Witnesses say immigration agents raided concert at Santa Fe swap meet
Armed, masked ICE agents executed a raid Saturday afternoon at a swap meet in the city of Santa Fe Springs hours before a concert was to begin, witnesses said.
The agents arrived at Santa Fe Springs Swap Meet around 3:30 p.m., according to eyewitness Howie Rezendez, who filmed agents hop off their vehicles and head into the venue with arms in hand.
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CNN
2 hours ago
- CNN
A tumultuous week in Los Angeles illustrates the human toll of the Trump administration's more aggressive immigration crackdown
Immigration Donald Trump Federal agenciesFacebookTweetLink Follow Days before immigration raids sparked sometimes violent protests and the deployment of US troops in Los Angeles, Nancy Raquel Chirinos Medina said, her husband received a 'strange' text. The message from US Immigration and Customs Enforcement directed the father of two with one on the way to come to a federal building downtown with his family. 'It really surprised us, especially because it said the whole family had to be there … It was strange,' recalled Chirinos Medina, an asylum seeker from Honduras along with her husband. They routinely checked in with ICE, she said, but their next appointment wasn't until September. Chirinos Medina, who's nine weeks pregnant, as well as her husband, their 8-year-old son, and their US-born toddler, wound up among the nearly 20 immigrant families detained by ICE for hours at that Los Angeles federal building the first Wednesday in June, she said. There were few answers about what was happening and, that night, her husband was arrested and later transferred to an ICE detention center to face deportation. 'Dad isn't coming back, is he?' their young son asked Chirinos Medina late that night. He cried the entire 90-minute drive back home to Lancaster, a city in northern Los Angeles County. 'We entered as a family of four and only three of us left,' said Chirinos Medina, who – with her husband and son – came to the US four years ago. They're in the process of appealing an immigration court decision denying their asylum claim. Her husband, Randal Isaias Bonilla Mejia, has not returned home. A court order bars his deportation until the family's asylum claim is adjudicated. The events that unfolded that Wednesday, and the days that followed, illustrate the human toll of more aggressive methods the Trump administration have taken to detain migrants in the United States — taking into custody those who arrive for routine check-ins, while also conducting workplace raids that have unleashed waves of fear across Southern California and beyond. A curfew was imposed in parts of downtown Los Angeles last week after fiery weekend protests outside the same complex of government buildings where Chirinos Medina's husband was detained. Prev Next Across the nation, demonstrators have taken to the streets, with hundreds of protests on Saturday as part of the 'No Kings' movement that organizers said seeks to reject 'authoritarianism, billionaire-first politics, and the militarization of our democracy.' The tumultuous week also reflects the complicated landscape of immigration in America and controversial enforcement actions that shape public perception. 'These are tactics that we haven't seen before on this scale,' said Amada Armenta, UCLA associate professor of urban planning who specializes in immigration enforcement. 'They are showing up with masks. They are not identifying themselves,' she said of the heavily armed ICE officers in tactical gear and armored vehicles conducting the sweeps. 'They are grabbing people indiscriminately, putting them into vans and then not letting them see attorneys. They're sometimes quickly deporting people before they can get an attorney, or they're moving them to other states where it's hard for them to access support.' ICE has not responded to CNN's request for comment about the ramped up enforcement. In statements last week, an ICE spokesperson said the agency 'arrests aliens who commit crimes and other individuals who have violated our nation's immigration laws,' and 'takes very seriously it's mandate to care for people in their custody with dignity and as mandated by law.' Immigration sweeps on industries that rely heavily on immigrant workers have picked up in recent weeks amid a push to meet White House demands to increase daily arrests. In an about-face, the Trump administration ordered ICE to scale back raids and arrests targeting farms, eateries and hotels — industries reliant on immigrant labor, according to an internal email and three officials with knowledge of the guidance cited by The New York Times on Friday. Officers should refrain from arresting 'noncriminal collaterals,' or undocumented individuals without criminal records, the guidance said. Undocumented immigrants make up 4% to 5% of the total US workforce, but 15% to 20% or more in industries such as crop production, food processing and construction, according to Goldman Sachs. In Los Angeles County, about a tenth of roughly 950,000 residents are unauthorized immigrants, according to the Migration Policy Institute. About a third have lived in the US 20 years or more. More than two-thirds are employed. In a city where the names of streets reflect its Spanish roots – and which has even deeper ties to Mexico and Central America – the outrage over the sweeps is not surprising. 'The strong response that you're seeing comes from … a really deep history of immigrant organizing in the city… It shows how intimately woven immigrants are to Los Angeles,' said Talia Inlender, deputy director of the Center for Immigration Law and Policy at the UCLA School of Law. On June 6, raids outside a Home Depot and an apparel warehouse in Los Angeles set off days of protests and, on some nights, clashes between demonstrators and law enforcement. President Donald Trump on June 7 deployed National Guard troops to the city to 'temporarily protect ICE and other United States Government personnel who are performing Federal functions' and to protect federal property, according to a memo –– overriding California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who called the move a 'brazen abuse of power.' The Trump administration's immigration policy 'affects so many children of immigrants who are growing up with legal status in the United States, or people who have relatives who are undocumented or legal permanent residents. People who are naturalized citizens are worried and afraid,' said Jody Agius Vallejo, a professor of sociology at USC and associate director of the university's Equity Research Institute. 'There is not one person who is not touched by immigration in California and it is why these people are out there on the streets.' In Los Angeles, some nannies are living in fear of being profiled by ICE officers. As the school year wound down, many children stayed home. Others wept openly in class, worried about the future of their families. Some relatives stayed away from graduation ceremonies. 'How do you explain the reality of this without truly frightening … the child more than they already are, because you can't sugarcoat this. This is real,' said Adrian Tamayo, a special education teacher at Lorena Street Elementary School in the predominantly Hispanic Boyle Heights neighborhood. Tamayo said he has asked his wife to drive when they ride together. 'Your skin is lighter than mine,' he said he tells her. 'It's kind of sad that we've come to that.' Martha Melendrez, a psychiatric social worker at a high school in Los Angeles County, said the anxiety of many students has been mounting since the November election. Three months ago, she said, immigration officers came to the house of one of her students and pointed a gun at him. 'It's just infuriating. It's heartbreaking. It's sad,' said Melendrez, adding that she was formerly undocumented herself. Outside the Los Angeles County apparel warehouse where dozens of immigrants were detained on June 6, Leslie Quechol, 23, said family members of the workers gathered, many weeping, as their loved ones were put into vans. One detainee was her cousin, Ismael Quechol, 40, who she said has three US-born children and migrated from Mexico more than 15 years ago. Many of those arrested descended from the Zapotecs, an Indigenous people of Mexico. 'Our whole community is heartbroken, angry and scared. We're just seeing how our loved ones being taken away,' she said. 'Our communities are under attack, basically.' Chirinos Medina, her husband and their then-4-year-old son arrived in the United States in 2021. The family, nationals of Honduras, arrived at the US-Mexico border and moved to California. They left Honduras after her husband, a bus driver back home, received death threats from MS-13 gang members, according to their asylum application. Her toddler is a US citizen. The family checked in regularly with ICE, she said. 'We've done everything like they asked.' On June 4, a Wednesday, the family went to a federal building downtown, proceeding as they would for any other routine check-in. But the waiting time dragged on, Chirinos Medina said. Chirinos Medina and her husband were in a room with nearly 20 adults plus many children. They noticed that the doors had been closed, and officers appeared to be standing guard, she said. 'We felt like we were imprisoned … We were all sitting and we heard the yells of someone saying, 'Help.' My son got scared. I asked my son if he was afraid. He was trembling and said yes,' she told CNN in Spanish. 'We were afraid they were going to separate us.' Eventually, Chirinos Medina was pulled aside by an officer who said she'd be able to go home with her kids, but her husband would remain detained. 'I had to inform my husband that he was going to remain detained while I went home,' she said. 'Stay strong,' he told her. 'They closed the door, and I didn't see him again,' Chirinos Medina recalled. Nearly 12 hours later, she left the building with her children. Her husband, who she said has no criminal record, is now detained at an ICE facility in California. 'We never thought this would happen,' Chirinos Medina said, adding that she expected Trump to go after criminals, not people like her and her husband. 'A lot of families are suffering.'
CNN
2 hours ago
- CNN
A tumultuous week in Los Angeles illustrates the human toll of the Trump administration's more aggressive immigration crackdown
Days before immigration raids sparked sometimes violent protests and the deployment of US troops in Los Angeles, Nancy Raquel Chirinos Medina said, her husband received a 'strange' text. The message from US Immigration and Customs Enforcement directed the father of two with one on the way to come to a federal building downtown with his family. 'It really surprised us, especially because it said the whole family had to be there … It was strange,' recalled Chirinos Medina, an asylum seeker from Honduras along with her husband. They routinely checked in with ICE, she said, but their next appointment wasn't until September. Chirinos Medina, who's nine weeks pregnant, as well as her husband, their 8-year-old son, and their US-born toddler, wound up among the nearly 20 immigrant families detained by ICE for hours at that Los Angeles federal building the first Wednesday in June, she said. There were few answers about what was happening and, that night, her husband was arrested and later transferred to an ICE detention center to face deportation. 'Dad isn't coming back, is he?' their young son asked Chirinos Medina late that night. He cried the entire 90-minute drive back home to Lancaster, a city in northern Los Angeles County. 'We entered as a family of four and only three of us left,' said Chirinos Medina, who – with her husband and son – came to the US four years ago. They're in the process of appealing an immigration court decision denying their asylum claim. Her husband, Randal Isaias Bonilla Mejia, has not returned home. A court order bars his deportation until the family's asylum claim is adjudicated. The events that unfolded that Wednesday, and the days that followed, illustrate the human toll of more aggressive methods the Trump administration have taken to detain migrants in the United States — taking into custody those who arrive for routine check-ins, while also conducting workplace raids that have unleashed waves of fear across Southern California and beyond. A curfew was imposed in parts of downtown Los Angeles last week after fiery weekend protests outside the same complex of government buildings where Chirinos Medina's husband was detained. Prev Next Across the nation, demonstrators have taken to the streets, with hundreds of protests on Saturday as part of the 'No Kings' movement that organizers said seeks to reject 'authoritarianism, billionaire-first politics, and the militarization of our democracy.' The tumultuous week also reflects the complicated landscape of immigration in America and controversial enforcement actions that shape public perception. 'These are tactics that we haven't seen before on this scale,' said Amada Armenta, UCLA associate professor of urban planning who specializes in immigration enforcement. 'They are showing up with masks. They are not identifying themselves,' she said of the heavily armed ICE officers in tactical gear and armored vehicles conducting the sweeps. 'They are grabbing people indiscriminately, putting them into vans and then not letting them see attorneys. They're sometimes quickly deporting people before they can get an attorney, or they're moving them to other states where it's hard for them to access support.' ICE has not responded to CNN's request for comment about the ramped up enforcement. In statements last week, an ICE spokesperson said the agency 'arrests aliens who commit crimes and other individuals who have violated our nation's immigration laws,' and 'takes very seriously it's mandate to care for people in their custody with dignity and as mandated by law.' Immigration sweeps on industries that rely heavily on immigrant workers have picked up in recent weeks amid a push to meet White House demands to increase daily arrests. In an about-face, the Trump administration ordered ICE to scale back raids and arrests targeting farms, eateries and hotels — industries reliant on immigrant labor, according to an internal email and three officials with knowledge of the guidance cited by The New York Times on Friday. Officers should refrain from arresting 'noncriminal collaterals,' or undocumented individuals without criminal records, the guidance said. Undocumented immigrants make up 4% to 5% of the total US workforce, but 15% to 20% or more in industries such as crop production, food processing and construction, according to Goldman Sachs. In Los Angeles County, about a tenth of roughly 950,000 residents are unauthorized immigrants, according to the Migration Policy Institute. About a third have lived in the US 20 years or more. More than two-thirds are employed. In a city where the names of streets reflect its Spanish roots – and which has even deeper ties to Mexico and Central America – the outrage over the sweeps is not surprising. 'The strong response that you're seeing comes from … a really deep history of immigrant organizing in the city… It shows how intimately woven immigrants are to Los Angeles,' said Talia Inlender, deputy director of the Center for Immigration Law and Policy at the UCLA School of Law. On June 6, raids outside a Home Depot and an apparel warehouse in Los Angeles set off days of protests and, on some nights, clashes between demonstrators and law enforcement. President Donald Trump on June 7 deployed National Guard troops to the city to 'temporarily protect ICE and other United States Government personnel who are performing Federal functions' and to protect federal property, according to a memo –– overriding California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who called the move a 'brazen abuse of power.' The Trump administration's immigration policy 'affects so many children of immigrants who are growing up with legal status in the United States, or people who have relatives who are undocumented or legal permanent residents. People who are naturalized citizens are worried and afraid,' said Jody Agius Vallejo, a professor of sociology at USC and associate director of the university's Equity Research Institute. 'There is not one person who is not touched by immigration in California and it is why these people are out there on the streets.' In Los Angeles, some nannies are living in fear of being profiled by ICE officers. As the school year wound down, many children stayed home. Others wept openly in class, worried about the future of their families. Some relatives stayed away from graduation ceremonies. 'How do you explain the reality of this without truly frightening … the child more than they already are, because you can't sugarcoat this. This is real,' said Adrian Tamayo, a special education teacher at Lorena Street Elementary School in the predominantly Hispanic Boyle Heights neighborhood. Tamayo said he has asked his wife to drive when they ride together. 'Your skin is lighter than mine,' he said he tells her. 'It's kind of sad that we've come to that.' Martha Melendrez, a psychiatric social worker at a high school in Los Angeles County, said the anxiety of many students has been mounting since the November election. Three months ago, she said, immigration officers came to the house of one of her students and pointed a gun at him. 'It's just infuriating. It's heartbreaking. It's sad,' said Melendrez, adding that she was formerly undocumented herself. Outside the Los Angeles County apparel warehouse where dozens of immigrants were detained on June 6, Leslie Quechol, 23, said family members of the workers gathered, many weeping, as their loved ones were put into vans. One detainee was her cousin, Ismael Quechol, 40, who she said has three US-born children and migrated from Mexico more than 15 years ago. Many of those arrested descended from the Zapotecs, an Indigenous people of Mexico. 'Our whole community is heartbroken, angry and scared. We're just seeing how our loved ones being taken away,' she said. 'Our communities are under attack, basically.' Chirinos Medina, her husband and their then-4-year-old son arrived in the United States in 2021. The family, nationals of Honduras, arrived at the US-Mexico border and moved to California. They left Honduras after her husband, a bus driver back home, received death threats from MS-13 gang members, according to their asylum application. Her toddler is a US citizen. The family checked in regularly with ICE, she said. 'We've done everything like they asked.' On June 4, a Wednesday, the family went to a federal building downtown, proceeding as they would for any other routine check-in. But the waiting time dragged on, Chirinos Medina said. Chirinos Medina and her husband were in a room with nearly 20 adults plus many children. They noticed that the doors had been closed, and officers appeared to be standing guard, she said. 'We felt like we were imprisoned … We were all sitting and we heard the yells of someone saying, 'Help.' My son got scared. I asked my son if he was afraid. He was trembling and said yes,' she told CNN in Spanish. 'We were afraid they were going to separate us.' Eventually, Chirinos Medina was pulled aside by an officer who said she'd be able to go home with her kids, but her husband would remain detained. 'I had to inform my husband that he was going to remain detained while I went home,' she said. 'Stay strong,' he told her. 'They closed the door, and I didn't see him again,' Chirinos Medina recalled. Nearly 12 hours later, she left the building with her children. Her husband, who she said has no criminal record, is now detained at an ICE facility in California. 'We never thought this would happen,' Chirinos Medina said, adding that she expected Trump to go after criminals, not people like her and her husband. 'A lot of families are suffering.'
Yahoo
3 hours ago
- Yahoo
Will mom get detained? Is dad going to work? Answering kids' big questions amid ICE raids
By the time Josefina and her husband sat down to talk, the immigration raids had been going on for days, and protests over the federal actions had turned violent in parts of downtown Los Angeles. At night, they could hear the helicopters from their Boyle Heights home. The couple couldn't afford to put off the conversation any longer — fear was mounting over the potential separation of their family. Josefina's husband, a garment worker, is an undocumented immigrant from Mexico. When U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers raided the Ambiance Apparel garment factory June 6, the couple's 15- and 19-year-old children had texted their father in a panic. He, too, works at a garment factory. Should he go to work? That's what they had to hash out Tuesday night. The couple was seated in the dining room. Their children were engrossed in a movie in the living room. The parents had not wanted their kids to hear the conversation — and figured they were out of earshot. They weren't. 'Dad should just stay home,' the teenagers insisted. And with that, the whole family was part of a difficult conversation. It was not how the couple had scripted it, but Josefina came to terms with keeping the kids in the know. 'I've done my best to shield them, but they have a lot of questions,' said Josefina, who like others in this report asked that she and her family not be fully identified over safety concerns. 'They're trying to understand what happens after this. So what I've been offering them is that this isn't how things are going to be forever, that there's power in community.' Conversations like the one in Josefina's dining room are unfolding across the Los Angeles region, as families with undocumented members grapple with fraught questions pushed to the fore by the Trump administration's chaotic crackdown on what he has called a "Migrant Invasion." Could mom be arrested? What happens if dad can't go to work? These and other queries are sparking excruciating — and potentially life-altering — discussions centered on planning for the possible deportation of a family member. Parents are often conflicted about how much to tell their children — even when dealing with ordinary issues. But the intense anguish some feel at this moment has exacerbated the dilemma. Child psychologists and counselors said children should be brought into the fold for these crucial conversations in age-appropriate ways. Doing so, said licensed clinical social worker Yessenia O. Aguirre, will help kids reckon with a moment suffused with anxiety. "I would counsel people to have the conversations from early on," said Aguirre, who is co-developing a coloring book for parents to help them navigate fears and anxieties related to immigration. "Kids can know about real dangers and still have a joyous childhood. We don't have to protect our kids from things they are already going to hear from the news, social media, and from just going to school." If there was ever a week in which children might have heard about issues related to immigration, it was this past one in L.A. Aggressive sweeps by ICE were met with fierce resistance by protesters and others beginning June 6. A Home Depot in Paramount became a flash point after border patrol agents began massing there early on June 7. Eventually, the scene erupted, with demonstrators clashing with authorities, leading to multiple arrests. The episode was one of the triggers that led the Trump administration to deploy National Guard troops to L.A. over the objections of Gov. Gavin Newsom. ICE forays deep into neighborhoods have continued, sparking new outrage. On Wednesday, The Times reported that a 9-year-old Torrance Elementary School student and his father were deported to Honduras. The cascading events have made it a profoundly uncertain time for immigrant families. And that can spawn anxiety, said psychologist Melissa Brymer, a director at the UCLA-Duke National Center for Child Traumatic Stress. But there are, she said, simple actions parents can take to help children, such as organizing a comforting family meal or arranging for other relatives to check in on a youngster to increase their sense of security. Even asking kids if they are getting a good night's sleep can spark a wider discussion about how they are faring. "Kids are usually willing to talk about it from a sleep perspective," Brymer said. Crowded around the dining room table, Josefina and her husband told their children that they would decide whether he'd return to work by Friday. Even though the kids were now part of the conversation, it was still going to be the adults' decision. They had to weigh the risk of a workplace raid and the husband's possible arrest against the financial implications of losing a vital source of income. The family was trying to save money to pay for a legal defense, Josefina said, should her husband be detained. 'We don't have the money to be like, 'Oh yeah, quit your job,'" Josefina said. Until the teenagers overheard their conversation, Josefina hoped they knew enough to draw comfort from the family's plans. She said, for example, that the kids know what to do if ICE officers come to their house and which lawyers to call if their father is detained. That, experts said, is the right instinct. Aguirre said that preteens and teenagers "pick up on our moods," and may understand more than parents realize. "They are sensing our anxiety, they are looking at our behaviors," she said. "They may want to listen in and see what's underneath if we aren't speaking up." When broaching a tough topic, older kids should be given "space to vent," Aguirre said, and parents should resist the urge to immediately tell their children not to be scared or worry. Instead, they can empathize, telling them, "It makes sense — we are all so scared." Parents can also convey that they have a plan, and clue the kids in on it. "At that age," Aguirre said of teenagers, "it is more of a family dynamic — where they are included." Some scenarios — such as detainment of a parent — are dark. But kids should be made aware of them, Brymer said. "I think it's truly important that we talk to kids about potential separation," she said. "Kids are worried about that, and so let's make sure we talk it over with them. How may a potential separation impact them?" As for Josefina's family, they decided that her husband — who immigrated from Mexico when he was in elementary school about 40 years ago — would return to work. "He decided, 'I still have a responsibility, and I still want to help provide,'" she said. For their 15-year-old daughter, having a plan has made her feel safer. 'I feel like out of my whole family, I'm the least afraid of the stuff that's happening," she said. "I think it's because I have hope in our people in L.A.' Read more: Fears of ICE raids upend life in L.A. County, from schools to Home Depot parking lots Ana's son was set to graduate from eighth grade on Tuesday, and amid the ongoing ICE sweeps, her family had wrestled with whether to attend the celebration at his Mid-Wilshire area school. Her husband is an undocumented immigrant from Mexico. And she is a recipient of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, the 2012 policy that provides protection from deportation to immigrants without lawful status who came to the U.S. as children. The program has been the focus of a lengthy legal challenge and could eventually be ruled illegal. Their 14-year-old son knew the stakes. 'He understands what's happening — that there are arrests,' Ana said. Still, the family decided to attend the graduation. Even so, on the morning of the event, their son wanted to revisit the decision, asking his parents if they were comfortable with it. He even suggested they could watch the ceremony from home on a livestream the school had arranged. 'I told him, 'No, we're going to accompany you,'' Ana said. 'And we did. In the end it was worth it to be with him and applaud his successes.' Read more: Graduation day at Maywood Academy High, where students are 98% Latino, 100% all-American Experts could understand her decision. Maintaining a sense of normalcy — when it is safe to do so — helps kids stay on an even keel. Brymer recommends encouraging them to continue to go to school and summer activities if possible, and to participate in their typical social events. 'Kids do better with routines,' she said. "They should be allowed to play and interact.' Aguirre, however, noted that children crave "a sense of safety and connection with loved ones" more than they desire a "sense of normalcy." She added: "It might not be the best time to keep that normalcy — that puts a lot of pressure on parents." If attending a public event or milestone celebration presents a big risk, Aguirre said, parents might consider opting out, and making plans to ensure their presence is felt from afar. "Prep the child ahead of time and say, 'We are not able to physically be there, but we are so proud of this accomplishment,'" Aguirre said. She said parents might tell their child, "We are going to ask [a friend at the event] to blow this whistle, and when they blow it, know that we are there." "For eighth-graders, there would be heartache around not having parents there, but I can also imagine if anything were to happen, they would feel a lot of guilt," Aguirre said. On the day of Ana's son's graduation, the school auditorium opened hours early, so that families did not have to wait on the sidewalk. But the celebration was bittersweet, she said. Fear was palpable among both the students and the crowd. And familiar faces were absent. 'It's a little hard to face sometimes,' Ana said. 'But at the same time we have to be with them in these important moments in life.' Paige and her 8- and 11-year-old daughters stood in front of Long Beach Civic Center on Tuesday evening, alongside roughly 400 other protesters. They chanted slogans near the Port Headquarters building amid signs and swirling American and Mexican flags. 'Seeking safety is NOT a crime,' one sign read. 'Humans are not illegal,' said another. Read more: Immigration raids have shaken communities across Los Angeles County. How can you help? The family isn't new to protesting. Paige and both daughters took to the streets in 2020 after George Floyd's murder sparked outrage. But this time the issue is personal: The girls' father is an undocumented Mexican immigrant. 'Now that it's impacting our family significantly, it's a bit harder for her,' Paige said of her younger daughter. 'She's fighting for her family.' Paige is separated from the girls' father, and he lives elsewhere. It's been difficult for the kids to spend nights apart from him, she said. To allay their worries, he's stayed over a couple of nights. And attending the protest provided additional comfort, because it showed the children that they were part of a supportive community. In times of crisis, giving kids the chance to express themselves by participating in the moment helps them process their feelings, Brymer said. "People are out protesting because they love their culture, and they're trying to advocate for their rights and for rights of" others, she said. But participating doesn't necessarily have to mean protesting, which may not feel appropriate for some, Aguirre said. Instead, children can help in other ways, such as helping to deliver groceries for a vulnerable neighbor, she said. It's important, Brymer said, to acknowledge that children "really want to be those agents of change." Sequeira reports for The Times' early childhood education initiative, focusing on the learning and development of California children from birth to age 5. For more information about the initiative and its philanthropic funders, go to Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
