The Brief

Sometimes 8-year-old London Cook can convince herself the temporary digs for her elementary school are her old campus, the place where she first discovered her love of math and P.E. — that “this is just Rosebud.”

It’s been a year and a half since the Eaton Fire tore through the Pasadena Rosebud Academy, destroying the TK-8 charter school founded in the Altadena foothills nearly 20 years ago to promote Black and brown student excellence.

London and the 175 students and staff moved to modular buildings on the campus of the Don Benito Fundamental elementary school, nearly seven miles away in Pasadena.

London, one of a third of Rosebud students displaced by the Eaton Fire, says: “I think it’s nice of them to let us share their campus.”

But administrators at Rosebud say it’s time for students to have their own campus again and have embarked on a capital campaign to rebuild in the Pasadena area. They’re holding their biggest fundraiser yet this Sunday with the “Stand Up For Students” comedy show at the Alex Theatre in Glendale hosted by writer-producer Chris Spencer.

“Our kids deserve the best, we want them to have the best, so we won't settle for just making it work,” said Shawn Brown, Rosebud’s founder and executive director.

It’s hoped the event — with a lineup of comedians like Aida Rodriguez and Reg Thomas who's been showcased on Funny AF with Kevin Hart — will raise a significant sum toward the school’s eventual rebuild, projected to cost upward of $50 million. It also offers a check-in on where Rosebud stands now: still in recovery.

“We don’t want people to forget about us and think that because we’re somewhere, that we are where we need to be,” Brown said. “We still have a long journey.”

Brown, who also lost her own home in Altadena in the Eaton Fire, said the school has been trying to make the portable classrooms work as much as possible but faces challenges to hands-on learning.

With no sinks in the classrooms, for example, the students are limited to art and science projects that don’t require much handwashing.

The old Altadena campus of the Pasadena Rosebud Academy.

(

Courtesy of Pasadena Rosebud Academy

)

The campus of the Pasadena Rosebud Academy after the Eaton Fire.

(

Courtesy of Pasadena Rosebud Academy

)

Yet, despite these constraints, the school community is growing stronger and expects to hit its highest enrollment yet this coming school year, with 215 incoming students.

Meanwhile, displaced families are still driving in from places including downtown Los Angeles and the San Fernando Valley.

“The fire really kind of brought us together more,” Brown said. “It kind of reminded us of who we were, who we are.”

Brown founded Rosebud in 2007 after years teaching middle school. She said she kept seeing Black and brown students arrive well below grade level and believed a different kind of school environment could help them excel.

Brown said Rosebud curricula is built around five pillars: critical thinking, financial literacy, exposure and experience, cultural awareness and service.

There is the added benefit, she said, for students of being around other young Black and brown people with similar life experiences.

"Another big thing is you are working with teachers and staff who believe that you are capable of achieving at a high level, and knowing that they have a fair shot in the future to be successful," Brown said.

London Cook and is picked up from school by her grandfather Joseph Shambrey.

(

Josie Huang

/

LAist

)

For London’s grandfather, Joseph Shambrey, the school has been one of the few constants after the fire.

Shambrey, who with his wife are London’s legal guardians, are living in a Pasadena apartment post-fire as they work toward rebuilding their house in Altadena.

There was no question that they would keep London at Rosebud, even when they were temporarily staying in Gardena and the commute stretched to more than an hour.

Shambrey said London is a “very happy” child, which he credits in no small part to Rosebud.

Whether London will enjoy a new campus is unclear. Brown said the timeline of construction will be decided by the pace of fundraising.

But London is just looking to the year ahead when she enters fourth grade and hopes to make even more friends.

“She always loves coming to school,” Shambrey said. “She does not like staying home.”

The Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory may run the second-longest study of  individually identifiable mammals in the world, but they’re not afraid of trying something new.

The lab is launching a bracket-style competition, Fat Marmot Week, for people all over the world to vote for their favorite chunky ground squirrel.

The UCLA researchers who work there have faced a loss of federal funding in recent years, so they’re now pursuing creative fundraising efforts, including a (G-rated) OnlyFans account for marmot content called OnlyMarms and a meme coin created by supporters of the project.

Where the idea came from

Dan Blumstein, a UCLA ecology and evolutionary biology professor who came up with OnlyMarms, said he’s wanted to do a Fat Marmot Week ever since the success of Fat Bear Week, in which the public votes on grizzly bears bulking up for the winter in Alaska. But it took two of his graduate researchers, Katie Adler and Emily Renkey, along with another volunteer who helps with logistics, to see it to fruition.

“ Science isn't just writing the papers, it's also the communication side of things,” said Adler, who’s also the lab’s field team leader.

Like bears, marmots prepare for the winter by fattening up, with some more than doubling in weight from about 5.5 pounds to as much as 13. But unlike bears, marmots are true hibernators. For months, their body temperature drops very low, and they breathe and have a heartbeat about once a minute. (Blumstein described a hibernating marmot as “sort of a fuzzy stone.”)

These two specimens are called Dawn and Dan's Hat.

(

Courtesy Dan Blumstein/UCLA

)

 Adler, who's on her third year of marmot field observations, said the individual marmots are consistent enough that she can "see what they're doing a little bit and then know exactly who it is."

“I think it’s fun to think of this from an outside perspective – why do we like marmots and how can we share that with other people?” Renkey said.

About the marmots

The marmots are all given names to help tell them apart based on markings the researchers dye on their fur.

Their names range from Dawn, who is reportedly a “a very special boy who enjoys the taste of rocks,” to a “proud mama” named 1 and a “girl boss” with no mate named Open Kite.

“Our parties are quite boring to other people because all we do is talk about the marmots,” Blumstein said. “It's a soap opera.”

Funding troubles

Faced with federal funding cuts, Blumstein realized he had to get creative, starting with the OnlyMarms account.

But he said he wasn’t expecting the “extraordinary” response – the $OnlyMarms meme coin has made more than $100,000 in transaction fees, though it’s still short of the $225,000 to $300,000 they need to fundraise to bring in more graduate student research.

Blumstein said while all funding is welcome, including the OnlyMarms subscriptions, it’s much easier for them to accept direct donations for tax purposes. The money will go to support researchers like Renkey and Adler’s contributions to the nearly 65 years of marmot research at the lab.

The tournament

Eight competitors will face off — five females and three males. There’ll also be a “true” winner announced at the end based on the lab’s measurements on which marmot gained the most weight this spring and summer.

The first round of voting will be Monday, Aug. 24, followed by the semifinals on Wednesday, Aug. 26, and the final showdown on Friday, Aug. 28. Voting runs from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. PDT.

“Everyone should vote. It's very exciting,” Renkey said. “They're huge this summer.”

The younger bald eagle that Shadow has been seen hanging out with around Big Bear’s famous nest lately has a new name.

The bird, which is believed to be a female, is banded as KD1. Friends of Big Bear Valley, the nonprofit that runs the popular YouTube livestream, has dubbed her Kaydee.

The organization generally doesn’t name visiting eagles, but Kaydee is sticking around so far and could become a new online star after Shadow’s long-time mate Jackie died last week.

So, who is this new eagle in the nest?

One expert told LAist that Kaydee is more than 4 years old and was probably wandering much further than Big Bear before it was spotted on camera.

“This is kind of the banders dream, right? You put bands on a bird so that you can possibly get … a one-off observation of where it is at some point in its life, and we're getting way, way more than that,” said Jenna Carpenter, a field biologist and environmental specialist with the Orange County Water District.

“In this instance, we're getting 24/7 views and people are so tuned into it that they're keeping really good track of where KD1 is, and it's really awesome.”

Meet Kaydee

Kaydee was first recorded on the livestream cameras in the Big Bear habitat on Aug. 6 — a few days before Jackie died — according to Friends of Big Bear Valley.

The nonprofit said the eagle started to perch by Shadow in several trees, which it has continued to do in the weeks since. The group recently referred to Kaydee as Shadow’s “shadow.”

Kaydee is from the Prado Basin area, where its parents Ricky and Lucy nest nearby. Carpenter said Ricky and Lucy have raised around a dozen eaglets since 2021, when they first started setting up shop in the area.

The eagle wears two bracelet-like bands on its legs, including a lavender-colored one, which can be used to track Kaydee in different areas.

“If someone sees [the color band] with a scope or binoculars or a zoom camera, it can be reported and put into a research database, which adds to the opportunity to progress conservation for raptors and eagles,” Carpenter said.

You can learn more about reporting a bird with a federal band or color marker here.

Will Kaydee stick with Shadow?

Kaydee is what's known as a subadult eagle, a stage in which Carpenter said raptors are still trying to figure out what they want to do and where they want to be.

“Big Bear’s a nice habitat, obviously they've been visiting this nest, you know, there's some interest there whatever it may be,” she said. “So it's possible that they stick around and find a mate, whether that be Shadow or another adult eagle.”

But it’s also possible Kaydee moves onto another habitat after the off-season. Whatever happens, Carpenter said us humans get to go along for the ride through the livestream, which she described as a privilege.

“We get this chance to witness something that we would not normally get to witness, because we know exactly who this bird is and we happen to have cameras in the area,” she said. “It might be everything and it might be nothing, and either way, I think that's really exciting that we get to have a little peek into this world.”

The Esquivel family opened their first taqueria at Playas de Tijuana 15 years ago, with a focus on individually crafted tacos, each with its own pairing of salsa.

Since then, Taqueria Tijuanero — formerly Tijuanazo — has become an increasingly popular SoCal taco chain.

Owner Aria Esquivel sat down with AirTalk Friday host Austin Cross to talk about how it all started from a humble Tijuana brick-and-mortar and how they stay true to their distinct North Mexican menu.

The art of the taco

Esquivel’s father and mastermind behind Taqueria Tijuanero, Antonio Esquivel, began working in kitchens when he was 16 years old, working his way up from dishwasher to cook at French restaurants in Beverly Hills.

“What he really loved about the taco and the art of the taco in Tijuana is how these ingredients mesh so well together,” Esquivel said.

That’s when the family opened up their own restaurant in Playas de Tijuana in 2011.

Mexico's taco diversity

Because of Mexico’s diverse landscape of crops, history and even weather patterns, taco styles can actually vary quite a bit depending on where you are in the country.

“ The tacos in Mexico City are different," Esquivel said. "The tacos in Sonora are different. The Tijuana tacos are different."

Fresh al pastor

(

(Courtesy Taqueria Tijuanero

)

Al pastor taco

(

Courtesy Taqueria Tijuanero

)

Bill Esparza, the James Beard Award-winning food writer who's spent the last two decades chronicling L.A.'s taco scene, helped curate Taqueando After Dark, a new food festival that will feature eight L.A. taco vendors, including Taqueria Tijuanero.

“When I see theirs, I see what I see in Mexico,” Esparza said of Taqueria Tijuanero’s tacos, adding, “It’s a taco that really has a lot of intentionality behind it.”

How to experience Taqueando After Dark festival

Taqueando After Dark takes over Level 8 for two nights, Aug. 27 and 28. (Courtesy of Level 8)

(

Courtesy Taqueando After Dark

)

Read more: LA taqueros meet Baja’s best for two-night DTLA taco festival

New location coming:

• The family is in the process of opening its third SoCal location in Echo Park.

How to visit:

• Address: 355 S Atlantic Blvd., East Los Angeles
• Hours: Closed on Mondays | Tuesday-Sunday, open from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m.
• Costs: Tacos are $3.95 each