The Brief

This Sunday, Dec. 31, is your last chance to see the space shuttle Endeavour at the California Science Center before it’s taken off public display indefinitely, while the museum finishes building its new permanent home at the Samuel Oschin Air and Space Center in Exposition Park.

Once construction is complete in the next few years, the Endeavour will be displayed in its “ready to launch” position in what will be the world’s only authentic space shuttle stack.

"Go For Stack"

The California Science Center is recreating the Endeavour’s vertical launch position, including all of the equipment that took the orbiter from the surface of the Earth into space on 25 missions.

This has never been done outside of NASA before, according to Ken Phillips, the curator of aerospace science who develops all of the museum's programs and exhibits on space exploration.

“We're basically putting together a giant spaceship, just like NASA did, but not with any of their resources,” he said.

The California Science Center calls this Mission 26: The Big Endeavour.

The Endeavour is quite heavy, about 176,000 pounds, and Phillips said the assembly is unforgiving.

The museum installed the solid rocket booster aft skirts, the first major milestone, in July. These form the base of the solid rocket boosters.

Next, the museum stacked a pair of 116 foot high solid rocket motors directly above those aft skirts.

Earlier this month, crews finished assembling the twin solid rocket boosters. These 52 ton parts were secured to the base of the rockets inside the soon-to-be Samuel Oschin Air and Space Center.

The twin solid rocket boosters surrounded by construction for the soon-to-be Samuel Oschin Air and Space Center on Thursday, Dec. 28.

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Makenna Sievertson for LAist

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Phillips said each piece has to be assembled precisely, down to one-tenth of an inch, or else the Endeavour will end up looking like the Leaning Tower of Pisa.

Plus, some of the certified flight hardware they need is no longer being used by NASA, so getting those components was challenging.

Jeff Rudolph, the president and CEO of the California Science Center, told LAist each step has been more exciting than the last, and people can start to get a sense of the scale of this project now.

What’s next for the Endeavour?

In early January, crews will move the large orange external tank known as “ET-94” to the east end of the California Science Center and bolt it to the solid rocket motors in the new building.

This piece provided all the propellants for the main engines in the space shuttle, Rudolph said, and is the only flight-ready external tank left in the world.

“Then toward the end of the month, after a great deal of Hail Marys and prayers and whatever you believe, we’re going to take the space shuttle Endeavour and we’re going to very slowly back it out,” Phillips said.

Crews will remove the back wall of the Samuel Oschin Pavilion, where the Endeavour is currently temporarily displayed, and move the space shuttle east to its new location. However, it won’t be paraded through the streets of L.A. this time, it will stay on museum property.

Once it's in place, the Endeavour will be lifted about 350 feet into the air and settled down gently into position in its new, permanent home. It will then be bolted into that external tank, which will complete the rest of the space shuttle stack.

“After that, it will be protected while we build the rest of our new building, the Samuel Oschin Air and Space Center, above and around it,” Rudolph said. “And then in a few years, we'll open it up to the public and make the whole experience available to everyone.”

The Samuel Oschin Air and Space Center will double the amount of exhibit space at the California Science Center and feature more than 100 authentic artifacts.

Ken Phillips, the curator of aerospace science at the California Science Center, talks about his vision for the new Endeavour's new home on Thursday, Dec 28.

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Makenna Sievertson for LAist

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Phillips is also responsible for orchestrating the vision of this new addition, which he describes as an invitation to “get in the game.”

He said the exhibits will go over the exploration of the universe — from the rocketships humans ride, to the robots we send to the edge of the solar system, and the telescopes we use to study the stars and galaxies beyond our reach.

There will also be interactive exhibits around NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope and an opportunity to go inside a 747 airplane on a simulated flight from L.A. to Korea.

“It's an opportunity for people to get in the game of thinking about how you make all of this stuff possible,” Phillips said. “Where do you get the ideas to create something that lets you see something that's otherwise invisible? Or go to a place that you can't visit yourself?”

Ultimately, as curator, Phillips hopes the Samuel Oschin Air and Space Center will be a gift to the city that inspires the next generation of engineers, astronauts, and explorers.

But, the California Science Center needs to secure the rest of the funding first.

They’re about $50 million short of their $400 million goal, and Rudolph said every gift makes a difference at this point.

If you want to help support the Samuel Oschin Air and Space Center, you can sponsor a tile on the Endeavour starting at $1,000, which can be paid in 10 monthly installments.

Some of the thermal protection tiles that people can sponsor to support the California Science Center and its projects.

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Makenna Sievertson for LAist

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“The space shuttle has thousands of thermal protection tiles that protected it when it came back through the earth's atmosphere on re-entry,” Rudolph said. “They’re all unique, and we thought it would be nice to let people associate their name with one.”

You can learn more about that program here.

How did the Endeavour end up at the California Science Center in the first place?

Phillips said he’s been imagining this project for more than 33 years — even before he was with the California Science Center and the Endeavour's maiden mission in 1992.

That was a crazy thing to do, he said, but Phillips figured if the museum could get one of the space shuttles, they would have an opportunity to really explain in detail how it works.

While the Endeavour is an extraordinarily complicated vehicle, Phillips noted that it’s only because people combined their individual talents for this project.

A few families visiting the space shuttle Endeavour on Thursday, Dec. 28, before it's taken off public display indefinitely.

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Makenna Sievertson for LAist

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“If you can demystify that, then people are not so afraid of it and they can say, well, maybe I can do this,” he said. “If I have an interest in this sort of stuff, I can build rocket ships. Maybe I can become an astronaut if I choose. So it's not just about preserving history, it's about inspiring the next generation for the future.”

Phillips credited Rudolph for supporting the idea, because “any sane person would probably have bet against this project.”

Once the California Science Center came up with a vision for the Endeavour, they had to convince NASA they could actually pull it off.

“We were not at all favored to win this,” Phillips noted. “I mean, people were telling me that we were out of the running even before the things were submitted.”

But one fateful morning in 2011, he got a call from a NASA administrator in Florida awarding the California Science Center the space shuttle Endeavour.

Phillips said he sat there, speechless. For three whole minutes, he was the only person to know Los Angeles was about to be this national asset’s new home.

“I think the bottom line is that all of this really is about inspiring people, and we'll do that in any way we can,” he said.

The City of Long Beach is pushing back against requests to release information about a sustained misconduct finding from the personnel file of one of its former officers — even as more details come out about past incidents.

Defense attorney Scott Sanders has requested material in the personnel files of former Long Beach Police Officer Erik Suarez after he learned Suarez was convicted on aggravated battery charges stemming from a 2019 beating in Cobb County, Georgia.

In court filings, Sanders has argued that information should have been disclosed to his client, Lonnie Jacobs, from the outset of the case. Jacobs is facing up to four years in prison on a charge that he brought a controlled substance into a jail. Sanders has argued the case should be dismissed because he alleges the initial arrest was based on Suarez misrepresenting facts and omitting evidence.

Now the defense has requested information from Suarez’s personnel file about both the Georgia conviction and an allegation that Suarez assaulted a man on the job in 2023. Sanders argues that information in the personnel file could show a pattern of misconduct by Suarez. In court filings, he also claims it could reveal a practice within the Long Beach Police Department to conceal incriminating information about its officers in protected personnel files.

“The reasonable conclusion is that the non-disclosure of Officer Suarez’s conduct and conviction is illustrative of an intentionally flawed process designed to conceal evidence that is favorable to defendants and harmful to LBPD officers,” Sanders wrote in a declaration submitted to the court on Sept. 23.

“With what we've learned so far, every defendant charged in a Long Beach case must presume that evidence is being concealed in their case,” Sanders told LAist. “Just look at the lengths the department went to in order to protect Officer Suarez's misconduct. He was arrested after violently causing serious injuries to the victim. Then just three months after being convicted in that case he used force while on-duty that the department found impermissible. Long Beach PD's response? Send him back to the streets and block defendants from finding out the truth.”

Erik Suarez from a photo in a Long Beach police file documenting his use of force during an arrest in 2023.

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LBPD

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Suarez left the Long Beach Police Department in June and is now with the Burbank Police Department, according to records from the California Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training.

The Burbank Police Department confirmed that Suarez was employed there and assigned to the field operations division. The department said it could not comment on “confidential personnel records or specific aspects of an individual’s background investigation, employment history, disciplinary history, or other personnel matters” and declined to make him available for an interview.

LAist tried to reach Suarez by calling a phone number linked to him in public records. Each time, a man answered and said he was not Suarez, but that he was in contact with Suarez. This week, that man said he had no interest in passing along the reporter's contact information.

Todd Vigus, an attorney for the Long Beach Police Department, argued in a Sept. 22 response to Sanders’ motion that the allegations surrounding Jacobs’ arrest “do not establish good cause to search the officers' personnel files for every conceivable form of misconduct, moral turpitude, discipline, performance deficiency, racial bias, or unrelated wrongdoing.”

A spokesperson for the Long Beach Police Department said in an email dated Sept. 11 they are prohibited from discussing personnel matters and internal investigations, but did confirm that the department was aware of Suarez’s arrest in Georgia.

In response to a records request from LAist, department officials on Thursday released records from a 2023 use of force investigation that determined Suarez used "unnecessary or unreasonable force" while arresting someone.

That same year, the Los Angeles District Attorney’s office investigated an allegation that Suarez committed “assault under the color of authority” but declined to press charges.

“The decision to decline prosecution in the 2023 matter was based on the evidence available at the time,” said Greg Risling, a spokesperson for the district attorney’s office. “Although we did not know of the allegation from Georgia, the facts of that case would not have been a deciding factor in that charging decision.”

How Suarez's record came to light

When Suarez left the LBPD in June, Sanders was attempting to subpoena him for questioning about why he arrested Jacobs, who is bald, when his body-worn camera footage showed a witness describing the person who threatened him with a gun as having dreadlocks or braids.

Sanders attempted to subpoena Suarez twice through the Long Beach Police Department. In response to the first subpoena, in April 2026, the department said Suarez was out of the country. After the second subpoena filed June 22, the department informed Sanders that Suarez had resigned.

According to state records, Burbank hired Suarez two weeks later, on July 6. He’d worked for the Long Beach Police Department from November 2017 until June 19, 2026 — three days before Sanders made a second subpoena attempt.

Still attempting to subpoena Suarez, now at his home, an investigator working for the defense of Lonnie Jacobs — the man Sanders represents in the drug case — found Suarez had been convicted of misdemeanor aggravated battery in 2022 in Cobb County, Georgia.

According to court records LAist obtained from Georgia, the incident took place in a Waffle House in 2019.

The victim told the Long Beach Press-Telegram that Suarez threatened to kill him while beating him on the ground. The victim said he has vertigo and problems with his vision from the beating, according to the newspaper.

The Cobb County District Attorney’s office charged Suarez with two felony counts of aggravated battery. In 2022, Suarez pleaded guilty to misdemeanor aggravated battery. He served a year on probation and was ordered to take an anger management class.

According to the article, the victim said he was told by Georgia prosecutors that Long Beach police officials had been informed of the charges, and was surprised to see that Suarez was still working for the police department years later.

Records released by the Long Beach Police Department show Suarez received a two day suspension for bringing discredit to the department by leaving the scene of the assault without reporting it.

Former Long Beach Police Officer Erik Suarez received a two-day suspension after the 2019 arrest in Cobb County, Georgia.

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Long Beach Police Department

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Sanders argues in his filing that these details support the motion to open up Suarez’s police records. In California, police personnel files are mostly shielded from public disclosure, except under certain circumstances including findings of unnecessary use of force and misconduct while on the job.

Defendants who believe those personnel files may include information relevant to their case can file what’s called a Pitchess motion in court. If a judge agrees with the motion, the court will have an opportunity to review personnel files and pull out information deemed relevant to the case at hand.

Sanders filed an initial Pitchess motion before a preliminary hearing, but the court denied his request. He filed another motion to disclose Suarez’s personnel files once the defense learned about the Georgia conviction. Long Beach filed in opposition to that motion, arguing information in Suarez’s personnel file is not relevant to the Jacobs’ case. It is that motion that a judge is considering now.

Why this case could have broader implications

Sanders argues the Georgia conviction should have been disclosed not through a Pitchess motion, but proactively under Brady v. Maryland, a 1963 Supreme Court case that established prosecutors’ obligation to disclose information that could help defendants win their case. In his motions, Sanders is asking not only for information about Suarez’s conviction and potential misconduct, but for evidence that the Long Beach Police Department employs a similar tactic to hide information about other officers in their personnel files.

“Quite clearly, there can be no safe haven within a police department that is created to facilitate the concealment of improper acts by its officers or to hide the department’s efforts to protect officers from receiving deserved consequences,” Sanders wrote in a Sept. 23 supplement to the second Pitchess motion. “It is a near-certainty that the department is engaging in a pervasive practice of non-disclosure.”

On Thursday, a judge in Long Beach granted a continuation in the case against Jacobs, rescheduling the hearing for the second Pitchess motion for Nov. 12.

What the DA knew — and didn’t know

Shortly after Sanders began defending Jacobs, a deputy district attorney on the case notified the defense that the DA’s office investigated Suarez in 2023 for “assault under the color of authority,” but did not file charges.

In his latest filing Sanders argues this disclosure suggests that the district attorney’s office was aware of its obligations to disclose evidence under Brady, and would have disclosed the Georgia conviction if they knew about it.

The district attorney’s office handbook instructs prosecutors to turn over evidence that directly opposes guilt or could be used to impeach a witness, including felony convictions, misdemeanors or other conduct that “reflects on believability, misconduct involving moral turpitude.”

A charge evaluation worksheet submitted to the court provides some details about the 2023 incident but, according to Sanders, leaves other questions unanswered.

The worksheet says that Suarez was assisting other officers responding to a domestic violence call in 2023. The other officers had arrested and handcuffed a man who, according to the worksheet, was “forcefully resisting” arrest. The worksheet says the man bit Suarez. The account reports Suarez then punched the man in the face, and the man lost consciousness for about four minutes. That narrative is based on reports from body-worn camera footage, reports and interviews, the worksheet says.

The district attorney’s office decided not to press charges against Suarez citing “insufficient evidence” showing Suarez used more force than necessary.

In the latest filing, Sanders raises several issues with the worksheet provided by the district attorney’s office and is seeking more information about what happened during the incident.

The worksheet says Long Beach “opened an investigation into the allegation that Suarez used excessive force” in March 2023, two months after the incident.

In response to a records request from LAist, the Long Beach Police Department said they had identified one investigation with a sustained finding of “unnecessary or unreasonable force” from 2023 in Suarez’s personnel file. Later that same day, the department released the investigatory files related to that incident.

The records show the internal affairs investigation was prompted by deputy chief Gerardo Prieto, who also requested a criminal investigation, and resulted in a three-day suspension for Suarez.

A summary of a meeting between Suarez and LBPD leadership states that Suarez and James Trott, an attorney with the Long Beach Police Officers Association, argued the use of force was reasonable. Trott said the incident “should and alone and not be associated with the prior out-of-state incident”, according to the summary.

The worksheet from the district attorney’s office does not reference any sustained findings by the Long Beach Police Department. It does not describe the allegation or explain where the allegation came from, a key omission, according to Sanders.

The report summarizes an interview with the man Suarez punched. It does not include any statements from that man and explicitly states they did not seek a compelled interview with Suarez.

Importantly, Sanders argues, the report makes no mention of the conviction against Suarez in Georgia that occurred just a few months earlier.

The man Suarez punched was convicted of resisting arrest during the incident. Sanders argues that he was entitled to know about Suarez’s conviction, and that the district attorney’s office should have known about the conviction while deciding whether or not to charge Suarez.

The district attorney’s office handbook states that when considering pressing charges on someone, prosecutors shall “review all available police reports and the accused’s background and prior record.”

“The fact that the accused’s alleged conduct is consistent or inconsistent with prior proven conduct may remove or create a reasonable doubt,” the handbook explains.

The district attorney’s office told LAist the office was not aware of the Georgia conviction at the time of their 2023 investigation.

What makes The Little Sugarplum special? Three sisters started the traveling pop-up bakery, each with a different role in running it. There’s the medical student-turned-baker, the hospitality worker-turned-marketer, and the blackjack dealer-turned-accountant.

What else? Their cinnamon rolls, which have become the main attraction, include a variety of rotating flavors like strawberry shortcake, matcha, coffee and ... mashed potatoes. Yeah, you read that right.

About the owners

Jenna Agpaoa grew up with her two sisters in Valley Center, a city in San Diego County, where their passion for baked goods began to take shape.

The Amish cinnamon roll

Soon after starting the bakery, their content went viral after sharing a recipe for a traditional Amish cinnamon roll, which notably uses mashed potatoes as an ingredient. They learned the recipe from an old neighbor growing up, who was Pennsylvania Dutch, a group descended from German-speaking immigrants from the 17th and 18th centuries.

Now you can find them vending all across Southern California, including at places like Ubefest and 626 Night Market.

Their fall flavor menu

They offer other baked goods in addition to cinnamon rolls, including cookies, brownies and bread.

The Little Sugarplum's fall menu.

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Courtesy The Little Sugarplum Bakery

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What should we try next?

In a case watched across the country and as voting begins in the midterm elections, the Supreme Court blocked a congressional map in Missouri that was aimed at netting Republicans another seat in the U.S. House.

This is the third time the high court has blocked the redistricting plan that could have helped ousted Democratic Congressman Emanuel Cleaver by increasing the number of Republican voters in his district.

The court warned that changing maps now would cause "electoral chaos." The decision requires the state use the same districts provided to voters in 2022 and 2024. That's even though a different map was used in the primaries there last month.

It comes after weeks of conflicting rulings in state courts and federal courts. Elections officials in Missouri already started mailing some absentee ballots last week using the old districts and some argued it would be too late to change them.

Missouri lawmakers passed the new map last year at the behest of Trump. It was part of his nationwide strategy to draw more GOP-leaning seats to prevent Republicans from losing the House.

A citizen petition makes the redistricting subject to voter approval

Usually, states redistrict at the start of each decade. The redistricting battle set off by Trump ended with the GOP besting the Democrats by tilting about nine or 10 more districts, including Missouri's fifth district, their way. Republicans currently only hold a few seats' advantage in the House.

But opponents of the new Missouri map successfully gathered citizen signatures to put it to a vote on the November ballot.

The Missouri Supreme Court ruled earlier this month that the ballot question meant the 2025 GOP-backed map never went into effect and was never law – even though it had been used in the Aug. 4 primaries. The state's high court blamed Republican Secretary of State Denny Hoskins for proceeding with the GOP map in the primaries even though it hadn't been approved by voters.

The U.S. Supreme Court in its ruling today backed that up, noting that the state court had said in May - before the primary - that the GOP map would require voter approval before it could be used.

The U.S. Supreme Court had declined on Sept. 10 to intervene in the state court's ruling but allowed the case to continue.

Simultaneously, Republicans sued in federal court and won backing for the GOP map from a federal judge and then, last week, a federal appeals court. That sent the case back to the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled against Republican lawmakers today.

In general, Republicans argued that their map should be used because more than a million Missourians cast votes in the primary using the map. Opponents of redistricting argued voters hadn't approved the map and blamed Republican officials for dragging out the process and of trying to force through the new map.

Jason Rosenbaum covers politics for St. Louis Public Radio.

Copyright 2026 St. Louis Public Radio

Shohei Ohtani has become the first player to lead Major League Baseball jersey sales at the end of four straight seasons since the sport started tracking figures in 2010, among four players in the top 20 on the two-time World Series champion Los Angeles Dodgers.

New York Yankees slugger Aaron Judge was second for the second straight season, MLB and the players’ association affiliate MLB Players, Inc. said Friday. Judge finished third in 2023 and ’24.

Pete Crow-Armstrong of the Chicago Cubs was third, up from 16th at the end of last season, and Atlanta’s Ronald Acuña Jr. was fourth, an increase from 11th last year.

San Diego’s Fernando Tatis Jr. was fifth, followed by the Dodgers’ Freddie Freeman, Philadelphia’s Bryce Harper, the Dodgers’ Mookie Betts and Yoshinobu Yamamoto, and the New York Mets’ Juan Soto.

Munetaka Murakami of the Chicago White Sox was 20th, and he joined with Ohtani and Yamamoto to become the first trio of Japanese players in the top 20.

Texas’ Corey Seager was 11th, followed by Toronto’s Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Boston’s Adley Rutschman, the Phillies’ Kyle Schwarber, Pittsburgh’s Paul Skenes, Seattle’s Cal Raleigh, Cincinnati’s Elly De La Cruz, San Diego’s Jackson Merrill and Arizona’s Nolan Arenado.

MLB’s list tracked sales on Fanatics’ sites, including MLBShop.com, since opening day.