Waiting for a mentor: Zeek

Kids ‘n Kinship provides friendships and positive role models to children and youth ages 5-16 who are in need of an additional supportive relationship with an adult. Here’s one of the youth waiting for a mentor:

First name: Zeek

Age: 12

Interests: Zeek likes swimming, zombie movies and video games. He also likes to fish a lot. He is very caring and protective when he gets to spend time with animals.

Personality/Characteristics: Zeek is learning ways to be a better listener. He describes himself as: kind”ish” (his words), helpful, and caring. He is adopted but protective of and caring toward his biological siblings who live outside his home.

Goals/dreams: He would like a 1:1 male mentor, or a couple mentorship. Adoptive mom notes, “He is really in need of a positive male role model. He was formerly in foster care. He could use positive adults in his life to see there’s a different path for him and healthier way males can be. When he grows up he wants to be a manager at a store or maybe a social worker, helping kids. Animal-loving, patient and big-hearted male is encouraged to apply!

For more information: Zeek is waiting for a mentor through Kids n’ Kinship in Dakota County. To learn more about this youth mentoring program and the 39+ youth waiting for a mentor, sign up for an Information Session, visit www.kidsnkinship.org or email programs@kidsnkinship.org. For more information about mentoring in the Twin Cities outside of Dakota County, contact MENTOR MN at mentor@mentormn.org or fill out a brief form at www.mentoring.org/take-action/become-a-mentor/#search.

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Today is Monday, March 2, the 61st day of 2026. There are 304 days left in the year.

Today in history:

On March 2, 1955, nine months before Rosa Parks’ more famous act of defiance, Claudette Colvin, a Black high school student in Montgomery, Alabama, was arrested after refusing to give up her seat on a public bus to a white passenger.

Also on this date:

In 1807, the Act Prohibiting Importation of Slaves was signed by President Thomas Jefferson. (The domestic trade of enslaved people was not affected.)

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In 1861, the state of Texas, having seceded from the Union, was admitted to the Confederacy.

In 1877, Republican Rutherford B. Hayes was declared the winner of the 1876 presidential election over Democrat Samuel J. Tilden, despite Tilden winning the popular vote. Tilden remains the only presidential candidate to get over 50% of the popular vote (50.9%) and not win the presidency.

In 1943, the three-day Battle of the Bismarck Sea began in the southwest Pacific during World War II; U.S. and Australian warplanes inflicted heavy damage on an Imperial Japanese convoy.

In 1962, Wilt Chamberlain scored 100 points for the Philadelphia Warriors against the New York Knicks, a single-game NBA record that still stands. Philadelphia won by a score of 169-147.

In 1985, the U.S. government approved a screening test for AIDS that detected antibodies to the virus, allowing possibly contaminated blood to be excluded from the blood supply.

In 2011, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled, 8-1, that a grieving father’s pain over mocking protests near his Marine son’s funeral had to yield to First Amendment protections for free speech in a decision favoring the Westboro Baptist Church of Topeka, Kansas.

In 2020, a tornado outbreak began in Tennessee, killing 24 people and causing massive destruction as at least six twisters tore through the state over two days.

Today’s birthdays:

Author John Irving is 84.
Actor-comedian Laraine Newman (Saturday Night Live) is 74.
Golf Hall of Famer Ian Woosnam is 68.
Musician Jon Bon Jovi is 64.
Actor Daniel Craig is 58.
Rapper-actor Method Man is 55.
Musician Chris Martin (Coldplay) is 49.
Actor Rebel Wilson is 46.
Actor Bryce Dallas Howard is 45.
Hockey Hall of Famer Henrik Lundqvist is 44.
Actor Robert Iler is 41.
Actor Nathalie Emmanuel is 37.
Country musician Luke Combs is 36.
Singer-actor Becky G is 29.

15 people protesting ICE were arrested at the Whipple Federal Building Sunday by the Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office. Other agencies, including the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, made more arrests, according to the sheriff’s office.

In a statement, the Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office said the protest was an “unlawful assembly as people were blocking roads and throwing objects.” The Minnesota State Patrol arrested 15 of those in attendance, according to the sheriff’s office. The office stated that mutual aid was requested during the gathering, which is why the department intervened.

Many on social media say that the gathering was a peaceful protest involving community members protesting ICE actions in the state. Videos posted to social media taken by witnesses show multiple agents putting people in handcuffs, and some show agents tackling people to the ground and dragging attendees by their bodies.

This report is ongoing.

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By Matthew Ormseth, Los Angeles Times

Thousands gathered outside the Westwood Federal Building on Sunday afternoon celebrating the fall of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and dreaming of a “free Iran” as war continued to escalate between Iran and a united U.S. and Israel.

Residents of Los Angeles’ massive Persian diaspora continued to revel in the news of Khamenei’s death after the U.S. and Israel launched surprise attacks across the nation on Saturday. Many at Sunday’s demonstration were draped in American, Israeli or Iranian flags, the latter emblazoned with a golden lion that represented the traditional banner abandoned when the Islamic Republic came to power. Some wore green hats that said, “Make Iran Great Again.”

Members of the crowd chanted for a “free Iran” and danced in shuttered streets.

“We’re thrilled,” said demonstrator Shawn Araghi, who left Iran as an 8-year-old when Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi was ousted in 1979. “Most people think Iranians are the same as the regime. The people are way different than the regime. They could care less about the people. That’s why they’re killing them left and right.”

On Sunday, military officials confirmed that three U.S. service members were killed and five seriously wounded in a widening war across the Middle East, with intensifying counterattacks by Iran across the region. Hundreds in Iran, including dozens of civilians at a school, were reported dead in the attacks, and dozens more across the region.

But for many in and around Westwood — the epicenter of L.A.’s sprawling Iranian diaspora, earning the nickname “Tehrangeles” — the attacks on Iran signaled hope for a regime change that could bring increased freedom to their homeland.

The Greater Los Angeles area is home to the largest concentration of people of Iranian descent outside Iran. Since the Islamic Revolution in 1979, it has served as a capital for exiles.

Nilgoon Askari, a native of Iran, was in attendance at Sunday’s demonstration. She said Iranian Americans had gathered in West Los Angeles or downtown L.A. every weekend in February since Iranian security forces used lethal force to suppress a widespread popular uprising.

Askari said her best friend was killed in the crackdown on protesters and some of her relatives were arrested. The demonstrations in L.A. were often tearful affairs, she said. Sunday was different.

“It was impossible for 47 years,” Askari said of the killing of Iran’s supreme leader. She said President Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had assassinated a “dictator” whom the Iranian people could not depose themselves.

Askari and Araghi said they hoped the Islamic Republic would fall and the country will come under the leadership of Reza Pahlavi, the son of the shah.

Araghi said he wasn’t concerned that Israel or the United States would meddle in the future of Iran. “Anything is better than the current regime,” he said. “It can’t be worse than this.”

____

(Times staff writers Corinne Purtill and Grace Toohey contributed to this report.)

©2026 Los Angeles Times. Visit at latimes.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

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