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?"

President Donald Trump said Saturday that he has offered the job of White House press secretary to his friend and UFC boss Dana White, an announcement unconventional even for the norm-busting president. White said Saturday that he plans to meet with Trump on Monday at the White House.

Trump, while he was at his golf club in Florida, posted on social media that he made the offer to “the Great Dana White, a violent Fighter and Warrior” to become the Republican president's chief spokesperson.

White, who was in London on Saturday for a boxing event, was asked at a news conference about Trump's post and responded by saying that he planned to fly to Washington right after and meet with Trump on Monday.

When asked how he would balance the job with the current positions he has in the fighting world, White seemed confused by the question and then said, “Yeah, I got a lot of jobs already.”

He declined to say what conversations he'd had with Trump but said, “I'm sure I'll have more to talk about after that.”

Before the news conference, the UFC head shared an image of Trump’s post on Instagram, along with an image of himself standing behind the podium in the White House press briefing room with the words “On to the next chapter.”

The White House and a spokesperson for the UFC did not respond Saturday to messages inquiring about the Truth Social post.

Trump said in his post that he requested that White bring along several UFC fighters as “assistants,” adding, “We need these people to defend us against the Lunatic Left. Dana will be a Press Secretary like none other. Dana, please take the job!”

While White didn't make it clear if he was seriously considering the position of becoming the primary spokesperson for the president of the United States, he did elsewhere in his news conference describe his ambitions to expand the Zuffa Boxing organization he also runs with Saudi Arabian backers and hold more of its events around the world.

Trump's post came as his White House is in a period of major transition and struggling with his party's deep losses in Tuesday's midterm elections. The historic wins by Democratic candidates, including in areas that Republicans had held for decades, led to the GOP losing control of both chambers of Congress.

Trump on Friday announced he was replacing his longtime adviser Susie Wiles, who was seen as something of a tempering force on the president's impulses, with aide Stephen Miller to serve as the next chief of staff. Miller is known as the architect of the administration’s hard-line immigration policies and is among the most determined of Trump's inner circle.

The shake-up at the heart of his administration follows the brief but tumultuous week when Trump tried out a new press secretary in Katie Zacharia, who seemed uncomfortable in her sole appearance before reporters before leaving the job after five days.

The post had been vacant since Karoline Leavitt left at the end of August. Trump remains without a chief spokesperson.

Trump is close friends with White and has attended several UFC events with him since returning to the White House in January 2025.

He brought White and the sport to the White House’s South Lawn in June for the celebration of America’s 250th year of its independence and the president's own 80th birthday. A wire-mesh Octagon was constructed near the executive mansion under " The Claw,” a spaceship-like metal arch fitted with lights, sound equipment and large screens.

“It was an amazing experience, this was a one-of-one,” said White afterward.

White also spoke at the Republican National Conventions in 2016, 2020 and 2024.

Associated Press writers Daniel Gelston in Philadelphia and Jesse Bedayn in Austin, Texas, contributed to this report.

Federal immigration agents detained at least two people late Friday outside Adventist White Memorial Hospital in Boyle Heights, where protesters had gathered after reports of immigration enforcement activity, according to rapid response groups. Protesters remained at the hospital into the early hours of Saturday, where immigration agents maintained a large presence.

It appears the incident began after people witnessed someone being detained and taken into the hospital, according to Raquel Roman, executive director of Proyecto Pastoral and member of the Boyle Heights Immigrant Rights Network.   That spurred a crowd of protesters to rally against ICE agents, who then detained two protesters who are U.S. citizens, Roman said.

ICE activity was also reported near Mariachi Plaza at 5:50 a.m. Saturday, according to witnesses, and outside the East LA Sheriff’s Station, where agents have been seen detaining people in the L.A. County-designated ICE-Free zone. 

Arrests captured on social video

Video posted on social media appears to show one person being detained outside the hospital. In the video, at least three officers in tactical vests are seen detaining someone at the intersection of Boyle and Pennsylvania Avenues around 11:30 p.m.

A group of about six more officers in tactical vests and masks can be seen walking around the area as another, whose vest says “Police ICE,” yells at the person recording to “back up” and “do not impede with the arrest.”

“You’re arresting U.S. citizens,” the person recording says. “18 USC 111, they’re interfering,” the officer replies, referring to Title 18, Section 111 of the U.S. Code: Assaulting, resisting, or impeding certain officers or employees. 

In the video, a bystander who says the person being arrested is his brother can be seen speaking to the officer. 

“Your brother assaulted a federal agent. He’s being arrested for assaulting a federal agent; he’s coming with us,” the officer tells them. 

Boyle Heights Beat reached out to the Department of Homeland Security for more information about the incident but has not yet received a response.

LAPD response

The Los Angeles Police Department was first called to the scene at 11:59 p.m. to respond to a “large group causing a disturbance,” according to LAPD Officer Norma Eisenman. LAPD responded again at 2:24 a.m. as crowds continued to gather outside of the hospital. 

“Officers responded to maintain public safety and keep the peace. At no point did LAPD officers assist federal immigration authorities with enforcement activities or detain any individuals in connection with immigration enforcement,” Eisenman said. 

Video posted on social media by Izzy Ramirez shows a line of agents blocking the emergency loading dock around 2:30 a.m. as a crowd continues to shout at the agents and make noise.

“It was horrible for the local community. The ICE presence was a lot more than I’ve seen it visibly before,” said Roman. 

What the hospital said

Japhet De Oliveira, corporate communications executive at Adventist Health, shared the following statement:

“Federal agents brought a person in their custody to our emergency department, and we cared for that patient with dignity and privacy, as we do for every patient. When agents formed a line across our ambulance entrance, which we did not request nor authorize, we diverted ambulances to nearby hospitals for about two hours to ensure every patient received timely care. White Memorial does not participate in immigration enforcement. We know last night frightened our neighbors. No matter what happens outside our doors, everyone who comes inside is our patient, and our focus will only be on that patient, and it will not change.”

Doctors at Adventist White Memorial last year reported that ICE agents were violating the privacy rights of detained patients and prohibiting contact with patients’ family members. While the hospital released guidelines to protect patients and support staff,  doctors and advocates have said they fall short.

What's next

Councilmember Ysabel Jurado, who represents Boyle Heights, said she was “deeply troubled” by the reports overnight and demanded answers from hospital leadership. She said:

The Boyle Heights Immigrant Rights Network said it plans to lead a protest against ICE outside White Memorial at 2 p.m. Saturday.

This is a developing story and will be updated. 

The post ICE detains two U.S. citizens protesting outside White Memorial Hospital, rapid response groups say appeared first on LA Local.

People may have been getting high off cannabis earlier than previously thought — at least 2,800 years ago, a new study suggests.

Archaeologists who led a dig at a monumental tomb in Siberia said they turned up evidence of the earliest known use of cannabis for psychoactive purposes.

The findings point to cannabis consumption at least 300 years earlier than previously known use in neighboring China.

Ancient drug use has long intrigued scholars. The Greek historian Herodotus wrote about inhabitants of Central Asia smoking cannabis around 440 B.C., and recent archaeologists have found the seeds in tombs across its highlands.

The team from Germany, Russia, Sweden and Switzerland said analysis of hair in the royal tomb where cannabis seeds turned up sheds new light on the plant’s role in ancient societies.

“It’s extremely rare that we have both preserved plant parts and human soft tissue with the active compounds in it in the same context,” said co-author Gino Caspari, an archaeologist at the University of Bern.

It’s not clear whether the cannabis was consumed through inhalation or ingestion, he said.

The dig took place starting in 2017 at a large burial mound at the Tunnug 1 site in the Uyuk Valley of southern Siberia, home to one of the earliest monumental tombs showing material culture of the Scythians — ancient nomads who migrated from Central Asia to southern Russia and Ukraine.

The team, deployed “essentially out in the middle of nowhere,” lived in tents for months and faced a spring-to-autumn season that variously featured swamps, snowstorms, frosts and swarms of mosquitoes. Herds of horses ran freely across the grassy steppe.

Larger artifacts on the site include weapons in the burials, horse gear and animal-style motifs. But the team “struck gold” as it also found tiny black spots that turned out to be cannabis seeds along with preserved human hair, Caspari said.

“It’s only so often as an archaeologist that you do get to drug test a person that’s been dead for almost 3,000 years,” he said.

Radiocarbon dating on some of the more than 1,000 seeds helped establish the time of origin, and “they are not there by accident” but deposited within the tomb, suggesting that the plant material had significance in the community, he said.

Results were published Thursday in the journal Science.

Not all independent experts were convinced.

The hair analysis “is scientifically weak” and there’s not enough evidence to tell whether cannabis was used, wrote Volker Auwaerter, head of the forensic toxicology section at the University Medical Center in Freiburg, Germany, in an email.

“For a central part of the study, the article falls far short of what would have been possible,” Auwaerter said. “This matters because the hair data carry the abstract’s main claims (cannabis consumption and use for its psychoactive properties).”

Today, scholars don’t consider ancient accounts trustworthy without corroborating evidence. Because the cannabis plant has other uses — seeds are pressed for oil and fibers used for cloth — their presence alone doesn’t confirm drug use.

Auwaerter, who was not part of the study, said the data didn’t distinguish consumption from external exposure — in other words, the hair could have picked up traces of weed simply by being buried together with it. He said a lab test involving forensic toxicology expertise would have been advisable and easy to arrange.

But Elisa Guerra Doce of the University of Valladolid in Spain, who has written about use of consciousness-altering substances in European prehistory, said toxicological hair analysis was not new in archaeology and has been used to identify consumption of psychoactive substances. She was not involved in the study.

In an email, she credited the authors for showing, through their methodology, that “cannabis was not merely deposited as a funerary offering but was actually consumed by individuals associated with the burial rite.”

A California appeals court has found that “ER” and “The Pitt” have enough similarity that a lawsuit brought by the widow and estate of “ER” creator Michael Crichton alleging “The Pitt” is an unauthorized reboot can move forward.

A three-judge panel from California’s 2nd District Court of Appeal ruled unanimously on Wednesday that the trial court judge was correct to reject a motion to throw out the case from “The Pitt” production company Warner Bros. Television, which also produced “ER.” But the judges dismissed Noah Wyle — the star of both shows and a producer on “The Pitt” — as a defendant along with two other producers who worked on both series.

The lawsuit is a clash between the makers of multiple Emmy-winning TV series that were each among the most important and acclaimed shows of their eras.

Crichton, the author of “Jurassic Park” and many other novels that became hit movies and TV shows, wrote the pilot script for “ER,” the NBC show about a Chicago emergency room that redefined the medical drama genre and drew tens of millions of weekly viewers in its run from 1994 to 2009.

The lawsuit brought by Sherri Crichton was filed two years ago, before a single episode of “The Pitt” had aired. The HBO Max series that shows a real-time day in the life of a Pittsburgh emergency department has since become perhaps the most lauded series in television, winning two Emmys for best drama for its first two seasons and two best actor Emmys for Wyle.

Along with more technical legal issues, the judges had to decide whether the shows had at least the minimal similarity that would give the lawsuit enough merit to move forward. Their decision applies only to this early legal challenge and they did not rule on whether the plaintiffs had proved the “The Pitt” is derivative of “ER.”

The court agreed with the plaintiff that “both shows provide commentaries on the healthcare system; they focus specifically on the emergency room and the difficult conditions under which the medical staff operates. Both shows take place, with little exception, in the emergency room, as opposed to other medical shows which track patients as they move out of the emergency room, or indeed never enter it.”

The opinion also said that both feature “very fast pacing, and reactions to multiple overlapping crises. The fast-paced dialogue is (to a layperson) frequently incomprehensible shorthand and jargon, lending an air of immediacy and accuracy.”

Warner Bros. Television said in a statement that “WBTV continues to maintain that ‘The Pitt’ is an entirely original series and that the claims against it are without merit. Nothing in the Court of Appeal’s decision establishes otherwise, and WBTV looks forward to defending its position as the case proceeds.”

The defendants argued in legal filings that the shows have “generic similarities” that would exist in “any dramatic story” that features “overworked doctors and staff.”

The panel also unanimously dismissed as defendants Wyle, John Wells, who created “The Pitt” and worked on “ER,” and R. Scott Gemmill, a “Pitt” executive producer who also worked on both shows. The judges found there was no evidence the three men knew the provisions of the Crichton contract that the lawsuit alleges they interfered with.

Sherri Crichton’s lawsuit alleges “The Pitt” is a rebranded version of an unauthorized “ER” reboot that she had rejected.

Her husband had secured a coveted “frozen rights” provision in his contract for the series, prohibiting Warner Bros. from proceeding with any sequels, remakes, spinoffs or other productions derived from “ER” without Crichton’s consent, or his estate’s consent after his death from cancer in 2008.

After the production company could not reach an agreement with Sherri Crichton over a proposed “ER” reboot, the TV studio proceeded to develop and produce a series based on the same premise without permission, the lawsuit alleges.