The Brief

After two visa rejections and weeks of waiting, Arthur Yu’s cousin in the Philippines has received his visa and can fly to the U.S. to donate his stem cells.

Yu, a 41-year-old new father from Miracle Mile, has been diagnosed with a fatal blood disease — acute myeloid leukemia or A.M.L. — and a stem cell transplant would give him an 80% chance of survival.

He told LAist he expects his cousin to arrive in the next three to four weeks. 

About the approval

The cousin, a 46-year-old man living in the Philippine countryside, is Yu’s strongest match for a transplant.

But when his request for a visa was rejected by the State Department in late December, and again earlier this month, their family asked Sen. Alex Padilla for assistance. Padilla’s office made congressional inquiries on behalf of the cousin after each rejection.

In an Instagram video filmed from a Cedars-Sinai infusion bay, Yu said his cousin received his visa last week and is now approved to travel for the transplant.

He thanked Padilla, and Congressman Adam Schiff, for all their help and private lobbying.

"I am glad my office was able to assist Mr. Yu with his case to receive the life-saving care that he needs,” Padilla said in a statement. “My team and I will continue to provide federal assistance to all Californians.”

Yu said the next step is for his doctor and transplant team to come up with a timeline and share it with him and his donor cousin.

“It's a huge relief,” he said. “I never built this into my emotions.”

But because the transplant was delayed, Yu needed to get another round of chemotherapy last week – his fifth. He said he’s still recovering from those treatments, but the hope is that once he’s feeling better, he’ll be ready for the transplant.

Yu said he can’t wait to get the political stuff behind them so he can focus on treatment and healing. 

Part of a bigger problem

Yu shares his struggle with a network of cancer patients from immigrant families whose relatives in Asia, Africa, and Latin America have fought for visas to make life-saving donations.

He said he’s learned how subjective the visa process can be, and he encouraged others dealing with similar situations not to take anything for granted.

“Make sure you're doing two times, three times as much as necessary,” he said. “In fact, maybe a hundred times more than necessary because we were prepared, doubly prepared, quadruply prepared, and it wasn’t enough.” 

He said in today’s times, you need to punctuate these kinds of immigration requests with a lot of noise and a lot of local government support.

He thanked every person who shared his story and said without their support, his family would’ve been another case file stuck in political limbo “along with a million others.”

California residents who may be stuck in a similar situation can request assistance from Padilla’s office here, or by calling any of his six offices, the senator said in a statement.

Yu encouraged people to donate to the NMDP, formerly known as Be The Match, to build up the domestic bone marrow supply — especially if you’re Black, Asian, or Latino.

He also encouraged people to give blood, because there’s people like him who need it.

A San Bernardino County Superior Court judge on Tuesday rejected Chino Valley Unified School District’s request to dissolve an injunction blocking its policy requiring employees to notify parents when students identify as transgender or use different names or pronouns at school.

Judge Michael Sachs upheld his 2024 injunction blocking Chino Valley Unified from enforcing a policy the school board adopted in 2023. The policy required district employees to notify parents within three days if their student asked to go by a name or pronoun different from official school records or join a sex-segregated program, such as athletics, that did not correspond to those records.

The school district had asked Sachs to overturn a permanent injunction after the U.S. Supreme Court issued an emergency docket ruling in a separate case, Mirabelli v. Bonta. The district argued that the ruling affirmed parents’ constitutional right to be informed about information critical to their children’s health and well-being.

Sachs rejected the request, saying his injunction does not conflict with the Supreme Court’s ruling. During Tuesday’s hearing, he distinguished between the two cases, saying the school policy at issue in the Mirabelli case required school employees to withhold information from parents when asked.

“The school’s policy essentially mandated that staff lie to the parent about their child, and the court did not accept that,” Sachs said of Mirabelli v. Bonta.

The Chino case involves a different question: whether school employees can be required to disclose a child’s gender identity to their parents.

“There is no mandatory duty for the school district to voluntarily release information about the student,” Sachs said in court.

Chino Valley Unified was disappointed by the ruling, said Emily Rae, the district’s attorney and president of the California Justice Center, a conservative legal nonprofit focused on protecting individual liberty.

“The main problem is that it puts the burden on parents to know whether they’re having a secret kept from them,” Rae said.

Rae said Sachs’ ruling misinterpreted the Mirabelli opinion, which she said made clear that schools should not withhold information from parents. She said it was too soon to say whether the district would appeal the ruling or make changes to any of its policies.

Sonja Shaw, president of the Chino Valley Unified school board and a candidate for state superintendent of public instruction, also criticized the ruling. In an interview with EdSource, she called the proceedings a “kangaroo court” that has caused “so much confusion.”

Shaw said she planned to ask the superintendent whether the district could ask all parents to check a box: “Do you want secrets to be held from you?”

“They shouldn’t have to do that,” she said. “At the end of the day, it’s insane we have to go through all these hoops to uphold a parent’s right to know.”

Christine Parker, senior staff attorney with the ACLU Foundation of Southern California, said the ruling was consistent with the Supreme Court’s order in Mirabelli v. Bonta and other applicable law.

“The court got it right: Blanket policies like Chino Valley USD’s, in which school employees must — in all circumstances — disclose a student’s gender identity to their parents, remain unlawful in California,” Parker said in a statement to EdSource.

Another pending case referenced in Tuesday’s proceedings was the City of Huntington Beach v. Newsom, which hinged on a dispute over AB 1955, known as the SAFETY Act. The law, signed by Newsom in 2024, bars school districts from requiring staff to disclose a student’s sexual orientation or gender identity to parents. It went into effect before the injunction in the Chino Valley Unified case.

In the wake of the Mirabelli v. Bonta case, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals issued a preliminary injunction for parents in the City of Huntington Beach v. Newsom who sued to block enforcement of the SAFETY Act.

This story was originally published by EdSource. Sign up for their daily newsletter.

An earthquake with a magnitude of 3.1 struck near Compton Thursday afternoon and was felt in Downey, Long Beach and surrounding areas.

No damage would be expected from a quake with that level of shaking, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

A number of small earthquakes northeast of today's were felt earlier this month.

We have earthquake resources

We don't want to scare you, but the Big One is coming. We don't know when, but we know it'll be at least 44 times stronger than Northridge and 11 times stronger than the Ridgecrest quakes in 2019. To help you get prepared, we've compiled a handy reading list:

• Your guide to surviving the Big One
• For earthquakes, forget the 'go-bag.' Here's how to prepare
• How to not get life-threatening diarrhea after a major earthquake
• 10 earthquake-related questions to ask your landlord immediately
• How to prepare for an earthquake if you have a disability

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The Los Angeles Dodgers clinched their fifth consecutive NL West division title and 13th in the 14 seasons, sparked by four hits from Kyle Tucker that included a first-inning home run in an 8-2 win over the Cincinnati Reds on Thursday.

The two-time World Series champions already were assured of their 14th straight postseason appearance, trying the record Atlanta set from 1991 to 2005. Los Angeles (93-60) had clinched no worse than a wild-card berth on Monday.

Los Angeles opened a 9 1/2-game lead over second-place San Diego and has the second-best record in the NL as they try to overtake Milwaukee (95-57 entering Thursday) for the top NL seed. The division clinching was the fourth earliest for the Dodgers after Sept. 10 in 2019, Sept. 13 in 2022 and Sept. 16 in 2023.

Tucker fell a triple short of the cycle and had three RBIs, hitting a single and a pair of doubles. He hit his 16th homer, a two-run drive in the first off Brady Singer, who allowed seven runs, nine hits and four walks in 3 1/3 innings.

Freddie Freeman’s sacrifice fly and Tucker’s RBI double boosted the lead in the second, and the Dodgers opened a 7-0 lead in the fourth on Max Muncy’s two-run double and Josue De Paula’s RBI single.

Dodger left-hander Justin Wrobleski, making his 22nd start this season and first since Sept. 6, did not allow a baserunner in three innings while striking out three.

Wrobleski and Blake Treinen combined to retire their first 11 batters before Sal Stewart’s 32nd homer.

Landon Knack (1-0) allowed four hits over four scoreless innings for his first big league win since May 31 last year.

Miguel Rojas homered off Brandon Williamson in the ninth.

Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said reliever Edwin Díaz (neck inflammation) finished his minor league injury rehabilitation assignment and will be activated this weekend.