los angeles times

Hi, and welcome to another edition of Prep Rally. My name is Eric Sondheimer. It’s semifinals week in the high school football playoffs. This is the week players cry if they come up short and scream if they make it to the final. And it comes as the Southern Section Division 1 playoffs are on the verge of making history.

Semifinals week

The versatile Trent Mosley makes a run during Santa Margarita’s playoff win against Sierra Canyon.

(Craig Weston)

Carson Palmer held up well whenever he experienced rain in his 15 years as an NFL quarterback because of his big hands to help grasp the football. In his first experience last week as a high school head coach in the rain, he got one of his most memorable victories when Santa Margarita knocked off previously unbeaten Sierra Canyon on the road, 21-9, to advance to the Southern Section Division 1 semifinals. His quarterback, Trace Johnson, threw for two touchdowns. He played in Florida’s rain last season. Here’s the report.

It sets up one of the most unlikely semifinals, Santa Margarita playing Trinity League rival Orange Lutheran on Friday night at Orange Coast College. Orange Lutheran pulled off the biggest upset in California, if not the nation, with a 20-19 victory over top-seeded St. John Bosco. Orange Lutheran lost to St. John Bosco in the regular season 48-0.

The Lancers have Santa Margarita right where they want them. They lost to the Eagles 28-7 during the regular season. Coach Rod Sherman has his team believing. Quarterback Reagan Toki and defensive back King Rich Johnson came through with big plays against the Braves, who lost back-to-back games for the first time under coach Jason Negro. Santa Margarita remains the favorite with its outstanding defense and the versatile Trent Mosley.

The other semifinal is another rematch with Corona Centennial hosting Mater Dei. Centennial won a wild game in September 43-36 in which the Monarchs fell behind 28-0 and 33-7 at halftime, only to rally and take the lead before losing. Mater Dei had seven turnovers. The last time either Mater Dei or St. John Bosco did not win the Division 1 championship was 2015. Centennial won it, so history could be made if the Huskies eliminate Mater Dei.

The Division 2 semifinals are also outstanding. Los Alamitos is at Murrieta Valley in a game in which both teams love to run the football. Red-hot San Clemente plays at Leuzinger, which is riding high with the return of quarterback Russell Sekona and a tough defense.

Here’s the complete schedule for this weekend.

Here’s a look at top individual performances from the quarterfinals.

City Section

Garfield running back Zastice Jauregui cuts off a block to pick up some of his 440 yards rushing against Palisades on Friday night.

(Steve Galluzzo / For The Times)

Garfield ended Palisades’ magical unbeaten football season with 42-21 victory. The Dolphins have had issues all season on defense, and the Bulldogs made them pay. Zastice Jauregui rushed for 440 yards and five touchdowns. Here’s the report.

It sets up an Open Division semifinal between top-seeded Carson and a Garfield team that’s surging and used to playing in big games.

The other semifinal will have Birmingham, unbeaten in 55 games against City Section opponents, taking on the surprise team of the year, 9-1 Crenshaw, which upset San Pedro on the road 30-0. The Cougars’ long-time head coach, Robert Garrett, has not coached all season while being on administrative leave. Terrence Whitehead has been running things. The Cougars are a dangerous team motivated to win a title for Whitehead and Garrett.

Aaron Minter of Venice enjoys the mud in a 35-8 win over Franklin in a City Division I playoff game.

(Nick Koza)

In Division I, Venice is top-seeded but Marquez will be a formidable semifinal opponent. South Gate has advanced to the other semifinal but its opponent won’t be decided until Eagle Rock hosts Dorsey on Monday at 4 p.m. after a power failure on Friday forced the postponement.

In Division II, Fairfax is at Cleveland ant Marshall at San Fernando. Marshall overcame a 12-11 deficit to Chatsworth by returning an onside kick for a touchdown in the fourth quarter.

In Division III, Contreras entered this season having never won a playoff game since the school opened in 2007. Contreras plays at top-seeded Santee and Wilson is at Hawkins.

Here’s a look at teams thriving in the mud.

Girls’ basketball

Kaleena Smith draws contact on her way to the basket for Ontario Christian. She’s a junior this season.

(Steve Galluzzo / For The Times)

Monday marks the beginning of the high school basketball season.

Top girls teams have added to their rosters with transfer students similar to what’s been happening in the boys ranks.

Ontario Christian is the defending Southern Section Open Division champion. Etiwanda has won three straight state titles. Here’s a preview of the teams and players to watch and lots of players switching schools.

Top junior guard Kaleena Smith of Ontario Christian visited USC last week. UCLA is next. Don’t expect a commitment any time soon.

The state’s winningest coach, Kevin Kiernan, is back coaching at Troy. Here’s the report.

Westchester and Palisades look to be the top teams in City Section girls basketball.

Boys basketball

This week’s opening schedule includes the Mission League vs. Trinity League challenge on Saturday at UCLA’s Pauley Pavilion. The featured games include Harvard-Westlake vs. St. John Bosco at 8:30 p.m. and Santa Margarita vs. Sherman Oaks Notre Dame at 7 p.m. Here’s the link for tickets.

Tom Hofman begins his 39th season as head coach at La Canada. Here’s a look at his motivation to keep coaching.

San Marino has a player showing how to play with hearing aids. Here’s the report.

Here’s The Times’ preseason top 25 boys rankings.

Water polo

Newport Harbor goalie Conner Clougherty helped lead his team to Southern Section championship.

(Don Leach/Staff Photographer)

Close to a perfection. That’s how to describe the season enjoyed by the Newport Harbor boys’ water polo team, which repeated as Southern Section Open Division champions with a 10-3 win over rival Corona del Mar. Newport Harbor is 30-1, has won four titles in the last five years and 16th championship overall.

Here’s the report.

Newport Harbor is seeded No. 1 for the Division I state regional water polo playoffs that begin Tuesday. Here are the pairings.

Loyola won the Division 1 championship over Mater Dei. Capistrano Valley, Bonita, Charter Oak and Fontana also won titles.

Cleveland won its third straight City Section championship. Here’s the report.

Cross country

It’s championship time in cross country. The City Section will hold its finals Thursday in Elysian Park. The Southern Section finals are Saturday at Mt. San Antonio College.

The Southern Section created a rain course for last weekend’s prelims at Mt. SAC. Here’s the link to results.

Maximo Zavaleta of King had the fastest Division 1 boys time at 14:21.3. Charlotte Hopkins led Division 1 girls in 16:56.5.

Interception machine

Jaden Walk-Green of Corona Centennial makes interception and returns it for touchdown against Mater Dei.

(Craig Weston)

There’s one defensive player who has thrust himself into the conversation for player of the year. Jaden Walk-Green, a junior at Corona Centennial, has made 10 interceptions, returning five for touchdowns.

Here’s a profile on an athlete who played almost every sport growing up and starts in center field for the baseball team.

Notes . . .

The City Section flag football championships were postponed Saturday because of rain and have been rescheduled for Saturday. Eagle Rock plays Marshall in the Open Division final at 6 p.m. at Garfield. . . .

The Southern California girls volleyball regional finals are set for Tuesday. Here’s the schedule. Winners advances to the state championships Friday and Saturday at Santiago Canyon College. . . .

Price has dropped its boys basketball progam. It was a long-time small schools power, winning numerous championships during the era of Michael Lynch . . .

Standout forward Maximo Adams of Sierra Canyon has committed to North Carolina. . . .

Vince Gomez has resigned as girls basketball coach at Anaheim. . . .

Sierra Canyon standout girls basketball player Jerzy Robinson hasn’t practiced in more than a month because of an injury. She’s waiting for doctor’s clearance to resume practices. . . .

Mater Dei senior basketball standout Kaeli Wynn has committed to South Carolina. . . .

Alyson Fullbright is the new girls beach volleyball coach at St. Margaret’s. . . .

Softball standout Shea Gonzalez of Villa Park has committed to Washington. . . .

Santa Margarita won the Southern California regional girls’ golf title for the fourth straight season to advance to the state championships on Wednesday at Poppy Hills. . . .

Junior infielder Parker Leoff of Huntington Beach has committed to UCLA. . . .

Former Sherman Oaks Notre Dame basketball player Tyran Stokes has enrolled at Rainer Beach in Seattle. . . .

TJ Yonkers has resigned as football coach at West Ranch.

From the archives: Sam Darnold

In 2017, USC quarterback Sam Darnold visits his former teammates at San Clemente.

(Los Angeles Times)

Sam Darnold is a hero in his home town of San Clemente. He starred at San Clemente High, USC and now is having success in the NFL with the Seattle Seahawks. He struggled Sunday in his homecoming to SoFi Stadium, with the Rams intercepting him four times.

Here’s a story on Darnold’s reflecting on hs football journey.

Here’s a story from 2017 on Darnold dealing with fame shortly before his 20th birthday.

Recommendations

From the Los Angeles Times, a story on former Thousand Oaks linebacker Alex Singleton revealing he has cancer.

From the Washington Post, a story on a high school athlete who grew up on basketball but her ticket to college might be flag football.

From the Los Angeles Times, a story on UCLA’s 16-year-old women’s soccer player.

Tweets you might have missed

Until next time….

Have a question, comment or something you’d like to see in a future Prep Rally newsletter? Email me at [email protected], and follow me on Twitter at @latsondheimer.

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How do you find inspiration? Say you’re doing your holiday shopping and you’re struggling to find the perfect gift for that difficult person on your list — parent, partner, paramour. How do you let your mind drift to a place where the clouds part and you achieve a sort of awakening?

To be honest, I don’t always get there. But caffeine is usually a good place to start.

I’m Glenn Whipp, columnist for the Los Angeles Times and host of The Envelope newsletter, back in your inbox for the next few months as we sail through the atmospheric river of awards season. Climb aboard.

Cover story: The best six minutes in movies this year

(Bexx Francois / For The Times)

You might remember how much I love “Sinners,” Ryan Coogler’s audacious, genre-defying blockbuster that explores the intrinsic power of American blues music and Black life in the Jim Crow South within the context of a vampire horror movie.

So I was thrilled to talk with Coogler and his longtime department heads — a movie family that includes Oscar winners who have been with him since his 2013 debut, “Fruitvale Station” — for The Envelope’s first cover story of the season. There were a dozen different ways I could have gone with the piece, but our conversations kept coming back to the scene in the juke joint when young Sammie (Miles Caton) conjures spirits from the past and future onto the dance floor.

How did Coogler summon this scene? It goes back to that question I asked at the outset: How do you find inspiration?

For Coogler, “Sinners” began on Nov. 17, 2021, a date fixed in his mind because it was the day one of his favorite rappers, Young Dolph, was murdered. Coogler was devastated. And his mind drifted back to Nipsey Hussle, the L.A. rapper gunned down outside his South L.A. clothing store in 2019. Coogler was living in Los Angeles at the time, trying to get a “Space Jam” sequel off the ground.

“I felt like I had my heart ripped out, bro,” Coogler told me. “I have two younger brothers I’m really close with, and I remember reading an article in the L.A. Times about his older brother recounting what happened. It just broke me. And then I get the news that Dolph’s been killed in his hometown, and I just remember feeling, ‘I’m done with rap, man.’”

Later, Coogler spoke with his friend, “Black Panther” producer Nate Moore, lamenting that rappers who talk about their lives, beating the odds and escaping hardship, sometimes end up succumbing to the thing they thought they left behind. Moore isn’t a rap guy, but told Coogler that his favorite music, grunge, was just like that — in this case, artists addressing their struggles with depression and addiction and then, on occasion, overdosing or taking their own lives.

Toward the end of that day, Coogler was driving back from the set of “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.” Passing through Byron, Ga., the Oakland native looked out his window and saw, for the first time in his life, a cotton field. During our interview, Coogler pulls out his phone and finds a video his sister-in-law shot of him taking it all in and picking a sprig of cotton. Coogler kept it, eventually putting it on his work desk at home.

“That was a part of finding ‘Sinners,’” Coogler says. “The other thing that happened was I started listening to grunge music, taking a break from rap. And as soon as I put the music on, I was like, ‘Yo, this feels like my uncle’s. It led me right back to his record collection.”

That uncle, James Edmonson, loved the blues. Coogler’s cousin, Edmonson’s youngest daughter, told the filmmaker about a Bill Withers’ song, “I Can’t Write Left-Handed,” written from the perspective of a Vietnam veteran. Coogler listened to it, and it reminded him of “Rooster,” the Alice in Chains song written by guitarist Jerry Cantrell for his father, who served in Vietnam.

“So I’m playing these two songs one after another, and I’m like, ‘These genres that you wouldn’t find next to each other at a Tower Records back in the day, they’re so close,’” Coogler says. “And studying the history of it, it’s people playing it different, but it’s the same idea.”

“And that’s when I realized I had to make ‘Sinners.’”

Coogler scrolls through his phone and shows a picture of the cotton sprig on his desk. He dedicated “Sinners” to his uncle, who died about a decade before it arrived in theaters.

“So many cosmic moments came together for this movie,” Coogler says. “I was always like, ‘All right. I just gotta make sure I don’t f— it up.’”

Whether he knows it or not, 6-foot-5 Zane Daoud of San Marino High is going to be a role model for kids born deaf.

He was one of them, 60% deaf since birth. He rebelled against wearing hearing aids. He’d take them off constantly while growing up. By high school, he says he figured out how much they could help him and stopped worrying what people thought. He should be a top basketball player for Rio Hondo League favorite San Marino this season.

“I’ve accepted I have hearing loss,” he said. “When I was younger, I didn’t really want to come to terms with it. I didn’t want to wear my hearing aids all the time. I didn’t want to use my accommodations. I denied I had it and acted like I could go through my life without my hearing aids. As I got older, I realized I can’t hear without them..”

He’s a straight-A student and discovered his parents were right.

“My parents were always telling me, ‘You need to wear them,’” he said. “I said I didn’t need to wear them.”

In high school, he learned he could hear better talking to people and listening to his coach. Maturity and experiences have taught him how to succeed.

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

Remember the brave, talented theater students at Eliot Arts magnet school who lost their school, homes and theater to January’s Eaton fire and went on to perform their spring musical, “Shrek Jr.,” to a sold-out crowd at the Ahmanson Theatre?

Those kids are still displaced from their school, but not from the tenacious community spirit that guided them through the aftermath of that trauma. Their next chapter: a four-day, three-night class trip to New York City to see the sights and attend Broadway shows and workshops.

“After ‘Shrek’ last spring, I sat down with a group of my advanced theater students, and I said, ‘Dream big. What else would you want in your fantasy world?’ Big things have happened for us this semester after the fires,” their drama teacher, Mollie Lief, said in a phone interview. “And they said, ‘We want to go to New York City.’ And I just thought, ‘OK, we’re gonna make this happen.’”

The class has now met its initial $75,000 fundraising goal toward “Broadway Bound: A drama and dance trip to NYC,” which Lief will lead along with dance teacher Billy Rugh, who choreographed “Shrek Jr.” The funds, which will help cover the partial or full cost of taking 61 seventh and eighth graders to the Big Apple from April 7-10, were raised in about 28 days through a school fundraising campaign app called SnapRaise.

Lief credited actor Gillian Jacobs — who Lief calls “our fairy godmother” — with spreading the word to friends in film and TV, which is why the initial goal was met so quickly. Fundraising remains ongoing for the trip, as well as the school’s spring musical, but the class can now rest easy that everyone will be able to go.

“I think everybody was skeptical that we were going to be able to raise that much money and make it happen. But if Eliot’s good at anything, we are good at making big things happen,” said Lief.

Speaking of which: The other really big thing that Lief wants for the kids is a meeting with Broadway superstar and “Hamilton” creator Lin-Manuel Miranda. Miranda sent a personal message of support to the students via video when they performed at the Ahmanson, so he’s aware of them and their extraordinary story.

“They just love him,” Lief said of Miranda. “We had a Lin-Manuel Miranda day for Hispanic Heritage Month, and everybody dressed up as him or a character from one of his shows. They are all obviously obsessed with ‘Hamilton,’ which is a show we’re trying to see when we’re in New York.”

Three Broadway shows are part of the trip’s itinerary, as well as a theater and dance workshop or two. Also on the agenda: plenty of New York pizza, a jaunt through Central Park, a sightseeing cruise and a Big Bus tour.

“They’re super pumped,” Lief said of the kids who are currently rehearsing for their newest show, “The Somewhat True Tale of Robin Hood.”

On our radar

Grant Gershon will conduct the Los Angeles Master Chorale in David Lang’s “before and after nature” Sunday at Walt Disney Concert Hall.

(Jamie Phan / Los Angeles Master Chorale)

before and after nature
The fall’s third and largest major environment-themed work is David Lang’s “before and after nature,” an evening-length score that was commissioned by the Los Angeles Master Chorale and had its premiere in the spring at Stanford University in conjunction with the Doerr School of Sustainability. Here, Lang explores, in his almost Hildegard-like glowing vocal writing, the human relationship with a nature that doesn’t need us, or want us, yet we insist on being the center of everything and making an inevitable mess of it. The instrumental ensemble is Bang on a Can All-Stars (Lang having been a founder of the New York music institution). The performance includes a video component by Tal Rosner, and Grant Gershon conducts.
— Mark Swed
7:30 p.m. Sunday. Walt Disney Concert Hall, 111 S. Grand Ave., downtown L.A. lamasterchorale.org

A 1989 billboard poster about museum representation by the Guerrilla Girls.

(Getty Research Institute)

How to Be a Guerrilla Girl
The Guerrilla Girls famously shield their identity by wearing gorilla masks in public, but this show will unveil “how-to” information on their effective techniques of data research, distribution and culture jamming. Drawing on the witty protest group’s early archives, acquired in 2008 by the Getty Research Institute, their 40th anniversary will be celebrated by an exhibition of materials outlining the collaborative process that goes into their ongoing demands for art world equity for women and artists of color. A selection from their dozens of posters and ads will be displayed.
— Christopher Knight
Tuesday through April 12, 2026. Getty Center, Research Institute Galleries, 1200 Getty Center Drive, Los Angeles. getty.edu

The Broadway production of the musical “Suffs.”

(Joan Marcus)

Suffs
This musical by Shaina Taub, which won Tony Awards for book and original score, turns the history of the 20th century American women’s suffrage movement into a show that rallies the spirit of democracy. The plot follows Alice Paul and a new generation of radical activists who are testing new tactics in the fight to secure women the right to vote. During the Broadway run, Hillary Clinton, one of the show’s high-profile producers, went on the stump for “Suffs,” endorsing its much-needed lesson that progress is possible, if never guaranteed.
— Charles McNulty
Wednesday through Dec. 7. Hollywood Pantages Theatre, 6233 Hollywood Blvd., Hollywood. broadwayinhollywood.com

The week ahead: A curated calendar

FRIDAY

Olga de Amaral, “Gran Muro, Panel 7B,” 1976. Cotton, wool, horsehair, sisal and/or jute, rayon, nylon, raffia. 130 x 175 in.

(Mark Waldhauser / Photo from Lisson Gallery)

Olga de Amaral
This solo exhibition of work from the Colombian artist’s six-decade career emphasizes her use of weaving, painting and sculpture, with variable scale, form and materials, including linen, wool, horsehair, Japanese paper, acrylic and precious metals.
Opening, 6-8 p.m. Friday; 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday. Lisson Gallery, 1037 N. Sycamore Ave. Los Angeles. lissongallery.com

60 Miles East: Riverside’s Underground Punk Rock, Hardcore & Ska Scene, from the late 1980s to early 2000s
An exhibit of photography devoted to a distinctive music scene that made the most of its outsider existence in exploding exurbia.
Riverside Museum of Art, Art Alliance Gallery, 3425 Mission Inn Ave. riversideartmuseum.org

SATURDAY

Yaphet Kotto, Sigourney Weaver and Ian Holm in the 1979 film “Alien.”

(Robert Penn / 20th Century Fox)

Alien
Ridley Scott’s 1979 sci-fi classic screens in 35 mm to capture all of its oozing, Xenomorphic chest-bursting glory. Sigourney Weaver, Ian Holm, Yaphet Kotto and Tom Skerritt star.
7:30 p.m. Academy Museum, 6067 Wilshire Blvd. academymuseum.org

Creative Continuities: Family, Pride and Community in Native Art
Three contemporary Plains Indian artists, John Pepion (Blackfeet), Brocade Stops Black Eagle (Crow) and Jessa Rae Growing Thunder (Dakota/Nakoda), each curated a section of this exhibition exploring aspects of Native culture through the lens of works created by their ancestors.
Saturday-June 2027. Autry Museum of the American West, 4700 Western Heritage Way, Griffith Park. theautry.org

Jlin
A 2023 Pulitzer Prize finalist, the electronic music composer a.k.a. Jerrilynn Patton’s latest album featured collaborations with Philip Glass, Björk and Kronos Quartet.
8 p.m. Saturday. UCLA Nimoy Theater, 1262 Westwood Blvd. cap.ucla.edu

Baratunde Thurston will perform Saturday at Carpenter Center.

(Roy Rochlin / Getty Images for Unfinished Live)

An Evening with Baratunde Thurston
The comedian and futurist ponders interrelationships between people, nature and technologies through stories.
8 p.m. Carpenter Center, 6200 E. Atherton St., Long Beach. carpenterarts.org

SUNDAY
Radical Histories: Chicano Prints from the Smithsonian American Art Museum
Six decades of art featuring 60 works by 40 or so artists and collectives that reflects an era of rebellion and cultural solidarity.
Through March 2, 2026. The Huntington, 1151 Oxford Road, San Marino. huntington.org

Something’s Gotta Give
The American Cinematheque’s tribute to Diane Keaton continues with director Nancy Meyers’ 2003 romantic comedy co-starring Jack Nicholson, Amanda Peet and Keanu Reeves. Meyers joins film critic Katie Walsh for a Q&A.
7 p.m. Aero Theatre, 1328 Montana Ave., Santa Monica. americancinematheque.com

Takács Quartet
The chamber music ensemble performs a program featuring works by Joseph Haydn, Clarice Assad and Claude Debussy.
4 p.m. Broad Stage at Santa Monica College Performing Arts Center, 1310 11th St. broadstage.org

TUESDAY
Brahms Strings
Members of the L.A. Phil perform contemporary American composer Jessie Montgomery’s “Strum” as well as19th century masterworks by Johannes Brahms.
8 p.m. Tuesday. Walt Disney Concert Hall, 111 S. Grand Ave., downtown L.A. laphil.com

THURSDAY
Lonnie Holley and Moor Mother
The two artists collaborate for an evening of free jazz and spoken word rooted in Afrofuturism.
7:30 p.m. The Wallis, 9390 N. Santa Monica Blvd., Beverly Hills. thewallis.org

Prieto
The L.A. premiere of poet and performance artist Yosimar Reyes dives into his experience growing up queer in East San Jose.
8 p.m. Thursday; 8 p.m. Nov. 21-22; 2 p.m. Nov. 23. The Rosenthal Theater at Inner-City Arts, 720 Kohler St., Los Angeles. brownpapertickets.com

New Original Works (NOW)
The third weekend of REDCAT’s annual festival of experimental performance features a program of works by Lu Coy, jeremy de’jon guyton and Luna Izpisua Rodriguez.
8 p.m Thursday-Saturday. REDCAT, 631 W. 2nd St., downtown L.A. redcat.org

Shelley Conducts Carmen and Daphnis and Chloe
Artistic and music director designate Alexander Shelley conducts the Pacific Symphony in a program of Bizet and Ravel, as well composer/pianist Gabriel Montero’s “Latin Concerto.”
8 p.m Thursday; 8 p.m. Nov. 21-22. Segerstrom Center for the Arts, 600 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa. pacificsymphony.org

Culture news and the SoCal scene

The Lucas Museum of Narrative Art has officially set its opening date for Sept. 22, 2026. The Times got an exclusive peek at a few interiors, including the research library and the entrance lobby. We also took some great photos of the building as it currently looks and made a short video. Take a peek.

Times classical music critic Mark Swed weighs in on opera’s “long and curious fetish for the convent” in his review of Sarah Kirkland Snider’s “sincere and compelling ‘Hildegard.’” L.A. Opera’s collaboration with Beth Morrison Projects is based on “a real-life 12th century abbess and present-day cult figure, St. Hildegard von Bingen.” The show, which premiered at the Wallis last week, “operates as much as a passion play as an opera,” Swed writes.

Swed also took in a show featuring Zubin Mehta, the 89-year-old Los Angeles Philharmonic’s conductor emeritus, as he led the orchestra in Bruckner’s Eighth Symphony. Swed calls Mehta “a living L.A. icon.”

Times theater critic Charles McNulty touched down in New York City to review “The Queen of Versailles,” an adaptation of Lauren Greenfield’s 2012 documentary about a family building a supersized American home. McNulty found the musical unwieldy despite Michael Arden’s superb direction, but he reserved special praise for its star, Kristin Chenoweth, “who is bearing the weight of a McMansion musical on her diminutive frame and making it seem like she’s hoisting nothing heavier than a few overstuffed Hermes, Prada and Chanel shopping bags.”

Sculptures by the entrance of the Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena.

(Etienne Laurent / For The Times)

I enjoyed writing about the $15-million renovation of the Norton Simon Museum, which has been unveiled in tandem with the organization’s 50th anniversary. In addition to new signage, improved curb appeal and a more accessible pedestrian entryway, the museum restored the 115,000 Heath tiles that clad the building’s exterior.

Times art critic Christopher Knight has the scoop on trouble at the Palm Springs Art Museum, which is facing a trustee revolt after hiring its new director, Christine Vendredi — the fourth such leader in just seven years. A week after the hire, “the chair of the search committee tasked with filling that position, trustee Patsy Marino, resigned from the museum’s board citing ‘inappropriate interference and attempts to influence the process’ on the part of the museum’s executive committee, individual trustees and other unidentified museum staff and donors,” Knight writes. To date, 22 trustees have exited, and it has been revealed that no other candidates were interviewed for the role.

Finally, read how the creators behind the new “Paranormal Activity” play are bringing jump scares to the Ahmanson Theatre. Hint: It’s all about what you don’t see.

Eddie Izzard arrives at the London premiere of “Moonage Daydream” in 2022.

(Scott Garfitt / Invision / AP)

British comedian and actor Eddie Izzard is bringing her solo performance of Shakespeare’s “Hamlet” to L.A.’s Montalbán Theatre for seven nights from Jan. 22-31. While in New York, the show received a New York Outer Critics Circle Award nomination for outstanding solo performance, and a nomination for the New York Drama League’s Distinguished Performance Award.

Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts announced a major departure: Robert van Leer is stepping down as executive director and chief executive of the Wallis to take on the role of the new performing arts program director of the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. Van Leer has been at the Wallis since April 2023, and was instrumental in inviting a host of prominent performing arts organizations to make the Wallis their home, including Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, L.A. Dance Project, Los Angeles Ballet, BODYTRAFFIC, and Tonality.

“Specter,” a sculptural installation for Desert X by L.A. artist Sterling Ruby, just outside Palm Springs in 2019.

(Carolina A. Miranda / Los Angeles Times)

Big changes are coming to Desert X as it plans its sixth exhibition in the Coachella Valley, and its 10th worldwide. Over the past decade, the organization has commissioned more than 100 artists to create site-specific work in the desert. For its 10th anniversary exhibition, Desert X has announced new dates and an extended timeline. The next show is scheduled to open on Oct. 30, 2027, and will run through May 7, 2028, to coincide with other important area cultural events including the Palm Springs International Film Festival, Modernism Week, Frieze Los Angeles and the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival.

Carol Burnett has endowed a new scholarship at the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television. The annual award will support undergraduate students in the school’s Ray Bolger Musical Theater Program. The inaugural scholarship has been awarded to first-year theater major Alexa Cruz.

— Jessica Gelt

And last but not least

Looking for a decadent holiday gift for an art lover? How about a $295 chocolate bar made by andSons Chocolatiers in collaboration with Ed Ruscha? The 73% Peruvian dark chocolate bar is an edition of 300 and comes in a cloth-bound box, which, according to the Beverly Hills-based chocolate company’s website, features “a reproduction of Ruscha’s 1971 lithograph ‘Made in California’” and “bears the relief of the West Coast’s rugged topography from the Pacific Ocean eastward to the Santa Lucia Mountains.”

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Federal officials confirmed that a surge of immigration enforcement in North Carolina’s largest city had begun as agents were seen making arrests in multiple locations Saturday.

“We are surging DHS law enforcement to Charlotte to ensure Americans are safe and public safety threats are removed,” Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement.

Local officials including Charlotte Mayor Vi Lyles criticized such actions, saying in a statement they “are causing unnecessary fear and uncertainty.”

“We want people in Charlotte and Mecklenburg County to know we stand with all residents who simply want to go about their lives,” said the statement, which was also signed by County Commissioner Mark Jerrell and Stephanie Sneed of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg education board.

The federal government hadn’t previously announced the push until Mecklenburg County Sheriff Garry McFadden confirmed this week that two federal officials had told him that Customs and Border Protection agents would be arriving soon.

Paola Garcia, a spokesperson with Camino, a bilingual nonprofit serving families in Charlotte, said she and her colleagues have observed an increase in Border Patrol and Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents pulling people over since Friday.

“Basically what we’re seeing is that there have been lots of people being pulled over,” Garcia said. “I even saw a few people being pulled over on the way to work yesterday, and then just from community members seeing an increase in ICE and Border Patrol agents in the city of Charlotte.”

Willy Aceituno, a Honduran-born U.S. citizen, was on his way to work when he saw Border Patrol agents chasing people.

“I saw a lot of Latinos running. I wondered why they were running. The thing is, there were a lot of Border Patrol agents chasing them,” he said.

Aceituno, a 46-year-old Charlotte resident, said he himself was stopped — twice — by Border Patrol agents. On the second encounter, he said, they forced him out of his vehicle after breaking the car window and threw him to the ground.

“I told them, ’I’m an American citizen,’ ” he told the Associated Press. “They wanted to know where I was born, or they didn’t believe I was an American citizen.”

After being forcibly taken into a Border Patrol vehicle, Aceituno said, he was allowed to go free after showing documents that proved his citizenship. He said he had to walk back some distance to his car. He later filed a police report over the broken glass.

In east Charlotte, two workers were hanging Christmas lights in Rheba Hamilton’s front yard Saturday morning when two Customs and Border Patrol agents walked up. One agent tried to speak to the workers in Spanish, she said. They didn’t respond, and the agents left in a gray minivan without making arrests.

“This is real disconcerting, but the main thing is we’ve got two human beings in my yard trying to make a living. They’ve broken no laws, and that’s what concerns me,” Hamilton, who recorded the encounter on her cellphone, told the Associated Press.

“It’s an abuse of all of our laws. It is unlike anything I have ever imagined I would see in my lifetime,” the 73-year-old said.

Amid reports that Charlotte could be the next city facing an immigration crackdown, she had suggested the work be postponed, but the contractor decided to go ahead.

“Half an hour later he’s in our yard, he’s working, and Border Patrol rolls up,” she said. “They’re here because they were looking for easy pickings. There was nobody here with TV cameras, nobody here protesting, there’s just two guys working in a yard and an old white lady with white hair sitting on her porch drinking her coffee.”

Local organizations sought to prepare for the push, trying to inform immigrants of their rights and considering peaceful protests. JD Mazuera Arias, who won election to the Charlotte City Council in September, was one of about a dozen people standing watch Saturday outside a Latin American bakery in his district in east Charlotte.

A nearby bakery was closed amid word of the possible immigration crackdown, he said. The government action was hurting people’s livelihoods and the city’s economy, he said.

“This is Customs and Border Patrol. We are not a border city, nor are we a border state. So why are they here?” he asked. “This is a gross violation of constitutional rights for not only immigrants, but for U.S. citizens.”

The Trump administration has defended its federal enforcement operations in Los Angeles, Chicago and other cities as necessary for fighting crime and enforcing immigration laws.

North Carolina Gov. Josh Stein, a Democrat in a state with a Republican-majority Legislature, said Friday that the “vast majority” of those detained in these operations have no criminal convictions, and some are American citizens.

He urged people to record any “inappropriate behavior” they see and notify local law enforcement.

The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department had emphasized ahead of time that it isn’t involved in federal immigration enforcement.

Verduzco writes for the Associated Press. AP writers Maryclaire Dale in Chicago and Brian Witte in Annapolis, Md., contributed to this report.

A look at the top performers from high school football across the Southland during the first week of the playoffs.

RUSHING

• Zastice Jauregui, Garfield: Had touchdown runs of 76, 65 and 70 yards en route to 440 yards rushing and five touchdowns in 30 carries in win over Palisades.

• Chris Fields III, Carson: Rushed for 111 yards and two touchdowns in win over King/Drew.

• Malaki Davis, Corona Centennial: Rushed for 170 yards and two touchdowns in win over Servite.

• Noah Penunuri, Rio Hondo Prep: Rushed for 230 yards and four touchdowns in win over Troy.

• Lenny Ibarra, Los Alamitos: Rushed for 116 yards and four touchdowns in win over San Juan Hills.

• Kamden Tillis, Los Alamitos: Rushed for 112 yards in defeat of San Juan Hills.

• Dallas Jones, Birmingham: Rushed for 139 yards and two touchdowns in win over Kennedy.

• Jacob Jimenez, Chino Hills: Rushed for 192 yards and three touchdowns in win over Sherman Oaks Notre Dame.

• Ty Hall, Saugus: Scored four touchdowns in win over Calabasas.

PASSING

• Trace Johnson, Santa Margarita: Passed for two touchdowns in win over Sierra Canyon.

• Timmy Herr, San Juan Hills: Passed for 271 yards in loss to Los Alamitos.

• Diego Montes, Granada Hills Kennedy: Passed for 207 yards, ran for 102 yards and two touchdowns in loss to Birmingham.

• Domenik Fuentes, Cleveland: Passed for three touchdowns and ran for two touchdowns in win over North Hollywood.

RECEIVING

• Ryan Clark, Santa Margarita: Caught touchdown passes of 33 and 34 yards in win over Sierra Canyon.

• Luc Weaver, Sherman Oaks Notre Dame: Caught five passes for 103 yards and two touchdowns.

DEFENSE

• Isaia Vandermade, Santa Margarita: Had two sacks and batted down a pass vs. Sierra Canyon.

• Weston Reis, Palos Verdes: Returned an interception for a touchdown vs. Dana HIlls.

• Jaden Walk-Green, Corona Centennial: Had two interceptions, returning one for a touchdown, in win over Servite, giving him 10 interceptions this season and his sixth defensive touchdown.

• Thomas Alexander, San Clemente: Returned interception 80 yards for a touchdown in win over Vista Murrieta.

• Shaun Scott, Mater Dei: Had two sacks in win over Mission Viejo.

• PeeWee Wilson, Oxnard Pacifica: Recorded 12 tackles in win over Bishop Amat.

• King Rich Johnson, Orange Lutheran: Returned interception 45 yards for a touchdown in defeat of St. John Bosco.

• Devin Sandville, Orange Vista: Returned two interceptions for touchdowns in loss to Agoura.

SPECIAL TEAMS

• Dabe Nwude, Palos Verdes: Blocked an extra-point attempt in 14-13 win over Dana Hills.

• Bo Ausmus, Redondo Union: Returned kickoff 86 yards for touchdown in win over St. Paul.

• Kyron Rattler, Crenshaw: Returned a punt for a touchdown and returned an interception for a score in win over San Pedro.

• Paul Turner, Birmingham: Returned a kickoff for a touchdown and had three catches for 92 yards in win over Kennedy.

• Jimmy Renteria, Birmingham: Returned a blocked punt for a touchdown in defeat of Kennedy.

Good morning, and welcome to L.A. on the Record — our City Hall newsletter. It’s Noah Goldberg, with an assist from David Zahniser and Doug Smith, giving you the latest on city and county government.

Could L.A.’s Zohran Mamdani moment be here?

It’s definitely a long shot. But Rae Huang, a 43-year-old community organizer, minister and dues-paying member of the Los Angeles chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America, is making her move, throwing her hat into the ring for mayor of Los Angeles.

The virtually unknown candidate is the deputy director of Housing Now California, a coalition that fights displacement of tenants at the state and local levels.

Huang, who is planning a campaign launch on Sunday, is shying away from comparisons to Mamdani, a democratic socialist who was elected mayor of New York City last week. She has not been endorsed by DSA-LA, though she hopes to be. Nevertheless, she sees next year’s election as a “moment for change.”

“We are in a place in our country and in our political environment where folks feel stuck and afraid,” Huang said in an interview. “They feel like nothing is going to change, and the things that are changing are making things even worse.”

Huang, a Sawtelle resident, has never run for elected office. She faces an extremely uphill battle against Mayor Karen Bass, a veteran politician with close ties to the Democratic Party who has spent much of the year denouncing President Trump’s immigration crackdown in L.A.

Still, Huang could complicate Bass’ reelection bid by playing a spoiler role, pulling away left-of-center voters in a year when the incumbent is facing criticism over her handling of the Palisades fire, a struggling city budget and less-than-optimal public services.

Bass already has a challenger in former Los Angeles Unified School District Superintendent Austin Beutner, who has assailed her record in each of those areas. And it’s still not clear whether billionaire developer Rick Caruso, who lost to Bass in 2022, will jump in the race.

The larger the pool of candidates, the more work Bass will have to do in the June primary to secure an outright victory. If she falls below 50% of the vote, she would need to wage an expensive runoff campaign in the November 2026 election.

Doug Herman, a spokesperson for Bass’ campaign, said that under her leadership, “there has been unprecedented progress on the issues that matter most to Angelenos.”

“Homelessness has declined for the first time in two consecutive years, neighborhoods are safer with significant drops in crime, and the Palisades fire recovery continues far ahead of pace with the fastest recovery and rebuilding in California history,” Herman said in a statement. “In addition, there was no better defender of Los Angeles than Mayor Karen Bass when Trump’s ICE raids started and we won a court ruling to help stop the illegal raids and unconstitutional arrests.”

Sara Sadhwani, a politics professor at Pomona College, said the upcoming mayoral election differs from recent L.A. contests that were won by DSA-aligned candidates. In many of those races, DSA-backed challengers ousted incumbents who were already struggling politically, she said.

The same goes for New York City, where former Gov. Andrew Cuomo — Mamdani’s main opponent — was trying to emerge from scandal and stage a comeback, Sadhwani added.

The Democratic incumbent, Eric Adams, was so weakened by his own legal issues that he ended up running as an independent and then withdrawing from the race.

“Bass has her detractors,” Sadhwani said, “but is not in such an embattled position as Eric Adams or even Cuomo, who had stepped down from the governorship amid sexual harassment claims.”

Huang said she is in it to win — and hopes to highlight important issues for people on the left. She wants to expand public housing, make buses free for Angelenos and invest more in unarmed crisis responders.

Sound familiar? Those would pretty much be Mamdani’s talking points.

Huang said she was “hopeful” when Bass was elected. Now, she lobs plenty of criticism at Bass.

She thinks the mayor’s Inside Safe program is allowing too many people to slip back into homelessness. She believes Bass should explicitly support the Venice Dell affordable housing project. And she doesn’t feel the mayor did enough to curb police violence during the summer’s chaotic protests over federal immigration raids.

Huang is not the first to run from Bass’ left. In 2022, late-arriving mayoral hopeful Gina Viola won nearly 7% of the vote, scooping up more than 44,000 votes in the primary after positioning herself as the self-proclaimed “infamous defund-the-police candidate.”

Viola said she is glad to see Huang get into the race, and with much more time to campaign. Viola ran in 2022 with just three and a half months left before the primary. Huang has nearly seven months.

“What she needs to do is [win over] those voters that are so terribly disenfranchised that they don’t have anything to vote for,” Viola said.

Part of getting those potential voters out to the polls is having a strong ground game, knocking on doors and raising money. An endorsement from the local DSA chapter could help Huang get her name out to more Angelenos, Sadhwani said.

DSA members have petitioned to endorse Huang. She needs to receive 50 signatures, which would trigger a vote of chapter members, with 60% required to capture the endorsement.

“It’s certainly exciting to see a left challenger to a status-quo Democrat. That always pushes the conversation in a good direction,” said Claire Palmer, an organizer with DSA-LA.

There has been “enthusiasm” among members about Huang, Palmer said.

As for the DSA-backed members of the City Council?

“I haven’t sat down with them yet,” Huang said.

While four DSA-backed L.A. City Council members celebrated Mamdani’s win with a party at a Highland Park bar on election night, it’s not clear that they have any interest in getting behind a candidate other than Bass.

“Karen Bass is the most progressive mayor we’ve ever had in L.A.,” Councilmember Nithya Raman told The Times at the party.

Bass “has been doing a good job at least in handling this crisis,” Councilmember Eunisses Hernandez said in June, referring to Bass’ handling of the federal immigration raids.

Councilmember Hugo Soto-Martínez has already endorsed Bass.

State of play

— THE RENT IS TOO DAMN CAPPED: The City Council voted Wednesday to lower the annual cap on rent increases for rent-stabilized apartments to 4%. Many landlords and developers opposed the move, saying it would eat into their bottom line and drive away investment. Council members argued that the changes are needed to keep Angelenos from falling into homelessness.

— WILDFIRE PROBE: Los Angeles County has opened an investigation into State Farm General’s treatment of January wildfire victims following complaints that claims were delayed, denied and underpaid. The state’s largest home insurer received notice of the probe in a letter demanding records and data showing whether the company violated the state’s Unfair Competition Law.

— MISSING INFO: At least one official in the Los Angeles Fire Department was aware of concerns that its firefighters were ordered to stop mop-up operations for a Jan. 1 brush fire that later reignited into the massive Palisades fire. Yet the department’s 70-page after-action report on the Palisades fire didn’t include that information — or any detailed examination of the reignition, The Times reported this week.

— FAREWELL TO A WATCHDOG: One of L.A. County’s most prominent citizen watchdogs is dead at 62. Eric Preven, a resident of Studio City, advocated for increased public access to city and county meetings, filed countless public information requests and regularly offered his views on CityWatch. “It wasn’t just like [he was] shooting from the hip,” said Supervisor Kathryn Barger. “He would do his research.”

— MEMORIES OF MARQUEZ: Environmentalists are mourning the death of Wilmington clean air advocate Jesse Marquez, who battled the Port of Los Angeles for years over emissions from trucks, trains and ships. Marquez, 74, died Nov. 3 from health complications that developed after he was struck by a vehicle while in a crosswalk in January.

— A NEW ROADBLOCK: The proposal from Frank McCourt for a gondola between Union Station and Dodger Stadium faced yet another setback this week, with the City Council urging Metro to kill the project. “This resolution tells Metro that the city of Los Angeles refuses to be bought by shiny renderings and empty promises,” said Hernandez, who represents Chinatown and the stadium area.

— PROTEST POWERS: The council’s Public Safety Committee endorsed legislation this week that would bar the LAPD from using crowd control weapons against peaceful protesters and journalists. The proposal, which now heads to the full council, would prohibit the department from using “kinetic energy projectiles” or “chemical agents” unless officers are threatened with physical violence.

— POLICING THE POLICE: The LAPD took more than a year to begin fully disclosing domestic abuse allegations against its officers, as required by a state law passed in 2021. The revelation came out during a recent hearing regarding an officer who was fired after being accused of time card fraud and physically assaulting her former romantic partner, a fellow cop.

— CHIEF IN CHARGE: The council voted Friday to make Deputy Chief Jaime Moore the city’s newest fire chief. Moore, a 30-year department veteran, said one of his top priorities will be improving morale in a department that has faced heavy criticism for its handling of the Palisades fire. He also plans to seek an outside investigation into missteps by fire officials in the days leading up to that disaster.

— GRILLING GIBSON DUNN: U.S. District Court Judge David O. Carter pressed attorneys from Gibson Dunn this week on the fees they’ve been charging the city in the landmark LA Alliance homelessness case. At one point, the firm had 15 lawyers billing the city $1,295 per hour, regardless of their titles or experience.

Carter also voiced his anger over reports that a South L.A. homeless facility had only 44 beds, not the 88 spelled out in a contract awarded to a nonprofit group. The judge set a hearing for Wednesday on whether to hold the city in contempt over what he described as delaying tactics in complying with an order he issued earlier this year.

QUICK HITS

• Where is Inside Safe? The mayor’s signature initiative to combat homelessness did not launch any new operations this week. The program did move about a dozen people indoors from Skid Row, according to Bass’ team.
• On the docket next week: The council heads out on recess next week, with members taking part in the National League of Cities conference in Salt Lake City. Meetings are also canceled the following week for the Thanksgiving holiday. They’ll be back Dec. 2.

Stay in touch

That’s it for this week! Send your questions, comments and gossip to [email protected]. Did a friend forward you this email? Sign up here to get it in your inbox every Saturday morning.

When I broke into journalism years ago as a fledgling Whittier-based high school sports reporter, one of my favorite side hobbies was asking locals what made their city famous.

Downey was always an interesting test case.

Some said Downey’s claim to fame is the oldest standing McDonald’s, or the Stonewood Mall, with some students boasting the rivalry between Downey and Warren high schools. Some have also cited the title of the “Mexican Beverly Hills,” which I and colleague Gustavo Arellano have always considered more appropriate for Whittier.

What wasn’t mentioned enough about Downey, particularly among the high school-aged students I spoke with, was the city’s ties to the Space Shuttle program. It was somewhat remarkable given the city’s “Home of the Apollo” nickname.

Downey’s reputation, especially among its younger residents, may reset soon thanks to a groundbreaking this Monday to announce the latest upgrade to the Columbia Memorial Space Center, a space museum that opened in 2008.

Benjamin Dickow, the center‘s president and executive director, spoke with The Times about what to expect Monday and beyond.

What’s happening Monday?

Astronaut Garrett Reisman, former Rockwell International and Boeing employees and area dignitaries will take part in a groundbreaking for an about 40,000-square-foot expansion to the existing museum.

The museum’s centerpiece will be a 122-foot-long, 35-foot-tall Downey-made space shuttle mock-up named the “Inspiration,” which is not available yet for public display.

The event begins at 10 a.m., rain or shine, and is located at 12400 Columbia Way in Downey.

For more information, check out https://www.columbiaspacescience.org/

A rendering of the completed front entrance of the museum.

(Nadia Gonzalez, on behalf of the Columbia Memorial Space Center)

Space Center changes and expansion

Dickow said the center was in the middle of completing the first of three phases, to be finished before the L.A. Olympics.

“Once the major construction really gets going, it’s about an 18-month process,” he said, “but if something happens with the shuttle, it’s going to add some time.”

Part of the first phase began in October 2024, when the partially-covered wood and plastic model was paraded down Bellflower Boulevard from a city maintenance yard to a temporary housing unit.

The expansion, known as the Downey Space Shuttle Exhibit and Education Building, would include a new two-story, 29,000-square-foot space shuttle museum, event courtyard, STEM building and courtyard, children’s outdoor classroom, pavilion, lawn and other amenities.

The space shuttle mock-up is also undergoing a “process of rehab and refurbishment,” according to Dickow, but is in “generally great shape.”

“The main work is getting it ready for the public, where visitors will be able to enter and get a sense of what it’s like inside a space shuttle,” Dickow said.

Astronauts would typically access the flight deck, mid-deck and crew compartment through a hatch, according to Dickow.

According to renderings, guests will instead enter through a much more accessible stairwell that puts visitors inside a cargo bay.

A rendering of the space shuttle mock-up, dubbed “Inspiration,” at its place in the center of the museum expansion.

(Nadia Gonzalez, on behalf of the Columbia Memorial Space Center)

What is the mock-up and what’s its tie to Downey?

The shuttle mock-up’s history with Downey spans decades.

North American Rockwell International, now part of Boeing, built the prototype in 1972 at its Downey facility. The space shuttle became the world’s first reusable winged orbiting spaceship.

In total, 12,000 workers developed and manufactured the shuttle at the program’s peak on a sprawling 120-acre campus.

From April 12, 1981, through July 21, 2011, NASA fleets of shuttles flew 135 missions and helped build the International Space Station.

One of those shuttles — Endeavour — was hauled into the middle of its future home, the Samuel Oschin Air and Space Center at Exposition Park, in January 2024.

That museum is also expected to be open before the Olympics.

“This is going to be something that the L.A. area will be able to show off to people from around the world and I want to make sure we’re a part of that,” Dickow said. “Downey and Southeast L.A. sometimes don’t get a lot of the spotlight and this is something that we’ll be able to put out there.”

The week’s biggest stories

Pedestrians cross the street in downtown Los Angeles under light rain on Friday.

(Eric Thayer / Los Angeles Times)

SoCal treads through stormy weather

Rebuilding after January fires

Opposition to immigration forces in California

A Sacramento corruption bombshell

• The federal fraud case against Gov. Gavin Newsom’s former chief of staff and other well-connected aides is entangled with one of California’s — and the country’s — most powerful political circles.
• Dana Williamson, who joined the governor’s office in early 2023 and departed late last year, was arrested Wednesday and faces charges of bank and tax fraud.

Explosive Epstein emails about Trump

• Donald Trump “knew about the girls” and “spent hours at my house,” Jeffrey Epstein wrote in emails.
• See what’s in the emails released by House Democrats on Wednesday.

More big stories

This week’s must-read

More great reads

For your weekend

(Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times)

Going out

Staying in

L.A. Timeless

A selection of the very best reads from The Times’ 143-year archive.

Have a great weekend, from the Essential California team

Jim Rainey, staff reporter
Hugo Martín, assistant editor, fast break desk
Kevinisha Walker, multiplatform editor
June Hsu, editorial fellow
Andrew J. Campa, weekend writer
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.

Camp Flog Gnaw is being postponed because of the rain in Los Angeles.

The annual music festival presented by Tyler, the Creator — which was supposed to take place this weekend on the grounds surrounding Dodger Stadium — will now happen Nov. 22 and 23 in the same location.

“Due to the fact this storm became an atmospheric rain torrential downpour we had 2 choices — cancel or move to next weekend,” Tyler said in a post on Instagram. “We chose the latter.”

The rapper, who last week was nominated for five Grammy Awards including album of the year for “Chromakopia,” added, “We understand this is not ideal so we will offer refunds.”

The show as rescheduled will feature a slightly pared-down lineup that includes performances by Tyler, ASAP Rocky, Doechii, Clipse, Childish Gambino, Earl Sweatshirt, T-Pain and others. Among the acts who dropped off the bill are Tems, Clairo, Sombr and Don Toliver.

Tyler launched Camp Flog Gnaw in 2012 as a one-day event at downtown’s Club Nokia (now known as the Novo). The festival expanded to two days in 2016 and moved to Dodger Stadium in 2018. Flog Gnaw is known for its eclectic booking and a carnival-like atmosphere complete with games, rides and funnel cakes. Performers at the festival’s 2024 edition included Tyler, Playboi Carti, Doechii, Vince Staples, Omar Apollo and André 3000.

This weekend’s storm is expected to bring heavy rain to Southern California and has triggered fears about flooding and mudslides, particularly in areas burned in this year’s destructive wildfires. A live taping of Will Arnett, Jason Bateman and Sean Hayes’ ”SmartLess” podcast scheduled for Saturday night at the Hollywood Bowl was also called off because of weather.

FRIDAY’S RESULTS

CITY SECTION

Quarterfinals

OPEN DIVISION

#1 Carson 27, #8 King/Drew 2

#5 Garfield 42, #4 Palisades 21

#6 Crenshaw 30, #3 San Pedro 0

#2 Birmingham 49, #7 Granada Hills Kennedy 20

DIVISION I

#1 Venice 35, #8 Franklin 8

#5 Marquez 47, #13 Van Nuys 7

#11 Dorsey at #3 Eagle Rock, postponed until Monday

#2 South Gate 32, #7 Gardena 24 (OT)

DIVISION II

#1 Cleveland 42, #9 North Hollywood 0

#4 Fairfax 27, #5 L.A. University 18

#6 L.A. Marshall 17, #14 Chatsworth 12

#2 San Fernando 18, #10 Arleta 14

DIVISION III

#5 Contreras 20, #4 Jefferson 14

#3 LA Wilson 33, #11 Chavez 20

#2 Hawkins 18, #7 Roybal 15

8-MAN

Semifinals

#4 East Valley at #1 Sherman Oaks CES, postponed

#2 Anino Robinson 16, #3 TEACH Tech 6

SOUTHERN SECTION

Quarterfinals

DIVISION I

Orange Lutheran 20, St. John Bosco 19

Santa Margarita 21, Sierra Canyon 9

Mater Dei 20, Mission Viejo 0

Corona Centennial 41, Servite 6

DIVISION 2

Murrieta Valley 26, Rancho Cucamonga 6

Los Alamitos 35, San Juan Hills 10

San Clemente 32, Vista Murrieta 7

Leuzinger 19, Chaparral 16

DIVISION 3

Oxnard Pacifica 28, Bishop Amat 7

Chino Hills 54, Sherman Oaks Notre Dame 26

Palos Verdes 14, Dana Hills 13

Edison 9, Inglewood 7

DIVISION 4

Charter Oak 21, San Jacinto 14

Villa Park 30, Great Oak 6

Oaks Christian 28, Paraclete 14

La Habra 13, Cathedral 7

DIVISION 5

Redondo Union 14, St. Paul 13

Loyola 21, Bonita 14

La Serna 10, Aliso Niguel 7

Rio Hondo Prep 28, Troy 0

DIVISION 6

Eastvale Roosevelt 14, Burbank 13

St. Pius X-St. Matthias Academy 31, Upland 28

Agoura 27, Orange Vista 26

Ventura 35, Moorpark 28

DIVISION 7

Palm Springs 22, Hart 21

Barstow 34, La Canada 6

Apple Valley 28, Victor Valley 20

Saugus 28, Calabasas 27

DIVISION 8

Palm Desert 46, Patriot 33

Beckman 30, Fullerton 13

Irvine 14, Quartz Hill 0

Brea Olinda 41, St. Monica 28

DIVISION 9

Ramona 48, Cerritos 22

Hesperia 21, Norte Vista 7

Cerritos Valley Christian 10, Warren 7

San Dimas 28, Riverside Poly 8

DIVISION 10

Tahquitz 38, Oak Park 33

Santa Monica 14, Brentwood 13

Garden Grove Pacifica 13, Liberty 7

Hillcrest 27, St. Margaret’s 13

DIVISION 11

Western Christian 21, El Monte 14

Baldwin Park 48, Shadow Hills 10

Valley View 28, Gahr 21

South Pasadena 41, Palmdale 7

DIVISION 12

Grace 41, Yucca Valley 28

Coachella Valley 49, Perris 14

Bellflower 13, Colton 12

Santa Paula 21, Arroyo Valley 14

DIVISION 13

Saddleback 28, Santa Rosa Academy 11

Woodbridge 23, Buena Park 16

La Puente 50, Viewpoint 28

Montebello 27, Linfield Christian 25

DIVISION 14

South El Monte 14, Indian Springs 7

Miller 25, Ontario 20

Anaheim 13, Alhambra 6

Pioneer 14, Trinity Classical Academy 6

8-MAN

Quarterfinals

DIVISION 1

Sage Hill 58, Chadwick 49

Faith Baptist 50, California School for the Deaf Riverside 6

DIVISION 2

Hesperia Christian 40, Lancaster Desert Christian 0

WASHINGTON  — The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and other business groups urged the Supreme Court on Friday to block new California laws that will require thousands of companies to disclose their emissions and their impacts on climate change.

One of the laws is due to take effect on Jan. 1, and the emergency appeal asks the court to put it on hold temporarily.

Their lawyers argue the measures violate the 1st Amendment because the state would be forcing companies to speak on its preferred topic.

“In less than eight weeks, California will compel thousands of companies across the nation to speak on the deeply controversial topic of climate change,” they said in an appeal that also spoke for the California Chamber of Commerce and the Los Angeles County Business Federation.

They say the two new laws would require companies to disclose the “climate-related risks” they foresee and how their operations and emissions contribute to climate change.

“Both laws are part of California’s open campaign to force companies into the public debate on climate issues and pressure them to alter their behavior,” they said. Their aim, according to their sponsors, is to “make sure that the public actually knows who’s green and who isn’t.”

One law, SB 261, will require several thousand companies that do business in California to assess their “climate-related financial risk” and how they may reduce that risk. A second measure, Senate Bill 253, which applies to larger companies, requires them to assess and disclose their emissions and how their operations could impact the climate.

The appeal argues these laws amount to unconstitutional compelled speech.

“No state may violate 1st Amendment rights to set climate policy for the Nation. Compelled-speech laws are presumptively unconstitutional — especially where, as here, they dictate a value-laden script on a controversial subject such as climate change,” they argue.

The emergency appeal was filed by Washington attorney Eugene Scalia, a son of the late Justice Antonin Scalia.

The companies have tried and failed to persuade judges in California to block the measures. Exxon Mobil filed a suit in Sacramento, while the Chamber of Commerce sued in Los Angeles.

In August, U.S. District Judge Otis Wright II in Los Angeles refused to block the laws on the grounds they “regulate commercial speech,” which gets less protection under the 1st Amendment. He said businesses are routinely required to disclose financial data and factual information on their operations.

The business lawyers said they had appealed to the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals asking for an injunction, but no action has been taken.

Shortly after the chamber’s appeal was filed, state attorneys for Iowa and 24 other Republican-leaning states joined in support. They said they “strongly oppose this radical green speech mandate that California seeks to impose on companies.”

The justices are likely to ask for a response next week from California’s state attorneys before acting on the appeal.

From Jack Harris: When it came to Major League Baseball’s history of the most valuable player award, there used to be Barry Bonds — then everyone else.

Over his 22-year career, Bonds won baseball’s highest individual honor a record seven times. Before this year, no one else had more than three.

But, like Bonds, accomplishing things no one else can has become the defining trait of Shohei Ohtani’s rise to superstardom.

And on Thursday, his career was elevated another notch higher, as he was named MVP for the fourth time by unanimous vote from the Baseball Writers Assn. of America to join Bonds in an exclusive club of winners with more than three.

“It’s an honor, of course,” Ohtani said in Japanese. “For me, being chosen unanimously was also very special.”

Like his three previous wins, which also came via unanimous vote, Ohtani was a virtual lock. As a hitter alone he led the National League by a wide margin in OPS (1.014) and slugging percentage (.622), was second in on-base percentage (.392) and, despite being outside the top 10 in batting average (.282, ranking 13th), set a career high with 55 home runs, trailing only Philadelphia’s Kyle Schwarber for the crown. His 7.5 wins above replacement, according to Fangraphs, just outpaced Arizona’s Geraldo Perdomo and Philadelphia’s Trea Turner for most in the league.

And then there was his pitching.

In perhaps the most impressive aspect of his season, Ohtani returned from a second Tommy John surgery — the kind of procedure only a handful of pitchers have fully rebounded from — and flashed almost every bit of his dominant form despite missing the previous year and a half on the mound.

Continue reading here

Complete MVP voting results

Hernández: Why Shohei Ohtani is much more than the MVP of the National League

Why trade market could appeal to Dodgers, and help them weigh short and long-term goals

Seidler family considering sale of San Diego Padres

UCLA BASKETBALL

All-American Lauren Betts had 20 points and 10 rebounds to lead No. 3 UCLA to a 78-60 victory over No. 11 North Carolina on Thursday night in the WBCA Challenge, the Bruins’ second win over a ranked team this week.

UCLA (4-0) also topped No. 6 Oklahoma 73-59 on Monday in Sacramento. Coming off the program’s first trip to the NCAA Final Four, the Bruins are making an early case as one of the favorites to get back there.

Betts also had seven assists. Teammate Kiki Rice overcame an 0-for-3 first half to finish with 15 points on six-for-12 shooting as well as 10 rebounds. Angela Dugalic added 14 points and Gabriela Jaquez had 12.

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UCLA box score

RAMS

From Sam Farmer: Read and react. That isn’t just what Cooper Kupp does on the football field, adjusting his pass route to get open. It’s what he does in his free time, too, tearing through close to two dozen books during the NFL season.

The Seattle Seahawks receiver, once a star with the Rams, is an enthusiastic reader of both nonfiction and fiction, and buys extra copies of some of his favorites — “Tuesdays with Morrie” and “When Breath Becomes Air” — to hand out to friends.

Just as when he’s poring over the playbook, the bearded bookworm reads with pen in hand or ready to note something on his phone.

“If I haven’t underlined anything in the first day or two, it’s hard to keep going,” said Kupp, 32, currently reading “Heart and Steel” by former Pittsburgh Steelers coach Bill Cowher. “I mark pages, highlight, screenshot.

“If I’m not learning something, a book better transport me.”

Kupp was transported last offseason, and not by his choosing. The Rams released him to make room for receiver Davante Adams, parting ways with one of their most popular players, an architect of rebuilding a fan base in Los Angeles, and Most Valuable Player of their Super Bowl win in the 2021 season.

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Rams’ Alaric Jackson faces lawsuit for allegedly refusing to delete sex video

MLS

From Kevin Baxter: Major League Soccer’s board of governors voted Thursday to push the start of the season from February to July beginning in 2027, matching the schedule used by most of the world’s other top-tier leagues.

The move also allows the league to better sync up with global soccer’s primary and secondary transfer windows and with FIFA’s international competition calendar, when teams are required to release players to their national teams.

“Our owners made a decision that I think is one of the most important decisions in our league’s history,” commissioner Don Garber said in a conference call.

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KINGS

Quinton Byfield scored on a one-timer 35 seconds into overtime to give the Kings a 4-3 victory over the injury-ravaged Toronto Maple Leafs on Thursday night.

Warren Foegele, Kevin Fiala and Alex Laferriere also scored for the Kings, who have won three in a row and four of five to improve to 9-5-4.

Darcy Kuemper made 12 saves, and Drew Doughty had two assists.

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Kings summary

NHL standings

DUCKS

Alex DeBrincat had two goals and an assist and the Detroit Red Wings beat the Ducks 6-3 on Thursday night to end a three-game losing streak.

DeBrincat has 18 goals and 33 points in 20 games against the Ducks.

Moritz Seider and Dylan Larkin each had a goal and an assist, and Axel Sandin-Pellikka scored his second career goal. Michael Rasmussen also scored after being a healthy scratch for Detroit’s 5-1 loss to Chicago on Sunday.

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Ducks summary

NHL standings

THIS DAY IN SPORTS HISTORY

1943 — Sid Luckman of the Chicago Bears becomes the first pro to pass for more than 400 yards (433) and seven touchdowns in a 56-7 victory over the New York Giants.

1964 — Gus Johnson and Walt Bellamy become the first NBA teammates to score 40 points apiece as the Baltimore Bullets beat the Lakers 127-115. Johnson has 41 points, Bellamy 40.

1964 — Detroit’s Gordie Howe becomes the NHL’s all-time goal-scoring leader, including playoffs, with his 627th career goal. Howe beats Montreal’s Charlie Hodge in a 4-2 loss.

1965 — Gary Cuozzo, subbing for injured Johnny Unitas, throws five touchdown passes to lead the Baltimore Colts to a 41-21 victory over the Minnesota Vikings.

1966 — Muhammad Ali knocks out Cleveland Williams in the third round to retain the world heavyweight title in Houston.

1970 — Forty-three members of the Marshall football team die when their chartered plane crashes in Kenova, W.Va.

1993 — Don Shula breaks George Halas’ career record for victories with No. 325 as the Miami Dolphins defeat Philadelphia 19-14. Shula’s record: 325-153-6 in 31 seasons with Baltimore and Miami; Halas, 324-151-31 in 40 seasons with Chicago.

2004 — Chicago’s 19-17 win over Tennessee marks the second time an NFL game ended in overtime on a safety.

2004 — John and Ashley Force become the first father-daughter combo in NHRA history to win at the same event in the season finale. John Force races to his 114th Funny Car victory, and his 21-year-old daughter takes the Top Alcohol class at Pomona Raceway.

2009 — Toby Gerhart rushes for 178 yards and three touchdowns as Stanford annihilates Southern California 55-21. It’s the most points ever conceded by the Trojans, who played their first game in 1888.

2009 — Daniel Passafiume sets the NCAA record for most receptions in a single game, catching 25 passes for Division III Hanover College. Passafiume finishes with 153 yards receiving and two touchdowns in a 42-28 loss to Franklin.

2010 — John Force wins his NHRA-record 15th Funny Car season championship, completing an improbable and emotional comeback from a horrific accident in Dallas three years ago that left the 61-year-old star’s racing future in serious jeopardy. Force becomes the oldest champion in NHRA history on the same day that the series crowns its youngest champion, 20-year-old Pro Stock Motorcycle rider LE Tonglet.

2010 — The New York Jets defeat the Browns 26-20 in overtime at Cleveland Browns Stadium. The Jets, who won 23-20 in OT at Detroit’s Ford Field last week, are the first team in NFL history to win road games in overtime in consecutive weeks.

2015 — Navy quarterback Keenan Reynolds breaks the NCAA record for career rushing touchdowns, upping his total to 81 with four scores in the No. 22 Midshipmen’s 55-14 over SMU.

2015 — Kellen Dunham scores 24 points and No. 24 Butler breaks four school records in a 144-71 trouncing of The Citadel. The 144 points are the most points scored by a team in a men’s college basketball game featuring two D-I schools since TCU beat Texas-Pan American 153-87 in 1997.

2017 — Grayson Allen — Duke’s lone senior — scores a career-high 37 points, freshman Trevon Duval has 17 points and 10 assists, and the top-ranked Blue Devils beat No. 2 Michigan State 88-81 in the Champions Classic in Chicago. Wendell Carter Jr. adds 12 points and 12 rebounds, helping Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski improve to 12-1 in his career against Michigan State.

Compiled by the Associated Press

Until next time…

That concludes today’s newsletter. If you have any feedback, ideas for improvement or things you’d like to see, email me at [email protected]. To get this newsletter in your inbox, click here.

She’s a little bit country; he’s a little bit rock ‘n’ roll.

And me? I’m a little bit stunned. Two politicians have emerged, against all odds, to surprise and impress us this year: Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-Calif.) and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.).

You’d be hard-pressed to find two Americans less similar — politically, culturally, geographically, maybe even molecularly. These two occupy opposite poles. She’s NASCAR and CrossFit. He’s electric vehicles and Pinot Noir. They shouldn’t have much in common, but lately, both have done the unthinkable: They’ve taken on President Trump and lived (politically) to tell about it.

Let’s start with Greene because, honestly, she’s more fun.

For years, MTG was seen as an embarrassment. The QAnon congresswoman. The “Jewish space laser” lady. The lawmaker who, just two years prior to winning her House seat, questioned whether a plane really hit the Pentagon on 9/11.

She harassed a then-teenage Parkland survivor and coined the immortal phrase “gazpacho police,” apparently confusing the soup with Nazi secret police.

But then, something strange happened: Greene started making sense. Not “agree with her at dinner” sense, but the “wait, that’s not totally insane” kind.

She blasted Trump’s decision to bomb Iran, which — if you take the “America First” philosophy literally and not just as performance art — is consistent with her beliefs. And in a time when selling out is perceived as being shrewder than standing for something, the mere act of holding a consistent position is a virtue.

MTG also called out her own party for blocking the Epstein files, and volunteered to walk “on the House floor and say every damn name that abused these women.”

And in an act of shocking populist coherence, she ripped into Republicans for letting Obamacare subsidies expire: “Health insurance premiums will DOUBLE,” she thundered on X, adding: “Not a single Republican in leadership talked to us about this or has given us a plan to help Americans deal with their health insurance premiums DOUBLING!!!”

Trump, naturally, took all this personally. “I don’t know what happened to Marjorie,” he said, recently. “Nice woman, but she’s lost her way.” To which Greene, never one to back down, fired back: “I haven’t lost my way. I’m 100% America First and only!”

The thing I’m liking about Greene isn’t just that she’s standing up to Trump — although, I admit, it’s fun to watch. But what’s really refreshing is that she’s a true believer who got elected, got famous and yet continues to believe.

Which brings us to Gavin Newsom.

Newsom has always been the poster boy for everything people hate about California — a man who looks like he was genetically engineered by a Napa Valley venture capitalist to play a slick politician.

The “important” coiffed hair. The smug grin. The French Laundry dinner during COVID-19, while the rest of us were holed up in our houses microwaving Lean Cuisines.

Once upon a time, he and his then-wife, Kimberly Guilfoyle, posed on a rug for a Harper’s Bazaar spread where they were dubbed “The New Kennedys.”

Enough said.

If Greene is the quintessential MAGA mama, Newsom is the slick bro you want to throat punch. But somehow he has had a banner year.

Newsom stood firm against ICE raids and troop deployments in Los Angeles. Then, he trolled Trump with online memes that actually landed.

After Texas Republicans tried to grab five congressional seats for the GOP, Newsom shepherded Prop. 50 through California — an amendment to the state constitution aimed at mitigating Texas’ gerrymandering by redrawing maps to help Democrats even the score.

Then, he waltzed into Houston for a celebratory rally — some political end zone dancing on the opponents’ home turf, just to twist the knife.

Like Greene, the guy has moxie.

And here’s the thing I’m learning from the Trump era: Guts come from the most unlikely places, and looks can be deceiving.

You never know when some heroic-looking leader will fold like a cheap suit, just like you never know when some “heel” out of central casting for villains will turn “face” and rise to the occasion.

I don’t mean to sound naive. I’m not proposing a Newsom-Greene 2028 unity ticket. (Although … tell me you wouldn’t watch that convention.)

The odds are, both of these figures will disappoint me again, probably by next Thursday. Life is complicated, and it’s sometimes hard to disentangle heroism from opportunism.

Indeed, some have speculated that MTG’s sudden streak of independence is the result of Trump putting the kibosh on a “Greene for U.S. Senate” bid in Georgia. And as for Newsom — is his show of toughness an act of patriotism, or a prelude to his own presidential campaign?

Frankly, that’s a difference without a distinction.

For now, here’s what is clear: These two political figures have shown a flash — a glimmer — of something like backbone.

And in the year of our Lord 2025, that’s rarer, and more valuable, than almost any commodity in politics.

Matt K. Lewis is the author of “Filthy Rich Politicians” and “Too Dumb to Fail.”

With heavy rain expected this weekend, the chance for high school football players in Los Angeles to run, tackle and enjoy playing in the mud is more than possible. There’s eight City Section teams hosting playoff games Friday night with grass fields that have little grass left.

That means fun times ahead.

“It’s not going to be pretty,” Venice coach Angelo Gasca said of his field’s condition for a game against Franklin.

The coaches might not like mud, but Gasca said his players are excited.

“Everyone is looking forward to it,” Gasca said.

San Pedro, Venice, Eagle Rock, Cleveland, San Fernando, Santee, Jefferson and Wilson have either not changed their fields into all-weather turf or chose to keep grass. Eagle Rock next season is switching to all-weather, so coach Andy Moran might have a final home game in the mud against Dorsey.

San Pedro lost to Eagle Rock in the rain in 2022. Pirates coach Corey Walsh has not forgotten. He prepared with wet footballs in practice this week for Friday’s game against Crenshaw.

“We’re super excited,” he said.

The people who aren’t excited are the bus drivers who will have to clean their buses; fans who will break out umbrellas, plastic hats and boots; parents who will have to clean uniforms; sportswriters trying to keep stats with no covering.

Yes, Southern California is not used to playing high school football in the rain. One of the most famous games was Servite beating Edison 16-6 in the 2009 Pac-5 championship game at Angels Stadium. The lead sentence in the Los Angeles Times story was, “Playing in conditions more suitable for sea gulls and ducks.”

Look for ducks and mud on Friday night.

Rams left tackle Alaric Jackson is being sued by a woman who alleges that Jackson recorded her without her consent during sex, repeatedly refused to delete the video and taunted her with it, ESPN reported.

Jackson was not available in the locker room after practice Thursday. A Rams official said the team was aware of the ESPN report but would not comment because it was an ongoing legal matter. Jackson and coach Sean McVay will address the matter on Friday, the official said.

Jackson, 27, was suspended for the first two games of the 2024 season for an unspecified violation of the NFL’s personal-conduct policy. The previous March, the Rams gave him a three-year contract that includes about $35 million in guarantees, according to Overthecap.com.

“It’s behind us now,” Jackson said in September 2024 after he served the suspension.

Asked if the suspension was warranted, Jackson said, “They did what they had to do, and I understand it,” he said. “So I’m just going to move past it.”

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — The next city bracing for the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown is Charlotte, North Carolina, which could see an influx of federal agents as early as this weekend, a county sheriff said Thursday.

Mecklenburg County Sheriff Garry McFadden said in a statement that two federal officials confirmed a plan for U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents to start an enforcement operation on Saturday or early next week in North Carolina’s largest city. His office declined to identify those officials. McFadden said details about the operation haven’t been disclosed, and his office hasn’t been asked to assist.

Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin declined to comment, saying, “Every day, DHS enforces the laws of the nation across the country. We do not discuss future or potential operations.”

President Trump has defended sending the military and immigration agents into Democratic-run cities like Los Angeles, Chicago and even the nation’s capital, saying the unprecedented operations are needed to fight crime and carry out his mass deportation agenda. Charlotte is another such Democratic stronghold, and the state will have one of the most hotly contested U.S. Senate races in the country next year.

Activists, faith leaders, and local and state officials in the city had already begun preparing the immigrant community, sharing information about resources and attempting to calm fears. A call organized by the group CharlotteEAST had nearly 500 people on it Wednesday.

“The purpose of this call was to create a mutual aid network. It was an information resource sharing session,” said City Councilmember-Elect JD Mazuera Arias.

“Let’s get as many people as possible aware of the helpers and who the people are that are doing the work that individuals can plug into, either as volunteers to donate to or those who are in need of support can turn to,” said CharlotteEAST executive director Greg Asciutto.

The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department also sought to clarify its role, saying it “has no authority to enforce federal immigration laws,” and is not involved in planning or carrying out these enforcement operations.

Mazuera Arias and others said they had already begun receiving reports of what appeared to be plainclothes officers in neighborhoods and on local transit.

“This is some of the chaos that we also saw in Chicago,” state Sen. Caleb Theodros, who represents Charlotte and Mecklenburg County, said Thursday.

Theodros was one of several local and state officials who issued a statement of solidarity this week.

“More than 150,000 foreign-born residents live in our city, contributing billions to our economy and enriching every neighborhood with culture, hard work, and hope,” it read, adding: “We will stand together, look out for one another, and ensure that fear never divides the city we all call home.”

Gregory Bovino, the Border Patrol chief who led Customs and Border Protection’s recent Chicago operation and was also central to the immigration crackdown in Los Angeles, had been coy about where agents would target next.

The Trump administration’s so-called “ Operation Midway Blitz ” in the Chicago area was announced in early September, over the objections of local leaders and after weeks of threats on the Democratic stronghold.

It started as a handful of arrests by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers in the suburbs but eventually included hundreds of Customs and Border Protection agents whose tactics grew increasingly aggressive. More than 3,200 people suspected of violating immigration laws have been arrested across Chicago and its many suburbs dipping into Indiana.

The Department of Homeland Security, which oversees both immigration agencies, has offered few details on the arrests, aside from publicizing a handful of people who were living in the U.S. without legal permission and had criminal records.

The group Indivisible Charlotte and the Carolina Migrant Network will be conducting a training for volunteers on Friday.

“Training people how to recognize legitimate ICE agents, versus obviously those who don’t look legitimate,” said Tony Siracusa, spokesman for Indvisible Charlotte. “They’re not always wearing vests that say ‘ICE.’ And what your rights are.”

The groups will also discuss areas where they can conduct “pop up protests.”

“Obviously, we’re not doing anything that is going to encourage people to go get arrested by federal agents,” he said.

Siracusa said locals are “not freaking out, but very definitely concerned. Nobody asked for this help. Nobody asked for this, at least no one of any official capacity.”

Breed and Verduzco write for the Associated Press. Breed reported from Wake Forest, N.C. AP writer Sophia Tareen in Chicago contributed to this report.

I stood atop a lookout point in the heart of Los Angeles County watching the sunset paint downtown L.A. a deep orange.

I was amazed to be alone in the outdoors just before 5 p.m. in America’s second-largest city. I took in more of the panoramic view before me. I could see Mt. Baldy turning a hazy pink as the sun coated the rest of the San Gabriel Mountains in a scarlet hue. I spotted thick clouds moving in over the South Bay. It’d be foggy later.

I’d usually need to travel to Griffith Park or Debs Park for similar views, but that evening’s location was the lesser-known Elephant Hill Open Space, a rolling landscape in El Sereno that local activists hope becomes L.A.’s next great park. But that’s only if they can save it in time.

Mt. Baldy is visible in the distance from a hiking trail in Elephant Hill Open Space in El Sereno.

(Jaclyn Cosgrove / Los Angeles Times)

Elephant Hill Open Space is a 110-acre plot of undeveloped land in El Sereno that residents have advocated, for more than 20 years, to be developed into a public park like nearby Debs Park or Ascot Hills with hiking trails, benches and overlook points.

For years, local activists have beat back developers who wanted to build luxury homes, tried to curb illegal dumping and attempted to persuade off-road enthusiasts who have (illegally) carved deep scars into the hillsides to recreate elsewhere.

Their final challenge, though, if the entire 110 acres is to be saved from development, is persuading about 200 different land owners to sell their parcels of Elephant Hill to a public agency — and at fair market rate.

Newly installed steps near the Elephant Hill test plot lead hikers toward panoramic views of L.A. County.

(Jaclyn Cosgrove / Los Angeles Times)

About 25 acres are owned by government agencies. Mountains Recreation & Conservation Authority, a local government agency focused on protecting open spaces, manages 8.37 acres at Elephant Hill and is in the process of buying another 2.4 acres. The city of L.A. owns about 15 acres after buying around 20 acres in a 2009 settlement with a developer who wanted to build luxury homes on the hillsides. (The city later sold five acres to MRCA.)

In recent years, MRCA has received about $4.2 million, including $2 million last month from the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy, to research and buy more land, build a 0.75-mile trail to bring in more hikers, and install gates and boulders to prevent illegal off-roading.

Sarah Kevorkian, deputy chief of wildfire resilience at MRCA, said her agency is required by law to buy land at fair market rate, making it hard to compete in a “cutthroat” market with private developers who can offer landowners more money.

“The number of individual landowners is an added layer of complexity, and I don’t think that exists in other places, not like this,” Kevorkian said.

A view looking east from Elephant Hill’s new hiking trail.

(Jaclyn Cosgrove / Los Angeles Times)

Still, she remains optimistic, regularly checking land sales websites to see whether any Elephant Hill owners have posted their properties. Community members are quick to call her if they see a “for sale” sign go up.

“I immediately will call,” Kevorkian said. “I called this one person, and they said, ‘Yeah, we have an offer, we’re going with it.’ … I said, ‘If anything changes, call me back.’ They didn’t, but I just had a feeling.”

The land was next to the hiking trail that MRCA was installing. It’d be such a perfect parcel to snag.

Kevorkian called the property owner back a few weeks later, and they told her the deal had fallen through. “It was such an awesome win,” she said.

Mt. Wilson is visible from the Elephant Hill Open Space in El Sereno.

(Jaclyn Cosgrove / Los Angeles Times)

And anyone who visits can easily see why.

I first visited Elephant Hill a few weeks ago with Elva Yañez and Hugo Garcia, co-founders of Save Elephant Hill. They started their efforts in late 2003 to try to fight off private developers. Both live within walking distance of the open space.

We started our hike on the western side of Elephant Hill, with an aim of seeing the beginnings of Elephant Hill’s first official hiking trail, which MRCA expects to complete next year with way-finding signage, boulders and more.

We headed up the steep terrain, quickly passing the latest disputed development — a truck garden that’s drawn the ire of Save Elephant Hill and other conservation groups for its owner’s choice to chop down protected native trees, as reported by L.A. Taco.

A tree canopy provides shade over the hiking trail in Elephant Hill Open Space in El Sereno.

(Jaclyn Cosgrove / Los Angeles Times)

We took the trail’s switchbacks and then paused to catch our breaths in the shade of hollyleaf cherry, black walnuts and other trees creating a dense canopy. There, the hills blocked the noise from the roads and city. It’d be the perfect place for a picnic table, bench or both.

Next, we walked down newly installed steps to reach the Elephant Hill test plot, a lush experimental restoration garden where volunteers have planted hundreds of native flowers and shrubs and close to 100 trees. The land looks grateful.

Bees buzzed around the sugar bush and coyote brush. Unlike other parts of the park that remain overwhelmed with invasive mustard, trees of heaven and castor bean, this area is thriving with drought-tolerant and, in some cases, fire-resistant native plants.

A native sunflower in the test plot garden, from left, a shaded path in Elephant Hill, and a white-crowned sparrow perched in the test plot garden.

(Jaclyn Cosgrove / Los Angeles Times)

Yañez said during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, she and Garcia realized they needed to expand their list of allies for Elephant Hill. “We’re not naturalists. We’re not traditional environmentalists. We’re not native plant people,” she said. “We realized at a certain point that we have to activate this space. We have to get people on it to start building that support.”

Joey Farewell, an estate planner who lives nearby and manages the test plot, said, with Yañez and MRCA’s blessing, the test plot volunteers installed the garden in fall 2022 and have seen it thrive, largely without watering outside of what’s needed to first establish new growth.

The test plot started as 3,000 square feet and has expanded to 10,000 square feet of native plant, said Jennifer Toy, director of nonprofit Test Plot, which has 16 experimental gardens around L.A. At Elephant Hill, volunteers have cleared about 20,000 square feet of invasive species, she said.

“It’s not a huge area, but each year we think about” what they can do next, Toy said. “It’s a work in progress.”

And it’s a powerful proof of concept of what Elephant Hill could look like with investment.

Farewell, who is the conservation co-chair of the L.A. and Santa Monica Mountains chapter of the California Native Plants Society, said most people don’t realize what a dynamic landscape Elephant Hill is, including its water features.

“My kids would play by the brook” after heavy rains, Farewell said. “You could reach your hand into one of the springs that fed the stream and feel the water bubbling out of the ground.”

The view of downtown L.A. from a high point at the Elephant Hill Open Space in El Sereno.

(Jaclyn Cosgrove / Los Angeles Times)

Yañez wants more local children to have similar experiences. Elephant Hill sits among a neighborhood plagued by environmental racism, she said. Green space isn’t readily available, but with the development of Elephant Hill into a park, it could be.

Yañez said she understands the need for more housing in L.A., but Elephant Hill has repeatedly proven an unsafe option. In the late 1980s, townhouses in a nearby development started falling into the ground, causing major structural damage. Around 2006, a developer was using a backhoe to build a fence around his property when the heavy machinery fell deep into a spring. Neighbors referred to it as a “sinkhole.”

“When you look at the big picture of climate change and lack of access to park space in communities like El Sereno, it’s kind of a no-brainer — and it’s very difficult to build here. In fact, it’s not safe,” Yañez said. “All the factors come together and make a pretty strong case on their own for conservation. Plus, I think the community deserves access to open space on these hillsides.”

3 things to do

Volunteers repair habitat in the Bolsa Chica Conservancy in Huntington Beach.

(Erika Moe / Amigos de Bolsa Chica)

1. Address messy nests in Huntington Beach
Amigos de Bolsa Chica needs volunteers from 8:15 to 11:30 a.m. Saturday to restore nest habitat for the threatened western snowy plover and endangered California least tern. Participants will remove invasive and overgrown plants in an area of the reserve off-limits to the public. Register at amigosdebolsachica.org.

2. Craft s’mores ’round the campfire in Culver City
The Nature Nexus Institute will host a fall harvest event from 1 to 3 p.m. Saturday at the Baldwin Hills Scenic Overlook featuring a campfire and drum circle. Guests can also take guided nature strolls, listen to storytelling and make s’mores around a campfire. Register at docs.google.com.

3. Nurture native plants in the Hollywood Hills
The Citizens for Los Angeles Wildlife needs volunteers from 9 to 11 a.m. Saturday for a habitat restoration project in the Hollywood Hills. Participants will weed and water young native wildflowers, trees and shrubs, and install humane protection from deer and gophers. Register at clawonline.org.

The must-read

A sign stands in the middle of the fire-ravaged remains of the ranch house at Will Rogers State Historic Park in Pacific Palisades. The park reopened Saturday.

(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)

Hikers rejoice! Will Rogers State Historic Park reopened Saturday after being closed for 10 months following the devastating Palisades fire in January. Times staff writer Hailey Branson-Potts reported that 4.2 miles of the park’s trails are now open while 4.8 miles remain closed. Unfortunately, the segment of the Backbone Trail — a 67-mile trek from Point Mugu State Park to Will Rogers — that runs through the park will remain closed because the fire destroyed the Chicken Ridge Bridge. The Rivas Canyon Trail and Rustic Canyon Trail will also remain closed. The looping trail to Inspiration Point will be partially open, although parks officials might sometimes close it for trail work.

I am glad, slowly but surely, we’re getting to return to some of our favorite places closed by fire.

Happy adventuring,

P.S.

It’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s — no, it’s a bird! It appears that a bald eagle was spotted flying over the Audubon Center at Debs Park last Thursday. “Could it be?!” the Audobon Center posted on Instagram. The answer is yes, it really could have been! On the citizen science app iNaturalist, users have reported almost 1,000 bald eagle observations in L.A. County, including one over Debs Park in 2017 and others in nearby Glassell Park and Pasadena. Perhaps the Steve Miller Band was correct about our national bird’s flight pattern: “I want to fly like an eagle / To the sea.” May your spirit carry you through this week, friends!

For more insider tips on Southern California’s beaches, trails and parks, check out past editions of The Wild. And to view this newsletter in your browser, click here.

From Thuc Nhi Nguyen: Dalton Knecht soared through the air for an emphatic two-handed dunk. Luka Doncic, who fired the full-court assist on the basket, looked at the Lakers bench and clapped twice in encouragement. But nothing was going to help the Lakers crawl out of this.

Unlike the blowout loss in Atlanta last Saturday, it appeared the Lakers were at least mentally prepared to compete against the league-leading Oklahoma City Thunder on Wednesday. The problem in the 121-92 loss was that they simply could not keep up.

Reigning most valuable player Shai Gilgeous-Alexander had 30 points on 10 for 18 shooting with nine assists. The Lakers’ own MVP hopeful Doncic had 19 points, making just seven of 20 shots with seven assists and four turnovers.

“We got our ass kicked,” said guard Marcus Smart, who was held to nine points with two turnovers. “And we got to bounce back.”

Crossing into the homestretch of their first extended road trip of the season, the Lakers (8-4) have two games remaining, playing in New Orleans and Milwaukee on Friday and Saturday, respectively. The five-game stretch, which started with a rout by Atlanta and a win in Charlotte, has provided mixed results. The team celebrated its connection and chemistry off the court, but is still trying to find solid footing after major offseason changes and early season injuries.

“I don’t think it’s been a great road trip for us, just in terms of how we played,” coach JJ Redick said. “Second half against Charlotte, I liked everything that I saw. But the Atlanta game [and] tonight, I don’t think are reflective of who the group is going to be, but it clearly is who the group is right now.”

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NBA standings

CLIPPERS

Nikola Jokic had 55 points, tying the highest-scoring performance in the NBA this season, and 12 rebounds and the Denver Nuggets beat the shorthanded Clippers 130-116 on Wednesday night for their sixth straight victory.

Oklahoma City star Shai Gilgeous-Alexander had 55 in a double-overtime game at Indiana on Oct. 23.

Jokic scored 25 of Denver’s 39 points in the first quarter. He had eight in the second before coming back with 19 in the third. He sat out most of the fourth before scoring three points to complete his night going 18 of 23 from the field. He missed adding to his league-leading six triple-doubles with six assists. The Serbian big man was five of six on three-pointers and made 14 of 16 free throws.

James Harden scored 23 points — making all 10 of his free throws — and had eight rebounds and five assists to lead the spiraling Clippers, who took a major blow earlier in the day when they found out that Bradley Beal will miss the rest of the season with a fractured hip. They’re currently without Kawhi Leonard, who has a sprained ankle and foot.

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Clippers box score

NBA standings

Clippers guard Bradley Beal out for season with hip fracture

From Ben Bolch: A Los Angeles County Superior Court judge on Wednesday denied a request from the Rose Bowl Operating Co. and the City of Pasadena seeking a temporary restraining order in their attempt to keep UCLA football games at the Rose Bowl, saying those entities had not demonstrated an emergency that would necessitate such an action.

Judge James C. Chalfant said previous cases in which the New York Yankees, New York Jets and Minnesota Twins were barred from moving games did not apply to this situation because those teams were scheduled to play in a matter of days or weeks and UCLA’s next scheduled game at the Rose Bowl after its home season finale against Washington on Nov. 22 isn’t until the fall of 2026.

The judge also said there was no indication that the Rose Bowl or Pasadena would suffer imminent financial harm because a contract to construct a field-level club in one end zone had not been signed.

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From Ryan Kartje: It was two years ago this month, with USC’s defense at an unthinkable nadir, that Lincoln Riley finally decided to fire Alex Grinch, his first defensive coordinator.

“I am that committed, and we are all that committed to playing great defense here,” Riley said in 2023. “Whatever it takes to get that done, that’s what we’re going to do.”

Not everyone took Riley’s comments seriously at the time.

“There’s a school on the West Coast right now that’s going to re-commit to defense,” Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz said a month later. “You give up [46] to Tulane last year in a bowl game — at a place where Ronnie Lott played. Now they’re going to think about defense. That was the first thing we thought about 25 years ago.”

Rest assured, USC has thought about it plenty since. And now two years into the rethinking process, with the College Football Playoff very much within reach in mid-November, USC’s defense is still the biggest question mark facing Riley and his staff over the final stretch of this season which continues, fittingly, against Ferentz and his 21st-ranked Hawkeyes on Saturday.

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DODGERS

From Jack Harris: Last offseason, the Dodgers swung big in their offseason pursuit of impact bullpen additions.

After largely striking out, however, they might now have to decide if they’re comfortable doing it again.

The Dodgers don’t have glaring needs this winter, but the back end of the bullpen is one area they will look to upgrade. Although the team has ample relief depth, it has no clear-cut closer as it enters 2026.

The main reason why: Tanner Scott’s struggles after landing a lucrative four-year, $72-million pact last winter.

Scott’s signing represented the second-largest contract, by guaranteed money, the Dodgers had ever given to a relief pitcher (only behind the five-year, $80 million deal closer Kenley Jansen got in 2017). It was a high-risk, high-reward move that, at least in Year 1, quickly felt like a bust.

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DODGER STADIUM GONDOLA

From Bill Shaikin: Frank McCourt’s proposed gondola from Union Station to Dodger Stadium hit what appears to be its most significant roadblock yet on Wednesday, when the Los Angeles City Council voted to urge Metro to kill the project.

The resolution, approved by an 12-1 vote, is not in itself any kind of formal decision. It would not take effect unless Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass concurs, and Bass previously voted in favor of the project as a member of the Metro board.

But it makes clear that a City Council vote to approve the project, which is expected next year, could be an increasingly challenging hurdle for McCourt and his allies to overcome.

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L.A. OLYMPICS

From Thuc Nhi Nguyen: LA28 released the detailed daily competition schedule for the biggest Olympics in history on Wednesday, laying out every event for the 19 days of competition that will feature more than 11,000 athletes across 51 sports.

Along with being the largest in Games history, the 2028 Summer Olympics will be the first to include more female athletes than men. The schedule honors the historic moment for women in sports by showcasing the women’s 100-meter final at the Coliseum as the primetime, marquee event on the first official day of competition on July 15, 2028.

“The reason we’re throwing out the women’s 100 meters on the first day is because we want to come on these Games with a bang,” Shana Ferguson, LA28’s chief of sport and head of Games delivery, said on a conference call. “And likely that race will be among the most watched of all the races in the Games. We just want to start that Day One with a massive, massive showcase of the fastest females in the world.”

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LA28 schedule adjustments clear path for MLB to send players to Olympics

THIS DAY IN SPORTS HISTORY

1934 — Ralph Bowman of the St. Louis Eagles scores the first penalty-shot goal in NHL history. Bowman’s goal comes on the second penalty shot attempt in league history and is the only goal for the Eagles, who lose to the Montreal Maroons 2-1.

1949 — Chicago’s Bob Nussbaumer intercepts four passes, and the Cardinals set an NFL record for points in a regular-season game with a 65-20 victory over the New York Bulldogs.

1955 — Goalies Glenn Hall and Terry Sawchuk play to a 0-0 tie at Boston Garden. Hall, a rookie goalie with the Detroit Red Wings, and Terry Sawchuk of the Bruins, played to a 0-0 tie on Oct. 22 at the Olympia in Detroit. The shutout is the 61st for Sawchuk and the fourth for Hall.

1964 — St. Louis Hawks forward Bob Pettit becomes the first NBA player to score 20,000 points, with 29 in a 123-106 loss to the Cincinnati Royals.

1971 — Colorado’s Charlie Davis sets an NCAA record for a sophomore by rushing for 342 yards in a 40-6 victory over Oklahoma State.

1982 — Southern Miss beats Alabama 38-29 for the Tide’s first loss in Tuscaloosa since 1963, breaking a 57-game winning streak in Bryant-Denny Stadium.

1982 — Chicago’s Tony Esposito becomes the fourth NHL goaltender with 400 victories. Esposito makes 34 saves to help the Blackhawks beat the Detroit Red Wings 3-2 at Joe Louis Arena.

1984 — Bernie Nicholls of the Kings becomes the first NHL player to get a goal in all four periods of a game. Nicholls scores once in each period and again at 2:57 of overtime to give the Kings a 5-4 victory over the Quebec Nordiques.

1992 — Riddick Bowe wins the world heavyweight championship with a unanimous decision over Evander Holyfield.

1993 — No. 2 Notre Dame runs out to a 17-point lead and hangs on to beat top-ranked Florida State 31-24 when Charlie Ward’s desperation pass is knocked down on the goal line as time expires.

1999 — Lennox Lewis becomes the undisputed heavyweight champion with a unanimous decision over Evander Holyfield in Las Vegas.

2005 — In the longest play in NFL history, Chicago defensive back Nathan Vasher returns a missed field goal 108 yards for a touchdown on the final play of the first half in a 17-9 win against the 49ers.

2009 — McKendree basketball coach Harry Statham wins his 1,000th game with a 79-49 victory over East-West University. The 72-year-old Statham is 1,000-381 at the NAIA school.

2015 — Candance Brown makes a layup with 1.2 seconds left and Gardner-Webb rallies to shock No. 22 North Carolina 66-65 in the opener for both teams. Gardner-Webb had trailed by 15 points entering the fourth quarter.

2015 — Russia’s track federation is suspended by the sport’s international governing body and its athletes are barred from international competition for a widespread and state-sanctioned doping program. It’s the first time the IAAF bans a country for doping.

2018 — Rutgers coach C. Vivian Stringer becomes the fifth Division I women’s basketball coach to win 1,000 games when the Scarlet Knights beat Central Connecticut State 73-44. Stringer joins Pat Summitt, Geno Auriemma, Tara VanDerveer and Sylvia Hatchell.

Compiled by the Associated Press

Until next time…

That concludes today’s newsletter. If you have any feedback, ideas for improvement or things you’d like to see, email me at [email protected]. To get this newsletter in your inbox, click here.

L.A. is a harmony of contradictions: It’s a bankrupt skyscraper covered in graffiti, a Mercedes-Benz G-class SUV with an expired registration, the quiet confusion of wondering whether a stranger’s outfit means they’re unhoused or just new to Silver Lake. L.A.’s refusal to make sense is what makes it irresistible, and no one understood that better than writer, artist and provocateur Eve Babitz, who died in 2021.

“Los Angeles isn’t a city. It’s a gigantic, sprawling, ongoing studio,” she wrote in her 1974 book “Eve’s Hollywood.” “Everything is off the record.”

Born in Hollywood in 1943 to a classical violinist father and an artist mother — and with Igor Stravinsky as her godfather — Babitz was destined for “It”-girl-ism. While people tend to flee their hometowns to start over in a new city, usually a place like L.A. or New York, Babitz knew she was exactly where she was meant to be. She tried New York once as a typist for Timothy Leary, because it’s where “real writers” lived and worked; she gave it one year before moving back to L.A.

“She lived in Rome for six months, and that was the only other city she loved, almost as much as L.A.,” Mirandi Babitz, Eve’s younger sister, told me. Despite her growing popularity in the ’60s and ’70s, Eve Babitz didn’t hightail it from her Hollywood bungalow to live in Pacific Palisades or Topanga or Malibu — she lived and died in the heart of it all.

When I asked Mirandi what Babitz would think of today’s coffee-shop lines, overpriced wine bodegas and tinned fish culture, she said with a laugh, “She’d roll her eyes.”

Babitz may have been synonymous with places, including the Chateau Marmont and Musso & Frank Grill, or with people such as Jim Morrison and Ed Ruscha. But it wasn’t because she was a hanger-on, desperate to be cool or famous. She was the keeper of cool, and L.A. was the only muse she gave a damn about. “I did not become famous but I got near enough to smell the stench of success. It smelt like burnt cloth and rancid gardenias,” she wrote in 1977’s “Slow Days, Fast Company: the World, the Flesh, and L.A.”

After graduating from Hollywood High, Babitz skipped the traditional UCLA route and instead took classes at Los Angeles City College. “The school was located about 4 blocks from the hospital I was born in,” she wrote in “Eve’s Hollywood.” “It was on Vermont near Melrose, which is an indeterminate lower-middle-class sort of neighborhood with no delusions. Westwood, where UCLA is, is so insanely crappy you could throw up. It’s so WHITE and it’s so clean and it’s so impervious …”

At age 20, Babitz made a name for herself in the art world. She posed nude, playing chess with a fully clothed Marcel Duchamp for Esquire — a cheeky act of revenge against her lover, Walter Hopps, who wasn’t returning her calls. Shot by Julian Wasser at the Norton Simon Museum, the now-iconic photo did its job: Hopps rang her soon after. That photo is now described by the Smithsonian Archives of American Art as being “among the key documentary images of American modern art.”

Babitz also launched her independent career as an artist, designing album covers for Linda Ronstadt, the Byrds and Buffalo Springfield. Her foray into the music scene — where she partied with (and allegedly had affairs with) legends like Morrison of the Doors (“I met Jim and propositioned him in three minutes,” she wrote in “Eve’s Hollywood”) and some original Eagles members — blossomed into a social life so magnanimous that names like Andy Warhol, Steve Martin and Annie Leibovitz came up as casually as what Babitz had for lunch that day.

She went on to publish several books and worked as a journalist, writing about everything from Salvador Dalí to the best taquito stand in L.A. (Don’t worry — we listed it below.) Although Babitz’s love life kept the city gossiping, it was always apparent that her true love was the city itself. Her books, including “Sex and Rage” (1979) and “L.A. Woman” (1982), are all love letters to a city she knew inside out. In turn, her life in L.A. became the stuff of urban legend — and decades later, we’re still talking about it.

Babitz understood L.A. better than anyone, including its seductions and secrets. Her legacy is being revisited in the Huntington’s exhibition “Los Angeles, Revisited,” which explores how L.A. has been shaped — and reshaped — by its visionaries. Babitz and her mother, Mae, a self-taught artist known for her preservation work on the Watts Towers and her sketches of L.A.’s vanishing buildings, have drawings included in the show. The exhibition runs through Dec. 1.

Consider what’s below your invitation to see L.A. as Babitz did — expansively, honestly and maybe a little recklessly. Just a heads-up, though: You won’t find a single coffee shop with a DMV-like line on this list.

HIGH SCHOOL GIRLS VOLLEYBALL

CIF SOCAL REGIONALS
WEDNESDAY’S RESULTS
First Round

OPEN DIVISION
#1 Sierra Canyon d. #8 Mira Costa, 25-23, 23-25, 25-17, 25-19
#5 Marymount d. #4 San Diego Cathedral, 26-24, 25-20, 25-9
#3 Torrey Pines d. #6 San Juan Hills, 25-15, 25-22, 25-6
#2 Mater Dei d. #7 Redondo Union, 29-27, 25-19, 25-21

THURSDAY’S SCHEDULE
(Matches at 6 p.m. unless noted)
Quarterfinals

DIVISION I
#9 Long Beach Poly at #1 Harvard-Westlake
#12 Bishop Montgomery at #4 West Ranch
#6 Coronado at #3 Santa Margarita
#10 Bakersfield Centennial at #2 Temecula Valley, 5 p.m.

DIVISION II
#9 Arroyo Valley at # 1 Liberty, 5 p.m.
#13 Ventura at #12 La Canada
#6 Scripps Ranch at #3 Cypress
#15 Dana Hills at #7 Carlsbad

DIVISION III
#8 Royal at #1 Academy of Our Lady of Peace
#5 Patrick Henry at #4 Santa Fe Christian
#6 Ontario Christian at #3 Mission Vista
#7 Chadwick at #2 Frontier, 5:30 p.m.

DIVISION IV
#8 Grant at #1 Nipomo
#13 West Valley vs. #12 Capistrano Valley Christian at Capistrano Valley
#5 LA University at #3 Granada Hills
#10 Rock Academy at #2 Mammoth

DIVISION V
#8 Panorama at #1 East Valley
#5 Artesia at #4 Elsinore
#11 Nogales at #3 O’Farrell Charter
#10 South El Monte at #2 Morro Bay, 5 p.m.

Note: Semifinals (all divisions) Nov. 15 at higher seeds; Finals (all divisions) Nov. 18 at higher seeds.