The Brief

When the fires in Los Angeles broke out, fire captain Shane Lawlor was quickly dispatched to the Palisades. He has been at work ever since.

On his first day, Lawlor was on his team's fireline for 20 hours straight with no breaks for food or sleep. He's still working the fireline and has been sleeping on-site or at his station in Santa Monica when he's not on duty.

Back at his home in Carlsbad, Calif., Lawlor's son, Cian Lawlor, is a fifth-grader and budding journalist at Magnolia Elementary School. The 11-year-old has a new podcasting kit that his family got him for Christmas.

Earlier this week, NPR asked Cian to interview his dad over Zoom. It was the first rest day since the fires began for Lawlor, who took the call from his post at the Santa Monica Fire Department Station 2. Cian was at their home in Carlsbad. This was also the first time the father and son had connected in a week.

"I'm glad he gets to do this and help people in need," Cian says about his dad's job. "He puts out his heart for the greater good."

This interview was prepared and conducted by Cian, with help from Magnolia Elementary's broadcasting club, MagTV's director, Andrew Luria. The photos were taken by Cian's friend and fellow Magnolia student journalist, Eivan Wheyland. NPR sat in on their conversation.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Cian Lawlor, 11,is a budding journalist and member of his school's broadcasting club, MagTV. He came up with his own questions for this interview.

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Eivan Wheyland

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Cian Lawlor: What goes through your mind when you're fighting fires such as this one? Were you scared?

Shane Lawlor: Scared? Not so much. But definitely, you have to take care of yourself. You have to understand your surroundings. It is so fast-moving, and there's so much going on that hearing important radio traffic that could be very important is very difficult. Making sure that you know when you are in the wrong place and you've got to get out of there is very, very important.

Cian: How did this fire compare in its size and damage to the other fires you have fought?

Lawlor: There have been big fires in California in the past that I've been on, but nothing like this for pretty much everyone.

I used to live in Santa Monica before, so I do know a lot of the neighborhoods that have been affected, and those neighborhoods are all gone. They're not even there anymore.

In terms of the size of the fire, I haven't seen anything bigger in my career. I don't think very many people have. And in terms of the scope of the damage, it has been obviously just utterly devastating.

Cian: What were the winds like and how did they affect the fire and the job you were doing?

Lawlor: The wind makes you think that you are doing a good job on one side of a nice house, but then you go around the corner and the wind has caused the fire to start on the other side of the house. So you are kind of wasting your time and you need to redirect. So it just makes it very challenging.

The biggest effect on me was what we call embercasting. And that's just small, tiny little bits of embers that blow off a tree or a building when they're burning, and they kind of whip around you. They can come up behind you. They're all over, and when they're blowing it makes it very difficult to do your job.

Those embers are what start other fires. So you're constantly protecting yourself from those hot embers in that wind and you're constantly chasing the new fires that they're starting. So that makes it very, very difficult.

Cian: When you look at the destruction and all the homes lost in the fires, what is your reaction?

Lawlor: It starts with a sense of disappointment that you couldn't have saved a lot or more of these homes. And then it moves on to sympathy for the folks who have lost those homes.

And then you also kind of get a sense of appreciation for the fact that we still have a home to go to. We have to appreciate what we have, because there's plenty of families who don't have a home or anything like that anymore.

Cian: Tell me something that happened that made you really proud.

Lawlor: I'm very proud of the crews that were around me. They really did everything in their capabilities to save each and every home. They were working so hard all day and all night. No food, no anything for hours and hours, no sleep just to try and save whatever they could. That's a big sense of pride.

Cian: What is the morale like at the department now?

Lawlor: There's definitely fatigue, physical fatigue, and there's definitely mental fatigue from it. But we're doing OK. Everyone is very appreciative of all the support we've been shown. There is so much food and so many well-wishers coming to our fire stations that it really gives us a boost every day to keep going, knowing that we're hopefully making just a little difference in someone's life.

Cian: Are you still currently fighting fire? What does your job look like on a daily basis now?

Lawlor: Yes, I am. I'm currently assigned to the Palisades Fire. We started on 12-hour shifts, and now we're working full 24-hour shifts. So you're talking to me on my rest day. It's as much a physical rest as it is a mental break. And then I will be reporting back for my 24-hour shift at 6 a.m. tomorrow, and I'll be there for another 24 hours. So we are still directly engaged on the fire line, which is literally the very edge of the fire, where if the fire is going to kick up again, that's where it will start.

You have people who hike in and they use tools to put in hoseline along the entire perimeter of this fire. And if anything comes up, now there's a hoseline in place and they can fight it. Does that answer your question, buddy?

Cian sits for a portrait at his home in Carlsbad, Calif. His friend and fellow Magnolia student journalist, Eivan Wheyland, took the photo.

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Cian: Got it. Do you have any questions for me?

Lawlor: What would you want to tell a 10-year-old boy whose home is now gone or has been affected by the fire?

Cian: I would tell them, I'm glad you're safe. Look on the bright side. Everything's going to be OK. How can we help you with your needs?

Special thanks to Cian's mom, Jaleh Lawlor, Magnolia Elementary School's broadcasting club, MagTV, and the club's director, Andrew Luria.

MagTV is a 2024 fourth-grade winner in the NPR Student Podcast Challenge, which you can learn more about here.

From Los Angeles to Sacramento, teachers unions, many fueled by the “We Can’t Wait” campaign organized by the California Teachers Association and a slew of contract renewals, are rallying for higher pay, better benefits, smaller class sizes and other classroom improvements. Some are threatening to strike.

In the West Contra Costa Unified School District, the call for improved pay and benefits, and classroom improvements, resulted in a six-day strike by the district’s 1,450 teachers that ended earlier this month. The teachers won an 8% pay raise over two years and will no longer have to pay healthcare premiums.

The strike is emboldening other teachers unions that are at an impasse with their districts over contract negotiations.

“We are leading a historic wave of resistance to demand safe staffing, affordable healthcare and student-centered budgets, and local chapters are organizing to strike if needed,” said David Goldberg, president of the California Teachers Association. “Richmond showed us exactly what is possible: When we stand up for what schools educators and students deserve, we can transform public education.”

There are at least 14 school districts around the state that are at an impasse with teachers unions over contract negotiations. They are: Los Angeles Unified, San Francisco Unified, Oakland Unified, Berkeley Unified, Madera Unified, Evergreen School District, Little Lake City, Upper Lake Unified, Duarte Unified, Newport-Mesa Unified, Oak Grove Union, Apple Valley Unified, Twin Rivers Unified and Natomas Unified.

CTA campaign ratchets up the pressure

Most of these districts’ unions are part of the CTA’s “We Can’t Wait” campaign, which has spent the past few years aligning contracts to end on the same date in order to add pressure on districts in areas where multiple unions would be negotiating and could potentially strike at once.

The campaign has also shared demands for smaller class sizes and caseloads for special education educators, and more counselors, nurses and mental health professionals in schools, as well as competitive wages and benefits to retain and recruit teachers.

“It is our belief that we’ve been siloed,” said Brittoni Ward, president of Twin Rivers United Educators in Sacramento County. “Unified districts all over the state have been dragging themselves year after year through contract bargaining that gets us nowhere. We don’t make any progress, and we all essentially are fighting for the same things. So why not unify on our common goals and make change happen.”

School districts are largely pushing back on union demands, saying that with declining enrollment and rising costs, there isn’t enough money to pay teachers more. Teachers disagree, pointing to expensive outside contracts, high administrative salaries and ample reserves in some districts.

Now, teachers in several districts, including San Francisco Unified, Natomas Unified, Twin Rivers Unified, Madera Unified and Upper Lake Unified, have indicated — by vote or informal survey — that a majority are ready to strike.

Will L.A. teachers strike again?

United Teachers Los Angeles plans a strike vote in January and has already begun polling teachers to determine if there is interest. A strike in the Los Angeles Unified School District would affect 516,000 students.

There is precedent. UTLA took to the picket lines twice in recent years — in 2019, when they went on strike for six days for higher wages, and in 2023, when they walked out in support of school staff in another union.

“I will say that, like in previous years, we have gone on strike, and we’re certainly ready to go on strike,” said Julie Van Winkle, UTLA vice president. “And we feel like we need to be ready in case the district keeps ignoring our demands and making counterproposals that are inadequate. But, we’re also very open to a settlement.”

Los Angeles Unified teachers and the district are negotiating a three-year contract that would have started at the beginning of this school year. Teachers want a complete overhaul of their salary schedule, beginning with an $80,000 starting salary for new teachers, instead of the current $65,000, Van Winkle said.

They also want more arts and physical education teachers, lower class sizes in 11th and 12th grades, free child care centers in closed schools, additional resources for special education, and more psychiatric social workers, attendance counselors and pupil services staff.

Los Angeles Unified district leaders have increased their offers to UTLA multiple times in ongoing negotiations, most recently offering a 4.5% raise and 1% bonus, according to a district spokesperson. The district estimates that UTLA’s demands throughout the 2027-28 school year total more than $4 billion above the district’s current expenditures.

“We deeply value the educators and professionals who serve our students,” the spokesperson said. “We also have a responsibility to maintain long-term financial health so that every generation of Los Angeles students — today and in the future — receives the high-quality, equitable education they deserve.”

District wants to cut benefits

Teachers in the Little Lake City School District in southeastern L.A. County have yet to call a strike vote, but Maria Pilios, president of their teachers union, is preparing them for the possibility.

The 205-member union isn’t asking for a wage increase; instead, they want smaller class sizes and fully staffed special education classrooms. But the district is negotiating to reduce the amount it pays for its healthcare premiums. It currently pays 100%.

The district intends to start taking the contributions from teachers’ paychecks in January while negotiations resume, Pilios said.

Teachers and staff, many of whom grew up in the community, feel betrayed, Pilios said. She said teachers have gone without raises in the past to ensure they could retain full health benefits.

“This has changed the relationship between the staff and the district,” Pilios said.

The district’s decision means a $12,000 annual pay cut for teacher Mabel Manzur. The eighth-grade math teacher was diagnosed with cancer for the second time recently and was in the middle of treatments when she learned about the insurance change.

Manzur had to make a difficult decision: keep the doctors and treatment she had or move to a cheaper policy and start over with another doctor and possibly new treatments. She worried that her cancer history would make it difficult for her to be accepted into a new plan.

Still negotiating last year’s contract

Madera Unified teachers are tired of waiting for a contract for the 2024-25 school year, so more than 90% have indicated they are ready to strike if an agreement can’t be reached, according to David Holder, president of the Madera Unified Teachers Association.

The union wants a retroactive 8% raise on base salary, but the district is offering 4%.

According to the district, teachers have received a total compensation increase of nearly 38% over the last decade.

“A new teacher coming to Madera, on average, is making about $9,000 less in their first year than the surrounding districts, Holder said. “And so, Madera Unified is almost like a training district where we have young educators — a lot of probationary interns coming in here, finishing their credentials, getting some experience, and then they leave.”

Holder said there are still 30 to 40 open teaching positions in the district being filled by substitute teachers.

Madera Unified had 284 teachers resign from the district since the 2021-22 school year, a 93.5% retention rate, according to a statement from the district.

The union won’t bring forth proposals for this year or next until last year’s contract is completed, Holder said. The union and district started state mediation over the contract last week.

Sacramento could have two districts on strike

Two Sacramento County teachers unions are at an impasse with their districts, meaning potential strikes could affect 60,000 of the county’s students. Both districts are part of the “We Can’t Wait” campaign.

Teachers unions for both Twin Rivers Unified and Natomas Unified are seeking increased pay, a reduction in healthcare costs, smaller class sizes and more special education staff, among other things.

Twin Rivers teachers and district administrators have a long way to go before they reach an agreement. The teachers want a 12% increase in salary over two years. The district has offered 2.5% the first year and no guarantee for the next year, said Ward of Twin Rivers United Educators.

The district’s proposal would mean teachers at the top of the salary schedule would earn $152,000 annually, according to a letter from the district sent to staff in November. Beginning teachers would start at almost $77,000.

Twin Rivers Unified leaders said that the district’s salaries are among the highest in the state and that class sizes remain low.

The teachers union is also asking that the district pay more of the insurance premiums. Twin Rivers currently pays the full premium for a basic plan, but asks teachers to pay for higher-cost health plans, according to the letter.

A family of two on the Kaiser family plan pays about $1,600 a month for insurance, and others with more family members pay more, Ward said.

The district and union began their negotiations in February and are now working with a state mediator. The parties might end up having the contract negotiations move to a state fact-finding panel because of the district’s reluctance to bargain, Ward said.

Twin Rivers United Educators' executive board has already authorized a strike vote, and 80% of its membership signed a petition indicating they are ready to strike if necessary. A strike could happen as soon as March, Ward said.

The union has been at odds with the school district before, getting as far as the fact-finding stage, but it has never gone on strike.

“This time we are mobilized, and we’re ready,” Ward said. “Our membership is ready. And they see what’s going on in Richmond. They’re seeing things happening around the state, and they’re like, if that’s what it takes, we’re ready. We’re here for it.”

EdSource data journalist Daniel Willis contributed to this report.

President Trump disparaged Hollywood director Rob Reiner, who died along with his wife over the weekend in what officials are investigating as a homicide. Their 32-year-old son, Nick, has been arrested.

Reiner, 78, was a prominent supporter of the Democratic Party and a vocal Trump critic.
"A very sad thing happened last night in Hollywood," Trump said in a post on Truth Social Monday morning. "Rob Reiner, a tortured and struggling, but once very talented movie director and comedy star, has passed away, together with his wife, Michele, reportedly due to the anger he caused others through his massive, unyielding, and incurable affliction with a mind crippling disease known as TRUMP DERANGEMENT SYNDROME, sometimes referred to as TDS."

Trump went on to say that Reiner had a "raging obsession" with him, "with his obvious paranoia reaching new heights as the Trump Administration surpassed all goals and expectations of greatness, and with the Golden Age of America upon us, perhaps like never before."

His post concluded with, "May Rob and Michele rest in peace!"

Tributes for Reiner have been pouring in, including from former President Barack Obama, who said that "beneath all of the stories he produced was a deep belief in the goodness of people — and a lifelong commitment to putting that belief into action."

The Los Angeles Fire Department said it responded to a medical aid request at around 3:40 p.m. local time Sunday and discovered the bodies inside the couple's home.

Reiner's son Nick had a history of addiction, which inspired the 2016 movie Being Charlie, which Nick Reiner worked on with his dad.

Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, who has had a public falling out with Trump, criticized the president's comments.

Referencing Nick Reiner's history in a post on X, Greene called the incident "a family tragedy, not about politics or political enemies."

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Demonstrators, including healthcare workers, marched to Adventist Health White Memorial in Boyle Heights on Sunday, calling on hospital administrators to uphold the privacy rights of immigrant detainees and protect staff who advocate for patients.

It was the last of three stops in a rally organized by the People’s Care Collective, a network of healthcare workers and organizers that, according to a press release, is calling attention to “the health harms caused by immigration raids, ICE detention, the Los Angeles County jail system, and complicit local hospitals.”

The collective wants the L.A. County Board of Supervisors and all Los Angeles area hospitals to adopt a “Model Policy for Immigration Enforcement in the Healthcare Settings,” developed by medical providers and immigrant rights legal advocates.

The rally follows reporting by LAist that administrators at White Memorial allowed agents to influence medical care and restricted doctors from contacting detained patients’ families.

Adventist Health later released a six-point statement outlining policies to protect patients and support staff.

Still, doctors and advocates say that is not enough.

Sunday's demonstration

Protesters began in front of the Japanese American National Museum, stopping at the Metropolitan Detention Center and Men’s Central Jail as they made their way to the hospital.

“I’ve seen firsthand for several months many individuals who are coming in critical condition due to delays in care. Not because the care wasn’t available, but because they were afraid,” said a member of the People’s Care Collective, who spoke to the crowd in front of the detention center and declined to be identified for safety reasons. He works as an emergency doctor and professor in L.A.

“I’ve seen people with cancer that went untreated and spread because they were afraid to come in,” he said.

“People tell us, ‘We need to stay in our own lane. We need to focus on our health work. We need to stay in the clinics, in the hospital.’ But we know this is our lane. Health justice is our collective responsibility,” he continued.

Healthcare workers march to White Memorial in Boyle Heights. One protester’s white coat reads, “Another world is possible.”

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At least 75 people participated in the demonstration.

They held signs and banners that read, “Health justice has no walls” and “Our hospitals are not your holding cells.” Demonstrators chanted “Out of the clinics and into the streets!” as they neared White Memorial. Several drivers honked in support, some with their fists up in the air as they drove by. Members of social justice group Centro CSO, Union del Barrio, and other community groups were there in support.

Healthcare workers were dressed in white coats. One read, “Seize the hospital to serve the people” on the back. Others came in brown, green and blue scrubs. Medical students and trainees were among the crowd.

Dr. Abhinaya Narayanan, a family physician in Los Angeles, read a statement written by White Memorial healthcare workers.

Recently, according to the statement, “the hospital had to admit that doctors have the right to ask ICE to leave the room to speak privately to patients, but that is not enough.”

“We demand that White Memorial put into place additional protections for patient privacy, allow doctors and patients to have free and not controlled contact with patients’ families, and for medical providers and social workers [to] be able to assist patients and families with connection to support and legal representation,” hospital staff said in the statement read by Narayanan.

“The government is forcibly disappearing individuals and it’s our responsibility as healthcare workers to reappear them as part of our healing,” Narayanan continued.

Gabriel Quiroz with Centro CSO spoke at the rally in front of White Memorial, where he said he and his younger sister were born.

“I can only imagine how terrified raza is to enter this hospital,” Quiroz said. “I think of the elders of our neighborhood here in Boyle Heights who are missing medical appointments due to the fear of migra being in the hospital and the hospital administration doing nothing to keep them safe.”

As part of efforts to call attention to the issue, Quiroz said a petition launched by Centro CSO has garnered hundreds of signatures. It calls for White Memorial to uphold HIPAA, the federal law that safeguards patient privacy, and to bar U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement from making medical decisions for patients.

“We will not let fear stop us from organizing and fighting back,” Quiroz said.