The Brief

Southern California is getting a dose of unseasonably cool weather — a welcome break after a series of hot, humid heat waves over the last few months.

Lower than normal temperatures are expected to stick around through the weekend.

Highs along the coast will be in the 70s over the next few days. Inland areas of L.A. and Orange counties will get up to the 80s. Even the Inland Empire is expected to peak at about 90 degrees on Friday.

The cooler temperatures are also expected to come with cloudy skies across the region.

The cloud cover will likely be widespread on Friday and much of Saturday, but concentrated mostly in the morning hours and along the coast, where skies could stay cloudy through the afternoon.

The cool, mild conditions won’t last long, though.

Forecasters say temperatures will start to tick back up on Saturday. They will stay below normal seasonal levels for a few days, but the summer heat will be back by the middle of next week.

So this weekend might be a good time to go on a hike or host that barbecue.

Low pressure equals mild temperatures 

The cool weather is a pretty stark change.

Just a few weeks ago, the National Weather Service was issuing warnings across Southern California for extreme heat and predicting nearly record-breaking temperatures. Now, atmospheric conditions have shifted.

Much of that suffocating heat was driven by a massive system of high pressure air hovering over the Southwestern U.S.

High pressure systems trap warm air beneath them and compress it, further warming the air and preventing cooler air from displacing it.

This week, the high pressure system finally loosened its grip.

“That ridge of high pressure kind of broke down, and then a trough of low pressure developed off and along the coast of California,” said Devin Black, a National Weather Service meteorologist.

Low pressure systems force air to rise, and as air rises it cools. It also eventually condenses, often forming cloud cover.

That’s one reason behind the clouds in Southern California this week.

Meanwhile, a deep marine layer and onshore winds are helping push those clouds farther inland. Forecasters note that the low pressure system and onshore winds are also keeping humidity levels up.

Despite the cloud cover and moisture, it’s unlikely there will be much, if any, rain. Some minimal precipitation could be possible in Ventura and Santa Barbara county mountains.

The low pressure system and marine layer will start to shrink on Saturday, allowing heat-generating high pressure to move back into the region.

Land in the Portuguese Bend area of Rancho Palos Verdes is now moving more than an inch per week, city officials said in a statement Wednesday. That’s an increase from August, but it is still moving much less than it was last year at this time.

Officials said the increase in land movement is due to coastal erosion after tropical storm-fueled waves walloped the Southern California coastline in mid-October.

Why has RPV's landslide gotten worse?

The Portuguese Bend area in Rancho Palos Verdes once offered spectacular views of the Pacific Ocean and Catalina Island. Now, much of that land is riddled with chasms that run as much as 20 feet deep or span a dozen feet across.

For decades, land movement was minimal. But with above-average rainfall in recent years, that movement rapidly accelerated — up to 1 foot per week in some places. Land movement has since slowed, thanks in part to wells the city installed that suck water out of the ground. But damage to the area remains, and the underlying issue will likely never be stopped.

What happens now?

Rancho Palos Verdes is preparing for a very wet winter as a super El Niño is expected to drench Southern California in the coming weeks.

The city reported that the winterization measures, which include filling large fissures, “fared well” during recent rainfall. For instance, pump trucks were not needed on Palos Verdes Drive South, the road through the landslide area that typically floods during rainy weather.

More than 465 Orange County workers with the Teamsters Local 952 returned to the picket line Thursday after failing to reach a deal late Wednesday. Union officials say they once again expect delays in landfill operations and other county services.

The workers include heavy equipment operators, waste workers, custodial workers and more from county departments such as OC Public Works and OC Waste & Recycling.

Workers first went on strike on Oct. 13, but went back to work a week later when bargaining resumed.

“The County respects the rights of our dedicated employees to engage in lawful strike activity under California law,” a county spokesperson said in a statement. “The County will continue to execute contingency plans as needed to minimize any service disruptions.”

Union leaders said they initiated bargaining talks in 2025 — about six months before the active contract was set to expire. They also claim the county made no significant movement toward a deal until August.

How we got here

Eric Jimenez, secretary-treasurer for Teamsters Local 952, told LAist that members rejected two county offers, which included a 3% raise and another offer with a 4% raise. Both offers did not include retroactive pay.

“(Workers) didn't do anything to hold these negotiations up,” Jimenez said. “To receive no retroactive pay for something they didn't do … the members took it very offensively.”

What’s next? 

County and union officials are expected to meet Thursday for another round of bargaining.

In a February 2026 interview, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass drew a clear line on drug enforcement around MacArthur Park: The city's focus would be on traffickers, not people who were in the park to use drugs.

On June 4, 2026, LAPD officers, working with federal agents, started arresting people in the park for being under the influence, drinking or carrying bulky items. Two days later, at a World Cup watch party in the park, I asked Bass whether she had approved the shift. She told me she had not.

A federal prosecutor who oversaw the operation said she did

Los Angeles Police Department officers stand near two handcuffed men in MacArthur Park on June 4, 2026.

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Jordan Rynning

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Police officers and federal agents gather at MacArthur Park on June 4, 2026.

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Jordan Rynning

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Law enforcement officials watch as LAPD officers and federal agents sweep through the park to arrest drug users on June 4, 2026.

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Jordan Rynning

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Law enforcement officers and officials observe during a drug enforcement operation on June 4, 2026.

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Jordan Rynning

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Other members of the Southern California Drug Task Force joined the LAPD for a joint drug enforcement operation on June 4, 2026.

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Jordan Rynning

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From left, L.A. County District Attorney Nathan Hochman, First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli and DEA Special Agent in Charge Anthony Chrysanthis speak at a press conference after a drug enforcement operation on June 4, 2026.

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Jordan Rynning

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First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli and L.A. County District Attorney Nathan Hochman were at the park as the arrests were being made. They told reporters on the scene this was a new stage of operations following the arrests of alleged 18th Street gang leaders and drug distributors.

“This is our third phase of this operation,” Essayli said. “Phase three will be a consistent law enforcement presence in the park to enforce state law, which prohibits people from being under the influence of narcotics and possessing drugs with the intent to use them.”

Hochman said people who were in the park to use drugs would still get assistance with substance use treatment, mental health care or housing. But he said that by bringing demand for drugs to the park, buyers were enabling the illicit trade and turning the park into a “cemetery.”

“If there's no one demanding drugs in the park,” Hochman said, “the suppliers have nowhere to go.”

That framing — that law enforcement would be cracking down on drug use — was a departure from what Bass had told me four months earlier.

In February 2026, I asked Bass about the city's strategy at MacArthur Park. She was direct.

“There is a difference between drug use and drug sales and trafficking,” she told me. “My focus is not on the users, but what I want to do with the users is provide more access to drug treatment programs.”

Enforcement that made a difference, she said, needed to focus on people “trafficking girls,” drugs and stolen goods.

“You can arrest somebody who is under the influence,” she said. “That's not going to go anywhere.”

On June 4, the LAPD arrested people who were under the influence.

On the ground in the park that week, some people told me arresting drug users didn’t seem to change much.

“This park's always gonna be like this, man …” one man, who asked to be identified only as Don't-do-dat, told me. ”We had the DEA and all that raid. Man, that's just for a little while. [People using fentanyl are] gonna be out here again the next day.”

A man who goes by Don't-do-dat sits on a bench in MacArthur Park on June 15, 2026.

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Others welcomed the new enforcement.

“A lot of the people here in the community were happy that there was operations here,” Elaine Alaniz, president of the Westlake North Neighborhood Council, said. “It was temporary, but we got to see, actually, families at the bus stops with their kids — before it wasn’t like that.”

A student at a nearby high school said she doesn’t use the park because she doesn’t feel safe in the area.

“Going outside is pretty scary for me and for my family, because we just see a lot of [people using drugs] and everything going around,” she told me. “I would like to see more kids and families able to just walk around here freely.”

Local and federal agencies conducted two more operations near the park by the end of June, arresting people who were dealing or using drugs.

'That is not coming from the city'

Two days after the June 4 sweep, I asked Bass whether she had approved the targeted arrests of people using drugs.

She was at the park for a World Cup watch party. Federal and county prosecutors had said, on the record and in front of me, that this was a coordinated operation with the mayor's support.

“I've personally spoken with Mayor Bass,” Essayli had told reporters in the park on June 4. “She supports this operation, and LAPD would not be here without her support.”

Bass told me something different.

“That is not coming from the city,” she said about targeting drug users. “I'm sure that you're aware of that. That's coming from the federal government.”

I asked the mayor's office to clarify her remarks, which appeared to contradict what Essayli had said and what I had seen in the park. A spokesperson replied by email that the office would not comment on law enforcement operations, but that “Mayor Bass has directed the LAPD to utilize every resource available to stop the flow of narcotics and stolen merchandise in the park and surrounding area.”

The statement called on L.A. County to increase services in the area.

“Because the State and County — not the City — are responsible for providing mental health and drug treatment services, they must increase funding for treatment facilities and recovery services to stop the revolving door between jail and our parks,” the statement said.

I reached out to County Supervisor Hilda Solis for comment. Solis said the county has expanded services for behavioral health care, substance use treatment and housing in the MacArthur Park area.

“Through these ongoing efforts,” Solis said in an emailed statement, “over 3,000 lives were saved since 2023, and more than 750 were linked to treatment and medication.”

An earlier statement from Bass' office, sent when I first asked whether the city's stance had shifted on the LAPD targeting drug users, did not address the question directly. It said the office would not comment on law enforcement investigations, but that “the park is no place for drug use and criminal activity of any kind.”

“After decades of failures from City Hall, Mayor Bass is leading the way to restore MacArthur Park to families,” the spokesperson wrote.

What remains unresolved: LAPD officers made the arrests. A federal prosecutor watching on said Bass approved. Bass told me she did not.

What happened to those who were arrested?

Over the weeks following the June 4 operation, I asked the district attorney and city attorney's offices whether charges had been filed for the arrests and citations made that day or in similar sweeps that followed. Both offices said they had not been presented with any such cases from the LAPD.

The LAPD did not respond to my request for identifying information about those arrested — information the prosecutors' offices need to search their records and determine whether any of those arrested or cited were placed in diversionary treatment programs.

So the question of what the June 4 arrests actually accomplished — whether they routed people into the treatment Bass said she wanted for users, or moved them somewhere else in the neighborhood — cannot yet be answered from the public record.

What is clear, however, is that the focus on arresting people using drugs in the park wasn’t permanent.

By August, an LAPD officer told the MacArthur Park Neighborhood Council during an online meeting that they would not see any more joint operations between the police department, the DEA and other law enforcement agencies in the park.

The LAPD was transitioning to a final phase of operations, connecting people dependent on drugs in and around MacArthur Park with services while continuing to target suspected drug dealers.

I spoke with LAPD Capt. Ben Fernandes during a town hall on Oct. 13 to get his perspective on what had happened during the June 4 operation.

Fernandes leads the Rampart Division and was on the scene that day.

“The mayor's our boss,” Fernandes said. “But we're peace officers, and we follow the law — and we follow what the chief of police tells us.”

He told me the department tries to follow the mayor’s requests, but that they are “duty-bound” to arrest people when they see them breaking the law.

“I wouldn't say that there was any conflict [with the mayor] there at all,” Fernandes told me. “I would say that we worked with our federal partners and went out and took bad actors to jail, and some of them are going to prison.”

Bass had a different perspective when asked during a DTLA Residents Association forum on Oct. 15 whether she would instruct LAPD to cite or arrest people using drugs in public.

“When LAPD does that, they don't arrest anybody — it's a cite and release,” Bass said. “They don't even get in the car, so I think it's fake. I think what is real is holding people accountable for their drug use.”

Bass said she supports drug court, where some people arrested on nonviolent felony drug charges can have their cases dismissed if they agree to go to supervised recovery programs.

“You can go into treatment or you take a stint in jail,” Bass said.

L.A. City Councilmember Nithya Raman, Bass’ opponent in the race for L.A. mayor, answered the same question by saying she would “direct LAPD to enforce the laws, and they are welcome to enforce the laws however they see fit.”

Cole’s French Dip, the iconic downtown Los Angeles restaurant that closed its doors in March, is set to return. New owners Sean Maloney and Jeremy Fall are looking to open by Thanksgiving.

The new owners were recent guests on LAist 89.3’s AirTalk, where they discussed their vision for the space. They said they're planning an updated menu, with a new pastrami French dip using thin-sliced pastrami from Langer’s Deli and a custom loaf from Clark Street Bread.

Maloney, who comes from Nancy Silverton’s Mozza group, joked that Fall had talked him into it — but that if no one else had saved Cole’s, it would have been him.

Behind the bar at Cole’s before it closed in March.

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Fall grew up two blocks from Cole’s, where his family ran a restaurant, and said he wants to draw diners from all over L.A. to give people more reasons to come downtown.

Many former staff members are returning, Maloney said. He wants to create a “Cheers”-style space that’s also financially sustainable.

Both remain committed to preserving the building’s historic elements, which they're restoring within its landmark protections. They're also adding more seating, including banquettes. The bar will stay the same, but the overall feel will shift toward a sit-down restaurant.

Storied history

Cole’s is one of L.A.’s oldest restaurants, dating back to 1908, when it began as Cole’s P.E. Buffet, serving Pacific Electric streetcar commuters. Its main claim to fame is having invented the French dip sandwich, a title it has long disputed with Philippe’s the Original in Chinatown.

In 2007, Cedd Moses of 213 Hospitality, now known as Pouring With Heart, restored the interior with a reported $1.6 million. The restoration earned a Los Angeles Conservancy Preservation Award in 2009.

The move also helped spark downtown’s cocktail and nightlife revival, along with the Varnish, Cole’s hidden speakeasy.

In July 2025, however, Moses announced Cole’s would close, citing the pandemic's ongoing effects, the Hollywood strikes, crime, rising rents and operating costs. As fans continued to line up for a final visit, Moses pushed the closing date back several times until it finally shut its doors in March.