Intern Ibrahim Mohamed conducts a maintenance check on a sensor while being trained by instrument technician Rodney Johnson inside a Contra Costa Water District plant in Oakley on Jan. 30, 2024.
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Loren Elliott
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CalMatters
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Topline:
State officials want to prepare more Californians for good jobs — those that pay a stable, living wage and offer other benefits, such as a pathway for promotions. The state has spent roughly $370 million on these workforce programs, but the results are mixed.
The state program: It's called “High Road Training Partnership.” The focus is on training workers for “high road” jobs, defined as those that pay a living wage, provide opportunities for promotion, guarantee safe working conditions, and may offer other benefits, such as a union.
Cuts coming? However, as the state faces a $38 billion budget deficit for the 2024-25 fiscal year, Newsom recently proposed cutting roughly $100 million from workforce development, most of which comes from High Road Training Partnerships or related programs.
Read more ... to hear from people in the programs.
At 47, Ibrahim Mohamed doesn’t fit the typical image of a college intern. When he arrived in the U.S. from Sudan in 2016, he went online to look for a steady job and decided he wanted to be an electrician at a water treatment facility.
A few years later, he started his internship, which is part of a state program known as a “High Road Training Partnership.” The focus is on training workers for “high road” jobs, defined as those that pay a living wage, provide opportunities for promotion, guarantee safe working conditions, and may offer other benefits, such as a union.
Since 2014, California has put roughly $370 million toward High Road job training, said Erin Hickey, a spokesperson for the California Workforce Development Board, in an email. The board, which administers the program, refused multiple requests for an interview.
In Mohamed’s case, the money went to Jewish Vocational Service, a Bay Area nonprofit organization that worked with local water treatment districts and community colleges to create the internship. The water district is responsible for paying the interns, who work part-time, by way of an intermediary, and at a rate of $27 an hour.
While the internship doesn’t cover all of his bills, Mohamed is committed to it and the future it could hold. In 2019, he moved from West Oakland to settle in Pittsburg, about 45 minutes away, in order to take night classes at Los Medanos College and intern with the Contra Costa Water District two days a week.
The rest of the week he works as a programmer for a Canadian company. He started working there while living in Sudan. “It pays better,” he said, speaking of his programming job, “but it’s not continuous.” Some projects pay as much as $3,000, he said, but other times, the company gives him no work at all.
“I need a stable job. I don’t like moving from place to place,” he said.
The High Road programs vary by industry. In some cases, like Mohamed’s internship, the state is trying to expand access to jobs that are already considered “high road,” even if the supply of jobs is limited or highly technical. In other cases, the money is meant to transform “low road” jobs — those with low pay, poor working conditions, and few opportunities for advancement — into better ones.
The High Road program is an improvement compared to many other workforce programs, which often prioritize training people for jobs regardless of the quality, said Laura Dresser, the associate director of the High Road Strategy Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She helped coin the term “high road” and served as a consultant to California’s workforce programs in 2017.
While other states like Pennsylvania and Wisconsin have made similar efforts, she said California’s program is larger and more systematic. Gov. Gavin Newsom’s administration has allocated most of the money and tried to focus on jobs that promote sustainability. High Road jobs are also a part of his Master Plan for Career Education, to be released later this year.
However, as the state faces a $38 billion budget deficit for the 2024-25 fiscal year, Newsom recently proposed cutting roughly $100 million from workforce development, most of which comes from High Road Training Partnerships or related programs.
A job program that helps employers, too
The state’s High Road program is designed to be a “partnership,” something that’s mutually beneficial for both employers and workers, said Hickey in the email. As Mohamed looks for a stable job, the water treatment industry is aging, with a higher percentage of skilled workers ready to retire than in other professions across the state, according to a 2023 report.
It’s a “silver tsunami,” said Steven Currie, the workforce development program manager for the Contra Costa Water District. He said the district is also trying to diversify its staff. An internal survey of employees found that the water district is disproportionately white and male, compared to the county population.
Intern Ibrahim Mohamed performs a maintenance check on a temperature sensor inside a Contra Costa Water District plant in Oakley, Jan. 30, 2024.
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Loren Elliott
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CalMatters
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A few decades ago, the district had a pipeline of skilled labor that came from a nearby paper and steel mill and from employees at the oil refineries near Concord and Martinez. The paper mill is gone now, the steel mill is about to close, and many of the oil refineries are shifting to renewable energy. A job posting for an electrician that used to get 25 to 30 applications now sees less than half that, said Matthew Novak, the district’s maintenance manager.
Over the past six years, Jewish Vocational Service has received a series of state grants, totaling just shy of $3 million, to help create a pipeline of new talent for the water and wastewater industry.
While the jobs come with benefits, such as healthcare and a pension, and the wages are good — with the lowest salary starting at around $65,000 a year — these positions require years of specialized training that can be hard to come by, said Elizabeth Toups, a senior manager for the organization.
Mohamed has about two years of experience, but the specific position he wants, known as an instrument technician, requires five years. The Contra Costa Water District has seven employees working in that role, and even if he had the experience, none of those positions are currently open.
In its reports to the state, Jewish Vocational Service said the number of job placements in the water and wastewater industry fell below expectations. Toups said many trainees ultimately find work in other fields that need specialized electricians, such as construction or electric vehicle manufacturing.
“That’s not necessarily a loss, as far as we’re concerned,” she said. “Those people are getting jobs, and they’re getting that valuable experience.”
What’s working in workforce training?
In other cases, however, the outcomes have been mixed.
In 2021, the Miguel Contreras Foundation, a nonprofit training partner of the Los Angeles AFL-CIO, received nearly $650,000 to train electric bus mechanics in the San Gabriel Valley. The largest participating employer, Proterra, hired 11 of participants, but the company — once heralded as a leader in electric vehicle technology — filed for bankruptcy not long after.
The same year, the nonprofit organization Equitable Food Initiative submitted a proposal to help “improve the wages and working conditions for more farmworkers in the state” while helping farms mitigate climate change. With a $600,000 state grant, the organization taught several farm operators how to reduce waste and increase recycling and composting.
“It’s helped the workers a little because the fields are cleaner, and we’ve learned how to recycle, how to separate plastic, cardboard, and aluminum,” said Benancio Estrada Martinez, the harvest manager at GoodFarms, which grows strawberries in Santa Maria. It was one of three businesses that participated in the Equitable Food Initiative’s High Road program.
As large retailers face pressure to cut costs and reduce greenhouse gasses, they put that pressure on smaller suppliers like GoodFarms, said Peter O’Driscoll, the executive director of the Equitable Food Initiative. He said this program provided workers and employers an opportunity to jointly decide how their industry could further cut emissions.
By selling its cardboard to a local recycling company, the farm has made at least $7,000, money that the workers decide how to spend. Current ideas include a raffle, a barbecue, or splitting the proceeds evenly between the workers, said Gabriela Gamez, who oversees the project, known as the Green Team.
“Lunches, barbecues, things like that — I don’t think we’re going to pretend that’s a life changing experience for the worker,” said O’Driscoll. Creating a system that yields more benefits for the workers would require reforming the industry. “In an agricultural (sector) that’s driven by low prices, the only place employers have to squeeze is workers.”
Lunches, barbecues, things like that — I don’t think we’re going to pretend that’s a life changing experience for the worker.
— Peter O'Driscoll, executive director of the Equitable Food Initiative
In 2021, the UCLA Labor Center released a state-funded evaluation of the High Road programs, which primarily described what programs did, without using any quantitative performance metrics. The team recently received another grant from the state and will release a second evaluation in stages over the next two years. The final piece of that evaluation will include a new method to assess success, one that doesn’t focus on metrics that workforce programs typically use , such as wages and employment rates.
For Mohamed, the most important outcome is getting a full-time job. The nearby East Bay Municipal Utilities District recently lowered the experience level needed for entry-level instrument technicians, and Mohamed said he’d consider applying there if an opportunity arises.
The East Bay Municipal Utilities District has a location in Walnut Creek, which is about 20 minutes from Pittsburg. “Maybe I work in Walnut Creek,” he said. Otherwise, he may need to move again.
“As long as I get my foot in the door, I’m going to do it,” he said. “If I need to move, I’m going to do it. I’m not going to hesitate.”
Financial support for this story was provided by the Smidt Foundation.
Voters fill out their ballots at a vote center at Pacific Beach/Taylor Library in San Diego on June 2, 2026.
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Adriana Heldiz
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CalMatters
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Topline:
The Trump administration is demanding that almost every California county review its claims that noncitizens are registered to vote. Some of the information appears outdated, officials say.
Why now: Election officials from across California questioned the accuracy of the federal government’s methodology for finding noncitizen voters after the Trump administration threatened them with criminal charges last week. The counties on Friday were given 48 hours to commit to working with federal authorities and to segregate ballots from a list of people federal authorities claimed were likely noncitizens.
More details: The letters said the list of names were from the same group of 20,000 people that the Trump administration flagged as noncitizens and then sued California over, demanding that state officials not count those ballots until they verify the voters’ citizenship. State officials have questioned the accuracy of the data and have refused to comply, saying the federal government risks disenfranchising thousands of voters in an attempt to illegally meddle in state elections. On Tuesday, a federal judge appeared skeptical of the Trump administration’s legal arguments.
Read on... for more on the what local election officials found.
Election officials from across California questioned the accuracy of the federal government's methodology for finding noncitizen voters after the Trump administration threatened them with criminal charges last week.
The counties on Friday were given 48 hours to commit to working with federal authorities and to segregate ballots from a list of people federal authorities claimed were likely noncitizens.
The letters said the list of names were from the same group of 20,000 people that the Trump administration flagged as noncitizens and then sued California over, demanding that state officials not count those ballots until they verify the voters’ citizenship.
State officials have questioned the accuracy of the data and have refused to comply, saying the federal government risks disenfranchising thousands of voters in an attempt to illegally meddle in state elections. On Tuesday, a federal judge appeared skeptical of the Trump administration’s legal arguments.
Meanwhile, the letters counties received last week threatened potential criminal charges for election officials who “knowingly tabulate ballots cast by individuals identified by federal agencies as noncitizens.”
Butte County Clerk-Recorder Keaton Denlay said he received one such letter and a demand to not count ballots from a list of 47 people.
“Upon inspection of the list of names, it appeared to be a print screen of a poorly formatted excel spreadsheet with missing and jumbled information,” he said in a statement.
Denlay said he reviewed the list and found that 32 of the people were not on Butte County's active voter rolls and were not sent ballots. Seven others “did not have sufficient information … to match to our voter list with confidence” since the list only contained partial names, partial addresses, no dates of birth, no drivers’ license numbers or Social Security numbers.
Six of the names belonged to people who may not be eligible to vote, but Denlay said California law requires those challenging a voter’s eligibility to have extraordinary levels of proof.
“Given the overall inaccuracy of the list provided and its lack of specificity, I believe the Department of Justice has not met that burden,” Denlay said. “There will be no further action taken at this time.”
Fresno County Registrar of Voters James Kus also received a letter, but he said he couldn't tell how many ballots federal prosecutors wanted him to segregate, since the “not particularly legible” list was a printed sheet, in small font, and “not in a format that facilitates counting or reviewing.” He said the county already follows state and federal voter registration laws.
“We will not be deviating from those legal requirements for this letter,” Kus told CalMatters in an email.
Francisco Diaz, San Benito County registrar of voters, said his office received a demand with 33 names. A preliminary review found that some on the list weren’t registered to vote.
“Hand-delivering a letter via armed federal agents with an arbitrary 48-hour deadline does not circumvent state law,” Diaz said in a statement. “We will not be intimidated by agents with guns for simply doing our jobs, nor will we be rushed into compromising confidential voter data.”
Orange County Registrar of Voters Bob Page said he wasn’t notified of a letter alleging his county had 1,754 “likely aliens” on the voter rolls until after business hours on Friday.
That's because, he told reporters in an email, federal prosecutors had addressed and hand-delivered the letter not to Page but to Orange County Clerk-Recorder Hugh Nguyen, who handles such documents as marriage licenses and property deeds.
On Monday, Page said federal agents delivered a correctly addressed letter to his office, along with a “data storage drive.”
Page planned to respond by the Wednesday deadline, he said.
The messy voter lists counties described fits a pattern, said David Becker, executive director of the Center for Election Innovation & Research, a nonprofit whose mission is to restore trust in the American election system
He noted that the Department of Homeland Security recently claimed that Nevada had nearly 16,000 noncitizens on its voter rolls. DHS sent the state the names of only 185 voters. Nevada officials confirmed the voters had attested they were all U.S. citizens.
Becker said the Trump administration has been making “broad political claims made with great fanfare” only to have them “fall apart as they’re subjected to scrutiny.”
“I’m not entirely sure the DOJ wants to get into court and defend its evidentiary claims because I think they would fall apart, just as we’ve seen in other states,” said Becker, a former U.S. Justice Department attorney.
In federal court on Tuesday, Bill Essayli, the first assistant U.S. attorney in Los Angeles, insisted the federal list of 20,000 people was accurate.
“We stand by the reliability of the information,” he said. “We take our obligations and ethics very seriously.”
Julia Barajas
will be at the Day of the Dead event with LAist.
Published October 28, 2026 9:32 AM
Consuelo G. Flores first learned about the Day of the Dead tradition in the 1980s, at the Self Help Graphics community arts center in Boyle Heights.
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Courtesy of Stephen Blackburn
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Topline:
Consuelo G. Flores, a multidisciplinary artist and curator based in Alhambra, has been preparing for Día de los Muertos, or Day of the Dead, with a group of community members since July. Their creations are now part of a larger community altar on exhibition at Gloria Molina Grand Park in downtown L.A.
About ofrendas: The altars, also called ofrendas in Spanish, feature gifts for the deceased. Often, these gifts are something they loved when they still walked this earth— a favorite drink, or maybe a favorite food.
What's happening Wednesday: Flores will guide community members through the outdoor exhibition. She will also teach them how to make paper flowers.
No experience needed: The flowers are easy to make, she said. After the first few, the process becomes automatic. People start chatting. “It's like a quilting circle,” Flores added. People begin to share stories about their loved ones. Strangers connect through their loss.
Read on... for details on how to join and learn about the process.
Consuelo G. Flores, a multidisciplinary artist and curator based in Alhambra, has been preparing for Día de los Muertos since July.
Over these past few months, she’s hosted workshops to guide community members through the process of making altars in honor of their deceased loved ones.
The altars, also called ofrendas in Spanish, feature gifts for the deceased. Often, these gifts are something they loved when they still walked this earth — a favorite drink, or maybe a favorite food. They’re also part of Día de los Muertos, which is traditionally celebrated in the first two days of November.
Their creations are now part of a larger piece by Flores. The community altar is part of a 10-day cultural exhibition at Gloria Molina Grand Park in downtown L.A., where other artists are making ofrendas of their own.
On Wednesday, Flores will guide community members through the outdoor exhibition. She will also teach them how to make paper flowers.
The flowers are easy to make, she said. After the first few, the process becomes automatic. People start chatting.
“It's like a quilting circle,” she said. People begin to share stories about their loved ones. Strangers connect through their loss.
At her workshops, Flores has taught artists new and seasoned how to make papel picado, a traditional Mexican folk art made by cutting intricate patterns into the paper.
Her small dining room is littered with art supplies: Tissue paper in bold colors. Pipe cleaners. Scissors. Glue.
Flores keeps a permanent altar for her family in the dining room. As she and the community members worked with their hands, Flores shared everything she’s learned about the tradition’s Indigenous roots.
“Everyone I've loved and lost has given me something,” Flores told LAist.
“My dad taught me how to read in Spanish,” she said. “My mom taught me to be strong. My brother taught me about social justice. And my ex-husband, who just died, taught me to really look at things through an artistic lens, and to not hold back.”
Join us!
On Wednesday, Oct. 28, artist and curator Consuelo G. Flores will lead the tour and a paper flower making workshop for LAist readers and listeners.
The event is free and open to the public.
The Ohtli Yollotl Curanderismo Collective, a Southern California-based group of healers practicing traditional Mexican Indigenous healing and ancestral medicine, will offer spiritual cleansings starting at 5:30pm.
There will also be drinks from Café Alegría and pan dulce for all. Get your free tickets here.
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.
Dolores Huerta, the labor leader, civil rights activist and co-founder of the National Farm Workers Association, smiles as delegates take photos at the California Democratic Party's 2025 State Convention at the Anaheim Convention Center in Anaheim on Saturday, May 31, 2025.
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Damian Dovarganes
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AP Photo
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Topline:
Dolores Huerta, who co-founded the United Farm Workers union to improve working conditions in the nation’s fruit and vegetable fields and coined the phrase “Sí, se puede!” that became a widespread rallying cry, has died. She was 96.
Why it matters: She kept a busy schedule well into her 90s, marching in protests and speaking in cities across the country about race, poverty, LGBTQ+ and women’s rights on behalf of her Bakersfield, California-based foundation. Huerta’s resolve cemented her place in history as one of the nation’s most influential labor leaders, civil rights icons and feminist activists. Her three-word Spanish-language slogan — which translates to “Yes, it can be done” — was grounded in the belief that people could affect change.
Homegrown activism: Huerta was born Dolores Clara Fernandez in 1930 in Dawson, New Mexico. Her father was a miner and union activist who went on to win a seat in the state Legislature. Her parents divorced when she was 3, and her mother took her and her brothers to California.
Read on... for more on Huerta's life.
Dolores Huerta, who co-founded the United Farm Workers union to improve working conditions in the nation’s fruit and vegetable fields and coined the phrase “Sí, se puede!” that became a widespread rallying cry, has died. She was 96.
Huerta’s family said in a statement through her foundation that she died Wednesday at home.
She kept a busy schedule well into her 90s, marching in protests and speaking in cities across the country about race, poverty, LGBTQ+ and women’s rights on behalf of her Bakersfield, California-based foundation.
Huerta’s resolve cemented her place in history as one of the nation’s most influential labor leaders, civil rights icons and feminist activists. Her three-word Spanish-language slogan — which translates to “Yes, it can be done” — was grounded in the belief that people could affect change.
Her work over the decades earned her a number of accolades, including the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor. When then-President Barack Obama presented the award in 2012, he praised Huerta as a tenacious leader and joked that he had stolen her slogan for his 2008 campaign.
This year, Huerta sent shockwaves through the Latino community when she revealed that she was sexually abused in the 1960s by the farmworker movement’s co-founder, César Chavez, leading to the birth of two children, a secret she kept for 60 years and long after he died.
From the early 1970s on, Huerta’s life partner was Richard Chavez, César’s brother, and together they had four kids. She also had seven children from two earlier marriages.
Huerta said she had kept silent for so long because she feared that coming forward would compromise her life’s work and unravel all the progress made for workers.
When asked during a 2026 interview with the news organization Latino USA about keeping the secret, Huerta said: “It was my personal pain, it was my personal problem and, you know, I think it was worth it because it was my cross to bear. I’ll say it that way.”
Homegrown activism
Huerta was born Dolores Clara Fernandez in 1930 in Dawson, New Mexico. Her father was a miner and union activist who went on to win a seat in the state Legislature. Her parents divorced when she was 3, and her mother took her and her brothers to California.
Immersed in a melting pot of Mexican, Filipino, African American, Japanese and Chinese working families, Huerta learned from her mother — who owned a restaurant and hotel — about independence, compassion and activism.
Huerta was a young, energetic elementary school teacher in the farm-rich San Joaquin Valley when she decided to answer another calling after growing frustrated by her students’ poor living conditions.
“I couldn’t stand seeing kids come to class hungry and needing shoes,” she said in a 2017 PBS Independent Lens documentary on her life. “I thought I could do more by organizing farmworkers than by trying to teach their hungry children.”
Huerta’s early work with a civil rights group in Stockton resulted in her meeting Chavez. The two wanted to focus more on the plight of farmworkers, so in 1962 they started the National Farm Workers Association, which became United Farm Workers of America a few years later. She was a key leader and negotiator for the union for years.
She was among those who joined Filipino grape pickers on the picket line in what became the five-year “Delano Grape Strike.” With Chavez, she negotiated collective bargaining agreements and contracts with big growers, winning the first health and benefit plans for farmworkers.
Chavez, who died in 1993, once described her as fearless, committed to the cause and tough when it came to negotiations.
On the campaign trail
She met U.S. Sen. Robert Kennedy of Massachusetts during his visit to Delano in 1968 and became a volunteer on his presidential campaign, registering Mexican Americans in California to vote. Huerta was on stage with Kennedy after he won the California primary and he publicly thanked her moments before he was shot.
The assassination devastated Huerta, but she kept organizing for farmworkers’ rights.
Huerta was jailed 22 times for union demonstrating. In 1988, she was seriously injured while protesting Republican presidential candidate George H.W. Bush’s opposition to the UFW grape boycott during his visit to San Francisco.
Caught in a crowd, she was struck by a police officer’s baton, suffered three broken ribs and a pulverized spleen, and required more than a dozen blood transfusions. She reached a settlement with the city to resolve her claims.
After a long recovery, Huerta shifted focus and hit the road to campaign for women’s rights and encourage Latinas to run for office.
She also campaigned for Democratic Presidents Bill Clinton, Obama and Joe Biden. California Gov. Gavin Newsom considered her a close friend.
Fueled by courage
Emilio Huerta, one of Dolores’ 13 children, once pointed to his mom’s courage during an interview, saying it was one of the most significant drivers of her life’s work.
“To dedicate your life to building a dream of a union for farmworkers, to take on agriculture, which to this today is still a powerhouse. ... That took a lot of guts,” he had said.
Huerta learned the art of lobbying politicians. She secured financial aid for the unemployed and disability insurance for California farmworkers. She spoke out against toxic pesticides, pushed for amnesty for immigrants in the country illegally and fought federal guest worker programs.
By directing nationwide boycotts of grapes and lettuce in the early 1970s, she helped to create the economic pressure and political climate necessary for California to pass what would be the first state law recognizing farmworkers’ right to collective bargaining.
Her work earned her many accolades. She was the first Latina to be inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame and she’s received nine honorary doctorates from U.S. universities.
Schools are named in her honor in California, Texas and Colorado. Her image graces many murals, and streets bear her name, but she didn’t always win favor with more liberal activists.
In 2016 when she endorsed Hillary Clinton instead of Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont in the presidential Democratic primary, actor Rosario Dawson — a Sanders supporter who played Huerta in a 2014 movie about César Chavez — said Huerta had become “an instrument of the establishment.”
Dawson and Huerta eventually reconciled.
Guitarist Carlos Santana later oversaw a documentary based on Huerta’s life after the pair had a late-night conversation about music while in Hawaii. Santana, a Miles Davis fan, discovered Huerta was a huge fan of bebop legend Charlie Parker.
“I even met Charlie Parker. That’s my claim to fame,” Huerta joked during an interview with The Associated Press when she was 87.
It was her work as a leader within the labor movement that reverberated through the U.S. and beyond, making her name synonymous with civil rights. In the 2025 documentary “Seeds of Change: The Life and Legacy of Dolores Huerta,” she recounted her decades-long journey in activism and talked about the inspiration she drew from the women’s movement during the 1970s, saying it provided validation that she too could stand on the stage with other labor leaders.
“I hope that my legacy will be one of an organizer that organized to fight injustice,” she said in the film. “We want to give our children an inheritance of justice, right, not jewels or property or money because they’ll just fight over it. So the main thing to do is to give them this love for justice — and that is the greatest gift I think that any of us can have.”
___
Associated Press journalist Brian Melley contributed to this report. Former AP journalist Russell Contreras also contributed reporting previously for this story.
'Red at Night' captures the spirit of the season at the Nimoy.
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Courtesy CAP UCLA
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In this edition:
Aerosmith and friends at the Bowl, spooky Halloween screenings, Taiwanese dance at USC, pick your pumpkin and don’t forget to vote!
Highlights:
The Hollywood Bowl’s two “Aerosmith and Friends” all-star concerts feature Guns N’ Roses, Billy Idol and Steve Stevens, Heart, the Black Crowes, Sammy Hagar, Tom Morello, Chad Smith, Nuno Bettencourt, Sully Erna and Run-DMC — along with a rare appearance by Aerosmith themselves. If you don’t wanna miss a thing, you have two chances to catch this event; they'll all play the historic venue on both Thursday and Sunday. – Lyndsey Parker
Head to Hollywood’s Bollman House to get a real Halloween horror fix. They’ll use architectural projection mapping to transform the home’s façade all weekend long with animated illusions and tributes to movies including Psycho, The Shining, Frankenstein, Jaws, Nosferatu, 1950s monster classics, and more. The Henry O. Bollman House was designed by Lloyd Wright (Frank Lloyd Wright’s son) in 1922 — a true piece of Hollywood history!
Taiwanese dance company HUNG DANCE, along with their choreographer and artistic director LAI Hung-Chung, make their L.A. debut in BIRDY, which uses a mix of electronic and Chinese classical music to create a unique story that explores the “freedom and limitations” in Taiwan and the journey to modernity through dance.
Trick or treat! Whether you’re dressing up as something silly (maybe grab a friend and go as Aerial Tramway and Red Heart) or scary (pick your favorite political meme), it’s Halloween weekend, so stay safe and have fun.
Plus, don’t let election research get you down — if you haven’t voted yet, there’s still plenty of time to check out our OC and LA Voter Game Plan guides. You can take your mail-in ballot to a drop box, or head directly to the polls on Tuesday. Plus, there are plenty of incentives to cast your ballot; just show your “I Voted” sticker for discounts and freebies like donuts, discounts on food and more at participating local venues.
The L.A. Louver opens its doors again for a special two-day pop-up exhibit of paintings from singer and renaissance woman Joni Mitchell. The 82-year-old songstress and grandmother of folk rock — who's seen a real renaissance onstage the last couple of years, as she's performed with Brandi Carlile and others — is showing 23 paintings in a series called "NEWS," done between 2001 and this year.
Chef Marcus Samuelsson in Conversation with Laurie Ochoa and Sandra Jackson-Dumont
Wednesday, Oct. 28, 7:30 p.m. Hammer Museum 10899 Wilshire Blvd., Westwood COST: FREE; MORE INFO
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Courtesy Hammer Museum
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Chef Marcus Samuelsson’s remarkable story spans from Sweden to Ethiopia to Harlem. He’s sitting down with L.A. Times food editor Laurie Ochoa and cultural strategist Sandra Jackson-Dumont to talk about how “the cross-pollination of cultural traditions in Los Angeles has enriched the food and the art that we make and consume.” Samuelsson will also sign copies of his newest book, Back to Green: Rediscovering a World of Delicious, Healthy Eating.
Aerosmith and Friends: California Dream On
Thursday, Oct. 29, and Sunday, Nov. 1 Hollywood Bowl 2301 Highland Ave., Hollywood Hills COST: SOLD OUT, RESALE AVAILABLE FROM $300; MORE INFO
Steven Tyler and Joe Perry will make their return with a Hollywood Bowl performance.
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Kevin Mazur
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Getty Images
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The Hollywood Bowl’s two “Aerosmith and Friends” all-star concerts feature Guns N’ Roses, Billy Idol and Steve Stevens, Heart, the Black Crowes, Sammy Hagar, Tom Morello, Chad Smith, Nuno Bettencourt, Sully Erna and Run-DMC — along with a rare appearance by Aerosmith themselves. If you don’t wanna miss a thing, you have two chances to catch this event; they'll all play the historic venue on both Thursday and Sunday. – Lyndsey Parker
Día de los Muertos events
Sunday, Nov. 1, 12 p.m. to 3 p.m. Forest Lawn Cemeteries Various locations COST: FREE; MORE INFO
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Courtesy Forest Lawn
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Forest Lawn’s Covina Hills, Cypress and Glendale locations will each host Día de los Muertos events featuring marigolds, handcrafted Catrina and alebrijes (spirit guides), artworks and community ofrendas (altars).
CAP UCLA: Red All Night
Friday, Oct. 30, 8 p.m. The Nimoy 1262 Westwood Blvd., Westwood COST: $19.14; MORE INFO
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Courtesy CAP UCLA
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CAP UCLA kicks off Halloween weekend with a screening of Los Angeles-based artist duo Beck+Col’s latest horror film, Red All Night, at the Nimoy. A traditional slasher turns psychedelic in this unpredictable horror, which will be accompanied by live performance elements. Forest monsters, zombies, the evil Smile and more collide in this surreal alternate universe.
LA Opera: Hercules vs. Vampires with live soundtrack
Friday and Saturday, Oct. 30-31 United Theater on Broadway 929 S. Broadway, Downtown L.A. COST: FROM $56; MORE INFO
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Craig T. Mathew
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LA Opera
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The LA Opera’s annual old-movies-with-creepy-slash-super-cool-operative-orchestration is simply one of the best Halloween nights around. This year, they're taking on the undead with a screening of a cult classic — Mario Bava's 1961 Hercules in the Haunted World — that was revamped (no pun intended) with an operatic score into Hercules vs. Vampires. It will be performed with a live operatic soundtrack at the United Theater on Broadway. Don’t forget your costume; Halloween night features a costume contest with a $10,000 grand prize!
HUNG DANCE: BIRDY
Thursday, Oct. 29, 7 p.m. USC Visions and Voices Bovard Auditorium 3551 Trousdale Pkwy., University Park COST: FREE; MORE INFO
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Ren-Haur Liu
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USC Kaufman School of Dance
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Taiwanese dance company HUNG DANCE, along with their choreographer and artistic director LAI Hung-Chung, make their L.A. debut in BIRDY, which uses a mix of electronic and Chinese classical music to create a unique story that explores the “freedom and limitations” in Taiwan and the journey to modernity through dance.
Hollywood Horror
Thursday to Saturday, Oct. 29-31, 7:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. Bollman House 1530 N. Ogden Drive, Hollywood COST: FREE; MORE INFO
Head to Hollywood’s Bollman House to get a real Halloween horror fix. They’ll use architectural projection mapping to transform the home’s façade all weekend long with animated illusions and tributes to movies including Psycho, The Shining, Frankenstein, Jaws, Nosferatu, 1950s monster classics and more. The Henry O. Bollman House was designed by Lloyd Wright (Frank Lloyd Wright’s son) in 1922 — a true piece of Hollywood history!