The Brief

Nearly 180,000 people in Los Angeles County are currently under evacuation orders stemming from the Palisades, Eaton and Hurst fires in what is believed to be one of the most destructive natural disasters in Los Angeles history. As a result, thousands of structures — including homes — have been damaged or destroyed and many school districts impacted by the fires, like L.A. Unified, have temporarily closed.

For parents or guardians of children, this can be an especially daunting time — managing your anxiety while also making sure your kids' needs are taken care of.

Best practices in the moment

LAist spoke to Rebecca Hedrick, a child and adolescent psychiatrist at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, about suggestions for how to navigate conversations about the wildfires and evacuations:

Validate children’s feelings: Hedrick said adults should acknowledge feelings of sadness and anxiety.  After you've validated their feelings, she said, you can remind them that you are there to help keep them safe and there are plans in place.

Involve children in packing a go-bag: Even if you are not under evacuation orders, Hedrick recommended packing a go bag with a child to help them feel like they have agency. Ask kids if they would like to pack a favorite toy or book.

Limit exposure to media and social media: Images of the fires can be scary for young children and even teenagers, Hedrick said.

Maintain a routine: With school closures and recommendations to stay indoors, Hedrick said, it can be hard to maintain a routine, but doing so can help children feel like they have some agency. She recommended involving children in chores like preparing meals.

Give them a chance to express themselves: For children in that 4- to 7-year-old age group, Hedrick said, this could look like playing and enacting scenarios through play. For example, having a stuffed toy expresses how they’re feeling about the fires.  ”Give them an opportunity to help, to think of problem-solving solutions themselves,” Hedrick said. “This will help to decrease their sense of helplessness.”

Have young kids enact fire drills at home: Ask them questions about what they would do if they had to leave and where they could go so they have a sense of what plans are. Also enact a fire or evacuation as if children were in school or not at home so they know about plans in those instances.

With older children, discuss the causes of the fires, fire safety precautions and how to respond in emergency situations.

Strengthen a child’s friendships or peer support: Zoom play dates or show-and-tell virtually can help a child still maintain friendships and feel connected during a tragedy, Hedrick said.

We’ve lost our home. How do I talk to my child about that?

Dr. William Lacey-Bisetty, clinic director at the  Center for Connection — Santa Barbara, said adults can try to refocus what home is.

“ Home is this connection, this family, this community we have, and those things are going to maintain even with the loss of the material aspects of home, the physical space,” he said.

Some things you can do:

Don’t diminish the little things: Kids can focus on the little things they have lost like their toys and books or a favorite game. Allow them space to grieve and redirect when you have found some settling. “ Those are the things that really make kids feel connected and grounded in some spaces, and there's nothing wrong with that,” Lacey-Bisetty said.

Model coping methods for children: Hedrick said some people lean on religion and spirituality in moments like this and praying together is something you can do with children.

Creating avenues for expression: Start new routines where children can share answers to questions like five things they miss. Hedrick said adults should start these lists on the negative side and then progress to questions like five things they are thankful for. “ You want to give a voice to the fears, the anger, the sadness, so that there's a little bit more space in their mind and their heart to be able to open up to the more positive aspects of gratitude and hope,” she said.

Open dialogue: Dr. Sabrina Renteria, a child and adolescent psychiatrist at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center told LAist's AirTalk program that parents should ask children questions about what they understand. Children, she said, fill in gaps with their own imagination and sometimes might not grasp what happened. Having an open conversation and sharing age appropriate information can help dispel those myths.

I’m anxious myself. How can I help a child?

Adults will be anxious if they have had to evacuate or lost a home and it's important to accept it, Hedrick said.

“ It's important that the adult has some place somewhere to express their feelings first,” she said. “It's also important to use a healthy coping skill that we call suppression. It's different than repression. Repression is, ‘I don't have these feelings.’ Suppression is, ‘I am terrified. I am angry. I am in the most intense grief I can imagine, but I don't have time for those emotions right now.’”

Also forgive yourself, Hedrick said, if you find yourself projecting on a child. Apologize to them to model that it’s OK to be angry, frustrated or sad.

Find opportunities for play and joy, she said, like building a fort together, playing board games or tag.

“ These types of things are a lot more helpful in healing to the psyche and to preventing possible development of post traumatic stress or other types of anxiety disorders that will persist after the fires,” she said.

Renteria told LAist's AirTalk that people can go into shock and denial after large scale disasters. And once that subsides, they can experience " changes in their energy, sadness, crying, numbness, anger and irritability, rapid fluctuations in mood that they would normally not display."

Their mind can also manifest psychosomatic responses like headaches, stomach aches, chills or tremors.  

"What's very, very important, like putting one foot in front of the other and taking deep breaths, you need to find a way to calm your nervous system down," Renteria said. "What I typically will recommend for people who are experiencing trauma, anxiety, panic attacks, is to try to breathe."

 Eat, hydrate, avoid alcohol, tobacco, and drugs, she added, which can worsen coping over time. Calming music and gentle stretches can also help.

Federal prosecutors will pursue fewer charges in their second attempt to convict a man accused of starting the deadly 2025 wildfire that became the most destructive in Los Angeles’ history.

A jury deadlocked in June over whether to convict Jonathan Rinderknecht of intentionally sparking the fire that killed 12 people as it incinerated much of the Pacific Palisades and other neighborhoods in Malibu. Ten out of 12 jurors wanted to acquit him on all three felony charges, leading the judge to declare a mistrial. Federal prosecutors vowed to try again, and a second trial is set to start in the fall.

In a new indictment filed Thursday, prosecutors reduced their case against Rinderknecht to two charges and narrowed their scope.

Prosecutors allege that Rinderknecht used a barbecue lighter on Jan. 1, 2025, to spark a fire that burned undetected deep in root systems before flaring back up Jan. 7 to become the Palisades fire, which destroyed more than 6,800 buildings.

All three charges in the first trial blamed Rinderknecht for setting both the Jan. 1 fire and the Palisades Fire. In the new indictment, only one charge references both fires. The other only focuses on the destruction caused by the first fire.

Rinderknecht’s attorney and a spokesperson for the U.S. attorney’s office declined to comment on the new indictment. U.S. District Judge Anne Hwang is holding a status conference for an arraignment on Wednesday.

Throughout the first trial, prosecutors argued that Rinderknecht was the only person in the area when the Jan. 1 fire began and presented a digital trail seeking to show he was motivated by a desire to take revenge on society over rampant economic inequality. They also presented hours of recorded interviews with Rinderknecht in which he offered inconsistent recollections about his movements that night.

Rinderknecht’s attorneys argued that prosecutors lacked direct evidence showing that he started the fire and that they failed to consider fireworks as a potential cause of the first fire.

Saturday marks one year since former Orange County Supervisor Andrew Do started his prison term, after pleading guilty to taking bribes to award tax dollars to people who diverted $7.9 million that was supposed to feed needy seniors during the pandemic.

About $4 million has been recovered so far as a result of the criminal probe, which was prompted by an LAist investigation.

What’s happened since Do went to federal lockup? How much money has been recouped for taxpayers? And will he and his family pay back the bribe money? Here’s what we know.

How much longer will Andrew Do be in prison? 

Do was sentenced to five years in federal prison, which he has been serving at United States Penitentiary, Tucson since Aug. 15 of last year.

His original release date was set for four and a quarter years later, in November 2029. Federal prisoners serve 85% of their sentence if they maintain good behavior, under a nationwide law.

In the year since he started his sentence, Do’s prison term has been shortened by an additional five months, with a new release date of mid-June 2029, according to the federal prison system’s website. Federal law allows many prisoners to further reduce their prison time by completing various classes, trainings and programs.

A spokesperson for the prison system declined to answer specific questions about Do’s time at the facility, saying, “We cannot comment on the conditions of confinement of any individual.”

How much money has been recovered?

The amount of taxpayer money recovered so far is a bit less than half of the $7.9 million Do admitted was diverted from tax dollars he awarded to a newly formed group that was supposed to feed needy seniors during the pandemic.

The county alleges even more — at least $13.4 million — was lost due to the scheme, and that much of it was “plundered” into multiple home purchases in Tustin and elsewhere by various alleged co-conspirators.

Of the $3.7 million recovered and returned to the county, the vast majority was from the main nonprofit and business accused of bribing Do. County supervisors are deferring to Do’s successor, Supervisor Janet Nguyen, to recommend how to spend the money.

More than a decade ago, Nguyen was Do’s mentor and boss when she was supervisor the first time and Do was her chief of staff. She helped him win election to her supervisor seat, before the two had a bitter falling out by 2016. The animosity grew so intense that in 2018 the county Republican Party’s then-chair emailed Do, a fellow Republican, to tell him to immediately stop publicly attacking Nguyen, another Republican, as she ran for reelection to the state Senate.

So far, Nguyen’s gotten approval from her fellow county supervisors to allocate $500,000 of the recovered funds to compensate residents affected by multiday evacuations over a Garden Grove chemical tank that was at risk of exploding. Nguyen has said she wants the chemical tank company to reimburse the county for it.

The county is trying to get back more of the stolen tax dollars from the scheme through an ongoing civil lawsuit against Do, his youngest daughter Rhiannon Do and others alleged to have been involved. The trial is set for late 2027.

What’s happened to Andrew Do’s alleged co-conspirators? 

Federal prosecutors have an ongoing criminal case against two of Andrew Do’s alleged co-conspirators: Peter Pham — who led the nonprofit Viet America Society that handled most of the meal money — and Thanh Huong Nguyen, who led the nonprofit Hand to Hand Relief Organization that also handled meal money directed by the former supervisor.

Federal authorities say Peter Pham remains a fugitive, after flying to Taipei in December 2024, a few months after authorities executed a search warrant at his home.

Following several postponements, Nguyen’s trial is scheduled to start in February.

If she’s convicted, federal prosecutors plan to seek restitution payments, according to Ciaran McEvoy, the U.S. Attorney’s Office spokesperson.

What about Andrew Do’s family?

During the first part of Andrew Do’s scheme, his wife, Cheri Pham was the supervising judge over Orange County’s largest criminal courts, before being promoted to the number-two judge position at the county Superior Court.

As assistant presiding judge, she was on track to become the presiding judge, but in mid-2024 decided not to run amid the controversy swirling around her husband. She now oversees divorce and domestic violence cases in Orange County’s family court, where she started her judicial career. She has not been charged with any wrongdoing.

The Orange County District Attorney’s Office hired Rhiannon Do as an intern in early 2024 after LAist reported that her father routed millions in unaccounted-for dollars to an organization she was listed as helping lead. The internship ended about three months later. Six months later, the DA’s office and federal prosecutors agreed to a diversion agreement that avoided charges against Rhiannon Do, in exchange for her admitting to mortgage fraud and giving up her ownership of the Tustin home that was purchased as a bribe to her father.

Last year, Rhiannon Do graduated from law school and passed the bar exam that’s required to become an attorney in California. She is not currently listed as an attorney on the state bar’s website. To become an attorney, people must also pass a moral character review that looks, among other things, at any past fraud accusations and cases involving the applicant. That review is confidential.

Ilene Do, Andrew Do’s oldest daughter, previously worked as a customer engagement coordinator at Moulton Niguel Water District and left sometime before late 2024, the water district previously told LAist.

Kate Corrigan, an attorney for Cheri Pham, said she and Cheri Pham do not have any comment. Andrew Do, Rhiannon Do and Ilene Do did not respond to requests for comment from LAist through their attorneys.

Other problems found with Andrew Do’s direction of tax dollars? 

In the wake of the Andrew Do scandal, his former colleagues on the county Board of Supervisors commissioned a series of forensic audit reports by an outside firm into the broader picture of county contract spending during the pandemic.

The first phase, released this March, found Andrew Do and his top aide had a longstanding pattern of misspending public money far beyond the focus of the criminal case that landed the former supervisor in prison.

The audit found Andrew Do and his chief of staff at the time, Chris Wangsaporn, undermined procedures meant to prevent abuse of county money, while using their influence to steer taxpayer contracts to friends, family and businesses — often with little information about the services being provided. Those contractors would then donate to his election campaigns “shortly after,” auditors found.

Among its many findings, the first report found Andrew Do routed hundreds of thousands more dollars than previously reported to companies affiliated with Peter Pham.

The audit’s second phase, released this week, identified more questionable spending directed by Andrew Do, including a $500,000 grant to the company of Frank Jao, a major real estate developer in Little Saigon. That taxpayer contract never required the company, Bridgecreek Realty Investment Corp., to provide supporting documentation for how the money was spent — such as invoices or receipts, according to the audit. In the end, there is no documentation for how more than half of the taxpayer funds were used, it says.

The audit also details numerous times that top county officials did not act after they were alerted to potential irregularities regarding millions in county funds awarded to Viet America Society, the nonprofit connected to Rhiannon Do. The audit details an occasion in which Clayton Chau, the former county healthcare director who asked that money be routed to Rhiannon Do’s clinic at the nonprofit, reprimanded a subordinate for raising concerns.

Chau is now chief medical officer at National Healthcare & Housing Advisors, which operates three healthcare campuses in California.

Two more phases of the audit are underway.

Susan Egan is a trailblazer in the Disney world.

She’s best known as the voice of Megara in "Hercules" and the original Belle in the Broadway version of "Beauty and the Beast."

This weekend, Egan is being honored at the D23: The Ultimate Disney Fan Event in Anaheim as a Disney Legend along with more than a dozen actors, composers and other contributors.

Egan’s relationship with the world of Disney started at a young age. She grew up in Seal Beach, less than an hour away from Disneyland, and says her mother would take her and her siblings to the park on a school day every year.

“It just never occurred to me that you could actually work for that company, that could be what you do for a living,” Egan told LAist “It just seemed like play all the time.”

She was the first actor to play a Disney princess on Broadway in 1994, and said at the time it was a risky decision.

“We really didn't know if it was going to work. In essence, taking a cartoon and bringing it to the live audience, having to change some of the mythology because, you know, we can't be a 10-inch tall teapot. You have to be a full human-sized teapot,” said Egan.

But she says the audience loved the Broadway production as much as they loved the movie.

She went on to voice the sharp-tongued Megara from "Hercules," who she calls a “Disney heroine ahead of her time.”

“Honestly her flaws are what make her so relatable. I hear from a lot of young women ‘Oh Meg, I could relate to Meg.’ I go, ‘Me too. Honestly yeah, string of bad boyfriends, same.'”

Egan has harnessed her love for Disney into her production company, 10th & Main, with producing partner Adam J. Levy. Together they’ve produced Disney Princess: The Concert, which has toured across five continents, the recurring production aboard Disney cruise ships called Broadway Star Series and other programs.

10th & Main is also putting together a show for the D23: The Ultimate Disney Fan Event this weekend called Disney Rewind Concerts. Egan says it’s celebrating the Disney movies from the ‘80s and ‘90s.

“ We have the voice of Goofy, Bill Farmer, and Jodi Benson, the voice of Little Mermaid, is in the concert. We've got Disney icon Jim Cummings, who's the voice of 400 Disney characters,” said Egan. It’s happening on Friday and Saturday night and will be streamed on Disney+.

D23: The Ultimate Disney Fan Event runs this weekend Aug. 14 through Aug. 16 at the Anaheim Convention Center. There will be performances and panels from the cast and producers of Percy Jackson and the Olympians, The Simpsons, Camp Rock 3 and others.

The 2028 Olympics and Paralympics in Los Angeles will cost billions to put on, but there are currently no guarantees that any of that business will go to companies or small businesses in the city of Los Angeles.

That's a problem for local officials, who point out that the city of L.A. is the host and financial backer of the Games and should therefore reap the benefits.

Olympic contracts for things like IT services, cleaning and construction for the Games are worth up to $4 billion, according to LA28. L.A. City Council President Marqueece Harris-Dawson filed a motion Wednesday asking the private Olympics organizing committee LA28 to commit to giving some of those contracts to businesses in the city specifically.

The move responds to critiques of LA28's procurement plan, which council members in April warned could end up leaving out the city of Los Angeles entirely.

LA28 says it's aiming to keep 75% of its spending in the Greater L.A. area, and put 25% towards small businesses. Its procurement plan pledges to prioritize "hyperlocal" businesses in the city of L.A., but makes no explicit promises. Instead, it identifies "local" as anywhere in L.A., Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino and Ventura counties.

Harris-Dawson's motion would direct city staff to request LA28 go further, developing an L.A.-specific spending commitment.

"There is no assurance that Olympic-related spending will meaningfully benefit Los Angeles businesses, workers, and communities in proportion to the City's role as host," the motion reads in part.

The motion still needs to get through council, but there are indications that it will meet an unwilling LA28.

LA28 CEO Reynold Hoover told the city council earlier this year that organizers would prioritize city businesses, but that he would not commit to a plan that would limit LA28's financial options.

"If I focus solely, first and foremost, on the city of L.A. for small business, then I am artificially reducing the pool of competition, placing greater risk on the city taxpayers and placing greater risk on the backstop of the city of L.A.," Hoover said.

The motion reflects the latest way city leaders are trying to limit risk and increase rewards for Los Angeles, which is on the hook for a potentially large amount of money if the 2028 Olympics and Paralympics are a financial failure.