Every week we pore through all of the new channels on Roku so you don't have to, and post only those we believe have special content or will be of widespread appeal, while filtering out the ones that don't work, are of poor quality, or have limited content.
We posted six new Roku channel reviews this week, with content that includes a bubble pop game, bedtime stories and other animated content for children, supernatural-themed films and documentaries, and more. Click on the links below for more details on each channel, including our exclusive channel reviews.
Bubble Pop - Pop bubbles in this fun puzzle game - match colors, clear levels, and earn bonuses with smart, quick moves
Fairy Tales Studio - Bedtime stories, animated adventures, classic fairy tales, and other content for children
JustKass - Makeup tips, pranks, challenges, and feel-good moments you’ll love to watch
Dental Digest - One dentist on a mission to make your smile sparkle (and maybe make you laugh-snort)
Grindhouse Movie Channel - Grindhouse films ranging from cult classics to new fan favorites, with indie exploitation films from the 1970s to present day
We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication.
Prime Day 2025 ends tonight, and Lifehacker is sharing the best sales based on product reviews, comparisons, and price-tracking tools before it's over.
New to Prime Day? We have a primer on everything you need to know. Sales are accurate at the time of publication, but prices and inventory are always subject to change.
In the remaining hours of Amazon Prime Day, you may have to start prioritizing which sales are worth your hard-earned cash. If you’re still rounding out your kitchen appliance arsenal, I recommend you consider the air fryer as one of your final purchases. There are some great models out there that are reliable enough to be worth their regular retail price, and while they're on sale, they're even harder to pass up. Here are some of the best air fryers to snag while they’re still discounted.
For one of Julia Morgan’s first commissions in 1903, the magnificent El Campanil bell tower at Mills College in Oakland, the soft-spoken young architect had to deal with a male contractor who wasn’t happy that she was the boss.
In fact, he worked to undermine Morgan’s authority by claiming she didn’t know how to use steel-reinforced concrete for her 72-foot, Mission-style tower. He was wrong, of course, because the Oakland-reared Morgan had learned all about this new construction method, necessary to build 20th-century skyscrapers, at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris. The year before, she had become the first woman to ever graduate from this world-renowned architectural training program.
“She was right there on the ground floor of some of the most path-breaking experiments with concrete,” said Oakland-based Julia Morgan historian Karen McNeill.
But it didn’t matter. In a time before women could vote, the female president of Mills College was still inclined to listen to the man and let him take credit for Morgan’s elegant design.
Julia Morgan's El Campanil bell tower, circa 1905 (Special Collections, F. W. Olin Library, Northeastern University, Oakland)
This wasn’t Morgan’s first experience with sexism, but it confirmed that she wouldn’t be able to avoid it throughout her trailblazing, 46-year career, as McNeill wrote in her essay “Julia Morgan: Gender, Architecture, and Professional Style.”
The situation also demonstrated the ways that Morgan — a modest, diminutive woman out of the Victorian era, given to wearing prim suits and her hair pinned back into a bun — didn’t conform to a popular idea of the genius American architect whose buildings define eras.
Unlike her contemporary Frank Lloyd Wright or the fictional “starchitects” imagined by Ayn Rand and in the film “The Brutalist,” Morgan didn’t come across as a swaggering, larger-than-life cultural figure. She wasn’t given to displays of ego, superiority or a tortured personality, even if she privately faced professional and personal heartbreak.
Morgan was seen as a “tiny, fragile-looking woman,” though she still managed to use a “wonderful quiet power” to command respect, one client once said. The breadth of her output also shows a master builder who helped define the look of the Bay Area as much as any architect.
The Berkeley City Club is a Gothic/Ramanesque hotel originally designed by architect Julia Morgan in the 1920s with a renowned swimming pool and cozy tavern called Morgan's Bar and Lounge. (Trevor Johnson/Courtesy of the Berkeley City Club)
After starting her own firm in 1904, she designed an estimated 700 projects throughout the Western United States in the first half of the 20th century. The first woman licensed to practice architecture in California, she gained the trust of philanthropist Phoebe Apperson Hearst and her newspaper tycoon son, Willam Randolph Hearst, spending 28 years building his opulent Hearst Castle at San Simeon, considered one of America’s great private houses.
Morgan’s output included an array of regular homes, schools, churches, office buildings and clubhouses, while she became a name brand by just getting on with the work. Unlike other “starchitects,” she also didn’t court media attention — and, most strikingly, she didn’t crusade for a signature bold style or theory. Instead, in the service of her clients, she worked in various styles – Mission, Arts and Crafts, First Bay Tradition, neo-Classical, Gothic and the Spanish renaissance that inspired Hearst Castle.
Unfortunately, this deference to clients long led some critics to ignore her work, especially when modernism was in its ascendancy, writes biographer Victoria Kastner in “Julia Morgan: An Intimate Portrait of The Trailblazing Architect.” In a 1966 essay, Joan Didion seemed to deride the “phantasmagoric barony” of San Simeon, without naming Morgan, while later saying that her lack of a singular style suggested a lack of talent.
The Julia Morgan Performing Arts Center formerly Old St. John's Presbyterian Church, was designated as an historic landmark by the city of Berkeley in 1975, under the city's current Landmarks Preservation Ordinance. Measure LL on the Ballot calls for revising that ordinance. Undated photo by Betty Marvin
Whether Morgan’s solicitousness was a function of her gender, McNeill argues that Morgan’s genius came from her desire to create beautiful spaces that served clients’ needs. “Actually, if you study her buildings, particularly alongside the stories of her clients, then you very much have a signature style, which was from the inside out, bottom up,” McNeill said.
Morgan was “a sensitive person and sensitive artist, whose extraordinary attention to the surroundings and comfort of others have left us with a lasting legacy of hundreds of buildings, all of which are strong, useful and beautiful,” adds Kastner, the former historian at Hearst Castle.
Morgan’s independent spirit and love for beautiful spaces were apparent early on. Born in 1874, she grew up in a prominent Oakland family, with a strong-minded mother, Eliza, who was proud of their well-appointed home. That home, near downtown, also boasted a lush garden, where Morgan could indulge in “unlady-like” pursuits with her four siblings, like turning somersaults and shooting arrows.
Morgan showed an early talent for art and music and was encouraged to excel in school and go to college. But like other young women of her social class, she knew that she couldn’t have a career if she got married.
That Morgan didn’t marry has made her the subject of speculation about whether she was a lesbian. Kastner said there’s no documented evidence that she had romantic relationships, saying that her great love affair probably was with architecture.
McNeill agrees that Morgan never wrote about any romantic relationships. But she noted that she had had multiple same-sex couples as clients and was empathetic to how, for example, a pair of co-habitating female doctors wanted their Berkeley home designed to accommodate their lifestyle.
Morgan’s trailblazing began as a teenager at UC Berkeley in 1890, where her older brother still escorted her to campus at the insistence of their parents. But she became the first woman to graduate with a degree in civil engineering and thereafter found work and a mentor in Bernard Maybeck, the pioneering architect of buildings in the “woodsy” First Bay Tradition style. Maybeck also encouraged Morgan to study at his alma mater, the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris.
But gaining admission became a rigorous, multi-year process that involved apprenticing at an atelier, where her male colleagues regularly targeted her for frat-boy-style pranks. The École resisted welcoming female students, but was finally “shamed” into admitting Morgan after she scored exceedingly high on her third try on the entrance exam. She then had to cram about six years’ work into three years in order to graduate by age 30.
Morgan returned to the Bay Area in the midst of a building boom. Through Maybeck, she became acquainted with Phoebe Hearst and got early jobs working on buildings that the philanthropist funded at UC Berkeley, including supervising construction of the Greek Theatre.
Morgan’s design for Mills’ El Campanil tower was intended to underscore the school’s commitment to women’s suffrage and other Progressive ideals. Fortunately, the sexist contractor didn’t do lasting damage. In fact, Morgan got more ambitious work, both at Mills and elsewhere, after the tower and the nearby campus library that she designed both withstood the 1906 San Francisco earthquake.
‘You know, she was a human being,” Kastner said. “That the bell tower and the library both survived the earthquake must have been a moment of at least quiet triumph, knowing that this blowhard didn’t know what he was talking about.”
While the “blowhard’s” name has been lost to history, Morgan responded to his meddling by adopting a professional style to navigate a male-dominated profession, McNeill said. For her next “big, big” job, she successfully supervised hundreds of male workers across different trades to rebuild San Francisco’s Fairmont Hotel after it was damaged by the earthquake.
“She could swing a sledge hammer with the strength of a hefty man,” a 1974 San Francisco Chronicle profile of Morgan said. “She spoke softly, but when she issued orders, it was with the finality of a Marine drill sergeant.”
During the Fairmont job, Morgan first got media attention for her “Quarkerish” plain-tailored jackets and skirts, according to McNeill. It’s likely that Morgan wanted to exude professionalism, akin to male architects, with her unfussy fashion. Morgan also was known to wear large pockets to dispense with purses and trousers underneath her skirt if she had to move around a building site, but she still showed a feminine touch by wearing silk blouses from Paris.
Morgan’s career flourished at a time when women sought an increased presence in public life and spaces to organize on behalf of civic engagement, education, children’s welfare and women’s rights. She soon became the go-to architect for women’s groups wanting clubhouses, from Saratoga to Sausalito. After she began working on Hearst’s San Simeon estate, she also designed one of her favorite buildings — the Berkeley City Women’s Club, a six-story “fantasy” of Romanesque, Gothic and Moorish architecture, with a serene indoor pool and dining and assembly rooms for a range of social and recreational programs benefitting girls and women.
Morgan moreover enjoyed a decades-long collaboration with the YWCA, which provided safe housing, classes and community for young women who had left families, farms and even their home countries to work in U.S. cities. For the YWCA, she designed more than 30 buildings in Oakland, San Jose and San Francisco’s Chinatown as well as the Arts and Crafts-style buildings for the organization’s Asilomar women’s conference center in Pacific Grove.
When she died at age 85 in 1957, she got no mention in a Life magazine story about Hearst Castle opening to the public that year as a glittery new attraction in the California State Parks system, Kastner wrote.
But critics like San Francisco-based Alan Temko began to speak up, saying she deserved “as high a place as does Mary Cassatt in American painting or Edith Wharton in American letters.” In 2014, McNeill and other scholars succeeded in accomplishing another first on her behalf: the American Institute of Architects awarded her its first Gold Medal to a woman. Frank Gehry, one of North America’s still living “starchitects,” praised her as an innovator, while Kastner said, “She never stopped creating … and she was one of the 20th century’s finest architects, yet she never lost her humility or desire to improve.”
Visit Julia Morgan’s best Bay Area buildings
Saratoga Foothill Club: Morgan designed the Arts and Crafts-style women’s clubhouse in 1915, at the request of one of its founding members, who had been in the Kappa Alpha Theta sorority with the architect at UC Berkeley. The club regularly hosts public events, such as concerts and author discussions. https://saratogafoothillclub.org.
Berkeley City Club: Morgan’s “Little Castle” at 2315 Durant Ave. houses a members-only club, fitness center and swimming pool as well as a hotel and two restaurants, Julia’s Restaurant and Morgan’s Bar and Lounge, which are open to the public. On the fourth Sunday of every month, except December, the club also offers a public tour of Morgan’s gorgeous architecture, www.berkeleycityclub.com.
Chapel of the Chimes: You can go on a virtual or in-person tour of this historic1909 columbarium on Piedmont Avenue in Oakland, which Morgan designed with Spanish-Moorish Gothic flourishes and indoor gardens. https://oakland.chapelofthechimes.com.
The Berkeley Playhouse: One of Morgan’s most important early projects was her design for the sanctuary of St. John’s Presbyterian Church, considered one of the finest examples of the East Bay Arts and Crafts style. The building now houses the Berkeley Playhouse, which produces family musicals and provides theater education, 2640 College Avenue, Berkeley, https://tickets.berkeleyplayhouse.org/
SAN JOSE — The San Jose Sharks continued their busy offseason Friday by signing veteran forward Jeff Skinner to a one-year, $3 million contract.
Skinner, 33, had 29 points (16 goals, 13 assists) in 72 games with the Edmonton Oilers this past season as he made the Stanley Cup playoffs for the first time in his career. Skinner became a free agent on July 1, just weeks after the Oilers lost the Cup final to the Florida Panthers in six games.
Skinner, a 15-year NHL veteran, has 699 points in 1,078 career NHL games, with stops in Carolina, Buffalo, and Edmonton.
Since July 1, the Sharks have added forwards Skinner, Adam Gaudette, Philipp Kurashev, and Ryan Reaves, defensemen Dmitry Orlov, John Klingberg, and Nick Leddy, and goalie Alex Nedeljkovic. Reaves was acquired from the Toronto Maple Leafs on Thursday night for defenseman Henry Thrun.
ESPARTO — Three brothers, two of them East Bay residents, were among seven people identified by authorities in Yolo County on Friday as victims of an explosion at a warehouse storing fireworks.
The explosion July 1 happened just after 6 p.m. near County Road 23 and County Road 86A in the small, rural town about 37 miles west of Sacramento. Video footage captured the explosion, which also caused a wildfire that burned about 80 acres.
Among those identified by the Yolo County Sheriff’s Office were 22-year-old Jhony Ernesto Ramos, and 18-year-old Jesus Manaces Ramos, both of San Pablo. The third brother, Junior Melendez, 28, of Sacramento, also was identified. Syanna Ruiz told Associated Press Jesus Ramos was her boyfriend and working his first day at the warehouse when the explosion occurred. She added that Jhony Ramos and Melendez were Jesus Ramos’ brothers.
Authorities confirmed that account Friday.
The four others identified by authorities Friday were Angel Voller, 18, of Sacramento; Carlos Javier Rodriguez-Mora, 43, of San Andreas; Neil Li, 41, of San Francisco; and Christopher Bocog, 45, of San Francisco.
Authorities said the autopsies for all seven victims were completed Thursday, and that the official cause of death for each is pending toxicology results.
The Sacramento Bee reported that law enforcement officers raided a San Francisco home Tuesday associated with Devastating Pyrotechnics, the fireworks company linked to the deadly explosion. The Office of the State Fire Marshal is leading the investigation into the blast.
The Bee reported the address of the warehouse is registered to Jack Lee, the person in charge of storage and security for the company. Public records list Kenneth Chee as the owner and CEO of Devastating Pyrotechnics.
“Investigators are actively tracking down numerous leads and have served multiple search warrants as part of the investigation process,” Deputy State Fire Marshal Kara Garrett said in a statement reported by the Bee. “While we are unable to provide additional details at this time, please know that we are committed to conducting a thorough and comprehensive investigation.”
Rebuilding Syria is proving a potentially lethal task, as streets and farmland are seeded with unexploded land mines – with children and civilians in harm’s way.
We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication.
Prime Day 2025 ends tonight, and Lifehacker is sharing the best sales based on product reviews, comparisons, and price-tracking tools before it's over.
New to Prime Day? We have a primer on everything you need to know. Sales are accurate at the time of publication, but prices and inventory are always subject to change.
Form’s smart swim goggles make you feel like you’re truly living in the future. They display your workout and metrics in a little display that lives in the goggle itself, floating right in front of your eye, but not blocking your vision. I tried an earlier version and was impressed.
These smart goggles are on sale right now for $229 instead of the usual $279. They can track your lap times, distance, pace, stroke rate, and more, and display these metrics in front of you as you swim—so no more forgetting which lap you’re on. They have a heart rate monitor built in, and 14 hours of battery life. If you pair the goggles with a Garmin or Apple watch, you can even get pace and distance data for open water swims.
No subscription is required for the goggles’ basic features, but there is (of course) a premium subscription that includes a bunch of extras. For $9.99 per month, you get access to a huge library of workouts and training plans, and there’s even a feature where you can take a photo of a written training plan—something handed to you by a coach, perhaps—and turn that into a digital workout in the Form app.
There’s also a premium feature called HeadCoach, which detects your head position and uses that to give you technique cues; and SwimStraight, which does what it sounds like—provides a compass for open water swims so you don’t veer off course.
Looking for something else? Retailers like Walmart, Best Buy, and Home Depot have Prime Day competition sales that are especially useful if you don’t have Amazon Prime.
Walmart’s Prime Day competition sale runs through Sunday, July 13 and includes deals up to 50% off. It’s an especially good option if you have Walmart+.
Best Buy’s Prime Day competition sale, “Black Friday in July,” runs through Sunday, July 13 and has some of the best tech sales online. It’s an especially good option if you’re a My Best Buy “Plus” or “Total” member.
We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication.
Prime Day 2025 ends tonight, and Lifehacker is sharing the best sales based on product reviews, comparisons, and price-tracking tools before it's over.
New to Prime Day? We have a primer on everything you need to know. Sales are accurate at the time of publication, but prices and inventory are always subject to change.
If you've been waiting until the last day of the Prime Day sale to pick up a new pair of high-quality earbuds, good news: There are still plenty of deals to check out. While you'll find dozens of earbud bargains out there, the deals I've collected below are for some of the best earbuds you can buy.
If you're interested, however, act fast: Prime Day ends tonight, after all.
We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication.
Prime Day 2025 ends tonight, and Lifehacker is sharing the best sales based on product reviews, comparisons, and price-tracking tools before it's over.
New to Prime Day? We have a primer on everything you need to know. Sales are accurate at the time of publication, but prices and inventory are always subject to change.
When the Ember mug was first released in 2016, I was skeptical that it was worth the high, three-digit price tag. Surely, a coffee mug with a heating element built into it couldn't be that much better than an insulated thermos, right? But now that I have one, I can't go back. If you drink a daily cup of coffee like I do, before Prime Day—and its competition sales from Walmart, Best Buy, etc.—ends, you owe it to yourself to snatch up a self-heating coffee mug.
Since it came out, Ember has earned itself a few competitors on the market, but to me, the original is still the best. This coffee mug, on sale at Walmart, comes in both a 10 oz. and 14 oz. size. Both cost roughly the same at the moment and come with a charging coaster. (It'll still heat while not on the coaster, though, as long as it's charged.)
As someone who loves to nurse a cup of coffee or hot chocolate over the course of a few hours, but who has gotten literally burned more than I'd like to admit while using a thermos, this has revolutionized how I drink coffee. It's never too warm or too cold now, and it's especially useful for drinks that tend to cool off fast, like hot chocolate. The catch is that you need to use the companion app to set your desired temperature, but for down-to-the-degree control, that's a pain I'm willing to deal with. Plus, it pings me when my drink hits my desired temperature, which is convenient.
It's admittedly not great for travel, but while Ember does make a thermos that uses the same tech as its mug, it's not discounted right now. It's also worth noting that, depending on how large you like your drinks, 14 oz. might not be enough for you.
Ember mug alternatives
Even with my testimony, I understand if the Ember Mug is either too fiddly or too pricey for you. In that case, try one of these alternatives.
The Nextmug is probably Ember's biggest competition, and offers a similar experience but without an app. Like Ember, it's a battery-powered mug with a charging coaster. Instead of an app, you'll use a button on the mug to select between three temperature presets—warm (130 degrees), hot (140 degrees), or piping (150 degrees). There's no degree-level control here, but if any of those presets sound good to you, you might like this mug better than Ember's.
Or, you could instead pay a bit more to opt for the Nextmug Plus, which is the largest option on this list at 18 oz. of capacity. It's great if you like a large cup, and as a plus, both versions of the Nextmug come with an extra charging coaster and a travel lid (it doesn't close fully, but it's better than nothing). Like Ember, Nextmug does make a thermos, but it is similarly not on sale for the moment.
Finally, there's the Kepwam mug, if you're looking for a budget option. Both the Ember and the Nextmug cost about the same right now, but this one is about half the price. On paper, it's similar to the Nextmug, with three temperature presets and no app. Those presets are a bit unusual for my tastes—113 degrees, 131 degrees, and 149 degrees, but could appeal to you if Nextmug's don't. It's also 16 oz., making it larger than either the Ember mug or base Nextmug, although it doesn't come with a second charging coaster. On the plus side, it does include a removable lid with a latch that closes fully. This is not a big name product, if you couldn't tell by the odd variation of "keep warm" it's named after, although Amazon reviews consistently give it four to five stars.
Looking for something else? Retailers like Walmart, Best Buy, and Home Depot have Prime Day competition sales that are especially useful if you don’t have Amazon Prime.
Walmart’s Prime Day competition sale runs through Sunday, July 13 and includes deals up to 50% off. It’s an especially good option if you have Walmart+.
Best Buy’s Prime Day competition sale, “Black Friday in July,” runs through Sunday, July 13 and has some of the best tech sales online. It’s an especially good option if you’re a My Best Buy “Plus” or “Total” member.
What this means: On a weekly basis, Realtor.com reports the year-over-year change in active inventory and new listings. On a monthly basis, they report total inventory. For May, Realtor.com reported inventory was up 28.9% YoY, but still down 12.9% compared to the 2017 to 2019 same month levels.
The number of homes actively for sale remains on a strong upward trajectory, virtually unchanged from last week, at 26.7% higher than this time last year. This represents the 87th consecutive week of annual gains in inventory. There were more than 1 million homes for sale again last week, marking the ninth week in a row over the threshold and the highest inventory level since December 2019.
• New listings—a measure of sellers putting homes up for sale—rose 9.3% year over year
New listings rose again last week on an annual basis, up 9.3% compared with the same period last year.
• he median list price was up 0.2% year over year
The median list price climbed again this week but is still down 0.3% year to date. The median list price per square foot—which adjusts for changes in home size—rose 0.8% year over year. With inventory on the rise and more than 1 in 5 sellers cutting prices, the market is tilting back toward balance, marked by slowing price growth and increasing buyer leverage.
With inventory climbing, and sales depressed, months-of-supply is at the highest level since 2016 (excluding the start of pandemic) putting downward pressure on house prices in an increasing number of areas.
Must a cat lover bring every cat they see on the street home with them? Probably not. Do they want to? Absolutely.
Finding a stray cat is an emotional endeavor. With your heart strings getting tugged between responsibility and moral obligation, cats have a way of burrowing themselves into our souls in an instant. We may know that we can't take another cat in the house, but we certainly can't leave this little fella out here to fend for himself! Ahh, alas, the query persists.
In a somewhat anticipated move, Belkin is killing most of its smart home products. On January 31, the company will stop supporting the majority of its Wemo devices, leaving users without core functionality and future updates.
In an announcement emailed to customers and posted on Belkin’s website, Belkin said:
After careful consideration, we have made the difficult decision to end technical support for older Wemo products, effective January 31, 2026. After this date, several Wemo products will no longer be controllable through the Wemo app. Any features that rely on cloud connectivity, including remote access and voice assistant integrations, will no longer work.
The company said that people with affected devices that are under warranty on or after January 31 “may be eligible for a partial refund” starting in February.
I'll be frank: I had mixed feelings, based solely on the trailers, about James Gunn's Superman reboot. Sure, the casting seemed great, Gunn has a winning track record on superhero fare, and Krypto the dog stole the show every time he appeared. The trailers struck a nice balance between action, humor, and heart. Yet the film also seemed overpacked with super-character cameos, and it was hard to get any sense of the actual plot.
I've now seen the film, and those impressions were largely correct. But I'm happy to report that the positives far outweigh any negatives. Superman is a super-fun ride that unabashedly embraces its early comic book roots, naive optimism and all.
California lawmakers, whose state is home to the most advanced artificial intelligence developers, are concerned that Congress is not prepared to respond to a job market where AI takes over entry-level jobs in the technology sector.
It’s not clear yet how often AI is replacing — or will replace — entry-level jobs, but there are early indicators, including one Oxford Economic analysis, that suggest a decline in entry-level tech roles. Now, the lawmakers who are watching this play out in their backyards are warning that AI is set to replace many of the roles graduates trained for.
“We’re deeply unprepared to respond to this issue,” Rep. Sam Liccardo, a Bay Area Democrat, told NOTUS. “Outside of a dozen of us, I don’t think there’s any significant focus from Congress on this existential challenge for our society.”
Liccardo said that one of his top concerns is the “displacement of highly skilled workers.”
There’s plenty of interest in artificial intelligence from the federal government. Congressional Republicans recently passed funding in their reconciliation package to help adopt AI technology in the border security, energy and defense sectors. The Trump administration has also worked to integrate AI in the executive branch.But Congress has struggled to regulate emerging technologies, including AI.
“The jobs that are getting crushed by AI the fastest are often the ones that we’re pushing students towards. There’s this complete mismatch between what the job market needs and what people are actually learning. And that’s getting exacerbated by how fast AI is moving,” Rep. Josh Harder, another California Democrat, told NOTUS.
“We’ve had a couple of hearings, but ultimately, Congress moves way too slow and oftentimes that’s OK on some problems, but AI is moving so fast that if we’re too slow on this, we’re going to be left holding an empty bag,” Harder added.
Related Stories
In the last decade, the number of computer science graduates has nearly doubled from more than 64,000 in 2015 to more than 120,000 graduates in 2024, one of the fastest growing fields of graduates entering the job market.
Mark Muro, senior fellow at Brookings Metro, said that while factors like President Donald Trump’s tariffs might be contributing to the decline in entry-level jobs in the tech sector, there is reason to believe that AI is shifting the landscape as people enter the tech sector.
“In tech, especially, hiring for entry-level programming roles has stagnated,” Muro said in a text. “The slowdown in the last year coincides with the arrival of generative AI tools and executives saying they are leaning into AI.”
“We’ll gradually stop using contractors to do work that AI can handle,” Duolingo CEO Luis von Ahn wrote in an email earlier this year, The Verge reported.
Major Trumpworld figures also actively talk about how AI could replace a significant chunk of white-collar and entry-level positions.
”I don’t think anyone is taking into consideration how administrative, managerial and tech jobs for people under 30 — entry-level jobs that are so important in your 20s — are going to be eviscerated,” Steve Bannon, right-wing commentator and Trump adviser, told Axios earlier this year.
But even the lawmakers who are immediately concerned about this job market shift say that they still need a much better understanding of how AI will change the job market in the tech sector.
“First, we need to understand if we’re going to get a decreasing workforce (due to AI) or if we’re going to get the same number of workers that are doing different jobs. That, I don’t know the answer to,” Rep. Ami Bera of California told NOTUS.
“The real risk is that AI will do a lot of the coding,” Bera told NOTUS. “We’ve got a generation right now who’s been motivated to learn how to code, so I do think there’s a legitimate argument that AI could displace a lot of that workforce.”
Lawmakers who are thinking about how to respond to this challenge say that the first step Congress should take is to invest in training programs that would help workers adapt to new roles in the workforce.
Other ideas some lawmakers mentioned in conversations with NOTUS included public-private partnerships to help educational institutions quickly adapt to the needs of a changing job market and pointing more workers in the direction of manufacturing electronics.
“In the 80s, many manufacturing jobs were automated or sent abroad. AI might do the same things for the white-collar jobs of the present,” California Rep. George Whitesides, former chief of staff to NASA and CEO of Virgin Galactic, told NOTUS.
“We need to make sure that we are building a future where people can have hope about their economic situation,” Whitesides said.
Samuel Larreal is a NOTUS reporter and an Allbritton Journalism Institute fellow. This story was produced as part of a partnership between NOTUS and San José Spotlight.
California lawmakers, whose state is home to the most advanced artificial intelligence developers, are concerned that Congress is not prepared to respond to a job market where AI takes over entry-level jobs in the technology sector.
It’s not clear yet how often AI is replacing — or will replace — entry-level jobs, but there are early indicators, including one Oxford Economic analysis, that suggest a decline in entry-level tech roles. Now, the lawmakers who are watching this play out in their backyards are warning that AI is set to replace many of the roles graduates trained for.
“We’re deeply unprepared to respond to this issue,” Rep. Sam Liccardo, a Bay Area Democrat, told NOTUS. “Outside of a dozen of us, I don’t think there’s any significant focus from Congress on this existential challenge for our society.”
Liccardo said that one of his top concerns is the “displacement of highly skilled workers.”
There’s plenty of interest in artificial intelligence from the federal government. Congressional Republicans recently passed funding in their reconciliation package to help adopt AI technology in the border security, energy and defense sectors. The Trump administration has also worked to integrate AI in the executive branch.But Congress has struggled to regulate emerging technologies, including AI.
“The jobs that are getting crushed by AI the fastest are often the ones that we’re pushing students towards. There’s this complete mismatch between what the job market needs and what people are actually learning. And that’s getting exacerbated by how fast AI is moving,” Rep. Josh Harder, another California Democrat, told NOTUS.
“We’ve had a couple of hearings, but ultimately, Congress moves way too slow and oftentimes that’s OK on some problems, but AI is moving so fast that if we’re too slow on this, we’re going to be left holding an empty bag,” Harder added.
Related Stories
In the last decade, the number of computer science graduates has nearly doubled from more than 64,000 in 2015 to more than 120,000 graduates in 2024, one of the fastest growing fields of graduates entering the job market.
Mark Muro, senior fellow at Brookings Metro, said that while factors like President Donald Trump’s tariffs might be contributing to the decline in entry-level jobs in the tech sector, there is reason to believe that AI is shifting the landscape as people enter the tech sector.
“In tech, especially, hiring for entry-level programming roles has stagnated,” Muro said in a text. “The slowdown in the last year coincides with the arrival of generative AI tools and executives saying they are leaning into AI.”
“We’ll gradually stop using contractors to do work that AI can handle,” Duolingo CEO Luis von Ahn wrote in an email earlier this year, The Verge reported.
Major Trumpworld figures also actively talk about how AI could replace a significant chunk of white-collar and entry-level positions.
”I don’t think anyone is taking into consideration how administrative, managerial and tech jobs for people under 30 — entry-level jobs that are so important in your 20s — are going to be eviscerated,” Steve Bannon, right-wing commentator and Trump adviser, told Axios earlier this year.
But even the lawmakers who are immediately concerned about this job market shift say that they still need a much better understanding of how AI will change the job market in the tech sector.
“First, we need to understand if we’re going to get a decreasing workforce (due to AI) or if we’re going to get the same number of workers that are doing different jobs. That, I don’t know the answer to,” Rep. Ami Bera of California told NOTUS.
“The real risk is that AI will do a lot of the coding,” Bera told NOTUS. “We’ve got a generation right now who’s been motivated to learn how to code, so I do think there’s a legitimate argument that AI could displace a lot of that workforce.”
Lawmakers who are thinking about how to respond to this challenge say that the first step Congress should take is to invest in training programs that would help workers adapt to new roles in the workforce.
Other ideas some lawmakers mentioned in conversations with NOTUS included public-private partnerships to help educational institutions quickly adapt to the needs of a changing job market and pointing more workers in the direction of manufacturing electronics.
“In the 80s, many manufacturing jobs were automated or sent abroad. AI might do the same things for the white-collar jobs of the present,” California Rep. George Whitesides, former chief of staff to NASA and CEO of Virgin Galactic, told NOTUS.
“We need to make sure that we are building a future where people can have hope about their economic situation,” Whitesides said.
Samuel Larreal is a NOTUS reporter and an Allbritton Journalism Institute fellow. This story was produced as part of a partnership between NOTUS and San José Spotlight.
Two 99 Ranch Market stores in the South Bay Area have been ordered to temporarily close in recent weeks following reports of vermin infestations.
A Milpitas branch of the Asian supermarket chain located at 338 Barber Lane has remained closed since Monday, when its permit was suspended by the Santa Clara County Department of Environmental Health due to vermin issues, despite passing a limited inspection the week prior.
The health department ordered the closure last week of another store, located at 10983 North Wolfe Road in Cupertino, after inspectors found rodent droppings in its bakery, deli, and warehouse. Health officials cleared the store to reopen this week.
The violations for both stores were issued after the health department received complaints from the public, the Department of Environmental Health told this news organization.
“The department is committed to protecting the public’s health and supports food establishments to resolve issues quickly and safely,” the DEH wrote.
The temporary shutdowns come as another major Cupertino supermarket – Whole Foods – remains closed after inspectors found evidence of rodent and cockroach infestations in April.
99 Ranch Market operates six locations in the South Bay. Its other Cupertino store, located at 10425 De Anza Boulevard, passed its most recent inspection in January.
The supermarket’s Mountain View location was flagged last week for issues with tagging and hand washing supplies in its seafood section, though the store passed a follow-up inspection the next day. The store’s two San Jose locations both passed their most recent inspections in December 2024.
Tawa Supermarket Inc., the Southern California-based parent company of 99 Ranch Market, did not respond to a request for comment.
When Samantha Muñoz was a second grader at Fancher Creek Elementary in Clovis, her teacher told her she “wasn’t that bright” and needed extra help with schoolwork. He’d make her stay in the classroom at recess, or tell her to sit on his lap while other students were busy with assignments.
During those quiet times in the classroom, she said, he sexually abused her — over and over, for at least a semester, even after the school principal walked in on him.
“No one knew. I just didn’t know who to run to. I ran to the school, and they shut me down into silence,” said Muñoz, who’s now 28. “But (now) I’ve figured, no one should be living like this. It’s time to speak your truth and make it OK to talk about. It’s a sensitive topic, but it needs awareness and closure.”
Muñoz, who lives in Fresno County, is part of a multi-plaintiff lawsuit against the Clovis Unified School District alleging the district knew about Muñoz’s teacher but — for at least seven years, from 2005-2012 — did not stop him from abusing students. Clovis Unified had no comment on the case because of the litigation.
Muñoz’s case is one of at least 1,000 lawsuits against California school districts and counties stemming from AB 218, a sexual abuse reform law that took effect in 2020. It temporarily dropped the statute of limitations, provided a three-year window for victims to file claims and otherwise made it easier for them to sue school districts and counties.
The cases span decades, some as early as the 1940s. In many cases the perpetrator is dead, the district staff has turned over, and there’s no longer a paper trail of the original complaint, if there ever was one.
The new law has resulted in a slew of payouts to abuse survivors, most in the range of $5 million to $10 million but some much higher. In 2023 a jury delivered a $135 million verdict against Moreno Valley Unified in Riverside County. Los Angeles Unified is expecting to pay more than $500 million to settle a portion of its claims. Overall, the claims against schools total nearly $3 billion.
Counties also have paid out large sums of money. In April, Los Angeles County paid $4 billion to settle 6,800 abuse claims from victims who were abused in foster care or in probation department facilities. Like many government entities, Los Angeles County is self-insured.
The settlements have been so large that they’ve brought some school districts to the brink of financial insolvency and state takeover. They’ve also resulted in steep spikes in insurance payments for all school districts, regardless of whether they’ve been sued.
‘Untenable’
Carpinteria Unified is among those districts facing financial collapse.
The predominantly low-income Latino district near Santa Barbara has been served with four sexual abuse lawsuits, all involving the same perpetrator: a principal who was convicted in 1986 of abusing several boys in the 1970s and early 1980s.
“These suits are settling for $5 million to $10 million each, and we have a $42 million budget. You do the math,” said Superintendent Diana Rigby. “It’s untenable.”
The district has already spent $750,000 on legal fees, and has had to lay off staff, increase class sizes and cut field trips, enrichment activities and other programs to pay its legal bills. Although the district had insurance at the time of the abuse, the company has since gone out of business and its current insurance company won’t cover old claims.
The perpetrator is dead and the district staff has turned over 100% since the incidents occurred. Years ago, the district instituted strict protocols for abuse claims, immediately contacting the police and placing the alleged perpetrator on leave until an investigation is complete.
Rigby worries about how her district will survive. If the state takes it over, it’ll lose its school board and superintendent, and further cuts will be inevitable.
“We believe all the victims need to be compensated for these heinous crimes,” Rigby said. “But AB 218 is causing current students and taxpayers to pay for crimes that happened 50 years ago, that they had nothing to do with. There has to be a better solution.”
Legislative solution?
Several current bills in the Legislature would curb the law, at least somewhat. A bill by Sen. John Laird, SB 577, would bring back a statute of limitations, make it easier for districts to issue bonds to pay off settlements and take other steps to give some relief to school districts and other public agencies. But it doesn’t cap attorneys’ fees or settlements.
The political reality, Laird said, is that there’s not enough support in the Legislature to limit legal settlements in abuse cases.
“We’re trying to walk between the poles of avoiding billions of dollars in settlements, while not neglecting the rights of victims,” said Laird, a Democrat from Santa Cruz.
The bill passed the Senate and is now in the Assembly judiciary committee.
Consumer Attorneys of California is neutral on the bill, but several school lobbying groups have opposed it, saying it doesn’t go far enough. One group, the Association of California School Administrators, would also like to see school districts share responsibility for paying settlements with the perpetrator or other groups that might be involved, such as sports or after-school organizations. The group also wants the state to study the possibility of a victims’ fund that’s not entirely monetary; it could also include mental and physical health services.
The abuse settlements are the worst financial threat to school districts since the Great Recession of 2008-2009, said Mike Fine, director of the Fiscal Crisis Management and Assistance Team, which advises the state and school districts on financial matters.
His group is recommending that the state create a database of abuse claims as well as teachers who have been accused, to prevent perpetrators from bouncing from one district to another. The group also recommends more flexibility on settlement payment plans, and an alternative to state takeover for districts that are out of money.
Like Laird, Fine’s group is not calling for a cap on settlements or attorney fees. “We didn’t think tort reform was within our scope,” Fine said.
They’re also not calling for a state-financed victims’ fund, something school districts have asked for. Laird said the state lacks the money for such a fund. Fine’s group omitted it from its recommendations because a victims’ fund could preclude a trial, and Fine said that victims should have a right to go to court and have their voices heard.
But schools’ top priority, Fine said, should be setting tough protocols to prevent abuse from happening in the first place. Although some districts have instituted safeguards, not all have, and the state doesn’t have a uniform policy because it’s deemed a local issue.
“Schools have to hold themselves to a higher standard, and we’ve clearly failed in this regard,” Fine said. “This simply has to stop.”
‘Prime time’ for trial attorneys
The sexual abuse law has been a windfall for trial attorneys. Billboards seeking clients have cropped up around the state, and lawyers from throughout the country have come to California to file claims.
Typically attorneys in abuse lawsuits work for free until there’s a resolution, and then collect a portion of the payout if the plaintiff prevails — in some instances up to 40%, depending on the complexity of the case.
Dorothy Johnson, legislative advocate for the Association of California School Administrators, called the current scenario “prime time” for trial attorneys in California, but forcing impossible burdens onto school districts and other agencies. Schools are already contending with financial hardships due to declining enrollment, the end of pandemic relief funds and federal education cuts. These settlements are pushing some districts over the edge — while attorneys are making millions, she said.
“We don’t think trial attorneys should be profiting at the expense of current students,” Johnson said. “We want to make sure victims get resolution but at the same time put some guardrails up. Right now, there are no guardrails.”
The trial attorneys’ association is not opposed to changes in the law, as long as victims’ rights aren’t curtailed, said Nancy Peverini, legislative director for California Consumer Attorneys.
“There’s an understanding that we need to find a balance, but it’s really important that survivors’ voices don’t get lost,” Peverini said.
Hard choices in Montecito
Montecito — a scenic enclave near Santa Barbara — is home to Prince Harry and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, Oprah Winfrey and other celebrities. With sweeping views of the Pacific and Santa Ynez mountains, it’s one of the most affluent and exclusive towns in the country. Its school district, however, is facing financial calamity and a possible state takeover.
Montecito Union Elementary District serves about 350 students, mostly children from affluent families but also the children of Montecito’s landscapers and housekeepers. Earlier this year, it took in 42 students from Pacific Palisades, which was largely destroyed in a wildfire.
In 2023, three former students sued the district over sexual abuse they said they experienced from 1972-76. The district denied the claim, and is negotiating a settlement. The payout and legal costs could swell to $20 million — more than the district’s annual budget. Even a state loan wouldn’t solve the problem, because the payments would be more than the district can afford, according to Fine’s organization.
The district’s insurance company at the time of the alleged abuse no longer exists, and its current insurer doesn’t cover events from that long ago. That means that like Carpinteria Unified, Montecito will have to pay the entire cost — cutting programs, borrowing money and using reserves.
“First of all, there’s a whole lot of empathy. We were heartbroken to hear these allegations,” Superintendent Anthony Ranii said. “But none of us were here then. Many of us weren’t even born. The alleged perpetrator and witnesses are dead. We’re putting the responsibility for something that might or might not have happened in 1972 100% on the heads of students in 2025. That’s not fair.”
‘We need awareness’
For Muñoz, the abuse she suffered during the 2004-05 school year took more than a decade to come to terms with. Even after the abuse stopped, Muñoz found school difficult, socially and academically. She lost trust in adults and emotionally withdrew. She never talked about what happened, not even to her family.
Neng Yang, the teacher whom Muñoz said abused her, was arrested and tried in 2014 on 45 counts of sexual abuse on a child under age 10, based on testimony from numerous victims who were students at Fancher Creek Elementary. He was convicted and is serving a 38-year sentence.
Muñoz only started talking about the abuse a few years ago, when she started reading about the impacts of childhood abuse. Earlier this year, she got a call from Pfau Cochran Vertetis Amala, a Washington-based law firm, that was investigating claims from another of Yang’s victims for a potential suit against Clovis Unified.
She decided to share her story with the attorneys and join the lawsuit.
“I just want other victims to know that they’re not the only ones,” Muñoz said. “It’s OK to talk about it. We need awareness if there’s going to be change.”
Two 99 Ranch Market stores in the South Bay Area have been ordered to temporarily close in recent weeks following reports of vermin infestations.
A Milpitas branch of the Asian supermarket chain located at 338 Barber Lane has remained closed since Monday, when its permit was suspended by the Santa Clara County Department of Environmental Health due to vermin issues, despite passing a limited inspection the week prior.
The health department ordered the closure last week of another store, located at 10983 North Wolfe Road in Cupertino, after inspectors found rodent droppings in its bakery, deli, and warehouse. Health officials cleared the store to reopen this week.
The violations for both stores were issued after the health department received complaints from the public, the Department of Environmental Health told this news organization.
“The department is committed to protecting the public’s health and supports food establishments to resolve issues quickly and safely,” the DEH wrote.
The temporary shutdowns come as another major Cupertino supermarket – Whole Foods – remains closed after inspectors found evidence of rodent and cockroach infestations in April.
99 Ranch Market operates six locations in the South Bay. Its other Cupertino store, located at 10425 De Anza Boulevard, passed its most recent inspection in January.
The supermarket’s Mountain View location was flagged last week for issues with tagging and hand washing supplies in its seafood section, though the store passed a follow-up inspection the next day. The store’s two San Jose locations both passed their most recent inspections in December 2024.
Tawa Supermarket Inc., the Southern California-based parent company of 99 Ranch Market, did not respond to a request for comment.
When Samantha Muñoz was a second grader at Fancher Creek Elementary in Clovis, her teacher told her she “wasn’t that bright” and needed extra help with schoolwork. He’d make her stay in the classroom at recess, or tell her to sit on his lap while other students were busy with assignments.
During those quiet times in the classroom, she said, he sexually abused her — over and over, for at least a semester, even after the school principal walked in on him.
“No one knew. I just didn’t know who to run to. I ran to the school, and they shut me down into silence,” said Muñoz, who’s now 28. “But (now) I’ve figured, no one should be living like this. It’s time to speak your truth and make it OK to talk about. It’s a sensitive topic, but it needs awareness and closure.”
Muñoz, who lives in Fresno County, is part of a multi-plaintiff lawsuit against the Clovis Unified School District alleging the district knew about Muñoz’s teacher but — for at least seven years, from 2005-2012 — did not stop him from abusing students. Clovis Unified had no comment on the case because of the litigation.
Muñoz’s case is one of at least 1,000 lawsuits against California school districts and counties stemming from AB 218, a sexual abuse reform law that took effect in 2020. It temporarily dropped the statute of limitations, provided a three-year window for victims to file claims and otherwise made it easier for them to sue school districts and counties.
The cases span decades, some as early as the 1940s. In many cases the perpetrator is dead, the district staff has turned over, and there’s no longer a paper trail of the original complaint, if there ever was one.
The new law has resulted in a slew of payouts to abuse survivors, most in the range of $5 million to $10 million but some much higher. In 2023 a jury delivered a $135 million verdict against Moreno Valley Unified in Riverside County. Los Angeles Unified is expecting to pay more than $500 million to settle a portion of its claims. Overall, the claims against schools total nearly $3 billion.
Counties also have paid out large sums of money. In April, Los Angeles County paid $4 billion to settle 6,800 abuse claims from victims who were abused in foster care or in probation department facilities. Like many government entities, Los Angeles County is self-insured.
The settlements have been so large that they’ve brought some school districts to the brink of financial insolvency and state takeover. They’ve also resulted in steep spikes in insurance payments for all school districts, regardless of whether they’ve been sued.
‘Untenable’
Carpinteria Unified is among those districts facing financial collapse.
The predominantly low-income Latino district near Santa Barbara has been served with four sexual abuse lawsuits, all involving the same perpetrator: a principal who was convicted in 1986 of abusing several boys in the 1970s and early 1980s.
“These suits are settling for $5 million to $10 million each, and we have a $42 million budget. You do the math,” said Superintendent Diana Rigby. “It’s untenable.”
The district has already spent $750,000 on legal fees, and has had to lay off staff, increase class sizes and cut field trips, enrichment activities and other programs to pay its legal bills. Although the district had insurance at the time of the abuse, the company has since gone out of business and its current insurance company won’t cover old claims.
The perpetrator is dead and the district staff has turned over 100% since the incidents occurred. Years ago, the district instituted strict protocols for abuse claims, immediately contacting the police and placing the alleged perpetrator on leave until an investigation is complete.
Rigby worries about how her district will survive. If the state takes it over, it’ll lose its school board and superintendent, and further cuts will be inevitable.
“We believe all the victims need to be compensated for these heinous crimes,” Rigby said. “But AB 218 is causing current students and taxpayers to pay for crimes that happened 50 years ago, that they had nothing to do with. There has to be a better solution.”
Legislative solution?
Several current bills in the Legislature would curb the law, at least somewhat. A bill by Sen. John Laird, SB 577, would bring back a statute of limitations, make it easier for districts to issue bonds to pay off settlements and take other steps to give some relief to school districts and other public agencies. But it doesn’t cap attorneys’ fees or settlements.
The political reality, Laird said, is that there’s not enough support in the Legislature to limit legal settlements in abuse cases.
“We’re trying to walk between the poles of avoiding billions of dollars in settlements, while not neglecting the rights of victims,” said Laird, a Democrat from Santa Cruz.
The bill passed the Senate and is now in the Assembly judiciary committee.
Consumer Attorneys of California is neutral on the bill, but several school lobbying groups have opposed it, saying it doesn’t go far enough. One group, the Association of California School Administrators, would also like to see school districts share responsibility for paying settlements with the perpetrator or other groups that might be involved, such as sports or after-school organizations. The group also wants the state to study the possibility of a victims’ fund that’s not entirely monetary; it could also include mental and physical health services.
The abuse settlements are the worst financial threat to school districts since the Great Recession of 2008-2009, said Mike Fine, director of the Fiscal Crisis Management and Assistance Team, which advises the state and school districts on financial matters.
His group is recommending that the state create a database of abuse claims as well as teachers who have been accused, to prevent perpetrators from bouncing from one district to another. The group also recommends more flexibility on settlement payment plans, and an alternative to state takeover for districts that are out of money.
Like Laird, Fine’s group is not calling for a cap on settlements or attorney fees. “We didn’t think tort reform was within our scope,” Fine said.
They’re also not calling for a state-financed victims’ fund, something school districts have asked for. Laird said the state lacks the money for such a fund. Fine’s group omitted it from its recommendations because a victims’ fund could preclude a trial, and Fine said that victims should have a right to go to court and have their voices heard.
But schools’ top priority, Fine said, should be setting tough protocols to prevent abuse from happening in the first place. Although some districts have instituted safeguards, not all have, and the state doesn’t have a uniform policy because it’s deemed a local issue.
“Schools have to hold themselves to a higher standard, and we’ve clearly failed in this regard,” Fine said. “This simply has to stop.”
‘Prime time’ for trial attorneys
The sexual abuse law has been a windfall for trial attorneys. Billboards seeking clients have cropped up around the state, and lawyers from throughout the country have come to California to file claims.
Typically attorneys in abuse lawsuits work for free until there’s a resolution, and then collect a portion of the payout if the plaintiff prevails — in some instances up to 40%, depending on the complexity of the case.
Dorothy Johnson, legislative advocate for the Association of California School Administrators, called the current scenario “prime time” for trial attorneys in California, but forcing impossible burdens onto school districts and other agencies. Schools are already contending with financial hardships due to declining enrollment, the end of pandemic relief funds and federal education cuts. These settlements are pushing some districts over the edge — while attorneys are making millions, she said.
“We don’t think trial attorneys should be profiting at the expense of current students,” Johnson said. “We want to make sure victims get resolution but at the same time put some guardrails up. Right now, there are no guardrails.”
The trial attorneys’ association is not opposed to changes in the law, as long as victims’ rights aren’t curtailed, said Nancy Peverini, legislative director for California Consumer Attorneys.
“There’s an understanding that we need to find a balance, but it’s really important that survivors’ voices don’t get lost,” Peverini said.
Hard choices in Montecito
Montecito — a scenic enclave near Santa Barbara — is home to Prince Harry and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, Oprah Winfrey and other celebrities. With sweeping views of the Pacific and Santa Ynez mountains, it’s one of the most affluent and exclusive towns in the country. Its school district, however, is facing financial calamity and a possible state takeover.
Montecito Union Elementary District serves about 350 students, mostly children from affluent families but also the children of Montecito’s landscapers and housekeepers. Earlier this year, it took in 42 students from Pacific Palisades, which was largely destroyed in a wildfire.
In 2023, three former students sued the district over sexual abuse they said they experienced from 1972-76. The district denied the claim, and is negotiating a settlement. The payout and legal costs could swell to $20 million — more than the district’s annual budget. Even a state loan wouldn’t solve the problem, because the payments would be more than the district can afford, according to Fine’s organization.
The district’s insurance company at the time of the alleged abuse no longer exists, and its current insurer doesn’t cover events from that long ago. That means that like Carpinteria Unified, Montecito will have to pay the entire cost — cutting programs, borrowing money and using reserves.
“First of all, there’s a whole lot of empathy. We were heartbroken to hear these allegations,” Superintendent Anthony Ranii said. “But none of us were here then. Many of us weren’t even born. The alleged perpetrator and witnesses are dead. We’re putting the responsibility for something that might or might not have happened in 1972 100% on the heads of students in 2025. That’s not fair.”
‘We need awareness’
For Muñoz, the abuse she suffered during the 2004-05 school year took more than a decade to come to terms with. Even after the abuse stopped, Muñoz found school difficult, socially and academically. She lost trust in adults and emotionally withdrew. She never talked about what happened, not even to her family.
Neng Yang, the teacher whom Muñoz said abused her, was arrested and tried in 2014 on 45 counts of sexual abuse on a child under age 10, based on testimony from numerous victims who were students at Fancher Creek Elementary. He was convicted and is serving a 38-year sentence.
Muñoz only started talking about the abuse a few years ago, when she started reading about the impacts of childhood abuse. Earlier this year, she got a call from Pfau Cochran Vertetis Amala, a Washington-based law firm, that was investigating claims from another of Yang’s victims for a potential suit against Clovis Unified.
She decided to share her story with the attorneys and join the lawsuit.
“I just want other victims to know that they’re not the only ones,” Muñoz said. “It’s OK to talk about it. We need awareness if there’s going to be change.”
Ukrainians aren’t entirely sure why Russia has been targeting Kharkiv’s dairies. But over the last three years the region, Ukraine’s third-largest producer of milk in 2021, has lost half its herd of 33,000 cows.
Many Western democracies are worried about far-right parties’ popularity. But some are finding that letting them into government actually brings them back to earth.
We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication.
Prime Day 2025 ends tonight, and Lifehacker is sharing the best sales based on product reviews, comparisons, and price-tracking tools before it's over.
New to Prime Day? We have a primer on everything you need to know. Sales are accurate at the time of publication, but prices and inventory are always subject to change.
Prime Day ends at midnight tonight, and with it, some of the best deals I've seen all year on recovery gear. Whether you're a serious athlete or dealing with computer-job-neck-pain, these last-chance discounts on massage guns, foam rollers, and recovery essentials could change the game for you—but only if you act fast.
The best deals on massage guns
As a marathon runner, it's no hyperbole to say that massage guns utterly transformed my post-workout routine, and TheraBody is a brand name I swear by. Right now, the TheraBody TheraGun Prime Plus is available for $369.99 on Amazon (regularly $429.99).
TheraGun Sense, down from $299.99 to $199.99 (33% off). Comes with built-in visually guided routines.
Hyperice Hypervolt 2 Pro, down from $349 to $289 (17% off). Offers three-speed settings and a powerful motor, though it lacks the heat function of the TheraGun Prime Plus.
Don't overlook the humble foam roller in your last-minute Prime Day shopping spree. These simple tools are recovery essentials that every athlete should own.
The TriggerPoint GRID Foam Roller is down from $39.99 to $28.49 (nearly 30% off). I borrow this foam roller from my friend all the time, for good reason—its unique grid pattern provides targeted pressure that I need. As I write this, I'm realizing it's time for me to take advantage of this sale right this second...
Done. Now, for those who want something more high-tech, the Lifepro Vibrating Massage Ball/Roller is available for $75.99, down from $99.99 (24% off). It has the percussive therapy of a massage gun, but with the density and grid pattern of a foam roller that works wonders on tight IT bands and calves.
Budget-conscious shoppers should grab an Amazon Basics foam roller for just $9.34, down from $12.09 (23% off). While it doesn't have all the bells and whistles of premium models, it'll get the job done for basic muscle release.
The best deals on recovery extras
Treat yourself to the Renpho heated foot massager, available for $84.93—a 43% discount from its regular price of $149.97. Here's how I see it: At $84.93, you're paying less than the cost of two professional foot massages for a device you can use unlimited times. Come on, who else is rubbing your feet?
The Vibit Vibrating Massager is down to $95.20 from $119.99 (20% off). Designed to be stepped on in a way massage guns and firm rollers aren't, this vibrating massage roller delivers targeted relief for plantar fasciitis, tight muscles, sciatica, heel pain, IT bands and more.
I swear by compression socks to improve blood flow and reduce swelling. There are plenty of options on sale today, like this 6-pack for $16.97, down from $19.99 (15% off). Proper compression gear aids recovery by improving blood flow and reducing swelling.
Looking for something else? Retailers like Walmart, Best Buy, and Home Depot have Prime Day competition sales that are especially useful if you don’t have Amazon Prime.
Walmart’s Prime Day competition sale runs through Sunday, July 13 and includes deals up to 50% off. It’s an especially good option if you have Walmart+.
Best Buy’s Prime Day competition sale, “Black Friday in July,” runs through Sunday, July 13 and has some of the best tech sales online. It’s an especially good option if you’re a My Best Buy “Plus” or “Total” member.
We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication.
Prime Day 2025 ends tonight, and Lifehacker is sharing the best sales based on product reviews, comparisons, and price-tracking tools before it's over.
New to Prime Day? We have a primer on everything you need to know. Sales are accurate at the time of publication, but prices and inventory are always subject to change.
If you’re looking for a new pair of budget-friendly earbuds, these 3rd-generation Amazon Echo Buds are currently 60% off for Prime Day, bringing their price down to $20. With crisp sound, hands-free commands, and a sturdy but portable build, they’re suitable for workouts and everyday use.
Equipped with 12mm drivers, these Echo Buds provide clear audio for music and podcasts. They're also lightweight (just over .17 ounces) and made from IPX2 sweat-resistant material, making them well-suited for sweaty workouts. However, their semi-in-ear design received mixed reviews, with some users saying they tend to fall out.
Through the companion app, you can enable or disable features such as Find My, which can help locate misplaced buds. You can also use hands-free voice commands via Alexa and easily switch between different Bluetooth devices. While Alexa users will get the most out of integrated features, these earbuds are also compatible with Google Assistant and Siri.
Battery life lasts up to 5 hours per charge, or up to 20 hours with the included charging case. A fast-charging feature gives you 2 hours of power in just 15 minutes. You can also customize tap controls to mute or answer a call and to skip songs.
The sound quality might not satisfy audiophiles used to bass-heavy brands like Sony or JBL, and these buds don’t offer active noise cancellation. Some users also report that the mic struggles in busy or windy areas. Still, for $20, they're not a bad option at all.
Looking for something else? Retailers like Walmart, Best Buy, and Home Depot have Prime Day competition sales that are especially useful if you don’t have Amazon Prime.
Walmart’s Prime Day competition sale runs through Sunday, July 13 and includes deals up to 50% off. It’s an especially good option if you have Walmart+.
Best Buy’s Prime Day competition sale, “Black Friday in July,” runs through Sunday, July 13 and has some of the best tech sales online. It’s an especially good option if you’re a My Best Buy “Plus” or “Total” member.
We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication.
Prime Day 2025 ends tonight, and Lifehacker is sharing the best sales based on product reviews, comparisons, and price-tracking tools before it's over.
New to Prime Day? We have a primer on everything you need to know. Sales are accurate at the time of publication, but prices and inventory are always subject to change.
Like clockwork, every summer brings with it another Prime Day, and new deals on video games and gear to play them with. Regardless of how you play, there are deals for you. Before Prime Day ends tonight, you can grab everything from new consoles to VR headsets, to rarely discounted first-party Nintendo games.
This list mostly focuses on console games, with a smidge of mobile gaming thrown in for good measure. For PC gaming deals, check out my recommendations for the best gaming laptops deals you can get right now.
The best gaming gear deals still running
Before I get to the games proper, let's talk about gear to play games with. While the major current generation consoles aren't seeing many deals at this point, that doesn't mean you're out of luck.
The original Nintendo Switch is still a great machine, and right now you can get an OLED model for $100 off.
If you've been waiting to jump into VR, the Meta Quest 3S is a great place to start, and you can currently get it for $50 off, or for $80 off if you opt for the version with more storage and Batman: Arkham Shadow thrown in.
There's also the Lenovo Legion Go S, which is currently seeing a cut to the Windows version of the device. I prefer the SteamOS version, but luckily, it's easy enough to install SteamOS on this model.
What a time to be alive - humans and cats coexisting in glorious and chaotic harmony. Out of all the moments in history we could've been born, we just so happened to land in the era of floofy bellies, unexpected zoomies, and dramatic side-eyes from creatures who consider a shoebox a palace. Honestly, we should consider ourselves the lucky ones.
Sharing life with cats means sharing life with little chaos goblins who bring us laughter, love, joy, and regular reminders that we are, in fact, just the staff. They knock things over for sport, scream at 3 AM like they're opera singers, and then curl up next to us with such purring sweetness it erases all our memories of their crimes.
Is it any wonder cats have fully taken over the internet? They were born to be meme stars - the drama, the derp, the diva energy! Cat memes are our reward for being loyal subjects in their queendom. So, fellow cat pawrent or admirer, enjoy these hissterical feline funnies. You're living in the golden age of cat memes - and they expect you to laugh.
Lucas photo courtesy of Skywalker Properties Ltd.; Museum construction photo by Sand Hill Media/Eric Furie
On Sunday, July 27, 2025, George Lucas, the creator of Star Wars, will make his way to the Hall H stage at San Diego Comic-Con for the first time. The reason he’s there, however, isn’t for a galaxy far, far away: It’s to discuss the power of illustrated storytelling, and also give the audience a sneak peek of the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, which is nearing the end of construction in downtown Los Angeles.
The panel, descriptively titled “Sneak Peek of the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art,” will be moderated by renowned singer and actor Queen Latifah, and Lucas will be joined onstage by Guillermo del Toro (Hellboy, Crimson Peak, and many other great films) and artist Daniel Chiang, who for decades has been shaping the look and feel of Star Wars universe.
“We are beyond thrilled to welcome George Lucas to Comic-Con for the very first time,” David Glanzer, Comic-Con’s chief communications and strategy officer said in a statement. “Nearly five decades ago, Star Wars made one of its earliest public appearances at our convention, along with a booth featuring Howard Chaykin’s now legendary Star Wars poster as a promotional item. Now, to have Mr. Lucas return—this time to debut the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art—is a true full-circle moment. His lifelong dedication to visual storytelling and world-building resonates deeply with us and our community, and the museum’s mission to celebrate narrative art in all its forms perfectly reflects what Comic-Con has championed from the very beginning.”
The Lucas Museum of Narrative Art was co-founded by Lucas and Melody Hobson, and is set to open in 2026. It will feature art from Norman Rockwell, Kadir Nelson, Jessie Willcox Smith, N. C. Wyeth, Beatrix Potter, Judy Baca, Frida Kahlo, and Maxfield Parrish; as well as comic art legends such as Winsor McCay, Jack Kirby, Frank Frazetta, Alison Bechdel, Chris Ware, and R. Crumb; and photographers Gordon Parks, Henri Cartier-Bresson, and Dorothea Lange. It will also house the Lucas Archive, which contains props, models, concept art, and costumes from Lucas’ filmmaking career. [end-mark]
SAN JOSE — Three gang members have been arrested months after a violent assault at a business that left the victim in a medically induced coma for months, authorities said.
That person survived the Feb. 25 beating at the business in the 1000 block of East Capitol Expressway.
In a statement, police said they arrested all three June 25 on suspicion of attempted murder. Two were taken to the Santa Clara County Main Jail, and the third went to Santa Clara County Juvenile Hall. Police said one of the suspects taken to the Santa Clara County Jail was 17 when the crime occurred.
Police said the early investigation showed that all three confronted another male juvenile outside the business about 8:50 p.m. The confrontation eventually moved inside the business, and that’s when the four became involved in a fight, police said.
In the fight, all three suspects beat the victim unconscious, then continued to wail on him, police said. They fled the scene before police arrived. Medics rushed the victim to a hospital. His injuries were life-threatening and doctors induced a coma to help him survive.
Gang-unit detectives eventually identified the three suspects and obtained arrest warrants for all of them and search warrants for their residences, police said.
Police arrested two of the suspects in San Jose, and the third in Gilroy. Police said the search of the residences uncovered gang symbols and signs, as well as evidence linking the three to the crime.
Police said they are continuing to investigate and asked anyone with information to contact Det. Guevara at 4669@sanjoseca.gov or 408-277-3835.
For the next five years, there will be a much more generous state and local tax deduction available to federal income tax filers, thanks to the recently enacted mega tax-and-spending-cuts law.
The new law lifts what had been a $10,000 cap to $40,000 for tax year 2025 and then adjusts it upward by 1% a year for 2026, 2027, 2028 and 2029.
The SALT deduction, as it is known, enables federal income tax filers to deduct either their state and local income taxes or their state and local general sales taxes. On top of that, they are also allowed to deduct their property taxes, assuming their income or sales taxes don’t put them over the cap.
But the increased cap may only help a minority of federal income filers.
Here’s a breakdown of who will benefit, who will not — as well as those who won’t benefit from the change, but are still better off.
Who will benefit
Itemizers: The SALT break may only be taken by those who itemize deductions on their federal returns.
Prior to 2017, there was no cap on the SALT deduction, but the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act capped it at $10,000 for everyone, while at the same time greatly expanding the standard deduction. Typically, the only reason to itemize your deductions is if, combined, they exceed your standard deduction. The net effect of those two changes together is that far fewer filers chose to itemize, in favor of taking the standard deduction.
“Before 2017, 80% of my clients would itemize. Now 80% take the standard deduction,” said Tom O’Saben, director of tax content and government relations at the National Association of Tax Professionals.
As a result of the latest change, O’Saben expects some of his clients to resume itemizing, but not nearly as many as did before 2017. That’s because the new law further expands the standard deduction for 2025 to $15,750 for single filers, up from the $15,000 previously scheduled for this year; $23,625, up from $22,500, for heads of household; and $31,500 for married couples filing jointly, up from $30,000. And those amounts will be adjusted for inflation in subsequent years.
Filers living in high-tax areas: Filers from high-tax states — such as California, New York and Illinois — or high-tax cities are likely to benefit most from the SALT cap increase, assuming their income makes them eligible to claim as much as $40,000 (see next item).
That’s especially the case for homeowners in these areas, because they are more likely to itemize thanks to the combination of their state and local tax deduction plus their mortgage interest deduction.
But even some filers in states that don’t impose an income tax but do levy high sales or property taxes could benefit as well, O’Saben noted.
Filers making less than $500,000: The new SALT provision limits who may deduct the full $40,000 to tax filers with modified adjusted gross incomes of $500,000 or less. (MAGI in this instance is defined as your US-based income plus any earned income you made in Puerto Rico, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands and foreign countries for which you’d ordinarily get a tax credit or exemption.)
Filers with MAGIs over $500,000 but less than $600,000: This group will be allowed to take more than a $10,000 deduction but less than the $40,000 cap. Their deduction will be reduced by 30% of the amount their income exceeds $500,000. So for example, if your MAGI is $550,000, you will be allowed to deduct $25,000 ($40,000-30% of $50,000).
Who won’t benefit from the higher SALT cap
Those with MAGIs of at least $600,000: The SALT deduction will be limited to $10,000 for anyone whose MAGI is $600,000 or more.
Filers who don’t itemize: Anyone whose itemized deductions — including the state and local taxes they pay — do not exceed the standard deduction won’t benefit from the higher SALT cap, but they will still benefit from the higher standard deduction and the fact that taking it will reduce their tax bill more than if they itemized.
Partners and shareholders in pass-through entities: Partners and shareholders in businesses that are structured as “pass-through entities” (e.g. LLCs or S-Corps) typically pay the businesses’ taxes on their individual returns.
If they do, the rules that dictate who may deduct up to $40,000 in state and local taxes would apply to them.
But many don’t have to worry about the SALT cap at all. That’s because in the wake of the 2017 tax law, which imposed the $10,000 cap, many states developed a workaround for pass-through entities that allowed (or in some cases mandated) the entities to pay the state taxes, and get an unlimited deduction for them at the entity level. That then lowers the federal taxable income for the partners and shareholders. Those workarounds had the effect of letting the partners or shareholders avoid the SALT cap altogether.
“Typically the pass-through entity doesn’t pay taxes at all. But in some states passthroughs can elect to be taxed instead,” said Brian Newman, the federal tax services practice leader at CohnReznick Advisory LLC.
While this has complicated pass-through entity taxation, Newman noted, “it’s been a huge benefit for partners and shareholders.”
Earlier versions of the tax-and-spending-cuts package would have curtailed the benefits of the state workarounds for specified trades and businesses. But the final Senate version, which is what ultimately became law, did not, Newman said.
SAN JOSE — Three gang members have been arrested months after a violent assault at a business that left the victim in a medically induced coma for months, authorities said.
That person survived the Feb. 25 beating at the business in the 1000 block of East Capitol Expressway.
In a statement, police said they arrested all three June 25 on suspicion of attempted murder. Two were taken to the Santa Clara County Main Jail, and the third went to Santa Clara County Juvenile Hall. Police said one of the suspects taken to the Santa Clara County Jail was 17 when the crime occurred.
Police said the early investigation showed that all three confronted another male juvenile outside the business about 8:50 p.m. The confrontation eventually moved inside the business, and that’s when the four became involved in a fight, police said.
In the fight, all three suspects beat the victim unconscious, then continued to wail on him, police said. They fled the scene before police arrived. Medics rushed the victim to a hospital. His injuries were life-threatening and doctors induced a coma to help him survive.
Gang-unit detectives eventually identified the three suspects and obtained arrest warrants for all of them and search warrants for their residences, police said.
Police arrested two of the suspects in San Jose, and the third in Gilroy. Police said the search of the residences uncovered gang symbols and signs, as well as evidence linking the three to the crime.
Police said they are continuing to investigate and asked anyone with information to contact Det. Guevara at 4669@sanjoseca.gov or 408-277-3835.
For the next five years, there will be a much more generous state and local tax deduction available to federal income tax filers, thanks to the recently enacted mega tax-and-spending-cuts law.
The new law lifts what had been a $10,000 cap to $40,000 for tax year 2025 and then adjusts it upward by 1% a year for 2026, 2027, 2028 and 2029.
The SALT deduction, as it is known, enables federal income tax filers to deduct either their state and local income taxes or their state and local general sales taxes. On top of that, they are also allowed to deduct their property taxes, assuming their income or sales taxes don’t put them over the cap.
But the increased cap may only help a minority of federal income filers.
Here’s a breakdown of who will benefit, who will not — as well as those who won’t benefit from the change, but are still better off.
Who will benefit
Itemizers: The SALT break may only be taken by those who itemize deductions on their federal returns.
Prior to 2017, there was no cap on the SALT deduction, but the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act capped it at $10,000 for everyone, while at the same time greatly expanding the standard deduction. Typically, the only reason to itemize your deductions is if, combined, they exceed your standard deduction. The net effect of those two changes together is that far fewer filers chose to itemize, in favor of taking the standard deduction.
“Before 2017, 80% of my clients would itemize. Now 80% take the standard deduction,” said Tom O’Saben, director of tax content and government relations at the National Association of Tax Professionals.
As a result of the latest change, O’Saben expects some of his clients to resume itemizing, but not nearly as many as did before 2017. That’s because the new law further expands the standard deduction for 2025 to $15,750 for single filers, up from the $15,000 previously scheduled for this year; $23,625, up from $22,500, for heads of household; and $31,500 for married couples filing jointly, up from $30,000. And those amounts will be adjusted for inflation in subsequent years.
Filers living in high-tax areas: Filers from high-tax states — such as California, New York and Illinois — or high-tax cities are likely to benefit most from the SALT cap increase, assuming their income makes them eligible to claim as much as $40,000 (see next item).
That’s especially the case for homeowners in these areas, because they are more likely to itemize thanks to the combination of their state and local tax deduction plus their mortgage interest deduction.
But even some filers in states that don’t impose an income tax but do levy high sales or property taxes could benefit as well, O’Saben noted.
Filers making less than $500,000: The new SALT provision limits who may deduct the full $40,000 to tax filers with modified adjusted gross incomes of $500,000 or less. (MAGI in this instance is defined as your US-based income plus any earned income you made in Puerto Rico, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands and foreign countries for which you’d ordinarily get a tax credit or exemption.)
Filers with MAGIs over $500,000 but less than $600,000: This group will be allowed to take more than a $10,000 deduction but less than the $40,000 cap. Their deduction will be reduced by 30% of the amount their income exceeds $500,000. So for example, if your MAGI is $550,000, you will be allowed to deduct $25,000 ($40,000-30% of $50,000).
Who won’t benefit from the higher SALT cap
Those with MAGIs of at least $600,000: The SALT deduction will be limited to $10,000 for anyone whose MAGI is $600,000 or more.
Filers who don’t itemize: Anyone whose itemized deductions — including the state and local taxes they pay — do not exceed the standard deduction won’t benefit from the higher SALT cap, but they will still benefit from the higher standard deduction and the fact that taking it will reduce their tax bill more than if they itemized.
Partners and shareholders in pass-through entities: Partners and shareholders in businesses that are structured as “pass-through entities” (e.g. LLCs or S-Corps) typically pay the businesses’ taxes on their individual returns.
If they do, the rules that dictate who may deduct up to $40,000 in state and local taxes would apply to them.
But many don’t have to worry about the SALT cap at all. That’s because in the wake of the 2017 tax law, which imposed the $10,000 cap, many states developed a workaround for pass-through entities that allowed (or in some cases mandated) the entities to pay the state taxes, and get an unlimited deduction for them at the entity level. That then lowers the federal taxable income for the partners and shareholders. Those workarounds had the effect of letting the partners or shareholders avoid the SALT cap altogether.
“Typically the pass-through entity doesn’t pay taxes at all. But in some states passthroughs can elect to be taxed instead,” said Brian Newman, the federal tax services practice leader at CohnReznick Advisory LLC.
While this has complicated pass-through entity taxation, Newman noted, “it’s been a huge benefit for partners and shareholders.”
Earlier versions of the tax-and-spending-cuts package would have curtailed the benefits of the state workarounds for specified trades and businesses. But the final Senate version, which is what ultimately became law, did not, Newman said.
A fanvid about Kallus falling hard for Zeb, despite everything and without remotely meaning to, set to an edit of Head Over Feet by Alanis Morissette, with lyrics captioned.
Katsuki is a 16-year-old girl who works as a babysitter. When she is hired to take care of the daughter of the Midoriya couple, she didn’t know that day would change her life.
The Department of Justice Antitrust Division issued an unusual statement yesterday about its decision to let T-Mobile complete an acquisition of US Cellular's wireless operations.
Assistant Attorney General Gail Slater of the Justice Department's Antitrust Division, a Trump nominee who was confirmed by the Senate in March, said in a 900-word statement that the deal and two related transactions "will consolidate yet more spectrum in the Big 3's oligopoly, which controls more than 80 percent of the mobile wireless spectrum in the country." She said the top three carriers—T-Mobile, AT&T, and Verizon—control more than 90 percent of the mobile subscriptions in the United States.
Despite that, the DOJ said it closed its investigation into the merger and will not ask a court for an injunction to prevent T-Mobile from buying US Cellular assets. US Cellular is being carved up among the three major wireless firms, as the regional carrier is selling spectrum licenses in separate deals with Verizon and AT&T for about $1 billion each. T-Mobile is paying $4.4 billion for about 30 percent of US Cellular's spectrum assets and its wireless operations.
Google's Pixel phones have grown from a curiosity to become some of the best smartphones you can buy, featuring excellent cameras and lengthy support. Unfortunately, they are also gaining a reputation for battery defects. For the second time in a year, Google has announced that it will render some of its past phones almost unusable with a software update, and users don't have any choice in the matter.
After nerfing the Pixel 4a's battery capacity earlier this year, Google has now confirmed a similar update is rolling out to the Pixel 6a. The new July Android update adds "battery management features" that will make the phone unusable. Given the risks involved, Google had no choice but to act, but it could choose to take better care of its customers and use better components in the first place. Unfortunately, a lot more phones are about to end up in the trash.
Bad batteries
Lithium-ion has become the technology of choice for rechargeable batteries due to its high energy density and reliability compared to other options. However, storing and releasing energy day after day causes inevitable wear and tear. Electrolytes that transport electrons can decompose into flammable gases and puff up your battery into a spicy little pillow, for example. Batteries also form clumps of lithium ions called dendrites, which grow and can cause internal shorts. This damage is accelerated by heat, and batteries get warmer the faster and longer they charge.
We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication.
Prime Day 2025 ends tonight, and Lifehacker is sharing the best sales based on product reviews, comparisons, and price-tracking tools before it's over.
New to Prime Day? We have a primer on everything you need to know. Sales are accurate at the time of publication, but prices and inventory are always subject to change.
Some of the best headphones of 2025 are seeing some record-low prices during Prime Day. Today is the last day of Amazon's annual sale, so if you've been waiting for something nice to spend your hard-earned money on, the clock is ticking.
We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication.
Prime Day 2025 ends tonight, and Lifehacker is sharing the best sales based on product reviews, comparisons, and price-tracking tools before it's over.
New to Prime Day? We have a primer on everything you need to know. Sales are accurate at the time of publication, but prices and inventory are always subject to change.
Part of the allure of having a KitchenAid stand mixer is the potential for attachment. You buy the stand mixer (like this one on sale from Walmart) with big dreams of mixing cookies and cakes, then pivoting to grinding sausage and rolling your own fresh homemade pasta. But those heavy-duty attachments often cost over $100 each. Normally, that’s pretty unaffordable, but in these waning hours of Amazon Prime Day you can snatch up the most popular KitchenAid attachments all for roughly 30% off.
We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication.
Prime Day 2025 ends tonight, and Lifehacker is sharing the best sales based on product reviews, comparisons, and price-tracking tools before it's over.
New to Prime Day? We have a primer on everything you need to know. Sales are accurate at the time of publication, but prices and inventory are always subject to change.
While the Apple Watch Series 10 ($120 off for Prime Day) is the best smartwatch for most people, not everyone needs all the features of a $300 smartwatch. Personally, I've been happily using my Apple Watch SE for well over a year, and I'm quite content with it.
The SE is the budget version of the Series 10, and the 44mm version is going for $199 on the last day of the Prime Day sale. You can choose between the 40mm and 44mm variants, which are the two available screen sizes for the second-generation Apple Watch SE. (I use and recommend the 44mm variant because it has better battery life, and because it's the better deal during Prime Day.)
The Apple Watch SE lacks quite a few of the Series 10's features, including temperature sensing, fast charging, and the ECG measurement app. However, if you just want a smartwatch for fitness tracking and notifications, the SE is an excellent pick. I track my strength training, yoga, running, and other workouts using my SE, and I don't regret my purchase at all. It supports the latest version of watchOS and is going to get an update to watchOS 26 this Fall, so it'll be supported for some time to come. During Prime Day, it's 30% off its list price of $279, which is a near-record low.
Some people are going to find the 44mm variant a bit too big for their wrists. Although the 40mm variant is on sale for $169, the deal isn't as sweet as the one on the bigger watch. Still, I understand that some of us just can't be seen in public with an oversized watch on our wrists.
Looking for something else? Retailers like Walmart, Best Buy, and Home Depot have Prime Day competition sales that are especially useful if you don’t have Amazon Prime.
Walmart’s Prime Day competition sale runs through Sunday, July 13 and includes deals up to 50% off. It’s an especially good option if you have Walmart+.
Best Buy’s Prime Day competition sale, “Black Friday in July,” runs through Sunday, July 13 and has some of the best tech sales online. It’s an especially good option if you’re a My Best Buy “Plus” or “Total” member.
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<p class="syndicationauthor">Posted by Emmet Asher-Perrin</p><p class="ljsyndicationlink"><a href="https://reactormag.com/movie-review-superman-cracks-a-long-forgotten-code-to-its-central-character/">https://reactormag.com/movie-review-superman-cracks-a-long-forgotten-code-to-its-central-character/</a></p><p class="ljsyndicationlink"><a href="https://reactormag.com/?p=818096">https://reactormag.com/?p=818096</a></p><post-hero class="wp-block-post-hero js-post-hero post-hero post-hero-horizontal">
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<h2 class="post-hero-title text-h1"><i>Superman</i> Cracks a Long-Forgotten Code to Its Central Character</h2>
<div class="prose post-hero-description prose--post-hero">The movie is over-stuffed, but who cares when being kind is the new punk rock?</div>
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Published on July 11, 2025
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<p>It’s a cliché at this point to say that it’s difficult to make a decent Superman film. And what makes that cliché frustrating is that too many moviegoers (and the general populace) take this as a given, and too many of them cite the same tired reasoning for said difficulty: It’s just too hard to make someone so good and so powerful <em>interesting</em>, don’t ya know?</p>
<p>And golly, it says a lot of things about us—as a society and an era—that so many people believe that. (The ‘golly’ is relevant here, I swear.) At a point in time when cynicism and distrust are at load-bearing capacity in so many facets of our lives, if we can’t conceive of a way to make goodness interesting… we might as well pack it in. We’re toast, y’all.</p>
<p>So, to say that a new Superman film has its work cut out for it is a massive understatement. And while imperfect on its face, what I can say about the latest attempt is simply this—as the film ended, I became aware that I was grinning. One of those embarrassing open-mouthed grins, and one that I had no intention of breaking. I think I’d forgotten what that felt like.</p>
<p>We start in media res, and quickly learn that Superman (David Corenswet) has gotten into a bit of trouble for intervening in foreign affairs—Boravia is America’s ally and preventing their invasion of Jarhanpur has made things complicated politically. He’s also, naturally, working for the Daily Planet and dating coworker Lois Lane (Rachel Brosnahan), who is aware of his double identity. (Look, it’s not <em>that</em> hard to figure out.) Meanwhile, CEO Lex Luthor (Nicholas Hoult) is doing his level best to find dirt on “the alien” who draws so much of his ire… and uncovers the perfect ammunition in the—fully restored, thanks to nanotechnology—message left by Clark’s Kyptonian parents, Jor-El, and Lara Lor-Van (Bradley Cooper and Angela Sarafyan) at the Fortress of Solitude. As the world turns on their erstwhile hero and LordTech’s Justice Gang (Nathan Fillion as Guy Gardener / Green Lantern, Edi Gathegi as Michael Holt / Mister Terrific, and Isabela Merced as Kendra Saunders / Hawkgirl) reap a few benefits, the global situation only gets worse.</p>
<p>A few very clever things are happening in this film, but it still might not be your personal jam. These calibrations are tricky at our point of superhero saturation, and we’re all reaching for different things to make these movies feel fresh to our brains. For my part, I think writer-director James Gunn made a fascinating choice in combining two distinct oeuvres for the character. First, the film begins much like the Richard Donner films—in that Superman is a known quantity who does not have to go through the motions of revealing himself to the world. Similar, also, to <em>Batman: The Animated Series</em>, we don’t have to smash all the same origin narrative buttons, or spend time grappling with how people react to him, or to any “metahumans” as they’re being termed. They exist and are part of the status quo of this reality—which is always a more interesting place to start.</p>
<p>Second, and perhaps more important for the exercise: This movie feels more like a comic book than maybe any comic book film that’s come before it. Imagine that you popped into your local shop and scooped up the latest issues of a Superman run, and you’ve got a pretty good idea of what you’re in for. The angle here is clearly: You know who this guy is. You know what these movies are. You can handle it, even if things are a little messy.</p>
<p>Does it mean that this film is at times over-crowded and juggling a few too many threads? Sure, but that also manages to be part of the fun. Not every movie demands such careful focus, and frankly, it’s a relief to watch these characters interact like they’re all comfortable with one another. It’s true in the moments at the Daily Planet, where Lois and her coworkers behave like people who genuinely work together all day every day, as in all the interactions between Clark and the Justice Gang, who have their own comical rapport.</p>
<p>A few characters get missed in this sprawling landscape, and they are telling for both their underuse, and how often Gunn favors actors with specific brands of charisma. For example, Fillion’s Guy Gardener is a frequent delight—but Isabela Merced’s Hawkgirl isn’t fully cooked here, which sets her apart in a bad way when Gathegi’s Mister Terrific gets his much-deserved spotlight. (I’ll take it, as Edi Gathegi has been criminally overlooked as an actor for years—justice for Darwin in <em>X-Men: First Class</em>.) Similarly, María Gabriela de Faría’s turn as Angela Spica / The Engineer feels as though it’s missing significant backstory, which is relevant when her character’s drive is so important to the antagonism Superman is facing. But on the positive side, we’ve got Pruitt Taylor Vince and Neva Howell as Jonathan and Martha Kent, proving that the most important attribute for Clark’s adoptive parents is that they seem like actual human people, not multi-award-winning superstars. (Stop stunt casting superhero extended families! It’s distracting and it doesn’t work.)</p>
<p>Oh, and yes, the dog is great. And will make you sniffle. Krypto is too CGI’d onto his living canine counterpart for my tastes, but he’s so dang good.</p>
<p>Lois Lane gets her due in Brosnahan’s hands, in that the character doesn’t feel overly ingenue-d (a problem I admittedly always had with Margot Kidder’s version) or simply “Reporter, but make it a Woman this time” with few other characteristics. Audiences know that Lois Lane is supposed to be great at her job—they need to know what else is in there, and this iteration feels more complete than usual, especially on film. Moreover, the romance with Clark never undercuts her commitment to her work, her interest in challenging his actions, or her own self-assuredness. We also find out that she was a bit of a punk in her youth, which is always reassuring.</p>
<p>But the toughest sell is always Superman himself, and Corenswet brings that Reeve-ian charm we’ve been searching for, while allowing for all the idiosyncrasies the character is often missing. Here is a Clark Kent who is young enough to be a little petulant; to be certain of right and wrong without any thought toward complexity; to falter but search tirelessly for ways to get back up. He’s earnest, and eager, and so very <em>cheesy</em>—and I need it understood that when I say cheesy, I am bestowing it as the world’s highest compliment. Please, for the love of everything we hold dear: <em>Let Superman be cheesy. </em>Let him be a little cringe. Our cultural moment’s obsession with eschewing those things is a mistake, and making us more jaded by the minute. Let Clark Kent remind us that these are thoroughly enjoyable and very cool things to be.</p>
<p>It’s not just that Clark is thoroughly enjoyable to watch as a character—it’s that Lex Luthor <em>isn’t</em>. Oh, Nicholas Hoult is doing an electric job as always, sharp and suited and grandiose and casually cruel every step of the way. But it feels relevant that, in nearly every acted iteration of the character before him, Lex Luthor was always <em>entertaining</em> as a presence in the Superman mythos. Even Jesse Eisenberg’s departure from the norm was fun to watch, in its own backwards way. Yet here? Luthor feels malignant, like a cancer that needs eradicating. There’s never a moment where you want to root for him, never a point where he feels like a guy we can all relate to. He’s selfish and petty, and his evil is utterly banal, no matter how intelligent he may be.</p>
<p>The film has plenty of homages to previous Supermans on film, with an eye toward what worked and what didn’t. There are a few enjoyable shoutouts, including the reintroduction of Eve Teschmacher (Sara Sampaio) as Lex Luthor’s girlfriend, reworking one of the better twists of Donner’s run. But in a pointed reverse of everything Zach Synder offered to audiences in <em>Man of Steel</em>, Superman’s journey is not defined by his alien heritage and superiority; it is defined by the love of his human parents and his choice to belong here. To us. <em>With</em> us.</p>
<p>Even—and especially—when it’s hard.</p>
<p>Look, I’m interested in all sorts of Superman takes and reduxes and reimaginings. But it’s been a long time since the character has fully felt like himself, and offered hope in a manner that felt organic rather than proselytizing. So when all is said and done, I’m on board with the messiness—I’ll take crowded any day if it means that Superman is <em>fun</em> again.</p>
<p>It does prove one element unequivocally, too: If your Superman can use the John Williams theme, you’ve probably done it just right.[end-mark]</p>
<p>The post <a href="https://reactormag.com/movie-review-superman-cracks-a-long-forgotten-code-to-its-central-character/"><i>Superman</i> Cracks a Long-Forgotten Code to Its Central Character</a> appeared first on <a href="https://reactormag.com">Reactor</a>.</p><p class="ljsyndicationlink"><a href="https://reactormag.com/movie-review-superman-cracks-a-long-forgotten-code-to-its-central-character/">https://reactormag.com/movie-review-superman-cracks-a-long-forgotten-code-to-its-central-character/</a></p><p class="ljsyndicationlink"><a href="https://reactormag.com/?p=818096">https://reactormag.com/?p=818096</a></p>
MARTINEZ — His high-profile kidnapping and rape of a Bay Area woman made headlines when Vallejo police publicly brushed it off as a hoax and his victim as a liar.
On Thursday, Muller appeared in court in Contra Costa County to receive a life without parole sentence for a 2015 incident where he kidnapped and held three for ransom in San Ramon, just days after the Vallejo-based fiasco that made him and his victims famous.
In March 2015, Muller broke into the Mare Island home of Denise Huskins and Aaron Quinn, taking Huskins and leaving Quinn tied up. In the ensuing days, he sexually assaulted Huskins multiple times at a cabin in Northern California, then released her in Southern California. While this was going on, Quinn, Huskins’ then-boyfriend, was being interrogated and treated like a murder suspect by Vallejo police, who publicly accused Huskins of faking the entire ordeal after she turned out alive.
The result was a book — “Victim F”– as well as the Netflix series “American Nightmare” in which the couple’s story was told in detail. Muller wasn’t publicly revealed to be behind the kidnapping until June 2015, when he was arrested in a similar crime in Dublin. Police there linked him to the abduction and attacks on Huskins, but the final surprise was yet to come.
After his arrest, Muller — a Harvard-trained lawyer and former Marine — began confessing to similar crimes dating back to 1993. He drew diagrams, laid out what he knew about his victims, and was charged in Santa Clara County with two 2009 home invasions, as well as the San Ramon incident.
For the Dublin attack, Muller received 40 years in federal prison. In 2022, he was sentenced concurrently to 31 years in state prison after pleading no contest to two felony rape charges that were prosecuted separately in Solano County. During the state case, he was held in Napa State Hospital and ordered to take antipsychotic medication until he was declared legally competent to participate in his defense.
In addition to their book and show deals, Quinn and Huskins — now married — received $2.5 million through a lawsuit against Vallejo. The case has led to another anomaly: law enforcement publicly condemning the work of their peers. Most of that criticism has been aimed at Mathew Mustard, the longtime Vallejo detective who served as the city’s police union president and retired from law enforcement earlier this year. Within Vallejo’s tight-knit, often controversial law enforcement community, he was celebrated; the department promoted Mustard several times after his work on the Muller case, and he received an “Officer of the Year” award in 2015.
Outside Vallejo, police and prosecutors haven’t held back in describing failures they say allowed Muller to target others before he was brought to justice.
“It’s a shame it has taken 10 years to correct the mistakes made in the original investigation that permitted Muller to terrorize two additional families,” El Dorado County District Attorney Vern Pierson said in a statement following Muller’s sentence in Contra Costa. “Poor interview and investigation practices permitted these additional families to be victimized. Modern science-based interviewing and the diligence of the Quinns and multiple law enforcement agencies are now working to correct that wrong.”
You’re in luck if you’ve ever dreamed of riding the Haunted Mansion, Big Thunder Mountain and Jungle Cruise all by yourself in an eerily empty Disneyland — all from the comfort of your living room couch.
Disneyland will release point of view videos of 10 attractions, five themed lands and three nighttime spectaculars on July 17 on the Disney+ streaming service in honor of the Anaheim theme park’s 70th anniversary celebration.
The Disneyland POV ride videos will include the Haunted Mansion, Pirates of the Caribbean, Indiana Jones Adventure, Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, Jungle Cruise and Tiana’s Bayou Adventure.
The Disney California Adventure POV ride videos will include Radiator Springs Racers, Incredicoaster, Soarin’ Around the World and Pixar Pal-A-Round.
Trader Sam, the shruken-head selling native at the end of Jungle Cruise has been replaced with Trader Sam’s Gift Shop in Adventureland inside Disneyland in Anaheim, CA, on Friday, July 9, 2021. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)
The themed land videos will feature walkthroughs of Mickey’s ToonTown and Main Street U.S.A. at Disneyland and Cars Land, Avengers Campus and Hollywood Land at Disney California Adventure.
The 70th Anniversary Celebration Nighttime Spectaculars videos coming to Disney+ are expected to feature the “Wondrous Journeys” fireworks show and Paint the Night parade at Disneyland and “World of Color Happiness” water show at Disney California Adventure.
The Incredicoaster at Disney California Adventure Park in Anaheim, CA, on Thursday, June 21, 2018. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)
The new batch of Disney+ videos joins POV tours of Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge and Rise of the Resistance already released on the streaming service on May 4 in honor of the unofficial Star Wars holiday.
POV videos of theme park attractions have long been available on YouTube from ride enthusiasts who film themselves aboard Disneyland and Disney California Adventure rides.
What sets these videos apart?
The point-of-view video shorts are professionally produced by Disney while the parks are closed and the rides and lands are empty.
Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run at Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge inside Disneyland at the Disneyland Resort in Anaheim, CA, in 2024. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)
The 14-minute Rise of the Resistance POV video walks briefly through the extensive attraction queue before taking viewers through the full ride experience starting with the pre-show scenes with Rey and BB-8 to the Intersystem Transport Ship motion simulator, Star Destroyer detention cell escape and the rest of the ride aboard the troop transport vehicles.
The 13-minute tour of Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge takes viewers past Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run, Rise of the Resistance, Oga’s Cantina, Docking Bay 7 and Droid Depot without going inside. Viewers meet Rey, Chewbacca, Kylo Ren, patrolling stormtroopers and the Mandalorian in the otherwise empty Galaxy’s Edge.
Rey warns of First Order sightings, the stormtroopers order you to keep moving and Kylo Ren invites you to join the Dark Side.
MARTINEZ — His high-profile kidnapping and rape of a Bay Area woman made headlines when Vallejo police publicly brushed it off as a hoax and his victim as a liar.
On Thursday, Muller appeared in court in Contra Costa County to receive a life without parole sentence for a 2015 incident where he kidnapped and held three for ransom in San Ramon, just days after the Vallejo-based fiasco that made him and his victims famous.
In March 2015, Muller broke into the Mare Island home of Denise Huskins and Aaron Quinn, taking Huskins and leaving Quinn tied up. In the ensuing days, he sexually assaulted Huskins multiple times at a cabin in Northern California, then released her in Southern California. While this was going on, Quinn, Huskins’ then-boyfriend, was being interrogated and treated like a murder suspect by Vallejo police, who publicly accused Huskins of faking the entire ordeal after she turned out alive.
The result was a book — “Victim F”– as well as the Netflix series “American Nightmare” in which the couple’s story was told in detail. Muller wasn’t publicly revealed to be behind the kidnapping until June 2015, when he was arrested in a similar crime in Dublin. Police there linked him to the abduction and attacks on Huskins, but the final surprise was yet to come.
After his arrest, Muller — a Harvard-trained lawyer and former Marine — began confessing to similar crimes dating back to 1993. He drew diagrams, laid out what he knew about his victims, and was charged in Santa Clara County with two 2009 home invasions, as well as the San Ramon incident.
For the Dublin attack, Muller received 40 years in federal prison. In 2022, he was sentenced concurrently to 31 years in state prison after pleading no contest to two felony rape charges that were prosecuted separately in Solano County. During the state case, he was held in Napa State Hospital and ordered to take antipsychotic medication until he was declared legally competent to participate in his defense.
In addition to their book and show deals, Quinn and Huskins — now married — received $2.5 million through a lawsuit against Vallejo. The case has led to another anomaly: law enforcement publicly condemning the work of their peers. Most of that criticism has been aimed at Mathew Mustard, the longtime Vallejo detective who served as the city’s police union president and retired from law enforcement earlier this year. Within Vallejo’s tight-knit, often controversial law enforcement community, he was celebrated; the department promoted Mustard several times after his work on the Muller case, and he received an “Officer of the Year” award in 2015.
Outside Vallejo, police and prosecutors haven’t held back in describing failures they say allowed Muller to target others before he was brought to justice.
“It’s a shame it has taken 10 years to correct the mistakes made in the original investigation that permitted Muller to terrorize two additional families,” El Dorado County District Attorney Vern Pierson said in a statement following Muller’s sentence in Contra Costa. “Poor interview and investigation practices permitted these additional families to be victimized. Modern science-based interviewing and the diligence of the Quinns and multiple law enforcement agencies are now working to correct that wrong.”
For starters, all four of his studio albums — 2018’s “If I Know Me,” 2021’s “Dangerous: The Double Album,” 2023’s “One Thing at a Time” and this year’s “I’m the Problem” — have hit No. 1 on the country charts, with the latter three also notching the top spot on the overall Billboard 200.
Those first three releases are all multiplatinum affairs, with “One Thing at a Time” in pole position with more than seven millions copies sold. And we certainly expect “I’m the Problem” to join the party once the album — which was just released in May — has spent a little more time on shelves.
Wallen has scored 20-plus Top 10 country singles — four of which went on to hit No. 1 on the overall Billboard Hot 100.
And, of course, he puts up numbers in the live arena like nobody’s business.
In other words, despite his knack for creating controversy, expect huge crowds to turn out to see Wallen during his two-night stand, Aug. 1 and 2, at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara.
The two shows are part of Wallen’s massive third headlining jaunt — the I’m the Problem Tour — which supports the album of the same name.
The great Miranda Lambert serves as main support on Aug. 1 and the ever-popular Brooks & Dunn take that same spot on Aug. 2. Anne Wilson opens both shows.
Gov. Gavin Newsom traded palm trees and the Pacific Ocean this week for the Atlantic and palmettos.
On July 8, the governor embarked on a two-day, multi-county tour of South Carolina with the state’s Democratic Party, a trek billed as an opportunity for Newsom to hear from rural communities that the party said is “too often left to recover alone from economic setbacks and natural disasters.”
It’s that latter part — disaster relief — that Newsom and his camp have said he’s focused on this trip.
California, reeling from the catastrophic wildfires that destroyed communities and killed 30 people six months ago, is still waiting on a $40 billion request for federal disaster relief. South Carolina, also still reeling from September’s Hurricane Helene devastation that left 50 people dead, received federal disaster aid last year.
Still, it’s impossible to ignore the massive elephant — or rather donkey — in the room, the 2028 of it all.
Newsom, longstanding denials notwithstanding, has been viewed as a presidential candidate for years now. And South Carolina, for even more years, has been a key player in national presidential politics.
The Palmetto State has earned a moniker, ‘First in the South,’ based on a consistent record for picking candidates in primary elections who eventually go on to become presidential nominees for both the Democratic and Republican parties.
In 2024, national Democrats moved the South Carolina primary to the top spot. And while it’s not yet set where it will land on the 2028 calendar, South Carolina is still expected to be an early state, if not first again.
But regardless of where it falls on the primary calendar, there’s no overstating how prominent a role South Carolina voters, particularly Black voters, play in Democratic presidential politics.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom shakes hands with attendees at Fisher Hill Community Baptist Church on July 8, 2025 in Cheraw, South Carolina. The governor is on a two-day tour of rural counties in South Carolina, hosted by the state Democratic Party. (Photo by Sean Rayford/Getty Images)
Since 1988, when South Carolina began holding presidential primaries, the winner of the Democratic primary has only failed to clinch the party’s nomination two times: John Edwards in 2004 and Jesse Jackson in 1988, both of whom were born in South Carolina. Last year, South Carolina Democratic primary voters picked President Joe Biden before he dropped out of the reelection race.
Experts say that makes Newsom’s visit to South Carolina — even this early in the cycle, even without formally declaring it to be a presidential campaign stop — a smart move. If Newsom, or any Democrat, is going to win a national election, he or she will have to win over voters less liberal than those who have supported Newsom throughout his career.
“California is going to go Democratic in the presidential election, but South Carolina is often make or break for who becomes the Democratic nominee,” said Scott Huffmon, who teaches American politics and voting behavior at Winthrop University in Rock Hill, South Carolina.
“The road to the White House,” he said, “leads through South Carolina.”
‘Heads Carolina, Tails California’
Over two days, Newsom barnstormed around South Carolina in relatively rural areas, including places that overwhelmingly voted for President Donald Trump in previous elections. He met with supporters and the curious in coffee shops, churches and meeting halls.
He encouraged Democrats to stand up to Trump’s policies and didn’t shy away from talking about his home state.
At a stop in Pickens — where Trump drew tens of thousands of supporters for a 2023 rally and in a county where more than 75% of voters chose Trump in 2024 — Newsom talked about the relationship between his state and the president. He drew heavily on the administration’s actions in recent months, as Trump has deployed troops to Los Angeles amid aggressive deportation efforts, the Greenville News reported.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom speaks to a crowd, Wednesday, July 9, 2025, in Pickens, S.C. (AP Photo/Meg Kinnard)
While Republicans and Fox News have painted California as a liberal hellscape — Rep. Sheri Biggs, a freshman Republican who represents the western part of South Carolina, sent a text message blast encouraging recipients to reject “California’s woke agenda” that includes “letting mob rule and crime run rampant” — not everyone thinks Newsom should avoid his Golden State bona fides.
“I certainly think if you were to ask a Republican about Gov. Newsom, you’d hear things about California not being a great place to live,” said state Rep. Kambrell Garvin, a Democrat who represents Richland County in the statehouse.
“But I think if you talk to Democrats, I don’t think that perception is the same,” Garvin said. “As a lawmaker, I look to California for many of the progressive policies that are being implemented there as a template of what can be done in South Carolina.”
“Of course, there are going to be conservatives who say we don’t want to do things the way California does, but there are some actually good things happening in California that the rest of the nation can follow.”
Supporters of President Donald Trump protest an appearance by California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Wednesday, July 9, 2025, in Seneca, S.C. (AP Photo/Meg Kinnard)
Still, South Carolina — as it long has been for Democratic presidential hopefuls, official or not — has long been a testing ground for candidates’ messaging.
And Newsom has some work to do there, said Joshua Hollington, a Democratic voter in South Carolina, who argued that the Democratic Party, as a whole, needs to do more to win back rural communities, blue-collar workers and suburban voters.
If Newsom is to be successful, he said, the governor has to shake any reputation as “being out of touch with the average person” and solidify himself as “an everyday guy you want to have a beer with.”
“The only way to do that is to connect with rural voters,” Hollington said.
“You’ve got to get out of your posh areas and into the heartbeat of America.”
“I think it’s smart to meet people and campaign, and there’s no better way than to meet (voters) face-to-face. Good for him for coming to South Carolina,” said Rep. Neal Collins, a Republican who represents Greenville and Pickens counties in the Upstate.
“In the general, we’re maybe not as important,” said Collins, noting South Carolina has a Republican supermajority and is extremely likely to go for the Republican candidate in the general presidential election.
“But we’re immensely important for the primary.”
‘Gone to Carolina’
Newsom isn’t the only Democrat whose name is being whispered along with “2028” and “White House” who has forayed into South Carolina in recent months.
In May, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (the 2024 Democratic vice presidential nominee) and Maryland Gov. Wes Moore headlined events in Columbia, the capital city.
“I would be interested to see who else is going to journey to South Carolina,” said Chase Meyer, who teaches American politics and elections at the University of South Carolina.
“How you run for president, a lot of it is determined by who else is running and how they’re running their campaigns,” Meyer added.
Take 2020, for example. That year, Meyer said, many Democratic presidential hopefuls took more left-wing positions, an attempt to woo supporters away from progressive Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders. The shift, he said, left room for more moderate candidates, like then-South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg and eventual nominee and president Joe Biden, to find success.
“Newsom has recently started to position himself to try to be more moderate,” Meyer said, pointing to Newsom’s podcast featuring a host of right-wing figures.
“Is that going to play well with Democratic voters? It depends on what everyone else does. If every other candidate says, ‘No, that’s horrible, I’d never talk to Steve Bannon,’ there might be an opening for such a candidate,” he said.
For Democrats, South Carolina is the place to test whether a candidate has national appeal. The state is incredibly diverse, and local voters can help champion a candidate in other southern states, including potential swing states like Georgia and North Carolina.
That means the first step for Newsom — should he decide he is running for president — is to start building a network in South Carolina, said Huffmon, the Winthrop professor who leads the school’s Center for Public Opinion & Policy Research.
“If Gavin Newsom is smart,” Meyer echoed, “he’ll be meeting with Democrats in the state legislature, local Democratic mayors, local City Council, and will put their political machinery to work behind him. That means their volunteers and political consultants.”
A file picture dated Jan. 21, 2008, shows New York Senator Hillary Clinton (L) and Illinois Senator Barack Obama (R) checking notes during a break in the CNN/Congressional Black Caucus democratic party presidential debate at the Palace Theatre in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. (EPA/MATT CAMPBELL)
If history provides any lessons that might be key in the next presidential election cycle, it’s the 2008 Democratic primary where Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton clashed in South Carolina. Their battle only underscored how important Black voters, particularly Black women, are in the Democratic primary.
“Black women voters in South Carolina are very smart, and they know their power. They’re going to spot a fake appeal a mile away,” said Huffmon, saying the last candidate to court Black women voters organically was Obama.
While the former secretary of state’s strategy for winning over women was to deploy her husband, former President Bill Clinton, he ended up putting his foot in his mouth, said Huffmon. Bill Clinton, who was nicknamed the “first Black president,” was perceived as angry during the primary campaign in South Carolina, and called Obama’s opposition to the Iraq War “the biggest fairy tale I’ve ever seen.”
“But the Obama folks had the beauty parlor campaign. They’d call up Black beauty parlors and say, ‘Can I come and talk about this candidate who’s running?’ It’s tough to catch lightning in a bottle like that again, but you do need to find a way to appeal to African American voters, especially African American women, in a legitimate way.”
Democrats in South Carolina, said Garvin, the state representative, are looking for a leader.
“What Democrats need most right now is somebody who is willing to fight and can take the message of why being a Democrat — and what we stand for — is a positive thing,” said Garvin, who has not yet endorsed anyone for 2028.
“Democrats are at a point where we must decide who we are as a party, and what we believe,” Garvin said. “I think that we have got to do a better job of explaining to people why it’s cool to be a Democrat and why what we believe can be transformational to their lives and to our future.”
“Everything I’ve seen from Gov. Newsom thus far, he’s checked those boxes,” he added.
Rep. James Clyburn (D-SC) (L) gets a response after intimating that California Gov. Gavin Newsom (C, left) is campaigning for president at the Kershaw County Center on July 8, 2025 in Camden, South Carolina. The governor is on the first of a two-day tour of rural counties in South Carolina, hosted by the state Democratic Party. (Photo by Sean Rayford/Getty Images)
While Newsom has remained relatively mum on his presidential aspirations, others are less so, including one of the most important figures in South Carolina politics, longtime Democratic Rep. Jim Clyburn.
Just what Newsom’s future political plans are remains to be seen.
In Los Angeles, before he left for the East Coast, Newsom waved away questions ahead of the trip about 2028, insisting that it’s important to him to “work with governors, not just Democratic governors but Republican governors” on the issue of disaster relief.
South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster did not meet with Newsom this week, said Brandon Charochak, a spokesperson for the Republican chief executive.
But if Newsom is preparing a run for the White House, getting to know South Carolina — its voters, its issues and maybe even just how important Joe’s Ice Cream Parlor in Easley is to the community — is a first step.
In-N-Out Burger wants you to be swimming in french fries this summer.
The Southern California fast food chain is advertising a short-lived offer on its merchandise.
Customers who spend more than $100 on merch before 11:59 p.m. on Sunday, July 13 can get a free French Fry Beach Towel thrown in, according to the In-N-Out website.
In-N-Out is promoting its “summer fun essentials,” which include a $90 longboard deck, a $39.95 pool raft shaped like french fries, a $59.95 pool float shaped like a french fry boat and a 1992 “At The Beach” T-shirt.
Other new products that could boost you over the limit include a $14.95 pet bandana and $29.95 Bathroom set with a toothbrush cup shaped like a red-and-white soft drink cup and soap dish shaped like a fry boat.
Incidentally In-N-Out, currently based in Irvine, expanded to 423 locations on Wednesday, July 9, when it opened a drive-thru in Modesto. Its website lists four more restaurants in the works, including two in Southern California. They are in Monrovia and Sylmar.
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