The Brief

In folding chairs with books in hand, Iciar Rivera and her three young children sat in the shade of the ficus trees outside the recently shuttered Benjamin Franklin Library bungalow.

A handmade sign affixed to the nearby wall read: ¡Abran Franklin Ya! — Open Franklin Now.

For Rivera, 40, this wasn’t just an act of protest — it was a call to action. Her local library has been in limbo since 2020, when its main building shut down during the pandemic and remained closed for renovations. A temporary bungalow served the community for three years, until it too closed on Aug. 1, leaving residents with no immediate library access. Now, the library isn’t expected to open until 2027.

“This branch was a lifesaver,” Rivera said. “I didn’t have a lot of support through college, so it felt personal when they closed it.”

To Rivera, the Benjamin Franklin Library acted as an anchor. Raised between Orange County, Los Angeles and Mexico, her parents brought her to the branch when she was a child and it became a safe haven for her while she attended East L.A. College.

Now, a stay-at-home mother, Rivera is turning her frustration into action by forming a new Friends of the Library group in Boyle Heights, an effort to advocate for the unique needs of three public library branches serving the neighborhood: Benjamin Franklin, Malabar and Stevenson.

“This is a group actually born out of anger and frustration… We’re building one out of how neglected we are as a neighborhood,” Rivera said.

A library in need

Friends of Library groups are nonprofit organizations that work to increase community engagement with library services, provide volunteer support and advocate for the financial support of the branches they represent. According to the Los Angeles Public Library, there are more than 60 active Friends of the Library groups across the city that each raise funds through book sales to raise money for the branches.

While many of these groups are sometimes focused on fundraising through book sales, Rivera says she feels there is much more at stake for libraries throughout Boyle Heights.

“I would like to concentrate less on book sales and maybe more on like grant writing, because I think that yields the bigger game,” she said.

About a dozen members, including three board members, are now behind the group. Next, Rivera is working to formalize the Friends of the Boyle Heights Libraries’ status as a nonprofit organization and recruit more members.

Rivera often sets up outside the closed library to talk to passersby, many of whom are unaware of the library’s closure. She carries a volunteer sign-up sheet and answers questions about the library’s ongoing delays.

“A lot of them were like, ‘Of course, this happens to us all the time in many different ways.’ It always feels like we’re last to know and the first to be forgotten,” Rivera said.

Residents attempt to access the now-closed temporary bungalow at the Benjamin Franklin Library on Monday, Aug. 4, 2025.

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Andrew Lopez

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Boyle Heights Beat

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Elected officials step in

Since the 2020 closure, the library has faced delays tied to staffing shortages, environmental and historical assessments and a disruption in funding, according to the Bureau of Engineering, which oversees the planning and design of city infrastructure projects.

L.A. City Councilmember Ysabel Jurado is pushing for accountability. In one of her first motions, she requested a report detailing setbacks and project updates.

“This is a key city service that is a lifeline for Angelenos, especially working-class folks of color and Boyle Heights deserves it just as much as anybody else,” Jurado said in an interview with Boyle Heights Beat.

To fill the service gap during renovations, L.A. Public Library and branch staff, with support from Jurado’s office, began to offer weekly library services from the Boyle Heights City Hall. Last week, a bright magenta Street Fleet van rolled onto the Boyle Heights City Hall parking lot to offer book lending services, electronic resources, WiFi and limited printing services.

But Rivera doesn’t see it as an adequate substitute. She said one of her group’s first plans of action is to urge the L.A. Public Library to increase Street Fleet van frequency in her neighborhood.

“Once a week? I mean, it’s cute. But it sounds like something that would happen in a natural disaster,” she said. “That is an appeasement, and that is not nearly enough.”

Iciar Rivera (right) stands with LAPL staff during a library Street Fleet visit at Boyle Heights City Hall on Aug. 19, 2025.

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Andrew Lopez

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Boyle Heights Beat

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Fighting for a future generation

Rivera has long advocated for the spaces public libraries provide, especially to her children, calling them “touchstones for every kind of person.”

When the security guard stationed at the library first saw Rivera and her kids setting up a table and chairs outside of the branch, he jokingly suggested she take the kids to the beach, instead.

“He wasn’t wrong,” Rivera said through laughter. But the mother of three said she considers it a valuable lesson to be outspoken about the issues in their community, even if it can be physically uncomfortable at times.

“My parents were activists, but I didn’t have that in me when I was little,” Rivera said. “So, I’m glad we’re building and we’re progressing as a family line here, of people that are more informed earlier, better and more holistically.”

After the Department of Justice issued a wide-ranging subpoena to Children’s Hospital Los Angeles last June, the records of more than 3,000 patients now will be protected until at least February 2029 under a settlement reached between patient families and the federal government.

What the federal government was seeking

The DOJ wanted to pull a wide swath of information from CHLA’s records related to hormone therapy prescriptions, including the identities and social security numbers of the people it was prescribed to. Lawyers for CHLA patient families said the broad request also included details of patients’ sexual health data and records of their mental health and said the inquiry violated their constitutional rights.

What CHLA’s lawyers are saying

“This is a massive victory for every family that refused to be intimidated into backing down,” said Khadijah Silver, director of gender justice and health equity at Lawyers for Good Government. “The government's attempt to rifle through children's medical records was unconstitutional from the start.”

Silver also noted that DOJ confirmed it had not received any sensitive patient data under the parts of the subpoena that had been struck down.

What’s in the settlement

Under the agreement, which was first reported by Reuters, the federal government has withdrawn its requests for personal information like social security numbers, prescription records and “documents relating to the clinical indications, diagnoses or assessments that formed the basis for prescribing puberty blockers or hormone therapy.”

The government cannot make new requests of this type to CHLA until February 2029. The settlement also establishes a process for the DOJ to continue to pursue seeking some limited redacted medical records from CHLA.

What it means for parents and children

In the aftermath of the subpoenas, many advocates were worried that families would face federal prosecution for seeking gender-affirming care for their children.

However, according to the settlement, the DOJ said it “is not currently aware of information that would support the federal prosecution of parents or guardians who have sought and consented to receiving gender-related care for their children at Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles.”

What the hospital and DOJ say about the win

LAist has reached out for comment to both entities and has not heard back.

The backstory

The subpoenas were issued on or about June 11, 2025, according to the settlement. They were made public in July, though many patient families remained in the dark about whether they were affected. CHLA announced it planned to close its clinic for trans youth June 12.

Judges have ruled against similar requests and struck down subpoenas seeking records from other hospitals, like Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and Boston Children’s Hospital.

Los Angeles voters could soon get another chance to weigh in on Measure ULA, better known as the city’s “mansion tax.”

First approved by voters in November 2022, the measure has taxed real estate selling for more than $5 million. It funds tenant protection programs and affordable housing construction.

But economists have found that because the tax also applies to apartments — not just mansions — housing developers are pulling back on building in the city compared to other parts of L.A. County. One UCLA study concluded the city would have more low-income units on balance if the tax did not apply to new apartments.

Now, there’s a new effort brewing at City Hall to change how the “mansion tax” works.

City Councilmember Nithya Raman, chair of the council’s Housing and Homelessness Committee, introduced a motion Friday to place a new measure on the June ballot. The ballot measure would ask voters to exempt recently constructed apartment buildings from the tax, among other changes.

“We've seen some real pressures on the market as a result of ULA,” Raman told LAist. “It was sold to voters and talked about as a mansion tax. I don't think it was intended to slow the construction of new apartments in a city with an acknowledged and widespread housing crisis.”

Supporters of the tax say it’s working as intended. They dispute claims that ULA is responsible for slower housing growth in the city.

No council votes have yet been taken.

Local reform effort follows failed state bill

Supporters say the tax has funded eviction defense and rent relief programs. It has also produced the city’s largest-ever pot of money for low-income housing development, though less than 200 apartments have been completed and leased so far.

Joe Donlin, director of the group United to House L.A., called the latest reform effort “irresponsible.”

The proposed tax exemption for apartments built within the last 15 years would be “a tax break for developers and billionaires,” Donlin said.

“That would be giving money away from ULA programs that are protecting renters, that are keeping people from falling into homelessness, and building affordable housing,” he said.

Raman’s motion would also cancel the tax on homeowners affected by the Palisades Fire. Another change would restructure certain financing terms in order to attract traditional lenders to participate in ULA-funded affordable housing projects.

Many of the changes are similar to those proposed by state lawmakers in a bill that failed to advance at the tail end of last year’s legislative session in Sacramento.

Dueling effort at repeal is underway 

But those who support reform say without some changes, the tax could soon be thrown out entirely. The Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association is collecting signatures for a separate ballot measure that would overturn not just Measure ULA, but similar taxes across the state.

Mott Smith, a reform proponent and the co-author of a UCLA study that found the tax had sharply reduced high-end real estate sales, said this is shaping up to be a tough political fight.

“I commend Councilmember Raman for doing her best to turn Measure ULA into something that might actually work before it goes away,” Smith said.

Some L.A. council members have already signaled opposition to the push for reform.

Alejandra Alarcon, a spokesperson for Councilmember Ysabel Jurado, said in a statement to LAist that Jurado opposes the motion as written.

“Voters overwhelmingly supported ULA to help build and sustain diverse communities,” the statement read. “Any changes to the measure should be made with community advocates at the table, not without them.”

What’s next?

The new City Council effort has a long way to go before any changes are made to the tax.

If a majority of the council approves it for the June ballot, a majority of local voters would need to sign off on changing a measure that received nearly 58% support from voters back in November 2022.

The eagle (egg) has landed.

Southern California's famous bald eagle couple, known as Jackie and Shadow, appear to have something new to take care of, as seen on the popular YouTube livestream run by Friends of Big Bear Valley that has captivated thousands of people.

Jackie laid the first egg of the season around 4:30 p.m. Friday in the nest overlooking Big Bear Lake, according to organization records, as more than 14,000 people watched the livestream.

In recent months, the birds were seen working on their "nestorations"— bringing in fresh sticks and fluff furnishings to the top of the Jeffrey pine tree they’ve claimed as their home, according to the nonprofit.

Last year, Jackie laid the first egg of that season around the same time, following up with a second and third a few days later.

Fans are once again eagerly watching the eagles for signs of more eggs in the clutch, which refers to the eggs laid in each nesting attempt, usually three days apart.

Jenny Voisard, the organization’s media and website manager, told LAist the Big Bear bald eagle fan community grew when the couple successfully raised two bald eagle chicks, Sunny and Gizmo, last season.

“The building of the nest, the bonding, the flirting, the mating, the bickering, the moving the sticks around, defending against intruders, you know, that's all been new for a lot of people,” she said.

“People are all kind of like nervous aunties and uncles,” she continued. “So we just try to keep everybody calm.”

As always, Jackie and Shadow are in charge. Fans will have to wait and see what this season will bring, Voisard said.

What to watch for

Friends of Big Bear Valley has been keeping track of the nesting season milestones, including a new daily record of at least 28 sticks delivered to the nest in November. The eagles’ previous single-day stick record was 25, according to the organization.

Other milestones include Shadow dropping off the first fluff in December, and the first mating a few weeks later.

“Pancaking” is a term Friends of Big Bear Valley uses to describe when the eagles lay flat in their nest bowl, before the eggs have arrived, for increasingly longer stretches of time.

The organization said Jackie had her longest “pancake session” of the season so far this week, laying in the nest for a little more than a half hour.

“That activity is a sign that we're getting closer to egg-laying,” Voisard said. “[Jackie’s] doing a few things, she's making the shape and she's testing it out.”

Jackie will likely also eat more fish from the nest so she has enough energy for the egg-laying process, Voisard said. Last January, the eagles brought two fish to the nest in the hours before the first egg was laid and three fish a day earlier, according to Friends of Big Bear Valley records.

When eggs are imminent, she said Jackie will “pancake” on the nest for long periods of time before rousing and puffing up her feathers. Then, Jackie typically makes a high-pitched, whistling tea kettle noise as she has contractions, according to the organization.

On Friday, Jackie made the tea kettle noise about three minutes before the first egg was laid, according to Friends of Big Bear Valley records.

“She looks almost royal, because all of her feathers are out and it's just — I cry,” Voisard said with a laugh. “It's usually pretty amazing.”

The eagles know best

While there are signs of new life coming to the nest, every season is different for Jackie and Shadow, and Friends of Big Bear Valley is encouraging people to be patient.

It was unseasonably warm in the area this past fall, and last season was the first time Jackie and Shadow successfully raised two chicks to fly away from the nest instead of just one. The organization has said both factors could delay this season’s egg-laying timeline.

“I'm sure [two] was a lot more work than with just one,” Sandy Steers, executive director of the organization, told LAist previously. “So I think that had something to do with them needing a longer break.”

And some seasons have ended with an empty nest, including in 2024 and 2023 when both sets of eggs didn’t hatch after weeks of waiting.

Voisard said while we can’t predict what’s going to happen this year, fans don’t have to watch in fear or let human emotions get in the way of enjoying the eagle experience.

“We feel all of the feels with Jackie and Shadow … happiness, laughter, we get worried, we feel joy, we felt sorrow,” she said. “It's all OK, and Jackie and Shadow move forward, no matter what.”

Jackie and Shadow in Big Bear's famous bald eagle nest on Friday, Jan. 23, 2026.

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Friends of Big Bear Valley

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YouTube

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