California
How a Times column about loquats became required high school reading
This month saw your humble columnist notch two huge literary achievements, the kind ink-stained wretches dream about.
I was a Pulitzer Prize finalist in the commentary category for my coverage last year about the political evolution of Latinos, making me just the third-ever Latino to achieve that distinction.
Maybe even more impressive, however, was that portions of a column I wrote a few years ago became mandatory reading for hundreds of thousands of high schoolers across the country.
The occasion was the AP English Language and Composition exam, that annual ritual for smarty-pants high schoolers that allows those who get a great score to earn college credit. The exact column, you may ask? Not the subject of my Pulitzer finalist nod, or my arcane stuff, or my street-level coverage of Southern California life. Or even my rants against In-N-Out, which is overrated.
Nope, the subject was… loquats. The small, tart fruit currently ripening on trees all across Southern California, which forever puzzle newcomers and delight longtimers and squirrels.
In 2021, I wrote a columna arguing that loquats, not citrus or avocados, are our “fruit MVPs” because they’re so ubiquitous and beloved by many of SoCal’s immigrant groups, including Latinos, Asians, Armenians and more. The piece also ridiculed an East Coast reporter who alleged that no one eats loquats in Southern California.
I’m very proud of it, but if I were to use one of my columnas to test college-bound high school seniors on their mastery of analysis and rhetoric, I wouldn’t have used that one. Someone tell that to CollegeBoard, the nonprofit that administers the Advanced Placement exams along with the SATs.
I found out about my columna‘s inclusion last week after the second round of AP English tests concluded. Friends of mine texted me that their children who took it were bragging to friends about how they knew the “loquat guy.” Students across the country took to TikTok to shout me out.
Some called it their favorite reading prompt. Others ridiculed my columna’s description of a loquat tree heavy with fruit as “glow[ing] like a traffic cone” or my stance that people who say no one eats loquats is an affront to Southern California’s “culinary soul.” Still others wondered what loquats were in the first place, how did they taste and where could they buy some.
In response, I created a TikTok account and filmed a short video of me silently staring at the camera while eating a loquat from my 4-year-old tree, which gave fruit for the first time this spring. “Hello I’m Gustavo Arellano the Loquat King,” a caption read. “What loquat questions can I answer?”
180,000 views later, I’m a TikTok loquat star.
But what exactly the AP test asked students about my piece remains a mystery.
A friend’s kid told me test takers were required to read a passage from my piece in the multiple-choice section and then answer questions about “word choice, claims, examples used, figurative language” and the like.
(I’m granting anonymity to the kid because CollegeBoard’s exam policy states that anyone who shares any content from exams that haven’t been publicly released will have their test scores “canceled, no retest will be permitted, and you may be banned from future testing.” Gosh, can’t you just give them detention?)
A CollegeBoard spokesperson declined to share the test questions about loquats with me because students are still taking it. They also asked I “not disclose any information about them” because CollegeBoard sometimes uses the same questions in future tests “and when information about them is shared, we have to discontinue their use.”
Too late!
I’m flattered, CollegeBoard. I’m not even angry that you didn’t bother to at least give me a head’s up. But I guess it’s par for the course: Although I did take AP English at Anaheim High with Ms. Sinatra, I skipped out on the test because I figured it was for dorks and goody two-shoes and I didn’t think I was either.
Oh, how wrong I was. I’ll stuff my sorrows by eating a bunch of loquats this weekend, because no one else eats them.
The week’s biggest stories
Rob Purdie, right, who has valley fever, checks in with his doctor at the same clinic where he serves as the program development coordinator at the Valley Fever Institute at Kern Medical on March 22, 2022, in Bakersfield. Infectious disease Dr. Arash Heidari looks over MRI images of Rob’s spine, which was attacked by valley fever.
(Jason Armond/Los Angeles Times)
Valley fever cases are expected to spike in California
- For the second year in a row, California is on track to have a record-breaking number of valley fever cases, which public health officials say are driven by longer, drier summers.
- Valley fever is a lung infection that people get when they breathe in spores of the fungus that lives in dry soil, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
- While valley fever shares many of the same symptoms as other respiratory diseases, including COVID-19, it takes about one to three weeks for valley fever symptoms to develop, and the illness can last a month or more.
A new COVID subvariant spreads rapidly as Trump pivots away from vaccines
Santa Monica residents go to war against Waymo
- There’s a battle brewing in Santa Monica with a fleet of unmanned, electric Waymo vehicles on one side, and exhausted, weary locals on the other.
- Using cones, cars and sometimes themselves, residents have taken to blocking the Waymos from entering their company-funded parking lot, so much so that the company has called the cops on them a half dozen times.
Trump administration threat to revoke Chinese student visas roils California
- Scholars and international students fear such an action could jeopardize the academic future of tens of thousands of Chinese students enrolled at colleges across the country, and threaten billions of dollars in tuition payments desperately needed by universities already facing the loss of research funding and other cuts effectuated by Trump’s education policies.
- The potential financial fallout is of acute concern in California, where Chinese students constitute the largest international group. About 51,000 Chinese nationals in California make up more than a third of the state’s nearly 141,000 foreign students.
More big stories
This week’s must reads
More great reads
For your weekend
Rite Aid’s Glassell Park location — including its Thrifty ice cream counter — closed in 2023, as part of the company’s debt restructuring after filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. The company recently announced more store closures.
(Stephanie Breijo / Los Angeles Times)
Going out
Staying in
Have a great day, from the Essential California team
Gustavo Arellano, metro columnist
Kevinisha Walker, multiplatform editor
Andrew Campa, Sunday writer
Karim Doumar, head of newsletters
How can we make this newsletter more useful? Send comments to essentialcalifornia@latimes.com. Check our top stories, topics and the latest articles on latimes.com.
A massive fog bank that has been blanketing much of California’s Central Valley with low-lying clouds since Thanksgiving time has prompted fears online of a mysterious and harmful “radiation fog,” but scientists say this is a misunderstanding of basic scientific terms and common weather patterns in the region.
“There’s something in the fog that I can’t explain,” a California man said in a recent video as he wiped soot from his truck bumper, in a post by Wall Street Apes, a popular X account.
There is indeed a “radiation fog” over the region, but that term refers to the general radiation of energy, not nuclear radiation. During radiation fog events, or “tule fog” as it’s known in California, named for a native marsh plant, fog forms when the moist ground cools rapidly at night, causing water vapor in the air to condense into thick fog.
A rainy autumn and winter in California, as well as a late November high-pressure system over the state, has further exacerbated this effect, helping create a fog bank that often stretched 400 miles up the center of the state.
Residents described the fog, which may actually be getting less common in the region compared to historical trends, as cold and eerie.
“It’s like going into a dream stage where you can’t see anything around you,” David Mas Masumoto, a peach farmer in the San Joaquin Valley, told The New York Times. “You feel like you’re in this twilight zone.”
Masumoto added that he can’t remember another time with such thick fog in the last 50 years.
As for the particles that some residents were seeing in the fog, there’s a standard explanation for those too.
“Fog is highly susceptible to pollutants,” Peter Weiss-Penzias, a fog researcher at UC Santa Cruz, told The Los Angeles Times.
The Central Valley, home to the state’s key north-south highway and miles of agricultural land, is known for its poor air quality.
“It could be a whole alphabet soup of different things,” Weiss-Penzias added.
The fog, which continued through late this week, is expected to thin out as heavy rains disrupt weather patterns in the state.
One lucky Southern Californian has won over $2.3 million after numbers were drawn for the Powerball jackpot on Saturday night.
Although no winner hit all six numbers for the $1.5 billion jackpot, one ticket matched five numbers and will take home $2,323,527.
The winning numbers were 4, 5, 28, 52, 69 and a Powerball of 20. The Power Play multiplier was 3x.
The SoCal ticket that hit five numbers was sold at Wright’s Market at 2691 Ventura Blvd. in Oxnard.
The Powerball jackpot will rise to an estimated $1.6 billion for the next drawing on Monday, Dec. 22 – the game’s fourth-largest prize ever and the fifth-largest among all U.S. lottery jackpots.
If a player wins Monday’s jackpot, they will have the choice between an annuitized prize estimated at $1.60 billion or a lump sum payment estimated at $735.3 million. Both prize options are before taxes.
If the winner selects the annuity option, they will receive one immediate payment followed by 29 annual payments that increase by 5 percent each year.
The new prize marks only the second time in Powerball history that the game has produced back-to-back jackpots exceeding $1 billion. The only other time was in 2023, when a $1.08 billion jackpot was won on July 19, followed by a $1.765 billion jackpot on Oct. 11. Both jackpots were won in California.
The odds of winning the jackpot are 1 in 292.2 million and the overall odds of winning any prize are 1 in 24.9.
Top 10 largest U.S. lottery jackpots across Powerball and Mega Millions:
- $2.04 Billion – Powerball – Nov. 7, 2022 – CA
- $1.787 Billion – Powerball – Sept. 6, 2025 – MO, TX
- $1.765 Billion – Powerball – Oct. 11, 2023 – CA
- $1.602 Billion – Mega Millions – Aug. 8, 2023 – FL
- $1.60 Billion est. – Powerball – Dec. 22, 2025
- $1.586 Billion – Powerball – Jan. 13, 2016 – CA, FL, TN
- $1.537 Billion – Mega Millions – Oct. 23, 2018 – SC
- $1.348 Billion – Mega Millions – Jan. 13, 2023 – ME
- $1.337 Billion – Mega Millions – July 29, 2022 – IL
- $1.326 Billion – Powerball – April 6, 2024 – OR
Lottery officials noted that so far, the 45 consecutive Powerball drawings without a jackpot winner have raised over $100 million for public schools in California.
“Every California Lottery game sold contributes to the Lottery’s mission of raising extra money for California’s public schools,” lottery officials said. “These funds support a variety of programs across the state.”
Powerball tickets are $2 per play and drawings take place every Monday, Wednesday and Saturday night at 7:59 p.m.
California
Southern California’s Christmas weather forecast keeps getting worse. What you need to know
The Pineapple Express storm bearing down on Southern California could bring heavy rain and strong winds throughout Christmas week, potentially triggering mudslides, downing trees and flooding not only freeways but also homes and businesses.
If the forecasts are right, this could be one of the stormiest Christmases in recent memory for Southern California. There’s an 80% chance downtown Los Angeles will get 2 or more inches of rain from Tuesday through Christmas Day. The last time downtown got 2 or more inches of rain over Christmas Eve and Christmas Day was in 1971.
Here’s what you need to know.
Timing
The peak of the system is expected Tuesday through Thursday, according to the National Weather Service.
There’s an 80% to 100% chance of rain in Los Angeles, Ventura, Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties starting Tuesday night and lasting into Wednesday and Thursday.
Precipitation timing for Los Angeles, Ventura, Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties.
(National Weather Service)
In Orange County, the Inland Empire and San Diego County, light showers are possible Tuesday, but the heaviest rainfall is expected Wednesday, with officials warning of heavy rainfall, increased flooding risks and possible mudslides. Flood and mudslide risks will continue Thursday.
Expected effects of the storm for Orange County, the Inland Empire and San Diego County.
(National Weather Service)
Worst-case scenario
Forecasters are warning that there’s a 40% chance of “very high” amounts of rain for Los Angeles, Ventura and southern Santa Barbara counties, and a 30% chance of the same for northern Santa Barbara County and San Luis Obispo County.
That scenario would see 4 or more inches of rain fall on the coast and in the valleys, with 8 or more inches in the mountains and foothills, Tuesday through Thursday. Peak rainfall rates would be half an inch to 1 inch per hour.
According to the National Weather Service, that could cause:
• Significant mudslides
• Flooded freeways
• Streams and rivers flooding over their banks
• Localized flooding that could rise above curbs and into homes and businesses
• Moderate coastal flooding in south-facing areas
• Downed trees and power lines
• Dangerous sea conditions
• Swiftwater rescues
Rainfall probabilities for Los Angeles, Ventura and southern Santa Barbara counties.
(National Weather Service)
Between Tuesday and Thursday, numerous areas have a high chance of seeing 3 or more inches of rain. There’s a 77% chance of that occurring in Anaheim and Yorba Linda, a 74% chance in Santa Ana, a 73% chance in Ontario, a 71% chance in Mission Viejo, a 69% chance in Irvine, a 68% chance in Chino, a 65% chance in Laguna Niguel and a 60% chance in San Clemente.
Rainfall probabilities for northern Santa Barbara County and San Luis Obispo County.
(National Weather Service)
‘High amounts’ of rain scenario
There’s also a 40% chance of “high amounts” of rain in L.A., Ventura and southern Santa Barbara counties, and a 50% chance of the same in northern Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties. That scenario would entail 2 to 4 inches of rain falling along the coast and in the valleys, with 4 to 8 inches in the mountains and foothills.
Rain to that extent would risk flooding freeway lanes; causing minor coastal flooding, mudslides and debris flows; and potentially force swiftwater rescues in fast-moving rivers and streams.
Wind
There’s a potential for gusty winds from the south, said Robbie Munroe, meteorologist with the National Weather Service’s Oxnard office, which issues forecasts for L.A., Ventura, Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties.
That risks toppling trees and power lines. On Tuesday night, Los Angeles could see peak gusts of 31 mph; Woodland Hills, 38 mph; Paso Robles, 52 mph; and San Luis Obispo, 53 mph.
“Avoid parking under trees,” the weather service said. “Secure loose outdoor objects.”
There’s a 65% chance of gusts exceeding 35 mph in Huntington Beach, a 60% chance in San Diego, a 45% chance in Big Bear Lake and Ramona, a 40% chance in Escondido and a 35% chance in Riverside, according to the weather service office in San Diego.
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