The Griffith Park carousel — a “crown jewel” of the park, where Walt Disney first dreamed up Disneyland — is getting a new lease on life just in time for its 2026 centennial. The city of Los Angeles’ Recreation and Parks Commission inked a million-dollar deal to buy the historic amusement ride late last month.
Beloved by Disney, who snapped up a similar historic wooden ride to serve as the King Arthur Carrousel at his Anaheim theme park, the Griffith Park merry-go-round took its last twirl in 2022.
Its previous operator, Julio Gosdinski, died suddenly near the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, leaving the amusement in limbo just as COVID restrictions were starting to ease. It was reopened briefly in the spring of 2021 but was closed again a year later, in need of repairs and without a clear owner to make them.
Gosdinski’s stake in the historic amusement remains tied up in Los Angeles County probate court, where Gosdinski’s mother and sister are vying with another owner for control, records show.
After the parks commission agreement, the stable of hand-carved basswood and poplar horses will spin under city auspices, part of a broader restoration of the section of the park, which is slated to be completed ahead of the Olympic Games in 2028.
The carousel is one of the oldest wooden merry-go-rounds in California, and one of just a handful designed by the famous Spillman Engineering Corp. and its predecessor that remain in operation in the state.
Others are operated at the Pike in Long Beach, San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park, Balboa Park in San Diego, and at Tilden Park in Berkeley, where Griffith Park’s original merry-go-round remains the state’s fastest wooden spinner.
Visitors ride the Griffith Park merry-go-round, a favorite haunt of Walt Disney and his daughters, on Aug. 24, 1951.
(USC /Corbis via Getty Images)
The current merry-go-round was built in 1926 and relocated to Griffith Park in the depths of the Great Depression in 1937. Like others of its ilk and era, the carousel includes horses carved by the famous artist Charles Looff, creator of the Santa Monica Pier.
“Walt Disney regularly frequented the Merry-Go-Round on Saturdays, watching his daughters ride around and daydreaming of one day creating his own theme park,” the city agreement said.
But the amusement will require significant repairs before it can reopen, document show.
Today, the merry-go-round cannot even be moved by hand.
Still, L.A. could be getting the carousel for a song. It is among the dwindling number of four-across merry-go-rounds of its type still in existence, and still retains nearly all its original features, according to appraisals commissioned by the city.
According to the department’s proposal, the sellers had higher offers but wanted the merry-go-round to keep twirling in its longtime home.
A group of healthcare workers in Santa Barbara were fired on Wednesday after a video apparently showing patients’ bodily fluids was posted on TikTok, according to their employer.
The now-deleted post, made by a former employee at Sansum Clinic — a nonprofit outpatient care facility owned by Sutter Health — showed eight workers mocking what appeared to be the bodily fluid of patients on exam tables with the on-screen caption, “Are patients allowed to leave you guys gifts?” and “Make sure you leave your healthcare workers sweet gifts like these!” In one image, the medical staff are seen pointing and smiling at a spot with their thumbs up. The caption reads, “Guess the substance!”
A spokesperson for Sacramento-based health system Sutter Health said that, although the original poster was not an employee at the time the video was posted, others who appeared in it had been terminated.
“This unacceptable behavior is an outright violation of our policies, shows a lack of respect for our patients and will not be tolerated,” the company said in a statement shared with The Times.
The video spread over the weekend on platforms including X, Instagram and Reddit, sparking an outpouring of anger among commenters along the way.
“No place for shaming the patient in medicine,” one user on Reddit wrote.
“My question is what is the culture of your clinic because why did this many employees feel comfortable participating in this?” another user inquired on Instagram.
According to an online statement from Sansum Clinic, officials were notified of the post by concerned patients and immediately conducted a review of the video.
“Within 24 hours of becoming aware of the posts, we placed the employees on administrative leave, and within another 24 hours, we terminated those involved,” the health system posted.
The video was deleted soon after it was posted once commenters questioned the participants’ ethics. But it was reposted by multiple other accounts and disseminated further through “stitches” of individuals reacting to the post on TikTok and other platforms.
A Sansum spokesperson said the clinic remained steadfastly committed to patient privacy and dignity.
“We expect all team members to live our patients-first mission and uphold the highest standards of compassion, professionalism and respect,” he said. “We are using this inappropriate incident to reinforce our comprehensive policies with all our team members across the organization.”
BROOKLYN — For more than four decades, Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada ruled from the shadows. While other top Mexican drug traffickers were killed or extradited to the United States to face justice, Zambada remained comfortably ensconced atop his empire, exporting tons of cocaine, meth, heroin and fentanyl around the globe from his stronghold in the Pacific state of Sinaloa.
Long after the downfall of his Sinaloa cartel partner, Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, Zambada continued to operate with impunity, always a step ahead of the law — until eventually it caught up to him, too.
Now the question is whether he’ll take others down with him.
Zambada, 75, will mark a final chapter Monday afternoon in his legendary criminal career when he is set to appear before a federal judge in Brooklyn and plead guilty to an array of charges for leading a “continuing criminal enterprise” from the late 1980s until his arrest last year. He admitted to money laundering, kidnapping, murder and drug conspiracies.
Zamabada’s stunning downfall began last July when he arrived on a private jet at a small airport near El Paso, Texas. In the immedate aftermath, rumors swirled that Zambada may have orchestrated his surrender in order to undergo medical treatment or reunite with his brother and several sons who are believed to be living under witness protection after pleading guilty and cooperating with U.S. authorities to resolve their own criminal cases.
Zambada, however, has vehemently denied that his arrival in the U.S. was prearranged. A few weeks after he was taken into custody, he alleged he was set up and kidnapped by one of El Chapo’s sons, Joaquín Guzmán López, a leader of the cartel faction known as Los Chapitos, or the Little Chapos.
Zambada claimed in a letter released by his lawyer that he was lured to what he thought would be a meeting between Sinaloa’s governor and another prominent politician, only to be ambushed, zip-tied, forced onto the plane by Guzmán López and delivered to U.S. authorities.
Guzmán López, 39, is facing his own federal case in Chicago, where he has pleaded not guilty to drug and conspiracy charges. His younger brother, Ovidio Guzmán, recently pleaded guilty to similar charges, with court filings revealing that he has agreed to cooperate with U.S. investigators.
A mugshot of Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, released by U.S. authorities during the trial of his longtime partner in the Sinaloa Cartel, Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán.
(U.S. Department of Justice)
There is no indication that Zambada has a cooperation agreement. But his family’s history, combined with the fact that he has agreed to plead guilty rather than take his case to trial, is fueling speculation that he could be prepared to spill secrets about high-level corruption.
Paul Craine, the top official in Mexico for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration from 2012 to 2017, said of Zambada: “He knows more than anybody.”
Craine, who retired from the DEA now runs a private security firm, said it’s unlikely that federal prosecutors would ever agree to a deal that gives the kingpin anything less than life in prison.
Zambada was already spared the death penalty, but the government could dangle other benefits, he said, such as relocating family members to the United States for their safety or allowing him to serve his time somewhere cushier than the Colorado “supermax” prison where El Chapo and others deemed extreme security risks are held in near total isolation.
Zambada, Craine said, has knowledge about “40 years of the top leadership of the military and the government [in Mexico] that he was directly paying and had co-opted.”
“He’s the godfather,” Craine said. “He’s the consistency across everything.”
Zambada’s case is playing out during a delicate moment in U.S.-Mexico relations, with President Trump using tariffs as a cudgel to force action against the Sinaloa cartel and others responsible for shipping fentanyl and other drugs north across the Rio Grande. Trump designated Zambada’s group and others as terrorist organizations earlier this year, and has floated the possibility of the U.S. military taking action on the Mexican side of the border.
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum has sought to appease Trump by handing over dozens of reputed high-ranking cartel figures for prosecution by U.S. authorities, but Craine said those offerings may not be enough.
“There’s more value now in being able to target a high-level corrupt criminal political figure than there is in the biggest drug trafficker in Mexico,” he said.
Other former federal law enforcement officials echoed that assessment. Adam Braverman, a former U.S. attorney in San Diego who oversaw the indictments of Zambada and several of his sons, called Monday’s guilty plea “a monumental day for the Department of Justice.”
Braverman, who now works in private practice, said if Zambada were to cooperate, merely giving up other cartel figures would not be enough to make it worth the bargain.
“When you’re at the top of the chain, there’s nobody else to cooperate against,” he said. “You’re talking about generals, governors — potentially presidents of Mexico.”
Joaquín Guzmán Lopez (left), a son of the Sinaloa Cartel leader known as “El Chapo,” and longtime cartel boss Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada (Right) in partially redacted photos released by the Mexican government following their arrests in El Paso, Texas, in 2024.
(Government of Mexico)
Zambada claimed in his letter last year that he was invited to a meeting near Sinaloa’s capital Culiacán, where he expected to help mediate a dispute between the city’s former mayor, Héctor Melesio Cuén, and his political rival, Sinaloa’s current governor, Rubén Rocha Moya.
Melesio Cuén turned up shot to death on the day of Zambada’s arrest. Rocha Moya, a Morena party member, has denied any knowledge of the kidnapping plot, pointing to flight records that show he took a family trip to Los Angeles as the events were playing out.
Mexican federal authorities have cited several suspicious irregularities in the investigation into Melesio Cuén’s killing by Sinaloan state authorities, including the abrupt cremation of his body.
With tensions already running high, Guillermo Valdes Castellanos, a former head of the national intelligence agency that is Mexico’s equivalent of the CIA, said Zambada’s plea means some of Mexico’s political elites must now be sweating bullets.
“[The Americans] are going to concentrate on receiving information about all of the politicians who protected [El Mayo], who helped him from the army, the police, etc.,” he said. “The fact that he may have more solid information to accuse the Mexican politicians and authorities involved is what’s making people very nervous here.”
There’s a sickness hovering over Tulare County‘s dairy industry.
On a recent 98-degree afternoon, dead cows and calves were piled up along the roadside. Thick swarms of black flies hummed and knocked against the windows of an idling car, while crows and vultures waited nearby — eyeballing the taut and bloated carcasses roasting in the October heat.
Since the H5N1 bird flu virus was first reported in California in early August, 124 dairy herds and 13 people — all dairy workers — have been infected.
And according to dairy experts, the spread of the virus has yet to abate.
Two dead cows lie on the edge of a dairy farm in Tipton, Calif.
“I’m surprised there are that few reported,” said Anja Raudabaugh, CEO of Western United Dairies, a California dairy trade organization, after being told the latest case number was 105. “This thing is not slowing down.”
A similar observation was made by Jimmy Andreoli II, spokesman for Baker Commodities, a rendering company with facilities in Southern California, who said his workers are picking up a surge of dead cows throughout the San Joaquin Valley.
“There’s definitely been an increased number of fallen animals lately, and some of that has got to be attributed to the long, hot summer we’ve had. And some of it, you know, certainly is attributed to the H5N1 virus,” he said, noting that one of his drivers picked up 20 to 30 animals at one farm in one day.
He said at some farms the cows are intentionally being left on the roadside to reduce contamination — preventing further inter-farm spread. At others, the animals are left on-site — but away from live animals and people.
Central Valley dairy farms have been reeling from outbreaks of H5N1 bird flu in recent weeks. The mortality rate among infected cows has been higher than anticipated, industry experts say.
The diseased carcasses are brought to Baker’s rendering site in Kerman, where the bodies are “recycled” and turned into “high protein” animal feed and fertilizer, or rendered into liquids that are then used in fuels, paints, varnishes, lubricants “and all sort of different industrial products.”
He said the Kerman plant is operating normally with no service disruption, even with the heavy influx of diseased cattle. Although due to the large volume of dead animals and “the extra time required for sanitization procedures,” in some areas, pick-ups have shifted from daily to every-other day schedules.”
“All of our customers are being serviced effectively,” he said.
Despite the gruesome scene along the Tipton roadside, John Korslund, a retired U.S. Department of Agriculture veterinarian epidemiologist, said there was probably very little risk to public health in having the animals piled up — even if they were picked at and consumed by buzzards, ravens and flies.
“At death, virus replication stops and putrefaction and heat begins to neutralize live virus,” he said. “Virus will survive on the carcass surface — not for long at 100 degrees — but temperature and acidification pretty rapidly neutralize it in the carcass, at least influenza viruses.”
Raudabaugh said although she and the dairy farmers she represents had been reading about the virus for months before it hit, no one was prepared for the devastation and unevenness with which the virus has struck California’s dairy herds.
She said on some farms, the cows seem virtually unaffected, despite being infected. While on others, the animals are dying in droves. She said she knows of one farm where nearly half the animals died.
She also said some breeds are harder hit than others. For instance, Holsteins seem to suffer more than Jerseys.
“The reason is because Holsteins produce more milk. So they have more volume for the virus to enjoy,” she said, noting research showing the virus’ affinity for mammary tissue.
Asked if the disease was killing them on their hoofs, or if farmers were making tough decisions and euthanizing animals that seemed particularly ill with bacterial pneumonia, mastitis or bloat, she said it was the former.
Continuing H5N1 outbreaks in California dairy herds and reduced milk productivity among recovered cows is causing increasing concern among dairy operators.
She said most of the animals that are succumbing to the virus are young — they are going through their second lactational cycles. (She said most dairy cows will have five or six lactational cycles before they are taken out of production and turned into beef or rendered).
As a result, the farmers are doing what they can to keep these young animals alive “given the extreme rearing and raising and just expenses that go into raising these animals,” she said. “There’s hope that on the other side of the virus, they will come back into production that’s sustainable for the farmer. So it’s definitely a last resort if they are culling them.”
It is unclear if infected dairy cows will recover full production when they enter a new lactational cycle. Observations suggest that production drops significantly in the current cycle, often to 60% or 70%.
She said depression is becoming a bigger and bigger problem for dairy farmers who are struggling with high mortality rates in their cattle herds, as well as the financial burden of the disease.
1
2
1.Brandon Mendonsa, 37, a third generation dairy farmer in Tipton, has lost 28 head of dairy cattle to the H5N1 virus which he called covid for cows. There isn’t a cure for the virus which gives the cattle flu like symptoms and has led to a number of cattle deaths. A Holstein dairy cow at auction gets $2200.00 which would put Mendonsa’s losses at one $60,000.2.Healthy dairy cattle bask in the morning light on the Mendonsa Farms property in Tipton, CA.
If the cows don’t come back to full production, it could ruin many farmers, she said.
“There’s real fear,” she said.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture has a program to pay back farmers for production loss due to the virus. The program covers the three weeks of production lost by a cow when it is removed from the milking herd to recover, as well as the seven days afterward when production is still low.
But there is currently no program to pay farmers or dairy workers who are affected by the virus, however, which is a concern for infectious disease experts, as well as farmworker advocates who say there is no incentive for dairy workers to report symptoms and isolate for 10 days (the current guidance).
“The majority of dairy workers in California have no protections. Most of them are immigrants. And I would say at least half of them are undocumented,” said Elizabeth Strater, national vice president and director of strategic campaigns for United Farm Workers.
“These are folks that don’t have a particular relationship of trust with state and federal government officials.”
She said dairy work is coveted by immigrants — it’s not seasonal like crop work — and few Americans are hungry for the dangerous and exhausting work the positions require: Two milkings a day (often 15 hours apart) and moving large, unpredictable animals.
“These workers are on the front lines of infectious outbreak, and if they somehow get tested and are tested positive, then they’re going to be looking at something that is financially a disaster,” she said. “Most people in the United States don’t want to miss two weeks of pay, right? Let alone these people who are already … some of the poorest people, and with the least protections. Without a safety net.”
She said her organization and others are trying to inform as many workers as possible.
“We are sharing as much information about how important it is for workers to get their seasonal flu shot this year, even if they don’t always do it,” she said. “But the thing is, that seasonal flu shot does not protect that worker, right? It protects me. It protects you. It protects the rest of the public from a situation in which someone who’s co-infected with two types of influenza exchanges that material” to someone else.
Recombination of H5N1 with a human flu virus — in which the two viruses mix to potentially become a more contagious or harmful virus — is a major concern for public health officials.
According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the current public health risk of H5N1 is low, but the agency said it was working with states to monitor people with animal exposures.
The morning sun rises above cows in a Tipton, Calif., dairy farm.
Although the numbers of workers so far reportedly infected with H5N1 remains low, conversations with Tipton residents suggested it’s probably larger than has been reported.
“A lot of people have it,” said a woman working behind the cash register at Tipton’s Dollar General, one of the few stores in this small, agricultural community right off of Highway 99.
The woman declined to provide her name, explaining her husband is a dairy worker in the country illegally in Tulare County; she said his job is not protected or secure, and she was fearful of retribution.
“So far the symptoms seem pretty mild,” she said. “People can keep working.”
Isaac Wright, spent 8 years in prison became a paralegal helping other inmates & practicing his own case. He got a police officer to admit the states attorney was bribing & lying. The state attorney commited suicide before the trial. He then had to fight against the other charges he had, and was released Wright is the only person in the US history to have been Sentenced to life in prison, Securing his own release and exoneration, and then being granted a license to practice Law by the very court that condemned him
A magnitude 3 earthquake occurred just north of Malibu Saturday afternoon, the latest in a cluster of temblors reported over the last week and a half.
The latest earthquake occurred at 2:15 p.m. Saturday, with an epicenter along Kanan Dume Road, about 3.6 miles north of Point Dume.
Saturday’s event was the sixth earthquake of magnitude 3 or higher since a magnitude 4.7 earthquake in the same area was widely felt across Southern California on Sept. 12.
Only “weak” shaking was felt in the area closest to Saturday’s epicenter, which included Zuma Beach and Point Dume State Beach in Malibu, as defined by the Modified Mercalli Intensity Scale, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. That intensity of shaking is so mild that many people don’t recognize it as an earthquake. If they do, the vibrations felt might be similar to the passing of a truck.
This has been an unusually active year for moderate earthquakes in Southern California. The Sept. 12 earthquake north of Malibu was part of the 14th seismic sequence this year in Southern California with at least one magnitude 4 or higher earthquake, seismologist Lucy Jones, a Caltech research associate, said earlier this month.
That broke a record for the last 65 years. Over that time period, Jones said, there were an average of eight to 10 independent sequences of earthquakes annually that included at least one temblor of magnitude 4 or greater.
In some years, there were just one or two of those earthquake sequences; the highest previous tally was 13 in 1988.
The observation is not necessarily an indication that a large, damaging earthquake is around the corner, scientists said.
Some researchers have offered dueling theories — some say earthquake activity increases in a region before a large earthquake, others say seismic activity decreases before a large jolt.
So the recent activity does not offer any hint of when the next large, destructive temblor will occur, said Susan Hough, a U.S. Geological Survey seismologist, earlier this month.
Are you ready for when the Big One hits? Get ready for the next big earthquake by signing up for our Unshaken newsletter, which breaks down emergency preparedness into bite-sized steps over six weeks. Learn more about earthquake kits, which apps you need, Lucy Jones’ most important advice and more at latimes.com/Unshaken.
While delegates gleefully cast their ceremonial votes for Vice President Kamala Harris to be their presidential nominee at Tuesday night’s Democratic National Convention, a dancing DJ spun a fresh song for each state from the stage.
DJ Cassidy, the Californian sporting an electric blue suit, stole the show.
The 43-year-old Angeleno, whose name is Cassidy Podell, returned to the DNC stage Tuesday 12 years after he became the first disc jockey to perform at the quadrennial convention. He also deejayed the last DNC in 2020, an entirely virtual affair because of the pandemic, where Cassidy performed in his quintessential wide-brimmed hat and colorful suit jacket from home.
In a video posted earlier on Instagram, Cassidy greeted singer Patti LaBelle, who kicked off the evening’s events with a rendition of “You Are My Friend.”
Cassidy has frequently played the celebrity circuit, including deejaying at Beyoncé and Jay Z’s wedding. He also set the soundtrack for Obama family birthday parties.
With images of Cassidy spinning and dancing on the stage and Lil Jon rapping in the aisles of the convention hall, the Democratic Party tried to shake up the roll call of votes on Tuesday.
The music selections created a party-like atmosphere among the thousands of delegates gathered in the United Center, and reflected interesting choices. For California, Harris’ home and the final state to cast the votes of its delegates, Cassidy played a mix of hits — “The Next Episode” by Dr. Dre featuring Snoop Dogg; “California Love” by 2Pac and Dr. Dre; and “Alright” and “Not Like Us” by Kendrick Lamar.
Some were natural fits, featuring musicians from their home states. Others struck odd notes because the message of the lyrics didn’t match Democratic values. Some selections struck an inspirational tone about the prospect of electing a woman of color to the nation’s highest office. Others were completely nonsensical.
And some listeners thought it was great.
“I loved that DJ Cassidy played authentic music for every state during the DNC roll call,” Magic Johnson posted on X. “He turned it out tonight!”
The shooter trained his AR-style rifle on people gathered far from his rooftop perch, echoing the mass shooting in 2017 in which a gunman opened fire on a music festival from the 32nd floor of a Las Vegas hotel.
Law enforcement said the shooter was 20 years old and got the gun he used from home — just like so many other young shooters who have left bloody trails through this nation’s schools and churches, bars and other community gathering places.
“Time and time again our communities are shaken by acts of gun violence that have invaded what should be our safe places,” said Angela Ferrell-Zabala, executive director of the gun control advocacy organization Moms Demand Action. “But they are a consequence of our country’s weak gun laws and guns everywhere culture — laws that allow hate to be armed with a gun to easily take someone else’s life.”
Amid denouncements of political violence from leaders and average Americans on both sides of the political aisle, the nation’s great gun divide felt newly raw Sunday — but hardly changed. Despite their presidential candidate nearly being shot dead, there were no outward calls from leading Republicans for the party to ease its ardent support of gun rights.
Still, the shooting provided a new and particularly powerful example of yet another American institution — this time the electoral process — falling victim to the vast proliferation of modern firearms. And that could matter as courts across the country and in California continue to weigh when, where and why such weapons may be restricted, if at all.
A person is removed by state police from the stands after a gun was fired at Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump in Butler, Pa., on Saturday.
(Rebecca Droke/AFP via Getty Images)
Like the Vegas shooting, where a gunman killed almost 60 people and injured hundreds of others, the attack Saturday raised questions about how to define such sensitive places, and how to determine whether a certain type of firearm or accessory is so dangerous that it falls outside the protections of the 2nd Amendment, legal experts said.
Such questions hold added weight in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2022 decision in New York State Rifle & Pistol Assn. vs. Bruen, where the high court said most gun laws are legitimate only if they are rooted in the nation’s history and tradition or are sufficiently analogous to some historic law.
In October, U.S. District Judge Roger Benitez, of San Diego, citing the high court’s Bruen decision, ruled that California’s ban on the sort of AR-style weapon used Saturday was unconstitutional because it was not rooted in history — and because assault-style rifles are sufficiently common and not uniquely dangerous.
“Like the Bowie Knife which was commonly carried by citizens and soldiers in the 1800s,” Benitez wrote at the start of his decision, “ ‘assault weapons’ are dangerous, but useful.”
Of course, assault rifles are far more dangerous than Bowie knives, with a vastly different range for inflicting harm. Federal authorities, for example, said Crooks shot Trump from an “elevated position outside of the rally venue” — which the Washington Post estimated was about 430 feet from where Trump was speaking.
Darrell A.H. Miller, a professor at University of Chicago Law School who studies 2nd Amendment law, said there is a “fairly well established” legal tradition declaring political rallies and other electoral events as sensitive places where guns can be prohibited.
However, Saturday’s shooting raised new questions about the scope of such restrictions and others like it — and about the nature of “sensitive places” and how their boundaries can and should be defined, he and other experts said.
“Sensitive places doctrine, to the extent that it is currently being developed, may need to be attentive to changes in firearm technology over the last 200 years,” Miller said in an interview Sunday.
Legal experts said the shooting could also help gun control advocates argue that such high-powered, long-range weapons are uniquely dangerous, even if they are commonly owned, and that bans on them in California and elsewhere are therefore in line with other longstanding bans on particularly dangerous weapons such as machine guns.
Steve Gordon, a retired LAPD special weapons team officer and sniper, said the shot that struck Trump was not particularly difficult with a little training, despite the distance.
“That type of rifle is standard issue to the police/military and that is not a difficult shot to make with that weapon system,” Gordon told The Times.
Congressional Republicans and the Biden administration have said Saturday’s shooting will be investigated thoroughly, including to determine if anything could have been done differently to prevent it. What may come of those probes is unclear.
Trump’s shooting also could be cited as another data point — a historically monumental one — in support of laws, such as California’s, that bar the sale of such weapons to those under 21, regardless of whether Crooks personally bought the weapon or not.
Gun control advocates could use the added evidence of the unique threat that high-powered, long-range weapons pose in the hands of unstable young men, particularly given the uphill battle they face in defending firearms restrictions post-Bruen.
The U.S. Supreme Court recently ruled that domestic abusers can be precluded from possessing firearms, but it has ruled against firearms regulations in other instances. Just last month, the high court struck down a federal ban on bump stocks — an accessory that allows gunmen to fire off rounds much more rapidly, and which were used in the Vegas shooting.
Courts aside, Trump’s shooting has already entered the national gun debate in a major way.
For example, when the National Rifle Assn. offered prayers to Trump, law enforcement and others at the rally in a post on the social media platform X, Shannon Watts — a co-founder of Moms Demand Action and the affiliated group Everytown — responded with a bristling retort suggesting hypocrisy on the NRA’s part.
“The NRA’s extremist agenda ensured a 20 year old would-be assassin had access to a weapon of war, rendering even the most highly trained security forces incapable of protecting anyone — from school children to former presidents,” Watts wrote.
She then noted that such weapons have been used in recent years to murder people at a grocery store in Buffalo, N.Y., a nightclub in Orlando, Fla., and schools across the country, from Santa Fe, N.M., to Uvalde, Texas, to Parkland, Fla.
Others made similar connections.
“If you keep talking about the assassination attempt don’t you dare tell the kids who survive school shootings and their families to ‘just get over it,’ ” wrote David Hogg, a survivor of the shooting that killed 17 and wounded others at his Parkland high school in 2018.
Hogg was apparently referring to comments Trump made about the need to “get over” a school shooting in Iowa earlier this year, which were roundly condemned by gun control advocates and survivors.
What happened Saturday was “unacceptable,” Hogg wrote, but so is “what happens every day to kids who aren’t the president and don’t survive.”
Times staff writer Richard Winton contributed to this report.
Adam Nayman takes a look at some must-see found footage films
To celebrate the 25th anniversary of the release of The Blair Witch Project, Ringer contributor Adam Nayman takes a look at some must-see found footage films.
At long last, summer temperatures have arrived in Chicago, which means locals are eager to hit the pavement and savor every moment of the all-too-brief season. That means it’s a great time to explore the city’s many bar and restaurant pop-ups to keep things interesting and preview up-and-coming hospitality talent. Follow along for a sampling of the best the city has to offer in Eater Chicago’s pop-up round-up.
Have a pop-up that should be listed? Email information to chicago@eater.com.
July
Lombard: Annual touring event Halal Ribfest is back in town for a meaty, family-friendly celebration of halal-certified barbecue and street food from Friday, July 12 through Sunday, July 14 in suburban Lombard, according to a rep. Attendees can snag samples from competitors in a BBQ Showdown and vote for the top contenders in categories like “best ribs,” “best sauce,” and “people’s champion.” There’s also a special zone for kids with free activities like magic shows and inflatables. Tickets (prices vary) and more details are available online. Halal Ribfest Illinois 2024, Friday, July 12 through Sunday, July 14, 203 Yorktown Shopping Center in Lombard.
Fulton Market: Celebrity chef Stephanie Izard (Girl & the Goat) will team up with James Beard Award-winning chef Jonathon Sawyer (Kindling) and fellow Top Chef alum Joe Sasto on Thursday, July 18 for a rooftop party at Cabra, her Peruvian-style spot atop the Hoxton hotel, according to a rep. Party people can expect “seasonal eats,” tequila-based cocktails, frozen drinks, and sweeping city views. Tickets ($125) are available via OpenTable. A portion of each ticket sale will be donated to the Greater Chicago Food Depository. Hot to Goat! at Cabra, 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. Thursday, July 18, 200 N. Green Street.
Fulton Market: Izard will keep the party going on Friday, July 19 with a 14th birthday celebration of Girl & the Goat, her famed restaurant with James Beard Award-winning Boka Restaurant Group. Tickets ($85) include passed appetizers and two drink tickets, and are available via OpenTable. Birthday Bubbles & Bites Happy Hour at Girl & the Goat, 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. Friday, July 19, 809 W. Randolph Street.
Avondale: Heavy metal-themed burger mini-chain Kuma’s Corner will hold a launch party on Saturday, July 20 for the Stella’s Burger, a new burger creation designed to raise funds for a 13-year-old Chicagoan who is recovering from a physical assault in 2023 at her middle school, according to a rep. The Angus beef burger features its namesake’s favorite toppings: spicy dijonnaise, mushrooms, fried pickles, Muenster, and avocado, and $2 from each burger sold will go to a GoFundMe campaign to help cover Stella’s medical expenses and assist in a search for a more accessible home. It will remain on the menu until the teen’s GoFundMe campaign reaches its $25,000 goal. Release party festivities will include a raffle, a silent auction, and limited edition t-shirts available for purchase. Stella’s Burger Release Party at Kuma’s Corner, 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. Saturday, July 20, 2900 W. Belmont Avenue.
River North: Chef Brian Baxter of lauded fine dining spot The Catbird Seat in Nashville will join Chicago chef Sujan Sarkar and his team at Michelin-starred Indienne for a collaborative one-night-only pop-up on Monday, July 22 in River North, according to a rep. Baxter and Sarkar promise an eight-course tasting menu ($190 per person) and optional wine pairings ($120 per person) from Indienne sommelier Tia Polite. Reservations are available via Tock. Indienne x The Catbird Seat, Monday, July 22, 217 W. Huron Street.
The Loop: Seoul nightlife-inspired cocktail bar Miki’s Park is bringing back its K-Pop fireworks boat party for the second year running on Wednesday, July 24 aboard the “Summer of George” boat. Attendees will have access to two cash bars throughout the three-hour ride on the Chicago River and Lake Michigan with tunes from Miki’s Park’s resident K-Pop DJ Dorian Westwood, a fireworks show from the boat’s top roof deck, and entry to the bar’s late-night afterparty. Tickets and more details are available online. Miki’s Park K-POP Fireworks Boat Party, 7 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. Wednesday, July 24, Departs from River City Marina at 900 S. Wells Street.
A person is in custody after several people were stabbed Thursday night in Huntington Beach, leaving two dead and three others injured, according to authorities and news reports.
Police received reports of an assault with a deadly weapon near the intersection of 16th Street and Pecan Avenue around 11:15 p.m., the Huntington Beach Police Department said in a news release. When police arrived at the scene, they found several people with significant injuries.
Two people died from their injuries and three others were taken to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, police said.
Witnesses told news station KTLA-TV that a group of people were watching fireworks from the street when a man drove up in a car, got out and started stabbing people on the sidewalk. Two bystanders tackled the man and held him until police arrived, witnesses told the news station.
One person is in custody, according to police, but it’s unclear if they are a suspect. There are no additional details about the victims or the circumstances surrounding the stabbing.
The incident is under investigation by the major crimes unit. Huntington Beach police said they believe the stabbings were an isolated event.
There are growing signs of an uptick in COVID-19 in California thanks to the new FLiRT subvariants.
It’s far too early to know if FLiRT will be a major change in the COVID picture, and so far the impacts have been small.
But health officials are taking note and are urging Californians — especially those at risk — to be prepared.
Here’s rundown of what we know and how you can protect yourself.
What are FLiRT subvariants?
The FLiRT subvariants — officially known as KP.2, KP.3 and KP.1.1 — have overtaken the dominant winter variant, JN.1. For the two-week period that ended Saturday, they were estimated to account for a combined 50.4% of the nation’s coronavirus infections, up from 20% a month earlier.
Despite their increased transmissibility, the new mutations don’t appear to result in more severe disease. And the vaccine is expected to continue working well, given the new subvariants are only slightly different from the winter version.
“It’s been quite a while since we’ve had a new dominant variant in the U.S.,” Dr. David Bronstein, an infectious diseases specialist at Kaiser Permanente Southern California told The Times earlier this month. “With each of these variants that takes over from the one before it, we do see increased transmissibility — it’s easier to spread from person to person. So, that’s really the concern with FLiRT.”
What are officials seeing?
Doctors say they are not seeing a dramatic jump in severely ill people, and COVID levels still remain relatively low. But there are signs of a rise in infections that could lead to the summer coronavirus season beginning earlier than expected.
“COVID-19 concentrations in wastewater have suggested increases in several regions across California since early May. Test positivity for COVID-19 has been slowly increasing since May,” the state Department of Public Health said in a statement to The Times on Friday.
Over the seven-day period that ended Monday, about 3.8% of COVID-19 tests in California came back positive; in late April, that share was 1.9%. (Last summer’s peak test-positive rate was 12.8%, at the end of August.)
In San Francisco, infectious disease doctors are noticing more people in the hospital with COVID-caused pneumonia.
The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health has also started to see a very small uptick in cases in recent days. And Kaiser Permanente Southern California is reporting a small increase in outpatient COVID-19 cases.
How can I protect myself?
Vaccines
Doctors urged people to consider getting up to date on their vaccinations — particularly if they are at higher risk of severe complications from COVID-19.
In California, just 36% of seniors ages 65 and older have received the updated COVID-19 vaccine that first became available in September. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has urged everyone ages 6 months and older to get one dose of the updated vaccine. A second dose is also recommended for those ages 65 and older, as long as at least four months have passed since their last shot.
It’s especially important that older people get at least one updated dose. Of the patients he has seen recently who had serious COVID, said UC San Francisco infectious diseases specialist Dr. Peter Chin-Hong, all of them hadn’t gotten an updated vaccine since September, and were older or immunocompromised.
Behavior
Avoid sick people. Some sick people might pass off their symptoms as a “cold,” when it could be the start of a COVID-19 illness.
Testing
Test if you’re sick, and test daily. It’s sometimes taking longer after the onset of illness for a COVID-19 rapid test to show up as positive. Consider taking a rapid COVID test once a day for three to five consecutive days after the onset of cough-and-cold symptoms, said Dr. Elizabeth Hudson, regional chief of infectious disease at Kaiser Permanente Southern California. Doing so can help the sickened person take measures to later isolate themselves and limit spread of the illness to others.
Planning
Have a plan to ask for Paxlovid if you become ill. Paxlovid is an antiviral drug that, when taken by people at risk for severe COVID-19 who have mild-to-moderate illness, reduces the risk of hospitalization and death.
Masks are much less common these days but can still be a handy tool to prevent infection. Wearing a mask on a crowded flight where there are coughing people nearby can help reduce the risk of infection.
How can I protect my family and friends?
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has recently eased COVID isolation guidance, given that the health impacts of COVID-19 are lower than they once were, due to the availability of vaccines, anti-COVID medicines such as Paxlovid and increased population immunity.
There are fewer people getting hospitalized and dying, and fewer reports of complications such as multi-inflammatory syndrome in children.
Still, doctors say it remains prudent to take common sense steps to avoid illness and spreading the disease to others, given that COVID still causes significant health burdens that remain worse than the flu. Nationally, since the start of October, more than 43,000 people have died of COVID; by contrast, flu has resulted in an estimated 25,000 fatalities over the same time period.
While the prevalence of long COVID has been going down, long COVID can still be a risk any time someone gets COVID.
Here’s a guide on what to do if you get COVID-19:
Stay home and away from others while sick, plus a day after you’ve recovered
The CDC says people should stay home and away from others in their household until at least 24 hours after their respiratory viral symptoms are getting better overall, and they have not had a fever (and are not using fever-reducing medicine). Previously, the CDC suggested people with COVID isolate for at least five days, and take additional precautions for a few more days.
In terms of deciding when symptoms are getting better overall, what’s most important is “the overall sense of feeling better and the ability to resume activities,” the CDC says. A lingering cough by itself can last beyond when someone is contagious, the CDC said.
The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health also recommends testing yourself using a rapid test, and getting a negative result, before leaving isolation.
The agency also suggests staying away from the elderly and immunocompromised people for 10 days after you start to feel sick.
Take additional precautions after you recover in case you’re still contagious
People who have recovered from COVID-19 may still be contagious a few days after they have recovered. The CDC suggests taking added precautions for five days after they leave their household and resume spending time with others to keep others safe. They include:
Wearing a well-fitting mask;
Continuing to test for COVID-19. If positive, it’s likely you’re more likely to infect others, still;
Keeping distance from other people;
Increasing air circulation by opening windows, turning on air purifiers, gathering outdoors if meeting with people;
And sticking with enhanced hygiene: washing and sanitizing hands often, cleaning high-touch surfaces, and covering coughs and sneezes.
Masking for 10 days to protect others
The L.A. County Department of Public Health says people with COVID-19 need to wear a well-fitting mask for 10 days after starting to feel sick, even if signs of illness are improving, to reduce the chance that other people could get infected. Masks can be removed sooner if you have two consecutive negative test results at least one day apart, the agency says.
Be aware of COVID rebound
COVID rebound can occur when people with COVID-19 feel better, but then start to feel sick two to eight days after they’ve recovered. Some people may also test positive again. COVID rebound can result in you becoming infectious again, capable of infecting those with whom you interact.
Rebound can happen whether or not you take Paxlovid.
Officials say if you feel sick again after having recovered from COVID, go back to following the same instructions to stay at home and away from other people during the first phase of the illness.
If you test positive but have no symptoms
The CDC says if you never had any symptoms, but test positive, take additional precautions for the next five days, such as masking up, testing, increasing air circulation, keeping distance and washing hands often.
The L.A. County Department of Public Health recommends wearing a well-fitting mask for 10 days after testing positive for COVID-19, and also avoiding contact with any high-risk people for 10 days after starting to feel sick, such as the elderly and immunocompromised people. You can remove your mask sooner if you have two consecutive negative tests at least one day apart.
L.A. County health officials recommend close contacts of people who have COVID-19 wear a well-fitting mask around other people for 10 days after their last exposure. They suggest getting tested three to five days after their last exposure.
When Father Greg Boyle of Homeboy Industries was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Biden on May 3, I thought about dropping by to talk to him, but then I hesitated.
He’s not one to take bows, and I knew he’d credit everyone but himself. So it would be tough to come up with a new angle, even with the city of Los Angeles now proclaiming that May 19 will be Father Greg Boyle day in honor of the man who started the world’s largest gang intervention and rehabilitation program.
But then I got an idea. What if I talked to former gang members and inmates rather than to the patron saint of second chances, who turns 70 on Sunday? They know him better than anyone, and maybe I’d find out things I didn’t know.
A photograph of Father Greg Boyle receiving the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Joe Biden has been added to the walls of his office at Homeboy Industries in Los Angeles.
(Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times)
My timing was perfect, because Boyle was out of the country.
“Go for it,” he said in an email from Ireland.
I dropped by Homeboy on Tuesday and spent a few minutes with Pamela Herrera, 39, who arrived in 2011 after her release from prison.
“When I walked into his office, he asked me, ‘Hey, kiddo. What are you here for?’” Herrera said. “I told him I wanted to change my life.”
And she did. Herrera is general manager of Homegirl Cafe, and although she had never heard of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, she said Boyle is a worthy recipient. I asked if she’d seen him wearing the medal, because I know that if I had won one of those, I’d wear it everywhere.
“He needs to do that,” she agreed, but no, she hadn’t seen the medal.
Hector Verdugo, associate executive director for Homeboy Industries, smiles as he shares stories about Father Greg Boyle.
(Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times)
Hector Verdugo, 49, didn’t know what had come of the medal, either. The former gang member, who arrived 18 years ago and now helps run Homeboy as associate executive director, knew what he would do if he were to win the hardware.
“I would wear it,” he said. “I would cruise down Whittier Boulevard on my motorcycle.”
I can’t begin to tell you how much I love that visual, but unfortunately, that’s not Boyle’s style. In fact, Verdugo said, the padre is in the habit of giving away things that are gifted to him.
“The only time you’ll see him keep a gift is if it’s a bottle of whiskey,” Verdugo said.
Now we’re getting somewhere. Boyle likes single malt Scotch, and Verdugo has observed a tradition in which clergy imbibe at an evening “social.”
I knew I liked the Jesuits.
I asked Verdugo and others if Boyle, behind the scenes, is a tough boss. Nobody had any beans to spill, but Verdugo said there is one rite of passage at Homeboy in which Boyle is inflexible.
“He takes you to a steak dinner,” Verdugo said, “and then he says, ‘How would you like your steak, son?’ Or the waiter will ask. And homies are, ‘Well done?’ He’ll say, ‘Order a hamburger. You’re not going to have a steak that’s well done. That just ruins it.’”
“In reality, he deserved every bit of that award,” said Jarvis Thompson about Father Greg Boyle receiving the Presidential Medal of Freedom at Homeboy Industries in Los Angeles.
(Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times)
Who would have thought that a man so generous and accommodating — so famously nonjudgmental — could be so particular when it comes to how you order your steak?
I tested Verdugo’s account with Jarvis Thompson, 30, who told me he traveled to Texas with Boyle to make a speech about his transformation at Homeboy, where he works in community relations.
Texas is a cattle state, I said. Did you go out for a steak, and if so, did Father Boyle offer any advice?
“I wanted it well done,” Thompson said.
And what did Boyle tell him?
“You’re going to mess the steak up,” Thompson said.
Stefanie Rios, 39, assistant cafe manager, had one more tidbit of interest.
“I mean, he kind of cusses sometimes,” Rios said.
I hope he’s coming clean in confession.
To be honest, though, all anyone wanted to talk about was a man who created a place that feels like home.
Thompson calls Boyle “Pops,” as do many others, including Verdugo, 49. I sat with him in Boyle’s office, where there’s a photo of President Biden putting the medal around Boyle’s neck.
“This one’s special. Our nation’s leader is honoring our Pops, our father, and I don’t say father in a priestly way,” Verdugo said. “I say father like he’s our father. And I’m honored that that’s my Pops right there. He calls me. I call him. He calls me his son, you know what I mean? And now he’s getting accolades from one of the most powerful people in the world. As it should be.”
Homeboy hasn’t worked for everyone over the years. Some have fallen away, some can’t surmount the damage they’ve absorbed or inflicted on others, and too many have died young.
But it’s worked for thousands, largely because Boyle understands the deep layers of their troubles and the countless roadblocks to recovery.
“He always told me to never stop coming back,” said Rios, who was in and out of lockup for years. “He said, ‘I don’t care how many times it takes you. I don’t care if you mess up. My doors will always be open to you, and never give up.’”
Noel Rubio, from left, Hector Verdugo, associate executive director for Homeboy Industries, Taloma Miller and Steve Montoya share their stories about Father Greg Boyle at Homeboy Industries.. “He’s blessed me so much,” said Miller about Father Greg.
(Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times)
Noel Rubio, 62, a kitchen worker at Homeboy, said he sold drugs as a youngster and used to see Boyle riding through the neighborhood on his bicycle.
“I wanted to steal his bike because I wanted a beach cruiser,” Rubio said. “He said, ‘You need to quit selling drugs and come work with us.’”
Rubio ignored Boyle and spent half his life in prison.
“Thank God he was able to find me,” Rubio said. “Since I’ve been here he taught me how to love people, how to respect people.”
Father Boyle had a radical idea, said kitchen worker Manuel Ornelas, 50, who heard about Homeboy while in prison. I asked what that idea was.
“That we deserve a second chance. That he believed in us when nobody else did,” Ornelas said. “If you know his history, he went into the middle of shootouts. … He was willing to put his life on the line to get through to us.”
Line cook Taloma Miller, 51, said she spiraled into addiction and incarceration after her 14-year-old son, basketball prodigy Semaj, was murdered in 2020. One day she saw Boyle in a TV news clip and he looked like Santa Claus to her.
“I was like, ‘He has a beautiful spirit. I wanna be there,’” Miller said. “When I walked through the doors and I saw him, he was just smiling. … He hugs me, he tells me, ‘I love you.’ He prays for me. … I ask him, ‘Am I in the right place?’ He says, ‘You’re here, right? How do you feel?’ I feel so good being here, because there’s nothing like home.”
Verdugo said he’s been awed by Boyle’s patience and generosity but used to wonder if the new arrivals needed a firmer hand.
“I would say, you have more patience than I do. … They’re taking advantage of you,” said Verdugo. “And he’d say, ‘No, son. I’m giving them the advantage.”
A few years ago, I asked Boyle if he ever considered retirement. He told me Jesuits retire in the graveyard, and that seems to be what his Homeboy family expects.
“I think that man has a purpose on this earth,” said Steve Montoya, 36, who doesn’t see Boyle hanging it up.
“To be honest, I think he’s going to do this until the end,” said Thompson.
“When he’s in heaven, he’s going to be doing this,” said Miller. “He’s going to be sending his special workers, his special elves and his little angels to take care of this foundation. This is a foundation that will never be shaken.”
True to form, Boyle’s official reaction to being one of 19 people to receive the nation’s highest civilian honor in May was to say the recognition “honors many thousands of men and women who have walked through our doors … since 1988.” He added that it “acknowledges their dignity and nobility and the courage of their tenderness” and marks the need to “invest in people and to create together a community of cherished belonging.”
The owners of Erewhon have filed an environmental lawsuit against the city of Los Angeles, the latest attempt by the upscale supermarket chain to stop the planned demolition of Sportsmen’s Lodge hotel in Studio City to make way for a new apartment complex.
Erewhon operates a store next to the defunct hotel and previously joined with local residents, union officials and others in opposition to a 520-unit residential mixed use development planned to replace the inn that was known to generations of San Fernando Valley residents.
Plans for the new development took a leap forward last month when the City Council voted 13 to 1 to deny an appeal of the project filed by Erewon’s owners and others, clearing the way for Midwood Investment & Development to demolish the aged hotel at Ventura Boulevard and Coldwater Canyon Avenue.
Midwood is Erewhon’s landlord, having built in 2021 the Shops at Sportsmen’s Lodge, an outdoor mall where Erewhon is the anchor tenant among other stores, restaurants and an Equinox gym. The mall replaced a banquet facility that served as a local social center where couples got married and families shared big occasions such as bar mitzvahs.
The event center and a restaurant opened in 1946 and the hotel in 1962. The hotel permanently closed during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The landlord got city permission to knock down the 190-room hotel and build the Residences at Sportsmen’s Lodge, which would have 520 apartments, including 78 units of subsidized affordable housing. It would include ground-floor stores and restaurants intended to meld with the Shops at Sportsmen’s Lodge.
Prior to the recent City Council vote, Erewhon, the Studio City Residents Assn. and Unite Here Local 11, which represents hotel workers, sought to stop the project by appealing aspects of the city’s review and approval process.
Some opponents argued that the hotel should be preserved. It was one of the first to unionize in the San Fernando Valley and one of the first union hotels in Los Angeles. Others were concerned about the project’s 97-foot height, the construction noise and the environmental impact.
After the appeals were rejected, Erewhon’s parent company last week filed a lawsuit in Superior Court demanding that the project approvals be rescinded because the city allegedly failed to comply with the California Environmental Quality Act as well as other state and local laws. The environmental law in part is intended to increase the public’s awareness of the potential environmental effects of proposed developments and other projects.
The city violated the act by forgoing an exhaustive Environmental Impact Report, or EIR, in favor of a less rigorous assessment, the lawsuit said.
Proponents of the development say it would bring housing to this section of Studio City, which is being targeted for a flurry of new development. Across the river, private school Harvard-Westlake is planning to build an extensive athletic facility.
Representatives of Erewhon and Midwood didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.
Millions of Americans, including Chicagoans, will have a chance on Wednesday, April 8, to see a total solar eclipse — a rare opportunity that won’t return for 21 years. The celestial phenomenons have a way of evoking strong feelings (and generating beaucoup bucks), so it’s not surprising that Chicago chefs are getting in on festivities around the so-called life-changing event.
Meanwhile, there are plenty of other pop-ups to keep diners and chefs from descending into Third Winter doldrums. Follow along for a sampling of the best the city has to offer in Eater Chicago’s pop-up round-up.
Have a pop-up that should be listed? Email information to chicago@eater.com.
April
River North: Tokyo Last Call, a month-long pop-up series inspired by Japanese listening bars, will kick off on Thursday, April 4 in partnership with Three Dots and a Dash and a lineup of guest bartenders from several acclaimed Japanese cocktail spots. These include Brooklyn’s Bar Goto (Thursday, April 4 through Sunday, April 7), Manhattan’s Katana Kitten (Thursday, April 11 through Sunday, April 14), as well as Tokyo’s Bar Trench (Thursday, April 18 through Sunday, April 21) and SG Club (Thursday, April 25 through Sunday, April 28). The Three Dots team will play vinyl 45s and play music from a “retro jukebox” on the bottom floor at 51 W. Hubbard Street. Tokyo Last Call, Thursday April 4 through Sunday, April 28 at Hub 51. Reservations via OpenTable.
The Loop: It seems the whole city is talking about 2024’s Very Big Deal solar eclipse, so Downtown’s Raddison Blu Aqua Hotel is serving two specialty cocktails for the occasion. The team will offer the Sunbeam (mango-pineapple vodka, pomegranate, pineapple) and the Solar Flare (tequila, prosecco, grenadine, Cholula) Friday, April 5 through Sunday, April 14. The Sunbeam and the Solar Flare at Radisson Blu Aqua Hotel, Friday, April 5 through Sunday, April 14, 221 N. Columbus Drive.
Total Eclipse of the Heart (Bacardi Ocho Rye Cask Rum, Rhum Clément Creole Shrubb, orgeat, lime, fire bitters, tajín).The Gwen
The Loop: Astoria Cafe & Bakery, a suburban spot that specializes in Balkan food, is popping up off the Mag Mile at Venteux, the French restaurant inside the . The bakery had a location on Irving Park road that debuted in 2017, but it’s since closed and they’ve moved to Lisle. Owner by the mother-and-daughter duo of Suzi and Tanja Jeftenic, a news release states customers can expect items like krempita (a vanilla custard slice made with puff pastry & Chantilly cream), burek stuffed with cheese, spinach, or beef, and knedle, a potato dumpling made traditionally with plums, but also made with Nutella and fruit. Astoria Cafe at Venteux, 9 a.m. Sunday April 14 at Venteux.
West Loop: San Francisco-based chef David Yoshimura of Michelin-starred Nisei will pop up for one night with acclaimed chef Noah Sandoval for a collaborative tasting menu on Saturday, April 6 at Sandoval’s fine dining restaurant Oriole. Tickets ($325) are already sold out, but optimistic diners can add their names to the waitlist. Oriole x Nisei, Saturday, April 6 at Oriole. Waitlist via Tock.
Magnificent Mile: Downtown hotel terrace bar Upstairs at the Gwen is marking the solar eclipse with a punny Total Eclipse of The Heart cocktail (Bacardi Ocho Rye Cast Rum, Orgeat, Fire Bitters) available Saturday, April 6 through Monday, April 8. Total Eclipse of The Heart at Upstairs at the Gwen, Saturday, April 6 through Monday, April 8, 521 N. Rush Street, 5th Floor.
Avondale: Minahasa, veteran chef John Avila’s (Duck Inn, Gibsons Italia) rambunctious regional Indonesian spot, will make its triumphant return on Monday, April 8 for Reader pop-up series Monday Night Foodball. More than a year has passed since Avila shuttered Minahasa’s stall at Revival Food Hall in the Loop, but he’s made good on his promise to return and continue honoring the vast diversity of Indonesian cuisine — particularly that of mountainous Tomohon, his mother Betty’s hometown. Avila’s Foodball menu will lean into “Indonesian American twists,” per Mike Sula, such as an Indo fried chicken sandwich (green papaya slaw, acar pickles) and beef rendang animal fries (sambal aioli, crispy shallots), along with Mama Betty’s beloved egg rolls.Minahasa x Monday Night Foodballat Ludlow Liquors, 5 p.m. to 10 p.m. Monday, April 8, 2959 N. California Avenue.
Avondale: Lauded South Indian restaurant Thattu is planning two “once-in-a-blue-moon” specials for the eclipse: an egg appam with chili crisp, and a moon pie from chef de cuisine Danny Tervort. They’ll be available for one night only, from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. on Monday, April 8. Solar eclipse specials at Thattu, 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. Monday, April 8. Reservations via OpenTable.
Logan Square: Chicago chefs Palita Sriratana (Pink Salt) and Chanita Schwartz will host a festive pop-up celebration for Songkran, or Thai New Year, on Tuesday, April 14 inside indie flower shop Exfolia Botanical, the duo announced on Instagram. Self-avowed prawn fans, Sriratana and Schwartz worked them into the seven-course menu with dishes like tod mun goong (prawns, coriander) and khanom jeen nam prik (prawn-infused curry, rice noodles, seasonal vegetables). Other courses include yum som o (grapefruit, lemongrass, coconut, cashews) and gai haw bai toey (pandan leaf-wrapped chicken, sweet sesame sauce). Tickets ($120) and more details are available via Eventbrite. Songkran Thai New Year, 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. Tuesday, April 14 at Exfolia Botanical. Tickets via Eventbrite.
East Garfield Park: Virtual Lao mega-hit Laos to Your House will host its second annual Lao Pi Mai, or Lao New Year, a family-friendly celebration with an abundant buffet-style spread from 2:30 p.m. to 7 p.m. on Saturday, April 13 at hospitality business incubator the Hatchery, according to co-founder Byron Gully. The team promises a vast array of dishes including spicy khao poon moo, chicken and vegetarian laap (or larb), crispy kanom dok bua (lotus flower cookies), Lao barbecue, and much more, as well as cocktails and beer. Attendees can also shop for retail items like Lao textiles, beauty products, and packaged goods. Tickets ($50) and more details are available online until Tuesday, April 9.Laos to Your House Lao Pi Mai celebration at the Hatchery, 2:30 p.m. to 7 p.m. Saturday, April 13, 135 N. Kedzie Avenue. Reservations via Laos to Your House.
Rolling Meadows: Chicago chefs including Yuka Funakoshi (Tengokyu Aburiya), Takashi Iida (Lawrence Fish Market), Paul Virant (Gaijin, Petite Vie), and Shinji Sugiura (Ramen House Shinchan), will host a Japanese and French kaiseki-style dinner on Monday, April 22 in suburban Rolling Meadows. A fundraiser to support survivors of a New Year’s Day earthquake on Japan’s Noto Peninsula, the event will feature Chicago Koto Group and local J-pop music group Orihana, as well as a six-course meal that includes tare-marinated salmon with French lentils and seafood terrine with yuzu kosho jelly. Reservations ($125) are available online until Monday, April 15. Together for Noto Japan: Disaster Relief Fundraising Dinner at LaMirage Banquet Hall, Monday, April 22, 3223 Algonquin Road in Rolling Meadows. Reservations via Google Form.
May
Bridgeport: Chef and owner Won Kim of raucous Korean restaurantKimski isn’t wasting any time in preparing for its eight-year anniversary party on Saturday, May 11, announcing a “stacked” lineup of food vendors and DJs around two months ahead of time. Attendees can expect food from Seoul Taco, Pizza Friendly Pizza, Pretty Cool Ice Cream, Omarcitos, and more (plus a few surprise entries), as well as drinks from Bronzeville Winery, Maria’s, and Standard Meadery. “Come eat, drink, celebrate and help kick summer off the proper Bridgeport way!” Kim writes on Instagram. Kimski Eight Year Anniversary Party, 3 p.m. to 10 p.m. Saturday, May 11 at Kimski.
954-960 West 31st Street, , IL 60608 (773) 823-7336
Sixteen members of the Orange County Sheriff’s Department SWAT team were injured Wednesday afternoon in an explosion at an FBI training facility in Irvine, according to authorities.
The explosion occurred around 1 p.m. in a small building at the Jerry Crowe Regional Tactical Training Facility, according to Sheriff’s Sgt. Frank Gonzalez.
The SWAT team was conducting its annual joint training with a bomb squad at the time, he said. The FBI wasn’t involved and had lent them the facility for the exercise.
Fifteen people were taken to hospitals. One person sustained a leg injury that will require surgery but is not life-threatening. Two others have superficial wounds, including back and leg injuries. The 13 other people went to the hospital as a precaution because of dizziness and ringing in their ears, but many have already been discharged.
A court ruled on Monday that La Cañada Flintridge violated the state Housing Accountability Act when it denied an application for an affordable-housing project last year.
Under the ruling, the city will be forced to process the application, which was filed under a little-known but increasingly relevant provision in California housing law known as “builder’s remedy.” The provision serves as a punishment for cities that are out of compliance with housing element regulations that require local governments to develop specific zoning plans to address population increases.
Builder’s remedy is a massive boon for developers, allowing them to build whatever they want — even outside local zoning restrictions — so long as it has a certain number of low- or middle-income units.
The proposed project in this case, located at 600 Foothill Blvd., would replace an aging Christian Science church with a five-story building that includes 80 mixed-income units and a 14-room hotel, totaling nearly 120,000 square feet, bringing density and affordable housing to a city that has very little.
La Cañada is a city of single-family homes, and the average value is $2.317 million, according to Zillow. It has added virtually no multifamily housing in recent years, and as a result, the population has hovered around 20,000 for the last four decades while surrounding communities swelled with residents.
The court’s decision is a big win for affordable-housing advocates as well as the developers behind the project, who’ve been fighting to get the multiuse development approved for nearly half a decade.
It’s a setback for officials and others in the city who have resisted the project, drawing criticisms of having a “not in my backyard” attitude along the way.
“La Cañada Flintridge is the latest community that has failed in their effort to override state housing laws. Today’s favorable ruling should serve as a warning to other NIMBY jurisdictions that the state will hold every community accountable in planning for their fair share of housing,” Gov. Gavin Newsom said in a statement.
Newsom, along with state Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta, had intervened in the situation in December, filing a legal action asking the court to reverse the city’s denial of the project.
“We are pleased that the court agrees with us that La Cañada Flintridge must follow state housing laws to facilitate affordable housing and alleviate our housing crisis,” Bonta said in a statement. “The California Department of Justice is committed to enforcing state laws that increase housing supply and affordability.”
The three partners behind the project have strong ties to the city: Alexandra Hack grew up in the area; Garret Weyand lives a few blocks from the site; and Jonathan Curtis was once the mayor.
“This should be a sign for other cities that may be thinking about taking similar steps to La Cañada on builder’s remedy applications,” Weyand said. “The city’s reluctance to do this is one of the reasons housing is so expensive to build and develop in California.”
The trio filed the application under the builder’s remedy provision in November 2022, but city officials rejected it. They claimed La Cañada wasn’t subject to the provision since it had already “self-certified” its housing element plan, which had yet to be approved by the state Department of Housing and Community Development.
The city has since come into compliance, but because the developers submitted their application before Housing and Community Development approved La Cañada’s housing element plan, the builder’s remedy provision remained an option.
“Builder’s remedy is probably going to be one of most successful laws to build housing in the state of California,” Weyand said.
A Pomona man was arrested on Saturday after allegedly driving under the influence and crashing into another car, killing three women, police said.
Police arrested Victor Siharath late Saturday night after responding to a two-vehicle traffic collision around 11 p.m. at White Avenue and Phillips Boulevard in Pomona.
Everyone involved in the collision was “moderately to severely injured,” police said in a news release, and they were treated by Los Angeles County Fire Department personnel.
Two women died of their injuries at the scene, police said. Three others were taken to a nearby hospital, where another woman died.
A two-vehicle crash in Pomona on Saturday night killed three people. Police arrested Victor Siharath late Saturday night.
(OnScene.TV)
The victims’ names have not been released.
Police did not immediately respond to questions about the conditions of the injured passengers.
Officers identified Siharath as the sole occupant of an SUV. After determining that he was driving while impaired, police said, Siharath was arrested on suspicion of felony DUI.
The Pomona Police Department’s Major Accident Investigation Team is investigating the collision. Anyone with information is asked to call the department’s Traffic Services Bureau at (909) 620-2048.
When Pastor Frank Wulf thinks about his congregation being unable to worship in their home of 100 years, he is reminded of the Old Testament scripture of the Israelites in exile.
Wulf’s church, Echo Park United Methodist Church on North Alvarado Street and Reservoir Street in northeast Los Angeles, is not currently safe for occupation. The century-old dome over the church’s bell tower was damaged by the recent atmospheric rivers that pounded California, and structural engineers say it could topple into the church and lead to a snowball effect of collapses that could injure people inside the structure.
1
2
3
1.Pieces of a collapsed roof lay on the floor below the golden dome that sits atop Echo Park United Methodist Church. 2.Notices are taped to the doors at Echo Park United Methodist Church, which has been a community beacon for 100 years. 3.Rain damaged and moldy walls inside Echo Park United Methodist Church, which has been a community beacon for 100 years.(Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times)
But just as the Israelites did when the Persians let them back into the land of Israel, Wulf says they will rebuild.
“The church is really not a building but a community of people, a community that’s cared for each other over a long period of time,” Wulf said.
Wulf’s congregation has been out of its historic home since Feb. 1, the pastor said.
That came after the first pounding storm of the season led to the partial collapse of the tower, exposing the wood that holds up the golden dome.
The wood had badly deteriorated: There was dry rot, termites and water damage.
The first structural engineer who inspected the building told Wulf and his team that the church was not a safe place for groups to congregate.
The evacuation of the building affects not just the 40 or 45 people who attend Sunday services, but also the others in the community whom the church serves.
Wulf said services for homeless Angelenos, such as showers outside the building and free food, have had to be paused.
He also had to inform the 12-step groups for people struggling with alcoholism or other substance use disorders that they could not meet at the church, at least for now.
Pastor Frank Wulf of Echo Park United Methodist Church in one of the rooms severely damaged by the recent heavy rainfall.
(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
The church had been building temporary shelter for migrants bused to Los Angeles from Texas. It was supposed to welcome four families to live in the space in mid-February, but it had to halt that program as well.
“Our primary commitment is to keep everyone safe,” the church team said in a statement on a GoFundMe page they posted to raise money for the work needed to reopen.
Wulf has not decided yet if they will repair the century-old building.
“Would this be the appropriate time to perhaps take the whole building down and start from scratch?” he asked.
