Topline:
After delays due to the wildfires in L.A., nominations for the 2025 Academy Awards were announced this morning in Hollywood.
What's next: The Oscars will be broadcast live on March 2 on ABC and Hulu.
Keep reading... for the full list of nominees in 23 categories.
Emilia Pérez, Netflix's musical about a trans drug lord in Mexico, leads with 13 nominations – including nods for star Karla Sofía Gascón and Zoe Saldaña for their acting, Jacques Audiard for directing, and a nomination for Best Picture.
Wicked and The Brutalist follow with 10 nominations each, including Best Picture. Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande were both nominated for their acting in Wicked, for Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress respectively. Adrien Brody, who plays a Jewish architect who immigrates to the U.S. after World War II in The Brutalist, also got an acting nod.
The 2025 Academy Awards ceremony will be held Sunday, March 2, hosted by comedian Conan O'Brien at the Dolby Theater and comes in the wake of devastating fires in L.A. that twice delayed the announcement of nominees.
Academy leaders say the ceremony "will celebrate the work that unites us as a global film community and acknowledge those who fought so bravely against the wildfires."
Here are the nominees:
Best Picture
Directing
Actor in a Leading Role
Actor in a Supporting Role
Actress in a Leading Role
Actress in a Supporting Role
Animated Feature Film
Animated Short Film
Cinematography
Costume Design
Documentary Feature
Documentary Short
Film Editing
International Feature
Makeup and Hairstyling
Music (Original Score)
Music (Original Song)
Production Design
Live Action Short
Sound
Visual Effects
Writing (Adapted Screenplay)
Writing (Original Screenplay)
In this edition:
Local music and dance at the L.A. County Holiday Celebration, a Fiddler film at the Fine Arts Theater, a pickle-making class and more of the best things to do this Christmas week.
Highlights:
Hope your holidays are filled with the best tamales in Los Angeles, the lights of Candy Cane Lane and good times with family and friends. Christmastime in L.A. is a great week to explore the city and do some things you’d normally put off. It’s going to be a rainy one, so break out the once-a-year wellies for your holiday hike or check out a museum or two.
Music-wise, there’s more to Christmas than caroling. On Monday, Grammy-nominated R&B sensation Leon Thomas plays his first of two nights at the Wiltern (he’ll also be there Tuesday), and local legend El Vez brings his holiday revue, “El Vez & the Centuries’ Merry Mex-Mas,” with openers Santa Sabbath, to the Lodge Room. Tuesday, Guatemalan singer-songwriter and guitarist Gaby Moreno is at Zebulon, and rapper Guapdad 4000 is at the Blue Note. He will also be there on Christmas Eve. And if you’re looking for something to do on Christmas Day, electronic trance-rockers Infected Mushroom will be at Bardot.
Elsewhere on LAist.com, you can raise a glass to L.A.’s oldest wine, read up on the music of Avatar with composer Simon Franglen before heading out to see the third installment and find your favorite holiday tipple with our best Christmas cocktails in L.A. list.
Thursday, December 25, 1:30 p.m.
Fine Arts Theatre
8556 Wilshire Blvd., Beverly Hills
COST: $10; MORE INFO
If Chinese food and a movie is your usual Christmas Day go-to, maybe check out this indie documentary about Fiddler on the Roof and really lean in to Chrismukkah. The L.A. Jewish Film Festival hosts a screening of Fiddler’s Journey to the Big Screen at the Fine Arts Theatre in Beverly Hills.
Monday, December 22, 5 p.m. to 7 p.m.
Sylmar Branch Library
14561 Polk Street, Sylmar
COST: FREE; MORE INFO
Step outside the library with NASA and JPL experts who will be on hand to share views of the moon and Saturn via telescope, weather permitting. All ages are welcome to bring their curious minds and burning questions about our universe. But check the skies (and the website) before you head out: If it's cloudy, the event may be canceled.
Monday, December 22, 6 p.m. to 8 p.m.
POT Studio
3220 W. Jefferson Blvd., West Adams
COST: $50; MORE INFO
Did any of you make the pickle latkes I shared last week? If so, surely this workshop is your next step into full pickle obsession. POT & Yara Community Project will teach you how to make pickles, plus there will be pickle tasting and the chance to paint your own pickle ornament for your tree. All materials — vegetables, jars, ornaments, etc. — are provided.
Wednesday, December 24, 3 p.m.
Dorothy Chandler Pavilion
135 N. Grand Ave., Downtown L.A.
COST: FREE; MORE INFO
Spend your Christmas Eve downtown at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion — or watch the celebration live on PBS SoCal — where 20 local artists will perform, hosted by Aloe Blacc and Maya Jupiter. From dance with Le Ballet Debaya to mariachi music with the Mariachi Divas De Cindy Shea, to Christmas favorites with the L.A. Chorale, the diversity and vibrance of L.A. will be on display to usher you into the holidays.
Thursday, December 25, 10 p.m. to 2 a.m.
Los Globos
3030 Sunset Blvd., Silverlake
COST: FREE; MORE INFO
All that family time requires a dance-off. Make your way to Los Globos to turn all that sitting around eating and drinking energy into joyful movement at the club’s annual Christmas Hangover party. No actual hangover required (or even suggested!).
Through December 27, 5 p.m. to 9 p.m.
King Gillette Ranch
26800 Mulholland Hwy., Calabasas
COST: FROM $34.50; MORE INFO
It’s almost the end of the Holiday Road, so get out to King Gillette Ranch for an explosion of lights and holiday-themed fun. The mile-long walking trail is filled with lights, Santa and Mrs. Claus, candy canes, elves — you name it. It’s an over-the-top Christmas stroll, complete with holiday bar, photo ops and more.
Ongoing
Various locations
COST: FREE; MORE INFO
There’s no better way to celebrate the season than spending some time giving back. Check out the L.A. Works database for opportunities near you on and around Christmas, from bringing toys to families affected by the Eaton Fire, to helping with warm clothing drives, to serving holiday lunches and dinners.
Topline:
Street takeovers have surged in L.A. County since the pandemic lockdown in 2020, despite expanded enforcement from county leaders aimed at reducing them.
Where do these takeovers happen? A USC Annenberg analysis of social media posts, livestream footage and Sheriff’s Department data shows that the majority of takeovers in Los Angeles County happen in District 2, represented by County Supervisor Holly Mitchell. Cities and unincorporated areas from South Los Angeles to north Long Beach are the most affected by takeovers.
What happens at a street takeover? These illegal gatherings happen frequently on weekend nights throughout Los Angeles and Orange counties. Cars block major intersections and create space for other drivers to perform reckless maneuvers, including burnouts and donuts. Spectators gather around and film the events.
How are they organized? Street takeovers are highly organized by close-knit groups with assigned roles. Some are in charge of letting the crowd know on Instagram about new locations, others monitor for police activity and some acquire stolen vehicles.
Read on ... for more on this growing trend.
Dillon was just 15 years old when his uncle took him to his first street takeover.
“It was like the first time going to an amusement park,” he said. Pure exhilaration. Cars spinning. Smoke in the air. “People literally do not care.”
If you live in Southern California and you’ve never heard of a street takeover, you’ve probably heard one: Engines rev, tires screech and fireworks explode. These illegal gatherings happen frequently on weekend nights throughout Los Angeles and Orange counties. Cars block major intersections and create space for other drivers to perform reckless maneuvers, including burnouts and donuts. Spectators gather around the middle of “the pit,” filming cars spinning past with passengers hanging precariously out of windows.
Fueled by a social media feedback loop, the phenomenon took off during the pandemic, and events can attract hundreds of spectators. The crowds, often made up of minors, seek out street takeovers to find community. They know the risks, which can be deadly.
A USC reporting lab investigation found that local and state law enforcement are well aware that takeovers have surged, but they have struggled to curb them. Talk to people who live near popular takeover intersections and you will learn about scarred streets, mangled poles, looted stores, injured bystanders and tragic deaths.
Dillon was hooked after that first night in 2019. He loved the thrill of rushing away whenever the police showed up and speeding down residential streets to the next address shared in the group chat. He found new friends in the scene, brought old friends with him and often stayed out until 6 in the morning. (LAist is using a pseudonym for “Dillon,” who asked he not be named due to concerns the takeover community would be hostile if it knew he spoke with reporters.)
One night in November 2024, Dillon, then 17, was standing in the crowd at a takeover in north Long Beach when a Corvette entered the pit.
“Everybody saw him coming in hot,” Dillon said. “He was coming in hot as f--k.”
The Corvette drifted toward Dillon. He threw himself backward, only for the crowd to push him back toward the car. As the Corvette swung back toward him, Dillon jumped into the air in one last effort to avoid being hit.
“I landed, feet planted, smack on the middle of the hood,” he said. He then fell to his knees and made eye contact with the driver, who didn’t slow down. “I saw him turn the wheel more.”
The driver’s maneuver flung Dillon onto the ground, and his car spun over his arm. Dillon bounced up and ran away while other spectators followed, filming him.
“Not even my pinky would move,” he said. “I was just freaked out, like my arm might actually be gone. It was just dead.”
His friends put him into a car and sped to the emergency room, where he was sedated and sent to surgery. When he woke up, his grandparents were there, along with the police. He said he refused to give up the identity of the person who hit him and the officers left. The doctors were not optimistic about his recovery and told him he’d be very lucky if he ever got to use his arm again.
Dillon’s injury did not stay private. Footage from that night was shared and reshared across the vast network of social media accounts devoted to street takeovers. USC’s analysis shows the more violent the footage, the more traction it gets, and Dillon’s accident was gruesome. After his friends tagged him in some of the posts, his Instagram profile blew up, and he now gets as many as 1.1 million views a month.
His skin-and-bones injury made him a social media celebrity.
Takeovers are not just documented on social media; their popularity is driven by it. Hundreds of accounts on Instagram and TikTok are dedicated to takeover content, with footage livestreamed and then posted and reposted. That content creates a feedback loop, leading to more takeovers in Southern California and across the nation.
Social media posts and streams also provide plenty of data for analyzing the phenomena.
The University of Southern California’s Open-Source Intelligence (OSINT) Reporting Lab reviewed more than 500 social media videos of takeovers in Los Angeles and Orange counties. Our team determined the precise locations for 400 videos of takeovers between 2020 and 2025 and found more than a dozen repeat hotspots. The city of Los Angeles was the location of 36% of the social media content we verified, while the city of Compton accounted for 29%.
Forty-eight of the videos featured at least one person getting “smacked” by a vehicle, with 14 of those incidents involving someone getting run over.
The use of laser pointers, usually aimed at drivers, at takeover events was common, showing up in 84 videos, while fireworks appeared 30 times. Larger fires, including cars set ablaze, appeared at least another 30 times. More than 65 videos featured cars destroyed in some fashion.
In the course of our investigation, we also reviewed more than 93 hours of takeover footage posted on the streaming service Kick by livestreamer Conner Remaly. He did not respond to our interview requests, but his stream led our reporters on a Sunday night over the summer to multiple takeover spots, including the intersection of Santa Fe Avenue and Dominguez Street in Carson, where the roar of engines trumpeted the start of the action. The noise was deafening; our sound meter registered levels as high as 109 decibels, right at the threshold to cause pain.
Local residents, visibly annoyed, emerged from their homes to see the commotion. Hundreds of spectators cheered and jeered, many of them appearing noticeably under 18 years old. We observed attendees huffing nitrous oxide out of balloons and smoking weed and cigarettes. Some people shined laser pointers and lit fireworks, pointing them at the center of the action — known as the "pit" — the crowd, the sky and each other. There was a mix of distinct burnt smells: rubber, fireworks and marijuana. It was an adrenaline-charged, disorienting environment.
Takeovers like the one we witnessed are a public health issue for the surrounding community, according to Damian Kevitt, executive director of Streets Are For Everyone, an organization that advocates for pedestrian and cyclist safety.
“You can't sleep,” he said. “You can't function.”
Local businesses across Los Angeles and Orange counties suffer too.
Last year, a Compton bakery was ransacked during a takeover, and the business had to deal with more than $40,000 worth of stolen goods and damage. Some businesses, like the Felix Chevrolet near USC, have suffered damage multiple times; the dealership had its windows broken in 2024 and a takeover participant rolled away an iconic Felix statue this summer.
In our analysis of Remaly’s Kick stream, we observed 27 instances of break-ins and/or looting between June 15 and July 11, in Bellflower, Compton, Long Beach and South Los Angeles, along with the unincorporated areas of East Rancho Dominguez and Florence-Firestone.
Andrew Swank, an officer with the California Highway Patrol, told us just “being at a takeover is illegal.” He said once someone is participating in a takeover, additional illegal activity is common, adding, “It just all kind of goes downhill into the criminal element.”
Street takeovers are a California original, born from the same automotive culture that produced classic car shows, car clubs, Chicano lowriders and drag racing.
The earliest versions of street takeovers were called sideshows, and they took shape in Oakland in the 1980s. What started as informal gatherings where residents showed off their restored American muscle cars and performed stunts, soon evolved into vibrant community events.
Over time, sideshows became takeovers, spreading into the streets, influenced in part by films like Grease and The Fast and the Furious, along with the video game Grand Theft Auto V, all of which glorified street racing around Los Angeles.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, takeovers ballooned in popularity, with the scene spreading across the United States. Young people had spent so much time in lockdown “sitting and watching and not doing” that they released all that pent-up energy into the streets, said Johnathan Lawson, a car enthusiast who is working on creating a legal venue for takeovers.
According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, 15 states have enacted new laws since 2020 that target “exhibition driving,” which includes street racing and takeovers.
Here in Southern California, injuries have been common, and sometimes drivers hit many people at once.
“They call it striking, like bowling,” Dillon said. “Everybody goes flying like bowling pins.”
In November 2024, two 19-year-olds, Efrain Rodriguez and a person described as Richmond D. in court records, were run over by a driver performing donuts at a takeover in Anaheim.
An extremely graphic, close-up video of the aftermath made the rounds on social media. We were unable to track down Richmond, and Rodriguez did not respond to requests for comment, but his sister described his condition on a GoFundMe page seeking $50,000 for medical care: “Rodriguez had to recover from multiple fractures in his shoulder, hips and spinal cord” and has had many surgeries, “including skin grafting.”
They call it striking, like bowling. Everybody goes flying like bowling pins.
On the night of Christmas 2022, Elyzza Guajaca was watching a street takeover at Crenshaw Boulevard and Florence Avenue, in South Los Angeles, when she was struck by a Camaro. She was taken to the hospital and died from her injuries. She was 24 years old. The driver, Dante Chapple Young, fled the scene, but authorities tracked him down the following month in New Mexico. In August 2025, he was sentenced to 13 years in state prison for vehicular manslaughter, as well as assault with a deadly weapon, his car.
The fatalities at takeovers are not limited to drivers hitting spectators.
In November 2021, hundreds of spectators gathered for a takeover at the intersection of Bullis Road and Pine Street in Compton. Among those spectators were 22-year-old Juan Antonio Orozco and 19-year-old Javier Carachure Menchaca, both of whom were shot and killed in a car at the scene. Orozco’s body was discovered with the car door open and one foot on the ground. Menchaca’s body was found a few steps from the car. He had been shot from behind.
Karen Orozco says she still thinks about her brother every day.
“He had such a big heart,” she said. “He would always think of others before himself.”
No arrests have been made and the L.A. County Sheriff’s Department case remains open. The L.A. County Board of Supervisors is offering a $60,000 reward for information on the homicides.
To outsiders, street takeovers may appear as chaos just for the sake of chaos. The reality is more complicated — and organized.
Takeovers are not just random weekend throwdowns. They are often organized by close-knit groups of young people with assigned roles: Some send out addresses; others monitor for police activity; others are sometimes charged with acquiring “stolos,” or stolen cars; while others, known as “spinners,” drive the cars and perform the stunts. Social media is a big part of the process, with a lot of the filming done by spectators, aka “servers.”
Street safety advocates say the gatherings often attract young people who are drawn in by the thrills and stay for the sense of belonging.
“This is their support network,” said Kevitt, of the nonprofit Streets Are For Everyone. “They don’t care if it’s legal or illegal. They’re just there for camaraderie.”
Our interviews with participants confirmed this sentiment. Dillon went to takeovers to hang out with friends. We heard from other participants that the community feels like family.
Those working to curtail takeovers know that tapping into that sense of belonging has to be central to solutions.
“We’re talking about youth who have found community with each other,” said Lili Trujillo Puckett, founder of Street Racing Kills. “You have to educate them. You have to help them. You have to talk to them.”
Trujillo Puckett’s connection to the issue is personal. In 2013, her daughter was killed riding in a car that crashed during a street race.
Both Trujillo Puckett and Kevitt, of Streets Are For Everyone, are involved in L.A. County’s Street Takeover Reduction Workgroup, a collaboration between law enforcement and other organizations inside and outside of the government. The group released an action plan in February 2025, focusing on various solutions, including changes to road infrastructure and stronger legal enforcement. The most recent update of the plan was published in December 2025.
The plan calls for installing barriers at popular intersections to deter cars from a skidding maneuver known as "drifting." The estimated cost is $10,000 for each leg of an intersection.
They are not popular with takeover enthusiasts. In June, Remaly posted a video from the intersection of Atlantic Avenue and Compton Boulevard, a popular takeover spot that now has plastic barriers running along its center lanes. In the clip, he held his arm out of the car window and grabbed hold of a barrier.
“This is the s--t that ruined the spot,” he said. “We can’t have fun no more.”
Some takeovers now happen one block north at Atlantic Avenue and San Luis Street.
A few miles from that intersection, at Alameda Street and El Segundo Boulevard, California Highway Patrol officers swarmed a takeover in the early morning hours of July 12. According to CHP Capt. Joe Diaz, officers made 28 arrests and issued 16 citations that day, along with towing 25 vehicles and seizing three firearms. Diaz said the show of force was not a new approach, but Remaly and another Kick streamer were shocked by the number of patrol cars that showed up with blaring sirens and flashing lights.
“Oh, my god, there’s so many,” said Remaly, filming as he ran back to his car.
If you organize, participate or you are a spectator, you’ll face consequences. If you’re the audience, you are also contributing to the problem.
“I’m telling you right now,” one street participant said, “the police don’t do s--t at all. The only thing they do is show up, turn on their sirens, and everyone leaves.”
Participants don’t necessarily go home after the police arrive at an intersection. They often just move to the next address, or “addy,” and start up the action again. Our analysis of Remaly's Kick stream found an average of seven successful takeovers each night he filmed.
County Supervisor Holly Mitchell’s district, which extends from Koreatown to the South Bay, was the location of 74% of the takeovers on the stream. She told us she believes accountability is critical, across the board.
"If you organize, participate or you are a spectator, you’ll face consequences," she said. "If you’re the audience, you are also contributing to the problem.”
For some safety advocates, the larger solution can be found in providing youth with legal alternatives to taking over streets.
“No matter how many arrests, no matter how many times these guys go to jail, there’s always somebody new coming into the scene,” said Fabian Arroyo, longtime member of the Brotherhood of Street Racers, an organization formed in 1960s South Los Angeles to channel street racing into safe, legal events. “The best way to solve the problem is to have everybody go to a place, a venue somewhere where they can just do it legally.”
Donald Graham, the deputy chief of the Los Angeles Police Department, agrees.
“We live in a county where the city of Long Beach turns their entire downtown into a Formula One racetrack every year,” Graham told us. “So how can we not figure out a way to use the existing infrastructure to do pop-up tracks and pop-up burn boxes to allow people to express themselves in this way, but do it safely?”
In February, police arrested Erick Romero Quintana, on allegations the 22-year-old helped organize takeovers. Romero Quintana ran the Instagram account @privatemeetz, which prosectors said shared locations for 16 gatherings across South L.A. between December 2022 and November 2023.
One of the gatherings he allegedly promoted was the Christmas night takeover at Crenshaw Boulevard and Florence Avenue where 24-year-old Elyzza Guajaca was killed. Prosecutors argue Romero Quintana’s social media activity played a central role in drawing large crowds to this and other high-risk events. He is charged with 16 counts of conspiracy to commit reckless driving. If convicted, he could face more than a decade in prison.
L.A. County District Attorney Nathan Hochman discussed Romero Quintana’s case at a press conference in August and emphasized Romero Quintana was not the driver.
“He was the promoter, the social media promoter, who thought that by hiding behind his computer, by hiding behind the internet, we weren't going to find him. Maybe he thought we didn't care about what he was doing on social media to go ahead and promote this illegal, destructive and ultimately deadly type of practice. But we do care,” Hochman said.
Romero Quintana currently is banned from social media as a condition of his release and is due back in court in January. He did not respond to our request for comment, but his attorney, Bart Kaspero, said he believes the case sets a dangerous precedent.
“I’ve never seen anyone charged just for posting videos where crimes happen,” he said. “It’s kind of like passing out flyers to a house party.”
Quintana’s case is part of a larger push by L.A. officials to hold social media companies and users accountable for profiting off videos of street takeovers. County officials have contacted social media companies and asked them to remove posts that promote illegal activity. We reached out to Meta, the parent company of Instagram, but did not receive a response.
Deputy Chief Graham also spoke at Hochman’s press conference, lamenting that the city still saw three young people die this year in “street racing-related activities.” Then he called out social media executives.
“You are monetizing this criminal, dangerous and deadly behavior,” he said. “So maybe, just maybe, before you cut a check, maybe look at the content that you're sending out.”
The message driven home by Hochman, Graham and other speakers was that there will be consequences for everyone in the takeover scene: drivers, organizers and spectators.
"Enough is enough," Hochman said. “We will not yield the streets.”
The question remains whether participants will listen to that message.
“I don’t think things will change,” said Dillon, after we texted him about Hochman’s comments. He recently bought a car and is now a driver at takeovers.
Another street takeover participant wrote back, “And yet we will STILLL be outside EVERY WEEKEND.”
This story was produced by the University of Southern California’s Open-Source Intelligence (OSINT) Reporting Lab, an initiative of the Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, with editing support from LAist.
Over the course of six months, the USC team archived and analyzed 400 videos, mostly from Instagram, and watched over 93 hours of footage on the livestream service Kick. You can read about the reporting process here.
Primary reporting team:
Additional reporting support:
Editing:
Other support:
Topline:
Apple and Google are warning some U.S-based employees on visas against traveling outside of the country to avoid the risk of getting stuck coming back, as the Trump administration toughens vetting of visa applicants, according to recent internal memos from the tech companies that were reviewed by NPR.
Why it matters: For Apple and Google, which together employ more than 300,000 employees and rely heavily on highly-skilled foreign workers, the increased vetting and reports of extended delays were enough for the companies to tell some of their staff to stay in the U.S. if they are able to avoid foreign travel.
Apple and Google are warning some U.S-based employees on visas against traveling outside of the country to avoid the risk of getting stuck coming back, as the Trump administration toughens vetting of visa applicants, according to recent internal memos from the tech companies that were reviewed by NPR.
U.S. consulates and embassies have been reporting lengthy, sometimes months-long delays, for visa appointments following new rules from the Department of Homeland Security requiring travelers to undergo a screening of up to five years' of their social media history — a move criticized by free speech advocates as a privacy invasion.
For Apple and Google, which together employ more than 300,000 employees and rely heavily on highly-skilled foreign workers, the increased vetting and reports of extended delays were enough for the companies to tell some of their staff to stay in the U.S. if they are able to avoid foreign travel.
"We recommend avoiding international travel at this time as you risk an extended stay outside of the U.S.," Berry Appleman & Leiden, a law firm that works with Google, wrote to employees.
The law firm Fragomen, which works with Apple, wrote a similar message: "Given the recent updates and the possibility of unpredictable, extended delays when returning to the U.S., we strongly recommend that employees without a valid H-1B visa stamp avoid international travel for now," the memo read. "If travel cannot be postponed, employees should connect with Apple Immigration and Fragomen in advance to discuss the risks."
Apple and Google declined to comment on the advisories, which were first reported by Business Insider.
It's the latest sign of how the Trump administration's aggressive immigration policies are affecting the foreign-born workforce in the U.S.
Earlier this year, the White House announced that companies will be subjected to a $100,000 fee for all new H-1B visas, a type of visa popular among tech companies eager to hire highly skilled workers from abroad.
H-1Bs typically last three years, and applicants have to return to an embassy or consulate in their home country for a renewal, but reports suggest such a routine trip could lead to people being stranded for months as a result of the Trump administration's new policies.
On Friday, The Washington Post reported that hundreds of visa holders who traveled to India to renew their H-1Bs had their appointments postponed with the State Department explaining that officials needed more time to ensure that no applicants "pose a threat to U.S. national security or public safety."
At Google, the Alphabet Workers' Union has been campaigning for additional protections for workers on H-1B visas. Those workers would be particularly vulnerable in the event Google carried out layoffs, since losing employer sponsorship could jeopardize their legal status, said Google software engineer Parul Koul, who leads the union.
The need to support H-1B holders at Google, she said, has "only become more urgent with all the scrutiny and heightened vetting by the Trump administration around the H1B program, and how the administration is coming for all other types of immigrant workers."
Copyright 2025 NPR
Topline:
A mountain lion, tagged P-129, was recently captured near the Wallis Annenberg Wildlife Crossing construction site.
Why it matters: She is the third mountain lion to be captured through the crossing site, and the first since construction started.
Its capture at that very location substantiates the goal of the crossing itself — to create a bridge to connect the Santa Monica mountains bifurcated by the 101 for animals to roam.
Read on ... to find details about P-129 and the state of construction.
The Wallis Annenberg Wildlife Crossing in Agoura Hills isn’t slated to open until fall 2026, but there’s already been a wild discovery near the forested overpass.
National Park Service biologists recently captured and collared a female mountain lion, now named P-129, around the construction site of the forthcoming crossing.
She is the third mountain lion to be captured through the crossing site, and the first since construction started.
“The mountain lion was captured and tracked and traveling right around the Wallis Annenberg Wildlife Crossing — right in sight of it,” said Beth Pratt, Regional Executive Director of the National Wildlife Federation, one of the organizations that's managing construction of the project.
“To actually capture one right in sight of the crossing being built was pretty special,” she added.
P-129 was captured as part of the National Park Service’s Puma research project.
Scientists with the service have been studying mountain lions in the Santa Monica Mountains and the surrounding region since 2002. It’s one of the longest continuous urban mountain lion studies.
“The knowledge that the Park Service has gleaned from these decades of research [has] helped us understand how they travel and use the landscape in the Santa Monica Mountains,” Pratt told LAist.
The soon-to-be-completed wildlife crossing that will go over the 101 freeway was set in motion because of research done by the Puma project.
Although the crossing is intended for all wildlife, mountain lions are the ones most at risk from isolation caused by the freeway, said Pratt. The discovery of genetic degradation among mountain lions is what raised alarm bells that prompted the construction of the overpass.
In 2020, birth defects began manifesting in tracking data. Kink tails, only one descended testis and the degradation of sperm quality all pointed to the next inevitable development: sterility.
Indeed, Pratt said a major goal of the crossing is to bring "dates" — mating partners — for these mountain lions who are living in the Santa Monica Mountains.
The crossing has been under construction since 2022 and is on track to open next fall. The main structure over the 101 has been completed, with a habitat of native plants growing on top.
Right now, Pratt said a massive utility relocation of electricity, water and gas lines is underway.
“We have to move those utility lines out of the way, and then the secondary structure over Agoura Road is being constructed as well,” she said.
With the big unveiling in sight, the team is now taking bets on which animal will make its maiden passage next year.
“It could be [P-129], or it could be the dominant male in the area," Pratt said. "Or it could be a new cat that we don’t even know.”
