Los Angeles Lakers head coach JJ Redick is one of the thousands in Los Angeles whose home did not survive the wildfires that have ravaged the area this week.
Redick was in Dallas for a game when he learned of the fires and that his family had evacuated.
Speaking with the media Friday, a day after a Lakers game at Crypto.com Arena was postponed, he opened up about his experience returning to Palisades and what he saw.
"I'm good. My wife got out really early. She was actually on the other side and came outside, saw the fire, was with some people, and were headed to the airport. … Got the kids from school. They're safe. All that mattered," he said.
"Went to the hotel, woke up at 7, headed up to Palisades. I had to see it for myself. I was not prepared for what I saw. It's complete devastation and destruction. I had to go a different way to the house but went through most of the village, and it's all gone. I don't think you can ever prepare yourself for something like that."
"We were renting for the year to try to figure out where to be long-term, and everything we own that was of importance to us — almost 20 years of being together and 10 years of parenting — was in that house," an emotional Redick said. "There's certain things you can't replace. They'll never be replaced.
"The material stuff is whatever. My family and I, we're processing the self side, the individual side of losing your home. You don't ever want to wish that on anybody. It's an awful feeling to lose your home. … Not sure I've wept or wailed like that in several years.
Monday night's Vikings-Rams NFL playoff game was moved from Inglewood to Arizona because of the fires that have claimed at least 10 lives, destroyed over 10,000 buildings and burned roughly 30,000 acres.
The Arizona Cardinals are reportedly embarking on a mission to rescue their division rivals from the California wildfires.
The franchise is sending two of its team planes to Los Angeles to evacuate LA Rams players, their families, team staffers and pets and fly them to Arizona, according to ESPN.
Six dogs and two cats will join the human passengers.
The Cardinals are also offering their home field, State Farm Stadium, to the Rams for their playoff game against the Minnesota Vikings as fires continue to ravage Southern California. The Rams will also be using the Cardinals’ training complex in Tempe.
The Rams considered staying another night, but Tony Pastoors, the Rams' VP of football & business administration, said "hope is not a strategy," according to the team.
The NFL announced Thursday that the game will be moved to Arizona.
Several wildfires, including the Palisades Fire and Eaton Fire, have devastated communities in the Los Angeles area, including Pacific Palisades and Altadena. The fires have burned nearly 30,000 acres during a Santa Ana wind event, with at least 130,000 people in the area under evacuation orders.
At least five people have been killed in the fires, and more than 1,000 buildings have been destroyed.
The Rams-Vikings game was moved "in the interest of public safety," the NFL said in a statement. "The decision was made in consultation with public officials, the participating clubs and the NFLPA."
The game kicks off at 8 p.m. ET Monday.
The Rams had a scheduled day off Wednesday. The Los Angeles Chargers, who share SoFi Stadium and head to Houston for a wild-card game Saturday, limited players’ time outside during practice due to poor air quality.
State Farm Stadium has played a similar role in the past. During the COVID season in 2020, the 49ers played three "home" games there. Prior to that, the Miami Dolphins and San Diego Chargers played in Tempe, Arizona, at Sun Devil Stadium Oct. 27, 2003, due to wildfires in San Diego.
Kelly Stafford, the wife of Los Angeles Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford, is praying weather conditions calm down as the deadly wildfires in Los Angeles continue to rip through Southern California.
Kelly shared an aerial view of the devastating wildfires that burned through the coastal neighborhood of Pacific Palisades to her Instagram story Thursday.
In a follow-up post, Kelly shared her shock at the aftermath of the once-picturesque neighborhood devastated by wildfires.
"Watching this over and over because it doesn't seem real," she wrote in the post. "These fires still rage with firefighters working around the clock. praying for slower winds and safety."
Thousands of California residents have been displaced after being evacuated as fierce wildfires fueled by powerful Santa Ana winds tore through Southern California beginning Tuesday. At least five people are dead as the fires continued to burn more than 27,000 acres Thursday.
The NFL is monitoring the situation with the Rams scheduled to host the Minnesota Vikings in the wild-card round Monday night at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood. If the stadium can’t be used, the game will be moved to a different venue.
"The NFL’s priority is the safety of the Los Angeles community," the league’s statement said. "We are grateful for the tireless efforts of the first responders. Our hearts are with Los Angeles and everyone affected by the fires."
State Farm Stadium, the home of the Arizona Cardinals in Glendale, will be the backup location for the wild-card game.
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass is facing major backlash for being in Ghana while her city battled devastating wildfires. Now, a 2021 tweet in which she criticized Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, for going to Cancun, Mexico, with his family as his state dealt with a severe winter storm has resurfaced.
Social media users were quick to accuse the mayor of being hypocritical. While Bass left for Ghana before the wildfires started, she still faced condemnations over the trip and fierce criticism of her leadership.
Several social media users said the mayor’s tweet did not "age well," and urged her to delete the nearly 4-year-old post.
President-elect Trump took to Truth Social to condemn the mayor, blaming the wildfires' spread on "gross incompetence" by Bass and California Gov. Gavin Newsom.
Multiple wildfires are raging across California, claiming five lives, and putting thousands under evacuation orders. As of Thursday morning, more than 2,000 homes, businesses and other structures were either damaged or destroyed by the devastating fires.
Upon her return from Ghana, Bass was confronted by a reporter about her trip, but she remained silent. Bass also refused to say whether she had any "regret" about slashing the city’s fire department’s budget last year. However, during a news conference on Wednesday, Bass said she took the "fastest route back, which included being on a military plane." She also said that she was "able to be on the phone the entire time of the flight."
Cruz flew to Mexico as Texans faced a deadly winter storm that left millions without power.
"With school canceled for the week, our girls asked to take a trip with friends," Cruz said at the time. "Wanting to be a good dad, I flew down with them last night and am flying back this afternoon. My staff and I are in constant communication with state and local leaders to get to the bottom of what happened in Texas. We want our power back, our water on, and our homes warm. My team and I will continue using all our resources to keep Texans informed and safe."
Cruz later admitted that the trip was a "mistake."
Sarah Rumpf-Whitten, Tyler Olson and Paul Steinhauser contributed to this report.
President Biden pardoned his son, Hunter Biden, after the first son was convicted in two separate federal cases earlier this year.
The announcement was made by the White House on Sunday night.
"Today, I signed a pardon for my son Hunter," Biden wrote in a statement. "From the day I took office, I said I would not interfere with the Justice Department’s decision-making, and I kept my word even as I have watched my son being selectively, and unfairly, prosecuted."
"Without aggravating factors like use in a crime, multiple purchases, or buying a weapon as a straw purchaser, people are almost never brought to trial on felony charges solely for how they filled out a gun form," the statement added. "Those who were late paying their taxes because of serious addictions, but paid them back subsequently with interest and penalties, are typically given non-criminal resolutions. It is clear that Hunter was treated differently."
Hunter Biden, 54, has had a busy year in court, kicking off his first trial in Delaware in June, when he faced three felony firearm offenses, before he pleaded guilty in a separate felony tax case in September.
President Biden pardoning his son is a departure from his previous remarks to the media over the summer, declaring he would not pardon the first son.
"Yes," President Biden told ABC News when asked if he would rule out pardoning Hunter ahead of his guilty verdict in the gun case.
Days later, following a jury of Hunter’s peers finding him guilty of three felony firearm offenses, the president again said he would not pardon his son.
"I am not going to do anything," Biden said after Hunter was convicted. "I will abide by the jury’s decision."
In the gun case, Hunter was found guilty of making a false statement in the purchase of a gun, making a false statement related to information required to be kept by a federally licensed gun dealer, and possession of a gun by a person who is an unlawful user of or addicted to a controlled substance.
Prosecutors specifically worked to prove that Biden lied on a federal firearm form, known as ATF Form 4473, in October 2018, when he ticked a box labeled "No" when asked if he is an unlawful user of substances or addicted to controlled substances.
Hunter has a well-documented history of drug abuse, which was most notably documented in his 2021 memoir, "Beautiful Things," which walked readers through his previous need to smoke crack cocaine every 20 minutes, how his addiction was so prolific that he referred to himself as a "crack daddy" to drug dealers, and anecdotes revolving around drug deals, such as a Washington, D.C., crack dealer Biden nicknamed "Bicycles."
Hunter’s attorneys did not dispute the first son’s long history with substance abuse amid the trial, which also included an addiction to alcohol. The defense instead argued that on the day Biden bought the Cobra Colt .38, he did not consider himself an active drug addict, citing the first son's stint in rehab ahead of the October 2018 purchase.
Prosecutors, however, argued Biden was addicted to crack cocaine before, during and after he bought the handgun. Just one day after the gun purchase, prosecutors showed the court that Biden texted Hallie Biden, his sister-in-law-turned-girlfriend, to say he was "waiting for a dealer named Mookie." A day after that text, he texted that he was "sleeping on a car smoking crack on 4th Street and Rodney" in Wilmington.
A jury deliberated for roughly three hours across two days before they found Hunter guilty on each charge.
Hunter was scheduled for sentencing on Nov. 13, which was delayed until December before his dad intervened.
After President Biden dropped out of the presidential race in July amid mounting concerns over his mental acuity and age, Hunter faced another trial regarding three felony tax offenses and six misdemeanor tax offenses regarding the failure to pay at least $1.4 million in taxes.
As jury selection was about to kick off in Los Angeles federal court, Hunter entered a surprise guilty plea.
"I will not subject my family to more pain, more invasions of privacy and needless embarrassment," Hunter said in an emailed statement at the time. "For all I have put them through over the years, I can spare them this, and so I have decided to plead guilty."
The charges carried up to 17 years behind bars, but the first son would likely have faced a much shorter sentence under federal sentencing guidelines. His sentencing was scheduled for Dec. 16.
Ahead of the president’s decision to pardon his son, President-elect Donald Trump said on the campaign trail that he would consider pardoning Hunter if victorious on Nov. 5.
"I wouldn't take it off the books," Trump told radio host Hugh Hewitt in October. "See, unlike Joe Biden, despite what they've done to me, where they've gone after me so viciously. . . . And Hunter's a bad boy."
"There's no question about it. He's been a bad boy," Trump continued. "But I happen to think it's very bad for our country."
Los Angeles city lawmakers voted Tuesday to formally adopt a sanctuary city ordinance, weeks after President-elect Trump's victory, amid promises to carry out mass deportation raids.
The 13-0 vote will prohibit Los Angeles fromproviding any city resources or personnel to be used to help federal enforcement of immigration laws.
City Attorney Hydee Feldstein Soto, along with Mayor Karen Bass, released the draft ordinance last week that was written with help from immigration groups.
Council members Hugo Soto-Martinez and Monica Rodriguez, who chair the council's Civil Rights and Public Safety committees, respectively, waived the matter from their jurisdictions to expedite a vote on the matter.
California has been a sanctuary state since 2017 with the passage of SB 54, which prohibits local law enforcement agencies from using resources to investigate, detain, report or arrest people for immigration violations.
During a debate Tuesday, many public speakers pushed for the sanctuary ordinance, saying immigrant communities should be protected from "unimaginable cruelty" of raids that could separate families and target migrants who come to the U.S. to work.
Others raised concerns about the depletion of resources given to help illegal immigrants, given that the city is contending with mass homelessness and a housing crisis.
Sanctuary cities typically don't cooperate with federal immigration authorities, refusing to honor detainer requests from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), which are used to take custody of criminal illegal immigrants for deportation.
Many times, such jurisdictions will release the suspects back onto the street without informing ICE. Some have gone on to reoffend, sometimes violently, before being apprehended again.
The vote will come two weeks after President-elect Trump defeated Vice President Kamala Harris, following a campaign in which he promised to tighten the southern border and carry out mass deportations of millions of illegal immigrants, targeting criminals who've committed a variety of crimes after illegally entering the United States.
Fox News Digital has reached out to Trump representatives.
Tom Homan, who previously served as acting director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and has been tapped by Trump to serve as his "border czar," previously suggested mass deportations are necessary in the wake of the "historic illegal immigration crisis."
"President Trump has made it clear we will prioritize public safety threats and national security threats first. And that's what the focus should be," he told Fox News host Sean Hannity last week.
Former Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti issued an executive directive in 2019 that offered protections to immigrants. Los Angeles has followed sanctuary city guidelines but an ordinance was never codified into law. Additionally, the Los Angeles Police Department mandates that its officers not inquire about immigration status or make arrests related to a migrant's legal status.
Newly appointed Los Angeles Police Department Chief Jim McDonnell has said the department won't participate in immigration enforcement.
The Los Angeles County Republican Party criticized the ordinance, saying sanctuary protection would shield criminals who have entered the United States illegally.
"A country without secure borders isn't a country at all. So-called ‘sanctuary’ cities and states sound warm and fuzzy, but the protections they offer aren't for abuelas (grandmothers) getting ice cream, they're for people who've entered the country illegally and committed additional crimes," LACGOP Communications Director Rozanne Hodge told Fox News Digital. "Whether drunk driving, robbery, sexual violence, assault or murder, none of those should go unpunished. Perpetrators should definitely not be protected by the largesse taken from hard-working taxpayers."
If the City of Los Angeles would like to have thriving, safe, clean streets and businesses in time for the Olympics, maybe they could accept the will of the people who just tossed George Gascon out on his ear and focus on public safety for everyone," she added.
Trump's victory has spurred officials in various parts of the country to vow to push back on deportations.
On Sunday, Boston's Democrat Mayor Michelle Wu said her city won't cooperate with any deportation operation from ther incoming Trump administration, despite her region seeing a number of illegal immigrants being charged with crimes and released back onto the streets.
Arizona's Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs said her state, which voted for Trump, will not be aiding the incoming administration with its "misguided" plan to launch a mass deportation operation.
Following California Gov. Gavin Newsom vowed to fight the incoming Trump administration.
"Whether it be our fundamental civil rights, reproductive freedom, or climate action — we refuse to turn back the clock and allow our values and laws to be attacked," he said.
