Yusra Farzan
reports on issues affecting current and future college students, their families and communities.
Published December 5, 2023 4:20 PM
Vaqueros in front of Los Angeles City Hall on Tuesday, Dec. 5, 2023.
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Courtesy Samuel Brown-Vasquez
)
Topline:
The Los Angeles City Council on Tuesday called for a ban on rodeos that includes exceptions for certain historical and cultural events.
Why it matters: Samuel Brown-Vasquez of the Avocado Heights Vaqueros and the San Gabriel Valley chapter of Unión de Ranchos, said an outright ban without the exclusion discriminates against a practice that is “native to this area, that was invented in this region, it predates the state of California, it predates the country of Mexico.”
Why now: “These events can be harmful to the health and well-being of the animals that are used in the rodeo competitions and shows, at times resulting in injuries such as sprains and broken limbs,” according to a report by the city’s Board of Animal Service Commissioners, which called for an outright ban.
What's next: The Neighborhoods and Community Enrichment committee will now deliberate on the ordinance after receiving a draft from the city attorney’s office. Following the committee’s recommendations, the ordinance will be brought in front of the full council for vote.
The Los Angeles City Council on Tuesday called for a ban on rodeos that includes exceptions for certain historical and cultural events.
The move comes after city commissioners called for an all out ban, citing a history of animal injuries.
“These events can be harmful to the health and well-being of the animals that are used in the rodeo competitions and shows, at times resulting in injuries such as sprains and broken limbs,” according to a report by the city’s Board of Animal Service Commissioners.
The commissioners specifically called for a ban on activities such as “bull riding, bronc riding, calf roping, steer wrestling, team roping, tie-down roping.”
The council motion, put forward by Councilmember Bob Blumenfield, states that rodeos use "inhumane implements" like electric prods, flank straps, and spurs "to encourage aggressive behavior in animals to produce an entertainment product."
But Councilmember Monica Rodriguez said the council should also protect the rich cultural traditions of communities of color, including Mexican Charrería, American Indian, Native American, Black rodeo, Indigenous rodeo and Escaramuzas (women only Mexican rodeo).
Samuel Brown-Vazquez of the Avocado Heights Vaquer@s and the San Gabriel Valley chapter of Unión de Ranchos, said the outright ban discriminates against a practice that is “native to this area, that was invented in this region, it predates the state of California, it predates the country of Mexico.”
In present day events, trained professionals showcase livestock herding skills to audiences.
“Charreada (rodeo or equestrian events) was born out of a specific relationship to the land and a specific relationship to agriculture, and it was subsistence agriculture,” he said.
Unlike traditional rodeo, Charrería, Mexico’s national sport, is a team sport. It can be traced to when the Spanish arrived in America. In the 17th century, he said, they allowed the Native First Peoples to be able to ride horses and work as ranch hands “because there was so much cattle and they were unable to enclose the animals.” Because of the hacienda system at the time, the landlord would require the ranch hands to perform a series of different competitions “to prove that the horse was adeptly qualified and skilled in the way that they had wanted.”
“It was a big deal for the hacienda to win but it was also the rare opportunity that the ranch hand, that the laborer, the campesino could actually outperform the boss,” Brown-Vazquez said.
Deep roots in Southern California
The long standing tradition, he said, still has deep roots in places like Sylmar, the San Fernando Valley, Compton, Paramount, El Monte and South El Monte.
“A lot of the charros and escaramuzas, vaqueros and vaqueras from their region of California will actually go down into Mexico and they'll compete at the national final competition, basically the World Series,” he said.
Fifteen years ago, he added, there were twice as many horses in the San Gabriel Valley.
“There's not enough places for people to learn how to ride a horse, for people to learn how to compete in charreada. There's no public lienzo that we can use, a lienzo being the venue where you would practice charreada,” he said. “Ten, 15 years ago, there used to be four lienzos.”
Vaqueros and escaramuzas outside Los Angeles City Hall on Dec. 5, 2023.
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Courtesy Samuel Brown-Vasquez
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Avocado Heights, Brown-Vasquez said, has a reputation as having the best charros in Southern California. He said children in the neighborhood at the junction of the 605 and 60 freeways don’t want to play baseball. Instead, they want to be the best charro to compete in Mexico.
“If you eliminate the horses and you eliminate the spaces for the youth to be able to practice, then you're really eliminating the connection to our culture and the horses in a particular way really establishes a bilateral relationship with Mexico,” he said, especially for people that grew up here.
“People trying to pass the rodeo ban have actually made an error in essentially lumping us into the same category as the people that basically run the slaughterhouses,” he said.
By singling out the rodeos, and not banning sports like polo or hunter jumper, the ordinance will result, he said, in the “criminalization of a particular working class immigrant Latino population and Black population that is also involved in the rodeo because of the Bill Pickett Rodeo that comes around every year.”
Blumenfield said during Tuesday’s meeting that polo is not included in the ban because “those horses are not being tortured as part of the show."
"The reason for the entertainment is the pain that's being caused by these animals," he added.
Mandy Andrews, campaigns manager at Last Chance for Animals, a nonprofit that held a rally before the council meeting, said rodeos are events that "glorify animal abuse, adding that the organization is not looking at the ban as “an issue of culture,” but rather as “animal abuse and protecting animals.”
The Neighborhoods and Community Enrichment committee will now deliberate on the ordinance once it receives a draft from the city attorney’s office. Following the committee’s recommendations, the ordinance will be brought in front of the full council for vote.
Outside the Melbourne Cricket Ground ahead of the NFL game between the Rams and 49ers. (AP Photo/Asanka Brendon Ratnayake)
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Asanka Brendon Ratnayake
/
Associated Press
)
Topline:
The longest road trip in NFL history has brought the San Francisco 49ers and the Los Angeles Rams to Australia’s sports capital for a season opener in front of more than 100,000 football-hungry fans packed into the Southern Hemisphere’s largest stadium.
Why it matters: The NFC West rivals are playing Australia’s first NFL game, and the starkly differing ways in which they made this epic journey have attracted almost as much attention as the two star-studded rosters preparing to put on a show.
The backstory: The 49ers have been Down Under for more than a week, adjusting their body clocks and winning over thousands of Aussie fans who appreciate their commitment to the historic moment. The Rams were only scheduled to arrive in Melbourne around dawn Thursday, roughly 28 hours before the Friday morning kickoff that’s necessary to play the game Thursday night in prime time in the U.S. That’s because head coach Sean McVay is convinced they can thwart jet lag and optimize their game readiness by staying home on California time.
What's next: The Rams and 49ers kick off at 5:35 p.m. Thursday night on Netflix.
The longest road trip in NFL history has brought the San Francisco 49ers and the Los Angeles Rams to Australia’s sports capital for a season opener in front of more than 100,000 football-hungry fans packed into the Southern Hemisphere’s largest stadium.
The NFC West rivals are playing Australia’s first NFL game, and the starkly differing ways in which they made this epic journey have attracted almost as much attention as the two star-studded rosters preparing to put on a show.
The 49ers have been Down Under for more than a week, adjusting their body clocks in the traditional manner and winning over thousands of Aussie fans who appreciate their commitment to the historic moment.
The Rams were only scheduled to arrive in Melbourne around dawn Thursday, roughly 28 hours before the Friday morning kickoff that’s necessary to play the game Thursday night in prime time in the U.S. That’s because head coach Sean McVay is convinced they can thwart jet lag and optimize their game readiness by staying home on California time.
Both teams agree this contrast in preparation is not a referendum on the best way to handle a pair of 16-hour flights with a football game in between — even if the rest of the world might see it that way after the final whistle.
Instead, this game is primarily a difficult early test for both the Super Bowl favorite Rams and the talent-laden 49ers, who also intend to be a title challenger. The coaching staffs and veteran players all know each other thoroughly after a decade of competition between Shanahan and McVay, who are both constantly looking for an edge.
“I don’t think there’s any right way to do it,” said defensive end Myles Garrett, who will make his Rams debut in Australia. “They have a plan, and I’m sure they consulted different teams and people to find out a way to combat jet lag and such long travel. We’ve done the same thing. I think we’re both riding our methodologies.”
Garrett will be joined by star cornerback Trent McDuffie and cornerback Jaylen Watson in their debuts with Los Angeles’ revamped defense.
Gab Chabrán
covers what's happening in food and culture for LAist.
Published September 10, 2026 5:00 AM
A fruit vendor sells on Whittier Boulevard in East L.A.
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Andrew Lopez
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Boyle Heights Beat
)
Topline:
A recent AirTalk segment highlights the decades-long debate over street vending in Los Angeles. Despite efforts by the City Council and statewide law, enforcement remains murky at best, even though it's a fixture of Los Angeles culture.
Why now? During a recent debate, Mayor Karen Bass made a series of comments that cast street vending in an unsavory light, prompting an almost immediate backlash from her opponent, Nithya Raman, who has devised her own nine-point plan to address street vending if elected.
Why is it important? Street vendors are as much a part of L.A.'s identity as its restaurants — but the system meant to support them is so broken that only a fraction operate with full legal standing. As this becomes a defining issue in the mayor's race, it's worth knowing the difference between political rhetoric and how the rules actually work on the ground.
Last month, street vending became a flashpoint during one of the recent debates for L.A. mayor when incumbent Karen Bass said, "I do not think that you should have a food vendor in front of a restaurant. Period," drawing a comparison to unhoused encampments.
The remarks set off an almost immediate backlash. Mayoral candidate Nithya Raman, who has her own 9-point plan to support street vendors, said Bass "took a shot" at the street vending community and reiterated her commitment to work toward regulations and legalizing their operations.
Bass's office later eased its stance, saying it had directed the LAPD to stop issuing criminal citations to street vendors — and to dismiss any that had been issued in error.
Street vending remains part of the Los Angeles landscape, and the backlash from the debate brought to light just how confusing its legality can be. To understand how we got here, it helps to start with the basics.
Is street vending legal?
Yes. Since SB 946 in 2018, state law has decriminalized it. That means cities and counties can't criminally cite vendors or ban them from specific zones. They can, however, still enforce health and safety rules — things like sidewalk clearance and ADA access.
So why does it feel unregulated?
On a recent segment forAirTalk, Memo Torres ofL.A. Taco pointed to a stark gap between L.A.'s vending population and its permitted vendors. According to an email from the California Restaurant Association reported byFOX 11, an estimated 50,000 street vendors operate across Los Angeles — yet only 53 hold permits specifically for food sales.
Why so few permits?
Vending requirements largely mirror restaurant-grade standards — large refrigeration units, multi-basin sinks — that don't fit the reality of most vendor setups: flat-top griddles, folding tables, pop-up tents.
That isn't to say there haven't been efforts by the city to address the permitting gap. In 2024, the City Council, with Raman's backing, voted to drop the annual permit fee from $541 to $27.51.
Raman's mayoral campaign has since proposed another potential fix: extending a state permit category — currently used by vendors at farmers markets who share equipment like a communal three-compartment sink — to street vendors, so operators wouldn't need their own restaurant-grade setup to qualify.
What about health and safety?
County health inspectors technically oversee street food vendors, but both industry and vendor advocates agree enforcement is inconsistent — leaving reliable data on violations hard to come by.
Are vendors and restaurants actually enemies?
A 2015 Economic Roundtable study found that businesses located near street vendors were more likely to see job growth than those without nearby vendors.
What’s next
Proposals like Raman's permitting reforms aim to close the gap — but for now, most of L.A.'s vendors remain outside the formal system.
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Frank Stoltze
is a veteran reporter who covers local politics and examines how democracy is and, at times, is not working.
Published September 9, 2026 6:36 PM
The Jail complex in downtown Los Angeles
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Robert Garrova / LAist
)
Topline:
The U.S. Department of Justice announced Wednesday that it has opened an investigation into the Men’s Central Jail in downtown Los Angeles, specifically looking into whether L.A. County has failed to provide environmentally safe, humane and habitable conditions for people held there.
The details: The jail has long been plagued by allegations of poor conditions. Monitors from the American Civil Liberties Union have documented problems including overcrowding, severe mold and mildew, and rodent infestations.
The context: The federal investigation is expected to focus on conditions within the facility and not the actions of the county sheriff’s deputies who staff it, according to the Justice Department. The new investigation is separate from a 2015 settlement between the county and federal government, which stemmed from allegations of inadequate mental health care provided at county jails.
What happens next: Investigators will determine whether the county has violated the Eighth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which protects against cruel and unusual punishment, and 14th Amendment, which guarantees equal protection under the law.
Reaction: L.A. County Supervisor Kathryn Barger welcomed the investigation, and said she had said for year that the jail was “antiquated, inhumane, and unfit for our workforce and those incarcerated there.”
Jason Wells
manages the daily news product that you hear and read every day.
Published September 9, 2026 5:13 PM
Smoke rises from a brush fire near the Getty Center on Sept. 9, 2026.
(
CBS LA
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Topline:
Firefighters appeared to make quick progress against a brush fire the broke out Wednesday near the Getty Center.
What we know so far: As of 5 p.m., evacuation warnings had been issued for zones LFD-0895 and LF-0967, although the LAFD said no structures were immediately threatened as the water-dropping helicopters attacked the fire from above.
Read on ... for more on evacuations and weather conditions.
This story is no longer being actively updated. For the most up-to-date information about the fire you can check:
Firefighters appeared to make quick progress against a brush fire the broke out Wednesday near the Getty Center.
As of 5 p.m., evacuation warnings had been issued for zones LFD-0895 and LF-0967, although the LAFD said no structures were immediately threatened as the water-dropping helicopters attacked the fire from above. Forward progress of the fire was reported stopped shortly after 6 p.m. at a little over 20 acres.
