Today’s Headlines: U.S. to set up migrant centers in Colombia, Guatemala ahead of Title 42 change

Hello, it’s Friday, April 28, and here are the stories you shouldn’t miss today:

TOP STORIES

U.S. to set up migrant centers ahead of Title 42 change

The United States will establish regional processing centers for migrants in Colombia and Guatemala in an effort to reduce arrivals at the southern border after a pandemic-era policy ends next month, Biden administration officials announced Thursday.

The administration is also in talks with additional Latin American countries about the possibility of establishing more processing centers, said Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.

More politics

• In San Francisco, Scott Wiener is considered a moderate Democrat. In Sacramento, he’s far left. Now he’s laying the groundwork to succeed Nancy Pelosi in Congress.
• House Republicans narrowly passed sweeping legislation that would raise the government’s legal debt ceiling by $1.5 trillion in exchange for steep spending restrictions.
• Montana Republicans barred transgender Rep. Zooey Zephyr from the House floor on Wednesday.

Sign up for our California Politics newsletter to get the best of The Times’ state politics reporting and the latest action in Sacramento.

Guardsman accused of leaking classified documents spoke of ‘violence and murder’

The Massachusetts Air National guardsman accused of leaking highly classified military documents kept an arsenal of guns and talked of “violence and murder� on a social media platform and an “assassination van,� prosecutors said in arguing Thursday that 21-year-old Jack Teixeira should remain in jail for his trial.

They said he may still have material that hasn’t been released, which could be of “tremendous value to hostile nation states that could offer him safe harbor and attempt to facilitate his escape from the United States.�

Shasta County continues to be roiled by voting machines

After voting earlier this year to dump Dominion voting systems and become the largest government entity in the United States to hand-count its votes, Shasta County officials this week began to grapple with the complex logistics of what that endeavor would entail in a county of 200,000 people.

In a meeting spiced with angry personal attacks — and during which one supervisor, Kevin Crye, was served with recall papers on the dais mid-session — county staff told board members that hand-counting could cost an additional $3 million over two years.

Santa Monica knew sexual predator had molestation arrest as a teen

Santa Monica police allowed a civilian employee to volunteer in a youth program — where he went on to molest more than 200 children — despite a 1991 background check that revealed he was arrested as a teen for molesting a toddler he baby-sat, according to a report reviewed by The Times.

Beginning in the late 1980s, Eric Uller preyed on the most vulnerable children in the predominantly Latino neighborhoods of Santa Monica, often traveling in an unmarked police vehicle or his personal SUV, which was outfitted with police equipment, according to court records. It took decades for Uller to be exposed before he was ultimately arrested and charged in 2018.

Inside our evolving tipping dilemma

The norms around who, and how much, Americans tip have shifted in recent years.

For decades, etiquette around gratuity was more or less agreed upon: A 15% to 20% tip, depending on the level of service, for the people who cut your hair, made your drinks and drove your taxi, as well as anyone earning the sub-minimum wage for tipped-rate jobs.

But today, consumers sometimes get prompted to tip the workers who package their online orders or when snagging a $6 bottle of water at the airport. And as tip jars have been replaced by the swivel of sleek tablets with default percentages followed by a seemingly ubiquitous refrain — “Just a couple quick questions for ya!� — many consumers feel increasingly exasperated.

PHOTO OF THE DAY

Paul Rickard paints a scene of Yosemite Falls sitting next to the Merced River is rising beneath the Swinging Bridge. See more: “Photos: Snowmelt and swollen Merced River forcing Yosemite to close in anticipation of flooding�

(Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times)

CALIFORNIA

A jury awards a Riverside woman $2.3 billion in a sex abuse lawsuit involving the Mormon church. A Riverside woman was awarded $2.28 billion by a Riverside Superior Court jury after she was sexually abused by her stepfather for years, her attorneys announced.

Popular pot brand Cookies lined up millions in kickbacks to self-dealing execs, lawsuits allege. Bay Area rapper Berner, the founder and CEO of Cookies, and other top executives have used the cannabis company to line their own pockets, investors alleged in two recent lawsuits.

COVID was detected in a California mule deer, the first wildlife case in the state. The coronavirus has been confirmed in pets and zoo animals, but the California Department of Fish and Wildlife said this is the first case of COVID-19 confirmed in “free-ranging California wildlife,� according to a news release from the agency.

NATION-WORLD

Carolyn Bryant Donham, the woman whose accusation led to Emmett Till’s lynching, has died. The white woman who accused Black teenager Emmett Till of making improper advances before he was lynched in Mississippi in 1955 has died in hospice care in Louisiana. She was 88.

More Lake Mead human remains have been identified: a Las Vegas man missing since 1998. Claude Russell Pensinger was 52 at that time, the Clark County coroner’s office said, noting that his bones were found over the course of three days last July and August on newly exposed shoreline near the Boulder Beach swimming area.

Why did the U.S. evacuation from Sudan leave some Americans behind? While embassy staff was airlifted out, there were no plans to provide similar evacuations for potentially thousands of Americans still in Sudan.

HOLLYWOOD AND THE ARTS

Jerry Springer, talk show host and politician, has died at 79. Springer died Thursday at his home in the suburbs of Chicago, his agent confirmed to the Los Angeles Times. Multiple outlets, including TMZ, have reported that he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer a few months ago.

Fox News prime-time ratings plummet after Tucker Carlson firing as Newsmax sees a boost. Fox News will be tested again, as the sharp decline in Tuesday’s ratings is a clear sign that the audience is upset.

Fugees rapper Pras found guilty of political conspiracy. The former Fugees rapper, who was accused in multimillion-dollar political conspiracies spanning two presidencies, was convicted Wednesday after a trial that included testimony by figures ranging from actor Leonardo DiCaprio to former U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions.

BUSINESS

Elizabeth Holmes delays going to prison with another appeal. The disgraced Theranos chief executive has avoided starting her more than 11-year prison sentence on Thursday by deploying the same legal maneuver that enabled her co-conspirator in a blood-testing hoax to remain free for an additional month.

SPORTS

Nobody pities the King: Inside Ryan Garcia’s doomed fight for boxing credibility. An hour after he prayed for victory in front of 20,000 fans and walked out of the ring in a cloud of defeat, Garcia reappeared in an empty arena. He sat on the stage for his post-fight news conference looking like he’d seen a ghost.

Why are so many Dodgers having babies? ‘I think everyone had a great All-Star break.’ During the past two weeks, four different players have gone on the paternity list, leaving the team for a few days at a time to return home for the birth of their kids. The new-baby craze isn’t finished yet, either.

Who is behind all those billboards demanding return of Reggie Bush’s Heisman Trophy? Billboards demanding the return of Reggie Bush’s Heisman Trophy sprouted up across the city Wednesday, courtesy of a longtime USC donor who says he won’t stop until the NCAA clears the way for Bush to get his stripped award back.

OPINION

Opinion: How can L.A. Metro make train service safer? Look to what’s working on buses. The bus system’s relationship between more riders and less crime is proof positive. It’s time to stop looking for innovative or new solutions when the answer has been roaming the streets all along.

Editorial: Walking to school should not be deadly. How many more lives will be sacrificed to motorists’ convenience and speed? L.A. leaders know how to make the roads safer. Tolerating deadly streets is a choice.

YOUR WEEKEND

I asked ChatGPT to tell me where to eat for a week. Worst idea ever? Looking for places to eat in L.A. this weekend? Maybe don’t ask ChatGPT. The Times’ Jenn Harris asked the chatbot for recommendations and it gave a short list that ignored a wide swath of cuisines and neighborhoods.

Do touch the art. This first-of-its-kind L.A. artwork offers a tactile cityscape. The sensory wall — in the children’s room at the Braille Institute’s library — is a handmade, public artwork incorporating ceramics, textiles, musical instruments and prerecorded audio telling a story about Los Angeles that visitors are meant to interpret with their hands.

Chaperone policy back at Knott’s Berry Farm due to ‘unruly and inappropriate behavior.’ The policy went into effect last weekend as Knott’s Berry Farm says it deals with “increasing incidents of unruly and inappropriate behavior� that are plaguing the theme park industry.

WHAT OUR EDITORS ARE READING

Note: Some of the sites we link to may limit the number of stories you can access without subscribing.

This 2,438-mile train trip from California to Chicago offers views of the Rockies and Sierra Mountains like you’ve never seen before. No matter what portion of the route you take, the California Zephyr offers a way to experience America’s landscape like no other, especially through some of the nation’s greatest mountain ranges, making it a glorious experience. Travel + Leisure

How to ease the ‘loneliness epidemic’ and social isolation among older adults. Between the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the high cost of eldercare and severe staffing shortages in long-term care, loneliness may seem like a comparatively small problem for older adults. However, the “loneliness epidemic� is a serious problem for the approximately 56 million Americans aged 65 and older. The 19th

AP course in African American Studies brings Black history to life for these Tulsa students. Darren Williams says American history has been largely “romanticized,� and the AP course in African American Studies that he teaches offers students a broader and more complete view of that history. CNN

FROM THE ARCHIVES

Muhammad Ali, former world heavyweight boxing champion, is surrounded by autograph seekers in New York City in 1968, while en route to a TV studio.

(Anthony Camerano / Associated Press)

It was 56 years ago today when Muhammad Ali refused induction into the U.S. Army at the height of the war in Vietnam.

An Army officer in Houston summoned Ali three times to step forward for induction into military service, and the heavyweight world champion refused each request.

His refusal to step forward in Houston saw him stripped of his boxing license and World Boxing Assn. title, and it stopped him from traveling abroad for the multiple fights he was offered.

In 2016, the Times wrote about Ali’s defiance and how it polarized the nation.

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