Yusra Farzan
covers Orange County and its 34 cities, watching those long meetings — boards, councils and more — so you don’t have to.
Published October 23, 2025 1:26 PM
Newport Beach officials issued evacuation orders for some Balboa Peninsula residents. Seen here, the ferry that moves cars and pedestrians between the peninsula and Balboa Island.
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Allen J. Schaben
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Los Angeles Times via Getty Images
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Topline:
Newport Beach officials issued evacuation orders for some Balboa Peninsula residents after methane gas was found seeping from an abandoned private oil well.
What we know so far: The city declared a local emergency. Fire and public safety crews plan to release the methane gas, the city said in a news release. The leak was detected in a residential area on Marcus Avenue. The neighborhood borders a narrow channel of Newport Harbor.
Public safety: “Our top priority is the safety of residents and our neighborhoods,” city manager Grace Leung said in a statement. “We are taking swift action to protect the public while closely assessing the situation and coordinating with partner agencies.”
What’s next: Newport Beach is working to learn more about the leak and magnitude of the seepage.
The French star exuded sex appeal in '50s and '60s
By Elizabeth Blair | NPR
Published December 28, 2025 9:32 AM
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Keystone Features
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Topline:
Brigitte Bardot, the international sex goddess of cinema in the 1950s and '60s, has died aged 91.
What we know: Bardot's animal rights foundation announced her death in a statement to news agency Agence France-Presse on Sunday, without specifying the time or place of death.
About her career: Stylish and seductive, Bardot exuded a kind of free sexuality, rare in the buttoned-up 1950s. She modeled, made movies, influenced fashion around the world and recorded albums. She married four times.
Brigitte Bardot, the international sex goddess of cinema in the 1950s and '60s, has died aged 91. Bardot's animal rights foundation announced her death in a statement to news agency Agence France-Presse on Sunday, without specifying the time or place of death.
Stylish and seductive, Bardot exuded a kind of free sexuality, rare in the buttoned-up 1950s. She modeled, made movies, influenced fashion around the world and recorded albums. She married four times. Her list of lovers famously included Warren Beatty, Nino Ferrer and singer-songwriter-producer Serge Gainsbourg, with whom she recorded the French hit Bonnie and Clyde.
Bardot's look was copied by women around the world, says Claire Schub who teaches French literature and film at Tufts University.
"Her fashion choices, her hair, her makeup, her pout ... She became this icon, this legend, all over the globe," says Schub.
But her image changed in her later years. Bardot was found guilty multiple times in her native France of "inciting racial hatred," mainly for comments attacking Muslims.
Bardot runs along the beach in Cannes, France, on April 28, 1956.
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George W. Hales
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Fox Photos/Getty Images
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As an actor, Bardot worked with some of France's leading directors including Henri-Georges Clouzot in La Vérité (The Truth), Jean-Luc Godard in Le Mépris (Contempt) and Louis Malle in Viva Maria!
Born Catholic to an upper-middle-class couple in Paris in 1934, Bardot studied ballet and modeled before becoming an actor. As a teenager, she appeared several times on the cover of Elle magazine, attracting the attention of Roger Vadim who was six years her senior. The two married in 1952. Bardot's parents made them wait until she turned 18.
Vadim, an aspiring director, has been credited with turning Bardot into the iconic sex symbol she became. In his 1957 film And God Created Woman, Bardot plays a provocative young woman on a quest for sexual liberation.
Bardot arrives at a Royal Air Force base in London in April 1959.
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Vadim wanted Bardot's appearances in his films to shake off sexual taboos. He once said that he wanted to "kill the myth, this odd rule in Christian morality, that sex must be coupled with guilt."
The New York Times panned the film but wrote that Bardot "moves herself in a fashion that fully accentuates her charms. She is undeniably a creation of superlative craftsmanship."
The media savvy Vadim made sure Bardot appeared often in the French press. Not that it took much convincing — Bardot's alluring images helped sell both magazines and movie tickets. "To be fair, if Vadim discovered and manufactured me," Bardot once said, "I created Vadim."
Bardot's liberating sexuality
While she was one of France's best known exports, she wasn't always beloved at home. She was often ridiculed by critics who derided her acting even as they gushed over her body.
Reviewing the 1959 film Babette Goes to War, in which Bardot does not bare all, one critic wrote, "In deciding not to reveal her body, Brigitte Bardot wanted to unveil only her talent. Alas, we saw nothing."
Bardot during a rehearsal of the TV program "Bonne année Brigitte" in which Bardot performed songs to ring in the new year in 1962.
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Stringer
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AFP via Getty Images
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Despite the misogynistic comments and constant scrutiny of her private life, Bardot's popularity coincided with changing attitudes about sex. French philosopher Simone de Beauvoir took note of France's love-hate relationship with Bardot's sexual appetite.
"In the game of love, she is as much hunter as she is prey," de Beauvoir wrote in her 1959 essay for Esquire, "Brigitte Bardot and the Lolita Syndrome."
Bardot was hounded by the paparazzi, suffered from depression and attempted suicide. "What I rejected the most during my life as an actress was the limelight," she wrote in her autobiography, "That intense focus...ate at me from the inside."
Bardot discusses a scene with director Louis Malle during the filming of <em>Viva Maria!</em> in February 1965.
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After starring in dozens of movies, Bardot retired from acting in 1973. She started an animal rights foundation.
Convicted for 'inciting racial hatred'
In her later years, Bardot became notorious for her racist and homophobic comments and her association with France's far right. Her fourth husband, Bernard d'Ormale, was an aide to Jean-Marie Le Pen, founder of the National Front party.
In her 2003 book, Un Cris dans le Silence, she disparages immigrants, gays, French schools and contemporary art. She called Muslims "invaders" and railed against the killing of animals in the name of religion. She apologized in court in 2004 but also doubled down on what she called the "infiltration" of France by Islamic extremists.
In her biography of Bardot, author and French film scholar Ginette Vincendeau writes "the high priestess of freedom resents almost everyone else's rights to exercise it."
Bardot, the stunning, desirable beauty who once stood for sexual freedom for women, spent the latter part of her life at her home near Saint Tropez with her husband and a menagerie of pets.
Copyright 2025 NPR
A woman stands in front of Andy Warhol's "Brigitte Bardot" at Sotheby's auction house in London on May 12, 2012.
The “Light Gate” sculpture stands adjacent to the entrance of the Manhattan Beach Library on Highland Ave.
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Audrey Ngo
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LAist
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Topline:
There’s something about a library that’s inherently beautiful. We've handpicked these libraries to visit — for you to find peace and beauty.
Why it matters: Some of the most gorgeous libraries are reflections of their respective communities. Whether it’s seeing a mosaic from a local artist, or standing in awe simply from the architecture itself, these libraries hold countless stories and we become part of them whenever we walk through their doors.
Why now? The libraries listed here are just a small sample of SoCal’s offerings. Need a green space to unwind with your latest fiction read? Does being surrounded by art and color help ease the drudgery of a study session? Remote work with an ocean view?
There’s something about a library that’s inherently beautiful. Maybe it’s the silence or the history of the building. Maybe it's the idea of books being shared among countless readers.
Some of the most gorgeous libraries are reflections of their respective communities. Whether it’s seeing a mosaic from a local artist, or standing in awe simply from the architecture itself, these libraries hold countless stories and we become part of them whenever we walk through their doors.
The libraries listed here are just a small sample of SoCal’s offerings. Need a green space to unwind with your latest fiction read? Does being surrounded by art and color help ease the drudgery of a study session? Remote work with an ocean view?
We hope there’s something on this list for you.
East Los Angeles Library
4837 E. 3rd St., Los Angeles
West entrance of the East Los Angeles Library
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Audrey Ngo
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From its brightly-colored cylindrical towers to the mosaics that adorn the building’s entrance, the East Los Angeles Library is a tribute to Mayan designs, with a particular reference to their astronomical observatories.
Enter from the west — or parking lot — side, the red tower stands in for the sun. Above that entrance, visitors are greeted with a stunning mosaic mural by artist José Antonio Aguirre, carved out of limestone and comprised of Byzantine and Venetian glass. This exterior panel of the four-part mural shows an open book amid a sea of geometric shapes and images.
A view of the East Los Angeles Library’s east entrance adjacent to Belvedere Park Lake.
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Enter from the east or lakeside (yes, there’s a lake just steps away), the blue tower representing the moon.
East Tower, Mosaic Cycle Mural, “Our Legacy, Forever Presente”, “Arrival” movement by José Antonio Aguirre.
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The vast scope of Aguirre’s 2,000-foot-plus work unfolds as you continue your entry, and features prominent East L.A. figures such as Dolores Huerta, Cesar Chavez, Edward James Olmos and the late former First District County Supervisor Gloria Molina, who commissioned the artwork.
East Los Angeles Library interior featuring Mosaic Cycle Mural, “Our Legacy, Forever Presente”, “Departure” movement by José Antonio Aguirre.
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Outside, the library is surrounded by Belvedere Park — approximately 30 acres of greenspace and a recreation center. If you decide to take a stroll around the nearby lake, you’ll find ducks swimming and see artist Rude Calderón’s “Leaping Fish, Nature's Cycles” water features–two sculptures of fish, one leaping out of the water, and one diving back in.
A view of Belvedere Park Lake outside of the East Los Angeles Library.
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Audrey Ngo
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LAist
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Billie Jean King Main Library
200 W. Broadway, Long Beach
Billie Jean King Main Library exterior on Broadway in Long Beach.
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Audrey Ngo
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LAist
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The Billie Jean King Main Library in Downtown Long Beach is a study in modern architecture. From Broadway, this building looks like row after row of glass panes, white window frames and caramel-toned wood.
The structure was designed with sustainability in mind, and is made up of renewable timber that’s been reinforced where needed with steel and concrete.
The central atrium of the Billie Jean King Main Library.
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Audrey Ngo
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The focal point of the building is its central atrium, a large, open space on the first floor with light pouring in from all sides. This room can be used for events, workshops or exhibits, including anexhibition showcasing work from the city’s Professional Artist Fellowship, a grant program that honors living Long Beach artists who have affected local communities.
From left to right “Ethereal Queen” and “Unbreakable Spirit” by artist Stephanie Rozzo is displayed in the atrium of the Billie Jean King Main Library.
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Grab a desk overlooking the first floor to get another perspective of the expansive, light-filled interior space. Or catch a window seat with a view of Lincoln Park on Pacific Avenue.
View from the Billie Jean King Main Library overlooking Lincoln Park in Long Beach.
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Audrey Ngo
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LAist
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Manhattan Beach Library
1320 Highland Ave., Manhattan Beach
A view of 14th street through the “Light Gate” sculpture by artists Mags Harries and Lajos Héder.
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Audrey Ngo
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LAist
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The Manhattan Beach Library is a perfect example of how wonderfully spoiled we are by the weather here in SoCal. This two-story, 21,500-square-foot building on Highland Avenue offers panoramic views of the sun and the ocean of this beach city for all who enter.
View from the second story of the Manhattan Beach Library.
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Audrey Ngo
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LAist
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The theme of ocean living is evident throughout, like an eye-catching sea kelp sculpture with 10-foot tall leaves that hugs the ramp to the library’s stairwell.
The sculpture consists of multiple elongated, organic forms arranged in a flowing, wave-like pattern across the surface.
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“Personal Archaeology” installation by Kathy Taslitz near the stairwell of the Manhattan Beach Library
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Audrey Ngo
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Or the row of jellyfish floating overhead when you climb the stairs.
“Prevailing Affinities” installation by Kathy Taslitz near the stairwell of the Manhattan Beach Library.
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Audrey Ngo
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LAist
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Cerritos Library
18025 Bloomfield Ave., Cerritos
Exterior of the Cerritos Library.
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Audrey Ngo
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LAist
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From its golden titanium exterior to the T-Rex fossil replica inside, the Cerritos Library offers its patrons an experience to remember with every visit. In fact, it was designed to be the first "Experience Library," with themed spaces like an “Old World” collegiate-style reading room, or its 15,000-gallon saltwater aquarium, which faces the entrance.
A view of the Cerritos Library’s 15,000 gallon aquarium, shot from the library’s children’s area.
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Audrey Ngo
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LAist
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Like the rest of the libraries on this list, Cerritos regularly displays work from local artists. Its latest exhibition features Patrice Monteiro, who uses a technique called paper quilling, where strips of paper are placed together to create each piece. The exhibit will be on display until Dec. 30.
“Joy is a Revolution” by Patrice Monteiro, inspired by Nettie Beatrice’s digital art, on display in the Cerritos Library through December 2025.
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Audrey Ngo
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LAist
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Perhaps the biggest draw to this library is its children’s area. Step through the passage of giant story books and you’re in an enchanted world that includes a rainforest tree, a space shuttle, a lighthouse and the aforementioned 40-foot long Tyrannosaurus Rex skeleton replica named Stan.
The Cerritos Library’s children’s area features a lighthouse, rainforest tree and 40-foot long Tyrannosaurus Rex fossil replicas.
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Audrey Ngo
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LAist
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After a decade of expanding health coverage and safety net programs, the Golden State took a sharp detour in 2025. As federal funding reductions and policy changes rippled through the health care system, California confronted service cuts, coverage losses and growing uncertainty.
Medicaid coverage: During the summer, a congressionally-approved spending plan slashed nearly a trillion dollars from the Medicaid program over the next decade. Funding cuts and new rules — such as work requirements — are expected to push 3.4 million Californians off their Medicaid coverage as changes take effect.
Federal marketplace: In Washington, a dispute over whether to renew enhanced premium subsidies that help keep Affordable Care Act marketplace insurance plans affordable prompted the longest shutdown in history. Absent federal action, hundreds of thousands of people could be priced out of Covered California insurance in 2026. More than 2,300 Dreamers in California have already lost access to the state marketplace: The Trump administration overturned a rule that had allowed undocumented people brought to the country as children to buy subsidized health insurance.
Read on... for more on the effects of federal changes and actions.
After a decade of expanding health coverage and safety net programs, the Golden State took a sharp detour in 2025. As federal funding reductions and policy changes rippled through the health care system, California confronted service cuts, coverage losses and growing uncertainty.
During the summer, a congressionally approved spending plan slashed nearly a trillion dollars from the Medicaid program over the next decade. Funding cuts and new rules — such as work requirements — are expected to push 3.4 million Californians off their Medicaid coverage as changes take effect.
In Washington, a dispute over whether to renew enhanced premium subsidies that help keep Affordable Care Act marketplace insurance plans affordable prompted the longest shutdown in history. Absent federal action, hundreds of thousands of people could be priced out of Covered California insurance in 2026. More than 2,300 Dreamers in California have already lost access to the state marketplace: The Trump administration overturned a rule that had allowed undocumented people brought to the country as children to buy subsidized health insurance.
Shifting federal policy forced the state the state to inject millions into Planned Parenthood to try to keep clinics afloat. Anticipating more restrictive federal immunization rules under U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, California advanced its own vaccine guidelines.
On affordability, Gov. Newsom delivered on his promise to cut down the cost of insulin. In 2026, diabetics will be able to purchase long-acting insulin pens at pharmacies for $11 a pen. After CalMatters shed a light on disappearing birth centers, state lawmakers approved a new law improving access in underserved areas, streamlining licensure requirements so that birth centers can more easily contract with Medicaid.
As federal spending cuts phase in, they’ll have implications for hospitals and other providers, such as an uptick in uncompensated care.
California has been distributing $6.4 billion from a voter-approved mental health bond. Starting July 1, the Behavioral Health Services Act will also require counties to spend revenue received from a 1% tax on incomes over $1 million on services and housing for people who are homeless.
All year, the Explore L.A. team has brought you stories of discovery and connection.
Why now: As we head into 2026, we bring you our favorite stories of the year.
The context: We went inside a Los Angeles institution that has been left untouched for more than a decade. We learned to make peace with our city's backyard urban critters. We marveled at street art painted decades ago, pulsing with contemporary relevance. We watched as old houses moved across the city to become new homes for fire survivors.
Read on... for more of our handpicked highlights from 2025!
We made it. Happy (almost) 2026.
All year, the Explore L.A. team has brought you stories of discovery and connection.
As we leave 2025 behind, we've handpicked our favorites of the year.
We did a lot.
We went inside a Los Angeles institution that has been left untouched for more than a decade. We learned to make peace with our city's backyard urban critters. We marveled at street art painted decades ago, pulsing with contemporary relevance. We watched as old houses moved across the city to become new homes for fire survivors. We had a leisurely day — one of us at least — hanging out at a lilac garden to hear stories of love and devotion. We witnessed the closing of a family business in Chinatown — and how that loss ricocheted across the neighborhood. We became obsessed with a cola from Japan bearing our city's namesake and tried to find the connection.
And there are so many more stories that took us to different parts of the region this year — stories that brought us closer to this place, stories that we have brought back to you.
We hope you like them as much as we liked writing and producing them. Catch you again next year.
When Yue Wa Market closes this week, Chinatown will lose a neighborhood anchor
Yue Wa Market blends into the storefronts of Broadway in L.A.'s Chinatown.
"I got to spend the final days of Yue Wa Market with the family who runs it — watching them say goodbye to their customers and closing a chapter in a Chinatown that was transforming around them. It’s a story that stuck out for me this year because it showed, in a surprisingly intimate space, how every person leaves an imprint on their neighborhood."
– Josie Huang, Weekend Edition host and reporter
After two decades, one man's obsession with the lilac is coming to an end in Idyllwild
A small bundle of lilacs at the Idyllwild Lilac Garden.
"My favorite story this year focused on flowers in bloom and the end of an era for the man who tended to them for over two decades. I particularly loved this story because it was one of the first where I was able to spend the entire day out in the field on my own. It was a nice little road trip where I crossed three county lines, drove into a mountain town, and shared an afternoon with lilac legend Gary Parton. It was an honor to catch the man at the end of his second career and an honor to tell his story."
– Dañiel Martinez, Explore L.A. producer
Go inside LA’s old General Hospital before it turns from a spooky Art Deco time capsule into new housing
"For me, exploring L.A. means bringing readers and listeners into places they wouldn't normally have access to. It was an honor to get to go into a beloved building that thousands of Angelenos have a connection to, and learn about its future providing housing and mental health care. Oh, and decaying old art deco buildings are just cool and feel like a movie set."
– Robert Garrova, Explore L.A. reporter
These LA homes were about to be torn down. Now they’re getting new life in fire-ravaged Altadena
"Most of my reporting tends to stick in our region's convoluted, quirky history — but I love this story the most because it's about making something old new again. A group of fire-affected residents are reviving the mostly-forgotten process of house moving to get back on their feet. This showed me nothing is ever truly antiquated if you have enough drive. (As a bonus: check out what moving a home across L.A. County actually looks like.)"
“Here's my thoughts about squirrels: It seemed to hit a nerve — I got readers telling me their methods of deterring squirrels, and others offering their fig preserve recipes. One person said they were only left with one fig on their fig plant, which they cut up into four to share with their family.”
– Suzanne Levy, Explore L.A. editor
The story behind the Pico-Robertson mural depicting working-class Jewish history, painted by a Filipino artist
An image of Cesar Chavez, at the top of the photo.
"There’s a mural in L.A.’s Pico-Robertson neighborhood that stands apart from other Jewish themed public art in L.A. in that it does not focus on the religious or national part of Jewish identity.
It’s called 'A shenere un besere velt - A Better and More Beautiful World,' in yiddish. It covers a roughly 60 foot long and 15 feet tall wall on a building occupied by the Worker’s Circle in Pico-Robertson, a mutual aid group founded by Yiddish speaking Jewish immigrants that opened an office in L.A. in 1908, not long after it started in New York.
I love this story because people I interviewed said the mural's message of identity based on working class solidarity with people of other races and ethnicities is just as relevant now as when it was unveiled in 1998."
– Adolfo Guzman-Lopez, Explore L.A. correspondent
We went looking for a Japanese cola named 'Los Angeles' — and found a story about home
“I love this story because I had no idea where it was going to take me. I wanted to write about this soft drink named ‘Los Angeles' and the circuitous journey ended with me speaking with someone who grew up as part of a Korean minority group called Zainichi Koreans in Japan. The coolest thing of all? Hwaji Shin's story has so much heart."
– Fiona Ng, deputy managing editor, Explore L.A. and Weekend
