Simone Biles is the world’s most decorated gymnast, with 11 Olympic medals and 30 world championship medals.
She has received the Presidential Medal of Freedom and countless other accolades through the years.
Biles was honored once again this week, but for something that has nothing to do with gymnastics. The athlete considered by many to be her sport’s GOAT says she “couldn’t be more proud.”
Friends of the Children paid tribute to Biles as a “champion for children” at the organization’s 30th anniversary gala Thursday night at Hotel Casa del Mar in Santa Monica. A Friends of the Children national ambassador for five years, Biles was presented a custom gold and sapphire necklace with the organization’s logo in appreciation for her work in helping empower children facing foster care, poverty and other situations.
“To me, it’s an honor and privilege to work so closely with an organization that has the same passion and care for foster care and underprivileged kids,” Biles told The Times in a phone interview before the event. “The kids were super excited — I just saw them outside and that just made my heart melt.”
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Born to an alcohol- and drug-addicted mother, Biles and her siblings spent years in foster care. She and her younger sister, Adria, were adopted by their maternal grandfather, Robert Biles, and his wife, Nellie, when Biles was 6. Years later, when Biles was looking to help children with backgrounds similar to hers, her agent found Friends of the Children.
Simone Biles attends the Friends of the Children 30th anniversary gala with her mother, Nellie Biles.
(Jason Sean Weiss / BFA for Friends of the Children)
It’s a national nonprofit that provides adult mentors for young people, starting in kindergarten and remaining with them through high school graduation. According to the group’s website, 30% of the children in the program have experienced out-of-home placement and nearly the same percentage of the mentors have also been through foster care.
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“I’ve always been passionate about foster care because I know exactly what these kids have gone through and what they go through,” Biles said, adding that the children “just need someone who loves and believes in them. And that’s where it starts. And that’s what [the organization is] doing, providing hope for these kids.”
While Biles’ schedule does not allow her to serve as a mentor right now, she says her role is “to be a voice for the voiceless and just to advocate for these kids and for the organization, put their name out there and grow their chapters.”
Biles also spoke with The Times on a variety topics, including the Friday release of Part 2 of the Netflix documentary “Simone Biles Rising,” the Paris Olympics, her iconic GOAT necklace and whether she will be back in L.A. for the 2028 Olympics.
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Watch L.A. Times Today at 8 p.m. on Spectrum News 1 on Channel 1 or live stream on the Spectrum News App. Palos Verdes Peninsula and Orange County viewers can watch on Cox Systems on channel 99.
(The questions and answers have been edited for length and clarity)
You were also out here for the premiere of Part 2 of your documentary. Are you excited for its release?
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I’m really excited about it. So many people have come up to me and asked when Part 2 is coming out, so I know the anticipation is there and they’re excited. You know the results, but you don’t know what goes on behind the scenes of a professional athlete, so I’m excited for them to be able to see that part.
Is Part 2 about the Paris Olympics?
Yes, just so they could see it through my perspective and everything that we go through because there are so many outlets that stream the competition, but to have it from our eyes on the floor and a little bit of a close-up look because my coaches were mic’d I think is an incredible experience to share with everyone.
What was it like for you seeing that footage? Was it a different perspective for you as well?
One hundred percent. You know, whenever I’m up there and I’m competing, it’s a lot of stress and then relief and then excitement. But to see the footage played back from our personal lens was amazing and it brought back all the feels and I really got to relive that experience and enjoy it.
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Also during the Olympics, you kind of stepped into the political realm a little when you tweeted, “I love my black job.” Was it your intention to get a little political?
Well, I didn’t think it was going to explode the way that it did. I thought it was a joke and I thought it was funny, and I knew people would enjoy it. But obviously with the election coming up, that was not my intention. I was just having fun at the Olympics and everybody turns it into whatever they want to.
Do you have any thoughts on the presidential race?
Right now, I’ll keep that private. I mean, I’m sure my followers know what my beliefs are, and so we’ll keep it at that.
What is it like to be considered the GOAT? It seems like you’ve kind of embraced it, with the necklace, the name of your tour (Gold Over America Tour), etc.
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I think it’s just funny to play around with it because the people that say it, love it. And the people that don’t think I’m the GOAT hate it even more. So it’s just funny for me. I don’t care if you don’t think I’m the greatest of all time. I feel like I’ve been pretty humble my whole entire career, so I still think there are amazing gymnasts who have paved the way for us to be able to do what we do…. And I think we’ve paved the way for the younger generations. So I think it’s really exciting and it’s by no means me walking around with my head high. I just don’t care. I think it’s funny and people like the necklace, so it’s like, whatever.
It’s a great necklace. We did a whole story just on the necklace.
Yeah. Everyone loved that. It was amazing. I didn’t think that would blow up the way it did either, but it was fun to do.
You ought to know by now that pretty much everything you do is gonna blow up.
(Laughs) Yeah, I noticed that. I’m aware. I just ignore it.
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Is your tour wrapping up soon?
Yes, Nov. 3 in Detroit. We have six more stops. We’re almost there. We’re excited. We’re sad, but everyone really enjoyed it.
Longtime Friends of the Children supporters Christine and Gary Rood present Simone Biles, center, with a custom necklace Thursday in Santa Monica.
(Jason Sean Weiss / BFA for Friends of the Children)
Do you have any plans for after the tour ends?
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I’m gonna take a break. I’m gonna go support my husband [Chicago Bears safety Jonathan Owens]. Their season just kind of kicked off a couple weeks ago, so just to be there in person in support is going to be, for me, amazing.
Sorry, but I have to ask — are you going to be back in L.A. in 2028?
You never know what can happen in four years. Gotta wait and see.
by Sean P. Aune | January 10, 2026January 10, 2026 10:30 am EST
Welcome to an exciting year-long project here at The Nerdy. 1986 was an exciting year for films giving us a lot of films that would go on to be beloved favorites and cult classics. It was also the start to a major shift in cultural and societal norms, and some of those still reverberate to this day.
We’re going to pick and choose which movies we hit, but right now the list stands at nearly four dozen.
Yes, we’re insane, but 1986 was that great of a year for film.
The articles will come out – in most cases – on the same day the films hit theaters in 1986 so that it is their true 40th anniversary. All films are also watched again for the purposes of these reviews and are not being done from memory. In some cases, it truly will be the first time we’ve seen them.
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This time around, it’s Jan. 10, 1986, and we’re off to see Black Moon Rising.
Black Moon Rising
What was the obsession in the 1980s with super vehicles?
Sam Quint (Tommy Lee Jones) is hired to steal a computer tape with evidence against a company on it. While being pursued, he tucks it in the parachute of a prototype vehicle called the Black Moon. While trying to retrieve it, the car is stolen by Nina (Linda Hamilton), a car thief working for a car theft ring. Both of them want out of their lives, and it looks like the Black Moon could be their ticket out.
Blue Thunder in the movies, Airwolf and Knight Rider on TV, the 1980s loved an impractical ‘super’ vehicle. In this case, the car plays a very minor role up until the final action set piece, and the story is far more about the characters and their motivations.
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The movie is silly as you would expect it to be, but it is never a bad watch. It’s just not anything particularly memorable.
1986 Movie Reviews will continue on Jan. 17, 2026, with The Adventures of the American Rabbit, The Adventures of Mark Twain, The Clan of the Cave Bear, Iron Eagle, The Longshot, and Troll.
California helped make them the rich. Now a small proposed tax is spooking them out of the state.
California helped make them among the richest people in the world. Now they’re fleeing because California wants a little something back.
The proposed California Billionaire Tax Act has plutocrats saying they are considering deserting the Golden State for fear they’ll have to pay a one-time, 5% tax, on top of the other taxes they barely pay in comparison to the rest of us. Think of it as the Dust Bowl migration in reverse, with The Monied headed East to grow their fortunes.
The measure would apply to billionaires residing in California as of Jan. 1, 2026, meaning that 2025 was a big moving year month among the 200 wealthiest California households subject to the tax.
The recently departed reportedly include In-n-Out Burger owner and heiress Lynsi Snyder, PayPal co-founder and conservative donor Peter Thiel, Venture Capitalist David Sacks, co-founder of Craft Ventures, and Google co-founder Larry Page, who recently purchased $173 million worth of waterfront property in Miami’s Coconut Grove. Thank goodness he landed on his feet in these tough times.
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The principal sponsor behind the Billionaire Tax Act is the Service Employees International Union-United Healthcare Workers West (SEIU-UHW), which contends that the tax could raise a $100 billion to offset severe federal cutbacks to California’s public education, food assistance and Medicaid programs.
The initiative is designed to offset some of the tax breaks that billionaires received from the One Big Beautiful Bill Act recently passed by the Republican-dominated Congress and signed by President Trump.
According to my colleague Michael Hiltzik, the bill “will funnel as much as $1 trillion in tax benefits to the wealthy over the next decade, while blowing a hole in state and local budgets for healthcare and other needs.”
The drafters of the Billionaire Tax Act still have to gather around 875,000 signatures from registered voters by June 24 for the measure to qualify on November’s ballot. But given the public ire toward the growing wealth of the 1%, and the affordability crisis engulfing much of the rest of the nation, it has a fair chance of making it onto the ballot.
If the tax should be voted into law, what would it mean for those poor tycoons who failed to pack up the Lamborghinis in time? For Thiel, whose net worth is around $27.5 billion, it would be around $1.2 billion, should he choose to stay, and he’d have up to five years to pay it.
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Yes, it’s a lot … if you’re not a billionaire. It’s doubtful any of the potentially affected affluents would feel the pinch, but it could make a world of difference for kids depending on free school lunches, or folks who need medical care but can’t afford it because they’ve been squeezed by a system that places much of the tax burden on them.
According to the California Budget & Policy Center, the bottom fifth of California’s non-elderly families, with an average annual income of $13,900, spend an estimated 10.5% of their incomes on state and local taxes. In comparison, the wealthiest 1% of families, with an average annual income of $2.0 million, spend an estimated 8.7% of their incomes on state and local taxes.
“It’s a matter of values,” Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Fremont) posted on X. “We believe billionaires can pay a modest wealth tax so working-class Californians have Medicaid.”
Many have argued losing all that wealth to other states will hurt California in the long run.
Even Gov. Gavin Newsom has argued against the measure, citing that the wealthy can relocate anywhere else to evade the tax. During the New York Times DealBook Summit last month, Newsom said, “You can’t isolate yourself from the 49 others. We’re in a competitive environment.”
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He has a point, as do others who contend that the proposed tax may hurt California rather then help.
Sacks signaled he was leaving California by posting an image of the Texas flag on Dec. 31 on X and writing: “God bless Texas.” He followed with a post that read, “As a response to socialism, Miami will replace NYC as the finance capital and Austin will replace SF as the tech capital.”
Arguments aside, it’s disturbing to think that some of the richest people in the nation would rather pick up and move than put a small fraction of their vast California-made — or in the case of the burger chain, inherited — fortunes toward helping others who need a financial boost.
A still from ‘Song Sung Blue’.
| Photo Credit: Focus Features/YouTube
There is something unputdownable about Mike Sardina (Hugh Jackman) from the first moment one sees him at an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting celebrating his 20th sober birthday. He encourages the group to sing the famous Neil Diamond number, ‘Song Sung Blue,’ with him, and we are carried along on a wave of his enthusiasm.
Song Sung Blue (English)
Director: Craig Brewer
Cast: Hugh Jackman, Kate Hudson, Michael Imperioli, Ella Anderson, Mustafa Shakir, Fisher Stevens, Jim Belushi
Runtime: 132 minutes
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Storyline: Mike and Claire find and rescue each other from the slings and arrows of mediocrity when they form a Neil Diamond tribute band
We learn that Mike is a music impersonator who refuses to come on stage as anyone but himself, Lightning, at the Wisconsin State Fair. At the fair, he meets Claire (Kate Hudson), who is performing as Patsy Cline. Sparks fly between the two, and Claire suggests Mike perform a Neil Diamond tribute.
Claire and Mike start a relationship and a Neil Diamond tribute band, called Lightning and Thunder. They marry and after some initial hesitation, Claire’s children from her first marriage, Rachel (Ella Anderson) and Dayna (Hudson Hensley), and Mike’s daughter from an earlier marriage, Angelina (King Princess), become friends.
Members from Mike’s old band join the group, including Mark Shurilla (Michael Imperioli), a Buddy Holly impersonator and Sex Machine (Mustafa Shakir), who sings as James Brown. His dentist/manager, Dave Watson (Fisher Stevens), believes in him, even fixing his tooth with a little lightning bolt!
The tribute band meets with success, including opening for Pearl Jam, with the front man for the grunge band, Eddie Vedder (John Beckwith), joining Lightning and Thunder for a rendition of ‘Forever in Blue Jeans’ at the 1995 Pearl Jam concert in Milwaukee.
There is heartbreak, anger, addiction, and the rise again before the final tragedy. Song Sung Blue, based on Greg Kohs’ eponymous documentary, is a gentle look into a musician’s life. When Mike says, “I’m not a songwriter. I’m not a sex symbol. But I am an entertainer,” he shows that dreams do not have to die. Mike and Claire reveal that even if you do not conquer the world like a rock god, you can achieve success doing what makes you happy.
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ALSO READ: ‘Run Away’ series review: Perfect pulp to kick off the New Year
Song Sung Blue is a validation for all the regular folk with modest dreams, but dreams nevertheless. As the poet said, “there’s no success like failure, and failure’s no success at all.” Hudson and Jackman power through the songs and tears like champs, leaving us laughing, tapping our feet, and wiping away the errant tears all at once.
The period detail is spot on (never mind the distracting wigs). The chance to hear a generous catalogue of Diamond’s music in arena-quality sound is not to be missed, in a movie that offers a satisfying catharsis. Music is most definitely the food of love, so may we all please have a second and third helping?
