The Brief

The alumni group at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point has scrapped an official award celebration for Tom Hanks. The West Point Association of Graduates was scheduled to host a ceremony and parade honoring the 69-year-old actor and veterans advocate on Sept. 25.

A U.S. official who said he is not authorized to speak publicly on the matter confirmed the news, which was first reported in The Washington Post. The official told NPR that Hanks will still get the prestigious Sylvanus Thayer Award, and did not state why the formalities had been abandoned.

The Post said the decision was announced in an internal email sent to faculty by Mark Bieger, president and CEO of the West Point Association of Graduates, a copy of which was obtained by the newspaper. In the email, the Post said that Bieger stated the Army needed to focus on its core mission of "preparing cadets to lead, fight, and win."

Hanks' long history of veteran advocacy

A statement from the alumni association announced the award in June, praising Hanks for his ongoing support of veterans, noting his role as a national spokesperson for the World War II memorial in Washington D.C., his help with fundraising efforts for the Dwight D. Eisenhower Memorial in D.C., and his work as a spokesperson for the Elizabeth Dole Foundation, which supports military veterans and their caregivers. Hanks has also appeared in and produced many movies centered on U.S. military stories including the 1998 World War II drama Saving Private Ryan and 1994's Forrest Gump, in which Hanks' character serves in the U.S. Army during the Vietnam War.

"Tom Hanks has done more for the positive portrayal of the American service member, more for the caring of the American veteran, their caregivers and their family, and more for the American space program and all branches of government than many other Americans," said West Point Association of Graduates board chairman Robert A. McDonald in the June statement.

"To have my first ever visit to the Academy be to accept such an honor as the Thayer Award is simply astounding," said Hanks in the same statement. "To be recognized by an institution whose graduates have shaped our country's history through selfless service is both humbling and meaningful."

Neither the West Point Association of Graduates nor West Point Military Academy responded to NPR's requests for comment. Representatives for Hanks also did not respond.

Readjustment under Trump

West Point has been going through a period of readjustment since the start of the Trump administration. In February, West Point eliminated student clubs for women and minority students following Trump's crackdown on diversity programs in federal institutions.

And in January, Sens. Katie Britt and Ted Cruz together with U.S. Rep. Keith Self — all Republicans —introduced bills in both the House and Senate to restore the words "Duty, Honor, Country" to West Point's official mission statement after they had been removed last year. (It was Army General Douglas MacArthur who uttered these words in a speech he gave in 1962 as a Thayer Award winner. "Those three hallowed words reverently dictate what you ought to be, what you can be, what you will be," MacArthur said.)

"For centuries, the United States Army has set the global standard for military excellence because its leaders embrace a lifetime of selfless service and embody the values of 'Duty, Honor, Country,'" said Sen. Cruz in a statement about the bills. "West Point's removal of these core values from its mission statement risks eroding the foundation of American military leadership." (Both bills are currently still in the "introduced" phase.)

Meanwhile, Hanks has been public about his support for Democratic presidential candidates in the past. His name has appeared on lists of celebrities who endorsed former President Joe Biden during his 2020 campaign. After Biden's victory, Hanks hosted the Celebrating America televised special which was organized by the Biden Inaugural Committee. He got behind Barack Obama's campaign in 2008. Obama awarded Hanks the Presidential Medal of Freedom, one of the country's highest civilian honors, in 2016. The actor has also been outspoken in his criticisms of President Donald Trump. In remarks at the Rome Film Festival in 2016, captured by the Associated Press, the actor called the then-Republican candidate a "self-involved gas bag."

Instituted in 1958, the Sylvanus Thayer Award is the most highly valued civilian accolade given by West Point. Its recipients include Henry Kissinger, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Ronald Reagan, and Bob Hope.

In an email to NPR, retired U.S. Army brigadier general and professor emeritus of history at West Point Ty Seidule said the history of the Thayer Award has until now remained pretty uncontroversial. The ceremony is rarely canceled or postponed. Unexpected snowfall upended the celebrations for author, editor and former ambassador Clare Boothe Luce in 1979, and the events of Sept. 11, 2001 caused them to be postponed for U.S. senator Daniel Inouye, a Hawaii Democrat.

"The award isn't a heavy lift," Seidule said. "It's a parade and a dinner. Cadets love to rub elbows with some of America's greatest citizens."

Seidule said that, over the years, the award recipients have come from both sides of the political aisle and from all walks of American life. "West Point is a staunchly apolitical institution," Seibule said. "I feel for everyone at West Point trying to navigate an administration whose decisions are capricious and cruel."

Seidule said he doesn't buy the idea that Hanks' ceremony was axed in order for West Point to focus on its military goals: "West Point is capable of focusing on the Secretary of Defense priorities and still having a parade and dinner."

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An East Hollywood nursing home that nearly lost its license this year because of repeated state citations for deaths of residents at the facility was cited again last month after another person died.

The California Department of Public Health cited Brier Oak on Sunset after a 92-year-old resident bled to death on Sept. 27. Staff members had continued injecting her with blood thinners over a 40-hour period in violation of clinical guidelines.

It’s an AA citation, the most severe the department issues when violations of care standards are determined to be a substantial factor in someone’s death. The facility faces a $120,000 fine.

These kinds of citations are rare. The department has recently issued, on average, fewer than 20 AA citations yearly across more than 1,200 skilled nursing facilities in California.

Brier Oak has received three AA citations for patient deaths since late 2022.

State regulations require authorities to suspend or revoke the licenses of any facilities that get two AA citations within a period of 24 months.

The state Public Health Department began that process with Brier Oak in May based on resident deaths in 2022 and 2024. But officials dropped that effort later because they say they determined the two patient deaths had occurred 26 months apart — just outside of the two-year window.

The facility’s administrators did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Advocates for nursing home residents say the recent death could have been avoided if the state had taken action.

“There were red flags, and a lot of these red flags existed prior to the death of this poor resident,” said Tony Chicotel, senior staff attorney with  California Advocates for Nursing Home Reform.

The state said Brier Oak has until Dec. 19 to notify the department whether it intends to appeal the state citation.

What led to the patient deaths?

In the recent death at Brier Oak cited by the state, multiple communication and technical failures by nursing staff led to the patient bleeding out over a period of 40 hours, according to the citation.

The 92-year-old patient was immobile and had been prescribed a blood thinner called heparin to help prevent blood clots from forming. But once a patient is bleeding, those injections make bleeding worse, and potentially fatal.

When nursing staff found bright red blood in the resident’s diaper the day before she died, Brier Oak failed to follow established processes for documenting the bleeding or communicating it to a nurse practitioner or medical doctor, according to the citation.

Nurses told state authorities they delayed informing physicians because they “get mad” when contacted in the middle of the night.

The facility’s staff also failed to fully assess the patient to determine the possible causes of the bleeding and or to properly monitor the issue during crucial periods, according to the citation.

She suffered four internal bleeding episodes over 40 hours and continued to receive blood thinner injections.

The citation says a nurse practitioner at Brier Oak told state licensing authorities later that if she’d been informed about the patient’s ongoing bleeding, she would have stopped the blood thinner and sent her to a hospital.

In 2022, Brier Oak received a AA citation after a 62-year-old woman died from respiratory failure in part because nurses hadn’t been trained to operate her breathing machine.

In 2024, the nursing home got another AA citation. This time, a 63-year-old woman with paraplegia and severe obesity fell from her bed and died while a nursing assistant was changing her. The assistant was alone, even though the woman’s care plan required two staff members.

Who owns Brier Oak?

Brier Oak on Sunset is primarily owned by Genesis Healthcare, a publicly-traded nursing home operator that filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in July.

Once the largest nursing home operator in the U.S., Genesis was facing billions in debt when it declared bankruptcy, according to court filings. That includes millions in potential damages from lawsuits related to patient care failures.

The company did not respond to LAist’s request for comment on the recent citation at Brier Oak.

The citation should trigger a suspension or revocation of the facility's license, according to state regulations. The latter means it would have to close its doors. The two most recent deaths and citations at the facility occurred within the two-year window.

The California Department of Public Health confirmed it cited Brier Oak on Nov. 26.

The department said the facility submitted a required written response before a Dec. 6 deadline, showing how it will fix the problems and prevent them from happening again..

The department determined Brier Oak was back in compliance during an onsite visit last week, a representative told LAist.

Brier Oak on Sunset currently houses about 150 patients, according to state records.

A bankruptcy judge has stalled the proposed sale of Genesis Healthcare to an affiliate of one of its investors.

Experts say it’s unclear whether the state would revoke the license of an owner who is actively trying to sell and turn over operations to someone else.

It’s been a rough start to ski and snowboard season for California mountain towns. Snowfall is well below average, but Christmas could come with some of the white stuff. Here's where things stand:

Hmmm. Didn’t we just have a record storm?

Yes. That big atmospheric river that hit Southern California last month made it one of the wettest Novembers on records. But since then, it’s been unusually warm and dry, which is not good for mountain towns that depend on snow, and the outdoor enthusiasts that flock to them.

How bad is it?

California’s snowpack is about 20% of normal for this time of the year, according to the state’s snow-tracking website. Southern California isn’t quite as bad off — we’ve gotten about half our normal snowfall so far.

As for the resorts, only about 20% of the terrain at Bear Mountain in Big Bear is open. About 35% of Mammoth Mountain is open.

Can’t they just make snow?

They are, but the unusually warm temperatures have curbed resorts’ ability to make enough snow to open more terrain. “If you're blowing water into 40-degrees, it's going to stay water,” said Justin Kanton, a spokesperson for Big Bear Mountain Resort. “ So as much as people probably would want us to just crank the snow guns all day, every day up here and just get things moving, that's not really possible.”

But there’s a silver lining!

The dry weather has allowed Caltrans to make good progress toward opening Highway 38, said Evan Engle, who chairs the board of the Big Bear Chamber of Commerce. The road typically handles up to 40% of traffic up to the mountain town, Engle said. But it’s been closed since September when it got washed out by Tropical Storm Mario.

Getting it open as soon as possible is key to keeping visitor traffic manageable, and getting supplies to Big Bear.

What’s the snow outlook?

SoCal mountains are likely to see some precipitation around Christmas, said Kyle Wheeler, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service. But with temperatures not expected to drop much, it’s uncertain how much of it will be white, Wheeler said.

If you go to Big Bear: 

• If you plan to hit the slopes, get on it early, when the snow is at its best given the warm conditions. 
• No snow? There’s more to do than ski and snowboard. Check this list of winter fun events.  
• Worried about traffic? Consider going up earlier in the week. If you can’t do that, consider taking Highway 18 through Lucerne Valley. It’s a longer route if you’re coming from L.A., but less traveled, and less likely to make you car sick (fewer tight curves). 

The Los Angeles Police Department used more than 2,400 crowd control munitions in response to protests from June 6 to 14, according to a new report.

Officers used a total of 2,431 less-lethal projectile rounds and 35 canisters of tear gas over the nine days, according to LAPD reports. The department recorded 12 injuries officers caused with those weapons.

The LAPD released the missing report last week after LAist identified the use of crowd control weapons on four different days in June that had not been reported according to state law. Assembly Bill 48, which went into effect in 2022, limits when and how crowd control weapons can be used, and requires law enforcement agencies to publicly release reports on their use within 60 days.

A 30-day extension for these reports can be granted in some cases, but the LAPD released this report about three months late even if an extension was justified.

Officials acknowledged they were out of compliance on Dec. 10 before releasing the report, saying the delay “stems from the extraordinary volume and complexity of incidents” over that time.

This report is different from others

It is unusual for a crowd control report to include more than one day, and the report for June 9 through 14 covered six days and “45 sepearte [sic] non categorical use of force incidents.”

It does not describe any of those use of force incidents specifically, and the LAPD has not yet responded to LAist’s request for more detailed descriptions of those incidents.

The report also considered the entire six days to have been one continuous protest, though it included several anti-ICE protests over the week and the national “No Kings” protest on June 14.

Two reports released earlier this year for June 6 and 8 covered single days and provided more detailed descriptions of incidents where the LAPD used less-lethal munitions against protesters.