Topline:
For the first time in decades, California and some cities will not celebrate disgraced union leader Cesar Chavez today, and instead will uplift all farmworkers for “Farmworkers Day.”
Background: The move to rewrite and rename the holiday came after a New York Times investigation uncovered allegations that Chavez sexually assaulted at least two girls and a woman, including fellow union leader Dolores Huerta.
Read on … for what community members think should happen next.
Tuesday is the first time in over 25 years that California and many cities in Southern California will not be celebrating disgraced union leader Cesar Chavez.
Scores of local governments in Southern California have rewritten the holiday and renamed it to “Farmworkers Day,” including Los Angeles County, which heard from Asian American communities across the region. Many who spoke during last week’s Board of Supervisors meeting said they wanted to see farmworkers and other union leaders centered in those conversations.
The move to rename the last days of March came after a New York Times investigation uncovered allegations that Chavez sexually assaulted at least two girls and a woman, including fellow union leader Dolores Huerta.
Chavez was head of the United Farm Workers union and is widely recognized by Latinos and other communities as one of the most influential labor leaders in American history.
One man’s actions do not define this movement, Nina Cabardo of the Pilipino Workers Center wrote in a letter of support for the changes. As local leaders tackle the renaming and redefining of Farmworkers Day, she added, it’s also time for another “long-time injustice” to be rectified.
“This is also the time for Filipino farmworkers and Filipino farmworker leaders' real roles in the farmworker movement to be truthfully uplifted,” Cabardo said. “Leaders like Larry Itliong, Philip Vera Cruz, Pete Velasco, Lorraine Agtang and Luciano Crespo.”
Chavez’s legacy had been complicated for years before the explosive investigation, according to Alexandro José Gradilla, associate professor of Chicana and Chicano studies at Cal State Fullerton.
“People have, in the last 20, 30 years, already been de-centering César Chavez from the 60s and social movements of the farmworkers. It’s because of the history of sabotaging the Filipino workers, the history of being openly and virulently anti-immigrant,” Gradilla told LAist. “So, I don't have to go back and delete or scrub or erase in my PowerPoints any hero worship or adulation of Chavez. That I think has already been done.”
This is a reminder, Gradilla added, that power corrupts.
“Anybody who is put in this position of being viewed as a hero, who is given untapped power, whether they are a person of color, queer, a woman, we are all in danger of falling into that trap,” Gradilla said. “That's the more important lesson that we cannot submit to this cult of personality that can happen. And apparently, in the case of the farm worker movement, that did happen.”
Many community members who spoke during public comment at last week’s L.A. County Board of Supervisors meeting were in support of the holiday name change. But many also think the work to de-center Chavez shouldn’t end there.
Community members have also called on leaders to remember the names of the Filipino workers who drove the farmworkers union toward success.
Aquilina Soriano Versoza, executive director of the Pilipino Workers Center of Southern California, said inspiration from the farmworker movement catalyzed the organization.
“ We are a strong organization of strong Filipino domestic workers, immigrant workers,” Versoza said. “We support the inclusion of the community-driven process that centers survivors, and we need to make sure that we rectify that Filipinos are also uplifted in this process, so we honor everyone who should be honored as the Farm Workers movement.”
Celeste Friedman of the Asian Civil Rights League said history has omitted key components and figures of the farmworker movement.
“While César Chavez is widely recognized, the movement itself was ignited in 1965 by Filipino farm workers led by Larry Itliong and the Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee,” Friedman said. “They initiated the Delano grape strike. Organized, mobilized, and took the first risk. Yet their contributions have been largely underrepresented in our textbooks, public commemorations, and collective memory.”
When the truth of the full history fails to be acknowledged, Friedman added, future generations are denied the richness of solidarity between the Filipino and Latino communities.
Mayra Castañeda, a member of the SEIU United Healthcare Workers, said the name change better reflects the legacy of farmworkers.
“Establishing Farmworkers Day is an opportunity to uplift the collective contributions of farm workers across generations, many of whom remain invisible despite the essential work they do every day,” Castañeda said. “It also helps educate future generations about the ongoing struggles for labor rights, equity and the respect in the field.”
L.A. County officials will report back to the board in the coming weeks with more on renaming streets, buildings, monuments and programs that bear Chavez’s name.
Topline:
SAG-AFTRA, the union representing Hollywood actors, reached a tentative agreement with major studios yesterday Saturday on a new contract covering films, scripted TV dramas, and streaming content.
Why it matters: The tentative agreement still needs to be approved by the SAG-AFTRA National Board, which the union says will meet in the coming days to review the terms. Details of the new contract won’t be released before then.
The backstory: The actors'union began negotiating with Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) in February. In 2023, actors went on a four-month strike along with Hollywood writers after negotiations for their respective contracts fell through. In late April, the Writers Guild of America approved their new labor contract.
Topline:
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has announced several significant rule changes for the 99th Oscars, including AI protections for actors and writers as well as expanded eligibility for international films.
Details: Among the most noteworthy changes, the Academy now explicitly states that only roles, "demonstrably performed by humans with their consent" are eligible for Acting awards. In other words, AI creations like the much-hyped Tilly Norwood cannot hope to win a Best Actress Oscar anytime soon.
Why now: In a statement to NPR, the Academy on Saturday said the changes are in response to listening to the global filmmaking community and addressing barriers to entry in its eligibility process.
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has announced several significant rule changes for the 99th Oscars, including AI protections for actors and writers as well as expanded eligibility for international films.
In a statement to NPR, the Academy on Saturday said the changes are in response to listening to the global filmmaking community and addressing barriers to entry in its eligibility process.
The Academy added that its rules and eligibility standards have always evolved alongside technologies such as sound, color, and CGI, and that AI is no different. Awards rules and guidelines are reviewed and refined each year.
Among the most noteworthy changes, the Academy now explicitly states that only roles, "demonstrably performed by humans with their consent" are eligible for Acting awards. In other words, AI creations like the much-hyped Tilly Norwood cannot hope to win a Best Actress Oscar anytime soon.
Particle6, the production company behind Norwood, did not immediately respond to NPR's request for comment on Saturday about its creations' ban from consideration. In March, Norwood commented, "Can't wait to go to the Oscars!" in an Instagram post announcing its newly released music video.
The Academy also requires screenplays to be "human-authored" and said it reserved the right to investigate the use of generative AI in any submission.
Meanwhile, qualifying flesh-and-blood human actors can now be nominated for multiple performances in the same category if those performances get enough votes to land in the top five. So, someone like Anne Hathaway, who has five major movies scheduled for release in 2026, could now theoretically sweep the nominations – though that outcome seems extremely unlikely.
"If an actor has an extremely prolific year, might we even see someone swallow up three of the five nominations?," wrote Deadline's awards columnist and chief film critic Pete Hammond about the changes. "Probably won't happen, but it's now possible."
Under previous rules, an actor could only receive one nomination per category. If they had two high-ranking performances in Best Actor, for example, only the one with the most votes would move forward.
While international films can still be the official selection of their countries, now they can qualify by winning the top prize at a major international festival such as the Palme d'Or at Cannes, the Golden Lion at Venice, or the World Cinema Grand Jury Prize at Sundance.
Historically, countries "owned" the nomination, and only one film per country was allowed. The new rules allow multiple films from the same country to compete if they are critically acclaimed, and it shifts the honor from a geopolitical entity to the filmmakers themselves.
The changes have prompted a largely positive reaction from the film community on social media, such as on the popular The Shade Room entertainment and celebrity-focused Instagram feed, where commenters widely praised the "human-only" move to protect creative jobs.
The Academy's Awards Committee oversees the rules in tandem with branch executive committees, the International Feature Film Executive Committee and the Scientific and Technical Awards Executive Committee.
The rules are scheduled to go into effect next year, covering films released in 2026.
Copyright 2026 NPR
Topline:
Even in rapidly changing and often paved over L.A., there are still places where you can find ruins that tell a tale. Take the Verdugo Lodge: a long-forgotten speakeasy for old Hollywood near La Crescenta.
The background: According to Mike Lawler of the Historical Society of the Crescenta Valley, the timeline isn’t perfectly clear, but some of the compound was built in the 1920s. It was set up kind of like a timeshare where people bought 10 x 10 foot "tent lots" that gave them access to on-site amenities. There was a golf course, stables, trout stream, a swimming pool... and a lodge with gambling and alcohol.
From speakeasy to 'Mountain Oaks': Sometime around the early 1930s, the tawdry Verdugo Lodge and the surrounding land were purchased and then renamed Mountain Oaks by the Kadletzes — an entrepreneurial family who had run everything from a Turkish bath to a mini golf course. Over the next few decades, the family would rent the place out to local groups for recreational retreats.
The future of Mountain Oaks: Last year, with help from the City of Glendale, a U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development grant and other funding sources, the Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority (MRCA) put up $6.1 million to acquire 33-acres of the land — not including the private lots where the homes stand — so the public can continue to roam the meadow and ruins.
Los Angeles changes fast, and oftentimes that means some of the architectural relics of our shared past get swept up and paved over in all the "progress." (RIP Garden of Allah.)
But there are still places where you can find ruins that tell a tale, like a long-forgotten speakeasy reputedly for old Hollywood near La Crescenta.
On a recent afternoon, author and local historian Mike Lawler led me just beyond the boundary of Crescenta Valley Park. Joggers like me might have seen an old, towering stone arch shrouded by bushes there — and wondered what lies beyond.
Turns out there was once a place called the Verdugo Lodge back there and Lawler has spent years excavating its history.
“It was a very high-end speakeasy for a time,” Lawler, who also helps run the Historical Society of the Crescenta Valley, said. “An amazing thing. And all the ruins are still here, just like this arch.”
Lawler said we don’t know exactly when the lodge was built, but we do have some of the picture starting in the late 1920s. The place was set up kind of like a timeshare where people bought 10 x 10 foot ‘tent lots’ that gave them access to on-site amenities. There was a golf course, stables, trout stream, a swimming pool — and a lodge with gambling and alcohol.
“The Crescenta Valley in the teens and '20s was a hotbed of moonshine, prostitution, all that stuff," Lawler said. "It was a quiet little community. But in all these canyons up here, stuff was going on. Illegal stuff!”
We don’t have a full guest list, but Lawler said it’s likely at least a few Hollywood types had gone up to the lodge to circumvent Prohibition era laws.
In some ways, it was kind of like the original glamping. Lawler said patrons probably weren’t doing much sleeping, though.
“They might have been unconscious!” he said with a chuckle.
Lawler led me to a road that swooped around a meadow. We passed by a massive swimming pool nestled into the hillside.
Once known as the “Crystal Pool,” it’s now empty and fenced off, with pitch black locker rooms below.
We continued our journey up the hill and eventually arrived at a cascading stone stairway.
And at the top, the big show: overgrown with orange monkey flowers and goliath agaves lies the foundation of the old Verdugo Lodge, with lofty stone fireplaces the only guardians keeping the surrounding oak trees at bay.
Lawler takes out a floorplan that one of the former owners drew up for him.
“This is what it was laid out like on the inside. So a dancehall, and band stand on that side... And then upstairs was the gambling,” Lawler said.
Lawler had in hand a copy of a Los Angeles Times article from 1933 he found. The headline reads: “Revelers Flee in Lodge Raid.”
“The police that raided it were here at 3 o'clock in the morning. And there were still 500 people here. And they said it was the classiest joint they had ever raided... Anyway, people were diving out of windows and everything,” Lawler explained.
In a ruin like this, covered with moss and overgrowth, the imagination can run wild, too.
Lawler pointed out a questionable door jam below the old dancefloor that’s been cemented over.
“That is a door. So what is behind there? So there’s a room in there that got walled in for some reason,” he said.
What we do know is that, sometime after the raid, the tawdry Verdugo Lodge and the surrounding land were purchased and then renamed Mountain Oaks by the Kadletzes — an entrepreneurial family who had run everything from a Turkish bath to a mini golf course. Over the next few decades, the family would rent the place out to local groups for recreational retreats.
After they sold it in the ‘60s, Lawler said Mountain Oaks faced a “nightmare” of development threats. Over the years, some of the subdivided "tent lots" had been combined and sold off, Lawler said. A dozen private homes now stand on these pieces of land, next to the ruins of the Verdugo Lodge.
Last year, with help from the City of Glendale, a U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development grant among other funding sources, the Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority (MRCA) put up $6.1 million to acquire 33-acres of the land — not including the private lots where the homes stand — so the public can continue to roam the meadow and ruins.
Paul Edelman, MRCA's director of natural resources and planning, said his group will continue to manage the land, doing things like brush clearance, trash pickup and sign maintenance. And he said there are no current plans to remove the ruins or make any major changes to the property.
“If somebody comes up with a grand idea where they can find some funding for us to do something to enhance it, we’re always open to it,” Edelman said.
The purchase was good news for local preservationist Joanna Linkchorst.
“I grew up directly up the hill. But I always saw the sign that said ‘private property’ and didn’t really think about it until several years ago when I finally asked Mike. And he said, ‘Oh yeah, we got a resort speakeasy down the street,’” Linkchorst said standing among the oaks and overgrowth.
Linkchorst, who founded the group Friends of Rockhaven to preserve another nearby historic site, said it’s been amazing to see all of the decaying structures that were still hiding out at Mountain Oaks.
“There’s almost like these little ghosts in your head as you imagine what it was like when there was a beautiful wood floor and there was a second floor that people came jumping out of,” Linkchorst said.
Topline:
A local architect who hails from South Pasadena has meticulously crafted a 3D model of the iconic and fictional Overlook Hotel made famous in the Stanley Kubrick film, The Shining.
The background: At his day job, architect Anthony Chieh mainly works on residential and boutique commercial spaces. But over the course of five months, he spent his nights recreating a virtual replica of the Overlook Hotel.
What’s next? Chieh says he’s thinking about giving the spaceship from “2001: A Space Odyssey" the virtual treatment next. Or maybe turning to a local non-fictional space, like the Stahl House.
Now, let’s check in to the Overlook Hotel.
That’s the fictional place Stanley Kubrick brought to life in his 1980 film The Shining, loosely based on Stephen King’s novel of the same name.
A local architect who hails from South Pasadena meticulously crafted a 3D model of the iconic space so Shining fans everywhere never have to check out.
At his day job, architect Anthony Chieh mainly works on residential and boutique commercial spaces. But over the course of five months, he spent his nights meticulously recreating a virtual replica of the Overlook Hotel from the film that first scared him when he was 12.
Of course he started with the deeply haunted Room 237. That’s where Jack Torrance, played by Jack Nicholson, has a terrifying encounter with a ghostly woman.
“But once I started, I just couldn’t stop,” Chieh told LAist.
“I ended up modeling the Colorado Lounge, and then after that I was thinking maybe I should make the lobby and then arriving to the Gold Room, and then Grady’s bathroom.”
“It’s like a rabbit hole,” he said.
Experience the virtual Overlook Hotel
You can download Chieh's digital model of the Overlook Hotel by clicking the link in the comments section of his YouTube essay on the subject.
Users who download Chieh’s free 3D model can fly through all of those spaces, immersed in atmospheric sounds and music from the film.
“It’s interesting to dive into these kind of fictional environments and try to make sense of it,” Chieh said. “And the hope is people will get a different perspective once they’re in there.”
Kubrick’s take on the Overlook was famously inspired by real hotels like the Timberline Lodge in Oregon and the Ahwahnee in Yosemite. But the interiors you see in the film were created on sound stages in England.
“Real architecture, physical buildings, are built for people to live. And for movies, these are more meant to express the emotional aspect of things. It’s a psychological construct,” Chieh said.
In a recently published video essay on YouTube, Chieh dives deep into those psychological constructs and how, as he puts it, “Kubrick designed the Overlook Hotel not as a backdrop, but as the film's true villain.”
Chieh said during the monthslong process he was reminded of the power of architecture and design in the real world too – whether it’s an uncomfortably repetitive carpet design or a claustrophobic hallway.
“A physical construct can affect your emotion,” Chieh said.
“You can use it in a way to make people feel comfortable and you can also use it in a way to create fear.”
What’s next for this architect moonlighting as a 3D modeler?
Chieh says he’s thinking about giving the spaceship from “2001: A Space Odyssey" the virtual treatment next. Or maybe turning to a local non-fictional space, like the Stahl House.
That is, of course, if he can ever escape the Overlook.
