The Brief

At least six fumigation facilities in southeast Los Angeles County have been using a toxic pesticide that could be harming people, yet air quality regulators have not analyzed the health risks in nearby communities.

West Long Beach residents have been angry since January, when they learned that potentially dangerous levels of methyl bromide used by two facilities were found near an elementary school — five years after the fumes were first detected by air quality officials.

Then, on Thursday night, at a virtual community meeting, officials of the South Coast Air Quality Management District revealed that four more facilities, located in Compton and San Pedro, are also using the chemical — at much larger volumes than two West Long Beach facilities.

Homes are located near the San Pedro and Compton fumigation businesses, but air quality officials said they do not have plans to monitor the air there.

State health officials have classified methyl bromide as a reproductive toxicant, which means it can harm developing babies exposed in the womb. In the short term, high levels can cause headaches, dizziness, nausea and difficulty breathing, while exposure over a year or more could cause more serious neurological effects, such as difficulties with learning and memory.

“Every day ... there was an explosion in this neighborhood and nobody knew where it came from, because it was silent,” said Theral Golden, a longtime West Long Beach resident and community advocate in an interview. “So how do you know what’s causing your illness? We should be in crisis mode, and everybody wants to act like everything is OK.”

Methyl bromide is used by the companies to kill harmful pests on imported fruits and vegetables that arrive through the region’s ports. The fumigant was widely used on crops, especially strawberries, for decades, but was banned internationally for most uses in 1987 under a United Nations treaty that protects the Earth’s ozone layer. Exemptions are granted for fumigation of produce shipped from overseas.

The two West Long Beach facilities — AG Fume Service and San Pedro Forklift, also known as SPF Logistics — are just a few hundred feet away from homes and Elizabeth Hudson Elementary School.

Daniel McCarrel, an attorney representing AG Fume, which also operates a facility in San Pedro, said the company has complied with its permits and has been open to making changes.

“We have cooperated with the agencies every step of the way to reduce any potential impact that our operations may have on ... our workers and the community,” he said. “We believe that our operations are safe and that we’re doing the best that can be done.”

Greg Augustine, owner of Harbor Fumigation, said his business in San Pedro is permitted and complies with local, state and federal requirements. He said he will be cooperating with air quality regulators if they request more information about his operation.

“In all processes in life you have to balance the cost and the benefits,” Augustine said. “We grow a lot of grapes in California. This process is designed to protect those grapes from (pest) species that exist in South America but do not exist in North America and would be harmful to domestic agriculture.”

A general manager of San Pedro Forklift declined to answer questions from CalMatters.

Global Pest Management, which has fumigation facilities in Compton and Terminal Island near San Pedro, did not respond to calls.

Global Pest Management’s Compton facility is near the 710 Freeway, with residential neighborhoods on both sides. It used 11,626 pounds of methyl bromide in 2022, more than double what volumes used at the West Long Beach facilities, according to data provided by the South Coast AQMD at the meeting on Thursday.

AG Fume and Harbor Fumigation, located at the same address in San Pedro, collectively used nearly 40,000 pounds of methyl bromide in 2022, according to the data. That’s seven to eight times more than the two businesses in West Long Beach. The facility is near San Pedro’s 22nd Street Park and neighborhoods to the west.

The South Coast AQMD provided information about the four facilities on Thursday after residents had earlier expressed concerns about whether more businesses use the fumigant.

No air monitoring has been conducted at the four Compton and San Pedro sites.

In West Long Beach, California Air Resources Board monitors detected spikes of methyl bromide as high as 983 and 966 parts per billion in February and March of 2024. At 1,000 ppb, methyl bromide can cause acute health effects, such as nausea and dizziness, air quality officials said.

The average concentration found at the West Long Beach sites was 2.1 ppb in 2023 through part of 2024; breathing as little as 1 ppb for a year or more can cause serious health effects, according to the California Air Resources Board. In March, the average monthly concentrations were the third highest since the state air board started monitoring in 2023.

Air quality officials told residents at Thursday’s community meeting that the West Long Beach school is not within the area that could experience health effects, although 50 homes are.

However, a monitor deployed by the AQMD near the elementary school in 2019 as part of a regional air toxics study found methyl bromide concentrations of 1.14 ppb, above the threshold for chronic health impacts. Yet the air district didn’t notify school officials about the elevated levels until January of this year.

In California, permitting for methyl bromide is often administered by air quality districts. But in the Los Angeles region, the air district delegated much of that responsibility to the Los Angeles County Agricultural Commissioner in a 1996 agreement.

In response to a public records request, a spokesperson said the county agency follows Department of Pesticide Regulation guidelines for its permitting process.

Maximiliano Regis, chief deputy of the agricultural commissioner, said during the first public meeting in January that the air district didn’t notify the county agricultural commissioner about the elevated levels until July 2024. Spokesperson Michael de Los Reyes declined to answer additional questions.

In 2024, the county commissioner imposed new permit conditions on the two west Long Beach facilities to reduce exposure. Included are closing doors and ventilating fumes higher in the air so it won’t be disbursed in high concentrations at ground level. The Compton and San Pedro facilities, however, do not have the same air quality controls in place.

West Long Beach community advocates have asked air regulators to install more monitors and analyze health risks from the last 30 years when methyl bromide has been used there.

The AQMD conducted a preliminary assessment determining which facilities could affect communities based on 2022 volume use data, weather patterns and proximity to residential neighborhoods. They said they will continue collecting data on the emissions to determine whether a health risk assessment should be conducted.

Whitney Amaya, a West Long Beach resident and member of East Yard Communities for Environmental Justice, said the agencies need to do a better job of protecting communities at risk.

“It's just bad news after bad news,” said Whitney Amaya, a West Long Beach resident and member of East Yard Communities for Environmental Justice. “These are our lives, right? These are our family members, our neighbors that live here, and it's the future generation, it's kids. We can't normalize these operations and just say it's OK to continue doing business as is.”

The Trump administration announced Thursday a three-phase transition that will move significant management of and responsibility for the nation's federal student loan portfolio from the U.S. Education Department to the U.S. Treasury Department.

The administration says the Treasury Department is better equipped to, among other things, help millions of borrowers who are in default return to repayment on their loans, though the move is also political: The latest sign of President Donald Trump's efforts to close the Education Department.

"As the Federal student aid portfolio soars to nearly $1.7 trillion and with nearly a quarter of student loan borrowers in default, Americans know that the Department of Education has failed to effectively manage and deliver these critical programs," said U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon in a press release. "By leveraging Treasury's world-renowned expertise in finance and economic policy, we are confident that American students, borrowers and taxpayers will finally have functioning programs after decades of mismanagement."

More than 40 million borrowers hold federal student loans.

According to the interagency agreement obtained by NPR, the deal's first phase will see Treasury resuming control of collecting on defaulted student loans, an authority it has long held but deferred to the Education Department. A senior Education Department official told reporters that 9.2 million borrowers were in default as of the beginning of March, with another 2.4 million in late-stage delinquency on their payments.

The agreement's second phase expands Treasury's management beyond defaulted loans to include servicing much of what's left, even the Education Department's non-defaulted debts, "to the extent practicable, following Treasury's assessment of the portfolio and its operations."

The third and final phase would see Treasury take over key responsibilities beyond the handling of current loans, assuming administration of the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA), which students are required to complete if they want to receive federal financial aid.

The Treasury Department already plays an important role in the FAFSA, using its data-retrieval tool to expedite the once-onerous income-verification process for families.

It was nearly one year ago that President Trump suggested a very different move – that the Small Business Administration (SBA) would assume responsibility for the student loan portfolio. It's unclear why the administration changed its thinking and pivoted to the Treasury Department.

This is the 10th interagency agreement the administration has reached to disperse large swaths of the work of the Education Department to other agencies.

"The Trump Administration continues to unlawfully dismantle the Education Department by moving programs and offices to other federal agencies despite clear warning from Congress that Education Secretary Linda McMahon lacks the authority to do so," said Rachel Gittleman, president of AFGE Local 252, which represents more than 2,000 current and former employees at the U.S. Department of Education.

In response to an NPR question, a senior Education Department official acknowledged that, as was the case with many of those previous agreements, the Treasury Department cannot fully assume all the Education Department's statutory student loan obligations. The official said the department will be wound down to the extent allowable by law and that Education Secretary Linda McMahon understands that "Congress is the only entity that can close the Department."

As for what impact this may have on borrowers, the department officials told reporters: "You should see no change. This should be seamless."

Copyright 2026 NPR

The Federal Communications Commission on Thursday said it had approved the merger of local television giants Nexstar Media Group and rival Tegna, the same day that two lawsuits trying to block the deal were announced.

Nexstar said last August that it would buy Tegna for $6.2 billion. The deal would create a company that owns 265 television stations in 44 states and the District of Columbia, most of them local affiliates of ABC, CBS, Fox and NBC. FCC Chairman Brendan Carr said the company had agreed to divest itself of six of those stations.

The deal needed the approval of the Republican Trump administration's FCC because the government had to waive rules that limit how many local stations that one company can own. Nexstar said it had also received approval from the Justice Department, but attempts to independently confirm that were not immediately successful Thursday.

"We are grateful to President Trump, Chairman Carr and the DOJ for recognizing the dynamic forces shaping the media landscape and allowing this transaction to move forward," said Perry Sook, Nexstar's chairman and CEO.

Attorneys general in eight states and DirecTV filed lawsuits with the U.S. District Court in Sacramento, California, seeking to block the merger. The lawsuits make similar arguments that the deal will lead to higher prices for consumers and stifle local journalism.

The action was filed by the top lawyers in California, Colorado, Connecticut, Illinois, New York, North Carolina, Oregon and Virginia — all of them Democrats. "If this merger moves forward, cable prices will spike for consumers in New York and across the country," said Letitia James, New York attorney general, on Thursday. The state lawyers argued the merger would run afoul of federal laws designed to protect against monopolies.

Similarly, DirecTV predicted the deal would allow Nexstar to jack up the price it can extract from DirecTV and other distributors to carry their stations, "which will force them to raise prices to their subscribers."

Given Nexstar's tendency to consolidate newsrooms in communities where it owns more than one station, both lawsuits expressed concern that the merger would hurt the already struggling local news business. There are 31 markets across the country where Nexstar and Tegna own at least one station, according to the states' lawsuit.

In approving the deal, Carr said that "if you care about local news, you should care about the future of local broadcast stations." He said the deal will ensure that the broadcasters have the resources to continue investing in those operations. Sook, too, said Nexstar will be a stronger company, "better positioned to deliver exceptional journalism and local programming."

Nexstar had no direct comment on the lawsuits, a spokesman said.

The merger was endorsed in February by President Donald Trump, who wrote on social media that "we need more competition against THE ENEMY, the Fake News National TV Networks."

Anna Gomez, a Democratic member of the FCC, condemned the Republican-controlled agency's decision, saying it was done behind closed doors without an actual vote.

"Local journalism is under extraordinary strain," she said. "Across the country newsrooms are being consolidated, reporters laid off and editorial decisions made far from the communities broadcast stations are licensed to serve. The Nexstar-Tegna merger will accelerate exactly that trend, concentrating broadcast power in fewer corporate hands, shrinking independent editorial voices and prioritizing national business interests over local needs."

Nexstar flexed its muscles last fall in ordering its ABC stations to yank late-night host Jimmy Kimmel following comments he made about assassinated Republican activist Charlie Kirk, briefly leading to Kimmel's suspension. But ABC brought Kimmel back following an outcry, and Nexstar backed down.

The attorneys general said they were open to having other states support their actions — even those whose chief legal officials are Republicans.

Copyright 2026 NPR

Public officials across California are contemplating what to do with dozens of streets, parks and libraries named in honor of civil rights icon César Chávez in the wake of allegations he sexually assaulted two girls and a woman decades ago.

The allegations surfaced in an investigation by the New York Times published earlier this week that sent shock waves across the country.

Chávez, who was head of the United Farm Workers union, is widely recognized as one of the most influential labor leaders in U.S. history, known for founding the union and for leading national boycotts of grapes to improve working conditions for farmworkers.

Chávez died in 1993.

Many state and local leaders, including L.A.’s mayor and county supervisors, suggested changing the César Chávez holiday on March 31 to Farm Workers Day. March 31 was Chávez’s birthday.

In Sacramento on Thursday, Democratic leaders of the state Legislature said they would push for such a change.

“The farmworker movement was never ever about one man,” Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas said at a news conference. “It was built by tens of thousands of workers. People who labored in the fields, people who organized, people who sacrificed and who stood up when it was hard.

“We have a responsibility to remember the movement and to move it forward with integrity.”

Also on Thursday, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass signed a proclamation renaming the city's César Chávez Day holiday as “Farm Workers Day.” The city recognizes the holiday on the last Monday of March.

“I grew up as a child admiring the farmworker movement,'' Bass said. “I didn't think I was ever going to eat grapes again because my family boycotted grapes.”

The grape strike, organized in part by Chávez, lasted five years from 1965 to 1970.

Multiple allegations of sexual assault

The New York Times investigation uncovered multiple allegations that Chávez had sexually assaulted girls and women in the 1960s and ‘70s, when he was head of United Farm Workers, including union co-founder Dolores Huerta.

Huerta, now 95, told the Times the rape and sexual assault resulted in pregnancies that she kept secret. Huerta said she gave the children up for adoption after birth.

In a statement, Huerta said in part: “... for the last 60 years [I] have kept a secret because I believed that exposing the truth would hurt the farmworker movement I have spent my entire life fighting for.”

Bass said Thursday she met Chávez once and “thought it was an opportunity of a lifetime.” She said her heart “broke” this week when she heard the allegation that Chávez had raped Huerta.

The mayor said renaming the holiday would allow people “to reflect on how the struggle of farmworkers has elevated working people everywhere.”

She added that the city would need to consider changing the names of buildings, streets and other things named in honor of Chávez.

For example, César Chávez Avenue runs through the heart of the Boyle Heights neighborhood. Several murals of Chávez dot the city.

Bass said she had been in contact with Chávez's family, and they supported her action.

The mayor was joined at the proclamation signing by Councilwoman Eunisses Hernandez, who said in a statement that the farmworker movement has always been about the power of the people, “especially the women whose labor built it and too often went unseen."

“As we honor that legacy, we also have a responsibility to tell the truth about harm and stand with survivors,” Hernandez said.

Councilwoman Ysabel Jurado also attended the news conference. She said the movement doesn’t belong to one person.

“Farm Workers Day honors the workers, families and organizers still in the fields and still fighting for fair wages, safe conditions and dignity,” the statement from Jurado read. “And it recognizes that this movement is carried forward every single day by people whose names we may never know but whose impact continues to define the spirit of Los Angeles.”

Other cities and counties 

Many other cities and counties are considering wiping Chávez's name from public spaces.

L.A. County Supervisor Hilda Solis said she would introduce a motion looking at renaming the county’s César Chávez holiday.

Supervisor Janice Hahn suggested the county consider renaming Chávez day “Farm Worker Day.”

“For those of us who grew up admiring the farmworker movement, today's news is heartbreaking,'' Hahn said in a statement Wednesday. "But as in any other civil rights movement, men were only half the story. The abuses of one man will never diminish the extraordinary sacrifices, accomplishments, and legacy of the women of the farmworker movement.

“It's time we put them first.”

The process for renaming streets and other public structures varies from city to city and school district to school district. It could take months before many cities move to erase Chávez's name from public spaces.

You can follow your city council agenda to keep up with what’s going on, or better yet, reach out to your representatives on the council and county Board of Supervisors to make your voice heard on the issue.

California, along with a coalition of 23 other states and a dozen cities and counties, sued the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Thursday for rolling back the scientific finding requiring it to regulate greenhouse gas pollution.

“This isn’t a small technical change,” California Attorney General Rob Bonta said at a press conference in Sacramento. “It’s a sweeping decision that would increase pollution, worsen climate change and put the health of millions of Americans at risk. And it’s not based on any credible science.”

The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, seeks to reinstate a 2009 conclusion known as the endangerment finding — that carbon dioxide and other planet-warming gases threaten public health and welfare.

The climate rule served as the scientific basis for the agency’s ability to limit emissions under the Clean Air Act.

The Trump administration finalized the repeal of the endangerment finding Feb. 12. A post on the EPA’s website stated the change would also dissolve restrictions on vehicle emissions and save Americans $1.3 trillion.

“As a result of these changes, engine and vehicle manufacturers no longer have any future obligations for the measurement, control and reporting of GHG emissions for any highway engine and vehicle, including model years manufactured prior to this final rule.”

Sanchez said California’s authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions under the landmark 2006 Global Warming Solutions Act, AB 32, signed into law by then-Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, “remains unchanged.”

Los Angeles, San Francisco and Santa Clara counties also were parties to the suit.

KQED’s Laura Klivans contributed to this report.