The Brief

LAist reporter Yusra Farzan has enjoyed iftar, the meal to break the fast during Ramadan, since she was a young child. LAist food editor Gab Chabran had never been to one and was intrigued. They decided to experience it together.

Yusra's love of iftar

Ramadan is my favorite time of the year. The holy month, when Muslims fast from sunrise to sunset, means specialty dishes and a time to catch up with friends and family.

When I moved to Southern California eight years ago, Ramadan was the first time I felt a little less homesick. It doesn’t matter if you live in Dubai like I used to, or in Los Angeles, there are some things everyone does. You break your fast with dates or water, read the Qur’an and pray together, and you rarely feel alone in community spaces like mosques or halal restaurants.

When Gab told me he had never experienced an iftar, I figured it was about time he went to one. I wanted to take him to someone’s home, not because the restaurants aren’t great, but because of the hospitality and camaraderie that comes from breaking bread together in a cozy setting.

I put out a call to Muslim community leaders asking if there was a family who would like to host us. Sandy and Nasser Hamideh in Rowland Heights generously responded and invited us to their home.

Gab's first impressions

Walking up to a large house on a hill inside a cul de sac in Rowland Heights, I didn’t know what to expect other than I would be participating in an iftar dinner.

As LAist photographer Julie Leopo and I approached, we noticed a sizeable inflatable lawn decoration that read “Ramadan Mubarak.” I found out later it translates to "Blessed Ramadan."

Festive Ramadan decorations.

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Courtesy Hamideh family

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Soon after, our host, Nasser, and two of his children came to the door to welcome us. We were led through the house to the backyard, which featured a panoramic view of the snowcapped San Gabriel Mountains and valley at sundown.

Lamb chops courtesy of Nasser Hamideh in his backyard in Rowland Heights.

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Julie Leopo

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Bathed in the golden hour light, Nasser invited me to help with the grill. While we basted the marinated halal lamb chops with olive oil and garlic, he told me about growing up in Rowland Heights.

Nasser was born in Palestine, but his family moved to the United States in the late 1970s. Meanwhile his wife, Sandy, was originally from a small Muslim community in Baton Rouge, and had her own version of culture shock when she arrived in California. As we talked, the smell of the cooked lamb filled the air.

Soon after, other guests, including several members of their extended family, arrived.

The Hamidehs and their extended family during iftar.

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Julie Leopo

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Then a tray of artfully arranged dates magically appeared to break the fast. They were some of the largest, softest and sweetest dates I’d ever experienced.

Yusra's favorite dish

After I arrived and broke the fast with dates, we offered the evening prayer together with Muhamad, their son, leading us. It’s a very simple act, but I think praying together is one of the reasons for the feeling of community is heightened during Ramadan. You would often hear imams commenting about how Ramadan is the one time of the year the mosques are packed with people. And it helped break the ice — their son had memorized one of the longer verses of the Qur’an, one that, alas, my 30-something self still hasn’t (I hope my dad isn’t reading this.)

Cups of lentil soup are enjoyed as the starter.

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Julie Leopo

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As we sat, bowls of rich yellow lentil soup were served. The soup — which had hints of olive oil, garlic and carrot — was accompanied with a glass of homemade mint lemonade.

I made a beeline for msakhan (which is one of my favorite foods of all time at iftar). I have had the privilege of eating Palestine’s national dish a gazillion times and even make it at home, but Sandy’s was by far the best I have had.

Msakhan, a roasted chicken dish served over taboun bread.

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Julie Leopo

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Taboun bread is layered with sumac spiced onions and topped with chicken. The chicken was still moist with a hint of tang — was it lemon, stock, or just well seasoned?

But the star was the bread. Sandy’s mother bakes the taboun bread herself and this is key to a good msakhan. The bread acts as a sponge soaking up all that chicken flavor, as well as the copious amounts of sumac flavored olive oil the onions are fried in. I have had versions with pita bread and naan masquerading as taboun and that just will not do. It has to be taboun.

Sandy had also prepared shatta, a Palestinian chili paste, with sweet peppers, carrots and jalapenos instead of red chilies like it’s typically made because of the kids. This made the lamb chops that Nasser and Gab grilled sing.

Vegetables tend to be overlooked on most iftar tables, but Julie, our photographer, is vegan and Sandy made sure to have potatoes, eggplant and cauliflower in a tahini sauce. My body appreciated the fiber especially after a long day of fasting and my taste buds rejoiced at the nuttiness of the tahini sauce against the fresh tabbouleh salad.

Gab's maqluba experience

Maqluba, a rice pilaf combined with meat and vegetables.

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Julie Leopo

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I became a (reluctant) center of attention when the maqluba, a rice pilaf with meat and vegetables, arrived. It's cooked in a pot flipped upside down, and when the dish is done, a person is tasked with holding it and turning it over.

LAist's Gab Chabrán flips the maqluba pot.

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Julie Leopo

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I was elected as the person to take on the task that evening.

Everyone crowded around me as I took the two pot holders to slide the plate slowly off the counter onto a large platter, which I then flipped over. I’m not going to lie — I was a little intimidated by the heavy pot full of food, but my efforts were successful. We were rewarded with the beautifully aromatic rice pilaf, topped with a large sliver of eggplant wrapped around like a large ribbon. Each nook and cranny was stuffed with potatoes, carrots, cauliflower and large chunks of tender meat.

Yusra's coffee (and dessert) cravings

Meal over — my eyes wandered towards the coffee machine wondering how to politely ask for a cup. (I drink copious amounts of coffee and after fasting, I need it to keep that caffeine headache at bay.) It’s like Sandy read my mind and soon a steaming mug appeared.

A knafeh dessert dish is soaked with a sweet, sugar-based syrup called attar.

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Julie Leopo

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Knafeh (top left), imtabak (bottom left) and qatayef (right).

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Julie Leopo

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The bitterness of the coffee perfectly complimented my all-time Ramadan must-have: qatayef. Suna brought the thin pancakes stuffed with cheese. With my fork, I made a small crack in the outer shell, and the inside warm cheese immediately oozed out.

Gab's heavenly knafeh

Another dessert served that night was knafeh from Knafeh Queens. It contains two layers of spun phyllo dough-like pastry between a helping of stretchy, slightly salty white cheese. The pastry is then doused with sweet syrup and sprinkled with pistachios before serving.

We also sampled Imtabak. The name translates to layers and is made with a phyllo dough with a sweet, salty, heavy cream filling. The flavors of the cream seeped into the corners of the dough, making it all the more heavenly the longer it sat.

Yusra's farewell song

Coffee, dessert and conversation flowed into the night as Sandy and Nasser’s kids took part in a tradition — similar to an advent calendar. Over 30 days, in a calendar, Sandy hides riddles for the children to solve and a small treat. She also includes a note with a good deed for the kids to do.

I had already announced that I needed to start heading out, when Asad, a cousin, said that he had a song he wanted to play to send us off. It was a folk song about people being forced to leave their homes and longing for the home they grew up hearing about.

When he finished the song, he remarked how he hadn’t sung that song publicly in almost 30 years.

At that point, something occurred to me about the evening celebration. Cultural traditions are a way for us to stay connected to ancestral roots, so we must pass them down to ensure they survive for future generations.

I didn’t grow up in Sri Lanka because of the country’s civil war (our family moved to Dubai) and I've wondered what it would have been like. In homes like Sandy’s and Nasser’s and my own, we are holding on to foods, traditions, languages and culture to reinforce our identity and help us carve out a place in this world.

All of us really are just trying to belong.

This story was produced with support from the Round Earth Media program of the International Women’s Media Foundation. 

After the Department of Justice issued a wide-ranging subpoena to Children’s Hospital Los Angeles last June, the records of more than 3,000 patients now will be protected until at least February 2029 under a settlement reached between patient families and the federal government.

What the federal government was seeking

The DOJ wanted to pull a wide swath of information from CHLA’s records related to hormone therapy prescriptions, including the identities and social security numbers of the people it was prescribed to. Lawyers for CHLA patient families said the broad request also included details of patients’ sexual health data and records of their mental health and said the inquiry violated their constitutional rights.

What CHLA’s lawyers are saying

“This is a massive victory for every family that refused to be intimidated into backing down,” said Khadijah Silver, director of gender justice and health equity at Lawyers for Good Government. “The government's attempt to rifle through children's medical records was unconstitutional from the start.”

Silver also noted that DOJ confirmed it had not received any sensitive patient data under the parts of the subpoena that had been struck down.

What’s in the settlement

Under the agreement, which was first reported by Reuters, the federal government has withdrawn its requests for personal information like social security numbers, prescription records and “documents relating to the clinical indications, diagnoses or assessments that formed the basis for prescribing puberty blockers or hormone therapy.”

The government cannot make new requests of this type to CHLA until February 2029. The settlement also establishes a process for the DOJ to continue to pursue seeking some limited redacted medical records from CHLA.

What it means for parents and children

In the aftermath of the subpoenas, many advocates were worried that families would face federal prosecution for seeking gender-affirming care for their children.

However, according to the settlement, the DOJ said it “is not currently aware of information that would support the federal prosecution of parents or guardians who have sought and consented to receiving gender-related care for their children at Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles.”

What the hospital and DOJ say about the win

LAist has reached out for comment to both entities and has not heard back.

The backstory

The subpoenas were issued on or about June 11, 2025, according to the settlement. They were made public in July, though many patient families remained in the dark about whether they were affected. CHLA announced it planned to close its clinic for trans youth June 12.

Judges have ruled against similar requests and struck down subpoenas seeking records from other hospitals, like Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and Boston Children’s Hospital.

Los Angeles voters could soon get another chance to weigh in on Measure ULA, better known as the city’s “mansion tax.”

First approved by voters in November 2022, the measure has taxed real estate selling for more than $5 million. It funds tenant protection programs and affordable housing construction.

But economists have found that because the tax also applies to apartments — not just mansions — housing developers are pulling back on building in the city compared to other parts of L.A. County. One UCLA study concluded the city would have more low-income units on balance if the tax did not apply to new apartments.

Now, there’s a new effort brewing at City Hall to change how the “mansion tax” works.

City Councilmember Nithya Raman, chair of the council’s Housing and Homelessness Committee, introduced a motion Friday to place a new measure on the June ballot. The ballot measure would ask voters to exempt recently constructed apartment buildings from the tax, among other changes.

“We've seen some real pressures on the market as a result of ULA,” Raman told LAist. “It was sold to voters and talked about as a mansion tax. I don't think it was intended to slow the construction of new apartments in a city with an acknowledged and widespread housing crisis.”

Supporters of the tax say it’s working as intended. They dispute claims that ULA is responsible for slower housing growth in the city.

No council votes have yet been taken.

Local reform effort follows failed state bill

Supporters say the tax has funded eviction defense and rent relief programs. It has also produced the city’s largest-ever pot of money for low-income housing development, though less than 200 apartments have been completed and leased so far.

Joe Donlin, director of the group United to House L.A., called the latest reform effort “irresponsible.”

The proposed tax exemption for apartments built within the last 15 years would be “a tax break for developers and billionaires,” Donlin said.

“That would be giving money away from ULA programs that are protecting renters, that are keeping people from falling into homelessness, and building affordable housing,” he said.

Raman’s motion would also cancel the tax on homeowners affected by the Palisades Fire. Another change would restructure certain financing terms in order to attract traditional lenders to participate in ULA-funded affordable housing projects.

Many of the changes are similar to those proposed by state lawmakers in a bill that failed to advance at the tail end of last year’s legislative session in Sacramento.

Dueling effort at repeal is underway 

But those who support reform say without some changes, the tax could soon be thrown out entirely. The Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association is collecting signatures for a separate ballot measure that would overturn not just Measure ULA, but similar taxes across the state.

Mott Smith, a reform proponent and the co-author of a UCLA study that found the tax had sharply reduced high-end real estate sales, said this is shaping up to be a tough political fight.

“I commend Councilmember Raman for doing her best to turn Measure ULA into something that might actually work before it goes away,” Smith said.

Some L.A. council members have already signaled opposition to the push for reform.

Alejandra Alarcon, a spokesperson for Councilmember Ysabel Jurado, said in a statement to LAist that Jurado opposes the motion as written.

“Voters overwhelmingly supported ULA to help build and sustain diverse communities,” the statement read. “Any changes to the measure should be made with community advocates at the table, not without them.”

What’s next?

The new City Council effort has a long way to go before any changes are made to the tax.

If a majority of the council approves it for the June ballot, a majority of local voters would need to sign off on changing a measure that received nearly 58% support from voters back in November 2022.

The eagle (egg) has landed.

Southern California's famous bald eagle couple, known as Jackie and Shadow, appear to have something new to take care of, as seen on the popular YouTube livestream run by Friends of Big Bear Valley that has captivated thousands of people.

Jackie laid the first egg of the season around 4:30 p.m. Friday in the nest overlooking Big Bear Lake, according to organization records, as more than 14,000 people watched the livestream.

In recent months, the birds were seen working on their "nestorations"— bringing in fresh sticks and fluff furnishings to the top of the Jeffrey pine tree they’ve claimed as their home, according to the nonprofit.

Last year, Jackie laid the first egg of that season around the same time, following up with a second and third a few days later.

Fans are once again eagerly watching the eagles for signs of more eggs in the clutch, which refers to the eggs laid in each nesting attempt, usually three days apart.

Jenny Voisard, the organization’s media and website manager, told LAist the Big Bear bald eagle fan community grew when the couple successfully raised two bald eagle chicks, Sunny and Gizmo, last season.

“The building of the nest, the bonding, the flirting, the mating, the bickering, the moving the sticks around, defending against intruders, you know, that's all been new for a lot of people,” she said.

“People are all kind of like nervous aunties and uncles,” she continued. “So we just try to keep everybody calm.”

As always, Jackie and Shadow are in charge. Fans will have to wait and see what this season will bring, Voisard said.

What to watch for

Friends of Big Bear Valley has been keeping track of the nesting season milestones, including a new daily record of at least 28 sticks delivered to the nest in November. The eagles’ previous single-day stick record was 25, according to the organization.

Other milestones include Shadow dropping off the first fluff in December, and the first mating a few weeks later.

“Pancaking” is a term Friends of Big Bear Valley uses to describe when the eagles lay flat in their nest bowl, before the eggs have arrived, for increasingly longer stretches of time.

The organization said Jackie had her longest “pancake session” of the season so far this week, laying in the nest for a little more than a half hour.

“That activity is a sign that we're getting closer to egg-laying,” Voisard said. “[Jackie’s] doing a few things, she's making the shape and she's testing it out.”

Jackie will likely also eat more fish from the nest so she has enough energy for the egg-laying process, Voisard said. Last January, the eagles brought two fish to the nest in the hours before the first egg was laid and three fish a day earlier, according to Friends of Big Bear Valley records.

When eggs are imminent, she said Jackie will “pancake” on the nest for long periods of time before rousing and puffing up her feathers. Then, Jackie typically makes a high-pitched, whistling tea kettle noise as she has contractions, according to the organization.

On Friday, Jackie made the tea kettle noise about three minutes before the first egg was laid, according to Friends of Big Bear Valley records.

“She looks almost royal, because all of her feathers are out and it's just — I cry,” Voisard said with a laugh. “It's usually pretty amazing.”

The eagles know best

While there are signs of new life coming to the nest, every season is different for Jackie and Shadow, and Friends of Big Bear Valley is encouraging people to be patient.

It was unseasonably warm in the area this past fall, and last season was the first time Jackie and Shadow successfully raised two chicks to fly away from the nest instead of just one. The organization has said both factors could delay this season’s egg-laying timeline.

“I'm sure [two] was a lot more work than with just one,” Sandy Steers, executive director of the organization, told LAist previously. “So I think that had something to do with them needing a longer break.”

And some seasons have ended with an empty nest, including in 2024 and 2023 when both sets of eggs didn’t hatch after weeks of waiting.

Voisard said while we can’t predict what’s going to happen this year, fans don’t have to watch in fear or let human emotions get in the way of enjoying the eagle experience.

“We feel all of the feels with Jackie and Shadow … happiness, laughter, we get worried, we feel joy, we felt sorrow,” she said. “It's all OK, and Jackie and Shadow move forward, no matter what.”

Jackie and Shadow in Big Bear's famous bald eagle nest on Friday, Jan. 23, 2026.

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Friends of Big Bear Valley

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YouTube

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