FBI, Homeland Security ignored ‘massive amount’ of intelligence before Jan. 6, Senate report says

• June 27, 2023

By MARY CLARE JALONICK

WASHINGTON — The FBI and the Department of Homeland Security downplayed or ignored “a massive amount of intelligence information” ahead of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S Capitol, according to the chairman of a Senate panel that on Tuesday released a new report on the intelligence failures ahead of the insurrection.

The report details how the agencies failed to recognize and warn of the potential for violence as some of then-President Donald Trump’s supporters openly planned the siege in messages and forums online.

Among the multitude of intelligence that was overlooked was a December 2020 tip to the FBI that members of the far-right extremist group Proud Boys planned to be in Washington, D.C., for the certification of Joe Biden’s victory and their “plan is to literally kill people,” the report said. The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee said the agencies were also aware of many social media posts that foreshadowed violence, some calling on Trump’s supporters to “come armed” and storm the Capitol, kill lawmakers or “burn the place to the ground.”

Michigan Sen. Gary Peters, the Democratic chairman of the Homeland panel, said the breakdown was “largely a failure of imagination to see threats that the Capitol could be breached as credible,” echoing the findings of the Sept. 11 commission about intelligence failures ahead of the 2001 terrorist attacks.

The report by the panel’s majority staff says the intelligence community has not entirely recalibrated to focus on the threats of domestic, rather than international, terrorism. And government intelligence leaders failed to sound the alarm “in part because they could not conceive that the U.S. Capitol Building would be overrun by rioters.”

Still, Peters said, the reasons for dismissing what he called a “massive” amount of intelligence “defies an easy explanation.”

While several other reports have examined the intelligence failures around Jan. 6 — including a bipartisan 2021 Senate report, the House Jan. 6 committee last year and several separate internal assessments by the Capitol Police and other government agencies — the latest investigation is the first congressional report to focus solely on the actions of the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Intelligence and Analysis.

In the wake of the attack, Peters said the committee interviewed officials at both agencies and found what was “pretty constant finger pointing” at each other.

“Everybody should be accountable because everybody failed,” Peters said.

Using emails and interviews collected by the Senate committee and others, including from the House Jan. 6 panel, the report lays out in detail the intelligence the agencies received in the weeks ahead of the attack.

There was not a failure to obtain evidence, the report says, but the agencies “failed to fully and accurately assess the severity of the threat identified by that intelligence, and formally disseminate guidance to their law enforcement partners.”

As Trump, a Republican, falsely claimed he had won the 2020 election and tried to overturn his election defeat, telling his supporters to “ fight like hell ” in a speech in front of the White House that day, thousands of them marched to the Capitol. More than 2,000 rioters overran law enforcement, assaulted police officers, and caused more than $2.7 billion in damage to the Capitol, according to a U.S. Government Accountability Office report earlier this year.

Breaking through windows and doors, the rioters sent lawmakers running for their lives and temporarily interrupted the certification of the election victory by Biden, a Democrat.

Even as the attack was happening, the new report found, the FBI and Homeland Security downplayed the threat. As the Capitol Police struggled to clear the building, Homeland Security “was still struggling to assess the credibility of threats against the Capitol and to report out its intelligence.”

And at a 10 a.m. briefing as protesters gathered at Trump’s speech and near the Capitol were “wearing ballistic helmets, body armor, carrying radio equipment and military grade backpacks,” the FBI briefed that there were “no credible threats at this time.”

The lack of sufficient warnings meant that law enforcement were not adequately prepared and there was not a hardened perimeter established around the Capitol, as there is during events like the annual State of the Union address.

The report contains dozens of tips about violence on Jan. 6 that the agencies received and dismissed either due to lack of coordination, bureaucratic delays or trepidation on the part of those who were collecting it. The FBI, for example, was unexpectedly hindered in its attempt to find social media posts planning for Jan. 6 protests when the contract for its third-party social media monitoring tool expired. At Homeland Security, analysts were hesitant to report open-source intelligence after criticism in 2020 for collecting intelligence on American citizens during racial justice demonstrations.

One tip received by the FBI ahead of the Jan. 6 attack was from a former Justice Department official who sent screenshots of online posts from members of the Oath Keepers extremist group: “There is only one way in. It is not signs. It’s not rallies. It’s f—— bullets!”

The social media company Parler, a favored platform for Trump’s supporters, directly sent the FBI several posts it found alarming, adding that there was “more where this came from” and that they were concerned about what would happen on Jan. 6.

”(T)his is not a rally and it’s no longer a protest,” read one of the Parler posts sent to the FBI, according to the report. “This is a final stand where we are drawing the red line at Capitol Hill. (…) don’t be surprised if we take the #capital (sic) building.”

But even as it received the warnings, the Senate panel found, the agency said over and over again that there were no credible threats.

“Our nation is still reckoning with the fallout from January 6th, but what is clear is the need for a reevaluation of the federal government’s domestic intelligence collection, analysis, and dissemination processes,” the new report says.

In a statement, Homeland Security spokesperson Angelo Fernandez said that the department has made many of those changes two and a half years later. The department “has strengthened intelligence analysis, information sharing, and operational preparedness to help prevent acts of violence and keep our communities safe.”

The FBI said in a separate response that since the attack it has increased focus on “swift information sharing” and centralized the flow of information to ensure more timely notification to other entities. “The FBI is determined to aggressively fight the danger posed by all domestic violent extremists, regardless of their motivations,” the statement said.

FBI Director Christopher Wray has defended the FBI’s handling of intelligence in the run-up to Jan. 6, including a report from its Norfolk field office on Jan. 5 that cited online posts foreshadowing the possibility of a “war” in Washington the following day. The Senate report noted that the memo “did not note the multitude of other warnings” the agency had received.

The faultfinding with the FBI and Homeland Security Department echoes the blistering criticism directed at U.S. Capitol Police in a bipartisan report issued by the Senate Homeland and Rules committees two years ago. That report found that the police intelligence unit knew about social media posts calling for violence, as well, but did not inform top leadership what they had found.

Peters says he asked for the probe of the intelligence agencies after other reports, such as the House panel’s investigation last year, focused on other aspects of the attack. The Jan. 6 panel was more focused on Trump’s actions, and concluded in its report that the former president criminally engaged in a “multi-part conspiracy” to overturn the lawful results of the 2020 presidential election and failed to act to stop his supporters from attacking the Capitol.

“It’s important for us to realize these failures to make sure it doesn’t happen again,” Peters said.

Associated Press writers Eric Tucker and Rebecca Santana contributed to this report.

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USWNT World Cup roster features a lot of new faces, but goal remains the same

• June 27, 2023

CARSON — Some of the faces on the roster are new and the coach will be in his first FIFA World Cup, but the objective for the U.S. women’s soccer team heading into next month’s tournament isn’t changing.

“There’s only one thing on our mind,” USWNT coach Vlatko Andonovski said Tuesday during Media Day at Dignity Health Sports Park. “Our goal is to win the World Cup. I don’t think anybody is thinking about anything different.”

For Andonovski, this will be his first World Cup at the helm of the national team. He was hired in October 2019.

He’s taking a team, that although it is going through a makeover, is ranked No. 1 in the world, according to the FIFA rankings and one that has already won four World Cups (1991, 1999, 2015, 2019 ) and is looking to become the first national team, men or women, to win a third consecutive World Cup.

This trip to Australia and New Zealand, however, might be the most challenging because, as some have said, the world is gaining ground on the U.S., which will also be without several key contributors (team captain Becky Sauerbrunn and forwards Mallory Swanson and Catarina Macario).

“I think the competition started getting closer 25 years ago, but we just had a great staff that found a way to push this team and set the standards high,” Andonovski said. “We’re in one of the hardest groups. They’re all three different teams, but I think we have enough time to prepare for each separately.

“Our first goal is to win the group before moving on to the ultimate goals.”

The U.S. will open Group E play on July 21 against Vietnam, followed by matches against the Netherlands (July 26) and Portugal (Aug. 1). All of those will be played in New Zealand.

There are 14 players participating in their first World Cup, including Angel City FC’s Alyssa Thompson, who is the second youngest player to make a U.S. World Cup roster (18 years, 7 months) to Bellflower native Savannah DeMelo, who has yet to appear in a national team game.

“I’m not worrying about inexperience. With players like Megan (Rapinoe), Alex (Morgan) and Lindsay (Horan), I’m confident in knowing they’re going to lead the young group,” Andonovski said. “If I had to pick a group of players to lead, they would be the ones to lead.”

Rapinoe and Morgan are headed to their fourth World Cup, along with midfielder Kelly O’Hara. Morgan has played in the most World Cup games (18), scoring nine goals. Rapinoe has played in 17, also with nine goals.

“This is not a team that’s going to rest on their laurels,” Rapinoe said. “As one of the best teams in the world, you’re always on a razor’s edge around the World Cup because there is so much to fight for.

“That’s been the fuel for this team. We strive to be the best, try to win every game and continue to put our best foot forward and try to win the World Cup.”

The Americans will face Wales in a send-off match on July 9 in San Jose and then shortly afterward, make the journey to New Zealand for a chance to make history.

“This does feel different than any other World Cup,” Rapinoe said. “This one feels like a show up and show out kind of vibe. It will be incredible and an opportunity to blow the lid off for the women’s game.”

​ Orange County Register 

Gustav Klimt painting sets European record with $108 million price tag

• June 27, 2023

LONDON — A late-life masterpiece by Austrian artist Gustav Klimt sold Tuesday for 85.3 million pounds ($108.4 million), making it the most expensive artwork ever auctioned in Europe.

“Dame mit Fächer” — Lady With a Fan — sold to a buyer in the room at Sotheby’s in London after a 10-minute bidding war for a hammer price of 74 million pounds ($94.35 million). The higher final figure includes a charge on top of the sale price known as the buyer’s premium.

The sale price well exceeded the presale estimate of 65 million pounds, or $80 million.

It also beat the previous European auction record of $104.3 million — 65 million pounds at the time — including buyer’s premium paid for Alberto Giacometti’s sculpture “Walking Man I” at Sotheby’s in 2010. Previously, the most expensive painting auctioned in Europe was Claude Monet’s “Le basin aux nymphéas,” which fetched $80.4 million at a Christie’s sale in 2008.

The piece sold Tuesday was the last portrait Klimt completed before his death in 1918. The painting shows an unidentified woman against a resplendent, China-influenced backdrop of dragons and lotus blossoms.

It was last sold in 1994, going for $11.6 million at an auction in New York.

Sotheby’s said the buyer was art adviser Patti Wong, acting on behalf of a Hong Kong collector.

Famed for his bold, daring art nouveau paintings, Klimt was a key figure in artistic modernism at the start of the 20th century. His work has fetched some of the highest prices for any artist.

Klimt’s “Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer II” sold at a New York auction in 2006 for $87.9 million, and his landscape “Birch Forest” sold at Christie’s in New York last year for $104.6 million.

Two more of his portraits are reported to have sold privately for more than $100 million.

The world auction record for an artwork is the $450.3 million paid in 2017 for Leonardo da Vinci’s “Salvator Mundi,” though some experts dispute whether the panting of Jesus Christ is wholly the work of the Renaissance master.

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Rivalry between Trump and DeSantis deepens with dueling New Hampshire campaign events

• June 27, 2023

By MICHELLE L. PRICE, HOLLY RAMER and WILL WEISSERT

HOLLIS, N.H. — The rivalry between Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and former President Donald Trump deepened Tuesday as the two leading Republican White House candidates staged dueling events in the critical early voting state of New Hampshire.

Addressing a town hall in Hollis, DeSantis vowed to “actually” build the U.S.-Mexico border wall that Trump tried but failed to complete as president while pledging to tear down Washington’s traditional power centers in ways that Trump fell short.

Speaking later at a Republican women’s luncheon in Concord, Trump countered that DeSantis was being forced to settle for second place in the primary and accused the governor of supporting cuts to Social Security, Medicare and other entitlement programs as a way to tame federal spending.

Beyond the rhetoric, the conflicting events demonstrated each candidate’s evolving strategy. DeSantis took extensive audience questions — a trademark in New Hampshire politics that he eschewed during his previous visit to the state, drawing criticisms that he was stilted and overly scripted.

Trump, meanwhile, offered his traditional, free-wheeling speech for more than hour but didn’t take questions. Reporters covering the event were confined to a pen, chaperoned to the bathroom and told they could not speak to attendees in the conference center ballroom or even in the hallways.

See what Kevin McCarthy is saying about Donald Trump

DeSantis, asked about people who had twice voted for Trump because of his promises to “drain the swamp” in Washington used his answer to draw some of his sharpest contrasts yet with the former president.

“He didn’t drain it. It’s worse today than it’s ever been,” DeSantis said. He added that such promises don’t go far enough because a subsequent president “can just refill it.”

“I want to break the swamp,” DeSantis said, pledging to take power out of Washington by instructing Cabinet agencies to halve the number of employees there.

DeSantis has tried to gain ground on Trump by questioning the former president’s continued hold on the national Republican party. At his town hall, the governor slammed the GOP’s “culture of losing” under Trump and mentioned the “massive red wave” that many in the GOP predicted but that never materialized nationally in last year’s midterm elections.

“We had a red wave in Florida,” DeSantis said, noting he easily won reelection last fall. “But that’s because we delivered results in Florida.”

Many leading Republicans remain fiercely loyal to Trump, but there is some evidence that the attacks against the former president are resonating. Speaking about Trump on Tuesday, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, a California Republican, said, “Can he win that election? Yeah, he can win that election.”

“The question is, is he the strongest to win the election?” McCarthy continued on CNBC’s “Squawk Box.” “I don’t know that answer.” He clarified later in the day to the conservative news outlet Breitbart that Trump “is stronger today than he was in 2016.”

At his own event, Trump noted that DeSantis is “holding an event right now to compete with us.” He also vowed to “drain the swamp once and for all” but used the slogan more to criticize President Joe Biden than the Florida governor.

“You can’t drain the swamp if you’re part of the swamp, and Joe Biden and other opponents, many of them, are all owned, controlled, bought and paid for, 100%,” Trump said.

The former president also largely echoed DeSantis’ sentiments in promising that “this election will be the end of the world for the corrupt political class in our nation’s capital.”

DeSantis was also asked about the pro-Trump mob that overran the U.S. Capitol in January 2021, and responded, “If it’s about relitigating things that happened two or three years ago, we’re going to lose.”

“I had nothing to do with what happened that day. Obviously, I didn’t enjoy seeing it,” DeSantis said. “But we’ve got to go forward on this stuff. We cannot be looking backwards.”

That, too, clashed with Trump, who repeated baseless claims Tuesday that he was denied a second term by election fraud. Numerous federal and local officials, a long list of courts, top former campaign staffers and even Trump’s own attorney general have all said there is no evidence of the fraud he alleges.

The candidates’ simultaneous visits highlighted the role that New Hampshire, the first-in-the-nation GOP primary state, will play in deciding the next Republican presidential nominee. Much of the focus of the early primary has been on Iowa and South Carolina, where evangelical Christians are dominant.

Spending time in New Hampshire, by contrast, gives the candidates were testing their messages in front of a more libertarian-leaning electorate.

Trump’s first-place finish in New Hampshire’s 2016 Republican primary, after losing Iowa to Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, helped propel him to party dominance. But his Democratic rivals won the state in the 2016 and 2020 general elections.

Before his speech Tuesday, Trump announced that his New Hampshire team features 150-plus dedicated activists and organizers throughout the state’s 10 counties.

Sabrina Antle, from the town of Henniker, said she couldn’t afford to attend the lunch in Concord where Trump spoke. She and her 9-year-old daughter tried to see the former president later in the day, when he was in Manchester to open his campaign office, but the event reached capacity before the pair could get in.

“I’m a Trumper but I wouldn’t be upset with Ron DeSantis because I think he’d do a stand up job,” Antle said. “I just don’t know if he has the attitude Trump has, just the assertiveness.”

DeSantis’ campaign angered some members of the New Hampshire Federation of Republican Women by scheduling his town hall around the same time Trump was addressing the group’s luncheon. It called DeSantis’ event “an attempt to steal focus from” its lunch, noting that other presidential candidates scheduled around it.

That didn’t stop DeSantis, who at the town hall talked up the new immigration policy proposal he released Monday in South Texas — betting that the issue can energize GOP voters, even those who are 2,000 miles north of the U.S.-Mexico border.

“We’re actually going to build the wall,” DeSantis said of Trump’s failed pledges to do so. “A lot of politicians chirp. They make grandiose promises and then fail to deliver the actual results. The time for excuses is over. Now is the time to deliver results and finally get the job done.”

But the Florida governor also tailored his Tuesday message to New Hampshire, noting how tougher border security could eventually help limit the ravages of opioid addiction, which have hit the state particularly hard, even as deaths from overdoses have climbed all over the country.

He promised the “most assertive” policy against drug cartels “any administration has ever had.”

”We have to do it,” DeSantis said “because it will save lives.”

Ramer reported from Manchester, New Hampshire. Weissert reported from Washington.

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John Goodenough dies at 100; Nobel-winning scientist’s work led to creation of lithium-ion battery

• June 27, 2023

By Elizabeth Wolfe | CNN

John B. Goodenough, the Nobel Prize-winning engineer whose contributions to developing lithium-ion batteries revolutionized portable technology, has died. He was 100.

He died Sunday, according to a release from the University of Texas at Austin, where Goodenough served as a faculty member for 37 years. His cause of death was not provided.

“John’s legacy as a brilliant scientist is immeasurable — his discoveries improved the lives of billions of people around the world,” UT Austin President Jay Hartzell said in a statement Monday.

Goodenough is credited with the crucial discovery and development in the 1980s of materials that would allow for a more stable and powerful rechargeable battery.

He became the oldest Nobel Prize winner at 97 when he was awarded the 2019 prize in chemistry for the development of lithium-ion batteries, alongside M. Stanley Whittingham and Akira Yoshino.

Together, the trio’s individual breakthroughs in battery technology “created a rechargeable world” in which portable electronics such as cell phones and laptops have become ubiquitous across the globe, the Nobel committee said in their announcement.

The innovation also laid the groundwork for the development of long-range electric vehicles and renewable energy storage.

“Live to 97 (years old) and you can do anything,” Goodenough said after he was awarded the Nobel prize, according to a 2019 release from UT Austin.

In addition to his groundbreaking research, Goodenough was a beloved mentor and professor at UT Austin, the university said.

“Not only was John a tremendous researcher, he was also a beloved and highly regarded teacher. He took great pride in being a mentor to many graduate students and faculty members who benefitted from his wisdom and encouragement,” UT Austin Provost Sharon L. Wood said in a statement.

Goodenough had been awarded the National Medal of Science, the Enrico Fermi Award and the Benjamin Franklin Medal, among several other prestigious accolades.

President Barack Obama awards the National Medal of Science to John Goodenough at a ceremony in Washington in 2013.

Born in Germany in 1922, Goodenough grew up in the northeastern US and earned a bachelors degree in mathematics from Yale University. After serving in the US Army as a meteorologist, he earned a master’s degree and Ph.D. in physics from the University of Chicago in 1952, according to UT Austin’s release.

His career began at Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Lincoln Laboratory that year. In his 24-year tenure at MIT, he was among the researchers that laid the groundwork for random-access memory (RAM) used in laptops and desktop computers.

In 1976, Goodenough became a professor and head of the Inorganic Chemistry Laboratory at the University of Oxford, where he eventually made his lithium-ion battery breakthrough, the release said.

He went on to join the faculty of UT Austin in 1986, where he became known for his “quick wit and infectious laugh,” the university release said.

“That laugh could be heard reverberating through UT engineering buildings — you knew when Goodenough was on your floor, and you couldn’t help but smile at the thought of running into him,” the release said.

Goodenough and his wife, Irene, were married for more than 70 years until her death in 2016, the university said. That year, he established the the Irene W. Goodenough Endowed Presidential Scholarship in Nursing in his wife’s honor.

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Additionally, he created the John B. and Irene W. Goodenough Endowed Research Fund in Engineering and St. Catherine’s College at the University of Oxford established a Goodenough Fellowship in Chemistry in his honor.

“John was simply an amazing person — a truly great researcher, teacher, mentor and innovator,” said Roger Bonnecaze, dean of UT Austin’s Cockrell School of Engineering.

“His joy and care in all he did, and that remarkable laugh, were infectious and inspiring,” Bonnecaze said in a statement. “What an impactful life he led!”

​ Orange County Register 

LAUSD pitches in to save sea lions stricken by coastal toxic algae bloom

• June 27, 2023

The Los Angeles Unified School District has helped set up a temporary outdoor “triage” center to care for the infllux of sea lions stricken by a deadly coastal algae blooms, officials announced during a press conference on Tuesday, June 27.

The Marine Mammal Care Center Los Angeles, located on LAUSD property within San Pedro’s Angel’s Gate Park, is overwhelmed with a large number of ill animals that are being brought in. The wave of sick sea lions has strained the facility’s resources and the outdoor accommodations that offer medical care, rehabilitation space and pools where the wildlife can recuperate before being returned to the ocean.

John Warner, Marine Mammal Care Center’s CEO, referred to it as an ongoing crisis for marine life in Southern California, with a large toxic algae bloom causing the illness. The center is filled the center beyond its capacity.

There were currently 113 animals at the center on Thursday; the facility is designed to hold about 100.

The 500-square-foot outdoor triage addition, on the south end of the center’s property, holds six sea lions that are among those needing the most intensive care. It can hold up to about 20, MMCC officials said.

The active participation of the school district was launched after LAUSD Superintendent Alberto Carvalho came upon a stranded sea lion in distress while he was hiking in the White Point area of the southern bluffs in San Pedro a few weeks ago.

The animal, he said, was lethargic and seemed to be in distress, Carvalho said. This was before the algae bloom issue had received much attention, he added.

“I didn’t know what to do so I alerted a lifeguard,” the superintendent said.

The center and LAUSD has had a partnership since 1989, when the property was part of a deal reached after the former Marineland of the Pacific, an oceanarium and public attraction, closed.

Ever since, the district, which remains the center’s landlord, has sent thousands of students on field trips and other educational excursions there.

Both the MMCC in San Pedro and the Pacific Marine Mammal Center in Laguna Beach have been hit hard withsick sea lions. Dolphins are also getting sick and dying, along with whales and other sea mammals.

The toxic algae blooms occur periodically, usually in the spring, flooding the centers with additional animals to treat. The animals arrive malnourished and disoriented — the toxins affect the animals’ brains — and many experience seizures. The animals can die with irreversible brain damage.

This year, Warner said, has brought an “unprecedented number of calls” to the Los Angeles facility. LAUSD’s help — as well as assistance from the Los Angeles County Department of Beaches and Harbors — has provided a significant boost in resources, he added.

The county has also established a fenced-off “resting zone” at Venice Beach, where sea lions that come onshore and show some distress can be placed and watched to see if they need to be transported for additional treatment.

Donations to the center, Warner said, are always welcome and needed, and can be made at marinemammalcare.org/donate.

The center, Warner noted, just had to order 50,000 pounds of fish (for food) after running out of the monthly allotments.

The bloom appeared to start off the Channel Islands, with the Santa Barbara coastline being hit first. Sea lions have been found since stranded on many local beaches, including Hermosa, Manhattan, Venice and Santa Monica.

They can sometimes be seen seizing or thrashing about at the waterline, Warner said.

“It’s frightening to the public,” he said.

The public is urged to stay away from all marine mammals they see on the beach, a message wildlife rehabilitation officials especially want to reinforce as the busy Fourth of July holiday weekend approaches.

Injured and ill marine mammals should be reported by calling the Marine Mammal Care Center’s rescue hotline at 800-39-WHALE.

The Venice Beach resting zone, being tried for the first time, began taking in sea lions on Tuesday, Warner said.

“These are all untried solutions we’re putting into place,” he said.

Significant recent blooms have occurred in 2012-13 (when many were stranded in what was an intense El Nino year), 2016, 2017 and 2019, said MMCC Hospital Director Lauren Palmer. But this year’s outbreak, the veterinarian said, has been a particular challenge.

A complex ecosystem and climate changes that affect ocean temperatures are all thought to combine in causing the algae bloom conditions.

“Our sea lions are ubiquitous along our coastline,” Palmer said. “They’re also our sentinels on the coast,” alerting humans to changing environmental conditions.

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Some of the animals brought in do not survive, she said. But many are brought back to health with hydrating fluids, anti-seizure medications, food and rest. They are released back into the ocean but only once conditions are safer and the algae recedes. The blooms, she said, typically last from four to six weeks.

Six pups are also among those at the center, with three of them doing well, Palmer said.

One sea lion gave birth during the rescue truck ride into the center, she said.

Among the medical issues is that there is no good replacement for a mother sea lion’s milk if she is ill and stops lactating.

LAUSD is “ready to do more.” Carvalho said, and the collaboration, MMCC officials said, is making a significant difference.

Warner, walking Carvalho toward his car after the press conference, suggested the two talk soon about the future needs.

“Let’s start that now,” Carvalho replied.

​ Orange County Register 

Huntington Beach sets $500 million budget, addresses future deficit but avoids closing libraries

• June 27, 2023

Huntington Beach will trim some city services in the coming year, but will avoid closing libraries and immediately eliminating a downtown shuttle service that earlier were on the chopping block as leaders plan ahead for an expected future budget shortfall.

City staffers projected that Huntington Beach would face a deficit of more than $7 million beginning in fiscal year 2024-25 that could swell to more than $13 million by 2026. The City Council and staffers started looking at ways to address the future gap between spending and revenues as part of the city’s upcoming fiscal year budget.

The City Council approved its half-billion dollar budget for the fiscal year that starts July 1 in a 7-0 vote Monday night. Cuts that will be made include eliminating the community cafe events held at city libraries and evaluating if unfilled staff positions should be eliminated. With decisions made this week the future deficits have been slashed by more than half, officials said.

When the proposed budget cuts for addressing the future shortfall were released as part of the City Council’s agenda Friday night, they called for closing three public library branches and eliminating the Circuit downtown shuttle service. Those proposals struck a nerve with residents, who pleaded Monday with councilmembers to not do away with city services they use.

Mayor Tony Strickland said in early June he directed city staffers to explore ways to cut department budgets after the projections came in that the city would be in a deficit due to staffing up on police officers.

“Unlike other councils and other cities that wait for an emergency situation where they don’t have many options,” Strickland said, “we are actually fixing the budget today to make sure we’re not in that position two years from now.”

Over the weekend, staffers further adjusted what the options for cuts were, eliminating the need for closing down libraries.

Councilmembers Rhonda Bolton, Natalie Moser and Dan Kalmick were upset about how little time they and the public had to review the last-minute adjustments to the budget. They were made aware of the changes on Monday.

“This is no way to run a half-a-billion dollar organization,” Kalmick said. “I found out this morning that we were making substantial changes to the budget and residents found out when we got here.”

The city will fund the popular downtown shuttle service until at least Jan. 1. Circuit’s Vice President of Business Development Daniel Kramer said the city needed to approve some level of matching money to access upcoming grants that could fund the shuttles.

James Hartman lives downtown and said he and his family enjoy using the shuttle service multiple times a week. Since the service began in 2021, it has pushed him to visit downtown more than ever, he said.

“It induces you to kind of stay and spend your money in the city,” Hartman said. “Otherwise, I’ll do what I’ve done most of my life. I’ll jump in my car and go to Newport where the dining options are much better”

Monday afternoon, before the City Council meeting, Kramer said, “No one wants to see the program go away. It’s strictly just a financial thing.”

The City Council approved four new positions for the City Attorney’s Office at a cost of about $687,000. There will be three new attorneys, one of which will focus on prosecuting misdemeanors. The city will also hire a legal assistant.

For the next fiscal year, the city will have about 1,000 full-time employees.

Property tax revenue will support more than $130 million of the city’s $500 million budget – at just over a quarter of the budget it is the largest revenue source.

To generate new revenue, the city will raise fees for its emergency medical services and add advertisements to the city’s lifeguard towers. The city is expected to end the 2023-24 fiscal year with a $7 million surplus.

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McCarthy angers Trump allies with 2024 candidate answer

• June 27, 2023

By Kristen Holmes and Nicky Robertson | CNN

Advisers and allies to former President Donald Trump are expressing outrage after House Speaker Kevin McCarthy said that he thinks Trump can win in 2024, but does not know if he is the “strongest” candidate.

“I’ve been fielding calls on this since it happened,” one Trump ally told CNN, referring to McCarthy’s comments. “People are not happy. What was he thinking?”

During a CNBC interview Tuesday, McCarthy was pressed on Trump’s 2024 prospects and the multi-faceted legal issues facing the former president. “Can he win that election? Yeah he can,” McCarthy said. “The question is, is he the strongest to win the election – I don’t know that answer.”

McCarthy later attempted to walk back his comments, telling Breitbart that Trump is “stronger today than he was in 2016.”

During the CNBC interview, McCarthy also said he believes Trump can beat President Joe Biden. “Can Trump beat Biden? Yeah, he can beat Biden.”

Sources close to Trump believe the former president helped secure the speakership for McCarthy after urging House Republicans to vote for the embattled leader after McCarthy lost three straight speakership votes in January. Trump also made calls on McCarthy’s behalf ahead of the vote. McCarthy finally secured the gavel on the 15th ballot and immediately thanked the former President for his support.

Some advisers to the former President have in the past brushed off questions as to why McCarthy has not offered an endorsement of Trump in 2024, and instead dodged the question when posed by reporters.

“He has a lot of people to navigate if he he’s going to win the speakership,” one adviser told CNN in December when McCarthy avoided answering whether he would back Trump in his recently launched third bid for president.

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McCarthy argued in the CNBC interview that Trump’s policies are good for the country when asked if it is good for the party to have Trump as the nominee.

“Republicans get to select their nominee. I think if you want to go sheer policy to policy, it’s not good for Republicans, its good for America. Trump’s policies are better, straightforward than Biden policy,” McCarthy said.

​ Orange County Register