The Brief

It looks like a cross between a Day of the Dead fever dream and a heavy metal album cover: skeletons in Mesoamerican garb seated around a dining table, with the one wearing an Aztec headdress in the center, holding up an ear of corn like an offering to the gods.

It's the poster for Disciples of the Corn, Evil Cooks' annual dinner honoring Mexico's regional cuisine. Now in its fourth year, the dinner taking place Sept. 12 at Cal State L.A. puts 32 courses spanning 32 Mexican states on the table, paired with seven drinks, for $250 a ticket.

Organizing the event is Alex Garcia, the chef and co-owner of Evil Cooks, the heavy metal-inspired taqueria and James Beard semifinalist he runs with his wife and business partner, Elvia Huerta, in El Sereno.

The mission

Garcia's reasoning for the dinner was to push past the idea of Mexican food being simply tacos, burritos and tortas — spotlighting instead a series of dishes from each of Mexico's 32 states.

The format has steadily evolved. Originally conceived as a fixed roster of "12 disciples" — or chefs — it now rotates them each year. This year, 80% are new, each bringing their own interpretation of a regional dish.

Not every chef is Mexican-born, but all have roots there. Garcia says the dinner is less about strict authenticity than each chef's own interpretation.

This year's Disciples of the Corn IV poster promises "32 bites of Mexico" — and a full table of L.A. chefs to deliver them — on Sept. 12 at Cal State LA's Diablo Grill.

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Courtesy Disciples of the Corn

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The lineup

The slate of chefs represents a who's who of local L.A. restaurant talent. Returning are Danielle Duran of Amiga Amore (Highland Park) and Garcia, alongside Huerta.

New additions include Ray Garcia of Broken Spanish Comedor (Culver City), Thomas Ortega of Amor y Tacos (Cerritos), Luis Navarro of Lola's (Long Beach), Rachel Verharst of Idyllwild Tavern (Burbank), and Ellen Ramos of Santa Canela (Highland Park) handling desserts.

"We're all part of different regions of Mexico that actually build the whole thing up," Duran said. "It's about highlighting where we're from."

Alex Garcia and Elvia Huerta, the organizers of the Disciples of the Corn dinner, plate dishes at last year's dinner.

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Liz Luna

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Courtesy Disciples of the Corn

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The venue

This year's move to Cal State L.A.'s Diablo Grill brings Garcia and his team a full kitchen, 50-plus seats and a bigger production team — a welcome shift from last year, when the dinner was squeezed into the compact kitchen at La Plaza de Cultura y Artes near Olvera Street. The dinner also landed in the middle of a summer of heightened ICE enforcement and protests in downtown L.A., a climate Garcia described as a nightmare.

Garcia doesn't hold back: This, he promises, will be "the most amazing dinner you're gonna have" all year.

Long Beach is taking feedback on its plans to enshrine a major symbol of the city’s contribution to hip-hop.

Anyone interested in the look and feel of the future VIP Records Park is being asked to participate in a workshop at 6 p.m. Aug. 13 at Martin Luther King Jr. Community Center at 1950 Lemon Ave.

The 90-minute workshop will include a presentation and discussion on the park’s design process. There will also be an update on the refurbishment of the “World Famous VIP Records” sign, the longstanding symbol of the city’s contributions to West Coast rap, which will be displayed at the park.

Conceptual designs will likely be shown in a second workshop this fall, with final designs unveiled by next spring ahead of construction meant to be finished by that fall.

This comes as the latest installment in the storied saga surrounding VIP Records, a venerable record shop that vaulted the careers of artists like Snoop Dogg, Warren G and the late Nate Dogg. Despite its past success, VIP had to move from its original location in 2018. The sign remains in city storage.

Ahead of the 2028 Olympics, the city has chosen the VIP sign to be among its cadre of capital projects meant to showcase the best examples of its local culture and pride, approving money for the sign’s refurbishment in January and setting out a plan to honor the store’s history.

The new park, a grassy, quarter-acre lot at the southwest corner of Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue and Pacific Coast Highway, sits across the street from the famous record store’s former location, now a 7-Eleven. A weathered fence wraps around it, with small hills running through its center.

The vacant city-owned lot that Long Beach plans to turn into a park that includes the VIP Records sign at the southwest corner of Anaheim Street and Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue. Photo by John Donegan.

Ideas for the new park are up to the public but also proposals by contractors. On the project’s bidding page, city officials have budgeted $235,000 for the sign’s restoration, installation and site improvements. They must also replace fencing as needed and remove the “Long Beach Poly Tech” sign that’s already at the park.

As a designated historic landmark, officials say the sign will undergo restoration that meets federal standards, which may include “repainting, electrical repair, repair of acrylic, replacement of globes, repairs for rust and other damage, and other similar work.”

Another $500,000 is set aside for the redesign of the park and its plaza. Its redesign, once complete, will act as an extension of the store’s legacy and be used as a communal space for parties, gatherings and other events.

VIP founder Kelvin Anderson has spent years raising awareness about the importance of his shop, making several pitches to donors and officials to help create a state-of-the-art museum with room for a recording studio, printing space, restaurant and live music.

Before its time in storage, the sign accompanied the VIP Records store in Long Beach — the flagship of 14 locations across Los Angeles County. Snoop Dogg, Warren G and the late Nate Dogg recorded their first four-song demo at VIP. After he signed his first label deal, Snoop Dogg recorded part of his “Who Am I? (What’s My Name)” video on the store’s roof.

Today, a majority of VIP’s customers — nearly two-thirds, according to Anderson — are tourists traveling to Long Beach. It’s now at 1028 E PCH, a smaller storefront just a few doors down from the original spot.

As part of the approval for the sign’s repairs, the City Council in January OK’d a $170,000 licensing agreement with VIP Records to display the sign on city property for five years.

The Trump administration has finalized a federal rule that outlaws the use of Medi-Cal funds for gender-affirming hormones and surgeries for youth — though a one-time fund California lawmakers approved this year could help fill that gap.

Providers have been bracing for this rule to take effect since last year.

If it is not blocked, it would mean:

• No Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) funds for people under 19 seeking gender-affirming hormones and surgeries
• No Medicaid funds for people under 18 seeking gender-affirming hormones and surgeries

The rule does not affect Medi-Cal funding for mental health services for trans youth.

Steps California has taken

In anticipation of these cuts, the state has already approved:

• $26 million in one-time funding specifically to support providers of trans healthcare
• A $30 million general fund for healthcare that isn’t covered by Medi-Cal reimbursements.

“These historic investments, approved by Governor Newsom in June, ensure California has state resources available to protect access to gender affirming medical care as federal Medicaid and CHIP funding is withdrawn,” Joe Hollendoner, who lobbied the state for these funds as Los Angeles LGBT Center’s CEO, said in a statement.

Another federal rule appears sidelined

A separate rule introduced by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services would ban any hospital that receives Medicare or Medicaid funding from providing trans youth with hormones or surgeries, which the department referred to as "sex-rejecting procedures." As of last month, that rule appears to have been sidelined and has not been finalized.

Reaction to the federal moves

Healthcare advocates for trans youth in California have condemned the finalized rule and other efforts to curtail access to gender-affirming care. At the same time, they emphasize that trans healthcare for youth is still legal.

“This rule ignores the science and puts politics between transgender young people, their families, and the medical professionals who know them and care for them,” said Kathie Moehlig, the executive director of the organization TransFamily Support Services, in a statement. “Families should not have to live in fear that their child’s healthcare can be taken away because of who they are.”

The California LGBTQ Health and Human Services Network said in a statement that if the rules take effect, it anticipates “providers may face increased uncertainty and fear about whether they can continue providing services, while families will be left navigating new barriers to care as they strive to support their child.”

What's next

Civil rights lawyers for the American Civil Liberties Union, Lambda Legal and other groups have been saying for months that they will challenge the federal rule on Medi-Cal funding. During the public comment period, which ended in February, a vast majority of the people who gave feedback on the newly finalized rule opposed it.

Ariela Cuellar, a spokesperson for the California LGBTQ Health and Human Services Network, called the rule change “a wake up call for states to take aggressive actions to protect essential medical care and push back on this unprecedented federal overreach.”

Though the rule has been finalized, it won’t go into effect immediately. If it’s not blocked by a judge, the rule will take effect Oct. 13.

This story first appeared on The LA Local.

For weeks, Lineage Logistics and the Los Angeles Fire Department have said ammonia — the hazardous material that’s key for industrial refrigerators — was quickly cleared from the warehouse fire zone. In the days after the fire, Lineage insisted that no measurable ammonia was detected in the area.

Now, community testing as well as data from Lineage and the Southern California Air Quality Management District show that elevated levels of ammonia were present in neighborhoods near the cold-storage warehouse weeks after the fire. 

Though air regulators and Lineage note the levels didn’t meet the state threshold requiring action to protect public health, community groups say the findings are alarming. Meanwhile, federal regulators are seeking answers from Lineage to determine what air contaminants were released during the fire. Lineage did not respond to questions from Boyle Heights Beat.

An analysis published Aug. 5 by the Community and Environment Research Lab at UC Irvine and East Yard Communities for Environmental Justice found higher levels of ammonia in streets close to Lineage.

That includes Indiana Street near Union Pacific Avenue, where the highest ammonia levels — 4,300 parts per billion — were detected on Aug. 2, more than a month after the fire was extinguished, through handheld Aeroqual monitors that community scientists from East Yard have been using to sample the air. 

An analysis published Aug. 5 by the Community and Environment Research Lab at UC Irvine and East Yard Communities for Environmental Justice found higher levels of ammonia in streets close to Lineage.

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Courtesy of Jill Johnston

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Experts agree that’s many times higher than what’s considered typical, though the standard for ammonia levels in L.A.’s air varies. 

UC Irvine and East Yard Communities for Environmental Justice classify 4 to 6 parts per billion as typical ammonia levels, a figure that’s also considered the baseline nationwide. To South Coast AQMD, typical background levels of ammonia in LA range up to 36 parts per billion. 

The analysis by the Community and Environment Research Lab and UC Irvine also shows that higher-than-normal ammonia levels were also detected from a distance.

About a mile from Lineage, ammonia levels have reached 108 parts per billion, according to publicly available data retrieved from a stationary monitor that South Coast AQMD placed late July at Eastman Avenue Elementary School.

To Jill Johnston, associate professor of environmental and occupational health at UC Irvine, the findings not only show “very high” ammonia concentrations closer to the facility, but also how “these chemicals are traveling into the nearby neighborhoods.”

The recent data, Johnston said, suggests that the “big source of ammonia” is coming from the rotting food in Lineage. She also pointed to the ammonia used in the facility’s refrigeration system. 

This analysis is just a snapshot of the potential air contaminants present near Lineage, said Johnston, an exposure scientist and environmental epidemiologist.

“In some ways it confirms what people have been experiencing for the last seven weeks … That they’re breathing poor air quality and subject to foul odors, and that we continue to see impacts on local air quality, even seven weeks into this process,” Johnston said. 

A white van with South Coast AQMD branding sits on the playground at Eastman Elementary in East Los Angeles.

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Steve Saldivar

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The LA Local

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The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, according to its website, said normal amounts of ammonia in the environment do not cause health effects in humans. However, the agency noted that exposure to high levels of ammonia “may hurt your skin, eyes, throat, and lungs and cause coughing and burns. Lung damage and death may occur after exposure to very high levels of ammonia.”

In a statement, South Coast AQMD said it has seen “some levels of ammonia” that were elevated above L.A. background levels at the Eastman Elementary monitor and from roaming ammonia measurements. South Coast AQMD declined to comment on the air sensors being used to take ammonia measurements. 

However, the agency noted, California’s short-term health benchmark — the level of ammonia a person could inhale continuously for one hour without adverse health effects — is 4,500 parts per billion. Despite elevated levels recorded near Lineage, “they do not exceed the State’s short-term health standards,” South Coast AQMD said. 

“We understand that the situation is dynamic and conditions are changing, particularly with the heat and the decomposing materials that have potential to offgas. We continue to monitor the situation closely,” the agency added. 

These findings come on the heels of a letter that the Environmental Protection Agency sent to Lineage on Aug. 3, ordering the company to detail the “specific substances,” including “all air contaminants,” that were released during the time of the fire. 

“The EPA is aware of a potential hazardous substance release event at the Lineage Logistics,” according to the letter. The agency did not state which substance and gave Lineage 14 days to provide them with the information.

Lineage, which has conducted air monitoring near the warehouse since June 23, said it has not identified chemical concentrations “above health-based action levels.” After saying on June 19 that it had not detected “measurable” amounts of ammonia, on Aug. 8, the company acknowledged on its website that “short-lasting ammonia detections” were observed at northern and eastern portions of the fire site. Lineage detected a peak of ammonia at 1,000 parts per billion.

Firefighters assess the remains of the Lineage warehouse that burned for a week and sent smoke into nearby communities.

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Andrew Lopez

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Boyle Heights Beat

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Mark Lopez with East Yard Communities for Environmental Justice pushed back against the thresholds that air regulators are relying on to determine what’s safe and unsafe for residents. 

“What we’re dealing with is not short-term exposure. We’re not dealing with one hour, two hours, six hours, eight hours. We’re dealing with a lot of folks who are there 24 hours. It’s inappropriate to use the lowest bar for protecting the community,” Lopez said. “They’re using a standard that’s inappropriate for the actual lived experiences of our community.”

Lopez said air regulators shouldn’t normalize the notion that “there’s always elevated levels of pollution in our communities ... What they’re seeing is not alarming, and we’re like, yeah, because you’re not alarmed by environmental racism, and that’s the problem,” Lopez said.

Los Angeles police defended the use of chemical agents against people protesting the federal immigration crackdown last year, the first time police had used the hazardous munitions since the 1970s. 

Department administrators claimed at Tuesday’s Los Angeles Board of Police Commissioners meeting that the chemical agents were needed to control crowds and could be used again during major events in the future, such as the Super Bowl and the 2028 Olympics.

What LAPD said happened

Lt. Joseph Franzen and Commander Mario Mota discussed the use of tear gas, rubber bullets and other projectiles referenced in a 60-page LAPD report on the 2025 protests.

The report analyzed demonstrations, including ones at federal buildings in downtown L.A., between June 6 and June 17, 2025, which the department estimated peaked at about 20,000 participants. 

Franzen, one of the report's authors, said it was intended to be a reflection on the department’s actions for future reference. The report does not detail injuries to members of the public and journalists, and does not include statements from them about what they experienced. 

Commission President Rasha Gerges Shields asked the department to provide more information at a future meeting about injuries to members of the public and the amount and type of force used.

While the department said the chemical agents were needed to disperse crowds, their use has been the subject of ongoing debate. In January, a federal judge ordered the Police Department to stop using certain crowd-control weapons that posed risks to the public.

Shields said that order should have been included in the report.

Franzen and Mota said officers used chemical agents on June 8 and June 14, respectively, in response to large crowds that had grown unruly. They reported that officers had various items thrown at them.

Police Chief Jim McDonnell told the commissioners that most of the crowd exercised its First Amendment rights, but that a small portion of the crowd was “exceptionally violent.” He said he had never experienced that level of violence at a public gathering in his decades of police service.

Questions raised about the report

Several people at the Police Commission meeting contested the department’s account, saying chemical agents were used on journalists and members of the public they said were protesting peacefully or doing their jobs — with little warning.

The League of Women Voters of Greater Los Angeles wrote a letter in advance of the meeting, disagreeing with the characterization of the protests as "riots" in the report and urged better word choice.

“‘Rioting’ connotes serious violence,” wrote Carolina Goodman on behalf of the organization.

During her first meeting as a police commissioner, Heather Aubry asked Mota to clarify that whatever violence did occur was not sanctioned by the organizers of the various protests that took place over the study period.

L.A. resident Kayla Esmond joined a preplanned march that included children, seniors and disabled people hoping to protest federal immigration enforcement. She told the commissioners that people in the large crowd began yelling that police were preparing to use tear gas.

“There was no dispersal order,” Esmond told The LA Local. “Someone yelled that there were children present. They fired the canisters without any response or warning that we could hear.”

Mayor Karen Bass eventually issued a curfew for downtown L.A. on June 10. Franzen and Mota reported that 435 people were arrested during the protests. Of those, 344 were arrested on suspicion of unlawful assembly. It’s unclear how many were charged with a crime. 

The department paid about $17.4 million for personnel during the protests, with about $12.2 million going toward overtime.

The LAPD’s actions during the federal immigration operations last year have been widely cited as a source of confusion for city residents who remain uncertain about what police were responsible for during the operations. 

The American Civil Liberties Union and other advocacy groups previously reported to the commission about a federal raid at a garment warehouse last June where LAPD set a perimeter for federal agents while they detained workers there. During the presentation, the groups advised that police make it clear to the community in the future what they are there to do.

People echoed during public comment that the same confusion persists in the protest report, which describes the immigration raids and the public response to them as a “complex challenge” for local police.

“The Department’s role was limited to providing public safety support when demonstrations escalated into violence or when federal personnel were at risk of being overwhelmed,” it reads.

For months, immigration advocates and other elected leaders called on McDonnell and Bass to provide more clarity on LAPD’s role in federal immigration sweeps. In February, Bass issued an executive directive explicitly limiting LAPD’s role during these operations and calling for greater transparency about the department's interactions with federal agents. 

LA Documenter Martin Romero contributed to this piece from the LAPD Board of Police Commission meeting. LA Documenters trains and pays LA residents to take notes at local government meetings around Los Angeles. You can find meeting notes and audio at losangeles.documenters.org