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| LA bans Pacific Palisades ‘disaster tour’ bus trips – Daily News | | The Los Angeles City Council on Wednesday, Aug. 27, approved a resolution effectively barring the operation of so-called “disaster tours,” or bus tours operating in fire-impacted areas of Pacific Palisades. [Article] | | by , Los Angeles Daily News. 2025-08-27 | | | | Inside the fight over the recycling label on your milk carton - Los Angeles Times | | Lodi — A battle has been waging in Sacramento over whether beverage cartons — the ones used for milk, juice, broth, wine, even egg whites — should get the coveted chasing arrows recycling label.
Earlier this year, the state agency in charge of recycling, CalRecycle, determined the cartons were probably not eligible, because they weren’t being sorted and recycled by the vast majority of the state’s waste haulers, a requirement of the state’s “Truth in Recycling” law, Senate Bill 343.
Three months later, the agency reversed course.
The label is critical for product and packaging companies to keep selling in California as the state’s single-use packaging law goes fully into effect. It calls for all single-use packaging products to be recyclable or compostable by 2032. If they’re not, they can’t be sold or distributed in the state.
According to internal agency emails, documents and industry news releases, the change was prompted by data from the carton packaging industry’s trade group, the Carton Council of North America. The council had also announced it was investing in a carton recycling facility in Lodi. [Article] | | by , Los Angeles Times. 2025-08-27 | | | | The answer to Downtown recovery lies within its own walls – Daily News | | Downtown Los Angeles is at a crossroads.
I’ve walked Downtown’s streets for years, feeling its pulse rise and fall with each economic cycle. Today, that pulse has slowed. Beloved restaurants have closed, ICE raids have left the Fashion District’s sidewalks quiet, and well before 5 p.m., office towers sit dark and empty.
The signs are everywhere, and the numbers confirm them. More than 32 percent of office space now sits vacant — well above the national average. Vacancy, however, is more than a statistic. Every empty desk means fewer customers buying lunch, running errands, or shopping after work. That loss of foot traffic chips away at property values, squeezes small businesses, and erodes the tax base just when Angelenos need more support for essential services and housing.
What if the solution is already in plain sight? [Article] | | by , Los Angeles Daily News. 2025-08-27 | | | | More dust storms called haboobs are coming, thanks to climate change - Los Angeles Times | | For anyone wondering whether intense dust storms, such as the haboob that enveloped Phoenix this week, are possible in Southern California, the answer is yes.
They’ve hit in the recent past and are a growing issue over much of Southern California and the Central Valley, thanks to the drying associated with climate change, water overuse, wildfire, off-roading, tractors on dry soil, and construction, experts say.
In 2022, for instance, there was a massive haboob in the Salton Sea area. The dust from that nighttime storm — with a 3,000-foot-high wall of dust and 60-mph winds — went all the way to Los Angeles.
“It was insane,” said Amato Evan, a climate researcher at UC San Diego’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography. It was so thick that cameras picked it up in Riverside, he said. More sensitive instruments measured the particles all the way from Lake Elsinore to Pasadena and downtown Los Angeles. He said a similar storm occurred in 2023.
Both of these were on the same scale as the one in Arizona this week, but they happened at night and in far less populated areas.
“Dust storms are a widespread air quality problem across California, especially in those areas that are dry and getting drier,” William Porter, a professor of atmospheric dynamics and modeling at UC Riverside, said in an email. [Article] | | by , Los Angeles Times. 2025-08-27 | | | | Fear of ICE sweeps prompts some Santa Ana families to use a remote learning program set up during COVID | LAist | | Fear of ICE sweeps has prompted some Santa Ana Unified families to opt out of in-person learning and instead enroll in the district’s Virtual Academy that was set up during the pandemic, officials say. [Article] | | by , . 2025-08-27 | | | | Spotlight on Humboldt: Small film production in Ferndale; homegrown TV show audience expands | | Humboldt County has had an outsized presence in film and television for many years, and that presence might be paying dividends for local communities this late-summer and Fall. The blockbuster “One Battle After Another,” the Paul Thomas Anderson-directed Thomas Pynchon adaptation starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Sean Penn, Benicio Del Toro and Regina Hall, is slated to open on Sept. 26.
And smaller productions are now in the works, bringing economic benefit to the region.
“Every production brings a surge of outside dollars into our community,” Humboldt County Film Commissioner Cassandra Hesseltine explained in a Times-Standard column this week. “Early on, I learned that for every $1 a production spends directly, about $2.95 is generated in our local economy after the ripple effect. A $1 million project can feel more like $2.95 million once you factor in indirect spending such as crew dinners after filming or days exploring local shops, and the dollars circulating multiple times.” [Article] | | by , Eureka Times-Standard. 2025-08-27 | | | | Federal grand jury indicts two SoCal medical staffers on charges of interfering with ICE raid - Los Angeles Times | | A federal grand jury has indicted two employees at a Ontario surgery center on charges of assaulting and interfering with U.S. immigration officers trying to detain landscapers who ran into the facility to escape the authorities.
Jose de Jesus Ortega, 38, of Highland and Danielle Nadine Davila, 33, of Corona have been charged with assaulting, resisting and impeding a federal officer, a felony, according to a news release Wednesday from the U.S. attorney’s office for the Central District of California. A trial date has been scheduled for Oct. 6.
Ortega and Davila were charged last month by the U.S. attorney’s office on the same matter. By returning an indictment, the grand jury indicated that it believed federal prosecutors had proved that there is probable cause the defendants violated federal law and that the case can proceed to trial.
According to court documents, two U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers were conducting raids in Ontario on July 8 while wearing government-issued equipment, including law enforcement vests, the release states. [Article] | | by , Los Angeles Times. 2025-08-27 | | | | Cal State LA’s ‘Charging Eagles’ demonstrate trendsetting EV battery pack – Daily News | | California State University, Los Angeles is one of 12 universities nationwide selected for the “Battery Workforce Challenge,” a joint project sponsored by the United States Department of Energy and Stellantis, the multinational car brand company, and managed by Argonne National Laboratory. [Article] | | by , Los Angeles Daily News. 2025-08-27 | | | | OC supervisors split on telling elections chief to give DOJ unredacted non-citizen voting records – Orange County Register | | A split OC Board of Supervisors won’t be directing the Orange County registrar of voters to turn over unredacted records related to non-citizens’ removal from voter registration lists after the Department of Justice sued for the information.
The Justice Department sued Registrar of Voters Bob Page in June, arguing he did not provide full records related to the removal of non-citizens from voter registration lists. The Justice Department alleged that Page did not maintain an accurate voter list in violation of the Help America Vote Act, a 2002 law that made sweeping reforms to the country’s voting process. [Article] | | by , Orange County Register. 2025-08-27 | | | | Immigration agents accused of ‘unconstitutional racial profiling’ in gunpoint detainment of 15-year-old student in Arleta – Daily News | | Attorneys representing a 15-year-old LA Unified student, who was wrongfully detained by federal agents at gunpoint outside of Arleta High School in early August, filed a claim against the federal government on Tuesday that seeks $1 million in damages for the alleged “unconstitutional racial profiling” of the Latino U.S. citizen with special needs.
“They are violating the rights of not only people, Latinos in Los Angeles and California, but also students who need protection, students who are vulnerable, students that are really trying to get an education,” said Christian Contreras, one of the attorneys representing the teen. [Article] | | by , Los Angeles Daily News. 2025-08-27 | | | | Trump administration presses rollback of 'Roadless Rule' on wildlands - Los Angeles Times | | The Trump administration on Wednesday took formal steps to rescind a decades-old rule that protects 58.5 million acres of wild areas in national forests, including 4.4 million acres in California.
United States Department of Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said the agency will publish a notice of intent in the Federal Register on Friday to roll back the so-called Roadless Rule, initiating a 21-day public comment period and moving the process closer to reality.
“We are one step closer to common sense management of our national forest lands,” Rollins said in a statement. (The USDA oversees the U.S. Forest Service.)
The rule was enacted by the Clinton administration in 2001 after years of work and record-breaking input from the public. It established lasting protection for specified wilderness areas within national forests by prohibiting road construction and logging, which can destroy or disrupt habitats, increase erosion and worsen sediment pollution in drinking water, among other outcomes.
Rollins previously announced the agency’s intention to eliminate the Roadless Rule in June, saying at the time that the action would enable the federal government to better manage fire risk and timber production in the national forests.
The action is in keeping with the Trump administration’s efforts to loosen environmental regulations. Trump in April issued an executive order to immediately expand timber cutting in the U.S., while the Environmental Protection Agency has announced more than 30 actions to repeal rules on power plants, vehicle emissions, air pollution and efforts to curb planet-warming greenhouse gases.
“This administration is dedicated to removing burdensome, outdated, one-size-fits-all regulations that not only put people and livelihoods at risk but also stifle economic growth in rural America,” Rollins said Wednesday. “It is vital that we properly manage our federal lands to create healthy, resilient, and productive forests for generations to come.” [Article] | | by , Los Angeles Times. 2025-08-27 | | | | 22 TV series will receive a California film tax credit - Los Angeles Times | | Nearly two dozen television shows will receive incentives for shooting in California — including two series that relocated from Texas and Canada — in the first award period since the state bolstered its film and TV tax credit program earlier this summer.
In this round, 22 shows were chosen amid a nearly 400% increase in applications, said Colleen Bell, the California Film Commission’s executive director. The additional shoot days in California are a welcome boost for Hollywood, which has seen a sharp decrease in production after slowdowns from the pandemic, the dual writers’ and actors’ strikes in 2023, cutbacks in spending at the studios and the exodus of filming to locales outside the Golden State.
To address this issue, the California Legislature upped the annual cap for the state’s incentive program to $750 million, up from $330 million.
“These enhancements to our program, they’re not just about curbing runaway production,” she said in an interview. “We’re building momentum to grow and expand production here in California.”
In total, the 22 shows were allocated $255.9 million in credits and are expected to generate about $1.1 billion of economic activity in California, she said. The productions are estimated to employ 6,500 cast and crew members and more than 46,000 background actors. [Article] | | by , Los Angeles Times. 2025-08-27 | | | | $1.5 million ‘legal empowerment’ fund launched for low-income immigrants in Orange County – Orange County Register | | About $1.5 million in public-private funds is now available to support groups that are assisting Orange County residents who lack legal representation as they navigate the immigration court system.
Described as one of the first programs of its kind, the Orange County Liberty Fund was announced Wednesday, Aug. 27. It is using a network of legal providers, volunteer groups and community organizations to provide resources to low-income immigrant and refugee communities in Orange County. [Article] | | by , Orange County Register. 2025-08-27 | | | | FDA approves updated COVID-19 shots but with some limits | AP News | | U.S. regulators approved updated COVID-19 shots Wednesday but limited their use for many Americans — and removed one of the two vaccines available for young children.
The new shots from Pfizer, Moderna and Novavax are approved for all seniors. But the Food and Drug Administration narrowed their use for younger adults and children to those with at least one high-risk health condition, such as asthma or obesity. That presents new barriers to access for millions of Americans who would have to prove their risk — and millions more who may want to get vaccinated and suddenly no longer qualify. [Article] | | by , . 2025-08-27 | | | | Employees are back, bosses say. In California? Not so much - Los Angeles Times | | Even as bosses across the country report a jump in the number of people returning to the office, attendance in California remains less than half of what it used to be.
A recent survey shows that managers’ push to get workers back in the office is bearing fruit, but executives would still like to see people at their desks more often. A different dataset demonstrates that much of the lag is due to California.
Companies are stepping up enforcement of their attendance policies even as many workers try to avoid the daily routine of commuting and clocking in, real estate brokerage CBRE found in a national survey of office tenants.
Companies made “significant” progress in the last year in moving toward their office-attendance goals and enforcing their attendance policies, moving closer to cementing their long-term work guidelines than at any time since the COVID-19 pandemic, CBRE said.
The annual survey found that 72% of the companies surveyed have met their attendance goals, up from 61% the previous year.
“Companies have made significant progress on establishing a new baseline for work habits and office attendance after five years of adapting to hybrid work,” said Manish Kashyap, CBRE’s global president of leasing.
Still, a separate indicator released Tuesday shows how office visits are stuck below the national average in California. [Article] | | by , Los Angeles Times. 2025-08-27 | | | | Stunned by that stack of redistricting mailers hitting your mailbox? Here are tips to follow the money | LAist | | It’s been less than a week since the California Legislature triggered a special statewide election this November over redistricting, and already the political mail is flooding in.
The ballot measure headed to voters for a decision, Proposition 50, would allow California politicians to redraw congressional maps to benefit Democrats for elections in 2026, 2028 and 2030. It’s an effort to counter a similar move that President Donald Trump promoted successfully in Texas to benefit Republicans. [Article] | | by , . 2025-08-27 | | | | Why COVID keeps roaring back every summer, even as pandemic fades from public view - Los Angeles Times | | By many measures, the coronavirus is a thing of the past.
Masks have been stored away. Social distancing is just a vague memory. Interest in vaccines is waning. COVID, for many, feels like an inevitable annoyance, like the flu.
Then, each summer, we get a rude reminder.
The season of travel and fun continues to bring a spike in COVID-19 activity, far less profound than during the height of the pandemic but enough for people to notice and worry.
This summer’s jump is being fueled by the subvariant XFG, nicknamed “Stratus.”
“As we learn more about COVID, we are seeing that it has two surges a year: the late fall/early winter and in the summer, so we expect this trend of increased cases in the summer to continue,” said Dr. Elizabeth Hudson, the regional chief of infectious disease at Kaiser Permanente Southern California. [Article] | | by , Los Angeles Times. 2025-08-27 | | | | Newsom’s redistricting plan relies on Long Beach overwhelming Orange County Republicans • Long Beach Post News | | Seventy days remain until Long Beach voters join the rest of California in deciding how — or specifically by whom — they will be represented over the next six years.
The special election comes after California Democrats last week passed the “Election Rigging Response Act,” which would allow the state legislature to impose new Congressional district maps that would apply only to federal elections in 2026, 2028 and 2030. [Article] | | by , . 2025-08-27 | | | | Bidders show some interest in geothermal rights in California desert - Los Angeles Times | | For the first time in nearly a decade, federal officials on Tuesday auctioned off leases for new geothermal energy projects in California — and all 13 parcels offered received bids.
Dozens of buyers participated in the Bureau of Land Management‘s online sale of 10-year leases on 23,000 acres in Imperial, Lassen and Modoc counties. Geothermal is a growing source of energy that can produce clean electricity 24 hours a day, unlike wind and solar power.
Typically the technology involves drilling wells into pockets of steam and hot water rising from the center of the Earth, which then spin turbines to generate power.
Many experts see an expanded role for geothermal in addressing climate change, and say it could be key in meeting California’s clean energy goals, including reaching carbon neutrality by 2045. California is already home to the world’s largest geothermal field — the Geysers in Sonoma and Lake counties — as well as a major field in the Salton Sea area.
Tuesday’s winning bids ranged from $2 to $247 an acre. Twelve of the parcels are in Imperial County, with most in the Salton Sea Basin, though not the Salton Sea itself. The 13th parcel, a 240-acre tract bridging Modoc and Lassen counties, sold for $2 an acre.
The bidders are banking on the idea that new tools and technology will help them harness more of Earth’s natural heat as a source of electricity.
“There’s a lot of excitement around geothermal,” said Eric Gimon, a senior fellow with the nonpartisan think tank Energy Innovation. [Article] | | by , Los Angeles Times. 2025-08-27 | | | | California Supreme Court again rejects Republicans’ efforts to stop mid-cycle redistricting – Daily News | | The California Supreme Court has once again rejected a lawsuit brought by Republican legislators seeking to squash Democrats’ attempt to redraw the state’s congressional maps ahead of next year’s midterm elections.
The court denied the petition on Wednesday, Aug. 27 — just two days after GOP members of the state legislature asked it to block Proposition 50, a mid-decade congressional redistricting measure, from appearing on the Nov. 4 ballot. Republicans argued that the planned special election violates the state Constitution and would compromise voter representation. [Article] | | by , Los Angeles Daily News. 2025-08-27 | | |
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