The Brief

From pie eating contests to pig races, county fairs are known for competition. But one contest that's had a surge in popularity in recent years is one you might not expect: competitive table setting.

A 2021 documentary about the table settings competition at the Orange County Fair called Set! and some highly-viewed TikToks have led to a growth in the number of participants in the contest.

Fair officials say it usually takes a few weeks to a month before they have to cut off the number of entries because of space constraints. However, this year they were over capacity in a little more than a week.

The entrants included long-time tablescapers and some first-timers — including YouTubers Grace Helbig and Mamrie Hart and Emmy-winning production designer James Connelly, who documented their respective tablescaping journeys on social media.

What is competitive table setting?

Some of the table setting entries on opening day of the 2025 OC Fair.

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Also called tablescaping (a term that was popularized by Food Network host Sandra Lee in the 2000s), table setting contests don’t have anything to do with how fast you can set a table or even involve any real food or drinks.

They’re contests where participants choose from a theme — this year’s Orange County Fair competition offered “Murder Mystery,” “Tropical Paradise,” “Steampunk,” “A Table For the Gods,” and “Find Your Happy” as options — make up a menu tied to the theme, and then decorate a mini-sized table with place settings that must match the menu (List a salad, but no salad fork? That’s points off).

How do you win?

First off, there’s a lot of work involved to make a display that will match up to the competition.

As veteran tablescaper Bonnie Overman put it, “ I never see any tables where people are just throwing stuff together. This is  building, construction, sewing, planning.”

Bonnie Overman's Clue-themed entry into the "Murder Mystery" category.

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At the Orange County Fair, themes are released about six months in advance. Then the weekend before the fair, participants get four hours to set up their displays.

That’s when the judges step in. This year there were four judges evaluating the entries on these equally-weighted criteria:

• Suitability for occasion and theme (25%)
• Decorativeness/eye-appeal (25%)
• Creativity and originality (25%)
• Correctness (25%)

There are also some additional rules laid out in the competition guide, like a height limit (6.5 feet), and bans on the use of any real food or disposable tableware.

And the rules are strict!

Lisa Minsky, who won “Best of Division” and “Most Creative” this year for her entry into the “Find Your Happy” category, recalled being docked points the first time she entered the competition in 2007.

Lisa Minsky's award-winning entry featured miniatures showing some of her happiest dining memories.

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Minsky included a champagne bottle in her display that the judges determined violated the “no real food” rule. While she had poured the champagne out and put the cork and foil back on to make it appear unopened, she said the judges “didn't know that, cause I did that so well. So I was marked down for that.”

It’s not easy being a judge, either.

Annie Morgan, a chef who has been judging the table setting competition for two years, said the opening day of the fair is stressful for her, because that’s when participants can see if they’ve won.

An table setting competition entry called "Sweet Memories at Farrell's" sports an honorable mention ribbon.

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She likened judging the displays to serving on a jury in a high-profile case: “There are guidelines and the public doesn't understand the guidelines that the jury has, so they may come out with a verdict that the public can't understand and will protest against. And it's the same thing here.”

The scores and judges’ comments are posted next to the table setting displays, and sometimes the participants have complaints.

“If they haven't won,” Morgan said, “they get upset. And then I'm getting emails that I have to explain myself.”

What do you win?

Awards for first, second, third, Division Winner and Best of Show include a monetary prize ranging from $20 to $150, and then of course there are ribbons associated with each.

Other awards that come with smaller ribbons (and no cash prize) include “Best Use of Color” and “Best Napkin Folds.”

Why do people do it?

“You have those people who just want to be creative,” Morgan said. And then, “you have the people who love competition, and want to, you know, dip their toe into whatever that looks like.”

Minsky, who’s entered the competition four times, added: “ It's a passion. When you get started, it gets more fun as you go along, you know? 'Cause you sit back and you go, ‘Oh, I can do this, I can do that.’”

She also likes being able to incorporate what she considers her main hobbies, painting and miniatures, into her designs.

Table setting entries in the "Tropical Paradise" category, including Tim Wyckoff's on the right.

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For Tim Wyckoff, a longtime tablescaper, the initial draw was the thrill of winning.

Wyckoff has been tablescaping for 30 years, since he was a teenager, at the Ventura County Fair.

“I saw that the little tiny table settings that the kids got to do got these giant ribbons, and I'm like, ‘Oh, I want that. I want the giant ribbon,’” he said.

Wyckoff said the hobby also helped him through one of the hardest times of his life.

“ I was almost homeless. I was jobless," he said. "So it was one of those things of like, I don't have a lot going for me, I'm not very happy, everything kind of sucks. This makes me happy. Like, let me do this.”

This year, Wyckoff took home second place for his tiki-themed entry that featured an animatronic bird that he programmed to sing along to Hawaiian music. And he said he’s not stopping tablescaping any time soon.

 ”I don't ever wanna stop,” he said. “Although it's getting harder, harder to top myself. I'm like, ‘I built an animatronic. What's next?’”

How to see it

What: OC Fair, open through Aug. 17
Where: 88 Fair Dr, Costa Mesa
Info: Tickets, hours and instructions can be found here

Editor’s note: This article has been updated with a clarification about how interest in the OC Fair competition has increased this year.

Temps will climb a few degrees today with highs now reaching the mid-80s.

Along the Orange County coast, temperatures will range from 72 to 80 degrees, and between 79 and 85 degrees for inland areas.

The L.A. County beaches will see temperatures from 72 to 77 degrees, and between 80 and 83 degrees inland.

Temperatures in the valleys and the Inland Empire will stay in the mid-80s. Daytime highs in the Antelope Valley meanwhile will remain in the upper 60s to mid-70s range.

Facing legal challenges, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development has withdrawn a policy that Los Angeles-area homelessness officials say would have caused thousands of people to lose their subsidized housing.

Most federal funding for homelessness programs flows into the L.A. region through HUD’s Continuum of Care grant competition program. Last month, HUD changed its funding rules, limiting how much local governments can spend on permanent housing to 30% of their award totals.

The region currently spends about 90% of its more than $200 million budget covering people’s rent, according to the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority.

Why this matters

The HUD policy that was withdrawn Monday would have caused more than 5,000 households to lose their rental subsidies, officials said.

In recent weeks, California and other states sued HUD, claiming the new federal policies “guarantee that tens of thousands of formerly homeless individuals and families will be evicted back into homelessness.”

A U.S. district judge in Rhode Island was poised to consider an emergency request to block HUD’s controversial policy when the agency announced it would revoke it.

What's next

HUD authorities said they plan to issue a revised notice about the funding soon, according to a statement posted on the agency’s website.

LAHSA spokesperson Ahmad Chapman told LAist that the agency anticipates most of the HUD rule changes to remain in the revised notice. He also said LAHSA plans to keep moving forward with its funding application and reallocating more than $100 million away from permanent housing and toward other interventions. The submission deadline is Jan. 14.

“LAHSA will continue to monitor this situation closely and may extend or even cancel the process as circumstances warrant," Chapman said.

Sarah Mahin, director of L.A. County’s Department of Homeless Services and Housing, said the HUD policy would redirect funding from programs with proven track records and that have helped move people off the streets and into safe, permanent homes.

“We hope officials heed the warnings from countless homelessness and housing experts nationwide and continue to invest in what we know works: permanent housing accompanied by the supportive services that help people stay housed,” she said.

Raul Malo, the leader of the country band The Mavericks and one of the most recognizable voices in roots music, died Monday night, according to a representative of the band. The guitarist and singer had been battling cancer.

He was hospitalized last week, forcing him to miss tribute shows staged in his honor at the Ryman Auditorium over the weekend. He was 60 years old.

"No one embodied life and love, joy and passion, family, friends, music and adventure the way our beloved Raul did," read a statement released by his family.

Malo's group, The Mavericks, mourned the loss of their leader in a social post.

"Anyone with the pleasure of being in Raul's orbit knew that he was a force of human nature, with an infectious energy," the statement read. "Over a career of more than three decades entertaining millions around the globe, his towering creative contributions and unrivaled, generational talent created the kind of multicultural American music reaching far beyond America itself."

Over a career that lasted four decades, The Mavericks lived up to the band's name, challenging expectations and following a roadmap crafted by Malo's expansive musical upbringing as the son of Cuban immigrants in Miami.

"I grew up in a very musical household. There was all kinds of music around always," he told WHYY's Fresh Air in 1995. "We listened to everything from Hank Williams to Celia Cruz to Sam Cooke to Bobby Darin. It didn't matter."

In 1992, Malo told NPR that his widespread influences weren't always understood or appreciated in his South Florida hometown, but he said that his struggle to fit in taught him to trust his instincts. Malo had become the guitarist and lead singer for The Mavericks in 1989, alongside co-founders Robert Reynolds and Paul Deakin, and his roaring, sentimental voice defined the band's sound and remained its constant as the group's catalog moved from slow, tender ballads to full-throttle rock songs. In 1995, the band released its biggest hit with "All You Ever Do Is Bring Me Down," a swinging country song featuring an assist from Tex-Mex accordion legend Flaco Jimenez.

As the band grew in members and devoted listeners, The Mavericks continued to push the boundaries of American music, weaving a richly layered tapestry of textures and stories. With more than a dozen studio albums, The Mavericks collected praise and recognition from the Academy of Country Music, the Country Music Association and the Recording Academy. Although they took a hiatus for several years, Malo never stopped making music — and returned to his bandmates with renewed inspiration.

Following its 30th anniversary, the group released its first full-length Spanish album in 2020, aptly titled En Español. The record reimagined Latin standards and folklore-tinged popular tunes; it also made an implicit political statement about Latin music's contributions to American culture.

"In our own little way, if we could get somebody that perhaps is on the fence on issues and hears us singing in Spanish and perhaps reminds them of the beautiful cultures that make up what this country is trying to be and what it should be, so be it," Malo told NPR at the time. "Yeah, I'm OK with that."

The following year, the Americana Music Association recognized The Mavericks with the Trailblazer Award. In 2024, the band released its last studio album, Moon & Stars. The release coincided with news of Malo's cancer diagnosis, which he discussed openly with NPR's Ayesha Rascoe.

Before being hospitalized last week, Malo had been scheduled to perform with The Mavericks at a pair of tribute concerts held this past weekend at the legendary Ryman Auditorium in Nashville. Over 30 artists, including Patty Griffin, Jim Lauderdale and Steve Earle, still gathered to pay tribute to Malo, with some of the proceeds of the night going to the cancer prevention organization Stand Up To Cancer.

According to his spokesperson, though Malo was too ill to attend, the concert was streamed to his hospital room Friday night.

Copyright 2025 NPR

The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department has mostly blocked efforts to investigate misconduct within its ranks, according to the county inspector general, who announced his retirement Tuesday after 12 years on the job.

In an open letter, Max Huntsman cited examples of how the county has thwarted his efforts to watchdog the department, which in the past has been plagued with accusations that deputies use excessive force and lie on the job.

Huntsman said one example is former Sheriff Alex Villanueva’s misuse of criminal enforcement powers to discredit critics, such as opening an investigation into former County Supervisor Sheila Kuehl.

Villanueva was sheriff from 2018 to 2022.

“My requests for investigation were rejected,” Huntsman’s letter reads. “Even after receiving an official subpoena, the Sheriff’s Department has failed to turn over records regarding the improper surveillance.”

He added: “Sometimes members of the public wonder if frightening new surveillance techniques will be used for improper purposes under the guise of criminal investigation. Sadly, the answer is yes.”

Before becoming inspector general in 2013, Huntsman, 60, was a deputy district attorney who specialized in public corruption. He told LAist on Tuesday that the inspector general job wasn’t something he wanted initially.

“I didn’t want to go work for politicians,” he said. “But the need to provide some kind of independent reporting and analysis was significant.”

The Sheriff’s Department issued a statement saying it valued the Office of the Inspector General and all county oversight bodies and that it wished Huntsman and his family well in his retirement.

The department said it “continues to make great strides in advancing the department in a transparent manner.”

LAist also reached out to the county CEO and county counsel for comment, but they declined.

After George Floyd

In the letter, Huntsman says the state of California has come a long way in strengthening the power of local law enforcement oversight bodies, in part because of the 2020 murder of George Floyd by police in Minneapolis.

After widespread protests — and lobbying by Huntsman — the state provided authority to inspectors general to enforce subpoenas requiring law enforcement agencies to hand over documents and authorized external investigation of police misconduct, including deputy gang conduct.

The Sheriff’s Department — backed by county lawyers — has resisted.

“Los Angeles County may not follow those laws, but it will not be able to avoid them forever,” Huntsman wrote. “The county refuses to require the photographing of suspected gang tattoos in secretive groups that the undersheriff has identified as violating state law.”

“Just a few weeks ago, we requested some information regarding an investigation, and a pair of commanders refused to give it to us,” Huntsman said in an interview with LAist.

Origin of the office 

The Inspector General’s Office was created by the county Board of Supervisors in 2013 in response to a scandal that included former Sheriff Lee Baca covering up the abuses of jail inmates.

Baca went to federal prison.

Since then, the office has issued dozens of reports with recommendations for improving living conditions inside jails that some have described as “filthy,” stopping abuses of juveniles inside juvenile halls and providing shower privacy for inmates as part of the requirements under the Prison Rape Elimination Act.

“All of these abuses were reported by the Office of Inspector General and recommendations were ignored,” Huntsman wrote. Often, it took court orders to enact change.

“When we first blew the whistle on the torturous chaining of mentally ill prisoners to benches for 36 hours at a time, it was only a court order that ended the practice,” he wrote. “Time and time again, this pattern repeated itself.”

Huntsman wrote the county has permitted the Sheriff’s Department to block oversight and defunded the Office of Inspector General by removing a third of its staff.

“It's not surprising the county has driven out two successive chairs of the Sheriff Civilian Oversight Commission,” he wrote.

“Government always claims to value transparency and accountability, but shooting the messenger is still the most common response to criticism,” Huntsman wrote.

Despite setbacks, Huntsman values work 

Huntsman told LAist on Tuesday that he was proud of his career as a public servant.

“I’ve really enjoyed the work and I’m sad to have it end,” he said.

It’s a sentiment he echoed in his letter, adding that despite the setbacks and roadblocks, he was proud of the people with whom he shared the office.

“It has been my honor to work with a talented, brave and tireless group of public servants to ensure that the public knows what its government is doing,” he wrote.

He noted the inspector general’s reports are fact-checked by the office and public.

“When government abuses occur, they are sometimes kept secret, but that is no longer the case for much of what is happening in Los Angeles County,” Huntsman wrote. “What you do about it is up to you.,”

Huntsman’s last day is Friday.