WASHINGTON — 

The Supreme Court said Friday it will hear a constitutional challenge to the semi-independent status of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, a government agency created by Congress in the wake of the Great Recession to police mortgage providers, credit card issuers and other consumer lenders.

At issue is whether the bureau’s director has too much protection from being fired by the president. Under the law, the director can be fired by the president only for cause. It was designed that way by then-professor Elizabeth Warren, now a U.S. senator from Massachusetts and a leading Democratic presidential contender, to protect the agency from outside political pressure.

The Trump administration urged the court to hear the case and reject the director’s semi-independent status. Since it launched in 2011, conservatives and business groups have long complained the agency has too much power.

A ruling in the case could signal whether the court’s conservative majority is ready to rein in an array of other semi-independent agencies, such as the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Federal Communications Commission or even the Federal Reserve.

Throughout the 20th century, Congress created independent agencies and deliberately shielded them from direct political control by the president. Usually, they are governed by a board with officials named by different presidents.

But in recent decades, some conservatives, including the late Justice Antonin Scalia, championed the “unitary executive” theory, which holds that all the executive power is entrusted solely to the president, who should be free to hire and fire any executive branch employee at will.

That fight will now play out in the dispute over the director of the CFPB. Congress created the bureau as part of the Dodd-Frank Act following the collapse of Wall Street and the home mortgage market. It was charged with protecting consumers from financial scams involving home loans, credit cards, student loans and banking. And it did so by issuing new regulations and launching investigations.

But it quickly became a prime target of finance businesses and their lawyers. Critics include Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh, who, as an appeals court judge, argued in dissent that it was unconstitutional to have a federal agency operated by a director who could not be removed by the president. Under the CFPB law, the president appoints a director with the approval of the Senate, but once appointed, the director may be removed only for “inefficiency, neglect of duty or malfeasance in office.”

Kavanaugh said the CFPB director had unusually broad powers that included issuing regulations, undertaking investigations and handing out sanctions and penalties. “The director enjoys more unilateral authority than any other official in any of the three branches of the U.S. government,” aside from the president himself, he wrote last year prior to his nomination to the high court.

Not surprisingly, the lawyers challenging the agency’s structure cited Kavanaugh’s dissent as reason for hearing the case.
The case before the court, Seila Law vs. CFPB, began when the bureau looked into allegations that a law firm based in Orange, Calif., had violated its rules regarding telemarketing sales.

The bureau sent a demand for documents, but the firm refused to comply and went to federal court in Santa Ana, arguing the agency itself was unconstitutional because of its structure.

U.S. District Judge Josephine L. Staton upheld the agency and its subpoena, and the 9th Circuit Court affirmed her decision in May.

Judge Paul Watford, writing for the appeals court, said the Supreme Court in the 1930s had upheld the principle of independent agency officials who were not subject to firing by the president. Moreover, in 1988, the court upheld Congress’ creation of independent prosecutors who were shielded from firing by the president.

Scalia dissented alone in that case, but more recently conservatives have cited his views as a basis for reversing course.

The court will hear arguments early next year and issue a ruling by late June.

Consumer advocates urged the court to uphold the agency and its semi-independent status. “The CFPB was created as a strong, independent agency with a director who could only be removed for cause so the bureau could counter the entrenched political power of the financial industry,” said Lisa Donner, executive director of Americans for Financial Reform, a coalition of advocacy groups.

But in agreeing to hear the case, the court said the lawyers should provide arguments on whether the provision on removing the director, if found unconstitutional, may be “severed from the Dodd-Frank Act.” That suggests that at least some of the justices might favor a very broad ruling undercutting the financial reform law.

The agency is currently led by former White House aide Kathy Kraninger, whom Trump appointed last year to a five-year term.

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That came after the agency’s first director, Obama appointee Richard Cordray, resigned in November 2017, triggering a legal battle over whether the deputy director should take over, or the president could appoint someone else. Trump initially appointed White House budget chief Mick Mulvaney — a critic of the bureau and advocate for limiting in its powers — as its acting director.

The court also said Friday it will hear two cases to decide whether, and under what circumstances, immigrants facing deportation can seek a further appeal.

In March, the 9th Circuit broke new ground by ruling that an immigrant who was arrested for illegally crossing the border can nonetheless seek an appeal in federal court through a writ of habeas corpus.

The Trump administration, like the Obama and Bush administrations, had maintained that those who cross the border illegally are subject to “expedited removal” after a brief hearing. Government lawyers urged the high court to reverse the 9th Circuit decision in the case of Department of Homeland Security vs. Thuraissigiam.

At the same time, the court agreed to hear an appeal from Nidal Nasrallah, a Lebanese Druze man who said he would face torture if sent back to his homeland. He lost in the 11th Circuit Court in Atlanta, but the justices voted to hear the case of Nasrallah vs. Barr.

WASHINGTON — 

President Donald Trump is pushing back at criticism that his Syria withdrawal is damaging U.S. credibility, betraying Kurdish allies and opening the door for a possible resurgence of the Islamic State. He touted a cease-fire agreement that seemed at risk as Turkey and Kurdish fighters differed over what it required and whether combat had halted.

“We’ve had tremendous success I think over the last couple of days,” Trump declared Friday. He added that “we’ve taken control of the oil in the Middle East” — a claim that seemed disconnected from any known development there.

He made the assertion twice Friday, but other U.S. officials were unable to explain what he meant.

Calling his Syria approach “a little bit unconventional,” the president contended that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan as well as the Syrian Kurdish fighters the Turks are battling agree that the U.S.-brokered cease-fire was the right step and were complying with it.

“There is good will on both sides & a really good chance for success,” he wrote on Twitter.

That optimism seemed at odds with Erdogan’s own words. He told reporters in Istanbul that Turkish forces would resume their offensive in four days unless Kurdish-led fighters withdraw “without exception” from a so-called safe zone 20 miles deep in Syria running the entire 260-mile length of the border with Turkey.

There was no sign of any pullout by the Kurdish-led forces, who accused Turkey of violating the cease-fire with continued fighting at a key border town.

They also said the accord covers a much smaller section of the border. And some fighters have vowed not to withdraw at all, dismissing the deal as a betrayal by the U.S., whose soldiers they have fought alongside against ISIS.

Eric Edelman, a former U.S. ambassador to Turkey who served as the Pentagon’s top policy official during the George W. Bush administration, said he doubts Turkey and its Syrian proxies could control the entire border area from the Euphrates to Iraq without help from Russia or others.

“That’s a very big expanse of territory to hold, albeit a lot of it is uninhabited,” Edelman said. “That probably means they’ve cut already some deal with the Russians and the Iranians.”

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Even so, Trump insisted peace was at hand.

“There is a cease-fire or a pause or whatever you want to call it,” he said. “There was some sniper fire this morning,” as well as mortar fire, but that was quickly halted and the area had returned to a “full pause,” he said.

Trump also asserted that some European nations are now willing to take responsibility for detained ISIS fighters who are from their countries.

“Anyway, big progress being made!!!!” he exclaimed on Twitter.

Trump said nothing further about the European nations he now contends have agreed to take some of the ISIS fighters, a demand he has repeated often. No European government announced an intent to take control of ISIS prisoners.

Speaking in Brussels after briefing NATO ambassadors on the Syria situation, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said, “We’ve seen comments today from a number of countries who said they may well be prepared to take back these fighters.” He too identified no such countries.

At the Pentagon, Defense Secretary Mark Esper said U.S. troops are continuing their withdrawal from northern Syria. He also said no U.S. ground troops will participate in enforcing or monitoring the cease-fire.

“The force protection of our service members remains our top priority and, as always, U.S. forces will defend themselves from any threat as we complete our withdrawal from the area,” Esper told reporters.

One important unknown in the wake of Turkey’s military incursion, which began Oct. 9, is whether ISIS fighters who have been held by U.S.-allied Kurdish fighters known as the Syrian Democratic Forces will escape in large numbers. Even before the Turkish offensive, some U.S. officials had noted signs that ISIS was seeking to regroup.

Officials have said a number of ISIS fighters, likely just over 100, have escaped custody since Turkey launched its invasion last week.

There are 11 prisons with ISIS detainees in the so-called safe zone between Tal Abyad and Ras al-Ayn.

Accounting for the broader border area that the Turks contend is the safe zone, that number grows to 16 prisons. It’s unclear exactly how many of those are currently under Turkish control, but as they push the Kurds out, the Turks are supposed to take control of the prisons.

While U.S. officials have insisted that Trump did not authorize Turkey’s invasion, the cease-fire codifies nearly all of Turkey’s stated goals in the conflict.

During a campaign rally in Texas on Thursday night, Trump said, “Sometimes you have to let them fight, like two kids in a lot, you got to let them fight and then you pull them apart.”

BARCELONA, Spain  — 

Masses of flag-waving demonstrators demanding Catalonia’s independence and the release from prison of separatist leaders jammed downtown Barcelona on Friday as the northeastern Spanish region endured its fifth straight night of unrest.

Chaotic scenes of violence erupted after more than half a million protesters, including families with children, marched in the Catalan capital, according to police. Many were clad in pro-independence “estelada” flags and shouted “Independence!” and “Freedom for political prisoners!”

Some of them had walked for three days in five massive “freedom marches” from towns across the northeastern Spanish region. They converged on Barcelona, a city of 1.6 million people, and joined students and workers who also took to the streets during a 24-hour general strike.

But at night, police resorted again to rubber bullets and, for the first time this week, to tear gas and water cannons to repel masked youths hurling cobblestones and flammable bottles, building barricades and setting dozens of bonfires with large garbage bins.

About 400 people, roughly half of them police officers, have been injured, according to regional and central authorities, and 128 people have been arrested since separatist sentiment surged Monday, when the Supreme Court sentenced to lengthy prison terms nine separatist politicians and activists. The nine had led a 2017 push for independence that triggered Spain’s deepest political crisis in decades.

On Friday, the huge displays of support were mostly peaceful, but protesters and police battled over the control of Barcelona’s center after protesters circled the gates of the national police headquarters. As clashes with police escalated, the chaos spread to other areas of the Catalan capital.

Albert Ramón, a 43-year-old public servant joining one of the rallies in the northern city of Girona, said the convictions — including fines for three more separatists — had soured the political climate.

“These verdicts violate fundamental rights and hence people are reacting,” Ramón said.

The separatist movement is proud of its history of mostly peaceful campaigning. Officials have accused a relatively small number of agitators of provoking the recent riots.

Spanish authorities suspect a secretive new group called Tsunami Democratic is using encrypted messages to orchestrate some of the attacks, which have included torched cars and burning barricades in the streets.

The group appeared Sept. 2 and in just over six weeks has gained nearly 340,000 followers on its main channel in Telegram, a messaging app.

A National Court judge on Friday ordered the closure of websites linked to the group.

Rights group Amnesty International called on “all authorities” to refrain from contributing to the escalation of tensions in the streets and to respond “proportionally” to outbreaks of violence.

The group said in a statement that it had observed “various cases” of “excessive” use of police force, “including inappropriate and unjustified use of batons and other defensive equipment against people who posed no risk.”

But the interim interior minister, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, defended the police action as “proportionate” and warned Catalan separatists that Spain will apply the criminal code “with all its force,” threatening them with prison terms of up to six years.

Tourists also felt the turmoil. At least two large cruise operators diverted their ships to other ports, and those which had already docked in the port of Barcelona canceled their passengers’ excursions to the city. Architect Antoni Gaudí’s modernist Sagrada Familia also closed its doors because of a protest blocking access to the basilica.

Naoya Suzuki, a 34-year-old tourist from Japan, complained about the disruptions to “people who have nothing to do with Spain.”

“I’ve had a look at the news, and I can just about understand why they are angry, but not why are they are doing all this and stopping the sightseeing of tourists,” he said.

Dozens of flights into and out of the region were canceled because of the strike called by pro-independence unions. Picketers also blocked roads to the border with France and elsewhere, sometimes with burning tires.

Commuter and long-distance train services were significantly reduced, and many shops and factories didn’t open for business.

Spain’s interim prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, said authorities would prosecute radicals who rioted this week while ensuring that peaceful protests can continue.

“Those who break the law have to answer for their deeds sooner or later,” Sánchez told a news conference in Brussels, where he was attending a European Union summit.

Sánchez faces a general election in less than a month, and the tensions in Catalonia are a test of his political skills.

The former head of the Catalan government, Carles Puigdemont, on Friday avoided being jailed after he voluntarily testified before Belgian judicial authorities over a new warrant that Spain issued this week following the Supreme Court sentences. He is also wanted for his part in the 2017 independence bid.

The Belgian judge ordered his release without bail but instructed him to remain in Belgium while awaiting an Oct. 29 extradition hearing, the Belgian prosecutor’s office said in a statement.

Instability in Catalonia led to the postponement of next week’s marquee soccer match between Barcelona and Real Madrid. The Spanish soccer federation said the game was being moved to avoid overlap with a large separatist rally, as officials fear more violence.

Emilio Morenatti, Bernat Armangue, Renata Brito, Joseph Wilson, Hernán Muñoz and Alicia León reported from Barcelona. Lorne Cook in Brussels and Barry Hatton in Lisbon, Portugal contributed to this report.

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Here are the stories you shouldn’t miss today:

TOP STORIES

‘Get Over It’

During a Thursday morning news conference, acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney came out and said it: President Trump withheld roughly $400 million in aid to Ukraine earlier this year in part to pressure its new government to investigate Democrats.

After making that statement, which hits directly at the center of House Democrats’ impeachment inquiry, Mulvaney insisted that politics is always part of foreign policy: “I have news for everybody: Get over it.” Except later in the day, Mulvaney tried to walk back his comments.

Meanwhile, Gordon Sondland, the hotelier and Trump-donor-turned-ambassador to the European Union, joined the ranks of witnesses telling congressional investigators that they were troubled by the actions of the president and other officials to interject politics into U.S. foreign policy. (Read his opening statement here.)

And Energy Secretary Rick Perry, who is under scrutiny over the role he played in Trump’s dealings with Ukraine, has notified the president that he intends to leave his job soon.

The Five-Day Cease-Fire

The U.S. and Turkey have reached an agreement for a five-day cease-fire in Syria that will leave the Turks in control of a wide swath of Syrian territory, force formerly U.S.-allied Kurdish militias to withdraw and require the U.S. to drop its newly imposed sanctions against Turkey.

Trump called it “a great thing for civilization.” Turkey’s foreign minister said, “We got what we wanted.” But Sen. Mitt Romney, a Utah Republican, was among those not buying it: “Are we so weak and so inept diplomatically that Turkey forced the hand of the United States of America? Turkey?” In the Turkey-Syria border area, residents welcomed the cease-fire but, while they hope for calm, they see danger at every turn. Fighting indeed continued Friday morning in one border town despite the cease-fire.

More Politics

— Trump intends to host next year’s Group of 7 conference at his Doral International Resort in Miami in June, leveraging his official powers to benefit his private business holdings in a manner unprecedented for an American president. In announcing the plan at the White House, Mulvaney said Trump is “the most recognized name in the English language.”

— House Democrats’ hopes for a short and focused impeachment inquiry against Trump are being put to the test by a string of new leads that could lengthen their investigation, as well as by some moderate Democrats who remain skeptical about whether the case has been made for impeachment.

— The grieving parents of British teenager Harry Dunn, who was killed in a car crash involving a U.S. diplomat’s wife, said that Trump “doesn’t understand” how much the accident had broken their family. The parents’ spokesman called White House aides “a bunch of henchmen trying to make [Trump] look good.”

Under Siege by Narcos

It was like a scene from a civil war: Heavily armed criminals laid siege to the northern Mexican city of Culiacan after the government captured Ovidio Guzman Lopez, a leader of the powerful Sinaloa cartel and the son of jailed drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman. Masked men with high-powered weapons faced off with soldiers and took control of major streets; gunmen blocked entrances to the city with burning vehicles. In the end, Mexican security forces released Guzman after apparently being overpowered by the combatants.

The Creeping Terror

You’ve probably never heard of the 160-mile-long Garlock fault on the northern edge of the Mojave Desert. After all, it’s never been observed to produce a strong earthquake or even to move. But scientists say the Garlock fault, which is capable of generating a magnitude 8 earthquake, has begun creeping as a result of this year’s Ridgecrest earthquake sequence. And if you were ever told smaller quakes make bigger quakes less likely, this discovery is a good example of why you should think again.

PS: It’s never too early to start preparing, as last night’s magnitude 3.8 quake near Ridgecrest and this morning’s magnitude 3.7 quake centered in Compton reminded us. Here’s how.

Your support helps us deliver the news that matters most. Subscribe to the Los Angeles Times.

FROM THE ARCHIVES

Decades before texting on cellphones was a thing, Roland C. Casad introduced a new form of advertising: text on squash. In 1933, Casad sent a squash to President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

On this date in 1933, The Times reported: “On the squash, which weighs eighteen pounds and is twenty-one inches long, the President will find a message addressed to himself and the citizenry at large, reading as follows: ‘When the people show as much interest in the solution of this depression as our President, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, does, this depression will soon be over. This is the people’s problem as much as his.’ ”

CALIFORNIA

— A pharmacy licensing exam cheating scandal has prompted the state to invalidate the scores of the more than 1,000 new pharmacists who took it in recent months — and upended their nascent careers.

— For years, Ed Buck was known for his abrasive behavior, but politicians still took his money. Who did? There are quite a few familiar names.

— The light rail to Long Beach is reopening next month. Just don’t call it the Blue Line.

— A wind-driven 443-acre brush fire burning west of Santa Barbara on Thursday afternoon prompted evacuations and the closure of a section of the 101 Freeway.

YOUR WEEKEND

— Here’s the recipe for a pumpkin spice treat you won’t be embarrassed to love. (And if you love it a little too much, could this workout routine help you lose 10 pounds?)

— If you’re a fan of Michael Connelly’s Harry Bosch novels — his latest lands Tuesday — try touring the fictional LAPD detective’s 15 most iconic L.A. haunts.

— Or if you feel like curling up with a new book, try tackling one of the 20 best L.A. crime books.

— Eight great things to do in L.A., including a Day of the Dead show with Lila Downs.

HOLLYWOOD AND THE ARTS

— Back home at Fox News, Megyn Kelly had some harsh criticism for her old employer NBC News.

— Paul Dano will play the Riddler in “The Batman.”

— Film critic Kenneth Turan says Taika Waititi’s uneven satire “Jojo Rabbit” is at its best making Nazis, and Hitler, the joke.

NATION-WORLD

— Cuban asylum seekers who have had a clear path to legal status in the United States since the 1960s are now finding that route blocked by the Trump administration’s Remain in Mexico policy, according to lawyers representing Cuban nationals.

— China’s economic growth slowed more than expected in the third quarter, with lackluster domestic demand and the ongoing downturn in global trade weighing on output.

— Born in South Korea, Christian Morales was raised by a Mexican abuela in East L.A. At his Mexican restaurant in Seoul, he’s re-creating the flavors of the home he can’t return to since being deported.

BUSINESS

— Telecommunications giant T-Mobile has agreed to partner with Quibi, a Hollywood start-up that plans to distribute bite-size entertainment designed for millennials.

— The former head of investment giant Pimco will plead guilty in the college admissions scandal, federal prosecutors say.

— Wells Fargo must offer 66 jobs to women and black applicants it rejected five years ago, now that the feds have found it discriminated against them.

— Commissioner Adam Silver admits the NBA’s China conflict has hit its bottom line hard. “I don’t know where we go from here,” he said. “The financial consequences have been and may continue to be fairly dramatic.”

SPORTS

— The UCLA Bruins football team beat Stanford, snapping an 11-game losing streak against the Cardinal that was their longest against any team in their 100 years of football.

— Young quarterbacks are taking over the NFL. Here’s why.

— The Lakers’ JaVale McGee says he wasn’t faking an injury. Social media isn’t so sure.

OPINION

— Boris Johnson’s Brexit deal makes the best of what’s still a terrible idea, The Times Editorial Board writes.

— Columnist Virginia Heffernan says Pete Buttigieg has the pedigree to clean up after Trump. But is that enough to win in 2020?

WHAT OUR EDITORS ARE READING

— “I guess I’m the Meryl Streep of generals”: Former Defense Secretary James N. Mattis reacts to Trump’s calling him “the world’s most overrated general” and claiming credit for defeating Islamic State himself. (Politico)

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— “How indie went pop — and pop went indie — in the 2010s.” (Pitchfork)

— What looks like a fungus, acts like an animal and has almost 720 sexes? Meet “the blob,” otherwise known as the slime mold Physarum polycephalum, on display at the Paris Zoological Park. (The Guardian)

ONLY IN L.A.

Rikki, don’t lose that paddle number? Hundreds of guitars, pedals, keyboards and other music gear are up for auction today and tomorrow in Beverly Hills. But this is hardly a random collection; it’s the result of musician Walter Becker’s decades-long pursuit of instruments and gadgets as co-founder of 1970s jazz-rock band Steely Dan. Fittingly enough, it includes “the weirdest rare boutique pedals that you’ve ever seen.”

If you like this newsletter, please share it with friends. Comments or ideas? Email us at [email protected].

I have a theory about being single. It’s called the ‘Secret Single Tax’. It’s unofficial, invisible, and you can’t ask an accountant to claim it back but trust me, it’s there. Spending twice as much on a night out because you don’t split the taxi home. Buying two gifts for your brother and his wife at Christmas, but receiving one. Where others save, single folk spend. And this no truer than at a wedding.

The Secret Single Tax is partly a monetary expense since you can’t split the cost of the wedding gift, or a hotel room, or a babysitter, like a couple can. But at weddings, it plays out in other ways, too; the whole experience can be lonelier and more anxiety-inducing. It can feel as though the entire event is reminding you that you’re on your own and, as every song played through the night attests, there’s something significant missing, leaving you incomplete. Even if you’re blissfully single, this isn’t always an easy message to swallow while clapping and cheering on the happy couple.

You can survive this day 
One friend recounts watching the newlywed’s first dance when she was single at a wedding and bursting into tears. “I just felt so alone,” she says. Another friend remembers happily dancing solo at a wedding, but then things got tricky. “Everything was fine until a slow song came on and everyone paired up. It was so awkward, I just shuffled off to the side.” Now she laughs, but at the time she was “ready to die”. 

It’s not just the dancefloor that can leave you feeling awkward. There are the after-ceremony drinks mingling and the seating plans, which means sitting at a table with people you don’t know. For some, weddings are a Richard Curtis-type movie finale, complete with fairy lights and a dog, but for others, they can be an endurance test without anyone on hand to high-five at the end.

And let’s not forget the guilt. While your head swirls, shouldn’t you be busy being happy for your friend? Why are you complaining? Of course, you want your friend to have nothing but happiness and success with their partner, but perhaps you take issue with the whole concept of weddings — the white ‘virginal’ dress, the father ‘giving away’ his daughter, the sheer cost, a heteronormative ceremony that is at best traditional, and at worse problematic. Instead, you don’t have much choice but to smile until your cheeks ache.

But, before you start inventing wild excuses as to why you can’t attend, take a deep breath and consider the following. The above is the worst-case scenario; you can survive this day — albeit an intense one — with your sense of self-worth intact.

’s six tips for attending a wedding, solo:  

Consider asking for a plus one
If you had a romantic partner, costs would be covered, so why not a close friend, or even a parent? First and foremost, be tactful. Do it well in advance to allow for planning and mostly be honest about why you’re asking. You want to celebrate this day with the happy couple to the fullest, rather than going for ‘downtime’ breathers in the bathroom. Failing that, if you’re truly attending solo, prime the WhatsApp group chat; your friends will keep the festivities in perspective.

Keep an open mind
See strangers as an opportunity for conversation. Make the most of the day and, since it’s not about you, don’t let it define you. You’re there as a valued part of the couple’s lives; celebrate your friend’s happy union and enjoy the spectacle for what it is. Sometimes it can be nice to stand peacefully on the sidelines.

Be prepared
If you’re going to a wedding without a plus one, you be talking to people you don’t know. It’s not easy entering a room full of strangers, but the great thing about weddings is that every guest will know at least one of the newlyweds, which is your common ground. Start by asking who they know and how; weddings are celebratory, so most people will be in the mood to talk. 

Dress the part
One of the simplest ways to combat nerves is to feel your best when you leave the house. Want your skin to glow? Treat yourself. Own a glittering eyeshadow that makes you grin? Wear it on the day. Find an outfit that makes you feel truly comfortable in your own skin — both literally and figuratively. Attending a wedding single can amp up the urge to ‘impress’, but it’s more impressive when you feel confident and at ease, not restricted in something that requires regular bathroom adjustments. I wore a silk pyjama-esque suit to wedding solo once, which made me feel wonderfully relaxed, not to mention a little bolder for actually doing it. 

Do your background work
If you’re worried about who you’ll get stuck next to at the meal, ask for pre-wedding intel. Table seating is generally a high-stakes diplomatic undertaking, planned with military precision to ensure maximum joviality and minimal meltdowns. But if you casually tease out a bit of background ahead of time, such as whose table you’ll be on and a little information about neighbouring guests, that way you can feel prepared — maybe there’ll be some common-ground to mine. 

Embrace being solo
Click Here: Fjallraven Kanken Art Spring Landscape BackpacksWhether you’re happily single or otherwise, sometimes a wedding can make others treat you like a sports player who’s eagerly waiting to make it on to the team — watch out for attempts to pair you off with another single wedding guest. Attending a wedding on your own has its benefits: you’ll meet twice as many new people; you won’t have to look after a partner; and you can slip off whenever you want. And when you do get in the taxi home, remember you found the courage to come alone. And that you — and just you — were more than enough.

As if to reinforce the idea that money is the most potent drug known to humankind, legislators in California and 10 other states have legalized marijuana, often with visions of a tax windfall dancing in their heads.

The fiscal gain may not have been the only rationale for legalization and in some cases not even the prime motivation, but it was never far beneath the surface. In California, proponents of legalization, who won their battle with the passage of Proposition 64 in 2016, predicted a tax windfall of $1 billion a year.

The actual figure for the fiscal year ended in June: $288 million. The forecast for the current fiscal year is $359 million. When, or whether, the tax will reach $1 billion is anyone’s guess.

Jon Gettman, marijuana legalization promoter, in 2009

California isn’t the only state where expectations for turning marijuana into a cash cow have disappointed promoters. In Massachusetts, still the only Eastern state with legalization on the books, the state Cannabis Control Commission projected a take of $63 million. The final tally for the last fiscal year was only about $30 million. The goal for the current year is $132 million, which would mean a quadrupling of income.

Even in states that met or exceeded their expectations, such as Colorado and Nevada, the rate of growth has been slowing. According to a recent survey by the Pew Charitable Trusts, marijuana tax collections in Colorado soared by 53% from 2015 to 2016, but only 18% from 2017 to 2018. Washington and Oregon also have seen a slackening in growth.

Experts have come up with numerous explanations for these disappointing results. They say the tax structures are overly complicated, the marijuana black market is still thriving, licensing of legal dispensaries is too slow.

But there’s another explanation they’re avoiding. It’s one I highlighted back in 2009, when the legalization drive in California was gaining steam: From the start, projections of the size and value of the marijuana market itself, and therefore of the potential tax take, were based on fantasy.

As I wrote at the time, valuations of illicit activity, whether it’s drug sales, street crime or porn distribution, are notoriously squishy. Yet hard figures are accepted by the media as gospel, even though their sources are typically law enforcement agencies claiming to have achieved record-breaking drug busts or experts trying to pump up the importance of their chosen field of study.

In California, the inflation took the form of a dubious assertion that marijuana was the state’s most valuable cash crop. The assertion was duly reported in newspapers across the country, including this one, and was cited on CNN and NBC. The ostensibly hard valuation of the state’s marijuana crop was $14 billion, part of a nationwide marijuana trade worth more than $100 billion a year (including imports).

Yet this statistic was manifestly the product of a galaxy of magic asterisks. Its principal source was a 2006 study by Jon Gettman, a former president and national director of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML). I’ve reached out to Gettman via Shenandoah University of Virginia, where he’s on the criminal justice faculty, but haven’t heard back.

Gettman started with an estimate that U.S. domestic marijuana cultivation was 22 million pounds a year, although that figure, which came in 2003 from the George W. Bush White House, itself seemed to involve a dramatic and sudden increase from the government’s previous estimate of 7.7 million pounds.

The Justice Department again revised the estimate in 2007 to a range of 12.3 million to 20.7 million pounds, a uselessly wide range. The DOJ evidently had added up the total amount of marijuana reported seized by law enforcement agencies and guessed that the cops had found only 30% to 50% of the total, but didn’t say how they reached that conclusion.

Gettman acknowledged that concrete information was exceedingly scarce — “When you drill down, the only hard fact is they seize a lot of plants,” he said.

Yet one wouldn’t have known how soft the “hard” facts really were from the debates that went on in statehouses across the country, where the taxable value of the marijuana trade was taken as read.

It’s true that there are sound policy reasons to legalize marijuana. Prohibition places a burden on all levels of government, including tens of billions of dollars a year squandered on arresting, trying and jailing sellers and users. Marijuana laws were unevenly enforced against blacks, youths and low-income defendants — the chances that a rich, white college student caught dealing to his dorm-mates would spend a night in jail, much less end up with a felony or misdemeanor count on his record, were effectively nil compared to the experience of a street-corner seller.

There are also sound arguments against legalization. These include the toll of drug abuse (not to say the abuse of alcohol and tobacco is not a significant social and medical problem). Legalization could put more money in the pockets of alcohol and tobacco companies, assuming they move into the cannabis market, for lobbying and political activity.

Yet by focusing on the potential tax gains from legalization, voters and legislators didn’t have to spend as much time weighing those difficult issues.

In California, where the $1 billion in annual revenue became a principal talking point for the Yes on 64 campaign, voters were inundated with promises of new funding for “afterschool programs that help kids stay in school; for job placement, job training, and mental health treatment; for drug prevention education for teens; to treat alcohol and drug addiction; and to fund training and research for law enforcement to crack down on impaired driving.” (Those promises came from the official voter guide for the 2016 election.)

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Over 10 years, they were told, these programs would receive billions in revenues.

At the moment, these promises look like chimeras. But no one conversant with the history of ballot proposition campaigns or the uncertainties of government fiscal projections has a right to be surprised. Throw in the uncertainties of estimating the value of illicit or irregular activities, and the red flags should have been flying.

It’s possible, of course, that cannabis taxes will eventually fulfill the expectations set by their promoters, especially if some of those other obstacles, such as burdensome licensing of pot shops and the persistence of the black market, can be addressed.

But a billion dollars a year? Don’t start spending the money yet.

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WASHINGTON — 

House Democrats’ hopes for a short and focused impeachment inquiry against President Trump are being put to the test by a string of new leads that could lengthen their investigation, as well as by some moderate Democrats who remain skeptical about whether the case has been made for impeachment.

Three weeks into their inquiry, Democrats have managed to break down the White House’s attempt to block them from hearing from several current and former administration witnesses. Those officials have provided details on the way the White House sidelined career diplomats in Ukraine in an attempt to install loyalists to lead U.S. foreign policy there, often in ways that would benefit Trump politically.

The very fact that government officials are willing to defy the White House directive and testify has some Democrats grappling now with the idea that the impeachment-related House committees may need to continue gathering evidence for several weeks, and that a House floor vote by Thanksgiving — once viewed by some rank-and-file lawmakers as an unofficial goal — is a long shot. The question they’re asking themselves is, when is enough enough?

“Everyone that I talk to would like this to be done in 2019,” said Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), a member of the House Judiciary Committee, which would have to write and approve articles of impeachment. “The problem is that the president is a one-man crime wave and he has generated a number of arguably impeachable offenses and we have a responsibility” to address them, Raskin said.

The depositions have also raised new questions for investigators and drawn in other administration officials and Trump associates, including former national security advisor John Bolton, acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney and Trump lawyer Rudolph W. Giuliani.

Mulvaney on Thursday confirmed that Trump withheld aid from Ukraine partially to motivate the country’s leaders to investigate Democrats. The startling statement, issued in the White House briefing room, cuts to the heart of the impeachment inquiry.

“There are a lot of witnesses to talk to and a lot of documents to look at. I just think we have to surface as much evidence as possible as quickly as possible,” said Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-Ill.), a member of the House Intelligence Committee. “We have to do this expeditiously, but at the same time it has to be a thorough job.”

It’s created a dilemma for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco), who has always voiced caution about proceeding with impeachment and has never publicly committed to a firm timetable on the investigation. Initially some Democrats wanted to focus narrowly on Trump’s July 25 phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, in which Trump pressed Zelensky to investigate Trump’s political opponents. At the time of the call, Trump was withholding much-needed aid to Ukraine and resisting Zelensky’s attempts to have an in-person meeting with Trump.

Democrats’ thinking was that a quick impeachment based on what some viewed as clear abuse of presidential power might be easier for moderate Democrats to join, and would avoid a long, divisive process that might overshadow the 2020 presidential race.

A lengthy inquiry is also troubling to some Democrats who want to ensure that the House doesn’t become consumed by the impeachment inquiry and has plenty of time for legislation, such as lowering the cost of prescription drugs.

But as additional evidence emerges that Trump used the State Department and American diplomacy for his political gain, Democrats must now decide whether to allow Rep. Adam B. Schiff (D-Burbank), who is leading the inquiry in the House Intelligence Committee, to follow the growing number of threads, even if that takes more time. Uncovering additional misconduct could bolster Americans’ approval of the process, and polls suggest support is already growing.

But it also gives Republicans more time to attack the inquiry’s credibility and reverse momentum by accusing Democrats of launching a fishing expedition to damage Trump. And a long, drawn-out impeachment process could backfire if Americans become fatigued.

Democrats may have another motivation to slow down: convincing more moderate members that impeachment is warranted.

Full details of the committees’ depositions remain confidential, even to many members of Congress outside the three key committees on intelligence, oversight and foreign affairs. But based on what is publicly known so far, a few moderate Democrats say they are nowhere near ready for a vote on articles of impeachment.

Those feelings came to a head in a closed-door meeting of House Democrats in the basement of the Capitol on Tuesday after lawmakers were away from Washington for two weeks. According to several people in the room, Schiff told lawmakers the most significant evidence for impeachment has already emerged: the White House’s memo of the call between Trump and Zelensky.

The remark concerned several centrist Democrats because they fear that the investigating committees — which have been working behind closed doors — have not uncovered any more powerful evidence, according to three Democrats who did not want to be named and have not been part of the depositions.

“It’s not enough,” one of the lawmakers said, though the person acknowledged not seeing all the evidence that exists.

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Schiff’s point, he said in a brief interview, was that the “best evidence of what took place on that call is the call record itself. That call record is damning because it goes to the president’s conduct directly.” He declined to reveal specifics on what further evidence has been uncovered.

“That call is the Watergate tapes of the Ukraine investigation,” he said, referring to the secret Oval Office tapes that helped turned public perception against President Nixon. “There may very well be other things that are egregious and significant, but people shouldn’t lose sight of the fact that one of the most powerful and damning pieces of evidence has already come out.”

So far, Republicans have shown little to no appetite for the inquiry. Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler (R-Wash.), who did not support Trump in 2016, said the president has committed acts worth investigating, but she said Democrats have badly fumbled the process by conducting it behind closed doors.

“To me, you can’t mess around and do this in a partisan way,” she said. She tried to obtain a transcript of a deposition conducted last week as part of the inquiry and was denied. “So you’re going to put together articles of impeachment behind closed doors without allowing [the public] access to the information that causes you to bring those forward? That’s a goat rodeo. That’s an easy ‘no’ from me.”

Schiff has indicated that transcripts will be released with redactions for classified or sensitive information, but only at a time that won’t interrupt the investigation.

Democratic leaders have held close details of how many more subpoenas they may have issued or how many more depositions they hope to hold. They have released no specifics on when they might decide to end the investigation and make a potential referral to the House Judiciary Committee.

There are no outstanding public document demands or subpoena deadlines beyond Friday, however many individuals have been mentioned as potential witnesses, including William B. Taylor Jr., one of the top American diplomats in Ukraine, who may appear Tuesday.

Pelosi and other Democratic leaders have not committed to a public timetable, only suggesting that they would prefer to finish before the end of the year and pledging to follow where the facts may lead. House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer (D-Md.) said Tuesday that he hopes it is completed “sooner rather than later.”

“I hope,” he said, “no longer than months, and not a lot of months.”

FORT WORTH — 

Energy Secretary Rick Perry has notified the president that he intends to leave his job soon.

That’s according to an administration official who confirmed the news on condition of anonymity.

Perry was traveling with the president to Texas on Thursday when he shared the news aboard Air Force One.

Perry is under scrutiny over the role he played in the president’s dealings with Ukraine, which are currently the subject of an impeachment inquiry.

Perry had disputed reports that he was planning to leave the administration in an interview Wednesday with the Wall Street Journal. But he reportedly left the door open, saying he expected to be at the Energy Department at Thanksgiving, but giving a less definitive answer when asked whether he’d be there through the end of the year.

MIRAMAR, Fla. — 

Edmond Randle was down the street from Miramar City Hall on Tuesday when he learned his mayor was running for president.

“That’s kind of strange because the election is next year,” said Randle, 63. He hadn’t seen a pamphlet or any fliers indicating Wayne Messam was competing for the Democratic nomination, and he hadn’t heard it from anyone in the south Florida city where he’s lived since 1999.

“He needs to get to stepping,” Randle said of the 45-year-old Messam.

Messam’s candidacy is something of a mystery. He did some campaigning in early voting states — stumping in Iowa in April, New Hampshire in May, South Carolina in June — but doesn’t appear to be venturing far on the trail now. When asked, he couldn’t say where he was campaigning in the coming weeks or months. “I don’t have that in front of me right now,” he said.

According to Federal Election Commission filings released this week, his campaign raised just $5 in the third quarter, a figure he suggests may be an uploading error. “I’m not sure, I’ll just have to check into that,” he said.

He insists he’s still a candidate and “making inroads.”

“I’m still in the race,” he said. “I’m still technically in the race.”

If Messam had captured the attention of the news media in Florida, one of the most-watched states in presidential elections, it would’ve been a boon for his campaign, said Susan MacManus, political analyst and professor emerita at the University of South Florida.

But his campaign, she said, “just never really caught fire. A day or two and the story was over.”

Messam’s motivation could be setting up a future run or expanding his political networking, she said. It’s possible that he saw a big opportunity to run this year, MacManus said. “Unfortunately, everybody else had the same idea.”

Messam, who was elected mayor in 2015 and easily won reelection in January, announced his presidential campaign in March. He garnered national attention as some saw his progressive platform and his background as mayor of a city of about 140,000 as the makings of a long-shot hopeful.

But he joined a crowded Democratic field, and media attention faded. In a phone interview Tuesday, Messam said that lack of coverage contributed to his campaign woes.

“Obviously running for president is a monumental task, but it’s an experience that definitely, we felt, we have been making some inroads,” he said, “obviously not as much as we would like at this point, but it’s not getting, you know, a lot of the media coverage as some of the other candidates — especially initially starting out — that it’s helped them get to the point where they are.”

But Messam’s candidacy faces steeper challenges than a lack of media coverage. His website appears outdated, soliciting enough donations to qualify for the June and July debates, and it does not list any upcoming events. His campaign’s main number prompts callers for their names and goes to voicemail.

His campaign has been rocked with allegations from former staffers and subcontractors who said they had not been paid, according to a Buzzfeed News report. He has regularly polled at 0% and has not qualified for a single Democratic debate.

“It’s a candidacy that has never really gotten off the ground because he failed that fundamental test of getting on that debate stage,” said Fernand Amandi, president of south Florida research firm Bendixen and Amandi International. “Just because you think you can be president doesn’t mean you should run for president.”

Messam’s city, a 14-by-2.5-mile horizontal strip, is the third-largest city in Broward County and has a population greater than South Bend, Ind., whose mayor, Pete Buttigieg, has risen to the middle tier of the Democratic presidential field. Miramar’s housing complexes and manicured lawns are bordered on the west by the tropical wetlands of the Florida Everglades.

In June, Messam traded the humidity of his home for that of South Carolina, telling voters in the early-primary state about his upbringing by Jamaican-born parents and his father’s work cutting “sugar cane in the hot sun of south Florida for 75 cents per row.”

He stepped onstage at the “World Famous Fish Fry” at the invitation of Rep. James E. Clyburn (D-S.C.), whose summer event is a traditional stop for presidential hopefuls. Messam talked about gun control and climate change, his early advocacy for eliminating college debt, his city’s efforts to pass a “living wage” and his opposition to oil drilling in the Everglades.

Since the fish fry, six of the 21 candidates on that stage have dropped out of the race, including several members of Congress. But Messam continues on, and says he remains optimistic.

“As long as I’m in the race, I’m optimistic,” he said. “I know that we’re talking about issues that are important.”

His campaign’s third-quarter filings, released Tuesday, stated that he had raised $5 and spent $0. Since he launched his presidential bid, his campaign has raised about $93,000, a fraction of what most candidates have raised in one quarter, according to the Federal Election Commission. His campaign has spent about $62,600, the bulk of which has been on fundraising, according to the FEC.

In Miramar, resident Walter Wright, 68, was on his way to the gym on Monday when he learned Messam was running.

“As president?” Wright asked. The retiree, who has lived in Miramar since 2005, said Messam’s leadership has benefited the city — establishing a living minimum wage, beautifying the city — but he wouldn’t vote for him for president. Wright is leaning toward former Vice President Joe Biden.

“He has more experience than I think our mayor does,” Wright said. But Messam, the retiree added, would be better than President Trump.

Times staff writer Tyrone Beason contributed from Columbia, S.C.

As part of Staples Center’s 20th-anniversary celebration Tuesday night, the Kings orchestrated an actual laser show during the first intermission, synchronizing more than 600 neon beams of light in a Guinness World Record-breaking stunt.

Their hockey team proved far less precise. Despite flinging a season-high 47 shots on net, the Kings were blanked by Buffalo Sabres goalie Carter Hutton in a 3-0 loss.

“[The score] is what you play for,” coach Todd McLellan said. “You don’t play for the 47 shots.”

For a second straight game, the Kings hung with one of the NHL’s hottest early-season teams. Much like their 2-0 loss to the streaking Carolina Hurricanes on Tuesday, the Kings produced more chances and pressure than a Sabres team that nonetheless improved to 6-1-1.

After allowing a pair of early goals, the Kings spent much of the rest of the night in the Sabres’ end. In the third period, they fired 19 pucks on net to the Sabres’ seven.

Yet, they couldn’t capitalize. For the first time since February 2017, they were shutout in consecutive games.

“We’ve got to get hungrier in and around the paint,” McLellan said. “The secondary chances we get have to get up. Everything is on the ice and we don’t get anything up and over.”

McLellan paused.

“But that’s not my concern.”

What bothered McLellan most about Thursday was the Sabres’ opening pair of goals. Both came as the result of “long opportunities” that Sabres forwards Casey Mittelstadt and Conor Sheary capitalized on.

Both goals came against the Kings third line of Ilya Kovalchuk, Michael Amadio and Austin Wagner.

Both times, they made positional mistakes that allowed the Sabres to break for odd-man rushes in transition. Afterward, McLellan picked a pointed word to describe the breakdowns: “stupidity.”

“Everybody understands that nobody is perfect. It’s sports. That’s what it’s all about,” McLellan said. “But when you continually make the same one over and over again, you’re going to find your [butt] in the stands pretty quick.”

Offensively, the Kings appeared snake-bitten. Forward Anze Kopitar couldn’t sneak a mini-breakaway chance past Hutton. Defenseman Joakim Ryan jumped into the play only to have a redirection ring off the post. Forward Tyler Toffoli was stuffed by Hutton on a wraparound.

After the Sabres added to their lead early in the second, scoring a power-play goal that was credited to Mittelstadt but appeared to bounce off Kings’ defenseman Alec Martinez and into the net, the Kings responded with more chances.

A Kovalchuk shot off the post. A close-range effort from Jeff Carter that Hutton kicked aside. Several other shots from dangerous areas that sailed wide of the net. Still, they had nothing on the scoreboard to show for it.

In the third, the Sabres net became a shooting gallery. On an early five-on-three Kings power-play, Drew Doughty had a shot saved through traffic, Dustin Brown had a snap-shot stopped by Hutton, Amadio whizzed a pair of wrist shots just wide of the goal.

Later, Adrian Kempe was denied by Hutton’s block moments before Toffoli was robbed by Hutton’s glove.

After tallying 18 goals in the season’s first four games, the Kings have just two in their three contests since. They ended Thursday’s loss mired in a 135-minute, 89-shot scoring drought.

“I think the offense will come, and come back,” McLellan said, later adding: “At times during the game,I thought we were the better team. But that doesn’t get you anything. It’s the three and the zero at the end of the night that really counts.”

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