Latest from Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles Times
17 minutes ago
- Entertainment
- Los Angeles Times
Jason Segel and dancer-actor Kayla Radomski are engaged after two years of dating
Jason Segel and Kayla Radomski are taking their love to a new level: engagement. 'Shrinking' star Segel, 45, popped the question to girlfriend and 'So You Think You Can Dance' alumna Radomski, 34, she revealed on Wednesday on Instagram. Radomski shared a carousel of photos from the outdoor proposal, including photos of the actor kneeling as he asks for her hand in marriage. 'FOREVER YES,' Radomski said in her caption, adding emojis of a ring and a heart. Radomski, whose credits also include 'Once Upon a Hollywood' and TV series 'Chasing 8s' and 'Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty,' and Segel were first spotted together in October 2023 during a date night at Universal Studios' Halloween Horror Nights. The duo made their romance red-carpet official at the 2024 Golden Globe Awards, when Segel was nominated for his work in Apple TV+'s 'Shrinking.' The pair continued hitting the red carpet later that year as part of the awards circuit, which included the 75th Primetime Emmy Awards and high-profile parties. Months before their engagement, 'How I Met Your Mother' star Segel and Radomski appeared again at the 2025 Golden Globe Awards. 'Nothing makes me happier than to stand by your side and see your light shine so bright!!!' Radomski said of Segel in an Instagram post shared in October amid the Season 2 premiere of 'Shrinking. 'Not only are you so talented but your kindness and the way you make everyone around you feel seen and loved is unmatched.' Segel's marriage to Radomski, who has also shared the stage with Taylor Swift as a backup dancer, will be his first. He previously had relationships with his 'Freaks and Geeks' co-star Linda Cardellini and 'Dying for Sex' star Michelle Williams. There was plenty of love going around in Radomski's Instagram comments section, where fellow entertainers and dancers including Broadway star Jordan Fisher, 'Dancing With the Stars' pro Valentin Chmerkovskiy , and fellow 'SYTYCD' alums Melanie Moore and Lex Ishimoto congratulated the couple on their engagement.
Los Angeles Times
26 minutes ago
- Entertainment
- Los Angeles Times
18 immigrant-founded restaurants in L.A. from our Hall of Fame list
Koreatown Korean $$$ Call Route Website 2023 Hall of Fame Literally dozens of barbecue houses line the streets of Koreatown. But for overall quality and hospitality, Jenee Kim's operation has set the standard for decades. Come to Park's with a group. A meal goes by in an exhilarating blur of fellowship and meat. The 'Taste of Park's' includes five cuts of beef: Deeply marbled ggot sal, hunks of short rib, tuiles of brisket, squiggles of bulgogi and a forearm-sized slab of galbi hit the tabletop grill in rapid sequence. A server comes and goes, turning the meats, cutting them with scissors and moving any remaining cooked bits to the side to make room for the next round. Maybe add cold noodles, or stone pot rice, or a seafood pancake? Depends on how much room you want to leave for more meat, or how much soju you're drinking. Route Details
Los Angeles Times
36 minutes ago
- Sport
- Los Angeles Times
When Dodger baseball meets L.A. reality
Department of Homeland Security vehicles with masked agents were stationed Thursday morning outside Dodger Stadium, in another sign of the raids sweeping Southern is unclear what operation the federal agents were carrying out or whether anyone in the area was arrested. Images of the government vehicles immediately played out on social media and fueled speculation about their activities. The agents declined to say why they were at the stadium when asked by a Times reporter. Los Angeles Times reporter Jack Harris and columnists Bill Plaschke and Dylan Hernández discuss what it means for the team and the city.
Los Angeles Times
41 minutes ago
- Business
- Los Angeles Times
Costa Mesa inks 1-year deal with employee labor groups for $3.5M, citing uncertainty
The Costa Mesa City Council this week approved tentative agreements with its four employee unions, brokering $3.5 million in salary and benefit increases over just a one-year period, due to an uncertain fiscal future both locally and nationally. But one resident and budget hawk warned officials that what is agreed upon this year is sure to be assumed in the years ahead, potentially compounding the cumulative impact to city coffers. Human Resources Manager Kasama Lee told the council during a regular meeting Tuesday city staff had successfully reached agreements after negotiating a $1.9 million deal with employees of the city's police force, represented by the Costa Mesa Police Assn. (CMPA) and the Costa Mesa Police Managers Assn. (CMPMA). Memorandums of understanding were also reached with the Costa Mesa City Employees Assn. (CMCEA) and administrative workers represented in a confidential unit, totaling nearly $1.6 million. All employee groups' prior contracts were set to expire June 30. Employees of the Costa Mesa Police Department, which comprises 130 officers under CMPA and another nine upper-level managers, will receive 4% salary increases beginning July 1, along with a $300 hike in monthly health benefits. Police staff will also receive an additional 2.5% add-on to pre-existing longevity bonus calculations, meaning those who reach their 25-year anniversary will receive 12.5% of their base salary in incentive pay, while those hitting the 20-year mark will get 10%; awards of 7.5% and 5% will be given for employees reaching 15 and 10 years of service, respectively. As an added benefit under the new agreement, CMPD lieutenants will no longer receive holiday pay but will earn additional bonuses, ranging from 5% to 15%, for various Police Officer Standards and Training certification. Captains with the certification will receive 15%, the contract stipulates. Meanwhile, nearly 330 non-police city employees will see bumps in pay and benefits under the agreements approved Tuesday, including an additional $50 per month in health benefits starting in July and $100 increase, effective January 1, 2026. After an initial 2% salary increase, slated to take effect July 1, staff members will see another 2% raise in January and then again in April. The $3.5 million in provisions have been earmarked in Costa Mesa's 2025-26 budget, adopted earlier this month . Lee estimated the agreements would impact next year's budget by an additional $1.5 million. Ralph Taboada, a Costa Mesa resident and member of the city's Finance & Pension Advisory Committee, said Lee's estimation was misleading, since the $1.5-million impact would be compounded on top of this year's $3.5-million increase. He further warned that while the benefits conveyed are only offered for a one-year term, they will likely become a stepping stone to greater benefits, at an even greater cost, in future years. 'A year from now, when subsequent agreements are negotiated, they'll be utilizing the salary and benefits in these contracts for new [ones]. So this $3.5-million impact for 2025-26 is going to carry forward beyond 2025-26.' Mayor Pro Tem Manuel Chavez, making a motion to approve the bargained-for changes, explained the one-year term would allow the city to see how economic changes on the horizon, including declining revenue projections and promised international tariffs at the federal level, might play out. 'I think all parties agree a one-year deal was a good bet to see how everything would turn out these next couple of months,' Chavez said. Mayor John Stephens agreed, recalling contentious periods at bargaining tables of yore, when the city was embroiled in legal battles with labor groups over the outsourcing of some public roles and services. 'We're in a good place with our relationship with our bargaining units — we cannot take that for granted, because it hasn't always been that way,' he said. 'It's a good deal under the circumstances, uncertain circumstances, where we know we're going to need those police officers to keep us safe and we're going to need CMCEA non-safety employees to back them up.'
Los Angeles Times
an hour ago
- Health
- Los Angeles Times
‘Death race' for food: Hundreds killed in Gaza aid chaos
DEIR AL BALAH, Gaza — Like 'Squid Game.' That's how residents describe it, invoking the dystopian TV show when recounting the lethal gauntlet that getting aid in famine-haunted Gaza has become. 'It's a death race. The faster, the stronger, the luckier — they're the ones who might survive, might reach the food,' said 30-year-old Mohammed al-Shaqra. 'It feels like we're animals, racing for a box of supplies as if our lives depend on it. And they do.' Ever since Israel sidelined the United Nations and other humanitarian organizations late last month and tasked assistance operations to the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, an opaque U.S. and Israeli-backed private contractor registered in Delaware, killing has been the near-daily companion of aid deliveries. On Thursday, health authorities in Gaza said 12 people were killed near a GHF distribution center, a relatively low toll in a week that saw 59 killed in similar circumstances on Tuesday. Since the foundation began its work on May 26, more than 400 people have been killed and more than 3,000 wounded. Al-Shaqra became one of casualties this month. On June 8, he gathered with thousands of others early in the morning near the GHF center in the southern Gaza city of Rafa. It was his third attempt to get food. 'I was desperate to bring something back — flour, rice, pasta, anything — for my parents, my siblings and their kids,' he said. When the passageway to the distribution center opened, Al-Shaqra sprinted as fast as he could, hoping to beat others in the crowd and grab a box. But then an Israeli quadcopter drone — it had been buzzing above beforehand — started dropping explosives; the third bomb landed close to him, he said. 'My left arm shattered. I looked down and saw the bone hanging, and there was a sharp pain in my guts,' he said. Cradling his arm and trying to stop bleeding from his stomach, he stumbled for almost half a mile before collapsing onto a donkey cart. A kind driver took him to a field hospital for the International Community of the Red Cross. The doctors saved his arm. The GHF came online two months after Israel cut off all aid entering into Gaza in March, justifying the blockade — despite widespread opprobrium — as a way to pressure Hamas into releasing hostages even as Palestinian authorities and aid groups reported a starvation crisis. Although the U.N. and humanitarian organizations pleaded for access to feed the roughly 2 million people in the Gaza Strip, Israel insisted Hamas was stealing aid, a claim the U.N. and other groups deny and for which Israel has never provided evidence. The alternative, the Israeli government said, would be the GHF. But the GHF was controversial from the outset, so much so that it first pick as executive director quit before aid deliveries even began, saying the foundation's plan couldn't be implemented without 'breaching humanitarian principles.' Boston Consulting Group, which helped design the distribution system, terminated its contract with the GHF earlier this month and fired two partners involved with the project. Instead of using humanitarian workers, the GHF has deployed armed private contractors with the Israeli military stationed only a hundred yards or so away. It also concentrated aid deliveries to what the GHF calls four 'fortified' hubs in southern Gaza rather than the roughly 400 smaller centers used by the U.N. and other aid groups across the enclave — forcing already hungry people to walk for miles through active combat zones to access the deliveries. Gaza residents also complain only one or two hubs are usually operating on any given day, and rarely open at the announced time. It's also never stated what's in the food boxes. And rather than directly handing the boxes to people, GHF workers instead dump them on pallets and watch crowds swarm over them. People gather hours in advance on safe routes designated by the Israeli military, but often find themselves under Israeli fire when allowed to approach the hubs. 'It's a real-life version of 'Squid Game.' We run, then the shooting starts, we hit the ground and stay still so we're not killed, then run again,' said Hussein Nizar, a resident who repeatedly tried to get aid, even after his neighbor Ameen Sameer was shot in the head. 'I watched him die beside me,' he said. 'I couldn't do anything to help out because of all the shooting.' The Israeli military has repeatedly responded to questions about killings near GHF sites by saying it would look into reports of civilian casualties. In a previous incident, it said troops fired on people approaching them in a threatening manner. Several Palestinians and a GHF spokesman — who gave his name as Majed — said many of the shootings occur when people run beyond the limits of the safe route in an attempt to get to the distribution site faster. Even if they're not wounded or killed, many go home empty-handed, said Jassim, a 28-year-old logistics worker hired by a local contractor working with the GHF. 'Decent people, especially the elderly and women with children, can't fight through the crowds,' he said. He added that gangs also stalk people leaving the delivery area so as to rob them and sell the precious supplies on the black market. 'Many of them carry knives. It's like a trap and I see many people killed.' When Al-Shaqra regained consciousness, he found himself in Nasser Hospital, waiting for surgery in rooms already overflowing with other casualties from that day's attacks at the GHF center. Among them was his father, Wadee al-Shaqra, who was injured by a bullet that tore through the side of his abdomen. Wadee lost track of his son after he was shot, but found him hours later, by coincidence, in one of a few tents set up near Nasser Hospital for convalescing patients. 'I thought he was killed. I was so happy to see him I didn't ask if he got any food. I didn't care,' Wadee said. He added that he and Al-Shaqra went to the hubs despite the danger because they didn't have enough bread to share among his grandchildren. 'We're supposed to protect them,' he said. 'We're risking our lives just to keep them from starving.' The GHF says its efforts have been a success, touting its delivery of almost 26 million 'meals' in the 22 days since it started operations. But with almost half a million people facing catastrophic levels of hunger and the entire population contending with acute food security, according to the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, the deliveries amount to roughly 0.6 meals per person. The GHF does not elaborate on how it defines a meal, but it has previously stated that it calculated daily rations at 1,750 calories, well below the 2,200 calories target used by humanitarian organizations. (Majed said recent aid deliveries provide 2,500-calorie provisions.) The bedlam accompanying GHF's distribution practices, aid workers say, was entirely predictable. 'Delivery of humanitarian aid can be a very straightforward operation, but it's a complex one,' said Juliette Touma, communications director for the U.N. agency for Palestinians, UNRWA. She added that UNRWA and other groups have decades of experience serving Palestinians, with comprehensive registry lists and an orderly distribution system that assigns appointments at conveniently placed centers. The GHF aid, comprising mostly dry goods, such as pasta or lentils, requires gas and water to cook, both of which are hard to procure in Gaza. GHF aid also does not include hygiene and cleaning supplies, she said — an essential requirement. 'There's this sheer arrogance that the U.N. and humanitarians can be replaced — just like that — by a third party, a private security company. It's not at all like that,' she said. 'Let us do our job.' Saleem al-Najili, a 33-year-old nurse at the UK-Med Field Hospital in Deir al Balah, now dreads GHF delivery times. 'Every time the GHF center opens its doors, I know what's coming,' he said. 'It means more blood and screaming, more impossible decisions on whom we can treat. And fewer people we can actually save.' Shbeir, a Times special correspondent, reported from Deir al Balah. Times staff writer Bulos reported from Beirut.
