The Brief

Jackie and Shadow’s family saga has been playing out in hearts and homes across the country on a popular livestream as the bald eagle couple slowly but surely leave their three eggs unattended.

It’s been weeks without so much as a pip — the term from when an eaglet starts emerging — in their nest in Big Bear Valley, and the clutch is certainly not viable at this point.

The hope and heartbreak has sparked emotional reactions from fans, with mothers coming to Jackie’s defense, others complimenting Shadow’s dedication, and many with a lot of thoughts about their love story.

So what is it about these wild animals that’s bringing up such strong feelings?

How fans are feeling

A Facebook comment from Angie Wilson on LAist's past coverage of Jackie and Shadow.

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Angie Wilson, a 41-year-old Navy veteran who lives in Florida, told LAist she found the Friends of Big Bear Valley Facebook page a few months back, shortly after Jackie and Shadow had their clutch.

Wilson said she almost immediately became interested in the couple and how so many people seemed to be invested in the eagles.

She said she was anxiously watching for eaglets along with thousands of other fans, and she became emotional when it didn’t work out the way they had hoped.

“It's sad to watch, you know, when you're expecting to see greatness of babies come about, but they don't come about because of whatever reason,” Wilson said. “I mean, it's made me cry a few times. More than a few times.”

A Facebook comment from Melanie Stagnaro on LAist's past coverage of Jackie and Shadow.

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Melanie Stagnaro, a professor at California State University, Los Angeles who lives in Laurel Canyon, told LAist she learned about the livestream last year, but she got really invested this past January.

Now, Stagnaro said the first thing she does when she wakes up or as she’s having tea before bed is scroll back through YouTube and see what Jackie and Shadow have been up to.

“They're just so beautiful, and I feel like, I don't know, something in their faces and their eyes, I'm like, ‘Oh mama, I feel for you,’” she said.

Stagnaro said she’s almost an empty nester herself, and seeing the couple leave their eggs alone has been “bringing up some things for me.”

The Stagnaro’s refer to their family as a team, she said, and she sees Jackie and Shadow in the same light.

“When I turn it on and I see them there, it just touches my soul,” Stagnaro said.

She’s been inspired to find ways to observe animals in their natural habitat without disturbing them, even asking her father if he’d consider setting up cameras for the dozen bald eagles living on his property in the greater Seattle area.

What experts say

David Hindman, the immediate past president of the California Psychological Association who’s been following Jackie and Shadow for several years, told LAist the livestream is like reality TV meets Animal Kingdom, and it's giving people unique access to the daily lives of these otherwise elusive creatures.

Hindman referred to the concept of anthropomorphism, or when human characteristics are attributed to animals or inanimate objects, which he said can be positive and difficult.

“Maybe one of the reasons that people are having such a reaction is that they are able to recognize or access feelings that they themselves would have otherwise had in a similar situation,” he said. “They can see themselves through the experience of animals.”

Plus, when Jackie and Shadow are interacting with each other and fighting over that last bit of fish, people can see parallels in their own relationships.

Gail Melson, professor emerita in the department of human development and family studies at Purdue University, told LAist that the longer people watch the couple, the more they see things they can relate to in their own lives.

And when we’re identifying with something an animal is experiencing, she said we don’t put up the same kind of defense mechanisms as if we’re dealing with ourselves or other humans. Topics that might seem upsetting or difficult when thinking in those terms could be easier to talk about when you’re one step removed and identifying with an animal instead.

Melson related it to Lion King. While it might be hard for a child (or adult) to confront the idea of the death of a parent, they can watch what happens to Mufasa and see themselves in Simba as he navigates those feelings. 

“It's just one kind of explanation for why we're drawn to these stories in animal form where it might be difficult for us if we simply had, you know, humans who were a little too close for comfort, a little too much like maybe our own parents or, you know, our own family,” Melson said.

She noted that technology is also changing the way we respond.

“Think of what our feelings might have been before the webcam was possible, and we couldn't get close up to the nest, and we couldn't really see what was going on,” Melson said.

Keeping a distance

However, Hindman said it’s important to remember that there is a separation, and what we imagine the eagles are going through might not actually be the case. Hindman said while he’s glad people are having conversations about Jackie and Shadow, we need to respect the difference between animal nature versus human emotions.

“For those that are relatively newer to this particular saga, I think it's important to kind of be able to remember that there's some history with it as well,” he said. “Jackie and Shadow have been here before.”

Even though it can be tough to tune in at times, Wilson and Stagnaro said they’ve learned a lot from the famous feathered couple.

“They just do it and they just sit on those eggs,” Stagnaro said. “For me as a parent, but just even as a woman, it's like, just do it, you know, just go out there and persevere.”

Wilson said we may not understand exactly what Jackie and Shadow have been going through, but they haven’t given up on each other, and she finds that “amazing.”

She’s even started watching other bald eagle cameras, including ones in Hanover, Pennsylvania and Redding, California, but she said she’s never going to stop keeping up with her beloved nest in Big Bear.

“We're trying to move on like Jackie and Shadow are trying to move on,” she said. “It's just not easy.”

After California lawmakers passed a state housing law that allows taller apartment buildings near train lines, Los Angeles leaders are facing a tradeoff: If they want to delay full implementation of the law, they’ll have to choose some parts of the city to upzone.

Gov. Gavin Newsom signed Senate Bill 79 into law last year. Starting July 1, the law is set to allow apartment buildings up to nine stories tall to be built next to subway stations and smaller buildings within a half-mile of light rail and rapid bus stops.

L.A. Mayor Karen Bass and a slim majority of the L.A. City Council had expressed opposition to SB 79, in keeping with the long-standing preference of many city leaders to leave untouched the three-quarters of L.A.’s residential land zoned for single-family homes.

Now, some L.A. leaders are scrambling to pull a delay lever that was built into SB 79. The provision allows cities to put off the law’s broadest effects until 2030, as long as they agree to allow more housing development in certain neighborhoods in the interim.

“If we don't do this, what happens is SB 79 goes into effect full-on,” said Bob Blumenfield, chair of the council’s Planning and Land Use Committee, during a meeting on Tuesday. “I really want to avoid that happening.”

Options for delay

The state law lets cities delay implementation in neighborhoods deemed to be “low resource,” in areas at high risk of fires or sea level rise or are designated as historically significant. Even with those carve-outs, some higher-income neighborhoods near train stops will still be subject to upzoning.

The city’s Planning Department produced a report last week laying out three different approaches for the City Council to delay SB 79. All of them involve local incentive programs that would allow developers to build apartment buildings in neighborhoods currently zoned for single-family homes.

The first option would allow buildings up to four stories tall, while the second and third options would permit buildings up to eight stories.

During the committee meeting Tuesday, homeowners spoke against the changes the new law would bring and the city’s upzoning plans.

“Single-family neighborhoods are where families put down roots — they are the beating heart of Los Angeles and SB 79 runs a stake right through that heart,” said Shelley Wagers with the Beverly Grove Neighborhood Association. “We must use every tool to prevent irreversible harm and buy time.”

Advocates for increased housing development said they favored the report’s third option, which would allow mid-sized apartment buildings within a half-mile of existing train stops, as well as planned stations and rapid bus stops.

Scott Epstein, policy director for Abundant Housing L.A., said that approach “offers the best opportunity to meet our housing targets and ensure that neighborhoods rich in transit services and high-quality schools are doing their part.”

What happens next

The Planning and Land Use Committee could not get a three-person majority to agree on the best path forward, so the decision will now go to the full City Council for further debate.

Blumenfield said his recommendation as committee chair was to allow mid-rise apartment buildings in many neighborhoods, but only near existing train stops, not planned stations or rapid bus stops. He also recommended more exemptions for certain historic preservation zones.

Nithya Raman, a committee member who is also running for L.A. Mayor, said she found the report’s recommendations difficult to follow. Passing a delayed implementation plan could stave off changes in some neighborhoods, but only for a while, she said.

“Eventually we will have to do something,” Raman said. “So the question is just what do we do now and what do we do later.”

But council members have little time to figure out which approach they prefer. City planners told the committee that in order to have a delay ordinance in place by July 1, the council would need to decide what direction to take by early March.

This story was originally published by The LA Local on Feb. 25, 2026.

As federal immigration enforcement raids continue across Los Angeles, a broader demographic of people is stepping up to volunteer their time to monitor and document immigration raids in their neighborhoods, according to Ron Gochez, organizer with the rapid‑response network Unión del Barrio.

“We have senior citizen retirees showing up saying, ‘I’m an old white woman — how can I help?’ We have students from community colleges and universities. We have people who look like longtime activists and people who look like they’ve never done this before,” he said. “It’s solidarity being shown by Angelenos of all shapes, sizes, colors and ages.”

While longtime Latino organizers have led the patrols, their numbers are growing thanks to the new volunteers who aren’t necessarily Latino.

Unión del Barrio has outgrown their usual meeting space at the United Teachers union building in Koreatown, which used to draw a few dozen people.

Along with their patrols, the group supports families impacted by immigration raids and issues real-time alerts over social media.

In late January, the day after federal agents shot and killed Alex Pretti in Minneapolis, about 400 people showed up for a training session, Unión del Barrio organizer Ron Gochez said.

“The very next day, we had 1,000 people on a Zoom training for educators — and we couldn’t have more because the Zoom limit was 1,000,” Gochez said.

Organizers in Pasadena expected a few dozen volunteers at All Saints Episcopal Church and were surprised when nearly 800 showed up for the training session, according to Pasadena Now.

For the first time, the majority of volunteers at a recent training session were white, Gochez said.

“I think the administration and ICE thought that by killing Alex (Pretti), that people would be scared and intimidated and would stop participating,” he said.

Instead, it has had the opposite effect.

Other immigrant advocacy groups say they’re seeing a similar surge in support. Representatives at the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights (CHIRLA) and the Immigrant Defenders Law Center report a spike in volunteers, donations, and attendance at “Know Your Rights” workshops.

The legal advocacy group says they’re going to continue sustaining deportation defense, managed information hotlines, and expect that engagement to remain strong as federal immigration enforcement intensifies.

Ron Gochez, a member of Unión del Barrio, speaks to volunteers in South Los Angeles in February 2025.

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Residents living near Koreatown and Pico Union have seen a sharp increase in immigration raids in recent months. Unión del Barrio volunteer, Oscar, who provided only his first name out of concerns over retaliation from the federal government, has seen firsthand the effects of the raids.

“This part of Los Angeles — Pico Union, K-town, MacArthur Park, Westlake — has been hit incredibly hard throughout the last year,” Oscar said, pointing to raids along the El Salvador Community Corridor in Pico Union. “They’ve gone up and down Pico multiple times.”

Westlake, a dense immigrant neighborhood predominantly made up of renters and noncitizen workers, has also been identified as one of the most vulnerable areas in L.A. to ICE raids, according to a county-sponsored study.

Oscar leads patrol training sessions, but before joining Union del Barrio, he patrolled his neighborhood with a friend to report on immigration enforcement. “It just didn’t feel like enough,” he said. “I wanted to be part of a space of dedicated organizers.”

Overall, he’s seen more people working together across racial and gender lines, with a common goal of protecting their communities, helping deliver groceries to impacted famlies, monitor their neighborhoods and feel like they have something to do in the face of the ongoing immigration raids.

Immigration agents detain a man selling flowers in Boyle Heights on Wednesday, Jan. 28, 2026.

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“People are coming in angry, determined,” he said. “but ultimately I think people feel empowered during the training.”

Unión del Barrio has expanded beyond its usual territory in South Los Angeles and the group now patrols in Boyle Heights, Long Beach, the San Fernando Valley, Beverly Hills and Brentwood, Gochez said.

“We have eyes and ears everywhere,” Gochez said. “I’m very comfortable saying there are thousands of people patrolling in the greater L.A. area.”

Although the group rarely solicits donations, Gochez said they have seen an uptick in funding, which helps cover costs from patrolling and printing “Know Your Rights” flyers and other materials.

Despite the heightened attention, Unión del Barrio has not altered its training curriculum, making sure that volunteers are following the law, but also aware that their safety is not guaranteed when they head out to monitor the immigration raids.

Organizers strongly discourage undocumented individuals or those on probation or parole from participating in community patrols, instead encouraging them to contribute in other ways.

“We’re not trying to become martyrs,” Gochez said. “We don’t want to be arrested, beaten or killed. But there is risk involved.”

The L.A. City Council voted unanimously Tuesday to make permanent a city pilot program that diverts police away from some mental health crisis calls.

Since launching in 2024, clinicians with the city’s Unarmed Model of Crisis Response have handled more than 17,000 calls for service, ranging from mental health crises to wellbeing checks. According to city reports, about 96% of those calls were resolved without police.

“We can’t keep deploying armed officers to handle mental health crisis calls because the outcome is Angelenos paying with loss of life and millions of their tax dollars for legal settlements,” Councilmember Eunisses Hernandez, who co-authored the motion to enshrine the program, said at Tuesday’s meeting.

According to Hernandez, in 2023, more than a third of LAPD shootings involved someone experiencing a mental health crisis.

Councilmember Marqueece Harris-Dawson said the data from city reports was "incontrovertible and unassailable," showing the program’s success at diverting police and fire first responders away from mental health crisis situations.

Council members said the move to make the unarmed model permanent was also a matter of fiscal responsibility. According to a news release from the offices of Hernandez and Councilmember Bob Blumenfield, on average it costs the city roughly $85 per hour to dispatch LAPD officers, while a response from a UMCR team costs roughly $35 per hour.

Last fall, progressive policy advocacy group LA Forward, convened a summit of local and state officials with the goal of making UMCR permanent and expanding it.

Godfrey Plata, deputy director of LA Forward, told LAist his group was “incredibly excited” to see the city make the pilot program permanent.

Plata said he sees enshrining the program as a first step in expanding the program citywide, which his group hopes to do by the 2028 Olympics.

How the program works

In 2024, the city partnered with three nonprofit organizations — Exodus Recovery, Alcott Center and Penny Lane Centers — to provide teams of trained clinicians in service areas spread across L.A. The teams are available 24 hours a day, seven days a week within the Police Department’s Devonshire, Wilshire, Southeast, West LA, Olympic and West Valley divisions.

Crisis response workers are trained in de-escalation techniques, mental health, substance use, conflict resolution and more, according to a report on the program from the Office of City Administrative Officer. The teams don’t have the authority to order psychiatric holds for people in crisis, but they can work with them to find help locally, and spend more time on follow up than law enforcement can.

In its first year, Los Angeles’s Unarmed Model of Crisis Response sent teams of unarmed clinicians to  more than 6,700 calls for service, ranging from mental health crises to wellbeing checks. Only about 4% were redirected to the LAPD. Average response times have been under 30 minutes.

Examples of these interactions include members of the teams taking food to a woman who was crying and hungry, working with a business owner to engage with someone sleeping in a parking lot and sitting with a family for nearly three hours to help resolve a conflict involving a relative.

What’s next

The motion approved Tuesday also directs city officials to form a working group made up of the LAPD, the L.A. Fire Department and other agencies to address inefficiencies in the dispatch system. The goal of the working group will be to centralize unarmed crisis response dispatch and improve response times.