DALLAS (AP) — Los Angeles Lakers coach JJ Redick said members of his family were among those in Southern California forced to evacuate their homes on Tuesday due to a wildfire that was being whipped by strong winds around Los Angeles.
The fire swept through a Los Angeles hillside where Redick lives alongside other celebrities, burning homes in Pacific Palisades and prompting evacuation orders for tens of thousands.
Before the Lakers took on the Mavericks in Dallas, Redick acknowledged the gravity of the situation affecting his family and neighbors.
“I just want to acknowledge and send thoughts and prayers to everyone in the Palisades right now,” Redick said prior to the Lakers' 118-97 loss to the Mavericks. “That’s where I live.
“Our family, my wife’s family, my wife’s twin sister, they’ve evacuated. I know a lot of people are freaking out right now, including my family. From the sound of things, with the winds coming (Tuesday night), I know a lot of people are scared. So I just want to acknowledge that. Thoughts and prayers for sure, and hope everybody stays safe.”
TNT reported on its broadcast that the Lakers' flight back to Los Angeles would be delayed. However, the team said the flight was still scheduled for Tuesday night, despite the potential for smoke-filled skies in the LA area forcing alternate routes.
Officials did not provide an exact number of structures damaged or destroyed in the Pacific Palisades wildfire, but they said about 30,000 residents were under evacuation orders and more than 13,000 structures were under threat.
The blaze began around 10:30 a.m., shortly after the start of a Santa Ana windstorm that the National Weather service warned could be “life-threatening” and the strongest to hit Southern California in more than a decade. The exact cause of the fire was unknown and no injuries had been reported, officials said.
The winds were expected to increase overnight and continue for days, producing isolated gusts that could top 100 mph (160 kph) in mountains and foothills — including in areas that haven’t seen substantial rain in months.
AP NBA: https://apnews.com/hub/nba
The Palisades Fire burns vehicles and structures in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood of Los Angeles, Tuesday, Jan. 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Ethan Swope)
Los Angeles Lakers head coach JJ Redick looks on during the second half of an NBA basketball game against the Golden State Warriors, Wednesday, Dec. 25, 2024, in San Francisco. (AP Photo/Eakin Howard)
A structure is burned by the Palisades Fire in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood of Los Angeles, Tuesday, Jan. 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Ethan Swope)
WASHINGTON (AP) — President-elect Donald Trump emerged from a lengthy meeting on Capitol Hill with Republican senators late Wednesday with no preferred strategy for tackling his legislative priorities as House and Senate GOP leaders are straining to develop a plan as the party takes power in Washington.
Trump said it “feels great” to be back inside the U.S. Capitol for the first time since he left office four years ago, after the Jan. 6, 2021, riot by his supporters. With his wife, Melania, he also paid tribute to the late President Jimmy Carter lying in state in the Rotunda ahead of funeral services Thursday.
With Trump taking the oath of office on Jan. 20, Republicans have no time to waste.
“We're looking at the one bill versus two bills, and whatever it is, it doesn't matter," Trump said about the conflicting strategies as he arrived. "We’re going to get the result.”
More than 90 minutes later, Trump exited from what he called a “great meeting, great unity,” with the same message: “One bill, two bills, doesn't matter.”
Trump’s return to Capitol Hill marked a changed era in Washington as he strode through the corridors where four years ago a mob of his supporters had laid siege to the U.S. Capitol as senators fled to safety in a failed attempt to salvage Trump’s election defeat to President Joe Biden.
Inside the lengthy meeting, Trump received applause and bursts of laughter from the Republican senators, staying late into the evening to confer with him behind closed doors. He talked about many topics — from his designs on Canada, Greenland and the Panama Canal to the fires raging in California and even the North Dakota Bison game, senators said. He also met privately with Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., and is also expected to huddle over the weekend with House GOP lawmakers at his private club Mar-a-Lago.
Political capital is almost always at its peak at the start of a new presidential term, even more so because this is Trump’s second and he is prevented under the Constitution from a third. Moving swiftly is all the more important because the GOP majorities are slim, particularly in the House, where House Speaker Mike Johnson can’t afford to lose hardly any votes.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune said they're all in line with getting results. “It's an ongoing conversation,” he said.
Johnson, who greeted Trump at the Capitol, has said he sees himself operating as the GOP quarterback with Trump as their coach calling plays. But Republicans are quickly finding themselves in a dilemma: What happens when the coach changes his mind?
Trump has given Republicans on Capitol Hill mixed signals, flip-flopping over what is the best approach. Over the weekend, he said he wanted “one big, beautiful bill.” By Monday, he had reopened the door to two.
House Republicans want a single package. Senate GOP leaders are proposing at least two.
At one point during the meeting, Sen. John Hoeven, R-N.D. said he suggested the strategies were like a horse race: "Well, Mr. President, you love a horse race and then whatever works best is great.’”
At stake are tax cuts, border security, money to deport immigrants and efforts to boost oil and gas energy production — priorities for Republicans coming to the White House, House and Senate.
“You all heard me say over the last year we were developing — using my football metaphors — we were developing a playbook,” Johnson, R-La., said Tuesday.
“We have very well-designed plays. Now we are working out the sequence of those plays, working with a new head coach, in that metaphor, President Trump,” he said. “We are excited about how all of that is rolling out.”
Republicans are relying on perhaps the most complicated legislative tool at their disposal, the budget reconciliation process, as the vehicle to advance Trump’s priorities.
It's a strategy with high risk, but also potentially high reward.
Reconciliation allows Congress to pass bills on a majority basis, without the threat of a filibuster in the Senate that could delay or kill action. But it is also a difficult, strict and time-consuming process that can fall apart at any moment.
Democrats used the same tool during the Obama era to approve the Affordable Care Act in 2010 without any Republican support. Republicans used it during Trump’s first term to pass the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act without Democrats.
Using reconciliation is a herculean task. Doing it twice could prove doubly difficult.
House Democratic Caucus Chairman Pete Aguilar of California said what's at stake is that Trump and the Republicans are proposing a tax giveaway to the wealthy and budget cuts that will cut social services and other programs that Americans rely on.
Republicans are “huddling behind closed doors” focused on “how they provide tax cuts to millionaires and billionaires and how they cut programs that hurt people,” he said.
Many GOP senators preferred the strategy Thune proposed, which would break Trump’s priorities into two bills.
Thune has said one could be approved within the first 30 days of the new administration with provisions for border security and mass deportations, energy development and military funds. The tax cuts would come later, in a second package.
Sen. Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia, a member of GOP leadership who invited the president-elect to meet with senators, said she could go with one or two bills.
“But I still think the two-bill strategy is better simply because I think we can get a victory in early, which will show the American people and the president we mean business,” she said.
Rep. Kevin Hern, R-Okla., among those House Republicans headed to Florida for this weekend's meetings, said he supports the House’s one-bill approach.
“You’re not going to get everything that you want,” he said. “So how do we put something together that everybody can get something?”
Once back in Florida on Thursday, Trump is hosting Republican governors for dinner at Mar-a-Lago.
Nevada Gov. Joe Lombardo is one of the governors headed to South Florida, according to an official who spoke on condition of anonymity because the details were not public. Utah Gov. Spencer Cox is also expected to attend the dinner, according to a schedule released by the governor’s office earlier this week.
During his first term, Trump was known for changing his mind, a habit that members of Congress became accustomed to as they navigated his presidency.
Trump ally Sen. Markwayne Mullin, R-Okla., said Trump just “wants all of it done.”
Associated Press writer Mary Clare Jalonick, Farnoush Amiri, Matt Brown and Adriana Gomez Licon in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, contributed to this report.
President-elect Donald Trump flanked by from left, Vice President-elect Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., and Senate Majority Leader John Thune of S.D. talks to reporters after a meeting with Republican leadership at the Capitol on Wednesday, Jan. 8, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)
President-elect Donald Trump, flanked by Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., left, Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., right, talks to reporters after a meeting with Republican leadership at the Capitol on Wednesday, Jan. 8, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Steve Helber)
President-elect Donald Trump talks to reporters after a meeting with Republican leadership at the Capitol on Wednesday, Jan. 8, 2025, in Washington. From left, Vice President-elect Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., Trump, Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., and Senate Majority Leader John Thune of S.D. (AP Photo/Steve Helber)
President-elect Donald Trump, flanked by Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., left, and Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., talks to reporters after a meeting with Republican leadership at the Capitol on Wednesday, Jan. 8, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Steve Helber)
President-elect Donald Trump flanked by Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., left, Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., and Senate Majority Leader John Thune of S.D. talks to reporters after a meeting with Republican leadership at the Capitol on Wednesday, Jan. 8, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)
President-elect Donald Trump walks with Melania Trump at the Capitol Wednesday, Jan. 8, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)
President-elect Donald Trump walks with Melania Trump at the Capitol Wednesday, Jan. 8, 2025, in Washington, as Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., follows. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)
President-elect Donald Trump and Melania Trump pause at the flag-draped casket of former President Jimmy Carter as he lies in state in the rotunda of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, Wednesday, Jan. 8, 2025. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
President-elect Donald Trump and Melania Trump pause at the flag-draped casket of former President Jimmy Carter as he lies in state in the rotunda of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, Wednesday, Jan. 8, 2025. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
President-elect Donald Trump walks with Melania Trump at the Capitol Wednesday, Jan. 8, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)
House Speaker Mike Johnson of La., watches after a joint session of Congress confirmed the Electoral College votes, affirming President-elect Donald Trump's victory in the presidential election, Monday, Jan. 6, 2025, at the U.S. Capitol in Washington. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)
President-elect Donald Trump speaks during a news conference at Mar-a-Lago, Tuesday, Jan. 7, 2025, in Palm Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
President-elect Donald Trump speaks during a news conference at Mar-a-Lago, Tuesday, Jan. 7, 2025, in Palm Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
