The Brief

The former home of one of the world's most famous western novelists, Zane Grey, was a Mediterranean Revival house designed with high, wood-beamed ceilings and airy balconies.

"It had almost a cathedral vibe when you walked in," said Nathaniel Grouille on a recent visit to the site. He bought the property with his wife in 2020.

It's been almost two months since the Eaton Fire destroyed thousands of homes in Altadena, including several noted historic and cultural landmarks like this one, which was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2002.

During a visit in February, the shattered glass from the estate's windows was still underfoot, along with blackened wood, twisted gutters and broken pieces of ceramic. All that the fire left standing are the sturdy concrete walls.

Gray was known in the 1920s and '30s for his adventure novels set on the American Frontier, like Riders of the Purple Sage and The Lone Star Ranger. Inside, his house reflected his interest in the Old West and Southwest — and those charred concrete walls that remain still bear faint traces of his interests.

"You can see the white stencils made it through the fire, even though the paint itself is gone," said Grouille's wife Alice Carr, pointing to a wall painted with Hopi spiritual figures.

Weighing options for the Zane Grey Estate  

The Zane Grey Estate in LA's Altadena neighborhood was almost completely destroyed in the January 2025 Eaton Fire. But unlike other neighboring homes which were largely made of wood, its walls were made of concrete — so they mostly remained intact.

(

Chloe Veltman

/

NPR

)

Grouille and Carr are now facing a big question: How to rebuild the site in a way that preserves Grey's legacy while protecting it from the inevitable future fires and other disasters resulting from the impacts of human-caused climate change?

Returning the property to what it was in Zane Grey's day isn't on the couple's agenda.

"This structure was incredibly unique, using really high quality old-growth wood and products that just don't exist today," Carr said.

Grouille said they have no interest in using modern materials to build a Zane Grey Estate lookalike — "A sort of Las Vegas version of a historic house."

Instead, they'd rather reframe the author's legacy to make sense in an era where human-caused climate change creates increasing threats — perhaps by building new, resilient structures out of sustainable materials that architecturally nod to Grey's personality and passion for the West.

"He mixed sort of a Teddy Roosevelt-type pragmatism with a great romance," Grouille said. "That's the kind of the thing you want to preserve."

A familiar tension

Conservation experts are familiar with this tension.

"That can sometimes be a delicate balance," said Seri Worden, Senior director of preservation programs with the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

Worden said adding a metal roof or removing flammable plantings may increase a historic landmark's chances of surviving a wildfire. But these interventions, if not done carefully, can ruin what makes these places special.

"How can we ensure that we can adapt the historic materials without losing the power these places have?" Worden said.

The Gamble House in Pasadena, a National Historic Landmark, was in a fire evacuation zone in the Los Angeles Fires. Its custodians are now making complex decisions about how to safeguard its future against the impacts of human-caused climate change while at the same time maintaining the historic details and atmosphere for which it is admired.

(

Chloe Veltman

/

NPR

)

This is a question that historic sites that escaped the flames from the recent fires are also asking themselves — such as The Gamble House. The 1908 property, owned by the City of Pasadena and a National Historic Landmark since 1977, is a crowning example of American Arts and Crafts design — a sprawl of redwood shingles and copper pipes.

It was under an evacuation warning during the recent fires; the team temporarily removed a few key artifacts as a precaution.

The Gamble House is recognized worldwide as a gem of American Arts and Crafts design. Its custodians say if it were to burn down, it would be irreplaceable.

(

Alexander Vertikoff

/

Vertikoff Archives

)

"We are an enormous wood structure. So fire makes all of us very nervous," said Sheryl Scott, the site's director of communications and operations.

Making complex decisions

Scott said The Gamble House staff had previously been focused on earthquake and flood mitigation. Now with the possibility of more fire danger in the future, her team has been making complex decisions.

One was whether to remove the beautiful but potentially hazardous creeping figs clinging to the façade. They decided no. Instead, the plan is to keep the nearby shrubs and trees trimmed.

Another has been figuring out how best to protect the buildings' historic but extremely flammable shingles, also known as shakes. That's a topic of ongoing investigation.

"We can't replace our shakes with fakes," Scott said. "The integrity of the structure, the historic content, is important to us."

The Gamble House in Pasadena

(

Alexander Verikoff

/

Vertikoff Archives

)

All of this work takes resources. There are pockets of foundation and donor money. Conservation groups like the Los Angeles Conservancy connect historic landmarks with experts such as architects and contractors willing to provide pro bono or reduced rate assistance.

But Scott said it's a hard time for California landmarks to get grants for protecting or rehabilitating historic sites against disasters. The state's Office of Historic Preservation told NPR it does not offer them. Federal funding sources like the National Park Service are also facing cuts under the Trump Administration.

"Everyone's nervous about the amount of money that's available," Scott said.

With limited resources, Scott said her team is figuring out what to prioritize in order to keep The Gamble House standing for future generations.

"The ongoing care and long term survival of the house is always our main priority," Scott said. "Every decision we make is examined through the lens of being responsible stewards."

Audio and digital story edited by Jennifer Vanasco. Audio mixed by Chloee Weiner.
Copyright 2025 NPR

Californians finish voting Tuesday for who they think can best tackle one of the toughest jobs in the state: insurance commissioner.

The commissioner is responsible for regulating the nation’s largest property insurance market that includes home and auto, plus health, pet, ride-hailing and life insurance, as well as workers’ compensation.

But the hot topic in the past few years as wildfire risk has increased has been home and fire insurance. The next commissioner will face many challenges that include trying to balance property insurance availability with affordability. Some insurance companies that had stopped renewing policies or writing new ones in the past few years are now taking advantage of new regulations that allow them to use new tools in setting their rates. This generally means premiums will rise as the Insurance Department, headed by the commissioner, is likely to keep approving increases in homeowners’ insurance premiums.

The new commissioner will also have to deal with the aftermath of last year’s Los Angeles County fires. Insurance-claim delays and denials are a key part of the slow pace of rebuilding and recovery. State Farm, California’s largest individual insurer, and the FAIR Plan, the state-mandated fire insurance provider of last resort, are both facing lawsuits from homeowners and legal action from the insurance department over their handling of claims from those fires.

The leading Democratic candidates are state Sen. Ben Allen, who will be termed out of the Legislature; Jane Kim, head of the California Working Families Party who served on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors; Patrick Wolff, a financial analyst who has never held public office; and Steven Bradford, the former state senator and assemblymember. Neither of the leading Republican candidates has held statewide public office, either: Stacy Korsgaden, a longtime insurance agent, and Merritt Farren, an attorney who lost his home in the Palisades fire last year.

The candidates CalMatters interviewed mostly agreed on the problems that need to be tackled but proposed different solutions. A few of them have called for increased financial involvement by the state: Kim wants to establish a state authority for wildfires and floods funded by a portion of policyholders’ premiums. Farren wants to create a state reinsurance authority funded by a fee insurers charge their policyholders, something both Kim and Allen have expressed interest in. Bradford said he would study a public-private partnership to help keep insurers writing policies in California.

Consumer advocacy groups and former insurance commissioners say the job is complicated and involves a “brutal balancing act” that takes into account the needs of homeowners, business owners, landlords and renters while keeping insurance companies confident that the rates they’re charging match the growing risk of wildfires in the state.

U.S. Rep. John Garamendi, the Democratic congressman whose district includes much of Contra Costa and Solano counties, was the state’s first insurance commissioner and held the position two different times. He told CalMatters that the commissioner job is “complex, hard, detailed work.”

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

California voters will advance two candidates for governor to the November election in the most unsettled gubernatorial race in recent memory, concluding a long and winding primary campaign in which Democrats struggled to pick a new leader for the nation’s most populous blue state.

The decision comes at a particularly consequential time for California. Residents face a crushing cost of living, nation-topping gas prices made worse by the war in Iran, wildfire risks that have driven insurance companies out of state, an unstable state budget, impending federal cuts to the state’s expansive health system and an economy dampened by immigration enforcement.

Democratic former state Attorney General Xavier Becerra, who has promised to fight Trump and freeze insurance and utility rates, is the leading Democrat in opinion polls and is favored by much of the state’s Democratic establishment. He appeared in contention to secure one of the top two spots for November heading into Election Day.

Republican Steve Hilton, a Donald Trump-endorsed former Fox News host who has vowed to cut income taxes and slash environmental regulations, was polling in second place ahead of Election Day, having consolidated support from many of the state’s conservatives.

But billionaire climate activist Tom Steyer, a progressive Democrat who has self-funded his campaign to the tune of $213 million, was still fighting for one of the top spots. A series of polls released in the final days of the race showed Becerra in the lead with roughly a quarter of likely voters’ support, and Steyer and Hilton locked in a tight battle for second.

Votes could take days or weeks to tally. Pollsters and strategists noted that lingering Democratic uncertainty led some voters to wait so they could back whoever appears to be ahead.

“Those polls could become self-fulfilling,” said Paul Mitchell, a Democratic strategist whose company tracks ballot return data.

The race to succeed Gov. Gavin Newsom, who will leave office at the end of the year due to term limits, is the marquee contest on the ballot Tuesday. The seat is considered a shoo-in in November for Democrats, who have nearly twice as many registered voters as Republicans, and holds national importance for the Democratic Party’s pushback to the Trump administration.

It’s also been one of the most unusually open races in recent state history.

No Democratic stars in the race

In contrast to decades of California politics dominated by movie stars, family dynasties and larger-than-life personalities, none of the most recognizable Democratic names jumped into the race.

That led to a crowded field on the left, briefly causing liberals to panic that Hilton and a fellow Republican, the bombastic Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco, could each garner more votes than any Democrat, locking the party out of the general election. The state Democratic Party began a public pressure campaign asking lower-polling candidates to drop out. Nearly all stayed in the race.

But when Democratic then-Rep. Eric Swalwell dropped out over multiple sexual assault allegations, Becerra was the clear beneficiary, raking in many of Swalwell’s donors and supporters. He’s been surging ever since, successfully dodging criticism of his record. Steyer, who spent $200 million boosting his name recognition through campaign ads, consolidated much of the party’s left flank. Former Rep. Katie Porter, a progressive dogged by allegations about her temperament, fell behind. San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan, a moderate backed by Silicon Valley billionaires, rose from single digits in the polls, but not enough.

Trump’s endorsement of Hilton quickly helped him pull away from Bianco, making it unlikely both Republicans would come in first and second. If Hilton advances to the November election, he faces long odds of being elected against a Democrat.

Both he and Steyer have spent the final weeks of the campaign portraying Becerra as a symbol of the status quo and themselves as agents of systemic change amid multiple state crises, with affordability dominating the race.

For Hilton, that would mean ending 16 years of “one-party rule” under Democrats, slashing spending and reversing many liberal policies such as greenhouse gas reduction mandates, the progressive tax system and parts of the social safety net.

“After 16 years of everything being in one direction, that’s left a lot of people dissatisfied,” he said last week. “Anybody who wants change or balance in our politics, the only choice is for me.”

His name recognition as a former Fox host helped him start the race with a fan base. Nancy LeVesque, a retired salesperson from Roseville, already admired him and said he was an easy choice as she dropped off her ballot at a Placer County vote center on Monday. She liked that he would bring an outsider’s perspective to the governor’s office and a change for those leaving California because of its liberal politics.

“We have lost so many good people,” to other states, she said.

Steyer styled himself as a populist “class traitor” who would force lower costs for Californians by taking on monied special interests like investor-owned utilities, the real estate industry and health insurance corporations. He made a litany of progressive promises on climate change, single-payer health care and raising taxes on the wealthy.

Undecided voter Tina Varnado attended a rally last week for Steyer hosted by her union, which represents home health aides. The South Sacramento resident is a full-time caretaker for her elderly mother and her adult daughter who had open-heart surgery. Between her mother’s social security checks and her pay as her daughter’s health aide, “we do have to spend everything we have every single month” to stay afloat, she said.

“Everything he touched on really touched home for me,” she said after hearing Steyer speak. “If we can lower prices, maybe we can start putting money down on a home for my future.”

Becerra has emphasized his long experience in government, including his lawsuits against the first Trump administration and his time as U.S. Health and Human Services secretary during the pandemic.

That appealed to Evan Cragin, of the California Young Democrats, which endorsed Becerra weeks before his sudden surge. Cragin said he wants the next governor to have government experience to push back on federal “abuses” from the Trump administration.

“Secretary Becerra has done that before,” Cragin said.

Surrounded by supporters at the offices of Planned Parenthood Affiliates of California on Monday, Becerra dismissed his opponents’ promises, pointing to past accomplishments including passing the Affordable Care Act and defending the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals immigration program.

“You can have all these great inflated promises,” he said. “Getting things done is not easy.”

Ryan Sabalow contributed reporting.

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

May gray has come and gone, and now it's time for June gloom.

Overcast skies will be present this morning, especially along the beaches and valleys closest to the coast. Otherwise, we're in for a partly cloudy afternoon.

Today's temperatures at L.A. County beaches will stay around 66 to 71 degrees, and reach 76 to 80 degrees for places more inland.

In Orange County, expect similar temperatures with highs from 67 to 74 degrees for Huntington Beach and surrounding areas. More inland areas like Anaheim and Garden Grove will see temperatures of up to 79 degrees.

Moving on to L.A. County valleys, expect high temperatures in the low to mid 80s.

In the Inland Empire, temperatures will range 80 to 89 degrees.