The Brief

California is getting closer to mandating low-cost broadband internet options, mirroring New York, whose law went into effect earlier this year.

A California state Assembly bill heading for its first hearing next week would require every internet service provider to offer broadband plans at no more than $15 for residents using qualifying public assistance programs.

Known as AB 353, the move aims to make high-speed internet more affordable to the 3.5 million Californians who currently go without.

The affordability movement

Democratic Assemblymember Tasha Boerner, who introduced the bill, says California needs it because some households don’t have enough money to pay for a basic home internet plan.

“We are talking about kids not being able to do homework at home, parents having to go to libraries to apply for jobs, and people not having access to do basic things, like telehealth,” Boerner said.

New York’s state bill mandating $15 plans went into effect earlier this year after the Second Circuit Court of Appeals upheld New York’s right to regulate broadband prices.

That decision gave other states the legal backing to try the effort at home — and it’s progressed fast. Aside from California, lawmakers in Massachusetts and Vermont have already introduced bills to regulate affordable prices in the last few months. And others could follow suit — more than 20 states signed onto an amicus brief in support of the law when it was being challenged.

California’s attempt at affordable home internet

Boerner’s bill focuses on helping especially vulnerable residents. AB 353 would require the $15 plans be available to any household with at least one person who participates in a qualified public assistance program, such as CalFresh or Medi-Cal.

The plans must have the federal minimum standard for broadband speeds — at least 100 megabits per second for download and 20 megabits per second for upload. At that speed, users can typically do streaming, video calls and online gaming.

More affordable plans are sometimes accessible, such as through government subsidies or discounts, but a lower $15 rate from major providers could open up high-speed access to a wider range of people. Many affordable plans in the state currently start at $30 a month or have slower speeds.

The state’s Public Advocates Office, an independent entity that advocates for consumers at the California Public Utilities Commission, said in a report the option could save residents with very low income nearly $100 million a year, while potentially reducing top providers’ revenue by less than 1%. However, the broadband policy will need to be updated with higher minimum speeds in the future as internet demands grow.

AB 353 needs a majority vote to pass the legislature, but will start in the Committee on Communications and Conveyance. The hearing will be livestreamed on the Assembly’s website on April 30 at 1:30 p.m.

For years, California lawmakers and transit leaders have requested billions of dollars from the federal government to temporarily double L.A.’s bus fleet and support public transportation for the 2028 Olympics and Paralympics.

Those calls have grown increasingly desperate in recent months, with Los Angeles Metro saying time is running out to execute its plans.

Now, the transportation agency says that if it doesn’t get a guarantee that the money is secured by the end of the year, it won’t provide the extra buses. Instead, it would leave private Olympics organizing committee LA28 to come up with a new plan.

Metro staff laid out the timeline in a report submitted to the agency’s board that will be reviewed at a special meeting Wednesday.

“Transportation capacity cannot be procured overnight,” Metro wrote in a statement to LAist.

A looming funding deadline

If federal funds don’t materialize in time, LA28 could be left with a major logistical and financial challenge.

Metro, the countywide transportation agency, has thus far led planning for the enhanced bus service, which was seen as the cornerstone of the region’s strategy to get people around Los Angeles during the summer of 2028.

The board report outlines that Metro has, as of May, secured commitments from 28 transit agencies to loan or donate over 1,000 buses and more than 300 personnel to support the enhanced bus service.

In total, Metro has said it needs $2 billion from the federal government for the Games. Approximately half that appropriations request would be used to obtain, operate and maintain 1,750 buses — on top of its existing fleet — for the Olympics network.

Metro said that any additional buses it provides will depend on the amount of money it locks down. The agency told LAist that it needs to make decisions based on concrete funding well before the Games in order to secure the buses, operators and facilities.

LA28 also does not appear to be ready to pay for a temporary bus system, should federal funding never arrive. Its $7.1 billion budget does not include a line item for transit.

This in turn puts the city of L.A. at risk because Los Angeles is the financial backstop for the Games. L.A. and the state of California will cover cost overruns from the Olympics and Paralympics, should they occur.

LA28 CEO Reynold Hoover told LAist on Tuesday that he was not alarmed about Metro's impending deadline.

"[Metro CEO] Stephanie Wiggins and I are working really close together to work with the administration to find the funding," Hoover said. "I'm pretty confident that the administration and the Congress will find funding that Metro needs."

When asked if the Olympics could be put on without a supplementary bus system, Hoover told LAist that a bus program for the Olympics would be a part of the Games "one way or another in some scale or form."

What did Metro and LA28 agree to?

Metro can exit its role orchestrating the Olympics bus system according to a memorandum of understanding with LA28 outlining the parties’ obligations for the 2028 Games.

According to the agreement, approved by Metro’s board in March, Metro is not required to provide additional services beyond its status quo if it doesn’t secure supplementary funding for its enhanced bus service.

The September board report that will be the subject of Wednesday’s meeting outlines that without “funding certainty,” its agreement with LA28 will expire.

“The organizing committee will need to seek another delivery partner for spectator and workforce transportation,” the agency wrote in the board report.

This summer, lawmakers included $875 million for Olympics-related transportation needs in a spending bill that still needs to move through the appropriations process. According to the Metro report, that funding would be covered by rescinding money for passenger rail projects in other parts of the country, meaning it has an uphill battle passing through the legislature.

Jacie Prieto Lopez, an LA28 spokesperson, said in an emailed statement that Olympics organizers were working with Metro to “jointly engage key partners on Capitol Hill and the White House as appropriations and budget decisions are made.”

The Hurricane Marie-fueled surf that hit Southern California last week was just a taste of the coastal damage El Niño could bring over the next several months, experts warn.

The destructive waves, driven by a weather system hundreds of miles away in the Pacific Ocean, reached 12 feet at times over Labor Day weekend.

The surf damaged beachfront homes from Malibu to Orange County and triggered evacuation orders for dozens more. It also threatened coastal roads and temporarily suspended service along the Pacific Surfliner railway between San Clemente and Oceanside. And coastal emergencies are still in place in Laguna Beach and Dana Point.

But there’s a good chance this was just the beginning.

The National Weather Service says there is a more than 90% chance this year’s El Niño will be very strong. Scientists also predict an alarming convergence of climate forces to come along with it that could push sea levels and surf to record highs this winter.

Coastal erosion from these atmospheric forces could come even sooner, however, with El Niño-related sea level rise expected to hit Southern California as soon as Oct. 1.

Here’s a look at the factors experts say are converging with potentially devastating effects.

Kelvin waves

First, let’s talk about Kelvin waves.

Kelvin waves are large masses of warm water that move across the ocean, driven by the same high water temperatures near the equator that are behind the wider El Niño climate pattern.

In this case, the wave first moved eastward along the equator until it ran into Central and South America, where the landmass forced it to head north. Now, it’s working its way toward Southern California.

Kelvin waves bump up the sea level about 6 to 18 inches over a large area. In the open ocean, they aren’t particularly noticeable to the naked eye. Scientists use specialized equipment to detect them.

But when pushed up against the coast, they can create much more substantial sea level rise, and scientists say this Kelvin wave is likely to reach the Southern California coast by early next month.

This graphic shows the sea surface heights over 45 days between August and September as the Kelvin wave hit South America, then began its journey north along the coast of Central America. These number are compared to the 1993-2025 baseline sea levels over 45 days between August and September.

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Dillon J. Amaya

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High sea levels push waves farther inland, where they crash against the shoreline with greater force, making erosion worse.

“ Boy, if you have enough water level to support those waves so they dump right on your coast, they're right there,” said Timu Gallien, a UCLA environmental engineering professor who studies coastal erosion. “Now they're coming through your window, now they're on your front porch, quite literally, for the beachfront homes.”

Scientists also say multiple Kelvin waves are likely to come in a sequence, become trapped against the coast and build up sea levels even more.

King tides

El Niño’s warm oceans cause elevated sea levels on their own because warm water takes up more space than cold water. When combined with natural high tides, levels are raised even higher, creating destructive king tides.

This year, by late fall and winter, tides are projected to be at their highest levels in 18 years due to the natural cycle of the moon and planets.

Sea-level rise from the nearly decade-high tides is likely to combine with El Niño’s surge.

“That rides on top of the tide,” Gallien said. “ You've got the tides that are going up and down, then you've got this El Niño signal that goes up and down on top of that tide.”

Storms

Warm El Niño waters also drive storms, and scientists are predicting some of the highest ocean temperatures ever recorded.

“We're going to be experiencing record-breaking water temperatures for many, many months on end on the top of what is already a record-breaking marine heat wave,” said Daniel Swain, a UC climate scientist, during a webinar on El Niño predictions last week.

Warmer seawater evaporates faster, adding moisture in the air that can turn into rain. El Niño also shifts the jet stream, pushing more moisture into Southern California rather than its normal path toward the Pacific Northwest.

Warm waters also create more tropical storms in the eastern Pacific, making them stronger and longer lasting.

Like Hurricane Marie, surges from these storms can travel hundreds of miles until they slam into the California coast.

The Los Angeles Dodgers marked their record-tying 14th consecutive trip to MLB’s postseason with a toast of bubbly after Monday night’s 4-1 victory over the Cincinnati Reds.

The bigger celebrations will come later.

“It’s hard to say it ever feels routine, but it is the expectation here,” third baseman Max Muncy said. “I always laugh whenever we clinch a postseason spot, we just do a nice little toast. The guys that haven’t been here, they kind of see that and they expect a little bit more. That happens when you clinch the division.”

The two-time defending World Series champions, who joined Milwaukee and Tampa Bay as teams who have secured playoff spots, cut their magic number to three for a fifth straight NL West title and 13th in 14 seasons.

Los Angeles tied the Atlanta Braves’ postseason run from 1991 through 2005. The Braves made five World Series trips during that span, but won only in 1995.

“Thankfully we’re doing a little bit better than that,” Muncy said of the Dodgers three titles and five trips to the Fall Classic during their run.

Tarik Skubal — who pitched seven shutout innings and allowed only three hits — said the way the Dodgers handled clinching a postseason spot was definitely different compared to clinching situations he encountered the past two seasons with Detroit.

“I think it just speaks to the people in this room and what they expect out of this team. That was cool. A little toast and move on. Forget it happened. We’ve got more to accomplish this season,” he said.

Dave Roberts, who is in his 11th season as manager, said his message during the toast was that the Dodgers have accomplished a lot to this point but haven’t come close to playing their best baseball yet.

“We go through a lot of players every year, and guys find a way to step up, and so that’s the thing I’m probably most proud of, is the consistency of winning over the long term,” he said. “Any team, any organization can win in a given year where things line up, but to do it every single year when you’re expected to do this says something about the entire organization.”

The Dodgers (91-59) currently are the second seed in the NL. They are 2 1/2 games ahead of Atlanta and trail Milwaukee by 2 games for the top seed.

A first-round bye is important any time but especially this year for the Dodgers, who are not at full strength. First baseman Freddie Freeman has been plagued by right knee soreness and two-time NL MVP Shohei Ohtani is on the 15-day injured list due to right biceps inflammation.

“Given where our guys are health wise, to get that week would be huge. We’ve still got to play well to finish out the season to get to that point,” Roberts said before Monday’s game.

Among the hundreds of lead-polluted sites dotted across L.A. County, a disproportionate number are located in largely low-income neighborhoods of color. Too often, lead pollution is left in place, even when it’s severe enough to cause health harm, with potential long-term implications for those living there like irreversible neurological damage.

If it’s not dug up and hauled away or removed by some other biological means, it can stay in the environment for millenia.

Below are five lead-contaminated sites across L.A. County that illustrate just how pervasive and intractable this problem can be, how costly it is to clean up, and how surprising some of the sources are.

1. Ecobat Resources California

The Ecobat Resources California lead-acid battery recycling plant in the City of Industry.

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Karla Gachet

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Ecobat Resources California in the City of Industry is the only lead battery recycling plant left operating this side of the Rockies. It opened in 1959 (under the company name Quemetco), when the world of environmental regulations was more akin to the Wild West.

In 2008, the plant installed a sophisticated air filter that helped reduce lead emissions markedly. But by then, the plant had already released huge quantities of lead into the surrounding environment, carried by the wind before settling over people’s homes.

A long history of hazardous waste violations spanning decades also show Ecobat has not been as careful as it should in managing the dangerous chemicals it processes.

Multiple rounds of soil lead testing have been conducted around the plant since the early 1990s, and as recently as 2021. In 2024, DTSC ordered the company to do yet more testing to define the full extent of their pollution footprint.

That’s because “every single time they’ve gone out to sample in the community, they’ve got a non-trivial portion of the samples collected showing elevated levels of lead,” said Angela Johnson Meszaros, a senior attorney with the environmental nonprofit Earthjustice.

The nearest homes are just hundreds of feet from the plant perimeter, but state officials estimate it could have polluted soils up to 1.6 miles away. Yet, no government agency has ever cleaned up these lead–contaminated homes.

Though DTSC has linked the plant’s operations to this off-site contamination, Ecobat Resources California leadership and other industry representatives have voiced reservations about a potential cleanup, arguing the plant shouldn’t be responsible for removing pollution that might have come from other potential sources like lead paint and gasoline.

Community members and environmental advocates are worried that, when time comes to close the plant and clean up its mess (something not currently on the cards), there won’t be enough money given the scale of the possible remediation.

In Ecobat’s latest hazardous waste operating permit issued in 2025, the state Department of Toxic Substances Control, or DTSC, required the company to post more than $50 million in financial assurances to cover all the cleanup costs if the plant were to close, and for any ongoing environmental monitoring of the site after that.

The number is way too small, warned Johnson Meszaros. “This amount is at best, a baseless hope about the extent of the contamination that has left the facility,” she said. “And at worst, it’s a tragic mistake.”

2. S&W Atlas Iron and Metals

Loud ground-shaking activity within S&W Atlas Iron would often disrupt classes at Jordan High school.

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Courtesy of LAUSD

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For years, S&W Atlas Iron and Metals, a scrap metal recycling plant in Watts, contaminated the neighboring Jordan High campus with toxins like lead, made the lives of students and teachers unbearable with loud ground-shaking noises, and terrorized them with multiple explosions that rained shrapnel onto school grounds. The school and the plant were separated by a single wall.

Last year, Matthew and Gary Weisenberg, the owner operators of Atlas, pleaded no contest in the Los Angeles County Superior Court to five felony counts related to the management of hazardous substances including lead, and were ordered to clean up the toxic mess they’ve left behind.

The problem isn’t over. Cancer-causing chemicals in the soil are crawling toward and onto the campus of Jordan High that court filings describe as “orders of magnitude” above state screening levels.

“Let’s call it what it is, a form of societal violence and a human rights violation,” said Jane Williams, executive director of the environmental advocacy group California Communities Against Toxics, who has tracked this case for decades.

The Weisenbergs’ two-year probationary clock runs out in October 2027.

But many in the Jordan High community have voiced frustration that the Weisenbergs are dragging their heels on this ongoing remediation, and that state regulators aren’t being tough enough, especially given how the students are already in one of the most pollution-burdened communities in the whole state.

“What I want to see is the DTSC and CalEPA really look holistically at the cumulative risks at this site and that they really start to address not just one contaminant individually but all the of the factors that are weighing on the Watts community at any given time,” said Thelmy Alvarez, who helped found the environmental justice collaborative Better Watts Initiative and who worked for years to close down Atlas.

3. Exide Technologies

Large water pipes are shown in the foreground inside the now-demolished Exide Technologies plant.

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Alfredo Santana

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LA Public Press

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For three decades, the former Exide lead battery recycling plant in the City of Vernon spewed some 3,500 tons of lead into surrounding neighborhoods until the federal government forced it to close in 2015. So far, the state has overseen the removal of lead-contaminated soil in more than 6,300 homes up to 1.7 miles around the plant. The massive cleanup is the largest hazardous waste cleanup in the state’s history.

A federal bankruptcy court released Exide Technologies from its cleanup obligations in October 2020, the company having stumped up only about $23.3 million toward those costs. This is a fraction of the nearly $950 million state taxpayers have so far forked out for the cleanup.

Major question marks remain about just how well those public funds have been used.

The nonprofit advocacy group East Yard Communities for Environmental Justice partnered with UC Irvine researchers to collect soil samples from 373 homes that had already been cleaned up. Earlier this year, they published their findings.

They found that 70 percent of these supposedly remediated homes yielded samples that still exceeded the state’s health protective soil lead threshold.

The department has been conducting its own confirmation testing on 623 properties that were previously cleaned up between mid-April 2025 and February.

The individual sampling reports and raw data have been released in batches since June. A comprehensive report on these results will be available early next year, according to DTSC spokesperson Elizabeth Leslie-Gassaway.

4. Central Metals

The now shuttered Central Metals facility in South LA, captured here in July 2025.

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Dan Ross

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Long Beach Post

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When the huge front gates used to open to Central Metals, a recycler in South Los Angeles, the neighbors who lived right across the road got a glimpse into a vast metal wasteland full of junk piles.

Those who lived in the noisy shadow of this bustling 11-acre compound, where scrap would be cut and shredded, long feared it had polluted their homes and backyards with lead.

Their fears were heightened in 2011, when the state found hazardous waste leaks from smashed battery cases at the plant, along with oily sludge and broken e-waste.

Company documents detailed 430 tons of onsite soil laced with lead and other chemicals. Regulators determined toxic dust had likely blown into the adjacent community. It was closed in 2016.

Two years later, the EPA began an investigation into lead pollution surrounding Central Metals to determine whether to include the site on the federal Superfund list.

Among the agency’s eventual findings, 11 of the 83 homes sampled had soil lead levels high enough to warrant remediation, but not significant enough, the EPA argued, to make Central Metals a Superfund site.

To help decide whether Central Metals should join the Superfund list, the EPA used a soil lead cleanup threshold of 400 parts per million (ppm).

Since that report was published, the EPA has halved its residential soil lead screening limit to 200 ppm. Using that threshold, nearly 25% of the EPA’s samples in the report were over that threshold.

If the EPA used California’s stricter residential soil lead screening limit of 80 ppm, however, a staggering 88% of its published samples would exceed that threshold, according to an LA Public Press review of the data.

Mason Thomas Reid, a researcher at Ohio State University and UCLA’s JAYLab, taking soil lead readings with an XRF gun at a home around the former Central Metals plant in July 2025.

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Dan Ross

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LA Public Press

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This matches the results of a more recent independent soil lead study at homes around Central Metals, where 86% of the samples were also above California’s 80 ppm cleanup threshold.

Both the EPA and the DTSC told LA Public Press they have no plans to remediate these homes. The only cleanup has been within the recycler’s walls.

In explaining DTSC’s position, agency spokesperson Leslie-Gassaway wrote in an email how the EPA had already found no “correlation” between the residential lead contamination and Central Metals.

“As a result, DTSC is not directing Central Metals to perform soil lead remediation near its facility,” wrote spokesperson Leslie-Gassaway.

But the independent researchers found that the higher lead levels in the homes “correlated significantly” with closer proximity to Central Metals.

Either way, “no matter who put it there, the people are still suffering as a result of exposure to all of this contamination, and that’s something that should be addressed,” said Mason Thomas Reid, a researcher at Ohio State University and UCLA’s JAYLab who helped conduct the study with key support from the non-profit Communities for a Better Environment.

5. Santa Monica Airport

Santa Monica Airport is scheduled to be closed down in 2028 after decades of community pushback, including over emission risks from leaded aviation fuels.

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Dan Ross

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LA Public Press

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While a complete ban on the sale of leaded gas for highway vehicles was finally achieved in 1996, the little piston engine planes criss-crossing L.A.’s skies are still using leaded fuel, which rains out over the world below.

In total, these planes constitute the largest lead emitter in the nation.

The EPA is also phasing out the use of leaded aviation gasoline. The goal is for this to be achieved by 2030.

In the meantime, the more than 200,000 such planes that use this fuel have access to multiple county, municipal and private airports across LA. One of those airports is in Santa Monica.

Regulatory air quality studies published in 2010 and  2011 found the highest lead levels occurred closest to the Santa Monica runways before tapering off and returning to normal levels 1 kilometer away, and that air contaminants spiked just before and after planes took off.

Around that same time, the EPA found elevated soil lead levels in two of five tested homes close to the airport, though not in limited soil and dust samples at the airport and neighboring parks.

With significantly greater lead emissions than Santa Monica is Van Nuys Airport in the San Fernando Valley. Indeed, Van Nuys ranks as one of the largest lead emitting airports nationwide. An extensive 2025 report found that residents living in the shadow of the Van Nuys Airport attributed health conditions to noise and air pollution stemming from the airport.

Their concerns are far from unfounded.

The EPA determined in 2023 that leaded aviation gasoline is a likely danger to “public health and welfare.” This 2016 study identified higher rates of respiratory problems, heart disease, and emergency room visits among those living around California’s 12 largest airports.

Overall research on lead impacts around all L.A. County’s airports remains slim, however, though the South Coast Air Quality Management District conducted air monitoring around the Whiteman Airport in Pacoima in 2018, 2019, and in 2022. It found air lead levels to be within typical ranges, and lower than a national air quality standard for the chemical.

At the same time, a 2021 study around Reid-Hillview Airport in Northern California’s Santa Clara County found that the closer children lived to the airport, the higher the amount of lead in their blood.

A subsequent analysis around the same airport found that childhood blood lead levels increased with the greater volume of air traffic and larger quantities of leaded aviation gas sold.

Santa Monica airport is set to close in 2028 after years of community pushback, including around the risks from exposures to this nasty neurotoxin.

This article was produced by the nonprofit journalism publication LA Public Press. It is co-published here with permission.

This is part three of “Lead City,” our series documenting the impact of lead pollution across L.A. County. You can read the first and second stories here. The series was produced as part of the USC Center for Health Journalism’s California Health Equity Fellowship.