Topline:
Videos of the LA Kings playing music from the HBO Max queer sports romance ‘Heated Rivalry are racking up millions of views throughout social media. The team’s social media manager called the show “the greatest gift to hockey.”
Read on … to hear more on how the Kings are capitalizing on the show’s pop culture craze.
The impact of HBO Max queer sports romance show Heated Rivalry continues its blaze across pop culture. Last month, the show’s co-stars Hudson Williams and Connor Storrie were the torchbearers for the Winter Olympics and presented the best supporting actress award at the Golden Globes. Later this month, Storrie is slated to host Saturday Night Live.
The show’s impact has also hit the ice.
In January, the ticketing platform Seatgeek reported a rise in National Hockey League ticket sales that coincided with the release of the show. In that span, the ticketing site saw a 9% increase in single-ticket sales, which the site reports is the highest it's ever been for the NHL. Stubhub, another ticket platform, reported a 40% interest in hockey tickets since the show first aired.
In an attempt to tap into the moment the show is having, LA Kings music director Dieter Ruehle has been playing music from the show live at the games. Fans took to Instagram and TikTok sharing videos of t.A.T.u.'s hit “All the Things She Said” and Wolf Parade’s “I’ll Believe in Anything” at the games. It’s a trend that multiple teams in the league are tapping into, including the Seattle Kraken.
“I've been a hockey fan since I was a kid, and I've noticed the growth of the game,” Ruehle said. “However…in recent times whenever I click on social media, there's posts about, ‘oh, we're going to our first hockey game.’ And I think that's so awesome.”
Ruehle says he finds “tremendous joy” in seeing the crowd’s reaction when he plays the songs at the games.
"I'm glad that the show is bringing that to hockey,” he says. “It's pretty phenomenal quite frankly, and I'm just glad to be part of it when I [play] some of the songs from the show."
The show’s creators, Jacob Tierney and Brendan Brady, also collaborated with the Kings in a video where they were live mic’d for two periods of a January 16th game against the Anaheim Ducks.
Since the show came out, Kings senior manager of social content Alec Palmer says there’s been an uptick in influencers coming to the Kings games.
“The fact this [show] was about hockey or set in this hockey world was like the greatest gift to hockey,” Palmer says. “It has gotten so many people exposed to the sport.”
The impact of the show is also felt through people who play the sport.
Since the show’s release, former hockey player Jesse Kortuem publicly came out and, in part, credited Heated Rivalry for his decision. Kortuem played in the Cutting Edges, an LGBTQ+ hockey association in Vancouver.
“I loved the game, but I lived with a persistent fear,” Kortuem wrote in a Facebook post. “I wondered how I could be gay and still play such a tough and masculine sport.”
Fans have long criticized the sport for not being a safe space for queer folks. In 2023, the NHL created controversy with their decision to ban rainbow-colored “pride tape” on the rink and a separate ban on Pride-themed jerseys during warmups.
“ I think this show has really brought all of those things back up to light and forced people to look in the mirror and have those conversations,” Palmer said, speaking in a personal capacity.
Palmer says the real work comes with engaging with the community through workshops with coaches on inclusive language, hosting community pride nights and supporting LGBTQ+ friendly teams like the Los Angeles Blades.
“ That's where you're making that impact in real life,” he says, “and how we're setting the next generation up to be successful.”
Topline:
Many Southern California cities and institutions are dropping big, grabby news today — from the city of Irvine going "pickle-ball" only, to the Huntington Botanical Gardens announcing it'll be bottling the scent of the famed corpse flower as a perfume.
Why now: Before you go "what the what" — remember today's the first day of April.
Read on ... to find a roundup of some of the April Fools' jokes from your city and local trusted institutions.
Many Southern California cities and institutions are dropping big, grabby news today. Before you go "what the what" — remember, it's the first day of April.
Here's a roundup of some of the April Fools' news dump items.
Irvine announced that it'll be converting all tennis courts into pickleball courts by 2027. That's one notch for Team Pickleball in the ongoing turf war between tennis lovers and pickleball players over the fight for court space to engage in their beloved sport.
"Starting today, April 1, all tennis courts are being converted to pickleball courts as part of a citywide effort to make Irvine a pickleball-only City by 2027," the post stated. "We don’t just think this is a good idea … we dink it’s a great one."
Catch that? They "dink" it's a great idea.
Over in Long Beach, Mayor Rex Richardson announced the city's reigning royalty, the Queen Mary, will be renamed after another queen.
"After careful consideration, I am proud to announce that the Queen Mary will officially be renamed the RMS Queen Latifah," he said. "Long Beach is stepping into a new era as a major music destination — with a new amphitheater, a deep cultural legacy, and a future built on sound. It’s only right that our most iconic Queen reflects that energy."
In real-real news, LBC native and everyone's favorite Olympics commenter Snoop Dogg is headlining the grand opening show of the Long Beach Amphitheater in June. That's the new waterfront venue near the RMS Queen Latifah.
Suspense writer James Patterson has more than 200 novels to his name, selling more than 450 million copies. If anyone deserves his own namesake branch, it would be Patterson, no?
The Los Angeles Public Library certainly dinks so, announcing today the James Patterson Canoga Park branch, "with wall to wall Patterson books and programming centered around this prolific author."
The opening of the corpse flower has become an annual event at the Huntington Botanical Gardens. The event brings legions hoping to get a whiff of the famed flower's "pungent aroma."
The San Marino institution announced that it's bottling the scent, as part of its new "The Huntington's Stank Collection."
"A musky gym sock note opens this unique fragrance, with a sweet, rotten-egg base to ground it. Smells like you – but smellier," the post explained.
Pasadena Humane got in on the fun with a special event — today only — where you can adopt a rock.
"Adoption ROCKS! And today only, you can adopt a friend you won't take for granite," the message said.
Topline:
Southern California is home to a vast array of vintage boutiques, thrift stores, and resale shops. Here are the hottest recommendations from our most avid thrifters.
Open on every third Sunday of the month, the flea market houses 400 vendors.
For if you’re looking for something more curated. Located in Frogtown.
Several locations throughout Orange County, including Costa Mesa and Aliso Viejo.
Palm Springs is a apparently a thrifting hot spot. This thrift chain has locations throughout the Coachella Valley.
Read more... for lots of other secondhand spots.
Los Angeles may not be the fashion capital of the world, but it could contend for best thrift, at least in our humble opinion!
The key is knowing where to look.
Here are some of the best thrift and resale stores in different parts of Southern California according to our listeners and (very stylish) LAist colleagues.
The pinnacle of Pasadena and open every third Sunday of the month, the flea market houses 400 vendors with goods ranging from antique furniture to unique second-hand clothing.
1570 E. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena
For high-end designer clothing, Dee in Pasadena, who likes handbags, recommends the consignment boutique, Ritz Resale.
“I found a Coach bag that I paid about $19 for that I use all the time,” she said.
2028 E. Villa St., Pasadena
If you’re looking for more affordable clothing and household items, Delaine Ureño, LAist senior institutional giving officer, frequents Hotbox Vintage in South Pasadena.
1125 Mission St., South Pasadena
This thrift shop in San Pedro is owned and operated by the Peninsula Chapter of National Charity League and comes recommended by Mel in the South Bay, who says proceeds support local charities and scholarship funds.
353 W. 6th St., San Pedro
If you’re ever in Lincoln Heights, Sarah Steinman, LAist's membership manager, encourages people to check out her neighborhood thrift store.
2701 N. Broadway, Los Angeles
This thrift store rec near Elysian Park comes from Lulu in Glendale, who says shoppers can grab a cute pair of pants along with unique furniture to put them in.
210 N. Avenue 21, Los Angeles
“Full of treasures and benefits the Hollywood Health Clinic, which is a few doors down,” said Malka Fenyvesi, LAist's major gifts officer.
3506 Sunset Blvd., Los Angeles
LAist's Lucie Russo recommends The Left Bank in Frogtown if you’re looking for something more curated.
2479 Fletcher Dr., Los Angeles
Anything on Long Beach’s aptly named Retro Row is worth hitting, according to AirTalk producer Manny Valladares. His favorite spot is Far Outfit. They have unique finds mostly from the early 2000s with a self-described “weird” factor.
2020 E. 4th St., Long Beach
With several locations throughout Orange County, including Costa Mesa and Aliso Viejo, LAist reporter Yusra Farzan recommends Laura’s House, noting they have a great curated collection and proceeds help domestic violence victims.
23635 El Toro Road, Suite F, Lake Forest
Old Towne Orange is home to many great thrift stores and antique malls. If you’re looking for some good streetwear and sports jerseys, Timeless Vintage is a good choice. They have a great selection of 90s Looney Tunes and Disney graphic tees as well.
110 1/2 S. Glassell St., Orange
Another O.C. favorite is a fairly new addition to downtown Fullerton. Retropolis has a wide selection of apparel, but I like to go there for their chunky 80s sweaters and colorful jackets.
206 N. Harbor Blvd., Fullerton
“[Eco Thrift] has really good discount days on top of already affordable clothing,” said Dañiel Martinez, LAist’s Weekend Edition producer. “Tons of good vintage and designer finds hidden in the racks.”
1190 S. Garey Ave., Pomona
“I went to Palm Springs where they have some of the best thrifting,” said AirTalk listener Monica in Artesia. She bought a pair of Ferragamo shoes for just $8.
Kevin Tidmarsh, LAist’s All Things Considered producer, specifically recommends Revivals, a thrift chain with locations throughout the Coachella Valley.
611 South Palm Canyon Drive, Palm Springs
Topline:
Some of Los Angeles’s most iconic eateries — Papa Cristo’s in Pico-Union, Guerrilla Tacos in Downtown and French eatery TAIX in Echo Park — have closed their doors, prompting hand-wringing about the decline of the city’s rich and diverse food scene. But those closures obscured a more notable achievement; 758 new restaurants opened last year, surpassing the previous record set in 2024, when 729 restaurants opened.
Self service and delivery apps: The explosion of digital-order services has rewritten the business model for restaurants, which are now operating with less space, reduced staff and tighter margins. Many of the new eateries do much of their business from behind a screen — either through self-service tablets or off delivery apps such as DoorDash, GrubHub and Uber Eats.
Ghost kitchens: Ghost kitchens, or private kitchens used exclusively for delivery and takeout, have become a business model of their own. At Beverly Bites, 56 restaurants operate out of one facility serving the densely populated Beverly Hills and Beverlywood neighborhoods, though not all of them are open simultaneously. At Echo Park Eats, 40 restaurants are now within a five minute walk of Dodger Stadium.
Some of Los Angeles’s most iconic eateries — Papa Cristo’s in Pico-Union, Guerrilla Tacos in Downtown and French eatery TAIX in Echo Park — have closed their doors, prompting hand-wringing about the decline of the city’s rich and diverse food scene.
But those closures obscured a more notable achievement; 758 new restaurants opened last year, surpassing the previous record set in 2024, when 729 restaurants opened.
The split-screen view of dining in Los Angeles is part of a broader transformation that is reshaping the industry nationwide.
The explosion of digital-order services has rewritten the business model for restaurants, which are now operating with less space, reduced staff and tighter margins. Many of the new eateries do much of their business from behind a screen—either through self-service tablets or off delivery apps such as DoorDash, GrubHub and Uber Eats.
So-called “limited-service” restaurants now account for nearly a third of all newly opened establishments. The number of traditional, or full-service, restaurants has also been growing, hitting 539 openings in 2025, and a record-high 587 the year before. If you count the number of coffee, smoothie and snack joints, the numbers rise even further.
Many of Los Angeles’s restaurateurs are adapting to this burgeoning business model. Last year, Liz Gutierrez turned her pop-up restaurant, Fiorelli Pizza, into a small brick-and-mortar location in Beverly Grove with just a couple of stools at a counter for seating. As she saw restaurants closing their doors, the advantages of the new business model quickly dawned on her.
“This was something that could be operated with minimum labor, it could be way more manageable in terms of fixed costs and expenses, and we could still deliver restaurant-quality [food],” Gutierrez said.
The bevy of new food establishments opening their doors is a lone bright spot in an otherwise bleak economic picture: The total number of new businesses opening in the city is nearly half what it was a decade ago. That is driven in part by some of the same forces, such as Amazon.com, Inc. and other online retailers that put pressure on businesses operating out of traditional storefronts.
But the flourishing restaurant industry has been able to buck that trend so far. While Amazon can deliver clothes and even groceries, it still can’t deliver a fresh pizza or poké bowl.
Linchi Kwok, a hospitality management researcher at Collins College of Hospitality Management at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona, said a lack of interest in working in the hospitality industry, paired with rising labor costs, has pushed restaurant owners to find cost-effective workarounds to run their operations with fewer people.
“Limited-service restaurants don’t have to hire many people to do the work. It saves labor costs, saves space, and saves the service turn-around time. They don’t have to worry about it,” Kwok said.
Restaurants must share a portion of their already slim profit margins—usually between 2-4% in L.A.—with an app service and the driver. To offset that, restaurants have cut down on staff, letting go of waiters, hostesses and dishwashers, many of whom are no longer needed when orders are increasingly being delivered in disposable containers.
Despite the record number of openings, running a restaurant in the city has not gotten any easier. Jot Condie, president and chief executive of the California Restaurant Association, noted that in 2024 taxable restaurant revenue hit $11 billion, which, when adjusted for inflation, is on par with 2012 levels.
“The piece of the pie that each restaurant gets is slimmer.”
Condie also said that the hollowing out of entertainment work, increased presence of Immigration and Customs Enforcement and stricter regulations “are conspiring against the L.A. restaurant scene.”
Condie said that regulations from city hall, such as stricter labor oversight and a proposal for a $30 minimum wage for some workers, are making it even tougher.
“The business environment is bad generally in L.A., but the city council and the mayor seem to be throwing salt in the wound.”
As the number of new restaurant openings has spiked, so have the number of closings reported to the city. However, business closure figures are not as reliable as business opening data, as some establishments close without reporting it to the city. Since 2021, 593 full- and limited-service restaurants have reported closing, compared with 3,148 openings.
Jimmy Chu spent several years working in fine dining, which inspired him to start his own restaurant. He knew it would be expensive. Rather than opening another fine-dining establishment, he opted for a limited-service restaurant where customers could order at the counter, no waiters involved.
Chu quit his job by the end of 2024, and in May 2025, he opened Bomb Hot Dog in Downtown Los Angeles. He estimates that his eatery gets roughly a third of its customers through mobile delivery orders.
Ghost kitchens, or private kitchens used exclusively for delivery and takeout, have become a business model of their own. At Beverly Bites, 56 restaurants operate out of one facility serving the densely populated Beverly Hills and Beverlywood neighborhoods, though not all of them are open simultaneously. At Echo Park Eats, 40 restaurants are now within a five minute walk of Dodger Stadium. The Los Angeles Dodgers schedule was hung on the wall inside the facility, so owners can anticipate heavy foot traffic and delivery orders during home games.
Last December, Ali Elreda rented out a space for his Mediterranean-Mexican fusion restaurant, Fatima’s Grill, at Echo Park Eats.
Elreda operates four brick-and-mortar Fatima’s Grill locations, and this is his first time renting a ghost kitchen. He said the decision to start a delivery and takeout location was both a matter of savings and efficiency.
“A lot of people are going the ghost-kitchen route because it’s quicker, it’s faster,” Elreda said. “You avoid a lot of overhead and foot traffic and having to find staff these days with the expensive economy out there is kind of tough.”
With ghost kitchen facilities, business owners also no longer have to compete with each other to find prime real estate in Los Angeles.
“You don’t have to do that research where you’ve got to find the right location. It’s just right there waiting for you,” Elreda said.
How we did it: We examined more than 15 years of business license data reported to the Los Angeles Office of Finance. Have questions about our data or want to ask us something? Write to use at askus@xtown.la
Hyperlocal News
Topline:
It's been more than one month since the U.S. and Israel began bombing Iran. The war has widened bitter ideological divides among Iranians in and outside the country over whether the conflict has been justified.
Lost opportunities: The commonality among most Iranians NPR spoke with is that they feel they have lost opportunities — to make a living, to voice their opinions, simply to live — under the current government, which they say must go. One man said, "Iran's security forces … took everything from us. They only give pain." However, another man said "There is no such thing as hardship in Iran. Everyone lives freely, woman or man."
Some remain hopeful: Nearly all the Iranians traveling in Turkey who spoke to NPR said they are hopeful about Iran. They have immediate plans to return to their country and stressed that they are not leaving it. Bout as one Iranian university students said, "The war should never have started. But now that it has, the U.S. and Israel should finish it," meaning toppling Iran's regime.
VAN, Turkey — It has been more than one month since the U.S. and Israel began bombing Iran. The U.S. says it has hit more than 10,000 targets. But U.S.- and Norway-based human rights groups estimate that at least hundreds of Iranian civilians have also been killed.
The war has also widened bitter ideological divides among Iranians in and outside the country over whether the conflict has been justified.
"There is difficulty [with the bombing], but we are not that weak," says one Iranian woman from Tehran, traveling to Turkey for a short break, given that her work has stopped due to the U.S. and Israeli bombing of the capital city. "In the past few years, the Islamic Republic [of Iran] has proved to us that we cannot trust them. But we were in war with Israel in the summer [during the 12-day war], and we saw how precise their targeting was, so we trust them."
"We are going to build a nuclear bomb now, because there's no fatwa against it anymore," interjects an Iranian man, overhearing her remarks, referring to a rumored religious ban on nuclear weapons issued by Iran's former supreme leader, whom Israel assassinated with U.S. help at the beginning of the war in late February.
Like all the Iranians in this story, the two people asked to remain anonymous. They have received texts from the Iranian government and have seen signs coming out of Iran warning them not to speak to foreign media on pain of arrest.
Just across the border with Iran, in eastern Turkey, the Turkish city of Van is just as full as during prewar times, with thousands of Iranian workers, consulate employees, students and tourists, who are traveling despite the war in their home country. Van has also become a microcosm of the full range of divergent opinions that Iranians have about the war.
"There is no such thing as hardship in Iran," says one Iranian man, who crossed into Turkey for his job last week. "Everyone lives freely, woman or man."
Next to him, a second Iranian man looks at him, wide-eyed and shaking.
"In two days, the government killed 40,000 people," the man says, referring to a government crackdown in January on protesters. A U.S.-based human rights group has confirmed over 7,000 deaths, but many Iranians believe the death toll is far higher.
NPR has not been able to travel and report inside Iran, so it has been interviewing Iranians traveling through border areas, including in eastern Turkey.
The dozens of Iranians NPR has interviewed transiting through Van may not be representative of all Iranians in the country. Many Iranians in Van are those wealthy enough to travel. But there are also poorer Iranians working, often under the table, in Turkey. A few Iranians I met and interviewed say they are heading off to study abroad.
The commonality among most Iranians NPR spoke with is that they feel they have lost opportunities — to make a living, to voice their opinions, simply to live — under the current government, which they say must go.
"Our pain is something you have to feel for yourself [to understand]," says one Iranian man who has been working in Turkey for the last year. He spent the previous seven years in prison, he says, after being accused of being an anti-Islamic heretic. "Iran's security forces … took everything from us. They only give pain. They are pain incarnate," he says, so much so, he is willing to lose all he has, even his family in Iran, for his government to be wiped out.
"The war should never have started," says one Iranian university student. "But now that it has, the U.S. and Israel should finish it," she says, meaning toppling Iran's regime.
Some Iranians who support the war against their own country say their perspectives are indelibly shaped by that government crackdown in early January. This year's killings of demonstrators finally made them realize, they say, that decades of popular resistance would never change their government.
"Three of my own friends were killed" in the crackdown, says one Iranian man. He crossed into Turkey last week to earn money, more than he could make in Iran. "My friends were all young. I knew them all my life. Yet the government killed them so easily."
"Every two years, there is a big protest," he says. Research from Stanford University published this year found thousands of instances of dissent over the last decade and a half, averaging to one protest every three days inside Iran.
But this time, his hometown, in Iran's western Kermanshah province, was brutally punished by government paramilitary groups for people in his town participating in January's protests.
"It is as if my town has been burned down. Nothing is left of it," he says. "I see no future for my children in Iran." His only hope now, he says, is a foreign intervention. "Our only hope is Trump. Our only hope is that Trump and Bibi [Israel's prime minister] make the right moves."
"We are scared of the bombing," an Iranian woman says. "But we are happy thinking that there might be a light at the end of this darkness. When our young people went out and protested this January, they were met with bullets. With slaughter. With executions."
Nearly all the Iranians traveling in Turkey who spoke to NPR said they are hopeful about Iran. They have immediate plans to return to their country and stressed that they are not leaving it. Migration data from the United Nations shows fewer Iranians are leaving Iran for Turkey than before the war.
"We are not fleeing," says one young Tehran resident. Even though she almost lost an eye in the anti-government demonstrations this winter, she says she is going back to Tehran in a few days. "We are determined to rebuild our country, and if the government changes, I will work, for free if needed."
Copyright 2026 NPR
