Category: Los Angeles, California Local News

The John Burroughs High School Portraits of Kindness program is a school club organized by Library Coordinator Julie Grene, and Art Teacher Karen Nakashima, where students create portraits for single mothers and their children across the world.  During Spring Break, Grene and Nakashima will be flying to Malawi, Africa, to deliver the portraits in person.

For the past 12 years, the JBHS Portraits of Kindness program has partnered with a non-profit organization called The Memory Project, who has handled the portrait delivery each year. The organization acts as the connection between schools and caregivers, schools, orphanages and refugee camps around the world. 

Participants of The Memory Project are facing extreme challenges and typically have very few possessions, so the portraits act as meaningful mementos of their childhood.  The JBHS students enjoy being a part of it not only because they improve their art skills, but because they learn kindness, compassion, empathy, and global awareness.

“This project is dear to my heart,” said Grene. “This marks the 13th year of the JBHS Portraits of Kindness program. Its purpose is promoting cultural understanding and international kindness through art.” Through the program, over 500 portraits have been gifted to children in 19 countries including Sierra Leone, Vietnam, Rwanda, Nepal, Philippines, India, Colombia, Ukraine, Madagascar, Peru, Syria, Afghanistan, Nigeria, Venezuela, Cameroon, and more. This year JBHS is partnering directly with Malawi, Africa.

Janel, who works as campus security at JBHS has a friend working in Malawi who created a community, called Chipatso, for single mothers and their children, that works to provide access to education and a better living condition. The Memory Project wasn’t able to add this community to their connections in time, so Grene and Nakashima decided to take the project on themselves, and deliver the portraits personally to Chipatso.

“We are super excited about the unexpected and somewhat unknown adventure of it!” said Grene.  This year 46 students have joined Portraits of Kindness to create personalized, handmade portraits for 35 children and their mothers in Malawi.  Many of the students have been doing this program for all four years at JBHS and use the experience on their college applications and essays.

On top of the portraits, the students will also be making friendship bracelets for their partners, and while Grene and Nakashima are in Malawi they will lead the Chipatso community in making bracelets to bring back to the students, and will teach them a lesson in origami folding. 

“We have also pivoted to include not only portraits but the choice to create ‘identity art’ incorporating the child’s name, dreams and activities into a piece of art. This allows those student artists who are not confident in their portraiture to participate in another way,” added Grene.

The JBHS Student Store has a donation link to help support Portraits of Kindness on their journey this year so that they can purchase the portrait mats, backing boards, plastic sleeves, origami supplies, and anything extra will help support Grene and Nakashima on their travel and for a monetary donation to Chipatso. To make a (tax deductible) donation go to: https://johnburroughs.myschoolcentral.com/.

All students are welcome to join Portraits of Kindness, and can find out more info during Club Rush at school.  Students and families are invited to stop by the library during Open House this month to see the club’s scrapbooks on display which hold copies of every portrait that has been created over the years

“Creating a portrait is a thoughtful and personal endeavor that creates a special bond between artist and subject. Even though, in all likelihood, the two will never meet in person, both the child and artist will carry this memory with them throughout their lives,” said Grene. “The most important aspect of this of this project is that student who participate do this work from a place of caring in their hearts.”

Click for more information on The Memory Project.

Click to see Chipatso on Instagram.

Celebrities and sports brands are more eager than ever to lend their legitimacy and likeness to new ventures, and private equity firms are more than happy to oblige.

One of the most high-profile partnerships among these has taken things even a step further, putting the celebrity behind the wheel to direct private equity funding. In September 2022, reality megastar Kim Kardashian co-founded SKKY Partners alongside Jay Sammons, who formerly headed the global consumer, retail and media division for The Carlyle Group. 

The company, which has target sectors including consumer products, digital and e-commerce, consumer media, hospitality and luxury brands, began fundraising in March 2023, according to a company press release. SKKY Partners has dual headquarters in Boston and Calabasas; Sammons resides in the former, while Kardashian is a resident of Calabasas. 

Joining the ranks of entertainers-turned-angel investors such as Jay-Z and Ashton Kutcher, Kardashian is leading a new wave of big names looking to make fortunes outside of Hollywood. Mehdi Khodadad, a Century City-based partner at Sidley Austin LLP focusing on technology and life sciences companies and their private equity sponsors, said the hype has been driven in no small part by the recent Hollywood strikes.

“Branding like this has been around for a while now – think back to Vitaminwater and 50 Cent – but you’re really seeing celebrities are jumping on the bandwagon (after) the Screen Actors Guild strike,” said Khodadad. “It had a profound effect on just about everyone in the celebrity realm, and suddenly, the idea of finding some alternative source of income suddenly held a lot of appeal. They’re looking for different verticals and jumping into branding opportunities.”

‘Words carry substance’

Chris Manderson, chair of the corporate practice at the Beverly Hills-based law firm Ervin Cohen & Jessup LLP specializing in mergers and acquisitions and private equity, said the significant downturn in leverage deal value post-2021 has made equity firms eager to get the best bang for their buck with the deals they do make. 

“Leveraged deal value has fallen off much harder on average than overall deal value, which makes the difficulty of obtaining financing all that much worse,” Manderson said. “Given that, it makes great sense that private equity firms would look to alternative strategies to get those funds raised, deploy their capital, and close deals.”

Manderson said celebrities with mainstream appeal can be significant needle-movers for fundraising, and in that regard, the Kardashians have among the most dependable brands.

“Their words carry substance. When the Kardashians back a consumer-facing business, it’s something that has genuine value, especially in categories like consumer cosmetics and fashion,” said Manderson. “They’re not out there investing in aerospace and defense contractors, but when it comes to things like beauty products, health and wellness and the like, their name carries weight in the same way that Tom Cruise’s name means something when you’re trying to sell a movie.”

Private equity affiliated with a big name combined with “the right kind of business brings something to the table that no one else really can,” Manderson said.

“You can have a guy with an MBA from Harvard, but chances are all of that know-how won’t help them deploy capital nearly as effectively as the Kardashians could. It is the rare, very rare case where a big-name celebrity that actually brings business value outside of the realm of entertainment.”

Top Hollywood influencers like Kardashian have enough clout and cash to direct investment, but Manderson noted that it’s much more common to find high-profile names in sports and entertainment on the side of the companies benefitting from the funding. 

“Los Angeles is overwhelmingly a middle-market city, and the companies here tend to be privately owned and driven by private equity transactions,” Manderson said. “And with the heart of the entertainment industry a few miles down the road, that creates some obvious opportunities for synergy between the two.”

Khodadad highlighted Maximum Effort, a film production company and digital marketing consultancy owned by Ryan Reynolds, as an example of a middle-market celebrity-branded company powered by private equity.

Sports and private equity 

If private equity funds are interested in partnering in the entertainment industry, they’re positively champing at the bit to expand their presence in the sports world, particularly the local ones.

“I think it helps a lot that we have two NFL teams, two basketball teams, a presence in the MLB and the NHL – teams in just about anything,” said Eric Geffner, a Sidley Austin LLP partner focusing on entertainment, sports and media. “We’re all long for Los Angeles, and soon we’ll have the World Cup and the Olympics here, and benefit from all the infrastructure that comes with it.”

Private equity’s presence in Los Angeles sports is growing rapidly, Geffner said, highlighting the investment activity of firm client Arctos Sports Partners. While Arctos’ investments aren’t publicly disclosed, it was reported in March 2022 that it had upped its equity stake in the Los Angeles Dodgers, a franchise recently valued by sports data tracker Sportskeeda at $4.8 billion. 

Even leagues with less mainstream appeal have found wild success – and private equity interest – in Los Angeles, Geffner said. It’s also home to some of the world’s most profitable teams in women’s’ sports.

“The valuations for men’s teams are obviously high, but particularly when you look at women’s soccer in the city, where you’ve got a team that’s had success on an international level for 20 years, a team that’s dominated the World Cup. That one was really a case where the values were recognized as being too low, and investors believe there’s really money in these teams now.”

Lloyd Greif, founder, president and chief executive of downtown-based middle-market investment bank Greif & Co., noted that private equity’s presence in sports has provided symbiotic benefits for Los Angeles Football Club. 

The franchise is owned by Bennett Rosenthal, co-founder and director at the Culver City-based Ares Management Corp., with co-ownership held by the New York-based Apollo Global Management’s Larry Berg and Brandon Beck, founder of the Santa Monica-based Riot Games Inc. 

“Angel City has been a winning franchise, and that huge success was backed by private equity and local entrepreneurs.” said Greif.

Access to a huge amount of capital for NFL owners would be unlocked if private equity were allowed allowed to purchase stakes in NFL franchises, Geffner said.

Senate Bill 997 was introduced by Senator Anthony J. Portantino (D – Burbank), which helps tackle the opioid epidemic and drug-related overdoses among our youth by allowing students to carry fentanyl test strips and schools to provide Narcan nasal spray to students. The bill idea came out of the Senator’s summer internship program, where each intern in the Senate office has the opportunity to research subject areas and propose bill ideas directly to Senator Portantino.

“SB 997 implements more preventative measures to help avoid opioid-related deaths in high schools,” stated Senator Portantino. “Providing fentanyl test strips and allowing kids to carry Narcan nasal spray – both of which are easy to administer – will save lives.”

According to the California Department of Public Health, in 2022, there were over 7,000 opioid-related deaths, with fentanyl poisoning accounting for approximately 88% of deaths. Among young people ages, fentanyl poisoning accounted for 640 out of 807 deaths by opioid overdose.

SB 997 would permit students in middle and high schools to carry a federally approved naloxone hydrochloride nasal spray. The bill would also require public middle schools and high schools to provide fentanyl test strips and to notify students about its presence and location.

“Although Narcan can swiftly counteract the effects of opioid overdoses, we can also take a different approach that eliminates the need for Narcan altogether,” Libby Paquette, a former intern in Senator Portantino’s office who presented the bill idea. “Recognizing that kids still use drugs despite the high number of Fentanyl overdoses, the logic behind providing test strips is to present the opportunity to avoid drugs contaminated with Fentanyl entirely. I believe test strips will help save lives when Narcan isn’t available.”

Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid that is up to 50 times stronger than heroin and 100 times stronger than morphine. It is nearly impossible to tell if drugs have been laced with fentanyl unless you test your drugs with fentanyl test strips, which typically give results within 5 minutes. Furthermore, the use of Narcan (Naloxone), which is a life-saving medication that can reverse an opioid overdose, is safe and easy to use and works almost immediately. It is now available over the counter, without a prescription at pharmacies, convenience stores, grocery stores and gas stations, as well as online.

“Protecting our youth in the midst of an opioid crisis should be a top priority for all Californians,” stated Tara Gamboa-Eastman, Director of Government Affairs for the Steinberg Institute. “We need to make sure all tools in the toolkit are available to prevent needless deaths. Passing this bill saves lives and puts our kids first at a time when they desperately need our support.”

Chinatown-based lender Cathay Bank has foreclosed on a Pacific Palisades mansion that was once on the market for $26 million, The Real Deal has learned. 

The property, located at 880 Vista Pacifica Street, was sold at a public auction with $14.4 million of unpaid debt, property records show. Cathay paid $5 million for the property. 

The bank provided a $13.8 million loan on the mansion in June 2021. Cathay filed a default notice on the property in January 2023, claiming that the previous owner, Frank Hai Lin, fell behind on $13.1 million in debt. Cathay filed three more default notices afterwards. 

The last notice, from June 2023, claimed that the unpaid balance on the asset had grown to $14.3 million. According to court records, Hai Lin, who runs an El Segundo-based manufacturer of office furniture called Cherryman Industries, failed to pay off a $13.8 million portion of the loan before its maturity date on Feb. 28, 2022. 

The property was first listed for $26 million in January 2022, according to a Zillow listing. After nearly six months on the market, the asking price was cut to $19.6 million. 

The mansion, a four-bedroom, 8,500-square-foot home that sits on a private street, has a guest house, a greenhouse, an artist’s studio, an indoor pool and a spa. When it was first listed, the property was pitched as a tear-down. “Develop the existing home or design a new one,” a listing on Redfin read.

The foreclosure adds to the list of distressed properties in L.A.’s wealthiest enclaves. In December, Chicago-based lender Cam XV Trust acquired a mansion perched above the Sunset Strip at a foreclosure auction. The property, which was supposedly infused with positive energy from a “museum-quality curated crystal collection,” changed hands with $21 million in unpaid debt. 

In September, investor Cody Holmes filed for bankruptcy on a Beverly Hills mansion to block one of his lenders from foreclosing on the property. 

Pacific Palisades has figured in top home sales, with one $20 million mansion trading on the first business day of 2024. Another sold later the same week for $24.5 million. Last year the neighborhood grabbed headlines as the spot where Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck went into escrow on a $64 million home, only to pull out and buy one in Beverly Crest for about $61 million.

By Rick Assad

In what could have been a tie turned into a victory by the Burbank High boys’ soccer team on Thursday afternoon versus rival Burroughs.

In the blink of an eye, the Pacific League match at Kemp-Kallem Field turned as senior central attacking midfielder George Atallah nailed a 15-yard goal in the 73rd minute breaking a tie and giving the Bulldogs a 2-1 win.

“I was impressed with our determination today,” Burbank coach Johnny Rotunno said. “We wanted to finish the year on a high note and I’m glad we pulled out the win.”

Rotunno doesn’t think his club will make the postseason.

“I think we missed the [CIF Southern Section] playoffs by one point,” he said. “Next year we will be much better.”

Burroughs coach Makan Afzali was a bit disappointed.

“Just unlucky moments. Things didn’t go as planned,” he said. “Players worked hard. That’s the most important thing.”

The Bears finished 6-9-1 and 5-8-1 in league for sixth place while the Bulldogs went 8-7-5 and 4-6-4 for fifth in league.

The Bulldogs pulled in front 1-0 in the seventh minute as senior left midfielder Bryan Juarez banged home a 25-yarder, but a tally in the 38th minute by junior Alexander Loera from 15 yards evened it at 1-1.

In the first minute, Burbank junior center defensive midfielder Rigo Garcia banged a 20-yarder that hit the top of the post.

In the fifth minute, Bulldog freshman center midfielder Grigor Parian added a 55-yard free kick.

In the seventh minute, Burroughs junior Danny Pascual slammed a 31-yard penalty kick, and Pascual added a 32-yard penalty kick in the 13th minute that was blocked.

Loera had a 20-yard penalty kick in the 15th minute.

Burbank had eight of the next nine attempts and they came from Parian on a 65-yarder in the 22nd minute, Parian on a 35-yarder in the 22nd minute that was too high and sophomore striker Aram Hovanessian on a 15-yard header in the 24th minute.

Junior center midfielder David Agababian tossed in a 25-yarder in the 28th minute and Atallah notched a 35-yarder in the 32nd minute.

Hovanessian had a 25-yarder in the 32nd minute and junior center midfielder Alfost Khalatyan collected a 20-yarder in the 33rd minute.

Attalah delivered a 40-yarder in the 37th minute before the Bears scored.

In the second half, the Bears had five straight kicks and they came from senior Dominic Quijada from 25 yards in the 43rd minute, Quijada from 20 yards in the 48th minute and junior Winston Bromhead on a 30-yarder in the 50th minute.

Loera mixed in a header from 25 yards in the 51st minute and Pascual had a 75-yard free kick in the 53rd minute.

Attalah had a 29-yard penalty kick in the 56th minute, Pascual attempted a 45-yard free kick in the 57th minute, Pascual added a 35-yard free kick in the 68th minute and Pascual managed a 35-yard free kick in the 69th minute.

The last three kicks came on a Burroughs 20-yard header, and from Burbank sophomore striker Raymond Soukiazian from 20 yards in the 77th minute and Burroughs’ sophomore Phoenix Elkin on a 25-yarder in extra time.

The Colony Theatre (Heather Provost, Producing Artistic Director) will present the Panic! and BarCinBoo production of Footloose the Musical March 1–17. There will be two preview performances on March 1, at 8pm and March 2, at 2pm, and opening is set for Saturday, March 2, at 8pm. The regular performance schedule is Friday at 8pm, Saturday at 2pm & 8pm, and Sunday at 3pm, through March 17 only.

Directed by Barry Pearl, co-directed and choreographed by Michelle Elkin, with musical direction by Ron Barnett, the cast will feature Larry Cedar (HBO’s Deadwood, Hollywoodland, Midnight Son), Robin DeLano (Bright Star National Tour, Mamma Mia! Disney’s Frozen), Brady Fritz (Beautiful the Musical, Disney’s The Little Mermaid), Kelsey Lee Smith (Invincible, Rudolph National Tour), Casey Anne Apregan, James Beardsley, Whitney Kathleen Vigil, Sammy Linkowski, Camie Del Rosario, Lauren Lorati, Michael Wells, Christopher Robert Smith, Karen Macarah, Lisa Dyson, Cindy Pearl and Ceron Jones. 

The ensemble includes Mary Kate Chapman, Madison Miyuki Sprague, Michael Riskin, Melvin Biteng, Christopher Ho, Noah Heie, Coby Rogers, Laura Aronoff, Veronica Carolina Leite, Callula Sawyer, Lauren Barette, Arielle Dettmer, Almand Martin Jr., and Mathew San Jose.

The stage adaptation of Footloose the Musical is by Dean Pitchford and Walter Bobbie, based on the original screenplay by Dean Pitchford. Music is by Tom Snow, lyrics are by Dean Pitchford, and additional music is by Eric Carmen, Sammy Hagar, Kenny Loggins, and Jim Steinman. 

Set and lighting design is by Justin Huen, costume design is by Azucena Dominguez, and sound design is by Joseph “Sloe” Slawinski. Projection design is by Gabrieal Griego, properties master is Holly Titchen, and production stage manager is John W. Calder III. Assistant choreographer is Mary Kate Chapman. Casting is by Michael Donovan Casting, Michael Donovan, CSA, and Richie Ferris, CSA. Producing for Panic! Productions are Paul Panico and Alison Mahay; co-producing for BarCinBoo Productions are Barry Pearl and Cindy Pearl.

Footloose opened on Broadway on October 22, 1998, ran for 709 performances, and received four Tony Award nominations, including Best Book of a Musical and Best Original Musical Score. Now celebrating the 40^thanniversary of the original film and the 25^th anniversary of the Broadway musical, Footloose is about the exhilaration of youth, the wisdom of listening to one another, and the power of forgiveness.

Barry Pearl (Director/Co-Producer) is an award-winning actor, director, and producer. Best known as Doody in Paramount’s iconic film Grease. Broadway credits include The Producers, Bye Bye Birdie, Oliver, and Baby It’s You. Regional theatre directing credits include Crazy Time, Gift of The Magi, Night Hawks, Grease, 13 The Musical, Camp Rock, and All Shook Up.

Michelle Elkin’s (Choreographer/Co-Director) choreography credits include Sutton Foster In Concert (PBS), Young Sheldon Resident Choreographer (CBS), and Younger with Sutton Foster, Miriam Shor, and Martha Plimpton (TV Land). In regional theatre: Something Rotten, Ragtime, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Sister Act, New York Pops at Carnegie Hall. Associate Choreographer for Wonderland on Broadway.

Ron Barnett (Musical Director) is a Los Angeles-based composer and Director of Music at Saint Mark’s Episcopal Church, Glendale. His credits as a musical director include Blackbirds of Broadway, Ragtime, and The Who’s Tommy. Composing credits include Around the World in 80 Days, Last Lists of My Mad Mother, A Christmas Carol (book by Barry Kornhauser), and The Fish Whisperer, which premiered in 2023 at Northern Sky Theatre in Door County, WI. He is a member of New Musicals Inc. in North Hollywood, and with lyricist Greg Edwards was a finalist for the 2010 and 2012 Fred Ebb Prize. 

The admission price for previews is $45. For regular performances, admission is $55. A limited number of opening night seats are available for $75 (includes a post-performance reception). Tickets may be purchased online at www.colonytheatre.org. The Colony Theatre is located at 555 N. Third Street (between Cypress and Magnolia) in Burbank, 91502. Free onsite parking is available.

Three people were indicted for an identity-theft conspiracy that allegedly included the $400 million hack from FTX on the same day in November 2022 that the doomed cryptocurrency exchange filed for bankruptcy protection, court records show.

Robert Powell, the alleged ringleader of the SIM swapping group that drained that crypto out of FTX’s virtual wallets, is due to appear in Chicago federal court later Friday for a detention hearing.

Also charged in the case are Carter Rohn, an Indianapolis resident, and Colorado resident Emily Hernandez, according to the indictment, which was issued in mid-January by a grand jury in federal court in Washington, D.C.

The three defendants are charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud, and conspiracy to commit aggravated identity theft and access device fraud, in a scheme that ran from March 2021 to last April, and involved co-conspirators traveling to cell-phone retail stores in more than 15 states.

The indictment says the trio shared the personal identifying information of more than 50 victims, created fake identification documents in the victims’ names, impersonated them, and then accessed their victims’ “online, financial and social media accounts for the purpose of stealing money and data.”

The scheme relied on duping phone companies into swapping the Subscriber Identity Module of cell phone subscribers into a cell phone controlled by members of the conspiracy, the indictment said. That in turn allowed the conspirators to defeat the multi-factor authentication protection on the victims’ accounts, giving them access to the money in those accounts.

Powell’s attorney Gal Pissetzky declined to comment.

A spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Washington, which is prosecuting the case, declined to comment.

The indictment does not identify FTX by name as the main victim of the conspiracy, but the details of the hack described in that charging document align with the details publicly known about the theft from FTX, which was collapsing at the time of the attack.

A source familiar with the case confirmed that FTX was the victim mentioned in the indictment.

Former FTX chief Sam Bankman-Fried was convicted in November 2023 of conspiracy and wire fraud charges related to stealing $10 billion or more from customers. He is awaiting sentencing in Manhattan federal court next month.

The new indictment related to the hack says that on Nov. 11, 2022, “Powell instructed his co-conspirators to execute a SIM swap of the cellular telephone account of an employee of Victim Company-1,” or FTX.

Later that same day, an unidentified co-conspirator sent Hernandez a fraudulent identification document containing personally identifiable information about an FTX employee, “but bearing Hernandez’s photograph, which Hernandez then used to impersonate that person at a mobile service provider in Texas,” the indictment alleges.

After gaining access to the AT&T account of the FTX employee, co-conspirators sent Powell authentication codes that were needed to access the crypto company’s online accounts, the indictment says.

Later on Nov. 11 and continuing into the next day, “co-conspirators transferred over $400 million in virtual currency from [FTX’s] virtual currency walls to virtual currency wallets controlled by the co-conspirators.

The indictment says that several weeks before the FTX hack, the scheme looted $293,000 in virtual currency from one victim, and days later stole more than $1 million in crypto from another person.

And a day after the FTX hack, the conspirators stole about $590,000 in crypto from an individual’s virtual wallet.

This is breaking news. Please check back for updates.