The Brief

Outside CBS Radford, WGA strike captain Joelle Garfinkel, a writer who has worked in Hollywood for more than 16 years, keeps a watchful eye over the picketers around her.

Being a strike captain “requires a certain skill set,” she says, comparing the volunteer position to somewhere between a social worker and a cheerleader.

Garfinkel makes sure that people are hydrating in the SoCal sun, coordinates with food vendors to make sure no one goes hungry, passes out popsicles as refreshment and generally works to boost morale during the long strike days.

She’s also aware that she’s in a relatively privileged position: she gets residuals from some of her past industry work, unlike her younger counterparts, who are scraping by in an industry both changed and still changing.

The rise of content streaming has yielded shorter projects, smaller writers’ rooms, shifting measurements of what constitutes a successful creative work, and minimal, if any, residuals.

This is why, in June, Garfinkel set up Green Envelope Grocery Aid — a mutual aid fund named after the color of the envelope containing residuals.

Residuals check arrive in green envelopes like this

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Joelle Garfinkel

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Green Envelope Grocery Aid is providing $100 grocery grants to striking WGA members and “pre-WGA” protesters. The fund launched in June and as of Tuesday, the fund had raised $117,617.54 and sent 1153 grocery grants.

'Those residual checks are unicorns'

While residuals are often small, a decent residual check may enable a writer to spend a month not stressed about bills, Garfinkel said. The hope of paying forward that feeling of relief, she added, is what inspired the fund’s name.

A flyer for the Green Envelope Grocery Aid fund

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From Joelle Garfinkel

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“Those residual checks are unicorns, so I thought if I can use some of that money to help pay for someone's groceries that would provide them the same relief that I felt in opening that check,” Garfinkel said. “It’s not going to help pay rent, but it’s the same feeling of hope.”

Priority funding goes to those who are generally the lowest paid, like production assistants, writers, and assistant script coordinators. The application requires uploading union cards or sending an IMDB link to prove professional connection to the industry.

While food is the most essential need, some are using the grants to pay for union dues, which need to be paid even during the strike, or for health emergencies.

With just $54.92 remaining in the fund, with 527 applications to review and 138 approved, the need is still very much present for the picketers.

Initially, Green Envelope’s donors were mostly writers using their residual money; after the grants were made available to any industry member, the pool of donors widened beyond the confines of Hollywood, drawing support worldwide.

Supporters donate via Venmo or PayPal, and Green Envelope uses those platforms to send payments, if funds permit, within minutes of an applicant’s approval.

Transactions are all processed by Garfinkel with some organizational help from volunteers, especially from PreWGA writer Joseph Mwumba, who runs WGA Virtual Mix, a meetup and support group for PreWGA writers, with writer Jelena Woehr.

Emotional support

With its approximately 160,000 members, SAG joining the strike gave the (about) 20,000 members of Writers Guild of America West and East a morale boost, Garfinkel said. “It felt like the reinforcements were coming.”

Garfinkel explains that for striking writers, sustenance and comradery provide vital emotional support, and sometimes donated food goes home with them after the end of a day of picketing, so they don’t have to think about meals.

“That's the only way that we're getting through it right now,” she said. “A lot of people are coming to the picket line just for that emotional support that we're getting from this community.”

“What we're fighting for is not for [long-time or high-earning] people that are about to retire; it's for the next generation, so as to ensure that this career exists,” Garfinkel said.

Four million acres of California’s wildest backcountry could soon be opened to paving roads and logging.

The Trump administration announced last week that it’s pushing forward with a proposal to scrap a 2001 rule that blocks logging, road building and other construction in parts of national forests. The administration argues repealing the so-called “roadless rule” is key to managing vegetation to better prevent wildfires on public lands.

Environmental advocates and other groups worry rescinding the rule would harm pristine habitat and the wildlife it supports, and open up more public land to industrial activities and human access that can cause more wildfires.

And locals are worried about losing access to some of the last protected natural lands in the region.

“What we're dealing with here in the roadless rule is the protection of the backcountry,” said David Browning, president of the Orange County Mountain Bike Association, “where you can actually go out and be having an experience where you don't hear traffic, where you don't see buildings, where you actually remember what it was like before all of us got here.”

In Southern California, large swaths of the Los Padres, Angeles, San Bernardino and Cleveland national forests would lose protections.

Browning, who spoke with All Things Considered host Julia Paskin on Monday, said he’s particularly concerned about the Santa Ana Mountains, where much of Orange County’s backcountry biking trails exist within a roadless area that could be opened to construction.

“Our mission is to protect and expand trail access, and so our entire agenda is to make sure that in a highly populated county, like Orange, that we have available the outdoors to be able to go and enjoy,” he said.

Browning takes issue with the wildfire argument — he pointed to the 2024 Airport Fire, which was sparked when heavy equipment operated by Orange County employees struck a rock. They were moving large boulders that day to, in part, block vehicles from getting into a dry brush area and potentially starting a fire. Browning said the “roadless rule” prevents such access that could increase the risk of fire. A recent peer-reviewed study supports that, finding that although roads are important for managing a fire once it ignites, they’re also more likely to be a place where a fire starts.

Though addressing wildfires and protecting public lands have become heavily politicized under the Trump administration, Browning thinks most locals probably aren’t as divided.

“ I don't think this is a party issue,” he said. “We want to hold onto the outdoors and protect them as best we can.”

There unfortunately isn’t much respite in sight for heat-weary Southern Californians.

Forecasters say this week’s heat wave is likely to be the hottest so far this summer. Extreme heat warnings will be in effect from the National Weather Service for almost the entire region from Tuesday morning through Friday evening.

Temperatures will peak between Tuesday and Thursday.

Highs in downtown Los Angeles are expected to reach around 100 degrees, and the warmest inland valleys will get up to 112. L.A. County beaches will hit the high 80s.

Forecasters have also issued Red Flag Warnings for the interior mountains and foothills of Los Angeles, Ventura and Santa Barbara counties. Gusty winds and low humidity at higher elevations mean fires could spark and spread quickly.

At lower elevations, humidity continues to make the heat feel more sweltering and make it harder to cool down, especially at night. Nighttime temperatures will only get down to the 70s in most places, including along the coast.

A slight cooldown is expected this weekend, though forecasters say temperatures will stay above normal into next week.

The extreme heat this week poses an especially high risk of heat-related illness for people over 65, young children, people who work or spend a lot of time outside and those without access to air conditioning.

Driving the heat

Several factors are behind this week’s heat wave, many of which have also been behind the rest of this summer’s consistently hot weather.

The main driver is a high pressure air system hovering over the southwestern U.S., trapping warm air, compressing it and warming it further, and blocking cooler air from entering the region.

Offshore winds are also pushing warm inland air toward the coast, preventing cooler onshore winds from blowing inland.

“That blocks our natural air conditioning off the ocean from coming in as early as it normally does,” said Weather Service meteorologist Mike Wofford. “So as long as that cool air stays offshore, it heats up on land.”

The offshore winds are not strong enough, however, to significantly dry out the air in the L.A. Basin and cut down on the humidity.

“That's probably going to be around for the whole summer because you’ve got all this warm ocean water that's feeding into that,” Wofford said.

Warmer seawater evaporates faster, adding to moisture in the air and increasing humidity across the region, especially along the coasts.

Air quality warnings

Along with the heat this week, many Southern Californians also have smog to worry about.

The South Coast Air Quality Management District issued an ozone advisory on Monday for inland areas of Los Angeles and Orange counties, much of Riverside County and parts of San Bernardino County. It will remain in effect through Friday evening.

The multi-day smog event is in part driven by the heatwave.

Officials say ozone pollution may reach unhealthy levels or higher in the Santa Clarita Valley, parts of the San Gabriel and San Bernardino valleys, and portions of the San Bernardino Mountains.

Under unhealthy levels, it’s possible for anyone to experience adverse health effects like difficulty breathing and throat irritation. Sensitive populations could experience more serious effects.

Levels are expected to be unhealthy for sensitive groups in the San Fernando Valley, Perris Valley, Mission Viejo, Lake Elsinore, Corona, Hemet, Riverside and Pasadena.

Officials advise certain vulnerable groups — including people with heart or lung disease, those with asthma, pregnant women, children and people over 65 — to limit their time outdoors.

Officials predict that ozone levels will be lower along the coast.