The Brief

In the months after she graduated college with a computer science degree, Anaid Garcia applied to over 100 jobs. They didn’t get any offers, and the experience left them feeling deflated and unmoored.

But with the job market in shambles, Garcia had time to look inward. They’ve loved to paint since childhood, and, in college, they took at least one art class every semester — “to de-stress.” Garcia began researching MFA programs. But before taking the leap, they explored a potential career in the art world by signing up for a museum studies program at East Los Angeles College, and a special course that blended science, environmental justice, and art.

Opportunities to partake in museum exhibitions are rare for burgeoning artists. This class would provide a path.

And so, on a chilly spring morning earlier this year, Garcia found herself enjoying a tamal and café de olla aboard a small flat-bottomed boat in the canals of Xochimilco, a borough of Mexico City. As she listened to the sound of the paddle hitting the water, she marveled at the world around her.

Over the next few days, Garcia and her classmates at ELAC learned about the region’s chinampas, islands the Aztecs created in the 15th century to grow crops. They also learned about what local residents are grappling with now. And soon, they'd use this experience to make art.

ELAC students and VPAM curator Joseph Valencia page through a zine they created ahead of their trip. In Xochimilco, they shared copies with their collaborators.

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Andrés Jurado and Eduardo Velazco

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Courtesy Ruta del Castor

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Bringing students into the artistic process

This ELAC course grew out of a years-long effort to bridge education and art under the banner of the Getty’s giant, cross-site PST ART initiative.

Each edition of PST ART is planned long in advance; the Getty set this year’s theme, “Art & Science Collide,” in 2019.

That theme resonated with ELAC leaders.

“Being one of the few partners who is on a community college campus, we thought it'd be really important to try to integrate students in any way possible,” said Joseph Valencia, a curator at ELAC’s Vincent Price Art Museum who co-taught the course.

In addition to developing the class, ELAC reached out to Carolina Caycedo, an L.A.-based artist with roots in Colombia, to design an exhibition and collaborate with students.

The result is the exhibition “We Place Life at the Center/Situamos la vida en el centro,” now on view at the college’s museum.

“We Place Life at the Center” is presented across two floors of the museum’s galleries. The show is teeming with paintings, photographs, drawings, video installations, and other forms of art.

ELAC students and faculty observe a farming technique in Xochimilco.

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Andrés Jurado and Eduardo Velazco

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Courtesy Ruta del Castor

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In preparation for the exhibition, Caycedo undertook four years of research and fieldwork, including conversations with Seres de río, a collective made up of water protectors in Colombia.

'What waters do you belong to?'

Over Zoom, the students also met with members of Seres de río and, together, they designed a mural that’s now in the exhibition.

During the design process, Garcia thought back to their time at Xochimilco, where they were confronted with an important question: “¿A qué aguas perteneces?” — What waters do you belong to?

The question compelled her to think about the L.A. River, wending its way through concrete walls. It made her think about the Santa Fe dam in the San Gabriel Valley, where she and her cousins splashed around as kids. It made her think about her father’s side of the family, which hails from a lake community in the Mexican state of Jalisco, and about how, even after they migrated, they continued to find places where they could fish. It made her think of “this idea of trying to find home outside of home,” of “how water is all connected,” and “how you try to find water everywhere you go.”

While co-developing the mural, Garcia recalled that, sometimes, a harmless water snake would glide into the dam, and all her family would rush out. She shared that memory with the group. Among other elements, the mural at VPAM has a snake, along with landmarks and figures representing the importance of water in L.A. and Colombia.

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Paul Salveson

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The students signed their names on the artwork, alongside professional artists.

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Photo courtesy of Vincent Price Art Museum.

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The mural is “a series of vignettes,” said Gloria Ortega, an ELAC alumna who’s now an assistant curator at the museum. “There's a lot happening at once, but if you take a step back and spend time with each image, you're able to see that each piece is trying to speak for itself.”

In addition to collaborating on the design, Garcia and her classmates had the opportunity to bring the mural to life under the guidance of Caycedo and Pavel Acevedo, an artist based in Boyle Heights.

Garcia had been wanting to paint a mural since middle school. Crossing that goal off her bucket list, she told LAist, strengthened her confidence — both in herself and in the work she’s now pursuing.

The installation "Bionave Flotilla, 2024," surrounded by other artworks at the exhibition.

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Paul Salveson

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After years of being away from home, and after years of being one of just a few Latinos in any given room, it felt good to be someplace where she didn’t have to prove or over-explain herself. She also loved learning from students with different majors and from different age groups. Above all, it felt good to start building an arts community.

“Being in the class, being in Mexico, being surrounded by artists,” she said, “I was like: ‘Wow, this is what I want to do.’”

What you might find at the VPAM exhibition

On the ground floor: Drawings by Coyotl + Macehualli, a community organization focused on education, environmental protection, and land stewardship in El Sereno. The group formed in response to a developer’s plan to build luxury homes on a hillside, threatening the survival of local residents, including black walnut trees.

On the second floor: A huge green vinyl contraption hangs from the ceiling, surrounded by smaller ones. Akin to cartoon spaceships, they appear to be flying in the direction of passersby. The piece pays homage to the Red Colombiana de Energía de la Biomasa (the Colombian Network of Biomass Energy), which teaches communities across the country about the benefits of DIY biodigesters. In these sealed containers, microorganisms break down organic material into fertilizer through a natural process.

Caycedo's geochoreography "Sembrando humedad" in Xochimilco.

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Carolina Caycedo and Ruta del Castor. Satellite imagery on vinyl.

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Courtesy of the artist and Ruta del Castor.

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Visitors will also find a photograph of a geochoreography, a group performance designed by Caycedo. The performance served as the culmination of the class journey to Mexico City. In addition to ELAC students, the work features local artists, activists, scientists, farmers, and faculty. Collectively, their bodies form a germinated seed with roots and corn stalks, representing the promise of growth and a commitment to the ecological restoration and sustainability of Xochimilco.

From Los Angeles to Sacramento, teachers unions, many fueled by the “We Can’t Wait” campaign organized by the California Teachers Association and a slew of contract renewals, are rallying for higher pay, better benefits, smaller class sizes and other classroom improvements. Some are threatening to strike.

In the West Contra Costa Unified School District, the call for improved pay and benefits, and classroom improvements, resulted in a six-day strike by the district’s 1,450 teachers that ended earlier this month. The teachers won an 8% pay raise over two years and will no longer have to pay healthcare premiums.

The strike is emboldening other teachers unions that are at an impasse with their districts over contract negotiations.

“We are leading a historic wave of resistance to demand safe staffing, affordable healthcare and student-centered budgets, and local chapters are organizing to strike if needed,” said David Goldberg, president of the California Teachers Association. “Richmond showed us exactly what is possible: When we stand up for what schools educators and students deserve, we can transform public education.”

There are at least 14 school districts around the state that are at an impasse with teachers unions over contract negotiations. They are: Los Angeles Unified, San Francisco Unified, Oakland Unified, Berkeley Unified, Madera Unified, Evergreen School District, Little Lake City, Upper Lake Unified, Duarte Unified, Newport-Mesa Unified, Oak Grove Union, Apple Valley Unified, Twin Rivers Unified and Natomas Unified.

CTA campaign ratchets up the pressure

Most of these districts’ unions are part of the CTA’s “We Can’t Wait” campaign, which has spent the past few years aligning contracts to end on the same date in order to add pressure on districts in areas where multiple unions would be negotiating and could potentially strike at once.

The campaign has also shared demands for smaller class sizes and caseloads for special education educators, and more counselors, nurses and mental health professionals in schools, as well as competitive wages and benefits to retain and recruit teachers.

“It is our belief that we’ve been siloed,” said Brittoni Ward, president of Twin Rivers United Educators in Sacramento County. “Unified districts all over the state have been dragging themselves year after year through contract bargaining that gets us nowhere. We don’t make any progress, and we all essentially are fighting for the same things. So why not unify on our common goals and make change happen.”

School districts are largely pushing back on union demands, saying that with declining enrollment and rising costs, there isn’t enough money to pay teachers more. Teachers disagree, pointing to expensive outside contracts, high administrative salaries and ample reserves in some districts.

Now, teachers in several districts, including San Francisco Unified, Natomas Unified, Twin Rivers Unified, Madera Unified and Upper Lake Unified, have indicated — by vote or informal survey — that a majority are ready to strike.

Will L.A. teachers strike again?

United Teachers Los Angeles plans a strike vote in January and has already begun polling teachers to determine if there is interest. A strike in the Los Angeles Unified School District would affect 516,000 students.

There is precedent. UTLA took to the picket lines twice in recent years — in 2019, when they went on strike for six days for higher wages, and in 2023, when they walked out in support of school staff in another union.

“I will say that, like in previous years, we have gone on strike, and we’re certainly ready to go on strike,” said Julie Van Winkle, UTLA vice president. “And we feel like we need to be ready in case the district keeps ignoring our demands and making counterproposals that are inadequate. But, we’re also very open to a settlement.”

Los Angeles Unified teachers and the district are negotiating a three-year contract that would have started at the beginning of this school year. Teachers want a complete overhaul of their salary schedule, beginning with an $80,000 starting salary for new teachers, instead of the current $65,000, Van Winkle said.

They also want more arts and physical education teachers, lower class sizes in 11th and 12th grades, free child care centers in closed schools, additional resources for special education, and more psychiatric social workers, attendance counselors and pupil services staff.

Los Angeles Unified district leaders have increased their offers to UTLA multiple times in ongoing negotiations, most recently offering a 4.5% raise and 1% bonus, according to a district spokesperson. The district estimates that UTLA’s demands throughout the 2027-28 school year total more than $4 billion above the district’s current expenditures.

“We deeply value the educators and professionals who serve our students,” the spokesperson said. “We also have a responsibility to maintain long-term financial health so that every generation of Los Angeles students — today and in the future — receives the high-quality, equitable education they deserve.”

District wants to cut benefits

Teachers in the Little Lake City School District in southeastern L.A. County have yet to call a strike vote, but Maria Pilios, president of their teachers union, is preparing them for the possibility.

The 205-member union isn’t asking for a wage increase; instead, they want smaller class sizes and fully staffed special education classrooms. But the district is negotiating to reduce the amount it pays for its healthcare premiums. It currently pays 100%.

The district intends to start taking the contributions from teachers’ paychecks in January while negotiations resume, Pilios said.

Teachers and staff, many of whom grew up in the community, feel betrayed, Pilios said. She said teachers have gone without raises in the past to ensure they could retain full health benefits.

“This has changed the relationship between the staff and the district,” Pilios said.

The district’s decision means a $12,000 annual pay cut for teacher Mabel Manzur. The eighth-grade math teacher was diagnosed with cancer for the second time recently and was in the middle of treatments when she learned about the insurance change.

Manzur had to make a difficult decision: keep the doctors and treatment she had or move to a cheaper policy and start over with another doctor and possibly new treatments. She worried that her cancer history would make it difficult for her to be accepted into a new plan.

Still negotiating last year’s contract

Madera Unified teachers are tired of waiting for a contract for the 2024-25 school year, so more than 90% have indicated they are ready to strike if an agreement can’t be reached, according to David Holder, president of the Madera Unified Teachers Association.

The union wants a retroactive 8% raise on base salary, but the district is offering 4%.

According to the district, teachers have received a total compensation increase of nearly 38% over the last decade.

“A new teacher coming to Madera, on average, is making about $9,000 less in their first year than the surrounding districts, Holder said. “And so, Madera Unified is almost like a training district where we have young educators — a lot of probationary interns coming in here, finishing their credentials, getting some experience, and then they leave.”

Holder said there are still 30 to 40 open teaching positions in the district being filled by substitute teachers.

Madera Unified had 284 teachers resign from the district since the 2021-22 school year, a 93.5% retention rate, according to a statement from the district.

The union won’t bring forth proposals for this year or next until last year’s contract is completed, Holder said. The union and district started state mediation over the contract last week.

Sacramento could have two districts on strike

Two Sacramento County teachers unions are at an impasse with their districts, meaning potential strikes could affect 60,000 of the county’s students. Both districts are part of the “We Can’t Wait” campaign.

Teachers unions for both Twin Rivers Unified and Natomas Unified are seeking increased pay, a reduction in healthcare costs, smaller class sizes and more special education staff, among other things.

Twin Rivers teachers and district administrators have a long way to go before they reach an agreement. The teachers want a 12% increase in salary over two years. The district has offered 2.5% the first year and no guarantee for the next year, said Ward of Twin Rivers United Educators.

The district’s proposal would mean teachers at the top of the salary schedule would earn $152,000 annually, according to a letter from the district sent to staff in November. Beginning teachers would start at almost $77,000.

Twin Rivers Unified leaders said that the district’s salaries are among the highest in the state and that class sizes remain low.

The teachers union is also asking that the district pay more of the insurance premiums. Twin Rivers currently pays the full premium for a basic plan, but asks teachers to pay for higher-cost health plans, according to the letter.

A family of two on the Kaiser family plan pays about $1,600 a month for insurance, and others with more family members pay more, Ward said.

The district and union began their negotiations in February and are now working with a state mediator. The parties might end up having the contract negotiations move to a state fact-finding panel because of the district’s reluctance to bargain, Ward said.

Twin Rivers United Educators' executive board has already authorized a strike vote, and 80% of its membership signed a petition indicating they are ready to strike if necessary. A strike could happen as soon as March, Ward said.

The union has been at odds with the school district before, getting as far as the fact-finding stage, but it has never gone on strike.

“This time we are mobilized, and we’re ready,” Ward said. “Our membership is ready. And they see what’s going on in Richmond. They’re seeing things happening around the state, and they’re like, if that’s what it takes, we’re ready. We’re here for it.”

EdSource data journalist Daniel Willis contributed to this report.

President Trump disparaged Hollywood director Rob Reiner, who died along with his wife over the weekend in what officials are investigating as a homicide. Their 32-year-old son, Nick, has been arrested.

Reiner, 78, was a prominent supporter of the Democratic Party and a vocal Trump critic.
"A very sad thing happened last night in Hollywood," Trump said in a post on Truth Social Monday morning. "Rob Reiner, a tortured and struggling, but once very talented movie director and comedy star, has passed away, together with his wife, Michele, reportedly due to the anger he caused others through his massive, unyielding, and incurable affliction with a mind crippling disease known as TRUMP DERANGEMENT SYNDROME, sometimes referred to as TDS."

Trump went on to say that Reiner had a "raging obsession" with him, "with his obvious paranoia reaching new heights as the Trump Administration surpassed all goals and expectations of greatness, and with the Golden Age of America upon us, perhaps like never before."

His post concluded with, "May Rob and Michele rest in peace!"

Tributes for Reiner have been pouring in, including from former President Barack Obama, who said that "beneath all of the stories he produced was a deep belief in the goodness of people — and a lifelong commitment to putting that belief into action."

The Los Angeles Fire Department said it responded to a medical aid request at around 3:40 p.m. local time Sunday and discovered the bodies inside the couple's home.

Reiner's son Nick had a history of addiction, which inspired the 2016 movie Being Charlie, which Nick Reiner worked on with his dad.

Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, who has had a public falling out with Trump, criticized the president's comments.

Referencing Nick Reiner's history in a post on X, Greene called the incident "a family tragedy, not about politics or political enemies."

Copyright 2025 NPR

Demonstrators, including healthcare workers, marched to Adventist Health White Memorial in Boyle Heights on Sunday, calling on hospital administrators to uphold the privacy rights of immigrant detainees and protect staff who advocate for patients.

It was the last of three stops in a rally organized by the People’s Care Collective, a network of healthcare workers and organizers that, according to a press release, is calling attention to “the health harms caused by immigration raids, ICE detention, the Los Angeles County jail system, and complicit local hospitals.”

The collective wants the L.A. County Board of Supervisors and all Los Angeles area hospitals to adopt a “Model Policy for Immigration Enforcement in the Healthcare Settings,” developed by medical providers and immigrant rights legal advocates.

The rally follows reporting by LAist that administrators at White Memorial allowed agents to influence medical care and restricted doctors from contacting detained patients’ families.

Adventist Health later released a six-point statement outlining policies to protect patients and support staff.

Still, doctors and advocates say that is not enough.

Sunday's demonstration

Protesters began in front of the Japanese American National Museum, stopping at the Metropolitan Detention Center and Men’s Central Jail as they made their way to the hospital.

“I’ve seen firsthand for several months many individuals who are coming in critical condition due to delays in care. Not because the care wasn’t available, but because they were afraid,” said a member of the People’s Care Collective, who spoke to the crowd in front of the detention center and declined to be identified for safety reasons. He works as an emergency doctor and professor in L.A.

“I’ve seen people with cancer that went untreated and spread because they were afraid to come in,” he said.

“People tell us, ‘We need to stay in our own lane. We need to focus on our health work. We need to stay in the clinics, in the hospital.’ But we know this is our lane. Health justice is our collective responsibility,” he continued.

Healthcare workers march to White Memorial in Boyle Heights. One protester’s white coat reads, “Another world is possible.”

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Alma Lucia

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Boyle Heights Beat

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At least 75 people participated in the demonstration.

They held signs and banners that read, “Health justice has no walls” and “Our hospitals are not your holding cells.” Demonstrators chanted “Out of the clinics and into the streets!” as they neared White Memorial. Several drivers honked in support, some with their fists up in the air as they drove by. Members of social justice group Centro CSO, Union del Barrio, and other community groups were there in support.

Healthcare workers were dressed in white coats. One read, “Seize the hospital to serve the people” on the back. Others came in brown, green and blue scrubs. Medical students and trainees were among the crowd.

Dr. Abhinaya Narayanan, a family physician in Los Angeles, read a statement written by White Memorial healthcare workers.

Recently, according to the statement, “the hospital had to admit that doctors have the right to ask ICE to leave the room to speak privately to patients, but that is not enough.”

“We demand that White Memorial put into place additional protections for patient privacy, allow doctors and patients to have free and not controlled contact with patients’ families, and for medical providers and social workers [to] be able to assist patients and families with connection to support and legal representation,” hospital staff said in the statement read by Narayanan.

“The government is forcibly disappearing individuals and it’s our responsibility as healthcare workers to reappear them as part of our healing,” Narayanan continued.

Gabriel Quiroz with Centro CSO spoke at the rally in front of White Memorial, where he said he and his younger sister were born.

“I can only imagine how terrified raza is to enter this hospital,” Quiroz said. “I think of the elders of our neighborhood here in Boyle Heights who are missing medical appointments due to the fear of migra being in the hospital and the hospital administration doing nothing to keep them safe.”

As part of efforts to call attention to the issue, Quiroz said a petition launched by Centro CSO has garnered hundreds of signatures. It calls for White Memorial to uphold HIPAA, the federal law that safeguards patient privacy, and to bar U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement from making medical decisions for patients.

“We will not let fear stop us from organizing and fighting back,” Quiroz said.