Aurelia Butler

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    Spillover in Lake Berryessa Reservoir Gushes for First Time Since 2019

    For the first time in six years, water is gushing through a unique spillway in Lake Berryessa, just north of San Francisco.Footage provided to The New York Times showed Lake Berryessa’s spillway overflowed with water.Jay Cuetara, Solano County WaterBack-to-back atmospheric rivers have dumped buckets of rain across Northern California, filling its rivers to the brim and beyond. The Russian River spilled over its banks in Sonoma County, and in the far reaches of the state, Lake Shasta, a key marker of the state’s overall water levels, has nearly filled up.And just east of Napa Valley, a rare not-fully-natural phenomenon was observed for the first time since 2019: Water began gushing, furiously, through a spillway in Lake Berryessa.The eye-catching event has happened only three other times in the past 20 years, and it has drawn curiosity seekers to the man-made reservoir, 70 miles northeast of San Francisco.“People were taking pictures and videos and just standing in awe,” said Peter Kilkus, the editor of the Lake Berryessa News, who was there Wednesday morning with about two dozen other people.The 72-foot-wide spillway, called a morning glory because its shape mimics the flower, is a unique funnel-shaped cement pipe that sits within the reservoir. (Locals call it the glory hole.)The mechanism is a type of drainage system with water pouring down the pipe and into Putah Creek on the other side of Monticello Dam. The spillway is among a few with that shape in the country; there’s also one at Pleasant Hill Lake in Perrysville, Ohio. More

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    Irv Gotti: Key Milestones in the Life of the Rap Mogul

    The producer, who died on Wednesday, built Murder Inc. into one of the most influential record labels of the early 2000s. His career was marred by a federal investigation and trial.Irv Gotti, who founded the record label Murder Inc. and helped shape the sound of hip-hop and R&B in the late 1990s and early 2000s when he shepherded the careers of Ja Rule and Ashanti, died on Wednesday at 54.Here is a brief look at how the rap entrepreneur and record executive worked his way from humble beginnings in Queens, N.Y., to the top of the charts before his momentum was marred by a federal investigation into the label in which he was charged with money laundering and acquitted.A Childhood in Queens, N.Y.Gotti was born Irving Domingo Lorenzo Jr. in Queens, N.Y., in 1970. He was the youngest of eight children, according to “The Murder Inc Story,” a documentary about his life that aired on BET in 2022. His family, which he described as one that didn’t have much money but had plenty of love, recalled him as a “clown” who loved performing, dancing and entertaining, sometimes even for small change.His foray into music began as a preteen, when he played for hours with a turntable and a mixer that his siblings had purchased for him. By the age of 15, he had begun to make a name for himself as a D.J. at local parties.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    A Judge Delayed Trump’s Plan to Persuade Federal Workers to Quit

    Also, New Orleans is rattled but ready for the Super Bowl. Here’s the latest at the end of Thursday.A federal judge in Massachusetts today temporarily barred the Trump administration from offering about two million federal workers the chance to leave their jobs in exchange for seven months of pay. The offer, which had a deadline of midnight tonight, was part of a sweeping effort by President Trump and Elon Musk to drastically cut the size of the federal work force.Judge George O’Toole Jr., a Clinton appointee, paused the deadline until at least Monday, when the court would consider a legal challenge. It is not clear how the delay will affect the more than 40,000 federal employees who had already signed up to resign through the program.The Trump administration has been pressuring workers for the last week to accept the offer, while the biggest government unions have been urging them to decline.The judge’s decision appeared unlikely to end the broader effort by Trump and Musk to sharply reduce the size and cost of the federal government. The administration is planning to reduce the number of workers at the U.S. foreign aid agency from more than 10,000 to about 290 positions. Officials at the agency were also told that about 800 awards and contracts administered by U.S.A.I.D. were being canceled.Already, cuts at U.S.A.I.D. have resulted in the freezing of dozens of clinical trials, leaving people with experimental drugs and medical products in their bodies and cut off from the researchers who were monitoring them.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    House Committee to Examine Secret Navy Effort on Pilot Brain Injuries

    The Navy quietly started screening elite fighter pilots for signs of brain injuries caused by flying, a risk it officially denies exists.The Navy’s elite TOPGUN pilot school quietly undertook an effort called Project Odin’s Eye in the fall of 2024 to try to detect and treat brain injuries in fighter crew members, and leaders kept it so confidential that not even the broader Navy knew about it.Now, the powerful House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform is demanding to learn about the project, and what the Navy knows about the risk that high-performance jets pose to the brains of the crew members who fly in them.“It is imperative to ensure the warfighter has full and accurate information about health risks and the tools, both mental and physical, to safeguard their health,” the chairman of the committee, Representative James Comer of Kentucky, said in a letter sent on Thursday to the acting secretary of the Navy.The letter cited a report by The New York Times published in December that detailed how a number of F/A-18 Super Hornet crew members, after years of catapult takeoffs from aircraft carriers and dogfighting training under crushing G-forces, experienced sudden and unexplained mental health problems. The problems included insomnia, anxiety, depression and PTSD-like symptoms — all of which can be caused by repeated sub-concussive brain injuries.Many of the problems started when the aviators were in their 40s, near the end of their careers, but those affected often kept their struggles hidden, even after leaving the Navy, so that they could continue to fly.The Navy tells its pilots that it has no evidence that flying poses a risk of brain injury. That remained the official line even after three pilots with symptoms consistent with brain injuries died by suicide in a span of 12 months.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    Read the Memo Sent By City Hall Lawyers to New York City Agencies

    Privileged & Confidential
    Procedure for In-Person Interactions with Non-Local Law Enforcement
    Guidance for City Employees
    As of: January 13, 2025
    Follow these steps if non-local law enforcement personnel come to your workplace and ask to be given access
    to non-public areas of your workplace to conduct immigration enforcement or ask for information to help
    them conduct immigration enforcement.
    1. Ask the officer for their name, badge number, and a business card.
    2. Ask the officer why they need access to your workplace or why they need the information they have
    asked you for.
    3. Ask the officer if they have any documents that relate to their visit. Do they have a warrant or
    subpoena? If they do, make copies or take a photo of them with your phone.
    4. Inform the officer that you have been instructed to seek guidance from your general counsel (or the
    person designated by your general counsel to handle these questions) about any requests that relate
    to immigration enforcement. Your agency has designated the following people: Ann Marie Scalia, DSS
    General Counsel at 917-624-0703; Paul Ligresti, DSS Deputy General Counsel at 347-831-5127 and
    Velvaunche Priester, DHS Deputy Commissioner of Shelter Security at 917-594-1260.
    5. Ask the officer to wait while you make that phone call.
    6. Call your general counsel (or their designee). Tell them what the request is and give them any copies
    or photos you have of documents that the officer showed you.
    7. If the officer wants to talk to your general counsel (or their designee) directly, you should let them.
    8. You should follow the directions you get from your general counsel.
    9. If, at any time, you reasonably feel threatened or fear for your safety or the safety of others around you,
    you should give the officer the information they have asked for (if available to you) or let them enter the
    site.
    10. Never engage in a physical or verbal altercation with any law enforcement officer.
    11. If you feel you have to comply with the request in the absence of direction from your general counsel or
    their designee, try to do the following if you can do so safely: (a) take photos or videos of what happened,
    and (b) make a note of: (i) the officer’s name, (ii) the agency the officer is from, (iii) what areas of the
    facility the officer accessed or what information was given, (iv) what the officer did in the areas accessed,
    (v) the identity, if known, of any people arrested, interrogated, or detained by the officer, and (vi) the
    basis for your determination that providing access or information was required or necessary. You should
    retain any records you make in connection with the request.
    In addition, it is important to understand that taking actions that are intended to conceal, harbor, or shield from
    detection a person who is in the United States unlawfully is a federal crime. You cannot take affirmative steps
    that are intended to help a person avoid being found by ICE. More

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    ‘Smurfs’ Trailer Shows Rihanna as Smurfette and Promises New Music

    The first preview of the animated feature shows the singer in her “blue era” and assures fans that new songs from her will be featured on the soundtrack.Music superstar, beauty mogul, fashion designer and … Smurfette? Rihanna’s next big role may not be what you were expecting.On Thursday, Paramount released a trailer for “Smurfs,” giving us a first look at the singer as the elflike, blonde-haired, blue-skinned creature. In an animation style that blends smooth 3-D rendering with elements that evoke the classic hand-drawn cartoons, Smurfette leads her cohort into the real, live-action world on a quest to Paris to find Papa Smurf after he mysteriously disappears.The trailer begins with Rihanna, in human form, addressing the audience.“I can’t wait for you all to see it this summer,” she says, with sunglasses largely covering her Smurf-blue eye shadow. She had teased the trailer in an Instagram post on Wednesday, which was a short video captioned “in my blue era.”The animated movie also features an ensemble cast including Nick Offerman, Natasha Lyonne, Amy Sedaris, Nick Kroll and Dan Levy, and is directed by Chris Miller, who previously helmed “Shrek the Third” and “Puss in Boots.” It will be a musical-comedy reboot of ‘The Smurfs’ film franchise, which last had an installment with “Smurfs: The Lost Village” in 2017.In addition to playing Smurfette, Rihanna is a producer on the movie. But, in what will most likely be the biggest news for her fans, who have been clamoring for more music since her album “Anti” was released in 2016, the trailer ends with a message advising people to “presave” the movie’s soundtrack, which will feature new music from Rihanna.It also says the movie will include the song “Higher Love,” recorded by Desi Trill and featuring DJ Khaled, Cardi B, Natania and Subhi.“Smurfs” is set to release on July 18. More

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    Human Torso Found in Suitcase in the East River Near Manhattan

    A New York City ferry captain saw the luggage and called the Police Department’s Harbor Unit. The authorities have not identified the remains.A New York City ferry captain on Wednesday discovered a suitcase drifting in the East River that turned out to have a human torso inside, according to an internal police report.The captain, who was aboard the vessel Susan B. Anthony, saw the luggage floating in the water late Wednesday afternoon near Governors Island, a largely recreational area just off the southern tip of Manhattan, according to the report.Unable to fish it out of the river, the captain called the Police Department’s Harbor Unit for help, the report said. Officers from the unit pulled the suitcase from the water at around 5:30 p.m. and, after seeing what was inside, brought it to Pier 16 on the East Side of Manhattan, about a quarter-mile south of the Brooklyn Bridge, the police said.The authorities have not been able to identify the remains. A spokeswoman for the city medical examiner said the office would perform an autopsy to determine the cause and manner of the person’s death.Reached on Thursday, the ferry captain declined to comment.The discovery of body parts in New York City’s waters is uncommon, but not unheard-of. A human head was found in Jamaica Bay in Queens last May. Then, in August, other human remains began to wash up on the shore of Brooklyn Bridge Park, just steps from its early-20th-century carousel. Over the course of several weeks, officers found a human skull, leg fragments, vertebrae and two feet inside a pair of construction boots, according to another internal police report.News reports of such discoveries date back more than a century. In 1900, the body of a longshoreman was found floating in the East River just below East Ninth Street in Manhattan, according to an Oct. 1 article published that year in The Evening World, a turn-of-the-century newspaper.In another case, authorities in 1967 pulled a man’s body from the Hudson River, according to a New York Daily News article from Aug. 19 of that year. The police later identified the man as 62-year-old Joseph Robert Juliano, who had Mafia ties. More