The Brief

When Lilly Lion graduated from the prestigious American Film Institute in June 2024, she was anxious about her prospects.

“It was pretty rough,” Lion said. “The job options were bleak.”

She had enrolled in film school because she wanted to be a director. The movies that inspired her were independent dramas like the films of acclaimed French director Céline Sciamma. But leaving film school, she needed to take whatever job she could find.

“I needed work fast or else I was going to move back to Oregon," Lion said. "And I knew a lot of people working in the vertical world, a lot of the AFI producers.”

That’s how Lion found herself doing second assistant director and script supervising work on sets for micro dramas like Flash Marriage to Mature Tycoon and Pregnant Heiress Pampered by Five Uncles.

Lilly Lion, 30, graduated from the director’s program at American Film Institute in June 2024. In a tough job market for film production, she found regular work in the emerging market of vertical shorts.

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James Chow

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LAist

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What is a micro drama or vertical short?

Vertical shorts or micro dramas are shot vertically to be optimized for watching on a phone. Each episode is usually one to two minutes with a series lasting 20 to 100 episodes.

These shows are available on specific micro drama apps like Reel Short or Drama Box, and they’re designed to be binged.

“The best way I can describe them is basically soap operas for the TikTok era,” said Robert Steiner, media analyst for Luminate, an entertainment industry analytics company. “Very low budgets, huge episode counts, and  the most common subplots of these shows are ‘I secretly married a billionaire’ or ‘my secret life as a werewolf.’”  

Vertical shorts first took off in China around the beginning of the pandemic and have since spread globally. The growth of revenue for the industry has been massive over the last year. In January of 2024, micro dramas made $23 million; this January, $122 million.

What's the impact on the job market in L.A.?

According to Rolling Stone, there are an estimated 30 to 40 vertical shorts productions a month in L.A. These jobs are not as coveted as union jobs. They pay less and can have grueling shooting schedules.

But for Lilly Lion, the recent AFI directing grad, she’s been really grateful to have work at all.

“The benefit of working on a vertical is that they're happening all the time,” Lion said. “They're always employing. As a director and as a writer, I'm able to keep really fresh.”

Lion says most of the people she works with on these shoots are also recent grads who are trying to get their feet in the industry's doors.

And Lion is feeling more hopeful about her career now than she was a year ago.

 “ I'm in a place where I can shoot my next short film, and I'm currently editing a music video,” Lion said. “I feel a lot better now than when I graduated on an independent level. I can't speak for the industry though.”

Are micro dramas the future of Hollywood?

“I don't think micro dramas are going to be winning Emmys anytime soon,” said Steiner, media analyst for Variety. “But I do think it would be unwise for the mainstream industry to look down upon this corner of the industry. If this growth continues, it's only up from here.”

University of California officials announced Wednesday they have offered admission to a record number of California students. Around 102,000 residents were offered seats, about 1,400 more than last year. UC also admitted about 29,400 California community college transfers, another record high, officials said.

In Southern California, UCLA offered seats to 57% of California residents who applied, UC Irvine 52% and UC Riverside 87%. Around 2,500 of the admitted California students at UCLA are first-generation college students.

“For generations, a University of California education has been one of the state’s most powerful engines of social mobility, opening doors for talented students from every background and region of the state,” said UC President James B. Milliken. “The record number of California students we’re welcoming this year reflects UC's enduring commitment to expanding opportunity while preparing the next generation of leaders, innovators, educators and public servants."

UC has also increased its offer of admissions to out-of-state students and international students.

Why it matters

UCs increasing California student admissions is tied to a deal the university system struck with lawmakers after facing increased complaints from parents and students that the top UC schools — UCLA, UC Berkeley and UC San Diego — were so hard to get into.

The deal, UC’s Multi-Year Compact, requires UCs to increase in-state students by 1% every year and make it easier for community college students to transfer. In turn, the state would increase its funding to UCs to make up for the loss of revenue from non-state students — about a 5% increase every year.

The University of California has said it's on track to meet that goal.

Race and ethnicity in admissions

Earlier this year, the Justice Department accused UCLA of “intentionally” selecting students based on their race, favoring Black and Latino students. This is part of a larger trend of the Department of Justice pursuing legal action against the University of California in President Donald Trump’s second term, including suing UCLA over allegations that the university allowed antisemitism on campus. The Justice Department also unsuccessfully demanded a range of concessions to bring UCLA more in line with its ideology, in addition to more than $1 billion in fines. The administration also tried to freeze the university’s research funding, prompting an effort to have the state of California be a backstop.

But admission trends in race stayed mostly the same as in previous years.

Around 6% of California students offered admissions at UC identify as Black, proportional to the state’s Black population, while around 38% of the in-state admitted students are Latino. Around 40% of the state’s population is Latino.

Around 18% of the in-state students offered admissions identified as white and 33% Asian.

We’ve all had a problem neighbor at one time or another, but what if they howled at the moon?

That’s what West Hollywood is dealing with right now at a so-called “coyote condo,” where a pack has taken over a construction site, leading to complaints from residents.

Now, officials are making the property owner take action.

How we got here

Coyotes often show up in Southern California’s urban areas looking for food, but these ones are sticking around.

The pack is squatting in an unfinished site near the corner of North Spaulding Avenue and Romaine Street.

The area was supposed to become a 22-unit condominium building, according to the city. However, construction stopped in 2024 and permits have since expired.

The roughly 19,500-square-foot lot is fenced off. Neighbors have reported coyotes traversing the bare wood frames, though it’s unclear if they’ve caused any other problems besides being a nuisance.

What’s next

West Hollywood said its Neighborhood and Business Safety Division is in touch with the owner’s representative.

“As with any privately owned property, the owner is responsible for maintaining the site,” the city said in a statement.

Officials are requiring the owner to “promptly” retain a wildlife control operator that specializes in humane wildlife management. That expert is tasked with assessing and recommending next steps, so it’s still unclear how the coyote problem will be dealt with.

The city of West Hollywood follows a coyote coexistence plan, which only recommends lethal action for unprovoked human attacks. Wild animal relocation is also generally illegal under state regulations because moving them can disrupt local ecosystems and spread disease.

However, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife can give written permission to relocate coyotes under certain circumstances. The city says it will update residents on its website as new information becomes available.

In the meantime, don’t feed the coyotes and take caution when you’re in the area. Keep pets on a leash and indoors, if you live close. Coyotes are known to attack small animals. Young children can also get targeted, but it’s less common.

You can learn more about how these urban canines live in our coyote guide.

A state appeals court ruled Monday that Long Beach must rehire an officer it fired four years ago after he was accused of lying in official reports.

The unanimous decision from the three-judge panel upholds a previous ruling from a city employment panel and a lower court. It also brings an end to a roughly five-year legal saga during which the city filed two appeals in an attempt to keep former Long Beach police Officer Dedier Reyes off the force, even at a time when the department has struggled to fill vacancies.

Long Beach City Attorney Dawn McIntosh said she was “disappointed” by Monday’s decision by the appeals court, but said her office does not plan to file any further appeals.

Monday’s ruling means Long Beach owes Reyes more than four years of pay he has missed since his dismissal, and the city must offer him a job with the police department that is on par with his previous position as a patrol officer. Records from Transparent California show Reyes’ base salary was $121,948 in his last full year at the LBPD.

The city fired Reyes in 2022, shortly after he was charged with one count of filing a false police report and one count of perjury for allegedly lying about his observations during a 2018 gun arrest. A jury ultimately acquitted Reyes and his less-experienced partner, Officer David Salcedo.

But the charges, the city’s firing of the two officers and the criminal trial that followed, cast doubt on their credibility. As a result, prosecutors dropped dozens of cases where the two made arrests or would’ve needed to testify to make the case.

Reyes, who was training Salcedo, was accused of lying and perjuring himself when he wrote in a February 2018 police report that he recognized two gang members standing outside a Long Beach taqueria and then saw one go inside and leave a bag containing a gun.

Surveillance video from the taqueria made internal affairs investigators question how Reyes could have seen what was happening inside the restaurant and also showed he arrested the wrong gang member for allegedly carrying the bag with the gun.

Reyes later told internal affairs investigators that he “made a mistake in this police report,” according to an interview transcript from a separate civil lawsuit.

Reyes and Salcedo continued working and weren’t criminally accused for nearly four years after the incident. Then-District Attorney Jackie Lacey reviewed the case and decided it didn’t merit charges, but when George Gascón became the new District Attorney in 2021 — after making police reform central to his campaign — he brought charges against the officers.

After their acquittal on the criminal charges, a city employment panel ruled they must be rehired, but Long Beach sued to try to block that decision.

After reviewing all of the evidence, the three-judge appeals panel sided with Reyes on Monday. They found it plausible that he mistakenly recalled the events leading up to the 2018 arrest and noted that the city “identified no apparent motive” for him to falsify the police report, according to their ruling.

When the city fired Reyes, it noted that he had racked up 14 use-of-force reviews and 11 citizen complaints since 2010, according to court documents. But the department determined that all of those uses of force were within policy and none of the citizen complaints were determined to have merit, the court noted in its ruling.

Long Beach has, however, been sued twice over Reyes’ alleged misconduct, resulting in payouts of $550,000 and $499,800.

After Monday’s ruling, Reyes will have the option of rejoining LBPD.

Salcedo has already been rehired and assigned to work patrol, LBPD Executive Communications Officer Allison Gallagher wrote in an email last October.

Canter's Deli turns 95 this year, and the iconic Jewish deli and coffee shop will sell its hot pastrami sandwich — with coleslaw, pickle and chocolate chip rugelach — for 95 cents.

Is there a catch?

No. But dine-in only, limit one per customer.

I don’t eat meat

Lucky you — a plant-based corned beef substitute is available.

Why it matters

The Fairfax institution has been feeding Angelenos since 1953, serving everyone from the neighborhood's Jewish community to the Supreme-loving skate punks who arrived decades later.

Co-owner Marc Canter, the third-generation owner, put it best: Canter's is the place where "grandkids grow up and bring their grandkids."

Why 95 cents?

Canter says the price is purely symbolic of the anniversary, not the actual cost — they charged 50 cents for the 50th anniversary and 75 cents for the 75th.

The history

Now three generations deep, the family has logged roughly 159 years combined behind the counter: Canter's grandfather, about 50; his father, about 65; and Marc himself, 44 and counting.

The sprawling namesake business started in 1931, when Marc Canter’s grandparents sold corned beef sandwiches off a cart in Jersey City before landing in Boyle Heights on Brooklyn Avenue (now César Chávez Avenue).

Canter said his Aunt Selma struck out on her own in 1948 at age 23 and moved the business to Fairfax. Her parents joined her there in 1953. One current employee has been on staff since 1964 — 62 years and counting.

Despite the neighborhood's changes, Canter's hasn't: No remodels, no menu overhauls. The matzo ball soup, potato pancakes, and cheese blintzes have never left.

"The ancestors are watching from above," Canter said, "so you have to keep [going] to make them proud."