What to expect: Warmer for the valleys where temperatures there will hover in the mid- to upper 80s.
Read on ... for where it will be the hottest today.
We're in for another warm and sunny day in SoCal.
Daytime highs for the beaches will reach the mid-70s and up to the low 80s more inland. Downtown L.A. will see temperatures up to 83 degrees.
Temperatures for the valley communities and the Inland Empire will reach the mid-80s. The western San Fernando Valley will see temps in the upper 80s, up to 89 degrees for Woodland Hills.
In Coachella Valley, expect another day with highs in the 90s, up to 96 degrees.
Friday is expected to be the warmest day of the week.
In this edition:
A firecracker run-walk, art fairs galore, an Andy Warhol film and more of the best things to do this weekend.
Highlights:
Folks, we’ve reached peak art-weird. There’s a group show opening Sunday in an abandoned Sizzler. I am not making this up. Get your fill at the art fairs around town — Frieze, The Other Art Fair, Butter and Felix, for starters — or explore some of the neighborhoods with galleries, like Melrose Hill, West Hollywood and the Arts District. You’re sure to see a lot. It’s almost like we live in a city where you could just wander around and randomly come across things.
If music is more your thing, Licorice Pizza has your go-tos. On Friday, German singer-songwriter and producer Monolink’s "The Beauty Of It All Tour" stops at The Wiltern, Brandi Carlile is with The Head And The Heart at the Forum and the Fiery Furnaces are at the Masonic Lodge. At the Peacock Theater, there’s an epic “Legends Of Hip Hop” bill with Big Daddy Kane, Kurtis Blow, Kool Moe Dee, Melle Mel & Scorpio from The Furious Five, Doug E. Fresh, KRS‐One and more. Saturday, experimental hip-hop group Clipping is at the Fonda, and the artist formerly known as June Marieezy — (((O))) — is at a cool new Chinatown venue called Pacific Electric. Or you can spend the whole weekend at Ace Mission Studios in Boyle Heights, immersed in Factory 93’s two-day underground techno festival, Skyline L.A.
Elsewhere on LAist, you can visit the community hub East L.A. Film Shop, dance like it’s the 70s at the immersive theater experience Brassroots District: L.A. ’74 and head to the new Studio Ghibli exhibit at the Academy Museum with superfan Makenna Sievertson.
Through Sunday, March 15
Pasadena Playhouse
39 S. El Molino, Pasadena
COST: FROM $48; MORE INFO
Our friends at the L.A. Times called the new production of Amadeus at Pasadena Playhouse a “marvel to behold,” and I don’t think you can get a bigger rave than that. Tony winner Jefferson Mays plays Salieri in director Darko Tresnjak’s (A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder) take on Peter Shaffer’s 1979 play about the rivalry between Salieri and Mozart in 19th-century Vienna.
Saturday, February 28, 7 p.m.
The Wolves
519 S. Spring St., Downtown L.A.
COST: FREE, TWO DRINK MINIMUM; MORE INFO
One of my favorite L.A. Instagram follows is Spooky Foodie, aka Ansley Layne, who goes to restaurants in L.A. and tells all about the ghosts haunting your favorite haunts. She’s bringing her ghost stories and encouraging you to tell your own at Spooky Stories After Dark, a Moth-inspired storytelling competition night at The Wolves downtown. After each story, the speaker will be interviewed by Spooky Foodie and co-host Your Cousin Trev. You can also expect some surprise celebrity guests.
Friday, February 27, 5 p.m. to 10:30 p.m.
Marciano Art Foundation
4357 Wilshire Blvd., Mid-Wilshire
COST: FREE; MORE INFO
It’s not every day you can screen Sleep, the 1964 groundbreaking avant-garde film by Andy Warhol, so take advantage and grab a ticket for this evening at the Marciano Art Foundation. Coinciding with their John Giorno: No Nostalgia show, the film is five hours and 21 minutes of artist and poet (and Warhol’s then-lover) John Giorno sleeping, so needless to say, you probably don’t need to be there the whole time. The galleries will be open throughout the entire screening, so it’s also a fun chance to see some late-night art!
Saturday, February 28, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Virginia Ave. Park
2200 Virginia Ave., Santa Monica
COST: FREE; MORE INFO
Check out three greens-cooking demonstrations with local chefs at the Black History Greens Festival in Santa Monica. The day also features family activities, including book readings and giveaways, plus performances. KJLH radio’s Arron “BOBO” Arnell returns for a second year as the master of ceremonies, and DJ Dense will be spinning throughout the event.
Saturday, February 28 to Sunday, March 1
943 Broadway (starting line), Chinatown
COST: FREE; MORE INFO
Usher in the Year of the Fire Horse with the annual run/walk in Chinatown, plus a celebration with lion dances, music, a dog contest and more. Saturday features the long 20-mile run and century bike ride, while Sunday is a festival atmosphere with the 5K and 10K races, fun runs, kids' activities and more.
Saturday, February 28, 7:30 p.m.
Dorothy Chandler Pavilion
135 N. Grand Ave., Downtown L.A.
COST: Opening night from $134, other performances from $44; MORE INFO
L.A. Opera welcomes back Philip Glass’ opera about ancient Egypt, Akhnaten, featuring John Holiday as the title king and mezzo-soprano Sun-Ly Pierce as his queen, Nefertiti. The opera is on at the Dorothy Chandler through March 22, but opening night is also Opera Noir, an event with the San Fernando Valley Chapter of Jack and Jill of America, which brings Black artistry and community together with opera. No matter which night you go, get there early for a pre-performance talk with Dr. Tiffany Kuo in Stern Grand Hall one hour before every performance.
You have your pick of art fairs and related art events all weekend long. From the big Frieze Art Fair, which has been the jewel of L.A. Art Week since its launch here in 2019; to Felix, which makes a very cool use of space at the Hollywood Roosevelt; to The Other Art Fair in a new Culver City location (with art you might actually be able to afford for your wall); to the Black-artist focus of Butter in Inglewood, there’s really no shortage of places to see the newest artists’ work as well as old favorites.
Through Sunday, March 1
Barker Hangar
3021 Airport Ave., Santa Monica
COST: FROM $79; MORE INFO
Through Sunday, March 1
Hollywood Park
1011 Stadium Drive, Inglewood
COST: $60; MORE INFO
Through Sunday, March 1
Hollywood Roosevelt
7000 Hollywood Blvd., Hollywood
COST: $75; MORE INFO
Through Sunday, March 1
3Labs
8461 Warner Drive, Culver City
FROM $30; MORE INFO
Through Saturday, February 28
128 Fifth St., Santa Monica
COST: $12; MORE INFO
Newly released data from the city show that Los Angeles police officers use minor traffic stops as a way to investigate Black and Latino people on suspicion of committing a more serious crime at a higher rate than their share of the citywide population.
Pretextual stops: Police sometimes use violations of the vehicle code to stop drivers and investigate them for a more serious crime unrelated to the traffic stop, such as possessing drugs or firearms. These are known as pretextual stops.
LAPD’s policy: In 2022, the LAPD adopted a policy that officers should only conduct pretextual stops when they are “acting upon articulable information” that the person is close to a serious crime that’s worth investigating.
Several reports: In the last month, two city departments released analyses of pretextual stops since the police adopted its policy. A nonprofit called Catalyst California did a broader analysis of minor traffic stops, too.
Read on … to see what the analyses found.
Newly released data from the city show that Los Angeles police officers use minor traffic stops as a way to investigate Black and Latino people on suspicion of committing a more serious crime at a higher rate than their share of the citywide population.
The LAPD adopted a policy about so-called pretextual stops and began tracking the practice in 2022.
In a report released at the end of January, the city’s chief legislative analyst found that Black people were involved in nearly 31% of pretextual stops conducted by LAPD officers between spring 2022 and fall 2025. According to 2023 Census estimates, Black people make up 8% of the city’s population.
According to the report, "Hispanic/Latino" people, who make up just less than half the city’s population, were the subjects of 56% of pretextual stops.
That analysis, along with a separate report by LAPD, found that of the more than 760,000 people involved in traffic stops between spring of 2022 and fall of 2025, 9% to 10% of them were stopped pretextually.
Chauncee Smith, an associate director of the racial justice-focused nonprofit Catalyst California, said LAPD’s data is “under inclusive” since it relies on officers subjectively deciding when a stop is pretextual.
He said an analysis of data from Catalyst California, published in February, demonstrates that pretextual stops don’t result in evidence discovery enough to make up for the negative impacts of the practice.
“It's affecting the lives of many Black and Latinx Angelenos on an everyday basis,” Smith said, adding that pretextual stops often result in harassment, dehumanization and excessive ticketing or fining of communities of color.
Police sometimes use violations of the vehicle code to stop drivers and investigate them for a more serious crime unrelated to the traffic stop, such as possessing drugs or firearms, according to Deepak Premkumar, a research fellow for the Public Policy Institute of California.
”Law enforcement officers see tons of violations, and we give them a lot of discretion to determine who they should stop and when,” Premkumar told LAist.
A plausible example of what a pretextual stop could look like is if police see a car matching the description of one that was involved in a crime in the area, then pull that car over for a broken taillight, Premkumar said.
The policy the LAPD adopted in 2022 outlines that officers:
Despite the adoption of the policy, Catalyst California’s analysis found that the proportion of all officer-initiated stops that are for minor traffic violations has “remained relatively constant since 2019.”
After the police adopted its policy in 2022, officers began indicating whether a stop was pretextual or not. The Chief Legislative Analyst and police department rely on this officer discretion in their analyses, which can be found in this council file. As a result, they say they don’t have a point of comparison for before the policy was adopted.
In its analysis, Catalyst California looked at all stops for minor traffic violations, which are the kind of traffic violations that are often used to start a pretextual stop. By combining that data with search data, Catalyst California endeavors to approximate a before-and-after look at the LAPD’s policy.
The analysis from the city’s chief legislative analyst included a comparison of pretextual stop rates for different ethnic and racial groups in L.A. compared to their share of the citywide population.
The analysis found that "Hispanic/Latino" and Black people were overrepresented in data on pretextual stops compared to their share of the population.
L.A. Police Capt. Shannon White drafted the department’s report of the same data, which did not include an ethnic or racial breakdown of those involved in pretextual stops.
At a Los Angeles Police Commission Meeting in February, when she presented the department’s analysis, White said Census estimates for the city don’t necessarily align with “the actual breakdown of our suspects of crime,” who, theoretically, are the subjects of pretextual stops.
“When you look at the actual breakdown of our suspects of crime…what you will find is that they skew towards communities of color for various societal reasons,” White said.
According to the LAPD’s analysis, people in Central and South L.A. were subjects of pretextual at higher rates than in the Valley and West L.A.
Some commissioners at the meeting questioned that disparity.
“Something just doesn't add up,” Commission President Teresa Sánchez-Gordon said. “Is it racial profiling? Is that bias? Implicit, explicit bias that's in the report?”
The police’s analysis found that searches during pretextual stops yielded contraband, such as firearms and other weapons or drugs, in about every 3 in 10 cases. “Narco-related” evidence is what’s most commonly found in the searches.
Catalyst California’s report looked more specifically at different kinds of searches and how likely they are to lead to evidence discovery.
The nonprofit found that since 2022, when officers used consent-only searches during stops for minor traffic violations, they discovered evidence 3% to 10% of the time. The rate was similarly low when the person stopped was on parole or probation.
If you have a tip, you can reach me on Signal. My username is kharjai.61.
According to Catalyst California’s analysis, the type of search most likely to lead to discovery of evidence is when there’s an existing search or arrest warrant for the person stopped.
“This was likely because they occurred in situations when there was a higher likelihood of a significant violation, beyond mere pretext,” the nonprofit's researchers wrote.
Topline:
California schools lost more than $2.2 million in state funding over two years because some students did not have all the vaccinations required by state law, according to data obtained by EdSource from the California State Controller’s Office.
Why now: The loss of average daily attendance funding was the result of state audits of more than 1,000 public schools, where more than 10% of kindergartners or seventh grade students were not fully vaccinated in 2023 and 2024. After the state investigated, schools in 72 of those districts lost some funding.
LAUSD: Los Angeles Unified, the state’s largest school district, with over 400,000 students, lost $324,055 in average daily attendance funding in 2023 and 2024, the two years reviewed by EdSource. The district had a budget of about $19 billion in both years.
Read on... for more about the loss of funds.
California schools lost more than $2.2 million in state funding over two years because some students did not have all the vaccinations required by state law, according to data obtained by EdSource from the California State Controller’s Office.
The loss of average daily attendance funding was the result of state audits of more than 1,000 public schools, where more than 10% of kindergartners or seventh grade students were not fully vaccinated in 2023 and 2024. After the state investigated, schools in 72 of those districts lost some funding.
Los Angeles Unified, the state’s largest school district, with over 400,000 students, lost $324,055 in average daily attendance funding in 2023 and 2024, the two years reviewed by EdSource. The district had a budget of about $19 billion in both years.
The lost funds account for 22.1 days of attendance, including about three-quarters of a day, worth roughly $8,000, from a charter school, according to data from the State Controller’s Office.
San Francisco Unified, with about 50,000 students, was penalized about the same amount — $315,775. The district lost 26 days of daily attendance funding in those two years.
Oakland Unified lost $155,347 of attendance funding combined in 2023 and 2024 because it could not verify it was in full compliance with state vaccination requirements, according to documents provided by the district.
Even small school districts lost large chunks of state funding over the two years because of vaccination mandates. Snowline Joint Unified in San Bernardino County, which has about 8,000 students, lost 15.6 days of attendance funding worth $195,390. Ojai Unified in Ventura County, a school district of about 2,000 students, lost 14 days of funding, worth $166,993.
Because of the state’s complicated school funding system, the amounts schools receive and potentially can lose per student varies.
California law requires students to be immunized against 10 serious communicable diseases. Proof of immunization is required in kindergarten and seventh grade, as well as upon entering child care, transitional kindergarten, or when transferring schools from out of state. Schools lose attendance funding for the amount of time each year that each student is not fully vaccinated.
Last year, 428 schools were identified as having low vaccination rates and are being audited by the state. Los Angeles Unified, San Francisco Unified, Oakland Unified and Ojai Unified are among the districts that remain on the audit list.
Districts found to be out of compliance are required to develop a corrective action plan to make sure it doesn’t happen again, according to officials at the California Department of Education.
San Francisco Unified has taken steps to ensure the district complies with state vaccination law, said Laura Dudnick, director of communications.
The district has changed its enrollment process to require that immunization records and tuberculosis clearances be submitted in advance, so health workers can review them. During the application cycle for the upcoming school year, families are notified monthly of missing requirements, a move that is expected to reduce last-minute enrollment barriers and increase overall immunization compliance, Dudnick said.
“We take this responsibility seriously and appreciate the families who have worked with us to obtain required immunizations for their children,” she said. “We are working diligently to ensure students are immunized as required by law.”
Los Angeles Unified is hosting vaccination clinics and health fairs to provide immunizations and health services, and educating families on the importance of vaccinations, according to district officials. Health teams are also identifying barriers to vaccination and connecting families to resources.
“The health and safety of our students is our highest priority,” the district said in a statement sent to EdSource. “In response to the state vaccination audit, the district has deployed targeted outreach and support for the identified schools. We have maintained an overall district-wide immunization compliance rate of 98% since the audit.”
California offers exemptions for children in special education, home-based private schools and for medical reasons. But in 2015, the state Legislature added more oversight to medical exemptions, requiring the California Department of Public Health to review exemptions at schools with an immunization rate of less than 95%, or if a doctor has written more than five exemptions in a year.
The 2015 decision came after a major measles outbreak at Disneyland. Now, measles cases are on the rise again, with 982 cases reported in the U.S. so far this year.
Measles cases in California have been racing upward as well, from four cases in 2023 to 25 in 2025. This year, there have already been 19 reported cases of measles in the state, according to the California Department of Public Health. Los Angeles County alone has had four measles cases reported since Jan. 30.
“The MMR vaccine is the safest and most reliable way to prevent measles and protect yourself, your family, and your community,” said Los Angeles County Health Officer Muntu Davis in a statement. “Measles spreads easily and can lead to serious complications, including pneumonia, brain swelling, and even death.”
EdSource is an independent nonprofit organization that provides analysis on key education issues facing California and the nation. LAist republishes articles from EdSource with permission.
Topline:
“Puppet Up! Uncensored” combines the style of puppetry originated by Jim Henson with improvisational comedy games fueled by audience prompts.
The backstory: “Puppet Up!” was first created by Jim Henson Company chairman Brian Henson and actor/director Patrick Bristow in 2005 and is playing now at The Montalban in Hollywood.
The show is actually two shows in one, with the puppeteers fully visible on stage but also performing for a camera. Giant screens above the stage show what the camera sees, creating a two-shows-in-one effect.
“It's really fun to let people see how we do it,” Henson told LAist, “because it's clever and it's chaotic.”
And as Henson explains in the opening of the show, adding the improv element is in some ways a natural extension of the way his dad worked, with his preference for other puppeteers (like Frank Oz), who were able to “ad lib” while puppeteering.
Read on … for Henson’s take on the recent Muppet Show special on Disney+, and his explanation for the enduring appeal of puppets.
Six comedic improvisers, dozens of fuzzy puppets and limitless possibilities.
That pretty much sums up Puppet Up! Uncensored, which combines the style of puppetry originated by Jim Henson with improvisational comedy games fueled by audience prompts.
The performers don’t shy away from adult themes, so it can lean a little raunchy, earning this particular cast of puppets the group title of “miskreants.”
The world lost Jim Henson in 1990, but many artists, including his own children, have kept both the craft and the business going. Son and accomplished puppeteer Brian Henson is chairman of the L.A.-based Jim Henson Company and creator of Puppet Up! Uncensored.
While no “Muppets” are included in the show, the production does include recreations of several original Jim Henson puppets from early in his career interspersed with others from previous Henson productions and some more recent creations made for Puppet Up! specifically.
“They're really old,” Henson said. “It's super fun to rebuild those puppets and actually perform those scenes in front of a live audience. That hasn't happened in 40, 50 years probably.”
Puppet Up! is really two shows at once.
On top of being a mash-up of sketches, hosted by director and co-creator Patrick Bristow, the audience actually gets to see how it all happens.
The Henson style of puppetry, from design to performance, is tailored for the camera, but in Puppet Up! Uncensored, audience members see both a staged-for-screen performance on video projection, and all the puppeteers' work that’s usually hidden from view, including the performers’ faces when things go awry.
“It's really fun to let people see how we do it because it's clever and it's chaotic,” Henson said. “It also means our audience watches the show in a kind of very different way.”
Bringing it all out into view allows the audience to connect with performers who are usually behind the scenes. “ It sort of just gives it a double layer of entertainment value,” Henson said.
The Muppet Show was brought back by Disney for a Disney+ special earlier this month in honor of the show’s 50th anniversary. Jim Henson’s Muppets actually turned 70 in 2025, and the appetite for the characters and the district Henson style of puppetry hasn’t waned. Audiences are hungry for details of a Miss Piggy movie, reportedly helmed by Jennifer Lawrence and Emma Stone.
(While Disney has owned the Muppets since 2004 and The Jim Henson Company now only consults on Muppet projects when it is asked to, Henson’s take on the recent special is that it was “really good” and he hopes it’s picked up as a series. All he knows about the Miss Piggy movie, he told LAist: “I don’t think it’s very far along.”)
What’s behind the lasting appeal of puppets and The Muppets specifically?
Henson argues puppetry may be the oldest art form if you think about the basic act of imbuing an object with personality — something parents do instinctively with young children.
“ I used to bring to life my daughter's pajamas,” he said. “That was the way to get her to put her pajamas on so that she would go to bed.”
But that doesn't mean it's ever been particularly mainstream. Even Jim Henson had to shop around the original Muppet Show before it found a spot on American primetime TV, but Henson said he’s felt a shift in just the past few months in response to artificial intelligence.
“The AI craze has created a backlash of, 'Please let me see human craftsmanship, human artistry, where I know that this is coming from a human's artistic mind,'” Henson said. “So I think right now there is just an enormous appreciation for artistry that is not computer-generated in any way. That will benefit all sorts of arts, but it certainly benefits puppetry for sure.”
Henson describes Puppet Up! as a celebration of the “absurdity of the human condition” and said performing with puppets can elicit a more open response from audiences.
“The audience watches puppets with the innocence of a child, even if they're 70 years old,” he said.
And that distance can allow an emotional access you might not get with actors alone.
“It makes it possible to laugh at themselves rather than be offended,” Henson said. “So particularly in a period of time like now, where everybody's scared of somebody hating them … we can sort of play out examples of that kind of friction with puppets. That's gonna give you objectivity and allow you to sort of reflect.”
"Puppet Up! Uncensored" is playing at The Montalbán from Friday through Sunday.
