The Brief

Last weekend, a group of about 20 people chatted and drank wine on the sidewalk outside a small but packed gallery on Wilshire Boulevard. Inside, there was a display of black-and-white photographs showing the tunnels that made the first phase of the D Line extension possible and the workers who brought the vision to life.

Now, after a decades-long history of setbacks, the first phase of the extension will open to the public on Friday.

“ I think it's going to be a critical piece of the transit infrastructure going forward in L.A. and a game changer for those in somewhat of a transit desert,” said Auguste Miller, a transit rider and volunteer with transportation advocacy group Streets for All.

Workers on the D Line extension, standing in front of a tunnel boring machine.

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Kenneth Karagozian

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The exhibition is a celebration of the workers who built the extension, said India Mandelkern, a historian and author who curated the photographs by Ken Karagozian and wrote a book about the extension called Wilshire Subway.

Jenna Durrough, a union carpenter, helped build the concrete forms that became new station platforms and stairways.

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Kenneth Karagozian

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At the 1301PE gallery, which sits just a three-minute walk away from the future Wilshire Boulevard and Fairfax Avenue station, union carpenter Jenna Dorrough reflected on her time building the concrete forms that became the new station platforms and stairways.

“When you're in the midst of just being a worker and just trying to do your job, you don't realize the bigger picture, like what you're really a part of,” Dorrough said.

The extension

The D Line train currently shuttles people from Koreatown to downtown L.A., largely running parallel to the B Line. The first phase of the extension cost more than $3.5 billion and was mostly funded by a countywide sales tax.

The approximately 4 mile-long extension will add three new stops along Wilshire Boulevard through Miracle Mile until Beverly Hills, providing direct rail access to places like The Grove, Museum Row and Beverly Center.

“Angelenos and visitors alike will love the extended service from Downtown Los Angeles to Beverly Hills, delivering greater access to the iconic and culturally diverse communities, institutions and destinations that define the deep history along Wilshire Boulevard,” L.A. Metro CEO Stephanie Wiggins said in a statement.

A trip from downtown L.A. to Beverly Hills will take just over 20 minutes on the new extension, according to Metro.

Unlocking Wilshire Boulevard

Bobby Downs is the general manager of All Season Brewing, a short walk from the La Brea Avenue stop. Downs said the brewery will offer a discount to people who show their TAP cards opening weekend and is preparing a double hazy IPA in celebration. The special brew is aptly called the D.

“Having a Metro coming in from downtown is gonna be beneficial in general for the area,” Downs said, adding that he believes it should alleviate some of the concerns from patrons and locals about parking in the neighborhood.

The extension’s opening coincides with the unveiling of the L.A. County Museum of Art’s new David Geffen museum galleries, which will be accessible via the Fairfax Avenue station.

“Connection, between the past and the present and between cultures, is a major theme within our new building,” Michael Govan, the museum’s director, said in a statement. “Metro's extension in the Miracle Mile will be an incredible resource that will foster greater inclusion and connection within our region.”

Jerry Blackburn, the senior manager and director of public events for the Fine Arts Theatre, said he’s looking forward to the opening of the train, which includes a stop close to the theater on La Cienega Boulevard.

“We’re hoping it will expose more people to the theater,” Blackburn said. The theater hosts private events and 70 mm screenings, including an upcoming Tim Burton double feature this Memorial Day weekend and DC Superhero series this summer.

A vision realized in fits and starts

As Mandelkern writes in her book, early concepts for a Wilshire Boulevard train date back to the 1960s. Familiar roadblocks that face transit planning today, including lack of financing and public support, stymied the initial attempts at building the train.

Construction was set to begin in the 1980s after L.A. County voters passed a half-cent sales tax to partially fund rail projects. Then a methane gas explosion in 1985 destroyed a Ross Dress for Less store on Fairfax Avenue and injured 23 people, leading to a ban on using federal funds to do the tunneling needed for the Wilshire Boulevard subway.

Decades later, Metro asked a panel of tunneling experts to weigh in on the safety of tunneling. The panel’s analysis, published in 2005, agreed that in the 20 years that had passed, tunneling technology improved. The panel concluded that it is “possible to both safely tunnel and safely operate a subway along the Wilshire Boulevard corridor.”

L.A. County voters approved another half-cent sales tax in 2008, which provided the local funding needed to materialize the idea of a train under Wilshire Boulevard. Approximately six years later, Metro held the groundbreaking for the extension with an estimated opening in 2023. Difficult tunneling conditions and contract disputes, among other expected hurdles uncommon to large capital projects, led to some cost overruns and delays.

John Yen, the vice president of operations for Skanska, the prime contractor on the project, said his teams had to work through gluey, asphalt-like tar sands and gassy conditions underground.

“The Fairfax station is actually the first in L.A. Metro history [that] we successfully excavated this tar sand,” Yen said.

Not the end of the line

Two more extensions of the D Line will bring the train through Beverly Hills and Century City to Westwood. Those future extensions are scheduled to open before the 2028 Olympic and Paralympic games.

In the meantime, you can check out the exhibition by Mandelkern and Karagozian until May 14 at 1301PE.

Over the next several weeks, Metro is hosting several D Line station activations, including basket weaving and salsa classes.

Eggs from the first confirmed sea turtle nests found on the U.S. West Coast have hatched.

"We are excited to share that some of the olive ridley sea turtle eggs from Seal Beach successfully hatched after a 58-day incubation period," said the Aquarium of the Pacific in a social media post.

The Long Beach-based aquarium has been keeping watch over 204 olive ridley sea turtle eggs, laid on Seal Beach and Huntington Beach in September. A second set of eggs found on Huntington Beach is still incubating

The aquarium said the hatchlings were released early Saturday morning in a coastal area with little light and human disturbances.

Baby turtles, the aquarium said, go through a “frenzy period” after hatching, where they swim nonstop for up to two days

The eggs came from the first confirmed sea turtle nests found on the U.S. West Coast. Scientists say unusually warming water tied to El Niño likely drew the rare turtles to the Southern California coast.

A couple of decades ago, a friend in New York told me about something happening that was kinda underground and just getting traction. It was called “The Moth.” People took turns telling a true, personal story, with no notes, named after the Southern tradition of sitting on front porches and sharing spellbinding tales — with moths flying mesmerized around the porchlight.

It sounded amazing. And terrifying. I filed it under the same list as bungee jumping — no doubt exhilarating but something I’d never do — and got on with my life. Over the years, as it grew bigger and bigger, I went to several Moth events in different cities, and was always so impressed with the storytellers — and equally adamant I’d never do it.

Cut to this September, when a message went out to all the staff at LAist. We’re a media sponsor of The Moth, and an event, a open mike StorySLAM, was coming up in Silver Lake. There were a few tickets available. Did anyone want one? The theme was "Divas." Sure, I thought. I’d go watch. It's always fun.

Nagging thought

As the days went by, the same thought kept nagging at me. How about getting on stage yourself? No, I thought. Too risky. But this time there was another thought, even more vehement. Why are you being held hostage by fear? Life is too short. If you want to do something, you just have to do it. And this opportunity has just fallen into your lap.

So when the day came, I went to the event, and put my name in the hat. Would I be picked? I sat there with sweaty palms as the show started and people came up tell their own funny, moving, poignant stories.

Finally, near the end of the show, my name was called out. Gulp. I walked on stage to the mic, and began telling my story.

“Some years ago I was a BBC radio producer. A show host and I were at Albuquerque airport, on our way to Los Alamos to do interviews about the Manhattan project. But when we got to the gate, it was closed. They’d boarded the plane 15 minutes early. We couldn't believe it. There was only one plane per day and we'd flown in from London and were on a tight schedule. What should we do?”

Holding their breath

It was a strange experience, simultaneously storytelling while looking at the audience and scanning for their reactions. They seemed to be enjoying themselves.... and were holding their breath, waiting to see what came next.

“I could see the plane on the tarmac, one of those regional planes with propellers, on the other side of an alarmed emergency exit door. So I decided, in the heat of the moment, to push it open, and started dashing across the tarmac, yelling for the host to follow me. Security men began running towards me from every direction as the alarm blared loudly.”

The audience was laughing with delight and disbelief, and I was laughing, too, at the recollection. What on earth had made me do that? Ah, my young, impulsive, determined self. Just as well it wasn’t today, post 9/11. I’d be dead.

“As I reached the plane, the security men were shouting 'What are you doing? You can’t run onto the tarmac!' That’s when the diva part came in. I drew myself up to my full 5’ 2” and said, determinedly, 'No, YOU were the ones who boarded the plane early. We did everything right! We have our tickets, we have interviews to do and we are going to get on this plane.'"

The security men looked at each other, unsure what to do. Maybe it was the British accent, or not being used to a woman giving them a dressing down. But one of them shrugged, moved out of the way, and they let us get on the plane. "Hurray! And we made it to Los Alamos, in time to do our interviews. Thank you.”

The audience went crazy, clapping and whooping. I was standing there grinning stupidly. I couldn’t believe I’d done it.

Yes, the story went down well. And the audience hadn't eaten me alive. But there was something bigger, something even more satisfying in my reaction. I’d had made myself do something I was scared of. I'd faced my demons.... and survived.

A lesson for us all.

If you happen to see 600 people snaking down 14.3 miles of Santa Monica Boulevard (and then some) on Saturday, Nov. 21 — their sole purpose is just to … walk.

“For years people were asking us, ‘What are you doing?’” said Michael Schneider, founder of the Great Los Angeles Walk.

These strolls are maximalist in nature, usually covering the entire length of a given thoroughfare. Sunset Boulevard. Melrose Avenue. Ventura Boulevard.

The inaugural Great L.A. Walk in 2006 along Wilshire Boulevard.

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Courtesy Great Los Angeles Walk

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How the walk began 

The pre-Thanksgiving tradition started in 2006 with Wilshire Boulevard. Schneider, who had reached the milestone of living in L.A. for a decade, was inspired by a book about the street’s history to walk its entire 15.8 miles on foot. He asked others to join on his blog Franklin Avenue.

About two dozen people showed up. That day, they popped into storefronts, stopped by restaurants, sneaked into the Park Plaza Hotel near MacArthur Park and shot up to the roof. “That kind of unearthed a whole new side of Los Angeles as we walked down Wilshire,” he said.

By the time the trek reached the ocean, folks were asking Schneider about next year. Now, it's always on the Saturday before Thanksgiving.

“I inadvertently turned it into an annual tradition,” he said.

The 2016 edition of Great L.A. Walk along Pico Boulevard.

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Courtesy Great Los Angeles Walk

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The 2007 installment was Pico Boulevard — with restaurant recommendations along the route handpicked by the late Pulitzer-winning food critic Jonathan Gold.

Eventually, Schneider included themed walks. March of Los Pobladores — which retraces the final leg of the 1781 journey taken by the original founders of L.A. — from the San Gabriel Mission to downtown. And USC to UCLA when the rivals faced off on game day.

This year’s route: Route 66 

This year's theme is Route 66.

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Google map screengrab

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This year’s focus is Route 66, marking the centennial of the iconic road. Saturday's walk will start in Echo Park, then go the whole way down Santa Monica Boulevard and end at the pier, totaling about 16 miles.

“You see so many different versions of Los Angeles,” he said.

Michael Schneider, founder of the Great L.A. Walk, at last year's trot along Wilshire Boulevard.

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Courtesy Great Los Angeles Walk

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Celebrity sightings and a marquee shout-out 

One year, he said, the group walked by Magic Johnson.

“He waved at us," Schneider said. "Probably was wondering why [there were] hundreds of people walking past where he was."

As many as 600 people now join the walk, he said. As the number grows, so too has its legend.

“Now we find a lot of people who know who we are,” he said. “You hear people say, ‘Hey, it's the Great L.A. Walk.”

Updated November 13, 2026 at 20:38 PM ET

The nationwide ground stop that paralyzed the U.S. aviation system on Friday has ended, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.

The rare stop, which lasted about four hours, grounded thousands of flights at all U.S. airports in one of the biggest disruptions of the nation's air travel system since the September 11th attacks. 

In a Friday night news conference, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said that air traffic control facilities had experienced "intermittent" outages of their radar and communications systems beginning earlier in the afternoon. Duffy blamed outdated technology for the failures. 

"We have old switches, old routers. We use 1980s little copper lines. It's an old system that went down and went down everywhere. It got overloaded," he said.

But when pressed by reporters on exactly why those systems would become overwhelmed on an otherwise normal travel day, Duffy did not have a ready answer. 

Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin joined Duffy in the White House briefing room and said there was no evidence the issue was due to an attack.

"We have seen zero evidence this is a cyber attack," he said.

A flight board showing delayed flights is pictured at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, Friday.

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Tom Brenner

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AP

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As of 9 p.m. ET, more than 8,000 flights had been delayed Friday and 7,000 had been canceled in the U.S., according to FlightAware, a flight tracking site. The turmoil comes on the heels of nearly 7,000 flight delays on Thursday.

The FAA said the issue affected Air Route Traffic Control Centers — the regional air traffic control centers across the country that handle high-altitude traffic.

FAA leaders did not brief the media at the White House press conference, and did not provide any further detail on the communication outages that led to the ground stop.

This was only the second nationwide ground stop since September 11, 2001. The U.S. last issued a ground stop of this scale in 2023, when all U.S. airports were shut down due to an outage in the NOTAM (Notice to Air Missions) system, which alerts pilots and airports of real-time hazards.

That outage prompted fears of a cyberattack, but the FAA later determined the issue was caused when contract workers inadvertently deleted critical files.

Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) released a statement late Friday evening calling for a "prompt, penetrating investigation" into the causes of Friday's ground stop.

"A widespread communication outage of this scale is highly alarming — a clear danger to national security, as well as safe, convenient travel close to the holidays. The Department of Transportation owes Americans credible, accurate action and factual disclosure," the statement read.

The FAA has recently begun rolling out an AI-enhanced software tool known as the SMART system as part of its ambitious overhaul of the nation's air traffic control system. But Air Space Intelligence, the company that makes the tool, quickly dismissed speculation that its product could be connected to the flight disruptions.

"The current ground stop is not based on or a result of the SMART system, any product of ASI or our integration with FAA and ATC," the company said on social media.

Passengers stranded

The nationwide ground stop caused chaos in airports and headaches for travelers — many of whom are already too familiar with flight delays and cancellations during the holiday season.

At the Friday night press conference, Duffy said flights would resume but would take time to clear.

At Dallas Fort Worth International Airport, Regina Harling said she waited hours — long past when her flight was supposed to depart — before she learned of the nationwide grounding by checking the news on her phone. 

"There's still a sign right in front of me that says we're boarding in 16 minutes," she said Friday afternoon. 

An airline worker shows people how to apply for a refund at LaGuardia airport on Friday.

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Adam Gray

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Getty Images

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Harling needed to travel last minute to San Diego for a family emergency. Stuck at the airport, she said she was thinking about how soon she could make it to her family, but she's not optimistic.

"I was just thinking to myself that it always feels like it's getting harder to travel than it used to be," she said.

At Chicago O'Hare International Airport, Giliann Karon was on board a plane when the ground stop was ordered. Karon said she had already experienced a flight delay the day before due to bad weather in New York City, where she is heading.

"It's just kind of like, 'Oh, of course this is happening,'" she said.

Deepa Shivaram contributed to this report.

Copyright 2026 NPR