The Brief

LOS ANGELES (AP) — The U.S. Justice Department failed to secure felony convictions against most of the 102 protesters arrested in four major cities last year on charges of assaulting federal authorities — a record far below the norm in federal assault prosecutions.

All of the dozen cases that made it to trial, mostly in Los Angeles, ended in acquittal, mistrial or dismissal. Experts say that’s surprising for a department known for its ability to win at trial. The last three felony assault cases, in L.A. and Portland, will go to trial this fall.

The dismal record has raised questions about rushed investigations and aggressive charging tactics by prosecutors under pressure to show the Trump administration is cracking down on people who assault law enforcement. It comes as the Justice Department is facing broader setbacks in politically charged investigations, with grand juries repeatedly refusing to return indictments and trial juries granting acquittals.

“Prosecutors tend to win because they control what cases they pursue and they have a lot of resources and discretion,” said Mary Fan, a former federal prosecutor and law professor at the University of Washington.

The fact that the government failed to win any felony assault convictions at trial calls into question “whether or not these charges should have ever been brought in the first place,” she said.

AP tracked the outcome of 167 arrests

The Associated Press’ analysis focused on arrests made during protests last summer and fall in L.A., Chicago, Portland, Oregon, and Washington, D.C. — cities with significant protests where President Donald Trump sought to or successfully deployed the National Guard.

Then-Attorney General Pam Bondi said those who interfered with federal law enforcement would face “severe consequences.”

Most of the arrests — 102 — were for felony assault on a federal officer, which can carry a sentence of up to 20 years in prison. Of those cases, 41% were dismissed and 34% were pleaded down to misdemeanors. Ten people pleaded guilty to felony assault. Nine people got prison time.

Of those arrested on other charges, seven were sentenced to prison for offenses including arson and obstructing law enforcement. A handful of defendants have diversion agreements, meaning their case will be dismissed if they demonstrate good behavior.

The AP’s analysis shows that the Justice Department’s record failed to meaningfully improve since December, when an initial assessment showed early struggles to prosecute people on the charges for which they were arrested.

The Justice Department said in a statement that federal prosecutors are right to prioritize cases against people accused of assaulting federal officers and that “each case is based on the facts.”

“If there are mitigating factors identified in a case, then prosecutors must also act appropriately to inform the court, and in some cases downgrade or drop charges,” the department said.

Protesters clash with authorities in downtown Los Angeles, June 8, 2025, following the night’s immigration raid protest.

(

Jae Hong

/

AP Photo

)

Juries and judges were unconvinced by prosecutors

It’s rare for federal prosecutors to lose at trial. In 2024, 82% of defendants charged with felony or misdemeanor assault were convicted at trial or with a plea deal, according to data from the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts. AP’s analysis found that less than half of the protesters charged for either felony or misdemeanor assault were convicted.

In Portland, a jury couldn’t reach agreement on felony assault charges for Oriana Korol, who was playing clarinet in a marching band demonstrating outside the city’s ICE building last October when a scuffle involving officers broke out. Officers pepper sprayed her and pushed her to the ground, where she struck one with her foot, according to court documents.

After a mistrial, prosecutors filed a reduced misdemeanor assault charge. She pleaded guilty and was sentenced Sept. 1 to time served and one year of supervised release.

Her attorneys wrote in a court filing that she “has accepted responsibility for the bad choices she made over a few seconds that caused no injury.”

Jonathan Caravello, a lecturer at California State University Channel Islands, was acquitted of assault on a federal officer after a three-day trial. He was accused of throwing a tear gas canister deployed by immigration agents back at them while protesting a raid at a Southern California cannabis farm.

Caravello said he was trying to get the canister away from the crowd. Videos showed he had tossed it high above officers’ heads and it landed far behind them. The jury acquitted Caravello after a quick deliberation.

“They’re trying to get a chilling effect out of these charges,” said Caravello, who turned down a misdemeanor plea deal.

Michael Rabbitt was among six co-defendants accused of felony conspiracy to impede a government vehicle from accessing an ICE facility near Chicago last September.

The vehicle slowly advanced despite being surrounded by protesters, leading some to put their hands on it, Rabbitt said.

After the government dismissed charges against two of the defendants, defense attorneys requested transcripts of the grand jury proceedings that led to the conspiracy indictment. The government eventually dropped the conspiracy charge and proceeded on misdemeanor counts of impeding a federal officer.

The judge later reviewed the unredacted transcripts and admonished prosecutors for improper behavior before the grand jury. The charges were dismissed days before trial.

Rabbitt said he was proud they fought the charges.

“This case was bigger than us,” he said. “I’m proud that we won this case, not just for us, but for protesters across the country.”

Many protesters pleaded down to misdemeanors

Though many federal criminal cases end in plea deals, some legal experts say it’s rare for felony assault to be pleaded down and may signal overcharging — filing a more severe initial charge so defendants will be more willing to plead guilty to one with a lighter sentence.

“I think when prosecutors bring charges ethically, they should be prepared to prove them beyond a reasonable doubt,” said Laurie Levenson, a former federal prosecutor who is a professor at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles.

The U.S. Attorney’s office overseeing Los Angeles said it brought the prosecutions in response to a “wave of violence against law enforcement officers who were doing their jobs.” It voluntarily dismissed charges against some defendants after further investigation, it said.

L.A. prosecutors have arrested three additional people for felony assault at immigration-related protests this year. One pleaded guilty to a felony and two to misdemeanors.

In Chicago, all but one of 19 felony assault cases were dismissed. The U.S. Attorney’s offices in the Northern District of Illinois, District of Columbia and Oregon did not respond to requests for comment.

DOJ has won notable cases around the country

A man accused of throwing a Molotov cocktail at a hotel outside Los Angeles where federal authorities were staying was sentenced to five years in prison. Two others were sentenced to more than three years after pouring lighter fluid on a burning California Highway Patrol vehicle.

Federal judges sentenced eight people to decades in prison for their participation in a demonstration outside a detention center in Texas last July where a police officer was shot in the neck.

Three people were convicted at trial of conspiracy to impede or injure an officer for protesting outside a detention facility in Spokane, Washington, last June. The Spokane and Texas cases were not included in AP’s analysis because they did not occur in one of the four cities where Trump tried to or deployed troops.

__

Rush reported from Portland, Oregon. Associated Press writers Eric Tucker and Alanna Durkin Richer contributed from Washington.

Bob Mackie, a prolific costume and fashion designer whose dazzling, over-the-top creations helped define some of the most memorable moments in 20th century entertainment, died at 87 years old Monday of pneumonia in Palm Springs, Calif.

Mackie's official Instagram channel shared news about the designer's death.

"It is with a heavy heart that we share the news that Mr. Bob Mackie passed away today," the statement on Instagram said. "He lived his 87 years to the fullest, fulfilling his dream of being a Fashion and Costume Designer, which is all he ever wanted to do. His genius and extraordinary designs will live on forever, continuing to bring beauty into this world."

Over a career spanning more than six decades, Mackie dressed generations of stars from Bette Midler to Taylor Swift. Some of his designs became as famous as the performers who wore them, such as Marilyn Monroe's risqué, rhinestone-encrusted sheath dress worn while singing to President John F. Kennedy in 1962 (which he sketched for his employer, French designer Jean Louis), and Cher's jet-black, bondage-inspired ensemble topped with a feathered Mohawk headdress at the 1986 Oscars.

"The way you dress is your way of telegraphing to the person that's looking at you, who you are and where you're coming from," Mackie told NPR in 1990.

Cher and Bob Mackie attend the premiere of "Bob Mackie: Naked Illusion" in 2024 in Los Angeles. The pair enjoyed a long performer-designer partnership.

(

Amy Sussman

/

Getty Images

)

While Mackie was celebrated as a haute couture designer, he was far more passionate about crafting one-of-a-kind looks for entertainers. "I think there are people who design runway fashion who say they're like telling a story. No, they're not. They're just making a cute frock and hope somebody buys it," he told the NPR-distributed podcast Bullseye with Jesse Thorn in 2025.

Growing up in Southern California, Mackie's fascination with glamour came from Hollywood, not high fashion. "I never looked in a fashion magazine when I was a kid. But I looked in all the movie magazines and theater magazines," he said on Bullseye. "That was more interesting to me."

Mackie dropped out of his studies at the Chouinard Art Institute — now part of California Institute of the Arts — when he was spotted by the legendary designer Edith Head and landed a job sketching for Paramount Studios in 1961. His career quickly took off, and he forged lasting relationships with such entertainment royalty as Whitney Houston, Bette Midler, Tina Turner, Diana Ross and Carol Burnett.

For The Carol Burnett Show, which started in the late 1960s and ran for more than a decade, Mackie designed an estimated 17,000 costumes — about 50 per week. One of his most famous creations was the outrageous dress for Burnett's 1976 Gone With The Wind parody where she appeared as "Starlett O'Hara" wearing a green velvet dress made from curtains — with the curtain rod still attached. That dress now resides in the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of American History.

"Not all of our sketches were gems. Some were bombs," Burnett recalled in a 2003 Fresh Air interview. "Sometimes he would put me in stuff that would literally save the sketch."

Perhaps nothing captured Mackie's theatrical sensibility more than the ludicrous Donald Duck costume — complete with webbed booties and oversized rear end — that Elton John wore while performing at a 1980 concert in New York's Central Park.

"It was very difficult for me to play the piano, plus the fact I'd never walked in flippers before," John reminisced in Who Is Mackie?, a short film about the designer. "I was dancing across the stage, falling over myself, and I just couldn't sing for laughing – because it looked ridiculous, but it looked fabulous."

Miley Cyrus in Bob Mackie as she performs onstage in 2024 at the 66th GRAMMY Awards in Los Angeles.

(

Amy Sussman

/

Getty Images

)

Mackie continued dressing major 21st-century stars such as Miley Cyrus, Zendaya and Pink. He also collaborated with Mattel on a line of Barbie dolls. His awards included nine Emmys, a Tony Award, three Oscar nominations, and lifetime achievement awards from the Council of Fashion Designers of America and RuPaul's Drag Race. He had served as the show's first guest host and jokingly referred to himself in some media interviews as "the patron saint of drag queens."

"I know exactly which outfits he did because there is a rhythm and a movement and a choice of proportions of color that no one else does like that," RuPaul said in the 2024 documentary Bob Mackie: Naked Illusion. "That's how you know that someone is channeling the divine."
Copyright 2026 NPR

A month into the school year, teachers in the Los Angeles Unified School District are still adapting to the district’s new policy that bans screen time for its youngest kids and will soon place significant restrictions on older students.

One first grade teacher has switched to jigsaw puzzles instead of having her students complete activities on a learning app. A middle school science teacher is considering how to teach Newton’s Third Law of physics with toy cars instead of a video simulation. Some teachers say they are struggling to adjust after years of technology woven into their curriculum.

“Our goals haven’t changed whether we’re on screens or not,” said Armaghan Khan, an eighth grade teacher at Johnnie Cochran Jr. Middle School. “The idea is still to provide quality standards of mind instruction. And so, what does that look like when you’re not on a screen? And for a lot of the newer teachers, myself included, we’ve never really taught that way.”

Passed in June, LAUSD’s policy generally prohibits use of district-issued devices for students in early education through first grade. It places caps on every other grade level — the higher the grade, the more screen time is allowed. And by the time students reach high school, they are allowed up to 90 minutes per week in each subject area.

The new policy followed months of organizing by parents who argued that students — and teachers — had become too dependent on digital devices in classrooms. They argued that schools should prioritize teacher-led instruction, hands-on activities and interaction with peers. Some also said their children’s struggles to regulate their emotions were a direct result of using screens in the classroom.

But the new restrictions on screen time have also meant that teachers have to rethink lessons built around laptops, tablets and digital instructional programs. Many are concerned about students with disabilities and English language learners who may disproportionately rely on technology, even though accommodations are possible.

Corinne Hyde, a professor of education at USC, said she worries that the policy could unnecessarily restrict teachers’ ability to use technology when they believe it would benefit students.

“We should trust teachers to make good instructional decisions, and that as long as we equip them with appropriate professional development and support, that they are fully capable of making the appropriate decisions about how to use technology in their classrooms, or if they should use technology in their classrooms,” said Hyde.

No screen time for LAUSD’s youngest learners

Last year, the youngest daughter of Julie Edwards, a parent and member of the group Schools Beyond Screens, would come home obsessed with JiJi, a penguin cartoon that appears on a gamified learning platform. Now, Edwards’ first grader comes home eager to talk about her friends and her school’s ticket-based rewards system, she says.

“There’s still more work to do,” said Edwards. “But I think everything is like moving in such a great direction, and I’m just really hoping that because this is happening on an institutional level, it really starts to filter down into families’ personal lives.”

Edwards’ daughter’s teacher has made a number of changes to go screenless. So has Martha Medina, a first grade teacher at Logan Academy of Global Ecology, who also lost other classroom support. This year, she no longer has instructional coaches, who help with targeted learning interventions, or teachers’ aides.

Medina had planned to have students rotate among three 15-minute stations so she could provide individualized attention. One station would be with her, another in the library and a third would use a learning app on an iPad.

Under the new policy, Medina can no longer use the app as planned. Instead, students at the third station work on jigsaw puzzles or art-related activities designed to reinforce uppercase and lowercase letters.

She said the changes have made it much more difficult to run the three groups, limit constant disruptions and keep children on task.

“Parents are worried that the kids are going to be on the iPad all day,” she said. “That’s just not the case in primary. There’s no way we can have the kids on iPads all day. There’s too much to teach.”

Teachers prepare for changes ahead

Khan is among the upper-grade teachers who are adjusting their lesson plans to comply with limits that will go into effect in January.

Under the policy, middle school students will be limited to one hour of screen time each week in each subject area.

“I feel a lot of times the district leadership comes up with these ideas, and however well intentioned they are, they leave it to the rest of us to kind of figure out how to implement them, or just what the best case looks like,” Khan said.

He added that he has spent the past eight years building his curriculum around electronic devices. Like many schools nationwide, his school had been a “one-to-one,” meaning each student has access to a device. Those devices had largely replaced textbooks, and, to some extent, paper and pencil.

“We were using a lot of digital resources, and some of them have been really amazing,” he said.

One of Khan’s favorite tools is Gizmos, a program that allows him to show students simulations to explore science concepts that can be difficult to demonstrate in a classroom. For example, students visualize the heart pumping blood through veins and arteries throughout the body. Or, they can explore Newton’s Third Law — the concept that for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction — through a simulated car crash.

“I can always get two toy cars and have them crash together so they can see the law and effect,” Khan said. “But with the simulation, it lets me just get much more granular and just deeper into just how it applies to their everyday lives.”

He also said technology has been particularly important for students with disabilities and English language learners, who may rely on digital tools for accommodations and language support.

The district told EdSource that it has made professional learning opportunities available to school administrators and teachers, both in-person and virtually, to help with the transition.

“Our goal is to ensure that all school sites are well-prepared with the tools, understanding, and support needed to effectively implement these guidelines in a way that supports student learning and well-being,” LAUSD said in a statement.

Khan said he has not had access to that support yet. Still, despite what he described as “growing pains,” he remains optimistic about the changes.

“I do think there is merit in the idea. I don’t just want to be doom and gloom about having to switch,” Khan said. “I’m looking forward to the challenge.”

This story first appeared on Long Beach Post.

Automated speed cameras have arrived in Long Beach, and they’re scheduled to begin issuing tickets soon.

The cameras are part of a state-authorized pilot program to see if writing automated speeding tickets can make roads safer.

A speed limit sign is posted as crews install new speed cameras on Artesia Boulevard in North Long Beach on Friday, Sept. 11, 2026.

(

Thomas R. Cordova

/

Long Beach Post

)

Long Beach has seen a surge of deadly crashes in recent years and was picked as a pilot city after the mayor and city officials lobbied for the chance to install cameras.

When they start

Crews began installing the speed cameras this week. Nearby signs will warn drivers, said Joshua Hickman, director of Public Works. The cameras will start issuing warnings for 60 days before citations start.

The warning period is expected to start in October; then citations would start going out in December, Hickman said.

How they work

The cameras capture only the rear license plates of drivers speeding 11 mph or more over the posted speed limit. Based on that license plate information, a citation will be issued to the address where the car is registered.

License plate data is kept within the Public Works Department and not shared with any law enforcement agencies, including Long Beach police, Hickman said.

Where they are

Half of the cameras are on streets where deadly or severe crashes have occurred most often. The other half are going in school zones or in areas where street racing is a problem.

You can find an interactive map of the speed camera locations here.

(

City of Long Beach

)

How much is a citation

Citations range from $50 to 500 based on speed.

If a driver does not receive any warnings during the 60-day warning period, then the first speeding offense will result in a warning. After that, they will get a citation with a fine.

Payment is due within 30 days, but payment plans and diversion programs are available.

You can find more info on those here.

How will the money be spent?

The city anticipates half of the speeding ticket revenue, roughly $2.5 million, will cover the costs of running the camera program.

The other half will be spent on traffic-calming measures in neighborhoods where traffic engineers determine they’re needed most. The state law authorizing the pilot program says the money can’t be spent on anything else.

Safety measures could include crosswalks, no-turn-on-red signs and speed humps. The city has received an influx of requests from residents asking for some sort of safety measure in their neighborhood since the start of the year.

Traffic deaths

Residents have said they’re fed up with dangerous streets, and the city is trying to respond.

Last year, Long Beach recorded its deadliest year on the roadways in more than a decade – 53 fatal traffic collisions.

Scott Musquiz mounts new speed cameras onto a light pole on Artesia Boulevard in North Long Beach on Friday, Sept. 11, 2026.

(

Thomas R. Cordova

/

Long Beach Post

)

Earlier this year, Long Beach City Council directed the Public Works Department to hire third-party contractors to speed up their ability to install quick-build safety measures.

But traffic deaths this year have kept up the pace. At this time last year, the city had tallied 35 traffic deaths. As of Friday, this year’s total is at 33.

State pilot

Long Beach is able to install speed cameras thanks to a 2023 state bill that approved a five-year pilot for Long Beach as well as six other cities.

The city was allowed to install speed cameras immediately after the bill passed and had until Jan. 1, 2027, to begin the pilot.

Street safety advocates have criticized Long Beach for its delayed rollout compared to other cities.

Success in other cities

San Francisco installed 33 speed cameras last October and reported a 72% reduction in speeding after six months of citations.

Brian Woodward, left, gets assistance as he prepares a speed camera to be mounted as crews install new cameras on Artesia Boulevard in North Long Beach on Friday, Sept. 11, 2026.

(

Thomas R. Cordova

/

Long Beach Post

)

In Oakland, 18 speed camera locations saw a 70% drop in speeding drivers, on average.

Los Angeles and Glendale have yet to deploy their speed cameras.

Potential expansion to PCH

A state bill currently on Gov. Gavin Newsom’s desk would allow Long Beach to install two more speed cameras on Pacific Coast Highway.

If signed, the cameras could be installed as soon as Jan. 1 and would follow the same rules as the other cameras.

The aftermath of a fatal high-speed crash at Anaheim Street and Pacific Coast Highway on March 23, 2020.

(

Thomas R. Cordova

/

Long Beach Post

)

PCH is a state route, meaning it was not included in the state pilot program because it’s not controlled by the city of Long Beach.

State Sen. Lena Gonzalez, who authored the bill, said PCH accounts for about one-fifth of the city’s traffic deaths despite covering less than 1% of the city’s roadways.