California Gov. Gavin Newsom has declined an offer from Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis to send members of the state's guard program to assist in managing protests, and local businesses navigate tariffs instituted by President Donald Trump.
Newsom rejects DeSantis' offer for Florida State Guard
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis says he tried sending the state guard to help with the situation in Los Angeles.
But DeSantis said California Gov. Gavin Newsom declined the offer.
We reached out to Newsom’s office for a comment, and his spokesperson gave us a statement saying in part, “We declined governor DeSantis’ attempt to inflame an already chaotic situation made worse by his party’s leader.”
“We have a long history of providing mutual aid when needed, and will continue to do so in the future, but simply not the case here,” the statement continued.
One day after Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass imposed a curfew to address protests related to Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids in the city, she said the curfew will continue until there are no longer any arrests and the Trump administration changes its policies.
First imposed Tuesday night, the curfew covers a 6-square-mile section of a city that is 500 square miles from 8 p.m. to 6 a.m.
"If there are raids that continue, if there are soldiers marching up and down our street, I would imagine the curfew will continue," Bass said Wednesday. "I am hoping we will not have any arrests tonight."
The Los Angeles Police Department said Wednesday that it had arrested 223 people during Tuesday's protests, most of them for failure to disperse and for curfew violations. Two officers were also injured.
Since the protests began on Friday, 157 people have been arrested for assault and obstruction-related charges, including the attempted murder of a police officer with a Molotov cocktail, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Wednesday.
The U.S. Justice Department said it has charged four Southern California residents with assault on a federal officer and possession of an unregistered destructive device in relation to the recent LA protests.
"A week ago, everything was peaceful in the city of LA, and all the representatives behind me, in their cities as well," Bass said at a news conference at City Hall, where she was joined by the leaders of more than 30 nearby cities who stood united against the Trump administration's ICE raids, militarization of the California National Guard and deployment of 700 Marines. "Things began to be difficult on Friday when the raids took place. That is the cause of the problems that have happened in the city of LA and other cities. This was provoked by the White House."
The protests began Friday after federal immigration raids arrested dozens of workers in the Los Angeles area. Protesters blocked a major freeway and set cars on fire over the weekend, and police responded with tear gas, rubber bullets and flash-bang grenades.
Orlando business faces challenges navigating Trump administration tariffs
As the Trump administration continues to negotiate with China over trade and tariffs, one of the key objectives of the administration’s economic policy is encouraging more manufacturing in the United States.
Meanwhile, a Central Florida business owner says he’s already dealing with effects from tariffs.
Mike Cho oversees the printing of t-shirts at his business, Impress Ink in Orlando.
Cho says while they don’t produce the actual shirts themselves, they do just about everything else.
“We often finish off the shirt. We print it, we sew it, we can rebrand it,” said Cho, Impress Ink’s owner and operator.
Cho said it’s nearly impossible to not source some sort of material in the manufacturing process from overseas.
“The U.S. actually produces a lot of cotton, but a lot of that cotton gets exported to Central America, gets exported to Asia, and Asia uses labor to finish off production, but then it gets shipped back to us,” he said.
Cho says business remains steady for now, compared to last year this time, but he’s not seeing as many new customers. He believes economic uncertainty from fluctuating tariffs is to blame.
“Uncertainty overall is bad for business. That’s what we’ve realized when it comes to our customers and the people that support us,” said Cho.
Cho said the tariffs on China made jobs already ordered more expensive.
“The reality with these tariffs being imposed very abruptly, it definitely stirs the pot in a way where companies like us have to scramble for options,” he said.
For example, Impress Ink’s order from the city of Orlando for the annual CommUNITY Rainbow Run, which honors the victims of the 2016 Pulse nightclub shooting, includes medals they add rainbow colors to. But the medals themselves are made in China.
That forced Cho to make a tough decision.
“This kind of fell right in between when those tariffs went into effect, so we actually had to pay 145% of the factory costs,” said Cho. “We did tell the city we’d absorb them, which we did, so at the end of the day, we are having a small loss to it. These are the things we’re okay with because we’re happy to sponsor a small part of it.”
They are extra costs Impress Ink can absorb in this case, but not forever. Cho says eventually, he will have to pass off those extra costs to his customers.
The Small Business Administration under President Trump launched the “Make Onshoring Great Again Portal,” a free tool designed to connect American small businesses to U.S. manufacturers and producers. It promises a database with one million American suppliers. It’s part of SBA’s “Made in America” manufacturing initiative, which launched earlier this year. The plan is designed to take several steps to promote more manufacturing within the United States.