California
Businessman allegedly threatens to ‘ruin’ dock worker, ‘drops his pants’ in heated dispute over yacht parking
A California philanthropist allegedly threatened to kill a dock worker during a heated argument from his multimillion-dollar yacht, before dropping his pants and giving several threatening gestures to the employee.
Ajay Thakore, a local entrepreneur in the San Diego area, attempted to dock his Lamborghini yacht at the private Marriot Marquis Marina to pick up one of his employees but was stopped by worker Joseph Holt on Sunday.
“I told him respectfully that he couldn’t be there, and I honestly was hoping to have a conversation with him about his cool boat,” Holt told CBS8. “But yeah, it completely went the other way.”
Thakore, who goes by his social media name, Ace Rogers, was riding on his rare $4.5 million Tecnomar for Lamborghini 63 yacht at the time of the daytime dispute.
Holt claimed Thakore became hostile as soon as he was told off.
“It escalated immediately. It was 0 to 100 immediately,” the 21-year-old worker added.
Thakore, the CEO of medical advertising firm Doctor Multimedia, began to allegedly threaten Holt’s life as the luxury speedboat drove away from the docks.
“I will kill you, you know I will kill you, I will kill,” Thakore repeatedly yells according to the video posted to YouTube.
Besides threatening to take Holt’s life, Thakore also claimed to have the power to get the dock worker fired, ripping on the type of job he had.
“I’m a minimum wage worker, he was commenting on that, on my status just because of my job,” Holt said. “He was saying I’m nobody, I’m nothing, I work a silly job.”
“He said that he knows people, he has connections, he can change my life and ruin it,” he added.
During the heated discussion, Thakore allegedly pulled out his wallet and began throwing $100 bills at Holt and into the water, according to the outlet.
Holt said he tried to control himself during the incident and only gave Thakore the middle finger.
“I really didn’t know how to process it. I really was trying to restrain myself from getting fired from my job or stepping out of line. The only thing I did was give him the bird,” he said.
The dock hand blasted Thakore for his actions, especially in a public setting where he stripped nude and showed himself off.
“He had dropped his pants and started to make gestures to everybody watching and me. You can’t act that way in public. It’s just not ok. Especially threatening my life, at the very least. There were women and children there. That’s the most important part,” Holt said.
Thakore claims his outburst started because of a misunderstanding and was sorry for the people who saw it.
“The interaction that occurred yesterday was regrettable. What started as a minor misunderstanding escalated into an argument, and I apologize for my actions and to those who witnessed the unfortunate exchange,” Thakore’s public relations team said in a statement, obtained by KFMB.
Port of San Diego Harbor Police were called to the Seaforth Boat rental dock for “a possible intoxicated vessel operator” but arrived at the marina 10 minutes after Thakore and his boat had left.
The employee who attempted to board the extravagant boat defended his boss’ actions, saying Holt was hostile towards Thakore, and the businessman was only defending his team.
“As I went to kindly step onto the Yacht, I was impeded by two members that work for Seaforth Boat Rental,” Thakore’s employee Jason said on a post to the CEO’s Instagram account.
Jason says he was told to “stand back” the first time he went to step on the boat, and claims he was forearmed during his second attempt to board the yacht.
“They physically got in my way, the situation became fairly tense, there was a lot of screaming back and forth, extremely confrontational I didn’t fully understand protocol, as I was going to step onto the boat.”
“As all of this happened, my boss flipped and he’s very protective of me, his fiancée, of his employees.” Jason added. “It was a confusing situation that became very tense and very confrontational.”
Thakore captioned the post saying “there are two sides to every story and it’s easy to paint a picture with edited video clips from cell phones.”
“My employee Jason was being restricted, restrained, and threatened while trying to board my yacht. As a leader, I defend my own fiercely with everything I have, and I will never apologize for that,” the caption read.
The IPOs of SpaceX, OpenAI and Anthropic could deliver billions of dollars to California’s coffers.
We’ve seen this movie before.
In 2022, California recorded a nearly $100 billion surplus, saved just $10 billion in its rainy day fund and then spent the rest. Two years later, a $56 billion deficit loomed.
Now, with the state facing ongoing operating deficits of more than $10 billion, we’re back in familiar territory.
The coming IPO windfall is a rare second chance. But we’ll only benefit from it if we first fix the structural flaw that’s caused us to squander every previous boom — a budget reserve that isn’t built to hold what we put in it.
The stakes this time are higher than ever. The war in Iran raised recession risk, and the federal government is systematically dismantling the funding streams California has depended on for decades.
When Washington retreats, Sacramento has to choose: cut services, raise taxes or have enough saved to bridge the gap. Right now, we don’t have enough saved.
We’re not outside observers wringing our hands. We helped shape the fiscal architecture the state is now straining against, and we’re here to say: It needs to be rebuilt.
As California state controller, one of us campaigned alongside Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to pass Proposition 58 in 2004 — creating California’s first Budget Stabilization Account. The other authored the Assembly Constitutional Amendment that became Proposition 2 in 2014 — the stronger, harder-to-raid replacement that voters approved with 69% support.
California’s tax system is the envy of progressive states and the nightmare of budget directors. We tax the wealthy at high rates, capture enormous capital gains revenue in boom years and then discover — every single time — that the peak doesn’t last.
If California treats the IPO windfall from SpaceX, Anthropic and OpenAI as permanent revenue, our state would repeat exactly the mistake we made four years ago.
Gov. Gavin Newsom and Assemblymember Avelino Valencia have each proposed important reforms to strengthen the fund. First, they call for requiring the state to make deposits until the fund reaches 20% of the general fund total, rather than the current 10%. Second, they propose changing an arcane accounting rule that treats saving for future downturns as spending.
We see one additional opportunity to make the rainy day fund even stronger.
If we want a larger budget reserve, we have to do more than merely allow it — we need to require it. Proposition 58 taught us everything we need to know on this front: Between 2004 and 2014, with that proposition fund in place, only two deposits were made. If we want consistent deposits during the boom times, they can’t be optional.
These reforms should be a win-win for the California Legislature. A larger reserve is the most durable protection that public sector workers, social service recipients and education advocates have against the kind of emergency cuts that have repeatedly gutted programs during downturns.
It’s also the strongest argument against tax increases in a recession because you don’t need to raise taxes if you actually save during the booms.
Building a stronger rainy day fund isn’t the cautious choice. It’s the visionary one — the closest thing we have to investing in the next generation of Californians.
We built the last rainy day fund because we’d lived through the consequences of not having one. We’re making the same argument again, for the same reason except now the stakes are higher. This time, the federal backstop is weaker, and the next storm is closer than it looks.
Fix the fund this year. The next generation of Californians will thank us for it.
Mike Gatto served in the state Assembly between 2010 and 2016, and he authored the measure that created California’s current rainy day fund. Steve Westly served as state controller between 2003 and 2007, and he co-championed Proposition 58, California’s original rainy day fund. Westly chairs the 21st Century Alliance, a nonpartisan organization focused on solutions to the state’s most pressing challenges.
CHICO, Calif. — A shooting at a library in Northern California on Monday left two people dead and a suspect is in custody, according to police.
Police responded to a 911 call soon after 5 p.m. in which the sounds of gun shots and people screaming could be heard coming from inside the Chico branch of the Butte County Library, Billy Aldridge, the city’s chief of police, said during a news conference.
Once officers were inside the library, the suspect fled out of the back, he said. Additional law enforcement behind the library took the suspect into custody, according to Aldridge.
“The incident this evening was obviously very sad, traumatic for a lot of people. Very traumatic for our community,” he said.
The streets around the library were closed temporarily and a family reunification center was set up for the people who were inside the building.
A child was also taken to the hospital with a minor injury.
Aldridge said there is no serious threat to the public and law enforcement are investigating the shooting.
The police didn’t release the suspect’s name nor details on what prompted the shooting. Law enforcement said they believe the shooter acted alone.
Law enforcement are also not releasing the names of the people killed until next of kin have been notified.
The county urged the public to avoid the area and said all Butte County library branches will be closed Tuesday.
The county in a post on Facebook offered “deepest condolences to everyone affected, including the victims, their loved ones, library staff, and all those impacted by this heartbreaking incident.”
Copyright © 2026 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.
CALIFORNIA CITY, Calif. (KERO) — A 12-year-old boy is dead and another child was hospitalized after two unleashed dogs attacked a group of children at Central Park in California City on Friday, June 18.
California City Mayor Edwin Hawkins said police responded to the scene after reports that four children had been mauled.
Fernando Torres Moreno, 12, jumped into a nearby lake to escape the charging dogs. Officers pulled Fernando from the water, and he was taken to the hospital, where he died the next day.
A second child suffered serious, though non-life-threatening, dog bite wounds and has since been released from the hospital. Two additional children were shaken but did not require medical treatment.
Authorities say the dogs, both mixed breed, were off-leash but in the presence of their owner when the attack unfolded.
The investigation remains active and ongoing. No arrests have been made.
This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
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