The Brief

Big Bear’s famous bald eagle chicks are getting closer to leaving the nest.

Sunny, formerly known as Chick 2, is about 6 weeks old as of Friday. The younger sibling, Gizmo, is just a few days behind.

Sandy Steers, executive director of Friends of Big Bear Valley, the nonprofit that manages the popular YouTube livestream, told LAist they’ve all been amazed at how fast the eaglets are growing.

“ I think it's wonderful that we get the opportunity to see what nature can do and, you know, show us all the possibilities,” she said.

How they're doing

The chicks have largely moved past their sibling rivalry, otherwise known as “bonking.” They now prefer to cooperate and cuddle up next to each other in the roughly 6-foot-wide nest, Steers said.

They’ve gotten steadier on their feet, and their yellow talons no longer look comically large compared to the rest of their body.

Sunny has started standing up in the nest and trying to take bits of fish from their parents on its own. Gizmo, on the other hand, still seems content getting fed by Jackie and Shadow.

“ Sunny … has a few times claimed the fish when Shadow brought it in and put his foot on it or said, you know, this is mine,” Steers said.

The eaglets have also started stretching their wings, smacking the rest of their feathered family with practice “wingslaps.”

What’s next in the weeks ahead

The next major milestone will be when Sunny and Gizmo start eating on their own.

At this point, Steers said their beaks aren’t sharp enough to pull pieces off themselves, so they’re still learning the ropes from Jackie and Shadow.

The eaglets are each around a foot-and-a-half tall, but they’re expected to roughly double in size in the next three to four weeks until they’re as tall as their parents. Female bald eagles are larger than males, which could help hint to Sunny and Gizmo’s sex.

When will we see them fly?

When Sunny and Gizmo are around 10 to 14 weeks old, they should start to fledge, which is when they can take the first flight away from the nest. All of Jackie and Shadow’s chicks have returned to the nest overlooking Big Bear Lake after flying for the first time.

“Wherever they are, Jackie and Shadow will be following them around, feeding them and bringing them food and making sure that they learn how to get food on their own,” Steers said.

When Sunny and Gizmo feel comfortable feeding on their own, after about two months of parental guidance, they’ll take off to see the world.

Southern California fledglings have been seen as far east as Yellowstone and as far north as British Columbia, according to Friends of Big Bear Valley.

In the meantime, Steers is encouraging fans to enjoy the time they have with Sunny and Gizmo and trust that the eagles know what they’re doing.

“ It fills my heart to see them every day and to watch how big they are, and to watch them develop and, you know, discover new skills and discover new things in the nest,” she said.

How to tell them apart now

Sunny and Gizmo look an awful lot alike at this stage, but their feathers hint at which one is which.

Sunny is almost completely covered with the dark waterproof feathers that are crucial for adult eagles, especially in the colder climates they’re accustomed to, while Gizmo still has more of the gray fluff they were swathed in as small chicks.

Democrats have done well in recent elections when they win young voters by a margin of at least 20 points. On Tuesday, they carried Gen Z — those under 30 — by nearly 50 points, according to exit polling.

It's a stunning shift from 2024, when the party lost critical ground with young people. Long seen as a part of the Democratic base, voters under 30 shifted right towards Donald Trump, motivated by his pledge to better their economic prospects.

But this week, the youngest generation of voters issued a strong rebuke of Republicans, taking another chance on Democrats and their change-focused message at a moment when many of them feel as though the American Dream is out of reach.

How young voters powered Democrats to victory 

Americans ages 18-29 have a history of turning out at lower rates than older voters, and this year was no exception. Gen Z made up 11% of the total vote on Tuesday.

However, where young Americans may have made the greatest difference is on the margins in House and Senate races where Democrats flipped seats.

The Texas Senate race is a key example. Democrat James Talarico won the state by 12 percentage points; however, when looking at just Gen Z, he won it by 60 points.

Explaining the massive shift from 2024

When assessing gains more broadly, Democrats argue the party's strong slate of candidates helped drum up increased enthusiasm.

But another motivating factor remains strong opposition to Trump. Throughout his second term, Gen Z increasingly soured on the president, with some arguing he failed to make good on a number of core campaign promises — from pledging to lower prices and repeatedly vowing "no new wars," to calling for a crackdown on federal corruption and the release of the Epstein files.

Much of that disappointment was reflected in exit polling. Economic issues were the top concern for a plurality of 18- to 29-year-olds, at 43%, and these voters expressed broad frustrations with Trump's handling of the issue. More than eight in 10 said that Trump's policies have worsened economic conditions, with similar shares opposing his tariff strategy and the decision to go to war with Iran.

The young voters Trump lost

Early analysis from CIRCLE indicates that 15% of young people who backed Trump in 2024 voted for a Democratic House candidate in this year's midterms.

Democrats made gains with some young voters who backed Trump two years ago, including white men and Latino men, two blocs that narrowly voted Republican in 2024 and then voted blue on Tuesday by double digits. Democratic candidates also narrowed the margins with young rural voters and people without college degrees.  

Some of those gains may have been helped by young Trump voters who chose to sit this election out, but it's unclear how many of them there were.

How the election results broke down by age

The midterm results underscore how neither of the two major parties owns Gen Z, according to John Della Volpe, a left-leaning pollster who's extensively studied the politics of young Americans.

"The cohort of younger people in this cycle had a different set of experiences than the cohort of people two years ago, or four years before that," he said. "Every candidate, every party has to earn their votes."

Della Volpe, who runs the Harvard Youth Poll, notes that in the latest survey, released in October, there was a sizable enthusiasm gap between young Democrat and young Republican respondents. While half of Democrats said they definitely planned to vote, just a third of Republicans and less than a quarter of Independents said the same.

"I also think we shouldn't overread what's happened," he added. "Clearly a significant historic rebuke on the party in office — that's obvious — however, I think we need to more fully, kind of understand, the contour of the electorate, who showed up and who didn't show up."

By 2028, Gen Z and millennial voters will make up more than half of the electorate, a demographic shift with huge implications for Democrats and the GOP.

"Young adults can make a difference," said Elizabeth Matto, who serves as the director of the Center for Youth Political Participation at Rutgers University.

"They do care about politics. They can sway the outcome of elections. And they're a voting bloc worth paying attention to."
Copyright 2026 NPR

The morning after Tuesday's midterms was gloomy and rainy in Minneapolis, but people still gathered at the place where Border Patrol agents shot and killed Alex Pretti, a VA nurse and U.S. citizen, last January. All week, community members have come here to place their "I Voted" stickers at the memorial.

Nicki Adams, who dated Pretti and was his close friend for nearly 17 years, watched quietly as a woman added her sticker to a street lamp completely covered in the red decals.

"I wanted to see all the stickers. I just wanted to be here," she says. "It just means a lot to me. I think it would mean a lot to Alex, too."

A few blocks away, people left their stickers where an ICE officer killed Renee Good, a mom of three and a U.S. citizen, just a few weeks before Pretti's death. In Houston, they left them where an ICE officer killed Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, a father of three and a Mexican immigrant, in July.

Adams says these stickers, and the election results this week, send a clear message to Congress: "You work for us, and please carry on these values that we care about … We want to be seen and heard and taken care of and have our neighbors taken care of."

The deaths of Pretti and Good during the ICE surge in Minneapolis marked a pivotal moment for the country, sparking intense public backlash to President Trump's aggressive deportation efforts. But federal law enforcement officials have given little indication they're progressing in investigating their deaths, or the deaths of at least seven other people killed by federal immigration agents since Trump took office again last year. DHS did not respond to an NPR request for the status of those investigations.

Now, after Democrats' sweeping wins this week, their deaths at the hands of immigration agents will likely be the targets of renewed investigations. With a majority in Congress, Democrats can issue subpoenas to the major players in Trump's mass deportation plan, compelling them to testify under oath before the legislature.

That could include White House Border Czar Tom Homan, former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, former Border Patrol Commander Gregory Bovino, and White House Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, among others.

Congress can also demand internal documents, like use-of-force reports.

"They can dissect these individual shootings, and really unravel the story of what happened," says Naureen Shah, who leads the ACLU's immigration policy work.

Democrats have already held shadow hearings on the ICE shootings, during which they've called in family members and witnesses to testify.

But Shah says now Congress can ask key questions of top decision makers: What orders were given to immigration officers in the field? What was training like for these officers?

Who made the decision to paint Good and Pretti as threats, including calling Pretti a "would-be assassin" and a domestic terrorist, when video showed otherwise?

"It's like we can turn the faucet on and actually find out so much more," Shah says. "There's an aspect of this that is really about a kind of reckoning with how it's possible that things that seemed unthinkable could happen on American streets. How do you have that reckoning if you don't actually have the ability to force people to explain themselves?"

Democratic leaders have already said that's the plan.

Maryland Democratic Rep. Jamie Raskin, who is expected to lead the House Judiciary Committee, told NPR in a statement that Congress will use "every tool" at its disposal to investigate ICE and that it is time for the agency to "start answering to the American people."

California Democratic Rep. Robert Garcia, expected to lead the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, vowed to take on DHS and ICE abuses in a two-word statement: "Lawyer Up."

Mississippi Democratic Rep. Bennie Thompson, expected to lead the House Committee on Homeland Security, sent a letter on Wednesday to Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin, demanding the agency "comply with all document preservation requirements."

Illinois Democratic Rep. Delia Ramirez wrote on social media that Noem, Miller, Homan, Bovino and Mullin should "clear" their schedules.

In response to that, DHS general counsel James Percival said Democrats are "more interested in political shenanigans than in governing" but said the agency is prepared to "deal with this nonsense."

There are key limitations to what Democrats in Congress can do with their majority when it comes to ICE accountability, says Rachel Moran, a professor at the University of St. Thomas School of Law.

Major changes, like clawing back funding for the agency, would require a veto-proof majority, something the Democrats don't have.

"You still have a president who has shown a complete lack of interest in accountability for federal agents and in fact, a great deal of knee jerk defensiveness about their conduct," Moran says.

In a statement, a White House spokesperson told NPR "if Democrats choose to pursue sham investigations and radical left policies, they are choosing to work against the American people."

Democrats, the statement added, "should be reminded that we still control the federal government and all of its powers."

But that's not true. Congress has its own powers, one of them being the ability to compel testimony. Moran says a deeper probe into the shootings could still serve important purposes, like making evidence available for states to use in their own criminal investigations.

Minnesota officials, for instance, have been fighting with the federal government to get evidence related to the Pretti and Good killings.

Brent Ganger, Renee Good's brother, says learning more information about his sister's death will be hard to hear, "but I think it's also super important for us to understand what happened that day. I don't want history to keep repeating itself."

It was painful, he says, to watch immigration agents kill more people after his sister. He thought her death would be a turning point. In a way, it might have been the start of one. After the surge in Minneapolis, most Americans said ICE had gone too far.

Ganger, who considers himself a moderate, was happy to see the Blue Wave this week. On election night, he was scrolling Instagram when he saw a photo of his sister's memorial site, with all the "I Voted" stickers.

"I was very grateful to see the repudiation of this administration from the country. It felt very supportive of my entire family," he says.

The next morning, in his home in Colorado, he got up and made biscuits and gravy, his sister's favorite breakfast.
Copyright 2026 NPR

Abraham Zavala was born at Adventist White Memorial. So were his kids. So late Friday, when he heard federal immigration agents were at the Boyle Heights hospital, and that local youth were out blowing whistles to warn neighbors, he went. 

“To me that’s sacred ground,” said Zavala, an organizer with Unión del Barrio.

“I’m a dad,” he said. “I wanted to be there to support the youth.”

He was among the Boyle Heights residents who converged on the hospital and stayed in a standoff with federal immigration agents into the early hours of Saturday. Agents detained at least two people, according to rapid response groups.

Neighbors alerted each other with noisemakers and fireworks. A woman pounded her pots and pans. Teenagers ran across Mariachi Plaza, shouting that ICE was in the area and urging residents to lock their doors. 

“Even though we’re afraid, you know we’re still showing up,” said Myra Vasquez, a Boyle Heights resident who rushed to White Memorial after hearing reports of ICE in the area. “We’re not going to allow them to just come into our communities and terrorize us because they’re the real terrorists causing harm.”

Myra Vasquez, a Boyle Heights resident and co-owner of Espacio 1839 rushed to White Memorial after hearing reports of ICE.

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Alejandra Molina

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Boyle Heights Beat

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The confrontation peaked around 11:30 p.m. Video shared with Boyle Heights Beat shows agents pushing back protesters who had moved toward them, and the two sides begin shoving. Agents appear to pepper-spray people on the sidewalk. One agent then tackles a man and pins him to the ground, while a second person is pulled from the crowd. Both were detained.

The standoff continued past midnight. Zavala said agents got out of their vehicles and formed a line in front of the parking lot where paramedics enter, blocking an emergency exit. “They literally became White Memorial’s private security detail,” he said. Zavala said he and another person were sprayed with Mace.

Adventist Health White Memorial Hospital in Boyle Heights.

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Steve Saldivar

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The LA Local

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The Dept. of Homeland Security declined to comment about the incident in Boyle Heights, and, in a statement, the agency said they would “not disclose or discuss law enforcement operations.”

The spokesperson instead said that obstructing law enforcement is a federal crime.

“ICE does not target hospitals, schools, or churches,” the statement said, despite the large turnout of protesters who encountered the masked agents at the hospital.

Father Brendan Busse, who pastors nearby Dolores Mission Church in Boyle Heights, rushed to White Memorial after seeing reports from the Boyle Heights Immigrant Rights Network of ICE at the hospital.

Busse, a Jesuit priest, said he witnessed people caring for each other and tending to those suffering from pepper spray. People there advocated for them to find treatment at White Memorial, Busse said. Community members, he said, “were obviously doing their best, not just to communicate their feelings, but to push, to instigate the dispersal of this ICE presence.”

As clergy, Busse said their presence can help combat a narrative of those advocating for immigrants as “somehow dangerous, or violent, or vulgar.” 

“Just to be there is a sign that that’s not the only version of what this looks like,” he said.

Initially, Busse showed up wearing a hoodie, but he decided to change into his green stole he had in his car as things appeared to get tense. “Just try to do what I could to bring a presence of maybe a little moral authority,” he said.

“It’s bad enough that people have to lift up their voices to say something so obvious, that their lives matter, that our communities are sacred, that families belong together,” Busse said. “It’s bad enough that they have to be out at 3 a.m. in the morning to tell anybody that.”

“It’s even worse if they would have to suffer the consequences of retribution and violence that comes from speaking out in that way,” Busse added.

The post Fireworks, whistles, pots and pans: How neighbors came together to push ICE out of Boyle Heights appeared first on LA Local.

Expect silent nights in Naples’ channels this holiday season.

The Naples Improvement Association announced Saturday that this year’s Naples Island Holiday Boat Parade, a Long Beach tradition since 1946, has been canceled because of expected high tides and heavy surf that organizers said would make the event too unsafe for visitors and participants.

It’s the first time in six years — since the onset of the COVID pandemic — that the parade has been canceled. What began as a small procession of decorated barges filled with singing church choirs has grown into an institution in Long Beach with more than 100 entries, from Duffys to dragon boats, and 60,000 spectators.

Ben Fisher, the association president, said the decision came after weeks of deliberations and a 600-respondent poll that found most wanted the parade — and all holiday events in Naples — to be canceled this year.

Forecasters expect a powerful El Niño season that will raise tides 6 to 18 inches above typical levels. This is paired with a series of slow, very wide swells of warm water known as Kelvin waves expected to frequent Long Beach’s southern-facing coast this winter.

During the week of Christmas, tides are expected to reach 7.5 to 8.5 feet, with the highest forecast to arrive in the mornings and peaking around Christmas Eve.

Part of the decision was also tied to ongoing frustrations with the city, which Fisher said has failed to address the island’s deteriorating infrastructure, from its aging seawall to underperforming drainage systems, that make it “too unsafe to draw tens of thousands of people to visit Naples this holiday season.”

“The city has told us to sandbag everything (public and private property); docks and gangways are being dismantled and sawed off however each individual owner sees fit; and the seawalls themselves are crumbling with exposed, rusted and sharp rebar in many places along the canals where many families normally would sit on any given holiday evening,” Mr. Fisher wrote.

For decades, the seawall has shielded multimillion-dollar homes and fortified the man-made canal that loops around the island. The city evaluated the structure in 2009 and found it in significant disrepair. A six-phase repair plan is underway, but only two phases are complete.

City officials have said they need $125 million to finish replacing the aging seawall, and they have halted reconstruction amid shrinking oil revenue and an uncertain future for federal disaster aid. Among the options under consideration is a 30-year bond spread across the whole neighborhood that would cost $5,100 per property annually. If limited to homes along the seawalls, it would cost $48,000 per property.

In a statement Saturday, council member Kristina Duggan, whose district includes Naples, said she respected the decision and added that the focus this winter should be on preparing the island for the upcoming weather. While the seawalls are stable under high tidal pressure, she said, maintenance work will “start next week to seal cold joints and help reduce water seepage.”

“We are encouraging everyone to prepare, and we look forward to seeing the Naples Boat Parade return next year,” Duggan wrote.

When high tides arrive, water already spills over the seawalls in some spots, reaching nearly two feet deep, flooding sidewalks and threatening homes. Residents and officials disagree over whether to prioritize coastal protection or recreational amenities.

The money normally spent on the parade will go instead toward pumps, hoses, plugs and generators, Fisher said, “resources our waterways and neighbors desperately need.”

Whether residents decorate their homes this year, he said, is up to them.