The Brief

Months before the Eaton Fire tore through Altadena, Calif., destroying more than 9,400 homes and buildings, the community had already been debating a fateful question: are there places too risky for new housing to be built?

Like so many communities, Altadena had grown over decades with little consideration of the risk of wildfires. Houses spread steadily into the foothills, nestled against the dense, flammable brush of the San Gabriel Mountains.

In December, Los Angeles County officials considered a new land use plan, one that would control building decisions for Altadena and the surrounding area for decades to come. The plan sought to balance two major problems. To address a housing shortage, more density would be allowed in the interior of Altadena. To reduce the danger from wildfires, new construction would be restricted in the foothills.

Some of the affected landowners pushed back, saying the plan devalued their property and their rights to use it. Those same tensions about where to build housing are playing out around the country, as hurricanes, floods and wildfires get more extreme as the climate gets hotter.

Building regulation decisions generally fall to local elected officials, who have to balance their constituents' concerns about land use with the reality of a national housing shortage and growing threat of extreme weather. As a result, few communities around the country have adopted strict development limits to reduce the risk of disasters. Now, as it picks up the pieces after the fires, Altadena will follow those new development rules as it rebuilds.

The danger of wildfires was well-known to Los Angeles County. California is one of a handful of states that has mapped where the highest risk areas are.

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"Nobody likes to hear about constraints but at the same time, do we want our neighborhoods to burn down?" says Jennifer Balch, professor of geography at the University of Colorado Boulder. "There are things that we can do and should be doing to mitigate that risk."

Altadena foreshadows a disaster

In the weeks after the Eaton fire, Nic Arnzen was running on little sleep. He was searching for temporary housing after he and his family lost their Altadena home.

"It was completely gone," Arnzen says. "I keep telling people the fridge was gone. I don't understand how a fridge just disappears to dust."

At the same time, Arnzen had the whole community to think of. As vice chair of the Altadena Town Council, he and his colleagues were juggling the logistics of a disaster. Already, many residents were vowing to rebuild.

"The focus needs to be on: what can we plan for now?" Arnzen says. "How can we know the danger we live in now, and try to improve it?"

Altadena had already been trying to plan for wildfires. Los Angeles County officials had been working on the West San Gabriel Valley Area Plan, a plan that would control building decisions through new zoning. (Altadena is an unincorporated area, so planning decisions are made at the county level.)

Boosting housing is one big focus. Los Angeles is one of the most expensive housing markets in the country and as a whole, the county needs to add more than 90,000 housing units, part of a state requirement. The plan rezones land to allow for higher density of buildings and apartments along Altadena's central corridors, where there's already access to transportation and services.

At the same time, properties on the outskirts of Altadena would be zoned for a lower density of housing, particularly areas labeled as "very high" risk of wildfires. That would limit the construction of new homes there, part of a larger county-wide policy to direct development away from places that are likely to burn.

The fires in Los Angeles County could be the most expensive wildfire disaster in history.

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"This is the example of why," Arnzen says, referring to the Eaton Fire. "To make our town safe, we do have to have some supervision. And we hate to dictate to anyone that: no, you can't develop even though you've been waiting forty years to do that."

Plan comes down to a vote

In December, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors heard that exact feedback. A group of residents who own property in the foothills registered their opposition during public comments at a hearing for the development plan.

"For us, the property is more than just land," said Altadena resident Joseph DiMassa. "It's 50+ acres where we imagine buildings, homes for our children, grandchildren, and possibly even future generations. The downzoning of our property from 52 homes to two isn't just a number, it destroys the dreams we hold for our family's future."

Still, many of the public comments were in support.

"The prevailing sentiment in Altadena is one of endorsement," Victoria Knapp, chair of Altadena Town Council, testified at the meeting. "The plan will direct development away from the Altadena foothills and other high fire zones."

When it came time to vote, the county supervisors passed the plan. That means as Altadena rebuilds and potentially expands, zoning restrictions limiting growth in the foothills will be in place.

After the Eaton Fire, Joseph DiMassa's daughter, Cara, says her family's land in the foothills was burned, destroying a summer camp they run there.

"I love Altadena so much," she says. "And all of that really is gone and it's pretty heart-breaking."

Under Los Angeles County's new plan, development would be limited in the foothills of Altadena, where the wildfire risk is highest.

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Her family had opposed the new zoning plan because they felt it drastically limited the housing that could be built on larger properties.

"We really feel like the county did not do a great job at taking a look at some of these really large parcels that are family-owned, that suddenly were becoming completely devalued," she says.

Now, with so much devastation from the Eaton Fire, Cara DiMassa is glad the zoning plan is in place.

"It gives us hope that our hillsides will be hillsides again and I certainly don't want to see huge developments go up," she says.

Tensions of housing needs and wildfire risk

By considering wildfire risk, Los Angeles County's land use planning is ahead of many other Western communities. County supervisors are also considering a new ordinance that would put even more restrictions on construction in risky areas. The county knows which areas to target because the state has mapped wildfire hazard zones. Other states lack those maps or are in the process of developing them, like Oregon.

Across the country, new construction is expanding into areas that are prone to burning, known as the wildland-urban interface. Around 32 million homes were built there between 1992 and 2015, according to one study.

"We're building into flammable landscapes and just ignoring the fact that we're building into flammable vegetation," Balch says. "And we are increasingly doing that, and it's not changing anytime soon."

Wildfires are also spreading more explosively, driven in part by climate change. A hotter, drier atmosphere pulls the moisture out of vegetation, making it more flammable. Balch and her colleagues found that between 2001 and 2020, there was a 400% increase in how fast fires grew in California.

"Fires are getting harder to fight," Balch says. "So we cannot expect to live in flammable landscapes, and firefighters are going to just come along and put out the ignitions in our homes. This is something we need to address well before the fire actually ignites."

Many communities around the country struggle with balancing the need for new housing with the growing risk from more extreme weather.

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Still, many communities are in desperate need of new housing and elected officials may not want to appear anti-growth. New housing also means an increase in local property taxes, a key source of funding.

"Zoning laws and development regulations really do happen at local levels and so part of the challenge is: what are the incentive structures?" Balch says.

California legislators have attempted to address how communities build in wildfire-prone areas at a statewide level. In 2020, a bill was introduced to put new restrictions on developments in risky areas, requiring them to have adequate evacuation routes and to fund programs to clear flammable vegetation. It was vetoed by Governor Gavin Newsom, who cited the state's housing needs. Several similar bills have been introduced since then, but also failed.

"The biggest opponents were the builders and realtors," says Hannah-Beth Jackson, a former California state senator who authored the vetoed bill. "People wanted to just keep building and building. The bottom line is the climate is changing."

When communities build in wildfire-prone areas, there are also few rules about using fire-resistant materials in most states. Studies show that following wildfire building codes can improve the chances a home will survive a wildfire. California has passed those codes, which means many homeowners rebuilding in Los Angeles will have to meet them. But the majority of other states have not.

While the conversation to build or not build can be tense, Altadena's Nic Arnzen says, in light of the devastation his community is recovering from, it's worth having that conversation, no matter the pushback.

"To tell people no is a difficult thing to do because you care about them and they're your constituents," Arnzen says. "But you have to buffer their anger with your knowledge. And sometimes you have to, as I've done as a parent, you just have to say no and take the beating."
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When California State University paid OpenAI $17 million last year to give campuses unlimited access to a high-powered educational version of ChatGPT, the goal was to help students learn to use artificial intelligence for their education and future careers. However, the announcement came as a surprise to faculty and students, who were left on their own to figure out how to use AI ethically.

Afraid students would use ChatGPT Edu to cheat, many professors turned to in-class tests using bluebooks and scantrons, or employed faulty AI detectors like TurnItIn to catch AI-generated work. Meanwhile, other faculty have embraced ChatGPT and made it part of their curriculum. This all has left students confused over the use of AI in their courses.

A recent Cal State survey of over 94,000 students and university employees found 52% of faculty reported AI having a negative effect on their teaching and 67% of students felt their professors don’t teach them how to use AI effectively.

Now, as Cal State approaches the end of its 18-month contract with OpenAI this July, the university system has not announced whether it will renew the deal. Some faculty at San Francisco State University have begun a petition calling on Cal State Chancellor Mildred Garcia to end the partnership.

The Cal State Chancellor’s office points out that the AI survey found 64% of students, faculty and staff said AI has affected their learning experience at their university positively, and 63% said they’ve seen more opportunities on their campus to learn about AI.

“Our systemwide AI survey results reflect what we are seeing across our universities — widespread engagement with AI tools and technologies,” wrote Cal State spokesperson Amy Bentley-Smith in an email.

The university system left it up to campuses to dictate the proper uses of the chatbot while offering tools and training on a website called AI Commons. But students and faculty say those resources have not been enough. As of April, only 0.7% of students and 16% of faculty have completed the voluntary training, based on data provided by Bentley-Smith.

Assemblymember Mike Fong introduced Assembly Bill 2392 in February, which would require Cal State and California Community Colleges, as well as request University of California schools, to provide training on any AI product deployed on campuses.

Last fall, Fong and the Assembly Standing Committee on Higher Education questioned Cal State officials about planning around the AI initiative.

“During the joint hearing on higher education and privacy, discussions revealed that California State University campuses have adopted AI tools without consistent guidance or training, raising concerns around data privacy, academic integrity, and equitable use,” said Fong in an email to CalMatters.

While a few students and faculty testified at the hearing, others have continued to echo those issues.

“I’m not sure [Cal State] realized how much new work it would require, how much revision to the old way of doing things it would require,” said Ryan Jenkins, the chair of the AI Task Force for Cal Poly San Luis Obispo’s faculty union chapter.

Students want to be a part of AI decisions

Cal State Northridge communications major Katie Karroum was shocked when she saw the announcement about ChatGPT Edu last year. As the vice president of systemwide affairs for the Cal State Student Association, she would have expected the chancellor’s office to meet with the student organization that represents over 470,000 students throughout the state.

“We were not consulted when the contract was signed, and we weren’t even given a heads up,” Karroum said.

Cal State chose OpenAI as the least-costly option, according to assistant vice chancellor of academic technology services Leslie Kennedy. The contract aimed to give everyone free access to ChatGPT Edu across all 22 campuses. Previously, campuses and individuals were paying for their own upgraded ChatGPT accounts that allow users to generate content like images and research reports without the limitations of the free version.

The contract with OpenAI was signed in January 2025, revealed later that month at a Board of Trustees meeting, and formally announced through a systemwide press release in February 2025, which is how Karroum found out.

In a meeting of the Cal State Student Association last October, student representatives from each campus told Karroum that they saw a lack of justice for students accused of using generative AI to cheat, and that they were concerned about the data collected from the chatbot being shared.

ChatGPT Edu at Cal State is defaulted to not use data for training models, but users can opt to allow their data to be shared, according to testing by CalMatters.

Students have also complained about the absence of a consistent AI policy in their classes, according to an open letter published by Karroum. At most campuses, professors get to decide their classroom policies, including about AI.

Yagmur Wernimont, a sophomore at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, said that although AI is used for automation and robotics in her intended agriculture field, she still does not use the technology herself because she thinks “it’s making us dumber” and doesn’t promote learning. She also watched herself fall behind while a classmate used ChatGPT to get a 100% on an assignment.

While her professor verbally told the class at the beginning of the quarter not to use AI, the rule was not on the syllabus, nor was a clear consequence for using AI. Wernimont said this may have given students a loophole for using it.

At Cal State Bakersfield, Emily Callahan, dean of students for academic integrity, said there has been a steady uptick of students reported for improper use of AI. She said students are using the chatbot to gain an unfair advantage over others.

Wernimont has also witnessed a divide between professors over AI. While one of her professors required the use of Google NotebookLM, an AI-powered note-taking app, an English teacher told Wernimont’s class that she was sad students would be using AI for writing, but shared a presentation on ways to cite the tool anyway.

“They’re all having different ways and ideas how to do it,” she said. “And it’s kind of conflicting as a student.”

Kennedy said the university system hasn’t excluded anybody from the discussion around AI. The Chancellor’s Office started a generative AI committee in 2024 that includes students and faculty.

“It was the committee’s recommendations that served as the basis for the CSU to identify, evaluate, and negotiate with multiple companies who at the time offered plans designed specifically to help bring AI tools to higher education institutions,” said Cal State’s chief information officer Ed Clark in an email. “Their assessment and feedback have been and continue to be essential to how the CSU implements its AI strategy that is both cost-effective and secure.”

A new board formed after the implementation of ChatGPT Edu focuses on California’s workforce by including representatives from technology companies. Cal State Student Association President Tara Al-Rehani said that while she is part of that board, it makes no final policy or guidance decisions on AI use.

Karroum said although students need to learn how to use AI, she doesn’t like feeling part of an experiment.

“I think that we’re being treated as, like, test rats right now because there’s no policy and there’s no guidance,” Karroum said.

Faculty introduce new classroom policies on AI 

Faculty leaders said they also were caught off guard with the ChatGPT deal. According to the Cal State survey, 59% of faculty regularly use AI in teaching and research, and 68% said they include an explicit statement on AI use.

According to a repository of more than 200 AI syllabus policies housed on Cal Poly San Luis Obispo’s website, one criminal justice professor from Cal State Fullerton describes in the syllabus when, why and how students should use AI. The professor also includes an example of a good AI disclosure statement from a student who outlined their use of ChatGPT for an assignment.

The AI Commons website states that faculty ultimately decide how they want to implement generative AI into their curriculum,taking into consideration whether it might improve teaching and learning in their classroom like any new technology.

Jenkins, who teaches philosophy at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, gives exams in class using blue books and scantrons to avoid any potential for students to cheat with AI. When ChatGPT was first released in 2022, Jenkins tested the chatbot by giving it a reading quiz. It gave all the right answers, alarming Jenkins that his students might use the technology while taking tests online. Today, Jenkins tells his students to treat AI like any other source when using its outputs for an assignment, but still proctors exams in-class.

“The bread and butter of philosophy is reflecting on your own ideas and trying to sort out what you believe and why,” Jenkins said. “If you have a tool that does that for you, then you’re being denied an opportunity to practice that skill.”

Jenkins said he does not have an AI statement in his syllabus because neither the department nor Cal Poly has provided one to use. On its website, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo links to the AI Commons as well as an AI statement builder from Pepperdine University for faculty to use. But the university does not require any specific statement from professors.

At Cal State Fullerton, Shelli Wynants helps faculty decide how to use AI in their classrooms through her role in the university’s faculty development center. She also teaches students in her child and adolescent studies courses to critically review AI output, and make sure they are remaining “the thinker and the decision maker” in the process.

Wynant said she refers to AI as an “assistant” or “teammate,” but emphasizes it should never replace human judgment. She has found that many of her students who plan careers in teaching want to learn how to use AI responsibly for the sake of their future students. “These students need to get up to speed because they’re going to be the ones teaching students digital literacy,” she said.

In August 2025, the Assembly Standing Committee on Higher Education questioned Cal State officials about planning around the AI initiative. Representatives of the Academic Senate, Cal State Student Association, California Faculty Association and Cal State Employees Union spoke to the Assembly committee about their discontent over the contract with OpenAI.

“We understand all these criticisms and concerns, and they’re valid,” said Cal State’s chief information officer Ed Clark at the meeting. “The best way to deal with those concerns is to have our universities participate in helping to shape the future of these technologies. We can’t just sit back and let it go by.”

Students still need support, even with AI chatbots   

Staff at university tutoring centers are struggling to advise students who say faculty are blaming them for cheating by using the very AI tools the university system wants them to learn to use. According to the Cal State AI survey, 78% of students, faculty and staff said the ethical use of AI is a major concern.

Seher Vora, the coordinator for San Jose State University’s writing center, created an AI Writer Toolbox after conversations with tutors about students who were being penalized by professors for using AI. The toolbox helps students work with AI responsibly, including how to properly cite AI use and not using the chatbot for generating work that is not their own.

The toolbox also includes a disclosure tool that allows students to fill out a form outlining their use of AI for an assignment. The form generates a certificate for students to submit with their work.

The writing center at San Jose State advises students to check with their professors if they are unsure what uses of AI they accept. Vora hopes her work with the toolbox will encourage education around AI, for both students and faculty.

“We have to stay on top of it,” she said. “It’s changing every day.”

Angel Corzo is a contributor with the College Journalism Network, a collaboration between CalMatters and student journalists from across California. CalMatters higher education coverage is supported by a grant from the College Futures Foundation.

Orange County prosecutors have charged a woman with involuntary manslaughter after her 14-year-old son allegedly struck and killed an 81-year-old man with an e-motorcycle.

Tommi Jo Mejer was initially charged with child endangerment and accessory. She was arrested days after her teenager allegedly struck Ed Ashman while doing wheelies in the middle of the street in Lake Forest in April.

On Friday, Orange County District Attorney's Office added the charge of involuntary manslaughter — one day after Ashman, a Vietnam veteran and substitute teacher, died.

Prosecutors say the e-motorcycle the boy was riding is 16 times more powerful than an e-bike and requires a license and a minimum age of 16 to ride. They also say Mejer, in another incident last year, was warned by law enforcement of potential criminal charges if her son continued to illegally ride the bike.

Mejer is scheduled to be arraigned on May 21. If convicted on all counts she faces up to seven years and eight months in prison.

Since January, the Orange County District Attorney’s office has filed child endangerment charges against three parents for allowing their children to illegally ride e-motorcycles.

A federal appeals court has restricted access to one of the most common means of abortion in the U.S. by blocking the mailing of mifepristone.

A panel of the New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals is requiring that the abortion pill be distributed only in-person at clinics.

Danco Laboratories and GenBioPro, the two makers of mifepristone, have directly asked the Supreme Court to grant them emergency relief, to allow mifepristone to remain available through telemedicine as the case continues.

"The Fifth Circuit's order has unleashed regulatory chaos," reads the GenBioPro emergency application to the Supreme Court. The brief also points out that access via pharmacies is restricted by the new order. "Today, patients who planned to pick up a mifepristone prescription at their local pharmacy may no longer be able to do so, regardless of which state they live in."

Since the Supreme Court's 2022 ruling that overturned Roe v. Wade and allowed enforcement of abortion bans, prescriptions by mail has become a major way that abortions are provided — including to states where bans are in place.

"Every abortion facilitated by FDA's action cancels Louisiana's ban on medical abortions and undermines its policy that 'every unborn child is human being from the moment of conception and is, therefore, a legal person,'" the ruling states.

Judges have long deferred to the Food and Drug Administration's judgments on the safety and appropriate regulation of drugs.

FDA officials under President Donald Trump have repeatedly stated the agency is conducting a new review of mifepristone's safety, at the direction of the president.

The appeals court judges noted in their ruling that FDA "could not say when that review might be complete and admitted it was still collecting data."

In a court filing, Louisiana's attorney general and a woman who says she was coerced into taking abortion pills requested that the FDA rules be rolled back to when the pills were allowed to be prescribed and dispensed only in person.

A Louisiana-based federal judge last month ruled that those allowances undermined the state's abortion ban but stopped short of undoing the regulations immediately.

"This is going to affect patients' access to abortion and miscarriage care in every state in the nation," said Julia Kaye, an ACLU lawyer. "When telemedicine is restricted, rural communities, people with low incomes, people with disabilities, survivors of intimate partner violence and communities of color suffer the most."

Mifepristone was approved in 2000 as a safe and effective way to end early pregnancies. It is typically used in combination with a second drug, misoprostol.

Misoprostol is an older medication that is also used to treat gastric ulcers. It can be used alone to induce abortion and may remain available via telemedicine. The two-drug regimen is preferred because it generally causes less cramping and bleeding for most patients.

When mifepristone was approved in 2000, the FDA initially imposed strict limits on who could prescribe and distribute the pill — only specially certified physicians and only after an in-person appointment where the person would receive the pill.

Both those requirements were dropped during the COVID-19 years. At the time, FDA officials under President Joe Biden said that after more than 20 years of monitoring mifepristone use, and reviewing dozens of studies involving thousands of women, it was clear that women could safely use the pill without direct supervision.

The conservative-majority high court overturned abortion as a nationwide right in 2022 but unanimously preserved access to mifepristone two years later.

That 2024 decision sidestepped the core issues, however, by ruling that the anti-abortion doctors behind the case didn't have legal standing to sue.

NPR staff Selena Simmons-Duffin and Diane Webber contributed to to this report.
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