LA28 announced Honda its automotive partner for the L.A. Olympics on Monday, securing a major founding-level partnership that will help the private organizing committee cover its estimated $7 billion budget.
Honda, which opened its U.S. headquarters in L.A. in 1959 and is now based in Torrance, will work with LA28 on an accessible vehicle fleet that maximizes electric vehicles for the Games to help move athletes and officials around Southern California. The partnership will support U.S. Olympic and Paralympic athletes in the 2026 Winter Games in Milan and the Summer Games in 2028.
Financial terms of the top-tier partnership were not announced. Honda joins Delta and Comcast as LA28’s founding partners expected to lead the way in covering the estimated $2.5 billion in corporate sponsorship needed to stage the first Summer Games held in the United States since 1996.
“As a privately funded games, our mandate is to generate the revenue we need to produce these Games,” LA28 chairman Casey Wasserman said in an interview with The Times. “The biggest line item of that is sponsorship revenue. To be able to announce another big partner with a really spectacular brand who has been invested in Southern California for a long time is both [financially] important but also, in many ways, strategically important. It’s another brand that sees the power of our Olympic platform to tell their story in a community that’s very important to that industry that they’ve been invested in for a long time.”
Honda enters the Olympic and Paralympic arena after Toyota ended its long-running partnership with the International Olympic Committee and International Paralympic Committee after the 2024 Games. The Olympic Partners (TOP) program lost several major Japanese sponsors after the Paris Olympics, including Panasonic and Bridgestone, sending shockwaves through the Olympic and Paralympic movements. The TOP program accounts for roughly 30% of the IOC’s revenue — the largest share after broadcast rights — and a portion of the money from the top sponsors contributes to the budget of the national organizing committee’s plan to deliver the Games.
With three years before the Games, LA28 has announced several sponsorship deals in recent weeks. Aviation company Archer will provide air taxis to help alleviate traffic concerns. Saatva signed as the Games’ official mattress sponsor. Snowflake, a cloud-based data storage company, will assist athletes with training data and provide information on fan engagement.
The latest deal puts LA28 on pace to hit its goal of $2 billion in sponsorships by the end of 2025, Wasserman said. IOC contributions, ticket sales and merchandise are among the revenue streams that will help balance the budget. If LA28 goes over budget, Los Angeles city government has agreed to cover the first $270 million in debt with the state of California absorbing up to $270 million.
The sky is clear and PCH is open for the first time since January — summer is approaching in L.A. Celebrate the ease in traffic with a coastal road trip complete with pit stops for coffee and Santa Maria-style barbecue, maybe treating yourself to a stay at the iconic Madonna Inn along the way.
Local restaurants also need your support. On June 13, Here’s Looking at You, a lauded Koreatown restaurant with recurring appearances on The Times’ annual 101 Best Restaurants list, will close after nearly a decade of warm hospitality, late-night double cheeseburgers and tiki cocktails. Reservations are full, but you might get lucky with a bar seat or by showing up early.
It’s a reminder to support the institutions that feel integral to our city’s culinary identity, including landmark restaurants that have been around for close to (or more than) a century. With Rite Aid stores closing across the state, it could be your last chance to order Thrifty’s ice cream at the counter — a superior experience to scooping from a tub at home.
And if you need even more dining ideas this month, our Food writers have you covered, including a destination shopping center in San Gabriel, Gen Z-approved coffee in Historic Filipinotown and celebrity-backed barbecue in Century City.
A good plate of Sinaloa-style aguachile starts with liquid hot peppers, lots of lime, and freshly butterflied, raw shrimp. The flavor and heat build like a strong corrido: dramatic and full of contrast, tension and release. The chiles, the lime, the crunch of cucumber, the bite of red onion — it’s all deliberate. Bold, loud and alive. Just like Sinaloa.
In “Mexico: The Cookbook,” author Margarita Carrillo Arronte asserts that aguachile began in the sun-baked ranchlands of inland Sinaloa, not the coast. She says the original version was made with carne seca (sun-dried beef), rehydrated in water and jolted awake with chiltepín peppers. Picture ranchers grinding the chiles by hand, mixing them with lime and water, and pouring it over dehydrated meat to revive it like a delicious Frankenstein’s monster.
Francisco Leal, chef-owner of Mariscos Chiltepín in Vernon and Del Mar Ostioneria in Mid-City, shares a slightly different origin story. “According to legend, aguachile was invented in the hills of Los Mochis [Sinaloa],” he said. “The poor would mix tomatoes, onions and hot water with ground chiltepín. That’s why it’s called aguachile — chile water. They’d dip tortillas in it because that’s all they had. Naturally, when it reached the cities, people added protein.”
In both stories, aguachile migrated west to the coast — in particular, Mazatlán — where shrimp replaced carne seca. From there, it crossed borders and eventually took root in cities like Los Angeles, where it now thrives as both a beloved mariscos staple and a canvas for regional creativity.
Despite the comparisons, aguachile is not ceviche. The fish or shrimp in ceviche may marinate in citrus for hours. Traditional Sinaloa aguachile shrimp stay translucent, kissed but not cooked by the spicy lime juice.
The dish is popular across L.A.’s broader Mexican food scene, thanks to the city’s deeply rooted Sinaloan community. Many families hail from Mazatlán, Culiacán and Los Mochis and have been living in areas such as South Gate, Huntington Park, Paramount and East L.A. for decades. With them came a seafood-first sensibility that prioritizes freshness, balance and bold flavors in everyday cooking. That foundation helped aguachile thrive across generations and zip codes.
Chefs like Leal have expanded on the dish while staying true to its roots. At his Vernon restaurant, aguachile is more than a menu item — it’s a form of expression. Leal experiments with ingredients like passion fruit and tropical chiles but maintains an obsessive commitment to sourcing, texture and balance.
You’ll now find aguachile made with scallops at Gilberto Cetina’s Michelin-rated marisqueria Holbox or carrots at Enrique Olvera’s restaurant Damian in downtown L.A., but the rise of these variations is less about fleeting trends and more about the dish’s adaptability — its ability to hold complexity and evolve. Many chefs are drawing inspiration from seasonal California produce and veggie-forward palates, pairing traditional heat with a lighter, fresher profile.
But sometimes I crave the aguachile I grew up with.
My Sinaloan mom Elvia and my Sinaloan-American nephew Angel make the best aguachile I’ve ever had. They do it with high-quality shrimp that’s cleaned and butterflied just before serving, fresh-squeezed lime juice and chiles blended to order. Cold, sharp and so spicy it makes you sweat. Whether they make the dish as a quick snack with tortilla chips or an appetizer for a weekend asada, the goal is always to feed their family food from the heart.
As I explored L.A.’s aguachile scene, I was moved by how many places carried that same spirit. From front-yard mariscos stands to neighborhood institutions, here are 10 Sinaloan-style aguachiles to snack on all summer long.
Is a restaurant worth a visit simply because it’s been around longer than that bottle of yellow mustard in your refrigerator? Longer than your oldest living relative? Maybe. Proper respect should be paid to an institution.
Los Angeles is home to restaurants celebrating a century in business. About 36,500 days in operation. The feat alone is something to marvel at.
What is Hollywood without the martini culture built around Musso & Frank Grill? The Long Beach bar scene without the Schooners of cold beer and pickled eggs at Joe Jost’s? A South Pasadena stretch of Route 66 without milkshakes and phospate sodas at Fair Oaks Pharmacy? Over decades in business, these restaurants have become landmarks synonymous with the cities themselves.
Some of L.A.’s most popular attractions are our food halls, with Grand Central Market in downtown and the Original Farmers Market in Fairfax drawing millions of visitors each year. Grand Central Market opened in 1917 with nearly 100 food merchants. Its oldest running restaurant is the China Cafe, with a 22-seat counter that’s been around since 1959. In 1934, about a dozen farmers and other vendors started selling produce at the corner of 3rd Street and Fairfax Avenue, where the Original Farmers Market still operates today. Magee’s Kitchen, its oldest restaurant, began when Blanche Magee started serving lunch to the farmers in the ‘30s.
1
2
3
1.El Coyote founder Blanche March.(El Coyote)2.The counter at Fugetsu-Do in 1904.(Fugetsu-Do Bakery Shop)3.Alicia Mijares, left, daughter of Mijares founder Jesucita Mijares, with Maria Guzman in 1984.(Mijares Restaurant)
Many of the restaurants on this list were built by immigrants from every corner of the world, their American dreams realized in a mochi shop in Little Tokyo, a French restaurant in downtown L.A. and a taste of Jalisco, Mexico, in Pasadena.
If you’re looking for the oldest restaurant in Los Angeles County, you’ll find it in Santa Clarita, a city about 30 miles northwest of downtown. Originally called the Saugus Eating House when it opened as part of a railway station in 1886, the Saugus Cafe boasts a history rich with Hollywood film stars, U.S. presidents and a train network that helped establish towns across the state.
In 1916, the cafe moved across the street to where it sits now, one long, narrow building that includes a dining room and a bar. It has closed, reopened and changed hands numerous times over the last 139 years. Longtime employee Alfredo Mercado now owns the restaurant.
It’s a place that exists in a cocoon of nostalgia. The history embedded in the walls, the decor and the friendly staff are the main draw. If you’re searching for the best breakfast in town, you may want to keep looking.
The following are decades-old restaurants that have stood the test of time, shrinking wallets and fickle diners. In operation for 90 years or longer, these 17 destinations (listed from oldest to newest) are worth the trip for both the history, and whatever you decide to order.
For nearly six decades, Los Tigres del Norte’s name has been all over the charts, on countless marquees, seven Grammys and, now, one street in New York City.
On Thursday, the historic música Mexicana band showed up to the Sunset Park neighborhood of Brooklyn, surrounded by fans at the grand presentation of the newly minted Los Tigres del Norte Way.
“Starting today, a street in Brooklyn carries the name of Los Tigres del Norte,” the group wrote in an Instagram post Thursday evening. “Thank you for walking with us, today and always.”
The Sinaloense legends’ street sign is located on 5th Avenue and 47th Street in Brooklyn, surrounded by a litany of Latino restaurants.
“We’ve been coming to New York for so many years,” vocalist and accordion player Jorge Hernandez said in a TV interview Wednesday with New York’s Fox 5. “We’ve been able to connect with the community, so that’s why we’ve been selected today to have the street and we are very happy to be honored tomorrow.”
The road naming occurred on the same day as the release of the “La Puerta Negra” artists’ latest five-track EP “La Lotería.” The title track is a sociopolitical corrido that uses the imagery of the popular bingo-like Mexican game to comment on topics like immigration and the past criminality of the current U.S. president.
The band will play its first-ever show at New York’s historic Madison Square Garden on May 24 to wrap up their current East Coast stint before performing June 13 at the Agua Caliente Casino in Rancho Mirage, Calif., and June 15 in Del Mar, Calif.
However, Thursday’s festivities weren’t the first time that the “Jaula de Oro” band was honored with a street-naming ceremony. A strip of W. 26th Street in Chicago is honorarily named after the 12-time Latin Grammy winners. The street runs through the Windy City’s Little Village neighborhood, which is known as the “Mexico of the Midwest” due to upwards of 80% of its residents being of Mexican descent.
In June, the group will receive lifetime recognition for its members’ continued immigration advocacy from Monterey County officials ahead of their tour date in Salinas, Calif.
From Thuc Nhi Nguyen: The biggest sports league in North America is coming to the biggest sporting event in the world.
NFL players will be allowed to participate in the 2028 L.A. Olympic flag football competition, league owners approved Tuesday.
The resolution, passed at the league owners meetings in Eagan, Minn., permits NFL players to try out for flag football, but limits only one player per NFL team to play for each national team in the Olympics. An exception was made for each NFL team’s designated international player, who is allowed to play for his home country.
“To have the greatest Games really requires you to have the greatest collection of athletes the world has ever seen,” LA28 chairman Casey Wasserman said, “and today puts us one step closer to that.”
Tuesday’s vote will lead to further negotiations with the NFL Players Assn., the International Federation of American Football (IFAF) and national governing bodies to iron out more details about the sport’s safety measures and schedule. The resolution proposed that injury protections and salary-cap credit will cover any players who are injured during flag football activities, while Olympic flag football teams must implement minimum standards for medical staff and field surfaces to be eligible for NFL player participation and the schedule should take reasonable measures to limit conflicts with NFL commitments.
Get the latest on L.A.’s teams in the daily Sports Report newsletter.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
NBA PLAYOFFS RESULTS
All Times Pacific
Conference finals
Western Conference
No. 1 Oklahoma City vs. No. 6 Minnesota at Oklahoma City 114, Minnesota 88 (box score) Thursday at Oklahoma City, 5:30 p.m., ESPN Saturday at Minnesota, 5:30 p.m., ABC Monday at Minnesota, 5:30 p.m., ESPN Wed., May 28 at Oklahoma City, 5:30 p.m., ESPN* Friday, May 30 at Minnesota, 5:30 p.m., ESPN* Sunday, June 1 at Oklahoma City, 5 p.m., ESPN*
Eastern Conference
No. 3 New York vs. No. 4 Indiana Wednesday at New York, 5 p.m., TNT Friday at New York, 5 p.m., TNT Sunday at Indiana, 5 p.m., TNT Tuesday at Indiana, 5 p.m., TNT Thursday, May 29 at New York, 5 p.m., TNT* Saturday, May 31 at Indiana, 5 p.m., TNT* Monday, June 2 at New York, 5 p.m., TNT*
*if necessary
DODGERS
From Jack Harris: Even as their pitching injuries have mounted in recent weeks, the Dodgers haven’t panicked.
On multiple occasions, team officials have noted how none of the seven pitchers who have gotten hurt since the end of spring camp suffered relatively serious injuries. In time, they promised, the staff would get back close to full health.
On Tuesday, signs of that optimism finally began to appear.
Tyler Glasnow and Blake Snell (both out with shoulder inflammation) continued their throwing progressions, with Glasnow making some light pitches off a mound slope for the first time since going on the injured list last month, according to manager Dave Roberts.
Kirby Yates (hamstring strain) began playing catch just days after hitting the IL, raising his hopes of being back within the two-to-four week time frame the team has targeted. Blake Treinen (forearm sprain) also continued his catch play, while Michael Kopech (shoulder impingement) was set to make a rehab outing with triple-A Oklahoma City.
Most of all, though, Shohei Ohtani checked off another important box in his return from a 2023 Tommy John surgery, taking another step closer to resuming two-way duties for the first time as a Dodger.
But, by the time extra innings arrived on a nervy night at Dodger Stadium, the team was in a situation where they simply couldn’t afford to lose.
Not after entering the day with four consecutive losses, a season-long skid caused primarily by a banged-up pitching staff. Not after Yoshinobu Yamamoto looked like an ace, a stopper and a Cy Young candidate all wrapped in one, spinning seven scoreless innings in a nine-strikeout gem. And certainly not with his brilliance in danger of being wasted after closer Tanner Scott blew a one-run lead in the top of the ninth inning before yielding a two-run blast in the top of the 10th.
“I don’t know if it was a must-win,” manager Dave Roberts said, sidestepping such superlatives with the season still only two months old. “But certainly given Yoshi’s outing, you don’t wanna waste that … You just can’t lose on nights that Yamamoto throws [that well].”
Somehow, in a 4-3 walk-off victory over the Arizona Diamondbacks, the Dodgers didn’t; flipping the script, changing the narrative and snapping their losing streak with the most dramatic of endings.
Logan O’Hoppe homered and had a tiebreaking RBI single as the Angels beat the Athletics 7-5 on Tuesday night for their fifth straight win.
Kenley Jansen gave up pinch-hitter Seth Brown’s RBI single in the bottom of the ninth but struck out Tyler Soderstrom to get his 10th save and hand the Athletics their seventh straight loss.
Yoán Moncada had a tying three-run homer in the fifth to tie it 4-4 before O’Hoppe’s RBI single put the Angels ahead for good.
From Thuc Nhi Nguyen: The Chargers welcomed Arctos as a limited partner Tuesday as NFL owners approved a sale that transferred some the team’s shares to the Dallas-based private equity firm that already has ties to the Dodgers.
“Arctos’ track record in major professional sports speaks for itself,” Chargers owner Dean Spanos said in a statement, “and we are grateful for their alignment moving forward during this time of tremendous growth for our organization.”
According to a league memo The Times obtained last week, Arctos acquired 8% of the team’s shares. Spanos and his family will retain control of the Chargers organization with approximately 61% of the franchise.
From Kevin Baxter: Naomi Girma was called up to the women’s national soccer team Tuesday for the first time this year, joining 23 others for friendlies with China and Jamaica.
Girma, who was named to FIFA’s global Best XI last year, has been sidelined with calf injuries but recently returned to fitness, going 90 minutes in two of Chelsea’s last three games in the Women’s Super League. Her last appearance for the U.S. came in the gold medal final of the Paris Olympics in August.
Sisters Alyssa and Gisele Thompson, who started their second senior national team match together last month, were also called up but this time with Gisele, a defender, making the roster as a winger. Alyssa has four goals and two assists this season for Angel City, for whom her sister also plays.
The U.S. will play China at Allianz Field in St. Paul, Minn., on May 31 and Jamaica on June 3 at Energizer Park in St. Louis. Here’s the roster:
Central 2 Dallas vs. Pacific 3 Edmonton Wednesday at Dallas, 5 p.m., ESPN Friday at Dallas, 5 p.m., ESPN Sunday at Edmonton, noon, ABC Tuesday at Edmonton, 5 p.m., ESPN Thursday, May 29 at Dallas, 5 p.m., ESPN* Saturday, May 31 at Edmonton, 5 p.m., ANC* Monday, June 2 at Dallas, 5 p.m., ESPN*
Eastern Conference
Metro 2 Carolina vs. Atlantic 3 Florida Florida 5, at Carolina 2 (summary) Thursday at Carolina, 5 p.m., TNT Saturday at Florida, 5 p.m., TNT Monday at Florida, 5 p.m., TNT Wed., May 28 at Carolina, 5 p.m., TNT* Friday, May 30 at Florida, 5 p.m., TNT* Sunday, June 1 at Carolina, 5 p.m., TNT*
* If necessary
THIS DAY IN SPORTS HISTORY
1881 — A small group of tennis club members meets at the Fifth Avenue Hotel in New York City to form the world’s first national governing body for tennis: the United States National Lawn Tennis Association. The new organization is created to standardize tennis rules and regulations and to encourage and develop the sport.
1891 — Australian boxer Peter Jackson and future world heavyweight champion Jim Corbett fight a No Contest in 61 rounds at California Athletic Club, San Francisco.
1932 — 1st Curtis Cup for Women’s team amateur golf: US wins, 5½-3½ at Wentworth Club (Wentworth, England).
1966 — Muhammad Ali TKOs Henry Cooper in 6 for heavyweight boxing title.
1966 — Kauai King, the Kentucky Derby winner ridden by Don Brumfield, wins the Preakness Stakes by 1 3/4 lengths over Stupendous.
1971 — Chelsea win 11th European Cup Winner’s Cup against Real Madrid 2-1 in Athens (replay).
1977 — Heavily favored Seattle Slew, ridden by Jean Cruguet, wins the Preakness Stakes by 1 1/2 lengths over Iron Constitution, a 31-1 shot.
1979 — The Montreal Canadiens win their 21st Stanley Cup by beating the New York Rangers 4-1 in Game 5.
1981 — The New York Islanders win the Stanley Cup in five games with a 5-1 triumph over the Minnesota North Stars.
1988 — Risen Star, ridden by Eddie Delahoussaye, spoils Winning Colors’ bid to become the first filly to win the Triple Crown by capturing the Preakness Stakes.
1989 — LPGA Championship Women’s Golf, Jack Nicklaus GC: Nancy Lopez wins her 3rd LPGA C’ship by 3 strokes from Ayako Okamoto of Japan.
1995 — The Penske Racing Team is shut out of the 33-car Indianapolis 500 field when two-time winners Al Unser Jr. and Emerson Fittipaldi fail to qualify. Unser is the first Indianapolis 500 winner to fail to qualify the next year.
2005 — Afleet Alex, ridden by Jeremy Rose, regains his footing and his drive after being cut off by Scrappy T in a frightening collision and breezes home to win the Preakness Stakes. Kentucky Derby winner Giacomo finishes third.
2005 — English FA Cup Final, Millennium Stadium, Cardiff (71,876): Arsenal beats Manchester United, 5-4 on penalties after 0 – 0 (a.e.t.); Gunners’ 10th title.
2006 — Detroit holds Cleveland to the lowest point total in a Game 7 in NBA history and advances to its fourth straight Eastern Conference final with a 79-61 win over the Cavaliers.
2006 — The Swedish ice hockey team Tre Kronor takes gold in the World Championship, becoming the first nation to hold both the World and Olympic titles in the same year.
2008 — UEFA Champions League Final, Moscow: Manchester United beats Chelsea, 6-5 on penalties after scores tied at 1-1 after extra time; first all-English final in the competition’s history.
2009 — Evgeni Malkin scores three goals — two in the third period — for his first NHL playoff hat trick and leads Pittsburgh to a 7-4 win over Carolina and a 2-0 advantage in the NHL Eastern Conference finals. Teammate Sidney Crosby scores the first goal of the game for a record-tying sixth goal to start a playoff game. Bobby Hull of the Blackhawks (1962) and Edmonton’s Fernando Pisani in 2006 also had six game-opening goals in a playoff year.
2011 — Shackleford wins the Preakness, holding off a late charge from Animal Kingdom to win as a 12-1 underdog. Ridden by Jesus Lopez Castanon and trained by Dale Romans, Shackleford wins by three-quarters of a length in 1:56.21.
2011 — Bernard Hopkins, at age 46, becomes the oldest fighter to win a major world championship, taking the WBC light heavyweight title from Jean Pascal in Montreal. He takes the WBC, IBO and The Ring magazine titles from the 28-year-old Pascal (26-2-1), the Canadian fighter who was making his fifth defense. Hopkins (52-5-2) broke the age record set by George Foreman in a heavyweight title victory over Michael Moorer in 1994.
2016 — English FA Cup Final, Wembley Stadium, London: Manchester United beats Crystal Palace, 2-1 (a.e.t.); Jesse Lingard scores 110′ winner.
2016 — On same card, American boxer Jermell Charlo KOs John Jackson in 8th to claim vacant WBC super welterweight title, and Jermall Charlo beats Austin Trout on points to retain IBF version; first twins to hold world championships in same weight division.
2017 — The Tradition Senior Men’s Golf, Greystone G&CC: Defending champion Berhard Langer wins by 5 strokes from Scott Parel & Scott McCarron.
THIS DAY IN BASEBALL HISTORY
1926 — Earl Sheely of the Chicago White Sox hit three doubles and a home run against the Boston Red Sox. Sheely doubled in each of his last three at-bats the previous day to give him seven consecutive extra-base hits, tying a major league record. The six doubles in the two games also tied a major league record.
1930 — Babe Ruth hits three consecutive home runs in the first game of a doubleheader against the A’s.
1943 — In the fastest nine-inning night game in American League history, the Chicago White Sox beat the Washington Senators 1-0, in 1 hour, 29 minutes.
1948 — Joe DiMaggio had two home runs, a triple, double and single to lead the New York Yankees to a 13-2 victory over the Chicago White Sox.
1952 — Duke Snider’s home run highlighted a 15-run first inning in the Dodgers’ 19-1 win over the Cincinnati Reds in Brooklyn. Snider, Pee Wee Reese and Billy Cox each made three plate appearances in the first inning.
1986 — Rafael Ramirez of Atlanta had four doubles in seven at-bats as the Braves beat the Chicago Cubs 9-8 in 13 innings.
1996 — Larry Walker drove in a career-high six runs, hitting a pair of two-run homers, a triple and a double in the Colorado Rockies’ 12-10 win over the Pittsburgh Pirates. His 13 total bases set a club record.
1996 — At Fenway Park, Seattle pounds out 19 hits to beat Boston, 13-7. Ken Griffey, Jr. becomes the 7th-youngest player to collect 200 homers when he connects in the M’s six-run 4th inning. Jay Buhner hits a two-run shot in the inning, the 5th game in a row he’s connected, and Edgar Martinez adds four hits in the game.
1997 — Roger Clemens earned his 200th career victory, leading the Toronto Blue Jays to a 4-1 win over the New York Yankees.
2000 — For the first time in baseball history, there were six grand slams in a single day. Garret Anderson of the Angels hit the record-breaker off Kansas City’s Chris Fussell. J.T. Snow of San Francisco, Brian Hunter of Philadelphia, Jason Giambi of Oakland, and Adrian Beltre and Shawn Green of the Dodgers connected with the bases loaded before Anderson. The old mark of five was set in 1999.
2002 — The Diamondbacks set down the Giants, 9-4, behind Randy Johnson. Johnson notches the 3,500th strikeout of his big league career in the contest.
2004 — In his return to Texas, Alex Rodriguez is roundly booed by fans at the Ballpark in Arlington. The fans continue to show their displeasure as the Yankees third baseman drives a 2-1 pitch over the fence during his 1st-inning at-bat.
2004 — Jose Cruz Jr. went 4-for-4 with a homer and three doubles, leading Tampa Bay to a 5-3 victory over Cleveland.
2005 — The Texas Rangers set two club records in an 18-3 rout of the Houston Astros. Texas got home runs from Rod Barajas, Hank Blalock, Laynce Nix and Mark Teixeira in an eight-run, four-homer second inning. Texas slugged a team-record eight homers total on the day, also receiving blasts from Kevin Mench, Richard Hidalgo and two from David Dellucci.
2009 — Albert Pujols of St. Louis hit a homer in the first inning that knocked out the “I” on the Big Mac Land sign located in Busch Stadium’s left field. The Cardinals won 3-1.
2009 — Joe Mauer hit a grand slam, two doubles and drove in a career-high six runs as Minnesota routed the Chicago White Sox 20-1.
2010 — Dan Haren doubled twice, drove in three runs and pitched eight strong innings, offsetting Edwin Encarnacion’s three home runs for Toronto, and the Arizona Diamondbacks beat the Blue Jays 8-6. Haren allowed four runs on nine hits and two of Encarnacion’s three homers.
2013 — Mike Trout hit for the cycle and drove in five runs to lead the Angels in a 12-0 rout of Seattle Mariners.
2015 — The Brewers’ Will Smith is ejected for having rosin and sunscreen on his forearm in the 7th inning of Milwaukee’s 10-1 loss to the Braves. Smith explains that he simply forgot to wipe off his arm before leaving the bullpen when called into the game. He will receive an eight-game suspension as well.
2018 — Baseball has a new phenom as 19-year-old Juan Soto of the Nationals, making his first start ever in the outfield after striking out as a pinch-hitter in his debut the day before, crushes the first pitch he sees from Robbie Erlin of the Padres for a three-run homer. He goes 2-for-4 in 10-2 win by Washington. He is the first teenager to homer since teammate Bryce Harper did so in his rookie year in 2012.
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.
The failure of one of Skid Row’s largest homeless housing providers represents a dire warning for the viability of supportive housing in Los Angeles, according to a new report on the organization’s demise.
Without major changes, other supportive housing providers remain at risk, imperiling housing for thousands of the region’s most vulnerable residents and exposing taxpayers to further bailouts, said Claire Knowlton, a Los Angeles-based financial consultant for nonprofits and the report’s lead author.
“This is a wake-up call,” Knowlton said. “It’s time to dig in and figure out a vision for this sector moving forward.”
Once considered a national leader in homeless housing, the trust announced in early 2023 it could no longer manage its 2,000 units across 29 properties, many of which were renovated, century-old single-room occupancy hotels in and around Skid Row. The decision came after years of financial trouble with buildings in disrepair and disarray, replete with squatters, crime, nonfunctional elevators and clogged and broken toilets.
Researchers received access to the trust’s internal financial data and interviewed more than 30 people, including former trust executives and those knowledgeable about its operations, to produce the report.
The report, which was funded by the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation, is not meant to be a definitive understanding of the trust’s failure, Knowlton said. Times reporting has shown questionable decision-making, financial mismanagement and unstable leadership marked the organization’s final few years. The report did not examine specific actions made by trust executives. Joanne Cordero, the trust’s final CEO who took over amid its spiral in late 2022, was a co-author.
The root of the trust’s problems, the report determined, was that tenants’ public rental subsidies did not provide enough revenue to manage the buildings, including costs needed to assist those dealing with mental illness and drug addiction. All trust properties, including newer buildings with studio and one-bedroom apartments, were running annual deficits — nearly $1 million in one case — once factoring in long-term maintenance expenses, the report found.
Not only were the rental subsidies insufficient to cover costs, but also the funding came through multiple programs that paid the trust wildly disparate rates for rooms without any clear way to increase them. Similar trust buildings received subsidies priced at a difference of up to $600 per unit per month.
The report called the calculation of these rates “cryptic” and their variability “indefensible.”
“The subsidies are not covering the cost,” Knowlton said. “The increases are inconsistent. The subsidy types are inconsistent, and there’s no reason.”
The report cites 2015 as a turning point for trust properties. That year, the region implemented a new coordinated entry system for placing homeless residents into trust buildings and other supportive housing through a process designed to prioritize rooms for the neediest.
The system has been criticized broadly among homeless housing providers for taking too long to match potential residents with units and for concentrating too many people with mental illness, physical disabilities and addiction problems within buildings.
After its implementation, vacancies in trust buildings skyrocketed, which further sapped the organization’s revenues. Spending on security immediately jumped from $50,000 annually prior to 2016 to well over $500,000 after, and ultimately soaring above $1.4 million by 2022.
Knowlton said she could not determine that the coordinated entry system was the source of these problems as other factors played a role. The portfolio’s vacancies were stabilizing until staffing and maintenance woes amid the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 sent them spiraling. Deteriorating conditions in Skid Row broadly over the same period also could explain the greater security needs, she said.
Still, Knowlton said that local leaders should reevaluate decisions to house those with the most severe health problems in single-room occupancy hotels, which have shared kitchen and bathroom facilities.
“I don’t think single-room occupancy is the right type of housing for people with high levels of mental health needs or extreme substance use issues,” she said.
Reaching similar conclusions during the receivership, city housing officials advocated for tearing down trust SROs and replacing them with new efficiency and one-bedroom apartment buildings, but they abandoned that plan as too risky, expensive and disruptive.
Knowlton is pushing to overhaul the region’s system for funding supportive housing, noting that the problems she identified were universal.
Rent subsidies, Knowlton said, should be set to the cost of providing supportive housing, including social services. Doing so, however, would require significant and ongoing funding boosts at the federal level, which she deemed “extremely ambitious.” In the short term, she argued government agencies should increase and standardize the subsidies to reduce their variability.
“That’s going to give us the time and the cushion that we need to really set that longer term vision around how these buildings are stewarded as public assets, as community assets, because that’s what they are,” she said.
When the trust failed, the city stepped in to save critical last-resort housing, but at great cost to taxpayers and without resolving underlying problems in the supportive housing system, Knowlton said. Federal, state and local leaders should do everything they can to avoid a similar situation from occurring again, she said.
The trust’s collapse, Knowlton said, was, “a canary in the coal mine situation.”
Times staff writer Douglas Smith contributed to this report.
Zhajiangmian was one of the first dishes my mother taught me how to make. I’d stand beside her in the kitchen, watching her stir fermented soybean paste into sizzling ground pork, the smell sharp, earthy and instantly familiar. A pot of noodles boiled nearby as I carefully julienned cucumbers, proud to contribute to one of my favorite comfort meals. When the ingredients were ready, we’d build our bowls with noodles, sauce and a handful of crisp veggies. Then came the best part — mixing it together until every noodle was slick with sauce. It wasn’t fancy, but it was fast, filling and always hit the spot.
According to Tian Yong, head chef of Bistro Na in Temple City, humble zhajiangmian may date back to the Qing Dynasty, when minced meat noodles became popular in Beijing for its affordability and ease of storage. Another origin story tells of an empress dowager who, fleeing an invasion, encountered a zhajiangmian-like dish in Xi’an.
However it came to be, zhajiangmian, or “fried sauce noodles,” is everyday comfort food in China and a staple of northern Chinese cuisine. “It carries cultural nostalgia and a sense of regional identity, particularly for Beijing natives,” says chef and cookbook author Katie Chin, founder of Wok Star Catering in Los Angeles. At its core, the dish is built on a simple foundation of wheat noodles (often thick, chewy and hand-pulled or knife-cut), ground pork and a deeply savory sauce made from doubanjiang, fermented soybean paste.
Like many regional Chinese dishes, zhajiangmian is fluid, shaped by geography, ingredients and personal taste. “It doesn’t just vary between regions of China — it even varies between households in different parts of Beijing,” Yong explains.
Chin uses several types of soybean paste in her zhajiangmian, each bringing its own personality to the bowl. Traditional Beijing-style relies on pungent yellow soybean paste for its salty, umami-rich depth. Tianjin-style leans on sweet bean sauce for a milder, more balanced flavor, while some versions use broad bean paste to add heat and complexity.
Then there’s the Korean-Chinese adaptation, jjajangmyeon, introduced to Korea by Chinese immigrants in the early 20th century. It swaps fermented soybean paste for chunjang, a Korean black bean paste that’s sweeter and less salty. “The dish is served over softer noodles and typically mixed together before eating, unlike the Chinese version where toppings are placed separately,” Chin says.
The vegetable toppings are essential to the dish’s character. “They can vary according to Beijing’s four seasons and traditional agricultural calendar,” says Yong. In spring, you might see spinach shoots, mung bean sprouts or radish greens; summer brings julienned cucumber, lotus root and edamame; fall offers carrots, garlic chives and bok choy; winter, Napa cabbage and wood ear mushrooms. While zhajiangmian is one of China’s most beloved noodle dishes, in the U.S., the spotlight tends to shine on familiar favorites like chow mein, lo mein or dan dan mian. But zhajiangmian has a deserved place alongside those staples in the canon of Chinese noodles.
I set out to find the best versions in Los Angeles and discovered dozens of interpretations. Some stayed true to tradition, others took creative liberties. But each bowl shared the same sense of comfort I remembered from my childhood — that salty, savory, soul-satisfying mix of noodles and sauce. Here are 11 of the best places to try zhajiangmian and jjajangmyeon in L.A.
Howdy! I’m Jaclyn Cosgrove, an outdoors reporter at the L.A. Times. My job is to explore the mountains surrounding Los Angeles to find the best hikes, campgrounds and other adventures for you to tackle. I also write Between a Rock, where we feature outdoors survival stories every month, and The Wild, our (free!) weekly outdoors newsletter where I feature the absolute best things to do around L.A. and Southern California. In short, I’m outside a lot!
Would you like to join me sometime? How about later this month? The Times will host its fourth subscriber hike at 9 a.m. May 24 on a 3.5-mile hike to Sycamore Canyon Falls.
Tucked away in Point Mugu State Park, Sycamore Canyon Falls is a multi-tier 55-foot waterfall near Newbury Park. And hopefully with recent rainfall, it’ll still be flowing for us to enjoy.
There are multiple ways to reach the falls, but we will take the shortest and more direct way, starting in Rancho Sierra Vista/ Satwiwa in the Santa Monica Mountains. We’ll start at the Wendy Trail and wind our way through the park before entering Point Mugu State Park. Because we’re hiking through a state park, dogs aren’t allowed on this hike. (Trust me, I’m bummed too!)
I’ll lead a group of 30 subscribers to the falls, where we’ll hang out, snap images and maybe even share a snack or two. This hike is moderate and requires good footwear. I will probably bring along my poles for traction and welcome you to do the same.
Parking is free and easy. Please park at the Wendy Trail Head. We’ll meet at the start of the trail there.
We will have water bottles for attendees, but you’re also welcome to bring your own. You must be 18 or older and will be required to sign a waiver prior to attending. Grab a spot at Tixr.com.
The radiation containment domes at Arizona’s Palo Verde Generating Station were, truth be told, pretty boring to look at: giant mounds of concrete, snap a picture, move on. The enormous cooling towers and evaporation ponds were marginally more interesting — all that recycled water, baking in the Sonoran Desert.
You know what really struck my fancy, though? The paintings on conference room walls.
Newsletter
You’re reading Boiling Point
Sammy Roth gets you up to speed on climate change, energy and the environment. Sign up to get it in your inbox twice a week.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
There were five of them, each representing one of the far-flung Southwestern cityscapes powered by Palo Verde. Two showcased Arizona: one for the Phoenix metro area — saguaro cacti and ocotillo in the foreground, freeway and skyscrapers in the background — and one for the red-rock country to the north. Another showed downtown Albuquerque. A fourth portrayed farm fields in El Paso, likely irrigated with water from the Rio Grande.
Then there was an image that may have looked familiar to Southern Californians: Pacific Coast Highway, twisting through a seaside neighborhood that looks very much like Malibu before the Palisades fire.
A painting of Pacific Coast Highway winding through Southern California, on display at Arizona’s Palo Verde nuclear plant.
(Sammy Roth / Los Angeles Times)
That’s right: If you live in Los Angeles County, there’s a good chance your computer, your phone, your refrigerator and your bedside lamp are powered, at least some of the time, by nuclear reactors.
The city of L.A., Southern California Edison and a government authority composed of cities including Burbank, Glendale and Pasadena all own stakes in Palo Verde, the nation’s second-largest power plant. In 2023, the most recent year for which data are available, the plant was L.A.’s single largest energy source, supplying nearly 14% of the city’s electricity. The reactors supplied just over 9% of Edison’s power.
During a tour last month, I walked past the switchyard, a tangle of poles and wires where energy is transferred to power lines marching west and east. When all three reactors are running, the yard can transfer “the equivalent of half of the peak [electric demand] of the state of California on its hottest day,” according to John Hernandez, vice president of site services for utility company Arizona Public Service, which runs the plant.
“So it is a massive, massive switchyard,” Hernandez said.
For all the heated debate over the merits of nuclear energy as a climate change solution, the reality is it’s already a climate change solution. Nuclear plants including Palo Verde generate nearly one-fifth of the nation’s electricity, churning out 24/7, emissions-free power. Shutting down the nuclear fleet tomorrow would cause a giant uptick in coal and gas combustion, worsening the heat waves, wildfires and storms of the climate crisis.
Phasing out the nation’s 94 nuclear reactors over a period of decades, on the other hand, might be manageable — and there’s a case to be made for it. Extracting uranium for use as nuclear fuel has left extensive groundwater contamination and air pollution across the Southwest, especially on tribal lands, including the Navajo Nation.
“When we talk about nuclear, thoughts often go toward spent fuel storage, or the safety of reactors themselves,” said Amber Reimondo, energy director at the Grand Canyon Trust, a nonprofit conservation group. “But I think an often overlooked piece…has been the impacts to those who are at the beginning of the supply chain.”
Reimondo participated in a panel that I moderated at Palo Verde, part of the annual conference of the Society of Environmental Journalists. She noted that the nation’s only active conventional uranium mill — where uranium is leached from crushed rock — is located in Utah, just a few miles from the Ute Mountain Ute Reservation.
Waste ponds at Energy Fuels’ White Mesa uranium mill in southeastern Utah.
(Jim West / UCG / Universal Images Group via Getty Images)
Even during the Biden years, Reimondo said, it was tough to overcome bipartisan enthusiasm for nuclear energy and “get folks to take seriously the impacts that [tribal] communities are feeling” from mining and milling.
“We just haven’t reached a place in this country where we are listening to these folks,” she said.
That dynamic has remained true during the second Trump administration. Just this week, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said his agency would fast-track permitting for a uranium mine proposed by Anfield Energy in Utah’s San Juan County, completing the environmental review — which would normally take a year — in just 14 days.
Burgum and President Trump, like Biden-era officials before them, say it’s unwise for the U.S. to rely on overseas suppliers for nearly all its uranium. But many environmental activists, even some who are fans of nuclear, believe running roughshod over Indigenous nations and public lands is disgraceful. And counterproductive.
Victor Ibarra Jr., senior manager for nuclear energy at the nonprofit Clean Air Task Force, said rebuilding the U.S. nuclear power supply chain will require local buy-in — on the front end, where uranium is mined, and on the back end, where spent fuel is stored. Thus far, political opposition has derailed every attempt to build a permanent fuel storage site, meaning nuclear waste is piling up at power plants across the country.
If there’s any hope for more uranium mining and power plants, Ibarra said, it will involve a lot of conversations — conversations that lead to less pollution, and fewer mistakes like those made during the 20th century.
“I think it’s really unfortunate that the nuclear industry has behaved the way it has in the past,” he said.
The benefits of nuclear reactors are straightforward: They generate climate-friendly electricity around the clock, while taking up far less land than solar or wind farms. If building new nuclear plants were cheap and easy — and we could solve the lingering pollution and safety concerns — then doing so would be a climate no-brainer.
If only.
The only two nuclear reactors built in the U.S. in decades came online at Georgia Power’s Vogtle plant in 2023 and 2024, respectively, and cost $31 billion, according to the Associated Press. That was $17 billion over budget.
Units 1 and 2 at the Vogtle nuclear plant near Waynesboro, Ga., seen in 2024.
(Mike Stewart / Associated Press)
Meanwhile, efforts to build small modular reactors have proved more expensive than large nuclear plants.
“It would really be quite unprecedented in the history of engineering, and in the history of energy, for something that is much smaller to have a lower price per megawatt,” said Joe Romm, a senior researcher at the University of Pennsylvania’s Center for Science, Sustainability and the Media. “We try to make use of the economies of scale.”
Those setbacks haven’t stopped wealthy investors including billionaires Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos from bankrolling efforts to bring down the cost of small modular reactors, in hopes that mini-nuclear plants will someday join solar panels and wind turbines as crucial tools in replacing planet-warming fossil fuels.
I hope they succeed. But I’m not going to spend much time worrying about it.
Like I said earlier: Love it or hate it, nuclear is already a huge part of the nation’s power mix, including here in L.A. We’ve lived with it, almost always safely, for decades — at Palo Verde, at Washington state’s Centralia Generating Station, at the Diablo Canyon plant on California’s Central Coast. Nuclear, for all its flaws, is hardly the apocalyptic threat to humanity that its most righteous detractors make it out to be.
It’s also not the One True Solution to humanity’s energy woes, as many of its techno-optimist devotees claim it to be. There’s a reason that solar, wind and batteries made up nearly 94% of new power capacity built in the U.S. last year: They’re cheap. And although other technologies will be needed to help solar and wind phase out fossil fuels, some researchers have found that transitioning to 100% clean energy is possible even without nuclear.
So what’s the answer? Is nuclear power good or bad?
I wish it were that simple. To the extent existing nuclear plants limit the amount of new infrastructure we need to build to replace fossil fuels: good. To the extent we’re unable to eliminate pollution from uranium mining: bad. To the extent small reactors might give us another tool to complement solar and wind, alongside stuff like advanced geothermal — good, although we probably shouldn’t spend too much more taxpayer money on it yet.
Sorry not to offer up more enthusiasm, or more outrage. The climate crisis is a big, thorny problem that demands nuance and thoughtful reflection. Not every question can be answered with a snappy soundbite.
Before leaving Palo Verde, I stopped by the conference room for a last look at the paintings: Arizona. New Mexico. Texas. California. It was strange to think this plant was responsible for powering so many different places.
It was strange to think the uranium concealed beneath those domes could power so many different places.
A painting of metro Phoenix, on display at Arizona’s Palo Verde nuclear plant.
(Sammy Roth / Los Angeles Times)
This is the latest edition of Boiling Point, a newsletter about climate change and the environment in the American West. Sign up here to get it in your inbox. And listen to our “Boiling Point” podcast here.
“Selena y Los Dinos,” the latest documentary film about the life of Tejano music icon Selena Quintanilla, has been acquired by Netflix. The film is currently scheduled to begin streaming in winter 2025.
The movie, directed by Isabel Castro, features original VHS footage taken by Selena’s older sister, Suzette, and is interspersed with present-day interviews with family and friends.
Netflix announced its acquisition in a Tuesday press release.
“Through personal archive and intimate interviews with her family, the film reveals new dimensions of her journey that have never been seen before,” Castro shared in the release. “I am deeply grateful to her family for their trust and support throughout this journey, and I can’t wait for a global audience to experience the magic, heart and community that Selena gave to all of us.”
Suzette also shared her enthusiasm about the scope of the partnership with Netflix in the Tuesday announcement, stating, “Grateful to have a platform that helps bring Selena’s story to fans around the world.”
This is not the first time that the Quintanilla family has collaborated with the streaming giant. They worked with Netflix to help create “Selena: The Series” — a scripted retelling of Selena’s childhood, rise to fame and death starring Christian Serratos as the Texas singer.
It was after working as an executive producer on the Netflix series that Suzette consulted her lawyer about making her own documentary.
“There’s some things that you just want to hold on to and not share with everyone,” Suzette said at the documentary’s 2025 Sundance Film Festival premiere. “I was always taking the pictures, always with the camera. And look how crazy it is, that I’m sharing it with all of you so many years later.”
The documentary surfaces footage from performances in which Selena subverts the idea of the well-manicured image that the Quintanilla family has constantly put out of the singer in the 30 years since her death. It also captures, in real time, the evolution of a bold new identity growing among Latino youth in the 1980s, encapsulated in Los Dinos’ cultural hybridity.
The film was awarded with a special jury prize for archival storytelling at the renowned movie gathering at Sundance. The jury made note of how the feature “transported us to a specific time and place, evoking themes of family, heritage, love and adolescence.”
So badly were people clamoring to view the movie that the organizers of Sundance pulled it from its online platform. The film had fallen victim to a number of copyright infringements as eager fans were uploading clips from it to social media platforms. This was the first time that Sundance had removed a feature during the festival.
De Los assistant editor Suzy Exposito and Times staff writer Mark Olsen contributed to this report.
