The Brief

Sunday was supposed to be a happy day for Noemi Ciau and her family.

The mother of four had the day off work and was taking her daughter to buy a dress for her upcoming middle school graduation. They dropped by Ciau's husband's workplace, a Westchester car wash, to bring him a pizza at lunchtime.

It was the last time she saw him.

Just hours later, advocates say U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents arrived and started detaining people. Ciau said her husband, Jesus Cruz, was among them.

She showed up to the carwash Sunday and all the workers were gone. Three days later, she still doesn't know where her husband is.

The family is just one of many swept up in the past week of federal immigration raids, which have led to the detention of hundreds of people, according to the Coalition for Humane Immigration Rights.

"I just want to know where he's at, if he's OK," Ciau said. "That's all I want."

She said she can't find him in the ICE online locator, and she hasn't received a call from him. LAist has reached out to the Department of Homeland Security for comment.

Families gathered at Culver City Car Wash on Wednesday to protest after immigration raids there earlier this week.

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As Ciau waits for more information, her family's life has been abruptly upended. Her 5-year-old keeps asking where his dad is. The older kids — ages 10, 14 and 15 — are trying to hold it together as they head into the summer without their dad, who picked them up from school and cooked for them while their mom worked a 9 to 5 at LAX International Airport.

"He was my backbone," Ciau said on Wednesday. "He was the one who picked up my kids, he was the one to take them to school … How am I gonna do it?"

Dozens of car wash workers detained

At a news conference Wednesday, Flor Melendrez with the car wash worker center CLEAN said she knew of at least 26 people detained by federal authorities at L.A. area car washes. She said the center had only been able to locate four of them.

"These were parents, providers and valued members of our community" she said at Culver City Express Hand Car Wash, which she said was raided by ICE on Sunday and Monday.

A teenager who only gave her first name, Jaslyn, said at that news conference that her dad had also been detained by ICE while working at the Culver City car wash.

"Because of him, I was able to finish high school with great achievements. But because of him being detained, he wasn't able to watch me walk the stage," she said. "I just want my dad to come home safe and I wish that he was able to see his little girl graduate."

Finding people once they're detained by ICE

Noemi Ciau said the most agonizing part of her husband's detention is that she has no idea where he is. She said she had her husband's location on her cellphone, and the day he was detained, she tracked him to a facility in Bell Gardens. She drove there, and when she showed up she saw white vans and law enforcement officers. But no one there gave her any answers.

"I never in my life thought that I would be the person standing here fighting for my husband, just to locate him," she said Wednesday.

Lynn Damiano Pearson, an attorney with the National Immigration Law Center, said she has heard multiple reports of family members not being able to locate their loved ones in federal custody. She said one reason is that many people are being held in temporary facilities like the Metropolitan Detention Center downtown.

A teenager who gave only her first name, Jaslyn, said her father was detained while working at Culver City Car Wash this week.

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"Unfortunately, those kinds of temporary sites often don't appear on the locator system," she said. "So we're seeing family members experience longer delays in being able to even find where their loved one has been taken."

Damiano Pearson said that unlike in the criminal justice system, people detained by immigration authorities don't have a right to a phone call, but individuals are often able to make calls once they reach a detention facility.

"If they're in these sort of temporary holding facilities, that's not necessarily gonna be something that the detained person has immediate access to," she said.

Family life in limbo

While Ciau waits and waits for a phone call from her husband, she's trying to hold it all together for her kids. The day after her husband was detained, she attended a ceremony celebrating her 14-year-old daughter graduating middle school with honors.

She spoke with pride about her daughter's 4.0 GPA and success in activities like dance and playing an instrument. But soon she was in tears.

"It was heartbreaking," Ciau said. "There was a point where everybody steps outside and starts taking pictures with the whole family. And I couldn't do that, because my husband wasn't there."

L.A. County health officials Wednesday confirmed the county's seventh measles case this year — a traveler who passed through Hollywood Burbank Airport on the morning of June 17.

They're warning people who may have come in contact with the person of possible exposure to the highly contagious virus.

What you should know: Public health officials say the infected traveler arrived on Southwest Airlines Flight 4245 Gate A4 on June 17 at the Hollywood Burbank Airport. Anyone who was at that gate between 8:45 to 9:45 a.m. may have been exposed.

Officials also noted that people who were at the Thrifty Rental Car Service on June 17 from 9:20 to 10:20 a.m. and on June 18 from 10:25 to 11:25 a.m. may have been exposed. That's located at 2627 N. Hollywood Way in Burbank.

What if I was on the flight? Public health officials say passengers sitting next to the traveler will be notified by local health departments and should monitor for symptoms. Keep in mind those symptoms could appear up to three weeks after you were exposed.

Symptoms to look out for: Common symptoms include runny nose, fever cough, or a rash. It's also important if you develop these symptoms, don't just walk into a health care center without calling ahead first.

For people exposed on June 17, the last day to monitor for symptoms is July 8. For those exposed on June 18, the last day to monitor for symptoms is July 19.

How can I protect myself?: It's important to check if you are vaccinated against the measles. As health officials noted in the news release reporting the latest case: "The most effective way to protect yourself and your family is with the measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine."

The Los Angeles Unified Board voted unanimously to appoint Andres Chait, a longtime district administrator, as superintendent days after his predecessor resigned.

 “This board's decision reflects the confidence in Mr. Chait's leadership, his decades of service to Los Angeles Unified, and his demonstrated ability to guide the district during this period of transition,” said board President Scott Schmerelson.

The board met privately to discuss the district’s top job three days after Alberto Carvalho resigned. Carvalho wrote in a letter that he was leaving “because I believe our schools must remain focused on students and learning without distraction.”

The board placed Carvalho on paid administrative leave following FBI searches of his home and district office in February and appointed Chait acting superintendent. Carvalho has not been charged with a crime and has maintained his innocence.

Who is Andres Chait?

Chait rose through the ranks from teacher to administrator at LAUSD over nearly three decades. The responsibilities of his most recent role, chief of school operations, included overseeing school safety, athletics and the district’s office of emergency management.

Chait thanked the board, the community and his family after the announcement Wednesday and reflected on his first day as a kindergarten teacher 30 years ago. “ I was probably more nervous than the kids were, but I knew then that this was a place where I could make a positive difference in the lives of students and families,” Chait said. “I've always known that there is no greater accelerator of change and opportunity than the schoolhouse, and that is still true today.”

What is the superintendent responsible for?

LAUSD is the country’s second-largest school district, employs 83,000 people and enrolls more than 400,000 students across more than 1,000 schools. Despite recent gains in student test scores, the majority of students are not proficient in reading and math skills for their grade level. The district also faces looming financial challenges from declining enrollment — which is tied to state funding — and federal investigations into programs designed to help underserved students succeed.

This is a developing story and will be updated.

A former state parks superintendent who oversaw Orange County beaches was charged Wednesday with secretly filming naked male lifeguards and other workers inside the locker room at Bolsa Chica State Beach. The former superintendent, Kevin Pearsall, is also accused of sending some of the images to two other men.

What charges does he face?

Pearsall, 59, of Long Beach, faces five felony counts of eavesdropping, 23 misdemeanor counts of secretly filming another and three misdemeanor counts of unlawful dissemination of private recordings. If convicted on all charges, he faces a maximum sentence of 18 years and eight months behind bars.

Scott C. Thomas, a defense attorney representing Pearsall, declined to comment in the wake of the charges being announced by the Orange County District Attorney's office. Pearsall is scheduled to be arraigned Aug. 6 and could enter a plea at that time.

Details of the investigation

In July 2025, a California State Parks officer discovered a USB stick with a hidden camera in the men's locker room at Bolsa Chica State Beach Lifeguard Headquarters. The officer contacted California Highway Patrol, which launched an investigation.

The investigation found Pearsall allegedly had recorded numerous secret videos in the locker room over an 11-month period beginning in August 2024, according to the DA's announcement. Pearsall retired from his job shortly after CHP served search warrants in the case. He turned himself in earlier this week.

State Parks reaction

Marty Greenstein, a spokesperson for California State Parks, told LAist the agency “takes these charges very seriously and has fully cooperated with law enforcement through every step of the investigation.” Greenstein declined to comment further, citing the active criminal investigation.

Making your way through South Coast Plaza — the sleek consumer cathedral in Costa Mesa, a sort of mall of malls — past Uniqlo window displays and Pop Mart blind boxes, there's a good chance you'll eventually land at Tiny's, the new casual restaurant from Chef Sang Yoon.

The burger shack-meets-Asian convenience store is the latest from Yoon, best known for Father's Office, the Los Angeles institution where he's spent two decades running one of the city's most uncompromising kitchens — no substitutions, no exceptions.

Tiny’s marks Yoon’s first venture into Orange County — a deliberately accessible entry point for a chef who has spent decades at the top of L.A.'s gastropub scene.

The concept

Tiny's is the place Yoon wanted to exist as a kid.

Inside, you're greeted by shelves stocked in the style of a konbini, the beloved Japanese convenience corner store, with cilantro-flavored Doritos from China, elote-flavored Turtle Chips from Korea and, for the purists, the requisite Japanese Kit-Kats and Pocky too.

At the counter, a friendly employee greets you beneath a letterboard menu anchored by Yoon’s signature 30-day dry-aged beef burger. Starting at $9 for a plain burger, up to $12 for the Tokyo Dog dressed in bonito flakes and furikake, there's also salt and vinegar tots, french fries, miso mac 'n' cheese and soft serve that runs from Straus vanilla to Pineapple Dole Whip, available as a swirl, cup, cone or float. That's the menu, streamlined by design.

Chef Sang Yoon's cheeseburger and Tokyo Dog at Tiny's, his new fast-casual concept inside South Coast Plaza in Costa Mesa

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For Yoon, the son of Korean immigrants who grew up between two worlds, the idea of opening a burger stand with a konbini was about tapping into the happy place of his memories: after school with friends, trying out the latest snacks to hit the market to Friday nights with the entire family celebrating after a long week of grinding it out with burgers and chili fries.

"The corner burger stand is where life happened. ... What if those two of my favorite things were under one roof?" said Yoon.

Tiny the dog

Inspiration for the name Tiny’s came from a somewhat unlikely place: Yoon’s beloved Cavalier King Charles Spaniel. Yoon describes her as appearing extremely cute and friendly, but in reality, she was actually sassy and judgmental. Illustrations bearing Tiny’s "don't mess with me" vibe can be seen throughout the restaurant.

“People would rather hear this from a sassy, cute dog than me. So I decided that we should channel Tiny. And let this belong to her," Yoon said.

The food

The cheeseburger itself is simple: a thin patty topped with melted American cheese and Tiny's signature sauce — a blend of Kewpie mayo, caramelized gochujang, ssamjang and tomato — finished with pickle chips and a bed of lettuce.

What sets it apart is what you can’t see, the same 30-day dry-aged chuck Yoon has used at Father’s Office for over 25 years.

“I still don’t think there’s any product superior to that for the purpose of a hamburger,” he said.

The spread at Tiny's includes the cheeseburger, miso mac 'n' cheese, chicken nuggets, tater tots, fries and a jammy egg sando — a konbini staple in Japan.

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The nuggets ($10) had a crispy, craggy exterior finished with visible seasoning crystals, a small but deliberate touch, and came with a fresh herbaceous dipping sauce. As for the chili fries ($8), the chili itself was sufficient as an L.A.-style chili (think Tommy's), but since Lao Gan Ma chili crisp was promised in the name, I was expecting that distinctive, crunchy, fermented kick — but left wanting more of it. It felt more like a whisper than a statement.

The miso mac 'n' cheese ($6) was a highlight of the meal, especially for someone who doesn't usually order mac 'n' cheese. Fresh ridged elbow pasta with a proper chew in each bite, and salty morsels of miso folded into a tight cheese sauce had me picking up forkfuls until it was mostly gone. Consider my position reconsidered.

Encouraged, I went back and ordered a Dole Whip ($7). The electric, tangy flavor, paired with the soft creaminess, served as a suitable exclamation point for my lunch that day.

With Tiny's, Yoon has built his most personal restaurant — accessible in price, but uncompromising in intention.

Could mall food now be on a new trajectory? Perhaps we've finally transcended corn dogs at Hot Dog on a Stick and cinnamon rolls at Cinnabon.

After dining at Tiny’s, all signs point to yes.