Mitski Performs at Surprise LA Venue

Here are the morning’s top stories on Friday, April 3, 2026

• This week indie musician Mitski is playing a series of sold out shows at an unexpected L.A. venue: Hollywood High School’s auditorium. The school’s connection to the arts goes back decades.
• A federal judge in California says Border Patrol violated a federal court order barring them from making illegal stops and arrests.
• The Nuclear Regulatory Commission just gave California’s only operating nuclear power plant approval to run for an extra 20 years.

Why indie sensation Mitski is hosting sold-out shows at an LAUSD high school

This week, indie musician Mitski is playing a series of sold out shows at an unexpected L.A. venue: Hollywood High School’s auditorium. For the students, it’s an opportunity to see a beloved artist at “our freaking school.” For the school, it’s a continuation of a “world famous” arts legacy. “It makes me look at the school with so much pride,” said Lotus Rosby, a junior. “I’m like, ‘Wow, they have a huge artist coming to our school.’”

Hollywood High School is one of two U.S. stops for Mitski’s tour to support her new album, Nothing’s About to Happen to Me. “I wanted it to feel special,” Mitski told the show World Cafe earlier this year. “  I wanted it to feel like an experience, I wanted to recreate even the feeling that I had going to shows, going to DIY shows, punk shows.” The artist is also donating $2 of each ticket sale to nonprofit L.A. afterschool music program In The Band.

Mitski isn’t the first musician to play the auditorium. Former Smiths frontman Morrissey played at the school in 2013 and Hollywood High School’s connection to the arts goes back decades. Principal Samuel Dovlatian calls the school “world famous” because of the long roster of alumni working in arts and entertainment.

The arts are also a core part of the school’s present. Dovlatian said even if students don’t go into the entertainment industry, they’ll take away valuable skills about working in teams and communicating. “You have to go beyond the textbook,” Dovlatian said. “Get [students] hands-on learning, get them to struggle with the problem, the concept, the dance routine, the material, the equipment, and let them figure out for themselves what success means.”

Federal judge: Continued Border Patrol sweeps in California violated court order

A federal judge ruled that Border Patrol agents continued making illegal stops and arrests in California after she ordered them to quit.

In a tersely worded decision unsealed Thursday morning, the judge wrote that agents had “again detained people without reasonable suspicion,” relying on broad assumptions about day laborers instead of specific evidence of immigration violations.

The ruling by Judge Jennifer Thurston of the Eastern District of California grants a United Farm Workers motion to enforce a preliminary injunction the judge issued last year. That motion barred Border Patrol agents from detaining people in California’s Central Valley without documenting the specific facts and reasoning for the stops. According to one legal expert, the ruling gives the Trump administration an opportunity to comply before consequences could escalate.

Thurston highlighted that point during a hearing last year, telling the federal government: “You just can’t walk up to people with Brown skin and say, ‘Give me your papers.” Thurston’s original order also prohibited agents from carrying out warrantless arrests without first assessing whether a person is a flight risk.

At the center of the case is a July operation in Sacramento where agents swarmed the parking lot of a Home Depot, detaining a group of day laborers. They arrested 11 noncitizens and one U.S. citizen, according to court records. After the Sacramento raid, Gregory Bovino, then a Border Patrol sector chief,  stood in front of the state Capitol building in Sacramento and told Fox News that “Sacramento is not a sanctuary city. The state of California is not a sanctuary state. There is no sanctuary anywhere.”

Thurston, who is based in Fresno, said the Sacramento sweep violated her order from last year, which stemmed from similar raids in Kern County. “Agents detained these people, demanded to see their ‘papers’ and questioned them about their immigration status all without any legal basis for doing so,” Thurston wrote.

Diablo Canyon gets new, 20-year federal license

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission, a federal agency, approved a 20-year license renewal for California’s only operating nuclear power plant.

The Diablo Canyon Power Plant, located near Avila Beach, produces almost 10% of California’s electricity. It’s in Congressman Salud Carbajal’s district, and he says that trying to meet California’s carbon-free energy goals without the plant operating could lead to blackouts. “We could be in a challenging predicament, not having the energy reliance that we need here in the state of California,” Carbajal told KCBX.

The state has fought for years over how long Diablo Canyon should operate. It was set to decommission last year, but in 2022, state lawmakers rushed to pass a bill extending the plant’s operation until 2030.

Anti-nuclear activists have argued that multiple nearby fault lines make it too risky to run. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has said the plant is safe from possible earthquakes.