By Cindy Carcamo, Los Angeles Times LOS ANGELES — Food never happened in a vacuum for Karla Tatiana Vasquez. Stories always followed. Whenever her grandmother or mother cooked, Vasquez knew something special was coming. Their food unlocked memories, especially about El Salvador — the homeland they’d fled in the late 1980s during the country’s civil war. Vasquez was born in the Central American nation but had no memory of it. She was an infant when her family spirited her away to Los Angeles, where many family members ended up settling. As a child, Vasquez had a difficult time saying “Salvadore ..read more

A pair of teenage ghosts solve mysteries for their supernatural clientele in “Dead Boy Detectives” on Netflix, an eight-episode season that sits squarely in the YA genre. Picture something like “The Hardy Boys,” but British. And dead.  Edwin (George Rexstrew) died at his boarding school in 1916 and he is bookish and sensitive. Charles (Jayden Revri) died at the same boarding school in 1987 and he has a bolder streak and a dangly cross for an earring. The actors bear a physical resemblance that goes unremarked upon — thin and lanky, with dark hair and pointy features — but the characters a ..read more

A woman feared she was going to die when a stranger broke into her St. Paul home, held a gun to her head and sexually assaulted her, according to charges filed Friday. Police reviewed residential security videos and one showed a pickup truck in the alley near the victim’s Macalester-Groveland residence at the time of the attack, and five of six license plate characters were visible. Police traced the license plate to a pickup truck registered to Deonte Marquon Thomas, 34, according to a criminal complaint. Deonte Marquon Thomas (Courtesy of the Ramsey County Sheriff’s Office) St. Paul police a ..read more

By SAMY MAGDY, BASSEM MROUE and DAVID RISING (Associated Press) CAIRO (AP) — Egypt sent a high-level delegation to Israel for talks Friday seeking to push through a cease-fire agreement with Hamas and avert an Israeli offensive on Gaza’s town of Rafah — on the border with Egypt — which it warned could ruin regional stability, officials said. Egypt’s top intelligence official, Abbas Kamel, led the delegation and planned to discuss with Israel a “new vision” for a prolonged cease-fire in Gaza, an Egyptian official said, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the mission freely. As the war ..read more

By AAMER MADHANI (The Associated Press) NEW YORK (AP) — President Joe Biden said Friday that he is willing to debate his presumptive Republican opponent, Donald Trump, later this fall – his most definitive comment yet on the issue. The comment came during an interview with the Sirius XM radio host Howard Stern, who asked Biden whether he would participate in debates against Trump. “I am, somewhere. I don’t know when,” Biden said. “But I’m happy to debate him.” So far, Biden’s reelection campaign had declined to commit to participating in the debates, a hallmark of every general election presid ..read more

The Gophers football program declined to host a spring game to conclude practices this month, so there is no formal bow to put on how the 2024 team is beginning to take shape. Head coach P.J. Fleck said last month the decision to forego the glorified, open-to-the-public scrimmage came down to a rash of cancelations and location changes that the U had to deal with in recent years. Fleck also acknowledged a desire to keep new personnel and schematic changes to his team under wraps — primarily new quarterback Max Brosmer, possible wrinkles to the passing game and what new defensive coordinator Co ..read more

The first of two men convicted in the murder of 22-year-old Alex Becker, who was shot as he returned to his St. Paul home from work, received a 30-year sentence Friday. Jurors convicted Detwan Cortell Allen, now 20, of St. Paul, in December of aiding and abetting second-degree intentional murder in the killing of Becker. Prosecutors argued he was ambushed in an apparent attempted robbery by Allen and two accomplices. Alex Becker (Courtesy of Hidy Hammarsten) The prosecution had argued for the maximum sentence allowed under state sentencing guidelines, 367 months, which is what Judge Paul Yang ..read more

By ELLEN KNICKMEYER, FARNOUSH AMIRI and MATTHEW LEE (Associated Press) WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. has determined that an Israeli military unit committed gross human-rights abuses against Palestinians in the West Bank before the war in Gaza began, but it will hold off on any decision about aid to the battalion while it reviews new information provided by Israel, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a letter to House Speaker Mike Johnson. The undated letter, obtained by The Associated Press on Friday, defers a decision on whether to impose a first-ever block on U.S. aid to an Israeli milita ..read more

By RYAN J. FOLEY, CARLA K. JOHNSON and SHELBY LUM (Associated Press) Demetrio Jackson was desperate for medical help when the paramedics arrived. The 43-year-old was surrounded by police who arrested him after responding to a trespassing call in a Wisconsin parking lot. Officers had shocked him with a Taser and pinned him as he pleaded that he couldn’t breathe. Now he sat on the ground with hands cuffed behind his back and took in oxygen through a mask. Then, officers moved Jackson to his side so a medic could inject him with a potent knockout drug. “It’s just going to calm you down,” an offic ..read more

By KELVIN CHAN (AP Business Writer) LONDON (AP) — TikTok is in the crosshairs of authorities in the U.S., where new law threatens a nationwide ban unless its China-based parent ByteDance divests. It would be the biggest blow yet to the popular video-sharing app, which has faced various restrictions around the world. TikTok is already banned in a handful of countries and from government-issued devices in a number of others, due to official worries that the app poses privacy and cybersecurity concerns. Those fears are reflected in the U.S. law, which is the culmination of long-held bipartisan fe ..read more