The Brief

This story first appeared on Long Beach Post.

At the peak of efforts to quell a massive warehouse fire in Boyle Heights in June, firefighters sent 12,000 gallons of water per minute at the flames — by water cannons, aerial ladder pipes and helicopter flybys.

The overwhelming rush of water, millions of gallons over the eight days to subdue the fire, filtered through the Lineage cold-storage facility’s solar panels, insulation and freezers before feeding into nearby storm drains, carrying with it an array of toxic metals, chemicals and tainted food that eventually flowed into the Los Angeles River.

If this were an oil spill, sewage leak or a chemical tank explosion, a standardized system would kick in to notify downstream cities and residents that a dangerous flow is heading their way.

But in this case, that didn’t happen, as experts say a gap in environmental rules made it so the hazardous firefighting runoff skirted the threshold for such a response.

Water is dropped by helicopter at a warehouse fire in the Boyle Heights section of Los Angeles on Wednesday, June 17, 2026.

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Jae C. Hong

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AP Photo

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According to records reviewed by the Long Beach Post, the city didn’t receive outside warning that its waterways might be unsafe until June 25, eight days after the fire began, when a county public works employee sent a brief email saying fish had begun dying in the nearby wetlands, and that it might be tied to the fire.

“We wanted to alert the City, as your beaches are located at the receiving end of the L.A. River, and wanted to share this information to keep you informed of the situation to ensure that public health and safety are protected,” the email stated.

Even then, that warning never made it to the public. Two months later, Long Beach residents have never been told exactly what chemicals and metals may have been sent downstream and what, if any, harm could have come from swimming, wading and boating in the public waterways that connect to the river. Emergency declarations made by Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass and Gov. Gavin Newsom days earlier addressed only the toxins sent into the air.

When it comes to firefighting runoff, “there are no mandated protocols” for warning downstream neighbors of the risk, according to Elizabeth Vazquez, a spokesperson for the L.A. County Public Works department that manages the L.A. River.

Long Beach’s only public notice came as a city health advisory after routine testing on June 23 discovered high bacteria levels in the ocean. Officials posted warning notices about the bacteria, total coliform, fecal coliform and enterococcus on five segments of beach from Fifth Place to the west side of the Belmont Pier.

Bacteria levels were so high that they reached the peak of what could be registered, said Emmanuel Carrera Ruedas, a community scientist and member of East Yard Communities for Environmental Justice, an ecological watchdog group. “We don’t really even know the full extent of the bacteria in the water, but what we do know is that it’s at least thirty times higher than normal levels,” he added.

Emmanuel Carrera Ruedas wears a mask and gloves as he prepares to collect water samples from the LA River on Wednesday, July 1.

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Steve Saldivar

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A health department spokesperson said last week that no beaches or waterways were closed, even though bacteria levels were high enough to make someone sick. This is standard practice, the department says, as closures are typically reserved for when there is known or suspected sewage or chemical discharge.

The extremely poor water quality was odd for this time of year, according to Heal the Bay, which tracks water quality and indicated it’s normally much better in July. Despite the anomaly, the city’s notices did not mention any potential connection to the fire or any other pollutants it may have sent into the ocean, as the link to the fire has not been confirmed. The city health department tests only for bacteria; it does not routinely test for chemicals, heavy metals or viruses.

Researchers at UCLA and Columbia University, as well as the city of LA’s Bureau of Sanitation, are still testing to determine what hazardous chemicals were in the water and to what extent the runoff carried toxins to the coast. Teams say they screened for 14 metals like cadmium and lead, along with metalloids like arsenic and selenium.

Frustrated by the weak outside warning and the city health department’s limited response, Long Beach City Council members argue there should have been better notice to the thousands of people fishing, boating and swimming in the lower estuaries.

“When water quality is in doubt, families avoid the water, people stop fishing, visitors stay away and local businesses suffer,” according to a July 21 letter from the City Council. “Even perceived risks can limit shoreline use. Protecting our water quality is a regional equity issue, as downstream pollution threatens access to one of the most accessible coastal resources for Southeast Los Angeles communities.”

The Long Beach City Council is now demanding that regional, state and county agencies rethink how they warn each other in the event that dangerous runoff is heading their way.

Councilmember Kristina Duggan, who has championed the idea alongside council members Tunua Thrash-Ntuk and Cindy Allen, argued the problem isn’t some individual or department failing to give notice, but a regulatory blind spot that needs systemic change.

Typically, when a major sewage spill or crude oil slips into the river or sea, a strict, standardized chain of alerts sound off, starting through the California Office of Emergency Services that can trigger beach closures and rapid water testing.

But there is no automatic mechanism that forces agencies to respond the same way for firefighting runoff once it leaves the scene. In fact, it is conditionally exempt from federal and state storm sewer rules.

Instead, departments rely on an informal patchwork of inter-agency courtesy calls; there is no single standardized system dictating who calls whom, how fast or under what threshold.

Without a system in place, scores of dead fish were found in the Dominguez Gap Wetlands before any agency publicly acknowledged the runoff might endanger the water, right before one of the city’s busiest beach weekends of the year.

“Without timely information, our public health professionals cannot make decisions about risks to our residents and our recreational water risks,” Duggan said.

It’s an oversight that’s had consequences before.

In 2021, water used to douse a warehouse fire in Carson sent packaged hand sanitizer into the Dominguez Channel, killing marine life, mystifying residents with a smell of rotten eggs and prompting a proposed $17 million state penalty against property owners. During the 2025 Palisades fires, rain sent toxic ash runoff — containing pesticides, asbestos, plastics and lead from burned cars, electronics, batteries and building materials — into local waters.

In some instances, such as during a January 2025 power plant fire in Moss Landing and another instance at the Port of Los Angeles in September 2024, firefighters thought it environmentally safer to let fires scorch through deposits of lithium-ion batteries rather than douse them and send hazardous runoff into storm drains.

Environmental advocates say these incidents fit a recurring pattern along the concretized Los Angeles River, which lacks natural floodplains and wetlands to filter urban runoff.

Firefighters continue to work on a warehouse fire in Boyle Heights on Sunday, June 21, 2026.

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Steve Saldivar

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“What is clear is that our infrastructure and our drainage systems do not consider the LA River to be part of our ecology,” Ruedas said. “There’s no filtration, no efforts to contain any of the metals or any of the bacteria that’s happening at our drainage. It’s a straight shot from wherever the fire is straight into the city of Long Beach. And we saw that very clearly.”

Some groups, including East Yard Communities for Environmental Justice, have resorted to self-testing the water out of a growing skepticism for official oversight.

Ruedas said their testing last month along the L.A. River near Long Beach has come back, and they hope to present it to the public in the next week or so. Unable to give too much information, Ruedas said they did notice in their data collection there were heavy spikes in the presence of metals along the river from June 20 to 22.

Ruedas says the region desperately needs to fix how it responds and how it communicates to the public when and where hazardous materials are present.

That requires not just fixing a broken warning system but looking years into the future, he said: “How do we want our drainage systems to look? How do we want to limit not just isolated fire events, but just the entire way we think about water in the city of LA and the county of LA.”

Long Beach is now discussing updated notification protocols with Orange County and Los Angeles County.

“When any event that significantly impacts our water quality and puts the public at risk, it should trigger notification, protocol monitoring and coordination,” Councilmember Duggan said.

The L.A. Regional Water Quality Control Board is set to take up the topic next month, in a presentation that will review sampling taken along the river and an update on the facility cleanup. Those interested in watching the meeting or reviewing its agenda can click here.

Local election officials across California are confused and frustrated after receiving letters from President Donald Trump’s Justice Department demanding that county registrars sequester ballots that the federal government believes were sent to noncitizen voters ahead of the midterm elections.

The letters, which were sent on Friday, ask for sensitive information, including Social Security numbers, on roughly 20,000 voters. It is illegal for noncitizens to register to vote or cast a ballot. The administration has insisted that immigrants voting is a major problem nationwide, when in fact it is quite rare, as even its own investigations have shown.

“All of this is simply meant to raise huge doubts about the integrity of this election,” said John Tuteur, the registrar of voters for Napa County in California’s wine country.

Tuteur and other election officials who spoke to The Associated Press on Saturday said they have already started to count ballots that have trickled in from the state’s 23 million registered voters.

“We’re not changing anything we’re doing. We’re proceeding with the election,” he said.

The federal government set a 48-hour deadline to provide information, and it warned that legal action could be taken against any official who knowingly counted a noncitizen’s vote.

However, the California Attorney General’s Office said the letters contained errors. For example, Mendocino County officials received a list of people who were not residents there, according to the state’s court filing.

The letters are the latest escalation in a legal battle between Democratic-dominated California and Trump’s Department of Justice ahead of the midterms. The federal government sued on Oct. 15, roughly three weeks before elections, asking a judge to bar the state from counting mail-in ballots from people the federal government has identified as likely noncitizens. A panel of 9th Circuit appeals court judges will hear arguments on Sunday about whether California can be compelled to comply with the federal government’s demands.

Some clerks say they will proceed with counting ballots

Tuteur said that two uniformed Department of Homeland Security officers delivered a letter to his office late on Friday afternoon. The letter included the names of 42 people whom the federal government accused of being noncitizens illegally registered to vote. There are roughly 86,000 people registered to vote across the county of over 130,000 people, Tuteur said. Approximately 11,000 people had already cast a mail-in ballot as of Friday. In larger counties like Los Angeles, that number has already reached over 331,000 counted mail-in votes.

He said his employees and his relatives were worried about what could come next.

“My family’s upset, worried about what’s going to happen to me,” he said.

The letter sent to Clerk-Recorder Kim Grady’s office in rural Amador County listed four people allegedly illegally registered to vote in the county. Grady was waiting on more guidance from the state about what she should do, and she wasn’t sure if she would get any clarity before the deadline.

DOJ threatens to prosecute

Department of Justice spokeswoman Kiersten Pels emphasized in a statement on Saturday that the department is explicitly “not requesting a purge, cancellation of registrations, or any programmatic action.”

Instead, Pels wrote, federal officials are asking for collaboration to “ensure the most secure election in California history.”

The letters on Friday came on the heels of a statewide sweep by federal authorities on Monday, where 28 people from the list of 20,000 were charged with illegally registering to vote. Some were also charged with illegally voting and lying on naturalization paperwork. Those charges could lead to years in prison.

Bill Essayli, the top federal prosecutor in Los Angeles, said that the clerks who didn’t comply with the government’s demands could face prosecution as well.

“The letters speak for themselves. Any election official who knowingly processes the ballot of a noncitizen is opening themselves to legal jeopardy,” Essayli said in a statement.

Noncitizen voting is very rare. For example, earlier this month Attorney General Todd Blanche announced federal charges against 10 people in Minnesota alleged to have voted illegally over the last three elections, a period in which more than 8 million ballots were cast in the state.

But Essayli said on Monday that even a small number of illegal voters could “dilute” the vote and undermine confidence in elections.

Concerns about the accuracy of federal data

Some election officials who spoke to The Associated Press on Saturday have questioned the accuracy of the federal government’s list of 20,000 voters.

“I expect this accusation to fall apart like we saw recently in Nevada,” Kristin B. Connelly, the Contra Costa County Clerk-Recorder and registrar of voters, said, referring to remarks Trump made in July, when he claimed the neighboring state had 1,500 noncitizen voters on its rolls. After his administration was asked to identify them, the number of actual registered noncitizens turned out to be zero.

Officials in Los Angeles County, who are named as defendants in the federal lawsuit, have echoed Connelly’s concerns about the federal government’s data. A preliminary analysis of 200 names from the statewide list of 20,000 found that over 40% had canceled registrations, according to a court filing from county officials on Wednesday. More than 70% of that sample had no voting history whatsoever, and nearly 4 in 10 were born in the United States.

Master escape artist and world-famous entertainer Harry Houdini had been dead for decades by the time teenager Kevin Connolly sat down with his dad in their New Jersey home in the late 1960s to watch Houdini, the biopic with actor Tony Curtis in the title role.

“I'm so engrossed in the movie that I'm crying that he passed away. And my dad looks down at me and says, 'What's the matter, son?' I said, 'Houdini died,'" Connolly said.

His father then comforted him.

That experience with the movie and with his father sparked a five-decade-plus collector’s obsession in the teen that led him to amass thousands of items from Harry Houdini’s life and career.

The collection includes handcuffs owned by Houdini, a signed life-size portrait of Houdini in chains, a linen bag his wife, Bess Houdini, made him and a pocket watch she gifted him on his birthday in 1910, at the height of his career.

Signed Cabinet Card Photograph of Houdini in Chains.

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Connolly Collection courtesy Potter & Potter Auctions.

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“Engraved inside the cover is a very personal note from her to him that also contains a little hidden code in the inscription,” said Gabe Fajuri, president and principal auctioneer at Potter & Potter Auctions. The watch has the highest valuation of the items, with an estimate between $20,000 and $40,000.

The auction house has been displaying these 100 items at its Chicago offices and will transport them to the Magic Castle in Hollywood for display on Oct. 30 and the final auction the day after.

“ These are things that potentially have his DNA on them. These are things that Houdini himself owned, handled, used, treasured,” Fajuri said.

The auction marks two milestones: 100 years since Houdini's death and the winding down of 71-year-old Connolly's collecting efforts, which enriched his and his family’s life.

“It broadened our world, and it was nice to be recognized for your collecting abilities,” he said.

Connolly’s collection has turned him into a Houdini authority, attracting the attention of Houdini biographers, film documentarians, as well as museums and galleries.

Houdini was born in Hungary in 1874. He came to the U.S. as a young child and moved to New York with his father, a rabbi, at 13. He began performing as a magician four years later and shot to stardom on the vaudeville circuit with bold escape acts. There wasn’t a straitjacket, chains or ropes that he couldn’t escape.

Connolly admires how Houdini inspired a generation of immigrants with these stunning feats.

A photo of an escape stunt by Harry Houdini. It's the first Houdini item Kevin Connolly bought as a teen during his 50-plus years of collecting Houdini memorabilia.

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Courtesy Kevin Connolly

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One of those acts is captured in the very first Houdini item Connolly bought after watching that Houdini movie. It’s a photo of Houdini hanging upside down from a rope in front of a building, two stories up. His arms are bound to his body. Crowds look up from the street, staring at Houdini as he attempts to escape. “TORONTO OCT. 18/’16” is written along the bottom edge of the photo.

“That one is not in the auction,” he said. Oct. 18 is Connolly’s father’s birthday, which makes it special. Plus, “That would be probably the last one I'd let go, because that's the one that started it all.”

With Halloween approaching, a women’s walking group is helping Angelenos explore the city’s spooky and historic landmarks. Their next outing is Angelino Heights — home to century-old Victorian homes and an iconic piece of pop culture history.

Los Angelistas organizes weekly walks throughout Los Angeles. October draws some of its biggest crowds, according to the group. Earlier this month, the group visited the Spadena House in Beverly Hills for a witch-themed walk and explored Los Feliz for a murder-themed tour.

Members of Los Angelistas stand in front of the "Spadena House" in Beverly Hills in 2025.

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(Jillian Goodman/Los Angelistas)

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Exploring LA’s spooky side

On Nov. 1, the group heads to Angelino Heights, a tiny neighborhood next to Echo Park known for its Victorian homes.

“It has so much history, but also really beautiful, stunning Victorian architecture,” said Jillian Goodman, one of the group’s three co-founders. “It’s such a cool place that I don’t think many people know about.”

Some of the homes have been backdrops for films and TV shows, including Michael Jackson’s 1983 “Thriller” video — which will be a stop on the tour.

Los Angelistas visit the "Charmed" house while on a walk through Angelino Heights in 2024.

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Building friendship beyond the walks

Los Angelistas began in April 2023, when Goodman and a few women who met through another social club decided to continue spending time together through walks.

The group has since grown to more than 7,000 members, Goodman said. Its organizers live across L.A., allowing them to host events in neighborhoods like Brentwood, Mid-City and Glendale.

Goodman said the walks encourage women to discover parts of L.A. they might pass by without stopping.

“Everyone thinks of L.A. as a driving city. No one ever really stops and takes a breath,” Goodman said.

For Goodman, watching members build friendships that extend beyond the walks has been one of the most rewarding parts of the group’s growth.

“They go to each other’s weddings. They go to concerts. Seeing people connect, not just in the group, but then having that extend outside has been amazing to watch,” she said.

The group has also helped members support one another during devastating times. Amid last year’s Eaton and Palisades wildfires, some members helped others find places to stay, despite having only met on walks.

“I thought that was so beautiful and wonderful that without us they wouldn’t have known each other,” Goodman said.

A slew of Medicare Advantage plans are disappearing for next year, leaving seniors in many areas with fewer options. In 193 counties across the country, no plans are offered at all.

Medicare's annual open enrollment period kicked off October 15 and runs until December 7, and seniors enrolled in those privatized Medicare plans that are closing in certain markets should carefully review their options.

Medicare Advantage means private insurers run Medicare for older Americans who choose it over traditional Medicare, where the federal government itself administers the program. More than half of the 70 million Americans in Medicare choose Medicare Advantage. It's popular because it covers services like vision and dental, often with lower premiums than traditional Medicare. It also often folds in the "Part D" drug benefit, simplifying that decision.

But a downside of Medicare Advantage is that companies can pick and choose where they offer plans. If a certain community is not profitable, a company can leave that market. And that has been happening on an increasingly large scale the last three years, according to research published in JAMA.

Who is affected

Big swaths of rural America are losing Medicare Advantage choices and so are some major metro areas.

Last year, 2.9 million seniors were in Medicare Advantage plans that closed up shop, according to JAMA. This year, an analysis of insurance company announcements by An Arm and A Leg podcast, shows at least 2 million people will be affected. Other preliminary estimates range from 3.2 million to 5 million seniors. About 35 million people are enrolled in Medicare Advantage.

According to an analysis of federal data by the health policy research organization KFF, the 193 counties that will have zero Medicare Advantage plans are mostly rural. Last year that number was about 120 counties without a plan offered.

KFF's numbers also show that there will be far fewer plans offered in some metro areas. Dallas, Minneapolis, Seattle, Houston and Portland all have between a quarter and a third fewer Medicare Advantage plans for seniors.

What happens next

If your plan is ending, and you don't choose another, the insurance company will assign you to another Medicare Advantage plan or the government will enroll you in traditional Medicare — but without a supplemental or drug plan.

If you want to switch from Medicare Advantage to traditional Medicare and your plan is ending, you can enroll in a Medicare supplemental plan — also known as Medigap — without the same restrictions that you would normally have. If you have a pre-existing condition that has prevented you from enrolling in Medigap before, that could be good news.

Another wrinkle this year is that insurance companies can cap enrollments on some of the Medicare Advantage plans that they do offer.

Which means: If you wait to sign up, a plan you want might already be full.

The companies are supposed to enroll people on a first-come, first-serve basis — and not cherry-pick customers based on health conditions, age, or demographics.

Another reason not to delay is that with so many people on the hunt for new plans, it may take longer than usual to get help.

How and where to find help

Here are some tips for navigating Medicare open enrollment this year:

• Find out if your plan is still offered: First, check your mail. Medicare Advantage plans that are closing should have sent letters the first week in October. You can also log in to your account on Medicare.gov to check your plan's status for next year.
  
• Try calling your SHIP: There's a State Health Insurance Assistance Program — known as a "SHIP" — in every state to help seniors with Medicare. The name's not easy to remember or particularly descriptive, but it's free, mandated by the federal government, and the staff and volunteers are required to give you unbiased information on all available options. Find your state in the directory at shiphelp.org. Your county may have a specific number that you can find on your state's SHIP website.
  
• Look for local Medicare counseling services: Friends, family, leaders at your place of worship, and the constituent services of your local elected officials may have the scoop on where you can get one-on-one help. The nonprofit Medicare Rights Center also has a national helpline, and a well-organized library of online guides.
  
• Brokers can be helpful, but be savvy: You want a broker who's going to talk with you about all your options — including switching to traditional Medicare and a supplemental plan. Ask if they sell plans from all available insurance carriers. And ask if they answer questions about your plan year-round, because insurance never stops being confusing.
  
• Double check what you see on Medicare.gov: Medicare's Plan Finder allows you to search plans online. But lists of doctors and drugs that are covered can sometimes be wrong. To be safe, double check with your doctor's office or a SHIP counselor, broker, or other Medicare assistor.
  
• Don't share your personal information with services you find online: Be careful where you share your personal information like your phone number. Some online agencies will sell your information, leading to spam calls and potentially even scam artists.
  
• Be mindful of the deadlines: Open enrollment for Medicare runs October 15, 2026 through December 7, 2026. The coverage starts January 1, 2027. If your plan is ending, you qualify for a "special enrollment period" to give you a little more time — until February 28, 2027. (For coverage that starts January 1, 2027, enroll by December 31.)

Emily Pisacreta is the senior producer for An Arm and a Leg, a podcast about the cost of healthcare produced in partnership with KFF Health News and distributed by KUOW, Seattle's NPR member station. 

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