The Brief

This weekend's Long Beach Pride Festival was cancelled by the city on Friday — hours before kickoff. The city said festival organizers failed to provide required documentation needed for safety reviews.

The Pride Parade, managed and funded by the city, will continue as scheduled on Sunday at 10 a.m.

The parade will start at Ocean Boulevard and Lindero Avenue and travel along the Ocean Boulevard coastline to Alamitos Avenue in Downtown Long Beach.

Roads will be shut down and parking will be limited hours before. The city says everything will go back to normal at 2 p.m.

No parking on these streets

Between 4 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Sunday parking won’t be allowed on:

• Ocean Boulevard from Redondo to Atlantic Avenues.
• The immediate side streets on the north and south sides of Ocean Boulevard from Redondo to Atlantic Avenues.

And these streets will be closed

The following streets will be closed to traffic during their designated times:

• 6 a.m. to 2 p.m. –Ocean Boulevard between Redondo and Lindero, including side streets on the north and south side of Ocean Boulevard.
• 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. – Shoreline Drive between Ocean Boulevard and Shoreline Village Drive.
• 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. – Ocean Boulevard between Lindero and Atlantic, including all side streets on the north and south side of Ocean Boulevard.
• 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. – Alamitos Avenue between Ocean Boulevard and Broadway.

Where you can park

Long Beach Pride says that parking will be available at the Long Beach Convention Center on 400 E. Seaside Way. Handicapped parking and viewing will be available at Junipero and First Street, near Bixby Park.

Editor's note: This story includes descriptions of allegations of sexual assault and rape.

Harvey Weinstein's latest sex crimes trial ended with a hung jury Friday, on the third day of deliberations.

It was the second time in a year a jury was unable to reach a verdict on the same charge.

Accusations against the former Hollywood mogul came to define the #MeToo movement, and he was first convicted of assaulting Jessica Mann in 2020. The former aspiring actress testified Weinstein raped her at a DoubleTree hotel in Manhattan in 2013. But that verdict, along with another charge, was later overturned.

In a second New York trial last summer, Weinstein was found guilty on one count of a criminal sexual act in the first degree and not guilty on another. But a third charge, of raping Mann, ended in a mistrial after the jury foreperson declined to return to deliberations, citing concerns for his safety.

Weinstein had returned to court for a third New York trial in April, this one focusing on Mann's allegations. But on Friday morning, Judge Curtis Farber received a note from jurors stating they were unable to reach a unanimous decision. Farber then read jurors a modified deadlock charge, known as an Allen charge, urging them to resume deliberations.

Jurors soon responded with another note restating their position. "We feel that no one is going to change where they stand," it said. Nine jurors fell on the side of not guilty; three supported a guilty verdict, Weinstein's lawyers told press outside of the courtroom.

The prosecution has until late June to decide whether they'll try the case again.

Outside of court, 55-year-old juror Rick Treese said that the group diverged on "where we actually had facts." He told reporters, "We didn't have enough facts to grasp onto, so it was emotion." People in the group "had varying emotions about it based on [their] experience in life."

"Everybody respected each other. Everybody respected their backgrounds. It was very civil. I feel certain that we dug into it enough."

Another juror, Josh Hadar, said his vote was for "not guilty," in part because he felt there might be parts of Mann's testimony that were "fabricated."

"I think the prevailing thought was that the witness had a lot of inconsistencies in her story," he said.

The mistrial concludes a month-long trial that was quieter than Weinstein's previous court appearances, with a diminished media presence and less public attention. Earlier this year, Weinstein hired a new legal team, including high-profile criminal defense attorneys such as Marc Agnifilo, known for representing Luigi Mangione and Sean "Diddy" Combs.

Defense attorneys argued that Mann and the then-married Weinstein had a consensual, on-again, off-again relationship over many years. But Mann testified that on that 2013 morning at the DoubleTree hotel, Weinstein "command[ed]" her to undress and penetrated her despite Mann repeatedly saying "no." Weinstein has denied all allegations of sexual assault.

Now 74, Weinstein has been incarcerated since 2020. In 2022, he was convicted of rape and sexual assault in a separate case in California and sentenced to 16 years in prison. He is appealing that verdict.

Agnifilo said outside court on Friday, "It's our job not just to win this case. There is an entire legal knot that needs to be untangled. And we're going to start untangling that knot strand by strand with the New York case and then the California case. So this really is just a first step." He said that this latest mistrial might not be "the win [Weinstein] wanted, but it's a win."

A statement from Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said prosecutors were "disappointed that the proceedings ended in a mistrial" and would consider next steps in consultation with Mann.

"For nearly a decade, Jessica Mann has fought for justice. Over the course of many weeks during three separate trials, she relived unthinkably painful experiences in front of complete strangers," the statement said. "Her perseverance and bravery are inspiring to the members of my office, and more importantly, to survivors everywhere."

Weinstein's lawyers have said that he is in poor health. He used a wheelchair in court and did not testify on the stand in this trial, nor during any of his previous criminal cases. At one point during jury deliberations, Judge Farber announced Weinstein could not appear in court due to complaints of "chest pains."

Weinstein has given a limited number of interviews from prison, including with far-right podcaster Candace Owens and the Daily Mail. Most recently, he spoke with The Hollywood Reporter from Rikers Island.

When asked whether he had apologized to any of the women who brought charges against him, Weinstein told The Hollywood Reporter, "I apologized to them generally. You can't call them when you're in a trial with them. But I'll say it here today: I apologize to those women. I'm sorry. I shouldn't have been with them in the first place. I misled them."

Citing his health issues, including bone marrow cancer, Weinstein said, "I'm dying here. And the DA's idea is probably to have me dying in prison. But I am dying."

For one weekend only, fans of Los Angeles-made chocolate chip cookies can engage in the cookie-focused version of a bar crawl, patronizing five established cookie purveyors as part of a quest to get even more cookies.

The “1st Annual Cookie Crawl” is a partnership by Milkfarm (Eagle Rock), Proof Bakery Co-Op (Atwater Village), Friends & Family (Silver Lake), Modu Cafe (Highland Park) and Valerie (Echo Park), all independently owned businesses.

You can go to any one of those locations, pick up a punch card, get a punch for a cookie, and subsequently get punched for getting cookies from the other locations, too. Drop it off at your preferred location by Sunday afternoon for a chance to win more of that store's cookies plus gift certificates from the others.

Why we celebrate the chocolate chip

The crawl honors this year’s National Chocolate Chip Day, on May 15, not to be confused with National Chocolate Day in October, or National Cookie Day in December, or National Chocolate Chip Cookie Day in August.

You can appreciate chocolate chips and the cookies they’re baked into without any historical knowledge, but just in case you are curious: While LAist couldn’t find a verified origin of National Chocolate Chip Day, internet records show the day nominally celebrates Ruth Graves Wakefield, the baker behind Toll House cookies. Cookie history sleuths dispute that Wakefield actually created the modern chocolate chip, but she did popularize them. (Earlier versions of chocolate chips include chocolate-coated molasses.)

Why you should participate in a chocolate chip cookie crawl

Milkfarm owner Leah Park developed the idea for this crawl years ago after talking with Proof founder Na Young Ma about how popular each shop's cookies are. Park said she wanted to do something fun and collaborative to encourage people to go out and try new things and support small businesses.

“I was starting to get it all together. We did the prototype for the punch card,” Park said. That was in early 2020; that first cookie crawl became another opportunity stifled by the COVID-19 pandemic.

“And so everything just got put on hold. And I had the prototype punchcard that I made on my corkboard in my office since 2020,” Park said. “And I just kept looking at it, and finally one day I was like, ‘OK, I just need to hurry up and do this.’ And then it launched this year. We finally did it.”

Atwater Village resident Kenneth Rudnicki filled the majority of his card Friday morning.

“I would love more punchcards in L.A.,” he said. “I think it's a really good way for other businesses to get introduced to people who maybe wouldn't know them. And … it's fun to sort of have a task like this to do.” He bought several cookies to slice apart and share with friends.

And I did that too: As the senior editor of our esteemed LAist Education Team, I invited our available education reporters — in the name of journalism, of course — to sample all the cookies I brought back. Thanks to reporters Julia Barajas and Elly Yu and engagement producer Sabrina Sanchez; you’ll see our notes in the list below.

Also, this list below isn’t a ranking; one benefit of the crawl is to show off how a baking classic can be transformed into something unique. And that means you can trade takes with other people about what makes a cookie great, but what's "best" is up to each person.

Let's eat cookies

A Proof Co-op chocolate chip cookie.

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Proof Bakery Co-op

Proof staff told me that they use Valrhona chocolate for a product that, as our tasters describe, is an ideal chocolate chip cookie — “crunchy on the outside, but, like, really soft and, like, buttery on the inside. The chocolate’s the right amount of sweet, and then you got the salt that's really nice.” We paired it with hot drip coffee, an excellent companion.

A Friends & Family chocolate chip cookie.

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Friends & Family (Silver Lake Outpost)

The original Friends & Family is in Hollywood, but this branch adjacent to Burgers Never Say Die also offers the bakery’s rye chocolate chip cookie, which staff members said is made with rich TCHO chocolate. Our tasters noted the earthiness of the rye — one said it comes across almost gingery. Despite the crinkly outside edge, it’s a bit chewy, and takes a light touch with the chocolate. We suggest pairing it with milk.

A Valerie chocolate chip cookie.

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Valerie Echo Park

Valerie is tucked into a cozy nook of Echo Park businesses set away from the bustle of Sunset Blvd. This weekend’s crawl features the Durango cookie, which our tasters describe as quite sweet (it uses milk chocolate) and nutty. This cookie will test your thoughts on texture; personally, I liked how the toasted almonds contributed to it. We also thought it might work well as a blondie.

A Milkfarm chocolate chip cookie.

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Milkfarm

Milkfarm owner and pastry chef-turned-cheesemonger Leah Park says her cookie was the result of a lot of trial and error when the store opened in 2014.

“How to get the oven the right temperature, and what size cookie, then the chips to use — we even taste-tested salt,” Park said. “We literally had different salt that we put side by side, and we ate salt to see what kind of salt we wanted to use on the cookie.” (They now use Jacobsen's.)

And that effort shines through: Milkfarm was a hit with our tasters (and several other colleagues who managed to snag a piece) — crispy edges, ample salt, thick ("but it's not cakey"), and just the right amount of chocolate (Ghirardelli). I haven't been a regular at this shop, but thanks to this crawl, I suspect it will be a new favorite stop on the way to work.

Park suggested pairing the cookie with a versatile cheese, many of which are also available from Milkfarm.

A Modu black sesame dark chocolate chip cookie.

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Modu Cafe

I usually stroll Highland Park for the compact array of shops on York Blvd. stretching from Kumquat on the west end to The Hermosillo bar on the east end. But head a little farther east to reach Modu, a bright, spacious pastry shop featuring flavors popular in Korean cooking.

Their soft, black sesame dark chocolate cookie stood out to our tasters for how the sesame brings a nutty complement; it's not packed with chocolate, so our crew recommends taking big bites to guarantee you get the full range of flavor. Pair it with the first-rate Modu Latte.

You can hit all five stops in under an hour, but budget some extra time to walk around a bit and enjoy what else the neighborhoods offer.

Also, while this particular crawl has been in the works for quite some time, it inspired another option this weekend in West L.A.:

• Clementine, 1751 Ensley Avenue, Century City
• Fat + Flour, 11739 W. Washington Boulevard, Culver City
• Lei’d Cookies, 8588 Washington Boulevard, Culver City
• Petitgrain Boulangerie, 1209 Wilshire Boulevard, Santa Monica 
• The Very Best Cookie in the Whole Wide World, 2625 South Robertson Boulevard, Los Angeles

Reporters Julia Barajas and Elly Yu and engagement producer Sabrina Sanchez contributed to this story.

A brewery in Lincoln Heights is hosting bingo games with a Texas twist you’ve probably never played before.

It’s called, excuse our language, Chicken Shit Bingo. And the name says it all.

The game has become an annual tradition at Benny Boy Brewing on Daly Street. On a recent Sunday, spectators and players surround a wooden enclosure — think a ping-pong table but with a giant bingo board at the base and wire all around it — hooting and hollering and egging on a well-fed chicken in a handkerchief and tiny cowboy hat. (And yes, L.A. County Public Health is well aware.)

Gameplay is simple: you can put a bet on one of the 72 squares. If a chicken poops on your number, you get $100.

A bet will cost you $3. For another $2, you get a cup of chicken feed to coax the bird toward your coordinates.

Participants get their numbers for the next round of bingo.

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Kat Hanegraaf

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Benny Boy Brewing

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The backstory

The game originated at The Little Longhorn Saloon — formerly Ginny’s Longhorn Saloon — in Austin, Texas, decades ago.

That’s where Matt Farber, Benny Boy’s bingo MC, first played. When his cousin Benny Farber decided to open a brewery, Matt knew the chickens needed to make their Los Angeles debut.

“Ben and I both grew up on farms, so this kind of hit home for us,” said Matt, decked out in a Dolly Parton T-shirt and a palm leaf cowboy hat. “When [we were] brainstorming … events to do at Benny Boy Brewing, this was something that just kind of came up.”

“It seemed like a no-brainer,” Benny said.

Meet the chickens

The chickens are sourced from Future Foods Urban Farms, a small urban farmstead in Glassell Park. Chicken keeper Teresa Meza, who stands by the birds’ enclosure and (I like to imagine) hypes them up before their bingo debut, was immediately taken by the idea.

“I had never heard of [the game],” she said. “But I was immediately into it.”

The chickens get quiet time in the shade between rounds, and are kept separate from food and beverage service for everyone’s safety. Future Foods and other urban farm partners are experienced in chicken-handling, and follow standard animal care practices appropriate for backyard and farm environments. Beyond that, the mechanics behind the actual pooping are very simple.

“Chickens are extremely prolific poopers,” Meza said, gingerly placing a tiny cowboy hat on an enormous chicken named Sophie. “As long as they're well fed and well watered, they will be pooping. It’s probably at least once every 30 minutes.”

Chicken keeper Teresa Meza and Benny Boy co-founder Benny Farber hold two of the chickens participating in bingo.

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Kat Hanegraaf

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Benny Boy Brewing

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How it works

Proceeds from each bet go right back to the urban farm. Aside from bingo, the Future Foods chickens tend not to make public appearances, but for five years now, Meza and the birds have been at Benny Boy every month from March through August.

After you place your bets, you can browse booths of Western-themed art from local artists, chow down on some standout barbecue and, of course, sip on some of the brewery’s fantastic beers and ciders.

Each game day has a theme. For example, the most recent round of bingo on April 12 featured a Dolly Parton lookalike contest and line dancing lessons with The Honky Tonk Hunnies.

While the bingo games are seasonal, Benny Boy stays busy year-round. Between chili cookoffs, competitive cornhole and outdoor drawing sessions, there’s always something on the calendar. You’ll find pop-ups from some of L.A.’s favorite local restaurants.

Can’t visit? You can find Benny Boy beers and ciders on tap at more than 50 breweries and eateries throughout the city.