The Brief

A proposed compensation program from Southern California Edison for survivors of the Eaton Fire is facing criticism from a community group that says it doesn't go far enough.

The utility plans to offer direct payments to fire victims if they agree not to sue. SoCal Edison announced the program this summer and released a draft for its plan last month.

A group of fire victims gathered in Altadena on Thursday to demand Edison offer more to the thousands of people affected by the fire. The group emphasized not just the financial strain of trying to stay in their community and rebuild, but the emotional toll of prolonged displacement.

SoCal Edison faces a slew of lawsuits over the Eaton Fire, which killed 19 people and destroyed thousands of homes and businesses. The utility company has not admitted fault, but acknowledged that it's possible its equipment could be associated with the start of the fire that sparked in Eaton Canyon on Jan. 7.

On Thursday, some accused Edison of lowballing the survivors who need money the most.

"It's to pick off the most vulnerable in our community who need money the fastest," said Andrew Wessels, whose home was damaged in the Eaton Fire.

Wessels is a member of the Eaton Fire Survivors Network, an organization formed in the aftermath of the disaster that issued a 51-page report that included recommendations and critiques of SoCal Edison's current program proposal.

The report, produced with the input of more than 200 fire survivors, says the compensation program replicates the problems people are facing with their insurance providers, excludes affected people outside of the fire zone and offers less money for children than adults when compensating for emotional damages.

Joy Chen, who leads the fire survivor group, told LAist Edison "severely discounts" the toll of the fire and its aftermath on people in Altadena and the surrounding area.

" They're doing this to shield their corporate liability as opposed to enabling us to recover from their fire," she said.

Diane Castro, a spokesperson with SoCal Edison, said the utility's program wasn't yet finalized and that it would take the report into account.

" We will take what was shared today, we will take what we learned from the community workshops and we'll update the program as needed," she said.

What does Edison's proposal include?

Edison's proposed voluntary program would offer different levels of cash payment to survivors of the Eaton Fire within the fire's perimeter, depending on their circumstances. A draft of the proposal lays out figures for different types of loss, like a destroyed or damaged home, or loss of use.

There are two options for filing a claim: one "fast pay" track promises applicants a compensation offer within 90 days of submitting a completed claim, and a longer process that involves a "detailed review" of the person's economic losses. That route will take nine months to produce a settlement offer, according to Edison's draft proposal.

SoCal Edison says it will announce its compensation program sometime this fall.

Pedro Pizarro, the chief executive of Edison International, SoCal Edison’s parent company, has said the program would allow fire survivors to receive financial support faster.

“This allows the community to focus more on recovery instead of lengthy, expensive litigation,” he said in a statement.

What issues are some fire survivors raising?

In their own report, the Eaton Fire Survivors Network accused the utility of mimicking the tactics of insurance companies, and downplaying certain types of loss. The program, as written, would offer people $10,000 for each structure "with non-burn damage from smoke, soot, or ash infiltration."

Some people displaced by the fire aren't included in SoCal Edison's proposed compensation program at all. Priscilla Hernandez said she and her family live in the Hastings Ranch neighborhood of Pasadena, and have been living in alternative housing since January due to smoke damage.

Under the utility company's current plan, she said she wouldn't be eligible for a payout because she's outside the fire zone.

" When I saw that we weren't even included in the proposal, my jaw dropped," she said.

Then there's the payments for emotional distress — the money meant to compensate for "non-economic" losses like stress, despair and annoyance.

SoCal Edison's proposed program lays out dollar amounts for fire victims to correspond with their experiences, like a lost loved one, or destroyed home. Some of those amounts distinguish children from adults, offering less for kids than their parents.

Eligible residents whose homes were damaged by smoke, soot and ash will get $20,000 per adult and $5,000 per child.

That's the amount Andrew Wessels is eligible for. He recalled evacuating his two children in the middle of the night as the top of their street burned.

"To think that that trauma is $5,000," he said. "For fleeing in the middle of the night in this terrible circumstance, being out of school for weeks, being displaced into 12 homes… Are you kidding me?"

This story was originally published by CalMatters. Sign up for their newsletters.

Regular reports out of immigrant detention facilities, some as recent as last month, indicate a pattern of complaints: bad water, untrained staff and slow response times to acute and chronic medical conditions.

Despite those complaints — echoed by disability rights groups, a federal judge and the California Justice Department — Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facilities have received high marks on their own internal scorecards.

An analysis by the Project on Government Oversight found that, under the Trump administration, the number of ICE detention facilities with the agency’s highest inspection grade, “superior,” has tripled since 2024. That coincided, the analysis found, with weakened detention standards and fewer inspections.

Those “superior” ratings have coincided with a rise in deaths in immigration detention custody — 2025 was the deadliest year in ICE custody since 2004.

Four people have died at the Adelanto ICE Processing Center since August 2025, according to the Project on Government Oversight, the most of any facility in the country during that span.

The ratings come from ICE’s Office of Detention Oversight, which also grades the facilities for “deficiencies,” or violations of ICE detention standards. Those failures are important: If a facility fails twice in a row, it can lose federal funding.

“Despite this provision — or perhaps because of it — detention facilities rarely received failing grades from inspectors between fiscal years 2022 and 2026,” the Project on Government Oversight investigators wrote.

ICE detention facilities are holding a record number of people, at least 65,000 on July 11. But even with that skyrocketing custody population, ICE has also found fewer violations among its facilities.

The analysis found that the number of violations at ICE facilities dropped by 68% between 2022 and 2025.

The Project on Government Oversight, which describes itself as a nonpartisan investigative nonprofit, said in its report that ICE did not respond to multiple interview attempts. The nonprofit released its findings this morning and CalMatters is seeking comment from ICE.

When news media organizations reach out to for-profit prison companies that run these detention centers, like GEO Group and CoreCivic, about complaints, they often point to these federal detention standards as a counterpoint to specific allegations.

This article was originally published on CalMatters and was republished under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives license.

It’s election season, which means California residents are receiving text messages from candidates making pleas for their votes, time and money ahead of November.

If you feel like your phone is being flooded with political messages, you’re not alone.

According to data compiled by PACspam.org, an organization that analyzes political spam texts, the number of political texts in the U.S. has increased dramatically over the last decade, from 300 million in 2018 to 66.5 billion in 2024.

In California, registered voters received more than 2 billion political texts in 2022, according to the latest yearly data available from Robokiller, a text and spam call blocker app.

Experts note that the texts are far less expensive, compared to other methods of reaching voters, so candidates have little reason to pull back.

“It’s basically like if you’re not doing it, it’s a big missed opportunity,” said Julia Leitner, a political strategist.

But some lawmakers want to change that.

The California State Assembly is in committee working out the details of a bill that would bar text message advertisements, including campaign ones, from being sent between 9 p.m. and 9 a.m. and allow people who receive the ads during those hours to seek legal damages of $500 per text.

Meantime, campaign texts are legal under Federal Communications Commission guidelines. So, if you don’t want the texts, how can you make them stop?

How to stop receiving campaign texts 

There are steps you can take to reduce the number of political texts you receive.

You can reply “STOP,” and the sender should cease sending messages. But that may not end them completely.

Alex Quilici, the CEO of YouMail, a phone call blocking service, said unsubscribing from one text chain likely won’t stop you from receiving messages from other text chains.

“The question is how big is the list?” Quilici said. “Are they just taking you off the list for one candidate? Or [do] they take you off the party list? You may have to reply ‘stop’ a bunch to really stop them.”

If the sender keeps contacting you, you can report them directly to the FCC by forwarding the text to 7726 or “SPAM”.

The FCC is able to investigate the number and potentially prevent the sender from delivering more messages if they’re violating their rules.

Why campaigns use texts

Leitner, who is a recruiting director at Close the Gap California, an organization that prepares progressive female candidates to run for seats in the California Legislature, said texts are a low-cost and effective tool for campaigns to connect with voters.

“We are all on our phones all of the time and so a text message is kind of the easiest way to reach a voter,” Leitner said.

It costs campaigns tens of cents to send each text. Leitner said that often makes them a better investment than direct mail campaigns, which can cost between $0.43 to $1.19 per piece of mail, or TV spots that can cost hundreds to millions of dollars, depending on factors like market, size and time.

How campaigns get your information

Campaigns have several ways to get your contact information. One is by requesting voter files from the Secretary of State’s office. When you register to vote, including online or at the DMV, that information goes into a database.

State law allows certain people, such as political candidates, academics and journalists, to request that information, which can include your name, date of birth, address, contact information and political party preference.

Another way campaigns get your data is by buying it.

Huge databases, like Democratic Data Exchange and Data Trust, use a combination of public records and their own consumer data to curate lists of people for campaigns to contact.

But there are restrictions as to how that information can be used, said Paul Mitchell, vice president of bipartisan voter data firm Political Data Intelligence.

“We don’t sell data to anybody using [it] for private purposes,” Mitchell said. “It is only for campaigns or if a local government wants to reach voters.”

Data brokers who operate in California are required to report their activities, including what information they collect and who they’re selling it to, annually to the California Data Broker Registry operated by the California Privacy Protection Agency.

If they don’t, they can be fined $200 per day they fail to register by the CPPA, be charged the $6,000 registration fees they failed to pay, and have to pay for expenses incurred by the CPPA in their investigation.

Data companies often collect information when voters donate to political causes through fundraising technology like ActBlue or WinRed, and agree to receiving texts, calls or other types of communication.

The giant warehouse that burned for eight days in June in Boyle Heights had used thousands of pounds of anhydrous ammonia to cool the facility.

Anhydrous ammonia is a common refrigerant used in cold storage warehouses. But it is also toxic, and if it leaks, it can cause respiratory irritation; in large doses, it can lead to lung and eye damage and even death. In 2020, a contractor at a Lineage Inc. facility in Statesville, North Carolina, was killed and others were injured during an ammonia release.

On June 17, the first day of the Boyle Heights fire, Los Angeles Fire Department Chief Jaime Moore told CBS LA that ammonia had escaped from the facility.

“We believe an ammonia line was then compromised, because we had a large powerful stream of ammonia coming out,” Moore said as clouds of smoke and flames rose behind him. Moore said the Fire Department had ordered residents to close their windows and doors and shelter in place.

Since then, Lineage and the Fire Department have provided few details to the public about what happened. Lineage has denied that a leak occurred and has said ammonia was removed from its warehouse during the blaze. In July, Moore later reportedly said no ammonia was detected, but the Fire Department has not released results of its monitoring for the chemical or for other toxics during the fire.

More recent ammonia readings raise a separate question: Why is ammonia, which can remain in the air for about a week, being detected more than a month after the fire?

In recent weeks, the South Coast Air Quality Management District has reported levels of the contaminant at a local elementary school about a half a mile from the warehouse that far exceed average exposures for the L.A. area. Lineage has reported even higher levels in fine print on the company’s website. On July 10, for example, one of the company’s readings taken less than 100 feet from peoples’ homes detected ammonia at 13,000 parts per billion, more than double the level the state of California considers safe for short-term exposures. Another reading that also exceeded the safety guideline at 7,000 parts per billion. Several other readings — one measured as recently as Aug. 6 — were also elevated.

Lineage spokesperson Melanie Mendoza didn’t respond to Capital & Main’s request for comment on ammonia levels that the state considers unsafe. She had previously denied in an email that there were any “measurable ammonia concentrations” detected in the community. She later walked that back, saying ammonia levels had not exceeded the state threshold for acute exposures.

“At no point has ammonia reached a level that would pose a health risk,” she said.

What first responders logged

There is still no official report of what happened during the fire. But newly obtained Fire Department records offer a minute-by-minute view from the perspective of first responders as they confronted the blaze in June. A computer-aided dispatch log, obtained by Capital & Main through a public records request, showed that firefighters identified “an active amonia [sic] leak” on the roof of the building at 3:12 p.m. — about 35 minutes after a 911 caller first reported the warehouse fire.

A minute later, the log reports the appearance of “an unknown vapor cloud” rising over the warehouse. Moore later reportedly said the cloud was the result of cold air mixing with hot air and did not contain ammonia.

By 3:25, the log again notes an ammonia leak and says that firefighters would battle the blaze in “defensive mode,” or from outside the structure, likely because it was considered too dangerous to go inside. At the same time, the Fire Department ordered residents to close their windows and doors, shut off air conditioners and shelter in place.

Los Angeles Fire Department hazardous materials crews monitored the air for ammonia and other toxic gases during the fire. But the department has not disclosed its findings. Fire Department spokesperson Branden Silverman told Capital & Main in a statement that “collecting it will take some time.”

A spokesperson for Mayor Karen Bass didn’t respond to Capital & Main’s questions about the facts that caused Moore to change his opinion about the ammonia release or about the department’s delay in reporting the results of its air monitoring during the fire.

Lineage reported a “potential spill” to the California Office of Emergency Services about 90 minutes after the fire erupted, according to a hazardous materials spill report. By law, even potential releases of hazardous materials such as ammonia must be reported to state and federal authorities. The report — provided to Capital & Main by the Office of Emergency Services — paraphrases a Lineage representative, whose name is redacted, as saying: “There is no potential release of anhydrous ammonia and no concerned [sic] of release.”

To date, there has been no publicly released investigation of whether a hazardous ammonia leak occurred.

But on Aug. 4, Los Angeles Public Press reported that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency demanded that Lineage answer questions about a possible ammonia release. The agency gave Lineage an Aug. 17 deadline to produce a “detailed description and timeline” of what happened, to disclose any contaminants that were released and the calculations made to make that determination. The agency also asked for the results of air monitoring that was conducted when firefighters initially reported an ammonia leak and in the days that followed, as well as any emergency response measures taken to stop or minimize hazards it may have posed.

Mendoza said the EPA inquiry is “the agency’s standard response to the notifications Lineage made in accordance with the law.” She added, “Lineage will continue to provide the EPA with all requested information.”.

Publicly, Mendoza and other company representatives have provided little information and have denied there was an ammonia release.

On Aug. 6, Dominic DiCarlo, Lineage vice president of global safety and compliance, said, “We’re highly confident that ammonia from the refrigeration system was not compromised.”

DiCarlo cited tests the company and local fire officials conducted of the refrigeration system and statements by fire officials.

He also said “no ammonia readings were picked up outside the facility.”

DiCarlo didn’t specify when the readings were taken.

DiCarlo was testifying at a South Coast Air Quality Management District hearing, which was held to resolve odor complaints resulting from the warehouse cleanup. The issue of community exposure to toxic chemicals came up repeatedly during the two-day proceeding. The company agreed to 93 conditions to mitigate odors and reduce residents' exposure to toxics, including additional “fenceline monitoring” at the warehouse site for ammonia and other contaminants and notifying AQMD and the community if readings exceed state or federal thresholds.

Mohan Balagopalan, one of the five-member panel that presided over the hearing, in closing remarks, expressed skepticism about the company’s assertion that there was no ammonia release during the blaze.

“I would take that with a grain of salt,” he said.

Balagopalan, a retired AQMD manager and a toxics expert, said he thought the ammonia hazard was likely one reason firefighters battled the fire from the ground and the air via helicopters instead of remaining on the roof.

Angelo Bellomo, a retired Los Angeles County Department of Public Health deputy director, said an investigation is required to discover whether there was a hazardous materials leak.

He said first responders’ observations can provide important information.

“If they say there is an active anhydrous ammonia release, you don’t have to drill them over that,” he said, adding that ammonia is easily detectable because of its distinctive odor.

Smoke from the warehouse fire inundated Boyle Heights.

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Alejandra Molina

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Boyle Heights Beat

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Concerns about ammonia

A month after the fire erupted, there are renewed concerns about community exposure to ammonia. Ammonia can remain in the atmosphere for a week, according to the federal Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry.

But five weeks after the fire, AQMD air monitoring found ammonia at “much higher than typical levels in the air in urban Los Angeles,” according to Jill Johnston, an associate professor of environmental and occupational health at UC Irvine, who has reviewed the data. The AQMD monitoring was conducted outdoors at Eastman Elementary School, about a half mile from the warehouse.

The Los Angeles Unified School District’s Office of Environmental Health and Safety also found elevated ammonia levels inside a classroom at the school according to an Aug. 10 report, which found elevated levels in a classroom at the Eastman Early Education Center and in one at Humphreys Avenue Elementary School.

Ammonia “can cause wheezing, coughing, irritate the eyes, nose and throat, exacerbate asthma or COPD,” (chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder), Johnston said, adding that “kids in particular tend to be more vulnerable to adverse impacts.”

Boyle Heights residents have told Capital & Main they’ve experienced sore throats, skin rashes, headaches, irritated eyes and worsened asthma, among other symptoms during the fire and its aftermath.

Two of Lineage’s own measurements — conducted by private contractor Onterris — registered ammonia levels that far exceeded safety guidelines.

The state Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment advises that ammonia levels at 4,500 ppb or higher can cause adverse health effects during short-term exposures. One of the readings, on La Puerta Street — no more than about 50 feet from homes — was more than double the state standard at 13,000 ppb, while the other registered 7,000 ppb. Several other readings by the company showed elevated levels near Boyle Heights homes as recently as Aug. 6, when ammonia levels reached 3,000 ppb near the warehouse on Prado Street and as far back as July 3, with a 4,000 ppb measurement at the facility fenceline about 50 yards from Indiana Street.

It is not unusual for corporations like Lineage to hire their own environmental testing firms. But Onterris, which until April 2026 was known as the Center for Toxicology and Environmental Health, has earned a reputation for producing health and environmental assessments that favor the companies that hire it. In 2023, when a train derailed in East Palestine, Ohio, and spilled dozens of hazardous chemicals that caught fire, ProPublica and the Guardian reported that CTEH tested residents’ homes with hand-held monitors and told them the air was safe. But independent experts the news organizations consulted said the monitoring devices were insufficient to detect all the chemicals that may have been present and the monitoring period was too short to capture accurate results.

In 2010, two then-U.S. Congressmembers, Rep. Lois Capps, D-Calif., and Rep. Peter Welch, D-Vt., who is now a U.S. senator, cited the company’s track record as they urged Tony Hayward, then-CEO of BP PLC, not to use CTEH to assess the health of cleanup workers in an oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

“CTEH has a history of being hired by companies accused of harming public health and releasing findings defending the corporate interests of those that employ them,” they said in a letter.

Onterris’ media representatives did not answer a Capital & Main email inquiring about the company’s environmental track record.

In Boyle Heights, the source of the ammonia detected weeks after the fire broke out isn’t known. The company stored between 10,000 and 24,999 pounds of ammonia in the warehouse daily, according to a report posted by the California Environmental Protection Agency. At the Aug. 6 hearing, DiCarlo said the company had removed all of the ammonia from the facility —more than 10,000 pounds – from the facility.

But Johnston said the elevated levels in the environment could suggest that some ammonia remains in the burnt remnants of the warehouse. Rotting meat that still has not been removed from the structure could also emit ammonia, she said.

What's next

Boyle Heights residents may have an opportunity to question Lineage about whether there was an ammonia leak and how extensive it was. In its letter to Lineage, the U.S. EPA says the company could be required by federal law to hold a public meeting within 90 days of “a reportable accident,” depending on what substances were released. Capital & Main asked Mendoza if such a meeting is planned, but she didn’t respond before this story was posted.

Residents may still face barriers in getting the information Lineage provides in answer to the EPA’s questions. EPA spokesperson Julia Giarmoleo told Capital & Main in an email that “documents are available to the public in response to a FOIA [Freedom of Information Act] request,” which can take weeks or months to be fulfilled.

This article was originally published by Capital & Main. Aaron Cantú contributed to this report. Copyright Capital & Main 2026.

Most Southern California renters continue to struggle to find housing they can afford. An important — and for some, possibly life-changing — option opened up on Monday for low-income residents.

The Los Angeles County Development Authority (LACDA) began accepting applicants for its waitlist for public housing for a limited time.

Tracie Mann, the chief of programs for LACDA, said the waitlist was last open in April 2024.

“We need to refresh the list, get new families who are interested in applying, not only to our family sites, but also to our senior sites,” she said.

Mann said she expects more people to apply now because of the sharp rise in the cost of living.

“We know that housing is a serious need here within the region of Los Angeles County, and having LACDA in a position to be able to offer public housing units to those most in need is just so… critical,” she said.

The rent in these county-owned and managed units is generally capped at 30% of a household’s gross income. That limit helps families build savings, said  Justin Fitzsimmons, a lawyer with the Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles.

“It is a really valuable resource and can be a great opportunity for people to be able to build wealth in this economy and set up their generations in the future,” he said.

Orchard Arms is a public housing property with 183 units in Valencia. It's reserved for seniors.

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Courtesy Los Angeles County Development Authority

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It’s common, Fitzsimmons said, to see clients come to his office for legal help after a life event, such as an accident or major illness that has depleted their savings.

"Public housing is a really wonderful opportunity for a person to help to weather those events that life throws your way," he said.

The waitlist application window opened at 8 a.m. Monday and is set to close at 5 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 16.

Here’s who qualifies and how to apply

To qualify, families must be earning significantly less than the median income in L.A. County. There are different tiers, Mann said, including 30% and 50% of that median income.

People in L.A. County will fall below the 50% threshold if they earn up to $58,300 per year. Families of four will meet the cutoff if they earn no more than $83,300 per year.

Follow this link for more information about how to apply. If you’ve already registered with LACDA, you can apply at this link.

South Bay Gardens is a public housing property with 100 units in South Los Angeles.

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Courtesy Los Angeles County Development Authority

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You can seek help with your application by calling LACDA at (626) 586-1522 from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday.

LACDA staff also helps people complete their online applications in person at their offices in Alhambra. Their address is 700 W. Main St., Alhambra.

Location, location, location

LACDA oversees public housing on 68 properties for more than 6,600 residents. The agency is opening up wait list registration at only 16 of those sites. Thinking about which location to apply to is important because if you apply to a location and you don’t accept the unit that you’re offered, you will be removed from the waiting list until it opens back up.

People leave public housing units for various reasons, Mann said, such as moving outside the county, finding another apartment or facing eviction. She said LACDA’s public housing program averages 300 vacancies per year. Wait times can be months or longer, depending on vacancies at each property.

Applications for the smaller properties will be capped at 1,000 applications, and their waitlists will close early if that threshold is reached before Sept. 16.

You can find more information about the 16 sites opening their waitlists at this link.