The Brief

Tributes poured in late Sunday following news of the death of filmmaker Rob Reiner and his wife, photographer and producer Michele Singer Reiner. Officials said they were investigating a homicide at the couple's residence, but provided few details.

"It is with profound sorrow that we announce the tragic passing of Michele and Rob Reiner," a Reiner family spokesperson said in a statement shared with Variety and the Los Angeles Times. "We are heartbroken by this sudden loss, and we ask for privacy during this unbelievably difficult time."

The Los Angeles Fire Department said it responded to a medical aid request at around 3:40 p.m. local time Sunday and discovered the bodies of a 78-year-old man and 68-year-old woman inside the couple's home. Reiner turned 78 in March.

The estate of Norman Lear — the legendary producer who created All in the Family and cast Reiner in the series — released a statement remembering their close relationship.

"Norman often referred to Rob as a son," the statement said. "The world is unmistakably darker tonight."

On X, former President Barack Obama remembered Reiner for giving audiences "some of our most cherished stories" told on screen.

He added that "beneath all of the stories he produced was a deep belief in the goodness of people – and a lifelong commitment to putting that belief into action."

The author Stephen King, who collaborated with Reiner on the film adaptations for Stand by Me and Misery wrote he was "horrified and saddened" by the news, calling Reiner a "wonderful friend, political ally and brilliant filmmaker."

Beyond entertainment, Reiner was also active in politics, frequently supporting liberal causes and speaking out on social issues.

News media gather near Rob Reiner's residence Sunday, Dec. 14, 2025, in the Brentwood section of Los Angeles.

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Investigation underway in Brentwood

The Los Angeles Police Department says its investigation remains active. The area surrounding the Reiners' home was cordoned off overnight as homicide detectives worked at the scene.

Officials have declined to say whether there are any suspects. "At this time, the Los Angeles Police Department is not seeking anyone as a suspect or as a person of interest," Hamilton said. "We will not be doing this until we conduct our investigation and we move forward."

Authorities did not elaborate on the circumstances surrounding the deaths.

A career that spanned decades

Rob Reiner was born in the Bronx in 1947 to a show business family. He said his number one inspiration was his father, Carl Reiner, a comedy genius, from the early days of television. In the 1950s, the elder Reiner worked with Sid Caeser, Mel Brooks and Neil Simon. In the 1960s, he created The Dick Van Dyke Show.

Rob Reiner often spoke about how much he loved what his father did; he even told Fresh Air in September the story about how he wanted to change his name to Carl.

After studying at UCLA, he began with an improv company.

A police officer blocks off a street near Rob Reiner's residence Sunday, Dec. 14, 2025, in the Brentwood section of Los Angeles.

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Comedy really was "All in the Family" 

In the 1970s, Reiner co-starred in the TV sitcom All in the Family, which featured a generation gap that marked the era.

Reiner played Michael Stivic, the progressive son-in-law nicknamed "Meathead" by the bigoted but loveable Archie Bunker. They often butted heads about everything from politics to how to put on your shoes.

Reiner talked about how influential and controversial All in the Family was while speaking to Fresh Air's Terry Gross in September.

"I was 23" he recalled, "and it was groundbreaking at the time. Nobody had done a show like this. CBS when they put it on they had a big disclaimer at the beginning, saying – 'the views that are represented in the show don't represent the views of' — basically, it was a disclaimer saying, I don't know how this show got on here, but… watch it at your own risk."

All In The Family, as Reiner pointed out, was the number one TV show in America for five years straight.

Reiner went on to become a well-loved movie director.

His films were memorable and quotable.

"You can't handle the truth," Jack Nicholson says to Tom Cruise in the Aaron Sorkin-written thriller A Few Good Men, which was nominated for an Oscar in 1993.

"Inconceivable" is one of the many quotable lines from the 1987 fantasy adventure comedy The Princess Bride.

Reiner even cast his own mother, Estelle Reiner, to deliver the punchline of a scene in the 1989 rom-com When Harry Met Sally. After Meg Ryan's character fakes an orgasm at Katz' Deli in New York, Mrs. Reiner tells the waiter, "I"ll have what she's having."

Reiner gave credit to Billy Crystal for that line. But his films also created sensations.

The first feature film he directed, This is Spinal Tap, introduced mainstream audiences to the "mockumentary." In that 1984 parody of a rock documentary, Reiner also plays the filmmaker who asks a member of the fictional band Spinal Tap about the volume switch on an amplifier.

"The numbers all go to 11, right across the board," says the lead guitarist of the fictional heavy metal band Spinal Tap, played by Christopher Guest.

"And does it mean it's louder?" asks Reiner's character. "Well, it's one louder," explains the rocker.

Earlier this year, Reiner brought Spinal Tap back together for a sequel, Spinal Tap: The End Continues.

One of the aging rockers, Derek Smalls, was played by Harry Shearer.

In an interview with NPR Sunday, Shearer remembered Reiner as "a great collaborator. He was a great appreciator. He was encouraging and it was fun to be around him."

"It's devastating, knowing the two of them and knowing how the story ended. It's just horrible, unspeakable. It's a Greek tragedy come to our lives in the most traumatic and awful way. Rob still had more work to be done, and it's a loss."
Copyright 2025 NPR

As Los Angeles homeowners grapple with the expense of rebuilding after last year’s devastating fires, an L.A. City Councilmember is putting forward an idea that could lower some costs.

Councilmember Traci Park, who represents the Pacific Palisades, has introduced a motion to explore waiving part of the city’s portion of the local sales tax for fire victims who purchase rebuilding materials in the city.

The 1% of the local 9.75% sales tax that goes into the city’s general fund would be given back to consumers under the proposal. The waiver could apply to lumber, appliances and other rebuilding goods purchased within the city.

The motion, introduced Friday by Park and seconded by Councilmember John Lee, says: “The City should do everything within its power to alleviate the financial burden for these residents and businesses in order to facilitate their return and stabilize the Pacific Palisades community.”

Would it make much of a difference? 

Economists told LAist the proposal could help many homeowners mitigate the high cost of rebuilding, but likely wouldn’t tip the scales for under-insured, under-resourced property owners.

“It wouldn't hurt if it's very well designed and easy to use,” said Alexander Meeks, a director at the Santa Monica-based Milken Institute. “But I'm not sure if it's really going to tackle the scale of the financial challenge that survivors are facing.”

Meeks noted that the tax waiver wouldn’t lower up-front costs such as environmental testing, architectural design and permitting. And it may not help homeowners sourcing raw materials from outside the city.

Zhiyun Li, a UCLA Anderson School of Management economist, said the waiver could help some homeowners justify the additional cost of rebuilding more fire-safe structures.

“Homeowners must typically pay out of pocket to upgrade to IBHS+ standards, which are more stringent,” Li said. “The tax waiver could encourage upgrading to IBHS+ standards or investing more in mitigation, thereby reducing future risk and improving the likelihood of maintaining insurance coverage.”

What’s next for the proposal? 

The proposed tax relief would not be available to properties that have been sold since the fires started in January 2025.

The motion has been sent to the City Council’s budget and fire recovery committees. If approved by the full council, it would require the city administrative officer, the Office of Finance and the city attorney to report back to the council within 60 days on options for crafting a tax relief plan.

The motion calls for the report to consider factors such as how to minimize the burden of administering the tax relief, what documentation homeowners would have to submit and what it would cost the city to oversee the program.

Senate and House Republican leadership have resurrected a stalled plan to fund the Department of Homeland Security after a record 47-day funding lapse.

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said in a joint statement on Wednesday that the House will take up a measure passed by the Senate last week to fund most of DHS except Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol through the end of September.

Republicans would then attempt to fund ICE and Border Patrol for three years using a party-line budget reconciliation bill that would not require support from Democrats.

"In following this two-track approach, the Republican Congress will fully reopen the Department, make sure all federal workers are paid, and specifically fund immigration enforcement and border security for the next three years so that those law-enforcement activities can continue uninhibited," Thune and Johnson wrote.

The agreement comes nearly a week after House Republicans dismissed an identical plan, refusing to take up the Senate-passed measure and instead passing a 60-day short term funding bill for all of DHS that had little chance of overcoming Democratic opposition in the Senate.

Johnson called the agreement a "joke" and President Donald Trump declined to publicly endorse the deal. Trump had previously resisted any package that did not include his push to overhaul federal elections known as the Save America Act.

"I think any deal they make, I'm pretty much not happy with it," Trump told reporters last week.

Democrats welcomed the agreement as in line with their pledge not to give ICE any more money without reforms after immigration enforcement agents killed two U.S. citizens in Minneapolis. But the deal does not include any of the policy demands Democrats are pressing for, such as a ban on masks for immigration enforcement officers and requiring warrants issued by a judge, not just the agency, to enter homes.

"For days, Republican divisions derailed a bipartisan agreement, making American families pay the price for their dysfunction," Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., wrote in a statement Wednesday. "Throughout this fight, Senate Democrats never wavered."

Trump seemed to bless the revived plan earlier Wednesday, writing on social media that he wants a party-line bill to fund immigration enforcement on his desk by June 1.

"We are going to work as fast, and as focused, as possible to replenish funding for our Border and ICE Agents, and the Radical Left Democrats won't be able to stop us," Trump wrote.

Despite the shutdown, ICE has been minimally impacted because Republican lawmakers approved $75 billion for ICE through another party-line budget reconciliation bill last year.

Congress is on a two-week recess, but the Senate and House could move to fund all of DHS except ICE and CBP as early as Thursday using a procedure known as unanimous consent that allows the chambers to circumvent formal voting as long as no member objects.

Even during a recess when most members are not in Washington, this could be unpredictable, especially in the House, where many hard-line conservatives oppose a deal that does not fully fund DHS.

"Let's make this simple: caving to Democrats and not paying CBP and ICE is agreeing to defund Law Enforcement and leaving our borders wide open again," Rep. Scott Perry, R-Pa., a member of the ultra-conservative House Freedom Caucus, wrote on X. "If that's the vote, I'm a NO."

If a member does object, that could require waiting for another vote when all members are back from recess.

Claudia Grisales contributed reporting.
Copyright 2026 NPR

California clocked its second-worst snowpack on record Wednesday, a potentially troubling signal ahead for fire season.

It’s an alarming end to a winter that saw abnormally dry conditions briefly wiped from California’s drought map in January, for the first time in a quarter-century.

Though precipitation to date has been near average, much of it fell as rain rather than snow. Then March’s record-breaking heat melted most of the snow that remains. The state’s major reservoirs are nevertheless brimming above historic averages and are flirting with capacity, and a smattering of snow, rain and thunderstorms are dousing last month’s heat wave.

But experts now warn that California’s case of the missing snowpack could herald an early fire season in the mountains.

On Wednesday, state engineers conducting the symbolic April 1 snowpack measurement at Phillips Station south of Lake Tahoe found no measurable snow in patches of white dotting the grassy field.

“I want to welcome you call to probably one of the quickest snow surveys we’ve had — maybe one where people could actually use an umbrella,” joked Karla Nemeth, director of the California Department of Water Resources. “We’re getting a lot of questions about are we heading into a hydrologic drought? The answer is, I don’t know.”

State data reports that California’s snowpack is closing out the season at an alarming 18% of average statewide, and an even more abysmal 6% of average in the northern mountains that feed California’s major reservoirs.

Only the extreme drought year of 2015 beat this year’s snowpack for the worst on record, measuring in at just 5% of average on April 1st, when the snow historically is at its deepest.

“I think everyone's anticipating that it will be a long, busy fire season,” said Lenya Quinn-Davidson, director of the UC Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources Fire Network.

“Without a snowpack, and with an early spring, it just means that there’s much more time for something like that to happen.”

‘It’s pretty bizarre up here’ 

In the city of South Lake Tahoe, which survived the massive Caldor Fire in the fall of 2021 without losing any structures, fire chief Jim Drennan said his department is already ramping up prevention efforts.

“It's pretty bizarre up here right now. It really seems like June conditions more than March,” Drennan said. “People are already turning the sprinklers on for their lawns.”

Without more precipitation, an early spring may complicate prescribed burning efforts. But Drennan said fire agencies in the Tahoe basin can start mechanically clearing fuels from forest areas earlier than usual.

“That means we can get more work done,” he said.

It also means homeowners need to start hardening their homes now, said Martin Goldberg, battalion chief and fuels management officer for the Lake Valley Fire Protection District, which protects unincorporated communities in the Lake Tahoe Basin’s south shore.

Goldberg urges residents to scour their yards for burnable materials, create defensible space and reach out to local fire departments with questions. The risks are widespread — from firewood, wooden fences, gas cans, plants, pine needles — even lawn furniture stacked against a house.

“In years past, I wouldn't even think of raking and clearing until May,” Goldberg said. “But my yard's completely cleared of snowpack, and it has been for a couple weeks now.”

‘A haystack fire’

Battalion chief David Acuña, a spokesperson for Cal Fire, said fire season is shaped by more than just one year’s snowpack.

Climate change has been remaking California’s fire seasons into fire years. And California’s recent average to abundant water years have fueled what Acuña called “bumper crops of vegetation and brush.”

“Most of California is like a haystack. And if you’ve ever seen a haystack fire, they burn very intensely because there's layers of fuel,” Acuña said.

Like Quinn-Davidson, Acuña wasn’t ready to make specific predictions about fires to come.

But John Abatzoglou, a professor of climatology at UC Merced, said the temperatures and snowpack conditions this year offer a glimpse of California in the latter decades of this century, as fossil fuel use continues to drive global temperatures higher.

How this year’s fires will play out will depend on when, where and how wind, heat, fuel and ignitions combine. But it foreshadows the consequences of a warmer California for water and fire under climate change.

“This,” Abatzoglou said, “is yet another stress test for the future in the state.”

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