Topline:
Gov. Gavin Newsom vetoed three bills late Friday night.
Which bills: The vetoed legislation covered gender identity in custody cases, stopping prison to ICE transfers for some non-citizens and driverless trucks.
What's next: The bills return to the Legislature. Vetoes could be overturned by a two-thirds vote in both chambers, which is rare.
Go deeper:
Gov. Gavin Newsom vetoed three bills late Friday night. The bills dealt with transgender custody cases, driverless trucks, and ICE detention after a non-citizen is released from California prisons.
The bill would have required courts to consider a parent's recognition of a child's gender identity in custody cases.
In a veto message, Newsom said he shares a "deep commitment to advancing the rights of transgender Californians" but that he urges "caution when the Executive and Legislative branches of state government attempt to dictate...legal standards for the Judicial branch to apply."
He says that strategy could be used to "diminish civil rights of vulnerable communities."
The bill would stop some non-citizens who've served time in California prisons from being handed over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), including those who received clemency from the governor or who are sick and dying.
The proposal, authored by Assemblymember Wendy Carrillo of Los Angeles, has wide support from immigration reform advocates. That effort was a more narrow version of a bill that had failed to get to the governor's desk last year.
My statement of @CAgovernor @GavinNewsom veto of #AB1306, the HOME Act to #StopICEtransfers: pic.twitter.com/obDAMCU6kk
— Wendy Carrillo (@AsmCarrillo) September 23, 2023
Newsom said "current law strikes the right balance on limiting interaction to support community trust and cooperation between law enforcement and local communities."
This bill wanted to put humans behind the wheel of driverless trucks.
In striking down the bill, Newsom said the DMV and California Legislature already have safety measures in place for autonomous vehicles.
The bills return to the Legislature. Vetoes could be overturned by a two-thirds vote in both chambers, which is rare. Gov. Newsom has until Oct. 14 to sign or veto hundreds of other bills.
Topline:
Local non-profit Didi Hirsch Mental Health Services recently got additional funding to the tune of about $1.5 million from a mix of private foundations, BMO Bank and other corporate partnerships that will allow them to continue supporting fire survivors for at least two more years.
The quote: Clara Bergen, a program development manager at Didi Hirsch and has been doing outreach in fire-affected communities. She said mental health support is crucial for fire survivors, especially as we approach the one-year anniversary.
“We know that trauma anniversaries are real. Our bodies respond to these trauma anniversaries,” Bergen said,
How it works: Bergen said the additional dollars will allow them to offer six free, trauma-informed therapy sessions to about 300 people over the next couple of years. You can find more information and sign up for free services on Didi Hirsch’s website.
Topline:
The owners behind the Hotel Café shocked fans recently with news that it will shut down for a while. The small but mighty music venue has been an entertainment mainstay for 25 years.
How did it start? The Hotel Café started out as a coffee shop. The owners wanted to have a business to support their screenwriting ambitions. It was a success until the Sept. 11 attacks hit, which among the national fallout, damaged business.
Why the shift to music? Their coffee shop was essentially saved when Gary Jules, the artist behind that famous eerie "Mad World" cover, asked to do a performance on their stage. It was a huge success and the Hotel Café eventually morphed into just a music venue.
Why is it closing? That’s happening in early 2026 because the venue is moving to Sunset Boulevard, inside Lumina Hollywood. That spot has more space, but it isn’t expected to open until the first half of 2027.
Read on…. to learn about the iconic performers who’ve graced the stage.
Walking down an alley in Hollywood might not be the typical way to watch a live show, but at the Hotel Café on Cahuenga Boulevard, it’s what music lovers have done for 25 years.
It’s a storied music venue that’s been a home for generations of artists. Even big names cut their teeth here, like Adele, Sara Bareilles and Mumford & Sons. It’s the kind of place that has a line well before anyone gets on stage. Phones are a rarity here, and the audience is so silent you can hang on every note.
This place is closing down in early 2026. But the Hotel Café won’t be gone forever — bucking the normal narrative of closures, it’s shutting down in order to expand.
Let’s dig into what made the small space special.
It started out as a bit of a sidequest.
Back in 2000, an idea popped into the minds of screenwriting partners Marko Shafer and Max Mamikunian. Why not open a coffee shop together that could serve as a creative home base?
The two bought a vacant space right below a hotel. The plan was simple: Be successful enough to have a staff and go back to screenwriting. The Hotel Café, as they named it, reached that milestone right before Sept. 11 rattled America — and consumer habits nationwide.
“ We were in that position of just having made our success as a coffee shop and then all of a sudden nothing,” Mamikunian said. “We thought we were going to close down.”
Then musician Gary Jules came in, fresh off the heels of his hit version of “Mad World” in the Donnie Darko movie. He wanted to do a set, which put them on a trajectory no one could have seen coming.
“ The line was down the block, and half of the people in line were musicians,” Mamikunian said.
After his show, the Hotel Café gradually morphed into a regular music venue. Jules stuck around to perform and handle some of the booking, then Shafer took the helm.
The intimate, dimly lit setup quickly drew music agents, crooning fans and audiophiles. In the early days, they’d get inundated with demo CDs (now it’s SoundCloud). Shafer hid sometimes from hopeful performers because the demand was just too much.
He and Mamikunian credit the Hotel Café’s following to its consistently curated performance and group showcases, like Songwriter Sunday and Monday Monday. Shafer remembered a time in 2003 when Weezer joined one of those nights.
“ Their manager called me on my Razr flip phone, and so there was no proof it was actually her. I had to take her word for it,” he said.
It was real. Weezer showed up, loaded in some stools and played an acoustic set. Another fond memory, production manager Gia Hughes said, is when Chris Martin’s team called in for a last-minute show. The Coldplay frontman arrived on a Vespa.
“ He’s sound checking ‘The Scientist,’ and it’s just me and the bartender and the sound engineer,” she recalled. “I'm just like, ‘holy sh--, this is unreal.’ It was just one of those super magical nights.”
Hughes said their success also comes from the respectful culture the Hotel Café is known for. It’s as much of a place for music fans as it is for artists. They can sing for a tuned-in audience, or — like Radiohead did — roll up to enjoy a show undisturbed.
As more and more people came, it was clear the performance space needed more room. They later expanded in 2004 to include the stage next door. Today, they’re in a similar predicament.
That’s why they’re moving to a bigger space inside Lumina Hollywood on Sunset Boulevard in the first half of 2027, which they recently announced on Instagram. The new spot will have two stages and a restaurant component.
While many Hotel Café fans are sad to see it move, Mamikunian said it’s another period of reinvention. He’s proud of their time on Cahuenga Boulevard.
“Any business lasting anywhere for 25 years is an accomplishment,” he said. "I think we want to go out in a kind of celebratory way.”
It’s unclear when exactly the Cahuenga spot will close, but they have several farewell performances scheduled through at least the first couple of months in 2026.
“A lot of people are asking us, especially because everybody wants to be one of the last to play the room,” Mamikunian said. “I think we’ll know within the next few weeks for sure that we can put an actual date on it.”
Topline:
Some 10 million Southern California residents will travel out of the region through Jan. 1, according to AAA. This Saturday and Sunday are expected to be the busiest for driving for this year-end travel season.
How are people travelling? “The vast majority are gonna go by automobile, about 8.9 million Southern Californians taking road trips,” said Doug Shupe of the Automobile Club of Southern California.
About 945,000 people are travelling by air with another 332,000 people taking alternative forms of transportation like buses, trains, and cruises.
Where are people going? SoCal residents are mostly driving to places like San Diego, Las Vegas, the Central Coast and local national parks.
Meanwhile, Anaheim and the Los Angeles area are No. 4 in the top five domestic travel destinations for year-end holidays.
“Disneyland plays a huge role in that, but a lot of people nationwide will come to Southern California to celebrate,” Shupe said.
Is travel up? Holiday travel has seen continued growth all year. Compared to last year, auto travel has increased 2.7%, air travel is up 1.7% and alternative methods like trains, buses and cruises are up a whopping 7.4%.
Overall, travel this year is 10.3% higher compared to just before the pandemic began in 2019.
Any travel advice? Leave early! And that goes for those traveling by car and plane, Shupe said.
If you’re driving, inspect your vehicle before hitting the road. “Check your tire tread and inflation, inspect your battery, your headlights and turn signals,” said Shupe.
A winter storm is expected to hit Southern California beginning Tuesday, so make sure your windshield wipers are in good shape or get them replaced.
Flying? Get to the airport two hours early for domestic flights and at least three hours before international ones.
Topline:
LACMA’s newly acquired Van Gogh will go on display starting Sunday, making L.A. a rising place to see his work.
Why it matters: Van Gogh was part of the Impressionist movement that revolutionized Western art and continues to influence art and artists.
Why now: LACMA’s exhibit includes 100 other Impressionist works, giving the audience a chance to see Van Gogh in context with his contemporaries.
The backstory: In L.A. County, you also can see Van Gogh paintings at the Hammer Museum, the Getty and the Norton Simon Museum.
Read on ... for more on the newly acquired Van Gogh and Monet works.
LACMA’s first Van Gogh isn’t a painting of blue flowers, golden wheat fields or aged faces. It’s of a parked stagecoach, and it’s considered a good example of what made the Dutch painter, and the Impressionist movement he was a part of, so revolutionary.
The painting is called “Tarascon Stagecoach.” It was painted in 1888 and was donated to LACMA earlier this year by the Henry and Rose Pearlman Foundation.
It’s LACMA’s first Van Gogh painting, and the encyclopedic museum will be showing it off starting Sunday in a show called “Collecting Impressionism at LACMA” that focuses on 100 works from LACMA’s collection. The works are arranged chronologically to show the evolving tastes that have shaped the museum's collection of Impressionist art.
The museum’s acquisition isn’t just a win for the museum. The museum-going public and the region’s teenage and college-age students also will benefit.
“I very much remember seeing Van Gogh in a rotunda space in the [Philadelphia Museum of Art] and finding it to be just so striking because of these luscious, bright colors,” said Summer Sloane-Britt, who saw her first Van Goh during a middle school visit to the museum.
Sloane-Britt now is a professor of art and art history at Occidental College.
“Visual analysis and seeing objects in person is always so core to historical learning and for studio artists as well,” Sloane-Britt said.
I very much remember seeing Van Gogh in a rotunda space in the [Philadelphia Museum of Art] and finding it to be just so striking because of these luscious, bright colors.
And seeing a Van Gogh in person, Sloane-Britt said, and saying you don’t like it is also OK because that signals the work has led you to identify and assert your own aesthetic tastes in art.
The LACMA exhibit presents a good opportunity to get on the road for a four-stop Van Gogh road trip without leaving L.A. County.
You can start at LACMA and see “Tarascon Stagecoach,” benefiting from the context of seeing other impressionist works by Van Gogh’s contemporaries.
Hop over to the Hammer Museum in Westwood, where you’ll see “Hospital at Saint-Rémy,” one of three paintings by Van Gogh in the collection.
Then head west on Wilshire Boulevard to the Getty to see “Irises,” one of the paintings that’s made Van Gogh an art star.
End your Van Gogh road trip by heading east to Pasadena to the Norton Simon Museum. The museum’s smaller, more intimate setting is a good place to see the museum’s six, yes six, Van Gogh paintings.
The exhibit also will feature the newly acquired work "The Artist’s Garden, Vétheuil" by Claude Monet.
