The Brief

Baseball superstar Shohei Ohtani made his first public appearance as a Dodger on Thursday after signing a megadeal earlier in the week.

Keeping the No. 17 he wore with his last team, the Los Angeles Angels, Ohtani put on a white and blue jersey with his number at an introduction event at Dodger Stadium Thursday.

"I can't wait to join the Dodgers," Shohei said, speaking through his interpreter Ippei Mizuhara. "They share the same passion as me, have a vision and history all about winning, and I share the same values."

It was the first time the former Angels player has spoken publicly since signing a 10-year, $700-million contract after becoming a free agent in the offseason. The previous largest deal was inked in 2019 by Ohtani's now-former teammate Mike Trout on the Angels, which was for $426.5 million over 12 years.

What the move means for LA's Japanese diaspora

Ohtani's move to L.A. is seismic news across Dodgerland, but his arrival carries special excitement for the area's large Japanese diaspora.

The fact that a Japanese athlete is now the highest-paid player in major league baseball — well, in any U.S. sport — isn't lost on Greg Toya. He told LAist he’s bursting with pride as a third-generation Japanese American and life-long Dodgers fan. So is his 92-year-old father, who Toya now plans to take to a Dodgers game so he can see Ohtani.

Greg Toya (l.) poses with friends at Angel Stadium in Anaheim while wearing No. 17 on his cap — Shohei Ohtani's number.

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Courtesy of Greg Toya

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Greg Toya (l.) and his friend LAist Senior Editor George Kiriyama enjoy a Dodgers-Angels game at Dodger Stadium on July 8, 2023

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Courtesy of George Kiriyama

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"Shohei Ohtani being Japanese is an important and vital part of our Asian American diaspora that needs to be celebrated and I definitely celebrate," Toya said.

The Dodgers organization has had ties to Japan going back decades. Ohtani is the eleventh in a line of Japanese-born players to wear Dodger blue, starting with Hideo Nomo in 1995. The two-way talent will play for manager Dave Roberts who was born in Japan to an Okinawan mother and U.S. Marine father.

Ohtani’s importance to Japanese and Japanese Americans was evident at a media-only introduction ceremony on Thursday for Ohtani at Dodger Stadium. Japanese-language outlets from both Japan and the U.S. had a large presence in the centerfield plaza watching Ohtani take off his blazer to don his new jersey.

Aspiring to be Shohei

Toya, a dean at Santa Ana College, said growing up, Asian American role models in professional sports were few and far between. But now everyone aspires to be Shohei. In the first 48 hours after his No. 17 jersey dropped, sales surpassed those for soccer star Lionel Messi.

Fans of the Blue Crew are hoping more stars from Japan will join Ohtani on the mound. Ohtani's contract is for a blockbuster $700-million dollars over 10 years. However, he is deferring all but $2 million a year to free up the Dodgers to court top talent like Japanese free agent Yoshinobu Yamamoto.

Yuma Asakura reported from the introduction ceremony for Ohtani. He covers the Japanese American community in Orange County and said there's sadness that Ohtani left the Angels. But he said fans want the two-time MVP award winner to secure a title.

"He wanted to win. Yeah, so I think that is the best," Asakura said.

Tatsuo Mori, president of LaLaLa, a Japanese-language publication holds up a recent front page.

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Josie Huang

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LAist

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The throughline to Hideo Nomo

Tatsuo Mori, another Japanese-language journalist at the introduction event, said that the Dodgers hold a special place among Japanese baseball fans because Los Angeles is where Nomo debuted.

“We remember how the Dodgers took care of Nomo,” Mori said.

Toya, the college dean, said Nomo broke ground for all Japanese players in the U.S. — walking so Ohtani can run.

“Shohei is in his own class,” said Toya who thinks the player has already outpaced Babe Ruth. “In the future, people will be saying ‘Oh, he's like Shohei.'”

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.

Topline:

The backstory: Last month, the council's Transportation Committee voted to bring a proposal forward to implement a policy change that allows the city to impound and immediately destroy abandoned or inoperable RVs worth less than $4,000. The change is inspired by new state law AB 630, which was created to prevent previously impounded RVs from ending back up on the street.

The motion, authored by Councilmember Traci Park, reports that abandoned RVs pose as public and safety hazards.

What's next: Councilmember Nithya Raman requested that an implementation plan be presented to the council's public safety and housing and homelessness committees.

Go deeper: L.A. pushes policy to make it easier to remove RVs from city streets.