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The Brief

The most important stories for you to know today
  • The race is on to save historic Batchelder tiles
    Various hands surround a tile on a fireplace marked with green tape. Some hold chisels and hammers.
    Volunteers with Save the Tiles remove Ernest Batchelder tiles from a fireplace on Palm Street in Altadena.

    Topline:

    When thousands of homes were reduced to ash by the Eaton Fire, one of the few things left behind were the chimneys — and the kiln-fired tiles that adorned them.

    The backstory: The tiles were popular during Altadena’s architectural boom of the 1910s and ‘20s, “and were a defining characteristic of a handcrafted, unique home.” Their fireproof quality comes from the kilns that created them. Many tiles were made by the famed Ernest Batchelder.

    Why preservationists are worried: Phase 2 of the debris cleanup has begun in parts of the community. That means the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will bulldoze burned lots down to 6 inches below topsoil. “What will be lost is not only the very last of old Altadena, but for that homeowner, emotionally priceless artwork that surrounded the hearth,” says Eric Garland, co-founder of Save the Tiles.

    Read on ... to follow the work of a volunteer group that formed to preserve the tiles.

     When thousands of homes were reduced to ash by the Eaton Fire, one of the few things left behind were the chimneys — and the kiln-fired tiles that adorned them.

    “They were born of fire,” says Eric Garland, co-founder of Save The Tiles and long-time Altadena resident. The tiles were popular during Altadena’s architectural boom of the 1910s and ‘20s, “and were a defining characteristic of a handcrafted, unique home.”

    But Phase 2 of the debris cleanup has begun in parts of the community, meaning the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will bulldoze burned lots down to 6 inches below topsoil.

    “What will be lost is not only the very last of old Altadena, but for that homeowner, emotionally priceless artwork that surrounded the hearth,” Garland says.

    “That's the countdown clock that we're racing.”

    Save the tiles, save the town

    I meet Eric Garland on a Saturday in a parking lot just outside the burn zone. We drive through the destroyed streets of Altadena toward a tile rescue site.

    Mangled cars, a few stray planters, the occasional mailbox. And lots and lots of still-standing chimneys.

    Garland tells me he and his family were out of town when fire tore through their neighborhood. His neighbors, minutes after watching their own homes burn, stamped out embers and dumped buckets of pool water onto other houses to establish a perimeter.

    Garland’s home was the first they were able to save.

    “Your first mission is to save your life,” Garland says. “Your next mission, save your home. And failing that, you've got to try to save what you can. You draw a line and say this is as far as the loss goes.”

    Garland credits his daughter Lucy with the idea to rescue the tiles. As they walked along Holliston Street, through what remained of their neighborhood, he remembered her asking, “Is there nothing else that survived?”

    Now  “we're hearing from so many homeowners that if you could save even one tile,” he says, “it would be the only thing I have left.”

    Two men stand on a burned lot, with a chimney rising behind them. One man wears black, the other red. Both have respirator masks pulled down to their chins.
    Neighbors and Save the Tiles co-founders Eric Garland, left, and Stanley Zucker have cataloged more than 200 historic fireplaces in Altadena.
    (
    Julie Leopo
    /
    LAist
    )

    ‘All that’s left’

    We arrive at a job site — the outline of a destroyed craftsman home on Palm Street. The once-lush courtyard of bougainvillea and lavender has given way to a blackened jumble of ash and stray nails.

    It’s dead quiet, save for the occasional car and the steady beat of hammer and chisel.

    Garland introduces me to his neighbor and Save the Tiles co-founder, Stanley Zucker. “My partner in tile,” he adds.

    A man in a red shirt bending over to grab the hand of a person in a black shirt and a beige cap. They are standing in a burned lot surrounded by rubble and burnt trees.
    Stanley Zucker helps Mary Gandsey climb out of a burnt Altadena home on Palm Street.
    (
    Julie Leopo
    /
    LAist
    )

    Zucker grabs empty cardboard boxes from the truck, and carefully hops over what was once a side wall into the interior of the home. “Watch out for up-turned nails,” he warns me, leading the way through the rubble to the chimney.

    For a homeowner, he says, “all of their memories, everything on this lot that was important to them, is channeled into the tiles, because they’re all that’s left.”

    Expertise required

    The fireplace opening stands about four feet above the home’s burned foundation. A few planks of makeshift scaffolding allow access to the tiled facade.

    Cliff Douglas and his daughter, Devon, take turns chiseling grout and taping off slabs of tile. “Team Douglas,” Garland calls them. “The third co-founders.”

    The older Douglas specializes in masonry restoration — an important skill for a project that involves tiles prone to cracking and chimneys that could topple. Garland says Cliff has already had to ask some volunteers not to come back — they cracked too many tiles.

    A man in a yellow shirt and jeans stands over the camera holding a large rectangular tile that has been covered in green tape. He is wearing a mask, sunglasses, gloves and an orange cap. Below him, a woman in a white cap wearing a mask looks up at the tile.
    Cliff Douglas hands a taped-off Batchelder tile to his daughter, Devon Douglas.
    (
    Julie Leopo
    /
    LAist
    )

    Pressing his ear to the fireplace, Douglas gently taps with the blunt end of the chisel, listening for hollow spots. Once he’s confident, he tapes off the large central tile and grabs his hammer.

    "Ernest Batchelder. He’s the artist who made these tiles — in his backyard, originally, on Arroyo Boulevard and La Loma,” Douglas says. “Then they moved to downtown Los Angeles.”

    Douglas believes these tiles were likely made shortly after the move, about a hundred years ago. The design is in line with Batchelder’s earlier work, but the stamp on the back says “Los Angeles.”

    Similar individual tiles regularly sell for hundreds of dollars, and Batchelder’s work represents one of L.A’s biggest contributions to the American Arts and Crafts movement.

    “ They're beautiful pieces of art,   and hopefully we can bring them back to life again,” Douglas says.

    “Maybe a fireplace when they rebuild, or maybe a little memorial area.”

    Three people wearing jeans and shirts with masks around their necks stand near a fireplace surrounded by burned rubble.
    Devon Douglas, left, Cliff Douglas, and Mary Gandsey take a break from recovering fireplace tiles.
    (
    Julie Leopo
    /
    LAist
    )

    Painstaking work

    It can take several hours to recover tile from a single fireplace, and with more than 200 houses on the list, Team Douglas needed to expand. So Zucker connected them with an old friend, one of the best in the business.

    Mary Gandsey is an expert restorer of wood whose resume includes the Gamble House and Castle Green. Today she’s training under Douglas so she can lead the recovery at other sites.

    Gandsey says she came out of retirement because she loves these homes and has worked on many of them. “Now that they're all gone," she says, "I want to save some piece of what was here for the future.”

    A box holds tiles. A hand can be seen to the left of frame wearing a bright yellow long sleeve shirt.
    Boxes of recovered tiles will be cataloged and stored so that they can be returned to homeowners later.
    (
    Julie Leopo
    /
    LAist
    )

    200 chimneys, 200 stories

    As Douglas swaps his hammer and chisel for an angle grinder, Garland gets a call from another homeowner — she has signed the consent form that allows the team to enter her home. It’s a five-minute walk away.

    On our way out of the gate, we run into Myungeun and Dan Strickland, who are back to visit the remnants of their home and check in on the neighborhood.

    The Stricklands are an elderly couple who lived on Palm Street for more than 20 years. They lost everything: antique Korean furniture, historic family documents from Massachusetts and old family photographs.

    But remarkably, her orchids are growing back, Strickland says, and she’s hoping her charred pomegranate tree survives too.

    On our walk, we pass block after block of empty lots — extending our line of sight for miles in every direction.

    Burned rubble fills the foreground. Burnt trees line the background. A free standing chimney stands to the right of the frame.
    The Eaton Fire burned through nearly 22 square miles, leveling entire neighborhoods of Altadena. But many fireplaces and chimneys survived.
    (
    Zaydee Sanchez
    /
    NPR
    )

    Elizabeth Richie meets us on the concrete steps of her home.

    Richie was the first person Garland met after the fires. The intense heat had changed the tiles on her fireplace from “tans and browns to turquoise, with pinks and whites in it,” she says. “The original colors.”

    The devastation had scoured clean a century’s worth of smoke, soot and everything else.

    “This over here was the original rose garden that my friend’s grandmother had when she lived here,” Richie says. “And we had big grapevines over here.”

    She pauses, and points beyond a few burned cars. “That was the back house, where Ozzie lived with his dogs,” she says.

    “The police tried to get him out but he wouldn’t leave, he’d been here since he was 7 years old. At the very end, he just ran out of time.”

    Oswald Altmetz, Richie’s long-time family friend, died along with his dogs that night. He was 75.

    The magnitude of loss will always be with her, Richie says. But she’s finding ways to preserve what remains. She plans to use the aluminum slag from the burned cars in an art project, and a stone Buddha in the garden survived unscathed.

    And she’s grateful to still have her fireplace tiles.

    “ There's still beauty and hope here,” she adds.

    A community determined to rebuild

    Back on Palm Street, Gandsey and the Douglases are loading the truck with boxes of tile. Zucker is talking to a new recruit, a librarian who will help to track and catalog the growing tile archive.

    Garland says it could be years before people are ready to reclaim their tiles — and the team is preparing to store them for as long as it takes. 

    Homeowners Carie Lewis and Christophe Basset arrive, and tell Garland they plan to rebuild. They already have the blueprints for their original craftsman, the couple says.

    “We're probably going to talk to Cliff to restore a fireplace in the new building. With the same tiles, of course,” says Basset.

    Like Richie, they were surprised to see the surviving tiles become so much more vibrant and colorful. “So maybe it'll be a bit of new and a bit of really ancient coming back together,” Basset says.

    “Which is what all of Altadena is going to be,” Zucker adds.

    Save The Tiles is running a GoFundMe campaign, with proceeds going to the Altadena Historical Society.

    Watch the Video

  • New film covers former Beatle's life in the '70s
    a man with dark hair sits with headphones around his neck while a woman with light hair sits behind him with her head on his shoulder
    "Man on the Run" is filmmaker Morgan Neville's new documentary about former Beatle Paul McCartney. Above, Linda and Paul McCartney in an undated photo.

    Topline:

    Documentary filmmaker Morgan Neville has joined the club of Oscar winners to direct movies about The Beatles. He's already directed outstanding biographies of everyone from Johnny Cash and Anthony Bourdain to Steve Martin and Fred Rogers. And now, Prime Video is premiering his latest documentary, Man on the Run, about former Beatle Paul McCartney.

    What makes this movie different? Neville conducted many lengthy new interviews with McCartney, but uses only the sound. Virtually all the footage in Man on the Run is vintage, so there are no white-haired rock stars in sight. But because McCartney is an executive producer, and has provided a stunning amount of previously unseen private footage, there's lots of fresh stuff to see here.

    Read on ... for more about the new documentary and whether you should check it out.

    There have been plenty of Beatles-related documentaries in the past decade or so, and yes, I've reviewed most of them. But in my defense, The Beatles are a great subject, musically and biographically — and the best filmmakers are drawn to them.

    Peter Jackson gave us the Get Back documentary miniseries and the latest installment of The Beatles Anthology. Ron Howard directed Eight Days a Week, about the group's touring years. Martin Scorsese directed Living in the Material World, his two-part biography of George Harrison. All of them were terrific — and all of them were made by Oscar-winning directors.

    Documentary filmmaker Morgan Neville, who won an Oscar for his film about backup singers, 20 Feet From Stardom, has joined that club. He's already directed outstanding biographies of everyone from Johnny Cash and Anthony Bourdain to Steve Martin and Fred Rogers. And now, Prime Video is premiering his latest documentary, Man on the Run, about former Beatle Paul McCartney.

    The word "former" is key here: While brief, artful montages encapsulate the frenzy and impact of Beatlemania, Man on the Run is focused on the decade immediately afterward — the 1970s. Specifically, it spans the period from when McCartney left The Beatles to when his former bandmate, John Lennon, was shot and killed.

    Neville conducted many lengthy new interviews with McCartney but uses only the sound. Virtually all the footage in Man on the Run is vintage, so there are no white-haired rock stars in sight. But because McCartney is an executive producer and has provided a stunning amount of previously unseen private footage, there's lots of fresh stuff to see here.

    The danger of McCartney having such input, though, is of Man on the Run becoming too sanitized as a personal biography. But it's not. The decade covered includes McCartney announcing the breakup of The Beatles, his very public musical feud with Lennon, the formation of McCartney's post-Beatles band Wings, even the "Paul is dead" rumor.

    And in these new interviews, McCartney seems to be speaking honestly — not only about what happened, but how he felt about it all. On The Beatles breakup, for example, it was McCartney who announced it publicly — but it was Lennon who already had left the group. McCartney's reaction, at age 27, was to retreat with his family to a remote property he owned in Scotland — in a vintage interview, Linda McCartney recalls her husband's out-of-the-blue suggestion.

    Man on the Run relies on other voices and perspectives to defend some of McCartney's infamous actions during this period. Lennon's son Sean, for example, excuses McCartney's stunned, understated reaction to John's death — when asked by reporters, he called it "a real drag" — as having been in shock.

    And Lennon himself, in an interview filmed years after The Beatles' breakup, admits that McCartney was right in hating and suing the manager, Allen Klein, whom John had brought in to handle the group. At the time, Lennon and McCartney even attacked one another in song — and in a new interview, McCartney is very open about how much that stung.

    That same refreshing honesty extends to other key moments — the formation of his group Wings and recruiting Linda as its first charter member, his jail time in Japan for bringing pot into that country, even the time Lorne Michaels, on Saturday Night Live, jokingly offered The Beatles a ridiculously small check if they would reunite on his show.

    Man on the Run is more about the man than it is about his creative process. But his music runs all through the documentary, and it all adds up to an impressive, inspirational second act.

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  • Investigating government's use of social media
    a collage of mug shots and social media posts set against a red background with white letters at the top that say "Arrested"

    Topline:

    Social media accounts from the White House, the Department of Homeland Security and other immigration agencies have spent much of the past year posting about people detained in the administration's immigration crackdown, typically portraying them as hardened, violent criminals.

    What NPR's investigation shows: NPR's research of cases in Minnesota shows that while many of the people who have been highlighted on social media do have recent, serious criminal records, about a quarter are like Chandee, with decades-old convictions, minor offenses or only pending criminal proceedings. Scholars of immigration, media and criminal law say such a media campaign is unprecedented and paints a distorted picture of immigrants and crime.

    Read on ... for more on how the government is using social media to aid its immigration crackdown.

    Two days after At Chandee, who goes by Ricky, was arrested by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the White House's X account posted about him, calling the 52-year-old the "WORST OF WORST" and a "CRIMINAL ILLEGAL ALIEN."

    Except that the photo the White House posted was of a different person. The post also incorrectly claimed Chandee had multiple felony convictions — he has one, for second-degree assault in 1993 when he was 18 years old. He shot two people in the legs and served three years in prison.

    Chandee, who came to the U.S. as a child refugee, was ordered to be deported back to his home country, Laos. But Laos had not been accepting all of the people the U.S. wanted it to, so the federal government determined that it was likely infeasible to deport him, his lawyer Linus Chan told NPR. Chandee therefore was granted permission to stay in the U.S. and work so long as he checked in with immigration authorities periodically. He has not missed a check-in in over 30 years and has not had another criminal incident.

    People who know Chandee do not see him as "worst of the worst."

    After Chandee completed his prison sentence, he finished school and became an engineering technician. He worked for the city of Minneapolis for 26 years, became a father, and his son grew up to join the military.

    In his free time, Chandee enjoys hiking and foraging for mushrooms, Minnesota Public Radio reported.

    "We are proud to work alongside At 'Ricky' Chandee," said Tim Sexton, Director of Public Works for the City of Minneapolis in a statement. "I don't understand why he would be a target for removal now, why he was brutally detained and swiftly flown to Texas, or how his removal benefits our city or country."

    Chandee is petitioning for his release in federal court.

    Chandee's case is not unique 

    Social media accounts from the White House, the Department of Homeland Security and other immigration agencies have spent much of the past year posting about people detained in the administration's immigration crackdown, typically portraying them as hardened, violent criminals. That's even as over 70% of the people detained don't have criminal records according to ICE data.

    NPR's research of cases in Minnesota shows that while many of the people who have been highlighted on social media do have recent, serious criminal records, about a quarter are like Chandee, with decades-old convictions, minor offenses or only pending criminal proceedings. Scholars of immigration, media and criminal law say such a media campaign is unprecedented and paints a distorted picture of immigrants and crime.

    A year into President Trump's second term, the X accounts of DHS and ICE have posted about more than 2,000 people who were targets of mass deportation efforts. Starting late last March, DHS and ICE began posting on X on a near daily basis, often highlighting apprehensions of multiple people a day, an NPR review of government social media posts show.

    Among the 2,000 people highlighted by the agencies, NPR identified 130 who were arrested by federal agents in Minnesota and tried to verify the government's statements about their criminal histories.

    In most of the social media posts, the government did not provide the state where the conviction occurred or the person's age. Public court records do not tend to include photos so definitive identification can be a challenge.

    NPR derived its findings from cases where it was able to locate a name and matching criminal history in the Minnesota court and detention system, in nationwide criminal history databases, sex offender databases, and in some cases, federal courts and other state courts.

    In 19 of the 130 cases, roughly 1-in-7, public records show the most recent convictions were at least 20 years ago.

    Seventeen of the 19 cases with old convictions did include violent crimes like homicide and first-degree sexual assault. ICE provided some of those names to Fox News as key examples of the agency's accomplishments. "It's the most disturbing list I've ever seen," said Fox News reporter Bill Melugin on X, highlighting the criminal convictions of each person on the list.

    For seven people, their only criminal history involved driving under the influence or disorderly conduct.

    Six of the 130 Minnesota cases highlighted by the administration involved people with no criminal convictions. The government's social media posts for those six instead rely upon the charges and arrests as evidence of their criminality, even though arrests don't always lead to charges and charges can be dismissed.

    In yet another case, the government highlighted a criminal charge even while noting it had been dismissed. (The person did have other existing convictions.)

    For 37 of the 130 people, NPR was unable to confirm matching criminal history after consulting the databases and news coverage. Some of the names turned up no criminal history at all. The government said these people committed crimes ranging from homicide and assault to drug trafficking, and cited one by name to Fox News. NPR tried to reach out to all 37 people and their families for comment but did not receive a response from any.

    In a statement to NPR, DHS's chief spokesperson Lauren Bis did not dispute NPR's findings or provide documentation where NPR wasn't able to confirm matching criminal history.

    "The fact that NPR is defending murderers and pedophiles is gross," Bis wrote. "We hear far too much about criminals and not enough about their victims." before listing four of the people with old convictions of homicide and sexual assault, underlining the date of deportation order for three of them.

    Images designed to trigger emotion

    The stream of social media posts with photos of mostly nonwhite people are meant to draw an emotional response, says Leo Chavez, an emeritus professor of anthropology at the University of California, Irvine. They "have been used repeatedly over and over to get people to buy into, really drastic, drastic and draconian actions and policies," he said.

    Chavez, whose most recent book is The Latino Threat: How Alarmist Rhetoric Misrepresents Immigrants, Citizens, and the Nation, recalls how political campaigns in past decades presented images of Latinos — often men — without context. "Just by showing their image, showing brown people, particularly brown men, it's supposed to be scary."

    The fact that the government's social media posts come with statements about criminal history as well as photos reinforces that emotional response, Chavez said. DHS has previously acknowledged inaccuracies on their website. But even if the department issues corrections, Chavez said, "the goal was actually achieved, which was to reinforce the criminality and the visualization."

    CNN's analysis of DHS's "Arrested: Worst of the Worst" website showed that for hundreds out of about 25,000 people posted on the website, the crimes listed were not violent felonies. Instead, DHS listed people with records that included traffic offenses, marijuana possession or illegal reentry. DHS said the website had a "glitch" that it will fix but also that the people in question "have [committed] additional crimes."

    "I've never seen anything like this when it comes to immigration enforcement in the modern era," said Juliet Stumpf, a professor at Lewis & Clark Law School who studies the intersection of immigration and criminal law. She said the drumbeat of social media posts focused on specific individuals was like "FBI's most wanted posters" or "like reality TV shows."

    Stumpf drew a parallel with an incident from the 1950s when the U.S. government deported two permanent residents suspected of being communists. "The government was kind of proclaiming and celebrating their deportation because getting rid of these communists was making the country safer," said Stumpf, "Maybe that's comparable to something like [this]."

    An analysis by the Deportation Data Project shows a dramatic increase in arrests of noncitizens without criminal records during President Trump's current term compared to President Biden's term.

    "If you look at research, immigrants actually tend to commit fewer crimes than even U.S. citizens do. And that's true of immigrants who have lawful status here and immigrants who don't," said Stumpf. "If we have a number of social media posts that are painting immigrants as the worst of the worst…it's actually really putting out a distorted version of reality about who immigrants actually are."

    Some claims are disputed by other authorities

    In some posts, DHS and ICE have also used photos of people and statements about their criminal histories to burnish the federal government's accomplishments, defend their agents and criticize states like Minnesota. State and local authorities have in turn pushed back, and some of the federal government's claims about the people it has detained have been met with setbacks in the courts.

    DHS accused Minnesota's Cottonwood County of not honoring detainers, written requests by ICE to hold prisoners in custody for a period of time so ICE can pick them up. In one post, the agency identified a person who was charged with child sexual abuse, writing "This is who sanctuary city politicians and anti-ICE agitators are defending."

    The Cottonwood County sheriff's office said DHS's post "misrepresented the truth" in their own post on Facebook. According to their account, the county did honor the detainer but ICE said it was unable to pick up the person before the order expired and the county had to release the suspect.

    The Minnesota Department of Corrections wrote in a blog post that dozens of people DHS listed on its "Worst of the Worst" website were not arrested as DHS described, but were transferred to ICE by the state because they were already in state custody. The Corrections Department has since launched a page dedicated to "correct the Department of Homeland Security's (DHS) repeated false claims."

    The "Worst of the Worst" website has some overlap with the department's social media posts, but it contains a much larger number of people — over 30,000 nationally. It included a Colombian soccer star who was extradited to the U.S., tried in Texas, convicted of drug trafficking and served time in federal prison. The website incorrectly describes him as being arrested in Wisconsin. The soccer player, Jhon Viáfara Mina, recently finished his sentence early and returned to Colombia, according to Spanish newspaper El Diario Vasco.

    In some instances, DHS and ICE wrote about incidents where they ran into conflict when carrying out arrests. In those posts, they named the arrestees and posted their photos. But in one case where the incident went to court, the government's account of the events shifted. After a federal agent shot Julio C. Sosa-Celis in Minneapolis in January, DHS claimed he was lodging a "violent attack on law enforcement." Assault charges against Sosa-Celis fell apart in court as new evidence surfaced, and the officers involved were put on leave.

    Despite the fact that the charges were dropped, DHS's post profiling Sosa-Celis remains online.

  • What we know about local protests and reactions
    A man has his head in his hands in a grocery.
    Mohammed Gsafi dries his tears as he watches the news on TV and cellphone at his Iranian Market in West L.A.

    Topline:

    Protesters are planning to gather in Downtown Los Angeles Saturday afternoon in reaction to the overnight airstrikes launched by the United States and Israel across Iran.

    Read on... for details about those plans and reactions to the attack by local elected officials.

    A coalition of organizations including the ANSWER coalition, and 50501 are holding an “emergency day of action” nationwide in reaction to the airstrikes launched by the United States and Israel across Iran.

    Since the actions were originally planned, NPR has reported that Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed by an Israeli strike. That's according to a person briefed on the strike and unable to speak publicly.

    Here is a list of local demonstrations across Southern California.

    • Aliso Viejo
      Aliso Creek Road and Enterprise
      Starts at 11 a.m.
    • Los Angeles
      City Hall, 200 N Spring St.
      Starts at 2 p.m.
    • Ventura
      Ventura County Government Center, Victoria Avenue and Telephone Road
      Stars at 3 p.m.

    Iranian Angelenos react

    The military actions have drawn strong responses from L.A's large diaspora communities.

    Mujon Baghai is with the Los Angeles Chapter of the National Iranian American Council, one of the organizers behind today's protests across the nation. The group is against U.S. intervention. Baghai has family living in the country.

    " We want what's best for the people of Iran. The US and Israel do not have those interests at stake.  But we also understand that there's a desire amongst a huge part of the community to see reform in Iran, to see true democracy in Iran, And we support that," she told LAist.

    Other Iranian immigrants back the military action.

    "We are home to the largest Iranian American Jewish diaspora in the world. L.A. celebrates that fact . Most of the reaction that we have received from our amazing Iranian American Jewish community has been one of excitement and adulation," said Rabbi Noah Farkas, president of the Jewish Federation of Los Angeles.

    In LA

    An outsized portion of the Iranian diaspora make their homes in the Los Angeles metropolitan area.

    • As of 2019, nearly 140,000 immigrants from Iran — representing more than one in three of all Iranian immigrants in the U.S. — lived in the L.A. area.
    • More than 500,000 people of Iranian descent are estimated to live here, which is why a part of the westside of Los Angeles is known as Tehrangeles.
    • More than half of all Iranian immigrants to the U.S. live in California overall.

    Law enforcement to step up patrol

    The office of L.A. Mayor Karen Bass said in a statement that the city is closely monitoring for "any threats" to the city and urges Angelenos to voice their views in a "peaceful" way.

    “While there are no known credible threats at this time, LAPD has stepped up patrols near places of worship, community spaces, and other areas of the city, and we will remain vigilant in protecting our city," the statement reads.

    The L.A. County Sheriff's Department is also stepping up patrol in light of the military action in the Middle East. The department knows of no known credible threats to the community.

    "We are in communication with our federal, state, and local law enforcement partners and will continue to assess any potential impacts to Los Angeles County," the department says in a post on social media.

    The Department of State advises U.S. citizens worldwide, especially those in the Middle East, to exercise increased caution. Additionally, travelers follow the guidance in the latest security alerts issued by the nearest U.S. embassy or consulate.

    What local lawmakers saying

    A number of state and local lawmakers are weighing in on the attacks.

    • Rep. Judy Chu

    “President Trump has launched an unlawful war with Iran despite no imminent threat to the United States, no long-term strategy, no support from the American public, and no authorization from Congress.”

    Chu is a Democrat who represents California's 28th Congressional district, which includes parts of the San Gabriel Valley.

    • Rep. Young Kim

    President Trump took decisive action in response to refusal by the Iranian regime to take diplomatic off-ramps, dismantle its nuclear program, & end its reign of terror against the United States & our allies. I stand with the Iranian people who have made their desperation & courageous struggle for freedom clear. I hope for a swift & decisive operation that will pave the way for a more peaceful Middle East & a safer world. My prayers are with our brave US service members risking their lives to protect our nation. I look forward to Congress being briefed on Operation Epic Fury.”

    Kim is a Republican who represents California's 40th District, which includes parts of Orange, San Bernardino and Riverside counties.

    • Sen. Alex Padilla

    “At a time when millions of hardworking families face higher costs of living and skyrocketing health care to pay for tax breaks for billionaires, Donald Trump is now pushing the country toward a war that risks American lives without presenting a clear justification to the American people or any plan to prevent escalation and chaos in the region.”

    Padilla is a Democrat who has represented California in the U.S. Senate since 2021.

    • Sen. Adam Schiff

    “Trump is drawing our country into yet another foreign war that Americans don’t want and Congress has not authorized. The Iranian regime is a brutal and murderous dictatorship. But that does not give Trump the authority to unilaterally initiate a war of choice. Congress should immediately return to vote on the Kaine Paul Schiff Schumer War Powers Resolution.”

    Schiff is a Democrat who has represented California in the U.S. Senate since 2024.

    • Rep. Jimmy Gomez

    “By launching this operation on his own, the president has put Congress and the country in the worst possible position. He started a war first, and now Congress is being asked to deal with the consequences instead of deciding whether the war should begin at all.”

    Gomez is a Democrat who represents California's 34th Congressional district which includes downtown L.A. and many neighborhoods in the central part of the city.

  • Why is the U.S. attacking Iran?

    Topline:

    The U.S. and Israel attacked Iran on Saturday after weeks of threats from President Donald Trump over Iran's nuclear capabilities.

    The goal: Trump announced what he called "major combat operations" that are "massive and ongoing" in Iran in a video posted to Truth Social at 2:30 a.m. Eastern. He said the objective was to "defend the American people by eliminating imminent threats" from Iran.

    Keep reading ... for what you need to know about the U.S. and Israeli attacks on Iran.

    The U.S. and Israel attacked Iran on Saturday after weeks of threats from President Donald Trump over Iran's nuclear capabilities

    Here's what you need to know about the US and Israeli attacks on Iran:

    Israel and the US launched military strikes against Iran

    Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the goal of the joint US-Israeli strikes is to quote "remove the existential threat posed by the terrorist regime in Iran."

    Netanyahu said in a video: "Our joint action will create the conditions for the brave Iranian people to take their destiny into their own hands."

    A person briefed on the operation told NPR it was expected to last a few days, with Israel's military focusing on targeting Iran's missile program.

    Trump announced what he called 'major combat operations'

    President Trump announced what he called "major combat operations" that are "massive and ongoing" in Iran in a video posted to Truth Social at 2:30 a.m. Eastern. He said the objective was to "defend the American people by eliminating imminent threats" from Iran.

    Attacks came after a week of US-Iran negotiations over the country's nuclear program

    A third round of indirect negotiations between Trump's special envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner failed to produce a diplomatic solution Thursday.

    The Israel strikes targeted Khamenei and the Iranian president

    The Israel strikes targeted Khamenei and the Iranian president, trying to assassinate them, a person briefed on the operation told NPR's Daniel Estrin. A person briefed on the matter told NPR that Israeli assessments are that Khamenei was hit.

    Iran's news agency IRNA says the US-Israeli strikes hit a girls school, killing at least 53 young female students and wounding dozens more.

    Trump encourages overthrow

    Trump encouraged innocent Iranians to "take over your government. It will be yours to take. This will probably be your only chance for generations" once what the Pentagon is calling "Operation Epic Fury" is over.

    He previously said he was concerned about the Iranian regime's killing of protesters and has previously cited that as potential justification for US strikes.

    Iran's response

    Iran's foreign ministry has called the airstrikes by the U.S and Israel a "gross violation" of its national sovereignty and vowed to respond decisively.

    The UAE's Defense Ministry says Iranian ballistic missiles targeted the country, which hosts U.S. troops at several locations in the country

    Qatar, UAE, Bahrain, Kuwait and Jordan have all been targeted by Iran. All of them have US troops present.

    US Navy's Fifth Fleet service center in Manama, Bahrain, was hit according to the government there. The other countries say the missiles were intercepted. The UAE says debris from a missile interception killed an Asian migrant worker. Loud booms have been heard over Dubai according to our correspondent there.

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