The Brief

You've seen it everywhere — ube flavored pancake mix, mochi and cookies lining the shelves at Trader Joe's. Even your local bubble tea joint is pushing ube lattes, and the artisan donut shop is likely to carry an ube offering as well.

But what is ube, and how did this vibrant purple yam manage to colonize America's sweet tooth?

It's the kind of cultural conquest that happens in reverse — instead of us (Americans) imposing our sensibilities on the world, something with soul and history has steamrolled through our supermarkets and Instagram feeds.

This is thousands of years of Filipino ingenuity getting its due, even if it has to wear the costume of artisanal marketing to get there.

But for me, as a Filipino-American, I didn't always love ube.

The first time I saw it as a kid, I stared suspiciously at my aunt and uncle scooping vivid purple ice cream. The color alone made me hesitate — it didn't look like vanilla or chocolate or anything familiar.

I passed without a second thought.

Ube ice cream showcases the distinctive purple color that has made the Filipino yam a popular dessert flavor.

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Years later in Boracay, Philippines, everything changed. I finally tasted ube in halo-halo, a chaotic, layered masterpiece of green jellies, purple ube jam, red beans and yellow jackfruit. It looks like someone dumped a tropical garden into a glass and said "trust me." And somehow, it works perfectly.

But how did this flavor make its way from Filipino kitchens into mainstream markets and bakeries?

Cafe 86's famous "upside down" halo-halo features an ube ice cream base topped with vanilla ice cream, served alongside ube crinkle cookie and butter bar.

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From an ancient staple to modern sensation

Ube (Dioscorea alata) traces back 11,000 years in the Philippines, making it one of the world's oldest crops.

What most people don't realize is that the ube flavor they've fallen in love with isn't actually raw ube at all. Pure ube root delivers subtle, earthy vanilla notes with a delicate nuttiness reminiscent of pistachios — pleasant, but understated.

"What we're craving for is actually ube halaya," said James Oreste, founder of UbeFest, a local event that hosts more than 70 vendors with ube food items on their menus (coming up this weekend in Cerritos). "The flavor of ube mixed with butter, sugar and milk — that's really the flavor profile we're looking for. It's not ube by itself."

The mashed, sweet and creamy ube halaya made for a perfect base to adapt to ice creams, lattes, pancakes and more.

But before it became a sweet treat, ube was a food used for survival.

In the Central Visayas region of the Philippines, specifically in Bohol’s municipalities, ube was the sole surviving crop during extensive droughts in pre-colonial Philippines, sustaining indigenous locals.

The yam became so sacred that dropping one required an apologetic kiss to the dropped purple yam.

"The only thing they could eat was ube because it's invasive, so it could grow anywhere," Oreste notes. "That's why some people call it a blessing."

But the sweet dessert version that our taste buds are used to began with a nun in Baguio City, Philippines.

UCLA anthropology professor Stephen Acabado said that the Good Shepherd's Mountain Maid Training Center created legendary ube halaya in the 70s using carabao milk — from Philippine water buffalo — and butter.

"People would wait in long lines for hours to get a bottle or two, and it usually sold out within the day," he said.

Ube halaya spread on bread shows how the traditional Filipino purple yam jam has found its way into everyday American breakfast routines, bridging cultural flavors with familiar foods.

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The L.A. crossover

While ube remained a Filipino-American party staple for decades, the mainstream breakthrough came in the 2000s at an unlikely spot in Granada Hills. Ninong's Cafe, a small family-owned bakery that opened in 2008, started serving a revolutionary breakfast item: ube pancakes.

Co-owner Carissa "Kissa" Ortega grew up surrounded by ube thanks to her godmother who baked ube cakes after immigrating from the Philippines.

But Ninong's had a bigger mission: "We wanted to share our food and our culture with other cultures, not just share it with fellow Filipinos."

The ube pancake was their bridge — something approachable that would spark curiosity about Filipino cuisine.

"People from all over Southern California would flock to this place in Granada Hills to get ube pancakes," said Joseph Bernardo, who teaches Philippine American Experience at Loyola Marymount University.

The purple pancakes became such a phenomenon that when the pandemic hit and they were forced to close, Ninong's successfully pivoted to selling ube pancake mix online, reaching customers nationwide.

Now operating as Ninong's Dessert Lab, they've expanded to include ube spread, coconut syrup and seasonal products like an upcoming ube cookie mix.

And Ortega takes cultural responsibility seriously. “We were very intentional about not dumbing down the flavor and making sure that what we served was authentic so that other cultures knew what to expect," she added.

Fast-forward to 2021, when James Oreste's UbeFest accidentally ignited something much bigger. What started as a modest gathering hoping for 200 people in Belmont Shore exploded into 1,500 attendees — during a pandemic, no less.

"The city wasn't prepared for it, and everybody in Long Beach was like, 'What the heck is going on?'" Oreste said.

That response revealed massive hunger for accessible Filipino culture.

UbeFest, hosted in SoCal, now draws 50,000 people and has inspired nationwide copycats while pushing creative boundaries with ube pizza, ube lumpia donuts and ube tortillas.

The complex reality

Behind the purple Instagram fever lies something real. Ube's rise represents Filipino culture finding its place in mainstream America through food.

But here's the thing about ube — beneath our relentless appetite for the next trendy flavor lies thousands of years of Filipino heritage, turning a humble purple tuber from ancient survival food to modern celebration. Every ube dessert connects back to that history, whether we know it or not.

The Trump administration is seeking to challenge state laws regulating the artificial intelligence industry, according to an executive order the president signed Thursday.

The order directs the Justice Department to set up an "AI Litigation Task Force" to sue states over their AI-related laws and also directs the the Federal Trade Commission and the Federal Communications Commission to work with the DOJ to follow the White House's AI action plan to circumvent "onerous" state and local regulations.

The order also directs Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick to study whether the department can withhold federal rural broadband funding from states with unfavorable AI laws.

"We have to be unified," said President Donald Trump. "China is unified because they have one vote, that's President Xi. He says do it, and that's the end of that."

Trump's AI advisor, venture capitalist David Sacks, said the administration will not push back on all state laws.

"Kid safety, we're going to protect," Sacks said. "We're not pushing back on that, but we're going to push back on the most onerous examples of state regulations"

The executive order is almost certain to be challenged in court and tech policy researchers say the Trump administration cannot restrict state regulation in this way without Congress passing a law. The order also directs Sacks to work with Congress to help draft legislation.

Trump's executive order drew criticism from some of his supporters, including organizations that are part of a bipartisan effort to pass laws protecting children from AI harms.

"This is a huge lost opportunity by the Trump administration to lead the Republican Party into a broadly consultative process," said Michael Toscano, director of the Family First Technology Initiative at the Institute for Family Studies, a conservative think tank. "It doesn't make sense for a populist movement to cut out the people on the most critical issue of our day. But nonetheless, that is what they are vigorously trying to do."

"Even if everything is overturned in the executive order, the chilling effect on states' willingness to protect their residents is going to be huge because they're all now going to fear getting attacked directly by the Trump administration," said Adam Billen, vice president of Encode, a nonprofit focused on child safety and threats posed by AI. "That is the point of all of this — it is to create massive legal uncertainty and gray areas and give the companies the chance to do whatever they want."

Sacks can recommend some state laws, such as around child safety, to not be challenged if Congress does come up with a national policy for AI.

While Congress has stalled on passing AI regulation, dozens of states have passed laws related to AI, which include banning creating nonconsensual nude images using AI technology, mandating government agencies and businesses to disclose AI usage, requiring checks for algorithmic discrimination and protecting whistleblowers.

The Trump administration has pushed for less regulation of the AI industry, citing competitive pressure with China. But Trump has also recently allowed chipmaker Nvidia to sell its second-most advanced AI chips to China. Depending on the quantity, said Michael Sobolik, a senior fellow at Hudson Institute who studies U.S.-China competition, the export could end up "diluting what is our most significant advantage in the AI race."

Trump and some of his allies have attempted multiple times this year to halt state-level AI regulation. Earlier this month, GOP lawmakers tried and failed to insert AI preemption into the annual defense spending bill. An earlier version of the executive order signed Thursday leaked last month, sparked a round of opposition from across the political spectrum. In July, the Senate dropped an AI moratorium from the reconciliation bill it was debating.

While Democrats broadly support more AI regulation, the issue has divided Republicans. A faction of the party, including the president, welcome the support of tech billionaires, though others continue to view them with distrust.

Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, an industry ally, introduced the failed AI moratorium during the reconciliation bill debate and stood next to Trump at a signing ceremony for the order on Thursday. After the effort to slip a similar measure in the defense spending bill failed last week, Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri posted on X, "This is a terrible provision and should remain OUT."

Many Republican governors are also opposed to the move. Earlier in the day, Utah Gov. Spencer Cox posted on X that he preferred an alternative executive order that did not include barring state laws. "States must help protect children and families while America accelerates its leadership in AI," he wrote.

"An executive order doesn't/can't preempt state legislative action," posted Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on X Monday in response to Trump's Truth Social post announcing the upcoming order, "Congress could, theoretically, preempt states through legislation." DeSantis has recently proposed a series of AI-related measures.

John Bergmayer, the legal director of the nonprofit advocacy group Public Knowledge, agreed. "They're trying to find a way to bypass Congress with these various theories in the executive order. Legally, I don't think they work very well."

In a post on X on Tuesday, Sacks suggested that the federal government can override state AI laws because it has the power to regulate interstate commerce.

Bergmayer disagreed, "States are, in fact, allowed to regulate interstate commerce. They do it all the time. And the Supreme Court just recently said it was fine."

Bergmayer cited a 2023 Supreme Court decision where the court supported California's power to regulate its pork industry even though the regulations affected farmers in other states.

NPR's Bobby Allyn contributed reporting.

Hundreds of people gathered at a cemetery in Boyle Heights Thursday to honor more than 2,300 Angelenos whose bodies have not been claimed by loved ones.

Officials say it was the highest number of people laid to rest during the annual Ceremony of the Unclaimed Dead over the past 45 years.

The remains were those of adults and children, some of whom had experienced homelessness, and who were immigrants far from home. Several of the people had struggled with physical and mental illnesses.

All of them died in 2022, about two years into the COVID-19 pandemic. The bodies were cremated and placed in a communal grave ahead of the ceremony, which has been a county tradition since 1896.

Los Angeles County Supervisor Janice Hahn said the unclaimed Angelenos may be strangers to those observing the ceremony, but they were our neighbors, too.

“They may have walked the same streets we did, waited at the same bus stops, enjoyed the same warm sunny days, even ones in mid-December like today,” Hahn said during the ceremony. “Like all of us, they hoped, they hurt, they dreamed — and too many endured more suffering and loneliness than anyone should.”

Inside the ceremony

Local faith leaders presided over the roughly hour-long event, sharing prayers and blessings to reflect the cultural and religious diversity of the region.

They included a Native American sage ceremony, as well as Buddhist, Islamic, Jewish and Christian prayers in five languages.

About 250 community members came to pay their respects, including Naha Armady of East Hollywood, who told LAist the experience was moving and emotional, especially after losing a family member and a pet earlier this year.

“It felt like it was totally meant to be for me to be able to come and hold space for these souls,” Armady said. “It's just an opportunity to have time and space and kind of honor the dead, and also maybe get a little bit of closure.”

Members of the community, along with county officials and faith leaders, placed white roses and bouquets of flowers they brought from home on the communal grave. One man sprinkled a few drops of whiskey over the petals from a black coffee cup.

Local faith leaders presided over the roughly hour-long event, including Jerry Arvayo, who performed a Native American sage ceremony.

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Paying respects 

Officials say the ceremony is designed to make sure every person in L.A. County, regardless of their means, is remembered with respect, dignity and compassion.

Justin Szlasa, a commissioner for the regional Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority, told LAist the ceremony is an opportunity to honor fellow Angelenos who may have been overlooked or lonely in life.

“These are people who are not connected to the community in a way that I wish they would be,” Szlasa said. “And I think it's really wrapped up in the work that we do related to trying to solve the homelessness problem here in Los Angeles.”

A video of this year’s Ceremony of the Unclaimed Dead is available here.

L.A. Mayor Karen Bass has asked the City Council to increase the Los Angeles Police Department’s budget by $4.4 million to hire 410 more officers before July.

In a letter to council members yesterday, Bass wrote that the city needs to have enough officers to keep Angelenos safe in coming years, including during major events like the 2026 FIFA World Cup and the 2028 Olympic Games.

LAPD Chief Jim McDonnell made a similar argument at a Budget and Finance Commission meeting Tuesday, where he said that despite the city’s budget problems, he worries about whether L.A. will be prepared for the Olympics in 2028 under currently approved staffing.

Several City Council members have already been pushing back against the proposal, arguing that the budget for those positions was negotiated and signed by Bass in June.

“The council and the mayor signed a budget that included 240 new hires,” Councilmember Katy Yaroslavsky said at the Budget and Finance Commission meeting on Tuesday. “The department chose to hire that full 240 in the first six months of this year.”

“Our job is to keep the city safe. We also have a responsibility to keep it solvent,” Yaroslavsky told LAist in an emailed statement. “I want to grow the police department, but I have yet to see a proposal that identifies an ongoing funding source to pay for more officers.”

LAPD Officers line up in preparation to form a skirmish line in front of protesters near the federal detention facility in downtown L.A. on June 7, 2025.

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LAPD hiring goals twice as high as current budget

Mayor Bass initially proposed a budget back in April recommending funding to support 480 new LAPD officers.

The final budget was a compromise reached by the City Council that approved hiring 240 new recruits in the midst of a budget crisis and attempts to reduce layoffs across the city. According to a press release on June 7, the day after she signed the final budget, Bass announced a plan to find additional funding within 90 days to bring the total LAPD hires to 480.

The funding never materialized and no additional positions have yet been approved.

LAPD has already hit its hiring cap of 240 new officers, according to a letter from the city personnel department.

The city’s most recent financial status report filed on Dec. 5 by City Administrative Officer Matt Szabo says if LAPD continues hiring at its current pace, the department would add 410 new sworn officers and exceed the plan previously budgeted.

The report shows that costs of the additional 410 officers would be expected to exceed $4.4 million through June, then about $23.7 million in the next fiscal year.

Chief McDonnell spoke to council members at the Budget and Finance Committee about the pace of hiring, and said that the department did what it was “told to do.”

“Our understanding was . . . that we would be able to hire an additional 240 if we hired 240 in the first six months,” McDonnell said, “we did that.”

The department cannot continue hiring without the additional positions requested by Bass.

Show me the money

At Tuesday’s Budget and Finance meeting, Councilmember Tim McOsker asked Szabo whether any funds had ever been identified to fill those positions.

“There has not been a formal report issued to this body identifying funds for additional hiring above what is in the budget,” Szabo replied.

“Is there any proposal — any sort of competent, grown up, adult proposal — for how we pay for this?” McOsker, who also chairs the Personnel and Hiring Committee, asked in a follow up question to Szabo.

“Not that I'm aware of,” Szabo replied. He said his office would be happy to identify reductions to fund additional hiring, but had not been instructed to do so.

That means the proposed hires would need to come from the city’s reserve funds, which Szabo’s office cautioned against.

“The impact of this overspending in 2025-26 and 2026-27 cannot be overlooked,” his office’s financial status report states, “as it represents a departure from the approved plan with likely repercussions to the City’s Reserve Fund.”

The reserve fund currently sits at 5.06 percent of the total general fund budget, according to the report, but overspending — primarily driven by LAPD and liability payments — could bring the reserve fund below emergency levels of 5 percent.

“We should never, as a practice, assume the use of the reserve fund for hiring police officers,” Szabo told the Budget and Finance Committee. “The reserve fund is there for unexpected circumstances.”

In an emailed statement provided to LAist, McOsker said he agrees with the mayor that public safety is the highest priority.

“I agreed with the Mayor six months ago when she originally proposed this saying she would work with Council Leadership to find the money to fund more officers.” McOsker said, “But six months later, this remains a proposal with no funding identification.”

Bass told Larry Mantle on AirTalk that the city is looking at “every account possible” to find money for more officers, and that not approving more hiring will also have a financial cost.

“ Either we hire new officers or we continue to spend millions and millions of dollars in overtime,” she said.

Listen to the interview