Autopilot

Along with the stars on Hollywood Boulevard and the Universal Studios theme park, a new celestial attraction is set to debut in Los Angeles.

The Samuel Oschin Air and Space Center at Exposition Park is expected to complete construction this year, according to its architects, only three years after the first shovels broke ground.

That would make the center ready in time for when Los Angeles hosts visitors from around the world to see the 2026 World Cup, the 2027 Super Bowl and the 2028 Olympics.

One of the aspects that makes this place special is its showcase, the Space Shuttle Endeavour. The spacecraft stands in a stack position, meaning it’s standing — complete with boosters and a rare fuel tank — as if it were ready to launch. It’s the only shuttle in the nation to feature such a feat.

Jeffrey N. Rudolph, president and chief executive of the California Science Center, and Ted Hyman, partner at architectural firm ZGF, which designed the air and space center, recently shared updates with The Times, including news of an exclusive partnership with director/producer J.J. Abrams’ production company Bad Robot.

(William Liang / For The Times)

What’s that shiny thing off the 110 Freeway?

That silver cylindrical colossus that is easily seen from the freeway houses the stacked space shuttle.

The Endeavour was meticulously placed there in January 2024 as much of the museum was built around it.

As for the 20-story diagrid, or shuttle housing building, the museum’s construction crew is about 80% finished wrapping a stainless-steel skin exterior around the shuttle, according to an estimate from Mark Piaia, a ZGF project architect.

The shiny view comes courtesy of 4,247 panels and 1,074 diagonal strips that would stand 7,862 feet tall if lined up.

(William Liang / For The Times)

When will construction be done and the museum be open?

Rudolph said building construction is expected to be completed this year.

He would not provide an official opening day but noted that artifact and exhibit installations would still need to be completed.

The museum is expected to house about 20 planes and jets, including a Boeing 747.

There are also plans for a 45-foot slide that imitates the feeling of entering the atmosphere with a radiating orange glow, two sonic booms and the “S” turns a shuttle would make upon reentry.

(Courtesy of ZGF via the California Science Center)

What should visitors expect to see?

Rudolph was excited about what he’s calling “the reveal.”

He exclusively told The Times that a pair of introductory films are being produced by directing/producing titan J.J. Abrams’ Bad Robot. That’s the same production company responsible for some of the latest “Star Wars” and “Mission:Impossible” movies.

The first film will greet visitors as they walk into the museum and will focus on the entire air and space exhibits.

The second will screen at a mini theater at the entrance to the space shuttle exhibit. It is a five-minute film that focuses on the history and inspiration behind the space shuttle. The film ends with a simulated launch, during which steam rises from the floor and through hallway doors and fills the theater.

As the steam impairs a guest’s vision, the screen is removed and visitors get a surprise: a full, “envelope” view of the stacked 20-story space shuttle.

“It is an amazing experience and we want to really build it up,” Rudolph said. “It’s not just about the hardware, but about the people and the educational aspects.”

Can visitors get inside the shuttle?

The delicate nature of the shuttle makes that impossible.

“There’s no way,” Rudolph said. “The hatch is very small and it’s very fragile.”

There is, however, a mock-up of the flight deck — an area designed to carry cargo — that visitors can toy with to get a feel that only shuttle astronauts once got.

We’ll continue to follow the progress of the air and space museum as we head toward opening day.

The week’s biggest stories

(Carlin Stiehl / Los Angeles Times)

Crime, courts and policing

ICE, immigration, raids and reactions

Fires and wildfires

Television and entertainment news

More big stories

This week’s must reads

More great reads

For your weekend

(Brook Rushton / Sony Pictures Releasing)

Going out

Staying in

Have a great weekend, from the Essential California team

Jim Rainey, staff writer
Diamy Wang, homepage intern
Izzy Nunes, audience intern
Kevinisha Walker, multiplatform editor
Andrew J. Campa, reporter
Karim Doumar, head of newsletters

How can we make this newsletter more useful? Send comments to [email protected]. Check our top stories, topics and the latest articles on latimes.com.

There are multi-talents, and then there was Salvador Bagüez.

Hollywood used him as a bit actor in 1950s B-movies and classic Western television series from “Death Valley Days” to “Bonanza” to “The Cisco Kid.” Studio executives frequently hired the Mexican immigrant as a technical advisor or dialogue coach for movies set in Latin America or Spain involving stars such as Marlon Brando, Robert Mitchum and Cary Grant.

Bagüez’s baritone took him to radio programs and stage shows alongside Jose Arias, a pioneering bandleader of Mexican and Californio music. In his later years, he covered the Dodgers as a sports writer for La Opinión. But for two decades, the longtime Lincoln Heights resident made his biggest mark in Southern California life — no pun intended — as a star illustrator for The Times from the mid-1920s until about World War II.

Not a bad career for one of the first Latinos to work at this paper, amiright?

I first heard about Bagüez in 2023 from Times editorial library director Cary Schneider, who had received a query from someone trying to find out more information about “Sal Baquez.” He gave me a heads-up because one of the trillion sub-beats I have is trying to tell the stories of pioneering but forgotten Latinos at the paper. So far, I’ve profiled columnist Pepe Arciga, cartoonist Manuel M. Moreno and artist-turned-Commerce Councilmember Alex O. Perez.

Now, here’s Bagüez’s story.

Copy boy turned star

He was born in Juarez in 1904 and came to this country in 1921. Bagüez’s first jobs for The Times were as a copy boy and a singer in the paper’s monthly radio variety show on KHJ (and I thought appearing in our videos reels was intimidating). Singing classic and contemporary songs in English and Spanish, his voice was so stirring that an Aug. 12, 1926, Times story revealed that colleagues in the art department took up a collection to gift him singing lessons.

By then, Bagüez was establishing himself as an illustrator in the paper’s pages. His main beats would become sports, entertainment and the Los Angeles Times Sunday Magazine. His style varied — Pee-Chee folder-style illustrations that spanned the length of the front page of the sports section, sketches in charcoal of Hollywood stars like Charlie Chaplin and Douglas Fairbanks, even Art Deco-style flights of geometric fancy. When World War II came, Bagüez drew caricatures of Hitler and Stalin and even maps of Axis advancements across Europe. He signed all of his illustrations with an umlaut over the U in his last name, a grammatical courtesy not offered to him by The Times typesetters, who went with “Baguez” in his byline.

When he wasn’t drawing, Bagüez was interpreting for Times reporters and penning Spanish-language film and music reviews. His importance to the paper was such that he was listed as one of The Times’ stars in a Dec. 3, 1928, ad in the Pasadena Post urging readers to subscribe to this paper — the only Latino staffer afforded the honor.

A 1941 illustration of author Booth Tarkington drawn by Salvador Bagüez.

(Los Angeles Times)

The last mention I could find of him as a Times employee came in the May 17, 1943, edition of “Lee’s Side o’ L.A.,” in which longtime columnist Lee Shippey mocked people who expressed sympathy for pachucos, the Mexican American men who were increasingly being assaulted by white servicemen in a series of attacks that culminated in the Zoot Suit Riots just a few weeks later. Shippey cited Bagüez and fellow Times artist Perez as Mexicans done good, writing, “Both worked up to enviable reputations because they were thoroughly good men as well as good workmen … gangsters go to jail, good citizens do well. Pick out the right examples, boys.”

I wonder if that tokenism is what La Opinión sports editor Rodolfo B. Garcia was referring to in a 1979 Bagüez appreciation when he said the artist left The Times at the height of his fame because he didn’t like how a Times editor “called his attention.”

One person who knew Bagüez well was Hall of Fame Dodgers broadcaster Jaime Jarrín. His first radio job, for KWKW in 1955, was as Bagüez’s replacement after the latter quit the station for a movie gig. The two would dine before games at Dodger Stadium — “full meals, not the hot dogs they give reporters now” — once Jarrín became the team’s Spanish-language broadcaster and Bagüez covered them for La Opiníon from 1960 to about 1970.

“I held him in high regard because he was always so calm and respectful,” Jarrín told me. “Salvador had the soul of an artist and a beautiful voice — he spoke marvelous Spanish and perfect English.”

Don Jaime remembers weekend trips to Tijuana with Bagüez and some of his Hollywood friends, legends like Anthony Quinn, Ricardo Montalban and Gilbert Roland. He also laughed during our short conversation at the fact Bagüez never referred to the Blue Crew as the Dodgers but rather “Los Esquivadores” — the literal translation of “dodgers.”

But Jarrín, as much as he hung out with Bagüez, said there was always something inscrutable about his friend: “Salvador was a very private man. Never talked about his personal life, never even talked about whether he was married.”

Bagüez died in 1979 and is buried in Calvary Cemetery in East Los Angeles alongside his mother. Garcia, the La Opinión sports editor, praised Bagüez in his remembrance as the “cleanest writer” he ever edited.

“Rest in piece, the Juarez native who triumphed in the United States as artist, reporter and announcer,” Garcia concluded. “Another of the old guard that has crossed over the path that waits for us all, late or early.”

This morning’s must read

More great reads

For your weekend

(Illustrations by Lindsey Made This; photograph by Jenny Anderson / Disney via Getty Images)

Going out

Staying in

A question for you: What’s your favorite California beach?

Diane Miller writes: “Avila Beach in San Luis Obispo, Calif.”

Jocelyn Harrison writes: “Zuma Beach!”

Robert Benowitz writes: “Corona del Mar is my favorite California Beach.”

Email us at [email protected], and your response might appear in the newsletter this week.

Have a great weekend, from the Essential California team

Kevinisha Walker, multiplatform editor

How can we make this newsletter more useful? Send comments to [email protected]. Check our top stories, topics and the latest articles on latimes.com.

For the record: Yesterday’s newsletter incorrectly stated the name of a reader’s favorite California beach. Jot McDonald’s favorite beach is Asilomar Beach, not Ancillary Beach.

Fighter jets whooshed by and a stealth bomber streaked through the air during Friday’s annual White House Fourth of July picnic.

The display of might outside was unmistakable, as was the soft power inside the building.

President Donald J. Trump signed into law his nearly 900-page “Big Beautiful Bill” of tax breaks and spending cuts, affecting millions of Medicaid recipients while growing the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency by thousands of workers.

The Senate passed the bill earlier in the week, while the Republican-controlled House voted 218-214 in favor of it on Thursday evening, with all Democrats and two Republicans opposed.

Now that the bill is in effect, it’s a good time to review what’s actually inside.

Times and Associated Press reporters broke down what the passage of the bill means for the country.

Tax cuts take center stage

The BBB contains roughly $4.5 trillion in tax cuts, according to the Associated Press, and solidified the ones from Trump’s first term.

On the teeter-totter of benefits, the wealthiest families will enjoy an average of $12,000 in tax savings, while the poorest people will have to pay an additional $1,600 a year, on average, mainly due to reductions in Medicaid and food aid.

That analysis of the House version of the bill is is according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.

While temporarily adding new tax deductions on tips, overtime and auto loans, the bill also adds a $6,000 deduction for older adults making less than $75,000 a year.

The child tax credit is bumped from $2,000 to $2,200, though millions of lower income families will still be unable to get the full credit.

Caps for state and local tax deductions, known as SALT, will quadruple to $40,000 for five years, offering some benefits to residents of higher-taxed states like California.

Businesses will get a break because they will immediately be able to write off 100% of the cost of equipment and research, which some experts say will boost economic growth.

Deportations, a border wall and missile defense

Another $350 billion is being allocated for border and national security, which includes spending on the U.S.-Mexico border and 100,000 migrant detention beds.

ICE will receive funding to offer $10,000 signing bonuses to new employees, with the aim of hiring 10,000 officers and agents.

Immigrants will fund some of these projects by paying new or increased fees, including when they apply for asylum.

In total, the Department of Defense will receive roughly $1 billion in new funding for border security.

Another $25 billion is being set aside for the U.S. to develop its own Israel-type of Iron Dome missile defense system, called the “Golden Dome.”

Clean energy gets pummeled

Previous tax breaks meant to create incentives for wind and solar energy are being hacked dramatically.

One incentive that will soon disappear is the electric vehicle tax break of $7,500 for new vehicles and $4,000 for used ones.

That was supposed to initially expire in 2032. Instead, the credit sunsets on Sept. 30.

How is this being paid for?

Republicans are cutting back on Medicaid and food assistance programs for those below the poverty line.

Many adults receiving Medicaid and food stamps, including those up to age 65, will now have to fulfill an 80-hour-a-month work requirement.

Medicaid patients will also have a new $35 co-payment to contend with.

About 71 million Americans use Medicaid, and 40 million benefit from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, commonly known as food stamps.

The CBO estimates that 11.8 million Americans will become uninsured by 2034, and 3 million more will not qualify for SNAP due to the changes.

For more on the bill, read our full report here.

The week’s biggest stories

(Chris Pizzello / Invision / AP)

Trump administration pushback

Fires and wildfires

Crime, courts and policing

More big stories

This week’s must-reads

More great reads

For your weekend

(Illustrations by Lindsey Made This; photograph by Greg Swales)

Going out

Staying in

L.A. Affairs

Get wrapped up in tantalizing stories about dating, relationships and marriage.

Have a great weekend, from the Essential California team

Kevinisha Walker, multiplatform editor
Andrew J. Campa, reporter
Karim Doumar, head of newsletters

How can we make this newsletter more useful? Send comments to [email protected]. Check our top stories, topics and the latest articles on latimes.com.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers have ramped up raids throughout Southern California in the last couple of weeks.

Some areas such as MacArthur Park, the Garment District, downtown’s produce market and areas of the Eastside have seen heavily reduced traffic and commercial activity due to fear from immigrant communities.

Some cities have taken preventive actions. Pasadena, for example, canceled weekend swimming lessons and other recreational activities.

Throughout this time, pressure has slowly mounted on one of Los Angeles’ most cherished institutions to make a statement.

On Friday, the World Series champion Los Angeles Dodgers announced they have committed $1 million toward assistance for families of immigrants affected by the recent raids, as well as plans for further initiatives that are to be unveiled in the coming days.

“What’s happening in Los Angeles has reverberated among thousands upon thousands of people, and we have heard the calls for us to take a leading role on behalf of those affected,” team president Stan Kasten said in a statement. “We believe that by committing resources and taking action, we will continue to support and uplift the communities of Greater Los Angeles.”

Who has spoken up while the Dodgers remained silent

My colleague Jack Harris documented the public and media pressure to nudge the Dodgers to make a public statement.

The Times, of course, had no shortage of columnists calling out the Dodgers.

Dylan Hernández remarked that the Dodgers “groveled at [Trump’s] feet” at the White House visit but didn’t speak out over “racist kidnapping sweeps.”

Fidel Martinez, creator of the Latinx Files, commented that “the Dodgers buried their heads in the sandlot and pretended the unrest wasn’t happening.”

Eduard Cauich noted how Dodgers broadcast icon Jamie Jarrín, an Ecuadorian immigrant, and player Kiké Hernández have spoken about their heartbreak and rage, respectively, over the raids and the division they’ve caused.

What changed?

On Friday morning, more than 50 community and religious leaders from around Los Angeles signed a petition that called on the Dodgers “to take a public stand against the indiscriminate ICE raids which are causing immense terror in our communities, hurting businesses, and separating families.”

By Friday afternoon, the team finally started to put some public plans into action.

“This is the moment for the Dodgers to stand with the families whom masked agents are tearing apart,” read the letter, which was signed by religious officials, labor leaders and immigrant-rights activists, and addressed to Dodgers owner Mark Walter.

“If these truly are OUR beloved Los Angeles Dodgers, we need you, more than ever, to stand with us, immigrants and non-immigrants alike. Stand with all of us.”

And then immigration officials tried to visit Dodger Stadium

The petition, which was organized by faith-based community organizing network PICO California, came a day after the Dodgers initially postponed their planned financial assistance announcement.

The club decided to delay its announcement for assistance after immigration agents showed up at Dodger Stadium on Thursday morning, attempting to access the ballpark’s parking lots in an apparent effort to use them as a processing site for people who had been arrested in a nearby immigration raid.

The Dodgers denied the agents entry to the grounds, according to the team, but pushed their announcement to Friday afternoon — when they detailed that their $1 million in financial resources will be made in partnership with the city of Los Angeles.

“The Dodgers and the City of Los Angeles have a proven ability to get financial resources to those in critical need, most recently seen in their efforts to aid victims of the January wildfires,” the Dodgers said. “Through our support of the city’s efforts, the Dodgers will encourage those organizations in a similar position to use their resources to directly support the families and workers who have suffered economic hardship.”

The team said more initiatives with local community and labor organizations will be announced in the coming days.

After the Dodgers’ announcement, the Rev. Zach Hoover from LA Voice, a member federation of PICO California, released another statement.

“The Dodgers have taken a meaningful step toward addressing the fear in our communities. By committing real resources to immigrant families, they’re showing that moral courage and civic leadership still matter in Los Angeles, and that we can heal the wounds of hate with the power of love. We pray this is just the beginning — because dignity demands more than silence, and faith calls us to act.”

The week’s biggest stories

U.S. enters Israel’s war with Iran

The turmoil of Los Angeles’ ICE detentions and arrests

How fear of immigration raids is affecting Los Angeles

Crime, courts and policing

More big stories

This week’s must reads

More great reads

For your weekend

Going out

Staying in

L.A. Affairs

Get wrapped up in tantalizing stories about dating, relationships and marriage.

Have a great weekend, from the Essential California team

Kevinisha Walker, multiplatform editor
Andrew J. Campa, reporter
Karim Doumar, head of newsletters

How can we make this newsletter more useful? Send comments to [email protected]. Check our top stories, topics and the latest articles on latimes.com.

California invented the motel. More specifically: As automobile ownership skyrocketed in the 1920s and entrepreneurs rushed to open tourist camps and motor courts to house traveling families, a Pasadena architect named Arthur Heineman came up with the word motel — motor plus hotel, right? — and put up a mission-style lodging in San Luis Obispo, midway between Los Angeles and San Francisco. He did this in late 1925.

From these facts, The Times hatched a project to help California travelers plan their next road trip and recognize the motel centennial as an anniversary that resounds throughout pop culture.

After driving 2,500 miles and checking out dozens of places, I’ve come up with 34 lodgings to recommend at various price points. (These days, many prefer to call themselves inns or boutique hotels. Still, if their guest room doors open to the great outdoors and there’s a highway handy, I count them as part of the extended motel family.)

We’re also hoping to help all readers appreciate the up-and-down story of motels — how they soared in the midcentury years, then seeped into pop culture as hotbeds of sex and crime, slumped in the late 20th century and lately have entered a new era.

Today many are going luxurious or doubling down on nostalgia. Some are charging $1,000 a night. Others are sticking to their frugal roots and charging $100 a night. Several have been repurposed by government agencies to house people at risk of homelessness. And some don’t even take overnight guests anymore — they make their way by housing retail and restaurants and supplying all-American scenery for selfies and videos.

Among the overnight destinations we cover in our motel centennial special:

• In Paso Robles, the River Lodge’s MOTEL sign rises high above the 101 like a rocket about to be launched from wine country.
• In Palm Springs, the Trixie Motel has added new oomph to the phrase “over the top.”
• In San Bernardino, the Wigwam Motel and its concrete teepees endure, now owned by a family with roots in India and the Inland Empire.
• In San Francisco’s Castro District, a new generation runs Beck’s Motor Lodge for an audience the founders never imagined.
• In Malibu, the Surfrider staff is standing by to lend you a surfboard or a Mini Cooper to cruise along PCH.

For travelers and admirers of midcentury design, the most welcome news may be that just about every week, another revived California roadside lodging reopens, many of them sporting the bold, space-age shapes and signage that midcentury design geeks know as Googie.

We’re also hoping these stories will help with your next road trip:

Happy traveling.

The week’s biggest stories

Lyle Menendez, right, and brother Erik listen to a charge of murder conspiracy against them with Leslie Abramson, far left, attorney for Erik, Dec. 29, 1992, in Los Angeles.

(Chris Martinez / Associated Press)

Menendez brothers move closer to freedom

• When a Los Angeles County judge resentenced Erik and Lyle on Tuesday, he offered the brothers a path to freedom for the first time since they were given life in prison for killing their parents with shotguns in 1989.
• The brothers may be another step closer to freedom after Gov. Gavin Newsom withdrew his request for clemency investigations into their case, turning a hearing scheduled in June before the parole board into an opportunity for them to be granted early release.

L.A. council backs $30 minimum wage for hotels

Smokey Robinson under criminal investigation

More big stories

This week’s must reads

More must reads

For your weekend

The new “World of Color Happiness!” begins with a charming pre-show featuring the Muppets.

(Sean Teegarden / Disneyland Resort)

Going out

Staying in

Have a great weekend, from the Essential California team

Kevinisha Walker, multiplatform editor

How can we make this newsletter more useful? Send comments to [email protected]. Check our top stories, topics and the latest articles on latimes.com.