By Lila Seidman, Los Angeles Times

Nathaniel Whitfield’s friend from the climbing gym in Los Angeles recommended checking out the “Merry Go Round” the next time he was in the quaint mountain community of Lone Pine, California.

So the 33-year-old found himself eating pan-fried noodles 200 miles north of the megalopolis in a restaurant shaped like a carousel. Inside, dainty horse figurines painted in pastels peek out from nooks and crannies. Buddhas, too. Though a vintage neon sign out front advertises steaks, barbecue and lamb chops, the fare is Chinese.

From the patio, diners can gaze at the jagged crown of Mt. Whitney, the tallest mountain in the contiguous U.S. at 14,505 feet. And just down the road roll the epic, rounded Alabama Hills, famed in part for their rocks twisted into natural arches. Once a backdrop for countless western films, the rugged Eastern Sierra landscape is now more likely to draw rock climbers and hikers than real or silver-screen cowboys.

Whitfield, like many adventurers who seek to replenish calories in the ‘50s-era joint, looked weary. He had hiked for 3.5 hours to Lone Pine Lake with Alex Cardoza, a friend he was dining with.

The food was good, “but also it was nice just chatting to folks,” said Whitfield, a UCLA lecturer. “It’s a good vibe. I find in Lone Pine I just meet people that I don’t meet in Los Angeles.”

Earlier in the meal, Dan Siegel, one of the restaurant owners, sat with Whitfield and Cardoza, regaling them with some of the establishment’s history. Siegel’s service dog, a chill American Bully named Blue, splayed out next to 37-year-old Cardoza along the red booth’s cushioned bench. Blue is as much of a fixture as the mountains in the distance.

Before Siegel and his wife, Kuei Chu, bought the oddball restaurant in 2010, it was the steakhouse that the sign outside advertises. A fancy one at that. Siegel relayed a story about an old-timer saying the original owner — a proprietor named Margie — wouldn’t seat him until he donned a coat and tie.

Once upon a time, western icon John Wayne would swing by and always sit in the same booth tucked in the back, according to the proprietors. Wayne would swagger into town to shoot flicks like “Blue Steel,” a 1934 western starring The Duke as a U.S. marshal who pursues a baddie named the Polka Dot Bandit.

Some of the restaurant’s origin story appears to be obscured by time. None of the current owners could recall Margie’s last name. But all were certain of her love for carousels, and say that’s why the building took its unusual form.

“Margie had a collection of merry-go-round horses,” Siegel said. “She built a restaurant around her horses.”

The funky, carousel shape of the building is reminiscent of mimetic, or programmatic, architecture that began cropping up in Los Angeles in the early 20th century. Some relics remain. The Idle Hour bar in North Hollywood, constructed in 1941, resembles a large whiskey barrel.

Times have changed. The pandemic fueled a boom in people seeking social-distanced diversion in the Great Outdoors. Places like Lone Pine, the gateway to bucket-list destination Mt. Whitney, saw a surge in visitors that locals say hasn’t receded. Roughly 30,000 people attempt to summit the peak each year, according to a recent estimate.

Chu, a native of Taiwan, is the force behind the food. She said she’s been cooking since she was 17, studying it in her homeland. At 75, she’s been at it for more than half-a-century and still frequently works the sole wok at the Merry Go Round.

On a recent Saturday night in the shoebox-size kitchen, she spent hours deftly tossing ingredients into the steaming pan for hungry hikers, off-road jeepers, rock climbers and national parkgoers — alongside locals and longtime customers who are drawn to the hospitable owners just as much as they are to the flavorful dishes.

Chu changed some recipes to suit Americans’ taste, noting, “Chinese people don’t eat as sweet.”

Still, even American-style Chinese food is somewhat of a rarity along Highway 395, the artery that connects the communities along the east side of the jagged Sierra Nevada mountains. Burgers and barbecue are still king. Merry Go Round further stands out by offering vegetarian, vegan and gluten-free options.

Recent Merry Go Round diner Lensa Tresnak said she was surprised to see a menu item called Zhen fish — swai fillets resting on a bed of bok choy and snow peas, topped with fresh-cut ginger and green onions. Born in South America to Chinese parents, she said it was a dish her dad made.

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Michael Quan, Chu’s son, said the restaurant’s sauces, all handmade, are what makes it shine. Anise, coriander and other flavorings lent a subtle complexity to the “special soy sauce” set out on the tables. The orange sauce — almost candy-sweet with a citrus tang — is cooked with real orange peels and dried Szechuan peppers. Chicken smothered in it is heaven for those raised on the comfort-food staple — or those who just crushed several vertical miles.

Quan, 32, cooks, too. His mother said she taught him; he says he mostly picked it up himself.

A welder by trade, he said he returned to working at the restaurant full time after his mom was diagnosed with breast cancer. He wanted to lend a hand as she underwent treatment.

“She’s good now, thank God,” he said. “She’s back to her scrappy self.”

Siegel, 81, met Chu as a customer at her previous restaurant in Ridgecrest, a high desert city a little over an hour south of Lone Pine.

“She came out to schmooze with the customers, and I went, “This is the one,’” said Siegel, who hails from what he billed “the Jewish Alps” — the Catskill Mountains in New York. “Unfortunately, we were both married to other people at the time, so I had to wait a while.”

They were recently closing in on their 16-year anniversary.

Chu came out of retirement to run the Merry Go Round, which she acquired from a friend. Bored, she had already begun cooking Chinese food there on Tuesdays to serve the locals.

Siegel wasn’t thrilled by the prospect of a new venture. He was ready to retire.

Now Chu is ready to step back again. Siegel said the family is trying to sell the restaurant to buyers who Chu can teach her sauce recipes to.

It would mark the end of an era for customers — and servers — who have come to know and love the owners.

Jedidiah Womack, 40, began working at the restaurant about seven years ago, after returning to the town to be with his now-late father, a larger-than-life personality who scaled mountains and leaped from planes. Sometimes Womack performs magic tricks for kids at the restaurant. There’s some leeway to be himself in the noncorporate environment, he said.

“I felt sort of adopted into a larger family when I had no other,” Womack said with a characteristic lyrical flourish. “And that’s continued on.”

On a warm Saturday night in September, Myles Moser strolled in wearing flip-flops as the restaurant neared its official closing time. The staff often serves latecomers. A seasoned rock climber, he also works in construction and helps Siegel out with repairs from time to time.

“We’ve known Myles for a couple of years,” Quan joked.

“A couple years? My ass,” said Moser. “We’re family.”

So what will the family do if the Merry Go Round is passed into new hands?

Siegel whipped out a photo of a 30-foot RV on his phone.

“It’s time to go investigate the United States,” he said.

©2025 Los Angeles Times. Visit at latimes.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

By CATHY BUSSEWITZ

NEW YORK (AP) — “Being bald is sexy. It’s an attitude. It’s a luxury. It’s a lifestyle.”

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That’s how Brennan Nevada Johnson, who shaved her head voluntarily 14 years ago, opens the video podcast she launched last November to celebrate the advantages of choosing a bald look.

Sensuous, self-assured and glamorous are not the adjectives typically assigned to women with shorn hair. For centuries, many cultures have viewed long hair as a symbol of femininity, health and fertility. But more women are defying that traditional beauty standard and finding empowerment by baring their heads.

“Once you do it, it brings all this confidence into your life,” Johnson, 34, said. “Whenever you see someone who’s bald and not wearing a wig, just know that they have fully embraced themselves, and I think that’s something that’s really challenging to do.”

Her initial decision to go baldheaded was practical. Johnson played competitive volleyball in college and found the sweating she did on the court affected the expensive hair relaxing treatments she often had done. Once she started shaving off her hair, though, she was hooked. She was relieved to save money on salon trips.

Johnson now owns a New York public relations firm. “Bald and Buzzed with Brennan,” the video podcast she posts on YouTube, was an attempt to fill a void in social media content that affirmed bald people, especially women. She says she always thought baldness was sexy.

“It’s such a fashion statement, and it’s a really powerful look,” Johnson said.

Other women without hair, whether voluntarily or due to medical conditions, also have sought ways to support each other, attending conferences, joining “baldie” groups and swapping grooming and scalp care tips.

“There’s a whole community of us out there,” said Dash Lopez, a content creator who posts a weekly video series of her shaving routine called “Fresh Cut Friday.” “We need to talk about it because we do find comfort and empowerment and beauty in what some people think is weird.”

Redefining beauty

Lopez said members of her family praised the long curly hair she had growing up. Some of her friends played with different hair colors and styles, but Lopez said she didn’t have the same freedom. And she didn’t enjoy detangling her hair or spending long afternoons at the salon.

As soon as she turned 18 and could get a haircut without permission, she chopped her locks into a pixie cut. Then she shaved it all off during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“It makes me feel powerful in the sense that I’m able to detach from the things that people place so much emphasis on,” Lopez, 29, said. “I’m not sitting here planning, ‘Oh my gosh, when am I going to get my next color appointment done? That’s gonna cost me $300. Oh my gosh. I’ve got to get my hair done before I go to this event.’”

Lopez signed a contract with a modeling agency in 2020, a time when brands wanted to showcase diversity, she said. Back then, being bald worked for her professionally.

“There was an appreciation for quirks and if you had a gap in your tooth, if you had a bald head, if you had a face full of freckles, that’s what casting directors were looking for,” Lopez said.

She noticed the tide shifting last year, when her bookings for modeling jobs decreased. “Let’s be honest, the odds were stacked against me in the modeling world,” Lopez said. “I was 5′ 4″, 5′ 5″ on paper, no hair.”

A client suggested she wear wigs to land more work. Lopez did not want to do that or grow out her hair. Her modeling contract ended. Since then, she has shared glimpses of her life as a bald woman on Instagram and TikTok, where some of her videos have been watched millions of times.

“I feel powerful in the sense that I’m making my own choices,” Lopez said. “I’m doing it for my own self-empowerment, I am doing it from my own self-clarity, for a deeper understanding of what it is that I value, a deeper understanding of what beauty means to me.”

Creating community

Many women are confronted with how they define beauty when they lose hair due to health conditions such as alopecia or during chemotherapy treatment for cancer.

Felicia Flores, a flight attendant who lives in Atlanta, was diagnosed in 2001 with alopecia, an autoimmune disorder that causes hair to fall out. Six years later, all her hair was gone. Initially, she wore wigs.

Then she came across a group called The Baldie Movement on Facebook. “The ladies just really inspired me,” Flores, 47, said. “They really did help to encourage me and give me strength, … and they were just so confident.”

She eventually decided to stop wearing wigs and embrace being bald in 2015, after a romantic breakup. “I was tired of lying. I felt like I was hiding something. I felt like I wasn’t myself,” she said.

To help uplift and inspire other women, Flores founded an annual conference called Baldie Con. The fourth one drew drew more than 200 attendees to Atlanta last month for a fashion show, guest speakers, a jazz brunch and a black tie gala, she said.

Managing reactions

Aicha Soumaoro, who works in Philadelphia as a nurse on weekdays and as a mechanic on weekends, said some of her patients call her “sir” instead of “ma’am,” but she doesn’t let it bother her. “It’s new to them, girls that are bald.”

Aicha Soumaoro poses in West Chester, Pa., Friday, Oct. 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

Soumaoro, 27, said that after she shaved her head, her mother told her that most men wouldn’t want to marry a woman with no hair. She focuses instead on the compliments she’s received while out in public, including “You wear it with confidence” and “Your face is gorgeous.”

“Being bald, it’s like a boost of confidence out of nowhere,” said Soumaoro, who cuts her hair every Sunday. “It’s like a new skin, a new layer, a new personality. I just feel fresh. Like I was born again.”

She also hikes on Sundays, savoring the feeling of cold breezes on her scalp. “Having that connection with Earth, it feels amazing,” Soumaoro said. “I feel like I can hear everything more clearly. It’s like I have a clear mindset when my head is bald.”

Tiffany Michael Thomas, an Atlanta-based performer who goes by the stage name Amor Lauren, shaved her head in a show of support when her mother was undergoing treatment for pancreatic cancer.

After her mother died, Thomas continued receiving compliments from other women. She decided to keep the bald look.

“Once I began to really embrace it, it just made me feel like I was unstoppable,” Thomas, 37, said. “There’s nothing that I have to hide behind anymore. … It forced me to deal with all of my insecurities.”

If you’re thinking about shaving your head, don’t hesitate, Thomas advises. Women tell her they’re concerned that their head isn’t the right shape, or they have a lump or a scar. “Do it without thought,” she said. “Do it scared. Everything in life, just do it scared. The best way to get through that fear is to actually do it.”

Send your wellness questions and story ideas to cbussewitz@ap.org. Follow AP’s Be Well coverage, focusing on wellness, fitness, diet and mental health at https://apnews.com/hub/be-well.

By MARY CLARE JALONICK, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — As the government shutdown enters its fourth week, Senate Republicans are headed to the White House on Tuesday — not for urgent talks on how to end it but for a display of unity with President Donald Trump as they refuse to negotiate on any Democratic demands.

Senate Democrats, too, are confident in their strategy to keep voting against a House-passed bill that would reopen the government until Republicans, including Trump, engage them on extending health care subsidies that expire at the end of the year.

With both sides showing no signs of movement, it’s unclear how long the stalemate will last — even as hundreds of thousands of federal workers will miss another paycheck in the coming days and states are sounding warnings that key federal programs will soon lapse completely. And the lunch meeting in the White House Rose Garden appears unlikely, for now, to lead to a bipartisan resolution as Senate Republicans are dug in and Trump has followed their lead.

Asked about the message at lunch, Sen. John Barrasso of Wyoming, second in Senate GOP leadership, told Fox News Channel’s “Fox & Friends” on Tuesday that it will be, “Republicans are united, and I expect the president to say, ‘Stand strong.’”

Senate Republican leader John Thune, of South Dakota said on Monday that he thinks Trump is ready to “get involved on having the discussion” about extending the subsidies. “But I don’t think they are prepared to do that until (Democrats) open up the government,” he said.

Missed paychecks and programs running out of money

While Capitol Hill remains at a standstill, the effects of the shutdown are worsening.

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Federal workers are set to miss additional paychecks amid total uncertainty about when they might eventually get paid. Government services like the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children, known as WIC, and Head Start preschool programs that serve needy families are facing potential cutoffs in funding. On Monday, Energy Secretary Chris Wright said the National Nuclear Security Administration is furloughing 1,400 federal workers. The Federal Aviation Administration has reported air controller shortages and flight delays in cities across the United States.

And as the shutdown keeps future health costs in limbo for millions of Americans, most U.S. adults are worried about health care becoming more expensive, according to a new Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll, as they make decisions about next year’s health coverage.

Still, there has been little urgency in Washington as each side believes the other will eventually cave.

“Our position remains the same: We want to end the shutdown as soon as we can and fix the ACA premium crisis that looms over 20 million hardworking Americans,” said Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., on Monday, referring to the expanded Affordable Care Act subsidies that expire in December.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., left, and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., speak to reporters outside the Senate chamber as they charge President Donald Trump and the Republicans with the government shutdown, at the Capitol in Washington, Thursday, Oct. 16, 2025. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Schumer called the White House meeting a “pep rally” and said it was “shameful” that House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., has kept the House out of town during the shutdown.

November deadlines

Members of both parties acknowledge that as the shutdown drags on, it is becoming less likely every day that Congress will be able to either extend the subsidies or fund the government through the regular appropriations process. The House GOP bill that Senate Democrats have now rejected 11 times would only keep the government open through Nov. 21.

Thune on Monday hinted that Republicans may propose a longer extension of current funding instead of passing individual spending bills if the shutdown doesn’t end soon. Congress would need to pass an extension beyond Nov. 21, he said, “if not something on a much longer-term basis.”

Democrats are focused on Nov. 1, when next year’s enrollment period for the ACA coverage begins and millions of people will sign up for their coverage without the expanded subsidy help that began during the COVID-19 pandemic. Once those sign-ups begin, they say, it would be much harder to restore the subsidies even if they did have a bipartisan compromise.

“Very soon Americans are going to have to make some really difficult choices about which health care plan they choose for next year,” Schumer said.

What about Trump?

Tuesday’s White House meeting will be a chance for Republican senators to engage with the president on the shutdown after he has been more involved in foreign policy and other issues.

The president last week dismissed Democratic demands as “crazy,” adding, “We’re just not going to do it.”

North Dakota Sen. John Hoeven said that Republican senators will talk strategy with the president at Tuesday’s lunch. “Obviously, we’ll talk to him about it, and he’ll give us his ideas, and we’ll talk about ours,” Hoeven said. “Anything we can do to try to get Democrats to join us” and pass the Republican bill to reopen the government, Hoeven said.

Still, GOP lawmakers expect Trump to stay in line with their current posture to reject negotiations until the government is open.

“Until they put something reasonable on the table to talk about, I don’t think there’s anything to talk about,” said Louisiana Sen. John Kennedy.

Democrats say Trump has to be more involved for the government to reopen.

“He needs to get off the sidelines, get off the golf course,” said House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y. “We know that House and Senate Republicans don’t do anything without getting permission from their boss, Donald J. Trump.”

Associated Press writers Kevin Freking, Stephen Groves and Matt Brown contributed to this report.

By MATT BROWN, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — House Republicans are preparing to release a report on the findings of their investigation into former President Joe Biden and what they allege is potential misuse of the presidential autopen during his term.

The report, which is likely to be released in the coming weeks, centers on contested and thus far unsubstantiated claims that Biden not only visibly aged while in office, but that his mental state declined to a degree that allowed White House officials to enact policies without his knowledge.

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“The House Oversight Committee has uncovered how the Biden Autopen Presidency ranks among the greatest scandals in U.S. history,” Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., said in a statement. “As President Biden declined, his staff abused the autopen to carry out unauthorized executive actions. We have concluded interviews with key Biden aides and will soon report our findings to the American people.”

The Republican-led committee declined to offer instances where investigators may have heard testimony or otherwise found instances when the autopen — a mechanical device that is used to replicate a person’s authentic signature — was abused. A spokesperson for the Republican majority on the committee said the cases would be detailed in the report but offered no further details.

The committee has interviewed more than a dozen former senior Biden administration officials as part of the investigation, pressing them for information on Biden’s mental fitness while in office. Oversight Democrats have dismissed the investigation as a distraction and say the committee is turning a blind eye to wrongdoing by the Trump administration.

Biden has strenuously denied that he was unaware of his administration’s actions. He has also dismissed claims that he had mentally declined to a degree that inhibited his ability to lead as president while in office.

“Let me be clear: I made the decisions during my presidency. I made the decisions about the pardons, executive orders, legislation, and proclamations,” Biden said in a statement over the summer. “Any suggestion that I didn’t is ridiculous and false.”

What the committee heard in testimony

Some Biden officials who were subpoenaed cited their Fifth Amendment rights and declined to answer questions, including Biden’s former physician, Dr. Kevin O’Connor; Anthony Bernal, former chief of staff to first lady Jill Biden; and Annie Tomasini, a former senior adviser to Biden. Other aides spoke to the committee.

Several aides admitted that the pace of Biden’s schedule slowed over the course of his term, according to a person familiar with the private testimony who was granted anonymity to discuss it. Jeff Zients, who was chief of staff, said Biden’s decision-making slowed during the administration. Decisions that once required three meetings eventually required a fourth, he said.

Zients also discussed how to confirm the president’s mental fitness to the public. Senior officials, including O’Connor, discussed whether Biden should undergo a cognitive exam, which O’Connor said he would take into consideration.

But even as they described signs of Biden’s advancing age — he was 82 when he left office — some Biden officials also strongly pushed back on the central premise of the Republican investigation — namely that staff effectively usurped the powers of the presidency for themselves.

“There was no nefarious conspiracy of any kind among the president’s senior staff, and there was certainly no conspiracy to hide the president’s mental condition from the American people,” Steve Ricchetti, a longtime close adviser to Biden, told the committee.

Why the autopen questions matter

Biden’s age, apparent frailty in office and meandering public speeches were central to President Donald Trump and congressional Republicans’ messaging during last year’s election cycle. The Trump White House has continued to mock Biden on the issue, going so far as to post an image of the presidential autopen in place of Biden’s official portrait in a recently installed West Wing presidential portrait gallery.

But Republicans’ fixation on the presidential autopen may have broader legal implications.

Trump and Republican lawmakers have argued that improper use of the autopen would raise the possibility that scores of Biden-era executive actions, pardons and laws may be ruled invalid in court. Trump has already ordered the Justice Department to investigate.

A Trump White House memo to Attorney General Pam Bondi argued that any cases where the autopen was used without Biden’s knowledge would be an “unconstitutional wielding of the power of the presidency” that “would have implications for the legality and validity of numerous executive actions undertaken in Biden’s name.”

The argument is legally untested and may raise difficult questions for Trump’s own use of the autopen. Republican lawmakers insist that the Biden White House example was an exceptional situation.

Republicans have also argued that any former staffers found to have misused the autopen should be criminally prosecuted.

Legal experts and Democrats have called the arguments preposterous and warned that such precedents would imperil many of Trump’s own policies from both of his terms in office.