Topline:
Joshua Tree National Park crews have started to survey damage to its namesake plant after the latest wildfire broke out on Friday.
Why now: The Eureka Fire started Friday at around noon in the Covington Flats area of the park.
The backstory: The area is known as a kind of last refuge for the tree.
Crews at Joshua Tree National Park have begun to survey damages to its namesake plant in the wake of the latest wildfire that has burned more about 200 acres in an area known as a "refuge" of sorts for the tree.
As of Saturday afternoon, the Eureka Fire is at 40% contained, according to fire authorities.
The fire broke out Friday at around noon in the Covington Flats area of the park.
"This area of Covington Flats is a place where we hope is a kind of last refuge for our Joshua trees because of higher elevation," said park spokesperson Meg Rockwell. "It's an area that Joshua trees seem to really prosper."
As temperatures climb from changing climates, Joshua trees have been retreating to higher elevation areas, Rockwell said, where there's more rainfall and cooler temperatures.
Those areas, like Covington Flats, are places where the park has worked to clear up fire fuels to try to protect Joshua trees, which do not recover well from fire damage.
"Joshua trees do not like fire. They do not need fire. They do not want fire," Rockwell said. "When the ground area and the Joshua tree itself burns, it will scar and die. And it takes a very long time for the ground to recover for Joshua trees to then bloom."
Friday's fire started near Eureka Peak, according to Rockwell, a spot sought out by visitors for views of sunsets and bigger Joshua trees that the area is known for.
Rockwell said there is damage to sections of the Joshua tree forest in the area. She said park crews are out today to begin to assess the extent.
The fire is under investigation.
Topline:
Inspired by the found-footage style of the "Paranormal Activity" film franchise, the stage production takes place in a two-story house so the audience feels like they’re watching someone in their home.
How it got so scary: Director Felix Barrett told LAist that he and Tony Award-winning illusionist Chris Fisher worked on the illusions first. Later, they built around them so the effects are integrated into the set. “We knew that we wanted the illusions, the sort of haunting, to be so baked into the core of the piece,” Barrett said.
What to expect: The audience is pretty vocal due to all the jump scares and special effects, so the vibe is closer to a scary movie than a traditional play.
The audience: Barrett says his team’s approach appears to be attracting new and younger theatergoers. “I think we're getting a huge amount of audience who wouldn't normally go to a theater to see a play,” Barrett said. “My favorite thing is people saying, 'Oh, my gosh, I'm gonna go and see more plays,' because we've got them hooked from this one.”
How to see it: Paranormal Activity, A New Story Live on Stage is at the Ahmanson Theatre through Sunday.
For more ... listen to our interview with Barrett above.
Topline:
A Trump administration official today signaled a potential rollback of the racial and ethnic categories approved for the 2030 census and other future federal government forms.
Why it matters: Supporters of those categories fear that any last-minute modifications to the U.S. government's standards for data about race and ethnicity could hurt the accuracy of census data and other future statistics used for redrawing voting districts, enforcing civil rights protections and guiding policymaking.
What are those changes?: Among other changes, new checkboxes for "Middle Eastern or North African" and "Hispanic or Latino" under a reformatted question that asks survey participants: "What is your race and/or ethnicity?" The revisions also require the federal government to stop automatically categorizing people who identify with Middle Eastern or North African groups as white.
A Trump administration official on Friday signaled a potential rollback of the racial and ethnic categories approved for the 2030 census and other future federal government forms.
Supporters of those categories fear that any last-minute modifications to the U.S. government's standards for data about race and ethnicity could hurt the accuracy of census data and other future statistics used for redrawing voting districts, enforcing civil rights protections and guiding policymaking.
Those standards were last revised in 2024 during the Biden administration, after Census Bureau research and public discussion.
A White House agency at the time approved, among other changes, new checkboxes for "Middle Eastern or North African" and "Hispanic or Latino" under a reformatted question that asks survey participants: "What is your race and/or ethnicity?" The revisions also require the federal government to stop automatically categorizing people who identify with Middle Eastern or North African groups as white.
But at a Friday meeting of the Council of Professional Associations on Federal Statistics in Washington, D.C., the chief statistician within the White House's Office of Management and Budget revealed that the Trump administration has started a new review of those standards and how the 2024 revisions were approved.
"We're still at the very beginning of a review. And this, again, is not prejudging any particular outcome. I think we just wanted to be able to take a look at the process and decide where we wanted to end up on a number of these questions," said Mark Calabria. "I've certainly heard a wide range of views within the administration. So it's just premature to say where we'll end up."
OMB's press office did not immediately respond to NPR's request for comment.
Calabria's comments mark the first public confirmation that Trump officials are considering the possibility of not using the latest racial and ethnic category changes and other revisions. They come amid the administration's attack on diversity, equity and inclusion programs, a push to stop producing data that could protect the rights of transgender people and threats to the reliability of federal statistics.
In September, OMB said those Biden-era revisions "continue to be in effect" when it announced a six-month extension to the 2029 deadline for federal agencies to follow the new standards when collecting data on race and ethnicity.
Calabria said the delay gave agencies more time to implement the changes "while we review."
The first Trump administration stalled the process for revising the racial and ethnic data standards in time for the 2020 census.
The "Project 2025" policy agenda released by The Heritage Foundation, the conservative, D.C.-based think tank, called for a Republican administration to "thoroughly review any changes" to census race and ethnicity questions because of "concerns among conservatives that the data under Biden Administration proposals could be skewed to bolster progressive political agendas."
Advocates of the changes, however, see the new categories and other revisions as long-needed updates to better reflect people's identities.
"At stake is a more accurate and deeper understanding of the communities that comprise our country," says Meeta Anand, senior director of census and data equity at the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights. "I am not concerned if it's reviewed in an honest attempt to understand what the process was. I am concerned if it's for a predetermined outcome that would be to ignore the entire process that was done in a very transparent manner."
Edited by Benjamin Swasey
Copyright 2025 NPR
Topline:
A large black bear that was relocated earlier this year after being found under a house in Altadena is up to his old tricks again.
Why it matters: The bear, nicknamed Barry by the neighbors, was found last week under a different Altadena home, and wildlife officials are using a caramel- and cherry-scented lure to entice the roughly 550-pound male bear out of his hiding spot.
Why now: Cort Klopping, information specialist with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, told LAist the bear seems to be spooked by increased activity around the home, including media crews outside and helicopters overhead.
Go deeper ... for more about black bear sightings in SoCal.
A large black bear that was relocated earlier this year after being found under a house in Altadena is up to his old tricks again.
The bear, nicknamed Barry by the neighbors, was found last week under a different Altadena home, and wildlife officials are using a caramel- and cherry-scented lure to entice the roughly 550-pound male bear out of his hiding spot.
So far, they’ve been unsuccessful.
Cort Klopping, information specialist with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, told LAist the bear seems to be spooked by increased activity around the home, including media crews outside and helicopters overhead.
“It seems as though in this case, this bear has found this poor guy's crawlspace as a comfortable, safe-seeming, warm enclosure for denning purposes,” he said.
He said the space is “somewhere for this bear to kind of hang its hat when it's relaxing.”
Wildlife officials can tell it’s the same bear who was lured out from under an Altadena house after the Eaton Fire because of the tag number on his ear.
The bear was trapped and relocated about 10 miles away to the Angeles National Forest in January, but Klopping said he’s been back in the Altadena area for around five months.
The Department of Fish and Wildlife fitted the bear with a temporary GPS collar so officials could keep track of it. The collar came off a couple months later while the animal still was living in the forest.
The bear is believed to have been spotted around the home last Tuesday, Klopping said, and the owner reached out to wildlife officials a few days later for help.
“I’ve seen pictures of this bear, and I’m shocked to be under that house,” homeowner Ken Johnson told LAist media partner CBS LA.
Officials said they were hopeful the bear would move along on its own. They encouraged the homeowner to set up a camera on the crawlspace and line the area with ammonia soaked-rags or a motion-activated wildlife sprinkler system to deter the bear from returning, Klopping said.
“These are all actions that would not harm the bear, not harm people, but they would make it less comfortable for the bear to be there,” he said.
But the bear stayed put.
“Right now, it seems like it's stressed,” Klopping said. “It seems like it's scared, and therefore, it's not really wanting to leave the security of where it is at the moment.”
A pair of wildlife officials stopped by the home Thursday to set up the sweet-smelling lure and camera so the department can keep an eye on the bear’s activity remotely.
Barry didn’t take the bait immediately, Klopping said, but officials are hopeful the animal will feel more comfortable leaving the crawlspace once activity around the home dies down a bit.
Klopping also is warning people in the area to secure access points on their property so the bear just doesn’t move in there next.
“If I were in that neighborhood, I would be doing everything in my power to make sure that my crawlspaces would not be accessible,” he said, including covering it with something stronger than the wire mesh the bear got through before.
Bears also are extremely food motivated, and Klopping said they can smell your leftover chicken in trash cans on the curb from 5 miles away.
He encouraged residents to be mindful of trash that could be an easy meal for wildlife, as well as pet food and hummingbird feeders, which Klopping said biologists have seen bears drink “like a soda.”
You can find tips on how to handle a bear in your backyard here and resources from the California Department of Fish and Wildlife here.
Topline:
A new climate advocacy group, SoCal Clean Manufacturing Coalition, has made a map of more than 1,800 gas-fueled industrial boilers across Southern California. They’re calling on air quality regulators to phase these out to stem pollution.
Why it matters: Boilers come in different sizes that generate hot water and steam, often using fossil fuels. Many of the boilers in question can be found inside places like Disneyland, major apartment communities, universities, hospitals and some schools.
The debate: The equipment has been shown to contribute to nitrogen oxide pollution, which is why South Coast AQMD moved to phase out smaller boilers last year. But gas industry representatives say changing these bigger ones could have severe consequences for the industries, like manufacturing, that rely on heat.
Read on … to see where hundreds of boilers are across the region.
There’s a new way you can track pollution in your neighborhood.
The SoCal Clean Manufacturing Coalition, a climate advocacy group, has released a map with the locations of more than 1,800 fossil fuel-burning industrial boilers across Los Angeles, Orange, San Bernardino and Riverside counties. Many are at universities and hospitals, as well as some apartment complexes like the Park La Brea apartments in the Miracle Mile.
The map is part of an effort to push the South Coast Air Quality Management District, which regulates our air quality, to pass rules to require these large boilers to be phased out.
Industrial boilers aren’t exactly the poster child of pollution, but they do play a role in Southern California. Boilers come in different sizes, and although there are electric types, many still burn fossil fuels to generate hot water, steam and, as a byproduct, nitrogen oxide.
South Coast AQMD says that makes it a source of pollutants. Nitrogen oxide contributors are not only a problem for smog and respiratory issues but also for the agency’s effort to meet federal air quality standards.
That’s why last year the agency approved new requirements for certain buildings to use zero-emission water heaters and boilers when they need replacement.
Teresa Cheng, California director for Industrious Labs, a coalition member focused on creating cleaner industries, says these rules were for smaller “baby boilers” and that the coalition wants to see that applied to larger ones, which are covered under the agency’s 1146 and 1146.1 rule.
The push has caused concern in the gas industry. The California Fuels and Convenience Alliance, which represents small fuel retailers and industry suppliers, says boilers are essential in a wide range of manufacturing facilities that need high heat, like food processing, fuel production and more.
“CFCA is deeply concerned that requiring industrial facilities to abandon gas-fired boilers at the end of their useful life before the market is technologically or economically ready will still have severe consequences for manufacturers, workers and consumers,” the alliance said in a statement.
The organization says many facilities already have invested in “ultra-low” nitrogen oxide technology and that requiring a switch to zero-emissions equipment could destabilize the industry because of costs.
The map includes the number of boilers in each place, including how many aging units, and their permitted heating capacity. (That metric essentially correlates with how much pollution it can release.)
Cheng says the map is being shared to make the “invisible visible” so residents can know what’s around them. Most boilers are in communities that already deal with environmental pollution problems.
Boilers are even close to K-12 schools, like Glendale’s Herbert Hoover High School, which has its own.
“ These boilers have a very long lifeline,” she said. “If the air district doesn't pass zero-emissions rules for these boilers, we actually risk locking in decades more of pollution.”
