The Brief

Health remains a top concern for those living near the burn scars of the Los Angeles wildfires that erupted in January. Now, a new map allows residents to check air quality in the Pacific Palisades and surrounding communities in real-time.

The online dashboard put out by the Community Action Project tracks 20 air quality monitors from Topanga Canyon to Santa Monica. The sensors identify the concentration of particulates in the air and rate the surrounding air quality accordingly. They identify PM2.5 — microscopic particles that can penetrate the lungs and bloodstream — and PM10, slightly larger particulates that can also cause irritation and health issues.

The air quality project was led by a team at UCLA. The lead researcher, UCLA professor Yifang Zhu, said the air quality sensors differ from most weather apps because they monitor for the larger PM10 particles. She said that tracking this type of air pollution will be important throughout the rebuilding process, since construction could kick up coarse dust and contaminants.

They also provide more localized and regularly updated air quality — every 5 to 10 minutes.

As of Monday afternoon, most sensors were reporting good to moderate air quality. One in the Palisades marked unhealthy levels of PM10 particles for a time, and then turned back to green.

Residents can use the maps to track local air quality during clean-up and construction. If the sensors indicate the air is unhealthy, Zhu suggested avoiding the area or closing windows. She also recommended wearing a fitted N-95 mask.

Zhu said she hoped the dashboard could help residents make informed decisions and combat fears about their health.

"Information is always helpful," Zhu told LAist. "I think oftentimes the anxiety comes from not knowing what's going on, but now the data dashboard provides that information."

People can sign up for email alerts for individual air sensors here.

Global crude oil prices have been volatile over the last few weeks following the U.S. and Israel's attack on Iran. They spiked to nearly $120 a barrel about a week after the war began, and then fell to around $100, where they have been hovering for several days. Before the war, oil was closer to $70 a barrel.

U.S. gasoline prices, on the other hand, have gone in only one direction: Up. And up. And up.

Prices at the pump are currently averaging $3.718 a gallon, according to the latest data from the American Automobile Association (AAA), which tracks prices nationwide. That's up nearly 80 cents from a month ago.

Diesel prices, meanwhile, have grown even more sharply. Diesel is just under $5 a gallon, according to AAA, $1.34 higher than last month.

Global oil supplies are experiencing their worst disruption in decades, thanks to a sharp decrease in ship traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, the crucial waterway through which about 20% of the world's oil traffic typically passes, as well as attacks by both sides on critical oil infrastructure.

Prices are still lower than they were in 2022, when Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine sent them soaring.

But they could continue to rise.

"Until we see a meaningful resumption of oil flows through the Strait of Hormuz, upward pressure on fuel prices is likely to persist," Patrick de Haan, the head of petroleum analysis at the app GasBuddy, wrote in a note on Monday. "At the same time, seasonal forces are beginning to intensify as several regions complete the transition to summer gasoline, creating a double headwind that could continue driving pump prices higher in the weeks ahead."

Summer gasoline is a reformulated blend, required by the Clean Air Act, that is less volatile, which leads to less air pollution during the warmer summer months.

Higher gasoline prices put pressure on household budgets, particularly for lower-income Americans. Higher diesel prices have an inflationary impact on nearly all goods in the economy, because diesel is used to power farm equipment, construction equipment, and the trucks, the ships and many of the trains that carry goods around the world.

President Trump has said that while gasoline prices are higher now, they will come down quickly when the war is over. He has also commented that because the U.S. is the world's largest oil producer, "We make a lot of money" when oil prices go up.

Higher oil prices have other economic implications. For one thing, they incentivize companies and countries to invest more heavily in alternatives to oil, like solar power, batteries and EVs, which become more economically competitive when oil becomes more expensive, and offer protection against the volatility of fossil fuel markets. In the long run, that's positive for efforts to fight climate change and air pollution — and negative for oil producers. The oil cartel OPEC actively avoids pushing oil prices too high, in part because of the risk it poses to long-term oil demand.

In an attempt to calm markets, last week the International Energy Agency, an organization representing the world's largest oil consumers, announced its largest-ever release of crude oil from national stockpiles, including 172 million barrels from the United States' Strategic Petroleum Reserve.

Still, after that announcement, oil prices continued to rise.
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Mia Angulo, who is pregnant and due in May, is living in a tent with her boyfriend in the predominantly Latino neighborhood of Boyle Heights.

Lingering pain from a car crash two months ago, on top of an already hardscrabble life, has Angulo worried about her pregnancy. So, she was relieved when a mobile street medicine van from St. John’s Community Health pulled up near her encampment last month.

“Thank God that we have them,” she said.

St. John’s, which operates 28 clinics, mostly in L.A. County, is part of the nation’s network of nonprofit community clinics that care for the poorest Americans. Around 80% of its 144,000 patients, including Angulo, have Medi-Cal, California’s version of the Medicaid program for people with low incomes or disabilities.

But federal cuts to Medicaid spending under the Republican-passed One Big Beautiful Bill Act, compounded by fiscal belt-tightening in Sacramento, could cost St. John’s up to one-third of its $240 million annual revenue, requiring cuts to services that might include street medicine, said Jim Mangia, the president and CEO.

Smaller, more cash-strapped clinics in L.A. County could face harsher consequences, including closure, if the lost funding is not replaced.

That’s why Mangia, along with a coalition of community clinics, health care workers, and advocates, is pushing for a five-year, half-cent sales tax in the nation’s most populous county to help backfill the projected loss of federal and state dollars. St. John’s has contributed at least $2 million to the campaign so far.

Mia Angulo, who is pregnant and due in May, sought medical attention from a street medicine team run by St. John’s Community Health. Her lingering pain from a car crash, as well as concerns about the hardships of homelessness, have her worried about the pregnancy.

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Bernard J. Wolfson

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Louise McCarthy, president and CEO of the Community Clinic Association of Los Angeles County, said there aren’t a lot of options to save the health care system from disaster.

“Our backs are up against the wall,” she said. “This has the potential to be a game changer. It will be an absolutely significant offset to the losses.”

The L.A. County Board of Supervisors approved the proposal last month for inclusion on the June 2 primary ballot, over the objection of some cities within the county. Their leaders argued the tax would put a strain on consumers and business owners. Most of an estimated $1 billion in annual revenue generated would be used to protect safety-net health care at community clinics, hospitals, and schools.

One of the two street medicine teams that St. John’s Community Health sends out five days a week to provide care at homeless encampments and shelters around Los Angeles (from left): Brenda Barrales, Walter Lopez, Edgardo Marroquin, Bukola Olusanya, Grace Calderon, and Luis Perez.

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Bernard J. Wolfson

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KFF Health News

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Scrambling To Stay Afloat

Nationally, the GOP budget law is expected to cut federal Medicaid spending by $911 billion over 10 years, and it could lead to an increase of over 14 million in the number of people left uninsured. The L.A. ballot proposal is among many local and state initiatives nationwide, as clinics, hospitals, health care workers, advocates, and legislators scramble for new money to help offset the spending cuts.

In Michigan, where the federal law is projected to cost the state $32 billion over 10 years, Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s office has proposed new or increased taxes on tobacco, vape products, online gambling, sports betting, and digital advertising, which it projects would raise hundreds of millions of dollars annually.

In Rhode Island, a group of state legislators hopes to ease some of the pain caused by the federal cuts with a package of bills that includes a tax on digital ads and a 3% surcharge on taxable incomes above roughly $640,000.

“The goal is not to replace the revenue; it’s to mitigate the damage,” said Democratic state Rep. Brandon Potter, one of the legislators involved.

In Washington, Democratic state Rep. Shaun Scott recently introduced legislation to address the loss of federal dollars with a 5% payroll tax on large companies, applied to employee salaries exceeding $125,000 a year.

In California, the GOP law will slash the federal contribution to Medi-Cal by an estimated $30 billion a year, or 25%. Enrollment in Medi-Cal could drop by 3 million by 2028 as a result of the federal and state spending cuts, according to an analysis by the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research and the University of California-Berkeley Labor Center.

In July, California will slash Medi-Cal payments that community clinics receive for certain services provided to patients with “unsatisfactory” immigration status by about $1 billion a year. Those patients include permanent residents in the country for less than five years, refugees, asylees, and other lawfully present people.

Bracing for a ‘New Reality’?

Advocates and health care experts say finding new revenue is the only way to avoid a crisis in California’s health care system.

“Are we going to let the gaps created by federal policies and state budget cuts leave millions of people uninsured?” said Laurel Lucia, deputy executive director of programs at the UC Berkeley Labor Center. “I think a lot of that question comes down to revenues.”

Some medical professionals say that new revenue is needed in the short term but that the country needs to address its notoriously expensive health care system.

“This new reality is that we have to do our work with less money going into the future,” said Hector Flores, president-elect of the Los Angeles County Medical Association. “So, this is an opportunity for us to look at how we can do things better.”

In the meantime, efforts to raise taxes for health care abound.

Voters in Santa Clara County, home to Silicon Valley, last November approved a five-year 0.625% sales tax increase to offset federal Medicaid cuts. A similar measure will be on the June ballot in Contra Costa County.

The best-known initiative, and a hotly contested one, is a union-sponsored ballot proposal in California for a one-time 5% tax on the state’s more than 200 billionaires. Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom strongly opposes it; Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) stumped for it in California recently and has promised to introduce a national version in Congress.

Proponents of the temporary wealth tax say it would raise $100 billion, which would mostly be used to backfill lost federal and state dollars in Medi-Cal and other safety-net programs. Proponents are trying to collect nearly 875,000 signatures needed to get it on the November ballot.

“We are on the precipice of a collapse of our health care system. So the most fortunate among us pay a modest tax that will hold us over and allow us to figure out a long-term solution,” said Suzanne Jimenez, chief of staff for Service Employees International Union-United Healthcare Workers West, the measure’s chief sponsor. “They would still be incredibly wealthy after that.”

Billionaires Push Back

The plan has stirred considerable controversy, not just in the Golden State but nationwide, and has generated strong resistance from billionaires and others.

Critics argue the measure could prompt billionaires to leave California, putting a damper on innovation, jobs, and tax receipts. And, some warn, the measure could end up in a legal quagmire, as those deemed liable to pony up challenge it on multiple fronts.

“If this passed, you would expect it to be tied up in court for some time,” said Jared Walczak, a visiting fellow at the California Tax Foundation. “It is fairly plausible that no revenue could come in for a number of years, if there’s ever any revenue at all.”

The prospect of such complications has led some health care advocates to focus instead on local initiatives that could start generating revenue more quickly, such as the proposed sales tax in L.A. County.

That one has critics too, including leaders of multiple cities within the county who pleaded with supervisors to reject a proposal they argued would add to the affordability worries of consumers and put a strain on businesses.

Kathryn Barger, a Republican and the only L.A. County supervisor to oppose putting the measure on the June ballot, said in a statement that the proposed tax would make the county “less affordable for families and less appealing for consumers to shop and businesses to operate.”

But supporters say safety-net health care is already feeling the impact of diminished funding. Last month, for example, L.A. County’s Department of Public Health announced it was closing seven clinics due to $50 million in federal, state, and local funding cuts.

Medi-Cal enrollees are worried, too. “We get a lot of calls from panicked patients afraid they’re going to lose their Medi-Cal. Dozens of calls a day, hundreds of calls a week,” said St. John’s Mangia.

“We tell them that we’re working on a solution and hopefully we’ll have that solution come June.”

KFF Health News is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs at KFF—an independent source of health policy research, polling, and journalism. Learn more about KFF.Subscribe to KFF Health News' free Morning Briefing.

This article first appeared on KFF Health News and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Calbright College seemed doomed from the start. Just months after enrolling its first students in 2019, the online community college was under fire from faculty groups, and the state Assembly had agreed to shut it down. It had “poor management,” “ineffective and inappropriate hiring,” and “inadequate” support for students, a 2021 state audit found.

Yet Calbright College managed not only to soldier on but to grow.

Now it may be California’s fastest-growing community college, based on tentative enrollment data comparing fall 2024 to fall 2025.

By the end of its first academic year in October 2020, just 12 students had finished their course of study out of more than 900 who had enrolled, the audit said. Now, Calbright has over 6,000 students and a much higher rate of completion, according to the most recent data.

About 13% of students finish their studies in a reasonable amount of time, which for Calbright’s short-term certificate programs is usually about a year or less, according to Binh Thuy Do, the school’s vice president of research and development. Those statistics put Calbright College roughly on par with the completion rates at the state's other 115 community colleges.

But comparing Calbright, which is completely online, to any traditional brick-and-mortar school is challenging not only because it lacks a physical campus but also because it uses a significantly different education model.

Based on what is known as competency-based education, Calbright courses are designed so that students can pass whenever they prove they know the material, whether that takes weeks or years. Calbright students can enroll at any time and study whenever they want by watching pre-recorded lectures or setting up meetings with professors. The college charges no tuition and uses only free online textbooks — a key difference from traditional community colleges, which usually operate on a semester basis and are only free for low-income students.

“The way that it’s approaching higher ed and the students they serve, it’s the model of the future,” said Su Jin Jez, the CEO of the research organization California Competes. Western Governors University, Arizona State University and Southern New Hampshire University — which also offer similar kinds of flexible, online courses — have grown rapidly in recent years to become some of the largest universities in the country.

In his initial budget proposal for the 2026–27 fiscal year, Gov. Gavin Newsom proposed more than tripling Calbright’s annual budget from $15 million per year to $53 million. Faculty groups say California's community colleges are already offering similar courses to Calbright’s and that the money could be better spent on existing initiatives.

How different is Calbright?

When Gov. Jerry Brown formed Calbright in 2018, it was explicitly designed to be different from existing community colleges. It only offers short-term, career-oriented certificate programs, rather than associate degrees. The idea was to attract students who don’t usually access traditional higher education, often because of its cost. Calbright is specifically tasked with serving the millions of adults over 25 who don’t already have a college degree. Early on, the college decided to be completely free, though its statute allows it to charge tuition like the rest of California’s community colleges.

In some sense, Calbright has already succeeded in its mandate. Almost all of Calbright’s more than 6,000 students are over the age of 25, and 44% are over the age of 40.

Deb Hemingway is 61 and a Calbright College student. Two years ago she was searching online for programs that could help her advance in her career or get a new job, when she saw a sponsored ad on Google for Calbright. “I thought it was a scam,” she said. “I thought, ‘This can’t be free.’”

Hemingway enrolled in the data analysis program, one of the most popular courses. She kept her day job in retail merchandising, helping stores stay up-to-date on their inventory, and worked on the course primarily on weekends. She got her certificate in 10 months and is now enrolled in another program focused on human resources.

Although students can complete their courses on their own schedule for up to three years, Calbright says many of its programs can be finished in less than a year. In reality, most students drop out, and those that remain often struggle to manage school along with the demands of a full- or part-time job and family obligations, such as kids or aging parents.

“My children are grown. There’s no kids around, so it’s just me,” Hemingway said. “But just because it’s just me doesn’t mean I don’t have stressors in my life.” The rising price of food, gas, and other daily expenses — plus the pressures of her full-time job — made it difficult to study each week, she said.

Hemingway already has a bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree, which is typical for many Calbright students but rare for most community college students.

Calbright under scrutiny, again and again

In the early years, Calbright always seemed on the brink of getting shut down or defunded by the Legislature. In 2020, the Assembly passed a budget that stripped the school of its funding. In 2021 and 2022, the Assembly passed bills to eliminate it, only for the Senate or the governor to quash the efforts. Legislative opposition has waned in recent years, though faculty groups still speak out against it.

“Our argument is the same that it’s been since 2018 — this just isn’t a necessary college,” said Stephanie Goldman, executive director of the Faculty Association of California Community Colleges. The association, along with a group representing independent faculty unions, has asked the Legislature to oppose increased funding for Calbright.

A March 5 report from the Legislative Analyst’s Office found that Calbright is still falling short of its original purpose. “The evidence is mixed as to how well the college is reaching its target population of working adults not already accessing higher education,” states the report, which assesses the governor’s budget requests. “While the college is primarily enrolling working‑age students, many of these students already have bachelor’s degrees. Furthermore, it is difficult to assess student outcomes. Although Calbright collects data on completion rates, employment, and earnings, its metrics are not comparable to those reported by other community colleges.”

The office recommended significant changes to the governor’s proposal for Calbright, including policies that would likely result in less funding. Anticipating that the governor’s full proposal may not happen, Calbright already plans to lay off 93 employees.

For Jez, with California Competes, the Legislative Analyst’s Office is thinking too narrowly about Calbright. “Are we meeting a state need? That’s what we need to be focused on,” she said. “What do Californians need and how do we deliver it?”

A multimillion-dollar experiment

As K-12 enrollment declines and broader questions emerge about the purpose of college degrees, California’s other community colleges are increasingly targeting the same population of working adults that Calbright was designed to serve.

Almost half of all community college classes are online now, and despite pushback from some faculty, a few brick-and-mortar community colleges are beginning to offer a limited number of flexible, competency-based classes.

But Calbright is costly, spending more per student than the average community college.

“Questions also remain around Calbright’s cost‑effectiveness,” the Legislative Analyst’s Office recent report stated. “In 2024–25, we estimate that Calbright spent about $53,000 per award completed, compared to about $35,000 across other community colleges.”

The annual operating budget of Calbright is about $50 million, said Sarah Jimenez, a spokesperson for the college, which is roughly the same as the budget of Gavilan Joint Community College District in Gilroy. For comparison, the Gavilan district had nearly 500 faculty and staff in the fall, serving about 7,200 students, plus the costs of maintaining all of its buildings. Calbright has fewer than 200 faculty and staff for its roughly 6,000 online students.

As the college grows, Calbright “continues to explore” charging tuition at a similar rate to other local community colleges, said Jimenez. But she added that “moving to a fee model too swiftly” could create “barriers for many of our learners.”

Do, the college’s research and development vice president, said the high annual budget stems from technology demands and startup costs, which are inherent in any new college. “The $50 million annual budget is not just the operating costs. It is the administrative and infrastructure build that we’ve had to do.” In addition to supporting its own students, Do said Calbright also conducts research and development on behalf of the entire community college system.

Hemingway said her education was well worth the state’s investment. Her data analysis certificate has been helpful, she said, even if it hasn’t led to a new job or a promotion just yet. A friend recently asked her to do some consulting on the side; at work, she said she’s been able to give her boss more input about how the company can grow.

One of her salary goals is to make at least $150,000 annually, she said, but later revised her answer. “The sky is the limit.”

This article was originally published on CalMatters and was republished under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives license.