ICE roundup: Don Lemon arrested, “ICE Out” protests, and protestor surveillance

Journalist Don Lemon and three other people were arrested today in connection with an anti-immigration protest that disrupted a service at a Minnesota church and increased tensions between residents and the Trump administration, officials said. Lemon was arrested by federal agents in Los Angeles, where he had been covering the Grammy Awards, his attorney Abbe Lowell said. It is unclear what charge or charges Lemon and the others are facing in the Jan. 18 protest at the Cities Church in St. Paul. Lemon’s arrest came after a magistrate judge last week rejected prosecutors’ initial bid to charge him. The arrest comes as demonstrations are planned to be held across the nation on Friday and Saturday, including in Los Angeles, calling for the withdrawal of federal immigration agents. Immigration raids ramped up over the summer and have shown no signs of slowing down. The protests are in response to the back-to-back killings of Renee Nicole Good and Alex Pretti in Minnesota, as well as those who have died in ICE custody. Digging into the latest on ICE this morning with host Jacob Margolis is Eugene Volokh, senior fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford, and professor of law emeritus at UCLA School of Law and Justin Sherman, distinguished fellow at Georgetown Law’s Center on Privacy and Technology and an expert on data brokers.

With files from the Associated Press.

How does AI affect the job application process?

In the U.S., economists have said that businesses are largely at a “no-hire, no fire” standstill, leading many to limit new work, if not pause openings entirely, amid economic uncertainty. Hiring has stagnated overall — with the country adding a meager 50,000 jobs last month, down from a revised figure of 56,000 in November. But a growing list of companies is also cutting jobs. The latest company to do so is Amazon, which is slashing about 16,000 corporate jobs in the second round of mass layoffs for the e-commerce company in three months. The tech giant has said it plans to use generative artificial intelligence to replace corporate workers. With an unpredictable job market on the horizon for this year, what do these layoffs tell us about the state of tech, where these jobs are disappearing, and why finding a job today can be so difficult? Joining us to discuss this is reporter Danielle Abril, who covers how tech affects workers across industries for the Washington Post. We’re also joined by Martha Gimbel, Executive Director at The Budget Lab, Yale's non-partisan policy research center, to talk about the impact of AI on the job application process.

With files from the Associated Press.

Food Friday: Latest from LAist

LAist's very own food & culture writer Gab Chabrán joins Jacob Margolis this morning on AirTalk to talk about two of his latest pieces on — you guessed it — food and culture in Los Angeles. He recently checked in on the Anti-ICE Supper Club launching in Los Angeles, a fundraising dinner series launched by Roads & Kingdoms, the Emmy- and James Beard Award-winning travel and media company that was the longtime publishing partner of Anthony Bourdain.

FilmWeek: ‘Send Help,’ ‘The Moment,’ ‘A Poet,’ and more!

Larry Mantle and LAist film critics Christy Lemire and Lael Loewenstein review this weekend’s latest movie releases in theaters and on streaming platforms.

Feature: Santa Barbara International Film Festival

The 41st annual Santa Barbara Film Festival kicks off next week, starting February 4 and running until February 14. This year marks the first time that the festival is being held in SBIFF’s new McHurley Film Center. The festival’s line up includes films from Japan, Costa Rica, the Czech Republic, and Ghana. SBIFF will honor several performances from 2025, including Adam Sandler with Maltin Modern Master Award and Micahel B. Jordan for the Outstanding Performer of the Year Award. Joining us on FilmWeek to talk about the festival and some of the films being shown is program director for the Santa Barbara International Film Festival and LAist film critic, Claudia Puig.

You can learn more about the festival and buy tickets here.

Feature: The many adaptations of ‘A Star is Born’ are explored in a new book

The Hollywood system was never a secret, even in the Golden Age. A young girl would be discovered, plucked from a small town in the Midwest, made over to look “the part” of a movie star, and then wholly become one as one of the major studios “it girl.” Although the idea of what a “star” is has changed over the decades to reflect societal ideals of each decade, the process and effects remain the same. The same is true for the film A Star is Born, which has been adapted four times. The original was released in 1937 starring Janet Gaynor and Fredric March, and follows the Hollywood machine of making a movie star. Over the subsequent versions, music was introduced, first with the 1954 adaptation where Judy Garland tries to become a leading lady in a Hollywood musical. The 1976 and 2018 versions modernize the commentary by setting it in the music industry with Barbara Streisand and Lady Gaga starring respectively. These differences and what they say about each era of the entertainment industry are explored in the book “A Star is Reborn: The Most Filmed Hollywood Story of Love Found and Lost.” On FilmWeek, Larry Mantle speaks with the author Robert Hofler.

“A Star is Reborn” is on sale now.

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ICE roundup: Don Lemon arrested, “ICE Out” protests, and protestor surveillance