Hailey Branson-Potts
@haileybranson
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California reporter for the Los Angeles Times. Oklahoman. Mildly amusing.
Los Angeles, CA
Joined March 2009
My latest for @latimes is about my great-uncle Jay, a self-trained architect in rural Oklahoma who is building a round barn that’s become a prairie cathedral. He started as a way to process grief, but there’s such hope in its rafters. 🧵1/4
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Dolly Parton refuses to get political. She’d prefer to heal the divide. “Half my people are Republicans, half of them are Democrats. But we could get along a little better if we tried a little harder.” by @MeredithBlake.
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My latest @latimes: Why are outdoor playgrounds closed but crowded indoor malls open? Nine weary months in, many Californians have entered the “why-is-this-closed-while-that-is-open” stage of the pandemic. One angry mom: “Let my kid swing on a f— swing. ”
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My latest: After WWII, a Chinese American soldier and a woman who survived Japanese incarceration fell in love. At 98, he’s published a memoir about their love story.
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Gloria Allred and Trump accusers getting cheers and selfies taken as they walk to #WomensMarch
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People leaving Deploraball have water bottles thrown at them and followed by people shouting "Nazi Scum."
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My latest, from Amarillo, Texas: A face mask is part of the ‘scamdemic,’ they say. But they’ll be happy to sell you one. “I think it’s pointless. But as a salesman? I’m gonna sell them.”
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Japanese internment camp survivors protested Ft. Sill, Okla., migrant detention center. A military policeman officer yelled: “You need to move right now! What don’t you understand? It’s English: Get out.” by @mollyhf.
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Sharing a photo of my LA Times cubicle for no particular reason at all.
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A burned red Make America Great Again hat on the sidewalk at National Press Building anti-Trump protest #disruptj20 #Inauguration
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COVID is surging in rural California harder than ever. In Crescent City, the mortuary’s filled beyond capacity & needs a refrigerated truck for bodies. Hospital’s so full it’s lining up helicopters to fly COVID-19 patients out of the county w @seangreene89.
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“We were supposed to grow old together,” he said, his voice breaking with emotion. Orange mass shooting victims remembered. by @Hannahnfry @LATvives @lila_seidman.
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My latest for @latimes: Armed with a camera, a young ER doctor captures the faces of the COVID war from the frontlines.
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In rural Susanville, Calif., Cameron Medico, who is half-Black, did a one-man protest. People shouted, “We don’t like your kind around here!” He wasnt surprised. Someone once left him a doll w/ a hangman’s noose in a high school locker room @brittny_mejia.
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Attorney Gloria Allred and a woman accusing @realDonaldTrump of sexual misconduct will announce a lawsuit against the president-elect today.
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.@latimes readers have donated more than $100,000 to Mohamed Bzeek, who cares for dying kids. There are no words.
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My latest: In red California, anger and despair over recall blowout. “The Democratic Party is the New York Yankees, and the Republican Party in this state is the Minor Leagues,” said former chairman of Lassen County Republican Party. “You can’t compete.”
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Meet Mohamed Bzeek, who for decades has taken in terminally ill foster children and loved them like his own.
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Peak LA: "A shirtless man wearing boxer shorts shut down the southbound lanes of the 110 Freeway in downtown LA for 2 hours Wednesday morning after he scaled an exit sign, unfurled political banners & began vaping, dancing & shouting from a bullhorn"
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Tammy Duckworth announces she's pregnant. Will be first U.S. Senator to give birth while in office. She is a retired Illinois Army National Guard lieutenant colonel who lost her legs and shattered her right arm when her Black Hawk helicopter was shot down in Iraq in 2004.
.@SenDuckworth announces she’s pregnant, will be the first senator to give birth while in office. @lynnsweet has the scoop:
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Nathan Damigo, a California white supremacist I profiled in Dec., apparently punched a woman in Berkeley. Profile:
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A former logging town in rural California grew to depend on prisons for jobs. Now that one's closing, dozens of homes are for sale, schools may consolidate, and businesses are fearing layoffs as the town shrinks.
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This @brittny_mejia story is fascinating: She was hanged in California 168 years ago — for murder or for being Mexican? Her name was Josefa, but a plaque commemorating her death calls her “Juanita” — a slur people once used for any Mexican woman
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Spotted in Redondo Beach, California. I pledge allegiance.
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The pastor thought Trump was ‘evil.’ So he quit his conservative church. “His Facebook page. flooded with comments from strangers labeling him a baby killer, heretic & a man who was more worried about the social gospel than the real gospel” @jaweedkaleem.
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Deep in the #Campfire evacuation zone, one man has become the unofficial keeper of his empty town. Neighbors send him addresses & ask if he could please go see whether their houses burned down. Almost always, the answer is yes. He’s rescued 8 dogs so far.
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Danny Trejo is randomly walking the #RoseParade2023 route, high-fiving folks. People are screaming: “Machete!”
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Two days after losing my grandpa to COVID, I learned a long-time friend in Oklahoma who is immune-compromised has it. Had been so careful but was the only person at work who wore a mask. @GovStitt calls for "personal responsibility," and my friend was responsible. Others weren't.
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“A lot of healthcare professionals are getting very edgy, and they’re losing their sympathy and empathy for people who don’t believe in this.” Surge fades, but anguish and frustration remain for healthcare workers by @skarlamangla.
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Today’s @latimes front page was written entirely by women: @mollymotoole on border closures, @mollyhf on migrants crossing the Rio Grande, @LATSeema on Newsom recall, me on rural California school reopenings, @melmason on an Arizona senator’s political evolution.
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The COVID-19 surge still affecting Central California hospitals is so dire that health officials are pleading with state officials to make it easier to transfer patients to areas like Los Angeles County. by @ronlin.
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Pre-pandemic, a woman questioned vaccines, ate organic & eschewed chemicals, even making her own detergent. But after COVID came & her boyfriend lost his job, her clean-living ethos grew “more militant.” She delved into Q ideas of pedophilia & voter fraud
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Dylann Roof, charged in massacre of black churchgoers in Charleston, assaulted by black inmate where he's being held
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I wrote about taking my infant son to Dodger Stadium for the first time for his baptism by baseball. It’s about motherhood, anxiety, love and home. And, who are we kidding, a poorly-timed dirty diaper.
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Plaque honoring Confederate president Jefferson Davis quietly removed from Horton Plaza Park in San Diego
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Female reporter from Ireland singled out, called over & complimented by Trump for her "nice smile" while on phone with Irish prime minister.
Video of the bizarre moment when President @realDonaldTrump called me over during his call with Taoiseach @campaignforLeo Varadkar. @rtenews
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This is a stunning image by @francineorr. A homeless man walks past people in front of the Bank of Hope who are protesting a city plan to build a homeless shelter in Koreatown. "A few people laughted at him and handed him a t-shirt that supported their cause," she writes.
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The Banksy of the @latimes building strikes again with this thoughtful take on “Hole, 2016.”
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My latest for @latimesfood : Like any good Oklahoman, I feel like I have some sort of weird personal stake in Braum’s Ice Cream & Dairy Stores, which are in a five-state region I call the Circle of Freshness. (Watch the video!)
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I'm from a rural town of 5,000 people, went to school at @UofOklahoma, interned at the @nytimes and have been at the @latimes for going on eight years. I STILL have impostor syndrome because of lists like this.
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Authorities say alleged kidnapper Tad Cummins and 15-year-old Elizabeth Thomas, of Tennessee, found in cabin in remote Siskiyou County, Cali.
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My latest: In recall campaign against Newsom, rural Northern California, which has always felt overlooked in the liberal state, finds its moment. “When you elect a king, don’t be surprised when he acts like one. If we want liberty, we have to vote like it”
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Watch two lonely Dodgers fans at Minute Maid Park freak out over that Joc Pederson homer. The WOOs have silenced. #WorldSeries
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I spoke to Mohamed Bzeek last night. He wept over reaction to story & donations. "How can I thank all these people?"
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In Orange County, 24 Vietnamese Americans are running for office. 13 have the last name Nguyen. It’s open to debate whether a Democratic ‘blue wave’ will sweep through the midterms. “But it’s indisputable that there will be a Nguyen wave.” by @newsterrier.
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My latest with @anitachabria: California militia members — who are well-known and brag about being friendly with law enforcement — are trying to win political power and backing efforts to recall three Republican county supervisors who backed COVID mandates
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My family lost a dear friend — the daycare teacher who first cared for my infant son — to COVID-19 this month. Miss Lisa left behind her own 15-year-old boy, who lost his grandpa to the virus days after his mom died. I got to write a little about them.
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My latest for @latimes: Janitors, records clerks, cafeteria workers and other lower-paid, nonclinical hospital workers feel forgotten in #coronavirus battle: ‘They’re terrified.’.
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In case anyone is wondering, the deadly Camp fire was sparked not by “Jewish space lasers” but by PG&E electrical equipment, some of which was nearly 100 years old. The company pleaded guilty to 84 counts of involuntary manslaughter last June.
“Eighty-five people died in that fire. For someone to make light of it like that — it really hurts.” A GOP congresswoman speculated California’s deadliest fire was started by space lasers, but for survivors, it’s no joke. w/ @JosephSerna @r_valejandra.
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Some have slept in the newsroom. Two employees in production department lost homes. Working under lanterns, journalists used cellphone hot spots to regain online access & publish digital stories. Heroic work from Redding Record Searchlight amid #carrfire
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I've gotten a lot of questions about how people can help Manny, the 15-year-old son of my friend Lisa, a single mom who died of COVID last month. Manny lost his mom and grandpa, the two people he lived with, 5 days apart. His family set up this GoFundMe.
My family lost a dear friend — the daycare teacher who first cared for my infant son — to COVID-19 this month. Miss Lisa left behind her own 15-year-old boy, who lost his grandpa to the virus days after his mom died. I got to write a little about them.
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500-acre redwood grove in Northern California to be turned over to tribal group
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Across much of the rural West, tensions are escalating — and anger at government ratcheting to extreme — as the climate warms, fires rage, droughts worsen and population grows. Ammon Bundy is in the thick of it all. My latest with @anitachabria.
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This is a higher new case number than in Los Angeles County, which reported 2,533 new cases yesterday. The difference? The whole state of Oklahoma has 4 million residents. Los Angeles County has 10 million.
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Here's the GoFundMe account a reader set up for foster dad Mohamed Bzeek, who cares for dying kids cc @LATreadersrep.
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"What are you going to do next? Pardon Harvey?" read one protester's sign as Trump landed in Corpus Christi. #Harvey.
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The @latimes newsroom TV just froze up like this. I think it just about sums up this week. Cc @JosephSerna @VeronicaRochaLA @montemorin
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Loc Van Le, a Vietnamese immigrant who purchased a single breakfast cafe in Oklahoma City in 1980 and turned it into the multi-state franchise Jimmy’s Egg, has died of COVID at 75. His wife is on a ventilator. An incredible life story. by @TheFoodDood.
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I'm celebrating 10 years at @latimes this week. The job has taken me to fires, hurricanes and crime scenes, to big cities and tiny towns with names like Volcano and Weedpatch. It's been a lot of fun, a ton of work, and I feel as grateful today as I did a decade ago. Time flies.
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LAUSD will have 40 family resource centers as schools are closed for at least two weeks. Centers will provide hot meals and childcare from 6 am to 6 pm.
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Donald Trump star on Hollywood Walk of Fame has been covered in stickers saying "I Resist Homophobia" during #ResistMarch #Pride2017
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At UCLA, pro-Israel counterprotesters broadcast loud sounds — an eagle screeching, a child crying — and blasted a Hebrew rendition of “Baby Shark” on repeat, late at night, so campers couldn’t sleep. They sprayed bear mace and shouted, “Second Nakba!”
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Students leaving lockdown locations at UCLA. Photo provided by student Marie Fuchigami, age 20.
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My latest: At iconic Monterey Bay Aquarium, sea animals are doing great but business is tanking. Closed for five months because of COVID-19, it has laid off more than a third of its staff and cut back on conservation work. No reopening date is planned yet.
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My husband @mrmarkpotts and I both work for the @latimes. Our family — including our 1-year-old son — need a fair #LATGuild contract now. We’ve been dedicated to this company and plan on a long future here. This contract is long overdue, with real financial consequences for us.
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An @latimes reporter got a last-minute assignment in Guatemala. She had no childcare for her 3-year-old — so her daughter tagged along. Sweet working mom read by @theCindyCarcamo
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On today’s @latimes front page, where all the bylines are women. @sic_sonja @LauraKingLAT @vicjkim @AleneTchek
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Putin. A Trump puppet. And the White House in the background. #WomensMarch #WomensMarchOnWashington
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A newspaper in rural Northern California hadn’t missed a week of publication since 1866. But COVID-19 stopped the presses. The county health agency is now scrambling to keep older, isolated people informed & sent postcards about the virus to every resident
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Protest outside National Press Club. People shouting they Trump is illegitimate. #disruptj20 #Inauguration
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“There’s just been this rash of these things across the country; you lose the community. I think we need to have newspapers.” Restart the presses: California’s oldest weekly newspaper, where Mark Twain once wrote, is saved. by @brittny_mejia.
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My latest @latimes: An Alaska mayor suggested flying homeless people to warmer states like California. I went and asked them what they thought. “F— the mayor!” one said. About 43% are Indigenous people whose families have been in Alaska thousands of years.
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New year, new addition to the family! I’ll be on maternity leave for the next few months. I’m sure there will be no news during that time. Right?
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So many Dodgers fans I've talked to have loved this team their whole lives. And they pass it on to their children. Generations of passion.
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A must-read by @mollyhf: “So many bodies . I lost count.” The coronavirus pandemic has brought an unrelenting tide of death to the border in Texas, where one exhausted man has gone from transporting 15 bodies a week to 22 a day. Most are Latino.
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My latest: A day before Capitol attack, pro-Trump crowd threatened officials in rural California. “When Joe Biden’s long winter sets and the dark night comes in this country, do you think you’re going to get to see the dawn? No, you will not. Flee now. ”
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My latest: A California town declared itself a ‘sanctuary city for business’ and defied shutdown orders. The state is now withholding COVID emergency funds. It’s in the rural Central Valley, one of the nation’s worst hot-spots, where cases are exploding
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Damigo, who founded Identity Evropa, is a convicted felon who served time for drunkenly pulling a gun on a cab driver he thought was Iraqi.
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Pastor Jarrid Wilson, 30, was open about his struggles with depression and advocated for mental health. On Monday, he tweeted, "Loving Jesus doesn’t always cure suicidal thoughts. Loving Jesus doesn’t always cure depression." He died by suicide that night.
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Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara has announced a one-year moratorium banning insurers from not renewing policies for homeowners in wildfire-ravaged areas of California. by @JosephSerna.
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The price of being ‘essential’: Latino service workers bear brunt of coronavirus because they can't stay home. my latest with @r_valejandra @stiles @campadrenews.
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“There was like no airflow in there. It was just like primal instinct: I had to get out.” At least 8 dead, scores injured during crowd surge at Travis Scott’s Astroworld music festival in Houston. @mollyhf @mattdpearce.
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"I broke down in tears, standing a few yards away in front of my car, and told them over and over again how much I love them. I am 30 years old." Heartfelt @sherlyholmes first-person on having the coronavirus and hoping you'll act like you have it, too.
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“He was saving lives & then he retired & went to passing out potato chips & pretzels,"said a JetBlue flight attendant and friend of former firefighter who died. "And this is what this man is going to die from?” COVID-19 deaths mounting in airline industry
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There’s a big part of rural America everyone’s ignoring. “Nearly 10.3 million people, about one fifth of rural residents, are people of color.” Defining rural white America as rural America, there’s a “simplistic story” told about non-urban areas.
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Katie Boord, of Maryland: "I believe our new president is going to squish us." She didn't watch inauguration. #WomensMarch
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My @latimes story on a resilient rural California teenager who was essentially homeless for two years is in print today on the front page. Or give it a read here:
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"Still contagious, Trump is unable to hold rallies or attend fundraisers, and his cash-strapped campaign is cutting back on television ads and polling as his race against former Vice President Joe Biden moves into the final stretch."
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Mayor pro tem of rural Crescent City, CA, told people to mask up: “We shouldnt have to have somebody managing a mask mandate. We shouldnt put that on a server in a restaurant whos going to get hassled. Take responsibility, Del Norte County & Crescent City”
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A California pastor who refused to cancel church services because of #coronavirus was greeted Sunday by police officers, and his landlord changed the locks to keep him out. Now, his attorney is planning a federal civil rights lawsuit.
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My 3-year-old son makes his @latimes debut at #ComicCon. And I get my first video credit as … craft services.
We strapped a #GoPro to Charlie Potts, son of Los Angeles Times videographer @mrmarkpotts, so we could see what #ComicConSpecialEdition looked like from his point of view. Spoiler alert: There are a lot of high-fives!. See more from #ComicCon at
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Thousands of people marching down Hollywood Boulevard for the All Black Lives Matter march amplifying Black LGBTQ voices. #BlackLivesMatter
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