California Dolphin

The astonishing saga of a tied Silicon Valley congressional race took another zag this week, with multiple citizens submitting official requests for recounts. Two candidates tied for second place in the primary to replace retiring Rep. Anna Eshoo (D-Menlo Park), meaning both they and the first-place finisher will face off in the November general election, per California elections code. All three are prominent local Democrats who fielded serious campaigns in the primary. The slated three-way race is, to put it mildly, a highly unusual outcome, even in the wild world of California politics. It is the first time this has happened in a congressional race since the state shifted to its nonpartisan primary system in 2012, which dictates that the top two finishers advance to the November ballot regardless of party affiliation. A recount could theoretically put a kibosh on a November three-way race, if the vote totals change. The calls for recounts — which could cost the citizen requesters hundreds of thousands of dollars — have also raised questions about who is truly behind the effort and generated a fresh round of campaign mud-slinging.

What is more psychically exhausting, in fiction and I suppose in life, than the story of the double agent, the mole, the traitor embedded among those he’s working against? It’s a dramatic theme we return to again and again — Keri Russell and Matthew Rhys got six seasons of “The Americans” out of it a few years back. But as a viewer (and perhaps this is just me), whenever characters go undercover, I want them to get along with, even be liked by, the people they’re spying upon, and I’m always disappointed, even upset, when their cover is blown — not for the spies, but for the people whose trust they betrayed. It’s hard on me, I can tell you. Such tension-added-to-tension animates “The Sympathizer,” a serious black comedy premiering Sunday at 9 p.m Pacific on HBO. (It’s no less tense for being a comedy.) Adapted by Park Chan-wook, who also directs the first three episodes, and Don McKellar from Viet Thanh Nguyen’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, and set in the near aftermath of the Vietnam War — the American War, they called it in Vietnam

Earlier this year, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass negotiated a package of raises and increased benefits for tens of thousands of city workers — money aimed at addressing the rising cost of food, housing and other household expenses. On Friday, the public got its first glimpse of the price tag for those employee contracts. City Administrative Officer Matt Szabo, in a 40-page analysis, said the planned salary agreements with the city’s civilian employee unions would add $316 million to the city budget in the next fiscal year, climbing to more than $1 billion annually by 2028. The agreements — more than two dozen of them — are heading to the City Council for a final vote. The contracts already have been ratified by an assortment of unions representing clerks, custodians, engineers, gardeners, librarians, mechanics and many other city workers. For most of those employees, the contracts will cover a period that includes not just the 2026 mayoral election, when Bass is expected to seek a second 4-year term, but also the staging of the Olympic Games in Los Angeles in 2028. Over that five-year time

In the fall of 2022, Robin Clough and Dr. Gene Dorio were going about their lives as they had for many years, serving older adults in the Santa Clarita Valley. Clough was busy with her work as an administrator at the local senior center while Dorio , a house-call geriatrician, crisscrossed the valley visiting his patients. In November of that year, Clough saw a lump on her neck and had it checked out. The early indication was that she had papillary thyroid cancer. “I was somewhat worried,” said Clough, but not overly so, because she knew that type of cancer was treatable and highly survivable. “So in the back of my mind it was like, ‘Oh, I’m so lucky. … It’s the easiest type of cancer to take care of.’” California is about to be hit by an aging population wave, and Steve Lopez is riding it. His column focuses on the blessings and burdens of advancing age — and how some folks are challenging the stigma associated with older adults. Then things took a sharp turn for the worse. “I noticed it growing a

When the double murder trial of O.J. Simpson ended with a stunning not-guilty verdict, the TV camera in the Los Angeles courtroom focused on the former football star and actor, who pursed his lips and mouthed “thank you” to the jury. But after Simpson walked free, despite evidence that indicated he was behind the slayings of his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ron Goldman, the focus fell on another central figure in the case: the Los Angeles Police Department. Some pinned the outcome on clever lawyering; others on the still-raw memories of the Rodney King verdict — but in many ways, the case was as much about the LAPD’s reputation as it was about Simpson’s guilt or innocence. Simpson died Thursday at 76, reviving memories of how his case roiled the LAPD, raising issues of corruption, racism and incompetence that still resonate nearly three decades later. Almost from the start, Simpson’s “dream team” of high-priced attorneys set its sights on the LAPD. At points throughout the trial, which turned into a worldwide media spectacle with 126 witnesses and 35 weeks of evidence and

Updated on: April 13, 2024 / 6:09 AM EDT / AP SYDNEY (AP) — A man stabbed five people to death at a busy Sydney shopping center Saturday before he was fatally shot, police said. Multiple people, including a small child, were also injured in the attack. The suspect stabbed nine people at the Westfield Shopping Centre in Bondi Junction, which is in the city’s eastern suburbs, before a police inspector shot him after he turned and raised a knife, New South Wales Assistant Police Commissioner Anthony Cooke told reporters. Five of the victims and the suspect died, he said. He had no specific details on the condition of the injured. Cooke said he believed that the suspect acted alone, and he was “content that there is no continuing threat.” He said officials didn’t know who the offender was. “This is quite raw,” he said, and a “lengthy and precise” investigation was just beginning. He said there was “nothing that we are aware of at the scene that would indicate any motive or any ideology.” When asked whether officials were ruling out terrorism, he said:

With a sold-out crowd and cheering fans, the 82nd Cal Poly Royal Rodeo kicked off on Friday evening. The rodeo means a lot to bareback rider Wyatt Wood. A crowd full of people that want to be there and support you and it means a lot without a bunch of fans there probably wouldnt be a rodeo, Wood said. Wood said those moments in the ring go by quickly. It goes by fast and the next thing you know youre on the thing and nodding your head and you’re in the arena for eight seconds and then hop off and wave to the crowd, Wood said. The Cal Poly Royal Rodeo is a student-run event and every year there is a theme for each night of the rodeo. On Friday night is green and gold night. We are highlighting and helping raise funds and awareness for Jack’s Helping Hand. They are one of our key partners with Cal Poly Rodeo and tomorrow is patriot night, Anna-Grace Durham, Media Coordinator for Cal Poly Rodeo, said. However, this year with anticipated rains, the rodeo has several safety