arabian Sea.

Trump’s announcement came the same day that Israel’s military launched airstrikes against the Houthis that it said fully disabled the international airport in the Yemeni capital, Sanaa. Israel’s attacks were its second round of airstrikes on targets in Yemen in retaliation for a Houthi missile strike Sunday on Israel’s international airport.

A U.S. official said the administration had not notified Israel of the agreement with the Houthis before Trump’s announcement.

Israel, according to this official who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss private diplomatic talks, was irked by the unexpected news, particularly because the Houthis have continued to launch attacks on Israel proper and other Israeli targets.

Israel does not appear to be covered by the U.S.-Houthi agreement.

Trump said the Houthis had “capitulated but, more importantly, we will take their word that they say they will not be blowing up ships anymore. And that’s what the purpose of what we were doing,” Trump said.

“I think that’s very positive,” Trump added. “They were knocking out a lot of ships.”

Asked how the Houthis had communicated that they were looking to stop being targeted by U.S. bombs, Trump offered few details, saying only with a chuckle that the information came from a “very good source.”

A short time later, Omani Foreign Minister Badr al-Busaidi, confirmed that the U.S. bombing campaign was ending, posting on X that discussions involving the U.S. and Oman, as well as negotiators in Yemen, “have resulted in a ceasefire agreement between the two sides.”

“In the future, neither side will target the other, including American vessels, in the Red Sea and Bab al-Mandab Strait, ensuring freedom of navigation and the smooth flow of international commercial shipping,” he wrote, calling the agreement a “welcome outcome.”

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said on social media that Trump’s “objective from Day One: ‘ensuring freedom of navigation.’ PEACE THRU STRENGTH in action.”

Despite Trump’s framing of the deal as a way to reopen the Red Sea to commercial shipping without fear of Houthi attack, “the Houthis have not fired on a commercial ship since December,” Gregory Brew, a senior analyst with the Eurasia Group risk-analysis firm, said on X.

“They are likely, however, to continue shooting at Israel,” Brew noted.

The Houthis had been waging persistent missile and drone attacks against commercial and military ships in the region in what the group’s leadership has described as an effort to end Israel’s war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

From November 2023 until January 2025, the Houthis targeted more than 100 merchant vessels with missiles and drones, sinking two of them and killing four sailors. That has greatly reduced the flow of trade through the Red Sea corridor, which typically sees $1 trillion of goods move through it annually.

The Houthis paused attacks in a self-imposed ceasefire until the U.S. launched a broad assault against the rebels in mid-March.

Those strikes Trump had ordered were similar to ones carried out against the Houthis multiple times by the administration of his predecessor, Democratic President Joe Biden.

The Trump-ordered airstrikes gained a higher profile in the public consciousness when The Atlantic revealed that Hegseth had texted sensitive plans for a military strike against the Houthis on a group chat in the messaging app Signal that mistakenly included the magazine’s editor-in-chief.

Trump stood by Hegseth and downplayed the breach as a “glitch.” But national security adviser Mike Waltz, who created the group chat on Signal, left his post last week and has been nominated by Trump to be the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.

Associated Press writers Matthew Lee and Ellen Knickmeyer in Washington contributed to this report.

​ Orange County Register 

Controllers briefly lost contact with Newark planes before wider flight disruptions

• May 6, 2025

By MIKE CATALINI, JOSH FUNK and JOHN SEEWER

The long flight delays and cancellations plaguing Newark’s Liberty International Airport and spilling over to airports across the U.S. can be traced to a week ago when air traffic controllers temporarily lost communications with planes in the sky, according to the controllers union.

Crews in the Philadelphia air traffic control facility that lines up flights going in out and of Newark lost radar and communications with the planes on April 28, according to the National Air Traffic Controllers Association. The outage left controllers “unable to see, hear, or talk to” planes under their control, union spokesperson Galen Munroe said.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy confirmed the brief problem and said traffic into the Newark airport was reduced afterward as a precaution to ensure safety. But that move led to the widespread delays and canceled flights.

After the breakdown, a number of controllers took leave under a contract provision that allows them to step away after experiencing a traumatic event on the job. Having those controllers on leave exacerbated staff shortages at the facility.

The flight disruptions that have trickled down to airports in Los Angeles, Atlanta, Chicago and Dallas renewed calls to upgrade aviation technology and infrastructure, and address the nationwide air traffic controller shortage, a problem the Trump administration has pledged to solve.

“The whole system needs to be redone,” Duffy said Tuesday at the White House. On Thursday, he plans to detail the administration’s multibillion-dollar proposal to overhaul the nation’s air traffic control system that has been in the works since the aftermath of the deadly midair collision over Washington, D.C., in January. Congress will have to approve funding for that plan.

Controllers handling the planes in Newark lost communication for 30 seconds last week after the control center’s primary communication line went down and a backup line failed to kick-in, he said.

Backups when contact is lost

Former air traffic controllers said briefly losing contact with one plane was not uncommon but dropping communication with all of them would be unusual. Even then there are safeguards and backups. Duffy said that in this situation the backup line didn’t immediately come online.

“If the pilot doesn’t respond right away, you don’t have them set up where they could collide,” said Jordan Morales, who worked 12 years as a controller before leaving the job in 2022.

During a total outage, the control center would call an adjacent facility to take over the air space, he said. Airplanes also have built-in systems that allow pilots to know what’s around, he added.

“It’s a tense moment, particularly if it’s at critical point in the flight,” said Todd Yearly, who spent 13 years as a controller in Chicago.

Neither of the former controllers, though, said the latest trouble shook their confidence in flying. “Safety was maintained that should be the story. In the moment when it mattered, they did their job,” Yearly said.

Flight delays followed outage

After the communications outage, traffic was slowed in and out of the Newark airport, the nation’s 12th busiest.

United Airlines, which operates the most flights out of Newark by far, cut 35 daily Newark flights from its schedule beginning Saturday. United CEO Scott Kirby said the technology used to manage the planes failed more than once last week.

Kirby said it’s clear Newark won’t be able to handle the amount of planes currently operating there in the coming months. Last week, he called on the Federal Aviation Administration to limit arrival and departure slots at Newark — a practice used at three of the nation’s busiest airports where demand exceeds the airport’s capacity: Reagan National outside Washington and New York City’s LaGuardia and John F. Kennedy International airports.

The union representing 55,000 flight attendants also has voiced concern, asking the airlines to cut flights operating out of Newark until the situation improves.

The FAA moved the controllers responsible for the Newark airport from a facility in Long Island, New York, to Philadelphia last year partly to try to address chronic staffing shortages at the New York facility. But only 24 of the 33 controllers responsible for the Newark airspace made the transfer, leaving the Philadelphia facility shorthanded.

At the time of the move, controllers union questioned whether the FAA had the equipment and procedures to handle the complicated transfer. Last fall, The Air Current trade magazine reported on several radar failures in Philadelphia related to lines that send data from New York to Philadelphia.

The Trump administration has said it wants to “supercharge” the air traffic controller workforce and address the shortage of controllers. It announced a program last week to help recruit new controllers and give existing ones financial incentives not to retire early.

But it takes years to train new air traffic controllers and get them certified. Duffy has said he hopes that the new hiring efforts might be able to have the system fully staffed within three or four years.

“It is absolutely going get worse,” David Soucie, a former FAA safety inspector, said in an interview. “And something needs to be done about it because of the fact that, first of all, it takes a long time to hire controllers and get them in place. And you can’t just turn on a switch, you can just go to the closet and pull out a new air traffic controller and say, here you go, we got new people now.”

Associated Press reporter Darlene Superville contributed to this report.

​ Orange County Register 

NYPD launches probe into why it gave a Palestinian woman’s sealed arrest records to ICE

• May 6, 2025

By JAKE OFFENHARTZ

NEW YORK (AP) — Police in New York City are investigating whether the department violated policy by sharing a report with federal immigration authorities that included internal records of a Palestinian woman’s arrest at a protest.

The department probe follows reporting by The Associated Press on the cooperation between the NYPD and President Donald Trump’s administration, which is seeking to deport Leqaa Kordia, a Palestinian resident of New Jersey, as part of its widening crackdown on noncitizens who participated in protests against the war in Gaza.

The report shared by police with the federal government included Kordia’s name, address and birthday, as well as an NYPD officer’s two-sentence summary of her arrest for protesting outside Columbia University last spring.

That charge — a summons for disorderly conduct — was dismissed and the case sealed, meaning it should not have been accessible for law enforcement purposes, according to legal experts.

“How it is that summons information was provided that is associated with a sealed arrest is what we are looking into now,” the city’s police commissioner, Jessica Tisch, said Tuesday in response to the AP’s questions. “This is under internal investigation and review.”

Kordia, 32, was detained during a March 13 check-in with immigration officials in Newark, New Jersey, then sent to an immigration jail in Texas, where she remains. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security announced her arrest the following day, citing an expired visa and her role in “pro-Hamas protests.”

The four-page NYPD report on Kordia was generated the same day and is now being used as evidence by the federal government in its bid to deport her.

“We still don’t know how she became the focus of the Department of Homeland Security,” said Arthur Ago, an attorney for Kordia. “If they did get information from the NYPD about a sealed citation that was dismissed in the interest of justice, that would be highly disturbing.”

Under city law, police are generally prohibited from assisting federal authorities in civil immigration enforcement, though there are exceptions for criminal investigation.

Tisch said the department received a request from Homeland Security Investigations, a division of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, as part of a criminal investigation into Kordia.

“The member said they were seeking information on this person related to a money laundering investigation, and that is fairly standard for us, so the information was provided,” Tisch said. “That was all done according to procedure.”

Kordia’s attorney said he was not aware of any investigation related to money laundering.

In Kordia’s immigration case, the federal government has referenced both her past arrest at Columbia and a $1,000 payment that she made to a relative as evidence of her potential dangerousness, the attorney said.

“They keep hinting and insinuating some sort of nefarious action by Ms. Kordia in terms of just sending money to family in Palestine,” Ago added. “There’s nothing there. Sending money home to a relative is what immigrants do in this country.”

A spokesperson for DHS said Kordia was taken into custody for immigration violations, but would not say if she was facing criminal investigation.

​ Orange County Register