The Brief

Former Los Angeles City Councilmember José Huizar was sentenced to 13 years in prison Friday for racketeering and tax evasion, marking the final step in the stunning downfall of a once-promising Mexican-born politician some had considered could one day be mayor.

As part of a plea deal struck last year in federal court, Huizar, 55, had agreed not to ask for fewer than nine years in prison. He is the third former member of the city council convicted in separate corruption cases in recent years.

Two others stand accused of corruption.

In sentencing Huizar, Judge John Walter said the former council member did "extraordinary harm to the political system in the city of Los Angeles" and "demeaned the integrity and work ethic" of other elected officials. The judge acknowledged Huizar's rise "from humble beginnings" and said Huizar's success story comes to an "incredible sad ending."

"Its difficult to understand why he threw it all away," the judge said.

Walter added that Huizar's attempt to downplay his actions by saying the projects he supported in exchange for bribes were good for the city shows "he has little remorse."

In addition to the prison term, the judge ordered Huizar to pay $444,000 restitution to the city and $39,000 to the IRS. He also ordered Huizar to enroll in alcohol and gambling addiction programs.

The judge said Huizar would be taken into custody April 30.

“He used his power to use City Hall like his personal ATM and he treated the people who relied on City Hall like pawns in a chess game,” said U.S. Attorney Martín Estrada, whose office prosecuted the case.

“This is the most substantial sentence to date in our ongoing efforts to root out public corruption," Estrada said after the sentencing hearing. "We now have a landmark sentence which we hope will send a clear message that public corruption will not be tolerated in our city.”

A wide-ranging corruption scandal

Prosecutors said Huizar was at the center of a wide-ranging corruption scandal in which he received cash and trips to Las Vegas in exchange for his influence at City Hall.

The former council member solicited bribes from developers then helped them move their projects along in his district, according to his indictment. This included city council votes, either expediting or delaying the approval process, exerting pressure on other city officials, and negotiating with and pressuring labor unions, prosecutors said.

He was well situated to exercise influence as head of the council’s Planning and Land Use Management Committee, which reviews large-scale development proposals.

Prosecutors said he secured more than $1.5 million in illegal payments from developers eager to build in Huizar’s 14th District, which included downtown L.A. during a period of major development projects.

In one case, development company Shen Zhen New World 1 paid Huizar more than $1 million in bribes for his help with a proposed 77-story skyscraper on Figueroa Street.

Lavish gifts from a billionaire developer

In court filings, prosecutors detailed how the company’s billionaire owner Wei Huang lavished Huizar with all-expense paid trips to Las Vegas that included rides on private jets, hundreds of thousands of dollars in casino chips and the service of sex workers.

Huang also provided $600,000 to help Huizar settle a sexual harassment lawsuit during his 2013 re-election campaign.

In May, the same judge fined the company $4 million, the maximum allowed under law, and decried the “crushing weight of corruption” at L.A. City Hall.

Prosecutors were unable to charge Huang, a Chinese citizen, who fled to China and has not returned to his San Marino home, according to the L.A. Times.

The others accused of being part of the criminal conspiracy laid out in the plea agreement included lobbyists, consultants, and other city officials and staff. At least six have been convicted.

Huizar was born in Zacatecas, Mexico and immigrated to Boyle Heights with his parents at the age of 3. He attended the University of California, Berkeley and went on to earn a master’s degree in public affairs and urban planning from Princeton University. He later graduated from UCLA Law School.

He was elected to the L.A Unified School District Board of Education in 2001 and to the L.A. City Council in 2005.

On June 23, 2020, Huizar was arrested by federal agents and he was suspended from the City Council.

Huizar accepts responsibility

Huizar, dressed in a dark suit, white shirt, tie and glasses, addressed the court briefly Friday morning, apologizing to “my family and my constituents.

"I accept responsibility for my actions,” he said.

His defense attorney, Charles Schneider, had urged the judge to impose a nine-year sentence. He said Huizar had been a good council member.

"Mr. Huizar was actually effective in his job," Schneider said. "He was a hard worker. He had a record of achievement.He’s overcome long odds. Now he’s confessed.”

Schneider urged the judge to consider Huizar’s family, including his four children, and said Huizar’s life had been “totally destroyed and his family torn apart.”

Schneider said the scandal “will now become the first line in his biography.”

The judge acknowledged Huizar’s positive work for the Los Angeles. He also noted Huizar's background — that he had worked hard as a boy, picking strawberries with his parents, shining shoes and working at a video store to pay for his catholic high school education in Boyle Heights.

“It's undisputed that the defendant worked to make downtown a world class city,” the judge said. But he added that Huizar was “entitled to no special consideration for good work" because that's what was expected of him in his role on the council.

Huizar was the “architect of a criminal enterprise with an unusually extensive pattern of misconduct,” Walter said.

3rd criminal conviction of an ex-councilmember

The U.S. attorney would not say whether the federal government's investigation into L.A. City Hall is over.

"I'm not going to get into other investigations," Estrada said at a news conference,

One more trial remains in the Huizar investigation. Prosecutors have accused former L.A. Deputy Mayor Raymond Chan of accepting tens of thousand of dollars in bribes. That case is set to go to trial this spring.

Former Councilmember Mitch Englander served 14 months in federal prison after being convicted of obstruction of justice in 2020.

Former Councilmember Mark Ridley-Thomas was sentenced in August to 42 months in federal prison and ordered to pay a $30,000 fine for his conviction on corruption charges. He has appealed his conviction.

City Councilmember Curren Price pleaded not guilty last month in state court to corruption charges after a judge rejected arguments by his defense attorneys that the case should be dismissed. Price represents parts of South L.A.

The county District Attorney’s Office has filed five counts of grand theft by embezzlement, three felony counts of perjury and two counts of conflict of interest — all felonies — against Price. If convicted, he faces a possible sentence of up to 10 years in prison.

Last year, the L.A. City Ethics Commission accused Councilmember John Lee of taking illegal gifts. Lee, who represents the western San Fernando Valley, has said he did nothing wrong.

At the center of the allegations is a 2017 Las Vegas trip taken by Lee and Englander. The commission alleges Lee accepted free food, hotel rooms and poker chips from a businessperson and a developer with business before the city.

William Contreras hit a tying homer in the fifth and singled home the go-ahead run an inning later as the Milwaukee Brewers defeated the Los Angeles Dodgers 7-4 on Monday in Game 2 of the National League Championship Series.

Four relievers combined to retire the last 15 Dodgers batters in order as the Brewers took a 2-0 lead over the two-time defending World Series champions in this best-of-seven series, which heads to Los Angeles for Game 3 on Wednesday.

The Brewers are chasing their second pennant and first in the NL. They made their lone World Series appearance in 1982, when they were in the American League.

Los Angeles is trying to become the first NL team to win three straight World Series. The Dodgers last rallied from a 2-0 deficit to win a series in 2020, when they beat the Atlanta Braves in a seven-game NLCS before going on to win the World Series.

The Dodgers will need more punch from their lineup to have a chance at getting back to the Fall Classic. They mustered just three hits Monday and went 0 for 4 with runners in scoring position to drop to 2 for 26 in those situations this postseason.

Los Angeles couldn’t even get a boost from Yoshinobu Yamamoto, who entered 8-1 with a 2.14 ERA in 11 career playoff appearances. Yamamoto lasted just 2 2/3 innings for his shortest postseason start.

The Dodgers took the lead on three occasions in the first five innings. Milwaukee responded each time, the last coming when Contreras tied the game with a 436-foot homer to center off Kris Bubic in the fifth.

That turned the game into a battle of the bullpens, where the Brewers again had the edge.

Dustin May, JoJo Romero, Abner Uribe and Aaron Ashby combined to shut down the Dodgers after Logan Henderson’s early exit.

The score was tied 4-all when Milwaukee’s David Hamilton was hit by a pitch from Brock Stewart to lead off the sixth. Stewart attempted a pickoff throw that went off the glove of first baseman Freddie Freeman and into foul territory for an error, advancing Hamilton to second.

After Jackson Chourio grounded out, the right-handed Stewart walked the left-handed-hitting Brice Turang to face the right-handed Contreras, who had homered in his previous plate appearance.

Contreras singled to left this time to bring home Hamilton with the go-ahead run.

Turang and Jake Bauers added RBI singles in the eighth to extend Milwaukee’s lead.

Neither starter lasts long

The anticipated pitchers’ duel between Yamamoto and Henderson didn’t work out according to plan.

In three previous playoff starts following Dodgers losses, Yamamoto had gone 3-0 with a 1.23 ERA. When he faced the Brewers in last year’s NLCS, he threw the first playoff complete game since Justin Verlander did it in 2017.

This time, Yamamoto couldn’t even make it out of the third inning before leaving with the Dodgers behind 3-2.

Henderson entered Monday having not allowed more than three runs in any of his 24 career starts (including the postseason). That streak ended when he allowed four runs over four innings.

Because Henderson committed two errors — matching his previous career total — only two of the runs were earned.

Milwaukee trailed 2-1 in the third when Bauers capped a 12-pitch plate appearance by taking a 3-2 offering in the dirt to load the bases with a walk. Christian Yelich followed by lining a single up the middle that brought home two runs and knocked Yamamoto out of the game.

Los Angeles bailed out Yamamoto by scoring twice in the fifth.

After Kyle Tucker hit a leadoff double, Tommy Edman sacrificed him to third. Henderson fielded the bunt and made a wild throw to first, enabling Tucker to score and moving Edman to second.

Edman advanced to third when Mookie Betts grounded out, and scored on Freeman’s sacrifice fly.

Henderson also had made a wild throw to first on a pickoff attempt in the third inning that allowed Edman to score from third.

Up next

Robert Gasser (5-5, 3.87 ERA) is expected to start for Milwaukee in Game 3. Gasser allowed one run over five innings when the Brewers won 3-1 at San Diego to clinch their NL Division Series.

The Dodgers hadn’t announced their Game 3 starting pitcher.

Actor and disability rights advocate RJ Mitte, who brought a lifetime of experience with cerebral palsy to fictional family struggles in an essential role on “Breaking Bad,” died Monday at age 34, authorities and his representatives said.

Cameron County Justice of the Peace Cyndi Hinojosa told The Associated Press she declared Mitte dead at about 1:30 p.m. at what she believed was his home in Brownsville, Texas. She said she was unable to provide a cause, but an autopsy will be performed.

Mitte played Walter White Jr., the son of Bryan Cranston’s chemistry teacher-turned-meth dealer Walter White on nearly every episode of the five seasons of the AMC show, which recently ranked as the best of the 21st century in a New York Times poll.

Diagnosed at age 3, Mitte told the AP in 2014 that his disability and the surrounding struggles with physical therapy, family problems and exorbitant medical bills — all key subjects on the show — made him better at his job.“You develop a different mentality and you develop a different look at how the world sees you and how you see the world,” he said. “You’re able to use that. And I think it’s an asset instead of something that would hinder.”

Mitte was born and raised in Jackson, Mississippi.

He landed small guest roles on sitcoms after moving to Los Angeles to act in 2006. Like his character, he was in his mid-teens when he began his work on “Breaking Bad,” starting in 2007. The show ran from 2008 to 2013.

“Mitte brought authenticity to the role and built a platform on disability awareness and inclusion,” the actor’s representatives said in a statement announcing his death. The statement said he used “his platform to challenge stereotypes and promote greater representation.”

His later credits included the ABC Family series “Switched at Birth” and the superhero satire series “Guardians of Justice.”

He was also a producer of several independent films.

As an advocate, he served as an ambassador for United Cerebral Palsy and Shriners Children’s. He was also president of his own Mitte Foundation supporting philanthropic and community initiatives around disabilities.

The drumbeat of monster hurricanes in the Pacific has broken a record for nasty long-lasting storms east of the international date line, turbocharged by nature’s supersized El Niño, scientists said.

“Since September 20th, when Odalys formed, it’s been berserk,” said Colorado State University researcher Phil Klotzbach, who forecasts and studies storm activity. “This year just everything that forms is just lasting a long time and getting really powerful.”

One of the key measurements meteorologists use to judge hurricane seasons is called accumulated cyclone energy, or ACE, which includes a storm’s wind speed and longevity. On Sunday, a section of the Pacific east of the date line, which brews storms headed for Hawaii, Mexico and the U.S. West Coast, passed the old mark set in 2018. The area is still going strong with Hurricane Simon and appears on the verge of spawning another one that will really ramp up in strength, Klotzbach said.

On Tuesday, the Pacific will tie a record for most days with a hurricane spinning and is likely to break it soon after that, Klotzbach said.

“It feels like almost everything that can spin up does spin up,” said University of Arizona atmospheric scientist Kim Wood.

El Niño and warm water are boosting Pacific hurricanes

Several meteorological factors have come together to supercharge the Pacific, chief among them the El Niño, Klotzbach and other hurricane researchers said. An El Niño weakens and shifts the high altitude vertical winds that otherwise can dampen or even decapitate storms. In the Pacific, that wind shear runs east to west, generally with the direction storms travel, so it’s like riding a bicycle with a tail wind, Klotzbach said.

Meanwhile, the weather pattern has dampened hurricanes in the Atlantic, where the ACE is less than 18% of what’s normal for this time of year. El Niño makes the wind shear in the Atlantic like riding into a headwind, he said.

Another factor is warm water, which serves as hurricane fuel. By definition El Niño is a warming of the equatorial Pacific that changes weather worldwide. In the Pacific storm basin, it’s several degrees Fahrenheit warmer than normal, said Kristen Corbosiero, a professor of storm atmospheric sciences at the University at Albany in New York.

Usually in the Pacific, the extra warm storm-friendly water doesn’t run as deep as it does in the Atlantic. So when one storm goes over a patch of water, it brings up cold water and makes it hard for a subsequent storm in the same area to stay alive, Wood said. But not this year.

Hurricane Rachel, whose remnants swamped Las Vegas over the weekend, didn’t suffer as it went over, churned up by Category 5 Hurricane Polo, Wood said. She said the waters are warm from both El Niño and climate change from the burning of coal, oil and gas.

Another factor in recent storms was a counterclockwise atmosphere spin over Central America — called a gyre — that spits out seeds of stormy weather that can form into hurricanes. It spit out both the Atlantic’s Isaias and the Pacific’s Simon at about the same time, Corbosiero and Klotzbach said.

Five major hurricanes in a row

The last five Pacific hurricanes — long-lasting Nolo, Odalys, Polo, Rachel and Simon — have all reached major status with winds of at least 111 mph (178.6 kph). Nolo, Odalys and Simon hit Category 4, while Polo set the record for time spent at Category 5 at two-and-a-half days.

When Klotzbach made those calculations on the record-breaking activity of the eastern and central Pacific, he looked at all storms east of the date line.

That’s a slightly different approach from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which breaks that broad area into two regions. Neither NOAA-defined region is quite at record levels for ACE yet; put together they are.

Part of that is because often when one of those subregions is more active, the other isn’t quite as crazy, but in 2026 they both are hyperactive, Wood said.≠

“This is the first year that both sides have been this active together,” Wood said. “Usually it’s kind of focused more on one or the other, so that speaks to just the wide extent across this region of where there’s been that lower shear, those warmer waters, and that higher moisture.”

Off the Mexican coast is a disturbance that the National Hurricane Center gives a 90% chance of becoming Tropical Storm Trudy, which then could power up to something big, Klotzbach and Corbosiero said.

“It seems like that area is just one after another. So I would not be surprised to have another storm,” Corbosiero said. “This year, because of the El Niño, we do have very favorable conditions. So as long as there’s some sort of the seeds either from the gyre or from remnant ends of cold fronts, it seems like this is going to continue for a bit.”

California students enrolled in public colleges and universities are now eligible to apply for CalFresh, the state’s food benefits program, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced Friday.

Students enrolled in a degree program at a California Community College, California State University or the University of California may be eligible for up to $300 a month to spend on food at grocery stores and farmers markets.

“We can’t expect students to learn if they’re hungry, and in California, there is no reason for them to be, whether they’re in kindergarten, high school, or college,” Newsom said in a Friday statement. “You shouldn’t have to jump through hoops to get the food benefits you’re entitled to, and now you don’t have to.”

Those who are enrolled in an associate or bachelor’s degree program, at least half time, can apply here. Newsom said that the state expects more than 200,000 additional students to enroll in CalFresh after program expansion.

“This is what government is supposed to do: help the people we serve. It is my hope that these changes will continue to make it easier for students to access CalFresh, the largest anti-hunger program in the country,” California Department of Social Services Director Jennifer Troia said in a Friday statement.