Julia Barajas
explores how college students achieve their goals, whether they’re fresh out of high school, pursuing graduate work or looking to join the labor force through alternative pathways.
Published May 10, 2024 5:32 PM
Gov. Gavin Newsom unveiling his proposed cuts to the 2024-25 budget.
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Courtesy Gov. Newsom's YouTube page
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Topline:
As California faces a growing deficit, Gov. Gavin Newsom has proposed reducing a number of higher education programs in his May budget revision.
Middle Class Scholarship Program: The governor’s January budget had kept this scholarship program largely intact, but his new proposal, released Friday, calls for a $510-million reduction. The program provides scholarships for undergraduates with family incomes of up to $226,000. Under the revised budget plan, there would still be $100 million of ongoing support for the program.
Learning-Aligned Employment Program: Somewhat akin to federal work-study jobs, this program provides career-related employment for underrepresented students so they can earn money to help defray their college costs. Newsom proposed a one-time $485 million reduction to the program, which, according to the revised plan, “reflects the balance of unspent [funds].”
Golden State Teacher Grant Program: This program provides up to $20,000 for students working toward a teaching credential. Newsom proposed a one-time $60.2-million reduction to the program, noting that $50 million would still remain.
What’s next? Lawmakers need to approve the budget by June 15. Then, they’ll send it to the governor for final approval.
Frank Stoltze
is a veteran reporter who covers local politics and examines how democracy is and, at times, is not working.
Published February 12, 2026 1:25 PM
The burned remnants of an apartment building in Altadena.
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Keith Birmingham
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MediaNews Group/Pasadena Star-News via Getty Images via Grist
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Topline:
The state of California is launching an investigation stemming from the Eaton Fire to determine whether race, age or disability discrimination were factors during the emergency response in the historically Black community of west Altadena.
Why now: The investigation follows reporting by the Los Angeles Times that found west Altadena received late evacuation alerts when compared to east Altadena. Eighteen of the 19 people who died in the fire lived in west Altadena, and nearly half of all black households in Altadena were lost, according to a fire survivors group. The fire burned more than 14,000 acres and destroyed more than 6,000 structures.
Bonta's statement: The attorney general said in the statement that residents in the community reported consistently — and the county-commissioned McChrystal Group After-Action Report confirmed — that west Altadena did not receive any emergency evacuation orders until at least nine hours after the Eaton Fire ignited.
Read on ... for more information on the investigation.
The state of California is launching an investigation stemming from the Eaton Fire to determine whether race, age or disability discrimination were factors during the emergency response in the historically Black community of west Altadena.
“We'll be looking at whether the systems and structures at play contributed to a delay in the County’s evacuation notice and possible disparities in emergency response… , ” state Attorney General Rob Bonta said in a statement Thursday.
The investigation follows reporting by the Los Angeles Times that found west Altadena received late evacuation alerts when compared to east Altadena. Eighteen of the 19 people who died in the fire lived in west Altadena, and nearly half of all black households in Altadena were lost, according to a fire survivors group.
The fire burned more than 14,000 acres and destroyed more than 6,000 structures.
The investigation is “a trailblazing move for civil rights and environmental justice,” the group Altadena for Accountability said in a statement.
Bonta said in the statement that residents in the community reported consistently — and the county-commissioned McChrystal Group After-Action Report confirmed — that west Altadena did not receive any emergency evacuation orders until at least nine hours after the Eaton Fire ignited.
Fire survivors welcomed the investigation.
“Losing my home and seeing my parents lose theirs was devastating,” said fire survivor Gina Clayton-Johnson. “I’m heartened today knowing that we have a real pathway to answers and accountability for what went wrong. This is a big day for all fire survivors today and victims of climate change disasters in the future.”
The civil rights investigation is expected to assess Los Angeles County’s emergency response through a disparate impact analysis — meaning it does not have to find discriminatory intent in order to prove violations of civil rights protections occurred.
“There is a long history of marginalized communities receiving less support during times of crisis," said fire survivor Shimica Gaskins. “This may be the most consequential act taken by any official in California for accountability since the fires ravaged Los Angeles.”
County Supervisor Kathryn Barger, who represents Altadena, welcomed the inquiry as well.
“The concerns raised by residents of West Altadena deserve to be taken seriously and examined thoroughly,” Barger said in a statement. “If there were gaps, we must acknowledge them. If there were disparities, we must confront them. And if systems need to change, we must change them.”
Sandy Steers fostered Big Bear's bald eagle fandom
Makenna Sievertson
leads LAist’s unofficial Big Bear bald eagle beat and has been covering Jackie and Shadow for several seasons.
Published February 12, 2026 1:23 PM
Sandy Steers, the executive director of Friends of Big Bear Valley, poses with a bald eagle wingspan display in June 2024.
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Makenna Sievertson
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LAist
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Topline:
Sandy Steers, an environmental advocate and head of the nonprofit Friends of Big Bear Valley who helped build a legion of fans around the area’s bald eagles, has died.
Why it matters: More than a decade ago, Steers’ fascination with the first recently recorded bald eagle chick hatched in Big Bear Valley led to years of planning and fundraising to install a camera in the eagles’ nest overlooking Big Bear Lake.
Why now: The nonprofit announced on social media “with heavy hearts and great sadness” that Steers, the organization’s executive director, passed away Wednesday evening.
The backstory: “Something about Jackie and Shadow, or the view, or the whole thing — it just kind of took on a life of its own,” Steers told LAist in 2024.
Read on ... for more about Steers' life and legacy.
Sandy Steers, an environmental advocate and head of the nonprofit Friends of Big Bear Valley who helped build a legion of fans for the area’s bald eagles, has died.
The nonprofit announced on social media “with heavy hearts and great sadness” that Steers, the organization’s executive director, died Wednesday evening. The organization did not share Steers’ age, saying she referred to herself as “ageless.”
More than a decade ago, Steers’ fascination with the first recently recorded bald eagle chick hatched in Big Bear Valley led to years of planning and fundraising to install a camera in the eagles’ nest overlooking Big Bear Lake.
“Something about Jackie and Shadow, or the view, or the whole thing — it just kind of took on a life of its own,” Steers told LAist in 2024.
Friends of Big Bear Valley told LAist Thursday that Steers had an enormous heart, loved nature and wanted to help connect people with it.
“She was fiercely protective of all wildlife in Big Bear Valley and everywhere,” Jenny Voisard, the organization’s media manager, said in an email. “She was an amazing leader. She was a calming, healing and creative soul.”
Tributes for Steers from the Big Bear bald eagle community started pouring in immediately.
“This feels almost like California lost its very own Jane Goodall,” one commenter wrote on Instagram.
“She wrote beautifully and made us feel like we were on a branch next to the nest keeping watch,” another wrote on Facebook.
Sandy Steers spoke at a bald eagle fan party in Big Bear Village in June 2024.
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Makenna Sievertson
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LAist
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Steers’ stories
Steers once told LAist that after bald eagles started staying in the valley year-round, she used to stand for hours in a parking lot with a spotting scope studying the nest each day.
Steers also watched as the chick’s parents, a pair of bald eagles known as Ricky and Lucy, lost sets of eggs and eaglets in subsequent years.
“What happened? Why didn’t they hatch?” Steers said previously. “I wanted to know, you know, could I have saved them?”
The famous bald eagle parents, Jackie and Shadow, caring for their eggs in March 2024.
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Friends of Big Bear Valley
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YouTube
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U.S. Forest Service biologists shared Steers’ desire to see up close what was happening in the nest. They started researching how to install cameras in Big Bear, similar to those on Catalina Island nests, Steers said in 2024.
After two years of planning and fundraising, Friends of Big Bear Valley got Forest Service permits and installed the eagle nest camera in October 2015. The nonprofit later launched its YouTube channel.
Steers said few people watched the livestream during the first year, but there was something about the set-up that started to draw others in.
The nonprofit also began telling stories on social media about what was going on in the nest and in Jackie and Shadow’s lives. The stories quickly took off and brought more eyes to the livestream, she said.
“I did it trying to keep people informed and educated about the eagles,” Steers has said. “Because that's what our mission is, educating people about the environment and protecting it that way, by people knowing what's going on.”
Sandy Steers, right, on May 31, 2022 in Fawnskin.
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Myung J. Chun
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Los Angeles Times via Getty Images
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The community she created
With Steers leading the charge, Friends of Big Bear Valley’s community of bald eagle fans has grown from a few dedicated viewers to more than 1 million followers on Facebook alone.
Thousands of people now regularly tune in to watch Jackie and Shadow, especially when egg-laying season, which typically starts in January, brings new life to their nest.
Steers hosted educational talks about the Big Bear bald eagles, taught classes about the nonprofit’s environmental work and dedicated much of her time to sharing what she loved about nature.
By 2024, Steers had become almost as notable a name in the Big Bear eagle community as Jackie and Shadow.
“There is a big hole right now,” Voisard said. “She was dearly loved by her team at FOBBV and by so many that continue to share with us what she meant to them. That has been wonderful to see.”
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Judge orders hospital to resume youth hormone care
Kevin Tidmarsh
has been covering restrictions to health care for trans youth under the second Trump administration.
Published February 12, 2026 11:39 AM
Protesters outside Children's Hospital of Orange County on Jan. 24, 2026.
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Kevin Tidmarsh/LAist
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Topline:
Gender-affirming hormone treatments are available for people under 19 through at least March 10 at Children’s Hospital Orange County and Rady Children’s Hospital San Diego following a court order.
About the ruling: The ruling is temporary. That means hundreds of families with trans youth patients at CHOC might still need to seek long term and alternative care. Several ongoing and expected court cases against the federal government, including a lawsuit led by Oregon’s attorney general against Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., may affect CHOC’s outcome.
The backstory: Bonta filed a lawsuit against Rady Children’s Health, the parent company of CHOC and Rady Children’s Hospital San Diego, that sought to restore gender-affirming care at the hospital system. CHOC and Rady have pointed to recent actions by the federal government to restrict trans youth’s access to gender-affirming hormones and surgeries.
Does this affect other hospitals?: The ruling only applies to Rady Children’s Health.
What the hospital is saying: “We respect the court's directives and will abide by them,” a spokesperson for CHOC wrote in a statement to LAist. “We are not able to comment further on active litigation at this time.”
Trans advocacy organizations react: Brit Cervantes of the gender-affirming care provider organization OCGAPNET said this decision underscores that the federal government’s actions are being challenged. Kanan Durham of the Huntington Beach-based nonprofit told LAist called the ruling a “small win.”
Gab Chabrán
covers what's happening in food and culture for LAist.
Published February 12, 2026 11:36 AM
Napa Rose reopened Feb. 6 after a 10-month renovation.
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Ron De Angelis
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Courtesy Disneyland Resort
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Topline:
Napa Rose at Disney's Grand Californian Hotel & Spa reopened Feb. 6 after an eight-month closure and complete redesign. It marks the restaurant's 25th anniversary with a reimagined dining room, new tasting menu and expanded bar and lounge.
Why it matters: Napa Rose has long been considered the pinnacle of dining at the Disneyland Resort and one of the more ambitious fine-dining destinations in Orange County. The reopening signals Disney's continued investment in elevating its culinary offerings beyond theme park fare, with leadership expressing aspirations toward Michelin recognition.
The backstory: Chef Andrew Sutton has led Napa Rose since its 2001 opening. He now serves as culinary director of all signature dining at the resort, with Executive Chef Clint Chin running day-to-day kitchen operations. The main dining room offers a four-course prix fixe menu at $188 per person, with optional wine pairings from a cellar of nearly 4,000 bottles.
If you're looking for fine dining, Disneyland may not come immediately to mind. But you'd be wrong.
Twenty-five years ago, Disneyland opened its first high end restaurant, Napa Rose, inside the Grand Californian Hotel. Its chef, Andrew Sutton, had been plucked from Napa Valley, and it went on to build a reputation as one of the most ambitious dining destinations in Orange County. (Sutton is now the culinary director of all of Disney's top-tier dining in Anaheim — including the members-only Club 33 and Carthay Circle.)
But after more than two decades, the restaurant had started to show its age — the Wine Country identity was baked into the bones of the room, but the cuisine and plating style felt more Y2K than TikTok.
So last April, Napa Rose closed for extensive renovations. Almost a year later, it's now reopened with a new tasting menu, a reimagined dining room and expanded bar and lounge, under a new Executive Chef, Clint Chin.
Wine Country, by way of Anaheim
At a press dinner, General Manager Jess Soman was candid about his ambitions: he wants Napa Rose to earn a Michelin star. It's not such a far-fetched idea — he helped The Inn at Little Washington in Virginia earn three Michelin stars.
The newly redesigned bar and lounge at Napa Rose, where the evening began with passed champagne and remarks from the team behind the reinvention.
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Ron De Angelis
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Courtesy Disneyland Resort
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But another remark from the evening struck me just as much: for many guests, Napa Rose is their first fine-dining experience. That's a meaningful thing — the first time a sommelier explains a pairing without condescension, the first time a tasting menu tells you a story. If that's the role Napa Rose wants to play, then what ends up on the plate matters even more.
The dining room is beautiful, anchored by a chandelier that resembles a suspended vineyard — glass orbs hanging from sculpted grapevine forms — glowing softly over carved murals of wine-country harvest scenes. The walls are lined with 3,800 bottles in climate-controlled cabinets. It feels warm and intimate.
It's also, inescapably, inside a theme park resort. Somewhere beyond these walls, people are screaming on Radiator Springs while wearing a $55 popcorn bucket that lights up. All the staff were also wearing Disney name tags. That tension — between genuine culinary ambition and the Disney universe that contains it — is something I kept turning over in my head all night.
$188, four courses, one question
The tasting menu costs $188 for four courses, including an amuse-bouche and dessert.
The first course was grilled fish served with lobster toast and a lemon bubble foam. Everything tasted fine together, but it was forgettable, the kind of dish that disappears from memory before the wine glass is refilled.
Thinly sliced American Wagyu beef rolled over roasted red and gold beets with grape mostarda and green pea purée
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Ron DeAngelis
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Courtesy Disneyland Resort
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The American Wagyu N.Y. was a different story. Thinly sliced and rolled, resembling a fancy cut of pastrami, the beef's richness played well against the familiar, comforting roasted beets, and the grape mostarda added just enough sharpness. I noticed the plating too — more restrained than before, with dots of pea purée placed deliberately and real negative space on the plate. If this is what the new Napa Rose looks like, the kitchen has at least shed its previous aesthetic.
Then came the sorpresine pasta with California crab broth and Pacific uni, and the evening stumbled. The sauce was watery and thin, the uni flavor barely there, the crab scarce — a few pieces struggling to justify the menu's promise. At $188 a head, I felt shortchanged. But the detail I couldn't shake was the bowl: a sea urchin-shaped vessel coated in dark black ceramic that, when scraped with the silver fork, produced a sound like nails on a chalkboard. At a restaurant that spent eight months and untold millions on a reinvention, the thing I remember most vividly from the third course is a noise.
The sorpresine pasta with California crab broth and Pacific uni. The bowl looked striking. It sounded less so.
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Ron DeAngelis
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Courtesy Disneyland Resort
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For the entrée, I opted for the swordfish served with ancient grains, black lentils, and hijiki, a Japanese seaweed, whose briny depth complemented the fish.
The sustainable fish with ancient grains, black lentils and hijiki.
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Ron De Angelis
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Disneyland Resort
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The meal concluded with what the menu called an "Elevated and Reminiscent" Valrhona chocolate bar with hazelnut praline. It's a very Disney move: narrate the experience so the guest knows what to feel before they feel it. It did deliver on its promise: lush chocolate with a delicate texture that was indeed reminiscent of a candy bar, in the best possible way. Or perhaps by that point I'd been fully indoctrinated.
The "Elevated and Reminiscent" Valrhona chocolate bar with hazelnut praline, with the name does the interpretive work for you.
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Ron De Angelis
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Courtesy Disneyland Resort
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Who is this for?
Ultimately, it all felt very competent yet cautious — playing it safe at every turn. Which may be exactly what you need to make a first fine-dining experience extra-special. But a restaurant gunning for a Michelin star needs to do the opposite — to surprise, to unsettle, to serve something a diner has never seen before.
The reinvented Napa Rose seems caught between these two identities, swinging big on paper but playing it safe on the plate. I’m not sure the restaurant knows exactly what story it wants to tell yet. But the fact that it's asking the question might be enough for now.
