The Brief

Tucked along Bandini Boulevard in the city of Vernon are the headquarters for Baker Commodities Inc., a company that employs 900 workers across the U.S. and is home base for some of the grisliest industrial work in the country.

Behind the nondescript walls of its campus along the L.A. River sit machines used to grind, cook, and press leftover pieces of cows, pigs, and chickens. These remains — and, sometimes, entire carcasses — are delivered on semitrucks from butcher shops, grocery stores, restaurants, slaughterhouses and livestock farms. A worker then pushes them into a pit with a tractor and, through a process called rendering, they’re turned into fats, meat and bone meal, and hides.

These materials are recycled to make scores of everyday products, including soap, pet food, makeup, and leather goods. The long-running industry plays important roles in reducing food waste.

For decades, residents in surrounding neighborhoods have complained of putrid dead animal smells. In 2017, community pressure compelled the local agency that oversees air emissions, the South Coast Air Quality Management District (AQMD), to adopt a rule to mitigate odors from Baker and a handful of other rendering plants. Among other requirements, the rule forces these companies to post signs indicating where residents can report odor issues — a demand some plants lobbied against. Then, in September 2022, the agency shut down Baker, citing repeat violations of its odor mitigation rule.

At the time, community members and elected officials celebrated the closure as a win. But what many don’t know is that the company has partially reopened and is waging an intense legal battle against AQMD. After AQMD shut it down, Baker filed a lawsuit against the AQMD in L.A. County Superior Court. Baker claims the company was not in violation of the odor mitigation rule and that it was treated unfairly. Baker also demands that the shutdown order be tossed out and aims to bar air regulators from shutting it down in the future.

Baker Commodities Inc. in Vernon, Calif.

(

Samanta Helou Hernandez

/

LAist

)

LAist spoke with dozens of local residents and reviewed odor complaint records, violation records, notices to comply, and inspection reports to piece together how the rendering of dead animals at Baker has impacted surrounding communities.

We found:

• Since the odor mitigation rule went into effect in 2017, AQMD has issued 12 violations and five notices to comply to Baker. Eight of them were for violating the odor mitigation rule. The rest were for failing to comply with permit conditions and other requirements. Three of the violations are still pending.  
• LAist found 111 odor complaints identified by the person reporting the smell or by AQMD as being tied to Baker between August 2019 and late last week. These complaints came from homes, local schools, and businesses near Baker’s headquarters. 
• Baker failed to store animal remains within four hours of delivery, leaving them out to fester and violating AQMD’s rules, according to the agency’s attorneys — and it did so six times between August 2019 and January 2022.  
•  An AQMD inspector reported Baker violated AQMD rules that require surfaces exposed to animal matter to be washed down at least once per working day, according to his sworn written statement filed in Baker’s court case. The inspector said he saw strings of animal matter dangling on grates at the company’s headquarters. 
• In Baker’s unloading zone for animal remains, broken concrete or asphalt was present in March and April 2022, according to AQMD’s attorneys — a problem that officials at the agency say can cause water to pool and smells to fester.

We should note that Baker has disputed AQMD findings in the latter three items in court filings.

In the year since AQMD ordered Baker to shut down, residents say the odors are less intense and less frequent — and AQMD complaint records associated with the company show a dramatic drop in reported smell problems. The shutdown lasted nearly nine months, until the company petitioned the hearing board and was granted permission to work in a limited capacity, doing trap grease and wastewater treatment — but not rendering animals.

Many community members were worried to learn from LAist that the court may allow the company to fully reopen and return to rendering livestock and poultry without making long-term changes to the way they operate.

A long track record of problems, a fierce fight to stay in business

A review by LAist also uncovered details of the steps Baker has taken to try to get back to running at full scale in Vernon. The rendering company submitted 125 legal filings in its battle against AQMD over a 12-month period, arguing that it’s in compliance with the odor mitigation rule. In that time, it’s had two law firms working the case, which calls for $200 million in damages from the government agency for lost revenue, the disclosure of trade secrets and other items. Its current legal team at DLA Piper — a top-ranking, multinational law firm — includes Angela Agrusa, who specializes in brand-crisis litigation and has represented comedian and actor Bill Cosby and Chipotle, among others.

A view into a parking lot at Baker Commodities Inc. in Vernon.

(

Samanta Helou Hernandez

/

LAist

)

The Baker Commodities Inc. facilities include multiple buildings.

(

Samanta Helou Hernandez

/

LAist

)

“The fact that Baker Commodities would come at an agency that is really intended to protect the public's health is not just unfortunate, but it is despicable,” said Angelo Logan, who grew up in the nearby city of Commerce and returns weekly to visit his mother. Logan currently serves on the White House Environmental Justice Advisory Council and learned of the litigation from LAist.

Cudahy Councilmember Elizabeth Alcantar, who lives about 3 miles away from Baker, was also unaware of the legal fight until LAist’s reporting.

“It’s absolutely concerning to see that happen,” she said.

Alcantar grew up in Cudahy and says she and her family have endured the stench of rotting flesh for as long as she can remember. She was shocked to hear Baker is pursuing legal action that will cost taxpayers money, instead of addressing community concerns.

“It's going to take AQMD's time and funds away from what they should be doing, which is enforcement,” Alcantar said of the litigation, explaining that the community has been under duress for years due to foul odors. “[W]e are here, simply wanting to breathe clean air.”

Baker’s assistant vice president of public relations and legislative affairs, Jimmy Andreoli II, declined multiple interview requests. Agrusa, Baker’s lead attorney, did not respond to our requests for comment.

In an emailed statement Andreoli said, “While we cannot comment on active litigation, we are dedicated to finding sustainable ways to support California’s food production and restaurant industries with continued strict adherence to local, state, and federal environmental laws.”

“Some of our business operations have been approved to resume,” said Andreoli, who is the grandson of Baker’s 96-year-old CEO, James Andreoli. Jimmy Andreoli II added that they look forward to finding long-term solutions with AQMD.

Baker’s lawsuit against AQMD is still pending. Later this month, if a settlement isn’t reached beforehand, an L.A. Superior Court judge is scheduled to decide whether the rendering company can reopen at full capacity. The judge will also rule on the $200 million in damages Baker is seeking, as well as its call to keep AQMD from shutting it down in the future.

If Baker succeeds in court, interviews with community members suggest it could further erode the relationship between the city of Vernon and local residents across Southeast L.A., many of whom are grappling with odors on top of other environmental issues.

AQMD odor complaint reviewed by LAist.

(

Photo: Samanta Helou Hernandez

/

LAist

)

A company with big problems

Many people who live in or near Vernon have no idea that they live close to four rendering plants that process everything from fat, to livestock, to the remains of cats and dogs. The city, which is just 5 square miles in size, is also home to at least 40 meat processors, which buy meat from slaughterhouses to prepare items found at grocery stores, like sausages and steaks. There are also six slaughterhouses within 1 mile of Vernon’s city limits .

Sources: U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA). City boundaries via L.A. County eGIS hub.

At some places, silos and smokestacks hint at what’s happening inside, along with flocks of seagulls hovering far from shore. But, for the most part, these businesses are tucked behind bland metal sheets and concrete walls.

Baker itself is sandwiched between the L.A. River and several train tracks. The rendering company has been in Vernon since the 1940s. But after AQMD determined that Baker blew a deadline to seal off its rendering operations to keep potential odors from escaping in spring 2022, the agency’s legal counsel moved to shut it down.

The Darling International Inc. rendering plant in Los Angeles, near Vernon.

(

Samanta Helou Hernandez

/

LAist

)

Seagulls on a concrete square in the L.A. River next to the Darling International Inc. rendering plant.

(

Samanta Helou Hernandez

/

LAist

)

AQMD’s hearing board, which enforces the agency’s regulations, gathered to vote on the shutdown in September of 2022. Before reaching a decision, the board held a hearing, which LAist found little media coverage of at the time. It provided a rare look inside Baker’s headquarters.

Over a span of three days via Zoom, attorneys for both parties peppered an AQMD inspector with questions.

In 2022 inspector Dillon Harris testified that he visited Baker nine times. He documented hooves and other animal bones strewn across the floor, overflowing from a large trash bin. He spotted a trough with built up blood, animal fat, and wastewater. He said he saw staff dumping sludge — a thick, pancake batter-like mix of liquid and solid animal remains — from trucks into open-air pits. Baker, he said, also left equipment doors and panels open, which are supposed to be kept shut to trap possible smells, and employees dumped expired clams, shrimp and ground beef into an exposed container.

During the hearing , dozens of photographs capture Baker’s facility.

[Caution: these links go to images of the photos displayed on video in hearings]

In them, rib cages can be seen among a heap of animal parts, pools of blood-colored liquid are shown in multiple locations, a drain is backed up and surrounded by dead animal debris. Harris, the inspector, also captured images of raw animal material leaking out of the rendering equipment. Baker has argued that photos shown during the hearing should be sealed from the public’s view because they contain trade secrets that competitors can now access.

Photographs taken by AQMD Inspector Dillon Harris during multiple inspections of Baker's rendering facility in Vernon in 2022. Baker later filed an emergency motion asking a Los Angeles Superior Court judge to restrain the AQMD from publishing the inspector's photos and to take them down from AQMD hearing board videos on YouTube. The judge denied it in October 2022.

(

Dillon Harris

/

Screen shots from YouTube video of Sept. 27, 2022 AQMD Commission meeting

)

Photographs taken by AQMD Inspector Dillon Harris during multiple inspections of Baker's rendering facility in Vernon in 2022. Baker later filed an emergency motion asking a Los Angeles Superior Court judge to restrain the AQMD from publishing the inspector's photos and to take them down from AQMD hearing board videos on YouTube. The judge denied it in October 2022.

(

Dillon Harris

/

Screen shots from YouTube video of Sept. 27, 2022 AQMD Commission meeting

)

Inspection photo labeled "Open air pit 8/16/22"

(

AQMD via YouTube hearing video

)

Photo labeled "Uncovered or leaking conveyers 8/16/22"

(

AQMD via YouTube hearing video

)

Inspection photo labeled "Leaking Presses"

(

AQMD via YouTube hearing video

)

The Andreoli family, which has owned Baker since the 1980s, spoke at the hearing and disputed Harris’ findings. Jimmy Andreoli II said he visited the Vernon facility a week earlier and saw “a wash truck that was moving throughout the facility and washing down various roadway surfaces.”

Baker attributed some of the inspector’s findings to human error. Jason Andreoli, who was identified at the hearing as Baker’s general manager, said the company put up signs reminding staff to keep the doors closed. “And we also put a policy in place that if they are left open, there’s gonna be disciplinary action,” he said.

Several hearing board members appeared mystified by Baker’s claims that the company was in compliance with AQMD rules.

"Every picture virtually that we see is of equipment that is absolutely filthy," said the late Dr. Allan Bernstein, one of the hearing board’s voting members who died last spring.

"It's mind-boggling to sit here and see anyone try to defend this position when we're all looking at these pictures with our eyes," he added.

During closing statements, AQMD attorney Daphne Hsu said she understood the magnitude of shutting down the company. “We don’t ask a facility to stop operating lightly,” she said, noting Baker could have proposed a timeline to come into compliance. Instead, she said, the company chose to dispute the agency’s findings.

“Baker must be in compliance before it restarts,” Hsu added. “The community has waited long enough.”

The hearing board voted 4 to 1 to shut down Baker. That’s when the court battle began.

'I had to step away because I almost vomited’

When AQMD implemented the odor mitigation rule in November 2017, rendering facilities that had to comply were given 90 days to meet basic standards. The goal of the rule was straightforward: to keep potential odor sources contained and protect people living nearby. The rule requires steps like washing down surfaces at least once a day and repairing cracks in the asphalt to keep pools of odorous bacteria from forming.

Seagulls regularly gather near and above rendering plants. Bones are scattered on a sidewalk outside Darling International Inc, a rendering plant neighboring Vernon.

(

Samanta Helou Hernandez

/

LAist

)

“As they're bulldozing and pushing all these raw carcasses, [the animal remains get] smeared across asphalt and concrete, and odors start developing,” explained Wayne Nastri, AQMD’s executive officer, in an interview with LAist. “What the rule actually intended to do was to control the process the whole way, to minimize [animal remains’] exposure to the air that would generate those kinds of odors.”

AQMD gave renderers subject to the rule up to three and a half years to install enclosures, or bring all their operations into a closed system indoors, to keep odors from drifting off site. Some asked for extensions before they finished the work, but, according to AQMD, Baker is the only one that has not complied. In its lawsuit, Baker repeatedly argues it is in compliance.

When Harris, the AQMD inspector, checked out Baker for the first time after the rule went into effect in 2018, he remembers being disgusted.

“I had to step away because I almost vomited,” he said in a sworn written statement filed with AQMD’s response to Baker’s lawsuit.

Recalling the inspections he conducted at Baker in 2022, Harris added that: “The odor at the facility smells intensely of rotting animals.”

His work boots, he explained, were so soaked through with the smell of rendering that he couldn’t use them at non-rendering facilities. In one of Baker’s rendering plants at its Vernon campus, he said “rotting odor emanates from all sides.”

L.A. County Supervisor Janice Hahn’s district includes Vernon — she advocated last year for Baker’s shutdown.

“It was clear that Baker Commodities had long violated air quality rules and had done little to nothing to come into compliance,” she said in an emailed response to questions from LAist. “It was time for [AQMD] to uphold the rules they had on the books and protect the community from this company."

Nastri, AQMD’s executive officer, declined to speak on Baker’s lawsuit, citing pending litigation. Court filings show AQMD has hired two outside law firms to work the case, in addition to the agency’s in-house attorneys. They’ve filed a cross-complaint against Baker, demanding that the rendering company pay $10,000 per day for each of its violations.

Nastri confirmed to LAist that Baker has committed the most violations out of any of the rendering plants in its jurisdiction.

The air pollution agency’s rules “are there to ensure that we have a level playing field,” Nastri said. “And to all those companies that are making the investments, that are operating in conditions that they're supposed to operate, it's unfair if we were to let others who do not make those investments and seek to profit off of the lack of compliance — that's just wrong.”

“We are very consistent and very strong in our enforcement approach,” he added. “And so long as those companies continue to violate those rules or regulations, we will go after them. Period.”

How odors impact community members’ daily lives 

Residents of Southeast L.A. County, as well as Boyle Heights and unincorporated East L.A., have put up with rendering plant odors for years. And Baker is not alone — odor complaint records reviewed by LAist show the three other nearby rendering plants have also generated concerns.

The City of Vernon seal.

(

Samanta Helou Hernandez

/

LAist

)

A rare residential street in Vernon, which is almost exclusively industrial.

(

Samanta Helou Hernandez

/

LAist

)

So have other businesses. The city of Vernon is home to just 222 residents and is almost exclusively industrial — nearly 600 of its businesses handle or store hazardous chemicals, according to a city report. Local residents have lodged complaints with AQMD about strong garbage odors from trash collection companies, as well as nauseatingly sweet smells from flavor and fragrance suppliers. One resident complained their neighborhood reeked of “melting Jolly Ranchers.”

Shifting wind patterns near Vernon add to the challenges. According to Terrence Mann, AQMD’s deputy executive officer of compliance and enforcement, an odor can start off in Monterey Park, “then, just a few minutes later,” pop up in Huntington Park — about 11 miles away.

Interviews with local residents , as well as odor complaint data obtained through public records requests, show that people living in the area encounter the smells at dinner time; on their way to school; at work; on the playground; and during class.

Sometimes the stench comes and goes. But sometimes it persists for hours, or even several days. When it’s especially pungent, it can be stomach-churning. Community members also report getting headaches, as well as an itchy, burning sensation in their eyes and throats.

AQMD complaint reviewed by LAist.

(

Photo: Samanta Helou Hernandez

/

LAist

)

In interviews with LAist, affected residents often used phrases like “dead animal” or “rotting carcass” to describe these odors. Still, most of them have no idea where the stench comes from. Some local residents who’ve driven in Vernon past the now-shuttered Farmer John slaughterhouse, which is renowned for its pig murals, told LAist they’d always assumed the smell was coming from there.

“It wasn't just that there was a smell — we all live in cities [that] have smells — it's that it was a stench,” said Jackie Goldberg, Los Angeles Unified School District's school board president. She fielded complaints from teachers and parents at schools near Baker and joined other elected officials in a letter demanding that rendering plants take greater accountability for odors in January 2022.

The smell was so bad it made it impossible to get through the day’s lessons, she said. Students were putting their heads down, asking to go home.

“It impacts your body,” she added. “You feel it in your eyes, you feel it in your throat, you smell it, you get headaches, your eyes burn. It's not good for you, and it’s not good for kids in particular.”

The now shuttered Farmer John facility in Vernon where some residents assumed the smell was coming from.

(

Samanta Helou Hernandez

/

LAist

)

In the months leading up to AQMD’s shutdown action, former state Assemblymember Cristina Garcia wrote her own letter to the agency, detailing her experience teaching math at Huntington Park High School in the ‘90s and early 2000s.

“The smell is so strong, putrid, and nauseating that my students could not focus,” she wrote. “[A]nd now, 20 years later, it is insulting that we are still dealing with the same problem.”

Without working air conditioning in her classroom, Garcia had to choose between shutting the door and windows to keep the odors out, or letting the stench in to get some ventilation. “And the hotter it got, the worse that smell would get,” she told LAist. “It was a constant struggle.”

Baker's lawsuit was news to Garcia when she found out about it from LAist, but not a surprise. She said communities in Southeast L.A. have long been plagued by environmental justice issues and recalled that the now-shuttered Exide battery recycling plant spewed lead in the area for decades, then had its bankruptcy case settled in federal court.

Cristina Garcia, a former state assemblymember who represented parts of southeast L.A., photographed at Huntington Park High School where she once taught.

(

Samanta Helou Hernandez

/

LAist

)

“[Baker feels] that they could win and they could squeeze the agency on behalf of their bottom line, instead of on behalf of the public,” she said.

Dora Gómez and her two children have lived in the city of Vernon for eight years in an affordable housing complex built on land donated by the city. Gómez said the smells have been a persistent issue. When they occur, she shuts her windows and avoids going outdoors. She also bought an air purifier and has routinely purchased scented wax melts to ward off the stench.

Gómez had no idea four rendering plants circle her home in a 4-mile radius. She said she often thinks about leaving the area, but she pays less than $1,500 per month for a two-bedroom apartment and the rents in surrounding neighborhoods are not within her budget.

“It's not a great place to raise your kids,” said Gómez, who said she worries about health effects from Exide in addition to the smell problems. Her apartment building has been flagged by the state Department of Toxic Substances Control for soil remediation after contamination from the battery recycling plant. “They've already been exposed to lead for all these years, it just makes you think like, you know, what else is in the air?

Soil remediation work underway in a southeast L.A. residence.

(

Samanta Helou Hernandez

/

LAist

)

Maria Monares has lived in East Los Angeles, about 3 miles north of Baker’s pressers and grinders, for over three decades. Her children, who are now grown, attended Eastman Avenue Elementary School, just across the street from their home. Monares’ neighborhood has also been subject to rendering plant odors, a “horrible smell” that she compares to the stench of “death” and “burning bones.”

Aside from being unpleasant, the odors can be embarrassing, she said. Sometimes, the stench rolls in when she has company. Visitors will scrunch their faces in disgust and ask: ‘What is that?’

Over the years, Monares and her husband have lodged multiple complaints to AQMD. In some cases, the agency has sent inspectors out to her home. They’ve come, smelled what she’s smelling, asked questions, and taken notes. Then, the air quality got better. And when the odors returned, she and her husband got back on the phone.

“Us calling and bugging, hopefully it helps,” she said.

Maria Monares, a community member who has made complaints about the odor in her neighborhood.

(

Samanta Helou Hernandez

/

LAist

)

Businesses near Baker have also filed odor complaints with AQMD. Public records reviewed by LAist show that one company described a “horrible, putrid smell” that they said was coming from Baker. The “smell penetrates into our facility and many employees complain ... Some feel nauseous,” it added.

But pinpointing an odor’s source can be difficult.

“The biggest challenge is that all of [the rendering companies] are located in close proximity to each other,” said Mann, with AQMD. “That's part of the reason why our agency took the lead and created [the odor mitigation rule implemented in 2017],” he said, explaining that the agency now aims to proactively identify violations at rendering companies instead of waiting for complaints to come in before it takes action.

Nastri, AQMD’s executive officer, noted that, in recent years, there’s been an overall drop in odor complaints associated with rendering plants in the region. In 2021, he said, AQMD received nearly 400 complaints. As of Oct. 2, the agency reported 84 complaints so far this year.

Still, he added, “success would be the ultimate elimination of those complaints.”

Signs outside the former Exide facility.

(

Samanta Helou Hernandez

/

LAist

)

Rendering’s role in mitigating climate change

Agriculture industry experts agree that rendering plays an important role in reducing waste. Humans don’t eat every part of the animals they consume, so “a tremendous volume of unused animal meat gets left over from our livestock and our poultry operations,” said Christine Birdsong, undersecretary at the California Department of Food and Agriculture.

By repurposing animal remains — like using fats for biodiesel, instead of extracting carbon from fossil fuels — renderers across the country “reclaim the carbon” from 56 billion pounds of unused animal parts each year, Birdsong added. Renderers also minimize waste by transforming those remains into a myriad of “really valuable ingredients” used in everything down to the gelatin casings of medicine capsules, she said.

“I have never seen any other industry that is more involved in recycling,” said Frank Mitloehner, a professor and air quality specialist at UC Davis’ animal science department. “I mean, literally, nothing goes to waste.”

Mitloehner said rendering plants are especially significant when livestock farms experience mass die-offs, often due to the spread of disease or extreme heat. “You’re not allowed to compost [animals], you're not allowed to burn them. There's no other way of dealing with that,” he said.

“Thank God we have people to work in [rendering plants],” Mitloehner added. “Because if we didn’t, we would have a serious disposal issue.”

Some community members frustrated with rendering odors don’t dispute the importance of the recycling work that’s done at Baker.

Dilia Ortega grew up in Huntington Park and now lives in South Gate. She works as a youth program coordinator for Communities for A Better Environment, a nonprofit that’s advocated for clean air, soil, and water in California’s working-class neighborhoods since the late 1970s.

Ortega grew up smelling rendering odors. On her way to school, she’d instinctively cover her mouth and nose when her bus drove past Vernon. Today, her role at work puts her in contact with hundreds of students in Southeast L.A. Year after year, she told LAist, they identify dead animal smells as an ongoing issue in their neighborhoods.

Dilia Ortega, Youth Program Coordinator at Communities for a Better Environment, photographed near the now closed Exide plant. This is a stop in the "Toxic Tours" lead by Ortega and other members of Communities for a Better Environment.

(

Samanta Helou Hernandez

/

LAist

)

When AQMD was weighing whether to shut down Baker last fall, Ortega shared these insights during public comment at the three-day hearing. She underscored that she was not advocating for a permanent closure. She just wants the company to abide by the rules.

“We understand that they provide a necessary service,” she said. “But it cannot be done at the expense of our quality of life.”

Risks to public health 

Jill Johnston, associate professor of Population and Public Health Sciences at USC, noted that strong odors don’t just diminish local residents’ quality of life, they can also impact their health.

Rendering plant emissions can contain chemicals like hydrogen sulfide, which smells like rotten egg, as well as chemicals that contain sulfur dioxide, she said. Some of the symptoms community members have reported — including itchy eyes and runny nose — can be caused by these chemicals. Rendering plant emissions can also exacerbate asthma symptoms, making it harder for residents to breathe, and elevate their blood pressure, Johnston said. Chronic exposure to these odor producing chemicals can also affect their cardiovascular systems.

We shared our findings regarding Baker with Johnston, including what we learned through interviews with community members and our review of AQMD’s violation records.

She said they point to “the need for more stringent enforcement of the standards, to ensure that these violations don't persist.”

Johnston said the density of meat-related facilities in the region is also concerning and could pose a “potential cumulative burden” on nearby communities.

“Even if everyone individually is in compliance,” she explained, “when you’re exposed to so many, the health effects can be greatly amplified.”

Eleni Sazakli, a researcher at the University of Patras’ public health laboratory in Greece, specializes in studying the impact of rendering plants on local communities. She noted that odors can disrupt lives and social relationships. Even hanging laundry out to dry becomes an issue, because the wet cloth picks up the smell, she said.

AQMD odor complaint reviewed by LAist

(

Photo: Samanta Helou Hernandez

/

LAist

)

Odorous chemicals produced by rendering plants can also irritate the throat and nose and “produce headaches, nausea, fatigue and sleep disturbances,” Sazakli added. Some even have the potential to cause cancer.

Pointing to the role rendering plays in reducing waste, Sazakli nevertheless maintained that rendering is “an environmentally friendly industry” that should be sustained.

“But we have to follow very strict guidelines in their operation,” she added, and “adopt the best available technologies that we have in our hands.”

What’s next for Baker’s employees 

In its suit against AQMD, and on its company website, Baker warns that the shutdown could impact “about 200 people,” including “more than 100 union-represented employees.”

But when Baker asked AQMD’s hearing board for permission to resume its trap grease and wastewater treatment processes in April 2023, the company’s Jason Andreoli said no staff had been cut.

“[W]e haven’t even let go of any of our employees,” he said at the hearing. “These people are family. ”

Bertha Rodríguez, a spokesperson for United Food and Commercial Workers Local 770, confirmed that none of the 32 union members employed by Baker have lost their jobs.

Martin Perez, who works for Teamsters Local 63 and started a petition to reopen Baker, also told LAist that none of its members have been laid off. During the April hearing he said Baker had been good to its employees.

“Not only did they pay their wages, they paid their health and welfare [and] their pension contributions,” he said at the time.

The International Union of Operating Engineers Local 501, which also has union members who work at Baker, did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

LAist posed the question of jobs to Goldberg, Los Angeles Unified’s school board president, and four Southeast L.A. officials who all complained to AQMD about rendering odors. All agreed that jobs are important. All maintained that the plants need to be in compliance.

“We did not want [Baker] to close, because it employed many of the people that I represent,” Goldberg said, referring to her role on the school board. “But we did want them to run their business following the regulations that they're required to.”

“I would love to see it reopen,” she added, “but I don't want it to reopen if they're not going to be closely monitored and closely regulated.”

Rendering companies “need to adhere to the established regulations,” said South Gate mayor Maria del Pilar Avalos, who lives about 6 miles from Baker. When the rendering odors have been especially pungent, they’ve made her eyes burn. They’ve also caused her family members to forgo day-to-day activities, like walking their dog, she said.

Still, Avalos believes the rendering companies and local residents can coexist. “We need to see how we can utilize our 21st century technology to address those quality of life issues, so that it's a win-win for the companies as well as for our communities,” she said.

The City of Vernon Civic Center and police station.

(

Samanta Helou Hernandez

/

LAist

)

In Vernon, plans for a moratorium on rendering plants go nowhere

In response to community concerns, Vernon’s website says the city is considering steps to strengthen local control over rendering. These include plans to enact a moratorium on building new rendering plants, along with increased fines for facilities that are not in compliance with AQMD’s odor mitigation rule.

But Angela Kimmey, deputy city administrator, said the city won’t be enacting the moratorium. The other plans are in “various stages of development,” she said. Vernon aims to encourage business growth and demonstrate that rendering plants and local residents can coexist. To this end, Vernon hosted a tour of a rendering company that’s in compliance with AQMD last summer, inviting regional and southeast L.A. elected officials to come along.

Vernon is also focused on helping facilities come into compliance, Kimmey said.

Vernon Mayor Crystal Larios added in an emailed statement that the city wants “to support our business community,” but recognizes that it has to do its part to shift toward supporting greener commerce, like data centers, green hydrogen, and the electrification of transportation.

The Vernon Chamber of Commerce.

(

Samanta Helou Hernandez

/

LAist

)

“These types of green commerce will not only help existing businesses sustain future growth but heavily reduce the impact on air quality, minimize the number of trucks, and overall decrease the carbon footprint,” Larios said.

LAist requested an interview with Larios multiple times over a four-week period but received no response. Kimmey, who relayed the emailed statement, said the mayor was unavailable.

Hahn, the L.A. County supervisor whose district includes Vernon, told us she was disappointed to see that Baker hasn’t used available state funding to build enclosures that would contain the smells and protect community members from exposure.

Baker “doesn’t seem to think the rules should apply to them,” she said.

“We need the South Coast AQMD to be strong and hold companies accountable,” Hahn added. “I think it is important for residents in Southeast L.A. to know that, unfortunately, this fight isn’t over.”

Warner Bros. Discovery's blockbuster announcement Thursday that it would accept Paramount Skydance's takeover bid shouldn't be thought of simply as seeking to unify two major Hollywood players, two big streaming platforms and two leading TV news divisions under one roof.

It is certainly that. The nearly $111 billion Paramount-Warner marriage would unite their studios — and their back catalogue of shows and movies. It would add such franchises as D.C. Comics, Harry Potter and Game of Thrones to Paramount's Top Gun, Mission Impossible and Star Trek powerhouse. Paramount+ and HBO Max. CBS and CNN.

But there's more to it.

Paramount Skydance Chairman and CEO David Ellison is relying largely on the financial backing of his father, Larry Ellison — the co-founder of software giant Oracle, the lead investor in TikTok US, and one of the richest people on the planet.

The Ellisons have staged what appears to be a lightning-swift ascent through social and legacy media relying heavily on their connection to the Oval Office.

Should the Ellisons receive a green light from regulators to proceed with the deal, the minnow will have swallowed the whale. Warner currently has more than five times the market value of Paramount.

That's on top of acquiring Paramount itself and a major stake in TikTok US — all in less than a year. And that's in addition to Oracle, which runs much of the digital backbone of the nation's commerce and government.

Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison, right, sits next to media mogul Rupert Murdoch as they listen to President Donald Trump speak in the Oval Office.

(

Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images

/

Getty Images North America

)

"It's tech giants becoming media giants," argues Jon Klein, a former top executive at CNN and CBS News.

But history shows such mega-mergers often end in tears. The movie business is expensive. Cable television is highly profitable but in steep decline as viewers cut the cord. The combined company will be saddled with debt. So why would the Ellisons spend their billions this way?

David Ellison has sought to be a force in Hollywood for years. He helped to produce movies with Tom Cruise at his family's company Skydance Media. But for his father, Larry Ellison, it's about more than just making his son's very expensive dreams come true.

"Beyond any dollars that they can derive — it's the data about consumer habits, down to the specific identity," Klein says.

He says the push into artificial intelligence by Oracle creates a thirst for more insight into how people view news and entertainment and what products they buy online. The streaming channels and social media giant both offer greater and more granular information.

"That's the prism that you've got to look at this Paramount/WBD deal through," says Klein, co-founder of HANG Media, a Gen Z social video engagement platform. "Oracle... wants to be one of the major players in AI. That's what Oracle wants to get out of media."

The deal still hinges on acceptance from antitrust regulators in Washington and Europe, who can seek to block the transaction. California's attorney general made clear Thursday night he would also give the acquisition tough scrutiny.

"If a merger substantially reduces competition in any market, it's illegal. Courts sort of take that literally," says University of Chicago law professor Eric Posner, who held a senior antitrust position in the U.S. Justice Department under former President Joe Biden.

"But in practice, the Justice Department has discretion on whether to challenge these mergers," Posner tells NPR. "And the courts have discretion on whether to block them."

Friendly ties to Trump

President Donald Trump's Justice Department is a wild card. Last year, the department's then antitrust chief, Gail Slater, took an aggressive stance against Google in court. Last month, the Justice Department sued to block Hewlett Packard Enterprise's $14 billion acquisition of a wireless tech competitor. Slater resigned under duress this month, however.

The Federal Communications Commission is unlikely to intervene, as no broadcast licenses would change hands in the Paramount takeover of Warner. But its chair, Brendan Carr, may well advise the Justice Department and he has lauded David Ellison's moves at CBS.

Even before sweetening its offer this week, Paramount proclaimed its "confidence in the speed and certainty of regulatory approval for its transaction."

Publicly, it argues that such consolidation is needed to take on streaming giants, very much including Netflix but also Amazon Prime, Apple, Disney and YouTube.

Behind the scenes — and sometimes in not-so-hidden ways — the Ellisons have become cozy with President Trump. Larry Ellison is a backer and adviser.

On Tuesday night, David Ellison attended Trump's State of the Union address as a guest of the president's ally, Senator Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican. Graham tweeted out a photo of the two men making Trump's signature "thumbs-up" gesture ahead of the speech.

The president cares deeply about TV news. He has publicly said he wants new owners for CNN — which he has blasted repeatedly as "fake news" — and has proven willing to interfere in corporate matters in his return to the White House.

Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos departs the White House on Wednesday. Sarandos was there to discuss Netflix's bid for Warner Bros. just hours before Warner announced its preference for Paramount.

(

Andrew Leyden/Getty Images

/

Getty Images North America

)

Netflix chief Ted Sarandos met Thursday with administration officials at the White House — though notably not with Trump, according to an aide — in a last-gasp effort to salvage his company's competing bid. By the end of the night, Netflix had given up the fight.

The shadow cast over the process by the president has inspired sharp criticism of the path that Paramount and the Ellisons took to land the Warner deal.

"A handful of Trump-aligned billionaires are trying to seize control of what you watch and charge you whatever price they want," Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts said in a statement. "With the cloud of corruption looming over Trump's Department of Justice, it'll be up to the American people to speak up and state attorneys general to enforce the law."

"It is not just the seemingly open corruption of this entire process that leaves me shaken," writes Jeffrey Blehar in the conservative National Review. "I am shaken by how little people will care."

Said Seth Stern, head of the Freedom of the Press Foundation, "Ellison will readily throw the First Amendment, CNN's reporters and HBO's filmmakers under the bus if they stand in the way of expanding his corporate empire and fattening his pockets."

CNN's future hangs in the balance

The Ellisons' acquisition of Paramount followed a similar path.

Last summer, the previous owners of Paramount announced the end of late night host Stephen Colbert's CBS show as they sought federal approval to sell the company to David Ellison.

While they cited economics, Colbert's was the top-rated late night show on network television — and he has been a lacerating satirist of the president. Colbert called the cancellation a "big fat bribe."

Ellison subsequently made additional pledges to the FCC's Carr to win support. Among them: he promised the cessation of diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives throughout Paramount and the addition of an ombudsman to field complaints of ideological bias. He named the former head of a conservative think tank to that role.

Carr blessed the sale. He has since praised the shifts made at CBS News.

The question of what happens to CNN hovers prominently over the Warner sale. The network has undergone rounds of cuts under a series of owners seeking to reduce debt; Paramount would be its fourth corporate parent in under a decade.

Other elements are in play as well.

CBS's new editor in chief is Bari Weiss, founder of the center-right opinion and news site The Free Press. Ellison bought the site and added it to Paramount's portfolio.

Bari Weiss, CBS News' editor in chief, interviews conservative activist Erika Kirk in a CBS town hall event in December.

(

CBS Photo Archive/CBS via Getty Images

/

CBS

)

Weiss has contended CBS and much of the rest of the media has been too reflexively hostile to conservatives and the president, and she's sought to revamp the newsroom.

CNN's Anderson Cooper, who has also served as a correspondent for CBS's 60 Minutes for two decades, recently announced that he would leave the show, citing the desire to spend time with his small children. Associates, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to disclose internal network matters, say he was concerned about the approach that Weiss has taken at CBS.

She is considered likely to have a role over CNN as well, should the deal go through.

CNN CEO Mark Thompson urged colleagues to focus on their news coverage. "Despite all the speculation you've read during this process, I'd suggest that you don't jump to conclusions about the future until we know more," he wrote in a memo Thursday.

Perceived value beyond the bottom line

The deal David Ellison struck for Warner is valued at nearly $111 billion. The new company would carry substantial debts and have Saudi and Emirate backing. The profits are currently relatively modest.

Yet Klein contends larger motives are in play. Just look at Google, he says, which owns what many consider the dominant media company, YouTube.

"They want to know what you watch, and where you come from, and what you buy when you watch, and where you go after you buy, and what you post in the comments and what you like and love and all that," Klein says.

"And if you can combine that with your streaming content and your studio decisions and your marketing for all the content product you're creating," he adds, "you're in a very very powerful position."

Copyright 2026 NPR

This story first appeared on The LA Local.

The Serving Spoon has been an Inglewood cornerstone for four decades, dishing up grilled corn bread and fried turkey chops. 

Now, though, the whole country is in on the secret. 

The breakfast and lunch spot on Centinela Avenue was announced Wednesday by the James Beard Foundation as one of six winners of the America’s Classics Award, an honor the foundation says goes to “timeless” local institutions. The foundation is also responsible for the James Beard Award, one of the nation’s top culinary honors. 

The Serving Spoon joins a pantheon of other L.A.-area eateries to win the classics award including Guelaguetza, Langer’s Deli and Philippe the Original. 

Jessica Bane, part of the third generation to run the family-owned restaurant, said the honor is still sinking in, but that it validates decades of work. “It’s being done out of love,” Bane said.

The Serving Spoon has been an Inglewood cornerstone for four decades, dishing up grilled corn bread and fried turkey chops.

(

Isaiah Murtaugh

/

The LA Local

)

The award announcement hailed The Serving Spoon as an “anchor” of L.A.’s Black community, run by staff who genuinely care for their customers.“The restaurant is cherished for its joyful hospitality and as a place where all can gather and feel at home,” the announcement read. 

The Serving Spoon didn’t exactly need Beard recognition — the diner is often packed and already has  pedigree as Snoop Dogg and Raphael Saadiq’s breakfast spot of choice in the 2000 Lucy Pearl song “You” — but Bane said the award takes the diner’s reputation national.“The recognition is beyond appreciated,” Bane said. 

The Serving Spoon was founded in 1983 by Bane’s grandfather, Harold E. Sparks. He passed the restaurant down to Bane and her brother, Justin Johnson, through their parents. 

The menu looks much the same as it did four decades ago, Bane said, though some of the dishes have been renamed for regulars. 

During the Thursday lunch rush a day after the announcement, The Serving Spoon’s vinyl booths were packed, as usual. Bane oversaw the dining room while Johnson marshaled plates of fried catfish through the kitchen. 

Tina and Kevin Jenkins waited for a table outside. The L.A. natives each have been coming to The Serving Spoon since childhood. They live in Lancaster now, but make sure to come back to the diner whenever they’re in town. 

“It’s the atmosphere, our people, our music,” Tina Jenkins said.

Despite taxes on imports at levels not seen in a century, Long Beach’s seaport had a good year in 2025. And a decent January.

Port officials said Wednesday they started the new year by leading the nation in trade, responsible for moving more than 847,000 shipping containers in January — 51% of the total cargo at the San Pedro Bay Complex, which it shares with neighboring Port of Los Angeles.

In a call with reporters, Port CEO Noel Hacegaba said that despite a “fair share of doom and gloom” at the time, the seaport finished 2025 as its busiest year on record.

This comes days after President Donald Trump signed new, across-the-board tariffs on U.S. trading partners, and later added he would raise the tariffs to 15%. It’s a direct response to a recent Supreme Court decision that found his tariffs announced last April were unconstitutional.

The new tariffs would operate under a law that restricts them to 150 days, unless approved by Congress.

Asked to measure how much this will affect the seaport, traders, logistics companies and consumers, Hacegaba reiterated a word he has evoked heavily in the past 10 months: uncertainty.

“Our strong cargo volumes do not suggest we are not being affected by tariffs,” Hacegaba said, adding the Port saw a 13% decline in imports driven by major reductions in iron, steel, synthetic fibers, salt, sulfur and cement.

Economists are somewhat more confident, saying it would take nothing short of a national economic crisis to reverse the seaport’s fortunes. “Even if the market is affected, our standing at the Port of Long Beach, even compared to other ports, is strong,” said Laura Gonzalez, an economics professor at Cal State Long Beach.

But experts caution that the ruling will heap the most damage on businesses, especially smaller enterprises, as well as the average consumer who already bore the tariff’s costs last year.

Noel Hacegaba, CEO of the Port of Long Beach, held his first State of the Port in Long Beach on Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026.

(

Thomas R. Cordova

/

Long Beach Post

)

Tariffs added $1,700 in costs to the average U.S. household, as importers raised prices to offset higher import taxes — especially on clothes, shoes and electronics from China and other Southeast Asian nations.

Consumers, Gonzalez said, should budget over the next six months “for essentials.”

Priyaranjan Jha, an economics professor at UC Irvine, said historically trade policies since 2018 have shown that for every dollar of duty imposed, consumer prices rose by about 90 cents.

Even if tariffs are reduced or reversed, and pressure is relieved on importers, consumers shouldn’t expect lower sticker prices right away, he said. “Firms do not always reduce prices as quickly as they raise them, especially if contracts or inventories are involved.”

Richer San, a former banker and business owner in Long Beach, said he’s in regular talks with shops across the city’s historic Cambodia Town that have been crushed by the increased prices of imported ingredients.

“Most of these are family-owned businesses operating on very small profit margins,” he said, adding there is little to no margin to “absorb higher costs.”

Many companies managed to avoid price increases last year in part by stockpiling inventory in the first half of the year to be sold through Christmas and the start of the year. As stock dwindles, many businesses might be less willing to eat the cost of a new set of tariffs.

Marc Sullivan, president of Long Beach-based Global Trade and Customs, said his logistics company saw a brief boom last year in ordered goods, mostly medical equipment and pharmaceuticals.

But by June, orders dropped 35%, a trend that continues today. It’s forced him to freeze any new hiring in the past year and at least through the next six months as he waits for federal officials to settle on tariffs that will determine the cost of shipped goods.

“For the companies that I work with that are importing into the state here, it’s just ‘hold on and let’s see what happens,’” he said.

“I’d like to hire a salesperson to go out and chase new business, … but it’s just a bleak outlook,” he added.

In the interim, he’s received a steady flow of calls (that started “within minutes” of the ruling) from importers looking to claim refunds or recoup their tariff expenses. The U.S. Treasury had collected more than $140 billion from tariffs enacted under emergency powers, and the Supreme Court left the decision of how to appropriate the refund proceedings to lower courts.

His response: They might be stuck waiting for a while. “Customs doesn’t pay anything back quickly,” he said. “It could be a year before you ever see anything back to you.”

Sullivan said he knows of companies that spent upwards of $20,000 per shipment for months.

“They’re going to want that money to be able to reinvest it,” Sullivan said.

But some experts say that consumers, as well as small businesses, deserve a share of refunds.

“The importer may receive a refund even though consumers bore much of the cost,” Jha said. “Courts generally refund the statutory payer, not downstream buyers, but that opens the possibility of follow-on litigation. Small businesses that directly imported goods and paid tariffs should qualify for refunds.”

Topline:

A long turtle lineage: Dubbed “Porkchop” by aquarium staff due to her hefty appetite, the young female green sea turtle represents one of seven sea turtle species worldwide (six of which occur in U.S. waters). These animals have called our oceans home since at least the time of the dinosaurs — about 110 million years ago, according to NOAA. All species of sea turtles found in the U.S. are listed as either endangered or threatened and are protected by the Endangered Species Act.

Porkchop’s healing journey: Aquarium vets had to amputate Porkchop’s right front flipper after tangled fishing lines severely cut off her blood flow. She also had a fishing hook removed from her throat. First rescued after being spotted in the San Gabriel River by volunteers with the aquarium’s sea turtle monitoring program last March, her healing journey took nearly a year. She now swims and eats as well as her four-flippered kin and after a final physical exam, blood sample and X-ray, vets determined she was ready to return to her wild roots. She also now has a microchip, so if she ends up stranded again, scientists will know it’s her.

An ambassador for conservation: Porkchop became the aquarium’s first public-facing ambassador for its expanded green sea turtle rescue efforts. A new holding tank, viewable by the public, doubles the aquarium’s capacity to rescue green sea turtles and provides firsthand education about their conservation efforts. The aquarium is currently caring for another larger and older female green sea turtle — she weighs more than 200 pounds — rescued from the San Gabriel River in January. She’ll be in the public viewing tank in the coming months when she’s recovered a bit more.

How to help local green sea turtles: Green sea turtle populations are actually doing quite well in the San Gabriel River, but trash, debris and pollution remains a big threat. If you fish the San Gabriel River, never litter fishing lines or hooks. If you see a stranded sea turtle in the San Gabriel River or elsewhere, call the West Coast Marine Mammal and Sea Turtle Stranding Network’s hotline at (562) 506-4315. You can also donate to the aquarium’s rescue program.