The Brief

The L.A. County Board of Supervisors unanimously passed a motion Tuesday to help address a growing crisis of toxic algae sickening and killing sea life.

Over the last three months, hundreds of pelicans, sea lions, dolphins — and even some whales — have been sickened or killed by domoic acid poisoning, a toxin that occurs naturally in certain types of algae.

Experts say it’s likely Southern California’s worst toxic algae outbreak ever. Not only is the outbreak devastating for the ecosystem, but it can make animals more aggressive, prompting public safety concerns. The crisis has gotten so bad, rescuers are struggling to keep up with the numbers of sick sea animals.

“Year after year after year, having this type of stranding event is a real strain on resources,” said Dave Bader, a marine biologist with the Marine Mammal Care Center in San Pedro.

The nonprofit is the only organization authorized by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association, or NOAA, to respond to distressed marine mammals in L.A. County. That means they’ve been overstretched by the latest toxic boom, leading to a funding gap of about $750,000.

A regional approach

The motion, introduced by supervisors Lindsey Horvath and Janice Hahn, calls for city and county, and other stakeholders to meet within 60 days to discuss a longer-term plan. It also directs staff to identify up to $600,000 for the Marine Mammal Care Center. Horvath’s district has already allocated $100,000 in emergency funds to the rescue and rehabilitation center.

 ”This must be a county-wide effort, as well as a regional effort beyond the county alone,” Horvath said at Tuesday’s board meeting.

About 60% of the strandings the Marine Mammal Care Center responds to are on county beaches. Stressing budget issues, Supervisor Holly Mitchell agreed that coastal cities should also help fund the need.

“ This isn't district specific, but it's also not just county, so the other reason I held the item is to make sure that all of the coastal communities are going to put some skin in the game too,” Mitchell said.

How does the bloom compare with past years?

These devastating blooms generally occur every three to seven years, but we’ve had one every year over the last four years, said Bader of the Marine Mammal Care Center. In recent decades, the blooms have increased in both frequency and severity.

In 2023, L.A. County experienced what was previously the worst domoic acid poisoning event in local history, which led to another marine rescue operating in the county to go bankrupt. Since then, the Marine Mammal Care Center in San Pedro has had to pick up the slack.

“We have an emergency right now, and we're doing our best to manage that, but this isn't about a one-off emergency,” Bader said. “This is something that's happening time and time again, and we need to ... have better resources to be able to respond to these increasing needs.”

Why is this happening?

Bader said the root cause is that climate change is creating conditions for more toxic blooms.

“This should be a wake up call to really get serious about addressing climate change,” Bader said.

Human activity is literally changing the chemistry of the ocean. As we pump more carbon pollution into the atmosphere, the ocean — a carbon sink — is absorbing more carbon dioxide.

“ As carbon dioxide is absorbed into the ocean, it decreases the pH of the ocean,” Bader said. “That’s what ocean acidification is.”

Research is finding that acidification may be good for toxic algae. On top of that, we dump a lot of bad stuff in the ocean, such as fertilizers and other chemical runoff, that creates more nutrients that certain toxic algae thrive on.

 ”What we really need is to recognize that climate change isn't a far away thing,” Bader said. “Its impacts are being felt today.”

GUADALAJARA, Mexico — Mexico took advantage of a defensive blunder by South Korea to win 1-0 and become the first team to advance to the knockout stage of the World Cup on Thursday.

It marks a major triumph for a team that failed to get out of the group stage in 2022 and now has won twice on home soil in front of jubilant crowds.

Luis Romo scored in the 50th minute after South Korea goalkeeper Kim Seung-gyu collided with defender Lee Gi-hyuk and dropped the ball inside the area. Romo easily found the open net after picking up the loose ball.

The South Koreans nearly equalized in the 87th minute when Mexico goalkeeper Raúl Rangel stopped a header from close range by Cho Gue-sung, then made an even better save on the rebound, extending his right arm to keep the ball from crossing the line.

Mexico has six points from two Group A matches, three more than South Korea and five more than the Czech Republic and South Africa, who drew 1-1 earlier Thursday in Atlanta.

The top two teams from each group move on to the knockout stage, along with the best eight third-place teams. A round of 32 is being played for the first time at the World Cup after the tournament was expanded to 48 teams.

Los Angeles city housing officials are pushing back on allegations from the outgoing city attorney, who claims that a legal aid provider has failed to comply with its taxpayer-funded contract to help tenants avoid eviction.

At stake in the dispute is $177 million — approved months ago by the mayor and City Council but still awaiting the city attorney’s signature — to help renters stay housed.

For more than a year, City Attorney Hydee Feldstein Soto has refused to authorize new long-term funding for the Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles, or LAFLA. On Thursday, she told LAist the delay was due to the nonprofit’s alleged failure to account for how it spends city funds.

“They didn't comply with the monthly reporting that they were supposed to do,” Feldstein Soto said. “They still haven't done so.”

LAFLA leaders strongly disputed those claims, saying they have provided detailed accountings of their caseloads and tenant outcomes. Barbara Schultz, LAFLA’s housing director, told LAist her organization has fully complied with the terms of its contract.

“After months of highly unusual investigations, document requests and audits that extend well beyond the scope of [the city attorney’s] office, she has failed to identify any misconduct — because there isn't any,” Schultz said.

Officials with the L.A. Housing Department also told LAist the contract monitoring and reporting requirements have been upheld.

“LAFLA has complied with every request for information put forth by LAHD,” said department spokesperson Sharon Sandow. “Like all new programs, tracking and information systems have been improved as the program has matured over the past five years. LAFLA provided the information requested.”

City attorney’s dispute with legal aid group runs deeps

Feldstein Soto has frequently clashed with LAFLA. Separate from its tenant defense work, the organization has joined lawsuits against the city over its homelessness policies.

Feldstein Soto has objected to giving LAFLA city funds, telling council members in a confidential memo earlier this year that the city should “reconsider the award of such a large contract to a frequent litigant against the city.”

Since the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, LAFLA has led Stay Housed L.A., a city- and county-funded effort to provide eviction defense, rent relief and other aid to tenants at risk of losing their housing.

The city has also tasked LAFLA with scaling up the city’s “Right To Counsel” ordinance, which provides free attorneys to qualified low-income renters facing eviction. Statistics show that landlords almost always have attorneys in eviction proceedings, but renters rarely come to court with lawyers of their own.

Last year, Feldstein Soto rejected a new five-year contract with the organization, saying any further funding should have gone through a competitive bidding process. The city responded by opening up a new call for submissions. Officials ultimately selected the Legal Aid Foundation to continue eviction defense services. The City Council and mayor approved that contract in April.

But Feldstein Soto has continued to withhold her signature. On Monday, she issued a report detailing why she has delayed the contract with LAFLA, as well as contracts with other tenant aid groups slated to receive funding for rent relief programs, enforcement of the city’s ordinance against tenant harassment and tenant rights education programs.

Feldstein Soto’s report included a series of audits of LAFLA from the Harrington Group, an independent accounting firm. When LAist asked if she had identified any evidence of impropriety in those audits, representatives for her office did not respond.

Data on tenant outcomes

Feldstein Soto said she believes information provided by LAFLA is insufficient to determine how many eviction cases involving city funding went to court, what the outcomes were or the average cost per case.

“The funds that we provided have not been accounted for properly in any way, shape or form,” Feldstein Soto said.

On Wednesday, the city’s housing department published a report saying Stay Housed L.A. has assisted tenants in 27,273 eviction cases, including 6,522 cases in which tenants were fully represented by a lawyer throughout their legal proceedings.

Over the last four years, 53% of fully represented tenants stayed in their homes, according to the report. Another 41% were able to negotiate agreements in which their landlords gave them more time to move out, forgave their overdue rent or sealed their eviction record. Less than 3% of tenants lost their case in court.

Much of the funding for the tenant aid contracts comes from the city’s so-called “mansion tax,” which could soon be scaled back by the city’s voters in a potential November ballot measure.

What comes next? 

Schultz said if city leaders are not satisfied with the accounting, they could ask for a formal audit through the City Controller’s Office. Feldstein Soto launched an audit of LAFLA last year, but has not released any findings so far. She told LAist more information could be coming soon.

“I am likely to file both a public report and a confidential report with my client, because you can't just gift away public funds without an audit trail and without transparency and accountability,” Feldstein Soto said.

Meanwhile, tenant advocates say smaller legal aid nonprofits that receive city funding as subcontractors are in danger of running out of money soon. Lawyers could be laid off and tenants could become homeless if funding is not approved quickly, they argue.

Schultz said the City Council may need to look for ways to approve the funding without the involvement of Feldstein Soto, who recently came in third place in the June primary election. She will not advance to the general election for a second term.

“I think that the council should definitely look at — if they had a rogue city attorney that refused to follow their directions — what other avenues they could explore,” Schultz said.

City Council members have introduced a motion calling on the city attorney’s office to explain the delay. That request was supposed to come up for a vote in a housing committee meeting this week, but it was ultimately canceled due to an earlier meeting of the full City Council that ran hours over schedule.

When I visited Taqueria Hoy in Orange, owner Rafael De Anda couldn’t wait to get home to watch Mexico kick off its World Cup stint. After decades at the helm of his taco shop — he first started it as a food truck and now has brick-and-mortar locations in Orange, Santa Ana and Anaheim — he could put his feet up and relax. The business was in good hands.

His sons, Raphael V. De Anda, 34, and Christian De Anda, 30, had been working at the taqueria since childhood. But when Rafael De Anda was diagnosed with colon cancer in 2011 and battling the disease, the young men took over the complete running of the business — with their father still an integral part.

While I get a lot of emails pitching stories for LAist, rarely does a story materialize from one of them. But when Raphael De Anda emailed me about Taqueria Hoy, including a video that captured the warmth of his and his brother’s relationship with their father, it quickly piqued my interest.

In it they are quick to praise him for his work ethic and the lessons he’s imparted to them. In honor of Father’s Day, we’re celebrating those lessons here.

Rafael De Anda makes tacos at his taqueria in Orange.

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Yusra Farzan

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LAist

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Lesson No. 1: Keep it simple and do it well

Rafael De Anda is from Arandas in Jalisco, and crossed the U.S.-Mexico border in 1974. A few years into life in the Santa Ana area, he realized there was no good taqueria around, unless you drove to Los Angeles or San Diego. And so Taqueria De Anda was born in the 80s, before it was rebranded to Taqueria Hoy in 2020.

He says he wanted the tacos to taste just like the ones he used to have every day.  ”If you eat my tacos here, if you go to any part of Mexico, it will have to be the same,” he explained.

Taqueria Hoy has a straightforward menu, offering the usual carne asada, al pastor, pollo, chorizo and carnitas, along with cabeza (cheek) and lengua (tongue), the most tender cuts of beef.

Cabeza and carne asada tacos adorned with the Taqueria Hoy's green and red salsas.

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Yusra Farzan

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Cooking the meats to perfection, he says, and keeping the quality consistently good keeps people keep coming back — sometimes spanning generations.

It's one of his first lessons for his sons: Keep it simple but do it well. “ If you're not gonna eat them, don't sell it.”

That philosophy even extends to their red and green Hoysioso salsas, made in-house with high quality ingredients.

Only three people in the world know the recipe — Rafael De Anda and his two sons. And the sons have promised to make the condiment just the way he taught them.

Lesson No. 2: Honor your customers and staff

“ We just started making tacos and that's it,” Rafael De Anda said, never expecting for the business to last more than forty years. "We were busy and then we just kept going and going.”

He and his sons credit that to their customer base. Some of them are the great grandsons of those first customers, according to Raphael De Anda.

 ”We're very grateful to the community that has accepted us and that has allowed us to continue to serve tacos for all these years,” he said.

Some of the workers at Taqueria Hoy have been with Rafael De Anda for decades.

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Yusra Farzan

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LAist

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That love for their customer base also extends to their workers. Some have been at the taco shop for decades. Raphael De Anda said his father was a father figure to many, including those who crossed the border when they were young. He’d nurture them and help them get settled in the United States.

“He didn't only have two boys. He had many, many children,” Raphael De Anda said.

Lesson No. 3: Trust your kids

Now I love my father, but I cannot imagine working directly alongside him. I'm open and friendly at work, the type of person who would bake cupcakes for my colleagues' kids. My dad, on the other hand, would never hang out with someone outside of the office. Two different generations, two very different upbringings. One was raised in a strict all-boys Catholic school in Sri Lanka, another in an international school in Sharjah, UAE.

But while Rafael De Anda had a very different upbringing to his sons — him in Jalisco, his sons as American-born citizens who went to Chapman University — he's been open to their ideas and approaches.

They have taken to social media, using Instagram to explain how taqueros make carne asada, show off their heart shaped takeout containers for Valentine’s Day, and share collaborative posts with influencers.

“ Their way of approaching the business has been a little switching to the modern culture,” Rafael De Anda said. “I like it, that's something that I would not be able to do, to be honest.”

He adds that he keeps a close eye on what they are doing. “And to be honest, I'm proud of them,” Rafael De Anda said, uttering the magical words every kid wants to hear from their immigrant parents.

Lesson No. 4: Life isn't complicated. We're the ones who complicate it

Raphael De Anda said his father has instilled in his brother and him the importance of focusing on the task at hand rather than worrying too much about the future.

 "Sometimes my brother and I will talk with my Dad. "Hey, what do the projections look like for this year?" he said. "My Dad's like "well, it doesn't really matter. As long as we take care of what we're doing now, things will work out."

And Raphael De Anda said it always does end up working out.

Lesson No. 5: I do what I can with what I am given

Their father was not one to live in the future, and neither did he spend time worrying, his sons said.

"Instead of saying, "Oh, woe is me. I wish I had more customers", Raphael De Anda said, his father would focus on the customers he had.

"How do we treat them the best we can?"

Growth happened organically. Their father found the Santa Ana location through a conversation with a regular customer who was selling his billiards shop.

"The owner said, "We care for you so much and your presence, you've meant so much to the community. We want to offer you to buy the building first," recounted Raphael De Anda.

And he did.

Lesson No. 6: Be honest with yourself before you can be honest with others

The sons grew up hearing their father reiterate the message of staying true and authentic.

" Don't change who you are for others and that mantra is also carried through in everything we do here at the restaurant," said Raphael De Anda.

Birria, for example, is a popular offering at taquerias across Southern California. But, it's not something on offer at Taqueria Hoy.

 "That's not who we are. We have to be honest that we are a taco and burrito makers first," Raphael De Anda said.

And the burritos at Taqueria Hoy are massive.

And for some parting wisdom from Rafael De Anda, "How do you eat a big burrito? One bite at a time."

The World Cup has officially taken over Los Angeles, and not without controversy.

Fans have voiced frustration over ticket pricing and questions linger over whether the Iranian football team should be playing in the tournament.

Listen: Should Iran be playing at SoFi? Listeners weigh in as tentative US-Iran deal is announced

The man at the center of these decisions and how fans in Southern California are experiencing the World Cup is FIFA President Gianni Infantino.

Here's why he's the most influential voice in soccer right now.

How he got elected

The election of Infantino followed one of the worst corruption scandals in sports history. In 2015, the U.S. Department of Justice indicted more than a dozen FIFA officials and executives on charges of bribery, money laundering and wire fraud.

Swiss authorities launched an additional investigation, which led to former FIFA President Sepp Blatter's resignation. He had held the position since 1998.

Following the corruption scandal, Congress passed a reform package, but criticism remains over lack of follow through.

Part of Infantino's success has been built on his ability to boost revenue for FIFA over the years.

Ticket pricing, human rights and other critiques

Getting in on the World Cup games here in L.A. has likely been... expensive.

And that's been one of the biggest critiques of Infantino as matches approached and FIFA announced ticket pricing would adjust based on demand. Infantino has defended the pricing method, comparing it to other major American sporting events.

Coaches, players and fans are also split on FIFA's decision to add three-minute mandated hydration breaks to matches, according to Reuters.

Infantino has also been criticized for downplaying concerns over human rights. For example, the Guardian reported in 2021 that more than 6,500 migrant workers died in Qatar during the 10-year lead up to it hosting the World Cup in 2022.

Oliver Kay, The Athletic's senior soccer writer, said during a conversation on LAist 89.3's AirTalk that Infantino's legacy is complicated and leaves true soccer fans with questions.

" How many of these decisions are being made for the good of the game, and how many of them are being made for whichever world leaders Infantino is cozying up to at that time?" Kay said.