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By Anna Claire Vollers, Stateline.org HUNTSVILLE, Ala. — Mike Leslie, 66, sits at a desk beneath the buzz of fluorescent office lights, his fingers hovering over his new laptop keyboard. He smiles, eyes crinkling beneath a worn baseball cap. It’s a place he never imagined he’d be sitting. Before last year, he’d never used a computer. For most of his life, Leslie hadn’t needed one. He spent 36 years in pipe manufacturing near his North Alabama hometown, in jobs that included welding, driving forklifts, mixing concrete and running crews as a foreman. The work was hard and physical, but he…

After not having a pick in the first round of the NBA draft on Wednesday night, the Lakers will move up 10 spots in the second round on Thursday. The Lakers are trading the No. 55 pick and cash to the Chicago Bulls for the No. 45 pick. The transaction, which was first reported by ESPN, will hard-cap the Lakers at the second apron for 2025-26 because they used cash in a trade, meaning they won’t be allowed to exceed $207.8 million in player salary for next season. Moving up in the draft will give the Lakers more options to…

SAN DIEGO — Hours after the surprise raid this month at Buona Forchetta, an Italian restaurant in the San Diego’s South Park neighborhood, where masked and armed U.S. immigration agents handcuffed employees and eventually took four workers into custody, a still rattled Matteo Cattaneo was trying to process what had happened to his business — and why. By any chance, had he used the federal government’s voluntary program, E-Verify, to authenticate the legal status of his workers, a reporter asked him. No, said Cattaneo, the owner of multiple Buona Forchetta restaurants in California’s San Diego and Orange counties. “There’s a…

Gov. Gavin Newsom didn’t ask for the National Guard or U.S. Marines to be deployed to Los Angeles in response to ongoing unrest over federal immigration raids. But the latest standoff between the California governor and President Donald Trump has cast a larger spotlight on Newsom, further raising the profile of a Democrat already widely considered to be weighing a run for president in 2028. And that, some political observers say, is a plus for Newsom — even this early in the 2028 game. “Newsom probably would have wanted to avoid this particular confrontation,” Dan Schnur, who teaches political messaging…

For the first time since 2010, the NHL draft is in Los Angeles, at the Peacock Theater on Friday and Saturday. Then, the host Kings will look to bolster their organizational ranks, beginning with Friday’s first round. It’ll be the first decentralized draft – the prospects will be in L.A. but the executives will be in their home cities – and also the first draft for the Kings to be presided over by newly hired general manager Ken Holland. “As we come towards the draft this weekend, I would anticipate, around the league, there’s going to be lots of trades,”…

By HOLLY MEYER and AMELIA THOMSON-DEVEAUX WASHINGTON (AP) — Few U.S. adults support allowing religious schools to become tax-funded public charter schools, but a majority favors allowing religious chaplains to provide support services for public school students, a new poll finds. The survey from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research shows the complexity of Americans’ attitudes toward religious expression in schools, which varies depending on the kind of expression and sometimes crosses partisan lines. The findings also highlight tension points in the country’s long-standing debate over the role of religion in public schools, which continues to drive legislation…

By JAY COHEN, AP Sports Writer CHICAGO (AP) — Youth sports are a big part of Karli Casamento’s life. Her son, Jax, 15, golfs and plays on three baseball teams. Her youngest son, Colt, 7, plays baseball and basketball. The costs, especially for Jax, add up in a hurry. That’s why Casamento, 48, and her husband, Michael, 46, are watching closely for the ramifications of tariffs on their rising youth sports budget. “All of their equipment I’m sure comes from China,” said Karli Casamento, a second-grade teacher in suburban Philadelphia. “As they get bigger, they need new equipment. So that is…

By MARK SHERMAN and LINDSAY WHITEHURST WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court is in the final days of a term that has lately been dominated by the Trump administration’s emergency appeals of lower court orders seeking to slow President Donald Trump’s efforts to remake the federal government. Related Articles Families and businesses are concerned about the effect of tariffs on youth sports States can cut off Medicaid funding to Planned Parenthood, the Supreme Court rules Key Medicaid provision in Trump’s big tax cut and spending bill is found to violate Senate rules US pulls funding from global vaccines group, saying…

ANAHEIM — The Angels provided baseball draft followers with the ultimate irony this week. An organization that is routinely roasted for its failures in scouting and player development achieved a feat so rare that none of the players involved were even born the last time it happened. On Monday night, the Angels used eight players who they drafted in the first round in a 9-5 victory over the Boston Red Sox. The 1991 Milwaukee Brewers were the last team to have that confluence of homegrown first-rounders in the same game. Baseball America editor-in-chief J.J. Cooper, whose publication annually rates the…

Los Angeles City Hall has a fiscal deficit of almost a billion dollars. One of the budget-busting items is not entirely related to the general problem of the City Council and the mayor simply overspending, overpaying employees and failing to plan for a rainy day. But the $289 million the city spends in a single year in legal settlements and jury verdicts certainly doesn’t help the budget balance. In fact, it’s an absolutely economically insane jump from the $64 million in such payouts Los Angeles made just a decade ago. Even the 2022 figure was a relatively workable $91 million.…