Irvine

HIGH SCHOOL FLAG FOOTBALL

WEDNESDAY’S RESULTS

CITY SECTION

New Designs University Park 36, TEACH Tech 0

Verdugo Hills 26, Arleta 6

Verdugo Hills 26, Arleta 13

SOUTHERN SECTION

Alhambra 36, Keppel 8

Antelope Valley 6, Highland 0

Banning 50, Rancho Mirage 33

Bellflower 26, Norwalk 0

Bishop Amat 25, St. Paul 0

Bonita 32, Claremont 15

Burbank Burroughs 33, Providence 0

California 30, Whittier 14

Castaic 21, Golden valley 12

Cerritos 26, Pioneer 0

Costa Mesa 14, Godinez 6

Covina 19, West Covina 13

Crean Lutheran 39, Azusa 0

Desert Hot Springs 22, Cathedral City 6

Hart 32, Canyon Country Canyon 6

Irvine 7, Laguna Beach 0

Irvine University 35, Rosary 13

Knight 13, Lancaster 6

La Canada 40, Rio Hondo Prep 12

Laguna Hills 14, Westminster 7

Montebello 6, San Gabriel 0

Newport Harbor 32, Aliso Niguel 6

Northview 18, Charter Oak 12

Paramount 12, La Mirada 0

Quartz Hill 22, Eastside 0

Rowland 12, Hacienda Heights Wilson 7

San Dimas 20, Alta Loma 6

Santa Fe 19, El Rancho 12

Saugus 14, Vasquez 7

Schurr 33, Bell Gardens 12

Sierra Vista 28, St. Lucy’s 31

South El Monte 34, Arroyo 7

Sunny Hills 6, Santa Ana Foothill 0

Tesoro 18, San Juan Hills 14

Tustin 26, Compton Early College 0

Villa Park 18, Troy 12

Warren 19, Gahr 0

Western Christian 13, Ontario Christian 7

West Ranch 34, Valencia 0

THURSDAY’S RESULTS

CITY SECTION

Birmingham 6, Cleveland 0

Carson 31, LA Marshall 21

Hollywood 25, Collins Family 13

El Camino Real 28, Chatsworth 0

LA Marshall 20, Jefferson 6

Jefferson 13, Carson 12

Maywood Academy 6, Torres 0

Panorama 42, Van Nuys 0

Panorama 48, Reseda 0

Roybal 6, LACES 0

Sotomayor 8, Maywood Academy 0

Sotomayor 40, Torres 0

Van Nuys 21, Granada Hills Kennedy 12

Venice 19, Fairfax 6

With a sixth year of basketball eligibility at UC Irvine, former St. Francis High guard Andre Henry has become so familiar with coach Russell Turner that both consider each other family.

Henry, who was injured last season after nine games, is back healthy, and Turner thinks he’s ready to be a standout on offense and defense this season.

He calls Henry one of the finest recruits he ever signed out of St. Francis in 2020. In 2023-24, he was the Big West Conference defensive player of the year.

“Andre was probably the top-ranked recruit we ever got,” said Turner, in his 16th season. “I watched him elevate his team at St. Francis and he’s still that type of personality. I’m thrilled where is right now and he’s going to have a great season on both sides of the ball. There’s not a limit he can accomplish.”

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UC Irvine men’s basketball coach talks about how Andre Henry has become a standout on the court for the Anteaters.

Turner said he’s grateful for Henry’s loyalty and commitment to the UC Irvine basketball program.

“Andre has become family with me and my staff,” he said. “He’s made great sacrifices to remain in our program. I think he sees we’re committed to him and I certainly see how committed he and his family have been to us. Hopefully, we can write the end to a great story in his sixth year.”

This is a daily look at the positive happenings in high school sports. To submit any news, please email [email protected].

UC Irvine has officially acquired Orange County Museum of Art, bringing the two organizations together under a new name: UC Irvine Langson Orange County Museum of Art. I first reported on the possibility of the merger in June when the two entities first signed a nonbinding letter of intent that needed approval by the University of California Board of Regents.

With the legal details now set, UC Irvine is absorbing OCMA’s 53,000-square-foot, $98-million Morphosis-designed building on the eastern edge of the Segerstrom Center for the Arts campus. According to UC Irvine, no money changed hands in the acquisition, which also finds the university taking over OCMA’s assets, employees and debt.

Just how much debt the Costa Mesa-based museum was in has not been disclosed by either organization, and a rep for UC Irvine declined to comment on that number.

OCMA’s board has been dissolved, and CEO Heidi Zuckerman, who announced her intention to step down in December, vacated her role. She had been planning to stay until her successor was found, but UC Irvine is now that successor and has launched a search for a new leader to take over the merged museums. A rep for the university said it is hoping to announce a candidate by early next year.

UC Irvine had long planned to build a museum for its California art collection, including its celebrated Gerald Buck Collection, but it now intends to move it to OCMA when the lease on its current off-campus space, on Von Karman Avenue, expires in late 2026. The Buck Collection, bequeathed to UC Irvine by Gerald Buck when he died in 2017, is the museum’s crown jewel, consisting of more than 3,200 paintings, sculptures and works on paper by some of the state’s most championed artists, including Joan Brown, Jay DeFeo, Richard Diebenkorn, David Hockney and Ed Ruscha.

OCMA opened to much fanfare in 2022 and its expansive contemporary art collection drew museum-goers from across the country. More than 10,000 visitors arrived in its first 24 hours, and admission was to remain free for the first decade of operation thanks to a grant from Newport Beach’s Lugano Diamonds.

All did not seem well at the new museum, however. Times art critic Christopher Knight and former Times architecture columnist Carolina Miranda wrote that the highly touted building remained oddly unfinished. Murmurs about the museum’s financial problems persisted when Zuckerman announced her departure three years later.

According to a rep for OCMA, the museum had a $7.7-million annual budget and had attracted 600,000 visitors since 2022, which is a healthy number by industry standards. Still, questions circulated among museum insiders about what OCMA’s long-term financial plan was, and how much it might have been struggling toward the end.

A rep for UC Irvine would say only that the museum had done its due diligence before the acquisition.

The museums at both locations remain open as usual, with OCMA in the midst of its 2025 California Biennial: “Desperate, Scared, But Social.”

“UC Irvine is committed to ensuring that the region benefits from a world-class art museum that enriches the cultural fabric of Orange County, advances groundbreaking scholarship, nurtures the next generation of creators and thinkers, and inspires curiosity and connection across diverse audiences,” said Chancellor Howard Gillman in a news release.

I’m arts and culture writer Jessica Gelt, looking to acquire a healthy breakfast in a few minutes. Here’s your arts news for the week.

On our radar

Martha Graham Dance Company performs “Night Journey” and other works Saturday at the Soraya.

(Brigid Pierce)

Martha Graham Dance Company Centennial
The Soraya continues its celebration with Graham’s 1947 ballet “Night Journey,” which is based on the Oedipus myth and has not been widely performed; a 2024 piece titled “We the People,” featuring folk music by Rhiannon Giddens; and the world premiere of “En Masse,” which builds on the Soraya’s exploration of Graham’s collaborations with various composers. The last — a new commission choreographed by Hope Boykin — marks the first time Graham’s work has been paired with the music of Leonard Bernstein. The posthumous partnership was inspired by a musical excerpt that was found in correspondence between the two arts legends. Christopher Rountree’s experimental classical ensemble Wild Up will perform a new arrangement of Bernstein, as well as William Schuman’s score for “Night Journey.”
— Jessica Gelt
8 p.m. Saturday. The Saroya, 18111 Nordhoff St., Northridge. thesoraya.org

Dua Lipa’s Radical Optimism tour hits town for five shows at the Forum in Inglewood.

(Katja Ogrin / Getty Images)

Dua Lipa
Lipa has found a formidable second life as a public intellectual with her fantastic book club, Service95. (This month’s suggestion: David Szalay’s novel “Flesh.”) But on the heels of last year’s (unfairly!) slept-on “Radical Optimism,” the singer returns to SoCal for five nights at the Forum, where that record’s exquisite catalog of disco-funk effervescence will hopefully get its due on the dance floor.
— August Brown
7:30 p.m. Saturday, Sunday, Tuesday. Wednesday and Thursday. Forum, 3900 W. Manchester Blvd., Inglewood. thekiaforum.com

Pat O’Neill, “Los Angeles — From Cars and Other Problems,” 1960s, gelatin silver print

(Graham Howe)

Made in L.A. 2025
UCLA Hammer Museum’s seventh biennial survey of mostly recent art from the sprawling region will include 28 artists and collectives — including influential elder statesman Pat O’Neill, 86. The artists work in every imaginable medium, from traditional painting and sculpture to theater and choreography. The always much-discussed result will reflect the diverse artistic interests of the changing curatorial team, which this time is composed of independent curator Essence Harden, Art Institute of Chicago (and former Hammer) curator Paulina Pobocha and Hammer curatorial assistant Jennifer Buonocore-Nedrelow.
— Christopher Knight
Sunday through March 1, 2026. Closed Mondays. UCLA Hammer Museum, 10899 Wilshire Blvd., Westwood. hammer.ucla.edu

The week ahead: A curated calendar

FRIDAY
🎭 Family Meal
A famous chef serves his last meal, and you’re invited to this immersive theatrical experience that seats the audience at the dinner table for a round of foodie “Succession.”
7 p.m. Friday-Sunday; Oct. 10-12; Nov. 7-9; 14-16. Rita House, 5971 W. 3rd St. speakeasysociety.com

🎶 🎤 Ledisi: For Dinah
The Grammy-winning singer’s new album pays tribute to Dinah Washington, “The Queen of the Blues.” 
8 p.m. Walt Disney Concert Hall, 111 S. Grand Ave., downtown L.A. laphil.com

Untitled, 2025, by Calvin Marcus. Oil on linen, 48 by 72 inches, 49 by 73 inches framed.

(Karma)

🎨 Calvin Marcus
Building on a coat of deep umber, the artist adds layers of lime, Kelly, forest and other shades of green to mimic the growth cycle of his subject in the Grass Paintings. This isn’t the type of nature you can touch, but the vivid compositions of the series may offer their own sense of the sublime to the viewer.
10 a.m.–6 p.m. Tuesday–Saturday through Nov. 1. Karma, 7351 Santa Monica Blvd., Los Angeles. karmakarma.org

🎹 🎺 🎶Arturo O’Farrill and the Afro Latin Jazz Ensemble
UCLA’s Center for the Art of Performance presents an evening with the Grammy-winning octet, featuring pianist and composer O’Farrill, son of the late Cuban jazz pioneer Chico O’Farrill.
8 p.m. Friday, Oct. 3, UCLA Nimoy Theater, 1262 Westwood Blvd. cap.ucla.edu

Music director Rafael Payare and the San Diego Symphony open their new season Friday.

(Courtesy of Gary Payne)

🎼 French Fairytales: Ravel and Debussy
San Diego Symphony music director Rafael Payare opens his orchestra’s second season in the brilliantly renovated Jacobs Music Center by staging Ravel’s one-act opera, “The Child and the Magical Spells” (commonly known by its French title, “L’enfant et les sortileges”). A kind of French “Alice Wonderland,” this is the most enchanted work by a composer for whom enchantment was bedazzling second nature. The stellar cast is headed by mezzo-soprano Isabel Leonard and soprano Liv Redpath. The stage director is by the orchestra’s creative consultant, Gerard McBurney, who recently created for Esa-Pekka Salonen a new version of Mussorgsky’s “Khovanshchina,” which was the hit of this year’s Salzburg Easter Festival. Plus Debussy’s “The Joyful Isle (L’isle joyeuse)” and “The Box of Toys (La boîte à joujoux).” (Mark Swed)
7:30 p.m. Friday; 2 p.m. Sunday. Jacobs Music Center, 1245 Seventh Ave, San Diego. sandiegosymphony.org

SATURDAY
🎼 🎤 Current: Reflections in Song
Countertenor John Holiday, pianist Lara Downes and an 18-piece Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra lineup glide through Chris Walde’s arrangements of Gershwin, Ellington, Strayhorn, Korngold, Chaplin and more in a program that unites cinematic romance with the elegance of jazz.
7:30 p.m. Saturday, Cicada Restaurant and Lounge
617 S Olive St., downtown L.A. laco.org

🎨 The HWY 62 Open Studio Art Tours
For a 24th year, High Desert artists open their studios and share their work for three weekends of free self-guided tours.
10 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday; Oct. 11-12 and 18-19. Yucca Valley, Joshua Tree, Twentynine Palms and surrounding areas. hwy62arttours.org

🎭 Public Assembly’s Soirée
“Everything Everywhere All At Once” director Daniel Scheinert, actor Jena Malone and other celebrities gather for this fundraiser for the non-profit theater company featuring staged readings of the group’s earlier works.
6 p.m. VIP-only cocktail party; 7:30 p.m. staged readings. Eagle Rock (location to be sent along with ticket purchase). publicassembly.us

📚Rare Books LA Union Station
This year’s fair features antiquarian books, maps, fine prints and book arts, while celebrates Guillermo Del Toro’s new film adaptation of “Frankenstein,” streaming on Netflix this November. (A Frankenstein Fundraiser, hosted by Netflix in association with Rare Books LA and the Library Foundation of Los Angeles, is scheduled Friday night in Hollywood).
10 a.m.-6 p.m. Saturday; 11 a.m.-4 p.m. Sunday. Union Station, 800 N. Alameda Street. rarebooksla.com

🎨 🚘 🎶 Venice Afterburn
This official Burning Man Regional brings art cars, installations, theme camps and music to the beach.
Noon-10 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. Windward Plaza, Venice Beach. veniceafterburn.com

SUNDAY

Jiji performs Sunday at BroadStage.

(BroadStage)

🎼 🎸 Jiji: ‘Classical Goes Electric’
The Korean guitarist and composer who goes by Jiji Guitar and is a member of the L.A. new music collective Wild Up exchanges her acoustic guitar for electric in a solo recital program that ranges across centuries as part of the endearing Sunday morning series at BroadStage (bagels and cream cheese included). Jiji begins with an arrangement of a vocal piece by the mystical 12th century abbess Hildegard von Bingen, who happens to be the subject of Sarah Kirkland Snider’s new opera, “Hildegard,” that L.A. Opera presents Nov. 5-9 at the Wallis. Elsewhere on the program, the guitarist electrifies a neglected Baroque composer, Claudia Sessa (all women Baroque composers suffer obscurity), with Max Richter and new music including neglected electronic music pioneer Laurie Spiegel. (Mark Swed)
11 a.m. Sunday. Broad Stage, Santa Monica College Performing Arts Center, 1310 11th St. broadstage.org

🎼 Two Titans: The Music of Beethoven and Verdi
The Los Angeles Master Chorale performs the epic works “Mass in C” and “Four Sacred Pieces” by Ludwig Van Beethoven and Giusseppe Verdi, respectively.
7 p.m. Walt Disney Concert Hall, 111 S. Grand Ave., downtown L.A. lamasterchorale.org

Claude Monet, “The Water Lily Pond (Clouds),” 1903, oil on canvas

(Brad Flowers/Dallas Museum of Art)

🎨 The Impressionist Revolution: Monet to Matisse
Is there anyone who doesn’t like Impressionist paintings and sculptures? As the Dallas Museum of Art renovates and expands its building, a selection of 50 Impressionist and early Modern works from its permanent collection, dating from the 1870s to 1925, has embarked on a three-year, five-city tour. Six paintings by Claude Monet and four by Piet Mondrian are featured. (Christopher Knight)
11 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesday-Sunday; Oct. 5 through Jan. 25, 2026. Santa Barbara Museum of Art, 1130 State St. sbma.net

TUESDAY
🎨 Glass Sukkah: This Home Is Not a House
Sukkot, an ancient Jewish harvest festival, and its messages of the temporary nature of shelter, the value of welcome and belonging, the importance of honoring ancestors and the preciousness of the natural world are themes of artist Therman Statom’s work, including glass face jugs and paintings.
Noon-5 p.m. Tuesday–Friday; 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturday-Sunday, ongoing.
Skirball Cultural Center, 2701 N. Sepulveda Blvd., Los Angeles. skirball.org

🎵 🎭 Les Misérables
Cameron Mackintosh’s evergreen production of Boublil and Schönberg’s Tony Award- winning musical – billed as “the world’s most popular” – arrives for a two-week run.
7:30 p.m. Tuesday-Thursday; 8 p.m. Friday; 2 and 8 p.m. Saturday; 1 and 6:30 p.m. Sunday, through Oct 19. Hollywood Pantages Theatre, 6233 Hollywood Blvd. broadwayinhollywood.com

🎼 Strauss, Pärt & Glass
Members of the Los Angeles Philharmonic perform 20th century chamber music.
8 p.m. Walt Disney Concert Hall, 111 S. Grand Ave., downtown L.A. laphil.com

THURSDAY
🎼 Mahler’s ‘Resurrection’
The conductor’s “Second Symphony” is performed by Soprano Chen Reiss, mezzo-soprano Beth Taylor, the Los Angeles Master Chorale and the L.A. Phil, under the direction of Gustavo Dudamel, for only the second time in the maestro’s tenure.
8 p.m. Thursday; 11 a.m. Oct. 10; 8 p.m. Oct. 11; 2 p.m. Oct. 12. Walt Disney Concert Hall, 111 S. Grand Ave., downtown L.A. laphil.com

🎭 Paranormal Inside
Playwright Prince Gomolvilas’ latest is a sequel to “The Brothers Paranormal,” which had its Los Angeles premiere at East West Players in 2022. In returning to the ghost-hunting business launched by two Thai American brothers, the author continues his examination of intergenerational trauma through the lens of the occult. Jeff Liu directs what sounds like a wild ride into the Freudian uncanny, where the repressed makes a startling return. (Charles McNulty)
8 p.m. Thursday, through Nov. 2; check days and times. David Henry Hwang Theater, 120 N Judge John Aiso Street, Little Tokyo. eastwestplayers.org

Culture news and the SoCal scene

Francesca Zambello’s staging of “West Side Story.”

(Todd Rosenberg / Lyric Opera of Chicago)

The legendary Broadway musical “West Side Story” is getting the L.A. Opera treatment as it opens the company’s 40th anniversary season at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion. Times classical music critic Mark Swed caught a show and gives a bit of history in his review — namely that when choreographer Jerome Robbins talked with Leonard Bernstein in 1949 about the idea of updating ‘Romeo and Juliet’ into a contemporary musical, “Robbins didn’t know what it would be, but he knew what it wouldn’t be: An opera!” Nonetheless, the show is operatic, Swed notes, and redoing it as an opera means one important thing: more attention is given to the music.

Gustavo Dudamel is currently straddling two worlds as he kicks off his final season at the Los Angeles Philharmonic while at the same time assuming the role of music director designate at the New York Philharmonic, prior to becoming the orchestra’s artistic director in 2026. The opening concerts for both orchestras were a mere two weeks apart, with New York coming first. Swed invokes Charles Dickens’ “A Tale of Two Cities” to explore the new state of affairs that finds one city losing a beloved figurehead to another. In both cities, however, Dudamel is making superb music.

I spoke with a member of the anonymous “satirical activist” group the Secret Handshake, which recently installed a 12-foot-tall statue of President Trump holding hands with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. The statue was removed less than 24 hours later by the National Park Service despite having a permit. The NPS claimed the statue had violated height restrictions, but the Secret Handshake rep said that it should have been given 24 hours to fix the problem before the statue was removed. The following day the group again tried to get a permit to reinstall the statue, and was denied without explanation. On Thursday afternoon, however, the statue was reinstalled for a limited time. Stay tuned.

A mural of Misty Copeland by El Mac.

(Lex Motley)

A brand new mural of ballet star Misty Copeland by the artist El Mac is being unveiled on Oct. 5 in San Pedro. The colorful painting takes up an entire outside wall of San Pedro City Ballet at 13th Street and Pacific Avenue, and was made possible by Arts United San Pedro. The unveiling also includes the renaming of the building in homage to donor Dr. Joseph A. Adan. “I’m incredibly honored to be featured in this stunning mural by El Mac at San Pedro City Ballet, my very first ballet studio and a place that will always feel like home,” Copeland said in a news release. “What he’s captured through my image is so much bigger than me, it represents every young person from this community and beyond who deserves access to the arts. This is such a beautiful tribute to where it all began for me.”

Long Beach Opera has named former L.A. Opera Production Director Michelle Magaldi its new chief executive officer. While at L.A. Opera, Magaldi oversaw the company’s popular Santa Monica Pier simulcasts; helped guide operations for L.A. Opera Off Grand; was responsible for hiring and training various producers and technical staff and also helped spearhead the world-premiere production of Ellen Reid’s “Prism,” which later won a Pulitzer Prize. Magaldi has a long working history with LBO’s Chief Creative Officer and Artistic Director James Darrah. Magaldi succeeds Marjorie Beale, who served as interim managing director since 2024.

Doja Cat will be the musical guest for Los Angeles County Museum of Art’s Art+Film Gala, the museum announced earlier this week. The always glitzy soiree is set to take place on Saturday, Nov. 1, and will honor artist Mary Corse and filmmaker Ryan Coogler. It’s co-chaired by LACMA trustee Eva Chow and Leonardo DiCaprio.

Christine Vendredi has been apponted Palm Springs Art Museum’s new executive director, the board of trustees announced Monday. It’s a role Vendredi has occupied on an interim basis since April 2025. Prior to that she served as chief curator — a role she took on after serving as global director of art, culture and heritage at Louis Vuitton.

— Jessica Gelt

And last but not least

Join me in a moment of silence for Jane Goodall. She communicated across species, showing the world that we have more in common with all living creatures than we think. It’s a lesson we would do well to remember in these trying times.

SAN DIEGO — Six Democrats running for governor next year focused on housing affordability, the cost of living and healthcare cuts as the most daunting issues facing Californians at a labor forum on Saturday in San Diego.

Largely in lockstep about these matters, the candidates highlighted their political resumes and life stories to try to create contrasts and curry favor with attendees.

Former state Assembly Majority Leader Ian Calderon, in his first gubernatorial forum since entering the race in late September, leaned into his experience as the first millennial elected to the state legislature.

“I feel like my experience and my passion uniquely positioned me in this race to ride a lane that nobody else can ride, being a millennial and being young and having a different perspective,” said Calderon, 39.

Concerns about his four children’s future as well as the state’s reliance on Washington, D.C., drove his decision to run for governor after choosing not to seek reelection to the legislature in 2020.

“I want [my children] to have opportunity. I want them to have a future. I want life to be better. I want it to be easier,” Calderon, whose family has deep roots in politics. State leaders must focus “on D.C.-proofing California. We cannot continue to depend on D.C. and expect that they’re going to give a s—t about us and what our needs are, because they don’t.”

Former U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra, who also served as the state’s attorney general after a 24-year stint in Congress, argued that it is critical to elect a governor who has experience.

“Would you let someone who’s never flown a plane tell you, ‘I can fly that plane back to land’ if they’ve never done it before?” Becerra asked. “Do you give the keys to the governor’s office to someone who hasn’t done this before?”

He contrasted himself with other candidates in the race by invoking a barking chihuahua behind a chain-link fence.

“Where’s the bite?” he said, after citing his history, such as suing President Trump 122 times, and leading the sprawling federal health bureaucracy during the pandemic. “You don’t just grow teeth overnight.”

Calderon and Becerra were among six Democratic candidates who spoke at length to about 150 California leaders of multiple chapters of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees.

The union has more than 200,000 members in California and is being battered by the federal government shutdown, the state’s budget deficit and impending healthcare strikes. AFSCME is a powerful force in California politics, providing troops to knock on voters’ doors and man phone banks.

The forum came as the gubernatorial field to replace termed-out Gov. Gavin Newsom is in flux.

Former Vice President Kamala Harris announced earlier this summer that she has opted against running for the seat. Former Senate Leader Toni Atkins suspended her gubernatorial campaign in late September.

Rumors continue to swirl about whether billionaire businessman Rick Caruso or Sen. Alex Padilla will join the field.

“I am weighing it. But my focus is first and foremost on encouraging people to vote for Proposition 50,” the congressional redistricting matter on the November ballot, Padilla told the New York Times in an interview published Saturday. “The other decision? That race is not until next year. So that decision will come.”

Wealthy Democratic businessman Stephen J. Cloobeck and Republican Riverside Sheriff Chad Bianco declined an invitation to participate in the forum, citing prior commitments.

The union will consider an endorsement at a future conference, said Matthew Maldonado, executive director for District Council 36, which represents 25,000 workers in Southern California.

Former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa leaned into his longtime roots in labor before he ran for office. But he also alluded to tensions with unions after being elected mayor in 2006.

Labeled a “scab” when he crossed picket lines the following year during a major city workers’ strike, Villaraigosa also clashed with unions over furloughs and layoffs during the recession. His relationship with labor hit a low in 2010 when Villaraigosa called the city’s teachers union, where he once worked, “the largest obstacle to creating quality schools.”

“I want you to know something about me. I’m not going to say yes to every darn thing that everybody comes up to me with, including sometimes the unions,” Villaraigosa said. “When I was mayor, they’ll tell you sometimes I had to say no. Why? I wasn’t going to go bankrupt, and I knew I had to protect pensions and the rest of it.”

He pledged to work with labor if elected governor.

Labor leaders asked most of the questions at the forum, with all of the candidates being asked about the same topics, such as if they supported and would campaign for a proposed state constitutional amendment to help UC workers with down-payment loans for houses.

“Hell yes,” said former Rep. Katie Porter of Irvine, who teaches at UC Irvine’s law school and benefited from a program created by state university leaders to allow faculty to buy houses priced below the market rate in costly Orange County because the high cost of housing in the region was an obstacle in recruiting professors.

“I get to benefit from UC Irvine’s investment in their professionals and professors and professional staff housing, but they are not doing it for everyone,” she said, noting workers such as clerks, janitors, and patient-care staff don’t have access to similar benefits.

State Supt. of Instruction Tony Thurmond, who entered the gathering dancing to Dr. Dre and Tupac’s “California Love,” agreed to support the housing loans as well as to walk picket lines with tens of thousands of Kaiser health employees expected to go on strike later this month.

“I will be there,” Thurmond responded, adding that he had just spoken on the phone with Kaiser’s CEO, and urged him to meet labor demands about staffing, pay, retirement and benefits, especially in the aftermath of their work during the pandemic. “Just get it done, damn it, and give them what they’re asking for.”

Former state Controller Betty Yee agreed to both requests as well, arguing that the healthcare employers are focused on profit at the expense of patient care.

“Yes, absolutely,” she said when asked about joining the Kaiser picket line. “Shame on them. You cannot be expected to take care of others if you cannot take care of yourselves.”

AFSCME local leaders listening to former U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra speak at a gubernatorial forum Saturday in San Diego.

(Seema Mehta / Los Angeles Times)

The top two returners from last year battled for three miles before Lily Alder of Timpview (Utah) passed La Jolla’s Chiara Dailey in the final yards to win the Bob Day Girls Sweepstakes race on Saturday night in the 44th Woodbridge Cross Country Classic at Great Park in Irvine.

Alder won by 1.6 seconds in 15:40 flat after placing third in 2024 in 15:28.9 — seven-tenths of a second behind runner-up Dailey. Jaelyn Williams of Chula Vista Eastlake was third in 15:52 and taking fourth individually in 15:54.1 was Irvine’s Summer Wilson.

“My coach told me I could go 15:39 and I know I’m a lot better than I performed today,” said Wilson, a senior committed to Duke. “I found myself leading in the first two miles but my strength is my kick, so in retrospect it would’ve been smarter to stay back.”

Wilson’s former school JSerra (she transferred before her junior year) won the team title with 196 points.

Corona Santiago’s Rylee Blade, now a freshman at Florida State, set the meet record of 15:20.3 last fall. Her former Sharks teammate, Arkansas-bound senior Braelyn Combe, who won the state 1,600-meter title in the spring was seventh Saturday in 16:11.1.

Herriman (Utah) senior Jackson Spencer won the Doug Speck Boys Sweepstakes in 13:42.1, well off the meet record of 13:30.3 set a year ago on the same course by Owen Powell of Mercer Island (Wash.). Spencer, who was sixth in last year’s sweepstakes race, led the Mustangs to their fourth straight team championship.

Oak Park (203) won the Gold Varsity A boys race. Canyon Country Canyon senior Owen Souther was second individually in 14:41.8. Norwalk senior Leo Diaz won the Gold Varsity B race in 14:50.3 and El Toro was second in the team standings with 228 points.

Joaquim Sandoval, a junior from Warren, was first in the Blue Varsity B boys race in 14:28.6. “I’m feeling pretty good,” he said afterward.

Oaks Christian senior Delaney Napierala ran a personal-best 17:01.6 to outlast Jenna Murray of Moorpark (17:03.8) and win the Gold Varsity A girls race. In the Gold Varsity B race, Westlake freshman Sabina Cruz edged Autumn Banks of Tahoe-Truckee by one second in 16:50.7 while pacing the Warriors to the team title.

WEDNESDAY’S RESULTS

CITY SECTION

Annenberg 20, Rise Kohyang 6

Crenshaw 18, Bernstein 13

New Designs University Park 26, Locke 0

Orthopaedic 12, Collins Family 6

South East 34, Maywood Academy 6

South East 33, Marquez 0

South Gate 18, LA Jordan 0

Sotomayor 6, Huntington Park 0

Stern 38, Camino Nuevo 0

Sun Valley Magnet 32, Chatsworth 0

USC Hybrid 22, Simon Tech 0

Verdugo Hills 46, Chavez 0

SOUTHERN SECTION

Antelope Valley 7, Bakersfield Christian 0

Aquinas 14, Ontario Christian 6

Arroyo 33, Mountain View 0

Banning 35, Rancho Mirage 12

Beckman 32, Dana Hills 25

Bonita 27, Glendora 6

California 44, El Rancho 0

Castaic 26, Canyon Country Canyon 13

Channel Islands 31, Santa Paula 18

Compton 32, Lakewood 0

Corona Santiago 20, El Modena 20

Costa Mesa 15, Ocean View 7

Cypress 21, Crean Lutheran 12

Desert Hot Springs 22, Cathedral City 0

Downey 67, La Mirada 0

Eastside 53, Littlerock 7

Eastvale Roosevelt 38, Victor Valley 0

Edison 21, Los Alamitos 20

El Dorado 13, Troy 6

Esperanza 20, Sonora 6

Fairmont Prep 12, Whittier 7

Garden Serra 13, St. Anthony 6

Golden Valley 19, West Ranch 12

Hart 33, Vasquez 8

Huntington Beach 47, Fountain Valley 0

JSerra 26, Corona del Mar 7

Kaiser 7, Rialto 0

Laguna Beach 31, Irvine 14

Laguna Hills 19, La Palma Kennedy 18

La Serna 19, Santa Fe 7

Long Beach Jordan 34, Long Beach Wilson 8

Los Amigos 6, Saddleback 0

Montclair 14, Chaffey 0

Montebello 36, Alhambra 13

Newport Harbor 27, Marina 7

Northview 13, Hacienda Heights Wilson 0

Orange 24, Bolsa Grande 6

Portola 26, Irvine University 20

San Gabriel 30, Bell Gardens 6

Santa Monica 31, Leuzinger 0

Saugus 6, Valencia 0

St. Mary’s Academy 28, Bishop Montgomery 0

Valley View 27, Vista del Lago 8

Warren 20, Dominguez 0

Western 18, Magnolia 8

Westminster 13, Segerstrom 12

Westridge 27, Monrovia 20

Woodbridge 27, Sage Hill 6

Yorba Linda 19, Villa Park 6

THURSDAY’S RESULTS

CITY SECTION

Franklin 45, Elizabeth 0

Jefferson 35, Elizabeth 0

Jefferson 27, Franklin 6

Narbonne 26, El Camino Real 0

Panorama 12, San Fernando 6

Panorama 31, Sylmar 25

San Fernando 27, Sylmar 19

West Adams 6, Stella 0

SOUTHERN SECTION

Agoura 60, Calabasas 0

Aliso Niguel 18, Mission Viejo 12

Antelope Valley 34, Knight 0

Artesia 38, Glenn 6

Beverly Hills 18, Compton Centennial 0

Camarillo 47, Oak Park 14

Chaminade 26, Bishop Alemany 12

Culver City 19, Hawthorne 13

El Toro 26, Trabuco Hills 19

Inglewood 19, Lawndale 6

La Serna 12, St. Paul 0

Los Alamitos 50, Loara 0

Newbury Park 26, Thousand Oaks 7

North Torrance 27, West Torrance 19

Oxnard 41, Buena 12

Palos Verdes 32, Mira Costa 0

Placentia Valencia 20, Bolsa Grande 12

Quartz Hill 19, Highland 14

San Marcos 40, Oxnard Pacifica 0

Schurr 35, Sacred Heart of Jesus 0

Shalhevet 6, Providence 0

Ventura 40, Rio Mesa 13

Westlake 33, Oaks Christian 12

INTERSECTIONAL

Eagle Rock 7, Corona 6

WEDNESDAY’S RESULTS

CITY SECTION

Bell 13, Franklin 7

Bellflower 47, WISH Academy 13

East Valley 38, Valor Academy 6

Granada Hills Kennedy 27, Arleta 6

Kennedy 33, Arleta 0

Narbonne 43, Sherman Oaks CES 6

Panorama 27, Sherman Oaks CES 6

Panorama 6, Narbonne 0

San Fernando 32, Chatsworth 0

Sun Valley Magnet 32, AMIT 0

Verdugo Hills 18, San Fernando 6

Verdugo Hills 30, Chatsworth 6

SOUTHERN SECTION

Alhambra 19, Ramona Convent 18

Aliso Niguel 34, Corona Santiago 14

Antelope Valley 66, PACS 0

Arroyo 27, Mountain View 12

Baldwin Park 60, Edgewood 0

Bellflower 47, WISH Academy 13

Bell Gardens 25, Hawthorne 0

Bolsa Grande 31, Garden Grove Santiago 6

Brea Olinda 41, Sonora 20

Castaic 13, Valencia 6

Corona Del Mar 21, Marina 8

Costa Mesa 26, Estancia 0

Desert Hot Springs 34, Banning 8

Downey 32, Westminster 0

Fullerton 14, La Palma Kennedy 7

Garey 20, Chaffey 14

Gahr 25, Buena Park 13

Glendora 13, Azusa 0

Hart 26, Golden Valley 0

Highland 32, Fillmore 0

Huntington Beach 14, Edison 12

Inglewood 18, Corona 13

JSerra 27, San Juan Hills 0

Katella 34, Whitney 0

La Habra 14, California 7

Lakewood St. Joseph 20, Bishop Amat 0

Long Beach Jordan 34, Long Beach Cabrillo 0

Mater Dei 33, Beckman 27

Millikan 12, Anaheim 0

Montebello 28, Pioneer 0

Newport Harbor 21, Los Alamitos 0

Norco 31, Chino Hills 0

Northwood 24, Irvine 6

Orange 42, Western 0

Placentia Valencia 13, Laguna Hills 7

Rialto 13, Artesia 0

Rosary 6, Irvine University 0

Saddleback 26, Santa Ana Valley 20

San Clemente 41, Troy 0

San Dimas 19, Bonita 6

Santa Ana Foothill 6, Dana Hills 0

Segerstrom 26, Tustin 0

Sherman Oaks Notre Dame 16, Royal 12

Sierra Vista 20, Rowland 13

Simi Valley 31, Santa Paula 19

South El Monte 7, Rosemead 6

St. Anthony 22, Mayfair 13

St. Paul 26, South East 12

Vasquez 7, Canyon Country Canyon 6

Villa Park 44, Paramount 0

Warren 18, La Serna 12

West Ranch 20, Saugus 8

Westridge 24, Duarte 0

Whittier 12, Newport Beach Pacifica Christian 7

Windward 38, Compton Early College 12

Woodbridge 10, Portola 12

Xavier Prep 18, Rancho Mirage 6

INTERSECTIONAL

St. Paul 26, South East 12

THURSDAY’S RESULTS

CITY SECTION

Legacy 28, Lincoln 6

Wilson 53, Torres 0

SOUTHERN SECTION

Bolsa Grande 18, Newport Beach Pacifica Christian 6

Buena 12, Santa Barbara 6

Cerritos d. Buena Park, forfeit

Channel Islands 44, Knight 21

Dos Pueblos 53, Rio Mesa 0

Edison 19, San Clemente 13

El Toro 33, Millikan 13

Fountain Valley 39, Garden Grove 6

Highland 32, Fillmore 0

Magnolia 33, Glenn 6

Mater Dei 45, Traduco Hills 40

Mira Costa 13, Santa Monica 7

Orange Lutheran 52, Esperanza 6

San Jacinto Valley Academy 13, Hemet 6

San Marcos 33, Oxnard 6

Torrance 27, El Segundo 7

Vasquez 13, Eastside 6

Ventura 46, Oxnard Pacifica 14

Westlake 34, Moorpark 12

With a camera trailing his every move, Nathan Chen glides across the ice at the same training center that fueled his Olympic dreams. Four years after winning Olympic gold, Chen is still the picture of power and artistry as he picks up speed to round a turn and circles an arm around his head.

“Is this a comeback?” Jean-Luc Baker, a 2022 Olympic ice dancer, playfully asks.

The reigning Olympic champion has not skated competitively since Feb. 10, 2022, when Chen landed five clean quadruple jumps to become the seventh U.S. man to win a figure skating singles gold medal.

He doesn’t intend to change that soon.

Six months before the Milano Cortina Olympics, Chen confirmed he will not defend his Olympic title. The two-time Olympic gold medalist hasn’t officially retired, but is ready to embark on a new career in medicine.

“I just want to open doors to kind of see what’s the best sort of approach for me,” Chen told The Times. “And frankly, at this point in time in my life, I’ve already accomplished enough in skating that I’m quite satisfied with my career.”

A six-time national champion and three-time world champion, Chen put an exclamation point on his career with a dominant performance in Beijing. He set the world record in the short program. He conquered demons from a 2018 disaster in which he finished fifth to win his first individual Olympic medal. He became the first singles skater in Olympic history with two gold medals in the same Games after helping the United States to a victory in the team competition.

Then Chen slipped seamlessly back into life as a student, finishing his bachelor’s degree at Yale, where he started before the Games. He began applying to medical schools while helping launch Your True Step, a series of skating seminars with Baker, who placed 11th in the 2022 Olympic ice dance competition with partner Kaitlin Hawayek, and choreographer Sam Chouinard. After giving instruction on and off the ice to roughly two dozen young athletes, the first question Chen received Friday during a post-camp Q&A was about which medical school he was going to attend.

Whichever one wants him, Chen responded with a chuckle.

Chen, who said taking the medical college admission test was even more nerve-racking than competing at the Olympics, is interested in cardiology or oncology, specifically related to genetics. He’s curious about cardiothoracic surgery, but worried about the potential work-life balance sacrifices.

The concern isn’t that Chen is scared to dedicate himself completely to a particular job. He just wants his next project to be as fulfilling as skating was.

“The basis of being a doctor, I think, is to help people,” Chen said. “I think that’s something that I didn’t necessarily feel as an athlete, that I felt was a little bit lacking, and I get a little bit of that sense doing YTS.”

The skating camps, which began in 2024, have brought Chen and Baker to rinks in Irvine, Boston, Detroit and Seattle. They came up with the idea while attending a pre-Olympic camp in 2022 so the longtime friends could remain close to each other and to the sport. Baker, 31, knew the Beijing Games would likely be his last Olympics. Chen wasn’t sure at the time.

Nathan Chen listens to the national anthem while standing on the top step of the podium after winning gold in men’s figure skating at the 2022 Beijing Olympic Games.

(Jae C. Hong / Associated Press)

Still only 26, Chen could be entering his physical prime. The sport has remained open to older competitors as technique has progressed. But the window of opportunity to realistically win is small, Chen acknowledged, as athletes push the limits toward jumps that were once unimaginable.

Leading up to the 2022 Olympics, Chen dabbled with a quadruple axel during practice, but stopped training it as the Games approached. While he came close to landing it, he was comfortable knowing no one else had the daring jump yet.

Only seven months after those Games, Ilia Malinin landed the world’s first quadruple axel in competition at 17 years old. Now the favorite for Olympic gold in 2026, the 20-year-old American has won consecutive world championships.

While Malinin, who also trains at Irvine’s Great Park Ice with Chen’s former coach Rafael Arutyunyan, landed six quadruple jumps at the 2025 world championships, Chen watched from afar.

The event took place in Boston, where Chen was completing a post-baccalaureate program. Instead of feeling like he was missing out, Chen was relieved he didn’t have to feel the stress of competition.

He’s content to enjoy what could be a golden era of U.S. skating from the sideline. The United States claimed three of four world championships in 2025, the most ever for the country in a single world championship. Alysa Liu made an improbable return from a two-year hiatus to become the first U.S. woman to win the world championship since 2006. Madison Chock and Evan Bates won their third consecutive ice dance world title. Malinin, known as “the Quad God,” became the first American man to win back-to-back singles world championships since Chen, who won three.

Chen, the one-time “Quad King,” is happy to pass his crown.