The Brief

A typical single-family house is encircled by green, its shrubs and plants sitting just under windows and hugging exterior walls. It's an image that California is trying to get homeowners to rethink as the state's risk of extreme wildfires grows.

One year after the fast-moving Eaton and Palisades Fires destroyed more than 16,000 structures in the L.A. area, California is drafting the toughest statewide rules in the country for vegetation. In areas at risk of wildfires, homeowners would be required to clear some or all of the plants within 5 feet of their house, depending on what regulators decide. Well-maintained trees would still be allowed.

The idea, called Zone Zero, is to prevent plants and flammable items from igniting during a wildfire, spreading flames to the house and the surrounding neighborhood. In high winds, most homes burn down due to embers, the tiny bits of burning debris carried by the wind.

Still, the pushback has been strong, even in the Los Angeles area neighborhoods where so many lost homes. In public meetings, homeowners have voiced concerns about losing greenery and shade, as well as the cost of clearing the vegetation. Some say they believe plants and hedges saved their homes by acting as a buffer, though many scientific studies show that vegetation increases the risk a building will burn.

The new defensible space rules will affect about 17% of buildings in California. But they could set a much bigger precedent across the West, as more states deal with wildfires growing increasingly destructive as the climate gets hotter.

High winds spread burning embers into Altadena during the Eaton Fire, leading to the fire's rapid spread through neighborhoods.

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"How we step up and do this is hard, but I think we have to adapt and change a bit if we're going to try to not keep losing our homes," says Michael Gollner, who runs the Berkeley Fire Research Lab at UC Berkeley.

Hundreds of tiny fires

When the Eaton Fire broke out the evening of Jan. 7, Richard Snyder was at his home in Pasadena, working on a slide presentation about wildfire risk. Snyder had spent more than 30 years in firefighting before retiring and now does wildfire risk consulting. So when he saw the smoke in the nearby foothills, driven by powerful winds, he knew it didn't look good.

"I know where the smoke is going is going to be where the fire is going, and I saw this smoke heading off into Pasadena," Snyder says.

He told his wife to evacuate and started telling neighbors to be ready. Snyder decided to stay. Although the fire itself was still more than a mile away, he knew the biggest danger was the glowing embers being blown into his neighborhood by the wind.
"And then it happened," he recalls. "There was a palm tree that lit off and showered our neighborhood with embers and it started a fence on fire at my neighbor's house. Myself and two other retired firefighters tried to put that fire out with garden hoses, and it wouldn't work. It was too hot and the wind was too strong."

In windy conditions, embers can rapidly spread a fire, landing in dry leaves in a roof gutter, bark mulch on the ground or even being sucked into an attic through a vent. Once that fire gets going, the extreme heat and embers help it spread to neighboring buildings.

"I'm looking over and I'm seeing my St. Augustine grass burning," Snyder says. "Who would have thought that green St. Augustine grass would start burning? There's hundreds of little tiny fires burning in the yards and next to the houses of my neighbors."

Several homes in Snyder's neighborhood were lost. His own survived, but with damage. While he says it was a shock, it wasn't surprising to him. For years, wildfire experts had been finding that houses are vulnerable to wildfires both because of the building materials they're constructed with and when something flammable is next to the house. The concept of Zone Zero focuses on the crucial zone within five feet of a structure.

"We're not going to stop the fires, but we can absolutely keep them from burning our houses down," Snyder says. "But it's a change."

Public meetings get heated

California regulators are creating rules for the "ember-resistant zone" next to houses under state law. The original deadline was 2023, but the effort flagged. After the Los Angeles fires, Gov. Gavin Newsom set a new deadline for the end of 2025. With all the debate, regulators pushed past that deadline and say they expect to keep working through March to gather more feedback.

The proposed rules would prohibit flammable items such as firewood, bark mulch, dead leaves and weeds within five feet of a house. Fences and gates would need to be made of metal or other non-combustible materials in that zone. The rules wouldn't go into effect for existing homes for three years and local fire agencies would have some discretion over tailoring it for their areas.

The sticking point is over green vegetation. Trees would be allowed as long as they're well-maintained, by keeping branches five feet above the roofline, for example. When it comes to plants, regulators are considering several options: only allowing potted plants in Zone Zero, allowing plants under 18 inches, or allowing any well-maintained plants with no dead material.

Steve Hawks of the Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety inspects a home after the Eaton Fire. Embers caught a pile of flammable material, but the house's fire-resistant siding prevented it from spreading.

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The change isn't being welcomed by some California residents. In September, California's Board of Forestry and Fire Protection held a public hearing in Pasadena to gather feedback on the proposed rules.

"Our community just endured the most destructive residential fire disasters in modern history, yet this board is pushing Zone Zero policies that completely miss the mark," Jessica Rogers of the Pacific Palisades Resident Association said at the hearing. "My home and my neighbors' homes burned because of adjacent structures, not vegetation."

In the hours of public testimony, some residents spoke in support of clearing Zone Zero to prepare for wildfires that will inevitably come again. Other residents pushed back, worried that houses on small lots would lose too much greenery and shade, reducing wildlife habitat. Some raised concerns about the cost, since the new rules wouldn't include funding for landscaping work, though California is developing other programs for that. A few residents noted that in the aftermath of the fires, some plants were still left standing.

"I saw the well-hydrated hedges that I had planted protecting my house, acting as a fire catcher, essentially, because they were upwind," Pacific Palisades resident Martin Hak testified at the hearing.

"We know that not everyone will agree with every decision or aspect of what comes next," Board of Forestry and Fire Protection executive officer Tony Andersen wrote about the Zone Zero rules. "But we do know that many Californians agree that protecting our communities is not a passing fad or a momentary response."

The board also posted its responses to many of the questions raised at the hearings.

Do green plants burn?

"We don't really know how often plants can be 'protective' and provide a buffer for homes," says Max Moritz, wildfire specialist with the University of California Cooperative Extension at UC Santa Barbara.

The destruction in a wildfire can be a patchwork, with some homes and plants left standing directly next to others burned to the ground. In the aftermath, it's difficult to know when vegetation was responsible for spreading fire because the evidence is often completely destroyed.

Ember-driven wildfires can leave a patchwork of destruction behind. In Altadena, some buildings and vegetation were left intact, while others were destroyed

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Moritz is one of the few fire experts who say that green plants may not pose a risk to houses and that more research needs to be done. Greener plants, which hold water in their leaves, are harder to ignite. He agrees that some plants, like highly flammable juniper and cypress, should not be allowed, nor should plants with dead leaves or dry branches.

"The really important aspect to the plants is the dead material," he says. "If most homeowners are just going to let dead material accumulate in Zone Zero anyway, then it makes sense that there shouldn't be any plants in Zone Zero."

Other wildfire experts warn that in the hot, windy conditions of an extreme wildfire, all vegetation poses a potential threat.

"Just because a plant is very moist doesn't mean it's non-flammable," says Gollner of UC Berkeley. "Having a well-watered plant is less of a risk, but it's not no risk."

What makes things burn

Gollner runs a "burn lab" on campus, where his team studies how and why materials burn. There, they place a well-watered shrub inside a special chamber lined with sensors. They ignite a small bit of mulch under the plant. After a few minutes, the flames creep up into the base of the plant.

"You can see, once the flames touch the leaves, they immediately dry out and burn," he says.

Gollner says in a wildfire, if a neighbor's fence or shed is on fire, it can dry out and ignite the vegetation next to a home. If those plants are within Zone Zero, the fire can then reach a neighboring house. Even shrubs and hedges that look healthy on the outside are often dry and bare in the interior. At a recent California Board of Forestry meeting, Gollner's colleagues presented their recent experiments about how green plants can burn.

Other scientific studies show that vegetation is influential in wildfire risk. A team from the Insurance Institute for Business and Home Safety, a non-profit research group funded by the insurance industry, inspected damage at more than 250 homes in the Los Angeles fires. They found when Zone Zero had vegetation in quarter or more of it, the chances that a home was damaged or destroyed were almost 90%.

Michael Gollner watches a burn test in his lab at UC Berkeley. Green plants take longer to ignite, but he says leaves can dry out quickly in hot, dry conditions during a wildfire.

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Gollner and colleagues also looked at several of California's recent wildfires and used computer models to simulate those burns under different conditions. Their study found Zone Zero rules could have reduced structure losses by 17%. Another study looking at the 2018 Camp Fire and the 2017 Thomas Fire found having mostly vegetation within six feet of the walls was a big factor in whether the building was lost. Other studies have also shown the importance of defensible space.

Still, minimizing vegetation alone won't guarantee that homes survive. Wildfire experts say buildings need to be fire-resistant as well, a crucial factor in reducing fire risk. Many older homes have wood roofs, wood siding or single-paned windows, which are much more vulnerable to burning. Gutters need to be clear of dead leaves and attic vents need to be covered in a fine mesh, so embers don't get inside.

Homes built after 2007 in wildfire zones are required to meet California's building codes for fire-resistant materials, but most of the state's housing stock is older than that. Some vulnerabilities can't be changed, like when houses are built close together on smaller lots.

With wildfires, neighborhoods are only as strong as their weakest link. Once a fire starts, it can spread from house to house, so wildfire preparation is far more effective when an entire community fortifies itself — something regulators have cited as a reason for the new vegetation rules.

"It's a change of aesthetic, and it's incredibly difficult because it's people's private property," Gollner says. "But a wildland fire is unique amongst all catastrophes in that what your neighbor does directly affects you. We know that whatever we do, it's got to be across the community."

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Los Angeles Unified School District’s cell phone ban turns 1 year old today.

The state’s largest district announced a “bell to bell” cellphone and social media ban in June 2024, which expanded the district’s existing phone ban to include lunch and passing periods. The policy took effect Feb. 18, 2025. District officials cited rising concerns about the effects of phones and social media on youth mental health, bullying and distraction from classroom instruction.

How well did the ban go at the beginning?

Over the first semester, we heard from educators and students who had mixed opinions. Some teachers reported positive results, while others said that passing periods remained a challenge. Some students found the ban stifled their ability to get important things done, and some also said their screentime stayed the same or increased while at home. We made a whole episode of our Imperfect Paradise podcast about it:

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On February 18th, 2025, the Los Angeles Unified School District, the second largest public school district in the country, implemented an all-day cell phone ban for its students. We headed to Venice High School to see how the ban actually went.

Did the cellphone ban in high schools work?

On February 18th, 2025, the Los Angeles Unified School District, the second largest public school district in the country, implemented an all-day cell phone ban for its students. We headed to Venice High School to see how the ban actually went.

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What don't we know?

Since LAUSD’s proposal went into effect, other districts have also rolled out changes to cellphone policies in advance of a July 2026 state deadline. The long-term effects are unclear, although more researchers are investigating.

How’s it going?

You tell us! Has it improved your educational experience? (Whether you’re a teacher, student, parent or caregiver.) Here’s a quick survey you can use to share your thoughts.

Los Angeles remains on shaky financial ground with increased liability costs, overspending by city departments and revenue shortfalls forcing it to dip into its reserves, according to a financial report released Wednesday.

The annual report for the fiscal year that ended in June, from Los Angeles City Controller Kenneth Mejia, said the culmination of decades of “unstable budgeting” is seen and felt by Angelenos across the city “in crumbling infrastructure and deteriorating services.”

Additionally, short-term budget balancing over the past two years resulted in unpaid furlough days for city employees and the elimination of thousands of unfilled positions.

“The service impacts of those cuts are still hitting departments as they struggle to address growing needs with severely diminished capacities,” the report read.

Key takeaways

Here are some of the major points made in the report:

• The top area of overspending continued to be liability payments. Liability claims exceeded the budget by $199 million or 228%, totaling a record of $287 million for the year. The top three areas include police at $152 million, street services at $44 million and transportation at $20 million. 

• The top area of underspending was capital improvement projects. The city only spent $25 million (19%) of the $131 million budget.

• Salaries and employee benefits increased by $162.6 million (4.7%) compared to previous  years, primarily because of cost-of-living adjustments associated with labor agreements with civilian and sworn employee unions, sworn employee hiring, increased overtime usage and higher benefit and insurance premium costs. Property taxes, which represent 40.6% of general fund revenues, increased by 4.3%. Business tax revenue increased by 8.6%, while sales tax revenues declined by 2.2%

• The city had to make up $160 million in revenue shortfall by tapping the reserve fund, which dropped from $648 million two fiscal years ago to $402 million for fiscal year 2024-25. The reserve fund currently sits at 5.06% of the total general fund budget, according to a December financial status report from the city administrative officer — barely above the 5% minimum set by the City Council.

• Four ratings agencies, including S&P, Fitch, Moody’s and Kroll, have given the city a “negative outlook” over a variety of concerns including liability payments and damages from the Palisades Fire. A negative outlook indicates a heightened risk that a city’s credit rating may be downgraded within the next 12 to 18 months. L.A. still holds an Aa2 rating from Moody’s, which is considered a high grade.

The controller issued a series of recommendations, including shifting to a two-year instead of one-year budgeting process, more realistic revenue projections, and more revenue generation by growing the tax base (for example: implementing a vacancy tax or taxing rideshare/autonomous vehicles, not just raising the sales tax).

General fund challenges

Councilmember Eunisses Hernandez, a member of the city’s Budget and Finance Committee, said in the report that the city can’t keep relying on short-term fixes, while “structural deficits,” like ongoing budget shortfalls, grow.

She added that “years of draining reserves, soaring liability payouts, and underinvestment in infrastructure have left us in a perilous financial position that our communities are now forced to absorb.”

“We need transparent, multi-year budgeting rooted in long-term planning and fiscal responsibility,” Hernandez said.

Mejia said that although the city is halfway through its fiscal year, it continues to have general fund budget challenges.

“The current fiscal year’s budget assumes moderate revenue growth, however, the long-term impact of current economic activities on revenue growth remains unknown and revenue has been stable during the first half of the year.”

LA’s demographics

In addition to providing a financial picture, the report provided a demographic look at the city. L.A.’s population is 3.84 million, the average age is 37.5, the total school enrollment is 409,108 and the unemployment rate is 6%.

The city employs more than 50,000 workers, the metro L.A.’s GDP is $1.3 trillion (among the top 20 economies in the world), and LAX has 75 million passengers a year.

Erroneous and politically charged statements by Trump administration officials, as well as the district attorney for San Bernardino County, have complicated the prosecution of a truck driver charged with vehicular manslaughter in a crash on the 10 Freeway last year.

The statements highlighted the national origin of the driver, 21-year-old Jashanpreet Singh, who was born in India, contained false information on his immigration status and made unfounded allegations that he was driving under the influence.

It’s the latest in a series of instances where federal officials have injected politics into developing events. In some cases, statements by federal officials later turn out to be false and detrimental to prosecutions, as the New York Times recently found in at least four instances. Here in Southern California, statements by federal officials have ended up in court documents where Singh’s defense argues his prosecution has been tainted by anti-immigrant bias.

Statements by the Department of Homeland Security labeled Singh a “criminal illegal alien” who was driving under the influence. Singh was seeking asylum and authorized to work in the U.S. by the federal government. Toxicology tests taken after the crash came back negative for all substances.

“It is a terrible tragedy three innocent people lost their lives due to the reckless open border policies that allowed an illegal alien to be released into the U.S. and drive an 18-wheeler on America’s highways,” Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said in an Oct. 23 statement.

Arjun Sethi, a racial justice advocate, civil rights lawyer and adjunct professor at Georgetown University said these statements have compromised Singh’s ability to receive a fair trial.

“When you think of the variety of federal statements in this case, you see blatant racial and xenophobic rhetoric that is highly prejudicial,” Sethi said. “How can any juror set aside that rhetoric … and be able to ascertain the truth?”

Public defenders representing Singh argue similar statements by San Bernardino County District Attorney Jason Anderson, a deputy in Anderson’s office and the California Highway Patrol violate California's Racial Justice Act, a 2020 law prohibiting prosecutions influenced by racial bias.

Hearings on the Racial Justice Act claims will continue March 10. Singh's trial will commence after a judge rules on those claims. Singh has pleaded not guilty to the felony charges against him.

“I think authorities made statements infused by racial bias in this case,” Sethi, who has served as an expert in Racial Justice Act litigation, told LAist. “Bottom line, California authorities in this case mirror the racist political rhetoric we are hearing from the federal government.”

How we got here 

Six months before the crash that led to the charges against Singh, President Donald Trump took steps to restrict states from issuing commercial driver’s licenses to immigrants.

The U.S. Department of Transportation issued new emergency regulations in September that CalMatters reported could revoke the licenses of up to 61,000 immigrant truck drivers, amounting to 8% of the total commercial licenses in the state.

The department gave California 30 days to come into compliance with these new rules or risk losing millions of dollars in federal highway funds.

Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office disputed the Trump administration's claims, arguing that California’s licensed truck drivers had a lower fatal crash rate than the national average.

Then, in the early afternoon of Oct. 21, Singh’s semi-truck crashed on a crowded interstate.

Dashboard camera footage shows his truck colliding with passenger vehicles and another truck as one car went up in flames.

Singh was arrested and held without bail. Prosecutors charged him with vehicular manslaughter and reckless driving.

He was initially charged with driving under the influence, but the district attorney dropped those charges after toxicology reports came back negative for all substances.

As a deputy district attorney said in a filing, the crash immediately “generated high media interest and touched off a federal and state official-driven debate surrounding immigration policy and the state's issuance of commercial driver's licenses.”

Two days after the crash, the Department of Homeland Security published a news release arguing Singh, an asylum seeker, entered the country illegally in 2022 “and was RELEASED into the country under the Biden administration.”

DHS officials have not responded to LAist’s requests for comment. McLaughlin will reportedly leave the agency soon.

The U.S. Department of Transportation also issued a news release on Singh’s crash and California’s compliance with the new licensing rules. The release stated that Singh was operating his truck under the influence of drugs, despite a lack of evidence to support that claim.

In an email to LAist, a Department of Transportation spokesperson said California issued Singh’s Commercial Drivers License without properly vetting his qualifications.

Newsom’s press office directed LAist to the California Transportation Agency, which has yet to respond to emailed questions.

But in an earlier statement on social media, Newsom’s office stated that the federal government approved and renewed Singh’s federal employment authorization multiple times, and it was that approval that allowed him to obtain a commercial driver’s license in California.

Racial Justice Act claims

Public defender Jason Tucker argued in an Oct. 31 filing that Singh, his client, has faced multiple violations of the California Racial Justice Act, a law passed in 2020 that prohibits state authorities from seeking convictions or imposing sentences based on race, ethnicity or national origin.

Tucker has not responded to an emailed request for comment.

The filing highlights a motion to increase bail written by a California Highway Patrol officer shortly after the crash that claimed Singh was subject to deportation, despite being an asylum seeker who was authorized to work in the U.S. by the federal government, and a comment by a deputy district attorney about Singh’s use of an interpreter in court.

The primary violation, according to Tucker’s filing, occurred Oct. 23, when Anderson, the district attorney, issued a news release that tied the crash to state and federal policy.

“Had the rule of law been followed by state and federal officials the defendant should have never been in California at all,” Anderson’s statement said, before adding that Anderson’s office would “aggressively prosecute” the case.

According to the defense, this statement “injected Mr. Singh’s national origin, by way of his immigration status, into the criminal justice proceedings, despite evidence to the contrary.”

The DA’s reply

Deputy District Attorney Phillip Stemler, argued in a Nov. 10 court filing that the statements made by the office focus on policy without referencing or disparaging Singh’s identity, do not contain discriminatory language and do not meet the standards of a Racial Justice Act violation. Further, the district attorney is protected by the First Amendment, giving him latitude to speak on policy matters, according to the filing.

Stemler’s response stated that the Oct. 21 crash that killed three people and injured several others in Ontario “touched off a debate” about immigration and truck driving but that it was not Anderson’s office who politicized the case.

“It was federal officials who injected defendant’s immigration status into the media narrative on the defendant’s case,” reads the filing by Stemler, the Racial Justice Act coordinator for the office.

First, the filing references an Oct. 22 social media post by Duffy stating that his department was withholding $40 million from California because the state did not comply with the new federal rules.

“The following day, federal officials ramped up further,” the filing reads, pointing to the Oct. 23 DHS press release on the crash that referred to Singh as a “criminal illegal alien from India.”

Stemler’s filing says that the California Racial Justice Act does not apply to federal officials.

Sethi, the civil rights lawyer, said the statements by federal officials nevertheless compromise Singh’s ability to receive a fair trial.

“Long before Mr. Singh ever sets foot in a courtroom, there is a long shadow of political theater and xenophobic rhetoric that will be cast over him,” Sethi said, “and his case that is the fault of state and federal officials.”

Mara Harris loads a box of produce into her car, along with canned food and boxed goods. It marks the second week in a row she will drive the groceries to families across Los Angeles who say immigration raids are keeping them inside their homes.

“I got involved because I live in Highland Park, which is a primarily Latinx neighborhood, and I was feeling really frustrated and angry about our neighbors being unfairly treated,” Harris said.

Harris is a member of Nefesh, a Jewish outreach community that has partnered with local faith leaders to deliver goods. Her role is straightforward: pick up the groceries, drive them to families who have requested help, and drop them off.

“My husband is an immigrant,” she said. “I just think about the anxiety that we have going through the process, even with the resources we have access to, and I think about how impossible it is for other people to navigate that.”

She added, “It’s just chance that some people were born in countries that are safe and that provide them with opportunities, and other people are not. And I think the U.S. has an obligation to extend that opportunity to those people.”

The grocery deliveries are being organized by a Koreatown church that has seen a decline in attendance at its regular food distribution program in recent months. At the request of church leadership, The LA Local is not naming the church or its congregants out of privacy concerns and to avoid drawing attention to their immigrant community. It’s just one of a network of faith-based organizations responding to the need, and as raids show no signs of slowing down anytime soon, the group is seeking to expand its delivery hubs to more church sites.

Before the recent enforcement activity, the Koreatown church’s regular food distribution served between 500 and 600 people, according to one church organizer. In early February, they saw around 350.

“People are afraid, and unfortunately don’t know about services like this,” she said.

Multiple families have said they’re just too afraid to go out into the neighborhood, according to church leadership.

Since last summer, federal agents have carried out workplace raids, targeted day labor sites and arrested people in public spaces across the region. The Department of Homeland Security reported in December that more than 10,000 people had been detained in the LA area since June.

“There are members of our congregation that have immigration concerns that have told me they’re afraid to go out,” the pastor of the Koreatown church said. “I’ve spoken to at least four different families that are just afraid to go get groceries, are afraid to take their kids or their grandkids to school, and are worried about ICE activity in the neighborhood that’s been happening over the past seven months or so.”

In response, the church began coordinating home grocery deliveries in partnership with Clergy and Laity United for Economic Justice, or CLUE. The partnership started last summer after church staff noticed a drop in attendance at their weekly food distributions.

“A lot of people were afraid to go to the food bank at (the church), so they saw a big decline and understood that it was because people were afraid to come out, so CLUE partnered with them to do this delivery service,” said Liz Bar-El, a community liaison for CLUE.

Another staff member who has worked at the Koreatown church for six years said operations have been directly affected by enforcement activity in the area.

“I’ve been doing this for about six years. Last week, we had to stop at 11 a.m., and we used to close at 12, 12:30 because the ICE agents were around here,” he said. “And the number of people is decreasing because of ICE raids.”

The church pastor said families do not simply call and request food; there is a screening system to ensure that the program reaches those who are most concerned about leaving their homes.

CLUE has “folks that help call through the list of people that requested it to confirm for the day of their deliveries. They also have somebody that does a screening process to make sure that the people that are getting the deliveries qualify for the parameters of the program so that they’re not just getting people who are like ‘Yeah, you can deliver food to me’ but rather are really concerned about their status,” he said.

But Bar-El, the organizer with CLUE, said identifying families can be difficult.

“It’s likely due to fear of trusting somebody, they are hiding in their homes,” she said. “One way to reach them is through their pastors and the rapid response network that CLUE is a part of.”

Many of the requests stem from sudden changes in a family’s circumstances.

“This current situation with grocery delivery is mostly people who need help getting food because somebody got detained, deported and or the main breadwinner lost their job,” Bar-El said. “In one case, the husband was recently bonded out, and the wife was left home with three very small children.”

For Harris, the volunteer delivering food across multiple neighborhoods, the work is personal. She often thinks about her own family’s immigration status.

“My husband is British and he’s been working here off work visas for six years. He just applied for a non-conditional green card last year. So I take our anxiety and worries and extrapolate it,” she said.

Organizers don’t expect the need for this service to ease anytime soon. Bar-El said they plan to expand the effort to another church in Hollywood and are seeking more volunteers.

“I believe it’s my responsibility as someone who is one of the lucky ones and who does have resources and privilege to do what I can for my neighbors and for my city that I love that is so diverse and wonderful,” Harris said.