The Brief

Just eight of 34 Orange County cities, plus the county, have made progress on local climate action plans, according to the latest report from the non-profit Climate Action Campaign.

Just six of those O.C. cities have approved plans to address the causes and impacts of climate change, according to the group’s first report that was released last year.

Orange County jurisdictions — despite facing high risks of worsening landslides, sea level rise, fire, heat and flood — are far behind other Southern California counties when it comes to having climate action plans, according to the California Climate Action Plan Database, which is compiled by researchers at California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo. (You can also check out different types of climate-related plans submitted by your community to the state here.)

And Orange County, the sixth most populous county in the U.S., is one of the biggest counties without a climate action plan. But, slowly, that appears to be changing, in large part due to grassroots organizing by local residents.

“It is well beyond time to act,” said Orange County Supervisor Katrina Foley at a press conference in Santa Ana about the new report. “I’ve been working on these issues since I was on the planning commission in the early 2000s in Costa Mesa. So we have been struggling, but I think now we are making forward progress.”

Orange County jurisdictions have fewer climate action plans than surrounding counties, according to the Climate Action Plan database from Cal Poly.

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Courtesy Cal Poly Climate Action Plan Database

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The county was called out in last year’s report for not having a climate action plan, but has now completed a draft plan that Foley said will be presented to the board of supervisors for approval later this month.

Local organizers celebrated the progress.

“When we published our first report card, some people suggested that we were being too hard on local governments and that we were expecting too much from our leaders,” said Tomas Souza de Castro with the O.C. Climate Action Campaign.

“But now that we have experienced unprecedented heatwaves and fires in our own backyard in just the last week, we know that there is no cavalry coming to save us. We can create a climate safe, climate resilient future here in O.C.”

What is a climate action plan? 

Climate action plans, or CAPs, provide a long-term roadmap for governments to reduce planet-heating and health-harming pollution, and adapt to worsening disasters driven by climate change, such as increasingly extreme heat, drought, fire and floods.

They are most effective when legally-binding and are only effective as long as they’re actually adhered to.

Local CAPs are important because different cities and counties have different sources of pollution and require their own specific ways to adapt to the changes occurring as a result of global heating.

There is no one-size-fits-all approach to addressing and adapting to the climate crisis, and state and national plans can often be too broad for practical use by local governments. The climate crisis may be global, but it’s experienced and addressed locally.

Climate action plans generally focus on two buckets: reducing greenhouse gas emissions and adapting to the impacts of climate change. A robust plan has a detailed inventory of where greenhouse gas emissions come from, and has plans to reduce that pollution in everything from transportation to industry to households.

A robust CAP also focuses on adaptation, including strategies to fortify infrastructure, develop a sustainable water and energy supply, reduce waste, expand access to green space and address inequality in climate impacts.

CAPs are particularly important for local governments to receive certain types of state and federal funding. According to 2021 State Controller data, Orange County receives some of the least spending per capita from the state.

A map from the Climate Action Campaign report of cities that have adopted or are developing climate action plans in Orange County.

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Courtesy Climate Action Campaign

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CAPs can also be replicated and scaled. For example, the report points out how both California and the United States eventually adopted the city of San Diego’s CAP target for emission reductions.

At this point, none of Orange County’s jurisdictions have adopted a plan that meets the state’s targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 40 percent below the 1990 levels by 2030. Globally, scientists say greenhouse gasses must be reduced 45% by 2030 to avoid the worst effects of climate change.

Where progress has been made and stalled

The report highlights Orange County, Laguna Beach, Santa Ana, Buena Park, Costa Mesa, Tustin, San Clemente, city of Orange and Irvine as taking steps in developing or implementing their climate action plans, while acknowledging there’s still a long way to go.

Each of those cities is in the process of developing a plan, with several such as Santa Ana, Buena Park and Costa Mesa hiring dedicated staff positions to help carry out the plans.

Orange County has also now successfully completed its draft CAP. Supervisor Foley said it will help the county apply for funding from the Biden Administration’s Inflation Reduction Act, and includes greenhouse gas inventories for every city in the county, so O.C. cities don’t have to spend time or money doing that themselves.

The report says Huntington Beach, however, has taken steps backward. While the city approved a climate action plan in 2017, last year the city council voted to dissolve its Environment and Sustainability Committee and stopped working on its Sustainability Master Plan.

The report also highlights how the city left the Orange County Power Authority, which supplies participating cities with renewable sources of energy such as wind and solar.

You can read the full report here.

A new program that gives Angelenos on food assistance the option to have fresh produce delivered to their homes has launched, serving a roughly 20 mile radius around the Atwater Village and Crenshaw farmers markets.

Food Access LA, a non-profit that operates a chain of farmers markets focusing on customers who rely on food assistance, is behind the new Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) box delivery program.

Isabel Thottam, with Food Access LA, said she and her colleagues have spent the last three years or so working with the U.S. Department of Agriculture and other groups to get approval for the delivery program to accept Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT).

“What I’m excited about is just being able to give people that opportunity to choose,” Thottam told LAist. “If they want to get farmers market produce delivered and use their EBT that way, they should have that autonomy to make that decision,” Thottam, who directs the nonprofit’s EAT! Food Distribution program, said.

How it works

Food Access L.A. curates each box of produce from five to seven different vendors from the farmers market and takes on logistics of home delivery.

Organizers said they anticipate delivering 20 to 30 boxes from the Atwater Village and Crenshaw farmers markets every week and expect it to be a welcome option for seniors, people with disabilities or other groups who may have difficulties getting out in-person to a farmers market.

“You know a lot of people do come to the markets with the ... mindset of ‘farmers markets are inaccessible, they’re for rich people, they’re not for me,’” Miguel Ceniceros, senior manager of benefits and incentives at Food Access L.A., told LAist. “Our job is really to dispel those myths.”

A farmers market operated by Food Access LA.

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Courtesy Food Access LA

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‘A lot of uncertainty’ 

The new produce delivery offering comes at a time of substantial change and uncertainty for nutrition assistance programs nationwide.

That’s because the Trump administration’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act that passed last July imposes funding cuts and new requirements for families trying to get help paying for groceries.

L.A. County could see more than 200,000 people at risk of losing their CalFresh benefits because of new work-requirement rules that went into effect last month targeting recipients like those between the ages of 55 to 64, unhoused people, and veterans.

“These changes are quite significant. Because our population of just those estimated impacted are way beyond some caseloads of other counties,” said Shawn Amiel, Division Chief with the L.A. County Department of Public Social Services. “And it could really contribute to the food insecurity of so many people.”

Amiel said she and her colleagues are working now to educate people on possible exemptions and what the new requirements entail.

In the meantime, Amiel welcomes opportunities like the new CSA box delivery.

“There’s a lot of uncertainty as we enter these policy changes having to be implemented,” Amiel said. “So any additional assistance, any additional opportunities to kind of spread out these funds as much as possible should be taken advantage of.”

The new Christopher Nolan epic The Odyssey opens this weekend. And purists will probably want to catch it in a theater to experience it in all of its 70mm glory.

But another film screening (albeit a little more old-fashioned) happens tonight at a park in La Crescenta.

“Oh yeah, Christopher Nolan ... In fact, he uses the same lab that I do to print my 35 [mm] — FotoKem,” said Joe Rinaudo, silent film historian and founder of the nonprofit SCAAT or Silent Cinema Art and Technology. “One time I was over there and Christopher Nolan was there and man they were hopping to it!”

Rinaudo is also the man behind Silent Movies in Two Strike Park, a special showcase of films from the era that usually takes place once a year. Tonight’s program includes Buster Keaton’s One Week (1920), Charley Chase’s Crazy Like a Fox (1926), and Laurel and Hardy’s Do Detectives Think? (1927).

Professor Rinaudo 

Rinaudo, nicknamed “Professor Rinaudo” for his vast silent film knowledge, has spent his life preserving and screening silent classics. His love of old films stretches back to when he was a kid in the 1950s. He even bought 99-cent reels at Sears and would host screenings for neighborhood kids.

Tonight, he will follow in the tradition of the itinerant — or traveling — projectionists of the early 1900s, by cranking out this evening’s slate on a 1909 Power’s Motion Picture Machine Model 6, which started its life with an itinerant projectionist.

“I bought it from the great-grandchildren of the original owner. It was found in a chicken coop and [I] did a total restoration,” Rinaudo said.

I was lucky enough to see the hand-crank process in action at his home in La Crescenta earlier in the week.

“You have to crank at the camera man’s speed,” Rinaudo said. “You have to watch the action very closely … If it slows down, and it looks blurry then you need to speed up, because you’ll betray the camera man’s shutter.”

‘Educate and inspire’ 

Rinaudo’s La Crescenta home isn’t just a showcase for his collection of antique film equipment. It also includes a 20-seat, 1910-style theater that he built. The silent movie palace is complete with an alluring red curtain and period-specific, ornate light fixtures that he manufactured himself.

Joe Rinaudo stands in front of the stage.

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Robert Garrova / LAist

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It defies logic that this huge theater, complete with a second story balcony and projection room, fits in this residential space. But there’s more just below the theater, including an 800-pipe organ Rinaudo is working to restore so that music can accompany his film screenings.

“The pipe organ will of course add a new dimension to the theater. It’s an 11-rank Wurlitzer built in 1920. It was saved from the Covell Theater in Modesto, California,” Rinaudo said.

The massive pipes of the Wurlitzer came to life thanks to a vintage air blower in the basement, their low tones enough to rattle your ribcage.

Rinaudo’s theater isn’t open to the public, but through his nonprofit, he’s thinking about how it can be preserved for all to enjoy. But you can catch his itinerant show at Two Strike Park in La Crescenta, usually once a year. And he's hoping to soon start screening films again at the Nethercutt Collection Museum in Sylmar.

"Eventually, all of this will go into the non-profit after my passing,” Rinaudo said. “I’m hoping to keep this as a private museum ... that will continue to educate and inspire younger people about our history.”

Local ice cream chain Wanderlust Creamery offers a sweet relief from this week’s sweltering temperatures. From ube to mango sticky rice, its unique signature and seasonal flavors can be found across Los Angeles and Orange counties.

Founder and chef Adrienne Borlongan sat down with Austin Cross, who hosts AirTalk every Friday, to discuss Wanderlust’s travel-inspired flavors.

About the owner

Borlongan initially thought that she would be a nurse. But after spending two years completing nursing prerequisites, she pivoted to a degree in food science and worked as a bartender for almost a decade.

Adrienne Borlongan, founder and chef of Wanderlust Creamery, is also a food scientist.

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Lindy Lin

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One day, her roommate brought home an ice cream maker.

“And that kind of just snowballed into this crazy ice cream obsession,” Borlongan recalled.

She founded Wanderlust with her partner Jon-Patrick Lopez in 2015.

What sets the store apart?

Wanderlust’s flavors come from places Borlongan has either traveled to or has on her travel bucket list.

Many of the flavors are inspired by Borlongan’s Filipino-American heritage, including a best-selling ube malted crunch. It also features flavors like Ashta, a clotted cream from the Middle East.

The ultimate Wanderlust experience, according to the chef

Wanderlust Creamery is known for flavors from all over the world.

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Courtesy Wanderlust Creamery

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You're encouraged to try as many samples as your heart desires. Wanderlust’s staff are trained to guide anyone through the flavors and talk you through options before you make a decision.

What’s next for Wanderlust? 

Borlongan is working on innovating new flavors for the summer, including an ice cream based on Swedish candies. She’s trying to whip up a mixture that’s able to keep the gummies chewy while frozen in ice cream.

Wanderlust is also opening a new location in San Diego.

Shop details

• Wanderlust’s ice cream has less air compared to traditional ice cream, making it rich and creamy. 
• Its seasonal menu items include Buontalenti, honey butter corn, Kaya toast, white peach verbena, Icelandic milk chocolate and Ashta. 
• The local ice cream shop has locations in Atwater Village, Fairfax, Pasadena, Sawtelle, Venice, Irvine, Costa Mesa and Torrance. 

Menu items we tried

• Ube malted crunch (malted milk, malted milkballs, and ube) 
• Stick rice and mango (rice milk, coconut cream, salt, Alphonso mangoes)
• White peach verbena (peach, lemon verbena)

What should we try next?

An Orange County Superior Court judge this week found that Orange County Board of Education member Marilyn “Mari” Barke failed to report millions of dollars in assets and income in her annual economic disclosure filings over multiple years.

Barke will have to pay nearly $82,000 in penalties, as well as attorneys’ fees, according to a proposed decision statement. The fees could amount to hundreds of thousands of dollars.

What’s next? 

State court rules allow parties 15 days to file objections to the proposed decision. After that, the court will be able to enter a final judgment.

About the case

Barke was elected to the OC Board of Education in 2018, and she currently serves as a board trustee. She is also the director of coalitions at the California Policy Center, an educational non-profit.

Under the California Political Reform Act, local elected officials are required to disclose their income, investments and other assets.

Barke filed amended financial statements for 2018 through 2021, following a complaint by private citizen made in February 2023. The Fair Political Practices Commission in 2024 found Barke liable on 16 counts for failing to report that income. Barke agreed to a settlement and paid a $3,200 penalty.

The judge later found that the FPPC’s settlement did not fully address the “willfulness/recklessness” or “adequacy of corrective efforts,” according to the proposed decision statement from Orange County Superior Court Judge H. Shaina Colover.

According to the court records, Barke argued that the mistakes in her filings were because she was following the advice of her now ex-husband, Dr. Jeff Barke, who she says advised her that the filings only needed to list economic interests if they conflicted with her role on the board.

Colover's response was that Barke’s reliance on that alleged advice was objectively unreasonable and wrong.

The response

Lynne Riddle, a retired judge who filed the complaint, said in a statement that financial interest disclosures are critical to the public.

“When elected officials flout their disclosure obligations like this, it undermines the public's right to honest and ethical government,” stated Riddle, who has published op-eds about charter schools and the OC Board of Education. “The Court’s decision vindicates the public’s right to know what their elected officials are doing.”

Riddle said the ruling and penalties should send a clear message that elected officials cannot shirk their responsibilities to disclose their economic interests.

Barke’s lawyer, Mark Rosen, in a statement to LAist, said: "From the start, this case was a vendetta against Mrs. Barke because she supports charter schools."

“As a first-time candidate, she made some technical mistakes in her forms with the Fair Political Practices Commission, and she freely admitted and corrected those mistakes and paid a fine,” Rosen said. “The anti-charter schools gang then piled on with this frivolous lawsuit.”

There are mistakes in the court’s decision, and “we are exploring a further course of action,” Rosen added.