Topline:
The Rev. Jesse Jackson has died at the age of 84.
About his career: An American civil rights leader, minister, and politician, Jackson was a protégé of Martin Luther King Jr. and in the 1980s reshaped Democratic politics with two galvanizing presidential campaigns.
Read on... for more about his activism, connections to King and his family's plans to honor his life.
The Rev. Jesse Jackson, an American civil rights leader, minister, and politician, who was a protégé of Martin Luther King Jr. and in the 1980s reshaped Democratic politics with two galvanizing presidential campaigns, died Tuesday at the age of 84.
"Our father was a servant leader — not only to our family, but to the oppressed, the voiceless, and the overlooked around the world," the Jackson family said in a statement. "We shared him with the world, and in return, the world became part of our extended family."
According to the Jackson family, public commemorations will take place in Chicago.
Jackson was born Oct. 8, 1941, in a tiny house in Greenville, S.C., where he began his lifelong work fighting for civil rights.
While visiting home for Christmas break during his freshman year at the University of Illinois, Jackson needed to borrow a book but couldn't get it from the town's white-only library. Six months later, on July 16, 1960, he and seven other students held a sit-in at the library and were arrested for protesting. After his experience as a member of the "Greenville Eight," Jackson transferred to North Carolina Agricultural & Technical College, a historically Black school in Greensboro, N.C.
His burgeoning activism would bring him in 1965 to march alongside Martin Luther King Jr. and others in Selma, Ala., answering King's call for supporters of a local voting rights campaign. Jackson became a close ally of King — eventually leaving his graduate studies at the Chicago Theological Seminary to join King's Southern Christian Leadership Conference. He became the Chicago coordinator and a year later, in 1967, the national leader of the SCLC's Operation Breadbasket, which was dedicated to improving the economic conditions of Black communities in the U.S.
In April 1968, Jackson traveled with King to Memphis, Tenn., where he witnessed the civil rights leader's assassination.
King's death marked the beginning of the end for Jackson's association with the SCLC. By 1971, he split with the group and formed his own organization, called Operation PUSH. The group continued Jackson's work to increase Black Americans' political strength and political opportunities.
Jackson later merged Operation PUSH with his National Rainbow Coalition to form the Rainbow PUSH Coalition, which became a prominent civil rights organization.
Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, Jackson, who became an ordained Baptist minister in 1968, increasingly became an influential player on the national stage.
In 1983, Jackson organized a voter registration drive in Chicago that is credited as being the key factor for the election of the city's first Black mayor, Harold Washington.
In November 1983, he announced his first bid for president, becoming the second Black person to seek a major party's nomination after Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm in 1972. His rousing speech at the 1984 Democratic Convention in San Francisco appealed to a "Rainbow Coalition" of disenfranchised Americans and people of color.
"This is not a perfect party. We're not a perfect people," Jackson said. "Yet, we are called to a perfect mission. Our mission to feed the hungry, to clothe the naked, to house the homeless, to teach the illiterate, to provide jobs for the jobless, and to choose the human race over the nuclear race."
Though Jackson had significant support for his bid, with his campaign registering more than a million new voters and winning 3.5 million votes, his run for president was not without controversy. Jackson drew heated criticism for making a disparaging remark about New York's Jewish community and for his relationship with Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, who has said the Jewish community is to blame for Black oppression.
Jackson would apologize for his comments and distance himself from Farrakhan, but those efforts were not enough to clinch the Democratic nomination. He placed third in the Democratic primary behind former Vice President Walter Mondale and Sen. Gary Hart. Still, it was a landmark achievement for Jackson and a growing Black political movement.
In 1988, he ran again, expanding his outreach to more white Americans, and reached an emotional crescendo during an impassioned speech at that year's Democratic convention. Although Jackson won major presidential primaries, the first African American to do so, he came in second to the Democratic Party nominee, Massachusetts Gov. Michael Dukakis. Until Barack Obama's election in 2008, Jackson was the most successful Black U.S. presidential candidate.
Though Jackson never ran for the presidency again, he remained a powerful player in the Democratic Party, pushing for the leaders to adopt a platform that recognized issues important to Black voters.
Jackson traveled around the globe throughout his life using his voice to expose international problems and highlight civil rights abuses. In several instances, he negotiated and secured the release of American hostages held captive abroad — most notably from Syria, Cuba and Serbia. From 1992 to 2000, he also hosted a weekly discussion show on CNN, Both Sides with Jesse Jackson, where he addressed current social and political issues.
In 2000, Jackson received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest honor a civilian in the U.S. can receive. But controversy was not far behind. A year later, news that Jackson fathered a daughter with a former member of his staff became public.
When the scandal broke, he said, "This is no time for evasions, denials or alibis. I fully accept responsibility and I am truly sorry for my actions."
Jackson found himself apologizing again in 2008, this time to Obama, for crass remarks he made about the presidential candidate in an aside to a reporter on a Fox News program. Obama accepted the apology. And despite other comments critical of the tone of some of Obama's campaign speeches, Jackson was present at his victory party at Grant Park in Chicago and wept.
"I knew that people in the villages of Kenya and Haiti, and mansions and palaces in Europe and China, were all watching this young African American male assume the leadership to take our nation out of a pit to a higher place," Jackson told NPR after Obama's election night.
Jackson saw the rise and painful fall of the promising political career of his oldest son, Jesse Jackson Jr., who was elected to Congress from Illinois in 1995 and resigned in 2012 citing health issues. After leaving office, he was investigated for misuse of campaign funds and pleaded guilty in 2013 to spending $750,000 in campaign funds for personal use. He was sentenced to 30 months in prison.
"I speak really today as a father," Jackson Sr. said at the courthouse the day of the sentencing. "Most of my career has been spent outgoing — helping someone else on something I really understood socially and politically. But this one, of course, is home."
In 2017, Jackson announced he had Parkinson's disease, a degenerative disorder that affects movement. In November, his organization revealed Jackson was diagnosed in April with progressive supranuclear palsy, a rare neurological disease similar but different from Parkinson's disease. Despite his illness, Jackson often showed up at protests against police brutality, calling for justice for victims of police shootings.
In August 2020, Jackson spoke at a news conference in Kenosha, Wis., where police shot Jacob Blake, a Black man, several times.
"Today, there's a moral desert, top-down. The acid rain is coming, top-down," he said. "That kind of moral desert hurts all of America."
He compared the demonstrations that summer to those that occurred during the Civil Rights Era, comments that echoed earlier remarks he made to NPR that June about the nationwide protests that erupted after another Black man, George Floyd, was murdered by a white police officer in Minneapolis.
The marches were "hopeful signs," Jackson said. "The marchers are full of hope. They believe something can happen. On the move, we're not going backwards."
In 2021, Jackson contracted COVID-19. He was hospitalized and spent several weeks in a rehabilitation facility. He stepped down as president of the Rainbow PUSH Coalition in 2023.
On Nov. 12, the coalition announced Jackson was hospitalized for PSP, which affects body movements, balance, vision, speech and swallowing.
Jackson is survived by his wife, Jacqueline, and six children.
Copyright 2026 NPR
Topline:
A number of marine animals that don’t normally live here are showing up off the coast of Southern California because of El Niño's warm waters.
The details: The animals are mostly native to the ocean off the coast of Mexico, but scientists say they are following the warm waters that fuel El Niño north to Southern California. Scientists expect the climate system to have a dramatic effect on our marine ecosystems over the next few months.
The creatures: An endangered olive ridley sea turtle was seen laying eggs in the sand near Seal Beach on Sept. 16. A fisherman also recently caught a longfinned bigeye from the Venice fishing pier, a bright red-orange fish that normally lives off of Mexico and Baja. Other sightings include a whale shark off the coast of Malibu, hammerhead sharks and possibly a yellow-bellied sea snake.
Native species: The warmer waters could pose a threat to native marine life by disrupting food sources and fueling toxic algae blooms. Marine mammals like seals and sea lions are especially susceptible to the changes. If you see a sick or stranded animal, keep your distance and contact authorities.
Read on … to learn more about these unusual ocean visitors.
Unusual creatures are visiting Southern California’s coastal waters.
One of them, a sea turtle, nested near Seal Beach last week for the first time in California history.
And they’re here because of El Niño.
Forecasters say there is more than a 90% chance that this year’s El Niño is going to be very strong, and most Southern Californians are bracing for record-high surf and heavy rains that usually come with the climate pattern.
Residents got a taste earlier this month of what could come this fall and winter, when surf from Hurricane Marie caused widespread damage along the Southern California coast.
But the region is also starting to see a lesser-known effect of El Niño: sea creatures that don’t normally live here showing up in our waters.
Scientists say they are following the warm waters that fuel El Niño, which are likely to have a dramatic impact on our marine ecosystems over the course of the season.
“ Animals like a certain range of temperature, just like you're setting the thermostat at home to a certain temperature that you like,” said Bill Ludt, a curator of ichthyology, or the study of fish, at the Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History.
During an El Niño year, the normally cool waters off the California coast warm significantly. As that happens, animals that normally live in warmer, tropical waters off the coast of Mexico, like sea turtles, move north.
The endangered olive ridley sea turtle crawled out of the ocean near Seal Beach on Sept. 16, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. It dug a hole and laid its clutch of eggs inside before burying it and shuffling back into the sea.
A turtle was also seen nesting near the Huntington Beach Pier. Officials have fenced off both nesting sites.
The Seal Beach turtle is just one of a number of unusual creatures that have been spotted off the Southern California coast lately.
A whale shark was spotted near the Channel Islands, off the coast of Malibu. There have also been reports of hammerhead sharks and other large fish like mahi mahi and bullet tuna.
Like the turtle, some creatures have never been recorded in California waters before. A fisherman recently caught a longfinned bigeye from the Venice fishing pier, a bright red-orange fish that normally lives off of Mexico and Baja California.
“It is a wide-ranging species, just not typically in California,” Ludt said. “So it will occur in Baja, as well as other parts of the world. But for California, this is a first.”
Ludt and his colleagues at the Natural History Museum collected the longfinned bigeye and are preserving the physical specimen in the museum’s archive.
“We just want to document things that are rare along our coast, as well as the common things,” Ludt said. “Our goal is always to just document life and how it changes over time on our planet.”
According to Ludt, the creatures Southern California is seeing so far are just the beginning of what’s to come this year.
Animals like the sea turtle and the sharks are what scientists call pelagic animals, meaning they live mostly in open oceans, often migrating in search of food.
Ludt said it will take longer for sea life to show up that doesn’t normally migrate over long distances, like smaller fish. He said we could eventually see colorful reef fish, such as damselfish, angelfish or pufferfish, similar to those one might see living among corals in Hawaii.
Sea snakes are also likely to move into our waters. There was a report of a yellow-bellied sea snake washing up at Crystal Cove in Orange County, but scientists have yet to confirm its authenticity.
Yellow-bellied sea snakes have also been seen here during past El Niño events. They are venomous but don’t pose a threat to humans unless handled.
These warm-water animals will likely retreat south, and some may die and wash ashore when waters cool down again later this winter.
While the newcomers thrive in warm waters, California’s native sea life does not.
The heat can affect their immune system and metabolism. That, in turn, means less food is available for other animals that eat fish, including seals, sea lions and dolphins.
Another danger is algal blooms. Warmer water allows more algae to grow, and at times, the algae can be toxic, especially to marine mammals.
Scientists say these stressors will likely leave some animals sick and stranded.
“They'll beach, and they'll be acting up weirdly, sometimes maybe more aggressively than they normally would,” said Jorge Velez-Juarbe, curator of marine mammals at the L.A. County Natural History Museum.
Velez-Juarbe added that we could also see more deaths of marine mammals over the next few months.
El Niño’s warming trend is also a window into the effects of a changing climate. Velez-Juarbe said it's an example of how ongoing ocean warming due to climate change can affect Southern California’s marine environments.
Thankfully, Velez-Juarbe said it's unlikely El Niño will cause long-term damage to native species populations. They will likely rebound when ocean temperatures fall later this winter.
If you see a sick or stranded animal, the best thing to do is to keep your distance and call authorities. He also recommends reporting the animal to NOAA’s stranded animal hotline at (866) 767-6114.
If you come across an unusual sea creature along the shore, you can also email the team at the Natural History Museum at nature@nhm.org.
In this edition:
The Lucas Museum opens, free pancakes at Redbird, Watts Towers festivals and more of the best things to do this week.
Highlights:
The big day is finally here: The Lucas Museum of Narrative Art opened its doors in Expo Park on Tuesday. But have no fear if you missed the big, celeb-studded bash last weekend (I’m just here scrolling through the Vanity Fair photos of Justin Trudeau and Katy Perry, too, my friends); the museum is here to stay. Keep those reviews coming, and I’m planning to work remotely from that gorgeous reading room one day soon.
Elsewhere on LAist, you read up on Long Beach Aquarium’s plans to save an endangered frog and find your favorite fat bear to vote for during Fat Bear week.
Licorice Pizza’s music picks this week include:
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday
Saturday
Sunday
Through Feb. 2027
Marciano Art Foundation
4357 Wilshire Blvd., Mid-Wilshire
COST: FREE WITH ONLINE RESERVATION; MORE INFO
One of my favorite things about writing this column every week is that over time, I get to see how art and culture are on a continuum in L.A. This was one of those weeks. I went to the opening of the new Tacita Dean installation, Film, at Marciano Art Foundation. Dean is a British artist and champion of analogue film (it’s no surprise that she counts Christopher Nolan among her many fans and friends). In April, her work was shown at the now-closed Marion Goodman Gallery, and it’s been a joy to get to know a new-to-me artist this year who has such deep ties to film and L.A. culture. While you’re there, the Foundation also has an enjoyable new exhibit from Belgian artist Pierre Leguillon on artists and advertising.
Through Sunday, Sept. 27
The Actors’ Gang
9070 Venice Blvd., Culver City
COST: FROM $28; MORE INFO
This play, first produced in the early 2000s, looks at one woman's search for her son's remains years after he was killed in the attack on Pan Am 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland. Presented loosely as a Greek tragedy and inspired by true events, the drama looks at the ties that bind people through loss and stars Actors’ Gang regular Kate Mulligan.
Saturday and Sunday, Sept. 26-27
Redbird
114 E. 2nd St. Downtown L.A.
COST: FREE; MORE INFO
I hope these pancakes look like Leia’s buns! To celebrate the opening of the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, Redbird is offering a free short stack for your table; just show a ticket from your visit to the newest art museum in LA. And don’t worry: If you’re brunching pre-museum, just use the passphrase “may the force be with you” to secure the sustenance.
Saturday and Sunday, Sept. 26-27
Watts Towers Arts Center
1727 E. 107th St., Watts
COST: FREE; MORE INFO
Two festivals are on at Watts Towers, with both days featuring music and culture at Simon Rodia’s ship-shaped temple of tile. Saturday is the 44th Annual Watts Towers Day of the Drum Festival, and Sunday brings the 49th Annual Simon Rodia Watts Towers Jazz Festival.
Saturday, Sept. 26, 6 p.m. to 10 p.m.
HVW8 Gallery
661 N. Spaulding Ave., Fairfax District
COST: FREE; MORE INFO
President Barack Obama granted clemency to Mr. Wash in 2016 after 21 years of wrongful incarceration. Self-taught while in prison, Mr. Wash has seen his work shown and collected across L.A. at the Hammer Museum, LACMA and the Huntington Library; his latest work is on view at David Zwirner Gallery. Celebrate his first decade out and support his Art By Wash Studio and Community Center in Compton, which will offer all-levels art classes and workshops, creative residencies and “reintegration resources for individuals returning home from prison” at the HVW8 party.
Through Sunday, Oct. 18
Colony Theatre
555 N. Third St., Burbank
COST: $60; MORE INFO
The Colony puts on consistently fun, solid shows, and Catch Me If You Can is no exception. This version of the musical adaptation of the 2002 Leonardo DiCaprio movie is directed by Colony regular Michael Donovan, who most recently directed the theater’s The Wedding Singer. The original musical about con artist extraordinaire Frank Abagnale scored four Tony nominations.
Friday, Sept. 25, 6 p.m.
Zibby’s Bookshop
1113 Montana Ave., Santa Monica
COST: FREE; MORE INFO
It’s that time of year again, and Zibby’s Bookshop in Santa Monica has gathered some student-essay-writing experts to help your teenager through the application process, whether that’s a personal statement for college, a local private or boarding school or any other application. The art of the essay is in self-discovery, so bring your budding writer and strap in.
Saturday and Sunday, Sept. 26-27, 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.
ARK/8
115 S. La Brea Ave., Inglewood
COST: FREE; MORE INFO
I’ve missed iam8bit’s shows, so I’m delighted to see this new partnership with SEGA for all the other '90s gamers out there. It celebrates 35 years of Sonic the Hedgehog with 35 Years of Speed: The Sonic Art Exhibit, and will feature original works from more than 30 renowned artists who pay homage to Sonic’s journey throughout the years.
Topline:
State and local lawmakers are joining immigrant rights groups in urging Governor Gavin Newsom to sign a bill that would bar California law enforcement from moonlighting for ICE.
Why it matters: If implemented, the bill would ban California police, sheriffs and other law enforcement from taking on second jobs that involve “arresting, detaining, transporting, or deporting” people.
What police unions say: The Peace Officers Research Association Of California, which represents officers across the state, has spoken out against the bill, arguing that “policies like this don’t improve public safety.”
What the bill’s supporters argue: Pointing to multiple deaths involving federal immigration agents in recent months — from Minneapolis to Houston — and to a recent shooting in Austin, supporters like José Madera, who directs the Pasadena Job Center, say: “We don't need our local police to be part of that violence.”
What's next: Gov. Newsom has until Sept. 30 to sign or veto the bill.
Go deeper: Los Angeles protesters join nationwide call to action against ICE
State and local lawmakers are joining immigrant rights groups in urging Gov. Gavin Newsom to sign a bill that would bar California law enforcement from moonlighting for ICE.
Assemblymember Isaac Bryan, who represents Angelenos from South L.A. to Mar Vista, introduced AB 1537 in January. If implemented, the bill would ban California police, sheriffs and other law enforcement from taking on second jobs that involve “arresting, detaining, transporting, or deporting” people.
The bill has made its way through the state legislature and is now on the governor’s desk. Newsom has until Sept. 30 to sign or veto it.
At a press conference outside L.A. City Hall on Wednesday, José Madera, who directs the Pasadena Job Center, pointed to multiple deaths involving federal immigration agents in recent months — from Minneapolis to Houston — and to a recent shooting in Austin. “We don't need our local police to be part of that violence,” he said.
“ICE is a lawless, rogue agency that is terrorizing our communities, separating our families and kidnapping our neighbors,” said Bruno Huizar, supervising policy manager at the California Immigrant Policy Center. “Governor Newsom must sign AB 1537 into law to protect Californians.”
L.A. City councilmember Hugo Soto-Martínez, whose own parents were undocumented, said it pained him to see immigrant parents go to work and to church in fear of being separated from their children.
“If you’re a public servant, you should be serving the public — not helping ICE tear families apart,” he added in a follow-up email statement.
The bill, dubbed “No side jobs for ICE” by its proponents, would also require officers to report secondary employment offers relating to immigration to their employers.
“If a law enforcement agent gets a conditional offer from an immigration enforcement agency, that will be part of their employment records. And that will be subject to a public records act request,” said Shiu-Ming Cheer, a licensed attorney at the California Immigration Policy Center. “This is aimed at bringing transparency, so that we know how many officers are actually getting offers to work as an ICE agent or a Border Patrol agent.”
The Peace Officers Research Association of California, which represents officers across the state, has spoken out against the bill, arguing that “policies like this don’t improve public safety.” The Los Angeles Police Protective League did not immediately respond to LAist’s request for comment.
The bill is part of a growing effort to bar local law enforcement from engaging in the ongoing mass deportation effort. The L.A. City Council approved a motion in March, barring city employees from holding second jobs with federal immigration enforcement agencies.
In Santa Ana, the City Council recently adopted a policy that prohibits employees from obtaining outside work that involves federal immigration enforcement activities.
Topline:
Gov. Gavin Newsom has signed a bill aimed at protecting children who are abused. The law, which went into effect this week, is named “Gabriel’s Law,” after Gabriel Fernandez— an 8-year-old boy in Palmdale who died in 2013 after being tortured and abused by his mother and her boyfriend.
The backstory: Gabriel died in May 2013, after months of abuse from his mother and her boyfriend. His mother and her boyfriend were both sentenced. A teacher had reported signs of abuse to the county, but social workers did not remove him from the home and ended the investigation.
Keep reading: To learn more about what the law changes.
Gov. Gavin Newsom has signed a bill aimed at protecting children who are abused.
The law, which went into effect this week, is named “Gabriel’s Law,” after Gabriel Fernandez — an 8-year-old boy in Palmdale who died in 2013 after being tortured and abused by his mother and her boyfriend.
“It devastated the community. Still has,” said State Assemblymember Tom Lackey (R-Palmdale), who worked on legislation related to Gabriel’s case for years. “It hasn't gone away, right? It’s something we still acknowledge.”
Since Fernandez’s death, the Antelope Valley has seen a number of high-profile child deaths at the hands of their parents.
The new law requires social workers to make sure a child gets emergency medical care when needed, and it makes it easier to prosecute social workers who knowingly falsify records.
Officials said there had been warning signs about Fernandez’s abuse, but social workers with the L.A. County Department of Children and Family Services failed to follow up on them. The high-profile case prompted internal reforms in the agency.
Gabriel died in May 2013, after months of abuse from his mother and her boyfriend. He was found with a number of injuries, including a fractured skull, broken ribs and BB pellets lodged in his body. His mother and her boyfriend were both sentenced.
A teacher had reported signs of abuse to the county, but social workers did not remove him from the home. Then they ended the investigation. Prosecutors charged the social workers with child abuse, but the charges were later dismissed.
“He was literally tortured. And there were many, many, many documented events, and there are many encounters that he had with people that lacked follow-up,” Lackey said.
Before this week, the law said that social workers may authorize care if a child needs immediate emergency care, but did not require it. Gabriel’s law requires a social worker to secure medical care for a child.
“ They call for an ambulance or escort the child to an emergency room— make sure a physician has the opportunity to provide some level of remedy and documentation of the injury,” Lackey said.
It also clarifies the law so that social workers who are guilty of falsifying or destroying public records can be imprisoned or fined.
Lackey’s previous legislative efforts related to Fernandez’s case failed over the years. He introduced at least five different pieces of legislation that failed to advance.
“I'm not even saying that I blame the pushback and the concern, because if you're too aggressive, there's a tendency to accuse people of wrongdoing when they are not guilty of wrongdoing, so we wanted to make sure that the balance was reasonable,” he said.
Lackey terms out this year. “We're trying to do something as a community to not only pay tribute to [Gabriel], but to prevent it from reoccurring,” he said.
