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| Hugs are banned in LA County juvenile halls. State legislation could change that. – Daily News | | A hug: noun. “A tight clasp with the arms; embrace.”
Though this simple, yet brief human touch is common among family members, friends, spouses and lovers, hugs are prohibited for incarcerated youths at two Los Angeles County juvenile halls, namely Los Padrinos in Downey and Barry J. Nidorf in Sylmar. When anyone pays a visit, no contact is allowed, not even holding hands.
The Hug Act of 2026, introduced on Jan. 27 as Assembly Bill 1646 by Assemblymember Isaac Bryan, D-Los Angeles, would remove that prohibition and require all juvenile detention facilities in the county and across the state to make accommodations for hugs from visitors, as long as the youth in custody approves. [Article] | | by , Los Angeles Daily News. 2026-03-03 | | | | Padilla preps for Trump trying to control elections via emergency order - Los Angeles Times | | Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) is preparing for President Trump to declare a national emergency in order to seize control of this year’s midterm elections from the states, including by bracing his Senate colleagues for a vote in which they would be forced to either co-sign on the power grab or resist it.
In the wake of reporting last week that conservative activists with connections to the White House were circulating such an order, Padilla sent a letter to his Senate colleagues Friday stating that any such order would be “wildly illegal and unconstitutional,” and would no doubt face “extremely strict scrutiny” in the courts.
“Nevertheless, if the President does escalate his unprecedented assault on our democracy by declaring an election-related emergency, I will swiftly introduce a privileged resolution [and] force a vote in the Senate to terminate the fake emergency,” wrote Padilla, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Committee on Rules and Administration.
Padilla wrote that such an order — which could possibly “include banning mail-in voting, eliminating major voting registration methods, voter purges, and/or new document barriers for registering to vote and voting” — would clearly go beyond Trump’s authority.
“Put simply, no President has the power under the Constitution or any law to take over elections, and no declaration or order can create one out of thin air,” Padilla wrote. [Article] | | by , Los Angeles Times. 2026-03-03 | | | | RV parking restrictions expanded into more LA County areas by Board of Supervisors – Daily News | | The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors gave final approval Tuesday to an ordinance expanding the list of unincorporated areas where so-called “nonconforming vehicles” — such as RVs — will be barred from parking on county streets.
The ordinance defines a nonconforming vehicle as those that exceed 8 feet in width, 7 1/2 feet in height or 20 feet in length. [Article] | | by , Los Angeles Daily News. 2026-03-03 | | | | 'Mall parks' on the rise in Los Angeles: Kids play while parents shop - Los Angeles Times | | As the sun peeked out from behind the clouds at 9:30 a.m. on the day after a rainy Saturday, the strollers at Runway Playa Vista rolled in. Giggles echoed in a nearby play area where children twisted knobs and spun a wheel in a car-like play structure. Toddlers whizzed by on scooters as parents chatted about the struggles of parenting during a rare L.A. storm.
Their solution to kids with pent-up energy wasn’t to head to any park — it was to come to a mall park. Or rather, the turf fairway and play structures that sit just outside storefronts at this southwest Los Angeles “shopping center.”
“My older daughter does dance right here, so this is a Sunday routine for us,” said Daniel LaBare, who sat with his Whole Foods shopping bags by the play car with his younger daughter, 2-year-old Ellie. “She goes to dance, and we hang out and play.”
With the rise of e-commerce, it’s no secret that retail developers have had to get creative to keep attracting customers. One method that seems to be working? Catering to families by making green turf and other kid-friendly spaces a mall centerpiece.
Some of these areas are just patches of turf with Adirondack chairs — popular with exploration-minded toddlers, or kids with a ball. But there are also shopping centers with more elaborate play structures, such as Rancho Cucamonga’s Victoria Gardens “Orchard Play Area” (“near Shake Shack and Silverlake Ramen,” according to the website). The lawns often serve as activity centers where malls hold kid concerts, adult exercise classes and Christmas tree lighting events. [Article] | | by , Los Angeles Times. 2026-03-03 | | | | License plate readers spark privacy concerns at LA State Historic Park in Chinatown | LAist | | As cars pull in and out of the parking lot at L.A. State Historic Park in Chinatown, two nondescript-looking black cameras powered by solar panels quietly keep an eye on every vehicle entering or leaving the property.
The cameras are license plate readers made by Flock Safety, a controversial private surveillance company that works with thousands of police departments and cities in the United States. [Article] | | by , . 2026-03-03 | | | | Humboldt County Might See Its First Condor Chick Hatched In the Wild In a Century | | A pair of California condors who were part of a group released into the wild several years ago appear to be nesting in a redwood tree in remote Humboldt County, and tending to an egg. [Article] | | by , SFist. 2026-03-03 | | | | LAPD's relationship with Flock Safety under scrutiny from commission - Los Angeles Times | | The Los Angeles Police Commission on Tuesday said it wants to know more about how data captured by the controversial license plate reader company Flock Safety are stored and shared.
Commissioner Jeff Skobin requested a report from the L.A. Police Department about its relationship with Flock, citing his conversations with city officials and residents, as well as news reporting detailing how federal authorities had repeatedly accessed Flock’s surveillance data as part of their nationwide deportation crackdown.
Speaking during the civilian oversight panel’s meeting Tuesday, Skobin said that, for the sake of transparency, he wanted the department to explain how it was “so confident” that its data weren’t being accessed by federal authorities as part of their immigration roundups.
“Good. We’ll put that together, commissioner,” LAPD Chief Jim McDonnell said.
The chief added that the department was aware of news reports suggesting that a “configuration error” by Flock had allowed out-of-state law enforcement agencies, including federal agents, to access license plate data from Ventura County in violation of state law.
McDonnell said he ordered an internal audit to determine whether similar inadvertent sharing had occurred within the LAPD.
In a blog post Tuesday, Flock took “full responsibility” for the data disclosures and said it had adopted additional safeguards, including better tracking of sharing requests. [Article] | | by , Los Angeles Times. 2026-03-03 | | | | LA County will take over payments to homeless service providers, conduct audit due to problems at LAHSA – Daily News | | Los Angeles County will create a plan to take over payments to homeless service providers and embed county workers into the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority to help the struggling joint city of Los Angeles-L.A. County agency make back payments in order to ensure services to homeless people continue. [Article] | | by , Los Angeles Daily News. 2026-03-03 | | | | How California could use desalination to help with Colorado River woes - Los Angeles Times | | With desert cities like Phoenix and Tucson bracing for their allotments of Colorado River water to be slashed dramatically, San Diego County’s water agency could for the first time sell some of its water to other states by drawing on its ample supplies from the nation’s largest desalination plant.
The San Diego County Water Authority’s board unanimously approved an initial agreement last week to consider selling some of its water to Arizona and Nevada, where cities that depend on the over-tapped Colorado River are expected to face substantial cuts in water supplies.
The approach would not involve sending desalinated water to other states, but rather selling some of San Diego County’s allotment of Colorado River water, which in turn would generate funds to increase output at the Carlsbad desalination plant.
General Manager Dan Denham said the agreement, if approved by other agencies, could clear the way for the first-ever interstate transfers of Colorado River water starting next year.
“It’s just a different way of managing water in the West,” Denham said. “I think it has to happen now, and it has to happen because of the situation on the river.”
The Colorado River provides water for farms, cities and tribal communities across seven states and northern Mexico. Its reservoirs have declined dramatically over the last 25 years as drought compounded by climate change has shrunk the river flow. Negotiators for the seven states, despite extensive talks, remain at odds on the water cutbacks each should accept to prevent reservoirs from declining further.
The San Diego County Water Authority agreement — technically a memorandum of understanding — would need to be approved by the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, the federal government and agencies in Arizona and Nevada. Then, various water agencies would need to negotiate the details.
The Water Authority serves as a wholesaler, delivering to 22 cities and other agencies that serve 3.3 million people. It’s in a position to sell a portion of the region’s water because it has invested heavily in securing additional water supplies from the Claude “Bud” Lewis Carlsbad Desalination Plant, which since 2015 has been drawing in seawater and churning out a portion of the area’s drinking water. The authority secured additional water through a 2003 agriculture-to-urban transfer deal. These and other investments have brought San Diego County plentiful water — though as a result, the region also has some of the most expensive water in the state.
The Water Authority purchases water from the Carlsbad desalination plant under a 30-year agreement. But the plant is operating at less than full capacity, Denham said, and its output could be increased to provide a larger share of the region’s water if agencies in other states bought some of the Water Authority’s Colorado River water. Essentially, it’s too expensive to run the plant at full capacity given the availability of other more economical supplies, but out-of-state money could make it worth the agency’s while and reduce costs for ratepayers.
Conservation efforts also have reduced the water needs of many cities the Water Authority serves. And in the next few years, the area also will start recycling wastewater at new facilities, including San Diego’s Pure Water project as well as other recycling projects in Oceanside and eastern San Diego County.
If other states and agencies sign on, Denham said the Water Authority is prepared to sell up to 10,000 acre-feet of water starting next year. That’s nearly 5% of the Las Vegas area’s current water use.
In future years, he said, that could increase to 25,000 acre-feet or more. And with additional investment in upgrades, the Carlsbad desalination plant could be expanded to transform more seawater into drinking water, thereby freeing up additional water to be traded to cities that need it.
“It’s in everyone’s best interest to make this work,” Denham said. [Article] | | by , Los Angeles Times. 2026-03-03 | | | | Before taxing residents more LA County should investigate IHSS spending – Daily News | | Los Angeles County voters will decide in June whether to approve a half-cent sales tax increase that would push the countywide rate to 10.25%, and up to 11.75% in the highly taxed Antelope Valley. Supervisors say the money is needed to plug gaps caused by federal Medicaid reforms. But before voters agree to make every shopping trip more expensive, they should ask why LA County’s healthcare budget is so stretched in the first place.
A large part of the answer is the explosive growth of California’s In-Home Supportive Services program. IHSS pays caregivers—mostly family members—to assist low-income seniors and disabled individuals at home. It is a well-intentioned program, but an increasingly expensive one. Statewide, the program is expected to cost $33.4 billion in 2026-27, tripling over the last decade. [Article] | | by , Los Angeles Daily News. 2026-03-03 | | | | California senator wants to halt investors buying properties after disasters - Los Angeles Times | | On top of devastating losses and rebuilding and insurance claim headaches, survivors of the 2025 Los Angeles County firestorms have faced an increasingly existential threat to their communities: large investment firms buying up burned lots.
Longtime residents of Altadena and Pacific Palisades worry that increased corporate ownership will forever change the fabric of their treasured neighborhoods by pricing out locals, especially in Altadena’s historically Black community, favoring short-term rental properties instead of permanent residents and abandoning the character that has long defined locally owned homes.
It is an issue that’s been recently elevated by a new bipartisan push to crack down on corporate home buying, which many believe is a major factor in California’s — and the nation’s — housing affordability crisis. It has been mentioned by both Gov. Gavin Newsom and President Trump as a priority — though neither have yet to put forward specific proposals to do so.
But on Tuesday, California Sen. Adam Schiff said he will be introducing legislation that would limit large corporate investors, such as private equity firms, from purchasing properties after a natural disaster. [Article] | | by , Los Angeles Times. 2026-03-03 | | | | Mobile clinic brings mammograms to unhoused women on Skid Row - Los Angeles Times | | Sharon Horton stepped through the door of a sky-blue mobile clinic and onto a Skid Row sidewalk. She wore a yellow knit beanie, gold hoop earrings and the relieved grin of a woman who has finally checked a mammogram off her to-do list.
It had been years since her last breast cancer screening procedure. This one, which took place in City of Hope’s Cancer Prevention and Screening mobile clinic, was faster and easier. The staff was kind. The machine that X-rayed her breast was more comfortable than the cold hard contraption she remembered.
Relatively speaking, of course — it was still a mammogram.
“It’s like, OK, let me go already!” Horton, 68, said with a laugh.
The clinic was parked on South San Pedro Street in front of Union Rescue Mission, the nonprofit shelter where Horton resides. Within a week, City of Hope, a cancer research hospital, would share the results with Horton and Dr. Mary Marfisee, the mission’s family medical services director. If the mammogram detected anything of concern, they’d map out a treatment plan from there. [Article] | | by , Los Angeles Times. 2026-03-03 | | | | Asylum approvals plummet as fearful immigrants skip hearings | | WASHINGTON — A year into the Trump administration’s ratcheted-up mass deportation effort, approval rates for asylum seekers have plummeted as immigrants are too afraid to show up for court hearings.
Fewer than 3% of asylum cases decided in January were approved — a record low, according to Mobile Pathways, a San Francisco nonprofit that analyzes federal immigration data. That’s compared with an 18% approval rate in January 2025.
Nationally, 20% of immigrants seeking asylum missed their hearings in January, compared with half that rate a year earlier. Asylum seekers with pending applications are in the country legally, but under federal law, failing to appear for a hearing can result in a deportation order.
In Los Angeles County immigration courts — among the largest in the country — the trend is substantially starker: no-shows made up 56% of the asylum hearings in January, compared with 14% a year earlier.
“That’s not fluctuation,” said Bartlomiej Skorupa, chief operating officer of Mobile Pathways. “That’s collapse.”
A Justice Department spokesperson said the Trump administration is restoring integrity to immigration courts.
As of December, nearly 3.4 million cases were pending in immigration courts, with more than 2.3 million of them asylum cases, according to TRAC, a data research organization.
The rise in the number of people avoiding asylum hearings helps explain another trend in the immigration court system. Over the last year, the number of asylum cases marked “abandoned” has doubled.
Immigration attorneys say cases can be classified as abandoned for various reasons: An applicant missed a deadline, filled out a form incorrectly, or just decided to leave the U.S.
But the Executive Office for Immigration Review, the agency that administers immigration courts, can label a case abandoned if the applicant fails to show up for a hearing. Nationwide, the number of cases considered abandoned doubled over the last year to make up about 41% of those decided in January. [Article] | | by , Los Angeles Times. 2026-03-03 | | | | Contributor: The human cost of gun violence in America - Los Angeles Times | | I love coaching basketball. Being around young people, seeing their potential and helping them become the best versions of themselves is incredibly gratifying. But the job also offers a glimpse into how fragile it can all be. One injury, one bad break, a change in circumstances can shift everything for a player in a single moment.
Life is the same way. I found that out when I lost my dad, Malcolm Kerr, to gun violence in 1984 when I was just 18 years old. He was 52 and missed out on so much. I think about him every day. My family’s loss was profound and has shaped how I feel about gun violence, and why I’m so passionate about trying to move the needle on how we view this issue across America.
We talk about gun violence like it’s abstract, like it’s theoretical. But it isn’t. It’s human loss. That’s the real cost, and the families of children lost to gun violence carry that loss every day.
Gun violence is now the No. 1 killer of children in America. That’s astonishing, and it’s unforgivable. But what’s just as dangerous is becoming numb to it — reading about it again and again, shaking our heads and going back to our lives unchanged.
I’ve spoken out after shootings before, after Parkland, after Uvalde, after too many. I’ve said I’m tired, and I meant it. I’m tired of moments of silence that don’t lead to anything. I’m tired of condolences as a substitute for action. We can’t keep saying “this is horrible” and then move on like that’s enough. [Article] | | by , Los Angeles Times. 2026-03-03 | | | | There were 13 full-service public health clinics in L.A. County. Now there are 6 - Los Angeles Times | | Because of budget cuts, the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health has ended clinical services at seven of its public health clinic sites.
As of Feb. 27, the county is no longer providing services such as vaccinations, sexually transmitted infection testing and treatment, or tuberculosis diagnosis and specialty TB care at the affected locations, according to county officials and a department fact sheet.
The sites losing clinical services are Antelope Valley in Lancaster; the Center for Community Health (Leavy) in San Pedro, Curtis R. Tucker in Inglewood, Hollywood-Wilshire, Pomona, Dr. Ruth Temple in South Los Angeles, and Torrance. Services will continue to be provided by the six remaining public health clinics, and through nearby community clinics.
The changes are the result of about $50 million in funding losses, according to official county statements.
“That pushed us to make the very difficult decision to end clinical services at seven of our sites,” said Dr. Anish Mahajan, chief deputy director of the L.A. County Department of Public Health.
Mahajan said the department selected clinics with relatively lower patient volumes. Over the last month, he said, the department has sent letters to patients about the changes, and referred them to unaffected county clinics, nearby federally qualified health centers or other community providers. According to Mahajan, for tuberculosis patients, particularly those requiring directly observed therapy, public health nurses will continue visiting patients.
Public health clinics form part of the county’s healthcare safety net, serving low-income residents and those with limited access to care. Officials said that about half of the patients the county currently sees across its clinics are uninsured.
Mahajan noted that the clinics were established decades ago, before the Affordable Care Act expanded Medi-Cal coverage and increased the number of federally qualified health centers. He said that as more residents gained access to primary care, utilization at some county-run clinics declined.
“Now that we have a more sophisticated safety net, people often have another place to go for their full range of care,” he said.
Still, the closures have unsettled providers who work closely with local vulnerable populations.
“I hate to see any services that serve our at-risk and homeless community shut down,” said Mark Hood, chief executive of Union Rescue Mission in downtown Los Angeles. “There’s so much need out there, so it always is going to create hardship for the people that actually need the help the most.”
Union Rescue Mission does not receive government funding for its healthcare services, Hood said. The mission’s clinics are open not only to shelter guests, up to 1,000 people nightly, but also to people living on the streets who walk in seeking care.
Its dental clinic alone sees nearly 9,000 patients a year, Hood said. [Article] | | by , Los Angeles Times. 2026-03-03 | | | | LAHSA owes millions to homeless service providers; county seeks to speed up payments - Los Angeles Times | | Late last month, an executive with the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority informed an oversight body of a brewing problem: The agency was delayed in paying millions owed to homeless service providers.
The executive, Deputy Chief Financial Officer Janine Lim, blamed the delay, in part, on staff resignations and plummeting morale amid uncertainty over the agency’s future.
Come July, after years of criticism directed at LAHSA for mismanagement, the county will have moved most of its funding from the joint city-county agency and transferred it to a new county department. The city of Los Angeles is considering a similar move.
“LAHSA is experiencing a monumental change which at the heart of it has affected our people’s ability to pivot,” Lim told LAHSA commissioners last month.
On Tuesday, the county Board of Supervisors stepped in and directed staff to formulate a plan to speed up payments. It also approved funding for a county financial review of LAHSA that was announced last week.
The action came at the request of Supervisor Lindsey Horvath, who has repeatedly chastised the agency, saying that if it were a public company, “regulators would shut them down.”
“My phone is ringing off the hook from service providers who are demanding to be paid,” Horvath said. [Article] | | by , Los Angeles Times. 2026-03-03 | | | | What the Supreme Court ruling on gender identity means for parents - Los Angeles Times | | The Supreme Court’s ruling Monday affirming the right of parents to know about their child’s gender identity at school has left California educators with complicated questions about how to protect the sometimes competing rights of students, school employees and family members.
The Supreme Court decision in Mirabelli v. Bonta, while falling short of explicitly deciding the case, will have a sweeping impact because the court majority strongly agreed with a lower court’s interpretation of parent rights that differs from common practice in California.
“Ultimately, the issues are about the right of parents to be informed as opposed to the ability of the state to protect the privacy rights of children,” UC Berkeley law Professor Erwin Chemerinsky said. “The Court, 6-3, comes down in favor of the former.”
The court majority sided with U.S. District Judge Roger Benitez, based in San Diego County, and against an appellate panel that stayed Benitez’s ruling pending the outcome of an appeal. The Supreme Court action allows crucial portions of Benitez’s ruling to go into effect while the appeals process plays out.
In his Dec. 22 decision, Benitez ruled that parents have a federal constitutional right to know of LGBTQ+ issues affecting their children at school. Moreover, he said teachers had free speech and freedom-of-religion rights to tell parents about their child’s gender-identity issues if the teacher wanted to do so. The case originated with teachers who were trying to assert such a right. Parents joined the lawsuit later.
The Supreme Court did not lift the stay related to employees. So, it’s not clear what teachers have the right to say to parents who don’t inquire about the issue, legal experts said. However, if parents want to know, school employees must tell parents whether, for example, a student is exploring a different gender identity at school.
Benitez’s original court order also bars school districts from “misleading” parents related to “their child’s gender presentation at school.” School employees are prohibited from “directly lying to the parent, preventing the parent from accessing educational records of the child, or using a different set of preferred pronouns/names when speaking with the parents than is being used at school.” [Article] | | by , Los Angeles Times. 2026-03-03 | | | | LA County supervisors vote to make changes inside jails to address rising deaths | LAist | | The L.A. County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday directed several county departments to implement changes after at least nine people have died since the start of the year.
Why now? At least nine people have died while in county jail custody since the start of 2026, according to county documents. [Article] | | by , . 2026-03-03 | | | | L.A. County pushes new jail safety measures amid deaths - Los Angeles Times | | L.A. County’s Board of Supervisors approved a motion calling for the Sheriff’s Department to increase access to the overdose reversal drug Naloxone, more closely monitor cameras, and beef up safety checks inside county jails
Los Angeles County leaders are demanding the Sheriff’s Department ramp up safety measures within the jail system as inmate deaths continue to mount.
Ten people died inside L.A. County jails in the first two months of this year, putting the county on track for another record-setting year of in-custody deaths. Autopsies to determine causes for all the deaths are still pending.
County supervisors voted 4 to 0 on Tuesday on a motion, crafted by Supervisor Janice Hahn, requiring the Sheriff Department take a series of steps to reduce inmate deaths, including increasing access to the overdose reversal drug Naloxone, more closely monitoring cameras and beefing up safety checks.
“If we don’t address this now, we will see another record year of deaths in the County jails — a record we do not want to repeat,” the motion stated.
The death rate has eclipsed the pace of 2025, which saw nine deaths by the end of February. The year ended with 46 in-custody deaths, a jump from the 32 reported deaths in 2024.
Supervisor Kathryn Barger abstained from the vote, arguing the county could not address the death rate without building a new facility.
“We must be honest about the limitations of facilities that were never designed to house today’s population,” she said in a statement. “I have consistently called for a modern replacement facility focused on treatment and rehabilitation because that is where the real solution lies.”
Sheriff Robert Luna conceded this month that 2026 was “not off to a good start.” He framed the challenge as due partially to the fact that the county was booking people who were older and sicker than prior populations and needed more intensive care than could be offered by the jail system. Four in 5 people face a mental or physical health issue, the department said.
“Every time I get notified that someone in my care has passed away, it’s like a kick in the groin,” Luna said.
The department said in a statement that it has “taken aggressive action to prevent overdoses and violence,” but believes “no jail system can eliminate all risks when people enter custody already critically ill.” [Article] | | by , Los Angeles Times. 2026-03-03 | | | | Council considers amnesty for 500+ LA cannabis businesses with $400 million in unpaid taxes – Daily News | | The Los Angeles City Council on Tuesday instructed staff to develop a so-called “amnesty program” for licensed cannabis businesses, citing a need to support more than 500 delinquent operators who collectively owe some $400 million in taxes and recoup a portion of those dollars.
In a 13-0 vote, the council approved a proposal introduced by the Office of Finance, which seeks to capture unpaid cannabis taxes that otherwise would be lost. [Article] | | by , Los Angeles Daily News. 2026-03-03 | | |
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