The Brief

Former Los Angeles City Councilmember José Huizar was sentenced to 13 years in prison Friday for racketeering and tax evasion, marking the final step in the stunning downfall of a once-promising Mexican-born politician some had considered could one day be mayor.

As part of a plea deal struck last year in federal court, Huizar, 55, had agreed not to ask for fewer than nine years in prison. He is the third former member of the city council convicted in separate corruption cases in recent years.

Two others stand accused of corruption.

In sentencing Huizar, Judge John Walter said the former council member did "extraordinary harm to the political system in the city of Los Angeles" and "demeaned the integrity and work ethic" of other elected officials. The judge acknowledged Huizar's rise "from humble beginnings" and said Huizar's success story comes to an "incredible sad ending."

"Its difficult to understand why he threw it all away," the judge said.

Walter added that Huizar's attempt to downplay his actions by saying the projects he supported in exchange for bribes were good for the city shows "he has little remorse."

In addition to the prison term, the judge ordered Huizar to pay $444,000 restitution to the city and $39,000 to the IRS. He also ordered Huizar to enroll in alcohol and gambling addiction programs.

The judge said Huizar would be taken into custody April 30.

“He used his power to use City Hall like his personal ATM and he treated the people who relied on City Hall like pawns in a chess game,” said U.S. Attorney Martín Estrada, whose office prosecuted the case.

“This is the most substantial sentence to date in our ongoing efforts to root out public corruption," Estrada said after the sentencing hearing. "We now have a landmark sentence which we hope will send a clear message that public corruption will not be tolerated in our city.”

A wide-ranging corruption scandal

Prosecutors said Huizar was at the center of a wide-ranging corruption scandal in which he received cash and trips to Las Vegas in exchange for his influence at City Hall.

The former council member solicited bribes from developers then helped them move their projects along in his district, according to his indictment. This included city council votes, either expediting or delaying the approval process, exerting pressure on other city officials, and negotiating with and pressuring labor unions, prosecutors said.

He was well situated to exercise influence as head of the council’s Planning and Land Use Management Committee, which reviews large-scale development proposals.

Prosecutors said he secured more than $1.5 million in illegal payments from developers eager to build in Huizar’s 14th District, which included downtown L.A. during a period of major development projects.

In one case, development company Shen Zhen New World 1 paid Huizar more than $1 million in bribes for his help with a proposed 77-story skyscraper on Figueroa Street.

Lavish gifts from a billionaire developer

In court filings, prosecutors detailed how the company’s billionaire owner Wei Huang lavished Huizar with all-expense paid trips to Las Vegas that included rides on private jets, hundreds of thousands of dollars in casino chips and the service of sex workers.

Huang also provided $600,000 to help Huizar settle a sexual harassment lawsuit during his 2013 re-election campaign.

In May, the same judge fined the company $4 million, the maximum allowed under law, and decried the “crushing weight of corruption” at L.A. City Hall.

Prosecutors were unable to charge Huang, a Chinese citizen, who fled to China and has not returned to his San Marino home, according to the L.A. Times.

The others accused of being part of the criminal conspiracy laid out in the plea agreement included lobbyists, consultants, and other city officials and staff. At least six have been convicted.

Huizar was born in Zacatecas, Mexico and immigrated to Boyle Heights with his parents at the age of 3. He attended the University of California, Berkeley and went on to earn a master’s degree in public affairs and urban planning from Princeton University. He later graduated from UCLA Law School.

He was elected to the L.A Unified School District Board of Education in 2001 and to the L.A. City Council in 2005.

On June 23, 2020, Huizar was arrested by federal agents and he was suspended from the City Council.

Huizar accepts responsibility

Huizar, dressed in a dark suit, white shirt, tie and glasses, addressed the court briefly Friday morning, apologizing to “my family and my constituents.

"I accept responsibility for my actions,” he said.

His defense attorney, Charles Schneider, had urged the judge to impose a nine-year sentence. He said Huizar had been a good council member.

"Mr. Huizar was actually effective in his job," Schneider said. "He was a hard worker. He had a record of achievement.He’s overcome long odds. Now he’s confessed.”

Schneider urged the judge to consider Huizar’s family, including his four children, and said Huizar’s life had been “totally destroyed and his family torn apart.”

Schneider said the scandal “will now become the first line in his biography.”

The judge acknowledged Huizar’s positive work for the Los Angeles. He also noted Huizar's background — that he had worked hard as a boy, picking strawberries with his parents, shining shoes and working at a video store to pay for his catholic high school education in Boyle Heights.

“It's undisputed that the defendant worked to make downtown a world class city,” the judge said. But he added that Huizar was “entitled to no special consideration for good work" because that's what was expected of him in his role on the council.

Huizar was the “architect of a criminal enterprise with an unusually extensive pattern of misconduct,” Walter said.

3rd criminal conviction of an ex-councilmember

The U.S. attorney would not say whether the federal government's investigation into L.A. City Hall is over.

"I'm not going to get into other investigations," Estrada said at a news conference,

One more trial remains in the Huizar investigation. Prosecutors have accused former L.A. Deputy Mayor Raymond Chan of accepting tens of thousand of dollars in bribes. That case is set to go to trial this spring.

Former Councilmember Mitch Englander served 14 months in federal prison after being convicted of obstruction of justice in 2020.

Former Councilmember Mark Ridley-Thomas was sentenced in August to 42 months in federal prison and ordered to pay a $30,000 fine for his conviction on corruption charges. He has appealed his conviction.

City Councilmember Curren Price pleaded not guilty last month in state court to corruption charges after a judge rejected arguments by his defense attorneys that the case should be dismissed. Price represents parts of South L.A.

The county District Attorney’s Office has filed five counts of grand theft by embezzlement, three felony counts of perjury and two counts of conflict of interest — all felonies — against Price. If convicted, he faces a possible sentence of up to 10 years in prison.

Last year, the L.A. City Ethics Commission accused Councilmember John Lee of taking illegal gifts. Lee, who represents the western San Fernando Valley, has said he did nothing wrong.

At the center of the allegations is a 2017 Las Vegas trip taken by Lee and Englander. The commission alleges Lee accepted free food, hotel rooms and poker chips from a businessperson and a developer with business before the city.

The Trump administration did not include funding in its federal budget proposal for Los Angeles Metro’s key plan to use thousands of buses to transport fans to scattered venues hosting the 2028 Games.

L.A. Metro’s Board and California Democrats have repeatedly appealed to the administration to provide federal dollars for the region’s "transit-first" Games. The president’s budget request released Friday didn’t provide a dime of the $2 billion the countywide transportation agency is seeking.

The 92-page document is a signal of the administration’s priorities for the budget for the next fiscal year, which begins Oct. 1. Ultimately, the U.S. Congress decides how federal dollars are spent.

Rep. Sydney Kamlager-Dove, who represents Culver City and parts of Los Angeles, wrote a letter with her California Democratic colleagues to the administration in February calling this budget process the “final opportunity” to secure Metro’s funding request.

U.S. Representative Sydney Kamlager-Dove is one of the California Democrats leading advocacy in Washington, D.C., to secure L.A. Metro's $2 billion federal funding request.

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Assembleymember Sydney Kamlager Facebook Page

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In a statement to LAist, Kamlager-Dove said she was “incredibly disappointed” that Metro was excluded in the president’s budget request.

“At the end of the day, Congress has the power to appropriate money,” she said. “Despite the president’s lack of foresight, I will continue to advocate to ensure this funding is included so L.A. Metro has what they need to succeed.”

Rep. Pete Aguilar, who has a seat on the Congressional subcommittee overseeing federal transportation appropriations, said President Donald Trump has talked about the Olympics “time and time again,” pointing to the most recent State of the Union as an example.

“Our charge is to ensure that they adequately fund this and that they put the resources behind it so they aren't just using it as a talking point, but they're actually leaning in,” Aguilar told LAist in an interview before the president’s proposed budget request was released.

What would the money be used for?

Metro plans to essentially double its bus fleet for the 2028 Games by temporarily acquiring, operating and storing nearly 1,750 additional buses for spectators. The agency says that will cost about $1 billion. The remainder of the appropriations request would be for pedestrian improvements and designing a network of roads for Games vehicles, among other uses.

Seleta Reynolds, Metro’s chief of innovation and Games mobility planning, said at a January Metro Board meeting that finding and preparing the real estate where the buses will be staged involves a lead time of two years, meaning the agency would need a “chunk of funding available by this summer.”

Initially, Metro had asked for $3.2 billion to support a plan to temporarily use 2,700 buses. Metro reduced the estimate for the number of buses needed after LA28, the Games organizing committee, refined the venues and schedule for events.

That reduction, plus other federal funding that Metro has received to partially support station and light rail improvements, brought the total amount of money in the federal appropriations request down to $2 billion, the countywide transportation agency said.

“Without the full level of funding requested, the complete scope of the [Games Enhanced Transit System] would not be feasible, as the cost of operating this temporary system exceeds Metro’s available operating resources,” the agency said in its statement.

Jacie Prieto Lopez, a spokesperson for LA28, told LAist in a statement before the president released his budget request that the organizing committee was supporting partners in Congress and the administration, who are leading the budget and appropriations process.

"With the full support of federal transit money for the games, we can collectively create a positive commuting experience," Prieto Lopez said.

Success with buses during LA84

A bus system similar to the one Metro is planning for 2028 was critical to the success of the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles.

Metro's predecessor, Southern California Rapid Transit District, deployed 550 additional buses, hundreds of new drivers and 24 routes to move people around the city for the Olympics.

A view of the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum during the closing ceremony of the 1984 Summer Olympics, Los Angeles, 12th August 1984.

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In the run-up to those Games, one California Highway Patrol official warned the L.A. Times that congestion around the L.A. Memorial Coliseum would be so extreme that drivers would abandon their cars on the freeway. Headlines warned of "traffic woes."

Instead, the Olympics offered a surprising reprieve from L.A.'s typical traffic. More than 1 million passengers took buses to the Games.

Rich Perelman, who led press operations for the 1984 Olympics and edited the official report on the Games, told LAist that in 1984, no public funds were used for the additional bus fleet. Bus tickets and some donations and corporate sponsorships covered the cost.

Perelman said organizers pulled off the bus system by staying focused on the areas where parking was sparse, such as the Coliseum. According to the official report, nearly 80% of rides on the bus system were to Exposition Park.

" It was a transit-smart approach," Perelman said. " If there was plenty of parking, we didn't say you have to take the bus. We didn't make any nonsensical claims of 'no-car Games' or 'transit only Games.’"

Security funding from the federal government 

Transportation funding is just one bucket that the federal government is expected to contribute for the Olympics.

The budget released by the Trump administration Friday contained major increases for the Department of Homeland Security, including some linked to Olympics preparations. It asks for additional funding for the FBI and Secret Service, which leads security planning for the Games.

Last year, Trump's "One Big Beautiful Bill" allocated $1 billion for Olympics security costs.

But exactly how that money will be distributed has yet to be determined — and L.A. politicians have expressed concern that the funds may come with strings attached that the city of L.A. will find hard to swallow.

It's also possible that money could face delays that could disrupt Olympics planning. The federal government was late in awarding hundreds of millions of dollars that it promised for security for the World Cup this year — a delay the Trump administration attributed to the Homeland Security shutdown.

This story first appeared on The LA Local.

Across from an auto shop on Venice Boulevard and Albany Street sits a narrow, sunken strip of land lined with overgrown shrubs and cacti. It’s mostly filled with trash — from plastic bags and cups to containers, straws, chip bags and aluminum foil.

It’s original purpose was to capture and filter storm water runoff, helping reduce flooding and keep pollutants from flowing into the ocean. But neighbors in Pico Union say that this bioswale and many others across the city have become dumping grounds.

The sidewalk features were installed during former Mayor Eric Garcetti’s Complete Streets program around 2018. The initiative aimed to improve streets, add greenery and better manage stormwater along key corridors across the city.

Local resident Aurora Corona — a longtime Pico Union community organizer involved in local environmental and cleanup efforts — said in some instances it looks like the bioswales were not fully installed.

Citywide, there are about 23 bioswales that appear abandoned, Corona said. Many are located in central and South Los Angeles and spread across at least eight council districts.

In some cases, the concrete structures were installed but left without vegetation for years, Corona said, raising concerns that they were never able to function as intended.

Heberto Portobanco, owner of the Nicaraguan restaurant Portobanco in Pico Union, first noticed the bioswale outside his business about eight years ago, but it became hard to ignore about two years ago when it became a hazard.

“We had an accident, one of the people who does maintenance for us came and fell into it,” he said.

The bioswale was deeper and not fully finished, Portobanco said. After multiple people reported what happened to the city, Portobanco said the city added more soil to level it out.

“The idea might be nice, but if it’s not maintained, it’s a problem,” Portobanco said.

The biggest concern for Portobanco remains safety, especially as he said that people continue to use the space improperly or fail to notice it altogether.

He would be willing to help maintain the bioswale outside his restaurant if the city created a formal program to do so.

For him, keeping the space clean is also about pride and perception.

“I don’t want people to think that Latinos are careless and that we don’t take care of our surroundings,” he said, adding that a well-kept space could encourage others to take better care of the neighborhood.

Corona, the local organizer, has experienced similar issues to the ones Portobanco described. 

She lives near two bioswales, including the one near Portobanco’s restaurant.

She first encountered them while organizing a cleanup around 2024 and said she didn’t initially know what they were. What she did know was that they were not being taken care of.

“I was tired of seeing this being a dumping ground, they would just throw trash here all the time,” she said.

That frustration pushed her to take action. She thought of what she had already done with other public spaces in her community.

In 2024, she helped transform a neglected dirt space on Venice Boulevard and Union Avenue into a small community green area — also known as a median — using local grant funding. With the help of volunteers, they removed contaminated soil and planted drought-tolerant greenery.

“It’s only been here since November and it’s grown a lot,” she said about the green belt, pointing to plants that started as small pots and are now taking root.

Corona continues to organize cleanups and, through the city’s “Adopt-a-Median” program, works with neighbors to maintain the space. She said she’d like to see a similar model applied to bioswales — essentially an “Adopt-a-Bioswale” program that would allow residents to take ownership of the ones near them.

“I think people would step up if they were given the chance and the support,” she said.

Across from an auto shop on Venice Boulevard and Albany Street sits a narrow, sunken strip of land lined with overgrown shrubs and cacti. It’s mostly filled with trash — from plastic bags and cups to containers, straws, chip bags and aluminum foil.

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The LA Local

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The program for the bioswales, as she envisions it, would involve planting California natives such as dudleya edulis, dudleya pulverulenta and other species that can withstand the weather. It would also call for improving their visibility by painting the bioswale borders in colors that reflect the neighborhood.

That idea has already been discussed at the city level.

Steve Kang, president of the city’s Board of Public Works, agrees that many bioswales now sit “barren” and are treated as “more of a trash repository.” 

He said his office is now working to create a program similar to “Adopt-a-Median” that would allow community members and organizations to formally maintain bioswales.

“My intention is to make the process as seamless and easy as possible,” Kang said, adding that the goal is to launch the program sometime in 2026.

Under the proposal, participants would enter into agreements with the city, with support from the Office of Community Beautification, which can provide tools like gloves, trash bags and gardening supplies.

For residents like Corona and business owners like Portobanco, that kind of partnership could turn what are now neglected strips of land into something more useful. 

“If we take care of these spaces, they can become something people are proud of,” Corona said. “It changes how people see the neighborhood and how they treat it.”

Big Bear’s famous bald eagles — Jackie and Shadow — appear to be welcoming a new chick into the world.

The first pip, or crack, was spotted in one of the feathered duo’s two eggs around 10 a.m. Friday, according to Friends of Big Bear Valley, the nonprofit that runs a popular YouTube livestream of the nest overlooking Big Bear Lake.

More than 26,000 people were watching the livestream shortly after the organization confirmed a pip had been spotted, which signals that an eaglet is starting to poke its way out of the egg shell.

“Yesterday afternoon, evening and throughout the night we heard little chirps coming from the chick,” Friends of Big Bear Valley wrote on Facebook to more than a million followers. “This indicates that the chick was able to break the internal membrane and took its first breath of air.”

As of Friday, the first egg is around 38 days old and the second egg is about 35 days old. Jackie and Shadow's usual incubation timeline is around 38 to 40 days, according to the nonprofit.

There’s still time for the second egg to show signs of hatching, and a pip could be confirmed in the coming days.

What we know

Jenny Voisard, the organization’s media manager, told LAist earlier this week that hatching is an arduous process for chicks that takes some time.

For example, last season, the first chick hatched more than a day after the initial pip was confirmed, according to Friends of Big Bear Valley records. The second chick hatched about a day after pipping as well, and the third chick worked its way out into the world about two days after the first crack was confirmed.

The chicks may look like little blobs of gray fluff at first, but they grow quickly, as fans saw with Jackie and Shadow’s eaglets last year. One of last season’s trio of chicks, believed to be the eldest and most dominant sibling, died during a winter storm within weeks of hatching.

In March 2025, Jackie and Shadow welcomed two eaglet chicks with one remaining egg in their nest.

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Jackie and Shadow's three chicks on March 7, 2025. One of the chicks later died, while Sunny and Gizmo successfully fledged a few months later.

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Jackie and Shadow's eaglets during a feeding of fish in April 2025.

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Sunny and Gizmo in Big Bear's famous bald eagle nest on Friday, April 18, 2025.

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Viewers watched as the surviving eaglets, Sunny and Gizmo, grew from a few ounces to several pounds in a matter of months before fledging, or taking their first flight away from the nest, last June.

But any chicks arriving this season will have to learn how to feed before they can fly.

The initial meals may be a bit awkward while the chicks learn to sit up straight. Jackie and Shadow could start feeding the chicks the same day they hatch, typically tearing off pieces of fish or raw meat and holding it up to their beaks.

Bald eagles don’t regurgitate food for their young, unlike other birds. But the feathered parents do pass along a "substantial amount of saliva” full of electrolytes and antibodies to their chicks during feedings, according to the nonprofit.

Voisard said new life coming to the nest is a reminder “why it’s so important to conserve their lands.”

Big Bear fundraiser

Friends of Big Bear Valley is trying to raise $10 million by the end of July to purchase land pegged for a planned housing project that some say would harm rare plants and wildlife in the area, including bald eagles.

You can learn more about the fundraiser here.