Angel City Football Club announced on Thursday the expansion of its “Immigrant City Football Club” campaign, unveiling a limited-edition apparel collection featuring the slogan “Los Angeles is for Everyone” written in 13 languages representing the city’s diverse communities.
The T-shirt and cap, available in the club’s colors, feature languages such as Spanish, Mandarin, Tagalog, Vietnamese, Korean, Armenian, Farsi, Arabic, Japanese, Hebrew, Yoruba, and Zapotec — the latter representing one of the city’s largest indigenous migrant communities, originating from Oaxaca, Mexico.
“Los Angeles is one of the most diverse cities in the world, and that diversity is our strength,” said Chris Fajardo, Angel City FC’s vice president of community relations, in a statement. “This campaign is more than a t-shirt. It’s about showing up for our community, celebrating our differences, and making it clear that everyone belongs here.”
The back of the jersey, written in 13 languages, including Zapotec.
(Angel City)
The products are available on the Angel City online store and will be available at the club’s store at BMO Stadium beginning May 2, during the Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander (AANHPI) Heritage Month commemorative match against the Utah Royals.
Proceeds from the sale of the merchandise will be donated to the International Institute of Los Angeles (IILA), a nonprofit organization that provides immigration legal assistance, refugee support and essential services for immigrant integration in the city.
The initiative expands on the original campaign launched last year, when the club distributed the first T-shirt in solidarity with Los Angeles’ immigrant communities facing uncertainty in the city due to immigration raids. During the raids, many Los Angeles teams, including the Dodgers and the Galaxy, were criticized for their silence, despite having a large Latino fan base.
Last year, 10,000 T-shirts were printed. They were worn by players as they arrived at the stadium, while Angel City coach Alexander Straus and his coaching staff also wore them on the bench, and one of the team’s investors, singer Becky G, spoke to fans in the stadium in support of immigrants before the game.
If you were going to pick a single issue whose treatment exemplifies the forces at work in this midterm election, the best choice would be one over which there’s been relatively little contention — climate change.
That’s not because there is any broad agreement among the candidates on the severity of global warming or human activity’s contribution to it. To the contrary, the question seldom has been discussed in this campaign because views on it have become utterly politicized. Skepticism about human technology’s role in accelerating climate change, and doubt concerning the phenomenon’s very existence, have become, at least on the Republican side, a matter of lock-step partisan orthodoxy.
For example, 19 of the 20 GOP candidates who are in closely contested races and have expressed a position on the issue say they have doubts about the scientific evidence for global warming, despite the overwhelming consensus among scientists. That includes Arizona’s John McCain, who formerly supported legislation to reduce carbon emissions. Mark Kirk of Illinois, who voted for cap-and-trade as a congressman, is the lone Republican holdout. Some of the other senatorial candidates express ambivalence about the science but firmly reject any legislative or regulatory remedy; more agree with Louisiana’s David Vitter, who calls the evidence for climate change “pseudo-science garbage.”
Recent polls show just how deeply partisan the split over global warming has become, and how closely it conforms to the deep fissures that have reshaped this year’s electoral landscape. A survey by the nonpartisan Pew Research Center, for instance, found that over the last four years, the percentage of Americans who believe there’s solid scientific evidence for climate change has declined from 79% to 59%. In 2006, half of us believed that global warming was caused by human activities; today, only 34% do. An Opinion Research Corp. survey found that while 82% of Democrats feel the United States should take a leading role in addressing global warming, only 39% of Republicans now do.
In part, public opinion researchers agree, the rise of the “tea party” movement accounts for both the growing skepticism and the demand, which we now can recognize as characteristic, for ideological conformity. In its survey, for example, Pew found that 70% of self-described tea party sympathizers don’t believe there’s convincing evidence that the Earth is warming. A New York Times/CBS poll found that only 14% of tea party supporters say that “global warming is an environmental problem that is having an effect now.” Opinion Research reported that only 27% of tea party adherents support the idea of America taking a leading role on the problem.
The New York Times also has documented among some tea party adherents a strong streak of religious objection to the reality of climate change. As Norman Dennison, one of the group’s Indiana founders, told the paper, global warming “is a flat-out lie…. I read my Bible. He made this Earth for us to utilize.” Another Indiana tea party member asserted that “being a strong Christian, I cannot help but believe the Lord placed a lot of minerals in our country, and it’s not there to destroy us.”
The fundamentalist delusion, whether about the Constitution or theology, and demands for a purified orthodoxy are defining characteristics of this campaign. When it comes to the politicization of a purely scientific question — climate change — so too is the role of money quietly or covertly dispensed by big business and the self-interested rich. Some of the tea party’s biggest funders, including Americans for Prosperity and FreedomWorks, are creatures of the oil and coal companies. They’ve also supported virtually the entire network of fringe scientists, think tanks and publishers who over the past few years have raised a host of spurious questions and allegations concerning the consensus on climate change among reputable scientists.
They’re the same individuals and companies putting up big money to support Proposition 23, which would gut California’s attempts to reduce carbon emissions. Koch Industries and Murray Energy Corp. already are major givers to the U.S. Senate’s biggest deniers, including James M. Inhofe (R-Okla.), who has called global warming “the biggest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people.”
Think back to the billions Big Tobacco spent on the long guerrilla war to stave off regulation of its death-dealing products and you’ve pretty much got the picture here, though this time around, the corporate manipulators are hoping that they’ve co-opted the climate skeptics in order to fill the oil and coal companies’ coffers for years to come.
IT WAS HARDLY A SURPRISE that President Bush made a brief stop in Afghanistan on Wednesday, and not just because word of the “unexpected” trip leaked to the media beforehand. With Iraq ever more messy and his administration on the defensive on multiple fronts, Bush undoubtedly wanted to evoke that sweet moment of victory in November 2001 when U.S. forces ended the Taliban’s rule.
Yet Afghanistan is not such a simple story. Democratic elections brought a reasonable government into office, but it remains weak and ineffective outside of Kabul. Over the last year, the Taliban has made a strong revival, drug trafficking is up and the number of suicide bombings has steadily climbed. Bush’s advisors said his visit was so brief because it was hard to guarantee security.
Back in Washington, the director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, Michael Maples, testified before Congress on Tuesday that attacks by Taliban and other insurgents increased by 20% last year, and they are expected to intensify this spring. Aid workers report that villagers across the south of Afghanistan tell them not to visit anymore because Taliban forces punish anyone who accepts Western help.
Lest anyone forget, the Taliban was target No. 2 in the U.S. war against terrorists provoked by the 9/11 attacks. Target No. 1 was Osama bin Laden — Bush wanted him “dead or alive” — and he is still at large. Bush promised in Afghanistan that the leader of Al Qaeda would eventually be brought to justice. At this point, we are not holding our collective breath. Bin Laden is believed to be hiding in the mountainous region straddling Afghanistan’s border with Pakistan, spooning out taped messages to the West, but there has been little sign of progress in the hunt for him.
Like too many administration projects, the situation in Afghanistan appears to be the victim of a lack of follow-through. After the invasion of 2001, Bush promised to rebuild Afghanistan, ravaged by years of civil war and horrific destruction at the hands of the Taliban. There are 18,000 soldiers in the country, and in 2004 the United States and other donors pledged or spent $3.6 billion on humanitarian aid and reconstruction.
Yet once the war in Iraq was launched, Washington’s attention went there, as did most of its troops. The political will to bring security and basic services to Afghanistan clearly fizzled. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld likes to argue that the United States is capable of fighting two wars at once, but the evidence from Afghanistan and Iraq suggests that it may not be capable of fighting two wars well.
The United States is not the first world power to stumble in Afghanistan. The British and the Russians each failed to subdue the warlords who roamed the nation’s treacherous terrain. Yet the U.S. efforts that began there with great promise in 2001 remain, as yet, unfulfilled.
The votes are in, and it’s bad news for John McCain. Barack Obama has a big lead in the sale of campaign buttons and other election paraphernalia, outselling McCain 3 to 1 on one memorabilia website.
An Obama victory could make some of those pieces more valuable, experts say, given the historic nature of his candidacy. A button from the launch of Obama’s presidential campaign sold for $150 in August at the American Political Items Collectors National Convention.
If you think there’s no redeeming value to the interminable exercise known as the American presidential campaign, you are not a collector. The stock market may have tanked, but the longest presidential season in U.S. history has stimulated a different kind of investment opportunity.
“This year more than any other, people are collecting political memorabilia,” says Adam Gottlieb, a spokesman for the California Energy Commission and a presidential-item junkie whose extensive Teddy Roosevelt collection is on exhibit through the end of the year at the California Historical Society in San Francisco. “People are yearning for nostalgia, something meaningful in their lives.”
On Monday, the PBS series “Antiques Roadshow” gets into the act with “Politically Collect,” a program that pulls back the appraisal curtain on presidential artifacts worth considerably more than the paper or tin on which they’re printed — up to $75,000, for instance, for a photograph of Lyndon B. Johnson taking the oath of office after President Kennedy was shot in 1963.
“Political items have really gone up in price,” says Jeffery Daar, an attorney and Democratic Party activist whose Northridge home overflows with buttons and other memorabilia from the last 40 years of electioneering.
Presidential paraphernalia has long been the domain of hard-core political fans such as Daar, who live to unearth an obscure invitation or rare tchotchke. But in the last decade, the field has also become a place to make a tidy profit. A 1920 button of Democratic presidential candidate James Cox and his running mate, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, can sell for as much as $30,000. Last month, a signed photo of John F. Kennedy was going for $4,200 on Politics-Now.com. EBay and political memorabilia auction sites have made it possible for anyone to click their way into the game.
The collecting impulse is driven by something the afflicted say you can’t get from stamps or Cabbage Patch stockpiles.
“It’s not just a button, but an item in a political campaign. It’s a piece of living history,” says Daar, former head of the Democratic Party in the San Fernando Valley and a longtime delegate to his party’s conventions, where he scoops up all the mementos he can.
“Every collector of political memorabilia is also a frustrated historian,” says Steve Ferber, who sells mementos of presidents and hopefuls with his wife, Lori, through LoriFerber.com.
Tom Morton, a Los Angeles accountant specializing in pre-1930s items, recently landed clay smoking pipes puffed by Millard Fillmore and Franklin Pierce.
“It’s one thing to read about it in a history book,” he says. “It’s quite another to hold it in your hands.”
But not all candidates inspire collectors to reach out and acquire. Tom French, a leading dealer and owner of Politicalheritage.com in Santa Cruz, says it’s hard to give away a Nixon button. It’s also tough unloading Michael Dukakis, Bob Dole and George W. Bush fare.
Not surprisingly, the most in-demand figures tend to be the most charismatic and popular presidents — Abraham Lincoln, FDR and Theodore Roosevelt, JFK, Ronald Reagan. Harry Truman also vaults into the ranks of the most valuable because scant artifacts were produced for the candidate who was a long shot to win in 1948.
Scarcity, popularity and age are major factors in the pricing of political memorabilia. An abundance of items were produced for 1940 Republican candidate Wendell Wilkie, including some fabulous Wilkie nylons ($40) and buttons that said, “No Man Is Good Three Times,” all to no avail against the popular FDR. So many Wilkie items are in circulation, they’re cheap — not like the Cox-FDR button, valued at $30,000 because only a few dozen are known to exist. Some scarce Truman items can run about $10,000.
For collectors, a crucial consideration is whether the material was produced by the campaign. Daar says 95% of the buttons and T-shirts available for sale in the current cycle were made by outside vendors and won’t be worth much. Look for official items created by the Obama and McCain campaigns and materials with specific dates and events attached to them, such as an Obama button from the rural caucus, something Daar likes for future value.
Collectors recommend buying things you like — favorite candidates or graphics that catch your eye. And if you want to buy for investment, do the research to make sure the item is authentic. You can get help by joining American Political Items Collectors ($28 a year, www.apic.us), a national organization founded in 1945 that sponsors dozens of button meets every year and authenticates artifacts.
Avid collectors, however, are drawn to the outsized characters who seek the highest office in the land and the creative wiles used to get them there.
“There’s got to be something behind the item — the personality, the election, the historical context, or you might as well be collecting nails,” says Neal Machander, an Orange County collector and past president of American Political Items Collectors.
The exploits of rough-riding, big-game-hunting Teddy Roosevelt have captivated Gottlieb since he was in grade school. “It’s like he lived six lives,” Gottlieb says.
His collection contains mementos of Roosevelt’s whistle stop in Los Angeles on his trip through California in 1903. When it comes to straight talk, it’s hard to top this line from a Roosevelt button in 1912: “If You’re Against Me, You’re a Crook.”
The sedate catch phrases of modern elections are as exciting as a phone book next to the raucous sloganeering of the early 20th century. Take, for instance, the 1928 rallying cry on an anti-prohibition button: “Vote for Al Smith and Make All Your Wet Dreams Come True.” Last year, it sold at auction for $9,560.
“Collectors really eat up the hoopla,” says French, who adds that he’d kill on “Jeopardy” in the VP category. “It’s an important representation of what democracy and politics are all about. We’re just in awe of the office.”
These contributions were reported by major candidates on the Oct. 7 ballot who have received at least $100,000 for their gubernatorial campaigns. Totals are for all contributions through Aug. 23 plus contributions of $1,000 or more through Thursday. Donations of $1,000 or more must be reported within 24 hours of receipt.
* The Operating Engineers Union Local 12 in Pasadena gave the maximum $21,200*. Robins, Kaplan, Miller & Ciresi, a major Minneapolis law firm with a large Century City office, donated $15,000. The Home Ownership Advancement Foundation, an arm of the California Building Industry Assn., provided $10,000. The San Francisco personal injury law firm of Harowitz & Tigerman gave $5,000. Marilyn Y. Isenberg of Sacramento and Vicki L. Nunez of South San Francisco each gave $5,000.
*–* Contributions Candidate or committee Total reported Reported in 24 hours ending Thursday Cruz Bustamante $3,571,934 $96,500 709 contributions 28 contributions
*–*
Bustamante controls three other committees:
Californians for Stability is an anti-recall fund that has raised $421,186. Another fund, the Cruz Bustamante Committee Against Prop. 54, raised $49,700 from the California State Employees’ Assn. Bustamante’s anti-Prop. 54 committee has collected more than $4.6 million, most of it transferred from a third committee, the Lt. Gov. Bustamante 2002 Committee. That is an old reelection campaign fund, which reported raising more than $911,800, excluding the transfers.
* Edward F. Limato, a Los Angeles talent agent, and Russell Lungerich, an attorney in Rancho Palos Verdes, gave $1,000 apiece.
*–* Tom McClintock $1,006,402 $20,990 1,268 contributions 6 contributions
*–*
* Martha Bobbitt, president of JRBT Inc. of Rancho Santa Fe, gave $14,990. John Zsarnay of Sunnyvale contributed $3,000.
*–* Arnold $12,803,611 $499,500 Schwarzenegger 1,505 contributions 146 contributions
*–*
* The Cimarron Group, an advertising, marketing and design company in Hollywood, gave $21,200. So did venture capitalist Robert C. Kagle of Woodside, Palo Alto investor William L. Edwards and George Garrick of Atherton, CEO of Activcard Corp. Goldman Sachs investment banker Bradford C. Koenig, also of Atherton, gave $20,000. UC Regent Ward Connerly, author of Proposition 54, the Oct. 7 ballot measure that would outlaw the collection by government of certain data on race and ethnicity, gave $1,000.
Schwarzenegger also controls Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Total Recall Committee. The pro-recall group has raised more than $1.55 million.
* R. Hall Investment Properties of Tustin gave $57,600. The American Sterling Corp. in Irvine provided $50,000. The financial services firm has contributed $150,000 to the Total Recall committee. The New Majority PAC composed of moderate Orange County Republican businessmen contributed $25,000, bringing their total to $103,800.
Davis Fights the Recall
*–* Californians Against $9,114,078 $910,129 the Costly Recall 581 contributions 47 contributions of the Governor
*–*
Gov. Gray Davis controls this anti-recall committee.
* The Kings Arco Arena partnership in Sacramento provided $100,000. Casden Properties, a Beverly Hills-based real estate investment company, gave $50,000, bringing its total support to $150,000.
Davis also continues to raise money through his former reelection committee, the Gov. Gray Davis Committee, which has transferred more than $1.7 million to Californians Against the Costly Recall.
A third committee, Taxpayers Against the Governor’s Recall, has reported more than $2.7 million in contributions.
*Contributions to candidates from each outside source are limited to $21,200. There is no cap on the amount candidates can give their own campaigns, or on donations to noncandidacy committees.
Reported by Times staff writer Jeffrey L. Rabin and Times researcher Maloy Moore.
Source: Campaign reports filed with the California secretary of state.
Kosha is a boutique spa in Sherman Oaks offering skincare and massages. One of its signature offerings is the “buccal facial,” which is actually more of a face and jaw area massage as opposed to a facial involving exfoliating, steaming and pore extraction.
The 55-minute treatment promises to improve circulation and relax muscles, helping to plump the skin while lifting and firming, “giving it a more contoured appearance,”Kosha owner Anastasia Talan told me.
It starts with a short grounding meditation before a cleansing of the skin and a light scalp massage. It then transitions into a wonderfully relaxing neck, shoulder and face massage, with an emphasis on the face. (The actual “buccal massage” part comes later.) Talan said the overall treatment blends multiple types of massage, including European “contouring and lifting massage,” lymphatic drainage, acupressure and myofascial release as well as light stretching.
As she worked on my face, Talan applied pressure while stroking under my cheek bones, along my sinuses and up, down and around my cheeks and jaw area.
The “buccal massage” portion was about15 minutes. It’s also called “intraoral massage” because it takes place inside of the mouth. Talan donned blue plastic gloves and then pulled my lips apart, massaging the inside of my cheeks, lips and around my jawbone andtemporomandibular joint. Relieving tension there is helpful in aiding TMJ and other temporomandibular joint disorders. Another benefit, says Talan: clenching the jaw, a stress reaction, can enlarge the masseter muscles on the jaw, leading to the lower part of the face looking heavy. Relaxing those muscles could preserve slimness of the face.
But go for the sheer relaxation of it.Once the (admittedly awkward) intraoral massage part was over, Talan spent a few more minutes massaging the outside of my face and neck. The treatment was so dreamy, I nearly drooled while fighting off sleep.
In 2023, 30,000 service workers joined in sympathy as about 30,000 teachers walked off the job in Los Angeles to begin an anticipated three-day strike in demand of higher wages. On Monday, the school district prevented another strike by making deals with three unions in the school district. File Photo by Jim Ruymen/UPI | License Photo
April 14 (UPI) — Los Angeles schools will not close for a strike after the district reached a deal with the third and final union Monday evening.
Hours before the 2 a.m. PDT strike deadline, the district announced it had struck a deal with the Service Employees International Union Local 99, which represents 30,000 custodians, food workers, special education assistants and bus drivers.
LAUSD announced on its website that schools would be open Tuesday.
“We are proud to have reached resolution with all of our labor partners, UTLA, SEIU, and AALA Teamsters Local 2010, ensuring stability for our schools and continuity for the students and families we serve,” Acting Superintendent Andrés E. Chait said.
The district had already reached tentative contract agreements with the unions that represent teachers and administrators over the weekend. Those unions were prepared to strike with the SEIU members if an agreement wasn’t made.
“We are pleased to announce that we have reached an agreement in principle with SEIU Local 99 that will allow schools to be open today,” the district said in a statement. “LAUSD and SEIU teams will continue to work together to finalize the details of a tentative agreement.”
According to SEIU Local 99, the deal includes a 24% wage increase; more work hours ensuring health insurance benefits; rescinding layoffs for IT professionals; expansion of health care benefits for teacher assistants, after-school workers and others; and no subcontracting to outside vendors.
The SEIU must still vote to ratify the deal.
“This agreement was won through the bold action and courage of thousands of workers who were willing to sacrifice to improve conditions in their schools and their lives,” SEIU Local 99 Executive Director Max Arias said. “A strike was always the last resort, and we are proud that we could work with the school district and [Los Angeles] Mayor Karen Bass to reach an agreement that recognizes the contributions of front-line workers in our schools.”
Bass said on Instagram that she worked with both sides to help them find a deal “because a strike would disrupt the lives of hundreds of thousands of kids and their parents, who need childcare and need to go to work.”
Associated Administrators Los Angeles, which represents about 3,000 administrators, reached an agreement with the district Sunday night. United Teachers Los Angeles, the union representing its roughly 35,000 educators, reached an agreement earlier in the day.
The three unions represent about 70,000 LAUSD employees, who serve about 400,000 students.
Left to right, Queen Maxima of the Netherlands, King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands, President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump pose during an arrival ceremony outside the White House on Monday. Photo by Salwan Georges/UPI | License Photo
I decided that, just this once, I was rooting for evil to win — mainly because I liked their energy more.
The wereboar growled next to Black Pudding, a hulking vicious monster, both focused on ripping Puck and Cordelia to shreds. Oberon, an Archfey god, stood alongside them, concerned. But only one thing would decide the fate of everyone on stage: the D20, a 20-sided die.
For 45 minutes on Saturday morning, a rambunctious audience of elves, fairies, gnomes, wizards and more was transported to another land, far away from any concern for modern life, as they watched the “Dungeons & Shakespeare” live show at the Renaissance Pleasure Faire at the Santa Fe Dam Recreational Area in Irwindale.
Lynx the Sword Swallower prepares the audience for his show.
Before Saturday, I’d never attended a renaissance fair, a reenactment of the English Renaissance in the form of an immersive festival (i.e. why the Irwindale fair is based in the 16th century village of Port Deptford). Although I was not entirely new to fanciful make-’em-ups. My family had been members of the Society for Creative Anachronism, a medieval-era living history organization. We frequently dressed up to visit our local kingdom. Once, a wizard gave me a cape. Another time, I won a plague-themed frog toss.
I’d long forgotten what a blissful escape those weekends had been for a young queer kid living in rural America — until Saturday, when I looked around the fair and realized it was a diverse crowd in every sense of the word.
At the “Dungeons & Shakespeare” show, host Willy Nilly encouraged us to lean into the welcoming atmosphere we found among our fellow outcasts.
“Let’s stop worrying about whether we seem weird and make our stories amazing,” the actor, who grew up in conservative Midland, Texas, told the crowd.
And with that same energy, my wife and I trodded further into the fair in hot pursuit of merriment and wonder.
I should note: The Irwindale fair is packed full of opportunities to spend a day. It can, at times, feel overwhelming (and dusty). Here’s what we learned that will set you up for success, should you fancy a trip back in time.
Guests make their way out of the Renaissance Pleasure Faire at sunset.
1. Thou must plan thy morrow
Translation: You must plan your day.
The best way to have the perfect day?
It depends!
Before your visit, I would recommend loosely plotting out your day using the fair’s map. First, you’ll want to discern which performances you’d like to see. Each weekend’s entertainment schedule is released the prior Wednesday, although it can change due to “weather, illness or Her Majesty’s whim,” as the fair website notes.
There are 12 stages and performance areas, each with their own programming. And it’s a real range.
For example, you’ll find MooNie the Magnif’Cent, a fair staple who mixes clowning, stunts and comedy, all without speaking. Supernova the Strongwoman will dazzle the crowd with risky tricks and demolition. And Dora Viellette teaches her audience about an array of music, from medieval to folk favorites, as she plays the hurdy-gurdy (which is very fun to say aloud).
I’d recommend attending the performance you want to see the most early in the day, as the fair seems to get more crowded as the day progresses.
Similarly, if you’d like to focus the day on playing games and experiencing human-powered carnival rides, I’d recommend doing that first. We originally wanted to practice our archery skills, but because we’d waited until after noon, the line was long every time we checked. That said, I did quickly get to throw 10 javelin for $10 later in the day, and I noticed the lines for the “big swing” — aptly named — and the dragon swing were both short. Additionally, it looked like a fairly quick wait to learn from the teachers at St. Jude’s School of Fencing and the Sword Master’s Challenge, where a worker told my wife, “You look like you’d like to hit someone!” (Trust, it wasn’t me, despite my perpetually high anxiety.)
There are also additional paid activities, like having tea with the queen or imbibing via a pub crawl. And then there are the jousting competitions (more on those below).
Her majesty the queen is seen with her court.
2. The Queen doth nay require fanciful garb
Translation: Costumes are not required but very fun.
About five minutes into the fair, I realized I could entertain myself for probably the entire day by simply people watching. Entertainers and guests’ costumes alike were incredible.
Woodland fairies carrying giant daffodils or wearing hats covered in mushrooms. Knights in real armor. Every version of Merlin the wizard, spanning an expansive gender spectrum. Gnomes in tall red hats. And at least one pickle pope blessing people with herbs. You might say they were kind of a big dill. (Hold your applause.)
There are multiple themed weekends, too, including the first weekend when guests were encouraged to strut out in their best pirate garb.
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1. Stephanie Divinski looks down at her shoulder puppet.2.Trilainna Stanton, also known as Prince Rain, of San Diego.3.Partners Reese Pei, left, and Mariner Song are pictured.4.Meisha Mock, left, and Aimey Beer both wear wolf masks created by Meisha.
3. Parley with the guildfolk
Translation: Talk to the townspeople.
Around the fair, you have the opportunity to interact with several guilds and performance tropes. “The most fun you’ll get at the fair is from talking to people,” my friend Matthew, who has several years of renaissance fair experience, told me. “As someone who volunteers with a guild, we aren’t just there to sit around and look pretty. Come talk to us.”
I loved watching the fae creatures of the Fantastikals frolic around, getting into mischief. I kept an eye out for Danse Macabre, whose members dance away the threat of the plague to the fair. But I was most starstruck when I met her majesty Queen Elizabeth I. (Note: The actors do not break character, even to tell a journalist their given name outside of their fair life.)
As I waited in line, I observed the diligently trained actors of the Queen’s Court. The lord high treasurer bent down and handed a gold coin to a toddler doddling around as his family waited to meet the queen. He tried to eat it, but was bested by his mother.
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1.The Fantastikals, representing nature and the elements, provide a sense of wonder and mischief.2.Royal guard member Maria DeSilva, left, stands by Anna of Austria, the queen of Spain, and her sister Elisabeth of Austria as they read their Bibles together.3.A maid of honor to the queen passes the time with canvas work.
“You must be quicker if you are to be successful,” Sir Thomas Heneage, the court’s gentleman usher, told him.
I asked the queen what a newbie like me should know about visiting her village.
“I would tell them that at the fair, there is all the world to be had,” she said. “And no matter what you find that will set your heart alight, you will find it here.”
(I also asked her if it was as fun as it looked to be carried around in a basket by the Yeomen of the Guard, and after a good laugh, she affirmed, “It is truly a highlight of our day.”)
The crowd cheers as the jousters charge one another during the final bout of the day.
4. Hark! What a clatter!
Translation: Prepare for shouting
But it’s the fun kind!
When the fair opens at 10 a.m., guests shout, “Open wide the gates!”
“Huzzah!” is commonly shouted out in celebration, like when you tip someone, or when your trusty javelin strikes the target (mine did not).
And “God save the queen!” is exclaimed during the parades and just about any time the queen is around.
5. By hook and crook, ready thyself for a joust
Translation: It’s essential to attend a joust.
A jousters charges toward his opponent during the final bout of the day.
Attending a joust is one of the quintessential renaissance festival experiences.
At the L.A. fair, there are generally three joust performances per day: the Deptford tournament joust, the queen’s joust and the “joust to the death.”
It’s best to arrive 45 minutes early to get a seat, as the performance space fills to capacity. You will be turned away if it is full.
And it’s competitive. Immediately after sitting down, my seatmate informed me that we were rooting for green and blue, and the other team was our mortal enemies. I hooted and hollered accordingly.
6. There is much fine belly-timber
Translation: There is so much good food.
OK, here’s a confession: I eat a vegan diet. But, I can still appreciate the wide range of food options available — including the iconic turkey leg.
After securing our marinated tofu nachos and poke bowl, my wife and I sat down among other guests. Our tablemates had purchased a litany of fried options, including scotch eggs from the Quail Inn, which also serves bacon-wrapped jalapeño peppers, cheese fritters and “whole, partially deboned quail.”
I personally regret not heading over to Scoops on Tap, where I could have ordered vegan lemon blueberry swirl and mint chip ice cream. Their spirit-infused offerings include buttery beer, mocha stout crush and drumstick stout (which is not turkey-flavored, but rather a vanilla base).
7. Pray thee pay full mind to the merchants
Translation: Take time to learn about the artisans.
Drabbits, hand-crafted and one-of-a-kind shoulder puppets, at the Imagination Adoptorium booth.
Throughout the fair, you can easily find unique and colorful birthday gifts, like dragon eggs or a buy-your-own-fairy house, that would make your nieces, nephews and little cousins quickly proclaim you their favorite relative.
Beyond that, you can speak to artisans who’ve been honing their craft, in some cases, for decades. I asked glass artist Stuart Abelman, who has regular glass-blowing demonstrations during the fair, how his artistry fits into the renaissance fair.
“They’ve been blowing glass for 5,000 years,” Abelman, whose studio is based in Van Nuys, said. “Through the Renaissance, there were incredible glass blowers at Murano, Italy, incredible glass blowers. The queen drank [out of] beautiful glassware. They were the best.”
An assortment of masks are seen in the Mischief Masks booth.
8. Fret not if the winds of fate blow you elsewhere
Translation: Don’t worry if you can’t attend this specific fair.
California has several renaissance fairs and similarly themed events throughout the year. And, for the most adventurous, there are other fairs across the country and world, including the Texas Renaissance Festival, said to be the largest in the U.S.
I spoke to Deptford’s lord mayor, Sir Barnubus Bliss, about what’s most important to him about folks experiencing the fair closest to L.A.
The Original Renaissance Pleasure Faire
When: Saturdays and Sundays through May 17 Where: Santa Fe Dam Recreation Area, 15501 Arrow Highway, Irwindale. Note: The fair’s organizers advise you to not put the address in your GPS. It’s recommended that you take the 210, exit off Irwindale Ave (#38) and follow the signs to the fair. Upon arrival, you will pay the $15 entrance fee to the park, and then be directed to a large parking area. Tickets: $53 for adults and children 13 or older, $28 for children 5 to 12, and free for kids 4 and younger. Although you can buy tickets at the fair, it’s logistically easier to buy them online at renfair.com.
“Every time someone comes through those doors, I always wish them a ‘Welcome home,’” he said, “because it is my understanding that no matter where you are from, no matter what your life has been, when you come within these gates, when you are within our walls, you are at home, no matter where you were beforehand.”
Nik Frey, far left, and his partner Joanna Dominguez, far right, sword fight with Bexleigh Kilker, 9, and Bexleigh’s dad Kevin, as they all wait out traffic after opening day at the Renaissance Pleasure Faire.
And I felt that as I watched adults gallivant around with childlike glee. As my wife and I left the fair, I did not find myself immediately reaching for my phone. I wanted to stay, just a while longer, in a world where seemingly everyone is welcome to be just as they are.
With Gustavo Dudamel’s final season as music and artistic director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic reaching its homestretch, the orchestra has announced the appointment of its latest not music director. Anna Handler, a former Dudamel fellow and rapidly rising young conductor, will be given the new title of conductor-in-residence for the next three seasons.
She will spend three weeks each season conducting the orchestra at Walt Disney Concert Hall and the Hollywood Bowl, as well as working with students at the Beckmen YOLA Center in Inglewood. In a phone call from Boston, where she serves as assistant conductor at the Boston Symphony, she says she is also strongly driven by technology and wants to explore all kinds of projects with the latest devises.
“The sky is the limit,” Handler exclaims with the boundless enthusiasm that is said to have won over the orchestra and the administration.
That might include, she further fantasizes, a technology tool you don’t even notice but that focuses your attention to sound vibrations the way glasses give clarity to blurry vision. “Why not glasses for the ears?” she excitedly asks.
Kim Noltemy, the L.A. Phil president and chief executive, says Handler’s appointment does not necessarily imply the orchestra won’t ultimately find a music director who can oversee the bigger picture of the world’s most artistically diverse, expansive and wealthy orchestra. But the L.A. Phil has so many fingers in so many pies that no one person can do it all.
Meanwhile, the L.A. Phil now adds what it has been missing in what the institution calls its team of creative collaborators. As creative director, former music director Esa-Pekka Salonen will spend six weeks a season helping envision what a 21st century symphony orchestra might look like. John Adams continues his role as creative chair as do early music specialist Emmanuelle Haïm (artist collaborator), Herbie Hancock (creative chair for jazz) and Zubin Mehta (conductor emeritus). None, however, is younger than 60. Handler turns 30 this month.
Born in France, she grew up in Germany and is Colombian German. Both her parents are electrical engineers, whom she says her love for technology come from. And she notes that her roots also make her feel at home with the L.A. Phil. She connects with Salonen’s pioneering fascination with technology and the orchestra. With a Colombian mom, she is readily attuned to Dudamel’s Venezuelan heritage. Like her, Salonen, Dudamel and Mehta first began working with the L.A. Phil in their 20s.
Handler’s appointment came, she says, as a surprise. It was after her conducting the L.A. Phil at Disney last month that the orchestra suddenly sprang the idea of a residency beginning almost immediately with the 2026-27 season, even though the Bowl and fall seasons are already planned. Noltemy puts it to the fact that Handler and the orchestra simply got caught up in her energy.
Handler says she jumped at the chance to return to L.A. even though she would be beginning her first season of her first music director job at the Ulster Orchestra in Ireland. A pianist who loves chamber music (which she says will make part of her L.A. residencies), she also becomes artist in residence of the Beethoven House in Bonn, Germany. But, she excitedly exclaims, “At the L.A. Phil you can dream big. And if you have any big ideas, please tell me about them.”
He excitement over music education and community outreach also proved a draw. At 17, she formed her own student orchestra, which performed in schools, old age homes, prisons, all over. And she points out that she is young enough to feel relatively close in age to the students at YOLA, or Youth Orchestra Los Angeles. She describes one of her missions in life as getting young people involved with classical music.
“My long-term dream,” she proclaims, “is to build a Disney World for classical music.” There could be a Beethoven’s Fifth ride. She imagines melody, rhythm, harmony and form as little creatures whom we follow on their journey through the piece. “I’m all about decoding the rhythms of the music,” she adds.
Tellingly, Handler had already been scheduled to be the first conductor to follow Dudamel’s final Hollywood Bowl concert as L.A. Phil music director this summer at the iconic L.A. venue. It features Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony. Her two programs at Disney next season include West Coast premieres of Philip Glass’s Symphony No. 15 (“Lincoln”), which the composer recently withdrew from the Kennedy Center, and John Williams’ recent Piano Concerto.
A workers’ union at the World Cup venue has asked FIFA to keep ICE agents away from the venue to alleviate their fears.
Published On 7 Apr 20267 Apr 2026
A union representing about 2,000 food service workers at the Los Angeles Stadium has asked FIFA to keep United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) away from World Cup operations in the city and warned workers could strike if their concerns are not addressed.
Unite Here Local 11, which represents cooks, servers and bartenders at the Inglewood venue, said on Monday that the workers remain without a labour contract as the World Cup approaches.
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The union laid out three main demands to FIFA and stadium owner Kroenke Sports & Entertainment: A public commitment that ICE and Border Patrol will play no role in the tournament, protections for union jobs and working conditions, and support for affordable housing for hospitality workers.
Acting director of ICE, Todd Lyons, has said ICE would play a “key part” in the World Cup, a prospect the union said threatened worker and guest safety in Los Angeles.
Local 11 said it also wanted assurances that artificial intelligence and automation would not be used during the tournament to eliminate union jobs.
The union linked its labour demands to broader concerns over housing costs in the Los Angeles area, particularly in Inglewood, and called for support for a workforce housing fund, restrictions on short-term rentals and tax measures aimed at funding affordable housing and immigrant family protections.
“FIFA and its corporate sponsors will pocket billions from Los Angeles while refusing to even acknowledge the cooks, servers, and stand attendants who make this event possible,” Kurt Petersen, co-president of Local 11, said in a statement.
The union said it had repeatedly sought meetings with FIFA since Los Angeles was chosen as a host city, but had been ignored.
The venue is known as the SoFi Stadium, but has been rebranded to the Los Angeles Stadium for the World Cup due to sponsor clashes.
Los Angeles is set to host eight World Cup matches at the stadium, the first being the US against Paraguay on June 12.
Doncic is the NBA’s leading scorer this season with 2143 points for an unequalled average of 33.5 points per game.
However, having been sidelined for four games with a left hamstring strain earlier in the season, and missing two games to return to Slovenia for the birth of his daughter in December, Doncic is set to fall short of the minimum games threshold required to qualify for the NBA’s major end-of-season awards.
Doncic, who is one appearance short of the 65 required, will apply for an “Extraordinary Circumstances Challenge”, according to his agent Bill Duffy.
“This season, Luka Doncic has performed at a historic level, leading the league in scoring, carrying the Lakers to third place in the Western Conference and placing himself in the middle of one of the most tightly contested MVP races in memory,” Duffy told ESPN.
“To ensure Luka’s incredible accomplishments this season are rightly honoured and he can be considered for the league’s end-of-season awards, we intend to apply for an ‘Extraordinary Circumstances Challenge’ to the 65-game rule.”
Doncic was named March’s player of the month following 13 consecutive 30-point performances which helped the Lakers to 13 wins in 14 games prior to the defeat by Thunder.
Spring has sprung, but is it ever a bad time to see a movie in Los Angeles? Not really, especially when local programmers keep upping their game. This month brings the third edition of the Los Angeles Festival of Movies, an event that’s growing in ambition. Meanwhile, we’re about as far away from Halloween as we can get, yet the thrillers keep coming: Martin Scorsese’s ominous remake of “Cape Fear,” David Fincher’s landmark “Zodiac” and (the sometimes scary!) “Pinocchio.”
These screenings feature special guests, archival prints and other surprises. Consider our guide a handy catch-all of the best special screenings of the month, mostly reserved for older films playing in unique circumstances.
Whatever your plans may be, change them for the following 8 events.
ALBANY, N.Y. — Gov. Mario Cuomo vetoed a bill today that would have given New York companies powerful new defenses against corporate raiders, saying the measure was too far-reaching and might be unconstitutional.
Assemblyman G. Oliver Kopell, a chief sponsor of the legislation, said he would make no effort to round up a two-thirds majority in the Assembly to override the governor’s veto. The corporate takeover bill was designed to cover companies incorporated in New York with at least 15% of their stock owned by New Yorkers and with significant ties to New York.
The Oklahoma City Thunder condemned the Los Angeles Lakers to one of the heaviest defeats in their history – one made more painful by an injury to star Luka Doncic.
Reigning NBA champions Thunder claimed a commanding 139-96 victory, helped by 28 points from Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, as they improved their league-best record to 61-16.
The Lakers have only been beaten by a greater margin on six occasions, with this 43-point loss just six points short of their worst margin of defeat against the Dallas Mavericks in 2017.
It was a first defeat in five for the Lakers, who must now wait to learn the severity of Doncic’s left hamstring injury after the Slovenian appeared emotional as he exited the court during the third quarter.
Doncic, who had scored 40 or more points in each of his previous three games and five of his past seven, will have an MRI scan on Friday, Lakers coach JJ Redick confirmed.
Spring has sprung in Los Angeles. In just a couple weeks, thousands of music lovers will make the trek to Indio’s Empire Polo Club for the Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival, with dozens of L.A. chefs joining them. While in the desert, many festival goers take a detour through neighboring Palm Springs to explore museums, restaurants and bars before the dry climate climbs into the triple digits.
Closer to home, Los Angeles’ food scene is mourning the loss of two legendary haunts forced to permanently close their doors. After months of extensions, Cole’s French Dip closed at the end of March, though owner Cedd Moses said he was still hopeful that the city’s longest-running public house and rumored creator of the French dip sandwich would sell to a new owner. In Echo Park, Taix restaurant closed after 99 years of operation to make way for a six-story housing complex.
But it’s not all bad news for local restaurants. In Melrose Hill, a Bangladeshi chef has returned to the kitchen after a two-decade-long break from the industry. Across town, a viral smashburger spot from a celebrated chef is drawing lines for its juicy Wagyu patties. And for those heading to the desert, restaurant critic Bill Addison insists a modern Mexican pop-up is worth the weekday trip. Here are 13 places to put on your dining agenda this month:
There’s a 12-ticket maximum for each fan across all sports and sessions, plus 12 tickets for soccer sessions that don’t count toward the general maximum. A four-ticket maximum per ceremony for the opening and closing ceremonies is included in the general limit. Each attendee, including children of any age, will need a ticket to attend.
Tickets included in hospitality packages sold by On Location, the official hospitality provider of the LA28 Games, will not count toward the general limit.
Term limits were supposed to usher fresh faces and new ideas into California’s Capitol and city halls. That was the promise when voters approved the limits for state officials in 1990 and for city of Los Angeles officeholders in 1993. Lawmakers who had turned elected offices into perpetual sinecures would be forced out and eager citizen-politicians, unbeholden to the special interests, would step in. Well, it’s a decade later and the faces are more recycled than fresh.
Witness the Los Angeles municipal elections that will take place April 10. Mayor Richard Riordan has hit his two-term limit. Four of the six leading mayoral candidates are being forced out of other offices and are looking for a soft landing in City Hall. Kathleen Connell cannot run again for state controller, City Atty. James K. Hahn and Councilman Joel Wachs have hit city term ceilings, and Antonio Villaraigosa maxed out in the state Assembly.
For the record:
12:00 a.m. Feb. 17, 2001 For the Record Los Angeles Times Saturday February 17, 2001 Home Edition Metro Part B Page 9 Editorial Writers Desk 2 inches; 38 words Type of Material: Correction Term limits–An editorial Sunday incorrectly said Los Angeles City Councilman Mike Feuer is approaching the two-term limit for city officials. Feuer won a midterm special election to the council in 1995 and won his first full term in 1997. He is allowed a second full term.
The influence of term limits rolls through the municipal ballot. Termed-out Councilman Mike Feuer and Rocky Delgadillo, a Riordan deputy mayor soon to be unemployed like his boss, are vying to be city attorney. Council member Laura Chick is running for controller.
Other termed-out politicos are vying for City Council seats whose current occupants are also termed out. Tom Hayden, whose 18 years in the Assembly and Senate are up, and state Sen. Richard Polanco are trying to parlay their Sacramento expertise into an advantage, arguing that they know how to fight for Los Angeles’ fair share of state money.
In the past, local politicians often moved up the ladder to Sacramento and on to Washington; now they arc back to City Hall as well. It’s a safe bet that this electoral whirl is not what most voters thought they’d get. The professional politicians stay in motion but stay on the public payroll, and when new faces do appear they often come to view public service and its attendant perks as a career rather than an interlude in a career.
The pattern is not new. Yvonne Brathwaite Burke and Mike Antonovich, after stints in Congress and the Legislature, respectively, landed on the county Board of Supervisors, which, with no term limits, is the jackpot for local career pols.
Theoretically, there is an upside to all this churning in that the city could benefit from a politician’s previous experience. Meanwhile, the pool gets shallower in Sacramento. In the mid-1990s the Legislature had its first big term limits-induced exodus. By last year, there had been a complete turnover in the state Senate. The learning curve is now steep on such urgent issues as electricity deregulation, especially for the freshman Assembly members–a third of that house–who are still finding their way to the restroom. In this void, the Assembly speaker and the Senate president pro tem are wielding more power than ever–along with the special-interest lobbyists, permanent players with ample access to expertise and cash.
Ten years after voters approved Proposition 140, the consequences of term limits are still playing out. How much better it would have been to enact campaign finance reform; it was mostly fiscal inequality that kept out new faces. But because incumbent politicians declined to handicap themselves with real reforms, they–and voters–now live instead with a merry-go-round.
WASHINGTON — A lead attorney for the Department of Homeland Security suggested that federal agents should have “just started hitting the rioters and arresting everyone that couldn’t get away” during an anti-ICE protest in Los Angeles last June, internal emails show.
The note was in an email chain obtained by the nonprofit watchdog group American Oversight through the Freedom of Information Act and shared exclusively with The Times.
In it, attorneys for Homeland Security appear to be discussing the June 9 lawsuit filed by California Gov. Gavin Newsom over President Trump’s deployment of thousands of California National Guard troops to Los Angeles.
Under the subject line “California DOD Lawsuit,” officials coordinated legal filings defending the Trump administration and included a draft declaration by the Los Angeles field office director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement supporting the deployment of military forces.
The final email in the thread was from Joseph Mazzara, then-acting DHS general counsel, and he appears to be referring to an incident in which protesters tried to breach a protective line at a federal building.
On June 11, he wrote: “Every time I read about the battering ram incident I’m just floored at how wild that is.”
Referring to law enforcement as “they,” he continued: “They should have, when they brought the line in, just started hitting the rioters and arresting everyone that couldn’t get away from them. No one likes being hit by a stick, and people tend to run when that starts happening in earnest.”
The Department of Homeland Security didn’t respond to requests for comment.
Mazzara was later appointed deputy commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
Politico reported that Mazzara is among 10 staffers who followed former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem to the State Department after she was fired this month from DHS and given a new role as special envoy for the Shield of the Americas.
The battering ram incident Mazzara referred to is detailed in court documents for the lawsuit.
A June 19 order from a panel judges from the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals states that Trump administration attorneys presented evidence of protesters interfering with federal officers. The protesters threw objects at ICE vehicles, “pinned down” several Federal Protective Service officers and threw “concrete chunks, bottles of liquid, and other objects,” the order said.
Protesters also “used ‘large rolling commercial dumpsters as a battering ram’ in an attempt to breach the parking garage of a federal building,” the order states.
Mazzara’s comment in the email thread with other Homeland Security attorneys was given to American Oversight with a watermark showing the agency had intended to withhold it. American Oversight also received a version of the documents with that statement redacted.
Chioma Chukwu, executive director of American Oversight, said it’s no wonder the administration wanted to keep Mazzara’s comments hidden.
“They reveal a level of hostility toward protesters that is deeply at odds with the government’s obligation to protect civil liberties — and there’s no FOIA exemption that justifies hiding them,” she said.
Kerry Doyle, the former top ICE attorney during the Biden administration, said Mazzara’s comments show a shocking carelessness about the potential for harm against both the general public and the officers he was employed to protect.
The email, she said, “seems to encourage, or, at the very least, support constitutional violations by the operators that are supposed to be getting legal counsel from him to avoid violating the law.” Plus, commenting on operational strategy is outside the scope of his responsibilities, she said.
“He’s doing a disservice to the people that are on the front line, that rely on him and his colleagues to give them the parameters of what they can and can’t do,” Doyle added. “If you give them bad legal advice, you are setting them up for liability.”
Noem’s removal came amid backlash against an escalation of violence during Trump’s crackdown on immigration, including the shooting deaths of U.S. citizen protesters by immigration agents.
Doyle said part of the secretary’s job is to set the tone for the agency so the rank and file know what is expected of them. Mazzara’s comments, she said, show how that tone has permeated all facets of the agency.
After the U.S. Supreme Court cast doubt on the Trump administration’s legal theory for using troops in domestic law enforcement operations, the president in December began removing the National Guard from Los Angeles and other Democratic-led cities.
The protests last summer caused significant property damage in a small section of downtown Los Angeles. But grand juries refused to indict many demonstrators accused by federal prosecutors of attacking agents, and a Times review of alleged assaults found that most incidents resulted in no injuries.
Here are some excerpts from Jesse Jackson’s recent campaign speeches:
PHILOSOPHY:
When we turn to each other, and not on each other, that’s victory. When we build each other, and not destroy each other, that’s victory.
Red, yellow, brown, black and white–we’re all precious in God’s sight. Everybody is somebody.
Where do we find common ground? It’s at the plant gate that locks workers out . . . . It’s at the farm auction, when farmers are driven from their land with no place to go. When someone is sick and dying in the admitting office because they don’t have a green or yellow card.
We the people must come together, demand health insurance. We the people must demand better pay for our teachers, demand jobs and security. We the people must say: drive drugs out, drive jobs in.
No one has earned the right to do less than your best.
Our children need strong men and strong women. But you’re not a man just because you make a baby.
It’s just not right to bring a child in this world and abandon that child. It’s just not right . . . . We must rebuild people–that’s a first step to rebuilding the cities.
THE UNDERCLASS:
When you look at Jesse Jackson, you look at the American dream of hope and possibility unfolding before your very eyes. In a real sense, I was born in the underclass . . . born to a teen-age mother who was born to a teen-age mother.
I went to school where teachers received less pay than their white counterparts, by law . . . .
We lived in a three-room house, bathroom on the back porch, slop jar by the bed for the family. Wallpaper used not for decoration, but for a wind breaker.
As your President, I will open up the door of opportunity, but you must walk through those doors . . . . I have faith in you. I want you to have faith in yourself . . . . If you rise above your circumstances, you can make it.
POVERTY:
People aren’t fighting for welfare. They’re fighting for fair-share.
Most poor people are not black or brown. Most poor people are white, female and young. Color it pain, color it hurt.
Most poor people aren’t on welfare. They work every day. They change the beds in hotels. They raise other people’s children.
They work every day. They drive cabs. They’re orderlies in hospitals. They’re not lazy. They work every day. They bathe the bodies sick with fever. They empty their bedpans. They clean out the commodes. No job is beneath them.
And yet, when they get sick, they cannot afford health insurance, and they cannot lie in the beds they’ve made up every day.
We can do better than that. There are 38 million people in America without health insurance. We need to sit down and devise a national health insurance plan. Because it’s right.
I choose to invest in Headstart, and day care, and prenatal care on the front side of life, rather than jail care and welfare on the backside of life.
THE ECONOMY:
Every generation has a challenge. Our challenge today is to end economic violence.
You know something has gone awry when profits go up and wages go down, and 600,000 farms are foreclosed, and plants are closed and workers are abandoned.
It’s called reverse Robin Hood. It’s taking from the poor and giving to the rich. And that is not fair.
Now the top 1% of wage earners 10 years later pay 20% less in taxes, instead of paying 20% more. Government (has been) used as a lever to take from working people and the poor and to give to the rich.
DRUGS:
The No. 1 threat to this nation is drugs–cocaine, crack, heroin, PCP. We’re consuming $150-billion worth of drugs a year. The No. 1 tax-free industry in America is drugs.
Drugs are corrupting leaders, killing our children. But don’t just focus on children and ballplayers. Children do not buy $150-billion worth of drugs a year. And ballplayers do not launder $150 billion in drug money through banks.
We must get serious about ending the war of drugs in this country. Stop the cocaine, the crack, the heroin. Ban the drugs. Ban the handguns. Make our streets secure and safe again.
In 1986 the Coast Guard interdicted 10,000 pounds of cocaine. In 1987, the Coast Guard interdicted 26,000 pounds of cocaine. Then, the Administration cut the Coast Guard budget by $100 million. They busted the Coast Guard and gave the drug smugglers the green light.
I want to cut the supply of drugs. I want you to join me and cut the demand.
TRADE:
The No. 1 exporter from Taiwan is not Taiwan. It’s General Electric. Which owns RCA. Which owns NBC. Which says, “Buy American,” while NBC workers are forced to strike and make concessions.
The first four years of the Reagan Administration, GE made $10 billion. That’s all right. But as profits went up, wages and jobs went down. They paid zero taxes. That’s not all. They got a $100-million tax rebate, while workers on unemployment compensation had to pay taxes. That is economic violence.
FOREIGN POLICY:
The Russian bear is in check because we have the mental preparedness and the military preparedness. But the drug war is hitting us where we have no defense, in our character, in our lives, in our dreams.
In Latin America, our fight is not with 3 million Sandinistas. They do not threaten us. If they did, 15,000 Contras could not save us from them.
L.A.’s only dedicated cinnamon roll shop was born during the pandemic, when stay-at-home orders prevented Lindsay Sears-McDonald from going to her family’s favorite bakery to satisfy her craving for sticky sweet buns.
Instead, she attempted the dessert at home. When her first try yielded delicious results, she set out to perfect the recipe. Soon, she and her husband Lawrence were popping up at events across Los Angeles, and in 2023 they nabbed a vendor spot at Smorgasburg L.A.
They named their outfit All About the Cinnamon, a play on the hit song “All About the Benjamins” that features Lil’ Kim and Notorious B.I.G. The menu follows a similar theme, with plush cinnamon rolls named after the rap and R&B artists that Lindsay and Lawrence grew up listening to, such as the Em dotted with milk-chocolate M&M’s or the Busta topped with warm Nutella. Last summer the couple opened a small storefront in Sherman Oaks, complete with a mural of hip-hop greats.
In pastry cases across the city, you’ll see a diverse range of sweet buns inspired by the comforting flavors of childhood. That translates to vegan cinnamon rolls with ube halaya and pandan at a Filipino bake shop in Long Beach and miso-honey milkbread buns sprinkled with sesame seeds at a Korean-inspired bakery in Highland Park. Here are 11 of our favorite cinnamon rolls in L.A.
