Topline:
A small group of Angelenos is campaigning to have a palm tree relocated in downtown L.A.
Why now: The palm, which they call Sunshine, needs a new home because its longtime patch of ground is being developed for a new Colburn School of Music building.
Why it matters: Fans of Sunshine argue that the palm holds unique value as one of the last remnants of old Bunker Hill.
Read on … to learn more about the palm, Bunker Hill’s history and the campaign to save Sunshine.
Near the corner of First and Hill streets is a palm tree sitting all by its lonesome in a pot.
Sunshine is a scraggly 50-footer not unlike the region’s other queen palms. But to its biggest champions, it’s special and deserves a forever home.
"Sunshine is this storyteller, this witness, this survivor," said Kim Cooper, cofounder with husband Richard Schave of Esotouric — the sightseeing company that showcases the forgotten, hidden and weird sides of Los Angeles.
The two first learned about Sunshine from a friend who noticed the palm stood erect, all alone, in a patch of dirt at Second and Hill streets — its home for decades.
"I fell in love with her the first time I saw her sitting so proudly ... waving her palm leaves in the air with not a care," Annette Zilinskas, Cooper and Schave’s friend, said.
That patch of dirt will be the site of the expanded Colburn School of Music, which broke ground last year to construct a new building at that corner.
" And she said, 'Well, what's gonna happen to this cool tree?'" Cooper recalled.
That patch of dirt also happened to be hallowed ground of sorts, according to architecture historian Nathan Marsak, author of Bunker Hill Los Angeles: Essence of Sunshine and Noir and a longtime friend of Esotouric.
Marsak, in a blog post from 2008, had identified that very bluff of dirt as a last "remnant" of a bygone Bunker Hill, a leftover chunk of a bona fide hillside that was razed to make way for parking lots at around 1935.
"That was the last bit of untouched earth on old Bunker Hill," Cooper said.
Bunker Hill, of course, is an area of downtown that has made and remade itself since the 19th century — from a tony enclave of Victorian mansions, to a working class district of boarding houses by the 1930s, to the site of eminent domain land seizures and evictions of thousands of low-income residents in the late 1950s. It continued to transform and later became what we know today — a hub of office towers, cultural institutions and pricy condos.
"Trees really serve as living monuments that anchor a community's identity, anchors their history and connect generations," Marsak said. "Here's this wonderful tree that has somehow survived everything being torn down around it."
That makes saving Sunshine a no-brainer.
"She is one of the last living things from old Bunker Hill," Schave said.
"It might be as young as 50 years and as old as 70 years," said Donald Hodel, a tree and palm expert who was recruited by Cooper and Schave for the campaign to save Sunshine.
The tree is in fair condition, he said, remarkable since it doesn’t appear to have been cared for — receiving no water other than rainfall.
As to its provenance, Hodel said, there's no real way of knowing how Sunshine got there in the first place. But the very fact that it's still standing, he said, "suggests the palm had excellent care for a long time to allow it to develop an extensive and deep root system making it more resilient to the recent years of neglect."
Those facts alone don't confer historical value, Hodel said, given how common queen palms are in Southern California.
"Nonetheless, Esotouric assured me of its other attributes, primarily its significance of survival on Bunker Hill and the history of the site," Hodel said in an email. "I came around to appreciate this palm and the need for its continued survival in an appropriate place."
Since first finding out about the Colburn school's expansion plans, the crew of Sunshine evangelists has been trying to find her another home. They enlisted Colburn and the construction company behind the expansion project to agree to pot the queen palm, and to move it to another part of the construction site near the intersection of First and Hill.
"I had really hoped that they would find a spot for her on their property," Cooper said. But, "they want to do their own thing. I think it's wonderful that she was saved and she was not killed."
Potential new digs have been identified at a small plaza next to the base of Angel's Flight at Fourth and Hill. The DTLA Alliance, a business coalition, told LAist it was facilitating communication to relocate the palm there temporarily.
But the organization says the details of relocation and long-term placement are outside its jurisdiction.
For that, Schave and Cooper said they hope Council District 14, which includes parts of downtown, can help.
The two said they have been in contact with the office of Councilmember Ysabel Jurado to save Sunshine, but the conversation fell off earlier this year. (We are awaiting a response from Jurado's office).
"I really, truly believe this could happen. Sunshine could be put on a flatbed, laid flat, and brought two blocks down to Fourth and Hill," Schave said.
Apparently Sunshine wouldn’t be the first. In 1981, a Moreton Bay fig was to be moved from Bunker Hill a few hundred feet to the Angelus Plaza senior housing complex. The towering giant was believed to be 90 years old at the time, according to the Los Angeles Times in July of that year, and it was the last one of its kind to remain standing after redevelopment began in the neighborhood.
Whether the tree really made the trek is up for debate, as Schave was never able to nail down documentation of the move. Still, Hodel the horticulturalist told him the big fig tree sitting at said courtyard fits the size and age.
And they want nothing less for the queen palm.
“You got to save what’s left of old Bunker Hill. There’s so little left on this hill,” Schave said. “So we are not going to lose Sunshine.”
Topline:
A judge has ruled that a Metro bus project in a congested area of Los Angeles can go forward, for now, without incorporating bike lanes that street safety advocates argue are required by city law.
The project: The Vermont Transit Corridor project will add dedicated bus lanes along a more than 12-mile-long stretch of the busy road.
Injunction denied: The ruling from June 15 is a decision on an injunction request that’s part of a lawsuit brought by Joe Linton, who argues that L.A.’s role in the design and permitting process of the project triggers Measure HLA street safety improvements. The L.A. City Attorney and Metro have rejected that interpretation of the ordinance.
Read on … for more details on the lawsuit and Linton’s reactions.
A judge has ruled that a Metro bus project in a congested area of Los Angeles can go forward, for now, without incorporating bike lanes that street safety advocates argue are required by city law.
The $400 million project will add dedicated bus lanes along a more than 12-mile-long stretch of Vermont Avenue between 120th Street and Sunset Boulevard. The stretch of road has among the highest rates of pedestrian deaths and injuries in the city.
The ruling from June 15 is a preliminary decision on an injunction request that’s part of a lawsuit brought by Joe Linton, who argues that L.A.’s role in the design and permitting process of the project triggers Measure HLA street safety improvements. The L.A. City Attorney and Metro have rejected that interpretation of the law.
Linton filed the lawsuit in April 2025. He is the editor of the transportation publication Streetsblog LA. Linton is filing the suit as a resident of L.A., not in his capacity as an editor for Streetsblog.
In 2015, the L.A. City Council adopted Mobility Plan 2035, which identified networks of streets to improve with protected bike lanes, pedestrian signal improvements, bus lanes and other enhancements.
Seven years later, frustrated with a lack of progress on the plan, the local nonprofit Streets for All began campaigning for Measure HLA. The ballot measure, which was passed by voters in 2024, legally requires the city to implement Mobility Plan upgrades when it repaves at least one-eighth of a mile of a street located in one of the networks.
There’s been a longstanding disagreement over whether Measure HLA applies to Metro’s work in city projects. Metro and the city of L.A. say the ordinance only applies to projects the city leads. Streets for All and Linton say the question of who leads a project is a technicality and that the city is obligated to follow Measure HLA because it’s responsible for approving certain elements of the project’s designs and permits.
The Mobility Plan calls for bike lanes along the same stretch of Vermont Avenue that Metro is working on.
Linton’s lawsuit says the city didn’t implement the bike lanes in accordance with Measure HLA when it resurfaced Vermont Avenue service roads in the past and that it should implement the improvements as part of the Vermont Transit Corridor project.
As the lawsuit plays out in court, Linton requested an injunction that sought to prevent the city from approving final design plans for the project without the bike lanes that Measure HLA calls for.
If you have a tip, you can reach me on Signal. My username is kharjai.61.
L.A. County Superior Court Judge Kristin Escalante denied the request on June 15. Escalante wrote in her decision that the city neither initiated the project nor selected Vermont Avenue for resurfacing and won’t be constructing the project itself.
“Metro’s coordination with the city does not transform the project into one made by or undertaken by the city,” Escalante wrote in her decision.
In April and June, Escalante denied Linton’s requests for pre-trial judgement on two other issues in his lawsuit, including deciding if resurfacing work on Vermont Avenue service roads triggered HLA-mandated upgrades and determining whether the city’s HLA ordinance represents an “impermissible amendment” of the ordinance.
The ruling is a preliminary decision. Linton said his legal team is preparing for the case to go to trial.
“We didn’t lose at the end of the day,” Linton told LAist. “It’s a setback, but it’s a skirmish and not the outcome of the battle.”
Metro said the agency does not comment on pending litigation.
LAist reached out to the L.A. City Attorney and did not hear back.
Yes, there are two additional ongoing lawsuits that are related.
Linton filed a second lawsuit saying L.A. is using loopholes, like “large asphalt repairs,” to skirt Measure HLA requirements.
Separate from Measure HLA, Metro is working on another bus rapid transit project to connect North Hollywood and Pasadena with construction set to begin this summer. Metro filed a lawsuit in May saying Burbank is, without authority, refusing to grant the transit agency construction permits. On June 18, Metro filed a motion for a preliminary injunction to get the necessary permits so it can begin construction in July and ensure the bus project is ready for the 2028 Olympics.
Topline:
A series of Fourth of July events scheduled across Council District 14 have been postponed due to the ongoing impact of a massive warehouse fire in Boyle Heights that blanketed surrounding neighborhoods in smoke for days.
Lingering effects of the fire: The fire at the 500,000-square-foot Lineage cold storage facility was knocked down Wednesday evening, but many residents say they are still feeling the effects of the smoke and have questions about the short- and long-term impacts of exposure, as well as what exactly they have been breathing.
Read on ... for a list of Eastside Fourth of July events that have been postponed to a later date.
This story first appeared on The LA Local.
A series of Fourth of July events scheduled across Council District 14 have been postponed due to the ongoing impact of a massive warehouse fire in Boyle Heights that blanketed surrounding neighborhoods in smoke for days.
The fire at the 500,000-square-foot Lineage cold storage facility was knocked down Wednesday evening, but many residents say they are still feeling the effects of the smoke and have questions about the short- and long-term impacts of exposure, as well as what exactly they have been breathing.
Jurado announced Thursday that out of an abundance of caution, the four Fourth of July events that were scheduled to take place from Friday to Sunday at various parks across her district have been postponed to allow the community and her office to focus on “recovery, connecting residents with resources and getting people the answers they deserve.” The free events were set to include live entertainment, community resources booths and a drone show.
“While air quality regulators have not ordered the cancelation of outdoor events, the fire response remains active, residents are still seeking clear information and support, and many families in the impacted area continue to have concerns about smoke, ash, odors, and possible exposure,” Jurado said.
In the wake of the fire, Jurado has been asking agencies and the companies responsible for transparency. On Monday, the councilmember introduced a motion calling for the public release of air quality and environmental testing information in a way residents can actually understand.
While no independent testing has been commissioned by her office, Jurado told Boyle Heights Beat that the motion, “is intended to bring that information into the open so residents can get clear answers instead of rumors, speculation, or incomplete information.”
According to CD14, the rescheduled event dates will be shared as soon as they are available.
Topline:
Two U.S. wins and two Turkey losses already on the books mean the Americans have won this World Cup group no matter the outcome of tonight's game. Still, the Americans say they're playing to win.
Why it matters: A win would be history. The American men have never won more than two games in a single World Cup.
What's next: The match kicks off tonight at 7 p.m. in Inglewood at Los Angeles Stadium — better known to Southern Californians as SoFi Stadium.
INGLEWOOD — For the U.S. men's national soccer team, a loss in Thursday night's FIFA World Cup game against Turkey wouldn't change anything.
A win, though, would be history.
The squad's earlier wins over Paraguay and Australia, plus two losses by Turkey to the same teams, mean the Americans have already won their group and clinched a favorable path in the knockout round, no matter the outcome of Thursday's game.
But the American men have never won more than two games in a single World Cup. A third win would be new territory for this team, which has not been shy about its aspirations in this tournament and its confidence about living up to them.
"The group stage is not done yet. We want to end it the right way. We want to end it the way we came into it and continue to build off of the momentum that we've been creating," said defender Mark McKenzie, speaking to reporters Wednesday.
Because the outcome of the game does not affect knockout-round placement, the U.S. can rest key starters who will enter the match with a yellow card. For those players — defenders Antonee Robinson and Chris Richards, midfielder Tyler Adams and forward Folarin Balogun — picking up a second yellow card against Turkey would result in a suspension in the Round of 32. (Any single yellow cards will be cleared after the group stage concludes.)
The team could also choose to ease in forward Christian Pulisic, who is expected to be available for the game after sitting out the U.S.-Australia game with a minor calf injury.
Turkey had come into the World Cup with high expectations. With talented young stars like the 21-year-old attackers Arda Güler of Real Madrid and Kenan Yildiz of Juventus, the team was thought by many — from analysts to the players themselves — to be a dark horse capable of a deep run.
Instead, they were eliminated last week when their loss to Paraguay followed the U.S. win over Australia, prompting apologies from Turkey's despondent players to their fans after the game.
On Wednesday, Yildiz echoed that apology and promised to "give our best" in Thursday's game against the U.S. "We had high expectations. I know because all of our country was supporting us and thought we will come very far," Yildiz said. "Hopefully for the next game we can make a good result and go out with pride."
The U.S. and Turkey last faced each other in an international friendly in June 2025, which Turkey won 2-1. The U.S. roster for that game was missing several key players, including Pulisic, Robinson, Balogun and midfielder Weston McKennie.
"We had a really young team, but we went out there and put in a good performance. I don't think the result necessarily reflected how we played," Richards said. "Whoever's on the field, I know we're going to go out there and give 110 percent."
Copyright 2026 NPR
Topline:
The Supreme Court ruled that the Trump administration can revoke Temporary Protective Status from hundreds of thousands of Syrian and Haitian refugees, allowing the federal government to begin deportations. Here’s what that means for TPS holders in Southern California.
Who else is affected? The ruling is specific to those from Haiti and Syria, but the remaining countries that fall under the TPS program — including Ukraine, Lebanon, Sudan and El Salvador — could lose their TPS designation when they come up for renewal in the fall.
What’s the impact? California is home to nearly 80,000 TPS holders from a variety of countries as of last year, according to the Forum, a nationwide coalition of immigration-related groups.
Read on … for more reaction to the ruling.
The Supreme Court ruled Thursday that the Trump administration can revoke Temporary Protective Status from hundreds of thousands of Syrian and Haitians in the U.S.
The TPS program was created by Congress in 1990, forming a pathway for vetted refugees who need protection to live and work in the United States. There are about 330,000 displaced Haitians and 3,800 Syrians living in the U.S. today.
California is home to nearly 80,000 TPS holders as of March 31, 2025, according to the Forum, a nationwide coalition of immigration-related groups. Not all of the TPS holders in California are from Syria or Haiti.
Jose Serrano, executive director of the Orange County Office of Immigrant and Refugee Affairs, said it’s heartbreaking to continue to receive notifications like these.
“They're contributors to our communities. They're local leaders. It's more than just unfortunate,” Serrano said.
Many people could be deported, Serrano added. He said his group will continue “to remind folks that they are part of our communities … and providing the appropriate guidance, so that they feel as if they're not abandoned.”
Our partner newsroom NPR reports:
By a 6-3 vote in Mullin v. Doe, the court's conservative majority ruled that the president has virtually unrestrained power to end the Temporary Protected Status program, known as TPS.
Writing for the court majority, Justice Samuel Alito that under the TPS law, the president has unreviewable authority to end the program, without intervention from the courts.
Read more: Trump can begin deportations of Syrian, Haitian TPS holders, Supreme Court says
Jessica Bansal, an attorney with the National Day Laborer Network, said that Haitian and Syrian TPS holders will soon lose their work authorization and lawful immigration status.
“The timeline isn't super clear, but we're talking days or weeks,” Bansal said, speaking on AirTalk, which airs on LAist 89.3 FM. “TPS holders, even if they have a U.S. citizen child, even if they have a U.S. citizen spouse, even if they've been here for 20 years, unless they have been lawfully admitted at some point — and TPS is not a lawful admission — they can't adjust their status.”
For Honduran TPS holders who lost their status last year, Bansal added, “ the lives that they built here are just gone on 60 days' notice.”
Given the ruling, some refugees are already preparing for the possibility of self-deportation.
“People have been preparing, but how do you prepare to say goodbye to your citizen children? How do you prepare to bring them to a country where you think they're not safe?” Bansal said. “You can't prepare for something like this, no matter how much you try or know it might be coming.”
The designation is granted to immigrants from countries hit by crises, such as natural disasters or war.
“ These are people who have lived here [and] have a justifiable reason for coming to the United States. [They] are entitled to work based on work permits, are paying taxes, and are not committing crimes,” said Stacy Tolchin, an immigration attorney based in Pasadena. “These are the folks that we want in this country.”
The federal government typically renewed the deportation protection every 18 months, which is not guaranteed. For example, TPS holders lose protection if they're convicted of one felony or two misdemeanors, regardless of the type of offense.
Since 2025, when Trump returned to the White House, the administration has attempted to strip TPS from 13 of the 17 countries that had the designation. Those countries are:
The ruling is specific to those from Haiti and Syria, which are among numerous countries for which the Trump Administration had moved to remove TPS status. Even countries which still have TPS may be at risk. Ukraine, Lebanon, Sudan and El Salvador could lose their TPS designation when they come up for renewal in the fall.
Sergio Perez, executive director at the Center for Human Rights and Constitutional Law, told LAist that the ruling is a warning sign for anyone with TPS protections.
"They all now need to understand that they are in a riskier and less safe position now,” Perez said. “So it presents a real risk, a real risk to our refugee neighbors.”
Oksana Pashko Reeves, president of Ukrainians in Orange County, told LAist the ruling is not good news.
“Especially for people who do not have homes to go back to because they were destroyed or are under Russian occupation,” Reeves said, “I hope exceptions will be made.”
Carlos Perea, executive director of the Harbor Institute for Immigrant & Economic Justice, called the ruling shameful.
“Orange County has large populations of Arab communities and refugee communities, and so I wouldn't be surprised to see that there's a big impact, particularly to Orange County,” Perea said. “This is going to have a large impact not only in the TPS community but in general on human rights and due process.”
Perez said pushing back against the administration will look different for everybody. For attorneys and advocates, it means finding the pressure points to push back against the campaign against immigrants.
“It means taking care of your neighbors," Perez said. "It means putting your time and your money to work in every way possible, so that folks who are in the target range of this administration are protected by their networks in their communities.”
Serrano recommends that TPS holders contact nonprofits, legal experts and advocates for information and resources.
“It is really important to walk alongside each other,” Serrano said. “Remembering that behind every person who came here seeking safety or refuge is a story of hope, it's a story of humanity, it's a story of potential.”
Local rapid response networks can be contacted for immediate legal support.
Orange County Rapid Response Network offers multiple, downloadable guides, including what to plan for in case a family member is detained or arrested, and what to do in the first 24 hours after someone gets arrested, including how to find a loved one through ICE’s detainee locator system. Also, a list of free legal resources. Call (714) 881-1558
USC Agents of Change created a free hotline to help people file motions to move their in-person immigration hearing appointments online. The service is available in English and Spanish. Call (888) 462-5211
VietRISE has information and resources for Vietnamese community members facing deportation and those supporting them.
Immigrant Defenders Law Center is available to support community members detained by ICE and their families. Call (213) 833-8283, Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
The Immigration Advocates Network offers a database to find legal services near you. The database includes nonprofits that offer free or low-cost legal services.
The National Day Laborer Organizing Network is connecting jornaleros detained by ICE legal resources and mutual aid. If you know a laborer who has been detained, call (626) 799-3566
The Esperanza Immigrant Rights Project offers free legal representation for immigrants, with a focus on helping children and families. Find more information on their website, and for general inquiries, call (213) 534-7594.
The Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles offers free legal assistance for low-income immigrants in over eight languages, including for inquiries about asylum, DACA, naturalization and visas. You can find whether you qualify for legal assistance here.
Southwestern Law School’s immigration law clinic provides free legal representation to low-income children and adults with Special Immigrant Juvenile Status (clients under the age of 21), Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (renewals only), U visas nonimmigrant status and U-based adjustment of status cases. Call (213) 738-5574 or email immigrationclinic@swlaw.edu.
The Public Law Center in Santa Ana assists low-income residents of Orange County in filing for immigration relief and with deportation defense. Call (714) 541-1010, ext. 332, and leave a voicemail to request an appointment.
LAist correspondent Jared Bennett contributed to this report.
