The Brief

Cooling centers — designated locations where people can retreat when it’s baking hot outside — are a key public health strategy during extreme heat waves in L.A. The trouble is, relatively few people are using them.

Technically, pretty much any building that’s open to the public and offers a free spot to rest and cool down could be considered a “cooling center.” The city promotes more than 200 city and county libraries, senior centers, and rec centers, in addition to over 50 pools as “cooling centers.”

Then there are what the city and county call “augmented” cooling centers, which are rec centers or libraries that have extended hours, additional staff, water and snacks to offer, and a dedicated air-conditioned space within the building for people “to huddle, watch TV, play games — whatever the center can accommodate,” said Joseph Riser, a spokesperson for L.A.’s Emergency Management Department. These designated centers also allow pets.

Four “augmented” cooling stations will be open over the weekend, when temperatures are expected to peak. (You can find a full list of those centers, along with a list of participating public libraries and a link to a map and other resources, at the end of this story.)

Deciding which cooling centers to open

The city decides how many and which cooling centers to “augment” in accordance with National Weather Service forecasts for different areas across the county, as well as through feedback from city councilmembers, neighborhood councils and other government departments, such as the L.A. Homeless Services Authority and the Department of Aging, Riser said.

Officials pay particular attention to the forecast for nighttime temperatures, he added, as well as how extreme the temperature highs will be and how long the heat is expected to last.

Do people use them? 

The city of L.A. only collects data on how many people use the cooling centers that have been augmented, Riser said. During the record-long and hot heat wave in September 2022, when we just barely avoided rolling power outages, the city ultimately opened 11 of them. But it was Labor Day weekend, so many of the city's libraries, pools, and other “cooling centers” had limited hours or were closed.

In total, according to data provided to LAist from the city, only 2,254 people went to the 11 cooling centers over the 10-day heat wave. Still, it was a marked increase from the year before, when only 83 people visited five augmented centers that were open during a shorter, but still intense June 2021 heat wave.

David Anguiano, Recreation Coordinator for Mid Valley Senior Center, stands in front of the area set aside as the "cooling center." The Senior Center will have extended hours through the weekend but was empty of visitors on Friday, July 14, when temperatures were in the high 90s.

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Ashley Balderrama

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LAist

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The hottest regions of the city had the most augmented centers: three in the San Fernando Valley, four in South L.A., and two in central L.A. The final two were on the Westside.

Those hotter neighborhoods also have some of the oldest housing that can’t keep heat out. The cooling centers there had the most visitors by far.

The Fred Roberts Recreation Center in South L.A. accounted for more than 20% of all the visits. The center is in one of the areas most impacted by the urban heat island. South L.A. has some of the least tree cover and green space in the city, the result of a legacy of racist housing and zoning policies.

But many Angelenos in the hottest areas don’t know anything about these cooling centers and what they may offer, said Agustin Cabrera, policy director at Strategic Concepts in Organizing and Policy Education, or SCOPE-LA. The grassroots group organizes for environmental justice and green jobs in South L.A.

“What we hear from South L.A. residents is they generally don't have an idea of where these cooling centers are located, and so that sort of matches up with what we're actually hearing from the city,” Cabrera said. “When we talk more about what they can provide, they’re generally interested, because for the most part folks either don't have access to central air or have cooling systems in their homes, or they don't want to turn them on because of fear of a high utility bill.”

Some of the free water and activity supplies at the Highland Park recreation Cooling Center, which will have extended hours through the weekend.

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Ashley Balderrama

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Riser said the city spreads the message primarily via social media, mainly Twitter, and not always in other languages.

“We typically do things in Spanish — not nearly as much as we probably should,” Riser said. “If the council office knows that area well enough to know [language barriers] are an issue, they will get things translated and put things out to their constituents.”

But the message misses most people, said Cabrera. Organizations like SCOPE-LA work to fill in the gaps, using their close relationship in the community to spread the word.

Cabrera said it's important for the city to use culturally relevant communication, which includes not just Spanish in communities like South L.A., but other languages, as well — including indigenous languages.

The limits on cooling centers

Cooling centers are open to everyone. They can also be one of the only options for people living on the streets or in vehicles, but unhoused advocates have long said cooling centers don’t serve their needs. Among the reasons they cite:

• Not being able to bring pets to many locations (when activated as cooling centers, like this week, all city park and rec facilities always allow pets. Service dogs are allowed at libraries.)
• Being worried about leaving their belongings on the street unattended
• Past negative experiences of being kicked out of places such as libraries
• Many unhoused people are disabled or have other health issues that may make it impossible or dangerous to even get to a cooling center amid high heat

When a cooling center is open to everyone, it may serve no one.

“It's important to have the city understand who they're trying to serve when it comes to these centers, because then they're able to ask very specific questions about what those folks need from these centers,” Cabrera said. “And so apart from just being a place where people can find relief from the heat, if it's targeting unhoused folks, what other services do they need? It allows for a more focused conversation, an engaging conversation to make these centers actually useful."

What’s next?

Riser said the city is working to prioritize opening augmented cooling centers in the hottest, highest-risk areas, including low-income and older neighborhoods where housing is least likely to have air conditioning or is poorly insulated.

The city’s Chief Heat Officer Marta Segura has also emphasized the need for what are called “resilience hubs,” trusted community spaces that can be retrofitted with solar panels and battery storage to help communities ride out disasters and power outages.

Augmented centers open this weekend

The following centers will be open through the weekend of July 14 to Monday, July 17 from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. They all allow pets and provide water. Stay up to date with the latest information on cooling centers here. You can also follow LA's Emergency Management Department on Twitter @ReadyLA.

Canoga Park Senior Citizen Center (CD 3)
7326 Jordan Ave., Canoga Park

Fred Roberts Recreation Center (CD 9)
4700 Honduras St., Los Angeles

Highland Park Recreation Center (CD 14)
6150 Piedmont Ave., Los Angeles

Mid Valley Senior Center (CD6)
8825 Kester Ave., Panorama City

Cooling centers at public libraries this weekend

Additionally, the below public libraries will be open on Sunday, July 16 from 1-5 p.m.:

Arroyo Seco Regional Branch Library 
6145 N. Figueroa St., Los Angeles (323-255-0537)

Exposition Park Regional Branch Library 
3900 S. Western Ave. Los Angeles (323-290-3113)

Goldwyn-Hollywood Regional Branch Library 
1623 Ivar Ave., Los Angeles (323-856-8260)

Mid-Valley Regional Branch Library
16244 Nordhoff St. North Hills (818-895-3650)

North Hollywood Regional Branch Library 
5211 Tujunga Ave. North Hollywood (818-766-7185)

San Pedro Regional Branch Library 
931 S. Gaffey St. San Pedro (310-548-7779)

West L.A. Regional Branch Library 
1360 Santa Monica Blvd.  Los Angeles (310-575-8323)

West Valley Regional Branch Library 
9036 Vanowen St. Reseda (818-345-9806)

Maps and other resources

You can find a map of all cooling centers and other heat safety resources from the city of L.A. here, and view the county’s cooling center map and resources here.

An estimated 26,000 children who entered the U.S. without parents or guardians are expected to be left without independent legal representation as soon as Monday, according to lawyers who help represent them.

For more than two decades, the U.S. has been required by law to protect children who cross the border alone, because of fears that they could be easily exploited, abused or trafficked. After children cross the border unaccompanied, they are typically transferred to the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR). A network of nearly 100 legal groups helps provide children who arrive in ORR custody with legal services, funded by Congress.

But in November, ORR stopped paying for those legal services, after lawyers declined to provide the agency with confidential information it had requested about the children. The attorneys say that information is covered by attorney-client privilege.

"The government is withholding payment for work that has already been performed in order to extract confidential information about kids, information the government has no right to," Acacia Center for Justice, the nonprofit that manages the legal services contract with ORR, said in a statement on Thursday.

ORR did not renew the contract with the network of legal providers, which expired Friday.

Alexa Sendukas, an attorney at the Galveston-Houston Immigrant Representation Project, one of the organizations that provides legal help to migrant children, said that come Monday, the children may have to represent themselves in court and that most who would have to do that would likely end up being deported.

"We know that without a lawyer, unaccompanied children win the right to stay in the United States less than 1% of the time," said Sendukas. "And they've come to the United States seeking safety and protection. And what this administration is asking us to do now is to turn our backs on them completely. And they will undoubtedly be sent to harmful, dangerous situations. And I worry some will be killed if they lose their lawyers."

A group of legal nonprofits filed a lawsuit last year asking a judge to order the government to pay them for what it is owed — some $65 million — and continue paying them for more services. After going more than eight months without pay from ORR, some legal service providers have had to reduce their staff.

"Due to the loss of funding for children's immigration work, ProBAR laid off more than 20% of its staff this week," Lauren Fisher Flores, the legal director of ProBAR, a project of the American Bar Association that provides legal services to children in ORR care, said in an emailed statement on July 31.

On July 29, Acacia received notice from the federal government that ORR was considering a new contract, potentially with different legal providers. But ORR did not share much more information.

"It is not clear who the new contractor will be. They have not answered the questions that we have put to them," said Bettina Rodriguez Schlegel of Acacia, in response to a question from NPR. "And so there remains a lot of uncertainty and a great deal of concern."

Neither ORR nor the White House responded to NPR's requests for comment about this story.

Almost 1,800 children were in ORR custody in June, according to agency data. ORR has a legal obligation based on a 2008 law to promptly match children with guardians, or "sponsors," in the U.S. who can take care of them. Those children were held in custody for an average of 194 days before being released to sponsors, which lawyers who represent the children say is unusually long and has been detrimental to the health and safety of the children.

For years, lawyers from the network have given presentations for children arriving in ORR care to inform them of their rights and screen them to determine which legal services they are eligible for. Children who are victims of trafficking or abuse, for example, are entitled to special protections. Some of the network's lawyers told NPR they will no longer be able to provide some of those services.

But some of the attorneys say they won't simply abandon the children, even though the contract has not been renewed and they have not been paid by ORR.

"We have an ethical responsibility. We can't just drop a case. If you have a hearing tomorrow, we can't just not show up because the government decided to stop paying us," said Mickey Donovan, the director of legal services at Immigrant Defenders Law Center. "So we'll be there in court on Monday, to introduce ourselves to kids and try to do what we can to prevent their deportation."

Copyright 2026 NPR

The Los Angeles Dodgers have acquired the biggest prize on the trade deadline market, getting two-time reigning AL Cy Young Award winner Tarik Skubal from the Detroit Tigers on Saturday night.

Skubal got the news during the Tigers’ 8-6 win over the Athletics and was emotional after the game as he prepared to leave the team that drafted him in 2018 and developed him into a star to join the two-time defending World Series champions.

“I’m excited to be a Dodger,” he said. “I’m excited to get down there and meet all those guys and chase three championships in a row. That’s hard to do, so I’m so excited to be a part of that. But it’s a lot of different emotions. Definitely kind of a roller coaster a little bit.”

Skubal is the latest star to join the high-priced roster for the Dodgers that already has big-name players like Shohei Ohtani, Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Mookie Betts. If everyone is healthy, he could be part of a rotation with Ohtani, reigning World Series MVP Yamamoto, fellow two-time Cy Young Award winner Blake Snell and Tyler Glasnow. The Dodgers lead the majors with a 3.36 ERA from their starting pitchers and now add Skubal to the mix.

The Dodgers are in first place in the NL West and were already the favorites to become the first team to three-peat since the New York Yankees from 1998-2000 before adding Skubal. They began the season with a $323.3 million opening-day payroll for their 40-man roster and a $163.7 million tax for a $487.1 million total. They will pay Skubal about $9.5 million for the remainder of the season.

ESPN first reported the deal and said the Tigers would receive three minor league prospects in right-handers River Ryan and Brady Smith and outfielder Zyhir Hope.

Skubal is eligible for free agency after the World Series. He has a $32 million salary, a record total in arbitration, after the team offered $19 million, and is expected to sign a massive contract in the offseason.

The 29-year-old lefty said in July that it was his preference to finish the season with the Tigers and to compete for a World Series championship, which has eluded the franchise since 1984. Skubal took the loss in the decisive Game 5 of the division series against Cleveland in 2024 and then got a no-decision in a 15-inning loss to Seattle in Game 5 of the division series last year.

He said it was “very tough” to leave the Tigers having fallen short of the goal of winning a title.

“Ever since that ’24 Game 5, the failure that I experienced on the mound, I’ve used that as fuel to try and bring a World Series to the city of Detroit. I truly did,” he said. “That whole offseason, I’ve never been more motivated and then go in and we lose Game 5 again. That failure kind of sparks some more motivation, just to dig deeper and see how good you can truly be. The goal was always to win a World Series for the city, for the organization that took a chance on me. It’s tough. I love all those guys in there. They’re some of my best friends.”

Detroit planned to contend again this season, bolstering the Skubal-led rotation by giving two-time All-Star pitcher Framber Valdez a $115 million, three-year contract in free agency and retaining three-time All-Star infielder Gleyber Torres with a $22 million deal.

The Tigers, though, got off to a rough start and are currently 2 1/2 games out of the last wild-card spot in the American League.

“It’s crazy. Going into the season, this isn’t what I planned on doing,” Skubal said. “But circumstances change, situations change, and I’m very appreciative of everything the Tigers have done for me.”

They bounced back in June and most of July to get into playoff contention with Skubal leading a rotation and three All-Stars in the lineup: rookie infielder Kevin McGonigle, catcher Dillon Dingler and outfielder Riley Greene.

With a chance to possibly persuade management to keep Skubal by improving its playoff positioning, Detroit lost ground by dropping four of its last five games at home, including Skubal’s last start that was made even more memorable by a late-inning collapse.

The Tigers led Baltimore 7-0 after six innings Wednesday and lost 10-9 in 12 innings. Skubal started the game, recorded his 1,000th career strikeout and was cheered at every opportunity by a crowd of 34,406.

“I’ve watched this guy rise to the top of the sport,” manager A.J. Hinch said. “He’s carried us a lot. I’ll forever be grateful that our paths crossed and the things that he did for this organization and for a couple of playoff teams. His presence, his work ethic, his example, his dominance. There’s so much to go through, it’s hard to capture in one quote or kind of one setting. But I’m very grateful that I was able to manage him for the time that I did.”

Skubal is 7-5 this season with a 2.79 ERA and 116 strikeouts in 96 2/3 innings. He is 61-42 with a 3.04 ERA over seven seasons, all in Detroit. In two postseasons, Skubal is 2-1 with a 2.04 ERA in six starts.

Skubal had a minimally invasive surgery on May 6 to remove a loose body from his pitching elbow and returned to pitch on June 13.

“The way the surgery went is exactly how it was supposed to go,” he said in July.

___

AP Sports Writer Larry Lage in Detroit contributed to this report

Yoko Ono is having her first solo retrospective in Southern California, Yoko Ono: Music of the Mind, at The Broad in downtown Los Angeles.

As part of the survey of her career, a special tribute concert, Yoko Only, featuring artists inspired by Ono, including Yo La Tengo, Tune-Yards and other musicians spanning genres and generations is scheduled for Saturday, Aug. 8.

If you only know Yoko Ono because of that whole Beatles thing ...

The 93-year-old Ono has been a major avant-garde art figure since the 1960s. In one of her most famous works, long considered a cornerstone of feminist art, Ono sat on stage as audience members cut away pieces of her clothing.

Her experimentation spills over into music

In the late 1960s, Ono formed a band of sorts with John Lennon, originally as a conceptual art piece for a show. The Plastic Ono Band featured a rotating cast of members including some jaw-dropping names: Eric Clapton, George Harrison, Ringo Starr and Keith Moon.

Plastic Ono Band

On Dec. 11, 1970, both Ono and Lennon released their respective debut solo albums — John Lennon/Plastic Ono Ban and Yoko Ono/Plastic Ono Band.

Lennon's version — musically stripped down and lyrically raw — was lauded by critics at the time.

Ono's version — where vocal experimentation took center stage — was panned. Here's what music writer Marissa Lorusso said of the album for NPR in 2021.

In the decades since its release, Yoko Ono/Plastic Ono Band has found new appreciation, particularly among musicians the likes of Kim Gordon and Yuka Honda.

'Yoko Only'

Honda, half of the 1990s New York duo Cibo Matto, is the tribute concert's guest curator.

"Everyone from Tune-Yards to Satomi Matsuzaki of Deerhoof to Sylvan Esso, Yo La Tengo, Rufus Wainwright — they all cite Yoko as a major influence on them as artists," said Ed Patuto, The Broad's director of audience engagement, who reached out to ask Honda to participate.

"Her music and her lyrics oftentimes have that poeticism. Yuka has done arrangements that really do this work justice," Patuto continued. "We're gonna introduce Angelenos to Yoko the musical composer."

This story first appeared on Long Beach Post

More than 260 city employees could be laid off and over 200 more vacant positions could be cut in departments ranging from fire and police to homeless services in order to close a $58 million budget gap the city faces next year, according to a budget proposal from Long Beach City Manager Tom Modica released on Thursday.

The $4 billion spending plan, which covers the 2026-27 fiscal year, includes some new spending, including a 12-person High Crime Focus Team and expanded real-time crime center in the Police Department, permanent funding for Fire Engine 17 near Stearns Park, money for replacing traffic signs and sprucing up medians, investments in the city’s police crime lab and a $6.5 million helicopter paid for using forfeited assets and a law enforcement grant.

But the cuts outsize the gains. Layoffs could claim 4% of the city’s nearly 6,000-person workforce, with additional cuts at libraries, parks and the city’s homeless services hub as Long Beach copes with rising personnel costs, soaring legal payouts, a clawback of federal grants and a slowdown in the local economy that has stifled tax revenue.

A range of positions are set to be cut, spanning more than a dozen departments or offices, from managerial roles to rank-and-file employees. It includes fire captains and police lieutenants, analysts and clerks, crossing guards, librarians and investigators, among others. Officials have said the impact will be felt citywide, in the government’s ability to analyze and respond to emerging issues.

A city spokesman noted that police and fire employees losing their jobs will be transferred to open roles elsewhere in the departments, including in a new patrol beat specific to the shoreline. Many other employees will not be as lucky.

How we got here

This is the first time Long Beach has proposed layoffs for employees paid out of its general fund in nearly six years. Dozens of Health Department jobs were cut in 2024, but those positions were tied specifically to the loss of state grant funding and the conclusion of Long Beach Recovery Act pandemic aid.

The past couple of budgets relied on reserve cash to cover their shortfalls and delay layoffs — $7.8 million in fiscal year 2025 and $5.8 million in fiscal year 2024, the latter pulled from COVID recovery funds. But officials say that strategy was short-term and unsustainable.

The city already pulled $27 million from four reserve accounts to close out the current fiscal year, exhausting its operating reserves and taking $16.5 million from its $50.1 million emergency reserve — money set aside specifically for natural disasters and unforeseen crises.

The moves would save $55.9 million, allowing the city to add $9.8 million back to reserves. It currently has only $33.6 million in reserves.

What's on the chopping block

In public safety, the city proposed shutting down Fire Engine 14, which operates out of the station near Colorado Lagoon, to save $3.8 million, citing data showing it responds to the fewest fire calls in the city and 87% of calls received are for paramedics. Officials also proposed converting one engine from permanent staffing to cheaper overtime; in the Police Department, they suggest eliminating 17 vacant patrol officer positions, cutting $2.68 million in police overtime, consolidating part of financial crimes into property crimes, and eliminating 18 investigator roles.

Pressed by the loss of $11 million in county, state and federal funding, the Health Department faces heavy losses, including 79 positions cut — including eight positions within the city homelessness bureau. The reductions will affect programs and agencies that handle medical shuttle services, weekend homelessness outreach, one of the city’s two mobile homeless outreach centers, workforce development and homelessness prevention.

If approved, the proposed budget would also cut more than half of its motel voucher shelter rooms (from 40 to 15) and offer rapid rehousing assistance to 45 fewer households. City leaders said the cuts are targeted to keep all municipal shelter beds open, a crucial need as Long Beach struggles to reduce local homelessness, which rose by 3.7% in the past year.

Programs and services citywide would also see reductions. Hours and days at five city libraries — Bayshore, Burnett, El Dorado, Harte and Michelle Obama — would be cut to five days a week under reduced hours. Teen programming at Chavez Park, summer swim classes at Jordan and Millikan high schools, and the city’s involvement with the afterschool WRAP program are all expected to be eliminated.

An additional 25 positions would be cut by contracting out services for parking collections, school crossing guards and the city’s reprographics office. To offset administrative cuts in Public Works, parking meters would be installed around City Hall, Lincoln Park, the courthouse and Ocean Boulevard, and citywide parking rates would rise from $2 to $3 an hour, with the revenue redirected to street light repairs, solar conversions, weed abatement and median upkeep.

Several departments would also see agencies consolidated, which officials say is part of a necessary restructuring to focus on emerging issues like traffic safety and community health.

What’s next

Workers were informed of potential layoffs as early as Thursday morning. Civil service rules allow for employees with more experience to bump those with fewer years on the job, meaning workers can move within or across departments, displacing colleagues.

The plan is not finalized yet. Going forward, the City Council will deliberate the budget through a series of public meetings, town hall forums and study sessions until final approval, typically at the end of September.

The earliest potential adjustments came Thursday, during Mayor Rex Richardson’s proposed version of the budget that would restore several programs and reinstate 70 positions.

For example, Richardson said he wants to undo the plan for a rotating engine; keep four of the 17 eliminated police patrol positions and two Quality of Life officers, while reinstating $400,000 for officers’ overtime pay; preserve youth programs, and homelessness programs; add new disease prevention and nursing positions; and continue to fund the Office of Equity position that oversees the city’s deportation defense fund while also adding more money to its account. The defense fund currently has $548,000.

Funding, he explained, could come from a line of new sources, like the $7 million to $8 million expected annually from the voter-approved county Measure ER, an updated cost-recovery agreement with the Port of Long Beach for fire services adding $5.9 million and $1.5 million saved from not holding a general election because races were already decided in the June primary.

Sparing no detail on the starkness of the economic picture, officials say it figures to get worse before it gets better. After a $27.3 million deficit expected next year, officials are confident they will have consecutive years of meager surpluses.

Despite the headwinds, they say, Long Beach is on solid footing, with a 17.5% drop in overall crime, with paramedics responding 30 seconds faster than they did last year, with 12% more city shelter beds, thousands of new, high-paying aerospace jobs, and work underway on new streets, bridges — and a very expensive pool — as part of a billion-dollar infrastructure plan ahead of the 2028 Olympics.

The city also welcomed a new amphitheater and an independent baseball team in the past year, and it continues to draw $2 billion in tourism and economic impact — outpacing San Diego, Anaheim, Phoenix, Los Angeles and San Francisco in key hotel use and visitor metrics.

By following the city’s plans, Richardson said Long Beach would achieve a structural surplus by 2028 — the first in more than a decade.

“Our responsibility today is not only to today’s budget, it’s to the long-term financial health of our city and to the thousands of employees who depend on a stable and sustainable organization,” Richardson said. “Our employees deserve to be more than temporary fixes that simply postpone difficult decisions. They deserve a city with a stable financial future. That’s why I believe we have to stay the course.”