Academic workers at UCLA are on strike Tuesday to protest the University of California System’s response to pro-Palestinian encampments on campus.

The protests, created in response to Israel’s actions in Gaza in the months following Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack, roiled campuses nationwide and led to violence in some cases, including at UCLA.

While some officials have faced negative repercussions, including the UCLA police chief, the union representing academic workers said more wrongdoing has not been addressed, as reported by the Los Angeles Times.

Starting at UC Santa Cruz last week, strikes organized by United Auto Workers Local 4811, which the Times notes “represents 48,000 graduate student teaching assistants, tutors, researchers and others,” have affected UC campuses right as these workers are needed most for finals and year-end projects.

Jon Baird of KNX News said strikers have been a visible presence on campus, including by blocking access to a parking garage for visitors, and UCLA isn’t alone.

UC Davis workers are also on strike, and as many as three other campuses could join the strike by Friday.

“The academic workers contend that their free speech rights were violated when university leaders called on police to forcibly remove pro-Palestinian encampments at several campuses and activists at UCLA were not protected from an attack on the camp by counterprotesters for hours,” the Times reports. “Police later dismantled the UCLA encampment, making about 200 arrests, including some members of the striking union.”

UC officials have argued the strikes are illegal, though the state labor board rejected its request.

In the meantime, striking workers are expressing their support for the Palestinian people and hoping these strikes aid their cause.

“I think the union is in a position to really just lift up this issue on the national stage and challenge sort of mainstream discourse and status quo,” Gene McAdoo, a doctoral student at UCLA, told the Times.

A young mountain lion roaming a Thousand Oaks neighborhood has residents on alert, especially after it was captured on home surveillance cameras chasing a family’s house cat.  

While the baby couguar may look cute at first glance, residents in the area quickly realized the small mountain lion is hungry and looking for food.  

“I saw it and I looked again because we do have house cats go across the front door,” Thousand Oaks resident Kelly McGee told KTLA’s Carlos Saucedo. “I looked again and I was like, ‘No, the ears are round. That’s not a cat.’”  

Kelly and Mark McGee spotted the cougar on their home’s motion activated cameras earlier this when it was on their front porch.  

“It wasn’t full size, so we had to re-look at it and zoom into it and stuff and then we realized, ‘Oh my God, it’s a baby mountain lion,’” Mark explained.  

Cameras at their neighbor’s home across the street also captured the young mountain lion as it was chasing after a cat and it’s unclear what happened to the wild cat’s prey.  

“We hope it’s okay,” Kelly said. “We haven’t heard of any neighbors missing a cat yet, so hopefully he made it home.”  

The McGee’s and their neighbors live near Los Padres trail, a wildlife preserve. So, residents in these foothills are used to seeing all sorts of animals, including coyotes who routinely visit homes in the area.  

“We’ve been here since 1987,” Esther O’Connor told KTLA. “Basically, the only wildlife we’ve ever seen, up until I would say a couple of years ago, were birds and squirrels and racoons, but never a mountain lion.”  

The recent cougar sightings have residents on edge, particularly those with small pets.  

“They can jump the fence pretty easy and get in the backyard,” Mark explained. “We let our dogs out late. I always worry about that.”  

It’s also unclear if this young mountain lion has any siblings, who are also out on the hunt.  

“Just a little baby, but we haven’t seen mom yet on the prowl,” Kelly said. “It would be cool to see mom, but at the same time, it’d be a little scary.”  

Experts say these sightings are a good reminder to secure your pets and stay vigilant.  

A driver suspected of carjacking a Toyota pickup truck Monday evening, who then led authorities in a pursuit has been taken into custody.  

Officers with the Los Angeles Police Department’s Wilshire Division initiated the pursuit and chased the suspect into eastbound lanes of 10 Freeway through Crenshaw and then to the 110 and 405 Freeways, where officers from the California Highway Patrol took over.  

The suspect remained on the 405 at moderate speeds of around 60 miles per hour when authorities successfully deployed a spike strip, taking out the passenger tires near Springdale Street.  

The suspect eventually came to a stop in Huntington Beach, near Beach Boulevard, where he was not initially complying with officers’ commands to exit the vehicle.  

Several CHP, using a shield, approached the suspect and took him into custody. The suspect later fought officers as they were attempting to put him into the back of a CHP cruiser.

Sky5 was overhead.