The Brief

The L.A. County Department of Public Health has found high levels of lead in the soil of properties that burned during January’s fires and have now been cleared by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

The county initiated the testing after the Army Corps said it would not do the testing itself, breaking with a longstanding practice of the federal government doing that work. Army Corps officials said removing up to 6 inches of topsoil would be enough to eliminate hazardous chemicals.

But ongoing testing is finding that is not necessarily the case.

The county hired environmental consulting firm Roux Associates Inc. to sample soil at 30 properties — 15 in the Eaton Fire burn zone and 15 in the Palisades — that had been cleared by the Army Corps.

The results were most worrisome in Altadena, where about 27% of the samples had lead levels above California’s residential safety standard. (No amount of lead exposure is considered safe, but state health standards aim to reduce risk of exposure.)

In the Palisades burn scar, fewer than 3% of cleared properties had lead levels above California’s safety standard.

Lead levels were lower on cleared properties as opposed to properties that had not yet been cleared by the Army Corps: 44% of samples taken from unscraped properties in Altadena had elevated lead levels, while 12% of samples taken at unscraped properties in the Palisades had higher levels.

“While the U.S. Army Corps doesn't decrease the risk in the Eaton area down to zero, it does reflect a significant improvement,” Adam Love, the vice president and principal scientist for Roux, said at a virtual community meeting Thursday.

In mid-April, the county released preliminary testing results showing elevated lead levels in soils of properties downwind of the Eaton Fire.

The county did not share data showing how far above health standards the samples were, saying the data had yet to be finalized. California’s state standards for residential properties say lead levels should not exceed 80 parts per million. The federal EPA’s standard is 200 parts per million.

An aerial view of Altadena showing several cleared properties amongst many more awaiting to be cleared of debris and rubble from the Eaton Fire on April 7, 2025.

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Brian Feinzimer

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LAist

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The county will update the latest testing data on a dashboard tracking air, soil and water testing in the burn zones.

USC researchers have been doing their own testing with property owners as well, finding some samples that are more than three times the standards.

Professor Seth John, who is spearheading that effort, said the team is starting to shift its focus to understand levels of contamination between cleared versus uncleared properties. (If you’re concerned about how the fires affected your soil, you can get involved with the project here.)

Why the disparity between Altadena and the Palisades?

The reason for the difference between the lead levels in the Palisades and Eaton burn scars is not clear.

“The honest answer is we don't know,” Love said. “ It could be related to the difference in the housing stock and the fact that the houses in the Eaton area are more likely to have lead-based paint.”

Love said it could also be a result of ongoing debris clearing dislodging ash, causing lead and other toxic metals to once again settle on cleared properties.

Or, Love added, it could be that lead was already there. It’s not uncommon to find elevated lead levels in Southern California soil because of the region’s industrial history and past prevalence of lead in fuel and paint.

“ There's a lot of different things that could explain why, but we can't just from the data that we collected,” Love said.

That’s why he and county officials said soil testing should be a part of every rebuild plan, and property owners should target that testing to areas that will be exposed and used, such as playgrounds, outdoor eating areas, gardens or walkways.

But fire survivors worry that could lead to additional debris removal needs and even more costs as they try to rebuild.

Testing downwind and blood tests

The county is also launching a large-scale free soil testing effort on May 19.

“This is targeted specifically to homes downwind of the Eaton Fire, where we saw the most significant findings from the soil sampling,” said Dr. Nichole Quick of the county’s Public Health Department.

Quick said about 26,000 eligible homes will receive a postcard invitation to participate.

The program is expected to run through December.

Residents can also get their soil tested free through USC, which is researching how the fires may have affected soil.

Meanwhile, Quick urged residents, especially those with young children, to take advantage of free blood tests. She said you can ask your doctor for a lead blood test, which is covered by most insurance plans, including Medi-Cal. You can also call (800) LA-4-LEAD (524-5323) to schedule a free test through Quest Labs.

You can also go to one of the upcoming county blood test clinics for a free test:

• May 17, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., 23519 W. Civic Center Way, Malibu.
• May 24, 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., La Pintoresca Park, 45 E. Washington Blvd., Pasadena

The L.A. County Medical Examiner has released the cause of death for Emily Beutner, the daughter of former LAUSD Superintendent Austin Beutner.

The 22-year-old died from the effects of a combination of drugs, including two linked to the opioid known as kratom — mitragynine and 7-hydroxymitragynine — according to the statement released by the medical examiner Friday.

A county health official told our partner CBS L.A. that kratom products are sometimes sold as natural remedies but are illegal and unsafe.

The other two substances cited as causes of death were quetiapine and mirtazapine — the former is an antipsychotic medication, and the latter is used to treat depression, according to the Mayo Clinic.

The former Loyola Marymount University student was found alone and suffering from medical distress by L.A. County Fire Department personnel shortly after midnight in a field by a highway in Palmdale on Jan. 6. She was transported to a hospital and pronounced dead soon after.

After his daughter's death, Beutner dropped out of the L.A. mayoral race.

The Medical Examiner said the manner of death was ruled a suicide.

If you or someone you know is experiencing a crisis, you can dial the mental health lifeline at 988.

This story first appeared on The LA Local.

There’s a familiar shorthand history of the L.A. band Los Lobos: four working-class Chicano musicians in their early twenties — David Hidalgo, Conrad Lozano, Louie Pérez and Cesar Rosas — got together in 1973 and began playing traditional Mexican music. That’s the music they recorded for their first album, 1978’s “Los Lobos del Este de Los Angeles (Just Another Band From East L.A.).” 

A few years later, they moved on to the other music they grew up listening to — rock, R&B and blues. After adding saxophonist Steve Berlin and releasing two critically acclaimed albums in the mid-1980s, they were tapped to perform Ritchie Valens’ songs for the hit 1987 film, “La Bamba.” The soundtrack album topped the Billboard charts and catapulted the band to rock star status. 

But instead of continuing along that gilded path, they reverted to the traditional sounds — both in Spanish and English — that meant so much to them. Fifty-plus years after starting out, Los Lobos are still at it, and now a new documentary is digging deep into their ups and downs — and how they always stayed true to their East L.A. roots.

“Los Lobos: Native Sons” — co-directed by Doug Blush and Piero F. Giunti — had its world premiere on Sunday at the SXSW Film & TV Festival in Austin, Texas. The band was in attendance, proudly walking the red carpet in front of the historic Paramount Theatre. The film, which took 4 ½ years to complete, combines archival photos and film/video footage (17 boxes of material from Pérez alone), alongside contemporary interviews with the band members, their families and a host of admirers, including Linda Ronstadt, Rubén Blades, Dolores Huerta, Cheech Marin, Edward James Olmos, George Lopez and others.

“I thought the film was great,” said Pérez, speaking from his home a few days after the premiere. “There were tears, cheers … I was moved.”

The new documentary “Los Lobos: Native Sons” was 4 1/2 years in the making.

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Pérez said he was particularly touched by a part in the film when his wife talks about the song, “A Matter of Time,” off the band’s album, “How Will the Wolf Survive?” from 1984. Pérez noted that he and Hidalgo wrote the song about a Mexican migrant worker who has to part ways with his family:

In the film, Mary Pérez becomes emotional as she describes how the song was just as much about the band members leaving their families behind when they went on tour, the kids waking up to find their fathers gone.

“That song became our narrative,” Louie Pérez said in our interview. In the film, he bluntly states that the band “wouldn’t exist without the women in our lives.” Those women were the den mothers of the wolfpack, holding down the fort at home, accompanying the band on tour when possible, with some of the kids eventually jamming with their dads onstage.

Personal stories aside, the documentary also poetically frames the band’s — and the country’s — evolution over a half-century. “I saw the face of America change,” Pérez says in the film. “And that face is brown.”

Days after the premiere, Pérez reflected on the band’s journey. “All our success, all our hard work — we’re fortunate to be where we are considering where we came from.”

Los Lobos continue to perform after 53 years as a band.

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From Garfield High School to playing at weddings and quinceañeras to performing in the Obama White House and winning four Grammy Awards, Los Lobos has exemplified — indeed, helped define — what it means to be Mexican American.

“We set out to de-mystify what a Mexican was, what a Chicano was,” Pérez said. “We needed to let people know who we were.”

And that they did, and continue to do — for 53 years and counting. 

“At this point in my life,” said the 73-year-old Pérez, “I’ve never been more proud to be who I am.”

On Friday, K-pop's biggest group, BTS, released its highly anticipated new album, Arirang. It's the first project featuring all seven members of the boy band in nearly four years, following a hiatus for mandatory military service in South Korea.

Individual members — particularly Jimin and Jung Kook — have achieved significant solo success since then, but the return of BTS in full force signals a massive moment for the genre the group helped turn into a global powerhouse. In 2018, BTS' album Love Yourself: Tear became the first K-pop album ever to top the Billboard 200 chart. The band would go on to reach that milestone five more times in four years.

Since BTS' hiatus, K-pop has reached unprecedented heights in mainstream culture, largely thanks to groups like Blackpink, NewJeans, and of course, the artists behind Netflix's animated film KPop Demon Hunters (which led to the first Grammy win for a K-pop song). But even during their time out of the spotlight, BTS' impact — and the promise of its return — has lingered over the genre.

"It's interesting to me because a lot of people are crediting 'Golden' and KPop Demon Hunters with bringing people into K-pop," Billboard journalist Tetris Kelly told NPR's Morning Edition. "But I don't think that the success of even 'Golden' would've happened if BTS didn't already push that door open for this kind of moment."

K-pop may have grown (and Westernized) during BTS' time away — but if the preliminary numbers for their comeback are any indication, pop culture (and their fervent fanbase, known as the "ARMY") has been eagerly awaiting the band's return. Here are just a few ways to measure how enormous the impact is expected to be:

Arirang album presales

In January, South Korean news outlets reported that presales for Arirang — advance orders ahead of the album's release — had likely surpassed 4 million copies within one week of the album being announced. In the U.S., BTS' last release, the 2022 compilation Proof, sold 314,000 copies in its first week. Arirang seems likely to eclipse that mark.

Concert in Seoul

On Saturday, BTS will perform a free concert in Seoul's Gwanghwamun Square. Although about 22,000 fans secured tickets to the show, authorities expect closer to a quarter of a million people to show up to the event. Billboard journalist Tetris Kelly told NPR's Morning Edition that the anticipated crowds have activated security concerns, leading authorities to seal off around 30 buildings in the surrounding areas. According to the BBC, Army members had already started gathering on Friday afternoon, and the city of Seoul had deployed thousands of police officers to monitor the area.

Luckily for fans around the world, Netflix will also be live-streaming the performance in 190 countries at 4 a.m. Saturday. It will be the streaming giant's first time globally broadcasting a concert, and tens of millions of viewers are expected to watch. In interviews with the press, Brandon Riegg, Netflix's vice president of nonfiction series and sports, suggested the show could be part of a longer-term investment in South Korean culture.

"We have high expectations with this inaugural concert, but it certainly should signal a greater appetite that we have to work with other artists and labels throughout Korea and Asia in general," Riegg told Reuters.

On March 27, Netflix will also release a documentary about the making of Arirang and the band's blockbuster return.

Sold out tour

After Saturday's concert, BTS will keep the momentum going — first at an intimate performance hosted by Spotify in New York City, and then on a sold out global tour that kicks off in South Korea on April 9.

The Arirang tour, or at least this initial leg, which spans across multiple continents and more than 70 shows, will extend into the spring of 2027. Within just a few days of tickets going on sale, all of the North America, Europe and U.K. stadium dates sold out. The total number of tickets sold, according to Live Nation: close to 2.4 million. The first two dates of the tour will also be screened in movie theaters around the world. Bloomberg projects that BTS' tour could rival Taylor Swift's Eras Tour, which is the most successful tour of all time.

Copyright 2026 NPR

Curious gardeners have been noticing more grasshoppers — a lot more. And inquiring minds want to know why — and what can be done about these insects with a reputation for destruction.

" So what happens is the standard grasshopper that we think of can become a locust if the weather conditions are right," said Lynn Kimsey, a distinguished professor emerita at UC Davis who specializes in bugs.  "In a true outbreak, they would be, you know, crossing roads by the thousands."

We are nowhere approaching outbreak proportions in Southern California.

But Eric Middleton, an entomologist with UC Agriculture and Natural Resources who works in pest management, can answer the why.

Big shocker: It's the weather

"For a grasshopper population to grow, you need a wet winter or spring so there's a lot of vegetation growing," said Middleton, who is based in San Diego. "Then you need warm conditions, which allow the young grasshoppers to emerge."

Think back to the intense bouts of rain Los Angeles received over the last months, the green hillsides and recent heatwave — these are the exact conditions for a grasshopper explosion.

"It's the same thing that triggers locust outbreaks in the Middle East and North Africa, or North Dakota, places like this," Kimsey said. "It's pretty common."

Many species of grasshopper skip and scatter around Southern California. Probably the most common, Middleton said, is the gray bird grasshopper. They're 2 to 3 inches long, with larger wings, and  their populations start peaking around now.

Another common species is  the valley grasshopper, which is about an inch long.

What you should do? Less is more

Depending on the species' life cycle, both Middleton and Kimsey said they expect this overpopulation to taper off by summer.

"It's not going to be a permanent thing," Kimsey said. " Usually they become bird food or mammal food because everything likes to eat them."

If they pose a threat to your garden, don't go reaching for insecticides, the experts said.

 "Usually, they don't do a ton of damage to your garden," Middleton said.

So try catching them by hand or using temporary netting.

" This too shall pass," he added.

Alternatively, Kimsey said, they make a killer snack.

"They really are quite tasty. I highly recommend it," she said. "Like French fries, especially if you fry them."