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EL SEGUNDO — Luka Doncic’s Lakers debut, which is imminent, won’t be on Thursday night – the same day as the NBA’s trade deadline.And after trading for the 25-year-old, five-time All-Star over the weekend, it isn’t clear if there are any other moves for the Lakers’ front office, led by General Manager Rob Pelinka, to make ahead of the league’s Thursday noon PT trade deadline.But what is clear is that they’re going into Thursday collectively heading in the right direction.The Lakers (29-19) enter Thursday’s home game against the Golden State Warriors at Crypto.com Arena having won seven of their past…

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By FATIMA HUSSEINWASHINGTON (AP) — IRS employees involved in the 2025 tax season will not be allowed to accept a buyout offer from the Trump administration until May 15th, according to a letter sent Wednesday to IRS employees.The letter says that “critical filing season positions in Taxpayer Services, Information Technology and the Taxpayer Advocate Service are exempt” from the administration’s buyout plan until May 15, 2025.The news comes after President Donald Trump announced a plan to offer buyouts to federal employees through a “deferred resignation program” to quickly reduce the government workforce. The program deadline is Feb. 6.The buyouts, sent…

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INGLEWOOD — From the moment he walked off the Intuit Dome court to the last three words of his postgame interview, Clippers coach Tyronn Lue’s frustration had clearly reached a tipping point.He was clearly annoyed how his team came out meekly against the Lakers, showing little fight in a listless 122-97 loss on Tuesday night. The Clippers were outhustled, outworked and eventually outplayed in the one-sided game, leaving Lue simmering.“And we’ve been good, so I can’t be, you know, all the way upset. But the last three games have really pissed me off,” Lue said before walking out of the…

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“I have a phone and a pen,” President Barack Obama said when Congress rejected his request for a change in immigration law. With his phone and his pen, Obama created temporary amnesty for the Dreamers, and for parents of children born in America. He had recognized during his first six years in office that he needed Congress to change the immigration laws; but when the Congress went Republican at the start of his last two years, out came Obama’s phone and pen. The U.S. Court of Appeals in New Orleans ruled against Obama, but it couldn’t order him to deport…

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Customs and Border Protection agents seized over three dozen live beetles being smuggled inside Japanese snacks at Los Angeles International Airport, authorities said Wednesday.CBP agriculture specialists examining an air cargo shipment in January discovered the beetles concealed inside multiple packages of snacks, potato chips and chocolate, the agency said. The contraband was valued at $1,480.“They may look harmless, but in reality smuggled beetles pose a significant threat to our vital agriculture resources,” CBP Director of Field Operations in Los Angeles Cheryl Davies said. “Beetles can become a serious pest by eating plants, leaves, and roots and by laying eggs on…

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By AAMER MADHANI and ZEKE MILLERWASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump promised voters an administration that wouldn’t waste precious American lives and taxpayer treasure on far-off wars and nation building.But just weeks into his second go-around in the White House, the Republican leader laid out plans to use American might to “take over” and reconstruct Gaza, threatened to reclaim U.S. control of the Panama Canal and floated the idea that the U.S. could buy Greenland from Denmark, which has shown no interest in parting with the island.The rhetorical shift from America First to America Everywhere is leaving even some of…

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Santa Anita racetrack is being sued by its former publicity director, who claims he was fired because he “refused to lie” about “alleged mismanagement” amid a spike in horse deaths in the winter of 2019. Mike Willman was fired in March after working for Santa Anita for 19 years. Willman’s lawsuit contends he was given a false reason, involving his use of inappropriate language to an employee. The suit says Willman resisted other executives’ “attempts to put out false narratives to deflect responsibility for the horse deaths” away from “surface issues, soils, extreme weather and management of same,” and instead…

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I’m just sorry that P.T. Barnum isn’t alive to see this.The Greatest Show on Earth is the new Department of Government Efficiency. If it started as a joke (DOGE was an internet meme of a dog and then a sardonically named crypto coin), it’s no joke now. An elected billionaire and an appointed billionaire are demonstrating that any enterprise running a nearly $2 trillion annual deficit could use an audit.Years ago, the founding editor of the Washington Monthly, Charlie Peters, coined a phrase, “Fire the firemen first,” to describe how the bureaucracy reacts when a fresh crop of elected officials…

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By JILL COLVINNEW YORK (AP) — President Donald Trump is testing how far Republicans are willing to go in supporting his supercharged “Make America Great Again” agenda, tearing down government agencies and taking actions fundamentally at odds with once-traditional party principles.For now, Republicans are marching largely in lockstep. They are backing Cabinet nominees with troubling histories, turning a blind eye as he halts spending they appropriated and defending policies once anathema to mainstream GOP thinking — policies that would have drawn alarm if Democrats had been responsible.“They’re pushing the envelope of what their power looks like. It’s a normal part…

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INGLEWOOD — It has already been a wild, weird, wonderful week in L.A., and Luka Doncic hasn’t even played a game for the Lakers yet.He spent Tuesday night at the end of their bench, wearing a Lakers’ black sweatsuit, looking a wee bit nervous while the game was somewhat close but yukking it up with the regulars during garbage time of the Lakers’ 116-87 rout of the cross-county rival Clippers.He is expected to miss Thursday night’s home game against Golden State as well, in his recovery for a calf injury that has kept him out since Christmas. “Maybe Saturday,” coach…

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