Deputy Public Defender Derek Dillman “expressed a doubt” that his client, 35-year-old speech pathologist Ivanna Ortiz, was competent to stand trial on charges of attempted murder and assault with a deadly weapon after she allegedly opened fire on the singer’s Bevelry Crest property on March 8.

But after a brief closed-door hearing, Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Shannon Cooley did not find there was substantial evidence of Ortiz’s mental “incompetence” and ordered criminal proceedings to continue.

A spokeswoman for the public defender’s office declined to comment outside the courtroom, noting Cooley had sealed any discussion of Ortiz’s mental health. Dillman did not offer specifics about his concerns during the portions of the hearing open to the public.

Prosecutors say the shots fired by Ortiz struck Rihanna’s home, a neighbor’s residence and an Airstream parked on the grounds. No one was hit, but Rihanna and her husband — hip-hop and actor ASAP Rocky — were inside the Airstream at the time it was shot.

Ortiz has pleaded not guilty.

Earlier on Wednesday, Ortiz sought to have Dillman fired as her attorney during a closed-door hearing before Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Shannon Cooley, who presumably blocked that attempt as Dillman was still representing Ortiz late Wednesday morning.

Ortiz continued to bicker with Dillman later in the day when he tried to schedule a future hearing in the case for July, demanding he “do it sooner.”

After Dillman expressed concern about his client’s mental health, Cooley cleared the courtroom so she could question the attorney for evidence of Ortiz’s purported mental illness. Typically, when a defense attorney raises questions about their client’s mental fitness, judges refer such cases to the mental health court in Hollywood. L.A. County Deputy Dist. Atty. Alexander Bott, who is prosecuting the case, said he had never seen anything like what happened on Wednesday.

On the day of the shooting, Rihanna said Rocky was sleeping when she “suddenly heard approximately ten loud sounds like something banging on metal,” according to a police report made public in a court filing in late March.

When the shooting stopped, she grabbed Rocky “out of bed, told him they were being shot at and pushed both of them to the ground,” according to the police report. The couple then ran to their house to check on their children, the police report said.

Ortiz had made a number of disparaging posts about Rihanna on social media in the weeks leading up to the shooting.

When police arrested her in Sherman Oaks an hour after the shooting, Ortiz was carrying a black Springfield Armory rifle and two 30-round rifle magazines, according to the police report. She legally owned the firearm, according to court records.

While Ortiz declined to answer specific questions from police after her arrest, she did make a brief statement to investigators.

“Can I say one sentence?” she asked, according to the report. “I would like to say that I wasn’t attempting murder. But that’s all I wanted to say.”

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“There are California taxpayers and American taxpayers who are being defrauded because California isn’t taking its program seriously. But also, you have people who’ve been prescribed medications that they don’t even need,” Vance said. “Sometimes they’ve had drugs put into their bodies that they don’t need because fraudsters have actually encouraged false prescriptions and false administration and medications.”

Vance, standing alongside Dr. Mehmet Oz, the administrator for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, said the administration is also sending letters to all 50 states informing them that if they do not “effectively and aggressively prosecute Medicaid fraud in their states,” they will see federal funding cut off as well.

“We want California to get serious about this fraud,” said Vance, who President Trump named his “fraud czar” last month.

Oz called out what he said was widespread fraud in hospice services and similar in-home care programs nationally — and particularly in the Los Angeles region — and announced a six-month moratorium on new Medicare enrollment for hospices and home health agencies.

“A third of all these programs in the entire country are in Los Angeles. Ask yourself, how is that possible? It’s not,” Oz said. “They’re not that many people dying in Los Angeles. We’re not talking about California, just Los Angeles.”

He said he and others in the administration determined that “at least half of the hospices, in the entire area around Los Angeles, are fraudulent,” and had shut down 800 of them that last year had “charged the federal taxpayer $1.4 billion,” which “will no longer be paid.” That is a major increase from the 450 providers the administration said it had suspended as of last month.

The announcement was the latest attempt by the Trump administration to highlight and rein in fraud in federal healthcare benefits programs, particularly in blue states. The actions were met with immediate push back from California officials.

“We hate fraud. But that’s NOT what this is,” Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office posted on the social media site X. “Vance and Oz are attacking programs that keep seniors and people with disabilities OUT of nursing homes. Pretty sick.”

Newsom’s office said that the growth of In-Home Supportive Services placements in California was “simple,” and due to California “keeping more people OUT of far more expensive nursing homes!”

Such services cover assistants who help people with daily tasks such as bathing, laundry or cooking; provide needed care such as injections under the direction of a medical professional; and accompany them to and from doctor’s appointments. A 2020 report by the California state auditor found that nearly three-quarters of IHSS caregivers assist a family member.

Newsom’s office wrote IHSS care costs $30,000 a year, while nursing home care costs $137,000 a year. “SAVING TAXPAYERS: $107K per person,” it wrote.

California Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta also criticized the administration’s moves.

“Once again, California appears to be targeted solely for political reasons,” Bonta said. “The Trump administration is planning to defer over $1 billion in Medicaid funding for vital programs that helps seniors and people with disabilities remain safely in their homes.

“My team is carefully reviewing all available information. We have not hesitated to challenge unlawful actions by the Trump administration, and we will continue to act whenever Californians’ rights or access to critical services are threatened,” he said.

Democratic Sen. Alex Padilla also lashed out at the Trump administration.

“The Trump Administration is attacking California over claims that they can’t back up,” Padilla wrote on social media. “Let’s be real, this isn’t about fraud — it’s about punishing a state that didn’t vote for him. Political retribution plain and simple.”

Fraud in California’s hospice industry has been a problem for years.

Authorities in the state promised to crack down on the issue after a Times investigation in late 2020 revealed that unscrupulous providers were billing Medicare for hospice services and equipment for patients who were not actually dying — with the hospice industry in the state exploding in size.

California’s Medicaid program, known as Medi-Cal, is expected to cost about $222 billion for the budget year starting July 1, including both state and federal funding. Roughly 15 million Californians, more than a third of the state, are on Medi-Cal.

Vance, a potential 2028 presidential hopeful, has taken up his work as “fraud czar” with vigor, traveling around the country to drive home the idea that the Trump administration is working diligently to bring down healthcare costs by addressing waste, fraud and abuse that is rampant across the system.

He has said that waste and abuse is particularly prevalent in Democratic-led states such as California, New York and Minnesota.

“We have red states and blue states that go after fraud aggressively, but we also, unfortunately, have some states, mostly blue states, unfortunately, that do not take Medicaid fraud very seriously,” he said Wednesday.

Vance specifically threatened to cut off what he said is billions in federal funding for state-run fraud control units that are meant to prosecute people who abuse the system, but which he said aren’t doing the work. “This is a tool that we want the states to use, but unfortunately, a lot of states aren’t using these tools at all,” he said.

The focus on fraud comes against a backdrop of criticisms that other policy measures pushed by the administration have driven healthcare costs up or made it harder for people to access healthcare — including cuts to Obamacare subsidies and new work requirements in Medicaid, which are expected to strain hospitals around the country and led to millions of people losing healthcare coverage.

Democrats and Republicans have argued over who is to blame for rising healthcare costs, and Vance and Oz have clashed with California leaders before.

In January, Newsom filed a civil rights complaint against Oz after he posted a video accusing Armenian crime groups of carrying out widespread healthcare fraud in Los Angeles. In the video, Oz was shown driving around Van Nuys, saying about $3.5 billion worth of Medicare fraud had been perpetrated by hospice and home care businesses — and “run, quite a bit of it, by the Russian Armenian mafia.”

Newsom called Oz’s claims “baseless and racist.”

The administration previously launched investigations into potential healthcare fraud in at least five states — California, Florida, Maine, Minnesota and New York — and halted some $243 million in Medicaid payments to Minnesota over fraud concerns.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has also acknowledged using errant figures to justify a fraud probe in New York, deepening concerns in the administration’s methods for identifying problematic activity.

Vance said the deferral of funds to California and the letters warning other states to get serious is not about political retribution, but a wake up call. He said the Trump administration wants to help states root out fraud and abuse, including with new technologies — but can’t do so if they are not “willing to help themselves” first.

“We don’t want to turn off any money. What we want to do is ensure that people are taking fraud seriously. We want to protect Medicaid, we want to protect Medicare,” Vance said. “But we can’t do that if the states that are administering those programs are allowing those programs to be fleeced by fraudsters.”

The Associated Press contributed to this article.

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The mission is to raise funds for unpaid services provided by children’s hospitals statewide. The collaboration involves the Disneyland Resort, the California Children’s Hospital Assn. and the Health Facilities Financing Authority overseen by the state treasurer’s office, according to a news release.

“In this time when Californians are struggling to get access to care, we are thrilled to help unlock new funding to help expand care, improve health outcomes and promote the well-being of children with serious and complex medical needs,” State Treasurer Fiona Ma said.

Next steps toward approval

The announcement begins the process of developing a Disney-themed tag and securing approval from the Department of Motor Vehicles to add to its special license plate program.

Getting the DMV’s OK requires a pre-order minimum of 7,500 license plates. The agency also needs to sign off on the design.

It’s unclear how long this process will take. A DMV representative could not immediately be reached for comment.

The Disney-themed plates, if approved, would be among several the DMV offers to fund charities or causes, including the Arts Council, Breast Cancer Awareness, the Lake Tahoe Conservancy, museums, firefighters and veterans.

What will the license plates fund

After deducting administrative fees, proceeds from the Disney plates would go toward services provided by hospitals and clinics that are not covered by insurance or a patient.

Earnings will be deposited into the program fund established in the State Treasury and awarded to 13 children’s hospitals, including:

• Children’s Hospital Los Angeles
• Loma Linda University Children’s Hospital
• Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital Stanford
• MemorialCare Miller Children’s & Women’s Hospital Long Beach
• Rady Children’s Health Orange County
• Rady Children’s Health San Diego
• UC Davis Children’s Hospital
• UC Irvine Health Children’s Hospital
• UCLA Mattel Children’s Hospital
• UC San Diego Health Children’s Hospital
• UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital Oakland
• UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital San Francisco
• Valley Children’s Hospital

How much will these Disney-themes plates cost

Specialized plates cost $50 — or $103 for personalized versions — with an annual renewal fee of $40 or $83, respectively, in addition to standard vehicle registration fees.

How to pre-order

The California Health Facilities Financing Authority has launched a website for those interested in the Disney collaboration. Interested parties who fill out a form will receive updates on the program, including application details and opportunities to pre-order.

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The animal was first reported in the 700 block of North Grape Street, according to police in the San Diego County city of Escondido. The neighborhood visited by the cougar is several miles from the closest foothills.

The California Department of Fish and Wildlife also responded to the scene, police said. Officials used staff on the ground and drones in the air to monitor the animal’s location.

After wandering near homes and businesses, the big cat reportedly took refuge underneath a pickup truck at an apartment complex, NBC7 in San Diego reported.

Fish and Wildlife officials tranquilized the animal with a game dart, after which the mountain lion ran east over a fence before the dart started taking effect. It then fell asleep and was captured shortly after 7 p.m.

Fish and Wildlife spokesperson Steve Gonzalez told the San Diego Union-Tribune that the mountain lion is a 3-year-old male and was given an ear tag and collar before it was released into the Cleveland National Forest on Tuesday night. Facebook members who responded to the Escondido police online post expressed relief that the mountain lion was not euthanized.

“So pleased it’s been sedated and removed. Great job!” wrote one Facebook follower.

Mountain lions are considered a “specially protected mammal” and are illegal to hunt for sport in California.

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But his comments are a part of a broader, and more provocative agenda, said sources familiar with the bilateral relationship. They mark the launching, the sources said,

of a wide-ranging anti-corruption campaign by the Trump administration targeting Mexican officials suspected of having links to organized crime.

Such a crackdown that could shake bilateral relations at a pivotal moment, as U.S., Mexican and Canadian negotiators are sitting down to review the North American free-trade pact — a linchpin in Mexico’s export-dependent economy.

The event on Thursday was to celebrate construction of a billion-dollar methanol factory, one of the largest single private U.S. investments in Mexico in recent history.

Addressing a gathering of company executives, investors and state officials in the Pacific Coast city of Los Mochis. Johnson began his remarks by touting the project and highlighting the importance of U.S.-Mexico relations.

“The Pacifico Mexinol project represents a $3.3 billion investment during its construction and development,” Johnson said. “It will become the largest ultra-low emissions methanol facility in the world.”

But then Johnson pivoted to corruption, a touchy subject in Mexico.

“Corruption doesn’t just slow progress, it distorts it. It raises costs, weakens competition, and erodes the trust that markets depend on. It’s not a victimless problem,” Johnson said. “And it’s a direct obstacle to growth, to fairness, to opportunities, and to the long-term success of projects like this one.”

The ambassador then delivered a not-so-subtle message: Mexico needs to do something about its epidemic of crooked governance — from street cops to local mayors and governors to federal lawmakers, all on cartel payrolls — if leaders want to secure financial stability for the country of 133 million. He made clear the U.S. was coming after allegedly corrupt Mexican politicians.

“Investment is like water,” Johnson said. “It flows when the conditions are right, and it dries up when they are not.”

The U.S.-Mexico trade pact “requires our governments to criminalize bribery and corruption and enforce codes of conduct for public officials,” the ambassador noted as he closed his remarks. “We may soon see significant action on this front. So, stay tuned.”

The pointed remarks reflected the magnitude of the anti-corruption initiative. The campaign is expected to go well beyond the traditional sanction — the canceling of visas for those suspected of being in league with cartels.

This time the crackdown could include indictments of Mexican politicians in U.S. federal courts, including members of the ruling Morena party, a political movement founded on a “no corruption” platform. The sources spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal matters.

Official responses to Johnson’s remarks were muted.

When asked about Johnson’s remarks Friday in her morning news conference President Claudia Sheinbaum laughed. “That’s exactly what we’re working on,” she said, referring to the ambassador’s anti-corruption dictates. “The United States should do the same.”

U.S. prosecutors carrying out such an initiative could turn to a large pool of potential informants.

Scores of former cartel operatives — including the sons of Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, legendary founder of the Sinaloa mob — languish in U.S. custody. Many are believed to be eager to become “snitches” against former accomplices, including crooked politicians and cops.

To deliver his message, Johnson chose Sinaloa state — the base of the Sinaloa cartel, one of the world’s most notorious drug-trafficking conglomerates.

As with other criminal syndicates, the cartel has long oiled the gears of corruption with bribes. Hundreds, maybe thousands, of politicians and lawmen are on the cartel payroll, experts say.

The message that Washington will no longer accept business-as-usual was a sharp warning for Sheinbaum, a long-time academic and U.S.-educated scientist who, by all accounts, is free from the taint of corruption. But the same can’t be said for her dominant Morena bloc, here in Sinaloa and throughout the country.

Sheinbaum, known for her deft handling of Trump, must walk a fine line between placating Trump and resisting pressure from her Morena political base — especially if prominent politicians get swept up in a U.S.-driven anti-corruption whirlwind.

Already, the State Department has revoked the visas of several Morena lawmakers, including the governor of Baja California.

Among those whose U.S. visa has been revoked, the sources said, is Sinaloa Gov. Rubén Rocha Moya, a Morena stalwart who has repeatedly denied cartel links. It was cancelled last year.

The septuagenarian governor has managed to survive sundry political scandals, Mexican observers say, because of a key fact: His long-time friendship with ex-President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, Sheinbaum’s predecessor and mentor.

Rocha Moya is one of a number of top politicians viewed as protected by their associations with Lopez Obrador.

Among the major threats to Rocha Moya’s political survival was the outcry about the 2024 shooting death of his one-time chief political rival, Héctor Melesio Cuén Ojeda, a former lawmaker and university rector.

The crime remains unsolved. Mexican federal prosecutors concluded that the state inquiry into the shooting was a sham. Among the inconsistencies, according to prosecutors: State investigators compiled a fake video meant to conceal where, when and how the victim was slain.

The resulting uproar forced the resignation of the chief Sinaloa prosecutor. But Rocha Moya, her boss, remained in office despite calls for his resignation. He denied any link to Cuén Ojeda’s death.

On Thursday, Rocha Moya had been scheduled to give remarks alongside the U.S.. ambassador at the ground-breaking event.

But before Johnson could arrive, protesters descended on the venue denouncing the governor, who had already arrived, as “corrupt.” “I am on your side,” Rocha Moya assured the demonstrators, adding that he would stay to speak with them rather than attend the ceremony, which was moved because of the protest.

A hastily prepared hotel conference room in Los Mochis was used for the ceremony. That’s where Johnson, speaking in both Spanish and English, delivered his brief remarks.

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The new mom, who asked that she and her family be identified only by their first names out of fear they could be targeted for the unconventional way they’re raising their daughter, said her doctors had known for weeks that she would probably end up with a surgical birth.

Yet because of their uncommon family structure, it wasn’t until just minutes before the obstetrician cut into her belly that the father of her child got permission to go with her into the operating room.

“They were changing shifts so we couldn’t get the right doctor,” Chloe said. “They said it was up to the anesthesiologist on the day of the surgery to agree to having two people there.”

Chloe is polyamorous. By the time of her delivery last year, she and her partners Silvia and Fausto had already endured a medical and legal odyssey in their quest to expand their family.

Polyamory is nothing new in California, and certainly not in Oakland, which in 2024 became the first city in the state to outlaw discrimination based on family structure — a move meant in part to protect multiple partners’ rights to manage a medical emergency in the hospital.

Last month, West Hollywood passed an ordinance seeking to become the first city in California and one of just a handful across the country to offer domestic partnerships to poly groups. But for now, many families still face legal hurdles even in places where polyamory is becoming widely accepted.

In Chloe’s case, she began the pregnancy process by contracting with a fertility clinic to implant an embryo conceived with Silvia’s egg and Fausto’s sperm. When it came time to give birth, the throuple had to get special dispensation to visit their daughter in the NICU.

“You can only get two parents on the birth certificate at the time of the birth, so they have to think about who is going to be the one giving the child health insurance,” said the family’s attorney, Amira Hasenbush, a partner at the boutique Glendale firm All Family Legal.

For Chloe, Silvia and Fausto, that decision also meant weighing which of them would get access to paid family leave — something California law guarantees only to workers with documented proof of parentage.

Experts say multi-partner families are increasingly common in the Bay Area — Chloe noted they were recently outbid for a house by another triad with a child. Yet without laws allowing for domestic partnerships of three or more people, they are left spending thousands of dollars on attorney’s fees to craft a patchwork of legal agreements that afford just small fraction of the contractual protection conferred to married couples by default.

“Families are becoming more and more complex,” said Alana Chazan, Hasenbush’s partner at All Family Legal. “There are polyamorous families that will essentially form an LLC in order to protect their rights, because corporations have more rights under these laws than people do.”

Poly households who end up hiring lawyers are most often throuples or foursomes seeking to protect jointly held assets, parent children in common and ensure they can care for one another in life-or-death crises.

Some, like Chloe’s triad, are all lovers. In many others, two may share a partner in common but aren’t directly involved with each other.

“Having multiple partners is a more difficult legal administrative problem to solve than just making marriage gender neutral and plugging two people in there,” said Kaiponanea Matsumura, a professor at Loyola Law School and an expert on the legal regulation of families. “That is truly easier, legally.”

Math alone makes opening domestic partnership to polyamorous relationships challenging. But the law itself is also a hurdle, he and other experts said.

“Domestic partnership was added to the bigamy law in California, the criminal statute, so there’s currently no way to extend California registered domestic partnership to more than two people,” said Toby Adams a polyamory legal expert who is currently seeking a parentage judgment for her first foursome of clients.

The state bigamy law won’t necessarily bar West Hollywood from registering relationships inside its two-mile-square borders. But it does sharply limit that registry’s power, experts said.

“Many of the valuable rights and benefits that accompany marriage or domestic partnership are state law-created,” Matsumura explained. “Municipalities can’t create that, because it’s a creature of state law.”

Other marriage rights flow from the federal government, leaving little hope they could be expanded soon.

“Marriage conveys over a thousand different rights and responsibilities under federal law, and you can’t get yourself into that with a city ordinance,” said attorney Diane Adams , whose nonprofit Chosen Family Law Center has helped author poly ordinances around the country. “I call this the social welfare state of two. We’ve privatized dependency within marriage.”

But expanding rights piecemeal creates a nightmare for divorce lawyers, who found themselves building the plane in midair with gay breakups in the aughts and early 2010s.

“People don’t live their lives in contemplation of their divorce,” said Steven J. Mandel, a New York City divorce attorney and legal pioneer in same-sex splits. “One hundred percent of the people who get married think they’re gonna be married forever, and 50% of people are wrong.”

California’s first-in-the-nation multi-parentage law arose from exactly the sort of lesbian breakup Mandel made his name litigating.

In June of 2008, an Inland Empire woman named Melissa began a tempestuous relationship with a woman named Irene, according to state appellate court records. The two registered almost immediately as domestic partners despite fighting constantly, the court heard, and during one of their breakups Melissa started hooking up with Jesus, a man with whom she became pregnant.

Their love didn’t last. Melissa got back with her ex, marrying Irene just weeks before Proposition 8 made such unions illegal. The two women were together in the delivery room when the baby was born the following spring.

That union dissolved a few months later and then, in September of 2009, according to the appellate court record, Melissa’s new boyfriend stabbed Irene in the neck while they were drinking beer in a park, landing the baby in state custody.

Melissa, Jesus and Irene sought to each have visitation with their daughter and reunification services to help them figure out a way to co-parent. But the law would recognize only two of them as parents.

After the appellate court’s decision, then-state Sen. Mark Leno (D-San Francisco) introduced legislation to expand California’s definition of parentage to include more than two adults where excluding a third would be “detrimental” to the well-being of the child.

“Gay rights were advanced through a lot of breakups,” said Matthew Goodwin, a family lawyer in West Hollywood. “That’s how so much legislation gets drafted, because unique questions were litigated.”

The current state law allows parents like Chloe, Silvia and Fausto to petition for parentage with relative ease. A registry like the one proposed in West Hollywood would confer further recognition, even if it didn’t ultimately earn them more rights.

“It was almost unthinkable in the 1980s that two men or two women could legally marry under California law,” said Matsumura, the Loyola professor. “What [early domestic partnership] ordinances did, it institutionalized this idea, it made it not inconceivable that a government would recognize a type of relationship and say it has value.”

It would also almost certainly extend access to health benefits — a quirk of American marriage that experts said lies at the heart of the legal fight over poly partnerships.

“If tax benefits, if health insurance, if parental rights were not all based upon marital status, we wouldn’t have the issues that we do,” said Chazan, the Glendale lawyer. “Pass universal healthcare, then we wouldn’t have to marry each other for health benefits.”

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This seat, which blends portions of Kim and Calvert’s current districts, spans from Mission Viejo in Orange County up into Woodcrest, Menifee and Murrieta in Riverside County. The district was reconfigured under Proposition 50, the ballot measure that passed last year to redraw the boundaries of the state’s congressional districts. The new district includes pieces of the current ones represented by Kim and Calvert and is considered a fairly safe Republican seat.

President Trump would have won this district by 12 points in 2024.

Who are the candidates?

• Ken Calvert: Republican, incumbent member of Congress

Calvert, the longest-serving Republican member of California’s congressional delegation, is a Corona native who was first elected in 1992. He serves on the House Committee on Appropriations.

His legislative priorities, according to his district website, include strengthening the economy, fixing what he calls “our broken immigration system,” advocating for veterans and service members and coming up with solutions for California’s water issues.

• Young Kim: Republican, incumbent member of Congress

Kim was one of three Korean American women who were the first to be elected to Congress in 2020. She won reelection in 2022 and 2024. Kim serves on the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, House Committee on Financial Services and House Select Committee on Strategic Competition between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party.

Before she was elected to Congress, she served in the state Assembly for two years. Kim also worked for more than two decades for Orange County’s Rep. Ed Royce during his stint as a U.S. House member.

• Esther Kim Varet: Democrat, art gallery owner

Varet, who lives in Trabuco Canyon, has a Ph.D in art history, criticism and conservation from Columbia University. She is the founder and director of the contemporary art gallery Various Small Fires.

Her priorities include protecting reproductive rights, strengthening schools, combating climate change, immigration reform and rebuilding the country’s middle class, according to her campaign website.

• Lisa Ramirez: Democrat, immigration attorney

Ramirez, a Southern California native, is the owner and partner of U.S. Immigration Law Group. She attended Loyola Law School in Los Angeles and has a Bachelor of Arts from Scripps College in political science and religious studies, according to her LinkedIn profile.

Affordability is a cornerstone of her campaign along with immigration reform, climate stewardship, education and women’s health.

• Joseph Kerr: Democrat, retired fire captain

Kerr spent 34 years as a fire captain with the Orange County Fire Authority and served 17 years as president of the Orange County Professional Firefighters Assn., a labor union that represents more than 1,100 firefighters. He ran unsuccessfully for the Orange County Board of Supervisors in 2018, the state Senate in 2022 and Congress in 2024.

• Claude Keissieh: Democrat, electrical engineer

Keissieh is a U.S. Army veteran who served four tours in Iraq and later on a mission in Afghanistan, a small business owner, an adjunct college professor and an electrical engineer, according to his campaign website.

He previously worked with the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation to teach incarcerated people how to become electricians, his website says, and last year joined the California Department of Transportation as an electrical engineer.

• Nina Linh: Independent, nonprofit executive director

Linh started the WonderSeed Foundation, a nonprofit that uses neuroscience and technology to help at-risk youth, in 2018 after grappling with her son’s mental health struggles. She previously was a television producer and wrote a parenting book and a series of children’s books.

She’s running as an independent because she feels the “two-party system is broken” and the public is tired of hyperpartisan politics.

Democrat Francis Xavier Hoffman also is running.

Where they stand on immigration

Calvert for years has advocated for immigration reform, which he says must begin with controlling the U.S.-Mexico border to prevent people from entering illegally.

In 1996, he authored legislation that later became the E-Verify program, a tool used by employers to check the immigration status of newly hired employees. In 2023, he introduced legislation that would expand the use of the program. The bill, the Legal Workforce Act, was referred to the House Committee on the Judiciary and the House committees on Ways and Means and Education and Workforce last year.

Calvert told The Times he favors passing legislation that guarantees a secure border and “ends the job magnet.”

“I support a system that rewards those who follow the rules and wait their turn, not one that gives a fast pass or grants amnesty to those who cut in line,” he said.

Last year, Calvert voted in favor of the Laken Riley Act, which allowed the Department of Homeland Security to detain noncitizens who have been arrested for burglary, theft, larceny or shoplifting. Kim also voted in favor of the legislation.

Kim has identified border security as a key issue in her campaign. She voted in favor of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which allocated $46.5 billion for border wall construction and additional funds for hiring Border Patrol agents. Calvert also voted in favor of the bill.

On her campaign website, Kim states that former President Biden “opened our border and purposely created a crisis that overwhelmed law enforcement and allowed deadly fentanyl to flood into our country.”

“It’s simple: enforce our laws, secure the border, no amnesty and put American safety first,” she wrote.

Varet supports the DREAM Act, which if passed would offer a path to legal status and citizenship for thousands of DACA recipients — undocumented people who were brought to the U.S. as children and given federal protections — and other undocumented minors, according to her campaign website. She also is in favor of legislation that would reduce green card backlogs, establishes a path to citizenship for people who have been in the country for a certain number of years, for people who have passed a background check and those who have worked in the agricultural industry.

She wrote that “undocumented immigrants already living in the U.S. and their children cannot and should not be removed other than for legitimate criminal justice or immigration law violation convictions.”

She supports providing a path to amnesty and providing funds to boost the number of immigration judges, consular officers and naturalization officers.

Linh, who came to the United States as a refugee from Vietnam as a young child, told The Times she supports “secure, orderly and lawful immigration.” She added that a functioning immigration system would protect everyone, including those who seek to enter the country.

“Real reform means a funded immigration court system, smart technology at ports of entry, and cooperation with origin countries on root causes. It means agents who identify themselves, follow the law, and are held accountable when they do not. It means a legal pathway that works, not one so backlogged that doing things right means waiting 15 years,” she said.

As an immigration attorney, Ramirez believes America should provide permanent legal status and a path to citizenship for Dreamers and immigrants who have contributed to the country for years.

“Our immigration laws need an overhaul and to be brought into the 21st century, giving workers more flexibility and options for people who are waiting decades to complete the legal process,” she told The Times. “In the meantime, we need to keep our communities safe from unlawful ICE enforcement while supporting effective community policing, accountability and trust in law enforcement…”

Kerr said immigration policies aren’t working, noting that it’s not simply a choice between “open borders and cruelty.”

He supports expanding immigration courts to eliminate backlogs, protecting Dreamers and creating a pathway to citizenship for people who contribute to the U.S., simplifying the process of legal immigration and boosting accountability for Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations to ensure enforcement is focused on real public safety threats.

“We can enforce the law with strength and we can do it with basic human dignity. These goals are not in conflict,” he wrote on his campaign website.

Where they stand on climate change

In 2024, Kim co-sponsored the Championing Local Efforts to Advance Resilience Act, proposed bipartisan legislation that would authorize $100 million annually over five years to help states strengthen infrastructure and prepare for extreme weather and natural disasters. The bill was referred to the House Committee on Financial Services.

In May 2025, Kim partnered with Rep. Dave Min (D-Irvine) to introduce the Building Resiliency and Understanding of Shrublands to Halt (BRUSH) Fires Act, which aims to boost wildfire mitigation efforts in shrubland ecosystems.

Kim and Calvert also co-sponsored bipartisan legislation to improve the health and resiliency of giant sequoias, which have been threatened by California wildfires.

But Kim also faced criticism from environmental groups for voting for legislation that reduces environmental regulations.

Calvert told The Times he favors focusing on “mitigating for a changing climate instead of imposing more taxes and regulations that kill jobs and make everything more expensive.”

He opposes California’s Cap-and-Invest program, which sets a declining cap on greenhouse gas emissions from major polluters, and believes the Trump administration was right to stop the state’s efforts to ban the sale of gas-powered cars by 2035.

The solution to climate change, Calvert said, is “water storage … better forest management to stop these catastrophic fires before they start and investing in infrastructure so we can better handle whatever Mother Nature throws our way.”

In February, Calvert announced he’d helped secure $67 million for Riverside County infrastructure projects, including several water-related projects, as part of an appropriations package.

On her campaign website, Varet said she will “demand responsible, science-based solutions” to protect the public and keep the country competitive.

She vows to support legislation that would hold large fossil fuel companies accountable for climate change, repeal tax breaks for the oil and gas industry and advance the transition to renewable energy.

“Pollution and climate change threaten not only our national forests but our health, our homes and our quality of life,” she wrote.

Linh told The Times she will push for mandatory modernization of utility infrastructure to prevent power lines from sparking fires, invest in forest and vegetation management and modernize water infrastructure and early warning systems.

On emissions, Linh said she believes “incentives and innovation will always outperform heavy-handed mandates.” She supports expanding clean transit options, incentivizing employers to adopt flexible work policies to reduce commute emissions, deploying smart traffic technology and giving small businesses tiered time lines and tax credits to transition.

She also vows to push for federal oversight of insurance companies that abandon fire-prone states like California.

“The climate crisis has become an affordability crisis,” she said. “People who were already struggling to stay housed are now one policy cancellation away from financial collapse. This is not an abstract environmental issue. It is happening to families right now.”

Ramirez supports policies that call for responsible energy development, innovation in renewable technologies, improving energy efficiency in buildings and transportation, and strengthening infrastructure to withstand stronger storms and higher temperatures. It’s critical, she said, to restore the historical function of the Environmental Protection Agency and reinstate protections for air and water.

“Environmental stewardship and economic growth are not opposing goals — they reinforce one another,” she told The Times.

As a firefighter, Kerr said he saw the effects of climate change firsthand. He supports funding for advanced wildfire detection technology, more resources for firefighters, strengthening incentives for homeowners to harden against wildfires, clean energy and climate resilient infrastructure and strengthening federal disaster relief programs.

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David Anthony Burke, 21, was taken into custody at a home in the Hollywood Hills, a law enforcement source who has knowledge of the investigation, but is not authorized to speak publicly, told The Times. He is being held without bail.

Celeste Rivas Hernandez was reported missing in 2024 from the Inland Empire, according to authorities, but her whereabouts since then remained a mystery. Though her name was initially listed as Celeste Rivas with the county medical examiner’s office, it has since been updated with the Hernandez surname.

According to police, the girl’s severely decomposed body was found in the vehicle at Hollywood Tow on Sept. 8, 2025 after it was impounded. Someone noticed a foul odor coming from the vehicle and detectives arrived at the tow yard to investigate.

Law enforcement sources familiar with the investigation, but not authorized to discuss the case publicly, told The Times the vehicle was abandoned in the Hollywood Hills five days before it was impounded.

Detectives served a search warrant at a home in that upscale neighborhood on Doheny Drive, north of Sunset Boulevard. Law enforcement sources with knowledge of the case but not authorized to speak publicly said the detective received various items, including electronics and computers.

Burke was raised in Houston and has collaborated with musicians Kali Uchis, Stray Kids’ Hyunjin, Laufey and 21 Savage. He also created an anthem for the game “Fortnite.”

Burke had been on a national tour promoting his debut album, “Withered,” since early August. He performed in Boston, Montreal and Toronto in late August and in early September had stops in Detroit, Chicago and Indianapolis. But the tour was canceled amid the investigation.

The Withered World Tour includes themes of death and remembrance. Fans entering Burke’s show are greeted by a casket and guest book, where they can pay condolences to a character Burke sometimes reprises in his performances and music videos. Part of that character’s uniform includes a shirt covered in bloody handprints and a blindfold.

“Withered” was released on Darkroom and Interscope Records in April. The album charted at No. 13 on the Billboard 200 and has more than 521 million streams on Spotify. On Sept. 7, in his last social media post, Burke announced on Instagram he was going to drop a deluxe version of the album. It was one of his last social media posts before Rivas’ body was discovered.

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The Riverside County Department of Animal Services found the ducks Tuesday after investigating overcrowding conditions at a property in unincorporated Riverside County, according to the agency. The birds were taken to the San Jacinto Valley Animal Campus, where officials urgently called on the public and rescue organizations to help place them beginning Wednesday.

According to a social media update from the San Jacinto Valley Animal Campus, all 480 ducks have been rescued or adopted, marking one of the largest single intake-and-placement efforts for the department in over a decade.

“This large-scale operation required extensive teamwork and coordination across our department,” Riverside County officials said in the social media update.

Animal service officials were not available to explain who had adopted the animals and whether they were adopted as pets or food. But Daniel Markichevich told KABC that he and his fiancée Savannah Burgardt visited the San Jacinto shelter on Wednesday and planned on adopting 20 ducks for their San Jacinto property.

“We have a 3.5-acre farm, so they will just go right into the area and enjoy, and we’ll get out there and look at them, eat their eggs and have a whole full life for them,” said Markichevich, who recently completed construction on a pond in their backyard.

An animal sanctuary in Vacaville, dubbed the Funky Chicken Rescue, took in eight of the ducks, according to a social media post.

Officials said the original owner of the ducks had intended to create a sanctuary for the animals but animal control officers ultimately determined that conditions required intervention, citing improper husbandry and concerns about the number of birds being housed.

Before taking in the ducks, the animal services agency coordinated with the California Department of Food and Agriculture to test a sample of the ducks for zoonotic diseases, according to the county. All results came back negative but early assessments indicated the birds had not received adequate care, according to authorities.

“Overcrowding can contribute to stress and decreased immune function,” Itzel Vizcarra, chief veterinarian for the county animal services agency, said in a statement. “Inadequate nutrition, particularly vitamin A deficiency, can impair the lining of the digestive tract, predisposing birds to inflammation and secondary illness.”

The swift placement effort was supported in part by community donations, including more than 70 bags of waterfowl feed provided by a local business, according to the San Jacinto Valley Animal Campus.

While the ducks now have new homes, officials said the investigation into overcrowding conditions at the original property is ongoing.

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Although the Joro spider, an invasive species that has been spotted across the United States, including in California, isn’t dangerous, its size and the web it creates can seem like props from a horror movie.

“They’re not medically significant,” said Pat Wooden, the insect identification lab manager at Virginia Tech. “They’re great big bugs, but they’re not going to bite you and cause terrible damage. They’re established really well, so there isn’t a whole lot we can do against them. Their spider webs can get up to 10 feet.”

The spider has recently been found in California, with the first report in October, Wooden said. They don’t have any natural predators and have a big web that is able to capture a diverse range of prey, including beetles, wasps and stink bugs. The spiders are also good at distancing themselves from each other so they aren’t in competition.

Wooden recommends that people try not to panic and do nothing if they happen to see one. The spiders benefit humans by acting as natural pest control, eating mosquitoes, biting flies and invasive stink bugs. Their venom isn’t dangerous to people or pets and they seldom bite.

The spiders disperse themselves by “ballooning,” in which spiderlings release silk that catches in the wind, letting them travel. This falsely gives people the impression that the spiders can somehow fly.

“They’re incredibly prevalent and people interact with them a lot,” she said. “We’ve gotten past the people thinking that they flew, which was the real scary thing that came with them.”

The first time the spider was spotted in the U.S. was in Georgia in 2014, likely brought to the country through shipping containers from China, Taiwan, Japan and South Korea, Wooden said.

The spiders are especially prevalent in Appalachia and have also been spotted in South Carolina, North Carolina, Tennessee, Kentucky, West Virginia, Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Mississippi, Alabama, Ohio and Florida.

“We learned that we’re just going to be stuck with them,” Wooden said. “They’re becoming more prevalent and they’re slowly making their way across the Southeast. When we recently did work in Tennessee, every single rock alcove had one in it.”

The University of Georgia College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences and Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources find the spider so intriguing that they launched a website, Jorowatch.org, to track where the spiders have popped up across the country. Most have been reported in Georgia. The website shows some spiders reported as recently as October in Santa Barbara County.

According to the website, the spiders are active from September to October and are orb-weavers known for spinning spiral wheel-shaped webs. They can be identified by a yellow abdomen with red markings, and by the golden color of their webs.

Male Joro spiders are about 0.25 inches in size and mostly brown while female spiders are about 1.25 inches and mostly yellow.

The spiders’ white egg sacs, usually laid between October and November, are often attached to leaves, tree bark and flat structures and contain 400 to 500 eggs, according to Jorowatch.

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