The Brief

The Esquivel family opened their first taqueria at Playas de Tijuana 15 years ago, with a focus on individually crafted tacos, each with its own pairing of salsa.

Since then, Taqueria Tijuanero — formerly Tijuanazo — has become an increasingly popular SoCal taco chain.

Owner Aria Esquivel sat down with AirTalk Friday host Austin Cross to talk about how it all started from a humble Tijuana brick-and-mortar and how they stay true to their distinct North Mexican menu.

The art of the taco

Esquivel’s father and mastermind behind Taqueria Tijuanero, Antonio Esquivel, began working in kitchens when he was 16 years old, working his way up from dishwasher to cook at French restaurants in Beverly Hills.

“What he really loved about the taco and the art of the taco in Tijuana is how these ingredients mesh so well together,” Esquivel said.

That’s when the family opened up their own restaurant in Playas de Tijuana in 2011.

Mexico's taco diversity

Because of Mexico’s diverse landscape of crops, history and even weather patterns, taco styles can actually vary quite a bit depending on where you are in the country.

“ The tacos in Mexico City are different," Esquivel said. "The tacos in Sonora are different. The Tijuana tacos are different."

Fresh al pastor

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(Courtesy Taqueria Tijuanero

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Al pastor taco

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Courtesy Taqueria Tijuanero

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Bill Esparza, the James Beard Award-winning food writer who's spent the last two decades chronicling L.A.'s taco scene, helped curate Taqueando After Dark, a new food festival that will feature eight L.A. taco vendors, including Taqueria Tijuanero.

“When I see theirs, I see what I see in Mexico,” Esparza said of Taqueria Tijuanero’s tacos, adding, “It’s a taco that really has a lot of intentionality behind it.”

How to experience Taqueando After Dark festival

Taqueando After Dark takes over Level 8 for two nights, Aug. 27 and 28. (Courtesy of Level 8)

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Courtesy Taqueando After Dark

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Read more: LA taqueros meet Baja’s best for two-night DTLA taco festival

New location coming:

• The family is in the process of opening its third SoCal location in Echo Park.

How to visit:

• Address: 355 S Atlantic Blvd., East Los Angeles
• Hours: Closed on Mondays | Tuesday-Sunday, open from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m.
• Costs: Tacos are $3.95 each

The Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory may run the second-longest study of  individually identifiable mammals in the world, but they’re not afraid of trying something new.

The lab is launching a bracket-style competition, Fat Marmot Week, for people all over the world to vote for their favorite chunky ground squirrel.

The UCLA researchers who work there have faced a loss of federal funding in recent years, so they’re now pursuing creative fundraising efforts, including a (G-rated) OnlyFans account for marmot content called OnlyMarms and a meme coin created by supporters of the project.

Where the idea came from

Dan Blumstein, a UCLA ecology and evolutionary biology professor who came up with OnlyMarms, said he’s wanted to do a Fat Marmot Week ever since the success of Fat Bear Week, in which the public votes on grizzly bears bulking up for the winter in Alaska. But it took two of his graduate researchers, Katie Adler and Emily Renkey, along with another volunteer who helps with logistics, to see it to fruition.

“ Science isn't just writing the papers, it's also the communication side of things,” said Adler, who’s also the lab’s field team leader.

Like bears, marmots prepare for the winter by fattening up, with some more than doubling in weight from about 5.5 pounds to as much as 13. But unlike bears, marmots are true hibernators. For months, their body temperature drops very low, and they breathe and have a heartbeat about once a minute. (Blumstein described a hibernating marmot as “sort of a fuzzy stone.”)

These two specimens are called Dawn and Dan's Hat.

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Courtesy Dan Blumstein/UCLA

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Adler said she likes highlighting what makes the portly rodents interesting, which is harder “ when you're covered in marmot poop and sweating your butt off.”

“I think it’s fun to think of this from an outside perspective – why do we like marmots and how can we share that with other people?” Rankey said.

About the marmots

The marmots are all given names to help tell them apart based on markings the researchers dye on their fur.

Their names range from Dawn, who is reportedly a “a very special boy who enjoys the taste of rocks,” to a “proud mama” named 1 and a “girl boss” with no mate named Open Kite.

“Our parties are quite boring to other people because all we do is talk about the marmots,” Blumstein said. “It's a soap opera.”

Funding troubles

Faced with federal funding cuts, Blumstein realized he had to get creative in order to keep research going, starting with the OnlyMarms account.

But he said he wasn’t expecting the “extraordinary” response – the meme coin has made more than $100,000 in transaction fees, though it’s still short of the $225,000 to $300,000 they need to fundraise to bring in another graduate student for further research.

Blumstein said while all funding is welcome, including the OnlyMarms subscriptions, it’s much easier for them to accept direct donations for tax purposes. The money will go to support researchers like Renkey and Adler’s contributions to the nearly 65 years of marmot research at the lab.

The tournament

Eight competitors will face off — five females and three males. There’ll also be a “true” winner who’s announced at the end based on the lab’s measurements on which marmot gained the most weight this spring and summer.

The first round of voting will be Monday, Aug. 24, followed by the semifinals on Wednesday, Aug. 26, and the final showdown on Friday, Aug. 28. Voting runs from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. PDT.

“Everyone should vote. It's very exciting,” Renkey said. “They're huge this summer.”

The younger bald eagle that Shadow has been seen hanging out with around Big Bear’s famous nest lately has a new name.

The bird, which is believed to be a female, is banded as KD1. Friends of Big Bear Valley, the nonprofit that runs the popular YouTube livestream, has dubbed her Kaydee.

The organization generally doesn’t name visiting eagles, but Kaydee is sticking around so far and could become a new online star after Shadow’s long-time mate Jackie died last week.

So, who is this new eagle in the nest?

One expert told LAist that Kaydee is more than 4 years old and was probably wandering much further than Big Bear before it was spotted on camera.

“This is kind of the banders dream, right? You put bands on a bird so that you can possibly get … a one-off observation of where it is at some point in its life, and we're getting way, way more than that,” said Jenna Carpenter, a field biologist and environmental specialist with the Orange County Water District.

“In this instance, we're getting 24/7 views and people are so tuned into it that they're keeping really good track of where KD1 is, and it's really awesome.”

Meet Kaydee

Kaydee was first recorded on the livestream cameras in the Big Bear habitat on Aug. 6 — a few days before Jackie died — according to Friends of Big Bear Valley.

The nonprofit said the eagle started to perch by Shadow in several trees, which it has continued to do in the weeks since. The group recently referred to Kaydee as Shadow’s “shadow.”

Kaydee is from the Prado Basin area, where its parents Ricky and Lucy nest nearby. Carpenter said Ricky and Lucy have raised around a dozen eaglets since 2021, when they first started setting up shop in the area.

The eagle wears two bracelet-like bands on its legs, including a lavender-colored one, which can be used to track Kaydee in different areas.

“If someone sees [the color band] with a scope or binoculars or a zoom camera, it can be reported and put into a research database, which adds to the opportunity to progress conservation for raptors and eagles,” Carpenter said.

You can learn more about reporting a bird with a federal band or color marker here.

Will Kaydee stick with Shadow?

Kaydee is what's known as a subadult eagle, a stage in which Carpenter said raptors are still trying to figure out what they want to do and where they want to be.

“Big Bear’s a nice habitat, obviously they've been visiting this nest, you know, there's some interest there whatever it may be,” she said. “So it's possible that they stick around and find a mate, whether that be Shadow or another adult eagle.”

But it’s also possible Kaydee moves onto another habitat after the off-season. Whatever happens, Carpenter said us humans get to go along for the ride through the livestream, which she described as a privilege.

“We get this chance to witness something that we would not normally get to witness, because we know exactly who this bird is and we happen to have cameras in the area,” she said. “It might be everything and it might be nothing, and either way, I think that's really exciting that we get to have a little peek into this world.”

Many L.A. students don’t head home when the final school bell of the day rings. Instead, they head to an aftercare program on campus or elsewhere in the community.

Finding a program can be simple, or tricky, depending on your location and family’s needs. This guide unpacks what options are available in Los Angeles Unified and how to access them as part of our ongoing series, School Game Plan.

We’ll also get into some of the challenges. For example, there’s a huge unmet need for after-school programs in Los Angeles. A survey from a national nonprofit estimated the families of about 345,000 L.A. kids who want a program can’t access one.

First, some vocabulary

Before and after-school is a broad term that refers to programs that care for children outside of the school day.

Another term some people use is expanded learning or enrichment program.

And in Los Angeles Unified, all of these programs are housed in a department called Beyond the Bell. Within Beyond the Bell there are several different types of after-school programs.

What after-school programs are available in LAUSD?

The district offers a free after-school program at more than 700 elementary, middle and high schools until 6 p.m. They often have different names, however, so don’t let that confuse you.

There are two types of free after-school programs in the district.

Some are run by the LAUSD directly, including:

• L.A.’s Best
• Youth Development Program 
• Ready-Set-Go! 

And the 24 programs run by partner, non-LAUSD, organizations. Those include:

• Woodcraft Rangers
• Various Boys & Girls Clubs
• YMCA of Metropolitan Los Angeles

How do I find out if my school offers either of these?

Check out:

• The school’s website 
• The district’s school explorer tool. Enter your school’s name and scroll down to the “Beyond the Bell” section
• Beyond the Bell’s list of schools and providers for the 2026-2027 school year

Why doesn’t the district just run all of the programs?

More than 160,000 students attended LAUSD before and after-school programs in the 2025-2026 school year," said Ana Estevez, executive director of Beyond the Bell.

“We do not have the infrastructure to offer programming at all 710 schools,” Estevez said. “So we bring in our community partners to help support and enrich our programming.”

There are also privately run programs that operate on district property and at other locations.

One place to explore those options is Expand LA’s website, which organizes programs by location and focus, for example, arts, sports and academics.

What before-school programs are available in LAUSD?

There are 203 early programs which offer care starting around 6:30 a.m.

How much does care cost?

LAUSD’s after-school programs are free to families, Estevez said.

You can compare that to the average weekly cost for a private after-school program in L.A., which is $114, according to Afterschool Alliance, a nonprofit that researches and advocates for after-school programs.

How do I sign up my child?

First, fill out an application. You can find one:

• On the Beyond the Bell website
• At your child’s school

Then submit the application to your school’s Beyond the Bell site coordinator.

Most enrollment typically takes place in the first couple weeks before the start of the new school year, but families can sign up anytime.

What happens when my child’s school hits capacity?

There is typically one adult for every 20 children in an LAUSD after-school program with the exception of transitional kindergarten, or TK, which requires a ratio of one adult for every 10 kids.

“When a school has reached its capacity based on the existing staffing, we work very closely with them to make sure that the demand is met as quickly as possible,” Estevez said.

Staffing has been a challenge across Southern California afterschool programs in recent years.

Providers have told LAist in the past that it’s often difficult to pay staff a competitive wage for part-time hours.

What will my child learn in their after-school program?

Estevez said providing academic support is one of the district’s main priorities for its after-school programs.

That can range from homework help from a program staffer or “high-dose” tutoring from a teacher or other educator at the school.

Estevez said the after-school program leaders collaborate with principals to make sure what students learn complements, but doesn’t repeat their school day.

“We don't want students to sit for six hours during regular instruction and then have to sit for another three and a half hours for more instruction,” Estevez said. “They don't wanna do that. They wanna have fun.”

Are after-school programs fun?

Estevez said after-schools programs also have opportunities for:

• Enrichment, including arts, robotics, and other science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) activities
• Recreation, such as sports. 

“ We want to know, um, what [students’] interests are, what their needs are, so that we can tailor programming around something that they will find engaging and that they'll wanna come back,” Estevez said.

Last year, the district launched a program where students can learn to play chess and then compete against other schools.

 "Kids should be in after-school programs because this is where they get some of the more fun, enrichment opportunities that don't happen during the school day,” said Lou Calanche, who leads Expand LA.

Can my child leave early?

Estevez said families can pick up their child anytime between the end of school and 6 p.m.

Students in 4th through 8th grade can also sign themselves out of a program, with parent permission.

Who pays for LAUSD’s after-school programs?

LAUSD, like other districts, relies on both federal and state dollars to fund its after-school programs.

“We braid or multi-fund those dollars to ensure that we offer programming for as many students as possible,” Estevez said.

In 2021, Gov. Gavin Newsom, with the support of the legislature, created a new initiative called the Expanded Learning Opportunities program, or ELOP, pronounced EEE-lop.

The $4.6 billion-a-year program now provides the vast majority of funding for districts’ after-school programs.

Still, nationwide many after-school providers say they’re worried about federal cuts to their programs. The first Trump administration threatened to eliminate federal funding for after-school programs, and in 2025, the administration temporarily withheld $7 billion in education funding, including for after-school programs.