Topline:
Filipino communities have had an enormous impact on Southern California history, from Little Manila in downtown Los Angeles to Historic Filipinotown and suburbs like Northridge and Cerritos.
Why now: October is Filipino American History Month.
The backstory: Filipino sailors first landed in California in 1587 in Morro Bay as part of a scouting mission.
Filipino communities have a deep and rich history in Southern California — dating back centuries.
To learn more about that story during Filipino American History Month this October, we talked to historians on our daily news show AirTalk with Larry Mantle. And we learned some key takeaways:
“The first recorded landing of Filipinos in what we now know in the United States was in Morro Bay, California, in 1587,” said Joy Sales, assistant professor of Asian American Studies at California State University, Los Angeles.
According to Sales, they were part of a crew that came to scout the land and make contact with the indigenous people of California. At the time, the Philippines was a colony of Spain.
“There's actually a longer history of Filipinos coming to Spanish colonial America, to California, to what we now know as Louisiana, to colonial Mexico…It goes far back, even before the founding of the United States,” Sales said.
Spain sold the Philippines to the United States at the turn of the 20th century, a decision that was made without input of Filipinos.
Americans saw their new colony as a source for cheap labor.
“There was still a need for farm labor here, especially in California, because California is the breadbasket of America," Sales said. “There's records and sources of labor recruiters…going to the Philippines and specifically recruiting those with a farm working background or peasant background. And they would flash American dollars."
Filipino workers would go on to become crucial to the farm labor movement, with prominent organizers like Larry Itlong, who led strikes and formed the United Farm Workers with César Chávez.
While about two-thirds of Filipinos who emigrated to California worked in the agriculture industry, the other third ended up in cities.
In downtown Los Angeles, “Filipinos actually developed and created a kind of small Little Manila around First and Main Street,” said Joseph Bernardo, adjunct professor in the Asian and Asian Pacific American Studies Department at Loyola Marymount University.
According to Bernardo, Little Manila developed as “a result of really racial and class segregation. [Filipinos] were subject to much overt discrimination at that time. A lot of harassment, particularly from the LAPD.”
Eventually, Little Manila gave way to what is now Historic Filipinotown.
When whites were fleeing the suburbs as part of white flight, Filipinos were able to start raising families, and they were able to purchase homes in what is now present-day Historic Filipinotown.
“After World War II, when whites were fleeing the suburbs as part of white flight, Filipinos were able to start raising families, and they were able to purchase homes in what is now present-day Historic Filipinotown,” Bernardo continued.
The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 brought a new wave of Filipinos to the U.S. Often skilled professionals who already spoke English due to America’s colonization, these immigrants didn’t create ethnic neighborhoods in the same ways as many Asian American immigrant groups. That's because they weren't dependent on an ethnic economy to survive.
In the 1960s, suburbs were booming across the U.S., including the Sunbelt cities like Los Angeles. And immigrants wanted in on it.
“Suburbs like Northridge and West Covina and Walnut, Cerritos, Carson, and all the other communities, even into the Inland Empire, like Rancho Cucamonga, Corona, and Chino Hills…offered that piece of the American dream,” said James Zarsadiaz, associate professor of history and director of the Yuchengco Philippine Studies Program at the University of San Francisco.
In this edition:
Wes Anderson night at the Bowl, the Library turns 100, a pizza fun run and more of the best things to do this weekend.
Highlights:
The U.S. may be knocked out, but that doesn’t mean the World Cup action in L.A. is slowing down one bit. Pick your new favorite to root for, then head to one of the fan fests to find friends from all over the world. This weekend, Venice Beach and Whittier Narrows are both hosting events with big screens, food, music and more.
Music-wise, Friday it’s your prerogative to go old-school with Bobby Brown at the Saban Theatre, or see Bone Thugs-N-Harmony at the Garden Amphitheatre. You can go a bit more new-school with DRAM at the Blue Note, or rock out with Belmont at the Roxy. Plus, Dave Alvin and Jimmie Dale Gilmore are at McCabe’s.
Licorice Pizza’s Lyndsey Parker is a long-time Adam Lambert fan, so you can find her at the Bellwether Friday night, catching the former Idol and current Queen frontman.
On Saturday, 5 Seconds of Summer with the Band CAMINO play the Forum; Wolfmother make their howling return at the Wiltern; the I Love Oldies fest is at Pershing Square Park with the Chi-Lites, Heatwave, the Stylistics and the Delphonics. Joji is at the Intuit Dome, and Flying Lotus is at the Blue Note — those two shows are happening Sunday, too.
Also on Sunday, 93-year-young Willie Nelson will be at the Pacific Amphitheatre; Wynonna Judd and special guest Melissa Etheridge are at Great Park Live; and bluegrass star Molly Tuttle plays the Majestic Ventura Theater.
Elsewhere on LAist, you can read up on the taco spot aiming to be the next In-N-Out, learn about where you’re most likely to get a parking ticket in L.A., and the Olvera Street shopkeepers have something to say about that reported World Cup business “boom.”
Saturday and Sunday, July 11 and 12
Mark Taper Forum
135 N. Grand Ave., Downtown L.A.
COST: FROM $40.25; MORE INFO
LA ensemble MUSE/IQUE takes on iconic songstress Joni Mitchell’s history and hits in this career-sweeping look. From “Chelsea Morning” to “Both Sides Now,” the ensemble, led by Artistic Director Rachael Worby, combines visuals and expert musicians to bring cultural history to life onstage as part of the CTG: FWD series at the Music Center.
Sunday, July 12, 1:30 p.m.
Hammer Museum
10899 Wilshire Blvd., Westwood
COST: FREE; MORE INFO
Clack clack clack! Fit in an afternoon of film, play and connection with Mahjong Mistress, whose instructors will be on hand to lead mahjong tables, teach beginners and welcome everyone to the centuries-old tile game. But first, catch a screening of Edward Yang’s Mahjong (1996), a “fast-moving portrait of Taipei in the ’90s where every interaction feels like a high-stakes game.”
Friday to Sunday, July 10 to 12
Hollywood Bowl
2301 Highland Ave., Hollywood
COST: FROM $15; MORE INFO
I’m going to come right out and say that this is the music event of the summer at the Bowl for a certain aging hipster crowd of Angelenos to which I definitely belong. I realize it’s going to be 90 degrees, but Margo Tannenbaum would still be in her fur coat and thick eyeliner, and so should you (well, a fake fur coat, anyway). A cast of indie stars of stage and screen join the fun, including Juliette Lewis, Rufus Wainwright, Beck, Jackson Browne, Jason Schwartzman and Steve Zissou himself, Bill Murray.
Saturday, July 11, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
L.A. Central Library
630 W. 5th St., Downtown L.A.
COST: FREE; MORE INFO
Is there a better birthday party than one for a library? The L.A. Central Library is a survivor (see: Susan Orlean’s The Library Book), and what better way to celebrate than with a bevy of L.A. bands from the Linda Lindas to Lucy Kalantari & the Jazz Cats. Plus tons of activities and exhibits like Luceros y Penumbras: The World's Largest Pop-Up Book, created by L.A. artist Daniel González, about growing up in Boyle Heights.
Saturday, July 11, 2 p.m.
North Hollywood, address on RSVP
COST: FROM $45; MORE INFO
Watching Bridgerton, I was blown away by the elaborate wigs and hairpieces — how do they do it?! Learn how to make your own bird’s nest or macaron-inspired wig at the new creative event Bad Hair (though it kind of looks more like "insanely fabulous hair," if you ask me). Guests take wigs and make them into original, wearable artworks with all kinds of unusual accoutrements. Join the group’s inaugural event at Miniluxe in North Hollywood.
Saturday and Sunday, July 11 and 12
L.A. County Fair Complex
1101 W. McKinley Ave., Pomona
COST: FREE; MORE INFO
Train fiends, this is for you. The second weekend of the month means the Rail Giants Train Museum is pulling into the L.A. County Fair Complex. Check out steam locomotives, the largest surviving diesel locomotive, plus the historic Arcadia Depot and much more train lore.
Ongoing
Segerstrom Center for the Arts
3333 Avenue of the Arts, Costa Mesa
COST: FREE, MORE INFO
Three new exhibits recently opened at the always-free OCMA. Raymond Saunders: Flowers from a Black Garden takes a sweeping look at Black artist Raymond Saunders' painting work, Staging California in Early Hollywood acknowledges the artistry of set designers and painters in the early studio system, and Jon Serl: As One Many examines his work from 1940s rural California through the late 20th century. All three exhibits are on view through the summer.
Saturday, July 11, 9:30 a.m. to 11 a.m.
Aliza Hotel
710 Rose Ave., Venice
COST: $25; MORE INFO
Get up early and hit the Pilates mat for a special reset by the beach at the Aliza Hotel in Venice. A mat Pilates flow class starts at 9:30 a.m., followed by a restorative sound bath from 10:15 to 10:40 a.m. and a live DJ set from MANDAS.
Sunday, July 12, 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Prince Street Pizza
9161 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood
COST: $30; MORE INFO
If you love pizza and running, then we've got an event for you. Our friend at the L.A. Countdown, aka gourmand-about-town Luca Servodio, is hosting a charity fun run/walk from Prince Street Pizza to Bar Next Door, benefiting Soccer Without Borders. There's a three-mile run or a mile-and-a-half walk option, finishing with Bar Next Door's bar pies and Henry's Secret Ice Cream (the first 30 sign-ups get a free half-pint). And don’t worry if the running isn’t your thing; you can just come for the food and cocktails part. -Gab Chabrán
Topline:
This month, the U.S. Department of Education began rolling out a new accountability test that most colleges and universities will soon have to pass.
Details: The test itself is simple: If an undergraduate program's graduates don't earn more than workers who never went to college, that program could be cut off from federal student loans. The same goes for any graduate program whose graduates earn less than someone with only a bachelor's degree.
The pushback: This new test, known as "do no harm," raises some thorny questions about the purpose of college. Like: Is it just about making more money?
This month, the U.S. Department of Education began rolling out a new accountability test that most colleges and universities will soon have to pass.
The test itself is simple: If an undergraduate program's graduates don't earn more than workers who never went to college, that program could be cut off from federal student loans. The same goes for any graduate program whose graduates earn less than someone with only a bachelor's degree.
"If a program cannot show that it leaves its graduates financially better off than if they had never enrolled, it should not be underwritten by federal taxpayers," said Under Secretary of Education Nicholas Kent in a recent statement.
But this new test, known as "do no harm," raises some thorny questions about the purpose of college. Like: Is it just about making more money?
Some advocates for postsecondary arts education think not.
"Earnings is only a small piece of that puzzle," said Lee Ann Scotto Adams, executive director of the Strategic National Arts Alumni Project (SNAAP), a nonprofit that studies the careers of arts graduates.
She and Doug Dempster, the president of SNAAP, worry the new test might lead colleges and universities to preemptively slash low-earning creative arts programs in music, theater, studio art and design. Dempster says that could lead to a further devaluing of jobs that are critical to a well-functioning society.
"We know we need nurses. We know we need journalists. We know we need early childhood educators," he said. "We don't know how many artists we need, but I can guarantee that if you eliminate access, we will impoverish our cultural life nationally."
The new earnings test comes courtesy of last year's One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which included a slew of big higher education policy changes meant to address rising concerns over the cost and value of college.
Higher education experts across the political spectrum told NPR the test sets a pretty reasonable expectation: In many states, federal data shows, graduates of bachelor programs will have to earn a minimum of about $30,000 and $41,000 a year for their program to pass.
"This is really a very low floor," said Christopher Madaio, a senior adviser at the nonprofit The Institute for College Access & Success. "I mean, high school earnings is not an exceedingly high metric for a program to meet."
Programs fail the test when they don't meet the earnings requirement for two out of three consecutive years.
The current test does not take student loan debt into account, which means there's no way to distinguish between a graduate who is struggling with low pay while being debt-free and a graduate who is struggling with low pay while also paying off tens of thousands of dollars in loans.
The Education Department says it will begin calculating the first year of graduate earnings in early 2027, and "some programs could be designated as low-earning outcome programs beginning in the 2028-2029 [financial aid] award year."
According to Education Department estimates, the vast majority of undergraduate and graduate programs should easily pass the new earnings test.
But more than 800,000 students attend a program that would likely fail the measure, according to department data. Roughly half of those students are enrolled in for-profit schools, which already have a reputation for shortchanging students.
Other takeaways from the department's data:
Some of the United States' most prestigious music programs — known for training the country's most talented young musicians — are among the 14% of bachelor music programs predicted to fail the new earnings test, according to Education Department data. That includes The Juilliard School in New York City, the New England Conservatory in Boston and Indiana University Bloomington's Jacobs School of Music.
The undergraduate music program that Cindy Flores attended at Portland State University (PSU) also wouldn't pass. Flores teaches mariachi music to middle and high school students at Salem-Keizer Public Schools in Oregon's Willamette Valley.
Her path to becoming a full-time music teacher started with studying music education at PSU; then she got an educators license from Western Oregon University — and she used federal student loans to help pay for all of it.
She now holds close to $55,000 in federal student loan debt.
Flores said she wouldn't be where she is now without that access to federal aid.
"If it wasn't for PSU and the loans I could get … I wouldn't be a Mexican American mariachi teacher for my Mexican American students," she said.
But given the new federal test, future PSU music students might not have the same access to federal student loans that Flores did.
She said she feels lucky to have found a job that she's passionate about and that pays a living wage. But, for her, a career in music was about much more than a paycheck.
"It is never about the money," she said. "I realized I wanted to have a career in music when I was in the eighth grade, because every music teacher I had were such good role models in my life and I wanted to be part of that community."
SNAAP's Lee Ann Scotto Adams said the federal government's one-size-fits-all accountability approach doesn't make sense for students graduating from creative arts programs because wages aren't the only measure of success for studio artists, musicians and designers.
"Yes, you need to earn money to make a living, but we see our creative workers want the ability to have independence in their work. They want jobs that are socially conscious. They want to make an impact culturally," Adams said. "These are all metrics that fall outside of just straightforward earnings metrics."
She also takes issue with looking at earnings in the first few years after graduation. Adams points to SNAAP survey data that shows arts graduates often have unpredictable incomes at the beginning of their careers, but their pay tends to stabilize and increase over time.
"Looking at earnings as the sole metric of success is very limited, and that's because artists have nonlinear careers," Adams said. "For the most part, people who graduate from these programs move into careers that they're personally satisfied with."
Students considering any of the at-risk programs won't immediately lose access to federal aid. While the accountability test is being rolled out this month, its implementation will be phased in over the next couple of years.
Copyright 2026 NPR
Topline:
Bonnie Tyler, the gravelly voiced, Grammy-nominated Welsh pop star best known for singing the chart-topping power ballad "Total Eclipse of the Heart" in 1983 has died. She was 75.
Details: Tyler died "unexpectedly" in a hospital in Portugal where she was being treated for an illness, her family said Thursday in a statement on her website. She was hospitalized in May in Faro, where she had a home, for emergency intestinal surgery and was later placed in an induced coma.
Read on... for more about her life and legacy.
LONDON — Bonnie Tyler, the gravelly voiced, Grammy-nominated Welsh pop star best known for singing the chart-topping power ballad "Total Eclipse of the Heart" in 1983 and seeing new generations succumb to its bombastic charms during solar and lunar eclipses, has died. She was 75.
Tyler died "unexpectedly" in a hospital in Portugal where she was being treated for an illness, her family said Thursday in a statement on her website. She was hospitalized in May in Faro, where she had a home, for emergency intestinal surgery and was later placed in an induced coma.
"Bonnie's family and team are heartbroken to announce that Bonnie unexpectedly passed away last night in hospital in Portugal as a result of the illness that she was being treated for, her family said.
Tyler earned three Grammy nods, represented Britain at the Eurovision Song Contest 2013 — where she came in 19th — and was awarded an MBE for her services to music by Queen Elizabeth II in 2023, all largely thanks to "Total Eclipse of the Heart," which has had more that 1 billion streams, boosted by real eclipses in 2017 and 2024.
The song spent four weeks at No. 1, the video has surpassed 1 billion views and when Stereogum reevaluated it in 2020, the music outlet declared it an "extinction-level event rendered in musical form."
"It's pop music as heart-pounding, chest-thumping, blood-gargling, heavens-falling passion explosion. It's sheer spectacle. It's fireworks and lasers and lightning and thunder. It soars and swoops and barrel-rolls," the site said.
The song has never really gone away, covered by the English singer Nicki French in 1995 and the band Westlife in 2006. Cate Blanchett sang it while hitting Billy Bob Thornton with her car in 2001's "Bandits," it appeared at a wedding scene in 2003's "Old School" and One Direction sang it in 2010 on a U.K. version of "The X Factor."
Tyler was born — as Gaynor Hopkins — a coal miner's daughter in public housing with an outside toilet in Skewen, Wales, about seven miles outside Swansea. She grew up with three sisters and two brothers.
She adored the Beatles and her first album was "A Hard Day's Night." The first song she bought was "Hippy Hippy Shake" by the Swinging Blue Jeans at 13 and watched "Top of the Pops" religiously, according to her memoir, "Straight From the Heart."
She would record "Top of the Pops" on a reel-to-reel two-track recorder and write down the lyrics of songs she loved. Her favorites were songs by Janis Joplin, Nina Simone, Tina Turner, Wilson Pickett and Otis Redding.
"I used to sing them into my hairbrush for hours and hours, and that's how it all started for me. I fell in love with singing just from doing that. Looking back, even then my voice had a husky tone to it, but I didn't think much of it. I thought everyone's voices were different from each other's," she wrote.
In 1976 she had to have surgery to remove nodules on her throat, leaving her with that trademark vocal sound. Changing her name to Sherene Davis, she was fronting a soul band when she was discovered by talent scout Roger Bell, who brought her to London for demo sessions. Then she waited for a label until RCA said it was interested.
Under her new RCA-sanctioned name Bonnie Tyler, her debut album "The World Starts Tonight" in 1977 contained her first chart hit, "Lost in France," and she was nominated for a breakthrough artists award at the Brits Awards. She then had a No. 3 hit in 1978 with "It's a Heartache," but soon drifted. She then signed with Sony and saw Meat Loaf perform "Bat Out of Hell" on the BBC. Impressed, she requested to work with Meat Loaf songwriter and producer Jim Steinman.
Steinman introduced her to his song "Total Eclipse of the Heart," which would become the debut single for her fifth studio album, "Faster Than the Speed of Night." He borrowed one of the song's lyrics — "Turn around, bright eyes" — from his 1969 musical "The Dream Engine" written as a student at Massachusetts' Amherst College. He told her the song was from a prospective musical version of "Nosferatu."
"Jim liked to put down a basic rhythm track, do nine takes of the song, choose the best one and then put the kitchen sink on there, like Phil Spector used to," Tyler told The Guardian in 2023. "He gave me a cassette to listen to in my hotel and we both preferred take two."
Featuring E Street Band members Roy Bittan on piano and Max Weinberg on drums, "Total Eclipse" is a rumination on lost love: "Once upon a time there was light in my life/But now there's only love in the dark," she sings.
The video, a staple of early-days MTV, was shot in a frightening gothic former asylum in Surrey, where the guard dogs apparently wouldn't set foot in the rooms downstairs where they used to give people electric shock treatment. The visuals included slow-motion tossed doves, candles, dancing ninjas, dancing greasers, Tyler in frighteningly big shoulder pads, fencers, gymnasts, wind machines and shirtless boys wearing swim goggles being doused with water.
"Faster Than the Speed of Night" earned a Grammy nomination for best rock vocal performance — losing to Pat Benatar's "Love Is a Battlefield" — and Tyler got another nod for "Total Eclipse of the Heart" in the best pop vocal performance category, losing to Irene Cara's "Flashdance — What a Feeling."
Tyler never reached such dizzying heights again but stayed current with such movie soundtrack singles as "Holding Out For a Hero" — from 1984's "Footloose" — and "Here She Comes" from "Metropolis" also in 1984.
Her 2019 disc "Between the Earth and the Stars" featured duets with Rod Stewart, Cliff Richard and Status Quo's Francis Rossi, and she ended that year performing a Vatican Christmas concert before Pope Francis.
In 2013, she switched gears to make a country-flavored record in Nashville, "Rocks and Honey," which included the Vince Gill duet "What You Need From Me" and a little ballad called "Believe in Me," written by American songwriter Desmond Child and British songwriters Lauren Christy and Christopher Braide. "Believe in Me" was picked to represent the United Kingdom at that year's Eurovision Song Contest in Sweden.
"It was an absolutely wonderful atmosphere there," she told the San Francisco Examiner in 2023. "I was being interviewed every 15, 20 minutes, and when I walked out onstage behind the British flag, I thought the roof was going to come off! It was awesome, just awesome!"
In 2017, she joined Joe Jonas' band DNCE for a performance on the cruise ship Oasis of the Seas as part of a "Total Eclipse Cruise." When the moon passed in front of the sun, they played "Total Eclipse of the Heart."
Tyler was married to property developer and former Olympic judo competitor Robert Sullivan.
What to expect: More dry heat and windy conditions across Southern California. Coachella Valley highs could reach up to 118 degrees today.
Read on ... for more details.
Get comfortable with the heat because it's here to stay. The dry weather and windy conditions will continue to make conditions ripe for fire.
The National Weather Service says coastal areas will continue to see cooler weather today with highs in the mid 70s to low 80s, while temps along the inland coast are expected to reach mid 80s to low 90s. In Orange County inland areas will see temperatures from 81 to 90 degrees.
For the valley communities, temperatures there today will reach 89 to 98 degrees again, and up to 99 to 104 degrees more inland.
Coachella Valley will be scorching today with highs from 113 to 118 degrees. Meanwhile, in the Antelope Valley, expect highs from 101 to 110 degrees today, and around 93 to 98 degrees for the cooler hills.
Wind gusts today could reach up to 35 mph but otherwise expect southwest to northwest winds of 10 to 25 mph.
Make sure to stay hydrated and check in on any loved ones who might be vulnerable to the heat!
You can find cooling centers via the following links:
Protect a pet from excessive heat
Protect a human from excessive heat
Check in frequently with family, friends and neighbors. Offer assistance or rides to those who are sick or have limited access to transportation. And give extra attention to people most at risk, including:
