Yusra Farzan
covers Orange County and its 34 cities, watching those long meetings — boards, councils and more — so you don’t have to.
Published July 26, 2024 8:00 AM
Some of the rescued ducklings.
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Courtesy Howard Berkowitz/Facebook
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Topline:
The rescue of around 350 duck hatchlings in Brea on Saturday is putting the spotlight on balut, a Filipino delicacy. Balut is a fertilized egg eaten around 10 days before the eggs hatch.
How the rescue unfolded: On July 17, Howard Berkowitz, founder and CEO of the Duck Sanctuary in Winchester, received a call from a woman who told him that she had between 200 to 600 duck eggs that were about to hatch. The woman, he said, is a balut dealer who was unable to sell the eggs because of a shipping delay.
Some ended up dying during the rescue effort, but 120 hatchlings are currently alive at the sanctuary.
The cultural signifiance of balut: Richard “Reach” Guinto, managing editor of Foodbeast is of Filipino descent, said the dish was introduced by the Chinese to the Philippines and other Southeast Asian countries in the 16th century. Given the lack of refrigeration at the time balut was a way to increase the shelf life of eggs.
It started with a frantic call to the Duck Sanctuary in Winchester. A woman in Brea on Saturday was overwhelmed by hundreds of ducklings that were about to hatch unexpectedly and she needed help.
How? Why?
Rescuers soon found out. The woman was a supplier of the Filipino delicacy balut — a fertilized egg eaten around 10 days before it hatches.
On Facebook, the Duck Sanctuary said the practice of eating balut "is one of the worst things" they had heard of.
But Richard “Reach” Guinto, managing editor of Foodbeast and of Filipino descent, said balut was introduced by the Chinese to the Philippines other Southeast Asian countries in the 16th century. And given the lack of refrigeration at the time, balut was a way to increase the shelf life of eggs.
How the rescue unfolded
On July 17, Howard Berkowitz, founder and CEO of the Duck Sanctuary, received a call from a woman who told him she had between 200 to 600 duck eggs that were about to hatch. The woman, he said, was a balut dealer and because of a shipping delay, she was unable to supply them to restaurants that had gone elsewhere to fulfill their orders.
Berkowitz met her at a Brea warehouse on Saturday morning to pick up the eggs. When he arrived, 350 ducks had hatched and 48 were in the process of hatching. Berkowitz then met volunteers at a nearby Walmart parking lot, where they began triaging the birds.
“We found out right then that she hadn't given them any water or food for the entire three days that they were hatching,” he said.
Some ended up dying during the rescue effort, but 120 hatchlings are currently alive at the sanctuary.
The cultural significance of balut
Guinto said balut plays a significant role in the Philippines and that the industry is a major contributor to the country’s economy and the creation of jobs. He added that “it’s a cheap and affordable street food for many people who can't afford anything beyond just street food.”
Guinto described having balut for the first time a few years ago as tasting like a “very rich, concentrated chicken soup.” Growing up, he recalled uncles challenging children to eat balut, almost as a rite of passage.
“Balut is, for many people who are here in the states, it's kind of like getting in touch with their Filipino roots,” Guinto said. “It kind of serves as a rite of passage in terms of gaining your cultural identity.”
Mariana Dale
reports on the financial challenges facing educators — and public school districts. She covered the 2023 LAUSD strike.
Published January 31, 2026 7:19 AM
UTLA’s bargaining team has met with the district more than a dozen times since negotiations began last February.
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Ashley Balderrama
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for LAist
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Topline:
The leaders of the Los Angeles Unified teachers union now have the power to call for a strike if they can’t reach a deal over pay, benefits and student support with the district.
More: About 94% of United Teachers Los Angeles members who voted cast a ballot in favor of authorizing a strike. The results were announced Saturday. Union members include school psychologists, counselors and nurses.
What now? The strike authorization vote does not guarantee teachers will stage a walk out this semester. First the union must exhaust all steps of the collective bargaining process.
Why it matters: Among other proposals, the union is asking for raises and changes to the salary schedule so that newer teachers who complete professional development can earn increases more quickly. The district has said it cannot afford what the union has proposed.
Keep reading: For more on the next steps and what it means for LAUSD families.
The leaders of the Los Angeles Unified teachers union now have the power to call for a strike if they can’t reach a deal over pay, benefits and student support with the district.
United Teachers Los Angeles’ has about 37,000 members. Of those that voted, 94% voted in favor of authorizing a strike. The tabulation process lasted late Friday night, and results were announced overnight Saturday.
Union members, which include school psychologists, counselors and nurses, simultaneously voted to approve an agreement that preserves existing health benefits without increasing costs to educators.
The strike authorization vote does not guarantee teachers will stage a walk out this semester. First the union must exhaust all steps of the collective bargaining process.
LAUSD did not have an immediate statement, but in a release Wednesday it touted other recent agreements with its labor unions, while noting "significant distance remains between what the District can responsibly offer and what UTLA proposes."
Stephanie Castro teaches 7th grade English at Luther Burbank Middle School in Highland Park and voted for the strike authorization.
“ I will do what needs to be done to fight for these proposals,” Castro said. “I want to make it super clear to Angelenos that teachers don't want to go on strike. We absolutely would rather be in our classrooms with our students… We also know that things cannot continue as they are.”
How did we get here? And what happens next?
UTLA’s bargaining team has met with the district more than a dozen times since negotiations began last February.
The union declared an impasse in December, a legal step that triggers intervention from a neutral mediator appointed by the state’s labor relations board.
Wednesday, the mediator determined the two parties would move to the next step in the process, fact-finding, where a representative from the union, the district and the California Public Employment Relations Board collectively develop a recommendation to settle the negotiations.
The rejection of this panel’s recommendation could lead to a strike— or more negotiating.
A recent history of LAUSD strikes
March 2023: Teachers walked off the job in solidarity with striking school support staff.
As in previous contract talks, the proposals that cost the most money are those that take the longest to hash out.
The union is asking for raises and changes to the salary schedule so that newer teachers who complete professional development can earn increases more quickly. UTLA estimated before mediation, that this would amount to an average pay increase of 16% the first year and 3% the following year. The annual ongoing cost to the district would be about $840 million.
The district has said it cannot afford what the union has proposed and has offered annual increases of 2.5% the first year and 2% the second year with a one-time payment of 1%.
“Significant distance remains between what the District can responsibly offer and what UTLA proposes,” read a Jan. 28 statement from LAUSD.
The union’s other proposals include more investment in arts education, legal aid for immigrant families, and staff to support students’ mental health.
Castro, the middle school teacher, said she notices a difference when her students have access to the school’s psychiatric social worker and other wraparound services.
“It allows them to be fully present in the classroom,” Castro said. “They're not so worried about things that are happening outside of it and can really focus on that essay that they need to write or developing a thesis statement.”
Are you a UTLA member? Share your thoughts on why your union needs a new deal — or doesn't — with me via email.
Fiona Ng
is LAist's deputy managing editor and leads a team of reporters who explore food, culture, history, events and more.
Published January 31, 2026 6:14 AM
The Bonaventure, view from one of the pedways leading to an entrance.
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Fiona Ng
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LAist
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Topline:
Looking for things to do this week? How about spending a couple hours inside Harry Style’s latest music video?
What? The video for Aperture features the Westin Bonaventure hotel, the mirrored, futuristic-looking behemoth on Figueroa Street in downtown L.A.
So? The building offers a pretty unique experience in and of itself for how visually and spatially disorienting it is.
It's not everyday you can credit one of the world's biggest pop stars for rekindling your memories of a place.
So, thank you, Harry Styles, for reminding us of the mesmerizing, confounding, iconic and the brashly weird wonders of the Bonaventure Hotel in downtown L.A.
Last week, the singer returned to pop music after a four-year respite with the surprise release of a new album. Along came the first music video for “Aperture,” a breezy electronic number that unfolds as a non-sequitur romp through a sleek hotel — beginning as an inexplicable chase, then breaks into a long, nifty dance sequence, and crescendos in a hat tip to Dirty Dancing.
The absurdity makes for a nice fit.
In the video, when Styles steps onto the escalator before realizing he is being followed, a distant recognition went off in my head.
The escalator at the Bonaventure.
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Fiona Ng
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LAist
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The Bonaventure has no bad angles.
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Fiona Ng
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LAist
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That hunch grew more certain when he and his pursuer tumbled down a spiral of staircases that's almost Hitchcockian in its composition.
Spiraling staircase inside the Bonaventure.
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Fiona Ng
/
LAist
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The Bonaventure's curved skylight.
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Fiona Ng
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LAist
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And later, when the two somersault through a cocktail lounge with Los Angeles twinkling in the backdrop, the setting could only have been The BonaVista, the revolving restaurant (yes, it really spins) on the 34th floor of the Bonaventure.
Making a cameo
Styles is the latest among a long list of artists and moviemakers to make use of the location. In 1993's In the Line of Fire, Clint Eastwood and John Malkovich had their big shoot-out finale there, and managed to squeeze in a little repartee inside one of its famous capsule elevators. More recently, Kendrick Lamar and SZA’s "Luther" and Maroon 5 and LISA's "Priceless" prominently featured the hotel.
Bonaventure under construction in the mid-1970s.
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Los Angeles Public Library Institutional Collection / LAPL
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The Bonaventure in 1987.
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James Ruebsamen
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Los Angeles Herald Examiner Photo Collection / LAPL
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Since it opened inJanuary 1977, the behemoth — towering hundreds of feet over Figueroa Street with some 1,400 rooms and the reigning title as Los Angeles's largest hotel — all but demanded the attention.
The Bonaventure was built between 1974 and 1976 in the midst of Bunker Hill's redevelopment that started two decades back with land seizures through eminent domain and the evictions of thousands of low-income Angelenos.
The ambition was to remake the urban core into a world-class arts and cultural destination.
The atrium of the Bonaventure.
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Fiona Ng
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LAist
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Architect and real estate developer John C. Portman brought his signature vaulting atrium to the task. For the Hyatt in his hometown of Atlanta, that feature was 22 stories high. For the Bonaventure, the atrium was seven.
The Bonaventure’s interior has been described as Brutalist in style, a raw concrete maze of dangling lounges, shooting columns, swirling staircases, curved walkways, glass elevators and seemingly dead ends. Its mirrored and cylindrical exterior has been called postmodern and futuristic.
Raw concrete of the Bonaventure.
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Fiona Ng
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LAist
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The staircases.
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Fiona Ng
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LAist
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Portman's idea was to create a city within its walls, and populated his creation with shops, restaurants and other amenities so people simply wouldn’t have to leave.
A returned visit
I have always thought of it looking a little dated, like a sad disco ball.
A few days ago, I went to the Bonaventure again for old times’ sake. I took this same walk several times a week for six years, when I worked downtown in the mid-aughts. Back then, this network of pedways was really our only way to get to any place for coffee or lunch.
View of the Bonaventure taken from the 3rd and Fig. pedway.
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Fiona Ng
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LAist
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The Bonaventure was one of our options, with its food court on the fourth floor. Sometimes, I spent my lunch simply walking its various floors, entranced by the vast, hushed space that felt somehow endless and somewhat abandoned. I have always thought it was the perfect setting for a chase scene.
On my latest visit, the lines and curves were clashing and crisscrossing in ways that I hadn't before noticed. Culturaltheorists have famously written about the disorientation the building is said to inspire — how easily you can feel lost.
And what a privilege it is.
Thanks, Harry, for the nudge to go and spend a couple leisurely hours getting lost in a quintessentially Los Angeles riddle.
Everyone should do it.
Keep up with LAist.
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Robert Garrova
explores the weird and secret bits of SoCal that would excite even the most jaded Angelenos. He also covers mental health.
Published January 31, 2026 5:00 AM
USC dramatic writing professor Oliver Mayer.
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Julian Conde
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Topline:
Oliver Mayer is an award-winning playwright and professor of dramatic writing at USC — and he's been named by his students the "most calming professor" at the school.
The backstory: Mayer won a competition at the university set up by the Trojan Health Club and mental health company Calm to find the most tranquil teacher.
The prize: He was awarded the opportunity to record a Sleep Story for Calm app users.
Read on ... to listen to a sample of his calming narration.
Oliver Mayer is an award-winning playwright and professor of dramatic writing at USC. But recently he found out his students love him for yet another talent: the "most calming professor."
“Are my students falling asleep in my class?" he said, joking.
Mayer won a competition at the university set up by the Trojan Health Club and mental health company Calm to find the most tranquil teacher. Students voted him most calming professor and he was awarded the opportunity to record a Sleep Story for Calm app users.
The professor said, for him, it means more than ever to be considered a voice of calm, especially in what he calls the “upside down days” we’re living through. And Mayer also enjoyed being a twilight tour guide for his city.
“I do love the idea that not only might I be calming someone with a route through Los Angeles, but I’m also hopefully inspiring students and everyone else to explore their cities, Los Angeles and otherwise,” he said.
Mayer's sunset trek includes an audio journey to the Griffith Observatory: “Our climb ends. Here we are: The perfect place to fall asleep under the stars," he says on the recording.
"And we easily find a spot to park.”
Maybe the most calming words an Angeleno can hear.
Makenna Sievertson
leads LAist’s unofficial Big Bear bald eagle beat and has been covering Jackie and Shadow for several seasons.
Published January 30, 2026 4:17 PM
Jackie returned to the nest after one of the eggs were confirmed to have cracked on Friday.
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Friends of Big Bear Valley
/
YouTube
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Topline:
Big Bear’s famous bald eagle nest has taken a turn — both of Jackie and Shadow’s eggs have been attacked by ravens.
What happened: Via livestream, a raven could be seen in the nest poking a large hole into, and potentially eating, one of the eagle eggs.
Why it matters: Jackie and Shadow have a large fanbase.
“Our hearts are with Jackie and Shadow always and we wrap our arms around them,” Jenny Voisard, the organization’s media and website manager, wrote in a Facebook update. “Our hearts are also with you eagle fam, we know how you are feeling now."
Big Bear’s famous bald eagle nest has taken a turn — both of Jackie and Shadow’s eggs have been attacked by ravens.
In the nest overlooking Big Bear Lake, a raven could be seen poking a large hole into, and potentially eating, one of the eagle eggs. The intrusion was noticed on a popular YouTube livestream run by the nonprofit Friends of Big Bear Valley.
Jenny Voisard, the organization’s media and website manager, confirmed the crack in Friends of Big Bear Valley’s official Facebook group, which has nearly 400,000 members, after Jackie and Shadow were away from the nest, and eggs, for several hours Friday.
Voisard told LAist one of the eggs may still be partly intact, but both eggs are believed to be breached. Jackie returned to their nest shortly after the raven left to lay on the remaining egg, according to organization records.
“Our hearts are with Jackie and Shadow always and we wrap our arms around them,” Voisard wrote. “Our hearts are also with you eagle fam, we know how you are feeling now."
“Step away from the screen when needed,” she continued in the post. “Try and rest tonight.”
How we got here
Jackie laid the first egg of the season around 4:30 p.m. last Friday and the second egg around 5:10 p.m. Monday as thousands of eager fans watched online.
Bald eagles generally have one clutch per season, according to Friends of Big Bear Valley. A second clutch is possible if the eggs don’t make it through the early incubation process.
For example, Jackie laid a second clutch in February 2021 after the first round of eggs was broken or destroyed by ravens the month before.
Jackie and Shadow may have the left the nest unattended Friday because they knew on some level "that not everything was right," Voisard wrote.
"We are hopeful however, because bald eagles can lay replacement clutches if something happens early enough in the season," she continued. "The fact that the raven came to do its job so quickly may be just what Jackie and Shadow needed."
A raven is believed to have breached both eggs in Big Bear's famous nest.
