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      Barbara Lee forged a historic path in Congress. Does Oakland want her back for mayor?

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      Barbara Lee represented Oakland in Congress for a quarter-century. Now, in what would probably be the capstone of her storied political career, the 78-year-old progressive icon is vying for the chance to lift the “city I love” out of crisis.“I’m always ready to fight for Oakland,” Lee said, announcing her bid to lead the city of roughly 440,000 residents, known for its liberal politics and deep legacy of civil rights activism. When she entered the mayoral race in January, she was widely seen as the presumptive frontrunner.But in the months since, the race has tightened considerably, as her leading opponent, the former city council member Loren Taylor, gains ground. The 47-year-old engineer is aiming for an upset in Tuesday’s special election, tapping into a wave of discontent with progressive leadership that has swept the San Francisco Bay Area in recent years – and led to the recall of Oakland’s mayor, Sheng Thao, in November.“It’s not about whether or not we appreciate her service in Congress,” Taylor said in an interview as he made his final pitch to voters in east Oakland over the weekend. “It’s about what we need right now to fix Oakland’s problems – and particularly with the urgency that Oaklanders need.”The next mayor of Oakland must immediately confront a gaping budget deficit as well as a housing crisis that has given rise to sprawling homeless encampments. While violent crime fell sharply in 2024, persistently high rates of property crime – coupled with the widespread perception that Oakland is unsafe – continue to take a toll on the city.Over the last decade, Oakland has seen an exodus of its professional sports teams. Many businesses and retailers have left town, citing safety concerns. In-N-Out closed its only Oakland location last year, a first in the burger joint’s history. Kaiser Permanente, one of the city’s largest employers, has scaled back its downtown presence. Adding to the turmoil, Thao was recently indicted on federal bribery charges; she has pleaded not guilty.View image in fullscreenIn her homecoming pitch, Lee has presented herself as a unifying force, steeled by a decades-long political career that began in Sacramento and took her to Washington, where she championed racial justice and antiwar causes that set her apart – and sometimes at odds with her own party. Her most famous stand came in 2001, when she cast the sole vote in Congress against the authorization for the use of military force following the 9/11 terrorist attacks – a decision that resulted in hate mail and death threats but is now seen as prescient. And yet she built a reputation as a principled collaborator beloved by Democrats, with a record of working across the aisle with Republicans.Lee, who retired from Congress in January after an unsuccessful run for the US Senate last year, is now promising to bring that experience home. On the campaign trail, she has pledged to bridge Oakland’s political divides and improve public safety, while securing the city’s “fair share” of state and federal funding and partnering with civic and business leaders to spur economic growth.“I believe Oaklanders are tired of division and distraction, and are ready to move forward. They are looking for a leader who can bring all corners of the city together to solve our toughest challenges,” Lee said in a statement, citing her broad base of support, which includes nearly every member of the Oakland city council, the city’s interim mayor, several former mayors – Jerry Brown and Libby Schaaf, among them – as well as organized labor, faith leaders and key members of the business community.Describing herself as a “tested and proven leader who has built the coalition needed to govern in Oakland on day one,” Lee said: “Talk is cheap; leadership is what matters.”Tuesday’s special election, which will use ranked choice voting, has drawn hundreds of thousands of dollars in spending. Yet Ernestine Nettles, the president of the League of Women Voters of Oakland, worries that the off-cycle timing and low morale could dampen turnout. She said she had heard voters say the election “doesn’t matter” because the winner will only serve for a short time before having to run for re-election next year.A recent survey by the city of Oakland found that satisfaction with local government had fallen to a record low. An October poll by the Oakland chamber of commerce showed that voters were “more pessimistic than ever” about the direction of the city.“People have lost a lot of hope,” she said. But a packed crowd at a recent weeknight candidate forum left her hopeful that the city was tuning in. “People need to turn out to vote so that a handful of people will not be making decisions about what happens in our city,” she said.Many progressive activists view the contest as part of a broader regional fight against the growing influence of Silicon Valley wealth that is transforming Bay Area politics. The movement has already succeeded in elevating more moderate, tech-friendly leaders in nearby San Francisco and San Jose, and progressives are determined to prevent a similar shift in Oakland.“The tech bros, the oligarchy, crypto bros, all of that stuff that we’re starting to see here – it came from San Francisco politics,” said Pamela Drake, a longtime activist and progressive political commentator who is supporting Lee. She pointed to the outside support Taylor’s campaign has received, including backing from some of the wealthy investors, real-estate developers and tech executives who have poured money into defeating progressive incumbents as well as the recalls of former mayor Thao and the former Alameda county district attorney, Pamela Price.Drake said she feared a “tech takeover” of the city’s politics. “That is what we see as a real threat,” she said, “that it is no longer going to be Oaklanders deciding what we want done.”In the interview, Taylor, who narrowly lost the 2022 mayor’s race to Thao, called the claim that his campaign was driven by outside money “inaccurate” and emphasized his fundraising strength among grassroots Oakland-based donors.“What’s resonating with everyone is the fact that when Oakland does better, we all do better,” Taylor said.San Jose’s mayor, Matt Mahan, a former tech entrepreneur who has clashed with labor unions and progressives in his liberal city, endorsed Taylor at a recent press conference, praising him as a leader with “fresh ideas” and drawing parallels between his own 2022 insurgent win and Taylor’s challenge to what he called “an establishment that has become complacent”.Lee rejects the suggestion that her progressive politics are out of step with the people she served, in a place she proudly called the “wokest” district in the nation”. “I believe my values are Oakland values,” she said in a statement.On Saturday, the representative Maxine Waters, a longtime friend and progressive ally who serves a Los Angeles-area congressional district, joined Lee on the campaign trail. Waters praised Lee’s deep devotion to the city of Oakland – which last elected her to Congress with more than 90% of the vote – and said she was moved to hear residents still use the slogan “Barbara Lee speaks for me”.“People in the city are going to need someone like Barbara Lee more than ever,” Waters said. With Donald Trump slashing agencies that the city relies on for housing and public health services, she said Lee would be a “powerhouse of information” for residents navigating the disruptions.Lee is “well-experienced in handling bullies” like the president, Waters said. Trump targeted Oakland during his first administration and has vowed again to retaliate against liberal cities that resist his policies on immigration, LGBTQ+ equality and diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives. Some Lee supporters say they relish a clash between the hometown hero and Trump, in defense of the city where Kamala Harris was born and launched her political career.As for those calling for generational change, the 86-year-old Waters was confident they would not be disappointed: “Barbara Lee as the leader of the city of Oakland will absolutely have them thinking a bit differently.”Both Taylor and Lee agree the city is at a crossroads. And both candidates have made public safety a top campaign issue, while promising to rein in government spending to stabilize city finances.Yet they offer starkly different visions. Taylor has cast himself as a pragmatic “problem-solver” who can “fix” a city he says is “broken”. Lee rejects the notion that Oakland is broken. Instead, she argues the city needs a “unifier” to heal the divisions deepened by the recent recalls.View image in fullscreenTaylor has put forward a series of data- and technology-driven proposals – such as the use of drones to fight crime – to improve public safety and restore good governance to city hall. His campaign’s promise to shake up city hall earned the endorsement of the San Francisco Chronicle’s editorial board, who wrote that Taylor had the “ideas and the will to lead Oakland into the future”.On the campaign trail, Lee calls for more crime prevention solutions, as well as more police, highlighting the need for expanding community services and affordable housing.But part of her pitch is being Barbara Lee. Supporters hail her as an “uplifted elder” with the gravitas and experience to marshal resources for the beleaguered city and build consensus where none seems achievable. “Lee has the political clout needed to unify the city’s fractured leadership,” the East Bay Times editorial board wrote in its endorsement.Still, not all voters are convinced that experience in Washington prepares someone to lead at city hall. Some critics point to Los Angeles, where mayor Karen Bass, also a former member of Congress, has taken heat for her handling of the deadly wildfires. And many Oakland residents remember the late former mayor Ron Dellums – Lee’s political mentor and a longtime representative – as largely absent while the city struggled during the onset of the Great Recession.In a recent radio interview, Lee noted that Oakland had a history of electing mayors without prior local government experience. She highlighted Brown – the former California governor – who leveraged his political clout to help rebuild Oakland’s downtown during his time as mayor.View image in fullscreenAt a mayoral forum hosted by the non-profit news site Oaklandside, the candidates were asked why they were vying for what many consider the daunting, even unenviable, task of leading the city through one of its most challenging chapters. Lee, as she so often has throughout her political career, saw it differently.“I don’t think that being mayor of Oakland is an impossible, thankless job,” she replied. “I recognize the challenges, but I also recognize the opportunities.” More

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      Bernie Sanders rally in LA draws thousands to protest Trump: ‘We can’t just let this happen’

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      The Vermont senator Bernie Sanders drew a record-breaking crowd at his rally in Los Angeles on Saturday, which included musical acts from Joan Baez and Neil Young, who encouraged the crowd to “take America back”.Sanders’s Fighting Oligarchy: Where We Go from Here tour has been drawing massive crowds. Aided by the progressive New York representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the team set the record in Tempe, Arizona, for biggest-ever political rally in that state three weeks ago. In Denver, Colorado, more than 34,000 people showed up – a career-high crowd for the 83-year-old Sanders. Saturday in Los Angeles saw another record: at least 36,000 people packed a downtown park.A host of musical acts kicked off the high-energy event, including the indie rock band The Red Pears, Maggie Rogers, Indigo de Souza, and legends Baez and Young.View image in fullscreenOn a perfect LA day with a gentle breeze and blue sky, Young, wearing all black, performed for the crowd before introducing Ocasio-Cortez, who was met with the wild applause usually reserved for a rock star.Ocasio-Cortez, 35, told the crowd at Gloria Molina Grand Park – a space named after the trailblazing Angeleno often credited for paving the way for women and Latinos in LA politics – that “power, greed and corruption are taking over our country like never before”. She named some California lawmakers who have supported recent Trump policies, including Bakersfield representative David Valadao and representative Young Kim of Orange county.The Raise gospel choir sang out “power to the people”, and Sanders took the stage. “We are living in a moment where the Republican party to a large degree has become a cult of the individual, obeying Trump’s every wish,” Sanders told the crowd, adding that the Trump administration is now “plotting how they can give $1.1tn in tax breaks to the rich”.The politician’s critique of the administration – and the corrupting influence of big money and billionaires in US politics – lasted more than 40 minutes. The message has taken on a new resonance in the second Trump administration, as Americans have watched Elon Musk take a chainsaw to the federal government and threatening popular safety-net programs like social security and Medicare.View image in fullscreenThese are the issues that brought out Cindy and Victor Villanuevo. Cindy has battled multiple sclerosis for the past decade. “I’m here because I’m disgusted about what Trump is doing to science. It’s a disgrace. When you cut funding, there’s no hope for any of us,” said the Buena Park mother.Her sister, Rose Matthews, a retired teacher, is concerned about social security, for people who work at veterans’ affairs and for veterans’ benefits. “I know the folks at the Long Beach VA very well because my husband battled ALS for four years,” she said. “The work they do with the vets is incredible and much needed. Now I’m worried that’s going away. We can’t just let this happen.”Ali Wolff and Myylo Lewis took the 94 bus from Silver Lake to attend. They said the bus had been packed with Bernie supporters – and it felt good.“It’s terrifying what’s been happening,” said Wolff. “It’s a relief just being here with so many like-minded people.”Ocasio-Cortez and Bernie are the “closest thing to a version of America you actually want to live in”, said Lewis.View image in fullscreenSanders, an independent who votes with Democrats, launched the tour in late February, offering Democratic voters an outlet for their fury and grief at a moment when most of their leaders in Washington appeared disoriented by the speed of Trump’s second-term power grabs. The Vermont senator has held events in big cities like Denver and Phoenix, while also targeting Republican-held districts that voted for Joe Biden in 2020, as Democrats contemplate a path back to power in 2026.Ocasio-Cortez joined Sanders for part of his tour last month, raising questions about her political aspirations and the future of the progressive movement he has been building since before she was born. On the stage in Los Angeles, progressive congressmembers Pramila Jayapal of Washington state and Ro Khanna of California, as well as many union leaders representing teachers, nurses, longshoremen and healthcare workers all addressed the crowd. Eunissess Hernandez, who represents LA’s first city council district, gave a particularly powerful address, saying the Trump administration was trying to divide people and get them to blame each other for their problems instead of blaming the people who are “actually profiting from our pain”.Sanders’s western tour will continue with stops in Utah, Idaho and Montana. The tour will return to California on Tuesday for events in Folsom and Bakersfield, a Republican stronghold, which has one of the highest levels of Medi-Cal enrollments in the state. The agricultural community, which is in Kern county, was also the locale of a January immigration raid that resulted in 78 arrests many contend were a result of shocking and unlawful racial profiling. Sanders railed against the raid, describing it as the US government “disappearing people”. More

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      Trump Directive Calls to Turn Border Land Into ‘Military Installation’

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      President Trump announced a plan on Friday to turn a narrow strip along the Mexican border in California, Arizona and New Mexico into a military installation as part of his effort to curtail illegal crossings.The plan, set out in a White House memorandum, calls for transferring authority over the 60-foot-wide strip of federal border land known as the Roosevelt Reservation from other cabinet agencies to the Defense Department. Military forces patrolling that area could then temporarily detain migrants passing through for trespassing on a military reservation, said a U.S. military official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss operational matters.The directive expands a military presence that has increased steadily along the southern border, even as crossings have already dropped precipitously during the Trump administration. The ordering of troops to the border has already put the military in politically charged territory, and, depending on the details of the effort, the plan could run afoul of laws that limit the use of regular federal troops for domestic law enforcement.The directive says that the border strip will become a “military installation under the jurisdiction of” the Pentagon. Military members would be able to stop anyone crossing into the “military installation” but would not have the power to make immigration arrests, according to the military official. Border Patrol agents could then be summoned to arrest the migrants.The memorandum formalizes a plan that the administration had been considering for weeks. The Washington Post had reported on the plan earlier.A White House spokesman did not respond to questions seeking clarity as to what U.S. forces operating in the strip of border land would be able to do. A Defense Department spokesman also did not respond to questions seeking clarity.Military officials are still working out how to execute the plan, including how long troops could detain migrants before turning them over to Border Patrol agents, and what type of “no trespassing” signs needed to be installed along the border, warning migrants they were about to enter a U.S. military reservation.Then there are other logistics that would have to be hammered out, such as the languages the signs are written in, and how far apart they are posted. There is also the question of where to position military patrols along hundreds of miles of rugged land along the border, and what additional training those troops might need.Adam Isacson, who focuses on border security and human rights at the Washington Office on Latin America, said the memorandum appeared to create a path for using quasi-military personnel to detain migrants.A section of the memorandum calls for the authorization of state National Guard members to work on the military-controlled strip. If those working at the installation hold migrants until Customs and Border Protection officials pick them up, their use “comes very close to military personnel detaining migrants,” Mr. Isacson said.Zolan Kanno-Youngs More

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      Immigration agents turned away after trying to enter LA elementary schools

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      Immigration officials attempted to enter two Los Angeles elementary schools this week, but were turned away by school administrators. The incident appears to be the Trump administration’s first attempt to enter the city’s public schools since amending regulations to allow immigration agents to enter “sensitive areas” such as schools.At a Thursday press conference, the Los Angeles unified school district superintendent, Alberto Carvalho, confirmed that agents from the Department of Homeland Security were seeking five students in first through sixth grades.Officials attempted to enter two south Los Angeles schools, Lillian Street elementary and Russell elementary, but were turned away after the schools’ principals asked to see their identification. Los Angeles Unified is a sanctuary district and does not cooperate with federal immigration agencies.The news comes as the Trump administration has escalated its attacks against international students and ramped up efforts to deport undocumented and documented immigrants alike. In January, homeland security rescinded Biden administration guidelines preventing its agents from entering “sensitive areas” including schools and churches.“Criminals will no longer be able to hide in America’s schools and churches to avoid arrest,” former acting homeland security secretary Benjamine Huffman said in a statement announcing the new policy. “The Trump administration will not tie the hands of our brave law enforcement, and instead trusts them to use common sense.”In response, LA Unified began distributing “Know Your Rights” cards to students and the school police department issued a statement saying it would not “assist or engage in immigration compliance checks, immigration enforcement activity, or ICE-related task force operations”.“I’m still mystified as to how a first-, second-, third-, fourth- or sixth-grader would pose any type of risk to the national security of our nation,” Carvalho said. “Schools are places for learning. Schools are places for understanding. Schools are places for instruction. Schools are not places of fear.”The superintendent told reporters that the immigration agents who arrived at the Los Angeles elementary schools said they wanted to see the “students to determine their well-being” as unaccompanied minors, and that they had received authorization to speak with students from their caretakers. He added that the district later spoke with the students’ caretakers and learned that was untrue.“DHS is leading efforts to conduct welfare checks on these children to ensure that they are safe and not being exploited, abused, and sex trafficked,” the homeland security department said in a statement to Fox 11 Los Angeles.“Unlike the previous administration, President Trump and Secretary Noem take the responsibility to protect children seriously and will continue to work with federal law enforcement to reunite children with their families. In less than 70 days, Secretary Noem and Secretary Kennedy have already reunited nearly 5,000 unaccompanied children with a relative or safe guardian.”Carvalho contested that, and said as an educator who entered the United States without authorization at the age of 17 himself, he felt “beyond my professional responsibility, a moral responsibility to protect these students”.The incident has drawn attention from congressional lawmakers, including Pasadena Democrat Judy Chu.“I’m absolutely incensed that DHS agents would try to enter elementary schools this week, and I’m so grateful to the brave LAUSD administrators who denied them entry. These are children who should be learning to read and write, not cowering in fear of being ripped away from their homes,” she said.“I’m concerned parents may keep their children home rather than risk sending them to school. As Angelenos, we must lock arms together in moments like these to protect kids from deportation squads and protect schools from Trump’s campaign of terror.” More

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      Stanford Protesters Charged With Felonies for Pro-Palestinian Occupation

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      Prosecutors filed felony charges on Thursday against 12 protesters, nearly all with ties to Stanford University, for breaking into an administration building and occupying it in 2024.Prosecutors on Thursday filed felony charges against 12 pro-Palestinian protesters — all but one of them a current or former student at Stanford University — for breaking into administration offices in June and causing extensive damage.The charges were among the most severe levied against participants in last year’s pro-Palestinian demonstrations on college campuses. More than 3,000 people were arrested at college protests and encampments in the spring of 2024, but they generally faced misdemeanor charges or saw their charges dropped.Jeff Rosen, the district attorney for Santa Clara County, which includes the Stanford campus, charged the 12 protesters with felony vandalism and felony conspiracy to trespass. They face up to three years and eight months in prison, as well as the payment of restitution to reimburse the university for the damage.Stanford is one of dozens of schools being investigated by the Trump administration for how they have handled pro-Palestinian protests and whether they have done enough to combat antisemitism on campus. The administration has also revoked the visas of several Stanford students and recent graduates, though the reason is unclear. .Mr. Rosen said that President Trump’s intense focus on Stanford and other universities played no role in the decision to charge the crimes as felonies.“What the federal administration is doing is what they’re doing. What I’m doing is applying the California Penal Code,” Mr. Rosen said.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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      After losing homes and businesses, LA wildfire victims face a hurdle to rebuilding: Trump’s tariffs

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      Cory Singer, co-owner of the homebuilding firm Dolan Design & Build, raced to start construction as quickly as possible in the wake of the Los Angeles wildfires. He was determined to stay ahead of the demand surge he saw coming and eager to help his clients begin to rebuild their lives.The firm broke ground in the Pacific Palisades on Saturday – one of the first companies to do so.But by that time, Singer had a new crisis to contend with: tariffs.Singer, whose firm is currently working on 10 homes in the Palisades, is in talks with clients to place shipping containers on their burned lots and store construction materials there, allowing him to order and stockpile materials in bulk before tariff price increases hit the market.“I’m definitely nervous,” he said.The Trump administration announced, walked back, and continually modified tariff policies in recent weeks, throwing the global stock market into chaos. The tariffs are widely expected to substantially increase construction costs in California and across the country.Singer is already dealing with tariff-related price hikes. One of his tile vendors placed a tariff surcharge on an order on 2 April, the same day the Trump administration announced sweeping tariffs, even though the materials had already been imported. Singer is especially worried about materials like plumbing, tiles and fixtures, which are often imported from China, and he is advising clients to factor in a 10% contingency to their budgets in anticipation of the costs.“If you don’t spend it, great,” he said, “but at least mentally prepare.”Three months after the worst wildfires in Los Angeles’s recent history flattened miles of city blocks and killed 30 people, signs of life are emerging. Insurance payouts have begun arriving. Contractors have plastered streets in Altadena and the Palisades with flyers and signs advertising their services. The Army Corps of Engineers is slowly clearing and flattening lots, replacing the charred and toxic mess of cars, washing machines and chimneys with the blank canvases of empty lots.View image in fullscreenBut homeowners, contractors, architects and developers across fire-ravaged Los Angeles are girding themselves for the tariffs. For homeowners seeking to rebuild, the tariffs add a new layer of stress to the uncertainties of navigating insurance, mortgages, short-term housing and piecing together plans for the future.The Trump administration is currently levying a 10% tariff on most countries, a 25% tariff on steel, aluminum and cars and car parts, and a massive 125% tariff on Chinese goods. The administration on Wednesday retreated on further planned global hikes after news of the tariffs prompted trillions in stock market losses worldwide, but Angelenos remain uncertain about what this means for their homes and plans.In Altadena, a middle-class neighborhood with fewer resources than the wealthy Palisades, the strain is especially acute. Homeowners worry tariffs will hinder their ability to afford rebuilding and exacerbate already widespread issues with underinsurance.“It’s really scary,” said Ken Yapkowitz, a longtime Altadena resident who lost his home and two rental income properties in the Eaton fire.Yapkowitz is waiting to see what his final insurance payouts will be and starting to map out how to rebuild his properties. He had already been factoring in a 25% bump in materials costs before the tariffs were announced, he said, and figured there would be a surge in demand for materials and labor. He expects tariffs to add substantial costs, and wonders if he will be able to rebuild on his lots as planned.Jose Flores, owner of JV Builders & Development, a small business in Pasadena, said many of his Altadena clients want to rebuild. But he worries that tariffs, paired with a painfully slow permitting process and other skyrocketing costs, will cause them to change their minds. He has three clients in the process of drawing up plans with architects, but many others have called him for estimates only to disappear.“By the time people are ready to start construction, I believe the prices are going to be higher,” he said. Flores has noticed the prices of lumber, copper and roofing tick up in recent months. But he can’t afford to stockpile materials, he said, and has no place to store them even if he could. He has no choice but to wait and see what happens.“I think that’s the case for most of us contractors in the area,” Flores said.Following the tariffs’ announcement, the California governor, Gavin Newsom, asked his administration to pursue independent trade relationships with other countries and to explore ways to protect access to construction materials in the wake of the California wildfires. But he did not specify what measures the state could deploy to do that.Flores, the contractor, said he doubted that the governor’s office could actually rein in prices.Newsom’s office did not respond to a request for comment.‘We just don’t know right now’Some residents and business owners are already seeing the tariffs affect wildfire response. Brett Taylor, an Altadena resident who owns a local window and door supplier and who lost his home in the Eaton fire, said his suppliers mostly manufacture domestically, but that many of them source parts from abroad. In late March, he reached out to approximately 10 window vendors to ask whether they would be open to providing package discounts to fire victims. Almost all of them said yes.But before the deals could be finalized, the administration announced tariffs. At least one of Taylor’s vendors walked back their commitment, citing price uncertainty, and Taylor anticipates others will do the same in coming days.View image in fullscreenOthers are tapping personal connections and devising makeshift plans to try to defray costs. James Peddie, an Altadena realtor who lost his home, has been helping develop plans for a group of homeowners hoping to rebuild collectively. He knows from his years in construction that a substantial portion of southern California’s lumber is imported from Canada, and when tariffs were announced, he understood that meant increased costs.Peddie went to high school in Montana, and has friends in the lumber industry there. He also knows a builder who personally went to Oregon to source lumber when prices soared during the rebuilding of Paradise, California, after the devastating 2018 Camp fire.So he called up his high school friends with a question: can you help me source lumber for LA?They were eager to help. They promised to keep their commissions low and to keep him updated on price fluctuations. “They’re people I can trust,” he said. “We can probably get the lumber for a really good deal.”This shift – from purchasing overseas to domestically – is exactly what the administration hopes the tariffs will prompt.But with the rebuilding process still in its earliest phases, and plans and permits far from finalized and approved, it felt premature to put a deposit down and commit to the lumber, Peddie said. Doing so would mean needing to find and pay for long-term storage, as well as betting that the cost of lumber was only going to increase.“Where is it going to be stored? Is it going to be more expensive to ship it in?” he said. “We just don’t know right now.”He estimated it would be seven months before he would be ready to order. It’s anyone’s guess what the tariff landscape – and market – would look like by then. More

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      Chinese Woman Detained in Arizona Border Station Dies by Suicide

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      A woman detained by U.S. border officers for overstaying a visitor visa died by suicide while in custody, according to a Democratic congresswoman.A Chinese woman detained by U.S. border officers for overstaying a visitor visa died by suicide while being held at a border patrol station in Arizona, a Democratic congresswoman said.The woman had been taken into custody in California after officers determined that she had overstayed a visitor visa, Representative Pramila Jayapal of Washington said in a statement, citing the U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency. She was transferred to a patrol station in Yuma, Ariz., the statement said.Ms. Jayapal, a ranking member of the House subcommittee overseeing immigration, said initial reports from the agency had raised concerns about whether officers had properly conducted welfare checks on the woman. While welfare checks were logged, officials at the agency investigating the death could not verify whether the checks had actually happened, Ms. Jayapal said.“There is no excuse for why agents cannot verify if some of the necessary welfare checks occurred — or why some of the documented welfare checks were incorrectly reported,” Ms. Jayapal said, adding that she was concerned about the conditions in facilities where immigrants are detained.“Another preventable death only increases that concern,” she said.The woman had been in the country on a B-1/B-2 visa, according to the statement, a temporary visa for people visiting the United States for tourism or business.The Customs and Border Protection agency did not immediately respond to a request for comment. A spokesman for the agency confirmed the death of a 52-year-old woman to The Tucson Sentinel, and said that the woman had become “unresponsive in a cell” at the Yuma Border Patrol Station.Border Patrol staff provided medical assistance to the woman, the spokesman said in a statement to The Sentinel, and emergency medical services transported her to a hospital, where she was pronounced dead. An office overseeing the agency’s conduct was investigating the incident, the statement said, and the agency also reported the death to the Department of Homeland Security Office of Inspector General.The exact circumstances around the woman’s initial detainment were not immediately clear. Border Patrol officials for the Yuma sector, which includes parts of California and Arizona, said last week on social media that they had arrested two Chinese people, one of them a 52-year-old woman, in Needles, Calif., on March 26.According to the post, agents searched a minivan during a vehicle stop and discovered that two Chinese nationals were “illegally present in the U.S.” The agency had planned to charge the two people under a law that makes certain people ineligible to receive a visa or enter the country, including on the grounds of suspected money laundering or other criminal activity.More than $220,000 in cash was also seized from the van, and the agency said it believed the cash was linked to illegal activity. But it was not immediately clear on Friday whether the woman arrested in Needles was the same woman who died while in custody.Christine Hauser More

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      Republicans Invoke Newsom in a Hearing on Transgender Sports

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      California Democrats rejected two Republican bills that would have banned transgender athletes from female sports. In a rare turn, Republicans tried to use the Democratic governor’s own words to challenge Democrats.It was a discussion of a kind rarely, if ever, seen in the California State Capitol. For hours on Tuesday, Republicans repeatedly invoked the views of Gov. Gavin Newsom, while the governor’s fellow Democrats took pains to avoid saying his name.At issue were two Republican bills that would have banned transgender athletes from female sports, just days after Mr. Newsom had reiterated his personal belief that their participation was unfair to those who were born as girls.“For the first time ever, Gavin Newsom and I agree,” said Karen England, executive director of the Capitol Resource Institute, a conservative advocacy group.Democrats, who control the Assembly Committee on Arts, Entertainment, Sports and Tourism, ultimately quashed the bills after dozens of people spoke in a packed hearing room. The debate brought into stark focus an extraordinary rift among California Democrats on the issue of transgender participation in female sports.Mr. Newsom, a longtime supporter of expanding L.G.B.T.Q. rights, publicly broke with his party last month when he said on his new podcast that he thinks it’s “deeply unfair” for transgender athletes to compete in female sports. The governor repeated that position Friday during an interview on “Real Time With Bill Maher,” in which he also said the Democratic Party brand is “toxic.”Mr. Newsom has not publicly weighed in on the transgender sports bills, and his office declined to comment on Tuesday. But his recent comments have scrambled the conventional coalitions in California’s Capitol, where Democrats hold a supermajority in the Legislature and occupy every statewide office. While it is common for Democrats to split on bills concerning the environment, economy, crime or education, divisions over L.G.B.T.Q. rights are rare.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