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The Brief

The most important stories for you to know today
  • Climate & Environment
    Westlake Village quake
    Magnitude 4.1 quake rattles L.A. Sunday afternoon
    Fiona Ng
    Fiona Ng is LAist's deputy managing editor and leads a team of reporters who explore food, culture, history, events and more.
    Published March 9, 2025 1:35 PM
    A map shows a series of lines encircling Westwood Village area.
    (
    Screengrab of U.S. Geological Survey page
    )

    Topline:

    An earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 4.1 struck near Westlake Village at 1:03 p.m., according to the U.S. Geological Survey. Shaking was felt as far as Santa Clarita and Huntington Beach.

    Quake got you curious about future ones? We don't want to scare you, but the Big One is coming. We don't know when, but we know it'll be at least 44 times stronger than Northridge and 11 times stronger than the Ridgecrest quakes in 2019. To help you get prepared, we've compiled a handy reading list:

    An earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 4.1 struck near Westlake Village at 1:03 p.m., according to the U.S. Geological Survey. Shaking was felt as far as Santa Clarita and Huntington Beach.

    No reports of damage or injuries so far.

    A ShakeAlert was issued.

    Did you feel it? You can tell USGS here.

    We have earthquake resources

    We don't want to scare you, but the Big One is coming. We don't know when, but we know it'll be at least 44 times stronger than Northridge and 11 times stronger than the Ridgecrest quakes in 2019. To help you get prepared, we've compiled a handy reading list:

    Listen to our podcast

    Listen 31:11
    The Big One: The Earthquake
    You’re at Union Station when the big one hits. The next two minutes are terrifying. By the time you make your way outside, the Los Angeles you know is gone. Experience what the first hours after a massive earthquake could be like.
  • Criminal Justice
    Ex-Olympian arraigned
    Ryan Wedding pleads not guilty to federal charges
    Gillian Morán Pérez Matt Dangelantonio
    By  Gillian Morán Pérez and  Matt Dangelantonio
    Published January 26, 2026 3:51 PM
    A reward poster offers a $15 million reward for information leading to the arrest of Ryan James Wedding. Two photos of Wedding are on the poster, one of him in a brown sweatshirt and black t-shirt looking down at a smartphone, the other of him wearing a blue baseball cap and white t-shirt. His aliases, "Giant," "Public Enemy" and "El Jefe" are prominently displayed on the poster.
    A reward poster for the arrest of Ryan James Wedding is visible following a November 2025 news conference.
    (
    Andrew Harnik
    /
    Getty Images
    )

    Topline:

    Ex-Olympian Ryan Wedding appeared in court Monday in Santa Ana where he pleaded not guilty to federal charges accusing him of running a billion-dollar drug trafficking ring and orchestrating multiple killings.

    Why now: Wedding was taken into custody last week in Mexico City. Mexican officials say he turned himself in at the U.S. Embassy there, according to the Associated Press. But the AP also reported Wedding's lawyer said Monday that he actually did not surrender to law enforcement, but had been living in Mexico and was arrested.

    The backstory: Wedding is accused of moving as much as 60 tons of cocaine between various locations in South and North America, and that he used Los Angeles as his primary point of distribution. The charges also tie him to the 2023 killing of two members of a Canadian family as retaliation for a stolen drug shipment, a 2024 killing over a drug debt and the killing of a witness in Colombia who was set to testify against him. Wedding was an Olympic snowboarder with Team Canada during the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City. He appeared in just one event, the men's parallel giant slalom, where he finished 24th. Last March, Wedding was added to the FBI's 10 Most Wanted Fugitives list.

    What's next: Wedding's trail has tentatively been scheduled to start on March 24.
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  • News
    Olympic boycott?
    Some on City Council are worried about 2028
    Libby Rainey
    Libby Rainey is a general assignment reporter. She covers the news that shapes Los Angeles and how people change the city in return.
    Published January 26, 2026 3:45 PM
    A person passes in front of two lit displays. Inside the display are two flags with multicolor rings and swooshes.
    The Olympic and Paralympic flags on display at Los Angeles City Hall on Sept. 12, 2024.
    (
    Allen J. Schaben
    /
    Los Angeles Times via Getty Images
    )

    Topline:

    Some members of the Los Angeles City Council are worried that countries might boycott the 2028 Olympics in response to President Donald Trump's policies, at home and abroad.

    The context: The killing of another protester by immigration agents in Minneapolis and Trump's ongoing threats against Greenland have fueled calls to boycott World Cup matches held in the U.S. this summer — including in Los Angeles. The suggestion from a former FIFA president and others led some in City Hall to worry that the coming 2028 Olympics could also get the cold shoulder.

    What City Council is saying: "We have a national government who is setting the stage for an environment where we could have a serious boycott," Council President Marqueece Harris-Dawson said at a committee meeting on the Olympic Games Monday.

    What LA28 is saying: John Harper, an executive with private Olympics organizing committee LA28, said the organization had not discussed the possibility with the International Olympic Committee and that he was not concerned a boycott would take place in 2028.

    Read on...for more about the potential effects of a boycott.

    The killing of another protester by immigration agents in Minneapolis and President Trump's ongoing threats against Greenland have fueled calls to boycott World Cup matches held in the U.S. this summer — including in Los Angeles.

    The suggestion from a former FIFA president and others led some in City Hall to worry that the coming 2028 Olympics could also get the cold shoulder.

    "We have a national government who is setting the stage for an environment where we could have a serious boycott," Council President Marqueece Harris-Dawson said during a committee meeting on the Olympic Games Monday.

    John Harper, an executive with private Olympics organizing committee LA28, said that the organization had not discussed the possibility with the International Olympic Committee and that he was not concerned a boycott would take place in 2028.

    City Council members did not seem convinced.

    "This conversation around FIFA, that's just a forewarning," said Councilmember Monica Rodriguez. "We need to have a Plan B."

    The city of Los Angeles stands to lose if spectators or countries opt out of the 2028 Olympics. L.A. is the financial guarantor of the Games, along with the state of California, and a significant boycott could affect the financial success of the massive sporting event.

    "We could be talking about a lot more irreparable harm, financially," Rodriguez said.

    Fresh concerns about a boycott also come as anxiety in City Hall has been growing about the role the federal government will play at the Games.

    The City Council recently passed a motion requesting that LA28 provide more details on the federal Olympics task force on security that Trump announced last year, citing the ICE agents who have descended on the streets of Los Angeles and other U.S. cities

    The Olympics have been a frequent arena of political protest over the decades, including in Los Angeles in 1984 when the Soviet Union led a boycott of the Games.

    "We never talk about the boycott of '84, but there was a significant boycott," Dawson-Harris said on Monday. "It doesn't mean that you can't figure it out, but it also means we have to face it and face it directly."
  • Civics & Democracy
    OC snitch scandal
    Prosecutorial cheating leads to lessened charges
    Jill Replogle
    Jill Replogle covers public corruption, debates over our voting system, culture war battles — and more.
    Published January 26, 2026 3:17 PM
    The setting is a courtroom: A man wearing a dark suit is sitting and looking at a man, also wearing a dark suit, as the man is speaking in reference to some papers in his hand.
    Former Orange County Asst. Public Defender Scott Sanders questions former prosecutor Ebrahim Baytieh, now an O.C. Superior Court judge, in 2024.
    (
    Nick Gerda
    /
    LAist
    )

    Topline:

    The Orange County District Attorney dropped murder charges in a case tainted by the so-called jailhouse snitch scandal, instead accepting a lesser guilty plea of voluntary manslaughter.

    Why it matters: A decade ago, in the wake of the county’s biggest mass murder, the O.C. Public Defender’s office discovered that local law enforcement had been illegally using informants — sometimes called snitches — to get information and confessions from defendants in jail. The discovery has unraveled close to 60 criminal convictions to date and tainted the reputations of the O.C. District Attorney’s Office and Sheriff’s Department.

    What's the backstory? Paul Smith was convicted of murder in 2010 for stabbing his childhood friend Robert Haugen to death in 1988 and then setting the body on fire in the victim’s Sunset Beach apartment. A decade later it came to light that O.C. law enforcement illegally used jailhouse informants to bolster their case against Haugen, and then hid that from the defense, ultimately leading a judge to throw out the conviction and order a new trial.

    What's next? Now that trial won’t happen. Under a plea deal struck with the District Attorney’s Office, Smith pleaded guilty to manslaughter on Monday and will serve another five years in prison before being released.

    The Orange County District Attorney dropped murder charges in a decades-old case tainted by the so-called jailhouse snitch scandal, instead accepting a lesser guilty plea of voluntary manslaughter.

    Why it matters

    A decade ago, in the wake of the county’s biggest mass murder, the O.C. Public Defender’s Office discovered that local law enforcement had been illegally using informants — sometimes called snitches — to get information and confessions from defendants in jail. The discovery has unraveled close to 60 criminal convictions to date and tainted the reputations of the O.C. District Attorney’s Office and Sheriff’s Department.

    What's the backstory?

    Paul Smith was convicted of murder in 2010 for stabbing his childhood friend Robert Haugen to death in 1988 and then setting the body on fire in the victim’s Sunset Beach apartment. A decade later it came to light that O.C. law enforcement illegally used jailhouse informants to bolster their case against Haugen, and then hid that from the defense, ultimately leading a judge to throw out the conviction and order a new trial.

    Now that trial won’t happen. Under a plea deal struck with the current District Attorney’s ffice, Smith pleaded guilty to manslaughter on Monday and will serve another five years in prison before being released.

    ‘Reprehensible’ behavior from prosecutors

    In a ruling last year, a San Diego judge overseeing Smith’s case said Orange County prosecutors had shown “reprehensible” behavior in pursuit of convicting Smith. He also said Ebrahim Baytieh, a former prosecutor and, now, Superior Court judge, was “not truthful” during court proceedings.

    The takeaway?

    Current District Attorney Todd Spitzer has repeatedly said his office has implemented reforms to ensure the rights of criminal defendants to a fair trial. He released a statement saying his office has taken steps to reverse the "cheat to win" missteps of an earlier administration and lamented that a murder defendant will now have an easier path to release:

    "There are serious consequences when a prosecutor does not comply with his legal obligations to turn over evidence. There is no doubt that Paul Gentile Smith committed the most heinous of murders when he tortured and killed his victim 37 years ago. After a full and exhaustive hearing held by Superior Court Judge Daniel Goldstein, former Orange County prosecutor and current Orange County Superior Court Judge Brahim Baytieh was found, as a matter of law, to have failed to disclose exculpatory evidence regarding a jailhouse informant in this case.

    This is a defendant who should be spending the rest of his life in prison without the possibility of parole, but instead he will spend a total of 21 years and seven months in prison for taking the life of another human being because of the misconduct committed by the prosecutorial team under the prior administration.

    This is why I have said for the last seven years since I became the District Attorney that I will not tolerate the 'win at all cost' mentality of the prior administration, and that there are serious consequences when you cheat to win convictions."

    What does the defense say?

    Scott Sanders, Smith’s attorney and the former assistant public defender who uncovered the so-called “snitch scandal,” says not enough has been done to reexamine cases in which tainted evidence may have been used to convict people.

    Go deeper:
  • News
    Costa Mesa self-checkout
    Ordinance advances to regulate checkout service
    Robert Garrova
    Robert Garrova explores the weird and secret bits of SoCal that would excite even the most jaded Angelenos. He also covers mental health.
    Published January 26, 2026 2:07 PM
    A person uses a self-checkout machine at a grocery store, scanning a bag of produce while other shoppers wait nearby.
    A person uses a self-checkout machine at a store.
    (
    iStock Photo
    )

    Topline:

    The city of Costa Mesa last week advanced an ordinance that would make it the second city in the state to regulate grocery store self-service checkout stations.

    The details: On Tuesday, the Costa Mesa City Council voted, 3-2, to move forward a law that would require staffing of one employee per three self-service checkout stations. It would also limit self-service checkout to 15 items or less, among other requirements. If adopted, the ordinance could regulate some 22 drug and food retail stores in Costa Mesa, though not all currently have self-service checkout stations.

    Why? The ordinance cites cutting down on retail theft as one reason for the proposal.

    Who supports it: Derek Smith, political director for the United Food and Commercial Workers 324, said the union represents some 15,000 grocery workers in Orange County and southern L.A. County and supports the measure. “Putting more people in there is going to make our members’ lives much easier, and I think the customers’ lives as well,” Smith told LAist. He said some grocery store workers are asked to supervise six self-checkout machines at a time. “It’s just too many for anybody to properly supervise,” he said.

    Who opposes it: The California Grocers’ Association opposes the measure. “Costa Mesa residents want groceries to be affordable and convenient, yet three Costa Mesa city councilmembers made a decision that will make life harder for thousands of grocery shoppers who rely on its convenience,” Nate Rose, California Grocers Association spokesperson, said in an emailed statement.

    What’s next: The City Council is expected to take the ordinance up for a second reading on Feb. 3. If it’s approved, it could take effect within 30 days. That would make it the second city in the state, after Long Beach, to adopt such an ordinance.