The Brief

Update 8:30am on 08/21/23: According to the City of Avalon, the evacuation warning has been lifted:

From City of Avalon:
Storm Update: The LA County Sheriff has rescinded the evacuation warning status for Catalina Island. Pebbly Beach Road is now reopened and Catalina Express will resume regularly scheduled services starting at 9:50am.

As Hurricane Hilary churns north from the Baja Peninsula, the L.A. County Sheriff’s Department is advising Catalina Island residents and visitors to leave the island as soon as they can.

An evacuation warning issued Saturday night is in effect beginning at 6 a.m. Sunday. That warning from the L.A. Sheriff's Dept. cautioned:

"Residents and visitors, especially those with medical, access and functional needs, are advised to LEAVE as soon as possible. Departure via Catalina Express is recommended."

Those instructions followed an earlier alert telling both Catalina Island residents and visitors "especially those with medical, access and functional needs" that they should leave via the Catalina Express as soon as possible on Saturday "due to a forecast of storm impacts and possibly prolonged utility outages."

The City of Avalon additionally said: “Red Cross, LA County, and the City of Long Beach will have services available at the Catalina Express Ferry Terminal, including transportation, shelter, and other essential services.”

The city also said Avalon Bay would be closed to all incoming boaters.

Meanwhile Long Beach said it would open a temporary shelter for those leaving the island.

Travelers caught by surprise

The alerts came as droves of passengers disembarked from Catalina Express ferries Saturday morning. Several passengers looked at their phones in bewilderment as their devices pinged them just as they arrived in Avalon.

“Are we going to be okay?” Catalina day tripper Anna Rodriguez said as she rolled a suitcase with her family in tow. Rodriguez had just gotten the alert from LASD on her phone and said her return ticket was scheduled for 9 p.m. Saturday.

“Do we switch [our ticket]? They should have switched everybody if that’s the case,” Rodriguez said.

Avalon on Saturday, August 19

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Robert Garrova / LAist

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Outside of Avalon city hall, Sheriff's Deparment spokesperson Miguel Meza said Catalina Express would be providing services back to the mainland.

As of late Saturday afternoon, all Catalina Express return ferries from Avalon to the mainland seemed to be sold out on the website, but spots remained open for Sunday. Meza with LASD said as of Saturday around 5pm, he was not aware of any ferry cancellations.

Meza said visitors to the island who don’t have an emergency should not travel there. “We want them to stay home and avoid the forecast.”

A normal Saturday for many residents

But many people on Catalina Island — home to about 4,200 permanent residents — seemed unphased Saturday morning, even after the advisory to leave the island was sent out. People sunbathed, swam in the ocean, dined in the restaurants and took part in scavenger hunts around the island.

“People are still coming over," said Breeann Boyd, who works at the local hospital’s fitness center. "They probably shouldn’t be because they could get stuck here, we don’t really know what the weather is going to be like,”

“This is a new situation for everyone,” Boyd said.

John Lafleur of Island Threadz

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Robert Garrova / LAist

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In front of Island Threadz, a clothing store that sits just on the pedestrian walkway across from the Avalon beachfront, owner John Lafleur was shoveling sand into two white sandbags before going about the rest of his day.

“Mother Nature has her own agenda,” said Lafleur, who has been on the island since 1988. “All you can do is just prep for what might possibly happen. And if it does happen then we’ll just all reach out as a community and help each other,” Lafleur said.

This is a developing story and will be updated.

The wood crates are lined up on folding tables in a church parking lot in San Fernando. Each crate is filled with russet potatoes, knobby purple and orange carrots, plump garlic, red apples and more. It's produce from the Santa Ynes Valley in Santa Barbara County that could easily be found in farmers' markets in upscale neighborhoods.

But here, it’s free.

“ I wanted to find a way to distribute food to people that was done with dignity,” said Lindsay Chambers, president of non-profit Together We Thrive

The crates, the quality of the produce, much of it organic, and other details intentionally blur the line between farmers' market and food bank. Before starting these, Chambers volunteered at eight food banks across the nation to a get a sense of how they work. When she saw how much people love farmers’ markets, she decided she'd make her new food bank look like one.

Together We Thrive buys produce to give away from small farms in Southern California.

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Adolfo Guzman-Lopez/LAist

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“Instead of just receiving a free handout, they're coming in person and they get to select. It looks like a regular farmers' market,” Chambers said.

She opened her first Together We Thrive food bank in Canoga Park in January 2025. The L.A. fires led her to start another in Pasadena. Then this one in San Fernando.

The concept is straightforward: the organization buys fruits and vegetables from California small farms. They bring them by electric trucks to the weekly giveaways staffed by paid staff and volunteers.

Lindsay Chambers, right, founded Together We Thrive to provide free produce at L.A. area food banks.

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Adolfo Guzman-Lopez/LAist

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Chambers said they serve about 300 people weekly at this San Fernando location, more in Pasadena. As the cost of living has squeezed many people, hundreds of food banks have sprouted across Southern California. This one has built a loyal following in part through their approach.

Very helpful

The San Fernando food bank sets up at Latin American Church of the Nazarene. People bring their own reusable bags or get a paper bag. The free food is welcomed by many.

“I have a 94 year-old father, and with finances the way they are, this is very, very helpful. Then I come for my other coworker for her elderly parents as well,” said Katherine Balarezo, a high school special education assistant who lives in nearby North Hollywood.

Katherine Balazero has visited the Together We Thrive food bank about 15 times.

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Adolfo Guzman-Lopez/LAist

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While other food banks offer pre-selected boxes or bags filled with dry food, or may require registration of some kind, that's not what happens here. People can just walk up and choose their own produce.

 ”It's not canned stuff. This is fresh vegetables so you can do a lot and the shelf life is longer,” Balarezo saying it's good for people like her who like to cook their own, healthy meals.

Patrons of various ages and backgrounds

On this day, at this location, people who came represented various races, ethnicities, and ages. Some said their pocketbooks are tight, others said they were doing OK.

“I'm currently a college student, so I'm trying to save as much cash as I can so I can pay for my books and my tuition every semester,” said Allam Reyes, who lives about five minutes away.

He’s going to juice the carrots and may cook the potatoes in the air fryer. He said this bag of produce would cost him about $20-$25 at the supermarket. His roommates may like what he makes.

“If I can share it, then I'll share it, but if not, I'm going to make it for myself,” Reyes said.

Allam Reyes visits the Together We Thrive food bank in San Fernando.

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Adolfo Guzman-Lopez/LAist

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Chambers, the founder of this food bank says this multiplying effect, that the food given away here to one person goes on to serve more, is one of the things that drives the organization to keep on giving. Together We Thrive plans to open a similar food bank in Charlotte, North Carolina.

A self-proclaimed pet psychic is in L.A. for a national tour of pop-up readings, with a few sold-out days of connecting with pets in Pasadena and Highland Park this week.

Tucked away at the back of Doggee Club pet shop on Raymond Avenue, pet psychic Cynthia Okimoto was posted up at a table. There was no crystal ball, just a small sign that read: "Pet Psychic Readings: $35."

Dogs, cats... and snakes too 

Jason Mendieta and Cristina Becerra sat for a reading with their small poodle, Bishon.

“He says he’s a social guy, he’s popular and he’s hoping to have more followers on Instagram. Does he have an Instagram account?” Okimoto said in a very matter-of-fact way.

“He doesn’t. He has almost no social media presence,” Becerra replied.

“Well that’s gotta change soon,” Okimoto said.

It was on a spiritual retreat in Siberia where Okimoto said she was told by some high priestesses that she had the gift of animal communication.

Flash forward years later and she’s traveled across the United States and even to Japan and Korea to help people connect with their pets. After Los Angeles, her tour includes stops in Vegas and Houston, before wrapping back to Orange County and San Diego.

Brenda Teng, owner of the Doggee Club, said she took her time to get to know Okimoto before inviting her for this psychic pop-up. She even did a reading with her own dog.

“She’s so amazing and the things that she can be so specific about your dog is spot on,” Teng said. “Then I was like, no brainer, let’s bring you in, it would be such a gift for our community.”

Okimoto said she’s not here to convince anyone or sell products. Some of her own friends don’t believe in what she's doing and she said that’s OK with her.

And to people who say this is just snake oil: she reads reptiles too.

“I did connect with a snake that had run away,” Okimoto recalled. “And I knew that it was in the person’s home hiding under the mattress, because I could see that there was a rip in the mattress lining and I could see what the roommate’s bedroom looked like. And I’m like, ‘I know he’s in there. I just don’t know how to get him to come out...' I don’t talk to too many snakes. So that was surprising."

Levity aside, Becerra and Mendieta seemed genuinely pleased with Bishon the poodle’s reading. They had suspected he always wanted to be a show dog. With Okimoto’s help, now they feel like they know for sure.

“It’s always nice to hear that I’ve shed some light on a pet’s health and happiness,” Okimoto said.

It was the end of an era for a sign of the times.

On a rainy March day in 1999, a 70-foot billboard perched at the doorstep of the Sunset Strip was taken down and trucked away. That spot on Sunset Boulevard and Marmont Lane had long been the home of the rough-hewn, lasso-toting Marlboro Man — so much a fixture it became part of the glitz and glam of L.A.

"It was such an iconic ad — such a tall billboard with this very handsome image up there," said John Heilman, current and then-mayor of West Hollywood. "Right there by the Chateau Marmont and near a lot of music venues that we have up on Sunset."

Billboards along the Sunset Strip, including one for Marlboro, in December 1985.

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Paul Chinn

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Los Angeles Herald Examiner Photo Collection / LAPL

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That's how I came to know about these larger-than-life Marlboro billboards, going to the Roxy and the Whiskey to see shows, and to the Sunset Tower Records for music in the 1990s. I didn't know it at the time, the image apparently changed every couple of years, but the vibe was so consistent it felt like one, long seamless spell.

 "When you came in on Sunset, that is what you saw," said Neil Ford, head of sales for central U.S. and the West Coast at Big Happy, a digital and mobile ad agency based in Chicago. "It really captured what out-of-home [advertisement] was at that moment, what it meant."

The Marlboro billboard on Sunset Boulevard.

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Elisa Leonelli

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Courtesy Elisa Leonelli

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Ford said the campaign was groundbreaking — advertising at its most effective.

"You think about that image of the Marlboro Man. It was a different size, it had presence and it captured your attention," Ford said.

It was a gamechanger for Philip Morris. Sales for Marlboro hit $5 million in 1955, a more than 3,000%  increase a year after its debut.

In other words, it attracted more smokers.

 "It was obvious that the image of the rugged Marlboro Man encouraged generations of men to smoke," said Paul Koretz, a former West Hollywood council member who was at the sign on that March day to celebrate its fall.

The total pivot

Hypermasculinity aside, Marlboro was originally marketed to women as a luxury brand peddling a mild flavor when it was introduced in the 1920s.

The pivot came three decades later, when the company was looking for a way to sell men on filtered cigarettes, long considered effeminate and less flavorful.

Enter Chicago ad man Leo Burnett, who engineered what many consider one of the greatest brand reinventions of all time by creating a new series of mascots — not just butch cowboys, but tough-as-nail sailors, hunters, businessmen, sportsmen, writers.

At the end, the cowboy won out, becoming the brand's reigning Marlboro Man.

" They brought this masculine symbol — image, visual — and really re-created what Marlboro as a brand meant," Ford said. "And it just was one image, there was very little copy. It had the logo on it. It was its own creation at the time."

The campaign propelled Marlboro to the top of the domestic industry by the 1970s, even as the toll on public health from the use of tobacco products racked up.

The Centers for Disease Control estimates that some 480,000 people in the U.S. die every year from cigarette smoking, including exposure to second-hand smoke. At least four actors who portrayed Marlboro Man died from smoking-related diseases.

In 1971, the U.S. banned cigarette advertising on television and radio. Brands then shifted to other mediums, in particular billboards.

The Sunset Strip

A street view looking west from the northern side of Sunset Boulevard near Chateau Marmont at night. In the background is the billboard for Marlboro.

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Carol Westwood

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Los Angeles Photographers Photo Collection / LAPL

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The 1.7-mile stretch of Sunset Strip in West Hollywood has never been a stranger to grabby billboards. In fact, it was where the medium became art.

"It's always been known for very creative advertising," Heilman, West Hollywood’s mayor, said.

Its golden era was arguably the 1970s, when giant, hand-painted rock ‘n’ roll signs lined the Strip, a veritable checklist of who’s who in the music world.

Various billboards on the Sunset Strip and Horn Avenue during a full moon in June 1980.

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Roy Hankey

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Los Angeles Photographers Photo Collection / LAPL

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The phenomenon started in 1967, with Elektra Records taking out a billboard to promote the debut album of a little-known local band called The Doors.

Two years later, The Beatles’ "Abbey Road" appeared, followed by Led Zeppelin, Joni Mitchell, Bob Dylan, The Rolling Stones and Bruce Springsteen.

The era came to a close in the 1980s with the advent of MTV, which changed the playbook of music marketing, says photographer Robert Landau in his book, Rock 'n' Roll Billboards of the Sunset Strip.

"Other types of billboards focusing on the entertainment industry were very popular," Heilman said. "A lot of the new movie releases, new album releases, new product releases."

And the Marlboro Man stood amid this hit parade in one of the most commanding spots on The Strip since at least the late 1970s.

"As I recall, at one point they actually had steam coming out of it to simulate smoke," said Heilman, who has lived in West Hollywood for more than four decades.

Night view of large billboards along Sunset Strip circa 1980.

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Roy Hankey

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Los Angeles Photographers Photo Collection / LAPL

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Billboard ads along Sunset Strip in November 1985.

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Paul Chinn

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Los Angeles Herald Examiner Photo Collection / LAPL

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The billboard predates the incorporation of West Hollywood as a city in 1984. Helping to lead the cityhood efforts was Koretz, who went on to become a City Council member for West Hollywood before serving on the state Assembly and the Los Angeles City Council.

"I actually lived near the Sunset Strip, so I thought about it every time I drove by," he said of the Marlboro Man ad. "It was one of the most effective symbols of tobacco marketing."

Both his parents, Koretz said, were heavy lifelong smokers who died from the addiction.  As a lawmaker, Koretz led a number of anti-smoking efforts, including a smoking ban in restaurants in West Hollywood — as well as a near total ban on tobacco advertising in the city.

Large billboard of the Marlboro Man, located on the Sunset Strip at Marmont Lane in West Hollywood, circa 1985.

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Carol Westwood

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Los Angeles Photographers Photo Collection / LAPL

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That ban was passed in the final months of 1998, just before a settlement agreement between the nation's biggest tobacco companies, including Philip Morris, and dozens of state attorneys general. The $206 billion deal settled lawsuits filed by the states to recoup health care costs for smoking-related illnesses. It also banned youth marketing, as well as outdoor advertising.

As a result, Los Angeles's most famous Marlboro Man stepped down on March 10, 1999 — about a month before the official removal deadline.

That day, Koretz held a news conference to send the sign off. He said not everyone was happy to see the landmark go. But the ban, among a slew of other anti-smoking policies, have made an impact.

Last year, the American Cancer Society reported cigarette smoking among U.S. adults dropped from  42% in 1965 to 11% in 2023.

" It was always controversial. There are always people that didn't like it," Koretz said of the billboard ban. "This is largely a success story."

Shortly after, a new billboard went up in the place of the Marlboro Man on Sunset.

It was still a cowboy, looking eerily similar to its fallen predecessor, but with a limp cigarette hanging from his mouth.

Instead of Marlboro, it read, "Impotent."

NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen were ensconced in the Orion space capsule when they dropped into the Pacific Ocean off the coast of San Diego at 8:07 p.m. Friday. The USS John P. Murtha is stationed near the splashdown zone to help recover the crew.

The USS John P. Murtha is stationed near the splashdown zone and will help recover the crew. A team will head out to the floating capsule and install an inflatable raft just below Orion's side hatch. The crew will be examined by a flight surgeon, then helped out of the capsule. From the transport ship, they will hitch a ride back to Johnson Space Center in Houston.

Risk of reentry

There's always risk when returning from space. Glover said that he has been thinking about this portion of the mission since he was selected for it back in 2023, and he's been looking forward to it ever since.

"We have to get back," he said from the Orion capsule Wednesday. "There's so much data that you've seen already, but all the good stuff is coming back with us. There's so many more pictures, so many more stories, and, gosh, I haven't even begun to process what we've been through."

To get back, the capsule must hit the atmosphere at a precise angle.

"Let's not beat around the bush," said Jeff Radigan, Artemis II's lead flight director. "We have to hit that angle correctly. Otherwise, we're not going to have a successful reentry."

All eyes will be on the heat shield — this is the piece of hardware beneath the capsule that protects the crew from the extreme temperatures during reentry. NASA tested it out on Artemis I, the previous, uncrewed mission, and found that the heat shield wasn't performing as designed.

NASA mission planners and the Artemis II team worked on a way to mitigate that risk. Instead of "skipping" through the atmosphere like Artemis I, this mission would hit the atmosphere steeper and faster, limiting the time the spacecraft spends in those fiery, energetic moments of reentry.

"It's 13 minutes of things that have to go right," said Radigan. "I have a whole checklist in my head that we're going through of all the things that have to happen."

Mission success

The Artemis II mission is a key flight test for Orion, and thus far, mission managers have been pleased with the results. The spacecraft has taken humans farther from Earth than they've ever been, breaking a record set by Apollo 13 astronauts in 1970.

The crew tested the manual control of the spacecraft, which will be needed for future missions that will dock with a lunar landing system. The mission tested the spacecraft's life support systems and ability to keep four astronauts comfortable within the confined space.

Artemis II returned humans to the moon for the first time since the Apollo program over 50 years ago. And while some astronauts back then did see the far side of the moon, the Artemis II crew was able to observe it from a vantage point never before seen by humans. Their images and geological notes will help better determine what the moon is made of and where it came from.

While some of the astronauts' observations may help scientists understand the distant past, others will help mission managers better plan for the future. Case in point: The crew tested out the very first toilet to go to the moon, and it quickly ran into issues during flight. Multiple times during the trip, the crew had to use manual urinals instead. The issue, NASA said, was not with the toilet itself, but the system that dumps the urine overboard when it gets full.

The Orion capsule will return to NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida after the mission, where engineers will examine the spacecraft after its flight, including a closer look at the spacecraft's plumbing. The team will be picking apart the spacecraft to see how it performed — and make any necessary changes ahead of the next mission, Artemis III, set to launch next year.