The Brief

It’s finally feeling like Fall in Southern California, but we just sweated through the hottest summer on record. The recent hotter, longer heat waves caused power outages across the region.

But some people avoided them — and even helped prevent more widespread outages across the power grid.

In a place of relatively frequent power outages: A power island

Joe and Teresa Tortomasi were one of those households whose power never went off during an extended extreme heat wave in early September. They live in Sierra Madre, a small city nestled against the foothills of the San Gabriel mountains.

“We're in what they call the Upper Canyon,” Joe told me when I visited them at their quaint, light blue painted home with white shutters. “This is very un-L.A. No offense to L.A., it's just very rural.”

“He's saying that because we live right next to the mountains, so as we sit here outside, we feel like we're in the mountains,” added his wife Teresa. “And every time people visit us from anywhere in the L.A. area, they say ‘is this L.A.?’”

Joe and Teresa Tortomasi outside their home in Sierra Madre. Solar panels that connect to a battery are on their roof.

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The house is in a neighborhood full of whimsical cabins along winding canyon roads. Bobcats, coyotes, bears and other critters are frequent visitors.

The retired teachers have lived here for nearly 40 years. This area has long had relatively frequent power outages because of where it’s located on the broader grid — when circuit breakers or distribution lines are overloaded, there aren’t options for Southern California Edison (SCE) to reroute power here through other lines. Basically, the canyon is at the end of the line.

While doing their part to cut pollution was a big factor in the Tortomasis' decision to install solar panels and battery storage, the power outages plus rising energy costs were also major reasons.

“We tend to have blackouts up in the canyon and we were just getting tired of it,” said Joe.

In their years living here, despite the work SCE has done to fortify the lines serving the canyon, the Tortomasis said power outages have gotten more frequent.

“Mostly because of the warming temperatures,” Teresa said. “30 years ago, it wasn't like this. We can really see the difference and the climate change. When we had that excruciating weather a couple of weeks ago, we were the only ones in our little corner of the canyon [who] still had power.”

That’s because they now have solar panels and a battery. In early September, temperatures here reached as high as 110 degrees and much of the canyon lost power for hours.

“All our neighbors always check with each other, so we were getting texts saying, 'do you have power? Do you have power?’ And we just told everybody, ‘If you need anything, just come over here, because we have power,’” Teresa said.

Teresa and Joe Tortomasi stand beside their 13 kilowatt hour battery, which stores energy from their solar panels to support their whole home, and can also offload excess power to the broader power grid.

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More energy use, lower bills

This summer was also the first time the Tortomasis can remember having to keep their air conditioning going at night.

“We had no cool air at night — our night time was still 85 degrees outside, and it was the first time in our almost 40 years here that we actually did not open our windows at night,” said Teresa.

Rising nighttime temperatures are one of the clearest fingerprints of how fossil fuel pollution is changing our climate. To be able to sleep, they turned on the A/C, using power from their battery, which stored energy that their solar panels had absorbed during the day.

The Tortomasis have a smartphone app to monitor their solar panels and battery storage.

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Even though the Tortomasis had to use more electricity, that increased use didn't further strain the power grid we all rely on because they were using power from their battery.

And instead of their costs going up because they have to use more energy due to hotter days and nights, the Tortomasis' electricity bill is in the negatives.

They had to dig into their savings to pay for the solar and battery — as well as install a new roof for the panels and upgrade their electric panel — but they’re now saving money because of the excess power they sell back to the grid.

“We're really making our money back," Joe said. "I mean, we don't have to pay any electric bills."

Plus, living in a high-risk fire area, they don't have to worry about SCE shutting off their power to prevent fires during high-risk weather.

“We feel safer,” said Joe.

“I don't have that stress of always being worried that the power might go out,” said Teresa.

Policy changes have slowed solar-plus-battery market

The Tortomasis have essentially negative electric bills because they got their solar panels before cuts to state rooftop solar incentives went into effect last year.

Under the new rules, the state cut how much solar users get paid back for the excess energy they generate. Instead, people who install solar and battery storage will get a better deal when they sell excess energy from their batteries during high-demand times of the evening.

The white Tesla box is the battery gateway, which orchestrates the home's energy sources and loads, including automatically switching to offload power to the grid during critical times.

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In the decision, which only applies to investor-owned utilities, the California Public Utilities Commission argued the previous incentives for rooftop solar were leading to higher costs for people without solar — a claim that solar advocates and some economic models refute — and that it was time to instead incentivize solar-plus-battery storage.

That’s because we now have more solar power during the day than we can use, so we need to be able to store more of that power for when the sun goes down.

But batteries are still really expensive. Vic Aguilar, who installed the Tortomasis' system, said the cost for a solar-plus-battery system ranges from about $15,000 to more than $120,000.

Vic Aguilar has been in the solar business for 18 years.

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“The upfront capital expenditure with the new rules is significantly greater because it involves the batteries,” Aguilar said. “The batteries generally double the cost of an average project.”

And, under the new rules, the timeline for breaking even on that investment is now eight to 12 years, instead of six to eight years.

Solar panels on a home in Ladera Heights, a community southeast of Los Angeles.

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Aguilar — better known as Solar Vic by Sierra Madre locals — has been in the business for 18 years and owns the company Sustainergy Advisors. While his clients in new housing developments and large households have grown, Aguilar said he’s seen a big decline in his middle and lower-income customers since the new state rules went into effect last April.

“There’s still a compelling economic argument that can be made, especially with the larger households — they use so much energy that even under [the new rules] they’re saving ginormous amounts of money,” Aguilar said.

Industry decline outpaces growth of battery installs

Since the new rules went into effect last year, the solar market has dropped 60% and about 17,000 solar jobs have been cut, said Bernadette Del Chiaro, director of solar industry trade group California Solar and Storage Association.

Ken Wells founded O&M Solar Services, a small residential solar company in South Los Angeles.

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“More people that are going solar today are adding a battery, which is good, but the overall decline in the market does not make up for the growth in storage,” said Del Chiaro. “So we've actually set ourselves back with energy storage, contrary to what the policymakers say their intentions were.”

Del Chiaro said fewer people are now installing solar, let alone batteries too. That's hurt local businesses.

Ken Wells founded South L.A.-based O&M Solar Services in 2018, and had both solar and solar-plus-storage clients. But after the new rules went into effect he had to close his business and lay off his 30 employees.

“There was just this huge drop and I went from doing 20 to 30 projects a month to just seven or one a week,” Wells said. “I was already facing barriers financing my company and getting the capital to scale, so most of what I was doing was bootstrapping. I was taking my money and putting it right back into my business.”

“So when this happened,” Wells added. “I was unable to sustain any longer and I unfortunately had to close my doors, let all my guys go.”

Wells said he’s working to build back his company, but has since shifted into consulting.

Ken Wells walks outside a home with solar panels in Ladera Heights.

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Why more "distributed energy" matters for the whole power grid

Many solar advocates say the change in policy hurts the grid overall.

Rooftop solar-plus-battery storage systems — called "distributed energy" — have already helped the grid avoid widespread blackouts despite recent summers being the hottest in more than 150 years.

The Tortomasis, for example, are part of what’s called a virtual power plant. It’s made up of their home, along with nearly 3,000 other homes that also have solar and batteries.

The app connected to the Tortomasis solar and storage system also shows the virtual power plant they're part of with other Southern California Edison customers.

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“You're aggregating them into a fleet so they can all work in concert, like a flock of birds, on demand,” Aguilar explained.

Southern California Edison can pull energy from this residential battery fleet to support the grid when it’s most strained, particularly during hot summer evenings.

That not only helps the utility avoid widespread power outages, but it also reduces the need to power up highly polluting backup generators when extreme, prolonged heat risks brownouts or blackouts.

Joe Tortomasi looks at the 13 kilowatt hour battery that is installed on his home in Sierra Madre.

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In 2022, that’s exactly what happened: The state’s grid operator sent out flex alerts — those urgent texts to conserve energy — after a gas-fired peaker power plant generator unexpectedly went offline. To avoid massive blackouts, the state pulled energy from batteries attached to homes, schools and businesses across the state.

“If you take these millions of small systems — they're all highly coordinated, highly technical systems that we're putting up in our garages — they can act like a coordinated power plant and turn on a dime to provide value to the state,” Del Chiaro said.

How much distributed energy storage does the state have?

Currently, the state has more than 2,000 megawatts of distributed battery storage on homes, schools, businesses and government buildings, according to the California Public Utilities Commission. That's about as much energy generated by two typical nuclear reactors.

More than half of that battery storage is from homes with solar and batteries, and most of it is coming from L.A. County.

Batteries played a huge role in the grid’s resilience this past summer: Despite it being the hottest summer on record, we didn't experience flex alerts or major rolling blackouts.

“This last summer they were a big part of our resiliency,” said Aguilar. “They really were what saved the grid. And not just on the big utility scale where there are container fields of these giant batteries. A lot of it is happening on a distributed basis.”

A map of where distributed battery storage is across the state. The majority is in Southern California.

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And it’s all automated. The Tortomasis don’t have to do anything — they just know where their power’s going via a smartphone app.

“People say, ‘oh the technology is not ready yet,’ Aguilar said. “And they have no idea the robustness, the incredibleness of what we have right now. The renewable revolution is just in time. We are at the stage to implement, implement, implement.”

A graph showing how California's distributed battery storage has increased over time. Most of the growth is in the residential sector.

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Most of the distributed battery storage in California is on people's homes.

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Tips if you're considering solar-plus-battery storage

Solar panels are made to last at least 25 years, so you want to make sure you’re making a good investment.

Here are some tips from installer Vic Aguilar of Sustainergy Advisors:

• Talk to friends and neighbors who have solar about what they wish they’d known and their experience
• Talk to at least two or three installers before choosing one
• Have your roof checked out before going all in because you may need to re-roof
• Consider your total electric use and future use — you will likely need to upgrade your electric panel (a contractor can help with this)
• Find a contractor who knows the rules for the specific electric utility you pay your bills to, as well as the financial incentives available for the install
  
  • On that note, also do your own research on the rules for solar and storage from your electricity provider. For example, Pasadena Water and Power has different rules from Southern California Edison.
  • Check out our guide on financial incentives for going electric
• Consider if you want your whole home to be backed up, or just critical functions
• Consider your main reasons for going solar because no single system can do it all: do you want to save on bills? Do you want to maximize resiliency? Do you want to eliminate your carbon pollution? 
• Consider a contractor who values ethical and sustainable sourcing of panels and batteries 

Additional resources:

• Find a certified contractor here 
• Find financial incentives here
• Find trusted financing options here 

This story first appeared on The LA Local.

Inglewood police officers could soon be outfitted with body-worn cameras.

The Inglewood City Council will vote Tuesday on a $6.3 million purchase from police tech company Axon to kit out the city’s police department with body cameras as well as drones, Tasers and 98 stationary Automated License Plate Recognition devices, known commonly as ALPRs. 

Activists have been calling for Inglewood police to wear body cameras since Bryan Bostic’s unexplained death in police custody March 10. Video of the incident captured by a bystander shows police pinning Bostic to the ground. Investigations by the offices of the L.A. County District Attorney into the police use of force and L.A. County Medical Examiner into Bostic’s cause of death are ongoing. 

The city says it has been researching the tech additions, including the body cameras, since last August, and the police department began chasing grants for body-worn cameras and drones in January. 

The L.A. Police Department began widely using body cameras in 2015, followed by the L.A. County Sheriff’s Department in 2020. 

Activist Najee Ali, who has helped coordinate recent demonstrations calling for Inglewood officers to wear body cameras, said the devices would be a game-changer.

“We are optimistic this is going to happen,” Ali said. “Certainly this is long overdue.” 

Ali said activists had been planning to put forward a city ballot initiative to mandate police body cameras. He remains concerned about how the city will set police body camera policy. 

City staff wrote in meeting documents that the new tech would enhance the department’s capacity ahead of a string of mega-events — including this summer’s FIFA World Cup, the 2027 Super Bowl and the 2028 Olympics. 

The city has not yet finalized contract terms with Axon. Councilmembers could vote Tuesday to authorize city staff to wrap up negotiations and execute a final agreement. 

The city estimated Inglewood could pay an average of $1.3 million annually over the life of a five-year agreement with Axon, which would provide software platforms along with the new equipment. 

Here’s the tech that comes in the package

The package would include body cameras as well as new Tasers, meeting documents indicate. The Inglewood Police Department has 186 sworn officers, according to the city website. 

Twenty-five vehicles would be outfitted with Fleet 3 video cameras that can automatically read and look up vehicle license plates. The ALPR tech will also be rolled out via 98 stationary cameras affixed to light posts and mounted in other locations.

Stationary ALPRs scan license plates and log a vehicle’s location at a given time. Police tout their ability to rapidly locate stolen vehicles or fleeing suspects. Critics say they lack oversight and that their data can be too broadly shared, including with federal immigration agents.

The devices Inglewood is purchasing also have livestream video capability, according to Axon’s website. 

The city will also get a total of seven camera drones, including the Skydio 10 and its indoor-focused cousin, the Skydio R10. 

How to make your voice heard

The Inglewood City Council meets at 2 p.m. Tuesday in Inglewood City Hall, 1 W. Manchester Blvd. Members of the public will have an opportunity to comment on the proposed purchase ahead of the city council’s vote.  

Limited seating is available in council chambers. Members of the public have been directed to watch proceedings and deliver public comment from an overflow room during some recent meetings.

If people can’t make the meeting, they may submit written comments to the city clerk at athompson@cityofinglewood.org, or to the deputy city clerk at dwesley@cityofinglewood.org.

Comments must be submitted by 8 a.m. Tuesday in order to be distributed to councilmembers ahead of the meeting. 

Full meeting documents are available at cityofinglewood.org.

Staff with The Plant Chica were busy the day before the event receiving, labeling and preparing indoor plants at the open-air shop in Leimert Park. The company’s co-founder, Sandra Mejia, said everyone should have a plant in their home.

“Plants aren't necessarily something that people are going out of their way to buy,” she said.

And many people who’ve come to her adopt-a-plant events have never had plants in their homes and, therefore, have not experienced what it’s like to take care of a plant and see it grow.

“If we're giving them out for free, then people come and they take them, and then now they're plant people,” which means, she said, that some become advocates for more plants indoors and outdoors as well as public green space.

The giveaways have grown

Mejia’s first plant giveaway started in her home, she said, in 2018. It was an effort to clear out the less popular plants. It didn’t go so well, but after she moved it to her shop, which has been in several locations around South L.A., near where she was raised by Salvadoran parents, the plant giveaway has grown.

Her family first instilled a love of plants, and she keeps them involved.

“My dad is at home right now, printing the information sheet for the plant so people know how to take care of the plants, and he's cutting them for me,” Mejia said.

Some of the plants are donated by local greenhouses and the rest are paid for, about $2,500 she said, out of her business’ marketing budget.

Staff at The Plant Chica, Philip Bucknor and Odessey Osteen-Diluca

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What kind of plants are we talking about

The giveaway includes philodendrons, like pink princess, which are good starter plants because they’re low maintenance, tradescantia plants, which have green and purple leaves, as well as prayer plants, whose scientific name is maranta leuconeura. These get their nickname from the opening of their leaves during the day and closing at night, like hands in prayer.

“Everybody deserves a plant that's cleaning the oxygen around them. Everybody should have some sort of thumb in the green somewhere,” said Philip Bucknor, who started out as DJ at events for The Plant Chica and began working for the shop last year with the unofficial title of “vibe curator.”

That includes helping people through a feeling he hears a lot — “I don’t want to kill the plant.”

“My thing is helping people understand the right plant for them and not overthinking these tasks of taking care of a plant,” he said.

That means, he said, don’t overdo watering, be chill and feel your plant’s vibe.

He’s set to do that with people who come to the plant giveaway Saturday.

As the story goes, it started with eight women in India.

A small group of runners in bright flowing saris darted through the streets of Bangalore to show that fitness doesn’t have to be about running gear and race culture but can look like anything you want it to.

Ten years and thousands of participants later, the Saree Run is crossing the ocean.

The U.S. edition of the Saree Run debuts Sunday in Huntington Beach Central Park East, where 5K runners and walkers are encouraged to drape themselves in saris in a celebration of health and culture.

The U.S. edition is the brainchild of L.A.-based Indian American event organizer Aanal Patel. She discovered the Saree Run through an Instagram video, one of many online, sent by a friend urging her to bring it to the U.S.

“I thought it was really, really cool,” Patel, 35, said. “But I was like, I don't know if people in the States would be interested in this because mainly here we wear saris for special occasions like weddings and receptions."

In contrast to India where the sari is part of everyday wear for many women, the sari is worn in the U.S. more for special occasions like weddings.

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By contrast, saris are part of everyday dress for many women in India. But the idea stuck with Patel, who’d run plenty of races herself. She’s also spent years organizing events for the South Asian diaspora like Bollywood trivia games and singles mixers.

The Saree Run, she reasoned, could be another place for the diaspora to connect and spotlight urgent issues. Like how South Asians face higher rates of heart disease, diabetes and other chronic conditions. And how many women, she said, don't prioritize their health.

“We are consistently putting other people in front of our own health – our husbands, our children, our community, our households,” Patel said.

Another driving force for Patel — and a point of departure from the event’s origins in India — is the lack of South Asian visibility in fitness and wellness branding in the U.S.

“India is the birthplace of yoga. We're also the birthplace of Ayurveda, and you still don't see us represented in those spaces,” Patel said. “I wanted to bring representation into that space.”

Where it began

Before Patel moved forward with putting on a Saree Run, she sought the blessing of the event’s founder Pramod Deshpande.

A Bangalore-based tech consultant specializing in A.I., Deshpande is also a former competitive runner and long-time running coach focused on getting Indians to move more.

The 63-year-old “Coach Pramod,” as his runners call him, came up with the Saree Run after noticing how in India women rise to top roles in government and boardrooms but are noticeably missing from the fitness world.

When he and his trainees ran through neighborhoods, women would stare at them “like we are somebody from another world.”

“Then we realized that these ladies are really interested in doing this, but are held back because of other social pressures and family responsibilities,” Deshpande said.

Safety concerns about running alone as a woman is also a big issue. The Saree Run offers strength in numbers as well as a sense of ease. Running in saris – about six yards of fabric which can be draped to fit every body type – takes the pressure off the women to feel that they have to look like models in fitness ads, Deshpande said.

The Saree Run has held nine editions in six cities across India since 2016.

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Saree Run participants who kept at it typically shed their saris for lighter running gear like Deshpande’s own mother-in-law. She started running at 78 and now at 82 recently completed a half-marathon in pants and a T-shirt.

Stories like hers have helped fuel the Saree Run’s growth. Since 2016, the Saree Run has held nine editions across six cities with tens of thousands joining so far.

At the most recent event in Pune, more than 5,000 women turned out, Deshpande said.

A call from abroad

When Patel reached out to Deshpande about bringing the concept to the U.S., he was surprised – and impressed.

“I thought, this girl has some guts,” he said, noting it took years for the Saree Run to gain traction in India.

Patel, who moved to L.A. a year and a half ago from Denver, has gamely taken on challenges of organizing a run for the first time with a small team of volunteers.

She scouted a dozen parks across L.A. and Orange counties before settling on Huntington Beach's Central Park East because it could accommodate both the run and a full day of free programming.

Aside from the 5K, there will be yoga sessions, dance classes, wellness workshops and a speaker series.

Tickets to participate in the run will be $50 a person and includes a swag bag. After expenses, proceeds will go to the Artesia-based nonprofit South Asian Helpline And Referral Agency for abuse survivors.

Run participants are strongly encouraged – but not required – to wear South Asian cultural attire which could also include a dupatta, a traditional scarf, or a kurti, a long tunic.

“Because our goal is to break the stigma,” Patel said. “Our goal is fitness without inhibitions.”

Most, though, will come in saris. Given that there are over 300 draping styles, what will Patel choose?

She’s opting for the dhoti style, which "does allow a separation between the legs for movement."

Interest has already come from other cities like Austin, Denver and Chicago with people online asking when the event might come their way.

Deshpande is also looking ahead. From India, he’s hoping to assist Patel with growing the U.S. version by tapping into diaspora networks.

“I'm here to help Aanal make it big,” Deshpande said.

With fewer than six weeks to go before the June election, candidates running for City of L.A. and Los Angeles Unified School District offices have raised a combined $19 million, according to records from the L.A. City Ethics Commission.

Campaigns for mayor, District 11 City Council member and city attorney have emerged as the most funded races.

Here’s how they stack up:

L.A. mayor

Mayoral candidates Karen Bass and Adam Miller are leading all L.A. city candidates in fundraising, with $3.7 million and $2.7 million raised so far, respectively.

The candidates have tapped into very different sources to fund their campaigns.

Miller, a tech entrepreneur and leader of multiple nonprofits, has loaned $2.5 million to his own campaign and raised just $223,000 from donors since entering the race in February.

Bass, on the other hand, had already gathered more than $2.3 million in contributions by January. She’d received some of those donations as far back as July 2024.

The city’s matching funds program has also given Bass a nearly $874,000 boost over Miller, who did not qualify to receive a 6-to-1 match from the city on donations that meet certain criteria.

Nithya Raman, City Council member for L.A.’s District 4, has had the quickest growth in donor support out of all candidates for mayor after entering the race in February.

She’s received a combined $1.1 million from direct contributions and matching funds from the city.

Former reality TV star Spencer Pratt has received about $538,000 in contributions, and Presbyterian minister and community organizer Rae Huang has taken in about $273,000.

District 11

Traci Park, who is the current City Council member for the 11th district, has brought in about $1.4 million so far through contributions and matching funds.

Faizah Malik is an attorney at the nonprofit law firm Public Counsel and is challenging Park for her council seat. She has raised about $632,000.

This race also has the largest amount of outside spending across the city and LAUSD.

About $972,000 has been spent in support of Park, including about $634,000 from the Los Angeles Police Protective League and $297,000 from a committee sponsored by United Firefighters of L.A. City.

Unite Here, a labor union representing hospitality workers, has spent more than $220,000 in support of Malik.

City attorney

Hydee Feldstein Soto, the incumbent city attorney, has raised nearly $1.2 million in contributions and matching funds.

Marissa Roy, deputy attorney general, has raised nearly $1 million in her race to unseat Feldstein Soto.

Deputy District Attorney John McKinney and human rights attorney Aida Ashouri have raised about $73,000 and $14,000, respectively, in the race.