The Brief

LAist has a full list of all the events going on today in celebration of MLK Day — check those out here.

I spent Wednesday night screaming my head off with Dave Grohl and the Foo Fighters as they spent two-and-a-half hours ripping through their hits at the Forum, with an audience that included friends and family of the band (I even spied legendary tennis star John McEnroe in the crowd). The show included a touching — and subdued — solo tribute to drummer Taylor Hawkins, who died in 2022. They are one of the best bands to see live (the screaming just isn’t as cathartic on Spotify!), and we’re lucky to call them Angelenos.

There’s all kinds of music to lift your spirits and lighten your load this week, too. Licorice Pizza’s upcoming picks include indie-pop band Echosmith at the Mint on Monday, and Replacements legend Tommy Stinson at Alex’s Bar, also on Monday. Tuesday, U.K. singer-songwriter Jacob Banks is at the Troubadour, and on Wednesday there are a ton of options, including Robert Randolph at the Grammy Museum, hip-hop star Duckwrth at the Blue Note, Saving Abel at the Whisky and the Metal Hall of Fame ceremony at the Roxy. Also on Wednesday, Twice begin their residency at the Forum through Sunday. Plus, the Beachlife lineup for May was just announced, with sets from James Taylor and Duran Duran on tap — something to look forward to!

Elsewhere on LAist, you can meet a landlord who uses astrological signs to choose renters, find out what chefs think about the new tortilla mandate and try a Taiwanese bagel in Pasadena.

Events

All The Devils Are Here

Through January 26 
Broad Stage
1310 11th Street, Santa Monica
COST: FROM $45; MORE INFO 

Shakespeare’s villains are as timely as ever, brilliantly laid out and executed by actor and writer Patrick Page in this one-man show at the Broad Stage in Santa Monica. Page has a long history of playing the biggest roles in Shakespeare, from Brutus in Julius Caesar opposite Denzel Washington to Iago in Othello at the Washington Shakespeare Company. In this 90-minute show, Page blends his take on Shakespeare’s personal history with current pop culture references and expert quick-turn soliloquies that embody the Bard’s most vicious characters; I especially enjoyed the after-show talkback, where Page generously answers your most pressing Shakespeare questions.

Tools of the Trades: American Handmade Implements & Devices

Through February 28
Craft in America
8415 W. Third Street, Fairfax 
COST: FREE; MORE INFO 

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Courtesy Craft in America

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There’s art in the tools that make art. That’s the premise of the current show at Craft in America, Tools of the Trades: American Handmade Implements & Devices. Cleverly laid out on the walls and pedestals of the gallery space, everything from intricately engraved scissors to saws to compasses and carving tools is on display and organized by their utility.

The Puffy Chair

Monday, January 19, 7:30 p.m. 
Vidiots
4884 Eagle Rock Blvd., Eagle Rock 
COST: SOLD OUT, WAITLIST AVAILABLE; MORE INFO

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Courtesy Ink Films

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Original mumblecore brothers Mark and Jay Duplass have gone on to numerous mainstream projects (Mindy Project, Industry and Transparent, just to name a few), but it all started with indie darling The Puffy Chair. The brothers, plus Katie Aselton, will join for a screening of the roadtrip/buddy comedy about an adventure to pick up, you guessed it, a puffy chair, on the film’s 20th anniversary.

Night Scene 

Wednesday, January 21, 8 p.m.
Zebulon 
2478 Fletcher Drive, Frogtown
COST: $38.63; MORE INFO

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Courtesy Dice

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Do you like fun? Night Scene has it all — they call it a “rock & roll sleaze show” but it’s a little bit of everything — DJ night, live performances, cool visuals, featured dancers and more. This week, check out sets from Frankie and The Studs, special guest Domenica Fossati (Brazilian Girls) and creator Ashley Hayward.

Stand Up for Pets

Wednesday, January 21, 7 p.m.
Wallis Annenberg PetSpace 
12005 Bluff Creek Drive, Playa Vista 
COST: $30; MORE INFO 

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Wallis Annenberg PetSpace

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Eventbrite

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Laugh along with your furry friend (and meet some potential new ones!) at Wallis Annenberg PetSpace’s Stand Up For Pets comedy night. Can't Even Comedy presents an evening of stand-up headlined by Tacarra Williams (Bring the Funny, Totally Funny Kids) and hosted by Caitlin Benson.

Angel City FC at LA Works MLK Day Volunteer Festival 

Monday, January 19, 12 p.m. to 4 p.m.
LA Memorial Coliseum 
3911 S. Figueroa Street, University Park 
COST: FREE; MORE INFO 

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Angel City FC

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Eventbrite

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Use your day off to support youth in L.A. with Angel City FC and L.A. Works. You’ll help put together 1,500 sports kits for youth across Los Angeles, giving them the tools they need for learning and play. The opportunity brings volunteers like you together to honor King’s community vision.

We Buy Souls

Through February 14
Good Mother Gallery
5103 W. Adams Blvd., West Adams
COST: FREE; MORE INFO

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Courtesy Rabi

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You’ve seen them all over — those telephone pole signs that look like ads, but really are an art installation and the brainchild of L.A.-based artist RABI (David Emanuel Mordechai Torres). This conceptual installation brings his long-running subservice public intervention into a gallery space for the first time ever. WE BUY SOULS! has attracted attention for its place as “artwork, equal parts installation, performance, marketing experiment and dark satire,” with the posters directing people to a hotline where they are prompted to leave a message dictating the value of their soul and why. Ponder that and other deep thoughts while exploring RABI’s work at the Good Mother Gallery in West Adams.

Speaker Series

Monday, January 19, 5 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. 
Alana’s Coffee Venice
2524 Pacific Ave., Venice 
COST: FREE; MORE INFO 

Three inspiring speakers from across the worlds of Hollywood and literature will share stories and insights into their careers — for free! — at the new Alana’s Coffee speaker series. Inspired by Lectures on Tap and other “hang and learn” projects popping up, this first one features Patricia Rust (The King of Skittledeedoo), Kimberly O’Hara (author and storycoach) and Nancy Nyberg (former Fox exec).

Descanso L.A. One-Year Celebration

Thursday, January 22, 5 p.m. to close
Descanso
5773 Wilshire Blvd., Miracle Mile
COST: $55; MORE INFO

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Courtesy JS2 PR

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Celebrate a year of new Mexican spot Descanso on Wilshire with an all-you-can-eat taco night for $55. Plus live painting, a DJ, margarita flights and more. The event benefits Food Access L.A.

The war in Iran is rattling the aviation industry, from flight cancellations to rising costs for jet fuel. So if you're planning to travel this spring or summer, should you grab a ticket now, or wait?

"You should go ahead and book," says Sean Cudahy, an aviation reporter at The Points Guy travel and personal finance website.

It's generally recommended to buy international flights further in advance than domestic trips. But in the current circumstances, Cudahy says he would go ahead and book even domestic flights.

His advice is a sign of how the Middle East conflict is rippling outward, affecting prices and itineraries around the world, beyond the thousands of travelers who were stuck after the war forced a barrage of flight cancellations.

Airlines warn that ticket prices will rise with fuel costs

The war's effect on travel was sudden and striking, resulting in the cancellation of more than 46,000 flights in and out of the Middle East from Feb. 28 — when the U.S. and Israel began bombing Iran — to March 11, according to Cirium, the aviation analytics company.

That includes Dubai International, the busiest airport in the world for international travel, according to Airports Council International, along with popular hubs in Doha and Abu Dhabi.

But even airlines far from the Mideast are facing a sudden surge in a core expense: jet fuel. At the beginning of the year, a gallon of jet fuel cost $2.11; by March 10, the price rose to $3.40, according to the Argus U.S. Jet Fuel Index, a gain of more than 60%.

The spike came after tanker traffic through the Strait of Hormuz came to a virtual halt, as Iran announced it would close the waterway that normally handles about 20% of the world's oil and liquified natural gas.

Mideast refineries had been sending some 470,000 barrels of jet fuel each day through the strait to airports in Europe and elsewhere, says Rick Joswick, who heads the near-term oil analytics team at S&P Global.

The price for a gallon of jet fuel soared close to $4 in the first week of the war, prompting United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby to say on Friday that airfare price hikes from higher fuel costs would "probably start quick."

As they absorb higher fuel costs, airlines could adjust prices higher across the board, or they might tuck an increase into premium fares, where they'll be less noticeable, Cudahy of The Points Guy says.

Several airlines have publicly confirmed that they'll be raising prices to compensate, as Reuters reports. Other carriers, such as Japan Airlines, publish a schedule of fuel surcharges triggered by cost increases.

"I do think that this is ultimately going to lead to higher fares for everyone," Cudahy says. "The only question now is how significant and how long does it last?"

Air travelers stranded by the Iran conflict are greeted in Athens, Greece, after arriving on a charter flight from Dubai on Saturday.

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Giannis Antwnoglou

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Crisis parallels earlier global disruptions

The higher fuel prices reflect a genuine struggle to ensure the aviation industry has ample supplies, says Joswick.

"It's not irrational. It's not some trader bidding up prices," he says. Comparing the situation to the COVID-19 pandemic, he adds, "The consumption of toilet paper didn't change. But you notice that all of the supermarkets ran out of toilet paper, right? Everyone wants to be sure that they have coverage of a critical need."

Both Cudahy and Joswick compare the Iran conflict's ripple effects to Russia launching its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, which set off flight disruptions and higher fuel prices. As long as the Strait of Hormuz is closed, Joswick says, prices will keep rising.

"If that were to persist, this would be like a 1979 kind of [oil] crisis," he says. "Anything over a month, and you're seeing a substantial long-term price increase until the flows are restored."

The U.S. and other large economies can mitigate those effects by tapping strategic oil reserves — which they opted to do on Wednesday. But Joswick predicts that while such a move can help ensure adequate oil supplies, it might not bring a sharp drop in jet fuel prices. For one thing, he says, the U.S. reserve focuses on holding crude oil, not jet fuel. And he cites logistical challenges, such as California's reliance on jet fuel that it either produces or imports.

Tips for buying a plane ticket right now

If you're ready to take your chances and book a flight, Cudahy has some guidance.

First, don't buy a restricted, basic economy ticket that you can't change later, he says.

Instead, he recommends buying a regular, full-fare economy ticket: "If the price does eventually drop, you can then go back and change it and capture the lower price."

Another tactic, Cudahy says, is to use airline miles.

"You can generally cancel it and get all your miles back later, if the price goes down," he says.

Use services such as Google Flights to comparison shop and set up alerts for price changes. And if you book flights through a third-party site such as Expedia, be sure you understand its cancellation and change policies, in case they differ from the airlines.

Because of the chance for renewed hostilities in and around Iran, Cudahy says he would try to avoid nearby airline hubs for the next couple of months.

But he wouldn't wait to book a ticket.

"In the same way that we're seeing relatively long lines at gas stations with folks trying to get their tanks filled up before the price goes up even more than it already has, I would be thinking the same way when it comes to airfare right now," he says.

While you might drive an extra mile or two to find cheaper gas, airlines and airports don't have that luxury when they buy jet fuel.

"Prices are always set on the margin," Joswick says. "That last airport that needs to buy jet fuel, they will pay whatever it takes to get that. And that price then becomes the standard for the whole industry."
Copyright 2026 NPR

The story first appeared on The LA Local.

Los Angeles residents were walking dark streets and passing broken lamps even as the LAPD quietly disbanded a specialized unit in July that tracked thieves stealing copper wire from streetlights. 

Known as the Heavy Metal Task Force, the unit launched in early 2024 to combat persistent copper wire theft from lamps lighting the Sixth Street Bridge connecting Boyle Heights to Downtown L.A.

Lt. Andrew Mathes confirmed to The LA Local this week that the unit was eliminated in July 2025 as the department and city tightened budgets. The L.A. Bureau of Street Lighting, the department responsible for maintaining the lights, also had its budget cut by about 5% in the current fiscal year as its backlog of reports continues to grow. 

The team led investigations that exposed organized wire theft, resulting in more than 300 arrests. And it conducted inspections of local scrapyards to make it harder for people to cash in on high copper resale prices.

“When you get an eye for it, copper is everywhere,” Mathes said. 

Public concerns about lights persist

Calls for repair of streetlights surged from about 35,000 in 2022, the year the Sixth Street Bridge was opened to the public, to 46,000 in 2024. There was only a slight dip in such calls in 2025.

The calls made to the city’s 311 line for non-emergency services include lamps that were hit by cars or could be malfunctioning due to age. But the jump in calls starting in 2022 also include a surge in thefts.

Reports of copper wire theft doubled from about 7,200 in fiscal year 2022-23 to nearly 16,000 in 2024-25, according to data from the L.A. City Controller. But starting last year, the monthly calls began trending down, from 1,500 in October 2024 to about 200 in May 2025. 

After previously leading a similar team on catalytic converter thefts, Mathes was tapped for leading the unit on heavy metal thefts in early 2024. The team was based in the LAPD’s Central Division near where such thefts had been focused.

“LA is the copper theft capital,” Mathes said. “It’s the worst of the worst here.”

At their most active, Mathes said, the unit was conducting two or three operations a week.

They inspected scrapyards for stolen metal and warned the owners of the penalties they could face for purchasing it. They found people impersonating construction workers removing reams of wire for resale. He’d find makeshift processing operations in decrepit RVs, with huge spools of wire spun by hand and toxic fire pits where people would melt away plastic shielding because the unwrapped copper fetches a higher price.

Mathes said they tracked a 70% reduction in such thefts in the Newton Division, south and east of downtown.

So what happens if there is no specialized unit? 

Mathes said it was fitting that the first and last arrests made by the heavy metal unit occurred near the iconic bridge on Sixth Street. 

The officers who served on the unit developed valuable experience, Mathes said. And soon before it disbanded, he said they redoubled efforts to prepare the members to continue the work in their new assignments. Central, Hollenbeck and Newton police divisions have a specialist for these kinds of investigations.

When asked about wire thefts growing in other parts of the city in 2025, he presumed it was because of the intensive work the unit was doing near downtown.

“They had to find new places to target,” Mathes said.

The Los Angeles County fires last year drove up insurance costs for many Californians. Now, a proposed settlement means some State Farm policyholders whose premiums rose won’t see additional increases, and others should even get refunds.

State Farm, the largest insurer in the state with about 20% market share, received approval for unprecedented emergency insurance rate increases in California last May. The company told the state that the billions of dollars it expected to pay out after the deadly fires placed it in financial peril.

The proposed deal among the state Insurance Department, consumer advocacy group Consumer Watchdog and State Farm, disclosed late last week, comes after months of public hearings convened by the insurance department and settlement talks.

Consumer Watchdog, which questioned the rate increases State Farm asked for, says the settlement saves the company’s California policyholders a total of $530 million. From the proposed settlement:

• Homeowners’ rate hikes will stay at the previously approved interim rate of 17% instead of the 30% the company sought.
• Condo owners who saw interim rate hikes of 15% will see their rates drop to an increase of 5.8%, and get refunds with interest dating back to June 1, 2025.
• Rental unit owners with interim rate hikes of 38% will see those increases drop to 32.8%, and receive refunds with interest. 
• Renter policyholders will see an increase of 15.65% vs. the interim rate hike of 15%.

In addition, State Farm has agreed not to cancel any new policies this year, and it won’t be canceling some policies it had planned not to renew in wildfire-affected areas. The insurance department characterized those provisions as important to the continued stability of the state’s insurance market, which has been beset with availability and affordability issues.

“When consumer advocates are able to challenge the data and present their own analysis, excessive requests are reduced and consumers are protected,” said Harvey Rosenfield in a statement. Rosenfield founded Consumer Watchdog and wrote Proposition 103, the voter-approved law that governs insurance in California.

State Farm has paid out more than $5 billion in claims from the L.A.-area fires so far, said spokesperson Tom Hartmann.

After consumer complaints and lawsuits, the insurance department is investigating the company’s handling of claims from the fires and expects results from that examination later this spring.

The agreement, which must be approved by an administrative law judge, also requires State Farm to undergo additional review of its rates in 2027. The company will be required to make a one time 2.5% premium discount available to renewing policyholders if its ratio of premiums to available cash reaches a certain level; Consumer Watchdog litigation director Will Pletcher said the deal will give the group more timely access to the company’s annual financial statements to help keep it accountable.

The insurance department expects the judge to decide on the settlement by April 7. Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara will then review the judge’s decision and have the final say.

This article was originally published on CalMatters and was republished under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives license.