The Brief

Gliding through just a few feet of murky water, a green sea turtle dodges beer cans, plastic bags and shopping carts in the concrete-lined San Gabriel River.

A scene that feels very turtle out of water.

A green sea turtle pops its head out of the water while swimming up the channelized San Gabriel River in Long Beach.

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Here's this animal that we most often see in photos of people snorkeling during a tropical vacation. It's munching on algae in fetid suburban runoff, with cars zipping by on the 605 Freeway a few hundred yards away.

Seeing any nature thrive here is a remarkable sight in and of itself. But the turtle's presence is even more awe-inspiring when you think about the epic journey it likely went through to get here.

Beating the odds

Odds are, the turtle barely made it off some beach 1,000-plus miles away, then managed to navigate the ocean for years, avoiding predation, fishermen who might accidentally catch it and speeding boats that might strike it — all to end up next to mattresses in a river just south of L.A.

Green sea turtles have made their way up the San Gabriel River, swimming under the 405 Freeway in Long Beach.

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A green sea turtle swims in the San Gabriel River near the 405 freeway.

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Once on the path to extinction, these East Pacific green sea turtles are making such a strong comeback that they’re now taking up residence in the San Gabriel River in large numbers, far beyond their typical spots in places like Baja, California and the southern San Diego Bay.

“I think it's only recently that we've really realized that green sea turtles are coming this far up the river,” said Tina Fahy, West Coast Sea Turtle Recovery Coordinator with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

She, along with Justin Greenman, who leads efforts to save stranded animals, took me to a spot in the river where the vegetation ends and the vast expanse of the San Gabriel’s bare concrete begins. We had to make sure that we got there during high tide, because the turtles use the rising water to make it farther up the river channel.

Tina Fahy, NOAA's West Coast Sea Turtle Recovery Coordinator, looks out at the San Gabriel River in Long Beach, which has one of the largest gatherings of green sea turtles in Southern California.

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Tina Fahy, NOAA's West Coast Sea Turtle Recovery Coordinator, wears a turtle earring.

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Samanta Helou Hernandez

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“We didn't really know until we started having some stranded high and dry turtles ... and people thought that they were in trouble,” Fahy said. “They can survive without being in water constantly.”

While these turtles have long been documented hanging out in the warm effluent of power plants downstream, swimming through the Los Cerritos wetlands and at nearby Seal Beach, their presence farther upstream is one of the signs they're on the move as their populations boom and waters continue to warm.

“Whereas 20 years ago, we had very few numbers of turtles in our local waters, now we're seeing turtles in nooks and crannies, in areas that we've never seen them before,” said Jeffrey Seminoff, who leads the Marine Turtle Ecology and Assessment Program at NOAA’s Southwest Fisheries Science Center.

"It's really only been in about the last decade that we've seen such a large number of animals," he said. "I believe the San Gabriel River is the most dense green turtle population that we have here in Southern California." 

A harrowing journey to and from L.A.

Green sea turtles can be found all around the world, but there are distinct populations. Ours are known as Eastern Pacific green sea turtles.

Nesting season begins in October, but the turtles don’t lay their eggs here in L.A. They leave the confines of the San Gabriel, head out into the open ocean and slowly swim more than 1,000 miles south to warm beaches like Playa Colola in Michoacán, Mexico.

The turtles mate offshore and the females head in to the beach to bury their eggs in the sand.

Emaciated and exhausted, they then turn around and limp back up to their homes all across Baja and Southern California. The journey is so harrowing that it can take a few years for a female to recover before she’s ready to lay eggs again.

After about 55 days, their babies emerge and steadily get picked off by predators like birds, crabs and raccoons along the beaches. The survivors make their way into the open ocean where they’ll spend the next four years or so passively floating. With yet more predators prowling the seas, the best estimate is that only about 1% of them make it to adulthood.

Around age 6, the turtles swim inland and settle in coastal habitats like the San Gabriel River for the next 15 years. There, they can forage and grow until they're full-fledged adults ready to follow the Earth’s magnetic field back down south to mate and lay eggs, like their parents before them.

The best estimates say that they can live longer than 80 years and grow to over 400 pounds.

The ones observed in the San Gabriel River seem to be adolescents.

We almost lost the turtles

About 50 years ago, green sea turtle populations, including those in the Eastern Pacific, absolutely cratered.

Habitat loss, ship strikes and being accidentally caught by fishermen all jeopardized their survival, as did the fact that they were being hunted for their meat and eggs in Mexico.

They were put on the U.S. federal endangered species list in the 1970s. And by the 1990s, Mexico had taken steps to both protect nesting sites and foraging populations, and ban the sale and use of turtle products.

Since then, the turtles have been steadily recovering.

Back in the 1980s, roughly 250 turtles were spotted on Playa Colola in Michoacán over the six-month-long nesting season. In 2015, more than 1,000 were spotted in one night, Seminoff said.

In April 2016, their status was changed from endangered to threatened, and over the past five years their populations here have exploded.

Tina Fahy, NOAA's West Coast Sea Turtle Recovery Coordinator, looks out at the San Gabriel River in Long Beach, which has one of the largest gatherings of green sea turtles in Southern California.

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Now, they're showing up in surprising numbers, farther up the San Gabriel River than was previously observed.

“Part of why I think we're seeing turtles in these different habitats where we've never seen them before, is simply a function of crowding,” said Seminoff. “There are sites like the San Gabriel River, for example, where we might be at what we call ‘capacity.’ There's just so many turtles that there's a limitation of food. And if that's happening more and more in different spots throughout Southern California, that's going to force turtles to find new spots that have abundant food supplies so that they can set up shop and live there for years at a time.”

Why do the turtles like the San Gabriel River?

When it comes to comfort, turtles are looking for warm water, food and safety, and the San Gabriel River seems to meet those requirements.

Green sea turtles have made their way up the San Gabriel River swimming under the 405 Freeway in Long Beach.

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Samanta Helou Hernandez

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Ducks on the San Gabriel River co-exist with green sea turtles that gather in the area.

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All the bridge pilings may be a great place for them to rest, as they can protect the turtles from getting jostled around by the tides.

There are plenty of rock piles for algae to grow and mud for invertebrates to flourish in, both of which are critical sources of food.

Boat strikes and getting accidentally caught aren't a concern because the river is protected.

Justin Greenman, the California Assistant Stranding Coordinator at NOAA.

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On top of all that, its waters are being warmed by the effluent from power plants downstream. Moving upstream, giant concrete walls absorb the sun’s energy during the day and radiate it out at night, likely keeping resulting in temperatures a bit more habitable for reptiles that prefer tropical and subtropical locations.

Speaking of which, as waters warm due to climate change, habitats farther to the north will likely open up as well.

“I expect that we'll see turtles move farther and farther north along the coast of California," Seminoff said. "We're seeing green turtles in places like Monterey Bay with greater frequency these days. It's not normal by any sense of the word."

The concrete walls of the San Gabriel River absorb the sun's heat likely resulting in warmer temperatures.

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Samanta Helou Hernandez

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Rock piles in the San Gabriel River allow algae to grow for the green sea turtles to eat.

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In July, the National Marine Fisheries Service and NOAA proposed designating turtle hotspots across Southern California, marine-critical habitats, which would afford the turtles additional protections. Essentially, the designation is meant to mitigate impacts on the turtles from activities like construction, and requires federal agencies consult with NOAA during the process.

It's truly a period of discovery, and there are a ton of questions that NOAA and others want to answer about turtle habits and movement, particularly in the San Gabriel River.

That’s where you come in.

Scientists need your help studying them

For the past decade or so, scientists have been actively gathering information about turtles in the lower part of the river, but are looking to expand their studies farther upstream given the population boom.

If you’d like to volunteer to help, The Aquarium of the Pacific has been running a turtle spotting program since 2012. Participants get together every first Saturday of the month and spend about 30 minutes out in the field counting turtles. The data they gather is made available to NOAA and the Los Cerritos Wetlands authority, in an effort to track turtle activity.

If you want to go out on your own and provide information about turtles directly to NOAA, you can head to the spot on the map above, and submit whatever you gather here.

Make sure to include a picture of the turtle if possible, as each has a unique set of markings on its head, which can help scientists better track turtle movement over time.

Oh, and if you see a turtle stranded, call NOAA's California stranding network hotline at (562) 506-4315.

Malibu is pushing back the next phase of its speed camera program along a deadly stretch of PCH to November. The 60-day warning period was originally set to start in November, where drivers going 11 or more miles per hour over the speed limit will get a warning instead of a fine.

The delay, the city says, is needed so adjustments can be made to camera installations.

Yesterday, a Nobu worker was killed about a block from the upscale Japanese restaurant on PCH. CBS LA reports that a juvenile had crashed into the employee's parked vehicle.

When fines start

Malibu officials announced the delay of the program's warning phase last week after a testing period in September recorded around 100,000 speeding violations in less than 10 days.

Enforcement at the 10 cameras along a 21-mile stretch of Pacific Coast Highway will start sometime after the end of the warning period. According to the city, violations will result in fines, but not driver’s license points or insurance penalties.

Why Malibu added speed cameras

Since 2010, traffic collisions on that part of PCH have killed more than 60 people, the city says. In 2023 alone, there were 220 reported crashes there, with 93 injuries and seven deaths — including four Pepperdine University students who were standing along PCH when a driver hit and killed them. The driver, who is charged with murder, is scheduled to stand trial beginning Dec. 1.

Following that incident, Malibu City Council declared a local emergency over dangerous conditions posed by reckless and speeding drivers.

In 2024, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed SB 1297 into law to allow Malibu to install the speed cameras

Looking to say adios to your lawn by sheet mulching or to add a protective layer to your flower beds? Good news, you don’t need to pay for mulch or woodchips. You can instead get them for free in Southern California. Here are a few different ways, depending on your flexibility - and muscle power.

Free mulch piles

Municipalities across the region offer free mulch.

City of L.A.: You can grab mulch anytime from one of its free mulch piles.

O.C.: You can schedule a pickup from a greenery/landfill

Other cities: see below (or check out your own city government’s page).

• Riverside County Department of Waste Resources 
• City of Rialto Free Compost & Mulch 
• Burrtec's Coachella Valley Composting Facility. It is located at 87011 Landfill Rd in Coachella. 
• City of Rancho Mirage Free Compost and Mulch Program 
• City of Ventura Free Compost and Mulch Program

Free mulch delivery

If you don’t want to go pick up the free mulch yourself, consider ChipDrop. It’s a service that connects arborists with gardeners to deliver free wood chips.

Beware: you may get a lot of mulch. Like, a lot.

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Connect with an arborist:

If you want to try to control the amount of mulch you get - or the date of delivery - you may want to consider talking to an individual arborist. They often end up with excess woodchips they need to get rid of, or take to the dump. If you call they might be happy to offload some for your garden.

Opponents of Proposition 40 have a message for voters: Don’t be fooled. The billionaire tax is a “Trojan horse” for new taxes on all Californians, ads proclaim. But is that true?

Tucked into the initiative is language granting the Legislature authority to amend the tax by a two-thirds vote “if the statute is consistent with and furthers the purposes of the 2026 Billionaire Tax Act.” Opponents argue lawmakers and a future governor could, with the stroke of a pen, expand the wealth tax to people with far less than $1 billion.

In a high-tax state, that argument could hold a lot of sway with voters.

Service Employees International Union-United Healthcare Workers West put Prop. 40 on the ballot; the initiative would levy a one-time, 5% tax on billionaire’s assets. The union rejects the premise of the ad. It says the tax is limited to billionaires and any legislative amendment would have to hew closely to that purpose. Dave Regan, president of SEIU-UHW, said opponents’ ads are pure scare tactics.

“The billionaire tax is a tax on billionaires. Period. If you’re not a billionaire, you don’t pay the tax,” Regan said in a statement to CalMatters.

Rob Lapsley, president of the California Business Roundtable, the group that paid for the ad, said the message was meant to highlight the policy implications of a wealth tax and the power Prop. 40 gives lawmakers.

“Californians deserve to understand those issues and what they could mean for taxpayers and the state’s economy,” Lapsley said in a statement.

A separate, billionaire-backed group opposed to Prop. 40 has also said the initiative “gives politicians the power to expand the tax to anyone.”

The truth lies somewhere in between.

California courts have given lawmakers real authority to amend laws created by ballot initiatives if the original text of the initiative permits it. However, that power is not unlimited and the measure includes language restricting future legislative changes, said Michael Colantuono, an attorney with expertise in state election law.

Opponents’ ads also don’t mention that Prop. 40 writes the tax into the state Constitution, not just state law, so expanding it would likely require another trip to the ballot.

Legislative authority

Legal experts agree that if Prop. 40 passes, lawmakers would be able to make certain amendments without taking it back to voters.

The state Constitution allows the Legislature to amend a ballot initiative without another vote if the initiative permits it. That’s a relatively common clause in ballot measures, and Prop. 40 includes it.

Megan Jones, a tax attorney at Holland & Knight, said proponents’ claims that the tax could never be changed are disingenuous.

“If it’s going to further the purposes, then they could,” Jones said.

For example, voters passed the Political Reform Act, which governs campaign finance and lobbying rules, in 1974 and lawmakers have amended it almost continually since.

Similarly, lawmakers have amended the Mental Health Services Act, a voter-approved 1% income tax on millionaires, 10 times since its passage in 2004. None of those amendments adjusted the tax rate. Most recently, lawmakers voted to substantially alter how the state spends mental health money and raise additional bond funds. Those changes went back to voters in 2024 as Proposition 1.

But there isn’t always a clear line for when voters need to approve changes, experts say.

“It is common for the Legislature to make amendments,” Colantuono said. “It is (also) common for there to be disputes about those amendments.”

‘Furthers the purposes of’

“Ultimately, it ends up in court,” said Chris Parker, a principal tax attorney at the firm Baker Tilly.

The California Supreme Court ruled in a 1995 case that the Legislature may amend voter-approved laws if the changes can be interpreted as furthering voters’ original goals “by any reasonable construction” — giving lawmakers broad latitude.

In 2021, the state Supreme Court held that the Legislature appropriately amended Proposition 57, a criminal justice reform measure, by barring the transferring of minors under 16 to adult court. Justices cited the 1995 case, noting that “a strong presumption of constitutionality supports the Legislature’s acts.”

Still, the language of the proposition matters.

A few years earlier, in 2019, the Third District Court of Appeal held that a legislative attempt to allow public funding of political campaigns “directly conflicts with a primary purpose” of the Political Reform Act. Lawmakers responded by passing a new bill asking voters to weigh in directly — it appears on this year’s ballot as Proposition 4.

Judges look at two things, Coluantuono said: what reasonable voters thought they were approving, and whether later legislative changes helped that goal, or got in the way.

Certain provisions of Prop. 40 would make it difficult for lawmakers to expand the tax beyond billionaires. The 1995 case established that courts may weigh the language of a ballot measure, arguments printed in the voter guide, and historical context when deciding whether change is consistent with voter intent.

Prop. 40’s purpose and intent section says the measure is meant to support healthcare and education “by raising revenue from a one-time tax on billionaire wealth” — referencing billionaire wealth three times. The voter guide arguments similarly target “approximately 200 California billionaires.”

“They could probably adjust the structure of the tax in marginal ways, but what they couldn’t do is make it a more than a one-time tax, and they probably couldn’t lower the threshold on wealth,” Coluantuono said.

Opponents contend lawmakers could interpret the purpose of the act far more broadly, and a court would agree. They point to the first listed purpose of the initiative that says the tax is meant to “protect access to high quality, equitable health care, and to support funding for kindergarten through grade fourteen public education and food assistance programs.” Opponents also say the proposal gives the Legislature the authority to change all parts of the initiative, including the constitutional provisions.

“Prop 40’s findings and statement of purpose and intent were carefully crafted to ensure that

extending the tax to non-billionaires would be consistent with the measure,” said Kurt Oneto, a lawyer for the No on 40 campaign, in a statement.

Experts said the question would likely come down to how a court read the act’s purposes.

A separate concern: how do you prove wealth? 

Should Prop. 40 pass, it would create an entirely new tax structure in California — one that assigns a value to very wealthy people’s investments, public and private businesses, as well as personal property such as art or car collections.

Valuing something like a tech startup that hasn’t produced a product or gone public could prove especially difficult, Parker said.

“The excise tax that’s being proposed here is on potential,” he said. “The question then is, if we open the door to taxing potential, when does that stop?”

Lawmakers have periodically tried to pass wealth taxes, but the bills quickly stalled. This marks the first time voters will directly decide on one, making Prop. 40 a crucial test of how much appetite Californians have for his kind of tax structure. Jones said the bigger worry isn’t the tax itself, but other taxes that could follow.

“It’s a slippery slope,” she said.

Coluantuono said it would still be politically risky for lawmakers to try to implement a wealth tax on everyday Californians, but history shows temporary taxes have more than once become permanent.

“When we get a revenue stream in the government and we start spending it on services that people value… there’s tremendous political pressure to prevent the sunset,” he said.

Supported by the California Health Care Foundation (CHCF), which works to ensure that people have access to the care they need, when they need it, at a price they can afford. Visit www.chcf.org to learn more.

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass and her challenger, City Councilmember Nithya Raman, appeared at a South L.A. forum Saturday, where they agreed on some aspects of the city’s approach to reducing homelessness, but offered different ideas on addressing housing costs.

The two appeared separately in conversations with Brenda Verano of CALO News at A Place Called Home, a youth services community organization.

Bass went first, saying she grew up just 20 blocks south of the venue.

“South L.A. has been a big part of my life and what I have done,” said Bass, who in 1991 helped start Community Coalition, which fights for racial and economic justice in that part of the city.

Each candidate was asked how they would build trust in City Hall among Black and Latino residents in South L.A.

“Black and brown poor folks the most have been central in my administration and will continue to be so,” Bass said. “But to me, representation is not just about faces in a room. It's about collaborating on everything you're doing.”

Raman said the establishment “has taken the people of Los Angeles for granted.”

“I’m running for mayor because I don’t want to ignore any part of this city,” she said. “I want to make sure we are people who know these communities not just in the mayor's office but across the many commissions, across the many departments that are designed to oversee these neighborhoods.”

How the candidates would work with LAPD 

Both vowed to expand pilot programs where unarmed social workers respond to certain non-emergency 911 calls instead of the police department.

“Law enforcement should not be dealing with homelessness and substance abuse and mental health,” Bass said. “Those are public health issues.”

But Bass said it's doubtful the police department’s budget will be cut before the 2028 Olympics. The mayor in the past has expressed support for growing the number of police officers.

Raman has said the department is about the right size. She expressed concern about the police department’s cooperation with ICE during recent federal immigration raids.

Raman also criticized the department for its crowd control tactics during protests around ICE facilities. Police used tear gas and rubber bullets against some protestors.

“This mayor did not speak out against those actions by LAPD, appointed a chief who has not met this moment, who said he would not enforce laws put in by the state to protect us,” Raman said.

Chief Jim McDonnell has previously said his department would not enforce California's state law banning federal immigration and law enforcement agents from wearing masks on duty. A federal appeals court in February blocked enforcement of the law.

Bass said if the judicial ban is lifted, she would order McDonnell to enforce the state law. The mayor also defended the department’s use of police officers for crowd control during ICE operations.

“If there is a crowd around an arrest, then LAPD is involved because we don’t want to have the federal government doing that,” she said.

Both say city should exit troubled homelessness agency

On the city’s response to homelessness, Bass called the current system “completely disfunctional” and called for a new system under the control of the city.

Currently, the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority oversees the city’s delivery of homeless services. Numerous audits have found poor accounting of taxpayer money at the agency — which spent nearly $830 million in public funds last fiscal year.

The county has already pulled its funding from the agency in favor of standing up a new county-run Department of Homeless Services and Housing.

Bass said unhoused people are not getting enough care once they leave the streets.

“It is insufficient. They are not taken care of in terms of their health, education, etc. A new system would enable us to do that,” Bass said.

Raman has said she also supports leaving LAHSA and investing in a new homelessness bureau. She noted that street homelessness fell in her council district while numbers across the city went up, according to this year’s homeless count.

“In the past few years, this mayor has refused to audit our homelessness response,” Raman said. “I am very committed to doing that, and I'll request that audit on day one.”

Sharp divides on housing development, renter protections

On housing, Raman criticized the mayor’s opposition to building more densely in residential neighborhoods near transit centers. She said the result has been more building in the city’s poorer council districts, including the South L.A. district that hosted Saturday’s forum.

“Wealthier neighborhoods, less diverse neighborhoods, whiter neighborhoods have actually pushed back on affordable housing, on greater density,” Raman said.

More of the city, said Raman, should bear the burden of greater density.

“We need to build more housing in Los Angeles, but we need to build it across every single neighborhood,” Raman added.

Bass has said density doesn’t belong in some neighborhoods. She opposed a state law, SB 79, that will force cities to allow apartment buildings up to nine stories tall near rail transit stations.

Bass said her administration has fast-tracked new income-restricted housing. But she argued that certain development restrictions are necessary to prevent gentrification.

“We need housing, but we cannot displace Black and Brown people,” Bass said. “If you have housing that is just built anywhere and everywhere, they're coming for us.”

Raman also criticized Bass’ move to temporarily lift restrictions on short-term rentals in preparation for an influx of visitors during the 2028 Olympics.

“I want to make sure that this mayor’s push for deregulating short-term rental during this time, in ways that are harmful to renters, don’t go through,” Raman said. She said tenants could be displaced as landlords turn long-term rentals into short-term accommodations.

Airbnb and business groups back the proposal, saying it will fill a visitor lodging gap for the Olympics and that it would generate significant municipal revenue. Airbnb has put more than $4 million toward backing Bass and three other city candidates, according to the latest campaign finance reports.