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WATCH: Mike Johnston is sworn in as Denver mayor

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:50:59 GMT

Mike Johnston will take the oath of office to become Denver’s 46th mayor this morning at the Ellie Caulkins Opera House.The former school principal and state senator emerged from a crowded field of mayoral challengers in the city’ spring election on the wings of a substantial fundraising advantage and bold promises like ending street homelessness in Denver in his first four-year term. He takes the reins from outgoing Mayor Michael Hancock at a time when downtown Denver is still reeling from the COVID-19 pandemic and the rise of work-from-home arrangements that have undercut the commercial real estate market. A recent rise in crime and growing homelessness have many Denver residents feeling uncertain about the future. At the same time, sky-high home prices and rising rents threaten a cost-of-living crisis for working-class people. Johnston, 48, laid out detailed plans to address all of those issues and more when he was a mayoral hopeful. Now Denverites will be looking at ...

Immersive, supernatural “Zotto” is back for a limited run at Sakura Square

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:50:59 GMT

Something both wounded and healing is unfolding at Sakura Square in downtown Denver. After a successful run last fall, the Japanese Arts Network’s immersive experience, “Zotto: A Supernatural Folktale,” has returned for a limited encore (it closes July 30).Living up to its title, the richly textured show — written by the Network’s founder, Courtney Ozaki — enlists the supernatural beings of Japanese folklore to recount the story of three generations of Japanese American women. A cat, a fox and the trickster creature called a kappa prove indispensable to this evocative undertaking.Yuri — Minkyung Cecillia Kim — was a child at Colorado’s Amache internment camp. Credit: Martha Wirth PhotographyPrior to the show’s start, Ozaki explains a few guidelines as well as some emotional ones: Audience members are allowed to say “no” to the characters if their requests make them uncomfortable, Ozaki promises. She also tells the gathered that “Zotto” was created with the hope tha...

For the best tortillas (and gorditas and tetelas), you need fresh masa

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:50:59 GMT

By Rick A. Martínez, The New York TimesA freshly ground masa tortilla, as it cooks on a comal, inflates as the steam inside pushes apart the sides and releases an intoxicating toasted corn aroma. It actually tastes like nutty, earthy corn, with a soft, chewy texture and almost custardy center. And its role is not just to transport a taco filling and salsas from your plate to your mouth, but to complement and ground the bright, acidic and spicy flavors with something rich and soothing, familiar and homey.Chef Fermín Núñez of Suerte, in Austin, Texas, considers masa “the canvas of what Mexican cooking is all about.”“Without masa,” he said, “there’s no tortillas, and, without tortillas, there’s no tacos!”When it opened in 2018, Suerte was one of the few restaurants in the country making masa from heirloom varieties of corn and using it to make tortillas, tlacoyos, tlayudas, tamales and taquitos.“I wanted to create a restaurant that was obsessed with creating the best masa from corn tha...

'Creep Catchers' help nab suspected child predator in Orange County

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:50:59 GMT

An underground group that targets online child predators helped Fullerton Police arrest a man accused of trying to lure a 14-year-old boy into having sex, authorities said.The minor turned out to be a decoy.John Wheeler, 39, was arrested last Wednesday on two felony charges and was being held on $100,000 bail.Officers first made contact with Wheeler on July 9 when they were called to the 200 block of East Orangethorpe Avenue, Fullerton Police said in a news release.Members of the CC Unit confront John Wheeler, who is accused of soliciting a minor, in Fullerton, California. July 9, 2023 (CC Unit)Video obtained by KTLA shows members of the Creep Catchers Unit, or CC Unit, confronting Wheeler outside a Walmart where he was working.“Ghost,” the founder of the group who conceals his identity, shows Wheeler paper copies of an online conversation that included lewd photos and graphic descriptions of sexual activity that Wheeler allegedly intended to engage in with the minor.Wheeler claims ...

Soccer fans take over Pacoima intersection following Mexico's Gold Cup win

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:50:59 GMT

Soccer fans on foot and in cars took over an intersection in Pacoima to celebrate Mexico's Gold Cup win Sunday night.The street takeover took place around 9 p.m. at the intersection of Laurel Canyon and Van Nuys boulevards. Fans celebrate Mexico's Gold Cup win in Pacoima on July 16, 2023. (KeyNews.TV)Cars were doing doughnuts in the intersection as fans with Mexico flags cheered them on. People were also seen playing soccer in the street. The fans were celebrating Mexico's 1-0 win over Panama in the Gold Cup championship game at SoFi Stadium. Long Beach softball team needs help getting to nationals The street party was broken up when Los Angeles Police Department units showed up. It was unclear if any arrests were made.

The Horror Of Dolores Roach Brings Empanadas To The Streets of LA

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:50:59 GMT

Prime Video’s The Horror of Dolores Roach celebrated the series premiere on Thursday with an empanada delivery to the LA River Center La Mujeres de la Tierra, for local community and Latina economic empowerment organization members.Mujeres de la Tierra Administration and Human Resource Manager Wendy Sotelo, Founder President and CEO Irma Munoz, Treasurer Samantha Martinez and Volunteer Coordinator Briseida Pineda were on hand to welcome bags of both chicken and guava and cheese empanadas that were distributed to members of the Latina-founded and led environmental organization and local families.The Horror of Dolores Roach Empanada Delivery Service at LA River Center (Courtesy Prime Video)Based on the Spotify podcast series of the same name, The Horror of Dolores Roach, is a contemporary Sweeney Todd-inspired urban legend of love, betrayal, weed, cannibalism and survival of the fittest. Dolores Roach (Justina Machado) is released from prison after 16 years and returns to a gentrified...

SkyeChristy Love Swimming

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:50:59 GMT

Mac MillerSwimming (REMember Music/Warner Bros)SkyeChristy Love Swimming: L.A. sibling duo SkyeChristy told us about their love for a Mac Miller gem.(REMember Music/Warner Bros)SkyeChristy: Growing up as sisters the two of us have always shared a similar taste in music; especially because the younger sister is almost always influenced by the eldest sisters’ taste. We’ve always connected when it comes to music, but no album has connected us more than “Swimming” by Mac Miller. When we were right at the start of the pandemic, we began taking long drives through Laurel Canyon and Mullholland listening to all sorts of music. We’d think about the history of the hills, and how so much beautiful music had been born there.At the time we hadn’t even started making music. We were just pure unadulterated fans of music, and pff, “Swimming” was the holy grail of everything we considered honest and true. When referring to this album Mac Miller said, “I’m just talking about things that I’m proud of...

Meet Gutsy Graphite Artist Tim Biskup

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:50:59 GMT

Over the past 25 years, Tim Biskup’s far-ranging practice has included painting and mixed media work as well as drawing, sculpture, printmaking, animation, music, publications, and all manner of studio and social experiments giving form to his unique hybrid style of gestures, geometry, line, and color. There’s a new painting show on the horizon for Fall, but for the past several years, his attention has been devotedly split between running an indie space/shop/studio/neighborhood creative hub called Face Guts, and an obsessive relationship with graphite drawing. Though largely know for a prismatic palette and fragmented, planar figurative surrealism, in the graphite works Biskup pursues more sinuous, soothing shapes that converge figure and abstraction in cheeky, poetic pieces—a new suite of which opens at Face Guts this weekend.Tim BiskupL.A. WEEKLY: When did you first know you were an artist?TIM BISKUP: Drawing pictures of Kiss in fifth grade. Someone asked me if they could buy a d...

Pacific Northwest Travel: Seabrook recreates old-school beach town vibes with a modern touch

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:50:59 GMT

Seabrook is the quintessential coastal beach town — the one we all grew up going to, at least in our dreams. But this Washington coast gem, located three hours from both Seattle and Portland, only feels like a centuries old enclave. This village was built in 2004 and curated to evoke nostalgia — and woo guests to the region.Unlike its southern neighbor, Oregon, Washington State has not made much of its rugged Pacific coastline. Seeing a lack of oceanside getaways for state residents, Casey and Laura Roloff decided to build their own waterfront oasis using Seaside, Florida as a guide. (If you’ve seen “The Truman Show,” you’ve seen Seaside. The iconic 1998 Jim Carrey movie was filmed there.) The 2004 project was their second planned community in the Pacific Northwest; the first — Bella Beach — is on the Oregon coast.Seabrook was painstakingly built to exude the coastal charm of historic beach towns inAmerica, while keeping sustainability and u...

California’s Death Valley sizzles as it reaches near record high of 128 degrees

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:50:59 GMT

By JOHN LOCHER, ADAM BEAM and SETH BORENSTEIN | Associated PressDEATH VALLEY — Long the hottest place on Earth, Death Valley put a sizzling exclamation point Sunday on a record warm summer that is baking nearly the entire globe by flirting with some of the hottest temperatures ever recorded, meteorologists said.Temperatures in Death Valley, which runs along part of central California’s border with Nevada, reached 128 degrees Fahrenheit (53.33 degrees Celsius) on Sunday at the aptly named Furnace Creek, the National Weather Service said.The hottest temperature ever recorded on Earth was 134 F (56.67 C) in July 1913 at Furnace Creek, said Randy Ceverny of the World Meteorological Organization, the body recognized as keeper of world records. Temperatures at or above 130 F (54.44 C) have only been recorded on Earth a handful of times, mostly in Death Valley.“With global warming, such temperatures are becoming more and more likely to occur,” Ceverny, the World Meteorological Organization...