The Brief

World soccer turns its eyes to the Los Angeles area once more as Paris St. Germain and Atlético de Madrid face each other on Sunday at the Rose Bowl.

The match is part of the opening round of the FIFA Club World Cup, a tournament of 32 top club teams from around the world. The full schedule is here.

It’s a taste of the excitement to come during next year's World Cup tournament, when 48 nations will be playing against each other. It's being hosted in the US, Canada and Mexico, and Los Angeles will again be one of the venues.

“FIFA recognizes the financial importance of Los Angeles,” said Daniel Durbin, a professor of sports media at USC.

“You may have financial centers for media in New York, but really the media center of sports is in Los Angeles. It is a dynamic sports media region,” he said, because of Southern California’s large soccer-loving population, its professional soccer teams, and long history of soccer playing here.

Durbin said that history is not as well known or documented as it should be. There’s no soccer museum or formal archives, for example. Durbin attributes that to the region’s tendency to favor the new over the old.

“History has always happened too fast for Los Angeles. We don't look back,” he said.

But some soccer fans and historians in L.A. see the forthcoming club soccer games and next year’s World Cup games in the region as an opportunity to recognize some of that history.

In 1958, the Los Angeles Kickers, a team founded by German immigrants, won their first National Challenge Cup, now known as the U.S. Open Cup

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Courtesy ussoccer.com

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Immigrants as the foundation of L.A. soccer

European immigrants, from 1900 on, were key to the formation of formal soccer leagues in L.A. Those leagues included Eastern European, German, and Armenian players and fans.

That changed in the mid-20th century when many more people from Spanish speaking countries migrated to Southern California.

“You can’t tell the history of soccer in L.A. without Mexican and Latin American migrants,” said Romeo Guzman, a historian and co-director of South El Monte Arts Posse.

Through essays and other writing, Guzman has documented the Spanish speaking immigrant roots of soccer. Those roots include weekend leagues in neighborhood parks across Southern California.

Chicharito joins the Galaxy

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Courtesy LA Galaxy

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The 1958 World Cup qualifying match between the U.S. and Mexico at Veterans Memorial Stadium in Long Beach was said to have a heavily Mexico-leaning turnout.

That mix led world soccer stars such as British players George Best (arguably the first global soccer mega star in the 1960s and 70s) and David Beckham, along with Javier “Chicharito” Hernandez to come to L.A. to play professionally at different times.

Add to that the founding in Torrance in 1964 of the American Youth Soccer Organization, the engine that leads young people to high school, college and professional soccer careers.

“If soccer becomes truly a national sport in the United States, like American football and baseball and basketball, it will owe that to Los Angeles,” Durbin said.

How to remember L.A. soccer history

There used to be a plaque at the L.A. Sports Arena to honor the L.A. Aztecs soccer team that played there in the 1980s. The venue was torn down to build LAFC’s stadium.

But what about a collection of the logos, jerseys and photos of all these old L.A. soccer teams?

“There are archives. They're a little hard to find,” said Ivan Fernandez, an amateur historian and journalist who’s written about L.A. soccer history.

He’s had conversations with others like him, he said, “about hopefully one day trying to get some university somewhere, maybe a coalition of universities to help us build an actual physical archive of not just L.A. soccer memorabilia, but California soccer in general."

His article on the L.A. Aztecs in L.A. Taco a few years ago gathered some of that history.

For the time being, he’s working on more journalism projects on that local soccer history to be finished right around the time of next year’s World Cup matches in L.A.

Democratic Sen. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland said Thursday that he will run for Senate Majority Leader in the next Congress, setting up a challenge to Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer after the party swept to power in the midterm elections.

Van Hollen said in a statement that “the American people called for change” and that is why he is running.

“It’s now on us to meet this moment, and to do that we need new leadership,” Van Hollen said. “This is not about any one person — it’s about answering the call of the American people. That is why I’m running for Senate Majority Leader.”

Van Hollen’s challenge comes after he said he was considering a bid and after Schumer has said he has the necessary support to win. The closed-door, secret-ballot election will be held in early December.

The race will be the first contested election for Democratic leader in decades. The question of whether to reelect Schumer has already divided the caucus and many senators will not say publicly how they will vote. They have privately deliberated about what message to take from the election, and Schumer recruited many of the party’s winning candidates and raised money for them.

Schumer has been talking to Democratic senators since the election about forming an agenda for 2027.

“I’m going to win it,” Schumer told The Associated Press in an interview last week.

The Los Angeles Unified School District may lease spaces in its elementary, middle and high schools to use as childcare spaces for babies. 

The district is putting together a list of qualified providers and looking to identify spaces it could lease.

Ranae Amezquita, executive director of the district’s early childhood education division, said once the district has a list of spaces, it will start a request for proposal process that childcare providers can apply to during the 2027-2028 school year.

Why is LAUSD looking to expand childcare options now?

In April, LAUSD board members passed a resolution in an aim to expand childcare and early education slots in the district.

The district currently runs about 90 preschools, called early education centers, for children 2 to 4 years old, but it has only four centers that serve children under 2. “The problem with infant care — the reason we can't open them ourself at this time, is because of the cost,” said Amezquita at a board meeting Thursday.

The need for local infant and toddler childcare is high. In 2022, L.A. County assessed that the county only had enough licensed spaces to care for 4% of kids under 2. At the same time, the district has been facing declining enrollment amid lower birth rates. The resolution to expand early childhood care aims to, in part, strengthen the enrollment pipeline into the district.

Learn more about affordable childcare in LA

• For many California parents, paying for childcare means racking up credit card debt
• Why childcare in California may get harder to find

In an extraordinary turn of events, the state’s judicial watchdog has removed Judge Robert Draper, 84, from the Los Angeles County Superior Court after 14 years of service. He faced several counts of misconduct prior to losing reelection earlier this year.

The California Commission on Judicial Performance concluded Tuesday in an 87-page decision that Draper engaged in 17 instances of behavior that made him no longer fit for office. He hasn’t heard a case since 2023 because of the issues.

“Judge Draper persistently violated the standards governing judicial behavior and engaged in extensive and severe misconduct,” the commission said in a statement, adding that it was “aggravated by his refusal to accept responsibility for his misconduct, and his lack of insight or remorse for his misconduct and its effect on others.”

Draper previously admitted to some of the claims and denied others in interviews with LAist earlier this year. In a statement this week, he called the decision “deeply disappointing.”

“Any individual put under such intense and meticulous scrutiny likely would find themselves in a similar situation, albeit with slightly different facts,” he said.

Draper said the investigation came at a time when he raised concerns within the judiciary, and that it was used “presumably for purposes of dismissing his dissent by discrediting him.”

He plans to pursue “other avenues” to change the system, according to the statement. Draper's attorney declined to share what those would be.

 “It’s very rare for a judge to be removed from the bench,” said Laurie Levenson, a professor at Loyola Law School. “It’s the ultimate sanction against a judge.”

The commission has only removed 15 judges since it gained the authority to do so in 1995, according to its records, with the last for an L.A. County Superior Court judge happening in 2006.

The misconduct

The decision comes after a yearslong investigation and legal proceedings with independent evaluators. Prior to that, Draper had never been disciplined. According to the commission, his long list of misconduct includes:

• Making “offensive” and “insensitive” comments in court about race and gender.
• Sending “abusive” emails and unnecessary graphic pictures of his naked backside to colleagues.
• Acting with “deliberate defiance of his presiding judge’s orders” by continuing to access court systems and work on cases while on involuntary leave.

Some allegations the commission reviewed were dismissed for lack of evidence, including one that he inappropriately touched an attorney’s hair.

What happens next

While Draper lost reelection, his seat is now empty sooner than usual. Judge-elect Tal Khan Valbuena is on deck to replace him in January.

It’s possible Gov. Gavin Newsom may decide to appoint Khan Valbuena sooner. The court could also move another judge into his department.