The Brief

With California electric rates stuck at nearly the highest in the nation, the state’s utility regulator is poised to lower the payout shareholders can receive from California’s three large investor-owned power companies.

In a proposed decision, the California Public Utilities Commission recommended dropping the “return on equity” by 0.35% each for Pacific Gas & Electric, Southern California Edison and San Diego Gas & Electric. If approved, shareholders of all three companies would see a potential return next year of just under 10%. Such returns for PG&E and Edison haven’t dipped below double digits in at least 20 years.

Utilities said the decline would affect their ability to bring in needed investment for their work. Critics of the decision said that the decline is too small to meaningfully impact ratepayers’ bills, even if it’s a step in the right direction.

“California and other [public utility commissions] authorize rates of return that are far in excess of the statutory requirement,” said Mark Ellis, former chief economist at Sempra, which owns San Diego Gas & Electric.

The California Public Utility Commission is expected to vote on the decision in December.

Californians pay the second-highest electric rates in the U.S. after Hawaii, according to the most recent figures from the U.S. Energy Information Administration. A number of factors go into those rates, including wildfire mitigation costs. PG&E in particular has attracted the ire of California customers for its frequent rate hikes within the last year.

Baked into those bills is the return on equity, money meant to compensate shareholders for the risk of doing business. These shareholder return rates are set by each state’s utility regulators and hover nationally around 10%. If approved, PG&E’s rate would be 9.93% (down from 10.28%), Edison would be 9.98% (down from 10.33%), and San Diego Gas & Electric would be 9.88% (down from 10.23%). These rates are not automatically guaranteed — utilities can fall short of this return if they don’t keep down costs, such as project overruns or unexpected lawsuit fees.

A small change in this rate can be a difference of millions of dollars for ratepayers. The return is a percentage of the rate base, the total value of a utility’s assets it can earn a return on; this includes projects such as building a new power plant, for example. The rate bases for California’s three large investor-owned utilities have steadily grown each year as they add new customers and projects, increasing the amount that shareholders can receive.

PG&E, for example, had a 10% shareholder return in 2023, a possible return of about $125 million. Had it been 1% lower, the potential return would have been $12.5 million less.

“The proposed cost of capital decision needs refinement to better reflect California’s unique risks and market realities,” said Edison spokesperson Jeff Monford. “Making those refinements in the final decision will enhance SCE’s ability to finance essential infrastructure projects for a more reliable, resilient and ready electric grid.”

PG&E spokesperson Jennifer Robison echoed this sentiment, saying the decision “fails to acknowledge current elevated risks to help attract the needed investment for California’s energy systems.”

Anthony Wagner, spokesperson at San Diego Gas & Electric, said, “A decision that accurately reflects these realities is essential to enabling investments that reduce wildfire risk, strengthen reliability, replace aging infrastructure and advance California’s clean energy transition for the benefit of the communities we serve.”

Utilities routinely request these rates be pushed higher because they are a key part of what goes into utilities’ credit rating, affecting the interest they pay on loans for infrastructure investments. But in recent years, experts and consumer advocates point to a mismatch — the utility industry is typically considered low-risk, but critics say the shareholder return rates don’t reflect that. Rates for U.S. 10-year treasury bonds, which are considered the benchmark for a risk-free investment, are about half of the national average for approved utility shareholder return rates. And it’s costing utility ratepayers across the country as much as $7 billion annually, according to academics.

Ellis, the former Sempra economist, said there is a way to lower shareholder returns while keeping customer bills in check and maintaining credit ratings that the commission has not yet explored — changing the balance of debt and equity each utility has.

“You really need to understand credit,” he said. “This is where they’re going to get you.”

The commission is allowed to set the debt-equity balance when it determines shareholder returns, but it left this unchanged for all three utilities in its proposed decision for 2026. Keeping shareholder return rates high as the main means for keeping credit ratings up, Ellis said, unnecessarily burdens ratepayers.

Skunks aren’t exactly the most adored mammals in Southern California, but there's a cute reason why they should be on your radar: It’s baby season right now.

That also means some changes in skunk behavior. Here’s what you should know about skunk life and how they care for their young around L.A. County.

Quick skunk facts

The skunks most people encounter in California are the striped species, which have jet black fur and two bright white stripes that run from the back of their neck to the base of their tail. (Yes, like Pepé Le Pew if he were a little less groomed.)

Ted Stankowich, a biological sciences professor at Cal State Long Beach, is a skunk expert. He said they’re nocturnal, omnivorous creatures that primarily come out around dusk or early evening to find food.

“They eat bugs, eggs, grass, fruit and anything they can find,” he said. “A lot of scavenging for trash among humans.”

These mammals are explorers that typically don’t venture that far. Females go up to a square mile away from home while males can traverse up to four square miles.

They can have multiple dens with a particular favorite. Skunks can live in a variety of nooks and crannies, like rock piles, under homes or in bushes.

The creatures tend to have a bad rap because of the spraying, but Stankowich said a lot of that is based on misconceptions. The mammals aren’t usually aggressive.

“ I like to say that they have sort of a great attitude of the world — you leave me alone. I leave you alone,” he said. “But if you mess with me, I’m gonna come after you.”

As for lifespan, they live about two to four years in the wild. That’s shorter in cities because they’re more likely to be killed by drivers.

How baby season changes behavior

Baby skunks are called kits.

In warmer climates like ours, mating can start as early as January.  Mothers are pregnant for about two and a half months, so if they mate in February, they’ll likely give birth to a litter of four to six kits around April.

These little ones are born blind, deaf and mostly hairless. They’re mostly helpless for the first few weeks of life and rely on their mother for milk.

A kit’s little body can make a droplet of oily musk within about a week. However, Stankowich said they can’t spray it properly until week three or four.

While skunks aren’t normally aggressive, lactating mothers are the exception. They leave the den at night to forage, so they can eat and keep up with milk production. That can make them “a bit more ornery,” Stankowich said.

“ They get more nervous, they get upset if they’re harassed,” he said. “Those animals are much more feisty than your normal non-lactating or pregnant skunk.”

Kits can be a little feisty too. When they’re in the den, they’re developing defensive behaviors. Stankowich has seen kits do foot stomps and hiss to act aggressive and strong.

The offspring start leaving the den and start exploring with the family at around two months old, meaning there are likely more skunks than usual around May to June.

Kits turn into adults around late summer and early fall when they venture off on their own.

What that means for you (and your pets)

Since skunks aren’t as big as coyotes, it’s easy to miss the increased activity. But you could still spot a mother with her kits wandering around her in a big group.

If you do see skunks out and about, Stankowich said you don’t need to turn tail and run. Instead, stay still, keep any pets on a leash and don’t try to feed the skunks.

“ They’re not there to bother you. They’re not there to attack you,” he said. “If they tell you to back up, you’ll know it.”

Now if you have the unfortunate gift of getting sprayed anyway, there are steps you can take to get rid of the smell on you or your pets.

First off, tomato baths are a myth and water activates more of the smell, making it worse. Instead, use a combination of these three things:

• A quart of hydrogen peroxide
• A quarter cup of baking soda
• Teaspoon of dish soap

You’ll wash yourself or your pets with this. Depending on how long your pet’s hair is, you might need a couple of rounds. If spray gets in your household, bleach can be used to knock out the smell.

On Wednesday, shovels hit the ground in Pomona, a city in the eastern edge of Los Angeles County, where construction has begun for a 10,000-plus capacity premier cricket stadium. It will serve as the venue for men’s and women’s games, played by six teams in each competition.

The stadium is being erected in the Fairplex fairgrounds as the home of the Los Angeles Knight Riders, a professional Major League Cricket team owned by the Mumbai-based Knight Riders Sports. The company is co-led by Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan.

The groundbreaking kicked off with a “bhumi pujan,” a ritual rooted in Hindu tradition, which often marks the start of a construction project as a way of seeking divine blessings and forgiveness for disturbing the earth.

Cricket is already woven into the cultural fabric of U.S. diaspora communities from all over the world, particularly South Asia, where it is followed with religious fervor. In the U.S., cricket fans, coaches and players view a dedicated cricket stadium in a major sports market like Southern California as a huge milestone.

Investors hope momentum from local major league cricket games carries into the Olympics, taking the sport to a mainstream American sports audience. Many also believe that this newfound visibility will help carve out promising pathways for homegrown cricketing talent.

Olympics could make cricket mainstream in America

Venky Mysore, CEO of Knight Riders Sports, said establishing the Knight Riders Cricket Field is just the first step in getting the average American fan engaged. Mysore is convinced of the sport’s commercial potential.

“People who watch the Olympics are not necessarily cricket fans,” Mysore said. “When cricket becomes an Olympic sport, that takes interest and awareness to the next level.”

Knight Riders Sports operates multiple teams worldwide — in India, the Caribbean and the United Arab Emirates. But the Pomona venue is the only stadium they’ve built from scratch, Mysore said. Only three international-level cricket stadiums operate in the U.S. — in Texas, Florida and North Carolina. The sport is also played in other multi-purpose venues like the Oakland Coliseum.

L.A. is one of a handful of dedicated US cricket venues

Peter Della Penna, who has been covering cricket in the U.S. for the past two decades, says this is the first time an international cricket event in the U.S. will have a dedicated venue. In 2024, a high-capacity modular stadium was specifically built for the T20 World Cup in New York, but was dismantled after the event.

But during the L.A. Olympics, it would not be ideal to hold the cricket matches in another part of the country, he said.

“Cricket players would want to be in the Olympic Village, walk shoulder to shoulder with U.S. track and field athletes, swimmers and basketball players,” he said. “Cricketers in America have not had such prominence and U.S. cricket really needs that.”

Cricket has had a long, rich history in the U.S. The first international cricket match was played between the U.S. and Canada in 1844 at St. George’s Cricket Club in Manhattan, New York. Canada beat the U.S. by a slim margin before thousands of spectators, with large wagers placed on the event.

A high point came in 2024, when the U.S. national team achieved a stunning upset over Pakistan in a T20 World Cup match.

Debjit Lahiri, a Wisconsin-based cricket historian, said Olympic cricket was last played in 1900 in Paris where the Summer Games were a chaotic sideshow to the World’s Fair, featuring events like live pigeon shooting. Cricket never made it to the 1904 Olympic Games held in St. Louis.

Cricket in Los Angeles began around 1900 with local clubs. It gained prominence in the 1930s with the Hollywood Cricket Club formed by expat British actors, drawing big names like Errol Flynn, Laurence Olivier, Cary Grant and Boris Karloff. The club’s original home at Griffith Park was torn down to build an equestrian center for the 1984 Olympics. It moved to Woodley Park in the San Fernando Valley, where several aspiring cricketers learned to play the game, including Ayan Desai, a 22-year-old rising star who hopes to play for Team USA in 2028.

Desai, whose family owns a motel near the future Knight Riders stadium, said he was thrilled to hear about a world-class cricket venue almost in his backyard.

“To play the Olympics is special, but to do it in front of your home crowd, in your home city, that would be amazing,” he said.

Desai, a left-arm fast bowler, plays for the Seattle Orcas major league team and has competed in four international games as part of the U.S. national team.

“This is what we’ve needed to grow cricket in Los Angeles,” he said.

Questions remain about cricket’s sustainability

Antigua native Reggie Benjamin, a former U.S. cricketer and longtime coach based in Los Angeles, remains skeptical.

“I’m happy to see cricket get an opportunity to showcase itself here,” he said. “But if you can’t get average Americans to come to a game and sit in the stands for three hours, or if you can’t get American kids to play cricket, the game is not going to grow.”

Benjamin said he’s been disappointed to see homegrown talent and grassroots efforts cast aside as players from other countries are brought in to play for major league teams and the national team. He also points to poor management that has beset U.S. cricket and raised concerns about cricket’s inclusion in the 2028 Olympics.

Last year, those challenges came to a head as USA Cricket, a nonprofit tasked with developing the sport in the United States, filed for federal bankruptcy protection after ending a contract with American Cricket Enterprises, the group that created Major League Cricket. Since then, the International Cricket Council, which oversees cricket worldwide, has been temporarily running the U.S. national cricket team. ACE also filed a lawsuit alleging wrongful termination of the contract.

Yet big investors like Mysore are optimistic that a cooperative relationship is possible between USA Cricket and Major League Cricket. Both feed off each other, he said. National selectors often look to major league teams for star players.

“A strong national team is important because it keeps interest alive in the sport,” he said.

Walter Marquez, CEO of the Fairplex, says he believes in cricket’s future. A diehard baseball fan, Marquez said he’s been boning up on cricket recently. He now knows what a “yorker” means, and he sees real potential for the game to grow.

“For those who don’t know cricket, given an opportunity, they will learn what an exciting game it is, especially the T20 format,” said Marquez, referring to the truncated format the Olympics will use in 2028.

“We like home runs. We love the long ball. Cricket has a lot of those. American sports fans just don’t know they’re cricket fans yet.”

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Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.

This story first appeared on The LA Local.

Long Beach residents at risk of losing their housing can now apply for short-term rental assistance to help them stabilize their finances and, hopefully, stay in their homes.

The city says it’s rolling the program out quickly. Qualified renters could start receiving funds as early as the second week of May.

It’s among the first programs being funded by Los Angeles County Measure A, a half-cent sales tax increase approved by voters in 2024 and specifically earmarked for programs to prevent homelessness in the region.

Long Beach’s program, called Long Beach Renter Aid, got $2.7 million in Measure A dollars. Officials estimated that’s enough to help between 175 and 250 households with up to 6 months of rental assistance or up to $9,000 per household, whichever is less.

The funds can also be used to pay for overdue rent, past-due utilities, moving expenses and/or security deposits.

To qualify, renters must be making 50% or less of the area’s annual median income. That amounts to $53,000 or lower for a household of one and increases for each household member — for instance, $75,750 for four, $100,000 for eight.

Long Beach residents can see if they qualify and apply online here or in person Monday through Thursday at the Multi-Service Center or on Friday at the city’s Housing Authority.

The application window closes on May 8. The financial assistance should start going out that same day, said Deputy City Manager Teresa Chandler.

There will be a new application window each month starting in June. The city plans to accept new applicants between the 5th and 12th of each month until funds are exhausted.

The program will prioritize applicants who are 55 and older, at imminent risk of eviction or are impacted by the loss of federal benefits, policy changes or immigration enforcement actions.

Long Beach is the first city to roll out such a program using county Measure A funds.

Another program funded by Measure A is also paying for legal aid to help renters stave off wrongful evictions. Two more planned to launch soon are aimed at preventing homelessness for Long Beach residents aged 55 and older and residents aged 18-25. Details will be announced in the coming months.

“These resources are a lifeline,” Mayor Rex Richardson said at a news conference on Wednesday.

Mayor Rex Richardson speaks at a press conference outside City Hall as Long Beach announces a new housing assistance program on Thursday, April 23, 2026.

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Thomas R. Cordova

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Long Beach Post

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It will also be a huge help for families who have suffered financial hardship as a result of aggressive immigration enforcement tactics that began last May, said Susannah Sngiem, executive director of the nonprofit United Cambodian Community.

In many cases, “those that are detained are the breadwinners of these families,” Sngiem said.

What screams Thai more than pad Thai? Nothing. And on Sunday, the utilitarian stir-fried noodles will be the main character in an attempt to break a Guinness World Record.

The challenge? To serve and sell 1,200 plates of the stuff in 60 minutes. The headline-grabbing gambit is part of 17th Thai New Year Festival happening Sunday in Hollywood Thai Town.

Chinnakrit Soonthornwan (he said you can just call him Oak) came up with the idea to break the old Guinness record of around 1,000 plates. As of Thursday, the team already has received about 700 orders from participants.

 "I think it [is] very possible," Oak said of their chances to make history.  "It is going to be epic."

Also epic is the setting of this record-breaking attempt.

"It's all outside," Oak said. " There will be 35 restaurants working at the same time with big woks — like, gigantic woks."

Not to mention the 1,200 (or more) people chowing down on said noodles.

Pad Thai wasn't the first dish of choice. The team first landed on mango sticky rice.

"It seemed like everyone can eat it. It's vegan," he said.

But the popular dessert is difficult to make, and Oak added,  "It's Thai, but the name is not Thai."

Again, what screams Thai cuisine more than pad Thai?

"This is Thai. This is how we do it together," he said. "This is how we do world history."

Oak is also a co-founder of DS Night Market, a weekly Thai gathering proffering music and food taking place in Chinatown for the past couple years. He said his team has been regular attendees of the New Year festival and those born-and-raised in Thai Town have always wanted to help out.

"And we were like, 'We not gonna do something like they had done for 16 years,'" Oak said. "So we pitched them the pad Thai world record thing."

The bigger goal is to shed a spotlight on the community and to support the mom-and-pops. The pad Thai challenge is just one of the highlights. The all-day Sunday New Year celebration includes  five stages focusing on food, music, a beer garden and even boxing.

"We want to drive the business sales and bring more good vibes to Thai business owners," he said.