Signage of California State University Los Angeles on one of the student parking structures.
(
Ashley Balderrama
/
LAist
)
Topline:
Several California State University campuses are the best universities in the state when it comes to driving upward economic mobility for low- and middle-income students after graduation, according to a new rankings system published Thursday.
About the rankings: TheCollege Futures Foundation released the California Mobility Index, rankings that consider the share of Pell Grant recipients that an institution enrolls, the average earnings of low- and middle-income students within 10 years after graduation and the average out-of-pocket costs those students paid for their degree at each institution. Pell Grants are federal financial aid awards available to low-and middle-income students.
Local schools top the list: Cal State L.A. and Dominguez Hills took the top two spots out of 82 schools. Cal State Fullerton, Long Beach, Northridge and Cal Poly Pomona were also in the top 10.
Several California State University (CSU) campuses are the best universities in the state when it comes to driving upward economic mobility for low- and middle-income students after graduation, according to a new rankings system published Thursday.
CSU’s Los Angeles, Dominguez Hills, Stanislaus, Bakersfield and Fresno campuses took the top five spots in the rankings. CSU Fullerton, CSU Long Beach, CSU Northridge and Cal Poly Pomona were also in the top 10, along with the University of California Merced.
Dubbed the California Mobility Index, the rankings consider the share of Pell Grant recipients that an institution enrolls, the average earnings of low- and middle-income students within 10 years after graduation and the average out-of-pocket costs those students paid for their degree at each institution.
Pell Grants are federal financial aid awards available to low-and middle-income students. Researchers used U.S. Department of Education data to track the earnings of low- and middle-income students after graduating.
Traditional ranking models “focus on those institutions that serve the wealthiest of Californians and reject the large majority of Californians,” said Eloy Ortiz Oakley, president of the College Futures Foundation, an Oakland-based nonprofit. The College Futures Foundation developed the index along with the HEA Group, a research and consulting firm.
“We wanted to turn that upside down and really show what true value is being created by California institutions and the kind of impact that they’re having in terms of the economic impact as well as the impact on individuals, particularly those individuals in California that need the economic lift the greatest,” Oakley added.
Researchers found that some private universities, such as Stanford University, do provide a “tremendous return on investment,” said Michael Itzkowitz, president and founder of the HEA Group. On average, graduates of Stanford need the least amount of time of any California university to recoup what they spent on their degree, the analysis found.
However, Stanford scored lower than many CSU campuses in the rankings because they enroll fewer Pell Grant recipients. At Stanford, Pell Grant recipients account for 19% of undergraduates, while they make up more than half of the enrollees at each of the Cal State campuses in the top five of the rankings.
“If you’re one of the few and fortunate to get into schools that we generally think are prestigious and provide a good ROI (return on investment), you should definitely consider it,” Itzkowtiz said. “But what this shows is that there are also a number of good options across the state of California that aren’t readily recognized through your traditional publications.”
EdSource receives funding from several foundations, including the College Futures Foundation. EdSource maintains sole editorial control over the content of its coverage.
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.
(
Ashley Balderrama
/
for LAist
)
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.
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.”
In a statement Saturday, the district pointed to other recent agreements with its labor unions, while also citing fiscal challenges related to declining enrollment and other factors: "We recognize the real financial strain on educators and staff, but must make difficult decisions to preserve classrooms, student services, and long-term stability within finite resources."
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.
(
Fiona Ng
/
LAist
)
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.
(
Fiona Ng
/
LAist
)
The Bonaventure has no bad angles.
(
Fiona Ng
/
LAist
)
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.
(
Fiona Ng
/
LAist
)
The Bonaventure's curved skylight.
(
Fiona Ng
/
LAist
)
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.
(
Los Angeles Public Library Institutional Collection / LAPL
)
The Bonaventure in 1987.
(
James Ruebsamen
/
Los Angeles Herald Examiner Photo Collection / LAPL
)
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.
(
Fiona Ng
/
LAist
)
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.
Raw concrete of the Bonaventure.
(
Fiona Ng
/
LAist
)
The staircases.
(
Fiona Ng
/
LAist
)
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.
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.
Bonaventure in 1977.
(
Tom LaBonge
/
Los Angeles Photographers Photo Collection / LAPL
)
The Bonaventure in 1989.
(
William Reagh
/
Los Angeles Photographers Photo Collection / LAPL
)
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.
(
Fiona Ng
/
LAist
)
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.
If you're enjoying this article, you'll love our daily newsletter, The LA Report. Each weekday, catch up on the 5 most pressing stories to start your morning in 3 minutes or less.
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.
(
Julian Conde
)
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.
(
Friends of Big Bear Valley
/
YouTube
)
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.
