The 34-year-old Norco man arrested on suspicion of starting the Line fire, which has raged through San Bernardino County, tried multiple times to start a fire before succeeding, prosecutors allege.
The San Bernardino County district attorney’s office filed criminal charges Thursday against Justin Wayne Halstenberg. He’s facing multiple counts of arson, including using incendiary devices to start fires and arson causing great bodily injury. Prosecutors said additional charges may be filed for any further structure damage or injuries as the fire continues.
“The devastation that has unfolded due to the alleged actions of one man cannot be undone,” Dist. Atty. Jason Anderson said in a statement, adding that “37,000 acres of forest land and mountain communities might never be what they once were.”
“My hope is that with the investigative efforts of our law enforcement partners and thorough prosecution of this case,” he said, “we can offer some measure of justice.”
The man’s mother spoke out in her son’s defense, telling The Times on Thursday that he “did not light that fire.”
A helicopter drops water on the Line fire Monday in Mentone, Calif.
(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)
Connie Halstenberg made the comment in a text message response to The Times in which she said that she was not talking to the press.
But, she said: “I do want to say this about my baby boy. He did not light that fire, I repeat he did not light that fire.”
She said there are things that her son does that she does not approve of but that “he is not an arsonist.”
In filing charges, prosecutors said Halstenberg attempted to start multiple fires within an hour in the city of Highland. His first alleged attempt occurred at Bacon and Lytle lanes. That fire was reported and extinguished by local firefighters.
Justin Wayne Halstenberg, 34, is being held without bail. He is scheduled to be arraigned Friday at Rancho Cucamonga Superior Courthouse.
(San Bernardino County sheriff)
Prosecutors said he tried a second time just east of Bacon Lane, near Base Line and Aplin streets. They said the fire was stomped out by a good Samaritan.
“Undeterred, he ignited a third fire which is what we now know as the Line Fire,” prosecutors said in the statement.
Three firefighters were injured in the first couple of days of the fire. At least one structure has been destroyed, and three others have been damaged, but none were homes, according to San Bernardino County Sheriff Shannon Dicus. He said the fire had affected an estimated 100,000 county residents.
California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection Battalion Chief Matt Kirkhart, who supervises the law enforcement investigation unit, said arson investigators responded to the fire that day to determine the origin and cause of the fire.
Flames from the Line fire reach tree tops Tuesday in Running Springs, Calif.
(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)
He said investigators immediately began to comb through video taken from traffic cameras and license plate readers in an effort to develop a lead. They were joined by detectives with the Sheriff’s Department. Kirkhart said investigators at some point were able to identify a white truck, which led them to the suspect.
Sheriff’s Det. Jake Hernandez said Halstenberg was taken into custody Tuesday at his home in the 1000 block of Detroit Street in Norco, where a search was conducted.
Halstenberg, who remains in jail without bail, is scheduled to be arraigned Friday at Rancho Cucamonga Superior Courthouse.
As the Bridge fire swept through mountain communities Tuesday night, Mountain High’s webcam showed a dramatic scene: Flames cutting through ski lifts at the well-known ski resort.
The images boded ill for Mountain High, but as the night wore on, the resort’s fate remained a mystery.
With sunrise, it became clear that the resort largely survived the blaze.
“Fire raced through the area yesterday, but all the main lifts and buildings survived with little to no damage,” according to a post from Mountain High. “Thank you to all the employees and fire fighters for their hard work. Our hearts go out to the Wrightwood families that may be suffering. We are with you!”
Some homes were burned in nearby Wrightwood, but exact numbers were unavailable Wednesday morning.
Located about 75 miles northeast of L.A., Mountain High has three mountains for skiers and boarders, an ice rink for skaters and Yeti’s Snowplay, which includes tubing and sledding for young ones.
The Bridge fire broke out Sunday in Angeles National Forest, with the flames spreading rapidly Tuesday in the northeast area, forest officials reported.
Between Tuesday and early Wednesday, the blaze exploded from 4,000 acres to 47,904 acres, growing more than 10 times in size.
Angeles National Forest visitors were being evacuated Sunday as a wildfire broke out north of Glendora in Los Angeles County.
Dubbed the Bridge fire, the blaze had quickly grown to 200 acres as of 6 p.m. Sunday, according to Dana Dierkes, public affairs officer for the Angeles National Forest.
Forest officials said firefighters were performing an “aggressive attack with air and ground resources.” As crews labored, the temperature hit 105 degrees in nearby Glendora.
Dierkes told The Times it was “likely a very busy day” in the forest “given the high temperatures. Visitors come to find relief from the heat in the waters of the San Gabriel River.” Cars parked along forest roads can block firefighters as they try to get to the location of a wildfire, Dierkes noted.
The cause of the fire, which was 0% contained Sunday evening, was under investigation.
Several roads were closed, including State Route 39, East Fork Road, Glendora Mountain Road and Glendora Ridge Road.
Meanwhile, the fight continued against the Line fire in San Bernardino County. The wildfire had caused mandatory evacuations in multiple mountain communities and was threatening more than 35,000 structures.
Gov. Gavin Newsom on Saturday declared a state of emergency due to the rapidly expanding blaze.
A pair of modest earthquakes rattled Southern California on Saturday morning, with epicenters in Ontario.
The earthquakes, of magnitudes 3.5 and 3.9, occurred within about a half hour of each other. Shaking was felt as far away as the city of Los Angeles, Orange County and northern San Diego County, according to crowdsourcing reports sent to the U.S. Geological Survey.
“Light” shaking, as defined by the Modified Mercalli Intensity scale, was felt close to the epicenter, which included Ontario International Airport, the USGS said. Light shaking is enough to disturb windows and dishes and can rock standing cars noticeably.
“Weak” shaking may have been felt as far away as Los Angeles, the San Gabriel Valley, Long Beach, Orange County, Riverside and San Bernardino.
The first earthquake struck near Archibald Avenue and Brookside Street at 10:05 a.m. Saturday, and was followed by the larger earthquake about three-fifths of a mile to the northeast, with an epicenter at the 60 Freeway and South Oak Hill Drive.
The Ontario Police Department said there were no immediate reports of damage.
In Rowland Heights, a resident felt his desk shake hard for a few seconds. The shaking was so jarring he initially thought someone might have crashed into the house.
Former President Trump is scheduled to return to California next week for a pair of high-dollar fundraisers, one notably hosted by relatives of the wife of Gov. Gavin Newsom, according to invitations obtained by The Times.
On Sept. 13, donors are being asked to pony up as much as $500,000 per couple for an afternoon fundraiser in Woodside hosted by Tom and Stacey Siebel. Tom Siebel, a billionaire software developer and businessman who has donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to Trump’s 2024 campaign, is a second cousin once removed of Jennifer Siebel Newsom, the Democratic governor’s wife.
Newsom’s representatives did not respond to requests for comment.
Siebel Newsom’s family has a well-reported history of Republican activism, including by her father, Ken Siebel. But after Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, whose presidential bid Ken Siebel supported financially, misstated the motivation for Siebel and his wife moving to Florida during a debate with the governor, the first partner’s father described DeSantis as a “lying slimeball,” according to the Daily Mail.
Trump will also headline an evening fundraiser in Los Angeles on Sept. 12, with top tickets going for $250,000 per person. The location and hosts have not been revealed.
The gatherings take place at a critical moment in the campaign, in the window between the first debate between Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris, on Tuesday, and Sept. 18, when Trump is scheduled to be sentenced for his conviction on 34 felony counts of falsifying records to cover up a sex scandal that could have affected his 2016 bid.
Trump’s vice presidential running mate, Ohio‘s Sen. JD Vance, will raise money in Los Angeles on Sunday, as Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff did on Thursday. Several Italian Americans, including Hollywood stars, will host a virtual dinner fundraiser for Harris on Sunday. Among the participants of “Paisans for Kamala” are actors Steve Buscemi, Alyssa Milano, Lorraine Bracco, Marisa Tomei and John Turturro, as well as former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
The amount of attention being showered on Californians in the waning weeks of the presidential campaign is due to its outsized role in fueling campaigns of both parties. Despite the state’s cobalt-blue tilt, it is home to an enormous number of Republican as well as Democratic donors and is typically among the largest sources of donations to candidates of both parties.
As of Aug. 8, Harris had raised $65.5 million for her presidential campaign from Californians, more than any other state’s residents had donated, according to Federal Election Commission fundraising disclosures of donors who contributed more than $200 to a candidate committee.
Trump had raised $24.8 million from California donors, the second-most from any state. (These figures reflect donations to the candidates’ committees, not to outside groups or independent expenditure committees.)
Ysabel Jurado, 34, a lifelong community member of Highland Park, and openly out candidate, is running against current Councilmember Kevin De Leon for Council District 14, the most powerful city council in Los Angeles County.
Her campaign slogan is ‘Ysabel For The Community.’
Earlier this year, Jurado made history in the primary, using her perspective as a historically underrepresented person in the hopes of bringing new leadership to the district after De Leon was called to resign in 2022, following a scandal.
The live voting results earlier this year highlighted Ysabel Jurado at 24.52%, with 8,618 votes, while De Leon fell behind by nearly 400 votes, with 23.39% in the primary.
Jurado is a tenants rights lawyer and housing justice advocate from Highland Park who has built her reputation in the community with support from social activist Dolores Huerta, L.A. City Councilmember Eunisses Hernandez and L.A. County Supervisor Hilda Solis.
“I’m the daughter of undocumented immigrants, a public transit rider, a former teen mom, and a working class Angeleno who has navigated the challenges of poverty. I have held the line on countless strikes and defended truck drivers against the same wage theft my father faced,” said Jurado in her candidate statement.
De Leon secured the second spot and will go head-to-head against Jurado in November. Jurado rose to the top of the polls, while her opponents spent more money on their campaigns, including De Leon. Miguel Santiago raised the most money for his campaign and also spent the most to secure support. De Leon came in second with both money spent and money raised. While Jurado came in fourth in the amount of money spent and raised for her campaign.
Jurado is running to become the first queer, Filipina to represent CD-14. Among the list of issues she aims to tackle while in office are; homelessness, climate action, safer streets and economic justice that uplifts small businesses.
“I will bring the institutional knowledge of a legal housing expert and the lived experience of a queer, immigrant-raised, working class, woman of color – a battle-tested representative for and from the community,” said Jurado.
De Leon might be facing an uphill climb after he was caught saying homophobic, racist and anti-sematic remarks in a leaked audio recording that rocked his political career. Even President Joe Biden called for his resignation.
The conversation that rocked L.A politics is said to have started because of redistricting plans and gerrymandering. According to a report by the Los Angeles Times, De Leon had his hopes set on running for mayor of Los Angeles. Since the audio was leaked, protests erupted, calling for his resignation. De Leon continued in his position after an apology tour and is now running against Jurado on the November ballot.
The recording of a conversation between De Leon, Ron Herrera, Nury Martinez and Gil Cedillo.
“Between FBI raids, backroom gerrymandering, racist rants, and corruption charges, our needs have been chronically ignored,” says the statement. “City government has failed us. We deserve better.”
If she wins, she would join a progressive bloc of leaders in city council that include Nithya Raman, Hugo Doto-Martinez and Councilmember Hernandez. The leadership would have a pendulum swing toward city affairs that has not been seen before.
CD-14 covers Eagle Rock, El Sereno, Boyle Heights and parts of Lincoln Heights and downtown L.A., which includes skid row and other points of interest.
Those points of interest make CD-14 seats particularly difficult when it comes to dealing with polarizing issues like homelessness and street safety measures.
According to the latest demographic data by L.A City Council, 61% of the population is Latin American, while the second highest population is white, at 16%, followed by Asian, at 14% and Black at 6%.
If elected, Jurado aims to tackle homelessness in a district that has one of the highest unhoused populations in the city.
Jurado is now gearing up for the November election by continuing to campaign at various events across Los Angeles, including ‘Postcarding with Ysabel,’ at DTLA Arts District Brewing and The Hermosillo.
Two street takeovers in South Los Angeles veered into vandalism early Tuesday morning as the window of a local car dealership was smashed and cars were set on fire.
The Los Angeles police and fire departments responded a few minutes past midnight to a call of a vehicle on fire and a possible street takeover at the intersection of Normandie and Florence avenues. The vehicle was so charred, it was not driveable and had to be impounded, according to police.
Margaret Stewart, a public information officer with the Los Angeles Fire Department, said the large crowd and vehicles were packed tightly, and firefighters struggled to reach the flaming vehicle.
The second call came at 3:23 a.m. from the intersection of Jefferson Boulevard and Figueroa Street, walking distance from the main USC campus. Los Angeles police officers and firefighters responded to another report of a rowdy takeover, with a second vehicle that had caught fire, this one containing fireworks.
In video of the street takeover obtained by KABC7, loud popping noises can be heard in the background as crowds run past Felix Chevrolet on Figueroa Street. Glass is scattered on the ground from a shattered window at the car dealership. One individual in a ski mask appears to grab items from a gray sedan that is on fire.
In each takeover incident, fresh black skid marks on the asphalt traced where drivers had spun “doughnuts” repeatedly in the night.
According to the Los Angeles Police Department, there were no injuries and no arrests at either incident.
Residents of South Los Angeles are crying foul.
“I live in the neighborhood and I can hear it at night,” said Emma, who works at a local business. Emma, who provided only her first name out of fear for her safety, says the noise often wakes her and her neighbors in the middle of the night, with the abrupt explosion of fireworks setting off car alarms. She said these late-night rendezvous have increased to several times a week.
The Avalon Gardens resident believes the culprits have been emboldened by law enforcement that she says remains lax in spite of neighbors’ numerous complaints to the city.
“When [police] do arrive, it’s 15 minutes too late,” when the crowds have already dispersed and gone home, she added.
From 2019 to 2020, the number of street takeovers nearly doubled amid the pandemic. The illegal sideshows have been deadly, as The Times has previously reported. Earlier this year, another street takeover left two sedans burning at the intersection of West 18th and Main streets.
Southern California was bracing Monday for a heat wave expected to bring triple-digit temperatures to much of the region this week.
Driven by weak offshore winds and a heat dome over the southwestern United States, temperatures are forecast to rise over the course of the week before peaking Thursday and Friday. Portions of the Los Angeles Basin could reach 113 degrees by the weekend while the mercury could climb to 119 in the Coachella Valley.
“We are in what’s already the hottest time of the year climatically, and we are going to be 10 to 15 degrees above normal, in almost every area from the beach to the deserts,” said meteorologist Ryan Kittell of the National Weather Service’s Oxnard office.
Labor Day was already scorching in many communities, with the San Gabriel Valley forecast to hit 100 degrees and the western San Fernando Valley to see temperatures as high as 103. L.A. neighborhoods closer to the water were to enjoy relatively more moderate conditions in the 80s and low 90s.
Woodland Hills, traditionally the hottest place in L.A., was expected to have temperatures of up to 109 degrees Tuesday, 110 Wednesday and 113 Thursday before falling slightly to 111 on Friday.
In Santa Clarita, temperatures were expected to skyrocket from an uncomfortable 95 degrees on Monday to an oppressive 106 by Thursday. In Palm Springs, Labor Day temperatures of 107 to 111 degrees were to give way to temperatures of 114 to 118 degrees by Thursday.
Dangerously hot conditions were affecting a swath of the country including Nevada and Arizona. Kittell, of the National Weather Service in Oxnard, said that because days are shorter than in June and July, desert areas experience less sun and as a result, there are fewer differences in temperature between them and coastal communities.
He said people who live close to the beach and don’t have air conditioning may not be prepared for the heat.
“Make plans now for how you are going to stay cool,” Kittell said.
Temperatures will ebb slightly over the weekend, but it is not clear when the heat wave will subside.
However uncomfortable, the heat this week is not expected to break records. The record for the first week of September was set in 2020 when temperatures reached 121 in Woodland Hills.
A human-caused brush fire near San Jacinto had grown hundreds of acres by Sunday evening, leading to evacuation warnings and sending six firefighters to local hospitals, according to fire officials.
Fire crews first responded to the vegetation fire at 2:17 p.m. near Soboba and Gilman Springs roads in Riverside County.
Several firefighters were taken to area hospitals on Sunday amid the Riverside County brush fire, which was holding at 650 acres at 8:30 p.m.
(OnScene.TV)
By 8:30 p.m., the blaze, dubbed the Record fire, had spread to 650 acres and remained uncontained.
“Out of an abundance of caution,” the Riverside County Fire Department said Sunday evening, “six firefighters have been transported to area hospitals with minor medical symptoms.”
The department issued evacuation warnings that remained in effect late Sunday night.
Cal Fire said the fire was human-caused by did not provide any specifics. The agency said the investigation remained ongoing.
The evacuations were issued in the Poppet Flats region, according to fire officials. That area includes the Silent Valley Club RV resort. A map of the area covered by the evacuation warning can be found here.
The Rev. Paul Anthony Daniels knows the names and life stories of the people who sleep in their cars near St. Mary, a century-old church in Palms.
In the past, homeless people have spent the night in St. Mary’s Sunday school room.
So it wasn’t a huge leap for Daniels to think about building affordable housing on the church property.
A place to sleep, bathe and cook “provides a basic dignity” that can turn around someone’s life and also help the neighborhood, said Daniels.
“The unhoused are a part of this community,” he added. “Not only in the sense that we shelter them, but also in the sense that they live literally around the property.”
Across Los Angeles, some religious leaders are sizing up their own properties, encouraged by new legislation making it easier to develop the land.
A California law that went into effect Jan. 1 allows affordable housing projects on property owned by churches, temples, mosques and other religious institutions to bypass an extensive review process and to be built in single-family neighborhoods. The city of Los Angeles is considering even more exemptions.
An aerial view of St. Mary in Palms, center, where some of the land owned by the church may eventually be leased for affordable housing.
(Allen J. Schaben/Los Angeles Times)
In L.A., which has little vacant land, sky-high rents and a homeless population that topped 45,000 at last count, affordable housing proponents view religious institutions — often land-rich but cash-poor — as an untapped resource.
For religious leaders, building their own housing could be a way to fulfill their missions of helping needy people. And with many congregations shrinking as Americans become less religious, revenue from the developments would help make up for dwindling collection boxes.
But some real estate experts question whether many religious organizations will ultimately seek to build, considering the buy-in required from their members and governing boards. Years of construction near their sanctuaries could be a deterrent, as could opposition from neighbors.
Some cities, including Chino, Rancho Palos Verdes, Santa Clarita and Thousand Oaks, opposed the new state law as it was being debated in Sacramento. Then-Beverly Hills Mayor Lili Bosse said it would strip local governments of their power to control development, “overriding carefully crafted, locally informed plans.”
Leaders at St. Mary, an Episcopal church in the Anglo-Catholic tradition, are in the early stages of studying the idea. The small congregation is close-knit, with a few dozen people attending a typical Sunday service in the diminutive, brown-shingled church. An affordable housing project would enrich church coffers, probably through leasing fees paid by the developer.
The St. Mary property includes two main buildings, a house and six parking spaces on a narrow strip of land in a neighborhood of apartment buildings. Daniels, who has led St. Mary since 2022, said it’s too soon to say where on the property the new housing would go.
The Rev. Paul Anthony Daniels, the rector of St. Mary in Palms.
(Allen J. Schaben/Los Angeles Times)
In South Los Angeles, with its abundance of historically Black churches, many congregations are still reeling from the pandemic and a decline in attendance.
Regina Fair, a board member at Bethel AME-Los Angeles, said her church draws a few hundred people on Sundays but has cut back to a single sermon.
Like other churches, Bethel AME, which was founded in 1921, relied on livestreaming during the pandemic lockdown and uses social media to reach younger people. That all means fewer dollars in the collection plate.
“People became OK with doing church in their home, on their couch,” Fair said. “And when you’re not in the church, it makes a big impact on the giving.”
Bethel AME, which faces a stretch of South Western Avenue lined with businesses and apartment buildings, has embarked on a multiyear plan to develop affordable housing on its parking lot.
The 53-unit project, which benefited from city rules intended to fast-track affordable housing, will cater to some of the homeless men who sleep in the church on cots during the winter. The church also plans to build housing on two nearby parcels it owns.
Logos Faith Housing, which is co-developing the property, was started by a pastor to help churches build affordable housing. Bethel is leasing the land to a collection of backers in what the church’s leader, the Rev. Kelvin T. Calloway, describes as a “perfect model” to bring in revenue over a long period.
Calloway has seen gentrification change other neighborhoods in South L.A., leaving fewer worshipers in church pews. That isn’t happening much yet in Bethel AME’s neighborhood of Manchester Square, but “it’s a real possibility,” he said.
Pastor Martin Porter, managing partner of Logos Faith Development LLC, a real estate development company focused on partnering with religious entities, on the parking lot of Bethel AME Church in Los Angeles.
(Myung J. Chun/Los Angeles Times)
“Christianity is in crisis,” said Logos founder Pastor Martin Porter, who leads Quinn African Methodist Episcopal in Moreno Valley. “You’re seeing a lot of empty pews. The natural question is: What do we do with excess property that’s not being used?”
Bethel AME didn’t need the new state law, sponsored by state Sen. Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco), to develop its property.
But in L.A., at least 600 sites owned by faith-based groups in single-family neighborhoods are now eligible to build affordable housing, according to the city Planning Department. City officials couldn’t provide information about whether any applications have been filed under the law in the last eight months.
Wiener predicted it will take a few years for a substantial number of projects to launch — particularly as religious institutions figure out how to approach the opportunity.
“They’re typically not major financial players,” he told The Times. “They’re a church or synagogue, not a development company.”
“This is a big deal,” said Pastor John Oh, project manager of faith in housing at L.A. Voice, a community organization that supported the law.
Oh sees it as a potential “domino” that could lead to more zoning changes in single-family neighborhoods, which have long been treated by political leaders as off-limits for multi-unit development.
The city of L.A.’s planning department has put forward a version that, unlike Wiener’s law, does not require paying construction workers prevailing wages, or, on larger projects, providing them with healthcare.
The proposal, which is expected to come before the City Council in the next six months, is meant to appease affordable housing developers who say that the higher wages and benefits can add 30% to their costs.
Labor unions, including the United Brotherhood of Carpenters, are opposed.
Pete Rodriguez, the brotherhood’s western district vice president, called the proposal “outrageous” and suggested it could worsen the homelessness crisis by impoverishing workers.
“When will the city of L.A. realize that so many of our problems, from homelessness to budget deficits, are caused by the simple fact that too many Angelenos cannot make ends meet?” he said.
Wiener declined to comment on the city’s proposal. He said his law prioritizes protections for construction workers, who can be targets of wage theft.
Some development experts privately question whether religious entities in single-family neighborhoods will want to build affordable housing, in the face of possible resistance.
In Laguna Beach, some residents are protesting a church’s plans to build affordable housing under Wiener’s law. A petition against the development on the property of Neighborhood Congregational Church has collected about 1,500 signatures.
“It affects the entire community by altering the neighborhood’s character and exacerbating existing issues such as traffic congestion and parking shortages,” the petition said.
But Bishop Lovester Adams, who heads Greater New St. Matthew Missionary Baptist Church in a single-family residential area in South L.A., isn’t shying away. He called Wiener’s law and the city proposal “a game changer.”
Adams, who is also a senior associate at Logos Development, said he can’t afford to build housing on his church’s parking lot at 36th and Crawford streets unless the city passes the labor exemption.
The church, which dates to the 1960s, is nestled between homes and duplexes. Church leaders regularly give out food and toys to needy residents.
Attendance has fallen since the pandemic, Adams said. Sunday services draw 50 to 70 people, who fill fewer than half the seats. Some older people stay away because of concerns about COVID-19.
Adams said he wants veterans to live in the new housing: “There is a great need there.”
IKAR CEO Melissa Balaban stands in the foundation’s parking lot where affordable housing will be developed in Los Angeles.
(Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times)
On South Fairfax Avenue in Mid-Wilshire, the Jewish congregation IKAR is building an affordable housing complex for formerly homeless senior citizens on its parking lot.
The project was built through Mayor Karen Bass’ Executive Directive 1, which fast-tracks affordable housing, said IKAR executive director Melissa Balaban. State legislation pushed by IKAR reduced the amount of required parking.
Balaban said IKAR isn’t relying on the project, which is being funded by a nonprofit developer, to generate revenue for the congregation.
“My hope is that what we’re doing isn’t just going to provide 60 homes but hopefully inspire other faith-based communities,” she said.
In Palms, St. Mary member Julia Bergstrom, 72, is enthusiastic about the idea of affordable housing on the church property.
She has noticed the number of people living in RVs rise and fall, and she finds the years-long wait for Section 8 housing vouchers to be “immoral.”
While she worries about changes to the “very beautiful little church” she has attended since 2008, “it doesn’t stop me, and it doesn’t make me sad about the whole thing,” she said.
Last week, Keck Medicine of USC announced the closure of USC Verdugo Hills Hospital obstetric services on Nov. 20. They cited a 40% decline in deliveries over the past decade within “our community” and the resulting financial effect on the hospital as reasons for the decision. While this justification appears reasonable at first glance, it conceals an unsettling trend with significant implications for maternal health.
Obstetric care is different from many other types of healthcare in its unpredictability. Babies do not arrive on anyone’s schedule, and the busyness of labor and delivery units can wax and wane accordingly. For doctors to care for laboring mothers and their babies safely, hospitals must be staffed for the possibility of a sudden abundance of patients requiring emergency care.
The modern fee-for-service healthcare model, which pushes hospitals to maximize efficiency and reduce staffing, treats the resiliency necessary for delivering babies as a drag on their bottom line. In this model, hospitals must fund round-the-clock capacity but are only reimbursed when their facilities and staff are in action. So if not enough deliveries are happening, expenses outweigh reimbursement. This drives hospitals to get out of the baby delivery business altogether.
California has experienced a higher rate of obstetric unit closures than other states, and it continues to accelerate. More than 46 labor and delivery departments closed in the state between 2012 and 2023, with 60% occurring within the last three years. These closures are not limited to sparsely populated rural areas: 17 were within Los Angeles County, resulting in a local rate of closures that far outpaces the declining birth rate. This year, five more California hospitals have stopped providing obstetric care, and USC Verdugo Hills Hospital will be the fifth in L.A. County to close labor and delivery within a two-year period.
Healthcare and medical benefit administrators talk of scaling and consolidation, of concentrating obstetric care at fewer hospitals so that there will be enough deliveries to cover the expense of remaining open. This will only work if we assume that market forces will sort out the balance between supply and demand so enough labor and delivery departments remain open to meet demand. But such forces only work if prices are dynamic and responsive to changes in supply. Insurance providers, especially Medicaid and Medi-Cal, have not shown this type of flexibility.
Medi-Cal, the Medicaid program in California, has reimbursement rates for obstetric care that are fifth lowest in the nation. In our state, even busy labor and delivery departments that care primarily for Medicaid patients do not break even. South L.A.’s Martin Luther King Jr. Community Hospital is struggling to stay open despite increasing its volume of obstetric patients as other Los Angeles labor and delivery units have closed. This shows that the amount paid by Medi-Cal is below the market cost of providing obstetric care. This deficit is at the core of the California closures.
There are at least two paths forward.
The first is to increase Medi-Cal’s reimbursement of each delivered patient. The second would require directly regulating and subsidizing the maintenance of labor and delivery units the way the state does for emergency rooms. Either approach will be costly, because providing safe, modern, evidence-based obstetric care is expensive.
Reproductive freedom is much in the news this campaign season. It should include reasonable, safe and dependable access to labor and delivery services.
Anna Reinert is an assistant professor of clinical obstetrics and gynecology at USC’s Keck School of Medicine.
Several people have been arrested and tens of thousands of pounds of copper recovered as part of a crackdown by Los Angeles police and staff on thieves and rogue recyclers that at times have left the city paralyzed and dark in the last few years, officials announced at a Tuesday news conference.
Flanked by members of the Los Angeles Police Department and Caltrans, City Council President Paul Krekorian announced that 16,000 pounds of copper wire valued at $40,000 has been recovered during a recent two-month crackdown.
“The consequences to the taxpayers of Los Angeles are far, far greater than that,” he said of the copper’s value. “The cost of repairs to replace that copper wire are estimated to be over a half-million dollars already.”
As part of the push in enforcement, LAPD Deputy Chief Alan Hamilton said eight East Valley recyclers have been fined and arrests made, but he did not provide details on how many or for what charges. Police also made arrests at other facilities on suspicion of theft, failure to report and receiving stolen property.
“We are aware of and have observed some of our businesses being less than honest brokers,” Hamilton said, adding that some area recyclers have been purchasing stolen wire from outside the city as well.
Krekorian’s office said at least two people were arrested at a North Hollywood recycler on June 19, followed by more arrests, including a manager, three days later at another North Hollywood recycler.
“We have refocused our efforts on the most egregious individuals and businesses that we’ve identified through our tracking system as continually having involvement in this illegal activity,” Hamilton said.
Hamilton said that one time, the California Department of Transportation incurred a $150,000 loss from a single individual.
“If you just multiple that over the course of a year, that can be very expensive for the taxpayer,” Hamilton said.
More arrests are expected, the deputy chief said.
Over its last three North Hollywood operations, the LAPD has reclaimed 1,668 pounds of stolen copper wire, along with hundreds of pounds of aluminum cable and backup batteries for roadway safety systems, it said. In late July, the city announced it had made 82 arrests and recovered 2,000 pounds of wire.
City Councilmembers Kevin de León and Traci Park attributed the efforts to the city’s copper wire task force, a partnership between the LAPD and the Bureau of Street Lighting.
In November, Krekorian acknowledged that copper wire theft had been seen “too often” as “a minor crime” despite recent spikes that left neighborhoods “darker and more dangerous.”
That day Krekorian announced the city would target “unscrupulous” metal recyclers — the “upstream part of the problem” — who were not checking identifications of vendors or material provenance.
City Atty. Hydee Feldstein Soto eventually sent letters to 600 recyclers throughout the city warning them they were subject to searches and inspections.
Gov. Gavin Newsom on Tuesday signed two bills that tweak existing shelter and ADU laws in an attempt to boost supply and make a dent in the state’s housing and homelessness crisis.
One of the bills, Assembly Bill 3057, focuses on something called junior ADUs — units created within existing houses that can be up to 500 square feet and don’t need their own bathroom.
Under the new law, junior ADUs — like larger ADUs — will be exempt from requirements under the California Environmental Quality Act that can add time and cost to projects.
The bill’s author, Assemblymember Lori D. Wilson (D-Suisun City), called the exemption a “a small but significant technical change that offers Californians more accessible and efficient options to build affordable housing solutions.”
The second bill, Assembly Bill 2835, was authored by Assemblymember Jesse Gabriel (D-Encino). It makes permanent a set of temporary rules that have made it easier to house homeless individuals in privately owned hotels and motels for longer than 30 days.
Local governments, including Los Angeles, have increasingly turned to that strategy to get people off the streets, at times relying on state funding.
“The homelessness crisis demands immediate and innovative action, not the status quo,” Newsom said in a statement. “With these new laws, local governments have even more tools to provide housing. I urge them to fully utilize the state’s unprecedented resources to address homelessness.”
The reincarnation of a shuttered Los Angeles retail mecca as a sprawling UCLA research center has received a major boost from billionaire philanthropist Dr. Gary Michelson and his wife, Alya, who will give $120 million to ramp up the project.
Michelson, a spine surgeon and inventor, said the money will help launch the California Institute for Immunology and Immunotherapy, which aims to create breakthrough discoveries that prevent and cure diseases including cancer, heart disease and Alzheimer’s.
The institute will be a tenant in UCLA Research Park, which is under construction in the former Westside Pavilion. The indoor mall two miles south of the university at Pico and Westwood boulevards was a 1980s icon popular with shoppers and filmmakers before falling out of favor. Most of its stores closed by 2019.
The shopping center was being converted to offices when the UC Regents bought it for $700 million in January to create the research park. Along with the California Institute for Immunology and Immunotherapy, it will house the UCLA Center for Quantum Science and Engineering, as well as other science and medicine programs.
By purchasing the former shopping center, UCLA saved years of toil to build such a facility on its campus, which is the smallest of the nine UC undergraduate campuses and has very little room for growth.
A courtyard view of the UCLA research center now under construction in the former Westside Pavilion shopping center.
(Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)
“That building would have gone on the last available piece of property on the UCLA campus,” Michelson said, “and it would have been extraordinarily expensive to build there. As a real estate matter, this was just an extraordinary opportunity.”
The immunology institute had been planned for years, while a full-scale research park was something “we’ve always dreamed of having … but we always recognized we could never find a piece of property that big close to campus. We had sort of given up on the idea many years ago — and it came alive,” said former UCLA Chancellor Gene Block, who was instrumental in the purchase of the former Westside Pavilion.
An earlier plan to build the institute on the campus called for tearing down a parking garage, digging a hole deep enough to replace the parking and erecting a new building on top, Block said.
The gift, through the Michelson Medical Research Foundation, designates $100 million to establish two research entities within the institute, each funded with $50 million; one will focus on rapid vaccine development and the other on harnessing the body’s microbiome to advance human health. The microbiome research will be conducted in collaboration with the new UCLA Goodman-Luskin Microbiome Center, placing it among the largest microbiome research enterprises in the world, the foundation said.
The foundation is also funding a $20-million endowment to provide research grants to young scientists using novel processes to advance immunotherapy research, human immunology and vaccine discovery.
The institute will have labs of different sizes meant to serve biotech researchers who can start with small teams that can grow into larger labs if they find success.
“We’re going to create an entire ecosystem of biotech startups and they’re going to stay right here” and attract other players to the neighborhood, Michelson said. “We’re going to build out an entire ecosystem of biotech all through Westwood.”
He envisions 5,000 people, including 500 research scientists, working in the institute. Gov. Gavin Newsom estimated in January that it would take more than three years to fully transform the 700,000-square-foot complex, but Michelson hopes to have a large portion of the immunology institute operating in half that time, he said. At 360,000 square feet, the institute will be the research park’s primary tenant.
The former mall’s 12-screen multiplex movie theater may be converted into lecture halls or performance spaces offering programming across the arts, humanities, sciences and social sciences, the chancellor’s office said.
An interior view of the UCLA research center now under construction in the former Westside Pavilion shopping center.
(Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)
The gift is the Michelsons’ largest single donation in 30 years of philanthropy that includes $50 million to build Michelson Hall at the University of Southern California, which is home to the Michelson Center for Convergent Bioscience. The Michelson name will not be attached to the new UCLA complex, he said, because other philanthropists — perhaps one who donates more than he did — may want the recognition.
“The gift will change countless lives here and across the globe,” UCLA interim Chancellor Darnell Hunt said.
The institute will operate as a nonprofit medical research organization funded by a public-private partnership and governed by an independent board that includes UCLA representatives, according to a UC Regents document. The institute will pay UCLA 7.5% of the net revenues generated by the sale of new medicines and other inventions its scientists create, the document said.
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said the project “has the potential to fundamentally change health outcomes around the world and create good jobs in Los Angeles.”
The purchase of the former Westside Pavilion marked the third major acquisition for the public university system in Los Angeles in less than two years.
Nine months prior, the school spent $80 million to buy two other major properties owned by Marymount California University, a small Catholic university that was shuttered last year. The purchase included Marymount’s 24.5-acre campus in Rancho Palos Verdes and an 11-acre residential site in nearby San Pedro.
A San Bernardino County wildfire that spanned 680 acres and took 275 firefighting personnel eight days to contain began with a few sparks from an excavator.
The government is suing an Upland-based pipeline contracting company and its founder, Garrett John Gentry, for negligence and is seeking more than $2.2 million in damages in the fire, which chewed through 450 acres of the San Bernardino National Forest.
“Defendants are liable for all damages to the United States resulting from the South Fire, including its fire suppression costs and the United States’ administrative, investigative, accounting, and collection costs,” the government says in the lawsuit.
A call to Garrett J. Gentry Engineering was not immediately returned. The 14-year-old company serves California and Arizona and clears $35 million in revenue annually.
The agency said nine structures — residential and commercial — were destroyed and 28 others were damaged. There were no injuries or fatalities.
According to Cal Fire, the fire began north of Glen Helen Parkway and east of Sierra Avenue and Lytle Creek Road just west of the 15 Freeway. The lawsuit alleges the fire originated at a property at 4053 Lytle Creek Road in Fontana.
There, the suit says, Gentry was operating an excavator, attempting to determine the viability of developing a commercial property at an underdeveloped site.
The government said Gentry, the owner, realized he was on terrain that was too rocky and tried to leave the area. During his retreat, he noticed smoke behind him. He attempted but failed to suppress a fire that eventually kick-started the eight-day blaze, the lawsuit alleges.
Government investigators said the steel treads of the excavator struck rock and caused ignition. Nearby dry vegetation then served as fuel to propel the fire.
The government alleges that Gentry knew the area was rocky and “failed to exercise reasonable care,” according to the lawsuit.
Gentry and his company also failed to take action to prevent the fire, the lawsuit alleges.
A century-old orange grove in Tarzana appears on its way to becoming the site of luxury homes, a transformation that would mark the end of commercial citrus farming in the San Fernando Valley, where the crop was once a mainstay.
At 14 acres, Bothwell Ranch represents less than one-thousandth of what once was, before the orchards and ranches of the Valley gave way to vast tracts of housing and commercial buildings to serve residents. Citrus production amid the multimillion-dollar homes is far from viable, and the parcel of land is now owned by a developer who intends to fill most of it with houses.
Los Angeles city planning officials held a public hearing Wednesday to collect comments before deciding whether to give the owners the green light to build 21 two-story homes while preserving a third of the site on Oakdale Avenue as a publicly owned orange grove managed by the Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority for educational purposes.
City officials are still gathering information about the planned development, but Henry Chu, the city zoning administrator for the project, said Wednesday that he is inclined to approve it within a few weeks.
While hard to imagine today, Los Angeles was the top agricultural county in the nation for most of the first half of the 20th century, according to Rachel Surls, co-author of “From Cows to Concrete: The Rise and Fall of Farming in Los Angeles.” Citrus crops were as integral to that success as they were to the branding and selling of Southern California as a bucolic, desirable place to live.
“The Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce, different citrus marketers and organizations such as Sunkist oranges were very much a part of basically making Los Angeles look like this golden, almost tropical, agricultural paradise where people could come and get a whole new start,” Surls explained. “That positioning of Los Angeles as a place where citrus grew was really, really key to the growth of Los Angeles.”
With history in mind, City Councilman Bob Blumenfield announced in 2022 that after years of negotiations a deal had been reached between the site’s new owners, Borstein Enterprises, and the Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority to preserve a third of it.
“While I wish there was a way to save the entire Bothwell Ranch, with this partnership we can save a large amount of it to be run by one of the best land preservation organizations in the country,” Blumenfield said.
The Bothwell Ranch gets its name from Lindley Bothwell, who purchased the farmland in 1926 after earning a degree in agriculture from Oregon State University, Blumenfield said. At the time, the citrus orchard was about 6 years old and totaled 100 acres. The Bothwell family sold off pieces of the land over the years but maintained a farming operation for decades until Ann Bothwell died in 2016. The ranch survived even as other ranches were driven out by rising land value during the housing boom after World War II.
It is now likely to be replaced by a development called Oakdale Estates. The owners have said they intend for the houses to include environmentally sustainable features such as “cool” roofs that reduce heat reflection into the atmosphere and a new street with a system that captures and filters rainwater before reusing it to irrigate landscaping that will include some citrus trees.
Two rows of citrus trees are expected to line Oakdale Avenue on the west side of the site as a homage to the land’s past, according to plans for the development. Designs for the residences call for modern farmhouses and Spanish architecture, meant to embrace the heritage of the San Fernando Valley.
Abelardo Hernandez, left, and Al Trujillo trim orange trees at Bothwell Ranch in the San Fernando Valley on Aug. 27, 1998.
(Frank Wiese / Los Angeles Times)
A critic of the project, Jeff Bornstein, said at Wednesday’s city meeting that the development should be reduced in scope to preserve more of the orchard.
“We have very little that marks our heritage of the past in the west San Fernando Valley,” he said. “We need to save a lot more of these” trees.
The citrus trees planted in the 1980s are past their prime fruit-bearing years and suffer from the effects of under-watering, a representative for the developer said.
When seen in aerial photographs, the ranch looks like a lush green anachronism — plucked from the agrarian past and neatly but nonsensically deposited into a suburban jewel box of red roofs and turquoise pools and tennis courts.
“We’re overrun,” as the late Bothwell matriarch told a reporter in 1998 with a sigh. “But you can’t stand in the middle of Ventura Boulevard and say, ‘Stop!’”
Times staff writer Julia Wick contributed to this report.
While delegates gleefully cast their ceremonial votes for Vice President Kamala Harris to be their presidential nominee at Tuesday night’s Democratic National Convention, a dancing DJ spun a fresh song for each state from the stage.
DJ Cassidy, the Californian sporting an electric blue suit, stole the show.
The 43-year-old Angeleno, whose name is Cassidy Podell, returned to the DNC stage Tuesday 12 years after he became the first disc jockey to perform at the quadrennial convention. He also deejayed the last DNC in 2020, an entirely virtual affair because of the pandemic, where Cassidy performed in his quintessential wide-brimmed hat and colorful suit jacket from home.
In a video posted earlier on Instagram, Cassidy greeted singer Patti LaBelle, who kicked off the evening’s events with a rendition of “You Are My Friend.”
Cassidy has frequently played the celebrity circuit, including deejaying at Beyoncé and Jay Z’s wedding. He also set the soundtrack for Obama family birthday parties.
With images of Cassidy spinning and dancing on the stage and Lil Jon rapping in the aisles of the convention hall, the Democratic Party tried to shake up the roll call of votes on Tuesday.
The music selections created a party-like atmosphere among the thousands of delegates gathered in the United Center, and reflected interesting choices. For California, Harris’ home and the final state to cast the votes of its delegates, Cassidy played a mix of hits — “The Next Episode” by Dr. Dre featuring Snoop Dogg; “California Love” by 2Pac and Dr. Dre; and “Alright” and “Not Like Us” by Kendrick Lamar.
Some were natural fits, featuring musicians from their home states. Others struck odd notes because the message of the lyrics didn’t match Democratic values. Some selections struck an inspirational tone about the prospect of electing a woman of color to the nation’s highest office. Others were completely nonsensical.
And some listeners thought it was great.
“I loved that DJ Cassidy played authentic music for every state during the DNC roll call,” Magic Johnson posted on X. “He turned it out tonight!”
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass was met with chants of “Karen! Karen!” after she described Vice President Kamala Harris as a role model who would fight to protect children at Monday’s opening night of the Democratic National Convention.
Bass told the energized crowd in Chicago that she and Harris worked together on youth homelessness and fixing the child welfare system more than a decade ago when Bass headed the California Assembly and Harris was a state prosecutor.
“Our bond was forged years ago, by a shared commitment to children,” said Bass, who has known Harris, 59, for nearly two decades. “A belief that it is everybody’s responsibility to care for every child, no matter where they come from or no matter who their parents are.”
Bass, 70, a well-known advocate for children who created the bipartisan Congressional Caucus on Foster Youth while in Congress, also used her short speech Monday to describe Harris’ work as California attorney general to help youths in the juvenile justice system.
“I know Kamala,” Bass said. “And she feels the importance of this work in her bones. When Kamala meets a young person, you can feel her passion. You can feel her heart. And you can feel her fearlessness.
“That is what defines a commitment to children: being willing to fight fiercely for every child. And trust me, Kamala has done that her entire life.”
Bass grinned at the crowd and appeared to relish her moment in the spotlight. She chuckled as she talked about how she and Harris made history and when Harris, the first female vice president, swore her in after Bass became the first woman to become L.A. mayor in 2022.
Ahead of the swearing-in, “we knew we were sending a message to young girls everywhere: that they too can lead,” Bass said.
Also, Harris and Bass have opened up to reporters about their respective families. Harris is a stepmother and refers to herself as “Momala,” while Bass has three adult stepchildren.
Other Californians who spoke during the convention’s opening night included U.S. Sen. Laphonza Butler, Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis, Reps. Maxine Waters and Robert Garcia, and Golden State Warriors coach Steve Kerr.
Before Harris was chosen to be then-candidate Joe Biden’s running mate in 2020, Bass was also viewed as a possible pick for the ticket. But some assumed Harris’ political consultants were behind a perceived effort to knock Bass off the list of potential candidates.
Still, the buzz around Bass being a possible vice president brought her national attention. A year later, Bass launched her campaign for mayor of Los Angeles.
A California Highway Patrol officer is in critical condition after he was struck by a vehicle on the 5 Freeway in Sylmar early Sunday morning, authorities said.
The officer was hit around 3:30 a.m. while responding to a disabled vehicle on the southbound 5 Freeway, north of State Route 14, according to CHP Officer Elizabeth Kravig.
He suffered “major injuries” after a 2023 Tesla struck him, according to a news release from the CHP’s Southern Division. The officer, whose name has not been released, was rushed to a local trauma center and is in critical condition, according to CHP.
The driver of the Tesla pulled over and is cooperating with investigators. Alcohol and drugs are not believed to have been a factor in the crash, authorities said. It is unknown if any automated driving features were activated on the Tesla at the time of the collision, they said.
All southbound lanes on the 5 Freeway north of State Route 14 were closed for hours Sunday morning and reopened at 10:30 a.m., she said.
A man was fatally shot in Skid Row early Saturday after an argument with another man that was captured on surveillance video, according to the Los Angeles Police Department.
Police were called at 4:24 a.m. to the 500 block of San Pedro Street, where they found a man suffering from gunshot wounds, a police department spokesperson said.
The man, who was not identified, was taken to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead, police said. The gunman fled the scene.
Surveillance video showed the victim arguing with another man, who then shot him, authorities said. Police did not have a detailed description of the gunman and no arrests have been made.
