The Brief

San Clemente is at risk of losing its reputation as a beach town unless it finds sand to replenish its shorelines. So on Tuesday, the City Council will decide on a list of potential sites to pull from — hopefully close to home.

Coastal erosion over the years has left some of the city’s beaches with only a narrow strip of sand, cutting off public access in some areas. To fully replenish its beaches, San Clemente needs between 2 million and 5 million cubic yards of sand.

On Tuesday, city leaders will decide on sites the city can potentially get sand from before a consultant group can begin testing the sand later this year for viability.

“ Every sand has different characteristics and there's beach quality sand that you can put on the beach, and it's likely to remain there a little bit longer,” Andy Hall, San Clemente’s city manager, said about the need to test sand. “If you put sand that's too fine on the beach, it'll just wash off when you have large storms or it swells, and if you put it too large, it won't move around and fill in the gap. There's kind of a science in grain size that you want to make sure you get the right kind of sand on the beach so that it's as natural as possible.”

Hall said the city is trying to do what nature does naturally.

“ We dammed up the rivers and we put freeways and railroad tracks and other things in the way so that the sand can't migrate to the beaches,” he said.

How we got here

San Clemente and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers have embarked on a sand replenishment project in which every five years, around 200,000 cubic yards of sand will be deposited on a half-mile stretch of beach between T Street and Linda Lane. The 50-year project will see around 2 million cubic yards of sand deposited.

But in 2023, when the project kicked off, sand was first deposited from Oceanside that turned out to be mostly cobble with very little beach-grade sand, damaging equipment, so it was paused until the team was able to find a better source.

They were able to locate an interim source of sand at a quarry — or a pile of sand out in the water — off the Huntington Beach-Seal Beach area called Surfside Sunset, Hall said.

Having to travel farther north to Surfside Sunset, Hall said, added to the cost.

The California Coastal Commission then gave the city a grant to find sand closer home. On Tuesday, city leaders will choose from some of the options a consultant group, Coastal Frontiers Corp., presents to begin testing.

“ If we can find a deposit of sand close to the city, the reward is huge,” Hall said. “The amount of not only money that will be saved, but the environmental impacts of all the air quality and everything.”

Brett Sanders, a professor at UC Irvine, said the study to find pockets of sand that can be used for beach replenishment is a “really great opportunity.”

“ We have very limited data on the availability of sand along the coastline of southern Orange County,” Sanders said, adding that finding sand closer to San Clemente will open up savings for taxpayers.

 The beaches of Orange County, he added, are “enormously important for the economy of the region” as they drive tax revenue by attracting people to local hotels and restaurants.

“When coastal communities look at the cost of maintaining the beaches, they look at the potential losses they might find in the future if they didn't have beaches,” Sanders said. “ Some of these investments in beaches start looking like a really good value.”

How to watchdog local government

One of the best things you can do to hold officials accountable is pay attention.
Your city council, board of supervisors, school board and more all hold public meetings that anybody can attend. These are times you can talk to your elected officials directly and hear about the policies they’re voting on that affect your community.

• Read tips on how to get involved.
• The San Clemente City Council meeting starts at 5:30 p.m. on May 6. You can watch here.

This story first appeared on The LA Local.

It’s the first day of school across the Los Angeles Unified School District, and students on the Eastside are returning to their classrooms after an unusual summer break dealing with the aftermath of the Lineage cold storage warehouse fire in June. 

Summer school sites were relocated, baseball games were canceled, and instead of spending time outside, some children spent the past two months behind closed doors to avoid the unhealthy air, mounting stench of rotting food, and hordes of flies and rats in their community.  

“[This summer] was horrible, like living through another pandemic,” said Lizandra Jimenez, who lives in East L.A. two blocks from the Lineage warehouse with her 11- and 14-year-old sons. “It was hell where we were isolated from information, where we had to endure a smell, where we had to endure the heat.

"My sons were anxious because they wanted to go outside but we couldn’t, and there was no information about air quality,” she said.

Students and families arrive at Eastman Avenue Elementary School in East L.A. on Wednesday, Aug. 12, 2026.

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That worry about air quality lingers for Jimenez, whose children attend Griffith STEAM Magnet Middle School and Roosevelt High School less than 3 miles away from Lineage. She said she also worries about the safety of the students who attend Eastman Avenue Elementary, the LAUSD school closest to the warehouse, where she works as a school supervision aide. 

LAUSD has assured that campuses near the site have been thoroughly cleaned and deemed safe for students to return. With schools now open, the cleanup at the warehouse continues as Lineage rushes to meet L.A. Mayor Karen Bass’ Friday deadline to remove the rotted food waste from inside.

LAUSD says campuses are safe to return

Over the past few weeks, LAUSD has provided updates and hosted webinars to inform parents on the cleaning and environmental testing efforts it conducted for the more than 50 schools within a 3-mile radius of the Lineage warehouse. 

Those efforts included: 

• Deep-cleaning school campuses including floors, walls, furniture, drinking fountains, lunch pavilions, playgrounds and walkways.
• Replacing all MERV-13 HVAC filters and placing air purifiers in all classrooms and offices, and;
• Independently testing air quality, water, dust and soil samples.

A white van with South Coast AQMD branding sits on the playground at Eastman Elementary in East Los Angeles.

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The district said air monitoring will continue at Eastman Elementary School and Stevenson Middle School for the duration of the cleanup.

A 561-page environmental assessment report released Tuesday by the LAUSD Office of Environmental Safety concluded that the Lineage fire did not result in widespread contamination at nearby schools and thus, were safe for students and staff.

The report did, however, find lead levels in the soil at City Terrace Elementary School and Christopher Dena Elementary School that exceeded California’s acceptable threshold. The district said it does not believe the findings are tied to the warehouse fire. 

As students return to campus, LAUSD said there will be masks available for students and staff upon request, school principals will decide whether students should remain indoors based on odors and outdoor conditions, and psychiatric social workers will be available on-site to support students.

Lineage says cleanup is 90% complete 

Meanwhile, Lineage said it is on track to meet the mayor’s 45-day deadline to remove all the food waste from the site by Friday. As of Monday, the company said they had removed 90% of the food waste. 

“At ninety percent, we are in the final stretch, and we will continue to tirelessly work until the work is done,” Jeff Rivera, chief operating officer of Lineage, said in a statement. 

The company said it expects to spend $80 million to $100 million on the cleanup. 

Last week, the South Coast Air Quality Management District’s Hearing Board unanimously approved an abatement order requiring Lineage to strengthen odor-control measures, expand air monitoring and improve communication with residents. 

Parents’ and teachers’ worries linger 

For weeks, parents and teachers across the Eastside have been calling on LAUSD to have stronger protections for students and to be more transparent about environmental testing results. The groups, including Eastside Padres and United Teachers Los Angeles, have also called on Lineage to leave the community permanently. 

Alma Lagunas speaks on a megaphone along with members of Eastside Padres at a town hall regarding the fire at the Lineage warehouse at Stevenson College and Career Preparatory in Boyle Heights in Los Angeles, Calif. on July 9, 2026.

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On Aug. 6, UTLA, the union representing LAUSD teachers, sent a letter to the district demanding that it expand resources and share the data before the first day. (LAUSD ended up posting its report on testing efforts on Tuesday.)

Following the fire, Jimenez said her family endured headaches, sore throats, congestion and irritated eyes for days. Now, she said she hopes LAUSD has taken the necessary steps to ensure that doesn’t happen again. 

“Who’s going to solve this for us? Or why?” Jimenez asked. “We’re not to blame.” 

Two of the Trump Administration’s top cabinet officials visited a faith-based homelessness program in Los Angeles Tuesday to call for a shift in the region’s approach to the unhoused crisis.

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. and Housing and Urban Development Secretary Scott Turner held a news conference at the Dream Center amid tensions with local officials.

The L.A. region’s lead homelessness agency, known as LAHSA, is currently suing the federal housing department after HUD suspended it from federal grant activity in June.

Turner said Tuesday the federal government wasn’t backing down on that.

“LAHSA does not receive another dollar until there’s accountability and transparency, and the right partners have come around for us to work with,” Turner said.

HUD has formally invited homeless service providers to apply directly for the federal homelessness funding, bypassing LAHSA entirely.

The federal government is pushing to partner more with faith-based homeless service providers like the Dream Center, which have not historically relied on much funding from the federal government, or from the state, county or city.

Turner and Kennedy toured the Echo Park facility, a 14-story converted hospital building, and spoke with several residents in transitional housing or recovery, LAist observed.

“I saw the success upstairs with their clients,” Kennedy said Tuesday. “They're doing it better than us, and we need to start recognizing it.”

Kennedy and Turner presented the suspension of LAHSA as part of the Trump Administration’s broader push against fraud in public benefits spending, mostly involving Medicare.

Funding battle

The Trump Administration suspended the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority for alleged mismanagement in June, pending a federal investigation.

That effectively cut off the agency that administers federal homelessness dollars from performing many of its roles. For example, HUD says that suspension means LAHSA cannot apply for up to $240 million in funding in a grant competition this year.

LAHSA is suing to overturn the suspension and to pause it in the meantime to prevent funding losses the agency said could cause 11,000 people to lose publicly-funded housing.

In a court hearing last Thursday, U.S. District Judge David O. Carter acknowledged legitimate concerns about LAHSA’s history of dysfunction and said he wanted to avoid catastrophic funding disruptions.

LAHSA says letting providers apply directly to HUD, without relying on LAHSA or some other agency to coordinate and prioritize the funding request would be unfair and disastrous.

Carter has not issued an injunction order, as of Tuesday evening.

HUD Secretary Scott Turner at the Dream Center Tuesday

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Aaron Schrank

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Why the Dream Center? 

Dream Center in Echo Park is a large Pentecostal Christian nonprofit that does residential recovery and housing for families. The center, associated with the Assemblies of God denomination, has been operating for more than three decades.

Pastor Matthew Barnett is the co-founder and CEO. He said in the news conference that the facility in Echo Park provides recovery treatment and transitional housing to about 600 people.

“I feel that sadly, over the last few years, there's just been a prevailing overall theme in LA that people can't change,” Barnett said. “Let’s just get them out of sight. Let's put them in housing somewhere, but can they really change? Well, 70% of the people that live at the Dream Center are graduates of the recovery program,” Barnett claimed.

Unlike many local service providers, the Dream Center does not rely on taxpayer funding to serve unhoused Angelenos, but private donations.

“ Places like the Dream Center that have not asked for money, that have just done the work, it's made it very, very difficult for us to function in this city of expenses that are rising,” Barnett said.

Local officials respond

There were no local elected officials present at the event.

L.A. County voted last year to divert $300 million in county homelessness funds away from the city-county homelessness agency LAHSA and administer those dollars itself with a new county homelessness department.

After Tuesday’s news conference, L.A. County Supervisor Lindsey Horvath said the county government has been working to fix the problem, while the federal government has not.

“Publicity stunts are no substitute for the hard work the County has already done to move away from the broken LAHSA system, establish new and accountable oversight of taxpayer dollars and change how we measure success from dollars spent to outcomes achieved,” Horvath said, in a statement.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — The Los Angeles Lakers are being sold to businessmen Josh Kushner and Bob Iger for a record-breaking price, the second such sale in a year.

This sale agreement is $12.5 billion, according to a person familiar with the terms who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity Wednesday because neither side revealed specific details.

ESPN first reported that Kushner and Iger are buying the NBA’s most valuable franchise, which was valued last year at $10 billion when Mark Walter purchased a controlling stake from the Buss family. The two businessmen had been involved in trying to get an expansion team for Las Vegas.

By buying the Lakers, Iger and Kushner simply don’t have to wait for that decision. Expansion, if it happens, could take place in the 2028-29 season.

The sale still will need approval from the NBA’s board of governors, and that process can take several weeks. The next board meeting is set for next month in New York.

The $12.5 billion price tag is not only record-setting for U.S. pro sports but it continues a trend of NBA franchise values skyrocketing. Only three years ago, Michael Jordan sold his majority stake in the Charlotte Hornets for a $3 billion valuation, and the Boston Celtics were sold last year at a valuation of just over $6 billion, then a record.

Walter’s purchase of a controlling stake in the Lakers in June 2025 blew that away, and now Iger and Kushner have pushed the bar even higher.

Walter’s purchase was approved by NBA owners last October. He originally bought a 27% minority stake in the Lakers in 2021 before the 2025 sale. That was part of a franchise valuation of $10 billion — the highest ever set for a pro sports team.

The Lakers have won 17 championships going back to the franchise’s early years in Minneapolis, the second-most in NBA history behind Boston’s 18. It is a global brand, always at or near the top of the league’s merchandise-sales rankings.

This record sale price comes just weeks after LeBron James, the league’s all-time leading scorer, left the Lakers after eight seasons to become a free agent. James ultimately decided to sign with the Philadelphia 76ers.

AP Basketball Writer Tim Reynolds contributed to this report.

This year brings a new challenge for Armaghan Khan and many other teachers in the nation's second-largest school district: Ban screen time for younger students, and significantly limit it for older kids.

"This is going to be a big impact for me," says Khan, who's spent his career in the Los Angeles Unified School District. "I would say about 75% of our work was on some kind of screen-based activity."

As a science teacher Khan, has embraced technology. Not only because his students at Johnnie L. Cochran Middle School can perform large-scale experiments on their laptops — like a car crash simulator to understand things like Newtonian forces — but also because it's his best option.

"My hands are kind of tied in terms of just what I can offer," he says. "We have a lab space, but we do not have a lab budget."

Many districts and a growing number of states have passed similar limits this year, but the rapid roll out in Los Angeles for teachers and the district's more than 400,000 students is unique. The school board passed the resolution this spring: Starting this week, 1st grade and under will have no screen time at all, in November, the rest of elementary school classes will have limits, with middle and high school students following later in the year.

The new rules are a departure for LAUSD, which only a few years ago was a national leader in bringing technology into the classroom. Khan said he was surprised by the new policy and subsequent lack of guidance: "I don't feel like I'm being set up for success."

A rapid rollout

Pia Sadaqatmal, the district's new chief academic officer who is overseeing the new screen time rules, says she knows it's not flawless.

"There is no perfect solution on how to roll out to a school district the size of ours."

She encourages teachers to see this year as a transition year and not expect overnight improvements.

"We have one of the first school districts in the nation to adopt a policy at this scale," she says. "We know that we are going to be learning along the way at each phase."

Students will have software on their personal tablets or computers that will keep track of the amount of screen time used per week. The software will not shut the device off once the limit is reached, instead it collects data for the district to comb through at the end of the year.

The hope is that the data gathered will help the district make tweaks to the rule and better understand what worked this year and what didn't.

Certain things are exempt, like virtual textbooks, but teachers are still trying to figure out where everything else fits.

Filling the gaps

"I have more questions than I do sort of immediate … concerns around it," says Kirti Baranwal, a teacher librarian at William Jefferson Clinton Middle School. This is her 28th year with the school district.

"I think generally screen time limits are good," she says.

Last year the district banned cell phones, a growing standard for many states around the country. So Baranwal did a lesson on screen addiction, and asked her students to report their own screen time. Many came back with 8 or 10 hours a day – even with the ban in place.

"And I was like, when are you sleeping?"

Research shows that for kids who don't have the resources to play on sports teams or attend arts programs, their time outside of school is occupied, often, by their phone. Baranwal, like Khan in his science classroom, thinks just unplugging or turning screens off ends up leaving holes.

We know that we don't want students on phones, Baranwal says. But then, "what is it that we want kids doing?"

With the school year just beginning, the Los Angeles school district is trying to figure that out.

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