Topline:
99 Ranch Market, the popular Asian grocer, introduced limited edition mini-tote bags at select locations for $2.99.
Sound familiar? Last year, Trader Joe’s limited edition mini-totes went viral, selling out within minutes of their debut.
Read on… to find out why these mini-totes represent a new kind of Asian American sensibility.
When Tiffany Luke saw a video of a limited edition mini-tote bag from her favorite supermarket chain on social media about two weeks ago, her impulse was to gun it to her local store.
"I told my husband … 'We need to get in the car right now because I want to go see if they have the tote bags,’" said Luke, who is Taiwanese American and lives in Irvine.
You'd be forgiven if you thought the bags in question were from Trader Joe's. Those went viral and sold out in minutes last year. Luke already has one of those.
The items she wanted were from 99 Ranch, the ever-expanding chain of Asian supermarkets that have been a staple of Chinese-speaking communities in Southern California for four decades.
Immigrants were once its primary clientele, but if these zeitgeist-y bags are any indication, 99 Ranch is no longer your parents' Tawa Supermarket.
Luke ended up getting six mini-totes at the Irvine store — for her sister and her mom too.
" I shop the most at 99 Ranch Market for my grocery store needs. So it was just really cool to have a little mini tote bag version," she said.
And being the seasoned influencer that she is, Luke quickly posted about her latest acquisitions.
There are many, many Asian supermarkets in SoCal, but for those living in areas where Chinese is a major language — even if you have never set foot inside one — you've probably seen or heard of 99 Ranch Market.
The chain was founded by Roger Chen, a Taiwanese immigrant living in Orange County who got so tired of driving to Chinatown for groceries that he decided to open his own supermarket for a growing population of transplants like him and his family. In 1984, his first store broke ground in Westminster — a precursor to 99 Ranch, or Tawa (大華) in Chinese. Today, the chain has more than 60 stores across the country, according to its Facebook page, with an outsized presence in California.
Wei Li, a professor at Arizona State University whose research focuses on immigrant communities, remembered going to the market's now shuttered Chinatown location as a doctoral student at USC in the 1990s.
"I really loved it," Li said. "Especially in traditional Chinatown, grocery stores are often very tiny and carry some items but not like a huge variety."
But when 99 Ranch opened, she said, "it's all of sudden like, oh my gosh, it's a huge supermarket, similar to mainstream supermarket, but tailored to Chinese Americans and Chinese immigrants."
At the time, Li was doing research on the San Gabriel Valley — which she viewed as a new kind of ethnic suburb that was unlike Chinatowns or enclaves where immigrants traditionally gathered and lived, often in isolation from the rest of society.
Li called these new types of communities, such as Monterey Park, "ethnoburbs" — made up of more skilled, educated and economically mobile newcomers arriving through new U.S. immigration policies since the 1960s.
"They are more outward looking," Li said, adding that these ethnic suburbs are "multi-ethnic, multi-national, multi-lingual and often multi-racial."
Chains such as 99 Ranch are part and parcel of these spaces, launched by this new wave of immigrants catering to those with similar sensibilities seeking a more big tent experience.
As ethnoburbs evolve, so do their homegrown businesses, informed by the post-immigrant generations who are adept at navigating not just across cultures within the U.S., but beyond it.
"Folks who have grown up here in America, been socialized by American institutions, I can definitely see those generations bringing that influence back into these ethnoburb communities," said Samuel Kye, an assistant professor of sociology at Washington University in St. Louis. " It seems like these totes are one example of that."
And some second- and third-generation Asian Americans are opting to stay in or move into these ethnoburbs.
Like Luke, who was born in San Dimas, grew up in Newport Beach, went to college in L.A., then moved to Irvine about six years ago to be closer to her immigrant parents. Occasionally, she travels to Taiwan to see her grandmother.
" Asian culture is a very big thing in Irvine," said Luke, who told her Vietnamese American husband recently that she was grateful to be living in the O.C. city. "We have within a five- to 10-minute drive five Asian supermarkets — like Korean markets, Chinese markets, Japanese markets."
99 Ranch is now run by Chen scions, who grew up watching their dad grow the family business. Their aim — to make 99 Ranch a household name across the country.
One way to do that is to ride the zeitgeist.
"A generation ago, you're mostly depending on word of mouth among ethnic community members to be able to bring audiences to these grocery stores," Washington University’s Kye said.
There are all kinds of mainstream cultural ways to get the word out, precisely because these businesses — as well as their clientele and the people who run them — comfortably straddle so many different worlds, he added.
"It's a combination of second-, third-generation immigrants who are both proud of their ethnic heritage, but also proudly American," Kye said.
The mini-tote, he said, could be thought of as "an item that symbolically represents both of those backgrounds."
Judging by the popularity of these now-sold-out totes, 99 Ranch is onto something.
"Growing up, 99 Ranch Market wasn't as big as it is now," Luke said. "Seeing that it has grown in popularity to the point where people see these tote bags and they get excited about it — makes me happy to see that too."
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With fewer than six weeks to go before the City of L.A.’s June election, candidates running for City of L.A. and Los Angeles Unified School District offices have raised a combined $19 million, according to records from the L.A. City Ethics Commission.
Campaigns for mayor, District 11 City Council member and city attorney have emerged as the most funded races.
Candidates for mayor lead the pack: Mayoral candidates Karen Bass and Adam Miller are leading all L.A. city candidates in fundraising, with $3.7 million and $2.7 million raised so far, respectively.
Different sources: Miller, a tech entrepreneur and leader of multiple nonprofits, has loaned $2.5 million to his own campaign and raised just $223,000 from donors since entering the race in February. Bass, on the other hand, had already gathered more than $2.3 million in contributions by January. She’d received some of those donations as far back as July 2024.
Read on … to see fundraising data for all candidates running for office
With fewer than six weeks to go before the June election, candidates running for City of L.A. and Los Angeles Unified School District offices have raised a combined $19 million, according to records from the L.A. City Ethics Commission.
Campaigns for mayor, District 11 City Council member and city attorney have emerged as the most funded races.
Here’s how they stack up:
Mayoral candidates Karen Bass and Adam Miller are leading all L.A. city candidates in fundraising, with $3.7 million and $2.7 million raised so far, respectively.
The candidates have tapped into very different sources to fund their campaigns.
Miller, a tech entrepreneur and leader of multiple nonprofits, has loaned $2.5 million to his own campaign and raised just $223,000 from donors since entering the race in February.
Bass, on the other hand, had already gathered more than $2.3 million in contributions by January. She’d received some of those donations as far back as July 2024.
The city’s matching funds program has also given Bass a nearly $874,000 boost over Miller, who did not qualify to receive a 6-to-1 match from the city on donations that meet certain criteria.
Nithya Raman, City Council member for L.A.’s District 4, has had the quickest growth in donor support out of all candidates for mayor after entering the race in February.
She’s received a combined $1.1 million from direct contributions and matching funds from the city.
Former reality TV star Spencer Pratt has received about $538,000 in contributions, and Presbyterian minister and community organizer Rae Huang has taken in about $273,000.
Traci Park, who is the current City Council member for the 11th district, has brought in about $1.4 million so far through contributions and matching funds.
Faizah Malik is an attorney at the nonprofit law firm Public Counsel and is challenging Park for her council seat. She has raised about $632,000.
This race also has the largest amount of outside spending across the city and LAUSD.
About $972,000 has been spent in support of Park, including about $634,000 from the Los Angeles Police Protective League and $297,000 from a committee sponsored by United Firefighters of L.A. City.
Unite Here, a labor union representing hospitality workers, has spent more than $220,000 in support of Malik.
Hydee Feldstein Soto, the incumbent city attorney, has raised nearly $1.2 million in contributions and matching funds.
Marissa Roy, deputy attorney general, has raised nearly $1 million in her race to unseat Feldstein Soto.
Deputy District Attorney John McKinney and human rights attorney Aida Ashouri have raised about $73,000 and $14,000, respectively, in the race.
If you have a tip, you can reach me on Signal. My username is jrynning.56.
Topline:
An appeals court on Friday blocked President Donald Trump's executive order suspending asylum access at the southern border of the U.S., a key pillar of the Republican president's plan to crack down on migration.
What the court said: A three-judge panel from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit found that immigration laws give people the right to apply for asylum at the border, and the president can't circumvent that. The panel concluded that the Immigration and Nationality Act doesn't authorize the president to remove the plaintiffs under "procedures of his own making," allow him to suspend plaintiffs' right to apply for asylum or curtail procedures for adjudicating their anti-torture claims.
The backstory: On Inauguration Day 2025, Trump declared that the situation at the southern border constituted an invasion of America and that he was "suspending the physical entry" of migrants and their ability to seek asylum until he decides it is over. Advocates say the right to request asylum is enshrined in the country's immigration law and say denying migrants that right puts people fleeing war or persecution in grave danger.
WASHINGTON — An appeals court on Friday blocked President Donald Trump's executive order suspending asylum access at the southern border of the U.S., a key pillar of the Republican president's plan to crack down on migration.
A three-judge panel from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit found that immigration laws give people the right to apply for asylum at the border, and the president can't circumvent that.
The court opinion stems from action taken by Trump on Inauguration Day 2025, when he declared that the situation at the southern border constituted an invasion of America and that he was "suspending the physical entry" of migrants and their ability to seek asylum until he decides it is over.
The panel concluded that the Immigration and Nationality Act doesn't authorize the president to remove the plaintiffs under "procedures of his own making," allow him to suspend plaintiffs' right to apply for asylum or curtail procedures for adjudicating their anti-torture claims.
"The power by proclamation to temporarily suspend the entry of specified foreign individuals into the United States does not contain implicit authority to override the INA's mandatory process to summarily remove foreign individuals," wrote Judge J. Michelle Childs, who was nominated to the bench by Democratic President Joe Biden.
"We conclude that the INA's text, structure, and history make clear that in supplying power to suspend entry by Presidential proclamation, Congress did not intend to grant the Executive the expansive removal authority it asserts," the opinion said.
The administration can ask the full appeals court to reconsider the ruling or go to the Supreme Court.
The order doesn't formally take effect until after the court considers any request to reconsider.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt, speaking on Fox News, said she had not seen the ruling but called it "unsurprising," blaming politically-motivated judges.
"They are not acting as true litigators of the law. They are looking at these cases from a political lens," she said.
Leavitt said Trump was taking actions that are "completely within his powers as commander in chief."
White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson said the Department of Justice would seek further review of the decision. "We are sure we will be vindicated," she wrote in an emailed statement.
The Department of Homeland Security said it strongly disagreed with the ruling.
"President Trump's top priority remains the screening and vetting of all aliens seeking to come, live, or work in the United States," DHS said in a statement.
Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, senior fellow at the American Immigration Council, said that previous legal action had already paused the asylum ban, and the ruling won't change much on the ground.
The ruling, however, represents another legal defeat for a centerpiece policy of the president.
"This confirms that President Trump cannot on his own bar people from seeking asylum, that it is Congress that has mandated that asylum seekers have a right to apply for asylum and the President cannot simply invoke his authority to sustain," said Reichlin-Melnick.
Advocates say the right to request asylum is enshrined in the country's immigration law and say denying migrants that right puts people fleeing war or persecution in grave danger.
Lee Gelernt, attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union, who argued the case, said in a statement that the appellate ruling is "essential for those fleeing danger who have been denied even a hearing to present asylum claims under the Trump administration's unlawful and inhumane executive order."
Las Americas Immigrant Advocacy Center, one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit, welcomed the court decision as a victory for their clients.
"Today's DC Circuit ruling affirms that capricious actions by the President cannot supplant the rule of law in the United States," said Nicolas Palazzo, director of advocacy and legal Services at Las Americas.
Judge Justin Walker, a Trump nominee, wrote a partial dissent. He said the law gives immigrants protections against removal to countries where they would be persecuted, but the administration can issue broad denials of asylum applications.
Walker, however, agreed with the majority that the president cannot deport migrants to countries where they will be persecuted or strip them of mandatory procedures that protect against their removal.
Judge Cornelia Pillard, who was nominated by Democratic President Obama, also heard the case.
In the executive order, Trump argued that the Immigration and Nationality Act gives presidents the authority to suspend entry of any group that they find "detrimental to the interests of the United States."
The executive order also suspended the ability of migrants to ask for asylum.
Trump's order was another blow to asylum access in the U.S., which was severely curtailed under the Biden administration, although under Biden some pathways for protections for a limited number of asylum seekers at the southern border continued.
For Josue Martinez, a psychologist who works at a small migrant shelter in southern Mexico, the ruling marked a potential "light at the end of the tunnel" for many migrants who once hoped to seek asylum in the U.S. but ended up stuck in vulnerable conditions in Mexico.
"I hope there's something more concrete, because we've heard this kind of news before: A district judge files an appeal, there's a temporary hold, but it's only temporary and then it's over," he said.
Meanwhile, migrants from Haiti, Cuba, Venezuela and other countries have struggled to make ends meet as they try to seek refuge in Mexico's asylum system that's all but collapsed under the weight of new strains and slashed international funds.
This week hundreds of migrants, mostly stranded migrants from Haiti, left the southern Mexican city of Tapachula on foot to seek better living conditions elsewhere in Mexico.
Copyright 2026 NPR
Topline:
California’s trial courts will have to collect and report data on civil arrests at their facilities, including those by federal immigration agents, under a rule approved Friday by the state’s judicial policymaking body.
Why now: The new requirement by the Judicial Council of California comes in response to an unprecedented rise in detentions by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers at superior courts across California’s judicial system, the nation’s largest. Attorneys, judges and public safety advocates have criticized the practice.
The backstory: California already prohibits arrests related to immigration offenses and other civil law violations at court buildings, except when the enforcement agency has a written order signed by a judge, known as a judicial warrant.
Read on... for more on the new requirement.
California’s trial courts will have to collect and report data on civil arrests at their facilities, including those by federal immigration agents, under a rule approved Friday by the state’s judicial policymaking body.
The new requirement by the Judicial Council of California comes in response to an unprecedented rise in detentions by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers at superior courts across California’s judicial system, the nation’s largest. Attorneys, judges and public safety advocates have criticized the practice.
“Our court users have expressed concern and hesitation about coming to court. That concern has been amplified by additional visits to the Oroville courthouse by federal officers,” Sharif Elmallah, the court executive officer of the Superior Court of Butte County, told the council of mostly judges and attorneys Friday. “We know that when individuals fear potential arrest and enforcement actions, many will choose not to appear, even when required to by court order.”
Elmallah said immigration enforcement officers apprehended several people who had cases before the court in Oroville on a single day in July. The agents have kept operating at the court, he added, including as recently as Wednesday of this week.
Victims of crimes such as domestic violence, sexual abuse and wage theft, advocates say, are declining to seek relief in court out of fear of encountering immigration enforcement there, hurting people’s access to justice.
“Making courthouses a focus of immigration enforcement hinders, rather than helps, the administration of justice by deterring witnesses and victims from coming forward and discouraging individuals from asserting their rights,” California Supreme Court Chief Justice Patricia Guerrero said in earlier statements.
California already prohibits arrests related to immigration offenses and other civil law violations at court buildings, except when the enforcement agency has a written order signed by a judge, known as a judicial warrant. But immigrant advocates, public defenders and others say the state law lacks teeth, arguing that ICE has flouted it without any repercussions so far.
Meanwhile, a bill working its way through the state Legislature aims to strengthen the ban on courthouse civil arrests and expand protections for people going to and from courts.
Under the Judicial Council’s separate new rule, the state’s 58 trial courts starting in June will be required to track and report whether officers identified themselves, presented a warrant or took an individual into custody, as well as the date and location of each incident.
While the move will help state officials understand the scope of the issue, it won’t protect people’s fundamental right to access the courts, said Tina Rosales-Torres, a policy advocate with the Western Center on Law and Poverty who estimates that ICE has conducted hundreds of arrests at California courts since January 2025, when President Donald Trump took office.
“That’s a good first step. It is good to have data. I do not think it is sufficient to meet the crisis that we are in,” she said.
“So it is going to be helpful to kind of see at least a snippet of what is happening,” Rosales-Torres added. “But then what? The Judicial Council hasn’t proposed a solution, and data is only as effective as we use it.”
Immigration arrests at California courthouses used to be rare, reserved for cases involving national security or other significant threats. As recently as 2021, during the first year of the Biden administration, top ICE officials recognized that routinely apprehending people in or near courts would spread fear and hurt the fair administration of justice.
Since last year, as authorities moved to fulfill Trump’s mass deportation promises, federal officers have approached and handcuffed at least dozens of people at court hallways, exits and parking lots in Alameda, Fresno, Los Angeles, Sacramento and other counties. In San Bernardino, TV cameras filmed agents in black vests restraining several men at the Rancho Cucamonga court parking lot in a single day this month.
Some attorneys now warn clients they could see immigration enforcement in court.
Witnesses are failing to show up, and others are opting out of fighting legitimate cases, said Kate Chatfield, executive director of the California Public Defenders Association. She and Alameda County Public Defender Brendon Woods wrote an opinion piece condemning ICE’s presence in state courts after the agency arrested a man leaving a court hearing in Oakland in September.
“It’s a foundational element of democracy to have a functioning court system,” Chatfield said. “And when people are afraid to go to court for whatever reason, you’ve really denied justice to an entire segment of our residents.”
SB 873, the bill that would strengthen California’s ban on civil arrests at courthouses, would also authorize the attorney general and those who are arrested to sue over violations. People would be entitled to damages of $10,000. The bill, by state Sen. Eloise Gómez Reyes, D–San Bernardino, is supported by the California Public Defenders Association, the Western Center on Law and Poverty and other groups.
It is part of a larger pushback in California against a surge in immigration enforcement netting more people without criminal convictions in cities’ public areas, parking lots of stores like Home Depot and at routine immigration check-ins. SB 1103, for instance, would require big-box home improvement retailers to report ICE enforcement activity at their facilities.
Other states, such as New York, also prohibit the civil arrests of people at courthouses or those traveling to and from such facilities unless an officer has a judicial warrant. The Trump administration challenged New York’s law last year, but a federal judge dismissed the lawsuit.
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Ever wondered what South Carolinian-inspired seafood tastes like? Queen's Raw Bar & Grill has you covered, put together by executive chef Ari Kolender, who grew up around the Charleston seafood scene. AirTalk Friday host Austin Cross spoke to Kolender and business partner Joe Laraja about opening up their raw bar in Eagle Rock.
What you'd find at a South Carolina raw bar: Common staples include oysters, grits and hushpuppies.
The mackerel tartare: “It’s got the acids down pat,” Austin had said about their mackerel tartare, which includes caper, dill and wasabi creme fraiche.
Read on ... to learn how their other restaurant, Found Oyster, inspired the refreshing raw bar idea for Queen's.
If you’re driving along York Boulevard toward Eagle Rock, you’ll see a variety of Mediterranean, Mexican and pizza spots.
Queen’s Raw Bar & Grill stands out as a seafood spot with a menu that offers oysters, fish-centric entrees and desserts like their derby pie. The restaurant has been around since 2023, brought to life by business partners Ari Kolender, who's executive chef, and Joe Laraja, who serves as managing director.
Queen’s Raw Bar & Grill takes inspiration from South Carolina’s seafood scene, where Kolender grew up. Unlike the New England feel of their other restaurant, Found Oyster, Queen’s focuses on southern classics and refreshing raw bar food.
What we tried: tuna tostada, mackerel tartare and pimento cheese sliders.
“The flavor is so incredible [and] intense,” said AirTalk Friday host Austin Cross about the tuna tostada. “Everything comes together perfectly.”
“It’s got the acids down pat,” Austin said of the mackerel tartare. “The capers are doing their part, and then the dill does give it that finish you get traditionally in some Jewish foods.”
