The Brief

There’s nothing grand about Santa Ana Immigration Court. Tucked in the corner of an office park between two county health agencies, you’d hardly know it was there. Which is why a group of volunteer court observers shows up on a daily basis — to keep tabs on immigration policies that seem to change by the week, and to channel resources to people facing deportation.

“People feel comforted by just seeing us there, especially that we are people of faith,” said Jennifer Coria, who coordinates the immigration court observer program for the group Clergy and Laity United for Economic Justice, or CLUE. Observers come from churches and other religious entities across Orange County and L.A. They're encouraged to wear something that signals their faith, or, if they’re clergy, to show up in religious attire.

“We want the judges to know that we are coming from a faith community and they see that there's moral presence in these spaces,” Coria said.

Why now?

The immigration court observer program is among dozens of grassroots efforts that have popped up around Southern California and across the country in response to the Trump administration’s mass deportation campaign. Other groups are patrolling neighborhoods to alert residents of ICE raids, delivering food boxes to immigrant families scared to leave their homes, and posting up at Home Depots to accompany day laborers who have been a frequent target of the raids.

LAist recently spent a morning inside Santa Ana Immigration Court with a group of observers to get a peek into the legal side of the federal deportation campaign. After President Donald Trump’s first full year in office, his administration continues its rapid pace of removals, in fulfillment of his campaign promises.

In an email to LAist, a spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security said more than 700,000 immigrants had been arrested under Trump and DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, 70% of them with criminal convictions or pending criminal charges in the U.S. That statistic doesn't account for those wanted in their home countries for suspected crimes, the spokesperson added.

LAist has requested clarification on the government’s figures, which contrasts with other sources. For example, the Deportation Data Project estimates that the Trump administration deported fewer than 300,000 from the interior of the country during its first year, not counting immigrants caught or turned away at the border. The project is run largely by a group of law professors and lawyers who publish reports based on government datasets.

Why it matters

In immigration court, the administration’s deportation campaign has meant faster proceedings, and fewer immigrants allowed to remain in the United States, according to data maintained by Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC), a project of Syracuse University. The data also shows that less than 2% of new deportation cases filed in 2026 allege that the person was involved in criminal activity beyond entering the country illegally.

The court observers in Santa Ana aren’t there to protest inside courtrooms or try to block deportation orders. But they say they’ll keep showing up to offer pro bono legal resources and, at the least, moral support for vulnerable members of their community.

“They're my neighbors. It's like, why wouldn't I defend them?” said Diedre Gaffney, one of the court observers.

Immigration court is an administrative court within the Department of Justice.

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Jill Replogle

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LAist

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A day in immigration court

For court observers, the morning starts in the lobby, scanning a wall of electronic displays with the day’s docket. They usually look for courtrooms holding what’s known as master calendar hearings — rapid-fire, preliminary hearings that can have life-changing outcomes for people fighting deportation or seeking asylum.

The observers are familiar with the judges by now, and know which ones might not welcome their presence. Members of the public are generally allowed to attend immigration court hearings. But judges can close hearings or limit attendance at their discretion.

After a brief discussion, the observers decided to head to Judge Wilbur Lee’s courtroom. The room is small and sparse. A flag stands in one corner. A big screen for virtual appearances takes up the other.

The judge sits behind a computer monitor at the front of the room, flanked by a copy machine and a Spanish language interpreter.

Lee had more than 20 cases on his docket for the morning. Some people were seeking asylum; others hoped to adjust their status, which provides a pathway to legal residency, for example, for immigrants who have married a U.S. citizen. Most of the hearings lasted only a few minutes, either postponed to another date, or scheduled for a subsequent hearing. Sometimes language, and the lack of an interpreter, delayed the hearing — there was a Nicaraguan man who spoke only Miskito, an indigenous language, and another from Kazakhstan who spoke Kazakh.

Respondents — that’s the official term for people facing immigration proceedings — had traveled, or video-conferenced in, from Irvine, Costa Mesa, Fullerton, Riverside, San Fernando, Eastvale and Rialto.

One of the court observers spotted something new in the courtroom that day: a bright blue flyer on the desk where respondents sit to answer questions from the judge. It read, in all caps, “MESSAGE TO ILLEGAL ALIENS: A WARNING TO SELF-DEPORT.”

The flyer, which was also posted in the courtroom lobby, laid out benefits (“leave on your own terms,”) and consequences (“immediate deportation,” “no opportunity to get your affairs in order”) of taking or not taking the government’s advice. A QR code on the flyer led to a website for the government’s self-deportation incentive program, which includes a bonus for immigrants who choose to self-deport. The amount was upped in January from $1,000 to $2,600. Some news outlets have reported problems with the program, including people not receiving the promised bonus once back in their home country.

The observers’ evolving mission

The fliers are the latest example of how quickly policies and procedures are changing, often without warning, adding to the dizzying nature of the proceedings.

Last summer, when the Trump administration began its crackdown in earnest, ICE officers would often sit inside, or just outside courtrooms, and take people into custody as soon as their case was dismissed. At the time, the court observers concentrated on getting personal information from the detainees so they could contact their families and help them locate their loved ones in ICE facilities.

These days, observers say they haven’t seen ICE agents in courtrooms since the fall. So the observers’ mission has shifted to trying to get legal representation for people facing deportation proceedings without a lawyer.

About half the people facing deportation proceedings in California do not have a lawyer, according to data compiled by TRAC at Syracuse University. Without a lawyer, respondents are more than three times more likely to face a deportation order than those who have one, according to the data. By law, there is no requirement to provide legal representation.

Now, when the volunteer court observers notice that a respondent is facing the judge alone, they follow them out of the courtroom and text or hand them a list of pro bono attorneys — often with an explanation aided by Google translate, or a few memorized lines in Spanish.

“I tell them to call everyone on the list,” said Erin Moncure, a court observer from Lake Forest, noting that immigration lawyers are overwhelmed with the onslaught of cases over the past year.

Moncure, who doesn’t speak Spanish, said she’s nevertheless talked to hundreds of strangers at immigration court to try and connect them with pro bono attorneys. Often she asks for their cell phone number so she can text them a list.

“There really is no reason for them to trust me,” she said. “That’s how desperate people are.”

Rapidly changing policies

The new flyer in immigration courtrooms urging people to self-deport is just one of many changes court observers have noted since they’ve been attending immigration hearings in Santa Ana over the past six months.

Now, rather than detaining people at courthouses, the Trump administration is focusing on other ways to speed up deportation. One of them is by increasingly sending asylum seekers already in the U.S. to third-party countries to seek asylum there instead. The first Trump administration signed deals in 2019 with Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras to re-route people seeking asylum in the U.S. to those countries.

The Biden administration ended these agreements, and Trump reinstated them again last year. He’s also made new agreements with other countries to take asylum seekers and deportees, including with Ecuador, Paraguay, Belize and Uganda. In DHS’s statement to LAist, a spokesperson wrote that the third country agreements “ensure due process under the U.S. Constitution” and “ are essential to the safety of our homeland and the American people.”

Government attorneys and immigration judges are facing increasing pressure to use this option to cut off asylum cases early in the process, said Blaine Bookey,  legal director at the Center for Gender and Refugee Studies at UC Law San Francisco. Many of the cases on Lee’s morning docket involved a request from the DHS lawyer to remove the person to a country other than the one they had left to come to the U.S.

What this actually means

In one case, a woman and her teenage daughter were seeking asylum after they said their lives were threatened in Guatemala stemming from their relatives’ involvement in local politics.

They hadn’t yet had a chance to plead their asylum case to remain in the U.S. when the judge began to ask them hard questions: if they feared returning to Guatemala, what about being sent instead to Honduras? The women seemed caught off guard.

Ultimately, the judge determined that the two didn’t have a legally valid fear of being sent to Honduras, and ordered them deported there to seek asylum.

The DHS spokesperson told LAist that ending cases before they have a hearing, called pretermission, “is nothing new or unusual” and that the mechanism prevents prolonged custody for immigrants who have been detained while they await the outcome of their legal case.

"We are applying the law as written,” the spokesperson wrote. “If a judge finds an illegal alien has no right to be in this country, we are going to remove them. Period. All aliens in ICE custody receive due process and have any claims heard before a judge.”

Outside the courtroom, the two women from Guatemala fought to contain tears as they digested the news.

“What kind of life can we expect in Honduras? It’s pretty much the same as Guatemala,” the mom said in Spanish.

Bookey, from the Center for Gender and Refugee Studies, said the women's concern was a legitimate one, especially with regards to third-country asylum deals with Central American countries.

“Given the sort of porous borders in that area … you're basically returning someone to their home country directly because their persecutor can easily track them down or find them there,” she said.

Now, the only recourse for the two women from Guatemala is to appeal their case, normally a costly and lengthy process. But even that right might be curbed in the future: the Department of Justice plans to implement a rule next month that will shorten the amount of time respondents have to file an appeal, and raise the bar for granting them.

A judge’s perspective

In the highly politicized climate over immigration, judges are in a tough spot. Immigration courts are under the executive, not the judicial branch of government. Immigration judges have the legal authority to make independent decisions, but some say that independence is being challenged by the current administration.

Judge Jeremiah Johnson was one of around 100 immigration judges abruptly fired last year. He told LAist judges are under intense pressure from the Trump administration to fall in line with its policies.

“Judges are terrified of losing their job,” said Johnson, who still serves as the executive vice president of the National Association of Immigration Judges, a voluntary labor organization.

The loss of judges, and the administration’s shifting priorities, has meant a constant shuffling of case dockets among remaining judges, causing delays and backlogs, and also, increasing pressure to end cases quickly, Johnson said. Currently, there are more than 3 million immigration cases pending across the country, according to TRAC, around six times more than courts were facing a decade ago.

Johnson said the pressure to close cases, including by sending asylum seekers to other countries, threatens people’s right to due process.

“Due process to me is a full and fair hearing,” he said. “These are life or death claims, and so you really need to make sure you get this right.”

Recently, the administration began recruiting for “deportation judges,” including a signing bonus, to replace the immigration judges who were fired or resigned. Johnson called the change in job title “insulting” and a mischaracterization of the role.

“It's not an enforcement position, it's to adjudicate the laws fairly,” Johnson said. “I took the job to uphold the law. That oath was very solemn to me and all the judges on that bench,” he said.

What the observers are trying to accomplish

Court observers have seen some positive changes at Santa Ana Immigration Court since they started observing last summer. On the day LAist visited Lee’s courtroom, many of the respondents had lawyers — a big change, observers said, from just a few months ago.

CLUE also started a fund to pay bonds for non-criminal immigration detainees, and they’ve been able to release more than a 100 people from detention while they wait for their day in court.

Jennifer Caria, Diedre Gaffney, and Nate Hadinata, immigration court observers with Clergy and Laity United for Economic Justice, CLUE.

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Jill Replogle

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Nate Hadinata, from Saddleback Church, sees his role as a “ministry of presence,” and not just for immigrants at risk of deportation.

“ I'm actually here for everybody in the courtroom,” Hadinata said, “because I start to see that the judges are frustrated with the remote lawyers on WebEx, where the internet connection for some reason is shoddy, … the DHS attorneys, I could see they’ve got cough drops on the table, so they're working through illness,” he said.

Earlier this month, a DHS lawyer in Minnesota, exhausted by the avalanche of work, made headlines after telling a judge, “This job sucks.”

Hadinata said attending court proceedings has also allowed him to share his first-hand observations about the current immigration crackdown with his fellow parishioners.  

“When you think that people are criminals in here and you actually get firsthand accounts, you actually start to realize, ‘Oh, I just see families,'" he said. “And aren't we all about strong family?”

Biweekly vigil for the 'disappeared'

Besides the court watching and the bond fund, CLUE holds a bi-weekly prayer vigil in front of Santa Ana Immigration Court. Last Thursday, Nathan Hill, pastor at Church of the Foothills in North Tustin, stood in front of the courthouse next to a sign that read, “We are people of faith praying for the disappeared.”

Hill, wearing a cream-colored stole with brightly embroidered crosses, led a group of nearly 30 people in prayer and song. Some of the attendees wore pink bandanas, an homage, they said, to the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo, women who demonstrated during Argentina’s so-called “Dirty War” to pressure the military dictatorship for information about their disappeared children.

Hill began the vigil:

María Elena Perales,  with the Sisters of St. Joseph of Orange, said she helped start the prayer vigils in June as a way to show public support for local families targeted in the immigration raids.

“Many of them do not go grocery shopping, many of them do not send their kids to school. Kids are being traumatized as we speak,” she said of the raids’ effect on immigrant families. “A lot of people do not understand, maybe, what our families are suffering. This is an opportunity to engage people and say, ‘come and join us in prayer, and hear about the stories.’”

As the prayer vigil wound down, people began to trickle through the doors of immigration court. The afternoon session would soon begin, and with it, dozens more lives in the balance.

President Donald Trump has called for a temporary waiver of the federal gas tax, which costs drivers 18.4 cents per gallon.

It's one of several attempts to relieve pain at the pump as voters grow increasingly frustrated with gasoline prices, which have hit four-year highs thanks to the oil trade disruption triggered by the war with Iran.

A national gas tax holiday would require an act of Congress. Lawmakers have floated the idea, with several bills introduced before Trump called for a temporary pause on the tax.

But even with the president's backing, it's not clear whether his proposal will make it to the floor for a vote. Gas tax holidays are controversial, with advocates arguing they provide quick relief and with critics denouncing them as costly and even counterproductive.

Here's what you need to know.

How much would a federal gas tax holiday save? 

At most, waiving the tax would save drivers 18.4 cents per gallon, or $2.76 on a 15-gallon fill-up. The national average price for a gallon of gasoline is now $4.46, up from around $3 prewar, so the relief would make up for only a fraction of that price spike.

But there are two reasons that drivers might save even less. First, some of the tax savings might instead go toward refineries and gas stations. That's especially true for a shorter holiday, says Kent Smetters, the faculty director at the Penn Wharton Budget Model, which researches the cost of public policies.

"What we generally think is that over long periods of time, most of the tax cut would go to consumers," he says. "But over shorter periods of time, suppliers — even though it's fairly competitive to sell gas — they still have some market power." And that market power means they could hike their prices a little bit, eating into those tax savings and keeping some of the benefit for themselves.

Penn Wharton estimates that about 13.2 cents a gallon in savings would actually reach consumers; Adam Hoffer, the director of excise tax policy at the Tax Foundation think tank, estimates it's about 16 cents.

And second, waiving the gas tax can increase demand for gasoline; that's the natural result of lower prices. That could worsen the supply-demand imbalance that's driving prices up.

A pause on the federal gas tax alone probably isn't large enough to send demand soaring. But Patrick De Haan, an analyst with the app GasBuddy, told NPR this spring that if states widely suspend their own gas taxes, that could push demand — and prices — back up.

That's because state taxes are usually much higher than the federal tax. The amount varies by state — from 9 cents a gallon in Alaska to 70.9 cents in California. On average, states tack on an extra 33.3 cents per gallon.

A handful of states have already cut or paused their gas taxes. Kentucky lopped 10 cents off in May. Georgia completely froze its gas tax in March for two months and has extended its freeze as the conflict with Iran continues.

The price of a gas tax pause

While waiving gas taxes may save drivers a bit at the pump, it means less money for keeping roads safe.

Revenue from the federal gas tax goes into the Highway Trust Fund, which is used to pay for interstate construction and repair, as well as to invest in mass transit. Revenue from state gas taxes is often used for local road repairs.

The Penn Wharton Budget Model estimated that when Georgia paused its tax for two months, this cost the state about $361 million.

"Now we're talking real money," Smetters said.

That's less funding available to the state for repairs. "Anytime you take away a source of funding for highway construction and maintenance, then you're running the risk of the roads getting worse and not better," said Rob Bhatt, an insurance analyst at LendingTree, which recently issued a report about the condition of U.S. roads.

Drivers feel the pain of poorly maintained roads in very familiar ways: in potholes and dips. Patrick Marshall, a music teacher in New Orleans, wasn't watching close enough one morning and hit a dip that nearly broke a wheel off his 1989 GMC Sierra. The incident cost Marshall $2,500 and resulted in a 10-block walk to work.

"It's a tough hit to take when it's an unexpected expense," Marshall said.

(Well, not that unexpected — at least not in a city infamous for rough roads. When Marshall leads his students on brass and drum lines through New Orleans' streets, they know to shout warnings of "Pothole!" loud enough to eclipse the trumpets and French horns.)

All those pothole-related damages add up: AAA estimated that damage from potholes cost drivers some $26.5 billion in repairs in 2021.

Overall, this month's LendingTree report, which was based on federal data from 2024, found that 8.9% of the nation's road miles are in poor condition. Rhode Island scored the worst, with 31.5% of road miles rated as poor, with California and Massachusetts coming in second and third at 27.0% and 24.5%, respectively.

Minnesota stood out as the most improved between 2019 and 2024 — the state reduced the share of road miles rated as poor by more than 60%. But nationally, the report didn't find much improvement at all over that five-year span.

And even drivers in Rhode Island, the report's lowest-rated state, say potholes are bad everywhere. "I hit a pothole in New York City about a month ago, though that literally took life out of me," said Rhode Island resident Carleen Quattrucci.

The bigger problem: The gas tax is broken 

Here's even more bad news: The federal gas tax hasn't collected enough money to fully fund highway construction and repairs for years. And that fundamental problem is only getting worse.

It wasn't always like this. The gas tax was based on the premise that the people who use highways the most should pay the most for their upkeep. And the more miles a driver puts on their car, the more gasoline or diesel they purchase, so the more tax they pay — no toll booth required.

From the mid-1970s through the mid-1990s, that worked well, says the Tax Foundation's Hoffer.

"The revenue from gas tax collections was sufficient to cover all federal highway road construction and maintenance expenses," he says. "So the drivers were paying for the roads to be maintained and more roads to be built, when they drove on the roads. It was a terrific system."

But the last time the gas tax was raised was in 1993. It was 18.4 cents a gallon then; it's 18.4 cents a gallon now.

Yet since 1993, the cost of road repairs and construction has risen — and the price of gasoline has tripled.

"It's a weird tax," says Smetters, because it's not pegged to the price of gasoline, so it doesn't rise with inflation.

Meanwhile, new vehicles have gotten more fuel efficient, and per capita miles driven per year peaked 20 years ago. That means the government collects less and less with the gas tax.

Now, the tax falls short of the highway fund's needs every year. For 2026, the shortfall is estimated to be $17 billion. Congress has to keep making up the gap with general taxpayer funds.

Raising the federal tax wouldn't fix the problem for long 

Hypothetically, the national tax could be increased. After all, many states' gas taxes are set to raise automatically.

One problem: "Nobody likes gas taxes. Politicians don't like them. Drivers don't like them. Voters don't like them," Hoffer says. "So increasing these taxes is a real political challenge." That's even though higher gas taxes do have benefits. For example, by discouraging driving, they cut down on carbon emissions, which improves air quality and human health. And a well-designed gas tax is a fairer way of paying for highways than drawing from the general tax pool, Hoffer says.

But there's another problem: Gas taxes make less sense as more drivers choose electric vehicles. EVs use roads and highways, so they add to the wear and tear on infrastructure. But they don't burn gasoline. So as EVs make up a growing share of vehicles, even a significantly higher gas tax would be doomed. It would bring in less money over time, because fewer drivers would pay it.

Many states have imposed EV registration fees to address this problem; the federal government is also considering adding one. However, because EVs still make up a very small share of vehicles, this doesn't come close to addressing the gas tax shortfall. Also, in many cases the fee for EVs is — or would be — much higher than the typical driver pays in gas taxes, creating an unfair system. Other potential solutions are being debated too. A lobbying group representing major automakers is pushing for a fee that all car owners would pay based on vehicle weight, so trucks would pay more than sedans. Heavier vehicles are harder on roads.

Some states are experimenting with road-user fees, which drivers pay based on how many miles they drive. In some cases, the programs use odometer readings; in others, they rely on devices or phone apps to measure miles driven. While economists say they're a fairer way to collect revenue — because, like with a gas tax traditionally, the people who use roads the most contribute the most toward their upkeep — those plans can raise privacy concerns, depending on the technology used to track miles driven.

Smetters, of the Penn Wharton Budget Model, also points to congestion fees and toll lanes as alternative funding mechanisms.

None of these ideas has yet caught on as a replacement for the federal fuel tax. But one thing is clear: At some point down the road, this tax is going to run out of gas.
Copyright 2026 NPR

Summer feels inextricably linked with the movies, with bigger budget movies in theaters — many of them aiming to reach “blockbuster” status — and likely some more trips to the cinema to beat the heat on hot days.

But how many of the movies coming out this summer were filmed in Los Angeles?

It’s a question we’re asking because the decline in local film and TV production is an ongoing issue that matters a lot — because of the impact on jobs, the broader economy, and the culture of the Los Angeles area — and there’s been some encouraging news of late.

The latest quarterly report from FilmLA, the official film office for the L.A. region, showed some signs that the expansion of California’s Film & TV Tax Credit Program last year may be beginning to have some positive effects, particularly for feature films, TV dramas and comedies.

There’s also a pilot program that the city of Los Angeles and FilmLA launched last month that reduces costs and streamlines the process for getting permits for productions that meet certain criteria to be considered “low impact.”

While the effects of that are still to be determined, if you want to support movies (and TV shows!) that have filmed locally in the meantime, we put together this non-exhaustive list of upcoming shows and movies:

Summer TV filmed in LA

Spider-Noir (May 27, MGM+ and Prime Video)

A live-action series based on the Marvel comic Spider-Man Noir, Spider-Noir is about a private investigator in 1930s New York City, played by Nicolas Cage, grappling with his superhero past.

While set in New York, the series was filmed in Los Angeles — in various locations downtown (including The Orpheum Theatre) and at several studio lots. In a recent interview, Cage’s co-star, Lamorne Morris, told LAist that  ”Downtown L.A. looks probably more like 1930s New York than New York does,” and also confirmed that one of the Spider-Noir filming locations — the bar called The Prince in Koreatown — is one that many may recognize from another series that Morris starred in, the L.A.-set show New Girl.

Sugar (June 19, Apple TV)

This neo-noir Apple TV series starring Colin Farrell is set in modern-day Los Angeles and filmed here too. Season two premieres on June 19.

Elle (July 1, Prime Video)

Elle, the prequel series about the Legally Blonde character Elle Woods’ early life filmed primarily in Vancouver, but we’ll give it a pass since it’s largely set in Seattle and because we know that the series did include at least some filming in the Los Angeles area (specifically on Rodeo Drive).

Lucky (July 15, Apple TV)

According to Deadline, this Apple TV limited series, starring Anya Taylor-Joy, Annette Benning and Timothy Olyphant was a recipient of a $10.682 million state tax credit and filmed mostly in the Los Angeles area, with some shooting in Las Vegas as well. The local filming locations also included some spots in downtown Long Beach. Taylor-Joy plays a con artist in the action/thriller.

The Hawk (July 16, Netflix)

This comedy series starring Will Ferrell as a golf legend named Lonnie “The Hawk” Hawkins who’s looking to make a comeback — alongside Molly Shannon, Fortune Feimster and Luke Wilson — was reportedly awarded a $17.2 million state tax credit. It filmed in Newport Beach and Los Angeles, in addition to some locations in Florida.

Lanterns (August 16, HBO Max)

The DC Studios series Lanterns — created by Damon Lindelof (Watchmen, Lost), Tom King (Supergirl) and Chris Mundy (Ozark, True Detective) — stars Kyle Chandler and Aaron Pierre as “intergalactic cops” drawn into an “earth-based mystery.”

While it was initially set to film in Atlanta, DC Studios’ Peter Safran said tax credits made it possible to film in Los Angeles instead, largely on the Warner Brothers lot in Burbank.

Summer movies filmed in LA

The Mandalorian and Grogu (May 22)

The film’s director and co-writer Jon Favreau has said that The Mandalorian and Grogu is the first Star Wars movie to be shot entirely in Los Angeles. Ahead of the movie’s premiere at the TCL Chinese theater, he credited the California Film Commission for making that possible.

Maddie's Secret (June 19)

Filmed and set in Los Angeles, Maddie’s Secret, is the directorial debut of actor and comedian John Early. Early also stars in the film as Maddie, a food influencer with bulimia. Early described the film to The Los Angeles Times as a “very Echo Park, Silver Lake, Eagle Rock, Frogtown, Glassell Park, Highland Park, Los Feliz movie.” Filming locations included Early’s own L.A. home.

The Invite (June 26)

Set in San Francisco, and starring Olivia Wilde (who also directed the film), Seth Rogen, Penelope Cruz and Edward Norton, The Invite actually filmed primarily on a Los Angeles soundstage, according to The San Francisco Examiner, with two days of on-location shooting in San Francisco.

Jackass: Best and Last (June 26)

The final installment in the Jackass movie franchise filmed in Los Angeles and Simi Valley. It’s helmed by Johnny Knoxville, who co-created and starred in every film and TV iteration of the series, which began as an MTV reality TV show in 2000.

Gail Daughtry and the Celebrity Sex Pass (July 10)

Gail Daughtry and the Celebrity Sex Pass is set in Los Angeles and was filmed entirely on location here. The film is directed by David Wain (Wet Hot American Summer, Role Models), written by Wain and Ken Marino (Party Down, Wet Hot American Summer), and stars Zoey Deutch, Jon Hamm (playing himself), and John Slattery.

The Odyssey (July 17)

Director Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey filmed in Italy, Greece, Morocco, Scotland and Iceland — but some key scenes were also shot in Los Angeles.

Two of the heaviest of heavy classical music hitters — cellist Yo Yo Ma and L.A. Phil conductor Gustavo Dudamel — take the stage at Disney Hall Thursday and Saturday for a world premiere performance, but even if you can’t score a coveted seat this week, let this serve as your reminder that your days left to see Dudamel as he prepares to depart for the New York Philharmonic are closing in swiftly. But have no fear, the Venezuelan maestro will be back for several performances a year, and the L.A. Phil just made the exciting announcement that conductor Daniel Harding will be taking over as music director for the 2027-2028 season (fun fact: he’s also an Air France pilot!). Plus, there are plenty of classical summer nights at the Hollywood Bowl on the horizon.

Licorice Pizza has your rock 'n' roll picks for the weekend. Friday, Ladytron is at the Novo; the Last Dinner Party plays the Orpheum; Violet Grohl (yes, daughter of Dave) is at the Moroccan Lounge, while Spike Hellis is at Que Sera; and the big Slide Away 2026 shoegaze festival, featuring Hum, Nothing, Chapterhouse and more, takes over the Palladium Friday and Saturday.

Other Saturday shows include Pitbull and Lil Jon getting low at the Hollywood Bowl; We Are Scientists performing their classic album With Love and Squalor in full at the Troubadour. Fat, Evil Children featuring Truman Sinclair is at the Roxy, and the all-star Jesse Colin Young Tribute concert “Get Together Now!” is at the Orpheum. Plus, Lords of Acid with Mz Neon and Princess Superstar are at the Echoplex. Sunday’s rock ‘n’ roll extravaganza at the Roxy features Licorice Pizza’s Kelsy Karter & The Heroines with Frankie and the Studs.

Elsewhere on LAist, you can avoid getting scammed on a World Cup ticket and make your plan to vote in next Tuesday’s primaries.

Events

L.A. County Fair + NEXTfest

Through Sunday, May 31, 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. 
1101 W. McKinley Ave., Pomona
COST: FROM $19.50; MORE INFO

The L.A. County Fair wraps up this weekend, as does its accompanying music fair, NEXTfest. Catch the last of the blue-ribbon-winning bakes and jams, carnival games, farm animal visiting and the new band showcase before they're gone. On Sunday, catch L.A.-based Latin pop duo MYRANDAS, KCRW DJ Raul Campos and many more.

Scuba Show

Saturday and Sunday, May 30 and 31
Long Beach Convention Center 
300 E. Ocean Blvd., Long Beach 
COST: FROM $33; MORE INFO 

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Bobbi Wu

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Unsplash

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Whether you’re like me (a warm-water, vacation-only scuba diver), a technical obsessive who heads to the Catalina kelp forests, or a brand-new beginner, the Scuba Show in Long Beach will get you ready for your next underwater adventure. The weekend-long convention has a discovery pool to try scuba, all the dive gear you could want to check out and a full schedule of talks from marine biologists, explorers, photographers and enthusiasts.

Tia Chucha’s Celebrating Words Art and Literacy Festival

Saturday, May 30, 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. 
11200 Herrick Ave., Pacoima 
COST: FREE; MORE INFO 

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Courtesy Tia Chucha's Centro Cultural & Bookstore

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Venture to Pacoima for this long-running art and literacy festival featuring fun workshops like cyanotyping (sun prints), tattoo-inspired button-making, mini-zine creation and more. Plus, you'll find local food options, book giveaways and vinyl tunes from DJ Linda Nuves.

Hell’s Kitchen 

Through Sunday, June 21
Pantages 
6233 Hollywood Blvd., Hollywood
COST: FROM $49; MORE INFO

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Marc J. Franklin

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Broadway in Hollywood

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The Alicia Keys songbook gets the stage treatment in this first tour of the popular Broadway show, with music and lyrics by Keys and directed by Tony winner Michael Greif (RENT). Opening Thursday at the Pantages, the show follows a teenager named Ali finding her voice in the big city. I hear she’s … on fire.

Lucha VaVoom de La Liz

Saturday, May 30, 8 p.m.  
Fox Theater
301 S. Garey Ave., Pomona 
COST: FROM $60.95; MORE INFO

Mexican wrestling-inspired variety extravaganza Lucha VaVoom de La Liz is back at the Fox Theater in Pomona (make a day of it after the fair!). Featuring world-class lucha libre-style wrestling, award-winning burlesque, death-defying aerialists, comedy legends, live music, classic lowriders, visual art and more, the show has a "Drinko de Mayo" theme this time around.

Migration Celebration

Saturday, May 30, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Ballona Discovery Park
13110 Bluff Creek Drive, Playa Vista
COST: FREE; MORE INFO

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Friends of Ballona Wetlands

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Take a freshwater marsh tour, enjoy a performance from the Bob Baker Marionettes and see a raptor presentation at the Friends of Ballona Wetlands Migration Celebration at Ballona Discovery Park in Playa Vista. Let your inner birdwatcher roam free (no Antarctic birdwatching cruise necessary!) and get to know the beauty of the birds right here at home in the Ballona Wetlands.

Home is a Hotel screening in Costa Mesa and Burbank

Thursday, May 28, 6:30 p.m. (Costa Mesa);  Friday, May 29, 6:30 p.m. (Burbank)
PBS SoCal Studios 
3080 Bristol St., #100, Costa Mesa
2900 W. Alameda Ave., Suite 500, Burbank
COST: FREE; MORE INFO 

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Courtesy PBS SoCal

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Join PBS SoCal for two free local screenings of the new documentary, Home Is a Hotel. The film takes viewers inside single room occupancy (SRO) housing “through intimate portraits of San Francisco residents, filmed over six years, in their search for a place to call home.” Check out the trailer here.

Walking Altadena 

Saturday, May 30, 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. 
Bob Lucas Memorial Library 
2659 Lincoln Ave., Altadena 
COST: FREE; MORE INFO

Students from UCLA’s Department of Architecture and Urban Design will take visitors through a two-hour interactive exhibition, inviting public feedback on projects and proposals that imagine a rebuilt and reinvigorated post-fire Altadena.

In Los Angeles, you don’t need to go to a big venue to catch live music. Like art, music is everywhere throughout the region, so there’s something for everyone. Here’s a list to get you started.

Baked Potato is a cozy jazz club that hosts different artists on any given night.

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Ken Hively/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images

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Los Angeles Times

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Baked Potato

The Baked Potato is an iconic spot where you can catch live jazz performances in a very intimate setting with drinks, and yes, a baked potato. What makes this place even more special is that phones are not allowed, meaning everyone is living in the moment and enjoying the music.

Where to go: 3787 Cahuenga Blvd., Studio City
Check out the shows here.

Kamasi Washington performs with special guest Ami Taf Ra in concert at Blue Note Jazz Club in New York City.

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Udo Salters Photography

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Getty Images

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Blue Note

The Blue Note brings New York’s iconic jazz scene to Hollywood with a bar and menu to match the vibes. It’s open seating, meaning you get a show and get to mingle with other jazz music lovers.

Where to find: 6372 Sunset Blvd., Los Angeles
Check out the shows here.

The Troubadour as its marquee asked for pandemic era help.

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Courtesy Jason Horton

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The Troubadour

For more of an indie-rock feel, head to The Troubadour in West Hollywood. It’s a local classic that’s hosted some of music’s legends like Joni Mitchell, Led Zeppelin, Billy Joel, and many, many more. It’s standing-room only, with limited seating upstairs that is first-come, first-served.

Where to find:  9081 Santa Monica Blvd., West Hollywood
Check out the shows here.

Café Tondo

At Café Tondo, a cafe-bar in Chinatown, you can catch bolero performances on Tuesday nights, different DJs every Saturday night and jazz on Sunday nights. You can find more info on Café Tondo’s Instagram.

Where to find: 1135 N. Alameda St., Los Angeles
Find more information here.

Eastside Luv Wine Bar in Boyle Heights plays different kinds of music on any given night, like mariachi, country and norteños.

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Lawrence K. Ho/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images

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Los Angeles Times

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Eastside Luv

Eastside Luv is another must-see in the heart of Boyle Heights. It’s a cozy community spot where every night holds something different, from boleros and mariachi to norteños and country. The DJ at the 21+ bar also mixes songs throughout the night in both English and Spanish.

Where to Find: 1835 1st St., Los Angeles
Check out the shows here.