The Brief

John F. Kennedy High School students will start school in 10 new classrooms and science labs when they return from spring break later this month.

Their new building is an example of the longevity of school bonds — with the project completed 23 years after approval of at least one bond used to help fund it.

Kennedy High opened in 1971, and many of the campus' original buildings remain, with the exception of the gymnasium and the administration building, which were rebuilt after the 1994 Northridge earthquake.

The new building is part of a $274 million renovation that includes removing aging portable classrooms, a new track and retrofitting buildings to better withstand earthquakes.

The project, first put forward for consideration in 2016, is funded by voter-approved bonds from 2002, 2008 and 2020.

 "The bond measure allows the district to take on the replacement and the construction of new facilities where otherwise we would only have funds to do very minimal repairs,” said Chief Facilities Executive Krisztina Tokes.

The renovation also includes the removal of 19 portable buildings, part of a district-wide goal to remove aging trailers from campuses. The district added most bungalows between the 1960s and early 2000s to rapidly expand capacity, but now many of them have outlived their use.

What bonds will do in the future

Akshita Islam is a junior in the school’s medical magnet program and hopes a few of her science classes will be in the new building next year.

“The most exciting part is just to have something modern in this campus,” she said. “As you can tell, we're at an outdated campus, so it's nice to have something new.”

John F. Kennedy High School renovations include flexible furniture.

(

Mariana Dale

/

LAist

)

Flexible furniture allows for desks to be easily rearranged.

(

Mariana Dale

/

LAist

)

Tokes said more than 5,000 portables remain on LAUSD campuses, down from a peak of 10,000 in 2003.

Voters approved a property tax increase in November to fund up to $9 billion in LAUSD school construction projects over the next several decades. The district said the majority of Measure US funding (nearly $5 billion) will go toward renovations like the one at Kennedy.

The district’s bond oversight committee reviews each project, and the majority of the board must vote to approve the projects before they can proceed. The committee's meetings are open to the public; it next meets May 1.

After an Afghan national was named as being behind a shooting in Washington, D.C., that left one member of the National Guard dead and another in critical condition, the Trump administration says it is halting all asylum decisions.

Joseph Edlow, director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), said Friday night that the agency is pausing decisions "until we can ensure that every alien is vetted and screened to the maximum degree possible."

"The safety of the American people always comes first," Edlow wrote on X.

The decision follows President Trump's promise of a sharp crackdown on immigration from countries he described as "third world."

Writing on social media on Thursday night, Trump railed against immigrants from impoverished nations, accusing them of being a burden on the nation's welfare system and "preying" on natural-born citizens.

"I will permanently pause migration from all Third World Countries to allow the U.S. system to fully recover," he wrote on Truth Social.

"Only REVERSE MIGRATION can fully cure this situation."

The Trump administration is already deporting some immigrants, either to their countries of origin or to third countries, many of which are paid to receive them. Venezuelans were deported from the U.S. to El Salvador, a number of migrants were sent to Eswatini and South Sudan, and Rwanda has agreed to accept deportees.

Edlow wrote on social media Thursday that he had been directed to conduct "a full scale, rigorous reexamination of every Green Card for every alien from every country of concern."

He did not say which countries this would entail, and the USCIS did not respond to an NPR request for comment. But a June White House proclamation placed a travel ban on 12 countries of concern.

A makeshift memorial of flowers and American flags stands outside the Farragut West Metro station on Nov. 28, 2025 in Washington, DC.

(

Andrew Leyden

/

Getty Images

)

These included many African nations suffering from conflict and terrorism such as Chad, Sudan and Somalia — as well as other countries, such as Afghanistan. Another 7 countries were slapped with partial restrictions.

In a statement to CNN, the Department of Homeland Security said it had already halted all immigration requests stemming from Afghanistan and was in the process of reviewing "all" asylum cases approved under former President Biden.

The department did not respond to an NPR request for comment.

History of anti-immigrant sentiment

The president's latest comments against immigration was sparked by the revelation that the alleged shooter was identified as Rahmanullah Lakanwal — a 29-year-old Afghan national who had worked with the CIA to fight the Taliban in his native country and was admitted into the United States in 2021 as a result of his service. In a Thanksgiving Day call with servicemembers, Trump described the shooting as a terrorist attack and the shooter as a "savage monster."

He blamed the Biden administration for Lakanwal's entry to the United States and for a general failure of the immigration system.

"For the most part, we don't want 'em," he said, referring broadly to immigration seekers as gang members, mentally ill and previously incarcerated.

Trump ran both successful White House campaigns on a pledge to crack down on illegal immigration, targeting at various points migrants from countries including Mexico and Somalia.

Speaking to reporters on Thursday after the Thanksgiving call, Trump widened his attack to focus not just on the alleged shooter but to rail against immigration to the U.S. and immigrants in general.

When asked by a reporter about the fact that as a former CIA asset, Lakanwal had been vetted, Trump repeatedly berated the reporter as "stupid."

People detained earlier in the day are taken to a parking lot on the far north side of the city before being transferred to an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility on Oct. 31, 2025, in Chicago, Ill.

(

Jamie Kelter Davis

/

Getty Images

)

Asked by another reporter whether he blamed all Afghans for the alleged actions of one, Trump said: "No, but there's a lot of problems with Afghans."

Trump then turned his attention to immigrants from Somalia, who he has repeatedly accused of being gang-affiliated and "taking over" Minnesota — home to the nation's largest Somali community.

Questioned about what Somalis had to do with the D.C. shooting, Trump said: "Nothing." But, he added, "Somalians have caused a lot of trouble." .

Later on social media, he described "Somalian gangs" in Minnesota as "roving the streets looking for 'prey' as our wonderful people stay locked in their apartments and houses hoping against hope that they will be left alone."

Officials for the United Nations on Friday criticized Trump's call for sweeping halts to immigration seekers.

"They are entitled to protection under international law, and that should be given due process," U.N. human rights office spokesperson Jeremy Laurence told reporters in Geneva.

Copyright 2025 NPR

Alex and Elvia Huerta of Evil Cooks have released the El Sereno Food Passport, a $10 booklet to promote local restaurants.

The first edition of the booklet features 18 local restaurants, each offering its own little perk when you visit and get your passport stamped. Customers can either get free snacks or drinks or get a discount.

At Tirzah’s Mexi-Terranean, you can either get 15% off your order or a free esquite when you show your passport.

Evil Cooks is so metal, they make black octopus tacos. They have also experimented with gansito tamales. This Halloween, they collaborated with Amiga Amore, a Mexitalian eatery, to create a special “witches menu” that included huitlacoche, aguachile negro and lamb shank in fig mole.

Get the passport

Pick up a passport:

• Evil Cooks, 3333 N. Eastern Ave., Los Angeles
• Lil East Coffee, 2734 N. Eastern Ave., Los Angeles

Social justice activists who’ve wanted to help Filipinos have traditionally gravitated toward well-known communities near downtown L.A., Carson, Cerritos and other cities. But some Gen Z Filipinos are going straight to the San Fernando Valley, a lesser known enclave where people also need help.

I talked to two of them, Rica Roque and Gigi Gonzales-Palmer, at the Panorama Woodman Center, a strip mall where businesses are now mostly owned by Filipinos. Around us, bakeries and markets were selling prepared Filipino dishes and imported products from the Philippines.

Panorama City has many Filipino businesses, from supermarkets to bakeries.

(

Adolfo Guzman-Lopez/LAist

)

Roque is the secretary general of Migrante San Fernando Valley, a group that works with migrant workers and their families. The local branch opened in June this year.

“A huge part of the work that we do is getting to know them, getting to know their stories, their struggles, their conditions,” he said.

At 27 years old, Roque is an older Gen Zer who attended De La Salle University in Manila before moving here in 2017. He’s worked doing freelance photo and video for businesses and nonprofits.

The Filipinos he meets in the Valley — both those who have come to the U.S. from the Philippines and those of Filipino descent — work in a range of jobs and professions, from nurses and other professionals in the healthcare industry to civil servants, as well as restaurant and retail workers.

His group focuses on those experiencing hardships, which in many cases are people working in lower wage service sector jobs.

He grew up in the Philippines and uses that background to reach out to workers, while Gonzales-Palmer draws on her roots in the Valley.

“I love the Valley. I've grown up most of my life here,” she said.

Gonzales-Palmer is secretary general of Anakbayan Panorama City, a national U.S. Filipino youth group with its origins in the Philippines. It opened in March.

Gonzales-Palmer is 23 and earned her bachelor’s degree in film and women’s studies in 2021 and a master’s in documentary film in 2022. She now works part time at a Filipino bakery.

Rica Roque (left) and Gigi Gonzales-Palmer work for social justice groups in the San Fernando Valley.

(

Adolfo Guzman-Lopez/LAist

)

The Valley loves the Valley

Working in this area brings its own challenges, they said. Older organizations in other parts of Southern California have storefronts or other spaces for meetings and events. But because Roque and Gonzales-Palmer’s groups are so new, it’s hard for them to find appropriate locations for get-togethers.

“We often do boba shops or businesses that are kind of noisy, or parks that get dark at night and aren't, like, the best to be around,” said Gonzales-Palmer.

Once they start talking to people who live in the area, however, they say they hear people express a desire to help each other out.

“The Valley loves the Valley, people really look out for each other there,” Gonzales-Palmer said.

A lot of her outreach happens at Panorama High School, she said, because the school has a large population of students of Filipino descent and some of them belong to the Filipino student club on campus.

“We fight for the issues of Filipino youth and students and give a voice to the youth. Youth have a strong fighting spirit, especially Filipino youth,” she said.

“Some of these youth have experienced family separation. They've been separated or they're currently separated from family members away in the Philippines. They carry the burden of wanting to go to a good college and get a good job so their family doesn't have to continue struggling,” she said.

Now, however, she sees many people finish college with graduate degrees and still find it difficult to get work — including her.

“I'm struggling through a lot of these same issues that a lot of youth are struggling [with]. I have a master's and I am still not employed,” Gonzales-Palmer said. “The future looks bleak for many people.”

Because of this, helping remove roadblocks for Filipinos younger than her is personal. She works to make the high school students see themselves as belonging on a college campus and talks to them about the college admission process. Without parents or siblings who have gone to college, some students struggle to know the basics about how to enter higher education.

To offer support, her group organized a trip to a national Filipino youth conference at UCLA last year to get students familiar with a college campus — and meet young Filipino activists from other parts of the country.

Gonzales-Palmer said they learned “there’s more ways to be a member of the community beyond just going to school and stuff.”

Starting from the ground up

Roque said they’re building communities from the ground up by helping Filipinos with things like food insecurity and basic needs — and negotiating for their rights at work.

“We talk to a lot of the workers in… North Hills… experiencing wage theft,” Roque said.

He gave an example of a man he talked to recently who had been working for the same food preparation company for 20 years.

“He started off with, I think, $16 or $17 an hour. But he's still receiving the same amount of salary or wage [today],” Roque said.

“When you’re experiencing these issues,” Roque added, “it's a struggle to not lose hope and motivation to keep on fighting. I think that's what we also do as organizers. We make people learn and think that, ‘Oh yeah, we can change these things’ not just for you, but also for other people."

Gonzales-Palmer said many students have a lot of fear around ICE and being an immigrant.

"I think that's actually pushed more students to get involved and be more political," she said. "Earlier this year, students across the San Fernando Valley, including from Panorama High, including from the Filipino Club, participated in walkouts to show the Valley that people care about migrants and that students won't stop and stand for the raids and the way people treat migrants."

Take a line of string lights, add one clear Solo cup. Then add another, until 50 Solo cups later you are left with a sparkling, shimmering sphere of festive light.

Neighbors in a quiet, suburban neighborhood in Fullerton call them sparkle balls. Hundreds of these sparkling creations hang from trees, attracting thousands of visitors from across Southern California during the month of December.

In its 22nd year, the tradition has expanded to over 160 homes across 10 blocks.

Sparkle balls shimmer at night.

(

Courtesy Robert Pillon

)

Marie Murillo joined in the fun 10 years ago. She said the tradition is an “exciting time” when the neighbors come out to put on a festive experience for visitors.

“I love watching the kids walk around and being like, ‘Ah, look at the lights,’” she said, stringing lights around her tree. “I can hear it from my living room. And it's the best thing ever. I love it. Best time of the year for us.”

Marie Murillo says the sparkle ball tradition is an “exciting time” when the neighbors come out to put on a festive experience for visitors. Here she is decorating her front yard.

(

Yusra Farzan

/

LAist

)

The installation goes live on December 1.

The tradition grows

Shortly after Robert Pillon moved into his Yale Avenue home in 2004, his neighbor invited him over for smores and to discuss a tradition: four homes on the block hung these sparkle balls from the trees in their front yard. The neighbor wanted to know if Pillon would join in the tradition.

Robert Pillon has been making sparkle balls since 2004.

(

Yusra Farzan

/

LAist

)

He jumped on board. That year, over Monday night football, the four men would come together to make sparkle balls for 22 homes.

“ Our wives teased us and called it our mancraft in the beginning because it was like five guys getting together in the garage, drinking beers and making balls,” Pillon said.

The balls are perfect spheres, with circles of Solo cups welded together and with fairy lights inserted at the bottom of the cup.

 ”You insert the lights all the way through the sphere and close it up, and then you tie a string to it and we hang them from the trees,” Pillon said.

The cords are not visible at night.

“At night it just looks like they're orbs floating in the middle of the air,” he said.

A neighborhood effort

As the tradition has expanded, so have the logistics. Each block is assigned a leader to manage the making and installation of these sparkle balls.

The neighbors rent boom lifts to install the sparkle balls from trees road by road, with around 100 volunteers working over 10 days to install the balls.

(

Courtesy Allison Castellano

)

This year, Pillon created a limited liability company to acquire liability insurance and safety harnesses for the installation process. The neighbors rent boom lifts to install the sparkle balls from trees road by road, with around 100 volunteers working over 10 days to install the balls. Each home contributes $55 which covers the rental costs and fuel to power the boom lift.

Pillon said having the lights up all through December isn’t very expensive.

“Probably somewhere between $30 to $50 an extra for that month that they're up,” he said. Other neighbors have switched to LED lights to keep the costs down.

At the end of the month, neighbors store the sparkle balls in their garage. Some keep them in large plastic crates, others hang them in their garage. The lights last for a long time and the balls themselves are quite sturdy.

Come the week of Thanksgiving, they pull them out of the garage ready to be installed.

Sparkle balls led to a tight knit community 

 ”There are some houses that when the new homeowners come, they still have the balls that previous owners left them,” said Sardis Rodriguez. When she moved into the neighborhood in 2019, the previous owners took their sparkle balls. So one of the first things Rodriguez did when she moved in was make three sparkle balls.

Robert Pillon and Sardis Rodriguez

(

Yusra Farzan

/

LAist

)

When the COVID-19 pandemic hit soon after she moved in, the email lists for the sparkle ball community came in handy. Rodriguez said they used the email list to organize neighborhood happy hours.

“Everyone would go outside their houses, stay socially distanced, but say hi to everyone,” she said. “We really got to know each other during that time a little bit more.”