The Brief

As spring arrives, you may notice a new visitor sucking nectar from hummingbird feeders and picking juicy fruits from shrubs and trees.

The Swinhoe’s white-eye is a tiny bird with chartreuse plumage, native to places like Southeast Asia, whose population appears to be growing rapidly throughout Southern and Central California.

Nearly two decades ago, there was just a small number of them living in Orange County, likely arriving as a result of the pet trade. Now, they can be found as far south as Baja and as far north as San Luis Obispo.

A Swinhoe's white-eye in San Diego.

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Beverly Reynolds

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A paper recently published in the journal Biological Invasions suggests that given their solid growth in recent years, their population could be on the precipice of exploding.

“Their distribution in Southern California is expanding really rapidly. The range map that we put in the paper that's like six months to a year old now is already out of date,” said Devon DeRaad, Ph.D. student at the University of Kansas Natural History Museum and lead author of the paper.

Why are they successful?

What makes their expansion especially interesting is that the California habitats they’re expanding into aren’t like the warm, humid, subtropical habitats they go to in places like China, Vietnam and Malaysia.

“It's not totally clear to us still why they're able to survive and reproduce and seemingly thrive in Southern California,” said DeRaad.

What’s going on?

They seem to avoid native oak woodlands, deserts and chaparral in favor of developed urban environments, which in California, tend to have tons of ornamental flowers and fruit trees kept alive with supplemental irrigation. They could’ve adapted to using these sources of food quite successfully, much in the way that the screeching parrots from Mexico have.

A Swinhoe's white-eye in San Diego.

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Beverly Reynolds

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At least part of the increase could be chalked up to a documentation issue, as researchers rely on pictures from the public to document bird populations. Maybe people are just more focused on them now?

Their population could’ve just grown enough for them to reproduce prolifically. It’s not unheard of for a population to show up, hang out in small numbers for many years and then explode as they adapt to the surrounding areas.

Or maybe … they’re just really good colonizers. They did establish themselves offshore on the Channel Islands after all.

Are they invasive?

The good news is that as of right now, they don’t appear to be invasive.

There are more than 100 species of white-eye around the world, and it’s been confirmed that these aren’t the same white-eye as those that’ve taken over Hawaii and displaced native birds.

A Swinhoe's white-eye in San Diego.

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Ruslan Balagansky

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While the expansion of their populations likely means fewer resources for other animals, it’s unclear if they’re impacting any native species negatively. They largely avoid drier and less verdant native habitats, sticking to modified urban areas. That said, further research is needed.

“So far, we haven’t seen any negative consequences on native species, but that could change at any time,” said Allison Schultz, associate curator of ornithology at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, and co-author on the paper.

European starlings, for instance, nest in tree cavities and displace native birds like woodpeckers.

Swinhoe's white-eye in San Diego.

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Beverly Reynolds

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How you can help scientists study them

It’s tough to accurately track bird movement and population size, so researchers often turn to user supplied data from the iNaturalist app and the eBird website from Cornell University to help build their databases.

The iNaturalist app is free and can help you identify birds, plants and insects. If you download it and start taking pictures of various nature-ey things that you find, you too will likely be helping a researcher somewhere.

The Swinhoe’s white-eyes seem to be attracted to hummingbird feeders, and fruiting trees and shrubs in developed urban areas. So keep an eye out at parks and in your yard. They’re pretty zippy, so you’ll have to move fast.

The California Science Center has installed the first of more than a dozen aircraft in the museum’s 200,000-square-foot expansion coming to Exposition Park.

As of this week, the front portion of a Boeing 747-400 towers over the ground floor of the Korean Air Aviation Gallery, one of three main spaces in the Samuel Oschin Air and Space Center.

The new center, which recently completed construction, is built around a towering centerpiece: space shuttle Endeavour in its 20-story vertical launch position.

Once open to the public, the center will be the only place in the world to see an authentic space shuttle in its “Go for Stack” position, which is what officials called the months-long process of moving each component into place, according to the museum.

Walter Cho, chairman of Korean Air, said the airline’s namesake gallery is all about inspiring future generations to dream big.

“We want them to see more than airplanes, but the science, engineering and imagination behind them,” Cho said during a news conference Tuesday. “And most importantly, we want them to think, ‘I can do that, too.’”

Jeffrey Rudolph, president and CEO of the California Science Center, said museum officials are working to announce an opening date for the center within the next several weeks. He told LAist that people will be able to visit “well before” the 2028 Olympics.

Admission to the Samuel Oschin Air and Space Center will be free.

What's inside?

The California Science Center unveiled the first few aircraft on display in the Korean Air Aviation Gallery about six months after offering a sneak peak inside the Kent Kresa Space Gallery.

The galleries will guide guests through hundreds of exhibits and authentic artifacts focused on the exploration of the universe — including rocket ships that carried humans into space and telescopes used to view stars and galaxies beyond our reach, according to museum officials.

The Korean Air Aviation Gallery has three themes — learning to fly, everyday flight and advanced aviation, according to the museum. It’s designed to explore the four forces that affect every aircraft: lift, thrust, weight and drag.

“That basically shapes the aircraft, tells you what it has to look like in order to accomplish whatever mission you have,” said Kenneth Phillips, the curator of aerospace programs.

The roughly 20 aircraft that’ll be displayed — some already suspended from the ceiling — were selected by the California Science Center for the engineering principles they can teach.

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Makenna Cramer

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LAist

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The 747, at least the front 70 feet of it, was moved to L.A. last year. After taking thousands of flights under Korean Air for two decades, it was rescued from an “aircraft graveyard” in Arizona, Rudolph said.

Museum crews took the plane apart, reassembled it in the building and gave it a fresh paint job.

Officials said the 747 played a significant role in aviation, helping take the technology from daredevils testing the limits to a regular part of global travel. Visitors will be able to explore the inside of the aircraft and take a simulated five-minute flight from LAX to Seoul.

Walter Cho, chairman of Korean Air, celebrated the first aircraft installed in the Korean Air Aviation Gallery, including the front of a real Boeing 747-400 that was built for the airline in 1993.

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Makenna Cramer

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LAist

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A rendering of the final vision for the Korean Air Aviation Gallery in the Samuel Oschin Air and Space Center.

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Makenna Cramer

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LAist

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The other roughly 20 aircraft that’ll be on display — some are already suspended from the ceiling — were selected for the engineering principles they demonstrate, according to Rudolph.

For example, the section on speed will feature a F-106A Delta Dart, the fastest turbo-jet powered airplane with a single-engine, according to officials. The museum is also working on displaying an F-100D Super Sabre, the world’s first supersonic fighter jet, and a Vampire T.35, the first British aircraft powered by a single jet engine.

This Northrop T-38 Talon was built around 1959 and joined NASA's fleet a few decades later. It was used for air force and astronaut training, according to the museum.

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Makenna Cramer

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LAist

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A de Havilland Vampire T.35 was the first jet to land on and take off from an aircraft carrier, according to the California Science Center.

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Makenna Cramer

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LAist

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The museum is also looking ahead to advanced aviation, including an indoor drone flight area.

Perry Roth-Johnson, curator of science and technology, told LAist he wants visitors to be able to explore the autonomous tech you can already see in L.A. today through self-driving cars like Waymo.

“We want to give people a little cityscape where they can fly drones on sample missions around the city and get a sense of how this technology works,” Roth-Johnson said in an interview.

What's outside?

Construction of the Samuel Oschin Air and Space Center was completed last month, nearly four years after the California Science Center broke ground.

The expansion’s curved stainless-steel design stands out from the museum’s mostly copper-colored exterior.

Construction of the Samuel Oschin Air and Space Center was completed last month, bringing the expansion closer to welcoming visitors.

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Makenna Cramer

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LAist

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According to officials, it was inspired by the aerodynamic geometry of the space shuttle. Endeavour itself is hidden beneath a 2,000 ton diagrid structure, peaking at 200-feet-tall, that offers unobstructed views of the artifacts inside.

Steven F. Matt, chairman of MATT Construction — which built the expansion — said that construction was completed successfully without a scratch on the space shuttle.

“This project stands as a tribute to the generations who built our aerospace legacy and will continue to inspire children for decades to come,” Matt said in an April statement.

Amie Nulman, a structural engineer and principal with Arup, which engineered the building, told LAist previously that one of the challenges was making sure the design could withstand earthquakes without damaging the space shuttle. She said the shuttle’s support system is on base isolation, meaning it’s going to glide around when the ground starts to shake.

“The stack is going to be moving different to the building, and so we did a lot of studies to make sure they did not get too close to each other during earthquakes,” Nulman said in a 2024 interview.

This story first appeared on The LA Local.

Los Angeles Police Commissioner Teresa Sánchez-Gordon is leaving the city’s police oversight body after saying she and her family received threats, she told The LA Local. This comes weeks after she stepped down as the commission’s president. 

At Tuesday’s meeting, a member of The LA Local’s Documenters program heard Sánchez-Gordon saying today was her last day to several police department employees. When asked for more information, she said she had experienced several incidents in which she and her family had been threatened but declined to specify the nature of the threats or who was responsible.

“I have to focus on my girls and their security and my security – it’s been very difficult,” Sánchez-Gordon told The LA Local. “I’m going to miss the commission. It’s very important work that we do.”

She declined to comment on her work during her time on the commission or whether any specific policy positions factored into the threats.

Mayor Karen Bass told The LA Local in a statement it was “appalling” that Sánchez-Gordon felt compelled to step down over safety concerns and thanked her for her service to the city. She said she was in contact with the commissioner and has asked the LAPD to further investigate the matter.

Sánchez-Gordon’s departure marks another surprise move during her nearly two-year tenure on the board, which is tasked with setting policy and providing oversight of the city’s police department. In April, she did not cite a reason when she stepped down as the commission’s president, while remaining on the board, after being in the leadership role for only a few months.

Sánchez-Gordon served during a turbulent period in the department’s history. Last year, first responders were challenged by the city’s devastating fires. More recently, the department has faced scrutiny over its role amid federal immigration enforcement actions and protests against them. 

In recent months, Sánchez-Gordon was among the commission’s most outspoken members during discussions about immigration enforcement policies and the department’s practices. 

At Tuesday’s meeting, commissioners heard presentations from immigrant rights advocates and police officials on how the department should respond to federal immigration enforcement. Sánchez-Gordon emphasized the importance of allowing immigrant advocacy groups to directly communicate their concerns to the commission.

During her final meeting, she also supported a recent City Council vote to ban pretextual stops by police.

LAPD did not respond to questions about if the threats were being investigated or if any arrests have been made.

The Police Commission’s spokesperson, Sarah Bell, also declined to provide details about the threats or if there are any outstanding safety concerns for the other commissioners. When asked how long Sánchez-Gordon had been planning to step down, Bell responded: “I have no idea.”

Mayor Karen Bass said no public servant should feel unsafe while doing their job, adding that while policy disagreements are part of democracy, “people’s homes and families are off limits.”

The mayor’s office typically has 45 days to appoint a replacement.

LA Documenter Martin Romero contributed reporting for this story. LA Documenters trains and pays LA residents to take notes at local government meetings around Los Angeles. You can find meeting notes and audio at losangeles.documenters.org

This story first appeared on The LA Local.

It started like a typical Sunday afternoon in Long Beach.

I took my regular African dance class with Ndella Davis-Diassy, then had some out-of-this-world barbecue at Chef Memo’s before ending my afternoon with a long walk along the coast with a friend.

As we walked and talked, we saw the usual suspects — abandoned toothbrushes, deodorant sticks and empty laundry detergent containers blowing like tumbleweeds. The cleaning products dirtying the stretch of sand didn’t make me want to put on my shoes, but the birds did.

“Is that a seagull?” I asked. It was dead. A few more steps and we saw a cormorant, one of those black, glossy birds that are always sunbathing with their wings out. Dead. A few more steps. Another seagull. Dead. More steps. Then another cormorant. Along a 1.5-mile stretch, I saw eight dead birds.

At first, I was sad. Then I was overwhelmed. But eventually, I got curious and decided to look into it.

Searching for answers

A dead bird lies on the beach near the Long Beach shore.

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Megan Tan

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For The LA Local

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Like any good millennial armchair detective, I started my investigation on Reddit. 

It was shocking to see that something was killing birds all along California beaches, from Orange County to San Diego and up the coast toward Ventura County and beyond. A user in Santa Barbara summed up the situation succinctly, if without proper grammar: “Was at Ellwood Beach yesterday, counted 14 dead birds, spaced about one every 30-40 feet.”

There was nothing specifically about Long Beach that I could find, though I did learn there’s a bar in Japan called “Little Long Beach” in the r/longbeach Reddit community.

Turning to an older technology, I dialed 310-514-2573, the number for International Bird Rescue, a nonprofit organization focused on saving seabirds. 

I got an answering machine with prerecorded instructions: If you see a bird that needs help, find a box, place the bird in the box, put a cloth over the bird, put the bird in a specific area and do not offer it food or water.

Next, I called the Long Beach Lifeguards Headquarters and spoke to someone on background — they weren’t authorized to speak to me — who told me finding dead birds was nothing new, but the number of dead birds they’re seeing was anything but normal. Then they told me I should talk to the people I called first, International Bird Rescue, because that’s who they called when they found 30 birds dead on the beach one day.

“30 birds!” I shouted back at them. “I know,” they said quietly. “It’s a lot of dead birds.”

But they didn’t have a clue what was causing it.

The man with the metal detector

A few days later, I went back to the scene of the crime — for lack of a better term — and saw a man with a metal detector scanning the sand along Long Beach City Beach.

I noticed a few things: He was built like a wrestler — tall and dense — and was wearing camouflage shorts, a matching hat and a white shirt and, this will be important later, he was not carrying a shovel.

He also told me the dead birds I saw were a drop in the ocean compared to what he’s been seeing lately. “Every time I go to a beach, I see about 10 dead birds. Maybe that’s natural, but I think it’s a lot.”

When he spots the birds, he doesn’t do what I do, which is gasp and move on. He puts on a pair of gloves and buries them with his hands. “You’ll never know it’s there. Unless your kids start digging in the sand,” he said.

The man with the metal detector declined to give me his name because he didn’t trust the media. But he did tell me the theory he had about how the birds died.

Across the ocean, about 2,000 feet in front of us, was an island with a beige concrete tower wrapped in blue lines. He pointed to it.

“That one, right in front of us. That’s an oil rig,” he told me. “All these islands out here that look all pretty are oil rigs.”

His theory is that oil is being pumped into the ocean and when seabirds dive for food, they get oil all over themselves. That’s why they wind up on the shore.

The THUMS theory

The man with the metal detector was pointing at the THUMS Islands, an acronym for Texaco, Humble, Union, Mobil and Shell.

In the 1960s, those five companies leased multiple oil fields together off the coast of Long Beach and produced 150,000 barrels a day at their peak. But recently, production shrunk from 15,000 to 8,000 barrels a day. The city of Long Beach is currently debating whether the islands should remain active oil islands or be converted into parks, research centers or boutique resorts.

“These birds were not oiled,” JD Bergeron, the CEO of International Bird Rescue, told me a few days later in a phone interview. Bergeron is based in the Bay Area, but his organization also has a wildlife center in San Pedro.

Around March 1, Bergeron and his team at International Bird Rescue started receiving four times the usual number of calls from residents across Southern California. They’ve all been about dead birds. He told me their helpline went from 10 calls a day about dead birds to 40.

“When the numbers start to come in more rapidly, we get nervous,” Bergeron said, adding that his organization is exploring several causes for the uptick in dead birds. But he reiterated that none of the dead birds had been covered in oil.

The man with the metal detector’s theory didn’t pan out. So I went back to the beach.

The trash theory

It started like a typical Sunday afternoon in Long Beach.

“I don’t know exactly why the birds are dying,” Long Beach resident Adam Novak told me. Novak has been walking the beach almost every day for 15 years. “I’m sure it’s probably eating the trash. It’s pretty dirty out here.”

I let Novak get on with his day and walked 1.5 miles from Junipero Beach to Rosie’s Dog Beach. I passed the Belmont Pier, the Belmont Plaza Pool and multiple moms with kids buying fruit in plastic containers and individually wrapped ice cream from various futeros and paleteros.

Along the shoreline, I stepped over every size of trash imaginable, from small salsa containers to an abandoned pair of mismatched white Pumas to a large black suitcase you would definitely have to check on an airplane. At one point, I spotted a dark figure 100 feet away floating in the water and debated whether it was a cute seal bobbing around or a mattress.

It was a mattress.

But Novak’s trash theory is not on International Bird Rescue’s list of causes to explore.

When one of the first carcasses was found this year, Bergeron said they had to rule out the worst-case scenario for the cause of death: bird flu. Bergeron compared bird flu to the COVID-19 pandemic. It’s highly contagious and incurable, and it was the reason egg prices increased back in 2024.

Thankfully, when the bird flu test came back, it was negative. Bergeron and his partners had to go back to the drawing board, but at least they could exhale.

The freak incident theory 

The next theory International Bird Rescue had to rule out was harmful algal blooms called red tide that are caused by fertilizer run off into the ocean. The fish eat the algae, and then the birds eat the fish, potentially causing the birds to die.

Red tide left a mark on a variety of marine animals along the coast in 2025 and was also visibly present in Long Beach in 2022. But Bergeron’s team wan’t able to link it directly to the surge in dead birds.

And there are other isolated accidents that Bergeron and his partners tried to rule out.

Back in 2021, a colony of about 10,000 beach birds nesting in Bolsa Chica was devastated when a drone crashed into them. According to Bergeron, International Bird Rescue was able to save 3,300 baby chicks. Many others didn’t make it.

But so far, they hadn’t found an isolated freak incident like that, which led Bergeron to his strongest theory: The birds are starving because of climate change.

What we know — and what we don’t

A bird soars near the Long Beach shore.

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Megan Tan

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For The LA Local

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According to the NOAA IEA Program, an oceanic heat wave known as “The Blob” has been present in the Pacific Ocean for the past seven years.

“The Blob” is a mass of water with elevated temperatures moving around the Pacific Ocean. Fish dislike warm water, so when “The Blob” moves into specific regions, fish either dive deeper into colder temperatures or move farther away into colder waters.

Even though Bergeron was hesitant to wholeheartedly point to “The Blob” as the single contributing factor, he admitted it outweighs all the others. “From my perspective, it’s hard to see any version of this in which the temperature of the water is not a factor.”

The truth is that there are currently no hard facts explaining what is causing dead birds to wash up along the coast of Long Beach and Southern California. But there is one fact that cannot be ignored: As we head into the summer months, when families and tourists flock to the beaches, the dead birds will be there. Some seen and some buried in the sand.

Maybe, then, the question isn’t what is causing their deaths, but who is responsible for cleaning them off the beach?

“I wish I had a good answer there,” Bergeron said. “I don’t think that there is necessarily anyone whose responsibility it is to pick up dead birds.”

Residents who see a dead bird can call City of Long Beach Animal Care Services at 562-570-7387. But someone there told me they consider “dead animal pick-ups an non-emergency.” It may take the city 24 to 72 hours to respond. By then, the tide may have shifted, and who knows where the dead bird will be. 

Or they can do what an unassuming retired man with a metal detector does: put on some gloves and dig.

The Las Vegas Sphere has become the highest grossing arena in the world since opening three years ago. It's featured residencies by legendary bands like U2 and Phish.

And now the Sphere is expanding — and reshaping what a live entertainment venue can be.

“All of that which is around you is being controlled and created by the artists and the people that are involved in the production,” said Joel Veenstra, chair of the Department of Drama and head of stage management at UC Irvine, who joined AirTalk, LAist’s daily news program.

The screen and the tech behind it

Phish perform during night three of their nine-night run at Sphere in April

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Anadolu

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The creative outlet the Sphere provides artists is thanks to cutting-edge technology. The curved dome houses a 366-foot-tall and 516-foot-wide screen that resembles that of a planetarium, making it the largest high-resolution LED screen on earth.

Glen Nowak, professor of architecture at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, says Las Vegas is the pioneer of integrated resorts — mega buildings that blend concepts of casinos, restaurants, stores, and other amenities.

He says the Sphere is doing the same thing in the performing arts venue space.

“Typically, a stage is framed, and your attention is focused straight ahead, but the Sphere really inverts that,” he said.

Training the next generation

UC Irvine offers a themed entertainment and immersive entertainment class every three years as part of a graduate program. Some alumni of the program actually worked on the Sphere’s development.

“We look at the world and space with our design faculty and look at how we can prepare people for this field,” Veenstra said.

Experiences at the Sphere

LAist listeners shared what they experienced at the venue.

Phish perform during night three of their nine-night run at Sphere in April.

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Rich Fury / Sphere Entertainment

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Getty Images

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The Sphere during UFC 306: Riyadh Season Noche

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Christian Petersen

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The Grateful Dead logo, Steal Your Face Skull, is displayed on the Sphere, promoting the residency.

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Kevin Carter/Getty Images

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Getty Images North America

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Taking the Sphere beyond Vegas

Sphere Entertainment Co., owned by business and sports mogul James Dolan, who most notably owns the New York Knicks and Madison Square Garden, plans to bring the Sphere concept to Washington, D.C. and Abu Dhabi, the company announced on its website.

“There's a lot of opportunity because people want an experience that's lived and feel something different than just staying at home on their screen,” Veenstra said. “It's kind of like what the theater has historically been, but now enhanced.”

To see a list of what events are coming up, here's the Sphere schedule.