I’m not much of a fair guy — I never win at carnival games, I get dizzy as a passenger in a car, and fair food is as overrated as In-N-Out. But last week, I attended the Los Angeles County Fair for the first time ever because why not?
Besides, if Miguel Santana can be a Fairhead, so can I.
“Who’s there says a lot about us as Southern California,” Santana said of the L.A. County Fair’s audience as I exited the 10 Freeway toward the Fairplex. “It’s a sense of Americana and proof we can be diverse and American at the same time.”
I asked if this fair was as big as the Orange County Fair. He laughed the way all Angelenos do when presented with a comparison to Orange County.
“It’s enormous. You’re gonna get your 10,000 steps.”
Behold, then, this newbie’s L.A. County Fair tips:
Times columnist Gustavo Arellano at the 2025 L.A. County Fair.
(Gustavo Arellano / Los Angeles Times)
Have a Pomona homie drop you off
Fair parking is an ungodly $22.50, and don’t you dare try to leave your jalopy at nearby Ganesha Park unless you want to spend a couple hundred dollars fishing it out of some random tow truck yard. My Pomona parking hookup was faithful reader Fernando Iniguez — gracias, Fern Iggy! I owe you a Jerez sweatshirt.
Buy your tickets online
$21.50 on the internet. At the gate? $32. Um, yeah. But one big complaint, Fair lords: It took me three attempts to buy my tickets online. Ever heard of Zelle?
Feel the music
“There’s going to be so much music,” Santana told me, and he was right. Between live bands, Spotify playlists, DJs and radio stations, it was like walking through a wholesome Coachella. Bachata smoothly transitioned to Go Country went to KCRW became Taylor Swift switched over to a super-chirpy cover of the O’Jays’ “Love Train” at the Disco Chicken stand. And though Pharell Williams’ “Happy” played at least five times while I visited, the atmosphere was so cheerful that I didn’t have to scream to drown out his ode to optimism.
Hang out at the petting zoo for the best people watching
There’s nothing like seeing suburbanites who probably think meat comes from Erewhon fairies stand with terror in their eyes as bleating sheep and goats swarm them asking for pellets.
Lose yourself in the fair
How much did fairgoers live in the moment? I saw next to no one use their smartphone other than for photos. And I also noticed a middle-age white guy in a MAGA cap standing a few feet away from a Muslim family with nary a negative look at each other. They were too busy staring ahead like the rest of us at an octet of magnificent Clydesdale horses ready to pull a Budweiser wagon.
Head to the coolest section of the fair
I loved all the vegetables and livestock at the Farm & Gardens, enjoyed the trippy art at the Flower & Garden Pavilion and appreciated the juxtaposition of a lowrider show next to the Wally Parks NHRA Motorsports Museum near the Millard Sheets Art Center. But the best part of the fair was the area labeled “America’s Great Outdoors” — and I say this as someone who thinks camping and hiking are for the (literal) birds! Volunteers sawed logs with kids, taught them how to pan for gold, showed off desert reptiles and even hosted an environmental magic show. Throw in a replica of a Tongva hut and a U.S. Forest Service fire lookout tower and the nearby sound of the RailGiants Train Museum, and this is what Knott’s Berry Farm used to be before it became whatever the hell it is now.
Block off at least three hours to fully enjoy
I had to rush back to Orange County for a columna the day I visited, so I only spent an hour and a half at the fair. I had to skip the tablescape competition, didn’t go through the exhibit halls and was only able to eat at Hot Dog on a Stick because they make the best lemonade on Earth. But it was wonderful to leave the problems of the world mostly at bay for a few hours to enjoy the living, breathing Wikipedia that is a county fair at its finest — and the L.A. County Fair is definitely that.
Huge Snorlax plush toy: Next year, you’re mine.
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Today’s top stories
Wildlife biologist Carl Lackey, with the aid of a dog, chases off a California black bear that was captured and relocated to the Carson Range.
(John Axtell / Nevada Department of Wildlife)
A woman’s grisly death inflames debate over how California manages problem black bears
The proposed cut to UC dropped from $397 million in January to $130 million four months later, representing a 3% year-to-year budget cut.
For CSU, Newsom’s budget cut went from $375 million in January to $144 million, also a 3% budget reduction.
Riverside wants to become ‘the new Detroit’
What else is going on
Commentary and opinions
This morning’s must reads
Other must reads
For your downtime
(Peter DaSilva / For The Times)
Going out
Staying in
A question for you: What is your go-to karaoke song?
Alan says: “Your Man by Josh Turner.” C Price says: “The Circle Game by Joni Mitchell.”
Email us at [email protected], and your response might appear in the newsletter this week.
And finally … your photo of the day
Kaj Betts, son of Dodgers infielder Mookie Betts, runs away with the ceremonial first pitch ball as they celebrate Mookie Betts’ Bobble Head night at Dodger Stadium.
NEW YORK — R&B singer Cassie was forced under cross-examination Thursday to read aloud explicit messages with her former boyfriend Sean “Diddy” Combs, some of which expressed enthusiasm for sex with other men at Combs’ behest that she previously testified she “hated doing.”
Lawyers for Combs are seeking to show the jury that Cassie was a willing participant in his sexual lifestyle and say that, while he could be violent, nothing he did amounted to a criminal enterprise. Combs has pleaded not guilty to federal sex trafficking and racketeering charges.
Prosecutors say he exploited his status as a powerful music executive to violently force Cassie and other women to take part in these drug-fueled encounters with sex workers, called “freak-offs,” which sometimes lasted days. He’s also accused of using his entourage and employees to facilitate illegal activities, including prostitution-related transportation and coercion, which is a key element of the federal charges.
Messages between Combs and Cassie — both romantic and lurid — were the focus of the fourth day of testimony in a Manhattan courtroom. Defense attorney Anna Estevao read what Combs wrote, while Cassie recited her own messages.
Cassie, whose legal name is Casandra Ventura, read messages to Combs containing graphic details about what she wanted to do during the freak-offs. At one point, she asked for a short break from the readings, which Judge Arun Subramanian granted.
In August 2009, Combs asked when she wanted the next encounter to be, and she replied “I’m always ready to freak off.” Two days later, Cassie sent an explicit message and he replied in eager anticipation. She responded: “Me Too, I just want it to be uncontrollable.” Combs’ lawyers have insisted that all the sex at the freak-offs was consensual.
Later that year, however, she also sent Combs messages that she was frustrated with the state of their relationship and needed something more from him than sex.
While reading their more affectionate conversations, Cassie testified that Combs was charismatic, a larger-than-life personality.
“I had fallen in love with him and cared about him very much,” Cassie said. Estevao spoke gently during the cross-examination, which had such a friendly tone at times that the lawyer and witness seemed like two friends chatting.
Cassie, however, did complain once that jurors weren’t hearing the full context of the messages the defense was highlighting, saying, “There’s a lot we skipped over.”
A packed courtroom watches Cassie’s testimony
As the messages were read, Combs appeared relaxed at the defense table, sitting back with his hands folded and his legs crossed. The courtroom was packed with family and friends of Combs, journalists, and a row of spectator seats occupied by Cassie’s supporters including her husband.
The 38-year-old Cassie — who is in the third trimester of pregnancy with her third child — has been composed on the witness stand. She cried several times during the previous two days of questions by the prosecution, but for the most part has remained matter-of-fact as she spoke about the most sensitive subjects.
The Associated Press does not typically name people who say they have been sexually abused unless they come forward publicly, as Cassie has.
During a break, Combs stood at the defense table, huddling with his lawyers, holding a pack of Post-It notes in one hand and a pen in the other. At one point, he turned to the gallery and acknowledged a few reporters who were studying his demeanor. “How you doing?” he asked.
Combs’ daughters were not in the courtroom Thursday as the explicit messages were read and shown to the jury.
Jurors leaned forward in their seats to follow along as the messages were displayed on monitors in front of them in the jury box. One woman shook her head as a particularly explicit message was shown. A man stared intently at the screen, pressing his thumb to his chin. Other jurors appeared curious and quizzical, some looking at Cassie or jotting notes.
Cassie rejects ‘swingers’ label
Cassie’s testimony on cross-examination was in contrast to Wednesday, when she described the violence and shame that accompanied her “hundreds” of encounters with male sex workers during her relationship with Combs, which lasted from 2007 to 2018.
While prosecutors have focused on Combs’ desire to see Cassie having sex with other men, she testified that she sometimes watched Combs have sex with other women. She said Combs described it as part of a “swingers lifestyle.”
Estevao asked Cassie directly whether she thought freak-offs were related to that lifestyle.
“In a sexual way,” Cassie responded, before adding: “They’re very different.”
Cassie said Tuesday that Combs was obsessed with a form of voyeurism where “he was controlling the whole situation.” The freak-offs took place in private, often in dark hotel rooms, unlike Combs’ very public parties that attracted A-list celebrities.
She testified she sometimes took IV fluids to recover from the encounters, and eventually developed an opioid addiction because it made her “feel numb” afterward.
When questioned by Estevao, Cassie agreed that Combs once communicated to drug dealers in Los Angeles to stop delivering drugs to her, and he suggested she get treatment. Cassie said Combs wanted her to do drugs with him only, not friends.
Cassie’s lawsuit sparked case against Combs
Cassie testified Wednesday that Combs raped her when she broke up with him in 2018, and had locked in a life of abuse by threatening to release videos of her during the freak-offs.
She sued Combs in 2023, accusing him of years of physical and sexual abuse. Within hours, the suit was settled for $20 million — a figure Cassie disclosed for the first time Wednesday — but dozens of similar legal claims followed from other women. It also touched off a law enforcement investigation into Combs that has culminated in this trial.
Combs, 55, has been jailed since September. He faces at least 15 years in prison if convicted.
Sisak and Neumeister write for the Associated Press. The AP’s Julie Walker in New York and Dave Collins in Hartford, Conn., contributed to this report.
And it came at the expense of the Dodgers’ longest-tenured position player.
In a major midseason roster shuffled Wednesday, the club called up Rushing, the big-hitting catcher who was ranked as the top prospect in their organization, and designated backup catcher Austin Barnes for assignment, closing the book on Barnes’ two-time title-winning tenure in Los Angeles while opening a new one on Rushing’s highly anticipated MLB career.
It’s no surprise that Rushing, a 2022 second-round pick out of the University of Louisville, is getting a crack at the majors. Over four minor-league seasons, the catcher slugged his way through the farm system by batting .277 with 54 home runs, 185 RBIs and a .931 OPS. After winning the organization’s minor league player of the year award last year, Rushing opened this season in triple-A Oklahoma City, hitting .308 in 31 games and ranking seventh in the Pacific Coast League with a .938 OPS. Even back this spring, manager Dave Roberts said Rushing’s bat was big-league ready.
“Pretty excited, obviously,” Rushing said from the Dodgers Stadium dugout on Wednesday afternoon, fresh off his first batting practice after arriving in the Southland in the afternoon. “Any person is gonna be excited in this situation. I think the biggest thing is just get around these guys and be as comfortable as possible. Understand that it’s still the same game, and I get to play with some of the best players in the world.”
No. 1 Oklahoma City vs. No. 4 Denver Nuggets Denver 121, at Oklahoma City 119 (box score) at Oklahoma City 149, Denver 106 (box score) at Denver 113, Oklahoma City 104 (OT) (box score) Oklahoma City 92, at Denver 87 (box score) at Oklahoma City 112, Denver 105 (box score) Thursday at Denver, 5:30 p.m., ESPN Sunday at Oklahoma City, 12:30 p.m., ABC*
No. 6 Minnesota Timberwolves vs. No. 7 Golden State Golden State 99, at Minnesota 88 (box score) at Minnesota 117, Golden State 93 (box score) Minnesota 102, at Golden State 97 (box score) Minnesota 117, at Golden State 110 (box score) at Minnesota 121, Golden State 110 (box score)
Eastern Conference
No. 1 Cleveland vs. No. 4 Indiana Indiana 121, at Cleveland 112 (box score) Indiana 120, at Cleveland 119 (box score) Cleveland 126, at Indiana 104 (box score) at Indiana 129, Cleveland 109 (box score) Indiana 114, at Cleveland 105 (box score)
No. 2 Boston vs. No. 3 New York New York 108, at Boston 105 (OT) (box score) New York 91, at Boston 90 (box score) Boston 115, at New York 93 (box score) at New York 121, Boston 113 (box score) at Boston 127, New York 102 (box score) Friday at New York, 5 p.m., ESPN Monday at Boston, 5 p.m., TNT*
*if necessary
ANGELS
Xander Bogaerts hit a three-run homer in the first inning and Randy Vásquez pitched six innings of four-hit ball in the San Diego Padres’ 5-1 victory over the Angels on Wednesday night.
Manny Machado extended his hitting streak to 13 games with two hits and two walks as the Padres took two of three from the Angels.
Brandon Lockridge added a two-run single in the eighth for San Diego, which has won 10 of 14 to keep pace with the Dodgers in the NL West.
The Rams will open their 2025 season on Sept. 7 against the Texans at SoFi Stadium, a presumably comfortable start to a 17-game schedule that will see the Rams travel the second-most air miles in the NFL.
The NFL announced the full schedule on Wednesday, and the Rams in the first seven weeks will board flights for the majority of the 34,832 miles they will travel for games against opponents in the NFC West, NFC South, NFC East and AFC South, including one in London.
The Rams, who advanced to the NFC divisional round last season, are regarded as a Super Bowl contender.
Sept. 7, HOUSTON, 1:25 p.m. (CBS) Sept. 14, at Tennessee, 10 a.m. (CBS) Sept. 21, at Philadelphia, 10 a.m. (Fox) Sept. 28, INDIANAPOLIS, 1:05 p.m. (Fox) Oct. 2, SAN FRANCISCO, 5:15 p.m. (Amazon Prime) Oct. 12, at Baltimore, 10 a.m. (Fox) Oct. 19, at Jacksonville in London, 6:30 a.m. (NFL Network) Oct. 26, off week. Nov. 2, NEW ORLEANS, 1:05 p.m. (Fox) Nov. 9, at San Francisco, 1:25 p.m. (Fox) Nov. 16, SEATTLE, 1:05 p.m. (Fox) Nov. 23, TAMPA BAY, 5:20 p.m. (NBC) Nov. 30, at Carolina, 10 a.m. (Fox) Dec. 7, at Arizona, 1:25 p.m (Fox) Dec. 14, DETROIT, 1:25 p.m. (Fox) Dec. 18, at Seattle, 5:15 p.m. (Amazon Prime) Dec. 29, at Atlanta, 5:15 p.m. (ESPN) Week 17, ARIZONA, TBD (TBD)
CHARGERS
From Thuc Nhi Nguyen: As Jim Harbaugh said last year in preparation for an extended road trip: Bring the board games and snacks.
This will be a long ride.
The Chargers will cover the most air miles of any NFL team in 2025, traveling more than 37,000 miles, according to Bookies.com. The itinerary starts with a trip to Sao Paulo to face AFC West rival Kansas City on Sept. 5 in the NFL’s second regular-season game played in South America.
The season opener is the first of three consecutive divisional games to kick off the Chargers’ second year under Harbaugh. The AFC West added former Seahawks and USC coach Pete Carroll in Las Vegas, where the Chargers will play at 7 p.m. PDT on Sept. 15 in a “Monday Night Football” showcase. It’s one of five prime-time games for the Chargers.
From Ben Bolch: In his later years, John Wooden liked to muse about one oddity of his first 12 years as UCLA’s basketball coach.
His paychecks were always signed by the student body president.
One of those presidents, Rafer Johnson, also played for Wooden, meaning that Johnson in effect could have been considered his coach’s boss.
The arrangement stemmed from an ethos that gave UCLA students a large measure of control over their own campus from the 1920s through the late 1950s. The students ran the campus bookstore, the cafeteria and intercollegiate athletics, all of it managed by an organization called Associated Students UCLA that was overseen by a student-majority board of directors.
Change came after a dispute about abandoning the Pacific Coast Conference as the result of a scandal involving payments to players. The University of California regents, irked by the lack of direct authority that the chancellors at UCLA and sister school UC Berkeley had over the intercollegiate athletic programs at each campus, decided that starting in the summer of 1960, the athletic departments at each campus would be university departments reporting directly to their respective chancellor. That move came with the mandate that each athletic program was considered an auxiliary enterprise similar to campus parking and housing, with the expectation that they would be similarly self-sustaining.
Tai Baribo scored two second-half goals, including the winner in stoppage time, and the Philadelphia Union rallied to beat the Galaxy for the first time at home with a 3-2 victory on Wednesday night.
The Galaxy (0-9-4) continued the worst start by a defending champion in MLS history despite Diego Fagúndez becoming the eighth player in league history to reach 75 goals and 75 assists in a career.
Baribo scored in the sixth minute of stoppage time after tying the match 2-2 with a goal in the 50th for the Union (8-3-2), who are on a five-match unbeaten run. Baribo has a league-leading 10 goals this season.
From Kevin Baxter: The weather is starting to heat up and so is LAFC, which ran its unbeaten streak to a season-best six games Wednesday with a 4-0 win over the Seattle Sounders at BMO Stadium.
The four goals, which marked a season high for LAFC, came from Cengiz Under, Jeremy Ebobisse, Denis Bouanga and Yaw Yeboah, and goalkeeper Hugo Lloris made three saves to earn his second clean sheet in three games. It was his league-leading sixth shutout of the season.
LAFC went in front to stay in the 26th minute on Under’s second MLS goal, a left-footed strike from well outside the box that appeared to hit a Seattle defender before one-hopping past keeper Andrew Thomas, who was making his second start of the season.
That’s apparently the conclusion the Kings came to in their search for a general manager because they chose Ken Holland, the architect of an Edmonton Oilers team that knocked the Kings out of the Stanley Cup playoffs in the first round in each of the last four seasons.
Holland, 69, will replace Rob Blake, who stepped down last week. The Kings made the playoffs five times in eight seasons under Blake, a former Hall of Fame defenseman, but lost in the first round each time. The team hasn’t won a playoff series since the 2014 Stanley Cup Final, a record 11-year drought for the franchise.
“As we did our due diligence, we identified Ken as the absolute best option and acted decisively to make him our general manager,” Kings president Luc Robitaille said in a statement Wednesday. “His track record of success is undeniable and after our conversations with him, we were clearly convinced he was the right person for us at this time.
Pacific 1 Vegas vs. Pacific 3 Edmonton Edmonton 4, at Vegas 2 (summary) Edmonton 5, at Vegas 4 (OT) (summary) Vegas 4, at Edmonton 3 (summary) at Edmonton 3, Vegas 0 (summary) Edmonton 1, at Vegas 0 (OT) (summary)
C1 Winnipeg vs. C2 Dallas Dallas 3, at Winnipeg 2 (summary) Winnipeg 4, at Dallas 0 (summary) Dallas 5, at Winnipeg 2 (summary) at Dallas 3, Winnipeg 1 (summary) Thursday at Winnipeg, 6:30 p.m., TNT Saturday at Dallas, TBD* Monday at Winnipeg, TBD, ESPN*
Eastern Conference
Atlantic 1 Toronto vs. Atlantic 3 Florida at Toronto 5, Florida 4 (summary) at Toronto 4, Florida 3 (summary) at Florida 5, Toronto 4 (OT) (summary) at Florida 2, Toronto 0 (summary) Florida 6, at Toronto 1 (summary) Friday at Florida, TBD, TNT Sunday at Toronto, TBD, TNT*
Metro 1 Washington vs. Metro 2 Carolina Carolina 2, at Washington 1 (OT) (summary) at Washington 3, Carolina 1 (summary) at Carolina 4, Washington 0 (summary) at Carolina 5, Washington 2 (summary) Thursday at Washington, 4 p.m., TNT Saturday at Carolina, TBD* Monday at Washington, TBD, ESPN*
* If necessary
THIS DAY IN SPORTS HISTORY
1937 — War Admiral, ridden by Charles Kurtsinger, battles Pompoon from the top of the stretch and wins the Preakness Stakes by a head.
1948 — Citation, ridden by Eddie Arcaro, wins the Preakness Stakes by 5½ lengths over Vulcan’s Forge.
1952 — Johnny Longden becomes 2nd jockey to ride 4,000 winners.
1953 — In his first world heavyweight title defense, Rocky Marciano KOs former champion Jersey Joe Walcott in the 1st round at Chicago Stadium.
1963 — Tottenham Hotspur of England win 3rd European Cup winner’s Cup against Atlético Madrid of Spain 5-1 at Rotterdam.
1971 — Canonero II, ridden by Gustavo Avila, captures the Preakness Stakes by 1½ lengths over Eastern Fleet.
1985 — Everton of England wins 25th European Cup Winner’s Cup against Rapid Wien of Austria 3-1 in Rotterdam.
1990 — Petr Klima scores at 15:13 of the third overtime to end the longest game in Stanley Cup Final history for the Edmonton Oilers — a 3-2 series-opening victory over the Boston Bruins in a game delayed 25 minutes because of a lighting problem.
1991 — Manchester United of England win 31th European Cup Winner’s Cup against FC Barcelona 2-1 in Rotterdam.
1994 — LPGA Championship Women’s Golf, DuPont CC: Laura Davies of England wins her second major title, 3 strokes ahead of runner-up Alice Ritzman.
1998 — Notah Begay III joins Al Geiberger and Chip Beck as the only players to shoot a 59 on a U.S. pro tour. He does it at the Nike Old Dominion Open.
1999 — Charismatic wins the Preakness and a chance to become the 12th Triple Crown champion, finishing 1½ lengths ahead of Menifee. It’s the 12th Triple Crown race victory for trainer D. Wayne Lukas.
2002 — 10th UEFA Champions League Final: Real Madrid beats Bayer Leverkusen 2-1 at Glasgow.
2003 — The three-year championship reign of the Lakers ends. Tim Duncan has 37 points and 16 rebounds, and Tony Parker adds 27 points to help the San Antonio Spurs overpower the Lakers 110-82 to win the Western Conference semifinal series 4-2.
2004 — With one breathtaking surge, Smarty Jones posts a record 11½-length victory in the Preakness. Rock Hard Ten, in his fourth start, finishes strong for second ahead of Eddington.
2005 — Annika Sorenstam cruises to a 10-stroke win in the Chick-fil-A Charity Championship, finishing with a 23-under 265 total, matching the biggest 72-hole win of her career.
2010 — English FA Cup Final, Wembley Stadium, London (88,335): Chelsea beats Portsmouth,1-0; Didier Drogba scores 59′ winner; Blues’ 6th title.
2011 — Finland scores five late goals to beat Sweden 6-1 and claim its second title at the hockey world championships. The Finns also beat rival Sweden in the 1995 final.
2011 — English FA Cup Final, Wembley Stadium, London (88,335): Chelsea beats Portsmouth,1-0; Didier Drogba scores 59′ winner; Blues’ 6th title.
2015 — Stephen Curry scores 32 points, including a 62-footer to end the third quarter, and Golden State advances to its first Western Conference finals since 1976 by beating Memphis 108-95. The Warriors the first team since 1985 to hit 14 or more 3s in three consecutive playoff games.
2016 — PGA Players Championship, TPC at Sawgrass: World #1 and reigning PGA Champion Jason Day of Australia leads wire-to-wire to win by 4 strokes ahead of Kevin Chappell.
THIS DAY IN BASEBALL HISTORY
1918 — Washington’s Walter Johnson pitched a 1-0, 18-inning victory over Lefty Williams of the Chicago White Sox, who also went the distance.
1919 — After 12 scoreless innings, Cincinnati scored 10 runs off Al Mamaux in the 13th to beat the Brooklyn Dodgers 10-0.
1933 — The major leagues advance the cut-down date a month, limiting rosters to 23 players today instead of June 15th.
1935 — Lou Gehrig steals home in a 4-0 Yankee win over the Tigers. It is his 15th and last steal of home, all of which were double steals.
1941 — Joe DiMaggio began his 56-game hitting streak against Chicago’s Eddie Smith, going 1-for-4 with one RBI.
1944 — Clyde Shoun of the Reds tossed a no-hitter against the Boston Braves for a 1-0 victory in Cincinnati. Chuck Aleno’s only home run of the year was the difference.
1951 — At Fenway Park, the Red Sox celebrate the 50th anniversary of their first American League game in Boston.
1952 — Detroit’s Virgil Trucks pitched the first of his two no-hitters for the season, beating the Washington Senators 1-0. Vic Wertz’s two-out homer in the ninth off Bob Porterfield won the game.
1960 — Don Cardwell became the first pitcher to throw a no-hitter in his first start after being traded. The Chicago Cubs beat the St. Louis Cardinals 4-0 at Wrigley Field.
1973 — Nolan Ryan of the Angels pitched the first of a record seven no-hitters, beating the Kansas City Royals 3-0. Ryan tossed his second gem two months later.
1978 — His 7th-inning, two-run homer moves Willie Stargell past the late Roberto Clemente into sole possession of second place on Pittsburgh’s all-time RBI list, his total of 1,307 now trailing only Honus Wagner’s 1,475.
1981 — Len Barker of Cleveland pitched the first perfect game in 13 years as the Indians beat the Toronto Blue Jays 3-0 at Municipal Stadium.
1993 — The Montreal Expos retired their first number, No. 10 for Rusty Staub.
1996 — Chicago outfielder Tony Phillips went into the stands to confront a heckling fan during the White Sox’s 20-8 victory at Milwaukee. Phillips, who already had changed into street clothes after being taken out of the game in the sixth inning, went after a 23-year-old fan in the left-field bleachers.
2005 — Morgan Ensberg hit three home runs and finished 4-for-4 with five RBIs in Houston’s 9-0 victory over San Francisco.
2005 — New York’s Tino Martinez hit two homers and drove in three runs in the Yankees’ 6-4 win over Oakland. The two homers gave Martinez eight homers in his last eight games.
2018 — Two days after being sidelined by a broken bone in his hand, 2B Robinson Cano of the Mariners is suspended for 80 days for testing positive for a banned substance in violation of Major League Baseball’s Joint Drug Prevention and Treatment Program.
2019 — Pitcher Edwin Jackson makes history by playing for his 14th team when he starts today’s game for the Blue Jays against the Giants.
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.
Denise McKinney says she has probably somewhere close to half a million matchbooks tucked away inside her Riverside home.
She’s been collecting for years and will typically pick up whatever strikes her fancy, no pun intended. She has specialties now, like matchbooks with animals on them or matchbooks that advertise radio and TV stations, but she says her biggest collection by far is books from Southern California, including vintage motel matchbooks.
The motel turns 100. Explore the state’s best roadside havens — and the coolest stops along the way.
The president of the Angelus Matchcover Club says she likes matchbooks because of how they reflect a region’s history. She’s grabbed books that tout Route 66 attractions or places from her Orange County hometown.
Matchbook collectors Olivia Frescura, Robert Donnelson, Denise McKinney and Cheryl Crill.
(Amanda Villegas / For The Times)
This year marks the 100th anniversary of the motel, a concept that originated with the Milestone Mo-Tel in San Luis Obispo (later renamed the Motel Inn). Though it didn’t become widely known until after World War II, “motel” is essentially a portmanteau for “motor hotel,” or a lodging place where the rooms could be entered through the parking lot rather than through a central lobby.
To get travelers in the door, motels used gimmicks to stand out among the stiff competition, like neon signs and themed decor, but also promotional materials like free postcards and pocket-sized matchbooks. With the 100th anniversary in mind, we wanted to look back at some of Southern California’s motel history as seen through collectors’ matchbooks. These books represent just a small fraction of the thousands of motels that have operated in the region but are a great place to start.
SACRAMENTO — One of the many traits that set California apart from other states is the way undocumented immigrants are woven into our communities.
Their economic impact is obvious, and the Golden State would be hard-pressed to keep our status as a world-competing financial power without their labor.
But most Californians know, and are OK with the reality, that at least some of our neighbors, our kids’ classmates, our co-workers, are without legal documents, or in blended-status families.
Gov. Gavin Newsom took a stand Wednesday for those undocumented Californians that seems to have gone largely unnoticed, but which probably will be a big fight in Congress and courts. In his bad news-filled budget presentation, Newsom committed to keeping state-funded health insurance for undocumented residents (with cuts, deep ones, which I’ll get to). Although some are disappointed by his rollbacks, many of which will hit citizens and noncitizens alike, standing by California’s expansion to cover all low income people is a statement of values.
“We’ve provided more support than any state in American history, and we’ll continue to provide more support than any state in American history,” he said.
Sticking with that promise is going to be tough, and likely costly.
This decision comes as Congress considers a Trump-led budget bill that would severely penalize states (there are 14 of them) that continue to provide health insurance to undocumented immigrants. California, of course, has the largest number of such folks on its Medi-Cal plan and would be the hardest hit if that penalty does indeed become the new law — to the tune of $27 billion over six years, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.
To put that in perspective, the governor is now estimating a nearly $12-billion budget shortfall this year. That federal cut would add at least $3 billion a year to our costs once it hits.
That federal cut, Newsom said, was “not anticipated in this budget,” which means we are ignoring it for the time being.
Federal programs aren’t open to noncitizens, and no federal dollars are used to support California’s expansion of healthcare to undocumented people.
But Congress is threatening an approximately 10% cut in reimbursements to states that insure undocumented people via the Medicaid expansion that was part of the Affordable Care Act. That expansion allows millions of Americans to have access to healthcare.
Those expansion funds are working in ways that many don’t know about. For example, as Newsom pointed out, behavioral health teams doing outreach to homeless people are funded by Medicaid dollars.
In all, about one-third of Californians rely on Medi-Cal, including millions of children, so this threat to cut federal funds is not an empty one, especially in a lean year.
Katherine Hempstead, a senior policy advisor for the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, which advocates for universal healthcare, said that the bill being debated by Congress is so full of cuts to healthcare that arguing against the provision penalizing coverage for undocumented people may not be a priority for most Democrats — making it more likely that the cut will get through.
“I don’t know if this is going to be a do-or-die issue,” she said.
Gov. Gavin Newsom presents his revised 2025-26 state budget during a news conference Wednesday in Sacramento.
(Rich Pedroncelli / Associated Press)
And indeed, the pressure by Republicans to kill off coverage entirely for undocumented folks was quick.
“Gov. Newsom has only partially repealed his disastrous policy,” Rep. Kevin Kiley (R-Rocklin) said in a statement. “ It needs to be reversed entirely, or Californians will continue to spend billions on coverage for illegal immigrants and our state will lose an even larger amount in federal Medicaid funding.”
Newsom has given economic reasons for sticking with the state’s coverage for all low-income residents, regardless of status. When people don’t have access to routine care, they end up in emergency rooms and that is extremely expensive. And also, Medicaid has to cover that emergency care, so taxpayers often end up spending more in the long run by skimping on upfront care.
“It’s definitely important to the people that get the coverage because they don’t really have an alternative,” Hempstead said.
But that care has been vastly more expensive than California expected, also to the tune of billions of dollars in unexpected costs, in part because so many people have signed up.
To the dismay of many, Newsom’s budget reflects both recent economic woes — a $16-billion revenue hit caused by what he’s dubbing the “Trump slump” — as well as the state vastly understimating the cost of covering those undocumented folks.
That shortfall may force cuts in the coverage that undocumented people qualify for if the Legislature goes along with Newsom’s plan, or even parts of it.
Most notably, it would cap enrollment for undocumented adults age 19 and over in 2026, effectively closing the program to new participants. That’s a huge hurt. His plan also calls for adding a $100 per month premium, and other cuts such as ending coverage for the extremely popular and expensive GLP-1 weight loss drugs for all participants.
“I don’t want to be in this position, but we are in this position,” Newsom said.
Amanda McAllister-Wallner, executive director of Health Access California, called those cuts “reckless and unconscionable” in a statement.
“This is a betrayal of the governor’s commitment to California immigrants, and an abandonment of his legacy, which brought California so close to universal healthcare,” she said.
I strongly believe in universal single-payer healthcare (basically opening up Medicare to everyone), so I don’t disagree with McAllister-Wallner’s point. In better days, I would hope to see enrollment reopen and benefits restored.
But also, we’re broke. This is going to be a year of painful choices for all involved.
Which makes Newsom’s, and California’s, commitment to keep insurance for undocumented people notable. The state could back down under this real federal pressure, could try to find a way to claw back the benefits we have already given.
But there’s a moral component to providing healthcare to our undocumented residents, who are such a valuable and vital part of our state.
Although the fiscal realities are ugly, it’s worth remembering that in providing the coverage, California is sticking with some of its most vulnerable residents, at a time when it would be easier to cut and run.
The Mexico City native came to Los Angeles as a 13-year-old and enrolled at St. Turibius School near the Fashion District, working at Magee’s Kitchen in the Farmers Market to pay his tuition, room and board. “I had this dream to come to the United States for education,” Toscano told The Times in May 1953. “Not for the dollars, not to work in the camps for 65 cents an hour.”
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Why was The Times profiling a 16-year-old Mexican immigrant? Because he was about to get deported. Politicians, the press and private citizens had been railing against “illegal immigration” and pushing President Eisenhower for mass deportations. Officers received a tip that Toscano was in the country illegally.
This young migrant’s story struck a chord in Southern California in a way that’s unimaginable today
Newspaper accounts noted that immigration authorities — struck by Toscano’s pluck and drive — made sure that his deportation didn’t go on his record so he could legally return one day. A Van Nuys News and Valley Green Sheet columnist wrote, “We must have immigration laws — but they’re not designed for folks like Joe.”
Meanwhile, The Times’ editorial board — not exactly known back then for its kind attitude toward Mexican Americans — argued that Toscano shouldn’t be deported, making the case that laws “should perhaps be tempered a trifle in the face of principles and actions which are of such sterling worth as to be beyond the object of the law itself.”
Toscano legally returned to Los Angeles three months later, living with a white family in Whittier that sponsored him and enrolling at Cathedral High. “As I continue to study the history of your country in school,” he wrote to The Times that September, “I shall remember that what you did for me is one of the things that makes this country of yours so great.”
His story was such a feel-good tale that it appeared in Reader’s Digest and the local press checked in on Toscano for years. The Mirror, The Times’ afternoon sister paper, reported on his 1954 wedding, the same year that immigration officials deported over a million Mexican nationals under Operation Wetback, a program that President Trump and his supporters say they want to emulate today.
Two years later, The Times covered Toscano’s graduation from Fairfax High, where he told the crowd as the commencement speaker that he wanted to become an American citizen “so that I, too, can help build a greater America.”
After a three-year stint in the Marines, Toscano did just that in 1959, changing his legal name from Jose to Joseph because he felt “it’s more American that way,” he told the Mirror. He told the paper he had dreams of attending UCLA Law School, but life didn’t work out that way.
Lessons for today
The last clipping I found of Toscano in The Times is a 1980 Farmers Market ad, which noted that he was a widower with two daughters still working at Magee’s but had advanced from washing dishes to chief carver.
“He’s a happy man who likes his work,” the ad said, “and it shows.”
Rereading the clips about Toscano, I’m reminded of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the Salvadoran national who established a life for himself in this country before he was deported in March despite a judge’s order that he be allowed to remain in the United States.
This time around, immigration officials and the Trump White House have insisted Abrego Garcia deserved his fate, sliming him as a terrorist and MS-13 member despite no evidence to back up their assertions.
Toscano’s story shows that the story can have a different ending — if only immigration officials have a heart.
Today’s top stories
People enjoy pleasant spring weather while sailing in Newport Harbor. Orange County is one of three SoCal counties where single earners with six-figure salaries could soon be considered “low income.”
(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)
‘Low income’ but making $100,000 per year
Newsom walks back free healthcare for eligible undocumented immigrants
The governor’s office said his spending plan, which will be released later this morning, calls for requiring all undocumented adults to pay $100 monthly premiums to receive Medi-Cal coverage and for blocking all new adult applications to the program as of Jan. 1.
The cost of coverage for immigrants has exceeded state estimates by billions of dollars.
California joins another lawsuit against Trump
California Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta filed two lawsuits Tuesday challenging a Trump administration policy that would deny the state billions of dollars in transportation grants unless it follows the administration’s lead on immigration enforcement.
Rams owner Stan Kroenke will build a movie studio next to SoFi Stadium in Inglewood that will serve as the international broadcast center for the 2028 Olympic Games.
Construction will start by summer on the studio and production facility that will house hundreds of broadcasters from around the world that have acquired rights to cover the Summer Games in Los Angeles, Kroenke’s company said Tuesday.
After the Games, the facility known as Hollywood Park Studios will be used to make movies, television shows and other productions and perhaps host live broadcasts.
The development is part of Hollywood Park, a multibillion-dollar complex built on the site of a former horse racing track also known as Hollywood Park that includes the stadium, apartments, theaters, offices, shops and restaurants.
Kroenke’s organization hopes that attention from the Olympics will boost Hollywood Park Studios’ appeal as a future entertainment production center.
“We want it to be recognized around the world,” said Alan Bornstein, who is overseeing development of the studio for Kroenke.
The studio is part of Hollywood Park’s master development plan focusing on media, entertainment and technology, Bornstein said, anchored by SoFi Stadium, YouTube Theater and the NFL Media office building.
“There has been an increasing convergence of media and technology and sports, all under the notion of entertainment that is now distributed in in multiple channels,” Bornstein said, “whether it’s through streaming or whether through broadcast television or movies in theaters,”
The first phase of Hollywood Park Studios will occupy 12 acres and will consist of five soundstages, each 18,000 square feet, two of which may be opened to a single 36,000-square-foot stage.
The complex will have a three-story, 80,000-square-foot office building to support stage, production and postproduction activities. The studios will have a dedicated open base camp where trucks, equipment and actors’ trailers could be placed, along with a parking structure for 1,100 cars. Future development could include as many as 20 stages and 200,000 square feet of related office space.
The additional stages would be built to suit for future tenants as demand emerges, Bornstein said, who declined to estimate how much the studio complex will cost.
Although demand for soundstages outstripped supply a few years ago, production has recently slowed and dampened the current need for them.
A rendering of the Hollywood Park Studios broadcast center and movie production facility.
(Gensler)
Last year, the average annual occupancy rate dropped to 63%, a further indication of Hollywood’s sustained production slowdown, according to a recent report by FilmLA, a nonprofit organization that tracks on-location shoot days in the Greater Los Angeles area.
That was a decline from 2023, which saw an average regional occupancy rate of 69%. That was the year when dual strikes by writers and actors crippled the local production economy for months.
The foray into Hollywood-level production facilities is part of Kroenke’s goal to combine sports, entertainment and media from around the world, Bornstein said.
In addition to the Rams, Kroenke is owner of the Denver Nuggets basketball team, the Colorado Avalanche hockey team, the Colorado Rapids soccer team, the Colorado Mammoth lacrosse team and Arsenal Football Club, the Premier League soccer team based in London.
SoFi Stadium, where the Chargers also play football, will be converted into the largest Olympic swimming venue in history during the Games in 2028. It will host the Olympic opening ceremony with the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, as well as the opening ceremony for the Paralympic Games.
Kroenke is also a major real estate developer and landlord. The 300-acre Hollywood Park project is one of the largest mixed-use developments under construction in the western United States. SoFi Stadium alone cost $5 billion to build.
Last month, he also unveiled plans for a new Rams headquarters on a 100-acre site at Warner Center in Woodland Hills that would include a residential and retail community intended to be the centerpiece of the San Fernando Valley. It could cost more than the total price of Hollywood Park, which has been valued by outside observers at more than $10 billion.
Creating a second epicenter in Woodland Hills allows the Rams to significantly increase the size of their footprint in the Southern California market.
“When you’re looking to do a practice facility, you don’t need to be right in the middle of everything, and typically that real estate is very expensive,” Kroenke told The Times. “We built an identity in the Valley, with Cal Lutheran, and a lot of our players and families are up there. Our experience was really good.”
Architecture firm Gensler spearheaded the design for the Warner Center headquarters and Hollywood Park Studios. Clayco will be the general contractor for the studio, with Pacific Edge acting as project manager. Financing was arranged by Guggenheim Investments.
Times staff writer Sam Farmer contributed to this report.
Bob Worsley has solid conservative credentials. He’s anti abortion. A fiscal hawk and lifelong member of the Mormon Church. As an Arizona state senator, he won high marks from the National Rifle Assn.
These days, however, Worsley is an oddity, an exception, a Republican pushing back against the animating impulses of today’s MAGA-fied Republican Party.
Here’s how he speaks of immigrants — some of whom entered the United States illegally — and those who seek to demonize them.
“We have people that are aristocratically living in another world,” Worsley said. “Maybe they work for you, but you haven’t really lived with them and understand they’re not criminals. They are good people. They’re family people. They’re religious people. They are great Americans…. So I think that’s a problem if you don’t live with them and you’re making policy.”
If that line of reasoning is too mawkish and bleeding-heart for your taste, Worsley makes a more pragmatic argument for a generous, welcoming immigration policy, one unsentimentally rooted in cold dollars and cents.
“The Trump Organization needs workers, hospitality workers, construction workers,” Worsley said. “The horse-breeding industry, the horse-racing industry, they need these people. The pig farmers, the chicken farmers.”
Worsley owns a Phoenix-based modular housing firm and is chairman of the American Business Immigration Coalition, an organization representing more than 1,700 chief executives and business owners nationwide. Their exceedingly ambitious goal: to find compromise and a middle ground on one of the most contentious and insoluble issues of recent decades — and to bring some balance to a Trump policy that is almost wholly punitive in its nature and intent.
“We are employers … and we don’t have a workforce. We need this workforce,” Worsley said. “And building a wall and stopping all immigration is not going to work, because the water will rise until it comes over.”
A serial entrepreneur before he entered politics, Worsley doesn’t favor throwing the U.S.-Mexico border open to all comers. The “lines between countries” should mean something, he said. But now that America’s borders have been practically sealed shut, fulfilling one of President Trump’s major campaign promises, Worsley suggests it’s past time to address another part of the immigration equation.
“What we need is bigger portals, bigger legal openings to come through the border,” Worsley said, likening it to the way a spillway releases pressure behind a dam. “We need a secure workforce as much as we need a secure border.”
The immigration issue was Worsley’s impetus to enter politics. Or, more specifically, the scapegoating and vilification of immigrants that prefigured Trump and his “poisoning the blood of our country” Sturm und Drang.
Worsley, speaking at a 2017 legislative meeting in Phoenix, entered electoral politics to fight anti-immigrant policies
(Bob Christie / Associated Press)
Worsley, whose ventures included founding the SkyMall catalog — a pre-Amazon everything store — was coaxed into running to thwart the return of former Arizona Senate President Russell Pearce, who was recalled by voters in part for his fiercely anti-immigrant lawmaking. (Worsley beat him in the 2012 GOP primary, then won the general election.)
As a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Worsley did his youth missionary work in Paraguay, Uruguay, Argentina and Brazil. “I developed a certain level of comfort and love for the people down there,” Worsley said.
Moreover, the experience colored his perspective on those impoverished souls who traverse borders in search of a better life. A person can’t empathize “unless you’ve actually walked in their shoes, lived in their homes, eaten their food and socialized with them,” Worsley said via Zoom from his home office in Salt Lake City. “And I think that’s a problem.”
He left the Arizona Senate — and electoral politics — in 2019, vexed and frustrated by the rise of Trump and the anti-immigrant wave he rode to his first, improbable election to the White House.
“It was really irritating because I had fought this in Arizona a decade before,” Worsley said. “And so to have this kind of comeback on a national stage was incredibly frustrating.”
He moved part time to Utah, to be closer to his extended family. He wrote a book, “The Horseshoe Virus,” about the immigration issue; the title suggested the convergence of the far left and far right in the country’s long history of anti-immigrant movements.
He became involved with the American Business Immigration Coalition, recruited by Mitt Romney, the GOP’s 2012 presidential nominee, whom Worsley knew through politics and a mutual friendship with Arizona’s late senator, John McCain. Worsley became the board’s chairman in January.
He’s still no fan of Trump, though Worsley emphasized, “I am still a Republican and would vote for a Mitt Romney or John McCain kind of Republican.”
That said, now that the border is under much tighter control, Worsley hopes Trump will not just seek to round up and punish those in the country illegally but also focus on a larger fix to the nation’s dysfunctional immigration system — something no president, Democrat or Republican, has accomplished in nearly 40 years.
It was 1986 when Ronald Reagan signed sweeping legislation that offered amnesty to millions of long-term residents, expanded certain visa programs, cracked down on employers who hired illegal workers and promised to harden the border once and for all through stiffer enforcement — a pledge that, obviously, came to naught.
“Once you’ve secured the border and you don’t have caravans of people coming toward us, then you can address [the question of] what’s the pragmatic solution so that this doesn’t happen again?” Worsley asked. “We’re hopeful that’s where we’re going next.”
Good morning. I’m Gustavo Arellano, columnista, writing from Orange County and watching my tomato seedlings grow. Here’s what you need to know to start your day.
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Montebello’s ex-mayor turns to Orange County
Frank Gomez was born to be an L.A. County politician.
That’s why people were surprised in 2013 when Gomez — by then a Montebello council member who had served a year as mayor — announced he was leaving L.A. County altogether to marry his current wife.
“I had the choice between politics and love,” said the 61-year-old during a recent breakfast in Santa Ana. “It was an easy choice.”
Gomez couldn’t stay away from politics for long
Today, Gomez leads STEM initiatives for the Cal State system and is also the chair of the Central Orange County Democratic Club, which covers Orange, Tustin, parts of unincorporated Orange County “and a few voters in Villa Park,” Gomez told me with a chuckle.
He’s headed the Central O.C. Dems since last year, and has grown them from about 60 members to over 300. Soft-spoken but forceful, Gomez likes to apply his background as a chemistry professor — “We need to be strategic and analytical” — in helping to build a Democratic bench of elected officials in a region that was a long a GOP stronghold before becoming as purple as Barney the Dinosaur.
I knew Gomez’s name but didn’t realize his L.A. political background until we met last month. That makes him a rare one: someone who has dabbled in both L.A. and Orange county politics, two worlds that rarely collide because each considers the other a wasteland.
As someone who has covered O.C. politics for a quarter century but has only paid attention to L.A. politics in earnest since I started with The Times in 2019, I have my thoughts about each scene’s differences and similarities. But what about Gomez?
From one cutthroat political scene to another
“In L.A., it’s Democrats against Democrats,” he replied. “It’s not like I didn’t know” what to expect when moving to O.C., he said. “But it’s the difference between Fashion Island and the Citadel.”
He thought his days in politics were over until 2022, when his stepson — who had interned with longtime Irvine politico Larry Agran — urged him to run for a seat on the Tustin City Council.
Opponents sent out mailers with photos of garbage cans and graffiti and the message, “Do not bring L.A. to Tustin,” a political insult introduced to Orange County politics that year by Dist. Atty. Todd Spitzer.
“Those gated communities still try to keep their unsaid redlining,” Gomez said. “It wasn’t like that in L.A. politics because there was no place for it.”
Racist L.A. City Hall audio leak notwithstanding, of course.
Trying to topple O.C.’s last remaining GOP congressmember
Gomez unsuccessfully ran last year for a seat on the Municipal Water District of Orange County. He now plans to focus his political energies on growing the Central O.C. Dems and figuring out how to topple Rep. Young Kim, O.C.’s last remaining GOP congressmember. In the meanwhile, he will continue his political salons at the Central O.C. Dems’ monthly meetings at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Tustin — I was on the hot seat in April, and upcoming guests include coastal O.C. Assemblymember Cottie Petrie-Norris, O.C. supervisorial candidate Connor Traut and former congressmember and current California gubernatorial candidate Katie Porter.
“It’s like being in the classroom,” Gomez said as he packed up his leftovers. “All I do is ask the questions and keep it flowing.”
He smiled. “Johnny Carson on intellectual steroids.”
Today’s top stories
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem arrives for a Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Homeland Security oversight hearing on Thursday on Capitol Hill in Washington.
(Julia Demaree Nikhinson / Associated Press)
The Trump administration will investigate L.A. County
The administration announced Monday that it has launched an investigation into California’s Cash Assistance Program for Immigrants.
The state program provides monthly cash benefits to elderly, blind and disabled noncitizens who are ineligible for Social Security benefits because of their immigration status.
Newsom urges cities to ban homeless camps
The governor’s plan asks localities to prohibit persistent camping and encampments that block sidewalks.
This is an escalation from last year, when Newsom ordered California agencies to clear homeless camps from state lands.
How to understand the recent trade deals
Inside the investigation into faulty evacuation alerts during the wildfires in January
On Jan. 9, residents across the region received a wireless emergency alert urging them to prepare to evacuate.
Meanwhile, western Altadena, where 17 people died, got its evacuation order many hours after the Eaton fire exploded.
What else is going on
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This morning’s must reads
Black nationalist leader Malcolm X, left, and Louis Farrakhan, chief minister of the Nation of Islam’s Boston mosque, right, attend a rally at Lennox Avenue and 115th Street in the Harlem section of New York in 1963.
How can we make this newsletter more useful? Send comments to [email protected].
For your downtime
The Pasadena Playhouse
(Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times)
Going out
Staying in
A question for you: What’s your favorite karaoke song?
Peg says: “David Bowie’s Life on Mars!” Paul says “My Way.” (We’re assuming he means by Frank Sinatra)
Keep the suggestions coming. Email us at [email protected], and your response might appear in the newsletter this week.
And finally … your photo of the day
Wet Magazine Issue 3 from October/November 1976
(Photography and design by Leonard Koren)
Today’s great photo is from the archives: Leonard Koren began documenting L.A. bathing culture back in 1976 with Wet magazine, which featured contributions from David Lynch, Debbie Harry and Ed Ruscha.
Have a great day, from the Essential California team
Gustavo Arellano, California columnist Karim Doumar, head of newsletters
Bad Bunny and Fuerza Regida just made history for Spanish-language music. As of this week, the Puerto Rican artist’s “Debí Tirar Más Fotos” and the San Bernardino group’s “111XPANTIA” became the first-ever Spanish-language albums to simultaneously sit at Nos. 1 and 2 on the Billboard 200 album chart.
Fuerza Regida’s album, which dropped May 2, debuted in the No. 2 spot on the chart. According to Billboard, it became the highest-charting música regional album and Spanish-language album by a group or duo.
Bad Bunny’s wide-spanning love letter to his beloved Puerto Rico — “Debí Tirar Más Fotos” — regained the top spot in the charts after he released a vinyl edition of the album. It was previously sitting in the seventh position on the Billboard 200 and has lingered in the top 10 since it debuted on Jan. 5.
Bad Bunny announced a 23-date stadium tour in support of the album that will kick off Nov. 21 in the Dominican Republic, followed by shows in Costa Rica, Mexico, Colombia, Peru, Chile and Argentina. There are currently no U.S. dates scheduled for the tour.
“111XPANTIA,” Fuerza Regida’s ninth studio album, released under Rancho Humilde and Street Mob Records, marks the group’s return to its original corrido style, in contrast to its last album, 2024’s “Pero No Te Enamores,” which explored more electronically-geared genres like Jersey club, drill and house music.
The album title itself, “111XPANTIA,” is made up of two parts: the first is a palindrome, “111,” which some call an “angel number,” or a sign of luck; the second part stems from the Nahuatl word for manifestation, “ixpantia.”
“The meaning of this album is to manifest an idea, to think your dreams into reality and to prove something through the power of the mind and the concept of the law of attraction,” said Fuerza Regida frontman Jesús Ortiz Paz, a.k.a. JOP, in a press release.
MaxPreps.com records date to the 2004-05 school year, documenting Reseda High’s baseball team posting one losing record after another. There was 1-18 in 2006, 3-11 in 2013, 3-13 last season.
With at least 20 years of losing records, the Regents have stunned the City Section this season, winning the Valley League with an 11-1 record and going 12-7 overall to earn a No. 13 seed in the City Section Division II playoffs that begin on Tuesday.
Moving from the Valley Mission League has given the Regents relief, but credit also goes to second-year coaches Daniel Swartz and Albert Silvera, former Beverly Hills High teammates from the 1980s who took over a losing program. Silvera was a chef, Swartz a sports producer and together, they’ve helped create a success story.
Teaching a baseball class in the fall got the team better prepared for the spring season, enabling 11 seniors to be part of a special year.
Senior Don Barajas leads the team in hitting with 33 hits, including 10 doubles. He also has struck out 59 in 31 innings.
Reseda used to be part of the West Valley League in the 1990s, having to face Chatsworth and El Camino Real.
…. Southern Section baseball and softball pairings will be announced on Monday.
This is a daily look at the positive happenings in high school sports. To submit any news, please email [email protected].
I was unreasonably elated to discover that the Pasadena Playhouse is test-driving a program that offers Saturday childcare during the May 24 matinee of “A Dolls House, Part 2,” starring Jason Butler Harner and Elizabeth Reaser.
The program is open to kids 5 to 12 and offers theater-based activities inspired by the play and led by Playhouse teaching artists. The cost is $20 per child — far less than what a parent would pay for a sitter for the afternoon — and the group fun takes place on site while parents watch the show.
Here’s hoping more theaters develop similar programs. For so many parents, childcare is the No. 1 barrier to attending live shows and cultural events. A good sitter will set you back $15 to $25 per hour, plus tip. Add the cost of tickets, parking and even a modest dinner out, and a night on the town easily soars past $300.
Pasadena Playhouse is suited to hold such a program since it already runs youth theater classes and has a wonderful group of artists who regularly teach children. (Full disclosure: My daughter attends these classes.) But I can imagine a world in which other theaters, classical music groups and dance troupes begin offering similar programs. They would pay dividends in ticket sales and patron loyalty. There is no more grateful a human than a parent given a much-needed break.
I’m arts and culture writer Jessica Gelt. I came for the childcare and stayed for the show. Here’s this week’s roundup of arts news.
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‘Jeffrey Gibson: the space in which to place me’
(Matthew Cavanaugh/For The Times)
With opening-weekend crowds behind us, now is an excellent time to experience Jeffrey Gibson’s show at the Broad museum, which Times contributor David Pagel noted in his recent profile has the Gibson artworks that wowed visitors at the 2024 Venice Biennale: “a giant, stylized bird, festooned with thousands of glistening beads; a laser-sharp painting, composed of up to 290 supersaturated colors; an array of lavishly patterned flags, from places no one has ever visited; or an evocative phrase, lifted from a novel, a pop song, a poem or a document, such as the U.S. Constitution.” Note that the museum, usually free, is staging this as a special exhibition with admission of $15.
Through Sept. 28, closed Mondays. The Broad, 221 S. Grand Ave., downtown L.A. thebroad.org
‘Cooley High’
Writer Susan King started a 2019 L.A. Times article with this great lede:
Robert Townsend, the acclaimed director of such films as 1987’s “Hollywood Shuffle” and 1991’s “The Five Heartbeats,” got his start in the biz as a teenager with a one-line role in the 1975 African American teen dramedy “Cooley High.”
“The movie changed my life,” recalled Townsend in a recent interview. “I remember after I made the movie and it finally premiered in the theater in downtown Chicago, I started to cry. It was like this is my life. … [Director] Michael Schultz really changed the landscape of cinema for people of color. He was the first one to paint with that brush of truly being human. We had never seen a movie where there was a young Black man talking about that he wanted to be a writer.”
On Monday, you’ll have the chance to see “Cooley High” on the big screen. The event at the Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood includes a Q&A with Schultz and actors Glynn Turman and Lawrence Hilton-Jacobs, moderated by Townsend.
The nonprofit Printed Matter returns with the eighth installment of its fair, which has drawn tens of thousands of fans with booths selling limited-edition prints, handcrafted artist books and obscure titles by small presses. (For a visual sampler, check out Carolina A. Miranda’s amusing photo tour from years ago.) The celebration, formerly held at the Museum of Contemporary Art’s Geffen Contemporary, this year moves to ArtCenter College of Design in Pasadena. Although the location is different, much of the programming will be the same, including live music performances and the discussion series “The Classroom.”
6-9 p.m. Thursday, 1-7 p.m. Friday, 11 a.m.-7 p.m. Saturday, 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Sunday (first two hours Sunday is a mask-required period). ArtCenter South Campus, 870 and 950 S. Raymond Ave., Pasadena. laabf2025.printedmatterartbookfairs.org
Culture news and the SoCal scene
Remnants of the old Japanese American fishing village on Terminal Island that may be demolished to make way for Port of Los Angeles expansion projects.
(Al Seib / For The Times)
America’s most endangered historic places
The only two surviving buildings from Terminal Island’s days as a thriving Japanese American fishing village in the early 1900s have been placed on the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s 2025 list of America’s 11 most endangered historic places. The buildings are in danger of being razed by the Port of Los Angeles, and the hope is that the visibility afforded by the list will help preservation efforts. After the bombing of Pearl Harbor, Terminal Island was the first place from which Japanese Americans were uprooted and sent to government camps such as Manzanar in the Owens Valley.
NEA grants canceled
The Trumpadministration is attempting to eliminate the National Endowment for the Arts in its latest budget proposal, and the NEA recently sent a wave of letters to arts organizations across the country canceling grants. Center for the Art of Performance at UCLA, South Coast Repertory, Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, the Industry and L.A. Theatre Works are just some of SoCal nonprofits that got the bad news last week. The loss of this longstanding funding has left many organizations scrambling.
Participatory theater
Features columnist Todd Martens participated in the fourth Immersive Invitational, an interactive theater experience that gives participating companies 48 hours to create a 10-minute production and perform it multiple times on the event’s final day. “With the limited time frame, participating theater crews have to quickly establish a place and a sense of purpose, lending the audience, which must immediately contort to their role as actors, a call to action,” writes Martens of the fast-paced and joyful proceedings.
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Terracotta tiles in Jackie Castillo’s installation evoke the used building materials tossed from a roof, their value and history destined for a dumpster.
(Jeff McLane / ICA LA)
The latest show at Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, is from an artist who has long been compelled by the visible and invisible labor of immigrant communities. Times contributor Tara Anne Dalbow notes how Castillo’s work draws attention to the workers responsible for building construction, maintenance and repair. “Beneath the facade of every home, school, business and community center lie layers of material meaning and memory that bear forth records of the minds and hands that envisioned and assembled them,” Dalbow writes.
Wednesdays-Sundays through Aug. 31. ICA LA, 1717 E. 7th St., L.A. theicala.org
South Coast Rep’s upcoming season
South Coast Repertory announced a 2025-26 season lineup that includes Edward Albee‘s “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf” and Yasmina’s Reza‘s “God of Carnage,” running from late January to March in rotating repertory.
The season opens this September with the jukebox musical “Million Dollar Quartet,” featuring the music of Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis and Carl Perkins. That’s followed by the Lloyd Suh play “The Heart Sellers,” about the chance connection between two immigrant women, one Filipino and one Korean, preparing a Thanksgiving meal. Also on the schedule: SCR’s “A Christmas Carol” tradition, carried on for the 45th year; the Karen Zacarias musical “Cinderella: A Salsa Fairy Tale,” part of the Theatre for Young Audiences and Families programming; two world premieres opening in April, “Fremont Ave.” by Reggie D. White and a second title to be announced later; and “Hershey Felder, Beethoven,” in June 2026, and the one-night-only “Hershey Felder’s Great American Songbook Sing-Along,” on June 14, 2026. More details and production dates are at scr.org.
A few more news bits
Los Angeles Youth Orchestrais holding auditions for new members on Saturday and Sunday at First Presbyterian Church, 4963 Balboa Blvd., Encino. Applicants must have had at least two years of private instruction on their instrument. LAYO has more than 100 student musicians from more 50 schools in the region.
The National Children’s Chorus under Artistic Director Luke McEndarfer has partnered with Compton Unified School District in establishing scholarship-funded vocal training classes at Compton High School. The classes, which began this semester, take place three times per week and include ensemble singing, vocal technique, music theory, sight-singing and performance practice.
Leave it to Baltimore to stage the absurdly funKinetic SculptureRace, hosted by the American Visionary Art Museum. This year’s 25th anniversary event featured a massive pink dog sculpture, “Fifi,” that was part of a group of wild creations to be pushed, biked and otherwise maneuvered on a 15-mile long race track.
— Jessica Gelt
And last but not least
The president and director of the Art Institute of Chicago is taking time off while the museum investigates a news report that he began stripping off his clothes on a flight from Chicago to Munich after drinking alcohol and taking prescription meds.
