On Monday, the House of Representatives passed a bill amending the U.S. Code to officially designate the bald eagle (aka Haliaeetus leucocephalus) as the country's national bird. The Senate already passed the bill, with bipartisan support, in July. Now it just needs President Biden's signature to become the law of the land.
But isn't it already the national bird? You'd be forgiven for thinking it's America's national bird. Eagles have been used as a symbol of strength since ancient Rome, so it's not surprising that they soared into American iconography too.
Why now? Preston Cook, 78, of Wabash, Minn. was shocked to learn that bald eagles aren't technically America's national bird. While researching a book in 2010 he found that the bird wasn't officially the national bird. So, after years of lobbying lawmakers, he joined forces with the National Eagle Center last year to write what he calls "a very simple bill."
The bald eagle has been a symbol of the United States for centuries, with its iconography plastered across currency, documents, flags, stamps, government buildings, military uniforms and more.
You'd be forgiven for thinking it's America's national bird. But the fine print doesn't officially say so — at least not yet.
On Monday, the House of Representatives passed a bill amending the U.S. Code to officially designate the bald eagle (aka Haliaeetus leucocephalus) as the country's national bird.
The Senate already passed the bill, with bipartisan support, in July. Now it just needs President Biden's signature to become the law of the land.
"Today, we rightfully recognize the bald eagle as our official national bird — bestowing an honor that is long overdue," said Rep. Brad Finstad, the Minnesota Republican who introduced the House version of the bill earlier this year.
So why did the recognition take so long, and how did it finally become a reality? Americans have one dogged eagle enthusiast to thank.
How bald eagles became America's unofficial bird
The presidential seal, like the logos of many federal institutions, stars a bald eagle.
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Mandel Ngan
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AFP via Getty Images
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Eagles have been used as a symbol of strength since ancient Rome, so it's not surprising that they soared into American iconography too.
After the U.S.' founding in 1776, three different committees tried unsuccessfully to come up with an official seal that would satisfy Congress.
Eventually, Charles Thomson, the secretary of Congress, combined elements from all three proposals into what is now known as the Great Seal, featuring an eagle front and center, clasping an olive branch and arrows in its talons.
The original proposal depicted a small, white eagle. Thomson recommended it be replaced with a bald eagle, a species native to North America.
Congress adopted the design in 1782, cementing the bald eagle's status as an American icon.
The species' popularity has continued to soar ever since. In addition to its official appearances, the bald eagle can be seen today decorating all sorts of patriotic merchandise, serving as the mascot for hundreds of schools and even flying over major sporting events.
A Minnesota eagle enthusiast lobbied for their recognition
That's why Preston Cook was shocked to learn that bald eagles aren't technically America's national bird.
Cook, 78, has devoted much of his life to studying and honoring the species.
"I saw a movie in 1966 called A Thousand Clowns, and it had one line in it: 'You can't have too many eagles,'" Cook told MPR News in November. "And that inspired me. So I left the movie theater thinking, 'I want to collect eagles.'"
Over the decades he's amassed more than 40,000 bald eagle items, from pins to paintings to playing cards, a collection that currently lives at the National Eagle Center in Wabasha, Minn. (He doesn't play favorites, but counts the eagle buttons issued to him on his military dress uniform in 1966 among the most meaningful.)
Around 2010, while doing research for a book about the birds, Cook realized he could not find "anything whatsoever that the bald eagle had ever been legislatively designated as our national bird nor any presidential proclamation," as he told NPR's All Things Considered this week.
Alarmed, Cook wrote a letter to the late Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California. She sent staffers to the National Archives, who did more research and ultimately confirmed his hunch.
The U.S. recognizes the rose as its national flower, the oak as its national tree and the bison as its national mammal. But nowhere does it legally establish a national bird.
Cook took it upon himself to change that. After years of lobbying lawmakers, he joined forces with the National Eagle Center last year to write what he calls "a very simple bill." But getting lawmakers on board wasn't easy, in part because so many figured bald eagles already held the distinction.
"It was a little bit of a challenge in the beginning because they wouldn't believe me," Cook said, adding that Feinstein's letter helped. "So they did their research and came up with the same conclusion I came up with: It is not our national bird, and we don't have a national bird."
Bald eagles are a symbol of resilience in more ways than one
Bald eagles were endangered for many decades before federal protections led to their recovery. They were removed from the Endangered Species list in 2007.
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Bruce Bennett
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Getty Images
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Minnesota Sens. Amy Klobuchar and Tina Smith were among the bipartisan co-sponsors of the Senate bill, and Minnesota Reps. Brad Finstad and Angie Craig introduced it in the House.
It makes sense that the proposed bill was popular in Minnesota, as the state has the second-highest number of bald eagles after Alaska, MPR News reports. As Klobuchar said in a statement, "we know a thing or two about eagles."
An estimated 316,700 bald eagles populated the lower 48 states as of 2020, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which says that number had quadrupled since its last data set a decade earlier.
Bald eagles lived peacefully among Indigenous Americans (who consider them sacred) for generations and were abundant in the U.S. when they were chosen as the star of the seal in 1782. But their population has dwindled dangerously at times since.
For many decades they were considered an endangered species, largely due to "human ignorance and persecution by pesticides, careless shootings, car and powerline collisions and loss of habitat for nesting and foraging," according to the National Audubon Society.
Congress passed the Bald Eagle Protection Act in 1940, making it illegal to possess, kill or sell the birds. But in that decade, a new threat emerged: the insecticide DDT, which caused eggshells to thin and easily break.
By 1963, there were a record-low 417 nesting pairs in the lower 48.
But federal protections saved the species from near-extinction.
After the U.S. banned DDT in 1972 (and Canada the following year), the bald eagle population increased exponentially. By 2007, they were removed from the Endangered Species list and considered officially "recovered."
Ed Hahn, the communications director at the National Eagle Center, hopes the bird's legacy holds lessons for the management of other species, whether they are nationally recognized or not
"When we look at some of the issues that are facing other natural resources today, we can look again at our living national symbol and now our official national bird," Hahn told MPR News. "It shows what we are able and willing to do when we truly value something, when it's important to us."
Gab Chabrán
covers what's happening in food and culture for LAist.
Published May 6, 2026 5:00 AM
The Birria XLB, a limited-edition collab between Paradise Dynasty and Burritos La Palma, available starting May 11.
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Katrina Frederick
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Topline:
Paradise Dynasty and Burritos La Palma have teamed up on a limited-edition Birria XLB — birria de res folded into a soup dumpling skin.
Why it matters: Two of the defining food obsessions of the past decade in Southern California — birria and XLB — are meeting in one bite, and the collab feels less like a gimmick and more like a natural expression of how L.A.'s Asian and Latino food cultures have always cross-pollinated.
Why now: The Birria XLB drops publicly May 11 at Paradise Dynasty's South Coast Plaza and Americana at Brand locations.
File this under things that could only happen in L.A.
Paradise Dynasty, the Singapore-based chain known for its signature eight-flavor xiao long bao, has teamed up with Burritos La Palma — the SoCal burrito institution whose birria de res recipe traces back over 45 years — to create a limited-edition birria soup dumpling. The Birria XLB will be available starting Monday (May 11) for a limited time at Paradise Dynasty locations.
I've eaten my weight in both soup dumplings and burritos, so naturally, I'm a fan of both.
Paradise Dynasty has been on a steady ascent as a major player in L.A.'s dumpling scene, with locations at South Coast Plaza in Costa Mesa and The Americana at Brand in Glendale.
Meanwhile, Burritos La Palma — known for its simple, savory burritos and finely crafted flour tortillas — has been capturing hearts and stomachs since Alberto Bañuelos opened the first eatery in L.A. in 2012. It’s since grown to several spots across L.A. and Orange County, earning a Michelin Bib Gourmand award in 2024 for its high-quality, Zacatecan-style handmade flour tortilla burritos at an affordable price.
How the collab came together
So what exactly is a birria soup dumpling? A delicate wrapper, lightly packed with tender birria de res — slow-braised beef stewed in chilies and spices — juicy, savory and gone in one bite.
It all began with a call from Paradise Dynasty, when Jason Kuo, district manager for Paradise Dynasty USA, reached out to Bañuelos, calling it, simply, a perfect match between the two dishes.
Kuo said the idea came straight from the community.
"When we started asking guests and people around us what flavor they would want to see in a soup dumpling, birria kept coming up again and again — it was very clear. If we're going to do birria, it has to be done right. Burritos La Palma was the first name that came to mind."
Bañuelos was "beyond thrilled" to have been approached.
"We come from a small town in Mexico, and to be able to elevate to the level of Paradise Dynasty and that culinary perfection, I can't even really put it into words," he said.
It took months of R&D to get the right consistency. Bañuelos said the process required dialing down the moisture and upping the spice potency and landed on serving a fresh red salsa with thin slivers of serrano peppers alongside — a riff on the black vinegar and pickled ginger traditionally served with soup dumplings.
The Birria XLB's juicy interior is part of what makes it work — the dish is served with a fresh, tomato-based salsa and slivers of serrano pepper in place of the traditional black vinegar and pickled ginger.
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Katrina Frederick
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Courtesy Paradise Dynasty
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How it tastes
I got a chance to try the dumplings ahead of the public launch and was struck by how well the combination worked. The juicy nature of birria is almost turbocharged in dumpling form, its savory, herbaceous flavors fully encapsulated in the thin skin, creating an exceptional texture in every bite. The dish hits even harder when dipped in the light tomato-based salsa — a rush of freshness that cuts through the richness, with a spike of heat from fresh serrano. (Feel free to skip the peppers if spice isn't your thing.)
But what's most impressive is how organic it all feels. This isn't fusion for fusion's sake — it's a natural meeting of two dishes that are deeply embedded in the Southern California diet, each playing to the other's strengths.
It feels like a logical meeting of the minds — birria and soup dumplings have both been part of L.A.'s culinary zeitgeist for the better part of a decade, and it makes sense that these worlds should collide.
When asked whether a collaboration like this could happen anywhere else, Bañuelos was quick: "It has to start in L.A. You just can't compete."
A gated building at Urban Strategies, a facility that holds unaccompanied minor immigrants under contract with the U.S. Office of Refugee Resettlement, in San Benito, Texas.
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Patricia Lim
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KUT News
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Topline:
Nine Democratic House members from California are demanding information about how the Trump administration is treating unaccompanied migrant children who are pregnant and in federal custody.
Why now: They signed a letter last week, along with 39 other House Democrats, to Trump officials expressing their concern that the girls are not receiving adequate medical care or access to abortion.
How we got here: The letter comes in the wake of an investigation by the California and Texas Newsrooms, public media collaboratives in those states. LAist is part of The California Newsroom. The joint investigation found that the federal government is detaining pregnant migrant girls in a single group home in South Texas. Doctors and reproductive-health researchers interviewed for the investigation said prenatal care is severely limited in that region.
Nine Democratic House members from California are demanding information about how the Trump administration is treating unaccompanied migrant children who are pregnant and in federal custody. They’ve signed a letter, along with 39 other House Democrats, to Trump officials expressing their concern that the girls are not receiving adequate medical care or access to abortion.
The joint investigation found that the federal government is detaining pregnant migrant girls in a single group home in South Texas. Doctors and reproductive-health experts interviewed for the investigation said prenatal care is severely limited in that region.
The letter says the detention violates federal regulations because the children are “entitled to the full range of medical care, including reproductive health care.”
Rep. Gil Cisneros, who represents the central San Gabriel Valley, says he worries that pregnant migrants who are apprehended in California will be put at risk if they’re sent to a part of Texas that is short on obstetric care. Of particularly concern: High-risk pregnancies are common among minors.
“If they were in California," he said, "they would be able to have more choices of the type of health care that they would get when it comes to reproductive health care.”
Rep. Judy Chu, who represents the West San Gabriel Valley, wrote in a statement that “this administration is so intent on restricting abortion that it is using immigration detention as a tool to control these girls’ bodies.”
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Mariana Dale
explores and explains the forces that shape how and what kids learn from kindergarten to high school.
Published May 5, 2026 3:40 PM
The Trump administration has announced a Title IX investigation into LAUSD.
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Genaro Molina
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Getty Images
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Topline:
The U.S. Department of Education is investigating how the Los Angeles Unified School District responds to educators accused of sexual misconduct with students.
Why now: The department accuses the district of maintaining a policy that “automatically” reassigns teachers to other schools when they are accused of sexual misconduct with students and cites a 2024 agreement with the teacher’s union.
The district’s policy: A Los Angeles Unified spokesperson wrote in a statement that it’s “not true” that staff being investigated for sexual misconduct are reassigned to other school sites. “‘Reassignment’ typically means an employee is directed to remain at home and away from students and schools during an investigation,” the spokesperson wrote.
LAUSD protocol related to employee misconduct says administrators must remove accused employees from their classroom or worksite whenever there is a risk to the safety of students or staff. The 110-page document also lists several other requirements for allegations related to sexual misconduct, including contacting law enforcement and the agencies that license teachers.
The U.S. Department of Education is investigating how the Los Angeles Unified School District responds to educators accused of sexual misconduct with students.
The department accuses the district of maintaining a policy that “automatically” reassigns teachers to other schools when they are accused of sexual misconduct with students and cites a 2024 agreement with the teachers union.
A Los Angeles Unified spokesperson wrote in a statement that it’s “not true” that staff being investigated for sexual misconduct are reassigned to other school sites.
“‘Reassignment’ typically means an employee is directed to remain at home and away from students and schools during an investigation,” the spokesperson wrote.
United Teachers Los Angeles called the DOE's accusations a “fundamental misunderstanding” of the district’s reassignment policy.
“[Employees] are not reassigned to another classroom or to any other setting where they would interact with students,” read a statement provided by the union. “This policy protects both students and staff and creates conditions for a thorough and appropriate investigation of allegations.”
Kimberly Richey, the assistant secretary for civil rights, wrote in a statement that Title IX requires schools to address claims of sexual misconduct in a “timely manner.”
“It is unconscionable that the district would simply ignore Title IX’s procedural requirements to protect teachers who cause life-changing harm to their kids,” Richey wrote. “The Trump administration will always fight to uphold the law, protect the safety of all students and restore common sense to our schools.”
LAUSD protocol related to employee misconduct says administrators must remove accused employees from their classroom or worksite whenever there is a risk to the safety of students or staff.
The 110-page protocol document also lists several other requirements for allegations related to sexual misconduct, including contacting law enforcement and the agencies that license teachers.
“Los Angeles Unified takes all allegations of sexual misconduct and harassment with the utmost seriousness,” a spokesperson wrote in a statement. “Our primary responsibility is to ensure the safety, dignity and well-being of every student and staff member in our care.” The statement also said the district follows Title IX procedures and continuously reviews its policies, training and reporting systems.
The UTLA settlement outlines several circumstances where an employee can be reassigned, including a law enforcement investigation of misconduct, sexual harassment of a student, behavior toward a student perceived to be motivated by a sexual interest and communicating with a student for non-school-related purposes.
A new California law requires schools to train students and staff to recognize and report misconduct and write new policies on “appropriate behavior.” It also will create a new database of educators credibly accused of abuse.
Adolfo Guzman-Lopez
is an arts and general assignment reporter on LAist's Explore LA team.
Published May 5, 2026 2:48 PM
LA County Library's Summer of Soccer starts now
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Courtesy LA County Library
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Topline:
Summer of Soccer programs at the LA County Library are aimed to promote learning, foster community connections and create safe and free spaces during the World Cup tournament.
Limited-edition library card: Summer of Soccer kicked off May 1 with a limited-edition library card, emblazoned with the library logo, the outline of a soccer pitch and a ball hitting the back of a net.
Why it matters: The library is using soccer’s wide appeal to promote learning, build community connections and create safe and free spaces where people can enjoy talking about the sport.
Why now: The library program is meant to overlap with the World Cup, which begins June 11 and ends July 19. The free events are designed to support youth and families during the summer months when school is not in session.
The backstory: The LA County Library serves more than three million residents through its 86 libraries and four Cultural Resource Centers, as well as Bookmobiles and other outreach vehicles.
What's next: See details about the Summer of Soccer programs at this link.
The LA County Library has begun its Summer of Soccer program to bring the excitement of the North American tournament to all Angelenos.
“Soccer has a unique way of bringing people together across cultures and communities,” Skye Patrick, director of the LA County Library, said on the library website.
The program kicked off May 1 with the library system offering limited-edition Summer of Soccer library cards, emblazoned with the library logo, the outline of a soccer pitch and a ball hitting the back of a net.
The new limited-edition Summer of Soccer library cards
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Courtesy LA County Public Library
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The cards are available for free for anyone signing up for the first time and for $1 for people who already have an LA County Library card.
From soccer story time to making circuit boards
There’s a whole range of Summer of Soccer events at branch libraries, from May 20 to July 9.
Highlights include a soccer-themed story time for 2- to 5-year-olds at Graham Library, north of Watts at 3:30 p.m. June 4, while at 3 p.m. the same day, the A C Bilbrew Library west of Compton hosts “Makey Makey for Teens,” which will lead youth through the steps to make their own game controllers and test them on a virtual soccer field. This and other programs repeat at other branches.
Soccer has a unique way of bringing people together across cultures and communities.
— Skye Patrick, Director of the L.A. County Library
All Summer of Soccer events are free and are designed to support youth and families during the summer months when school is not in session.
The LA County Library serves more than three million residents through its 86 libraries and four Cultural Resource Centers, as well as Bookmobiles and other outreach vehicles.
