Three of the leading candidates for Los Angeles mayor — incumbent Karen Bass, Councilmember Nithya Raman and reality television personality Spencer Pratt — will share the stage for a debate Wednesday evening.
The hour-long forum, broadcast on NBC4 and Telemundo 52, will be held at the Skirball Cultural Center in Brentwood starting at 5 p.m.
The debate will also air online at nbcla.com and telemundo52.com and be available via streaming channels on platforms like Amazon Fire TV, Roku and Samsung TV Plus.
Voters have already been mailed their ballots for the June 2 primary election, which can be returned by mail or at designated drop box locations. In-person voting is already open at the county’s Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk’s office in Norwalk, and will expand to county Vote Centers starting May 23.
Wednesday’s debate will be moderated by anchor Colleen Williams and political reporter Conan Nolan of KNBC-TV, and anchor Enrique Chiabra of Telemundo 52. The debate is held in partnership with Loyola Marymount University and the Skirball Cultural Center.
One of the things journalism teaches you over and over again is that nothing ruins a good story quite like the facts.
Consider, for example, this week’s renewal of the chattering classes’ infatuation with the “tea party” movement, timed to coincide with the deadline to file federal income tax returns. The group is conventionally portrayed as a burgeoning populist expression of discontent that sprouted spontaneously from the grass-roots and cuts in new ways across sectional, class and gender lines.
Reams of analysis have proceeded from those assumptions, but like a great deal that’s based on anecdotal reporting, it turns out to be wrong. To their great credit, the New York Times and CBS undertook extensive, and expensive, polling that provides the first reliable look at the tea party supporters. Little that has been generally assumed survived the scrutiny.
As it turns out, fewer than 1 in 5 Americans “supports” the tea party movement in any respect, and just 4% of all adult Americans have contributed to it or attended one of its events or both. (On any given day, you probably could drum up twice as many people who think the Pentagon is hiding dead aliens in Area 51.)
Of the 18% of all adults who expressed support for the tea party, the overwhelming majority were white (89%), male (59%) Republicans over age 45 (75%) and significantly more affluent and better educated than the majority of Americans. One in five has an annual income greater than $100,000, and 37% have advanced degrees. More than 9 out of 10 think President Obama is pushing the country into “socialism.”
The survey also found that more than half of the tea party supporters say “the policies of the administration favor the poor, and 25% think that the administration favors blacks over whites — compared with 11% of the general public.”
If all this is beginning to have a familiar ring, it’s because you’ve met these guys before: They’re the “angry white males” we’ve been reading about since political strategist-turned-analyst Kevin Phillips first identified them as an electoral presence during Richard Nixon’s successful presidential campaign in 1968.
They share many qualities with other Americans. For example, while 96% of tea party supporters say they disapprove of the current Congress, 40% think their own representative does a good job, a sentiment shared by 46% of all adults, 73% of whom disapprove of the performance of Congress as a whole.
They aren’t, however, implacable foes of “big government” or even of taxes. More than half (52%) told the pollsters they think their own “income taxes this year are fair,” just 10% less than all American adults. Moreover, a majority told follow-up interviewers that, though they wanted “smaller government,” they didn’t want cuts in our largest social programs, Social Security and Medicare.
So much for the surge of a new anti-government populism.
What the movement really amounts to is old wine in new skins, a re-branding of the old-fashioned angry white male in a camera-ready package tailored to the demands of the 24-hour cable news cycle.
Let’s return to this week, for example: There’s nothing harder for TV to cover than a tax-filing deadline — no conflict, no action pictures. By staging rallies on April 15, and particularly in Washington, the tea party’s strategists made themselves and their speakers the center of cable news coverage. This was true despite the fact that, as the poll demonstrates, a majority of the movement’s supporters think their taxes are fair.
As regular readers of this column will recall, the public packaging of the tea party movement — and particularly events that win it TV airtime, like cross-country bus tours, rallies and ads — is mainly the product of California Republican political consultants, foremost among them the Sacramento-based firm of Russo Marsh and Rogers. That company has not only promoted the movement but also used it to raise money for a political action committee, Our Country Deserves Better, founded to oppose Obama during the general election. This week, Politico reported that, according to federal filings, the Our Country PAC has raised $2.7 million since launching the Tea Party Express bus tours.
“That fundraising success,” Politico wrote, “has also meant a brisk business for Russo Marsh.” The website found that Russo Marsh and a sister firm received $1.9 million of the $4.1 million in payments made by the PAC; some of those funds would have gone for TV airtime and to vendors.
It’s good to see that all the creeping socialism in the nation hasn’t silenced traditional voices, like those of the angry white male, nor wrung the profit motive from our politics.
Los Angeles didn’t get many April showers, but May flowers are blooming just the same, leaving a lingering scent of jasmine as the star-shaped flower blossoms across the city. Jacaranda trees will soon follow suit, turning the skyline of entire neighborhoods lavender as spring stretches into summer.
Marine layer aside, this season invites us to get outside and make the most of living in L.A. The Metro will soon open the expansion of its D Line, making it convenient to peruse Museum Row, the Grove and bars and restaurants along Fairfax and in Beverly Hills without a car. Local farmers markets are more abundant than ever, with rainbow assortments of stone fruits and tomatoes.
And there are plenty of patios and rooftops for enjoying sunny evenings and taking in city views. Keep reading if you need dining inspiration this month, like exploring a new hand roll counter in downtown L.A., a buzzy Larchmont diner that lives up to the hype and a pan-African destination for customizable “slop bowls” in Gardena.
When Juan Antonio moved to Los Angeles from his hometown of Puebla, the capital city of the Mexican state by the same name, he got straight to work doing what he knew best: baking cemita bread.
Antonio started baking at a panadería in Lincoln Heights in about 1996, churning out dozens of fresh cemitas daily and selling them door to door. At the time, there were few places selling the bread, and the community recognized him as “el cemitero.”
The cemita sandwich is a staple in Puebla, a gastronomically rich region in East-Central Mexico with Indigenous, Spanish and Middle Eastern roots. Alongside cemitas, Puebla is known for traditional dishes such as mole poblano (the sauce complex with chocolate and chiles), chiles en nogada (stuffed Poblano chiles drenched in a walnut cream sauce) and tacos arabe (tacos with spit-roasted pork, wrapped in pita bread).
Cemita bread, speckled with sesame seeds and crisp on the outside with a soft, fluffy interior, is believed to have originated in 16th century Puebla, brought to Mexico by Spanish conquistadors and later developed with French baking techniques.
Due to its long preservation period, the bread was commonly found on ships with long voyages, and some believe it was offered as a tribute to the Spanish crown.
The sandwich started with simple fillings like beans and cheese and gradually became more layered over time. Now, cemita sandwiches typically consist of the titular, toasted sesame seed bread; a heap of stringy, salty Oaxacan cheese; avocado; jalapeño or chipotle peppers; pápalo, an herb with a cilantro-minty taste; and some choice of meat, with milanesa — a breaded chicken or steak cutlet — being the most popular options.
Cemitas, often wrapped in crinkly yellow paper and eaten on the go, have grown a steady presence in L.A. since Antonio first started selling them in East L.A. almost 30 years ago. Today, he continues to bake cemitas at El Cemitero Poblano, his family restaurant in Boyle Heights, and is joined by food trucks, street vendors and other sit-down restaurants offering traditional and creative takes on the iconic Poblano dish that’s usually priced between $10 and $20.
In Puebla, thousands gather for the annual Festival de la Cemita Poblana, a celebration that takes place around Cinco de Mayo and features dozens of cemita vendors.
Though commonly misunderstood as Mexico’s Independence Day, Cinco de Mayo is a holiday with special significance to Puebla, as it recognizes the Mexican army’s victory over France at the historic Battle of Puebla in 1862. In L.A., the holiday is often celebrated with mariachi bands, free-flowing margaritas and tacos, but if you’re looking for ways to tie in Poblano traditions, consider stopping by one of L.A.’s top spots for cemitas, from classic East L.A. stands to places in La Puente, Mid-City and Van Nuys.
Re “Obama prevails on arms treaty,” Dec. 22, and “Treaty vote is key for Obama,” Dec. 21
The Times’ Dec. 21 article quoted three people: an unnamed Senate Republican aide, the Nixon Center’s executive director and the chief obstructionist, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. None of them had anything positive to say. Might some Democrats have had something newsworthy to contribute?
Fortunately, reason prevailed and the treaty pulled enough votes later in the day to guarantee its passage. This was arguably the most important Senate vote, so far, in the 21st century.
The entire community of nations was watching to see if the U.S. would take this critical step toward world peace. And McConnell vowed to vote against it, and against the Joint Chiefs of Staff, citing the possibility of President Obama holding a news conference?
God help us.
John Stickler
Murrieta
The Times treats the vote on the New START treaty as one that is important primarily for the political agendas of President Obama and the Senate Republican leadership.
Is it not possible that this vote is more important for the American people? Must The Times add to the corrosive partisanship in Washington by treating such a serious subject as a political test? Is that really all that is at stake here?
Michael Byrne
Oxnard
::
After reading that 11 GOP senators joined Democrats in cutting off debate on the START treaty with Russia, my Republican despise-o-meter went down considerably.
It’s great to know that some of them are putting their country first. Maybe we can all dare to hope.
Ramona Salinas Saenz
Alhambra
—
Pro and con on the Expo Line
Re “The Expo Line’s noisemakers,” Opinion, Dec. 21
Do Karen Leonard and Sarah Hays really think homeowners, with orange and black signs on their property protesting the Expo Line light rail project, are in the minority? If these Light Rail for Cheviot co-chairs truly listen to their neighbors, they might learn why so many protest signs adorn our front lawns.
Unlike the Gold Line, which they point out is within a mile of 38 schools, the Expo Line would be only 50 feet from the Overland Avenue Elementary School. Our residents believe mass transit should be built where density is highest; the Expo right of way doesn’t conform to that standard. The light rail’s street crossings should be underground.
If Los Angeles wants to build light rail, it must do so correctly. Leonard and Hays can walk the neighborhood exhaustively, but it doesn’t change the facts about the Expo Line’s negative effects.
Lucie Bava
Cheviot Hills
The writer is secretary of the Cheviot Hills Traffic Safety Assn.
::
As a neighbor of the future Expo Line, I totally agree with the need for the line and applaud the authors’ efforts to really talk to the community.
The implication that L.A. can’t adjust to alternatives to the car, or that residents can’t do what millions around the country can, is a slight to our population. Light rail alone certainly won’t solve traffic problems, but it will give us an alternative and move us along the path to cleaner air and safer travel.
The signs made by the group Neighbors for Smart Rail that say “Think traffic can’t get any worse?” amuse me. Unfortunately, it will if we don’t build this line.
Annette Mercer
Los Angeles
::
The “quiet majority” noted in this piece is a chilling characterization.
In 1969, as “vocal zealots” protested the Vietnam war, Richard Nixon went on TV to appeal for the support of the “silent majority.” This is deja vu on a local level.
I guess all those protesters back then should have just shut up.
Darryl Rehr
Los Angeles
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Mortgage tax deduction
Re “Mortgage deduction on the line,” Dec. 20
How appropriate that in this season of watching “It’s a Wonderful Life,” the idea of eliminating the mortgage interest deduction should come up. As a boon to the middle class and home ownership, this “third rail” can finally come up for consideration.
We have had a long period of easing the burdens on our overtaxed corporate “citizens,” the wealthy, the unfortunate inheritors of large estates and hedge fund managers. This policy move would continue this new American tradition of squeezing the middle class.
We are now ready for the sequel to the Jimmy Stewart movie: “It Is a Wonderful Life, Mr. Potter.”
Leif Regvall
Los Angeles
::
Please don’t scare your readers with reports that the sacred mortgage deduction might be taken away.
As long as the politically conservative National Assn. of Realtors and the National Assn. of Home Builders maintain their powerful lobbyists in Washington, the mortgage deduction will never go away, national deficit or no deficit, Republican majority or no Republican majority.
Martin A. Brower
Corona del Mar
::
For the last five years I have used my mortgage tax deduction to take vacations I would have been unable to afford otherwise. I also spend some of the money on other activities, food, drink and gas; this puts all of the money back into the economy.
I believe that most people, like myself, spend this money as soon as they get it.
Apparently, politicians want the people to pad their wallets further so they can continue their reckless spending.
Robert LePage
Long Beach
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Deporting a young scholar
Re “Scrambling to avert his deportation,” Dec. 19
Nice work, Immigration and Customs Enforcement. You nabbed your man. Mark Farrales is finally off the streets. The last thing this country needs is another illegal immigrant brought here as a 10-year-old by parents escaping tyranny.
Clearly, Farrales is one dangerous guy. Who else would have the nerve to become valedictorian of his high school, graduate magna cum laude from Harvard and continue on to get his master’s degree at UC San Diego?
I guess we should consider ourselves fortunate that Farrales was locked up before he could finish his doctorate.
Marley Sims
Valley Village
::
How sad that young people who were brought to this country by parents who came here illegally now face deportation to countries they barely know.
As for the senators who voted to end their dream, I am appalled by their complaint that being forced to stay in Washington to do the nation’s business might keep them from celebrating Christmas with their families, while at the same time punishing children for the sins of their fathers.
How Christian is that?
Joan Walston
Santa Monica
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Policing Bell
Re “Deep cuts and unrest in store for Bell,” Dec. 20
The city of Bell may need to disband its Police Department and contract with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. But the head of the city’s police union says that a better move would be to put more police officers on the streets to fight crime.
The city is being investigated by the U.S. Justice Department for aggressively towing vehicles and charging residents exorbitant fees to get them back. If in fact the Bell police are implicated in this illegal practice, it follows that some reduction of crime would be accomplished if this police force were replaced.
Q. Los Angeles has been selected as the site for how many Democratic National Conventions?
A. Three. Sorry, it’s a trick question. Besides the two real conventions now and in 1960, a reenactment of the 1924 convention was shot in the Shrine Auditorium for the movie “Sunrise at Campobello,” starring Ralph Bellamy as Franklin D. Roosevelt. The filming took place in 1960 just before the real convention convened.
If you were going to pick a single issue whose treatment exemplifies the forces at work in this midterm election, the best choice would be one over which there’s been relatively little contention — climate change.
That’s not because there is any broad agreement among the candidates on the severity of global warming or human activity’s contribution to it. To the contrary, the question seldom has been discussed in this campaign because views on it have become utterly politicized. Skepticism about human technology’s role in accelerating climate change, and doubt concerning the phenomenon’s very existence, have become, at least on the Republican side, a matter of lock-step partisan orthodoxy.
For example, 19 of the 20 GOP candidates who are in closely contested races and have expressed a position on the issue say they have doubts about the scientific evidence for global warming, despite the overwhelming consensus among scientists. That includes Arizona’s John McCain, who formerly supported legislation to reduce carbon emissions. Mark Kirk of Illinois, who voted for cap-and-trade as a congressman, is the lone Republican holdout. Some of the other senatorial candidates express ambivalence about the science but firmly reject any legislative or regulatory remedy; more agree with Louisiana’s David Vitter, who calls the evidence for climate change “pseudo-science garbage.”
Recent polls show just how deeply partisan the split over global warming has become, and how closely it conforms to the deep fissures that have reshaped this year’s electoral landscape. A survey by the nonpartisan Pew Research Center, for instance, found that over the last four years, the percentage of Americans who believe there’s solid scientific evidence for climate change has declined from 79% to 59%. In 2006, half of us believed that global warming was caused by human activities; today, only 34% do. An Opinion Research Corp. survey found that while 82% of Democrats feel the United States should take a leading role in addressing global warming, only 39% of Republicans now do.
In part, public opinion researchers agree, the rise of the “tea party” movement accounts for both the growing skepticism and the demand, which we now can recognize as characteristic, for ideological conformity. In its survey, for example, Pew found that 70% of self-described tea party sympathizers don’t believe there’s convincing evidence that the Earth is warming. A New York Times/CBS poll found that only 14% of tea party supporters say that “global warming is an environmental problem that is having an effect now.” Opinion Research reported that only 27% of tea party adherents support the idea of America taking a leading role on the problem.
The New York Times also has documented among some tea party adherents a strong streak of religious objection to the reality of climate change. As Norman Dennison, one of the group’s Indiana founders, told the paper, global warming “is a flat-out lie…. I read my Bible. He made this Earth for us to utilize.” Another Indiana tea party member asserted that “being a strong Christian, I cannot help but believe the Lord placed a lot of minerals in our country, and it’s not there to destroy us.”
The fundamentalist delusion, whether about the Constitution or theology, and demands for a purified orthodoxy are defining characteristics of this campaign. When it comes to the politicization of a purely scientific question — climate change — so too is the role of money quietly or covertly dispensed by big business and the self-interested rich. Some of the tea party’s biggest funders, including Americans for Prosperity and FreedomWorks, are creatures of the oil and coal companies. They’ve also supported virtually the entire network of fringe scientists, think tanks and publishers who over the past few years have raised a host of spurious questions and allegations concerning the consensus on climate change among reputable scientists.
They’re the same individuals and companies putting up big money to support Proposition 23, which would gut California’s attempts to reduce carbon emissions. Koch Industries and Murray Energy Corp. already are major givers to the U.S. Senate’s biggest deniers, including James M. Inhofe (R-Okla.), who has called global warming “the biggest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people.”
Think back to the billions Big Tobacco spent on the long guerrilla war to stave off regulation of its death-dealing products and you’ve pretty much got the picture here, though this time around, the corporate manipulators are hoping that they’ve co-opted the climate skeptics in order to fill the oil and coal companies’ coffers for years to come.
IT WAS HARDLY A SURPRISE that President Bush made a brief stop in Afghanistan on Wednesday, and not just because word of the “unexpected” trip leaked to the media beforehand. With Iraq ever more messy and his administration on the defensive on multiple fronts, Bush undoubtedly wanted to evoke that sweet moment of victory in November 2001 when U.S. forces ended the Taliban’s rule.
Yet Afghanistan is not such a simple story. Democratic elections brought a reasonable government into office, but it remains weak and ineffective outside of Kabul. Over the last year, the Taliban has made a strong revival, drug trafficking is up and the number of suicide bombings has steadily climbed. Bush’s advisors said his visit was so brief because it was hard to guarantee security.
Back in Washington, the director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, Michael Maples, testified before Congress on Tuesday that attacks by Taliban and other insurgents increased by 20% last year, and they are expected to intensify this spring. Aid workers report that villagers across the south of Afghanistan tell them not to visit anymore because Taliban forces punish anyone who accepts Western help.
Lest anyone forget, the Taliban was target No. 2 in the U.S. war against terrorists provoked by the 9/11 attacks. Target No. 1 was Osama bin Laden — Bush wanted him “dead or alive” — and he is still at large. Bush promised in Afghanistan that the leader of Al Qaeda would eventually be brought to justice. At this point, we are not holding our collective breath. Bin Laden is believed to be hiding in the mountainous region straddling Afghanistan’s border with Pakistan, spooning out taped messages to the West, but there has been little sign of progress in the hunt for him.
Like too many administration projects, the situation in Afghanistan appears to be the victim of a lack of follow-through. After the invasion of 2001, Bush promised to rebuild Afghanistan, ravaged by years of civil war and horrific destruction at the hands of the Taliban. There are 18,000 soldiers in the country, and in 2004 the United States and other donors pledged or spent $3.6 billion on humanitarian aid and reconstruction.
Yet once the war in Iraq was launched, Washington’s attention went there, as did most of its troops. The political will to bring security and basic services to Afghanistan clearly fizzled. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld likes to argue that the United States is capable of fighting two wars at once, but the evidence from Afghanistan and Iraq suggests that it may not be capable of fighting two wars well.
The United States is not the first world power to stumble in Afghanistan. The British and the Russians each failed to subdue the warlords who roamed the nation’s treacherous terrain. Yet the U.S. efforts that began there with great promise in 2001 remain, as yet, unfulfilled.
The votes are in, and it’s bad news for John McCain. Barack Obama has a big lead in the sale of campaign buttons and other election paraphernalia, outselling McCain 3 to 1 on one memorabilia website.
An Obama victory could make some of those pieces more valuable, experts say, given the historic nature of his candidacy. A button from the launch of Obama’s presidential campaign sold for $150 in August at the American Political Items Collectors National Convention.
If you think there’s no redeeming value to the interminable exercise known as the American presidential campaign, you are not a collector. The stock market may have tanked, but the longest presidential season in U.S. history has stimulated a different kind of investment opportunity.
“This year more than any other, people are collecting political memorabilia,” says Adam Gottlieb, a spokesman for the California Energy Commission and a presidential-item junkie whose extensive Teddy Roosevelt collection is on exhibit through the end of the year at the California Historical Society in San Francisco. “People are yearning for nostalgia, something meaningful in their lives.”
On Monday, the PBS series “Antiques Roadshow” gets into the act with “Politically Collect,” a program that pulls back the appraisal curtain on presidential artifacts worth considerably more than the paper or tin on which they’re printed — up to $75,000, for instance, for a photograph of Lyndon B. Johnson taking the oath of office after President Kennedy was shot in 1963.
“Political items have really gone up in price,” says Jeffery Daar, an attorney and Democratic Party activist whose Northridge home overflows with buttons and other memorabilia from the last 40 years of electioneering.
Presidential paraphernalia has long been the domain of hard-core political fans such as Daar, who live to unearth an obscure invitation or rare tchotchke. But in the last decade, the field has also become a place to make a tidy profit. A 1920 button of Democratic presidential candidate James Cox and his running mate, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, can sell for as much as $30,000. Last month, a signed photo of John F. Kennedy was going for $4,200 on Politics-Now.com. EBay and political memorabilia auction sites have made it possible for anyone to click their way into the game.
The collecting impulse is driven by something the afflicted say you can’t get from stamps or Cabbage Patch stockpiles.
“It’s not just a button, but an item in a political campaign. It’s a piece of living history,” says Daar, former head of the Democratic Party in the San Fernando Valley and a longtime delegate to his party’s conventions, where he scoops up all the mementos he can.
“Every collector of political memorabilia is also a frustrated historian,” says Steve Ferber, who sells mementos of presidents and hopefuls with his wife, Lori, through LoriFerber.com.
Tom Morton, a Los Angeles accountant specializing in pre-1930s items, recently landed clay smoking pipes puffed by Millard Fillmore and Franklin Pierce.
“It’s one thing to read about it in a history book,” he says. “It’s quite another to hold it in your hands.”
But not all candidates inspire collectors to reach out and acquire. Tom French, a leading dealer and owner of Politicalheritage.com in Santa Cruz, says it’s hard to give away a Nixon button. It’s also tough unloading Michael Dukakis, Bob Dole and George W. Bush fare.
Not surprisingly, the most in-demand figures tend to be the most charismatic and popular presidents — Abraham Lincoln, FDR and Theodore Roosevelt, JFK, Ronald Reagan. Harry Truman also vaults into the ranks of the most valuable because scant artifacts were produced for the candidate who was a long shot to win in 1948.
Scarcity, popularity and age are major factors in the pricing of political memorabilia. An abundance of items were produced for 1940 Republican candidate Wendell Wilkie, including some fabulous Wilkie nylons ($40) and buttons that said, “No Man Is Good Three Times,” all to no avail against the popular FDR. So many Wilkie items are in circulation, they’re cheap — not like the Cox-FDR button, valued at $30,000 because only a few dozen are known to exist. Some scarce Truman items can run about $10,000.
For collectors, a crucial consideration is whether the material was produced by the campaign. Daar says 95% of the buttons and T-shirts available for sale in the current cycle were made by outside vendors and won’t be worth much. Look for official items created by the Obama and McCain campaigns and materials with specific dates and events attached to them, such as an Obama button from the rural caucus, something Daar likes for future value.
Collectors recommend buying things you like — favorite candidates or graphics that catch your eye. And if you want to buy for investment, do the research to make sure the item is authentic. You can get help by joining American Political Items Collectors ($28 a year, www.apic.us), a national organization founded in 1945 that sponsors dozens of button meets every year and authenticates artifacts.
Avid collectors, however, are drawn to the outsized characters who seek the highest office in the land and the creative wiles used to get them there.
“There’s got to be something behind the item — the personality, the election, the historical context, or you might as well be collecting nails,” says Neal Machander, an Orange County collector and past president of American Political Items Collectors.
The exploits of rough-riding, big-game-hunting Teddy Roosevelt have captivated Gottlieb since he was in grade school. “It’s like he lived six lives,” Gottlieb says.
His collection contains mementos of Roosevelt’s whistle stop in Los Angeles on his trip through California in 1903. When it comes to straight talk, it’s hard to top this line from a Roosevelt button in 1912: “If You’re Against Me, You’re a Crook.”
The sedate catch phrases of modern elections are as exciting as a phone book next to the raucous sloganeering of the early 20th century. Take, for instance, the 1928 rallying cry on an anti-prohibition button: “Vote for Al Smith and Make All Your Wet Dreams Come True.” Last year, it sold at auction for $9,560.
“Collectors really eat up the hoopla,” says French, who adds that he’d kill on “Jeopardy” in the VP category. “It’s an important representation of what democracy and politics are all about. We’re just in awe of the office.”
These contributions were reported by major candidates on the Oct. 7 ballot who have received at least $100,000 for their gubernatorial campaigns. Totals are for all contributions through Aug. 23 plus contributions of $1,000 or more through Thursday. Donations of $1,000 or more must be reported within 24 hours of receipt.
* The Operating Engineers Union Local 12 in Pasadena gave the maximum $21,200*. Robins, Kaplan, Miller & Ciresi, a major Minneapolis law firm with a large Century City office, donated $15,000. The Home Ownership Advancement Foundation, an arm of the California Building Industry Assn., provided $10,000. The San Francisco personal injury law firm of Harowitz & Tigerman gave $5,000. Marilyn Y. Isenberg of Sacramento and Vicki L. Nunez of South San Francisco each gave $5,000.
*–* Contributions Candidate or committee Total reported Reported in 24 hours ending Thursday Cruz Bustamante $3,571,934 $96,500 709 contributions 28 contributions
*–*
Bustamante controls three other committees:
Californians for Stability is an anti-recall fund that has raised $421,186. Another fund, the Cruz Bustamante Committee Against Prop. 54, raised $49,700 from the California State Employees’ Assn. Bustamante’s anti-Prop. 54 committee has collected more than $4.6 million, most of it transferred from a third committee, the Lt. Gov. Bustamante 2002 Committee. That is an old reelection campaign fund, which reported raising more than $911,800, excluding the transfers.
* Edward F. Limato, a Los Angeles talent agent, and Russell Lungerich, an attorney in Rancho Palos Verdes, gave $1,000 apiece.
*–* Tom McClintock $1,006,402 $20,990 1,268 contributions 6 contributions
*–*
* Martha Bobbitt, president of JRBT Inc. of Rancho Santa Fe, gave $14,990. John Zsarnay of Sunnyvale contributed $3,000.
*–* Arnold $12,803,611 $499,500 Schwarzenegger 1,505 contributions 146 contributions
*–*
* The Cimarron Group, an advertising, marketing and design company in Hollywood, gave $21,200. So did venture capitalist Robert C. Kagle of Woodside, Palo Alto investor William L. Edwards and George Garrick of Atherton, CEO of Activcard Corp. Goldman Sachs investment banker Bradford C. Koenig, also of Atherton, gave $20,000. UC Regent Ward Connerly, author of Proposition 54, the Oct. 7 ballot measure that would outlaw the collection by government of certain data on race and ethnicity, gave $1,000.
Schwarzenegger also controls Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Total Recall Committee. The pro-recall group has raised more than $1.55 million.
* R. Hall Investment Properties of Tustin gave $57,600. The American Sterling Corp. in Irvine provided $50,000. The financial services firm has contributed $150,000 to the Total Recall committee. The New Majority PAC composed of moderate Orange County Republican businessmen contributed $25,000, bringing their total to $103,800.
Davis Fights the Recall
*–* Californians Against $9,114,078 $910,129 the Costly Recall 581 contributions 47 contributions of the Governor
*–*
Gov. Gray Davis controls this anti-recall committee.
* The Kings Arco Arena partnership in Sacramento provided $100,000. Casden Properties, a Beverly Hills-based real estate investment company, gave $50,000, bringing its total support to $150,000.
Davis also continues to raise money through his former reelection committee, the Gov. Gray Davis Committee, which has transferred more than $1.7 million to Californians Against the Costly Recall.
A third committee, Taxpayers Against the Governor’s Recall, has reported more than $2.7 million in contributions.
*Contributions to candidates from each outside source are limited to $21,200. There is no cap on the amount candidates can give their own campaigns, or on donations to noncandidacy committees.
Reported by Times staff writer Jeffrey L. Rabin and Times researcher Maloy Moore.
Source: Campaign reports filed with the California secretary of state.
Kosha is a boutique spa in Sherman Oaks offering skincare and massages. One of its signature offerings is the “buccal facial,” which is actually more of a face and jaw area massage as opposed to a facial involving exfoliating, steaming and pore extraction.
The 55-minute treatment promises to improve circulation and relax muscles, helping to plump the skin while lifting and firming, “giving it a more contoured appearance,”Kosha owner Anastasia Talan told me.
It starts with a short grounding meditation before a cleansing of the skin and a light scalp massage. It then transitions into a wonderfully relaxing neck, shoulder and face massage, with an emphasis on the face. (The actual “buccal massage” part comes later.) Talan said the overall treatment blends multiple types of massage, including European “contouring and lifting massage,” lymphatic drainage, acupressure and myofascial release as well as light stretching.
As she worked on my face, Talan applied pressure while stroking under my cheek bones, along my sinuses and up, down and around my cheeks and jaw area.
The “buccal massage” portion was about15 minutes. It’s also called “intraoral massage” because it takes place inside of the mouth. Talan donned blue plastic gloves and then pulled my lips apart, massaging the inside of my cheeks, lips and around my jawbone andtemporomandibular joint. Relieving tension there is helpful in aiding TMJ and other temporomandibular joint disorders. Another benefit, says Talan: clenching the jaw, a stress reaction, can enlarge the masseter muscles on the jaw, leading to the lower part of the face looking heavy. Relaxing those muscles could preserve slimness of the face.
But go for the sheer relaxation of it.Once the (admittedly awkward) intraoral massage part was over, Talan spent a few more minutes massaging the outside of my face and neck. The treatment was so dreamy, I nearly drooled while fighting off sleep.
In 2023, 30,000 service workers joined in sympathy as about 30,000 teachers walked off the job in Los Angeles to begin an anticipated three-day strike in demand of higher wages. On Monday, the school district prevented another strike by making deals with three unions in the school district. File Photo by Jim Ruymen/UPI | License Photo
April 14 (UPI) — Los Angeles schools will not close for a strike after the district reached a deal with the third and final union Monday evening.
Hours before the 2 a.m. PDT strike deadline, the district announced it had struck a deal with the Service Employees International Union Local 99, which represents 30,000 custodians, food workers, special education assistants and bus drivers.
LAUSD announced on its website that schools would be open Tuesday.
“We are proud to have reached resolution with all of our labor partners, UTLA, SEIU, and AALA Teamsters Local 2010, ensuring stability for our schools and continuity for the students and families we serve,” Acting Superintendent Andrés E. Chait said.
The district had already reached tentative contract agreements with the unions that represent teachers and administrators over the weekend. Those unions were prepared to strike with the SEIU members if an agreement wasn’t made.
“We are pleased to announce that we have reached an agreement in principle with SEIU Local 99 that will allow schools to be open today,” the district said in a statement. “LAUSD and SEIU teams will continue to work together to finalize the details of a tentative agreement.”
According to SEIU Local 99, the deal includes a 24% wage increase; more work hours ensuring health insurance benefits; rescinding layoffs for IT professionals; expansion of health care benefits for teacher assistants, after-school workers and others; and no subcontracting to outside vendors.
The SEIU must still vote to ratify the deal.
“This agreement was won through the bold action and courage of thousands of workers who were willing to sacrifice to improve conditions in their schools and their lives,” SEIU Local 99 Executive Director Max Arias said. “A strike was always the last resort, and we are proud that we could work with the school district and [Los Angeles] Mayor Karen Bass to reach an agreement that recognizes the contributions of front-line workers in our schools.”
Bass said on Instagram that she worked with both sides to help them find a deal “because a strike would disrupt the lives of hundreds of thousands of kids and their parents, who need childcare and need to go to work.”
Associated Administrators Los Angeles, which represents about 3,000 administrators, reached an agreement with the district Sunday night. United Teachers Los Angeles, the union representing its roughly 35,000 educators, reached an agreement earlier in the day.
The three unions represent about 70,000 LAUSD employees, who serve about 400,000 students.
Left to right, Queen Maxima of the Netherlands, King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands, President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump pose during an arrival ceremony outside the White House on Monday. Photo by Salwan Georges/UPI | License Photo
I decided that, just this once, I was rooting for evil to win — mainly because I liked their energy more.
The wereboar growled next to Black Pudding, a hulking vicious monster, both focused on ripping Puck and Cordelia to shreds. Oberon, an Archfey god, stood alongside them, concerned. But only one thing would decide the fate of everyone on stage: the D20, a 20-sided die.
For 45 minutes on Saturday morning, a rambunctious audience of elves, fairies, gnomes, wizards and more was transported to another land, far away from any concern for modern life, as they watched the “Dungeons & Shakespeare” live show at the Renaissance Pleasure Faire at the Santa Fe Dam Recreational Area in Irwindale.
Lynx the Sword Swallower prepares the audience for his show.
Before Saturday, I’d never attended a renaissance fair, a reenactment of the English Renaissance in the form of an immersive festival (i.e. why the Irwindale fair is based in the 16th century village of Port Deptford). Although I was not entirely new to fanciful make-’em-ups. My family had been members of the Society for Creative Anachronism, a medieval-era living history organization. We frequently dressed up to visit our local kingdom. Once, a wizard gave me a cape. Another time, I won a plague-themed frog toss.
I’d long forgotten what a blissful escape those weekends had been for a young queer kid living in rural America — until Saturday, when I looked around the fair and realized it was a diverse crowd in every sense of the word.
At the “Dungeons & Shakespeare” show, host Willy Nilly encouraged us to lean into the welcoming atmosphere we found among our fellow outcasts.
“Let’s stop worrying about whether we seem weird and make our stories amazing,” the actor, who grew up in conservative Midland, Texas, told the crowd.
And with that same energy, my wife and I trodded further into the fair in hot pursuit of merriment and wonder.
I should note: The Irwindale fair is packed full of opportunities to spend a day. It can, at times, feel overwhelming (and dusty). Here’s what we learned that will set you up for success, should you fancy a trip back in time.
Guests make their way out of the Renaissance Pleasure Faire at sunset.
1. Thou must plan thy morrow
Translation: You must plan your day.
The best way to have the perfect day?
It depends!
Before your visit, I would recommend loosely plotting out your day using the fair’s map. First, you’ll want to discern which performances you’d like to see. Each weekend’s entertainment schedule is released the prior Wednesday, although it can change due to “weather, illness or Her Majesty’s whim,” as the fair website notes.
There are 12 stages and performance areas, each with their own programming. And it’s a real range.
For example, you’ll find MooNie the Magnif’Cent, a fair staple who mixes clowning, stunts and comedy, all without speaking. Supernova the Strongwoman will dazzle the crowd with risky tricks and demolition. And Dora Viellette teaches her audience about an array of music, from medieval to folk favorites, as she plays the hurdy-gurdy (which is very fun to say aloud).
I’d recommend attending the performance you want to see the most early in the day, as the fair seems to get more crowded as the day progresses.
Similarly, if you’d like to focus the day on playing games and experiencing human-powered carnival rides, I’d recommend doing that first. We originally wanted to practice our archery skills, but because we’d waited until after noon, the line was long every time we checked. That said, I did quickly get to throw 10 javelin for $10 later in the day, and I noticed the lines for the “big swing” — aptly named — and the dragon swing were both short. Additionally, it looked like a fairly quick wait to learn from the teachers at St. Jude’s School of Fencing and the Sword Master’s Challenge, where a worker told my wife, “You look like you’d like to hit someone!” (Trust, it wasn’t me, despite my perpetually high anxiety.)
There are also additional paid activities, like having tea with the queen or imbibing via a pub crawl. And then there are the jousting competitions (more on those below).
Her majesty the queen is seen with her court.
2. The Queen doth nay require fanciful garb
Translation: Costumes are not required but very fun.
About five minutes into the fair, I realized I could entertain myself for probably the entire day by simply people watching. Entertainers and guests’ costumes alike were incredible.
Woodland fairies carrying giant daffodils or wearing hats covered in mushrooms. Knights in real armor. Every version of Merlin the wizard, spanning an expansive gender spectrum. Gnomes in tall red hats. And at least one pickle pope blessing people with herbs. You might say they were kind of a big dill. (Hold your applause.)
There are multiple themed weekends, too, including the first weekend when guests were encouraged to strut out in their best pirate garb.
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1. Stephanie Divinski looks down at her shoulder puppet.2.Trilainna Stanton, also known as Prince Rain, of San Diego.3.Partners Reese Pei, left, and Mariner Song are pictured.4.Meisha Mock, left, and Aimey Beer both wear wolf masks created by Meisha.
3. Parley with the guildfolk
Translation: Talk to the townspeople.
Around the fair, you have the opportunity to interact with several guilds and performance tropes. “The most fun you’ll get at the fair is from talking to people,” my friend Matthew, who has several years of renaissance fair experience, told me. “As someone who volunteers with a guild, we aren’t just there to sit around and look pretty. Come talk to us.”
I loved watching the fae creatures of the Fantastikals frolic around, getting into mischief. I kept an eye out for Danse Macabre, whose members dance away the threat of the plague to the fair. But I was most starstruck when I met her majesty Queen Elizabeth I. (Note: The actors do not break character, even to tell a journalist their given name outside of their fair life.)
As I waited in line, I observed the diligently trained actors of the Queen’s Court. The lord high treasurer bent down and handed a gold coin to a toddler doddling around as his family waited to meet the queen. He tried to eat it, but was bested by his mother.
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1.The Fantastikals, representing nature and the elements, provide a sense of wonder and mischief.2.Royal guard member Maria DeSilva, left, stands by Anna of Austria, the queen of Spain, and her sister Elisabeth of Austria as they read their Bibles together.3.A maid of honor to the queen passes the time with canvas work.
“You must be quicker if you are to be successful,” Sir Thomas Heneage, the court’s gentleman usher, told him.
I asked the queen what a newbie like me should know about visiting her village.
“I would tell them that at the fair, there is all the world to be had,” she said. “And no matter what you find that will set your heart alight, you will find it here.”
(I also asked her if it was as fun as it looked to be carried around in a basket by the Yeomen of the Guard, and after a good laugh, she affirmed, “It is truly a highlight of our day.”)
The crowd cheers as the jousters charge one another during the final bout of the day.
4. Hark! What a clatter!
Translation: Prepare for shouting
But it’s the fun kind!
When the fair opens at 10 a.m., guests shout, “Open wide the gates!”
“Huzzah!” is commonly shouted out in celebration, like when you tip someone, or when your trusty javelin strikes the target (mine did not).
And “God save the queen!” is exclaimed during the parades and just about any time the queen is around.
5. By hook and crook, ready thyself for a joust
Translation: It’s essential to attend a joust.
A jousters charges toward his opponent during the final bout of the day.
Attending a joust is one of the quintessential renaissance festival experiences.
At the L.A. fair, there are generally three joust performances per day: the Deptford tournament joust, the queen’s joust and the “joust to the death.”
It’s best to arrive 45 minutes early to get a seat, as the performance space fills to capacity. You will be turned away if it is full.
And it’s competitive. Immediately after sitting down, my seatmate informed me that we were rooting for green and blue, and the other team was our mortal enemies. I hooted and hollered accordingly.
6. There is much fine belly-timber
Translation: There is so much good food.
OK, here’s a confession: I eat a vegan diet. But, I can still appreciate the wide range of food options available — including the iconic turkey leg.
After securing our marinated tofu nachos and poke bowl, my wife and I sat down among other guests. Our tablemates had purchased a litany of fried options, including scotch eggs from the Quail Inn, which also serves bacon-wrapped jalapeño peppers, cheese fritters and “whole, partially deboned quail.”
I personally regret not heading over to Scoops on Tap, where I could have ordered vegan lemon blueberry swirl and mint chip ice cream. Their spirit-infused offerings include buttery beer, mocha stout crush and drumstick stout (which is not turkey-flavored, but rather a vanilla base).
7. Pray thee pay full mind to the merchants
Translation: Take time to learn about the artisans.
Drabbits, hand-crafted and one-of-a-kind shoulder puppets, at the Imagination Adoptorium booth.
Throughout the fair, you can easily find unique and colorful birthday gifts, like dragon eggs or a buy-your-own-fairy house, that would make your nieces, nephews and little cousins quickly proclaim you their favorite relative.
Beyond that, you can speak to artisans who’ve been honing their craft, in some cases, for decades. I asked glass artist Stuart Abelman, who has regular glass-blowing demonstrations during the fair, how his artistry fits into the renaissance fair.
“They’ve been blowing glass for 5,000 years,” Abelman, whose studio is based in Van Nuys, said. “Through the Renaissance, there were incredible glass blowers at Murano, Italy, incredible glass blowers. The queen drank [out of] beautiful glassware. They were the best.”
An assortment of masks are seen in the Mischief Masks booth.
8. Fret not if the winds of fate blow you elsewhere
Translation: Don’t worry if you can’t attend this specific fair.
California has several renaissance fairs and similarly themed events throughout the year. And, for the most adventurous, there are other fairs across the country and world, including the Texas Renaissance Festival, said to be the largest in the U.S.
I spoke to Deptford’s lord mayor, Sir Barnubus Bliss, about what’s most important to him about folks experiencing the fair closest to L.A.
The Original Renaissance Pleasure Faire
When: Saturdays and Sundays through May 17 Where: Santa Fe Dam Recreation Area, 15501 Arrow Highway, Irwindale. Note: The fair’s organizers advise you to not put the address in your GPS. It’s recommended that you take the 210, exit off Irwindale Ave (#38) and follow the signs to the fair. Upon arrival, you will pay the $15 entrance fee to the park, and then be directed to a large parking area. Tickets: $53 for adults and children 13 or older, $28 for children 5 to 12, and free for kids 4 and younger. Although you can buy tickets at the fair, it’s logistically easier to buy them online at renfair.com.
“Every time someone comes through those doors, I always wish them a ‘Welcome home,’” he said, “because it is my understanding that no matter where you are from, no matter what your life has been, when you come within these gates, when you are within our walls, you are at home, no matter where you were beforehand.”
Nik Frey, far left, and his partner Joanna Dominguez, far right, sword fight with Bexleigh Kilker, 9, and Bexleigh’s dad Kevin, as they all wait out traffic after opening day at the Renaissance Pleasure Faire.
And I felt that as I watched adults gallivant around with childlike glee. As my wife and I left the fair, I did not find myself immediately reaching for my phone. I wanted to stay, just a while longer, in a world where seemingly everyone is welcome to be just as they are.
With Gustavo Dudamel’s final season as music and artistic director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic reaching its homestretch, the orchestra has announced the appointment of its latest not music director. Anna Handler, a former Dudamel fellow and rapidly rising young conductor, will be given the new title of conductor-in-residence for the next three seasons.
She will spend three weeks each season conducting the orchestra at Walt Disney Concert Hall and the Hollywood Bowl, as well as working with students at the Beckmen YOLA Center in Inglewood. In a phone call from Boston, where she serves as assistant conductor at the Boston Symphony, she says she is also strongly driven by technology and wants to explore all kinds of projects with the latest devises.
“The sky is the limit,” Handler exclaims with the boundless enthusiasm that is said to have won over the orchestra and the administration.
That might include, she further fantasizes, a technology tool you don’t even notice but that focuses your attention to sound vibrations the way glasses give clarity to blurry vision. “Why not glasses for the ears?” she excitedly asks.
Kim Noltemy, the L.A. Phil president and chief executive, says Handler’s appointment does not necessarily imply the orchestra won’t ultimately find a music director who can oversee the bigger picture of the world’s most artistically diverse, expansive and wealthy orchestra. But the L.A. Phil has so many fingers in so many pies that no one person can do it all.
Meanwhile, the L.A. Phil now adds what it has been missing in what the institution calls its team of creative collaborators. As creative director, former music director Esa-Pekka Salonen will spend six weeks a season helping envision what a 21st century symphony orchestra might look like. John Adams continues his role as creative chair as do early music specialist Emmanuelle Haïm (artist collaborator), Herbie Hancock (creative chair for jazz) and Zubin Mehta (conductor emeritus). None, however, is younger than 60. Handler turns 30 this month.
Born in France, she grew up in Germany and is Colombian German. Both her parents are electrical engineers, whom she says her love for technology come from. And she notes that her roots also make her feel at home with the L.A. Phil. She connects with Salonen’s pioneering fascination with technology and the orchestra. With a Colombian mom, she is readily attuned to Dudamel’s Venezuelan heritage. Like her, Salonen, Dudamel and Mehta first began working with the L.A. Phil in their 20s.
Handler’s appointment came, she says, as a surprise. It was after her conducting the L.A. Phil at Disney last month that the orchestra suddenly sprang the idea of a residency beginning almost immediately with the 2026-27 season, even though the Bowl and fall seasons are already planned. Noltemy puts it to the fact that Handler and the orchestra simply got caught up in her energy.
Handler says she jumped at the chance to return to L.A. even though she would be beginning her first season of her first music director job at the Ulster Orchestra in Ireland. A pianist who loves chamber music (which she says will make part of her L.A. residencies), she also becomes artist in residence of the Beethoven House in Bonn, Germany. But, she excitedly exclaims, “At the L.A. Phil you can dream big. And if you have any big ideas, please tell me about them.”
He excitement over music education and community outreach also proved a draw. At 17, she formed her own student orchestra, which performed in schools, old age homes, prisons, all over. And she points out that she is young enough to feel relatively close in age to the students at YOLA, or Youth Orchestra Los Angeles. She describes one of her missions in life as getting young people involved with classical music.
“My long-term dream,” she proclaims, “is to build a Disney World for classical music.” There could be a Beethoven’s Fifth ride. She imagines melody, rhythm, harmony and form as little creatures whom we follow on their journey through the piece. “I’m all about decoding the rhythms of the music,” she adds.
Tellingly, Handler had already been scheduled to be the first conductor to follow Dudamel’s final Hollywood Bowl concert as L.A. Phil music director this summer at the iconic L.A. venue. It features Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony. Her two programs at Disney next season include West Coast premieres of Philip Glass’s Symphony No. 15 (“Lincoln”), which the composer recently withdrew from the Kennedy Center, and John Williams’ recent Piano Concerto.
A workers’ union at the World Cup venue has asked FIFA to keep ICE agents away from the venue to alleviate their fears.
Published On 7 Apr 20267 Apr 2026
A union representing about 2,000 food service workers at the Los Angeles Stadium has asked FIFA to keep United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) away from World Cup operations in the city and warned workers could strike if their concerns are not addressed.
Unite Here Local 11, which represents cooks, servers and bartenders at the Inglewood venue, said on Monday that the workers remain without a labour contract as the World Cup approaches.
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The union laid out three main demands to FIFA and stadium owner Kroenke Sports & Entertainment: A public commitment that ICE and Border Patrol will play no role in the tournament, protections for union jobs and working conditions, and support for affordable housing for hospitality workers.
Acting director of ICE, Todd Lyons, has said ICE would play a “key part” in the World Cup, a prospect the union said threatened worker and guest safety in Los Angeles.
Local 11 said it also wanted assurances that artificial intelligence and automation would not be used during the tournament to eliminate union jobs.
The union linked its labour demands to broader concerns over housing costs in the Los Angeles area, particularly in Inglewood, and called for support for a workforce housing fund, restrictions on short-term rentals and tax measures aimed at funding affordable housing and immigrant family protections.
“FIFA and its corporate sponsors will pocket billions from Los Angeles while refusing to even acknowledge the cooks, servers, and stand attendants who make this event possible,” Kurt Petersen, co-president of Local 11, said in a statement.
The union said it had repeatedly sought meetings with FIFA since Los Angeles was chosen as a host city, but had been ignored.
The venue is known as the SoFi Stadium, but has been rebranded to the Los Angeles Stadium for the World Cup due to sponsor clashes.
Los Angeles is set to host eight World Cup matches at the stadium, the first being the US against Paraguay on June 12.
Doncic is the NBA’s leading scorer this season with 2143 points for an unequalled average of 33.5 points per game.
However, having been sidelined for four games with a left hamstring strain earlier in the season, and missing two games to return to Slovenia for the birth of his daughter in December, Doncic is set to fall short of the minimum games threshold required to qualify for the NBA’s major end-of-season awards.
Doncic, who is one appearance short of the 65 required, will apply for an “Extraordinary Circumstances Challenge”, according to his agent Bill Duffy.
“This season, Luka Doncic has performed at a historic level, leading the league in scoring, carrying the Lakers to third place in the Western Conference and placing himself in the middle of one of the most tightly contested MVP races in memory,” Duffy told ESPN.
“To ensure Luka’s incredible accomplishments this season are rightly honoured and he can be considered for the league’s end-of-season awards, we intend to apply for an ‘Extraordinary Circumstances Challenge’ to the 65-game rule.”
Doncic was named March’s player of the month following 13 consecutive 30-point performances which helped the Lakers to 13 wins in 14 games prior to the defeat by Thunder.
Spring has sprung, but is it ever a bad time to see a movie in Los Angeles? Not really, especially when local programmers keep upping their game. This month brings the third edition of the Los Angeles Festival of Movies, an event that’s growing in ambition. Meanwhile, we’re about as far away from Halloween as we can get, yet the thrillers keep coming: Martin Scorsese’s ominous remake of “Cape Fear,” David Fincher’s landmark “Zodiac” and (the sometimes scary!) “Pinocchio.”
These screenings feature special guests, archival prints and other surprises. Consider our guide a handy catch-all of the best special screenings of the month, mostly reserved for older films playing in unique circumstances.
Whatever your plans may be, change them for the following 8 events.
