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The Brief

The most important stories for you to know today
  • The race is on to save historic Batchelder tiles
    Various hands surround a tile on a fireplace marked with green tape. Some hold chisels and hammers.
    Volunteers with Save the Tiles remove Ernest Batchelder tiles from a fireplace on Palm Street in Altadena.

    Topline:

    When thousands of homes were reduced to ash by the Eaton Fire, one of the few things left behind were the chimneys — and the kiln-fired tiles that adorned them.

    The backstory: The tiles were popular during Altadena’s architectural boom of the 1910s and ‘20s, “and were a defining characteristic of a handcrafted, unique home.” Their fireproof quality comes from the kilns that created them. Many tiles were made by the famed Ernest Batchelder.

    Why preservationists are worried: Phase 2 of the debris cleanup has begun in parts of the community. That means the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will bulldoze burned lots down to 6 inches below topsoil. “What will be lost is not only the very last of old Altadena, but for that homeowner, emotionally priceless artwork that surrounded the hearth,” says Eric Garland, co-founder of Save the Tiles.

    Read on ... to follow the work of a volunteer group that formed to preserve the tiles.

     When thousands of homes were reduced to ash by the Eaton Fire, one of the few things left behind were the chimneys — and the kiln-fired tiles that adorned them.

    “They were born of fire,” says Eric Garland, co-founder of Save The Tiles and long-time Altadena resident. The tiles were popular during Altadena’s architectural boom of the 1910s and ‘20s, “and were a defining characteristic of a handcrafted, unique home.”

    But Phase 2 of the debris cleanup has begun in parts of the community, meaning the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will bulldoze burned lots down to 6 inches below topsoil.

    “What will be lost is not only the very last of old Altadena, but for that homeowner, emotionally priceless artwork that surrounded the hearth,” Garland says.

    “That's the countdown clock that we're racing.”

    Save the tiles, save the town

    I meet Eric Garland on a Saturday in a parking lot just outside the burn zone. We drive through the destroyed streets of Altadena toward a tile rescue site.

    Mangled cars, a few stray planters, the occasional mailbox. And lots and lots of still-standing chimneys.

    Garland tells me he and his family were out of town when fire tore through their neighborhood. His neighbors, minutes after watching their own homes burn, stamped out embers and dumped buckets of pool water onto other houses to establish a perimeter.

    Garland’s home was the first they were able to save.

    “Your first mission is to save your life,” Garland says. “Your next mission, save your home. And failing that, you've got to try to save what you can. You draw a line and say this is as far as the loss goes.”

    Garland credits his daughter Lucy with the idea to rescue the tiles. As they walked along Holliston Street, through what remained of their neighborhood, he remembered her asking, “Is there nothing else that survived?”

    Now  “we're hearing from so many homeowners that if you could save even one tile,” he says, “it would be the only thing I have left.”

    Two men stand on a burned lot, with a chimney rising behind them. One man wears black, the other red. Both have respirator masks pulled down to their chins.
    Neighbors and Save the Tiles co-founders Eric Garland, left, and Stanley Zucker have cataloged more than 200 historic fireplaces in Altadena.
    (
    Julie Leopo
    /
    LAist
    )

    ‘All that’s left’

    We arrive at a job site — the outline of a destroyed craftsman home on Palm Street. The once-lush courtyard of bougainvillea and lavender has given way to a blackened jumble of ash and stray nails.

    It’s dead quiet, save for the occasional car and the steady beat of hammer and chisel.

    Garland introduces me to his neighbor and Save the Tiles co-founder, Stanley Zucker. “My partner in tile,” he adds.

    A man in a red shirt bending over to grab the hand of a person in a black shirt and a beige cap. They are standing in a burned lot surrounded by rubble and burnt trees.
    Stanley Zucker helps Mary Gandsey climb out of a burnt Altadena home on Palm Street.
    (
    Julie Leopo
    /
    LAist
    )

    Zucker grabs empty cardboard boxes from the truck, and carefully hops over what was once a side wall into the interior of the home. “Watch out for up-turned nails,” he warns me, leading the way through the rubble to the chimney.

    For a homeowner, he says, “all of their memories, everything on this lot that was important to them, is channeled into the tiles, because they’re all that’s left.”

    Expertise required

    The fireplace opening stands about four feet above the home’s burned foundation. A few planks of makeshift scaffolding allow access to the tiled facade.

    Cliff Douglas and his daughter, Devon, take turns chiseling grout and taping off slabs of tile. “Team Douglas,” Garland calls them. “The third co-founders.”

    The older Douglas specializes in masonry restoration — an important skill for a project that involves tiles prone to cracking and chimneys that could topple. Garland says Cliff has already had to ask some volunteers not to come back — they cracked too many tiles.

    A man in a yellow shirt and jeans stands over the camera holding a large rectangular tile that has been covered in green tape. He is wearing a mask, sunglasses, gloves and an orange cap. Below him, a woman in a white cap wearing a mask looks up at the tile.
    Cliff Douglas hands a taped-off Batchelder tile to his daughter, Devon Douglas.
    (
    Julie Leopo
    /
    LAist
    )

    Pressing his ear to the fireplace, Douglas gently taps with the blunt end of the chisel, listening for hollow spots. Once he’s confident, he tapes off the large central tile and grabs his hammer.

    "Ernest Batchelder. He’s the artist who made these tiles — in his backyard, originally, on Arroyo Boulevard and La Loma,” Douglas says. “Then they moved to downtown Los Angeles.”

    Douglas believes these tiles were likely made shortly after the move, about a hundred years ago. The design is in line with Batchelder’s earlier work, but the stamp on the back says “Los Angeles.”

    Similar individual tiles regularly sell for hundreds of dollars, and Batchelder’s work represents one of L.A’s biggest contributions to the American Arts and Crafts movement.

    “ They're beautiful pieces of art,   and hopefully we can bring them back to life again,” Douglas says.

    “Maybe a fireplace when they rebuild, or maybe a little memorial area.”

    Three people wearing jeans and shirts with masks around their necks stand near a fireplace surrounded by burned rubble.
    Devon Douglas, left, Cliff Douglas, and Mary Gandsey take a break from recovering fireplace tiles.
    (
    Julie Leopo
    /
    LAist
    )

    Painstaking work

    It can take several hours to recover tile from a single fireplace, and with more than 200 houses on the list, Team Douglas needed to expand. So Zucker connected them with an old friend, one of the best in the business.

    Mary Gandsey is an expert restorer of wood whose resume includes the Gamble House and Castle Green. Today she’s training under Douglas so she can lead the recovery at other sites.

    Gandsey says she came out of retirement because she loves these homes and has worked on many of them. “Now that they're all gone," she says, "I want to save some piece of what was here for the future.”

    A box holds tiles. A hand can be seen to the left of frame wearing a bright yellow long sleeve shirt.
    Boxes of recovered tiles will be cataloged and stored so that they can be returned to homeowners later.
    (
    Julie Leopo
    /
    LAist
    )

    200 chimneys, 200 stories

    As Douglas swaps his hammer and chisel for an angle grinder, Garland gets a call from another homeowner — she has signed the consent form that allows the team to enter her home. It’s a five-minute walk away.

    On our way out of the gate, we run into Myungeun and Dan Strickland, who are back to visit the remnants of their home and check in on the neighborhood.

    The Stricklands are an elderly couple who lived on Palm Street for more than 20 years. They lost everything: antique Korean furniture, historic family documents from Massachusetts and old family photographs.

    But remarkably, her orchids are growing back, Strickland says, and she’s hoping her charred pomegranate tree survives too.

    On our walk, we pass block after block of empty lots — extending our line of sight for miles in every direction.

    Burned rubble fills the foreground. Burnt trees line the background. A free standing chimney stands to the right of the frame.
    The Eaton Fire burned through nearly 22 square miles, leveling entire neighborhoods of Altadena. But many fireplaces and chimneys survived.
    (
    Zaydee Sanchez
    /
    NPR
    )

    Elizabeth Richie meets us on the concrete steps of her home.

    Richie was the first person Garland met after the fires. The intense heat had changed the tiles on her fireplace from “tans and browns to turquoise, with pinks and whites in it,” she says. “The original colors.”

    The devastation had scoured clean a century’s worth of smoke, soot and everything else.

    “This over here was the original rose garden that my friend’s grandmother had when she lived here,” Richie says. “And we had big grapevines over here.”

    She pauses, and points beyond a few burned cars. “That was the back house, where Ozzie lived with his dogs,” she says.

    “The police tried to get him out but he wouldn’t leave, he’d been here since he was 7 years old. At the very end, he just ran out of time.”

    Oswald Altmetz, Richie’s long-time family friend, died along with his dogs that night. He was 75.

    The magnitude of loss will always be with her, Richie says. But she’s finding ways to preserve what remains. She plans to use the aluminum slag from the burned cars in an art project, and a stone Buddha in the garden survived unscathed.

    And she’s grateful to still have her fireplace tiles.

    “ There's still beauty and hope here,” she adds.

    A community determined to rebuild

    Back on Palm Street, Gandsey and the Douglases are loading the truck with boxes of tile. Zucker is talking to a new recruit, a librarian who will help to track and catalog the growing tile archive.

    Garland says it could be years before people are ready to reclaim their tiles — and the team is preparing to store them for as long as it takes. 

    Homeowners Carie Lewis and Christophe Basset arrive, and tell Garland they plan to rebuild. They already have the blueprints for their original craftsman, the couple says.

    “We're probably going to talk to Cliff to restore a fireplace in the new building. With the same tiles, of course,” says Basset.

    Like Richie, they were surprised to see the surviving tiles become so much more vibrant and colorful. “So maybe it'll be a bit of new and a bit of really ancient coming back together,” Basset says.

    “Which is what all of Altadena is going to be,” Zucker adds.

    Save The Tiles is running a GoFundMe campaign, with proceeds going to the Altadena Historical Society.

    Watch the Video

  • LA City Council delays increase to 2030
    A man wearing a T-shirt stands in a row with people behind him. He holds a pinkish red sign that reads "OLYMPIC WAGE NOW!"
    Members with Unite Here Local 11 attended an L.A. City Council meeting on May 14, 2025.

    Topline:

    The Los Angeles City Council has officially delayed minimum wage increases for tourism workers. The council made the final vote Tuesday, pushing back a boost to $30 an hour for airport and hotel workers from 2028 to 2030.

    Why it matters: The controversial move comes after L.A. faced major pressure from business interests, which had gathered enough signatures to put a measure on the November ballot to repeal the business tax. That effort could have financially ruined the city if it passed.

    The backstory: After the City Council voted to delay the wage from the November ballot, the leaders behind that ballot measure withdrew it.

    Read on... for how workers are responding to the delay.

    The Los Angeles City Council has officially delayed minimum wage increases for tourism workers. The council made the final vote Tuesday, pushing back a boost to $30 an hour for airport and hotel workers from 2028 to 2030.

    The controversial move comes after L.A. faced major pressure from business interests, which had gathered enough signatures to put a measure on the November ballot to repeal the business tax. That effort could have financially ruined the city if it passed.

    After the City Council voted to delay the wage from the November ballot, the leaders behind that ballot measure withdrew it.

    It's a maneuver hotel workers have called a "shakedown." Originally celebrated as an "Olympic Wage," the $30 minimum was pegged to the arrival of the 2028 Games in Los Angeles. But a battle to upend it started as soon as the City Council passed it last year.

    Workers who had counted on the increases aren't happy.

    " I would expect my councilmember to stand up for working Angelenos, not help giant companies take money out of our pockets," Jordan Long, a bartender at LAX, said at a recent council meeting.

    Stuart Waldman with the Valley Industry & Commerce Association told LAist that business groups decided to advance their ballot measure after unions wouldn't broker a deal with them directly.

    "The business community has taken a page out of the union playbook to play hardball," he said.

    Council members Eunisses Hernandez, Ysabel Jurado and Hugo Soto-Martinez voted against the motion to finalize the wage delay Tuesday.

  • Sponsored message
  • Trump DOJ deletes info on Jan 6 cases

    Topline:

    The Trump administration has mass-deleted information about prosecutions tied to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, including cases of defendants who assaulted police officers. The removals mark the latest phase of President Trump's effort to rewrite the history of the violent riot.

    Why now: Justice Department news releases that detailed guilty pleas, jury verdicts and prison sentences abruptly disappeared from government websites last week.

    Why it matters: A review by NPR found that the deleted material included information about some of the most serious assaults on law enforcement that occurred that day. NPR maintains the most complete database and visual archive of the Jan. 6 prosecutions.

    Read on... for more on the deleted information.

    The Trump administration has mass-deleted information about prosecutions tied to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, including cases of defendants who assaulted police officers. The removals mark the latest phase of President Donald Trump's effort to rewrite the history of the violent riot.

    Justice Department news releases that detailed guilty pleas, jury verdicts and prison sentences abruptly disappeared from government websites last week.

    On social media, the Justice Department defended the move, saying, "We are proud to reverse the DOJ's weaponization under the Biden administration. We will do everything in our power to make whole those who were persecuted for political purposes. This includes stripping DOJ's website of partisan propaganda."

    A review by NPR found that the deleted material included information about some of the most serious assaults on law enforcement that occurred that day. NPR maintains the most complete database and visual archive of the Jan. 6 prosecutions.

    The purged news releases covered cases including:

    • Daniel Rodriguez, who pleaded guilty to driving an electroshock device into the neck of former Washington, D.C., Metropolitan Police Department officer Michael Fanone, and who was sentenced to more than 12 years in prison. 
    • Albuquerque Head, who pleaded guilty to assaulting police and grabbing Fanone by the neck and pulling him into the mob of rioters while yelling, "I got one!" Head was sentenced to more than seven years in prison. 
    • Thomas Webster, who was convicted by a jury of assaulting law enforcement with a metal flagpole, tackling a police officer to the ground and trying to remove the officer's gas mask. Webster was sentenced to 10 years in prison. 
    • Christopher Alberts, who was convicted by a jury of assaulting police with a wooden pallet and carrying a loaded handgun on Capitol grounds. Alberts was sentenced to seven years in prison.
    • Peter Schwartz, who was convicted by a jury of assaulting police officers with pepper spray and throwing a metal chair at law enforcement. Schwartz was sentenced to 14 years in prison. 


    The previously accessible news releases now lead to a "Page not found" message.

    The mass deletion of government information about the riot, in which a mob of Trump supporters injured 140 police officers and threatened the lives of members of Congress and then-Vice President Mike Pence, follows a broader effort by the Trump administration to whitewash the attack.

    Trump granted clemency to every Jan. 6 defendant, including full pardons for all the most violent rioters and the erasure of seditious conspiracy convictions for members of extremist groups. The Justice Department fired dozens of prosecutors who worked on Jan. 6 cases and hired a former riot defendant who was seen on video urging the mob to "kill" police. The administration settled a wrongful death lawsuit brought by the estate of rioter Ashli Babbitt, who was shot and killed while storming the Capitol, for nearly $5 million. On the fifth anniversary of the riot, the White House created a website that distorts that day's events, describing the rioters as "patriots" and blaming police for causing "chaos." And just last week, the administration announced a $1.8 billion "Anti-Weaponization Fund," indicating that even rioters who assaulted police may be eligible for payouts.

    When speaking about the attack, Trump consistently describes his supporters as victims rather than perpetrators of violence.

    "I pardoned people that were assaulted themselves. They were assaulted by our government," Trump said last year. "They didn't assault. They were assaulted."

    Police officers who were violently assaulted on Jan. 6 have described suffering lifelong physical and psychological injuries.

    "I have been sentenced to a lifetime of medical issues that include physical pain and mental and emotional distress," former Capitol Police Sgt. Federico Ruiz said in a victim impact statement filed in a Jan. 6 case. "There is not a day that goes by that pain, discomfort, and/or a mental health issue do not flare up to remind me of that day."

    Brendan Ballou, a former federal prosecutor who worked on Jan. 6 cases, told NPR in a recent interview that the administration's effort to flip the story of the riot is part of a broader effort to attack democratic institutions.

    "It's clear there is an ongoing fight to rewrite the history of Jan. 6, because these people know if they can successfully get people to forget about Jan. 6 — or worse yet, condone it — then they will be able to convince people to accept any attack on democracy," said Ballou.

    Ballou currently represents two police officers who defended the Capitol on Jan. 6 and are suing to prevent payouts from the Anti-Weaponization Fund.

    While the government continues to remove information on the attack, NPR's database and visual archive of the attack remains accessible. NPR's work has been used by prosecutors, defendants, academic researchers and the general public.

    The searchable database covers all the nearly 1,600 criminal cases, including charges, convictions and sentencing outcomes. The archive also includes a timeline of the day's events and makes accessible hundreds of videos from police body cameras, Capitol surveillance footage and other sources. NPR is currently taking legal action to obtain additional video evidence held by the government, which has not been previously disclosed.
    Copyright 2026 NPR

  • LA to host Iran. The diaspora has mixed feelings
    A man dressed in a black tracksuit looks off the frame and is turned slightly away with only a side profile of his face. He is standing on a green soccer pitch with a goal in the distance. Another person is standing beside him facing off the frame as well.
    Nader Adeli a group of Iranian-Americans from around Los Angeles who play soccer together on weekends in an adult league, under the team name Arya FC.

    Key takeaways

    • Iran's participation in the World Cup has been in question since the U.S. and Israel launched a war against the country in late February. Whether the Iran team shows up or not won't be settled until they arrive in the U.S. 
    • L.A. County is home to about 166,000 Iranian-Americans — the largest population of Iranians outside of Iran. 
    • The U.S. and Iran teams have only faced off twice in World Cup history.
    • FIFA is planning to ban Iran’s former Lion and Sun flag in the stadiums. That flag is associated with those that want to see a return to monarchist rule in the country. 
    • If the teams both finish second in their groups, they'll face off in Dallas, Texas on July 3.

    Los Angeles is preparing to host the 2026 FIFA World Cup next month in unprecedented circumstances.

    As the U.S. war in Iran drags on, the United States is the first host nation in World Cup history to be at war with a participating country. And the Iran men’s team is scheduled to play two of its matches in Los Angeles, home to the largest Iranian population outside of Iran.

    Iran's participation in the tournament has been in question since the U.S. and Israel launched a bombing campaign against the country in late February. Whether they show up or not won't be settled until the team arrives in the U.S. to play. They were scheduled to train in Tucson, Arizona ahead of the tournament, but they've now re-routed to a facility in Tijuana, Mexico. FIFA confirmed the move on Monday.

    "Sports is supposed to displace war. It's not supposed to be war."
    — Kevan Harris, associate professor and vice chair, UCLA

    Iran's first match is June 15 at SoFi Stadium against New Zealand. In the meantime, Iranians in Los Angeles are anticipating the coming tournament with complicated feelings.

    " Sports is supposed to displace war. It's not supposed to be war," said Kevan Harris, a sociologist at UCLA who studies the Iranian diaspora. "Teams fighting it out when a war is going on, it has a flavor that's very difficult to process. Do I want them to win? Do I want them to lose? I don't know. "

    Los Angeles County is home to about 166,000 Iranian-Americans, according to the UCLA Center for Near Eastern Studies's Iranian Diaspora Dashboard. Demonstrations against the government inside Iran in December and January and the killing of thousands of demonstrators there led to protests against the Iranian state in Los Angeles. Then came the war, which also brought people to the streets, but has sparked divided opinions within L.A.’s Iranian communities.

    For some, those dynamics and their opinions about the Iranian government are inextricable from the coming World Cup. For others, it's just about the soccer.

    Mixed feelings for soccer players in LA

    In Woodland Hills, a group of Iranian-Americans from around Los Angeles play soccer together on Sundays in an adult league, under the team name Arya FC. On a recent weekend, many players said they were excited for the World Cup, and most said they'd root for Iran's team, known as Team Melli.

    "It's a lot going on in Iran right now, and there are a lot of mixed emotions," said Bobby Riahi, an Arya FC player who said he was going to a World Cup match and would support Iran. "You can't be a soccer fan and not be excited about the World Cup. Am I excited about seeing my national team? I have mixed feelings this year."

    A medium-skinned man has his back turned from the frame. He's wearing a red jersey with the number 25 on the back. He's also wearing white shorts and is standing on a green field.
    In Woodland Hills, a group of Iranian-Americans from around Los Angeles play soccer together on Sundays in an adult league, under the team name Arya FC.
    (
    Libby Rainey
    /
    LAist
    )

    Between stretches and warm-ups, others said they doubted Iran would advance beyond the first round of the tournament. Some named players in Iran that they followed or said that they watched Iranian football.

    Most didn't want to talk politics. Those that did, including one person who said he wouldn't support Iran because he thought it was the regime's team, didn't want to share their full names.

    " It's a tough moment for sure for a lot of Iranians.  I think a lot of my compatriots are pretty much divided," said Mehran Janani, another player. "There is a split, I think, in the Iranian population, about the Iranian team being here. There are some folks that are excited. There are some folks who are not happy for the presence of the Iranian team. And that all comes down to politics, unfortunately."

    Nader Adeli, who manages the team, said he hoped all that could be set aside for the World Cup.

    "Soccer has always been the most-watched sport in the world. And I think that will bring everybody together, at least for a period of one month of June to July," he said. "Let's hope for the best – that Americans will see the other side of the Iranian people as well."

    A history of controversy at the World Cup

    Iran's participation in the World Cup has been marked by political controversy before, including just four years ago. In 2022, the Iranian national team headed to Qatar for the World Cup as mass protests took place in Iran, sparked by the death of 22 year-old Mahsa Amini in police custody.

    The "Woman, Life, Freedom" movement led some in the Iranian diaspora to push for a boycott of the team, asking FIFA to ban Iran from the tournament.

    A group of men are running on a field with a soccer ball towards the center of the frame. The men are dressed in blue and white uniforms across a green soccer pitch.
    Christian Pulisic of USA battles for the ball with Ramin Rezaeian of Iran during the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 at Al Thumama Stadium on Nov, 29, 2022 in Doha, Qatar.
    (
    Dean Mouhtaropoulos
    /
    Getty Images
    )

    "There was all kinds of pressure around trying to say that the team was not a national team, but that it represented the Islamic Republic, and therefore it should be boycotted," said Niki Akhavan, associate professor of media and communication studies at Catholic University of America.

    Iran did end up playing in the World Cup in 2022, where the team faced the U.S. for just the second time in tournament history. They lost 1-0.

    A crowd of people are holding the American and Iran national flags. Some are wearing foam green crowns.
    Fans with the USA and Iran's flags attend the Qatar 2022 World Cup match between Iran and USA at the Al-Thumama Stadium in Doha on Nov. 29, 2022.
    (
    Patrick T. Fallon
    /
    Getty Images
    )

    Prior to that, the two countries faced off in 1998 at the World Cup in France. The showdown came after nearly two decades of hostility between the U.S. and Iran following the Iranian Revolution and subsequent hostage crisis.

    That match was dubbed "the mother of all games." The New York Times called it "the most visible head-to-head sporting event between the two countries since the Islamic revolution in 1979."

    Iran won 2-1, knocking the U.S. out of the tournament. Before the match, Iranian team members presented the U.S. team with white roses. But in the stands, there were protests against the Islamic Republic from members of a controversial expatriate Iranian opposition group.

    About a dozen men are standing on a field. Half of them are wearing red jerseys and the others are wearing white jerseys. They're exchanging flowers and shaking hands.
    USA Team players exchange flowers with the Iranian Team before the World Cup 1st round match at the Stade de Garland on June 21, 1998 in Lyon, France.
    (
    Simon M. Bruty
    /
    Getty Images
    )

    "There will be protests"

    This time around, some members of the Iranian diaspora in Los Angeles think that protests around the World Cup are inevitable.

    "There's no doubt that there will be protests. The question is where will they happen?" said Harris, of UCLA. "What will be the slogan? What will be the demand? That's hard to tell."

    Sheila Rossi, who was born in Iran and is now the mayor of South Pasadena, said she expects there to be conflict over the flags people will bring to the Iran matches.

    Many demonstrators in Los Angeles have carried the country’s pre-revolutionary Lion and Sun flag as a symbol of protest. That flag bears the same green, white and red stripes as Iran's national flag, but includes an image of a golden sun and lion instead of an Arabic inscription.

    FIFA is planning to ban the Lion and Sun flag inside the stadiums, according to The Athletic.

    "If there's going to be a fight, it's going to be about this flag issue," Rossi said.

    Still, others are hoping the tournament can usher in a time of celebration for Iranians who have spent much of the year worrying about the war and family inside Iran.

    Shaheen Ferdowsi runs a Persian restaurant in West L.A. called Meymuni Cafe. Throughout the year, he's hosted events to bring together Iranians from around Los Angeles, and opened his doors to people after protests against the Iranian government and amid the war.

    A medium-skinned man is holding a red beverage behind a white counter. He's wearing a beige shirt and a silver necklace. Behind him is more kitchen counter space with bottles.
    Shaheen Ferdowsi runs Meymuni Cafe in West L.A.
    (
    Libby Rainey
    /
    LAist
    )

    Now, he's hoping the cafe can be a place of celebration during the World Cup. He's planning watch parties and special menu items like lamb nachos for the occasion. He's also hoping his restaurant can be a space for Iranians visiting from other parts of the world for the tournament to gather.

    "The heartbeat of the Persian diaspora is in Los Angeles," he said. " I think that there's just going to be an electric vibe of Iranians all together here."

    Back on the soccer field in Woodland Hills, Mehran Janani, one of the players, said he hoped the tournament could bring some levity to people inside Iran, who have endured months of war and a crackdown on protests before that.

    " I think with the current political climate in Iran,  I'm hoping that at least the soccer will bring some joy to the Iranian nation," Janani said. “I know as a country we love soccer.”

    If both teams do advance through the first round, it's possible that the U.S. and Iran teams will face each other again, this time on American soil. If the countries each finish second in their groups, they'll play in Dallas, Texas on July 3.

  • SoCal in store for cooler temps, gusty winds
    Tall buildings and part of a mountain are obscured by gray fog and cloudy skies in the distance. A line of trees, including a palm sticking out into the sky, are sitting in front of the fog.
    Morning fog slowly burns off over Universal City on May 31, 2025.

    Topline:

    Southern California is in store for cooler temperatures, gusty winds and a chance of showers this week as a mixed bag of “May Gray” weather moves into the region.

    Why now: The cooler forecast is expected to stick around through Thursday before warmer temperatures kick in Friday, lingering into next week.

    Cooler conditions: Temperatures will be 10 to 20 degrees below normal “at the very least” in L.A. County for the next few days, according to the National Weather Service. That doesn’t mean L.A. County won’t see sunshine, particularly in the mornings.

    It won’t be quite as chilly in Orange County, according to Lauren Villafane, a meteorologist with the San Diego office. But in the Inland Empire, she said, temperatures will be “well below” the seasonal average.

    Rain: Showers and a brief thunderstorm or two are possible, mostly in the L.A. County mountains and higher terrain areas, but there is a small chance of wet weather drifting into the valleys and coastal areas.

    The marine layer is back in Orange County, which Villafane said could bring some patchy drizzle in the mornings.

    Winds: It’s going to be gusty on L.A. County beaches, mountains and desert areas through Thursday. A wind advisory was in effect Tuesday for the Antelope Valley, as well as parts of San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara and Ventura counties. Some of Santa Barbara County, including El Capitan State Beach and San Marcos Pass, are under a wind advisory through Wednesday morning.

    Orange County mountains will see winds between 40 to 50 mph with isolated gusts around 70 mph. Villafane encouraged people to be careful driving through the mountain areas, especially with taller vehicles “because they can get blown around a little bit.”

    Surf: A high surf advisory is in effect for San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara county beaches until Wednesday evening. Dangerous rip currents and large breaking waves between 8 to 12 feet are expected, according to forecasters.

    Rip currents could also kick up along Orange County beaches. “So definitely to be careful when they're swimming out there, pay attention to those flags and those lifeguards,” Villafane said.

    What's next: By early next week, L.A. County temperatures will hang around 90 degrees in the valleys and mid-80s in downtown L.A. Temperatures on the coasts are expected to stay near normal, likely in the upper 60s to mid-70s.

    Next Tuesday looks like it’ll be the warmest day in Orange County with temperatures up to several degrees above normal, according to the National Weather Service.

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